Elections in Ghana

I can't believe i haven't written about the election yet...

The 2008 Presidential election took place in Ghana on Sunday Dec. 11. The weeks up until voting day were filled with political rallies all over the country, including rallies at the University of Ghana campus. It was (and still is) the topic of discussion on trotros, at chop bars, and in Taxis.

Everyone wants to know "Are you moving forward (NPP) or do you want change (NDC)?"

While there was some incidents of violence during voter registration, the election on the 11th has been declared by both Ghanaians and outside observers as peaceful and fair.

Ghana's Electoral Commission has announced the presidential polls will go into a run-off on December 28 between Nana Akuffo-Addo and John Atta Mills .

The certified results from 229 constituencies announced by the EC credits the New Patriotic Party (NPP) candidate, Nana Akuffo-Addo 4,159,439 polls representing 49.13 % of votes cast,

The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) contender John Atta Mills is behind him with 4056634, representing 47.13%

The run off vote on the 28th was met with both excitement and disappointment. Tension is still running high and it is expected to increase over the coming weeks leading up to the vote.

BBC World Service - Ghana Elections 2008 reports on Ghana's election and the upcoming vote on the 28th of December 28th.

Will be watching from the U.S. :)

DREAM Act. Just the facts...

I just finished a memo for a public policy class and would like to share some of the things i learned from my background research pertaining to The Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act (DREAM Act) which you can read more about in an earlier blog post.
Just the facts...

• In the 1982 Supreme Court case, Plyer v. Doe, the court ruled that the state could not deny undocumented children free public education that is offered to other children residing within its borders (Brickman, 2006).

• Approximately 1.8 million of the 12 million undocumented immigrants, who are currently living in the U.S., are under the age of 18 and are eligible for public education (IPC, 2007).

• Each year about 65,000 undocumented immigrants graduate with a high-school diploma but are unable to apply for legal work and cannot afford college without government-backed financial aid (Chandler, 2008).

• It is estimated that only 5 -10% of undocumented immigrants with a high school diploma attend college (IPC, 2007).

• The Bureau of Labor Statistics expects nine high-skilled occupations (ones which require an associate degree or higher) to grow at least twice as fast as the national average between 2004 and 2014 (IPC, 2007).

• The rate of labor-force growth during the last few decades has been declining and fewer US-born workers are available to join the labor force (Gonzales 2007, 6).

• In 2006, The Bureau of Labor Statistics found that workers who lacked a high-school diploma had an unemployment rate of 6.8% and earned an average of only $419 per week (IPC, 2007). In contrast, workers with a bachelor’s degree had an unemployment rate of 2.3% and earned approximately $962 per week (IPC, 2007).

• In 1999, a RAND study estimated that the average Mexican female immigrant who graduates from college would, by the age of 30, increase her pretax income by more than $13,500 per year (NILC, 2005).

• The RAND study (1999) estimated that a 30-year-old female Mexican immigrant with a college degree will contribute $5,300 more in taxes and will cost $3,900 less in criminal justice and welfare expenses each year, than if she had dropped out of high school with no prospects of a college education. Based on this study, fiscal contribution of immigrants with a college degree may increase by more than $9,000 each year (NILC, 2005).

i'll let you draw your own conclusions...

Broken Dreams

As a former high school English tutor, as a child raised in part by a Mexican immigrant, and as the daughter of a high school biology teacher, who has taught many ‘limited English speaking’ classes, immigration is an issue to which I inadvertently have strong emotional ties. Immigration has been a heavily debated issue in the past couple of years and will no doubt continue to be a heated subject as the 2008 election nears. Although substantial immigration legislation was opposed in June, last Wednesday, the immigration waters were retested with a smaller piece of legislation. The senate however also rejected the Dream Act bill with a 52-44 vote, 8 short of the 60-votes needed for the bill to proceed to an actual debate on the senate floor.

The dream act (the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act) is a bill that was sponsored by Illinois senator Richard J. Durbin. The act would have given provisional legal status to illegal immigrant students who entered the country before they were 16 years of age and have since lived in the U.S. for at least 5 years. One of the main concerns for conservative republicans is that they believe illegal immigrants are “lawbreakers” and therefore should not be “rewarded” with amnesty or citizenship. The counter argument however, and basis for the Dream Act is that these students did not have a say in entering the country and therefore should not be penalized by their parents’ decisions. The dream Act targets students who were brought into the country by their parents when they were very young. These students would have had to complete high school and have no criminal record in order to gain this provisional legal status.

If in addition to completing their primary education, these students either attended 2 years of college or served 2 years in the U.S. military, the provisional status would be lifted and they would be able to apply for citizenship after 5 years. Although it was a small piece of legislation compared to the broad legislation presented last summer, “negative votes came from Republicans and some Democrats who were reluctant to reopen the bitterly divisive debate over immigration for what they called a narrow piece of legislation”. Why are senators afraid to reopen the debate? Because any kind of ‘solution’ would be both controversial and expensive.

Americans are spending money and resources to educate immigrant students and though they are motivated and qualify to attend college, many Americans would rather have them deported than actually have them contribute to the U.S. economy. This is in part because the majority of illegal immigrants (approximately 80%) are Latino, of which about 60% are Mexican. In the minds of many U.S., (especially California) residents, Mexican immigrants are responsible for “stealing American jobs”, overpopulating and lowering standards in public schools, and taking up resources that they have no legal rights to. Many Americans envision “illegal aliens” to be Mexican families crossing the boarder by jumping fences or hiding in the trunks of cars. However, Maria Echeveste, former deputy chief of staff under President Clinton, told UC Berkeley students in a lecture last Wednesday, that a majority of illegal immigrants are actually legal workers who overstay their work visas.

She highlighted the hypocrisy in the temporary worker programs. “We are benefiting from having a workforce with no rights”. She argued that Americans want temporary workers who will work for low wages, perform jobs that few Americans would be willing to perform, but we do not want to grant these people citizenship. Because most illegal immigrants come into the country legally on temporary work visas, spending more money on ‘securing the border’ would be both costly and ineffective. Trying to deport the 12 million illegal immigrants that are already currently residing in the U.S. would also be a misuse of resources. In order to find all of the illegal immigrants and send them home, it would take over 5 years and cost more than the entire budget of the department of Homeland Security (according to the Center for American Progress).

The Dream act was a small attempt to give rights to immigrant students. Students who have worked just as hard, if not harder than American students to receive an education and motivate themselves to achieve more than was ever expected of them. Students that are willing to fight in the military for a country that they are not allowed to call their own. What is the point in spending taxpayers’ money to educate these students, push them to want a college education, and then not allow them the right to American citizenship?

When did the American dream become a dream with restrictions and boundaries? A dream only for the “lucky ones” who were born in the U.S.?

"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me.
I lift my lamp beside the golden door."

When did the inscription on the Statue of Liberty, our national monument, and the symbol of our heritage lose its meaning?

“What the Presidential Candidates are not going to tell you…"

…but Robert Reich will.

This past week, I had the privilege of hearing Robert Reich (renowned economist and Secretary of Labor under Clinton) speak. He began by describing how he initially met Bill Clinton (age 22 at the time) and how he had introduced him to Hillary Rodham on their first day of law school. He proceeded to present to us “A speech made up of what a candidate would say if he did not care about becoming president.” The following he said is “what candidates should say if we were in the kind of democracy where citizens were honored, educated and could separate myth from reality.”

Standing at a height of 4ft. 10in., with a staggering presence, he began his presidential parody…

“Thank you sooooo much for coming this afternoon. Let me tell you a few things….

1. Foreign Policy: Iraq is a quagmire. Whatever I do will cause problems. It will not only be expensive, but it may cause even more sectarian violence. There is no good solution. Period.

2. Health Care: We are the only healthcare system in the world that is designed to avoid sick people. I will try and reorganize it so that it is more amenable to treating sick people, but you young healthy people are going to have to pay more. Oh, and all you older people, we are not going to give you the technology and drugs to keep you alive for those extra last couple of months – its just too expensive – so we are going to let you die.

3. Global Warming: I am going to implement a Carbon tax, which will cost you a lot of money for gas. For everything. For all your energy needs.

4. Education: We have a huge educational problem that starts with early childhood education - there isn’t any. We have to do it. We have to pay for it. If we want talented teachers, we have to pay them more – but that’s going to cost you more in taxes.

5. Jobs: I know many of you middle class, manufacturing workers are worried about your jobs. Well, let me tell you something, if you are a routine worker, your job is going to go abroad or it will be done by software in the next couple of years. You will lose your job and there is not a lot I can do about it. In addition I will expand the earned income tax credit since minimum wage doesn’t really work. I will help people at the bottom earn more, but it will cost you more money in taxes.

6. Medicare: We need to get control over Medicare and make sure that it can pay for itself.

7. Global Poverty: The one major thing we can do is reduce agricultural subsidies. Developing nations can’t get out of poverty because they cannot export agriculture to the United Sates. The crops of poor nations are not competitive internationally. If we want to do something about global poverty we have to get rid of these subsidies.

Thank you very much.”

He described the aforementioned points as the “sacred cows that are politically untouchable”. It is an unlikely occurrence when politicians can tell the truth and still get elected. Voters just aren’t willing to hear or understand the truth. Reich discusses four main burdens both politicians and leaders must over come in order to encourage the public to take action and progress social change:
1. Denial – “there is no problem”
2. Escapism – “In my little gated community, it’s not a problem”
3. Scapegoating – “We may have problems, but they are all because of ... ”
4. Cynicism (the most devastating) – “Nothing can be done”

There are so many young people today that feel helpless - That the word is corrupt and there is no use in trying to change anything - That politics is a game plagued by fraud and deceitfulness - That politicians will never be honest about what is happening in our world - And that somehow rejecting politics all together is actually making a statement. Reich warns that “one of the biggest barriers to change that you as future leaders, hopefully, will be helping to overcome is widespread cynicism of democracy. Politics is the applied form of democracy. If you hold your nose and reject politics you are indulging in that kind of cynicism.”

Educate yourself, demand and fight for the truth, acknowledge that something can be done, and don’t take no for an answer.

* You can listen to Robert Reich's lecture (including Q&A) on Itunes. Search: Robert Reich Fall 2007