View from outside western bubble

AS the former president of Mexico, Vicente Fox must carry considerable weight when he presents us with a far different perspective of current world trends than that of established commentators and politicians in the developed world (Irish Examiner, January 2).

However, his address is not without flaws. Irish immigration to Britain, for

instance, is not a phenomenon confined to the last 50 years, as he suggests, for it was Irish labour that not only built Britain’s motorways, but also its canals and railways before that.

And if there was not enough labour through immigration to keep the empire going, then the merchants of slavery simply sailed to Africa and helped themselves. Logically, therefore, he is right in arguing that developed nations have no moral arguments to curtail immigration, so why do they persist in frightening their citizens by stoking the fires of race hatred, as they do?

The answer may well lie in the desire of western governments to accrue for themselves ever more power over their populations. By blaming immigrants for a country’s woes, they can implement measures that not only seem to counter this threat, but, incidentally, create tools of control and oppression over their own people that were undreamt even by the old Soviet bloc.

The twin lunacies of ID cards and national databases now being assembled by Britain and the USA are perfect examples of this emerging suppression.

Proposed mass fingerprinting and internal passports are just two examples of how we in Ireland are also being affected by these rather frightening Stalinist tendencies being foisted upon us by our major trading partners.

Of course it is not just the ghostly spectre of immigration that is employed in this way.

The US and Britain have had a field day terrifying us with tales of terrorists and their dastardly acts when we are all under much greater threat from crossing the road or other risk-laden daily activities.

Mr Fox’s reference to “men of hate” flying their planes into New York is interesting in that he refuses to regurgitate the accepted “Islamic terrorist hijacker” explanation that has so far avoided any serious scrutiny.

For all those who believe in the liberty of the individual these are testing times. The fear of terrorism, crime, fraud, and now immigration, has been skilfully deployed by the British government to push forward their plans for total population surveillance. It clearly wishes for the rest of the EU to follow suit, and so reinforce its own position.

We must ensure that sanity and freedom prevail if we are to preserve any claim to a desirable quality of life. The thoughts of statesmen like Vicente Fox, who view life from outside the cosy western bubble, should be given greater credence.

Justin Roberts

Ballynagleragh

Lattin

Co Tipperary