Pinata Smugglers Go Free [Bryanna Bevens] - 11/12/04You know when people say “Now I’ve seen it all”? Girl in piñata found during border check by Leslie Berestein UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER November 12, 2004 “Inspectors at border checkpoints have seen it all: people rolled inside carpets, sewn into car seats and stuffed into washing machines, all attempting to be smuggled into the United States.” “But inspectors at the Tecate Port of Entry discovered a new twist recently when they encountered a little girl meticulously sealed inside a piñata... “The girl was completely sealed inside…but she was able to breathe and seemed to be in good physical condition. She, her mother and brother were voluntarily deported to Mexico after they were found. “The car carrying the piñatas bore California plates and was driven by a female U.S. citizen; a man in the passenger seat also is a U.S. citizen. Their names were not available. ” Alas, the fact that two American citizens smuggled a mother and her two children inside of piñatas is not really the despicable part of this story. According to Vince Bond, a spokesman for U.S. Customs & Border Protection: Neither will be prosecuted, Bond said, in part because of the sheer volume of immigrant-smuggling cases.” Yep, our government has neither the time nor the resources to prosecute people for stuffing children into paper mache’ tombs. That’s despicable Now I have seen it all. “Vaarwel Holland” [Goodbye, Holland] [Paul Belien] - 11/12/04New Zealand will become crowded. While some self-hating Americans want to emigrate to Canada or New Zealand in order to escape “Jesusland,” the website of Buysse Immigration Consultancy (BIC) in Holland was inaccessible last week owing to the surge of Dutchmen wanting to leave their country after the ritual slaughter of moviemaker Theo van Gogh by a Muslim fanatic.. Rosita Setz of BIC said that the number of Dutchmen willing to emigrate has never been higher: “People think: we do not want to witness an assassination like this again.” Since the murder of Pim Fortuyn two years ago, the number of emigrants has been rising, according to Setz. According to the Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek, one hundred thousand natives left the Netherlands last year, a lot for a country of 16 million of whom already one million are Muslims. More people are currently moving out of the country than in. The emigrants are leaving for Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Scandinavia. “People are afraid. They no longer feel safe”, says Setz. “If there is a mosque three kilometers from your front door, you do not mind. But you do mind if there is one ten steps away.” The feeling of unease will not be lessened by today’s events: three policemen were wounded by grenades that were thrown at them as they raided the house of suspected terrorists in The Hague. Violence seems to be escalating in the once so placid Netherlands. Following the murder of Van Gogh, a bomb attack damaged the entrance doors of a Muslim school in Eindhoven. In retaliation, arsonists tried to burn down churches in Rotterdam, Utrecht and Amersfoort. This was in turn followed by the arson of a Muslim School in Uden. Some flee the country and some apparently fight back. “The attacks have scratched the patina of tolerance on which the Dutch have long prided themselves,” writes The New York Times in an article that tries to blame part of the tense situation on people like Van Gogh and Somali-born Dutch politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali who had been using “language that went far beyond the limits set for public forums in the United States.” It makes one wonder what the Dutch immigrants to New Zealand and their American counterparts will be talking about in the land of the kiwis. Let us hope that Wellington, New Zealand has no “hate-speech” crimes or the Americans will drag the poor Dutch fugitives to court. |
