Egyptians in the news... again
Ok. I just read this piece of news and I can't help but feel conflicted about it: On one hand, it could be just that they were staying and working illegally in the US. Lots of egyptians workers live in New York illegally, they would live together to cut down their costs and they would work under the table in menial jobs that pay cash (which usually gets sent to their family members with visiting egyptians, because they wouldn't use bank transfers cause they have no social security numbers) , which would explain the small denominted large amounts of cash they found in their apartment. However... There is something about this article, maybe it's related to the mention of their jobs in the end (civil and chemical engineers) or my own pre-conceived notions or just from all of the terrorist shit that some egyptians always seem to be involved in (WTC 1992 bombing, 9-11, Qatar bombing, Ayman Al Zawahary, all of the late explosions in egypt, etc..), that would urge the average reader-and shamefully myself as well-to jump to this conclusion:"Oh no. Not another terrorist cell!". What's messed up is that I can't blame the artcile for it: it states in the end that the police said that the men don't seem to have any links to terrorist groups. However, I don't know... Something about the way it is written, or maybe the fact that it was written at all ( the police catches illgeal workers in the states all the time, or rather should, so this is no news) , makes me - and maybe you if you read it too- uncomfortable. Read it and tell me : Do you see what I am talking about?
posted by The Sandmonkey @ 7/31/2005 12:29:00 AM
5 Comments:
I don't think now is the time to give anyone the benefit of the doubt. In country illegally means exactly that...ILLEGALLY. It doesn't matter if they are Egyptian, Mexican, or Irish for that matter, anyone that breaks the law to come into a country is not the kind of person you want there.
What we have to do is to help to develop countries in the middle east so doctors, chemists and engineers can be employed in their own countries making the kind of living that their education warrants instead of being cab drivers and street vendors in the US.
If they truely are no terrorists, it's a terrible waste of brainpower and education to be making more money in a menial job in the US than you could make in your career of choice in your own country.
I expect to see aid and trade agreements granted to only those countries that are seriously fighting terror and anti-Americanism and those who don't will find the well going dry.
Why pay people who hate you, it doesn't keep you safe at all.
OK Sam, they look mighty suspicious to me. Unemployed with lots of cash, particular interest in trains, and of course illegal. I also don't like the Mohammed Atta name in there!!!
Jan
You're not allowed to be in the U.S. illegally... unless you are Mexican... because we need Mexicans.
Anonymous you make me laugh about the mexicans being illegal, actually wal-mart are hiring illegal drivers and it was a scandal a year or so ago, they were not terrorists of course because they were not ARABS.
I wish they do the same to all illegal people not to target Egyptians!
The article is written poorly Sam.
As much as the US makes noise about it, illegal immigration is such a seldomly-dealt with topic in the US, so it will make noise and headlines whenever a group of people are found rather than one or two.
Add in the other suspicious factors, and you have a writer/editor willing to re-word the original story to sensationalize the story.
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