I had pretty good timing. Just taking a break from last part of IBH. Can't wait to find out.
But YOU, Ma'am, have *outdone Yourself*! What a load of info You've provided this time. And I laughed about the Warren Zevon song and implications. (Haha, lol, rofl... ;-)
TYTY much, Michelle, and hope You have a *great* day. :-)
And Julie Bindle won her case against NOttingham City Council -- they accepted they acted unlawfully in cancelling the talk she was going to give on how to prevent rape and domestic abuse. The reason they gave was her views on transgender issues. SHe gets fully compensated as do any ticket holders. The Women For Nottingham have been invited to book another venue in Nottingham which will be accepted on a lawful basis. It is a great victory!
LOL. We have our troubles as well. The US has just managed to successfully export of the provost of Princeton some gender scholar to be president of Cambridge University. Sigh.
The head of lettuce has won (the Daily Star was running a competition to see which would last longer -- a 60 p head of lettuce or Liz Truss)
Last night was appparently insane with MPs being manhandled and shouted abuse at. The HOme Secretary (Suella Braverman) had resigned earlier in the day (accidentally? having emailed an important document to the wrong person after a blazing row with Truss).
In many ways it is a very British coup. Sunak (the other finalist whom most of the MPs wanted but the membership didn't) will probably become PM in a week's time.
If Truss had any guts, she'd have called a General election but she didn't.
I see the tide turning a little here, too. More MSM outlets are featuring the other side of transgender and the truth is starting to come out. I hope Mermaids gets shut down. Disgraceful.
I hope they get shut down. You can't be proclaiming -- most vulnerable and then neglect safeguarding. It feels very like the whole Jimmy Saville thing again. Safeguarding was supposed to prevent that from happening ever again.
Fingers crossed on the tide turning in the US as well. There are going to be a lot of nasties uncovered.
Just now finished it. Never, in a million years, would-a guessed it was [insert name here] all along. Can't thank You enough for the recommendation, Ma'am. Sorry to say, but for some reason the library only has a couple of the Rumpole books. That's a rare gap.
Now I have a trilogy from Naomi Novik. Dunno You heard-a her. I'm not exactly sure what they're about, but might be fantasy. TY again.
I've gotten a bit into the first book of Naomi Novik's Scholomance fantasy trilogy. It's not gonna be everybody's cup of tea. Pretty tame. It's about a teenage sorceress and the battle to get through wizard school. I think she said one outta four survive to graduate. (Tough school. ;-)
It sounds good. I tend to like those sorts of books, but let's be honest I am the sort of person who reads most things -- even the back of cereal packets...
In the UK, but not the US, authors are paid a little amount each time their books are checked out. Iti s called Public Lending Right and was put in when public libraries really replaced the circulating or subscription library.
I love libraries and just pleased when they are used.
One part of the equation has to do with cultural attitudes and not valuing education in the same way as other groups. My lot went to school in a rural Northumberland school -- it had one of the lowest rates of children going on to A levels (the two years of preparation for university in the UK -- a bit like the first year of college in the US). It was not because the school was terrible (the A level results were fine and parents had to be velvet bulldozers/PITA on certain aspects --) but because the families often did not see the need -- a lot were going into industries such as farming or forestry where a higher education wasn't required. (Sowell gets one thing wrong in his Black Rednecks essay -- that Border culture which spawned Cracker culture still exists in Britain -- people still use shepherd or Bythonic counting) As an American with a BA, it was a real education for me to understand the value of vocational education and that not everyone wanted an academic education. Indeed a fair number of my daughter's year were the first person in their family to go to uni. (TO over generalize the Jewish/Indian situation Thomas Sowell was on to something with his essay on ethnic minority middlemen and the aspirational cultures and the way they value academic prowess).
The other side of the equation is 'soft bigotry of low expectations', chaotic administration of schools (including not offering all the courses required or offering at the same time as other required courses), poor teaching, and poor advice to students and parents. Because they think parents don't care (or simply don't know), they can give bad advice or advice which may be good for the school's stats but not helpful for the student. My eldest son who was not athletic was told to take a GCSE in PE as it would be an easy one to get. He got a C -- so yes he did get a GCSe in it but it also pulled down the rest of his grades and made it more difficult when applying to certain unis as they were going on predicted scores. If you can watch Generating Genius -- which was filmed in 2017/2018 about children with high IQs but in poor areas in England, it is instructive to see some of the mistakes that the schools make (like not having appropriate teachers for foreign language classes)
The revolution in communication (including data i/o), AI, brain computer interface (fused intelligences), genetics, brain electro therapy, brain sound therapy, transportation (including space and air travel), clean energy (lowering the price per KW/hour), robotics will likely increase the value of mental health and deep intelligence over time. And the value of skills over time. A lot of rote low and semi skilled labor is likely to be substituted by automation over time.
Don't we have to transition a lot of young people to higher value added labor and businesses? How do we encourage children, teenagers and twenty somethings to self actualize and transform themselves? To dramatically improve their broadly defined physical health, broadly defined mental health, broadly defined intelligence, and what Glenn Loury refers to as "relations before transactions"? To unlock the symmetry of all symmetries?
This is the whole question of occupational mobility and what shape occupations/work will take in the next century. Occupational mobility is interesting (I first learned about it from reading an essay by Adolph Reed Jr) -- it is about ensuring that people have the transferable skills so that they can trade upwards rather than be stuck at a low level job on minimum wage. It has to start with basic literacy and numeracy because without that, a person will find it difficult to acquire the skills required to get a better occupation. At the moment, California's basic literacy rate at the end of schooling is comparable to Rwanda's.
There are also certain basic skills such as plumbing, electrician and indeed the certain 'rural' craft skills such as dry walling and thatching which are more vocational than academic. The need for competent plumbers was laid bare with the big freeze Texas endured. One doesn't have to be academic to do these sorts of jobs, but you do need basic literacy plus an apprenticeship. But people in these sorts of vocational jobs are more likely to be entrepreneurs and eventually run their own businesses rather than simply work for other people. Some people are just not very academic but they do require certain literacy and numeracy skills to thrive.
Then there is the whole ethical question of importing skilled workers and creating brain drains in under developed countries simply because a particular society has failed to educate its children to the standard required. Kemi Badenoch touched on this during the COnservative Leadership campaign when she explained that her father, a Nigerian doctor had had to close his clinic in Nigeria as he could not get the nurses required to run it. According to today's figures, half of the doctors in the NHS were educated outside the UK -- this is a result of a deliberate policy in the UK which limited the number of medical school places.
"This is the whole question of occupational mobility and what shape occupations/work will take in the next century. Occupational mobility is interesting (I first learned about it from reading an essay by Adolph Reed Jr) -- it is about ensuring that people have the transferable skills so that they can trade upwards rather than be stuck at a low level job on minimum wage. It has to start with basic literacy and numeracy because without that, a person will find it difficult to acquire the skills required to get a better occupation."
100% agree.
"At the moment, California's basic literacy rate at the end of schooling is comparable to Rwanda's." Again 100% true. How can a rich state like California have such terrible K-12 academic outcomes. Especially if asians, ethnics and immigrants are excluded.
Asians and latinos collectively academically outperform caucasians in California by many metrics on some parts of the academic distribution.
"There are also certain basic skills such as plumbing, electrician and indeed the certain 'rural' craft skills such as dry walling and thatching which are more vocational than academic. The need for competent plumbers was laid bare with the big freeze Texas endured. One doesn't have to be academic to do these sorts of jobs, but you do need basic literacy plus an apprenticeship. But people in these sorts of vocational jobs are more likely to be entrepreneurs and eventually run their own businesses rather than simply work for other people. Some people are just not very academic but they do require certain literacy and numeracy skills to thrive."
100%
"Then there is the whole ethical question of importing skilled workers and creating brain drains in under developed countries simply because a particular society has failed to educate its children to the standard required. Kemi Badenoch touched on this during the COnservative Leadership campaign when she explained that her father, a Nigerian doctor had had to close his clinic in Nigeria as he could not get the nurses required to run it. According to today's figures, half of the doctors in the NHS were educated outside the UK -- this is a result of a deliberate policy in the UK which limited the number of medical school places."
Here we disagree. I support globalization and the free movement of skilled labor and talented labor.
The Asian expatriate community played a large role in the Asian economic miracle. Generally when students and workers go to a foreign country, it is a large benefit to the home country.
Notice that only a small percentage of Asian expat students who study in the USA or expat asians who work in the USA stay in the USA long term. Only a modest percentage of Asian expat students who study in the Canada or expat asians who work in the Canada stay in Canada long term.
Is it similar in England? It appears that most Asian expat students attending Russel Group universities don't stay in England long term.
Why do you think the same (being a large economic benefit to Africa) won't be true of African expats and immigrants in the UK? Why do you think African expats and African immigrants who don't live in their country of birth won't be a large economic positive for their home countries?
Let us take the example of Nigeria. In 2018, the Nigerian Diaspora remittance was $24.31bn. In fact most African countries generate a much larger percentage of GDP from remittances than Nigeria does. Nigerian expats drive much of Nigeria's FDI, economic development and start up space. And have played an important role in Nigerian unicorns.
Africa is unusual in that the African diaspora/expat community has more income than Africans in Africa. Expat Africans run Africa. Much of the African elite have homes outside of their home country. This why Africans who want to change Africa spend a lot of time in foreign countries. such as Europe, North America, and in some cases Latin America and Asia. Africa is run from outside of Africa.
Please watch Magatte Wade to learn more about Africa. She spends a lot of time in the USA and Europe to help transform Africa.
Magatte explains the control that North American and European media, academia and think tanks have in Africa, heavily influencing or controlling African educational systems. And how non African woke people promote socialism in Africa.
African countries that resist North American and European directives risk being downgraded by the various ratings agencies over human/civil/woke rights and having sanctions placed on them.
It is a complicated picture. As an immigrant, I am well aware of the benefits of immigration. What I worry about is that the US and the UK etc are becoming over reliant on high skilled immigrant labour without supporting the necessary public education at home. For example, recruiting nurses to work in the NHS from abroad rather than investing in the nursing colleges in the UK. I can completely understand why people want to come to the UK, for example, but long term is it sustainable or do you end up with a bread and circuses type situation where you have a non-voting technical force and poorly educated citizens who can vote? Also does the brain drain hinder the progress of the less developed country? And I do believe African solutions have to come from Africa, not from ngo imposition or from various superpowers funding kleptocrats as happened in the Cold War (see Queen of SPies about the Congo and what the US did there). There is no easy solution. I do think encouraging study abroad programmes and collaborations can help. One of the more interesting things about the Conservative party at moment is the number of West Africans who are in positions of power (although giving the implosion, this could change).
Today imperialism = wokeness. The European intelligentsia is trying to impose wokeness around the world, including in Africa via force, the foreign aide NGO complex, the financial sector, tech companies, global business, global consulting.
African businesses that are publicly traded need to keep their CSR scores up, (Corporate Responsibility Scores, a combination of environmental ratings, ethic ratings and woke ratings). Ergo African companies need to hire expensive Kendi - ish American DEI consultants, impose CRT and critical studies to keep their stock prices up, and raise money from angel/VC/private equity investors.
Any African business, group of businesses or countries that resist can and will be destroyed via sanctions. And hundreds of woke attack academic articles written by the elite European intelligentsia universities. Certain African groups, tribes or countries will mysteriously and arbitrarily become "white, nazi and fascist" and be described as oppressors. And others will mysteriously and arbitrarily be described as "black" or oppressed. This will lead to many Africans in Africa being de-banked (no access to the global financial system), being put on no global flight lists, being put on terror watch lists, being banned from global social media and subject to criminal prosecution in non African courts. Anti woke or white supremacist African countries will be economically destroyed by sanctions.
When BLM, woke Americans, woke Canadians, woke Europeans publicly demand that certain African countries defund their police, it is no joke. It has massive legal, financial and economic implications. The woke brainwash a handful of African students in woke universities to betray their own people and be sepoys of the European intelligentsia (global woke.) The woke put them in front of their imperialist global agenda.
African countries are forced to maintain socialist policies that keep them poor by the same international pressures.
Sadly the global woke act as one. The global right do not act as one. Instead, they often attack each other. For example few Tories would publicly defend Africans in Africa from trumped up woke charges, international sections and low CSR scores. What is wrong with the Tories? Why are they leaving Africans out in the cold?
" And I do believe African solutions have to come from Africa?" How can this practically happen? Do you mean that African countries should become Chinese strategic clients and try to get rich and keep lobbying the global woke to be allowed to integrate into the globalized economy?
"Also does the brain drain hinder the progress of the less developed country?" Why do you think "brain drain" hasn't hindered the economic progress of Asian countries?
Do you think the massive brain drain of UK university graduates and UK nationals working and living abroad has hurt the UK? The UK suffers from a lot of brain drain. The world is filled with English expats.
The UK is not a rich country any more. The UK has 2/3rds the per capita income of the USA when adjusted for PPP. A lower per capita income adjusted for PPP (and nominal) than African Americans have. The UK is poorer than South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore. All of which were dirt poor in the 1950s. If current trends continue, it is only a matter of time before the UK has a lower per capita income than additional Asian countries.
The UK is no longer attracting the best and brightest to live in the UK long term. The UK has cheap Russell Group universities that foreigners love to study in; and go back abroad. The UK is also a good location to work a few years to gain experience before taking advantage of more lucrative opportunities in other parts of the world.
If the UK is to avoid collapse, I think the UK needs to spend many tens of billions of pounds internationally to identify and develop K-12 children in developing country. And hope that some of them agree to come to England or do business with England when they grow up.
Is the UK okay with being economically dominated by immigrants, ethnics and outright foreigners? Does the UK have any other options? These are the people who will pay most UK taxes and fund most UK nonprofit donations in the future. If the UK cannot attract skilled immigrants, then the UK will have to sharply lower real wages, massively cut social spending, and massively raise taxes across the board. Are the English people up for this?
Are the UK people okay with foreigners owning most of the UK and making decisions on behalf of the UK people? [To me this appears to be inevitable, if the UK is to avoid collapse.]
Would it be accurate to say that the English people have a lot of resentment and jealousy about how well Chinese, Indians, Jews, Nigerians, Ghanaians, Russians are doing in the UK? And the foreign ownership of the UK? Which in turn makes it much tougher for the UK to attract quality immigrants and business partners. What if anything can be done about this?
Why in your view do Chinese, Nigerians, Jews, Indians (maybe Russians and Ghanaians too) do well in GCSE and A levels tests in the UK? Why do ethnic English, gypsies and Caribbean Britons do so poorly?
Why do Pakistani Britons do so poorly academically compared with every other asian group? Why do Pakistani Britons do so much worse than Pakistanis in Canadian, US and Pakistan?
FYI, even Pakistanis outperform ethnic English students.
The woke argue that standardized tests, math, science and meritocracy are white supremacy and oppression; and push this narrative all over the world. Do you think young ethnic English, Gypsie, and Caribbean British kids do badly in their GCSE and A levels in part because of this brainwashing?
In Canada the majority of millionaires are immigrants. Canada is economically dominated by market dominant immigrants and market dominant ethnics. It isn't as extreme in the USA yet, but probably soon will be. For the first time since 1789 the USA has market dominant minorities (ethnics and immigrants) that are likely to economically dominate the USA.
Within a generation the USA is projected to have 8% of global GNP versus over half in the 1940s. The vast majority of the USA's capital stock is projected to be owned by outright foreigners. Most foreigners don't come to the USA to live, but to temporarily study or work and then they plan to leave the USA for more lucrative economic opportunities outside the USA.
Glenn Loury worries about the large numbers of Brown and elite US university PhD, Masters and undergraduates moving to China after graduation to take advantage of Chinese opportunities. [This includes non ethnic Chinese Americans.]
The USA and Canada need lots of skilled immigration to prevent an economic collapse.
I had pretty good timing. Just taking a break from last part of IBH. Can't wait to find out.
But YOU, Ma'am, have *outdone Yourself*! What a load of info You've provided this time. And I laughed about the Warren Zevon song and implications. (Haha, lol, rofl... ;-)
TYTY much, Michelle, and hope You have a *great* day. :-)
(back to reading :-)
And Julie Bindle won her case against NOttingham City Council -- they accepted they acted unlawfully in cancelling the talk she was going to give on how to prevent rape and domestic abuse. The reason they gave was her views on transgender issues. SHe gets fully compensated as do any ticket holders. The Women For Nottingham have been invited to book another venue in Nottingham which will be accepted on a lawful basis. It is a great victory!
Now *that* is some GREAT news. You guys are so lucky over there. If the dollar stays this strong (which it won't), I may hafta move there.
LOL. We have our troubles as well. The US has just managed to successfully export of the provost of Princeton some gender scholar to be president of Cambridge University. Sigh.
Thankfully people are fighting back.
This is off-topic, but just "heard" that Liz Truss resigned? Lordy. Guess I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop.
I’m just reading it, too! Insane.
The head of lettuce has won (the Daily Star was running a competition to see which would last longer -- a 60 p head of lettuce or Liz Truss)
Last night was appparently insane with MPs being manhandled and shouted abuse at. The HOme Secretary (Suella Braverman) had resigned earlier in the day (accidentally? having emailed an important document to the wrong person after a blazing row with Truss).
In many ways it is a very British coup. Sunak (the other finalist whom most of the MPs wanted but the membership didn't) will probably become PM in a week's time.
If Truss had any guts, she'd have called a General election but she didn't.
I see the tide turning a little here, too. More MSM outlets are featuring the other side of transgender and the truth is starting to come out. I hope Mermaids gets shut down. Disgraceful.
I hope they get shut down. You can't be proclaiming -- most vulnerable and then neglect safeguarding. It feels very like the whole Jimmy Saville thing again. Safeguarding was supposed to prevent that from happening ever again.
Fingers crossed on the tide turning in the US as well. There are going to be a lot of nasties uncovered.
I have to watch the rest of that Jimmy Seville documentary but what I saw was unreal.
Yup. You're right all around, Ma'am,
SO sorry. Sad to hear. )-;
So pleased you enjoyed it.
I thought the song particularly appropriate for the circumstances.
So pleased you are enjoying IBH.
Just now finished it. Never, in a million years, would-a guessed it was [insert name here] all along. Can't thank You enough for the recommendation, Ma'am. Sorry to say, but for some reason the library only has a couple of the Rumpole books. That's a rare gap.
Now I have a trilogy from Naomi Novik. Dunno You heard-a her. I'm not exactly sure what they're about, but might be fantasy. TY again.
I shall look up Naomi Novik.
SO pleased you enjoyed the books.
The Rumpole books can be read in any order. They are a series of short stories.
I've gotten a bit into the first book of Naomi Novik's Scholomance fantasy trilogy. It's not gonna be everybody's cup of tea. Pretty tame. It's about a teenage sorceress and the battle to get through wizard school. I think she said one outta four survive to graduate. (Tough school. ;-)
It sounds good. I tend to like those sorts of books, but let's be honest I am the sort of person who reads most things -- even the back of cereal packets...
YOu might like this op-ed by the MP Miriam Cates about Mermaids in the Telegraph (I suspect for tomorrow's edition) Basically she asks why are the whistle-blowing voices ignored when people are pursuing political agendas? https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/10/08/trans-charity-mermaids-last-getting-scrutiny-has-long-deserved/
👍👍
TYTY, Ma'am. Looks like a good 'un. Will read now.
Got distracted. I dunno I'm recommending M. Novik. Just a mention.
The thing is that the library doesn't have any-a them but two. And I almost never purchase fiction. That's just me.
In the UK, but not the US, authors are paid a little amount each time their books are checked out. Iti s called Public Lending Right and was put in when public libraries really replaced the circulating or subscription library.
I love libraries and just pleased when they are used.
I used to use them *all* the time. They're *great.*
Then I started reading non-fiction. Them I keep on the Kindle, so I can take notes I never refer to. Never said I was smart.
Thoughts on Katharine Birbalsingh's teaching method?
Katharine Birbalsingh's Micheala school is getting the results big time. Her methods work.
"The UK rate of 75% being able to read at grade level aged 8 is nowhere near as bad as the 2% rate for Black children in Decateur IL where teachers were given 100% marks for excellence by the school administration. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/us-teachers-given-top-marks-pupils-struggle-illinois-262r62pwk"
Why in your view do ethnic English, Caribbean Britons and Gypsy Britons perform poorly in primary and secondary school?
Why do Jewish, Chinese and Indian students perform academically well?
One part of the equation has to do with cultural attitudes and not valuing education in the same way as other groups. My lot went to school in a rural Northumberland school -- it had one of the lowest rates of children going on to A levels (the two years of preparation for university in the UK -- a bit like the first year of college in the US). It was not because the school was terrible (the A level results were fine and parents had to be velvet bulldozers/PITA on certain aspects --) but because the families often did not see the need -- a lot were going into industries such as farming or forestry where a higher education wasn't required. (Sowell gets one thing wrong in his Black Rednecks essay -- that Border culture which spawned Cracker culture still exists in Britain -- people still use shepherd or Bythonic counting) As an American with a BA, it was a real education for me to understand the value of vocational education and that not everyone wanted an academic education. Indeed a fair number of my daughter's year were the first person in their family to go to uni. (TO over generalize the Jewish/Indian situation Thomas Sowell was on to something with his essay on ethnic minority middlemen and the aspirational cultures and the way they value academic prowess).
The other side of the equation is 'soft bigotry of low expectations', chaotic administration of schools (including not offering all the courses required or offering at the same time as other required courses), poor teaching, and poor advice to students and parents. Because they think parents don't care (or simply don't know), they can give bad advice or advice which may be good for the school's stats but not helpful for the student. My eldest son who was not athletic was told to take a GCSE in PE as it would be an easy one to get. He got a C -- so yes he did get a GCSe in it but it also pulled down the rest of his grades and made it more difficult when applying to certain unis as they were going on predicted scores. If you can watch Generating Genius -- which was filmed in 2017/2018 about children with high IQs but in poor areas in England, it is instructive to see some of the mistakes that the schools make (like not having appropriate teachers for foreign language classes)
Thanks for sharing.
The revolution in communication (including data i/o), AI, brain computer interface (fused intelligences), genetics, brain electro therapy, brain sound therapy, transportation (including space and air travel), clean energy (lowering the price per KW/hour), robotics will likely increase the value of mental health and deep intelligence over time. And the value of skills over time. A lot of rote low and semi skilled labor is likely to be substituted by automation over time.
Don't we have to transition a lot of young people to higher value added labor and businesses? How do we encourage children, teenagers and twenty somethings to self actualize and transform themselves? To dramatically improve their broadly defined physical health, broadly defined mental health, broadly defined intelligence, and what Glenn Loury refers to as "relations before transactions"? To unlock the symmetry of all symmetries?
This is the whole question of occupational mobility and what shape occupations/work will take in the next century. Occupational mobility is interesting (I first learned about it from reading an essay by Adolph Reed Jr) -- it is about ensuring that people have the transferable skills so that they can trade upwards rather than be stuck at a low level job on minimum wage. It has to start with basic literacy and numeracy because without that, a person will find it difficult to acquire the skills required to get a better occupation. At the moment, California's basic literacy rate at the end of schooling is comparable to Rwanda's.
There are also certain basic skills such as plumbing, electrician and indeed the certain 'rural' craft skills such as dry walling and thatching which are more vocational than academic. The need for competent plumbers was laid bare with the big freeze Texas endured. One doesn't have to be academic to do these sorts of jobs, but you do need basic literacy plus an apprenticeship. But people in these sorts of vocational jobs are more likely to be entrepreneurs and eventually run their own businesses rather than simply work for other people. Some people are just not very academic but they do require certain literacy and numeracy skills to thrive.
Then there is the whole ethical question of importing skilled workers and creating brain drains in under developed countries simply because a particular society has failed to educate its children to the standard required. Kemi Badenoch touched on this during the COnservative Leadership campaign when she explained that her father, a Nigerian doctor had had to close his clinic in Nigeria as he could not get the nurses required to run it. According to today's figures, half of the doctors in the NHS were educated outside the UK -- this is a result of a deliberate policy in the UK which limited the number of medical school places.
"This is the whole question of occupational mobility and what shape occupations/work will take in the next century. Occupational mobility is interesting (I first learned about it from reading an essay by Adolph Reed Jr) -- it is about ensuring that people have the transferable skills so that they can trade upwards rather than be stuck at a low level job on minimum wage. It has to start with basic literacy and numeracy because without that, a person will find it difficult to acquire the skills required to get a better occupation."
100% agree.
"At the moment, California's basic literacy rate at the end of schooling is comparable to Rwanda's." Again 100% true. How can a rich state like California have such terrible K-12 academic outcomes. Especially if asians, ethnics and immigrants are excluded.
Asians and latinos collectively academically outperform caucasians in California by many metrics on some parts of the academic distribution.
"There are also certain basic skills such as plumbing, electrician and indeed the certain 'rural' craft skills such as dry walling and thatching which are more vocational than academic. The need for competent plumbers was laid bare with the big freeze Texas endured. One doesn't have to be academic to do these sorts of jobs, but you do need basic literacy plus an apprenticeship. But people in these sorts of vocational jobs are more likely to be entrepreneurs and eventually run their own businesses rather than simply work for other people. Some people are just not very academic but they do require certain literacy and numeracy skills to thrive."
100%
"Then there is the whole ethical question of importing skilled workers and creating brain drains in under developed countries simply because a particular society has failed to educate its children to the standard required. Kemi Badenoch touched on this during the COnservative Leadership campaign when she explained that her father, a Nigerian doctor had had to close his clinic in Nigeria as he could not get the nurses required to run it. According to today's figures, half of the doctors in the NHS were educated outside the UK -- this is a result of a deliberate policy in the UK which limited the number of medical school places."
Here we disagree. I support globalization and the free movement of skilled labor and talented labor.
The Asian expatriate community played a large role in the Asian economic miracle. Generally when students and workers go to a foreign country, it is a large benefit to the home country.
Notice that only a small percentage of Asian expat students who study in the USA or expat asians who work in the USA stay in the USA long term. Only a modest percentage of Asian expat students who study in the Canada or expat asians who work in the Canada stay in Canada long term.
Is it similar in England? It appears that most Asian expat students attending Russel Group universities don't stay in England long term.
Why do you think the same (being a large economic benefit to Africa) won't be true of African expats and immigrants in the UK? Why do you think African expats and African immigrants who don't live in their country of birth won't be a large economic positive for their home countries?
Let us take the example of Nigeria. In 2018, the Nigerian Diaspora remittance was $24.31bn. In fact most African countries generate a much larger percentage of GDP from remittances than Nigeria does. Nigerian expats drive much of Nigeria's FDI, economic development and start up space. And have played an important role in Nigerian unicorns.
Africa is unusual in that the African diaspora/expat community has more income than Africans in Africa. Expat Africans run Africa. Much of the African elite have homes outside of their home country. This why Africans who want to change Africa spend a lot of time in foreign countries. such as Europe, North America, and in some cases Latin America and Asia. Africa is run from outside of Africa.
Please watch Magatte Wade to learn more about Africa. She spends a lot of time in the USA and Europe to help transform Africa.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o74rQmLRqtA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6tDV3BhrcM&t=4684s
Magatte explains the control that North American and European media, academia and think tanks have in Africa, heavily influencing or controlling African educational systems. And how non African woke people promote socialism in Africa.
African countries that resist North American and European directives risk being downgraded by the various ratings agencies over human/civil/woke rights and having sanctions placed on them.
It is a complicated picture. As an immigrant, I am well aware of the benefits of immigration. What I worry about is that the US and the UK etc are becoming over reliant on high skilled immigrant labour without supporting the necessary public education at home. For example, recruiting nurses to work in the NHS from abroad rather than investing in the nursing colleges in the UK. I can completely understand why people want to come to the UK, for example, but long term is it sustainable or do you end up with a bread and circuses type situation where you have a non-voting technical force and poorly educated citizens who can vote? Also does the brain drain hinder the progress of the less developed country? And I do believe African solutions have to come from Africa, not from ngo imposition or from various superpowers funding kleptocrats as happened in the Cold War (see Queen of SPies about the Congo and what the US did there). There is no easy solution. I do think encouraging study abroad programmes and collaborations can help. One of the more interesting things about the Conservative party at moment is the number of West Africans who are in positions of power (although giving the implosion, this could change).
How familiar are you with Africa?
Today imperialism = wokeness. The European intelligentsia is trying to impose wokeness around the world, including in Africa via force, the foreign aide NGO complex, the financial sector, tech companies, global business, global consulting.
African businesses that are publicly traded need to keep their CSR scores up, (Corporate Responsibility Scores, a combination of environmental ratings, ethic ratings and woke ratings). Ergo African companies need to hire expensive Kendi - ish American DEI consultants, impose CRT and critical studies to keep their stock prices up, and raise money from angel/VC/private equity investors.
Any African business, group of businesses or countries that resist can and will be destroyed via sanctions. And hundreds of woke attack academic articles written by the elite European intelligentsia universities. Certain African groups, tribes or countries will mysteriously and arbitrarily become "white, nazi and fascist" and be described as oppressors. And others will mysteriously and arbitrarily be described as "black" or oppressed. This will lead to many Africans in Africa being de-banked (no access to the global financial system), being put on no global flight lists, being put on terror watch lists, being banned from global social media and subject to criminal prosecution in non African courts. Anti woke or white supremacist African countries will be economically destroyed by sanctions.
When BLM, woke Americans, woke Canadians, woke Europeans publicly demand that certain African countries defund their police, it is no joke. It has massive legal, financial and economic implications. The woke brainwash a handful of African students in woke universities to betray their own people and be sepoys of the European intelligentsia (global woke.) The woke put them in front of their imperialist global agenda.
African countries are forced to maintain socialist policies that keep them poor by the same international pressures.
Sadly the global woke act as one. The global right do not act as one. Instead, they often attack each other. For example few Tories would publicly defend Africans in Africa from trumped up woke charges, international sections and low CSR scores. What is wrong with the Tories? Why are they leaving Africans out in the cold?
" And I do believe African solutions have to come from Africa?" How can this practically happen? Do you mean that African countries should become Chinese strategic clients and try to get rich and keep lobbying the global woke to be allowed to integrate into the globalized economy?
"Also does the brain drain hinder the progress of the less developed country?" Why do you think "brain drain" hasn't hindered the economic progress of Asian countries?
Do you think the massive brain drain of UK university graduates and UK nationals working and living abroad has hurt the UK? The UK suffers from a lot of brain drain. The world is filled with English expats.
The UK is not a rich country any more. The UK has 2/3rds the per capita income of the USA when adjusted for PPP. A lower per capita income adjusted for PPP (and nominal) than African Americans have. The UK is poorer than South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore. All of which were dirt poor in the 1950s. If current trends continue, it is only a matter of time before the UK has a lower per capita income than additional Asian countries.
The UK is no longer attracting the best and brightest to live in the UK long term. The UK has cheap Russell Group universities that foreigners love to study in; and go back abroad. The UK is also a good location to work a few years to gain experience before taking advantage of more lucrative opportunities in other parts of the world.
If the UK is to avoid collapse, I think the UK needs to spend many tens of billions of pounds internationally to identify and develop K-12 children in developing country. And hope that some of them agree to come to England or do business with England when they grow up.
Is the UK okay with being economically dominated by immigrants, ethnics and outright foreigners? Does the UK have any other options? These are the people who will pay most UK taxes and fund most UK nonprofit donations in the future. If the UK cannot attract skilled immigrants, then the UK will have to sharply lower real wages, massively cut social spending, and massively raise taxes across the board. Are the English people up for this?
Are the UK people okay with foreigners owning most of the UK and making decisions on behalf of the UK people? [To me this appears to be inevitable, if the UK is to avoid collapse.]
Would it be accurate to say that the English people have a lot of resentment and jealousy about how well Chinese, Indians, Jews, Nigerians, Ghanaians, Russians are doing in the UK? And the foreign ownership of the UK? Which in turn makes it much tougher for the UK to attract quality immigrants and business partners. What if anything can be done about this?
Why in your view do Chinese, Nigerians, Jews, Indians (maybe Russians and Ghanaians too) do well in GCSE and A levels tests in the UK? Why do ethnic English, gypsies and Caribbean Britons do so poorly?
https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/education-skills-and-training/11-to-16-years-old/gcse-results-attainment-8-for-children-aged-14-to-16-key-stage-4/latest#by-ethnicity-and-gender
https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/education-skills-and-training/11-to-16-years-old/gcse-results-attainment-8-for-children-aged-14-to-16-key-stage-4/latest#by-ethnicity-and-eligibility-for-free-school-meals
Why do Pakistani Britons do so poorly academically compared with every other asian group? Why do Pakistani Britons do so much worse than Pakistanis in Canadian, US and Pakistan?
FYI, even Pakistanis outperform ethnic English students.
The woke argue that standardized tests, math, science and meritocracy are white supremacy and oppression; and push this narrative all over the world. Do you think young ethnic English, Gypsie, and Caribbean British kids do badly in their GCSE and A levels in part because of this brainwashing?
Are you referring more to the UK or the USA?
In Canada the majority of millionaires are immigrants. Canada is economically dominated by market dominant immigrants and market dominant ethnics. It isn't as extreme in the USA yet, but probably soon will be. For the first time since 1789 the USA has market dominant minorities (ethnics and immigrants) that are likely to economically dominate the USA.
Within a generation the USA is projected to have 8% of global GNP versus over half in the 1940s. The vast majority of the USA's capital stock is projected to be owned by outright foreigners. Most foreigners don't come to the USA to live, but to temporarily study or work and then they plan to leave the USA for more lucrative economic opportunities outside the USA.
Glenn Loury worries about the large numbers of Brown and elite US university PhD, Masters and undergraduates moving to China after graduation to take advantage of Chinese opportunities. [This includes non ethnic Chinese Americans.]
The USA and Canada need lots of skilled immigration to prevent an economic collapse.
To be continued later.