But if you were abroad………..?;)

I have no belief in the system.
As I do not have the ability or the will to create a better system, I accept it.
and make the best of a bad job.

No I don’t either but can still summon up the effort to rail against it – it makes me feel better!;)

Pete. my friend is very much like you, inasmuch, as that he will not make such a huge swathing statement were it not true. I have actualy been out at night along the border with the C.H.P. and you wouldn’t believe the THOUSANDS waiting at the foothills awaiting to get over the wire, past the Police Officers hiding in the fields waiting for them to await darkness and try and get over the road, and once they are in, they just melt into the rest of the population.
You cannot argue the fact with me, I have, as they say, Been there, seen it, and surprisingly so, have a C.H.P. “T” shirt to prove it, this was in 1986, and things no doubt have gotten even worse since then.

Lincoln .7

What you and your friend have seen and what you have felt is nothing to do with bare statistics. If Hispanics are about a third of the total population then “native Californians” are not an ethnic minority, are they?

In any case what is an ethnic Californian? The great characteristic of American society is that it has been a melting pot of races and cultures from all over the world for 3 centuries. Native Californians are in fact English, Italian, African, Mexican, Spanish, African, German, Japanese, Chinese and many others all comprising a multi-ethnic population but all US citizens and all integrated. Your friend will be descended from one of these groups of peoples unless he is of Red Indian descent, or native american as we must learn to call them!

appologies don’t normaly read folks profiles

but sureley the fact that the 7/7 bombings were in fact mostly home goals ie either muslims or immigrants

sureley must say something !1

Not sure what, except that a small group of fanatic muslims committed an atrocity in London. The muslim population is estimated at 2.4 million so represents approximately 4% of the total population.

I have to say that I’m not massively surprised at the psuedo-Daily Mail outrage at having to do something the government wants.

Censuses (Censi ?) have been carried out for centuries to allow governments to make informed decisions about future plans. Why is it such a a big deal?

It takes 15 minutes every 10 years to fill in the form, hardly an onerous task – just do as you’re told and fill it in.

Firstly the argument in this thread is about the necessity for the form to be available in 55 languages, although it is being corrupted into another debate about the census itself.

Secondly the “pseudo-Daily Mail outrage”, whatever that phrase means, is not against doing something the government wants but against its purpose. That is quite different.

Pete, what you failed to add was, “In our lifetimes”.
I have a very highly respected surgeon friend in San Diego, California, he told me some time ago, that the illegal immigrants from Mexico, and from over the State Border have made the Californians the ethnic minority in their own State.

Lincoln .7

Please correct me but I think that Hispanic Americans are just under a third of California’s population, these are people of Hispanic origin but born in the USA, and illegal immigrants far fewer, so I am not sure how your friend arrives at his conclusion. Perhaps it is more a sense of feeling an explosion of illegal Mexicans around Southern California and perhaps your friend is resentful of the trend. Just a friendly thought, not a criticism.:)

I applaud your belief in the system. But I don’t share it. The logic of your argument is that we cannot afford to reduce spending money if people are put out of work – even if we cannot afford to pay them.:confused:

where do you live fella ??
a walk round my local bus station of an evening is like being in a benneton advert !!

and about 50 % of the white folks are talking eastern european languages !!

Read my profile.