Bummer that Dubai chickened out of the deal to take over running P&O's port operations in America. After all, the UAE city-state wasn't exactly about to boot out all the Pommie (Brit) operatives in the port operations and replace them with guys in beards and turbans, and now it looks like we'll be stuck with the nation whose airport security brought us September 11, 2001 (see earlier posting). Too bad - if the Brits had been running American airport security that day, those 19 guys wouldn't have gotten out of the parking lot. Come to think of it, if the Israelis had been running it they wouldn't have gotten past the front door of their apartment buildings. Consumers know the virtue of shopping around; Congress loves the vice of illogical xenophobic populism. We're all the worse for it.
This is rich. DPW is going to tranfer the port operations to an American company? Are there any that can handle it? Our shipping industry has been on the decline since the mid-1950s. That's why 80% of imported cargo is handled here by foreign companies.
This is a sad & outrageous day. A black day for America, for democracy, & for tolerance.
Posted by: Richard Silverstein | March 09, 2006 at 07:17 PM