The US Senate approved a proposal to attach the Bridge amendment to the Labor Health and Human Services appropriations bill. The amendment would open up as much as 61,000 visas for nurses and their immediate families.
This is very good news indeed. There is still a long way to go, but this is a major step forward for all foreign nurses. There is a threat that President Bush might veto this bill if it passes the conference. Bush' displeasure with the bill is not directed against the bridge amendment, instead his attention is focused on other provisions of the bill, particularly with regard to the size of the proposed budget under the bill.
Read the full story from Hammond Law's blog.
This is very good news indeed. There is still a long way to go, but this is a major step forward for all foreign nurses. There is a threat that President Bush might veto this bill if it passes the conference. Bush' displeasure with the bill is not directed against the bridge amendment, instead his attention is focused on other provisions of the bill, particularly with regard to the size of the proposed budget under the bill.
Read the full story from Hammond Law's blog.
Comments
An article (“‘Acceptable presence’ new US basing plan,” Inquirer, 10/15/07) stated that the Philippines is “one small and weak country.” This statement is not true. It is a myth. It is a lie.
The Philippines is the 12th largest country in the world. It is larger than any European country. It is larger than any but one country in Africa. It is larger than any but one country in South America. There are over 160 countries in the world smaller than the Philippines, most barely a fraction of its size; over 150 less than half its size. Metro Manila alone is bigger than half of all the countries of the world. The Roman Empire at its height only had 60 percent of the people that the Philippines has.
Neither is the Philippines weak. To put it simply, a country that is twice the size of 90 percent of all the countries in the world is not weak. A country whose largest city is larger than most countries is not weak. Further, the Philippine economy is in the upper quartile as is the size of its military. The Philippines is an English-speaking country, giving us, in this “English-speaking” world, influence much larger than our size. Filipinos also go abroad in disproportional numbers, making many important key industries dependent upon them.
Adding to the Philippines’ importance is that we are in Asia, a far more important corner of the world -- geopolitically that is -- than, say, Africa or Latin America. The Philippines has played important, influential roles in such events as World War II, the Vietnam War and the Cold War. We will be a key player in such continuing issues as the “War on Terror” and Chinese and Indian growth.
The statement that the Philippines is small and weak is only true when the country is compared with the United States. But the United States is a historical anomaly. No country has ever been as big, powerful or dominant as the United States, particularly in the last generation or so. That country is odd. We should not look to the United States for comparison but to countries more like the Philippines, countries like Indonesia or Columbia.
Instead of asking, “Why are we not like the United States?” we should look at countries like Nigeria, Congo, Ethiopia, Somalia, Afghanistan, and ask, “Why are we not like them?”
BRUCE HALL (via email)