Thanks.

Interesting articles.

I have an enromous problem with Israel's program of Aliya. That is the right of all Jews to 'return home' to live. I can go and live in Israel just because I'm Jewish.

The reason I have a problem is that Israel is a very small country, and they keep taking land from Palestine in order to accommodate the increase in population. They have to put them somwhere.

Also, Israel was founded to house Jews - not people from other cultures, religions, etc.

What I keep coming up with here, in all countreis, is the insistance that every country, regardless of their capability, has to accept refugees. Why? It's not pparticuarly ehtical when you consider that ethics are based on rules that extend survival - of the group, not the individual.

Why are the people in the home country put at risk when there is a large influx of people from other countries, and nobody wants to mention it? Sure, the people who are well qualified and relatively wealthy aren't affected, but the poor are, and I think it's the greatest hypocrisy not to mention that.

I was fascinated to read the one guy saying that he couldn't find work. Why? What were his qualifciations? What were his skills?

My late father arrived in South Africa in 1936 from Germany after the Gestapo came to arrest him to put him in Auschwitz. He didn't have any money, and the South African government insisted that he pay 200 pounds in order to get in. That was a helluve lot of money in 1936. Someone else paid it for him.

He had nothing on him. His qualifciations were in law and journalism, and he was German.

While he couldn't practice German law in South AFrica, he worked as a freelance journalist submitting stories to orgnaisations like Reuaters. He spoke 11 languages.

Whether one can find work or not is highly dependent on qualifcations and skills, so I found those stories lacking in the kind of information that would cast a very differenet view. And that worries me.

I confess to not knowing enough about all these countries in Africa,despite having worked in several countries in Africa,and being South African by brith.