Men Married to Smart Women Live Longer

Encouraging to know that I will make my spouse, whoever he may be, live longer :)
From the Times Online:

There is a lingering suspicion among girls (as the unpopularity of science subjects demonstrates) that boys don’t value cleverness as an essential quality in a life partner. Given a choice between gorgeous or brainy, there is no guarantee they’ll do the right thing, because men think they’re clever enough for two. Well, it turns out they’re wrong. Swedish scientists have discovered that long life and good health have nothing to do with a man’s education and everything to do with his wife’s. Men married to smart women live longer — simple.

I do have a few questions about this article though. What about gay couples, lesbian couples, transexual couples? Also, it struck me as a little arbitrary about how "smart" was defined in the article. In all its possible that the article has a gender bias, which should not be overlooked.

(HT: Jacques of All Trades)

The Perils of Migrating through Mexico

While the US- Mexican border is a dangerous place more migrants, more and more, traveling through Mexico to get to the border has become an even more perilous journey. NPR reports:

Despite the downturn in the U.S. economy and tough new security measures along the southern border, migrants continue to try to get to the United States. And each year, tens of thousands of them are robbed, kidnapped and even killed attempting to cross Mexico.

Sanchez says that in the past she rarely heard of anyone trying to kidnap migrants, but now it is common. Los Zetas, the enforcement arm of one of the Mexican drug cartels, charges fees for migrants to pass, and they abduct others.

In a report issued earlier this year, Mexico's Human Rights Commission said roughly 1,500 migrants get kidnapped each month trying to cross Mexico.

Goodman, 37, says he was deported four months ago to El Salvador for driving without a license. The last time he made the journey from El Salvador to the U.S. he was 14. He is not worried about crossing from Tijuana back into San Diego; he says that will be easy. Right now, his big concern is getting from Mexico's southern tip to its northernmost city.

If you are not convinced, just watch the movie "Sin Nombre"

Immigrant Children and Integration

Via ImmigrationProf Blog:

There are 16 million children in immigrant families in the United States, one of the fastest-growing segments of the population. It’s an old American story made new in the age of globalization, when waves of human displacement in recent decades have led to immigration on a scale not seen since Ellis Island. But a country that has been so good for so long at integrating new Americans is stumbling under the challenge.

That is the conclusion of Professors Marcelo and Carola Suárez-Orozco, fellows at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton and co-directors of immigration studies at New York University. They have done basic research in immigration for more than 20 years, five of them studying 400 children from China, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Central America and Mexico.a country that has been so good for so long at integrating new Americans is stumbling under the challenge. The results of their research, released this month, show the stark effects of what Marcelo Suárez-Orozco calls “the age of global vertigo.” Dislocation breeds a host of difficulties, starting with family separation. Nearly half of the children in their sample had at some point lost contact with one or both parents, either through migration directly or through divorce or death. The absent parent was most often the father for long stretches or permanently. For 49 percent of the Central American children, separations lasted more than five years. Click here for the rest of the piece.

Civic Engagement Games on the Internet

Peter Levine points out several online civic engagement games:

• Impact Inc. where you can try your hand at running a non profit
  
• Redistricting the Nation where you can try redistricting different parts of the country
• Do I have a Right? where you run a law firm and must give advice to clients using the Constitution and Bill or Rights
  
• Supreme Decision where you can try to be on the US Supreme Court

I would just add one more

• Publi.us or Fantasy Congress
  

Obama Administration Sends Mixed Messages around Immigration Reform

Last Friday , Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano made a detailed statement on immigration reform to the Center for American Progress. Among other things, the Secretary stated:

"Let me be clear: when I talk about `immigration reform,' I’m referring to what I call the `three-legged stool' that includes a commitment to serious and effective enforcement, improved legal flows for families and workers, and a firm but fair way to deal with those who are already here. That’s the way that this problem has to be solved, because we need all three aspects to build a successful system. This approach has at its heart the conviction that we must demand responsibility and accountability from everyone involved in the system: immigrants, employers and government. And that begins with fair, reliable enforcement."

But on Sunday David Axelrod, the top political advisor to President Obama, refused to make any such commitment when he appeared on the State of the Union this past Sunday with John King:

KING: The secretary of homeland security, Janet Napolitano, says you will, early next year, come forward with a plan for comprehensive immigration reform that would have a plan in it, a path in it for an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in this country to have a pathway to status -- to legal status. Will you make the political commitment that no matter what the politics of January and February, the administration will go forward with this early next year?

AXELROD: John, what the president has said is, and he said it to both Republicans and Democratic members of Congress who have worked on this issue is, come to him, let's come together around something that both parties, or at least elements of both parties say they can agree on, so we don't reach the same impasse we've reached before and then he'll be willing to go forward on it.

Women to Suffer Most from Climate Change

According to a new study by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), women in developing countries will be the most vulnerable to climate change. The BBC reports:

Women do most of the agricultural work, and are therefore affected by weather-related natural disasters impacting on food, energy and water, it said. The report suggested family planning, reproductive healthcare and "gender relations" could influence how the world adapts to rising seas, worsening storms and severe droughts.

Describing "a cycle of deprivation", the report said that women in developing countries did a larger share of farming and had less access to income-earning opportunities. They also managed households and cared for families, which limited their chances of moving around and increased "their vulnerability to sudden weather-related natural disasters".

I cant help but wonder, if while women are 'the most vulnerable to climate change' are they also not the most resilient to climate change? In other words, would they not be the key to finding particular and unique coping mechanisms to climate induced problems?

Canada's Asylum Rulings

Two interesting cases have popped up in Canada related to granting asylum. Both are controversial.

In the first, Canada granted asylum to Brandon Huntley on the basis that black criminals are targeting white South Africans with impunity because of the state’s inability, or unwillingness, to protect them. Huntley first came to Canada on a six-month work permit in 2004 to work as a carnival attendant. He returned home to South Africa and came back to work in Canada in 2005 for a year and stayed illegally for an additional year until he made a refugee claim in April 2008.

Via ImmigrationProf Blog:

The consensus, quite rightly, is that Huntley, an unemployed irrigation system salesman, might have taken Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board for a ride, in the process embarrassing South Africa in the eyes of the world — and possibly even undermining the position of genuine refugees everywhere.

Black and white citizens joined in the chorus of protests against the decision, pointing out that crime affects all of us. South African officials have also taken up the matter with their Canadian counterparts, suggesting the board should, at the very least, have sought our government’s opinion before ruling.

The Canadian government has now applied for leave to appeal the board’s ruling in the federal court. Should the court overturn the ruling, Huntley, who is still a South African citizen, faces the prospect of being deported. Click here for the rest of the piece.

The second is the case of a lesbian who deserted the U.S. army argued before the Federal Court in Ottawa that she should be allowed to remain in Canada as a refugee. CBC News reports:

Pte. Bethany Smith, also known as Skyler James, is seeking a judicial review of a decision by the Immigration and Refugee Board to reject a refugee claim. Smith said she feared for her life due to the treatment she received in the army as a result of her sexual orientation.

"I had to endure not only verbal and physical harassment, but death threats and harassment letters on my door every day," Smith told reporters Tuesday outside the court. Following the hearing, she said she was staying positive and hoping for the best.

Smith, who now lives in Ottawa, said she was treated as "less than human" by other soldiers at the base in Fort Campbell, Ky., after they saw her holding hands with another woman at a local mall and found out she was a lesbian. One soldier who worked with her on the base's fleet of vehicles would pick her up, shake her and throw her to the ground on a daily basis, she told CBC News.

Fearing for her life, she asked her first sergeant for a discharge, which is usually granted automatically to soldiers who admit to homosexuality.

"He told me straight up, 'We'll figure out the paperwork when we get back from deployment," she recalled. At the time, Smith was scheduled to be sent to Afghanistan.

Her lawyer, Jamie Liew, suggested the military went against its own policies because it needed more soldiers for its overseas deployments.

After being denied a discharge, Smith, who was 19 years old at the time, drove to the border at Cornwall, Ont., with another soldier. The War Resister Support Campaign, a group that has helped other U.S. deserters, helped her settle in Ottawa.

If Smith returns to the U.S., Liew believes that in addition to threats to her life, Smith would face military charges of desertion, absence without leave and indecency.

If the Federal Court rules in Smith's favour, she will be able to make her case again before a different IRB member, said Liew. She said the previous refugee board decision erred by not dealing with whether Smith would be persecuted if she returns to the U.S.