Syrian refugee student wins state scholarship

dvdman1

1641 wrote: »

You are suggesting that Board members give private assuarances to politicians and that this sets the news (which is then copied by all the other "mainstream media", by the way.)

That is a conspiracy theory , not a fact.

So what safeguards are in place for a board appointed by the government of Ireland not to tow the line when requested? None...RTE is a soft propaganda machine. A free independent media cant exist when there appointed by politicians.

Ulysses Gaze

weldoninhio wrote: »

I've asked this before and no one can seem to answer it. It is almost impossible for an Irish couple to get a mortgage and have 3/4/5/6 kids as childcare, cost of living etc is so expensive and both parents would need to be working to afford it. So how are these people who come in under "big immigration" going to afford it??

You won't get an answer.

Wibbs

Ulysses Gaze wrote: »

You won't get an answer.

It'll be done through the magic of diversity. Apparently.

nthclare

Wibbs wrote: »

The way technology is developing compared to any time in the past is the difference. In the past technology replaced muscle, today it's increasingly replacing brains. Yes new jobs will come along on the back of it, but they will be more and more specialised, requiring longer education. Take the law for example. In the US there's already been a drop off of paralegal and other jobs because of AI. Finance is similar. The Trading floor of the US stock exchange is now mostly a TV studio set. The type of job under threat is hard enough to predict. EG it's easier to replace doctors with AI than nurses. The other thing is by definition most people are "average", with a small number at the extremes of dumb and clever. The clever will generally be fine, the dumb are screwed and many average people won't do much better. It's far easier to support a smaller population of people.

Again, when we're discussing Ireland it's a moot point, our population is growing, it has the highest birth rate in Europe and is above replacement levels, so this excuse/explanation/requirement for importing "multiculturalism" does not apply. But as I've said this notion has been so promoted for so long that even when the clear black and white evidence is presented so many still believe it and find it hard not to. If we were German I could see some reasoning behind it, but being Irish it starts to look at best like applying the same spiel here without thinking about it, or at worst propaganda.

Sometimes I think the Roman's had a great idea, they landed on Ireland and all they could see and experience was those squally south westerlies and a windswept landscape....it probably looked like the end of the world to them.
Depending on if they landed on the eastern seaboard North West or South West fringes.

Supposedly in plain language they looked at each other and said **** it, let's just say to Ceaser or whomever, it's too harsh to colonize and settle.
That's partly why they built Hadrian's wall, too much rebellious Celts and seal tribes.
But **** me, Christianity came eventually and thankfully we're nearly rid of that Roman popery.
And almost like Pagans again.

I've nothing against emmigration, but I'm a staunch Irishman, ingrained in my culture, history and poetry,art, monuments etc

I believe in preserving our old traditional cead mile failte.

There's a lot of young people who have no interest in our past and where we came from, our topographic landscape and what lies beneath our feet.

I think we're absorbing a false sense of reality, searching for something which is already here.

There's one thing that Co Clare has that's unique is our ability to welcome emmigrants into our town's and not making a fuss out of them, not making them special.
Making them special is condescending and treating them like they're different.

When they're allowed to be themselves and let get on with it, they usually start to blend in with everyone and enjoy what we've to offer.

Ennis and Ennistymon ironically have similar names, anyone who settles in our county are treated as equals and they're accepted as such.

Seeing the Syrian and Iraqi families in Ennistymon blending in with the locals is heart warming, the teen-agers all mixing together etc

Families walking the path with their buggy s and kid's from Ennistymon to Lahinch and enjoying the beach for the day and sitting on the promenade wall drinking coffee eating chips etc
The kids learning to surf, hurl and get proper education.

osarusan

Roversfan1 wrote: »

Even if we had a low population growth rate.......so what?

Japan is going through this now and it is doing fine.

Roversfan1 wrote: »

Maybe you should visit Japan and stop listening to the same news that is reporting these stories to you.

I lived in Japan for 11 years. For all of those 11 years, the ticking time bomb that is their national pension scheme has been in the news.


More than 20% of the population is aged 70 or older.

Sales of adult nappies were greater than baby nappies in 2014.

In 2018, the number of babies born was the lowest ever since records began in 1899.

The number of working people whose contributions will support one old age pension has gone from 4 (in the early 2000s) to a projected 1.2 working people by 2050.

Pension payouts are expected to be 20% lower before 2050.


In terms of Japanese low population growth, it is very very far from 'doing fine' and to put it bluntly, you haven't a clue what you are talking about.

Wibbs

nthclare wrote: »

Sometimes I think the Roman's had a great idea, they landed on Ireland and all they could see and experience was those squally south westerlies and a windswept landscape....it probably looked like the end of the world to them.
Depending on if they landed on the eastern seaboard North West or South West fringes.

Supposedly in plain language they looked at each other and said **** it, let's just say to Ceaser or whomever, it's too harsh to colonize and settle.
That's partly why they built Hadrian's wall, too much rebellious Celts and seal tribes.
But **** me, Christianity came eventually and thankfully we're nearly rid of that Roman popery.
And almost like Pagans again.

I've nothing against emmigration, but I'm a staunch Irishman, ingrained in my culture, history and poetry,art, monuments etc

That last sentence regarding Irish history is strangely at odds with the bit about the Romans. They knew of the place to some degree, considering it either the Land of Winter(Hibernia), or so fertile the cattle regularly exploded from the rich grass. As for conquest; they considered it not worth the hassle, though one general reckoned he could take the place with a single legion. As for Christianity, it transformed the place from a backwater into one of the most educated cultures in post Roman Europe. One of the reasons you know much of our culture and history is because the Christian monks wrote it down. The negatives of "Roman popery" are of a much more recent bent. So yeah, I hate to break it to you, your view of history as you laid out here appears to be simplistic and inaccurate, so forgive me if I don't take the rest of your cead mile failte as gospel.

1641

Japan has long been associated with preserving its ethnic and cultural purity. But they have recently changed tack. The Government's positive moves towards immigration in recent years has been portrayed as a gradual opening up which will progress as society adapts.

"A record 2,829,416 foreign people were registered as residents at the end of June (2019) as more and more technical interns and workers enter Japan amid a severe labor shortage, government data showed Friday."

"The introduction of the new system will no doubt increase the number of foreign residents in Japan. The government emphasizes that the measure is being taken to cope with the current workforce shortage. But given that Japan’s population, in particular those in the working-age bracket, is set to sharply decline this century, it is likely that more non-Japanese will start living and working in this country, even if greater use of artificial intelligence and robotics compensates for part of the labor crunch. It is therefore an urgent challenge for Japan to build an intercultural society in which people with diverse nationalities and ethnic backgrounds live together...
As developed countries compete to attract foreign workers, Japan needs to create a system to build an intercultural society by learning from the efforts and measures that other countries have established over the years...........
Is Japan moving toward being a country of immigration? Yes, but very cautiously."

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2019/06/26/commentary/japan-commentary/japan-becoming-country-immigration/
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/10/26/national/foreign-population-japan-breaks-record-2-82-million/

Wibbs

osarusan wrote: »

In terms of Japanese low population growth, it is very very far from 'doing fine' and to put it bluntly, you haven't a clue what you are talking about.

+1. They're in pretty serious trouble. It'll be interesting to see how they navigate it. Population contraction seems to be inevitable in western cultures. Gender equality, rising living costs and other factors mean more and more people leave it longer to have kids and have far fewer. That's the thing; if we do "import" people and they raise the birthrate, how will they do this? Have more kids earlier? To do that requires the women to work less, have less ambitious careers and yet the men have to earn more to take up this shortfall, or we support this out of higher taxes. Somethings got to give.

Roversfan1

osarusan wrote: »

I lived in Japan for 11 years. For all of those 11 years, the ticking time bomb that is their national pension scheme has been in the news.


More than 20% of the population is aged 70 or older.

Sales of adult nappies were greater than baby nappies in 2014.

In 2018, the number of babies born was the lowest ever since records began in 1899.

The number of working people whose contributions will support one old age pension has gone from 4 (in the early 2000s) to a projected 1.2 working people by 2050.

Pension payouts are expected to be 20% lower before 2050.


In terms of Japanese low population growth, it is very very far from 'doing fine' and to put it bluntly, you haven't a clue what you are talking about.

So Japan is doing worse economically compared to what??? Japan before or other countries?

Are you saying mass immigration from the Islamic world and sub Saharan Africa will make things better?

You think that Japan need more people or would you say the quality of life for the people in Japan in the future will be better with a reduced population?

You say pensions are expected to be 20% lower? What makes you think a pension will even exist in its current format based on the monetary systems, national debt and how governments justified doing what they did over the last few years?


Japan would not be better off or safer or happier in most regards with the mass importation of non-Japanese people

osarusan

Roversfan1 wrote: »

Are you saying mass immigration from the Islamic world and sub Saharan Africa will make things better?

Irrelvant strawman argument.


I made no comment on immigration.


I just pointed out that in terms of low population growth, Japan is in serious trouble, and if you think Japan is 'doing fine' in that regard, you haven't a clue.

Wibbs

1641 wrote: »

Is Japan moving toward being a country of immigration? Yes, but very cautiously."

And they're right to be. Now they have a serious demographic problem, about the worst in the developed world, but I seriously doubt they'll be taking in refugees and they certainly won't be welcoming unskilled economic migrants en masse as "breeders" to increase their population. And again Ireland isn't within an asses roar of Japan's demographic problem.

Roversfan1

osarusan wrote: »

Irrelvant strawman argument.


I made no comment on immigration.


I just pointed out that in terms of low population growth, Japan is in serious trouble, and if you think Japan is 'doing fine' in that regard, you haven't a clue.

Again, serious trouble in comparison to what?

The whole world is in serious trouble....Japan has the ability to come out of the coming recession far far better than other western countries and immigration is one of the issues that they will not have to worry about.

osarusan

Roversfan1 wrote: »

Again, serious trouble in comparison to what?

Not in comparison to anything or anywhere else.

Serious trouble in terms of the extremely low birth rate and long life span, which means that there are fewer and fewer workers to pay the tax needed to provide pensions and other services to the swelling numbers of people above retirement age.

You keep mentioning immigration, but it has absolutely nothing to do with the point I am making, which is simply that your comment that Japan is 'doing fine' regarding low population growth is completely wrong.

1641

dvdman1 wrote: »

So what safeguards are in place for a board appointed by the government of Ireland not to tow the line when requested? None...RTE is a soft propaganda machine. A free independent media cant exist when there appointed by politicians.

Have you produced any evidence that the government uses RTE as a propaganda machine ? None.

Strange that the opposition parties aren't complaining about this nefarious Government control of RTE news. We actually have free opposition parties (free to organise, speak and act) unlike under Putin, whom you alluded to earlier.
Why are the other media outlets not highlighting this? They have attacked RTE on many other things, as they are perfectly entitled to do. But they have not recognised this.

Plenty of journalists have left (or failed to be retained by) RTE over the years - why, when they were freed from the shackles, have they not exposed this control you are talking about.
(We will omit Gemma O'Doherty from consideration - or maybe you see her as a more credible source?)

The Government appoint lots of others - The Garda Commissioner, the Data Prortection Commissioner, The army Chief-of-Staff, senior judges, The Childrens' Ombudsman, etc, etc, etc. ....(ultimately the whole public service and semi-state boards). In your world they are probably all arms of the Government (or Fine Gael or just Varadker) out to promote views that don't conform to your own.

And all because of a soft news story about an immigrant award winner.

Pathetic.

nthclare

Wibbs wrote: »

That last sentence regarding Irish history is strangely at odds with the bit about the Romans. They knew of the place to some degree, considering it either the Land of Winter(Hibernia), or so fertile the cattle regularly exploded from the rich grass. As for conquest; they considered it not worth the hassle, though one general reckoned he could take the place with a single legion. As for Christianity, it transformed the place from a backwater into one of the most educated cultures in post Roman Europe. One of the reasons you know much of our culture and history is because the Christian monks wrote it down. The negatives of "Roman popery" are of a much more recent bent. So yeah, I hate to break it to you, your view of history as you laid out here appears to be simplistic and inaccurate, so forgive me if I don't take the rest of your cead mile failte as gospel.

I forgive you Wibbs, but are you expecting a more accurate version of history and less simplicity ?

What do you expect me to do, sweep up the ashes from the 1922 court fire ?

Do you really believe that the monks wrote accurate history, or was it history to go with the Christian agenda ?

Wibbs

Roversfan1 wrote: »

Again, serious trouble in comparison to what?

They have suffered a long shift in demographics which has impacted them economically and will continue to do so. Demographics and economics is often sidelined as factors. Take the rise of China. One big reason why they grew so large and so rapidly was because in the 90's and early 2000's they had the demographics of a young nation. In essence they had a huge population of young people that worked long hours for low wages and were eager to do so. That's shifting and their population is shifting towards older. As some economists have noted they may get old before they get rich. it's one reason why they are throwing serious cash and resources at research into AI and automation, never mind economic "colonialism" in cheap labour places with younger demographics like Africa. They're outsourcing immigration in a way. While the Chinese can operate like right bastards in such places, their way might actually prove better in the long term for such countries, so long as the people there learned their lessons of previous colonial enterprises and hang onto some control.

recedite

Tacitus Kilgore wrote: »

Leftist xenophobia? I don't subscribe to the pigeonholing of ones political beliefs. Like many people (most?) I'm no more on the left than I am on the right, I hold a set of beliefs that spans across the supposed categories of the political spectrum.

I do respect that they have their culture, but I do not respect their disregard to human rights. It's not called diversity, it's called religious oppression.

My point is that they can feel how they they like about our culture, we should rise above it, we have risen above it actually, we have recently done so in fact when we loosened the strangle hold on many previously oppressed members of our society.

My original reply was to the poster stating that she should not be allowed wear whatever clothes she wants in order to stay here, we've moved beyond that here.

So do you think their culture is inferior to ours?
I agree the Syrian student should wear whatever clothes she likes, even if they are the clothes of oppression.

Roversfan1

osarusan wrote: »

Not in comparison to anything or anywhere else.


Serious trouble in terms of the extremely low birth rate and long life span, which means that there are fewer and fewer workers to pay the tax needed to provide pensions and other services to the swelling numbers of people above retirement age.



You keep mentioning immigration, but it has absolutely nothing to do with the point I am making, which is simply that your comment that Japan is 'doing fine' regarding low population growth is completely wrong.

AI will replace lots of the jobs and Japan will embrace this. They already are. It is quite juvenile to think that less tax from fewer workers means disaster.

The costs will also decrease in areas such as housing with less demand. The services you speak of, as I said a lot will be provided by AI assuming the welfare system still exists in 30 years. Not sure why people have such confidence in this worldwide to be honest.

Do you believe having a larger population in Japan would improve things? Like say 250 million people living there?

Wibbs

nthclare wrote: »

I forgive you Wibbs, but are you expecting a more accurate version of history and less simplicity ?

Well if one is trying to make a point, it's better if it's at least an attempt at an accurate one.

Do you really believe that the monks wrote accurate history, or was it history to go with the Christian agenda ?

History is always viewed through the lens of culture. Take your view of "Christian popery". That's viewed through your lens of recent Irish culture. If this site were around in 1950 you would almost certainly have a very different view.

However the Irish monks were outliers in that they did record cultural history as it came to them. There's no Christian spin on the Ulster Cycle for example and without the monks the chances of those tales surviving to the degree they have would be slim. They also translated and copied a load of "Pagan" classics from Greek and Latin, again without much Christian spin or comment. This was noted in the wider Christian world as unusual and to some not a little suspect.

RandomName2

1641 wrote: »

What rubbish! Except that it would not have been a big controversy on Boards if she had not been an immigrant and some people did not have a problem with this - or see it as part of some big conspiracy.

A big controversy? Why is it a news story at all!? As pointed out it's got a lot of news coverage. I would expect, at most, the college's own media to maybe mention it, along with all the other recipients of the award.

1641 wrote: »

The Bursary is a big deal - €5000 per year for up to 5 years of an undergraduate degree (which doesn't have to medicine - but science related).

A piddling amount. If she is facing non-eu fees that will probably come to around €120,000. Does residency for the last number of years means she doesn't face non-eu fees? Either way this is the big issue, not some irrelevant payment of €20K

1641 wrote: »

And, yes, the Leaving Cert results were in August. But the Campbell award is dependent not only on Leaving Cert results but on the College confirming that the student has registered for, and is attending, the approved course.

Okay, sure, but this person will have been attending the course for around 8 weeks at this point. Like the SUSI grant, it doesn't come out immediately, but you'd expect it to be quite done and dusted at this stage.

1641 wrote: »

The announcement of the first winner was always going to get news coverage - which most people would have skipped if she hadn't been a recent Syrian migrant. Some were attracted to this because they found it inspirational - a good news story. And some were attracted because positive media attention to asylum annoyed them.
It is really pathetic that some people are triggered by this.

Yes, that's a point, but all the major media outlets ran with this 'story'. If it was silly socks season that would be understandable, you know, having to dredge up a news story from anywhere. I don't really think it's a slow news period at the moment, I honestly wouldn't expect this to be covered by anything other than the college's own publication.

I do genuinely find this a good news story. There is no doubt that the Syria Civil War is an event that can truthfully be described as a humanitarian catastrophe. It is also good that her family is well educated, and that she herself is apparently talented with high ambitions. This doesn't mean that all discussion of it has to be platitudes. That's the idea: discussion. This is a forum, meant for discussion. If people are looking for nothing more meaningful than a happy react emoji they have a point, but I'd say they would be better looking for a more shallow medium.

1641

Wibbs wrote: »

And they're right to be. Now they have a serious demographic problem, about the worst in the developed world, but I seriously doubt they'll be taking in refugees and they certainly won't be welcoming unskilled economic migrants en masse as "breeders" to increase their population. And again Ireland isn't within an asses roar of Japan's demographic problem.

I absolutely agree that we need an immigration policy.

As regards Japan and the skill profile of migrants, well some of these will surely be skilled. But the reports also indicate that they are taking in cleaners, food service staff, carers, farm workers, hotel staff, etc, etc. I seriously doubt that they will be looking for doctors and engineers for these posts. (In our own case many vacancies that will be hardest to fill will be in similar categories).

I am sure will not be taking in immigrants as "breeders", as you delightfully put it. I doubt many places do (Gilead,perhaps?) but this is an inevitable consequence. So important to have policies around integration, language learning, education, etc, which Japan seems to be doing.

Immigration, controlled in whatever way, is a feature of advanced economies and will continue to be a feature of ours. Simply raging against "foreigners" is not going to cut it and is surely a recipe for disaster (however immigration is controlled and managed).

recedite

A couple of points on the Japan situation.
The economy of the country is fairly stable, with very modest growth.
The population is fairly stable, with very modest decline.
Put these two together, and it means the people are getting richer.


The above situation is exactly what this planet needs, but on a much wider scale. The wild population growth of third world countries is the last thing this planet needs. If we, in the west, take in their surplus population, its not going to help the overall situation.


Immigrants don't defuse a pensions "timebomb" because obviously they also get old. All they do is kick the can down the road for a bit. They lengthen the fuse. The Japanese are the first in the world to actually tackle the issue head on, by riding it out. Pretty soon, they will have worked that elderly post-war population bubble through the system.
After that, they will reap the rewards of having a steady and cohesive population. That means having no housing crisis, no internal culture clashes, very little crime, and jobs for all.

Wibbs

1641 wrote: »

Have you produced any evidence that the government uses RTE as a propaganda machine ? None.

While I certainly don't subscribe to the paranoia of conspiratorial groups in dark rooms, governments of Ireland from the foundation of the state have used the Irish media to promote some ideologies and not others. Hell for much of the 20th century they owned and/or controlled much of the Irish media and stories of corruption and church crimes against the Irish people simply never got printed or spoken of. Those floodgates started to open in the 1980's and we have a far more free press these days, though much of it is still controlled by a few people, so narratives are still in danger of being slanted.

It doesn't require conspiracy to have some views more promoted than others. All it requires is enough people in the media to share similar views. Most media pundits tend to be suburban middle class graduates and their views are going to hold more sway. Those views tend to be more on the "liberal" side of things. Hence we'll have fewer stories reflecting for example Traveller negatives and more positives, or more avoidance entirely. The narrative around immigration and multiculturalism will follow a similar path. The problem is that opposing views tend to be of the more rabid kind and left to the extremists. Middle ground debate gets drowned out.

RandomName2

osarusan wrote: »

I lived in Japan for 11 years. For all of those 11 years, the ticking time bomb that is their national pension scheme has been in the news.


More than 20% of the population is aged 70 or older.

Sales of adult nappies were greater than baby nappies in 2014.

In 2018, the number of babies born was the lowest ever since records began in 1899.

The number of working people whose contributions will support one old age pension has gone from 4 (in the early 2000s) to a projected 1.2 working people by 2050.

Pension payouts are expected to be 20% lower before 2050.


In terms of Japanese low population growth, it is very very far from 'doing fine' and to put it bluntly, you haven't a clue what you are talking about.

This demographic squeeze is nothing exclusive to Japan. All countries which have reached a desired level of development will face it. Even Bangladesh will face it in about 20 years (I am 100% serious.. just look at its birth rate change over the last 40 years :eek:)

This is predominantly a good thing. China's solution to the demographic squeeze shouldn't be to increase its population to 4 billion, nor to import people from poor regions to fill some sort of servitude role. This does not mean that the demographic squeeze will be pleasant. For old people across the West, their twilight years are often lonely, where they find themselves in the position of merely being burdens, cast aside into unpleasant nursing homes where they contribute nothing. I don't think the solution to that is necessarily more low paid nurses to look after them.

Granted Japan will die out as things currently stand, but that is something that can easily be reversed in a single generation. The long term societal implications of gastarbeiter generally cannot be overcome as easily.

Donald Trump

weldoninhio wrote: »

But my point is that they are both engineers, which would qualify them for Critical Skills Visa's from Ireland. Why not apply for these and they wouldn't have had to go into Direct Provision, which the young girl described as the worst time in her life.

Well perhaps the critical skills visa isn't as straightforward. I don't know anything about it. I'm guessing however that it wouldn't be as secure/permanent as gaining status through asylum - i.e. you could move here on a visa, then have to jump through the hoops for the few years and wait whatever length of time it takes to become naturalised. Get asylum status and you're probably 100% secure.

Wibbs

1641 wrote: »

I am sure will not be taking in immigrants as "breeders", as you delightfully put it. I doubt many places do (Gilead,perhaps?) but this is an inevitable consequence.

If the issue is a demographic one then that's precisely why they're being taken in. We're not having enough kids, bring in people who will.

So important to have policies around integration, language learning, education, etc, which Japan seems to be doing.

and going on Japan's previous attitude to outsiders you can be sure they'll not be so "liberal" when it comes to the problems of multiculturalism.

Immigration, controlled in whatever way, is a feature of advanced economies and will continue to be a feature of ours.

I would argue it's an all to quickly accepted feature of current economics, not necessarily a required one, certainly not in Ireland's case where our population is going upwards and is expected to continue to do so until the middle of the century. Ireland's biggest economic jump, albeit of the paper tiger sort, came at a time of net emigration and the economic migrants came at the tail end of it. They didn't drive it. And there's a heap of a difference between immigration of skilled workers and the immigration of unskilled. In the Celtic tiger we got a load of the latter showing up here.

Wibbs

Wibbs wrote: »

And they're right to be. Now they have a serious demographic problem, about the worst in the developed world, but I seriously doubt they'll be taking in refugees and they certainly won't be welcoming unskilled economic migrants en masse as "breeders" to increase their population. And again Ireland isn't within an asses roar of Japan's demographic problem.

they actually have a housing problem in Japan at the moment. Not in the way we do, but rather what to do with all the empty housing left behind by the shrinking population.

Akabusi

I read the first couple of pages and then skipped to the last page and had to double check i was still in the same thread.

Fair play to this girl and her family, I hope they make Ireland their permanent home, as asylum seekers go these are the gold standard. A country like ours needs these people. By that, I mean the parents are educated professionals, ready to work in sectors where we have serious skills shortages in this country. We committed to take in so many anyhow (which I am fully supportive off), it is a bonus when we get readily qualified refugees who can contribute hugely to our country. Yes the daughter gets a scholarship to study, so what, I and thousands of other Irish students got grants to study back in the day.

I wouldn't be to hard on them that they fled to the UAE, they just did what anyone would have done who had the means to do so when things went to Sh*t in Syria.

Brian?

Here’s how it works:

Poster A: I have no problem with genuine refugees, it’s illegal immigrants I object to.

Response: this woman and her family are genuine refugees from Syria

A: Well we should only take in refugees who will contribute to society

R: her parents are civil engineers and she’s training to be a doctor

A: in that case they’re not refugees they’re economic migrants. They cheated he system. Deport them.


R: huh?


For good measure you can add in accusations of being given a college place she didn’t deserve.

Donald Trump

Aegir wrote: »

they actually have a housing problem in Japan at the moment. Not in the way we do, but rather what to do with all the empty housing left behind by the shrinking population.

Maybe we should offer to ship Maggie Cash out there to help them?

She'd get her foreva home while simultaneously bringing up their average birthrate overall

win-win!