Thread: If India can build a 2,500 fence. We can too

India builds a 2,500-mile barrier to rival the Great Wall of China
By Raekha Prasad
Villagers on the Bangladesh border say the fence will cut them from their homeland



TO REACH the baked earth of his mustard field each day, Mohammed Safiqual Biswas must pass coils of barbed wire and armed guards and show his identity card at a security check.
The problem is not where Mr Biswas has come from, but where he is going to. His fields lie 60 miles east of Calcutta, right in the no man’s land between India and Bangladesh.



Next month India plans to fence off this area of West Bengal as part of a little-known £600 million project to erect a steel barrier right along its 2,500-mile border with its much smaller Muslim neighbour. As a result Mr Biswas and his village of 2,000 people will be sealed off from their own country.

“We’ll be fenced out of India,� the 30-year-old farmer complains. “What if there’s an emergency and we have to go to the mainland? What if there’s no one at the gate to let us out? We’ll be completely cut off.�

India is 30 times the size of Bangladesh and the two nations share South Asia’s longest border. But despite India’s help during Bangladesh’s War of Independence in 1971 against what was then West Pakistan, relations between the two countries have deteriorated in recent years.

While the world’s attention has been focused on the Israeli security barrier sealing off the West Bank, India has been building a far longer fence to keep out Islamic militants, thwart cross-border smuggling and stop human trafficking.

More than 1,300 miles of the barrier has been erected in the six years since building began. Snaking through jungles, rivers and the villages of five states, Delhi’s floodlit, 12ft double fence packed with razor wire will render India a fortress against her neighbour.

The problem India faces is that 100,000 of its citizens live and farm on a 150-yard patch of land hugging the international border known officially as “the zero line�, and they live on the wrong side of the fence’s designated path.

Entire villages, including schools, temples and mosques lie in what will effectively become no man’s land. Although Bangladeshis and Indians along the border have lived cheek by jowl for decades, and share the Bengali language and culture, relations between them are strained by suspicion.

The Indian villagers fear that once the fence is built they will be harassed by Bangladesh’s security guards. They say that locked away from Indian guards their fields and homes could be looted with impunity by Bangladeshi farmers.

Rabreya Bachhri, who lives in Jayantipur, the same village as Mr Biswas, says: “Even now the Bangladeshis cross over at night from their side and steal our cooking utensils and cows. We’re very worried about our future. India has to look after us and keep us inside the fence or it will make us Bangladeshi.�

Sandwiched between two nations, the villagers say that they get a raw deal from both countries. The Indian and Bangladeshi security forces accuse them of colluding in smuggling and illegal immigration.

Officers from India’s Border Security Force say that Bangladeshis claim they are entering India for medical treatment but do not have the required travel documents. One senior officer said: “Even those who come with documents don’t go back. The number of people coming into India is less than the number returning.�

Officials say that the fence has already stemmed the flow of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants attempting to cross into India from about 65,000 annually a decade ago to just 10,000 this year.

Shivajee Singh, a border security force inspector-general, said: “When the fence was put up the numbers came down.�

But Delhi is increasingly concerned about infiltration by militants from a country with a large, poor Muslim population that was scooped from India by partition. It accuses Bangladesh of harbouring insurgent groups fighting for accession from India from its northeastern states of Assam, Tripura and Manipur.

There are also concerns about the rise of radical Islam after the spate of bombs and violence in Bangladesh. “Militancy is a new dimension,� Mr Singh said. “Earlier people came for employment. Now we’re getting reports that they’re coming for terrorist activities.�

India has consequently accelerated the barrier’s construction, hoping to complete it by spring next year. It will also increase the number of troops along its border with Bangladesh from 45,000 to 53,000. In a move to bring villagers such as Mr Biswas inside the barrier, India has asked Dhaka to permit it to build the fence within the zero line, an area that both countries promised to keep free from defence structures in an agreement made 30 years ago.

Delhi claims that its request has so far been refused. However, a senior official of the Bangladeshi Embassy in Delhi said that talks between the two nations were continuing. “We’re always open to discussion with friends and neighbours,� he said. “But the agreement can’t just be changed by wishful thinking.�

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0, ... 65,00.html

Very interesting. Can someone convert the £600 million into American dollars for us?

W

Originally Posted by ALIPAC

Very interesting. Can someone convert the £600 million into American dollars for us?

W

USD 13,320,012.73

Officials say that the fence has already stemmed the flow of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants attempting to cross into India from about 65,000 annually a decade ago to just 10,000 this year.

Wow. Now India is a smart nation. They got excited and started taking action when border crossings reached 65,000. And their fence has dropped that number to 10,000 this year already.

This is success.

This is a practical and reasonable solution.

Of course, you need the troops.

Fence plus troops = SUCCESS!!

Smart Indians. No wonder Bill Gates is headed your way with jobs, money and investments.

Maybe when we get Smart Again, Bill Gates will head back our way with jobs, money and investments.

Smart Start for Children.

Smart Again for Adults.

Yeeeeah America, LETS GET SMART AGAIN and investors and jobs and money will be FLOWIN' OUR WAY AGAIN!

No one wants to invest in a stupid nation letting a bunch of illegal aliens take over their country.

No one wants to invest in a stupid nation over-run with illegal aliens which is why industry is leaving the US.

Apparently, they don't really like illegal aliens any more than we do or they'd be stickin' around, eh?

Industry knows our educational system has tanked and will just get worse with illegal aliens all over the place. Industry is already whining, "we can't find skilled workers in the US". What this really means is, "we can't find any smart workers in the US".

Industry knows it 'aint goin' to build plants in communities with a property tax structure for education that hits industry the hardest of any tax payer. Industry isn't goin' to stick around and pay the bill to educate Mexico from the United States. Naaaah, they're going to high-tail it off to a Smart Nation like India who knows how to build a fence, put some troops on that border to keep those illegal aliens out of the country; out of their schools; and off the public dole.

Why? Because industry pays a huge portion of that public dole with tax charges on their investment values, plant and equipment, purchases, inventories, licensing, etc., etc., etc.

Lets build our fence, put troops on the borders and show our industries just how Smart We Can Be. We'll get our schools back; we'll start educating our kids instead of "multiculturizing" them. We'll have Smart Kids like we used to that everyone wants to hire and train as skilled workers.

Yep....that fence is becoming more important every single day.

And it needs to be a spectacular fence; the greatest wall ever built by human civilization--because we want to show the world how smart we are; how capable we are at problem-solving.

Yep.....this fence is our Show-Time!!

Every country on Earth wants to build fences to protect their citizens. India has some very good reasons for building one. SO DO WE! We need to get started on our fence ASAP and put the military along the border.

USD 13,320,012.73

No 600 million pounds = 1,038,494,875.73 US Dollar
( so a little over 1 billion Dollar ).

So not 13 million, but over 1 billion.

Although the total cost for us will be higher as our construction workers to build the fence get more paid than a contsruction worker in India. I think that an average American worker makes 10 times more money than an Indian worker and that combined with our higher material costs, a fence along our Southern border will be about 15 billion USD, I guess. But I think it's worth the money to build that fence.

added to homepage

http://www.alipac.us/article-946-thread-1-0.html

India's fence is 2500 miles and ours as proposed by HB 4437 is only 700 miles so it would be about 1/3 the cost because it is 1/3 the distance.

Why not compare it to miles of new roads going nowhere in the 2005 Highway Bill?

Figure 700 miles of new roads = 700 miles of the greatest fence ever built by Human Civilization.

Until then, I say we put 20 Americans on every mile of the US Southern Border which is 40,000 Americans and pay them to guard our country.

That's 1/4 of the troops we presently have in Iraq guarding theirs.



We'll call it a Wall of American Citizens.

40,000 Americans x $40,000 a year = $1,600,000,000 a year. $1.6 Billion a year.

The Best Money We'll Ever Spend. Of that, 30% will be returned in taxes like income tax, payroll taxes, social security and medicaid taxes. The other 70% will be spent in our economy by Americans for Americans.

Bring 40,000 American Troops home now from National Guard Units and hire them immediately as the Citizen Patrol of the People of the United States.

Their job is simple--No One Gets Through Their Mile. Whatever It Takes. PERIOD.

The People of the United States Have Spoken.

20 per mile = 4 per 8 hour shift x 3 shifts = 16 to cover a 24 hour period plus 4 extras to rotate during vacations, sick leave, and weekends on average. Each team can figure out their own needs based upon the circumstances of their Mile. Some Miles may not need 20, and these can assist other Miles that need more.

But you get the picture.

WE WANT A WALL OF AMERICANS GUARDING OUR COUNTRY TODAY!!

At $40,000 a year, that's $20 an hour. How many would sign up?

Millions of Americans would sign up today to become part of OUR WALL OF AMERICANS.

Give the National Guard Troops first shot at the job. Then open it up to regular civilian Americans who can say "stop"; "turn back"; "don't even think about crossing that border"; and if they do take the dare and cross, that know what to do next which is physically push them back across the border or take them out. We are tired of arrests. We are weary of baby-sitting and nursing these people violating our laws; disrepecting us; taking advantage of us; and we want it stopped now, Whatever It Takes.

At $40,000 a year, that's $20 an hour. How many would sign up?

Where's the line forming? I wanta be first!

Me too! I would love to sign up. I would put everything else on hold, get me a pup tent, a back-pack and ride!

We should push this plan. A WALL OF AMERICANS!

I mean, we've got plenty of people who could use the work, would enjoy the mission, and do a great job.

had_enuf--you just posted research that the FEDS spend at least $10 Billion a year on illegal alien "services".

Seems to me, our WALL OF AMERICANS would be a highly profitable venture at $1.6 Billion cost to save $10 Billion OR MORE just for the Feds, not to mention the many more Billions saved for states, cities, counties, etc.

That's a net gain of WOWIE ZOWIE---$8.4 BILLION.

Gee--maybe we should "privatize"...yeah, that's the ticket, and take a % of the gain like 50%! You know, we'll start thinking like those money greedy globalists. Yeeeeah, we'll call it our cost plus bonus plan, you know, we'll do our math like Halliburton.



OUR WALL OF AMERICANS!

Whew!! The more I say it, the more I love it.

We should get this idea to the US Congress.

tms and tancredofan--you need to send my WALL OF AMERICANS idea to Tom Tancredo. This MATH is undeniably profitable for Americans.

had_enuf--can you find your link to the CIS and post it here for tms and tancredofan.

Then they would have the data with the idea all in one thread.