New Projects and Hacks at UPI

I haven't been updating since I've been at work on a new project. If it sees the light of day, it will be a step ahead for our website and be really, really cool.

In the meantime, UPI said the following in a recent article on suggestions by French President Nicolas Sarkozy about setting Europe-wide standards in immigration laws: “Sarkozy has outlined plans for a Europe-wide clampdown on immigration when France assumes EU leadership in July.”

In fact, the truth can’t be more the opposite.

The Financial Times broke the story originally, and mentioned in just one line that Sarko is also proposing that once people are in, they have the freedom to move around just like Europeans do. Right now that exists is a quasi-way, but it’s far from perfect.

But I guess that doesn’t sell papers, or rather, generate interest from a news service doing a hack-and-slice of someone else’s original story. The fact is that somehow many journalists have the idea of generating sensationalism by saying that a “crackdown” or “clampdown” is in the offing for a “problem.”

Sarkozy is looking at Europe-wide standards for deporting those in Europe illegally and cutting down on shopping by asylum seekers. Sure, but it’s hard to see how this is a “CRACKDOWN” as the UPI screams. It’s merely harmonizing a patchwork of laws.

Something else the rocket scientists at UPI forgot to put in… these proposals are being made by Sarko ahead of his country’s six-month turn at the head of the European Union. Countries have a history of making big proposals and pronouncements during the run-up to this period, but it usually ends in not much. Specially when European Parliament elections are coming up in 2009.

So, nothing to get excited about for now. Unless you’re a hack at UPI.