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Indianapolis Star
13-05-2025
- Politics
- Indianapolis Star
These Indiana agencies are officially partnering with ICE to enforce immigration law
Since President Donald Trump's inauguration, four Indiana law enforcement agencies have signed up to participate in the federal government's 287(g) Program, which allows their officers to enforce certain immigration law. The program allows local law enforcement to partner with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, granting trained deputies the right to enforce immigration laws within their jurisdiction. It prioritizes the arrest and detention of people in the country illegally who are accused or convicted of crimes. ICE offers law enforcement agencies three models for enforcing immigration law: Earlier this year, the Indiana General Assembly attempted to approve legislation that would have allowed Indiana's Department of Homeland Security to disburse grants to law enforcement agencies seeking to participate in the 287(g) program. The funds would help pay salaries and overtime for officers who go through the training, while federal funds would pay for the training and equipment costs. Both pieces of legislation, Senate Bill 430 and House Bill 1158, ultimately failed to be approved by the Indiana General Assembly. Here's a list of the four Indiana law enforcement agencies that have signed up for the government's 287(g) program as of May 12, 2025, according to data from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement website. On April 10, 2025, the Greens Fork Police Department, which serves a small rural town in eastern Indiana, signed up to participate in ICE's Task Force Model. It's the only municipality law enforcement agency in the state to sign up for the federal government's 287(g) program. The town of Greens Fork has a total population of 335, according to the 2020 U.S. Census Bureau data, the most recent available for the town. Out of the 335 people living in the city, four people were identified as Hispanic or Latino, and all foreign-born people living in the city were considered naturalized citizens, according to the U.S. Census Bureau data. Population breakdown, according to the 2020 U.S. Census Bureau data: The Greens Fork Police Department is the only law enforcement agency in Wayne County that has signed up to join the federal government's 287(g) program. At the beginning of the year, the Wayne County Sheriff's Office announced it was in compliance with all of ICE's requests and is following all protocols after the Center for Immigration Studies, an independent, nonpartisan, and non-profit research organization, mistakenly labeled it a sanctuary county. The county has since rectified the issue. On March 26, 2025, the Noble County Sheriff's Office, which serves a rural county northeast of Fort Wayne, signed up to participate in ICE's Warrant Service Officer Model. Noble County Sheriff Max Weber told local media in March that the county had already been working with ICE. Noble County Jail Commander Jenny Cummins shared that the county books at least one non-citizen into jail at least once a week. The county is estimated to serve 47,417 people, according to the 2023 U.S. Census Bureau Data. Population breakdown, according to the 2023 U.S. Census Bureau data: On March 17, 2025, the Jasper County Sheriff's Office, which serves a rural county an hour south of Gary, Indiana, signed up to participate in ICE's Warrant Service Officer Model. The county is estimated to serve 33,198 people, according to the 2023 U.S. Census Bureau. Population breakdown, according to the 2023 U.S. Census Bureau data: On March 3, 2025, the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office, which serves the county north of Indianapolis, signed up to participate in ICE's Jail Enforcement Model. The Hamilton County Sheriff's Office made headlines earlier this year when it became the first Indiana county to sign up for to be part of the 287g program. "By strengthening our partnership with ICE and other federal agencies, we will address criminal activities linked to illegal immigration," Chief Deputy John Lowes, who will oversee the initiative, said in a news release. The county is estimated to serve 371,645 people, according to the 2023 U.S. Census Bureau. Population breakdown, according to the 2023 U.S. Census Bureau data:
Euronews
18-04-2025
- Politics
- Euronews
United in diversity, divided by holidays: How Easter breaks across the EU
ADVERTISEMENT The EU's motto is 'United in Diversity', and it shines through whether you cook with olive oil or butter. But nothing splits Europe down the middle quite like Easter holidays. If you're confused about who's off and when, don't worry, so is the rest of Europe. Though Easter has largely lost its religious weight in increasingly secular Europe, its public holiday status varies greatly across the continent: From Good Friday to Pentecost Monday, different countries mark different days as public holidays. And let's be honest: there are never quite enough holidays for workers, so it's only natural to look across the border and feel a twinge of envy. So, what does the Easter holiday map look like across the EU? A reversal of the Protestant work ethic Just like the butter-versus-olive-oil divide, there's a clear North-South split when it comes to Easter holidays. Northern Europe, particularly countries with Protestant roots, tends to grant more days off during Easter than their Southern, Catholic counterparts. Not so obvious, given the so-called Protestant work ethic described by sociologist Max Weber as the foundation of capitalism. Yet, traditionally "hard-working" nations like Germany go big on Easter, observing almost the full Easter holiday package - Good Friday, Easter Monday and even Ascension Day and Pentecost Monday. Oddly enough, Easter Sunday itself isn't a nationwide public holiday there except in the state of Brandenburg. Easter Sunday surprise Traditional decorated Easter Eggs present in baskets on a table, prior to the opening of an Easter Market of Germany's Slavic-speaking Sorbian ethnic minority. AP Photo Germany is not an exception: In many EU countries, Easter Sunday isn't officially recognised as a public holiday - and not because it's not important, but because it already falls on a non-working day. Instead, the emphasis shifts to Easter Monday, which is a public holiday in most places. At least 12 EU countries, including Austria, France, Czechia, Slovakia, Croatia, Slovenia, and Luxembourg, do not count Easter Sunday as an official holiday for the same reason. That said, Easter Monday is a public holiday across nearly all of the EU, except for a few exceptions like Spain, where it's only a holiday in certain autonomous regions such as Catalonia, the Basque Country, Navarre; and Portugal, where it's not officially recognised at all. The Good Friday patchwork Malta flips the script: it doesn't observe Easter Monday or any other day with a day off for workers, except Good Friday which is a national public holiday. ADVERTISEMENT Some notable EU countries don't consider Good Friday a holiday, including Italy, France, Slovenia, and Lithuania - despite some of these being traditionally Catholic nations. In Belgium (where this article is being tapped out while definitely not on holiday), today is like any ordinary working Friday. In Ireland, Good Friday isn't a statutory holiday either, but it is often observed informally, with many businesses choosing to close. Austria used to treat Good Friday as a 'selective' holiday for members of certain religious denominations, such as the Old Catholic Church and Methodists. ADVERTISEMENT That changed after a 2015 case involving a private detective agency employee who claimed religious discrimination for not receiving holiday pay. The case reached the EU Court of Justice, which ruled in 2019 that such selective holidays based on religion amounted to direct discrimination. The extended Easter: Ascension, Pentecost (and Maundy Thursday) Think Easter ends after the Sunday chocolate binge? Think again. Ascension Day (40 days later) and Pentecost Monday (50 days after) are celebrated with some days off. If you're in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, or the Netherlands, lucky you, both days are public holidays. Meanwhile, places like Greece, Hungary, and Portugal skip them entirely. In Denmark, Italy, Poland, and Sweden, only Ascension Day is observed, meaning that Pentecost is not a day off. ADVERTISEMENT Maundy Thursday (the day before Good Friday) is generally not a public holiday across most of the EU, but it does get some attention. In Denmark, where it's called 'Skærtorsdag', it's a legit national holiday. In Spain, certain regions such as Andalusia, Castilla and León also treat it as a day off - because when in doubt, add another holiday.
Japan Times
02-04-2025
- Business
- Japan Times
The DOGE solution? 'No thanks' says Japan, with reason
The Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, the Elon Musk-Donald Trump project to reform the U.S. government bureaucracy, has been described as a sledgehammer, bulldozer, meat cleaver, wrecking ball — you get the picture. Whatever the metaphor, it is a uniquely American approach to institutional reform, reflective of the larger culture within which it operates: brash, impulsive, self-confident, expansive. Again, you get the picture. While I'm fond of the saying, 'whenever I hear the word 'culture,' I reach for my gun,' it's important to take seriously arguments about culture when thinking about ways societies change — or don't. That understanding is more critical than ever at a time of wrenching transition throughout the world. Failure to grasp the essential characteristics of each country will ensure that outsiders misread the moment and fail to appreciate what is going on and why. German sociologist Max Weber first explained the link between culture and economic outcomes over a century ago. He argued that the values of reformist Christians — hard work, discipline and frugality — provided the foundation of successful capitalism and explained the West's pre-eminence. In the intervening years, capitalism became ubiquitous. National variations are then explained as the product of broader cultural forces. So, for example, the ferocious and voracious Western variant which celebrates the individual and his or her independence is the product of a frontier ethic where lonely individuals combat the forces of nature on their own. By contrast, Asian versions are more 'group-oriented,' hierarchical and respectful of norms, traditions and precedent. This stems, we are told, from the agricultural roots of these societies that demanded cooperation to harvest the crops upon which they depended. These crude stereotypes often comport with lived experience, but generalizations are invariably general. This can get squishy — and that is when that trigger finger gets itchy. When Singapore's former prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew, was asked what were the 'Asian values' he credited for his country's extraordinary success he replied: 'hard work, drive for education and respect for one's parents — you know, all the things that made the United States great!' Sociologists and social psychologists have done their best to provide more precision and scientific rigor to this analysis. Canadian business professor Rosalie L. Tung distinguished between 'dry' and 'wet' cultures in her 1984 study, 'Business Negotiations with the Japanese.' She argued that non-Japanese have 'dry' business relationships that are based on legal documents and the economic dimensions of the deal. By contrast, the Japanese develop 'wet' relationships that are more personal and transcend the four corners of the agreement. These are long-term arrangements that bind the parties even when conditions change. Paperwork is important, to be sure, but it's not necessarily determinative. Deals are adjusted to allow relationships to continue. Perhaps the most famous assessment of national cultures was that of Dutch social psychologist Geert Hofstede. A massive study of over 100,000 IBM employees yielded a six-dimensional analysis that identified the following key characteristics: power distance (acceptance of inequality), individualism, uncertainty avoidance (tolerance of unpredictability), masculinity, short versus long-term orientation and indulgence versus restraint. His results confirmed many preconceptions about Asians. Conclusions about Japan offer no surprises. The country is mid-range between a collectivist and an individualistic culture, with a long-term focus, a preference for certainty, little tolerance for large inequalities in power and disdain for indulgence; restraint is preferred. It's also quite masculine. That first finding — that the country teeters between individualism and collectivism — is a bit of a surprise, but other researchers argue that the country is in transition, with younger generations more inclined to 'selfishness' than their predecessors. That seems like an unremarkable conclusion. While Hofstede has ruled the academic roost, a new analysis has gained prominence in recent years. In 2019, University of Maryland psychology professor Michele J. Gelfand published 'Rule Makers, Rule Breakers,' which argued that a distinction between 'tight' and 'loose' cultures was the key to understanding national behaviors. Gelfand wants us to focus on social norms, 'the glue that keep(s) us together, (that) gives us our identity and help(s) us to coordinate and cooperate at such a remarkable level.' She adds that 'social norms are the key that unlocks societal order, and even the possibility of constructing a human society.' Some groups have stronger norms than others. Gelfand calls these 'tight' cultures. Those with weaker norms are 'loose.' Of course, none are pure and there is invariably a mix of both types, but she concludes that 'cultures vary in the degree to which they emphasize norms and compliance with them.' I take Gelfand seriously because Ulrike Schaede, professor of Japanese business at the School of Global Policy and Strategy at the University of California, San Diego, does. She adopted the 'tight-loose' framework in 'The Business Reinvention of Japan,' her Ohira Memorial Prize winning book. As Schaede explained, 'Tight cultures, such as Japan's are characterized by strong norms for what constitutes the 'right' behavior as well as strong mechanisms for ostracizing deviants. In contrast, loose cultures, such as that in the United States, have a much wider definition of what is acceptable and do not sanction noncompliance to nearly the same degree.' Schaede identified three norms that dominate Japanese culture: Be polite and considerate, behave appropriately and don't make trouble (or make disruptive decisions). Implicit in this reasoning is consideration of a much wider range of interests when decisions are made. This means that would-be reformers must maneuver delicately or their actions could trigger resentment and rejection. 'Being noisy, pushy or brazen will rarely yield success in Japan.' While the glacial pace of change here can infuriate non-Japanese, Schaede adds that this 'has distinct advantages for managing change. The most important is that once a decision has been made and everybody is on board, change can happen swiftly. Preparation may seem to take forever, but the execution can be expeditious.' That is the key point as I ponder the havoc unleashed by DOGE. I can't imagine a DOGE-like beast in Japan. No one can. It is utterly alien to every tradition, precedent or cultural inclination in this country. The only possible condition under which such a mechanism could exist would be foreign imposition — occupation or the fear of one (i.e., the Meiji Restoration.) My book 'Peak Japan' was intended to answer the question of whether the triple catastrophe of March 11 would catalyze change in Japan. Yet even that horrific cascade of disasters proved insufficient. The point that Schaede makes, and about which I am ambivalent, is that Japan doesn't need that change. She argues that critical reforms are occurring within businesses to prepare them for the new global competition. She urges us to forget world-beating conglomerates and instead focus on occupying vital nodes in global supply chains. By that metric, Japan is succeeding. (Slowly, but without doubt.) In contrast, there is DOGE. It may be better suited to American culture but there is no mistaking its impact on the larger society: The U.S. is literally tearing itself apart — and this is in the best performing Group of Seven economy in the world post COVID-19. Meanwhile in Japan, after three decades of stagnation, there is none of the angst, unhappiness, anger and division. The change that is taking place, despite being elemental on some levels, is far less disruptive than that occurring in other countries. For sure, it's not as fast as Western observers — critics — would like. But the culture of slow, steady, incremental transformation that accounts for all stakeholder interests appears to be far more successful in navigating vital change than one that acts by fiat from the top. To those who counter that the U.S. has produced a 'superior' economy — there are plenty of metrics to validate that adjective — I point to the larger social upheaval that has accompanied not only DOGE but the process of the Schumpeterian "creative destruction" that got us here. Neither Tung, Hofstede nor Gelfand would argue that one set of norms is 'better' than another. Instead, each is merely better suited to or reflective of the society that produced them. From this vantage point at this moment in history, however, a verdict is pretty clear. Brad Glosserman is deputy director of and visiting professor at the Center for Rule-Making Strategies at Tama University as well as senior adviser (nonresident) at Pacific Forum. His new book on the geopolitics of high-tech is expected to come out from Hurst Publishers this fall.
Middle East Eye
07-02-2025
- Politics
- Middle East Eye
Trump's plan to colonise Gaza echoes failed 19th-century American missions
If Protestantism - both before and after Max Weber's seminal book on the topic - came to be identified as the poster religion of capitalism, then US President Donald Trump has always been a convert. A former Presbyterian, he now identifies as a "non-denominational Christian" and rarely attends church services but surrounds himself with evangelical Protestants. Indeed, a majority of white American evangelical Protestants view him as "fighting for their beliefs". In his restored capacity as the grand missionary of American capitalism and imperialism since his recent return to the White House, Trump has made several missionary declarations and announced a number of policies to advance American capitalism. These include, but are not limited to, the sought-after imperial territorial expansion of the United States through the power of money or military force. Trump's capitalist evangelical plan to steal and colonise Gaza, however, is not the first American project to establish colonies in Palestine. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters Just as his ambition to conquer Canada, Denmark's Greenland, and the Panama Canal reflects 19th-century American imperial ideologies like "Continentalism" and "Manifest Destiny", his plan for the US colonisation of Palestine mirrors that of fanatical American Protestants from the same era. American takeover Over the last few weeks, Trump's plan for an American takeover of Gaza has progressed from initially calling for the expulsion - or at least the self-expulsion - of most Palestinians living in Gaza to Jordan and Egypt, to his more recent declaration advocating for the expulsion of all Palestinians and an American takeover of the Palestinian territory. It would seem that an American-owned Gaza would be a place where 'international communities coexist' but without Palestinians This is the same land that Israel has devastated in the course of committing genocide against its Palestinian population since October 2023. Seemingly unimpressed by the French Riviera on the Mediterranean, Trump wants to build another "Riviera of the Middle East". In the meantime, the expelled Palestinians would be provided with "really good quality housing, like a beautiful town, like some place where they can live and not die because Gaza is a guarantee that they're going to end up dying," Trump told reporters. Presumably, Trump is assigning the cost of this "good quality housing" to Arab countries. Meanwhile, Americans would build the "Riviera" under what Trump called an "ownership position"- or as CNN, an otherwise enthusiastic supporter of Israel's war on Gaza, described it, "colonialism for the 21st century". Follow Middle East Eye's live coverage for all the latest on the Israel-Palestine war Trump added: "We'll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site. Level the site, and get rid of the destroyed buildings, level it out, create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area, do a real job, do something different." It would seem that an American-owned Gaza would be a place where "citizens of the world" and "international communities coexist" - but without Palestinians, whose "return" to American Gaza, Trump said, would be "unrealistic". Capitalist crusade What Trump most likely craves, as do the Israelis, is less the beaches of Gaza's "Riviera" and more the oil and natural gas reserves that lie in its sea - worth billions of dollars - which Trump and the Zionist settler-colony can divvy up between them. Israel-Palestine war: Why the West is rallying around the last settler colony Read More » Long before Trump's capitalist vision of an American-owned Gaza, 19th-century American Protestant missionaries sought to establish colonies in Palestine and reshape the land and its people in their own image. It was, in fact, Trump's former co-religionists - Presbyterian American missionaries - who were dispatched to Palestine in the 1820s to convert Palestinian Muslims, Orthodox Christians, and mostly the 4,000 Palestinian Jews, as well as the few thousand messianic Lithuanian Jews who had just arrived before the Americans. The Americans remained until 1844, when they moved to Syria and Lebanon following the establishment of British Anglican missions in Palestine, which made their presence redundant. However, before their departure, they managed to distribute thousands of copies of their Protestant Bible, leaving Palestine in the secure hands of their British co-religionists. As part of the European Christian conquest of Palestine in the 19th century - dubbed the "Peaceful Crusade" - American Protestant millenarians and restorationists joined in the "crusade", establishing farming colonies in the city of Jaffa. They hoped to convert the few thousand Jews they encountered in Palestine and teach them farming. However, they found them to be "lazy" and resistant to conversion. A group of American Seventh-day Adventists, known then as Millerites (followers of one William Miller), settled in Bethlehem in 1851 alongside European Christian settlers in the village of Artas. They later moved to Jaffa to found the colony of "Mount Hope", but it did not survive for long. Another fanatical group, the Dicksons, established the "American Mission Colony" in Jaffa in 1854, which was met with Palestinian resistance. The colony was attacked in 1858, several colonists were killed, and the survivors were repatriated to Massachusetts. In response, the US dispatched a Navy ship, the steam frigate USS Wabash, to the shores of Palestine to pressure the Ottomans into prosecuting the attackers. History of resistance In 1866, another group of fanatical American Protestant millenarian artisans and farmers arrived from Maine to set up yet another colony in Jaffa. The Adams Colony, named after its evangelical leader George Washington Joshua Adams (a former Mormon), started with 156 colonists but lasted only two years. The Palestinians opposed the presence of the colonists, prompting the Ottomans to write to the US minister in Constantinople to protest that 'the natives' were being driven 'from their fields by a colony of Yankees' Adams, who had met with then-President Andrew Jackson - the butcher of Native Americans - at the White House to facilitate his settler-colonial efforts with the Ottoman authorities, compared the colonisation of Palestine to that of the United States. The Palestinians opposed the presence of the colonists, prompting the Ottomans to write to the US minister in Constantinople to protest that "the natives" were being driven "from their fields by a colony of Yankees". Financial difficulties forced Adams to leave, with many of the colonists repatriated through Egypt. Upon embarking on his colonisation project, Adams had declared that his colony would prepare the land for the "return" of European Jews, which in turn would expedite the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. After the colony was dissolved, only 20 American settlers remained in Palestine. In 1881, yet another evangelical Protestant American family sought to establish a colony, this time in Jerusalem. Horatio and Anna Spafford of Chicago led a contingent of 16 colonists to the city to hasten the second coming. They were joined by 55 Swedish fundamentalist Protestants in 1896, which grew to 150 by the turn of the century. They purchased the house of Palestinian landowner Rabah al-Husayni. Unlike their predecessors, they refrained from proselytising too much, sparing them from local enmity. Their colony survived until the late 1950s, when internal tensions led to its demise. The Husayni house they had bought was later transformed into the contemporary American Colony Hotel in East Jerusalem. A fool's mission Recounting this history is not merely to reassure Trump that his colonial proposition is hardly innovative - it was, in fact, attempted repeatedly in the 19th century. 'Clean out' Gaza: Why Trump's 'voluntary' transfer proposal should be made to Israelis Read More » It also underscores that the Palestinians' attachment to their homeland and their will to resist its colonisers are stronger than even Trump's attachment to his capitalist and imperialist ethos. While the fanatical American missionaries of the 19th century sought to take over the land of the Palestinians and convert its population to their brand of Christianity, Trump's plan to steal Gaza aligns squarely with his own version of an imperial and capitalist religion. Sitting alongside Trump, war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu, who failed to expel the Palestinians despite his best genocidal efforts, praised the expulsion plan as "remarkable". But if the genocidal Israeli army has failed miserably to crush the spirit and resolve that have driven Palestinians to resist the colonisation of their homeland by American and European settler-colonists for over a century and a half, does Trump truly believe that his profiteering imperial mission - and his vision of a "Riviera in the Middle East" for "citizens of the world" - will succeed in doing so? The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.
