Patels

Excerpts from an interesting article on how the Patels from India took over more than half the room and board industry in the United States.

In the mid-1970's, Patels from Africa and Asia began to emigrate to North America. Any immigrant willing to invest $40,000 in a business could apply for permanent residence, the first step to citizenship. There were limited opportunities for such an investment. Restaurants required the Hindu Gujaratis to handle meat, an uncomfortable activity. Furthermore, a restaurant required one-on-one interaction with guests, confusing for newly-arrived immigrants. But distressed roadside motels could be acquired outright for $40,000.

Human Rights

Communist and dictatorial regimes have poor human rights records -- Stalin, Mao, Saddam Hussein; Tiananmen Square.

But do democracies fares much better?
Two invasions of the Middle East were conducted by the world's most powerful democracy, which went on to flagrantly violate the Geneva Convention on treatment of prisoners of war domestically and internationally.
The world's most populous democracy fares no better.
Even Hitler was, to a certain extent, democratically elected.

What does this portend? Perhaps that human rights violations will continue as long as large powerful central states exist, whether democratic or not.