tampa in center of national political battle
michaelThe Tampa area is now involved in a major political battle. The Port of Tampa is one of the 20 ports involved in the United Arab Emirates owned Dubai Ports World purchase from Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co.
This has become a major issue. But city officials are continuing to negotiate the contract terms. It will be interesting to see where this leads, with the President threatening a veto of any Congressional attempt to block the sale.
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February 22nd, 2006 at 7:04 pm
This is where Fear/prejudice/bigotry and Big Business clash directly… Yet the Bush administration relies on the Fear fabotor and the pro-big business factor in all it’s political strategy. I have to wonder hwo this plays out…
Most Americans already have a negative view of the Arab world and to sell control of ports (that is how it’s being stated) to a country with ties to 9-11… that’s just asking for uproar.
February 22nd, 2006 at 8:27 pm
DP World wouldn’t be in a position to make this deal (they’re buying a British ports operator, remember) if they didn’t do a damned good job running ports elsewhere in the world already. DP World already owns shares in ports throughout (non-Muslim) Asia and in parts of Europe. It is an effective business, and the Emirate (Dubai) is to interested in becoming a world business power to let security issues throw a wrench into their plans. Rich trumps fanatical. The Dubaians want to be rich. I honestly do not believe they will let security issues develop at any of their holdings–I doubt they’d even let the appearance of possible security problems develop–because they are far too concerned about their business reputation to give the jihadists an inch.
I don’t like Bush’s attitude toward the whole effort–if Congress moves to block the deal he needs to negotiate with them not simply slam the door, since Congress would be respecting the views of the people–but in this case I think the “views of the people” are more likely to be reactionary than Bush’s. This really isn’t a bad deal.
February 23rd, 2006 at 7:03 am
How can we stop the purchase of a British company anyway? Don’t we have to honor their contracts regardless of who buys them?