Should Irvine Have a "Friendship City" Relationship With Karachi?

    "America's safest city"                                                                                 Karachi-"Pakistan's most dangerous city"



That is the question that is brewing in Irvine, California. Irvine (aside from sister cities) has a Friendship Cities Program which is advertised on their website as part of their multicultural and international affairs. After being suspended back in April, it is apparently back and under consideration is the wonderful metropolis of Karachi, Pakistan.

http://pakistanlink.org/Community/2014/Apr14/04/04.HTM

Isn't that wonderful? And imagine a cricket field in Irvine boss Larry Agran's Great Park. Only problem is there is no Great Park. There are great amounts of money set aside and being spent for the "Great Park" to fill up the old El Toro Marine base, but as yet all there is is an orange hot air balloon, a band stand, and a carousel (no ding-dong bell). Everything else is dirt, weeds, and gophers.


"Cricket anyone?"


Back in April, Irvine decided to suspend the Friendship City program after a plan to form a relationship with a Vietnamese town angered many of Orange County's Vietnamese-American community who are refugees from Vietnam. In the end, the program was suspended and that included a proposal for a Friendship City deal with a Chinese city-and Karachi- as well. Result? The Chinese community blamed the Vietnamese community, everybody was mad at everybody else, and they were all sent to the UC Irvine Cross Cultural Center for re-education (just kidding).

http://articles.latimes.com/2014/apr/21/local/la-me-ff-irvine-china-20140422

But I digress. This is about whether Irvine should have Karachi as a sister city, friendship city, or whatever you want to call it. My sources tell me that it is the Democrats on the City Council who are in favor. That would mean Agran and Beth Krom. The current mayor, Steven Choi, is opposed, and he is already on the sh-- list with local Muslims because he reportedly disparaged Todd Gallinger, a Muslim attorney who ran for office against him a few years ago. Gallinger was written up on this site in 2008 concerning the time he represented Kinder USA, an alleged front group for Islamic charities sending cash to all the wrong people in the Middle East. That was brought out in a book published by Yale University Press; hence Gallinger sued the press on behalf of Kinder USA. He dropped the case when Yale University press filed a SLAPP counter suit. Gallinger would not respond to my questions about this on a popular Orange County blog when he was a candidate. He lost the campaign to be on the Irvine City Council.

But I digress. We are talking about Karachi. Now where was I?

In late June the program was discussed at the City Council meeting and the issue of human rights was discussed as a factor. Should a country's human rights record be an issue? The vote was 2-2 with one member absent.

http://www.dailypilot.com/news/tn-dpt-me-0628-irvine-city-council-20140627,0,18398.story

The below OC Register article has more detail. Mayor Choi is now taking more heat for reported comments that link Pakistan to terrorism. For that, he received a letter from the Anti-Defamation League, which always seems to be more concerned about perceived "Islamophobia" than Islamic anti-Semitism (which they tend to ignore).

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/city-628199-friendship-proposal.html

As things stand now, Karachi has not been approved as a friendship city.

I would vote no for one very simple reason. Aside from the obvious facts that Pakistan is no friend of the US, has been complicit in terrorism, and has a lousy human rights record, why would Irvine want to have such a relationship with a city whose airport has a sign warning all arriving travelers that defamation of Islam is a crime punishable by death?

http://travel.state.gov/content/passports/english/alertswarnings/pakistan-travel-warning.html

And I would caution Mr Choi not to go on one of those junkets to Karachi if the city ever is approved for friendship city status. He might be arrested immediately upon landing, prosecuted and executed for blasphemy.