I did read your post, WAV, including ". . . not content to just visit as respectful tourists . . ." and that's what prompted my post.

You are perfectly willing for people from other cultures, other nations, to come as "respectful tourists" and spend money. But you object to those who are not wealthy enough to spend what little they have on tourism, but who will spend it to emigrate on the chance that they can make a better life for themselves in another country, such as England or the United States. You also seem oblivious to the fact that many people emigrate from their home countries because of political oppression.

No, WAV, I know exactly what you're saying. I think I've been on this planet for a few more trips around the sun than you have, and I've seen it / heard it all before.

I might point out that linking to something you have said on your own website in an attempt to supporting what you say here is both pompous and silly. And almost embarrassingly feeble.

And ". . . and have in the past taken to the streets politically."

For what causes?

Don Firth

P. S. By the way, my wife is a librarian. There are people who walk into the library all the time with books they've self-published or material they have written, and generously contribute their great, immortal works to the library for the enlightenment and edification of the multitudes.

It amounts to great heaps and piles. Do you have any idea of what's done with this stuff?

"Thank you very much," says the librarian. Then, when the person is out of sight, "THUNK!" into the round file.

Otherwise, libraries would have to maintain warehouses full of aspiring writers' and poets' unpublished material. And there is generally a very good reason that it's unpublished.

And posting it on a web site, other than getting you ideas out in front of others, does not really count as "published" in the sense that it doesn't have to pass the scrutiny of an editor.