Mexico is a house the US has set on fire, then covered its doors and windows with bars, allowing the people inside to burn alive. Fueled by easy access to weapons from their neighbors to the north, drug lords have infiltrated all sectors of society, and now Mexico is arguably the most dangerous country in North America and one of the most dangerous in the world. Deregulation, privatization of government services, liberalized trade, and the "war on drugs" have made life and poverty in Mexico so unbearable that Mexican citizens risk their lives to try and escape the burning conflagration and come to the United States. The US created this mess, and, through "border reform," seeks to keep Mexican citizens from attempting to escape.
Even more so than in the US, the rich have gotten richer on the backs of the Mexican poor. Thanks to corporate America's demand for low wages, Mexicans confront American sweatshops, pollution, congestion, horrible living conditions, and no resources to deal with the increasing violence. As in the United States, agribusiness has destroyed the family farm. Wal-mart has put thousands of small, local businesses out of business. Free trade was sold as a means to improve the lives of Mexicans and Americans. It has led only to greater exploitation. American jobs were sent to Mexico to take advantage of cheap labor with little or no safety or environmental oversight. The "war on drugs" has made outlaws wealthy and created a dangerous and corrupt police state where no one is safe. Mexicans want to escape -- how can we blame them?
Immigration reform is constantly on the US agenda, yet it isn't really about reform; it is about racism, ignorance, and fear. Americans, suffering from decades of the same economic policies that are leading to greater poverty in Mexico, blame their woes on Mexico's victims of those policies. The smoke and mirrors illusion that the rising level of poverty in the US is caused by liberal systems, government socialism, and immigrants is part of the same lie that keeps Americans blaming and fighting one another. As long as everyone is fighting each other, the bulk of the population won't focus on the true causes of economic disparity taking over the planet.
While it is highly unlikely that this approach will happen, Americans need to reach out and support Mexicans and Mexico. Rather than turning immigration reform into a battle at the border, the US must eliminate trade policies that benefit only the wealthy. The US also needs to help Mexico build its infrastructure, providing access to basic services such as clean water and functional sewer systems, decent transportation, and a healthy environment. We must help it form a strong education system so its citizens can achieve their dreams. We need stronger gun regulations of our own so drug dealers on both sides of the border cannot get cheap and easy access to weapons. Finally, we must end the failed "war on drugs" that has made outlaws unimaginably wealthy and forces millions to live in fear for their lives every day.
Unless the US is willing to embrace difficult solutions to a complex problem, there will be no true immigration reform. Killing, jailing, or sending back those who seek refuge here is not any answer. Real reform is formidable and ambitious, but it is also possible. True immigration reform would make the citizens of Mexico want to stay in their homeland rather than escaping to a place where our worst is still the best they can hope for.
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We can never provide more help than Mexican politicians can steal. In that respect, it's no different from Africa. They have virtually zero tradition of self-determination, and the culture encourages strongman-ism. You could pour trillions into that bottomless pit, and nothing would change.
The problem with Mexico is not complicated. The rich simply have too much money that they've earned largely by exploiting the poor. Mexico's corruption is probably second in the world only to Egypt's. It extends beyond the imaginable, spilling over even into the private sector. In almost any job that involves handling money, the person handling the money embezzles and splits the proceeds with a supervisor, who collects from all the money-handlers and keeps the embezzlement hidden. I'm talking about retail cashiers, not high finance gurus.
There's even a joke about why the President is limited to a single six-year term. "Because six years is enough to steal all you need, and then it's time to let someone else steal."
As one who is trained in Mixed Martial Arts and is fitter than 99.9% of the Human population, I can attest to how great and useful Cannabis is (in moderation). My exercise limits are pushed further thereby letting me work-out harder.
Progressive Revolution, baby!
Conceivable that Americans would flock into Mexico to purchase these legalize drugs ~ maybe, Mexico would have to secure their border & construct a fence with the USA to keep all the illegal Americans out of Mexico
Here is a far fetched plan that could unite the two:
http://twopesos-protestfortheundocumented.blogspot.com/2010/12/ok-lets-call-their-bluff.html?spref=fb
http://www.watchnewspapers.com/view/full_story/10513105/article-Former-Border-Patrol-Agent-Confronts-His-Past-With-Music?instance=local_news&sms_ss=hotmail&at_xt=4cf8251b310c05fe,0
Mexico is the 13th richest economy in the world, with an unemployment rate of 5.5%
U.S. foreign aid to Mexico
2009 ~ $432 million USD
2010 ~ $529 million USD
2011 ~ BHO Adm has requested $637 million USD
Mexico's foreign aid assistance to other nations worldwide ~ zero
2009 ~ est. population of Mexico 111.3 million
Granted ~ the majority of Mexican Nationals live in poverty ~ Not the USA's problem
I assert that the Mexico Gov't is receiving the revenue ~ just, that the Mexican Gov't is not taking care if the social needs of it's own people
Other interesting points ~
Mexico is currently building a fence on its sourthern border wirh Gautemala
Mexico is being investigated by Amnesty Int'l for its inhumane treatment of illegal immigrants
You're right. The issue is fraught with racism and fear. But we liberals don't have an entirely clear eyed view of the matter either. If we ignore the small businessman or laborer put out of work by competition with those who are not here legally we have lost the conscience of liberalism. And if we ignore our brethren in Mexico who seek social change we have equally sinned.
If you look around the world, you see that countries that are predominantly Catholic (for instance Southern Europe, Latin America and the Phillippines) are less prosperous than countries dominated by white protestants (for instance, the Scandinavian countries, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK.
I used to work in South America, and I have to tell you that I believe that many of their problems are culturally related.
Having said that, I think it would be more useful to help Mexico than to spend billions in Afghanistan to no avail.
We need to make all this universal here, for our citizens, first. Then we can start thinking about helping other countries. All the activists want the US to help poorer nations, lots of them. But in spreading ourselves out so thin, we are failing at home to take care of our own.
Mexico also has placed all of that wealth in the hands of a very few, Carlos Slim for example, who refuses to join the Giving Pledge that Bill Gates and Warren Buffet initiated. Another illustration of how troubling the wealthy elite in Mexico are. Mexico has problems that their people need to demand changes about...
USA has problems that our people need to demand changes about...
For example,
No country on earth has a bigger debt and trade problem than the USA
If you want to look at aggregate terms, you look at the whole balance sheet, not half.
Opium W ars showed what kind of problems occur when a foreign country dumps dan gerous drugs upon a larger country than the USA. That is what Mexico and Colombia and a few others are doing to the USA. You want the flow of guns to stop, MOST Americans want the flow of dan gerous drugs to stop
And don't give me this bull that the drug user (demand) is to blame, enablers are also to blame. You do not give an alcohol drink to someone that is a recovering alcoholic.
Most Americans want the flow of cheap labor to cease, YES most do. Same situation, you have users, and you have enablers. In fact, the slave trade in Africa started with African kings selling prisoners of neighboring kindgoms into slavery. I hardly would say that Latin America leaders are doing a better job by raising their hands volunteering to enslave their people to multinational corporations.
It's just not true.
In fact, it's not even close. By all accounts, it's probably around 17 percent.
What's true, an ATF spokeswoman told FOXNews.com, in a clarification of the statistic used by her own agency's assistant director, "is that over 90 percent of the traced firearms originate from the U.S."
But a large percentage of the guns recovered in Mexico do not get sent back to the U.S. for tracing, because it is obvious from their markings that they do not come from the U.S.
by the way, do the strict gun laws prevent crime? no!
All our jobs shipping out to 3rd world countries, left the working American with no access to decent jobs, no taxes to support our cities and schools, the infrustructure aging, healthcare, social security mess.....it's all gonna come crumbling down to who has the biggest gun.
But atleast we will still have the banks................
It may indicate an agenda on your part though...
Did not work for China just before, during, and after Opium Drug W ars.
If you had a loved one that was a recovering alcoholic, would you give them a beer?
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In terms of "war on terror," what would you do? Nothing?