sigh
oh, God. it passed.
the border is 2000 miles long. the bill was for a 700 mile fence. they appropriated enough money for 370 miles. they will build 370 miles of fence. and then?
somebody, please tell me what good will come of this.
return to the wall
i'm back to this wall issue. last night the senate voted to end debate and by saturday they will hold the final vote on this bill. here are some things people have said:
Jeff Sessions, Republican, alabama
“We know that fencing works. It’s time to make it a reality. Then we’ll have some credibility with the American people. Then we can talk comprehensively about how to fix an absolutely broken immigration system.”
Mexican chancellor, Derbez
"No se pueden solucionar los problemas migratorios construyendo barreras, no se puede mejorar la seguridad, construyendo muros." "Migration problems cannot be solved building barriers, you cannot improve security building walls."
another mexican diplomat said that these measures hurt the bilateral relationship, they are contrary to the spirit of cooperation that should prevail to guarantee the security of the common border, they propitiate an atmosphere of tension, and they create splits instead of convergences between the two countries.
i should point out that mexico doesn't say this because they think a wall will actually work and are afraid they'll have to stop throwing their people out of their country. rather, because (please reference my earlier entry), as the recently elected president Calderon has said, the only solution to the migration problem consists in creating employment opportunities in Mexico.
i wonder how mr. sessions knows that fencing works since it still needs to be made a reality. and just what credibility will he have from us? has he lost credibility? credibility for what? and by completing a construction project and spending lots of money he will get it? i don't understand.
anyway, it's not too late to email your senators!!!!! everything gets done at the last minute right...
go here: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm?State=OH
this wall is not only going to cost a lot of money but lives as well from immigrants who will now seek more dangerous routes. morever, it will create tension not just in the border towns, but between americans and mexicans. walls divide and separate. mexico is not against strengthening our national security. but the solution lies in creating employment in mexico and a bilateral effort toward fixing border problems. as seems to be our habit in the rest of the world, we are alienating mexico.
the numbers
well. the US death toll in iraq and afghanistan has surpassed that of 9/11.
and the iraqi death toll. i read a statistic that i don't remember well...someone please correct me on this but i believe in the past 3 months, iraq has experienced a death toll equivalent to that of 9/11 each month. this seems outrageous but that's the point.
i know you're not supposed to measure the success or failure of war in numbers. but what are these numbers? lives. what are lives? a life is a birth, childhood filled with toys or hunger depending on your area of the world, but a childhood nonetheless, with parents or aunts or uncles or grandparents and games and being rebellious, learning to walk and then talk and maybe to read and write and so on. a life is the images, thoughts, feelings, and memories of a unique passage through time on this earth. friends, jokes, smiles, broken hearts, a life is alive-it moves and breathes and talks and sees and thinks. and then it's gone. this moving, breathing, laughing bundle of life is gone in a second, a bomb or a bullet. the life is gone, its thoughts, feelings, memories, and laughter lingering somewhere in the smoke, a vague fog that eventually rises and evaporates into the atmosphere forever.
these are the lives, these are numbers these are the US dead in the iraq war and operation enduring freedom. and these are the many thousands more of iraqi lives. do we have justice now? are we satisfied?
has anyone really thought about this name "war on terror?" there is something so wrong about waging a war on terror.
war IS terror.
can you conquer war with war? this is not a rhetorical question. the answer is no. fighting war with war produces war, and a neverending bloody mess. and the numbers rise and rise and rise.
los indocumentados
a quick break from the Ghandi series to discuss the issue of the Wall. the House of Reps. aproved the construction of the Wall between mexico and the u.s. which will now go to the senate and then the white house. the senate has differed from the house on this issue so it's hard to say what will happen.
now, from what i read, the rebulicans insist that migration reform can wait, while security and protection of the border can not. first the wall, then total migration reform.
ok, here is an old proverb that is an analogy on why i see something wrong with this and on what i think the solution is: give a man a fish and he eats for a day; teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime.
we are going to build a wall, and THEN reform the problem. so that after we have reformed the problem, what happens? the wall is useless, it will be useless, people!!! do you see? because if we actually solved the heart of the problem, we would not need a wall. therefore, just like some other projects this government has undertaken, it wil bel a large amount of money absolutely wasted. where are we putting our money??????? have we not read history? why do we not learn from our mistakes? i also wonder why, if the u.s. considers arab men, or "extreme islamists" to be the enemy, they even bother about the mexicans. the migrants are people doing desperate things and endangering their lives to WORK here, not to bomb here. in fact, many migrants from ecuador (and maybe all latin america but i can only speak for ecuador) do not want to live here, they want to work for several years to make money to take back to their country.
now then, the republicans want to put up this Wall. i ask, what the hell is a wall going to do? it will, maybe, discourage people from coming in that way. but, fact is people are desperate to come here and do desperate things to get here. i have heard nightmareish stories of people ( i mean real people, people with names and people like "rosa's brother," "carlito's mom") trying to cross the border. what this wall will do is encourage other routes, more dangerous and more desperate. and therefore, adding fuel to the fire and absolutely doing nothing to help no one.
the democrats want migration reform. so make the laws tougher, or put more police on guard or give them more dogs or what have you. it could even be positive, like offering free english classes for a couple months in migrant areas or having social workers help them with housing, and so on.
this doesn't solve anything either. let's work this out. problem: actually, what IS the problem? ok, seriously, the problem seems to be that...ok well, fact: there are many people migrating to the u.s. and the u.s. sees this as a problem. ok, how do you solve this? by not having people migrate to the u.s. and how do we solve that? by taking away the motivations people have for coming here in the first place. duh.
why do people want to come here? to make money. because the economic situation here (regardless of whether you think it's good or bad) is better than in their country. people want to eat and people want shelter and clothes. so that you don't confuse these people with upper class north americans, i should put it in the negatives: people do not want to starve and do not want to be homeless and/or crowded and do not want to wear rags. this is obviously the extreme situation. the entire population of ecuador is not starving and wearing rags. but the point is, for many people it is difficult to feed their family because the wages do not match living expenses (correct, it's the same way in the u.s.) but wages here are higher than in ecuador by such an amount that people risk their lives and sometimes lose them to come here just to make money. in other words, people want a higher standard of living.
the point is, the solution is not a wall, but to fix the economic situation in these countries, which is the reason people cross the border in the first place. now we could point fingers and place all the blame on 15th century Spain who messed everything up when they colonized america. or we could think of solutions. i know nothing about economics, therefore i don't have the solution and have no idea how to improve the economy. but i'm pretty sure some other people with Ph.D's could think of SOMEthing. and if we have billions of dollars to fight a war and to build a wall (again, before we solve the problem) and since OU keeps raising my college tuition, there is plenty of money floating around the u.s. that could be poured into economic development programs in latin america. believe me, once people can make enough money in their own country, they will not want to come here (recreational travelers exempt from discussion). and if they don't want to come here, they won't come. as i see the logic. and therefore, we won't need a Wall. i'm repeating myself to get my point across and to emphasize how ridiculous this Wall is.
and this, not even mentioning how we could better our own situation if we turned our dollars internal. but the government seems bent on saving the world. so if we must do that, my own humble suggestion is that we do it in a peaceful, meaningful, and uplifting way. and not through a destructive path of blood and weapons and disgusting power trips.
i have more to say such as how improving the economic situation, and taking away the motivation to risk one's life to come to the u.s. would solve myriad other social problems in latin america (ecuador). but i've gone on enough. i've made several generalizations based on my experience in ecuador and on my perspective of this issue. and have perhaps allowed my passion for this situation to run wild and perhaps instead of being reasonable, i've been emotional, as i tend to do. so i'd love to start a discussion, and/or to hear what you think. if you actually read all that, thanks for reading, courage to you. the floor is open.
maybe there's just something in me "that doesn't love a wall, That wants it down." or maybe good fences really do make neighbors.
the wisdom of ghandi: a series
"'twere as unreasonable to doubt that hidden in the murky smoke of Western materialism are immortal qualities..as...to ignore the existence in the Orient of the splendid monument of spiritual lore-the heritage of a long line of Eastern saints and sages...Branches from a common root, Oriental and Western have each their mission, their place in the grand economy...It rests with both to recognize that differences are not necessarily synonymous with superiority or inferiority and to patiently cultivate that spirit of self-restraint and toleration which...will...destroy the senseless rind of misunderstanding...Let [the Oriental] hold fast to what is best...in the history of his people and...while retaining his self-respect, the more surely win the respect of his Western neighbors. Equally, the Western should abandon an attitude as stupidly inconsistent as that which demands from his Oriental neighbor conformity to his own ideals of propriety, while denying him every facility and encouragement."
if you're thinking that this might apply to today, to current events, keep thinking...and you'll be sure.
a quick update
i'm back in athens and excited to be here. excited for old friends, new friends, donkey chai, and studying. i have a chinese housemate who i met tonight and adore already. she found out i'm very good at talking...i started talking about walmart and then didn't shut up about everything that's wrong in america and then felt bad about bombarding her with pop culture vocabulary and corporate (specifically, profit-driven) practices. BUT. i would like to say there are definately good things here, and there are many places that are beautiful beautiful beautiful, thanks to mother nature. oddly enough, although maybe it's not odd, most international students that i've encountered do not know about the evils of walmart and go there of course, because it's the cheapest around, thanks to the monopoly it holds on Athens. luckily they get housemates like me...haha just kidding. i can't force anyone to do anything so you make your own choices and i'll respect that. i've decided to only say my opinion if someone asks it. which is why i have this blog...so that i can voice all my opinions without anyone having asked. this is really a fantastic relationship we have. what's even better is that you have the option of commenting and informing me of YOUR opinion or even of your better-informed opinion and we can have discussions. that would be neat and i could be more informed.
anyway-point. we spent $85 million on our recent balistic missile defense test, which was reported as a success. but nowadays whenever i see money figures i always wonder where ELSE this money could have gone and wonder why we live in a world that we have to spend money on nuclear defense.
and the original point: i'm excited to be here. love to you.
