Warning: TERRA MOTO ALERT!
this article is under construction… content and formatting will likely shift over the next 24 hrs
Recently, the internet has been buzzing with lurid stories of death, destruction, prison breaks, and widespread corruption in Mexico, all seemingly related to the drug trade. Is anybody out there ready for a paradigm shift, or at least a little different perspective?
“…we white southerners always found that the best sleeping pill was a heavy dose of rank hypocrisy taken with straight-up Early Times to allay those nocturnal images of night rider lynch mobs defending the honors of assorted southern belles.”
Mexconnect Forum on Mexico: http://www.mexconnect.com/cgi-bin/forums/gforum.cgi?post=152533;#152533
Hilarious!
For better or worse, the grand overarching concepts that I was not alluding-to in “US Complicities: Part 1” were:
1. The fates of the USA and Mexico are inextricably intertwined *, and
2. We need to work towards real solutions (like a rational US guest-worker program that would provide legal channels for temporary immigrant workers to enter & work in the USA – where the jobs have been moved-to, while simultaneously providing reliable remittances back to Mexico = fewer poor Mexicans resorting to drug traffic-ing) – and
3. Mexico-bashing and US-bashing typically don’t move us closer to workable effective solutions.
i.e. H. Clinton’s recent México bashing via her direct comparisons of Mexico to Columbia’s loss of entire areas of the country -where Billary portrayed the relationship as if the US is a wholly virtuous partner with no culpability – is almost as useful and helpful as: the US Military’s years of Mexico-bashing, some MexConnect Mexico-bashers, the US Media’s past & ongoing lurid Mexico-bashing, and: Obama’s, Arizonans, & Border Vigilante’s one-sided perspectives. Said another way: As long as the US Govt uses her 19’th century Big Stick policies to force and enforce highly inequitable trade agreements onto Mexico, drug & immigration problems will continue to grow.
Free Trade? Fair Trade? 19’th century Mercantilism?
Just what have we had the last 30 years between México & the USA?
Follow the money…
I think the data clearly demonstrate that Mercantilism has been the overriding theme for 30 years: big business in bed with big government – just like the Railroad Barons, Oil Barons, Steel Barons, Coal Barons, & Big Banks in league with the US Govt. in the late 19’th century – giving away Govt. lands and assets – a supposed “Free Market” system that created “capitalists” who amassed fortunes unlike anything seen before in history. (J.P. Morgan, Rockefeller, Carnegie, and other robber-barons in league with Tamany Hall, military heroes and Presidents like U.S. Grant, hundreds of US politicians, et al)
Modern Mercantilism, (exercised through US Govt. policies that over-fill the coffers of American big businesses like ADM, ConAgra & Monsanto), has created 3 decades of a vicious cycle, where US agribusinesses et al reward USA politicians and bureaucrats to force their unbalanced agendas onto México, which reap big business incredible profits, while creating economic chaos in Mexico, and then agribusiness & other big businesses pay-off the US Govt. officials with $100’s billions in campaign contributions – i.e. to fund their $5 million per Senate seat election races – creating a demand for more cash for the next election cycle – which forces the US Congresspersons and Senators to do big business’s bidding so they can afford the next election cycle, while Big Media collects huge checks from both Big Govt Politicians and Big Business execs.
The current US system is clearly far less corrupt, as it only involves hundreds of billions of dollars**, rather than the vast Mexican conspiracy of many small bribes and police & Mexican Govt. official’s corruption that the US Media and internet posters love to feast on. . . . Hmmmm…. US Media pays it’s bills from hundreds of billions in advertising dollars from big business for decades***, and then they collect $100’s billions from US politicians, and then somehow US Media neglects to tell the facts about what’s actually happening between big business, US politicians, and Big Media.
No cabal there.
**CNN estimated a mere $120,000,000 ($120 billion if you tired of counting all the zeros) spent in just the 2004 elections alone… I bet that the 2008 election cost far less. No corruption there. Nobody being bought off, nor ethics compromised in a totally up-and-up fully legal & Congressionally legitimized processes. http://www.cnn.com/…sident/campaign.ads/
***US Big Businesses & select Politicians bought ” 30-second spot(s) on ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy” cost(ing) an average of $240462,…” , Desperate Housewives rang-up $229,000 per hit fees, and NFL football 30 sec. spots cost big business & pols a mere $108,000 per fix in 2006. Even Bart and Homer cost $210K per 30 sec. shot, not to mention the $2.5-$3.0 million Super Bowl slots. But that kind of money clearly does not affect what’s reported and how it’s reported. http://adage.com/…le?article_id=139923
The chump change that US politicians, US Media, and big business shuffle around to each other ($100’s of billions per group) certainly does not affect the US public’s knowledge of what’s actually happening, and it’s oh, so, much more fun (and safe) to take jabs at México.
The Mexican bribes and corruption regularly reported here on this and other websites clearly are far far bigger than the roughly $400 billion in pay-offs made by the US power elite** & ***. For comparison sake: Mexican drug sale earnings estimates range from $13.6 billion to $48.4 billion annually, according to disreputable sources.****
****US Congressional Research Report: Mexico’s Drug Cartels http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/RL34215.pdf & the BBC’s 2010 “Mexico Drug Gangs’ report: http://news.bbc.co.uk/…americas/8588509.stm
Wait a minute, if the entire Mexican drug trade gross revenue is 10X less than the money slushing around between US politicians, US Media, and big business, how could corruption in México be worse than the past 3 decades of incestuous relationships between the US power elite?
Which is worse: an obviously corrupt prison warden who leaves the ladders out, or a systematically legally corrupt US Senator or President who pushes through NAFTA, GATT, and other clearly unfair-trade bills that economically crush ordinary Mexicans and pick the pockets of middle class Mexicans – while the US players and Mexican players receive $ millions in pay-offs, for promoting agendas & policies that harm both the US and Mexican public – driving both illegal immigration and the illegal drug trade?
It’s kind of like arguing whose wet dawg smells worse,
or
Do Mexican skunks really smell worse than US skunks?
steve
ps I currently don’t miss the USA…
because we’re here visiting our daughters for 2 months! H-ray!
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*A final random thought: Isn’t Mexico-bashing & US bashing sort of like telling stories at a party of friends just how big your wife’s a** has gotten, complaining about your mother-in-law in front of your wife, or dishing juicy details about the latest escapades of a black-sheep brother? Hope y’awl are getting a few laughs from this…
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Feel free to copy while giving proper attribution: YucaLandia/Surviving Yucatan.
© Steven M. Fry
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