Tuesday, August 22, 2006

La Frontera

Driving into Mexico is a breeze- the wait is momentary, and I'm certain I could have smuggled livestock, a bank vault, a bale of marijuana, and a couple of penguins wearing tophats without any problem.

Coming back into the states is another story. The border crossing at Tecate is two lanes and sleepy compared to Tijuana, Otay, and others. Still, it took us 3 hours to travel one mile. Read it again: 3 hours = 1 mile, not 3 miles per hour. It was like following S'quatch down the Live Oak Connector trail.

I usually stay away from politics at the circus, but I have to ask myself, now that we are truly prisoners in our own guilded cage, are we happy? The mexican citizens don't seem nearly as fretful as we do. Sure they have cartels, bad water, and a corrupt government, but nobody wants to murder them for their foreign policy decisions either. So, while the U.S. Border Patrol is peering into the backseat to see if we are smuggling pinatas and oranges, terrorists and smugglers are cruising beneath us at 60 mph.

I say open the border, I think our neighbors to the south can re-introduce us to some basic human values.

Adios, Juancho

5 comments:

Sascha said...

This article was originally in the Minneapolis Star Tribune but is only available via their paid archives, so I give you an alternative link instead.

and this

Now, I'm sure that Florida doesn't have any drug problems from Mexico at all. But hey, some of the rest of us do. I'm not sure that sealing the borders off is the best answer since people are starting to bulid tunnels, but is there a better one?

che said...

Well Sascha, we could embrace cultural globalization as much as we do economic globalization.

we could rethink our economic policies towards our neighbours...and the rest of the exploited planet for that matter.

and maybe, just maybe have a touch of a headshift and realize the people on 'your' side of the border are even more desperate to get there hands on what is being smuggled across the border than the smugglers are to get it to them. Legalize it, yeahu, don't criticize it.

Juancho said...

In Florida we get our meth from Georgia. It's fresher.

It's a fair trade really, Mexico gives us drugs, we give them automotive plants with no safety features, benefits, or retirement plans. Sweet for everyone!

che said...

you guys get meth....shit, we can't convince the albanians to produce it. any tips?

Juancho said...

Yeah, avoid the Albanians.