The spread of disease

In this case, I’m not talking about actual disease; I’m talking about societal diseases. Poverty, crime, starvation, these are things that impact societies negatively overall. In parts of Mexico, these diseases run rampant. Drug cartels, gang violence, and starving citizens are huge problems throughout the country. The poverty is a huge reason why people pour into our country and cause some of the problems associated with it. In the documentary “The Other Side of Immigration,” many Mexicans who have migrated to the US say they do so out of the necessity, not out of a desire to do so. As far as criminals are concerned, much of that violence has already spilled on to US shores. The Southwest States near the Mexican borders many gangs have formed due to the drug trade with supplies coming from Mexico. There have been countless acts of violence against moth Mexicans and Americans on our soil as a result.

To me, even putting aside moral and ethical reasons (which, for the record, I do believe are valid), we have a duty to our neighbors to help them develop for our own benefit. Negative societal aspects rarely stay in one place, they move, and in this case they can and are moving into the US. The beast analogy I can come up with is that of Cincinnati circa the 1990’s and 2000’s. For the longest time, most the poverty and crime was extremely prevalent in only a few areas, Over the Rhine and Avondale and such. For the longest time the problem wasn’t dealt with, so it began to move other places, particularly west into areas such as West Wood, Price Hill, etc. Once they FINALLY started to revive Over the Rhine after the Cincinnati riots, it was too late, the issues were already spreading. I feel that there is a lot to be learned from this. If we deal with the problem at its source, ie: Mexico, then we can stop many of the other problems that arise as a result. If not, then the problems will continue and who knows if we’ll ever be able to stop them. Not to mention, if we help the country improve, then the massive migration tat so many seem worried about will hopefully become something of a moot point, since people will not need to come here to have a better life and feed their families. If it’s true that many only come here out of necessity, then the necessity will be gone and the influx will die down.

A simple objective look at the issue of helping Mexico shows that it’s something that the US must do to fix their own problems. When problems such as these are going on so close to home, you cannot ignore it or resist assistance forever. 

"The man's a genius; he could disprove gravity"- Aaron Eckhart, "Thank You For Smoking"

A mathematician, applied mathematician and a statistician all apply for the same job. At the interview they are asked the question, what is 1+1. The mathematician replies, "I can prove that it exists but not that it is unique." The applied mathematician after some thought replies, "the answer is approximately 1.99 with an error in the region of 0.01." The statistician steps outside the room, mulls it over for several minutes, and eventually in desperation returns and inquires, "so what do you want it to be?"

While this joke is amusing, it makes an excellent point about statistics, and it was one I couldn’t overlook when viewing the Pros and Cons of NAFTA. If manipulated or presented in a certain way, numbers can say whatever you want them to say. This seemed very apparent when talking about the Pro’s for NAFTA that I saw in the article about its effects on Canada. They talk about the trillions Canada sold to the United States, the millions of jobs being created, and the billions in surplus that is allegedly a direct result of NAFTA. What they do not mention in this discussion is, as the article says “the quality and stability of those jobs.” As mentioned, 40 percent of the jobs created are only part time jobs and 17 percent of job growth is credited to self-employment. That means that over half of the jobs NAFTA supporters claim that is has created are, quite frankly, flukes that do not reflect their viewpoint in a fair and balanced way. Also, while they claim that all this money is pouring into Canada, the country still seems to be struggling economically and making massive cuts, so where is exactly is this money going? That’s not an answer NAFTA supporters seem interested in answering. Do I think NAFTA is all bad and deserves the bum rap it gets? No, probably not. After all, there is a lot to be said for “With China’s new found economic power, these problems would have occurred anyway.” However, it bothers me when people just throw out numbers to prove their points without any sort of interpretation of that “facts.”  The fact is, numbers in the right context can prove whatever you want.

Intro and Whatnot

What an interesting world we live in. Last quarter, I set up a twitter account for a class. This quarter, I set up a blog. Anyway, this is my blog for my Geography 123 The Americas: NAFTA Nations Class. As you can imagine, taking a 4 hour long, twice a week class about Geography is a dream come true for me. But, with 4 people in the class, I'm sure it won't be too painful, and I appreciate that it won't be a 4 hour lecture. I'll be posting reflections about activities we do in class, films we watch, and various readings. I'll try to keep it interesting and insightful.