Back online after 2 weeks offline in Costa Rica. Yes, there were internet cafes, but I just could not pull myself away from the ziplines, surf and rainforests to fire up a computer and go online. Nice...gave me time to think about a nation with no army but which has a major univesity dedicated to teaching peace, now run by an old friend. The US should try it sometime.
It also gave me time to think about immigration. While the republicans are holding their sham hearings packed with militia men demanding a wall to keep the illegals out, a visit south of the border demonstrates why they - and the Democrats - are missing the point. Or more likely, are deliberately misdirecting our attention away from the real probelm, the one caused by their corporate donors.
NAFTA, the IMF, CAFTA, and the entire structure of international trade has been engineered by global corporations to make the flow of goods, capital and services across international borders virtually effortless. And they engineered this system to transfer wealth from the poor countries to them, corporations based mostly in wealthy countries. Somehow it did not occur to them, or they didn't care, that labor - i.e., people - in poor countries stripped of their wealth would move to the rich countries. And somehow it did not occur to them that labor is the most mobile "factor of production" - it has feet.
So the result of this corporate enginnering of the global trade system is a huge movement of people following the wealth and jobs, with or without visas. Until the trade system is re-engineered to keep and reinvest wealth in poor countries, no walls or technology will stop illegal immigration. But this would mean drastic profit reductions for Republican (and some Democratic) corporate donors, a no-no. So they will continue to debate walls and jail time and green card systems while their corporate backers generate more illegal immigration.
What to do? The town of La Fortuna, Costa Rica, offers a solution. Happy tourists are Costa Rica's second or third largest source of income. Much of that income does not stay in the country because it goes to American, Spanish, and other foreign hotel companies. Not in La Fortuna, a popular destintion because it is next to the active Arenal volcano (no, it did not erupt while we were there, but it did make a lot of noise and spit out some lava). La Fortuna, once a sleepy cattle village, is now dotted with hotels, tour outfitters, tourist guides. But they are local. For the most part, local entrepreneurs built the hotels and run the treks. There are no chain fast foode restaurants (best hambuger I have ever had was from the Pollo La Famlia, run by a local family). Our conversations with the locals found unanimity on the point: the money stayed in La Fortuna and so did the people.
There is a lesson here. But the hearings in Laredo and San Diego won't teach it.