AMERICA, CANADA AND MEXICO: A TALE OF THREE ECONOMICALLY DIVERSE COUNTRIES

… AMERICA DOES NOT KNOW HOW TO SOLVE ITS PROBLEMS WITH MEXICO. – PART II.

By Mansor Puteh

So what am I trying to tell America a.k.a. Uncle Sam and the smart people in the country?

I am trying to tell America, there’s no point for them to raise the wall or fence dividing their border with Mexico and trying to ferret out those Mexicans who have dug tunnels in the ground to smuggle drugs and themselves into America. This is an old plot.

They spend so much money trying to give the impression that they know how to solve the problem of human and drug smuggling from Mexico to America, building fences which get taller by the day, and introducing more punitive measures which are not effective as the problems still remain.

More secret tunnels are exposed but others still remain where humans and drugs pass through unhindered with its cargo of humans ending up in factories and drugs into the bodies of Americans.

This is a dramatic way to solve the problem, but it is not effective. But it is not a smart way to solve this problem which is obvious does not happen in such fashion or manner on the northern border with Canada.

Many Mexicans are drawn to America not because of the American life they want to lead or to be able to write and speak in English.

They just want to find jobs.

Many of them are not well-educated. They are willing to do anything. The least and the most harmful of which, to them, is by entering America illegally.

It is a tradition that was created by many Mexicans long ago, so it is now almost as such, a Mexican tradition.

Some of them get caught; some others manage to enter America where they quickly assimilate with the local Mexican-Americans who still speak Spanish.

If they marry the Mexican-Americans, they can get to stay on in the country.

But there are many who are not lucky, and they get caught.

America takes action against those who are caught living illegally in the country and against those who try to enter it illegally or to smuggle drugs.

But America does not have any long-term plans to solve these problems which have been repeated again and again.

Once in a while, stories of Mexican exploits are turned into Hollywood films or in American news reports.

American top brains do not seem to know how to deal with this issue with the Mexicans.

It is an issue that will continue as long as the level of economy between the two countries differs immensely.

And no amount of law enforcement will be able to stop many Mexicans from trying their luck to enter America illegally. Some will get caught and repatriated, while some others will be successful, and they can easily assimilate in the Mexican and other Hispanic communities not only in El Paso but also elsewhere in the country.

So the real effort to solve the problem with border encroachment by Mexicans would be for America to look at Mexico and the Mexicans straight in the eye, and see what they need.

It’s plain and simple that Mexico is in desperate need of economic development.

The Mexicans who were caught smuggling drugs and themselves did not like to do what they were doing. But what choice did they have?

If America could lend support and promote economic development in Mexico, most of the problems of drug manufacturing and smuggling can be solved as there will not be that many Mexicans anymore who would want to enter the country by illegal means.

They can go to America as respectable tourists, spending their tourist dollars and feel proud that they are accepted not with scorn but as human beings.

American leaders have all failed to look at the problem of border encroachment and drug manufacturing and smuggling by Mexicans in this way.

They only know how to look at it by blaming the Mexicans for being economically backward and building higher fences along their borders and increasing the number of law enforcement officers to stop Mexicans from crossing into America illegally and to arrest drug smugglers from that country.

Canada and Mexico are America’s closest neighbors. Canada is developed while Mexico is not. If this continues to exist, then one can say America has got its priorities wrong. If it could not cause the development of a country which is linked by land to it and some of whose land it had possessed, then the fate of the others further down in South America proper and elsewhere is bleak.

Therefore, America cannot claim to be champions of the cause of equality, democracy and freedom. It has failed in Mexico and much of South America. It has failed in Cuba and the rest of the world.

So there is really nothing that America can be proud of. Its system and ways have not caused other countries to develop, the end result is in the problems it faces with Mexico, as reported earlier in this article.

It is also seen in the poverty the other countries in South America experience; never mind those in Africa, Asia and the Arab and Muslim Worlds, even when some of them are blessed by having oil. It still does not mean much.

America has not caused these countries to be able to enjoy the effects of its existence and the values they treasure.

And if the American Dream encompasses all, then why has Mexico, of all countries, has been left out?

Why was America so eager to relocate its major factories in China, when it could have taken it south of their border, to Mexico?

American enforcement officers should not feel proud to arrest the kingpins and destroy tunnels that were constructed by the Mexican drug and human smugglers into America.

They should find ways on how to stop the problem at its base, in a civilized way so that such incidents do not occur.