Across the Border, Down Mexico Way....

[Stavros]

Is there a crisis on the southern border of the US? The article linked below claims that Texas Governor Greg Abbot has either exaggerated, or even created one to 'militarize' the situation there, but as the article is from The Guardian, you may want to read it with a dose of salt, even if Abbot does come across a a fool. Matthew McConaughey is pondering a run at the Governorship, one assumes he could not be worse than the incumbent.

The point is that I have no real way of dealing with this other than to wonder if the cause, or causes of the problem lie in the domestic politics and economies of Central America, given that so many attempting to cross over, legally or illegallly, as asylum seekers or migrants or immigrants, are from countries like Honduras and Guatemala.

Those of you familiar with Hirschman's Exit, Voice and Loyalty may wonder if Exit is the instant reaction or the utimate choice when all else has failed, or wonder why or if giving Voice to a collapsing economy has no impact, when Loyalty seems only to benefit those who benefit from decades of corrupt and/or useles government. I don't know how much money the US has spent on Central America since the days when Ronald Reagan viewed it as a seething cauldron of Marxism-Leninism, I wager it is les than the trillion+ spent on Afghanistan and Iraq.

I once asked a Mexican who cleaned our office (he was also doing a PhD in Education and just did cleaning for extra money), what had happened to the riches Mexico had made since Cardenas nationalized the oil industry in 1938 -his response was to all but collapse on the floor in hysterical laughter. He was a genuinely intelligent and nice guy, his response said it all.

So I really don't know about this problem in the region- if it is due to bad politics, climate change or just a desire by some to earn more money in the US. But I do think something creative needs to be done to resolve the dilemma -can Joe find a way to deal with it?

The article is here-
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...-border-crisis

Exit, Voice and Loyalty summed up here-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exit,_Voice,_and_Loyalty