Beyond Rangoon

With President Trump taking office, there is a lot of media focus on plans to increase security at our southern border, such this article. That's not going to really solve the problem on its own but the US government cannot reasonably take responsibility for the development of stable, functional societies south of the border that would solve it.

I think a carrot and stick approach tends to fail when both the carrots and sticks are from the same source. Some people will extremely stubbornly refuse to believe you actually mean it when you say x, y or z will not be tolerated if you are ALSO "being nice" to them at the same time and "trying to help them" and LA LA LA not listening to anything and everything you say about your stated goals to fix the problem.

The 1995 movie Beyond Rangoon primarily tells the fictional story inspired by real events of an American woman whose life dramatically changes due to traveling to Burma during a political crisis. Rangoon is the city she goes to visit and it is relatively insulated from the violence tearing the country apart, so the story is of how her eyes are opened when she leaves the whitewashed touristy stuff and goes outside the city and learns what is really going on in the country.

If you haven't seen the movie, the dry Wikipedia piece doesn't do it justice. Here is a clip from the closing scene where this American doctor, too depressed to work or get a life after her husband and child died in a home invasion, decides to volunteer for as long as they need her at one of the border stations taking in refugees, many of whom are wounded in the process of fleeing their wartorn country.

The problem neighbors of Burma had was trying to offer compassionate relief to refugees without just inviting everyone to flood over the border. Minus the military violence, this is what America is facing.

The US needs Mexico and other nations in Central and South America to fix their shit so that CHOOSING to be an illegal alien and risk dying in the attempt are not more attractive than staying put.

I'm in the process of moving existing writing of mine from elsewhere to this site. Some of that writing shares my thoughts on how countries south of the border can work on creating stable, functioning economies realistically with the population and other assets available to them.

Many individuals won't want to wait for Mexico et al to improve and will continue to want to go to America as the quick and easy answer for THEM. 

I'm just one woman who happens to be knowledgeable about certain things and I write because I can. Feel free to wildly misinterpret that as me having a giant ego or whatever idiotic conclusion you care to draw.

This post has a label of South.of.the.Border. it is the FIRST such post on THIS site but will not be the last and I hope to soon move related posts from elsewhere.

In the meantime, you might wish to check out posts tagged Development.Recipe if you are south of the border and trying to figure out how to stabilize your economy in the face of American policy making it harder for people to simply up and leave.






Popular Posts