Today´s ¨La Prensa Libre¨published an interview by Luisa F. Rodriguez with the U.S. Ambassador to Guatemala.
http://www.prensalibre.com/pl/2008/julio/10/249703.html
I have just a couple of reactions.
The ambassador, James Derham, claims that the U.S.´s main mission in Guatemala is to help the country create more opportunities for its citizens so that they do not have to leave to immigrate (illegally) to the U.S.
Okay. I´m fine with that (even though it is a selfish motive, intended to prevent the U.S. from losing jobs and becoming too bilingual).
What I have a problem with is what Derham says later in the interview. He proposes that one of the solutions to the problem of migrant workers leaving Guatemala is a free trade agreement with the United States. However, free trade, as many scholars and economists have pointed out, serves primarily to create low-wage jobs for unskilled workers. In a country like Guatemala, where the large majority of the population is illiterate even in Spanish--not to mention English, the language of negocios, there are precious few ways for the people here to benefit from reduced tariffs on exporting to the U.S. Instead, what will happen (as has happened in Chile, and as will probably happen in Colombia and Peru now) is that the elites who already have the benefits of good educations and business skills (and connections) will be able to exploit Guatemalan labor even further, and keep all the profits for themselves.
The only thing I wonder when I read things like this interview is this: do policy makers actually know all of this, and just not care? Or do they really not actually get it?
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i think a lot of people have a hard time imagining that there are so many people who don't have the privilege of an education and therefore remain illiterate. at least that's what i think in order to give lawmakers the benefit of the doubt. they may "know" but do they really? how can you if you don't have experience yourself and you've never been challenged to think of a life any different than the one you've lived. those stories are the "exception" rather than the "rule" from their perspective.
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