The Wall

I was recently involved in a discussion about “The Wall”, as one of my young relatives has been pondering about the pros and cons of its construction.  Many questions arose, such as what does it mean for the US? What does it mean for Central and South America?  Should we allow thousands of immigrants without the proper legal documentation in? Is it an invasion?  or should we have the compassion and provide for our neighbors from the south who are in dire need?

Well, the discussion centered on “The Wall” being a symptom of something going wrong south of our border. Why would people feel the need to walk miles and miles to get to the US?  Why don’t we have caravans coming down  from Canada?  Is this symptom the result of the poverty endemic to the countries in Central America?  Why is there such poverty in Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras?  Many of these countries are rich in natural and human resources, however, there is a lack of capital resources, as well as high unemployment.  Perhaps, there has been a lack of initiative to pursue enterprises, or a lack of leadership from governments to promote businesses, provide grants and to develop capital resources that would nourish their economy.

The nickname for Central and South America, has been “our back yard”, however, these countries are not a back yard by any means.  These are beautiful countries, where fantastic civilizations flourished way back and were at their peak five centuries ago, such as the Aztecs, Mayas, Incas, Chibchas and many others.  The Aztecs and Mayas left a legacy of pyramids, the Aztec Calendar, agricultural techniques such as terraces to keep the soil from eroding down the mountain sides.  Five centuries later, the remnants of these cultures have left the population with a strong desire to work, but a lack of infrastructure to obtain jobs.

What to do faced with such a crisis?  Central Americans started walking north and the US started building a wall.  Will that solve the problem?  No, it will be a band-aid, and the needs will still be there.  We are aware that one country cannot meet all the needs of a whole continent (or chose not to).  There are seven countries in Central America, twelve in South America and 15 in the Caribbean for a total of 34 countries with a total population of 181, 341,056 in Central America;  428,240,515 in South America and 44.42 million in the Caribbean in 2019 for a total of 609 million people (Wikipedia).

A systematic approach to work with each country could make a big difference.  During the presidency of George H W Bush, he talked about the Initiative of the Americas.  This has not been mentioned again.  Perhaps it is time, to retake that concept.  Rather than a band-aid solution, we need to figure out how to make the countries in our continent stronger.  America goes from Patagonia in Argentina to the Artic Circle in Canada.  A stronger continent will protect us from terrorism in our land and will create defense mechanisms to increase security in our borders.

How would an Initiative of the Americas look like?  It would be a concerted effort, to look at each country’s economy and based on their strengths and areas of need, emphasize the type of solutions, and industries that would take the markets from a point A to a point B.  The goal could be to increase employment by 10% while increasing infrastructure.  Looking at the different spheres of training, education, health, housing and roads/transportation in the next decade 2020-2030 could definitely reduce the impulse to emigrate north, and needs be met locally with fairly well-paid jobs. One country has chosen to standardize its currency, as a strategy to reduce inflation.  At this point, the currencies in Venezuela, Colombia and others are very damaging to their economies.  One dollar in Colombia is equivalent to $3,200 pesos.  It is possible to standardize the currency, as happened in Ecuador in year 2,000.  President Jamil Mahuar a Harvard graduate determined that to stabilize the Ecuatorian economy, the strategy was to adopt the American Dollar as Ecuador’s national currency.  This decision resulted in Ecuador not experiencing a downward spiral of hyperinflation and economic stagnation that has plagued its neighboring countries such as Venezuela.

So, to build or not to build the wall has been the question.  The wall is in process and as a temporary solution, we hope that will not blind our leaders to stop there.  Much needs to be done to bring back the continent up to standard, to eliminate child malnutrition and women’s mortality during birth in places like Choco, Colombia.  Our hope by 2030 to have zero hunger in America.  Make America Great, from Patagonia to the Artic Circle.