MaSaRa

Give a Man a Fish

..and you feed him for a day. He gets a free meal, you paid for it. Teach a man to fish and you can charge him for access to the river.

As a general rule I'm in favor of free trade, NAFTA etc. But you have to play fair. Lately I've become concerned that our farm subsidies are doing more than propping up ADM and other agribusinesses. And making corn into a Cult of Monoculture.

NAFTA has had a devastating effect on small farmers in Mexico, among others. It has delivered a third strike at a crucial time: union corruption and federal government politics have lead to a serious deterioration of education.

The Mexican constitution guarantees a free public education to every citizen. Because of political unrest in Chiapas and Tampico etc. the government has stopped funding some public schools. In some instances the government bulldozed the dorm facilities and classrooms to limit public access. Teachers in Mexico have a long tradition of being leaders in popular social movements, thus the government crackdown.

Teachers work 2 and sometimes 3 jobs to support their families. Parents pay for school repairs, textbooks etc., effectively paying tuition. Meanwhile, the federal government is using standardized testing and defunding to force the increased privatization of Mexican education.

What little income farmers could get from excess corn (excess meaning after feeding their families) is now almost completely gone, as subsidized American corn floods the Mexican market.

I don't want my taxes to pay to keep a Mexican kid out of school. It's not fair to either of us.

posted by quash @ 12:29 PM