9/05/2007
A couple of things.
Our blog-pal, JANNA, who posts messages on Immigration Monday, has a fine immigration blog of her own. You can click on it on her postings. Yo, Janna--why don't you write a guet editorial for us here?
SECOND: The Warrior and I were cyber-chatting about how fed up and depressed and angry I have been about the immigration debacle. Witness my last post. Blech! However, he must be an Oprah viewer, too, because he mentioned what I've been thinking about. Part of the solution? I think so.
That's www.Kiva.org. Did you see it? Kiva is the way in which you can micro-invest in any part of the world. People needing help in, say, Guadalajara (Ceylon, Delhi, Mombassa, you name it) post their business plan on Kiva. They might only need $500 to get a business started. But you help give them the loan. $25 is all you can give. And they have to pay you back.
You communicate with them and find out how they're doing. You can help save the world--or at least save the hideous immigrant crisis with your money. WQarrior points out that's, what, four large coffees at Starbuck's.
We are giving each of our kids $100 and helping them invest in four businesses. They can watch their investment make someone's dream come true. Then, they re-invest their $25 when they get paid back. Four times four times four...on and on. Sounds good, doesn't it?
THIRD: I don't mean to say I told you so, but I told you so.
Check the front page of the New York Times this morning. (Wed. Sep. 5, 2007--you can go to their website and get it.) Article by the ever-reliable Julia Preston: "Short on Labor, Farmers in U.S. Shift to Mexico." Uh-huh. What'd I tell ya? Remember my constant blathering about work force troubles here? How the "illegals" are staying home more and more? How the new beefier interdiction policies are scaring folks away, and at the same time, making hiring more difficult for farmers? Since...no offense...good urban Americanos don't intend to ever, EVER, stoop to pick lettuce or tomatoes, strawberries or cotton. They won't even pick apples. I know, I'm a stuck record.
Oh, wait--we don't have records anymore.
So farmers are utsourcing themselves! Check it and see. Farmers are going to Mexico to raise their American lettuce there on rented farmsland. Legal workers. Cheap costs. No immigration raids. No protesters. No draconian hiring laws and improvised local immigration laws. Nothing but Mexicans on Mexican soil growing American food for Americans.
IUs this the solution? I don't know. It's a solution. Do we like it?
Is Farmer John going to be Farmer Juan from now on? Is Mr. Greenjeans going to be Senor Huaraches? It's totally fascinating. As this trend continues, you will see fewer workers coming...again.
Now, in a few years, when your favorite talk radio show is bellowing that the American farm is in danger, you can remember that Luis "Mr. Sunshine" Urrea kept trying to tell this story on his li'l blog.
The coffee's on. There's a great horned owl haunting our trees at night. And this morning, the wild turkey is lurking out under my forsythia, making weird little fretful noises. Chickadees and cardinals at the feeder. This is middle America. We don' got no stinkin problems here.
Wish you were here...
Luis
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Our blog-pal, JANNA, who posts messages on Immigration Monday, has a fine immigration blog of her own. You can click on it on her postings. Yo, Janna--why don't you write a guet editorial for us here?
SECOND: The Warrior and I were cyber-chatting about how fed up and depressed and angry I have been about the immigration debacle. Witness my last post. Blech! However, he must be an Oprah viewer, too, because he mentioned what I've been thinking about. Part of the solution? I think so.
That's www.Kiva.org. Did you see it? Kiva is the way in which you can micro-invest in any part of the world. People needing help in, say, Guadalajara (Ceylon, Delhi, Mombassa, you name it) post their business plan on Kiva. They might only need $500 to get a business started. But you help give them the loan. $25 is all you can give. And they have to pay you back.
You communicate with them and find out how they're doing. You can help save the world--or at least save the hideous immigrant crisis with your money. WQarrior points out that's, what, four large coffees at Starbuck's.
We are giving each of our kids $100 and helping them invest in four businesses. They can watch their investment make someone's dream come true. Then, they re-invest their $25 when they get paid back. Four times four times four...on and on. Sounds good, doesn't it?
THIRD: I don't mean to say I told you so, but I told you so.
Check the front page of the New York Times this morning. (Wed. Sep. 5, 2007--you can go to their website and get it.) Article by the ever-reliable Julia Preston: "Short on Labor, Farmers in U.S. Shift to Mexico." Uh-huh. What'd I tell ya? Remember my constant blathering about work force troubles here? How the "illegals" are staying home more and more? How the new beefier interdiction policies are scaring folks away, and at the same time, making hiring more difficult for farmers? Since...no offense...good urban Americanos don't intend to ever, EVER, stoop to pick lettuce or tomatoes, strawberries or cotton. They won't even pick apples. I know, I'm a stuck record.
Oh, wait--we don't have records anymore.
So farmers are utsourcing themselves! Check it and see. Farmers are going to Mexico to raise their American lettuce there on rented farmsland. Legal workers. Cheap costs. No immigration raids. No protesters. No draconian hiring laws and improvised local immigration laws. Nothing but Mexicans on Mexican soil growing American food for Americans.
IUs this the solution? I don't know. It's a solution. Do we like it?
Is Farmer John going to be Farmer Juan from now on? Is Mr. Greenjeans going to be Senor Huaraches? It's totally fascinating. As this trend continues, you will see fewer workers coming...again.
Now, in a few years, when your favorite talk radio show is bellowing that the American farm is in danger, you can remember that Luis "Mr. Sunshine" Urrea kept trying to tell this story on his li'l blog.
The coffee's on. There's a great horned owl haunting our trees at night. And this morning, the wild turkey is lurking out under my forsythia, making weird little fretful noises. Chickadees and cardinals at the feeder. This is middle America. We don' got no stinkin problems here.
Wish you were here...
Luis
# posted by Luis @ 8:10 AM 
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