Thread: Calderon Blocked From Delivering State-of-the-Union

(At least) 40% of his broken country lives in poverty, which he undoubtedly wants to dump into the U.S. rather than fundamentally solve.
He should stop the trade policies and corruption in his own country that cause this rather than burdening U.S. middle class taxpayers. We've had enough!!

"He boasted that Mexican consulates in the United States have been fortified to protect the rights of millions of Mexicans living there illegally".

I consider Calderon's statement a declaration of WAR.

I just read some comments for this story at the site.

One poster,Missgolightly,says Calderon was mis-quoted because of translation mistakes.

It is a long post but worth a read and I answered her post with a plea that Calderon quite sending his citizens to the neighbors house to be taken care of.

"Wherever there is a Mexican," he said, "that is Mexico."

LOL. SO COULD WE SAY WHERE EVER THERE IS AN AMERICAN....THAT IS AMERICA? ARENT THERE AMERICANS IN MEXICO?

Calderon vowed to..."IMPROVE LIVING CONDITIONS OF THE 40% OF MEXICANS LIVING IN POVERTY"...

Let's see now, that would mean that 40M (40%) of the population of 100M Mexicans are living in poverty . Now how do you suppose Calderon intends to improve their living conditions? You guessed it...they will be exported to the US!

They have certainly done a great job of exporting the first 30M to the US, but just look at the bright side...only 40M more to come!

This cretin is actually a secret weapon of sorts. Every time Calderon opens his mouth he starts nattering away about how the US is obligated to accept all his impoverished peasants he dumps on us, we shouldn't build a fence, etc, etc. His blitherings invariably make it to the newpapers and probably helps more Americans see Mexico for the threat it is.

Thanks Felipe!

I don't want to sound inflamatory but do any of you actually speak spanish, follow the political scene in Mexico, or visit Mexico on a regular basis? Or do you blindly believe everything the papers tell you?

I am sure I'm going to get blasted for this but I feel I have to say this. I am all for legal immigration to the United States. Remember the sign on Ellis Island which said "Give us your tired, your poor, your hungry..." . We invited all of these people to our country. Most of us wouldn't be here if somewhere in our linage (sp) hadn't immigrated from somewhere else. I'm also with all of you on the battle against ILLEGAL immigration.

My wife is from Mexico. She came here legally by applying for and receiving a visa from the United States Government. We got married and she applied for, paid for, and received a Change of Status from that same government and is now studying for her citizeship test. She believes in doing everything by the book, that way there are no problems later. We had a small problem getting a visa for her son (his father had moved and we needed his permission) and we never thought for a minute about bringing him here illegally even though we had several people offer that option to us. We waited and now he is going through his Change of Status process at this time.

I also have a job where I travel in Mexico a lot. Not just to the bigger cities but also to the outlying villages and towns. And, you might have guessed, I have a very important portion of my family which lives in Mexico. I have seen Mexico when 55% of the population lived in poverty and I have witnessed the changes over the last almost 7 years under the guidance of the PAN Party. It is for these reasons I follow very closely the political scene in Mexico.

The Post does a great job of reporting on most things but translating and interpreting spanish is not one of their stronger points. They have a real tendency to lean toward the Right rather than stick to the middle. In this instance they reported what was said by President Calderon and not what was meant. In spanish (for those of you who don't know this) it's not always what you say, it's how it's said.

Did you miss the point where he said over 600,000 jobs have been created in the last 8 months? What the Post missed was he also said more jobs are on the way. His goal is to keep the younger Mexicans in mexico, with good jobs, in order to create and keep a middle class. Something Mexico has never had before because of the PRI party has been in power for 70 years before President Fox. That is the number 1 reason the younger Mexicans leave and come to the U.S. illegally is because they are trying to feed and house their families. By creating jobs more Mexicans will stay home rather than risk the trip to the U.S. (by the way, the most recent Homeland Security report says the number of illegal crossing the border at this time has increased, however, the number of MEXICANS crossing the border has dropped 20% from this time last year. Most are from Central and South America.)

One of the other points the post kinda missed is they used the wrong definition of the word "fortalece". It can mean three or more things in correct spanish (to fortify, to strengthen, or to stiffen), however to a native speaker it literally means "to increase in numbers." So when The Post implied they were fortifying their embassies and consulates it didn't mean they were building bigger and better walls or they were arming the consulates, it meant they had increased the staff to handle the number of people approaching them for help with the problems of illegal immigration; something our congress called for almost two years ago.

Two other things I would like to comment on and then I'll get off my soap box. One, President Calderon has done a fantastic job of slowing the flow of drugs into the United States. He has allowed the heads of the cartels already in prison to be extradited to the U.S. (at the request of the Supreme Court), he has had 9 or 10 multi-million dollar busts in the last 3 months alone and the Narcos (the police who are responsible for stopping the flow of drugs) have received an increase in salary (that was to stop them from receiving bribes from the trafficers, and it's worked), and help from the military. He knows he can never completely stop it but he has put a considerable dent in it already. What he is asking for is help from the U.S. similar to the help we gave Columbia about 10 years ago. Basically that is help from our intelligence resources, training from our law enforcement, and the ability to purchase new and modern equipment from the U.S. to aid in the effort.

The second thing is when he said "Wherever there is a Mexican, there is Mexico" it was not ment to be imflammatory. As I said before, we are all here because at sometime in the past one of our relatives immigrated here. We all have traditions that have been handed down from our families and we pass those on to our children. All he meant was that just because a person is not currently living in the land where they were born doesn't mean they have to give up that culture. We celebrate Mexican holidays in our house and we always will because my wife is proud of her heritage, just as I am proud of my heritage (which happens to be Irish and Native American).

Change doesn't happen overnight. Mexico is going through a kind of political revolution. A party is in power who isn't robbing the people blind and keeping them sub-serviant. The stronger the middle class gets, the fewer illegals will come to the U.S. I'm just wondering what country will provide our migrant workers then?

Welcome aboard IFlyu2.

I'm just wondering what country will provide our migrant workers then?

So long as there is unemployment and underemployment in the US, I cannot accept your presumption that we even need "migrant" workers.

The total number of Americans looking for jobs EXCEEDS the number of those which have managed to get here illegally and find jobs (roughly, 7 million of the total of [purported] 12 million).

And, yes, LEGAL imported workers do deserve a fair deal - but, that assumes that we have an immigration system that is objective and free of corruption and manipulation - both of which conditions DO NOT EXIST! When the current system to bring in legal workers is revamped to ensure that those which enter do so under 'our' terms (not corporate America's, nor multinationals...) - and ensure 99.99% compliance with the letter and spirit of US immigration law, then I can have the long discussion about bringing in more legal high-tech/skilled workers as well..

Remember the sign on Ellis Island which said "Give us your tired, your poor, your hungry..." . We invited all of these people to our country

These are words by a poet (Emma Lazarus) which were written in part as a dedication of the statue of liberty to the US (from France). It was written and/or published about 1887 - far after the inception of the United States.

Further, the words are meaningless with respect to official US Immigration Law. It's a nice idea, the words sound 'nice' - but they are officially meaningless.

This is a comment to the article. See the others at.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... id=topnews




missgolightly wrote:
It is an interesting exercise to read how American media portray happenings of other countries, particularly your own. Sad though, to read an article that portrays us as a backyard nation. To begin with, the article's facts are not complete. He was not blocked from delivering the state-of-the union address it was a political deal to obtain more votes for the much needed reforms that will improve the country. Furthermore, the much vilified quote on "wherever there's a Mexican there's Mexico" was not worded as such in Spanish, and definetely not in the context in which many of you have interpreted. It meant no disrespect or breach of sovereignty or pseudo-nazi implications (as one of you implied); it was a shout out for all the people that due to the 70+ years of corrupt PRI government have been forced to leave this WONDERFUL land and have sought oportunities elsewhere - they are not alone. Immigration is a shamefull occurrence, but one that President Calderón has been actively trying to solve by improving our country and creating more job oportunities. Also, he has been trying to obtain better conditions for Mexicans abroad; why is that so bad? And, the Mexican Immigration officers that deal with our own immigrants from our fellow Latin American countries are much nicer than the American ones (they don't kill them on sight); plenty of free-legal counsel and oportunities are offered for them - unfortunately Mexico is no land of oportunity just yet and all these immigrants usually end up in the US. I am not proud of many of the shortcomings brouth forth by 70+ years of corrupt administration; however I am extremely PROUD to be a Mexican. I've studied hard, worked hard, studied a Masters degree in the US (a nation I love and respect and whose culture I've tried to understand; I take the best of all my experiences there and learn what needs to be applied here in Mexico), and came back Home to make it a better place for us Mexicans. We might have 40% of our population living in poverty and much more problems within; and yes hinder you Americans with our immigrants (which we hope soon will have no further reason to leave home); but we have not invaded other countries boasting our superiority or offended other cultures by pretending our own is the best one. I suggest you study Mexico, it's amazing Culture and it's rich History in-depth before issuing a baseless opinion. We all have good and bad in us ... why should nations be any different?
9/2/2007 9:02:28 PM