At the Movies
Bill Buckley receives a mysterious summons to watch a little known movie entitled The Lives of Others at a near empty theater on the assurance that it is a great film. It's German with subtitles and about the Stasi. Buckley is captivated though most of us have never heard of it. But then in our world of safety, why would we?
posted by wretchardthecat at 5/23/2007 01:37:00 PM
9 Comments:
John Fund told an amazing tale:
Compared to our population, the illegals crossing the borders problem was worse in 1950 than it is now:
Ike sent one of his Generals from Europe down with orders to secure the border, and warn businesses that they would be outed and shamed if they cheated, and put out of business if they didn't stop.
Then he upped the Braccero program to 500k a year coming up to do seasonal work.
In a couple of years, illegals went from over half a million a year to 50,000!
Then, when LBJ got elected, the Unions, and our hero Cezar Chavez got him to do away with the Bracero program.
That, and 3 fixes from DC Ted and Co brings us to today.
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"The railroad Bracero program ended promptly with the conclusion of World War II, in 1945, but the agricultural program under various forms survived until 1964, when the two governments ended it as a response to harsh criticisms and reports of human rights abuses. The program made a large contribution to U.S. agriculture, leading to the advent of mechanized farming. However the program, for the most part from a humanitarian standpoint, was deemed a complete and utter failure.[citation needed]
The workers who participated in the Bracero Program have generated significant local and international struggles challenging the US government and Mexican government to identify and return deductions taken from their pay, from 1942 to 1948, for savings accounts which they were legally guaranteed to receive upon their return to Mexico at the conclusion of their contracts. Many, if not most, never received their savings. However, lawsuits presented in federal courts in California, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, highlighted the substandard conditions and documented the ultimate destiny of the savings accounts deductions, but the suit was thrown out because the Mexican banks in question never operated in the United States."
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The Bracero communities of my youth were far better than many today living in the hills of California:
They were provided food and housing on the farms;
A little policing to avoid exploitation, and the problem would be solved.
The guy that became owner of the San Diego Chargers got his start catering lunch for the campesinos!
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"encomiums"
en·co·mi·um /ɛnˈkoʊmiəm/
–noun, plural -mi·ums, -mi·a /-miə/ Pronunciation
. a formal expression of high praise; eulogy: An encomium by the President greeted the returning hero.
You got to love Buckley. He's better than reading a thesaurus.
El Presidente Jorge Arbusto sings praises of some of great heros of our time:
Cesar Chavez, Che, Hugo...
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The movie was very highly recommended to us by a friend who is a psychoanalyst, who grew up in Communist Romania. Unfortunately it left the theaters around here before we got to it.
"The Lives of Others" is not available on Netflix yet, but will be soon.
A good solution for the farm owners would be to sell out, use the money to lease farms in Mexico move down there. They would have all the cheep labor they need. They could then demand that the Mexican goverment teach their kids in English and enjoy the pleasures of Mexican socity.
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