The Subjugation Has Not Stopped

It seems as though governments never have the best interest of the people in mind as they go about constantly making changes. They never stop to consider what the bad consequences might be… or if they do, they just don’t care. They only seem to feel concerned about what the benefits will be, and most importantly, that the select few are the ones who will be receiving those benefits.

Many times, in Latin America, a new policy can sound like a very good thing, but only for those who have the upper hand. Those who end up suffering because of it are simply ignored, even when it becomes a question of violations of basic human rights.  An example of this is when neoliberalism opened the doors for all sorts of assembly plants to come into Mexico. The main reason these maquiladoras came to Mexico was for the cheap labor force, and mostly, it is women who are exploited by these corporations. In some U.S-owned factories, women have to prove they are not pregnant before employment is given, and some of them even “require that female employees show their menstrual pads to a supervisor every month in order to keep their jobs.” (Moore-Lappe, Collins, and Rosset, p.37). A similar thing happened earlier in Puerto Rico. Since pregnancy was viewed as a loss for the companies, a plan was carried out to prevent them from occurring, so women would not need time off from work for maternity leave. It was a mix between wanting to keep the factories at full production levels, and wanting to control the burgeoning poor population. Thus, a massive sterilization campaign was carried out by the local government there, along with the International Planned Parenthood Federation, with funding by the U.S. government. Basically, women were tricked, and some forced, into accepting sterilization, without being told that it was permanent or that other options existed. (See the full documentary La Operación here…  https://video.search.yahoo.com/video/play;_ylt=A0LEVilkhfNUhNgARfknnIlQ;_ylu=X3oDMTB0dmRibmhwBHNlYwNzYwRjb2xvA2JmMQR2dGlkA1lIUzAwMV8x?p=la+operacion&tnr=21&vid=335CE0197ED73C7AE68F335CE0197ED73C7AE68F&l=3241&turl=http%3A%2F%2Fts1.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DUN.608016281234509120%26pid%3D15.1&sigi=11r7asqnf&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailymotion.com%2Fvideo%2Fxpu79i_la-operacion_shortfilms&sigr=11vhviq9l&tt=b&tit=La+Operacion&sigt=10cprv38b&back=https%3A%2F%2Fsearch.yahoo.com%2Fyhs%2Fsearch%3Fp%3Dla%2Boperacion%26ei%3DUTF-8%26hsimp%3Dyhs-001%26hspart%3Dmozilla&sigb=12ovgeurr&hspart=mozilla&hsimp=yhs-001 ) The concern is that something similar could occur in Mexico someday as well since it started on a similar path when the maquiladoras came into the country.

I’m not claiming one kind of government or political movement is better than any other. It is clear that neoliberalism and nationalism both have their faults. What I do know is that it is never a good thing when a government has too much control over the people… when it does not hesitate to steal the people’s personal choices and liberties. Likewise, most definitely, it is never a good thing when a country  is willing to hurt its own people in order to keep and attract more and more foreign interest… when a country only cares about a small portion of its own citizenry… when it purposely victimizes the poorer populace in order to make larger gains (http://www.coha.org/chinas-latest-investments-in-mexico-the-plight-of-maquiladora-workers/ ).  The atmosphere still seems to reek of conquest and domination. The subjugation has not stopped.

Frances Moore-Lappe, Joseph Collins, Peter Rosset. World Hunger Twelve Myths. 2nd edition. Grove Press