The US-Mexican Border Fence 20 years after NAFTA – Danae Stratou’s installation

English Politics and Economics Uncategorized Vital Space 630 Views 17 comments February 12, 2014

On 6th and 7th February 2014, the LBJ School of Public Affairs (University of Texas at Austin) organised a conference on the 20 years since the signing of the North America Free Trade Agreement Treaty, entitled NAFTA+20: Intended and Unintended Consequences. The organisers commissioned Danae Stratou to produce a photographic installation in the entrance of the auditorium in order to capture the experience of the US-Mexican Border Fence after NAFTA. The above video contains stills from that photographic installation plus the video (entitled THE GLOBALISING WALL) that Stratou presented and showed in the conference’s final panel.

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17 Comments

  • Nice fence. I bet Brussels will soon build one around the EU to prevent People from running away from their socialist dream camp!

    Reply

    • Wrong direction. I mean a fence that prevents that citizens of EU Nation states will leave the EU. Just like East Germany, Czech Republic etc. had 30 years ago.

    • “Nice fence. I bet Brussels will soon build one around the EU to prevent People from running away from their socialist dream camp!”

      That comment, SoundMoney, is a new low – even by your standards.

      I wonder where the freedom loving people of Europe would want to run away to in order to escape this new european socialism. Perhaps northern Africa? What about central Asia or the middle east? Or maybe they could find some hillbilly militia in the US who share their love for white supremacist freedom fighting. I’m sure they have some nice big fences over there and the necessary firepower to keep out the henchmen of their socialist federal governement.

      One would think you at least deserved some points for effort and creativity, because, after all, bending reality like that must take a considerable amount of willpower and imagination. If only it wasn’t just another rendition of ordinary libertarian Tea Party propaganda.

    • Africa? No better idea than that? Maybe you have seen not a lot of the world, but given that one does not have to work, there are a LOT of places to go to. Even if one Needs to work there are still a few.

      Switzerland, Norway, Chile, Mexico, Brazil, just to name a few. Officially some might be socialist places, but the state does not function well enough to steal all of your money. As for now foreign credit cards work very well, you do not have to move your money there.

      So what you do is you have official residency in country A, have your money in country B and in reality live in country C. You can pick cherries. In Mexico you make a personal deal with the tax guy, in Brazil you pay no tax on local dividends, etc…

      So the options are plenty and the EU nationalists, comrade Barroso and Capo Schulz (who has not even finished high school) are chasing Ferraris on bicycles…

    • Given that one would be in the comfortable position of having so much money that one would not have to work for a living, it would seem that one was a rather miserly type of character, whining so much about taxes despite one’s considerable personal wealth. Especially given that one is even advertising bribery as a means of saving one’s precious assets from the grabbing hands of european bolshevik conspiracy.

    • SoundsMoney
      Then, Who do you think should pay for upkeeping roads, powerlines, internet developement, Who do you think will pay for the roads YOU use? For infrastructure that earlier generations had built and you use today?

      What condition of infrastructure do you believe next generation should be left with, the one you used and not payed to keep up?
      You did not pay for the infrastructure that you use and enjoy, developement of which requeierd multiple generations. And now you do not want to contribute to at least upkeep, let alone further developement so that your kids and grandkids could use to support your retirement. If you leave next generations with crappy infrastructure, what do you think they will use their effort for; for rebuilding needed infrastructure or for providing your retirement with goods and services? Do you think that it is possible to provide for your retirement if they are left with cappy infrastructure?

      Do you really believe that you do not need to contribute to your society? Do you really believe that you deserve everything for free?
      If i ever saw biggest slackers then this liberaterian free grabers. Are you sure that you are not one of the anarchist that desire infrastructurless conditions like Somalia?

    • …And just to feed the troll a little extra:
      What about the police forces of such libertarian utopias like – let’s say – Mexico, Chile or Brazil whose ample salaries are funded by the taxes imposed on anybody else but oneself? I bet they would be outright grateful to have the honour of defending one’s tax-free money, health and personal freedom against a few million have-nots outside the walls of one’s gated community. That is, if their cars didn’t get stuck in the potholes not filled by the government whose taxes one didn’t feel obliged to pay.

    • Always the same argument “who will build the roads”.

      Hubert, please look at huch your government spends on ifrastructure and education as % of total spend. It will be sobering also for you.

      If you ever come to an “emerging country” please use one of the private toll roads and try to find a pothole.

    • I am sure you will be glad to hear me concede that my governement spends only 8.52% of it’s annual budget on roads and infrastructure and a whopping 4.43% on education and that these are only its fifth and sixth largest expenditures.
      Positions three and two, of course, are costs of administration (read: inefficient socialist bureaucracy) and national debt (i.e. irresponsible borrowing beyond its means). Second in comes national defense.
      And – lo and behold! – with 38,46% of its annual budget, the most expensive position in my government’s annual budget, amounting to roughly three times as much as infrastructure and education combined is – you knew it all along – social security.

      Taking the liberty of making an attempt at reading your mind now, I’m guessing that your solution to any problems my socialist government might have with potholes or the general stupidity of its population could be easily fixed by finally plugging that money sink and using the resulting surplus for a massive tax reduction programme for you and your fellow victims of government leeching, which would finally give you the means to build your own private roads and schools and to finance the private army you would then need to keep the rest of us away from your property.

      I give up. You win.

    • Thank you!

      “You knew it all along”. Correct. I think one can take any country´s Budget and what you describe will be more or less the outcome.

      Remarks:
      (1) My children already go to private school.
      (2) I do not Need a private army. In contrast to most People who live on other peoples money (bureaucrats, politicians, etc) we live very low profile.
      (3) I use private roads almost daily. They are not mine, but I I pay for using them.

      So your conclusions were correct, but all this is already in place without the tax reduction you claim to be the cause for it.

  • Nice slides.
    It clearly shows racionalizations of wall builders against opposing, watchers side.
    Is it walls buit by Soviet block in Berlin or USA on the border, they show rationalizations to make people not cooperate. And it preserves divisions instead of reducing them.
    Is there more damage to people from enforcing walls or by abusers of freedom?
    What is the resoning behind no death penalty? The same reasoning should be applied to building walls that divide people.

    Earth can not accomodate 9 B people if we are divided by more then 200 borders and separate organizational structures/ states that waste resources. But Earth can accomodate 15B people if there is only few organizational institutions that effectivelly organize us. Think Economies of the scale. Less division can accomodate more people with same ammount of resources. Because then, human resource becomes more effective then limit of natural resources.

    Money is only the way of motivating and distribution of cooperative production, not some store of value. Money as Store of value is detrimental to cooperation and money as exchange value. Cooperation, not division is the only sustainable way.
    Forming of the EU used such rationale, and the future lays in keeping such rationale alive, not on the separate value of money and debt. Not on system’s dependent distribution scale that those in power decided upon.
    Those in power decided that distribution should be skewed toward distributionists / leaders (CEOs, Politicians, PMs, and distributionists themselves like bankers) even tough we all are dependent on each other, but they want more value for their work. I do not find more value in their work then in my work. Neither i find more value in time given to work by them then by me. I value my time with familly and friends just as leaders do, but they demand more compensation for the same. That is the present system.

    I want cooperation and Golden rule, not division and Gold Standard.

    Reply

    • >>>if there is only few organizational institutions that effectivelly organize us.
      Wow, you are sure missing the good old times when Yugoslavia had dictator(s)!

      Let´s call the EU Euroslavia for now!

  • Jordan from Croatia, please take a look at a government budget and check what percentage of total spend go into infrastructure (DE 8,5% ), education (DE 4,5%) and police (DE 2%). It will be a sobering moment that will change your views that taxes are good.

    Besides that, that green people (eco-fashists) will make sure that there is no infrastructure even if there was money!

    >>>Do you really believe that you deserve everything for free?

    No. I happily pay for services I ordered. In addition I do not expect anybody to bail me out, pay my health insurance, pay for my food, etc..

    Reply

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