Posts Tagged ‘borders’

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Illustrating News

Tuesday, August 11th, 2009

Putting pertinent photos with a story adds impact and helps understanding.

So here’s a story about the US-Mexico border fence. And the story begins in Nogales, split between Arizona and Sonora.

Well, folks, I’ve been in Nogales lots of times in the course of fifty years or so. (Granted, some of those years I was too young to notice much.) The photo accompanying this paragraph is not Nogales!

Border fence at Nogales, Arizona and Nogales, Sonora? No!

I know, I know — the story makes no claim that it’s Nogales. But still.

So I let’s take this in a totally different direction.

Is the person in the photo a drug smuggler coming north or a gun runner going south?

Or is it an Islamic terrorist sneaking into the States or an illegal immigrant fleeing back to Mexico after murdering someone in the US?

Source: High Country News

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Tightening the Border

Thursday, April 16th, 2009

A week from this morning is scheduled to be my first morning in Mexico in almost a year.

So this headline just caught my attention: Dozen die in Mexico clash ahead of Obama trip

I clicked it to see where the latest mayhem happened and where President Barack Obama is planning to go.

In my quick scan (which answered both of my original questions), I saw this:

The Obama administration is tightening the U.S.-Mexico border

Good deal. Maybe that will slow down the illegal flow (of drugs and “undocumented workers”) northward.

But the sentence continues:

to prevent trafficking of U.S. guns to Mexican cartels

Oh.

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Posted in Politics, This and That | 1 Comment »

Borderline Perspectives

Friday, February 20th, 2009

So here’s the story: Drug violence spins Mexico toward ‘civil war’.

And here’s the piece that provokes this post:

…the United States helps fuel the violence, not only by providing a ready market for illegal drugs, but also by supplying the vast majority of weapons used by drug gangs.

Victimhood in international relations — great.

How about an alternate rendition?

…the United States Mexico helps fuel the violence, not only by providing a ready market for illegal drugs weapons used by drug gangs, but also by supplying the vast majority of weapons used by drug gangs illegal drugs.

Interesting, no?

So…do I (and/or you) do this sort of thing in my our own communicating?

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Quiz With a Point

Wednesday, January 28th, 2009

OK, here are portions of two paragraphs from the story:

…the ___ ambassador to ___, says his country wants the ___ government to fully enforce ___ laws, crack down on….

“If Mexico and the United States are going to be successful, we are going to have to tango together,” ___ said.

What’s the subject: drugs, guns, immigration?

(more…)

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FYI: Border Crossing

Wednesday, August 20th, 2008

U.S. tracking citizens’ border crossings

The U.S. government has been using its border checkpoints to collect information on citizens that will be stored for 15 years, raising concern among privacy advocates, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday.

[...]information may be shared with federal, state and local governments to test “new technology and systems designed to enhance border security or identify other violations of law,” the Post reported.

[...]

Information on international air passengers has long been collected this way but Customs and Border Protection only this year began to log the arrivals of all U.S. citizens across land borders, the Post said.

Privacy advocates raised concerns about the expanded collection of personal data and said safeguards are needed to ensure the system is not abused.

[...]

DHS spokesman Russ Knocke told the paper that the retention period was justified.

“History has shown, whether you are talking about criminal or terrorist activity, that plotting, planning or even relationships among conspirators can go on for years,” he said. “Basic travel records can, quite literally, help frontline officers to connect the dots.”

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