Tijuana is across a man made bridge from San Diego to the third world...
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Avinashjee has just written an
article about his post doc experience bussing around at UCSD. I thought
I would write about the other side of the coin, across the border in
Tijuana.
I visited Tijuana, probably 20 years ago: The
contrast between San Diego and Tijuana, is from the first world to the
third world across a man made bridge. The bridge might have changed to
something more accesable but the contrast ,surely, still remains.
In fact
the contrast is that much greater, because, the US is up in arms
against illegal immigration in general and illegal immigration from
Mexico in particular. The Congress supported by Bush's one libera
instinct wished to legalize the 12 million illegals that live and work
in the USA These are hard working people taking low level jobs that no
American wants. The majority of these are Chicanos(Mexicans) who have
largely flitted across from Mexico. But the large number of
conservatives in Bush's base, shut him up and turned the tables to
introduce draconian measures to cut the number of illegals. Like
the Bangladesh border with India, the US is building a fence to keep
the 'wet backs' out. Mexican illegals are called wet backs as they are
supposed to swim illegally across the river, the Rio Grande. And in the
process of this crossing they get their backs wet..
The San Diego
border with Tijuana, Mexico is one such border crossing.. I remember
taking a bus from San Diego to the border. There we were asked to
alight from the bus and walk across the border. On one side was a
rather pristine pavement , nicely manicured lawns and pruned
bushes late model cars and modern buses. As you climb the trestle
bridge half way through the climb you start seeing the change:
the graffiti on the walls, the garbage strewn on the
walkway even the upkeep of the bridge looks different, as it looks
shabby and unkempt. When you come down to earth on the other side, you
see plain a garden variety mud pavement, collected puddles , open
garbage and naked children.
I wonder how the US can think that keeping this
contrast in living styles and job opportunities, they can keep the
Chicanos out. It looks as if the educated Indians are no longer coming
to the first world, though there is still illegal traffic from the poor
villages of the Punjab, Bihar,UP and the South trickling into the West
and the US. The same applies to immigration from Bangladesh: you cannot
have a basket case like Bangladesh on one side of the border, with jobs
available on the other and expect the Bangladeshis to stay put on their
side of their border.
Tijuana
is essentially a tourist trap: A lot of curios and knicknacks are sold
in little shops with vigorous haggling going on for the exchange of a
few pesos. If you go further into town, you see how the American dollar
affects a poor neighboring nation: a profusion of bars and
rampant prostitution: Go into the bar you get drinks at
exorbitant(American) prices and heavily lipsticked and rouged
women showing their wares: a kind of Grant Road gone berserk. The sight
sickened me, I gathered my curios and walked back to the American
border: As this was a pre 9/11 (terrorist attack) trip, the US
immigration official did not bother to examine my passport and waved me
through. Tijuana is worth visiting to see the difference a border
makes. A walk across from the first to the third world.
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