Ok, here is what pisses me off.

You berate lower or middle class citizens of the US for saying I don't want to learn Spanish I want to work. But you absolve Mexico from taking responsibility for it's own citizens.

 

Perhaps you'd like to outline that argument.

 

Get real Mexico caused this inequity, not the middle class of America. And Corporate America sponsored it. That is the true racism.

 

They seek to enslave a certain segment of the population, whether it be illegals or lower class Americans. For now it's easier to enlist illegals.

 

The rising tide only lifts those in the boats, what about those that push those boats off the sandbars? They leave them behind without a thought.

 

I was taken out of school to get the prune harvest in when I was twelve. I worked from dawn until dusk. I couldn't stand up when the day was done, but I had to go out the next day and do it all over again.

Call me a racist if you will but I've done the work and worked beside those you say I am against. I am only against the Patron reaping huge benefits while the workers stagger home.

I've been up in the peach trees while my arms itched until I wanted to scream, but I had to get my quota for the day, so the packing sheds could fulfill their quotas.

I've worked the belts in the hulling sheds for the almonds and walnuts until that's all I thought or dreamed about for days. You watch the rats run about the roof line.

I've cut strawberry plants, until I saw them surrounding my tv screen and could only think in tens, twenties, and hundreds.

I've worked out in freezing temperatures in Nurseries, because if we didn't water the stock would freeze and die. So you watered and your toes got beyond numb, and your fingers weren't even there anymore.

Call me a racist...go ahead. But what has been your experience? I've done the work that the republican's say no gringo will do. And I'd do it again if I am able. Race has no monoply on the work that needs to be done.

 

Americans will and can do the work if you don't require them to know more than you would an illegal.

 

Do the farmers ask Mexican workers to know English?

 

Have you not gotten the concept of ONE post with what you have to say at one particular time....rather than 6 or 7 posts in a row with one real meaning?

 

I make many short posts because I know most of you young people have been raised on sound bites. It shows from your posts and pictures. You have had no life exposure so you try to empress each other with cute little quips and photos that shock.

 

This, Gardner my friend is the Question of The Week. Deserving of its own thread. If Mexico was more like China, they might enjoy full employment.
Jobs are leaving Mexico to go to China.

 

I'm sure that's your reasoning.

Anyway, back to the topic.
If you don't like that a Mexican gets farm work over you....which I'm sure none of you are envious of....work cheaper. Asking $10+ an hour for doing farm work is ridiculous. They get the job because they do it fast and cheap.
If you don't learn Spanish or a language required, and are not willing to, then stick to a minimum wage job and deal with it.
I'm sure if you ventured to Mexico for a vacation, or ventured to France, you wouldn't learn THEIR language, eh? You'd expect them to adapt to you for your time there.

 

Exactly. The Chinese government over 20 years ago began a process, very carefully and systematically, of industrializing the country, which is why they are where they are today. Mexico has never done this, and the people that run Mexico are too content with things either staying the way they are, or changing too slowly to make any real difference.

 

Honestly, I understand the gripe about the languages. The official language of the US is English, just like how the official language of France is *gasp* French and the language of Hungary is Hungarian. If immigrants want to be a part of the US culture then they need to learn English. Period.

I shouldn't have to waste money to pay for schooling to go learn Spanish, Russian, Chinese, and Polish to communicate with immigrants who refuse to learn English. If I want to learn Spanish and speak it on a daily basis, I will move to a Spanish-speaking country and do it.

In Mexico, there is a large population of people who don't speak Spanish, they speak a native tribal language but the official language of Mexico is Spanish therefore those people are expected to learn a basic level of communicative Spanish..those that don't are left in the dust.

Yes, this country was founded on Immigration. However, those first immigrants chose English as the language to learn and pass it down through the generations. If people want to come here, they need to learn English....we who were born here shouldn't have to adapt to their culture..they need to adapt to ours. It's not rocket science.

It's this same uberPCism shit that annoys the crap out of me when I have to push a million buttons on the phone with a county agency just to get to an english-speaking network.

 

Because America excessivley subsidizes its agricultural industry and then dumps their products worldwide. Meanwhile, IMF loans restrict what tariffs they can put up to protect their domestic markets. Conditionality and all.

It isn't because they're bad farmers or stupid.

 

Check out your local produce section in your supermarket (at least that's how it is here in California), you'll find most of the produce there is grown in Mexico, not the US. How much of those dollars is passed on to their farm workers, and you think the employers in Mexico provide them housing, medical and workers comp? You think they follow the health and environmental laws US farmers have to.

American farm subsidies have been cut every year for years now. that's an old argument and one that doesn't hold up since Nafta. Only corn growers still receive the bulk of them and that was started to promote the production of ethanol more than twenty years ago. Which was never allowed to be fully developed because it would interfere with the petroleum companies.

Besides most small farms in the US have been bought out by big foreign syndicates. So who's receiving those subsidies, a Japanese firm that is raising beef in Northern California and shipping it to Japan?

You are the only one calling anyone stupid.

 

So? Here in Canada, you can barely get a decent job unless you speak both English & French, and the French keep trying to seperate from Canada! So go figure...

 

Well, I can understand that if you are in the province of Quebec. After all, I am half Canadian myself with a Canadian French last name. But if you are not in Quebec, then it aint right.
As for the States, I just dont see why we have to cater to the Mezcans. If they come here to live, the least they can do, and the US Government should force this, is that these people learn to speak English. I am sorry if I sound prejudice, but maybe I am. Not only have the Mezcans taken half the jobs available away from me because I dont speak their language, but they have also lowered the property values in my neighborhood as well because of their activities.

 

Moon flower. You must realise that it is not the minimum wage jobs that are in question here. At least half of EVERY job from minimum wage to high paying jobs are now requiring you to be bi-lingual, mainly being English and Spanish. The amount of wages does not fall into the equasion. And as for your other comment, when I was 13, I had to go to Germany for my grandmother's funeral. I learned enough German to get me by and I carried a German-English dictionary with me everywhere I went. I wanted to make sure I understood anyone if they talked to me. This is just common courtesy. But especially if you come here to live, then it is at least common courtesy to learn the language. If I were to move to France, I would learn French. If I were to move to Japan, I would learn Japanese. Again, not is it only common courtesy, but I feel it would make me a better person to be able to speak the main language of the country I live in, because that way I would be able to live better and work better and get along with others better and compete against others for the better jobs. But here in the States, especially California, Nevada, Arizona, etc., we seem to be catering to the lazy Mezcans who wont speak the language of the country they are allowed to come to. It just aint right.