A posting at the Monthly Review Zine tells of the new NAFTA supercorridor. If you've not heard of it, that's partly the point. Surreptitiously, construction has begun on the proposed route, which will link the port of Lazaro Cardenas in Mexico to Duluth at the US Canada border on Lake Superior (download map from MR).

In a bilious op-ed in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, a Senior Fellow at the US Business and Industry Council points out that the effect will be to relegate Mexico into a trans-shipment point for Asian imports into the US. ... read more »

Raj's blog | add new comment | email this page

Posted on 5 December, 2006 - 08:26

I was doubly pleased to see this report up at the BBC. Not only does it break with the "immigrants: string 'em up" tone endemic to British journalism on the subject, but it makes direct connections between the food system and migration.

Pape Barro is another young man who sees no future in Senegal.

When we met, he was sealing up the cracks in an old fishing boat, preparing it, coincidentally, for his third attempt to reach the Canaries.

For years, he and his colleagues had been making a modest but respectable living in their small, open boats and hand-cast nets. ... read more »

Raj's blog | add new comment | email this page

Ch.3. NAFTA, Immigration, Urban Farming | European Union | fishing | immigration | Senegal

Posted on 2 December, 2006 - 13:47

The exodus of people, particularly youth and women, from rural to urban areas has left male farmers in South Korea loveless. Entrepreneurs have stepped in to fill the gap.

Posters on the lampposts in Yangbuk declare: "Get a new life - marry a Vietnamese lady! You can pay later!"

A thoughtful article in today's Financial Times points to the hardships of women who come to Korea this way. The article ends with this quote:

While Ms Tran seems to accept her new life, Mr Jang, who flits between temporary agricultural or building jobs, is not so happy. "It's quite a burden to send money to Vietnam because I don't earn much," he says. ... read more »

Raj's blog | add new comment | email this page

Ch.3. NAFTA, Immigration, Urban Farming | farmers | gender | immigration | society | South Korea | Vietnam

Posted on 28 November, 2006 - 20:47

The BBC informs us that among the many services immigrants are offered when they come to the US, is a

state-funded programme to improve the nutrition of refugees who are being re-settled in the land of plenty.

"First we are most concerned about whether they will understand how to eat American food," says Shana Willis, with the non-profit refugee resettlement agency Heartland, one of the project co-ordinators.

"They did not only not understand how to eat American food, but they went immediately to the junk food and it was then that we realised, this is going to have a much more important impact than we anticipated." ... read more »

Raj's blog | add new comment | email this page

Posted on 26 November, 2006 - 21:42