Reflections, in Denver

Hello everyone, this is Kyle yet again. We arrived this morning back in Denver. We left Tucson Sunday night and stayed the night in the Phoenix area at John's grandparents' house. We spent the morning with them, and then Tyler and I went to see my uncle and aunt who lived nearby and we also went to the Food for the Hungry headquarters (this is the organization I might be headed to Uganda & Rwanda with fall semester). Then we hustled up to the Grand Canyon and watched the sunset there. (I might add that the terrain around Flagstaff, AZ looks surprisingly like Spokane.) Then we got in the car and made our way north through the night with a couple stops thrown in.

So now I'm sitting here, comfortable, trying to switch myself into vacation mode for the week. This is a lesson the three of us have learned: you NEED a rest after a semester at school, if only a short one. Going from school, finals, packing, etc. straight into the trip was quite fatiguing. That's not to say it was bad in any way, just not ideal. But then, I can't honestly think of ideal circumstances for seeing the things we did.

Now, if you'll bear with me, I need to vent a little.

My view of Mexico has changed substantially. I've only been there once, and that was for the standard mission trip to Mexico that it seems like every young American Christian must do (albeit to Guadalajara instead of Tijuana, and we didn't really build anything). We went, and met poor people, helped drug addicts, presented the gospel in prisons, and all around just had a very nice spiritual time. But we never asked why people were addicted to drugs, or why people were chronically poor in ways that made them turn to robbery that would land them in prison. I guess we all just assumed that's the way it was in poor countries and then massaged our consciences by knowing that we had done so much to help these poor, joyful people and they've given so much back to us. You know, "they have so little and are so joyful, oh how admirable."

Insofar as I know, none of us came back and sold everything we had to claim that sort of joy and faith we perceived. No, we satisfied ourselves to be "stewards" of great resources and then went and drove around in our SUVs and bought our $4 coffees and worshipped in our $1 million churches and so on.

Please don't take any of this personally. I'm just really angry (at myself and my own life, in way ways). And I know it's somewhat cliche, but I'm just trying to let off some steam. And there are plenty of counter-critiques; I make no pretenses at this being particularly logical.

It's so much easier to call myself a steward, because that justifies my having a laptop, email address, bank account, etc. I have to use them to be a good steward, you know? As for SUVs, there is little doubt in my mind that Jesus would not have been a patron of our gas-guzzling monsters. For that matter, the one time I can think of off the top of my head when he was riding anything (when he entered Jerusalem on a donkey), he was crying the whole time (I know, that's a totally irresponsible way to interpret his reason for crying, but it's kind of funny). And coffee? Jesus probably had coffee back in the day. But nowadays, he'd probably ask the question of where it came from and if the people growing and picking it were making enough to survive. And $1 million churches? We met an evangelical pastor in Naco who is building his church building with his own hands, from scratch, with the help of his 15 year old son and congregation.

Anyway, my real frustration is that we always went and had pity and compassion on these poor underprivileged people, but we never asked why that was alright with us. What were the underlying causes? In a globalized economy, we are far more connected than any of us grasp, and the violence that goes into production and transfer of goods is far more prevalent than you want to think. I realized on this delegation that we are much farther from the kingdom of God than I had ever thought. The kingdom of darkness has an inescapable chokehold on almost every aspect of this world, it seems.

Let me specify this a bit. Back under President Clinton, we formed something called the North American Free Trade Agreement. (The Central America Free Trade Agreement has similar effects.) I'm going to horribly underrepresent this because I am still learning about it myself. As always, the wikipedia article is good starting point. In a nutshell, NAFTA allows companies in the US, Canada, and Mexico to transfer raw materials and manufactured goods across their borders without tariffs, etc. Two problems that have come of this:

1. Many manufacturers saw the opportunity to exploit the much cheaper labor (and the absence of effective non-governmental unions) of Mexico, so they picked up and moved. This left workers in the US (and Canada) without work (which, under the protection of strong unions, had generally provided a living wage). Mexico's unions (at least for those factories that were established directly after NAFTA) are government-sponsored, riddled with corruption, and basically just in bed with the manufacturers. They make a mockery of standing up for workers' rights and safety. These factories (known as maquiladoras in the border region) pay on a system of bonuses. Essentially, if you miss a day's work, you lose out on production and attendance bonuses, which account for up to 2/3 of your pay. When you're only taking home about $65 a week, that's a huge loss. (On a side note, Northern Mexico is known for having a better economic well-being than much of the rest of the country; so imagine what everyone else is making.) So who's making the buck? Investors, CEOs, big people, I don't know.

2. Because the US has such a huge farming industry with enormous operations working to maximize efficiency in agriculture, the small farmer in Mexico and Central America can't afford anymore to make a living off agriculture. I met one of these farmers, his name was Miguel, and he was from El Salvador. He grows tomatos, cucumbers, and lettuce back home, but can barely make enough to feed his family, much less try to attain any sort of higher living standard. He and his wife tried to cross twice already into the US, but decided that instead they would return to El Salvador (and a wage of maybe $35 a week). They're now working in the grape fields outside Altar to save up for a bus ticket home.

So why should it surprise anyone that hundreds of thousands of people every year are fleeing north to the US? Even working in low-wage, low-skill jobs, you can make more money in a day than you can in a week back home. Let me balance this by saying that you won't hear many migrants say they want to come to the US (let's not kid ourselves, eh?). There is a very prevalent desire to go, make enough money, return and be able to start or engage in some sort of small business in the home country. Likewise, let me also balance this by saying that it's not all the US's fault. Mexico and Central America have notoriously corrupt governments, which helps nothing. In fact, Mexico's Federal Police are known as being the most exploitative of Central Americans coming through the country. I heard one story where one of these policemen was inspecting a Central American's papers, found them in order, ripped them up in front of the person, and then asked where their papers were. That's ridiculous and totally unacceptable. My point is, the corruption runs deep.

So let me see if I can bring this full circle. I'm pissed that when I went to Mexico on my conscience-massaging mission trip none of us had the attitude that it's not alright for poverty to be so prevalent when we are so affluent ourselves. Someone on our delegation pointed out that there are so many believers of Jesus in this country, but so few followers. I can believe in and pray to Jesus, but there is clearly far more to it than that. The gospel has to actually affect the way I live my life, and that means more than not having sex before marriage. Anyway, I'm hungry and accursedly rich by the world's standards. On that note, I'm going to head to lunch and recommend everyone read Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger by Ron Sider. He gives a great evangelical commentary on all these issues and reading it ought to change or at least affect your life in some way. Love,

Kyle