Oscar Martinez has a great post on The violence we face in Central America makes nonsense of the words “war” and “peace” on versobooks.com. As an academic without any solutions to offer, this response to questions asking his proposed solutions for the violence in Central America and on the road to the United States particularly hit home.
My response is that you should realize what is happening, that you should know more, that you should understand what these people are living through. I want you to be transported by your reading to a barrio ruled by Central American gangs. You need to listen to an indigenous man from the Petén jungle and confront the mother of a boy murdered by Los Zetas.
My suggestion is that you realize what happened to a woman who was sold into sex slavery as she tried to reach your borders—or, depending on how you want to see it, as she tried to flee from my country. My proposal is that you know what is going on.
Because I believe that knowing is different to not knowing. I believe that knowing, especially with people like yours, who know how to wield politics, is the beginning of a solution. I believe, sticking with the metaphor of the sea and the rock, that knowing is what moves the waves. You can be one of the waves.
The rest is worth reading…even if it is rather depressing.
