Sep 25, 20196 min read

The Wall and what not

Updated: Jul 11, 2023

The Wall. The wall that has been used in way too many campaigns by the current President of USA, Donald Trump during the elections. The wall that Trump supposedly wants to build between USA and Mexico. The three videos do not necessarily tell me everything about the issue but they do add a lot more to my knowledge about the issue than before which made my earlier knowledge seem naïve.

This topic is of bitter debate and one of the main reasons that encourage people to become ready to risk their lives in the deathly deserts, dangerous river or climb walls and basically gamble their lives in the 2-day trip, is the lack of jobs and job opportunities in Mexico and since they cannot enter legally, they attempt to enter USA, which has better jobs, better education, etc., illegally either on their own or with the help of agents.

If they win the gamble, they get work and live a better life and send a part of their earnings back to their parents and family in Mexico but if they lose, they get either imprisoned or sent back to Mexico after which they either try to re-enter USA or get killed or kidnapped by dangerous drug cults or workers throughout the border belt. But even if they do get in successfully, they often get deported, even if they are US Marshalls after which it is even harder for them to re-adjust to Mexico again and often they have even forgotten their native language because of which they have to work in call centres of American companies in Mexico.

What I understand from this is that there is no one side to this topic, there are several facets related to it and we need to attempt to understand all of them, maybe not thoroughly but atleast know about them briefly. Here what I also understood was that it is not necessary that since Mexicans are trying to illegally migrate to USA, they are entirely harmful to America, because if the economic condition of their country would’ve been better, they would’ve never thought about this prospect and that is why the 2nd largest source of foreign income of Mexico are from those living in the USA, legally or not. Moreover, they do those jobs in USA that Americans are not ready to do on their own and hence if they are all deported, not all Americans would be happy. It is not just said that America was and is great because of immigrants.

Moreover, one more thing I learnt was that their economies are intertwined. To solve the issue of illegal immigration, instead of helping Mexico’s economy grow, it is rather trying to ignore the free trade policy with them, leading to a greater fall in their economy.

What I liked about the videos was that they not only talk about the issue in general but also form different points of view in the mind of the viewer whether it was by presenting facts or whether it was by depicting human examples of the same.

Some other things that I also derived from the videos were about the border patrol of the USA who seem mean to the privileged class like us but they are so as they deal with illegal migrants all day long, all year long. I also learn about the Friendship Park between the two borders which allows family members to visit each other on weekends but only through a fence which shows us the harsh reality. This made me feel how privileged I was to be sitting in my house with the ability to visit anyone of my family whenever I wanted to without any fear or apprehensions.

One of the videos takes the viewer through all the important cities on the border and portrays how the conditions are at different places like at dangerous places like Reynosa, Falfurrias, Laredo, etc. where drug dealers and organized gangs are rampant with people being forced to do wrong things at gunpoint or at divided towns like Nogales or comparatively peaceful cities or places like Big Bend National Park, El Paso, Tijuana, etc. which tell us how even canyons and rivers are divided by the border.

What I love about documentaries like these is that they present both sides of the arguments and also quotes from people directly affected by and involved in the issue like people smugglers, migrants, people who own 250-year old properties which may be divided if the Wall is made, etc. to tell us more about it which according to me, is the most comprehensible way of understanding the crux of the issue as who is a better storyteller than the person who is directly involved in the story.

I could state various other things that I learnt from the videos but I feel like it will become monotonous and boring, so let me get to the point, what I learnt from these videos was that life is never black and white, but there are a lot of colours involved, some colours may sometimes seem violent but sometimes also seem loving like red. And so, it is a very complex topic and therefore, I don’t want to do injustice to the issue by saying that I have an unjust opinion on it but what I realised was that the people in power were not working in the right direction and that even the biggest of walls wouldn’t deter people’s eagerness to cross the border because the main cause is not the one that’s in focus but it goes much deeper.

Moving a little away from the direct topic, I would like to say that this also goes to show how people tend to look at the surface but not go deeper into the issue. Most online news readers know what is going around but why and why not are questions they can still not answer because they do not attempt to delve more into the topic and hence, it leads to opinions formed based on only partial information, which cannot be considered a well-formed opinion which would need deeper reading, understanding and most importantly, effort.

Another point that these documentaries reminded me of is of the Radcliffe Line which is basically the border between two separated brothers, India and Pakistan. It is called so as it was decided by Sir Cyril Radcliffe, a British lawyer who had never before been to British India and was given just 5 weeks to decide on a border to divide a country he knew nothing about. The consequences of the Partition hit him hard and he never returned as he knew this would have probably not happened if he was given 2-5 years which is the minimum needed for such a crucial decision.

The point of this is that decisions on these walls might be taken by people who either don’t know anything about this or have vested interests, which might not necessarily align with those of the citizens. More importantly, the separation of families on this border are quite similar to those of the US-Mexico border with a wall between them with huge fences dividing them from each other and their common lands which leads to a lot emotional trauma on both sides which is a factor often neglected and overpowered by talks of ammunition and wars- hatred over love.

Thus, I would like to end by saying that the topic of the videos is about a land of extremes that people are willing to challenge for even the tiniest of hope for a better life showing how if our mind is strong, then nothing can deter us from our path. I tells us about the social aspect of the issue, that is, how are not only people as individuals affected by this situation, but also how they collectively as societies are. But more importantly, the questions that it leaves me with are what is it really that is making people leave their home country and why are we failing to throw more light on that?

This was for an assignment and was based on three documentaries that we were asked to watch. I am going to provide the links at the end of the article for any of you who would be interested.

Have you heard of this or experienced anything of the sort personally or know someone who did? Please feel free to flow your thoughts onto the comment section below. If you liked this article, please do give it a like, share it with your family and friends and also do not forget to follow my blog and Instagram handle https://www.instagram.com/helzeeblog/ for any further blog updates. See you next time! Till then, always remember, Be brave. Be strong. Be great. ❤

P.S.~ The links to the documentaries are-

1 https://youtu.be/r9Gd-axMMbM

2 https://youtu.be/jJ4nHnsfxNY

3 https://youtu.be/z8RRNf0uCNk

Links to some of the videos I saw to know about Sir Radcliffe are as follows-

1 https://youtu.be/TbCxJ6dVceQ

2 https://youtu.be/OIVPi0bvmtI