Eureka Street, the Australian Jesuits' online magazine, has an disturbing article this week about the increase in violence towards women in bordertown Juarez, Mexico as an indirect result of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Since the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was signed in 1994, Juarez has attracted over 3000 foreign-owned assembly plants which in turn have drawn an onslaught of migrants seeking work. But there has been no improvement of infrastructure to coincide with this population growth....
While the official body count of women since the introduction of the NAFTA is 400, local activist groups estimate more than 5000 have been killed, most of them factory workers aged 12–22. If their bodies are found, they typically show signs of torture and sexual brutality.
Check out the full story here.
Jim McDermott, S.J.
Surely the Catholic Church must have some words to speak to this crisis.
Interestingly, I found the article very compelling, not at all "academic" or mumbling.
Beth- I think the last three paragraphs are to what David S. referred, where we move from more traditional reportage to that weird, logical contortion that is academic speak, such as, "In line with the most unabashed patriarchal viewpoint, a woman working outside of the home is comparable to a prostitute — a stance that, from a very traditional moralist perspective, permits her sacrifice." (Do we have any evidence that this is what is happening here? It could be. But it sounds like someone coming in with a lot of academic-sounding assumptions and imposing a particular slant on a tragic scenario. In the very least, it's not helpful as it doesn't really give any evidence.)
And this: "But we must be careful to not identify women in these circumstances as essential victims. Their victimhood lies in their abuse, and not as a quality they possess for being female and working-class." It's pure academic self-reflexive speak. It's the bit you have to put into your book or paper to make sure that you aren't re-ifying women as the victim, the object, the Other, etc.
Anyway, this all doesn't get away from the fact that this is a very troubling situation.
I recommend Jeff Cowie's CAPITAL MOVES: it's a compelling study of RCA's long search for cheap labor which took the company from New England to Indiana to Memphis to Mexico. The damage it left in its wake are still affecting these communities where they established plants.