What Happens In The Meadow At Dusk?

Responses to my last post got me thinking more about the gross influences that "first world" countries have on those of the "third world". While that gap is closing more and more (think China or India), I continue to be bothered by this exporting of consumerism to feed the capitalist machine that the West has created. The end result is that people's traditional livelihoods based off of the land are being left behind for urban jobs that will provide money.

Why do they choose the city over rural life? In most places, it has to do with foreign policies. Take Mexico. Once NAFTA was passed under Clinton, the U.S. was able to flood the Mexican market with our excessive surplus of overly-subsidized corn that had no other place to go. Small farmers had no ability to compete with such under-priced corn, and thus the traditional way of life is collapsing, forcing people to look elsewhere to make ends meet. So instead of every inch of arable land being maximized for this staple crop, we see more and more people moving north to border town maquiladoras or over the border to find work and just ensure their continued existence. With these moves comes the breakdown of culture and traditions, which isn't innately bad, but does mean new value systems will be established in their place. And on the other end, you have the ignorant American, fueled with racism due to little understanding of foreign policy. But one could easily substitute European in for American and Arab in for Mexican.

Then there are those people who have been able to preserve their traditional form of livelihood so far, but because of exposure to outside ideas, are now feeling the need for more. I experienced this in my stay with a family in the cloudforests of Guatemala. Like taking a step into the pages of a National Geographic, I found myself in world where large extended families lived in two room structures - the interiors constantly smoky from the open fire pit in the middle of the kitchen/dining/family room. Corn in various stages of drying completely lined the inner walls of the main room, the lowest cobs bare of kernels due to nibbling chickens. Growing enough to feed the family, these little homesteads were self-sustaining. Yet even here in the remote mountain forests that took hours of curvy roads and more of hiking through deep, muddy trails, the taste of consumerism was whetting their appetites. Expectations of gifts to be sent once I returned home made me regret the visit in the first place. What had I been thinking to interrupt the lives of others and to enter with all of my fancy gadgets? Even if I hadn't had gone, other signs showed the encroachment of outside cultures. The best example was a wall of a bedroom in one house which was partially covered with newsprint which included a photo of Brittany Spears.

It is hard to criticize the shift from traditional ways of life to the life of the city dweller if it is what someone really wants. Too often, though, there is either little choice, or the repercussions are little understood.

And if you are wondering about the title for this post, check out this clip from one of my all-time favorite movies.