Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84 exptools; site ihlpg.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxt!houxm!ihnp4!ihlpg!tan From: tan@ihlpg.UUCP (Bill Tanenbaum) Newsgroups: net.politics Subject: Re: Thoughts on America Bashing Message-ID: <1131@ihlpg.UUCP> Date: Sat, 24-Aug-85 01:47:12 EDT Article-I.D.: ihlpg.1131 Posted: Sat Aug 24 01:47:12 1985 Date-Received: Sun, 25-Aug-85 01:13:51 EDT References: <895@uscvax.UUCP> <305@ubvax.UUCP> Distribution: net Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories Lines: 43 > >[Stephen Kurtzman] > >Mr. Taylor, have you ever wondered why so many people wanted to leave > >Cuba during the Mariel exodus? Have you heard or seen hoards of people > >forsaking their homes and friends to flee oppression in the US? ------------------ > [Tony Wuersch] > Mr. Kurtzman is forgetting that Cuba permitted NO emigration to the US, > and the US permitted NO immigration from Cuba, for many years until the > Mariel exodus. If the Mariel exodus were divided up between all the > years in which no emigration/immigration was permitted, it wouldn't > add up to more (and probably less) than any other Latin American country. > > There are many countries in this world where people itch to leave and > try life somewhere else. And there are also many countries which have > large segments of their population living permanently abroad and urging > everybody else to leave and join the good life abroad. For instance, > Ireland, Norway, and Switzerland, along with the Philippines, Mexico, > and Portugal, along with India, Hong Kong, and Korea. > > Many in the Mariel exodus, as reported in the news, want to go back to > Cuba. For instance, most of the Marielistas are dark-skinned and don't > like American racism. Many Mexican immigrants plan to return home, > as do many Filipinos. > > Nothing new in this, unless you believe the ideology that people who > come to the US come to stay, rather than just try it out. Or that the > desire of people to leave a country is a fundamental indictment of > that country's system. Not so. ---------------- Mr. Wuersch is so good at seeing the trees that he misses the forest. Cuba is distinct from the other countries he mentions (except to some extent the Phillippines and a smaller extent Korea). The people leaving Mexico do so almost solely for economic opportunity, i. e. jobs. Ask them about the Mexican Government, and you won't get much of a reaction. Most of the people that left Cuba since the Castro takeover left for quite different reasons. Ask them what they think of the Cuban Government! They're not all former Batista henchman, you know. Your comments about the Marielistas are correct but irrelevant. Many of them are common criminals and not at all typical of Cuban immigrants to the U. S. Mr. Kurtzman picked a bad example in the Mariel boat lift, but his main point is right on the mark. -- Bill Tanenbaum - AT&T Bell Labs - Naperville IL ihnp4!ihlpg!tan