In August 1942, more than ten thousand men converged on Mexico City. They were answering the government’s call to combat fascism by signing up to do agricultural work in the United States. Although initiated as a temporary measure to alleviate a tightening U.S. labor market brought on by World War II, the Mexican-U.S. Program of the Loan of Laborers lasted for 22 years and awarded more than 4.5 million work contracts to nearly two million Mexican men. Competition for contracts also stimulated undocumented migration of at least that many. Many Mexican men (women could not participate) benefited economically from this regulated migration, but the biggest beneficiary of the Bracero Program, the unofficial name for the series of binational agreements, were large growers. The availability of thousands of desperate braceros, as the migrants were called, generated massive corruption in both countries, acted as a downward push on farm wages, undercut unionization efforts, and enabled growers to delay mechanization until it was cost-effective.
Soon after entering World War II, the U.S. government approached Mexico about the possibility of bringing laborers north. Most important to Mexico was that the U.S. government, not individual growers, be responsible for men migrating under the program, and that both governments monitor the proper functioning of the program and investigate abuses. For all but a brief interlude (1948–1951) did this condition stand. Complaints multiplied during this interlude, and the condition was reinstituted with the start of the Korean War, when Mexico’s bargaining hand was strengthened because of a contraction in the U.S. labor market due to the war. Bracero agreements also contained wage guarantees (braceros were to be paid the area’s prevailing wage for the crop picked) and requirements for sanitary housing, access to medical care, and a minimum of weeks for which they would be paid, regardless of weather conditions, making braceros’ protections far stronger than those extended to U.S. domestic farm workers. Although the agreement stipulated that growers prove they had attempted to recruit U.S. workers before their request for Mexican laborers be granted, in practice this requirement was waived or ignored. Generally growers, relying on long relationships with local government officials, had only to say they could find no U.S. laborers to work for the advertised wage and their request for braceros would be granted. Over time these practices depressed wages and undermined unionization.
The United States always controlled the maximum number of bracero spots offered, and Mexico could allocate these spots (or fewer ones) according to domestic needs. Thus, Mexico theoretically retained the right to decide where braceros worked. It acted on this right initially when it refused to send men to Texas, citing a history of discrimination against Mexican citizens and Mexican Americans. In response, in 1943 Coke R. Stevenson, the governor of Texas from 1941 to 1947, instituted the Good Neighbor Commission to investigate the problem. Convinced that Texas was taking steps to address the problem or merely recognizing that undocumented migrants were crossing into the United States anyway, Mexico consented and by 1947 state-sanctioned braceros were heading to that state. Also negotiated by the two countries was the location of reception centers where the final bracero selection would occur. Mexico repeatedly pushed to place centers a great distance from the United States’ preferred locations at the border. Mexico also sought to reduce costs—Mexico paid men’s transportation and board to reception centers, after which the United States took over—and to control the outflow of migrants to prevent its own farm-labor shortage in northern Mexico, where workers were poorly paid and scarce. As reception centers moved closer to the border, undocumented migration increased. This move also drew men away from less well-paid farm labor in northern Mexico and aroused the ire of these large landholders. Initially the binational agreement also contained a provision that 10 percent of workers’ wages be put in escrow until the men returned. Mexico fought hard for this provision, in force between 1942 and 1948, as it wanted to guarantee that, in contrast to earlier migrations, the men would return home with funds that could be used to purchase tractors and other equipment. While Mexico was heavily invested in this provision, few workers knew of it, and most have yet to recoup these funds.
With alarmist discussion of a labor shortage, growers pressured the U.S. government to replicate the informal contract system that had prevailed during World War I, when labor agents recruiting in Mexico promised workers wages and living conditions that were too often unmet. The United States recognized, however, that Mexico would not agree to any program of regulated migration without certain conditions. Furthermore, the United States was not in a position to ignore conditions sought by Mexico, for much had changed since the earlier informal program. Not only did the United States government initiate the formal exchange of workers, but President Franklin Roosevelt (in office 1933–1945) had entered office determined to establish better relations with Latin America. In contrast to earlier doctrines, his Good Neighbor Policy emphasized cooperation and guaranteed the sanctity of each sovereign American nation. As well, the Mexican president, Lázaro Cárdenas (in office 1934–1940), had, in a show of national sovereignty, nationalized oil fields in 1938, many of which had been owned by U.S. companies. Although Cárdenas had offered compensation according to the value companies listed on earlier tax rolls, the companies balked, saying that nationalized fields were worth more. Thus, in exchange for the Bracero Program and a recognition of Mexico’s sovereignty, the United States had not much earlier settled the compensation issue and conceded to some of Mexico’s demands. Over the course of the program, Mexico lost its leverage because its economy could not offer enough jobs, leading many men to migrate.
In the forty-plus years since the end of the Bracero Program, there have been numerous calls to bring it back in various forms. The most recent was President George W. Bush’s push to institute a guest-worker program similar to the Bracero program. An idea proposed during his 2000 campaign for president, it was put on hold immediately after September 11, 2001, then resurfaced in 2003. By then, his expanded proposal added a post-9/11 heavy dose of border security (including a physical and virtual fence), increased enforcement of laws already on the books, and the removal of all persons in the country without the proper documentation in exchange for his guest worker program; it was also part of a larger package of changes to immigration laws.
President Bush’s revised proposal garnered attacks from all sides. Citing downward pressure on workers’ wages and fearing the cultural impact of largely poor immigrants of color, the anti-immigration faction countered the Bush proposal by demanding that only the removal and enhanced-security conditions be instituted. This anti-immigration position is best exemplified by the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps and Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin. The Minutemen, an armed volunteer force and a visible symbol of a growing nativist sentiment operating largely in border states, have taken it upon themselves to secure U.S. borders that they see the federal government leaving unprotected. Sensenbrenner spotlighted a focus on security with a bill called the Border Protection, Anti-terrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005. This legislation, which passed the House by a vote of 239 to 182, would have made it a felony for anyone to “assist” an undocumented person to “remain in the United States.” Although the bill stalled in the Senate, it generated a strong reaction, not only from pro-immigration groups, but from the immigrants themselves. On May 1, 2006, hundreds of thousands of immigrant protesters took to the streets in Chicago, Los Angeles, and other parts of the country in reaction to Sensenbrenner’s restrictive legislation; they demanded a comprehensive reform package that included a path to legal residency and citizenship. This immigration debate also heightened simmering tensions between Latinos and African Americans. Often pitted against Latinos and recent immigrants for low-wage jobs and shrinking economic resources more generally, many African Americans see themselves ever more on the losing end of a direct competition with Latinos and immigrants.
Immigrants again turned out across the United States for peaceful May Day 2007 marches as federal officials increased their investigations of job sites known or thought to cater to immigrants. These raids have brought quick arrests of undocumented workers. In the aftermath, children—often United States citizens—have been separated from undocumented parents and wives from husbands, sending reverberations through immigrant communities. In 2007 another immigration bill, the Security through Regularized Immigration and a Vibrant Economy Act of 2007 (or STRIVE Act), was introduced in Congress. Although it was not guaranteed passage in the Democrat-controlled Congress, this compromise between pro- and anti-immigration factions has sought to combine heightened border security and a Bracero Program-like guest-worker program with a real path to citizenship for the estimated 12 million undocumented persons living in the United States.
Anderson, Henry P. 1963. Fields of Bondage; Mexican Contract Labor System in Industrialized Agriculture. Martinez, CA: self-published.
For many in the immediate post-Vietnam War era, the words sex tourism were associated with organized trips to the massage parlors and brothels of Thailand or to the red-light districts of cities such as Amsterdam and Hamburg. The phenomenon seemed apparently simple and was explained in terms of men exercising the dominion of the wallet over women, who were generally perceived as unwilling victims. Where women were categorized as other than victims, the conceptualization often owed much to Victorian concepts of the diseased woman, an outcast from mainstream society, to be banished from respectable society. However, the nature of the debate as to what constitutes sex tourism, and the impacts it has, had widened considerably by the turn of the twenty-first century. Factors that contributed to the expanded debate include the growth of feminism and a concept of sisterhood that embraced and gave voice to prostitutes, and the adoption of the terminology of sex worker to emphasize a point about the nature of female work in the sex industry; the realization that females could also be predatory, as evidenced by trips to the Caribbean to find sex with the rent-a-dread (dreadlocked Caribbean male); and the context of freer sexual expression illustrated by advertising, television soaps, and dramas. Alternative terminologies are also used, such as romance tourism—yet even this remains essentially a commercial transaction, albeit softened by gift giving as distinct from the payment for the thirty-minute or hourly transaction in the brothel.
Whereas the rent-a-dread may occupy an honorable mention in the academic literature, Kamala Kempadoo (2004) notes that this style has gone, to be replaced by the Michael Jordan look, and by males locally named as the rentals in their stylish dark glasses and baggy shorts. She continues to also note that the former rent-a-dreads have progressed to being tourist guides, ganja dealers, souvenir salesmen, and property caretakers. Just as the rent-a-dread terminology is symptomatic of a given time period, so, too, are other concerns.
Historically, it was argued that Thai sex tourism arose from the history of the Vietnam War and the presence of U.S. military on leave. Equally, massage parlors are still found to be located near military bases in countries such as South Korea and the Philippines. Although connections exist with sex tourism, the relationship is not consistent, and sex tourism flourishes in different locations that do not possess such histories—for example, Kenya. Arguably more pervasive is the role of the Internet as a means of communication and access to sex workers, and in that sense, the purposeful sex tourist is able to access sex workers more easily, and the Internet has made the organized sex—tour as it was understood in the 1970s—less needed.
One factor that has led to the involvement of government agencies with sex workers is the incidence of HIV/AIDS. With the advent of this disease in the 1980s and before the wide dissemination of antiretroviral medication, one major means of halting the spread of the disease was to ensure that sex workers practiced safe sex. This required a recognition and validation of consortia that represented sex workers and at the same time empowered groups of sex workers by legitimizing their concerns about the need for safety, protection from corrupt practices by local police, and a need for degrees of freedom from prosecution.
For females who work in the industry, examples can be found of those who view sex work as a continuation of an older tradition of the vestal virgin, as protector of a knowledge of the female derived from an older age when various incarnations of the fertility goddess ruled supreme. Such workers, however, form a minority, albeit vocal group. Most sex workers in European and North American societies perceive sex work as a means of securing a good income, with hours of work that are temporally and spatially flexible, and as being consistent with other female roles such as motherhood. In many countries it is possible for such women to work within a framework of mutual female support through brothels or massage parlors. Escort agencies are also able to ensure the safety of female sex workers by using trusted taxi drivers who maintain notes of clients and addresses. A few females use the opportunities provided by the industry to meet their own needs for sexual adventure, for diversity of experiences, and to satisfy basic sexual hunger. Such workers tend to reject the notion of the sex worker as victim, arguing it is, to a degree, an occupation of choice—or at least, a choice within the constraints that many women face without access to higher education, limited work opportunities, and the challenges of single parenthood.
It is also necessary to recognize that several areas of prostitution are arenas for the victimization of females and exploitation of the worst possible kind. Louise Brown (2000) in her work Sex Slaves: The Trafficking of Women in Asia, makes clear that female children as young as ten years of age are deliberately traded for purposes of prostitution. She additionally writes persuasively of the political and social amnesias to such circumstances that mark many countries—particularly, she feels, in some countries characterized by strong Islamic movements.
Generally, however, sex tourism as practiced in many holiday locations exists spatially apart from such exploitation by a local red-light and porn industry. Because local consumers are unable to pay the high prices that tourists to third-world countries can afford, those who meet the needs of tourists tend to have higher degrees of control over their own modes of business. To meet the needs of tourists requires many social skills, including a command of a foreign language and the wherewithal to blend, at least in part, into the surroundings of hotels and resorts. In various works, Kempadoo (1999, 2004) has argued that, at least in the Caribbean, sex work generates positive economic multiplier effects for otherwise low-income communities, and through the earning of relatively significant sums of money, women are empowered and potentially able to break from lower-income backgrounds. The monies from servicing the sexual desires of tourists become the sources of capital for small business start-ups in other areas of economic activity.
There is, nonetheless, little doubt that there is trafficking in women, even in some areas associated with the sex tourism industry. Again, to cite Kempadoo (2004), female sex workers from the Dominican Republic can be found in many other parts of the Caribbean. Those (generally men) who organize such spatial movements of female workers commonly employ tactics such as withholding passports and requiring repayments much higher than the costs of transport and accommodation involved. However, from her studies Kempadoo observes that many women know what they are doing—that they see through the vague outlines of promised work in bars and strip clubs—and as professionals in their line of work, accept the risks for the rewards offered. Indeed, the role of victim can be useful to secure deportation in preference to imprisonment. The existence of sex work is a reflection of dominant economic and social structures in society—the same structures that permit tourists from higher income countries to visit the resorts and complexes built in less developed countries. Tourism and the sex industry are thus bound by social realities of relative deprivation and affluence, by those who have and those who desire to have—and the medium of exchange in this unequal bartering is sex.
Although the lines of demarcation are sometimes blurred, child prostitution represents a separate specific aspect of sex tourism, with places such as Bali, Cambodia, Fiji, and Thailand being mentioned by bodies such as ECPAT (End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes). This organization has special consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations (ECOSOC) and has done much over the last few decades to raise awareness of the problems. Organized sex tours are comparatively unimportant, unlike in the early 1970s, but individuals continue to seek sex with underage children. With bodies such as ECPAT acting as effective pressure groups, many countries have introduced legislation whereby a national of that country can be tried for sex against an underage person regardless of where the offense was committed. Thus, in this arena of law, the need for extradition orders may be averted.
Sex tourism occupies a subversive, liminal ground in contemporary European and North American societies: subversive because it is a recognition of needs and desires not met by the socially approved monogamous relationships of the Judeo-Christian belief system. In its emphasis on the body and the role of lust, sex tourism represents modes of behavior outside the approved confines of mainstream behavior. Liminal because sex workers occupy roles outside the mainstream of activity, and tourists, too, are temporary liminal people occupying spaces of escape from responsibility—escape that can extend to extramarital affairs with sex workers and others. Such an observation is obviously culturally constrained and cannot be held to be easily transferred to other cultures. Equally. the role of sex worker is different from, in degree at least, to that of mistress. In short, the phenomenon is both complex and fuzzy in its relationships with other social boundaries.
Seabrooke, Jeremy. 2005. Travels in the Skin Trade: Tourism and the Sex Industry. 2nd edition. Chicago: Pluto Press.
American actress-manager. Born Amelia Smiley on March 20, 1869, in Hicksville, Ohio; died on September 1, 1927, in New York, New York; attended Ohio Wesleyan College; married Lloyd Bingham (a manager of a traveling professional theater company).
Pursuing the theater against the wishes of her deeply religious family, Amelia Smiley was induced to leave Ohio Wesleyan College by Lloyd Bingham, the manager of a traveling theater company, who saw her in an amateur production and thought she had talent. After touring the West Coast with the McKee Rankin Company, she headed to New York in 1892 to appear in a series of melodramas, including The Struggle for Life, The Power of Gold, and A Man Among Men. Now married to Bingham, she won her first important role in The Mummy, opposite Robert Hilliard (1896). Subsequent performances established her popularity and in 1897, after winning a newspaper popularity poll over such stars as Lillian Russell, Fanny Davenport, Ada Rehan , and Maude Adams , she went to work for Charles Frohman and played leading roles under his management for four years.
In late 1900, Bingham decided to become an actress-manager in the manner of England's Laura Keene . She leased the Bijou Theatre, assembled a company, and successfully produced Clyde Fitch's The Climbers, in which she played Mrs. Sterling. Historical accounts vary as to the success of her subsequent ventures, Lady Margaret and The Modern Magdalen, both produced in 1902. By some accounts, her 1903 production of The Frisky Mrs. Johnson enjoyed a modest run only because of publicity surrounding her battle with a critic who panned the production. Disputes with the playwrights as well as another critic embroiled her 1907 production of The Lilac Room which closed in its first week.
Bingham went on to play in different stock companies and in 1909 toured Great Britain in Big Moments from Great Plays. From 1913 through 1916, she performed in The New Henrietta with Douglas Fairbanks and William H. Crane. Following the death of her husband in 1915, Bingham retired from the stage but returned in 1925 to appear in Trelawney of the Wells. The following year, she gave her last performance in The Pearl of Great Price. Amelia Bingham died in New York City, on September 1, 1927, having distinguished herself as the first American actress to succeed at both producing and performing.
Not all the wisdom teeth cause problems and hence all wisdom teeth do not require removal. However it is also quite common to find wisdom teeth causing problems while they are erupting usually due to insufficient space or improper angulations causing impaction against the last molars in the mouth.
The picture below shows a typical problem of an impacted lower wisdom tooth that can cause problems if not addressed early. The wisdom tooth here is unable to erupt properly in the mouth due to improper angulation and also possible lack of space for it to erupt.
The black arrow in the picture points to the area where food can be trapped and cause cavities (not only on the wisdom tooth but also on the tooth in front). The red arrow points to an area where food can be trapped between the wisdom tooth and the gum covering the tooth and can cause inflammation or infection in the gums (known as pericoronitis).
Usual discomfort while wisdom teeth are erupting is common, but it is important to get them assessed by a dentist to make sure they are erupting properly and not likely to cause issues in future!
When you’re stuck creatively, it can breed frustration in other areas of your life. Suddenly, you’re relationships may feel stale, your work lacks progression, and even your meals taste uninspired. All the vibrance in your world just drains to a dull tone. To breakthrough that block, you have to tap into your core. You have to excite your spirit. A Carnelian Touchstone carries the energy to do that. All you have to do is tune into it.
When you’re stuck creatively, it can breed frustration in other areas of your life. Suddenly, you’re relationships may feel stale, your work lacks progression, and even your meals taste uninspired. All the vibrance in your world just drains to a dull tone. To breakthrough that block, you have to excite your spirit. A Carnelian Touchstone carries the energy to do that. All you have to do is tune into it.
This crystal is all about vibrance, from its color to its energy. If you feel trapped or bored, Carnelian is the energy that you want to invite in. It’s the life of the party. Helping you to break free of the norm, the carnelian meaning ignites a desire for adventure. Use this bold, new outlook to approach your life from a different point of view. It can be tough, when we get stuck in a safe, but predictable routine, to risk our security for a sense of renewed passion. A Carnelian touchstone offers protection from such fears, and encourages you to push past hesitations until you find the abundance that you are looking for.
Galvanize your life force and get those creative juices flowing with this crystal known for empowering passion. Whether you need to inject a boost of vigor into your sex life, work life or creative life, the Carnelian meaning will provide the vital energy that you need to promote positive change. Use it when your self-esteem or confidence is being tested.
Through activating the base and sacral chakras, Carnelian touchstone meditation keeps you out of your overactive mind, and connects you to your instincts instead. Not only for those working in artistic fields, this crystal will rid you of the creative blocks in all areas of your life. From stagnancy in relationships to everyday boredom, Carnelian touchstones are the cure for restless ruts.
When you’re drawn to a carnelian touchstone, you need to activate your passionately creative side. This carnelian touchstone is the perfect crystal if you work in creative field, and or simply need a punch of brave, motivational energy. It’s important to keep the touchstone on or around you all day when seeking a creative breakthrough. It gets you to stop questioning your every impulse so that you can actually enjoy your creative spirit.
Place your Carnelian touchstone on your root chakra for grounding or your sacral chakra to ignite your creativity.
Carry your touchstone with you in your pocket or purse to remind yourself of the creativity and inspiration all around you.
Eldredge Inc. is the largest HAZMAT Disposal company in West Chester and is Veteran Owned. We worked very closely with the marketing team of Eldredge to take their old website and turn it into a more modernized responsive design. This new site has many prominent features that we consider to be our signature designs.
This website was designed to not only target the local area around West Chester, PA but to also extend the reach of Eldredge Inc.
To have a website in the mobile age it must be responsive. This means that no matter what device the website is viewed on it will scale properly to make the user experience as smooth as possible. We have achieved this with Eldredge’s website.