Sunady June 26, 2016

Migrant encounter

Guy walked up to my car in the desert, asking for water, opening his mouth at me like a baby bird squawking to be fed.

I re-filled his black water bottle a few times as he drank from it.

I gave him a box of cereal, a half-loaf of bread, a candy bar, an apple, two aspirin.

He was pointing to his throat and saying something in Spanish, my guess is that he was having trouble swallowing.

I hoped the aspirin would help with swelling.

I wish I spoke Spanish to communicate with him.

I asked how I could help him, but I don't know how much he understood.

He sat on the ground next to the back of the car for 15 minutes at least. He was too close, and smelled. I wanted to drive away, or get him to move farther away. 

Finally he got up, asked "al Ajo?" or something, so I pointed in the direction of the town. He headed towards the road with the water, the cereal, the bread, but didn't go straight down the road, as far as I could see; he headed off at an angle, aiming, I would guess, for the foothills of Childs Mountain, on the south side of the road back to Ajo. It's easier to hide from the Border Patrol in the hills, and there are foot-trails back there.

I see his plight as the direct result of an artificial scarcity of US Dollars in the world. I think the best solution is to create money on the Fed's balance sheet for a world basic income. Give the guy guaranteed access to a decent standard of living; also let people (and animals) migrate freely as they have for tens of thousands of years, at least, here.