Making Border Security a Game

The ideas on how to enforce security and law along the Mexican/U.S border come far and wide. Now it seems that the private sector is pitching an idea that will make protecting this border a game, literally! A news story posted on a "gamer", centric web news site Kotaku explains that the company Sandia National Laboratories "have built a giant touchscreen video game that simulates the capture of illegal aliens". This is strikingly upsetting and discomforting for the fact that the article uses the term "Illegal aliens". One can speculate why this term was used but my opinion is that Sandia National Laboratories is only trying to reinforce the fact that it is easier for the government to dehumanize immigrants in order to impose harsher methods of control over the border. As far as Kotaku stance on the use of "Illegal aliens", it seems that the dehumanizing has reached a new level of use. The site Kotaku is a gamer centric site that reports of various video games popularity and use. So it was not surprising to see at the end of the article the author Joel Johnson ask one question "We just have one question: When can we download an iPad version?", as I stated early it seems that protecting the border has now become a game that we all can take part in. So is protecting the border just a game where we capture illegal aliens? I really hope its not for two reasons.


1. Protecting or enforcing the border is not a game. Real people are involved in doing it and people do die in the process. There is no +1 life bonus in protecting the border.

2. Real people cross the border. Not "illegal aliens", but real people who also suffer and die everyday trying to cross. They are not target practice, and you do not get bonus level ups for capturing or shooting a real person. A real person dies when shot.

If the government really thinks this is the best solution for border security, I would argue they are dead wrong. I will end by quoting the author Avram Bornstein who states "Borders are Tyranny".

Eduardo

Border Wall photostream

hardrived009's photostream on Flickr.

Success!

The Tejan@ Movement For Education Walkout/Teach-in/Rally was a success! We had a great turn out and many people were moved and inspired by all the speaker and performers. I want to thank everyone who came out and supported. I will post a follow up article in the next days detailing the event and pictures to accompany. Again thanks to everyone!

Eduardo

My preparations for Tejan@ Movement For Education

Tomorrow is the Tejan@ Movement For Education Walkout/Teach-in/Rally and we have already planned out a great event. We have gotten lots of recognition for this event and more than likely will get more tomorrow and in the future. With all that will be going on I will be there trying to cover the event in a true geek/techie way. I have set up a Ustream channel to watch the event online, and I will blogging and tweeting, Facebooking, Buzzing every bit of the event that I can. Some of the tech I will have at hand is minimal but I think will get the job done for sure. For example I will be using 2 laptops and my cell phone to try to get the blogging, streaming, and social media coverage. So hopefully there is no big mishaps and I can use all my gadgets to cover this event in a 21st century way.

Eduardo

Tejan@ Movement for Education

Hello all here is a friendly reminder that this Thursday will be the Walkout/Teach-in at UTPA. For more information you can see our Facebook event or the Mexican American Studies Club blog here. Hope that you can come and support Texas education and be a part of history.


Thanks,
Eduardo

Visiting the Border Wall

Today for the first time I went to go seriously observe the Border Wall. It was only me, my car, and my trustee phone(which I used to take pictures and video). My plan was to head down to the Hidalgo pump house to try to get some good snapshots. I unfortunately got a bit lost trying to find the pump house but I found myself near the Hidalgo-Reynosa international bridge. Fortunately along the bridge there's part of the border wall constructed so I stopped and took some pictures. While traveling down a street nearest to the "wall", I stumbled upon a Border Patrol guard tower. The tower did not look very impressive. It looked old, beaten up, and ineffective. Of course this is coming from someone who is used to seen the local police having bigger and flashier guard towers down at the local HEB. But nonetheless I could see how having such a apparatus serves its purpose despite being not as sophisticated as local police towers. Though I did notice a lot patrol vehicles and mobile spot lights(with the DHS logo on them).

 I encountered a one as I was walking down the pump house and was forced off a pedestrian walk way by a Border Patrol S.U.V. Though it seems that the patrol man just wanted to ensure his dominance, I was not impressed but irritated. I had many mixed feelings about seeing the border wall, in the end I am not sure what to think about it. I absolutely disagree that it should be built but yet I feel that there has to be a manner to deal with immigration in a humane and reasonable manner. 

Tejan@s Movement for Education

Hello all,

This is the current movement I am part of, I hope you can see the importance of this and I hope to muster up some support for this cause.

Tejan@ Movement For Education

-Hardrived

Hello

So why start this blog? Well basically I was inspired in part because I am now part of a movement to help save education at the University of Texas Pan American. Also searching for an adequate place to release my tensions and inspirations, I decided to start this blog. Since this is all new ground for me (social activism) I tread carefully and I will be mindful of my posts. I have training that alerts me when I am being ethnocentric and I believe in keeping a high regard for truth and honesty. With that said I believe small introduction are always good when one has a lot of work to do. So here we go.