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February 21, 2011

Comments

Adam Gonnerman

I speak from experience when I say that Brazil's system of immigration and employment is more than a little prohibitive. An undocumented worker can (still) get by fairly well in certain parts of the United States, but in Brazil anyone without documents, skills and a fair command of the language (documents being the prime factor) is pretty much left out. Brazil's a wonderful country, but I wouldn't recommend it for anyone planning to go without proper documents.

BZgirl

Wow, this story really speaks to the extreme desperation of the Haitian people. You know things are bad when you're struggling to get to the Dominican Republic or Brazil for a liveable wage. I was really struck by the trek from Haiti to the DR to Panama to Ecuador to Peru and then hopefully to Brazil. It shows how deep their desperation runs.

I just returned from an orientation weekend at one of the U.S. top international business schools. The student body seriously seems like the United Nations. Even there, everyone was bemoaning foreign bureacracy and how difficult it is to penetrate the work force in different countries, even with an expensive MBA from a top school. It just shows that these sort of bureaucratic obstacles exist at all levels, and while we certainly shouldn't be complacent, we should count our blessings and feel lucky to have been born with a U.S. passport rather than a Haitian one, for example.

Will there EVER be a point in time where global citizens aren't dragged down by all this bureaucratic bullshit? People tend to blame the U.S. and only the U.S., but I tend to take a more pragmatic approach. Change also needs to come from within; poor countries like Haiti, and the DR, Brazil, Mexico need to start pushing harder for less corrupt governments and a more free, just, and capitalist society.

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