The first thing that I thought of when I started reading this chapter was the crack on the sidewalk outside of my grandmothers house, from the 8.1 magnitude Earthquake in Mexico City on September 19th, 1985. I may have not been alive at that point in time yet, but my parents, my grandparents and the rest of my Mexican family were there. As we reached this final week in Latin American Studies, we got closer and closer to the present, and now, we are reading about common topics of discussion nowadays, because Latin America continues to be a region struggling to recover from the effects of the colonial period.
This weeks documents focus on the conflict between Chevron and Ecuador. I had heard about this conflict before in school, but not in so much detail and I find it both sad but insightful.
Evidently, I find it sad because I feel like this truly shows the true colours of many groups of people, corruption on both ends of the rope, and it is something we continue to see today. These events are happening right now, even as I write this blog post. It is sad that as an individual, I cannot heal Latin America of its issues, and its sad because it is my homeland. Last class, we spoke about what responsibilities we had as Canadian residents to Latin America and upon hearing some of the responses given by my classmates, I feel confident that there are things that could be done. Unfortunately, one cannot fix an entire region’s problems overnight. It will take time, but I prefer to stay hopeful about Latin America’s future.,
Anyway, I got kind of sidetracked… Back to the documents. Document 11.1 is part of the summary of the decision made in the Lago Agrio trial, written by the lawyers of the Ecuador plaintiffs. Document 11.2 is part of the injunction that Judge Kaplan granted to Chevron. As Dawson said, they are 2 very different interpretations of the same evidence. Document 11.1, as I’m guessing it was supposed to do, made me kind of angry, because it’s a huge list of damages done by Chevron. The land, the people and the lives of many were ruined. For what? Oh yes, exploitation of natural resources and money. It is very unfortunate that this is the case, even today… Especially today. On the other hand, there is Document 11.2, which shows the other side of the same coin. However, it also made me angry? There is so much corruption everywhere. Yet, it leaves me wondering if I, too, would’ve turned to less than moral ways to try and win a trial for money that could be used to fix at least some of my country… I feel like I would… What do you guys think?
That being said, happy end to term 1 everyone! I hope everyone enjoyed the course material of LAST100, and best of luck on your final exams! 🙂
Hi Michelle! I really enjoyed reading your blog post and your personal connection with the earthquake in Mexico City. I also felt angry and saddened when reading documents 11.1 and 11.2. I think (in regard to your question) that because money is what motivates people and drives most of the world, that it makes sense that people were going against their morals to do what was necessary for their country.