Skip the United States. "We Want a County That Looks Like Canada."

Until recently I was totally unaware of the antipathy held by our near neighbor, Mexico, for the United States. I knew that before reading Brenda Walker's blog entry in which she quotes Stephen Haber, director of Stanford University's Social Science History Institute and a Latin American specialist at the Hoover Institute.

"We want Mexico to look like Canada. That's optimal for the United States. We never talk about instability in Canada. We're never concerned about a Canadian security problem. {...} That's the optimal for Mexico: a wealthy and stable country."

And warns Haber, "What isn't wanted is an unstable country on your border, especially an unstable country that hates you."

Is Mexico an unstable, failing state? Do they really ... hate us?

If this is true, it must be really difficult for the Mexican diaspora to live and work within the United States, and could this be the reason for the existence of MEChA and the movement called Aztlan.

Is it an accident that the acronym MEChA,"Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán", has another real-word meaning?

In Spanish, the word mecha means fuse or match, as in strike the match and light the fuse. And put in context: An up-to-now slow-burning fuse in a rapidly deteriorating part of North America.