I heard about the National Geographic Channel's new series "Border Wars" a couple weeks ago and upon looking at its webpage knew that it would be complete crap - basically another "Cops" but focused exclusively on latinos in the southwest.  It comes at a surprise that it would be on this channel, but after Fox launched its own fear-mongering "Border Patrol" program last year it seems logical that other networks would want to get in on the act, considering the depth of xenophobia in the U.S. audience.

John Carlos Frey writes a seething review of "Border Wars", and the most important point, in my view, that he raises is this one:

The United States is the largest consumer of illegal narcotics in the world. We directly fuel the Mexican street drug economy. We provide the drug lords with guns and ammunition as well as the financing to keep the "war" going. If there really is a border war, we have created and armed the militia that is fighting our very own U.S. Border Patrol. Our insatiable drug appetite puts our own law enforcement officers at risk. It would be like giving Al Qaeda guns, ammunition and money to fight us. We are supplying "the enemy" with the very means they need to be our enemy. Why doesn't Border Wars go to college campuses where one can find a host of illegal narcotics on any given day and a culture that encourages massive partying? Why doesn't Border Wars go to Hollywood parties or Wall Street where illegal narcotics are delivered at the feet of the rich? If the demand for illegal narcotics dried up, there would be no drug trafficking and sadly for the National Geographic Channel there would be no ratings hit called Border Wars.

This is serious stuff, and I think about this when I read nativist polemics (like this one from the racist "thinktank"/frontgroup Center for Immigration Studies, which actually mentions me, I'm proud to say, in its objection to the Sierra Club's borderlands campaign) about stopping border violence and smuggling on the border as well.  If you're serious about addressing the environmental degradation and crime happening on our southern border, then you should address the 2 root causes:  1) gringos love recreational drugs and 2) the U.S. government has been and is still destroying the economies of Mexico and other countries south of us with its exploitative trade polices.

I call, as Frey does, on you all, if you share the outrage at this ridiculous program, to call bullshit on National Geographic, a once respectable media organization. If you have a blog, twitter account, etc, mention how false and bad the concept (and even the name) of this show is.  And furthermore, if you consume illegal substances and/or know people who do, think about, admit, and talk about the bloody effect your lifestyle is having.