In this current U.S. political season, the headlines are full of stories about corruption, sex scandals, and the democrats and republicans throwing blows.  Yet, quietly (in the press) issues such as the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) go unnoticed by the average American.  This agreement was pushed through by very slim margins both in the U.S. and in Central American countries.  Most people here (in El Salvador) saw through all the rhetoric that it would be good for the country.  Instead, thousands of farmers are loosing their jobs here in El Salvador.  Subsequently, over 700 people a day leave this country looking for work in the States.  What they are finding is a increasingly hostile country that does not want them to come.  Yet, few in the U.S. seem to make the connection between their support (implicit or explicit) of policies such as CAFTA and the reality of the poverty it perpetuates, and the ironic pressure it puts on workers here to migrate north. 

CAFTA is incredibly beneficial for two groups of people.  The owners of Salvadoran companies who will benefit from increased profits, and the people in the U.S. who will continue to afford goods at low prices.  There is a theory floating around that the money "trickle down" to the poor and give them a hand up.  Yet, this has not seemed to be the case in many countries who have adopted such thinking.  Read this article to get some great insight into what we are seeing happen in El Salvador.  http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=35082

Here's my question.  Who cares?  Did many of us in the States wake up this morning, or any time over the last 2 years and say, "how is my purchasing habits affecting the lives of people around the world?"  Furthermore, is God really concerned about globalization?  Does he care that a smaller amount of people are amassing large amounts of wealth at the expense of billions of others?  This is not a debate about capitalism vs. other systems.  More than anything, I question whether or not God wants His people to care.  In the age of enormous prosperity in the U.S., how does God want us to think about our money?  Does God want us to ask deeper....why is everything in Walmart so darn cheap?  Finally, in terms of how we understand our possessions do we truly see everything we posses as God's property or as our own?  When we think about giving to the poor, do we ask God, "how much are you calling me to give?", or when we lay out our budgets, and look at our spending do we ask God about our income, "how much do you want me to take?"

I have had the opportunity to talk to many of the farmers represented in the above statistics.  They are suffering. They are debating leaving their families.  They don't want to.  Yet, when they work all season long and cannot sell enough to cover the cost of their farming, the option to leave begins to look like a question of survival.  I know that God cares about globalization, because he cares for my friend Alberto, in El Tinteral.   I hope we all begin asking God to help us care as well.
Alberto with wife and church members from the States