Dennis Sandole

Institute of Conflict Analysis and Resolution, George Mason University

Interviewed by Julian Portilla, 2003

This rough transcript provides a text alternative to audio. We apologize for occasional errors and unintelligible sections (which are marked with ???).

It reports on parts of the world that American news rarely touches. On the BBC news I see Sierra Leone, I see Democratic Republic of the Congo, and I see parts of South America. I see the horrors that are going on out there that we are not paying attention to for reasons of preventing dissonance. How can we be so good if in fact we are allowing most of the world to go down the tubes? Which by the way is not even merely ethical or unethical and immoral it is impractical. It is in our best interest to make sure the rest of the world is in good shape for a variety of reasons. Then we don't have 10,000s of illegal immigrants. I remember years ago people saying how would you deal with the people from Mexico coming across the Rio Grande? Would you have more troops on the TX side? I said no. I would invest in the economy. Mexico has oil. The Germans built a Volkswagen plant there which there about to close because the beetle is not selling to well. Invest in the Mexican economy. Invest in the economies of all of the Latin American countries. Get the Argentineans and the Brazilians to do likewise, and that way you can deal with illegal migration and immigration.

Across borders people are suffering. Being caught in containers in the 115 degree temperature and suffocating as they are being brought across, all that can be prevented. Organized crime plays a role and it could all be cut down by investing in their economies.