Architect Ronald Rael delivered a thought-provoking 10 minute TED talk in Dec. 2018 about borders in general and the Mexico-US border specifically. It's an excellent watch in these complicated times.

Rael built the famous Prada, Marfa store in the middle of nowhere. I've written about Marfa but never understood until now -- with further reading -- that 1) Prada, Marfa is made primarily of dirt; and 2) Prada, Marfa was a deliberate political installation, as well as an art installation in an upscale, educated, artistic place in Texas. You MUST read the next two paragraphs. Marfa link also in comment:

Visiting Rael’s website, I learned so much more about the political experience of creating the Prada Marfa store.

“ On July 13, 2005, 22 miles north of the U.S./Mexico border, patrol agents from the Marfa Sector of the United States Border Patrol surrounded five people traveling through the Chihuahua Desert in West Texas. Suspecting illegal activity, the agents had been informed that illegal immigrants were detected by the tethered aerostat radar system hovering overhead that provides counter-narcotics and border crossing surveillance and can distinguish targets down to a meter across at ground level.

It is not uncommon that coyotes, smugglers involved in the profession of human trafficking, drive the desolate roads searching for “wets”, the derogatory term for illegal immigrants, in the vast desert expanse surrounding Marfa. When the five suspects were questioned on the nature of their business the answer was not so clearly comprehended by the Border Patrol. The suspects were a gallery curator, a photographer, an artist, and two architects who were discussing the selection of the future building site of Prada Marfa, a minimalist sculpture that replicates the luxury boutique where the Fall 2005 line of Prada shoes and bags were to be displayed."

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Dec 13, 2016

Aline Weber Hangs Out At Prada As We Drop Into Marfa, Texas

Dec 13, 2016

Scatological comment projected on wall of Trump Hotel Saturday night, apparently by Robin Bell, who has been credited with similar acts previously. (Sorane Yamahira / Bellvisuals.com)

Robin Bell, who has previously projected messages critical of President Trump onto DC's Trump Hotel is credited with turning the presidential word choice of "shithole" into an editorial art installation on Saturday night. The word references countries from which immigration to America is undesirable in the view of the president and other immigration hardliners. The light show by the "projectionist provocateur" including other slogans about the Trump presidency.

The word was used to describe countries like Haiti, El Salvador and countries in Africa. Trump expressed his preference for people from countries like Norway.

Most Republicans have been mum about Trump's racist remarks but Utah Rep. Congresswoman Mia Love has joined Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake in condemning the conversation articulated by Dem. Sen. Dick Durbin and backed up by S.C. Sen. Lindsey Graham, both senators in the meeting where Trump ambushed them by inviting immigration hardliners to hear the proposal worked out by a bipartisan group of three Democrat and three Republican senators. Graham said he would not comment further and had expressed his thoughts on Trump's comments directly to him in front of others. Graham's SC colleague Rep. Sen. Tim Scott said he was told the word "shithole" was used, presumably by Graham.

Rep. Mia Love, the first Haitian-American elected to Congress, said on CNN's 'State of the Union' Sunday, "I can't defend the indefensible. You have to understand that there are countries that struggle out there. But their people, their people are good people and they're part of us. We're Americans."

"The (President's) comments are unkind, divisive, elitist, and fly in the face of our nation's values," Love said in a statement Thursday night. "The President must apologize to both the American people and the nations he so wantonly maligned."

Nana Akufo-Addo, who assumed the presidency of Ghana last January, took to Twitter to denounce Trump's use of "shithole" to describe countries like his own. The shocked reverberations to Trump's comments have rocked the world of diplomats and ordinary citizens, many of who love America if not our president.

There's a note of irony in Trump's haughty views about places like Haiti. While Trump's all cash sales of his condos to Russians is well-established amid accusations of money laundering, even I didn't know that America's president personally handled the sale of a Trump Tower condo to the despised Haitian dictator Baby Doc.

Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier lead a reign of terror in Haiti, accused by Human Rights Watch in 2011 of selling dead Haitians' body parts to finance his high-flying lifestyle. The Daily Beast wrote about Trump personally handling the condo sale, noting that "the Stroock & Stroock & Lavan law firm—hired by the Haitian government to search out assets Duvalier had stolen from the Caribbean island-nation—only found out Duvalier owned Apartment 54-K because the dictator hadn’t paid his phone bill. The Haitian government put a lien on the property after he fled."