College grads today may need to board a flight to Latin America to find their next job. And this time it is not because corporations are looking for cheap, low-skilled labor. U.S.-educated LATAM professionals, including lawyers, finance specialists, and HR directors, are filling back-office roles that used to sit in American cities. This has been quietly accelerating since the early 2000s. This week, a VP of Global Services Finance at a major Dow company, Johnson and Johnson departed to 'pursue external opportunities' — the same week senior procurement postings went live in Bogotá. This is the pattern. Sad part is, the current administration has halted immigration while U.S. corporations export the jobs immigrants were supposedly taking. If this feels like it should be bigger news, consider who funds the news. History does tell us all of this may backfire because I left Brooklyn when the Colombian Drug Cartel ran roughshod through parts of Brooklyn.

On 5/23/2026 at 1:20 PM, Mel Hopkins said:

Colombian Drug Cartel ran roughshod through parts of Brooklyn.

I didn't know about this I lived more than a decade of my adult life in BK. Maybe you had to be in "the life" for it to be a problem?

I actually emailed @Pioneer1 to now avail. I hope he is OK.

24 minutes ago, admin said:

I didn't know about this I lived more than a decade of my adult life in BK. Maybe you had to be in "the life" for it to be a problem?

Brooklyn was a bloodbath in the 90s -I had to hit the deck a couple of times with the twins in my arms because they were shooting in the playground across from my Bed-Stuy home. One night DEA and Narc cops from NYPD jumped my mother's fence chasing drug dealers. Her Clinton-Hill brownstone was on the corner and our drive-in garage sat on the side of the house that bordered our backyard. It was a perfect getaway.

Nope you didn't have to be in the drug trade to get runover by it. I was terrified for my girls. You were lucky to be oblivious to the crime - it was ugly. I'll never forget walking to the J Train and stepping over brainmatter. This became a regular occurence for me. That's exactly why we left. I wanted better for my girls. I got it too!

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) 1990-1994
Actually it started in the 1980s maybe even before my father's off-duty shooting
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) 1980-1985

My youngests were born in 92 and nd 93 and we lived in BK until 2001 or so. My car was stolen in 1992 that was the only problem we had, but I was in Park Slope so that might have been the difference. I remember thinking how much better Brooklyn was than when we were in High School. From my experience, Brooklyn (the entire city) was much worse in the 1970s.

I know in the 90s they started locking brothers up left and right.

3 hours ago, admin said:

I remember thinking how much better Brooklyn was than when we were in High School. From my experience, Brooklyn (the entire city) was much worse in the 1970s.

The dope epidemic didn't produce as much violence & murder as the crack epidemic.

3 hours ago, admin said:

I know in the 90s they started locking brothers up left and right.

The War on Drugs was declared when Black folks started getting a lotta money & murder rates skyrocketed across the country.

POTUS Bill Clinton's 1994 Crime Bill incarcerated a whole lotta Black folks.

That's why there are 2 million people being warehoused in US prisons.

More prisoners in the US than every other country combined.😎

Both of them were and are bad, but it appears that Crack came the closest to almost DESTROYING the Black urban community in a way that Heroin didn't.

Heroin has been around for decades...since the 40s atleast....and caused it's problem.
But you still had working class functioning Black neighborhoods, numbers running, the prostitutes actually looked decent.....lol.
Violence was contained.

Crack came along in the early to mid 80s like a bull in a china shop.
In just a year or two the decent looking prostitutes and well dressed pimps became replaced with skinny skeleton looking "crack hoes" and the pimps were gone.
Violence and automatic weapons appeared right along with it and violence skyrocketed.

In Detroit you had "dope dens"....a few designated buildings to shoot up in.
When Crack hit, nearly every 4th or 5th building or house became a "crack house".

40 minutes ago, ProfD said:

POTUS Bill Clinton's 1994 Crime Bill incarcerated a whole lotta Black folks.

The Black man who killed my father while he was trying to prevent a robbery of his uncle store was convicted with life with no expected parole. He is free today and has been for some time, so I suspect there are a lot who are free today. But that crime spree back in the day - sent me fleeing NY so, I'm not mad at that crime bill that saved other Black families who couldn't leave New York. If there were people falsely imprisoned my heart breaks for them and I hope some liberal project got them out. But it wasn't like Black people caught up in that bill were innocent. They left a lot of Black families without fathers, sons, mothers and daughters.

In other news, Hi @ProfD ! I hope you are doing well on this Memorial Day!