Monkeying around with the news…

OK, so I like to go off on historical riffs sometimes.  Yesterday, I wrote about a contract between Mexico City and a Chinese telecom company.  Some guy from Maryland left a comment on the “digg.com” spot complaining that the story DID NOT deal with financial inequality in Mexico or with immigration to the United States. Sorry, but not everything in Mexico somehow relates to some concern of some guy somewhere in the U.S. 

When I replied to that effect, and questioned what immigration had to do with WiFi, he started complaining that my article went off on that historical riff on Vasco de Quiroga.  Fair enough, but then, what would a riff on immigration have to do with it. 

Ah well, I can’t make everyone happy.  And, sorry, but the Mex Files doesn’t just confirm pre-existing prejudices, or make claims based on nothing (the guy insisted Mexico doesn’t have indoor toilets.  I’ve actually shit… many, many times… in Mexican indoor bathrooms.  And showered in them, and used some very, very, very high-tech bathrooms too.  OOPS… there I go again).

Besides, if you want bullshit, and irrelevency, that’s what the wire services are for (not fair, but c’mon… every time you read an article from Mexico, somehow they manage to mention either drugs or immigration.  Unless you’re talking about Canadian papers, in which case they mention dead Canucks).

And… what my correspondent thought was REAL Mexico was the report on a monkey escaping from a zoo and biting a woman on a bus. 

Which may — or may not — be factually accurate. 

Was it a spider monkey (as reported by the AP) or a kinkajou (as other reports have it) ?  Or maybe it was a plain old comandreja (cotamundi), which is a fairly common pet

Kinkajous are nocturnal, and I can’t see one getting on a bus… or was it a mini-bus?  The foreign reports aren’t clear on the story of the “monkey escapes from zoo, bites woman on bus” story making the rounds this morning. 

The story says the critter curled up with the driver.  That sounds more like a coati to me… but who knows.  Kinajous don’t like to be disturbed when they’re sleeping and get a might testy.  Coatis are social animals, active during the day, but don’t react well to authority. 

And neither of them look much like spider monkeys.  I don’t think the AP reporter (or anyone else) even bothered to ask. 

And, now for the historical riff:

It’s not as good as the great 1954 Santa Maria de la Ribera elephant stampede… when Ringling Brothers elephants, transferring trains at Buenavista Station — and tired of working for peanuts — liberated themselves.  They managed to take out a few cars, and stomped on the PRI’s press secretary (probably the only political figure in the history of the Americas killed by an elephant), a few cars and trucks and tore up the Parque Popular at the corner of Jaime Torres Bodet and San Cosme before they were surrounded.  Leader Judy refused to surrender, and after taking out a police car, was machine gunned to death. 

It was hard to cover up the police shooting, even in 1954 Mexico.  Judy was dragged off by a tow truck and fed to the lions at the Chapultepec Park. 

Anyway… I heard this story yesterday.  My post about WiFi was picked up by some guy in Maryland, who complained I didn’t mention economic inequity in Mexico, or deal with U.S. immigration when I was talking about a contract with a Chinese wireless company. 

Back to the main point… 

I suppose I could stick to “bad Mexicans — drugs, poverty and immigrants”, but what would be the point?  The AP and other wire services all write the same old shit every time they write anything, and… when they have a weird story (like the escaped … whatever… riding a bus… or van … or whatever)  aren’t sure how to deal with it. 

I try to write — at least once in a while — about Mexico as a normal country.  OK, it’s not, but it’s weirdness is not necessarily always OUR weirdness. 

Geeze, I’d hate to lose a reader, but folks who just want confirmation of their prejudices are better off elsewhere. Besides, I don’t think that guy from Maryland ever gave me a dime (or a peso, for that matter):