Where would Canada be without Mexicans?
In thrall to the Chinese, that’s where:
Dave Feschuk, The Toronto Star:
While hockey’s previous century was dominated by wood sticks made in factories in small-town Ontario and Quebec, where the employees presumably possessed intimate knowledge of Canada’s national winter sport, the shift to composite sticks has transplanted the manufacturing process to places where the game’s roots are nonexistent. All the major stick manufacturers have operations in Asia; Sher-Wood, the last of the Canadian companies to make wood sticks on an industrial scale, recently announced plans to move its remaining domestic concern to China.
But Warrior, plus market leader Easton, make many of their highest-end sticks here, in this industry-heavy zone a short drive from the U.S. border. The manufacturers choose Mexico for a number of reasons. Skilled labour is relatively cheap. Shipping is cheaper and timelier than it is from Asia. And the Mexican operations can be overseen by U.S.-based staff who make the short trip from nearby metropolitan San Diego.
More on Mexican ice hockey (it really does exist) at http://alienhockey.blogspot.mx/2012/02/cinco-de-mayo-tourney-2012.html
Jenni who?
Now that she’s dead, the U.S. “mainstream media” has decided that Jenni Rivera, a Californian who sold 15 million records (more than any other contemporary American pop singer) just might deserve some passing mention.
The Washington Post at least admits they never heard of Jenni Rivera before she died. And, until her plane crash, she hadn’t been seen as worthy of coverage by ABC, CBS, Fox or NBC either.
The United States is the third or fourth largest Spanish speaking country in the world (if you include Puerto Rico, the U.S. and Argentina are tied for third) but its news to the news media Spanish-language culture is alive and well in the country.
(Milenio)
(Ok, I never mentioned her either, but then, I don’t much like Banda and Norteño music. I HAVE talked about Mayan rock-n-roll, Nahuatl death metal and even Bolivian hip-hop on various occasions).
Miscommunication and misunderstanding
Lynn Brezosky at the Houston Chronicle, quotes Gerardo Acevedo Danache, the vice president of international affairs for the Chambers of Commerce for both Matamoros and the state of Tamaulipas as saying Jon Hammar’s arrest and incarceration was a result of “miscommunication and misunderstanding”.
While I take exception to the implication that Hammar’s release was solely due to concern over possible effects on the tourism industry, and question whether “Hammar was … pressured to enter a guilty plea” (when he was, in fact, guilty of a serious crime), Brezosky, in quoting Acevedo, gives the clearest and simplest explanation of what happened.
While Hammar thought he’d properly registered the gun, Mexican officials said he hadn’t.
[…]
[Acevedo] said the situation begged both an investigation into Hammar’s treatment and a reconsideration of how the country advises foreigners on gun regulations.
Signs at the border say firearms are prohibited, but hunting in Mexico is legal.
“Jon is a victim of miscommunication and misunderstanding,” Acevedo said. “We need to avoid that situation in the future.”
Mr. Hammar is hardly the first, nor will he be the last, gringo to end up in Mexico (or other foreign) jails because he was given wrong information by the wrong people. I would feel better if the Customs (or was it a Border Patrol) officer who allegedly gave Hammar “permission” to take a shotgun into Mexico was identified and questioned publicly about this. Whether it’s a question of improper training (and the officers simply don’t know what is, and is not, permissible to bring into Mexico), or the officers are of the all-too-common mindset that the rest of the world follows U.S. regulations (and U.S. regulations apply to U.S. citizens in other countries) is something that needs to be addressed.
On the latter point, incidentally, Florida’s U.S. Senator Bill Nelson is quoted in The Associated Press (via The Guardian) as saying “No American should be in a Mexican jail for five months without being able to have his case in front of a judge,” Brezosky said that Hammar pled guilty to the charges… within 90 days of his arrest, which would be well within the norms of justice. Perhaps one should ask the Senator if he means foreigners arrested in Florida on felonies should be bailed until they can receive a hearing, too.
Focusing on the mistreatment of one American — and the tacit presumption that U.S. citizens are somehow entitled to special rights deflects consideration of a larger problem… the serious overcrowding and lack of resources in Mexican prisons. While much of that overcrowding is due to the fact that Matamoros is (in the journalistic cliche of Huffington Post, The Daily Mail, Fox News and others) “a dangerous area” has more to do with proximity to the United States and its ridiculously lax attitude towards gun runners and insatiable appetite for narcotics is overlooked. And, with the overcrowding in Mexican jails in that part of the country (and throughout the country for that matter).
That Mr. Hammar was moved out of the general population shows that some concern was given for his welfare, though — not having a suitable place to isolate prisoners at risk — the conditions under which he was held were appalling (and, incidentally, one of the reasons for his release: chaining him in his temporary cell violated his civil rights — not as an American, but as a human being in Mexico). Neither The Houston Chronicle nor the Associated Press mentions that Hammar has suffered from Post Traumatic Stress since 2008.
Certainly, as a combat veteran, Hammar was more likely to have PTSD than the general population, and I was happy I was able to help in a very small way the Silver Stars Families which focuses on that issue as it affects U.S. military veterans. As Steve Newton of Silver Stars Families wrote in an email:
I believe we should ask why did Lance Corporal Hammar want to make the trip through Mexico? From news accounts it was made obvious that Hammar was trying to escape from the images and horrors in his own mind. Post Traumatic Stress is no joke and as we have seen many times it can often lead to making decisions that are not good ones. PTS can also lead to alcohol and drug abuse in an effort to escape from what they may see as reality in the own minds.
The Silver Star Families of America have been a leading advocate for those who have been wounded with PTS. The situation with Corporal Hammar should be viewed as a chance to discuss new and innovative ways to treat those so wounded. Let’s have that debate now.
We in Mexico — victims of U.S. engendered violence that has led to 60 to 80,000 deaths and up to 20,000 disappearances over the last six years — are going to have to come to grips with the problem among our own people, and not just among a subgroup of people, like combat veterans.
And, Mexico has a long way to go in properly offering decent treatment for the mentally ill and emotionally disturbed. Our prisons, like U.S. prisons, are not equipped to deal with these kinds of problems, nor are they meant to. What we both need is less recrimination and xenophobia (and violence) and more communication and understanding.
Happy13.0.0.0.0
… may the new Bak’tun go better than the last 5,125 years, especially if you’re a Mayan.
See ya’ tomorrow?
Coincidence?
An insult to all Americans?
I don’t see Fox News, of course (if I want a fix of crappy propaganda, Televisa fits the bill quite nicely, thank you), but I ran across mention of this piece on Corporal Hammar earlier this evening, and the only thing I can say is it’s an insult to the intelligence of all Americans.
From everything I can gather, Mr. Hammar has suffered, and does suffer from his war related injuries (specifically Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). The last place he needs to be is in a Mexican prison (the last place any human being needs to be, for that matter), and I do support the efforts to get him a release on humanitarian grounds. And, again urge people to make donations and support Silver Star Families of America, which is working to bring more attention to the illness, and to lobby for more treatment and research.
PTSD is “inconvenient” for the government to acknowledge — the cost of doing business (in a manner of speaking). In this, it is like AIDS was several years ago, another politically inconvenient, and best ignored public health problem. As with the family and friends and victims of AIDS, Silver Stars Families — the families, and friends and victims of PTSD are having to go around the bureacracy, finding their own ways to provide treatment and support, while simultaneously calling out the state to acknowledge it’s own responsibility and need for response. And, given recent events (or the last six years here in Mexico), there’s no way to say it’s solely a veterans issue, and even us “lefty” types should praise the Silver Star Families (and send them a few bucks if we can).
Hammr is a victim, and should not be victimized twice, for cheap political posturing. O’Reilly’s “threat” presumes there was something illegal about Mexico’s enforcement of its own laws. I’m dubious about claims that Hammar and his traveling buddy received permission from U.S. Customs to take the gun in question into Mexico. First off, I have crossed that border any number of times, and have never heard of anyone (and never have) stopped at U.S. Customs LEAVING the United States. That makes no sense. If, as some have claimed, Hammar talked to Customs with a view to returning to the United States with his antique shotgun, then I have to ask why no one in the media (including Bill O’Reilly) has spoken to the Customs Service, or to the Custom’s Officer (if such a person exists)?
O’Reilly mentions that the purpose of bringing the gun was to go hunting in Costa Rica. Really? Hunting is illegal in Costa Rica, and while I’m not an expert on these things, I don’t think Hammar’s shotgun would have been legal in Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua or Honduras (all on the way to Costa Rica) either.
O’Reilly all but demands the President, Enrique Peña Nieto, simply release Hammar, claiming Peña Nieto has the power to do so. I’m told Mr. O’Reilly has a law degree (and from Harvard, no less), but he didn’t bother to read Mexican legal documents… like the Constitution. Yes, the President can pardon a CONVICTED criminal… but Hammar is only in custody awaiting trial, not convicted of anything.
Finally, in threatening the Republic with a “boycott” if Hammar is not released, why should the President even listen to him? Bad enough the U.S. government does next to nothing to control the gun-runners (and, according to some on the right, supports them), but to try to blackmail the Mexican President into overlooking his country’s own laws against gun running, to avoid potential economic harm may play well with O’Reilly’s viewers, but is counterproductive.
Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen complains that the jail where Hammar is being held is unsafe and overcrowded. When has she ever shown a lick of concern about jail overcrowding, or about human rights in Mexico? She was a major cheerleader for “Plan Merida” and never said “boo” as far as I can tell about the lack of human rights support given by that U.S. sop to the Calderón Administration.
I’ll give her partial credit for claiming not wanting to undermine diplomatic and other efforts to get Hammar released, but I am very afraid her willingness to support know-nothings and spinsters like O’Reilly, is not in Hammar’s, nor Mexico’s, nor the United State’s best interests. From the Congresswoman’s own website:
Stormy weather…
The Mayan Apocalypse is this Friday.
Not to late to dispose of your goods and chattels before then. I’ll take em…
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Bet you can’t eat just one… comparing Apples and potato chips
Via Laura Martinez (Mi blog es tu blog):
In a way this is very funny… a new product now on the shelves in Washington State (where marijuana was legalized).
I have no reason to doubt the company’s claims that the cannabis in their potato chips is also from Washington State, but if so, why the Latin-themed marketing and brand name? Washington State is not known for palm trees (nor for Spanish-language based names), so why this packaging, if not to imply a Latin source?
60 to 70 (or more) thousands of Mexicans died in the last few years to create a product image? While everyone agrees the “war on (some) drugs” was stupid, but it wasn’t the government funding from Washington DC so much that was causing those deaths, as the money pouring in from buyers of the products. Plan Merida was a cock-up, and “Fast and Furious” a blunder, but they were only ill-conceived responses to the attempts to quash a Mexican export industry supported by the people of the United States, including those in Washington State.
Now after the people of the State of Washington, have done their fair share to murder maim and orphan tens of thousands of Mexicans through their purchases, their “entrepreneurs” seek to use Latin Americans to market their produce.
We get Washington apples here in Sinaloa (which, thanks to NAFTA, have decimated the Chihuahua apple growers), but at least the source is clearly labeled. If Washington marijuana growers are, even in the absence of NAFTA regulations on this particular crop, trying to destroy their Mexican competitors (and they are… don’t think for a minute that marijuana wouldn’t have been legalized a long time ago if — like sugar-cane, coffee, chocolate — U.S. and European corporations didn’t control the market) they could at least be a bit more honest about their intentions.
More than madness
Friday was the last day of school before Summer vacation started in Peru. Picking up his two young daughters, Otto (IncaKolaNews) had an uncomfortable thought:
Just for a second I thought about those mass murder gun attacks that have happened sporadically in the USA and wondered if one could ever happen in my country of adoption, my city of dwelling or even in the school I was looking at right then and there.
Which did, and not simply because the mentally ill do not get the treatment they need(ditto Peru, and Mexico and a heck of a lot of other places), nor because — as Charles at Mercury Rising would have it, because of economic inequality and uncertainty in the future (again, a common condition in my part of the world), nor even because — “God was removed from the Public Schools” (something done here 1917. No…:
The United States of America doesn’t have the patent and exclusive rights to weirdos, idiots and dangerous minds. There are unstable people in the place where I live, but as in most any place their numbers are a tiny fraction of society as a whole. I’m quite sure that’s true for just about every corner of The USA as well, with 99.999% (add some more nines if you wish, not the point) of people being honest, law-abiding and caring people. But what The USA does offer is the opportunity for that tiny minority of unstable and potentially dangerous to get its hands on extremely effective machines of death. I’m not talking about handguns that can murder a single person as quickly as anything else ever invented by man, those machines and devices are available here and in most every country in the world if you’re determined enough to own one. This is about the type of weapon that today killed twenty children between the ages of six and ten years old, the same age range as the two people I picked up from school today, in their own school in a matter of seconds and without forgetting the seven (I believe, from latest news report) adults who also died at the hands of a single deranged and insane person.
Social inequality has been growing in this country since the implementation of NAFTA in 1994; we’ve had social unrest, mass internal migration to cities and general uncertainty about the future… all the ingredients for a rise in crime. But though it all, the murder rate (specifically the gun murder rate) was falling steadily… until the 13th of September 2004 when the U.S. “Federal Assault Weapons Ban” expired. The murder rate did not just inch up, it shot up. While the proxy “war” on drugs that led some irresponsible U.S. authorities to try branding this country a “failed state” was a deciding factor in putting those assault weapons into play, nothing has been done by our “patron” in our “war” other than a few half-hearted minor prosecutions of low-level gun runners, some rhetoric and an ill-fated investigation by the United States to prevent it’s access to “machines of death” from spilling over into this country.
In supporting Lance Corporal Hammar, I am not questioning the validity of his arrest. His weapon may have been an antique, and not an automatic weapon, and legal even under the now defunct Assault Weapons Ban in the United States and “possibly” permissible in Mexico (under other circumstances), but it is a short-barreled shotgun IS an assault weapon, and recommended for such use by none other than the National Rifle Association .
If we go too far in our restrictions, so be it. Despite his wealthy family’s access to the media and politicians having made him a poster-boy for the “blame Mexico” crowd, and despite his military disability making him a particularly sympathic figure, I believe his arrest was perfectly valid.
But that is not why I am willing to bring attention to his plight.
Padre Alejando Solalinde Guerra enraged the previous president when, after facing down death threats from the Zetas, he still forgave them their trespasses, as fellow victims… victims of a “corrupt, capitalist, sick and failed state”. Hammar is a victim of a culture and an ingrained mindset that saw his gun as a good. A culture that glorifies violence, that puts the buying and selling of products ahead of human rights, a sickness that puts goods before common goodness, and fails to control its own appetite for tools that permit people act out their worst obsessions.
Hammar… school children and teachers in Connecticut… 60,000 and more soldiers and civilians here… the Zetas… and, yes, Adam Lanza… are victims. While with Padre Solalinde, we may have compassion for the victims, and he’s a man who prays. He is also one who goes to the streets and takes on his government, and like him, we need not — and should not — simply “open a dialogue” about victims, but demand our victimizers be held accountable.
Oooooh… they really know how to hurt a guy
PAN Senator Jorge Luis Preciado’s gets shot down by SDPNoticias, calling him “gringo-ized” for his bill raise the drinking age in Mexico from 18 to 21 as it is in the United States.
Banksters
mexfiles.net 