Funny way to show “Friendship”
From an email sent to the No Border Wall Yahoo Group:
Friends – here is the latest update on Friendship Park, the historic meeting place overlooking the beach on the US-Mexico border.
Members of our leadership group joined a meeting with Customs and Border Patrol on Tuesday, January 6. …
At the January 6 meeting we were told that design plans for monument mesa have been finalized and these plans will not allow for public access of any kind, at any time to the fence on top of Monument Mesa or on the beach below. There will be a gate in the second wall they are building across the mesa, but this will be for maintenance only. They could not have been more clear and the ban on public access could not be more absolute.
Demolition of the cement plaza at Friendship Park began on the morning of our meeting (Jan 6). Our meeting concluded with a “tour” of the park where we got to see the backhoes and shovels begin their work. The intent was clearly to present to the staffers of the elected officials that the fate of the park is a fait accompli.
The park dates back to August 1971 when the most decent (and maybe the ONLY decent) person in the Nixon White House said “I hate to see a fence anywhere”… and ordered the Secret Servicemen to cut it.
The Bush Administration wants to rewrite history before they leave office. In a way, they’re succeeding… the Nixons look better all the time. Were they with us now, Pat Nixon might say, “Mr. Obama, tear down that wall… please” Dick would undoubtedly add, “God-damn it, what the fuck were you thinking, Chertoff?”
Ja ist es mexikanisch
I had some back-and-forth with the editor of Gods, Gachupines and Gringos over a footnote where I mentioned that the second most commonly spoken language in Mexico was now English, followed by Nahuatl, German and the various Mayan languages. My editor thought I’d made a mistake, until I added a sentence in the footnote reading, “the number of German speakers has declined over the last several decades, though it is still widely spoken in Chihuahua and Coahuila, especially by Mennonites.”
Those Mennonites technically speak “Platdeitch“, which some consider a distinct language from German, but Platdeitch documents are convential German with phonetic spellling and can be understood by German speakers — as well, or better than I could understand my English-speaking Jamaican neighbors in Mexico City (we had to rely on their Sierra Leonian roomie for translation, or speak in Spanish!). And, I tend to the cynical viewpoint that “a dialect is a language without an army.” The Mexican pacifist Platdeitch speakers have no army, and so… I count the 50,000 or so Platdeitch speakers in Mexico as German-speakers.
What brought this to mind was that one of the best Mex Files ever written was not by me, but by a former collaborator (and I’m always looking for others) Lyn: “The Mennonites in Mexico” still gets a hits regularly, and I sometimes receive e-mail about the piece.
There were a couple of emails about a film called “Silent Light”, but I can’t follow everything in Mexico, and one of my eccentricities is that I like movies, but don’t like going to movie theaters. If I watch a movie, it’s usually at least twenty years old, and I watch it on TV. And, apparently, the PR people sending out the e-mail were misinformed. The film is “Stellet Licht” — the first Mexican film, and first film anywhere — made in a Platdeitch. And, for an art-housy type film, is getting very good reviews.
Gayle Sondergaard went broke making a great movie partially in Espanglish. Mel Gibson made a bundle on a crappy one in Yucateca. I hope Carlos Reygada’s story of Chihuahua farmer Johan’s tragic affair with Miriam will prove as worth watching as “Salt of the Earth” and earn at least something approaching “Apocalypto”.
Consider the source…
The good news is Mexico is the second least likely nation in the world to suffer economic collapse. The bad news? The source for this information is Merrill-Lynch.
As Ronald Buchanan wrote in yesterday’s The (Mexico City) News:
… Merrill Lynch, in economic terms, is no different from the guys with big bellies and loud voices to be found in Mexican cantinas, New York bars, London pubs and, indeed, watering holes all over the world. They couldn’t kick a soccer ball if their life depended on it, but that doesn’t stop them blasting the alleged deficiencies of Beckham, Ronaldinho and all the rest.
Merrill’s ranking of credit risks has all the reliability of a prize list for moral rectitude in the Scottish Presbyterian Church drawn up by a Nevada brothel madam.
I’ll have more to say about the “Plan Anti-crisis”, the Mexican government proposal for dealing with the world-wide economic problem brought on by the Bush Administration’s neglect, rigid adherence to bone-headed economic models and pissing away the national budget in the sands of Iraq. It may be sound… but I might want to get a second opinion from somebody who didn’t manage to lose 60 billion dollars recently.
The revolt of the tourists
(slight update: 9-Jan to correct an error in the second paragraph)
I don’t know who is right in this instance, but a small reminder that foreigners — tourists especially — should stay out of Mexican union disputes.
While the “pulmonias” (basically oversized golf carts with a VW chassis) and the ubiquitous “arregas” (chariots — pickup-trucks with benches in the bed), are highlighted in the tourist guidebooks as unique to Mazatlan, most taxi service is no different than anywhere else on the planet. In Mazatlan, there are the “red” team and the “green” team (different owner’s groups, and different contracts with the drivers’ unions). There are also yellow airport taxis and vans. Taxis are not metered, but there are zone rates. The fare to or from the airport is 250 pesos. The rationale for the relatively high fare (besides the distance) is that city taxis cannot pick up fares AT the airport, so the trip back is reflected in the price. Taxi transport FROM the airport is exclusively in the hands of the airport taxi group. Tour operators can only take people TO the airport, if the passenger is part of a group that contracted for round-trip transport. This is pretty much the same taxi regulations that exist anywhere, though it becomes a complicated issue in resort towns.
The tour-bus operator/taxi drivers’ union dispute has been going on for some time now, and is serious — but, as Manuel Guízar discoved in his excellent article in today’s Noroeste, it has comedic potential.
(my translation)
¡No más Mazatlán, no más Mazatlán!, seventy tourists chanted during a dispute that began when two tour buses from King David Tours were blocked from leaving for the airport by taxi drivers. .
At about 11 A.M, as the buses were preparing to depart for the airport from the Hotal Royal Villas on Avenida Camarón-Sábalo , cab drivers blocked the entry-way. At 11:35, an agreement was reached between the cabbies and the bus driver, allowing the buses to depart.
Within seconds, traffic was tied up when taxis double-parked in front of the Hotel El Cid. The bus passengers sat and watched the wildcat strike.
Transit and municipal police, hoping to unsnarl traffic, detoured through traffic via calle Ibis, through Fraccionamiento Gaviotas [a gated community]
David Perez, King David Tour’s owner, was called to the scene by police and traffic inspectors to present his permits to operate the buses.
“They [the taxi drivers] don’t want to work with the hotels, the tourism and streets officials. They’re saying we can only bring passengers from the airport, but that the taxi drivers are the only ones who can go to the airport,” Perez said.
David Medina, Negotiations Secretary for the red taxi union, explained that King David is operating without authorization, having sub-contracted services to a company that does not have a permit, Ole Tours.
“He [Perez] can transport passengers as long as he operates under his old contract, but he sub-let the job to an agency which does not have permission to transport passengers from the city to the airport,” Medina explained
While those involved in the dispute gave their opinions to the authorities, the passengers began to lose hope, some getting off the bus, taking out their cameras and recording the incident, and the behavior of the public servants.
“This can’t be happening. This is Mazatlán,” said one Canadian tourist, adding “I have used taxis all week, and now that I want to go back to my country, they don’t let a bus take us to their airport.”
Another anxious tourist added, “I spoke with my children in Canada, who are waiting for me. I’m worried I’ll miss my flight.”.
At 11:35, the tour bus operator agreed to transport the seventy passengers to the airport by red taxi
Within minutes, the street took on the appearance of a terminal, as the tourists luggage was removed from the buses and transferred to the taxis, within sight of other tourists arriving in the green taxis.
It needs to be added that two families continued to block the street, refusing to take red taxis, and insisting on a van, because they did not want to be separated. This caused further traffic delays which were not resolved until 11:55.
The NEW! IMPROVED! Mex Files
same great stuff, now with fewer keystrokes…
http://mexfiles.net
This might make a great telenovela…
The rich guy refuses to pay what they’re owed for the hard work and creativity of the heroine, who must cross the border to seek justice… and discovers a willing suitor who appreciates her talent and hard work, and promises to treat her right… sounds like a winner.
Edvard Pettersson for Bloomberg:
Jan. 6 (Bloomberg) — Univision Communications Inc., the largest Spanish-language television network in the U.S., may lose its top-rated prime-time shows in a royalties dispute with Mexico’s Grupo Televisa SA that’s about to go to trial.
Televisa, Mexico’s biggest media company, this week will ask a Los Angeles jury to find Univision broke a licensing agreement so egregiously that Televisa can end the arrangement, set to run through 2017. Televisa will also ask for more than $100 million in unpaid royalties, its lawyer Marshall Grossman said.
The litigation is a “significant potential risk” for Univision, John Puchalla, a Moody’s Investors Service analyst, said in a Dec. 11 report. Televisa’s programs provide about 36 percent of New York-based Univision’s advertising revenue and would be hard to replace, Puchalla said.
“Televisa has a highly developed talent-scouting and training network in Mexico,” he said. “This creates a fairly strong lock on the talent pool underlying the programming.”
Univision has exclusive U.S. rights to leading prime-time soap operas including “Cuidado con el Angel” and “Fuego en la Sangre.” If the company loses, it may have to bid for the programs, perhaps against NBC Universal Inc.’s Telemundo network, and might pay the prevailing rate if it keeps them, Puchalla said in a phone interview, declining to speculate on rates.
WHOOPS!!!!!!
Something I’ve been meaning since last April ( “manaña” doesn’t just mean tomorrow… it’s ONLY nine months later) has been to move Mexfiles.wordpress.com to “mexfiles.net”.
I tried it early this morning (my time) and I think it works, but “mexfiles.net” isn’t coming up with anything and I was starting to panic about it, but figured out how to switch back to “mexfiles.wordpress.com” for now. I’ll give a “heads up” if I’m expecting to be down for several hours… probably this weekend.
Apologies to the European and West Asia/Middle Eastern folks who look in at this time of the day.
Mex File… and Vatican … approved
Thou shalt read the first Fides Dossier on the Question of Immigration in the United States of America (posted on Enerpub.com) . The Vatican statement opens with an oveview of the
… socio-economic situation in the country which have encouraged immigration since the first settlements and an analysis of the policies employed over the years to regulate a vast movement of people, will precede the examination of a far more complex situation today, with the country facing enormous migratory challenges of the new millennium, lacking the necessary legislation, and in the grip of serious economic crisis and widespread social malcontent.
With regard to tougher measures taken in recent years to regulate the migratory immigration, an emblematic case is the situation on the US-Mexico border, where the latest strategies of closure culminated in the approval by the US Congress of a proposal to build a 700 mile wall along the border.
Some highlights of the Church document:
- … it is necessary to distinguish between measures to be taken straight away and long-term solutions. The fundamental solution is that there should no longer be any need to emigrate because there are sufficient jobs in the homeland, a self-sufficient social fabric, so that there is no longer any need to emigrate … short-term … it is very important to help families in particular.
- Immigration is a constitutive element in the United States of America, a country of continual change and rich in economic and social contents still globally decisive. Always a desired destination, for the past four centuries the United States has represented a pole of attraction for peoples in crisis, men and women who decided to abandon their homeland for various reasons, including political persecution, religious intolerance, or the natural desire to survive or to improve one’s destiny.
- The multiethnic, multiracial, multicultural society of America today cannot and must not forget that she is the result of a process of nation building which was far from easy…while Mexico was defeated in a war with the United States (1846-1848)… the people never became really integrated… Mexicans, for the WASP, were second class whites, not fully “civilised”, and therefore liable to discrimination and abuse… which still continues today, with alternate vicissitudes – with a movement which makes headlines in news reports on illegal immigration, injustice, abuse and violation of the human rights of migrants.
- . … the institution of a free-trade area sanctioned by the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in force since 1 January 1994, to regulate goods and capital, said [no]thing about the circulation of persons, or did anything to find a solution to the problem of migrants. Indeed, precisely in the 1990s, the competition of multinational companies and a capitalistic agriculture, inflicted a severe blow on Mexico’s economy, causing a rise in the unemployment rate, a substantial drop in industry wage levels and economic growth at minimum terms. The NAFTA, intended to bridle these tendencies, on the contrary, encouraged them.
AMEN to that!
AMLO is not dead yet
Despite what is presented — or not presented — in the media, AMLO is not going away. I’ve said before (and wrote in my book… back when it was scheduled for publication in early 2008 ) that AMLO’s “alternative presidency” was as much a party think-tank as a movement. There was an historic analogy to PAN after the 1988 elections (which they realistically expected to lose) when Manuel Clouthier set up an “alternative cabinet” (Vicente Fox was alternative Secretary of Agriculture) not only to formalize political and social programs but also to influence their own party’s future direction.
AMLO had much broader popular support than Clouthier ever did and his “alternative presidency” has been more effective as a laboratory of ideas than we give it credit for. PEMEX reforms would have been very different without the alternative president’s objections being echoed in the Camera by “mainstream” PRD and some PRI deputies. Whether it’s inevidable, given the need for economic stimulus because of the U.S. crisis, or the “alternative presidency”, I can’t say, but a good part of AMLO’s original economic platform is being adopted by the “de facto” president. Outside of his anti-crime iniatives, very little of the Calderon Administration’s actions are all that different from what would be happening under an AMLO administration.
So, this (translation from the Woodrow Wilson International Institute for Scholars new Mexico Institute blog) is no surprise:
The Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) has given Andrés Manuel López Obrador an opportunity to suggest candidates for the midterms elections that take place this year. The PRD national leadership is now waiting for him to present his nominations. They gave him a January 14 deadline to do so.
Hortensia Aragón, Secretary General of the PRD, clarified that the offer is a matter of internal plurality, which forms part of the policy of having alliances “with the social movement,” but it is not a concession for López Obrador.
Vote Early, Bribe Often…
Inca Kola News is a finalist for “Best Latino, Caribbean or Latin American” blog. As in so many elections down here, there’s more than two middle-of-the-road candidates, so Inca’s 30+ percent showing (as of my latest vote) is very good… let’s go for a mandate… at least 35%!
VOTE HERE:
Inca Kola runs on advertising, and the awards are financially lucrative. The Mex Files does not take advertising, but gratefully accepts kickbacks, bribes and/or donations…
Homeland Security wants to destroy American business
Is it worth shopping north of the border to save a few pesos?
In what we hope is its last great act of lunacy, Michael Chertoff’s Department of Homeland Security has announced it will subject all non-Americans, including those who have been permanent legal residents for decades, to biometric tracking.
The tracking is part of the US-VISIT program that began in 2003. Various elements of the program have been delayed because the technology simply hasn’t existed to make them feasible. That fact hasn’t stopped other parts, and Chertoff has largely ignored concerns and protests from border officials, who surely have a better grasp of the logistics of crossing the border than he does.
Chertoff himself announced two years ago that exit tracking would not be implemented in 2007 because officials at our ports of entry said they simply couldn’t do it. His December ruling reverses that stoppage and actually expands the program to include biometric tracking of all non-U.S. citizens, including permanent legal residents.
All foreign citizens will be subject to electronic fingerprint scans every time they enter and leave the country. A “green card” holder who lives north of the border but works at a Mexican maquiladora, for example, will have to go through the process twice a day, even though he or she crosses daily and is well known to inspectors on the bridges.
A family of six could be held at the bridge for half an hour each time they cross, just so their crossings can be recorded.
Officials have said the process doesn’t take much time, estimating about five minutes per person, per crossing. That might not seem like much, but at five minutes per person only 12 will make it across the bridge in an hour. The Rio Grande Valley Partnership in South Texas reports 1.95 million bridge crossings into Mexico during the month of October, the most recent report posted on its Web site.
Sombrero tip to Benders’ Immigration Daily.
Eeny-meenie, chili-beanie… the spirits are about to speak
Maybe it’s time to think about a reciprocal agreement for witch doctors…
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Mexico’s self-proclaimed Grand Warlock says the United States will pull troops out of Iraq in 2009 and send them to the border with Mexico in an attempt to expand its territory.
…
Vazquez has been making predictions since 1980 on topics ranging from international events to the private lives of celebrities, based on his reading of tarot cards.
Vazquez erroneously predicted last year that oil prices would be stable and that Cuba’s Fidel Castro and singer Britney Spears would die.
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VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. _ Citing information he says is from God, Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson said Friday that America is headed for veritable socialism as well as an economic rebound under President-elect Barack Obama in 2009. “What the Lord was saying, the people are willing to accept socialism to alleviate their pain,” Robertson said on a broadcast of “The 700 Club.” Robertson hosts the program, which is aired from the Christian Broadcasting Network studios in Virginia Beach… Robertson’s prophecies are an annual tradition at CBN and Regent University, where he unveils his predictions at a New Year’s Day chapel service. Robertson is founder, president and chancellor of Regent. (Steven G. Vegh / The Virginian-Pilot)
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