They’re not impressed (Plan Merida)
While it’s political agenda is appalling (it is connected with an organization called “National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers,” which doesn’t seem to be a retiree’s club, as the name suggests, but an anti-immigrantion … and specifically anti-Mexican… organization), I’m finding their “M3 Report” a useful resource for translations from the Mexican press. Normally, it’s the crime news (seemingly to give the impression that Mexican criminals are COMING OUR WAY!!!!), but every once in a while something interesting pops up.
El Universal (Mexico City) 7/25/08
headline: ” Immigration policy criticized in front of U.S. militaries “ (entire article transl.)
Federal deputies (read: congressmen) questioned the insensitivity and harshness of the American government immigration policy in front of the chiefs of the North Command (General Victor Renuart) and Southern Command (Admiral James Stavidris), by pointing out that for every three Mexicans deported because of their illegal status, one minor stayed abandoned in American territory.
PRI Party member Edmundo Ramirez Martinez said to them, these children are mostly citizens of that country and on average every year 75 thousand minors who are citizens are abandoned due to the immigration policies of the White House, while some 25 thousand Mexican minors suffer the same situation due to the deportations.
The legislator added “If this doesn’t tell you anything, doesn’t move you to reflect, then it means that you don’t care much about the fate of the children who are American citizens and this is grave.”
“It seems to me that this caused them annoyance; they didn’t like this criticism and we could see it right away”, said the deputy in an interview.
Edmundo Ramirez warned that in this context previous to the start of the Merida Initiative, “President Calderon cannot fall into the temptation of reaching accords with these military proposals without consulting with the Legislative Power, since this would be very delicate.”
The PRI Party member was part of a group of nine federal deputies which the North Command invited, by means of the Embassy of the United States, to a roundtable about the role and objectives of the Command, although various topics of interest of the U.S. military chiefs and of the Mexican government were addressed.
Weapons traffic was another of the topics mentioned. Deputy Edmundo Ramirez pointed out that according to official sources from both countries there are at least 12 thousand weapons sales locales on the U.S. border with Mexico.
Illegal alien airwaves?
This is the kind of thing you read about regularly:
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is facing more accusations of racial profiling stemming from his ongoing crackdown on illegal immigrants. This time, four U.S. citizens claim they were stopped and mistreated by sheriff’s deputies because they are Latino.
In one case, a brother and sister say deputies unnecessarily stopped them in front of their north Phoenix auto-repair shop and forced them out of the car with weapons raised….
What the Arizona Republic didn’t say was what suspicious activity the brother and sister were engaged in. According to Univision (via Cuilican Noroeste), the brother and sister Manuel Nieto and Velia Meraz were doing something shady… sitting in front of their auto shop listening to the radio… in Spanish.
Yup, they’re gonna sue.
No wonder depression is rare in Mexico
(I don’t know who wrote this):
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Tequila may not be right for everyone. Women who are pregnant or nursing should not use Tequila. However, women who wouldn’t mind nursing or becoming pregnant are encouraged to try it.
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Tequila. Leave Shyness Behind.
Sunday readings: 27-July-2008
Mucho macho man…
“brownfemipower” on “Thinking Through Machismo” (la Chola)
I don’t necessarily have a problem with male posturing. I’m not sure if other cultures have the equivalent experience, but to me, male posturing (or machismo) stems from something very beautiful and important in the Mexican culture. Machismo was about putting on a show. About looking really fucking beautiful and representing yourself and your ‘group’ (whether it was a music group, like the mariachis above, or the dancers or bull fighters of old etc) well. It was about attracting a love interest (as in the song above) or demonstrating your bravery. It was about tapping into an ancient past that was strong enough to build a bright future. It was something you did together as a community–how do you show off if there is nobody to watch? But most importantly, machismo was something that you stopped–you took it off and put it away for special occasions. If the special is used every day, then it’s no longer special, right?
But somewhere along the way, the beauty of machismo became something that far too many mexicanos/chicanos believed was truth, something that they forgot to take off after the performance was over…
Illegal alien migrant brain surgeon!
The lab at Johns Hopkins Medical Center in Baltimore we’re all gathered in belongs to Dr. Alfredo Quinones-Hinojosa — “Dr. Q.” He is one of the best brain surgeons in the world, but two decades ago, his hands were picking vegetables for $22 a day. Quinones was a migrant worker, living under an old camper top in the middle of a California field.
…
Like his patients, he has had more than his share of uncertainty and tears in his life. Many nights his mother had no food for the table because his father lost the family’s gas station in Mexico. “He used to tell me, ‘If you wanna be like me for the rest of your life, don’t go to school,’ ” Quinones says.
Heeding his father’s warning, Quinones graduated college at 18. He became a teacher, but found that, like his father, he was not earning enough.
So, on his 19th birthday, he clawed to the top of a 16-foot fence and jumped — illegally — to an uncertain future here in the U.S. “All I wanted to do was come in, make a little bit of money, send it back to my parents,” he says.
I ask Quinones how he feels about illegal immigration today. Should we build walls? Should we keep illegal immigrants out of our schools?
“Can we build walls?” he asks rhetorically. “Sure, we’re gonna build walls. Can we make ’em taller? Sure, we can make ’em taller. Would that be a solution? As long as there’s poverty, and as long as people are dying of hunger in other places, it’s human nature. They will try to find better ways.”
Ironically, the brain surgeon followed his heart, not his brain: He became a U.S. citizen rather than return to Mexico a hero. He felt he owed this country for all the opportunity it had given him.
And speaking of migrant workers… or maybe, “you never know what you had until its gone…”
Dan Frosch in the 23-July-2008 New York Times on futbolista Edgar Castillo:
At 21, he is already a premier player for Santos Laguna, the reigning Mexican league champion, just as he was as a high school phenomenon in Las Cruces, N.M., where he was born and raised.
But despite his talents and his development as a player in the United States, Castillo will never play for the national team. …
Even more frustrating for United States soccer officials, Castillo said he would have liked to have played for the United States but never attracted much interest until Mexico reached out to him first.
Another guy, wanted by a couple of countries is Lucio Urtubia: “The Good Bandit” (Marie Trigona, 23-July-2008, Upside Down World):
Lucio, a 76-year old Spanish anarchist and retired bricklayer carried out bank robberies, forgeries and endless actions against capitalism. His actions helped to fund liberation movements in Europe, the US and Latin America.
Outspoken and charismatic, Lucio speaks like a true anarchist. When asked what it means to be an anarchist, Lucio refutes the misperception of the terrorist, “The anarchist is a person who is good at heart, responsible.” Yet he makes no apologies for the need to destroy the current social order, “it’s good to destroy certain things, because you build things to replace them.”
And… to tie it all together: Education, crime, manning-up, the southwestern border culture(s)… read Joseph Nevins “Death as a Way of Life” (Counterpunch):
Esequiel Hernández Jr. was only 18-years-old when Clemente Manuel Banuelos, a U.S. Marine corporal, shot and killed him in Redford, Texas in May 1998. Hernández, a high school student, was the first civilian killed by U.S. troops within national territory since the Kent State massacre of May 1970.
…
The fact that the Marines were in Redford, and that the federal government had sent them there says a lot about how important segments of the ruling class perceive the border region and its residents. As Enrique Madrid, a local historian in Redford, asserts in the film, “Presidio County is one of the poorest in the State of Texas, one of the poorest in the nation, and South County is the poorest part of that poor county. And yet they send us Marines instead of educators. They send us Border Patrolmen instead of doctors.” Seen from Washington, the border region—Redford included—is first and foremost an area of existential threats to the larger national body, an area that needs to be secured—whether it’s against “illegal” migrants crossing the boundary to “steal” jobs, or against would-be terrorists.
Now it makes sense (the U.S. economy)
Tropical depression from North of the Border
This tale of surviving our visitors from the north was passed on by a lady who after one winter in gringo gulch built (with her late husband) “our new casa in one of the colonias amongst the wonderful Mexican families out there, where it was highly unlikely that other gringos would even consider living.” Maybe for a reason: Ben Franklin observed that “fish and visitors stink after three days.” In the tropics, things tend to ripen a tad quicker.
In March, I had guests in my home for 8 days. That was 7.5 days too long! She was a classmate from my high school days. I’ve only seen her one time since then, and we didn’t get to know each other very well, though I did think that she was nice. Her ‘man friend’, a good twenty years our senior, was a true gentleman.
Within hours, I was shaking my head at some of the things she’d say. My house was too small. Funny, but she had visualized me as having a beautiful home overlooking the ocean! Not from anything I ever said, that’s for sure! She could NEVER live in that cramped space. Well, DUH, it fits ME!!!
The first night, she complained about the odor of carne asada being cooked at the Taqueria on my corner. “That should be outlawed! Cooking should be done inside where it doesn’t pollute the environment!”
Same night, she complained about the music coming from my neighbor’s cochera. They were playing dominoes with the kids on the street and it was a Friday night, so they had music. And, it was only 8:30pm!! “Doesn’t ANYone think of their neighbors? Did you ever think about calling the cops?” Heck, NO! I love the music! And, I love it that my neighbors have kids who don’t fight or cause trouble.
She didn’t like the food. Too spicy, even seafood fixed at home, with no chiles. Wouldn’t drink the water unless it came in a bottle with a sealed cap. No ice, ever, so all drinks had to be cold from the fridge. In the buffet line at a popular local eatery, she picked up a spoonful of atun en escabeche, smelled it and threw the spoon back into the pan, saying loudly enough for others to hear, “They think I’m eating this slop, they’re crazy!” She only ate a piece of arrachera, and complained that ‘WE didn’t get our money’s worth on that meal!”…. hey, who paid for that meal, anyhow? ME!
Mexican chain restaurants were too noisy and busy for her, especially on Sunday morning, after Mass. The local gringo eatery served her limonada in a glass with ice, so she wouldn’t drink it. Another place was so busy that the waiters couldn’t possibly be washing their hands between customers! Street food? That taqueria on the corner? Are you outta your ‘…….’ mind??
Our cathedral wasn’t anything special … she’s been to the Vatican, and nothing short of that impresses her. Especially not the church with the gold altar that I took them by bus to see in Rosario. And, speaking of Rosario, she was planning on going home and writing to Al Gore to suggest that he come down and clean up the air quality in that town! This was all discussed in a very loud voice while waiting with other people for the bus returning to Mazatlan.
Going to Rosario by bus, the TV was on, playing something with a Mexican comedian. In Spanish, no less!!! So, if they can’t find something in English, why bother having it on at all? Well, for one thing, for all the Mexican people traveling in the bus. Oh, well, they were probably all tourists from the US, so they should be able to understand English (oh brother!!)
In the city bus, coming home from a thai restaurant whee she didn’t like the food because it was spicy, we were driving through the Infonavit projects, which are not a run-down dump by my Mexican standards. The bus was crowded, with people going home after putting up with insensitive gringos all day on the Zona Dorado. I was, THANKFULLY, sitting three seats in front of her, but even from that distance, I heard her say “Good Lord, how can these people LIVE like this?!!” If I’d been any closer, I’m sure I would have punched her in the mouth!
She would not go and get money from an ATM, because her US dollars have been good enough all over the world, so they should be acceptable ‘in this dump of a country!’… Either I or her ‘man friend’ paid for everything. She was unhappy after learning that one place doesn’t take ‘plastic’ because “they can’t possibly expect all these Mexican people to have CASH on hand, can they?”
She was watching the news on CNN on the last morning they were there. I don’t know what the news report was about, but definitely heard her say, “What do THESE people need education for?” WHAT?? Well, she explained to me, they only need to know how to read enough to be able to bring you what you’ve ordered from the menu, so why do they need universities? Oh, and those ‘universities’ are probably only little ‘city colleges’ anyway, right? After I got through telling her what I thought of her attitude, I told her that Tec de Monterrey, with a campus in Mazatlan, is one of the world’s most respected institutions of higher learning…. and definitely a fully accredited UNIVERSITY!!! She wanted to argue that any Mexican who is educated probably went to the US to get their schooling.
So, finally, it was time for them to go to the airport. I had turned down offers from my neighbors to take them, because SHE didn’t deserve to be waited on or catered to. No way! I called early and made arrangements for the taxi to pick them up at mi casa, and told the two of them to let me go out to the taxi and negotiate a price for them before they came out with their bags. Oh, yah, I negotiated, alright!
In my own devious way, I got back at her for all her nastiness… too bad she’ll probably never know what I did! As the taxi driver was opening his trunk for the bags, I leaned over and asked him how much to the airport. For you, amiga, $220 Oh, NO, AMIGO, it’s not for me; it’s for those two people. He is ‘gentile’, pero ella esta una gringa pinche… y para sus viaje a la aeropuerto, la carga esta $250… no esta $220… y, tambien, su propino esta $50 mas, verdad?? SI, SENORA!! BIGGEST DAMN GRIN YOU’VE EVER SEEN!!!!!
As soon as their taxi turned the corner, my neighbors and I did a dance of celebration in the middle of the street….and, that night, we had a bit of a ‘reunion’ in mi cochera; with our feet up and drinks in hand, we told stories of stupid gringos who leave their manners in the toilet at the airport before they leave the states. A few of them asked me if she was ever coming back again, and I said NO, not as long as I’m alive.
Scary Friday Night video
This would make me think long and hard about crossing the border. I really wouldn’t want to run into these guys:
… the inventor of the bagpipes was inspired when he saw a man carrying an indignant, asthmatic pig under his arm. Unfortunately, the man-made sound never equalled the purity of the sound achieved by the pig.
(Alfred Hitchcock, who knew something about terror)
Our oil…
With a PRD/PRI compromise to reform PEMEX looking more likely all the time, it might be worth remembering that Mexico’s “radical” Consititutional Article 27 (which defines underground resources as belonging to the nation) — in reality a modern intrepretation of both indigenous and medieval Spanish law — is not nearly as radical as it seemed back in 1917.
That other mostly Catholic agrarian country with a powerful English-speaking Protestant neigbhor dependent on remittances (Ireland) adopted much the same principal towards their own natural resources, after thowing off British control in 1927. France and Italy, as well as most Latin American nations (and, later the Arab and African nations) also in one way or another reserve natural resource exploitation for nationals.
Although the concept took a beating over the last several years in the name of globalization and neo-liberalism, its coming back into fashion — even in occupied territories. The Malvinas/Falklands are getting a constitution:
Mercopress (Montevideo, Uruguay):
It is also proposed, and agreed by the British Government, that given the persistent claim to the sovereignty of the Falklands by Argentina the proposed new draft constitution sets down the right to self determination in accordance with the charter of the UN in the body of the constitution rather than in the preamble where it used to be.
This section also confirms unequivocally that the mineral rights (and the rights to exploit other resources) in the Falklands belong to the Falkland Islands and its people and not to the United Kingdom.
PRD PEMEX proposal
(Notimex, my translation from original in 24-July 2008 Milenio)
The PRD faction in the Chamber of Deputies has confirmed that it will present its energy reform proposal next Wednesday. The proposal coincides with the PRI proposal on three fundamental points.
In a press conference, PRD legislators Carlos Navarro López, Tonatiuh Bravo and Antonio Ortega presented the project, drawn up by Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, Carlos Navarrete and Graco Ramírez, among others.
The initiative includes the key points of preserving the national ownership of petroleum resources, disallowing sharing the resource in return for capital and reforming PEMEX’s business structure.
Antonio Ortega recognized that their proposal coincidences with that outlined by the PRI, although the PRD proposal rejects outside investment in exploration, which would be permitted in the PRI proposal.
Ortega also said that before an agreement can be worked out the alternative proposal from the Executive branch had to be defeated, and some divisions within the PRD overcome.
Tonatiuh Bravo added that the PRD proposal took into consideration the need to relieve PEMEX of its financial burdens, which have kept PEMEX from growing, developing and investing in infrastructure and new technology.
Navarro López empahsized that the party will reject any attempt at privatizing the oil industry and will strongly push the party’s initiative, hopefully avoiding the need for an extraordinary legislative session in September.
The PRD Legislators assured the public that they will take into account the results of tomorrow’s citizen iniative [a non-binding referendum vote on energy reform, being held in the Federal District and several other jurisdictions, but not officially sanctioned nationally] and that the PRD legislators are united in opposing privatization as called for in the Constitution.
As far as I can tell, the only issue remaining between the PRD and PRI is whether subsidiary services (pipeline constuction, drilling equipment, etc.) and some exploration could be provided by outside contractors. The PRI proposal would allow this, if the contractor is a Mexican firm. Both proposals would change the allow PEMEX to retain more profits, though I haven’t seen details of either proposal (and, of course, am not an expert on managing oil companies, or setting national budgets).
Fake designer… kidnappings?
The Korean kidnapping case, which had the usual suspects all whining about Mexican abductions, isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. I’d been speculating that it might have to do with these particular Koreans (not the favorite foreigners of Mexico) being used car dealers (despised everywhere, regardless of race, color, creed, gender, gender orientation or national origin). Even the Koreans are dubious. From the English-language editon of Dong-a Ilbo
The five Koreans who were kidnapped last Monday were held in a residential area in Reynosa and were allowed to make outside calls.
Park was able to call his sister in Korea as well as the Korean embassy in Mexico several times, all in Korean, which the kidnappers allowed even though they don’t understand the language.
A ministry source said, “The abductors restricted the calls when conversations got longer.” However, doubts remain given that the hostages could have easily passed on information about their location.
In fact, the phone contact between the Korean government and the hostages came when a Korean Consular phoned the cellular phone number owned by Park, which was informed by Park’s sister.
This type of situation is rare since in most cases kidnappers call using a telephone booth and unilaterally disconnect the call.
A Korean Mexican lawyer who served as a mediator between the Korean government and the abductors also talked with them on several occasions on the phone Wednesday.
The kidnappers reportedly asked for a low ransom, only 30,000 dollars, which raised doubts over their motives for the kidnap. The demanded amount of money, equivalent to about 6 million won per each hostage, is a tenth of the ransoms demanded in most kidnapping cases in Mexico.
It is hardly understood why the kidnappers released the Korean hostages in the middle of the city and phoned the police to inform them of the release and their location.
○ The real motive of the incident?
Some foreign media outlets reported that the Mexican local authority believes the incident is related to a bungled people-smuggle into the United States.
Tamaulipas state police in charge of the investigation said in an interview with Reuters, “Although the Koreans apparently sought to illegally enter the United States through the kidnappers, the abductors seemingly changed their minds to benefit from the larger ransoms.”
A ministry official also stated, “A host of factors indicate that this isn’t a simple kidnapping case … in particular, we don’t rule out the possibility of acquaintance between the kidnappers and the Korean hostages.”
Add to skepticism the statement from the Tamaulipas Attorney General’s office concluding that the Koreans were just your typical “Other Than Mexicans” looking for a way into the United States (a la the Cubans supposedly kidnapped last month) and it looks less and less like a kidnapping and more and more like the movers were holding the goods until they received payment.
In passing…
Still under the weather, but I tend to think it’s because I haven’t been eating my jalepenos:
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Monday it found a jalapeno pepper contaminated with the strain of salmonella that has sickened more than 1,200 people and warned everyone across the United States to stop eating them.
But the warning did little to dampen the appetite for jalapenos in Mexico, where the spicy green pepper is heaped on tacos and sandwiches at almost every street corner.
Jalapenos, named after the eastern Mexican city of Jalapa, were grown before the Spanish conquest in the 1500s and chiles are among the oldest domesticated crops in the Americas.
“Mexico has one of the best cuisines in the world. In the United States they don’t understand, they have hamburgers and hot dogs. That’s not a tradition, that’s just junk,” said Pedro Garcia while slathering salsa on to fried tacos at a busy street stall in Mexico City.
Mexico’s ancient Aztec royalty favored drinks of chile and chocolate and Mayans tried to cure everything from dysentery, to asthma to vertigo with spicy powders.
“In the United States, they have weak stomachs, everything makes them sick,” said Garcia, 46, a school administrator.
Taking a day or two off…
Must have been the jalapeño.
mexfiles.net 