blah...blah...blah... Ginger! » México

things I notice

Jonna — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 21:49:17 +0000

Even the mannequins are checking their junk.

Liverpool Department Store

war zone? or good police work?

Jonna — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 07:27:44 +0000

first trip to the roof

I know I have friends and probably readers that think I live in a drug war zone. I feel like I escaped one when I left San Francisco. Tonight though, we had some action on my street. It seemed controlled to me. Of course, I’m not getting paid to pay much attention to these things.

What I first noticed were the flashing blue lights coming in the transom windows over the front door. It took another 10 minutes before I was interested enough to go and have a look. The street was full of army and police cars with flashing lights. It was full, like bumper to bumper for my whole block and half of the next block. There were some civilian looking cars and trucks sprinkled in there and it wasn’t until later that I realized they were all army and police as well.

see the silhouette on the left in front of Concha's door?

In the US we don’t allow the army to function as a police force inside the country, I think it is in the constitution even. It’s not something that we think about much, it just seems normal not to see the US Army actually working except in other lands. It’s something that takes some adjustment when you move outside the US, in other countries it is quite common to use the army as a police force. Here in Mexico, it is the best force that the feds have available since many local police agencies are controlled by the cartels. After awhile you get used to young guys in military uniforms with automatic weapons hanging off the back of trucks and standing at road blocks.

So, I wasn’t all that surprised to see trucks full of soldiers with automatic rifles and balaclavas filling my street. I admit that the balaclavas are still pretty intimidating to me, that’s really something that I’m not used to. I was curious, and I was cautious. I’ve no desire to be one of the collateral statistics and I have a pretty good idea how bullets fly everywhere when people start shooting. It’s high holiday time now, the biggest religious holiday in Mexico is this Friday, the day of the Virgen of Guadalupe, and the firecrackers have been going off in bursts for days. So, I wasn’t exactly sure whether there had been shots fired or not, actually I still don’t know.

more action at the corner

Or, we could say that I’m cautious… or a coward. It doesn’t matter to me. So, I stood outside for a minute and asked one of the soldiers what was happening. He said there was a situation at the bar on the corner. I asked if it was a wreck because the intersection was full of cars and people. He gave me an incredulous look and just said NO. At that point, I had walked a few feet down the street and when another soldier motioned me back I quickly retreated inside my 2′ thick rock walls. I do know the difference between cover and concealment, I wanted both.

Ah, but now I was curious. So, I went up on the roof. Now, I knew that those army guys would not want someone standing on a roof over them in a perfect sniper position but I’m foolhardy as well as a coward and my roof has those thick walls too and they are about chest high. Oh, I took my glass of wine and the camera. My idiocy falls somewhere between taking pictures of an operation where everyone feels the need to hide their face with a balaclava and using the flash to take their picture. Um, no flash.

the other end of my block, not shy these guys

While I was up there I saw them bring a guy in the classic hands clasped on the back of the head posture and put him in one of those black, civilian looking cars. I also noticed that there were guys down behind the doors of the white truck and they had automatic weapons as well. They had concealment but I wouldn’t give a dime for their cover.

guy on driver's side white pickup has his gun pointed at ?

After awhile I got bored and my glass was empty so I came back downstairs. About a half hour later, the blue lights were still flashing so I went back to the front to have another look. Not much had changed. While standing there I saw my neighbor Concha come out. I called to her to see if she knew what was going on, and she started across the street. When she got to my side she suddenly said the Spanish equivalent for ‘oh shit’ and took off towards the corner. That’s when I noticed that they had her older son up against the wall spread legged.

Concha is one uppity woman, I don’t know what she said but there was a lot of arm waving and fast talking and then she and her son came back to me. She said her son was just going to the store, yeah ok. I asked her what happened, actually I asked her if there were any bodies. You know, let’s cut to the chase here if there aren’t a bunch of headless bodies then I’m just standing in the street for some normal bar bust. She laughed and she said to the army guys on the truck, ‘this gringa wants to know if you have any bodies’. Everybody laughed, I went back inside because I noticed a lot of people starting to run towards the corner. Not just regular people, army guys with guns. I did take this one picture from street level for you all but you can see that it is pretty blurry – must be the camera.

my only street level picture

So, then I refilled my glass and got a new battery for the camera and went back to the roof. Did I tell you about the singing during all this? Remember when I had to chase Barney the cat into my other neighbor’s house the other day? and they were having a religious ceremony and the incense was overpowering? Well, they have these rosaries there every night now, tis the season, and they sing. I’m not sure what they are singing but it sounds sweet and religious and vaguely Christmasy. It’s a very small and narrow house and they have to leave the front door open or they would all die from the lack of oxygen and the incense so they could see the blue lights and the balaclavas and the M16′s and all right in front. But, they didn’t stop singing for the Virgen. It was a very odd combination, the incense, the bad off-key singing, the blue lights, the M16′s, the shadowy men with their faces hidden behind ski masks in the tropics. You really had to be there but I’m sure most of you would not want to be there because, you know, it looks more dangerous than walking to your car from Union Square after Christmas shopping even though it is much safer than that.

Back on the roof, I took another couple pictures and then I heard a loudspeaker say something about someone on the roof. Well, it said “garble garble squawk, TECHO, garble squawk”. Since Techo means roof and since I was the only person I could see up on the roof, I left with dignity. Actually, I dropped below the wall and ran back inside… in a dignified manner of course.

So, that’s all I know. Everyone I saw walking on the street was stopped and searched including anything they were carrying. I saw one guy arrested but they couldn’t get the car out so he was really just put in the back of the black Honda and stayed there with 4 guys in balaclavas sitting and chatting probably. No screams.

So, that’s my story from the drug war trenches here in the 3rd world. Be safe out there.

postscript: In the news today is a big article about the raids on bars in the centro. It seems that it was what in the US we would call an ABC raid, checking licenses, sales to minors, and shutting down 5 or 6 bars. I think our street was the staging area for all the raids, there were several streets in the centro closed while this was going on. If you want to see some better pics of the guys in the balaclavas carrying out the raids, go here. I particularly liked this pic of a woman officer in her vest, she is clearly in some position of authority.

love the vest

El Grito de Dolores

Jonna — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 06:01:53 +0000

Flags for sale

We returned to Mérida for the ¡Grito! and the Independence holiday. We’ve been in other cities and towns for this most important of holidays but never in Mérida, I really wanted to be here.

It was fantastic! We were jammed into the Plaza Grande with thousands of others, watched the Gobernadora give the Grito and then the huge castillos in front of the Cathedral went off. Incredible!

Unlike other cities, after every cry of ¡Viva México! came a louder cry of ¡Viva Yucatán!

A slideshow from the night. Plus, here is a link to the album if you have a slow connection.

an ex-pat milestone

Jonna — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 04:53:22 +0000

blood red lilies

I don’t know how I missed this experience. I know that it is common for doctors to prescribe an injection to be done at home. I think I’ve had one prescribed before and gotten the injection from the pharmacist. Not even sure about that though.

So, when the doctor asked me if I was all right with a shot a day for 5 days, I agreed without really thinking much about it. It was when I was driving home that it all got suddenly very real.

Mimi is out of town and I’ve never seen the little dressing room type thing in a pharmacy here where one can discreetly receive an injection. I was going to have to give myself a shot every night for 5 nights! Holy Guacamole!

I skipped the pharmacy and went and bought some lilies instead, then went home and arranged them. Funeral flowers right? I even asked Gaby if pharmacists gave shots here. She said she’d never seen that, she read my prescription, and laughed and said she thought I’d have to do it myself.

I put it off for hours, after all I had until I went to bed to get this stuff, right? Finally, about 8pm I went to the pharmacy. I knew there was no place for some discreet shot giving at my regular pharmacy and I thought I was resigned. I had the ladies who work there laughing because I wanted a smaller needle. They finally convinced me that a smaller one would not reach the bottom of the vial to get all the medication. Sheez!

look at the size of that puppy

As I was having this conversation, a woman walked over and asked me in English if I needed any help. I said no, it wasn’t a language problem it was a problem of nerve and the length of the needle. She showed me a trick of holding it so you can’t send the needle all the way to your bones and even offered to come to my house and give me the shot. That was a little much for me. I thanked her and said I would do this, I’m a grown woman. She agreed. OK, so I’m a big baby and a whiner.

It turned out she is a language teacher and she gave me her card. Not only does she think I’m a big baby and a whiner but I don’t do it gracefully in Spanish.

I recognized her name, she’s a friend of Theresa’s and actually she is really nice. I think Mimi is going to talk to her about lessons, I’m going to be a big girl and go off to the Uni for school, but that’s another post.

So, yeah, I gave myself a shot in the ass last night and I’m going to do it again tonight and for 3 more nights. Because… I am woman, hear me roar!! and whine. It worked pretty well although it bled for a long time and I forgot to do the alcohol thing beforehand. I have a huge bruise now so I’ll need to pick another spot. Luckily, I have lots of room in that area.

Vote México for the Amazing Race

Jonna — Tue, 12 May 2009 18:10:10 +0000

The Amazing Race is taking votes on which Latin American country to hold the next race. It is between Colombia, Argentina, Brazil, Chile and México. It would be a huge boost to Mexican tourism to have the race here, I think México deserves it. Right now, we are in last place with Colombia in the lead. Please go and vote for México, it would be an incredible location for the race.

The site is in Spanish but it is easy to find the voting location, in the right column under the heading that says Encuesta.

¡Vote México for the Amazing Race!

A more reasoned response

Jonna — Sun, 03 May 2009 05:34:44 +0000

On May 1st, the New York Times had an op-ed article by Julio Frenk, Mexico’s minister of health from 2000 to 2006, currently the dean of the Harvard School of Public Health. It’s well written and he also says that Mexico responded in a quick and effective manner. I don’t think it is just political BS, maybe a little, but what he says about the discovery and reporting ring true.

EVERY year approximately 10,000 Mexicans die from the effects of seasonal flu. Usually they are the elderly and the very young, people whose immune systems are not robust enough to fight off the virus. But this year has been different. The Mexican disease surveillance system, a network of more than 11,000 hospitals, clinics and doctors’ offices, picked up a minor but troubling trend in April. Across this nation of 110 million people, a handful of young adults had apparently died from influenza. An immediate investigation led, within a few hectic weeks, to the isolation and full genetic sequencing of the microbe causing the illness. The experts’ worst fear was confirmed: it was a new kind of influenza virus.

Some have complained that the Mexican government did not act fast enough to identify this new bug and sound the alarm. But such criticism fails to take into account the real-life complexity of recognizing and responding to an unexpected public health emergency.

I recommend reading the whole article.

Sneezing in my elbow

Jonna — Fri, 01 May 2009 23:11:12 +0000

The outbreak of swine flu should be renamed “Mexican” influenza in deference to Muslim and Jewish sensitivities over pork, said an Israeli health official Monday.

That’s got to be one of the most ridiculous statements I’ve read lately. Whenever they try to mix religion and science it just comes out stupid. If your god has problems with pork, tell him not to use pigs to mutate diseases. Shit, tell him to skip disease altogether since he’s god.

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