Sunday, November 11, 2007 9:26pm
Finally got the Hanahou’oli application inked and ready to send this week, so that’s a load off of our minds. We are all reasonably healthy this week. Robin and Enid had some low grade cold symptoms, but nothing too bad. It’s been just an ordinary week of work, school, and domestic chores. Enid’s class took a brief field trip to the local post office on Friday, and Robin went along. This weekend I got in a lot of quality time with Enid, just playing around the house on Saturday and then hiking up at Parque Chipinque today (Robin stayed home because she wanted to do some house cleaning). Next weekend is a three-day weekend (Día de la Revolución). We’re thinking about maybe taking advantage of the long weekend to go somewhere, but we haven’t decided yet.

There have been collections going on all over town for the last several days for the victims of the flooding in Tabasco. We don’t keep up with the local news here very well, but the Tabasco thing is everywhere and impossible to miss.

Speaking of news, we did read about two major crimes right here in our neighborhood recently. They occurred on consecutive Fridays and were on the front pages of the newspapers when we went for coffee the following Saturdays, otherwise we never would have heard about them. The first one was an attempted kidnapping of a 43-year old Mexican businessman outside a restaurant. He was with some friends who tried to stop him from being abducted. Shooting broke out and the guy was shot repeatedly in the legs. The assailants eventually got him into their vehicle and sped off, but ended up dumping him, wounded but alive, several blocks away.

The second crime was an apparent assassination attempt against a local casino impresario (although it could also likely have been just a warning, since he wasn’t killed). He was sitting at a traffic light in his car with his chauffeur when a van pulled up alongside and someone got out and started blasting away at them with an AK-47. The chauffeur was killed, but the casino baron only received some cuts from broken glass. The article said he has a reputation for operating his casinos illegally under the protection of corrupt government officials, and that he uses his connections to get other casinos shut down. Sounds like the assassination attempt couldn’t have targeted a nicer guy!

Both of these events happened within a mile or our apartment. It’s strange reading about something like that happening so close to home, at a place you drive by all the time and can picture in your head. Also, interestingly, both victims were taken to the hospital where I work. Not very surprising I guess, since it’s nearby and is a private hospital that caters largely to the wealthy. Kind of creeps me out though. It’s just one more reminder that the institution I work for is the local educational and medical care provider for the privileged elite, a group I generally feel little affection for even in the U.S. Here in Mexico, my distaste for wealth and privilege is amplified even more by the corruption and violence that seems to be inextricably bound to it. That special smugness that wealthy people everywhere have is just rendered so absurd by the circumstances. A six year old girl dressed in $500 worth of designer clothes is bad enough in the U.S, but in Mexico? Please! What is the point when there’s trash in the streets and daddy might get kidnapped or shot on his way home from work tomorrow?

Just my humble opinion. But then again, maybe it’s no better in the U.S. Our rich sit atop just as big of a shit-heap of violence and corruption, but they cleverly make sure it all happens far away, in other countries.

By the way, don’t let the aforementioned crimes get you worried about our personal safety here. Except for the unlikely possibility of being in the wrong place at the wrong time and taking a stray bullet I’d say none of this stuff is any threat to us. The people targeted by these kinds of crimes are running in very different circles than us. There doubtless are drug kingpins living in Del Valle too, but we don’t expect to become involved in their turf wars either. Still, it makes for an interesting place to live.