Poor Yahoo News. They’re so confused. On the one hand, they report that “Dean leaves Mexico relatively unscathed”; on the other, “Hurricane robs Maya of vital fruit trees”.
What are we to make of this, other than that, as usual, Mayan people don’t count for a whole lot in Mexico?
(See also the un-starlike treatment Rigoberta Menchu–Mayan, activist, Guatemalan presidential candidate and Nobel prizewinner–recently got there. Ouch.)
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Fear doesn't travel well; just as it can warp judgment, its absence can diminish memory's truth. What terrifies one generation is likely to bring only a puzzled smile to the next. --Arthur Miller, "Why I Wrote 'The Crucible'", The New Yorker, October 21, 1996
All opinions here are the brain-wrackings of Sabina C. Becker, unless otherwise credited. If you cite them, please give credit where due.
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Bina, your comments are so spot on!
i thought the same thing when I read these headlines in close proximity.
What the scribes….I mean ‘journalists…mean is that capital intensive infrastructure did not sustain huge damages.
Remember the hurricane that hit Cancun? You would have thought that it was on par with the tidal waves that killed so many in the South Pacific a couple of years ago.
Their abiding priorities give them away. Pig fuckers.
Yeah, it’s sickening. Fruit trees are only FOOD, after all, and everyone knows it’s not important if people can feed themselves with homegrown fruit, grains and veggies, as long as there are foreign tourist dollars still rolling merrily in. Talk about fucked priorities. It’s shit like this that makes Mexico such a sitting duck for globalization and frankenfoods. Native species and peoples count for nada.
A part of me is almost glad I can’t afford a cruise to Cabo, or Mazatlan, or what have you. I don’t want to be one of those gringa sifrinas who have no clue as to how those people really live and don’t care, as long as margaritas come with the stateroom or hotel suite. I can stand in solidarity with them better, or just as well, from where I am, because I know what it is to grow one’s own food and to be at the mercy of the elements. Things like the backache you get from digging your own garden patch with a pitchfork tend to give you an awful lot of respect for humble farmers who count themselves lucky if they own a water buffalo and a plow!
Bina, fuck a cruise ship. I went down to southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize and Honduras with only a back pack five years ago. Camped where I could. Stayed weeks in areas not too frequented by tourists, and aligned with idigenous people.
Joining the zapatistas in their march into Mexico City was a highlight in my life. My job was to help indigenous grandmothers in the kitchen. Really incredibly interesting and strong people.
If you ever get a chance, take a couple of months off to travel Southern Mexico. I start in Cancun (because of cheap flights from Florida) and travel by bus.
But it is true: the European/US disease is so engrained. Astute, ethical people really must engage in deep reflection when we are interacting with cultures that we have historically fucked over and dominated. I saw some pretty smarmy shit from the hip, ‘progressive’ travelers–and I engaged in some stupidity as well.
It was a great education as to how ignorant I am. But the people I met allowed me a deeper respect in for other cultures, as well as the strenght it takes for families to survive on a few dollars per day.
LOL–I’m a bit old for backpacking (and, having had rheumatism since my teens, I suspect camping is also out of the question. My bones can only take so much.) But I can certainly see myself taking part in a language-study or cultural exchange program, staying in either a university dorm or with a host family. An alternative media conference in Latin America would be my dream trip, believe it or not!
A pity my health won’t allow it, but I suspect it would also be muy cool to hang out with Subcomandante Marcos for a while. He’s the closest my generation is gonna get to having its own Che Guevara…