As Powerlines Try to Hide a Neza Cowboy

Early morning Neza. February, 2011

Kneltue

Def: feeling with certainty that, against all rational odds, you are about to 'dominate the dojo'

Alt. def: waiting for the afternoon winds and sun to yield to smooth sunset waves

Rescuing a Kidnapped Child vs Comments Sections

Last week, a story about an undocumented migrant stopping a kidnapping of a 6-year old girl became a popular one. I'm not huge on "feel-good" stories, but this was a good one. You can read the full story here, but to summarize the tale.

An "illegal" 24-year old mechanic happens upon a guy grabbing this girl off the street, throwing her in a van. He chases the van for a while, it crashes (police later found tie-down straps packing tape and other ominous things from the van). He rescues girl, takes her back home. Quoted as saying ""I knew I had to catch him. I had to get the girl back from him and take her home, back where she belongs."

Reading it, this thought crosses my mind: "this will cut the immigration-haters down a notch." Wronnnnnng!

Enter the comments section, starting with comment numero uno.

This "migrant" is an ILLEGAL ALIEN. He must be DEPORTED so he can save little girls in HIS COUNTRY.

Said commenter goes on to battle with other commenters of varying beliefs - including one who okays "this immigrant", but goes on to refer to all Cubans in Florida as "garbage bags."

A debate then ensues over a comment claiming Spanish to be "backwards," (the implication - seemingly - that nouns and adjectives are arranged differently than in English) and, ergo, stupid.

There are, of course, lots of comments in this kind of vein of "the man's a hero." But even these are overshadowed by the vitriolic debate of these commenters lashing back at those they disagree with.

So, mere minutes after a rare-indulgence into good news land, I realized I still have no handle on how people's brains work, that the debate over immigration in the US is way over my head and that often its much better for my personal felicific calculator to stay out of the comments sections of touchy articles.

If a story about a guy who frickin' risks his safety to chase someone down, and rescue a child from - what seems like - certain harm can't make people agree, "okay, that's pretty rad", what the H can?

Afterthought: Real-time comments sections remain an interesting addition to the Age of the Internets. Like letters to the editor, on speedballs. At certain times, I question whether its helpful for bizarrely-named pseudonyms to spend their time internet-yelling at each other, and taking advantage of their anonymity to spit words they might not do utter in a person-centric public forum. Other times, comments sections bring me great pleasure to peruse, and/or offer interesting insights, information or context that I wouldn't otherwise have.

Sometimes, its gotta be better to say nothing.

Correction to Below Post, via LAT

Yesterday evening, the LA Times added this correction regarding the story they broke three days ago about ATF officers involved in Fast and Furious that affects this blog's previous post:

"They did not receive salary or grade increases, nor did they assume positions with greater responsibility," [ATF] said in a short statement.

ATF says instead that these officials moved laterally to positions in Washington.

This, of course, lessens the anger of the below post. However. It doesn't change the fact that messing up an operation like this - one that distributes guns to cartels, guns that have since been the confirmed murder weapons in several crimes, including the death of US Agent Brian Terry - does not lead to firing, suspension or any kind of reprimand. The questions about legality also remain. As does the whole Canadian section.

And while promotions may not have accompanied this move, how long until a laterally moved desk ends up with a higher pay stub?

US and Canada: Failing Grades in Mexico This Week

Along the border fence, east side of Tijuana. April, 2011.

One ongoing beef the United States has with the world is (in)justice. "Impunity" gets underlined as something paramount to rid of, and Mexico receives no shortage of reminders about this from their northern neighbours. US officials often toss out terms like "failed state" or "narco state" about Mexico, and it seems like every day a new statement by a US government official appears saying Mexico (amongst most other nations) needs to clean up corruption, improve rule of law and fight impunity.

Enter stage right, Operation Fast and Furious. For those not familiar, "FnF" was the brianchild of the people in the department of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). Through government channels, it aimed to send thousands of guns to Mexico, in order to "snare" cartels. Shockingly (!!!!), this resulted in a lot more guns being in the hands of Mexican cartels, and a lot of Mexicans dying from bullets shot out of guns supplied by a United States government body. Another way of looking at this, a friend suggested, is that US taxpayers helped further arm cartels.

Finally, some ATF employees took out the whistles and blew (I read that they have been fired, but can't confirm this). And this operation - rightly - was shut down, heavily criticized, and its leaders made to testify in US Congress about what in the name of Bebus had infected their minds to such an extent that this seemed, even for a split second, to be a logical plan. (In all the articles I have read on this, it was never overly clear how exactly giving guns to well-documented users of guns would end up "trapping", stopping or prosecuting said users without causing significant harm. A lot of ATF staff must have felt this way too, hence the blowing.)

So, yesterday, the LA Times wrote that three of these same men who had to testify to Congress received heavy promotions. Pro-Motions. This, said some higher up quoted in LAT article, in order to distinguish them for "the skills and abilities they have demonstrated throughout their careers."

Paging impunity...

It doesn't take a stealthy investigative reporter to deduce that American politicians are not overly concerned with slowing the large-scale deaths on the Mexican side of the border. Nor that they are rather unwilling to do much to help Mexico curb these deaths. So maybe it should sadly not be a surprise. But... BUT, on top of this, American border patrol agent Brian Terry was killed by one of these guns in Arizona this year. Usually America goes on witch hunts for the people responsible for such actions. This time: promotions.

This raises a few hands up for questions: If the ATF did indeed send guns through criminal channels across the border, does that not violate a variety of US, Mexican and international laws? Ie Were these officials not involved in criminal activities? And if so, why no action? Where's the Republicans trying to slam Obama through this? Where are the Democrats decrying this kind of spending on gun-running? Forget political parties, where is anyone with a rule book? Outside of - what to me is - obvious, flagrant professional misconduct, are there really no laws broken in this scenario? Really? What is this if not the impunity the US seems so quick to criticize of Mexico?

Final thought: what would the US do if a similar debacle crossed the same border from the other direction?

Oye. Read the comments section too: its all slamming.

- -

Moving Northward.

Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird was in Mexico this week. Amongst his chief objectives: better security for Canadians living and traveling in Mexico. This is based on a handful of murders of Canadians in the past year, plus 5 killed in a hotel explosion. And, it surely aims to protect the 1.1 million Canadians STATSCAN say traveled to Mexico in 2010.

Not an altogether bad cause, per say, but it evades a central point: Mexicans. Canada (still) has troops left from the $20 billion Afghanistan mission, plus military equipment and personnel in Libya and Syria and peacekeepers elsewhere. Yet Canada seems genuinely allergic to providing assistance to the violence in Mexico.

Then, that article mentions that Canada has given $4 million for a "regional anti-crime program, like that is a large number (!!!!). (On July 12, for example, the Ontario government gave $10 million to the Toronto Police Force to help fight crime. There have been roughly 25 murders in the Greater Toronto Area this year, and 1300 weapons seized since 2006.)

If Mr. Baird wants to make Mexico safer for Canadians, why not try to first make it safer for Mexicans? This could, for example, include offering some kind of substantial, long-term assistance with items such as security sector, legal reform or provision of intelligence, consulting, training and advising where needed or wanted by people like Mexico's Foreign Affairs Secretary Patricia Espinosa. Why is there no mention of this as even a "possibility"?

For Canada's 5th largest trading partner ($5 billion in exports, $ 22 billion imports), and temporary host for 1 in every 30 Canadian residents each year*, offering 4 mil to fight the enormous security issues in such a large country seems a joke. And an insulting one at that. Especially when this seems to be done only for the purpose of making things safer for Canadian retirees and vactioners, not because the Canadian government actually wants to see a Mexico that is safer for its residents.

* The 1.1 million stat refers to the number of trips Canadians made to Mexico. As many take several trips in a year, the number of Canadians arriving in Mexico would actually be a lot lower than 1 in 30. But since it still illustrates how much time Canadians spend in Mexico, I left it as such.

Laying Out the Wares

Segunda Mano Vendor, Tepito. Feb, 2011.

I was waiting for a girl this morning. Plans for a search through the always fun second-hand madness near Lagunilla on the weekends delayed slightly by her "ahorita" time schedule. I posted up on the edge of the metro entrance. Sharing the perch with a young skater. Watchin.'

A woman in brown trackies and a white shall, strung out and staring. Tempting, dirty tacos. Quiet, scary dog. Two CD vendors cracking each other up over some joke. Carts of tortas de tamales. And, a man. Middle aged, in a maroon wool sweater and khakis. Delineating his sales area with a large red cloth, moving on his knees beneath a large piece of orange graffiti on a white wall.

These torreros dot all over the city, selling every last thing possible. And for all my interactions with, I realized I had never just sat and watched anyone set up. So I did.

Slowly, methodically, out of a plastic crate on wheels, he took out each piece singularly. With exquisite care, each landed in a pre-destined array. An order known only to him. A collection of goods to hopefully help him buy some of his own.

I texted myself this list in shortform:


- a 4-piece set of black, plastic cooking utensils
- a gold handheld vanity mirror, with matching brush
- black pastic watch
- an early-model point-and-shoot camera
- a black pair of dress shoes
- two grey calculators
- black cap with neon green writing
- 6 silver circles (that looked like coasters)
- a giant roll of multicoloured wrapping paper
- two plastic toy cars
- a picture frame

Weigh it Out

On the fringe of Guatemala City's dump: a balance sheet keeps track of pounds of metal received, amounts paid, while its proprietor scours an old computer for any remaining traces.