(Who cares about them? So I’ll add an environmental twist tonight.) My Mexican sojourn, spread out over several episodes in the Kos, is not being greeted with any enthusiasm at all, judging by the lack of comments. I’m averaging about three or four feedbacks per diary, and I’ve done four stories with Mexico as a tag. Is it my writing, my breath, and, or the subject, the black sheep neighbor to the south, that’s making for the sparse reviews? Is the Kos just for showcasing great prose or for gossip about nasty Republicans?
A shame because what if, after numerous visits there, and years of experience listening and learning about crooked Mexico from my former Mexican house guests, I actually discovered what’s missing in our immigration debate?
Maybe more John Brown and less delicacy is called for. Even with two web sites; maybe I’ve been too obscure up till now, so now it’s time to burn the armory so to speak.
As always, este’ profetico moderno Cassandra* (masculino) is looking for one reporter, to sort through all the mishegoss I’ve written lately and accompany me back to Mexico, deep in the heart of, where he or she can have an epiphany too. I’ll go back to being a private citizen (an office cleaner)! I’ll stop barraging randomly picked professors and media elites with e-mails; writing diaries, or running for public office again; and I’ll learn to accept no as a final answer (the first run for elected office: United States House of Representatives N.J. 2nd district in 08, where I barely registered).
(* In more modern literature, Cassandra has often served as a model for tragedy and Romance, and has given rise to the archetypal character of someone whose prophetic insight is obscured by insanity, turning their revelations into riddles or disjointed statements that are not fully comprehended until after the fact.) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I don’t see any reporters making plane reservations, so I’ll keep burning up the word processor (lots of delete and backspaces; just one reporter is all I need), and I’ll start gathering signatures soon, this time 800, instead of the 100 I needed to run for Congress. Guess what office I’ll run for? As for an issue, driver’s licenses for illegals is the express train I’ll ride straight into Trenton. One reporter; deliver me from this silly notion of running for Governor. I can’t lead (a good, fiscal conservative Congressman, maybe?).
Brass tacks; and Mexico buzz words- Illegal immigration, amnesty, Juarez, change your oil dump it in the sewers (or CYODIITS), unlicensed drivers, unemployment, remittances, beheadings, DEVOLUTION.
Pretty grim; but what about silver linings in every cloud? Think positive. Now like I said before, I’m going to try a new tact tonight. You eco-environmental warriors, instead of pushing for a 40 MPG corporate fuel economy standard, lets take a few dollars out of that 2 trillion dollar stimulus package and use the tiniest portion for a Marshall Plan Lite for Mexico. I’ll write it so that the taxpayer wins; we’ve already removed the line item for reseeding the grass around the Washington Mall this spring, we’ll give Detroit another break, and this bailout money to (Mexico) will be paid back with interest, i.e., eventual stimulus for our goods and services. . It’s filthy with litter down there, there’s no environmental awareness or environmental infrastructure, there’s no sewage treatment to speak off. All their plastic bags from the markets wind up in the communal ocean! Are we mad as hell yet?
Mexicans are only murdering themselves on their side of the border at this point and I know we’re about maxed out in 2009; so let me take this very slowly and maybe we can do it on the cheap (but first there’s that little matter of the drug cartels).
- Mexico never dragged the world into war, they don’t hate us, and they had nothing to do with 9/11, but a new Defense Department report said that next to Afghanistan, Mexico is the second largest threat to the security of the United States. And at last, the news media has woken up to the spiraling out of control kidnappings and murder in the border areas. A welcome development if you’ve ever read www.steinfor congress.com or better www.theyokelnews.com where there’s pictures of Mexico and surprisingly, good music too, but don’t drop me like a hot potato yet, because on either site, I’m also on record supporting the fence..
- Contrary to recent reportage, in 95% of the country, life is very calm, and there is no drug chaos. The climate is wonderfully relaxing, the backdrop is gorgeous and the people are just simply nice. Freezing up here in the north this winter makes you wonder how this garden paradise got so screwed up?
- The answer is that the country is hopelessly broken thanks to the one, and only thing, corruption. Small fry, Keystone cops corruption is how they got to this state. Mexican’s have been escaping here, and tourists have been avoiding there, for years; long before we ever heard of this new twist, the massive drug violence. But the drug violence at least, is now focusing our attention; finally.
- A war against petty corruption (petty by Mexican standards) in the interior would be much safer for Mexicans, would pay larger dividends, and is the logical starting point if the Federales expect to make any headway against the sophisticated, well armed (with lots of cash) drug mobsters. Who is the government fighting the mobsters with? A pool of dishonest civil servants. The police and army have been groomed in the art of corruption, getting their first taste in the small towns. They hit the jackpot when they get rotated into the drug cartel theatre. Meanwhile millions of hard working Mexicans throw up their hands because of all the impediments in the way of their making a decent living. Corruption as an industry is not sound economic policy. And with the deteriorating drug violence, a benevolent dictator might be the best they could hope for in the future. The current democratically elected president, Felipe Calderon, by all accounts is a good guy. He needs to sweat some small details and focus on prosecuting petty corruption more than he has; basically zilch. They have to turn off the spigot before they can clean up this flood, and in doing so, change the culture of corruption. You could say Mexico City views small time corruption as just a yokel problem out in the bergs. No one would understand that better then me; keep me out of sight and out of mind.
But its slap stick and corrupt in Mexico City too, hence the saving face concept that the drug cartels are very sophisticated. Can I be very serious for a second? Did you know that the worst place to be pulled over by the police when you’re driving and doing nothing wrong is Mexico City?
- Continued...In other words they have to get back to basics (when they do I’ll stop with the clichés and drop out of sight.) Fight the drug war; there’s no turning back now; but change the culture, start busting the corrupt local government crooks and raise everybody's batting averages. If I was a prize reporter I wouldn’t have to keep repeating myself. Make the Mexican state of Morelos ground zero, I could bring my friend back here as a political refugee then. If this screed ever saw the light of day, his life wouldn’t be worth 2 cents. O.K. What can we in the U.S. do? (Finally! Jesus Christ already) ‘This guy is giving me a headache" you’re saying, ("whose prophetic insights are obscured by insanity...that are not comprehended until after the fact)... I say my problem is I have no prestige, or you might consider these ideas. This is my burden, therefore.... Let’s do more then just supply Mexico with surplus military hardware; the Marida Initiative. You’ll never hear a tight up lipped politician, state department person, or talk show host say what I’m about to say; I have no boss, no ratings, and (no standing). But pray tell, I do, I should have standing with the Hispanic community, I had illegals live with us for 5 years; I’m a loose cannon, (I have rocks in my head), and I’ve seen this petty corruption up close (read my diaries, I lived it.), and I have lot’s of contact with the Mexican community now. We could omit the last 8 sentences, or last eight paragraphs and tighten this up quite a bit; this is why I need one reporter.
- The Crux of the Biscuit
Massive pressure. Put amnesty on the table and issue driver’s licenses right now to illegals, as a down payment between our two countries, for the serious assault on the "insidious" petty corruption in Mexico that is surely going to follow, like night follows day, after this is posted on the Daily Kos. "Real Change," change the culture of corruption. Thanks to Rod Blagojevich and our Feds, we just proved how it’s done. Who’s got a better idea? But this is just the beginning of my "dream" (but we’re not going to get to that Promised Land are we?). It could be, but wont, be a political movement of disgusted civilians by the millions. 50 million MexicanAmericans, plus me, plus another 10 million illegals, are 20 times the size of the Jewish community of which I’m part, and we know about AIPAC’s influence on behalf of Israel. Another 100 million more back in Mexico will have no complaints either; but who the F am I; this is just what decent Americans of all stripes want to hear about, a new muscular Hispanic lobby. Like I’ve said before in other diaries, I’m just a janitor. Let me crash and burn again, and finish what I started.
- As I said before, as long as we’re borrowing two trillion dollars on a stimulus package that will never work, why not loan Mexico a few billion where the projects are really "shovel ready" (no regulation, corruption yes) and they could use our expertise; means lots of $$$$$$$ for us. It’s Chinese money anyway! (Or better, borrow the money from the Mexican trillionaire Carlos Slim.) Use the oil Mexico is too poor to get out of the ground economically, as collateral, if we must. What if they say no to all this pressure, and the promise of amnesty for their illegals, and driver’s licenses up front? Then they say no, I ask again, anybody have a better idea what to do while that country spirals out of control? All I ever hear are the endless complaints about Mexico. Reporting the problem or screaming about it on T.V. is not a solution.
- Change the culture. Their economy might boom. There is no alternative. Try basic law enforcement; the Sting. Sting a few police. Sting a few high level bureaucrats, sting a few low level bureaucrats. Doctors, school teachers, soccer officials, soccer coaches etc, etc., even bus drivers (I’ve seen it with my own eyes) might think twice before they take kickbacks.
It’s not diplomatic to talk this way, and it may sound foolish holding amnesty as ransom. We never had this kind of leverage before (and we never had a game changing janitor talking crazy revolutionary theory on the internet before). You have to be self deprecating, there’s no other way when you’re a certified yokel.
I just love embarrassing myself, but this Joe the Plumber, this office cleaner, is not pushing anything anymore radical then the big boys blackmailing Israelis and Palestinians with foreign aid cut offs, or bombing Iraq; a sovereign country; or (coming full circle) meddling in the affairs of banana republic’s such as Cuba, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. (Strategic initiatives, or interference; all of which I’ve supported in the past. Gong! I’m done). We got some nerve; we’ll just build a fence (which we must). We’ll let a few thousand corrupt civil servants and drug mobsters hold the western hemisphere hostage.
. Oh I’m sorry it’s never happened before in history, an unarmed peaceful movement?
'Never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few'? Churchill
Now critique, I've got my water pistol.