"(Who cares about them? So I’ll add an environmental twist tonight.)," was the way my diary began last week. And then a little further along was this.... " 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?" I got very uneven reviews indeed, thanks to comments by me like this... 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.
With the President set to take questions from the press tonight on his stimulus package, let me retrieve another timely quote as well, from last week’s broad ranging, sometimes rambling discussion.
"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 $$$$$$$ (coming back as goods and services) for us. It’s Chinese money anyway! Use the oil Mexico is too poor to get out of the ground economically, as collateral, if we must." I might have said that in jest, even I'm not sure anymore. (And the diary really was broad ranging) "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."
Gees, as you saw in the first sentence, I even tried throwing an ecological scare at the problem, hoping something will stick.
You might know what you're talking about -- but, when you write, you must write for people who are not inside your head. Clearly, you have a command of the language, even if you stay away from punctuation. I'm sure you can write a piece that makes your points in a fashion that's readily comprehensible. by Fish Fry
Just another day in the life of a lonely man and his losing message. The help I’m looking for now, is not help righting the worlds wrongs; I ran for Congress last year trying that; but just a little sympathy, as I try to get my friend out of the trap he finds himself back in after foolishly going home to Mexico after 5 good years in the U.S. A little publicity for him has always been the goal. Since that’s not working either, what he and I do next is up in the air; maybe help him look for a job in Canada?
I’m 52 years old, and I’m an office cleaner (that’s how we pay the bills), and I’m writing goofy diaries about dysfunctional Mexico in the Kos. If no-one understands exactly why up till now, maybe I’m trying to be too cute out of a sense of inferiority. Screw all my hang-ups; this diary is going to be serious, and I’ll try so hard to stay away from some of the previous shtick. This time I’ll reference outside sources and give this piece a more professional look. If this a better way to intrigue one reporter to go to Mexico with me, then I promise them a jackpot as they get the inside skinny about fascinating and corrupt Mexico, right from the horse’s mouth; my honest, hardworking but poor friend, and me the "jackpot."
· I never read Finnegan's Wake... (2+ / 0-)
...but I imagine this is what it's like, except for Mexico instead of Ireland.
Al que no le guste el caldo, le dan dos tazas.
by Rich in PA on Mon Feb 02, 2009 at 06:27:40 PM PST
o But you must have (3+ / 0-)
. As I said I’m just an office cleaner and you guys are the wits. Thanks for the sarcasm, but maybe it was a compliment? The delay in responding was because it was necessary to look up Finnegans Wake. And how quickly you pulled that book out of your head. And James Joyce, wow!
If it's going to be like this I'm going to bed.
by Gary Stein on Mon Feb 02, 2009 at 06:36:33 PM PST
[ Parent ]
Really, I haven't (1+ / 0-)
The bad news is that FW is so hard to understand that almost nobody reads it. The good news is that it's reputed to be a work of genius. Your diary may be one as well, but I'm not able to tell. Rich in P.A.
This kind of reaction won’t do. And I can write about Mexico going after small time government corruption, (because it’s simpler) at the same time they’re screwing up the fight against the sophisticated drug cartels, till I’m blue in the face. So let me reference two reporters as backup, one writing in the N.Y. Times and one interviewed last week on NPR, both discussing similar problems that I’ve talked about in the past, ad nauseam. And I’ll try not to put my friend on the back burner again while I tangle myself up one more time, sharing what’s so plain to me, yet so hard for everybody else to understand i.e., can we improve conditions down there (I could almost care less anymore) and help him stay home with a loving family, BINGO, (or do I cut out all this bull shit and think about finding him a job in Canada? God, I’m just a working stiff with no resources and limited brains.)
Sarah Chayes has been living and working in Kandahar, Afghanistan since 2001, when she covered the fall of the Taliban for National Public Radio. In 2002 she decided to leave journalism to help rebuild the shattered country,was a guest last week on Terry Gross’s Fresh Air.
Terry Gross: "When we left off, Sarah Chayes was saying, people are so fed up with corrupt government officials, that some are siding with the Taliban."
Sarah Chayes: "What need's to happen is immediate symbolic gestures. There are people who are well known to be causing some of these problems and Karzai needs to get the word out." What she says in a lengthy interview, is that it won’t matter a fig how much high level, expensive efforts we expend by our government and Karzai’s to destroy the Taliban, if every day life in made miserable by corrupt local government officials. I can buy that!
Chayes told the story about a former police officer she knows who was delivering car parts from the border region and getting stopped every few miles on his way back by the police who demanded bribes. Eventually he gets seriously shaken down when he reaches Kandahar, where he, a former police officer, gets his back up and resists, has his phone confiscated, and is forced to pay one last, this time, exorbitant bribe. He later tells Sarah Chayes, "By God if tomorrow I see a Taliban ambush and I see a police vehicle on its way into the ambush, I’m not going to lift a finger." (Read my other diaries, and puke. There’s a similar story about me and B*to deciding we’re not paying bribes anymore either, after paying others over a two day period last year, when I drove a truck to Mexico (he met me at the border, as in Texas, not a remote setting 10,000 miles from nowhere.)
Then there’s the aforementioned report in the New York Times. (The company that last month sold off a 250 million dollar slice of themselves at a14% interest rate, to Mexican bazillioaire, Carlos Slim, who I’ve unflattering referred to in the past)The article does not take place in Afghanistan or Mexico, but a little closer to home. (No Times reporters, especially, who will go with me to Mexico? That’s fine N.Y.T.’s because I seem to be getting this perverse pleasure lately doing all this crazy writing). Nina Bernstein from a 2/4/09 Time’s article "The raids on homes around the country were billed as carefully planned hunts for dangerous immigrant fugitives, and given catchy names like Operation Return to Sender. And they garnered bigger increases in money and staff from Congress than any other program run by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, even as complaints grew that teams of armed agents were entering homes indiscriminately." But in fact, beginning in 2006, the program was no longer what was being advertised. Federal immigration officials had repeatedly told Congress that among more than half a million immigrants with outstanding deportation orders, they would concentrate on rounding up the most threatening — criminals and terrorism suspects. Instead, newly available documents show,.....
When I ran for congress last year I warned America about these Gestapo tactics, in my web site www.theyokelnews.com (to deaf ears of course, and of course it’s not hard to put your finger on the date and beginning of my slow descent into madness. (Yokel news, candidate for Congress!, do the math.)
10/11/08 The Yokel News: The Candidate Speaks. I put all the cards on the table later, but first let me offer a sensationalized comparison. My purpose is to prove there’s continuing chaos and craziness on our side of the border too. We have to leapfrog over our feckless politicians and their unsatisfactory ideas...
.
11/09/1938 Germany Kristallnacht, the night of broken glass. Night of violence against Jews carried out by members of the Nazi party. About 7500 Jewish businesses were gutted and some 1000 Synagogues were burned or damaged.
Associated Press 10/08/08 Federal agents swept through a chicken processing plant Tuesday, detaining more than 300 suspected illegal immigrants, sending panicked workers running and screaming through the hallways. Worried relatives collected outside; fearful their loved ones would be deported.
Maria Juan, 22, was one of about 50 relatives and friends who huddled at the edge of the plant after the raid, some weeping and others talking frantically on cell phones. She was seeking information about her 68-year old grandmother, a legal immigrant who went to work without identification papers but was later released.
"Families are going to be broken apart," Juan said. There will be kids and babies left behind."
11/09/38 The Gestapo arrested 30,000 Jewish males, offering to release them only if they emigrated and surrendered their wealth.
10/08/08 A.P. Workers began running down hallways crying and screaming, said Herbert Rooker, 54, a third –shift janitor. He wore a blue band on his wrist, indicating agents had determined he was in the country legally.
Rooker had to duck into a bathroom to avoid what he called a stampede of people.
"I didn’t know what they were running from. I had no reason to run," said Rooker, who remained at the plant five hours after the raid because police still had his truck blocked.
Hector Zapata said he was hauled in when he dropped his daughter off for work. Agents ignored his cries that he didn’t work there, he said. Seven hours later, his daughter, in the U.S. legally, emerged, joining dozens of others milling around trying to figure out where their loved ones were being taken.
11/09/38 The incident marked a major escalation in the Nazi program of Jewish persecution.
10/08/08 A.P. "Everyone knew most of the workers were illegal. It was no secret. We just came in and did our work and you kept to yourself," said Dorothy Anthony, who works with sister Alice on the deboning line.
Yokel News 10/11/08 Or it can be deja’ vu every few weeks. ICE targets more businesses ; another vile crime by an illegal, that neither Mexico, or we wanted on the streets, will be fodder on the news; and of course they’ll be the never ending uninsured motor vehicle accidents. (I forgot to mention in the web site, ICE and private residences, sorry)
Every page of the web site was brilliant I thought; some (most) would say idiotic, and each page was accompanied by music, yes music, if you can believe that. You would have just read about the previous nightmarish raid at the chicken processing plant to the background music of Herb Albert’s "Spanish Flea" Adele, Timmy Thomas, Frank Zappa, Colexico, and whoever recorded the theme music for Ralph Cramden and The Honeymooners (maybe the Jackie Gleason Orchestra), all show up on different pages! And the music is there sprucing up a good cause too, Mexico and me; copyright questions aside. Download and pay the 99 cents like we did. Adele’s song is especially good. (in addition there’s one song my friend Sam posted on the page "News of the futuuuuuuuure", and I don’t know who it is playing? Sam????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You have to make a few changes on the web. Just because the election is over doesn’t mean you can’t correct a few things gone wrong in my rush to post that now look silly in retrospect. ESPECIALLY THAT FIRST PAGE, "New Today in the Yokel News"
My Mexican friends mother makes the most delicious chile relenos (and I’m battier now then a s**t house rat! )
I thought I could hear (hear, hear, hear)
Somebody call out my name as it started to rain
Two spirits dancing so strange
Ah! bwakawa pouss, pouss
Ah! bwakawa pouss, pouss
Ah! bwakawa pouss, pouss
John Lennon’s #9 Dream