The cartels and drug war are a symptom of the cause. To blame Mexico’s hundreds of years of corrupt governing on the low life junkies of America is absurd.
I see your point.
Here’s my theory. For what it’s worth. In Mexico, drug cartels, police, federales, and politicos are all ‘players’ in the same game. The game of getting a cut of the action. So,when war begins it isn’t just drug cartels killing off each other,other ‘players’ it’s cartels killing cops, federal police, politicos and their families,etc. I don’t think police or city leaders are held in any higher regard that other criminals. So they are treated the same by criminals. Mike
Ever thought about why corruption is so endemic to most of the countries south of the U.S. border?
My guess is that it’s largely because they were all settled by colonizing adherents to a religion whose dogma dictates that any sin commited by it’s followers after baptism can be absolved so long as the transgressor confesses to a priest and shows ritual penance. Think about that one.
The majority of those who settled this country, by contrast, were products of a culture with a different religion, one whose dogma asserted that hard work, frugality and the shunning of luxury were desirable manifestations of salvation, a commodity which could not be dispensed by the clergy.
Quite obviously, not everyone in either culture has adhered or does adhere to these dictates of the religion of their respective culture, but those dictates have, nonetheless, generated powerful moral undercurrents which have strongly influenced the accepted norms operative in the cultures over time.
Oh, in the US we buy other peoples resources. We certainly have helped some nasty SOB’s stay in power to stabilize markets, etc, but we haven’t appropriated anyones country( and kept it) or their resources in over a 100 years. Mike
Mike the Rooster, I tend to agree with you. The ruling powers have been corrupted for so long the name of the game is to keep the classes separate through socioeconomic bullying. The gentry as it were are ingrained to disdain authority because of their treatment. No respect for authority=lawlessness. Perro come perro.
DropkneeSL, here's another take on your theory:
http://www.amazon.com/Protestant-Spirit-Capitalism-Routledge-Classics/dp/041525406X
you can always tell the real intellects when they start throwing mud at someone with a different opinion than them...
why isn't this thread locked?
A little story from an east coast US guy traveling to SD, then on into Baja Norte from about 20 years ago....
A good friend of mine lived in Poway, outside of San Diego. And I would visit while on business or just go out and hang while I was still single. Kept a few boards and wetsuits at his place. Anyway, I show up and he decides that we're going to take a trip down to Cuatros [sp?] Casas or some other spots below Ensenada. So we load up his microbus with supplies. Then he makes a duct tape money storage spot under a flap of a cardboard beer case that holds our ding repair stuff. He says, "put most of your cash in here, and hide the rest, except for $20 under the car mat. So I put about $40 under the mat, keep $20 in my pocket, and the rest in the shitty old ding repair box which is sitting right behind us.
We leave very early the next day and get down below Ensenada before noon. We're an hour or so past Ensenada when an old Toyota pick up roars out of the brush, blares a siren and flashes its lights. BTW, there is no one aroud at all aside from three dusty Mexicans holding three scary looking army type guns and us. As we pull over my buddy says, "leave the $20 on you seat and get out." So I do that. My buddy then cracks a resin can open slighly that begins to fill the microbus with the smell immediately.
The three guys approach. These rogue fellows seem to have on some kind of official uniform on under a layer or dirt and motor grease. They walk around us with the guns slung over their shoulders. One of them indicates that he wants us to stand by their truck. So we're over by the truck watching two of the guys root through our gear. Some of it ending up on the ground including the ding repair box, which was handled very carefully and set down nicely. After 5 minutes they talk between each other and laugh and tell us to hit the road and "have a nice visit" in broken english.
We repack the gear and find most of our cash still in the ding repair box. Then we find the the $20 on the seats is gone and the $40 under the mats is gone. We were out a total of $80; my buddy didn't put squat under his mat.
Trip was over for me. I was too wigged out. My buddy said we should continue. I won and we headed to K-38 and stayed in a crappy hotel and scored great waves for two days. Then we went home without difficulty.
The end and my last trip to Mex.
Yeah Chrisp, I suppose you’re right. Enough said. It’s not the forum for it.
One of the saddest things I've seen in Mexico in recent years is increased indigenous drug use
That's the reason I have no interest in driving through Mexico at this point. You can learn and research and plan for all kinds of stuff and have a pretty good idea about your safety, but there's nothing you can do if you randomly come up against somebody who is batshit crazy (for whatever reason). This goes for everywhere else, too. Politics, education, poverty, drugs, power...that's all the same no matter geography or language.
Common sense says to stay away from hot spots of danger, but we're talking Juarez or places with that level of chaos. I'll get on a plane tomorrow to most anyplace else on the mainland. Northern Baja? Not now. My neighbor is a surgical nurse, Hispanic, I'm not sure if born here or there, and she goes down once in a while on medical missions. This last time this summer she was very disturbed by the level of armed guards they were sent out to clinics with. Off the charts this summer compared to any time in the previous 10-30 years.
Nels
…you have a different point
but for ex. Phillipines and other countries were colonized by the same -the catholics, that what you say- (Spain and Portugal) among others
and there, live millions and dont have too much of these problems.
Plus, I think the media transform us in kind of paranoic people but the reality is somewhat different (I maintain my other comment)
Some one told about the violence in Brazil is bigger than Mexico…man, you REALLY can surf in Brazil without any hazzle
more in the South, that there s the place of the good Brazilian waves…
I have a customer, a 20 years old gal that last year (2009) grab her board and mostly by BUS and hitchhike surf tripped Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Perú and N part of Chile
so, give a break, go outside and check the outside world.
Living in a bubble is not good; I understand about he problematic areas; ok, go to another city or town, surf couple of hundreds Kms to the other side (and try not to fit or fall in what I say in the other comment)
c-slug,
Thanks for rthe link: interesting reading. However, it doesn't really adress the main point I was trying to get across: namely, that when you live in a society which leads you to believe that bad behavior can be wiped clean so easily (apologize, light a candle, say a prayer, make a donation) in the eyes of the "Ultimate Judge", then corruption is more likely to flourish. Screw your brother + go to confession = all is forgiven.
I agree that Weber's (no, not Dewey) theory about the roots of capitalism lying primarily in the Protestant ethic probably has some dents and delaminations in it.
There are travel warnings for Mexico. Corruption on both sides of the Border. I always wondered why a country like Mexico, with all it's resources was not at least an equal to the US and Canada? Are they just stupid? Perhaps inferior in some way? No! Just flockin' CORRUPT! Do I want those folks to take over So. Cal. Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and turn it into a garbage laden eyesore with whores out back of every Mexican restarurant(sp)? MS 13 graffiti on every building? NO! Over my dead body!
Howzit McDing, Mordida has always been a part of life in,Mexico and that will never change and seems to be worse than ever now now. The last time I was in Baja was in 94 for 4 months and mostly in Baja Sur which was safer then El Norte. I had planned on doing a similar trip in 95 but there was a peso devaluation and I knew that meant unsafe conditions and have only been to mainland since by plane and had no problems. These days I think I would only fly to destinations and not drive if possible. I have been going to Mexico since 1963 and love the people but it;s just not the same and I feel the local drug use has been a big factor in causing the problem. I have a friend who owns property in Todos Santo near the tip and he was telling me stories of the policia actually selling coke and weed and that was the straw that broke my back. I might go to San Jose del Cabo or Cabo it's self but I am over driving down there and I have done it at least 100 times. Aloha,Kokua
But wait, there’s more
?
I’ve never been but it’s on the list of places to go. Looks worthy of the risk.
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Looks worthy of the risk.
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Be sure to leave the names, and contact information, of your next of kin.
when we were all younger it was adventure of the lawlesssness that took many of us there.dont deny it[the tequila weed women ect…] many went with respect for the local culture and made life long friends but not many of those friends? came to your houses in the usa to hangout for cheap and surf… if you have every been to mainland mexico certain coastal states were more radical than others,what has changed you are older now and your sense of security and comfort zone has shrank.but thru it all mexico grewup also and saw the distorted vision of america and not just because of surfers there is plenty of blame to go around a greenback goes a long way anywhere in the world.we like their comida but only want them for cheap gardeners everyone should have one!dont need to go far if you want to find crime and all the bad things mexico has around ventura county been there/their along time before this huge migration across the border same in san diego reality…the world is getting smaller and when 80 maybe 90 plus percent of the wealth of a nation is in the hands of less than 9 percent of the population problems begin to manifest themselves{oh yeah this is usa not mexico statistic] mexico is the usa on steriods if we dont stop this collusion course we are on we will not be much better off but this my friends is another story for another time TRAVELING IN THE USA vaya con dios aloha…