Kaliher explains his observation on Mexico 2005

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Written By William Kaliher

Note to Readers: Sexologists have determined Kaliher would love on sight anyone who truly fit the name, Bertha Goodbody.

My recent Ether Zone article, Observations on Mexico 2005, stimulated a surprising amount of mail. Thankfully, all were respectful, if questioning. Among the best questions and comments were:

Tongue in cheek?

Satire?

The real thing?

Guns?

I answered those readers, but realized I should explain further. All my observations were true. However, they weren’t a putdown of our nation. Had I been born a Mexican, I too would be an illegal in America. Still, while we remain the greatest nation on earth, other nations certainly have a few traits, qualities or even production methods we should emulate. The Mexican people, despite a horrendous government, still maintain many fine qualities the left has destroyed in this country.

1. I felt far safer in Mexico than in America.

2. My only personal safety concern was near the border. A drug-using, American concerned me.

Mexico has been undergoing rapid urbanization in the past forty years. The population of Mexico City has more than tripled to today’s twenty-two million. The Mexico I knew in 1970 was comparable to rural America of 1910. Today, it’s comparable to 1950’s America. The traditions of solid neighborhoods and the rules of small village or country living still predominate. Most of the population is Catholic or nominally Catholic. That denomination and its Ten Commandments, combined with a rural tradition make Mexico a nation where it’s usually safer to walk the streets than it is in today’s small town America. (I’m not referring to border towns.)

In 1971, Mexico City had about seven million people. I happened to be there when a young woman was kidnapped, raped and murdered. The Mexican reaction remains fresh in my mind. Virtually everyone in Mexico City was in a state of shock. People were physically ill this had happened among them. It didn’t matter what part of the city I visited, and those were during my hard rambling days. People were ashen, sad and upset. It was the same if I spoke with an upper level government bureaucrat the day it happened or an old lady selling warm Cokes from a closet sized shop three days after the crime. These people were paralyzed by the depth of their despair over what had occurred.

In 1900 America, if three bastards had raped and murdered a young woman, that region would be in shock. My guess is our grandfathers would have lynched the criminals from the first tree, unless they were arrested first. The Mexican population is powerless in many ways compared to us. However, with this crime their outrage gave them the power of outrage and the government quickly found the killers.

Unfortunately, that Mexico is gone in 2006, but they remain closer to an age of innocence than do we. Rapid urbanization and television, especially American sex shows, are destroying many of the good qualities of that culture.

A year after experiencing the 1971 Mexican reaction three young women were kidnapped from a small metropolitan in South Carolina and murdered. We Americans took it in stride. We’d become so numb to crime and the change in our country we didn’t really notice or despair—as a people–over three women missing. Our loss of outrage didn’t happen by accident. If you have any intellect, you know exactly which party is mainly responsible for the destruction of civility, religious guidelines and abhorrence to crime in our nation. You also know which party didn’t fight the annihilation of basic human decency as much as they should have.

7. I met several Mexicans who had been illegals. All of them had good memories of their time in America.

I find this very important. The illegal problem in America is terrible. When those people go home, it’s going to change Mexico. Ross Perot and Senator Helms were exactly right in their assessment of the Mexican ruling class; however, forget the Mexican government and its apparent ineptitude for a moment. The average Mexican has a great fondness for Americans. While we need to expel the illegals–and they understand that–we don’t want to damage the warm feelings Mexicans have for us. There will come a time when Mexicans, many of them now illegals, take back the power their elite now enjoy. I’m hopeful they’ll have learned what is possible from good government by having lived here.

8. I live in the American South, but our hospitality pales in comparison to Mexican hospitality.

9. As usual, Mexicans of every social stratum went out of their way to make certain this gringo was okay, comfortable and finding what he needed.

You’ll have to travel outside the special enclaves developed to relieve the tourist of his dollars and into Mexico, but you’ll find the hospitality. Time after time people who own less than the value of your suitcase contents will look out for you. They’ll offer to share a meal and even house you in their hovel if you need shelter. Often they won’t take so much as a dollar for aiding you.

10. Retired Americans living on Social Security should definitely consider living in smaller Mexican cities. With care, a small home can be purchased at under $150 a month.

I recently talked to a seventy-three-year old man living on the border city of Juarez, Mexico. For the last eleven years he’s paid eighty dollars a month for rent. His water and electric bill is under twenty dollars a month. This retiree did not live in Mexico out of necessity but for security reasons. However, how far is your social security check going here?

13. The taste of bread, pancakes and hamburgers is better.

Mexicans don’t usually use preservatives in their wheat products. Bread is bought fresh each day. The sugar is not as refined as ours. If you’re over forty-years-old their foods often possess the flavors associated with our childhood tastes. Bite into some of their cheeseburgers and you’ll realize our sterilized fast-food world removed the possibility of really savoring a meal.

17. Many Mexicans now realize there is more freedom in Mexico than in America. Unfortunately, too many Americans no longer realize they’re less free than many people stuck in a corrupt, third-world country.

The greatest and most correct objection to Mexican attributes in my article concerns the freedom to own guns. The Mexican government tries to outlaw guns. However, Mexico gives hope to patriots here should our traitors ever destroy the Second Amendment. There are plenty of guns in rural Mexico and many city people have or try to obtain small arms.

If you own property next to a multimillion dollar- mansion in Mexico and want to develop it, you can. There are little-to-no zoning regulations. You’re free to put a junkyard next door to the millionaire. If you want to walk down the street drinking, as long as you’re not an abusive drunk, you’re free to do so.

18. Physicians and pharmacists don’t hold a monopoly on medicine in Mexico. It is one reason many of their drugs are so much cheaper than ours.

If you know you need a certain drug for your condition, why can’t an American freely purchase it? Why do you need to pay a physician thirty or more dollars for a two-minute visit to write a prescription? After that, why do you need to visit a pharmacy that bases its prices on government and insurance rules? It’s certainly more a “buyer beware” mentality concerning medicine and medical care in Mexico, but in this aspect, they remain more capitalist than America.

19. Mexico lacks a highway patrol. (This is changing to their detriment.) You drive at your own risk and are responsible for your own care if you have an accident. How much would we save in taxes and insurance costs if we transferred our highway patrol to police departments? Wouldn’t it be great and reduce costs if we left it up to drivers to have insurance only for themselves and their passengers?

I understand about twenty percent of the people on our roads are driving illegally. That means the honest people are paying for dishonest people who drive. We wait in lines at highway departments. We pay for our licenses and insurance, while others enjoy the roads for free. Can you imagine the reduction in insurance costs if you only paid to cover you and your family? How much would taxes be reduced if we got rid of the highway patrol? We’re supposed to be Americans with the “freedom” to travel. Does the government really have the right to put people in uniform to impede us? Yes, occasionally a Mexican cop will shake a tourist down for a couple of dollars but is that different than in America? Our traffic courts don’t deserve the name kangaroo they’re so one-sided. I now consider most American highway police little more than armed thugs. I obviously stop and comply with their demands as they’re armed but they’ve assured I have a declining respect for law enforcement.

I occasionally hear about armed bandidos robbing motorists in Mexico. Thankfully, I’ve never had that experience. However, I’ve had it occur in America by guys in uniform with the sanction of the state.

20. Mexicans apparently do a better job of preventing illegal immigrants from getting over their southern border than we do ours. I wonder if we should out-source the protection of our border to Mexican patrols.

You’ll need to read up on the problems Guatemalans encounter when they sneak into Mexico. They sure aren’t taking jobs in Mexicalli. Take a look at those illegals in your neighborhood. Not many Guatemalans made it through Mexico to the golden land.

In closing, I’m not arguing Mexico is better than America. There are plenty of warts, and it isn’t paradise for the average Mexican. However, being an American I can take advantage of and enjoy the more positive freedoms available in Mexico.


Related article:
OBSERVATIONS ON MEXICO 2005 – WHAT’S THE TRUTH

 


Published originally at EtherZone.com : republication allowed with this notice and hyperlink intact.”

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