Today is the ...
Mexican National election. Sunday as always, feels strange to we Tuesday types. Lots of scurrying about.
Leti and I were out early for a walk to the central market. We drank a papaya 'licuado' and bought some plastic flower pots.
Afterward we walked around the neighborhood to see where she is to cast her ballot. Found it easily, a mechanic's garage about a hundred meters from the house.
Paper ballots are used and dropped into cardboard boxes that have clear plastic windows in them so one can see the accumulation of ballots as they are entered. The boxes are then stacked around the room and new ones, folded and formed on the spot, put in their place.
It doesn't look all that secure. And when thinking of all the tiny pueblos around the country where security would be even more of a concern it's easy to see how things might go awry.
But, after witnessing the last two elections held in the U.S., with all their fancy electronic crap, I suppose the Mexican system is no more vulnerable than our own.
Leti has her own voting method not so common in U.S elections. I came into the apartment to find a huge candle burning zestfully near Leti's homemade alter.
"What's the candle for?" Figuring I had missed another Saint's day.
"It's for the success of PAN in the election." She answered like I should have known.
PAN is the political party of the incumbants. It replaced PRI the party that ruled over Mexico for the previous 71 years. PRi is the party responible for practically all of the outside world's opinions of Mexico. Graft, cronyism, corruption, oligarchy and outright pilfering of the National Treasury. PRI is the reason that the majority of Mexicans, to this day, are of the opinion that voting is useless.
The governmental excesses we Americans have begun to see over these past six years are embryonic compared to the abuses the Mexican people have endured for the past 8 decades.
So, if Leti's candle sparks a little hope in what otherwise is a pretty hopeless situation I guess it's worthwhile .
QUOTE OF THE DAY:
A politician who is poor is a poor politician. - the late Mexico City Mayor Carlos Hank Gonzalez
MEXICO (as I see it):
At the pre-dawn tolling of cathedral bells a million old women creep toward the sound; the bells stirring anew the longing
for another spiritual scrubbing. Bent and in black they are
drawn to the towers like ants to bread crumbs.
AND
Mexico's city parks, which are at night, secret places where lovers can find a quiet corner, where the boys can have a beer or
Dixie cups of tequila, transform come morning.
Suddenly, they become busy gymnasiums where, young and old, men and women, jog, jump and walk purposefully among the beer cans and Dixie cups, in their semi-serious drive to travel the never ending road to physical fitness.
Leti and I were out early for a walk to the central market. We drank a papaya 'licuado' and bought some plastic flower pots.
Afterward we walked around the neighborhood to see where she is to cast her ballot. Found it easily, a mechanic's garage about a hundred meters from the house.
Paper ballots are used and dropped into cardboard boxes that have clear plastic windows in them so one can see the accumulation of ballots as they are entered. The boxes are then stacked around the room and new ones, folded and formed on the spot, put in their place.
It doesn't look all that secure. And when thinking of all the tiny pueblos around the country where security would be even more of a concern it's easy to see how things might go awry.
But, after witnessing the last two elections held in the U.S., with all their fancy electronic crap, I suppose the Mexican system is no more vulnerable than our own.
Leti has her own voting method not so common in U.S elections. I came into the apartment to find a huge candle burning zestfully near Leti's homemade alter.
"What's the candle for?" Figuring I had missed another Saint's day.
"It's for the success of PAN in the election." She answered like I should have known.
PAN is the political party of the incumbants. It replaced PRI the party that ruled over Mexico for the previous 71 years. PRi is the party responible for practically all of the outside world's opinions of Mexico. Graft, cronyism, corruption, oligarchy and outright pilfering of the National Treasury. PRI is the reason that the majority of Mexicans, to this day, are of the opinion that voting is useless.
The governmental excesses we Americans have begun to see over these past six years are embryonic compared to the abuses the Mexican people have endured for the past 8 decades.
So, if Leti's candle sparks a little hope in what otherwise is a pretty hopeless situation I guess it's worthwhile .
QUOTE OF THE DAY:
A politician who is poor is a poor politician. - the late Mexico City Mayor Carlos Hank Gonzalez
MEXICO (as I see it):
At the pre-dawn tolling of cathedral bells a million old women creep toward the sound; the bells stirring anew the longing
for another spiritual scrubbing. Bent and in black they are
drawn to the towers like ants to bread crumbs.
AND
Mexico's city parks, which are at night, secret places where lovers can find a quiet corner, where the boys can have a beer or
Dixie cups of tequila, transform come morning.
Suddenly, they become busy gymnasiums where, young and old, men and women, jog, jump and walk purposefully among the beer cans and Dixie cups, in their semi-serious drive to travel the never ending road to physical fitness.
posted by bbuckman | 10:43 AM
1 Comments:
I love reading about the political climate in MX. I know nothing of it..thanks dad.
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