Thursday 2nd September 2010 …….interesting reading!!!!

> One Journalist's View
> By Linda Ellerbee
>
> Sometimes I've been  called a maverick because I don't always agree with my
> colleagues, but then,  only dead fish swim with the stream all the time.
> The stream here is Mexico . 
> You would have to be living on another planet to avoid hearing how
> dangerous  Mexico has become, and, yes, it's true drug wars have
> escalated violence in  Mexico , causing collateral damage, a phrase I hate.
> Collateral damage is a  cheap way of saying that innocent people, some of
> them tourists, have been  robbed, hurt or killed.
> But that's not the whole story. Neither is this. This  is my story.
> I'm a journalist who lives in New York City , but has spent  considerable
> time in Mexico , specifically Puerto Vallarta , for the
> last  four years. I'm in Vallarta now. And despite what I'm getting from
> the U.S.  media, the 24-hour news networks in particular, I feel
> as safe here as I do  at home in New York , possibly safer. I walk the
> streets of my Vallarta  neighborhood alone day or night. And I don't live in a
> gated community, or any  other All-Gringo neighborhood. I live in Mexico ..
> Among Mexicans. I go where I  want (which does not happen to include bars
> where prostitution and drugs are the  basic products), and take no more
> precautions than I would at home in New York ;  which is to say I don't wave money
> around, I don't act the Ugly American, I do  keep my eyes open, I'm aware of
> my surroundings, and I try not to behave like a  fool.
> I've not always been successful at that last one. One evening a friend 
> left the house I was renting in Vallarta at that time, and,
> unbeknownst to  me, did not slam the automatically- 
> <WBR>locking door on her way out. Sure enough, less than an  hour later a
> stranger did come into my house. A burglar? Robber? Kidnapper?  Killer? Drug
> No, it was a local police officer, the "beat cop" for our  neighborhood,
> who, on seeing my unlatched door, entered to make  sure
> everything (including me) was okay. He insisted on walking with me  around
> the house, opening closets, looking behind doors and, yes, even under  beds,
> to be certain no one else had wandered in, and that nothing was missing. 
> He was polite, smart and kind, but before he left, he lectured me on having
> not  checked to see that my friend had locked the door behind her. In other
> words, he  told me to use my common sense.
> Do bad things happen here? Of course they do.  Bad things happen
> everywhere, but the murder rate here is much lower than, say,  New Orleans , and if
> there are bars on many of the ground floor windows of  houses here, well, the
> same is true where I live, in Greenwich Village, which is  considered a
> swell neighborhood - house prices start at about $4 million  (including the bars
> on the ground floor windows).
> There are good reasons  thousands of people from the United States are
> moving to Mexico every month, and  it's not just the lower cost of living, a
> hefty tax break and less snow to  shovel.. Mexico is a beautiful country, a
> special place. The climate varies, but  is
> plentifully mild, the culture is ancient and revered, the young are loved 
> unconditionally, the old are respected, and I have yet to hear
> anyone mention  Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, or Madonna's attempt to
> adopt a second African  child, even though, with such a late start, she cannot
> possibly begin to keep up  with Angelina Jolie.
> And then there are the people. Generalization is risky,  but- in general -
> Mexicans are warm, friendly, generous and welcoming. If  you
> smile at them, they smile back. If you greet a passing stranger on the 
> street, they greet you back. If you try to speak even a little
> Spanish, they  tend to treat you as though you were fluent. Or at least not
> an idiot. I have  had taxi drivers track me down after leaving my wallet or
> cell phone in their  cab. I have had someone run out of a store to catch me
> because I have overpaid  by twenty cents. I have been introduced to and
> come to love a people who  celebrate a day dedicated to the dead as a
> recognition of the cycles of birth  and death and birth - and the 15th birthday of a
> girl, an important rite in  becoming a woman - with the same joy.
> Too much of the noise you're hearing  about how dangerous it is to come to
> Mexico is just that - noise. But the media  love noise, and too many
> journalists currently making it don't live here. Some  have never even been here.
> They just like to be photographed at night, standing  near a spotlighted
> border crossing, pointing across the line to some imaginary  country from hell.
> It looks good on TV.
> Another thing. The U.S. media tend to  lump all of Mexico into one big bad
> bowl. Talking about drug violence in Mexico  without naming a state or city
> where this is taking place is rather like looking  at the horror of Katrina
> and saying, "Damn. Did you know the U.S. is  under
> water?" or reporting on the shootings at Columbine or the bombing of  the
> Federal building in Oklahoma City by saying that kids all over the U.S. are 
> shooting their classmates and all the grownups are blowing up buildings. The
>  recent rise in violence in Mexico has mostly occurred in a few states, and
>  especially along the border. It is real, but it does not describe an
> entire  country.
> It would be nice if we could put what's going on in Mexico in  perspective,
> geographically and emotionally. It would be nice if we could  remember
> that, as has been noted more than once, these drug wars wouldn't be  going on if
> people in the United States didn't want the drugs, or if other  people in
> the United States weren't selling Mexican drug lords the guns. Most of  all,
> it would be nice if more people in the United States actually came to this 
> part of America (Mexico is also America , you will recall) to see for
> themselves  what a fine place Mexico really is, and how good a vacation (or a
> life) here can  be.
> So come on down and get to know your southern neighbors. I think you'll 
> like it here. Especially the people.