Last night when my teaching class was over I had intended to go exchange the scooter for the car because this morning is when I deliver the food to the school but because of all the rain and slick roads I decided to come home on the scooter and go early in the morning and get the car.
So I was awakened this morning at 5.30 am by the car alarm belonging to Pauline who lives in the big house here and her car is parked outside on the street…the alarm went on for about a minute then silence..I went back to sleep and when I got out of bed this morning and looked out the bedroom window I saw her passenger side window was smashed……I knocked on her door to tell her before I left but just thankful my car was not outside. I know I say I love this Mexican neighborhood and I do but I also know that I may be perceived as the rich American…the people in the hood are all so friendly but I just have to be aware.
So I went and got the car delivered the food and then took the car back to the garage it is 12 km from my casita to the garage not really an issue.
Back at home I had breakfast and then went hiking into the canyons which I always enjoy and for the second time in 6 years I saw water coming over the dam.
It was a good hike….at home I called the gas company to come and fill the propane tank on the roof they came within 45 minutes and it is neat to see how they do it….one man comes inside the entrance and takes the stairs to the roof and then he throws a rope down to the man by the truck
He ties the rope to the pump and the man on the roof pulls it up
He then unties the pump and fills the tank
all done in a couple of minutes.
I went to get the kid and took her to her circus class she was all smiles this kind of class is what she enjoys!!!
We bought some fruit on the way home and her Mum was there and we talked for a few minutes.
This is taken from the TSN network!!
It was 25 years ago - Sept. 24, 1988 - that Ben Johnson became a newly-minted Canadian hero and an internationally-recognized track superstar.
Sure, before that day he had already been a respected member of track and field nobility. He had endorsement deals, admiration from his peers and a seemingly bright future. But winning the gold medal at the Seoul Summer Olympics had sealed the deal: Johnson now transcended the niche culture of track - he was an absolute megastar. And he was Canada's megastar. But that was on Sept. 24.
Just three days later, Johnson was a national disgrace and a symbol of everything that was wrong with track and field. Shockingly and very suddenly, an event that was one of the shining sporting moments for a country of 25 million turned into an embarrassment.
TSN's Brian Williams, who covered the Seoul Games in 1988, joins tonight's editions of SportsCentre to reflect on the Johnson scandal, its impact on sport and its legacy in the Canadian sporting culture.
The International Olympic Committee announced that Johnson's urine tests had been found to contain Stanozolol, a synthetic anabolic steroid that could enhance the conditioning and performance of an athlete. They said he had cheated. They said his medal was being given to his rival, American Carl Lewis. The wind was taken right out of the sails right when most Canadians thought the voyage was just starting.
And a quarter century later, remembering the footage of Johnson winning the gold with the benefit of hindsight is an eerie, almost uneasy exercise.
The cameras focused mainly on Johnson and his American rival Carl Lewis. The final of the men's 100-metre dash - the most popular and exciting event in the Summer Olympics - had the track equivalent of the Magic Johnson-Larry Bird rivalry going for it, which only made it that much sexier.
Regardless of the debate and accusations that just about every runner that day was on a performance-enhancing substance, the perception of that day - according to official record and fair or unfair - is that Johnson was the cheater. In 1988, Johnson's victory was a breathtaking moment of athletic excellence, an achievement unrivalled in the history of the 100-metre dash, let alone Canadian track and field.
Twenty-five years later, it's still breathtaking to watch that race - but for entirely different reasons; namely the unpleasant knowledge of what was about to follow.
The Backstory
Benjamin Sinclair Johnson was born Dec. 30, 1961 in Jamaica. He emigrated to Canada at the age of 14 and settled with his family in Scarborough, Ontario. He soon established a very promising track career, garnering a solid reputation and arguably first breaking through to mainstream awareness when he won a bronze medal at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles (the gold medal winner that year was a 23-year-old sprinter from the U.S.A. by the name of Carl Lewis).
On the heels of successful results in several subsequent high-profile races, Johnson was named the winner of the Lou Marsh Award as Canada's top athlete for 1986 and 1987 and was also invested as a member of the Order of Canada.
In August of 1988, in anticipation of the pending Olympic matchup with his arch-nemesis Johnson, it was Lewis who brazenly said, "The gold medal for the 100 metres is mine. I will never again lose to Johnson." If the rivalry had already been heating up, it was now hitting a fever pitch. And that's when it happened.
The Fallout
Without question, the Johnson debacle was the topic of conversation at every single office water cooler in the country in the days that followed. Shock, surprise, and disappointment abounded from Canadians coast-to-coast.
The disgraced sprinter was named Newsmaker of the Year for 1988 by The Canadian Press. One couldn't help but wonder if Johnson looks back now and reflects on whether he could have had that very same honour for an entirely different reason: having won that race without using steroids. No one will ever know.
After his fall from the top, Johnson kept a public profile roughly on par with that of Salman Rushdie and J.D. Salinger. In 1998, the man who had been arguably Canada's biggest sporting hero ever (albeit for three days) had sadly hit near sideshow status, reduced to participating in a novelty race against a horse and a stock car, and later appearing as a pitchman for 'Cheetah' drinks on television.
The Lasting Impact
Johnson wasn't the first athlete to cheat and he certainly won't be the last. But part of his legacy is that Johnson helped to create the deep, brooding skepticism that now sits with most sports fans. What used to be a knee-jerk reflex to cheer when a new feat of excellence was achieved, has since turned into a collective sense of cynical indifference. Things that were once a cause for celebration are now frowned upon and doubted.
Fans are often hesitant to embrace a new accomplishment for fear of a scandal about its legitimacy. The cheers have been muffled - fans are too busy waiting for the other shoe to drop. In Canada, this is the legacy of the Ben Johnson affair.
Taken from the New York Times.
MEXICO CITY — Can Mexico ever ascend to its proper place in the world economy without tackling corruption and crime head on? When will the country, with its rising potential, stop being held down by weak government
Those are some of the tough questions raised by readers responding to an article published in The New York Times on Sunday about the growing number of immigrants from around the world who have resettled Mexico in recent years, viewing it as a land of emerging opportunity. Many foreigners who have lived in the country for years stressed that while they wished the world would focus more on Mexico’s strengths, they also wished the country would do more to tackle its flaws – especially corruption and a justice system that does little or nothing.
“This is a great dynamic place for growth and wonderful things to happen,” said Irene Lee Pagan, 74, a Texas jeweler who moved to San Miguel de Allende 20 years ago. “But the police don’t care. They’re just sitting there getting a paycheck.”
Though her city’s new mayor put up posters promoting himself, she said, not one of the 50 robberies and assaults that occurred in her neighborhood over the last three years had been solved. Just a few days ago, she added, a Canadian retiree was beaten during a robbery in her home and nearly died, adding another unsolved crime to the list.
“I told the police, ‘If one or two of these other crimes had been resolved, this woman would not have been at death’s door,'” she said. “But they just don’t see it.”
Other foreigners in Mexico, writing by e-mail, on social media or in comments to Sunday’s article, relayed their own stories of the country’s paradoxical moment, with so much going well and so much to inspire outrage. Many argued that the gap between the dynamism of Mexican society and its failures appeared to be widening.
“Having lived in Monterrey for five and a half years, I am continually amazed at the contrasts in this country,” wrote a reader named Bil. “We have high-speed Internet and state-of-the-art highways. We also have almost 50 percent of our neighbors struggling everyday in abysmal poverty.”
“This is a growing, capable country,” he added. “At the same time, it is a corrupt, backward, enigmatic country.”
And according to one foreign businessman with two decades of experience in Mexico, neither the country’s powerful officials, nor the corporate executives they often court worldwide, have put in the necessary effort to change how things work.
“The lack of transparency in the government (national and local) and honest enforcement of laws leads often to years of litigation regarding such things as property rights and employment disputes, where all too often whoever has the deeper pockets comes out on top,” he wrote. While Mexico is, in fact, “a land of opportunity,” he said, it is “definitely not for novices.”
Even some new arrivals appear to have quickly concluded that Mexico needs a cultural transformation from top to bottom. As one Florida Rabbi, who moved to Tulum last year, put it: “Mexico needs to make a gigantic effort to move out of the perception and reality that the bribe is an accepted way of life.”
This has yet to happen. This month, senior officials unveiled their latest plan for improving security in Mexico, but the word “corruption” did not appear once in the document.
Other foreigners expressed broader fears that on its way to development, Mexico would sell or destroy its greatest resources. “One thing that distresses me is the environmental degradation,” wrote one reader who has lived in Mexico for 30 years. “Not that Mexico is any different from most countries in the world, but the roads are clogged with cars, air pollution is bad, buildings are constructed in high-risk zones, mass tourism is trashing the coastline, rivers are toxic, urban sprawl ruins quality of life, rural culture is being sacrificed to agribusiness.”
And yet, despite such critiques, many expatriates — especially Americans — described their lives in Mexico in positive, often glowing, terms. From the former Washington defense industry employee now making sandals in Michoacan to retirees and former graduate students, most said they did not regret moving south.
Andy Kieffer, a former Silicon Valley entrepreneur who lives in Guadalajara, said Americans needed to reconsider Mexico and the way they judged the country. He argued that Mexico’s largest cities are statistically less violent than Baltimore, Detroit, New Orleans, Oakland and St. Louis.
“When combined with the frequent, and high profile, mall/theater/school shootings (unheard-of in Mexico) in the U.S., I find it curious that Mexico is characterized as an unsafe ‘blood bath,'” he said. “What is the source of this? Veiled racism? An attempt by anti-immigration advocates to demonize Mexicans? A fear of anything different? A misplaced idea that home is always safer?”
In interviews, several commenters said they were speaking out publicly for the first time — because they wanted Americans to think more deeply about Mexico and maybe accept some responsibility for the country’s struggles, especially when it came to drugs, given American demand. Mostly, though, they said they were speaking up because they hoped to see their adopted country improve.
“I want it to be beautiful and safe again, for Mexican nationals and for people who move here, " said Ms. Pagan, the jeweler, speaking by phone from her home in San Miguel. “We’re all brothers and sisters, and I wish the United States would pay more attention
Sad to say the lady mentioned in the article did pass away this afternon from her injuries…..I am not saying that I agree with everything written here but interesting perspective!!
Yashi Koshi!!
