oh, sweet violence
I suppose it´s time for an update, particularly that we´ve been splattered all over the news again.
My partner in crime/former roommate/the only other LanguageCorps participant went home today. Apparently she heard gunshots right outside her apartment, her parents got involved, and next thing you know she´s on a plane home. I´m currently trying to stick it out (we´ll see how it goes), though attendance is low in all my classes and the city is on a virtual lockdown at night.
Essentially, things have escalated since I wrote last. The protesters, whose initial demands that Governor Ruiz leave office are looking less and less silly and more and more serious, have control of I think all of the local streams of media (at least radio), and the state government has tried (apparently) with no avail to gain a foothold of what´s going on. The current hope is that when Calderon, the new President, is signed in officially (ie, nationally accepted) on September 10th (7th?), things will calm down. In the meantime, Fox has refused to assist with the situation. Protesters, for their part, have avoided shutting down any major roads or the airport and thereby the commission of a federal crime which would force Fox to act. Agreement to the table to discuss some sort of resolution has recently come about, but a date for the talk hasn´t yet been set.
The normal streets, however, are quite a mess, and have clearly become the battlefield for this particularly sticky political issue. Buses block many of the main arteries to downtown and to neighborhoods where media centers are located, and at night streets have flaming blockades mounted on increasingly permanent piles of rubble and stones. The instance of petty and not so petty crime is also up in the absence of a police force downtown. For a long time it amazed me that downtown remained so safe when we first got here, that so many of the restaurants remained open to tourist traffic, and that so many people were still optimistic that things would just go away. However, quiet nights here are now remarkably uncomfortable in their quietness. You almost wish the crickets and other little critters would be quiet so you could strain your ears over the silence. Even on noisier nights the sound of fireworks is occasionally interrupted by the sound of gunfire. It is almost more of a relief to hear cars and horns blaring because it means that there are normal people on the street.
Pedestrians on the streets at night are far and few between. The one night I did have occasion to walk at night was when Tim left recently, even before things really got bad, and it wasn´t pretty. The teachers for the most part have nothing to do, because actual conflict between the government doesn´t actually come into conflict with protesters except very rarely, and so many of the blockades consist of just one or two armed guards drinking mezcal and brandishing sticks by a fire in the middle of the street. I should say that most people do not seem to be armed with anything more than sticks or pipes, and that the military personnel I have seen (and even these were far from the center or the source of the conflict) are the ones who are armed. Not that this necessarily means anything. The protesters have certainly instigated a lot of conflict and caused a lot of businesses to close.
I should put this in the context that to be honest, no one really knows what´s going on, and that even the NY Times article that came out the other day ( http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/24/world/americas/24mexico.html) is missing some information. My program director was indignant that anyone would think of leaving because of the situation, whereas the director of another school I know did advise us to get out of the city for a while. I should say that my immediate safety is not at stake. I live in a nice neighborhood on the periphery of the city, in a compound with a Mexican family and several other teachers. Currently the US embassy has issued a travel notice, but not a travel advisory. Once it gets to that point (if not before, if things continue to deteriorate), I will hop on the first bus to Mexico City and take a plane from there, a trip which will actually be paid for by my (once esoteric and useless-sounding) insurance policy if it really gets out of hand.
In the meantime I have purchased a tacky, plastic soccer ball 5" black and white-screen TV and am attempting to keep abreast of the news and the goings on in the city. The liberal rag is currently being published from outside the city, but news still gets in. I actually don´t believe any of it whatsoever, so it´s been hard to evaluate whether I should actually go home.
In other, lighter news, chapulines, Oaxaca´s "special" Oaxacan dish of fried grasshoppers, taste like crap: I´d say rotten fish doused with lemon juice about sums it up, but we did buy them from some random lady at a market. I would be willing to try them again at a restaurant if I get a chance. Oh, and on a totally irrelevant topic, I was on TV on Tuesday about the bus system when Tim´s first class bus to Mexico was canceled because of "los problemas" here and we had to find another one at the eleventh hour across the city. Silly me, I thought reporters were just good for asking for information, but apparently they´re also johnny on the spot for when you want a camera stuck in your face with bright lights and you´re in your pyjama pants and have got a lot of other things to think about. Anyways, everyone I know saw me on TV (I, of course, missed the spectacle because I was teaching), so that was kind of exciting, except I´m pretty sure I said something boring and apolitical.
Anyways, best to everyone. Again, I´m okay and not going out at night, and when I do go out even in day I do my best to go with someone else. I´m currently waiting to hear word from the embassy about what I should do from here and how to deal with the situation if things get worse. In the meantime, have a nice batch of pasta with homemade sauce and some sour jelly-bellies for me- those seem to be things I miss most.
My partner in crime/former roommate/the only other LanguageCorps participant went home today. Apparently she heard gunshots right outside her apartment, her parents got involved, and next thing you know she´s on a plane home. I´m currently trying to stick it out (we´ll see how it goes), though attendance is low in all my classes and the city is on a virtual lockdown at night.
Essentially, things have escalated since I wrote last. The protesters, whose initial demands that Governor Ruiz leave office are looking less and less silly and more and more serious, have control of I think all of the local streams of media (at least radio), and the state government has tried (apparently) with no avail to gain a foothold of what´s going on. The current hope is that when Calderon, the new President, is signed in officially (ie, nationally accepted) on September 10th (7th?), things will calm down. In the meantime, Fox has refused to assist with the situation. Protesters, for their part, have avoided shutting down any major roads or the airport and thereby the commission of a federal crime which would force Fox to act. Agreement to the table to discuss some sort of resolution has recently come about, but a date for the talk hasn´t yet been set.
The normal streets, however, are quite a mess, and have clearly become the battlefield for this particularly sticky political issue. Buses block many of the main arteries to downtown and to neighborhoods where media centers are located, and at night streets have flaming blockades mounted on increasingly permanent piles of rubble and stones. The instance of petty and not so petty crime is also up in the absence of a police force downtown. For a long time it amazed me that downtown remained so safe when we first got here, that so many of the restaurants remained open to tourist traffic, and that so many people were still optimistic that things would just go away. However, quiet nights here are now remarkably uncomfortable in their quietness. You almost wish the crickets and other little critters would be quiet so you could strain your ears over the silence. Even on noisier nights the sound of fireworks is occasionally interrupted by the sound of gunfire. It is almost more of a relief to hear cars and horns blaring because it means that there are normal people on the street.
Pedestrians on the streets at night are far and few between. The one night I did have occasion to walk at night was when Tim left recently, even before things really got bad, and it wasn´t pretty. The teachers for the most part have nothing to do, because actual conflict between the government doesn´t actually come into conflict with protesters except very rarely, and so many of the blockades consist of just one or two armed guards drinking mezcal and brandishing sticks by a fire in the middle of the street. I should say that most people do not seem to be armed with anything more than sticks or pipes, and that the military personnel I have seen (and even these were far from the center or the source of the conflict) are the ones who are armed. Not that this necessarily means anything. The protesters have certainly instigated a lot of conflict and caused a lot of businesses to close.
I should put this in the context that to be honest, no one really knows what´s going on, and that even the NY Times article that came out the other day ( http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/24/world/americas/24mexico.html) is missing some information. My program director was indignant that anyone would think of leaving because of the situation, whereas the director of another school I know did advise us to get out of the city for a while. I should say that my immediate safety is not at stake. I live in a nice neighborhood on the periphery of the city, in a compound with a Mexican family and several other teachers. Currently the US embassy has issued a travel notice, but not a travel advisory. Once it gets to that point (if not before, if things continue to deteriorate), I will hop on the first bus to Mexico City and take a plane from there, a trip which will actually be paid for by my (once esoteric and useless-sounding) insurance policy if it really gets out of hand.
In the meantime I have purchased a tacky, plastic soccer ball 5" black and white-screen TV and am attempting to keep abreast of the news and the goings on in the city. The liberal rag is currently being published from outside the city, but news still gets in. I actually don´t believe any of it whatsoever, so it´s been hard to evaluate whether I should actually go home.
In other, lighter news, chapulines, Oaxaca´s "special" Oaxacan dish of fried grasshoppers, taste like crap: I´d say rotten fish doused with lemon juice about sums it up, but we did buy them from some random lady at a market. I would be willing to try them again at a restaurant if I get a chance. Oh, and on a totally irrelevant topic, I was on TV on Tuesday about the bus system when Tim´s first class bus to Mexico was canceled because of "los problemas" here and we had to find another one at the eleventh hour across the city. Silly me, I thought reporters were just good for asking for information, but apparently they´re also johnny on the spot for when you want a camera stuck in your face with bright lights and you´re in your pyjama pants and have got a lot of other things to think about. Anyways, everyone I know saw me on TV (I, of course, missed the spectacle because I was teaching), so that was kind of exciting, except I´m pretty sure I said something boring and apolitical.
Anyways, best to everyone. Again, I´m okay and not going out at night, and when I do go out even in day I do my best to go with someone else. I´m currently waiting to hear word from the embassy about what I should do from here and how to deal with the situation if things get worse. In the meantime, have a nice batch of pasta with homemade sauce and some sour jelly-bellies for me- those seem to be things I miss most.
posted by ajolley | 11:53 AM
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