Tuesday 17 April 2012

Whose mote, and whose beam?

BOLETÍN INFORMATIVO
DIRECCIÓN DE COMUNICACIÓN SOCIAL
BUSCAN ALTERNATIVAS PARA CONCILIAR LA PAZ ENTRE COLONIAS
(Informational Bulletin, Directory of Social Communication:   Alternatives are sought to conciliate the peace between city subdivisions)
El Presidente Municipal, Ing. Jaime Rodríguez Calderón, ocupado por mantener la tranquilidad de los ciudadanos de García, Villa Metropolitana, se reunió con ciudadanos del sector poniente para conocer sus necesidades.  (The County President, Engineer Jaime Roriguez Calderon, worried about maintaining the tranquility of the citizens of Villa de Garcia, a village within the Metroplex, met himself with citizens of the western part of the community to learn of their necessities.)
 
Vecinos de la colonia Villas del Poniente aprovecharon el diálogo con el Presidente Municipal para exponer las inquietudes y problemáticas que tienen con los habitantes de la colonia Alianza, del Municipio de Monterrey. (Neighbours of the Colonia Villa del Poniente took advantage of the opportunity to have dialogue with the County President to expose the inquietudes and problems that they have with the inhabitants of the Colonia Alliance, in the County of Monterrey.)

   
El problema más sobresaliente es el derrumbe de una barda que fungía como división entre ambas colonias, lo que ocasiona la molestia de los ciudadanos pues las pandillas se cruzan de fraccionamiento a fraccionamiento para hacer maldades. (The problem most apparent is the tearing down of the wall that physically serves as a division between the two colonias, and which causes the molestation of the citizens of Villas del Poniente because the thug gangs who cross themselves from one subdivision to another subdivision to do evil things.)


La solución que se propuso, por parte de la administración, es la reconstrucción de la pared, así como la colocación de puertas de acceso en los planteles educativos, que dan hacia el lado de la colonia aledaña, para que vecinos de la Alianza puedan llevar a sus hijos a la escuela sin ningún problema y no tengan que rodear hasta la avenida Lincoln. (The solution that was proposed, on the part of the administration, is the reconstruction of the wall, along with the placement of gates of access near certain educacational campus settings, which would give access to and from the adjacent colonia to the end that neighbours in the Colonia Alianza can bring their children to school without any problem, and so as to avoid having to make the circle all the way out to Lincoln Avenue.)

Por su parte los miembros de la colonia Villas del Poniente se comprometieron a poner la mano de obra para dar solución al conflicto y mejorar la convivencia entre vecinos. (For their part, the members of the Colonia Villa del Poniente committed themselves to put the hand-labour into the effort to give a solution to the conflict, and to improve the convivience between neighbours.) 

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THIS NOTE:

     As one might imagine, the Colonial Villa del Poniente, you can see their house in the background of the last picture, are middle and upper-middle class people, often of blue collar background.   Many are small business owners or independent specialty construction contractors.   For some reason they do not like having to have gangs from a different Colonia, and from a different city/county that just happens to be adjacent to them, coming into their Colonia to conduct their gang-wars.   They do not like the grafitti, the crime, the vandalism, and the unsupervised nature of the children and adolescents next to them.
      The lower element....the perpetually poor....resent the idea that some one would do something so inhospitable as to build a wall between the two colonias.   The solution to rebuild the wall that was torn down by the lower element in many places, and to provide a few check-point style gates so as to allow the enrolled primary students who pertained to three or four of the primary schools in the Colonia Villas del Poniente that are within the district of attentence for the urchins of the Colonia Alianza.
       Of course, the gangs in Colonia Alianza came and dismantled the gates and took them off to sell for scrap to raise money to buy glue, paint, and marijuana.   So all the agreements identified above, last year, have been scuttled and dumped into the dumpster.   The people on the Villas del Poniente of the community of Garcia have unilaterally rebuilt their Wall of Protection dividing the two colonias.   They have also formed a community supervision group, and hired armed professional security service to patrol the wall, day and night.   The local police of Garcia have also begun parking along the wall as an additional presence.
     The cartel people are complaining, because it has suddenly become more difficult for them to recruit urchins from the Colonia Alianza for training in the criminal profession.   Most of the boys and many of the girls in the Colonia Villas del Poniente are taking kung fu, along with their baseball, soccer, and ballet after school activities.

     This is not an endorsement of the Border Wall, but it is an example of why and what people do in order to defend themselves against a foe with no soul.