Long, Tough Two Weeks....

Hello again.
We are back in town for a bit, driving up yesterday.

THE BRIDGE (lane) to NOWHERE:
     Yes, yesterday afternoon at around 2:00 pm,   arriving in time to wait at the Anzalduas crossing for and hour and a half.   The bridge is a nice and convenient crossing point for people who live/work from western McAllen , Mission, and the Palmhurst-Penitas-La Joya area of the Magic Lower Rio Grande Valley.     It has a problem, though,  in that the people who have the "quick pass" to avoid the lines....by using a pre-paid, pre-screened profile, bioscopic pass (about 250 dollars/year)....have a lane of approach, but no inspection booth...(????).
         One hapless fellow, apparently a well-to-do person from the city of  San Pedro de Garza Garcia, part of the Monterrey metroplex, drove up the vacant line, passing quickly by the rest of us dopes who were moving up at about 100 yards every 15 minutes.    He soon saw the fact that his lane lead to nowhere, except to some place called "Aekuandri".  I think it is the town they named after TaeKwanDoh's sister.
    He stopped beside me, lowered his window of the new Audi sedan, and inquired, "What do I do? "   He chose me because I was the only Gringo in the left-most line....all lines having 300 or more vehicles.    It serves to note that we were about 20 vehicles from the finish line.  He still addressed me in Spanish, probably because he was impressed with my 92 Dodge with the scars of 350,000 miles of service.

     I advised, "Sorry, but I do not go into service until 3:00 pm......You have to understand that we are the most advanced people in the world, so this is not actually happening.    I think it is what happens when the bridge is designed and operated by the government in Washington."    We laughed a bit...and he showed me his "Sentri Pass Card"....declaring "I am really not trying to break the line....it causes me a bit of shame to be here like this".....

     Interrupting him, I observed, "The deal is that you paid a lot of money for your expedited pass and had to sit around in American Counsel for two or three days to obtain the pass...and you come to a bridge that says the have Sentri Pass....and then find out at the last minute that the system is not installed as of yet.   There's not a lot of shame in that....." .    Then I told him to pull in front of me with the next movement of the line and he could go with the flow.    If anything it was a little embarrassing for me as an American....but I shall allow the President to apologize in his next round of teachable apologies for the shortcomings of America and the Americans.


BITTER, LONG-LASTING COLD

       THIS HAS BEEN A fairly tough period for an Old Gringo.   The cold finally arrived with a vengeance.     By Wednesday last  the tongue of Arctic invasion oozed into the Mexican tropics, splashed along the face of the Sierra Madre Oriental, leaving the Monterrey area covered in ice, sleet, and copious amounts of snow at all elevations.    Our mountains had a good amount of snow, freezing rain, and freezing fog.   The Quinta had a few brief flurries and a bit of freezing rain.   From Wednesday night through Friday night the temperature never went above 32 degrees F.   My lowest recording was about 21.5 degrees, and the majority of the episode vacillated between 26 to 30 degrees....day and night.

       One of the disadvantages in revelling in the low-tech environment of exposed wiring and plumbing.....(It's easier to repair, don't you know, by the rustic maestros when things need fixing).....is the fact that if the plumbing and wiring are exposed then the chance that repairs will be needed at all are substantially enhanced.

       In this case I had to, of necessity, stay awake during the entire period, with very small exceptions, in order to keep going back and forth to run each and every water line however briefly so as to prevent tubing ruptures from ice expansion.    One time the Old Gringo managed to fall asleep in front of the television for about 2 hours.
     My efforts were rewarded with having a still intact system on Saturday morning, when the temperature went back above freezing for the first time since Tuesday before.   The electricity stayed on for the entire period, save for the brief moment that power was turned off while electricity transfers were being made to Texas.    That later proved to be an impossibility because as the hours went by it became apparent that the cold wave was probably going to be as bad or worse in northern and central Mexico as it was being in Texas.

     As the weather events worsened to unanticipated levels it became apparent that this was not going to be a two-day affair with an overnight frost.  Freezing temperatures continued all the way down to between Cd. Valles and Mante, which are situated well below the Tropic of Cancer.


DEALING WITH THE CATS and DOGS during prolonged inclemency


 Nephertiti takes a personal interest

in my special, prize winning cats



    The poor dogs found the shelters I made for them with boxes,  old blankets and towels.....they still appeared  forlorn and abandoned....giving mournfully long stares at the cats who excersized  their Pharaohnic discretion to come and go, inside and out of the house at will.     Prince, Pinto, Trouble, and New Puppy could only imagine life inside the adobe walls, sprawled in front of the fireplace on a personalized bathroom throw rug for each Daughter of Nephertiti.....Smokey, Cleopatra, and Calico.   I would even allow old Sylvester, Smokey's black and white son with the two-crooked tail, most of both ears still, and one good eye still to come in and eat Whiskas in his personal bowl,  with an after-dinner bit of warmed half-and-half with three kitty-kookies as a little extra favour.    Nothing too special, because you never want to spoil a cat.

       I did feed the dogs at "their time", which is 04:00, warmed Gravy Train, and one large dog biscuit, plus one small dog biscuit, followed by another similar feeding around 14:00 hours.   These feedings require more supervision, because Prince is accustomed to "forgetting"  that "this bowl is for Pinto, and this bowl is for Trouble, and this bowl is for you".   He usually "forgets" when I go back inside, eating freely of all three simultaneously....so sometimes, even in the cold,  one needs to keep an eye on things.

      "Prince!   Bad Dog!  That bowl belongs to Pinto!"  

       Prince skulks off, head down, tail lowered, but not between the legs.  "But you told me in English and I did not understand."

       To which I respond with an accusatory glare, "Yesterday you said that I had told you in Spanish and you did not understand.....so which is it?"

        There is no response as he slow-foots off to his personal box to curl into against the brutal wind.    He knows I won the argument....it feels really

good to beat a dog in a domestic dispute....kinda rather re-instates me as the Alpha Dog in this pack.   Keeps things on an adult level.....

REASONS for COMING UP THIS TIME:
       There are always things to do and check into.   One of the main reasons for being here this time is that we have a potential long term client....also an active person who has lived in some very interesting places in Mexico over the years.    This potential client has interests in Texas that require being a little closer to the border, and it is very probable that we can develop a mutually advantageous long-term relationship.    Tomorrow we should know.
       Other matters are the purchase of a sundry of supplies for the Quinta.
The time has come to close this post as things change and remain the same.   Thank you all for your attention.   Your many comments have been reviewed and sincerely appreciated.
El Gringo Viejo

Heading Back to the Quinta Tesoro de la Sierra Madre

     The time has come that we need to head back down to the Quinta.   Alvaro needs to be spelled for a bit and we have some long term clients coming in.   We shall be going over everything between clients to make certain all is functioning as it should. 

     Part of this is checking over the old broken parts of things, making sure that the repairs that were made to prepare them as "emergency replacements" are still good.    Things like toilet tank filler valves....like water heater pilot light "mechas" (pilot assemblies, and also matches).....kerosene lantern wicks and oil...and batteries AAA, AA, C, & D....and candles.....and the first-aid, especially  benedryl (for folks who might react to bee stings and other insects) and a hundred other items and procedures.

      Alvaro did a repair job on our beautiful, "street" facing rock wall (called a 'barda' in Spanish) because it had developed a bit of a "grieta" (lightning bolt shaped crack).    But now, that has been fixed according to our neighbour at the Hacienda de la Vega..."....y muy bien hecho  (...and very well done)", according to him.

    Anyway, you all need to email Diana with any questions about reservations or whatever might interest your curiosity during my absence.   I should be out for a couple of weeks before returning for a very brief stay during the first week of February.    I'll look forward to added some more tales of the Quinta at that time.

Thanks for your time and interest!

El Gringo Viejo 

Exchange Rates, Business, and the Quinta

     Due to the American proclivity to think that the central government can and should control the general economy and the economy of each man, our currency has weakened considerably.   This is especially true when compared to the currencies of nations that have begun to practice a bit of budget restraint and realistic financial management.

      Mexico....its President, and incredibly, its Congress,  has been stumbling, dragging, edging, and crawling more and more to a less socialist economic model.   Although there are many, many vestiges of the ancient, Jurrasic Epoch socialist infrastructure (PEMEX, Comision Federal de Electricidad, Instituto Mexicano de Seguro Social, Confederacion de Trabajadores Mexicanos, etc.) much of the country is moving to greater private economic position.    It has long been said that Mexico is a land of small business....and this is clearly evident when one sees the taco stands, shoe shine men, push carts, tiny stores, repair shops, tire repair stands, and the like. 

      Sometimes it is assumed by the foreign visitor that these tiny operations are deigned by abject necessity.   Perhaps in some...even many.....cases this is true.    But the total truth is some how best expressed in a classic Vicente Fernandez song of the Charro/Mariachi genre...

"Con dinero y sin dinero,

Yo hago siempre lo que quiero.

Y mi palabra es la ley.

No tengo trono ni reina.

Ni nadie que me comprenda.

Pero sigo siendo el rey."



     This says, "With money and without money....I do always that which I want....And my word is the law.    I have no throne nor a queen....and nobody that can understand me.....But I continue being the King."

      This song is an anthem of the  conservative, lower-middle class, blue collar type.   Such a person is usually a male...full of the classic machismo etc.....but it can and frequently is a self-employed female.   They grumble about taxes, crummy government services, corruption, and they pretty much take care of themselves.  They also foul up the polls and the centrist and leftist political parties, because, although far from rich or well-to-do,  they tend to vote Partido de Accion Nacional (PAN) which in Gringo means an amalgam of Republican moderates, right-wing crazy Republicans, Tea Party Whackoes, and Ron / Rand Paul Libertarian types.   As you might imagine, I identify with this particular Mexican demographic fairly closely.
       Their eclecticism is best described by the little place where I had a tire repaired not long ago.   A wall of the three sided structure had pictures of things of interest to men and human beings as well.   President Calderon had his image there, along with John Kennedy, Fernando Valenzuela, some girls who forgot to get dressed before their photo-shoot, Veronica Castro (almost obligatory), Pedro Infante, Sarah Palin (with clothes on), Emiliano Zapata w/ Pancho Villa (also with their clothes on) at their meeting in Chapultepec Castle in Mexico City in 1915, and other such things.   

       So, the Mexican Government and financial gurus have...since about 1994 stayed on a steady course of running budgets that run very close to balanced, with small variations into the red and into the black.    The above described Mexicans grumble about reductions in outlays...price increases at times for things like gasoline and electricity... but, there is a haunting ghost that they still remember.     They remember the 50,000 peso note....which could buy a couple of hamburgers....drinks are extra.   They have told their children about the 50,000 peso note....and the older Mexicans have told their children about the 1 peso silver coin  (and the one peso silver certificate, paper currency)  that would buy a good hamburger, a cup of coffee, and leave a large, solid copper 20 centavo coin as a gratuity.   I did this 1 peso trick many times as a pre-delinquent and as a teen during my adventurous times in Mexico.   I did not know then that it was such a hard trick to duplicate....but apparently it was....because all the Bernackes, Greenspans, Volkers, and Geitners in the world have not been able to duplicate that trick again.


      Now, however, with revaluations, devaluations, adjustments, re-positioning and whatever else the gnomes of the Banco de Mexico and the Tesoria de la Republica spin out of the "D.F."...a person can buy a couple of decent meals at the Pollo Loco or KFC, with soda pops, and have a little change left over from a 100 peso note.
      My problem is that during the last year, the peso has gained from about 13.30 to a dollar to now around 12.15 to a dollar.  That means the Obamadollar has lost about 9 per cent against the peso....almost totally due to the loss of faith in the exchange markets in the dollar's ability to withstand the borrowing required by $2,000,000,000,000 annual budget deficits.
      This has put a bit of a crimp in our batting stance at the Quinta...but we, as small operators will figure a way out of the labyrinth better than any dumbo who can be Secretary of the Treasury but who also supposedly cannot figure out how to do his tax return.
Thanks, once again for your attention and investment of time!!!
El Gringo Viejo 

Obama Loosens Regulations on Travel to Cuba

       We noticed that Obama has cleared the way for "certain academic groups, working for academic credit and religious groups doing religious work in Cuba".... and these groups will have permission now to go to Cuba.   Two things:

       (1)     Immediately upon announcing this "new openning" to Cuba, Raul and Fidel kick sand in the face of Obama, America, Cubans here, Cubans there, and to general tourism and investment throughout America by eliminating existing programs of contact and currency interchange, electronic and direct.    I do not know if this was the "hope" part or the "change" part.

      (2)      The permits to go were going to be issued exclusively to "friendly" academic and religious groups.   The rabidly pro-communist, psuedo-Evangelical "Pastors for Peace" comes to mind....they have about as much to do with pastoral service and peace as the "Reverend" Jim Jones of Jonestown fame.....although they may lack the Kool - Aid still.    For years they have come through the McAllen - Reynosa port of entry area, on their way to and from Cuba.   They arrive with much fanfare saying they are taking "necessities" to the Cuban people that they are denied by the "blockade" against Cuba promulgated by imperialist, counter-revolutionary forces funded by special corporate interests.    Their caravan is always compose of beat-up old busses, shabby rattle-trap vans and stationwagons....true poverty-mobiles.    They present themselves as shabby, unshaven, dirty, dishevelled "Grapes of Wrath" extras...and smell of "exotic" fragrances.
      Envision Peter, Paul, & Mary, Pete Seeger, Woodie Guthrie, and maybe Bruce Springsteen all without a bath for more than the normal three weeks, all singing, "This Land is My Land, This Land's Not Your Land", "God Bless the Grass That Grows Through Concrete", "Little Boxes", and of course, "If I Had a Hammer (and sickle), It would be 'Made in China'"

   They proceed to Tampico where a specially arranged Cuban tramp freighter loads them up and delivers them and their "relief supplies" to the Comite' Revolucionario del Pueblo Cubano.   Only religious groups that are approved by the tightly controlled, pro-liberation theology Cuban Roman Catholic Church can have access to the populace.

    We can only imagine how many delegations from the National Council of Churches and graduate schools of the elite universities were celebrating this new opportunity to express solidarity the Revolution efforts to advance the efforts of Marti', Bolivar, Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Mao, Marx and Benito Juarez.   (Their words, not mine).

      It brings to mind another time, another rub-a-dub-dub, three-men-in-a-tub.    Fidel Castro Ruz, Raul Castro Ruz, and Ernesto Guevara de la Serna....on tour in Texas....a long time ago.
     

     Back in 1958, the little threesome, along with eight or nine other rough looking thuggish types made landfall at the tip of South Texas...docking in Port Isabel with a beat up fishing boat. They cleared customs there with supposedly valid Cuban passports, while a few of them had legal resident alien permits from the United States, along with papers which entitled them to seek remunerative employment. Others had Commonwealth, American Passports, being from Puerto Rico.
     Later, it turned out that the ones with work papers had actually bought or stolen the papers, and that the documents pertained to Mexican nationals who had reported the papers stolen in Houston. Two carried emergency entry permits, directly issued by the United States Department of State....issued from Washington, D.C. (???)

      They made their way inland in station wagons provided and driven by waiting friends, arriving finally to McAllen, Texas where they checked into the venerable Hotel Casa de Palmas in that city's centermost point. While there, they went about meeting with various people of public and private importance, and also held long, midnight-oil-burning meetings in their rooms with persons unknown and/or unremembered.

      Oddly, they held a press conference which was attended by the local print media and the two local television stations, KGBT - Harlingen and KRGV - Weslaco. They declared that they really were "freedom fighters" engaged in the overthrow of the tyrannical dictator Fulgencio Batista, and that they were in the Lower Rio Grande Valley to raise money, buy supplies, and establish communication systems that would help in their long term efforts to expulse the hated Batista.

      I remember that they went to the public schools in McAllen, visiting the two junior high schools, Travis and Lamar, and the High School....and talking to students during their home room periods. The wore olive drab fatigues with military caps and combat boots. Most had scruffy beards and smelled a little different from regular folks. They were very dedicated to their cause and left no coin unturned.....requesting and collecting even the silver quarter/dollars many students had for lunch money or for squandering on corn nuts and soda pops.

       Being only a seventh grader, I had the pleasure of having only one of the lesser liberators hustle our loose change and tell us that every dollar will be spent on feeding the children of the "freedom fighters" who are trying to rid Cuba of oppression, just like the Hungarians fought the Russians, and to help "finish the work started by America when they helped us break away from Spain a half-century ago". In the large recess yard, after the bell, we were treated to "El Comandante" , a fellow named Fidel, signing autographs and speaking almost totally un-accented English with a large gaggle of enthralled junior high mushheads.

       It was two or three days later that the news showed footage of the "freedom fighters" boarding their unlikely craft in Port Isabel to make the "dangerous voyage to an even more dangerous duty....Opposing tyranny where ever it might be found in the Americas". We thought we had really been living something important, fine, and great.

     There was one old curmudgeon...(.perhaps I, as a trainee curmudgeon, carry his spirit)....who railed against Castro and all his crowd,     Jason Matthews, an eccentric, wealthy genius, publisher, artist, poet, investor, and adamant anti-Nazi and anti-Communist. He establish a large John Birch Society group in the McAllen area....probably 200 people....conducted youth instructional clubs in many cities, and published the right-wing magazine "Mercury" for many years....At one time it had a monthly circulation approaching 500,000. That is a subscription, mailed circulation .

       Mr. Matthews set the record straight in various forums, and was immediately poo-poo'd and discounted by the  more intelligent, informed, and enlightened people. Reasonable people......moderate people....."Mr. Matthews is an extremist, he is a racist, he is an advocate for the wealthy special interests." 

       They assured us that Fidel Castro is a "freedom fighter" like a Minuteman.....an agrarian reformer.....a defender of the impoverished who are enslaved by the Spanish system of haciendas and peones...of those with privilege and those of want....of a people enslaved by discrimination and corruption of a regime that is owned by the Mafia." they informed us with authoritative smirks.

      Of course, it turned out that Edward R, Murrow and the smart people were half-right and all wrong.     Before seven years had passed, Cuba was reduced from 4th highest per capita income of all nations in the Americas to next-to-last.....where it has stayed after 50 years of revolution.

 How's that "hope & change" working for you?

More information will be coming out later to-day.   Thank you all for your comments and observations....Bless the folks who understand my pitiful attempts at humour....and feel free to question, advise, and participate.    Your transmissions will not be used on this blog without explicit permission.   They are never otherwise revealed away from this computer.
      Remember, if you send me $50.00, you get to read these screeds for FREE!!! 

El Gringo Viejo

Some Economic and Financial Observations

     Usually old blowhards have learned, by my age, not to advise people to do or not do anything.   One learns quickly that anyone who follows some other's advice is quite prone to blame the advisor for any contretemps the flow from said advice.   But....

      We are frequently asked about this business of buying property, of bank deposits, or generally doing business in Mexico.   This is my admonition and, should I say.....suggestion....?

(1)     Business is a proposition of great gain, little gain, no gain/loss, loss, and absolute loss.   Do not do business anywhere without confessing belief in the above.    Business is not a work for salary issue.....although, just like business ventures,  even working for wages and salary carries no certain guarantee of permanence.

(2)    In Mexico, you can buy land, houses, even farms, ranches, on-going businesses, or establish a business.   There are many conditions which must be met.   I will save you time by stating flatly that one wishing to do any of the above should use a Notario Publico to finalize any transaction(s).    That Notario should be recommended by a trusted person who is a Gringo who has done business in Mexico or a Mexican friend who is of absolute trust and experience.   (forget the American Embassy)

(3)     Investment?     No one has lost money in Mexico, even during the depression of 1930's, on deposits made in pesos and paid in pesos.   The risk one takes, after recognizing the previous fact, is that at times....and always following aggressive socialist initiatives by some previous administration, the Mexican central bank is forced to devalue the currency due to the treasury being exhausted of foreign reserves...(and even domestic reserves).   Mexico has wisely based the value of the Peso on the holding of foreign reserve currencies.

      These holdings are still worthless American, French, British, and Japanese paper...but it still holds Mexico to a standard set by an outside, major-league economic standard.   It is about 100 steps higher than taking support loans from the IMF or World Bank   (aka: Bolshevik Capitalist Appreciation Society).

      WHERE PEOPLE LOSE MONEY BY BUYING MEXICAN PAPER.....comes in terms of those pesky devaluation "hangovers" after some socialist episode has cured all the problems of poverty by giving poor people lots of free things and free money.    These are losses in dollar terms, which, if one liquidates his peso holdings and demands to be paid in dollars....then he has secured a loss in dollar terms.     The old wise men who play the peso/dollar game never cash out during these espisodes of devaluation...."Well, I'll just wait a while.   They will raise the interest rates up so high that I'll recover my principal in a couple of years.  I don't need the money right now anyway."  is a common observatoin of the "Old Timers" during those moments of stress.  
       The Administration of Lazaro Cardenas 1936 - 1942, for instance and especially the two administrations of Luis Echevarria Alvarez 1970 - 1976 and Jose Lopez Portillo 1977 - 1983 brought Mexico to the point of disintegration.    It took, literally, 15 years for Mexico to dig its way out of that mess.

      The losses suffered by foreign holders of Mexican paper during the period from 1970 through 1996 were readily offset....for those who held on to their paper.....by ridiculously high interest rates....which, for a brief period reached 149.50% for a 360 day deposit on Mexican Certificates of Treasury Obligation.
      As an aside....and by nearly pure luck....we were advising an elderly widow about her assets in Mexico.   Her husband had invested a considerable sum about two years before his death.    She had received a lot of mailings, never opened, about her account status.   She asked us to open them and read them and tell her what needed to be done.   It turned out that she had never "taken possession" of the deposits....and the banks were demanding that she execute survivor's rights or they would be forced to turn the inactive accounts over to the Mexican Treasury. 

      She sent me to that retirement area, where they had lived and made their investments, to deliver death certificates, LWT, and probate orders, and we saved her deposits by 23 days....No charge...just copies and re-issuing change of title holder of account name, etc.     The sum that had been left behind was , shall we say, considerable, in American money.....by that time that was about 100 figures in Mexican currency.    BUT, at 149.50%, and remembering that no peso deposit in Mexico had ever defaulted, I decided to invest this woman's "chaff" into a one-year deposit on Mexican Treasury Obligations denominated in Mexican Pesos. 

      One week later, President Miquel de la Madrid Hurtado, the Bank of Mexico, and with approval by the "Heroic" Congress of the Republic....froze the rate of exchange and declared that there would be no further float or devaluation for one year.   Budgets, investments, everything in Mexico changed overnight.    Faith in the peso...medium term investments...everything looked brighter immediately.    Mexico confirmed its obligation to the international community....money came in....It was a real "Hello muddah, hello faddah, Wait a second, It's stopped raining"....moment.

      The little old lady essentially made a government guaranteed 150% interest rate in dollar terms...and would wind up with, considerable,  payout.    She made other similar recovery in the Mexican stock market from some of those investments made during their period of residency in Mexico during the earliest part of the 1970's.     One of her mining stocks went on a tear and, after splitting six times, increased over 10,000% in value in 18 months   (yes, 10,000%).    It was madness.

       Her "chaff" had become "wheat" .......

These stories are true.   They are also rare.  

       But, for the average Gringo dumbo, like me, one could take a small, but significant part of his money and place it into Mexican Government paper.   Usually, the best approach is the automatically renewable 28 day deposit.  AT this time....Brazil, the internationally acclaimed celebrity of the Leftist Elitist set....."taxing their way into prosperity (Hillary Clinton - 2010)"....is in near free-fall....being forced now to pay nearly 12% interest on accounts that are in no wise secured except for IMF backing (disaster).   Brazil will soon be in that undesirable position of having to officially (or unofficially) devalue their currency.   They will soon be involved in pension shortfalls and government operating revenue shortfalls, just like almost all third world countries like New York, Illinois, and California. 

     Mexico is paying 4.5%.....the economy is advancing at a real 5% rate...the budgets are essentially balanced...AND THE PESO HAS GAINED OVER 10% against the American dollar during the past year and a half.....(can anyone say Obamonomics?).    The U.S. runs a 1.5 trillion dollar annual budget deficit and loses currency value against the Mexican Peso when Mexico is running a balanced budget....."How does that happen?" asked the Harvard Economics professor. 

     Brazil is raising taxes on the rich,  the well-to-do, and the lower-middle class for "infrastructure and social equity issues"....and they are now broke.   The great Brazilian miracle  will collapse later this year....and the IMF will blame America and Americans for our selfishness and addiction to consumption.

     Mexico's draconian 16% national sales tax, and the ridiculous "progressive income tax" has essentially been held steady, although they have a much lower corporate income tax than Obamerica.    Brazil heads down, Mexico heads up.   That's my forecast....although it is a forecast that is done by a weatherman who looks outside and sees the rain falling and says "I think it is going to be raining".....these dynamics are presently underway and under reported, because the leftist American and International press "adopted" de Lula's socialist agenda ("it's only fair, after all, to take money by force from those who have it and give it to people who want to procreate, drink beer and bad rum, and receive somebody else's money to do it, No?)   The present President of Brazil is a former communist insurgent  "went institutional" and became a "progressive" (a word meaning communist, but spelled differently).    Her Excellency, Dilma Rouseff does not have the political skills that de Lula had, and chaos is already oozing into their political processes again.  http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101031/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_brazil_elections

      With reference to the violence in Mexico and its effect upon the economic activity and progress, I will submit that my faith is in the increasing maturity of the Mexican populace, and the superiority of the Mexican military's moral and military bearing as opposed to those who have no souls, no patriotism, no communitarian conscience, and no good grasp of martial procedures beyond abject terrorism.
     These observations and comments come after various questions posed by various people.    In light of the realities, and in many, many cases the poor, but authoritative reporting about Mexico, many Americans have reason to be negative or concerned about anything Mexican.   Americans with negative attitudes can only be seen as being reasonable, based upon what information they receive.
     Still there are inquiries because folks hear about Americans and other foreigners investing in Mexican paper or in some form of import/export, or other pursuit.    I should sum it all up and say, "Yes, Virginia, NAFTA really does work, after a fashion.   Mexico is not China....Mexico is not Detroit....Budget discipline really does work.    Mexico is not perfect, but it is far better than you hear from the experts."
Thanks again for your time and attention.   Give a clik anytime, we always appreciate your emailed questions and comments.
El Gringo Viejo

So you think I'm not a real curmudgeon...?

     A real curmudgeon is a really grumpy old man who has somewhat irrational notions about how much better things were "then" than they are "now".   He also becomes especially grumpy when certain errors are committed by the forces of the Universe that really make him grumpy.     Since I am curmudgeon, I shall reveal certain secrets that heretofore have never been known about why Karl Marx, Van Gogh, Hillary Rodham, Santa Clause stand-ins at the department stores, and the guy in front of you at the Starbucks are grumpy old men.....or...as in the case of Hillary Rodham...a really grumpy old man. 

       (1)    Saying in an advertisement "Choose from 34 'select' models" .   The dumbo announcer means to say...wants to say...."Choose from 34 selected models."    The dealership is trying to unload the pink Jetta with a column shifter and has always had a dog-pound fragrance since it arrived from the factory.   It is a "selected" model.....this goes for motor-cars, furniture, food orders at a "select" restaurant...etc.    The announcer or advertizing agency is taking advantage of the fact that we dumboes associate the term "select" with things like meat & seafood, certain vegetables, and other commodities of higher quality that have the official legal quality status of "select".   They use that term to associate with junk that has been selected to be unloaded on the dumboes who compose the general public, like me.  

      (2)    College professors and radio personalities, etc.  who say, ...."He was talking to me and Jeff, but ..."

      (3)     Any severely intellectually challenged person who says ...." This will bring closure to the family....by finding the remains of the person who this vicious criminal murdered and brutalized in 1988....blah..blah..".     THERE IS NO "CLOSURE".....

      (4)      Weathermen who say, "Yesterday we had a high of 40 degrees and to-day will be 50% warmer, with a high of 60 degrees."    Temperature averages, as we know, cannot be based upon zero being an absolute base,  because temperatures do not have a zero-degree, absolute base.    In Fahrenheit, absolute zero is   459.6667...degrees BELOW ZERO degrees Fahrenheit.    Therefore 60 degrees F would be about 0.450% warmer than 40 degrees F,  (more or less).

     (5)      "With all due respect......" .

     (6)        "He is a member of a organization....."    A organization!!!!! ?????  In the dark ages, it was said, "He is a member of an organization...."    What is the vegetarian, wiccan, marxist problem with the article "an".....?

     (7)        The misuse of the word "gay".    What a ruinous way to contaminate such a noble word.  

    (8)        "This is adult entertainment".....No, it's not....it is degenerate, childish, coarse, sewerage.     Give me a break.

    (9)        "And if you buy these three Asian elephants for three million dollars we will give you this Made in China, genuine plastic flashlight that is guaranteed not to work....ABSOLUTELY FREE....".    And at Joseph Banks Men's Wear, you buy the first suit for 300 dollars, and the second for 58 dollars, and you get 5 more items....ABSOLUTELY FREE.....!"    Uuhhh??   Excuse me....If I buy something as a pre-condition to receiving something else.....THEN IT IS NOT FREE!!!!!   UP AGAINST THE WALLLLL!!!!!!!

Now you know what a curmudgeon is.

As always....Thanks for your time and attention!!
El Gringo Viejo