Back from Central Texas

We returned late yesterday afternoon after putting up with a bit of a problem with the brake lights / turn indicators on the drive down.    Amazingly, the Old Gringo managed to effect a repair with his own grubby little fingers.    The problem resulted from some efforts of an over-zealous repair-type person  who tried to jam the bulb receptor into its proper place during some distant-in-time incident.   In any regard, that was done, and to this point has not been undone.

     More importantly, of course, was the attendence of our son's graduation from Southwest Texas State's School of Philosophy with a BA degree.   We learned that he was offerred a place in their graduate school for the coming session, so it will be a seamless transfer of objective.    He will follow the route of his PH.d. grandfather and uncle and become an over-educated curmudgeon as a younger man.....thereby displacing his under-educated, over-aged father in the curmudgeon ranks.    The Old Gringo will now be free to join in Al Gore's Eco-decomposition landfill, where all old curmudgeons go when they are too mean to put into the Soylent Green vat.  I feel as though a great weight has been lifted from me.

       Much time was spent with other family.   My daughter and her husband and their two look-alike, act-alike daughters.....who are the treasures of my better half.....my son.....and my comperes (the parents of my son-in-law) all ate well and rubbed elbows.    They are all summarily pleasant people, generous to a fault, and interesting intellectually.
          There was a terrific rain, lightning, and tornado-bearing storm complex that impeded our arrival to Central Texas.    Some places received as much as eight inches of precipitation.    Many places clocked winds in excess of 80 miles per hour.   This was from near Del Rio and Eagle Pass west-southwest of San Antonio through to Corpus Christi, and to 50 miles either side of that line.   So, even with all the wind, it was a needed break in the mini-drought.
     There was a bit of rain and stormyness coming back down yesterday as well but nowhere near as extreme.    All moisture falling from the sky was appreciated.


BETTER NEWS:
     The Quinta is happily receiving the rains that should be falling now.   The seasonal drought that always seems to surprize the populace has been replaced by seasonal rains that equally surprize the populace.   One can envision, without having to be there, old Prince standing in the downpour, trying to catch the big raindrops with his sloppy, floppy tougue.


There is a lot of good news on the social order front.   We have had a period of calm in the Victoria area.    I am accused of being a cheerleader for insanity, so I shan't belabour the point beyond to say that the day will be carried by the military and by those who are in solidarity with courage, nobility of purpose, and who attempt to comply with the task of building rather than tearing down.


More  later.   Thanks for your attention.
El Gringo Viejo

Comments to an Inquiry

     Several up-State and out of the area people asked about the news out of the Falcon International Reservoir, Starr & Zapata Counties of Texas concerning a skirmish between the Mexican military and the members of the modern organized international delinquency.      These are some of my responses.....

The skirmish was between a large band of pseudo "Zeta" gang members....about 30 of them ....that had been surprized up against  small peninsula of an island jutting into Falcon Lake.   The Naval Infantry had been conducting very active measures in that area....gradually forcing straggler thugs with their drug and marijuana packages.....several tons.... onto smaller and smaller piece of ground.   The Naval Infantry had brought some of their light tactical rubber attack craft up to the only area where the thugs could attempt an escape with their cumbersome "panga" commercial fishing boats, powered by 25 horsepower Yamahas, maximum speed 12 knots.   The Navy's craft, though not sleek looking, are built for pursuit and  are powered by one 200 horsepower Yamaha, and can attain speeds over  35 knots.

      The thugs had been observed by high-level aerial surveillance during the night,     In the morning the Navy helicopters  came in with the heavy infantry unit....about 30 men.   They engaged the thugs...then called in Mexican Army reinforcements to cut of an angle of retreat....and to counteract the effects of a 50 millimeter  recoilless rifle....quite a devastating weapon...The reinforcements numbered three platoons of light infantry, or about 90 soldiers.

       Unfortunately one Naval Infantryman was killed.    Final count of the thugs was 18 dead, 4 wounded, and 10 captured.    These are the (pseudo) ZETAs who pride themselves with literally butchering people and leaving their dismembered bodies around in public.   Their actions are unspeakable, sub-human, and their only deserved path is to be obliterated.    These 18 received better than they deserved.

   They replaced the original ZETA deserters from the 1990's who are all now either dead or in some Mexican or American prison.   They bonded and intertwined with the Mara  Salvatrucha 13 from Central America, a group which required that a prospective member murder his mother as she watched him do it, preferably by knife, before that individual could be inducted into the group.     

      The Sheriff of Zapata County complained to the local press yesterday that the Naval Infantry should have told him that they were going to conduct military actions..."because I had a lot of people here on this side for Mother's Day....and they might have been scared if they had heard something."   The operations were 9 miles away, on the other side of  Falcon  Lake.  I really do not have any knowledge as to why the good Sheriff might not have been informed by  the Naval Infantry .  

     Anyway, there it is.    All American press reports take elements of the truth about this matter (these matters), and then publish things that leave substantial false understanding of the issues at hand.    Their handling of this story was close, and yet so far away.     (no banana)  

      My information is normally  gathered from four or five sources that have proven to be around 97% accurate during these past few months.   Some are readily accessible through somewhat disgusting drug-war related sites and some is drawn from personal informants.

      And .......That was my message, amended very slightly six or seven times so as to be forwarded to some inquiries on a more personalized basis to each respondent.  Remember that I will do my best to give travel information, or almost any other advice as requested.   Remember also......free advice is worth every penny of it.

Hasta mas al rato,

El Gringo Viejo    

Special News for OROGs

El Gringo Viejo informs his public of the lamentable and heart-wrenching news  that he has withdrawn his favoured presence from the Facebook service.    We are aware of the high number of young women who have taken poison and/or slashed their wrists under the faucets of their bathroom lavatory, as well as some of America's finest young men sprawled on the sidewalks below their 30th floor apartments on Park Avenue in Manhattan......not to mention all the little people who will be perhaps totally psychologically impaired for the duration of their miserable, insignificant, little lives.     But, such are the costs of a life such as mine.  

     It was, after all, troubling that I could arrive upon my own personal "homepage" and find tout le monde esconced there....advertizers, lonely hearts...not talking to me....but talking between themselves.   Persistent attempts to join in the merry-making, and commiserating always resulted in the same outcome.     Nobody ever responded.
       It said up the corner...."El Gringo Viejo".....it was where my page went when I entered my email and password....It said, in various places.... the home page of El Gringo Viejo.    But alas....I was a stranger in my own land.   Two responses from my daughter....one from a friend of hers.....and couple of cranky "Why do you want to know why my boyfriend is rebuilding that old pick-up".....I mean, how does one start a conversation with a niece with whom one has not had any contact for 30 years?    "Hi! Sweetie!".....???    And besides that, just exactly why was I trolling around on my own Facebook page?
      My Old Best Friend...Robinson Crusoe....from high school days and thereafter wrote me yesterday about some spam emanating from my Facebook page....we made a pact....and yesterday early in the evening, we both jumped off the Chattahoochee Bridge....just a couple of old Viet Nam  era veterans (Robinson Crusoe much more than The Old Gringo), leaving life without Facebook to escort us into the journey to Eternity. (my ankles are still painful....we forgot to see if there was any water in the River)


  You can see what could have been our last view of our times on this Earth to the left.    Thanks for the memories.  I appreciate your time and attention to this matter as we attempt to adjust to  LIFE AFTER FACEBOOK.


The Old Gringo

Continuing Tug of War

This public announcement is appearing, well-printed on large canvas sheets with brass rivets, hanging off of bridges and other structures in areas of high pedestrian and/or vehicular traffic in the two States of the Republic mentioned below.   First in Spanish and  then below, I have rendered an humble attempt to translate the matter into the English language.

"Los ciudadanos sabemos quiénes son Los Zetas. No se molesten en colocar mantas justificando sus acciones cobardes, en las que quieren hacer creer que sus emociones son diferentes. Los ciudadanos sabemos quiénes son los del CDG y quiénes son Los Zetas. Nos queda claro que si Los Zetas matan a sus propios amigos, que esperamos nosotros como ciudadanos de Nuevo León y Tamaulipas. No se molesten Lazcano y Z 40 en justificar sus acciones. Atte. Ciudadanos Unidos"

"The citizens, we know whoso are the Zetas.    Do not bother yourselves by hanging (placing) announcement banners justifiying your cowardly actions, in which you wish to make us believe that your emotions (reasonings) are different from what they are.   The citizens, we know whoso are the Cartel del Golfo and whoso are The Zetas.     It remains clear to us that if The Zetas kill their own friends, then what do we hope for as plain citizens of Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas States?    Do not bother yourselves Lazcano (leader in the Cartel del Golfo) y Z 40  (fortieth leader of the Zeta Cartel)  to justify your actions.

Attentively,

United Citizens

      These are the new "hangings" being placed in public view throughout the two adjacent States above named.   It would seem that the increased effectiveness of the military and the stiffening of resolve by the common man is beginning to solder a steel force.   These are a bit larger than small steps that are helping to move us on to a brighter day.   Very encouraging.

          The Old Gringo has been surprized during  the past few days to actually see "the other side of the story" about the actual situation in Mexico.   Even in some cases a couple of transmissions have been a bit too "Pollyanna", quite frankly.   The thing is that some dumboe reporter (I know, it's redundant all over again) will go to some place in the Yucatan or in Guanajuato or in the Baja or in various of  many places in the vast majority of the square mileage of what is the Republic of Mexico and say something like "So there you have it, Marguarita Onnice and her live-in Boyfriend SpungeBill Beerblotter have lived here in San Miquel de Allende for fifteen years and aren't leaving.   There is no crime here and every day is mid-Spring and the Corona half/liters cost the equivalent of 19 American cents." 

       Once again all of that is pretty much true, but the beer costs 31 cents, especially with the weaker dollar, there is a bit of crime here and there....but nothing serious in terms of amount or severity, especially against Gringos....every day might or might not have a monster thunderstorm with hail and lightning knocking out the electrical service for 12 hours (increasingly rare)....in short, no place is a perfect facsimile of Heaven.   Many places are truly almost idyllic....if one prepares himself, has a little money, expects little, appreciates the incredible Mexican civilities, and likes lots of different kinds of good food & libation, different people coming and going,  good food & libations, and has a decent place to hide when he really does not wish to be bothered.   I forgot to mention the good food and libations.

       It helps to have SKY-TV.....even the basic-plus is excellent for the price.   A list of things to make it so you really do not want to leave would be something like the following:

A good auto mechanic  (best if his neighbours, compadres, brothers-in-law, and close friends are auto repair specialists in air-conditioning, suspension, tune-up, window replacement, etc. etc. etc.)(relatively abundant)
o

A good tire repairman (abundant)
o 

           A good small appliance repairman(abundant)
o

           A good large appliance repairman(abundant)
o 

           An exceptionally good mayordomo (somewhat rare)
o

           An exceptionally good ama de llaves (chambermaid/cook)(common)
o

            Excellent to tolerable neighbours (common)
o

           A really decent bar with no drunks, with a good sports/news tele (common)
o

      A good old-fashioned assortment of chaotic Mexican bazaar-type markets for kitchen and meal preparation notions (abundant)
o

A really nice Gringo-style grocery store, like Soriana, HEB, Gran-D (common)
o

A confidable shrimp, oyster, & seafood purveyor (common)
o

Two each of an excellent 2nd class diner, a 1st class restaurant, and a couple of high-end  hootsy-tootsy deluxe places, for every now and then (abundant)
o

For the veterans, two or three of the sidewalk taco stands once they are recommended by friends or reliable locals.   Stunning quality food, cheap.   Many are very clean and everything is done in front of the client.
ooooo

     All of these thoughts come from various recent and and even long-past  meetings and encounters with Gringos/as who live in Mexico on a full-time or significant part-time basis.     I have been searching for quite a while for  the common denominator that would explain our nuttiness.   All of the above are mentioned, almost always.   Each Gringo/a has to provide the theatre's stage.....beach area, mountains, archaeological site abundance, historical imperatives, art centers, sixteen bars adjacent to one another requirement.... or whatever else.    It might surprize even Fox News people, that the most common Mexophile tends to vote Republican.....about 60 - 40.


This will finish it for to-day, probably.   More will effuse should there be an earthquake or if a flying saucer crashes nearby, otherwise, you all are safe from me for a while.  
Thank you for your attention, as always.
El Gringo Viejo,
Director de Operaciones
OROG

A Little More Celebration - editted and improved/ editted and improved again

     New news from the Quinta Tesoro de la Sierra Madre is going to encourage everyone who follows this screed....especially those who have spent time as guests  with us.       The big, repeatedly stressed and tortured avocado tree that sits off of the south end of the "long west-facing corridor" has really done yeoman's service in producing a considerable harvest.    Barring some kind of a windstorm or an attack by Superpossum....we should have a middling crop of avocados that appear to be of high quality.   None of this will be cup-to-lip until late June at the earliest (more probably mid-July), but it is some small but significant thing for the Old Gringo....(aka: Gringo Viejo).

      Two other things....one about public schooling (please remember that the Gringo Viejo and all his family are public school products, have many degrees, and have taught in public schools, both at secondary and University level), and the other about chisme (gossip).

     The easy one is chisme....one of the great Mexican national sports.   On the 2nd of May, there was another of the stupid public national holidays...the Day of the Child.     All these "holidays" are simply commercialization of things that should be practiced daily, hourly, and by the minute by all people who have even the most basic catechism.   In any regard, there were Children's Fiestas arranged by labour unions, State and local governments, fraternal orders, etc. all around the country.   In our locale there were two held, one in our own little "ejido" (rural community).   The word went out towards the end of the day....after the children and families had availed themselves of the little mechanical car rides, the food and drinks, and the general party atmospherics, that all the goodies had been provided by your friendly local drug cartel bosses.

      This news was received with a bit of a shudder by those of us who try to keep up with such things.    But then, a little checking, and guess what?   It turned out that some young punks who think of themselves as gang-members spread the word as a joke.....something akin to spiking the punch in American terms.    The girlfriend of one of the punks, escorted by her mother and father, turned him in by telling the six or seven official Gossipers Committee members, who promptly began to employ the telewoman communication system that functions so well in the Ejido Francisco I. Madero.  

       The Old Gringo knows that this is true because one of the senior members of the Sindicato  de Chismonas de la Republica Mexicana, Local No. 11545   
(National Gossipers' Union of the Mexican Republic, Local 11545), is Alvaro's sister.   He and she do not mix well at all, so if he is giving her some consideration as a source, it is very probable that everything being written here is true. 

      That was (1).   The next topic,  (2) is also about unions ...but this time real unions.   El Sindicato de Trabajadores en la Educacion Publica de la Republica Mexicana, Estado de Tamaulipas, STEPRM has been in one long drawn-out dispute with consituted authority since its incorporation as an active part of the "Institutional Revolution" of the old PRI sixty years ago.  

      Those of us who deal with matters Mexican used to have to smile wryly when "authorities", both left and right, in the United States would point to the fact that "Mexico has no labour unions or protections for the working people".     The fact was and is that one of the biggest contributors to the mis-treatment of the Mexican labouring class was and still is to an extent, the incredibly powerful and corrupt labour unions.     All labour unions in Mexico stem from their foundation in the Workers of the World movement....a marxist group from the late 1890's.   The infamous Flores Magon brothers  were vanguards of the Bolshevik-inspired labour movement.   They anchored much of what was  then radical social thought and their followers inserted their initiatives into the intellectual leadership of the Mexican Revolution of 1910 - 1917.
      Much of the intent of the communist element in the post-revolutionary was embodied in the Constitution of 1917, which required that all labour eventually be folded into the governing party....the Partido Revolucionario Institutional.    The central of three pillars of the PRI was the Confederacion de Trabajadores Mexicanos (CTM) which for years demagogued labour issues and also siphoned billions and billions of dollars worth of union dues and tax money into local labour union leaders'  personal private foreign accounts.
      Other related but semi-independent nation-wide unions, like the Petroleum Workers, Stevedores, and Teachers Unions were equally politicized and corrupt.    The arrogance and level of their corruption is legendary and demogoguic to almost supernatural levels.      
        Huge industrial bulwarks in Mexico trembled at the merest flick of a finger of local, corrupt union bosses everywhere in Mexico for three score years before the establishment,  finally in the 1980's,  of competing, non-Partido Revolucionario Institutional (PRI) integrant unions.  The new labour organizations, as well as company sponsored independent "white unions"   were allowed to exist, by means of a ruling of the Corte Supremo de la Nacion.     Since that time there has been significant improvement in labour - management relations. 

      In any regard, the locals of the  Tamaulipas State's teachers' union are always having "slowdowns"...."special teachers' conference days", marches, demonstrations, letter writing campaigns, etc.   The teachers have thousands of complaints....most of them detailed and very personal in nature.    Of course, the scores of the primaries and secondaries which for years had been much higher than Texas schools at a similar grade....steadily went into the septic tank, especially during the past four years.   All public schools, primary, secondary, preparatory, rural, urban....all of them went to the devil.      This, of course, after a doubling in the last three years of the budget (with a strong peso, to boot).     The number of Guercos (urchins) in the schools is diminishing slowly, due to the ever slowing production of new, replacement Mexicans.....so the increase in expenditures-per-urchin is even more intense....but to no avail.   Less than half of the urchins are performing at level.    In the 1950's it was 90 per cent performed at or above grade level.....when they were pouring over 90 dollars a year per student into the effort,   (In  Mexico City it was 113 dollars).  The previous sentence is a bit of combined sarcasm and sardonic commentary skillfully blended together as only a professional blowhard can.

        It is pretty clear that Tamaulipas is falling dreadfully behind everyone....other public systems, all private schools, in other words, a disaster.  The only exception in Tamaulipas is their   University system where there are numerous students who "almost qualified" for places in the prestige universities (Monterrey Tech, University of Nuevo Leon, etc.) and over-educated professors who arrived from various big cities around the world to escape urban life.

      One of the things  uninvolved observers point out is that the other States, save Oaxaca (totally communist university environment ....and I mean hammer and sickle communist), have less, little, or none in terms of Union stridency and anguish.

     So, the governor of the State of Tamaulipas has made it his number two priority (Number one is the security issue) to reduce the influence of the  Teachers' Union and to re-instate the teaching and accomplishment method....with the old discipline....and to forget about union politics and "teaching to the tests".   There is a movement to return to the old idea that the only test that counts is the semester grade after averaging each six-weeks and the final exam.     Fred Flintstone and I agree with this approach.

      Anyway....that is what is going on around these precincts.    We shall await comments and questions, as usual and respond to everyone....although my schedule is a little less predictable during the next few days.    We are in our last days of our exposure to Jury Call and we have a university graduation to attend in Central Texas.....lots of driving around.    Send gasoline.     And thanks for your interest and involvement.    

El Gringo Viejo      

Some Cause to Celebrate

    The Usama bin Ladin thing is pretty much big news south of the border.   Among the things bringing it up to the top half of the front page is the fact that about 100 Mexican citizens were killed at the twin tower disaster.   Another several were killed in the other two airplanes that went down.   There was a bit of karma, therefore, when a boy born of parents from Guajajuato, Guanajuato, was one of those who stormed the compound in Pakistan and participated in removing one of the stalking disciples of Satan from this life.

His parents, who were legal immigrants into the United States, had quite a scare yesterday, however. This is their conversation with a Mexican news service from this morning.

       En esa acción participó, el soldado Rubén Mejía, nacido en Estados Unidos, sus padres son originarios de Guanajuato, México. El joven fue ascendido a sargento gracias al operativo realizado contra Bin Laden y solo presentó algunos golpes, además ya recibió felicitaciones por parte de Barack Obama, quien espera reunirse muy pronto con los 20 nuevos héroes.       "Hace unas horas mi familia fue estremecida cuando vieron llegar a una decena de oficiales del ejército a nuestra casa, y cuando tocaron la puerta nuestra familia se estremeció y empezaron a llorar porque ya se creía en malas noticias. Los soldados nos traían una bandera de Estados Unidos doblada y cuando vieron que empezábamos a llorar nos aclararon que era un reconocimiento y un honor el traernos la bandera porque nuestro hijo había cumplido una gran misión por la nación”, mencionó Martín Mejía, padre de Rubén.

      

      "In this action the soldier Ruben Mejia, born in the United States of parents who are from Guanajuato, Guanajuato, Mexico* participated.     The young man was promoted to sergeant today due to his participation in the operation against bin Ladin, and furthermore he only suffered a few bruises, and as well he received personal felicitations from the President Barak Obama, who declared that he hoped to meet very soon with the 20 (?) new heroes.

     "Just a few hours ago,   my family really stressed out when they saw a ten-count  of uniformed military officers come to the door and were knocking ....the family really stressed-out, some started crying because at that point they thought they were receiving bad news.     The soldiers were bringing us an American Flag all folded,  and when they saw that we had all started crying, they clarified everything by stating that they had brought the flag as a recognition and an honor because our son had complied in a grand mission for the Nation." mentioned Martin Mejia, the father of Ruben.
*(further research finds that Ruben's parents are legal immigrants to the United States)

     The article was accompanied by the obligatory pictures of UbL with his head blown apart....and a peculiarly dark beard again.     Such images will be spared you all.

Tomorrow, some ideas about how to cure all the problems again.
The Old Gringo