Don’t know much about history, or so the song goes.
I don’t know much about the Gaza blockade, but it sounds like a real piece of work coming from a people who suffered a holocaust.
Also a great way to Win Friends and Influence People on the international stage.
Happy Hanukkah, people!
If you have a blog, like this one (OK not as neurotic but anyway) you might have been getting neutral to positive comments from one-name readers. I know I have. Just posted the second one. Then I clicked on the name associated with the posting and lo and behold, it lead to the same insurance blog that another comment-poster led to a few days ago.
Seems like this is yet another sneaky way of getting traffic on a blog full of ads.
Has anyone else noticed this?
I know, I know: this blog is supposed to be about life in Merida, but I don’t have enough political savvy or material to dedicate an entire blog to politics, so you will have to bear with me as I unburden myself – politically – here. And before you get your knickers in a twist, you should remember that this is my personal opinion and you have every right to go read something else, like the Fox News website if you are so inclined.
My Better Half and I watched the elections in the U.S. of A. last night and as the western states were announced as ‘blue’ we were overwhelmed with emotion. Seeing the Obama family on stage, the emotional crowds in Chicago and Times Square and even in Kenya brought a tear to this cynic’s eyes.
People I talked to here in Merida prior to the election said that Obama would never win, because the Americans would never elect a ‘black’ man as their president, which highlights not only how little they think of the U.S. but also how superficial their analysis was as well.
Personally, I have never considered Obama as the ‘black’ candidate, although to look at him, you could be convinced that it might be true; there is a hint of something African about him. To me, Obama was more about the man; an extremely smart, young, family man with an intelligent wife who projected to me a more international outlook on the world and seemed to have the desire and the ability to negotiate not only with political opponents but also with world leaders with whom he may or may not agree. A radical departure from the ‘shoot first’, ‘first strike’, ‘fuck the rest of the planet’ mentality of the last eight years.
McCain, upon conceding the election, made probably the best speech I have heard him make in this campaign. Passionate, articulate and not at all derogatory, the latter which I almost suspected after the B.S. that was thrown around in obvious desperation during the final months in the race for the presidency. I almost felt sorry for him, hopelessly trying to contend not only with the Bush doctrine legacy which effectively condemned anyone running under the Republican banner and campaigning with the albatross from Alaska that probably cost him a lot of electoral votes.
A few of my friends in the U.S. are alarmed by the election of Obama to be their president. They seem to think that some calamitous fate awaits them, as if it was the 1970’s, the country was Chile, they were Allende supporters and Pinochet had just been elected. For the life of me I can’t understand their fears. Is it their great egoistic fear that taxes will increase?
What could Obama possibly do that has these people so afraid? What could possibly be worse than assuring that your children will be in debt for decades to come? Worse than having your country despised and ridiculed around the world? Worse than sending your (poor neighbors) kids off to die in Iraq and Afghanistan all the while complacently destroying the planet? Or is it something deeper, dare I mention, racist?
Many Americans live in a make-believe world, where it is their god-given right to have everything they want whenever they want it, cost be damned. Massive environmental damage in “third world” countries? Who cares if it means cheap gas. Dictators torturing their citizens for demanding democracy? Hey as long as we get cheap toys at Walmart, who cares.
Time to wake up U.S.A. – and rejoin the global community! This is an important first step.
Enhorabuena!
Now that the musical-loving Better Half is back home, I accompanied her to see the one movie I didn’t see during my marathon movie week, Mamma Mia.
Meryl Streep is great as usual, the rest of the cast is alright in a campy, overacted kind of way, the storyline is corny but the scenery is great.
And they all sing, even Pierce Brosnan. Ugh.
What can I say, I don’t care for musicals. I prefer my acting straight, without the bursting into song. I distinctly remember watching Evita with Antonio Banderas and suffering every song-filled moment.
And with that, I hereby bring to a close the movie marathon week postings!
Being as the rest of the family is dispersed around the globe and I am home alone, I have dedicated the last week or so to watching mostly crappy movies. In the cine and at home.
There are a lot of movie theaters in Merida but like everywhere else, they like to all show the same movies at the same time. And with the price of a pirate DVD in el centro running around $20 pesos ($2.00 USD) there are fewer and fewer bums in seats these days. There is not a lot to choose from in the cine since the movies that make it to Merida are mostly formulaic pictures that theater owners are convinced Mexican audiences will want to see. Here are some of the highlights and lowlights I watched during the two week period (they change 2-4 movies from their lineup every Friday here in Merida):
Babylon, A.D. (Mision Babilonia)
Yet another Vin Diesel movie that I would never take my wife to see, this one features that occasionally watchable actor with the rough voice in his cliche role – the tough, cynical guy whose heart grows three sizes that day thanks to an innocent girl. Aww. Lots of insane violence, crappy chase scenes in snowy environments where you can’t make out what’s happening, a pessimistic future and the unknown actress playing the heart-warming innocent. Appearances by Michelle Yeoh who does some kung fu (surprise!) and even Gerard Depardieu, who obviously had rent payments to make when he signed on to make this dud. Bad bad bad. Don’t even rent this one.
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Bangkok Dangerous (Peligro en Bangkok)
After the Vin Diesel fiasco, this movie came out the next week and I thought, Nic Cage can’t be all that bad right?
Wrong.
Directed by the Pang brothers who have a long road ahead of them before reaching Coen brother status, this shows Nic Cage at his worst, walking through the blandest movie with lots of graphic violence and a cast of paper cut out oriental actors. Of all the Thai women in the world, Nic falls for the most insipid of them all, while his newly acquired sidekick couldn’t act his way out of a paper bag. Bad bad bad. Avoid at all costs.
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Eagle Eye (Control Total)
In spite of the fact that the cinema had no poster for this movie, no reseña (a little blurb explaining what the movie is all about) I looked it up on the internet and found that it had Shia WhateverHisLastNameIs in it and decided what the hell.
Oh surprise. This is an excellent action thriller kind of movie; kind of like a Bourne movie. Excellent action sequences and Shia is convincing as the main character, as is Michelle Monaghan.
If you liked the Jason Bourne movies, you will like this one.
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Arrancame La Vida
OK I am desperate and feeling particularly tolerant. I will go see this movie that normally I would never bother to give the time of day. People talk about the nuevo cine mexicano all the time so maybe I should check this film out, made in 2008 and based on the novel of the same name by Angeles Mastretta.
Do you enjoy Mexican soap operas? Then you may like this plodding movie, full of one-dimensional cardboard characters that leave no mark at all on this viewer. The film takes place in Puebla and Mexico City in the 30’s and 40’s and miraculously the main character, a poor girl who becomes the wife of an older politician and first lady of a state (classic soap opera plotline) doesn’t age a bit during her transition from virginal 15 year old to a woman in her late 20’s near the end. Oh well.
Nuevo Cine Mexicano – it’s Mexicano and it’s Cine, but there is nothing Nuevo about this pablum.
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On TV, I was able to watch a plethora of horrendous movies, one of which was Kevin Bacon’s latest revenge movie, filled with arms being ripped off and blood spurting here and there; what is Kevincito buying these days that he has to be making this shit to pay for it?
The best movie on TV was Rendition, with Jake Gyllenhall and Reese Witherspoon, which will put the fear of Allah in you if you travel to the US of A, land of the free and all that. Excellent movie, that.
And so I conclude my movie post this morning; hopefully some of you will take my advice and avoid some of those Raspberry Award candidates and save yourself some money.
Speaking of money, MM Cinemas, who are based in Monterrey, have bought out the Yucatecan movie chain Cines Hollywood and have made a few changes. One new feature penny pinchers might be interested in is their MM Card, which is like a frequent flier card, where you collect points/pesos for going to the movies and buying stuff in their dulceria. It will set you back $20 pesos and for that you get a coupon for a small popcorn ($23 peso value) as well as a discount ticket for any showing on a Monday (instead of $50 pesos you will pay $33 pesos). Each time you buy a movie ticket on a regular day, you get another of these discount Monday tickets. Pretty cool.
Links:
Movies on now in Merida
A quickie (post) this morning.
I was snooping around Facebook and saw that one of my online contacts from Tabasco had joined a group that is called:
which is a group dedicated to banning the art of this Guillermo fellow who apparently killed a dog in the name of art.
Now this group, created in 2007 on Facebook, has over 21,000 members!
Just for laughs, I looked up Padrino Fonseca, who is the beloved Tabasco journalist shot to death a few days ago while putting up signs that said ‘No More Violence’. Really, it’s true, I am not making this up.
The Facebook group just created with him as it’s subject had 21 members this morning. Now it has 22. 🙂
Then I thought, well that’s not fair, this event just happened. So I looked for groups with the words ‘Iraq Victims’ in them. There are quite a few pages for groups that come up, including “Hillary 08” and “Let’s Put George W. Bush’s face on Mt. Rushmore”. Really. But the ones that were about Iraqui Victims of the war, numbered in the hundreds of members. Not much interest there.
There’s something about cruelty to animals that brings out some really strong reactions while cruelty to other humans seems somehow to cause less of a reaction.
While there seems to be a lot of respect for John McCain, as evidenced by one reader’s comment on the previous post, he has done an admirable job of beating the war drums and completely modifying many of his previously held positions on many subjects, including the power and influence held and exercised by Washington lobbyists and controversial subjects such as torture. It seems he is making an all out effort to appease everyone across the board.
Barack Obama has also done some of this, but I find his response to the Iran missile tests a little more comforting and hopeful, in that should he be elected, we might find the US once again acting as a part of the international community. Here is his response:
Sen. Barack Obama: “Part of what we have to do is get the Europeans, the Chinese, the Russians, all to recognize that it’s in nobody’s interests, including Iran’s, I believe, to have a nuclear weapon that could trigger a nuclear arms race in the region. And that’s something that I intend to make a number one priority when I’m in the White House, making sure they don’t have that nuclear capability.”
Sen. John McCain: “It’s time for action. And it’s time to make the Iranians understand that this kind of violation of international treaties, this kind of threatening of their neighbors, this kind of continued military activity, is
not without cost.”After Iran’s recent long-range missile tests, presumably in response to all the Bush government rhetoric about that evil country’s presumed intentions, Republican presidential candidate John McCain came up with this convincing response.
Hmm. Let’s see. What if we inserted another world leader as the author of the quote, referring to (gasp!) the United States?
Violation of international treaties… Geneva anyone? Others include:
- Laws and Customs of War on Land (Hague IV)
- U.N. General Assembly Resolution 3314
- Nuremberg Tribunal Charter
- 1972 Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention
Threatening their neighbors…. how about countries all around the globe, from Latin America to Asia to ?
Continuing military activity… Iraq, Chile, Venezuela, Afghanistan, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Grenada, Haiti, Fiji, Liberia, Chad, South Korea…
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24958259/
Above, is what set me off this morning! Sorry to all my gringo readers, it must seem like I am picking on y’all.
Is it possible that the USA is becoming more diplomatic?
After directly invading Iraq, Afghanistan, Grenada, Vietnam, et al., and directly getting involved with the internal politics of countless nations, it seems the USA is getting diplomatic in the case of Burma aka Myanmar.
The military junta that ‘rules’ this unfortunate group of human beings that were cursed only by the locations of their mother’s vagina when they emerged onto the scene, has denied most foreign aid organizations access to the country to provide emergency help in the form of food, supplies, medicines and doctors; all those things that post-hurricane would be so very helpful in helping people actually NOT DIE.
The USA deemed that it somehow needed permission on this occasion to ‘invade’ yet another country with whom they are in disagreement and having been denied it, is retiring it’s help-laden ships from the coastline in front of Burma aka Myanmar.
Imagine how the world’s opinion of the USA in general and the little man at the top himself could have been positively affected had there been a literal ‘invasion’ of food, medicine and supplies by the USA, overriding the idiots in charge in Burma and to actually save the lives of those that are suffering. Supplies, food and medicines, nothing else. No soldiers, no people on the ground.
Instead, they are asking permission to an internationally despised military junta. What – this junta has weapons of mass destruction and might actually use them? Or is the fact that there is no known oil reserve there that will warrant such an incursion, however humanitarian? Now that the junta has said no and again no, the generals and admirals and L’il Georgie shrug their shoulders and say ‘gee we really wanted to help, but they won’t let us”.
This is so pathetic it makes me sick. Diplomatic indeed. Whatever happened to the shining beacon on the hill, the leader of the free world. Pathetic pathetic pathetic.