Tag Archives: CNN

You’re Safe in the Yucatan – A Real Life Example

Life in the Yucatan, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Let’s see the North American newspapers print something about THIS.

Yesterday, when returning along the Cancun highway from Izamal after a hard day of eating tacos at Wayan’e, visiting antique shops and visiting the yellow city of Izamal, I passed a car parked on the side of the highway just in front of a state police truck, lights a-flashing as usual.

Glancing back in my rear-view mirror I noticed two white people and a pile of suitcases next to the car and thought to myself “these folks could probably use a little assistance” and upon returning to the scene, found a mother and daughter pair of Canadians who were stuck there and had been for the last 3 hours.

SPV heroes taking care of our visitors thank you very much. Publish this, CBC!

Turns out their rental vehicle – a crappy little Nissan Tsuru – had caught fire (literally, there were flames coming out of the motor) and they had to abandon the vehicle before a good Samaritan in a BMW stopped with an extinguisher and put it out. Also, villagers and passers by offered water for the now red-faced (from the sun) Canadians. Things were friendly enough but the state police folks wouldn’t let them go until the federal police showed up to take over the situation (the Cancun-Merida highway is a federal highway) and make sure everything was hunky dory. The state police had already contacted the feds, but three patrol cars had already driven by and none had stopped; meanwhile the rental folks back in Cancun had told CanadaMom and daughter that someone was coming, but of course as they had no office in Merida, this might be a while. Needless to say, Mom was a little tense but they were good sports about it and had been talking about food and recipes with the policemen who were reluctant to leave the scene or the ladies.

After talking to the rental agent in Cancun and telling him where his rental car was and where his customers would be to get them another vehicle, and then the police assuring them that everything would be fine and the ladies were coming with me, I loaded them all into the car and away we went.

They assured me that they at no point felt unsafe or threatened in any way; just frustrated with the pace of the resolution of their situation. Let’s see the North American newspapers print this story!

Lessons learned:

1) Rent your car from an agency that is established and has offices in both Merida and Cancun in case something like this ever happens to you. It’s an unlikely scenario, but it can happen.

2) If your rental car catches fire in Mexico, make sure you are in the Yucatan, the safest state in the country.

Glad I am not the only one…and Mr. Bloomberg’s Comments

Nada que Ver, Politics, , , , ,

I am glad to not be the only person to be more than a little worried about Israel’s heavy handed, politically-motivated response to the cowardly Hamas idiots who insist on firing missiles at Israel and then hiding among women and children. They (Hamas) must be so proud of themselves now.

That said, it is a sad day for humanity when the elephant, finally tiring of the needle pricks constantly being inflicted on it’s backside by a a few rogue elements in the cage they have built for their neighbors, decide to run amok and destroy the entire contents of that cage. Imagine all the inhabitants, scurrying from one place to another within in that cage, with no place to hide, being systematically trampled by the enraged and completely deranged elephant.

New York City mayor (and aspiring presidential candidate, according to some rumors out there) Michael Bloomberg, in a statement that can only be described as sucking up to his considerable Jewish constituency, maintains that the Israeli offensive is justifiable (I would suggest understandable but not justifiable) and the international law that prohibits this kind of blanket violence, citing the vast disproportionality, is irrelevant, once again showing how obtuse some Americans are, thinking that they are somehow above any silly international law.

His analogy, delivered in a CNN interview after a visit to Israel, which he may have though of himself, goes like this (and I quote): “if you’re in your apartment and some emotionally disturbed person is banging on the door screaming ‘I’m gonna come through this door and kill you” do you want us to respond with one police officer which is proportional or with all the resources at our command?” If you can hear this, note how condescending the tone of his voice becomes as he says this, as if he is talking to some 4 years olds who up until that moment, could not possibly fathom the depth of his understanding of the problem.

Well Mr. Bloomberg, it’s a good analogy but a stupid conclusion. In a situation like that, I would hope you would send in as many police officers as you thought necessary to apprehend and detain this emotionally disturbed person, not sent in a a unit of the 21st Airborne to bomb the entire building and kill the emotionally disturbed person’s entire family, as well as a few neighbors and probably destroy the building, thereby also weakening the structure in which your apartment resides as well.

Maybe Mr. Bloomberg should concentrate on New York City’s more pressing problems as a city and not go around offering such idiotic opinions on international events.

I apologize to those looking for light-hearted comments on the sanitary installations of the local bus terminal here in Merida; I promise there will be more of that soon! I just couldn’t resist commenting when I heard this on the news. And be forewarned: there will be some upcoming criticism of Mr. Obama’s cabinet selections as well, so you might want to avoid coming around in the next few weeks.

🙂