I wonder if maybe you're hearing these reports because you live in a state that borders Mexico. I admit that I'm not a big news hound and don't read/watch the national news all the time, so I might have missed it, but I've heard nothing like what you're describing.
I've seen plenty of what P-Mosh is talking about - living in San Diego - also a border city with Tijuana - although I think that the implementation of the Maquiladoras helped out a lot in cross border transactions.
P-Mosh I'd be glad to have a phone conversation with you - but I won't post in detail here or the various factions of the amnesty thread will descend on me from both sides.
I wonder if maybe you're hearing these reports because you live in a state that borders Mexico. I admit that I'm not a big news hound and don't read/watch the national news all the time, so I might have missed it, but I've heard nothing like what you're describing.
I do live in Texas, but some of it has been on the national level. Part of my annoyance stems from the fact that I have a coworker who constantly bombards me with anti-Mexico emails and speeches. His parents came from Mexico, and like many Mexican-Americans, he basically hates the nation of Mexico and is happy to find fault with every minute detail. Since I like going there, and my wife is from there, I get annoyed by it. It may just be a combination of where I live and who I have to deal with at work.
I've seen plenty of what P-Mosh is talking about - living in San Diego - also a border city with Tijuana - although I think that the implementation of the Maquiladoras helped out a lot in cross border transactions.
P-Mosh I'd be glad to have a phone conversation with you - but I won't post in detail here or the various factions of the amnesty thread will descend on me from both sides.
Based on what you've posted in that and other threads I have an idea of what your opinion is. :)
I never posted on that thread P-Mosh - nor on other threads about "the issue"
I got your post on the Sheriff Joe thread mixed up with that one. I've been catching up on reading things that interest me and the two sort of combined in my mind.
do live in Texas, but some of it has been on the national level.
Ive been hearing it and I live in Massachusetts, about as far away from Mexico as you can get and still be in the US.
Ive heard three or four times in the last month and a half or so that Mexico is on the verge of complete collapse....blah blah blah...drug cartels....danger...violence....chaos...people getting killed
The vacation money may be part of it but I think the immigration issue may be another.
The media has seemed pretty bent for awhile on planting the seed that just about every Mexican is a criminal, dangerous, and not to be trusted....
I honestly havent been paying that close of attention to the stories, I just heard them in passing. It may be worth noting where they are coming from to see if there is a political agenda pushing the stories.
I was just talking to a friend who got back from Mexico last week and he had a great time.....given the opportunity I'd move to Mexico in a minute, I have never had any problems there...
If you google Juarez, Mexico you will see horrbile crime rates and most of it is drug or prostition related. 2000 death as of last week in the last year. Women disappear frequently. It is the town right across from El Paso on the Texas border.
Active duty military stationed here in Arizona, have been ordered not to go to Mexico and Department of Defense civillians have been advised not to go down to Mexico.
If you google Juarez, Mexico you will see horrbile crime rates and most of it is drug or prostition related. 2000 death as of last week in the last year. Women disappear frequently. It is the town right across from El Paso on the Texas border.
I'm familiar with that, and my understanding is that thousands of women have disappeared from Juarez for years now.
In my experience the border has always been an unsafe area, but the rest of Mexico hasn't been too bad and still isn't. I don't see why the media here is portraying it as a national crisis there that is affecting everyone, when in reality it's more of a localized crisis like Hurricane Katrina was for us. It reeks of an ulterior motive, but I don't understand what the media has to gain.
I'll add my two cents as I live in CA. You are right as of the last month there has been a huge increase in OMG the sky is falling stories about Mexico and the drug wars.
I tend to take most of the news media stories with a grain of salt now as it seems to all stem from whatever is the latest hot topic.
Immigration being the current topic de jour.
We in CA are regularly bombarded with such stories and most of it is inaccurate. I won't even go into a commentary on the Texas border as I do not live there and I am sure there is more trouble at the borders as that is where people and drugs are trying to enter. but I can tell you most of the people I have met and know are quite delightful hard working and contrary to popular belief make much effort to learn the language. Most are very generous. The operative word here is MOST.
I live in Ohio and I've been hearing a lot about the problems in Mexico...much of it is word of mouth...
I'm not in a position to know where the facts end and the bulls **t begins. It seems there are definitely some escalating problems with the drug cartels in some areas...but does the media have an agenda to demonize Mexico?...seems unlikely to me.
I live in Texas and see it on the San Antonio stations all the time.
I think most of it is just the fact that blood sells on the news.
We use to go deep into Mexico all the time(600 miles). Central Mexico is a great place to visit and the people are great. Learn a few words of spanish and try to use them to be polite and the service you get will amaze you. The border areas I find are not near as friendly.
Mexico is no worse than inner areas of big cities.
I don't know if I completely agree with you about the media Groucho...I'm more inclined to agree with ex70s about blood selling. I think they have trained us well so that when we hear the phrase "illegal immigrant" we immediately think "Mexican." How trashed is that? On the news in San Diego they don't even bother mentioning ethnic or national background..."18 illegal immigrants were captured by the Border Patrol today" and no one needs to ask.
That is demonizing in my opinion. When you hear about the almost 400 Somali illegals busted at a meat packing plant in Nebraska (about a year or so ago) they are mentioned by national origin. When you hear about the almost 10,000 Haitian illegals in Miami they are mentioned by national origin. When you hear about the almost 1,000,000 illegal Asians along the Pacific coast they are mentioned as either Asian or Asian of mainly Chinese descent. (BTW that number of almost 1,000,000 varies enormously depending on who does the "study." If it is the Center for Chinese-American Justice you will hear numbers like a"a few hundred." If it is the Center for getting rid of anyone non-Caucasian you will hear numbers like 5,000,000 - so take those numbers with a grain or ten of salt).
My point is that we have been trained by the media that the term "illegal immigrant" is a code phrase for Mexican. Everyone else is mentioned by origin.
I believe that that is disgraceful - especially since of all nationalities mentioned above we only share a border with one...just utterly disgraceful.
It is so disgraceful that when I talk with the guys who keep the grounds here at my town home complex even THEY say they don't want to be like the "other Mexicans." Even THEY got trained. Now let me tell you about these guys. No - not illegals - Mexican citizens not holding green cards. They both live in Tijuana - get up at 3:30 AM EVERY Mon-Fri - two hour border crossing to be here at 7:30 AM. Work until 4:30 PM. Three hour drive back (another two hours at the border). That's a fifteen hour day. They work hard, are really friendly and actually quite cool to talk with. Fortunately with the Maquiladoras they get paid a US wage since they are employed by a US company in the US. Oh and just so you know that not everyone has been brainwashed...my complex as a lot of retired folks. They are always ready to hand out some ice water on a hot day, sandwiches often for lunch...not a charity thing...just being pleasant folks. They guys know that they can use my patio and picnic table for lunch without asking. We aren't all brainwashed by the David Duke mentality. It probably also helps that my complex is so multi-cultural that no one really cares where you came from or what you look like - so I suppose in that sense I am most fortunate. - just folks being nice to each other.
While I will admit there are escalating drug cartel problems in Mexico, I suspect there are in Cincinnati as well. While I admit that in ANY population you will have the bad ones we seem to make headlines with those - and not the guys who keep the grounds here.
I am so tired of hearing the phrase "illegal immigrant" automatically tied to Mexicans that when I hear it I usually mumble things that I cannot post on GSC - or I just leave the conversation. I rarely post on these threads because the concepts are fairly disgusting to me.
My $0.02 and worth at least a nickel...
It seems there are definitely some escalating problems with the drug cartels in some areas...but does the media have an agenda to demonize Mexico?...seems unlikely to me.
I live in Texas and see it on the San Antonio stations all the time.
I think most of it is just the fact that blood sells on the news.
I see it on the news here of course... but have never really had anything other than good experiences when traveling south of the border... when I see the reports on TV I almost always think "gee... they're a lot like us over here on this side of the border..."
...but I still won't get into a green beetle taxi!
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Linda Z
I wonder if maybe you're hearing these reports because you live in a state that borders Mexico. I admit that I'm not a big news hound and don't read/watch the national news all the time, so I might have missed it, but I've heard nothing like what you're describing.
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RumRunner
I've seen plenty of what P-Mosh is talking about - living in San Diego - also a border city with Tijuana - although I think that the implementation of the Maquiladoras helped out a lot in cross border transactions.
P-Mosh I'd be glad to have a phone conversation with you - but I won't post in detail here or the various factions of the amnesty thread will descend on me from both sides.
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Mister P-Mosh
I do live in Texas, but some of it has been on the national level. Part of my annoyance stems from the fact that I have a coworker who constantly bombards me with anti-Mexico emails and speeches. His parents came from Mexico, and like many Mexican-Americans, he basically hates the nation of Mexico and is happy to find fault with every minute detail. Since I like going there, and my wife is from there, I get annoyed by it. It may just be a combination of where I live and who I have to deal with at work.
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Mister P-Mosh
Based on what you've posted in that and other threads I have an idea of what your opinion is. :)
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RumRunner
I never posted on that thread P-Mosh - nor on other threads about "the issue"
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Mister P-Mosh
I got your post on the Sheriff Joe thread mixed up with that one. I've been catching up on reading things that interest me and the two sort of combined in my mind.
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mstar1
Ive been hearing it and I live in Massachusetts, about as far away from Mexico as you can get and still be in the US.
Ive heard three or four times in the last month and a half or so that Mexico is on the verge of complete collapse....blah blah blah...drug cartels....danger...violence....chaos...people getting killed
The vacation money may be part of it but I think the immigration issue may be another.
The media has seemed pretty bent for awhile on planting the seed that just about every Mexican is a criminal, dangerous, and not to be trusted....
I honestly havent been paying that close of attention to the stories, I just heard them in passing. It may be worth noting where they are coming from to see if there is a political agenda pushing the stories.
I was just talking to a friend who got back from Mexico last week and he had a great time.....given the opportunity I'd move to Mexico in a minute, I have never had any problems there...
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washn'wear
If you google Juarez, Mexico you will see horrbile crime rates and most of it is drug or prostition related. 2000 death as of last week in the last year. Women disappear frequently. It is the town right across from El Paso on the Texas border.
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Zshot
Just to add a couple of things...
Active duty military stationed here in Arizona, have been ordered not to go to Mexico and Department of Defense civillians have been advised not to go down to Mexico.
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coolchef
i live less than one mile from mexcio and there are no problems around here,mexcio maine that is!
just ask onioneater,he lives there!!
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Mister P-Mosh
I'm familiar with that, and my understanding is that thousands of women have disappeared from Juarez for years now.
In my experience the border has always been an unsafe area, but the rest of Mexico hasn't been too bad and still isn't. I don't see why the media here is portraying it as a national crisis there that is affecting everyone, when in reality it's more of a localized crisis like Hurricane Katrina was for us. It reeks of an ulterior motive, but I don't understand what the media has to gain.
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leafytwiglet
I'll add my two cents as I live in CA. You are right as of the last month there has been a huge increase in OMG the sky is falling stories about Mexico and the drug wars.
I tend to take most of the news media stories with a grain of salt now as it seems to all stem from whatever is the latest hot topic.
Immigration being the current topic de jour.
We in CA are regularly bombarded with such stories and most of it is inaccurate. I won't even go into a commentary on the Texas border as I do not live there and I am sure there is more trouble at the borders as that is where people and drugs are trying to enter. but I can tell you most of the people I have met and know are quite delightful hard working and contrary to popular belief make much effort to learn the language. Most are very generous. The operative word here is MOST.
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GrouchoMarxJr
I live in Ohio and I've been hearing a lot about the problems in Mexico...much of it is word of mouth...
I'm not in a position to know where the facts end and the bulls **t begins. It seems there are definitely some escalating problems with the drug cartels in some areas...but does the media have an agenda to demonize Mexico?...seems unlikely to me.
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ex70sHouston
I live in Texas and see it on the San Antonio stations all the time.
I think most of it is just the fact that blood sells on the news.
We use to go deep into Mexico all the time(600 miles). Central Mexico is a great place to visit and the people are great. Learn a few words of spanish and try to use them to be polite and the service you get will amaze you. The border areas I find are not near as friendly.
Mexico is no worse than inner areas of big cities.
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RumRunner
I don't know if I completely agree with you about the media Groucho...I'm more inclined to agree with ex70s about blood selling. I think they have trained us well so that when we hear the phrase "illegal immigrant" we immediately think "Mexican." How trashed is that? On the news in San Diego they don't even bother mentioning ethnic or national background..."18 illegal immigrants were captured by the Border Patrol today" and no one needs to ask.
That is demonizing in my opinion. When you hear about the almost 400 Somali illegals busted at a meat packing plant in Nebraska (about a year or so ago) they are mentioned by national origin. When you hear about the almost 10,000 Haitian illegals in Miami they are mentioned by national origin. When you hear about the almost 1,000,000 illegal Asians along the Pacific coast they are mentioned as either Asian or Asian of mainly Chinese descent. (BTW that number of almost 1,000,000 varies enormously depending on who does the "study." If it is the Center for Chinese-American Justice you will hear numbers like a"a few hundred." If it is the Center for getting rid of anyone non-Caucasian you will hear numbers like 5,000,000 - so take those numbers with a grain or ten of salt).
My point is that we have been trained by the media that the term "illegal immigrant" is a code phrase for Mexican. Everyone else is mentioned by origin.
I believe that that is disgraceful - especially since of all nationalities mentioned above we only share a border with one...just utterly disgraceful.
It is so disgraceful that when I talk with the guys who keep the grounds here at my town home complex even THEY say they don't want to be like the "other Mexicans." Even THEY got trained. Now let me tell you about these guys. No - not illegals - Mexican citizens not holding green cards. They both live in Tijuana - get up at 3:30 AM EVERY Mon-Fri - two hour border crossing to be here at 7:30 AM. Work until 4:30 PM. Three hour drive back (another two hours at the border). That's a fifteen hour day. They work hard, are really friendly and actually quite cool to talk with. Fortunately with the Maquiladoras they get paid a US wage since they are employed by a US company in the US. Oh and just so you know that not everyone has been brainwashed...my complex as a lot of retired folks. They are always ready to hand out some ice water on a hot day, sandwiches often for lunch...not a charity thing...just being pleasant folks. They guys know that they can use my patio and picnic table for lunch without asking. We aren't all brainwashed by the David Duke mentality. It probably also helps that my complex is so multi-cultural that no one really cares where you came from or what you look like - so I suppose in that sense I am most fortunate. - just folks being nice to each other.
While I will admit there are escalating drug cartel problems in Mexico, I suspect there are in Cincinnati as well. While I admit that in ANY population you will have the bad ones we seem to make headlines with those - and not the guys who keep the grounds here.
I am so tired of hearing the phrase "illegal immigrant" automatically tied to Mexicans that when I hear it I usually mumble things that I cannot post on GSC - or I just leave the conversation. I rarely post on these threads because the concepts are fairly disgusting to me.
My $0.02 and worth at least a nickel...
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Tom Strange
I see it on the news here of course... but have never really had anything other than good experiences when traveling south of the border... when I see the reports on TV I almost always think "gee... they're a lot like us over here on this side of the border..."
...but I still won't get into a green beetle taxi!
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doojable
Spanish for your Nanny:
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leafytwiglet
HEhehehe I was prepared for something different and was pleasantly surprised.
Muy excelante!
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