200 Mayan Peasants Arrested for Blocking Road in Mexico

Latin American Herald Tribune

November 25, 2009

CANCUN – More than 200 Mayan peasants were arrested during a clash with police who tried to prevent them from blocking the highway between the southeastern Mexican cities of Chetumal and Cancun, officials said.

About 20 peasants sustained minor injuries and a police officer underwent surgery for a head injury suffered in Tuesday’s clash, Quintana Roo state Deputy Public Safety Secretary Didier Vazquez said.

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The peasants blocked the highway to demand payment of insurance and subsidies for crops lost in the drought affecting the region.

The insurance company has refused to pay claims for lost crops and Quintana Roo’s government has offered to cover only 50 percent of losses, or some 450 pesos (about $34) per hectare affected by the drought.

I was hoping this would get better. I was hoping for some kind of help or improvement.

This went on for years.

Tonight, I gave up for the last time.

This isn’t some kind of prima donna histrionics.

This is just a final failure of trust.

This is a kind of death. I can’t trust him any more. It’s gone on too long.

And here’s the poem. It’s just history now.

But it’s a good poem. I like this poem. I can find some love in it. But, oh, god. Why do people have to give up on each other? Why is love so often considered irrelevant?

I HATE having to do this, but it’s on the plate.  

This sort of conflict continues to arise, where people are living in below-code situations and shut down – to go live in below-code situations in other venues, presumably.

This time somebody went to jail for arranging the housing, though.

The Homesteader

http://www.currentargus.com/ca…

They don’t leave links open for long (you have to pay $2.95 per article) so I thought I should get this out now.

This is a freaky story. It’s a GOOD article, but I worry about this woman. And the Topix comments are really disturbing. There’s lots more. I’m trying to talk to these people (and some see it my way) about how wrong it is to be down in this lady. I’m inclined to think that Valerie Cranston (with whom I’m acquainted) shouldn’t have run this, but since she did, well now we go with it, right?

With a focus on veterans, and including a few interesting videos I’ve run across lately, and a few other items of note.

Cousin Caterpillar, Incredible String Band

Cat Power, “Satisfaction”

Crossposted from The Wild Wild Left.

Eva Cassidy; “Ain’t No Sunshine When (He’s) Gone”

We didn’t have anything to vote about

here in Carlsbad this round.

But 2010 will be different.

I could easily run for city council in Carlsbad, New Mexico, and win.

Last time we had a city council election, my ward had no formal candidate. One guy was a write in and he won with 90 votes or so. If I’d ran, and gotten my name on the ballot, I likely would have won because of name recognition, etc.

I thought about that for a long time after it went down. I had no idea that the level of involvement here was so slight.

I live in the north end of the barrio. My neighborhood is a mixed bag, racially. I’m not close to any of the people here, but they don’t give me any trouble, either. We’re all pretty good about keeping out of each other’s hair on my street.

There are maybe 25,000 people in Carlsbad.

The guy who has been mayor for many years finally has run into the term limit wall.

I know I should get off my lazy cowardly butt and get in these people’s faces and run for City Council.

But they scare the shit out of me. They are so indirect and weird and different and entrenched.

I think a lot of stuff is up for grabs in 2010. Not sure. They don’t like to advertise that sort of thing around here.

But I also know that I could become a member of the City Council of Carlsbad, NM, as a representative of my ward, if I put some energy into it.

There are people here would would ruin my life if it suited them, just to keep me out of the way.

But they could do it anyway, I guess.

Should I run for City Council next time the opportunity arises? I could easily win this, and if I won it, I know myself well enough to be very clear that I would get really ornery if I got some cats in my face about how I should just get along with the program.

Please give me advice. All of you. I’ve been thinking about this for a long time. They don’t pay city council members here more than a pittance. That doesn’t matter, it would not be about money for me. If I am to try to do this, how do I start?

Thank you.

Miep

An old friend of my family had a favorite saying: “Work is something unpleasant done for money.”

I lost touch with the fellow long ago, but the phrase has stuck in my mind and popped up occasionally over the years. Some of my recent conversations about economic systems, here and elsewhere, have brought it again to the fore.