NotTheNews In August of 1997, NotTheNews was still in it's infancy and there was plenty of virgin territory to attack.
August 1997 Highlights Issue
Yet Another Back Issue for the World to See
The single most complained about public utility in Mexico has got to be TelMex, or Telefonos de Mexico; I'm saving my ammo for a future edition on them.
Another government make-work get-rich-quick monopoly is Pemex, that efficient modern company exploiting exclusively all the oil in the country, environment be damned.
Holding down the number two spot in the customer complaint competition is the Comision Federal de Electricidad, the government run monopoly on electric power, whose motto is 'energia para el progreso de Mexico'. Excuse me while I LAUGH!! Read on...Pemex - August 1997 With great fanfare and a giant display in the local mall of choice, La Gran Plaza, the mexican oil and gasoline monopoly PEMEX (one American insists it's pronounced PEE-MEX - but I'm sure this is no reflection on thhe quality of the fine products they offer) recently announced the introduction of their new 'premium' gasoline, in a lame attempt to convince us that they can be as modern as anyone else, without the need for privatization.
Oh go on, visit their page; you might even learn something
At the previously mentioned display, complete with shiny gas pumps that you would never see at any local gas station and a true vintage automobile that could never have survived on a Pee-Mex diet, the smiling edecan was handing out tiny saplings (baby trees) as part of the company's attempt to convince us, the cynical consumers (ok just me) that they had suddenly acquired a conciencia ecologica and were really doing this for the good of the environment.My wife, upon receiving her cute li'l tree and always one to ask the appropriate question at opportune moments like these, asked what they were doing with the saplings and the answer was profound indeed: 'to provide people with a new ecological consciousness'.
The answer to the next question, what kind of tree was it? was profound to say the least. "I don't know, but the little tree needs a home" (toothy smile).
How cute! Someone in the hierarchy of PEMEX's public relations department certainly has thought long and hard about how to win our hearts and minds with fresh green intentions.
Let's listen in on an imaginary phone conversation that could have taken place within the inner sanctum of PEMEX's mercadotecnia offices...
"Oye cuate, change the label on the gasoline and call it premium... no it doesn't have to change a lot... just the color... si, raise the price... and oye, ecologia esta de moda so let's give away some trees... what kind? Who cares, whatever you can get..."
If you have the misfortune to watch Mexican television you probably have been subjected to those PEMEX ads that invite all of us to collaborate with them in providing a better future for Mexico, by using Premium or Magna Sin (unleaded) in our already tortured vehicles.
Now I don't mind using unleaded, premium or whatever, but it sure seems to be a waste of money advertising something that we are going to have to buy a la fuerza, since Nova (get it - no va?) is being phased out everywhere.
And this whole concerned attitude about environment and you, our dear client, is really as cynical as any big oil company anywhere in the world (Exxon, BP etc.) except that PEMEX can pretty well do whatever it damn well pleases without fear of competition or even the government, for that matter.
No Power?
Comision Federal de Electricidad Strikes AgainHave you heard the ads "En la Comision Federal de Electricidad... trabajamos para usted"? Or how about that catchy and well-intentioned slogan "Electricidad para el Progreso de Mexico" (no wonder the country hasn't progressed - with the half-charged electricity provided by this monopoly).
After a rainy thunderstorm last week, the power went out yet again, this time for about six hours, as it invariably does EVERY SINGLE TIME we have bad weather. The resulting return to camping mode prompted me to spew out yet another bilious issue of NotTheNews, for your enjoyment and/or bathroom use and my personal therapy.
Visit their exciting web site!
For most Yucatecans, the power-outage thing is normal and the general view is that it isn't the CFE's fault; after all, it was lloviendo. This mental connection between rain and power outages has become subliminal and permeated our household in the form of my 9 year old daughter who commented on one such occasion when we were once again powerless; "Why did the power go out Dad? It isn't raining..." The fact that this Pavlovian connection had been established in her mind I found somehow unsettling.
For me, en lo personal, this is anything BUT normal, as I come from one of the rainiest city in North America; Vancouver, B.C. There it rains non-stop for 6 to 8 months of the year and on the rare occasion that the power goes out, it is considered a major event and usually merits a mention in the local newspapers; I can count on two fingers the number of times the power went out during the 15 or so years I lived there. As an additional incentive to get me riled up watching my ice cubes melt away, I know that the cost to the consumer per kilowatt is equal to that charged here.
Visit British Columbia's power supplier's site - and yes they are bitched about there just as much as the good old CFE...
You would think that after decades of monopolizing the supply of electricity (for the progress of Mexico), the Comision would have solved the problem of power outages during thunderstorms; after all, this kind of weather isn't exactly new around here. But no, they haven't, and any time the sky becomes overcast and a storm approaches, people here instinctively reach for their cheap smoky candles and wax-paper matches to be ready for what will most assuredly be another quiet night around the icebox.
What is wrong here? Why do people put up with it? Is it part of the ni modo attitude so prevalent throughout the country that makes Mexico so backwardly charming and 'rustic'? And what in the hell is wrong with the CFE? All that snappy advertising isn't worth a Mexican 5 centavo coin if they can't even perform the most basic function of their company... to provide electricity!
Don't even get me started on the problems during la temporada when the CFE goes all out and provides those of us who spend the summer at the beach with a generous 90 volts of brown-out energy, guaranteed to burn out every fan, fridge, portable stereo and light bulb from Sisal to Chiquila.
Egads! A cloud hovers near! Not so near actually this photo is from Australia, but I guess it's still a good idea to unplug the toaster...
As I write this, I hear the ominous rumble of thunder in the distance. How poetically cliché that sounds. What it really means is that I should get the hell off my computer right away, right now as a matter of fact. Give my regards to the CFE...
Albañiles and Fernando Castro's MuralsAnother quick jolt of Yucatecan reality to remind you that living in Merida is definitely not for the easily-perturbed, or the artistically inclined for that matter; given the level of ignorance on the subject by the popular masses.
In the heart of Merida, you will find the state government building aptly named 'El Palacio de Gobierno' the political connotations of which I will not go into in this diatribe, and whose interior is decorated with giant murals painted by one of yucatan's foremost artists, Fernando Castro. These murals depict the often violent history of the so-called conquest of Yucatan, perpetrated against the rather mellow local population by those fine folks in frocks from the Spanish Inquisition, and are, basically, one of a kind items. They are on every tourist itinerary and for the locals, it's a rare opportunity to see some real first-rate art close-up and in person.
The typical touristy photo of the famous Palacio in downtown Merida
On the other end of the artistic spectrum are the albañiles, which roughly translates as masonry worker, bricklayer or something along those lines. To be an albañil is a popular career move, since the work can be learned as you go, there is no real education required and hell, Mondays are always another day off. How hard can it be to slap cement around and stack concrete blocks anyway?Albañil meets Fernando Castro
The coming together of these two vastly opposed socio-economic classes ocurred when someone had the brilliant idea of fixing some sort of crack in the wall of this old colonial building that houses the governors offices and Fernando Castro's murals. The cracks were located precisely in that large hall where the murals are. Can you guess what happened when the albañil clashed with the artista? Yes, the bricklayers got so carried away while splashing yeso (white cement) on the walls that some of the murals got a little damaged. Oops.
Now I'm not going to blame the huarache-clad, grade-one educated albañil; no the blame in this case must fall on the shoulders of the encargado of this surely vital make-work project.
How is it possible that they would undertake such a project without protecting the art? What was the ingeniero thinking? Maybe he didn't see the murals? Or perhaps he thought the workers at his beck and call were going to see and appreciate greatly the works of art they were working around and be extra-careful not to damage them. Had he never worked with albañiles before? Was he from Sweden?
Absolutely anybody who has done any kind of remodelling in their home, even the most innocent, fresh-off-the plane-from-the-States gringo knows that you can't just leave albañiles to work alone and at their discretion. They don't have any! They are part of the circle of strife, that swings into motion when you start a project and end up benefitting and supporting an entire economy of tradespeople. It goes something like this:
You hire an albañil to redo the areas around a window and perhaps a door. He scratches, scrapes, hammers, picks and generally beats the hell out of your aluminio or wooden door frames and the surrounding paint. He finishes; you don't dare to ask him to clean up because you know it won't get any better (au contraire)... then you call in the painter to sand down the wood and retouch the paint where the albañil ruined it. The painter, who only last week changed careers from being a mozo in somebody's house, proceeds to apply paint, varnish, stain or whatever in liberal amounts in the general direction of the desired area, at which point you fire him, pay him a little (pobre) and call in the aluminum guy or carpintero, who does a fine job of replacing everything, sin embargo not without scratching and chipping the paint and masonry. It is at this point that you realize that you are back at square A (for albañil) again and it all becomes very clear. Either you supervise each step of the job, alternately cajoling and praising the worker in question, or you simply do the entire job yourself.
The supervision of the obra in the Palacio de Gobierno was obviously nil or if it existed, then it was one of the sorriest examples of construction supervision in local public works history (although the title is probably well-disputed; the proclivity (look it up) of unscrupulous politicians to hire contractors of dubious or no talent who always end up having some sort of relationship with the politician in question has undoubtedly resulted in many similar abominations).
As a matter of fact, this particular incident could be an analogy of life in Merida. The lofty ideals of the artist; the esfuerzo of those few Yucatecans who are striving to rise from the third-world stock pot and become something greater and more civilized... and on the other hand the yeso and the ingeniero, representing the crude, simple-minded, blinders-on mediocrity of the vast majority who settle for anything as long as it's cheap and lack the imagination and drive to visualize and work towards a better future for the city, the state, even the country.
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