10 ms·

I truly love the country of México - I have spent a large periods of time there for the climate, as a place to work and have a wonderful life, away from the chi

I truly love the country of México - I have spent a large periods of time there for the climate, as a place to work and have a wonderful life, away from the chills of winter. I often thought about making a permanent relocation, but this terror is too real and I found myself living in constant anxiety of my friends and colleagues being in danger, and the fear of speaking your mind weighs on you after a while. I am saddened because the people, the food, the weather, the architecture (particularly D.F.) makes for a crazy, exciting mix where the wealth and treasure of history and (deserved) national pride contrasts with poverty and the political and social conservatism that goes alongside. México: may things improve for you, though I really have no idea how that will happen.

ggregoire 10y ago
> I truly love the country of México [...] but this terror is too real and I found myself living in constant anxiety of my friends and colleagues being in danger To be fair with Mexico, those issues don't affect the whole country. Mexico City is pretty safe for example. If you want to travel to Mexico, here is a list of states and cities to avoid: https://travel.state.gov/content/passports/en/alertswarnings/mexico-travel-warning.html https://travel.state.gov/content/passports/en/alertswarnings...
- telesilla 10y ago
  My friends are thinkers and challengers of the system: it's for them I am more worried, that they can't speak freely. I could move to Condesa and live a protected life, but that's just colonialism (using my spending power to put a cocoon around me with Uber and private parties). That's not the México I'm interested in. I've also been mugged rather violently there anyway on Calle Amsterdam, (though no worse than Barcelona for example, being in the wrong place or time) and I've had Mexican friends sitting in traffic going to work, having a gun pulled on them for their wallet. I'm not really sure how safe Mexico City really is, once you get out of the ex-pat bubble.
  - zeppelin101 10y ago
    Almost hard to believe that you could have gotten mugged in that part of DF. But maybe at night?
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
  - _delirium 10y ago
    My very limited experience with Mexico City is that I'd treat it like many U.S. cities: it's fine, if you know which areas to avoid after dark, and which areas to avoid entirely. It is not like a safe European city center where you can go almost anywhere alone on foot at any time of day. But most U.S. cities don't fit that description either. And it's not at the other extreme that some people imagine, some kind of Somalia-esque set of private compounds separated by lawless warzones.
    - homakov 10y ago
      Maybe I was lucky, but I never felt in danger in major US cities walking literally everywhere. While in D.F. I had some anxiety outside of central roads.
      - _delirium 10y ago
        It's hard to give some objective analysis, but I don't personally feel safe walking alone at night in large areas of NYC, Baltimore, Chicago, Atlanta, Detroit, St Louis, Miami, etc.
        Trill-I-Am 10y ago
        What parts of NYC?
        _delirium 10y ago
        Most of the Bronx, about half of Queens, about 1/3 of Brooklyn. Manhattan is mostly gentrified these days, with only a handful of exceptions. Staten Island is odd b/c it is barely walkable to begin with, so it's neither safe nor dangerous to walk.
flatline 10y ago
I lived there some 20 years ago and it really seemed like a golden time. The conflict in Chiapas was more or less over, and as a foreigner I felt comfortable traveling anywhere in the country with only a US driver's license and a birth certificate. Times have certainly changed, and I can't imagine how it is for Mexicans nowadays living with the cartels.
gph 10y ago
>may things improve for you, though I really have no idea how that will happen. I think a good first step would be changing attitudes towards drug use. We should treat users as patients instead of criminals. And waging a 'war' against dealers and smugglers has only made them more violent and dangerous, while driving up prices and making those who survive even wealthier. There needs to be smarter policies.
- djsumdog 10y ago
  I think America should stop buying drugs from Mexico, shipping them guns and promoting the violence. Garry Webb and Michael Rupert were two amazing reporters that brought to light the reality of the CIA funded cocaine trade from South and Central America, and most people today have either never heard of them or dismiss them as crazy. The reality is the CIA still funds itself with cocaine and still causes violence south of our border for the industries that would benefit. United Fruit, Bay of Pigs, the 1973 Coupe of Chile, School of the Americas... the list is as long as you want to make it. This comic sums it up: http://imgur.com/a/Wtt6H http://imgur.com/a/Wtt6H
  - brilliantcode 10y ago
    > “You want to know what this was really all about?” he asked with the bluntness of a man who, after public disgrace and a stretch in federal prison, had little left to protect. “The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.” That was straight out of Nixon's aide's mouth. Openly admitting that the white conservative establishment sought ways to oppress and commit genocide on "racially inferior" demographic. It's now Mexicans and Muslims turn. They are the new "Japs". It seems like hatred and segregation is constant driving force at unifying this country.
karmelapple 10y ago
Step one to making things better: legalize the drugs in the USA from which Mexican drug cartels are getting rich.
lazyant 10y ago
Places like Yucatan are safer than the US, other parts very dangerous https://i.redd.it/5nxmj0uau5gx.jpg https://i.redd.it/5nxmj0uau5gx.jpg
chejazi 10y ago
> the architecture (particularly D.F.) makes for a crazy, exciting mix D.F. is an alias for Mexico City. From Wikipedia: On January 29, 2016, [Mexico City] ceased to be called the Federal District (Spanish: Distrito Federal or D.F.) and is now in transition to become the country's 32nd federal entity, giving it a level of autonomy comparable to that of a state.
samstave 10y ago
wow - what a beautiful comment
treehau5 10y ago
> makes for a crazy, exciting mix where the wealth and treasure of history and (deserved) national pride contrasts with poverty and the political and social conservatism that goes alongside. I am curious why you grouped political and social conservatism with poverty.
- telesilla 10y ago
  Here's an example: during the 2012 election, a national supermarket chain gave a small amount of credit by way of a gift card to anyone who promised to vote for the (now current) party. Poverty means votes can be bought, allowing politics to focus on maintaining (corporate) status quo instead of providing a good life for citizens. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/mexicos-presidential-election-tainted-by-claims-of-vote-buying/2012/07/04/gJQAHqTzNW_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/mexicos-presidential-el... It also means a lower rate of literacy which correlates the world over with social and religious conservatism. Quoting Harvard: ".. economic downturns have contributed to periods of increased social conservatism that have brought right-wing political parties to prominence" http://rlp.hds.harvard.edu/economic-policies-ideologies-7 http://rlp.hds.harvard.edu/economic-policies-ideologies-7
stefek99 10y ago
"living in constant anxiety of my friends and colleagues being in danger" How much of this terror is coming from "war on drugs"?
paxcoder 10y ago
I wouldb't call social conservatism bad nor "national pride" good. And I wonder if poverty isn't behind the wealth

ggregoire 10y ago

> I truly love the country of México [...] but this terror is too real and I found myself living in constant anxiety of my friends and colleagues being in danger To be fair with Mexico, those issues don't affect the whole country. Mexico City is pretty safe for example. If you want to travel to Mexico, here is a list of states and cities to avoid: https://travel.state.gov/content/passports/en/alertswarnings/mexico-travel-warning.html https://travel.state.gov/content/passports/en/alertswarnings...

telesilla 10y ago
My friends are thinkers and challengers of the system: it's for them I am more worried, that they can't speak freely. I could move to Condesa and live a protected life, but that's just colonialism (using my spending power to put a cocoon around me with Uber and private parties). That's not the México I'm interested in. I've also been mugged rather violently there anyway on Calle Amsterdam, (though no worse than Barcelona for example, being in the wrong place or time) and I've had Mexican friends sitting in traffic going to work, having a gun pulled on them for their wallet. I'm not really sure how safe Mexico City really is, once you get out of the ex-pat bubble.
- zeppelin101 10y ago
  Almost hard to believe that you could have gotten mugged in that part of DF. But maybe at night?
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
- _delirium 10y ago
  My very limited experience with Mexico City is that I'd treat it like many U.S. cities: it's fine, if you know which areas to avoid after dark, and which areas to avoid entirely. It is not like a safe European city center where you can go almost anywhere alone on foot at any time of day. But most U.S. cities don't fit that description either. And it's not at the other extreme that some people imagine, some kind of Somalia-esque set of private compounds separated by lawless warzones.
  - homakov 10y ago
    Maybe I was lucky, but I never felt in danger in major US cities walking literally everywhere. While in D.F. I had some anxiety outside of central roads.
    - _delirium 10y ago
      It's hard to give some objective analysis, but I don't personally feel safe walking alone at night in large areas of NYC, Baltimore, Chicago, Atlanta, Detroit, St Louis, Miami, etc.
      - Trill-I-Am 10y ago
        What parts of NYC?
        _delirium 10y ago
        Most of the Bronx, about half of Queens, about 1/3 of Brooklyn. Manhattan is mostly gentrified these days, with only a handful of exceptions. Staten Island is odd b/c it is barely walkable to begin with, so it's neither safe nor dangerous to walk.

flatline 10y ago

I lived there some 20 years ago and it really seemed like a golden time. The conflict in Chiapas was more or less over, and as a foreigner I felt comfortable traveling anywhere in the country with only a US driver's license and a birth certificate. Times have certainly changed, and I can't imagine how it is for Mexicans nowadays living with the cartels.

gph 10y ago

>may things improve for you, though I really have no idea how that will happen. I think a good first step would be changing attitudes towards drug use. We should treat users as patients instead of criminals. And waging a 'war' against dealers and smugglers has only made them more violent and dangerous, while driving up prices and making those who survive even wealthier. There needs to be smarter policies.

djsumdog 10y ago
I think America should stop buying drugs from Mexico, shipping them guns and promoting the violence. Garry Webb and Michael Rupert were two amazing reporters that brought to light the reality of the CIA funded cocaine trade from South and Central America, and most people today have either never heard of them or dismiss them as crazy. The reality is the CIA still funds itself with cocaine and still causes violence south of our border for the industries that would benefit. United Fruit, Bay of Pigs, the 1973 Coupe of Chile, School of the Americas... the list is as long as you want to make it. This comic sums it up: http://imgur.com/a/Wtt6H http://imgur.com/a/Wtt6H
- brilliantcode 10y ago
  > “You want to know what this was really all about?” he asked with the bluntness of a man who, after public disgrace and a stretch in federal prison, had little left to protect. “The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.” That was straight out of Nixon's aide's mouth. Openly admitting that the white conservative establishment sought ways to oppress and commit genocide on "racially inferior" demographic. It's now Mexicans and Muslims turn. They are the new "Japs". It seems like hatred and segregation is constant driving force at unifying this country.

karmelapple 10y ago

Step one to making things better: legalize the drugs in the USA from which Mexican drug cartels are getting rich.

lazyant 10y ago

Places like Yucatan are safer than the US, other parts very dangerous https://i.redd.it/5nxmj0uau5gx.jpg https://i.redd.it/5nxmj0uau5gx.jpg

chejazi 10y ago

> the architecture (particularly D.F.) makes for a crazy, exciting mix D.F. is an alias for Mexico City. From Wikipedia: On January 29, 2016, [Mexico City] ceased to be called the Federal District (Spanish: Distrito Federal or D.F.) and is now in transition to become the country's 32nd federal entity, giving it a level of autonomy comparable to that of a state.

samstave 10y ago

wow - what a beautiful comment

treehau5 10y ago

> makes for a crazy, exciting mix where the wealth and treasure of history and (deserved) national pride contrasts with poverty and the political and social conservatism that goes alongside. I am curious why you grouped political and social conservatism with poverty.

telesilla 10y ago
Here's an example: during the 2012 election, a national supermarket chain gave a small amount of credit by way of a gift card to anyone who promised to vote for the (now current) party. Poverty means votes can be bought, allowing politics to focus on maintaining (corporate) status quo instead of providing a good life for citizens. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/mexicos-presidential-election-tainted-by-claims-of-vote-buying/2012/07/04/gJQAHqTzNW_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/mexicos-presidential-el... It also means a lower rate of literacy which correlates the world over with social and religious conservatism. Quoting Harvard: ".. economic downturns have contributed to periods of increased social conservatism that have brought right-wing political parties to prominence" http://rlp.hds.harvard.edu/economic-policies-ideologies-7 http://rlp.hds.harvard.edu/economic-policies-ideologies-7

stefek99 10y ago

"living in constant anxiety of my friends and colleagues being in danger" How much of this terror is coming from "war on drugs"?

paxcoder 10y ago

I wouldb't call social conservatism bad nor "national pride" good. And I wonder if poverty isn't behind the wealth