4 ms·

Oh I've heard and read about this. There's a great Mexican podcast that talks about this "accident". The outrageous thing is how incompetent, corrupt and lazy

Oh I've heard and read about this. There's a great Mexican podcast that talks about this "accident". The outrageous thing is how incompetent, corrupt and lazy our Mexican government is. That this radioactive material was used for construction. And there ARE still radioactive houses all around the country. And of course nobody is responsible. It was just due to the USA intervention that the stupid Mexican government did something (albeit half asses). My country is a joke.

jostmey 6y ago
As someone from the US, I would have smiled with a smirk after reading your comment, but seeing how my country deals with current crises, now I fear my country is now no better, and I realize how important it is that everyone does their part and everyone is fairly rewarded.
- xtracto 6y ago
  Yes... and no. See, where I see the main difference is the attitude of the people itself. Forget the government and politics. When something happens in everyday life, there are a series of institutions which become active (simple people doing their work) and they react to situations to solve the issues at hand. The difference is that, it is in those everyday life decisions/situations that my fellow countrymen just make bad and stupid decisions. It is the lack of "do things right" mentality. From my experience visiting the US often, that's what "saves" it, everyday people still have a certain judgement bar of what's right and what's wrong. Here in Mexico... it is just not there, people just rush through things to get freed from the chore. As a podcast I linked said: When the authorities come to interview you about what you saw, a lot of people will just say they did not see anything, mainly so that they don't have to deal with any follow up. You don't see that in the USA for example when an accident happens, or a robery: People usually standup and stay to help.
TwoBit 6y ago
The US government has proven in 2020 that it is just as careless and incompetent with people's lives.
bonchicbongenre 6y ago
What's the name of the podcast? I'm learning Spanish, and would listen to it if it's either in Spanish or English
- xtracto 6y ago
  https://youtu.be/VPBpfWVYxrM https://youtu.be/VPBpfWVYxrM It's in Spanish . But if you can understand it, it is really good.
  - bonchicbongenre 6y ago
    Thanks very much!
bleepblorp 6y ago
There are very, very few countries that wouldn't cough up a zero-accountability half-assed response to a similar major incident. Corruption, protecting decision-makers from accountability, and taking half-measures are, sadly, inherent to the human condition. Just look at how badly most of the world has handled COVID-19.
- sneak 6y ago
  It’s terrifying how not-together our general human act is, in most places on Earth. Even large, well-funded governments resort to coverups and lies in the face of disasters, even ones that are somewhat to be expected (in general, if not specific timing). It’s what depressed me most about COVID. Every large country has engaged in various forms of cooking its books related to deaths or hospitalizations, or saving face, with almost no exceptions. China, US, Russia, Japan, Brazil - all of them massaging the counting (and/or restricting publication) so that accurate information is impossible to obtain. What’s wrong with simply publishing the facts, straight, and telling people how it is? Are governments and those within them so terrified of the weaponization of narrative that the best game-theoretic optimal choice is to lie by default? Is this really the best we can do?
  - leetcrew 6y ago
    politicians are usually held responsible for stuff that goes on during their term, whether or not they could have done anything about it or even if it's a consequence of something the previous administration did. these kinds of nuances don't really come across to the voters, so it's much easier to just downplay everything bad that happens on your watch.
- gambiting 6y ago
  So the sad thing is, there are international resources available to help exactly in these kinds of scenarios. Look at the International Atomic Energy Agency's report of the incident in Georgia(the country) where lumberjacks found an abandoned radioactive source in a forest - Georgia alone would have never had the resources to deal with it, but because they followed the international protocol the entire operation was done under supervision, cleaned up properly and affected people given top-class help in foreign hospitals: https://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/Publications/PDF/Pub1660web-81061875.pdf https://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/Publications/PDF/Pub1660web-81... My point is - all that the Mexican government had to do was to swallow some pride and work with an agency like IAEA to clean it up properly.

jostmey 6y ago

As someone from the US, I would have smiled with a smirk after reading your comment, but seeing how my country deals with current crises, now I fear my country is now no better, and I realize how important it is that everyone does their part and everyone is fairly rewarded.

xtracto 6y ago
Yes... and no. See, where I see the main difference is the attitude of the people itself. Forget the government and politics. When something happens in everyday life, there are a series of institutions which become active (simple people doing their work) and they react to situations to solve the issues at hand. The difference is that, it is in those everyday life decisions/situations that my fellow countrymen just make bad and stupid decisions. It is the lack of "do things right" mentality. From my experience visiting the US often, that's what "saves" it, everyday people still have a certain judgement bar of what's right and what's wrong. Here in Mexico... it is just not there, people just rush through things to get freed from the chore. As a podcast I linked said: When the authorities come to interview you about what you saw, a lot of people will just say they did not see anything, mainly so that they don't have to deal with any follow up. You don't see that in the USA for example when an accident happens, or a robery: People usually standup and stay to help.

TwoBit 6y ago

The US government has proven in 2020 that it is just as careless and incompetent with people's lives.

bonchicbongenre 6y ago

What's the name of the podcast? I'm learning Spanish, and would listen to it if it's either in Spanish or English

xtracto 6y ago
https://youtu.be/VPBpfWVYxrM https://youtu.be/VPBpfWVYxrM It's in Spanish . But if you can understand it, it is really good.
- bonchicbongenre 6y ago
  Thanks very much!

bleepblorp 6y ago

There are very, very few countries that wouldn't cough up a zero-accountability half-assed response to a similar major incident. Corruption, protecting decision-makers from accountability, and taking half-measures are, sadly, inherent to the human condition. Just look at how badly most of the world has handled COVID-19.

sneak 6y ago
It’s terrifying how not-together our general human act is, in most places on Earth. Even large, well-funded governments resort to coverups and lies in the face of disasters, even ones that are somewhat to be expected (in general, if not specific timing). It’s what depressed me most about COVID. Every large country has engaged in various forms of cooking its books related to deaths or hospitalizations, or saving face, with almost no exceptions. China, US, Russia, Japan, Brazil - all of them massaging the counting (and/or restricting publication) so that accurate information is impossible to obtain. What’s wrong with simply publishing the facts, straight, and telling people how it is? Are governments and those within them so terrified of the weaponization of narrative that the best game-theoretic optimal choice is to lie by default? Is this really the best we can do?
- leetcrew 6y ago
  politicians are usually held responsible for stuff that goes on during their term, whether or not they could have done anything about it or even if it's a consequence of something the previous administration did. these kinds of nuances don't really come across to the voters, so it's much easier to just downplay everything bad that happens on your watch.
gambiting 6y ago
So the sad thing is, there are international resources available to help exactly in these kinds of scenarios. Look at the International Atomic Energy Agency's report of the incident in Georgia(the country) where lumberjacks found an abandoned radioactive source in a forest - Georgia alone would have never had the resources to deal with it, but because they followed the international protocol the entire operation was done under supervision, cleaned up properly and affected people given top-class help in foreign hospitals: https://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/Publications/PDF/Pub1660web-81061875.pdf https://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/Publications/PDF/Pub1660web-81... My point is - all that the Mexican government had to do was to swallow some pride and work with an agency like IAEA to clean it up properly.