¡Viva la Vida!

Will North Korea be Obama's Cuban Missile Crisis?

For thirteen days during the Cuban Missile Crisis in October, 1962 the world held its breath.  After President John F. Kennedy weathered the terrifying ordeal, he ordered everyone in his cabinet (and I think the State Dept as well) to read Barbara Tuchman's classic work on diplomacy gone wrong - The Guns of August.  This book was required reading because in it Tuchman deftly unfolds the massive diplomatic mistakes - on all sides involved - that led to one of the most bloody and consequential wars in history - the First World War.  The book, which was published in 1962 and the following year won a Pulitzer prize in Non-Fiction Literature, perhaps may also need to be required reading in the Obama administration as the nuclear weapon crisis with North Korea unfolds. 

Just as Khrushchev and Castro took advantage of a perceived young and inexperienced president, so North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il seems to be playing from the same playbook.  President Kennedy showed amazing calm and restraint during the Cuban Missile Crisis as many of his military advisors pleaded for an attack and invasion of Cuba.  Kennedy, who remembered well the British complacency during Hitler's buildup in the 1930s (he wrote the history of it himself), knew the limits both of diplomacy and of force.  He had to walk a tightrope between these two.  At times during the crisis Kennedy had to rattle the sword of American power - which was the only thing the Russians could understand and surely the only thing that will get the North Korean's attention as well - and at other times he had to be diplomatic by courting the world's opinion in order to get the United Nations behind his condemnation of the Soviet missiles in Cuba.  All the while he had to downplay the fact that U.S. missiles had been based in Turkey very close to the borders of the USSR.  We all know how the story ends - in the end Kennedy's diplomacy triumphed and the Soviets withdrew their missiles from Cuba.  Kennedy managed to convince Khrushchev that he could and would use force if it came to it and, at the same time, convinced the world community to wholly support him.  It was a diplomatic grand slam and probably, next to the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, the tragically short-lived Kennedy administration's greatest moment.  Let's hope President Obama will learn from his predecessor and, in the same manner, deftly walk the line between force and diplomacy.  The world is again holding its breath.   

Traffic Cops: the worst thing abt living in Latin America

So today I was driving home alone and was in an especially congested part of the city when two motorcycle cops pull up alongside me and wave me over.  So I carefully made my way to a narrow side street and parked.  The following is how the conversation went down and has been translated into English:

OFFICER #1:  "Are you trying to run from us?"
ME:  "Ummm, no - here I am.  If I was running I wouldn't have pulled over."
OFFICER #2:  "But we've been following you for two blocks and you wouldn't pull over.  You ran a pedestrian crosswalk when an officer tried to stop traffic and he radioed us to pull you over."
ME:  "WHAT??!!  That's insane b/c when a cop steps out on the street to stop traffic I always stop - otherwise I would've run him over, right?  Plus I'm always super careful here - especially at this hour when the school kids are getting out.  I didn't see anyone step out to stop traffic."
OFFICER #2:  "He was trying to stop traffic from the sidewalk.  He waved at you to stop but you went on."
ME:  "The officers always step out into the street to stop traffic.  I don't believe you."
OFFICER #1:  "Well our commander happened to be there too and he told us to write you up.  Actually we've giving you two infractions - one for not stopping for him and the other for not stopping for us."
OFFICER #2 (chiming in):  "Yeah, and that's a lot of money - two infractions!" 
OFFICER #1 then asked if I had a calculator for him to tell me the amount (could he not count that high?!).  I pulled up the calculator on my cell phone and handed it to him.  He punched in some numbers and then emitted a low whistle and showed it to the other officer before showing it to me.  It was $1,330 pesos ($95 USD).  "Es muuuuucho dinero" he said, elongating the "u's" for emphasis.
ME:  "I can't believe you're trying to give me two infractions.  Have you had a bad day? (I laugh & so do they).
OFFICER #1 & #2:  "Well look, you can pay us half right here.  That would save you a trip downtown to the station and you won't lose your license." (They confiscate your driver's license in most countries of Latin America when you get a ticket). 
ME:  "Well just write me the ticket."  I threw up my hand for emphasis.  The officers were trying to trick me into paying them on the spot.  The "half" ($665 pesos or $47.50 USD) would go right into their pockets.  The majority of drivers don't pay it but, after the cops' offer of half, the bargaining with them begins.  It's a strange unwritten custom. 
The officers shook their heads and exchanged surprised looks for my desire to take the ticket instead of taking a cheaper and more convenient way out.  The surprised, incredulous looks were bluffing, of course, pure theatrics.  And then:
OFFICER #1:  "So you want to pay the whole thing rather than only half then?  That's a lot of money, my friend.  But if that's what you want..."  They both waited for my reaction.  

ME:  "Well go ahead!"  I decided to call their bluff and see where it got me by pulling out my map book and politely asking them to show me exactly where the central office was - where I had to go to pay the ticket & get my license back.  As such, this was bluffing on my part. 
OFFICER #2 (putting the ticket book away):  "Ok, ok, let's be reasonable.  Why not just pay us and get on with your day?"  He smiled a big smile.
ME:  Returning his smile:  "Look, I've lived here for six years.  You think this is the first time I've had to deal with traffic cops?  I'll give you $100 pesos ($7 USD)."
The officers again exchanged looks.  The first one walked away and got back on his bike.  I guess he was done. 
OFFICER #2:  "$400 pesos."
ME:  "Give me a break!  Here's a $200 peso note ($14.28 USD) - take it or give me the ticket...I've got to go."  I handed him the crinkled up bill.
OFFICER #2:  "Alright then.  We'll stop traffic on the street behind you [the avenue I was on when they pulled me over] so you can pull out safely.  Have a nice day!"

So I was on my way only to be pulled over by another motorcycle cop about 10 mins later.  The second stop, however, the officer just reviewed my papers to see if everything was in order.  That stop lasted less than a minute whereas the first one was about twenty minutes.  Thankfully this is not normal - getting so much attention from the police!  

So here comes the ethical reflection on this:  It's not like I pay bribes every time I get pulled over.  In fact many times I've talked them out of giving me a ticket by being nice and cooperative.  That's a technique I learned from Pastor Victor in Nicaragua, an expert in these things if there ever was one.  And yes, I've heard time and time again how horrible it is to contribute in the corruption like this and many Americans who live in Latin America have piously told me they simply do not pay bribes.  They just refuse to "become part" of the corruption, end of story.  Well I do understand and I respect their conviction but that's going counter to the culture here.  Good luck trying to live in the ethical black/white in a culture notoriously gray!  Until things change from the top down and these guys are paid more, the "mordidas" (bribes) will continue to exist.  Everyone here hates it but it's woven into the system itself so deeply that only a top-down reform would make it better.  So while I don't like doing this sometimes you just have to exercise some cultural flexibility...

Wish I would've found this pic 3 weeks ago!

This pic says it all abt the H1N1 "Swine flu":

HUGE Rattlesnakes!

One of the things about living in arid, northern Mexico is that it's the natural home of the rattlesnake.  We have several species of rattlers - Diamondbacks, Sidewinders, and Timbers to name a few.  We've had our run-ins with rattlers (Jackson walked right over this one on our front sidewalk in 2006) and we even once found one in the desert and ate it.  So it wasn't a big surprise when one of my Bible School students brought me this snakeskin he found while on work detail the other day.  The piece he gave me is a little over three feet long and appears to be only half the snakeskin!  In it's widest part you can place a U.S. dollar bill!  So this beast is still at large and living very close to where we live, work and play! 

San Antonio for Max's B-Day

At Mi Tierra restaurant

The boys with Nana & Papa at the Riverwalk

Max jamming out in the hotel room.

Our Family!

America's Backyard Challenge

As I've blogged several times, the Drug War in Mexico should be considered one of the biggest foreign policy issues the United States faces.  The number of people killed in the Mexican Drug Wars has now topped 10,000 and, judging by the headlines this year certainly isn't getting any better.  In February and March the country seemed like it was exploding in violence - for awhile things got pretty scary but have since, thank God, calmed down.  The Mexican army has done a good job in quelling the violence in Ciudad Juarez by occupying the city in March and taking over all police responsabilities with more than 5,000 troops.  Things have quieted down in our area except for a firefight last Sunday between an army patrol and a group of police officers.  Unsurprisingly, the army, with their mounted .50 cals and assault rifles, settled the matter pretty quickly and had six Monterrey-area police officers in custody -  allegedly the officers were working for the cartels.  Imagine the bystanders in that exchange of gunfire - cops vs soldiers - doesn't do much for confidence in the civil authorities, does it?

The Battle of Puebla - The Meaning Behind Cinco de Mayo

The reason behind the Mexican American celebration Cinco de Mayo (which is not a national holiday in Mexico by the way and is more celebrated in the US than here thanks to savvy Mexican beer companies) is the Battle of Puebla during the French occupation of Mexico (1862-67).   In 1862 French Emperor Napoleon III, along with the Spanish and British, sent troops to Mexico to collect debts owed by the Mexican government.  The Spanish and Brits soon returned home but Emperor Napoleon III decided to stay and try and add Mexico to the French Second Empire.  To do so he needed an "emperor" of Mexico so he chose the Hapsburg Maximilian and offered the "throne" of Mexico to him.  Maximilian arrived in Mexico in 1864 to find a nation divided in civil war  between liberal and conservative elements - the conservatives had welcomed the French and maintained a tenuous alliance with them while the liberals, or Republicans, headed by Benito Juarez, continued a guerilla war against the French and Mexican monarchists.  It was Juarez's General Ignacio Zaragoza who defeated the French in the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. 

As for the French occupation of Mexico?  They evacuated their military forces by the end of 1866 and by May of the following year Maximilian, his situation now hopeless without French military support, was captured by the Republicans and executed by firing squad on June 19, 1867.  Thus ended the French intervention in Mexico - best remembered on May 5 with the Mexican victory in the Battle of Puebla.