We have our detractors and critics when it comes to our view of Mexico, sad really. Most of these have to be pseudo-intellectuals who are quite certain their opinions are more valid than everyone else’s – in truth such small minds at work.

“In the end, we are self-perceiving, self-inventing, locked-in mirages that are little miracles of self-reference.” — Douglas Hofstadter, I Am a Strange Loop

It is starting off gloomy here Saturday morning. We are having espresso’s and some Mexican pan dulce (sweet bread). We put on some Oscar Peterson; his Jerome Kern song book. And then some John Coltrane and Tadd Dameron – Mating Call (1956) – Music helps make Life Good behind my eyes. Things feel good south of the border this morning! Come and make your own decision. Stay Tuned!

Blog comments are often passed over; also they are often valuable to the subject at hand. If you are reading this Blog within Global Post News then the comments will not appear unless you go to the original Blog here.

Two comments appeared on the previous Blog entry from my friend Greg Schell. With Greg’s permission I am including both comments here in their entirety. He explains who he is and enlightens us by way of his expertise about the newly enacted Arizona immigration statue. It is long, but well worth reading:

I have worked for the past 30 years as a public interest lawyer providing free legal assistance to migrant farm workers with regard to employment problems.  I have seen this debate from both sides, because over the years, I have represented U.S. workers who have been unfairly denied jobs in favor of immigrants, as well as literally thousands of undocumented workers who have been exploited at the hands of unscrupulous employers and landlords in the United States.

The debate regarding the recently-enacted Arizona statute is not about the wisdom of controlling borders.  Most folks agree that all nations need to have the ability to control who enters their country.

The issue with the Arizona law is the means of accomplishing this objective.  Although Governor Brewer promises training for law enforcement personnel on the “proper” means of determining who can be reasonably suspected of being undocumented, neither the governor nor anyone else has explained what the indicia of undocumented status are, independent of ethnic background.

The courts have struggled with similar issues in cases involving over-zealous efforts by Border Patrol and have attempted to articulate what constitute objective means to permit questioning and detention of a person regarding possible unlawful immigration presence.

These standards do not appear terribly objective – the refusal of a person to look the Border Patrol officer in the eye, furtive glances, carrying a lot of belongings, etc.  These “objective” standards seem mighty arbitrary and in practice, courts have frequently found that these standards are only used WITHIN a targeted ethnic or racial group, rather than applied across the population as a whole.

It seems likely that in spite of all the training law enforcement personnel receive regarding the Arizona law; its provisions will be directed almost exclusively at ethnic and racial minorities.  It is difficult to imagine how these enforcement efforts will not devolve into fairly transparent racial profiling.

The vast majority of undocumented immigrants, including most from Mexico, are drawn to the U.S. by the availability of jobs.  Those who seek to control unauthorized immigration should demand that enforcement efforts be directed at those parts of U.S. society which are the principal magnet for most unauthorized immigrants, namely employers.

Although the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act imposed sanctions on employers who knowingly hire undocumented workers, virtually no U.S. employers have been prosecuted for such violations and, when prosecutions occur, only lower level supervisors, often immigrants themselves, bear the brunt of the penalties.  Company CEOs and others who benefit the most from the availability of cheap, exploitable labor have virtually never been fined or jailed for violations of these portions of the immigration laws.

This is partially due to an enormous loophole in the 1986 statute – employers are not obligated to verify the validity of the documents job applicants present when seeking employment.

While this may have been sensible in 1986, with the technological advances of the past 25 years, the e-verify system, which almost instantaneously matches an applicant’s Social Security number against the data base of the Social Security Administration, should be at the center of enforcement efforts.

The Social Security database still has errors – studies have shown several percent of the verification efforts result in errors – these problems can be rectified through better technology and reasonable safeguards.  Until e-verify or some comparable system is in place, employers can continue to wink at the law’s requirements and hire with impunity unauthorized workers who present fraudulent documents.

Once verification of employment documents is made mandatory and still penalties are adopted and enforced on employers who continue to flout the law’s requirements, there will be considerably less attraction for undocumented individuals to travel to the U.S. in search of employment.

The impact on civil liberties from an e-verify system, with the Social Security card becoming a de facto national ID card, pales in comparison to the sort of roughshod trampling on individual liberties which will result from misguided efforts such as the Arizona law.  The nation can then direct its efforts on trying to craft provisions that allow a controlled number of guest workers to enter the U.S. to meet genuine economic shortages, a system with far more protections for guest workers than under current law.

Unfortunately, under the current political climate in the U.S., it is difficult to imagine a deliberate and reasoned discussion of this polarizing issue.  Most informed observers speculate that it will be years, maybe even decades, until the U.S. undertakes and completes a comprehensive review and restructuring of its immigration laws.  In the interim, sadly, laws such as those passed by Arizona will continue to pop up, which will only serve to further divide the country over these issues.

Second Comment (In response to another reader’s comment):

The Arizona law differs from federal law in several important respects.  First, it criminalizes “illegal presence” by unauthorized immigrants.  Under federal law, it is a crime to unlawfully enter the country, but once in the U.S., unauthorized presence is not a crime, but an administrative violation of immigration laws with deportation, rather than imprisonment, the sanction ([Recall] the highly-publicized enforcement efforts at the meatpacking plant in Iowa involved prosecution of the unauthorized workers for the crime of document fraud, that is, using fraudulent documents to obtain employment).

Second, enforcement of immigration laws has traditionally remained in the hands of the federal agency that regulates immigration, most recently the Department of Homeland Security.  The Arizona law places enforcement responsibilities on local police, which is problematic for several reasons.  The police are not well-trained in the intricacies of immigration law and almost certainly will end up arresting folks who, in fact, have lawful status in the U.S.

[Third], enforcement of immigration laws runs counter to the primary job of police officers, preserving order and protection of the public against criminals.  If unauthorized immigrants are subject to arrest by local police solely because of their undocumented status, very few of them will report crimes (unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. are frequently the target of crimes) or step forward as witnesses to assist the police in investigating and prosecuting crimes.  For this reason, the majority of police chiefs who have taken a public position on the Arizona law have OPPOSED it, knowing full well the detrimental impact it will have on the ability of law enforcement officers to prosecute criminals.

In the news today it is reported Arizona Legislature is already modifying the language to tone it down. I encourage readers to go to the original Blog entry and read the comments. Your comments are welcome – Stay Tuned!

We love to get comments and feedback from our readers. We encourage the reading of comments. They often are more entertaining than our musings. Many comments are illuminating; occasionally offered by experts.

On our last weather topic entry (as mentioned there have been several over the years), we received a comment from “br” of The Weather Channel. A bit of sleuthing turned up that “br” is a PHD weather scientist. Actually Principal Weather Scientist and Vice-President of The Weather Channel in Atlanta, Georgia and around the world.

The Problem

“br” explained some things about the Yahoo weather report which is my usual weather information source. Yahoo weather data is provided by The Weather Channel people – weather.com.

“br” comments in part:

“Hi John – earlier comments are correct .. you are seeing the observations for GEN. HERIBERTO JARA, Veracruz [the airport in Veracruz City].. only official surface observations are considered for the current conditions on these web sites .. there is no [official] obs within 60 miles of Xico .. unfortunately, it is difficult to provide current conditions that are relevant to your exact location in areas of the world where observations are sparse..

So your choices are the Veracruz point currently in place.. Puebla (elevation is 2166 meters) or [Poza] Rica (elevation at 62 meters) .. Xico is at 1440 meters..”

“br” confirmed Jonna’s comment stating that she understood “they” collect weather data from the nearest airport, “…probably only big airports.” On a personal note Jonna a respected reader and member of the Viva Veracruz Forum provides a wealth of information and contributes many erudite comments. So the big guns were commenting-in to help us all understand – cool!

“br” stated:

“Yahoo weather says “Nearest weather station is Xico, Mexico” in their heading .. this is a real fine point, but the nearest weather station is the airport near Veracruz .. there is a “forecast” point for Xico .. that is, we prepare a forecast explicitly for Xico .. but there is no official observation station in Xico that we know of …”

We now can assume there is no weather being reported out of Xico or even Xalapa (a city of more than 500,000 people) and 15 miles to the northeast.

“br” also made the following comment:

“So let us know if you think either Puebla or [Poza] Rica are more representative of what you experience in Xico, we would be happy to change this mapping or relationship when you pull up the weather information ..”

Yikes – the idea that I can alter the process of The Weather Channel is mind boggling! You have to love the power to the people provided by the Internet.

OK feet touching ground again let’s consider how we  might get more accurate weather predictions and condition reports.

The Solution

It can be said that weather conditions 60 miles away coming from a city on the Gulf of Mexico at an extreme altitude differential will very often have little to no bearing on the actual current or future weather conditions of Xico – Coatepec – Xalapa.

Gathering data from Pueblo or Poza Rica will not make reporting more accurate.

I wonder why in this day and age of the Internet and the opportunity for real or near-real time communication that huge powerful operations like The Weather Channel cannot incorporate information provided by numerous satellite informers or in what I believe are weather science terms “first order reporting stations.”

“br” – this Blog and approximately 300 others from around the globe are incorporated in the news report of Global Post News. You will find bloggers added to news agencies in all corners of the reporting process. Likely thousands of blogs are used daily to enhance the news information process throughout the world.

In Global Posts words, “…With the recent launch of GlobalPost, high-quality bloggers are being given positions of prominence for the first time on a major news media website, starting with promotion on the home page. Hundreds of top-notch bloggers from 41 countries around the world also appear on the region pages….GlobalPost, where [John Wilpers] the Global Blog Coordinator on a consulting basis, recognized that there is a lot of terrific content being created around the world by excellent writers who are experts in their field or who are simply well-informed or passionate about a subject or country. That on-the-ground, grassroots-level reporting adds to the professional work of our correspondents in each country, giving GlobalPost readers a complete picture of life, events, trends, and peculiarities in each of dozens of countries worldwide.”

It would seem that a similar type network of on-the-ground, grassroot-level weather reporters could provide more localized data to The Weather Channel enhancing the accuracy of the reports on both current conditions and weather forecasting.

“br” I suggest you contact John Wilpers to help coordinate the gathering of  ideas for a process like that of many news agencies. If you decide to go in that direction – count me in .

Saturday 10 April 2010 – 8:00 A.M. Central Daylight Savings Time: The sun is shining, a few light clouds and the temperature outside is 64 F (17.8 C). Stay Tuned for more news and weather!

The syndication of our Blogs, each and every one of them, including some front page presence beyond the Mexico News section, gives us an opportunity to speak out beyond our own readership gathered via our individual Blogs and related links.

It is a bit of an honor to be associated with Global Post in that they started the quest to incorporate 350 Blogs worldwide – from their perspective, “…find 350 of “The World’s Best Bloggers” (writing in English) in 53 countries”.  I am pretty sure that description of my Blog is a bit over the top, but there you have it.

With this in mind today I am making a departure from my policy to as much as possible avoid political comment and writing my views on subjects outside the framework of providing my view of living in Mexico. Two of my favorite Latin American Bloggers write from Honduras – Laurie and La Gringa. I highly respect them and have been reading their Blogs for some time.

Unless you don’t follow world news at all – you already know something about the civil unrest in Honduras; that the former President Mel Zelaya was removed from office by the Honduran Congress, Honduran Supreme Court and the Honduran military. This by what appears to be totally legal means.

In a strange twist world opinion seems to be that Zelaya was removed from office illegally and should be re-instated. Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, Hillary Clinton and U.S. President Barak Obama are all in agreement that Zelaya should be re-instated and the actions taken by the aforementioned branches of Honduran government were enacted inappropriately.

Not knowing a whole lot more than what I read from Laurie and La Gringa I started to pay attention to other news a few weeks ago from their reports of the unrest there. The difference in opinion from Laurie and La Gringa from main news agencies really was throwing me – it still is in a sense – I mean when was the last time Hillary and Obama were in agreement with Castro and Hugo Chavez?

Now Honduras one of the poorest of Latin America Nations is being saddled with trade embargos and World Bank suspension of loans to Honduras until the crisis has been resolved. These are huge problems for this poor country.

Without voicing anything more than my being in wonder as to what is going on I encourage you to read the recent entries of my two fellow Bloggers and perhaps make your voice heard after you have arrived at a conclusion. La Gringa provides avenues for your expressed opinion to some powers that be.

Honduras is part of our Latin family of nations. We should care. Stay Tuned!

Lifted from Global Post (Link Here)

On a number of occasions I have had conversations with fellow Bloggers about the worth of the Blogging effort. If you have been around here for any length of time you have read my reasons for being here – they haven’t changed a lot since the inception of this Blog in May of 2005.

Over to the left you will find a new link to John Wilpers Blog. He is a departure from Blog’s about Mexico specifically, but his mission and position with Global Post Enterprises is to incorporate within their news agency 350 Blogs written in English covering 53 nations internationally.

Back a couple weeks ago Lily Yuhas sent me a curious invitation in this Blogs comment section. At first I deleted it thinking it was yet another gimmick process to get a web site marketed or some promotional scheme.

Later I reread her comment. After researching just exactly what Global Post was expecting to be; further I checked out the credibility of their staff and cast of correspondents. I responded via private email to her.  I was impressed enough to follow-up with the requested mission bio, photo and RSL link as well as making a recommendation of a fellow Blogger I thought capable (she asked).

Since that time I have been welcomed aboard by Global Post Enterprises as one of their 350 Bloggers. In a manner of speaking John is my new boss. I have been reading his Blog. I was intrigued by his Blog entries covering the six most common questions he gets from editors curious or nervous about incorporating bloggers in their newspapers and websites.

In part:

“1. Newspapers have built their credibility by offering their readers selection and intelligible conveyance of news and stories of importance. Now you say that to stay relevant, they should integrate third-party content [read Bloggers] to their online and print service. Do not they risk their credibility?

Not at all.

I am NOT advocating that newspapers open their websites and print products to ALL third-party content, only to the BEST third-party content. Newspapers must use the intelligence and judgment that has come to represent their brand and apply it to the process of selecting the highest-quality local blogs.

Newspapers have historically been the source of the very best information about what’s going on in their market. It used to be that newspapers were the ONLY source in their market for high-quality information.

That is no longer true.

With the advent of the Internet and, in particular, blogging, there are now countless sources of high-quality information written by authors more expert in their fields than the newspaper’s reporters. Now, knowledgeable people in their fields, from health, automobiles, and art to finance, travel, and any number of other topics, are writing beautifully and intelligently about issues and events in those fields.

When it comes to publishing bloggers, you and only you decide which blogs will appear in your newspaper and on your website. This is NOT an open invitation to ALL bloggers. This is an opportunity for you to find, “vet” and then aggregate the very best local bloggers.

By aggregating the best local bloggers on the theme-appropriate pages of your website and newspaper (sports, fashion, business, sports, etc), you increasingly become THE source for all the best local information, whether you have created it or not. You save your readers the headache of having to search in multiple places for information they can now get in one place: your website and newspaper.

You instantly increase your reach, relevance and, if you monetize those pages, your revenue.”

You can read all six questions and answers via several Blog entries starting here.

Over the course of nearly four year of Blogging, more than 800 entries, nearly one entry every other day,  words totaling the equivalent of 7 average books; I have come to realize there is a power to these electronic words. Sometime emotions can run high and people even run scared. Also good things happen like the current effort being made on behalf of the poor people we live amongst (thank you Wayne and many others for Project Warm Hands).

As Lily Luhas stated to us Bloggers – “What do you have to do?

Virtually nothing, other than to keep writing great stuff regularly.”

I don’t intend to change anything here other than perhaps legitimatize any photos or artwork other than my own and maybe check my sources a bit more carefully.

I hope Global Post has great success. Per Ms. Luhas request for 300-500 words describing my mission of this Blog I opened with, “Mission of my Blog: World peace, environmental awareness, and a greater understanding of Mexico and its people.”

And then a bit more realistically wrote, “On a lesser ambitious note I hope to depict the differences and similarities of the lives of the Mexican people as compared to reader’s lives; to provide information about the process of living in Mexico.”

Most of you who read here regularly know I am a bit verbose. I limit myself to entries no more than a thousand words; and most often meet that self-inflicted limitation. My mission statement requested to be 300-500 words for the Global Post editorial board was exactly 500 words – I bet you aren’t surprised Tune in to the Global Post in January and by all means – Stay Tuned here!