Help, locked down in Mexico City

Mexico City may not just be in lockdown, but under seige. Today comes news other parts of Mexico - vacation spots - are telling Chilangos from Mexico City they aren't wanted. That means anybody with Mexico City plates (DF). Oh-oh.

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I didn't have room in my overnight story about swine flu to get into all the details about pork production in the U.S. revealed in some fine investigative reporting. It's painful reading. Pigs live crowded together, without straw, without ever seeing sunlight, without air; sows are artificially inseminated and boars are separated into pens where they can't stand or turn around. I have come to understand in life, largely through telling the stories of others, that even if we aren't always exposed to actual toxins ourselves, the pain and suffering of innocent animals and people on this planet poisons our hearts and souls and makes lesser beings of us all. This is knowledge borne with pain.

Here are links to three good stories - Boss Hog in Rolling Stone and Al Giordino in the Narco News Bulletin. And, the AmericasMexico Blog, on the globalization of disease. *

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O-kaayyyy then, let's all have a giggle now.

Last night, photog Carlos Osorio got back to the hotel late after working all day in a mask and almost getting punched out by the bodyguards of a woman with an SUV the size of a city block. He stopped by my hotel where I was working - see proof - and started flipping through the hotel directory. His every muscle ached and he asked if I thought the hotel had massage service. (Kenny, he wouldn't expense it.) Yeah, sure, C, we haven't seen a hotel staffer without a surgical mask for three days and now you think they'll be thrilled to do give you hands-on treatment, up close and personal, for an hour. Sure thing.

Comments

[Kevin Simpson]

There are a lot of people in Mexico scrating their heads wondering what we did wrong. It took me over an hour yesterday to explain to a poor Huichol Indian why I couldn't buy his art. Its been a tough year with the economy, the so called war on drugs and now this. In Puerto Vallarta however we are more concerned about starving to death than catching the flu. The media has successfully scared away just about all the tourists and now that the 'pandemic' is subsiding I wonder if they will help us get our tourism back.

And NO we don't want people from Mexico city comming. We're still recovering from all the trash they left here over Easter. If they contributed to the local economy it might be different.

[arizona bankruptcy attorney]

Swine flu....drug cartels....corruption. Mexico should be a place that attracts tourists worldwide. But their tourism industry suffers greatly due to these issues.