From Xico

Eye Witness to Hurricane Karl and its Aftermath -- From Leah's Blog. SEE previous post for further donation information

Leah Flinn's blog is at www. inveracruz.com  Below I copy her post from today.  Go to her blog for additional vivid posts.  Be sure to follow this link for more photos.

 

Houses are flooded. Feces float in the street. People are missing, some have died. Smaller pueblos on the hillside completely washed away. Belongings ruined. Some are hungry and without clean water. The air is foul. Everything and everyone stinks.

But what can we do?, says the local who shrugs his shoulders and sighs in resignation.

I look around at the neighborhood. Roofs have collapsed. A few families can't afford the higher prices imposed on staple food items and purified water jugs. Nearby schools blocked by fallen trees remain inaccessible. Personal items gone. Some essential, some not. But there is plenty to be done.

Neighbors need help. 

Hurricane Karl has rapidly sped up plans to launch Project In Veracruz, a non-profit endeavor to enrich local communities in the state of Veracruz by enabling locals to meet each others needs.

Right now there is plenty of need as we splash in Karl's shadow. See some photos of the aftermath here. All photos were taken from our local community. We are personally able to help these people. We ask that you join us.

You can help in any of the following ways:

1. Read about the community project.
2. Inform us of needs in Veracruz..
3. Make a donation (see right column).
4. Help get the word out via blog, twitter, facebook, email etc.

We can turn things around in communities if we ease the suffering with service to each other. We THANK YOU for any and all effort towards this.

Stay tuned for project updates.

 

 

How to Help the Victims of Karl in The State of Veracruz [Other Posts below this one]

For people who live in Mexico  -- Donation Centers [If you live outside of Mexico and would like to donate cash, please donate to the Cruz Roja Mexicana -- the Mexican Red Cross.  The bank account number in Mexico is 0404040406 Surcursal 683. Your bank should be able to provide the necessary additional codes. Your donations are definitely needed.)

What to donate:

• FOODSTUFFS
• canned goods (tuna fish, vegetales, beans, sardines, chiles)
• bottled water
• powdered milk
• sopa de pasta (like spaghetti-os, fideo, pasta packed with dried sauce)
• powdered soup
• lentils,
• rice
• tomato puré
• vegetable oil
• sugar
• instant coffee
• salt
• jam
• mayonnaise
• MEDICINES. PLEASE BE SURE THEY HAVE NOT EXPIRED
• -- antifungal medication
• -- fever-lowering medications
• -- cold medications
• -- analgesics
• -- antibiotics
• -- antidiarrhea medications (pepto-bismol, lomotil, etc.)
• -- anti-inflammatories (aspirin, ibuprofen, etc.)
• MISCELLANEOUS
• -- diapers for babies and adults
• -- sanitary napkins
• -- hand soap
• -- detergent
• -- rope (rafia), twine and string
• -- plastic baggs
• -- new sandals
• -- raincoats
• -- umbrellas
• -- household cleaning tools like brooms, dustpans, buckets, mops

WHERE TO DONATE

In State of Veracruz:

                La Confederación Patronal de la República Mexicana (Coparmex)

                Costa Dorada #50 Between Ruíz Cortines an Mar de Japón                                                               Fraccionamiento Costa Verde                                                                                                             Boca del Río, Veracruz

                Monday to Friday, 8.00 am to 5.00 pm and Saturday from 10.00 am to 1.00 pm 

                World Trade Center of Boca del Río

                 Auditorio Benito Juárez, Port of Veracruz

                 (No hours listed)

                DIF state offices. In areas of storm damage, these are open 24 hours. There is a                     DIF collection center in Parque Juárez in Xalapa as well. 

                Cafe Galería Zona Centro, Xalapa                                                                                                 Juárez 123  

                Daily after 6.00 pm.

                Amarillo Centro de Diseño

                Franceschy no. 17, corner of Perú and Guerrero                                                                                 Xalapa, Veracruz

                Daily between 5 pm and 9 pm

Mexico City

                Cruz Roja Mexicana                                                                                                                       Juan Luis Vives  #200                                                                                                                         Col. Polanca

                Centro Cultural y Social Veracruzano                                                                                             Miguel Angel de Quevedo #68                                                                                                           Coyoácan

                 Representación del Estado Veracruz

                 Marsella #77                                                                                                                                      Col. Juárez, between Have and Niza Avenues, two streets from the Glorieta of the                              Insurgentes metro stop.

                 Open 24 hours daily.  Taking bottled water and canned foods.

                 Secretaría de Protección Civil                

                 Avenida Patriotismo #671                                                                                                                  Colonia San Juan

                 From 9.00 am to 6.00 pm

                 Dirección General de Emergencias Mayores

                 Periférico Sur 2769                                                                                                                            Colonia San Jerónimo Lidice

                   9.00 am to 6.00 pm

                 Most Fire Stations are accepting donations 24/7.

Elsewhere in the Mexican Republic

                   Red Cross (Cruz Roja) in Jalisco, Querétero, Guanajuato, Hidalgo, State of Mexico,                         Morelos, Nuevo Léon (Monterrey, Avnia Alfonso Reyes no. 2503), Puebla and of                             course Veracruz.

                   DIF estatal en Hidalgo

                    Salazar 100                                                                                                                                         Colonia Centro                                                                                                                                   Pachuca                                                                                                                                             8.30 am to 4.30 pm

To donate money:

        Cruz Roja Mexicana -- Bancomer account no. 0404040406 Sucursal 683.

Torrential Rains from Karl Continue to Inundate Veracruz

There has been continuing devastation. Dozens and dozens of communities have been inundated. Only one example is a colonia between where we live and the City of Veracruz -- just off the main highway -- has ceased to exist because of continuing torrential rains and the flooding, according to El Diario de Xalapa this morning.The colonia, Río Medio. seat of the municipal government of Paso de Ovejas, was located more than ten meters or thirty five feet from the river.

The newspaper quotes a resident, Maximino Gonzáles, as saying: "We have lost everything, everyting, from my house.  The only thing left is the deed for my fields, while punching the wall and biting his lips with fury, before crying with impotence. "

According to the paper, "Azucena Rios Olvera could not hold back the tears as he showed us his home of which only remnants remained: the door of the bathroom, buried between rocks and land, the bricks from the bedrooms, the zinc roofing which lay in pieces....

"'From the shelter we saw how the force of the river advanced, eating our lands, our homes; the brutal force with which which the pillars and the platform of the Paso de Oveas bridge fell.  The water took on the strength of a tsunami and devoured everything it found in its path....'.

"...[A]mong the neighbors there is anger at the mayor, José Luis Palmeros Sarmiento, who, according to those in the shelter provided by the state government, had said on television an radio that nothing had happened and that everything was under control when the reality was quite different.

"Other residents said there are other places also destroyed.

"Without a single peso in their pockets, with no buildings left to rescue, with the topography of their fields altered, with fears that a new tropical storm will come and with "Jesus in their mouths," since economic activity is now dead, they seek relocation by the state and ask the Patrimony of the State to help them find a ssecure place to live."

 

 

Hurricane Karl Continues to Inflict Heavy Damage on Veracruz

From El Universal -- My translation

From a report this morning (I lost the exact link.  Here is the link for the paper:http://www.eluniversal.com.mx ) 

Seven rivers breached their banks: Jamapa, La Antigua, Cotaxtla, Chiquito, Seco, Tizapa and Bobos.

Thousands of homes remain under water, six people are reported missing.

Two children of Cotaxfla in Veracruz are reported dead in addition to the two reported in Puebla and one in Tobasco.

The damages are multiplying in the tourist zone of Veracruz-Boca del Rio where 1500 trees are reported down, 800 houses have roofs blown off and there are large areas without elecricity.

Governor Fidel Herrera caluclated that the number of people affected could reach half a million en 120 of the 212 municipalities of Veracruz.  He said that damages to crops, primarily to sugar, could reach half a million hectares [hectare=a little more than two acres].

Thousands of Veracruzanos took refuge on roofs and in trees to wait for help.  

The municipality of Cotaxtla is the most seriously affected, where six people are reprted missing, including two children who were dragged by the current from the hands of their father.

Veracruzanos themselves participated in efforts to remove trees, clear flood damage, and so forth.

From a report this afternoon also in El Universal:

In the past few hours, around 40000 persons were evacuated from their homes in the municipalities of Veracruz, Boca del Río, Cotaxtla, Medellín and Jamapa, hard hit by the flooding of the rivers as a consecuence of the passage of Hurricane Karl.

The flooding of the rivers and the large waves cost the lives of at least seven people and eight more have been reported missing.  This Sunday dozens of people waited to be rescued by launches and helicopeters from the Marina and the state government.

The despair of dozens of people could be seen when they began to steal food and water from convenience stores; and they called for help and for donations of food, water and clothing via social networks.

The region hardest hit is in the area of [the city of] Veracruz and Boca del Río where the river Jamapa and the drainage canals La Xamorana and Jiménez Sur overflowed and flooded large urban areas.

More than 40 thousand people had to abandon their homes with only small hand suitcases.  With the help of the armed forces and the navy they were moved to temporary refuges or to families and friends.

The scenes are a reflection of the tragedy: entire families, with babies in arms, abandoned neighborhood with the water up to their necks.  Local government and army planes could not cope with evacuating the victims.

As of now, the 15 apartment buildings with many tenants have been evacuated.

+++++++++++++++++++

El Universal reports that more rain is expected in the central and southern zones of the state, including in the mountainous areas (where we live). As the article reporting the weather says, the God Tláloc gives no respite to Veracruz.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hurricane Karl Not Quite in Our Backyard

Yesterday morning we called our vet's office to make an appointment for Giaco. Mrs. Vet, Mati, said, "No more appointments today! Don't you know there is a double red alert because Hurricane Karl is supposed to come right through here?  Turn on your television!

And indeed, we were right in the middle of the projected storm path.

We waited and waited.  At one points we had gusts of maybe three miles an hour.  Lots and lots of rain, but no wind.  At the last minute, the storm veered south-southwest instead of north-northwest and headed for the area between Cofre del Perote and Pico de Orizaba.  We were lucky, but lots of people in the storm's path were not.

Some pictures of before and during the heavy rains and a picture also from this morning, taken from our balcón.

The evening before it arrived.

During the rains

This morning, a slightly longer view.  The rains have stopped for awhile. The water has turned white and foamy.  This is a longer shot than the one above.

A landscape from this morning also taken from our balcony.

The falls always appear closer in real life than they do in pictures where I haven't zoomed, as above, but not quite as close as the picture during the rains.

The storm is said to be the most powerful in fifty years to hit the coast of Veracruz.  Here is a link to some pictures in El Universal which show the storm in the Port of Veracruz (I hope).

Grains of Salt Included in Gray Areas

In my last post I talked about moving to more nuanced views of the world -- of the dangers of black-and-white thinking.  I mentioned Jeffrey Goldberg's visit to Fidel Castro in Cuba as a startling example of not just Castro but Goldberg dealing in grays.  Today I want to add that we have to see not just issues but each other in shades of gray.  ¡Nobody's perfect!  Which makes me think of our (ridiculous and hypocritical) insistence on candidates' purity, baseball players' purity, and Lady GaGa's anything but.  

We are mixed messengers bearing mixed messages, to say the least.

So anyway, Goldberg's report of his visit to Cuba didn't go unremarked in Cuba.  You will remember, Goldberg mentioned that Castro said something like the Cuban model wasn't even working for Cuba anymore (the anymore is important.)  Apparently this statement caused some problems in Cuba.  Castro said Goldberg had misinterpreted him.  But please note, Cuba is laying off half a million workers in the public sector which employs most Cubans and is urging them to seek private sector jobs.  

Goldberg reports the following mistranslation of his post

:"Not alone has he said things like this before, but the on-the-ground absoluteness is that it is a adage that the Cuban archetypal is not working, and that is why they are starting this all-embracing agreement with privatization," Goldberg told reporters.

If that's what the Cubanos read, I can see them getting miffed.  Goldberg is having fun with this.  The site he got the translation from appears to be a site which posts machine translations online.  Check it out.

After you stop laughing, think about it: how can we be so absolutely sure of anything if even (especially) machines don't even hear or understand what we're saying!

 

 

Cracks in the high and thick wall that separates black from white thinking and keeps out anything gray.

In many, many areas, the US and (to be grandiose) perhaps the world is under siege by black and white thinking.  Or maybe black- and-whitism.  Or perhaps we could say the failure of dialectical processes.  Now that sounds ominous, communist even!  Definitely Buddhist. What I mean is the failure to listen to the other side, to make movements towards a perhaps shared perspective, a perspective not necessarily in the center, but perhaps even off the straight line spectrum depending on what we discuss and learn.  This is a failure of enormous proportions.

Obama tried to bridge the gap in politics by positioning himself in the middle and by being very, very polite to people who were not in the least bit polite.  He failed I think at least in part because he did not realize that his opponents depended on extreme positions for their power.  And they are lovers of power. He got tepid support from his own party because its members also love power and are beholden to some of the same interests that Republicans in Congress are beholden to.

But now, out of maybe right center field comes a new player who has single-handedly brought the dialectic process back to life.  Jeffrey Goldberg, an Atlantic Monthly writer who is as pro-Israel as you can get in this country and still remain respectable wrote an article in which he expressed great fear that Iran was going to lead the world into atomic warfare.  A diatribe, you could say. (Goldberg is a delightful writer and actually can address other issues)

But wait!  Goldberg's article, with his full approval, turned into an Atlantic Monthly debate on Iran and Israel with all sides participating.  

And wait again!  FIDEL CASTRO read Goldberg's article and invited him to Cuba to discuss it.  You can read Goldberg's first two posts on this extraordinary visit here and here.  And please do!  Far from being the ravings of a senile old man, we find an elder statesman articulating the need to break down fortress Black and White (among other things).  

One of the lessons we should all learn from these various exchanges is that we need to break away from politicians and bring together people of diverse views whose views aren't tied into their need for power or their fears and hysteria.

Of course black and white thinking is not just in evidence in politics.  It is a driving force in medicine and health care.  Two camps in opposition are, on the one hand, the large, lumpy, unwieldy bunch of medical scientists and practitioners and government types who consider themselves the defenders of evidence based medicine.  Evidence-based medicine can seem very cold and mechanical.  On the other hand, there is the large, lumpy, unwieldy bunch of medical non-scientists, practitioners, et. al. who consider themselves holistic practitioners or natural healers or whatever who believe they are the compassionate ones who really care for peple.   Now I have to state my position right away.  If I have high blood pressure (I do, though it is controlled), I want to go to a well-informed allopathic physician.  (And I would add, this well-informed physician, in spite of what the "holistic" world might think, had better prescribe exercise and diet changes in addition to medicine where needed.)

But the first group which I by my nature tend to trust more is engaged in its own blindness. The issue isn't really evidence-based medicine vs. alternative medicine.  When the issue is framed in this fashion, the evidence-based folks become as rigid as their opposition. They come up with more and more cold measures of efficiency, of cost-savings, etc. etc.

But then along came Marya Zilberberg, a research physician, to break down the wall by introducing GRAYS in terms that all of us can understand.   Evidence based medicine is a TOOL in the practice of medicine.  A very important one.  But good medicine is more than that.  So now we have a whole, nice gray area that we can wander around in and discuss things in. I hope from the bottom of my heart that policy makers read her articles!  You should read her posts, too. They are here, here and here.  And while you're at it, you might as well read this post, too.

I'm sure you can think of a hundred other areas where we've boxed ourselves into a black and white thinking mold.  

 

 

 

Big Time Flooding in Veracruz and Four Other States

As I think Richard Grabman pointed out, the Pakistan floods, half a world away, have received a lot of press attention (though not a lot of help as far as I can tell) and Angelina Jolie.  Here on the Gulf Coast of Mexico, our floods haven't been noticed in the US.  Now Pakistan is supposed to be a country that has a fast-growing middle class, but it seems that it is not so well off as the US would like you to think.  Here in Mexico, many people are better off though nowhere near where even many lower-income and unemployed people in the US, and the government is better able to respond as are citizens and groups of various sorts.  But still, you might want to know what's going on here.  We are your neighbor.

We've had rain as if God were showing us his power and his anger.  Up where we live, we don't have floods, and so far landslides have been at a minimum, but they will come. I took the picture below as we awaited today's onslaught.  

In coastal areas, the situation is extremely grave.  As some of you know, Veracruz is a narrow ribbon that drapes along the Gulf of Mexico, a narrow ribbon split between mountains and lowlands.  As I've mentioned before, Good ole General Santa Anna (of Alamo fame) was a Veracruz native before it was Veracruz and stories have it that he created the state by drawing the boundary to include the most beautiful landscape in his home turf.  It is incredibly beautiful here.

The states suffering from flood damage at this point include, in addition to Veracruz,  Tabasco especially and Hidalgo, Oaxaca, and Nayarit.  Also, I think, there is damage in Tamaulipas to our north and Chiapas.  IN the first five states, more than 135,000 hectares of crops have been destroyed of maise, coffee, watermelon, bananas and mango.  I would add to this sugar cane.  (One acre equals a bit less than half a hectare.)

As in many places, flood damage is intensified by lack of good infrastructure.  While the government has certainly been aiding people harmed by the floods, it is acknowledged quite openly that the damage is increased by the decrepit system of controlling water.  To repair it requires much more money than is available to the State of Veracruz.

At least one town in Veracruz has been  evacuated with the support of various state departments and with the help of the army and navy, and others have been assisted by the same groups with supplies of potable water and alternate living spaces.  

Below are a couple of pictures of Tlacotalpan which was completely flooded and which has been evacuated.

The present governor and the incoming governor have both said that more needs to be done, that systems need desperately to be upgraded.  Our area expects that these heavy rains, not common even in recent years, will continue with global warming.  The incoming governor seems very aware of the problems of global warming and the need for an integrated approach to climate change.  

 

 

 

Coatepec, Pueblo Mágico o "Pueblo Trágico"?

Four years ago,Coatepec was designatied a "Pueblo Mágico."  This federally sponsored program (and I mean Mexico's federal government) developed by the Secretariat of Tourism in conjunction with local and stat governments is an effort to bring to attention the historical, architectural, geographical, etc. wealth of the interior of the country and of course to help local areas get some tourist money.  It's not a bad idea.  While I sure don't want to see our area overrun by US or any other tourists, USAers failure to visit the non-resort areas of Mexico plays into their terribly mistaken stereotypes of Mexico. Besides, Americans are doing themselves out of really interesting and enoyable vacations whether they aim for towns or countryside, strolling through parks or riding roughshod over rapids when they don't visit the interior.

But in Coatepec, not everyone is happy with the program.  An article in Alta Voz, the local news outlet, gives you a flavor of some of the local reasons for this, as well as a taste of how local Coatepecanos react and respond to at least this local issue.  Below is my translation.  It was originally  entitled Con amigos, celebra alcalde aniversario del "Pueblo Trágico" en Coatepec, written by Oscar León.

With more than an hour's dekat the event celebrating tge fourth anniversary of the designation of Coatepec as a Pueblo Mágico got underway.  It was a cold, lifeless ceremony, without charm. The only people there who did manage to show a certain enthusiasm were the business people who had benefited economically from the arrival of tourists and the promotion by the federal program.

No one said why there was a delay.  Neighbors and invited citizens didn't arrive, nor did the municipal workers who stayed away as a sign of protest, since the they haven't been paid for at least six weeks.

With the presence of midlevel officials from the state and national tourism sectors, the president of Coatepec gave thanks for the support received through the Programa de Pueblos Mágicos.  He reported that more than twenty million pesos (maybe $1,700,000) have been invested.  He said an additional four and a half million will be invested during the rest of this year. The money went to enhance the historic features and monuments, and the geographical magic that this area of Veracruz, which was necessary in order to stay in the program.  However, there are problems.  For instance, in the municipal park gas cylinders are used for the preparation of food which put at risk the well being of visitors in this family.oriented gathering place. In addition, there are often too many dogs crowding the area, and darkness rules at night, to mention only a few difficulties [I have to say here that the there are few cities and towns in the US that I've seen that are so lucky to have such a charming, well-used family park as this one is, including at night.  But the Magic Pueblo designation is not what created it.]

Furthermore there are streets that are totally deteriorated because of their use by very heavy transportation and because of the heavy rains of the past weeks.  The majority of local roadways which tie Coatepec to other communities and towns are in a deplorable state [This is absolutely true.  Rumor has it that the town president who lost the election and is out of office I think in November and his cronies pocketed some of the money.  I should show you a picture of the MAIN highway between Coatepec and San Marcos and then one of the hardly used bypass from San Marcos past our community which the Col. Ursulo Galván agente can't stop patting his back over. What a difference!  At any rate, the current departing Coatepec prez is from the PRI. The PAN candidate won the recent election in a protest vote, and the PAN has been bringing various supporters and volunteers(probably for a fee) to fill the potholes bit by bit. They don't look like city street repair crews.]  It is urgent that an investment be made for the complete rehabilitation of roads, not to mention that the streets which have cobblestone also urgently need prompt attention....

Also, people in the neighborhoods,  colonias and congregations continue to ask what use the name "Pueblo Mágico " has for Coatepec if the people who live there never get any direct benefit.  They see how the center has been dolled up, especialy the park and the area immediately around it, but no investment reaches other places to provide a better quality of life for the citizens.

Strong visual contamination continues throughout the center, including by politicians' signs which continue to hang in the streets long after the election; an excess of vehicular traffic, for which the bypass is essential, and of course there's a lack of respect for historical monuments and colonial a architecture, since the majority of these are graffitied by irresponsible gangs of young people who don't concern themselves about harming the city's image. In sum, there are various obligations pending on the part of the authorities with Coatepecan society which aspires to and deserves to live in a worthy place with a better quality of life."

[While I definitely agree with what the writer says, Coatepec offers a community which is filled with a vibrant sense of life.]

 

  

 

 

Cynical Me and US Policy re Mexico

Richard Grabman wrote another informative post, this time on El Barbie (Eddie Valdez), the drug trade and US policy.  Read it.  My only comments:

-- The US "war" on drugs (and Mexico): Could it be driven by less remunerative contracts in Iraq and the  need to keep what's left of the US economy going by maintaining spending for the US economy in the military-industrial complex via a transfer (to also cover a cut in Mexico) to the narco "war?"

-- Mr. Grabman seems to assume less "business" is done in US prisons with the outside world than in Mexico.  I challenge this.

-- Maybe we should keep drugs illegal.  The entrepreneurial spirit among Mexican Mafia types will redirect economic activities if the drugs are legalized, as can be seen in the recent slaughter of immigrants who apparently turned down employment opportunities with said Mafia.  The Mafia's branching out from drugs might hurt more innocent people.

--La Barbie should definitely be kept in Mexico.