From Xico

Well it'ss a log break since the last post. Hope to get back to this. IMPORTANT NEWS. Google weather and connected forecasts have blithely notiified us that 15° celsius which is 59° Fahrenheit is a lovely temperature for breaking away from winter. Or something like that. >I am sitting here bundled up in heavy sweaters in my living room.. My hands are FREEZING. This may be true in northern Maine but it isn't in southeastern Mexico.

How I'm learning to love not driving

I had a couple of minor accidents about a year and a half ago.  The result of one or the other or both is that I have some minor problems with stability that are not serious but could be dangerous if I'm driving, so I don't  drive. if I were disciplined about the prescribed exercises, I might overcome them, but I'm not.  I used to be disciplined about a lot of stuff I no longer am.  ANYWAY, so I don't drive I take taxis which I mostly get from a company in Xico called Impala.  My friend Cristy chose the company because its rates were not the highest.  Also, their taxis are not the newest, but they are fine and the drivers are generally quite friendly (not too).  Their rates are going up because the price of gas here is going up rapidly as is inflation.  This is fairly easy to see not only because you can tell it is quickly in stores but because more people are starting to sell things out of their houses, among other things,  

So what I like is that I learn more about where I live not only from taxi drivers but often from taxi drivers.  Yesterday I had a driver I've had before.  He is from Xico and likes me because I live in Xico and really see no reason to live any other place.  So we talk about, for instance, the people of Xico, whom he says are really good people because they still have a strong sense of community and family, are kind and don't fight and don't use guns. And we talked about all the fiestas and the food and what you'd probably expect.  He said that he bet there was nothing about Xico I didn't like.  

I had to tell him I did NOT like the cohetes, the fireworks, which can sound like bombs.  My big dog, my grandote, my protector, I said, hates them so much that if I am home, he has to be right next to me touching me.

Well, of course, he lifted his eyebrows and looked at me disapprovingly.  "But they are part of our tradition!" 

"But they weren't always this way when we came.Now they seem to go off every day even when it isn't a feast day!"

But as I knew and rediscovered, many, many days are saints' days.  Today, for instance, May 15, when we have been having a cohete symphony, is the feast of Saint Isidore, the patron saint of farmers, an important personage around here.

Anyway, being the kind person he is, he agreed that it was too bad my dog was so easily frightened and we agreed to disagree on the frequency of reasons for cohetes.

 

 

 

 

 

Maybe We Can Save the Planet!

What if our headlines read "Fantastic New Development for Maybe Saving the Planet" or maybe less negative,"Fantastic New Development in Fertilizer Production".  Heck, I`m no headline creator.  BUT I can't believe that at least the media can't seem to do anything but spout gloom and doom about our planet's future. Even positive news usually is followed by BUTS.  There are mountains of developments that could add good jobs, make money (for some) and help save the planet, or at least some of it. 

Of course there's an elephant in the room. Discussing developments leads to discussing money to discussing capitalism to discussing governments possibly on the march to socialism, etc.  Well, that shouldn't stop the developments, but clearly this all has to be addressed.  I'm not going to get into a long, discursive, argumentative post right now, though I probably will address this stuff as I go along.  Here I will say I really really think we have to get out of the capitalism vs government, free markets vs socialism trap.  There was no capitalism, no free markets, no socialism, no communism, or at least nothing with those names until the 19th century.  For thousand of years!  We now live in an era different from the era that gave birth to those systems.  Surely we can come up with some new ideas.  Current systems are tied to the idea of economic growth as the dominant force.  What we need is to start with needs of humans, animals, plants: the planet.  Boy, what a world of ideas that opens up!

Anyway, as a baby step. I post here a link to an easy to read if longish article on developments in the use of human pee (yes, urine) for fertilizer, for reduction of some pollutants, including improvement of air quality, etc. etc.  This is dramatic, folks: read about it here:  https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00338-6

 

I swear I'm gonna come back. First effort: I'm posting a critique of Biden's foreign policy so far. Maybe he hasn't had time to look this stuff over. I sure hope he does look it over! The firsst time I really got shocked by Democratic approach to foreign policy was when Hillary Clinton was secretary of state. She was a HAWK!!! How is this possible that Biden is just going along for the same hideous ride?

From ALTERNET 12 Marzo 2021

https://www.alternet.org/2021/03/joe-biden-foreign-policy/?utm_source=&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=6774

Destroying a Way of Life to Save Louisiana - The New York Times

The state’s $50 billion plan to re-engineer its coastline may wash some fishing communities off the map.

To hear more audio stories from publishers like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

Kindra Arnesen’s middle school was a plot of marsh a hundred yards off the southern coast of Louisiana. At 12, after her mother lost her job, Arnesen began skipping school to walk to the harbor in Buras, a town near the mouth of the Mississippi River. A dredge boat ferried her to Bay Adams, where she met a crew of oystermen. They gave her a flatboat, rubber boots, burlap sacks and a hatchet. With a rope looped around her waist, she trudged through the marsh, between the mud banks and the tufts of saw grass, tugging the boat behind her.

via www.nytimes.com

Kamran Afary posted this op ed piece in today's New York Times.It is ca,,ed "The American Way of Life" is Shaping up to be a Battleground by By Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor. It is definitely worth readng.

Donald Trump, Wind Energy Expert

Donald Trump spoke to a group of young supporters this weekend about WIND ENERGY.  These were among his words of wisdom:

We’ll have an economy based on wind. I never understood wind. You know, I know windmills very much. I’ve studied it better than anybody. I know it’s very expensive. They’re made in China and Germany mostly — very few made here, almost none. But they’re manufactured tremendous — if you’re into this — tremendous fumes. Gases are spewing into the atmosphere. You know we have a world, right? So the world is tiny compared to the universe. So tremendous, tremendous amount of fumes and everything. You talk about the carbon footprint — fumes are spewing into the air. Right? Spewing. Whether it’s in China, Germany, it’s going into the air. It’s our air, their air, everything — right? So they make these things and then they put them up.

That's just the most quoted segment.  I don't want to laugh or make fun because this is really serious stuff, as I hope we all are at least beginning to realize.  I found this in Philip Bump's column today in the Washington Post.  You can and should read it here.

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