Dear Friend and Reader:
Call me crazy. All during the “swine flu pandemic,” the latest disaster porn that kept network news anchors employed, I kept asking myself: Why this? Why now? Why Mexico?
I started by blaming my suspicionВ entirely on my heightened sense of left-wing paranoiaВ initiatedВ when Pluto was in Sagittarius through today’s opening innings of Pluto in Capricorn, or maybe when Eric pointed out that Neptune aspect in the swine flu announcement chart.
Given our capacity and our history (from Somalia to Iraq)В to “Wag the Dog” or in this case pig as Cam Hassard wrote about, what is it that we’re really looking at? Mexico is contending with a drug war that has killed over 10,000 people over a two-year period.
During that time, Mexico escalated its ground forces from under 7,000 police in 2006 to 40,000 military to combat cartel forces in the present day.В In early 2009, the intensity of drug war violence was escalating close to theВ point whereВ itВ could have beenВ compared to civil war.
A national health crisis may have been as good a way as any to say curfew to anyone who breathes–that includes law abiding citizens and drug dealers alike.В I watched the pigs on parade here at Planet Waves,В and did some fishing of the internet just to see what happened on parallel track to the swine flu crisis. With a health quarantine gripping the country, whatВ else was happening thereВ the last few weeks?
The same dayВ President Obama met with leaders of the Americas, a major drug cartel arrest took place.В During the crisis, theВ Mexican Senate voted for legalization of recreational drugs. Corrupt officers were detained for suspicion ofВ collaborating with cartels by leaking police information. The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms were reported toВ find methodsВ to stem the flow of firearms from Texas to the cartels in Mexico.В В A national shutdown caused by the health crisis provided a lull giving both Mexican and American officials a chance to peruse and re-order the criminal, political and economic landscape.В Such an interesting trio to consider in one breath.
Our governments do shield us from the truth or outright lie to us. That is a fact. Because of that, I’ve learned to build up my media-viewing muscles with the eye for trompe-l’oeil, whichВ means “trick of the eye.” What you’reВ looking atВ is not what you’re seeing. In this instance, the visuals of the flu monster may not have been a real monster at all, but something else entirely different. A recent fact sheet on U.S – Mexico economic ties states:
Foreign direct investment (FDI) in Mexico for 2007 was $ 25 billion, up 22% over the previous year. The U.S. was once again the largest foreign investor in Mexico, accounting for 40% ($9.9 billion FDI from the U.S.) of reported FDI. The economic slowdown in the U.S. in 2008 has caused a significant decline in this figure.
The “trick” that we may not be seeing is that the over-coverage of the swine flu “crisis”В may very well be masking the shoring up ofВ America’s over-extended empire. There are American investments toВ protect in the food, agribusiness, pharmaceutical and automobile industries invested in Mexico which urge our diligence in the affairs beyondВ our borders. We are not just trying to containВ the flu, we’reВ trying to containВ the more serious contagion of crime and violence, a larger threat to lives and the bigВ companies such asВ Starbucks, MacDonald’s and Pizza Hut. As reported by Al Giordano on his current post-quarantine visit to Mexico CityВ at The Field:
What has been set in motion is a regional economic crash that will of course hit hardest upon those without any savings at all (a majority, here). I saw something similar happen in Lower Manhattan in the wake of September 11, 2001: so many mom-and-pop restaurants and stores, and citizen tenants, made no income for various weeks as everything under Fourteenth Street had been shut down by writ. The renters could not pay rent, and landlords used their nonpayment as the trigger to evict them. They are now replaced with Starbucks and Walgreen’s and other chain stories, and a more upper class population paying higher rents where the workers used to live. As in New York, everything that was wonderful about Mexico City may be about to go under, or at least enough of it to permanently damage its best people-centered qualities.
There are correlations between NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) enacted in 1994 and swine flu. Look at American companiesВ like Smithfield, which brought factory pig farming to Vera Cruz, wiping out smaller, local pig farmers in the region,В and creating an ecological disaster in the area. There are also correlations between NAFTA and the drug cartels,В with the loss of locally-generated jobs throughout Mexico collapsingВ economies with Wal-Mart efficiency.
Big multi-national corporations looking to cash in on cheap labor financially eclipse local and regional companies and businesses leaving those who do not get picked upВ by the corporate trawler nets out in the economic cold. This makesВ trafficking in illegal drugs an economic opportunityВ for everyone else in need of a way to make a buck or a peso. A quick perusal ofВ our urban historyВ helps oneВ toВ understand how people living in blighted communities anywhere in the world with no economic future and no adequate social safety net turn to crime as a means to survive. That goes from Oakland, California to New York City, to Kabul andВ Juarez, Mexico.
So in Mexico, there is a contagion alright, but it may not just be viral. The trick of the eyeВ –В the trompe-l’oeil we’re asked toВ believe is thatВ the swine flu crisis is a separate, unfortunate event when in reality, it is really a symptom of something larger –В perhaps our ownВ methods used to industrialize and cannibalize the world and its people, the price of which is yet to be fully known but seems to be coming due fast.
Yours & truly,
Fe Bongolan
San Francisco
Patty;
Like everywhere else, there are winners and losers in the NAFTA agreement. Local businesses like pig farmers in Mexico have been hurt by factory food production – such as Smithfield, and the winners in Mexico were in financial position to earn more.
As stated in the video at The Field–there are people in Mexico City whose lives were disrupted by the flu – local businesses having to shut down, the loss of income for those who rely on those businesses, the day care providers who lose days of pay because parents stay at home with their kids who can’t go to school because of shut-downs.
There have been improvements with NAFTA, but there are also the drop-offs–people who were not successful in reaping benefits of the trade agreements, who fell through the corporate scoop and the social safety nets–the economic infrastructure in Mexico can be called fragile enough to warrant concern over their future.
I am not interested in condemning or supporting NAFTA, but there are ramifications of the agreement on regions that even NAFTA’s supporters understand need to be tweaked. Environmental impacts being one of them, as well as the economic health of the entire region where businesses benefitting under the agreement are located. No one big economic trade agreement can do everything, and certainly, there are always prices to be paid by those involved. We continue to unearth those as we move forward.
Great article and comments, but having been to the mid-section of Mexico 25 years ago, and back again last year, I have to believe that the lives of most mexicans have improved because of NAFTA. When I was there 25 years ago, the children roamed the dumps for food to take to their cardboard houses at the edge of the dumps. The group of 16 teenagers I was chaperoning realized that even the poorest of American kids could still go to McDonald’s for a hamburger now and then.
We lost a lot of jobs in the US because of exporting work, but hasn’t it improved the lives of people in China and India too, in spite of the flaws?
Viruses have always been around, they just have easier means of travelling now.
“…besides, some illegal stuff should be legal and vice versa. Such a loss of wisdom in society in general making us all work with myriad laws instead of applying common sense and discernment.
For example, a couple of years ago, the drug companies were/or still are trying to legislate and make VIT C and VIT D prescription drugs. What next – Oranges and Broccoli?”
kristen b:
I’m thinking about your question and will get back to you further up the comment thread. Here in CA the Gov is looking to begin the “serious talk” about pot legalization here in the state. We covered that before, but I want to do some digging on the interests vested in slowing that down or “corporatizing” it.
Half-D:
“And the health crisis you speak of, raises the question of whether we take a further step (or not).”
Let us hope the issue is not used to promote anti-immigrant reaction, or anything the previous administration would do. I hope we watch the news with a jaundiced eye.
“Did the authorities simply wait for an opportune moment with this virus? How is it connected to the bird flu antecedents? Why so very global and adopted across governments? From where do these viruses originate and how, in future, may they just вЂ?appear’ in certain areas and produced specific вЂ?desired’ effects?”
Read this article called Boss Hog. Its from Rolling Stone. Its not for the squeamish. This is what happened in America where, granted under Bush environmental rules were lax. Imagine Mexico, where business was given free rein over environmental and health protection and the story is the same.
The NAFTA correlation to the flu cuts across several economic fronts: pharmaceutical, agribusiness, tourism and food production. Mexican press pinpointed the precise vector of the virus as the Smithfield plant in Vera Cruz.
Why so global? In researching the article, I ran into a newsletter targeted for pharmaceutical companies looking to invest overseas. It had an article over-viewing the current “investment situation” in Mexico, gently remanding companies interested in setting up plant operations there to “prepare for drug war violence” in some areas. It seems to be that there are corporate services for everything –probably and including militia to protect your interests. Hey–look at Blackwater!
There are also residents of the countries we set up shop in who make money off our presence, so they are complicit as well in the corporate colonization of their own countries. Really then, nothing has changed in over 500 years.
I don’t think the virus was a “desired effect”. It was an unintended consequence. What we’re looking at is the farthest edge of what happens when we don’t apply caution to what we produce and where, mindful of who we effect and why. Like the last fifteen years, we used our multi-national adventures to reap billions in profits with less emphasis or concern for local and regional impact. It was probably thought money can fix anything. In this case, it may be costing those involved more than they cared to realize.
Half, Kristen, Fe…
All excellent remarks, and most important, inquisitive. HdW writes: “From where do these viruses originate and how, in future, may they just вЂ?appear’ in certain areas and produced specific вЂ?desired’ effects?”
We are ramping up the fear quotas at an extraordinary rate – partly through karma (which you can think of as the First International Bank of Anxiety), partly through cultural creativity. Given what we have used the collective will to accomplish in the past (mostly wars) it is the only way we have currently to pull off the Big Play, to bring us through the Chiron gate and into what we used to call ‘collective awareness.’ (We’ll call it something else as it starts emerging from the fear phase).
Take a breath. This use and apparent-misuse is part of a larger movement.
Now go do something fun (not sardonic… *fun*)
Snuffle(snort)plow,
M
A truly excellent article. And thanks for trompe-l’oeil! Folk need to know and understand the mechanics of deception. The background facts may not always be clear but the lies always leave a trail, pointing in the direction of the truth. Thanks, Fe, for supplying a differing configuration of facts that help corroborate an alternative interpretation.
Just to add on the following, Fe: “I kept asking myself: Why this? Why now? Why Mexico?” Great question. And the health crisis you speak of, raises the question of whether we take a further step (or not).
Did the authorities simply wait for an opportune moment with this virus? How is it connected to the bird flu antecedents? Why so very global and adopted across governments? From where do these viruses originate and how, in future, may they just ‘appear’ in certain areas and produced specific ‘desired’ effects?
Thanks Fe for alt view.
In 2 wks, only 3 case of “swine” flu in NM, we are right on border, many went to MEX for spring break. And, who makes money off of the scare even at this non-pandemic level? Drug companies and laboratories running all the tests, working overtime to turn around results in 5 hours “just in case” anyone is ill. Okay that’s a good thing if there really is a pandemic, but come on?! We’ve got more of a pandemic wrt allergies to food and plants than the flu.
And, what about the pandemic wrt humans lying? Or humans being cruel? Or humans never experiencing honest love? Okay, I’ve got more than a sword to swoosh on these more mindful topics, but really is anything so different? It’s all about creating a separation rather than creating a unity which we sorely need. [And, admittedly is difficult to engender when so much pain and unexpressed grief permeates the world.]
The crime of poverty is almost too much to bear witness to if one is not compassionate. Watch how many “Americans” look the other way when crossing the path of a panhandler, at home or abroad.
Sex and drugs require no formal education, so the light shines for those desparate to get out of their poverty and viola, trafficking and prostitution arises. I have no opinion one way or the other regarding this path, mainly because if we examine our own behaviors, eventually we will see just how each one of us trafficks and prostitutes.
And, besides, some illegal stuff should be legal and vice versa. Such a loss of wisdom in society in general making us all work with myriad laws instead of applying common sense and discernment.
For example, a couple of years ago, the drug companies were/or still are trying to legislate and make VIT C and VIT D prescription drugs. What next – Oranges and Broccoli?
Thanks Fe for alt view.
In 2 wks, only 3 case of “swine” flu in NM, we are right on border, many went to MEX for spring break. And, who makes money off of the scare even at this non-pandemic level? Drug companies and laboratories running all the tests, working overtime to turn around results in 5 hours “just in case” anyone is ill. Okay that’s a good thing if there really is a pandemic, but come on?! We’ve got more of a pandemic wrt allergies to food and plants than the flu.
And, what about the pandemic wrt humans lying? Or humans being cruel? Or humans never experiencing honest love? Okay, I’ve got more than a sword to swoosh on these more mindful topics, but really is anything so different? It’s all about creating a separation rather than creating a unity which we sorely need. [And, admittedly is difficult to engender when so much pain and unexpressed grief permeates the world.]
The crime of poverty is almost too much to bear witness to if one is not compassionate. Watch how many “Americans” look the other way when crossing the path of a panhandler, at home or abroad.
Sex and drugs require no formal education, so the light shines for those desparate to get out of their poverty and viola, trafficking and prostitution arises. I have no opinion one way or the other regarding this path, mainly because if we examine our own behaviors, eventually we will see just how each one of us trafficks and prostitutes.
And, besides, some illegal stuff should be legal and vice versa. Such a loss of wisdom in society in general making us all work with myriad laws instead of applying common sense and discernment.
For example, a couple of years ago, the drug companies were/or still are trying to legislate and make VIT C and VIT D prescription drugs. What next – Oranges and Broccoli?