A few weeks ago tourists were cautioned about holidaying in Mexico because the drug cartels were fighting for cocaine turf. Today the legal drug called Tamiflu is ten times hotter than their wares.
Young tourists put aside their fears of the drug cartels and went holidaying in Cancun, Mexico, last month. Today, for fear of the pig flu, only crazies are heading to Cancun this week for sea, sand, and…salt air.
Mexico closed down this week. Human lives are paramount, but there are also major economic issues in play here. To keep business flowing Mexico needs to nip the disease in the bud, hence the draconian response to shut the nation down.
On the local front it will be very interesting to see how our GoB (after all the talk) will respond to the new threat, at the National Agriculture and Trade Show this weekend. For starters they should put in 20 more standpipes (easy, easy to put in, in one day), set under loud posters extolling the virtues/importance of washing hands and face, and there should be nurses stationed at all the entry points to screen out folks who are showing signs of any kind of influenza. That’s for the starters.
Ah, it is said that the common influenza brought to the New World by the Spaniards was far more lethal to the native peoples than their gunpowder and greed. And going back a few hundred years, there is the thought that it was disease that caused the ancient Mayas to abandon their cities. Watching the world’s reaction to this outbreak of swine flu, that argument does seem plausible.
Final thoughts here are way out in left field. Sometime ago I read two exceedingly interesting books by a doctor/archaeologist named Thomas(?)Gann (courtesy of Mrs. Meg Craig), who traveled this area in the 1920’s. If I remember correctly, all the literature on the ancient Mayas (including Gann’s) claim that they abandoned their cities around 1000 A.D.
But what if the Mayas abandoned their cities as recently as…1492? What if it was the flu brought over by the Spaniards that caused the fall of the so-called ancient Mayas? Could abandoned temples have been taken over by forest in as little as one hundred years? Out here in marl country where I live that idea doesn’t seem so crazy. Marl won’t support citrus and coconuts, but kraabu and black berry and fiddlewood and a thousand other kinds of trees and shrubs thrive in it. Those temples made out of marlstones would have given way to the jungle very quickly. When Gann and his crowd started excavating in the early part of the twentieth century those temples would have been under jungle for four hundred years.
Aha, Dr. Jaime Awe and his colegas aren’t sure why the ancient Mayas abandoned their cities. Well, as you can see I too have my two cents….though it may be so far out in left field it is from the bleachers.
By the way, if they ask you why Cortez didn’t report on them temples, tell them he was too busy searching for gold.
A whopping thousand, not a measly 100.
Remember how the UDP used to be about bleating over every little transgression of the PUP? Well in 2009, same shoe, different foot! Every week now the PUP is about complaining that the UDP is having a free ride with the national treasury. They want the media to take on the new government. They say that the new government has already received its 100 days grace period. The PUP is mistaken. 100 days of freedom is as American as apple pie. 1000 days is what we give our leaders, to punish their enemies, and take advantage of the rest of us.
Braa, where was the PUP when we told them to cut the interminable 5-year term to 4 years? No, they preferred to play games with an absolutely waste of time mechanism called an Elected Senate. Whiners in blue suits, you miss the sense. This here country is not America. They have a sensible four-year term, not a marathon drain-them-to-the-last- drop five years. In America, governments get 100 days free run for their four-year government. The extra year in Belize is the straw that killed the camel. It’s rated exponential. Put that extra year on a scale and you will find it is ten times heavier than the previous four, hence the 1000 days free ride over here for all mortals who are touched by the magic wand on election day.
Wow, did you see last week the, ehm, threats to use force to cut short the government’s five years? They’ll be a long time a hollering, ‘cause this red thing won’t end in five years. When the UDP run things it is the age of the pig — 5 years…plus three months, plus three weeks, and three days.
If it is any consolation to the blue shirts, they won’t be bawling alone. But in the midst of non-aligned howls for mercy from our interminable governments there’ll be shouts of “we told you so.” Unfortunately that’s no real consolation.
Some no-name author
Well there I was, like most of you, so happy that some obscure author got his day in the sun when Mr. Chavez of Venezuela presented Mr. Obama of the USA with his book. Turns out that Mr. Obscure is Eduardo Galeano, probably the most read author this side of Mark Twain. It is amazing how these big US networks acted like they hadn’t heard about him before.