Other events are caused by external factors. We don’t really have control over them from happening or not, but we can control somehow the effect that they have on our lives. War or a natural disaster is an example. The death of a loved one is another.

July 11, 1995 is one of my milestone dates. It is when Little Johnny was officially pronounced death.

It is the day I lost my father; and it is also the day I lost a substantial degree of trust in others. Especially when it comes to trusting other people with that which is very important to me, as would be the life of someone I love.

Looking back, I now realize that on that sad day I also lost other things: the opportunity of seeing my father as a grandfather to my daughter, nephew and niece; and what I am sure would have been the best piece of advice I could possibly receive on some of the most challenging moments I have experienced in the last 14 years.

Wherever you are Little Johnny I miss you.

I always will.

TheCatalist is a fantastic idea from someone who knows the power of creating possibilities, especially possibilities for a positive change. In this case, the aim is to empower the relation between Mexico and the USA through a change in the existing conversation. As simple as that.

I feel very proud to have been invited to be part of a project which has so much potential. My contribution consisted in doing what I love most: advising on the communications strategy and building up the blog that is the core of the project.

I invite you to take a look and contribute with your ideas and suggestions.

The blog is available in English at TheCatalist.org and in Spanish at ElCatalista.org.

Of course all European airlines reacted angrily to this and I join them happily in their revolt against the French request. No, really. Can someone explain to me how exactly imposing such a ban will help stop something that has already spread globally?

Have they not stopped to think for one minute that such a move would leave thousands of European tourists stranded in Mexico? Or are they stupid enough to think that any serious airline in the world would agree to having transatlantic flights with empty aircrafts just to bring back passengers?

I ignore how many Mexicans live in Europe [and how many Europeans live in Mexico], but I assume that we are well into the hundreds of thousands. And believe me; not one single one of us would like to learn that there is no way to reach Mexico and our loved ones in case of need, just because some Bachelot frog woman says so.

Fortunately, EU Health Commissioner, Cypriot Andrulla Vassiliou, said no to the French proposal for a Europe-wide ban and left each member country to impose its own restrictions.

About the only thing Mrs Vassiliou has done right so far, considering that Cyprus’ pharmacies are out of stock of Tamiflu, while we are being reassured by the EU Commission and the Cyprus government that the whole of the European Union is ready for a health emergency.

And last time I checked, Cyprus was part of the EU.

Does this mean that before Obama took office, the problem was seen by the gringos as one strictly confined to anything south of the border? As if once the drugs cross the Rio Grande they magically distribute themselves among the hundreds of thousands of American users, leaving the U.S. authorities free of responsibility for any of the 6,000+ drug-trade related violent acts that occurred in Mexico last year!

Not acknowledging this as a common problem would be as stupid as the persistence of my ex-boss that the only way to stop it is to legalize drugs. This is the typical opinion of those who have no idea of what goes on in the world beyond their noses, and who do not have the vision to see that there is a huge gap between theory and practice. It is also the opinion of your average cokehead.

In theory, through legalization governments would tax and regulate the drug trade and use the money generated from this to educate the public about the risks of drug-taking and to treat addicts. In theory, legalization would push prices down as drugs would become easily available and because reputable pharmaceutical companies would get involved in the development and distribution of safe and cheap alternatives.

Ha ha ha. What I would like to see is the implementation process of this theory.

Let’s say that Mexico decides to legalize drugs and by definition the drug trade. Then what? Mr. Drug Baron, who is already paying hefty bribes on both sides of the border to run his business and has a complicated network that goes all the way from producing to distributing and pushing, agrees with this ‘wonderful’ idea and goes legal?

So he registers “Fumate Un Churro S.A.” in Mexico and “Fly High Inc.” in the U.S.A. Enrolls his gangsters in the IMSS (social security), exchanges their guns for business cards, starts raising invoices, paying taxes and allowing the government to regulate the selling price of this produce? All this to see his revenues and profits plummet because the demand is not there anymore as Pfizer and Novartis are producing safer and cheaper alternatives to good’ol coke and marihuana?

Ha ha ha. Wake up and smell the coffee! Legalizing drugs without getting rid of the drug cartels first will only give users a cheaper ride to lah-lah-land and will increase the violence exponentially.

And unless you have a magic wand to transform all the bad guys into toads, I don’t really see that happening anytime soon.

Addendum 28/03/09: Since I publish this blog on Facebook, that’s where I receive a great number of comments to my posts from my closer friends. For this particular post, a good friend made a comment that I found very interesting, and I believe it deserves a place here together with my reply:

JF:

Great!!! Acknowledging that drug trafficking is a common issue is a powerful way of clearing the space for any possible further and joint collaboration between the two countries. Now, what do we want to create on this issue given the clear space we have?

My reply:

How about having the Americans commit to selling to someone else the top-notch weapons that have been empowering the drug cartels? Hey! How about giving those weapons to the Mexican drug squads instead so that they can fight on equal grounds with the gangsters? … and how about if the Americans lend us their international agents, specialized in finding the really bad guys (the ones that found Sadam Hussein, please, not the ones that are still looking for Osama Bin Laden) to locate the drug barons? This way you leave the ‘little guys’ headless and under-armed and easier to control … and then, Hillary can come down with the 3 Black Hawks she so kindly suggests to donate to fight the drug war, and can take some lovely aerial pictures of a safer Mexico.

Por ejemplo, ahora todo lo que me parece “muy padre” resulta que ya no es “padre” sino “chido”, pero según yo “chido” solo lo decía Luis de Alba (¿o era Alejandro Suárez?) y sonaba mas bien como “¡chiiiiiiidoooo!”

Luego hay otras palabras que yo ya no sé si pasaron de moda o si de plano nunca lo estuvieron pues cada vez que las oigo siento como si alguien me gritara ¡chiiiiiiidoooo! bien fuerte en el oído.

A ver, cuando salíamos del cine hablábamos de los buenos y los malos de la película. ¿O es que recuerdas alguna vez haber usado “héroe” y “villano” o “heroína” y “villana” cuando hablabas de los protagonistas? ¿Verdad que para nada?

¿O es que ya no se dice “para nada”?

Lo siento en el alma, pero la heroína NO es buena y la única villana de la que yo me acuerdo es Catalina Creel. ¡Esa si era bien chida!

De torear albures hablaré en otra ocasión. Y no se apene si tiene alguna pregunta de atrás tiempo no dude en hacer mela saber.

A mi hija siempre le gusto Tatiana, tanto que hace un par de años cuando tuvo que hacer un proyecto de clase de música, lo hizo de ella. A la maestra le debe de haber parecido muy folklórica una treintona vestida como niña de 7 años, pues ¡escogió el proyecto para publicarlo en el anuario de la escuela!

En fin, que hace unos días el CD apareció en el coche y nos pusimos a oírlo. Mas bien, yo por primera vez en mi vida me puse a ESCUCHARLO, ¡y que divertida me puse!

Lo que concluí después de 45 minutos es que el vocabulario de canciones infantiles mexicanas es más avanzado que el mío. A ver, mi juego favorito cuando era chica era “Doña Blanca” (por razones obvias), pero “¿quien es ese jicotillo que anda en pos de Doña Blanca?” digo, en serio, ¿qué carambas en un jicotillo?

Buscando en Google me encontré con que parece ser que un jicotillo es un gran avispón. ¿Un gran avispón? ¡No, no es posible! Yo cada vez que pienso en un gran avispón me acuerdo de Pistachón ZigZag, y ese, según yo, andaba en pos de Mafafa Musguito (¿o era ese Patas Verdes?) En mi cabeza infantil (y ahora cuarentona) un jicotillo tiene cara de lobo-perro. Lo siento, de esa no me saca nadie.

Otra: ¿qué significa “Sololoy”? Esa fue pregunta de mi hija. Ya sabes la casita a donde te vas cuando toca la marcha y tu pecho llora. Según yo era una casita soleada, ó lo que pasaba es que el cantante era tartamudo. Alguien dice que es sololoy una especie de plástico … ¿será?

¿Y que tal que al niño de “a la rorro” que llora por que perdió una manzana no le darás una, sino dos, pero tiene que ir por ellas a San Juan de Dios? Según yo las buenas manzanas son de Zacatlán, pero claro que mi mamá es Poblana y debo estar un poco influenciada.

Y para concluir este rollo los dejo con un mega-cursi homenaje al Tío Gamboín presentado nada más y nada menos que por ¡Tatiana!

No me fallen amiguitos …

Por favor chequen los pantalones de Mijares … las greñas de las de Flans (¡ni se diga las de Amanda Miguel y su gorrito!) y las mega-hombrereras de las Timbirichas. Es un verdadero homenaje a los 80s, y aunque la calidad del video es muy mala y la verdad es que yo nunca habia oído la canción – que es de lo mas cursi del mundo – espero lo disfruten y los haga sonreir muy Navideñamente.

“!Repiiiiican laaaas campaaaanas …!”

American-Cuban security consultant Felix Batista spent some time last week in the northern Mexican city of Saltillo, in the state of Coahuila, giving talks to the state police on public security. That’s, after all, what he does for a living. But, he is now missing himself; allegedly the victim of a kidnap by a drug gang wanting to show their power.

Batista has played a key role in negotiations of around 90 kidnap cases in Latin America. I’ve read reports that he almost ‘voluntarily” got into the van that the kidnappers used to take him away. He was not negotiating any kidnap case at the time and no ransom has been demanded since.

So what is really going on? At this moment, only the kidnappers and Batista himself know the answer. Let’s hope that he practices as he preaches and manages to get himself out of this one. If he does, I cannot think of a better PR tool for his consultancy career.

If he doesn’t, this will be yet another sad reminder that things in Mexico are not anymore what they used to be. And that those who have the power today are not the ones that are supposed to have it.

Unfortunately.

Terry, Bip y la Princesa Amanecer siempre huyendo y visitando lugares exóticos – y Cascarrabias insistiendo siempre en quererlos convertir en picadillo.

Un gruñón hecho y derecho. Que junto con Gargamel de los Pitufos y el Eco-Loco de Odisea Burbujas fueron para muchos de nosotros los primeros malvados enojones de los que tenemos recuerdo.

¿A poco no?

A poco no? La diferencia es que son millones de jugadores los que pasaron a las catafixias y solamente tienen dos en lugar de tres puertas a escoger, y de paso nos tienen a billones de espectadores en ascuas esperando a ver si se deciden por la puerta correcta!

Es algo asi como que cada gringo con derecho al voto ya se sacó una “dotación completa de productos Marinela” – es decir, un montón de basura que ha sido azucarada y empaquetada para que se crean que es “good for them”.

Detras de la Puerta #1 se encuentra una “fabulosa dotación completa de productos Ricolino”, en pocas palabras: más de lo mismo!

Pero tras la Puerta #2 hay nada más y nada menos …. señoras y señores … niñas y niños …. chan-chan-chan-chan-le-che-con-pan: una flamante sala – comedor de Muebles Troncoso!!!!!

Si, lo sé, la verdad es que a mi también me gustaría mas que hubiera una flamante bicicleta y la colección completa de juguetes Mi Alegría … pero, hay que ser realistas … esperemos que el resultado de estas elecciones mejore la situación, no que Obama haga milagros!

Y mientras esperamos ansiosos el resultado de las elecciones, los dejo con otro recuerdito del pasado dedicado a aquellos que, como yo, se despertaban tarde los domingos!