Did I say I didn't like living here? Does the blog not indicate somewhere, at some point, that this is a blog written from the POV of a Neurotic Foreigner? Are there no other neurotic foreigners in town? Is it all charming and lovely? Of course it isn't. It's not charming and lovely anywhere all the time.
If you are one of those folks - not necessarily living in a trailer park - who find my ramblings a little on the negative side and wish I would go away, I have a couple of suggestions:
- Don't read my blog! I know, I know, it's almost too obvious. But that's OK. I understand. Sometimes we don't see things when they are right in front of us. While this may seem painfully obvious to most regular people, perhaps you feel compulsively compelled to keep reading even though you know it's damaging your psyche, your eyesight and causing you irreparable trauma that will require years of psychotherapy to unravel...
- Browse around the internet for other reading options. There are at least two nice, white-bread websites - one is a government site that is SOO useful - that will cheerfully validate your tortured decision to come and live here. What my blog does is just look at it all from the viewpoint of the admittedly neurotic foreigner. I am a neurotic! I am not normal! Wake up!
Thank you.
7 comments:
I have been reading Not the News since a year or so before I moved to the Yucatan, so maybe seven years now. I have laughed out loud at some of your observations and I have generally agreed with your columns. Yucatan is far from a perfect place and provides a wonderful backdrop for amusement, bemusement, and frustration. It is an area that seems, to an outsider, to run on a combination of superstition, stubbornness and gossip.
As to those who attack if you point out something they may not agree with, I feel this is a peculiar phenomenon that has become very prevalent in the last ten years. I have particularly noticed it among Americans who feel that if you are not thinking exactly as they are thinking then one of you is wrong. I observed this on some Mexico and Merida forums when it was suggested that moving to Mexico and or Merida is not always a good idea. Being wrong is somehow equivalent to being “less than” or simply bad. This attitude has not only permeated all the “hot” discussions (politics, religion, global warming) but also any other possible discussion. Is a restaurant a private or public space, for example? Somehow you have put some people on the defensive who question themselves on whether they made a “wrong” decision to move here. They would prefer to be told that this is paradise and that everyone who lives here is happy all the time. To tell them otherwise is to invite anonymous attacks.
Keep up the observations. I for one agree with you so we must be right.
Charlotte Montague
What can I say. I am very flattered to think that you have been reading my rants for the past 7 years... thank you.
I also have noticed an alarming inrease in this PUT UP OR SHUT UP/MOVE OUT mentality, not so much here but in online discussions with friends in the US, especially on any subject involving Republicans and Democrats. It's like a nascent xenophobic hysteria that completely shuts down any discussion. There's no way around it.
Thank you for your comments!
Totally agree with you...
Love it or leave it.
Me too have been following you at least for 6 years or so, ever since the old "Not the news"...
Hey Maloso, now that I have this blogging stuff understood, I am going to town! Charlotte hit the nail on the head with her comments. She is a wise woman.
Just as an aside, I am missing your witty comments about restaurants as there does not seem to be anything current. I know you have said dwindling resources and an expanding waistline have deterred you recently, however, my friend, having met you briefly the other day, thinks you are drop dead gorgeous anyway!
Well aren't you just the nicest! I know my Better Half will feel validated with her choice of life partner upon reading your comment!
The Critic, my even grumpier alter-ego did 3 reviews for October, did you get to read those? I'm sure you did.
Thanks for the comment!!
I am another reader over many years. Many. And I've found it all to be: 1) very true accurate depiction of craziness and 'normality' in Yucatan. 2) highly entertaining. And, the restaurant reviews ... are Great! Why is it so darned hard to find Good Service and Good (even edible) Food in the same place?
Yucatecos are wonderful people. Is it just a poor management? Maybe someday we'll all discover the answer.
I appreciate all the work you put into this. Keep it up. This neurotic loves the company!
Wow. Thank you!
Post a Comment