No More Tenencia?

For those of you who do not have the privelege of owning a vehicle in Mexico, this will be of little interest. For those that do, you probably know it already: in Mexico we have to pay a tenencia, or tax just to own a car. This on top of all the other taxes that one must pay in Mexico, this great land where those that pay taxes (30% of the population) pay for the other 70% who either evade taxes completely – those at the top end of the economic spectrum with good fiscal lawyers – and those who are ‘too poor’  at the bottom, because ‘ay poooobres‘ the government and politicians feel sorry for them.  They don’t want to help them, educate, raise the minimum wage, whatever; but they do feel sorry for them. And so they don’t pay taxes either.

Once again I digress. I was talking about the tenencia.

In a nutshell, it is a tax that is based on the value of the car and decreases as the car ages. Implemented in the late 1960’s to pay for the Mexico City Olympics, it turned into such a cash cow that it never went away.

There has been talk about the tax being unconstitutional and the voices, during the 20 years I have lived here, have become louder and more strident; this tax is obsolete ie the Olympics have been paid for many times over , it is unconstitutional and should be abolished for once and for all.

In the last presidential election campaign, Felipe Calderón promised to eliminate this tax. Today I received an email that explains that he has eliminated the tax at the federal level and has left it up to each state to decide whether or not they want to continue charging this tax. This is why, in a bold and rare move, the state government of Queretaro has eliminated the tenencia tax altogether. Finally, some good news!

So if you are here in the Yucatan and wondering why we pay this onerous tax, know that it is now in the hands of our governor, not Felipe Calderón.

Dzibilchaltun Museum is an Embarassment

As I alluded to on William Lawson's Driving blog, yesterday I took some folks to Dzibilchaltun. I had told them about the site and it's small but well.put-together museum.

I was shocked at the state of the museum: it is literally falling apart around the exhibits. Not that you are going to get hit in the head with falling plaster, but you may stumble a bit on the floor, which is made of wooden slats which have either rotted or fallen prey to an insect invasion, known here as comejen, that make it sag and uneven. Some of the wooden slats have been crudely replaced by someone with about as much skill in carpentry as I have, using approximate-sized replacement unfinished wooden strips nailed down with the flair of an 8 year old backyard fort builder. Other slats are covered with pieces of carpeting; the sag you feel as you step on them makes you feel you are on the dance floor of the Mambo Café.

Looking up, it is evident that the finishing coat of cement has fallen off in places, leaving rebar and concrete roofing material exposed. Also, while you are gazing up that way, note that the illumination is at about 30% capacity ie. 70% of the lightbulbs are burnt out or off. In any case, they are not working, and many of the exhibits suffer from this lack of proper illumination.

It seems both a shame and a disgrace that the INAH does not or cannot maintain this building that must have hundreds of visitors each week, especially during this 'high' season (and the just finished Christmas holidays which saw Yucatan's attractions mobbed by tourists both national and international) and now that Dzibilchaltun is on the cruise ship excursion map.

Very embarrassing, and as a Yucatecan - according to the definition proposed by Tony in the Diario de Yucatan a few weeks ago, a Yucatecan is everyone that resides here and contributes, in one form or another, to the political, social or commercial life of the Yucatan - I find it unacceptable that our so-called authorities show such disdain towards this important showcase for Mayan and Yucatecan culture.

Juan Luis Guerra in Merida

In a word, fantastic!!!

In spite of the blurriness you see in the iPhone photo (hopefully Steve will include a decent camera at some point in his newest iPhone) the concert was very sharp indeed.

He started almost on time, around 9:30, under a clear, cool, moonlit sky and performed for almost 2 hours to a very enthusiastic Merida audience in the crappy Kukulkan baseball stadium. I kept thinking, it sure is nice of him to come here; I mean he is truly world class and here he is playing this dinky place. I also felt bad for the people up in the bleachers, who must have seen just a speck.

The music was absolutely perfect, as was the sound and simple lighting. The musicians had their moment in the middle of the concert, performing an extended demo of their percussion talents and doing a bit of Michael Jacksons' Thriller dance, complete with white gloves.

Juan Luis himself was friendly and his voice is just as good as 20 years ago, when he was first noticed by yours truly.

All in all, a great night out!

Let's Get a Grippe

I'm no doctor, so don't look to me for medical advice.

Did you, dear reader, know that last year, in the US alone, and according to the CDC, 36,000 people died of flu-like symptoms? I read that this morning on CNN.

We don't know how many in Mexico or even if anyone's counting of course, but there's probably a number out there and its more than 1000.

Let's lighten up, shall we?


CNN

Mobile Blogging from here.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

(thanks to my esteemed colleague from Cape Cod for the Grip vs Grippe headline modification)

Things I love about here - Mangos

My therapist thinks that my neurotic posts are working, but is suggesting that I also accentuate the positive, as I see it.

There's nothing better than coming home from work on a scorching 40 degree day, with a throat parched from the 40 plus degree Yucatan heat and finding a stash of cold, ripe bright orange with a hint of green mangos in the fridge! I like to eat 5 or 6 at a time, leaning over the kitchen sink with sticky mango juice running down my chin and forearms, taking in that sweet pungent nectar and savouring rapturously their soft exotic flesh...

And no amount of flossing seems to want to remove those tiny little fibers from between my front teeth!

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

The Blogger Summit

I had the opportunity to meet some fine folks who write blogs about their lives in Mexico at a recent get-together that saw bloggers attend from here in Merida and also Cancun, Playa and Isla Mujeres. It's actually still going on as I type this. The common thread is that we were all foreigners writing, in one form or another, about life here in Mexico!

There was a half-day of presentations which I found interesting, especially the parts about making money with your blog (forget about it) and finding inspiration. My inspiration has always been kick started by something that really gets under my skin ie pisses me off, but this made me think about other, less energetically angry motivations to write.

After the presentations there was a cantina lunch at La Ruina, which the Casual Restaurant Critic comments on himself so there's not much point in going on about it here. If you've ever been to a cantina, you know that you can do much of your entertainment shopping (CDs, DVDs) there as well as having your shoes polished or perhaps buy smokes or candy from outside salespeople off the street. What really stuck out was the enthusiasm shown by many at the table for the pirate DVDs offered at the cantina. I'm not saying it's only Mexicans that buy pirata, just that it came as a surprise to see that level of interest.

Thanks to Theresa for setting all this up - I think I am going to invite Jorgito next time there is one of these blogger meet-ups!! I'm sure he would have a blast.

NotTheNews Commentary on US Presidential Candidates

That NotTheNews occasionally dabbles in foreign affairs is not new; this particular entry takes a glimpse at the contenders for the US presidential race, the results of which will assuredly affect everyone around the globe, as much as George W. Bush has negatively affected the world in the eight years he has been undermining any chance of international goodwill towards the United States by the rest of the citizens of the beleaguered planet.

Talk about your run-on sentences. And I write this knowing full well that there will be at least one reader who disagrees with me on some of this.

For purposes of clarification: NotTheNews is atheist, does not support the Republicans at any time and is generally wary of all American foreign policy; military, economic or political, seeing that for the most part, they have proven to be destructive and poorly thought out.

Barack H. Obama - The official candidate of the NotTheNews editorial team; his recent declarations deploring the Reverend Jeremiah Wright for 'inflammatory' statements selected carefully and with malicious intent from by the US corporate media are, in the opinion of the afore-mentioned NotTheNews editorial team, a blatant sellout to the brainless sector of American society that cannot think for themselves beyond the 5 second sound bite and take offense at the Reverend's words.

In the humble and completely irrelevant opinion of this writer, the fact that Sen. Obama has to pander to the ignorant instead of standing up for free speech and perhaps even inviting the American public to take a closer look at what the Reverend said, in what context and how much of it may be - however remotely and however unpopular - close to the view held by many of the citizens of the world. The truth hurts, the American public in general can not face it (there's another sale at Macy's!!!) and Obama has cheapened his position in siding with the sheep in this case.

Hillary R. Clinton - The second choice of the NotTheNews team, the senator from New York who never lived there much has blown her chance of any endorsement by this website by declaring recently that if Israel was attacked by Iran, she would 'obliterate' the latter. To make such an irresponsible statement when you have two unpopular presidents - el loco Bush in the US and el loco Ahmadinejad in Iran - rattling those proverbial sabers, is pandering to the macho element in American society who still believe that a woman cannot be strong militarily. Being as ignorant as many are of international politics, perhaps they have never heard of Margaret Thatcher. In any case, more than for reasons of pandering to the thick-necked, thick skulled, NRA membership, the comment by la Hillary is downright dangerous and will surely make Americans even more popular abroad. It also reinforces this writer's idea that Hillary is just another old, white American business-as-usual politician who will continue with the same America First policies, the rest of the world be damned, that have characterized American foreign policy since the Spanish-American war.

John McCain - While the Democrats fight amongst themselves, this Republican former 'maverick' who ran against Bush in 2000 has, in some sort of Frankenstein-sells-off-parts-of-himself process, become another person altogether, completely at odds with his former, thinking self. Where he was once against torture (having endured it as a POW himself) he now supports all those delightful tactics that Rumsfeld, Cheney et al have come to call 'aggressive interrogation' methods, including the charming activity known as water-boarding or simulated drowning. He is all for the war and has declared that the US could be in Iraq for the next 100 years. Back in 2000, he openly opposed the idiots on the fundamentalist religious right; now he has pandered (there's that word again) to them by seeking and obtaining - among other lunatics in that vein - the Rev. Hageys endorsement.
In short, McCain is now a Bush/Cheney clone, has seen the light ($$) and has sold out big time.

The conclusion is that so far, in order to reach as many possible voters as possible, all the candidates have taken positions that they were perhaps originally less than eager to embrace, all in the name of getting more votes. And the common denominator seems to be the lack of intelligence among the majority of the American electorate who have been shielded from any real discussion about the effect of US policy on the rest of the world, or indeed, of their own history. And so, each candidate 'dumbs down' his position, watering it down, chewing and re-chewing until it becomes palatable and digestible to the infants charged with electing their next glorious leader.

All the rest of the world can do is watch. And hope.

Link: Bill Moyers on Rev J. Wright

Great Service - Gasolinera Maya

Here is a note about some really nice folks - the staff at the Gasolinera Maya Pemex station on the highway to Progreso (the one that has a crappy 7-11 on the premises).

This gas station has always struck me and my better half as being leagues above the norm in customer service. When you arrive at the pump, the greet you with a smile and "welcome to the Gasolinera Maya" and they actually look like they are happy to see you. They are also one of the first gas stations with a remote credit card terminal so you can pay with debit or credit cards from the comfort of your vehicle.

Yesterday, I filled up one car and paid with my debit card. 2 hours later, I stopped by again with a second vehicle and had that one filled up as well. When I tried to pay with the debit card, there was a communication problem with the terminal and, after two attempts, I tried with the credit card. None went through. Not having any cash on me and with no ATM around, I half-jokingly said, "well, you know who I am, I can come back later and pay you". And guess what? That's exactly what happened! These people just asked me to sign a small slip of paper, leave my name and number and to come back later when the terminal was working again!

I have got to say I was blown away by their confianza and goodwill! I would rate their customer service, on a scale of 1 to 10, at a solid 10. Don't subject yourself to indifferent or bad service (Servicio Campestre, across from Sam's is a consistent and depressing -1 on the service scale, for example) by buying your gasoline anywhere else!

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