Guanajuato, Mexico -- Delusions Upon Delusions

The insane philosophical relativism I wrote about a few posts back is never more clearer than in the Gringolandian Mantra, "It is safe in Mexico because I've never felt safer in my life here." Feelings, not facts, is what gives the Gringolandian the fortitude to move to Mexico and live oblivious to the reality of what it is really like.

This oblivion is evident in the following:

Whenever a Gringolandian hears of anything that might smack of being a possible criminal event like "these thugs kept following us signaling to each other with whistles..." "We had to ditch it into a store..." the very first thing the Gringolandian says in response is:

May I ask: what time this occurred? Did you file police reports? Is there a way for you to get a government official to increase police presence? If the M.O. is the same, can the police be pressured into looking for specific people? Could you have taken a photo of their faces with your cell phone? Do you have a self-defence plan in place?

I can just hear the entire population of Mexican civilians laughing their heads off at two of the phrases:

1. Did you file a police report?
2. ...can the police be pressured into looking for specific people?

This is so typical of the culturally challenged Gringo. For reasons I cannot possibly explain, the Gringo comes to Mexico and expect EVERYTHING to work here as it did in America.

The FACTS are that Mexicans do not trust the police. In fact, they don't trust politicians, police, or judges.

The typical Gringolandian's response is, "call the police." The typical Mexican response is, "If the police and judges are corrupt, just to whom do we tell about our muggings, rapes, shootings, etc..."

One of Mexico's newspaper groups, The Reforma, conducted a survey. The participants were asked to rate their country's institutions on a "corruption scale." Zero would be no corruptions and ten would be the most corrupt.

On a score of 7-10 on the corruption scale to various institutions went as follows:

Politicians -- 87% of those polled gave a score of 7-10, up from 81% eight years ago
Police -- 80%
Union leaders -- 79%
Judges -- 71%
Lawyers -- 69%
Bureaucrats -- 65%
Business executives -- 59%
Priests -- 40%, up from 28% seven years ago
Journalists -- 39%, up from 33% eight years ago
Doctors -- 35%

Because the Mexican people do not trust the police or any aspect of the judicial or legislative process, how can there ever be the establishment of the rule of law?

Mexicans do not themselves call the police. Because they have no confidence in them they do not call for Protection from criminal activity.

So, why then does the Gringo jump on the "Let's call the police" bandwagon in response to criminal activity?

One forum poster makes this observation:

A few years ago I worked with groups in a nice hotel in San Francisco near the Tenderloin. I would tell people to be careful when they went out the front door. They must turn LEFT and could enjoy a stroll. But, they must NOT turn right or risk being mugged within a few blocks. For some reason Americans believe that ALL foreign cities must be totally safe and are offended when they find that the new country is just like home -- there are degrees of safety from neighborhood2neighborhood which one can ignore only at great risk. If you must walk at night, walk where there are plenty of people and lights.