manzanilla´s so called water crisis
Posted by julio antonio on February 27, 2018, 9:06 pm
Oh, no! The folks on the hill can´t fill their pools. Property values are at risk. My amigo, Lionel, who supports his family by selling cookies and pie de casa to the tourists on the beach, is one of the people who has to buy water. He pays 150 pesos for 1000 liters. It is a big bill for him. It is insignificant for the extranjeros who travel first class getting to their ostentatious dachas where they will party away the winter. If one was to conserve water like Lionel´s family does, reusing the gray water to flush the toilet and to water the plants, 1000 liters would be enough for one person for most of a month. The crisis isn´t water. It is capitalist economics - high unemployment and low wages. Tamarindo´s peones, transported through town in the back of trucks while the happy hour gang takes sunset pictures, are paid 200 pesos for their 10 hour day. The morena coloured maids clean the white people´s baños for even less. I asked Lionel what he does when winter ends and the Canadian and American tourists head north. He said he adds more water to the frijoles. There is room at the top they are telling you still. But first you must learn how to smile as you kill. If you want to live like the folks on the hill. - John Lenin, lyrics Working Class Hero, 1970 | ------------------------Re: manzanilla´s so called water crisis
Posted by Daniel H on February 27, 2018, 10:25 pm, in reply to "manzanilla´s so called water crisis" Edited by board administrator March 1, 2018, 1:46 am
And where do you fit into the system? You with your computer and electricity and safe place to live. One persons ceiling is another persons floor, on and on it goes. You can't say the word capitalism without saying the word poor. It is in your world too Julio and I share your disdain, but for now its the way it works. In India the poor treat the poorer with just as much class division via the caste system. Seems the flaw is inherent in homo sapieans. Try this for want of water Some have very little yet come from a place of abundance. They look for and find joy, it is they I wish to emulate.
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Posted by beccistarr on February 28, 2018, 8:44 am, in reply to "Re: manzanilla´s so called water crisis"
This is why I wake up every day grateful to live in Boca de Iguanas. There are so many mean spirited people in LM. You live in Mexico on this beautiful bay and yet still stoke the fires of hate. No one is a victim...you either get it or you don’t. I have often been treated badly on this board by folks who didn’t agree with my opinion or more often didn’t share my environmental concerns but in Boca we ARE a community of various social economic levels...doesn’t stop us from working together with a smile. We had a water crisis and we...visitors, owners 5888788and locals solved it together. Those who could contributed money and those who couldn’t got an equal share without shaming one another. By the way Mexicans rarely read this board and most of the scholarship families don’t understand English but that didn’t prevent the entire program in the jardin being spoken English. Way to build bridges people. | ------------------------Re: manzanilla´s so called water crisis
Posted by DanHo on February 28, 2018, 9:05 am, in reply to "Re: manzanilla´s so called water crisis"
What I don't understand about this is why nearly half the water users are allowed to stay connected without paying their bills? Aren't you just subsidizing the cheats by covering the short fall they are causing? Same comment about the sewer problems. Would sewage be allowed to run in the streets of La Huerta? Do you have a water and sewer problem or do you actually have a government failure problem? While the spirit of volunteering is admirable I think we expats have to walk a fine line between dealing with unexpected one time issues versus enabling bad and corrupt governments to take the people's money and waste it or steal it. Just a thought and a caution based on living in an area where this problem is the norm. | ------------------------Re: manzanilla´s so called water crisis
Posted by Neal on February 28, 2018, 11:03 am, in reply to "Re: manzanilla´s so called water crisis"
I find the quote from John Lenin interesting. Wasn’t he shot, a great loss, right outside his apartment in The Dakota. The Dakota is the Manhattan equivalent of being on the hill. Danial I enjoyed your response to the original post. | ------------------------Re: manzanilla´s so called water crisis
Posted by beccistarr on February 28, 2018, 7:13 pm, in reply to "Re: manzanilla´s so called water crisis"
And you are saying this why???? It’s deplorable. John Lennon being murdered had nothing to do with The Dakota and The Dakota has nothing to do with the hill in LM. This is disturbing and inappropriately threatening. | ------------------------Re: manzanilla´s so called water crisi
Posted by Neal on February 28, 2018, 9:02 pm, in reply to "Re: manzanilla´s so called water crisis"
Beccistar not sure how you got threatening out of my post. Sorry you were offended. What I was trying to point out is that while Lennon wrote some lyrics critical of “people who live on the hill”. He himself was a person who lived on the Manhattan equivalent of the hill. I found it curious that the writer of the original post did not recognize the inherent conflict in choosing that quote. And this is why I try and refrain from participating. | ------------------------Re: manzanilla´s so called water crisis
Posted by Helga on March 1, 2018, 8:41 am, in reply to "Re: manzanilla´s so called water crisis"
“There are so many mean spirited people in La Manzanilla “... I am offended by this quote. I live here 30 years and love my Mexican and gringo neighbors. So many good people here. I am also glad you are living in Boca Becci. That makes 2 of us. | ------------------------Re: manzanilla´s so called water crisis
Posted by Pamala/Gregorio on March 1, 2018, 9:05 am, in reply to "Re: manzanilla´s so called water crisis"
Thank you Helga...I couldn’t agree with you more!!! | ------------------------Lionel is also grateful for...
Posted by Dean on February 28, 2018, 5:59 pm, in reply to "manzanilla´s so called water crisis"
Lionel tells me that he appreciates "the tips" he receives, and is grateful to all that give for his daughters college education. It appears that a great case of angst has entered your soul, sorry to see that happening to you... | ------------------------Re: manzanilla´s so called water crisis
Posted by Erin Strench on March 1, 2018, 9:47 am, in reply to "manzanilla´s so called water crisis"
I feel some what sorry for the ill informed and ignorant people of the world who spout crap without knowing the facts. Speaking for some of the hill people, when we filled out pool, it was done so by trucking each and every liter from Melaque and each time we run low on water again it is trucked in from Melaque at a cost of 900 pesos per load. That is my first point, second point, we pay twice the normal water charge just for having a pool. We accepted this when we build our home using local labor and materials. We support the community in a wide variety of means which include providing food to several families who are less fortunate. Why I explain this, and it is certainly not to praise myself but to point out that many of those hill side people do support the community. Although I somewhat question some of the local policies and politics, I don't sit and criticize them as this community has operated as it does for many years and we are only guests in their community. Should the elders of the community feel that there are abuses by expats, it is up to them to speak up. As I have never seen you weigh in on any subject prior to water issue, I am assuming that you are a foreigner who is just a critic regardless of the facts. Have you never heard that if you have nothing constructive to say, but out. I think your comments have been unwarranted and unfounded, and most importantly totally unappreciated. That is my two cents for what it is worth | ------------------------Re: manzanilla´s so called water crisis
Posted by beccistarr on March 2, 2018, 7:39 am, in reply to "Re: manzanilla´s so called water crisis"
Thank you Erin for speaking out ....you get it ...and many don’t. It’s a shame to blame and use “the hill” as a whipping post...people I know up there are quietly the angels of LM contributing $$$$ way beyond paying for their water bill. What have the complainers done to make the community a better place....I wonder???? | ------------------------Re: manzanilla´s so called water crisis
Posted by Larry F on March 2, 2018, 9:41 am, in reply to "Re: manzanilla´s so called water crisis"
The initiator of this post left me hanging with the image of truckloads of impoverished workers heading out to Tamarindo in the back of cattle trucks. The backdrop was of crowds of partying foreigners, cameras in hand, taking photos of sunsets. Personally, I don't party and haven't photographed a sunset in years. But was I somehow responsible for those who eat watered down beans? First, I must admit that the flood of northerners into town has stressed the water resources. Water resources are overtaxed in much of the world, but, with community effort and cooperation, can usually be resolved. I believe this to be happening here. But back to wages, which seemingly have only a remote connection to water. I cannot refute the claim that a worker at Tamarindo earns 200 pesos for 10-hour work day. 20 pesos an hour. I looked this up. The average hourly wage in Mexico - home to Carlos Slim, one of the world’s richest men - is 31.3 pesos. Factory workers fare slightly better. Do we dare comment on the working conditions, benefits and safety standards? There was mention of capitalism here. Like low wages and poor labour standards don't exist in communist China. It is worth noting that the probable failure of the NAFTA negotiations is the refusal of Mexico to begin bringing wage and labour standards in line with Canada and the US. Yes, the capitalist government of Mexico sets labour standards, not the sunset lover on the La Manzanilla beach. Interesting to note that Four Seasons is owned by Bill Gates and a Saudi zillionaire whose name is too long to put here. Not just capitalists, but the true rulers of the world. And me? I pay my local help three times a much as the Tamarindo worker. Not boasting, but is it my place to try change the system here? Think not. | ------------------------Re: manzanilla´s so called water crisis
Posted by Helga on March 2, 2018, 9:55 am, in reply to "Re: manzanilla´s so called water crisis"
Thanks Larry! You hit the nail on the head!7 | ------------------------ |
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