This morning I read of the tragic and senseless murder of yet another Canadian in Mexico, U.B.C. student, Ximena Osegueda, found stabbed, strangled and bound on a beach in Huatulco, Mexico, a growing tourist destination on the south Pacific coast - this coming only days after the killing of another B.C. resident, Robin Wood in Melaque, Mexico.
But what struck me about this event was actually a comment by JeffCa:
Who is to blame for all of this? Us rich "civilised" people who like to indulge in a little bit of marijuana or cocaine. Our demand for these drugs fuels this crime, and we somehow find a way to blame it on the "uncivilised" Mexicans, the ones who work to supply our demand. These drugs should be treated like blood diamonds and avoided. But I guess people don't mind if somebody "down south" gets killed, as long as they can get their fix.
He's completely correct, obviously. There is no way that the relatively impoverished Mexican citizens could fuel the greed and terror resulting from the Mexican drug trade without the complicity of wealthy North Americans.
And - rest assured - that this drug trade is not being fueled by the evil and hated "1%". Yes, I'm sure that there are many CEO's out there who are regular users of cocaine and marijuana.. but 1% of the population can only snort so much blow. No - the real responsibility rests with the rest of us, the so-called "victims" of economic inequality..
Who see nothing wrong in smoking week to calm our nerves or to lift our spirits.
Who see no big deal about a little coke here and there to make a good time a little better.
No big deal.
And while the papers love to jump on the populist bandwagon and spout off about obscene CEO salaries and how, again, the economic gap between the rich and the poor keeps growing - they ignore the obvious reality that both the Mexican drug lords and the hated CEO's of the big corporations are, at the end of the day, fed by the 99%.
Like a bunch of pampered and spoiled Dr. Frankensteins, we build the monster and give it life, and then get all indignant over the power the monster wields. The power that we gave it.
Sure.. we have a few Woodstock throw-backs who camp out in city parks holding up signs demanding that someone... that is SOMEONE ELSE.. does something about the wrongs of the world - but at the end of the day, when the rubber hits the road.. the REAL 99% are, more or less, content to maintain the status quo.
Which is fine, I guess, if the majority want Apple and Microsoft and WalMart and Coca-cola and IBM and Mexican drug dealers to keep making the money they make, I suppose, that's how democracy works.
But stop with the complaining about the society that we elect by our actions every day of the week.
And news media, get your head out of your asses and recognize this reality as well.
At the end of the day, if we're really offended by how much a CEO with TD Canada Trust is making, cancel your VISA, move your account to a Credit Union. If you believe that the building of pipelines to the U.S. or to the Pacific Coast is truly wrong, ride a bike, walk, or at least use public transit and sell your car or truck. Stop smoking weed. Stop shopping at WalMart.
But - if your plan is to wine and complain and as OTHER people to change the world and make things different - well, sorry, but your hypocrisy is deafening.
At the end of the day, the 99% are essentially voting to keep the CEO's fat and wealthy and to keep the drug wars going.
So stop with the moral indignation already.
Or change YOUR behavior, instead of complaining about someone else.
5 comments:
I completely disagree. It is the failed war on drugs that is to blame. If the drugs were not illegal the drug dealers and cartels would not exist. Making something illegal does not change human behavioral. It just creates a criminal class to fill the need.
Despite the fact I abhor drug use (and smoking in general), and don't want to ever have my mouth looked at by some dentist who toked up at lunch, how am I to know right now that he hasn't had two martinis at lunch? The war on drugs is a huge failure, bankrupting the U.S. and taking untold civilian and law enforcement lives. As long as alcohol is legal, weed should be too. License farms to grow it, regulate THC levels, and tax the hell out of it. Face it, both Canada and the U.S. could use the revenue.
Kevin has the right of it, the government busybodies created the problem by trying to be parents to the people rather than governors of the state.
Ever hear of black market cigarettes before government declared a tax war on cigarettes? Just another problem created by government thinking they are in power to tell us how to live.
Government made drugs expensive and profitable to the point of murdering for that profit and the drugs are still being used, always will be.
Put the blame where it belongs...On Government nanny state socialist loser elitists who almost all use.
...And now the governments are the enablers of addicts.
If there is a wide spread "problem" in society you can bet your bottom dollar government created it.
Lovely.
We have a drug problem because the government MAKES us somehow, apparently, buy and use drugs.
And we couldn't possibly, collectively, just stop being a collective bunch of screw-ups and just stop using, now, could we?
No question that ramped up enforcement isn't the answer.. But that's not my point. My point is why we don't start looking at ourselves, and ask.. "What am I doing to make the world just a little less shitty?"
Was in Huatulco when this news broke. 'Canadian' connection fairly tenuous (druggie Canadian ex-husband whas what we heard), and general concensus there was that woman targetted because from wealthy Mexican family.
Would hate to fee we could not longer visit that region as have enjoyed our stays there. Am also concerned for the many hard-working Mexicans who depend on the tourist trade to support their families.
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