Letter 105 to friends and familiares: Yes, I am a Republican; but still unsure enough not to be a bully.

Republican friends believe I have slipped into political apostasy.  They have a point, given my frequent defenses of President Obama, usually with a lame disclaimer of my not liking many of his policies. Truthfully, I believe the President did act within his authority on immigration. Yet, the G.O.P. has a convincing narrative by some Republicans that his action was motivated by not wanting to concede the upper hand to the Republican-led House of Representatives and, soon, the Senate.

 

My conservatism remains intact. There are many policies I dislike of this Administration, while I admire the man at the head of it. Here are six policies – two foreign and four domestic – that I have never really liked, nor ever will. While previous essays cited are often dated in their examples, analogies and details, they are based on certain fundamental beliefs that place me firmly on the right. Yes, my principles differ from those of liberals; no question.

 

President Barack Obama deserves respect from each and every American for having beliefs in the first place. Yes, they often get bogged down in the partisan free-for-all that now seems to pass for the people’s government. After all, in my own case at least, I have to admit that I am far from the smartest person in any room. That may sound silly and presumptive, but it is not. There is always the possibility that those principles so obvious to me may not be so obvious to others; they may even be wrong.

 

Abortion on demand. People know why I am a right-to-life conservative  (http://nedmcdletters.blogspot.com/2012/01/letter-52-to-friends-and-familiares.html). Kulturkampf aside, we should maintain a large margin of compassion for the hellish dilemma weighing down on decent, often poorer, women. Nevertheless, the notion of foetal viability is an intellectual hoax and I fear that part of the demoralization of American politics and culture came out of Viêt Nam and Roe v. Wade. Coercing religious institutions with the corrosive abortion-on-demand ideology violates the Constitution and further trivializes the sacred value of the life taken.

 

The second bank bail-out. The first bail-out was not a great idea but President Bush basically had four days to react decisively to prevent a collapse of the financial markets. President Obama had four months. The two situations were qualitatively different. Senator McCain articulated a better approach in 2008 that would have been easier to implement, less costly and far less intrusive. That program, at least as I perceived it at the time, would have held people accountable as well as, cleaned up the mess made by a minority of unethical bankers and a broken system
(http://nedmcdletters.blogspot.com/2013/09/this-is-yet-anotherpolitical-letter-home.html).

 

The Affordable Care Act.  True, there is a case to be made that President Obama brokered a compromise against which the Republicans turned their backs. Nevertheless, the mode of resolving the underlying question of a right to health-care and weaving it into the larger body politic was wrong (http://nedmcdletters.blogspot.com/2012/05/letter-56-thoughts-on-health-care.html). Additionally, the deceptions to get the law passed and implemented only under-cut and already fragile and unbalanced consensus.

 

Economic stimulus.  The Stimulus package was a blunderbuss approach to the Great Recession that failed to lay the foundation for manufacturing and its attendant wealth and job creation. Yet the infrastructure crumbles and corruption is detectable. The manner of financing this corrupted measure through quantitative easing has bankrupted the country. Sadly, we will only get it when the baseless dollars -- the specious specie -- flood home from overseas. Lastly, combined with the coercion of the A.C.A., this piping tepid approach has turned the Great Recession into a depression for young people; call the millennials the "tossed generation".

 

The Middle East. The President’s current policy in Iraq has been correct and sober-minded (http://nedmcdletters.blogspot.com/2014/06/letter-102-to-friends-and-familiares.html). Yet, the situation ought never have degenerated to this extreme. Inaction in the face of power grabs in Iraq in 2010 plus the unmitigated slaughter of Syrians and the infiltration of refugee camps in and around Syria by ISIS – when inexpensive means were readily available to respond – has pushed a difficult regional transition into becoming a possible flash-point for world war (http://nedmcdletters.blogspot.com/2013/08/letter-83-thoughts-on-syria-case-for.html).

Compounding these failed polices has been the use of drones to assassinate unindicted terrorists  in a manner clearly outside the laws of men and war (http://nedmcdletters.blogspot.com/2013/02/letter-75-doj-white-paper-for-black.html).

 

Russia and Ukraine. This is a complicated question, since Ukraine’s Eastern borders were drawn as arbitrarily by one colonial power as had the dotted lines across the Levant had been imposed by two others.  There are genuine questions of sovereignty to be resolved. The means employed by President Putin and tacitly condoned by President Obama, however, are wrong for Ukraine, Eastern Europe and, ultimately, Russia herself (http://nedmcdletters.blogspot.com/2014/03/letters-to-friends-and-family-94.html).  President Obama's mismanagement in this case rivals that of President Clinton in the Balkans.

As Yugoslavia crumbled into chaos, President Clinton's half-hearted measures and sanctions hurt the wrong people and managed only to harden a tin-horn dictator into a slaughter-house operator. In the case of Russian aggression, appeasement and procrastination have only made a bad situation worse and whetted the appetite of an aggressor, as the Baltics and Poland are finding out these days.  One should note that Unkraine, each of the Baltics, Hungary and Poland have been steadfast allies in Iraq and / or Afghanistan. Pulling missile defenses and conceding outcomes too readily to the Putineer by President Obama hardly seems to return their favor.

Toward a creative and inclusive dialectic. Yes, there is little doubt in my way of thinking that these and other policies from the Administration are bad for the country in the long-run. In some cases they chip away at our singular experiment in governance: due-process, the rule of law and the courage to do the right thing when it really counts. What is difficult for my more liberal friends to argue is that President Obama was simply doing what he could in the face of thorny dilemmas with no visible alternatives.

Not at all true. With the possible exceptions of health-care and abortion, each of these policies had better alternatives at the time proposed by other mainstream leaders. Within these two issues, the use of the law to enforce an ideology on long-established religiously based and funded hospitals is very, very dangerous.  That said, however, there is a palpable racism in much of the vitriol hurled the President’s way.  While these policies are headed toward popular repudiation, delighting in President Obama’s failure is even worse.

Such an attitude of political vindictiveness makes compromise harder to achieve and fails to recognize that critics have it easy in a policy debate; that is, changelings have the intellectual burden-of-proof when they attack a status quo. It is easier to attack a status-quo than to defend it. Yet the burden-of-proof needs to be pragmatic: one that permits a resolution of a debate even of morally ambiguous situations, like that of Ferguson, Missouri. Because the officer was not indicted does not nullify the contention that the police are open to criticism for often using excessive force, especially against minorities.

 

Critics tend to compare the best case scenarios inside their heads to the often disappointing policies carried out in plain sight. People seem to forget that many of these now-reviled policies emerged earlier as politically poignant and timely best case scenarios in the heads of other bright and well-intentioned thinkers. Thus, the foreign policies of President Obama, ones that I often see as feckless, may very well be avoiding unacceptable levels bloodshed that my best-case scenarios would otherwise impose.

 

Debilitating personal attacks, especially those that are unfounded, help no one, especially Republicans, as we now bear the onus of “manning up” with a new, better and attainable contract with America, one that is far-reaching, flexible and durable. We need a new consensus toward compromise, badly.

Letter 104 to friends and familiares: México's challenge; México's opportunity

El presidente Enrique Peña Nieto announced yesterday that his administration is set to take measures to streamline and reform the Mexican police system. This effort will prove to be a herculean task in view of the massive bureaucracy, the confusing structure, the insinuation of gangsterism into some parts of the force, entrenched interests of unpalatable profitability and the low pay that induces petty corruption among many of the street cops.

Another sobering announcement surfaced this week that, previous to the atrocity against the forty-three students in Ayotzinapa that has sparked a spectacular national revulsion, another thirty-one students had gone missing (likely murdered) in another village in the same awful state of Guerrero; news was slow in coming since the pueblito involved was directly threatened with total massacre.

The President has a lot facing him, as the senior elected official of the “Institutional Revolutiory Party” (the P.R.I.), which ruled México for seventy years as a one-party autocracy that eventually mired the Repúbica deeply in unfettered corruption. That systematic inefficiency stagnated an inventive, hard-working people for many decades. Yet the corruption creating so much turmoil today is not that of money but that of power (far worse).

My gut says loud and clear that el presidente Peña Nieto is a very decent man who has the courage to cut right to the heart of the current corruption of power in México. Nevertheless, the P.R.I. today came out saying it will propose a "complementary alternative" to el presidente Peña Nieto's initiative.

This latter announcement is not necessarily good news as the P.R.I. plan may be a ruse, with all the right words, intended to undermine the proposed reform. Undoubtedly, el presidente Peña Nieto knows how high the stakes really are. Failure could de-rail México’s ascent into economic stardom.  This man has worked earnestly to modernize the economic and political governance of his country.

Sadly, he gets very little credit for that. Sure, it is a no-brainer for me to believe that this man is far better than I; ergo, no judgements of his character, here. What is less evident, however, is that Enrique Peña Nieto may very well be placing his life at risk in service to his country. No, I am neither kidding nor being dramatic. In all of this high-velocity tension, one may find a few reasons for optimism. 

First, el presidente Peña Nieto may be breaking with P.R.I. hierarchy with today's announcement by the P.R.I. of a "complementary alternative". People here have long deemed el presidente Peña Nieto to be a “Gel Boy” (pronounced Hell Boy in Spanish) to be a Frankie Avalon marionette of former President Salinas Gortari, deeply dishonest and deeply disgraced in the eyes the world after wrecking the country’s finances two decades ago. 

Personally, I have never bought that theory; were it ever true, I sense that President Dippity Doo-Dah is cutting the strings that have bound him. To wax historical, el presidente Peña Nieto has issued his private "Unilateral Declaration of Independence", one that is far better than its fifty year old name-sake in Rhodesia.

Much like President George W. Bush, I believe el presidente Peña Nieto is far more intelligent that he seems.  Nonetheless, it is unwise to bite the hand that has fed you, even if a president need not worry about re-election in this República; no, not the mangey mano of Salinas but that of the larger P.R.I. leadership.

Second, el presidente Peña Nieto’s hard-driving reforms may be hitting close to home, creating push-back, leading gangsters inside the various shades of government (or, in this case, the Mme. Nhu of Guerrero) to feel the pressure and start making stupid decisions that reflect desperation that the gravy train may be ending. This particular optimism is, admittedly, a stretch but it does link to the third reason for guarded optimism.

Third, the people of México have had enough. The message may be revolutionary. Yet it is only contingently so. The citizenry is repudiating the gangsters and their enablers. That repudiation comes at great risk to themselves. The President's hoisting their banner comes at great risk to him. It has been a long time in coming, as so many guns (mainly from the U.S.) have overwhelmed México, much like a self-replicating bacterium that debilitates and kills the host organism.

In one sense, Mexicans are already rebelling, not against the state, yet, but against intimidation by gangster régimes pocketed throughout the byzantine federal structure. The element of contingent revolution, literally burned into the country’s psyche over the past ten days, is quite clear: “El Sr. Presidente, tiene una elección: limpiar nuestra sociedad con nosotros o ser eliminado por nosotros.”

(Mr President, either you clean up this savage corruption or we will clean you out.) This is both a sobering and an exciting time for México.  El presidente Peña Nieto’s choice is rather stark: turn both of these atrocities, unspeakable for nations in the developed world, into the “cause célèbre” needed to cut right to the heart of the corruption of power in México and slice away its tissue of death.

Or he can forfeit México’s opportunity to take her properly earned place on the world stage. The popular outrage and repudiation can be harnessed into police reform. While I never enjoyed Frankie Avalon films or made much time for Hell Boy, I remain convinced that el presidente Peña Nieto is a leader of courage and substance who will tap this deep popular resentment to complete the work of his equally gutsy predecessor. 

Perhaps the President’s first step might be to bring back el ex presidente Calderón Hinijosa to head up the arduous, dangerous and critical work of reconfiguring the police into a smaller, better paid force that taps the community consensus to enforce neighborhood (pueblito) policing so that, together, all México can finally choke off the narco-gangsters from the bottom, up.

Letter #103 to Friends and Familiares: opportunities lost afterward

Esta carta se presenta en ambos español e inglés; ya que mis amigos mexicanos hablan inglés mejor que pudo hablar español y a causa de mi no ser capaz de traducir las sutilezas de mi lengua primordial, les sugeriría que se refieren al párrafo inglés, cuando mi frase español no se entienda bien.

Hay razones porqué no debo escribir esta carta. Sin embargo, sigue habiendo una razón primordial porqué tengo que hacerlo. No quiero preocupar a mi familia ni dejar un miedo en sus corazones. Al contrario, dicho catalizador es el sentimiento de ironía, provocada por oportunidades perdidas, en nuestras almas (es decir, la mía).		There are reasons not to write this letter and there remains one which compels me to do so. The reasons why not revolve mainly around my not wanting to engender fear or cause any worry in the hearts of my loved ones. But the reason that will not ease over time is the sense of irony that missed opportunities evoke in one’s (read: my) soul.
El jueves pasado, el siete de agosto, dos mil catorce, un día que no va a vivir en infamia (pero será “barrido en el gran basurero de la historia”), recibí un correo electrónico de dos compañeros de CIDESI, dónde había servido en el Peace Corps en Querétaro, la magnífica ciudad tan lejos en mi memoria como el Bajío está desde Baja California.		Last Thursday, the seventh of August, two thousand and fourteen, a day that will live not in infamy but in the miscellaneous file, I received an e-mail from two colleagues of my Centro in which I served the Peace Corps: CIDESI in the sublime city of Querétaro, now far away in the mountainous midlands of México.
Estaban en Tijuana y dijeron que querrían verme si fuera posible. Ya que tenían un viaje temprano la mañana siguiente a Mexicali (225 kilómetros de TJ), tendría que ir a su hotel a las ocho. Sin pensar mucho, despedí la molestia de ser el único de nosotros sin coche que iría a ellos que tenían un coche.		They were in town and said they would like to see me. Due to scheduling problems (i.e., a trip early next morning to Mexicali, about 135 miles away), I would have to go to their hotel at 8:00. Quickly, I swept aside the slight annoyance at being the one without a car going to see those with a car.
Miré un mapa generado por GOOGLE que indicaba que el hotel estará varios nudillos a través de la pantalla, más o menos 1,8 kilómetros desde mi oficina; veinte minutos a pie. ¡Bien! Además, yo necesitaba el ejercicio de una caminata enérgica. La molestia se convirtió en la felicidad porque estaría pasando tiempo con un buen amigo.		Then I looked at the GOOGLE map and saw that hotel was, by measuring the scale by knuckles, 1.8 kliks away; a bit more than a mile and a quarter; twenty minutes, tops. Since I needed the exercise of a brisk walk, the annoyance quickly dissipated and I was merrily on my way to meet one of my best friends at CIDESI.
El aspecto más emocionante para mí fue el hecho que este caballero había recibido una promoción hasta el  gerente de la transferencia de tecnología. Con discreción, de verdad, había pasado mucho tiempo dentro de CIDESI apoyando esta idea con líderes del Centro. Mientras que mis esfuerzos me hacían sentir bien, sospecho que mi influencia estaba sólo en mi mente.		What was most exciting was that my colleague had been promoted, finally, to the head of tech transfer there. This was great news and ample cause to celebrate. After all, I had spent a lot of time in CIDESI quietly lobbying the senior management of that science center for this to happen. While my efforts made me feel good, they were almost certainly not decisive.
A la hora de mi salida, estaba luchando en completar una propuesta. Les envié a mis compañeros un mensaje de texto para alertarles que sería quince minutos tarde. Privadamente pensaba que sería cinco o diez minutos, pero quise manejar expectativas y evitar ser avergonzado a pagar para la cena. Sin embargo, cosas no parecían en los lugares especificados por el mapa.		At the time to leave, I was struggling to get a proposal out to a possible --no, in this case, quite impossible – client. And I texted ahead that I would be fifteen minutes late, figuring that I would beat that timing and so exceed expectations and not get interrogated into paying for dinner.  Then I noticed that landmarks and intersections were not quite where they were supposed to be.
El Señor Todopoderoso GOOGLE lo había sido muy lejos de la realidad esta vez, ¡unos ocho kilómetros en error! Además, era casi noche ahora y me encontraba en la parte industrial, de las maquiladoras, una parte difícil de la ciudad. Caminando lento, estaba pensando en mis opciones.		This time, GOOGLE´s algorithmic hiccup threw me off by five or six miles. Besides it was almost dark and this part of town was down by the maquiladoras (factories that make cheap televisions), a pretty nitty-gritty place. Walking very slowly, I paused for moment to consider my options.
Entonces, había un empujón desde atrás por un adolescente quien dijo “Ándale” o algo otro para permitirle para pasarme. Pues, él se ralentizaba. Ahora, fui motivado sólo por mi estrés. Era evidente que el gigante GOOGLE no me podría guiar por una sola milla. ¡Qué monopolio! Ahora, yo sería muy tarde. Entonces, fui enojado.		Then a shove from behind by a sixteen year old who said “Ándale,” or some such term and I let him pass. Then he slowed down. By now I was pretty edgy. It was obvious that GOOGLE had screwed up the whole map thing and I was going to be very late. You think a monopoly that wires our brains could at least get the map right.
Ahora, este tonto se está desacelerando, probablemente para empezar hacer el 'texting' mientras de caminar. Sin embargo, él no me parecía el tipo; era delgado y de altura. No tenía la manera de un data-dink, tampoco. Estábamos todavía casi un kilómetro de la esquina donde yo podría tomar un taxi.		Now this idiot was slowing down, probably getting ready to text while he walked. Funny, he did not look the type; he was tall and thin. He really had nothing of the air of circuit-slug or data dink. We were several hundred yards away from the main intersection where it seemed highly likely that I would have to hail a taxi.
Así, decidí emitir un fuerte gruñido, como un oso mexicano, para moverme por delante este joven desaliñado. Luego, me lo sentí. Una mordida aguda, de un grande insecto, entre dos costillas en mi lado derecho. Un gran insecto, por supuesto. Búsqueda rápida, ningunos resultados. Bien. No era un insecto.		So, I decided to emit a Klingon Worff-grunt and edge ahead of the scruffy looking fellow. Then I felt it. A sharp bite from a big bug, on my side. Right there, in between two of the ribs on my right side. Must be a pretty big bug; quick blood-check. Nothing; good. It was not a bug.
Su cuchillo tuvo una hoja curvilínea, tal vez como un machete. La hoja se extendía por diez centímetros, tal vez un poquito más. Esto me enfocó. Un niño de menos de diecisiete años, me dijo, “tu dinero…Your Munnnnnyyyyy” Eso fue todo: la estresa de ser cada vez más tarde para mis amigos me hizo enojado.		His knife was curled, perhaps like a machete. The blade was four inches long, maybe a smidge longer. That focussed my attention. The young man, no more than sixteen, said, “tu dinero…your moneyyyy.” This was the last straw as I was already stressed because I was running later and later.
Este Tijuana telenovela se había vuelto en una molestia sin fin. En fijar mis ojos a los suyos, le miré directamente y, con una voz elevada, le sugerí que haga algo sexual a sí mismo bien imposible para hacer. Sí, mis términos fueron 'un poco' más transparentes, con palabras antiguas sajonas que son bien conocidas en México.		This wild GOOGLE chase was not only frustrating but becoming a downright nuisance. Bringing my eyes over to his, I looked at him directly and, with a raised voice but not yelling, I suggested that he perform some physically impossible act of auto-fornication, albeit in terms a bit more – ¿how shall we say this politely? -- prosaic.
El joven fue tan asombrado por mi respuesta, impulsada por mi frustración de ser tarde para cena, que sólo se quedaba allí, su boca abierta con sorpresa. En la ausencia de otros peatonales, caminé rápido al mediano del tránsito en un carretera llena de coches.		The bewildered chap was so taken aback by my response – charged as it was from the stress of running late and being lost – that he just stood there his mouth gaping open in surprise.  With no other pedestrians around, I quickly strode out to the middle of an adjacent freeway teeming with speeding cars.
Entonces, haberme demostrado ser un ‘loco-yank’, el adolescente se alejó con su cuchillo. En todo eso, me sentí ningún momento de miedo. Había pensado rápido y sabido exactamente lo que hacer. Situaciones como ésta no son pruebas de carácter. Sin embargo, pueden darnos un indicador de quien realmente somos.		Well, that finished things for the ‘old sport’ and off he went. Through it all not one ounce of fear. I thought quickly and knew just what to do. Situations like these that arise in life are not big tests of character – most fail character tests at some time or other – but can indicate something about who we are; how we think.
Sin embargo, la historia no está terminando aquí. Todo ése se trataba de pequeñas cosas. La verdadera historia empieza aquí. Por supuesto, jactaba toda esa noche y, especialmente, con la mujeres bonitas de mi oficina el próximo día.  Después de tomar un taxi y llegar treinta minutos tarde, tuve la excusa perfecta, “fui asaltado pero con mi mente legendaria manejó de evitar ser robado.”		Yet the story does not end here. It begins here.  Sure I spent the rest of the evening bragging to my buds from CIDESI. After finally tracking down a “rip-shaw” (i.e., an overpriced cab) and arriving a half hour late, I had the perfect excuse, in halting Spanish, “My apologies – getting mugged and then un-mugged took up more time than one would otherwise normally expect.”
Por supuesto, capturé la audiencia para describir mis proezas valientes en detalles deliciosos, aunque en términos no tan neutros como aquellos por arriba. Sin embargo, decidí mentir por decir que me había sentido miedo un poco después (que había sido verdad de algunas previas molestias), a menos que yo parezca como un ‘estadostúpidense’.		Of course that gave me the floor to go into details – a bit more floridly stated than my bloodless rendition above – while pompously announcing that I felt no fear during the event. However, I did lie and say I felt fear afterwards (as I sometimes do after other such inconveniences). The last thing I need is to be viewed as some loco-yank.
Sin embargo, la historia verdadera comienza ahora. Es corto y difícil para recontar, a causa de la exposición inevitable de una deficiencia personal (es decir, ick). Después de la elaboración de mis mitos convenientes, un aspecto inquietante de los ojos del atacador frustrado regresaba a mi mente; sus ojos mestizos y tristes, llenos de prematuro cansancio del mundo.		After all, I have a business to run (into the ground at this point). The story really begins now. It is short and it is difficult for me.  After all the bragging, especially to attractive women, the haunting look on that boy’s face came back to me.  His eyes, definitely of that mestizo, faintly Asiatic, slant seemed almost lachrymal in their creaminess; the silent cry of weariness.
La postura de este niño me siguió como una fantasma de culpabilidad, mi culpabilidad, todavía no percibida. Su postura era ésa de un anciano; pero tenía no más de dieciséis años y fue más alto que yo por cinco centímetros al menos. Había otra indicación en la manera con que estaba blandiendo su cuchillo; pude ver el brillo de la hoja.		The boy’s posture – and I am no one to judge – haunted me, too. He was taller than I by at least two inches; yet he was slumped over at sixteen years old. Not deformed but weighed down and worn out. Something showed even in the way he held the knife, the glint of the blade of which I could see twinkling under the light of a distant street lamp.
Una hoja aguda, ésta era. Este adolescente estaba agarrando el cuchillo tan tentativamente; como si quiso minimizar su contacto físico con su arma. En retrospectiva, la señal era clara: este joven, no más de un niño, de veras, no deseó estar allí. Además, no le gustaba amenazar a alguien por su dinero con un cuchillo capaz de matar. No, no: todo esto no era propicio para él.		One sharp blade. That teen was holding the knife so tentatively, as if there were some deadly virus on it and he was trying hard to minimize the contact of his flesh to it.  These cues were clear: this young man, a mere boy, really did not want to be there.  And he really did not want to be there sticking a knife at someone, threatening that person for his money.
Caminaba lejos de mí, sobre una colina cercana, porque no querría perseguirse por un coche si uno de detuviera para mí. (Ninguno detuvo.) Pues, le miré subir esa colina y él me parecía, de veras, un poco desgraciado. En recordar mis años adolescentes, había caminado a menudo de misma manera con los mismos sentimientos.		He walked away, up a nearby hill, for he did not want to be pursued by cars should one stop for me. Anyways, I watched him for a minute or two as he walked up that hill and he seemed, well, kind of sad. Recalling my mid-teens, I had walked and likely felt much the same way.
Aunque no me encontraba feliz muchas veces hace cuarenta años, nunca había pensado en atacar a otros tampoco. Pero me había nacido en una familia afluente en Pittsburgh en los años sesenta y setenta, un ensueño listo para durar siempre. Mis papas nos habían alimentado bien y educado aún mejor. ¡Qué fortuna para mi hermana y mí!		Of course, blue as I often was back then, I had never thought of going after people with knives. Then again, I was born into an affluent, lovely family in the Pittsburgh of the 1960s and early 1970s, a dreamtime ready to go on forever. My parents were not poor. They had fed us well and educated us (i.e., my sister and me) even better.
La sola presión de compañeros que sentí era el dilema, sí o no, de fumar lo que sea. Este joven probablemente nunca había sabido ningunas de estas circunstancias. Era más de probable que tenía un papa abusivo. La violencia familiar entre los pobres – en ambos la ciudad y el campo – sigue siendo lamentablemente generalizada.		The only peer pressure I felt was whether or not to cough over a bong.  This young man probably had never been remotely close to any of these circumstances.  Chances are he had at least one abusive parent. Domestic violence among the rural and urban poor remains lamentably high in México.
Al cabo, es fácil para olvidar que la pobreza es su propia forma de violencia estructural. Además, este joven probablemente enfrentaba a la presión constante de un familiar mayor – un hermano o primo, tal vez – para unirse en una pandilla. Hay una posibilidad fuerte que una tal pandilla sería su sola opción para protegerse en su mundo, al menos fuera de la casa.		After all, it is easy for me and almost anybody I know to forget that poverty truly is structural violence. It is likely that this teen was under a lot of pressure from some older relative of his generation, be that a brother or a cousin, to join a gang. There is a strong possibility that being in a gang was his only way to assure his safety, at least outside the home.
Así, mi contra-atraco no ocurrió gracias a lo que había hecho. Al contrario, mi 'gran escape' reflejaba la personalidad del ladrón prospectivo; al fin, no quiso hacerlo. Su ritual de iniciación en la pandilla, que había estado soportando, no estaba teniendo éxito. Y, en su corazón, ya escondido del mundo, esto estaba sólo bien con él.		So, the unmugging took place, not because I did or said anything particularly brave. (Allow me to assure you that I am a most practiced coward.) The unmugging was about the mugger; he really did not want to do it.  This initiation ritual he was likely enduring was not going well. Nor did he want it to, really.
Dentro de sí mismo, este joven encarnaba mucho más que una vida de un ‘punk’ de las calles. En este momento, perdí mi oportunidad. ¿Qué habría pasado, si yo hubiera tenido un enfoque diferente, basado en algo diferente de la agresividad, y le hubiera mirado en el ojo, sin escupiéndole mi lenguaje ofensivo? ¿Qué habría ocurrido si yo hubiera dicho, “Tu vida no tiene que seguir este camino; eres más grande que esto…”?		This young man had far more inside him than a life as a street punk. At this point, I missed my opportunity.  What if I had had the presence of mind to stop; take a breath; and, look him in the eye, this time not flinging saxon words his way? What if I had simply said, in halting Spanish, “You know, your life does not have go this way…You are bigger than this…”?
¿Habría yo cambiado su vida? Probablemente, no; al menos en el corto plazo. Pero, en algunos años, este hombre de futuro podría haber dicho a sí mismo, “Ese tonto gringo, con su español tan torpes, tenía razón. En verdad, no tengo que seguir a mi hermano, primo, amigo o quienquiera…” Es posible que he revisado ese escenario para alinearlo con mis necesidades pequeñas. Ya que yo me haya conocido desde hace muchos años, un tal robo de contexto es bien posible.		Would I have changed his life? Probably not, at least in the short term. But down the road, this future man may have said to himself, “that idiot gringo with his retarded Spanish was right. I do not have to live like my brother, classmate, cousin, neighbor, whatever…” Or did I re-write the script of that moment to fit my own parochial ends? Knowing me for fifty-plus years now, I have to confess that such a soul-swipe is entirely possible.
Verdaderamente, puedo perderme en este agujero de oscurecimiento sin saber cómo obtener la repuesta; de veras, es un kaón vivo. Sin embargo, una cosa, que sabré siempre, es el hecho que, en esta noche, tenía una oportunidad para alcanzar más allá de mi hostilidad (sólo otra cara de miedo) y comunicar auténticamente con otro ser humano, quizás encontrarse en una encrucijada en su propia vida.		Truthfully, I can go down this darkening trail all I want and will never really have answer. But one thing I do know: that evening, I had the opportunity possibly to make an important difference by reaching out through my hostility (morphed fear, surely) and communicate authentically with another human being, possibly at a cross-roads in his life.
Al fin, no tomé este riesgo esa noche; ni aprovecharme de esta oportunidad; lo esquivé. Sí, elegí el camino más viajado. ¿Por qué? Porque estaba ya preparándome para poner en marcha la fanfarronería para mi compañeros en su hotel y para las bellezas en mi oficina el próximo día. Sospecho que tenga que presentar algunas explicaciones al momento de mi partida eventual.		Yet, I did not take that risk or follow that opportunity; I merely skipped it. So, yes, I took the road more travelled. Why? Because I was already preparing the braggadocio for my colleagues that evening and any number of beauties the next day.  When my time is up, I may have some explaining to do.

Letter 102 to Friends and Familiares: more thoughts on Iraq

By necessity this letter will – ¡hallelujah! – be very brief.  Ahora, I am in the process of packing my carpet-bag – this time for Tijuana.  Nice climate, great economy, wonderful opportunity and friends in LOW places; life is good.  But certain articles and sound-blights about Iraq showing up in cyber-space have truly stuck in my craw.  So these ‘blurt-outs’ have their reasonings behind them – trust me (…suckahhhh).

 

First, I supported the invasion in Iraq and I was wrong.  At the time, I argued persuasively that Iraq was a just war for many reasons.  The justice of violence, however, lies in its consequences, making bloodshed rarely open to justice. The aftermath over eleven years has eroded the justification of the war, notwithstanding the true heroism of 75% of the field troops, 50% of the officers’ corps and 25% of the civilians who cared.  To be sure, President Bush deserves credit for realizing this fact of strife and undertaking an unpopular and counter-intuitive surge to preserve Iraq for the Iraqis.

 

Second, the current chaos in Iraq is of Prime Minister al-Maliki’s making by a tyranny grab after the U.S. departed and in the election of 2010.  The difference between a secular and religious tyranny is that the former has the dubious virtue of keeping most of its depredations in-house. 

 

Third, President Obama is pursuing the right course, here. If the U.S. (read: neo-conservatives looking for a vindication of a grossly failed policy they initiated) were to bail out P.M. al-Maliki now, President Obama would simply be kicking this crisis down the road for the next President. Such temporizing does not serve us well. Yes, I argue that President Obama‘s inaction in Syria and Ukraine are disappointing and I have bored people with my reasons why. Suffice it to say, that Iraq, Syria and Ukraine are fundamentally different.  Syria is a regional proxy war with a terrain that makes ‘muscular’ humanitarianism an option.  Ukraine involves external aggression by the Putinista. Iraq is a civil war; more of a crime wave.  The government has to set itself right for its own subjects to defend it.

Fourth, Iran’s help – and ours to Iran – is appropriate. This development may be the only welcome aspect of this sadness in my belovèd Iraq.  Fact is: the American  and Iranian peoples share more in common than with any other people in that region, save Israel and, perhaps, Turkey. The status Iran holds of the largest state-sponsor of terrorism resembles a glass half full of cherry juice. Some say this and some say that; too many drink the U.S. government’s kool-aid.  In the meantime: first things first – stop these blood-drunk  I.S.I.S. bastards from slaughtering innocents in Iraq.

Fourth, making Iran a straw bogeyman makes little sense to me.  Iran does sponsor Hizbolah, winning it the exulted status of being a terrorist state, conferred by Foggy Bottom. While my support for Israel remains strong, if not unconditional, Hizbolah can rightly be seen as a resistance force (whether I agree with it or like it is of no relevance) and vehicle of social services for a largely disenfranchised people stuck in refugee camps (http://nedmcdletters.blogspot.com/2010/06/letter-9-to-friends-and-family.html). Outside of some border skirmishes (swift-boating the Brits in 2009; nobody killed), Iran has not started a major war.  Our proxy, Saddam Hussein, murdered many more people than Hizbolah ever has. It is time to readmit Iran to the community of nations and foster good relations. We all hate the humiliation of 1979; but Iran did not murder those fifty-two hostages. How long would they have lasted alive in Riyadh, Kandahar or Karachi? In fact the most stabilizing powers – with arguably two great civilizations – in the Middle East may well be Israel and Iran.  With a re-democratized Iraq, the “I”s would have it.

 

Fifth, the specter of a nuclear Iran is just that: illusory.  Yes, of course, Iran is striving to manufacture nuclear weapons. Why wouldn’t Iran do that?  Israel has them.  The U.S. has used them. But that is not the motivator, here. Look it: Iran is flanked by a country that killed half a million of her young people and two radical Sunni states spawning the virulent violence, primarily against shi´ites, we see today: Saudi Arabia with the wahabis and Pakistan with the pashtuns / taliban. The only thing worse than decadent infidels to these very few but very lethal extremists are ‘apostates’ (read: shi’ites). We have seen with horror the massacre of Iraqi soldiers who surrendered.  So you tell me: ¿Just who is the bigger worry for Iran?  A nuclear Israel and the United States or Saudi Arabia and a nuclear Pakistan?

Addendum to Letter-100: police reform plan drafted in 2005

Detailed TIME-Line for Police Identification Cards & Salary Reform

Salary Reform will challenge the Ministry of Interior’s (Ministry’s) resourcefulness by requiring the use of the following assets:

• 100 employees deployed temporarily to combine information from a paper data base compiled by the Qualifying Committee’s (QC’s) data-collectors, a computer file of employee information and finger prints and, possibly, governorate-level employee rosters available to the Ministry in Baghdad;
•  several hundred security personnel for at least the first two pay-days under the reform; and,
• 25-50 personal computers to consolidate information.

Should the Ministry find itself in a position to implement pay-parity with the military in conjunction with payroll reform, the Ministry could apply a unified salary plan to assign a certain level of pay with each rank.  Each pay-level would then correspond to a military pay-scale on a basis of 100% equality between the Defence and Interior Ministries.

In the various time-lines presented below, one of two distribution channels will be used for payment of salaries:  the current system of station commanders distributing payments or designated branches of the state-owned banks, Al-Rafidain and Al-Rashid.  If the Ministry is forced to continue with the traditional distribution system that has promoted corruption, it could alleviate potential payroll abuse by station commanders with the installation of telephone hot-lines.  Please recall that, under this reform, the Ministry of Finance will release only the amount of money properly payable to those employees registered with the QC.

The telephone hot-line option will entail the establishment of controls to protect tough-minded station-chiefs from false accusations by angry employees.  This control over the hot-lines is just one example of the many details the Deputy Ministers will decide during the salary reform.  Please note that this time-line is not comprehensive; details have been omitted while the QC will still have to submit a report outlining the criteria for retention or letting go of employees.  The benefits of accelerated salary reform will be:

1. human resource and payroll records centralized at the Ministry in Baghdad;
2. centralized accountability for station commanders through the hot-lines or removal of control over funds from them;
3. convincing evidence for the Ministry of Finance of the Ministry’s rigor and professionalism to argue for pay-parity; and,
4. consolidation of internal controls away from the governorates and the Minister in favor of the Deputy Ministers.

In sum, this initiative will aid you in exerting centralized control and accountability while permitting local police forces to use their discretion in reacting to crimes and other local matters.  The time-lines will abide by the following ‘key’; or, color-coding: