More from our TPRS reporter (my stepson, Adam) on the scene in Oaxaca, Mexico:
Every year around this time, all of the teachers from the state of Oaxaca come to Oaxaca city to demonstrate and protest in order to get more pay. They all arrived on Tuesday. I had assumed that they would be getting hotels or something equally normal. I could not have been more wrong. The Zocalo, once open and full of people having fun and drinking beer, is now full of protesting teachers who haven´t bathed since Tuesday. There are tarps strung up all over the place at a height of 5 feet, making my walk through the Zocalo a threat to my cabeza. In addition, it smells like piss. Yum....
Yesterday I lounged around the house some, and at night I went out looking for something to do that did not involve the litter box...er...Zocalo. I found it about 3 blocks from Santo Domingo: a communist rally! What fun! I sat down at 8 and listened to the speakers until about 11. I understood most of what was said, which surprised me. The rally was an anti-Bush, anti-Fox, pro-Cuba rally. Some of the speakers were gloriously misinformed. For example, one speaker started out his speech by saying "There is a country where all children are vaccinated, there is a country where all children are educated, where science and technology are more important than corruption and politics, where everyone has jobs and life has fewer problems. This country is Cuba."
The economist inside me was screaming "THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS FULL EMPLOYMENT," while the American in me was saying "Bah, Cuba sucks. It´s full of communists....", and perhaps most importantly, the common sense in me was thinking "...this guy is an idiot."....
The speakers which followed proposed that Capitalism and the United States (Bush in particular for some reason) were the sole causes every problem of the average Mexican citizen. Their proposed solution is a communist revolution,
Cuba-style. Since I was the only white face in the audience, and was sitting
right in the middle about 3 rows back, most of the speakers glared at me while talking. I halfway wanted to get up and show them my "F**k Capitalism" lighter while chanting "Behold the capitalists bathing in the blood of the working class!" but my better judgement prevailed, and I just laughed on the inside.As a side note, it is amazing the degree to which everyone here hates George W. Bush. I feel right at home.
Is it any wonder why I love the kid??
