Mexamor - Archived Blog Posts

[mexamor]

Recently, a friend of mine came by to talk to me about a "business system" that sold natural energy drinks, etc. He said to me the business isn't about selling products...

It made me think about what business is about. I mean if it isn't about selling a product then what is it about? It is always about selling products, some products just aren't tangible, that's all. On a philosophical level I have to say that these things always bother me. It seems to always be sold as a religion.

There are the "mysteries" the secret knowlege that will lead you to greater power and wealth beyond your imagination. Salvation through the worship of creating money. It always seems that christians (of whom I consider myself part) dig into these business/religions as accolites when the very tenents of christianity teach against the money changers...

Then you have the "sacraments" the ceremonial and ritual practicies that gain you entery into the greater "mysteries" of money and wealth. I don't know why it bothers me, I guess it is the sacrilege of the sacred. Then agian it could be my disilusionment with religion being at heart a practical means of power and money.

I feel the sacred should not be mixed with the profane. I guess I am just...

 

[mexamor]

I haven't been to Mexico in a while. I went to visit some friends and "family". It sort of broke my heart, how much I miss Mexico, how much I want to go back. I love my country USA, I do but there is a different feeling in Mexico a "calor humano" that seems different from the USA.

So many things are great here and so many things are easier and you can find so many things. But...in Mexico there is so much that is dear to the heart that makes the heart feel warm...

 

[mexamor]

I recently watched Amores Perros, a film by Alejandro González Iñárritu; you may recognize him as the director of Babel. If you don’t understand Spanish you must get it in subtitles. This is a fabulous movie and so real to life that you can’t get away from it.

I am rather partial to Mexican cinema for it’s rich tapestry of life as we live it and experience it. The movie begins with a crash and tells several stories that all intersect together from disparate views and people. If you like one happy all tied up in the end story then this movie isn’t for you. If you like dogs and see many parallels from dogs to human behavior you will probably like this movie.

What I liked best about this movie was the very end and I wont spoil it for you but it is the pairing of man and dog and the intersection of their lives that mimics the intersection of lives in the movie, or was the movie representative of the end. That is what I like about it, you can see it from different angles and each one is intriguing. I like to look at Gael García Bernal too, so that doesn’t hurt anything…

 

[mexamor]

Y tu mama tambien is another great movie I recently saw that is excellent. This is an extremely STRONG moive. The content, script, acting, theme, sexuality are all very intense. Once again we are watching Gael García Bernal (have I mentioned I like him?) This is a boys comming of age movie in it's best sense, as in, they don't end up with impossibly happy outcomes and ready to go to college and get laid more.

This is another "Golden" era Mexican film. The story is about two young men who are friends but from different backgrounds, one being from an "aristocratic" family and the other from a middle class family. If there is any part that is possible not realistic, I thought about this one, however it is possible that they were school mates...it does happen. The issues of the sex with girlfriends in the home is for Mexico City very realistic among this class of people so that may make you think it is out of touch but actually it is "de riguer" starting at about 14.

What is excellent is the "journey" and the knowledge that they gain about themselfs and the world around them. There is nothing simple or easy about this movie but you leave feeling your own vulnerability as a teenager and the difficulty of growing up. I highly recomend this movie to anyone who wants to see Movie making and Mexcan film at it's best. Oh, the director is non other than Alfonso Cuarón.

 

[mexamor]

Recently in our local newspaper there was an editorial cartoon about the Alamo. On one side it had a caption that said something to the effect, “brave Americans defending the Alamo from Mexican invaders”, with a picture of the Alamo and dead bodies all around. In the next part it had George Bush waving a white flag and inviting “Mexican invaders” to come in.

I was deeply troubled by this cartoon, as it was completely false. Mexicans were not invading Texas; it was part of their country. General Santa Ana was pushing down an invasion by Americans. At the time we followed the Monroe Doctrine (actually we still do in some ways) that basically stated that we had a divine right to all of North America from coast to coast. In truth the “illegals” involved in the Alamo where white Americans, like Davy Crockett that came to wage war against Mexico and take Texas from the Mexicans.

From the Texas incident we then proceeded to declare a war against Mexico, invaded their country, held the capitol, Mexico City hostage and at gunpoint made the government sell the top third of their country to us for $2,000,000.00 before we left their country. This was an orchestrated plan by our government to implement the Monroe Doctrine. It has been said in other places that had we not taken this territory, instead of being a land of opportunity that Texas is now it would have been “Without the Alamo, Texas might today be not a land of opportunity for poor Mexicans, but another impoverished province of a nation that cannot or will not provide a decent living for its own people.” (http://www.fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2007/062007/06222007/290295) So actually we were being altruistic about the whole thing. We wanted to make a place for future Mexicans to be able to live in freedom and have a place to migrate to….?

What is ironic for me is the more conservatives supposedly fix our schools with the religion of business and accountability, the worse our civic education gets.

I’m not saying we should give any of the property back, but to continue to misrepresent the whole Mexican angle and immigration and even illegal immigration we need to search our own history and decide the truth rather than use fiction to bolster an apparently weak argument.

Let’s remember, we were the first illegal immigrants to North America. We were “welcomed” by the eastern tribes, mostly but not in the west, we just pushed them out. Mexico was even less moral as it was part of the European pacts and laws, so we had to tread carefully. As many in the anti-immigration move put it; we want people to obey the law. We “obeyed” the law as it were with Mexico, but we used subterfuge and deceit doing it, actually to be honest we broke the law, letter and spirit but back then there was no genuine policing, Might was Right. Perhaps in the end the real worry for us is that Mexico is going to pull an “Alamo” on us. People tend to judge others by their own actions. Those who steal tend to think everyone steals.

Here is an excellent editorial: http://www.sctimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070613/OPINION/106130047/1006/NEWS01

 

[mexamor]

I consider myself adapted to technology and actually I might say I am an early adopter. I use all forms of technology and try out, or at least, check out the latest connectivity access. I have to admit though that I find im and chat to lack nuance for good communication. I have friends that are solely on chat and sometimes we talk about issues that are rather difficult to discuss with out endless misinterpretation without some other mode of interaction. I think that cams add a lot to the depth of discussion, but not all of us have one yet.

The truth of the matter is that IM and chat are headed to be de facto forms of communication along with blogs and other medium, if not already. I have read http://www.shrm.org/hrmagazine/articles/0507/0507cover.asp
several articles on the millennial generation and some criticism of their ability for critical thinking. I can’t say that I agree but what I do see is a difficulty of communicating complex ideas in a format of sound bites. You may say that this is where blogs overlap and complement the chat sphere, however you still lack the ability of dialogue and spontaneity in a discussion. I know, I know, you can have counter point blogs and all but the “feeling” of flesh and sound, sight and smell are missing the senses that affect our memory and trigger our minds. You can also make a chat room but that is limited to the narrow perspective of people you invite rather than an open room where you might decide to participate in a discussion with total strangers.

We can so easily hide behind our internet selves that the anonymity masks our motives and emotions. We do have the whole discussion going on now about facebook and myspace. Older adults are warning younger adults and teens to use caution and care, etc. in creating personas on line. Perhaps that is where we are lost as the older generation, we don’t understand your sense of disclosure to bridge the gap of the electron to the person. I feel we need new technology to address these issues. We need to explore more diverse forms of creating subtlety in on line communication.

Perhaps the truth is that the younger generation is beyond me and my generation in their ability to reach reasoned conclusions without as much clutter, connect emotionally across electrons, and the problem lies in my aging brain…

 

[mexamor]

I probably enjoy Al Gore more as a teacher than a politician, which tells me that I am probably too conditioned to accept a media impression with too much weight.

I thouroughly enjoyed his documentary on the environment and I just want to add this link to this clip that I thought was very cool. ¡Provecho!

http://www.blip.tv/file/291933/

 

[mexamor]

Here's a chance to get your name seen for improving our climate. Take a few moments to fill this out and send along. Thanks.

http://www.avaaz.org/en/apec_petition/k.php