Job Discussion Forums

[profgizmo]

I found a company, pac-safe, that sells a steel mesh bag with a lock that you can secure stuff. Comes as just a bag, or they have a back pack version called the day safe. A little pricey, but if it can save a laptop or camera, it might be worth looking into. A cool idea anyway. You can find them at www.pac-safe.com

[MixtecaMike]

[moonraven]

I have never even come close to having a break-in in any of the 9 places I have lived in Mexico.

That said, those places have tended to be small houses or apartments on very private property. Only in one case, however, was it a gated community.

My 1965 VW Beetle had its oversize headlights removed twice when I left it on the street, however....

[M@tt]

I had bad luck while living in Mexico and even after. Some of it was my own fault (sort of), so I'll second Guy's advice. But there's really nothing foolproof. Theft is so prevalent in Mexico, everyone I knew had either been robbed or knew 500 stories of friends and relatives being robbed.

I personally had things stolen several times, although it was done in a way that I can't really call it being robbed because none of them were face-to-face and none of them were in a house. I got on here and biitched about it a year ago because three happened in a short span and I had trouble readjusting my impression of Mexican culture. I'm basically over the anger but disillusioned. I should note that every Mexican I've talked to about this subject has given the same type of response: protect yourself, take precautions, don't trust people, etc. ranging from what I considered to be cynicism/pessimism to total paranoia.

An acquaintance was planning on buying my digital camera when I left, so I left it in my host family's house, in the closet of the upstairs bedroom. He was going to make payments to my bank account and when he finished they were going to give him the camera. In December their house was broken into (despite a high gate, locked doors, "vigilant" neighbors, and living in a town of 12,000) and the thieves made off with my camera, some money, jewelry, and a TV.

How they chose that house, I don't know. Evidently about a dozen houses in the region were robbed that week. When I talked to my ex-host family on the phone their comment was essentially, "Why did you leave a camera, you idiot! We told you things get stolen all the time."

It's disappointing but that's how it is. If you're going to bring expensive stuff, just start with the assumption that half of it will be stolen before you leave. That way if it isn't, you'll feel really lucky.
And learn from my stupid mistakes. Anything you leave unattended for more than 2 minutes will disappear. You will get little to no sympathy because even otherwise intelligent people will try to convince you that it's not stealing if the owner is not clear and present at the moment the object is "discovered."

On the up side, I was never assaulted.

[moonraven]

It never fails to surprise me that folks come to Mexico--or to other parts of Latin America, the region of the world with the greatest economic inequality--and do not even take the kinds of precautions that they would take in their home countries as a matter of course!

Here in Latin America, folks are very protective of their possessions, as they are seen as an extension of themselves. In the First World, even if it is not a case of "easy come, easy go", folks act as if it were. And that extends to not taking care of their physical bodies, as well: overeating like mad, living on exploitative Starbucks, sitting in front of the tv in a stupor (with all that junk food and all that caffeine and who knows what other unhealthy substances duking it out in one's body, perhaps there's no other option?), living with completely unnecessary stress and conflict.

Confronted with a different style of life here in Latin America, a lot of folks just simply "lose it"--and they lose their possessions in the process. Chalk it up to the cost of admission, and let it go.

[M@tt]

I'm not sure if you're indirectly refering to my post or not. Either way, I don't agree much with the observations you made. I didn't meet any people from the "First World" who took fewer precautions in Mexico than back home. I certainly took more precautions than I would here. And there are undoubtedly parts of the world with greater disparity between rich and poor.

As for attitudes toward fitness and nutrition, even in the fat midwest where I live a much higher proportion of people are fit and healthy than the area I lived in Mexico, where about 90% of the adults were out of shape. Fortunately NOBODY was obese the way so many folks in the US are, but apart from young guys on soccer teams and the very odd person with a gym membership, fitness seemed to be a non-issue. Here it's a religion for lots of people.

[moonraven]

There are NO places in the world with a greater disparity between rich and poor than Latin America--not even Africa. That is why agrarian reform is such an embattled issue here.

Although cultural imperialism is breathing heavily down the neck of Mexico, folks are still a lot more in contact with reality than they are in the First World. I have conscious experience of 48 years in the First World and 13 years in Latin America to back up my opinions.

[ls650]

[Guy Courchesne]

I've seen numbers to back up what Moonraven says, though I don't have the links to show it. I think Brasil is the worst for income disparity.

[MixtecaMike]

[moonraven]

One reason folks here in Latin America are much more in touch with reality than those in, at least, the US is that here there are real newspapers--with real news--something that disappeared from the scene in the US 20 years ago.

We can see the results of those twenty years of reading USA today and not knowing which hemisphere Panama is located in....nor on which side one's bread is buttered.

It's clear that many folks contributing to this forum have not bothered to inform themselves about the Latin American situation. (Is this a result of coming from the First World, where nothing else exists?) In addition to reading the newspaper daily--in Spanish--you should at least have Galeano's "Las venas abiertas de Am�rica Latina" under your belts before coming here. It's been available in English since at least the mid-Seventies.

The polarization between the oligarchy and everybody else in Latin American countries is a direct result of 90 plus percent of the riches being controlled by between 5 and 10 percent of the population (depending on the country).

This is NOT a situation about which you should be asking for Internet links! Its shameful to live in a country and know absolutely NOTHING about it. You are supposed to be educators; start educating yourselves.

[Guy Courchesne]

Some of us (ok maybe just me) can be quite insulated from many of the realities of life in Latin America. Mexico City, for example, has quite a strong middle-class, which I define as having a comparatively well-paying career, home ownership, all the trappings of urban/suburban life. It's hard to see things here and wonder what it's like in the rest of the country or region. But, one doesn't need to travel far.

I found Guerrero state, or at least Acapulco and surroundings to be a glaring example of income, education, opportunity, and health services disparity.

[ls650]

[Guy Courchesne]

http://www.globalpolicy.org/socecon/inequal/indexinq.htm

http://poorcity.richcity.org/entundp.htm

http://www.globalisationguide.org/03.html

and a dandy resource, http://hdr.undp.org/statistics/data/ I could sit here all day playing with the UNDP site...they let you build stat tables anyway you like.

[ls650]

Thanks for answering the question, Guy.
http://www.globalpolicy.org/socecon/inequal/kaislist.htm