Job Discussion Forums

[MamaOaxaca]

In my town corn of cob, prepared with all or any of the following; mayo, salt, chile en polvo, lime, cheese, salsa valentina, cost $2.50 the corn in a cup is 3, but usually more corn than comes on one ear. Raw it's a peso an ear or 12 for 10 pesos. But in all the above cases, you are buying it from the person who grew it around here. I imagine in Mexico City the sellors have to buy the corn themselves.

[ls650]

[zack]

Hi. You might try a "whitenoise" machine if you can get someone to mail you one from one of the larger cities in Mexico.

[sarahsmith70]

Thanks for all the replies and advice. I maybe could be going to a larger city next weekend-would anyone know the word in Spanish for a type of white noise machine, other than fan, which I of courseknow? What type ofstores do I look in?

The reason I reckon moving isn't worth it is because other friends have the same problems where they live, wether it's loud nieghbors, dogs, gas man, etc. So I don't think that would solve it. But thanks.

[jessn]

Ten years ago, I landed in Puerto Morelos, south of Cancun, at evening time. Something seemed odd, and it was the quiet. They were playing futbol in the little zocalo (no yelling), and there were people conversing on their porches, and in little knots on street corners, but there was no loud music etc. such as you might find in other parts of Mexico or Latin America. I don't know if it has changed of course, but my theory was that perhaps the Maya people are just different in that way from the rest of the country. Certainly in the other small towns with high Maya populations we visited, like Coba, were similarly peaceful.

[Jetgirly]

[mapache]

As mentioned before, a fan or window air conditioner can create "white noise" to drown the other noise out.
Canadians and Americans just have to get used to the fact Mexicans have no concept of noise pollution. I tried to explain it to my students one time and they looked at me with blank faces. My aggravation is my Mexican family's roosters that not only cry in the morning but also all night. Every day when I greet and kiss my adopted Mexican mother, I ask her if she is ready to make chicken soup yet.

cock-a-doodle-do

[danielita]

[MamaOaxaca]

Sanbourne's is the only place I can think of that would sell something like a white noise machine in Mexico. Maybe Fabricas de Francia, they certainly win on best stock of frivolous baby gadgets .

On an interesting note, my town's city council recently held a conference on noise pollution, to try to build awareness on the topic. I also recently attending a family baptism, in which one of the cousins lent his stero in lieu of hiring a "sonido" It has a lot of power for a home stereo system but nothing compared to the banks of speakers that are usually at these events. The hosts were worried that the party was a flop, because no one was dancing. But the guests were all wrapped up in living conversations at the tables and everyone left saying what a lovely party is was. The host commented in my presence that they thought everyone was just being polite and they hadn't had a good time because the music sucked and no one danced. I set her straight. It wasn't that the music was bad, it was at a nice acceptable level and people were able to talk to old friends who only get together at these kind of things. At a typical party, the music is so loud that you can't have a conversation, you have no choice but to dance.

[Ben Round de Bloc]

How timely! About a week ago, some guy started keeping his big dog in an enclosed area next to a small unused office building directly across the street from my house. The dog barked and whined almost constantly day and night. The guy usually stopped by to feed and water the dog twice a day, early in the morning and late at night. I usually had the opportunity to listen to Los Tigres del Norte blasting from his car stereo at top volume during his 10-minute dog visits both at 5:00 a.m. and 11:00 p.m. I had a little talk with him about the situation yesteday at around 5:00 a.m. (I even surprised myself at how pleasant I managed to be at that hour of the morning!) He was very nice about it, said he had another place where he could keep the dog, and relocated it.

The city of Merida actually does have a noise ordinance. It's sometimes and sort of enforced through El Departamento de Ecolog�a, which I discovered shortly after two young fresas rented the place next door to my house and opened a small and incredibly noisy iron-works factory. It only took 2 years of filing multiple demandas with both ecolog�a and the zoning commission, while enduring the type of noise 16 hours a day 6 days a week (2 shifts of workers) that made it impossible for people to communicate with each other inside my house without yelling to be heard over the noise, even with the windows and doors closed. Inspectors came with their decibel-reading devices several times to test the noise level. I always knew when an inspector was coming, because 5 minutes before he arrived, everything went completely silent next door -- Oh, my God! I've gone deaf! -- and stayed that way until right after the inspector left. What a coincidence! Eventually, they couldn't keep up with the mordidas to the inspectors. Then they pushed their luck too far by ignoring the orders plastered across their front door by the head of ecolog�a herself -- to remain closed until remodeling was done to their factory to cut down the noise level -- and they were forced to relocate to an industrial zone.

[M@tt]

i think excessive noise and disregard for public space (littering, mainly) are part of the same deal. not sure what that deal is but i'm convinced they're related.

i also think that many parts of DF are quieter than small towns. the number one reason is lack of animals. number two, lack of loudspeakers mounted on trucks.

[sickbag]

[Guy Courchesne]

[MamaOaxaca]

A wise man once said,

Respecto al derecho ajeno es la paz

Peace is respecting others' rights.

But that does leave Guy's question unanswered. Respecting the neighbors' rights to be as noisy as they want? or Respecting the neighbors' rights to have quiet in their homes?

[sickbag]