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Re: [OM] Nathan's PAD 19/2/2012: police drama on Avenida Vicente Ramos

Subject: Re: [OM] Nathan's PAD 19/2/2012: police drama on Avenida Vicente Ramos
From: Moose <olymoose@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 20 Feb 2012 21:22:59 -0800
On 2/20/2012 5:57 PM, Andrew Fildes wrote:
> Around here it would disappear and be reincarnated as backyard sheds, garden 
> walls and chicken coops.
>
> On 21/02/2012, at 12:42 PM, Chuck Norcutt wrote:
>
>> Could be there are no willing buyers of construction equipment even at
>> scrap prices.  :-)

May I assume the smiley means you are joking? Otherwise, I have to get off the 
floor after falling down laughing.

Andrew is partly there. Mexico has huge numbers of people living in serious 
poverty. Every city of any size has barrios 
full of ramshackle living places made by the residents without land ownership, 
zoning, approvals of any kind and largely 
of stolen/scrounged materials.

The kind of materials shown in Nathan's pics would have rapidly disappeared, 
even if guards were hired. Guards might 
save the roofing tiles already in place and the ends of rebar sticking up, but 
not the loose stuff. Most likely, the 
guards would rapidly sell off the easily movable stuff, make a little money to 
feed their families and make the longer 
term job of keeping the built part intact and free of a new settlement easier. 
Unguarded, a place like that in Mexico 
would soon be a new little city.

I suppose the big difference in this is the general European problem of 
inadequate birth rates and falling populations. 
I gather Spain is one country whose incentives have been working to stem the 
decline. Still, the occasional shots Nathan 
has posted of abandoned building in the countryside would never be seen in 
Mexico. Either the building would have be 
scavenged for free materials or would be inhabited by squatters. Mexico has NO 
such problem - quite the opposite. When I 
was there, I believe the estimate was that half the population was under 18, 
maybe even younger. A HUGE problem.

I don't know if you recall the big earthquake in Mexico City years ago. In the 
vast southern part of the city, some 
buildings fell down while others apparently similar didn't. There were many 
theories I heard. Mine is different. When 
staying with my late wife's grandmother there, we watch over a couple of years 
as a building was constructed next door.

It took forever to build. The workers and their families lived free on-site, so 
their true incentive was to make it take 
as long as possible. All the concrete was supposed to have rebar in it. I have 
no idea whether it was there in the 
correct amounts in this particular building. I'm not so foolish as to pry.

But I'm quite certain that at least some of the many similar construction 
projects had much of the rebar sold out 
through the fences in the night. Insufficient rebar - earthquake - all fall 
down.

Don't get me wrong. I love Mexico and the Mexican people I've known. But it's a 
country with huge economic problems and 
an enormous number of the really, really poor who have to do whatever they can 
merely to survive. The US drug war and 
big drug cartels weren't anything like as big a factor when I was visiting 
family, vacationing and doing work there. So 
I can't imagine things are much better overall now.

Hasta Luego Moose

-- 
What if the Hokey Pokey *IS* what it's all about?
-- 
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