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sábado, noviembre 04, 2006

Sabes Que Pasa En Oaxaca?


It's amazing to me how little reportage of the tumultuous events unfolding in Oaxaca is making it into US mass media. It's as if the planned 700 mile border wall has cut off the news.

The murder of Brad Will seems to have awakened a few people. But, probably because most gringos speak only English, the fighting in Oaxaca seems impenetrable. It seems a lot like hearing your immediate neighbors fight viciously with each other night after night. You have no idea what they're fighting about. The shouting and fighting is definitely bloodcurdling. But you don't know what it's about because they're not yelling at each other in English. Without an explanation, you probably have to write it off as incomprehensible, as having neighbors who inexplicably can't get along. If you like to generalize, maybe that's how they are...

To disple this, here are two sensitive explanations of Oaxaca events worth reading immediately: The Nation and calabasa blog.

And, while we're at it, where are all the photos of these events, like the one that follows? You don't have to speak the language to catch the smell of impending disaster.