Dear Sir,
I have recently been very disturbed by the recent calls of the expat community for a crackdown on Covid-19 and another lockdown in order to protect our precious lives.
We just forget one thing. We have our pensions/social security coming to the bank every month. We live in big houses with gardens. We have lots of storage and big fridges for the food to last a long time. We even have a supply of pet food that will keep them happy for months. We can order food from any restaurant we want and can do any activity on Zoom, play bridge online or just play games. So we can stay locked in our houses for months to come.
On the other hand, we are the guests in the country where most of our still friendly neighbors have to (and want to) work. They need their day/week pay to feed their young families, if they don’t make money there is no food on the table. They don’t have the luxuries we have and they can’t survive without work. And if we make them loose their income they may not be so friendly anymore and we might be forced to lock ourselves in the house, Covid or not.
So I suggest that if you are not happy with the Mexican government not doing enough to protect us, go back to your own country and demand the same from your government.
Maryla Kolpowska
Dear Sir,
Ed Tasca’s well-reasoned and informative column on the myth of “elder white men” knowing what’s best couldn’t have been timelier for me, as it appeared in print on the heels of the virtual Democratic Convention this past week. That four-night spectacle was as diverse and inclusive as anything I have ever witnessed and made me well up with pride. As an elder white man myself, having to face my own biased shortcomings (and privileges) on many issues, most importantly, race and gender, I long for the day when my fellow white men well finally lay down the unnecessary burden of domination and control and embrace our full-equality with all of humanity, flawed and precious as we all are.
Tim Boeve, Ajijic
Dear Sir,
Re: Your inflated stats on Covid-19. Here are the true reported number: https://coronavirus.gob.mx/datos.
Click on the interactive map to Jalisco, then the municipality of Chapala.
It’s not the plague, amigos. Stop the frenzy! Masks are useless. It’s like trying to stop a mosquito with a chain link fence.
Please stop the screaming emergency!
J.S. Smith
The editor responds: Our reporting uses the number of Covid-19 infections reported daily by the Jalisco Secretaria de Salud (https://ssj.jalisco.gob.mx), not the federal agency quoted in your letter. This includes a wider Covid-19 testing model, giving a slightly more accurate idea of the transmission rate, which, incidentally, federal health authorities admit is probably eight to ten times higher than its own numbers.