90 - MIXED EMOTIONS
The number of my blog this week caught up with my age!! I really didn’t anticipate that I would still be writing a weekly blog at this point. Frankly, I never did look at the future of Nomad-Nana.com when I began and am so grateful that people still look forward to reading it.
I mentioned last time how many of the Snowbirds have been leaving and most of them will be gone the end of this weekend. I don’t expect to be lonely because there are a few die-hards, like me, that stay through Easter plus a few of my year-round friends will still be close by.
I was told it was another long weekend in Mexico but I can’t find anything about it!! However, a Mexican family, with a number of kids, arrived late afternoon and are having a great time in the pool this evening, so perhaps I haven’t looked hard enough to find something about it.
The noise level this evening is a preview of what it will be like here in a couple of weeks when Holy Week begins and the families from inland arrive “en masse” to enjoy the vacation spots in Manzanillo. It may not be a traditional type tourist destination, but is certainly a Mexican destination from the cooler temperatures of Colima and especially Guadalajara!
We could learn a lot from the joie de vivre of the Mexicans but there is a dark side. The cartels! For the most part, we don’t know they are here – until they are!
This past week was a wakeup call to remind us to be conscious of their presence. A group of us had to cancel a trip to La Manzanilla for lunch at Martin’s because of the cartels fighting each other on the highway, stopping cars and burning them.
This was an unusual incident that didn’t last long, but long enough to make people nervous about taking a day trip to Barra de Navidad, Melaque and La Manzanillo.
We heard later that this was a diversion set up because a head cartel honcho was being helicoptered – by whom and to where, the details are fuzzy – but it had to do with him being swapped for a number of cartel members. That’s about all I heard.
The skirmish didn’t last long nor affect any of us, except for lunch at my favourite restaurant. Now the excitement is over, calm reigns once more.
My focus now is on the Canadian election for Prime Minister. My obsession with spending hours on my Mac is back in full force as I read everything I can about the pros and cons of the two parties. The policies are similar because the governing party seems to have done a 180 overnight and are now parroting every policy the opposition proposes. I’ve never seen anything like this in all the elections I’ve experienced over my long life. It's flabbergasting!
It has become a competition between the two leaders of the main two parties even though in our parliamentary system you don’t vote for the leader – you are supposed to vote for the policies.
Unfortunately, I will be flying home on election day and the complications of trying to obtain an out-of-country ballot and having to depend on Mexico’s undependable mail system, meant that, for the first time since Don and I had our names removed from the electors list in Quebec many years ago, I will not be voting in this most critical one in Canada.
It’s devastating when your right to vote is taken from you. It’s something I have never gotten over. Since that time, I’ve voted in every election regardless whether it is municipal, provincial or federal. I’ve told my kids and grandkids that I don’t care who they vote for, but vote!! I’m trying to console myself this time by saying I am only one vote in millions of others, so my vote will not be the game-changer, but if everyone told themselves this, what would happen to the election?.
You’re probably curious about how Don and I lost our right to vote. In Quebec, where we were living, the rule at that time in the provincial election, was bizzare. Anyone could have someone's name stricken from the voters’ list by making a complaint to the authorities that the individual didn’t have the right to vote. The stricken voter, was not informed who had complained - that was confidential.
The stricken voter had to prove their right to vote by taking documentation to a justice of the peace or judge. They swore an oath then given approval to vote. It’s interesting to note that most of the names stricken were English or foreign.
Don and I made a pledge that never again would we not vote. But here I am – the first time in fifty years that I am not exercising my precious right! Will this put a curse on the outcome I earnestly want on election night?
Last Wednesday evening, 'Goyo, the owner of Villas Eureka, and I got into one of our long, interesting conversations which alwaays includes politics - Canadian and Mexican - and we both learn something about each others. After I made a comment about how depressing that evening's political discussion was, he smiled and said , "If canada becomes the 51st state, Mexico will be the 52nd'. 'We looked at each other, then broke into laughter, hugged goodnight, and I went home with a smile on my face. The power of a sense of humour puts anything into perspective. What will be, will be.