Tuesday, September 01, 2009
It's Different Down Here: Part 2
Many visitors to San Miguel are surprised when we tell them we have no insurance, aside from catastrophic health insurance. They ask about theft. (We don't own that much stuff.) They ask about fire. (Concrete and brick don't burn very well.) They ask about liability. ("What if someone gets hurt on your property and sues you?" is the way this is often phrased.) We just smile.
Once again, Tony Cohan explains how things work here far better than I ever could:
In Mexico your raptures are your own, not prepackaged or branded. The same when things go badly; you're left to your own devices. Nobody to sue, point the accusing finger at; nobody to hold accountable but yourself. I'm comfortable with that view, with its implication that you are, in the deepest sense, responsible for what befalls you. Besides, to pin blame on human or official malfeasance, for the pothole you just stepped into in a country like Mexico, where civic matters are a morass and justice unreliable, is an empty exercise. It is easier, perhaps richer, to regard events as something larger, more random; to allow that fate, or chance, routinely intervenes in human affairs; and to recognize that they respond only slightly and occasionally to the imposition of our will.
Once again, Tony Cohan explains how things work here far better than I ever could:
In Mexico your raptures are your own, not prepackaged or branded. The same when things go badly; you're left to your own devices. Nobody to sue, point the accusing finger at; nobody to hold accountable but yourself. I'm comfortable with that view, with its implication that you are, in the deepest sense, responsible for what befalls you. Besides, to pin blame on human or official malfeasance, for the pothole you just stepped into in a country like Mexico, where civic matters are a morass and justice unreliable, is an empty exercise. It is easier, perhaps richer, to regard events as something larger, more random; to allow that fate, or chance, routinely intervenes in human affairs; and to recognize that they respond only slightly and occasionally to the imposition of our will.
Ojalá, people say, meaning the same as the Arabic word from which it is derived, Inch'Allah, "God willing."
# posted by goots @ 1:25 PM 
