Narco Blog

[logovo]

Last night, after reading the email interview that BoingBoing did with the author of El Blog del Narco I followed a link to his blog. Automatically I braced myself for what I knew were going to be horrible stories and images of violence, the kind that leave me numb after a while. Then something unexpected happened. EL Blog del Narco linked to a story from The Onion, Mexico Killed In Drug Deal. The logical part of me saw how it was good satire, and I have a pretty dark sense of humor, but at the same time, seeing a fake picture of dead bodies lying on a street that looked a lot like the neighborhood I grew up in, and then reading the lead that reads:

MEXICO CITY—In the latest incident of drug-related violence to hit the country, all 111 million citizens of Mexico were killed Monday during a shoot-out between rival drug cartels.

I kind of lost it.

Comments

[lian]

Jesus.


Is this supposed to be remotely funny? (Even considering that their audience is emphatically 'not people from Mexico')

I'm also stunned by the number of comments to the BoingBoing thread that propose an US invasion as The Solution.


...

wait, WHAT?

PS: also, pathetically insufficent, but: {{hugs}}

thanks

[logovo]

Is this supposed to be remotely funny? (Even considering that their audience is emphatically 'not people from Mexico')

The Onion does stuff like this all the time, and from reading comments in the Blog del Narco, I see some Mexican readers did find it funny. I could see how it can be funny, because the chaos in Mexico is getting to a point where a gallows sense of humor applies. I mean, the story of a full country shootout that kills off an entire country on a Monday is pretty ridiculous. I get it it, but after reading how truly bad it is right now, how things are getting worse and worse - yeah - even just typing this I'm kind of crying.

I remember the moment years ago, when I heard that the head of the Tijuana police had been murdered right by where I drove by everyday. It made it very clear that to me that I could and would leave my city. So, I'm over here, but my family and tons of friends are over there.

The kind of comments where people are saying "Invade!" makes it damn clear that a part of the US, even after years of failures in Iraq and Afghanistan, still doesn't get it. And they won't, not until it affects them directly, maybe.

Re: thanks

[lian]

Yeah, intellectually I get that the reason I'm not sharing the gallows humour is, quite simply, that I haven't needed to develop that kind of mental protection. So I'm quite sensitive because I've been protected. (I mean, I'm really sensitive to depictions of violence/death -- I wouldn't be able to stomache Supernatural, for example.) So yeah, the picture is really driving it over the edge for me, and the thought that for some people -- for you -- this is literally too close to home.

Re: thanks

[logovo]

Yes, excellent point. I bet that while my mom and brother would have a similar reaction to mine, my dad (who is a cab driver and gets to see a lot more of the ~colorful~ side of Tijuana life) would shrug it off and maybe laugh a little.

Sheesh, that picture :/

[hl]

La verdad que la foto en The Onion es un poco mucho. Ya el artículo no es terriblemente gracioso* pero la foto es...

(los norteamericanos argumentando por intervención no son nada nuevo, pero igual me enfurecen... -_-)





*tiene sus momentos, pero la verdad que en general son mejores.

[logovo]

Algo curiosos es que viendo la foto el detalle que termino tumbandome fue el de la tiendita con el emblema de la cerveza Carta Blanca pintada en la pared. Desde niña eso de ir a la tienda de la esquina, que lucen idénticas aunque con diferentes marcas patrocinando la pintura, fue el pan de todos los dias. Así de repente sentí el boom en el pecho.

(los norteamericanos argumentando por intervención no son nada nuevo, pero igual me enfurecen... -_-)

Pensarías que de perdida por propio interés no dirían tales babosadas, pero bueno, si algo termine de entender estos últimos años es que demasiada gente es feliz hablando sin querer molestarse con datos.

[hl]

Sí, el background no es muy diferente de cualquier esquina en Formosa o alguna otra ciudad del interior de Argentina, tampoco. D:

[logovo]

Eso, es algo que se mira en muchas partes del continente, una vez que sales de las grandes urbes.

[monanotlisa]

Estoy de acuerdo con tu commentario: el humor satírico no aparece excesivo en el artículo. El foto? Absolutamente.

(Perdón; mi Espa~nol es...débil.)

[logovo]

¡Hablas español! Mira que agradable sorpresa :)

[monanotlisa]

iSolamente un poco! Necesito de tiempo...y de paciencia, siempre un problema. ;)

Re: thanks

[zillah975]

*hugs so much* Idk, I'm sure it's supposed to be funny, but I'm having a hard time feeling anything but horror and dismay. The photograph makes it pretty impossible for me to think anything in that piece of satire is something to laugh at, however darkly. I'm so sorry you happened across it, and I wish I thought I could articulate to The Onion what I find so awful about it, in a way they wouldn't brush off as just me being humorless.

Re: thanks

[logovo]

Thank you. I believe it's easier to find it funny if you've been living it for years, like lian says above. Some of the people commenting in the Spanish blog certainly thought so. I'm sure some of my Tijuana friends would also see it like that.

I'm not sorry I saw it, but it was kind of a sucker punch. My defenses were up at first, but then the joke sneaked in along with a clear sense of how much worse the situation is getting.