unconsequential

Don’t forget the School of the Americas training of particular saudi nationals. They’ve rebranded since then but still kicking it in GA.

I just had another thought on this topic, since this is the Yucatán. The Golden era Mayans built up berms to build on for roads. They’re called sacbe/sacbeob and they were generally very straight from A to B. They loved grids. I imagine modern planners are well aware of historical contexts of the region as well, not mention potentially Mayan themselves. Beyond just the shortest route from point A to B is a straight line, there may be some other underlying context like someone suggested of ease of divvying up land and drawing contracts.

I left Mexico in 2016, so it’s been a minute. But urban planning was a big field with lots of hype for up and coming university students at the time. I’d imagine this is their handiwork as graduates now. I was also on the West coast. So, I don’t know much about the Yucatán or Vera Cruz etc.

Urban planning and zoning. They’re just planning in advance for urban sprawl and congestion. Mexico experienced a lot of growing pains (and preventable deaths) when its cities boomed and they haven’t forgotten.

Side rant: Where I used to live they zoned heavily for green areas for water absorption during rainy season and for sewage management bc it was low-lying tropical climate. Unfortunately, one big foreign hotel greasing palms and they’re building on top of a wildlife sanctuary necessary to prevent catastrophic flooding. Bye bye city buses full of people down the canal. But hey, ‘Mercia! Tourism! It brought me solace their fancy pool foundation shatters almost annually like clockwork and their pretty glass balconies kept popping from earth settling. Didn’t save the neighborhoods they destroyed by filling in a river delta though. Kept waiting for the “big one” earthquake that would bring that sucker down for good.

What’s the old saying, “Edison worked by gaslight while perfecting the lightbulb”?

I think that applies here. To a certain degree we still often have to participate in imperfect systems while we advocate for better ones. The people working on renewables or electric vehicles still used electricity from coal plants and gas guzzling vehicles. Many of us can see how extractive capitalism is hurting us and our communities, yet we’re forced to participate in it to eat.

I’d select one or maybe two services you can tolerate that are the tools best suited for building your tribe. Insulate them the best you can, be conscious of your own usage of those platforms, and talk… A LOT… about why privacy matters and what these platforms are doing.

A lot of people simply don’t know or don’t know there’s a community trying desperately to build alternatives. Perhaps a community also still flawed, but **progress is greater than perfection! **

As far as cameras go, understand your routes best you can. Be a blip instead of a constant feed. Same with online presence. OK. They know John Doe number 1.5 million and twenty-two exists- but you have some control over whether they know which direction you wipe your bunghole. Take the small victories!

Use and hack the systems that exist today to build better ones for tomorrow.

And whatever you do be careful you don’t become like my great uncle— he thought the Soviet’s had microphones under his plates and spies were hiding in his closet (he was a farmer from podunk nowhere.) but he also fed his tractor hay so— that might have just been schizophrenia…

But, seek balance today so you don’t go mad tomorrow! And if you start feeding your tractor hay, seek help.