[NeverForgetBataan]

“Does it seem that Mexico is a failed state?”

To say that Mexico is a failed state is too generous because that implies that at some point it was functional.

Living with Mexico is like owning an MG. It’s just a day to day negotiation with what’s broken or is going to break. Mexico is and always has been a corrupt world cesspool that is “stable” only to a greater or lesser extent. The corruption will never go away because its in the very DNA of Mexicans.

[time4good]

The corruption will never go away because its in the very DNA of Mexicans.

I can attest to the other part of that picture. My wife is from Mexico City. Man, have I had a few arguments with her because of her ingrained pacifist attitudes - as in the middle class just accept the corruption, look the other way, pay the 'mordida' as a daily way of life and rarely stand up for justice. Unless, that is, when a child molester or rapist does something in a pueblo - then its mob vigilante justice and execution. Or, as in a few years ago when the kidnapping was touching the 'pretty' people - actors/actresses/politicians - then the people marched strong in D.F. and elsewhere shouting 'Basta!' (Enough!) - and then they quieted down again.

We watched Denzel Washington in "Man On Fire" when it came out. She was crying and I was flaming mad furious at the depth of corruption that ruins a society, a culture, a people.

[Pining_4_TX]

“Living with Mexico is like owning an MG.”

Ha, ha, you must have experience with owning one. ;-)