miércoles, 17 de septiembre de 2008

Cockroach Effect

Yesterday the whole country was shaken while in the middle of our independence day’s celebration some hand grenades were thrown to the crowd. Instead of people yelling ‘!Viva México!’ an explosion muffled the cheers, stole innocent lives and left numerous injured. Why are terrorist attacks happening in Mexico? What can we do to stop them?

How many lives? Does it really matter? Someone is dead. Someone will no longer see another sunrise. It means that one person decided to take someone else’s life. It means something is not good. Not only in criminal minds but there’s something pushing people to commit this atrocities.

Why did someone decided to kill people in a terrorist attack? The newspapers say it’s revenge. Some threats were maid to the governor of the Mexican State of Michoacán. Everything points to unhappy drug dealers. It is a clear message from them to tell “I’m the one in charge in here”.

Unlike 9/11 this ‘narco’terrorist attack was made from Mexicans to Mexicans. And from a group of power to another. From ‘el Narco’ to the government. But then; why to attack the people? If they are unhappy with a certain someone, then settle things with him, not make innocent people pay. Anyway, I think that’s why it is called terrorism.

Talking to a friend he described what he calls the ‘cockroach effect’. Referring to what happens when you spray poison to these insects: they flee to somewhere else. We discussed for a while that when criminals get their space poisoned they will flee to other places. But I think powerful criminals won’t go anywhere. However, the cockroach effect may be understood not geographically but defined by activities. They can no longer sell drugs; then they kidnap. They can no longer sell drugs; they do terrorist attacks (to obtain something).

In my way of seeing things, president Calderon has started a war against drugs. This has forced the cockroaches to migrate from dealing to kidnapping; from dealing to all sorts of easy money-earning activities -illegal, of course-. This ‘narco’terrorist attack is a desperate blow from the criminals to regain their ancient freedom; lost when the authorities got rigid.

And the authorities should remain stiff. They should keep their war on drugs. Now more than ever. For it is now when the society will embrace every policy against drug dealers. By throwing grenades and injuring civil society they’ve gained popular hate and given the government something politicians couldn’t attain: people’s support

After deciding what caused the attack, we have to decide what to do next. There are two fronts: the government’s and ours. First, the authorities will try to catch the guilty. But is it enough? Catching the bad guys won’t put an end to the problem. Killing the mosquito isn’t enough; we have to clean the swamp. We have to identify the problem and pull the ivy from the root.

That takes us to the second front: ours. What can we do to fight them? Get involved, do not be afraid, staying together. Criminals will die sooner or later; let’s make sure they don’t have replacements. Our future is in the kids; let’s educate them, teach them the value of life. Teach them happiness is not found in (easy) money. We have to stand side by side with the anti-drug programs: governmental, local. We have to be united and keep the kids out of drugs.

We have to make our stand. And as cheesy as it may sound: we have to love more. We have to make sure everyone gets enough loving in order to keep them away from violence. It’s easy to love the people who are the closest, but we have to love the unborn to make sure they will not grow to be grenade throwers. And this loving has to be reflected mainly in better education. Because with better education comes: lots of sports, healthy amusements, and all sorts of activities capable of channeling bad energy into something productive. This will eventually make kids turn their heads away from delinquency. The Beatles said it right: All You Need Is Love.

Epilogue

My TOEFL exams are getting closer, otherwise I would had written this in Spanish.

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