i am not one to pile on, but, um, things are not going so swell right now in mexico. on the one hand, i see the benefits of the leftist candidate, andres manuel lopez obrador, but, and this scares me a lot, i also see the advantages of the more right-leaning candidate, felipe calderon. why? because i am greedy(investors in the states trust calderon, he is of the same party as current pres vicente fox and is free trade, pro-foreign investment. amlo heard that bush was building a wall on the border. his response? ok, we will build another one. we dont want our people over there (the usa) anyway. ya. wow.) when it was clear, for about an hour, on monday morning that calderon had won the most votes, the value of the peso shot up. now that amlo(this is how lopez obrador is known down here) is challenging the vote, and going to take the results to the special election commitee, this is shaping up to be like bush-gore 2000. except, gore conceded, amlo did not. quite the opposite, both declared themselves winners.


so ya, i am leaning republican now. greedy is what it comes down to. if i did not have student loans to pay then the exchange rate would mean nothing. but i do. so it does.

i worry about the violence that will most likely errupt if amlo does not win. his supporters, are, well, emotional. volatile. easily excited maybe. imagine, oh, i dont know, 5 million fans at a rage against the machine (rest in peace) concert. then imagine zach de la roccha saying, ¨hey, you see the security guards here? take ´em out. then, move to the closest city and shut it down. i will meet you all there tomorrow.¨ the sheep would fall in line and violence would ensue. sadly, this is quite possible here as well. the people have little trust in public officials, with good reason after 70 years of single-party rule, and now they are taking out their frustrations on the current system. right or wrong this is the deal.

i will try to write more later. as of now, i am safe and should stay that way (there is an army special forces unit in town with tanks, etc. so the people, no matter how restless, hopefully are not stupid.