New State Department Warnings For Travel In Mexico

Mexican Police investigate murders/Photo LaJornada

 Today I read on CNN that the US State Department has increased the severity of their travel warning for Americans traveling into Mexico, I can't help but ask, how many warnings do US citizens need to keep them from traveling right into deaths doorstep?

Of course because I am living in San Diego I hear a lot of the stories that don't make the news because they were close calls, and because of the fact that violence south of the border has become so common place not all of it gets reported. There is large amount of violence that can be attributed to drug activity that is committed by small time gangsters not directly related to the cartels themselves, many of the small time drug dealers and gangs in Tijuana; as well as other border cities  take advantage of the fact that so little of their crimes are prosecuted they can get away with just about anything, and if the big cartels can get away with mass murders these small time characters know they can get away with armed robbery, car jacking and even kidnapping.

Now things we do know as being fact is for instance, back in 2010 one-hundred eleven Americans where killed in Mexico, the total murder rate however was 34,600. All this has been reported in the news with their flashy stories about Mexican troops raiding buildings and farms where they discovered mass graves of mostly immigrants in the middle of raging gun battles, or the bit more quieter story not to long ago about a San Diego area teacher who was kidnapped south of Tijuana and when the family couldn't pay the ransom the teacher was killed.

To add to what we hear about in the news, we also have our ever vigilant US State Department and their fearless leader Hillary Clinton putting out these warnings. As it stands now with the new warning put out today the state department is warning us to pretty much stay out the two Mexican states of Tamaulipas and Michoacan, as well as part of the following nine states; Durango, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Jalisco, Nayarit, San Luis Potosi, Sinaloa, Sonora and Zacatecas. Now what I find strange about this new warning is there is again no mention of the busiest border crossing in the world being on the list, and that would be the border between San Diego (San Ysdrio) and Tijuana, which by the way is also the most concentrated drug and illegal alien smuggling port in the world.

Why isn't Tijuana listed? I'm sure it's not because the area isn't considered dangerous, most likely it's totally political being this is the busiest tourist crossing area for people crossing into Mexico, just keep letting us think that the violence hasn't spread here and people will keep crossing and spending tourist dollars on both sides of the border, loss of those dollars would mean complete economic disaster for both sides of the border.

This is basically what the new warning is saying, first to stay clear of the areas listed in those eleven states, second don't drive at night any where in Mexico and third any time you are tr4aveling on the highways in Mexico stay on the main highways and toll roads, because one of the favorite tactics of carjackers, highway robbers and kidnappers is to blockade a road pretending they are police or soldiers and taking advantage of travelers as well as blocking other parts of main thoroughfares to delay the response of the police or soldiers to the actual crime scenes.

All though the government of Mexico hasn't yet offered a comment on the new warning, many Americans living and working in Mexico have not agreed with these warnings whole heartedly. For example Howard Feldstein who is the head of the Lake Chapala Society a expatriate community in the state of Jalisco said that "Mexico itself is still a great place to retire despite security concerns" and that " Life goes on. The people that live here do not live in fear of moving around freely. We're just, perhaps, more cautious.

Despite of all that is going on down south in Mexico, and the likeliness of the violence spreading into cities like El Paso and San Diego, I am floored daily as I am commuting around the San Diego area when I hear people having "private" conversations on their cell phones talking how they plan to cross the border to party, shop or even to get medical procedures; such as plastic surgery and lipo-suction despite the fact that the dangers are so real. Many people have the same reaction as Mr. Feldstein

Chris Hondros Dies From Injuries in Libya

Photojournalist Tim Hetherington/Photo The Rory Peck Trust

Earlier today Vanity Fair reported that photojournalist Tim Hetherington was killed and three other journalists were injured during a mortar attack in Misrata, Libya, however as of 10:50 p.m. eastern time CNN is now  reporting that photojournalist Chris Hondros a photographer for Getty Images has succumbed to a fatal brain injury incurred during the same attack, Hondros was an American citizen born in New York City.

Chris Hondros/Photo digitaljournalist

The other photographers injured in the mortar attack are Guy Martin of the Panos Agency and Michael Brown a freelance photographer. As of the last report Martin, a British citizen,  was earlier reported to be in very serious condition has suffered shrapnel wounds to the pelvis and underwent vascular surgery Wednesday night, according to The New York Times. It said his prospects had improved. A rebel source said Martin was in critical but stable condition.

Michael Brown suffered non life-threatening shrapnel wounds to his left shoulder.

Tim Hetherington Photojournalist Killed In Libya

Firebase Phoenix/Photo US Army

The Civil War in Libya has struck home for Vanity Fair Magazine and the photojournalism community in general when award winning photojournalist Tim Hetherington was killed in a mortar attack in Misrata, Libya today . According to an article by Vanity Fair reported his death and listed three other journalists as wounded.

Chris Hondos a photographer for Getty , Guy Martin of the Panos Agency where both seriously wounded with Mr. Martin being listed in very serious condition, and Michael Brown a freelancer was slightly wounded in the same attack. Hetherington, 40 who was an American and British citizen was best known for his work in Afghanistan, won the World Press Photo of the Year Award in 2007 for his work covering American soldiers in the Korengal Valley.

The Korengal Valley is located south of the Pech River in the Pech District of Kunar Province in northeastern Afghanistan. To the east is Asadabad, capital of Kunar Province, to the west is the Chapa Dara District, and to the south is the Chawkay District (Diwagal Valley). In the south east there is Narang wa Badil District (Badeil Valley), and in the south west Nurgal District (Mazar Valley), which includes Shumast Aret.

Firebase Phoenix (later called Firebase Vimoto) was established in the village of Babeyal to act as a security buffer between the villagers and active anti-coalition militia (ACM) fighters in the valley. Firebase Phoenix was established in the Spring of 2007 by 2nd Platoon, A Company, 1-32d Infantry, 10th Mountain Division, while fighting waged in the villages and mountains. Medical aid was brought to the surrounding villages. The Firebase Phoenix (Vimoto) is the area that Hetherington was covering when he won the 2007 award. He had also created short films about the G.I.’s he encountered in the Korengal and released a book of photographs, Infidel, examining the lives of the men of a battle company of the 173rd Airborne.

Vanity Fair released a statement from Hetherington's family Wednesday. "It is with great sadness we learned that our son and brother, photographer and filmmaker Tim Hetherington, was killed today in Misrata, Libya, by a rocket-propelled grenade," the statement said. "Tim will be remembered for his amazing images and his Academy Award-nominated documentary 'Restrepo.'

James Hider, Middle East correspondent for the Times of London, told CNN the four journalists were documenting fighting on Tripoli Street in Misrata.

After Hetherington's death, Jalal al Gallal, a spokesman for the rebels, issued a statement saying, "This is no longer the Gadhafi regime taking on Libya's people. This is Gadhafi taking on the world. He has spared no one, not women, not children, not journalists. This is now everybody's war."

Various news agencies are also reporting the frustration felt  by the rebels fighting Gadhafi because of the lack of response by NATO in protecting the citizens living in Misrata from forces loyal to Gadhafi. In my oppionon this demonstrates the ineffectiveness of NATO and the United Nations operating on the world stage, and though Americans are burned out from being the police force of the world, it just show's that the United States is the only entity that can do it.

Schwarzenegger Strikes Again

Schwarzenegger & Fabian Nunez/photo CBS8.com

Wow, life gets so hectic and busy sometimes things just seem to get away from me, I love to work on my blogs but it seems like something else in life always gets in my way. Now not all of it is bad, many times its because I am spending time with my wife and son which I wouldn't trade for anything. I love the two of them so much I would give up anything for them.

Again I say I am going to try to keep my blogs up to date, now I don't even know if I have a loyal "fan" base or not who read my blogs faithfully, I like to pretend that there are, and to them I want to say I am sorry for not keeping my blogs up to date. There is so much going on in the world today, that I can find probably billions of things to write about on this blog, which by the way is called Ramblings of a 44 year Old College Student, how ever how that I am 45 I guess that title isn't exactly correct but hey, I just told you I am 45 now and this blog will keep this name even until I am 199 years old.

So to my loyal "fan" base I just want to say give me a chance, I am trying my best. Although part of my problem may be just the fact that I am trying to keep eight blogs going at once, just on blogger itself and to be honest I don't know how many blogs I have all together on other web sites. So please just bear with me and I will keep on plugging away at my blogs. My wife says maybe I should drop a couple of the blogs, and I have thought of it, yet I like writing on all them, but if I do decided to give one up, it will probably be my
Astronomy blog, but somehow I doubt I will drop any of them.

So let me stop rambling here and take a look at what is going on in the world today, I'm sure there is something good out there to comment on, for example I saw on the California news scene today that Schwarzenegger commuted the sentence of Esteban Nunez  from sixteen years to seven years on the day before he left office in January. Nunez, who is the son of former state Assembly speaker Fabian Nunez, had pleaded guilty in the 2008 stabbing death of a San Diego college student, 22-year-old Luis Santos. It upsets me that a confessed killer will probably go free early just because Schwarzenegger wanted to reward a political ally, who can't even do anything for him any more. And America wonders why our murder rate is so high.