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SHE SAID…
August 31, 2003
Our friend, journalist-author-political
analyst Sergio Martínez Luquín, passed
away on Sunday, August 24th, twelve days after falling
from a scaffold where he was inspecting some work at
a home in Conchas Chinas. The last time I saw him and
his lovely wife Berta was at one of the cultural events
held recently at La Petite France. As always, he was
in top shape, sharp-tongued and cynical, but still with
that smirk-smile underneath it all. When I attended
the launch of Sergio’s book a few months ago,
we agreed that I would translate it into English for
him. I would never agree to such an undertaking for
anyone else, but the book is such a delight that I think
it would be a pleasure to do it. Now Sergio will never
see the finished product. When I read the news of his
passing, I couldn’t help but think of those words
I have framed -in calligraphy- and hung at home…
“The art of living successfully consists of being
able to hold two opposite ideas in tension at the same
time: first, to make plans as if we were going to live
forever, and, second, to conduct ourselves daily as
if we were going to die tomorrow.” Sergio lived
successfully. I will miss him and I know that he will
be sorely missed by a great number of people. May his
family be spared further sorrow.
Now that the summer vacations are
over, Vallarta enters what the locals call “Septi-Hambre”,
a play on words combining Septiembre with hambre (hunger)
- unfortunately an annual occurrence. Then I read that
the national airlines are going to reduce the number
of flight to this town …AND reduce their fares!
Yeah, right. Here we go again. My friend is paying $457.
U.S. Dollars for a return ticket to Vancouver on Alaska
Airlines this week. Another is paying $910. U.S. Dollars
for a return ticket to Montreal …on Mexicana!
Same distance as the crow (or the airplane in these
cases) flies, about 2400 miles. So I repeat my perennial
question: why are east coast folks punished?
To make things somewhat worse, the
Travel Channel aired a special on Saturday, August 23rd.
It was entitled “The Top Ten Destinations in Mexico”.
Guess what? Puerto Vallarta was not even mentioned!
Not only was I more than disappointed, but I couldn’t
figure out how they chose the ten destinations, considering
that our Bay area has consistently been ranked No. 2
after Cancun for the last decade or so…
There was another item in the local
papers that made me smirk, like Sergio would have done
if he were still with us. It read: “Every hotel
will have to have a lifeguard.” The article went
on to state that the municipal councilwoman in charge
of Public Safety and Protection had said that it was
the responsibility of the hotels and beach clubs to
have at least one lifeguard on their properties and
that there is no law that excludes them from doing so.
She did not consider it right that when someone was
in distress, the tourists had to help when it was the
responsibility of the hotel to do so… she didn’t
understand why this negative situation existed, that
it did not transmit a good image for this town. Obviously
she wasn’t around when some good folks tried to
offer their services -free- a few years ago to train
hotel staff in CPR and other life-saving procedures,
when hotel managers responded by telling them “we
cannot interfere with the will of God.”
Did anyone notice that it takes 2
full minutes for the light at the entrance to the Fiesta
Americana to change, giving those leaving the hotel
a full 8 seconds to get the hell out onto the highway
before it turns red again?
Kentucky-based Yum! Brands Inc. said
it plans to invest nearly $50 million in Mexico during
the next four years while expanding its local restaurant
network to 1,000 units from the 410 it already operates
in this country. (Yum! Brands operates 33,000 restaurants
under the KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and Long John Silver's
brands.) I wonder if Vallarta is on their list for another
KFC, considering that we used to have one here …until
it was closed and the company took out full-page ads
in the local papers advising us to watch out because
any KFC-related ads or establishments would be …bogus!
Although I always seem to miss the
meteor showers when they occur, I’ve been very
lucky lately with my “observations” of the
planet Mars. Too bad I left my telescope with my son
in Montreal… August 27th was THE day, but we will
still be able to see the Red Planet with the naked eye
for another few weeks, right after sunset in the southeastern
sky and early in the morning in the southwestern sector.
In the meantime, I wish all our Canadian
and American readers a most enjoyable Labor Day and
a pleasant vacation in our now quiet little corner of
this planet. Take care of each other and Hasta Luego
pvmomto3@hotmail.com
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