Blood Negligence

from the Amnesty International:

Mexico / Intolerable Killings: Ten years of abductions and murders in Ciudad Juárez and Chihuahua

from CBC:

• INDEPTH: MEXICO KILLINGS - A timeline of the case

from the Washington Post

• Killings Leave Mexico City Seniors in Fear

from me:

Blood Negligence

I’m in a third world country. It’s 2007. A few months ago the Oscar sensation was a movie about blood diamonds. The free trade in America is growing and my country’s unemployment rates are going further up high to the sky as the hope of my people goes down till we can’t see any light in the end of the tunnel.

I went to Blockbuster to see the new releases. One caught my eye and it wasn’t even a movie I’d notice for its actors. I’m not a particular fan of Jennifer Lopez but I decided to rent, in a sleepless Tuesday night a mysterious movie called Boarder town.

Ay… What a mess this world we live in.

Why didn’t I hear about this movie when I heard so much about Africa’s bloody struggle with the conflict diamonds?

Maybe because having something so wrong going on just under your nose feels more awkward to be told than something that’s far, far away in another continent.

I’m not saying there’s one unfair struggle. I’m saying all that is human and that is a struggle is unfair.

I sobbed like a baby for more than one hour after this movie. I know I’ve looked into the eyes of very similar women in my own miserable country that struggle to survive everyday, working more hours than they were supposed to, in bad conditions with no health care or support from their government, having to return to their so-called homes made out of card-boards in their so-called slums.

I know these women as I know the men that also bleed for conflict goods.

They’ve sold their souls to the devil even before they knew it existed.

I’m talking about not one, but many continents living under the same shadow: negligence.

You can also call it carelessness.

Disregard.

Blindness.

Bad disease.

Ignorance wanted not granted.

There are so many names for that, that I can’t even count them. And there are so many of these people dying over that negligence, so many that couldn’t even have the choice…

It’s been said before that we are always given two ways to follow and it’s up to our judgment to choose the right one. I believe there are those who were given none.

I’m giving myself time to think over, time to look back at everything and find out where I was negligent. I’m noticing something that was just slipping through my fingers before I even realized I had them. I’m seeing something greater, maybe a light down that same tunnel. All that is human should be taken care by humans, with humans for humans and not by those who can’t even see their own shadow in the wall - maybe they can’t even see the wall.

If you had a glimpse, like I do everyday of my life walking down the streets of my country, watching movies that were made for different proposals but ended up helping us get some hope out of this mess to hold on to, you’ll know what I’m talking about. We should not let negligence, in its rough state take our hands nor eyes or souls away. We’re too young, maybe too un-prepared for the job but someone must do it. Waking up to find there’s one sitting close to you that can’t actually see the wonderful paths that have been put there, is not a privilege, it’s a curse. Get rid of it. Open your eyes for you still can.

I have no clue how you’re doing this, just get up and open your window sill.

Open the cracks in your heart’s door and look into those eyes you’ve been avoiding for so long, what they tell you?

Are they hungry like you?

Are they thirsty like you?

Are they feeling guilty, like you?

Are they free, like you?

Are you embarrassed to look inside their eyes like they’ve been desperate in need to look into yours?

Are they bleeding just like you bleed?

Are they… alive?

Why is that a condition? To suffer for being who we are. No, no… it’s over. This feeling must be gone and like a few tried their best to get their ideas across, we should too. We should shake our own selves and see what good can be made out of what we find, eventually.

But still I wonder why we didn’t hear about the Boarder town movie the way we did about Blood Diamond?