I have been reading a new blog -- new to me, that is: Without A Net. The blogger is Erika, a young Canadian woman, living in Mexico City. Nancy of Countdown to México called the blog to my attention in a recent post. Then, "Juan Calypso" of Viva Veracruz commented in his blog on Erika's post: Me and Mr. Happy Pants.
I strongly recommend that you take a look at Erika's work. Her posts are always thoughtful and well-argued. Better -- they are very well-written. Most Mexico blogs (like most blogs) are basically on-line journals. The writers of those blogs have no pretensions about their writing. As Mack Sennett said: "Let W.D. Griffith worry about art. I'm just making pictures."
And then there are the handful of blogs that are a pleasure to read because they have style and character. Erika's blog falls into that category. I like reading it because -- I like reading it.
Her June 24 entry is a perfect example. Entitled Stairway to Heaven, it is a Canadian vision of the recklessness of Mexican construction workers. But, let's hear it in her own words:
One of Erika's greatest traits is her self-mockery. She is very quick to point out that she knows her Canadian genes are bouncing up against centuries of macho Mexican behavior. But she needs to cry out: Don't you know you are just being stupid?
And I can tell her that all of the OSHAs in the world are not going to make a difference. Safety people think safety is great; worker's compensation carriers think safety is great; workers think safety is just something else to pull the testosterone out of their very bodies and turn them into the equivalent of Belgian file clerks.
I know Erika's horror. I have workers' compensation carrier eyes, and I see what she sees: men about to prove how honorable it is to live as widows and orphans.
Of course, American and Canadian men are removed from this behavior by only a generation. Take a look at the photograph at the top of this post. That is not Mexico City; it is New York City. Posed, perhaps. But the attitude is every bit as macho as any trabajador de construcción.
I strongly recommend that you take a look at Erika's work. Her posts are always thoughtful and well-argued. Better -- they are very well-written. Most Mexico blogs (like most blogs) are basically on-line journals. The writers of those blogs have no pretensions about their writing. As Mack Sennett said: "Let W.D. Griffith worry about art. I'm just making pictures."
And then there are the handful of blogs that are a pleasure to read because they have style and character. Erika's blog falls into that category. I like reading it because -- I like reading it.
Her June 24 entry is a perfect example. Entitled Stairway to Heaven, it is a Canadian vision of the recklessness of Mexican construction workers. But, let's hear it in her own words:
Because up, way up, on the climbing roof of the building, were the majority of the workers, milling over the concrete and steel skeleton like ants on a dead gecko, pounding and pushing and tossing and stacking and hammering and hollering. Of the 30 or so guys, maybe five wore helmets. None wore gloves or protective eyewear. They stood beside towering stacks of unbound metal beams and climbed up
teetering columns on rebar. There was nary a harness or rope to be seen.
One of Erika's greatest traits is her self-mockery. She is very quick to point out that she knows her Canadian genes are bouncing up against centuries of macho Mexican behavior. But she needs to cry out: Don't you know you are just being stupid?
And I can tell her that all of the OSHAs in the world are not going to make a difference. Safety people think safety is great; worker's compensation carriers think safety is great; workers think safety is just something else to pull the testosterone out of their very bodies and turn them into the equivalent of Belgian file clerks.
I know Erika's horror. I have workers' compensation carrier eyes, and I see what she sees: men about to prove how honorable it is to live as widows and orphans.
Of course, American and Canadian men are removed from this behavior by only a generation. Take a look at the photograph at the top of this post. That is not Mexico City; it is New York City. Posed, perhaps. But the attitude is every bit as macho as any trabajador de construcción.
