By Jules Siegel
It is cloudy here where I live in Cancun today, folks. Very cloudy, very humid and very hot. We will have some cranky tourists. Speaking of cranky tourists, the World Trade Organization will meet here in September, peak hurricane season.
A Cancun User's Guide reader asks, "We were thinking of going to Cancun for our honeymoon from September 1 to 15. What happens if there is a hurricane?"
It depends on the scale of the hurricane and where the eye hits. Only direct hits cause a lot of trouble. The main problem is flooding. In the case of a direct hit on Cancun, low-lying areas would be evacuated. This last happened in 1988, for Hurricane Gilbert. We were living in nearby Puerto Morelos at the time and were evacuated to mainland Cancun. Everything was impeccably handled.
I'm sure the WTO delegates will be given high priority in case of an evacuation. These people are planners, you know. The advance team is arriving today to take over the Cancun Convention Center and get it properly spiffed up. I am tempted to look for an assignment to cover this. Then I think about the White Monkeys and other globafóbicos.
For the last big globafílico conference -- I forgot what -- the protestors (all outsiders) marched on the Hotel Zone, an island strip attached to the mainland by causeways at the airport and downtown Cancun ends. The state and city riot police met them at the downtown entrance and descended on them with bone-crushing fury.
Cancun's many affluent liberals screamed loudly, but one businessman said approvingly, "We can't allow these kind of people to feel that they can come here and make trouble." Against my will, I found myself agreeing with him, except I was thinking about the World Trade Organization or whatever it was.
While the police were beating up the hapless pacifists (and some of the press, too), I was in a taxi trying to get home. I live in the Hotel Zone, toward the town side. Access was blocked. We had to go out the airport way, usually $20 instead of $6. But the taxi driver charged me only $6. A miracle. Some would have charged me $50 because it was an emergency.
I gave him $10 and told him to keep the change. We beamed in mutual appreciation.
In the public debate that followed, more than a few questioned the wisdom of allowing contentious political events to be held here, especially Hotel Zone workers and businesses who were inconvenienced by the security arrangements. Armored police in black riot gear stationed all along the principal thoroughfare? Bloodstained sidewalks and ambulances? Is that the right Cancun image?
I raised these points with the businessman's wife. She said, "Did you see how they were dressed?" The usual student jeans, sandals and serapes, cheap serapes, too. "You would think that they would want to put their best foot forward for an event like this," she continued, her gold chains clinking approval. Maybe she was joking. I was afraid to ask and she gave not a single hint.
Posted by jules_siegel at August 1, 2003 10:33 AM | TrackBack