¡dewey defeats truman!

I feel like I´ve been posting a little bit too frequently as of late, I hope whoever happens to be reading this bothers to read the posts below, they´re better. The reason for more posts is that I have done more things and have about equal access to a computer. So there you go. It´s probably also because I´m about to put this thing out to pasture because I don´t feel like I have much to write about day-to-daily (unless there are requests for continued blogging, I´ve ruled out ultimate blog)

Other things of note.

Every morning I drink either fresh lime-aid or fresh liquified pineapple. If you´ve never done either of these things, make it happen. M-mmmm bitch!

I spent what I´d basically considered my last fun night in Guatemala attending a fancy graduation party for a guy followed by driving around listening to a cd I brought with me with the windows down.

Guatemala city night+high altitude stars+isuzu rodeo+will oldham=e-x-x-x-cellent

otherwise.

Welp, the Guatemalan Elections are today. Some final observations:

-Most of the people don´t seem to have decided who to vote for, even on the day of. Everyone still talks about how shitty the canidadates are, but they´ll vote regardless because it´s a kind of duty.

-Rich people favor la Mano Dura, despite the fact that I have not seen any public announcements of plans to do anything besides boost the security of the country. They´re tired of getting robbed.

-Less rich people seem to want to vote for the other party, the UNE. Up until about a week ago, I hadn´t met anyone who was sure. Then I talked to both of the maids that work in the houses I´ve stayed at. Both voted for Colom in the first round of elections. Reina´s going to again, but Maria changed her mind because the head of this household told her to. On top of that, the ManoDura=dictadura grafitti is pretty abundant. I´d really like to get some fotos of it, but no opportunities to be all turist-i in Guate´s business district.

-A fair amount of people I´ve talked to have very little efficacy regarding their vote because they feel that voting is a farce and the US and other foreign powers do way more to influence the elections than they ever could. There is a deeply ingrained, historically grounded reason for this. Bummer.

-Papers show the candidates in a dead heat, in terms of preliminary polls. Colom would still be my candidate if I lived here.

-Ultimately, I believe the whole thing will come down to who has the best reaggaeton song in their commercials and accompanying their flag waving squads on street corners. Sadly, I think Perez-Molina´s is probably the fresh-er of the two.

I sum up Decision 2007 Guatemala as: 50% repression, 50% corruption, 100% jamz.

Alright, time to go punch that ballot (illegally!)

-kevron.