Have a soda instead!
"In Town With Little Water, Coca-Cola Is Everywhere. So Is Diabetes" by Oscar Lopez and Andrew Jacobs, July 14, 2018
SAN CRISTÓBAL DE LAS CASAS, Mexico — Maria del Carmen Abadía lives in one of Mexico’s rainiest regions, but she has running water only once every two days. When it does trickle from her tap, the water is so heavily chlorinated, she said, it’s undrinkable.
Potable water is increasingly scarce in San Cristóbal de las Casas, a picturesque mountain town in the southeastern state of Chiapas where some neighborhoods have running water just a few times a week, and many households are forced to buy extra water from tanker trucks.
Water government Iran etc!
No wonder a leftist won election!
So, many residents drink Coca-Cola, which is produced by a local bottling plant, can be easier to find than bottled water and is almost as cheap.
OMG!
In a country that is among the world’s top consumers of sugary drinks, Chiapas is a champion: Residents of San Cristóbal and the lush highlands that envelop the city drink on average more than two liters, or more than half a gallon, of soda a day.
The effect on public health has been devastating. The mortality rate from diabetes in Chiapas increased 30 percent between 2013 and 2016, and the disease is now the second-leading cause of death in the state after heart disease, claiming more than 3,000 lives every year.
“Soft drinks have always been more available than water,” said Ms. Abadía, 35, a security guard who, like her parents, has struggled with obesity and diabetes.
Vicente Vaqueiros, 33, a doctor at the clinic in San Juan Chamula, a nearby farming town, said health care workers were struggling to deal with the surge in diabetes.
“When I was a kid and used to come here, Chamula was isolated and didn’t have access to processed food,” he said. “Now, you see the kids drinking Coke and not water. Right now, diabetes is hitting the adults, but it’s going to be the kids next. It’s going to overwhelm us.”
Buffeted by the dual crises of the diabetes epidemic and the chronic water shortage, residents of San Cristóbal have identified what they believe is the singular culprit: the hulking Coca-Cola factory on the edge of town.
The plant has permits to extract more than 300,000 gallons of water a day as part of a decades-old deal with the federal government that critics say is overly favorable to the plant’s owners.
And you know, managing water is the government’s “most important policy challenge.”
Public ire has been boiling over. In April 2017, masked protesters marched on the factory holding crosses that read “Coca-Cola kills us” and demanding that the government shut the plant down.
“When you see that institutions aren’t providing something as basic as water and sanitation, but you have this company with secure access to one of the best water sources, of course it gives you a shock,” said Fermin Reygadas, the director of Cántaro Azul, an organization that provides clean water to rural communities.
It's corporate world now, so shut up,
Coca-Cola executives and some outside experts say the company has been unfairly maligned for the water shortages. They blame rapid urbanization, poor planning and a lack of government investment that has allowed the city’s infrastructure to crumble. Climate change, scientists say, has also played a role in the failure of artesian wells that sustained San Cristóbal for generations.
They just jumped the shark and exposed that ubiquitous agenda for the corporate cover it is.
“It doesn’t rain like it used to,” said Jesús Carmona, a biochemist at the local Ecosur scientific research center, which is affiliated with the Mexican government. “Almost every day, day and night, it used to rain.”
But at a time of growing strife between Mexico and the United States, fed by President Trump’s vow to build a border wall and his threats to scrap the North American Free Trade Agreement, the increasing antipathy toward Coca-Cola has come to symbolize the frustrations that many Mexicans feel about their northern neighbor.....
Where print copy ended.
Awwww, Coke makes us look bad (what about other that other kind of coke?)!
NYT has a tall glass still.
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I guess they (soda is now a ‘‘nuclear weapon?’’) won't be popping the bubbly in Philadelphia tonight.
Related: Election delivers a resounding mandate for Mexico’s first leftist leader in decades
They couldn't steal it from him this time thanks to the disenchanted youth, and soon after Pompeo paid him a visit that was intended to demonstrate the strength and importance of U.S.-Mexico relations and the Trump administration's eagerness to work with the incoming government (did you see who accompanied him?)
The flip side is drinking for sorrow:
"Amherst College student was murdered in Mexico, family says" by Laura Crimaldi and Aimee Ortiz Globe Staff May 05, 2018
AMHERST — The family of an Amherst College senior who was found dead in March in Mexico City said Friday that he was murdered, their first public comments on an investigation that has been kept largely under wraps by authorities.
Andrew Dorogi, 21, who grew up in Ohio and was scheduled to graduate from Amherst later this month, was killed while returning from a vacation with several friends to Cabo San Lucas in Mexico, a family spokeswoman told the Globe.
The spokeswoman said the family would have no further comment, citing the ongoing investigation into Dorogi’s mysterious death.
Mexican authorities have provided few details since Dorogi’s body was found March 16. The US State Department has referred questions about the investigation to Mexican officials, and the Dorogi family had not previously spoken publicly about how he died.
In early April, Amherst College’s president said she had been told by Dorogi’s family that he had not committed suicide, and that his death remained under investigation.
Last month, after repeated inquiries by the Globe, Mexican prosecutors issued a statement about a man whose body had been found on train tracks at a subway station outside Mexico City. The man, whom prosecutors did not identify, had been electrocuted and suffered burns, according to the statement. Prosecutors declined to say whether the man was Dorogi, but said they had launched a manslaughter investigation.
On Friday, the prosecutor’s office said no one was available to discuss the investigation. A US State Department official said local authorities in Mexico were leading the probe.
Dorogi’s grandfather said he was frustrated by the seemingly slow pace of the investigation.
“I don’t think the Mexican government is really doing that much,” Joseph Dorogi, 86, a retired engineer who lives in Ohio, said in a telephone interview on Wednesday.
He said his grandson was supposed to be traveling back to the United States through Mexico City International Airport when he died.
“I’d like to know what happened,” Joseph Dorogi said. “The one thing I know is he’s gone and there’s nothing we can say or do that can change that. That’s the way his parents feel and assessing the blame doesn’t bring him back. He’s gone.”
At a funeral Mass held in March at the Cleveland church where Dorogi had been an altar boy, mourners heard how he treasured every second on the field during his senior season on Amherst’s football team.
The 6-foot-1-inch Dorogi was competing with two other running backs for more playing time, and during a home game against Trinity College last November he took matters into his own hands, two teammates said. During a kickoff, he pulled a freshman off special teams and sprinted down the field in his place.
When coach E.J. Mills realized Dorogi was on the field, he was stunned.
“Initially I was upset and said, ‘What were you thinking,’ but Andrew just shrugged his shoulders,” Mills said in a statement provided to the Globe. “It was one of those moments where I just could not get mad at him.”
“It was classic ‘Dorogi,’ ” said Mills, who told the story at Dorogi’s funeral. “He just wanted to get on the field and help his team.”
Bill Beard, who coached Dorogi on the hockey team at University School, a private prep school for boys in Hunting Valley, Ohio, said the wake and funeral for his former student were wrenching.
“For me it was surreal in the sense that at some point I just figured I’d wake up and it wouldn’t be real,” said Beard, who was also an administrator at University School. “As a parent myself I can’t imagine burying one of my children.”
Dorogi set himself apart with his enthusiasm and a circle of friends that came in “all shapes and sizes,” he said.
“He never shied away from anything,” Beard said.
Mike Odenwaelder, who played football with Dorogi at Amherst, said his former teammate used to drive around school in a beat-up, black SUV. Behind the wheel, he wore sunglasses and a smile.
“He was a ball of positive energy,” Odenwaelder said. “He had an infectious smile — just always seemed to be upbeat and positive.”
Noah John, 18, a freshman wide receiver on the Amherst football team, said players have tried to cope with Dorogi’s death by gathering to tell stories about him. Several weeks ago, an outdoor service was held by candlelight on campus, he said.
His teammates often talk about “being more like Dorogi.”
“We never called him Andrew. Always the last name, Dorogi,” said John, who is from Albany, N.Y. “A lot of times people here can be shy and reserved, but not him. He would say hi to everyone even if it was his first time meeting you. He would be very open; treat you like you were a lifelong friend.”
Karen Godt, executive director and founder of Hope for Honduran Children Foundation, a nonprofit group in Cleveland, recalled Dorogi’s volunteer work for her organization seven years ago in Flor Azul, Honduras.
In the evenings, volunteers gathered around a bonfire with local boys who were living on a farm run by the charity, Godt said.
Dorogi, a baritone who performed in the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Chorus, rose to sing.
“I remember it touched everybody,” Godt said. “There were a lot of tears and emotion.”
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Given his involvement with the Catholic Church and a nonprofit serving children, one wonders is he had information or was going to blow the whistle on some sort of human trafficking or sex ring.
I mean, it could be wrong place, wrong time, drug gang violence, too. Saw something he shouldn't have.
I don't know what is the answer, and I'm sorry to have brought it up.
"Mexican government says Amherst College student was not murdered, contradicting family" by Laura Crimaldi and Aimee Ortiz Globe Staff May 08, 2018
The Mexican government said Monday that an Amherst College student found dead in Mexico City in March was not murdered, contradicting the family’s recent claims.
In a statement, Mexican authorities said that Andrew Dorogi’s body, which was found on train station tracks on March 15, did not have “any signs of violence, physical aggression, or defending wounds. Therefore, a murder has been ruled out as cause of death.”
The statement marked the first time Mexican authorities, who have provided little information about the investigation, have declared that Dorogi was not the victim of a homicide. It came two days after the Globe reported that Dorogi’s family, speaking publicly about the investigation for the first time, said that the 21-year-old had been murdered.
Dorogi, who grew up in Ohio and was slated to graduate from Amherst later this month, was killed while returning from a vacation with several friends to Cabo San Lucas in Mexico, a family spokeswoman said.
In its statement, the Mexican government said Dorogi had traveled to the airport in Mexico City to catch a connecting flight to New York, but “never took the flight.”
I suppose it wouldn't have mattered either way:
"At morgues and in church services Sunday, Cubans mourned loved ones who died in the country’s worst air disaster in three decades. Authorities have identified 20 bodies and recovered all human remains from the field next to Havana’s international airport where the jet went down. Families were assisting forensics experts with identifications....."
Still waiting for the autopsies?
“Instead, he exited the airport and asked for directions to the metro station, according to witnesses’ accounts and video footage,” authorities said.
The statement added that the Mexico City attorney general’s office, which is investigating Dorogi’s death, has offered to meet with the family to “provide an explanation of the incident” and show them video footage.
A spokesman for the attorney general’s office said Monday that the case remains under investigation and declined to comment on what he called “new elements that clarify what happened.”
The family’s spokeswoman could not be reached Monday evening for comment. Last week, Dorogi’s grandfather told the Globe that he was frustrated by the pace of the investigation.
In early April, Amherst College’s president said she had been told by Dorogi’s family that he had not committed suicide, and that his death remained under investigation. Last month, after repeated inquiries by the Globe, Mexican prosecutors issued a statement about a man whose body had been found on train tracks at a subway station. The man had been electrocuted and suffered burns, according to the statement.
So what are they saying, he was drunk and fell on the tracks?
Prosecutors declined to say whether the man was Dorogi, but said they had launched a manslaughter investigation.
The US State Department has referred questions about the investigation to Mexican officials. In a statement Monday, the State Department said it remains in close contact with the Dorogi family but declined to comment further.....
Nor will I.
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