Breathe
By Claudia Pérez Atamoros
I'm about to sit down to enjoy my sacred morning coffee. I ask Alexa to tune in to the news. I have to martyr myself with the daily news. I hear a commercial that leaves a bad taste in my mouth, so much so that the sweet acidity of my coffee turns bitter. It is a spot by Dr. Simi in which he asks the victims of Hurricane Otis to "accept, resign themselves and offer their suffering to God". The opprobrium is more than obvious.
I do not fail to recognize that Dr. Simi has been, in some way and perhaps in many ways, the only dignified option for a large percentage of Mexicans whose access to health care has only been possible through his pharmacies and doctor's offices. We should even applaud the rapid distribution of food supplies to the needy population after the atrocious and almost unprecedented weather phenomenon that devastated Acapulco. With absolute respect to religions (although the one who said that they are the opium of the people was not so wrong) I think that one thing is one thing and another thing is another thing. For God's sake!
CLEARING GUILT
I could not help remembering that morning in 2020 when President López Obrador showed a religious holy card and decreed that it was enough to raise it and say the magic words "stop" so that the covid would not harm the people of Mexico. The same president who now, again and as always, denigrates the work of journalists and generalizes the disqualification of an entire guild, the same one who denies the number of dead, the same one who refuses to accept that his government "is salty" and in many aspects failed. The same one who now victimizes and revictimizes. That's how he sees it, that's how he feels, that's how he revictimizes himself every morning. I have not heard a better phrase than the one pronounced the afternoon before yesterday by Azucena Uresti: "President Lopéz Obrador is the main victim of Hurricane Otis". Not the victims, not the dead, no, God forbid!
DO THINGS THE RIGHT WAY
Yesterday, the budget for the reconstruction of the devastated Acapulco was announced. 61.313 billion pesos or 3.432 billion dollars.
Will this government tithe be enough? Of course not!
An evangelizing work is urgently needed among the private power of the country so that they increase their donations in search of the salvation of their fortunes and of Acapulco. The servants of the nation must (yes, as an obligation), census every family in Acapulco, carry out their kerygma with absolute passion so that they will thank the most democratic president in the history of the nation with their devout and punctual vote.
More than seven thousand hectares of damaged buildings, in a first choice tourist site and that in the recently finished summer season 2023 had an economic revenue of 8 billion pesos and 1.2 million tourists.
Where more than 779 thousand souls live, of which 52.3% are women and 47.7% men and according to the CONEVAL, 394 thousand 861 of them lived in poverty (I use the past tense because at the moment we do not know if they survive or now will survive in extreme poverty -the saying "we were many and grandma gave birth" applies)- in a little more than 360 rural communities whose daily food was tortilla, water, chili and salt and whose names could not be more prophetic: Salsipuedes or Agua de perro...
TOMORROW GOD WILL TELL
I seem to hear the prophets who could not, it is said, prophesy such an evolution of Otis. How it is clear that they did not read the gospel that Patricia left written in 2015. It would have been enough to pay attention to the readings to understand that there were precedents, that Patricia had hit the Pacific coasts with divine fury: Colima, Jalisco and Nayarit. In less than 24 hours it transformed from being a tropical storm angel into a destructive demon of the worst kind, the one of five; it was even described as category five plus, yes yes, like the extra-large sizes?
Records are written in stone. The philosopher's stone of the internet. There they were before Otis, there they remain after Otis. There is no one worse blind than he who does not want to see. The headlines now read "Otis, an unprecedented hurricane"... The indifference, the ignorance and the bleating sheep are clear to see. But they must be sheared, even if they are the Lord's lambs. Let's do it but with wisdom, that which the former governor of Veracruz Javier Duarte recommended when he was apprehended: "...we must have patience, prudence and verbal continence"....
In 2015 the portal bbc.com reported: "Patricia transformed from a conglomeration of poorly organized thunderstorms to one of the strongest and most perverse systems on the planet... in less than 10 hours it went from being category 1 to 5, something extraordinary...."According to the U.S. National Hurricane Center, while the then director of the National Water Commission warned in our country that "Patricia could be the most intense hurricane ever recorded, with potentially catastrophic consequences...".
IN THE NAME OF GOD
And what do you think the divine authorities of that time did?
The Ministry of the Interior declared a state of extraordinary emergency in the three Mexican Pacific states. It ordered the immediate evacuation of more than 50,000 "Christians" from coastal areas and closed the ports. There were about 20 hours to act. 460 million dollars were earmarked for reconstruction.
With Otis it was reduced to 12, true, but it would have been enough if things had been done properly. A punctual and comparative follow-up. 12 hours would have served as an alert to at least seek shelter and not to talk to the captain of the yachts to tell them something like "capi over there I entrust you my yacht, take care of it during the hurricane, and I will deposit you an extra miracle".
No one foresaw the magnitude and that is criminal. An unforgivable sin.
MORTIFICATION AND CILICE
There is no money or mortification that can, for the moment, comfort the corporeal and very human needs of so many of our compatriots who are living the worst of ordeals.I do not believe that the damage is being magnified but minimized.
There is no prayer or plea that can silence the infamous and unbelievers who pray everywhere not to donate. There is no worse vileness than to hide behind mistrust. They will already have time to use cilices against those who do not profess the same creed. Even to excommunicate them.
For now we should all, ALL of us, light our own candles to give light to those in need, to share and multiply bread and wine.
Donate... donate... and walk with them, to the extent of our possibilities, with the greatest passion and care, their Way of the Cross, the Calvary that will not be over even in 14 stations, because it will take years for Acapulco to vibrate with the same intensity.
They are the real victims who, after losing everything for Otis, are now in the middle of a political struggle and massive disinformation typical of miserable and apocalyptic times.
The opinions expressed are the responsibility of the authors and are absolutely independent of the position and editorial line of the company. Opinion 51.
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