What’s really happening in Mexico City rn
Mind you, all of the things you'll find written in here are from my own personal experiences, and what I've been able to gather on my own or from several media, I've tried to apply the best of my judgment but, in the end, this is my personal point of view. If you happen to be from another part of Mexico I'd love to hear your story. And if you think "But, why do I even care about this? This is an english speaking site" maybe you're right but I still thought it would be good to reach out a little, just in case.
Also, I apologize in advance for any grammar mistakes you might find ahead.
Truth is, the situation here has been pretty surreal. I was not born yet in 1985 when the first massive earthquake struck Mexico City and, honestly, I've lived a pretty good and comfortable life in this batshit crazy place of a city for 25 years, the only places where I've ever seen such devastation, in some way, have been the news and movies, all which always take place somewhere so far away from home.
Well, it's been so odd, and difficult, to see all these things happening only a few minutes away from my apartment, a few which were places that I knew personally and now they are completely gone. In fact, ever since yesterday my reality was definitely twisted in one way or another, once I was out of the building where I work at, hearing the ambulances and helicopters ram through the smoke clouds and all the rumors from people who managed to get a decent connection on their phones "this and this place fell to the ground!!!” but being unable to know for certain, it's been wild.
I don't have the words to express how fucking lucky I was; my entire family is fine, my home was not damaged at all -hell, not even a book was outta place- I still have my job and basic services like water, electricity and internet, obviously. With that said, I thought it would be selfish of me if I didn't go out and lend a hand, well, all I can say from the time I was out there is:
The government has done very little to aid the population for the first 30 hours after the earthquake it was the citizens nonetheless who donated all the supplies, packed them and sent them to different places, it's been them who led most of the rescue brigades and dug through the ruins in order to help those who are buried and it was also them who provided medical attention. Fortunately, the response from the people has been amazing, such, that there's no more help needed inside of the city, all areas are covered, however people in rural towns still need plenty of help.
Also kudos to all the help that has been sent from around the world like Spain, America, Japan, Israel, Panamá, El Salvador Perú, Colombia, Costa Rica, Chile and Honduras.
There's also a tiny but significant part of the population who has been dedicated to saving all the affected animals. Some people seem to be upset by this but if there are dogs risking their lives for human lives then, why not simply shelter them for the time being?
At the same time, people have been told NOT to go out if they got nothing to do outside their homes so they don't block the streets or overcrowd a rescue area. Not only that but there have been some reports of looting, scamming and robberies at gunpoint so it's highly recommended not to leave your home (if it's still in good condition of course) since it's chaos overall. Talk about douchebags.
The next presidential election is less than a year away, citizens have been demanding that at least 20% of the money destined to advertising should be donated to rebuild and fix the damages caused by the earthquake, mind you, that money comes from the citizens' taxes. All the political parties, except for one, already expressed that they are NOT willing to donate, they say "We are out of time to make any kind of modifications in the law and the law says that redirecting that money to anything else but elections would be a crime, we need to respect the law." ...Really dawg? We all know that big part of that amount goes straight to your pockets. As politicians, we didn't expect anything from you but as human beings, we thought you would still have some empathy left.
The fallen buildings were both newish ones and very old structures. Sadly, it seems like there won't be any kind of repercussions for the people who gave the thumbs up to built these paper-like buildings which lacked the right papers to even be raised in the first place AND for the people who gave permission to still inhabit the old ones which might have been already damaged back from '85.
Even if the death toll does not compare to the one from '85, it's still sad to see that even after 30 years we are still NOT prepared to face a natural disaster that is so common in this part of the country. The annual drill is a joke, tbh, one drill a year is imo not enough and people don't even take it seriously. Likewise, even tho there are several alarms installed around the city not all of them work properly or they don't do it on time, everybody can agree that at the time of the earthquake there was not a single alarm ringing.
Obviously, classes are dismissed until next monday, depends really on how the situation progresses, altho plenty of people will be working normally tomorrow. I'm just begging at this point that any aftermath won't be nearly as bad or cause little to no damage to the already weak structures all over the country. As for myself, I got my backpack ready with food, a lamp, medicines, my important documents among other things.
If you, for some reason, want to donate to the cause, please, please, please, investigate thoroughly first!!! Like I said, scammers are ready to take advantage of the situation and anyone can easily post fake images about donating but with their own account number. I cannot stress this enough, only donate to trusty foundations.
I always considered myself as a cold-hearted person, always indifferent towards stuff like this, but it pains me greatly to see the city I grew up in suddenly in a situation that I thought I would only see on tv (first the massive floodings due to Irma and now this) hearing about all the people trapped under the rubble and not being able to do anything about it and witnessing people ready to take advantage of the misery of others. I'm also a little relieved, however, seeing how most people answered the call in one way or another, all I can say is that mexicans are always willing to raise up no matter what kind of shit we go through, Mr. Trump, I'm looking at you.
Hopefully, things will improve soon...
