Only in Mexico City...

Last Sunday I experienced something you can see only in Mexico (well, they say it's the same in Sao Paulo, Tokyo and NYC). I was going back home from watching the Super Bowl at a friend's place, when I ran into a traffic jam! Come on! At midnight? On Sunday?!?!

Damn!

And the worst of it, was that I got struck not in one, but in TWO different traffic jams!

Come on!

After getting home (an hour late, of course) I started thinking about it. I remembered the year I was living in the USA and I recalled that the only things I didn't miss from around here were traffic and crime. I think that's one of the downsides of living in a city this big. But then I reflected that it's not only because of that. It's more because of our innate chaos and disorganization.

Let's face it: we don't plan. Maybe we don't like to, or we don't care to, or we simply don't know how to do it. And, as they say: "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail." And that's exactly what happened to our city. Nobody ever cared to plan how it was going to grow (or, if they did, it was a REALLY bad job). Now that they're trying to do something about it, now that the city is a mess, that's when they start planning and building and redirecting traffic and blahblahblah.

I know that complaining is not a solution, but, really, what can we do about it? Just endure it and pretend that's normal. And, sadly, it is. It's so normal for us to be struck in traffic on a Sunday midnight as it is to having to pay a franelero so he lets us park on a public street, or to pay tenencia, or to be more afraid when there are cops around, or, well, you get the idea.

And, about planning, the only plan I have right now is not to make any immediate plans.

Go figure.

Welcome to Mexico, again.