April 18, 2009 @ 10:43
Although I shake my head at the latest stories coming out of Mexico, I'm not surprised.
This dirt-hole of a nation really showed its true colours over the past week through the Conquest Vacations collapse. Go to any newspaper and you can read about it.
Canadians paid money in good faith to Conquest for vacations in Mexico, only to have the hotels turn on them when bills went unpaid.
Off the top let's get this out of the way, there were a few incidents in the Dominican Republic as well, and it turns out the Canadian consulate was useless in both places and that is inexcusable.
But really, I'd like to focus on Mexico, a disgusting country with a corrupt government and despicable police force because the majority of the incidents happened there.
There has been a rapidly growing list of reasons why people shouldn't travel to this third world hell hole over the past few years, but Canadians keep going back.
Yes, it's unfortunate that Conquest went under and that Mexican hotels went unpaid, but that was an arrangement between the tour company and the resorts, it had nothing to do with the Canadians who paid their bills in Canada and then were threatened in Mexico with imprisonment if they didn't pay again.
Can you believe it?
There are stories of families and young single people literally being held hostage with armed guards surrounding them waiting to be paid exorbitant amounts of money in return for being "released."
What kind of a country allows this to happen?
What kind of a country that depends so much on the tourism dollar allows hotel managers to immediately turn on patrons when a deal they made with a tour operator turns sour.
Did it not cross anyone's mind down in that shit hole that the people staying in the hotels and eating the food and drinking the booze were not responsible. They had already paid and really shouldn't be held responsible because they wouldn't be there in the first place if they hadn't?
Did none of these ruthless bastards not think about the image it might project and how it would affect future business? Did they not think it might be a good idea to swallow the loss and then go after Conquest at some other level?
Did they literally have to throw people out of their hotels mid-week and then demand payment before they could leave the grounds?
No they didn't. But they did because this is a rotten country with a rotten system that allows just about anyone to turn into a dangerous prick in the wink of an eye.
There are stories of hotel managers who could speak English one day, and then claimed they couldn't once the Conquest story broke.
I have friends and family who still travel to this country and I really can't understand why.
Canadians have been abused, beaten and murdered at an alarming rate in Mexico over the past couple of years but people keep going back.
I guess in the end, it's their fault and they deserve everything they get.
However this latest incident provided Mexico, the asshole of the world, an opportunity to show another side, a compassionate side, but they refused.
They showed their true colours.
Again, Conquest is not without blame and the Canadian consulate should have done more, but to take this right down to the grass roots, the behaviour of resort managment was abhorrent and downright scary for many Canadians.
I've been to Mexico twice, and to quite honest, I didn't find it that great. Far from it. If you don't mind living the high life in front of poverty and you don't mind urinating out your ass, then hey, all the power to you.
As I stated on this blog some time ago, after Canadians started dying in that country I swore I'd never go back and I haven't.
And yes I know, people will claim they've been there many times and nothing has happened, its a wonderful place, but I'd rather make my decision on principle.
I'd rather spend a week in Iraq. It's probably safer now.
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