texascavers Digest 25 Aug 2011 14:44:19 -0000 Issue 1372

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 07:44:44 -0700 (PDT) 

texascavers Digest 25 Aug 2011 14:44:19 -0000 Issue 1372

Topics (messages 18381 through 18389):

Re: el presidente in caves in Mexico (explanacion)
        18381 by: tbsamsel.verizon.net
        18382 by: Rod Goke
        18383 by: tbsamsel.verizon.net

Re: More on the quake.
        18384 by: tbsamsel.verizon.net

Denise Prendergast
        18385 by: germanyj.aol.com

Gorman Cave work weekend
        18386 by: Jim Kennedy

Walter Feaster Surgery
        18387 by: Bill Bentley

more on Walter Feaster
        18388 by: Rick Corbell

Walter Feaster
        18389 by: Allan B. Cobb

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--- Begin Message ---
Torys are the conservative party in the UK . James Cameron, the Prime Minster, has a country house in Chipping Norton, where Clarkson lives. They socialize with the News of the World set (Murdoch's bunch).
 
Episode 3: Mexicans

During the third episode of series sixteen, the presenters mocked the Mexican Mastretta sports car on account of it being designed in Mexico. James May introduced the car as "The Tortilla", then remarked that he did not remember what it was called. Hammond then stated: "Cars reflect national characteristics ... and Mexican cars are just going to be lazy, feckless, flatulent, overweight oafs, leaning against a fence asleep looking like a cactus with a blanket with a hole in the middle on as a coat." This was followed up by James May suggesting that all Mexican food resembles "refried sick", Richard Hammond remarking, "I'm sorry, but can you imagine waking up and remembering you're Mexican?!" with a look of disgust on his face, and Jeremy Clarkson adding, "It'd be brilliant because you could just go back to sleep all day!" Clarkson ended the segment by suggesting that the Mexican ambassador to Britain would be too lazy to make any kind of complaint. This prompted the Mexican ambassador, Eduardo Medina Mora, to write to BBC:

“ The presenters of the program resorted to outrageous, vulgar and inexcusable insults to stir bigoted feelings against the Mexican people, their culture as well as their official representative in the United Kingdom. These offensive, xenophobic and humiliating remarks only serve to reinforce negative stereotypes and perpetuate prejudice against Mexico and its people.[47] ”

BBC issued a letter defending the anti-Mexican jokes, stating that national stereotyping was a robust part of British humour, but apologizing to the Mexican ambassador for the remarks made about him personally.[48] The episode will have the Mexican comments cut from its broadcast in the United States.[49] Comedian Steve Coogan who has appeared on the show three times, criticised the programme for its pitiful apology, suggesting that the usual defence of "a bit of a laugh", or "harmless fun" was no longer appropriate, that the insults had gone too far, and described the comments as "as funny as a cold sweat followed by shooting pains down the left arm".[50] He also criticized the show for what he described as lazy, adolescent humour and "casual racism" in reference specifically to this episode.[51] Yahoo editor, Richard Evans, described the programme's conduct as another "Sachsgate waiting to happen".[52]

The presenters repeatedly referenced the incident in the following episodes of the series; on one occasion, after he and Hammond threatened each other with violence following a dispute over the Cool Wall, Clarkson described the situation as a "Mexican standoff". The set of the 41st series of Have I Got News for You, which depicts various recent news stories, includes a mocked-up image of Clarkson dressed like a Mexican in reference to the controversy.


Aug 23, 2011 07:23:58 AM, [email protected] wrote:
I guess I'm too old, but I don't understand your jargon.
"... slagged Mexico" ?
"... is Troy scum"?  Like pond scum?
can you explaine that to me?
 
Jon

From: "[email protected]"
To: [email protected]
Cc: [email protected]
Sent: Monday, August 22, 2011 10:29 PM
Subject: Re: Re: [Texascavers] el presidente in caves in Mexico

BBCs TOP GEAR slagged Mexico last season (caused a bit of a diplomatic stir). But Jeremy Clarkson is Tory scum from the gitgo.

T


Aug 22, 2011 05:10:12 PM, [email protected] wrote:
MEXICO CITY (AP) — President Felipe Calderon is figuratively going out on a limb — and literally down a sinkhole, up a river (with a paddle) and over the top of a few pyramids — in an attempt to boost Mexico's flagging tourism industry.
The balding, 49-year-old leader is personally trying to change his country's violent reputation by appearing as a sort of adventure tour guide in a series of TV programs to be broadcast starting in September on Public Broadcasting Service stations in the United States.
The president dons an Indiana Jones-style hat and a harness and descends a rope into the 1,000-foot-deep (375-meter) Sotano de las Golondrinas cavern, accompanied by Peter Greenberg, host of the "The Royal Tour" TV series. Calderon also straps on scuba tanks to lead Greenberg into a sinkhole lake known as a cenote in Yucatan. And he helps a Lacandon Indian paddle a boat down a river in a jungle in southern Chiapas state.
In the 30-minute videos, Calderon breaks from his image as a lawyerly policy wonk best known for launching a bloody, controversial offensive against drug cartels. He plans to attend a premiere of the show within a few weeks, according to Tourism Department spokesman Roberto Martinez.
"I have other duties that are more dangerous," Calderon jokes, dangling midair in a cavern as a rope lowers him hundreds of feet to the bottom. The site is in the Gulf coast region of Mexico known as the Huasteca, which is covered in jungle and dotted with caverns, waterfalls and crystalline pools.
Calderon swaps the explorer hat for a helmet with a headlamp for the descent into the Golondrinas cave, named for the huge flocks of birds that live inside. Calderon also appears in underwater footage from the stalactite-studded cenote in Yucatan, where he flashes the camera an "OK" signal from behind his dive mask.
Analysts say the videos represent a distinct break from the solemn treatment that has long characterized the Mexican presidency but fit in with Calderon, who has emphasized using the media to get his message across, and who has sought to project a forceful image.
"That's always been his objective, the whole macho thing," said John Ackerman, of the legal research institute at Mexico's National Autonomous University. In 2007, soon after putting the army on the front line of his offensive against drug cartels, Calderon departed from presidential tradition by putting on an olive-green army jacket that was a few sizes too big for his short frame, an image that has been widely lampooned in newspaper cartoons ever since.
"From the very beginning, using the military uniforms and saluting, it's always been his kind of thing," Ackerman said. "It doesn't quite fit with his physical appearance."
Drawing criticism, Calderon's administration took the image-building a step further this year by funding a privately produced television miniseries glorifying the federal police, which was broadcast by the country's largest network. On Friday, the navy told local news media that it is letting private producers use navy locations to make a miniseries about the force, but that the navy is not financing any of the production.
Calderon's message in the latest videos is that Mexico is safe for tourists.
"This is part of a strategy to promote the country abroad," said Martinez.
Nobody argues that Mexico's tourism needs a boost. According to the country's central bank, overall foreign tourism in 2010, not including border-area visitors, was still 6.3 percent below 2008 levels, and the first half of 2011 saw a 2 percent decline from the same period of 2010.
Cruise ship visits in the first half of the year declined 9.3 percent, after several cruise lines canceled Pacific port calls in Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta.
Analysts blame the drops on the world economic downturn hitting many countries' travel industries, but also pointed to Mexico's drug violence, which has claimed between 35,000 and 40,000 lives since Calderon took office in late 2006.
While foreign tourists have not been targets of the violence, a point Calderon is eager to make, it has had some undeniable effects. For example, the border highway that many U.S. visitors once used to travel to the Huasteca region where Calderon went cave-diving is now considered so plagued by highway holdups and shootings that the U.S. State Department has issued warnings about traveling there.
The Huasteca remains a beautiful and largely safe region, but most tour operators recommend foreigners fly to a nearby Mexican airport rather than drive down from the border.
Some argue that Calderon's stint as a television travel guide might be ill-advised, both because it compromises the dignity of the presidency and comes just months before campaigning opens for the 2012 elections to choose his successor.
Mario di Costanzo, a congressman for the leftist Labor Party, says he has requested information on how much Mexico spent to film the series. Calderon's office said the videos' U.S. producers paid production costs on the trips, but Mexican presidential and military helicopters can be seen ferrying the 'presidential tourists' around.
"We are questioning the legality of the president's actions," Di Costanzo said. "Never in the history of the country has the image of the president been used to promote tourism."
"We see this as a promotion of Felipe Calderon's own image, for the benefit of his own party, rather than an institutional image of the country as a tourism destination," Di Costanzo noted.
Greenberg has previously traveled with the king of Jordan, the president of Peru, and the prime ministers of New Zealand and Jamaica on similar programs.
Congresswoman Leticia Quezada of the Democratic Revolution Party said her party objects to Calderon using government vehicles and personnel for the series, and said he has been spending too much time and money on television.
"We're going to start calling him Felipe Calderon Productions," she quipped.


On Wed, Aug 17, 2011 at 12:26 PM, Mixon Bill <[email protected]> wrote:
Unless somebody is pulling our legs, these videos show the president of Mexico being lowered into Golondrinas and cave-diving Yucatán.

Calderon descendiendo el Sotano de las Golondrinas
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQ0qDf66ies&NR=1

Calderon Explorando Cenotes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsWSGeCYPsc&NR=1

--Mixon
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The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.
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--- Begin Message ---

Your "explanacion" gives us a better understanding of what you meant by your remarks (which originally were as unclear to me as they were to Jon), but what does any of that have to do with the original article about Felipe Calderon making caving videos to promote tourism? The original article cites "the world economic downturn" and "Mexico's drug violence, which has claimed between 35,000 and 40,000 lives" as reasons for declines in Mexican tourism, but it says nothing about Jeremy Clarkson or bad jokes on the BBC. I certainly can see how the remarks you quoted from a BBC program could be viewed as insulting to Mexicans, but does anyone seriously believe that that has had anything to do with recent drops in tourism to Mexico or with Calderon's attempts to boost Mexico's tourism industry? Fear of increasing violence in Mexico has been a significant deterrent to tourism, but the BBC comments you cited never mentioned that issue. What, then, is the relevance of BBC humor, Jeremy Clarkson, or the Torys? Is there some connection I'm missing here?

Rod

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
Sent: Aug 23, 2011 7:32 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Re: Re: [Texascavers] el presidente in caves in Mexico (explanacion)


Torys are the conservative party in the UK . James Cameron, the Prime Minster, has a country house in Chipping Norton, where Clarkson lives. They socialize with the News of the World set (Murdoch's bunch).
 
Episode 3: Mexicans

During the third episode of series sixteen, the presenters mocked the Mexican Mastretta sports car on account of it being designed in Mexico. James May introduced the car as "The Tortilla", then remarked that he did not remember what it was called. Hammond then stated: "Cars reflect national characteristics ... and Mexican cars are just going to be lazy, feckless, flatulent, overweight oafs, leaning against a fence asleep looking like a cactus with a blanket with a hole in the middle on as a coat." This was followed up by James May suggesting that all Mexican food resembles "refried sick", Richard Hammond remarking, "I'm sorry, but can you imagine waking up and remembering you're Mexican?!" with a look of disgust on his face, and Jeremy Clarkson adding, "It'd be brilliant because you could just go back to sleep all day!" Clarkson ended the segment by suggesting that the Mexican ambassador to Britain would be too lazy to make any kind of complaint. This prompted the Mexican ambassador, Eduardo Medina Mora, to write to BBC:

“The presenters of the program resorted to outrageous, vulgar and inexcusable insults to stir bigoted feelings against the Mexican people, their culture as well as their official representative in the United Kingdom. These offensive, xenophobic and humiliating remarks only serve to reinforce negative stereotypes and perpetuate prejudice against Mexico and its people.[47]”

BBC issued a letter defending the anti-Mexican jokes, stating that national stereotyping was a robust part of British humour, but apologizing to the Mexican ambassador for the remarks made about him personally.[48] The episode will have the Mexican comments cut from its broadcast in the United States.[49] Comedian Steve Coogan who has appeared on the show three times, criticised the programme for its pitiful apology, suggesting that the usual defence of "a bit of a laugh", or "harmless fun" was no longer appropriate, that the insults had gone too far, and described the comments as "as funny as a cold sweat followed by shooting pains down the left arm".[50] He also criticized the show for what he described as lazy, adolescent humour and "casual racism" in reference specifically to this episode.[51]Yahoo editor, Richard Evans, described the programme's conduct as another "Sachsgate waiting to happen".[52]

The presenters repeatedly referenced the incident in the following episodes of the series; on one occasion, after he and Hammond threatened each other with violence following a dispute over the Cool Wall, Clarkson described the situation as a "Mexican standoff". The set of the 41st series of Have I Got News for You, which depicts various recent news stories, includes a mocked-up image of Clarkson dressed like a Mexican in reference to the controversy.


Aug 23, 2011 07:23:58 AM, [email protected] wrote:

I guess I'm too old, but I don't understand your jargon.
"... slagged Mexico" ?
"... is Troy scum"?  Like pond scum?
can you explaine that to me?
 
Jon

From: "[email protected]"
To: [email protected]
Cc: [email protected]
Sent: Monday, August 22, 2011 10:29 PM
Subject: Re: Re: [Texascavers] el presidente in caves in Mexico


BBCs TOP GEAR slagged Mexico last season (caused a bit of a diplomatic stir). But Jeremy Clarkson is Tory scum from the gitgo.

T


Aug 22, 2011 05:10:12 PM, [email protected] wrote:

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/article/Mexico-s-president-becomes-TV-adventure-guide-2132889.php

MEXICO CITY (AP) — President Felipe Calderon is figuratively going out on a limb — and literally down a sinkhole, up a river (with a paddle) and over the top of a few pyramids — in an attempt to boost Mexico's flagging tourism industry.
The balding, 49-year-old leader is personally trying to change his country's violent reputation by appearing as a sort of adventure tour guide in a series of TV programs to be broadcast starting in September on Public Broadcasting Service stations in the United States.
The president dons an Indiana Jones-style hat and a harness and descends a rope into the 1,000-foot-deep (375-meter) Sotano de las Golondrinas cavern, accompanied by Peter Greenberg, host of the "The Royal Tour" TV series. Calderon also straps on scuba tanks to lead Greenberg into a sinkhole lake known as a cenote in Yucatan. And he helps a Lacandon Indian paddle a boat down a river in a jungle in southern Chiapas state.
In the 30-minute videos, Calderon breaks from his image as a lawyerly policy wonk best known for launching a bloody, controversial offensive against drug cartels. He plans to attend a premiere of the show within a few weeks, according to Tourism Department spokesman Roberto Martinez.
"I have other duties that are more dangerous," Calderon jokes, dangling midair in a cavern as a rope lowers him hundreds of feet to the bottom. The site is in the Gulf coast region of Mexico known as the Huasteca, which is covered in jungle and dotted with caverns, waterfalls and crystalline pools.
Calderon swaps the explorer hat for a helmet with a headlamp for the descent into the Golondrinas cave, named for the huge flocks of birds that live inside. Calderon also appears in underwater footage from the stalactite-studded cenote in Yucatan, where he flashes the camera an "OK" signal from behind his dive mask.
Analysts say the videos represent a distinct break from the solemn treatment that has long characterized the Mexican presidency but fit in with Calderon, who has emphasized using the media to get his message across, and who has sought to project a forceful image.
"That's always been his objective, the whole macho thing," said John Ackerman, of the legal research institute at Mexico's National Autonomous University. In 2007, soon after putting the army on the front line of his offensive against drug cartels, Calderon departed from presidential tradition by putting on an olive-green army jacket that was a few sizes too big for his short frame, an image that has been widely lampooned in newspaper cartoons ever since.
"From the very beginning, using the military uniforms and saluting, it's always been his kind of thing," Ackerman said. "It doesn't quite fit with his physical appearance."
Drawing criticism, Calderon's administration took the image-building a step further this year by funding a privately produced television miniseries glorifying the federal police, which was broadcast by the country's largest network. On Friday, the navy told local news media that it is letting private producers use navy locations to make a miniseries about the force, but that the navy is not financing any of the production.
Calderon's message in the latest videos is that Mexico is safe for tourists.
"This is part of a strategy to promote the country abroad," said Martinez.
Nobody argues that Mexico's tourism needs a boost. According to the country's central bank, overall foreign tourism in 2010, not including border-area visitors, was still 6.3 percent below 2008 levels, and the first half of 2011 saw a 2 percent decline from the same period of 2010.
Cruise ship visits in the first half of the year declined 9.3 percent, after several cruise lines canceled Pacific port calls in Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta.
Analysts blame the drops on the world economic downturn hitting many countries' travel industries, but also pointed to Mexico's drug violence, which has claimed between 35,000 and 40,000 lives since Calderon took office in late 2006.
While foreign tourists have not been targets of the violence, a point Calderon is eager to make, it has had some undeniable effects. For example, the border highway that many U.S. visitors once used to travel to the Huasteca region where Calderon went cave-diving is now considered so plagued by highway holdups and shootings that the U.S. State Department has issued warnings about traveling there.
The Huasteca remains a beautiful and largely safe region, but most tour operators recommend foreigners fly to a nearby Mexican airport rather than drive down from the border.
Some argue that Calderon's stint as a television travel guide might be ill-advised, both because it compromises the dignity of the presidency and comes just months before campaigning opens for the 2012 elections to choose his successor.
Mario di Costanzo, a congressman for the leftist Labor Party, says he has requested information on how much Mexico spent to film the series. Calderon's office said the videos' U.S. producers paid production costs on the trips, but Mexican presidential and military helicopters can be seen ferrying the 'presidential tourists' around.
"We are questioning the legality of the president's actions," Di Costanzo said. "Never in the history of the country has the image of the president been used to promote tourism."
"We see this as a promotion of Felipe Calderon's own image, for the benefit of his own party, rather than an institutional image of the country as a tourism destination," Di Costanzo noted.
Greenberg has previously traveled with the king of Jordan, the president of Peru, and the prime ministers of New Zealand and Jamaica on similar programs.
Congresswoman Leticia Quezada of the Democratic Revolution Party said her party objects to Calderon using government vehicles and personnel for the series, and said he has been spending too much time and money on television.
"We're going to start calling him Felipe Calderon Productions," she quipped.

Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/article/Mexico-s-president-becomes-TV-adventure-guide-2132889.php#ixzz1VnY19zBC



On Wed, Aug 17, 2011 at 12:26 PM, Mixon Bill wrote:
Unless somebody is pulling our legs, these videos show the president of Mexico being lowered into Golondrinas and cave-diving Yucatán.

Calderon descendiendo el Sotano de las Golondrinas
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQ0qDf66ies&NR=1

Calderon Explorando Cenotes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsWSGeCYPsc&NR=1

--Mixon
----------------------------------------
The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.
----------------------------------------
You may "reply" to the address this message
came from, but for long-term use, save:
Personal: [email protected]
AMCS: [email protected] or [email protected]


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--- End Message ---
--- Begin Message ---
Mexico/PRI is doing damage control. If automotive buffoons on BBC could slag their country, la gerencia wanted to fight back. At least that's how I read it. I was hoping that TOP GEAR would have at least mentioned the tinted window, jacked-up, armoured SUVs of the cartels. Or look at the places you can take your car to have aqua gorilla hair installed as the headliner of your carrucho, ese!
 
But I'm from S Texas and appreciate short block Chevys & fuzzy dice. And menudo, guey!
 
T


Aug 23, 2011 10:37:05 AM, [email protected] wrote:

Your "explanacion" gives us a better understanding of what you meant by your remarks (which originally were as unclear to me as they were to Jon), but what does any of that have to do with the original article about Felipe Calderon making caving videos to promote tourism? The original article cites "the world economic downturn" and "Mexico's drug violence, which has claimed between 35,000 and 40,000 lives" as reasons for declines in Mexican tourism, but it says nothing about Jeremy Clarkson or bad jokes on the BBC. I certainly can see how the remarks you quoted from a BBC program could be viewed as insulting to Mexicans, but does anyone seriously believe that that has had anything to do with recent drops in tourism to Mexico or with Calderon's attempts to boost Mexico's tourism industry? Fear of increasing violence in Mexico has been a significant deterrent to tourism, but the BBC comments you cited never mentioned that issue. What, then, is the relevance of BBC humor, Jeremy Clarkson, or the Torys? Is there some connection I'm missing here?

Rod

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
Sent: Aug 23, 2011 7:32 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Re: Re: [Texascavers] el presidente in caves in Mexico (explanacion)


Torys are the conservative party in the UK . James Cameron, the Prime Minster, has a country house in Chipping Norton, where Clarkson lives. They socialize with the News of the World set (Murdoch's bunch).
 
Episode 3: Mexicans

During the third episode of series sixteen, the presenters mocked the Mexican Mastretta sports car on account of it being designed in Mexico. James May introduced the car as "The Tortilla", then remarked that he did not remember what it was called. Hammond then stated: "Cars reflect national characteristics ... and Mexican cars are just going to be lazy, feckless, flatulent, overweight oafs, leaning against a fence asleep looking like a cactus with a blanket with a hole in the middle on as a coat." This was followed up by James May suggesting that all Mexican food resembles "refried sick", Richard Hammond remarking, "I'm sorry, but can you imagine waking up and remembering you're Mexican?!" with a look of disgust on his face, and Jeremy Clarkson adding, "It'd be brilliant because you could just go back to sleep all day!" Clarkson ended the segment by suggesting that the Mexican ambassador to Britain would be too lazy to make any kind of complaint. This prompted the Mexican ambassador, Eduardo Medina Mora, to write to BBC:

“The presenters of the program resorted to outrageous, vulgar and inexcusable insults to stir bigoted feelings against the Mexican people, their culture as well as their official representative in the United Kingdom. These offensive, xenophobic and humiliating remarks only serve to reinforce negative stereotypes and perpetuate prejudice against Mexico and its people.[47]”

BBC issued a letter defending the anti-Mexican jokes, stating that national stereotyping was a robust part of British humour, but apologizing to the Mexican ambassador for the remarks made about him personally.[48] The episode will have the Mexican comments cut from its broadcast in the United States.[49] Comedian Steve Coogan who has appeared on the show three times, criticised the programme for its pitiful apology, suggesting that the usual defence of "a bit of a laugh", or "harmless fun" was no longer appropriate, that the insults had gone too far, and described the comments as "as funny as a cold sweat followed by shooting pains down the left arm".[50] He also criticized the show for what he described as lazy, adolescent humour and "casual racism" in reference specifically to this episode.[51]Yahoo editor, Richard Evans, described the programme's conduct as another "Sachsgate waiting to happen".[52]

The presenters repeatedly referenced the incident in the following episodes of the series; on one occasion, after he and Hammond threatened each other with violence following a dispute over the Cool Wall, Clarkson described the situation as a "Mexican standoff". The set of the 41st series of Have I Got News for You, which depicts various recent news stories, includes a mocked-up image of Clarkson dressed like a Mexican in reference to the controversy.


Aug 23, 2011 07:23:58 AM, [email protected] wrote:

I guess I'm too old, but I don't understand your jargon.
"... slagged Mexico" ?
"... is Troy scum"?  Like pond scum?
can you explaine that to me?
 
Jon

From: "[email protected]"
To: [email protected]
Cc: [email protected]
Sent: Monday, August 22, 2011 10:29 PM
Subject: Re: Re: [Texascavers] el presidente in caves in Mexico


BBCs TOP GEAR slagged Mexico last season (caused a bit of a diplomatic stir). But Jeremy Clarkson is Tory scum from the gitgo.

T


Aug 22, 2011 05:10:12 PM, [email protected] wrote:

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/article/Mexico-s-president-becomes-TV-adventure-guide-2132889.php

MEXICO CITY (AP) — President Felipe Calderon is figuratively going out on a limb — and literally down a sinkhole, up a river (with a paddle) and over the top of a few pyramids — in an attempt to boost Mexico's flagging tourism industry.
The balding, 49-year-old leader is personally trying to change his country's violent reputation by appearing as a sort of adventure tour guide in a series of TV programs to be broadcast starting in September on Public Broadcasting Service stations in the United States.
The president dons an Indiana Jones-style hat and a harness and descends a rope into the 1,000-foot-deep (375-meter) Sotano de las Golondrinas cavern, accompanied by Peter Greenberg, host of the "The Royal Tour" TV series. Calderon also straps on scuba tanks to lead Greenberg into a sinkhole lake known as a cenote in Yucatan. And he helps a Lacandon Indian paddle a boat down a river in a jungle in southern Chiapas state.
In the 30-minute videos, Calderon breaks from his image as a lawyerly policy wonk best known for launching a bloody, controversial offensive against drug cartels. He plans to attend a premiere of the show within a few weeks, according to Tourism Department spokesman Roberto Martinez.
"I have other duties that are more dangerous," Calderon jokes, dangling midair in a cavern as a rope lowers him hundreds of feet to the bottom. The site is in the Gulf coast region of Mexico known as the Huasteca, which is covered in jungle and dotted with caverns, waterfalls and crystalline pools.
Calderon swaps the explorer hat for a helmet with a headlamp for the descent into the Golondrinas cave, named for the huge flocks of birds that live inside. Calderon also appears in underwater footage from the stalactite-studded cenote in Yucatan, where he flashes the camera an "OK" signal from behind his dive mask.
Analysts say the videos represent a distinct break from the solemn treatment that has long characterized the Mexican presidency but fit in with Calderon, who has emphasized using the media to get his message across, and who has sought to project a forceful image.
"That's always been his objective, the whole macho thing," said John Ackerman, of the legal research institute at Mexico's National Autonomous University. In 2007, soon after putting the army on the front line of his offensive against drug cartels, Calderon departed from presidential tradition by putting on an olive-green army jacket that was a few sizes too big for his short frame, an image that has been widely lampooned in newspaper cartoons ever since.
"From the very beginning, using the military uniforms and saluting, it's always been his kind of thing," Ackerman said. "It doesn't quite fit with his physical appearance."
Drawing criticism, Calderon's administration took the image-building a step further this year by funding a privately produced television miniseries glorifying the federal police, which was broadcast by the country's largest network. On Friday, the navy told local news media that it is letting private producers use navy locations to make a miniseries about the force, but that the navy is not financing any of the production.
Calderon's message in the latest videos is that Mexico is safe for tourists.
"This is part of a strategy to promote the country abroad," said Martinez.
Nobody argues that Mexico's tourism needs a boost. According to the country's central bank, overall foreign tourism in 2010, not including border-area visitors, was still 6.3 percent below 2008 levels, and the first half of 2011 saw a 2 percent decline from the same period of 2010.
Cruise ship visits in the first half of the year declined 9.3 percent, after several cruise lines canceled Pacific port calls in Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta.
Analysts blame the drops on the world economic downturn hitting many countries' travel industries, but also pointed to Mexico's drug violence, which has claimed between 35,000 and 40,000 lives since Calderon took office in late 2006.
While foreign tourists have not been targets of the violence, a point Calderon is eager to make, it has had some undeniable effects. For example, the border highway that many U.S. visitors once used to travel to the Huasteca region where Calderon went cave-diving is now considered so plagued by highway holdups and shootings that the U.S. State Department has issued warnings about traveling there.
The Huasteca remains a beautiful and largely safe region, but most tour operators recommend foreigners fly to a nearby Mexican airport rather than drive down from the border.
Some argue that Calderon's stint as a television travel guide might be ill-advised, both because it compromises the dignity of the presidency and comes just months before campaigning opens for the 2012 elections to choose his successor.
Mario di Costanzo, a congressman for the leftist Labor Party, says he has requested information on how much Mexico spent to film the series. Calderon's office said the videos' U.S. producers paid production costs on the trips, but Mexican presidential and military helicopters can be seen ferrying the 'presidential tourists' around.
"We are questioning the legality of the president's actions," Di Costanzo said. "Never in the history of the country has the image of the president been used to promote tourism."
"We see this as a promotion of Felipe Calderon's own image, for the benefit of his own party, rather than an institutional image of the country as a tourism destination," Di Costanzo noted.
Greenberg has previously traveled with the king of Jordan, the president of Peru, and the prime ministers of New Zealand and Jamaica on similar programs.
Congresswoman Leticia Quezada of the Democratic Revolution Party said her party objects to Calderon using government vehicles and personnel for the series, and said he has been spending too much time and money on television.
"We're going to start calling him Felipe Calderon Productions," she quipped.

Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/article/Mexico-s-president-becomes-TV-adventure-guide-2132889.php#ixzz1VnY19zBC



On Wed, Aug 17, 2011 at 12:26 PM, Mixon Bill wrote:
Unless somebody is pulling our legs, these videos show the president of Mexico being lowered into Golondrinas and cave-diving Yucatán.

Calderon descendiendo el Sotano de las Golondrinas
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQ0qDf66ies&NR=1

Calderon Explorando Cenotes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsWSGeCYPsc&NR=1

--Mixon
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--- Begin Message --- from the AGU:


Aug 24, 2011 08:27:34 AM, [email protected] wrote:
http://blogs.agu.org/mountainbeltway/2011/08/23/the-mineral-va-earthquake-of-august-23-2011/

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--- Begin Message --- 
Hey Denise!

Please contact me off list.

Thanks!
julia

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--- Begin Message --- 
Cavers,

This is a reminder that in about 1.5 weeks we will be meeting at
Colorado Bend State Park
(http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/spdest/findadest/parks/colorado_bend) to
perform some trail work and start moving materials for the cave gating
project at Gorman Cave later in September.  We have the use of the
Conference Center (at Gorman Falls) for the weekend, with bunks, a
kitchen, showers, and air conditioning.  We will likely have some
evening cave trips after the day's work.  We only have 8 people signed
up so far for the weekend, and need more.  Please spread the word to
your grottos and friends.  I only ask that interested folks respond to
me directly so I can keep track of all volunteers and send out more
details as we draw closer to those dates.

Also, I want to remind everyone of the Cave Gate Workshop at Gorman Cave
on September 25 through 30.  A flyer is posted on the TexasCavers site
at http://texascavers.com/misc/Gorman_gating_workshop_flyer.pdf.

Jim "Crash" Kennedy
TSA-CBSP Project Coordinator 
and
Cave Resources Specialist, Bat Conservation International

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--- Begin Message --- 
I just got off the phone with Rick Cornell and he said Walter was in recovery 
and doing great.

--- End Message ---
--- Begin Message --- 
Walter will be in the hospital ( Methodist Transplant Room MSA-6) here in San 
Antonio at least 5 days.  He and the nurse said visitors are welcome and 
encouraged.  His color looked healthy and his eyes showed that Walter mischief 
even though he had just come out of surgery and was almost fully aware.  His 
sense of humor was not removed.  When I asked if I could take a pic with my 
phone, he said "OK".  I said I'd send it to Bill Bentley.  Walter then said, 
"In that case, let me roll over for a moon shot!"
 
Let's all pray for a quick and thorough recovery and we might just see Walter 
at TCR.

Rick Corbell

--- End Message ---
--- Begin Message --- 
Walter Feaster, long time Texas Caver is in San Antonio in the Methodist 
Specialty and  Transplant Clinic. He is in intensive care with a successfully 
installed new kidney. He should be in a room tomorrow afternoon, and I am sure 
he would appreciate a call (432 559 3297), email ([email protected]), 
card, or good thoughts.

--- End Message ---

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