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<\/a><\/p>\nListen here (in Spanish): [podcast]https:\/\/radiozapatista.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/ConCiencias2_dia2_SupGaleano.mp3[\/podcast]<\/p>\n
Listen to the English translation: [podcast]https:\/\/radiozapatista.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/ConCiencias2_dia2_SupGaleano_Eng.mp3[\/podcast]<\/p>\n
December 28, 2017.<\/p>\n
Once again good morning, afternoon, evening, middle-of-the-night.<\/p>\n
Perhaps some of you [alguna, alguno, algunoa] remember that the late SupMarcos insisted that the capitalist system cannot be understood without the concept of war. Supposing, of course, that it is a concept. He would say that war was the motor that had permitted, first, the expansion of capitalism, and then its consolidation as a world system. Capitalism also turns to war to confront its recurring and profound crises.<\/p>\n
Oh, I know, what else could be expected from a solider? But I should note, as a way of making amends, that he didn\u2019t limit \u201cwar\u201d to military war. Maybe a rereading of his correspondence with Don Luis Villoro Toranzo in the year 2010, which was made public in early 2011, could help us understand this. In the first of these public missives, they analyze the apparent ineffectiveness of the so-called \u201cWar on Drugs,\u201d initiated by the war videogame lover Felipe Calder\u00f3n Hinojosa. And I say \u201capparent ineffectiveness\u201d because basically, looking at the results, it was and is ineffective for combatting organized crime, but it was effective at installing soldiers as the de facto government in various regions.<\/p>\n
I bring this up because, in contrast to that deceased guy, in my understanding, capitalism could be studied as a crime.<\/p>\n
Addressing it as such would require of us scientific knowledge of subjects which might seem distant from what are traditionally known as the \u201csocial sciences.\u201d<\/p>\n
In short, you can catalog this theoretical detour however you\u2019d like. Perhaps it is the product of an unfinished correspondence course on private detection begun in that faraway time when \u201cmail\u201d didn\u2019t refer to online accounts and screennames, and when an address meant the postal code and not the IP, or internet protocol; a time when one could study, also by correspondence, anything from a course on locksmithing to one on aviation piloting, including, of course, the one on \u201chow to have a body like Charles Atlas[i] without going to the gym and in only a few weeks,\u201d which wasn\u2019t necessary for me to take given my famously beautiful and toned legs (arrrrrroz con leche[ii]).<\/p>\n
In short, file me in the archive of one of whichever \u201cisms\u201d are available on social media, and avoid concluding that the social sciences will remain incomplete as long as they don\u2019t include among their tools criminology, as well as, given that this relates to a crime, what we call forensic science.<\/p>\n
-*-<\/p>\n
But I continue speaking of a crime. A crime that is explained from various perspectives.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s take a recent example: the earthquakes and the tragedies that followed.<\/p>\n
We could ask about the conditions of the buildings. Let us suppose that there was and is a scientific study of the subsoil, calculations of the resistance of materials, and things like that. Those who have made their vocation, profession, and living from science can tell us that, that the sciences can give us the elements to avoid or at least reduce the risk of the collapse of buildings.<\/p>\n
That is, it would be expected that in a zone of high seismic activity with a precedent for earthquakes, building construction would take this into account. In that case, it wouldn\u2019t be such a big deal to build first and pray later because any earthquakes would be unlikely to actually topple the building.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t know, but maybe the scientists can answer the key question, which isn\u2019t \u201cWhy are there earthquakes?\u201d but rather \u201cWhy do people die beneath the rubble of buildings that should have been constructed to resist earthquakes?\u201d<\/p>\n
But, according to the in-vogue analyses, it all depends.<\/p>\n
So, as stated by that neo-philosopher of science, the \u201cintellectually formidable\u201d (according to the press who claimed him as their own), citizen without political party, Jos\u00e9 Antonio Meade Kuribre\u00f1a, we\u2019re going to \u201cmove within a framework in which that question isn\u2019t valid.\u201d That is, we\u2019re not going to ask who is responsible, by assignment or omission, for the fact that those buildings fell down and killed hundreds of people. No, what we\u2019re going to ask is why there was an earthquake. So that\u2019s where we\u2019ll always be, following that organic, postmodern intellectual with another question: \u201cWhy do earthquakes occur, or tremors, or whatever it\u2019s called when the ground abandons its apparent resignation and moves?\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, if you\u2019re waiting for a scientific explanation, you wait in vain. The most valid explanations are those that have the most followers, listeners, sympathizers, and militants. Science has been losing all the popularity contests for awhile now.<\/p>\n
So, it depends on the framework within which these explanations are given.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s take one of them, the one given by Mr. Alberto Villasana, who defines himself, with exemplary modesty, as a \u201cCatholic Theologian, Philosopher, International Analyst. Expert in Church-State relations. Author of 12 books. Three-time National Journalism Prize winner,\u201d which his 15.6 thousand followers on Twitter will confirm with total faith.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t laugh. That\u2019s far more than the number of attendees, participants, and listeners in this gathering.<\/p>\n
Regarding the earthquake on September 19, 2017, the illustrious and enlightened Villasana wrote: \u201cThis is without doubt the grace of God, a supernatural warning to get Mexico back on the right path, to prepare us for all that is to come\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
And how did he know that? Well, it turns out that Villasana swears that at the moment of the earthquake, he was celebrating the exorcism of a person possessed by four demons. In his article he claims, \u201cDuring the exorcism, the infesting spirits declared that the September 19th earthquake was part of God\u2019s warnings before the great punishment.\u201d In addition to earthquakes, there would be hurricanes and volcanic eruptions and according to the theologian, these punishments would be \u201cfor having legalized abortion in the same city where the Mother of God appeared in 1531.\u201d According to Villasana, the earthquake, by these arguments, would be a warning for Mexicans. He posted on his Twitter account the image of the rubble of the monument of the Virgin: \u201cThe \u201cMonument to the Mother\u201d collapsed. Significant in the city where abortion was legalized.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite his indisputable wisdom, Villasana is not original. In November 2016, Italian newspapers noted that the priest Giovanni Cavalcoli, known for his career as a theologian, made the following declarations on Sunday, October 30, the same day that a 6.5-magnitude earthquake shook the central region of Umbria: the seismic shakes are a \u201cdivine punishment for the offense to the family and the dignity of marriage, the fault, above all, of homosexual civil unions.\u201d<\/p>\n
The framework on which this explanation depends has more followers:<\/p>\n
Just a few weeks ago, this December of 2017, the Cardinal Emeritus Juan Sandoval \u00cd\u00f1iguez blamed women and others [loas otroas] for the violence of organized crime and the earthquakes and floods.<\/p>\n
As a platform for such a scientific explanation, Sandoval \u00cd\u00f1iguez called for a so-called \u201cGreat Act of Atonement\u201d which, as far as I understood, is like an \u201cUn-Conscience for Deity\u201d[iii] gathering, but with more draw than the gathering we\u2019re in right now. The event was in the Estadio Azul [stadium], in Mexico City, which, by the way, is a much better location than CIDECI.<\/p>\n
To be consistent, there were also masked people there. But, as opposed to those who called us here, who dedicate themselves to speaking ill of capitalism, those wearing masks at Sandoval \u00cd\u00f1iguez\u2019s gathering self-flagellated until they bled. And these are real lashes, not the existential kind that pile up on social media.<\/p>\n
Between lashes, but being careful not to get spritzed by any blood, the Cardinal Emeritus declared that the right to choose [abortion] and sexual diversity are sins, and that the violence of the drug trade and the earthquakes are punishments for those sins: \u201cOur Lord and God, before the coming of a greater punishment you send us temporary punishments or parental corrections by means of nature, which is your creation and is governed by your providence. Could two September 19th [earthquakes] in this city possibly be pure coincidence?\u201d<\/p>\n
The \u201cGreat Act of Atonement\u201d event was convened by a kind of association that could very well call itself \u201cThe time has come for the sinners [loas pecadoroas] to go,\u201d that is, those who support the Indigenous Governing Council and its spokeswoman.<\/p>\n
I read somewhere that, among those in attendance were so-called \u201cpublic figures\u201d such as Esteben Arce, Manuel Capetillo, and Alejandra Rojas. I don\u2019t know how public these people are, I only know that Esteban Arce[iv] must be cursed often among the community of others [otroas].<\/p>\n
In the act, which we know now was not in order to exorcize the soccer team whose home base is that stadium (oh well, \u201cCruz Azul\u2019sv best days are always long gone\u201d), the neo-scientist Sandoval \u00cd\u00f1iguez declaimed: \u201cThis is an act of atonement where we came to make a confession of guilt, to recognize our sins before the Lord and beg him for mercy and forgiveness. We come to say: Lord, we have sinned against you and committed the evil you abhor; forgive your people and put aside the punishment we deserve. We have sinned against you, above all with the most tremendous, serious and cruel of crimes: that of abortion practiced far and wide throughout our homeland, sometimes with the permission of unrighteous laws and sometimes secretly, furtively, but always with cruelty, malice and advantage against the innocent, the defenseless.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to press reports, very close to where the \u201cBrotherhoods of Flagellant and Cross-Bearing Penitents of Taxco\u201d (as they call themselves) were whipping themselves, signatures were being collected to support the ex-PAN member Margarita Zavala in her project to become an independent presidential candidate.<\/p>\n
Against the grain and in a different framework, Pope Francis claimed regarding the recent natural disasters: \u201cI think that the Devil is punishing Mexico with a lot of anger because the Devil does not forgive Mexico for her (showing a picture of the Virgin of Guadalupe) having revealed her son there. That\u2019s my interpretation. I mean, Mexico is privileged in martyrdom for having recognized and defended its mother.\u201d<\/p>\n
So there you have it: divine punishment or diabolical punishment. Choose your explanatory framework for reality.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re just opinions,\u201d you, or the social media influencers closest to your bandwidth, will say.<\/p>\n
Okay, okay, okay. But the problem is that decisions are made based on these opinions: there are those who ask for divine forgiveness or embrace pain as privileged martyrdom\u2026 And there are those who organize to demand truth and justice.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not going to make firewood out of the heavy cross borne by se\u00f1ora Margarita Ester Zavala G\u00f3mez del Campo de Calder\u00f3n (whom, disrespectfully and far from all political correctness, the Zapatistas call \u201cla Calderona,\u201d reason for which I\u2014having always stood out for my good manners and political correctness\u2014distance myself).<\/p>\n
And to clarify, I point out that it\u2019s \u201cG\u00f3mez del Campo,\u201d to remind you of the murder of the children in the ABC Daycare, which occurred on June 5, 2009 in the state of Sonora and which was managed by, among other people, Marcia Matilde Altagracia G\u00f3mez del Campo Tonella, exonerated because she was a relative of la Calderona. The memory of this crime will not be extinguished, thanks to the fact that the families continue demanding truth and justice.<\/p>\n
And I call her \u201cde Calder\u00f3n,\u201d because to refer to her by her maiden name would be to indicate that she lives in common-law marriage with the psychopath. And, according to my limited understanding of canonical law, cohabitation outside of marriage is a sin. Ergo, this would bring us more earthquakes through the fault of those who sign in support of her candidacy.<\/p>\n
Instead, I\u2019ll make brief reference to the principal saboteur of her political career (her concubine, if we pay attention to those enraged by calling her what is her rightful last name according to Catholic, apostolic and Roman laws): Felipe Calder\u00f3n Hinojosa.<\/p>\n
Mr. Calder\u00f3n Hinojosa was, ten years ago, holder of the federal executive power in Mexico. I think they called him \u201cPresident.\u201d Well, ten years ago, on the occasion of the floods that ravaged the state of Tabasco, the then-supreme commander of the army, air force, and marines declared that those responsible for the fact that more than 125,000 people had lost their homes and had to take refuge in shelters were\u2026the moon and a cold front.<\/p>\n
-*-<\/p>\n
The National Action Party (PAN) competes with the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) not only for the ridicule that befalls their pre-candidates; no, the National Action Party, now with the burden called Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), also disputes the PRI for complicity in the crime.<\/p>\n
You may note a demented twinkle in the gaze of Ricardo Anaya, pre-candidate of the PAN-PRD-MC. Don\u2019t attribute it to a possible affectation in the region of the brain responsible for decency (if, of course, there is one). It\u2019s the product of political party leadership training. Ricardo Anaya is part of that generation of party leaders who grew up as such in the midst of corruption, cynicism, betrayal, bigotry, intolerance, arrogance, nepotism, ignorance, cretinism\u2026ok, I think I\u2019m describing more than one pre-candidate, but now I\u2019m referring to what the PAN, PRD and MC alliance calls \u201cAt the lead, For Mexico\u201d\u2026 and, well, there\u2019s an abyss ahead. So there you have it.<\/p>\n
Along with Acteal and Ayotzinapa, another name refers us to an unpunished crime: the ABC Daycare, in Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico.<\/p>\n
And in the six-year term of that consistent thinker named Vicente Fox, the PRI, PAN, and PRD allied themselves in the crime called \u201cAtenco\u201d in May 2006, which included, in addition to murder, sexual assault against women.<\/p>\n
As such, this all seems to indicate that the great voter, who certainly doesn\u2019t need the National Electoral Institute, demands proof of criminality to make up their mind. On their altar, these political party proposals offer the blood of women, children, youth, elders\u2026and others [otroas].<\/p>\n
And to confirm, political proposals from the most rancid right reach the various public offices reserved for paid hitmen that the world political system periodically offers.<\/p>\n
Although there are examples in Argentina, Chile, Brazil, the United Kingdom, the Spanish State, Israel, Honduras, Nicaragua, Russia, and whatever other geography suits your fancy, there\u2019s one that encapsulates the fateful times to come: Ronaldo Trump.<\/p>\n
In addition to his undeniable skill and wisdom in running his Twitter account, Ronaldo Trump has defined with diaphanous clarity the victim to sacrifice: women, others [otroas], children, migrants, the environment, and I could keep detailing the specifics but in the end you\u2019ll reach the same conclusion that I have: the victim is the entire planet, including the humanity that inhabits it.<\/p>\n
Although Ronaldo has shown signs of serious mental problems, he\u2019s solved the basic equation that all rulers must confront: What must I do to remain in Power? Ockham has been useful for him, and he\u2019s opted for the simplest answer: a war.<\/p>\n
To achieve a war, he proposes walls, embassy changes; he provokes diplomatic incidents and then pleads, implores: \u201cGive me a war! I demand it of you. Wherever, it doesn\u2019t matter. And the bigger, the better.\u201d And thus, going back many centuries, Ronaldo Trump takes Nero\u2019s lyre and sings: \u201cWe don\u2019t want to fight, but we\u2019ll do it out of pure Jingoism, we have the boats, we have the men, we have the money.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yes, it is a war. Or a crime\u2014it depends.<\/p>\n
War or crime, a disgrace like never before in the history of humanity.<\/p>\n
As if the world as we know it were collapsing.<\/p>\n
-*-<\/p>\n
And since we\u2019ve already made reference to videogames, let\u2019s imagine that we have the dream of any gaming addict: a cybernetic interface that allows us to have a strategic, tactical, and first-person perspective all at the same time. Something like a combination of real-time strategy, role playing, first person shooter, and the other, I don\u2019t know what it\u2019s called, but it\u2019s like third person. Basically, if this is created one day, don\u2019t forget to share the intellectual property rights.<\/p>\n
Now, imagine that you are holed up in an ideal spherical room. The internal surface of the sphere, which you can see, is a large curved screen, with 5K technology, OMLED, or whatever it\u2019s called and on which, simultaneously and with vertiginous velocity, informational packets are presented. Not just images, but also sounds, smells, tactile and taste sensations. And well, also, and so as not to discriminate against the esoteric folks, extrasensory perceptions.<\/p>\n
You might think, with a high degree of certainty, that you\u2019re in the real world; so you live in this world, you\u2019re born there, you grow there, reproduce there, and, God forbid but it\u2019s a hypothetical situation, you die there.<\/p>\n
You\u2019re happy or unhappy there. The machine is so effective that it even provides you with the parameters to define happiness and unhappiness. What\u2019s more, it also offers you an explanation of this world and, if it\u2019s your preference, of a spiritual world, a consolation for the day when (did I already say god forbid?) you die.<\/p>\n
So you\u2019re there, in the machine that we\u2019ll call, with prudent entrepreneurial calculation, \u201cthe Cat-Dog Machine\u201d (all rights reserved).<\/p>\n
So there you are, simulating that you\u2019re alive or living (because the machine also gives you the criteria to distinguish between \u201cthe real\u201d of the machine\u201d and \u201cthe virtual\u201d that the same machine produces to give you a reference point).<\/p>\n
So, let\u2019s suppose that in some temporality of the machine, you\u2019re doing whatever it is that you do. And in there, from who knows where, a person appears who has nothing to do with anything. You of course are a modern person, understanding of technological limitations, and you attribute this emergence to an irregularity in the machine\u2019s complicated software or complex hardware. You wait patiently for the irregularity to be resolved, that is, you look for the \u201creset\u201d button, but the person remains there and when you\u2019re least expecting it, this person says to you:<\/p>\n
\u201cOne moment, nobody touch anything, nobody leave. This is a crime scene.\u201d<\/p>\n
You\u2019re doubtful. You don\u2019t know whether to complain to Technical Support or put a bag of popcorn in the microwave. I mean maybe this is a new episode of \u201cLaw and Order, Special Victims Unit\u201d (cue background music).<\/p>\n
But something doesn\u2019t fit, because it\u2019s not the female detective who appears, but another woman. Yes, the machine has given you the pattern that indicates: \u201cwoman\u201d. But this woman is wearing an embroidered blouse, her stature is less than the average that the machine itself has determined as \u201caverage stature,\u201d her complexion is dark, let\u2019s say the color of the earth. The machine gives you the information it has: \u201cindigenous, also self-defined as \u2018originary\u2019; geographic location in the North American region called Mexico; null or minimum level of formal schooling; access to technological advances between 0 and 0.1; monolingual although there are cases in which she manages two or more languages; mortality rate, much higher than average; life expectancy, well below average; cultural persistence, centuries; therefore, indefinite age.\u201d<\/p>\n
With this information, you start drafting your complaint to Technical Support, while stuffing yourself with popcorn of course because you\u2019re not about to waste the Valentina sauce that covers them:<\/p>\n
\u201cDear programmers, I beg you to resolve this flaw. Because it\u2019s not possible for one [uno, una, unoa] to be here fulfilling to the letter of the law the functions that have been assigned to me, when all of a sudden something so pre-modern appears. Hurry up because the new season of \u2018To the right, the best of all possible worlds,\u2019 is about to start and the promos are already happening. Signature\u201d<\/p>\n
The feminine interruption in question has the poor taste to change the fashionable joke, \u201cI come from the future and\u2026[followed by something clever]\u201d (oh don\u2019t worry, the machine also says what is and is not \u201cclever\u201d) because the, shall we say, originary woman now says: \u201cI come from the past and this movie isn\u2019t a movie and I already saw it.\u201d Then you realize that the woman is not alone.There are others that resemble her, although now that they force you to look at them, you see that they\u2019re the same but different. There are also men. And there is no shortage of those who are neither one nor the other.<\/p>\n
With no respect for the programming, these strange, anachronistic, and\u2014it\u2019s no stretch to say\u2014irreverent beings, start to sniff around and one of them has even taken out, who knows from where, a magnifying glass. You\u2019re about to applaud, because you think that the machine has been updated and can now produce a virtual reality within a virtual reality, but the woman whom the machine now labels \u201cindigenous\u201d without any nuance, studies you extensively. You\u2019re of course right to feel uncomfortable when, after putting the magnifying glass to her eye, she proclaims: \u201cAnother victim, to be noted by the team taking minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, they have a team for that, which suggests some kind of uncatalogued organizational form,\u201d the machine tells you, partly to make itself useful and also partly to give itself time to self-review its programming.<\/p>\n
The group of indigenous people who, you now realize, are a minority but make noise as if they were a majority, gather together to deliberate and, after a time that the machine can\u2019t quantify or offer a parameter for comparison, decree:<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s all here: the victim, the murderer, the murder weapon, and the scene of the crime.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then you realize that the spherical screen looks more like a concave wall, and you see, not without alarm, a little girl, accompanied by a strange being which the machine is incapable of labeling and settles on \u201ccat-dog: mythological being of unknown origin; there are no data which confirm its actual, I mean virtual, existence, that is, you understand me, right? Yes well, it depends; probable habitat: mountains of the Mexican southeast.\u201d See: \u201cHabr\u00e1 una vez,\u201d[vi] editions in Spanish, Italian, English, Greek, German, Portuguese, etc.<\/p>\n
What alarms you is that the little girl and the thus-catalogued \u201ccat-dog\u201d are signaling a crack in the machine, that is, in the sphere; that is, in the wall.<\/p>\n
Now you\u2019re in doubt\u2014something that the machine has always managed to avoid until now\u2014vacillating between going to review the warranty rules or running to peek through the crack.<\/p>\n
Because it turns out that the crack, its possibility, questions not only the programming of the machine, but its very existence.<\/p>\n
Then you feel like a prisoner in the same paradox as that of Schrodinger\u2019s Cat.<\/p>\n
The machine quickly links you to Wikipedia, and there you read:<\/p>\n
\u201cErwin Schr\u00f6dinger proposed a system that is formed by a closed, opaque box containing a cat, a bottle of poisonous gas, and a device which contains a single radioactive particle with a 50% probability of disintegrating in a given time so that if the particle disintegrates, the poison is released and the cat dies. At the end of the set time, the probability that the device has been activated and the cat is dead is 50%, and the probability that the device has not been activated and the cat is alive has the same value.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of course, you\u2019re no longer following the parts about quantum mechanics, because you\u2019re feeling a vague trembling throughout your body.<\/p>\n
\u201cTerror,\u201d says the machine, in order to help you to identify this sensation. Because the machine had already labeled this sensory perception but it had always, at least until now, appeared as something distant; terror had always corresponded to somebody else.<\/p>\n
All the evidence, everything solid that gave you certainty, values, reasoning, and judgment begin to fade away.<\/p>\n
You don\u2019t know if you\u2019re dead or alive; there\u2019s a 50% probability of one or the other, and you shudder, not because you\u2019re on the verge of figuring out your existential state but because of the question posed by the wall, the one that, as they say, pulls the rug out from under you:<\/p>\n
\u201cIs another world possible?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is,\u201d responds the little girl who is now carrying a ball under her arm and, on her head, something that could be a cat\u2026or a dog.<\/p>\n
You of course are a person with knowledge who self-applies \u201cOckham\u2019s Razor,\u201d interpreted as: the simplest explanation is probably the most correct. So you tell yourself [a s\u00ed mismo, misma, mismoa]: \u201cI\u2019m dreaming.\u201d<\/p>\n
While you decide whether you\u2019re in a dream or a nightmare, what do you do? Do you go up to and peek through the crack or keep doing what you were doing when the irreverent and rebellious commotion appeared?<\/p>\n
As for that, what was originally a group of indigenous people is now a much broader collective: there are people of all colors, there\u2019s someone gripping a hammer with a complicit smile as they turn to the wall where, oh, oh, it seems they want to expand the crack.<\/p>\n
And there\u2019s someone over there dancing, and someone painting, and someone imagining a frame for the shot, and someone writing hastily, and further away they\u2019re singing, and there\u2019s someone weighing a microscope to see whether to throw it at the spherical wall or whether a scalpel is better, for something should be done to the crack.<\/p>\n
And wait, where did that marimba come from?<\/p>\n
And now they\u2019re playing soccer, and the little girl who, to avoid having to give explanations, has put on a badge that reads \u201cDefensa Zapatista,\u201d asks you what your name is, and you then understand that she\u2019s not asking you your name-name, but rather your position on a supposed team that hasn\u2019t yet been completed.<\/p>\n
And you feel that the terror has already taken over your whole being, because you\u2019ve intuited that the little girl is really asking you:<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd what about you?\u201d<\/p>\n
From CIDECI-UniTierra, Chiapas.<\/p>\n
SupGaleano.<\/p>\n
Mexico, December 2017.<\/p>\n
From the Notebook of the Cat-Dog:
\nThe Mysterious Case of the Missing Honey Buns<\/h4>\n
El\u00edas Contreras is a Zapatista compa\u00f1ero whose work is to serve as the Investigation Commission\u2014that is, he\u2019s a detective. He\u2019s like a lookout. El\u00edas Contreras is deceased, just like SupMarcos, and they worked together in the search for bad and evil. El\u00edas now works with SupMoy sometimes, although every once in a while he talks to SupGaleano.<\/p>\n
This brief summary should help you understand what happened one afternoon this December at the General Command of the EZLN, where Subcomandante Insurgente Mois\u00e9s called in the famous El\u00edas Contreras.<\/p>\n
\u201cEl\u00edas,\u201d said SupMoy after responding to the Investigation Commission Detective\u2019s military greeting, \u201cthere\u2019s a problem.\u201d<\/p>\n
El\u00edas Contreras didn\u2019t say anything, he just took out rolling papers and some strands of tobacco, and set about making a cigarette while he listened to SupMoy:<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s in the regional cooperative store. They say they\u2019re missing some products, that they disappeared. They asked if anyone could help out. Can you take care of it?\u201d<\/p>\n
El\u00edas Contreras simply let out a sound like \u201cmmh,\u201d and left without saying a word.<\/p>\n
The store manager just barely greeted El\u00edas with a gesture, he was doing the monthly accounting.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo what is it that disappeared?\u201d asked El\u00edas while he distractedly eyed the DVDs that were for sale, the majority of which had the stamp of \u201cLos Tercios Compas.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe honey buns,\u201d said the manager, without taking his eyes off the notebook where he was suffering through the bookkeeping.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd how do you know they\u2019re missing?\u201d asked El\u00edas, while looking over the shelf.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause nobody buys those, they were always there, for no good reason.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd it nobody buys them, what\u2019s the problem?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe vigilance commission,\u201d sighed the manager in resignation. \u201cThe bookkeeping has to be exact; if not, we have to repay it or there\u2019s punishment.\u201d<\/p>\n
El\u00edas Contreras gave a snort and leaned over to pick up a few strands of black tobacco at the foot of the counter.<\/p>\n
He left.<\/p>\n
\u201cSup,\u201d he said when he was back at the door of SupGaleano\u2019s shack.<\/p>\n
\u201cEl\u00edas,\u201d responded the Sup without taking his eyes off a screen connected to an old laptop computer.<\/p>\n
\u201cLaptop\u2019s screwed,\u201d the Sup said to clarify. \u201cThe screen broke, but the processor and the rest are fine, so I connected it to this monitor. I was just able to adapt the keyboard, but I can\u2019t find the mouse.\u201d<\/p>\n
He turned his wheelchair around and looked at El\u00edas.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe honey buns,\u201d said the Investigation Commission Detective.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere aren\u2019t anymore,\u201d said the Sup, \u201cDefensa Zapatista and her dog\u2026or cat\u2026or whatever it is\u2026they ate them.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I have some cornbread that the insurgentes made. How do I know that the insurgentes made it? Well, because it rose properly; when the insurgentas make it it stays flat.\u201d<\/p>\n
El\u00edas rolled a cigarette and passed the Sup the matches for his pipe.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd so?\u201d asked SupGaleano after waiting for El\u00edas Contreras to light his cigarette.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell now they\u2019re going to make you do the bookkeeping for the store\u2026 Of course, in addition to repaying what was taken. But I didn\u2019t come here for that. There\u2019s a thought I want to discuss with you\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
Some hours later, El\u00edas Contreras, Investigation Commission Detective for the EZLN, left SupGaleano\u2019s shack and stopped for a moment to watch the afternoon become the shadows of the night.<\/p>\n
With his flashlight he illuminated the path up to the General Command of the eezeeelen. At the door, without entering, he saluted and said: \u201cEl Sup, some honey buns.\u201d<\/p>\n
SupMoy smiled and said to himself: \u201cWell, someone had to balance those books.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the General Assembly it didn\u2019t go so badly for SupGaleano, but it also didn\u2019t go so well. After \u201cself-criticizing\u201d him for eating fast food and not feeding himself well (they told him that the shortbread they make in the CIDECI bakery is much better), the authorities gave him the worst punishment that currently exists in that community: doing the accounting for the cooperatives.<\/p>\n
The Sup lit his pipe as he exited the assembly and, while heading toward the cooperative named, \u201cAs the women that we are,\u201d said to himself: \u201cwell, it could have been worse, in other times they would have made me clear the pasture.\u201d<\/p>\n
He did the accounting quickly, not because he knew how to do math, but because he did it with the cell phone he \u201cborrowed\u201d from the General Command headquarters when SupMoy had called him in to scold him. It wasn\u2019t even such a great cell phone, it was one of those \u201clow range\u201d ones that wasn\u2019t able to capture the signatures that the first-world National Electoral Institute imposed as requirements on hopeful candidates from the third world\u2014but the calculator was fine for addition and subtraction.<\/p>\n
He found El\u00edas at the foot of the Ceiba tree, just as they had agreed.<\/p>\n
The smell of both of their tobaccos intermingled in the silence. A dialogue between dead men; a deaf-mute dialogue.<\/p>\n
Neither of them remembers who asked: \u201cHow much time?\u201d but they know that both responded in unison: \u201clittle, very little.\u201d<\/p>\n
I testify:<\/p>\n
The Cat-Dog.[:]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[:es] TRUMP, LA NAVAJA DE OCKHAM, EL GATO DE SCHRODINGER Y EL GATO-PERRO. Escucha aqu\u00ed:\u00a0 [podcast]https:\/\/radiozapatista.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/ConCiencias2_dia2_SupGaleano.mp3[\/podcast] 28 de diciembre del 2017. De nuevo buenos d\u00edas, tardes, noches, madrugadas. Tal vez alguna, alguno, algunoa, recuerde que el difunto SupMarcos insist\u00eda en que el sistema capitalista no pod\u00eda ser entendido sin el concepto de guerra. Claro, suponiendo […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24985,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,6,118,955,954],"tags":[1154,644,993,56,849,1112],"class_list":["post-25027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-audio","category-chiapas","category-ezln","category-ezln-temas","category-mexico","tag-ciencias","tag-comunicados-ezln","tag-conciencias","tag-encuentros","tag-subcomandante-galeano","tag-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiozapatista.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiozapatista.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiozapatista.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiozapatista.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiozapatista.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/radiozapatista.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25027\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiozapatista.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiozapatista.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiozapatista.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiozapatista.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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