He's baa-aaack! (Doggie Bow-wow, that is)

[Aztecglitterbelle]

Those of you who are regular followers of Doug Bower will recall that he (1) abandoned his ?Living in Guanajuato? blog back in August, (2) then revived it in September ?for invited readers only,? and (3) then abandoned it again later that month, moving it to a new location and giving it an exciting new name, ?Central Mexico.? Well, now ?Central Mexico? has itself been abandoned, and ?Living in Guanajuato? has, in a move that even Lazarus would envy, been revived yet again. Confused? Me too.

The unsurprising news is that with ?Living in Guanajuato? redux, Doug continues his fearless crime reporting. Today?s entry, a translation of the lead paragraph of a story from the Correo newspaper, informs us that from 2006 to 2008 there were 23,000 murders in Mexico of children under seventeen years old. Truly a shocking statistic, and one can only be grateful to our intrepid reporter for passing on the horrific news.

Correction: one would be grateful if only this news were true. But of course it?s not. A moment?s reflection shows that it?s nonsense. Twenty-three thousand juvenile murders in three years? I?m sure everyone is familiar with the statistic that during the four years of the Calder?n administration there have been roughly 30,000 narco-related killings. That sobering number is repeated in the press, domestic and foreign, every day. And yet Doug would have us believe that in only three years there were 23,000 juvenile murders, and this is the very first we?re hearing about the carnage? Preposterous.

In Doug?s defense, his translation of the Correo paragraph is accurate. Does this mean there really were 23,000 such murders? No. As I said, a moment?s thought reveals the figure as nonsense, and in fact the Correo got it wrong. The Correo picked up the story from El Universal (a much more reliable newspaper), and in doing so it moved the decimal point. According to El Universal, during the period in question there were not 23,000 juvenile murders but 2,300. That?s still terrible. But as Emily Litella used to say, ?Oh, that?s different. Never mind.?

Now, everyone makes mistakes, and Doug is entitled to his share. But anyone familiar with his blogging knows that he regularly presents himself as an authority on Mexico, particularly on crime here, while the rest of us are woefully uninformed ?Gringolandians? and "fakepats." Well, if Doug really is so expert, why did he not immediately recognize, as I did, and as my wife did, the absurdity of the Correo statistic? I submit to you that his credulous repetition of the Correo error indicates that as a crime reporter, and as an authority on Mexico, Doug is in way over his head.

Finally, forgive me for pointing out Doug?s incompetence here on the gtolist. A far more appropriate place for criticism would be the comments section of his blog. But unlike most bloggers, Doug has never welcomed criticism, and the latest incarnation of his blog is no exception. I tried to submit a correction about this matter, but it was rejected with this message: ?Comments on this blog are restricted to team members.? The blog offers no counsel as to how one might become a team member.

Don Coulter

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Hola Don, I've never had an opportunity to meet Doug Bower, but would like to, with proper protective gear, as he has an amazing reputation for being the craziest son of a bitch in town. Why does anybody waste time reading his crap?