It could always be worse, and it usually is somewhere

Today I am in Irvine, CA visiting one of my best friends. Being in the LA area I decided pick up the LA Times and have a read, and I must say that I spent a good couple of hours reading the newspaper. Something I haven't really done in a while. There were a few good stories that really stood out to me, but one above all others.

It's sort of ironic, just the other day I was thinking about what it was like to be a journalist in another country, specifically Mexico. I know the country has it's problems, but I had no clue to it's extent. I thought it would be cool to be in a totally different environment, seeing it all with a different eye. And me being of Mexican decent, I thought Mexico could be an ideal place for some real journalism.

Well it doesn't get any more real in Mexico. In fact, instead of worrying about being laidoff, journalist there have to worry about being picked off by drug gangs and criminals. In this story by the LA Times, it depicts the extent to which brutal drug gangs will go for reputation, domination and intimidation. Thirty reporters have either been killed or missing for reporting on these gangs, and newpapers all over the country and begining to abandon stories on the criminals. Some newspapers have taken a different tactic, by omitting the name of the reporters or having a pen name.

These are real journalist. Risking lives for the truth, to create public awarness. And here I am complaining about not having a job, while some of them don't have lives anymore. It's a battle out there, and some people are using real amunition.