{"id":12463,"date":"2022-12-11T08:11:03","date_gmt":"2022-12-11T16:11:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bone-in-the-throat.com\/Blog\/?p=12463"},"modified":"2022-12-09T16:11:45","modified_gmt":"2022-12-10T00:11:45","slug":"this-is-one-definition-of-irony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bone-in-the-throat.com\/Blog\/2022\/12\/11\/this-is-one-definition-of-irony\/","title":{"rendered":"This is one definition of irony!"},"content":{"rendered":"

According to the Associated Press<\/em>:<\/p>\n

Mexico is using images and video of a Philadelphia Street to warn children in Mexico about the ills of drug abuse.<\/p>\n

The actual article is linked below:<\/p>\n

Mexico depicts Philadelphia street scenes in anti-drug ads<\/a><\/p>\n

I\u2019d laugh but this is so fucking sad, I almost can\u2019t believe it. At first I thought it was a satire article from The Babylon Bee.<\/em><\/p>\n

Unfortunately as is the often the case these days, much of what should be satire is entirely true.<\/p>\n

The real kicker for me personally is that the folks from Philadelphia are more concerned that the videos and images of homeless drug addicts shambling around the city, may have been used without permission of the people appearing in them.<\/p>\n

Uhh\u2026 Maybe you should be more concerned with the drug problem, crime, and violence in your city than whether the addicts gave their permission to be filmed. Odds are good that even if they\u2019d given permission in exchange for their next fix, they wouldn\u2019t remember it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Good God almighty! Where the hell are our priorities?<\/p>\n

Here is the article for your convenience.<\/p>\n

\n

From The Associated Press<\/em><\/p>\n

Mexico depicts Philadelphia street scenes in anti-drug ads<\/h2>\n

By MARK STEVENSON and MARYCLAIRE DALE
November 11, 2022<\/h3>\n

MEXICO CITY (AP) \u2014 The Mexican government is using video of homeless people and open-air drug users in Philadelphia\u2019s embattled Kensington neighborhood in a national ad campaign to try to scare young people away from drugs.<\/p>\n

The spots never identify the city or neighborhood shown. But just how or why the Mexican government decided to use street scenes from the U.S. to scare Mexicans \u2014 who have their own drug problems \u2014 is not clear. Critics say the ads recycle scare tactics about drugs rather than offer help or treatment.<\/p>\n

Jes\u00fas Ram\u00edrez, the spokesman for President Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador, proudly presented the ad series Tuesday. But Ram\u00edrez did not respond to repeated requests for comment as to where the government got the Philadelphia videos or why they used them.<\/p>\n

The use of the videos, apart from sparking concern over Philadelphia\u2019s image, or whether those filmed had given their consent, raised questions, in part because Mexico is the source of most of the fentanyl being sold in the United States.<\/p>\n

In one spot presented Tuesday entitled \u201cCrystal\u201d (meth), a Spanish-speaking narrator says, in a voice-over above scenes of drug users shaking or contorting along trash-strewn Kensington Avenue, \u201cCrystal (meth) finishes you off quickly, it takes away hunger and tiredness and causes hallucinations and psychosis. It damages the body and mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Philadelphia Mayor\u2019s Office acknowledged the drug problem but said it is not limited to one city or neighborhood, and noted that all people are capable of \u201chope, healing, and resilience.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe opioid and overdose crisis in Philadelphia is part of a national and even international epidemic, and we agree it is important for everyone to understand, as this video notes, that all street drugs now present an elevated risk of overdose because of fentanyl\u2019s extreme prevalence,\u201d a spokesperson for Mayor Jim Kenney said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving said that, it is always hard to see our city\u2019s people and neighborhoods portrayed in a limited and negative light. No neighborhood, and no person, should be defined by this tragic and widespread crisis,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

Philadelphia is debating solutions to the overdose crisis \u2014 Kenney supports proposals for supervised injection sites \u2014 while the number of overdose deaths continues to climb, reaching 1,276 deaths last year.<\/p>\n

Another Mexican spot depicts scenes of drug users or homeless people slumped or standing unsteadily in Kensington, which can be identified by transit signs in the videos.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow the narcos are adding fentanyl to hook you from the first time you use. Fentanyl kills,\u201d the narrator says in Spanish. \u201cIt is 50 times more potent than heroin. Two hundred people die every day from using it. Don\u2019t risk it!\u201d<\/p>\n

However fentanyl use remains relatively low in Mexico \u2014 almost all is exported to the United States \u2014 while there are plenty of meth and crack users.<\/p>\n

Only one of the government anti-drug ads \u2014 one focusing on glue-sniffing \u2014 used recognizably Mexican street footage. Other scenes show people wearing sweatshirts that say \u201cCalifornia\u201d and \u201cBarcelona.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are terrible ads; they\u2019re truly terrible,\u201d said Mexico security analyst Alejandro Hope. \u201cThey are badly thought out, badly produced, and they are the result of bad public policy. There is no public health message there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead of offering help, hotlines, advice or treatment options \u2014 which in the public sector are almost non-existent in Mexico \u2014 Hope said they repeated the most aggressive U.S. drug-scare tactics of the 1980s.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think these ads are aimed at users, at youths at risk,\u201d said Hope. \u201cI think these are aimed at a wider and much more conservative audience that viscerally rejects any kind of drug use and whose moral buttons you want to push, to generate a moral terror.\u201d<\/p>\n

L\u00f3pez Obrador, while he projects himself as a leftist, has actually been \u201cdeeply conservative\u201d on issues like drugs, abortion, the family and women\u2019s rights, Hope said.<\/p>\n

Quetcy Lozada, elected Tuesday to represent the Philadelphia City Council district that includes Kensington, said the area includes many hard-working families who want to stay and make things better. But the ads and frequent media attention only draw more users and curiosity-seekers to the streets \u2014 and more problems, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPhiladelphia has so many amazing places and so many amazing people, it embarrasses me that this is the type of footage that is being used,\u201d Lozada said. \u201c(It\u2019s) just not acceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a TV ad entitled \u201cCrack,\u201d the narrator says, in a voice-over with street scenes in Kensington. \u201cTaking crack cocaine damages your brain and heart and causes anxiety and paranoia.\u201d The ad quickly segues into scenes of homeless people, apparently filmed at a nearby park.<\/p>\n

Kelly Garant, a peer care coordinator in Philadelphia for a nonprofit organization, helps people struggling with addiction, as she once did, get medical and other services.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are actually in a state of crisis, and to be exploited when they\u2019re that vulnerable, it\u2019s just not acceptable,\u201d Garant said. \u201cYou don\u2019t know whose mother or father or brother that is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Years from now, she said, they may have their lives back on track, but the images could still be out there \u2014 for their children, friends and work colleagues to see.<\/p>\n

Addiction, she said, \u201cdoesn\u2019t discriminate.\u201d It\u2019s just less visible in other neighborhoods.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn other parts of the city, people overdose in their homes,\u201d she noted. \u201cIf they\u2019re talking about anti-drug campaigns, there are people doing drugs inside their homes and we can\u2019t get to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Dale reported from Philadelphia<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to the Associated Press: Mexico is using images and video of a Philadelphia Street to warn children in Mexico about the ills of drug abuse. The actual article is linked below: Mexico depicts Philadelphia street scenes in anti-drug ads I\u2019d laugh but this is so fucking sad, I almost can\u2019t believe it. At first … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “This is one definition of irony!”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[86,19,66],"tags":[210,254,172],"class_list":["post-12463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ironic","category-things-that-make-you-say-hum","category-wtf","tag-ironic","tag-things-that-make-you-say-hmmm","tag-wtf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bone-in-the-throat.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bone-in-the-throat.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bone-in-the-throat.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bone-in-the-throat.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bone-in-the-throat.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12463"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bone-in-the-throat.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12463\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12464,"href":"https:\/\/bone-in-the-throat.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12463\/revisions\/12464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bone-in-the-throat.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bone-in-the-throat.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bone-in-the-throat.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}