Chapter 347 Slums
Mexico City, the capital of Mexico, is very similar to the capitals of many Latin American countries. It accounts for 20% of the country's population, making Mexico City a super city with a population of more than 20 million.
However, with this population base, excessive urbanization has resulted in Mexico City having more than 4 million people living in slums. Among them, Kimahuakan, which is connected to Mexico City, is home to 1.3 million people. The city is squeezed and is not part of the federal district, which makes life here quite difficult.
However, thanks to Mexico's slum renovation plan, the image of Kimahuacán today has broken away from the traditional image of a slum. At least relying on the foundation saved from the past, it looks much better than many places in Hengsan. Moreover, Why is this place also close to Mo City, the capital of Mo country?
It looks a bit like a remote county town.
However, although the external environment seems to have improved a lot, it cannot change the fundamental problem of Kimahuakan. Most of the people here do not have a relatively stable income and can only work odd jobs.
And because abortion is illegal except in the federal district, births outside of marriage have resulted in a large number of single-parent families in Mexico. Coupled with the income problem in the slums, even the most basic "eating and drinking" problems still arise.
The high degree of urbanization in Mexico City has made the water resources here already in short supply, and coupled with the impact of beautiful capital, it has directly become an immediate survival issue.
Although the Mexican authorities have implemented many restrictions, a lot of groundwater is polluted, and there is no water available during dry periods and there is a water shortage.
In addition to lowering the quality of water supply, water outages in slums can only be alleviated by "maintenance".
Moreover, even during the water supply period, the tap water is slowly coming out weakly, and the water quality is quite bad. It cannot be drunk even if it is boiled, and even ordinary water purifiers are useless.
Drinking water of this quality for a long time will have a huge burden and impact on the body.
Therefore, even the residents in the slums will buy bottled water as much as possible, but sometimes, even if they have money, they may not be able to buy it...
Weiner was born into such a family.
His mother gave birth to a child out of wedlock, and he and his younger brother were raised by themselves. This difficult condition also made Weiner sensible at an early age. He started helping with housework and taking care of his younger brother at the age of five or six.
Fortunately, Mexico also has compulsory education. Schools in slum areas are directly large-scale "nursing centers." In this kind of teaching environment, learning anything useful can be regarded as a luxury, and it all depends on the consciousness of a very small number of students. .
Weiner's family situation is such that it is impossible for him to have time to focus on studying after returning from school. Once he is out of touch, he will naturally start to resist learning itself.
Like many of his peers, he was exposed to some gang ideas early on.
Because he was young and daring to fight, Weiner soon stood out, gained the appreciation of the gang leader, and became the team leader.
He gradually swelled and lost himself amid the calls of 'team leader' and 'awesome', until he was shot in the thigh during an operation.
Although he was lucky enough to save a small life, one leg was completely disabled.
As for the little boss he was thinking about, he just gave him some money and gave it away. At first, some people might come to visit him, but then he gradually lost contact with him.
He originally thought that after he started to become "awesome", he could lead a good life for his mother and younger brother, but the reality is that he has become a new burden for his mother.
This also made him understand that this road is not feasible, and the younger brother must not repeat his own mistakes!
What makes him quite gratified is that even in such an environment, his younger brother Simpson is still at the top of the school.
Weiner is now limping while participating in some odd jobs to earn money. At the same time, he takes care of the chores at home, taking over the share that originally belonged to his younger brother Simpson, so that he can have a safe learning environment.
Let him realize his dream and have the opportunity to enter Mexico City University...
"Brother, I'm back."
Simpson doesn't have Weiner's boldness at all and appears to be very quiet, which is a relatively rare trait in Mexico.
Even their mother was like a lion when she was angry. They saw her quarreling with others more than once.
But this is also the way to survive here!
Simpson looks much fatter than his brother, but he looks a little puffy and even a little bloated.
"The rice is in the pot. Drink more milk to supplement some nutrition. Milk is cheaper. Drink less Coke."
Seeing his brother pick up the Coca-Cola again, Weiner felt a little instinctive resistance. He had heard before that this stuff was not a good thing, and it would be bad for your health if you drink it as water for a long time.
Now we are actually drinking water. There may be a shortage of water in the dry season, but the beverage factory has its own private well...
"Hey~, haha, brother, you came here too."
Simpson burped and said with a smile, and then he once again held up the Coke bottle and assured his brother
"In the future, I must be admitted to City University and join Umbrella Company after graduation, so that no one will dare to bully us again."
"Why has it changed? Didn't you say you would take us to a beautiful country before?"
Hearing his brother's new goal change, Weiner also had a hint of fondness in his eyes.
"Hehe, I used to think it was prestigious there, but now I find that Umbrella is even more prestigious. If you don't want to leave your hometown, let's stay here..."
Going to Da Meili is a choice that many poor people in Mexico cannot live in.
Even the Mexican gangsters in Big Beautiful are famous for their ruthlessness, and they often spawn many special businesses.
However, this began to change after Umbrella began to settle in Mexico.
In the beginning, when Umbrella took root, it was really a small dozen every day, and a dozen every three days.
In the territory of Mo country, if those businessmen were not given face, no one would get good results in the past.
No one is optimistic about Umbrella.
There are too many examples before us. There are not too many examples of people who just took office and said they wanted to rectify things, and then were shot dead in the office.
But when Umbrella security began to move in, there would be funerals from major businessmen and gangs every day. Every time it was a beheading operation, it was successful every time!
From the beginning, even newspapers and media were talking about Umbrella, saying that they disrupted the existing order and caused people to live in panic.
But slowly, as time went by, Umbrella Security remained standing. After the major talkmakers changed batch after batch, they began to be defeated no matter how stubborn they were.
There was even a behavior that he avoided when campaigning for a talking point, which allowed Umbrella to completely gain a foothold!
After establishing a foothold until now, Umbrella began to build various factories here.
Nowadays, even if there is a dog from the Umbrella factory, no wild dog dares to grab food!
To put it bluntly, in Mexico, even if only one person in the family works as a cleaner in Umbrella's newly built factory, no gang in the family would dare to mess with it!
Umbrella's guards were killed directly, and the corpses were enough to dye the river red!
Even Weiner felt a little pity. If Umbrella had appeared earlier, he might have a new pursuit...
"Today a classmate of mine brought a bracelet from Umbrella. It's so cool. I don't know where he stole the money to buy it."
After Simpson finished his Coke, he began to eat his dinner, which is a local cooking method of wrapping corn kernels in corn leaves and some meat fillings.
It was all prepared by Weiner.
Now he is lame, but he can still do these things.
"Brother's craftsmanship has improved again. Maybe I can go out and set up a stall in the future."
After Simpson finished eating, he licked the ketchup on his hands with unsatisfied satisfaction. He knew that this was a new livelihood that his brother was considering.
"If I go to stage a show now, I'll get screwed up, but it should be quick."
Weiner said with a smile, and then thought of something
"By the way, the examination you made an appointment for is tomorrow, right? I'll go with you then..."
Simpson has been feeling unwell recently, with some edema and fatigue easily, so he made an appointment for a check-up.
No matter what, this is Mexico City, the capital of Mexico. There are still institutions that should be there, and prescription drugs in Mexico are only half the price of Dali...
——
Three updates, first update~
Note: In the reality of our parallel world, although Latin America bought back surface water services in the early 21st century, the groundwater contaminated by those water companies was difficult to recover, resulting in a large gap. Just last year during the severe drought, the Mexican authorities called for The beverage factory should stop making drinks, but it is of no use. A large number of available private water wells are still in the hands of the beverage factory and capital and have not been recovered. They did not reduce production, but took advantage of this opportunity to sell more Drinks make money.
Many water companies are from Gaul and Britain, but most of the grain merchants and beverage merchants are big and beautiful, and their capitals are also different.
In addition, it seems that last year or the year before last, in order to curb the obesity rate and related risk diseases in the country, the Mexican authorities increased taxes on Coke and other companies that have high obesity-related factors. After the tax, the price of Coke is already more expensive than bottled water. But their tap water still cannot be used as drinking water and they need to buy bottled water. In addition to their love for sugar, they still like to drink Coke.
(End of chapter)