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Wealthy Mexicans Getting Chipped in Case of Abduction
Because the number of abductions in Mexico has jumped almost 40% in the past 3 years, the wealthy are getting subcutaneous transmitters so they can be tracked when kidnapped. Xega, the Mexican security firm which makes the chips, has seen a sales jump of 13% this year. The company injects the crystal-encased chip, the size and shape of a grain of rice, into clients' bodies with a syringe. The chip then sends radio signals to a larger device carried by the client with a global positioning system in it. A satellite can then be used to find the location of the missing person. Things must be a lot worse in Mexico than I thought.
Oh.. the humanity...
Great. Now when you're kidnapped the first thing they'll do is cut off a chunk of your flesh. Or even just stick you in a metallic sack so that the radio signal can't escape.
The chip then sends radio signals to a larger device carried by the client with a global positioning system in it.
Call me crazy, but I think I found a flaw in their system.
Prof. Farnsworth - "Oh a lesson in not changing history from Mr I'm-My-Own-Grandpa!"
You're just too cynical.
In other news, I had a personal transportation chip injected into my feet. So long as I'm occupying a moving vehicle, it works perfectly at transporting me around.
Things must be a lot worse in Mexico than I thought.
Somebody hasn't been paying attention. Kidnapping is an entire industry in countries south of the Rio Grande, especially in Mexico and Brazil, and has been for at least a decade.
I support the Slashcott and will not be reading or commenting from 2/10/14 to 2/17/14. Beta is steaming pile of dog shit
It won't be long before the thugs figure out a way to scan for those devices and try to get rid of them. Or simpler still, threaten the victim to show where it is and allow them to excise it out.
brain dead U.S. residents into getting chipped so they can be tracked by this Organized Crime Syndicate.
Call me crazy, but I think I found a flaw in their system.
That would depend on where they're hiding it...
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
I'll bet organized crime has the trackers faster than the police do. Probably stolen *from* the police...
If you need to carry a "larger device" with you to send the signal, why do you need an implant?
It's a pity they have to go to this extreme to get security.
Upfuse.com - Social Marketplace - Get 1.5% cash back for selling on Upfuse!
Huh? What are these people smoking?
Also, why is it on Idle and not on, say, science?
a common thief finds a way to access the positions of all of these rich people. Seems to me an easy way to establish targets, not protect them.
This is why we should put more R&D in implanting Laser Eyes. Whos gonna kidnap you if you can shoot lasers out of your eyes.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
i hope buyers realize that all they are doing is changing kidnapping standard operating procedure
kidnappers will now locate the chip probably with nothing more than a $20 standard wall stud finder, then reach into the victim's skin with sharp nosed dirty pliers and toss the chip on the street. then probably send the victim's family a picture of the gaping wound for proof of untraceability and bonus horror factor
ewwww
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Why not just carry the larger device with the GPS and transmitter and forget about the injectable chip? Either way you get the same protection. Unless of course you're relying on criminals being stupid in which case you might be able to convince them that the satellite can actually track the injectable chip.
I thought in mexico the police and "the organization" are one and the same.
Sweet! Now I know where to move my 401K money! I need to find the ticker symbol though. Let's see KDNPP, nope, KIDN, nope, NAP, no...
It's a result of gross class inequality--which is the REAL pity.
Well, there is also the risk of cancer, but hey.
Here's an idea: Instead of wasting money, time, and medical work on chipping the rich, how about fixing the poverty crisis in Mexico? You know, the main source of crime? I'll never understand why the wealthy waste so much money on security when it would be better spent on decreasing/ending the problems that tend to cause crime in the first place. It'd work a lot better in the long run, especially since chipping won't protect them against the next tortilla riot.
The chip then sends radio signals to a larger device carried by the client with a global positioning system in it.
WTF is the implant for? This sounds like SPOT which provides real-time satellite tracking and the ability to send 3 levels of messages (I'm okay, Help, and Emergency). And it doesn't cost nearly as much or require injecting stuff into the user.
A 14 year old boy was recently kidnapped in Mexico in broad daylight at a police "checkpoint". His father reportedly paid over a million dollars to the kidnappers to try to get him back. The boys chauffeur and bodyguard were found shortly thereafter in the trunk of a car strangled to death. The 14 year old boys bullet riddled decomposing body was found shortly after that in the trunk of another car. Mexican police officers are believed to be complicit (helping with these kidnappings) in many of these cases and therefore the general public does not trust them. You can read more here...
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/latinamerica/la-fg-mexcrime22-2008aug22,0,5318804.story?track=rss
The name of the 14 year old boy who was kidnapped and murdered was Fernando Marti.
Especially since you don't want them rooting around in your ass, or doing a "Choco number" (Domino Harvey, character's arm-removal technique...)
Hell, may as well carry $2m in cash card and gamble on being kidnapped no more than 4 times...
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
In a Brazilian movie called Manda Bala . Abductions are a thriving industry in São Paulo, Brazil, and the movie focuses on the common practice of cutting off all or part of a hostage's ear (or finger) in order to expedite a ransom payment.
It is a generally thought provoking movie, with several memorable interviews, and at least some discussion of root causes of the problem (corruption in government among them, although the government of Luiz "Lula" da Silva may be making progress against it, despite so far losing the battle to protect protected areas of Amazon wilderness - a problem also intimately connected with corruption).
However the movie is deeply marred by the inclusion of the anonymous São Paulo businessman, "Mr M" - a self-obsessed, vacuous nitwit, apparently American and perhaps a conveniently interviewable associate of the American filmmaker? whose ego was no doubt unduly boosted by his part in the film. Unfortunately, whatever this individual had to say about being "chipped" is unlikely to betray any insights: In a city known for violent carjackings, this guy's response was to bulletproof his ostentatious Porsche, instead of simply driving a less conspicuous car. I stopped caring about his fate very early into the film; one is tempted to say he need not worry about being kidnapped as nobody would miss him to pay a ransom.
you had me at #!
It's pretty dreadful in Mexico in 1992 there were 46 reported kidnappings, by 1999 there were 402 kidnappings a year - columbia is worse in 1992 there were 464 kidnappings by 1999 that had risen to 972!
You can also get some data on average payouts here - just in casehttp://danger.mongabay.com/kidnapping_stats.htm you need to update your KRE insurance.
Confucius say "Subcutaneous chip better than laundry tag. Chinese steam iron very hot!"
Fascism trolls keeping me up every night. When I starts a preachin', he HITS ME WITH HIS REICH!
Images of Fat Bastard
The USA, need to track those 'kidnappees' in case they 'sneak' over the Mexico-US border!!
I wish people would stop being so afraid of everything
Fine., the police find you and the criminals, but how much will the police demand of the ransom money not to take you hostage again ?
When the thumbnail image of the thumbnail image loaded on the front page, I thought it was an object being inserted into someone's pee-hole. I'm not going to be able to unthink that (and now, dear reader, neither are you), so I'm going to have to hide Idle stories from the front page...
so... as well as the inmplanted chip the abductee also has to carry a separate GPS transmitter? In which case I'm not seeing the point of the implant...
i'm going to use a jammer when kidnapping
Maybe its because of my background in nursing, but, um, the lower finger in the picture didn't look like a finger to me on first glance...
I'd say what it did look like, but I don't know what the slashdot filters are like. Lets just say I had to remove a soup spoon handle from one once during a shift on casualty and leave it at that.
A learning experience is one of those things that say, 'You know that thing you just did? Don't do that.' - D. Adams
Mostly a dysfunctional and corrupt Government. But why do the people allow it to stay in power?
That's because the rich folks like it that way. Mexico has a HUGE disparity between rich and poor (we're getting there ourselves) and one of the reasons is because the rich are rich and they want to stay that way.
What will change it? A revolution. It may not have to be bloody, but a huge shake up. Maybe, they can get away with a small one like we had in the 1930s. But, Mexico will need their own Roosevelt. Now, I know there's some criticism about him and how his policies didn't necessarily do anything. But that's not the point. The point is folks perceived a change. The thought that finally, there needs were being addressed.
I'd rather have to give half my wealth away then have all of it taken away. -- Joseph P. Kennedy.
No, I don't think WWII bailed us out. But that's another post.
What, you don't believe in the "free market"?
you had me at #!
But what's the point of having a chip implanted when an external device is still required?
Straight out of the Cyberpunk 2020 rulebook? What they really need to chip those afraid of kidnapping is 7 levels of unarmed combat and a few of evasion...
46. The Hobo smiles, his eyes glaze over, and he burps. "Beware the man who has lived longer than the Wasteland."
Or, they might pull a "The Recruit" and attach the tracker to a dog (or, ewwww, stick it in the dog's ass). Finding THAT dog might be easy withOUT the tracker... just look for a crab-walking dog (no, I don't have experience in such matters, but I have a vivid imagination...)
Maybe it's better to put a "kill switch" into the tracker so the kidnapped can "suicide" if not rescued in under 10 hours. This switch could be a non-metallic, subcutaneous toxic strip they have to tap (3 times?) or pinch. Even if the family never ever gets the body, at least the kidnapped can end things on their own terms (unless bound and strapped to deny activating the pressure strip...)
Hell. If that level of lawlessness persists, they might end up like on Eminiar VII in Star Trek's "A Taste of Armageddon"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_booth
But, i am sure they will disintegrate happily if Kirk is not there doing his inflections and intonations and such...
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
In other news, market for thinfoil clothing is exploding in Mexico...
Just modify a shoulder launched missile to home in on the beacon.
You have 2 hours to send the money or we blow up one of your chipped family members.
Remember radio range is just a function of gain at my end. I get a big dish in the back of a fiberglass van get the initial target and range.
Fire the missile, it picks up the close in beacon at 100'.
Boom.
A person concerned the right target was engaged would want eyeballs on the target to confirm the tracking at some point reasonably close to launch time.
Really, it's the result of the War on Drugs.
It would be so much harder to manipulate elections. Then people would be able to think about actual issues instead of electing the Repub^W guy who promises to magically get rid of all the bad people.
Anyway, Americans only need to turn off the TV, and shun Hollywood: That's where crime and violence 24 hours a day (whether news or fiction) is designed to keep you all in a continuous state of fear. And it's working beautifully. In America (and its satellite states), strangers are terrified of each other. That's not true of many other countries and cultures, and we can blame Rupert Murdoch for the global infantilisation and tabloid-isation of media that could be used for intelligent and progressive purposes.
you had me at #!
No need to dig out the chip or smash the extra "device", just scramble the frequencies it relies on.
What exactly is the point of the implant in this system? Isn't the GPS device doing all the work? Sounds like just another excuse to put chips in people. Why don't we wait for a success story, like maybe 1 single victim located by the device.
No. It is the result of impunity and corrpution of the police.
These thugs are not humble, starving individuals trying to feed their families. They are well organized criminal bands, with links to corrupt current (or ex) cops, who know that given the inefficient and corrupt justice system that prevails, know they can and will get away with it.
Google for the Fernando Marti kidnapping and murder to get a glimpse of what's currently happening down here in Mexico.
A note from here in Mexico:
I had a student once tell me she doesn't want to go to the US because, as you know, there are hundreds of nutcase students with guns who kill classmates at random.
Kidnapping is the Mexican version of the same thing. It happens, at most, extremely rarely. You are far more likely, for example, to get hit by a car crossing the street or to die in an auto accident than to be kidnapped. However, it's the kind of news that makes for great headlines.
What doesn't make for great headlines is the fact that between 2002 and 2006, the Mexican government was able to reduce kidnappings and dismantle a lot of kidnapping rings. They went up again in 2007 and the beginning of 2008, but a recent high-profile case where a 14-year-old kid was murdered has raised outrage again, so I'm pretty sure kidnapping rates will go down again.
However, if you Americans (yes, I know, Slashdot is international) want to be afraid to go to Mexico because of the kidnappings, please stay out. The girls here love Americans, and I spent some time with a pretty girl 18 years younger than myself earlier this week, and will have coffee with a pretty girl 14 years younger than myself tomorrow.
This is on Idle (our offtopic humor/meme/viral video/pictures section) because:
- Once abducted, you have plenty of 'idle' time. (clever joke)
- Slashdot editors think abductions are funny when they happen to Mexicans. (Schadenfreude)
Friends ... I sell you a rich Mexican detector ... itsa wery nize ... you pointa da ding to Mexican ... if rice in blood ... itsa rich Mexican ... you kidnap ...
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
It is neither the War on Drugs nor "class inequality". While I think the War on Drugs is mostly retarded, it's not as though if that were to stop tomorrow kidnapping would stop with it. There's no correlation at all. And as for class inequality, please. That exists everywhere on earth, and the wealthiest people sure as hell don't live in Mexico.
I support the Slashcott and will not be reading or commenting from 2/10/14 to 2/17/14. Beta is steaming pile of dog shit
...why don't they use their wealth to move to a safer country?
I hate being bipolar; it's awesome!
Why stop with just the wealthy, I think the US should start a program that donates transmitters to all Mexicans, even illegal immigrants as they're caught crossing the border.
Wanna fight ? Bend over, stick your head up your ass, and fight for air.
Good news everyone. It's a supository!
13% sales growth, with 2000 customers so far! At that rate, everyone in Mexico will have one in about 100 years.
Why would that even work... once the kidnapper sees the "larger device" they are sure to throw it away... Once you are a foot or so away the RFID would be out of range and then the best they could do is find the "larger device"... which is not you... Why not just buy a cell phone and call someone when you get kidnapped, it would be just as conspicuous.
I won't call you crazy. People who don't feel secure (and if you're a middle-to-upper-class person in Mexico, you have much reason to feel insecure!) are easily taken in by gimmicks like this.
Even if the GPS thing were built into the chip, what good would it do? The first thing kidnappers would do would be to dig it out.
Well, if you can alert people as the kidnapping is taking place, it certainly serves at least for one purpouse.
You don't need to wait for a call to know a relative has been kidnaped. and you can take action sooner.
errera hunamum ets
and after I read your comment, you signature crossed my mind as "My inner cavity..."
I don't have a dime(peso) to my name.
What?
Mexico has among the highest income inequality in the world. I'd argue that income inequality is pretty tightly correlated with class inequality (large factor).
Combine that with corruption and the US's `economic' policies toward Mexico and I think there's a good argument for class inequality being a big part of the issue.
Now we know what Goatse is. That guy's a billionaire that just wants to insert the device.
Er, well, not quite true. According to this list the second wealthiest person in the world lives in Mexico. So does the person ranked 87th in the world.
Poverty does not cause crime. Crime causes poverty!
Do not think that most poor Buddhist subsistence farmers are criminal class.
Great!! Now we will know if they decide to cross any border illegally.
NO! NO! Please don't mod me, I'm too young to die a troll. *click* Oh the pain, the pain...
Never heard of Carlos Slim have you, second richest person on earth and lives in Mexico.
Travelled much?
you had me at #!
Technology won't be the solution if you do not solve the fundamental problem which is the wedge between haves and have-nots.
That wedge can be calculated by Gini Coefficient (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gini_coefficient), which is basically a number between 0 and 1.
If it is 0 then everyone in the population has equal amount of everything and if it is 1 then one person has everything, rest have nothing.
This image (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Gini_Coefficient_World_Human_Development_Report_2007-2008.png) shows the index for various countries.
When the value reaches closes to 50, then you will see all these kidnappings and gated communities for rich.
Brazil has the highest value among developing countries and surprise..surprise...it has the highest kidnappings (http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=health&res=9A01E5DE1F3CF930A25751C0A9649C8B63).
US's gini indices (from Wiki) over the last 40 years are
1967: 39.7
1968: 38.6
1970: 39.4
1980: 40.3
1990: 42.8
2000: 46.2
2005: 46.9
2006: 47.0
Buckle up ladies & gentlemen...kidnapping culture is not far away from us.
Yeah, you're right. I'll wait for the "Hollywood" version of this technology where the constraints of physics, etc. are swiftly banished by handwavium, ignorefactium and the ever popular technologyisjustmagicium.
I'm not quite sure a stud finder is going to do the job here... even one that detects by sensing the ferrous nails. Do RFID chips set of metal detectors in airports?
It's a pity this is featured in what is supposed to be the "funny" section of Slashdot, although "funny" is probably stretching it a bit to begin with.
I lived in Mexico City for four years. I went to college there. Kidnapping is not a joke there, and if it was bad back then, I can only imagine how bad it is now. In all honesty, fuck Slashdot for putting this up. Getting the body parts of your relatives in the mail (or finding your child murdered in the trunk of a car) is not funny.
BTW, the posting on this section is completely fucking broken.
Web2.0: I love when people Flickr my cuil and digg my boingboing until my google is reddit and I start to yahoo
If you look on the same page, it shows a graph of Mexico's GINI Coefficient slowly going down, yet the number of kidnapping crimes in Mexico have been going up.
Hmm... instead of Mexico's kidnapping crimes being related to some mystical number, perhaps the reason why Mexico's crime level has to do with government corruption?
bah, the flintstones had that technology thousands of years ago.
So it's pretty likely that if you get "Chipped" you will show up on the bad guy's radar and you'll get kidnapped since they know exactly where to find you. They also know which body part to return to your family as proof that they have you.
Si officer, that is Raoul's chip in his big toe in that box you have.
Once I was a four stone apology. Now I am two separate gorillas.
This is a serious problem in Mexico and in lots of Latin America, i dont know if this solution is any good, but some sort of technological solution will need to be found. The political problem won't be solved any time soon as much of this is related to US drug prohibition. Last week, in a single day there were 22 kidnappings in northern mexico. Part of the problem is that drug gangs are looking for new business and kidnapping is very lucrative, and they have the help of corrupt police.
He was an early beta tester of the program. The size of the device has been reduced to slightly under half so as to cause much less discomfort.
Paying taxes to buy civilization is like paying a hooker to buy love.
http://www.paradiso.com/
They're just handing them out. No wonder the sales figures have gone up.
"Kill 'em all and let Root sort 'em out"
I think the real flaw is that I'm not a cat...
I think the story is wrong. This company, "Xega" (website, in Spanish) seems to be offering two different products. One is the "Verichip", which seems to be a subcutaneous RFID chip intended for identification. Like for (very paranoid) access control, or medical emergencies.
The other product is called "VIP" and seems to be a GPS + GPRS device. You press a button on that thing and it transmits your current position to some server.
I see no indication that both gadgets are related in any way. Well, the website is all fluff, so I can't really say, but I think the story is mixing them up.
Still, that "VIP" thing does strike me as rather useless, since the first thing a kidnapper does is point a gun at you and make sure you stay still, with your hands in view. And the second thing is emptying your pockets.
And yes, I live in Mexico, and I've been kidnapped... well, just a couple hours, while I was being mugged. See I got off from work around midnight, hailed a cab in the street and boarded it. The driver took off, I even chatted with that fucker. But once we were in a dark-ish, lonely street, he suddendly stopped the car, pointed a gun at me, and two men from another car that was following us quickly got into the cab. One of them pressed a knife against my stomach and ordered me to "act naturally". They took me for the "ATM ride" (cash withdrawals from different ATM machines all over town, until all the cards were dry). They also got the cash I was carrying on me, of course, as well as my laptop (powerbook 5300... shit, I miss that ugly brick). They gave me back my wallet with my IDs, and some papers from work I asked them to take out of the laptop case. They dropped me off at a Metro station.
This was back in '97 I think, in Mexico City. A month later I was living in Guadalajara, and haven't had any such experiences since.
will ALWAYS be worse in Mexico ... than you thought.
Wow. Two people. They managed to beat out Ukraine. I am shocked that my point is so soundly disproved.
I support the Slashcott and will not be reading or commenting from 2/10/14 to 2/17/14. Beta is steaming pile of dog shit
You could have gone from that list to the statistcs of multi-millionaires that just lists how many thousand are in each country. There are quite a few in Mexico. You could have also imagined that that one man and his family are a richer target than the entire rest of Mexico combined. Maybe they've been trying to abduct one of them all this time, and haven't gotten the right one yet?
The next step is to make implants mandatory.
Nationmaster is a dangerous petard, here's the hoist for you. You'll not that the US with the greatest imbalance has less crime than Sweden with the greatest balance. By statistical standards there is very little correlation between crime and wealth distribution. Kidnapping doesn't seem to be well tracked by various sources I've looked at, so it's hard to say about that specifically.
I support the Slashcott and will not be reading or commenting from 2/10/14 to 2/17/14. Beta is steaming pile of dog shit
McCain/Palin '08. Now THAT's hope and change!
I call number 666!!
WOOHOO, I got it! Now bow to me, the temporary leader of the world!
If you can read this... 01110101 01110010 00100000 01100001 00100000 01100111 01100101 01100101 01101011
The point of the implant is that if you ever end up X feet away from the gps transmitter, it goes off. I also imagine it's failsafe in that it transmits normally every few minutes. A missed transmission is the same an an alarm.
Not really useful except as an instant alarm.
I've tagged this story with ehnotbadiguess. Do more stories like these and maybe I won't totally hate idle. Though I think this is probably placed better in YRO or tech
If you can read this... 01110101 01110010 00100000 01100001 00100000 01100111 01100101 01100101 01101011
Discomfort?! Sounds more like a fun filled Saturday night to me!
WWJD.... for a Klondike bar?
Kidnapping for profit now will be easy
1) Look for Rich person who is spotted by carrying "The Device"
2) Stuff person into Faraday Sack - cloth bag with metal fibers woven into it
3) Collect ransom money = Profit
See - no magic needed
..........FULL STOP.
1) Wealthy Mexicans get chipped to either foil kidnappers or buy latest trendy toy.
2) Wealthy Mexicans get cancer from chips
(RFID chips cause cancer, http://www.theinquirer.net/en/inquirer/news/2007/09/11/rfid-chips-cause-cancer )
3) Wealthy Mexicans die, allowing the Mexican Gov't to tax estates of now deceased wealthy Mexicans
4) Government Profit!
-----
So... when do we get to chip the whole damn Walmart/Walton family?
The LA Times ran an artice on Why Mexican business directors, doctors, and other professionals
Under pressure from the federal crackdown, some gangs appear to be ratcheting up kidnapping and extortion to make up for shrinking drug profits.
There is no question that kidnappings in Mexico are soaring, particularly in trafficking hot spots along the U.S. border, where criminals have found easy targets among business owners, doctors and other professionals who have prospered in the region.
Last year, 438 Mexicans were reportedly abducted, according to official government statistics. That's a 34% increase over 2006. But it's believed to be just a fraction of the true number.
MEXICO CITY -- When their 14-year-old son was snatched off the street by armed men in early June, the Marti family reportedly did what many wealthy Mexicans do in such a crisis.
It was not to be. Fernando Marti's decomposed, bullet-riddled body was found Friday in the trunk of a stolen Chevy that had been abandoned in a working-class Mexico City neighborhood. For many, Monday's news was equally bad: Authorities said they had arrested at least one city police commander in connection with the crime, and that other cops might be involved.
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
Interestingly, Mexico's Gini coefficient has been getting better.
Every post I make begins with the assumption P=~P.
etc. are swiftly banished by handwavium, ignorefactium and the ever popular technologyisjustmagicium.
Well if they are banished I shall simply reinstate them with some Robobium, Diamondium and a Chronoton or two.
On the Oregon Cost born and raised, On the beach is where I spent most of my days
Do RFID chips set of metal detectors in airports?
Yes, I have troubles flying ever since I was implanted by anal probe.
"Things must be a lot worse in Mexico than I thought."
Yeah, I am surprised to hear there are rich people in Mexico.
in soviet mexico, lower class chips upper class!
It was predicted 10 years ago by the conspiracy nuts that these chips woudl make their way into humans. Shortly after, the chips being discussed started to be implanted in animals and now humans. Of course they are just mexicans so it hasn't made its way into real people in the first world yet but that is just around the corner. The mark of the beast has come. ;) First tracking (for YOUR safety), next they start encoding emergency health information on it. After all, who wouldn't want doctor house to know they are allergic to penicillin. Next they move the monetary system to the chip.
Except gangs who kidnap people aren't poor victims of social inequality (you should be looking at muggings and such)
Yeah. Would you choose a neurosurgeon who pokes around people's brains in his spare time? I wouldn't.
This guy has a GPS in his pocket, perhaps we should get rid of it. Seems more like an inconvenience to the kidnappers no real security. If the chipped person has to have a "real" device with them to receive the short distance transmissions and send them off somewhere it might as well be just the bigger device.
Not that the system is foolproof, but nobody in their right mind trusts the cops in Mexico to do anything except collect their paychecks. Like in many sketchy countries, if you have the money to afford a private security contractor, they tend to work out alright because unlike the cops, who get their non-illicit income from taxes, the security companies need to keep having customers.
Of course, there is plenty that can go wrong with this, but as long as the monitoring and response is controlled by a reputable company, it won't hurt to try.
Wealthy Mexicans need to carry a device in addition to being chipped?
Okay this just doesn't make sense - there are wealthy Mexicans?!?
or else!
My point was more that Mexico has a large per capita number of conspicuously wealthy people. Good point well taken, though.
This is ridiculous. People ought to be taught self-defense and even given some tool for self-protection, like a knife. Though, I don't know the statistics for the kidnappings; I'm unsure what to do for an infant, but injecting this device into them seems a bit drastic. Maybe there's a better way to remedy the situation altogether since this happens so often.
Since you say "I live in Mexico" I assume you are an expat. I'd like to know what exactly is the attraction of living in that country, assuming you do not work for a corporation that requires your presence there? Relatively inexpensive luxury homes? Cheap sex? I have traveled to Mexico and unless one has the desire to isolate themselves in a walled-off gated community of other expats, I can't see the attraction. Once you get beyond the faux friendliness of the population that they put on when they see you as a possible consumer, the Gringo-hatred runs hard and deep. Are whatever the other advantages are really worth it?
Wealthy Mexican? Is that like Military Intelligence?
I didn't mean to post as an AC - I did not notice that I wasn't logged in.
Kidnappings have become a way of life in Haiti where gangs use the tactic as their primary means of fund raising. If this technology is real, many people in Haiti would make use of it. It's an unfortunate state of the country that such a worry would become the way of life.
... A chip on one's shoulder !
But it won't work unless they supply (for a feee, of course) personal 'spoofers' to clients with spouses and 'added obligations'. Suits you, Sir!
When I was living in Philadelphia, last summer, this happened to multiple victims for a few weeks. They even had a description of the perps, but I never heard any news of them getting caught.
Anyway, glad you made it out alive. I would freak out if that happened.
Heh, no, I was actually born here, and I love living in Mexico. Yeah, that tale about the mugging probably gives off a different impression, but considering it's pretty much the only time I've been mugged in almost 40 years, I think that's not a bad record. In fact, I think Guadalajara is a remarkably nice place to live, though I don't think I can explain the "attraction". I could hardly be objective about it anyway.
I've got American and British friends who live here (as you may know, there's a big expat community in Guadalajara, and in Ajijic near lake Chapala). I've never asked them about this, but I will now. What I can tell you now is, I don't think there's any particular objective advantage. I mean, neither luxury homes nor sex are cheap (I assume you meant good looking hookers there). Beer probably is, though, heh. Look, I'm not really up to date on the cost of living in the States. I guess Mexico may be a bit cheaper, but I'm sure it's not much cheaper.
I also don't think there are serious disadvantages: we've got all the utilities and public services you're used to in the US, from highways to sanitation to very decent health care. You'll find all the amenities too, say shops, restaurants, entertainment... in fact, most are the same chains and brands, only a bit cheaper perhaps. And of course we've got broadband everywhere, which is probably the most important thing for /. people.
So I guess it boils down to personal taste. Some people just like it. Maybe it's the locations, or the weather, or the slower pace. Perhaps healthier and tastier food? You know, we're famous for that shit. Or meeting friendly people with an interesting culture. Who knows?
Oh, and about that last item: there certainly are gringo haters. From your experience, it seems that's the kind of people you've been meeting here. I'm sorry 'bout that, fwiw. There's also gringo lovers, that goddamn malinchista pricks, I find them really annoying, haha. But I've got to say, I'm convinced that most of the population is just sensible people no worse or better than in the US or elsewhere, and you can probably make good friends if you give them (and yourself) a chance.
Say, if you ever find yourself stranded in Guadalajara, bored enough to overcome the natural distrust, drop me an email, I'll take you to a couple cantinas, and perhaps the lucha libre. And if you really behave yourself I may introduce you to some ladies. Maybe then you'll get the "vibe" or whatever it is. Or maybe you won't, but you'll probably have a laugh anyway. And no, I won't give you any shit about dumb gringo chumps, but I won't take any shit about smelly beaners either.
Cheers.
Thanks dude. It was pretty freaky indeed. I somehow kept my cool during the whole thing, I think I even cracked a joke at some point... maybe that's why they gave me back my paperwork and stuff. But after I got home, I did freak out, bad. To the point of deciding to quit my job and move to another city, right then and there heh.
Where the heck did you visit or live in Mexico? I'm an American and lived there for 10 years and noticed none of what you're talking about. Sure, no-one likes Mexico City. Not even most Mexicans. But I lived in Mexico (not Mexico City) for 10 years and I was never treated anything but superbly. Faux friendliness? Nonsense! They're an exceptionally friendly people. Unless you're an *sshole, but then people aren't friendly to *ssholes in the U.S., either.
Why live in Mexico? Why not? There's a world outside the U.S. and it's worth exploring. I'm back in the U.S. now and I do appreciate the U.S. more now than ever, but about the only reason not to live in Mexico right now is security.
Oh, you're chipped? *meat cleaver*
No, actually it's the result of corruption. You can make the argument that the class inequality leads to the corruption, but that would be a very weak argument.
Now I know who to kidnap!!!
The equipment costs me all of $149!
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!
Now I can get the Mexican government to give ME kickbacks!
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!
I'm from the US and now live in Sweden, and I have a very hard time believing that the crime rate here is higher, given that the US murder rate in the US is more than double that of Sweden.
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
Someone else mentioned this above, but I thought I'd make the point more prominent.
There is no way in Hell that a satellite can track an implantable "chip". They are lucky if they can detect them from a block away with equipment that barely fits in a pickup truck!
You are also racist if you don't vote for Obama
Let us ignore the fact that he is incredibly inexperienced, inconsistent, and is running as a tire-pump Jesus.
This just in, All Crime is a superset of Murder. Do you need a Venn diagram? So Sweden probably has more property crime or something, even disregarding the theft perpetrated by taxes. Besides which, we were talking about correlations of wealth distribution and crime, not breakdowns and comparisons of crime types.
I support the Slashcott and will not be reading or commenting from 2/10/14 to 2/17/14. Beta is steaming pile of dog shit
GIZMO: It'll work. Come on, do it or Hacksaw will.
NEO: Do what?
The instant he hears the word, he knows.
TRINITY: Clear.
NEO: Oh, shit --
The chip can work both ways, depends on who is looking for you!
Is this the reason why you need a skull gun?
You put a kickass powertrain under the crappy Corolla exterior and line the exterior shell with kevlar. Just cause it looks wimpy and crappy doesn't mean it has to BE wimpy and crappy.
"You can't buy or sell without the mark"...coming to a chipping office near you.
Big war involving East attacking the west? you bet.
Ok. So now all I have to do is scan the crowd to see which rich bastard will give the best ROI on an abduction. A side effect of being wealthy is that they are often usually healthier than the masses and even if they can't provide a good ransom, they can give better prices when sold for parts.
Now that they are electronically tagged for my shopping convenience and cross-referenced with financial databases, there is a lot less shot-in-the-dark guessing.
Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.
http://annexmexico.org/
lick the cancle button (at least thats what our Chinese QA says)
No need to even decode communications from the RFID implant - holding up a crowd at gunpoint, would-be hijackers may just have to detect the carrier frequency emanating from a person (with a device that even high-school students could build), and "abduct only the chipped" for maximum ransom.
Moreover, their victims will be unfortunate enough to undergo removal procedures that are reported to be "one ugly mess" (didn't look up the original quote, IIRC it was by CASPIAN's Katherine Albrecht) even with the benefit of optimal surgical attention, which they are unlikely to receive - to the contrary, kidnappers on the run may consider it reasonable to quickly sacrifice "part of" their prey, making the "fear for life and limb" quite literal, with emphasis on the latter, while putting the abducted in a condition that will leave little time for negotiations.
There's also gringo lovers, that goddamn malinchista pricks, I find them really annoying, haha.
I grew up in Mexico, and I always thought it was funny that my friend's dad would get 2 veintes of Pacifico shitfaced and start talking about how badass gringos were.
"'uta...Pinches gringos... son...bien cabrones los pinches gringos"
Please stop stalking me, bro.
What the hell is the big deal? This is actually an interesting story. If you don't like it, then turn Idle off in your preferences. "Problem" solved, you fucking whiner.
"NOOOOOOO! NOT CHANGE! I HATE CHANGE! IT OFFENDS MY ASPIE NEED FOR ORDER AND REPETITION!"
Jesus.
+++ATH0
Shouldn't they use nachos ?
has been happening for two decades and nobody does more than give it press attention every once in a while, this marti case will be over in a couple of months and the ransom rate will be similar to its number now an 5 years ago
Any attempt at correlation between crime and anything else certainly does depend on what's included in the definition of "crime". I'm glad you also noticed that the fact that the US murder rate is more than twice that in Sweden does imply that there's something else included under "crime" to offset that, and there is certainly no reason to belittle me because I expressed interest in what that might be. (And my comment was no more off-topic than the parent.)
Since you couldn't be bothered, I did a bit of research and it turns out that Sweden has quite a high rate of assaults. I find this a bit surprising, because it doesn't seem that violent here to me, but I've only lived here for a little over a year, so it's quite possible I'm missing something.
This report, while slightly dated, might also be of interest.
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
Most expats find that the friendliness is not faux. Friendliness to strangers is instilled in you when you grow up in Mexico. It is basic good manners and is basic politeness instilled even in the humblest of families. "Bienvenido a su humilde casa" (welcome to this your humble home) is a polite form of welcoming signalling that you will be looked after. It is a cultural thing that many USians and other foreigners fail to understand miserably.
Rich people who seem showy will be a blanks for rip-offs everywhere. I personally have been the target of people trying to pull a fast one on me in places as diverse as Namibia (by both white and black scammers), Vietnam, Thailand, France or the UK (and needless to say Mexico itself).
Such things happen when you are visibly different. Deal with it.
As for all expats in Mexico living in gated communities, well, it just comes to show how little you know about Mexico. I have visited all of Mexico (all the 32 capital cities of all the states, plus many other innumerable towns and villages) and I can say with authority that expats not all live in gated communities. Not even in Mexico City. Very paranoid people do, but many other live like any other middle class people with the same apprehensions and joys.
Honestly, to think that most expats are in Mexico only looking for hookers reflects on you rather than in the reality of the situation at hand.
Most expats find the people friendly and welcoming, the climate benign, life not so hectic, the food delicious. Yes, there are serious problems, but even conceding that 1 person kidnapped a day is really bad, that still means more than 100000000 do not experience such problems and carry with their life undisturbed.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
Bar weapons reserved for the military, you can have guns for your personal protection.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
We need to assume our political responsibility individually.
One messianic apparition will not solve the problems of the country, only the daily grind of ungrateful political work will eventually bear fruit.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.