A Squirrel in Every Pot

The midterm elections are coming up here, and last week marked the official kickoff to the tightly-regulated election season (Mexicans, for some crazy reason, don't think campaigns should last for two years). In Querétaro, though the ruling PAN party manages to campaign year-round by running ads in all the papers, tv and radio touting the government's (i.e., PAN's) accomplishments, under the heading "Querétaro Does Great Things!" Anyway, you start to get a sense of how different this place is when you see this ad, featuring a stooped old man feeding chickens from a bucket while his wife sets about slaughtering a rodent Pets or Meat-style and you realize, rather than being a stinging indictment of the incumbent government, it's actually a positive ad promising three more years of the same.

"Great Works for Better Living!" it says. Alrighty, then...