Monday, March 12, 2012

Proof That Many Of Us Are Nuts...Part 2

A few days ago I took jabs at American Sanity (or should that be American Insanity?).

Part 1 of this 2 part series discussed Ted Kaczynski’s Personal Belongings Auction. If that did not prove my point, I am ready to take another shot at it.

This craziness is not unique to the good ole USofA but knowing that there are other nuts in the box of candy somehow makes all the nuts feel better.

To set the stage, allow me to fill you in on one Pablo Escobar...

  • Before he was killed in 1993 he was generally accepted as the world’s most notorious criminal.
  • Little Pablo had gotten his criminal start stealing headstones from cemeteries, grinding them down and reselling them. (We all have to start somewhere.)
  • During his life he blew up a civilian airliner.
  • He had also bombed the Columbian government’s Security Ministry.
  • He dabbled in politics by assassinating at least one presidential candidate.
  • He waged an open war on the Columbian government that killed thousands, including dozens of judges and hundreds of policeman.
  • He kidnapped a respected 38 year-old magazine publisher and shot her three times in the back during a commando raid that was trying to rescue her.

Does all of the above sound wild and crazy? Wild and crazy it was but what I am about to tell you is not only wild and crazy but also Bizarre...

Mr. Escobar Is Now A Tourist Attraction

Down in Columbia two companies are vying to run tourists through his life and death. It appears Business Is Booming. Here is the spiel used by one of the Tour Guides as he begins taking his tour group of mostly 20-something backpacking travelers through Pablo’s World...

“We’re going to bring you to the very places where he lived and died, and you will sit on the actual motorcycle Pablo road for his first-ever drug run.

I am sorry to tell you that many of the backpacking tourists mentioned above are from the Good Ole USofA.

This is Medellin’s hottest ticket with hundreds being sold each month. For $30 you can be taken on a 4-hour tour and see and experience the likes of the following...

  • See his grave, of course.
  • See the house where was shot to death by police.
  • See and walk through his home in the hills where lived before his death.
  • Meet his older brother.
  • Don’t forget sitting on his motorcycle.

All of this is described as part of Columbia’s “rich, colorful history”.

Don’t be too hard on the Columbians for trying to make a Peso or two. In England they try and make a Pound or two too.

If you ever get to London, you can take the very popular tour of 20B Baker Street.

Those of us who have enjoyed reading Sherlock Holmes will remember that this is the address where the fictional detective would have lived if he had not been fictional.

Would I kid u?