How to NOT Win Friends
Maybe it’s because we’ve been banging on the keyboard since before the sun came up, but we’re getting a little grumpy with cheap-shot artists who recently have been so quick to wrongly accuse Latitude of managing the news for the sake of money. Profits before sailors, as it were.
A couple of days ago, for example, we got an email from a fellow we’ll not name who asked for a Baja Ha-Ha refund because, for various reasons, he and his boat wouldn’t be ready in time for the event. As compensation for our lifting the Ha-Ha’s clearly stated ‘no refund’ policy, he offered to write a "pulse-quickening, rabble-rousing" story about violence in Mexico.
Mind you, this was coming from a guy who says he happily and safely spends about eight months a year in Mexico, and plans to remain in Mexico at the end of his circumnavigation. This gentleman has obviously never read Dale Carnegie’s book How to Win Friends and Influence People, otherwise why in the world would he think we’d want yet another sensationalized article on crime in Mexico, one that would continue to foster the mistaken belief that one is more likely to die from gun violence on the Pacific Coast of Mexico than in California?
So we responded as follows: "Without ‘rabble rousing,’ can you please give us a succinct version of what you see as the ‘truth’ about personal safety in Mexico? It seems to me that we’re saying the exact same thing. Sure, you can be an innocent victim in Mexico, but chances are you won’t. In fact, there’s less of a chance you’ll be an innocent victim in Mexico than in California. Right? I know that I wouldn’t spend months in Mexico if I didn’t feel that way, and I don’t think you’d spend eight months a year there if you didn’t feel that way, too. What am I missing?"
Having offered to write a rabble-rousing article about violence in Mexico, the gentleman began his response by contradicting himself. "I am not even suggesting that you rabble rouse. I am simply suggesting that, if nothing else, you remind Ha-Ha participants at your briefing to not adventuriously wander off to some place, no more than they would wander off to some parts of Oakland, or for that matter parts of South Auckland. It would only take one Ha-Ha participant to be killed to have your annual cruising regatta sunk. If you chose not to share the relevant information with your entire readership — and I would understand your reluctance to do so, as you don’t want to tarnish the ‘good time’ image — perhaps it would be worthwhile mentioning the relevant statistics, in a casual way."
Well, bless him for assuming we’d not give such a warning and/or that we’d be willing to jeopardize the safety of 600 people just to make a few bucks. But if he’d "understand" our being reluctant to share the truth about personal safety, his moral compass wasn’t made by the same person who made ours. And thanks, dear fellow, for noticing that you’re saying exactly what we’ve been saying over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. In fact, this one’s just for you: ‘While we feel very safe in Mexico, safer than in California, use common sense by avoiding sketchy areas, don’t flash wealth, and don’t do drugs. There’s still a chance you’ll get killed, but not nearly as great a chance as if you were back in California.’
If he needs to hear it again, it’s in the November 1 Cruise Notes, too. Perhaps the most revealing thing of all was the individual’s explanation of why he gave his email the inflammatory title: ‘Report The Whole Truth, Mate,’ — implying, of course, that we were withholding some of the truth. "The ‘Report the Whole Truth, Mate!’ the subject line? It was simply used to gain your attention. LOL."
LOL indeed. In fact, hilarious. Perhaps a couple of more mandatory readings of How to Win Friends and Influence People are in order.
Then, at 3 a.m. this morning, we got a sweet email from another gentleman who sarcastically wrote, "Still no pirates in Costa Rican waters? Still putting commercial interests before protecting cruisers? Check out the latest pirate attack at www.insidecostarica.
Then, to rub it in, he writes, "Oh, I forgot, you don’t like your journalistic negligence to show."
But son of a gun, it wasn’t but half an hour later that we got a second email from Mr. Egg-All-Over-His-Face-Shirt-Pants-and-Topsiders: "A bite of crow is in order. Latitude did report the Costa Rica pirate attack. Amazing. Maybe an earlier warning would have been in order, but you’re right to cover the pirate attack. Let’s hope there are no more."
‘Amazing’?! What the hell is so amazing about it? We relentlessly report on every attack on cruisers we hear about, from Thailand to Turkey. A ‘warning’?! Let’s see, we’ve been covering thefts and attacks on cruisers in Costa Rica since 1977, so how the hell much earlier would he have liked us to print a ‘warning’?
As we’ve written many times before, Costa Rica is a place that likes to portray itself as some kind of democratic eco-paradise, when that’s not always the case. Theft has long been rampant in parts of Costa Rica, both from on boats and when cruisers travel on buses and such. It’s always blamed on Colombians, which may or may not be true. While we don’t have statistics to back it up, our sense has always been that theft from cruisers is a worse per-capita problem in Costa Rica than it is in Mexico. Not in every spot, but overall. It’s also been our sense that there have been more violent attacks on Americans, on boats and ashore, in Costa Rica than Mexico. Not that there have been more than a couple in either place.
(By the way, the cruisers who were attacked, Bruce Stevens and Clark Nicholson of the Dana Point-based Gulfstar 50 Two Amigos, report that they’re heading to Panama to replace the stuff that was stolen and to effect other repairs, then they’re off to the South Pacific next year.)
The reply we would have liked to have received from the guy who found it "amazing" that we reported an attack on cruisers, is something along the lines of, "By the way, I’m sorry for being such a numbskull, and for assuming that Latitude would withhold important safety information to protect profits. I could have been much nicer and more helpful by writing, ‘I know Latitude has the whole world to cover with a very small staff, so I just wanted to make sure that you heard about the attack on some cruisers in Costa Rica. Here’s a link so you can get more information.’ And now that I take a second to think about it, I realize that Latitude has never shied away from writing stories that would, on the surface at least, be negative toward sailing and therefore negative toward Latitude‘s financial interests. In fact, I can’t remember a case of a boat sinking, boat on reef, person lost overboard, cruiser attack that Latitude should have known about but didn’t write about.
Our Latitude tip for the day to these kinds of people: Always start out by assuming the best about someone or some organization instead of projecting your own shortcomings.
And last but not least, we’d like to remind everyone that when it comes to cruising in Mexico, we’re not just talking the talk, we’re walking the walk. We’ve been sailing in Mexican waters for 33 years, we’ve sailed our own boats to Mexico more than 20 times, and we spend several months a year on our boat in Mexico. It doesn’t mean we’ll necessarily be immune to theft or violence, but our actions should speak louder than words that we have felt, and continue to feel, safer in Mexico than in much of California. But if that were to change, we’d let you know right away.