theft at El Rastro

this morning I got off at La Latina and ordered a cafe con leche and a slice of cake at a cafe, and sat outside. I hoped that in the time I was eating, someone would call me to meet up and we could wander the market.

At the table next to me a mother started VERY loudly telling her daughter to be calm, repeating "it's replaceable honey, it's ok" although she didn't have a very reassuringly "it's ok" voice. The little girl, maybe 4 or 5 let out a little crying, but her older brother helped her be calm a little bit. The dad showed up and was less calm than anyone. He was pissed. Both parents would speak/yell very loudly to the daughter who's "favorite stuff" was in the stolen purse: "BE QUIET!"

Turned out that while they were sitting at the cafe someone came up to talk to them, and on the other side, their purse on the ground was taken. I overheard (it wasn't hard to overhear) the mom ask the dad if he thought they would drop the purse somewhere. I chimed in and told them it's common for them to leave purses in trashcans (I had heard that).

They eventually calmed down, the mom especially, who when coming back from looking in trash cans, told the whole family that it was all replaceable. The dad said something like "he's a horrible person" and the son said something with the word bitch in it (surprising for an 8 or so year old). The dad told him not to say that, hah.

ANYWAY, the part that struck me was how stereotypical it all was.

1. OF COURSE the young American family was the thief's target.
2. OF COURSE they were very upset, and the little girl wanted her things back.
3. OF COURSE they assert that the thief is a bad person.

It's exactly because it's all replaceable for them that the thief chose them. Yes, it ruined their day, maybe the next day too, but after that they will be fine. For the thief, this is acceptable. He knows they can afford it, and he doesn't care if it ruins their day because most of his days are probably just as miserable.

and so, I thought how interesting it is that people always blame it on the person being deranged or abnormal, when really, it's due to easily explainable circumstances. (I'm not saying I'm FOR stealing from individuals, I'd hate it if my stuff was stolen.) I started to think, "hey, people blame individuals because it's easier to think that it's the one individuals fault. What if we made it easier to blame the circumstances, the system, the situation? wouldn't that lead to some change! maybe people would try to change those systems!"

but then I realized that LOTS of people blame the system for EVERYTHING, to a ridiculous and annoying extent.

And so man, I don't know, why do dumb people have to dumb everything down and distract everyone from the real points. Dumb stuff just is way catchier.


And then I looked down in my coffee and there were two little seeds. I got up to leave, brought my plates/cup inside to put on a counter and pay for, but asked a manager looking guy "que es este?" pointing in my cup, and he wondered, then said "limon seeds" and I said "ok" then got out my wallet: "cuanto cuesta" but he said "no no, lo siento" and I said "gracias" and left without having to pay.

Nice.