ustxtxb_obs_1994_06_03_50_00010-00000_000.pdf

the people I served with and their attitudes toward the citizenry we were supposed to serve. To be separated from that caustic environment is a breath of fresh air. I can’t say they did me a favor by firing me, because I’m scarred: They’ve taken some of the most productive years that a human being should have. I have had a bleeding ulcer. But from the adversity I have a higher sense of self and character as a result, and I’m going to take it and go on with it. I wouldn’t hesitate to do it again. But I would try to prepare myself with more resources to battle this. I’m totally depleted. I just almost don’t believe that there’s enough good folks out there for me to be able to survive. It’s frightening and threatening even now. foundation that would promote accountability and help people help themselves. This institution I’m thinking about would be a gathering of journalists, investigative reporters, concerned citizens, lawyers and others who have demonstrated a sense of responsibility to help citizens. We’ll help them network their experiences, support their research writings, provide public assistance to whistleblowers and try to help the system heal itself. We’re way beyond putting together the concept and are looking at the funding of it. I look forward to funding and assisting. that organization, and I’ll try to see that it has enough momentum that it stays in motion long past my time on earth. You cannot go out and orchestrate initiative in people, but it can give them some support. I can’t do it by myself but I can take some of my resources and energies and help get it going. There’s going to be some crackpots, so I’ll need people to help me review [the applicants for help], but the objective is to act as a resource for better government. My primary advocacy is going to be good government that’s responsible and accountable to the people. LI LAS AMERICAS New Invasion of Puebla What are you going to do in the future after the judgment is paid? I want to try to resurrect my architecture practice. I have no personal goals beyond being a citizen, leading a good life and helping others see what my experience has been and protect against it happening again. If as a result of my experience there’s no repeat of this horrible experience, I will have tried to slow the rush to oppression that I sense is out there. My past colleagues in state government need an external force to remind them when they deviate from their mission and excellence, so I will serve as long as I’m allowed as a resource and reminder. I’m not going to be anybody’s conscience, but I will remind people, if it’s appropriate, of the right thing to do. I’m committed to using some of the resources from this judgment to do that. So between being normalgoing to ball games, playing golf, going camping, running a businessand being an advocate and participant in the way government is handling itself, I hope it will be a pretty full life. Some have criticized the enormous judgment as ti drain on taxpayers’ money. How do you respond to that? I regret that the people directly responsible can’t be held personally responsible for that bill. But if you look at the multi-billion-dollar budget of DHS, this is a $2 parking ticket, and I’m going to use some of those funds as a resource for oversight of the other billions of dollars that the agency and others are managing. It’s going to be used to best of my ability to make expenditures more effective and equitable and to make government do things it’s supposed to do for its people. What will you do with the money if the judgment stands up? I have a sense of obligation to take some of these dollars awarded to me and pledge them to a new non-profit, public interest BY JOHN ROSS Puebla, Mexico INCO DE MAYO is an historic holiday in the colonial city of Puebla de los Angeles, 70 miles east of the nation’s capital. Near here, on May 5, 1862, ragged Zacapoaxtla Indian troops under the direction of General Ignacio Zaragoza stopped the invading French troops, dispatched by Napoleon II, dead in their tracks. While the French managed to regroup, even crown an emperor, and fight on for five more years, the Battle of Puebla is seen as a turning point in the defense of Mexico’s fledgling sovereignty, and each year is noted in civic ceremonies throughout Puebla and the republic as a symbolically weighted commemoration of this nation’s intractable resistance to foreign intervention. Now Puebla de los Angeles, a churchfilled gem that is Mexico’s fourth largest the gun of what some style as foreign investment and others call foreign intervention. The Angelopolis megaproject, a massive urban redevelopment plan for Puebla, will create jobs, revive the city’s slipping tourist revenues, and end urban sprawl, decay and a chronic lack of services in the old city, claim its boosters, who include President Carlos Salinas, Gov. Manuel Bartlett and the state’s top bankers and industrialists. According to its detractors, the Angelopolis megaproject threatens to uproot whole neighborhoods, sell off the city’s historic center to transnational corpora John Ross is a freelance writer who travels extensively in Mexico. tions, end the authentic “Poblano” way of life, and displace Indian farmers on some of the most ancient cultivated land in the Americas. “Cultural Genocide” is how Agustin Ochoa Calderon, a prominent architect and resident of the threatened Analco barrio calls it. Ochoa Calderon’s Civil Association for the Traditional Ideals of Puebla has been battling the project since the $1 billion development plan was unveiled jointly by President Salinas and Governor Bartlett last July. At the core of Angelopolis is an upscaled downtown whose centerpiece will be a mile-and-a-half-long artificial river, modeled on the award-winning riverwalk that revitalized San Antonio, Texas’ downtown area. Indeed, the San Francisco River component of Angelopolis was first developed_ by Texas-based architects, Dallas’ HKS Corporation. The management consultant group promoting the development , for Governor Bartlett, McKinney & Company, is also a Texas firm and the designer of the “Riverwalk” section, Sasaki Associates, is based in Boston. U.S. involvement in what Ochoa Calderon’s group labels “The Gringo Megaproject.” has led to charges of foreign imposition upon traditional “Poblano” ideals. Puebla’s “Riverwalk” will feature two artificial lakes, a convention center \(to be seven five-star hotelsHoliday Inn and Sheraton have been approached. As in San Antonio, the banks of the re-created San Francisco river will be lined with cafes, galleries and boutiques where visitors can make “interesting purchases,” according to Angelopolis promotional material, avail 10 JUNE 3, 1994