I just learned that during the last, large, 7.1, earthquake here in México City, almost 4 kilometers of buildings, including the Liverpool mall I have shown you, were demolished as a result. Just on one street alone. It did not remain so very long, however.
Liverpool was rebuilt within the year, as were many of the other buildings, but under much stricter standards. If you remember the photo showing the “bridge”, in the middle of the mall, (it was one of several in the mall), they all collapsed, on top of the shoppers, injuring and killing many, many people.
Throughout much of the city, where the damage was worse, however, there are hundreds of buildings, still under reconstruction. Evidently, much of the money that the US said they were sending, as a relief effort, that was “supposed” to be allocated for the purpose of rebuilding the city, was “confiscated “, so I am told. No one is one hundred percent sure where it has gone, but, gone it is.
There are several suppositions, however- 1) (this is the most popular thought) – that the US government never actually sent the money, 2) the money was sent to México, but got misdirected after its issuance, and last, 3) the money was sent somewhere, just not here.
Any explanation is possible- who is going to admit anything? Those companies that have enough of their own money are coming back in spades. Those without are taking much longer for a come back. Many small mom and pop stores are gone forever- or have had to move elsewhere.
Always something to be grateful for when one turns ones head to look a different way.