Shame!
When my mom came to spend a few months in Mexico, one of the many things that provoked a "what is that?" from her was a whiteboard at the gates of the complex where she was staying. If memory serves me, the whiteboard was a list of entries something like this:
It's what I like to call the List of Shame. It lets you and everyone else you know that you have not paid your homeowner's or condo fees and, helpfully, exactly how much you do owe. Except, the thing is that the people who should care the most, the people on the list, seem to possess amazing powers of obliviousness, so to me, it's more like great fodder for nosy neighbors like me. "Really? The people in 1407 haven't paid their condo fees in 12 years? They seemed like such nice people!"
I understand that, in Mexico, it is very difficult to evict people from rented homes and very costly to force people to pay things like condo fees, which would probably involve a lawsuit, i.e. lawyer fees plus Mexican justice system. So, this all explains why it's not all that weird to see people on the List of Shame who owe the equivalent of thousands of dollars. I guess the List of Shame is all there is.
Well, I have seen the "sticker of shame." When it gets really, really bad they might put a huge bumpersticker on your door that says "departamento moroso" — which means "delinquent apartment." Shame, shame! Public shame!
The funny thing (funny weird, not funny ha ha) is that shame seems not to be a very effective tactic in this culture. While having a good reputation and not feeling shame is huge in certain cultures (Middle Eastern or some Asian cultures, for example), that's not the case here. If anything, there's admiration for beating the system.
(Tangential but somewhat related illustration: I had an argument with former neighbors once about a parking space. At one point, I said, "That's not fair. You tricked me." This did not have the desired shaming effect, and Fran later pointed out that this was an altogether wrong approach for me to have taken, since it was probably closer to a compliment to these people than a reproach.)
Anyway, who should find themselves on the List of Shame this month at the ol' homestead but yours truly? Yes, in our first few months of homeowning, we joined the ranks of the morosos, or so it seemed. The truth is, we have been paying our condo fees on time since we moved in. Which brings me to my advice for those in charge of compiling the List of Shame: 1. be really, really certain about your accounting before you add people to the list and 2. maybe even call them. I know that is a pretty radical concept, but maybe it would work better than this passive aggressive listmaking! In this case, the list was accompanied by a letter with varying size fonts touching on the various reasons for which we should feel bad and urging us to respond forthwith, outlining out plans to make payment.
Oh, we responded all right, and everything has been cleared up. But I guess I got a taste of my own nosy medicine! People are probably thinking, "Wow, the new neighbors already owe all that money? They seemed so... nice!" I wanted to demand a public retraction but I don't see that happening. Oh well.
123 Main Street (OK, calle principal 123) - Juan Perez - 1,500An address, a name and a number. A big number. Repeated maybe 5-10 times. Any guesses what this is?
It's what I like to call the List of Shame. It lets you and everyone else you know that you have not paid your homeowner's or condo fees and, helpfully, exactly how much you do owe. Except, the thing is that the people who should care the most, the people on the list, seem to possess amazing powers of obliviousness, so to me, it's more like great fodder for nosy neighbors like me. "Really? The people in 1407 haven't paid their condo fees in 12 years? They seemed like such nice people!"
I understand that, in Mexico, it is very difficult to evict people from rented homes and very costly to force people to pay things like condo fees, which would probably involve a lawsuit, i.e. lawyer fees plus Mexican justice system. So, this all explains why it's not all that weird to see people on the List of Shame who owe the equivalent of thousands of dollars. I guess the List of Shame is all there is.
Well, I have seen the "sticker of shame." When it gets really, really bad they might put a huge bumpersticker on your door that says "departamento moroso" — which means "delinquent apartment." Shame, shame! Public shame!
The funny thing (funny weird, not funny ha ha) is that shame seems not to be a very effective tactic in this culture. While having a good reputation and not feeling shame is huge in certain cultures (Middle Eastern or some Asian cultures, for example), that's not the case here. If anything, there's admiration for beating the system.
(Tangential but somewhat related illustration: I had an argument with former neighbors once about a parking space. At one point, I said, "That's not fair. You tricked me." This did not have the desired shaming effect, and Fran later pointed out that this was an altogether wrong approach for me to have taken, since it was probably closer to a compliment to these people than a reproach.)
Anyway, who should find themselves on the List of Shame this month at the ol' homestead but yours truly? Yes, in our first few months of homeowning, we joined the ranks of the morosos, or so it seemed. The truth is, we have been paying our condo fees on time since we moved in. Which brings me to my advice for those in charge of compiling the List of Shame: 1. be really, really certain about your accounting before you add people to the list and 2. maybe even call them. I know that is a pretty radical concept, but maybe it would work better than this passive aggressive listmaking! In this case, the list was accompanied by a letter with varying size fonts touching on the various reasons for which we should feel bad and urging us to respond forthwith, outlining out plans to make payment.
Oh, we responded all right, and everything has been cleared up. But I guess I got a taste of my own nosy medicine! People are probably thinking, "Wow, the new neighbors already owe all that money? They seemed so... nice!" I wanted to demand a public retraction but I don't see that happening. Oh well.
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