Work toward FreeCalypso handset

[Mychaela Falconia]

Hi David,

Nice to hear that you are still around!

> > and given that I live right next to USA-Mexico border and given
> > my ability to cross this border freely back and forth without being
> > subject to any Covidian cult rituals,
>
> So you live in Eden!

Well, the USA side of the border does not feel very Eden-like, given
that T-Mobile USA are not only itching to shut down their GSM network,
but have already made it impossible for any new subscribers (or anyone
who lost their SIM card and needs a replacement) to get unhobbled SIMs
that are compatible with classic phones, turning the 4 legacy SIMs on
my family plan into precious and irreplaceable relics.  However, I did
feel a little more Eden-like when I was in Tijuana, especially when
one of my medical tourism coordinator people brought me that Telcel
prepaid SIM I asked them for, and it says right there on the paper
package: "Compatible con GSM, 3G y 4G".  (English translation, should
be obvious even without knowing Spanish: "Compatible with GSM, 3G and
4G".)  So they *officially* support GSM even for new people, even for
visiting medical tourists who are buying a prepaid SIM at a kiosk -
and sure enough, this prepaid SIM worked just fine in my Pirelli phone
while I was chilling at the medical recovery guesthouse after my
surgery.

> I'm wondering if this can be done even without a passport :-)

Ahmm, they do check passports at the border crossing, but only plain
old-fashioned passports are needed, NOT the vaccine kind!  More
specifically, crossing the border from Mexico into USA requires either
an American passport or a permanent resident card; I have the latter,
while my American-born family members have the former.

Astonishingly though, crossing by land from USA into Mexico in your
own car does not involve any document checks at all: you literally
drive through the border crossing without being stopped by any
officials!  You do have to drive slowly through the crossing, there
are cameras that will take pictures of your car and all people inside,
and they do have the power to stop and inspect/question you if they
feel reason for suspicion - but as long as you don't look or do
anything suspicious and as long as you don't trigger a match in
whatever suspect database their cameras must be checking, the vast
majority of the time you don't get stopped at all, just drive right
through.  I would venture a guess that Mexico might be the only
country in the world, or one of very few, that allows such free entry.

Now if you would like to visit Mexico but you don't live in USA, if
you live in Europe/UK/etc instead, then you would need to fly in by
plane, and you would need a regular national passport from your home
country - but even then the entry requirements into Mexico are
super-easy!  As I understand it, they allow visa-free entry for almost
everyone, and to the best of my knowledge, they never imposed any
vaccine or testing or quarantine requirements - in marked contrast
with Thailand!

Mexico's liberal stance on letting people enter their country for
tourist or social visits gives me an idea: if anyone in our FreeCalypso
community would like an in-person get-together, Mexico would probably
be an ideal place to do it.  I could host our get-together in Tijuana,
or perhaps our friends over at Rhizomatica could host one in their
area.  Even if you live in one of the nastier countries where the
local Covidian regime is pretty bad, surely you can fly OUT of your
country for a little vacation trip to Mexico, can't you?

El pueblo unido jamas sera vencido!

Hastla la Victoria, Siempre,
Mychaela aka The Mother