Postcards from Mexico: News and politics

News

Sat, 12 May 2007 01:48:08 GMT

This week, the attack of another Canadian hit the northern news. The police say he fell off a balcony, the family says he was assulted. It´s hard to speculate. I side with the Canadians with the fact that I don´t trust the police (the chief in the balcony incident is being investigated for narco connections himself) but I´m so tired of hysterics in the news. You´ve read this rant from me before.

One thing I couldn´t help noticing in all of the stories that I´ve read is the presence of alcohol. Being drunk in public here is a big no no, an embarrssment... and yet I´ve seen so many foreigners stumbling around the cities behaving stupidly. You do have to take basic precautions here, and you can´t do that while oozing booze.

The rest of this weeks news is pretty standard. A mere 10 000 Mexicans got naked in the Zocalo of Mexico City on Sunday morning. Naked protests are popular in this modest city, but this was for a Spencer Tunick photo shoot. Some very revealing (but tasetful) photos are located here: http://fotos.eluniversal.com.mx/fotogaleria/wfg.html?gal=3559.

Meanwhile, the narcos continued to attack each other (they are dangerous), Mexico City legalized first trimester abortions, and the pope said that the lawmakers who passed this should be excommunicated (a comment later edited by the Vatican to sound tamer).

In some ways it´s just another week, an in another, it´s amazing to see how much this country changes month by month.

Tortilla Outrage

Tue, 16 Jan 2007 00:20:47 GMT

One of the headlining themes in the news this week has been the outrage over tortilla prices in Mexico. I pondered the stories at first, wondering about the fuss when a pile of them costs me $0.65 at the grocery store. Upon reflection, this shows my ignorance and priviledge. I don't have to buy tortillas, and I consider them to be really cheap. However, for a family living off of about $15 dollars a day, price increases to the staple of their diet can really affect their lives.

The tortilla is usually made with white corn, and can be used as a part of every meal. Put eggs in it in the morning, cook it with chicken and bake it with green salsa, fry it up for tacos... it would be difficult to live here if you didn't like them. Usually when you buy them, they've been made minutes before.

Tortillas may be humble, but they've probably become the most politically loaded food in the country. There is talk about companies manipulating corn prices, of ethanol plants gobbling up corn supplies, and tortilla sellers gouging their customers. The government is trying to import more corn as a solution, but some want the substaties that they used to recieve before NAFTA. Both solutions will take time to implement, keeping the situation at boiling point.

The worry and furry over the prices has put me in my place. I'm embarrased that I sometimes complain about my salary, when I could afford all the meat I wanted for every meal. It looks like my final New Years resolution will be to break out of my bubble.

Are they all the same?

Fri, 19 May 2006 22:07:22 GMT

As I was coming home from Polanco a couple of weeks ago, I saw these words scrawled where the advertisements should be in the metro. PRI= PAN= PRD. They´re not mathamatical formulas, but they´re just as complicated. They stand for the major political parties at the moment- the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), the National Action Party (PAN) and Democratic Revolution Party (PRD). PRI had governed the country for almost 70 years (with questionable democracy) until Fox´s PAN party came to power in 2000. It was a change for the country, but many complained that Fox wasn´t able to keep many of his promises for reform. Finally, the PRD is headed by Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the popular former mayor of Mexico City, who is being painted as a left wing fanatacist by his opponents.

The sign got me thinking all week... what exactly did that person want to tell the millions of commuters that would see it? Are all political parties and polititions the same? Do they start out with their own ideals, only to become corrupt androids when they get into power? Or was the writer referring to the fact that they´re currently running neck in neck in the poles?

My understanding of politics here is ok, but I try to keep to myself on these issues, because I´m a foreigner and really don´t have the history on these matters that others do. What I know is that there are some political shanagins coming up that I´ve never thought about before. For example, I´ve heard advertisements every day urging people not to sell their votes. The idea had never occurred to me. There have also been numerous reports of electoral complaints such as political ´letters of advice´ from people´s bosses, biased polls to sway people´s ideas of a person, and Fox himself has been accused of polarizing voters.

It´s been like a soap opera to watch, and it will probably be more so as the elections come up, coinciding with the World Cup. It´s exciting to see a country fight so hard on both fronts, for its politics and its passions. I´ll be following both equally.

Wearing Red but Seeing Blue

Tue, 24 Jan 2006 02:22:20 GMT

I woke up this morning and quickly got ready. I was running a little behind, and like to get to work early. I gave myself a lookover before heading out the door and realized that I couldn't possibly leave the house looking like I did. I was dressed in blue.

Blue is my favourite colour, but it was election day in Canada and I wasn't about to show support for the Conservative party, even thousands of kilometers away. I'll be watching the polls this evening, but I have a bad feeling that my wearing red won't be enough.

In other news, I have been living in my own apartment for three weeks now. The day after the other apartment fiasco, I went house hunting and found a cute place above a family's home. It's around the corner from work, steps aways from the greatest torta (type of sandwhich) shop I've ever been to, and it's peacefull. It's not chic like the other place I had looked at, but it's definately comfortable. My own piece of Mexico.

The only tenant that I share with is Xempa, who has come back after a month of staying with a family that I know. I didn't recognize her when I saw her. In Guatamala, they talk about a mythical creature called a Gatonejo, a cat/rabbit. I think this is what is hopping around my place right now. Jess, you're right, she's no minature. She also ignores me when I call for her in English, only responding to Spanish. After I get her to stop chewing on my furniture, I'll work on her English language skills.

Maple Grief

Fri, 02 Dec 2005 22:07:24 GMT

We may not live in Canada anymore, but my roomate Lea Ellen and I faithfully keep up on Canadian politics. It´s a good thing, because the government just lost a vote of non-confidence and there will be an election on January 23rd. This probably doesn´t matter to 99% of the world, it certainly doesn´t make Mexicans blink, but we get pretty hyped up about it.

The Canadian government is going to focus particularily on getting snowbirds to vote, and will spend $10 million on ads for outreach campaigns in airports and newspapers. I may not be retired or driving a golf cart in Cancun, but I´m going to keep my eyes out for these things.

They want the snowbirds/ex pats to vote by mail, which is laughable in a country where there is a 50/50 chance that your mail will arrive. I am still waiting for packages that were sent in August. It seems that bills have a 100% chance of arriving, however.

Despite the fact that my vote may never be counted, I will make my best attempt at keeping the Conservative´s from being elected. While Canada´s idea of conservative is more liberal than the United States left wing, I would still be appaled to see any of our social values dissapear, including gay marriage. Of course I believe in fiscal responsibility, but I think you can tell a lot about a country when you look at how they respect Human Rights and how they treat their most vulnerable citizens.

So, ¡Viva los Liberales! I can´t wait to compare this election to the Mexican one in the new year.