San Diego

After months gathering documents, preparing standarized tests and worrying about scholarships, I finally made it to the University of California, San Diego in a really good program. Maybe I should change the name of the blog to Living in San Diego or something different that does not imply I am at Mexico.

Anyway, it has been only a week since I started grad school  (well, the prep course) and, despite the fact that what we are reviewing is not really that complicate, I found myself trying to save time.

My first impressions of the city are pretty positive: people are very kind, they usually treat customers well and everything seems easy here. However, I had different expectations of San Diego given the Mexican elite's preference for San Diego as a second home city. San Diego is a pretty city with nice weather, but the cool place is La Jolla, where there are many desperate-housewives homes. Probably Elba Esther's, the corrupt and infamous trade union leader, home is located in this area.

The real question

The bitch is back

Nowadays this is a common phrase you can listen while walking in the streets, stalking people on facebook and hanging out with your friends. As you might have guessed, I am speaking of the victory of Enrique Peña Nieto over López Obrador and Josefina Vázquez Mota. The margin was not as wide as most pollsters had predicted: EPN got 38.21 %, AMLO 31.59% and JVM 25.41 %. Mitofsky and Milenio’s polls expected a double-digit margin over the second place. The elections of the Senate and the Deputies showed similar results. However PAN came second in the former and fared better in the latter’s election.

I was not quite surprise by the results. Working in the Chamber of Deputies and having access to different polls, I was expecting a difference of around 8 percent; instead it was just 6.7 percent. Also I have to admit I was not shocked by the attitude of the defeated candidate AMLO, who denounced (again) the election.

AMLO also asked a full recount of the ballot boxes. More than half were recounted, and paradoxically this process gave Peña Nieto 147 thousand extra votes. In contrast, AMLO and Josefina just got 18 and 88 thousand more votes respectively.

What surprised me the most about this particular election is how AMLO was able to capture the vote of the young people. It is clear that there is a negative correlation between “radicalness” and age, the younger you are the likelier you are going to vote for leftist options. However, AMLO’s proposals were everything but modern. Moreover he was compared to former populist ex-presidents like Echeverría (from 1970-1976) and López Portillo (from 1976-1982), obviously PRI ex-presidents.

Most people cannot see the similarities between AMLO and the “revolutionary” PRI politicians, but those become evident once he actively supported Manuel Bartlett’s (yes, he’s the one who “rigged” the election against the presidential candidate of the antecessor of PRD in 1988) candidacy for the Senate on PRD’s ticket. The opposition of both against modernizing reforms and their preference for more state intervention placed them in the field of nationalists, who were displaced by the neoliberals since 1982; the year in which the “Scientifics” took over the PRI.

Another thing that resembles to the nationalist (and economically irresponsible) PRI is his proposal of eliminating university admission tests, his opposition to labor and energy reforms and his illogical budget cuts. This proposals made him a candidate stuck in the past and obssesed with populist measures which would put the country backwards. Paradoxically his campaign motto was “vote for the real change”. Who was going to predict that clearly outdated proposals were going to be considered “progressive” these days? One more thing is his attitude towards democracy: when he wins, it is a victory of the people, but when he loses it is because of the elite’s intromission and their fraudulent elections.

To me the fact that young people are so infatuated by these unrealistic promises, and also their saying that the rest of the Mexicans are stupid for not voting for AMLO is the real question. Mexico is clearly not a democratic country, but not because the PRI won, as some leftist are saying, but because people do not trust institutions, but the word of contradictory caudillos. 

What to expect if the PRI wins the Mexican presidency?

What to expect if the PRI wins the Mexican presidency? This is a question that has been raised since the federal campaign started several weeks ago. 

This fear seems legitimate observing what the PRI did while it was in power for around seventy years (1929-2000): human rights violations against political opponents, recurrent economic crises due to populist policies, cooptation of the media, etc. Some people might defend the candidacy of Enrique Peña Nieto stating that his party was the one that undertook the first set of structural reforms to step out of the crisis in the 80’s, that it passed the electoral reforms and also that recognized its defeat in the federal elections of 2000 and 2006. In sum, that the PRI is a new party. However, governors of the PRI behave like they are living 40 years ago: endemic corruption, huge increases in the debt, accusation of receiving millions of dollars in bribes from drug gangs, crushing of the opposition and manipulation of local elections, or just mere incompetence.

It is also noticeable Televisa’s, Mexico’s main media network, and some editorial groups’ preference for Enrique Peña Nieto over the rest of the candidates; which resembles a lot to the former partisan news programs like “24 hours”. The coverage of the news is so partial that “El Sol de México”, a newspaper group, even labeled the candidate’s visit to a private University as a triumph, when in reality he was severely questioned and even chased off the premises.

Despite the fact that he has compromised to undertake the structural reforms necessary to achieve economic growth of 6 percent, representatives in the Congress associated with him blocked the labor reform. In addition, Romero Deschamps, PEMEX union chief, and Elba Esther Gordillo, Education union chief, are allies in Peña’s candidacy, and are two of the fiercest critics of transparency in trade unions and reforms in the education and energy sectors. How is he going to get those reforms approved when his allies would be affected by those changes?

It is difficult to expect that the PRI will not behave like in the past, when in the last twelve years has blocked necessary reforms and has supported questionable governments in the state level.

Employment in Mexico

It has been while since my last post. I really cannot explain my absence saying that I had much work to do or that I was mentally unstable to perform my normal functions. However, I am really tired. Since this is my first full time job, and the first time I have not had neither summer nor winter vacations, I am really exhausted. Also contributes the fact that I kind of hate my job. Nevertheless, I am not the only Mexican trapped in this situation: according to Ipsos Public Affairs, Argentina (44%), Mexico (43%) and Hungary (42%) had the highest number of workers saying that their workplaces were not safety neither healthy due to stress, personal conflicts, frustration and lack of feedback. Now that we are talking about work, today I would like to discuss some issues regarding the labor market in my country.

According to the OECD, Mexico is the country with the biggest time invested doing work (home and office), but also, since productivity is very low, there is no other way for Mexicans to finish work than to stay more hours. I can understand that low productivity is representative of the agricultural sector (particularly true in the South) and small businesses; the latter is the predominant model in the Mexican economy. However, productivity is very high in the export oriented sector and other companies. But that does not stop workers in those areas from working longer hours.

In Mexico City, it is pretty normal for an office worker to do (of course, non-paid, thanks for the left) extra hours: my friends who work in the Federal Public Administration are very well paid, but they are demanded to stay longer (around two hours, sometimes more depending on the day), and the same can be said about those in the private sector in the financial district of Santa Fe. People with degrees obtained abroad working in those companies also work longer days, so I guess it is not the lack of good education and low productivity that is prompting qualified workers to stay longer, but the Mexican working culture. Or maybe it could be that trade unionized employees do so little that those not belonging to a trade union should compensate the low productivity of the others. Even foreigners who are working in Mexico City have to follow those labor patterns.

The situation is even worse in the rest of the country. It is very likely that in Mexico City white collar workers will never have to work on Saturdays; however it is pretty common in the rest of the states to work 6 hours (from 8 to 13) with a lower salary than that of their counterparts in Mexico City. Wages are determined by the level of activity, economic growth and cost of living: as one of the fastest-growing economies in Mexico, wages in Monterrey are higher than in Mexico City.

Given the lack of a thick and economically not viable welfare net in the absence of a strong economic growth (as Europe has taught us) and the low savings rate per capita, Mexicans will usually take any job in order to survive, even if it has not social security or good working conditions. Poverty might illustrate this point, since the most disadvantaged states had the lowest unemployment rates: Guerrero (the third poorest state in Mexico) had an unemployment rate of 2.13, and Chiapas’ (the poorest state) was 2.19, both states have been like that for a while. On the other hand, Aguascalientes, Baja California, Chihuahua, Sonora, Tamaulipas, the Federal District, all of them with high human development indexes, the unemployment was above 6 per cent. Although some poor or middle income states were also above the 6 percent mark for the last trimester of 2011: Tlaxcala and Zacatecas. Unemployment in that trimester was of 4.8 percent in the whole country; it used to be around 3 before the 2009 crisis.

Those numbers might not look bad compared to Spain, Greece or even  healthy states like Germany, but in a country with high disparities and low economic growth, employment is crucial in order to survive.

Racism in Mexico

When I was going to the British Council today, I saw a Yale pant’s advertisement in the subway showing 5 black men practicing Capoeira and dressed properly to perform that martial art. Among them, a white man was wearing pants. Something that picked my attention was that someone had written in the advertisement with a marker: disgusting blacks, and pointed to the blacks. I was not surprise by that, since I consider Mexico a very racist country.

Source: Yale Pants. http://www.yale.com.mx/campanas.html

*I am not going to talk about racism against blacks, given the low proportion of blacks in Mexico (not Afro-Americans since they were born and raised in Mexico and do not have anything to do with Africa).

In Mexico, when speaking about racist countries it comes to the mind of many people the image of United States, and if they know more about universal history France, Germany and South Africa (let’s face it, there are plenty of racist countries in the world, but these countries just happened to be more known for their practices, projection and importance). The Government’s ideology that Mexico is composed by mestizos only has bolstered the belief that in Mexico there is no such a thing as racism. The people who admit Mexico is a racist country generally focus on the conflicts between indigenous and non-indigenous groups, and rarely discuss the issues arising from differences in the color skin among Mexicans. What is more perceived and acknowledged as a problem is the classism.

According to the last census carried out by the National Institute for Statistics and Geography (INEGI), there are 6.6 millions of people who speak an indigenous language in Mexico, they represent around 5.9 percent of the total population, and roughly 15 percent of those do not speak Spanish.  Out of the 89 existing languages, Náhuatl (1.6 millions), Maya (0.8 millions) and Mixteca dialects (0.5 millions) remained the most spoken in Mexico. The states with the highest proportion of population speaking indigenous languages are Oaxaca with 33.8 percent of its  total population; Yucatán, with 29.6, and Chiapas, with 27.3. An interesting question in the 2010 Census was do you consider yourself as an indigenous? Around 15.7 millions responded positively, being Yucatán, Oaxaca and Quintana Roo (where the Cancún Resort is located) the states with the highest proportion. As you can see by the numbers, indigenous groups are not identified by phenotypical differences, but more by cultural features. Many indigenous would be indistinguishable from other Mexicans if it were not for cultural traits like dressing and language.

Despite this strong indigenous racial component (which used to be absent in the northern states until migration patterns changed), there are many Mexicans who make racist comments about others in reference of ethnic features. “Indio” (lit. Indian) is one of the most common and preferred insults by Mexicans, or other phrases enunciating social characteristics of indigenous. For example, when someone does not know how a technological device operates some Mexicans say “Ash, these Indians!” or “Looks like you were dragged down from the mountains” (in reference to the fact that many indigenous groups are located in the mountains).

It also happens that people who had European or American great-great-…-grandparents, make remarks about their foreign ancestors when it is completely unnecessary like a presentation “I am Mexican, but all my family is from Spain”. Or even tell foreigners they are also foreigners (Spaniards, Americans, Argentinean or any white country) just because they have a [insert here any allegedly white and developed state] passport due to their relation with one familiar, even when they were born, raised and have spent most of their life in Mexico, speak Spanish like Mexicans and are more Mexican than the enchiladas. Someone might guess that only happens with ignorant people who put such a high value in not belonging to an indigenous race, but no, that also happens with very well educated people.  In the opinion of some fellows, making that kind of remarks in Mexico (unlike United States) is like saying “in this country of Indians, I am better because I have blood from a cool (usually European) country”.

Another pejorative word is “naco” which means “Indian”, but it is used by many Mexicans to refer things or to describe other people or situations as poor, insignificant, ignorant, etc. It is applied to anyone regardless their race (I’ve heard many people to assign that word to whites and indigenous), and it is not really offensive.

Academics

A study conducted by Rosario Aguilar Pariente, a scholar from the leading academic Center for Research and Teaching in Economics, has shown that Mexicans have different perceptions and assumptions when they only have information on ethnic matters. Her study (click here to read it in English) discusses the different perception that Mexicans have about race and politics, it indicates that positive views are associated with European-looking and Mestizo individuals, and more negative views are associated with indigenous looking individuals. These results comes as no surprise, since most indigenous groups are out of the development processes in Mexico and there is a correlation between belonging to an indigenous group and poverty.

Due to the development of traditionally indigenous populated zones like the Metropolitan Zone of the Valley of Mexico, Merida (in Yucatán), Quintana Roo, among others, the correlation that existed during the colonial period that European looking persona and wealthy has eroded, but not so much the belief that being white is better than being indigenous-looking, as Rosario’s study has proven. Also, it appears that the upper classes are whiter than the middle and low classes; since the share of European-looking Mexicans is around 9-15 in general, but (I guess) it is higher in the upper classes, not overwhelming, just much higher.

A country whose language is plagued with racial remarks and which equals whiteness to beauty could not be consider just a classist country, but also a racist one.

Sources:

INEGI. Census 2010.

Social and Political Consequences of Stereotypes Related to Racial Phenotypes in Mexico , 2011 , CIDE , México , 230 .

Who is Isabel Miranda de Wallace?

A few days ago, in the midst of economic uncertainty, of polls indicating a minor decline in Peña Nieto's popularity and the announcement of Heritage Foundation that Mexican's economy is less free than last year, the conservative National Action Party (PAN) declared officially that Isabel Miranda de Wallace was going to run for the Governorship of Mexico City. There were several reactions from political actors: from Demetrio Sodi, current major of one of the Federal District demarcations, stating Isabel's nomination was unfair to the other pre-candidates, to Beatriz Paredes, disqualifying her as a capable candidate for her lack of government experience.

Who is Isabel Miranda de Wallace?

She is a Mexican activist and president of the non-governmental organization Alto al Secuestro (lit. stop the kidnap); she was awarded the National Human Rights Prize 2010. In July 11 of 2005, her son, the businessman Hugo Alberto Wallace Miranda was kidnapped and killed. Instead of lamenting her misfortune, she started to look for information about her son's murderers, and even mounted billboards prompting the denouncement of the kidnappers. As a result, she has succeded in incarcerating 5 out of 6 of the murderers and founded the NGO Alto al secuestro. Her case was widely publicized by national and international media and she was recognized by her tenacity and determination. Her influence grew so large that she was able to participate in the elaboration of the law for protection of the victims of kidnaps.

In this picture: "Jacobo Tagle Dobin, Kidnapper, Wanted $250,000 (13.4 pesos=1 USD)".

She is regarded as one of the strongest and most persevering citizens in Mexico. She serves as a good example for what citizens can achieve. Because of that, the National Action Party, lacking competitive candidates to win or even to put up a good fight, decided to think outside of the box and do something completely innovative: postulate a very respected and popular social activist. This may appear like a common practice in advanced democracies, but it has no parallel in Mexico.

Given that politicians from Institutional Revolution Party (PRI), the party that retained the presidency for 71 years, and the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD), the leftist party currently in power in Mexico City, have criticized Miranda de Wallace's candidacy, PAN's strategy may have made them nervous.

Clearly, Beatriz Paredes, the virtual candidate of the antidemocratic PRI, should win the capital: she has served as governor in the neighboring Tlaxcala state, has been president of her party, Senator, Deputy, ambassador, etc. She is the most capable politician aspiring to govern Mexico City. Alejandra Barrales has a good chance of getting the PRD's nomination; nevertheless, she is not as experienced as Beatriz Paredes.

Despite knowing all of this, voting for an exemplar citizen seems more attractive than doing it for more experienced politicians. In the unlikely case that Miranda de Wallace wins the governorship, she will be surrounded by PAN politicans and very capable advisors; voting for her is not irresponsible, but it is something that may annoy PRI and PRD, guilty of not approving the needed structural reforms to improve Mexico's economic growth prospectives.

Sources:

Alto al secuestro. http://www.altoalsecuestro.com.mx/ley%20antisecuestro.htm

Public Transportation

Right now, the world is absorbed in what is currently happening in Europe. Is the euro going to survive? Are we all going to die after the EU collapses? Are some of the questions most specialists are replying these days. Some economists highlight the increasing relevance of developing countries in saving the advanced and indebted European states. This sense of urgency might have unexpected bad consequences. In this entry, I would like to talk about public transportation.

For many countries, Mexico included, automobile exports are key for stimulating its economies, and since sales are plunging abroad, automakers are turning to the domestic market to compensate the decrease in sales. However, there is a point in which car’s density could result in causing more problems than those by lower revenue in the automobile industry.

Some months ago, IBM presented its Global Commuter Pain Survey, which did a research on 20 economically important cities around the world regarding commuting habits. The index measures 10 aspects, among them were: commuting time, time stuck in traffic, agreement on the statement that gas is very expensive, traffic has gotten worse, start-stop traffic is a problem, driving causes stress or anger, etc. Only two out of the first ten places were urbanizations in developed countries, Milan and Singapore, which spatial growth is completely constrained by natural barriers, and their scores were less than half of those in the first two places. The others were cities in emerging economies: Mexico City, Shenzen, Beijing, Nairobi, Johannesburg, Bangalore, New Delhi and Moscow. In sum, traffic –surprise, not just drug traffic– is a pain in the ass in Mexico.

Despite this information, there are several projects throughout Mexico that have the goal to increase the number of public transportation users. Particularly, because of its huge cost and visibility, we can see projects in Mexico City: the construction of the new subway (the line 12) and, to a lesser degree, the construction of the fourth line of the Metrobús, a bus rapid transit system. Also, other smaller cities have plans to modernize their transportations: in the states of Chihuahua, Baja California and Nuevo Leon Bus Rapid Transit projects had been authorized and there are plans in Acapulco and Tijuana to install BRT systems; the Municipal Plan for Climate Change (PACMUN) that, among other things, projects to install sustainable public transportation system in seven municipalities: Guadalajara (the second most populated Mexican city with around 4.4 million of habitants), Aguascalientes, Cintalapa, Cozumel (a Caribbean resort), Culiacan, Puebla (the fourth biggest conurbation with more than 2.5 million of habitants), San Nicolas de los Garza (the county with the highest GDP per capita in Mexico) and Xalapa; also in Guadalajara Metropolitan Zone is the possibility of constructing a tram in Zapopan, and there are other smaller plans in other states.

These projects seem promising for its potential to reduce contaminants and the commuting time. Still local governments are also promoting urban highways: the Supervia Poniente, the Second Floor of the Periferico and Viaducto Bicentenario in Mexico City, Vía Express in Guadalajara, and Plan de Ayala in Puebla.  In the case these urban highways were built, let’s hope they do not exacerbate the current mobility problems they were supposed to solve, like it happened in United States several decades ago.

Sources

-http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/transportation/10-worst-cities-for-commuting-2011-edition/892

-http://www.animalpolitico.com/blogueros-el-blog-de-anca/2011/01/12/autopistas-urbanas-la-historia-como-farsa-y-tragedia/