Christophe Pierre, the Vatican's nuncio or diplomatic representative in Mexico, made it clear that Pope Benny XVI will not meet with any of the victims, ranging at least in the tens of thousands, from priest abuse when he visits Mexico this weekend.
Why on earth not? This is not simply a case of apologizing on behalf of the far too many priests who turned into child rapists and molesters, which has happened so many places, but which in Mexico is given the added touch that the Vatican knew for more than forty years about the abuses of one affiliated organization, the Legionaries of Christ, where desperate stories of child abuse by particularly its founder Marcial Maciel surfaced shortly after its founding - abuses that the Vatican, we now know, was aware of for decades, but didn't do anything with until the public pressure became to large in the 2000s.
Yet don't expect any apology when the pope visits Mexico. After all, he did force Marcial to retire, lest we forget, to life of "repentance and self reflection."
Perhaps an apology isn't in order - I would trade a papal apology for an arrest warrant of multiple members of the Vatican leadership any day.
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Monday, March 19, 2012
Better for US that left wins in Mexico
PRD president Jesús Zambrano is on a brief visit to the United States, and in a speech at the Wilson Center declared that "It's better for the United States that the left governs in Mexico"
The more we generate conditions, we will have more social stability and less migration, fewer drug problems and more opportunities for young people... Mexico City is the safest region of the country, and the PRD knows how to govern and is demonstrating it with its actions."Amen.
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Lie detectors, seriously?
Josefina Vázquez Mota yesterday handed over, unsolicited and to surprised officials at the federal electoral institute, the results of lie detector and drug tests, and suggested other presidential candidates do the same.
What is she running for, the presidency of a high school council or that of Mexico?
This is simply petty and childish.
What is she running for, the presidency of a high school council or that of Mexico?
This is simply petty and childish.
Calderón apologies to Bracero workers
Better late than never, though a paltry compensation: On behalf of the Mexican state, Felipe Calderón apologized to braceros, or Mexican foreign workers in the United States between 1942 until they were kicked out in 1964, for having appropriated some of the compensatory funds designated for them.
A touch of pettiness, to boot: He made sure to note it was not his fault, but that of previous governments.
He proceeded to hand out checks in the amount of 38 thousand pesos.
The braceros were a vital part of not only the post-WW 2 boom, but also made a very significant contribution to the U.S. war effort, replacing as they did agricultural and industrial workers who were sent to the battlefields (where also Mexicans died, lest we forget).
The bracero program, which saw some very serious workers abuses given that they were tied directly to an employer and could not change jobs despite frequent abuse, holds a lesson today how not to implement a guest worker program.
A touch of pettiness, to boot: He made sure to note it was not his fault, but that of previous governments.
He proceeded to hand out checks in the amount of 38 thousand pesos.
The braceros were a vital part of not only the post-WW 2 boom, but also made a very significant contribution to the U.S. war effort, replacing as they did agricultural and industrial workers who were sent to the battlefields (where also Mexicans died, lest we forget).
The bracero program, which saw some very serious workers abuses given that they were tied directly to an employer and could not change jobs despite frequent abuse, holds a lesson today how not to implement a guest worker program.
Teacher March Madness
The past days, teachers have been causing complete mayhem in Mexico City, shutting down main thoroughfares and causing economic losses in the tens of millions - the thousands of police having to safeguard the process, the lost hours of productive for people not getting to work, the loss to business forced to shut along the protest routes, etc. In Michoacán, Guerrero, Oaxaca, and other states, hundreds of thousands of school children were not able to go to class.
This time the protest is not organized by the national SNTE, but by a dissident teacher union, CNTE, founded in 1979. But sad to say, they resort to exactly the same practices so many are fed up with from SNTE.
What is it that they want?
1) They want a "plaza" or a teaching position, for life - for life. That is, they want to be appointed, and not ever have to bother about looking for another job. This is especially perturbing, as they also
2) Oppose any evaluation of their skills or lack thereof. They don't want any exam, review, skills test at all, to determine whether they are fit for teaching.
But they still want a job for life. They are also protesting that the national SNTE has negotiated, finally, with the federal government what appears to be at least the beginning of a very rudimentary evaluation of their fit for the teaching profession. SNTE has in general opposed this since its foundation in the 1940s.
Meanwhile, and related, Michoacán, bus companies halted all services, following the "commandeering" of dozens of buses - that is, teachers and teacher students simply stole several buses for their own use. After days of conflict, and following an ultimatum from Governor Fausto Vallejo Figueroa, teacher students finally released "22 passenger buses, four trucks of perishable goods and eight drivers who remained detained for six days," which led finally to the reopening of the Morelia main bus station.
In a related development, former secretary of health José Ángel Córdova Villalobos, just appointed, and surprisingly, secretary of education, insisted that the national tests, negotiated with SNTE, will proceed. Córdova for his part referred to embattled SNTE head Elba Esther Gordillo as "a great leader." Really?
His predecessor, Alonso Lujambio, presently fighting for his life in a battle with cancer, was, it must be said, completely subservient to SNTE, barely admonishing it for outrageous illegal acts such as distributing taxpayer-funded teaching materials that also called for a vote for its PANAL party and for children to hand over personal information as well as that of their parents. I hope Córdova will show some more backbone.
This time the protest is not organized by the national SNTE, but by a dissident teacher union, CNTE, founded in 1979. But sad to say, they resort to exactly the same practices so many are fed up with from SNTE.
What is it that they want?
1) They want a "plaza" or a teaching position, for life - for life. That is, they want to be appointed, and not ever have to bother about looking for another job. This is especially perturbing, as they also
2) Oppose any evaluation of their skills or lack thereof. They don't want any exam, review, skills test at all, to determine whether they are fit for teaching.
But they still want a job for life. They are also protesting that the national SNTE has negotiated, finally, with the federal government what appears to be at least the beginning of a very rudimentary evaluation of their fit for the teaching profession. SNTE has in general opposed this since its foundation in the 1940s.
Meanwhile, and related, Michoacán, bus companies halted all services, following the "commandeering" of dozens of buses - that is, teachers and teacher students simply stole several buses for their own use. After days of conflict, and following an ultimatum from Governor Fausto Vallejo Figueroa, teacher students finally released "22 passenger buses, four trucks of perishable goods and eight drivers who remained detained for six days," which led finally to the reopening of the Morelia main bus station.
In a related development, former secretary of health José Ángel Córdova Villalobos, just appointed, and surprisingly, secretary of education, insisted that the national tests, negotiated with SNTE, will proceed. Córdova for his part referred to embattled SNTE head Elba Esther Gordillo as "a great leader." Really?
His predecessor, Alonso Lujambio, presently fighting for his life in a battle with cancer, was, it must be said, completely subservient to SNTE, barely admonishing it for outrageous illegal acts such as distributing taxpayer-funded teaching materials that also called for a vote for its PANAL party and for children to hand over personal information as well as that of their parents. I hope Córdova will show some more backbone.
"There are no pretty women who don’t become prostitutes"
Words of not too much wisdom, from PRI-aspirant for the Senate (!) Francisco Moreno Merino, which even made international headlines. From the Washingon Post:
“There is no horse that doesn’t have a bit of mule in him, there are no pretty women who don’t become prostitutes, there is no good man who doesn’t have a bit of uselessness in him."Very far from a champion of women's rights (witness its legislative alliances with PAN on the state level a couple of years ago trying to ban abortion even in cases of rape, incest, and danger to the mother's life), at least this time it immediately removed Moreno from its candidate list.
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Vázquez Mota, fit to govern?
I have been thoroughly disappointed with virtually every aspect of Vázquez Mota's campaign so far. Granted she has not much of a record to show to - her highest positions were relatively brief posts as secretary of social development and secretary of education, and despite having some credibility from having fought very publicly with SNTE teacher union despot Elba Esther Gordillo, has really very little to show for in her career. Can anyone point, for instance, to any relevant legislation pushed and passed when she was head of PAN's parliamentary group?
But I was at least expecting to see some future potential on the campaign trail, through her speeches, encounters, responses to criticism, and so forth.
Instead, she has managed to draw the ire of students and the university world, and revelations from here thesis work suggest an extreme anti-popular but also anti-intellectual bias, appearing closer to a Santorum and Palin than anyone else.
- It all began when she, in front of audience at the college ITAM giggled that she was "not perfect, because I studied at La Ibero," or the Universidad Iberoamericana.
Not likely to endear her to Ibero alumni. But then, her Ibero thesis has surfaced, where she in a classist rant refers to UNAM, Mexico's premier public university, as a "monster" - "it slowly converted into a political institution, a monster that harbor half a million students who unfortunately have no interest in their professional preparation."
And the kicker? Beyond the blatant generalization and depreciation of what is the best university in Mexico and its student mass, many who indeed come from lower class families and are first-generation students, the thesis in which she rants against UNAM was begun in 1983 and finished in 1998(!). Yes, unlike all those pesky students at UNAM who don't even study, Vázquez Mota only took fifteen years to finish her thesis masterpiece.
Now, given the way education is structured in Mexico, it often happens that students finish their coursework but at a later point finish their thesis, though 15 years is quite a stretch - and particularly for someone who depreciate students at other universities for not being dedicated to studying.
But again the worst is yet to come in the fall out: She answered then in the most pathetic way possible: She is the victim - yes, a victim - of a "dirty war," where here commentaries are taken "out of context" with the purpose to "defame" her. Since when is holding someone accountable to earlier statements a "dirty war"?
Vázquez Mota then went to ITAM, the best private college in Mexico, and as it draws primarily from the upper layers of Mexican society one might have expected a friendly audience. To their credit, the students questioned seriously her record. The best comment yet from one of the students:
But I was at least expecting to see some future potential on the campaign trail, through her speeches, encounters, responses to criticism, and so forth.
Instead, she has managed to draw the ire of students and the university world, and revelations from here thesis work suggest an extreme anti-popular but also anti-intellectual bias, appearing closer to a Santorum and Palin than anyone else.
- It all began when she, in front of audience at the college ITAM giggled that she was "not perfect, because I studied at La Ibero," or the Universidad Iberoamericana.
Not likely to endear her to Ibero alumni. But then, her Ibero thesis has surfaced, where she in a classist rant refers to UNAM, Mexico's premier public university, as a "monster" - "it slowly converted into a political institution, a monster that harbor half a million students who unfortunately have no interest in their professional preparation."
And the kicker? Beyond the blatant generalization and depreciation of what is the best university in Mexico and its student mass, many who indeed come from lower class families and are first-generation students, the thesis in which she rants against UNAM was begun in 1983 and finished in 1998(!). Yes, unlike all those pesky students at UNAM who don't even study, Vázquez Mota only took fifteen years to finish her thesis masterpiece.
Now, given the way education is structured in Mexico, it often happens that students finish their coursework but at a later point finish their thesis, though 15 years is quite a stretch - and particularly for someone who depreciate students at other universities for not being dedicated to studying.
But again the worst is yet to come in the fall out: She answered then in the most pathetic way possible: She is the victim - yes, a victim - of a "dirty war," where here commentaries are taken "out of context" with the purpose to "defame" her. Since when is holding someone accountable to earlier statements a "dirty war"?
Vázquez Mota then went to ITAM, the best private college in Mexico, and as it draws primarily from the upper layers of Mexican society one might have expected a friendly audience. To their credit, the students questioned seriously her record. The best comment yet from one of the students:
Many of the things you are saying are not true, because as Secretary of Public Education, of Social Development, twice a member of parliament, you did not pursue any of the reforms you are now talking about, why should we now believe that you are going to do so?Why indeed should we?
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