The results are in from the Examen Nacional de Conocimientos, Habilidades y Competencias Docentes, or the obligatory exam for those aspiring to teach at Mexico's schools.
The results are just as bad as in earlier years: 70 percent failed, meaning 94,0400 of 134,704 exam takers did not even get half the questions of the exam right, which was the barrier to fail.
Yet the results will have absolutely no impact on whether they will be offered a teaching job or not.
And lest there remain any confusion: Just because Mexico's teacher aspirants have to take an entry exam, this does not mean they will ever need to take any other exams in their lifetime to prove they actually know any or all of the material they are educating Mexico's youth on.
Source:
Reprueban aspirantes a maestros. El Universal, July 23, 2012.
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Great reportage on Mexico
Some great recent reportage on Mexico from U.S. journalists. The Los Angeles Times' Tracy Wilkinson:
From The Washington Post's William Booth:
The state of Mexico, which surrounds Mexico City on three sides, has seen an "alarming" surge in the number of murders and rapes of women, according to several human rights organizations. Much of that increase occurred during the governorship of Enrique Peña Nieto, whose six-year term ended last fall before he went on to win this month's presidential election.In Mexico state, violence against women has surged. Los Angeles Times, July 17, 2012.
From The Washington Post's William Booth:
Among the freshman class in the new Congress will be both the grandson and daughter of the second most powerful person in Mexico, Elba Esther Gordillo, the “president for life” of Mexico’s teachers union, who presides over a public education system where teachers buy and sell their jobs and student tests put Mexico’s kids at the bottom of developed nations.Mexico’s Congress presents the ‘unpresentable ones’. The Washington Post, July 14, 2012.
Calderón blocks victims law in about turn
Calderón continues to draw ire with his erratic actions or backtracking on earlier promise. Recently he sent back to the Senate the Ley General de Víctimas, or the Victims' Law, which aims to aid and compensate the victims of violence in the drug war, including creating a national register of victims, instead of signing it into law. It was in practice a veto.
Even PAN senators rejected Calderón's "observations," to the law, and returned it right away without even bothering to look at these, arguing that these added notes came too late and that it is instead Calderón's constitutional responsibility to publish it and thus enact it immediately. Unless he does so, the only remaining choice is to take it to the Supreme Court, which would in any case postpone the law for many months.
Javier Sicilia, whose victims' movement was the main impulsor of the law, called Calderón "blind" and someone who went from "betrayal to betrayal" for reneging on a much-publicized promise to back the law in a public meeting with Sicilia.
Yet Calderón seems incapable of standing down or taking absolutely any criticism for any of his actions. As El Universal put it, Calderón recently said of his administration, "'there have been achievements and mistakes,' without mentioning any in particular."
With few months remaining of his term, Calderón seems increasingly to turn a deaf ear to criticism, even from his own party. Who's a "danger to Mexico" now?
Source:
Se recrudece pugna por Ley de Víctimas; rechazan revisión. Animal Político, July 12, 2012.
Calderón está ciego, va de traición en traición: Sicilia. La Jornada, July 13, 2012.
Even PAN senators rejected Calderón's "observations," to the law, and returned it right away without even bothering to look at these, arguing that these added notes came too late and that it is instead Calderón's constitutional responsibility to publish it and thus enact it immediately. Unless he does so, the only remaining choice is to take it to the Supreme Court, which would in any case postpone the law for many months.
Javier Sicilia, whose victims' movement was the main impulsor of the law, called Calderón "blind" and someone who went from "betrayal to betrayal" for reneging on a much-publicized promise to back the law in a public meeting with Sicilia.
Yet Calderón seems incapable of standing down or taking absolutely any criticism for any of his actions. As El Universal put it, Calderón recently said of his administration, "'there have been achievements and mistakes,' without mentioning any in particular."
With few months remaining of his term, Calderón seems increasingly to turn a deaf ear to criticism, even from his own party. Who's a "danger to Mexico" now?
Source:
Se recrudece pugna por Ley de Víctimas; rechazan revisión. Animal Político, July 12, 2012.
Calderón está ciego, va de traición en traición: Sicilia. La Jornada, July 13, 2012.
Monday, July 16, 2012
Pedophile Pol Pot-esque cult psychopaths
It's hard to find the words to describe the madness happening in Nueva Jerusalén in Michoacán.
An absolutely nutty cult has taken control of the village of 2,500 inhabitants, and bans music and cars and anything at all relating to modernity, and most recently destroyed a school - there is no opting out. The cult behind "bishop" Martín de Tours and the "clairvoyant" Rosa Gómez Gómez has maltreated and even murdered anyone daring to question their insane doctrines and rule, or to denounce the pedophile "priests" abusing the children of the village.
It's utterly amazing that the PRI government of Michoacán has not acted to throw these sadists and psychopaths in jail, and it is truly shameful.
Read more about it in today's La Jornada.
Source:
En Nueva Jerusalén, si no cumplen los mandatos el castigo puede ser la muerte. La Jornada, July 16, 2012.
An absolutely nutty cult has taken control of the village of 2,500 inhabitants, and bans music and cars and anything at all relating to modernity, and most recently destroyed a school - there is no opting out. The cult behind "bishop" Martín de Tours and the "clairvoyant" Rosa Gómez Gómez has maltreated and even murdered anyone daring to question their insane doctrines and rule, or to denounce the pedophile "priests" abusing the children of the village.
It's utterly amazing that the PRI government of Michoacán has not acted to throw these sadists and psychopaths in jail, and it is truly shameful.
Read more about it in today's La Jornada.
Source:
En Nueva Jerusalén, si no cumplen los mandatos el castigo puede ser la muerte. La Jornada, July 16, 2012.
Ataques sexuales, veto a la educación y asesinatos, en la historia de la localidad. La Jornada, July 16, 2012.
Sunday, July 15, 2012
El País to Mexico's left: Drop AMLO
An editorial in Spain's El País offers a straightforward recommendation to Mexico's left:
Source:
Obrador es un lastre. El País, July 15, 2012.
The Mexican left has been failing since 1988 in its attempt to win the presidency. Lópese Obrador's brethrhen the time seems to have come to ask whether they should follow a twice-defeated leader prone to conspiratorial victimhood, and whose abrasive and stagnant style has alienated a part of its natural vote. Obrador is a drag.
Source:
Obrador es un lastre. El País, July 15, 2012.
Saturday, July 14, 2012
Calderón ignores Senate, signs ACTA
Just a few days ago, the European Union rejected the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (Acta): Its parliament voted a massive 478-39 against what is being presented as an anti-piracy initiative but that risks seriously stifling freedom on the Web.
In Mexico, president Calderón made no indications at all he intended to sign ACTA, and the Mexican Senate in any case unanimously advised him against it and to consult it, especially given the massive rejection in the European Union, as it arguably goes against Mexico's constitution
But no: Calderón decided to sign the agreement anyway. The Senate is very upset, and rightly so: The president has from the beginning kept Congress in the dark, not even bothering to inform it that he had started the ACTA negotiations in the first place. He just happened to as well keep mum of his intentions to do so until after the election, given the unpopularity of the legislation.
Beyond being classically Calderón - an absolute tone-deafness to any criticism and utter unwillingness to accept any mistake - a larger question is: With all of Mexico's current woes, is really promoting anti-pirate legislation pushed by U.S. media companies truly the best way to spend the last months of a truly mediocre presidency?
Source:
Ola de críticas contra Calderón por suscribir en lo oscurito el ACTA. La Jornada, July 13, 2012
Es un ataque a la libertad de expresión y un freno a la movilización social. La Jornada, July 13, 2012
In Mexico, president Calderón made no indications at all he intended to sign ACTA, and the Mexican Senate in any case unanimously advised him against it and to consult it, especially given the massive rejection in the European Union, as it arguably goes against Mexico's constitution
But no: Calderón decided to sign the agreement anyway. The Senate is very upset, and rightly so: The president has from the beginning kept Congress in the dark, not even bothering to inform it that he had started the ACTA negotiations in the first place. He just happened to as well keep mum of his intentions to do so until after the election, given the unpopularity of the legislation.
Beyond being classically Calderón - an absolute tone-deafness to any criticism and utter unwillingness to accept any mistake - a larger question is: With all of Mexico's current woes, is really promoting anti-pirate legislation pushed by U.S. media companies truly the best way to spend the last months of a truly mediocre presidency?
Source:
Ola de críticas contra Calderón por suscribir en lo oscurito el ACTA. La Jornada, July 13, 2012
Es un ataque a la libertad de expresión y un freno a la movilización social. La Jornada, July 13, 2012
NYT profiles Alejandro Solalinde
Kudos to The New York Times and Elisabeth Malkin for this profile of Oaxaca migrant defender Alejandro Solalinde:
A Priest Stands Up for the Migrants Who Run Mexico’s Gantlet. The New York Times, July 13, 2012.
He returned this week to his beloved state of Oaxaca, where he runs a shelter in Ciudad Ixtepec, a sweltering railroad town where migrants wait to scramble atop cargo trains that will take them on the next leg of their wearying trip to the United States.More migrants will be arriving, he said, pushed by poverty and violence at home. A long-suspended train service directly from the Guatemalan border is being renewed. “That means the merchandise is coming, the captive customers,” Father Solalinde said.He expected the threats to continue as well. For the criminals, he said, “there is a problem: Father Solalinde is in the way; he won’t let us do our work comfortably so we have to pressure him, threaten him, kill him so he won’t disturb us.”Source:
A Priest Stands Up for the Migrants Who Run Mexico’s Gantlet. The New York Times, July 13, 2012.
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