From Xico

Nya, Nya: Mexico and US compared

Mexico ranks better than the US on some recently-released key environmental measures, and ranks about the same on some key quality of life indicators.  

Nicholas Kristoff of the NY Times brought the Global (un)Happiness Index to our attention recently in an op-ed piece.  This index is actually based on pretty serious research as you can see if you browse through its site.  It correlates environmental impact (ecological footprint), life expectancy and life satisfaction and ranks countries accordingly.  In individual measures, Mexico shares the same top category of life expectancy as the US (+75 years) and in life satisfaction (a score of greater than ) as the US and scores in the second best category for environmental footprint, while the US scores in the worst category.  The best category indicates if the world consumed and polluted at this rate, the planet could handle it.  The second category indicates the world might be able to handle it, but it might require up to two planets to handle it.  The worst category, the fourth category indicates that if everyone consumed at the rate these countries do, it would take more than four planets to meet their consumption and pollution patterns.  There's a lot more detailed information on the site, and it's worth checking out.

Yale University's Center for Environmental Law and Policy came out today with its Environmental Performance Index (or at least today is when I found it).  It is based on rigorous research and analysis.  It finds that both the US and Mexico are in the middle tier of countries in terms of environmental impact, but the US is considerably further down the list in 61st place while Mexico is in 43rd place.

These sites (which I've linked to) provide a lot of detailed information on these topics.  Another interesting site is the World Database of Happiness created by researchers at Erasmus University in The Netherlands.  It is VERY complicated, but it looks interesting if you're interested.  And more up my alley, there's the OECD site which attempts to define and measure the progress of societies.  It has many reputable global groups involved.

Anyway, as R. Grabman reminds us on Mex Files today, the image of Mexico in the US has little to do with Mexico in reality.  He also reminds us that the number one issue of concern for Mexico is political reform, not security.  I should add that here the country isn't populated by tea-partiers, but rather by people who seem able to articulate their concerns, whether on the right, left or center.  

Sugar and Snow

Yesterday we went on our annual snow pilgrimage.  Sort of annual.  A couple of years ago we went up the north side of Pico de Orizaba and found a little bit of snow.  Last year we drove up to Cofre de Perote and found a few remaining shreds of snow. Yesterday we went up the west side of Pico de Orizaba and indeed found quite a lot of snow.

On our drive, we went from summer to winter.  We started going through sugar cane fields in various stages of their lives, mostly stages around harvesting.   We also went past a lot of crews who were bacheando...or filling baches or potholes.  The verb is bachear, for your Spanish lesson for today.  This may be a highly local verb form, though the noun is in general use.  

From the fairly severe (for us) cold of a week ago, we went in a single leap in our neck of the woods, to balmy weather in the past several days.  Yesterday was the warmest at 86 degrees.  Endless blue skies, bright sun, and very dry. Beautiful.  But the weeks previous, the rain we had was snow on Pico de Orizaba.  We could catch site of it looming over Constitución,  one of the main streets in Coatepec, snow-covered down to the horizon.

We drove a bit down a dirt road not far from Coatepec to take these pictures of the sugar cane.  The road is lined, on the right, with sugar cane.  The feathery flowers are sugar cane flowers.
A close up of the flowering sugar cane with buzzards in the sky.

 Cane fields: some harvested, some flowering, some still just green.

 

Here's Giaco posing under a tree:

 
We drove for several hours, but not a long distance, along twisting roads amid lush, forest and farm.  A view of Orizaba as we got closer to it:

It was still warm, but we'd climbed quite a bit higher by now.  We drove around the mountain, following its eastern and southern faces.  We drove up more or less on the southwest.  The snow on the south side had pretty much melted, but not where we went.

We thought there must be some enormous gathering on the mountain because car after car after pickup after SUV passed us going down as we went up.  As we got up to the snow, the roads were lined with parked cars and we realized it was just people who'd come up to see the snow.

The road splits at one point with one part going up to the huge new telescope on Sierra Negra to the left and the road to Pico de Orizaba on the right.  Below you see some people hanging out at the guard house at the road to the telescope. This is about 13000 feet.  A lot of snow!

 

Being nuts, we drove-- or rather slogged-- through mud and slush and snow to pass all the parked cars.  We still weren't much above 13,000 feet, but the road became impassable for anything but a jeep-like vehicle with high clearance. No snow plows here!

In most places, the snow was still about six or so inches deep.  It had gotten crusty in the warm sunshine, but there was still plenty of it.

 

And here's a shot looking up towards Pico:
And some with Jim and the dogs and me. 

 

Here's the national park sign with a hard-core off-road vehicle parked in back of it. There were three or four of them clumped together. They were the only vehicles we saw this high up, and one of them had gotten stuck in the snow.

A view toward more mountains...an ocean of mountains in the distance.

 

We drove for an awful long time for a very short visit. We didn't want to be driving home too much of the time in the dark.  Below, looking back from the RAV (you can see our shadow) from the main highway as we headed home. You can see Pico on the left and Sierra Negra on the right.

We opted for the fast way home: 4 hours instead of 5: Nine hours for 257 miles round trip, by road. Each direction is about the same length, but the roads are faster, though crowded, going back. The slow route takes us through lush countryside. The fast route takes us through dry country and desert until we get maybe thirty miles from Xalapa.  

Pico is roughly 35 miles from our house as the crow flies.

 

Mexico Aids Haiti Update

This morning, some little kids and their moms turned up at our gate.  They were collecting money for Haiti in our colonia.  As you know, our colonia is not anywhere near rich.  This is wonderful.  

Why Does Obama Listen to Whom He Listens to, and Why Is He So Anxious to Please Them?

I can't leave Obama's reaction to the Mass. election alone. Some people think he is being true to himself.  Yesterday in a New Yorker blog piece, Larissa MacFarquhar wrote an inciteful piece on Obama's character and its role in our present situation.  She said, among other things,

....Obama’s belief in bipartisanship is not just about cordiality and tolerating different viewpoints—it goes deeper. When I interviewed Cass Sunstein—who knew Obama when they were both law professors at the University of Chicago, and who now works for the administration—for a profile of Obama early in the campaign, Sunstein said: “I think with Obama it’s like Learned Hand when he said, ‘The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right.’ Obama takes that really seriously. I can’t think of an American politician who has thought in that way, ever.”

It’s now clear that there’s a reason for that. In his attempt to change Washington, Obama has failed. For the most part this failure should be blamed on Republicans, but it has also become clear that one of Obama’s crucial flaws is his overestimation of his ability to bring people together....

In his second book, “The Audacity of Hope,” Obama wrote: “We must talk and reach for common understandings, precisely because all of us are imperfect and can never act with the certainty that God is on our side.” It’s rare for any sort of person to think this way, and for a politician it is radical. Maybe it’s politically stupid. It certainly hasn’t worked out too well during this past twelve months. But it’s a profound creed and a noble hope. And don’t say he didn’t tell you.

The thing is, it's almost like he's enchanted with who he THINKS he is rather than who he is.  He seems all too certain of the rightness of whom he consults and what he takes from those discussions.  I wish he'd SAY why he thinks that Republicans with big bucks from health care industries who represent small populations are so able to show him where he's mistaken and where they''re right.  I wish he'd EXPLAIN this to the rest of us.  

Obama I think has twisted his own ideals.  It feels like that at worst he is using them as some sort of weaponry against the very people he should be listening to and helping.  Or at best he is just not following his stated ideals at all but is really your standard deal-making politician with connections to big business and other establishment types.

Or is he a hopeless snob who is under the delusion that he is listening to everyone who counts?

Or is he a supremely manipulative man who likes to hurt those closest to him?

Why isn't he acknowledging health care practices like those in community clinics in Vermont? Why isnt he looking to people who are involved in them for advice?

Why isn't he listening publicly to the concerns of people as diverse as physicians with concerns about malpractice costs (it may not be a big deal in the big healthcare reform budget, but it is to individual doctors and wouldn't be that hard to remedy)

Who did he listen to on Haiti?  Okay, okay, we're being generous, but why did he think it necessary to send heavily armed troops when there seems to be a minimum of violence (amazingly)?  How much money could have gone to food and water and medical care that's going to pay for unnecessary security? (The Mexican military sent unarmed people as I understand it.)  My GOD didn't we look like ugly AMericans landing on the front lawn of the government palace. ho did he ask about how to give aid to Haiti? 

What's going on in agriculture policy domestically and as part of foreign aid? What's up with the Monsanto folks he seems to be hiring for the dept of agriculture?  Why doesn't he try to visualize the kind of world a Monsanto-seeded food supply would create vs. one in which local economies matter? Why doesn't he talk with international experts from countries involved as well as to those involved in US food matters from a non-industrial point of view?

Why isn't he talking to the citizens of the country about climate change and TALKING and EDUCATING them about possible links between good economic policy and good green policy?

Why doesn't he encourage town meetings, blogs, facebook groups, dedicated to discussing issues and then have someone present summaries to him?  Why doesn't he have discussions directly with the American people?  Surely he has the technology to do this in a variety of ways.

Why isn't he trying to do something to connect with people and assuage their fears and address their prejudices?

It's like he's in some kind of weird fog. His people have definitely done some good stuff, but the government, Democratic and Republican is off on its own planet. He's adding to the problems.

Read more:

It's great when someone acknowledges that a "The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure it is right." 

"Why Big Agriculture Won't Feed the World

One of the best concise summaries of the glaring problems of thinking that industrial agriculture a. should feed the world and b. can feed the world is here in the Atlantic Monthly's food blog.  It is important to note, as the article points out, that we already can feed a population the size of that predicted in 2050.  I myself would question that this prediction will come true.

I have a lot more to say (I always do) but no time at the moment.  EXCEPT to add that industrial agriculture has little more to do with sustaining human life than creating feed for anonymous units with the labor of anonymous units, be they human or machine.

Technology has done some wondrous things.  Now we need wisdom to control it.

A Groan for Massachusetts -- Some Commentary from Mexico

Having my strongest family ties in Massachusetts, I felt particularly keenly the Democratic loss of Ted Kennedy's Senate seat last night.  .  I myself think that it's possible that at some level it was because Whatsisname was a muscular, strong, friendly-looking Cosmo centerpiece and because Coakley was at best uninspiring in the campaign.  One person (Whatsisname) had a bit of charisma, Coakley clearly had none.  And ran a lazy campaign, to say  the least. 

STILL, it bespeaks the ignorance and the unimaginitiveness and the self-centeredness of at least SOME people in the US.

ANYWAY, R. Grabman had some of his witty commentary on the situation on Mex Files, and he put it in a broader, western-hemispheric kind of context (and provided the actual pin-up of the new Senator plus a pin-up of a Bolivian candidate who is considerably more sultry).

Below are some snippets on the election from the column that appeared in El Universal, the Mexican daily, on the Mass. senate race (my translation).

Democrats Lose Massachusetts.

by J. Jaime Hernández

The defeat of Coakley, a prestigous lawyer who was unable to measure up as a politician and campaign director, has been interpreeted by th majority of analysts as an open rejection against the political establishment in Washington which has been incapable of responding to the urgent necessities of the citizens in terms of the economy and the labor situation.

But, in addition, the defeat of the Democrats in one of their most important bastions has been seen as a direct consequence of the tense debate over health reform which has disappointed a broad part of the democratic base who believe that President Barack Obama has given into pressure by Republicans and insurance companies to negotiate a deal which has betrayed the most important aspects of its identity, among them, the public option which Ted Kennedy defended during much of his career.

Threat for Obama

The humilliating defeat of Martha Oakley [sic] coinciding with Barack Obama's first year in the White House, has been taken advantage of by the Republican Party to propagate the theses that it is a "referendum" against all the President's policies.  This extreme was rejected by analysts and experts who consider that the election in Massachusetts is very far from being a plebiscite for or against Barack Omaba.

Scott Brown, an ex-model in the magazine Cosmopolitan has already promised that he will vote against health care reform.

I would like to add that the people of the State of Massachusetts already have universal health care coverage for themselves and are more satisfied than not with it. So those who voted for Brown were willing to deprive other Americans of the same chance for health insurance they have just to, what, vote with their lizard brains?   They have nothing to lose if their new senator votes against healthcare reform.  The whole thing pisses me off, though on the other hand I can understand ignorant people's hostility to the establishment. One problem, I think, is that the Democrats have seemed too much like rich Republicans. And another is that some Americans are stuck in cocoons of ignorance. 

EXCEPT the Democrats are not helping themselves or the country very much these days.

Weather and Paying Our Bills and Migration (Emigration from Mexico, Immigration to the US)

I think because of the cold and rain we've been kind of holed up lately.  I saw a small headline in the NY Times saying that 50 degrees Fahrenheit is cold in India. Under it was a picture of a woman huddled in a shawl.  Fifty degrees is cold here in our area of Mexico, too, as I've said before, and it can get a lot colder at higher altitudes as it does in the mountains of India.  Today, however, it has dawned beautiful and clear, the second day in a row.  Susan, the retired Episcopal priest who leads our tiny singing group, is thawing out, so we will be able to, as they say, lift our voices this afternoon in honor of the sun.

I have to confess to not minding the gray and cold as much as most people do.  In fact, if it doesn't go on too long, I like it.  I like the fog and mist that nestle in the small valley in front of our house, the mystery of it, the trees right close by turned soft and hardly visible. I like walking in it, and it's easier for me to work in it than heat is. Maybe it goes back to summers I spent in Woodstock, NY growing up. We'd find ourselves at times wrapped in stretches of cool, rainy weather.  We'd go down to the public library which was in a big old white-columned building set back on a broad lawn and take out stacks of books and sit there and read or go home and snuggle under blankets with them. Anyway, I don't wish for the cold days here: they are too hard for too many people even though I enjoy them when they arrive.

Yesterday we went to Xico to pay our electric bill and our annual post office box bill and on the way home, we bought some veggies.  You could pay your light bill, we discovered, in the Xico market.  We paid it at the CPS office, but went over to the market to get the bill itself. A current light or phone bill is needed to prove residency here, and we will be going to Xalapa to renew our FM3s in a couple of weeks.  The Xico market is my least favorite market.  Its about the only place I don't really like in Xico. Since we'd walked over to it, we first thought to buy our stuff there, too, but as soon as we walked over to a stall, we were marked as tourists and hustled.  We walked down a few blocks and got oranges in one tienda -- four kilos for ten pesos, or about ten pounds for maybe 85 cents.  And some regular stuff, too: tomatoes, onions, avocados, cilantro. I have to say I don't really mind paying a bit more for stuff at times.  We HAVE more than a lot of people around here.  But I DO mind being hustled, being told that one thing is something else when it clearly isn't.  One vendor was trying to sell us one type of beans as if they were another type. It seems to me that except for the active hustler, the other vendors in the market look depressed, if not downright angry, not at us especially, but in general.  It's a different experience from other places in our area. 

There was discussion on the Altavoz blog from Coatepec today about illegal emigrants from Coatepec. It might be useful for you to read because it contains a description of the rights of immigrants as laid out in international law. It said:

"The mayor of Coatepec, Sergio Ramírez Cabañas Contreras held an important meeting with the Director of Emigrants of the State, Lic. Daniel Badillo González for the purpose of offering aid to migrants from Coatepc and assessing the morale and social situations of their families in Coatepec.

"It is important toknow that if a migrant has been detained, the authorities detaining him are obliged to provide him with temporary  accomodations as a measure of security in migratory seasons.  The migrant being detained always should be treated with dignity, and with total respect to his/her human rights. The migrant has the right to basic hygiene, food and health services, the right to communicate with the embassy, with his family, with the Comisiones Nacionales y Estatales de Derechos Humanos, with the offices of the Instituto Nacional de Migración and with the Secretaría de la Federación; if the migrant is working, he has the right to a fair salary paid on time and to be able to recover salary which may have been left for him [which, if he was detained, he could not pick up]. He has the right to have an attorney if he was detained by an authority.

"The state program in Veracruz is called CIAMVER, or Centro de Información y Atención a Migrantes Veracruzanos.  This program offers services through the agency of great help to emigrants.  It has been energized by Maestro Fidel Herrera Beltrán to offer direct support to migrants from Veracruz in the interior of Mexico as well as in the US."

All I could think of was all the private prisons that have been thrown up in the US to shove immigrants into, of Sheriff Arpaio in Arizona, of stories of raids. And of the hatred anti-immigrant groups vomit up. Living in our colonia and knowing people who are fathers and brothers and sons in the community,  who have returned, it is very hard to accept the treatment they receive at times in the States.  When we talk to people who've returned, they are, so far without exception, cordial to us, kind in their assessments of their experiences.  Many have not learned a lot of English because they've been isolated from much contact with Americans.  Some of the work they've done includes working for the State in Oregon on reforestation; working in flower nurseries; working in restaurants and hotels in Las Vegas. People from this area go to Las Vegas because previous people from here have gone there and established a kind of community. 

Itis always important to remember that because the US government makes it so hard to go back and forth, many people stay longer than they would like to.  Why many people go in the first place is due to a complex of reasons for which the US must shoulder some blame.

UPDATE:

Further explanation in response to confusion expressed by Jim.

The information about migration is provided by the Veracruz and Coatepec governments for the purpose of informing emigrants to the US (and the center of Mexico) of their rights in the US (and anywhere).  Also, the governments of Veracruz, Mexico and other statesin the country do provide services and aid to Mexicans in the US at embassies and consulates provided the immigrants have access to them.

More Mexican Aid for Haiti -- From Veracruz

At the same time that people who live high up in the folds of the mountains of our state of Veracruz are receiving help to combat the cold, Veracruzanos are also offering assistance to Haiti.  Many DIF centers --212 to be exact -- have become collection centers.  DIF is the national and very important family services department of Mexico.  Here in Veracruz, collection points are asking for canned foods, bottled water, toilet paper, diapers, medicines, flashlights, and clothing in good condition. They are also asking for donations ofat least a kilo up to a ton of rice and beans.  These goods are going to be taken by DIF vehicles to the Port of Veracruz where they will be put on one of the Meican navy ships which has been assigned to transport the material to Haiti.

Not just the better-off are involved in these efforts. Enlace Veracruz 212 reports, for instance, that the very small and fairly poor indigenous community of Zongolica, east of Pico de Orizaba, is gathering materials to be sent to "brothers and sisters suffering misfortune because of the blows of the earthquake."  By last Thursday, in this little town, two and a half tons of goods had been collected, with hopes for ten tons by Monday.

Meanhile,  Diane Romero reports in El Diario de Xalapa online today that the Director General of the administration of the Port of Veracruz, Juan Ignacio Fernández Carvajal has dedicated all facilities [necessary]to sending humanitarian aid to Haiti. This involves at this point docks and a warehouse for the hospital ship and for the collection of aid which is coming into Veracruz from all over Mexico.

200 tons of supplies, medicines, drinkable water, mats, and clothes have already been loaded.  The director said they have enough room in the warehouse to coninue collecting goods for shipment next week on a Navy ship. 

Diana Romero reports that the director emphasized the help the loading businesses of the port of Veracruz have given.  They have provided  personnel and equipment for the transfer of cargo from the trucks to the boats or the warehouse.

The director said that only priority cargo like medicine and food is being loaded right now onto a boat.  The rest is being stored in the warehouse for later shipment.  There haven't been any hitches in the process.  There has been sufficient equipment and personnel to load the ship in record time.

A rescue helicopter of the Federal Prevention Police has also been loaded onto the ship  which is scheduled to arrive in Haiti in five days.  It is carryig 220 people, including marines, medical specialists, nurses and rescue personnel.

Health Care in Xico and Machos

Today as we walked back along Benito Juarez in our Colonia from our run, we passed a pickup with a metal frame decorated from one end to the other and from top to bottom with machos, or the very large bananas people use mostly for cooking.  We thought before we heard and saw it more clearly that it might be a political announcement.  We expect those soon as the race for governor and some other offices heats  up.  But it was a truck selling machos: 4 kilos for 15 pesos. The driver helped by his loudspeaker, cordially greeted customers and invited them to step up and see the machos.  His message alternated with some maddening, thunky music.  It reminded me that I wanted to correct a mistake I made a few days ago.

Then I mentioned that a vehicle drove past our house advertising a clinic.  My friend Tere and I both thought it was just going to be a clinic for respiratory diseases which have increased and for which extra services have been arranged, and that it was going to be held in the Colonia's social center.

We were wrong.  It was an announcement for a giant caravan loaded with health services headed for the town of Xico, and it was inviting the residents of our colonia, which is in the municipality of Xico, to go and take advantage of it.  The afternoon of the announcement, as Jim and I were heading home from Coatepec, three large temporary classroom-like things drove past us going the other way.  One of them mentioned dental services. The next morning, I read the real story on the Alta Voz Xico blog from which I stole all the photos in this post..

The caravan is for  "La Jornada de Salud Especializada" or "Specialized Health Day sponsored by the state and with prominence given, of course, to the governor, Fidel Herrera Beltrán. His picture with his wife (both looking glamorous) was prominent in the social salon.

 

 In his honor, I suspect, all the vehicles were painted red, his favorite color:

  It is really a wonderful service, even if I kid a little bit. Services were provided by 7 family practice doctors, 2 pediatricians, an internist, 2 gynecologists, 2 ear-nose-and throat docs, 2 dentists, a spychologist, 10 nurses, 10 medical educators, an optometrist, and a totally equipped pharmacy.

Below I think is a picture of some of the big whigs involved.

 

Below is a picture of one of the dentists posing with a patient:

 

The next day, the caravan pulled up in Coatepec where in addition to the people-oriented services, vaccines were given to dogs and cats. I wish the dog and cat folks would come vaccinate in our colonia.
 

Donating to Haiti from Mexico

Richard Grabman at Mexfiles was the first to post the bank account number at HSBC you can use if you want to donate directly to the Haitian Embassy.  It is 

HSBC Account #4042482604.

You just go to a HSBC branch and request to do it via a cash deposit.

Here is a list of places you can make donations in Mexico taken from El Universal, the big Mexican daily.  You can go to pretty much any DIF offices and leave stuff there, too.  

Carlos Slim has set up a telmex and a telcel number so you can add a donation to your phone bill.  These numbers are the last two in the section marked "cuentas bancarias."  The Carlos Slim Foundation will match every donation made in this manner. (Come on, Carlos, how about a little more?)

As Richard points out, people here often don't have or use credit cards.  It is quite common to pay cash into bank accounts (which you should of course check if you doubt their legality) for donations as well as other things.  We paid tuition for our Spanish course at the school for foreigners at Universidad Veracruzana this way, and we pay for our annual health insurance premium this way, too.