From Xico

War on Terrorism, Mexico-US Relations and the Potential Ambassador to Mexico

In more paranoid moments, I imagine that the US is planning to turn Mexico into its next semi-permanent war zone.  What with us quitting Iraq and in the measurable future Afghanistan as well, and with the rest of the Middle East, for all its problems, not clammering for our presence, we've got to have someplace for the military-industrial complex to unload its goods. Obama has, if anything, been more militant, more anti-immigrant, more pro-weaponry in Mexico than George W. Bush. His secretary of state,  Hillary Clinton, appears to knows zilch about Mexico, but supports the "drug war" as essential, no questions asked.  I wish I knew how and from whom Obama and Clinton got their education on Mexico.

It sounds as if Obama and Clinton have rather strange information about the country.  Perhaps they don't have any knowledge of Mexico's geography and think the northern region of Mexico is the entire country. Perhaps they think that Calderón is a very popular president, or even more, think that he's the one with his finger in the dike and if they don't support him, the country will drown. Perhaps they think that as in the US, almost everyone owns a gun, and perhaps they think that every other person is a narco.  The whole thing has a Dr. Strangelovian smell to it.  I'd love to get inside the mind of this man Obama who seems so intelligent, so calm, so controlled and yet who has had more Mexican workers in the US thrown into jails and prisons than his predecessor; who is going after their employers with a vengeance; who has done nothing to speak out strongly against the viciousness of the anti-immigrant crazies. Who, in spite of his public words of support for Calderón, according to Wikileaks, thinks little of him and his efforts against organized crime and can only imagine getting more militant, not less as a consequence.  Obama doesn't talk about the underlying social and economic issues influencing crime: only about how to beef up US (and maybe Mexican) slaughtering abilities.

Perhaps the US is thinking to link the narco wars to international terrorism.  Of course crime relating to drugs and weapons and human trafficking does exist at an international level. Maybe it isn't paranoid to think the Administraton plans to expand the use of techniques it has used in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq (and who knows where else) to Mexico and Central America and...Peru, Chile, etc etc etc.  And then to southern Spain and Africa.  One can mix drugs and Islam easily in those areas.

Since February, the US has been sending drone flights not just along the US border but far into Mexican territory with the approval of the Calderón government using Global Hawk drones which "can fly higher than 60,000 feet and survey more than 40,000 square miles a day." The Calderón government, according to the New York Times has also been turning a blind eye to other activities normally prohibited by Mexican law and the Mexican Constitution, including US agents carrying weapons inside Mexico and wiretapping.  The Times says at a number of points in the story that this is all with the joint cooperation of both countries. It goes further, saying "The leaders emphasized the 'value of information sharing' a senior Mexican official said, adding that they recognied 'the responsibilities shared by both governments in the fight against criminal organizations on both sides of the border.'"  

The Times article continued,

"A senior American administration official noted that all'counternarcotic activities were conducted at the request and direction of the Mexican government.'

"Mr. Calderón," it went on, "is intensely nationalistic, but he's also very pragmatic,' said Andrew Selee, director of the Mexico Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.  'He's not really a fan of the United States, but he knows he needs their help so he's willing to push the political boundaries.'"

It's worth reading the whole thing.

On the other hand, Mexicans don't all see things in the same light. Having learned of the agreement between the US and Mexico to exchange intelligence from Wikileaks, Senator Francisco Labastida of the PRI said in Friday's La Jornada it "is a grave error and an affront to the sovereignty of Mexico."  He continued saying that the difference in capital letters is whether or not it is fair and just, not just a deal which subordinates Mexico.  He considers that the Wikileaks cables publicized by La Jornada accepted a unilateral obliigation on the part of Mexico to give the US government intelligence information which has to do with organized crime.  This goes against international principles. 

And just to add a bit of icing to the cake, Washington is apparently proposing John  Earl Anthony Wayne to be the new ambassador to Mexico.  According to La Jornada of last Wednesday, the 25th of May, Barack Obama asked for the goverrnment of Mexico's blessing for this nomination.  Wayne is the present deputy ambassador to Afghanistan.  

More to the point (my point), he has had various important positions in the area of antiterrorism and intelligence, including in Argentina where he was involved in some shady seeming stuff. 

And a final postscript: Why is Obama so unyieldingly militaristic and domineering about Mexico when he isn't about anything else?

Orquesta de Xalapa concert -- All Beethoven and a bit boring

A couple of months ago we attended a mostly delightful concert by the Orquesta de Xalapa at the Teatro del Estado.  We watched a guest conductor from Coatepec bring to life some Mexican compositions. While the guest soloists (from Xalapa) were perhaps a bit lacking in energy, theexperience in general gave much pleasure.

Last night, we went with friends to here the same orquesta, this time for an all-Beethoven program led by the resident conductor, Fernando Lozano. This orchestra is filled with technically excellent, often inspired musicians.  But last night they were merely competent.  That wasn't their fault.  As far as I could tell (and I'm certainly no musical expert and the audience did respond with some enthusiasm) the conducting ummmm was lacking.  As I understand it, it is the conductor's job to interpret the piece, set tempos and moods and contrasts and shades;  coordinate entrances of different instruments: give life to the whole.  Last night it sounded as if the conductor was only used to conducting a high school orchestra.  The first piece slipped by in a few minutes and was perhaps the best.  The second piece, Concert for Violin and Orchestra in E major (I think), opus 41, dragged badly.  It lacked, if my memory serves me, variation in tempo and tone, and the soloist, Adrián Justus, started out wanly.  He warmed up a bit by the end, but there was really, for me, no stirring of the soul.  Justus gave two encores in which he showed off his skills a bit more successfully when he was unaccompanied by orchestra or led by the conductor.  I don't like trick violin pieces, but he pulled them off pretty well.

The final piece, Beethoven's Seventh Symphony was, I thought numbingly dull.  The last movement, Alegre con brio, was anything but.  It sounded more like an oompah band than much of anything else. Now that's harsh.  And maybe I was in a bad mood.  Who knows?  What a tragedy to watch these musicians, many the same ones who provided such great pleasure under the previous conductor, Carlos Miguel Prieto, reduced to mediocrity.

It was no worse than mediocrity.  Knowing that the conductor is not beloved or at least able to draw out the best in his musicians, knowing that there are many disgruntled souls, it is amazing to realize that they can set aside their distress and perform together if not as a great orchestra, at least as a basically competent one.  It could be a truly great orchestra, and under the previous conductor it certainly seemed to be moving in that direction.

On a non-musical note, the Orchestra looked disheveled, sloppy, depressed even.  Many members were slouched in their chairs when not playing, many seemed to have shirts coming out of pants. Women had blouses and tops which were very informal to say the least.  If beautiful music emanated from the group, it wouldn't matter at all.  But the orchestra's appearance seemed a reflection of their spirit.  Lozano himself had a shirt that was too tight and hair which certainly could have been combed.  If he wants long, flowing white locks, he should maintain them.  He  doesn't have the gravitas to get away with slobbishness.

Anyway, after the performance and aware that there has been great hostility to Lozano,and wanting to get some perhaps less biased information, I decided to Google him.  I found a very informative article from 1 february 2010 in the Veracruz version of La Jornada as it appeared in the Xalapa blog Uno A Uno.  It was written by Victor Manuel Robello.  I translate below some selections from it.

"A group of musicians who are members of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Xalapa (OSX)talked to La Jornada Veracruz and explained their discontent which was due to the 'pessimism and mediocre work' of the musical director, Fernando Lozano Rordigúez, arguing that since his arrival as director on the 20th of November, 2007, the musical level of the orchestra has diminished to such a degree that numerous people devoted to the concerts had stopped coming .... The problems increased and on the 4th and 11th of December [of that year] seconds before the concert was to begin, as Fernando Lozano made his way toward the podium, some members of the public booed him; likewise, the musicians said that there hadn't been a single concert that they themselves hadn't saved.

....

"On the 25th of October in 2007, six members of the Orchestra sent a letter to the governor of the state, Fidel Herrera Beltran, with a copy going to the rector of UV, Raúl Arias Lovillo, in which they expressed their disagreement with and annoyance at the possible imposition of Fernando Lozano [as head of the Orchestra].  One part of the letter said, 'the artistic growth of a symphony orchestra depends in great measure on the musical quality of its director.  In spite of the documentation which he may be able to flaunt at present as director of the Orchestra, it does not correspond to  the level of our orchestra, since he lacks energy and dynamism, rehearsal technique, vitality and inspiration for the musicians.  In the last ten years, he has not established permanence with any first rate orchestra, whether it be national or international.  Because of this, the musicians left open the possibility that it was and is a 'great risk for the OSX to have a director with a musical profile such as that of Lozano Rodríguez.'  They said that the OSX sought continuous institutional and personal improvement within an environment at the forefront and artistic professionalism at all levels.

"Later, the Technical Council of the OSX met to present a proposal to the authorities of UV on the 29th of October, 2007.  The group proposed was made up of nine musicians, the first four places correspoonding to Enrique Diemecke, director of the National Symphonic Orchestra from 1990 to 2007 who received 31 votes; second was Fernando Lozano with fifteen votes, and then Sergio Cárdenas and Guido María with 11 votes each.  A few days later, the rumors began that Lozano would be the director.

"This would break two regulations in the Ley Orgánica of UV ....which stated that 'to be a director of a department or institute it was required that the appointee be over 30 and younger than 65 years at the time of his appointment."  Lozano was already 67.  This seemed a flagrant violation of the Ley Orgánica of UV.  

"A member of the Orchestra who preferred to remain anonymous mentioned that '[Lozano] has had a very bad relationship with the musicians; administratively it has been pointed out that he has managed money in a murky fashion, has been accused of corruption, does not have a broad repertory and has invited his friends to be soloists and guest directors.'

"[Orchestra members] said that at the end of his first year as administrator of the OSX, Lozano informed them that he already had no money for touring nor to invite first rate conductors and soloists since he argued UV had cut the budget.

"Another source of concern for the musicians is the  personnel chief, Ricardo Martínez Salazar, since the internal rules of the OSX mention...that in order to undertake this role one has to "come from the OSX as an musician with a minimum of five years of experience with personnel.' ....Martínez Salazar is not a member of the orchestra much less knowing how to play an instrument.

"On this past September 8 [2010], the Technical Council of the OSX sent a document to Fernando Lozano in which it was brought to his attention his estrangement from the orchestra because of the present situation.  A fragment of the document is reproduced below addressing 'our concern about the artistic level at which our Orquestra finds itself two years after you took over.

"' In this period of time, we have observed a deterioration in the quaility of rehearsals and deficient interpretation in our concerts, adding to a growing improvisation in the programming which affects artistically our daily work.

"'We call for respect for the music, for the public, for the soloists and all the members of the orchestra.  These last have maintained, until now, a professional attitude which has saved numerous concerts.'

"Another member with twenty five yers inside the OSX explained that the orchestra saves a concert when the director doesn't know the work that he is directing, loses direction, loses the rhythm or doesn't mark the tempos which are written in the score, but the orchestra doesn't stop: the musicians continue playing because they know the piece well.

"All the limits of tempo, tuning, entrances, stops, variations in tempo, changes in tempo, balances, timbre, [have parameters set by the composer.] The director can't, on a whim, say that if the Allegro is marked for 120 beats per minute, he will marke it at 8o. There's a limit in the parameters, and Lozano ignores them and then, in doing this, destroys the composition of the author.'

[Here there is criticism of his final performance as director of the International Festival of Music in Morelia]

"Further, the musicians complain that when they dare to say anything, they have been sanctioned with administrative [deficiencies].  'It doesn't have to do with whether or not Lozano does or doesn't do what we want, rather that there should be an equilibrium between director and orchestra, but Lozana won't accept any type of criticism. We agree that there should be discipline when someone arrives at an inconvenient time or shows a lack of respect to any member of the orchestra, but we don't agree that there should be discipline to silence our complaints.

"In 1990, Abel Eisenberg who was a student of maestro Silvestre Revueltos....published a criticism entitled 'Between Violas and Violins' in which he mentioned the following about Fernando Lozano: 'It is my responsibility to signal the negative elements in the world of good music in Mexico.  On this occasion I am referring to Fernando Lozano who acted like the absolute czar in our musical panorama during the presidency [of Mexico] of López Portillo.  Lozano attended my lecture and audition course in the National Conservatory without showing any talent for music.'

"´Unexpectedly, he surged ahead, always conducting with the clumsiness of an amusing bear, but with the talent of relocating politically like [other slick politician types],' commented Eisenberg.

....

The article continues with  criticisms and complaints about Lozano's musicianship, leadership, politics, treatment of music, etc., from various sources as well as some of his responses.  Very depressing. It wearies me too much to keep translating it.

I only hope that very soon the orchestra will have the conductor it deserves and a brighter future.  I for one won't be eager to go back if Lozano is conducting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Escape from the Zombie Food Court

Joe Bageant recently spoke at Berea College in Berea, Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University at Lexington, and the Adler School of Professional Psychology in Chicago, where he was invited to speak on American consciousness and what he dubbed "The American Hologram," in his book, Deer Hunting With Jesus. Here is a text version of the talks, assembled from his remarks at all three schools. 

via www.joebageant.com

I could argue with bits of this, but this is how the US of A seems, for the most part, from my corner of Mexico.

No HBO Thriller to be developed by yours truly plus some commentary on thrillers as novels

Just to let you all who didn't realize that my post on Fast and Furious was meant as a bit of a joke....the "plot" is actually ongoing in our real world, along the Arizona-Mexico border and in Washington, DC. Check out the links.  It was simply an alternative presentation of the news, or maybe reality has truly become an alternative presentation of TV and movie thrillers.

Speaking of which...novel-reading can provide an excellent introduction to realities which few of us experience. As a compulsive reader, I snatch at anything that offers intellectual support for my habit. One of my favorite bits of support came from a visiting professor of family therapy at George Warren Brown School of Social Work, Washington University, where I received my MSW.  Arthur Mandelbaum, the visiting professor from the Menninger Clinic, gave one of the best classes I have ever had anywhere. And he said, read novels, read novels, read novels.  He wasn't referring to trash, but to novels,(not necesssarily classics: good mysteries and hard-boiled detective stories count), which opened up  private worlds which we could never know any other way. Great TV series can do this as, as anyone who was sucked into the vortex of The Wire knows.

In the western world, let's say the educated upper reaches of the western world, and let's say particularly in the United States (I really don't know much about European thought) there has been a tendancy to replace experiences which might deepen empathy for other humans (and animals and plants, I could easily add: for the planet, in fact) with scientific approaches.  Rather than enhancing our knowledge and wisdom, the culture has chosen to use these dare I say so-called scientific approaches to narrow them.  

Three areas which particularly interest me in this regard are psychology/mental health, medical care in general and cross-cultural, cross-social strata awareness especially when national policy is seriously affected.  Obviously these are enormous areas and I am only writing a blog.

So here I just want to mention once again, perhaps from a slightly different perspective, the fact that US foreign policy not just towards Mexico is made by very smart, very ignorant people and that it doesn't have to be that way AND then to recommend some books.

This is the fiftieth anniversary of the US Peace Corps.  Jim and I were early members.  Jim entered a program which took him to Ethiopia 45 years ago, I entered one for Uganda 43 years ago.  We each underwent three month training programs before our two-year terms began.  As I've said before, it changed us deeply and forever and our experiences are probably why we have chosen to live where we live in Mexico.  

Charles Kenny, a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development, has written a proposal for reforming the Peace Corps, updating it, if you will.  As he says, things  have changed over fifty years.  He accepts the original mission and goals:

To promote world peace and friendship and

     1.   To help the people of interested countries in meeting their needs for well-trained men and women;

     2. To help promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of people served; and

     3. To help promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans.

Here I'd just like to talk about the third goal, the promotion of better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans.

In many ways, those of us who have returned have done a lot in small and big ways to act on our own increased understanding of the lives of the people we lived among for two years.  But still I think we are a vast underutilized resource perhaps because we often don't fit standard models of "experts" and we may not be in public life.  

As Kenny points out, although there are now vastly more opportunities in a vastly more interconnected world for people to see and serve poor countries, the Peace Corps remains one of the rare organizations in which volunteers learn another language and stay in another country for an extended period of time.  And they stay in areas which are where ordinary people, often very poor, live.  He says the training teaches mostly language.  When we had training, we also learned the history of our host countries and were placed as student teachers in non-middle class schools and non-middle class living situations to test our ability to adapt and accept. We had lectures by people from Uganda on cultural issues as well.

Of course the training is never the real thing.  And, looking back, the real thing was incredible.  We were privileged to have been permitted so far into a foreign culture: almost like reading a novel.

To my knowledge, no groups of us Uganda volunteers were ever asked as a group to talk to people in the US government about how local Ugandan culture should affect our government's foreign policy efforts.  Why should this matter?  Foreign policy and aid policy is often made by people who have no clear idea of how most people live in a region or country. Nor do most Americans.  I think of images of India and Brazil in the US press.  Because  India and Brazil are presented as "economic miracles", few in the US realize that by far, most people in those countries do not come close to a US middle class existence.  It's also important to understand, and few do, that maybe they don't want to. Which doesn't mean we should just drop out of the world.  We need perhaps an understanding of urban Indians and rural Brazilians that would help people charged with policy to understand the difference between statistical measures of income growth and real life. 

I have mentioned too many times the lack of any deep knowledge of Mexico on the part of those who make policy towards Mexico, or even a sense of humility in the face of a lack of knowledge.  We need to reframe how we see the world.  National governments are societies onto themselves, and small ones at that.  They are made up of human beings just like the rest of us, and it is hard for the members to conceptualize the fact that their policies can truly damage the lives of millions of people -- and that economic and aid policies are among those that cause damage. It's the same (or worse) with corporations.  The vast number of people in the world are mere abstractions to the leaders.  And among corporate leaders and government leaders are many who seem to have lost their souls.

If leaders who so profoundly affect the lives of those they've never met and have little or no knowledge of (see Hillary Clinton in Mexico) don't have time to come and maybe visit for a few weeks in ordinary neighborhoods, returned Peace Corps volunteers are a tremendous asset, especially since leaders certainly don't speak most of the languages of the people of the world. (And there is now Peace Corps in Mexico, surprise surprise.  I had no idea.)  Returned volunteers could act as bridges, in a manner of speaking, presenting not statistics, but stories of real people -- as well as reminders that even two years or ten don't really make one privy to all the workings of another culture.  Then maybe leaders wouldn't be misled into thinking that, for instance, US troops will be welcomed with open arms or that Mexico is a nation permeated with violence. Or that people with kind hearts and advanced degrees can know what's best for people who live in mountain villages.  

Okay.  Books.  It's not that you have to read novels of the places you are studying or working in necessarily (though this is a good idea), it´s that by reading about other places (Other Voices, Other Rooms, if you will*) you can't help but open your soul to the varieties of human experience.  

There's a telenovela on now based on the novel Queen of the South (Reina del sur) by the Spanish author, Arturo Pérez-Reverte.  Pérez-Reverte is a Spanish author, but this book is about a Mexican woman who becomes a powerful narcoboss in Mexico.  It isn't a nice book, but it offers a what shall I say, a less abstract view of narcodealers, one in which you may find yourself having some sneaking sympathy for the characters.

Also half about Mexico but by a non-Mexican: Barbara Kingsolver's The Lacuna.

To come to understand that though not on as obvious a scale, drug stuff goes on in the US and that corruption and so forth does, too, and again is in the hands of people you might have some sneaking sympathy for, I highly recommend the books of George Pelecanos, Dennis Lehane, Walter Mosely and on and on.

To escape to Scandinavia and its predictably gloomy but extremely interesting characters, try Jo Nesbo or Henning Mankell.  Read the books in order.  I love these books.  

 

 *Truman Capote.  Read everything he ever wrote.