Mexico: No Country for Old Tourists?

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Here is a link to an article I publishd on AQBlog, titled “Mexico: No Country for Old Tourists?” on March 15th, 2013. Please feel free to visit and comment. Here is a verbatim copy of it in case you prefer to read it on my personal blog, though I recommend actually going to the site because of additional content, other blogger’s articles, etc.

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Mexicans are used to hearing this: “in spite of the violence and insecurity, the Mexican economy is booming and attracting foreign direct investment.” After a recent visit to Monterrey, even Thomas L. Friedman wrote for The New York Times about this in “How Mexico Got Back in the Game,” providing a positive outlook on Mexico’s ability to compete in the global market. Then again, macroeconomics is just part of the story.

Yes, Mexico is becoming an attractive place for U.S. and Europe to invest. The commercial and technical factors to take advantage of are there. However, our current competitive position vs. China and other manufacturing countries should not downplay the fact that drug-related violence is directly affecting certain hotspots in the country. While the flow of foreign direct investment may continue and even flourish, both the reality and perceptions of violence in Mexico are damaging tourism. Brand Mexico is tail-spinning and losing value when it comes to vacation destinations. This should matter to a country that the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) called the eighth most visited nation in the world in 2007.

Cities like Guanajuato, Los Cabos, Manzanillo, Puerto Vallarta, Cancún, and Acapulco depend on capital influx from foreign and national visitors, especially during vacation seasons like spring break and summer. Yet, Acapulco is set to register an all-time low for tourism this season. Congresswoman and Tourism Commission Representative Karen Castrejón Trujillo recently told the press that up to 80 percent of Acapulco’s hotel reservations that had been blocked earlier in the year have been cancelled since six Spanish tourists were raped while vacationing there. Only 300 of the original 5000 foreign visitors forecasted for this season (already an all-time low), will brave the trip. Imagine the implications for local businesses there. And even worse, isolated but high-profile cases like the violence in Acapulco or the border town of Reynosa are hurting the whole country’s reputation, just like the Zapatista guerilla conflict (which was contained to a couple of cities in the southeast of Mexico) did in 1994-1995, when foreigners were afraid to travel anywhere in the country because “they’re at war.”

Now, the Tourism Ministry is doing an exemplary job of trying to sell the Visit Mexico brand all over the world, but no amount of marketing will overcome the bad press about a crime situation perceived as widespread and out of control. There is no way that a beautiful ad highlighting the rich culture, cuisine, landscape and many more things the country has to offer, will supersede warnings like the one the U.S. Department of State issued on November 2012, telling vacationers, “we won’t tell you not to go there, but if you do, you’re on your own.” It’s no wonder South Padre Island in Texas is recording an all-time high domestic tourist season this year.

Friedman may be right about our ability to attract FDI, but is it enough of a consolation prize if investors are willing to send their money into Mexico just as long as they don’t have to visit it?

Mexico’s Supreme Court Ruling a Step Toward Greater Tolerance

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Here is a link to my latest article on AQBlog, titled “Mexico’s Supreme Court Ruling a Step Toward Greater Tolerance“, published on March 8th, 2013. Please feel free to visit and comment. Here is a verbatim copy of it in case you prefer to read it on my personal blog, though I recommend actually going to the site because of additional content, other blogger’s articles, etc.

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If there is one thing Mexico’s men are famous for, it is the celebration of being macho. We see this everywhere: In telenovelas, the butch and handsome male protagonist becomes the hero only after he conquers the lovely señorita by wooing her with his macho chivalry. It is common to hear traditional male fathers telling their sons “real men don’t cry.”

A number of consumer products also cater to this very innate part of the Mexican heterosexual male’s existence through marketing, which might be considered as sexist in other cultures. The macho element also permeates humor; viewed through the optics of U.S. culture it no doubt be deemed much more than politically incorrect. This is not a matter of right or wrong, but rather a plain and simple recognition of who we are as a culture today.

On March 6, however, Mexico’s Supreme Court of Justice (SCJN) took a decision that could lead to a shift in the way Mexican machos coexist with homosexuality, which today is regularly mocked. Mexican insults such as “maricón” or “puñal” (derogatory terms for “gay male”) are thrown around in colloquial talk with as much disdain as the word “pansy” in the English language. But the Supreme Court decided that such expressions are not protected by freedom of speech and can be subject to lawsuit on the basis of moral harm.

The split 3-2 judicial decision is probably an accurate proportion of how Mexican society would view the subject. Some view this as a step toward inclusion and tolerance. Others see this as unnecessary ruling and censorship of what has traditionally been acceptable humor.

The approved ruling states that “Homophobic expressions, that is, language consistent in inferring that homosexuality is not a valid option, but rather a condition of inferiority, constitute discriminatory manifestations. This includes the use of such terms in humorous use, given that through them, intolerance toward homosexuality is incited, promoted and justified.” The ruling goes on to acknowledge that these expressions are part of common use in Mexico’s culture by stating that, “while these expressions are strongly embedded in Mexican society’s language, practices by the majority of a population cannot validate violations to fundamental rights.”

As with most countries and cultures, gender diversity is slowly but surely (granted, more slowly than us progressive thinkers would like) moving forward.

The antigay sentiments and comments common in previous generations are less present with youth today, even if the male macho is still a predominant figure in our culture. But the SCJN’s ruling, if harnessed correctly, can be a powerful boost toward a more open and tolerant society. If really enforced, this ruling could create a huge shift in approved TV content for example, which is a powerful vehicle in our culture. Today, many humor programs make fun of LGBT individuals by portraying them as inferior and/or exaggerating stereotypical effeminate traits, thus teaching that these expressions are acceptable in society. With the ruling, this type of humor could hold TV companies liable and perhaps motivate them to change their content. In an ideal scenario, this would extend to TV companies that shield themselves from responsibility by stating, “we give people what they want to see.”

While enforceability of this ruling in everyday social interaction and situations proves complicated, the institutionalization of hate humor in printed media and television can be affected. This is, in a way, something similar to the shift made with regard to cultural acceptance of smoking. When did smoking stop being cool? Many would say it was when we stopped seeing it as acceptable in TV and later in social occasions. Even if it takes a couple of generations to accept, typifying homophobic slurs as hate speech is a celebratory step toward social inclusion and tolerance in Mexican culture.

*Arjan Shahani is a contributing blogger to AQ Online. He lives in Monterrey, Mexico, and is an MBA graduate from Thunderbird University and Tecnológico de Monterrey and a member of the International Advisory Board of Global Majority—an international non-profit organization dedicated to the promotion of non-violent conflict resolution.

A Window of Opportunity for Education in Mexico

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Here is a link to my latest article on AQBlog, titled “A Window of Opportunity for Education in Mexico“, published on February 27th, 2013. Please feel free to visit and comment. Here is a verbatim copy of it in case you prefer to read it on my personal blog, though I recommend actually going to the site because of additional content, other blogger’s articles, etc.

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On Monday February 25, having achieved the needed support in Congress, President Enrique Peña Nieto put into effect an education reform that will transform the public education system at its core. If enacted correctly, the reform will allow the country to take important steps forward and proactively tackle one of its most relevant social issues.

The reform calls for a new autonomous government institute to be created, with the sole purpose of strengthening and professionalizing the teaching profession by establishing a talent performance system that will ensure that teaching positions are awarded based on merit and not discretional criteria. The system includes periodical evaluations for the public system teachers, a change that undoubtedly will generate resistance from teachers who have become quite comfortable in mediocrity under the protection of a backwards thinking union that is too strong and powerful for its own good.

The new institute will also be responsible for ensuring that a trustworthy database comprising numbers of schools, teachers and students is created and kept up to date. This administrative responsibility also used to be in the hands of the SNTE (Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación), who kept whatever data they had away from public scrutiny.

In what can only be interpreted as a strategy to hit them while their down, one day after Peña Nieto published the reform, the country was surprised with the arrest of SNTE’s controversial and powerful leader, Elba Esther Gordillo who is facing charges for fraud, money laundering and links to organized crime.

The case being built up by the Public Attorney’s office (PGR) highlights accusations of SNTE’s money being used to pay for purchases made by Gordillo from 2009 to 2012 in the upscale store Neiman Marcus, amounting to up to $3 million. This is not the first time questionable purchases have been made with SNTE’s money but it is the first time the government has moved against the union’s leader so decisively and surely, the only way they were going to be able to get rid of this influential character, whose position as leader of the union did not have an expiration date on it.

With the new educational reform put in place and the largest obstacle for its success removed and (at least temporarily) placed in a jail cell, the future for education in Mexico seems bright as it does for PRI and Peña Nieto, who up to now has not been able to gain public sympathy or project himself as having the capabilities to lead. If Peña continues on this path and ensures that the reform results in actions with tangible results for society, PRI will have taken a huge step toward rebuilding its political machinery and consolidating its power both at state and federal levels in future elections.

If that’s what it takes to start making much needed improvements in Mexico’s education, the nation will surely welcome the return of PRI’s perfect dictatorship. Let’s hope the trade-offs (because no question, there will be major ones) are worth it.

*Arjan Shahani is a contributing blogger to AQ Online. He lives in Monterrey, Mexico, and is an MBA graduate from Thunderbird University and Tecnológico de Monterrey and a member of the International Advisory Board of Global Majority—an international non-profit organization dedicated to the promotion of non-violent conflict resolution.

Monterrey, Mexico: Living amid the Rule of Fear

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Here is a link to my latest article on AQBlog, titled “Monterrey, Mexico: Living amid the Rule of Fear“, published on December 10th, 2012. Please feel free to visit and comment. Here is a verbatim copy of it in case you prefer to read it on my personal blog, though I recommend actually going to the site because of additional content, other blogger’s articles, etc.

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For the past couple of years, people from all over the world have been asking me the same question: how bad are things in Monterrey, really? Obviously, they are referring to the drug-related violence and overall instability that have recently given the city unwanted international attention.

There’s a saying in Mexico: “cada quién cuenta como le fue en la feria,” which roughly translates to “how the tale is told depends on what the narrator has been through.” Therefore, my experience will not resonate equally among some others who live in Monterrey, but I do hope it will provide a relatively objective conclusion and answer to the above question.

Since the underlying interest behind the question is learning more about the situation of violence, I will not get into details about how Monterrey has a buoyant economy, entrepreneurial society, growing industrial sector, or is the birthplace of the most important higher education systems in Latin America and the home of hard-working, committed individuals. What I will focus on is how daily life has changed for middle-class citizens as a result of the violence and how societal interaction today is less regulated by a rule of law and more so by a rule of fear.

For the most part, people are still able to go to work, attend restaurants, movie theaters and parks and lead normal lives. But a certain fear has now been engrained into the average regiomontano’s DNA and it has changed how we go about our daily activities:

  • Public places: There are certain restaurants and bars we don’t go to anymore. In fact, a whole area of the city known as Barrio Antiguo, which used to be the cultural, culinary and entertainment center of Monterrey, is practically abandoned now. Close to Barrio Antiguo, young male adults who used to flock to mens’ clubs and after hours bars late at night are doing this less and less because they fear these establishments to be controlled by the cartels and gangs. If a neighborhood is dangerous—or, more importantly, if it is perceived as such—then we simply avoid it. A lot of the nightlife has migrated and concentrated into San Pedro Garza García, the safest and highest income per-capita municipality in the metropolitan area.
  • Get-togethers: You still go out and see your friends. Nightlife is not dead, but there is an undeniable shift toward home get-togethers versus going to night clubs. People try to hang out with people they know and get away from those they don’t know. This can easily be measured by the changes in the sales of alcohol in supermarkets and retail stores in comparison to restaurants and nightclubs. Also, regiomontanos are turning in a lot earlier than they used to and on weekend nights, what used to be bumper to bumper traffic in the main streets of the city is replaced by the few brave enough to speed through on their way home.
  • Talking about it: The topic of insecurity, discussing drug cartels or even mentioning certain names, has become taboo in many public spaces because “you never know if one of these criminals or someone linked to them is sitting at the table next to you.” Just based on probability, the likelihood of this happening would be considerably low, but people prefer to just play at safe. It’s a really interesting phenomenon to see how when people are going to discuss the subject in public, they always look around and lower their voices first or just wait to be in a private space.
  • Going to school: When middle- and upper-class parents choose the private grade school for their children, the new variable of fear is brought to the table. A couple of the top grade schools in the Monterrey area have excellent curricula, staff, technology, and campuses but they are located in the Santa Catarina municipality and the roads that go to these schools go through some of the crime hot spots. Thus, parents’ choice for quality in education is being put in the balance against peace of mind and security.
  • Driving with others: Ironically, regiomontanos have become more polite behind the wheel of a car. Excessive honking has been replaced by an almost eerie silence in many of our streets. Most people have shifted toward using the horn only to avoid imminent accidents because “you never know if the guy who cut into you is a criminal or somebody linked to the drug cartels and you don’t want to draw attention to yourself.” People still cut each other off and they still turn left from the right lane. We’re still immensely bad drivers; we just don’t honk, yell and swear at each other for it anymore.

From reading some of these changes in daily lives, one could conclude that people who would not traditionally be considered criminals—the common folk—are actually behaving better than in the past. They are risking harm to themselves less. While that may be the case, the reason for it is rather unfortunate: it’s not that we abide by or respect a rule of law; we are restricted in our liberties because of a rule of fear.

Official sources reported that November presented a significant decrease in executions, house break-in and car theft but that has had little to no effect in society’s perception of the risks they may face in the city they live in.

So what is it like to live in Monterrey, really? The city continues to have several positive and unique aspects to it. But what has changed? We are not caught between crossfire, held at gunpoint or witness beheadings on a daily basis, but the difference from years back is that now is the presence of fear for these things actually happening and our conduct adapting accordingly.

Hopefully, we will be able to eliminate this fear in the near future, through projects and day to day actions which eliminate the reasons for our fear strengthen a culture of lawfulness, reclaim public spaces and harness the strength of an active and organized civil society and a committed private and public sector.

My first Half-Marathon

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I was born with asthma and a number of respiratory problems. I was also allergic to around 40 different substances (both food and environmental).

When I was a kid, I looked like one of those “For twelve dollars a month you can sponsor this child” TV commercials. I was skinny and had below average muscle tone.

Because of my asthma I could not be as active a kid as I would have wanted to be. Trying too hard meant a possible attack which if you’ve had one, you know it feels like you’re dying because you simply can’t breathe.

The asthma attacks eventually went away but something that had a larger effect lingered: I think I was about 8 years old when a doctor told me and my mom that “this kid will never stand out physically.” For a while and mostly because of the fear of my asthma creeping up on me, I believed this. That was my mistake.

I may not have the DNA to be the next Michael Jordan and it has surely taken me longer than most would consider admirable, but yesterday I once again proved to myself that hard work, determination, perseverance and believing in what is possible, makes all the difference. I did this for myself, for my wife and children and for many people who supported my goal and motivated me to achieve it.

No, I did not climb up Mount Everest or break any world record but yesterday I broke my OWN personal record and for now, that’s good enough.

Yesterday I ran my first half-marathon. And that doctor who never believed I could do it, can kiss my ass.

 

 

Censorship in Mexico: The Case of Ruy Salgado

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Here is a link to my latest article on AQBlog, titled “Censorship in Mexico: The Case of Ruy Salgado“, published on October 29th, 2012. Please feel free to visit and comment. Here is a verbatim copy of it in case you prefer to read it on my personal blog, though I recommend actually going to the site because of additional content, other blogger’s articles, etc.

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Most people outside of Mexico may have never heard of Ruy Salgado. But during the most recent electoral contest here, that name not only became known throughout Internet circles in Mexico, but was arguably one of the most influential voices of opposition in the country.

Ruy Salgado, a pseudonym, has an online alias known as el 5anto. Salgado is a nonprofit video blogger whose notoriety increased during these past elections for his very critical view of both the transparency of the process and the role of the mainstream media in “manipulating the truth.” He was also one of the most vocal in denouncing what he referred to as institutionalized fraud in the results that will bring the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (Institutional Revolutionary Party—PRI) back to power on December 1.

El 5anto’s modus operandi was to webcast himself live, wearing a blue luchador mask, providing news and opinion rarely present in mainstream media. This approach was part commercial flair, part self-protection. During the time his project was online, he attracted a growing audience whose members may not have all supported his beliefs, but who did attest to the professional way in which they are always presented: stating sources, structuring analyses and providing informed and argumentative opinion.

For his views and his attempts to “provide information”—always his prime objective—el 5anto became a target of multiple death threats. At one point he even fled the country and started streaming from an undisclosed location for fear of becoming yet another communicator permanently silenced by those who have made journalism an extremely dangerous profession in Mexico.

On September 8, people who would regularly tune in to Salgado’s website, http://el5antuario.org, were suddenly cut off from the feed and his video-blog (“vlog”) channel went silent. After a couple of days without news, collaborators from his site issued a recording stating that their spokesperson had disappeared and they lost contact with him. For more than a month both his collaborators and his audiences feared the worst. While most mainstream media initially ignored the case, the buzz of social media proved too powerful as the words “Where is Ruy Salgado?” became a trending topic on Twitter—leading some television networks, politicians and pundits to finally pay attention. Despite the demands, for more than a month there was nothing but silence from Salgado.

Finally on October 20, through a Skype connection with one of his now-former collaborators who livestreamed the call, el 5anto’s voice was once again heard over the Internet. Unfortunately this would be Ruy Salgado’s last broadcast and final goodbye. In a three-hour message, he explained that he could not go into detail about his victimization during the 42 days of silence “because there is no security that what happened to me will not happen again and I cannot put my family at risk” but he did refer to a “forced disappearance” caused by Mexico being “a failed narco-state.” He went on to reiterate that the free flow of information in spite of attempts from mainstream media to manipulate it, had not been enough to prevent an electoral fraud and that “Mexico will need a lot more than what el5antuario was able to do.”

The objective of his final message, he said, was to tell everybody that he was still alive but that he had decided to cease and desist in his civil disobedience broadcasting because he felt he could no longer provide a voice to el5antuario without putting his family in danger. In this decision el 5anto called himself “a repugnant coward” and asked others video-bloggers “to be very careful.”

The content of Salgado’s final broadcast is honest and factual; his case is yet another grave example of the censorship of free speech and free ideas through violence in Mexico. In sum, the good news is that Ruy Salgado is alive and the bad news is even through anonymity divergent ideas are not safe in today’s Mexico. This country is certainly far off from the idyllic words of  Voltaire: “I disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”

Stop cyber-bullying and teach your kids about the risk of sexting

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Kids are gullible. They make mistakes. Make sure you warn your kids. Prevent them so that  horrible cases like Amanda Todd’s do not happen again. RIP Amanda.

Yesterday I learned about a young girl in my hometown (Monterrey) who recently stripped for her boyfriend who videorecorded her… Of course, the video is all over the web, as is another video showing her yelling at the guy for spreading it. This is yet another case of cyber-bullying which will not go away.

Take action. Care for your own. And teach your children about this problem so that they are neither victims nor instigators of cyber-bullying.