The here and now... and what and why

Complacency is a trap. At least that’s what I was thinking when I up and left the comfort of a Yankee prep school gig, where I taught music, amongst other things, for 28 years. There was also that life long career as a composer, musician and artist.

First, it was a year in St. Thomas, USVI, working as a reporter and shooting photography and then, a year in San Agustin Etla, Oaxaca, Mexico.
Time passed.
More time passed and a year back in the Athens of America followed by a hasty return to Oaxaca where it is all happening.
A couple of years in San Sebastian Etla and now, just down the road in San Pablo Etla. Life is good.

Click on an image to see it larger.
For additional photography please visit my flickr page.
You can find my music on Jango (World & latin - Worldbeat) and at iTunes and most online stores.
¡Soy consciente de todas las tradiciones del Internet!
If you are coming to Oaxaca, please contact me for tours or advice.

Santo Domingo

Santo Domingo
The view from Corazon del Pueblo

The hereafter re me

My photo
Oaxaca, Oaxaca, Mexico
Musician, photographer, videographer, reporter, ex-officio teacher, now attempting to be a world traveler

Friday, March 30, 2012

Election season - Mexican style

Unlike the US and its never-ending years of electioneering, Mexico's system seems far more sane.  First, presidents here serve one term of six years and that is it.  Also, the campaign is limited to three months, which for the 2012 election, begins today and ends July 1.  Three months!  How does that sound?

Of course, this is Mexico so there are all sorts of twists and turns and underhanded dealings as Tim Johnson from McClatchy points out in this story.
The frequency in Mexico of wiretapping politicians' telephones and leaking what's said would make even a British tabloid editor envious. The compressed, three-month presidential campaign leading to July 1 doesn't kick off till Friday, yet already a wiretap scandal is unfolding.
Political commentator Raymundo Riva Palacio calls the drumbeat of leaked wiretaps a "perverse factor in Mexican politics."
In the latest case, the ruling party's candidate, allegedly speaking to an aide on the phone, mocks two top functionaries in her party, among them President Felipe Calderon's highly influential security chief, for her suspicion that they listen in on calls.
In this instance, as in nearly every case of apparent illegal eavesdropping, politicians have greeted the leak with condemnations and demands for a criminal probe. But no successful prosecutions for illegal wiretapping have occurred in recent years.
Riva Palacio, who writes a column for 24 Horas, a tabloid newspaper, said political culture in Mexico "isn't to condemn the deed but rather publicize what was said."
"All people who today complain of (wiretaps) have used these illegally taped conversations themselves to deal blows to their adversaries," he said.
He said many larger state governments had the capacity to wiretap telephones, as did the federal government, making it difficult to trace the source of the bugging and putting potential recordings in the hands of politicians of all stripes.
The leaking of an apparent telephone conversation of National Action Party candidate Josefina Vazquez Mota came more than two months after microphones were found scattered in the lower house of Congress in what lawmaker Armando Rios Piter said were "quite a lot of offices."

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