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

Saturday, October 3, 2009

Mexico: Is a Social Explosion in the Wings?

From nacla:

Javier is trying to grind out a living on the streets of Mexico City playing his harmonica for restaurant patrons for a few coins. It was tough enough to find work before the global economic crisis hammered Mexico, but now it is almost impossible.

He talks about trying to find construction work, which he has done before. "But it is difficult, real difficult," he says, "they say even the city government is firing their street cleaners and cutting their salaries." He talks about going north to try his luck in the United States. "But it's hard there too," he admits. As he thinks about his family, his eyes dart with the worry and desperation shared by many of his fellow Mexicans.

The crisis could finally push Mexico over the brink, into disaster. According to the country's weekly news magazine Proceso, "unemployment, increasingly costly public services, family debt, and desperation because of hunger" as a result of this crisis, "are causing increasingly violent reactions. The fed-up clamor in a wide array of the population, that is now becoming more evident, could soon become what, although some see it as far-fetched, many think is entirely possible: A social explosion." Premonitions of this social explosion are fed on a regular basis by well-publicized acts of violence, perceptions of a dramatic growth in criminal activity and, on a more hopeful note, the recognition that many political, social and labor activists are trying to organize this discontent to push for real changes in the structure of Mexico's economy, especially its core neoliberal policies that many on the left believe to be at the root of the crisis.

The full story is worth reading.

2 comments:

Peter (the other) said...

Hey, thanks for turning me on to nacla.

Might I prod you to write about that indigenous ball game they play where you are (I mean in Oaxaca, not the Red Spx :-) )(or maybe you already have?).
I remember once witnessing a game played in a fallow field (would have been in a January) somewhere outside of Oaxaca. I never did grasp the rules.

Anonymous said...

Regardless of the Red Socks standings. Gold will shoot up. The dollar will fall. Unemployment will threaten stability. And chocolate will still be delicioso. thanks for the link.