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

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Election aftermath..

So the PRI is back, however with only a third of the country voting for them.  Oaxaca and the southern states went for the left-leaning PRD.  The PAN was ousted from power and is now the weakest of the three major parties.  Some coalition building and compromise will be necessary to get many of Peña Nieto's promises enacted.

The election process went very smoothly.  This from both internal sources and all the international observers.

Here are the interesting state by state results from google.

For the past twelve years, the PRI were obstructionists for the PAN, much like the GOP/TP in the States, although not with all the vehemence and insanity those folks have wrought.  So it will be interesting if they can work together for the betterment of the country.

From Tim Johnson and McClatchy
Pena Nieto won 38 percent of the vote, with a 6 percentage-point margin over his nearest rival in Sunday’s election, a victory smaller than the one opinion polls had forecast and far from a resounding knockout, analysts said.
His modest triumph and the comeback of his party, known as the PRI in its Spanish initials, which has been out of power for the past 12 years, signaled that Mexicans wanted a new hand at the tiller to deal with soaring violence and modest economic growth that’s averaged about half the rate of other Latin American nations in recent years.
But a majority of voters cast ballots for someone other than Pena Nieto and denied the party a working majority in both chambers of Congress, meaning that the overhaul the 45-year-old former governor has proposed will come only through consensus with opposition parties.
“Voters fully expressed their distrust,” said Federico Estevez, a political scientist at the Mexico Autonomous Institute of Technology. “He’ll be hampered by the Senate for a full term.”
Read the whole analysis. 

My analysis?  I am hopeful, but not optimistic.  ¡Viva Mexico!  It has got to go better than the BS in El Norte or we are totally screwed.  Will the US allow international election observers in the States or even acknowledge the legitimacy of the winner?  Doubtful.  Maybe they should learn from our Mexican brothers and sisters?  Nah... nunca.

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/07/02/154773/mexicos-new-leader-enrique-pena.html#storylink=cpy

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