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| Home Front: Culture Wars |
| Is the tide finally turning in Mexico? |
| 2006-05-31 |
| Probably not. :-( Hat tip: Cracker Barrel Philosopher (who's posting again!) Funny thing about Mexican President Vicente Fox's visit to the American West last week: It didn't turn out as one would have expected. Fox was greeted by some of the best in the American intellectual community with an honesty about his abundant failures that has not been seen before. A brilliant paper by professor George W. Grayson of the College of William & Mary, widely circulated before the visit, laid out Mexico's shame: President Fox makes $236,693 a year, more than the leaders of France, the United Kingdom and Canada; Mexican congressional deputies, who serve only a few months a year, take home at least $148,000 a year, plus a $28,000 “leaving-office bonus” at the end of the term. Meanwhile, Mexico collects taxes equivalent to 9.7 percent of GDP, a figure on a par with Haiti; there is painfully little to spend on education and health care, which means there is no social mobility and little job opportunity. Professor Grayson ends his paper with: “U.S. leaders and the American public have every right to insist that Mexican officials act responsibly, rather than expecting that their neighbor to the north will shoulder burdens that they themselves should assume.” In short, Mexico is so corrupt, so oligopolistic, so rotting inside with the privilege of the rich that it has to send its poor and its potential political activists to another country. And on top of that, it tries to blame the United States for its own failures. Preach it, brother! If it hurts their widdle feewings - GOOD. When I [Geyer, the author] was in Mexico last fall, after dozens of visits over the years, people on every political and social level confirmed these accusations, complaining to me of Fox's failures. Forty families still own 60 percent of Mexico. There are no voluntary organizations, no civic involvement, no family foundations – and thus, no accountability, allowing corruption to flourish. Mexico gains $28 billion from oil revenue and $20 billion from immigrant remittances. There is virtually no industrialization, no small business, no real chance at individual entrepreneurship. Under Fox, it has created only one-tenth of the 1 million jobs needed. Looks like the Arabs aren't the only ones who have a culture to be ashamed of. Ah, but there are new voices of change, of reason, of self-awareness in Mexico, in place of the hoary anti-gringo rants: the beginnings of a transformation of the debate. God, I hope so.... |
| Posted by:Barbara Skolaut |
| #2 Mexico = Commies = Radical Muslims, etal > Want what America and the West has but are locally unwilling or unable to make the requiste reforms or changes needed to improve their lot. In LT, the only choices comes down to imploding on one's own, escape = migrate, or wage external War(s) for new resources - read, survival. War, however, is only a temporary solution or alleviation to the natural dynamics-forces induced by internal problems. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2006-05-31 22:28 |
| #1 "There are no voluntary organizations, no civic involvement, no family foundations – and thus, no accountability, allowing corruption to flourish." Bulldinky! If this guy couldn't find the Rotary Society or the Knights of Columbus down there he is blind. Not saying the rest of his stuff is wrong but this particular statement is! I am sure members of other national organizations might be able to verify whether they have chapters in Mexico. |
| Posted by: DanNY 2006-05-31 16:34 |