Today, Oaxaca was mentioned on the BBC World news. It seems that the APPO vs State government problem is just getting bigger and bigger. The NY Times is also following the story in Oaxaca. It seems that is getting worse as time goes by and there is no possible solution yet.
Now, there are some news that talk about gunfire in the city and dead people. El País, the Spanish newspaper published today an interesting article about the conflict. It seems that the media are expecting something to happen in Oaxaca and that scares me.
Even the Mexican news, which highly concentrate in Mexico City and forget about what happens in the rest of the country, unless the President or another high level politician is touring around, are mentioning and pushing for a solution to the conflict.
Anyway, we will see what happens. I just hope nobody gets hurt and also pray for the city to recover its freedom.
Talking about something else, October 2nd is the official date for my proposal defense.
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Cyclic revolutionary thinking?
During the last few days the Hungarian people have protested against their government. It seems that they do not agree with some of the new reforms implemented by their government. In return, the people, and specially college students, want the government to be overthrown. At the same time, there was a coup in Thailand. The militia took over power while the country's Prime Minister was in New York attending a U.N. meeting. These situations might seem too far away to affect my life, but they are not.
In Oaxaca, my hometown, there have been riots for more than 100 days. Everything started as the yearly strike (more than 20 years) from the public school teachers and evolved onto a situation of civil chaos. To me, many of the original arguments used by the teachers are actually right and fair, but it seems that this is one of those cases in which the medicine turned out to be worst than the illness. Blinded by their anger, the teachers and now other popular groups have virtually taken over the city. The original ideas have become communist propaganda and this has resulted on Oaxaca living in complete absence of local government, in a state of libertarianism.
Then, what is going to happen? Until now, the federal government has done nothing but to observe and to play the role of mediator. Is that a step forth or back? Should the government be more active (active, not necessarily as in repressive)? In the past, there have been periods in which movements around the World rose against their governments. The ones in the 60s had a communist/socialist agenda and the way the government dealt with such revolts was not always in the most peaceful manner. In Mexico's case, '68s movement is the most recent case.
Tlaltelolco occurred about half a century ago. Another half a century ago (100 years ago give or take), the Mexican revolution started. Ignited by discomfort with the ruling government, the revolution movement started from the people, and like in many other cases in our history, many of the ones whom started against the movement at the very beginning ended up victorious. How different is the Barbarous Mexico described by Turner in the early XXth century to today's? Do we have to go through the same again? Do we have to go through the same again every half century? Are we mature enough as a government and as a society to deal with our differences and problems for our own betterment? I do not think so... but I really, really hope so.
In Oaxaca, my hometown, there have been riots for more than 100 days. Everything started as the yearly strike (more than 20 years) from the public school teachers and evolved onto a situation of civil chaos. To me, many of the original arguments used by the teachers are actually right and fair, but it seems that this is one of those cases in which the medicine turned out to be worst than the illness. Blinded by their anger, the teachers and now other popular groups have virtually taken over the city. The original ideas have become communist propaganda and this has resulted on Oaxaca living in complete absence of local government, in a state of libertarianism.
Then, what is going to happen? Until now, the federal government has done nothing but to observe and to play the role of mediator. Is that a step forth or back? Should the government be more active (active, not necessarily as in repressive)? In the past, there have been periods in which movements around the World rose against their governments. The ones in the 60s had a communist/socialist agenda and the way the government dealt with such revolts was not always in the most peaceful manner. In Mexico's case, '68s movement is the most recent case.
Tlaltelolco occurred about half a century ago. Another half a century ago (100 years ago give or take), the Mexican revolution started. Ignited by discomfort with the ruling government, the revolution movement started from the people, and like in many other cases in our history, many of the ones whom started against the movement at the very beginning ended up victorious. How different is the Barbarous Mexico described by Turner in the early XXth century to today's? Do we have to go through the same again? Do we have to go through the same again every half century? Are we mature enough as a government and as a society to deal with our differences and problems for our own betterment? I do not think so... but I really, really hope so.
The start of an era
Today I received an email from my good friend Lucas. He is living in Damascus right now. He sent me a link to his blog and I was impressed. Actually, I was so impressed that I logged on to my blogger account and erased the old crap I had to start all over. I really don't know if this will interest anyone, but anyway I guess I got already into this and we'll see what we can do.
There is actually a lot going on to talk about: Oaxaca's and Mexico's current political struggle, conducted research maybe, job search, etc. who knows... Anyway, I guess I will try to make it as interesting (and clear) as possible.
There is actually a lot going on to talk about: Oaxaca's and Mexico's current political struggle, conducted research maybe, job search, etc. who knows... Anyway, I guess I will try to make it as interesting (and clear) as possible.
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