Highlights of Mexico (3): Mexico today
March 23rd, 2016 by Roger Darlington
Mexico is a large country with a large population. Geographically it covers over two million square kilometres (over 760,000 square miles) which makes it the 13th biggest nation on the globe. It has an estimated population of over 120M which makes it the 11th most populated country on earth. The country has three time zones.
Officially the country is called the United Mexican States and it is a federation of 32 states (one of which is the capital Mexico City). Economically the country has the 15th largest gross domestic product in the world but, among OECD nations, it is second only to Chile in having the highest degree of economic disparity between the extremely rich and the extremely poor.
Transparency International’s most recent Corruption Perceptions Index lists Mexico, at 95th, as the most crooked of all countries in the OECD. The current president is reformist Enrique Peña Nieto – a return to power by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) after 12 years out of office – but he has been involved in his own scandals.
Infamously Mexico is best known outside the country for its war on drugs. This has left over 60,000 dead and perhaps another 20,000 missing over the last decade. The drug cartels have as many as 100,000 members. However, most of the narco violence takes place in the northern states and our holiday is in the most southern states.
Sadly kidnapping is endemic in Mexico and no longer just affects the rich. The true scale of this crime is unknown since most kidnappings are not reported because of the collusion or involvement of present or former police personnel. But they say that tourists are rarely the subject of kidnappings.
Oh, there’s now the Zika virus …
Posted in My life & thoughts, World current affairs | Comments (0)
Highlights of Mexico (2): Mexican history
March 22nd, 2016 by Roger Darlington
Pre-Columbian Mexico was home to many advanced Mesoamerican civilisations, such as the Olmec, Toltec, Teotihuacan, Zapotec, Maya and Aztec before first contact with Europeans. While researchers do not agree which Mesoamerican culture first domesticated the cacao tree which gave us the wonders of chocolate, the use of the fermented bean in a drink seems to have arisen in what we now call Mexico.
Between 1519-1521, Hernan Cortés overthrew the mighty Aztec empire of Montezuma in Mexico. Already weakened by the ravages of the new disease of smallpox (itself brought over by Spanish emigrants), the Aztecs thought that the conquistadors were gods returning to fulfil an ancient prophecy and that Cortés had ‘secret weapons’ in the form of horses, dogs and gunpowder. To this day, when visitors to Latin America suffer upset stomachs, it is said to be ‘Montezuma’s revenge’.
Three centuries later, this territory became Mexico following recognition in 1821 after the colony’s Mexican War of Independence. Subsequently the Mexican–American War (1846–48) led to the forced loss of just over half its entire territory to the United States which was kind enough to pay a mere $15M for it. The history of the country is one of endless turbulence and many wars – including one with the delightful name the Pastry War (a conflict with France in 1838-1839).
Modern Mexico dates from the overthrow of the dictatorship in the Mexican Revolution of 1910, which culminated with the promulgation of the 1917 Constitution and the emergence of the country’s current political system. For 71 years (1929-2000), the country was ruled by the same semi-authoritarian political party, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).
Posted in History, My life & thoughts | Comments (0)
Highlights of Mexico (1): introduction
March 21st, 2016 by Roger Darlington
The Americas – the longest of all the continents, stretching from almost the North Pole to almost the South Pole. We have visited many countries in the different sections of the continent: the United States and Canada in North America, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala in Central America, and Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia and Peru in South America.
But there is a big gap labelled Mexico and this is the destination for our latest holiday. The trip is with Cox & Kings and will last two weeks. Family members will be staying at our house while we are away.
High up on my bucket list is a dynamic wish: for as long as I have the health and wealth, to have visited as many countries as my age. This year, I will be 68 and Mexico will be the 69th nation that I’ve visited [full list here].
I’ll be blogging regularly so please follow our travels.
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What will Barack Obama find on his historic visit to Cuba?
March 20th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
Today Barack Obama will be the first sitting US president in 88 years to visit Cuba. The last such visit was in 1928 when Calvin Coolidge went over to give a speech at an international conference. The opening up of relations between the USA and Cuba will be one the lasting legacies of the Obama presidency.
Less than a year before Obama took office, Vee and I had a holiday in Cuba. You can read my account of the trip here.
Posted in American current affairs, World current affairs | Comments (0)
A review of the extraordinary film “Room”
March 19th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
I’ve only just caught up with this film and now I will definitely read the novel. It’s not the movie you probably suspect, so I recommend that you see it. You’ll find my review here.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
A review of the novel “The Book Of Strange New Things”
March 18th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
This is the sixth (and last?) novel by Dutch/Australian/Scottish author Michel Faber. I found it an odd work which I have reviewed here.
Anyone else read it? What did you think?
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
Does big data have to mean Big Brother?
March 17th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
Over the past 13 years, I’ve written a regular column on Internet issues and I have just contributed my 90th piece.
It’s on big data and the power of the algorithm – you can read it here.
If you fancy dipping into any of the previous columns (you can see how far and fast things have developed online), you’ll find them all here.
Posted in Internet, Science & technology | Comments (0)
These days, at almost every event I attend, there is some reference to Brexit
March 16th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
On 23 June 2016, there will be a referendum in the UK to determine whether the nation should remain a member of the European Union or whether we should leave (so-called Brexit). This is a huge issue for the future of the country and understandably it comes up at almost every meeting I attend. Yesterday was a classic …
In the morning, I attended a Westminster Media Forum seminar on European developments. The main topic of discussion was the European Commission’s review of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD). It was repeatedly pointed out that the UK cultural sector has benefited enormously from this Directive since, of the 1100 television channels approved by UK regulator Ofcom, some 650 are providing programming to other EU countries.
In the afternoon, I attended a Board meeting of the Tinder Foundation, a charity that promotes digital inclusion throughout the UK. As at every Board meeting, we considered an up-date of the risk register. One member suggested that it should now include a reference to Brexit even though very little of our funding currently comes from the EU.
In the evening, I attended a debate on the EU referendum organised by the “Guardian” newspaper. There was such a demand for tickets that the venue had to be switched to the London Palladium theatre where more than 2,000 turned up. Three of the four speakers had to vote in the House of Commons, so the start time was delayed and two comedians attempted to amuse us but found that British politics is not that funny at the moment.
The event was very boisterous with the speakers constant interrupting each other and substantial heckling from sections of the audience. At times, the “Guardian”‘s incoming political editor Anushka Asthana struggled to keep control but it was never boring..
I was not an unbiased observer of this debate, since I am a supporter of British membership of the EU and I thought that the speakers in favour of a ‘Yes’ vote in the referendum had by far the most compelling arguments.
UKIP Euro MP Nigel Farage was simplistic, strident and personal (especially against Clegg) in his case for withdrawal. He insisted : “We’re better than being a star on somebody else’s flag.” and suggested that a ‘Yes’ vote would mean union with Turkey. He argued that “The project has outlived its purpose” and that “The rebellion against Europe is coming from the young” [in other EU countries anyway]. Perhaps most controversially, he opined that Europe had provoked Russia to take over Crimea.
Conservative Minister Andrea Leadsom (a replacement for Nigel Lawson) put a more measured case for leaving the EU and she was the most temperate of the speakers. She argued that “The EU is heading towards political union” and claimed that “The remain side is all about Project Fear and the leave side is all about Project Hope.”
Labour MP Alan Johnso was a fluent advocate for the ‘Yes” vote. He insisted that, in the case of of Brexit, “We would spend time and treasure” negotiating what we already have on trade deals and constantly reaffirmed the strength of the UK in an economic block of 500 million. . He acknowledged that so far a lot of the public debate has been “blue on blue” but insisted that the Labour leadership was firmly in favour of EU membership.
Former Lib Dem leader and Deputy PM Nick Clegg was a revelation. He was the most passionate and persuasive speaker and attracted the most applause. Like Johnson (Alan, not Boris), he majored on trade and pointed out that 50% of our exports go to the EU but only 10% of EU exports go to the UK – which led Farage to call him a liar. Farage suggested that Clegg’s performance was an audition to become a European Commissioner which I, for one, think would be an excellent appointment.
Posted in British current affairs | Comments (4)
How common is rape in India?
March 15th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
I have recently been in e-mail correspondence with an Indian woman currently living in Canada.
She felt that my “Short Guide To The Indian Political System” contains “some negative information”, but I explained to her that “My readers expect a critical evaluation in my guides to political systems since constitutional details alone do not explain what is really going on.”
My Indian correspondent went on to suggest that the Western media is overly critical of current affairs in India and she instanced particularly BBC coverage of rape in India.
She drew my attention to the Wikipedia page on international rape statistics which includes this statement:
“India has been characterised as one of the “countries with the lowest per capita rates of rape”. The National Crime Records Bureau of India suggests a reported rape rate of 2 per 100,000 people, much lower than reported rape incidence rate statistics for many nations tracked by the United Nations.”
I think my Indian correspondent has a point, but comparison of incidences of rape between nations is an immensely difficult area. We know that that in all countries rape is massively under-reported. We cannot know whether under-reporting in India is greater or less than in countries like the UK or the USA.
Furthermore definitions of rape vary between nations. For instance, marital rape is not illegal in India (and in 48 other countries) and it is reported that the relevant Government Minister in India (a woman) has just insisted that the concept of marital rape “cannot be applied in the Indian context”, despite the Government laying out plans to introduce legislation to criminalise it last year.
So, while we cannot be sure of the exact incidence of rape in India, it is probably the case that rape outside marriage is much less than is commonly supposed around the world and that world media should be careful how they report on rape cases.
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
The Siberian crater saga: more widespread – and scarier – than anyone thought
March 14th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
If one spends a bit of time surfing the web and looking at social media – as I do – often one comes across something new and interesting and sometimes scary.
For instance, have you heard of the Siberian crater saga? No, neither had I. But it seems that across this end of the earth huge holes are appearing and explosions are taking place.
What’s it all about? You can learn more here.
Posted in Environment | Comments (0)