Mexico

It’s gentrification by any other name

Not every sector has benefited the same from the influx of digital nomads. Sarai Balderrama, the co-founder of Agencia de Arte, a digital platform that promotes up-and-coming Mexican artists to international clients, told Rest of World, “For over a year, I’ve been trying to tap into that market but they don’t seem interested in staying. You usually buy art when you start calling a place home.”

Source: Digital nomads now come first for Mexico City’s gig workers – Rest of World

The resident population of Mexico City has been screaming at these people to willingly integrate with the fabric of the city instead of just insulating themselves from it. Already thousands have been priced out by these digital nomads.

When Latin American people go to the US or Europe to work, Americans usually scream at them to integrate, and the vast majority of them do, even if they don’t speak the language. They pay taxes, they pay their bills, they spend discretionary income if they have any left after wiring money home.

But Americans and Europeans are not willing to return the favor.

It’s gentrification by any other name Read More »

Vacas flacas

La sequía que azota México es un fenómeno recurrente que con cada visita deja una estela de emergencias y daños. El 84% del territorio sufre sequía en diferentes intensidades, agravada por la falta de lluvias de los últimos meses, según se desprende del Monitor, el organismo de Conagua que la vigila. Pese a que estaba previsto y la evolución histórica del clima en el país lo contemplaba, la sequía sorprendió a Ermenegildo Martínez, un pescador de Veracruz que ha visto como en los últimos ocho meses la laguna donde pescaba se ha secado. “Medía 13 metros de profundidad y ahora apenas le quedan 10 centímetros, en menos de una semana la habremos perdido del todo”, describe. A 1.300 kilómetros de allí, en Sinaloa, el agricultor Gumaro López se contagia del pesar del pescador. Al igual que Martínez tendrá pérdidas en su producción y alerta de que subirán los precios. Ya pasó en 2011 y 1996, los otros dos episodios de sequía extrema que golpearon a México y de los que, ha quedado claro, no se ha aprendido lo suficiente.

Source: La sequía que abrasa México, una tragedia predecible y devastadora | EL PAÍS México

Every Mexican president ignores the lessons learned by their predecessors. This drought will likely drive migration north, which is already a flash point due to the pandemic.

The Water Wars might start much sooner than anyone thought and that is worrying.

Vacas flacas Read More »

(Signed off)

Tonight I encountered a bad surprise:

This was the first time in over a decade after being murdered (electronically, that is) I connected to this network. I… I do feel like something has gone into the night, never to return. I expected for there to be at least three or four people. The hardcore users who, no matter what, would be there to show a friendly /whois to anyone who cared to join.

I was a hardcore IRC user. I jumped IPs, ran bnc, shells, anything to hide my real location and identity.

(Signed off) Read More »

Heading towards el barranco

The government of Mexico has a new problem on its hands: what to do with the burgeoning ranks of state governors, current or former, that are facing prosecution for fraud or corruption. It’s a particularly sensitive problem given that most of the suspects belong to the governing political party, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which ruled Mexico uninterruptedly from 1929 to 2000. It returned to power in December 2012 with the election of Enrique Peña Nieto. And it clearly hasn’t changed its ways.

Source: Mexico’s Economy Is Being Plundered Dry | naked capitalism

Heading towards el barranco Read More »

I didn’t know something like this was done

In the eighteenth century, artists in Mexico (and to a lesser extent in other parts of Latin America) created paintings that depicted the different racial mixtures.

Source: Slavery, Race, and Whiteness in Mexico

I didn’t know it had been so complicated back then. Sure, in history class at school we would delve into this sort of thing, but we’re learning it as kids and you don’t ever revisit it until you have kids of your own — unless you study history in one of it’s myriad forms.

I didn’t know something like this was done Read More »

Blinding heat

Longer term, the Colorado River poses issues that no amount of tribal water can resolve. Beset by climate change, overuse, and drought, the river and its reservoirs, according to various researchers, may decline to the point that water fails to pass Hoover Dam. In that case, the CAP would dry up, but so would the Colorado Aqueduct which serves greater Los Angeles and San Diego, as well as the All-American Canal, on which the factory farms of California’s Imperial and Coachella valleys depend. Irrigators and municipalities downstream in Mexico would also go dry. If nothing changes in the current order of things, it is expected that the possibility of such a debacle could loom in little more than a decade.

Tomgram: William deBuys, Exodus from Phoenix | TomDispatch.

Mexicali is already getting hotter and dryer, with the city’s water table being refilled by the keeps complaining about the All-American Canal, supplied by − you guessed it − the Colorado River. Mexicali and Calexico are already gearing up for a fight with San Diego, where the canal ends.

Then there’s Tijuana. It’s right by the sea but to its people the sea is where water eventually ends up, not a source of potable water. There have been talks of a desalination plant, but so far they’ve gone nowhere.

I have friends in both cities. What happens when conflict arises?

Blinding heat Read More »

The internet IS a series of tubes.

Submarine Cable Map 2013.

I can find just four exit points for Mexico. Is it any wonder why latency goes to hell when you’re connecting from down there?

The government needs to get its head out of its ass and pass a comprehensive set of laws that set free everything the DMCA and its ilk have made prisoner in the US.

Instant riches await the country should that happen.

Obviously, that is a pipe — heh — dream.

The internet IS a series of tubes. Read More »

Culture and class in the quest for success

Annette Lareau, a sociologist at the University of Pennsylvania, argues that the affluent also enjoy an advocacy edge: parents are quicker to intervene when their children need help, while low-income families often feel intimidated and defer to school officials, a problem that would trail Melissa and Angelica in their journey through college.

Poor Students Struggle as Class Plays a Greater Role in Success – NYTimes.com.

Isn’t this what is happening in Mexico?. Even when I was going to school, teachers were complaining they had to inculcate and instill basic skills, knowledge and culture to kids, when those kids should have gotten the memeplex implanted into them at home.

These days I’m sure the situation is even worse, and the average school in the Mexican public school system is much worse than that of the poorest school in the American school system.

Culture and class in the quest for success Read More »

He voted his own party out of office

Pero la venganza de Felipe Calderón fue descomunal. Cerró todas las vías legales e ilegales posibles para que llegara financiamiento a la señora Vázquez Mota —precipitando su derrota—, a la que también mandó al hospital.

La fea enfermedad del poder que, según acapulqueños, ya también coquetea al presidente Peña Nieto. Al tiempo.

El Universal – Opinion – Un déspota en Los Pinos.

Vazquez Mota had to go to the hospital? Nice going there, asshole.

He voted his own party out of office Read More »

Desbloqueo de celulares conforme a la NOM-184-SCFI-2012 | León Felipe Sánchez

Desbloqueo de celulares conforme a la NOM-184-SCFI-2012 | León Felipe Sánchez.

Apparently the Mexican government got its head out of its ass and implemented a requirement for cellular telephony users to be able to unlock their devices without any costs to the user, as long as contractual requirements are met.

This is the tale of how one guy successfully got Telcel to unlock his iPhone.

Desbloqueo de celulares conforme a la NOM-184-SCFI-2012 | León Felipe Sánchez Read More »