We must insist against organized crime but with smart strategies – Beltrones

The coordinator of PRI in the senate has affirm that the lost of hundreds of innocent citizens must not be only take account in speeches , but also in performing intelligent attack against the organized crime , and the adoption of new actions.
Despite all the loses that had being occurred in Mexico because of the war against the organized crime , the Coordinator of PRI in the senate ask not to take a step back in its fight being waged by the Mexican state.
In interviews being made to Beltrones he says that despite lamenting the loses of citizens we must propose and make new actions to win this battle against the narcotrafics and the organized crime . He says also that the government should apply more intelligent strategies instead of battle with the enemy face to face for not putting in danger the lives of innocents peoples .
He says that he is convinces to continue with this battle , we should not step back until we win the security and welfare of our citizens declare beltrones.

Smokescreens from the government

As history tells, the government is Mexico has always tried to hide what goes on with the reforms in the country. For example, many people believe that the AH1N1 breakout was used by the government as a smokescreen to hide the current problems they were facing like the legalization of marijuana.

I don't think that the government using smokescreens is an ethical thing because they, in a way, "fool" us by not letting us see what is really happening.

I want to say that the Mexican government needs to tell people what happens in the country, and not use another things to hide it. This is why we still live in a country like this, because we don't feel secure that the government has the confidence to tell us what is going on. And because of this, we neither have the confidence to trust in the government's movements.

Mexico has to progress like those other countries that do not create a lot of smokescreens to hide their problems. Mexico has to realize that people want the country to be honest even if it is going through hard times. People in Mexico will then realize that the country is actually doing its job and will start feeling that Mexico is progressing.

792 thousand sonorans live in poverty

On March 20th of this year there was an article in the paper entitled 792 thousand sonorans live in poverty. 340 thousand people live in extreme poverty in Sonora, and in total 792 thousand live in poverty, and they are located primarily in the south of the state. This article said that the government was going to try to take out of extreme poverty the 43% of the population that lives in it. For this only 1% of the state budget is given, which according to the majors of Cajeme and Navojoa is insufficient, but still helpful. Also, the government will give concrete floors to the 65 thousand homes that don't have one, according to Javier Neblina Vega (Sedesson). This goal is set to be achieved in the next 2 years. I think this is an extremely difficult task, and even more when there isn't enough money, but at least the government is trying to do something about.

Register your cellphone!

That's what the government's been telling the Mexican people from a couple of months; we all should register them before April the 10th or else our line will be suspended.

The Mexican government, nowadays, has been facing a lot of problems like corruption, narcotraffic, illegal transactions, etc. and because of this, it has told us we should all register our cellphones. This way, the Mexican government would have a better control of the things going around the country and would be able to know whenever someone does something he/she shouldn't be doing.

We may think that this is a good initiative because we would feel more secure in case someone tries to take advantage of us through the use of the cellphone; however, among the Mexican people, it has been seen that this law is not taken as a positive initative, but as a negative one. People say that the Mexican government, instead of investigating whenever there's someone using the cellphone for illegal purposes, they will listen and know what people think about the current government and not protect them, but take advantage using this technology.

Benjamin Franklin once said: "Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both." This phrase makes me think about what the real intentions of the Mexican government are and if they are really willing to take something good from all of this or it's just another way of entering and knowing about Mexican's life. If they are really doing this because of security purposes, then, the Mexican people wouldn't complain and wouldn't feel they are giving up liberty (Just like Benjamin Franklin said) because they know that the government would be doing its job.

I don't wanna believe or make people believe that the government does this because of negative and convenient purposes, but I can't deny the fact that the Mexican government has always tried to be really oppresive about people's thoughts. I hope their purposes have changed and I hope they know what they are doing, because if not, Mexican people would, again, lose confidence in the government. In case that happened, it may be possible, like Franklin said, that they would complain about this law and demand they want their freedom back because they would feel they are not winning, but losing both liberty and security.

Feminine Power

It is funny that a lot of my feminine classmates have already written about “feminism.” I really don’t understand why this emphasis on this topic is. I mean, I don’t know why suddenly people resumed the feminism topic. I completely agree with this. I consider myself very feminist, and this since I started hanging out with Michelle JAJAJA!! Women do not necessarily need to be obedient, we must be independent.

While I was doing research for the final project relating to Iran, I read a lot of interesting notes. I read about Iranian discrimination of women. In Iran, women have no right to neither participate in political issues nor express their opinions. Mexican women should feel proud and affortunated of the right and opportunities that we as human beings posses. Even though there is still some discrimination towards women because they are considered the weak sex, this issue is imporoving markedly.

This days, women are taking part in every social and political area. Women are no more repressed in Mexico or in the United States. We can see this strongly reflected in the political area. For example, who was competing with Obama for the American presidency? Hillary Clinton. She was nearly to win the elections, and she was a woman. Imagine what would of happen if a women wins the elections for the precidency in any country? This would be something memorable.

Every one should support the participation of women in every aspect. Women can contribute with new, better, and innovative ideas to improve society and solve problems. It is scientifically proved that women are much more intelligent than men JAJAJA!! So.. why don’t they take into account women’s contributions seriously? Lets make this serious and remark that women and men are equal.

Remember that… “Behind every successful man is a surprised woman” by Maryon Pearson

Where the state comes from?

The state is a group of institutions to organize a country economically, politically and socially. The most important institution is the government which makes the most important decisions. There are several theories that try to explain where the origin from the organization from the state comes from. In them are included the force theory (desire from a small group), evolutionary theory (comes from the family), divine right theory, and social contract theory (people decided it by a contract).

I think that state was form by divine right theory because since the ancient civilizations they really appreciated the gods. They considered them as the major power, I think that they felt protected or saw them as the invincible people. With this they started the belief of the god choosing the rulers, they classified that person as the leader and he was able to give orders to people that were not chosen by god. With this, I think that then the power was given to members of the same family, making them kings or queen. And as we know, there were people from different social classes.

I think that after they realized that there was a ruler who controlled others they wanted other to be the leaders. So they tried to modify creating other types of governments. They decided to choose their leaders, and they try to gain more power. That is how I think the story of power distribution was created.

What others think about government...

72 year-old man

I do not know if the mexican independence really helped us because we continue with an enslaved life. The government continues exploting the citizens; they try to take out money from them every opportunity; we would probable go into a time in which we would have to pay even for the oxygen that we breath.

54 year-old man

We have a government that is trying to rescue the country, but it still has a lot of areas to better, such as the security of the country, its economy, as well as education, which all these are essential to reach the wellness of a country.

A 22 year-old lady

The Mexican Government, besides being a government of opportunities; sadly, those opportunities are not being applied in all Mexicans. The government should implement and start ACTION in order to reach peace, instead of being making manifestations that does not takes us anywhere. I do thank them the things it does respecting the rights, and innovating with things that better us such as the “seguro popular” and others. However, it should work with the opportunities that it gives in jobs. There are lots of employees with a lot of talent, but it is not being used because of the employment scarcity.

A 47 year-old woman

Our government is always promising and promising and never carried out. I think our government should promise less and act more. They should focus not only in trying to help poor people; they should also consider the middle class. Also, the government should be fair about taxes. They do not make rich people to pay taxes, but they do take advantage of the ones that do not have a lot but are not either poor. They should tried to make a society equal, in which we all have the same opportunities, as well as the same responsibilities. They should do something against narcotraffic because it is something that is affecting us A LOT!

A 12 year-old boy

I do not know much about our government, but I do know that I can see that a lot of people are poor, and that a lot of people are in the streets with jobs that are not presentable neither good. I also heard some adults talking horrible things about the government. They were saying that the government does is not working properly. It do tries to help us, but they have not found the way to reach it.

Illegal cars

In Mexico, there are several procedures to admit a car from the United States. The car must be from certain year, and accomplish with characteristics to become legal. Last week a coordinator from TEC told us that the authorities didn’t want to legalize the cars, and do something with the people who bring the cars because they were making something illegal. But from the other side, the people who sell them where telling that that was their job, and source of money, that they weren’t violating anything, so they would support their work.

Is it correct to legalize the cars? I think that it is fine to legalize them. That is the way some people can only have a car, and if they are buying it by this way means that they really need it. Besides, they are paying and more employments are created, so the economy increases. I think that the problem the government sees is that they are not consuming product that is made in Mexico, or that they could buy other old cars from here. But for this, I think that people is free to buy the things they want in whatever place they want, for example most of us buy cloths in the USA. And the government shouldn’t interfere in that decision. They are obtaining what they need, from the source they are able to. We are living in a free-decision-making country right?

The cost of abusing

On thursday I was reading the paper and I came across a really intersting column by Leo Zuckermann called "Los costos del abuso". In this column, he talks about how here in México everyone abuses of the easy things. To explain this he gives the example of the canadian visa, he explains how we as mexicans were given the oportunity to live there as refuges, if we needed it. In this system they went in as mexicans and aplied to be in the system, for the time they needed to do research and consider if you really needed "shelter" they supplied them with income, as well as free education and health services. Mexicans started to take advantage of this, and even when they didn't fit the standards to be refugees they stayed there as illegals. The canadian government realized that people were doing this, and now we all have to pay the price and going to Canada is much more difficult.

This hasn't just happened in this case, it happens with everything, and it is why we have to make all those long lines and fill all those papers, because we abuse. He also compares México with the United Kingdom, because he had the experience to be as a student there, and he was surprised when they lent him a lot of money, a friend of his from them told him it was because they trusted him.

I believe that we, as individuals should change our behavior and use the oportunities we are given wisely, and not abusing, because they can take it away from us. Besides, the government is investing more than they should in making this strict regimens, we shouldn't need them to do that, we should be able to take advantage of something without abusing.

SPAIN

My partial project talks about Spain. The complete country name is "Kingdom of Spain" which capital is Madrid and as government they have something really different to what we have; they have a parlamentary monarchy. They have as king Juan Carlos I since November 22nd of 1975 and they have important ministers and people in the government that are part of the parlament and help to manage and monitoriate the way government is governed. Their law system is from December 29 of 1978.

It is really interesting their type of government because even when is really different to ours, it somehow works out, even when they have problems as every country they do have their good things. Even when they have their bad times, they have good ones and some of them made by the same people. Primer ministro, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, has become an important man for Spain because he ordered to withdraw spanish troops from Iraq besides doing other good things.

What is going on with people?

Since the year when Calderon became president, I have been wondering, what is going on with people? Why do they complain of the national situation but still vote for mediocre candidates? WHY?

First, I want to write about Sonora. Before the tragedy of ABC, everything was alright; Elías Serrano and Pano Salido were the favorites candidates, all indicated that they would win the election. But then, suddenly a daycare named ABC burned down. People not only in Hermosillo, but also in Mexico were concerned about the babies and how to heal the surviving babies. But then, I am not sure of the stupid guy who came and told that relatives of Eduardo Bours were the daycare's owners, and about IMSS and that it was their fault and bla bla bla. And all people started to chase them until they went to jail. Only a few people still were concerned about the babies and how to send them to a hospital specialized in burns in the United States. Even though it was actually their fault, Elías Serrano, Pano Salido and us did not have to pay for it. People in Sonora started to think that the two candidates were just like them and among other things. But, are they the same just because they belong to the same political party? I don't think so. I still keep thinking if Sonorenses are so spiteful that they prefered to vote for two guy, who actually look like thieves, than to keep their decision, to be strong, to move forward. "But, is that the tragedy of ABC was a crucial factor." Not true at all. The old governor did many good things for Sonora, and he made some mistakes as well. HELLO, HE IS A HUMAN, TOO! But, did he do something when their friends and relatives went to jail? He did nothing. However, I wonder why people didn't think twice before voting. Now, they complain about tandeo and that they barely have water when they need it, but they mainly complain about insecurity and all the crimes that have took place in Sonora in the past months. Where is your wonderful and fabulous Guillermo Padrés Elías? What has he done, besides taking your water away? Has he solved any problem? What about the economic crisis? Does Sonora have enough jobs? Are people staying here, or they prefer moving to the US? I'm not writing about the bald guy who is supposed to be our mayor, because I don't really know what he has done. I think his wife has done more things, but I really dislike her, and I'll explain it: My mom is a teacher in kindergarden that is located in Olivares, before Javier Gandara won the election and the daycare burned down, this "high-class lady" came by and told the principal of the kindergarden where my mom works, that they would build something else there because she pleased. Oh please! Her husband hadn't won the election yet, and she was already planning. I wonder why people complains if they were the ones who made that happen.

Chile's Situation

As Haiti's news are moving aside, Chile now takes the hotspot in the media by the recent earthquake that striked off the coast of the Maule Region with a maginitude of 8.8 and lasting 3 minutes. I remembered that at first the president, Michelle Bachelet didn't want to ask for help because they thought the catastrophe wasn't so big or just to avoid the panick on people, since the earthquake of Haiti was still on the news. Now, I ask to myself if this is a normal situation, that 2 earthquakes strike in such a small period of time? Well, it's normal for people to think that it was a movement of the tectonic plates, others may say it's global warming, or just the end of the world; however, we have to move to the facts and the desperate situation Chile is going on. On March 4, the president said that Chile will need international loans in order to rebuild the damaging parts in 3 or 4 years. On the other hand, Chile's economic stability of the last years will help the get off this situation more quickly because they have a reserve of cash of about $11 billion. The government of Chile is one of the few governments form Latin America that can be trully admired. Chile has an average steady growth of 4%, which makes this country's economy maintain balance even after a catastrophe passed by. I never thought of Chile as a great country until I found this great news about them. There's a little damage that some cities and ports suffered lowering the economic growth from 5.4% to 5.0%, but after all what happened I think is great news that Chile is standing!

On the other hand, Chile received a visit form the president of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, which state that they will totally help Chile to recover, as Chile also worked when Haiti needed help. I think that is very important to help nations in need because you never know when a natural disaster can hit your country, as it happened to Chile. Besides their economic stability, people are still in need of help such as hospitals, clean water, bridges, etc. as people need to move from dangerous areas and avoid illnesses. I'm conscious that Chile needs all the help possible, and I'm glad that some of my classmates are organizing a campaign to collect cans of food for Chile.

Garbage program in Hermosillo

A few weeks ago we were informed that the system for collecting garbage from houses was going to change. They informed that there were going to still be two days, but one day was going to be for inorganic trash, and the other for organic. I believe it is a good initiative, but it is not very well thought, because we consume way more inorganic things and less organic, so waiting for the trash truck to go to our houses we would be floating in inorganic trash. This could be dealed with, butunfortunately, they aren't telling us when it is going to start, which days are going to be for what tipe of trash and other details we should know and be prepared to do. But as always it won't work thanks to the bad execution and the lack of information of people because they aren't telling us what to do. We should demand answers and actions, and when they are answered, we should step up and take some action, not only leaving it to the government.

ARE THEY IN DANGER?

Las night I was reading an article in Internet about Haiti's problems since the disaster of the past January. Food and where to sleep is not the only problem they are still facing. Since the disaster it is known that there was a ENORMOUS problem with insecurity in the street, but who are the people that are in a more vulnerable situation? the vulnerable ones are KIDS. It is known that many people loose part of their family, some other loose their entire family. Many kids are walking in the streets facing dangerous situation and no one is watching out for them. So what's happening kids are disappearing. People in Haiti are in a situation that they will do whatever just to get money and by this whatever I'm talkin is about selling kids even they own kids. I'm really mad with this situation, beacause many people still have not found their family, so we need to push someone to do something because this can not continue happening. The same mistake happen the first week since the disaster planes from Miami and Holland arrived Haiti to take children to another place away from them! but wait a second how did they know in that short time that those kids did not have family. Thing like this should NOT happen! so kids are in danger and we need to stop this.

While driving

Last Tuesday it was the day for citizenship at school. Our group was in charge of telling the people about the “No Zone Phone” campaign, and the goal was that they commit to one of the three policies while they are driving (not use the cell phone at all, don’t message, or use free hands). I think that this campaign that started Oprah Winfrey is really important and will really have a great impact because there are many accidents due to the use of cell phones while driving, and people should be conscious of their acts.

In the lasts years driving has become a problem. There have been many accidents from young people because they drive with high speed, or they are drunk, or they are using cell phones. I think that the government should be really strict, first at giving the licenses: not because they drive well in a block that means that they are really good drivers so they should do other exams (as in other countries), also they must make the people respect the speed, and if they see a minor driving without license make the right procedure to pay a ticket, not giving them the money because with this the country doesn’t grow. I consider that if people pay the ticket they could be more conscious of their acts and they won’t do them again because of the consequences, or at least they would try not to do them so the police don’t charge them.

But not only we can put the responsibility in the police, the person who is driving must be conscious of what he or she is doing. They must be aware that in the worse of the cases, they can cause a death if they do something bad.

"Celebrating Our Revolution With Reelection"

Today a friend of mine told me a chocking new... Calderon just delivered a political plan in which he proposes 10 main points, in which he includes the reelection of senators and members of the congress.
This is supposed to be grant more time to politics to deliver better and more effective long term plans; however, this will also give them a lot more of power and influence. This is supposed to be counterarrested by democratic election; in theory, if the nation has complains about a politician, he or she would just not be reelected and end of the problem, however, mexican democratic institutions has proved to have leacks, therefore we cannot be sure this would work.
The good pint of this plan is the reduction of the Deputy Chamber from 500 to 400, reducing coastes and maybe creating a more agile processes.

It is still ironic that this pro reelection plan is delivered on the aniversary of the revolution. Here is the link to a summary of the 10 points and the video of the plan deivery by Calderon.
http://www.presidencia.gob.mx/prensa/?contenido=51465

TANDEO: A good or bad strategy

I woke-up today, and I went to the bathroom: I opened the faucet to wash my face, and BOOM NO WATER! I got frustated, and started to think: Why is water being rationed? Why is water scarce in our city while in Mazatlan they can even drink from the faucet's water? Why are WE, Mexicans, so unworried for our city's future, and for our generation's future?

The scarcity of water is a global issue; however, the proposed solutions have not had an impact in society. We need to make conscience in the citizens for them to care of our planet. To care and appropiately use the few water that we have.

The causes of water scarcity are both: caused by nature, and caused by human being. I understand that we are not able to control nature, but we do are able to care of our activities, which would affect either positively or negatively our planet.

Water contamination and misuse of water are just some of the causes of our new TANDEO.

The river that supplies water to Hermosillo is the Sonora river, as well as our reservoir located at the south of the city (this is not a very good option because most of the time our reservoir is totally EMPTY: we can even see animals eating of the grass that has grown in it). Obviously, these water supplies are not being enough. Moreover, the high temperatures and low precipitation that exist in our zone, makes this problem even worst, to the point that even building a desalinization plant is being considered. However, a desalinization plant is a too-costly well structured plan that is being analized with the purpose of finding a new way to get the salt off of the water in a cheaper way.

Meanwhile, the government (instituion in charge of the water company: COAPAES) has taken the desicion of water rationing: A process in which the citizens have water in their houses for a certain period of time depending on the part of the place where they live. This new system has changed our lives totally because humans need water to survive, so we use it almost in every activity.

If you ask to any person who lives in the city of Hermosillo what do they think about the TANDEO, most of them would quickly answer that the are against it. Howver, if they would think a little bit more about the reasons of the tandeo I hope most of them would answer that it is a good strategy to concientize the citizens for the to value what they have while they have it.

Government in Our Lifes

Do you think democracy is practiced in your state? Are you comfortable with your social status? Would you prefer to live in a communist country?

Nowadays, most of the country's population are poor. This is because rich people are getting richer, while poor people become poorer. The reason of this situation is that there is a failure in the distribution of the reources, opportunities, and money among the people.

The type of government in our country is called democracy. What makes a society democratic is if it looks to itself for structure. A good phrase that would summarize its meaning is: "Of the People, by the People, for the People..." the People refer to those who comprise the population. However, it is my opinion that a society or government can work without it being a democratic one. There are many countries that have had hybrid types of governments and societies; for example, France, which is Socialist, and Cuba, which is Communist.

Any type of government would work, but only for a period of time. If communism is imposed, at the beginning, everyone would be happy, would be comfortable with government and with society, poor people would have a better quality of life, and other advantages. However, as time passes, disagreements would emerge. People who want to succeed and improve their salary would start to be in strike because it does not matters how much they strive to achieve a better salary, they would not be able to get it.

Some of the reasons why I consider democracy as the best type of governing are:

-Human being is able to take their own decisions.

-Human being is able to vote (men and women).

-Human being is able to respect and be respected.

-Human being is able to practice his rights.

Remember, government forms a very important part in our lives. Lets choose the one we think its better for us, and would benefit all of us.

Should governments take part of the banks' policies?

Nowadays, neoliberalism is what shapes our lives. We live under this economic ideology which benefits the capitalist thoughts and also says that governments should not have a big influence in the economy, but must let it develop itself, build itself and recover itself.

This term has been put in doubt since we have seen since the last year, the impact of the current global crisis. Many people have started to wonder if governments should, again, intervine in the economies' problems and try to "give it a hand" in order for it to recover quicklier.

The main problem is when it comes to banks: banks don't accept the help from the governments, and thus, they don't recover as quickly as they would if they had that assistance.

Now, the thing is that if banks start allowing governments to help them, we should reconsider the current economic ideology we live under. We had already experienced past crisis due to this same ideas; so, besides leaving the crisis behind, we also have to think what the best idea for economics is.

I am not really good at economy, and I don't really know how it works; however, I believe there should be another option besides government intervention or not. Is there something we can call a "mid-term"? Or must we look for another possibility of reshaping our economy? This is a big problem for both governments and banks right now.

What I am sure of, is that we have to look to the past to see how the past ideologies have work and how efficient is one of them. Although this may take time, it will be better if after 5 or 10 years we come up with a new economic ideology that will benefit us all for a long long time without any big problems.

A Racist "Helper"

A few weeks ago a delegate from the PRD party & also a radio host, named Ariel Gómez León “El Chunko”, made a comment about the fact that Mexico was helping Haiti (because of the earthquakes they have had). As most of us know, the government took a little percentage from the people’s wages (The ones that work in government; in order to help Haiti.), Well he commented that the Haitians are abusive and that Mexico should not help them because they are black, and also because in the T.V. we can “see” that in Haiti there are some people giving them food and according to him, they have enough food and they are just asking for more and more.

In my personal opinion he did totally bad in making those comments. First of all he made a racist comment… we are not in those times that people care about the colour of their skin (or at least the ones that are in an important job shouldn't do it). We are all humans and color is not a matter of discrimination (shouldn't be); Then he said that in television we could observe that they are being fed & they are asking for more and more (that they're being abusive), but I think his kind of cretin because in television everybody could notice that they couldn’t be fed because they were so many and the soldiers were just few (in comparison with them). That’s why the soldiers couldn’t distribute food fairly. I think he should had though about what was going on, besides criticizing. He made a wrong comment through radio (his show) and a few days after he was fired because of those racists comments.

I think they did well (the poeple that fired him) because we can't have those kind of people that base their, let's say their critical thinking (the way they see poeple) on the color of their skin, in important jobs such as an delegate. We are in 2010 that shouldn't happen anymore, but there's still racist people. One more last comment I'd like to add is that even if there's still racist people, they shouldn't care of the color of sking when is a matter of helping others (in sense of natural disasters, scarcity, etc.)