2004/05/29

Post-trip trip-up

The post-trip meeting was something like I might've expected--a couple people missing, an atmosphere of a sad semi-goodbye mixed with celebration and fond memories--but there were two surprises: Jonathan gave a good exercise and a book lead for learning about liberation theology, and we discussed utopias. The latter threw me for a loop, because I was unprepared to deal with the preconception that utopias are obtainable. The exercise we did was based upon that, and I had no concise way to challenge it for everyone--interestingly, much in the way (which I happened to have not experienced yet) people were telling that telling others about the trip was met without reception. That is, you'd go to tell about the meat of the trip (which I'm still trying to define), and people's eyes would glaze over. They would rather hear about how the weather and the water was. Well, I did feel that, but surprisingly, it was trying to explain to my group-mates that none of the things they were listing under Utopia were causes--even circular ones--but merely effects or symptoms.

The "true" utopia (juxtaposed against our Western consumerist-bent "false" utopia) was based on the Jon Sobrino quote we were given: "[T]hat everyone have the basics of life, enough to eat, have a home, have health, to not be despised." You may ask what the harm is in working for such an ideal. As I'll get to, the last ten years of my life have been a discovery of the fact that and reason behind why such utopias aren't meant to be.

The next part of the quote leads in well: "The only thing that stands in the way of this true utopia is the false utopia." I disagree.

Please sit back down while I explain. There's no doubt that the false utopia stands in the way of those characteristics Sobrino and our groups gathered under the heading of the "true utopia". The contention lies in the word "only". If that crucial part of his statement was true, then by all means, I would wholeheartedly agree with the entire scheme of working towards such a utopia.

The two utopias here can be distilled much further than a North-versus-South or individualistic-versus-communal matchup, but I should warn you that when we do, we're getting to the real heart of the problem, which changes those boundaries somewhat: sin.

When I tried to explain to our sub-group that a true change of heart--that is, seeking communion with God constantly--is what a real utopia is, and that all the other pure things we imagine about utopias would flow naturally from this state, I got some blank stares, and one person told me that you can only say that if you're really spiritual.

I hate to interrupt with a pair of quotes from the disappointing Matrix: Reloaded, but it was the only part of the movie that I liked, and it applies directly:

"[Gosh darn] it, Morpheus! Not everyone believes what you believe!"

"My beliefs do not require them to."


This is why I do not expect to have to secularize my thinking in order to have a discussion, especially about things such as utopias and what it means to truly live. All too often people see having faith in faith (to paraphrase Willard) as acceptable--even a cultural positive--but actual faith in God as something religious that must be kept private.

It's dangerous to ignore the spiritual reality behind the world, writing off belief as Mere Christianity, as one of the wiser of our twentieth-century writers put it.

Better yet, as it was put to me more recently, working towards a secular humanistic utopia such as this is like stapling fresh fruit on a rotting tree. (Oh, if I were a political cartoonist...)

...

To be continued.

2004/05/27

York U Link

Just so I can read tidbits on break, I thought I'd throw this up here. I've been meaning to read it for a long while now:

CanadaWatch issue on Mexico

Frontierishness

Maybe I wasn't thinking of the frontier thesis after all, but I might've been. I was flipping through my journal today, and noticed the first spot besides downtown K-W that I thought it might've applied to: the Tepotzlán social activists who were the only ones in Latin America to successfully prevent a golf course from moving into their neighbourhood. After the battle, though, she had told us, the unity of the city's people waned due to the lack of a common enemy, despite the fact that during the battle, their tactics had been "80% fiesta, 20% politics," with many a spontaneous city-wide celebration to keep spirits up and united.

I'm not sure which direction I'll be heading in for the GS310 research paper--I guess I'm right on schedule, then. It might be nice if I can somehow combine the two areas I've been exploring so far--real change only coming from the inside and thriving only under pressure--into some coherent and interesting topic to explore, but it's possible I'll do something else entirely.

I'd better look up this Illich fellow's writings too.

2004/05/24

Suerte ser fuerte

Yes, we're lucky to be strong, and it rhymes in Spanish. Some day I may title a poem that.

Anyway, aside from these handy post-trip reflections, I'm thinking of doing just highlights (in terms of ideas, etc.) of each day, rather than the whole thing, and then cleaning up and reflecting on the actual journal entries I made as I'm typing them in here.

For today, though, here's my "impact statement" as Jonathan requested:

I can't say that this trip has helped me discover myself, or the world, so much as that it has confirmed and highlighted truths that were being revealed to me elsewhere, filled in some details where before there were none, and allowed me the privelege of becoming part of a new group of friends. To me, the overall shape of the world, for better or for worse, has remained the same: Mexico and Canada, like any two countries, truly are a part of "one world." This trip has helped an old truth sink in and start to well up: Problems start to dissolve only when there's a change of heart. And once something wells up, it starts to overflow through every medium possible.


I really had to cut that down to fit it into a short paragraph.

It's good to read a lot. Everyday life helps confirm the truths you learn. Such was the case with Lee Strobel's "A Case For Christ" during the trip, and Dallas Willard's "The Divine Conspiracy" is going much deeper to that end as I relive the trip through each book's lens.

2004/05/22

Skepticism

I'm starting to wonder whether this trip was worth it. This type of feeling may be part of those phases that we go through reacting to our own culture when we return to it, but maybe not. You see, I've never really felt like I was a part of Canadian culture. I could identify at times with the anti-American aspects of it, until I realized that, much like the smallest-scale psychologies that make it up, a culture tends to hate in other cultures that reality which it hates most in itself. Hypocricy and the hatred of it pervade the human race from what I've seen so far.

What does this have to do with Mexico? Well, if anything significant was to be gleaned from it, from my perspective, it would only be confirmation of things already known. The thing I'm talking about in this instance is the wisdom that problems "over there" (be that across an ocean, across the US, or across our backyard fences), are rarely caused or solved entirely over there. The interconnections of our world, even before the recent acceleration in the direction of globalism, are more significant that our individualistic Western minds tend to suspect. We, and especially our corrupted ideas of the ideal or realistic way of life, reach out: at first to a known and controllable distance, but soon to a never-to-be-known and uncontrollable area do they spread, like slick gossip. Good ideas, in contrast, almost always must be consciously fought for. With that in mind, the objects of our daily fights speak volumes to our priorities. Generally, we go to work, and if our fight is anywhere, it's there--for accomplishment, efficiency, and monetary profit. When we get home, we relax, and let the media fill us with apathy (if we fought well at work) or depression (if work is fruitless, and no longer a battle). When I would hear "Affect or be affected," I used to think, "Try learning with humility instead," which should easily exceed your recommended daily intake of irony for today. Affect or be affected is an attitude that doesn't have to do with asserting oneself or being generally rebellious, but with protecting oneself from the demons of this world, and rebelling against our patterened ways of absorbing their will into ours.

"Two Countries, One World" is a pretty accurate description, I would say.

P.S. Thanks for putting up with my skeptical (looking back, pretty nonsensical) intro. It was easier to start exploring that way.

2004/05/20

Skip it

You know, looking back at two posts ago, I think maybe I shouldn't be bothering to expand my notes so much, when I have two weeks' worth of them to go through. Instead I'll just read them over again and focus more on the analysis and what I wrote about in journal entries at the time, like that frontier theory interjection.

Actually, I went and looked at my HCNOA1 notes, and there was nothing on the frontier thesis, but I do distinctly remember reading about it in that course's textbook. Google me:

http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/1112/38501

It seems that frontier theory is alive and well after all. Yet Winn's conclusion is much the same as denouncers' were a hundred years ago, with an added twist:

"[I]t is clear that no place on this planet qualifies as a frontier anymore. If there is to be a chance for the future, then we must find it above the sky. Up is where hope lives."

Here he's talking about space programs. I would like to explore the idea of a Christian frontier--which could last until the end of time--and whether it fits his criteria or not, but it's time to go to work.

2004/05/15

Older journal entries

Here's another piece of the puzzle. It may be damaged and incomplete, but I thought it would be better to post than to hold back.

2004/03/05 - Interestingly enough, de Soto was mentioned in yesterday's Toronto Star, which I only got around to reading today. He apparently is advising Prime Minister Martin to step outside the norm of Western commitment to world poverty (i.e., hardly any), in the form of encouraging the formalization of property rights in developing countries and the availability of capital to small businesses and would-be investors. Apparently 90% of the economy in some countries is underground, because of a lack of laws surrounding most economic transactions and methods of business. This makes sense enough, but what about the merits of group-based ownership and the limits of the consumerist/capitalist system when it spreads to the world? Already the West is getting worried as it becomes cheaper and more effective to outsource tech jobs (such as Web programming) to the Third World than it is to employ locally. If we really think we're on top because we're better, we wouldn't be scared of such a thing. If all 6 billion of us were university-educated professionals, would there be enough room? How long would the environment survive?

2004/03/04 - Researched Latin American economic situations, and found an interview with Hernando de Soto, the author of a book describing how Latin America's current problems were America's 150 years ago. An interesting quote that contrasts the Lubicon Cree stories from GS102 was this: "We know that when you started organizing territory on lines of sovereignty and giving away to your Indians, it doesn't work. People eat other people's sovereignty. Property rights, those are more respected." On the other hand, he is also of the view that Western democracies are "good" and that that's why the West is wealthy. That's a bit off the deep end if you ask me. Maybe our democracies are better than the Latin American democracies he describes, but we're wealthy because we historically got lucky and, wanting to stay on top, crushed those below.

2004/02/23 - Picked up a book written in 1976 by an American University student as a PhD dissertation. I wish I had the same material from a Mexican or Canadian perspective--the author very much sees our two countries as "dependent" upon the US, which is as arrogantly oversimplified as the common belief that "immigrants take up all the jobs".

2004/02/22 - Left

2004/02/21 - Dinner at Carioca to celebrate Dad's birthday (early).

2004/02/20 - Spanish cartoons, stomach weirdness

2004/02/19 - Went to further mall (saw Alain again)

2004/02/18 - Met Alain

2004/02/17 - Second city tour, bartered and got ripped off at Barra de Navidad, tried coconuts, etc., fancy dinner, daquiri; went over the Sierra Madre hills to Colima (pop. 500k); Gabriel guide: VW car plant now Nissan & Chevy; VW hubcaps embedded in road as speedbumps; volcano active; coconut shack: bought banana chips and tobasco sauce, and drank some coconut water (kinda bland, not bad); saw magé (silver cactus the roots from which tequila is made) plantation (guard siesta-ando!); watermelon stands; same products here as Hawaii (same lat.): coconut (green or yellow), fresas, papayas, limes (limónes), mangos, peppers, bananas, pineapple, coffee, sugar cane, grapefruit, manzanas, y naranjas; Colima Liberty Square (w/old prison)--cathedral in service in middle of weekday; went to an UNAM-lead archaeological dig La Campana: sacrifice pits (to volcano gods), low pyramids, walls, stands; museum of Alejandro Ranjel Hidalgo w/paintings (stippled, very detailed and colourful), "Jake" statues (fat dog), and other artifacts from the dig; lunch with mariachis, lime-salt heat solution, excellent tortillas and quesadillas and tacos and enchiladas, G's point about putting the glass down silently (unlike Ciudad M.); real estate guys gave us their card on the street; "magnetic hill";

2004/02/16 - City tour #1, no good books, Hectours' Roberto (BA in geography; hectours.com): drove around rich people's houses; up to summit of peninsula; many new five-star resorts and world-class golf courses popping up for a half-Am, half-Mex audience (Mex esp. on weekends as a break from work in other cities); many mansions for famous actors of Western nations; up to port; downtown shopping; trains; VW;

2004/02/15 - Today, Mary, my sister Jenn, her boyfriend Dan, my mom and dad, and my aunt, uncle, and I left for Manzanillo, one of the largest trading ports in Mexico.

2004/02/09 - I actually bumped into Abe at another event, this time visiting UW with a friend who was in town, but I didn't get to talk to him much, because it was really loud. Hopefully I'll get to connect with him at some point.

2004/02/06 - We had our first study tour meeting today, which was somewhat interesting, mostly because I got to meet everyone who's going on the trip. There's quite a variety of backgrounds and motivations involved, which is excellent, but I also noticed that only one person admitted to be going on it "for a vacation". I say "admitted" because even though we are there to learn and to have our lives changed, anything that gets us away from our mundane daily existence over here, even if it's hard work, is still a vacation in my opinion. As Mary would tell me (contrary to what my parents might), vacations are not synonymous with relaxation. Anyway, the level of knowledge about Mexico in the group seemed to be mostly based on media stereotypes and tourist views, with only a few people having experienced it outside those realms. It sounds like the group will be an excellent one with which to experience this trip.

2004/02/05 - Unfortunately, Abe wasn't at Feeding Frenzi. The event is actually being cancelled for now due to a lack of funding, so if I see him again, it won't be there for at least a few weeks. I did meet some interesting people in the kitchen, though--a woman who used to have a management position at Ten Thousand Villages, which I have still yet to check out, and a man who was raised in Thailand by his missionary parents. I also talked with Matt, whom I had met the week before also, over dinner about the problem of homelessness, which I had recently become directly entangled with. I know there are many cynics and many whose hearts seem to outweight their wisdom when it comes to helping out the homeless, and I know that there are reasons for both. This makes me wonder about what the proportion of non-poor cynics to (maybe not-so-)poor scam-artists/actors/untrustworthies is. (I doubt it's possible for mere humans to get an accurate statistic on that.) All of this also lead me to the question many ask--why worry about "over there" when are problems here are so bad? If we attacked spiritual problems here rather than physical ones, wouldn't it start to solve physical problems here and over there? What do we do in the meanwhile? On the other hand, thinking that way will never allow for more of the kind of healthy bilateral links Lappé and Lappé have found all around the globe. Aside from goods and physical resources, what do Canada and Mexico have to offer each other?

2004/02/04 - Today I poked around for another hour and a bit looking at the various Mexico-Canada connections written about on the Internet. Much of it is very economy-centred, and at least half of it mentioned or focused on NAFTA in some way. I remember from when we went to Manzanillo last year how our boat tour guide said that there's hardly any poverty or crime in the city, not because it feeds on tourism, but because primarily it is Mexico's second largest trading port (or perhaps the second largest on the west coast--I can't remember at the moment), so everyone has a job, be it menial or managerial. On the other hand, Mexico, from the typical Canadian perspective, is synonymous with a hot climate, very high poverty, and cheaply-made goods. What made and makes Manzanillo succeed where, for instance, other Mexican coastal cities or even Newfoundland--in some ways--have failed? Would it be feasible to apply the same "success formula" to many other cities, or does the model necesitate a rich/poorish/impoverished divide?

2004/01/29 - Tonight at a church-meal gathering for students ("Feeding Frenzi"), I met a guy named Abe, whose family moved up here from Mexico when he was little to escape the extreme poverty. I can't remember the city he came from, but it wasn't one I had heard of before. He was student-age, but was looking for a job (to get by, it seemed) rather than an education and a climb up a corporate ladder. I hope to talk to him more next week to get to know him (and his story) better.

2004/01/20 - During a lull in copyediting at The Cord, I was finally able to dig around on the Internet for more information on the Summit and Canadian-Mexican ties. I found that Canadian news sites tended not to care, whereas L.A.-based and other southern area news sources had some information, but the main focus was still on how Fox and Martin were at least perceived in their own countries as Bush puppets. One name came up that was worth looking into--Señor Gaëtan Lavertu, Canada's ambassador to Mexico. Sites in Spanish and English that mentioned him also mentioned general trade relations between the countries that sounded much like those between Canada and Jamaica.

2004/01/13 - I picked up a newspaper today, as my new schedule allows me to do three days a week without inconvenience, and there were many stories about the featured Summiit of the Americas. Other than Mexico being mentioned as the host country, the only mention I found about anything Mexican was that President Fox and his wife had a nice dinner with our Prime Minister earlier in the week, and this was buried in a tiny article at the bottom of page 6. All of the feature articles talked about Martin and Bush and how there was a lot of hoopla and no real changes. What happened with Mexico? Hopefully I'll get some time to research this this week online. I'm sure I'll find something in an unknown independent journal (or certainly at least a Mexican source) somewhere.

2004/05/12

The Wild Wild... Downtown Kitchener

You can follow along if you'd like.

Okay, I've got a half hour. Let's see how well I can recount good old February 6th.

Hmm... I didn't even write anything down that day. It was just the introduction. We also learned a new pedagogy called the Circle of Praxis, which I later found (via Google) is used in various schools about the globe. We also found out that we knew very little about Mexico, probably along the lines of Talking to Americans but in a different direction.

On to March 6th, then, the day we walked around downtown Kitchener and met with some organizations there to examine the issues of the core. Here's what we were told by Mr. Schreiter, through my lense, of course:

There are crises in downtowns all over Canada. They are the threshold of change. 60% of downtown workers are professionals, 20% work in entertainment, and 20% work in the service industry. Normally the service industry has a much larger slice of the pie, and the solution seems to be to get more people living downtown to attract more services.

Hold on--St. George, just north of Brantford, has tons of people, and very few services. They have to come into Brantford for everything. Back to you, Kev.


As a city experiences urban sprawl, downtowns diminish. The private sector doesn't usually help prevent this, but libraries, schools (of any level), and public markets do.

Here is where the idea first clicked to me that perhaps this is something like the frontier theory I learned about in OAC North American history. I'll have to look up my old notes (what the heck, I may even try <awestruck voice>the Internet</voice>), but by the end of the trip, I again recalled this idea, and it seemed to have recurred in enough places to be worth exploring in an academic paper. I see urban sprawl as the frontier, with the downtown being left behind to decay in its ruts, except where fresh academic thinking is keeping it closer to the cutting edge in a decreasingly physical sense. How the public market bit fits in is unclear at the moment.


The Kitcher Downtown Business Association's independent, non-profit role, like that of most similar organizations in other downtowns, is to promote safety and rejuvination of the downtown. It approves or denies liquor licences and such, juggling the night club scene with senior care facilites and homeless support. It co-ordinates with a group of forty businesses that employ the homeless. This may seem to attract problems, but the group is ready to meet the challenges head-on, using an outreach profile out of Vermont. (Did I write that down right?)

This kind of program being in place removes the dilemma of choosing between being heartless by not giving to panhandlers (or otherwise helping them out) and giving them money that they're more likely than not to spend even more irresponsibly than oneself. We're told to tell them that panhandling is illegal, but that they can find something much more fulfilling at The Working Centre just down the street.

To be continued...

In the Beginning\Was the Hype

Hi.

This post probably won't be of interest to anyone. I'm just scoping things out, looking for a way to starting finishing the journal of my recent study tour of Mexico in an accessible electronic format. I've got paper notes and a few journal entries, but it's time to flesh them out and do some analysis on the way, while things are still fresh, and before I get even more bogged down with my summer job and bajillion (well, half dozen or so) projects I thought I'd commit to before September.

Before I get to that, I think I'll spend the rest of my break outside, because it's quite nice out right now.

Chau.

2004/05/09

From the depths of my scrappy notepad

These are the journal entries I made during the trip. I'm posting them here so that all facets of my journaling of the trip will be available in one spot. Here they are:

2004/05/09 - Streets empty at breakfast; forces impacting Mexico: church and social revolutions (slow), political repitition and corruption, incoming MNCs and the struggle to maintain tradition and culture; Museum restaurant "green juice" ingredients: celery, pi�a, cactus, parsley, xoconoztle, orange, lemon

2004/05/08 - Mexico City -> 60 km across, UNAM with 350,000 students; museum->pre-hispanic Mexico City an island (no details as to reconstruction, but reused in centre); church shifting seismically; poor mothers send kids to beg; flying kits in square, traditional dances, organ grinders->all for money;

2004/05/07 - Im' thinking that the nuifying theme of the pre-trip and the trip itself is frontier theory. From the problem of revitalizing the KW downtown, to the abandon-ment of the Ceceto (sp?) women's centre for lack of an enemy to struggle against, to the happiness of the children and the hope of their struggling parents in the Bronca, to...

2004/05/06 - Nadine's birthday and song much longer, great cake, flowers, gifts;

Don Felix: GO's leader of farmers, had to flee

CED: resourceful, uses new technology to bring affordable water management to people;

Artisan: immigration/migration: moved from poorer state after father died, to make money; is single mom with five kids; works 9 AM through 2/3 AM; persecuted/humiliated on arrival: pays 1000 pesos per year for booth, plus utils, security, etc. (100 pesos/week); most sold to international tourists, but nationals used to buy;

2004/05/05 - Dreamt again (personal). Went to church early this morning with Ian, following the bellringer in. The front people sang, and the back people were silent (and many of them late; some carrying shopping bags.) It's Cinco de Mayo, they day Mexico beat France in Puebla state.

Artisans (Fabina and Mario de la Rosa): 1 million nahwatl (language, has 4 dialects) speakers in Mexico; each painting is a unique representation of ideas, etc.; history of papela: kind used by Aztecs, learned from father (who himself learned from communal elders) around age 12, puts a lot of passion in and forms his own style; family has 6 brothers; Fabian started at age 5, able to do a good job by age 8; 4 hours to water source in his home town, though, so lots of overhead;

Florentino Agular del Frente Zapatista del Liberacion Nacional (FZLN, not to be confused with the Zapatista army, the EZLN): grassroots movement in different areas of the world; all about human rights and feeling the value of human beings; process will inevitably be good for all; looking at other ideas in struggle; some in government feel need to be closer to people, others want to be close to MNCs, businesses, etc.; since 1994, FZLN has tried to be the peaceful counterpart to the EZLN; exchanges ideas with other INGOs/NGOs; notheing new, same struggle; hard to sort out struggle because cultures are all different; they're against MNCs because of pollution, destruction, etc.; only 25 years of water left: desalination is an expensive operation and unnatural; Peruvian-US guy claims to own moon, is selling land (?); (this is what ricos do); breaking borders, FZLN is about a way of looking at people not as foreigners, but as fellow humans; Internet is allowing advances; freedom costs a lot, money is not all; global movement would be better; Ghandian influence; CostCo comes to destroy economy, culture, etc.; protests (peaceful) saw some go to jail;

Parachuting community: created ~27 years ago in response to government land takeover attempt; women's centre started as sowing co-op;

Mercedes: worked here for 20 years; NGO for training and services; many problems and many happinesses; some work from home; baking centre also organized here; helps parents take care of kids; medicare and gym added; open to all communities who need it; charge very little, just enough to survive; all are volunteers; parents donate; subscription to breakfast and lunch is only 50 pesos per week; 3 permanent volunteers and a committee; 15-20 kids base, 70+ after school; allows women to feel comfortable working, knowing kids in good hands; they help with homework; difficult keeping space and paying utilities; no government support besides occassional vaccines; usually tries to appropriate space; looking to get libarry, community centre, but still remain debt free; now that the goverment has added things (paved streets, etc.) community is less united-by-struggle: battle's over, go home; utility bills are high

Christian base communities: Agus and Licha: Licha's a state member in the national assembly; CDD-> pro-choice Catholic organization; Agus said it's good to have us here because we stimulate the economy; Bible-readers-> look, think, act (sounds like Praxis); helped organize lab strikes in 1970's over working conditions; laycos (laypeople's groups) supported by bishop; Licha-> one formed based on the second Vatican doctrine of evangelism; they changed mass from Latin to Spanish around then-> the church allowing it gave the impression of acceptability to participate in church in community; looked for personal instruction in the Bible; helped organize solutions for problems faced; sense created that we're responsible for all going on around us; awareness of 10-20-70 (rich-middle-poor split) affirmed two other steps: evaluate and celebrate; Don Sergio (bishop) worked with Latin America in the 80's; "first" bishop to visit someone in jail, had political involvement; was conscientious and informed; got group participating with obligations to help one another; old style foundations; worried people in power, but gave the poor hope; new bishop rejects this, shuffles priests; now much smaller; less emphasis on bishop now, understanding that Jesus leads and that baptism made them church members; what's done: meetings, reading form Bible, make sure understood through skits, presentations, analysis, reflection, plan to act; visit sick, singing, prayer; newspapers sometimes brought and integrated into discussion; e.g., resurrection as topic->spent a week in a poorer community spreading the Word; preists didn't listen so much to new bishop; they also read documents of Vatican to back up their actions and to stick it to the Vatican; some priests speak out opnely against it, try to prohibit it, close down buildings; once arrived, Catholic scene dominated by threats, etc., which is tough to break from public consciousness; people are tired of work, so some bought new priests' aversion to excuse them from it; work done: nutrition, food distribution, co-op; new political party no better, but woke people up to voting power; they invite othe rchurches to Bible studies/social justice events, but they don't come (protestant churches, etc.); youth not interested in analysis; (can't read my writing) has been on Yugoslavian commission; marriage without courting is (was) common as were many divorces; many issues big; exploring "God's feminine side" (L);

2004/05/04 - Dreamt last night (personal). Still not sure what to take from the trip. Nothing too striking here. Protty comfortable. I _was_ looking forward to the meeting with the mayor (apparently cancelled), why?, possibly because I wanted to say I had. The trip to the poor neightbourhood today should be much more interesting. I still haven't experienced much (besides food and the market paradigm) that I couldn't have from a book just as well. Paul made an interesting point last night that it's unlikely we'll change Mexico if we still can't get along with people around us back home. This is the classic missionary paradox. On the other hand, without some political activism at home, all the ince community bulding we can do will never reach Mexico while those in power are unaffected by us. Also, I'm decidedly pessimistic about spreading our community's connectedness (should we ever obtain it) to the world, given that Mexicans appear to have a leg up, and that if the world was meant to be Paradise, Revelations would be false, which is something I'm finding few evidences to consider a possibility.

Alfredo Dominguez: organizer, university union consultant; some Mexicans in Canada, especially in Quebec, Ontario, and Alberta; only 42 million labourers (1/3 of population); problem: labour force not active; PEA (active, full-time labourers): 20 million; other 22 million: informal, part-time, etc.; poor lack access to federal social services; situation came about in 1950's, hence agreements with US, Canada, etc. to do seasonal work ("braseros"--work with arms)->20 million went to the US and just stayed; agreement over in 1962-> maquila (group of people working for outside owner); filiales (brands of MNCs)->accepted their settling near US border (3200 km long) on Mexican side; Rio Bravo goes from coast to gulf; Zona Franca (free zone): each country has one, 40km-wide; min wage is $5.75/hr is US, $5.00/8 hrs ($0.625/hr) in Mexico; 200 MNCs (strongest) control governments; money doesn't integrate in local/national economy; 1964-2000, 4,500 MNCs settled; 2000-2004 it's getting worse especially with the corruption and Mafia; problem: people who live close don't want to work there because wage is low; most products and resources exported; 1917-2000 dominated by PRI (supposedly revolutionary!); these lead to NAFTA/TLCAN (ALENA in French); few Mexican banks in Mexico (all US, Canadian, Japanese, British, etc.); G7 has to be in (indirectly or directly) Venezuela, Mexico, Iraq, etc. over oil; called Zapatistas "ignorant, shoeless"; Mexico negotiating to do its own oil refining; women have to prove they're not pregnant every 28 days (by medical certificate) or they lose their MNC job, yet they make up 40% of the MNC labour force; technical differences exist between workers' and human rights; Mexican women tolerate it, coming from rural communities, they don't know their rights and accept any payment; maquilas have unions, but they protect owners, not workers; most employees are youth; 365 women dead, raped, abducted, etc. but the UN didn't know for 10 years--police _are_ the criminals; social services only apply to 50 million people; pregnant women have health services, but afterword they're fired and lose rights; corrupt judge at labour tribunal unlikely to restore those rights; government doesn't allow unions for women, citing national security; HR code af conduct signed by Mexico since 1950; tribunals in US tough for poor to get to; ASARCOM, Frisco, Cananea (Pacific Northwest)-> mining companies in hands of US and British: sent marines to kill workers; gringo comes from "green--go!" (uniforms--move in) call from marines; companies don't give safe equipment to use (despite signing internation agreements); to protest, they came to work naked, carrying lunch; company rejected->national court->forced to provide safe tools; protestors in Germany even supporting Mexicans; government on May1 forgets and has no interest; workers afraid if rights are imposed, MNCs will go elsewhere; key to campaign: respect HR; mercado: "kill your idols" T-shirt; lights with tin pan shades; silant-o cactus/livevocartoon.com

Erika and Flor from Alta Vista: comedor (dining room): poor supporting poor; battle addiction, repair destroyed families, etc.-> getting kids off the street into church, or at least to discover values; poor cook for poor (program provides materials)->some activities (running on zero support besides communities giving food), values disappearing; every other Sunday: eat, play, do workshops; discovering dignity; support dysfunctional families and single mothers who have escaped domestic violence; have seen change in kids: they now help with housework, share with other kids, get closer and have more confidence; changing church admins less co-operative; rebuilds families-> parents join Christmas meal; work directly with parents too; government has housing, buti it's pay-for and only if you have a job;

La Baranca: gov't calls 'illegal' to avoid providing services, yet changes taxes; kids want (this is what they drew): flowers, a soccer field, and that sewage was hidden; Mexican flags were flying here.

2004/05/03 - Lalo Castillo: focus on democracy: resolve electoral process; working with farmers as cultural engineer; kids' rights big: focus on nutrition, etc.; they organize workshops and rock concerts focussing on youth and kids' rights, promote sports, exchange between adults and youth, and lack of drugs; 2000 pop stats: 2/3 under 20, 35% of total between 12 and 20; 60% have informal employment (** de Soto point?) street vending, etc.; 50% are professionals in Mexico City (compare Tepotzlan); many are construction workers; 40% are droupouts due to a lack of money, 12% due to marriage; school typically abandoned after high-school because many jobs require a high-school diploma; 68% want to keep studying because they want to get richer and have a higher standard of living; 4 million indigenous youth in 13179 towns: of that, 46% are illiterate and older than 15, 78% don't finish public school, 48% of illiterate are women; yet life expectancy is 69/71; leading causes of death: poor problems (stomach) and heart problems (especially in big cities, obesity); over 50,000 youth immigrate to the US every year; 2/3 of youth (15-24) live with parents; 26% of women are victims of domestic violence; 1/2 don't talk about sex or politics in their families (46% to mom, 57% to dad); fathers more likely to be conservative; thrice yearly vaccination campaigns (for all major diseases, like polio, etc.); 62.6% don't have a girlfriend or boyfriend; 37.5% have one before the age of 15; 95.3% have noviazgo (betrothal) by age 20; only 11% have sex by age 15, 44.4% never had by age 20, both mainly because of fear of STDs and pregnancy; 47.7% don't use contraceptives; tons of misinformation in circulation: learning from older ignorant youth; 74.7% had had only one sexual partner within the last year; 85.5% have had 3 or less partners before marriage; surprized because parents think youth very promiscuous, also link sex with drugs and violence; next surprize: youth not passive/apathetic: 93% have gotten their voting card; 78% do vote; 80% turnout (total) at 2000 federal election, but 2003 municipal election only had 40% turnout/60% abstain; youth prefer envirornmental, human, indigenous, and animal rights issues, but not through government; candidates are government-funded; On religion: 87.5% believe in the Virgin of Guatalupe; 89.1% believe in souls; 82.1% in miracles; 86.2% in sins; these government statistics are questioned just like in Canada (NGOs don't have the resources to conduct surveys, so they take what they can get); government has little money for research--fund raising occurs through food sales and so on; "los domingos": parents give allowance on Sunday; kids have constitiutional rights to school, but some can't afford (50-55 students per teacher) due to different filters: if you don't have a brother or sister in school, you may have to go to one further away, but the busses are public busses (pay per ride); even if you get to school, it's on the magatino/baspertino system, wherein the school system has the physical buildings change hands daily at noon (between elementary and high); many teachers go into other professions because of a lack of jobs and the low wage of 5000 pesos per month; graffiti appeared recently--gangs and delinquents aren't linked to it, though; young people have legal graffiti outlets; current graffiti is about indigenous, environmental, and labour issues; sometimes people feel like prisoners in their own country: lack of money; condoms--which are expensive to get or require a doctor's appointment--are the main contraceptive because women are embarrassed to ask about sexuality (taboo); two health systems: one for public workers and one for everyone else; provida (abortion issue) at play now; some indigenous and nun groups do forced sterilizations; many divorces occur (especially in the first three years of marriage) in the middle class (it's expensive, so some poor people wanting divorces live two married lives because they can't afford to break the old one); also, rising common law rate, but less rights as far as father having to provide, etc.; Daniel (at Poder Joven): part of government, promotes volunteering, is like Big Brothers of America in that it's youth working with youth, it pushes academics and arts and recreation, it works with the marginalized through food drives as well as nutritional workshops, and centres provide free Internet access for youth; they have a free youth art gallery; 88 government-sponsored youth centres exist in Mexico; they need more resources for youths starting their own small businesses and so on; only four paid positions exist at the centre; fundraising occurs through INGOs, NGOs, the UN, and other GO partnerships; by law they aren't allowed to receive money--only supplies, services, etc. directly as gifts-in-kind; they have eight-six volunteers in the three centres in Morelos; users come from all classes, but cluster depending on activity; family violence is common, yet seldom reported, and the centre can only act when something's reported; they have programs for people aged 12-29, but nobody is turned away (most are 15-22);

2004/05/02 - Xochicalco site: pinhole camera (on large scale): could observe stars on cave/tunnel floor without telescope; compare with Tenochtitlan (from Manzanillo trip), which was 500 years later according to museum timeline--very similar in many ways, but lacked The Game (ball game with key-shaped stone mounted 30 metres high);

2004/05/01 - Pool is nice even in the morning. Off to cathedral nearby: 1st in North America (1523, commisioned by Pope). Street marches: "tribunal concia y arbitraje �corruptos!" (the courts are corrupt) and "Ivan Arenas corrupto", chant: I could only make out the recurring "�la gente se preguntas!" (you ask the people!). Crushed glass on walltops at the Jardines (earlier along path up the mountain at Tepotzlan too)--barbed wire replacement or anti-birdpoop measure, we're not sure. Ads in the gardens: "naturmin@hotmail.com" on big banner. Mexicans on US: US is "father of Mexico" in sense that they have to ask permission about anything; Malinche: indigenous woman who got married into Spanish culture as merchandise->nickname for those who prefer American to Mexican culture; similar to Latin America (speaker had friends there); yet more trade with US; indigenous label had negative overtones; missing from our Mexican portrait (when we met with the Mexican youth): soccer, TV, and Coke; some reject indigenous culture; no Spanish link left: they reject Spain's treatment of indigenous, but still do similarly; prejudice against poor (less indigenous per se because each of blood and culture is so mixed); indigenous are 12-13% of 110 million Mexicans, found in 62 communities; Mexico City has international culture communities like Toronto; 10-20-70% rich-mid-poor split; most indigenous are poor; divorce kept secret from abuelos (grandparents/extended family) because of big stigma; pregnant and unmarried at age 28--dad disappointed yet supported in the end out of love; parents pay all (semi-independence) in many cases. Trip to mall: Sears logo black?; Dippin' Dots with English slogan; bus ride: cramped, saw English grafitti (F-word, etc.). Watched f�tbol game at local bar: much like watching hockey in Canada, except for addition of DJ-hype-accompanied strobe lights after goals and even favoured ref calls; English music videos played after game (not even subtitled or translated);

2004/04/30 - Excellent sleep. Breakfast was great. Saw many bugambilia on the bus ride. Mountain climb wasn't bad. Good to get solid exercise. Saw raccoon-like animals at top, and helium heart balloon somebody had released. Site had signs like Colima's. Noted woman making sign of cross when passing church. Arch made of beans/corn/grain tells different historical story each year; this year's: king at top the one who converted natives, others tried to kill him for it. Met with social activist after lunch: fights alongside indigenous people; they consider themselves part (in the way of descendants, etc.) of the indigenous culture (not mixed or outsider) in Tepotzlan; city's greatest movements in 1994/1995: prevented a golf course from going up (it was about greater things--the way it was presented was that indigenous people were ignorant; brochures falsified Tepotzlan: 70% of citizens are professionals or studying, yet golf course would require labourers, not managers; it also didn't consider environment nor culture)--was made of postly young people who learned from experienced older generations on how to resist; was started by se�oras; had strong, party atmosphere, connecting people in a way that small celebrations often spread city-wide; fiesta became the method of communication; movement was successful because it also connected to other cities and countries: two-way communication discovered similar things happening elsewhere in the world (Canada, Hawaii, Phillipines, lattermost with armed conflict and the course went up anyway, to the greater poverty of the region now; Mohawks also had a stand-off), encouraging solidarity; yet, this was the only successful resistence to neoliberal golf courses in Latin America, possibly because of mix: 80% fiesta, 20% politics. On the 10th anniversary (April 10th) of all this, they partied and had a march to another city dressed as revolutionaries (with fake gun belts, etc.), and the police repressed them, phoned death threats, etc., and even students were nervous. Overall, they succeeded by using their rich culture and history to fight. Meals were offered at the town hall, another community outlet; many marches had more women than men; three roles for women now: mother, lover, activist: many divorces, but many marriages too, because outsiders connecting had the same worldview; committee in town hall: 15 men, 5 women, but decisions were made by women outside pressuring the group; still a union, but less now, because there's no common enemy at the moment (taking a break). Tourism is strong here (75% of economy now) compared to other nearby places, but they still want to keep their identity; before the 1980's, wasn't a tourist dest: main economy was agriculture (now a luxury because owning property is so difficult: joke goes, "sure I own property: my nails"; land transfers almost prohibited, hence the flora and fauna still here ("few endangered" said museum)). Governments at local and national level "understand each other"--people would be upset if the government started changing things all over; now that Fox is in charge, there are more rich people (15 instead of 2 (e.g. "Slim") controlling 95% of the wealth); some ignorance in administration; common scene: mayors move up to state government if in cahoots. Tepotzlan prefers the image of being a stubborn, non-"advancing" town. Talked with Paul on bus ride back, found out Waterloo Band is conducted by my old music teacher from my Brantford high school; we said "small world" but not really, tying in with earlier statements about how it's only small for the single-digit percentage of the world's population who can afford to travel freely and often (and how they usually end up at tourist spots.) Dinner today was the same dish we ordered a number of times through room service at Manzanillo, but it had a more interesting texture here and was spicier. After, we hit the Internet caf�, which was very lax, having no timers. Wandering about the city, we walked by some dark alleys (downhill, narrow), but nothing too out-of-the-ordinary. We hit the grocery (local, but bought out by Wal-Mart, as receipt showed), bought some sorbet and chips. Sorbet choices: Yom-Yom (made in Mexico), Nestle (also made in Mexico). Yom-Yom was good, but we should've tried both to compare.

2004/04/29 - No expectations going in here, except for something life-changing in an undefined way. This morning our Air Transit van was only 500 yards away when a car on the side of the road exploded into flame--we could've been next to that! Somehow, though, I was desensitized so much that burning car and pavement barely provoked a twinggge in me to pray. After that, flights were uneventful. I did like the first part of the pre-trip readings, before it got into the history. Interestingly, there was more to be spoken on that by Jorge at the group intro than I expected (very little), and it was also of note that Labour Day for them is more celebrated (not just "get drunk") and is also based on events in Chicago. The city, as we drove through and when we stopped in to a few of the stores, was very similar to Manzanillo, and I recognized a few chains and brand names I had only seen there before. Manzanillo had very little poverty compared to the neighbourhood we ultimately arrived at, though.