Yearly Archives: 2009

The story tells that on the eve of the Battle of Trafalgar, Admiral Nelson called his captains and showed them a fire poker and told them: “I do not care where to train this instrument, except where Napoleon tells me to, because then I will do exactly the opposite.” The members of the Mexican Electrical […]

Imagine a place where everyone is suspicious of others, in which everyone is willing to achieve their goal at any price, and one in which abusing and assaulting a neighbor is not only common practice but enjoys full legitimacy. Sounds far-fetched and rather ludicrous, but this is the logic that characterizes our tax system and, […]

Nothing like reality to put things into perspective. Mexico City, that present and historical political and ceremonial center, is collapsing due to lack of investment. Instead of building and maintaining the city’s infrastructure, recent governments have privileged very visible and politically rewarding spending at the expense of substance, with the consequence that the city is […]

When referring to the “astuteness of the creoles”, Jorge Luis Borges criticized the “spirit of cheated legality or comfortable illegality” that characterizes our culture. Being “astute” said the Argentine writer, did not imply ceasing to be ignorant. This observation came to mind when reading and listening to comments and opinions that politicians and intellectuals have […]

The distance between the government and the population grows by the minute. While some officials speak out on the need to face the economic crisis, the population tends to withdraw. On the one hand, the absolute NOs: no new or different taxes, no change to the structure of import tariffs, no changes to the PEMEX […]

It is trendy to say that the crisis finally “caught up with us”. The notion that the country has not defined its “national project”, that the actions and decisions of the past decades were not the right ones and that the reforms that were undertaken have been unsuccessful if not wrong, is ubiquitous. Obviously there […]

Sometimes it is impossible to figure whether to be proud or ashamed. Mexico has become dysfunctional without the capacity to map out a viable road to development, face up to the challenges that it confronts, or carry out well thought out plans that simply end up in failure.   The interview of astronaut Jose Hernandez […]

A few years ago, a group of American teachers’ unions launched a campaign whose slogan aimed to draw society’s approval: “if you think education is costly, try ignorance.”       I wonder what happens when ignorance starts with the government itself. The challenges that the country is currently facing are enormous but so are the opportunities. In […]

As Miguel de Cervantes wrote in Don Quixote, “if appearances are removed, it becomes obvious where the first confusion lies.” In foreign policy, the first source of Mexico’s confusion lies in forgetting our geographic location and giving in to Chavez’s alluring swan song. There is no contradiction in developing brotherly, media-rich or personal closeness with […]