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Guy Courchesne

Joined: 10 Mar 2003 Posts: 9650 Location: Mexico City
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Posted: Mon May 15, 2006 2:22 pm Post subject: Is Mexico better, worse, or the same? |
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Over the last 6 years, if you've been here long enough to gauge it.
A lot of the current election politicking centers around the economy. What do you think, Mr or Mrs Foreigner? Have things gotten better, worse, or stayed the same? I don't mean about your job, so this is an off-topic post.
I look around at DF and see a lot of new wealth. I see stability. I see a lot of new infrastructure and many public works projects. I don't know if that's the same everywhere.
Last edited by Guy Courchesne on Mon May 15, 2006 8:17 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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ls650

Joined: 10 May 2003 Posts: 3484 Location: British Columbia
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Posted: Mon May 15, 2006 6:54 pm Post subject: |
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I can only say for my local area, but the local economy seems to have improved significantly. |
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thelmadatter
Joined: 31 Mar 2003 Posts: 1212 Location: in el Distrito Federal x fin!
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Posted: Mon May 15, 2006 7:43 pm Post subject: Toluca |
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Ive been here only 3 years, so I dont think I can generalize too much. The only thing I have really noticed is that the traffic in Toluca has gotten noticably much worse, esp in the area between the Terminal and Wal-Mart (on Tollocan). Getting through there is a nightmare. They want to move the Terminal outside of the city proper, to the north, but residents there have been very NIMBY about it.
They tell me that Toluca has some serious growing pains. Its size and population has exploded over the past 15 years or so. |
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Like a Rolling Stone

Joined: 27 Mar 2006 Posts: 872
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Posted: Tue May 16, 2006 2:43 pm Post subject: |
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I have never been so I don't know  |
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Ben Round de Bloc
Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Posts: 1946
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Posted: Tue May 16, 2006 4:39 pm Post subject: Re: Is Mexico better, worse, or the same? |
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Guy Courchesne wrote: |
I look around at DF and see a lot of new wealth. I see stability. I see a lot of new infrastructure and many public works projects. I don't know if that's the same everywhere. |
I'm not sure if I'd say better or worse but definitely different and changing. At the risk of over-generalizing, I'd say the quality of most public services has improved. The process of paying water, electric, and phone bills, along with property taxes and vehicle registration, has become easier and faster . . . although the amounts have increased dramatically during the 10 years I've lived here.
The city's population continues to grow at an alarming rate, but much of the infrastructure is lagging way behind. Large housing subdivisions are popping up like mushrooms. New shopping malls and lots of big department stores have been added since I moved here. Traffic has become horrendous. The downtown area has been cleaned up and renovated a lot but is still a congested mess for traffic and pedestrians most of the time. A huge new hospital complex has been built, and the state university is in the process of building new campuses for most of its colleges.
Unemployment remains high, which means employers can pay extremely low wages and still find people willing to work. Most of the working-class folks work a whole lot of hours to earn very little money.
As for most government-funded programs, especially those to help the poor, I still see too much skimming of money from officials at all the levels along the way from the top on down. By the time the money gets down to where it's supposed to be used, there's usually not a whole lot left.
On a more personal level, my hourly wage has tripled since I moved here. However, the cost of most things has at least quadrupled during that time. When I first moved here, I was earning 18 pesos per hour, which was a slightly above-average TEFL wage for that time. Bus fare was 50 centavos. It's now $4.50 pesos. A meal at a cocina economica was 6 or 7 pesos. Two house mates and I rented an unfurnished 3-bedroom, 2-bath house in a decent neighborhood for $800 pesos per month, and our other house expenses (city water, propane gas, and electricity) came to around $100 pesos per month. The same house now would probably rent for $3,500+ pesos. |
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MELEE

Joined: 22 Jan 2003 Posts: 2583 Location: The Mexican Hinterland
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Posted: Wed Jun 07, 2006 3:31 pm Post subject: |
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Okay, Guy, three weeks have gone by and I think I'm ready to answer your question!
Its been kicking around in the back of my head, mostly on the drive back to work after lunch, that's when the local call-in-and-voice-your-opinion-show is on the radio and this is one of the reoccuring topics of the last few months.
My town has changed a lot in 8 years I've been here. I recently read that it's growth rate is 9 times above the national average!!!!! The economy is growing, and the variety of goods and services available has really increased. More and more young people are finishing high school and going to university, and many graduates are opening new and exciting small businesses in town, but the majority still have to leave to find suitable employment after graduation. Of those who don't continue their education, going to the US is still an attractive option, not always out of necessity as it is painted in the media, as many go out of pure curiostiy and sense of adventure. Boredom and an overall feeling of there not being opportunities also contributes to migration, but if you talk to those who have stayed here, there is usually a way to make ends meet here in town if you are creative and willing to give it a go. I get a sense that lot of young men go to the US because it is easier.
A lot of the growth has to do with the university where I work, which is basically a PRI baby, so the sexenio del cambio doesn't have a lot to do with that. However, we are in the interesting situation that the town has had a PAN mayor and PAN senators for the last ten years. There are no mayor industries, and the only major unions in town are the teachers, ugh! the taxi drivers, IMSS workers and the CFE. The strongest sort of block of voters in town are the small business owners, who are mostly PAN. In the last governor election in Oaxaca, PAN-PRD-Converjencia joined up in a collatition agains the PRI, it looked like their candidate was going to win, until he made a statement against the university system in which I work, basically saying he'd freeze the planned expansion program and instead give the resources to the Autonomous univerisity in the state capital. I think that was his down fall, the communities where the newer schools in the system are located are really really hoping to match my town in growth. Everyone wants a university in their town now!
We've had a lot of public works projects in the last few years turn into white elephants! The current PAN mayor and the previous one seem caught up in projects to make the city look nicer. Which its true, it needs, in a state of pretty towns, this one is way way behind. BUT, have the city doesn't have water half the year and the damm of the local resevoir is despertly in need of repair! More and more people are starting to yell "We don't care what the city looks like WE WANT WATER!!!"
Okay, now on to the issues of corruption and transparency. Six years ago a lot of Mexicans had really high hopes for change in their country. But they didn't think about what that change would entail or how it would come about. People were excited, ready, ripe even, for change. And they were quickly dissollusioned. Way WAY too quickly. Like having a new party in Los Pinos would be like waving a magic wand or something. A lot of the Mexicans that I come in contact with don't seem to have a clear idea how their government works, what the congress does, what the president does and how laws are changed or programs and funding put in place. They also don't seem to realize that corruptions has become a way of life for the country. They are outraged by big time corruption by national politicians, but think nothing of hiring contruction workers under the table to do work on their house without the proper city permits, or paying off a transit police officer to avoid a ticket (the tickets are often cheaper than the bribes!)
Oaxaca is a very particular place, there are still many many villages without electicty, running water, paved roads, there are lots of people who feel forgotten by the government (rightly so!). There are also lots of people who still feel, I'm a PRI-ista, I was born a PRI-ista and I'll die a PRI-ista, but have little idea what it means to be a PRI-ista, or what the other options are.
mmmmm, better, worse, the same?
How about different? Better, maybe, worse, no, the same, definately not. |
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