Political Socialization - and why doing nothing kills people.

Political Socialization - and why doing nothing kills people.

My political views did not suddenly appeared, I acquired them through subtle circumstances and everyday events. First of all I will explain myself in terms of my demographics. I was born in Mexico, but two years ago I moved to the United States, I have two brothers and tons of friends.

Mexico is a completely different culture from the United States. Big differences between both cultures is that in Mexico we do not care about time, work is never as important as family, and every excuse is enough to make family reunions. Families in Mexico are also huge, I have at least 40 cousins and 30 uncles  and aunts. And as could be inferred from these statements, I strongly appreciate family ties. It would never pass through my mind that I would have a divorce in the future, in fact, it scares me how easily families break apart here in the United States. In addition, if I ever move somewhere in the future I would like my children to have family in the same city. Family has been extremely important for the development of my views. My mom and my dad are both abnormally extrovert; they laugh all the time and they do not pay attention to petty everyday issues; and that is exactly how I am -with my friends- . It’s because of the easygoingness of my parents that I think I have a lot of liberal views on social issues, but many of my views come from a deeper respect for life..

And an extremely important aspect that shaped my political views is not my friends nor my family, but the people in the environment in which I live. The people I interact every day with. The urban area  where used to live in Mexico has a population more than eight times the population of Savannah, yet in 2013 we were the number five most violent city in the world and the most violent in Mexico too. Whenever people talk about the drug cartels and the violence in Mexico, I have all the authority to talk about it: I was there, I saw it, I lived it. I have seen deaths, I have lost family members, I have worried about kidnapped friends, I have been on the floor in order to avoid being shot; when people my age in this city were playing in the park with other kids. That definitely shaped how I see the world.  After dealing with the death in a daily basis I have learned to respect life. Above everything else life is sacred for me, there is no religion, person, or nation that could ever convince me that killing is right; I have cried many times because of death people; killing would never be right for me. Therefore I am opposed to death penalty.

In fact, my life in Mexico has given me a truly advanced understanding of drugs commerce, I spent many of my days studying the issue of illegal drugs because it was the source of all the killings I saw day after day, and I always thought that I had to know in order to help. What I am going to explain is something obvious for some people but at the same time is incredible the number of people who never rationalize it before. First of all, drugs cartels exist because there is a demand for drugs, and that demand comes from the United States mostly. During the 1980-1990 the principal producer and exporter of drugs to the United States was Colombia. Colombia had a rough time. Terrorist attacks on Airplanes? Killing innocent people in order to scare the government? That’s not just from the US, the cartels did that in Colombia too; Destroying buildings? even Kidnap and kill the presidential candidates and the families of the president’s cabinet? Maybe terrorist have never done that before in the US but the Cartels certainly did in Colombia. Colombia had a rough time; but with their army they overcame their problem, but they did not solve “the problem.” Of course, there is no way to solve “the problem,” the fact that Colombia stopped their drug activity did nothing to stop the demand of the millions of American citizens who consume drugs; and the violence just moved up north, to Mexico. Mexico’s situation is where Colombia was a couple of decades ago. And even if Mexico solves their problem with the use of massive killings, army, marines, guns and trucks - as it appears is the way they know-, they would not solve “the problem.” The US will still need their drugs and they will just import them from somewhere else. And the violence would move again. That is why I hate drugs; all of them; I despise them; they are the reason of innocent lives lost. There is no way I would ever stop hating drugs. I hate how people are able to consume drugs so easily in here, and they have no idea that every time they get high they are contributing to the killings of innocent people, to the killing of my friends. Maybe they don’t deserve that I think of them so harshly but my god, I cannot help but cry -and I had cried many nights- at the thought of how drugs ruined my beautiful city. But am I going to be a wimp and stay here without doing anything? Of course not. I had come up with a relative solution, that will not displace the violence from country to country, but actually diminish it or even stop it. If the addicted US population -millions and millions all the way from high school to the House of Representatives (sadly true)- will not stop to use drugs, then they should embrace their addiction and legalize it. Drugs being illegal in the US just represent how incapable the population is to accept the fact that this country spends billions of dollars on drugs annually. Legalizing drugs will not just make it easier to regulate them, but it would also start an industry of drug production within the country; avoiding the thousands of innocent deaths somewhere else in the world - doesn’t matter if it is Colombia, Mexico or wherever else-. And I am not in favor of legalizing drugs because I respect peoples rights - which I do -, but because the drug issue has human lives involved that could be saved -not just mexicans, but humans in general-. Am I being hypocrite because by legalizing drugs it will slowly kill its consumers? NO I AM NOT, people who use drugs CHOOSE to die -or whatever the drugs do to them -, on the other hand victims of drug violence had done nothing so wrong for dying except being born in the wrong place at the wrong time. I mean, I have been called by people everywhere that I am smart, nice, cool, awesome, and many other adjectives, yet every day in Mexico there was no way to assure I would come home without a bullet in my head. It doesn’t matter how you are of what you have done, drug violence does not discriminate, and should be stopped.

On the rest of the issues that do not involve the direct death of a human life, I always go for liberty - not liberal, but for “liberty”-. Liberty of doing whatever you want with your life as long as you do not interfere with others’ rights -even if they’re not in your country-. Liberty to have an economy. But of course if everything were “freedom” it would be an anarchy, and anarchies had proved themselves horrendous. Therefore I support all necessary regulations that give maintenance to the system. All environmental regulations that assure that an economy would even exist in the future - by preserving human life-, all bureaucratic checks that make our meat be safe from bacteria and our milk pasteurized, and all courts that protect the rights of people. As I said before, death has teached me to love live. I love people in general, I love when they enjoy and laugh - it’s amazing how suddenly we could lose all of this-. If people want to marry somebody, let them do so. Life is too short -sometimes it is even shorter- that everyone should be able to live it at its fullest.

Trabajo para los inmigrantes.

Mi principal propósito al haberme mudado a los Estados Unidos era ganar confianza con el inglés, ya que me sería útil en la carrera Universitaria. Al principio recibía una mensualidad de mis padres e iba  ala escuela. Pero en éstas vacaciones decidí probarme a mi mismo y trabajar.

Debido a mis situación legal solamente conseguí trabajo en un restaurante mexicano. El trabajo me ha dado la oportunidad de conocer de cerca las situaciones de muchos inmigrantes no tan afortunados como yo. De inmigrantes que se vienen a los Estados Unidos con el propósito de trabajar, y que son la mayoría. Yo trabajo en la cocina, soy el lava platos. Trabajo de 4 a 10:30 y descanso el miércoles.

Lo primero que noté de los trabajadores de la cocina es que la mayoría son del centro o sur de México: Michoacán, Oaxaca, etc. Ninguno habla inglés y todos llegaron a los Estados Unidos casi a la misma edad que yo. A diferencia de mi, ninguno de ellos fue a la escuela, factor que considero muy importante ya que fue ahí donde yo aprendí el inglés. Las edades a las que llegaron varían desde los 8 años -así es-  hasta los 17: todos con la mentalidad de trabajar. La mayoría mantiene a hijos y esposa en México, y pagan un apartamento y carro en los Estados Unidos. Casi todos trabajan 12 horas al día 5 días a la semana, 6 horas un día, y tienen un día de descanso. No sé exactamente cuánto les pagan exactamente, pero calculo que unos 9 dólares la hora. Pero ya que les tienen que quitar impuestos, les han de pagar unos 7.5 dólares la hora. Y haciendo los cálculos, el cheque quincenal sale en 990 dólares apróximadamente.

Todos llevan años de experiencia, y he aprendido mucho de ellos, tanto que ya hasta me dicen "Chingón", porque la verdad le hecho muchas ganas a mi trabajo.

La mayoría llegaron solos al país, y tenían que trabajar o si no sufrirían de hambre. Todos son bien buena onda,  mientras estés trabajando.

Escribanme pregúntas o sugerencias para mi próximo post en los comentarios. Puedo escribir acerca de cualquier duda que tengan sobre vivir en los Estados Unidos.

How to end Corruption in Mexico

Well, let's going to the point. Throughout all of this time I have been thinking about ways to improve Mexico. I made a list that I am going to show and then I am going to explain the "why" of it and how to "achieve" them.

Let's go to the point:

1.  Require every mexican politician, to pass a set of competency test.
2.  Make a limit in the salary of politicians and remove luxuries for them.
3.  Made the government processes faster.
4. Eliminate unnecessary branches of government.

1.- Competency tests:

Why?

 In Mexico, is a common used that the politicians that are already in charge suggest -nearly put-  friends of them into charge. As you can guess, this system is absolutely "TRASH," the worst thing a government can do. What we need, is to set a competency test on each candidate to every charge in government. So that Mexico will be in the right hands.

How?

In order to be successful, the tests application should be PUBLIC as the results also should be.

Firstly, gather experts from all around the world. Experts in every specific field of every branch of government. Those people will create a test, not a written one, but hey will evaluate throughout interviews far away than just "knowledge". They will evaluate expertise in the subject, the expertise needed when you are people "TRUST" in you.

Secondly, record the application, made a website and publish the link throughout the country so the people can se the results and they gan judge whether the application had been done right or not. Then, if they do pass the test, they can continue with their candidature. If they don't, there is not second chance so we can evade "cheating".

2. Salary limits:

Why?

People who are in government should be there to help people, not to make a fortune. That's why we should limit how much they can earn, from all aspects. They cannot earn "extra money" from bonus and from anywhere. In fact, they should be punished if so, not just with a "fee", but with jail.

How?

Make a SUPER TRANSPARENCY of their accounts. The people of the whole nation can see "online" how much they earn and why they earn it. If the politicians deny to accept the rules, is just as simple as quitting them from charge.

3.- Faster government:

Why?

The slowness of the government processes is on of the principal factors of corruption. In fact, most of the times people pay bribes in order to give a higher priority in legal processes. THIS is totally wrong. We should use the processes of computers in order to make a faster government. We should automatize everything. Some people could say that that would lead to a fewer employment, and I am respond YES. But that is what we want, to concentrate the employees in the actual workforce and not in the government which is dependent of taxes.

How?

Automatize every government process. And make them ridiculously cheaper or totally free. So the people will not be afraid of engage in the political life of the nation.

4.- Unnecessary branches:

Why?

Mexico maintain a number of unnecessary branches because the politicians use them as "Political Machines" on order to get their unfair legislatures passed. This pretty much explain why this is so wrong.

How?

Say it 1000 times, say it loud, make nonviolent civil protesting, but make it loud. We as mexicans have the right to do what is better for Mexico.

This is pretty much a resume of my ideas, those are simple and will considerably increase the quality of the mexican government. If you share them, we can create consciousness.

Note: I am sorry if my language was too informal or my prepositions too without detail. But I hope to evolve this ideas and to eventually, make a robust framework to make them real. 

I do not want to be just a espectator, Mexico potential

I have changed a lot in the past weeks, I just realized that the differency between the culture in the united states and Mexico is huge. Now, I can easily explain to myself why the United States is so powerful. First of all, is all about culture, the way kids are raised in the United States makes that "Difference" between first and third world countries. In addition, mexican culture is more of "pass over" rather than help your neigborhood. An in despite of the mexican believe that the government is the problem, the reality is that they do not realize that public servers are mexicans themselves, which shows where truly is the source of the problem. Finally, certainly all of that could be changed, but it would take more time than is actually expected.

In united states you hold the door to the people behind you, you allow others to pass first than you; in mexico, you walk faster to pass before those behind you, and you do not care about hold the door open, because is "their problem". Actually, this sentence synthesise and gives a big idea about mexicans. In mexico, at work mexicans do not have the will of help your coworkers, in fact, mexicans neither want to help their boss nor they want to help they business grow. That's why the economic is poor, -work is for work, not for facebook-. Yes, it sounds hilarous, and it is. Mexicans haven't noticed that the way to advanced is in the social effort, to do waht they bosses do so their enterprise would be better and grow and produce more jobs for other people. To make money with effort rather than stealing from others. If mexicans helped each other or wanted the society to grow as a whole, the reality would be other. I know there are mexicans that know this, but they are not the majority.

Mexicans strongly believe that if you take all of the government and changed them for other random mexican people, all will be better, because the problem is "the government". In fact this is not true, all will be equal, mexican people have a mexican government. We are raised with the ideal that people who hold public places just steale money from the people, so when those kids grow, they know that if you are in government you are going to steale money, because that's the way it is. This idea go back to the colonization times where the crown of spain stole all the precious metals it could stole, and those structural organizations of the government have been inherited and prevailed since then. 

And all of that could be changed, but it is required that lots of mexicans believe in it. I do not want to die without being in a new mexico, I decided to dedicate my life if necessary to change mexico's panorama. I have see the potential, but I needed to leave the country to think out of the box. It was necessary for me to see how other countries works in order to understand how to change mexico, and probably something similar is required to do with the rest of the mexicans. But unfortunately, not everybody can go to other country. I had have the bless that my father is a hard and smart worker, which have made my family relatively wealthy for the typical mexican (in fact, here in the United States I would been considered upper middle class by my parents education but lower middle class by their incomes). And these allowed me to attend to one of the better schools in Mexico, -with a little of help of a partial scolarschip-. But I didn't decided to be like these, is also true that I have always be smart, but in fact, there are many smart mexican students that could not attend to a school that explodes their potential and that have change their goals for ones more affordable. It was a privilege that I have had. Because all of the above, it is my obligation to fight for mexicans, to work for change mexicans and Mexico, because it would be stupid if I don't do it. My possibilities to make a change are tremendous, and I do not want to be a waste. If have been in special circumstances and I am relatively successful (in terms of my age -scolarships, academical competitions ...-) is my obligation to help the other mexico to beliefe they also can do it, and help them do it. It maybe sounds crazy now, but I want to help education in Mexico, and I want to make it my goal of life. If I would need money, I would make bussineses and do it, if I would need to go and live in the poorest places, I would do it. Because if mexicans like me who have the chance to change Mexico don't do it, how do we want to go out of the hole?

Viviendo en USA / Living in the United States of America

*Éste blog está en Español e Inglés.
*This blog is in English and Spanish.

Español (spanish):
¡Que onda amigos! Pues verán, yo soy un mexicano de nacimiento, que ha ganado varios concursos académicos en México, y  que debido a circunstancias de la vida y deseos de éxito personal, decidió viajar a Estados Unidos. Soy joven, y vine principalmente para estudiar. Estaré publicando todo lo interesante que encuentre en éste país.

Una breve descripción de mi:

• *Soy trabajador.
• *Me esfuerzo por lo que quiero.
• *Soy demasiado callado.
• *Me encanta ganar en todo.
• *Me encanta leer cosas interesantes.
• *Muchas personas me consideran un Geek (adicto a las computadoras o algo así).

¿Porqué decidí abrir un blog?:
La verdad, como una manera de expresar mis sentimientos.

Todos los nombres que usaré y mi nombre propio se mantendrán en secreto. Y además trataré de publicar cada dos o tres días, porque odio los blogs en los cuales no se publica nunca.

El blog lo mantendré siempre en dos lenguajes, en inglés y en español.  Aunque todavía no hablo inglés al 100% trataré de hacerlo lo mejor posible (además me sirve como práctica).

Gracias a todos, ¡y disfruten éste día!

English (inglés):
Hello buddies! Okey, I am starting. I am a birthright mexican, and I have won several academic competitions in Mexico, and because circumstances of life and wishes of personal success, have decided to live in theUnited States. I am young, and i came mainly for study. And I will be sharing everything interesting that I found in this country and my life.

A brief description about myself:

• *I am hard-working.
• *I put effort in what i want.
• *I am so shy.
• *I like to win in everything.
• *I love to read interesting things.
• *A lot of people think I am a Geek (computers addicted or something like that).

Why did I decide to open a blog?
Honestly, because I found it the perfect way of expressin myself.

All the names that I will be using here will be changed.

I will always keep the blog in english and in spanish. Although I do not speak english in 100% I will try to di my best.

Thank to you all, and enjoy this day!