The total government is preparing itself ... to go to war. Armed with shyster tricks ("the law is not negotiable"), fierce propaganda and brandishing, at all times, the education reform as definitive and unstoppable, they make some final adjustments in its accessories while preparing for an adventure with unpredictable consequences. Rough calculations, supported by flimsy assumptions, don't portend the good results that are promised.
Everything points to one of two possible courses of action. The most likely involves a confrontation by the established system against a group (which may be a majority) of the teachers. The use of state force against thousands of mobilized citizens will surely spill over in countless and important directions. The second option requires the surrender of the unions in Guerrero and Oaxaca and of others that may accompany them. The latter alternative would lead to the expected continuity, without further frights, of the strategy as it was designed in the Pact for Mexico.
It would be stupid to say that in either of the options available, whether to the teachers and or to the government, an outcome would result that is even acceptable and, even less, definitive. Insofar as what one can make out in the preparations now underway, the negotiation path is exhausted; therefore, it is no idle matter to name some of the elements that enter into this complex interplay.
The very stability of the regime is the very first aspect worth considering. Although for many participants, observers and advisers such a consequence is considered excessive, it would be wise to keep it in mind, even if in the back of one's mind. The presidential image, displayed with such zeal, intensity and preparations, would not emerge unscathed from a brawl as it does from an interview.
The resentment resulting from various injuries to a key group that is appreciated by society, which has already had glimpses of the repression--and not discarding the possibility of deaths--would fill much of the term of this government. There would also be the political impact on the current reform process. A corollary would be the effect on the presumed PRI's ability to be a party of reform. They ought to anticipate the possibilities of a localized or focused insurgency that might spread in various ways and lengths of time.
The public perception campaign, carried out for weeks by the propaganda apparatus, has also been intense and comprehensive in the media employed. The opinionocracy entered into full operation, as is expected by those above, especially in moments that are critical for the continuity of the political model in vogue. The voices, pens, narratives and images are, moreover, simultaneous, repetitive and, in recent days, fierce and imposing in their argument. The loudmouths are full of zeal for the abandoned children and helpless highway travelers. Nobody has the right to violate the law, Mr. Chuayffet [Secretary of Education] has preached, enraptured by the spirit of the law, from which his inevitable metaphors arise. With smugness, they have demonized and attacked the teachers as violent, unaware, irresponsible rebels and vagrants, as well as with other epithets without consideration that they have worth.
Any scruples regarding human rights that they could maintain, even under the nastiest conditions, have been circumvented with disdain and even arrogance in whatever publications or microphones available to the government. This last category includes both federal and local governments, as well as business organizations, church leadership, opinionocracy in the full enjoyment of their privileges and positions, the bureaucracy (public and private), a good part of academia and the sparse portions of citizens formed by the good people. That is, the world of los de arriba [those above], already very coiled up in their phobias, fears and contempt toward the so-called impudent and violent underclass.
The reform will go forward as it was conceived and approved; there will be no regression, as dictated with studied energy from the top. Any modification is unacceptable. Recommended, lobbied and imposed by the OECD [Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development], with its PISA [Program for International Student Assessment], now the national business community, scribes and snake oil salesmen of power propose to carry it out without hesitation. What is at stake, they argue without any doubt, is the future of the nation. And considering such a high purpose, no resistance is worthwhile.
The reform, as it stands, ensures the requisite capacity to compete, to progress, to make the economy grow at the pace required and get Mexico out of its present impasse. It's the same old story as promised horizon. The blatant and un-concealable lack of educational infrastructure isn't considered in this design by the leadership. The content of the so-called quality of education is divorced from the abysmal, existing and growing inequalities where instruction is provided. The disaster revealed in the various tests made by experts are blamed on the backwardness of the teachers, who are described as unreliable, as fools and truants who prefer scandal to progress. In the corridors of power and decency the amplified cry solidifies: No more privileges obtained with blackmail, with undue and illegal pressure.
The CNTE [National Coordinating Committee of Education Workers], the CETEG [State Committee of Education Workers of Guerrero] and its derivatives (MPG) [Popular Movement of Guerrero]) are seen as offenders deserving of police encirclement, of batons, gas, persecution and imprisonment. The terrible conditions under which they impart elementary and secondary education in much of the country, especially in those states under siege, don't matter. The massive thefts by the federal and state bureaucracies, the corrupt and shameless unionism of the SNTE [National Union of Education Workers] remains to the side of this sad story.
With the jailing of 'The Teacher' [Elba Esther Gordillo], the anger ends. She is the only one who deserves jail. As for the other accomplices in the SNTE leadership, of which there are hundreds or thousands, the shock is enough: we need them to calm the turbulent waters caused by the reform. Union commissioners who remain untouched will be employed to do what they know how to do, fix elections. That has been the work which the PRI (of Luis EcheverrÃa, [President 1970-76]) entrusted to them almost fifty years ago and so it is destined to be in the times to come. Spanish original
The resentment resulting from various injuries to a key group that is appreciated by society, which has already had glimpses of the repression--and not discarding the possibility of deaths--would fill much of the term of this government. There would also be the political impact on the current reform process. A corollary would be the effect on the presumed PRI's ability to be a party of reform. They ought to anticipate the possibilities of a localized or focused insurgency that might spread in various ways and lengths of time.
The public perception campaign, carried out for weeks by the propaganda apparatus, has also been intense and comprehensive in the media employed. The opinionocracy entered into full operation, as is expected by those above, especially in moments that are critical for the continuity of the political model in vogue. The voices, pens, narratives and images are, moreover, simultaneous, repetitive and, in recent days, fierce and imposing in their argument. The loudmouths are full of zeal for the abandoned children and helpless highway travelers. Nobody has the right to violate the law, Mr. Chuayffet [Secretary of Education] has preached, enraptured by the spirit of the law, from which his inevitable metaphors arise. With smugness, they have demonized and attacked the teachers as violent, unaware, irresponsible rebels and vagrants, as well as with other epithets without consideration that they have worth.
Any scruples regarding human rights that they could maintain, even under the nastiest conditions, have been circumvented with disdain and even arrogance in whatever publications or microphones available to the government. This last category includes both federal and local governments, as well as business organizations, church leadership, opinionocracy in the full enjoyment of their privileges and positions, the bureaucracy (public and private), a good part of academia and the sparse portions of citizens formed by the good people. That is, the world of los de arriba [those above], already very coiled up in their phobias, fears and contempt toward the so-called impudent and violent underclass.
The reform will go forward as it was conceived and approved; there will be no regression, as dictated with studied energy from the top. Any modification is unacceptable. Recommended, lobbied and imposed by the OECD [Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development], with its PISA [Program for International Student Assessment], now the national business community, scribes and snake oil salesmen of power propose to carry it out without hesitation. What is at stake, they argue without any doubt, is the future of the nation. And considering such a high purpose, no resistance is worthwhile.
The reform, as it stands, ensures the requisite capacity to compete, to progress, to make the economy grow at the pace required and get Mexico out of its present impasse. It's the same old story as promised horizon. The blatant and un-concealable lack of educational infrastructure isn't considered in this design by the leadership. The content of the so-called quality of education is divorced from the abysmal, existing and growing inequalities where instruction is provided. The disaster revealed in the various tests made by experts are blamed on the backwardness of the teachers, who are described as unreliable, as fools and truants who prefer scandal to progress. In the corridors of power and decency the amplified cry solidifies: No more privileges obtained with blackmail, with undue and illegal pressure.
The CNTE [National Coordinating Committee of Education Workers], the CETEG [State Committee of Education Workers of Guerrero] and its derivatives (MPG) [Popular Movement of Guerrero]) are seen as offenders deserving of police encirclement, of batons, gas, persecution and imprisonment. The terrible conditions under which they impart elementary and secondary education in much of the country, especially in those states under siege, don't matter. The massive thefts by the federal and state bureaucracies, the corrupt and shameless unionism of the SNTE [National Union of Education Workers] remains to the side of this sad story.
With the jailing of 'The Teacher' [Elba Esther Gordillo], the anger ends. She is the only one who deserves jail. As for the other accomplices in the SNTE leadership, of which there are hundreds or thousands, the shock is enough: we need them to calm the turbulent waters caused by the reform. Union commissioners who remain untouched will be employed to do what they know how to do, fix elections. That has been the work which the PRI (of Luis EcheverrÃa, [President 1970-76]) entrusted to them almost fifty years ago and so it is destined to be in the times to come. Spanish original