La Jornada: John M. Ackerman
Translated by Stuart Taylor
The first to subject themselves to independent examination in order to evaluate the quality of the service that they provide should not have to be the most humble teachers in the country, but rather the President of the Republic and the speakers of the main television and radio channels. And those who should tighten their belts to address economic downturn should not have to be vulnerable workers, but the highest government officials and the wealthiest oligarchs. If it is a question of model punishments, they should not be applied to activists that question the President, but to public servants that insult the intelligence of the citizens every day.
Mexico is flipped on its head. Today, a group of people of proven professional incapacity, who bought their way to their position of power and public authority, wants to impose on others its vision of quality of information, humanitarian and public service issues. However, to advance as a country, the chain of command would have to go in completely the opposite direction. It is we the citizens that have the responsibility of defining the standards of quality and guaranteeing their strict fulfillment by the authorities and those in power.
Adrián Castillo, Fernanda López, Vania Mendoza, Valeria Gutiérrez and Eduardo Laguna, all young students from the Center for Scientific and Technological Studies in the State of Guanajuato (Cecyteg), have been unfairly suspended from their school for peacefully protesting during a Peña Nieto event in León last May 16th. When they return to their classes June 3rd, they must hand in an essay proposing ideas to improve the country. What the school authorities have not managed to point out is that they have already carried out this important piece of homework given the ideas that they expressed in their protest.
"I challenge you to live on my dad’s wages", said one of the placards. Here we find ourselves with an excellent proposal that would help the President of the Republic better understand the extreme social vulnerability experienced by the majority of the population. So that he knows how it feels, the minimum wage demands have been a constant factor in protest marches for years. It would be advisable that Peña Nieto’s daughter, who mocked the young for the last electoral campaign, help her father in dealing with this fair social demand.
If the members of the cabinet and other high public servants were to join in, for example the ministers of the Supreme Justice Court and the councilors of the Federal Electoral Institute, we would have significant savings in the treasury. The federal budget would benefit even more, and the already planned cuts by the Secretariat of Finance could be completely avoided if this initiative was accompanied by a new tax on the richest (for further analysis see: http://ow.ly/lpd2a).
“Peña sees and privatizes your mother. Pemex is not for sale”, stated another board. Although the reference to the parent of the President of the Republic is open for criticism and can offend those with good consciences, the central idea is clear and, what is more, the majority of the Mexican population shares it. All of the surveys show that there is a general consensus that Pemex should still belong to the Mexicans and that there should not be privatized changes to Article 27 of the constitution. In any case, if this crucial article were eventually subjected to a reform, it would have to be in order to ensure its revolutionary modernization and not to allow its neoliberal fragmentation (for more analysis see: http://ow.ly/lpdtH).
“Spending 7 million pesos on a whim on a flag, when the country is in a recession! Idiot EPN”, expressed one student. The protest took place precisely when the President was participating in the raising of a 35x23 meter flag in León that the mayor from the Institutional Revolutionary Party Bárbara Botello had celebrated as a reminder of Enrique Peña Nieto and a monument of the rotation. The studious pupil is right. If a businessman from León supposedly donated the 7 million pesos, this money would effectively have to have been used for truly useful and productive ends. Additionally, it is very difficult to believe that the donation of this quantity of money was made without bias. The President’s presence in the act suggests that a more political than patriotic pact was being made.
“EPN you are: a criminal, a traitor, corrupt, a murderer and an idiot”, insisted the last placard. Although the message is provocative and pretentious, it clearly expresses the social outrage of millions of Mexicans. This student’s message coincides with what the young people of the Ibero-American University expressed last year, with the evaluation of millions of Mexicans on the quality of the last presidential election and with the legacy left to the State of Mexico by Peña Nieto. This opinion should be taken into account, since it reflects the high democratic standards that the pupils have.
The director of Cecyteg, Irma Sánchez, has highlighted that she suspended the pupils for the pretentious words that they wrote on the placards. However, the country’s public schools should not get confused with girls’ schools that teach good manners. The authorities will surely reward Sánchez for defending the educational quality, but mindful citizens know that Adrián, Fernanda, Vania, Valeria and Eduardo are right to condemn the President and to demand quality governors. Spanish Original