Getting Better?

Getting Better?

“The man who is a pessimist before 48 knows too much; if he is an optimist after it, he knows too little.

Mark Twain

By: Erreh Svaia

At this moment I´m really worried about the state Mexico is, in a way my generation lived good, as we played in the streets as kids, we enjoyed peace and security, as we went to public schools we enjoyed a good education, personally I was able to go from a public school, into a recognized private school, it wasn't hard, my teachers were good, I spent countless nights during my youth with my friends, I loved the nightlife, and it was safe to walk alone late at night more than a decade ago, I had a major surgery in a public hospital, they treated me good, but that country, that city of my childhood has changed, today the city is ripped to shreds, paranoia sets the pace, just a couple of years ago you weren't even able to go alone in the night, shootings and kidnappings became the norm and violence flooded the newspapers, I'm not quite sure if that situation ended or simply the media quit talking about it by government orders, but neither the city, nor the country is safe at all.

Acapulco, once a beautiful holiday’s destiny, is now considered as the third most violent city in the world, why heaven turned into hell? How is possible if Acapulco was supposed to be one of Mexico's big attraction for world tourists, now is bloody place where executions take place at all times, where authorities simply don't care, Acapulco like the whole Guerrero state is simply out of control, and the government prefers to ignore it, this week Reynosa, Tamaulipas, near the north border was again the scenario of a violent shooting between authorities and criminal groups, streets aren't safe anymore, going out at night is a risk again, the country is slipping into darkness once again.

But what saddens me more is that this is the country we are inheriting to our children, a country where teacher's union dictate that English is not a necessary language, where technology is verboten in schools, where teachers are not evaluated and where no matter how bad they are in their jobs, they can be removed, how can you move forward if you are not really aware of the state you are, if you don't really know how good or how bad you are? Is it logical to move this way?

A country in which political decisions are motivated by fear, the awful PRI wins because otherwise the radical left could turn us into the next Venezuela or Argentina, but the PRI is the same as the radical left, we lived in a discrete version of the USSR, with one single party ruling for 70 years, with economy stagnated and unable to cope with the world pace, with globalization, where the state owned the major industries turning them into obsolete monopolies, where liberalization of the economy meant giving this clue industries to a selected few, close to the government, oligarchy they call it.

No government will bet on education reform because is a long term project, and long term projects carry no votes, no government will bet on education reforms because it goes against the teachers union, a union decided to keep things still in order to keep their privileges, fighting them means millions of votes against, better to make new schools where people can matriculate without passing an exam, where no one can question educational quality, where you can't complain, because it's free, where you will get a diploma, but you will also get a deficient education making you not apt enough to get a good job, in the end, again it will be easy for the government to manipulate you and satisfy you with less.

What's given for free, can't be questioned, schools, hospitals, jobs, that why the government doesn't want you to be high skilled, because you will be overqualified and you will be probably leaving the country looking for better payment, that's a bad investment no? Better low skilled workers which can serve as an easily manipulated non demanding population.

We demand more football, more stadiums, more TV, but we don't demand better schools, better hospitals, and better jobs.

Today is a big risk going out at night, education is evaluated really low against world standards and public hospitals are saturated and very bad equipped.

We think everything is fine because there is football on TV on weekends, because every day there are soap operas on TV, because there are bigger and better stadiums, but let’s look beyond that, is there a better future?

Is this the country that we are going to inherit to our children?