Mexico with Heart - Living, Traveling, and Retiring in Mexico » News

Mexico the Next China?

Rosana — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 21:29:42 +0000

Oct. 1, 2008 — Two or three weeks ago, a friend sent me the link to a Christian Science Monitor article which asks if Mexico is the new China. Since the population of Mexico has at least quadrupled since I was here as a child, I answered “yes” rather cynically in my mind.

But the article is about manufacturing, not population. It begins,

With skyrocketing oil prices, escalating labor costs in China, and an appreciating currency there, companies targeting the US market are doing the math and giving Mexico another look. So-called “nearshoring” could generate a reverse globalization that brings manufacturing back to Mexico.

The article is at
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0911/p01s02-woam.html

The point is that with fuel prices rising, it will make sense to diminish distances. Well, it is nice to see people realizing this!

I am a huge fan of the “locavore” movement taking root in the US, where people do their best to eat as locally as possible. We do that here a lot, with bananas, papayas, lemons, and more exotic fruits in our own yard, and an organic vegetable garden.

Just the other day, some friends were planning an outing to a pottery factory that is between here and Guadalajara. I blogged about going there over a year ago, as we have numerous large and small planters from it. Sadly, my friends discovered that the pottery factory is closing down.

Why? Because their main business was exporting to the US and they can’t compete with Chinese copies of Mexican style pottery.

China the next Mexico? Mexico the next China? What a world!

Mexico the Next China? is a post from: Mexico with Heart - Living, Traveling, and Retiring in Mexico

Eco Biking in Mexico

Rosana — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 20:59:56 +0000

August 8, 2008 – Bits of my past are reflected in a website I’ve visited lately.

I’m a Stanford graduate and the alumni newsletter often has interesting articles. But I must admit I was surprised to come across one about a group riding bicycles across the state of Jalisco, where I live. By the time I read the article, they were long gone, but still I found this an encouraging point of view on what some young people are doing: an ecologically-minded rock and roll band bicycling through Mexico!

Eco Biking in Mexico is a post from: Mexico with Heart - Living, Traveling, and Retiring in Mexico

Mexican Oil, Mexican Corn: Two Reports

Rosana — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 20:10:02 +0000

Aug 8, 2008 – My husband sent me two links today. One is to an NPR article about the politics and problems besetting Mexican oil, and the other is to an article about many aspects of food here. I think they are both blog-worthy.

The Mexican oil article is rather disquieting. Looming Energy Crisis In Mexico Stirs Debate is the title, and things don’t get any cheerier after that. I think of Mexico as a country that HAS oil, but while that is true now, Pemex has been enough of a cash cow for the government, according to the article, that reserves could run short as soon as seven years from now. Funding that could have gone into improving long-term oil production has been diverted in a variety of ways. Of course “could run short” is not the same thing as “will run short.” We’ll see.

Here’s another bit: “Despite being a major oil exporter, Mexico imports 40 percent of its gasoline because Pemex does not have the capacity to refine its own crude.” I knew that importation was occurring, but I didn’t realize it was that high a percentage of the gasoline. Oddly, while gas prices at the pump up north have done their big climbs, our prices have only gone up a little. That’s because the federal government here in Mexico subsidizes gas prices at the pump.

Turning to corn, Corn Patches and Dispatches:Notes on a recent trip to Mexico is an article that ranges from milpas (cornfields or small farm fields) to Wal-Mart. Some (but not all) of the comments were interesting too.

2 Comments from the old blog:

At August 27, 2008 9:25 AM, 1st Mate said…

That shows an appalling lack of forethought, not setting aside some profits to develop refineries. Makes you wonder when it’s going to hit the fan, doesn’t it?
At August 27, 2008 11:54 AM, Rosana Hart said…

It certainly does. That seven years? But then, someone once said that the Latino culture is to revere the past, live in the present, and let God take care of the future.

That approach *does* have some advantages over the North American tendency to worry a lot about the future, to the point of not quite noticing the joys of the present! (Mea culpa, and one thing I do like about being here.)

Mexican Oil, Mexican Corn: Two Reports is a post from: Mexico with Heart - Living, Traveling, and Retiring in Mexico

Reading the Guadalajara Colony Reporter

Rosana — Sun, 24 May 2009 01:14:01 +0000

Dec. 30, 2005 — The Guadalajara Reporter is a weekly print and online newspaper for the greater Guadalajara area English-speaking community. The link takes you to its website, which has some of the main stories for everyone and all of them if you subscribe.

I picked up a print copy the other day and learned that the average Mexican minimum wage is going up 1.87 pesos a day, which is eighteen cents US. The new minimum wage is the Guadalajara area will now be 47.16 pesos, which $4.44 in US dollars — that’s per DAY, not hour. Many Mexicans, such as maids and street vendors, make less.

Chinese competition is cutting into the profits of Mexican companies that make high-quality hand-made Christmas ornaments, by making much cheaper versions of the same things to sell in Mexico and other places. Last year, we talked with a number of Mexicans who were feeling the pinch of Chinese competition in their own small businesses.

The Mexican Greenpeace website has posted a list of transgenic foods and their brands at its website, that is, foods derived from genetically modified plants. I’m always interested to get glimpses of the Mexican ecological movement.

Lower sulfer fuel will be introduced in Mexico in 2006 but will still be way above the guidelines. The costs of upgrading PEMEX’s facilities are about two billion US dollars, so it will be a while before Mexico’s current standards are met.

Hmm… this paper has lots of environmental news. Thee are several more articles, along with a lot of coverage of the arts, community calendars, etc.

Reading the Guadalajara Colony Reporter is a post from: Mexico with Heart - Living, Traveling, and Retiring in Mexico

News from Mexico

Rosana — Sat, 16 May 2009 00:37:10 +0000

You can click on the following headlines and they will take you
to the news stories, opening in a new browser window. This is a
service that we link to; we don’t go searching for the stories ourselves.
These headlines are ever-changing, so bookmark this page or come
back from time to time! (Sometimes the headlines and are about New
Mexico, rather than Mexico… I guess the process of creating the
news feed just does that.)

News from Mexico is a post from: Mexico with Heart - Living, Traveling, and Retiring in Mexico