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.

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