Changes in Latitude

The winner for this week’s best reporting goes to Laurie Garrett who says, “We should all stand up and scream Gracias, Mexico!” because  the Mexican government sacrificed by shutting down schools, businesses, restaurants, churches, and sporting events to prevent a global pandemic.  “They basically paralyzed their own economy.  They’ve suffered billions of dollars in financial losses, and thereby brought transmission of this virus to a halt.”  Bravo, Laurie!

Daily, the moronic media has seen reporters standing at a border crossing talking about a country they have never visited and know nothing about.  Remember the avian flu?  China did not swiftly quarantine the source, as Mexico did, so there were far more than the swine flu’s 61 deaths.  Gracias, Mexico!   (By the way, why is the USA so cozy with socialist China while Cuba is off limits because it’s socialist?  Why can’t the U.S. government pass the common sense test?)

How about the misleading drug violence reporting?  Mainstream media have bungled this story as well.  If you are dealing drugs or hanging out along the border you might encounter violence, but the same is true everywhere in the world.  Ready for the real story?  Mexico is more peaceful than the USA in terms of drug-related gang violence.   Three times safer; 15,000 gang-related deaths occur in the USA each year.  Gang-related deaths in Mexico doubled from 2,500 in 2007 to 5,000 last year, when President Bush bribed President Calderon with $400 million in law enforcement aid to initiate armed violence with smugglers in the DEA’s tragic waste of money, “the war on drugs”.  It’s amazing how the media leave out essential facts such as these.  Sloppy research leads to biased reporting.  One casualty of sloppy reporting (and Bush’s sloppy policies) is Mexico’s tourism industry, to the tune of billions of dollars.

Despite such follies, Mexico’s economy is holding up admiraly under the strain of the world recession – another problem made in the USA.  Workers have been laid off in Mexican car factories recently, but this is the first taste of the financial crisis.  The IMF forecast is for a short and moderate drop in GDP for most Latin American economies, including Mexico.  Latin America maintains a current-account surplus and accumulated reserves, unlike Uncle Sam’s financial sector and government which has behaved more like a casino for a decade now.  (Actually, that statement is not fair to casinos; most generate a budget surplus.)

In summary, Mexico is safe, strong, and waiting with welcome arms for summer vacationers.  Remember, your holiday dollars go a long way in this warm and welcome culture.  And Mexico deserves the world’s gratitude for its incredible response to a medical emergency this spring.  Gracias, Mexico!  See you soon…

Parque Amistad straddles the Costa Rican/Panamanian border and features rainforested highlands with 2-mile high peaks.   The climate is perfect year-round.  Cleaner water and air can not be found on Earth.

Amazingly, you can boat all the way from Panama´s Bocas del Toro up the Rio Changuinola and connect to the Rio Teribe to reach the rainforest by water.  This is the home of the Naso Kingdom, the last kingdom in Latin America.  The Naso bring sustainable agriculture to new heights. Each family farms what it needs and there are also communal farms. Here a raft carries extra produce for sale to Caribbean communities down river.

A journey into a Naso home brings shared stories, songs, dances, and food. Pure happiness and pride is evident in the absence of machines. The rainforest provides the Naso everything needed to sustain a good life. The Naso political system is a model with much to offer to the world. This is an excellent destination for children to compare and contrast the simple life with the technological life. Mine were inspired, not to give up their computers, but to view their importance in a different context.

Updates:

• 2010 – We explore some of the Naso’s neighbors near La Amistad in the post Talamanca Indigenous
• 2011 – After five years in and out of La Amistad, we’re collaborating with the Organization for the Development of Sustainable Eco-tourism for the Naso (ODESEN).  Visit Big River Foundation for details on an exciting new Watershed Ecology Program.