September 19 ,1985

It has been 20 years since that day when an 8.1 earthquake shook Mexico City.

We take this day to remember and take a moment of silence for all of those people who died on that day. I thought this was a better idea than telling you all a little history or the story of what I was doing back then. Lets remember all those people who left us that day and hope that nothing like this once again happens.

Lets remember in silent contemplation, that 19th of September of 1985.

UN Summit (Conclusion)

Hi everyone. Please forgive me for leaving this post until today eventhough the summit is already over. Honestly, I couldn't find a lot of information on the happenings of the last days so I decided to wait until today. In a nutshell, the most important things that happened was that the proposed document was accepted with the notable opposition from Venezuela. The consensus on the accepted document continued to be that it fell short of hopes and expectations set out before the summit specially regarding the reform of the internal structure of the UN.

Nevertheless, there were also many other countries with a more optimistic outlook and who believe that this summit was a good starting point for the future. As Canada's Primer Minister Paul Martin said, it is always important and good when 170+ countries can reach an agreement on such a detailed and worldwide document in less than a week.

I tend to agree more with this last statement. Yes, it is true that there were many failures but this documents sets a foundation for us to work on the world's future. The approval of the document gives it validity and power to be able to pressure the US and Canada on their lack of support for the world's poor and in the case of the US to agree to other agreements such as Kyoto (read about how Mexico is chipping in too: http://estadis.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/305667.html). It also asks the developin nations to commit to taking care of themselves and to create a favourable internal environment to take advantage of the aid they will receive. And lets not forget that the march of Human Rights continues on strongly. The intention for it to be a law to live by everywhere around the world received a huge boost. Lets hope that it becomes reality.

In conclusion, 60 years after the creation of the UN, we stop to remember that the UN is a place where all countries have a voice: from tiny Tuvalu to Russia. And eventhough at times procedure and burocracy can make its work difficult, that doesn't mean it should be destroyed.

UN Summit (Day 2)

We begin day two of our coverage of the UN Summit with two topics to cover.

The first topic is perhaps today's main topic: combatting poverty. This topic today was carried sucessfully by Mexican Presidente Vicente Fox. You can read the full article (in Spanish) here: http://www2.eluniversal.com.mx/pls/impreso/noticia.html?id_nota=24240&tabla=primera

Fox gave voice (as did the President of Jamaica) to countries that are still under development or perhaps just starting. Fox called for a true commitment to erradicating barriers to foreign trade, forgive the debt of the poorest countries of the world and to commit to the percentage of GDP promised as foreign aid by the first world. All of this, as you might recall, are part of the Millenium Development Goals.

The first world was represented by Bush who for once did not change the subject of the discussion to fighting terrorism. Unfortunately, he did not speak about taking on the commitment to increase their percentage of aid. Instead, he did ask that the developing nations make a strong commitment to eliminating corruption and other economical & political barriers. I agree that the removal of these barriers Bush speaks of is important but I don't agree that they become a condition for aid. I believe that even in corrupt environments, money can be given as aid to help the combat of said corruption and to bring in a culture of transparency that will in turn, give birth to a favourable environment for sustainable development.

The second topic of the day was that of Iran. Read the article (in Spanish):
http://www2.eluniversal.com.mx/pls/impreso/noticia.html?id_nota=36592&tabla=internacional_h

Despite the disaster in Irak, the US has started to turn its sight on Iran and continuedly accuses that nation of using its domestic nuclear energy program as an excuse to pursuit nuclear weapons. Europe has attempted to negotiate with Iran but Iran continues to assert that its nuclear program is not for military use. The IAEA has also shown its concern at Iran's program and hardline on nuclear energy. Nevertheless, Iran claims that, even with its vast oil and natural gas reserves, it needs nuclear energy. What will happen? And why has North Korea been forgotten?

UN Summit (Day 1)

We begin our coverage of the UN Summit of 2005 (also covered in Spanish by El Universal at: http://estadis.eluniversal.com.mx/graficos/coberturas_est/esp835.html).

The summit will begin formally tomorrow (September 15) but today was an important day because there had to be an agreement on the document that would serve as a base for the talks of the following days and also as the roadmap for UN reform.

The consensus at the end though was that of great dissapointment at the document. An agreement was not reached on all aspects that many countries were aiming for. This "document lite" (http://www2.eluniversal.com.mx/pls/impreso/noticia.html?id_nota=36914&tabla=internacional), was however not without victories. The Toronto Star gives special mention to a few victories that were sponsored by Canada.

So lets make a short summary of those positive aspects of the document:

1. The UN will act quickly to protect people vulnerable to violations of their human rights. This was proposed to avoid genocide in the future like those that happened in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia. The document states that a government that is not protecting its citizens or acting directly agains their human rights will be promplty warned. If the warning is not paid attention to, the UN will the act militarily to protect these people.


2. The UN's Human Rights Comission will have its resources doubled. This will permit the continuation of the outstanding work being done to protect Human Rights around the world.

And now we move to those topics that didn't get to make it or that were "diluted" in the document.

1. There was no agreement to keep countries that were known (or suspected) for their violation of human rights out of the Human Rights Council.


2. There was no agreement on a definition for the word "terrorism". Therefore, there was no agreement of how the UN should help protect the world from terrorism. The point of main disagreement is that some countries think it is ok for civilians to be killed when they are killed in a fight against an occupying force.
   
3. There were no agreements for nuclear disarmament.


4. There was also no agreement on how to achieve the Millenium Development Goals. The dissapointment in this, is that it wasn't some "renegade" country that opposed this plan of action but the US. The US continues to shy away from the commitment to give 0.7% of their GDP to the reduction of poverty and debt in the third world.

And that's how the UN Summit begins. I hope that in the following three days more obstacles are crossed so that there can be agreements or improvements on those last four issues. It will be difficult since the Summit should also cover the proposals for reform at the UN, the Secretariat and the Security Council. I would hope, though, that the emphasis on the Summit continues to be on the Millenium Development Goals and perhaps on the Human Rights and Security Council. I believe these three things are a key part of what the next 60 years of the UN will be. Those three things give the organization credibility in their goal to look for peace and the respect of life. There is nothing more important or fundamental that I can not think of.

September 11 - Four Years Later

Today is the fourth anniversary of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington D.C. in the US. The US will take this Sunday to commemorate those events (http://estadis.eluniversal.com.mx/graficos/coberturas_est/esp834.html) in the middle of rescue operations in New Orleans and in the middle of a war against the insurgents in Irak.

In spite of reflections triggered by the destruction of Hurricane Katrina, the US continues - four years later- to not reflect on the true causes and reasons of why the events of September 11 happened. Even when with Katrina the US reflects on logistics of evacuations and how to react to disasters, I doubt that they will reflect and evaluate that if four years later they have become a more secure society that is less vulnerable to terrrorism.

This, I believe, is because the US government has done a great job to convince its people that the terrorists hate them for being "free" & "democratic and that they also hate all of the good things the US stands for. This is the same tactic that Tony Blair has used after the terrorist attacks in London. Nevertheless, Al Qaeda has said in many ocassions that they do not hate freedom, nor do they hate "The American Way of Life". What they hate is that because of US economical (and military) interests, there are US troops in the Middle East and holy Islamic land. And of course, there is also a resentment on the US's policy towards Israel.

But no one (except for the independent & intelligent people of the US) wants to think about that. A lot of people of the US are not aware that though they aren't the ones committing these "atrocities" against Islam, by virtue of their beloved democracy they voted in a goverment that does commit those "atrocities". Not only that, but they passively lack the will to demand a change because they infer that changing means that "the terrorists win".

And what is worst is that by adopting to take the "War on Terrorism" to the homes of terrorists, they continue to ignore the true birthplaces of terrorism. Countries like Saudi Arabia and Pakistan are ignored and even seen as allies while Irak was added to the list and vilified. Sure, US troops die in Irak but they die fighting terrorists that weren't there before the US invaded.

On the up side, four years after September 11, the US has not suffered another terrorist attack on their land. But lets think about this another way. If the US is coming to you, why go to the US? I believe that in this logic lies the reason of why terrorist efforts have been somewhat concentrated on Irak. And lets not forget London. London taught us that terrorists are still very patient in their plans. No attacks does not mean there are no plans agains the US mainland.

In conclusion, I believe the US is not safer today than four years ago and I can only hope people will reflect on this and create conscience so that they can attempt to participate in world society in a fairer way.

Mexican Army in the USA

In this week of crisis in New Orleans, the Mexican government had not only offered the US government their condolences after the passing of hurricane Katrina but also aid. This aid arrived yesterday and crossed into the "most powerful country in the world".

In Toronto, The Toronto Star, came out with a small article titled Mexican Troops back in the U.S. (Read it at Reuters: http://today.reuters.com/investing/financeArticle.aspx?type=bondsNews&storyID=2005-09-08T203127Z_01_N0813958_RTRIDST_0_KATRINA-MEXICO.XML ) which mirrors articles in other newspapers and other media in the US.

After all, this event was something worthy of the annals of history. It hadn't been since 1916 that an armed Mexican force (remember Pancho Villa?) had last entered the US. And if you only count official Mexican Army troops, the last time they were in what is now the US was back in the 1800s when Texas and the other territories were lost to the US.

Yes. It is a moment to feel proud to be a Mexican and feel proud that we are helping out a strong, first world country. We are demonstrating a commitment with the well being of all people of the world and also a strong military infrastructure to respond to disasters. I can only hope this is the beginning of Mexican involement to help in humanitarian aid all around the world, and why not, even as peacekeepers. After all, if we can help the US... we should be able to help less fortunate countries.