It is possible

“The more power the government has, the weaker the individual becomes” Carl Jung

Mexico is now known all over the world as one of the most dangerous countries to live and visit and it is automatically related with drugs and violence. People only know Ciudad Juarez and they have heard horrible stories of attacks and extortion which makes them think of Mexico as ruthless and savage place.

As a Mexican living in London, hearing this is very sad and sometimes frustrating. Often I am told “I wanted to go to Mexico but it is too dangerous…”.

Mexican pride is not anymore our beautiful people and places, food, music and colours, everything is stained by corruption, drugs and blood. Attitudes of fear and reclusion are part of our daily lives. I fear for my family and friends and I lament that they are not able to live their lives as they deserve. The Mexico the world know is not the Mexico where I grew up nor the country that also my friends an family love.

Lately I have seen comments attacking the actual president Felipe Calderón and accusations to the government and the police and hopeful ideas and illusions about the next president who is going to come and save us from the hell where we live now.

National parties point their fingers to each other and always make the others responsible for everything bad that is happening. “Hopefully one day the government will have a good idea and put an end to this bloody mess”, “The next president will find a solution”. But what do we do about it? What do common citizens think to do to help and solve this social crisis? This is our problem too and we refuse to accept it.

Are we forgetting that we are an important part of what we call society?

Unfortunately it has always been like this. In México we are used to the paternalist government that keeps us eating out of their hands, they tell us they will solve all our problems and uncertainties, we don’t have to worry about anything, they should and will provide us with all our needs, we just have to stay calm and support everything they say and we lose all hope of making ourselves heard.

 

People happily stays quiet trusting every word and every cheap slogan the government says without doubting it and we just get distraction from what other people want us to do, from what the media wants us to buy, from what Televisa wants us to watch and admire, watching “celebrities” dancing reggaeton with people wearing chicken customs on the TV screen is our everyday medicine for our souls and minds.

This ideas have been told by so many people before but the reason why I recall it is because I would like to help people realizing that if we leave all the responsibility to the government and the criminals we will never get out of this.

 

Personally I think that what we need plenty of social adjustments; we need to promote our sense of community, creating our own ideas and solutions and out of the fear find alternatives. Like the Norwegian people did after the horrible attacks in Utoya last month, they felt frightened but closer and united than ever, no one could defeat that. We should stop pointing out all the time and wondering ourselves “what small things can I do?”. Another admiring example is the Turkish community in London: during the riots that we experienced earlier this month in this city, in most part of the cases, while the young people was looting shops and houses a big crowd was just watching, witnessing and taking videos, doing nothing about it; but when they wanted to loot the Turkish commerces they failed because this community got organized and step in front of their shops, protecting their friends and business with big courage. They showed us how would have been possible to stop the rioters of making damage and hurting people if we had been together.

Yesterday, José Narro Robles from UNAM university held a document called “Elementos para la construcción de una política de Estado para la seguridad y la justicia en democracia” written by 88 specialists where they propose the governement social, economical and political strategies to defeat crime and violence in Mexico. It is worth to check it out.

We don’t need anymore this primitive form of society where we are a tribe and we follow the autocratic rule of a chief. We don’t need more schools, we need better schools, we need social programs that motivate the youth, social projects that make families closer and with better relationships. We need to become strong families and strong communities. That is possible!. I am not trying to pretend I know what is right I am just sharing some ideas and myself I am trying to know what can I do!

Could we collect some ideas and make them real?

What do you think? What can you suggest?

Lucía Zan