Mexico

This action undertaken by the Palestinian Liberation Organisation at the UN is not taken in the context of strategy, but because it has stumbled into it and is trying to reclaim some political ground. I think the bid is taking place in a strategic vacuum, and therefore my analysis of what might happen at the UN is based on this being a consequence of political frustration and anxiety, rather than intentionality.
 

The Woodrow Wilson Center Mexico Institute & the New America Foundation cordially invite
you to the latest installment in the ongoing series Dialogues with Mexico/Diálogos con México, featuring the launch of a new book, Mañana Forever?:Mexico and the Mexicans, by noted Mexican scholar and opinion leader Jorge Castañeda.

Breakfast will be provided.

Throughout the developing world, money is heaved onto trucks and transported by governments to delivery points scattered across countries. Citizens come to these drop-offs, where the delivered cash is broken down into smaller sums and distributed. This is essentially the process for more than half of the almost 170 million poor people who receive social welfare cash payments on a regular basis from their governments. The other half receives e-money, which involves no trucks or hard cash, just electronic payments using smartcards, debit cards, and mobile phones.

My hotel on the outskirts of Puebla, a city of 1.3 million in central Mexico, looks out over a rolling golf course lined with palm trees and beyond that a busy highway flanked by Mazda and Mercedes car dealerships. The historic downtown has colonial Spanish architecture. Newer areas of the city boast gated subdivisions, Home Depot outlets, and strip malls. I came to attend a technology conference, "Ciudad de las Ideas," now in its third year and featuring such international luminaries as Malcolm Gladwell and Chris Anderson as speakers.

Writing from Mexico City

The tweets started arriving in August, and they did not mince words. One of the first accused the South Korean government of being "a prostitute of the United States." The Twitter account, under the name "uriminzok," or "our nation," seemed to be part of a sprawling North Korean digital operation that included a Facebook account (registered as a man interested in "meeting other men," but solely for "networking purposes") and a series of YouTube videos meant to celebrate the might of the North Korean military.

Mariachi music and the Potomac River don’t often find themselves in the same sentence, but Mexico turned 200 overnight, so an exception had to be made. Mariachi music did indeed waft over the Potomac, emanating from the Grito celebration on the esplanade of the Kennedy Center. Ozomatli played, fireworks ensued, naturally, and thousands of melancholic Mexicans toasted 200 years of independence from the old empire in the capital of the empire many of them feel replaced it.

Mariachi music and the Potomac River don’t often find themselves in the same sentence, but Mexico turned 200 overnight, so an exception had to be made. Mariachi music did indeed waft over the Potomac, emanating from the Grito celebration on the esplanade of the Kennedy Center. Ozomatli played, fireworks ensued, naturally, and thousands of melancholic Mexicans toasted 200 years of independence from the old empire in the capital of the empire many of them feel replaced it.

MEXICO CITY -- The perpetual seesaw in Latin American geo-politics is more vibrant than ever. The so-called "Americas-1" countries -- those that are either neutral in the confrontation between the United States and Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez (and Cuba), or openly opposed to the so-called "Bolivarian" governments of Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, Nicaragua, and Venezuela -- are slowly advancing. The "Americas-2" radical left is receding moderately, yet it can still maintain its positions and defeat any attempts to roll back its influence.

These are jittery times in Washington. President Felipe Calderon of Mexico arrives for a visit with President Barack Obama on the heels of a catastrophic oil spill, primary upsets for Democratic candidates, and just as rhetoric surrounding illegal immigration into the American Southwest has reached the screaming point. Given the White House’s new focus on immigration reform, its second official state dinner will be more concerned with security than the last—not just at the White House gates, but at the border that joins Mexico and the United States.