Thursday, October 11, 2007
Ex-President Vicente Fox Is a Hit in New York & Washington, DC
Ex-President Vicente Fox of Mexico recently appeared on Comedy Central for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and stressed his belief as he wrote about in his latest book Revolution of Hope: The Life, Faith, and Dreams of a Mexican President written with Rob Allyn that fences or walls don't work.
Fox's comments about the current Bolivian president, in Stewart's words, "might get [him] in trouble with Bolivia" but overall the interview was quite interesting and pricked my interest in his story to get me to buy a copy.
I understand that Fox was also quite charming and congenial with the people who stood in line at the Borders Bookstore on 18th Street, NW in Washington, DC. Hundreds of folks waited in line to get his autograph and a chance to shake his hand and exchange a few words.
The book touches on many issues that are of interest to me: beginning with the wall between the USA and Mexico--why not build a wall between the USA and Canada? (What is there to prevent folks from around the world from entering the USA illegally from Canada? How stupid to think that only the poor want to enter this country illegally?)
Fox starts with his lineage, including his paternal grandfather who was a USA American who immigrated to Mexico and eventually stayed, though oddly he never spoke Spanish--I assume he could understand it especially since he married a Mexican American (Fox rightly points out that all citizens of the Americas are in fact American, in the same sense that all Europeans are European by virtue of being born in a European country. One's roots are important but it is what one does with the base he is given that is the ultimate measure of his worth in terms of contributions to humanity.
In this vain, Fox also mentions Pancho Villa that rebel who is basically un hijo de la chingada or mud in my family due to the brutal and mortal treatment he bestowed on my maternal great-great uncle and his eldest son not far from the Texas border. In truth, the Mexican system was not working and to his credit Fox points out the sins of los politicos mexicanos and the effects of their sins; however, Villa was no less guilty of the rapes and murders he committed in the name of his justice than were the politicos and to its fault the Catholic Church which often played along with the corruption in Mexico, such that it is illegal for the religious to wear religious clothing in public as written in the Mexican Constitution. Yet again, to his credit Fox became the first Mexican president to welcome His Holiness The Late John Paul II on Mexican soil. Such is the cultural trauma between the Catholic Church and the Mexican State due to its complacency during the strife between the wealthy and the dirt poor in Mexican history.
In hindsight, I believe that Fox's observations ring true to certain extent to the current USA American strife of the poor and the ailing middle class that is decreasing daily between the wealthy / extremely wealthy. That said, who in his right mind wants to pay more taxes? But the rub is what gets lost as a result of major decreases in taxes? Ultimately it is the poor and middle classes that are most affected from the loss of revenue from lower taxes. Or what of the couple recently arrested who refused to pay any taxes? IRS agents finally caught up with them by posing as supporters of their stance against paying taxes.
The point I am driving at and which Fox makes, I believe, is that politicians need to realize that the citizens of a country must not be abused nor should politicians allow the privileged to rape the country of its resources--in my mind--that includes not allowing the extremely wealthy to get away with exploiting workers, abusing the environment with toxic waste, etc., and the cosmos in general. What goes around comes around. And as Fox points out many a Mexican president has had to leave his country in order to escape the scorn if not revenge its citizens demand for the abuse committed by its past presidents. How odd that we in the USA acknowledge the abuse of past presidents yet allow them to remain in the country without any punishment besides public controlled scorn.
This is why I believe more readers should pick up a copy of Fox's book and perhaps in his own vaquero way, Fox might lead to change in USA, land of his paternal grandfather, as well.
To purchase a copy at Amazon.com, click below:
Revolution of Hope: The Life, Faith, and Dreams of a Mexican President
Fox's comments about the current Bolivian president, in Stewart's words, "might get [him] in trouble with Bolivia" but overall the interview was quite interesting and pricked my interest in his story to get me to buy a copy.
I understand that Fox was also quite charming and congenial with the people who stood in line at the Borders Bookstore on 18th Street, NW in Washington, DC. Hundreds of folks waited in line to get his autograph and a chance to shake his hand and exchange a few words.
The book touches on many issues that are of interest to me: beginning with the wall between the USA and Mexico--why not build a wall between the USA and Canada? (What is there to prevent folks from around the world from entering the USA illegally from Canada? How stupid to think that only the poor want to enter this country illegally?)
Fox starts with his lineage, including his paternal grandfather who was a USA American who immigrated to Mexico and eventually stayed, though oddly he never spoke Spanish--I assume he could understand it especially since he married a Mexican American (Fox rightly points out that all citizens of the Americas are in fact American, in the same sense that all Europeans are European by virtue of being born in a European country. One's roots are important but it is what one does with the base he is given that is the ultimate measure of his worth in terms of contributions to humanity.
In this vain, Fox also mentions Pancho Villa that rebel who is basically un hijo de la chingada or mud in my family due to the brutal and mortal treatment he bestowed on my maternal great-great uncle and his eldest son not far from the Texas border. In truth, the Mexican system was not working and to his credit Fox points out the sins of los politicos mexicanos and the effects of their sins; however, Villa was no less guilty of the rapes and murders he committed in the name of his justice than were the politicos and to its fault the Catholic Church which often played along with the corruption in Mexico, such that it is illegal for the religious to wear religious clothing in public as written in the Mexican Constitution. Yet again, to his credit Fox became the first Mexican president to welcome His Holiness The Late John Paul II on Mexican soil. Such is the cultural trauma between the Catholic Church and the Mexican State due to its complacency during the strife between the wealthy and the dirt poor in Mexican history.
In hindsight, I believe that Fox's observations ring true to certain extent to the current USA American strife of the poor and the ailing middle class that is decreasing daily between the wealthy / extremely wealthy. That said, who in his right mind wants to pay more taxes? But the rub is what gets lost as a result of major decreases in taxes? Ultimately it is the poor and middle classes that are most affected from the loss of revenue from lower taxes. Or what of the couple recently arrested who refused to pay any taxes? IRS agents finally caught up with them by posing as supporters of their stance against paying taxes.
The point I am driving at and which Fox makes, I believe, is that politicians need to realize that the citizens of a country must not be abused nor should politicians allow the privileged to rape the country of its resources--in my mind--that includes not allowing the extremely wealthy to get away with exploiting workers, abusing the environment with toxic waste, etc., and the cosmos in general. What goes around comes around. And as Fox points out many a Mexican president has had to leave his country in order to escape the scorn if not revenge its citizens demand for the abuse committed by its past presidents. How odd that we in the USA acknowledge the abuse of past presidents yet allow them to remain in the country without any punishment besides public controlled scorn.
This is why I believe more readers should pick up a copy of Fox's book and perhaps in his own vaquero way, Fox might lead to change in USA, land of his paternal grandfather, as well.
To purchase a copy at Amazon.com, click below:
Revolution of Hope: The Life, Faith, and Dreams of a Mexican President
