Fiscal Precariousness

Today in my class "Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean: Lessons in Political and Economical Development," we had a guest speaker, former Mexican Ambassador to the United States Jesus Federico Reyes Heroles. Ambassador Reyes Heroles is in town with the Mexican delegation accompanying President Calderon this week.

He stopped by SAIS to talk with our class about Mexico's fiscal situation and its oil company PEMEX. Ambassador Reyes Heroles' argument was one that you don't hear too much these days in the United States. He told us that in Mexico, taxes are too low and government spending is too low. He cited some statistics comparing Mexico to comparable OECD countries. In Mexico, government expenditures make up 25% of GDP; in the rest of the OECD, they are 44% of GDP. Mexican federal tax revenue comprises 17.5% of GDP, while in other OECD countries, it is much higher. In other contexts, these figures would be something to brag about, but despite the fact that technically, Mexico is fiscally sound (debt-wise), Reyes Heroles feels this situation has put Mexico in a fiscally precarious situation. Low tax rates have led to low government spending on infrastructure, which has stunted Mexican economic growth.

How does this all relate to PEMEX, the nationally-owned company that harvests the country's bountiful hydrocarbon resources? Reyes Heroles argues that, in a version of Dutch Disease, easy oil revenues from oil have made the Mexican state "lazy" and unwilling to raise taxes. While he notes that both major candidates in the 2012 Mexican presidential election have touched on the issue, the picture he painted did not leave much hope for unpopular fiscal reforms like raising local taxes or reducing tax rates on PEMEX.

Hopefully policymakers in the coming years will heed Ambassador Reyes Heroles' warnings because the oil spots that Mexico relies on will not flow forever.

Barn Party

In the grand tradition of previous themed parties like Christmas in July, my Tijuana Party, my 25th Birthday Mustachio Bashio and Nacho House's Homeless Party, I decided to throw myself a Barn Party for my 27th birthday.

After long consultations with my roommates, I decided to clear out the whole first floor of my house and fill it with hay. Complementary cowboy/farmer hats added enough country to overcome the fact that most of my friends are unrepentant city-folk.

On the Friday before my party, my friend Zach and i drove out to rural Virginia to Farmer John's Hay stand, where one of his hands helped us fill our truck with giant (and surprisingly cheap) bales of hay. We definitely pumped the Lady A as we wound through the country roads with 18 bales of hay piled on the back of our pickup.

The party ended up a great success, and I got to gather my different groups of friends under one roof to party, dance and have some good country fun.

I awoke the next morning to find my first floor covered in a sea of about two feet of hay, and the rest of my house covered in hay bits and a fine layer of hay dust. To tell the truth, the clean-up was pretty terrible, but I would do it again in an instant. Happy birthday to me!

Antigua Antigua

(click for poorly done translation into English)

Después de una semana, me he aclimato mucho a Antigua. No podía decir que había visto mucho del pueblo, pero este cambió cuando visitaron dos campañeros de clase de SAIS.

El viernes había un temblor! No era muy fuerte, pero no fue pequeño tampoco. Después de mi lección, reuní con unos amigos de SAIS, Lars y Paul. Ellos están aquí para un proyecto sobre la salud y los efectos en el medioambiente de estufas de madera.

El sabado, exploramos unas ruinas de Antigua, incuso una convente anciana y una hermosa ruina grande. Esa noche, invité a ellos para la cena y cenamos con mi familia. Después de la cena, salimos para disfrutar y vimos a una banda. El Domingo miramos el Partido de los Patriots y los Ravens aunque Lars odia mirar los deportes. El bar cuyas televisiones mostraban el partido se llamaba Mono Loco y nos hicimos amigos con uno de los dueños del bar. Èl recentamente había importado una cerveza de los Estados Unidos que se llama Brooklyn Lager.

Cuando terminó el partido, Lars y Paul salieron a la ciudad Guatemala y yo empecé otra semana de estudios intensivos.

Here in Antigua

After my first week in Antigua, I can really feel my Spanish improving. Here's a Spanish-language version of this post for my hispanohablante readers.

I've been living with a really friendly family on the western side of Antigua, only a five-minute's walk from CSA. These people treat the students who stay with them as a part of the family and we share all our meals with them. Their house is really beautiful and the family compound is built around a central courtyard filled with greenery. My room is on the second floor, right next to a really comfortable hammock in a shady spot. You can imagine I spend a lot of time napping there.

The city of Antigua is pretty small, and in a way reminds me of Florence, Italy, because it is chock-full of Americans. I'm not too bothered by the touristy nature of Antigua as I spend 6 hours each day studying Spanish and take my meals in my beautiful temporary home.

My Spanish tutor Edgar and I have gotten to know each other very well and we spend the majority of the time sharing stories with each other or talking about our ideas about culture and history.

On Thursday, two of my classmates from SAIS came to Antigua while on a project and we met up in front of the church in Antigua's main square. We're planning on doing a little exploring today, so stay tuned! A view from my home of one of the three volcanoes surrounding Antigua:

Aquí en Antigua

Después de mi semana primera en Antigua, me parece que esté aumentándose mi español. Se puede leer este blog en inglés también.

Desde llegar, he vivido con una familia amable que viven en el parte oeste de Antigua. Se dicen "poniente" en lugar de oeste aquí por razones históricas (y también me parece turísticas). La familia Guatemalteca me tratan como yo fuera un miembro de la familia y desayunamos, almorzamos, y cenamos juntos. Su casa es muy bella y toda la familia (incluyo 4 generaciones) viven aldrededor de un patio central. Duermo en la planta arriba y a lado de mi puerta hay una hamaca, donde he tomado muchas siestas.

La cidudád de Antigua no es veramente una ciudád sino que un pueblo que me recuerda de Florencia en Italia (porque hay muchos turistas). Hay muchos Estadounidenses aquí, pero no me molesta mucho porque paso la mayoría del cada día en lecciones de español, haciendo tarea o comiendo con la familia.

Mi maestro Edgar y yo nos hemos conocido muy bién y hablamos mucho de las diferencias y las similitudes entre la vida y la culutra en los Estados Unidos y Guatemala. También hemos estado arreglando brechas en mi educcación pasada y gramatica. El jueves, dos campañeros de clase, cuyo proyecto les traía a Antigua, se reunieron conmigo en la iglesia a dentro la plaza central. Hoy tenemos planes para explorar mas la Antigua pues, mantegan preparados!

Una vista de unos de los tres volcanes que envuelvan el pueblo:

Greetings from Guatemala

Hello all,

Checking in from beautiful Antigua, Guatemala, where I've just arrived to take two weeks of intensive Spanish courses before returning to SAIS for my last semester.

On recommendation of my Spanish professor at SAIS professor, I enrolled in a program at CSA, the only institution in Antigua (and maybe all of Guatemala) that is accredited by the Instituto Cervantes. I have a lot of respect for those guys after discovering one of their libraries in Slovakia.

My goal from this trip is to transition from being able to speak Spanish "proficiently" to becoming conversational - fewer pauses in between words, greater fluidity in speaking and more comprehension in listening in conversations. Is this feasible for two weeks? I'll be in class every day for 6 hours and live with a Guatemalan host family, so we'll see.

On my first day of classes, my professor and I (all the sessions are one-on-one) did a in-depth review of "por" vs. "para" before we hopped into other things, and in the afternoon we took a tour of Antigua. More about Antigua later, but the important thing to know is that THERE ARE VOLCANOES HERE. ACTIVE VOLCANOES.

This is a photo of the Vulcan de Agua, behind Ronald McDonald here.

Occupy Snowbird

Upon completion of my final exams, I boarded a plane to Utah to visit some old friends and to do a bit of skiing. A complete coincidence found my best friend Duncan (who usually lives in Casper, Wyoming) on a medical rotation in Salt Lake City. An even more complete coincidence had found him working at the hospital with my buddy from college, Matt, who was originally going to pick me up from the airport. Duncan ended up picking me up from the airport, and we had a great dinner with his wife Amanda, neither of whom I had seen since their wedding.

After dinner, Duncan and Amanda dropped me off at my friends Bryan and Clare's house, where I met up with most of our skiing contingent for the next few days. On Saturday, we got a nice relaxing late start, ate at a brunch place named -- and got in some free skiing at Alta Ski Resort from 3pm to 4:30pm. That night the group picked up Liz and we had a really nice dinner in Salt Lake City.

On Sunday, we began our skiing in earnest, with our friend Meagan joining us for some really enjoyable runs at the Snowbird Resort. Meagan is currently very involved in the Occupy San Francisco movement, which simulated a lot of really fascinating conversation the whole weekend. I don't always recommend talking politics with friends, but this really intelligent and insightful group, it was stimulating. We continued the discussions over dinner at El Chanate, where had a waiter who was almost doing a comic rouine and spent 7 minutes describing the night's special to us.

On Monday and Tuesday, we had the rare opportunity to ride up to the top of the mountain with the ski patrol and ski patrol at 7:30am, watch the sun rise from the top of the tram lift and ski down completely fresh and empty runs. It was wonderful. After almost four days of catching up, debating the politics of equality and progress in America, and carving up the mountain, I hopped on a plane to Denver, Colorado.

In Denver, I met up with my very good friend and old housemate Becca for a day of catching up and friend time. From the airport, we went to a candlelight vigil for the homeless of Denver who had died over the course of 2011. The vigil was held near Denver's Occupy camp, and I had an opportunity to see some protest action up close. When Denver's Mayor came up to speak at the vigil, a small group near the front began to boo. Apparently, Mayor Hancock has reduced funding for services for the homeless of Denver. It got bad enough that the leadership of the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless had to come onto the microphone and ask the protesters to respect the families of the deceased. One man in the crowd yelled, "This is a memorial, it's not political!" at the protesters. It is amazing how a minority of people can make a whole crowd seem hostile. After the mayor finished, the rest of the ceremony went uninterrupted, and we all joined in affirming, "We will remember" after each person's name was read. The memorial was a poignant reminder that in a country like ours, there are individuals who society has failed to help enough, and they can die out in the cold, alone.

Becca, who works with an organization that supports the homeless of Denver and the surrounding area had some interesting observations. Apparently the same types of people who usually donate to homeless services in Denver have instead been directing their money to the Occupy movement, and support for her organization has declined while the demand for health and housing services for the homeless in Denver has quadrupled in 2011. The Occupy movement definitely has side effects that might sometimes work at cross purposes from its stated goals.

Becca and I spent the rest of the evening and next day catching up on old times and discussing our futures. On Wednesday, I finished my mid-country detour and completed my journey home to San Diego.