Transcript Plan Puebla Panama Paul R Earl Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León San Nicolás, NL 66451, Mexico.

Plan Puebla Panama
Paul R Earl
Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas
Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León
San Nicolás, NL 66451, Mexico
Rural poverty and a call for its solution:
Education, industrialization and family
planning
The purpose of this lecture is to acquaint you
with some plans for the Latin society from the
Mexican state of Puebla through Chiapas to the
nation of Panama--white, mestizo and Indian.
The welfare of over 65 million people is involved.
The central theme of the most interest is the
improvement of the standard of living in the very
poor mesoamerican area.
One cause of the discontent of the rural poor is the rise
in the earnings of the more educated of the population.
Still, soil erosion coupled with much larger
rural populations is causing starvation.
Worldwide, the quality of life is being examined
from many points of view, some involving medicine
and economics. Finding a job is the first thing.
Earning a living that provides for a long,
comfortable and happy life is another.
Overpopulation, soil erosion influenced poverty,
lack of educational and lack of work opportunities
often cause migration, war and revolution.
Regardless, Indian nostalgia might well be replaced
by lessons focusing on family planning and soil
erosion.
Governments—all know that hunger causes
revolution—are quick to counteract movements that
they clearly see can overthrow them. Raising the
standard of living of the victims of some system is
a pleasant solution.
Objections to free trade
Let’s begin with the socialists who have done
such a grand job in a book called A Globilization
Handbook by Caroline, Ellen, Walter, Wendy,
Siamak, Moses, Victor, Shannon and Chad of the
Social Justice Alliance, Stony Brook, NY at
[email protected] and
www.ic.sunysb.edu/clubs/justice
Very many Internet references that you need are
found in this glorious text which is sometimes
quiet juvenile.
Try this for Mexico after 1994, “Child labor has
grown dramatically.”--Maude Barlow in a free trade
analysis at http://www.canadians.org/ It is so very
far from the truth as to damage the left ! There is
no child labor in Mexico.
The PPP is designed for large infrastructure
projects like toll highways, airports,
deepwater ports, electrical and
telecommunications grids), that together
with ongoing projects like hydroelectric
dams, “dry” transisthmus of Tehuantepec
canals, more big highways that are to
motivate large private companies to locate
in Puebla-Panama. These activities,
including those of Pulsar, a highly
successful Mexican private organization,
are typical yet infrequent TV news items of
Mexico today.
Free trade food examples
Eggs and meat. The grain is imported to Mexico
from the US, and the eggs produced in Mexico. If
the grain were produced there, the eggs & meat
would cost more. Simple enough now.
Milk, Leche en polvo importada. Imported
powdered milk has been the only milk, with due
exceptions, in Mexico for MANY YEARS, having
nothing—really—to do with the NAFTA of 1994. It
is very easy to make native whole milk. Buy
airconditioners for the cows. The only problem
left is your electric bill.
Melons in La Laguna, Coahuila in 2002 could not
be grown, because the energy cost of irrigation
pumps was too high.
La Programa Nacional de
Desmontes and erosion
From Brazil north the fires of the 80s and even in
the 90s sent black clouds out over the Atlantic.
Mexico was # 2 deforester. The method was
slash-n-burn forest for beef cattle. An enormous
deforestation was federally directed in Mexico as
La Programa Nacional de Desmontes, 1976 and
financed by the World Bank (WB).
Still Mexico and CA have been seriously eroded for
at least 3,500 years by the Mayans and others. To
put cattle on erodable arid lands seems odd so
some OTHER goal was being sought. Heavy
machinery was purchased from the US at very high
prices. Later in the 80s much of it was abandoned
on the ranches of political deputies.
The Zapatistas
They have done well in fostering the democratic
right to protest and have gained worldwide
recognition with 4 million visitors to their web site
http://www.ezln.org The representation of
indigenous rights is either imperative or simply just.
Nevertheless, the world or much of it does not have
the factual data, living on in an anthropologic mist.
Dogooders sometimes spread false information.
The Good Old Days never existed, and things are
inevitably worsening, because now rural uneducated
populations from Puebla to Panamá are much more
numerous than they were. The rather large number
of people, the great distances and the mountains
need recognition as giant problems.
Cheaper imported food much replaced
native products.
The principal Issues inspiring this uprising are:
1/ Mexican government's unilateral change of
indigenous constitutional rights, especially land
rights. Indigenous ejidos (eh-HEE-doz, collective
farms) were privatized or simply abandoned as
no longer legal.
2/. Desire for meaningful elections after the1988
elections were stolen.
3/. Human rights interpreted as violated,
involving political repression.
4/. Economic reforms of NAFTA hurt small
farmers by loss of subsudies.
5/. Decline in world coffee prices.
The Zapatists are supporting a way of life that the
climate, soils and economy no longer support
well. Many other politics have developed tons of
failures, because the human demands far exceed
the capacity of the environment to produce that
food, and because they are missing industrial
skills. Nonetheless, recall that dumping of
subsidized or other foods should never be
allowed.
Regardless of what happens in the market, it is
still possible for a man to grow enough corn and
beans to feed his family. His solution may be
cutting down trees for land he will soon erode. He
may be nomadic, moving to another patch of
forest. But perhaps that is not the point, whereas
getting a job is.
The old ways no longer provide a living.
Overpopulation is recorded as soil erosion and
grotesque deforestation. Where are the trees?
The World Bank financed the national
deforestation of Mexico in the 70s and 80s just
as Malasian-headed multinational businesses
are deforesting Belize now.
The financing of the national destruction of
Mexican forests in the 70s & 80s by WB cannot
be erased. The theft of much overpriced heavy
equipment like bulldozers shows that millions
of dollars can evaporate without being noticed.
What a bank ! WB financed La Programa
Nacional de Desmontes, 1976 that caused new
national soil erosion.
Some organizations
A large job is identifying the major organizations
and treaties. The first group is easy: all federal
and state governments as found in Internet.
National and state bank data could be interesting
or necessary. Many other organizations can be
reached by such links. Thanks to Wendy Call for
supplying most of them.
http://www.datacenter.org/research/ppp.htm
Extensive list of web links about the PPP compiled
by an Oakland, CA organization that does
research on the PPP in collaboration with the
Mexican organization Grupo de Trabajo Colectivo
del Istmo (Collective Working Group of the
Isthmus). (bilingual Spanish-English)
http://www.mesoamericaresiste.org/
This web site, edited by two community
organizations in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec
– UCIZONI (Association of Indigenous
Communities in the Northern Zone of the
Isthmus) and the Grupo de Trabajo
Colectivo del Istmo (Collective Working
Group of the Isthmus) – gathers information
about the PPP and gives the perspective of
communities that live in the region.Though
it hasn’t been updated in the last few
months, it contains some good information.
(Spanish only, use Internet Explorer only
with this page)
http://www.americaspolicy.org/citizenaction/spotlight/index.html
The Americas Policy “PPP Spotlight” includes
an occasional series of articles about the Plan
Puebla Panama and links to other sites that
provide information. (English with some
Spanish)
http://www.mesaglobal.net/
This web site from Mesa Global de Guatemala
focuses on information about FTAA (ALCA),
CAFTA (TLCAUSA), and other free trade
agreements, but includes some information
about the Plan Puebla Panama. (Spanish only,
use Internet Explorer only)
The countries involved in PPP
The 9 southern Mexican states of Puebla,
Veracruz, Oaxaca, Chiapas, Tabasco, Campeche,
Yucatán and Quintana Roo, and the 7 CA
countries Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, El
Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panamá
make up the territories of PPP. The extremely
poor countries are 1/ Guatemala and
2/ Nicaragua.
The US has concluded the US-Chile FTA; the
Central American Free Trade Agreement,
(CAFTA) with Costa Rica, El Salvador,
Guatemala,Honduras, Nicaragua, and the
Dominican Republic.
Demographic data
POP
AREA
YTH
ADLT
ELD
TFR
GDP
AGR
IND
SERV
TFR
GDP
AGR
IND
SERV
Correlation Matrix
POP
AREA YTH ADLT ELD
1.0000
0.6926 1.0000
-0.5571 -0.8430 1.0000
0.4740 0.7143 -0.9742 1.0000
0.6359 0.9546 -0.9420 0.8420 1.0000
-0.4069 -0.6460 0.9270 -0.9728 -0.7703
0.7765 0.9683 -0.8835 0.7731 0.9642
-0.5046 -0.6058 0.8082 -0.7885 -0.7616
0.0785 0.2164 -0.2038 0.1922 0.2027
0.4488 0.5258 -0.7317 0.7004 0.7093
TFR
GDP
AGR
IND SERV
1.0000
-0.6886 1.0000
0.7278 -0.6744 1.0000
-0.2624 0.2076 -0.3527 1.0000
-0.5845 0.6121 -0.7946 -0.2514 1.0000
The more rural these disasterous people
are, the more disasterous babies they have.
Are they really poor because they want to
be? Long ago they made things miserable
for themselves. When off-farm jobs are
found, misery will reduce CUBICALLY !
The soil has abandoned these people so
they cut down trees.
What is the problem? LONGTIME
OVERPOPULATION.
Their behavior is excused, because they are
hungry !
Conclusions
Forest reserves, hydroelectric potentials and
petroleum are the resources of the area. The area
contains far too many rural people without much
hope for a better life. Solidifying an electricity net
seems most important. However, the eradication
of tropical diseases like Chagas and the
promotion of family planning are just as important
just as persistent poverty also is.
Getting computerized education into the primary
schools might be more important than widening a
road. Nonetheless, the basic proposition to
industrialize mesoamerica is basically sound,
necessary and challenging. All of these people
need a new way of life.