Independence?

Independence Angel / Angel de la Independencia

Independence Heroes / Héroes de la Independencia

Independence?

Preparing the mediatic show for the celebration of the bicentennial of independence

In 2010 Mexico will celebrate its 200 years of Independence with national and local public events. The Bicentennial or Bicentenario actually takes in two celebrations: the first being the Bicentennial of two hundred years since Independence (1810) and the second the no less important Centennial of 100 years since Mexican Revolution of 1910.

Mexican Independence Day celebrates the events and people that eventually resulted in independence from Spain, the country that had control over the territory of New Spain, as it was also known then. Fueled by three centuries of oppresion and sparked by a call to revolt by the respected Catholic priest Hidalgo, the first call to arms was made in the village of Dolores, in the state of Guanajuato. The uprising pitted the poor indigenous indians and mixed mestizo groups against the priviledged classes of Spanish descent, and pushed them into a violent and bloody battle for freedom from Spain.

Mexico is facing - once again - one of those defining moments in its young and fledgling democracy. It wasn't that long ago, July 6, 2006 to be exact, that the Federal Electoral Institute in Mexico announced the final vote count in the presidential election, resulting in a narrow margin of 0.58 percentage points of victory for right wing Felipe Calderón Hinojosa (PAN). That same year the left wing PRD (Revolutionary Democratic Party) led by Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador took to the streets in massive protests demanding a vote by vote recount and accusing the whole world of being silent witnesses to a massive fraud and conspiracy.

The widespread expectations among Mexicans that a long-awaited democracy would solve the country's problems are now confronted with the reality of an institutional system that is not only broken and corrupt at its core, but that is consolidating its power with unnerving ease and at an alarmingly fast pace. (The Huffington Post)

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The informal way of life in Mexico

Transport (at Zocalo)

Mexico upside down

The informal sector is economic activity that is neither taxed nor monitored by a government, and is not included in that government's Gross National Product (GNP), as opposed to a formal economy. Examples are barter and gift economy.

Although the informal economy is often associated with developing countries, where up to 60% of the labour force (with as much 40% of GDP) works, all economic systems contain an informal economy in some proportion. The term informal sector was used in many earlier studies, and has been mostly replaced in more recent studies which use the newer term.

The English idioms under the table and off the books typically refer to this type of economy. The term black market refers to a specific subset of the informal economy in which contraband is traded; where contraband may be strictly or informally defined.

Given the complexity of the phenomenon, the simplest definition of informal economic activity might be: any exchange of goods or services involving economic value in which the act escapes regulation of similar satchel acts.

In developing countries, the largest part of informal work, around 70%, is self-employed, in developed countries, wage employment predominates. The majority of informal economy workers are women. Policies and developments affecting the informal economy have thus a distinctly gendered effect.

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Art Lesson

Painting is easy when you don't know how, but very difficult when you do.  ~Edgar Degas

It is a mistake for a sculptor or a painter to speak or write very often about his job.  It releases tension needed for his work.  ~Henry Moore

An artist is someone who produces things that people don't need to have but that he - for some reason - thinks it would be a good idea to give them.  ~Andy Warhol

The world today doesn't make sense, so why should I paint pictures that do?  ~Pablo Picasso

Painting is just another way of keeping a diary.  ~Pablo Picasso

A man paints with his brains and not with his hands.  ~Michelangelo

Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen.  ~Leonardo da Vinci

I don't paint things.  I only paint the difference between things.  ~Henri Matisse

The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.  ~Aristotle

The artist's world is limitless.  It can be found anywhere, far from where he lives or a few feet away.  It is always on his doorstep.  ~Paul Strand

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Thanks for visiting, please be sure that I read each and every one of your kind comments and I appreciate them all. / Gracias por su visita. 

Invasion

Please, don't invade my space,
I'm celebrating my independence,
see, not collar!

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Friday Moments

Flamingos.  Mexico City Zoo

Individual

At hand

Happy Friday!
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Gracias por su visita. / Thanks for visiting, please be sure that I read each and every one of your kind comments and I appreciate them all.