It has been quite a few days since I began this assignment, and the sad truth is: I got nothing to report.
After researching all over the place, I have learned that Mexico has absolutely no resiliency plans beyond construction codes that are rarely (if ever) followed. The reason? Lack of political motivation to do anything about it. Is it a surprise to anyone when, just last year, Mexico had a terrible score of 3.2 in
Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index for 2009? And mind you, the score keeps getting lower every year.
Mexico may not be in the top 10 of most corrupt countries. Maybe not even the top 20, but it is still smack in the middle of the scale at place 89 out of 180 countries, well below other countries that may spring to mind first when talking about corruption.
This is particularly troublesome because Mexico actually has a governmental unit dedicated to urban resilience: the Ministry of Civilian Protection (Secretaría de Protección Civil). After a thorough read of their website, there is absolutely nothing about ongoing projects to increase urban resilience. All of their news are comprised of earthquake drills and reports on natural threats. All of their prevention plans are comprised of "what to do in case of emergency" texts that sometimes read as the old "Duck & Cover" campaign in the U.S. to prepare people against nuclear attacks.
Even as recently as December 2009, people like Javier Francisco Pacheco - head of the National Seismological Service - are still fighting for the resources to create resiliency in the face of political unwillingness. This situation is not going to change anytime soon, either.
In order for Mexico to have any resiliency at all, it will have to come from the people. Depending on the political organizations that are supposed to provide it is obviously the wrong way to go. Therefore, instead of spending time on what our government is not doing, I am going to focus on what our people are.
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