MR
MAY – AUGUST 2020 VOLUME. 16
Circular Economy: How can we participate? Resolving Economic Inequality resolves almost Everything Else Pictorial Exhibition Mexican-ness Decontextualized ISSN-2448-9174
www.mexicointercultural.org
Editorial
Letter
T
his is our XVI edition of the magazine Intercultural Mexico and on this occasion we are dedicating the publication to issues around Economy and Society. Our goal is to create a space where professionals and experts in these areas can share their knowledge about topics that are integral to our daily lives but may seem complicated or difficult to understand. We had excellent participation from many writers for this edition, which made the selection process quite complicated. Our gratitude goes out to all the authors who sent in submissions in hopes of seeing their words in the pages of Intercultural Mexico.
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The current pandemic of Covid-19 that Mexico and the world much face today brings us deep sadness. Our team at Intercultural Mexico would like to express its best wishes and hopes for a speedy recovery to all those affected physically or economically.
Founder
Elizabeth del Castillo Zavala
direccion@mexicointercultural.org
Editor in chief
Carlos Reyes Arroyo
direccion.editorial@mexicointercultural.org
Editorial care and copyediting
Berenice Ramos Romero bramos1@uc.cl
English translator
Lenya Caldarera Bloom lenyabloom@yahoo.com
Art Director and Graphic designer
Jorge Rojas Moya
jrojasmoya@gmail.com
Free Zone Radio Station
Elizabeth del Castillo Zavala Carlos Alberto Reyes Arroyo Eduardo Barragán Reyes José Luis García Valdés Mónica Jiménez Ortiz Contact Phone Number:
Mobile: 22 22 39 50 50 E-mail:
contacto@mexicointercultural.org direccion.editorial@mexicointercultural.org Address:
Camino Cuayantla N°. 1804, Interior B, San Bernardino, Tlaxcalancingo, Puebla, C.P. 72821.
Our cover: “Economy and society” LDG Jorge Rojas Moya
MÉXICO INTERCULTURAL, Year 6 #16 May - August 2020 is a quarterly publishing, edited by María del Consuelo Elizabeth del Castillo Zavala; Address: Camino Cuayantla # 1804-B, San Bernardino, Tlaxcalancingo, San Andrés Cholula Puebla, Zip Code 72821, Phone number 222-239-5050, www.mexicointercultural.org/revista-digital, direccion@mexicointercultural.org. Editor in Charge: María del Consuelo Elizabeth del Castillo Zavala. Number rights reservations 04-2017-031508512400- 203, ISSN number 2448-9174. Title Legality and Content both granted by Instituto Nacional del Derecho de Autor. Responsible for the latest update: María del Consuelo Elizabeth del Castillo Zavala, Camino Cuayantla # 1804-B, San Bernardino, Tlaxcalanzingo, San Andrés Cholula Puebla, Zip Code 72821, last up May 2020. The opinions expressed by the authors do not necessarily reflect the posture of the publishing editor. The partial or total reproduction of contents and pictures of the publishing is strictly forbidden without a previous authorization of the national institute of author rights.
Back cover: Cultures in the same environment Visual concept: LDG Jorge Rojas Moya
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Economy and Society: From the First American Peso to the First Steam Engine
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Blue economy
Circular Economy:
How can we participate?
CONTENT 10
Resolving Economic Inequality resolves almost
Everything Else
16 Pictorial Exhibition
Mexican-ness Decontextualized
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JOURNAL OF CULTURE AND EDUCATION
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Public Funds:
through Evaluation and Social Comptrollership
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Three Poems by
Ian Hamilton
Economy and Society:
From the First American Peso to the First Steam Engine
By David Sánchez Sánchez BA in History from the University of Oviedo, official university title Level 3, Master MECES, equivalent to a BA and an MA. Academic Director of the Humanities Department, UPAEP
I
n 1497, Christopher Columbus took a new excursion to the Indies, bringing with him the instruments and techniques to issue excellent command within the monetary economy, but there was insufficient raw material. In the first minting intended for America, it is important to include the first dated coins from Seville, 1504, worth four copper Maravedi. The Catholic monarchy encouraged the proposal of cross-Atlantic commerce and in 1505 the first gold and silver coins were produced by La Española, “that hewed a currency half silver and half Villon.”
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When we use the currency term “peso” today, we must remember the Royal Writ published by the Catholic monarchy in March 1503 and sent to the governor of La Española in which the term “peso” appears for the first time. In this instructive letter to Friar Nicholas de Ovando in response to his earlier inquiry (AGI, General Indifference, 418, Book 1) the term is mentioned on three occasions: “indicated for each one hundred and fifty gold pesos... ensure payment date with respect to seventy gold pesos... each clergy member will receive a yearly salary of one hundred gold pesos.” Checking the numbers in a general way, we can establish that one gold peso would have been equal to eight silver reales, 271 maravedi, or about 4,352 euros or a little over $100,000 Mexican pesos today. The term “peso” had just been introduced into daily life in society and
was economically equivalent to eight silver reales or real eight. Vazquez Pando affirms that the reason for the introduction seemed to be more a need for monetary flow than a mandate. Later, the terms are cited in a report letter from the Justice and Regiment of the Rica Villa de la Vera Cruz to the monarchs on July 10th, 1519. They seemingly indicate that the term was already widely used in American society. While the myth of the “theft” of gold began to develop, there were no national states. The metal that was primarily taken was American silver. The black legend of course ignored the reinvestment of 33% of these funds into the territories in the 16th century and up to 80% in the 17th century. What funds were used to create commercial routes and roads, city and cathedrals; monuments that today we universally care for and boast about? The legend also ignores bankruptcies that occurred in 1557, 1575 and 1597, or the investigations that provide evidence starting from the time of Phillip IV that shows income from the Indies was only 10% of the crown’s worth. Even in the 16th century there was a so-called Price Revolution (Hamilton, 1934) where the Iberian Peninsula had to quadruple its prices with up to 11% increase in the cost of food because of the arrival of silver from the mines in Potosi and Zacatecas. This shipment brought an estimated 181 tons of gold and 16,886 tons of silver that, once registered by the House of Trade in Seville, caused society to write marvelous words like those of Lope de Vega: “They come from Sanlucar (Seville) breaking the water with towers of gold and ships of silver.” Or as expressed by Diego Torres Villarroel “half an hour from this century is worth more than two thousand from the past or future; the lawyer, the rapporteur, the barber when did they have a carriage if not now?.. this century turns even iron to gold.” With all this, the fiscal pressure on New Spain would increase from the benevolent conditions set by Hernan Cortez, all the way up to the 19th century. When they touch our purses the “powerful horseman is Mr. Money” wrote Francisco Gomez de Quevedo y Villegas. Great myths of mass incorporation of gold from the American continent into the Spanish Empire are backed by phrases like Eduardo Galeano’s “only a small measure of American silver was incorporated into the Spanish economy [when] the sickened Spanish economy could not resist the
brusque impact of increased demand for food and merchandise.” However, more recent data reflects just the opposite. This silver was the primary metal exported in alliance with the great houses of commerce like the Fugger, the mercury mines in Almaden (Spain) and Huancavelica (Viceroyalty of Peru). We cannot forget that the economy and society adapted to a modern age despite the continued productive structure from the lower middle ages, when a growing bank and middle class began to emerge. The guilds did not substitute the agrarian base that would become the physiocracy of Quesnay; they added to the development and boosted the manufacture of the tall furnaces and forges that led to social transformation where mass produced goods fresh from the mills, oil presses, wine presses and bakeries were consumed. Taking a leap through history, it would be the first Industrial Revolution (1789-1840) when, overcoming what was “for Karl Marx, an Industrial Revolution that generally consisted of capitalists exploiting the workers” (Ludwig von Mises, 1986) and in conjunction with the Demographic, Agrarian and Thought Revolutions (among others) there became a clearly marked before and after. In the agrarian aspects of physiocracy’s essential doctrine (Tableau economique by Quesnay, 1758) it become clear that even today we still do not truly understand that if a country forgets about its fields, even its technically advanced fields, it is condemned to disappear. This is why Arthur Young, author of “The Annals of Agriculture” wrote: “God sleeps in the minerals, awakes in the plants, walks with the animals and thinks with mankind.” But what can we sublimely highlight from those years? James Watt (1769) invented the steam engine thanks to support from Matthew Boulton, and from there came Richard Trevithick’s first locomotive (1802)--that was worth its weight in gold. From then on, the economy and society has been forever changed.
Bibliography Instructive letter to Friar Nicholas de Ovando in response to his earlier inquiry (AGI, General Indifference, 418, Book 1). GALEANO, W. (1971) The Open Veins of Latin America. HAMILTON, EARL J. (1934) American Treasure and the Price Revolution in Spain 1501-1650. QUESNAY, FRANCOIS (1758) Tableu Economique. VÁZQUEZ PANDO, FERNANDO ALEJANDRO (1992) Observations on Monetary Rights in New Spain. 10th Congress of the International Institute for the History of Indian Rights. VON MISES, L. (1986) Human Action. Economic Treaty. (899-908) Madrid: Union Editorial.
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Circular Economy: How can we participate?
By Ivonne Tapia Villagรณmez PhD in Education and Organizational Development at the Continental University of AmericaC Director of the Business Administration Department and Post graduate professor, Iberoamerican University, Puebla.
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t is enough just observing the streets of any city or referencing any waste disposal site to recognize the enormous amount of residue our current life-style produces. It is not just about the production of waste, but also about not knowing how to dispose of it properly; this situation forces us to reflect on how we can continuously produce less waste. Beginning in the mid-1970s business models arose from an economy described by Walter R. Stahel, who outlined the overriding advantages of a type of economy based on circularity. He proposed to de-materialize the economy, or produce more with less, use less energy and fewer environmental resources in productive processes to decrease the amount of waste by reusing and recycling. Stahel, founder and director the Product-Life Institute in Geneva and winner of the Mitchell Prize, was a pioneer and early-adopter of the idea of “consuming services not products.� This strategy for maximizing product life also involves the creation of jobs, especially in the field of repair and reutilization, as well as reduced emissions of greenhouse gases, among other benefits. In the 90s, Stahel extended this vision of consuming services and in 2006 he published a book titled The Performance Economy. With the goal of promoting his ideas among actors in the economic sector, he worked in conjunction with the Ellen McArthur Foundation --established in 2010 as a non-profit organization-- and thus accelerated the transition toward a circular economy, becoming a lead entity in pushing this paradigm shift in the agendas of business, government and academic leaders. Since then, it has been concluded that the advancement of a circular economy depends on a powerful normative framework. Since a number of centuries ago, Europe has set an example of how to produce with less waste, creating a financial support platform through the European Investment Bank, which unites investors and innovators around waste-to-energy transformation while also improving legislative proposals regarding specific dangerous substances in electronics and electronic devices. In Mexico, a circular economy of producing less waste and transforming residue has been promoted very gradually. In part because we have operated as a linear society for many years,
creating and distributing all types of materials that become useless to the economy and are costly to treat or transform. Although it is true that this occurs within large corporations and in the productive industry, we can all support a circular economy from within our own small social circles and from within each neighborhood in our cities. We can be conscientious about how we handle our waste, making an effort to separate it properly into the familiar blue, yellow and green bins for paper and cardboard, lightweight containers and glass. Separating garbage is far more beneficial that tossing out mixed waste that is difficult to separate and use.
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The key to circular economy is that the circuits connecting materials should be increasingly shorter, that is, we are able to maximize our use of any product, facilitate recycling and privile-ging the disposal of less harmful waste. Unfor-tunately, this is not the norm. Today, garbage is transported by boat on thousand mile trips, and some materials circuits extend across the entire planet. To more easily understand how the circular economy works, we can use the life cycle of a forest as an analogy. The leaves that fall from a tree are recycled in situ into its own soil, that in turn feeds the same tree that will produce more leaves, and everything occurs within two or three meters of distance. In this same way, we can apply our human nature and intelligence to improve our environment and how we coexist.
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Blue economy By Elitania Leyva Rayon PhD in Economic Finance with a concentration in Banking and Stocks, Madrid Autonomous University. Full research professor in the Economics Department at The University of the Americas Puebla.
T
he current economic system is a linear one in which natural resources are overused. Because of this overuse, coupled with elevated waste production, our system is reaching its limits. The alternative is a “circular economy” where the primary objective is an efficient use of resources. It is based on completing the life cycle of products, that is, it proposes that the value in products and materials remain active in the economy as long as possible, thereby reducing waste. The closest approximation to this is a “blue economy.”
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This concept was presented by economist Gunter Pauli in 1994, while presenting his design of an environmentally-friendly economic model.
In a blue economy there are a number of sources of income throughout the productive process that should all be utilized in an innovative way. Specifically, waste is viewed as a business opportunity that should be contemplated by business people. Seeking out innovation is cost efficient, produces jobs, grows capital and benefits local economies. It is a new concept for the business world; one that tries to imitate natural ecosystems in order to achieve increased efficiency when utilizing goods and services while still respecting the natural environment. This concept was presented by economist Gunter Pauli in 1994, while presenting his design of an environmentally-friendly economic model. He also seriously criticized the concept of a green economy, which he considers inefficient because of the amount of investment businesses would have to make in their production processes to achieve environmentally friendly goals. That is, it promotes ecological products that respect the environment but are more costly. This greater investment made by each company implies an increase in operating costs, which ultimately is transported to increased consumer prices. In his book, The Blue Economy, Pauli addresses issues like sustainable development, manufacturing, agriculture and waste. He proposes a change in how we interact with the environment and a more efficient use of waste as integral to the cycle of sustainable development. He considers waste another source of revenue and suggests it be used in production, changing our current modes of global production that produce huge amounts of garbage, for a model that reuses the majority of the garbage it produces. He details a few business projects inspired by
nature, which show how possible it really is to design a sustainable and competitive business model with environmental, economic and social benefits. A mong his most innovative projects can be found: Cultivating edible mushrooms with used coffee grounds, production of bio-degradable detergents using orange peels and the transformation of gas stations into charging stations for electronic cars. On the other hand, the European Union (EU) defines the blue economy through the Euro-pean Regional Committee’s Commission on Na-tural Resources, as an economic system that favors the development of coastal cities and creates opportunities that incentivize people living there. It recognizes oceans as a source of food, natural resources and raw material, for which reason regional coastal authorities and other levels of government should align forces to consolidate the blue economy. In this way, the blue economy focuses on oceans as impulse for development, stimulated through responsible ocean management that integrates environmental, economic and social aspects of coastal economies. This would make fishing and tourism sectors sustainable, along with the na-val industry and emerging industries like ocean wind energy, aquatic biotechnology and mari-ne mineral resources. Investment opportunities and necessary policies would have to be desig-ned to have adequate international governan-ces of the oceans. There currently exist blue economy projects that generate sustainable marine environments, but they require external financing to move from theory to practice. Because of this, the EU has discussed creating a European investment fund directed by the European Commission and designed to motivate these projects so that the jobs they create are sustainable and so that they reinforce environmental conservation. The blue economy is the means by which we can reconcile the use of maritime resources with economic growth in local communities, through strategic investments, planning and in-creased cooperation between local authorities, communities, researchers and private investors, all aligned to guarantee a truly sustainable development.
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Resolving Economic Inequality resolves almost Everything Else By Edith Esquivel Eguiguren MA in Political and Social Science, Humanities Research and Teaching Center for the State of Morelos.. Writer, translator, line editor and essayist for the Grupo Imagen web portal Money
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W
hy is it important to combat economic inequality? The book by R. Wilkinson and K. Pickett reveals how countries with the greatest economic inequalities also have higher rates of mental illness and drug use, lower levels of physical health and a lower life expectancy (both for the wealthy and the poor), weaker academic performances and higher indices of unwanted teenage pregnancies. The primary factor that explains these issues is the economic inequality between people, and not the economic level of each person. The authors conclude that even among the most developed countries; those with the fairest distribution of wealth perform better across a wide range of indices for social wellbeing. Nevertheless, inequality is rampant worldwide. According to data from Oxfam, the wealthiest 1% of the population possesses more than double the wealth of the other 6.9 billion people in the world. The origin of inequality At the end of the 19th century, the Italian engineer Vilfredo Pareto discovered a pattern in wealth distribution that is as universal as the laws of chemistry and thermodynamics. He saw that there are many more individuals in extreme poverty than in extreme wealth, but also noticed that every time the wealth is doubled among the richest top percent, fewer and fewer people pertain to this small group. That is to say that the wealthier the wealthy get, the fewer wealthy there are. Pareto discovered that nature and the economy tend to demonstrate distributions of 80/20. For example, in Canada, 80% of the people control 20% of the wealth. It could be said that this is a normal distribution rate. But in many countries 10% of the people control 90% of the wealth or 5% control 85% etc...
Conventional economic theories had been unable to explain the origin of the universal pattern noted by Pareto. But two physicists, Jean-Phillippe Bouchaud and Marc Mezar at the University of Paris were able to do so. Their volunteers used computers to simulate economic transactions, where the economy was a network of people interacting to make wealth flow between them through spending and investing. The result of the simulations was the same. After a time of allowing the wealth to move, the 80/20 Pareto law became evident, even though each person began with the same amount of money and the same investment opportunities. But why does it work this way? Transactions between people distribute wealth. A wealthy person founds a business, consumes more, builds homes etc.… causing the money to flow through the economy, which should diminish disparities. However, this does not happen because random profits and investment products generate a phenomenon explained as “money generates money.” Even if everyone starts out the same, with similar abilities, the differences in the luck that strikes their investments will make some richer than most. Those who were lucky will invest more, take away more profit, and a series of wins will make them rich not summarily, but exponentially. The more volatile the investments, the greater the difference between winners and losers and the more concentrated the wealth becomes among the winners. This suggests that basic inequality may have little to do with talent or ability, and more to do with a naturally-occurring law of economic life. There will always be inequality. The problem is extreme inequality, since there is such a big difference in the quality of life amongst the citizens that live in countries where 1% of the population controls
99% of the wealth and those that live in countries where 20% control 80% of the wealth. The Increase in Inequality Financial market speculation causes greater accumulations of wealth. A wealthy person speculates on the stock market instead of spending that money, which impedes the flow of wealth out to the rest of society. You might think that the stock market should not be subject to regulations and taxes, since it is where businesses create the capital they need to be productive. However, between 70 and 90% of every 100 dollars invested in the markets are speculative, and speculation is not inherently productive: it is just a perceived change in the value of a company. A company, whose market value increases, does not necessarily have more clients, expand its facilities or hire more people. This brings us to another point. According to Oxfam statistics, only 4 cents per dollar raised by the governments are obtained through taxing wealth. Multimillionaires use their influence to pay fewer taxes and justify it by declaring it a strategy to generate employment. Nevertheless, they leave the governments’ vaults empty, spend less and ask for interest-free loans. By reducing government spending they affect the income of many businesses that provide government services. It is family and government spending that generates employment. No business is charity’s little sister to be hiring people when they don’t have an income. As you will see, despite the fact that some theoretic economists defend the non-intervention of the State in the economy, it is undeniable that the State must act, if only to charge taxes, declaring who and how much to charge and how that money will be spent.
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Hands tied So then, can the government reduce inequality and call it a day? It can, but it won’t if the necessary measures affect the interests of its most powerful citizens. Institutional investors around the world are capable of displacing large quantities of savings world-wide and governments are subject to risks of speculation attacks that could provoke devaluations or even serious financial crises. Globalized and deregulated financial markets have erected themselves as authentic judges of economic policy within the governments. You voted for a president, but that president does not want to apply policies that investors do not like because they may disinvest from the country, bankrupting it with an unpayable debt. The president has to be likeable to investors, not citizens. This is what Henry Bourguinat called “the tyranny of the markets.” This reduced autonomy in economic policy for countries is a risk to democracy. But above all, it is a vicious cycle in which governments cannot slow-down inequality or the accumulation of wealth, and in which the hands that hold this wealth are ever-more powerful to continue deregulating markets and to generate greater inequality. The decisive element for growth in financial markets was the deregulation that was first generalized and is now practically universal. In underdeveloped countries the International Monetary Fund (IMF) promotes financial deregulation. In the developed world, the current triumph of the financial markets would not have occurred without the intervention of the most powerful capitalist countries. Inequality Inherited from Imperialism How were so many countries “convinced” to deregulate and adhere to neoliberal policies? John Perkins worked for ten years as head economist for the Chas T. Main firm, and claims to have been deeply implicated in the process. In his book, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, he
explains: “My mission consisted of persuading countries that were strategically important to the United States of America, from Indonesia to Panama, to accept massive credits to “finance the development” of their infrastructures. These lucrative projects had to be executed by United States contractors and once the debt had been taken on, these countries were then subject to control by the United States, the World Bank and other institutions dominated by the United States. These entities acted as usurers, dictating payment conditions and forcing the foreign governments into submission. Even though the money was returned almost immediately to the corporations comprising the corporatocracy creditors, the debtor country was still obligated to reimburse the loan in whole, both the principle and the interest. The idea is that the debt becomes so large that the debtor country declares itself insolvent and unable to pay after a few years. When this happens, the country little by little has to give up sovereignty: they become captive votes in the United Nations, allow the construction of military bases or access to precious resources like petroleum. The debtor still owes the money, of course, and now has also been recruited into the global empire.” The infrastructure that gets built ends up benefiting the wealthiest sectors of the country, expanding the nation’s inequality. When a country’s leader is unwilling to take on debt, the leader is assassinated, corrupted elections tend to follow in what is commonly called a “soft take-over” or, when both fail, troops may be sent in, as with Iraq. The State and its role in reducing inequality Given that the volatile nature of the stock markets concentrates wealth and prohibits redistribution, greater financial regulations and increased capital gains taxes could reduce the inequalities by discouraging speculation and diminishing profits.
The amount of money moved in only four hours of financial market activity is equal to what Spain produces in one year. In eight hours the amount moved is equal to what France produces; in a week, what the United States of America produces. Imagine the enormous quantity of money the governments could raise by taxing these movements. Of course, the way governments spend these funds would also impact inequality. The impact would be positive if used to provide health services, food and social security for the disadvantaged classes; or negative if used to rescue irresponsible companies, strategically privatize public businesses or pay debts with enormous interest. In Latin America, for every 100 pesos of the GDP, 20.1% goes to paying debt and 6.8% to paying interests. Evidently, this money could be better used helping to provide well-being and opportunities to the bulk of the population. However, in order for fiscal policies to be effective, they would have to be implemented world-wide to avoid repercussions in any single country’s financial market. But instead of doing this, States serve their elite rather than their numerous voting population. Not only do they avoid redistributing wealth as they should, but they have cynically put in place anti-redistributive policies. They do this under our noses because we continue to believe that all economic growth is beneficial to humanity, and that the more growth a country sees the more and greater benefits to be shared. But while growth continues, continued inequality increases the power of a score of mega-billionaires that abuse their influence to manipulate the rules of the game in their favor, even putting at risk the stability of other millionaires. The number of wealthy people in the world decreased by 5% just in the last two years.
The separation of powers The Greeks had an excellent system for separating economic from political power. Any young person with political aspirations had to remain in school longer that his peers. Once their studies were completed, they were politicians until the day they died. The State provided the politician and his family a house and food for life, but in exchange, he could own no private property. If you wanted to amass wealth, you studied commerce. If you wanted to improve your country, you studied to become a politician. Their democracy was “poca-yoque”, a Japanese term meaning “foolproof” (like the USB terminals of our computers, since you cannot insert the object incorrectly). Although the people had no idea for whom to vote, it was hard to get it wrong: every candidate met the basic educational, experiential and vocational requirements, along with the important commitment not to accumulate wealth. The government can be a great instrument for reducing inequality, for confronting environmental threats and for opening the world to more sustainable economic options. First we would have to fix one of its primary problems: Instead of serving society, it serves the 0.1% most affluent population in humanity’s history. Elite-State separation is the only way to draw a line for gigantic mafias that inhibit progress in energy, health, education, technology and more. It seems almost impossible to achieve, but if we decide together that it is necessary to separate political and economic powers, we can do it. Bibliography Book: GUILLÉN ROMO Hector. Mexico facing Neoliberal Globalization, Era Editions, Mexico, 2005. Book: PERKINS, John. Confessions of an Economic Hitman, Uranis Editions, Mexico, 2005. Book: R. Wilkinson and K. Pickett. Spirit Level Turner Editions, Spain, 2010. Article: BUCHANAN, Mark. “Wealth Happens”, Harvard Business Review. United States of America, April 2002, pp. 49-54.
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Public Funds:
through Evaluation and Social Comptrollership By Azucena Mendez Garcia MA and PhD in International Economy and Development. Complutense University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
B
ased on evaluation and accountability as the two final phases of the budgetary cycle1 of public spending, there are a number of instruments that contribute to the efficiency, effectiveness, economy, legality, trustworthiness and transparency of public resource management.
1 According to the Institute for the Technical Development of Public Treasuries (INDETEC), the budgetary cycle is a group of stages through which the budget must move: it is a continuous, dynamic and flexible process.
The public entities and civil servants in charge of expenditures have obligations that include both evaluation and accountability within their budgeted programs, projects and/or actions regarding public policy. To this end, the present article aims to inform the reader about two specific instruments: the Evaluations of Public Administration Budgetary Programs and the Actions Regarding Social Comptrollership within Public Budgetary Programs for Social Development. The latter is more specifically a part of the final phase of accountability within the budgetary cycle. Though both instruments have evolved in similar, and sometimes very specific ways --such as with citizen participation during Actions Regarding Public Comptrollership, or control and follow-up to public policy during the Evaluations of Budgetary Programs. The common denominator is having established, within the framework of the National Democratic Planning System, and legally constituted by reforms to the Political Constitution of the United States of Mexico, the first Planning Law, as of 1983. However, it is important to plant the following question: How specifically and practically to these instruments contribute to citizen participation? On one hand, the Evaluation of Public Policy and Programs is focused on using external expertise to undertake a systematic and objective analysis to determine the pertinence and reach, as well as the efficiency, effectiveness and quality of these. Above all, the aim is to contribute to ACCOUNTABILITY April following year improving the application of actions within public policy to create and enhance public value. EVALUATION On the other hand, soJanuary to December cial comptrollership, applied exclusively to social development policy and programs TRACING by means of primary April, July, October and January vigilance of program be-
neficiaries and/or policies from with the committees of social comptrollership, contribute to the follow-up and supervision of program reach and action, as well as the correct application of assigned resources. It is relevant to mention that mechanisms for reporting corruption are at beneficiaries’ disposal at all times. When reviewing events, development and the practical application of the Evaluation of Budgetary Programs we can observe a precedent in the larger operation of the Actions Regarding Social Comptrollership. Nevertheless, both tools could be coordinated to contribute to the outcome of strategies that could provide better planning, programming and budgeting exercises within public policy and programs, as well as for all the programs configured around the use of public funds. The two instruments are alternates for each other and in terms of information sharing, are both obligated to be transparent in their actions via their corresponding platforms. Readers can review the final product of the Budgetary Evaluations Program on the page www. transparenciapresupuestaria.gob.mx/ . There are number of functions aligned with this practice resulting from the Actions in Social Comptrollership that also combat corruption, including the initiative called Permanent Comptroller Commission Mexico: .www.comisioncontralores.gob.mx/ that promotes the use of best practices for combating corruptions through the National Social Comptrollership Award. PLANNING January to April
PROGRAMMING May to September
BUDGETING September to November
EXERCISE AND CONTROL January to December
STAGES OF
BUDGET CYCLE
Informing and sharing information through accountability instruments for the Budgetary Cycle empowers citizens to stay informed and invites their participation in public work as an act of civil and social responsibility.
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Pictorial Exhibition
Mexican-ness Decontextualized By Ricardo Cruz Fuentes BA in Cultural Administration / Visual Artist
M
exico has an ample cultural identity, primarily derived from its Pre-Columbian history and the cultural mix resulting from Spanish colonization. Religious beliefs, clothing, food, architecture, traditions, festivities and even morphologies merged to create a new path of identity that would lead to the term “Mexicanidad”-- loosely translated at “Mexican-ness.” Mexican-ness is linked to understanding the strong and sometimes inexplicable cultural identity shared by Mexicans. Experiencing a sense of belonging to this culture, even if one’s national legal condition is distinct, is tied to Mexico’s arts and artists where identity signifiers flow in perpetuity. A sense of belonging is shared among individuals through Mexico’s traditions, artwork and other cultural representations. The exhibition “Mexican-ness Decontextualized” is a pictorial proposal aimed at contributing to the rediscovery of Mexican-ness, and enlivening the sense of identity and belonging in its viewers. Likewise, it aims to reinforce knowledge around Mexican culture through representative
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images like the Dancers, China Poblanas, Catrinas, Mazahua Dolls, Alebrijes (colorful monsters), Tenangos (colorful embroidery) etc.. Peculiarly contemplated from an external context and perspective different from the one to which we are accustomed. The artwork included in the exhibit is accompanied by QR codes with links to short, public videos that explain a little about each representative character in its truest context. In this way we can learn about its origin, symbolism, representation, and festival to which it is linked and the geographic location in which it originated, among other facts. Each works is also accompanied by a short text about the history of the piece from a more subjective perspective that deepens understandings of the scene expressed by the artist. These texts, written by Nohemi Lopez Rivera (Lori) and Rosabla Rios Solano, add flavor to the viewers’ experiences as they peruse the exhibit. This pictorial exhibit presents Mexican-ness in an unusual context that meshes well with the artistic technique, which includes finger (rather than
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brush) painting with a unique result for each piece but unifying them through joy and humor. In the exhibit, different representative images seem to socialize in a fantasy-filled world, where Mazahua dolls come to life and share moments with Catrinas, Dancers, and Chinelos (carnival figures). Where Tenangos are no longer embroidery but rather animals that join with Alebrijes, axolotls and xoloitzcuintles in colorful menageries come to life in this fantasy world.
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A LOOK AT MÉXICO TROUGH THE WORLD
Though Mexican-ness is the central theme of the exhibit, human development and growth comprise the overriding message. The narrative is presented along a lifeline, from infancy to death. The thematic-chronological overly posed by the exhibit allows one to visualize a progressive line of human development and maturation both for individuals and as a community. In this way the pluri-cultural Mexican journey of this exhibit evokes not only our roots but also our life stories; what we were, what we are, and what some day we will be.
The exhibit “Mexican-ness Decontextualized” is now itinerant, having been shown at the Museum of the National Popular Autonomous University of Puebla State, at the Puebla Cultural Bureau “Professor Pedro Angel Palou Perez” and the Museum at the “Big House” of the Hidalgo State Autonomous University and it will continue to travel through a variety of museums in Mexico during the this and the following year. Keep an eye out for it at: The Museum of Arts and Sciences at the Autonomous University of Carmen (Campeche), the Museum of the City of Cuernavaca (Morelos), The Guillermo Ceniceros Museum of Modern Art (Durango) among others.
Themes are more easily understood thanks to the exhibit’s introductory text presented at the beginning of the tour. It was written by Maestro Fernando Padilla who, with his ample experience in the art world, is able to submerge the spectator in the themes as well as in the dynamics of the show.
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Three Poems by Ian Hamilton
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By Carlos Noyola Economist and Frederic Bastiat Fellow at George Mason University. Regularly writes for newspapers: El Sol de Puebla and El Universal.
an Hamilton was born in East England in 1938 and died in 2001. The majority of his life’s work is composed of critical essays and biographical writings. He wrote very few poems, and wrote them very slowly. For example, in 1988, he wrote: I have written fifty poems in twenty-five years: not much to brag about for being half a lifetime.” As an editor, he was known as tough and difficult to impress. Nevertheless, his poems speak of a different Ian, sensitive to alarm clocks and green walls. In 2009, Faber printed his complete poetic works (Collected poems).
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Poem Ah, listen now,
Each breath more temperate, more kind, More close to death. Sleep on And listen to these words Faintly, and with a tentative alarm, Refuse to waken you.
The Vow O world leave this alone
At least This shocked and slightly aromatic fall of leaves She gathers now and presses to her mouth And swears on. Swears that love, What’s left of it, Will sleep now, unappeased, impossible.
The Visit They’ve let me walk with you
As far as this high wall. The placid smiles Of our new friends, the old incurables, Pursue us lovingly. Their boyish, suntanned heads, Their ancient arms Outstretched, belong to you. Although you head still burns Your hands remember me.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We would like to thank the following professionals for their contributions to the magazine:
David Sánchez Sánchez BA in History from the University of Oviedo, equivalent to a BA and an MA. Academic Director of the Humanities Department, UPAEP Ivonne Tapia Villagomez PhD in Education and Organizational Development at the Continental University of America. Director of the Business Administration Department and Post graduate professor, Iberoamerican University, Puebla.
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A LOOK AT MÉXICO TROUGH THE WORLD
Elitania Leyva Rayon PhD in Economic Finance with a concentration in Banking and Stocks, Madrid Autonomous University. Full research professor in the Economics Department at The University of the Americas Puebla. Edith Esquivel Eguiguren MA in Political and Social Science, Humanities Research and Teaching Center for the State of Morelos. Writer, translator, line editor and essayist for the Grupo Imagen web portal Money
Carlos Noyola. Economist and Frederic Bastiat Fellow at George Mason University. Regularly writes for newspapers: El Sol de Puebla and El Universal. Azucena Mendez Garcia MA and PhD in International Economy and Development. Complutense University of Madrid, Spain. Ricardo Cruz Fuentes BA in Cultural Administration. Visual Artist In the last issue there was an error in the data from Master Patricia García, that is why in this number we from the teacher. Patricia García Hernández Master in Clinical Psychology Master in Family Counseling and Mediation. PhD student in Neuroscience, development and Education. Family and couples psychotherapist. Full-time teacher at the University Popular Autónoma del Estado of Puebla.
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