Living in Mexico - Archives: October 2006
Sunday, October 29, 2006
Doing my daily world news review I found this worrying result from a freshly published CONACULTA study: Mexicans read on average 2.9 books per year. Two thirds of the respondents mentioned that they do not read more because of lack of time. Yet I haven't seen anyone in Mexico complaining that time was too scarce to watch TV or go party with friends! This is a poor excuse that fails to explain the facts.
However, compared to other fellow Latin American countries, Mexico's results are actually quite good: Brazilians read on average 1.8 books per year and Colombians fare barely better with only 2.4 books per year. Why such a low popularity index for such an important cultural activity as reading books?
Is there a connection with literacy rates? According to the UNESCO, in 2004 9.7% of the Mexican adult population was illiterate. On a global scale this compares quite favorably with most countries, even European nations like Greece that lags at 9% literacy amongst adults.
Perhaps reading is an acquired taste? We can witness a better correlation between the gross enrollment rate (GER) in tertiary education and national reading habits. Mexico's GER is 18.3% while France's is 51.4%. This may account for the fact that the French read 7 books per year, more than twice as many as in Mexico.
The apparently benign statistic published by CONACULTA is a symptom of Mexico's and Latin America's inadequate (for this information age) educational system and developing economy. Kids do not get an opportunity to enter the higher education and adults are too exhausted by their daily struggle in life to take up reading. Books shouldn't be reserved to an elite, they are the foundation of human knowledge and progress since history began. Mexico must read more!
Posted by Serge @ 08:42 AM MEX [Link] [Karma: 0 (+/-)] [No Comments]
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
The fifth annual Reporters Without Borders Worldwide Press Freedom Index shows Mexico ranking 132 out of 168 countries considered, barely above Palestine and below Colombia or Afghanistan.
Mexico is faring poorly in terms of press freedom because, amongst other parameters, three journalists were killed in the country while a reporter also disappeared along the US border, where drug-traffickers threaten the media.
Together with corruption, criminality, poverty and a myriad of other serious national issues, Felipe Calderon has a busy agenda for his presidency.
Posted by Serge @ 07:21 PM MEX [Link] [Karma: -2 (+/-)] [No Comments]
