Mexico's Daily News

Freescale International celebrates the expansion of its facility in Guadalajara

Privately owned, $5B+ semiconductor company will surpass 20 billion shipped products worldwide. Freescale invests over $1B each year in R&D, much of it now in their Freescale Mexico Business and Technology Center. Way to go Freescale! Way to go Guadalajara! Viva Mexico!

NOW IS THE TIME

Lorena Ochoa named Jalisco's Tourism Ambassador

Mayors from around Latin America lauded for their support of Mexico

Mexico embarking on unprecedented national promotion.

Hugh Jackman visits with President Caleron.

One month late.

Here come the Stars!!!

Mexico is spending $90M on celebrity ads promoting tourism.

Who do you want to see?

American Express, Pfizer, Wal Mart and others betting on Mexico's recovery to the tune of $6,300,000,000 30 PF Changs coming to Mexico

Mexico Economy to Rebound to 4% in 2010 as Rates Fall, Itau Says

Carnival Cruise Lines returning to Mexico

The CDC's travel advisory for Novel H1N1 Flu has been removed!
On the same day the CDC received a new Director, common sense returns.

A special thank to Patrick Harrison from the Mexico Daily News Blog and its readers.

President Obama has nominated a new Director of the CDC
After the CDC repeatedly renewed a baseless and damaging travel advisory for Mexico, President Barack Obama has named Dr. Thomas Frieden the new Director of the CDC.Mexico's damaged tourism industry cautious, hopeful.

US CDC's baseless travel advisory continues to damage Mexico

While the US Senate is holding hearings on the loss of

tourism in the US, the CDC continues to ignore thefindings of the

World Health Organization in favor of the more

profitable and non-scientific travel ban

Mexico goes GREEN(er)

The New York Times covers Mexico's recovery plan

World Tourism Organization praises Mexico's response

Closing the US Mexico border offers no benefits, many problems

Mexico's extreme precautions pay off, school's reopened.

Tourism dollars cruising North to the US

Peso falls on S&P analysis

Mexico's economy to get $2 Billion boost

Finally, an article on Mexico's swine flu crisis with facts, data, research and objectivity!

Cruise Ship Industry reroutes passengers from Puerto Vallarta to San Diego, which has 25 times more confirmed cases of H1N1

Princess Cruise Lines diverted the Sapphire Princess from Puerto Vallarta to San Diego and Catalina Island. San Diego has over 50 confirmed cases of H1N1, as compared to 2 confirmed cases in Puerto Vallarta. There is no logic behind this move if the cruise ship giant's goal was protecting the safety of their passengers. There is however an enormous financial benefit to the two US destinations benefitting from the H1N1 hysteria, and the crusie ship company which is paying much less for fuel. (read the original article here)
The cruise ship operators put a clause in every ticket contract that says that the destinations can be changed at any time. This is allowing them to charge for a Pacific Mexico cruise while basically just idling around California. I'm sure there will be discounts, but if you paid for an international cruise and your cell phone never even switches to roaming, are you getting what you wanted in the first place? If it were me, I'd call the cruise operator and demand that they credit you with twice as many tickets and wait until they get their act together.

The US media's coverage of Mexico

I wanted to find a way to demonstrate to myself and others the tone of the US media with respect to Mexico. I'm not doing anything majorly scientific here, just trying a few different Google searches to see what the results are.

Let's see what happens when we Google "world health organization praises mexico" Ok, here's the sources of the first ten responses to that search;

1. telegraph.co.uk UK "WHO praises Mexico's response to virus "
2. health.mashget.com India "Mexico's professionalism, responsibility and transparency"
3. english.people.cn China "praised Mexico's professionalism"
4. sploid.com Blog "WHO praises Mexico's response"
5. javno.com Croatia "WHO has praised the Mexican government"
6. Delewareonline.com First US site "Mexico's reaction draws praise from experts"
7. Boston.com US site local news "Harvard Dean praises Mexico's response"
8. Japantimes "Mexican ambassador praises aid"
9. comcast US site "Obama praises vets" "Mexico citizens stay home"
10. new yorkblips "The Obama administration is winning praise"

Huh. From that search you would think that the US didn't have many websites at all. The two largest of the group above weren't about Mexico's accolades at all. Wierd. Lets see what happens when we search "mexico blamed for swine flu"

1. Foxnews.com "people in Mexico were dying of flu-like symptoms "
2. Msnbc.com "Americans who got swine flu had traveled to Mexico"
3. Pontealdia.com "U.S. Immigrants, Mexico Blamed For Swine Flu"
4. Cathnews.com "US priest blames swine flu on Mexico abortion laws"
5. Time.com "Don't blame the pig"
6. Huffingtonpost "Conservatives blame immigrants"
7. Globalresearch.ca "Blamed on Industrial Farming in Mexico?"
8. Mediamatters.org "media figures blaming Mexican immigrants"
9. Amazilia.com "Blame it on NAFTA"
10.negociosempresa "Conservative media baselessly blame swine flu outbreak on immigrants"

Hmmm. With a search regarding the WHO praising Mexico's performance during the crisis, the largest US media outlet represented that actually did repeat the WHO's sentiment was either delewareonline or boston.com. The other two US sources actually were running articles praising the US response. Now, when we search something like "Mexico blamed for swine flu" we get responses from some slightly bigger US players. Fox News, Huffington Post, Time, Mediamatters even MSNBC.

What fascinates me the most about this unscientific little experiment is that Mexico did do it right. They approached the WHO 8 days before the WHO responded with an advisory. They shut down schools and services and did an amazing job of containing the spread of the disease. Why wasn't that news to the major US media outlets? The articles blaming Mexico for the disease seemed to make the cut with FOX, MSNBC and the others even though Mexico is no more to blame for their outbreak than the US or the Phillipines was for their outbreaks.

The above example illustrates the need for this site's quest for non-biased research and data on the news surrounding Mexico, no?

MFRA Travel Advisories

The Mexican Foreign Residents Association has issued the following travel advisories.

MFRA strongly recommends against travel to China. The polluted air in China will be responsible for the premature deaths of over 1.75 million people this year, even short term exposure to China's air can cause long term permanent damage. The elderly and very young are especially vulnerable. This travel advisory will be eased when China's "epidemic" of environmental pollution is brought under control. The MFRA recommends against holding your breath until that happens as this has been proven to lead to death.

MFRA reports indicate that there are over 45 murders each day in the United States, and that approximately 1.5 million people are victims of violent crime each year. Although areas such as New Orleans, Chicago and New Jersey have much higher crime rates than other parts of the United States, we recommed you just avoid the place entirely. This has nothing whatsoever to do with the US media's frequent generic references to "violence in Mexico" which constantly recycle border crime statistics and apply them to travel advisories (especially during vacation seasons) for the entire country. Really, absolutely nothing to do with it. We swear.

Conficker virus infects computers in Haiti

A computer virus has been found on a library computer in Haiti. Infected computers make flatulence sounds whenever a file is deleted.

The nation of Egypt took immediate and decisive action...
Egyptian government's response (click here)

China swiftly followed with measures of their own...
Chinese government's response (click here)

The Poll

Those of us who don't live in Juarez, Nuevo Laredo, Tijuana and other cities that have become focal points for violent crime in Mexico know that the picture the US media paints of travel to Mexico is incomplete. Almost all of the articles and news reports I've seen refer to crime in Mexico as if the entire country were one big city. The H1N1 scare hasn't helped either, but that will pass in the coming months whereas the public perception of Mexico's crime problems will continue.

This poll isn't meant to diminish legitimate concerns about crime in Mexico, rather its meant to help us put things in perspective. Is there crime in Mexico? Of course there is. Is it worse than the towns we came from? Well, that's why we're asking you to fill out this poll.

Be honest. This poll will be useful for our community to address the perceptions of visitors to Mexico only if it offers a more accurate representation of life in Mexico than the one presented by the media today. If you think of a question that should be asked, tell us in the comments section. Most importantly, if you know where we can find credible sources to statistics regarding crimes against foreigners in Mexico please send us links to that information.

Please forward the link to this poll to all of the people you know who live in Mexico at least three months out of the year.

Thank you for taking the time to visit http://www.expatpolls.blogspot.com/!