This brought back memories
Those were the days. Now imagine you are driving and not just sitting in a taxi.
Author: michelle
More drug violence in Mexico
This time not just along the border. Another police official was gunned down with an AK-47 (a.k.a. cuerno de chivo) outside a restaurant in Acapulco in the company of 5 friends. In border states, another four were killed.
Meanwhile, back in the Capital, opposition legislators criticized the government’s characterization as “exagerated” the closing of the U.S. consulate in N.L. They admit the country is sufferng from “narcoviolencia”.
The leftist press points out that new security measures have not been as effective as the government would claim.
Avoid mugging, the remix
Alex at Marginal Revolution has a short list of tips to avoid being mugged while in Lima. I like the coke bottle idea, but I always preferred to carry a styrofoam cup of extra hot coffee while in Mexico City.
I also second the idea of choosing who you ask for directions (for safety reasons), and in my experience you must ask at least 3 people and triangulate among the responses. Mexicans, at least, hate to appear unhelpful and will often give you directions when they have no idea where you want to go. After 2 or 3 experiences of this, you learn to double and triple check directions before you walk 10 blocks out of the way.
His tips are much easier to remember than the long list I offered for those traveling to the D.F.
All consuming
For a while, I have been looking for an easy way to keep track of the books and movies that I read and see, and maybe even have a feed to the blog. Tonight, Brian found it for me.
Note the short list (with pictures!) in the sidebar. All very easy to do.
LaTeX woes
I’m no computer dummy. Maybe I know just enough to be dangerous. In either case, the online documentation for LaTex (and related editors, interfaces, etc.) is maddeningly obfuscatory.
Since I have realized that I will be teaching the intro stats course for our master’s students indefinitely, I have become convinced that it would help both them and me if my notes were electronic and online. A very nice colleague at the Methods meeting convinced me that LaTex was the way to go in the long-term (and shared some useful .tex files), but in the short-term, it’s very frustrating. I suspect that I only want to use about 10% (or less) of LaTeX’s functionality.
Why can’t smart people write clear user’s guides? Can anyone suggest an easy to use tutorial site?
Update: Lovely, just lovely.
Update2: It’s becoming less murky.
Women in political science appear to be hitting a glass ceiling
Or, at least that’s one of the conclusions that could be made from the NSF-sponsored, APSA research report on women in the discipline. Women are more likely to be hired as part-time or adjunct faculty, and less likely to be steadily promoted. The full report is online.
The report suggests that four forces shape the role of women in political science:
(quoting and paraphrasing from pg. 12)
1. A leaking pipeline (women leave)
2. A dual burden of tenure track and family (not enough support for family)
3. The institutional climate (women don’t understand the unspoken rules of male political science/academic culture)
4. The culture of research (too much lone wolf research and an undervaluing of feminist political science research)
And contrary to what one Inside Higher Ed reader suggests, the report offers no evidence that “Maybe women are simply happier in non Tenure Track jobs?”. I hope he’s not a political scientist. BTW, men are part of families, too, and maybe they should get leave to participate in their families’ lives?
Consular offices in N.L. still closed
According to this report, the U.S. will only re-open its consulate in Nuevo Laredo when it is clear that violence in the city is under control. According to the article
En Nuevo Laredo, hasta el pasado 21 de julio habÃan ocurrido 101 homicidios violentos, superando los registros de 2004, cuando hubo 64 personas asesinadas. En todo el estado de Tamaulipas el número de ejecuciones en 2005 llega ya a 211 vÃctimas.
This means that murders in N.L. as of July 2005 were nearly double the total for all of 2004.
Officials of the Mexican government called the closing of the consulate an exaggeration.
The PRI and TUCOM
This is an overdue post. Although TUCOM brings to mind images of talking birds hawking breakfast cereal, it really stands for Todos Unidos Contra Madrazo and its a political craze sweeping the nation. Well, maybe not exactly, but close.
Madrazo is the President of the PRI and will be one of the leading contenders for the PRI nomination for President in 2006. TUCOM (All United against Madrazo) is an alliance of other would-be PRI candidates who have banded together to stop Madrazo from becoming the PRI’s next candidate. They either believe that Madrazo would be bad for the PRI in general, or that one of them is more likely to be a successful candidate in 2006. The five members of Tucom are: Enrique Jackson, Arturo Montiel, Tomás Yarrington, Enrique Martínez y Manuel Angel Núñez Soto.
This alliance has been around for a month now, but actual activities or agreements have been few because of such great uncertainty within the party. Initially, the members of the alliance agreed not to attack one another and instead focus their energies on defeating Madrazo. So here’s the news round-up of Tucom activities over the last month or so:
July 14: Tucom announces that it will confer with Gordillo before announcing who will run against Madrazo for the PRI nomination. Gordillo is the 2nd in command at the PRI and will become President of the PRI when Madrazo steps down to run for the presidential nomination. She’s a polarizing figure in her own right, as leader of the teacher’s union.
One of the key movers behind the Tucom alliance is Genero Borego, who was director of the Social Security Institute when pensions were privatized in 1995 and was once a presidential candidate hopeful himself. He says that a PRI win is not guaranteed even with Gordillo’s support (read: Gordillo can’t bring the teacher vote like she once could). [Note: Gordillo and Madrazo are fairly bitter political enemies. Come to think of it, Gordillo is enemies with many other powerful men as well.]
Two articles about the divisions within the PRI in mid-July.
July 16: A new political party, Nueva Alianza, celebrates its formal registration. Though the party is associated with the teachers’ union led by Gordillo, she stands up everybody at the formal announcement of the party.
July 27: Stress begins to appear within the Tucom alliance. According to the article, surveys don’t indicate a clear winner among the Tucom candidates, and the alliance is considering putting forward two of the five to face off with Madrazo.
“Existe preocupación entre las empresas encuestadoras -seleccionadas por Unidad Democrática para elegir al candidato que contenderá en contra de Madrazo- para ubicar a los mil 400 notables que conforman una cuarta parte del ejercicio de auscultación planteado, porque buena parte de ellos están de vacaciones, y en el mejor de los casos podrán ubicar a 35 o 40 por ciento de ellos, lo que impide dar plena legitimidad a este proceso dentro de Unidad Democrática”, revelaron fuentes de dicha agrupación de priístas que integran los gobernadores Arturo Montiel, del estado de México, y Enrique Martínez, de Coahuila; los ex mandatarios estatales Tomás Yarrington, de Tamaulipas, y Manuel Angel Núñez Soto, de Hidalgo, así como el senador Enrique Jackson.
A esta problemática operativa se suma la lucha que por esta candidatura protagonizan Montiel y Jackson, lo que hace pensar a los propios integrantes de Unidad Democrática que pudiera llegar a registrarse más de uno de ellos para enfrentar a Madrazo en la selección interna del tricolor, lo que implicaría, además, romper el acuerdo original de consensuar una sola propuesta en este grupo antagónico al dirigente nacional del PRI.
July 31: Unconfirmed reports suggest that Gordillo met with members of Tucom to discuss strategies.
The story was accompanied by this unflattering depiction of La Maestra (the Teacher), as she is commonly called. 
Original context
August 1: Tucom has agreed to suspend television ads until they agree on their candidate to face Madrazo.
In any event, it will be interesting to watch the Tucom movement unfold. It’s like having a mini-election before the election of the PRI nominee. The actual nomination process is only open to PRI members, since as one interviewee told me, they would otherwise risk sabotage by individuals voting for the worst candidate. [Paranoid much?] We’ll see if it actually gives any more legitimacy to the Tucom candidate and whether it will convince Madrazo supporters within the PRI to back down and not impose Madrazo as the party’s nominee.
To be continued….
My HP alter ego is…
Is anyone really surprised?
“You scored as Hermione Granger. You’re one intelligent witch, but you have a hard time believing it and require constant reassurance. You are a very supportive friend who would do anything and everything to help her friends out.”
“Hermione Granger 100%”
Your Harry Potter Alter Ego Is…? created with QuizFarm.com
If you have an auction, they will come and bid
The First Lady donated about US$30K in clothing to a charity for auction. Unfortunately, the auction was suspended because of too litle interest. The charity is the real loser here.
Before it ended, one nurse got a bargain: three dresses and a Hugo Boss jacket for under US$300.
A picture of the turnout:
Mexicans prefer bribes to obeying the law
According to a study mentioned in a short news article, Mexicans prefer to “arreglar” or fix things rather than follow the law. Thirty-nine percent prefer extra-legal resolutions to problems.
This attitude is rational. When you can pay a US$5 bribe in 5 minutes with no chance of penalties for the bribe to avoid paying a $25 fine that will take 4 hours, you choose the bribe. Indeed, the best advice to get out of paying a bribe for a traffic violation is often to demand to go pay the fine. The argument is that the officer will not want to lose valuable bribe-time by waiting around the station for you to pay. It’s a perfect example of poor institutional design leading individuals to find work-arounds. Explaining how such poor institutions lead to economic inefficiency and underdevelopment is, in part, how Douglass North earned a Nobel prize. And it makes sense.
Troubling, but not surprising, is the attitude Mexicans have about politicians.
38% agreed with the statement, “Un polÃtico pobre es un pobre polÃtico” [A politician’s that’s poor is a poor politician].
24% believed that honesty was the key to success in politics, compared to 43% who believed politicians had to be corrupt or very corrupt to succeed.
Such little trust in politicians and government is bound to have all sorts of negative effects on long-term democracy.
It costs a lot to look this good, or does it?
In many ways, Mexican politics can be just as mundane as politics in the U.S. Remember the controvery over Clinton’s furniture? And then I seem to recall people getting riled up about how much the First Lady spent on a haircut.
In the last few weeks, the amount spent by Fox’s First Lady on gowns has been a topic of debate in the press. The President gets an annual budget for galas, clothing, and related expenses (budget line item 3825). Over the last several years, it has increased, reaching $955,000 pesos (US$87,000) in 2003.
I’m thinking that $87K isn’t really that much for a First Lady, especially when a pair of Nine West shoes that cost $65 in the U.S. cost $125 in Mexico.
Since the First Lady is such a well-dressed woman, critics have claimed that the First Lady has spent much more than her allowance on clothing, and they want to know where the money is coming from. The Congress has decided to elminate or reduce her allowance, and one legislator said “Versace will miss her.”
Martha’s response to all of this attention? “I buy my clothes with money my husband gives me.” This, of course, is the only appropriate explanation a Mexican woman could give for her spending habits, even if she was a successful woman before her marriage.
This isn’t the first time the Foxes have been criticized for their spending. Shortly after taking office, legislators criticized how much they spent on bath towels for the Mexican equivalent of the White House. Maybe this is the greatest accomplishment of Mexican democracy. The opposition can demand transparency in Los Pinos expenditures on things like towels, gowns, and dress shoes.
Of course, in a country with wide disparities in wealth and crushing poverty in the countryside, it does seem in bad taste to spend so lavishly.
Recently, the Martha Sahagun donated about US$30K of her cast-offs to a charity for children with cancer.
Absentee voting for Mexicans
For those that follow Mexican politics closely, this will be stale news. Last month, President Fox signed into law a bill that will legalize absentee voting for Mexicans abroad via the postal service. The bill was hotly debated by all of the political parties and the postal service claimed it would not be able to handle the millions of ballots arriving from the U.S. About 98% of Mexicans living abroad live in the United States. It is estimated that half of the 4 million Mexicans living illegally AND legally in the United States will cast ballots in the Presidential election last year. In 2000, Mexicans had to travel back to their home district to cast ballots, and I have at least one friend who travelled from Austin to the D.F. to do so.
While some are concerned about keeping the vote free and fair while using the post, the PAN has been busy opening party offices in U.S. cities.
The implications are interesting. In markets with large populations of Mexican nationals, will parties run campaign ads? Eventually (e.g., 2012), will Mexican candidates make campaign stops in Chicago? How could Mexican officials possibly monitor such campaign spending?
U.S. closes consulate in Nuevo Laredo
According to this story, the U.S. Dept of State has closed its Nuevo Laredo offices for the coming week in response to increased violence in the border town. The most recent shoot-out invloved bazookas and other big guns.
I’ve posted links to and summaries of news about border violence before.
Recent violence only reiterates a sentiment expressed by a police officer in Laredo, north of the border. In August, about 100 feet north of the bridge, either the local or state police had a roadblock checking drivers’ licenses, etc. We asked the officer if he knew where we went on the other side to process our immigration paperwork.
His response: “Oh, I don’t go over there. They kill for free over there.”
He was right.
Positive externalities
I’ve spent over 12 hours in the car since yesterday morning driving around Atlanta, looking at properties to rent. This means that posting will continue to be light, both in quantity and quality until I find a new home.
In the meantime, I offer the following for your consideration: a positive externality of being a professor is that most people believe professors are smart, honest, and responsible people. The reputation associated with professors is a positive externality of the profession.
I have two anecdotes to support this assertion. First, in a recent dispute with a VW service department in Texas, I believe my profession lent credibility to my claim that the dealership misrepresented its service record for my car to the corporate VW customer care office. The details are tedious and uninteresting.
Second, while looking for a property to rent these last 2 days, I sense that landlords are excited by the prospect of renting to a professor. Landlords usually ask what a potential renter does, and they get very eager to rent me their property when I tell them that I work at Tech. Is it because they assume that I am quiet and studious? Or because they are glad my employment is stable? Chris, did you have a similar experience during your trip to Durham?
What is driving that response among landlords? Will it work for speeding tickets? Will the positive externalities have lower marginal returns as I age and become more likely to have the reputation of an absent-minded professor?
Can anyone offer other examples of instances where the reputation associated with being a professor netted some unexpected benefit?
Waiting in traffic
As I mentioned before, I spent three hours on the interstate to travel five miles on Saturday night. Inspired by a Beastie Boys song from Licensed to Ill on the radio, I began compiling a list of the concerts or national tour shows that I have attended. Below is that list. Excluded from the list are the numerous shows that I’ve seen because Brian knew someone in the band and that were small bands that Brian liked that no one but 5 hipsters in Austin would recognize.
In chronological order: (edits from Brian)
1983 Alabama, with Mom (Frank Erwin Center, Austin)
1983 Rick Springfield, with daughter of mom’s friend (first show without adult) (Frank Erwin Center, Austin)
1984 Culture Club, with dad and his wife (I was HUGE fan; I think Dad was freaked out by all the cross-dressing Boy George impersonators) (Frank Erwin Center, Austin)
1986 Stryper (Don’t ask about this one; you don’t want to know)
[BEGIN JUNIOR HIGH]
1987 Beastie Boys (Fishbone opening), first with friends (Civic Center, Austin)
[BEGIN HIGH SCHOOL]
1989 R.E.M., first where friends drove (Frank Erwin Center, Austin)
1989 Depeche Mode
1989 New Order (Civic Center, Austin)
1990 Love and Rockets (some Amphitheatre, Berkeley)
1990? Billy Joel, with Mom (Frank Erwin Center, Austin)
1991 The Cure (Frank Erwin Center, Austin)
1991 10,000 Maniacs (Liberty Lunch, Austin)
1991 Violent Femmes (Liberty Lunch, Austin)
[BEGIN COLLEGE]
1992 Morrissey (Limelight, NYC)
1993 KRS-One (some tiny club, NYC)
1993 House of Pain, Cypress Hill, etc. (some big venue, NYC)
1994 NIN (Marilyn Manson opening) (Frank Erwin Center, Austin)
1994 The Cramps (Liberty Lunch, Austin)
1995 Melvins with L7 Halloween night (Liberty Lunch, Austin)
1996 R.E.M. (I think Radiohead opened) (The Backyard, Austin)
[BEGIN GRAD SCHOOL]
1996 Medeski, Martin and Wood (Cat’s Cradle, Chapel Hill)
1996 Melvins (L7 opening) (Cat’s Cradle, Chapel Hill)
1997 The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion (Cat’s Cradle, Chapel Hill)
1998 Junior Brown (Cat’s Cradle, Chapel Hill)
1998 Los Von Von (Maraka, Mexico City)
1999 Omara Portuondo (small cultural center, Mexico City)
1999 The Cramps (Cat’s Cradle, Chapel Hill)
2000 Omara Portunondo (Performing Arts Center, Austin)
2000 Gran Silencio (Aterciopelados opening) (some club, San Antonio)
2001-2002 series of local shows in Austin
[END GRAD SCHOOL; BEGIN FACULTY]
2004 Very good blues guy whose name I can’t remember Paul Jones and T Model Ford (SXSW Antone’s , Austin)
2005 Cafe Tacuba (Stubb’s, Austin)
Shows that I’ve missed that would have liked to have seen:
The Smiths (broke up as I became a fan), Public Enemy (broke up before I became a fan), Prince, 3rd Bass, Johnny Cash (had 3rd row tix, but had final next day; Brian took his brother)
Shows that I would like to see:
Peter Gabriel and Los Tigres del Norte (obviously, not on the same bill…though that could be interesting)
I’m sure Brian will have had lots of corrections. As it was, over the course of the hour in traffic, I kept remembering new shows that I had forgotten.
Academic mail
Below is a picture of the mail that an Assistant Professor is likely to receive in one year. This mail excludes random fliers and junk mail that our administrative assistant so deftly edited out of the pile.
And this is the mail after it has been opened or sorted.
Clockwise from the top, the piles represent:
journals, newsletters, and other subscriptions (excluding GT newsletters);
box of reprints of a published article;
fliers and catalogues from book publishers;
(mostly) unsolicited textbook samples; and
real mail (1/2 of which are official copies of grant proposals I submitted during the last year).
It’s nice to feel loved
Tonight, I arrived in Atlanta, only three hours behind schedule due to a fatal accident on I-75 just 20 minutes South of Atlanta. [The accident happened sometime during daylight hours, but it took me from 8pm to 11pm to clear the 5 miles before the accident.] In situations like that, while you are merely inconvenienced, you can’t help but think that’s minor compared to the effect whatever is causing the delay will have on those directly involved.
Arriving back to my office at midnight, I found that it had been turned into a storage area and that a computer was attached to my monitor for someone (else) to use. Nice. Makes it feel like home. So much for getting to work tomorrow. Does that mean I am excused from work? Can I go play?
Austin Harry Potter party
Last Friday, I went at midnight to get my copy of HP and the Half Blood Prince at BookPeople, an independent bookstore (which means I paid full price for the book, much to the amusement of my mom who saw it at Sam’s the next day for $17).
Brian has a set of some pics. Richard Linklater (of Slackers, Dazed and Confused, School of Rock, and Bad News Bears fame) was there filming. I almost asked him to sign my HP book. I don’t know what he was filming for, but he had quite a crew.
Brian has a Flickr set with some dark (literally) pictures.
I finished HP6 last night. I won’t spoil it for you, but I did almost cry during the last two chapters.
Also recently added to Brian’s Flickr are pictures of Cafe Tacuba live. Did I mention that they rocked?
Brief hiatus
Posting will be minimal to non-existent for the rest of the week. Over the weekend, we had an unexpected, but pleasant, visit from my mother’s parents. Tomorrow, I leave for Tallahassee for the Methods meeting. By Sunday, I should be back in Atlanta to look for a place to live.