A walk in the park

Am writing this at 4am. Foolishly stayed up late on first night here as got hooked on Silence of the Lambs on hotel room TV – wanted to see favourite scene (“It places the lotion in the basket”) and thus sacrificed an extra day to jet lag. Have since watched the end of The Fugitive, the whole of The Long Kiss Goodnight (terrible, theme much better dealt with in the excellent A History of Violence) and most of The Anchorman (superb). Must surely soon get over novelty of having a TV in my bedroom.

Mexico City is big. Arriving in Mexico City from London feels like arriving in London from Newton Abbot. I thought I would take a quiet wander through Chapultepec park on Sunday, the biggest green (technical rather than descriptive term – park is brown) urban space in Latin America. It was like taking a stroll on the Japanese subway – I half expected to see uniformed crammers with huge wooden planks cramming us into the park so we’d all fit in. I have not seen so many people since the anti-war demo. Most of Mexico City’s 20 million inhabitants appeared to be there – a genuine sea of people, with market stalls as far as the eye could see selling food, sunglasses, balloons and wrestling masks (obviously).

I took a desperate lunge to my right, thrusting whole picnicking families aside, until I found myself in Polanca, posh barrio, big iron gates, interior design shops. Suddenly it was very different, not least the people. I had come to Mexico with the vague idea that I would more or less fit in with my dark hair, moustache, sombrero and mini-guitar. Well, dark hair. In the park I was disavowed of this notion – I was about a foot taller than everyone else, much lighter skinned and about as inconspicuous as a Swede in Papua New Guinea. But turn into Polanca and I do actually fit in (only my lousy Spanish and tourist-green combats give me away) – everyone is taller and whiter and sipping coffee in the roadside cafés. The shorter, darker people in this part of town are cleaning things, building things, or selling me talcum powder in the supermarket.

This is, of course, what I had been told to expect. Inequality is the fundamental economic and social issue in Mexico, as it is in Britain, and perhaps everywhere. Predictably, and this is a massive generalisation, it shadows the race divide – income differences between people with indigenous roots and taller whiter people are vast. If it turns out to be anything like Guatemala, which I know better, Mexico will be two countries in one. So what is to be done?

Well, actually addressing the problem would be a start. A blinkered prioritisation of economic growth has, in many countries, led to policy choices that have not only failed to address inequality, but have actually exacerbated it. Growth is certainly part of the answer, but focusing much more on reducing inequality would be a better way of tackling extreme poverty and reducing social division than just trying to ‘grow’ faster.

The good news is that more and more people are realising this. Even the World Bank (reach for a glass of water) launched a flagship report on inequality last year, with some old NGO arguments masquerading as the latest in economic modelling. Touchingly, and presumably to emphasise their revolutionary intent, they put a Diego Rivera masterpiece on the cover (who is far superior as an artist, by the way, to Frida Kahlo; I struggle to understand why she receives so much more attention).

The bad news is that many policy makers appear reluctant to detach themselves from a belief in trickle-down economics (country/world ‘grows’, everyone benefits) which is as harmful as it is self-serving. But their narrow obsession with growth is looking increasingly like an embarrassing fetish, especially as environmental constraints become ever more apparent. I hope other optimistic egalitarians are sensing a new breeze beginning to blow as they take their Sunday strolls through the park…

Comments

[Amanda]

As I remember us all staying up into the night writing for the blog on the Taj trip, I realise I am glad to be on the reading end of a blog this time. But not just for that reason. I am enjoying yr blog already - witty, descriptive, informative AND interesting to boot. Think I may be a regular visitor.

[Sarah Filbey]

Great to see you are keeping a blog and will look forward to discovering more of Mexico through your eyes Johnnie. Five minutes well spent not least as I’ve been meaning to watch The Long Kiss Goodnight for a while now and I’ve just saved myself a few precious hours having learnt that A History of Violence (which I found pretty dire myself) is in fact the superior of the two.

[Steven Buckley]

Hey Johnny - sat here on a wet Thursday morning in London wondering about our own 'blinkered prioritisations'...

Heh ho - echo Amanda and Sarah's comments. Great to read your first entry and look forward to reading many more.

Steven

[Holly Ellson]

You're funny! In a good way, obviously. It will be sad for us when you start getting a social life and spending less time on the computer writing funny blogs, so, for the sake of your art, perhaps you could cultivate reclusivity for the duration of your sombrero secondment?

[Fili Rojo]

Hola, Johnny

No puedo creer que ya estes en el D.F. ! Voy a seguir tu blog, obviamente. Me trae recuerdos de mi ninez cuando creci en esa immensa ciudad. Mi consejo: cuidate, come tortillitas en la puerta de la Catedral y anda a la casa de Diego Rivera y Frida Khalo.

Saludos,
Fili

[Tom Burke]

Johnny, Johnny, Johnny. Well. You do get around don't you!

I always 'bump' into you in odd places. As one of 'your' kids (back in the the SCUK days) the (and this sounds very jet set...if only they knew) a restaurant in Paris. Then today I would be innocently reading the web and up you come - scarry.

Sounds like all is well! Glad to hear it. ¡Tenga un gran tiempo!

Tom B

[alessandra]

I like your description of Mexico City. I will read more of it. I love to travel but I don't have many opportunities to do it, so I like to read about other people experiences. Enjoy it.
Alessandra

[francisco]

Hi Johnny,
I'm actually from Mexico City and I'd be of the whiter kind I suppose eventhough my grandma was 100% Indigenous. I now live in the UK and whenever I make a new acquaintance I tell them I' from Mexico and the images that come to their mind are "poverty", "massive city" and "corruption". They are correct as you now know but their information is incomplete. I wish Mexico was more equal but that would have meant people like myself would be poorer, it is the same worldwide. The Mexican people's real treasure though is our sense of identity and humility. I'm sure you've found it already.
It is a long road of realisations for this wandering Mexican. Welcome to my city and my country.