Notes from Mexico City
Your humble blogger has been off the grid the past few days because he was north of the Guatemalan border south of the Rio Grande the past few days as a (very happy) guest of the Mexican Foreign Ministry’s Matias Romero Institute. I was there to talk about economic powers and the G-20. A few ...
Your humble blogger has been off the grid the past few days because he was north of the Guatemalan border south of the Rio Grande the past few days as a (very happy) guest of the Mexican Foreign Ministry's Matias Romero Institute. I was there to talk about economic powers and the G-20.
Your humble blogger has been off the grid the past few days because he was north of the Guatemalan border south of the Rio Grande the past few days as a (very happy) guest of the Mexican Foreign Ministry’s Matias Romero Institute. I was there to talk about economic powers and the G-20.
A few random world politics and travel notes:
1) Let me add Mexico to the list of Civilized Countries Not Stupid Enough to Force Travelers to Remove Footwear Going Through Security. Hear that, TSA???!!!! This list is getting really friggin’ long, and I don’t see the United States anywhere on it!!!!
Sorry, I had to get that out of my system.
2) I’m a reasonably well-read guy, and tend to hang around with people who claim to be up on world politics. When I told these people that I was going to Mexico City, many gave me the long look and said something to the effect of "be very careful." Now, I understand that stories like this well lead to generalized concern about the entire country, but it really shouldn’t. True, there are certainly neighborhoods that one should avoid in Mexico’s capital. But this is also true of Washington, DC, and no one tells me to be careful going there.
In other words, I think the fears about Mexico City might be exaggerated in the US press.
3) I have now been in a real Mexico City traffic jam. I can safely say I don’t want to be in another one.
4) Mexico will be hosting the G-20 leaders summit in 2012, which will be interesting timing, to say the least. I had the good fortune to meet with some of the officials who will be managing the process, and I advised them to use the summit to announce their re-annexation of California let’s just say there’s some… uncertainty about how the G-20 will play out in the next few years.
5) It was pretty cool to discover that there are a robust number of zombie lovers in Mexzico.
More later when I catch up on the events of the day.
Daniel W. Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast. Twitter: @dandrezner
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