New Mexico Mercury

The New Normal

Because of our elected officials’ extreme polarization, important sectors of our nation closed down this morning. Government services not deemed to be essential have been forced to shut their doors. National parks and monuments have lines of cars stopped at their gates (many carrying visitors coming from halfway around the globe). Even some workers whose expertise guards our safety, such as a percentage of air traffic controllers, are off the job. More than 800,000 government workers have been furloughed without pay, with thousands more required to continue laboring, also without pay...

Counter-Ad to Diesel’s Affront to Muslim Women

Media Literacy Project was disturbed by Diesel’s ad featuring a white woman in a niqab with much of her body exposed and tattooed, reading, “I am not what I appear to be.” Yes, the ad affirmed that women in niqabs are diverse and interesting, but it also was an affront to Muslim women’s modesty and cast their bodies as exotic. It enticed people to look at Muslim women and wonder what’s beneath the clothes, which is the antithesis of what this everyday piece of clothing is intended to do. It took the power away from Muslim women and put the emphasis on their appearance...

Climate Whacks Mexico’s Economy

The twin blows of Hurricane Ingrid and Tropical Storm Manuel are jolting the Mexican economy. According to the federal Budget and Taxation Secretariat (SHCP), the storms will shave Mexico’s estimated 2013 growth rate from 1.8 percent to 1.7 percent. Federal officials expect growth to pick up pace during the fourth quarter of the year, but the latest downward indicators followed a series of previously announced reductions in the year’s projected economic growth rate, which plunged from 3.5 percent to 3.1 percent even before reaching a new low in the aftermath of September’s storms...

She Shoulda Said It Better

In her gold necklace, and $3000 red dress, the neatly coiffed New Mexico Secretary  of Human Services, Sidonie Squier knows a thing or two about hunger and poverty. Obviously, from her getup, we know Squier knows the feeling when the growling stomach bumps up against the spine, the hands tremble uncontrollably and thinking is a dull haze. Obviously, Squier knows the dread of staring into your own child’s eyes and seeking an apology, some remorse, some explanation because there is nothing to eat in the house..

With All Our Sun and Wind, Why Isn’t New Mexico Number One?

The extent to which the fossil fuel industry’s powerful lobbies have New Mexico’s vision of its future in their thrall can best be seen in a head-shaking omission. New Mexico is not competing to be the solar and wind power capital of the world. And we all can guess why.

It’s not about the price of technologies, not about batteries, not about the “intermittency” of wind and solar sources. These matters are handily dismissed by money, incentives, legislative will, and executive vision. It’s all about who will lose money from transitioning to renewable energy and who won’t...

Provincial Matters, 9-30-2013

V.B. Price's weekly collection of appreciations and observations.

Let them eat tortillas

Mercury Musings

Voting in the ABQ City Election Requires Your Provide an ID

When you go to vote in the upcoming municipal election, be sure to bring an ID with you. There is a lot of confusion out there about the procedure, but city elections require you bring a form of ID to the poll with you (driver’s license, student ID, credit card.)

Here’s how this came about...

Insight New Mexico - Fred Harris

V.B. Price talks with former U.S. Senator and presidential candidate Fred Harris about immigration reform and "economic democracy."

The Mexican Uprising Deepens

Less than one year after taking office, the administration of Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto faces serious challenges to its core policies. Leading the opposition are tens of thousands of public school teachers protesting the new No Child Left Behind-like law they contend will cost jobs,  aggravate educational inequities and lead to privatization.

The protest, which counts months now, is expanding in both scope and participation and more and more assuming the character of a multi-issue popular movement...