"Sus drogas, nuestros muertos", por Enrique Krauze

Comparto el gusto y honor de que en su columna de ayer en los periódicos El Norte, Reforma y Mural Enrique Krauze se haya referido a una conversación que tuvimos:

"En México hemos sido malos vendedores de nuestros atractivos y aún peores vendedores de nuestras desgracias, sobre todo si provienen principalmente -como es el caso de la criminalidad asociada a las drogas- de los Estados Unidos. Ignoro si los cursis promocionales de "Vive México" que aparecen de vez en cuando en revistas como The New Yorker tengan el efecto de mejorar nuestra imagen, o si leyéndolos el americano decida recorrer nuestras playas y tesoros históricos. De lo que sí estoy convencido es de nuestra incapacidad para llegar al gran público americano con mensajes que lo concienticen del terrible daño que sus enfermedades sociales están causando en México.

Hablo de llegar al público americano, no sólo a sus poderes. Para tratar sobre nuestra compleja agenda bilateral (dominada ahora por el problema del crimen organizado) el Presidente ve al Presidente, los congresistas ven de vez en cuando a los congresistas, la embajada y los consulados hacen su trabajo. Pero para "vender" una imagen rica, compleja, profunda de México y para admitir nuestras faltas deslindando las responsabilidades propias y ajenas, se necesita apelar directamente al gran público americano que, después de todo, es el poder tras los alcaldes, representantes, gobernadores y presidentes. Y esa apelación no le corresponde sólo al gobierno federal, a los gobiernos de los estados en la frontera o al Congreso: para ser creíble y legítima, la apelación debe ser de sociedad a sociedad.

Tratándose de nuestros problemas, varios amigos norteamericanos me han expresado su extrañeza sobre la falta de una acción consistente y eficaz por parte de los medios y empresarios mexicanos -es decir, del sector fuerte de la sociedad- para propagar la responsabilidad estadounidense en la criminalidad asociada al narco. El periodista y novelista Pete Hamill, gran amigo de México, me señaló ciertas vías jurídicas que cabría explorar en el derecho internacional. Una famosa periodista del Wall Street Journal, de quien uno podría esperar una opinión conservadora, me dijo, genuinamente preocupada: "soy conservadora pero tengo responsabilidad social y por eso me duele mucho el modo en que nuestros males están destruyendo a tu hermoso país". Ante ese panorama, mi joven amigo Enrique G. de la G. me propuso una idea para concientizar a los americanos: hacerles ver, de la manera más gráfica posible, la relación que existe entre sus inhalaciones y nuestros muertos.

Esa idea puede concretarse de varias maneras. El Consejo de la Comunicación (que se anuncia como la "voz de las empresas") o, mejor aún, el Consejo Coordinador Empresarial o, mejor aún, el Consejo Mexicano de Hombres de Negocios (que representan a varias empresas con fuerte presencia en Estados Unidos) podrían convocar a un concurso entre las agencias de publicidad para crear el promocional alrededor del concepto: "de la línea de cocaína a la línea de fuego", o algo similar. Ese concurso podría también ser un certamen abierto a creadores independientes. El producto puede ser actuado o animado. Los promocionales ganadores se trasmitirían en la televisión estadounidense, sobre todo en canales masivos de habla inglesa. El costo correría por cuenta de las grandes empresas mexicanas. Y si lo toman las redes sociales, el éxito de penetración estaría asegurado.

Una variación mucho más ambiciosa sería que los medios de comunicación masiva o los productores cinematográficos se lancen a realizar una película-documental similar a Una verdad incómoda, de Al Gore. Su tema podría ser más amplio: drogas, armas, migrantes. Requeriría de un gran presupuesto, pero lo que sobra ahora en México es talento: directores, fotógrafos, guionistas. No podemos esperar que el gobierno se embarque en un proyecto así: no tendría la capacidad ni la credibilidad para hacerlo. Se necesita que las empresas y los medios vinculadas a la sociedad civil y a los creadores asuman el liderazgo de ese cabildeo directo con el público americano. Obras así cambian la conciencia de los pueblos".

Póster en tercera dimensión de Ersin Han Ersin (2009)

Good mood: Doisneau, Alex Levac

I heard (read) about the Tel Aviv photographer Alex Levac recently thanks to a post on Lens. He has a witty eye to capture funny events of daily Israeli life. I don't like that much his color work, rather prefer the black and white shoots, some of them remind me of Robert Doisneau.

Robert Doisneau, Un regard oblique (1948)

Alex Levac, Via Dolorosa (2009)

Robert Doisneau, Pipi Pigeon (1964)

Alex Levac, Jerusalem (2000)

On the street: Tel Aviv, Bogotá

Alex Levac, Ayalon Highway (2003)

Enrique G de la G, Carrera 10 - Bogotá (2009)

J.M. Coetzee dixit

"Well, that is what you risk when you fall in love. You risk losing your dignity".

"I wanted our relationship to grow and develop, [s]he wanted it to remain the same, without change. That was what caused the breach, in the end. Because between a man and a woman there is no standing still, in my view. Either you are going up or you are going down".

Summertime, pp. 185, 240

Void

I am in the middle of something quite important, so this SehLoft will be empty the next two weeks or so.

See you later...

Phillip Toledano

Hand on hand: Mitterrand, Cahun

There is this interesting discussion on "Touch" by Raphaël Enthoven, where he talks about feeling the touch of one hand on the other as different from the hand being touched, although both hands belong to the same person. He uses the example of François Mitterrand, which reminds me of this picture by another French, Claude Cahun.

Claude Cahun, Sans titre (1936)

Gelatin

Watch this slow motion video of a jelly falling down, waking up, dancing, combing its messy hair, stretching his legs and neck, making itself prettier.

Hugo Hiriart has written the most beautiful words about a jelly:

"Permítaseme expresar una ley humana (no más falsa y controvertible que muchas otras): todo lo que es ambiguo, equívoco, anfibológico nos produce inquietud, asco, asombro, aversión y hasta terror. La gelatina anaranjada detenida entre el sólido y el líquido, que va y viene como un ponto secretamente atado y secretamente libre, palpitante y trémula, esa materia dudosa que atarea más allá de toda esperanza las manos que quieren atraparla, monstruo remiso al vaso y a la cuchara e indócil al modelado y a la caricia, perdurable vuelo de acróbata, Babel de la solidez, hueso alimenticio y baile de máscaras es la histeria de las construcciones. ¿Quién no ha soñado que una gelatina lo traga y asimila? Cuando sepultamos la cuchara en la gelatina de leche, ¿quién recoge a quién? Todo por andar queriendo ser dos cosas a la vez.

Girly kicker

I want this kicker and I want it now.

 René de Sein, Barbie (2009)

Skin: Jean-Léon Gérôme, Photoshop

There is this famous ad by Dove where a not-that-pretty girl turns stunning thanks to make up and, mostly, to Photoshop.

When you see ads of make up or creams or this sort of things for female customers, you wonder what are they really advertising: A powerful cream or a new software for manipulating pictures? Don't you prefer a girl with skin and pores rather than a plastic Barbie?

 Yael Sandler

Hilary Rhoda

I was thinking about that two months ago when I visited a magnificent exhibition on Jean-Léon Gérôme in Thyssen-Bornemisza. For the sake of perfect and idealized beauty, Gérôme used to paint girls without pores, as if their skin was made of ceramic. The paintings are stunningly beautiful, but this use of skin is mean.

Jean-Léon Gérôme, Femme nue (1889)

Today, it is Gérôme's 187th birthday. Go to the exhibition if you are in Madrid.

Geronimo

Geronimo was an Apache Indian born in Mexican soil (today, New Mexico) around 1829. In 1858, the Mexican army killed his family and he started a revenge campaign, which led him to kill "many Mexicans":

"I have killed many Mexicans; I do not know how many, for frequently I did not count them. Some of them were not worth counting. It has been a long time since then, but still I have no love for the Mexicans. With me they were always treacherous and malicious".

The name of the military operation that killed Osama bin Laden  ("Geronimo") suggests that it was all about Revenge, not about Justice.

Bad for Obama!

From a democratic Rechtsstaat such as USA we all expect a trial, not a bullet.

Violence in Mexico

I was invited this week to a radio program based in Berlin to talk about the violence in Mexico, specially for journalists. Just a teaser: since the year 2000, 141 journalists have been killed. Half of them (71) were killed in Mexico, the country with the most endangered freedom of speech.

The long conversation was edited and shortened. In the first part (until 5:39) of the clip you can listen a report about a local police project in Guerrero (Acapulco's region). In the second part (starting at 5:40), my point of view about the current situation in my country. If you are interested, listen to it (in Spanish).

Available also here.

Design: Alejandro Moncada

Über die Körpersprache

Julia hat mal geschrieben:

"Und dieser Punkt, dass ich immer ziemlich schnell wußte, ob eine Frau was von meinem Ex will oder nicht, war auch ein Streitthema in der Beziehung. Es ist nicht zu glauben, wie dumm Männer in der Hinsicht so oft sind. Auf der anderen Seite sind Männer sehr von sich überzeugt und werten alles mögliche als Signale der Frau, welche aber gar keine Signale sind. Und echte Signale der Frau übersehen sie manchmal schlicht und einfach völlig.

Dieser Zustand ist wohl dem Umstand geschuldet, dass Frauen eine breit gefächerte Körpersprache haben als Männer meiner Ansicht nach".

Seen in Aarhus

Earlier this week, I had a blitz trip to Denmark, and since I had a couple of free hours in Aarhus, I did a stroll through the city. I was amazed by the colors of the buildings, something completely odd to Germany architecture -- excepting Hundertwasser and Bauhaus.

In any case, very close to the cathedral, right in downtown, I saw a small, charming street with an underground cinema and few people talking and drinking beer. I was tempted to get in, but preferred to walk a bit more. And then I saw this strange concept: Sex Bio.

After doing a brief Google search I found a post + picture from some Danish girl. She wrote:

Line Tscherning, Paradis? (2004)

"This was taken in a street near my building called "Paradisgade" translates into "Paradise Street". It has the smallest and nicest cinemas, which is combined with a place called "the last cafe", actually more of a discoteque but it's the one that stays open the longest in the morning, it,s the sign in the middleground that adverts these two places. As you have probably noticed it also has a sex bio, combined with a sextoy shop, the sextoys are dispalyed in the window behind bars in the foreground. I took this shot the day after I was stopped by the police and given a ticket for not having lights on my bike, going through this street, I was pretty upset, since right next door the cabins of the sexshop are used by prostitutes, and about 200 metres away there's a guy pushing everything from cocaine to lighthergas - But oh no, the lawabiding citizen with no light on her bike was much more important :o) I think that experience explains the green tone making this look like a rather unpleasent place, even though it is a very nice street :o)"
 

Casablanca

Told to Rick:

"When it comes to women, you are a true democrat".

Lamps: Julius Shulman, Pixar

Julius Shulman, Photo Lamps (1976)

Pixar, Luxor Jr. (1986)

 

Paris: Marianne Breslauer, Enrique G de la G

Marianne Breslauer, La cigarette (1929)

Enrique G de la G, Le vélo (2009)

Obama is ridiculous: Vengeance is not Justice

What Obama did with his almost namesake Obama is just ridiculous:

1. USA is, supposedly, a Rechtsstaat, where Law and Justice have found their place. As any other criminal, Osama also deserved a trial. That is exactly why the Law has been established for and what distinguishes a State from a criminal.

2. A historic opportunity has been thrown away. Have a look at the Nürnberger processes or the Eichmann trial in Israel. A trial for Osama would had been a milestone in International Judicial Law, but Obama let the chance slip away stupidly, taking care just of his popularity and reelection. What astonishes me the most is the lack of Tradition and History of the Americans (in Germany we are hyper-sensible to History): the 'move-on' mentality is unidimensional.

3. The Intelligence was obtained in Guantánamo. Through torture? Most probably. Seems that the CIA is rather unable to know as much as they wish and follow the right threads by means of... intelligence.

4. Osama's body was sunk in the middle of the Ocean. New abuse. Getting rid of the proof is the most coward (but effective, given) way of disappearing a problem.

4. Should the Nobel Committee take back Obama's Peace Nobel Prize "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples"? I wrote already that he didn't even deserve it, so the least thing they should do is, yes, take it back and admit an error or a political failure.

5. The White House conducted a show for VIP people in the Situation Office: the chase of "Geronimo", a criminal who was shot "at the head", as the USA likes to insist. Osama had no weapons, but was dead shot. The only woman in the Office, Hilary Clinton, is shocked, as we all are.

6. Yes, a Mexican belongs to the elite group that killed Osama. Right. But no, that won't tear down the Wall dividing Mexico and USA. Bad PR stunt. And it was a terrible joke to visit the soldier's family with a wrapped flag. 'Your son is not dead, he rather killed Osama', the officials told the parents when they panicked. An even worse PR stunt.

7. No, Osama is not Hitler. Both were mass murders, bastards, but there is still a big difference between a terrorist who killed thousands of innocent people and the leader of the Nazis, responsible for a campaign of exterminating millions of innocent people. Wrong cover by TIME magazine.

8. A friend text me from California telling me how people went out to the streets and celebrated as if the national team had won an important soccer match. I thought this was possible only among the Pejistas in Mexico, but now I take it that our way of expressing the strongest social emotions became soccerized thanks to the effort of the FIFA.

9. I have not had any lost due to al Qaeda or terrorism, or even criminality. But my ex ex had left her hotel that morning of September 11 and was heading to the World Trade Center. In March 2004, I decided the night before not to go by train to Madrid, but by bus, when the bombs exploded. For me, that day, March 11, has been one of the most terrible ever. Couple of years later, I was sitting on a train in Germany: heading the opposite direction, bombs by al Qaeda had been found couple of hours before. This is the closest I have been to terrorism, and I am not interested in getting any closer.

10. Leaders as Obama and USA should show more respect to democratic institutions and laws. George Bush did not obey the UNO and attacked Iraq in 2003, together with Tony Blair. Now this... how to call it? State murder?

11. Lastly, I think that the use of the word "War" should be internationally regulated. To name certain campaigns as "War" -- think of Bush's War on Terror or the so called Mexican Drug War -- is a scam, which leads to a dangerous escalation of violence and, as we just saw, to the disrespect of the Law.