New Year, New Resolution

Though I largely don't believe in the resolutions around such a blurry time of the year, my main one - a repeat - is to read and write more. This means writing outside of endless emails and formal articles or radio scripts (which I also hope to continue writing lots of), and not just reading endless online news about Mexico and the region: books. In the 6 days so far, this has been going okay.

Tied to this is a sincere attempt to get back to blogging, even though it seemed a somewhat dying art form in 2011.

Speaking of which, this is a short piece I wrote for Monocle about the Mexican presidential race falling in 2012. It also aired on Monocle's radio station Monocle 24, but the audio part does not get archived. Full text here:

Twelve years after Y2K proved to be just a number, doomsdayers are getting another kick at the apocalyptic can. Mayan calendars famously mark 21 December 2012 as the end-of-days. Though scholars almost unanimously decry this as a misreading of such almanacs, the topic continues to garner interest.

With Mexico’s 1 July election looming, one small group has similar ideas of walking down their own 2012 dead end. Two main candidates now hope to woo their way to Mexico’s presidency. The winner faces the immense challenge of cleaning up a country marred with widespread corruption and impunity amidst a grotesque and violent drug war...