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What to Make of Two Cities in Crisis
May 6, 2009
In the space of a year, your correspondent has been caught in two cities that have been faced with major challenges. The first was Houston, during hurricane Ike, and the second is Mexico City, during the current flu epidemic. Of course, the nature of the threat was very different in each case. But certain comparisons are apt. Most similar were people's attitudes. In both Houston and Mexico City, people showed stoic solidarity. Yes, there were some "panic" purchases (of medicines and groceries in Mexico and gasoline in Houston), but the communities were mostly rational and effectively self-organizing. A common humanity surfaced during the two crises that is reassuring.
In both Houston and Mexico City people obeyed the authorities with relatively few complaints. This despite the fact that, in both cases, there were circumstances that made reacting to the threat more difficult. Houston had seen the past four hurricanes turn away from the city at the last minute, making people a little more dismissive of the warnings than they should have been. Here, Chilangos have been frustrated by the open-ended nature of the threat. Even though contagion now seems to have levelled off, no one really knows when life will return 100% to normal.
One major difference is how the authorities participated in the emergency. In Texas, the police and the National Guard were agents of order and enforcement. In Mexico, the emphasis has been on "social" duties, such as handing out face masks. Houston immediately imposed a curfew on its citizens, while Mexico City relied mostly on self-imposed limits within general guidelines (such as the closing of food and entertainment venues). This highlights a major difference with respect to what people expect from their government. Americans want law and order; Mexicans want to be taken care of.
In the end, both natural disasters have left their mark. The picturesque port of Galveston has been disfigured, while Mexico will probably take years to recover the lost revenue from economic activity, in general, and tourism, in particular. But both Texans and Mexicans can be proud of the way they handled their respective crises. Tolstoy once noted that happy families are happy in the same way, but unhappy families are miserable in their own particular fashion. The same thing can be said of societies responding to a crisis which, in this case, means that both societies happily reacted in a similarly mature way.
Kudos and shame
Kudos to the mainstream media in the US; they did a great job with their measured reporting. They voiced people's concerns and analyzed the facts, but they refrained from taking cheap shots at Mexico and its government. Despite the fact that they asked about the possibility of closing the border, they accepted the even-handed facts-based analysis of their authorities with respect to the futility of trying to "quarantine" Mexico.
Not so the French. Shame on the Health Minister for boasting that France would have been much quicker than Mexico in responding to the epidemic. Apparently, the country that suffered over 15,000 deaths during a 2003 heat wave because health workers were on vacation thinks it can lecture the world on effective medical response times. Adding hysteria to insult, she badgered her EU counterparts to block flights to and from Mexico, despite the fact that the virus had already been identified in several European countries. Fortunately, reason prevailed over French posturing.
Shame also on the Cubans and the Argentines who, against the recommendations of the World Health Organization, blocked travel to Mexico. Compare that with the measured response of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, rejecting pressure from right wing Republicans to close the border (including former presidential candidate John McCain who, being from Arizona, should know better). This certainly highlights the emptiness of the "sister republic" rhetoric. Kudos to Americans, in general, and the Obama administration, in particular.
Lastly, Asia. What can one say about the region that has given us our last two pandemics? The Japanese imposed temporary visa restrictions (Mexicans do not normally require a visa to go to Japan), which is, perhaps, understandable. Nevertheless, it is the Chinese who take the shame cake. They quarantined an entire Aeromexico 777 in Shanghai and kept 71 Mexicans (who were asymptomatic) locked up, telling them they could return to Mexico on the 5th of May. In Hong Kong, they quarantined an entire hotel tower because there was one sniveling Mexican inside. Although most will see this as an isolated incident, in a larger sense it serves to remind the world that, no matter how much economic development there has been in China, it remains an unaccountable dictatorship with eratic emergency response mechanisms. Worryingly, they don't seem to have learned much since the SARS fiasco.
For the latest thought-provoking article by Agustin Barrios Gomez please go to our Opinion Column page
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