The Breakdown Of Social Cohesion

      A few days ago as I was exiting a warehouse, my truck filled with metal for a new door I encountered a blockade. Taxis and trucks and buses had the town completely sealed off.  At first I just opened the windows to lie down in the truck and wait until this inconvenience passed. I was somewhat comfortable listening to the taxi drivers banter. A few that were stuck with me complained but they were quickly shouted down. Anyone who dared speak up against the twenty or so taxis was berated for not supporting the "cause". That cause was to reverse the price hike in gasoline. So let me understand, I was thinking,, "you want to bring commerce to a standstill screwing all the buisness and all their employees so you can bring the government to its knees. The only people on their knees are the people in the pueblo you are raking over the coals". I am very sympathetic to many of the causes that taxi drivers undertake but this one seemed to punish the citizens."
     I lie in my truck trying to sleep it all off for three hours unaware of what was happening on the other side of town, when suddenly the taxis let a large electric company truck through and I followed him like a dog on a scent. By the time I reached the center of the town I could see hoardes of people robbing gas stations and stores. Young men on motorcycles like buzzing bees were weaving in and out between the cars laden with bags of purloined cigarettes and liquor. What I couldn't see was that this scene was repeating itself all over town. The police as usual were absent. I passed the two gas stations on the way to the hotel in which there were lines of people with jugs and in their cars robbing gas. A group of students had also stolen a tanker truck of gas and were distributing the liquid to any one who wanted it. I just kept moving on because crazy crowds scare the shit out of me and when I finally reached the hotel I locked the gate behind me. We have been closed for two days since. There are no customers anyway.  In other mexican states crowds have been looting gas stations and malls. The rampage is almost country wide looking like Oakland after Martin Luther King was shot,, people trucking refrigerators, tv's, telephones, liquor, and stereos out of stores. I always wonder seeing those images what is the attraction of those items anyway? I guess you need a refrigerator to store stolen Coca-Cola, a tv to watch yourself on the news, a telephone to post a selfie, and the liquor and stereo to party like The Masai before another hunt. I am writing this on sunday the 9th and everything is back to almost normal. I even was able to buy gas yesterday.

    I have been prompted to think about the ever increasing fragility of social cohesion in light of this past week which has seen protests and looting all over Mexico in reaction to "The Gasolinazo" or "Gas Price Punch in the Gut" by the government. Where has Mexico failed? There's a loaded question.

     
    Societal relationships influence the functioning of the state and contribute to its stability and long-term development. The State, if it is to flourish, must realize its role in promoting a healthy society. The underlying idea is that state and society are interdependent. The quality of this interdependence is what matters most. An authoritarian state like Mexico has been historically strong in maintaining a stasis quo, but weak in influencing positive social change. I think the need to "maintain" the former completely overshadows the latter. Lack of social cohesion is seen to contribute to local-level conflict, which may escalate into something far greater. This last week has seen a visible breakdown in the social cohesion of Mexico. However, this deterioration was inevitable and has been hiding itself  just beneath the surface for years. All that was necessary was a forum and the State delivered a blow in the form of higher gas prices that cracked the thinning national carapace. Out of this crack has come a flow of angry lava and an army of opportunist cucarachas. The Mexican State, since the Revolution has cultivated, a lack of trust for the government and a lack of trust between social classes. For years everyone seemed somewhat placated and able to get by due to Mexican perseverance and humor. The national capacity to bear burdens and laugh about it allowed society to move on,, but perseverence has its limits. When the limit is reached the population no longer follows the rules and mayhem becomes the norm. Someone once told me you can determine a lot about the nature of a society by studying its tax code. I think this is true and I believe that  social cohesion can also be a barometer of a state's effectiveness. Without the State's ability to  reinforce enfranchisement, address perceptions of injustice, reduce elite actions that discriminate, channel demands in society towards common goal, deliver the necessities like clean water, manage a fair system of transit which fosters mobility, prepare its people for rapid social changes in terms of access to technology, migration, and urbanization, and offer security where all these afore mentioned values can prosper,,, and this with the inclusion of all groups,, that society's cohesion will eventually fail. History says they all do. Purposeful blindness to the above necessities contributes to the undermining of social cohesion  and the increase in fragility. 

     The president of Mexico, Enrique Peña Nieto raised the price of gasoline claiming the government had finally set the national oil company, PEMEX free from government subsidies and restrictions. All according to plan. Now PEMEX could compete fairly on the world crude oil stage. No one was listening to any of the economic banter about the new formula for success except the part that said gas prices would rise by 20%. This sparked the road blockages across the country and led to widespread looting of not only gas stations but of stores by opportunistic thugs.So far small businesses have been mostly spared,, the anger taken out on larger chains and gas stations.
     I have been trying to research the "real" reason gas prices are so high and going higher in Mexico when the USA for instance pays half what we do. Mexico has always invented their own personal intramural crude oil market completely apart from anything happening in the world,, and PEMEX has been no more than another one of Mexico's several bloated unions. These unions were created by the government, chained fast to the seat of power in Mexico City, yet allowed to flourish in their personally tended gardens of corruption for years. So there you have it,, a giant post Aztec pyramid where all those connected worship at the altar of a cadre of strong arm political priests. And of course sacrifices must be made, but as in Aztec times they are taking those sacrifices from the PUEBLO.

     Mexico’s strong dependence on crude, which brings in around half of state revenue, the the profound corruption of this company-union, and all the accompanying baggage has left little money for new energy exploration projects. PEMEX is probably the least efficient oil company in the world. Nepotism and corruption for almost a century have made the cost of a barrel of mexican oil one of the most expensive in the world. Mexico in 2016 was importing 54% of its gas from elsewhere. More than 90 percent of Pemex’s investments go to maintaining current oil fields, with little money spent on exploring new wells. According to the mexican president Peña Nieto, Pemex’s new strategy will center on negotiations with private companies which will begin bidding this year for concessions at hundreds of oil fields across the nation. It's doubtful many outside companies will seek to enter a relationship with them. The trust level for making a lasting deal is very low. Although Pemex is a monopoly it is a highly ineffective organization that has been running losses for decades. These can be attributed to: (1) labor costs associated with union workers pensions (company has a $100 billion unfunded pension liability), (2) taxes (Pemex’s accounts for one-third of the federal government’s tax revenues), and (3) inefficient operations. 
     All the bullshit talk of PEMEX entering the competitive world have not flushed well with the population here. Here's my take on what is really happening. There is a tribe of elite technocrats in Mexico who think they have found a way to extricate the government from the sticky goo of PEMEX,,,, but not completely,,, like an excited  guy who pulls out at the last second his face engulfed in ecstasy ejaculating into the virgin air,,, and at the same time,, like they always do, the tecno tribe has realized this phony catering to capitalism can be just another bonanza for them as well. We are already seeing for the first time gas stations "other" than PEMEX. Chains like OXXO are selling gas in the north of the country. This is part of the so called energy reform, to invite the world in to sell gas to Mexicans,,, and the competition will just have to benefit the mexican community because that's just how capitalism works,, its nature is to make things cheaper. Maybe,, but there is a catch. Who will own those future gas stations? I think these stations will be licensed to friends within the political inner circle. PEMEX would have manage its own ship,, but in essence all gas imported into the country must still go through them. They will become an uneeded middleman helping to keep gas prices artificially high while the State still skims its taxes and all the friends of the inner circle will have a new opportunity to gain by owning a great part of the distribution system. The spin is no more government interference,, and that there will be real competition, and new faces on the gas delivery system, not tied to PEMEX,, This will lay onto our threshold, if of course, we are only patient, cheaper fuel. 
     Maybe Pemex will fail as a company,,, which I doubt the government would allow because they will be an integral part of a lucrative intramural system to cheat the public,,, and from which the State and its capon cronies will prosper. 
    I think I am seeing a glimpse of the future with the melting of social cohesion these last few days,, and if we add the Trump Effect,  well it will all be just one inclined plane towards Mad Max. Trump has used the Mexicans like Hitler used the Jews. Good way to get the masses to follow you is to create a boogey man. He is fanfaring, threatening to heavily tax car companies that build cars in Mexico,,, taking credit for saving American jobs against the bronze rapist enemy south of the border. Ironically most of the cars made in Mexico are sold here or elsewhere and not in the states. and many of the saved jobs aren't saved at all. But Trump persists berating Mexicans. I am certain at some point he will have some success in diminishing Mexican-American trade,, and more importantly investment in Mexico. You know a billion dollars in trade pass over the frontier each day,,, not counting drugs. Even a small percentage of that sum would affect either economy. The price of gas in Mexico has risen they say to be the most expensive in the world. Wages are some of the lowest. Trump's wall and possible deportations should animate Mexicans but not in the direction of social breakdown,,, in the direction of a boycott against imports from either the US or Canada?,,, yet the economies are bellybutton tied.