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Hiroshima! Every time I think of that city I remember MAJOR (a character in Sura-de-Taylor). Sura-deTalor was a weekly comedy programmed on NTA in those days. It was MAJOR who said “ women are like Hiroshima on whom all new beating techniques must be practiced”. I do not share or support such views, but that statement describes, in some measure the level of destruction caused to that city by an atomic bomb. Hiroshima is in Japan and according to available records that country has been turned around to become one of the powerful and prosperous nations in the world today. For the sake of emphasis, available records also show that until 1978 China was a country largely populated by poor and wretched peasants. Today she is a giant and her road to success began with the reform of the agricultural sector of her economy. This piece is neither about Japan nor China. It is about Mexico. However, these three countries have gone through what we are facing in Nigeria today and they have come out not only to overcome their problems through the application of homegrown solutions but have also metamorphosed into world leaders. MEXICO According to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, Mexico City (Spanish: Ciudad de México) is the name of a megacity located in the Valley of Mexico (Valle de México), a large valley in the high plateaus (altiplano) in the South of Mexico, about 2,240 meters (7,349 feet) above sea-level, surrounded on most sides by volcanoes towering at 4,000 to 5,500 meters (13,000 to The municipality was abolished in 1928, and the name "Mexico City 18,000 feet) above sea-level Mexico City was originally a municipality founded in 1521 by Cortés. Mexico City, with its distinct mestizo culture, blending native Indian (Nahuatl) and Spanish heritages, has in recent decades become one of the great financial, economic, educational, cultural, and tourist centers of the world. In 1997 Mexico City was allowed for the first time to elect its own mayor, which previously has been selected by the president. That same year Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas was elected chief of government of the city. Urban Problems - As one of the largest urban areas in the world, Mexico City suffers from no shortage of the problems common to many large cities, including traffic, poverty, and pollution. This is perhaps exacerbated by Mexico's developing country status. This city has a high number of street children; some estimate as many as 50,000. The mountains and volcanoes surrounding the city trap polluted air in the city and contribute to the city's serious problem with poor air quality, although major strides have been made to improve the pollution situation in the past 20 years. Violent crime is also a major concern; in 2003 Mexico had the second-highest number of kidnappings in the world, with some 3,000 reported cases. In taxis, a particular problem has arisen; individuals are sometimes kidnapped by unauthorized taxi drivers, in order to empty their bank accounts at ATMs. Victims are sometimes kept overnight in order to bypass daily withdrawal limits. Inside other transportation, mostly microbuses, pickpocketing is still a common activity, and Mexico City inhabitants take various levels of precaution to avoid being victims of this. Police reform has also been a focus of the government for the past decade; there is a general sense of distrust against the authorities, as conventional wisdom holds that all Mexico's police forces are corrupt one way or another. This issue came to a head in November 2004, when an angry crowd in Tláhuac allowed themselves to be whipped up into a frenzy by the local criminal elements and burned two undercover police officers alive [1] and seriously injured another, on rumors that they were child kidnappers. CUANDO SEAS MIA - WHEN YOU ARE MINE I have never been to Mexico City. For me Mexico starts and ends with CUANDO SEAS MIA – WHEN YOU ARE MINE. This very popular soap opera has been on the Nigerian airwaves for about six months now. Until recently, the soap was to me, and perhaps several other people the love story between Diego and Paloma with side attractions involving the treacherous Sanchez Sambrano women and Fabian, Miguel (the tramp) and the nauseating Bernice. At a point I lost interest in the love story due to the inconsistencies in the personality traits of the main characters and the unnecessary delays by the scriptwriter just to elongate the duration of the soap. I was almost giving up on the programme when something hit me. I discovered that one word was repeatedly uttered yet it was not noticed. It is amazing that a word could be frequently used yet remain unnoticed. That word is COFFEE. It then dawned on me that what I have been watching with so much dedication for over 24weeks was indeed the story of coffee. As far as I am concerned, Cuando Seas Mia is a mega advertising campaign for coffee wrapped around a love story. The Soap turned out to be a research material on coffee – from cultivation to exportation. It tells us about the cultivation of coffee, the different types of coffee bean, the coffee planting seasons, the atmospheric and weather conditions under which coffee can be cultivated, the regions in which coffee can be cultivated, the deadly effects of virus (sounds mudu) and their control etc. It also tells us about the methods for harvesting coffee, storage, activities at the thresher, the processing into powder, the packaging, exportation and the trading of the commodity on the stock exchange (commodity exchange). That is not all. The effect of coffee on the intellect and personality was also revealed. And most importantly, coffee was linked to love and romance. Can you beat that? For us as students in those days, coffee was just a beverage to take so as to stay awake all night to read. Also revealed were the structures put in place for the marketing, promotion and advertisement of coffee both locally and internationally. The establishment of the Mexican Coffee Council by the government to assist coffee producers and marketers, the attitude and passion of the staff of the Council are things that Nigerians can learn a lot from. And thanks to Mr. Mariano Sans, we were educated on the history of coffee, the legends surrounding coffee and the beans, the link between coffee and love and the various research materials and books on coffee. I have not checked but it is not impossible that the price of and the demand for coffee would have increased worldwide with the coming of this Soap. PAUSE Honestly, I just have to pause here to look at my country in the light of the new knowledge I acquired as a result of watching this Soap. What is happening to our agricultural sector? Do we have any agricultural produce that we can market to the world? Just one. Do we have structures at the private and public level that can compete with El –Cafetalero and the Mexican Coffee Council? What happened to the Commodity Exchange (COMEX) that was to be introduced in Nigeria about 10years ago? The excellent collaboration between the Ministry of Agriculture and the Mexican Coffee Council is something that Nigerians can learn a lot from If China started the move to economic prosperity in 1978(a time when one dollar was 80kobo) what is responsible for our regression? The oft-repeated answer of “government” will be a lazy man’s response given the fact that even in Mexico “In 1997 Mexico City was allowed for the first time to elect its own mayor, which previously has been selected by the president.” Mexico and other successful countries of the world have their fair share of urban, natural and other problems, how come they are progressing and we are not? In the area of creative arts, Cuando Seas Mia has brought something positive to the world, what do we take to the world via our home videos and movies - witchcraft, 419, prostitution, incantations and all the negative aspects of our culture and environment? Can someone start to reform the films and home video sector? The negative messages from our home videos create negative spirituality, which affect the way we think and see the world. So can we go to Mexico to learn a few things about how to make a nation successful? And by we, I mean both the leaders and the followers. While thanking the sponsors for bringing the programme to Nigeria, I wonder why Nescafe, Nestle and other companies in the food and beverages sector did not advertise on the programme. Thanks for having read this article,
Comments are welcome and can be forwarded to tanibaba@yahoo.com or tanibaba@nigeriavillagesquare.com
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Posted by Robot| 24.03.2006 12:48