BACK TO “THE IDEA”
I look at Mexico from the outside....Is a “failed democracy” to much to say these days?
After years and years of hard-earned reform, would I be the only Mexican living abroad crazy enough to think of our sad state of affairs as such?
I think not. And I’d much rather think that Mexico is not alone in this era of stagnation and failed democracies -- or should I say “mediocrities”?
No, we’re not alone... In fact, to think of it, we haven’t been alone.
In fact, in past centuries, some of today’s emerging cultures and economies were facing the same horrible virus, which tore at the fabric of their society, like a murderous knife.
As Fareed Sakaria comments in his most recent book, The Post-American World,
“In China, rich merchants would abandon their business to master Confucian classics so that they could become favorites of the court…The Hindu worldview….‘a vision of endless cycles of creation and reabsorbtion into the divine [led] to the passivity and skepticism about the value of practical action.”
And in stark contrast to the above examples and today’s reality, “Arabia” was once a thriving hub of ideas and progress. Mr. Zakaria goes on to say, “The Arab world was once the center of science and trade. In recent decades, its chief exports have been oil and Islamic fundamentalism. Any cultural argument must be able to explain both periods of success and periods of failure.”
“Periods of failure”…
So what can we say of Mexico, today?
To answer that question, I believe we need not look past the surface at what’s coming from within. For, in this era of global trade and seamless connectivity, every country can be judged not only by what it produces, but also by the ideas it exports.
From that perspective -- beer, tequila and tacos aside -- there is little to make a Mexican proud, in this generation.
I must be exaggerating, right? Perhaps just a bit.
But think of it this way: for the last 50 years, while the USA– in spite of all it’s shortcomings and mistakes -- has exported the ideas of Democracy, Capitalism and Free enterprise, along with Microsoft, fast food, the NBA, Nike, Citibank and Boeing, far and wide…and while South Korea, Japan, India and China have been focusing on exporting video games, mobile phones, martial arts, digital pop-culture, flat-screen tvs, eco-cars, alternative energy, Bollywood, and chopsticks to both the developed & developing world, Mexico appears content on exporting people, alcohol, and drugs.
*Futbol is a no- no, as Mexican superiority in the CONCACAF is no longer a fact of life.
People, alcohol and drugs…
These, in turn, just happen to be the ingredients of Mexico’s supreme export, the concept of “Fiesta”: a wonderful and holistic concept – but only for those lucky millionaires with nothing to worry about, except their next vacation to the Maldives or the Sahara.
But this very idea of “Fiesta” is precisely a reflection of the “something” which has, for decades, failed to make Mexico a prosperous and progressive nation.
The Mexican Fiesta.
No one denies the blizz of a Mex party, but, in today’s Mexico, it’s this perpetual celebration of “something” which tears at the fabric of our society. It has weakened our mind & the spirit, and left us vulnerable to the onslaught of intellectual and social competition.
The Mexican Fiesta.
It helps us forget how much we’ve lost, how much we’ve missed, and how much we’ve fallen behind those countries which we used to be so comfortably ahead off only 30, 20, or even 10 years ago.
And now, as us 30-year-olds step out of young-adulthood and into the prime of our lives, we come to a cross-road. A fork in the road, with the same old “fiesta” in one end, and the discovery a “something else” on the other. A no-brainer for a disciplined and diligent Chinese, perhaps – but if you’re Mexican, you’d be lying if you said it’s an easy decision to make.
We’re at the cross-roads of our lives.
Our elders once chose, and I have a feeling they somehow chose erroneously. Or at least, somewhere along the road, they decided to turn back.
This time, it’s our turn.
Our turn to step up to the plate, to start the engine, to take the penalty-kick, and, perhaps, sail in another direction, away from the fiesta… into a more productive and prosperous destination which implies DOING, SACRIFICING, and THINKING -- out of the box.
And make no mistake about it, I’m not denying “lo bueno”:
Tacos, El Santo, Artesanias, Mezcal, Zarapes, Playita y Palmeras…that’s all well-intended. But rather than dwelling on the ordinary and the usual, wouldn’t we like to produce and export part of “the future”?
Before we press the button, we can begin by asking ourselves who we are…What we as global Mexicans want to nourish and produce… What are these new ideas and products we’d like to export to the world? Rather than alcohol, drugs, fiesta, and the “fake freedom” we project across our borders, wouldn’t we like, for instance, to export nano-technology, green energy, healthy snacks, or space-station components?
If so, how do we go from the feeble 3rd world Mexico of today to the honorable and respected 1stClass Mexico of tomorrow?
Let’s focus on that question.
Before we march into our destiny, let’s chase, capture and harbour that idea!!
I’d like to end today’s reflection with a powerful message from an ordinary man with an extraordinary vision about our world. A vision that, in many ways, spills over into our life in China, in England, in Dubai, in Tokyo, in Paris, in Mexico, or anywhere in the world where we’re struggling to make sense out of the “ugly-mess” Mexico has become. It’s a vision that could hold part of the solution for those of us who’ve been asking ourselves, for so long, how in the world to bring dignity back to Mexico.
Because in order to beat “la fiesta, in order to beat “Carlos Slim”, in order to beat “los Narcos”, in order to beat our own “mediocridad”, it’s gonna take more than a speech by Calderon, more than a hefty donation from an honorable foundation, more than a march down Avenida Reforma…it’s going to take ideas…strong, innovative and powerful ideas!
“It takes 20 years to change a culture... In the last 20 years we’ve made 'dumb' sexy…in the next 20 years we need to make 'smart' sexy again. We need to make dignity sexy, we need to make being a global citizen sexy…we need to flip the script. It takes 20 years to change a culture… we can create laws and rules…but there’s been greed since the beginning of time, what’s gonna change is US… What do we believe? What do we stand for?...In many ways this generation has failed…[but]what do the next 20 years look like? And what are we teaching? What do we stand for?...
It’s the power of the idea…Bill Gates didn’t wake up one day and say ‘I wanna be rich and powerful’…Steve Jobs…[Richard] Branson...Archbishop [Tutu]…Operah Winfrey said “I got an idea! I got an idea!!!”...we have to get back to the power of the idea. The idea is that WE ARE GREAT, and everybody can be GREAT because everybody can serve.”
John Bryant (Davos, 2009)
Monday, April 20, 2009
Friday, April 10, 2009
A proposal for building a flat Mexico and connect it to the world
Guangdong, April 9th 2009.- For so long, analysts, commentators, business leaders and government officials at both the domestic and international levels have presented recipes on how to fix development countries economic, social and political tribulations. The IMF and the World Bank have emphasized the importance of liberalizing the markets and the developed countries have stressed the overall benefits democratization brings about. Although those basic policies and reforms have an unquestionable positive value, its relative application has failed so far to get most of the developing world out of poverty, inequality, corruption and low growth rates. The challenges developing countries such as Mexico are experiencing are complex in nature and probably the time has come for thinking on new ways of fixing them.
Hereby I want to present a personal proposal –what I call a manifesto for this blog- on a new way to energize Mexico and put it at work for the 21st century. My proposal consists of two elements for operating a miracle:
a) We need to make Mexico a truly flat country in terms of the flow of information. I don’t have any statistical at hand but it seems to me that Mexico hasn’t truly taken advantage of all the benefits of the information technology revolution. Therefore making a Mexico a real flat country in terms of the usage of the Internet would make the country, its citizens and its companies more productive and more connected to the corners of the world more innovative and progressive.
b) Secondly, more information about Mexico, about its human and natural resources, its companies, its entrepreneurs, its government and the way they operate, needs to flow to the rest of the world. It’s true that information about Mexico abounds. The US government as well as European countries or Japan are probably very knowledgeable about Mexico, but there’s still a huge amount of information about Mexican industries, enterprises, regulations, government bodies that are not well systematized and presented to the rest of the world. It’s my belief that if we organize all the information available in Mexico, we would be able to attire the best of the world into Mexico. One requirement of this constant presentation of Mexico to the world would be channeling this information to key players in the global economy as well as to international “valves” such as strategic consultants or venture capitalists. If we get to do this, our chance of calling the attention of the world into Mexico would be dramatically increased.
I believe this is one of the most important missions this generation of Mexicans can bear. This double mission of flattening Mexico and connecting it to the best of the world doesn’t sound as heroic or as glorious as other historical movements, but its impact can be much stronger.
The impediments for a flattened Mexico
Most of Mexicans would agree that the greatest obstacle for building a flattened Mexico is the high Internet costs that the monopoly Telmex, the corporation of the famous Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, imposes on Mexicans. Therefore, our best way for celebrating the 200th anniversary of Mexican independence would be doing something to break this monopoly and giving the chance to more people in Mexico to go on line.
But this is not the only hurdle a new flattened Mexico encounters. One more, also very important, is that Mexicans have not exploited the Internet at its full potential. It’s really amazing the information you can get on the websites of the Mexican government, companies and institutions. There is a network of government departments whose websites contain valuable and well organized information that if fully employed economically or politically really can do something for changing Mexico. Just to name one example, the INEGI (National Institute of Statistics, Geography and Information www.inegi.org.mx ) contain tons of information about Mexico, its resources, its social and economic organization and its trends. It also contains links to Mexicans that are on the ground dealing with mining, fisheries, education, etc, all the elements for erecting a virtuous cycle for the exchange of information and, more importantly, action.
It’s worth to mention also the existence of a new set of laws and regulations of transparency and the right of citizens to information that the Federal Government of Mexico has approved over the last few years. Now if you send an email to a Mexican government official, he has the Constitutional obligation to answer your questions, otherwise you have the right to sue them. This same transparency is also present at the Mexican political parties, Congress, NGO’s and corporations, who have created websites where you can find email address of legislators, researchers and so on.
If we Mexicans want to enjoy the supposed benefits of our democratic system, we need, first of all, to test our democracy through the empowerment of the Mexicans citizens with information and the possibility to communicate with decision- makers. Therefore in this new era, Mexicans concerned about our state of affairs need to be cybercitizens of this virtual world where there are no borders and which is open, by the force of the law, for everybody to asking everything.
One of the most ambitious and aggressive missions we can have as a generation would be playing in this new virtual board and transmitting our ideas for change to all the Mexican decision-makers that are already connected to the Internet.
Contributing to build a flat Mexico is now one of my main missions and I assign to this blog this as one of its main goals.
Step two: connecting a flat Mexico to the world.
It’s important to be read on the virtual world by everybody but if what you want is to bring progress to your country, still more important is to be read by all the numerous groups of capitalists and innovators that are already shaping this new century. We need as a generation -and I assign also that mission to this blog- to introduce to all this people what Mexico really is beyond all the good and bad things that everybody already knows. We need to make them know in detail all the human capital and the riches that lay in the soil of Mexico, beyond this superficial reality presented by the mainstream media. But, still more importantly, we need to connect the influential people scattered across the world with the most progressive and energetic elements of Mexican society and government. If we get to contact, for instance, strategic consultants such as Boston Consulting Group or Kissinger Associates, with entrepreneurs or innovators in Mexico, we can contribute to build significant connections. The relationship of Mexican government, entrepreneurs and innovators with strategic players in the world can make Mexico leap frog to get all those disruptive technologies and to have that collaborative innovation that the country so badly needs.
Mexico has indeed most of the elements it needs to operate a transformation: we have a government that despite all its shortcomings has institutions devoted to information and science; we have a vast network of enterprises and a respectable list of capitalist eager to invest in the future. We have also universities which do science and research.
If we as a generation set the ground for a flat Mexico where more actors and more people discuss dynamically the new ideas of this century and if we market this flat Mexico to the shakers and movers of the world we will have a great contribution for making a better Mexico.
Hereby I want to present a personal proposal –what I call a manifesto for this blog- on a new way to energize Mexico and put it at work for the 21st century. My proposal consists of two elements for operating a miracle:
a) We need to make Mexico a truly flat country in terms of the flow of information. I don’t have any statistical at hand but it seems to me that Mexico hasn’t truly taken advantage of all the benefits of the information technology revolution. Therefore making a Mexico a real flat country in terms of the usage of the Internet would make the country, its citizens and its companies more productive and more connected to the corners of the world more innovative and progressive.
b) Secondly, more information about Mexico, about its human and natural resources, its companies, its entrepreneurs, its government and the way they operate, needs to flow to the rest of the world. It’s true that information about Mexico abounds. The US government as well as European countries or Japan are probably very knowledgeable about Mexico, but there’s still a huge amount of information about Mexican industries, enterprises, regulations, government bodies that are not well systematized and presented to the rest of the world. It’s my belief that if we organize all the information available in Mexico, we would be able to attire the best of the world into Mexico. One requirement of this constant presentation of Mexico to the world would be channeling this information to key players in the global economy as well as to international “valves” such as strategic consultants or venture capitalists. If we get to do this, our chance of calling the attention of the world into Mexico would be dramatically increased.
I believe this is one of the most important missions this generation of Mexicans can bear. This double mission of flattening Mexico and connecting it to the best of the world doesn’t sound as heroic or as glorious as other historical movements, but its impact can be much stronger.
The impediments for a flattened Mexico
Most of Mexicans would agree that the greatest obstacle for building a flattened Mexico is the high Internet costs that the monopoly Telmex, the corporation of the famous Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, imposes on Mexicans. Therefore, our best way for celebrating the 200th anniversary of Mexican independence would be doing something to break this monopoly and giving the chance to more people in Mexico to go on line.
But this is not the only hurdle a new flattened Mexico encounters. One more, also very important, is that Mexicans have not exploited the Internet at its full potential. It’s really amazing the information you can get on the websites of the Mexican government, companies and institutions. There is a network of government departments whose websites contain valuable and well organized information that if fully employed economically or politically really can do something for changing Mexico. Just to name one example, the INEGI (National Institute of Statistics, Geography and Information www.inegi.org.mx ) contain tons of information about Mexico, its resources, its social and economic organization and its trends. It also contains links to Mexicans that are on the ground dealing with mining, fisheries, education, etc, all the elements for erecting a virtuous cycle for the exchange of information and, more importantly, action.
It’s worth to mention also the existence of a new set of laws and regulations of transparency and the right of citizens to information that the Federal Government of Mexico has approved over the last few years. Now if you send an email to a Mexican government official, he has the Constitutional obligation to answer your questions, otherwise you have the right to sue them. This same transparency is also present at the Mexican political parties, Congress, NGO’s and corporations, who have created websites where you can find email address of legislators, researchers and so on.
If we Mexicans want to enjoy the supposed benefits of our democratic system, we need, first of all, to test our democracy through the empowerment of the Mexicans citizens with information and the possibility to communicate with decision- makers. Therefore in this new era, Mexicans concerned about our state of affairs need to be cybercitizens of this virtual world where there are no borders and which is open, by the force of the law, for everybody to asking everything.
One of the most ambitious and aggressive missions we can have as a generation would be playing in this new virtual board and transmitting our ideas for change to all the Mexican decision-makers that are already connected to the Internet.
Contributing to build a flat Mexico is now one of my main missions and I assign to this blog this as one of its main goals.
Step two: connecting a flat Mexico to the world.
It’s important to be read on the virtual world by everybody but if what you want is to bring progress to your country, still more important is to be read by all the numerous groups of capitalists and innovators that are already shaping this new century. We need as a generation -and I assign also that mission to this blog- to introduce to all this people what Mexico really is beyond all the good and bad things that everybody already knows. We need to make them know in detail all the human capital and the riches that lay in the soil of Mexico, beyond this superficial reality presented by the mainstream media. But, still more importantly, we need to connect the influential people scattered across the world with the most progressive and energetic elements of Mexican society and government. If we get to contact, for instance, strategic consultants such as Boston Consulting Group or Kissinger Associates, with entrepreneurs or innovators in Mexico, we can contribute to build significant connections. The relationship of Mexican government, entrepreneurs and innovators with strategic players in the world can make Mexico leap frog to get all those disruptive technologies and to have that collaborative innovation that the country so badly needs.
Mexico has indeed most of the elements it needs to operate a transformation: we have a government that despite all its shortcomings has institutions devoted to information and science; we have a vast network of enterprises and a respectable list of capitalist eager to invest in the future. We have also universities which do science and research.
If we as a generation set the ground for a flat Mexico where more actors and more people discuss dynamically the new ideas of this century and if we market this flat Mexico to the shakers and movers of the world we will have a great contribution for making a better Mexico.
Doing business with Mexican science: science entrepreneurs wanted!
Shanghai, April 10th 2009.- If you only look at what the media says these days about Mexico, you probably are prone to believe that Mexico is a failed state. But it’s not and not only because the reasons provided by Enrique Krauze in his wonderful article published by the New York Times last month (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/24/opinion/24krauze.html?scp=1&sq=krauze&st=cse) My opinion is that is unfair to say that Mexico is a failed state not because the strengths of our democratic political system, as Krauze argues, but because the overall social peace of most of the last century gave birth to precious achievements we Mexicans need to thank, preserve and improve. One of these achievements is the network of institutions devoted to science and research in Mexico, a fact that by itself invalidates the claim that Mexico is a failed state.
In my first writing here about the quest of the positive, I argued on the need for the Mexican citizens who are for the construction of a better Mexico –as my self- on focusing on positive topics that allow us to present new and fresh ideas to change Mexico. Now I initiate my personal quest with this writing about what I have found about science, technology and innovation in my country. I am glad to announce that I have found lots of information in Spanish and English about the research and the sciences that are nurtured in Mexico.
Although Mexico is a country that does not ranks in any of the international lists of the world in terms of science and innovation, Mexico is not at all a country deprived of science developed by it self. I was stroke by the figures presented by Carlos Bazdresh Parada and David Romo Murillo in their paper The impact of science and technology in the development of Mexico (El Impacto de la Ciencia y Tecnología en el Desarrollo de México http://www.cidecyt.org/documentos/CIDECYT%2005-01.pdf) in which, based on statistics of the Mexican Council of Science and Technology (CONACYT www.conacyt.mx) they state that the share of the contribution of Mexican scientists to the total of scientific articles in the world has grown from 0.33% to 0.72% from 1993 to 2002. Their whole argument is worth citing:
1) Mexico has already a scientific infraestructure capable of doing world class science in all the fields of knowlegde;
2) Mexican scientists have been producing an increasing number of scientific articles published in the best scientific magazines, both national and international. Whereas in 1992 there were 2,015 articles by Mexican scientists in the ISI ( Institute for Scientific Information), in 2003 this number climbed to 5,783.
3) The number of members of the National System of Scientific Researchers is also growing fast: whereas in 1992 the system counted 6,602 researchers, by 2003 this number has climbed to 10,189.
Mexico passed in the last decade a Law for Science and Technology and as a consequence there are commissions in the Mexican Congress and Senate of Science and Technology. In addition, there is also a network of institutions devoted to science and technology:
Institutions in Mexico devoted to science and technology:
Academia Mexicana de Ciencias (Science Academy of Mexico) www.amc.unam.mx
Asociación Mexicana de Directivos de la Investigación Aplicada y el Desarrollo Tecnológico, ADIAT (Association of Executives devoted to the Applied Research and Technological Development of Mexico) www.adiat.org
Asociación Nacional de Universidades e Instituciones de Educación Superior, ANUIES (Universities and High Education Institutions National Association of Mexico) www.anuies.mx
Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología, CONACYT (Science and Technology Council of Mexico, CONACYT) www.conacyt.mx
Foro Consultivo Científico y Tecnológico (Consultative Forum for Science and Technology) www.foroconsultivo.org.mx
Fundación México-Estados Unidos para la Ciencia (Mexico-US Science Fundation)
www.fumec.org.mx
Instituto Mexicano de la Propiedad Industrial (Industrial Property Institute of Mexico)
www.impi.gob.mx
Sistema Integrado de Información sobre Investigación Científica y Tecnológica, SIICYT (Integrated System for the Information on Scientific Research and Technology)
www.siicyt.gob.mx
In terms of scientific research the largest university of Mexico is UNAM, the National University of Mexico (www.unam.edu). The publication Science in UNAM 2007 (http://www.cic-ctic.unam.mx/cic/mas_cic/publicaciones/download/lcunam2007.pdf) gives an account of all the UNAM dozens of Institutes and Research Centers, which are so numerous that are classified according to families of knowledge: Biochemical and Health Sciences; Physics and Mathematical Sciences; Earth Sciences and Engineering Sciences. Among this vast network of institutions, the ones whose existence surprised me more were the Astronomy Institute, the Genome Science Institute, the Research on Materials Institute, the Energy Research Institute, the Applied Physics and Advanced Technology Institute and the Geo Sciences Center. These institutes invent and develop year after year a number of equipment, materials or processes that go unnoticed on the Mexican media. The UNAM Astronomy Institute, for instance, has developed telescopes that are now used in Spain and the Biotechnology Institute has created new antibiotics. UNAM is also one of the most important institutions in Mexico in charge of preserving its flora and fauna.
This is something we as Mexicans can take proud and is also something that a better media should highlight or at least mention more frequently.
Unam is Mexico's largest institution devoted to research on basic science but it’s not the only one. There’s also de Polytechnic National Institute (www.ipn.mx) and the Technological and High Studies Institute of Monterrey (www.itesm.mx) among others.
After learning on the existence of all this network of institutions, do you still believe Mexico is a failed state? I don't. Not anymore.
The problem is when you look for technological innovations or inventions produced in Mexico, which unfortunately are very scarce or almost nonexistent. The good news is that Mexico has a certain level of scientific infrastructure that so far Mexican companies and governments have not taken advantage. But now is time to change that reality. How? Marketing the Made-In-Mexico science and research to all those Mexicans or Foreign Companies who want them or need them. Doing this will have the double benefit of allowing the corporations that contract science or technology developments from Mexican sources to innovate as well as it has the potential of bringing the financial resources to the scientists of Mexico who so badly need them. And of course, this marketing of science and technology doesn’t have to be restricted to Mexico: since Spanish is our common language, we can sell them to other countries in Latin America.
According to Bazdresh Parada and David Romo, one of the most acute problems that has imperiled the conformation of an authentic National System for Innovation in Mexico is the lack of a link between scientists and corporations. Other weaknesses, according to the same authors, have to do with a cultural attitude rooted in Mexico in which science doesn’t play a central role in the mentality of our entrepreneurs. Finally lack of financing has also weighed against the marketization of Mexican science.
The distance among our scientists and our entrepreneurs creates a vacuum to be filled by us, this new generation of Mexicans, that can arise to become the bridge between these two essential edges of the line. Here’s the plan.
I am proposing to constitute as many as possible consultant agencies specialized on doing research about the research produced by our Universities and on the needs of our companies. This is one part of the job. The other one is to market our Mexican scientific assets, which means that we need to talk to scientists and to all the bureaucracy involved in the production of science in order to get their authorization to advertise and promote their capabilities among their final users, who should be the private companies interested in innovating. A third role of this kind of consultant firm or agency would be to propitiate the exchange between science and the market. In Spain for instance, the migration of scientists to corporations is favored, the same as the transfer of executives or engineers from corporations to the labs of research institutes
That is my proposal and that’s a project I will be happy to commit my self.
Obviously for that to happen it’s critical also to change the mindsets and probably some suspicions that may exist between scientists and entrepreneurs, the former for being against the market and the later for failing to see the strategic advantage that the science made in Mexico can bring to their businesses.
If we fail to publicize the achievements of our scientists, we miss an opportunity to encourage and recognize their –heroic- work and, sadly, we also miss the opportunity for taking the full advantage of what they are, which ultimately is a product of the collective effort of Mexican society and government.
In conclusion, who wants to enlist in this project of bringing the Mexican science to entrepreneurs and investors?
In my first writing here about the quest of the positive, I argued on the need for the Mexican citizens who are for the construction of a better Mexico –as my self- on focusing on positive topics that allow us to present new and fresh ideas to change Mexico. Now I initiate my personal quest with this writing about what I have found about science, technology and innovation in my country. I am glad to announce that I have found lots of information in Spanish and English about the research and the sciences that are nurtured in Mexico.
Although Mexico is a country that does not ranks in any of the international lists of the world in terms of science and innovation, Mexico is not at all a country deprived of science developed by it self. I was stroke by the figures presented by Carlos Bazdresh Parada and David Romo Murillo in their paper The impact of science and technology in the development of Mexico (El Impacto de la Ciencia y Tecnología en el Desarrollo de México http://www.cidecyt.org/documentos/CIDECYT%2005-01.pdf) in which, based on statistics of the Mexican Council of Science and Technology (CONACYT www.conacyt.mx) they state that the share of the contribution of Mexican scientists to the total of scientific articles in the world has grown from 0.33% to 0.72% from 1993 to 2002. Their whole argument is worth citing:
1) Mexico has already a scientific infraestructure capable of doing world class science in all the fields of knowlegde;
2) Mexican scientists have been producing an increasing number of scientific articles published in the best scientific magazines, both national and international. Whereas in 1992 there were 2,015 articles by Mexican scientists in the ISI ( Institute for Scientific Information), in 2003 this number climbed to 5,783.
3) The number of members of the National System of Scientific Researchers is also growing fast: whereas in 1992 the system counted 6,602 researchers, by 2003 this number has climbed to 10,189.
Mexico passed in the last decade a Law for Science and Technology and as a consequence there are commissions in the Mexican Congress and Senate of Science and Technology. In addition, there is also a network of institutions devoted to science and technology:
Institutions in Mexico devoted to science and technology:
Academia Mexicana de Ciencias (Science Academy of Mexico) www.amc.unam.mx
Asociación Mexicana de Directivos de la Investigación Aplicada y el Desarrollo Tecnológico, ADIAT (Association of Executives devoted to the Applied Research and Technological Development of Mexico) www.adiat.org
Asociación Nacional de Universidades e Instituciones de Educación Superior, ANUIES (Universities and High Education Institutions National Association of Mexico) www.anuies.mx
Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología, CONACYT (Science and Technology Council of Mexico, CONACYT) www.conacyt.mx
Foro Consultivo Científico y Tecnológico (Consultative Forum for Science and Technology) www.foroconsultivo.org.mx
Fundación México-Estados Unidos para la Ciencia (Mexico-US Science Fundation)
www.fumec.org.mx
Instituto Mexicano de la Propiedad Industrial (Industrial Property Institute of Mexico)
www.impi.gob.mx
Sistema Integrado de Información sobre Investigación Científica y Tecnológica, SIICYT (Integrated System for the Information on Scientific Research and Technology)
www.siicyt.gob.mx
In terms of scientific research the largest university of Mexico is UNAM, the National University of Mexico (www.unam.edu). The publication Science in UNAM 2007 (http://www.cic-ctic.unam.mx/cic/mas_cic/publicaciones/download/lcunam2007.pdf) gives an account of all the UNAM dozens of Institutes and Research Centers, which are so numerous that are classified according to families of knowledge: Biochemical and Health Sciences; Physics and Mathematical Sciences; Earth Sciences and Engineering Sciences. Among this vast network of institutions, the ones whose existence surprised me more were the Astronomy Institute, the Genome Science Institute, the Research on Materials Institute, the Energy Research Institute, the Applied Physics and Advanced Technology Institute and the Geo Sciences Center. These institutes invent and develop year after year a number of equipment, materials or processes that go unnoticed on the Mexican media. The UNAM Astronomy Institute, for instance, has developed telescopes that are now used in Spain and the Biotechnology Institute has created new antibiotics. UNAM is also one of the most important institutions in Mexico in charge of preserving its flora and fauna.
This is something we as Mexicans can take proud and is also something that a better media should highlight or at least mention more frequently.
Unam is Mexico's largest institution devoted to research on basic science but it’s not the only one. There’s also de Polytechnic National Institute (www.ipn.mx) and the Technological and High Studies Institute of Monterrey (www.itesm.mx) among others.
After learning on the existence of all this network of institutions, do you still believe Mexico is a failed state? I don't. Not anymore.
The problem is when you look for technological innovations or inventions produced in Mexico, which unfortunately are very scarce or almost nonexistent. The good news is that Mexico has a certain level of scientific infrastructure that so far Mexican companies and governments have not taken advantage. But now is time to change that reality. How? Marketing the Made-In-Mexico science and research to all those Mexicans or Foreign Companies who want them or need them. Doing this will have the double benefit of allowing the corporations that contract science or technology developments from Mexican sources to innovate as well as it has the potential of bringing the financial resources to the scientists of Mexico who so badly need them. And of course, this marketing of science and technology doesn’t have to be restricted to Mexico: since Spanish is our common language, we can sell them to other countries in Latin America.
According to Bazdresh Parada and David Romo, one of the most acute problems that has imperiled the conformation of an authentic National System for Innovation in Mexico is the lack of a link between scientists and corporations. Other weaknesses, according to the same authors, have to do with a cultural attitude rooted in Mexico in which science doesn’t play a central role in the mentality of our entrepreneurs. Finally lack of financing has also weighed against the marketization of Mexican science.
The distance among our scientists and our entrepreneurs creates a vacuum to be filled by us, this new generation of Mexicans, that can arise to become the bridge between these two essential edges of the line. Here’s the plan.
I am proposing to constitute as many as possible consultant agencies specialized on doing research about the research produced by our Universities and on the needs of our companies. This is one part of the job. The other one is to market our Mexican scientific assets, which means that we need to talk to scientists and to all the bureaucracy involved in the production of science in order to get their authorization to advertise and promote their capabilities among their final users, who should be the private companies interested in innovating. A third role of this kind of consultant firm or agency would be to propitiate the exchange between science and the market. In Spain for instance, the migration of scientists to corporations is favored, the same as the transfer of executives or engineers from corporations to the labs of research institutes
That is my proposal and that’s a project I will be happy to commit my self.
Obviously for that to happen it’s critical also to change the mindsets and probably some suspicions that may exist between scientists and entrepreneurs, the former for being against the market and the later for failing to see the strategic advantage that the science made in Mexico can bring to their businesses.
If we fail to publicize the achievements of our scientists, we miss an opportunity to encourage and recognize their –heroic- work and, sadly, we also miss the opportunity for taking the full advantage of what they are, which ultimately is a product of the collective effort of Mexican society and government.
In conclusion, who wants to enlist in this project of bringing the Mexican science to entrepreneurs and investors?
Thursday, April 2, 2009
A green code for Mexico: the challenges of the present as the most precious opportunity for the future.
A green code for Mexico: the challenges of the present as the most precious opportunity for the future.
By Jorge Visoso
Shanghai, April 2, 2009.- For the past decades, one of the most important components of the relationship of Mexico with the international economy has been its policy of attracting foreign investment from developed countries.
Foreign investment has been for Mexico what it has been for other developing countries: an opportunity to bridge the technological gap with the developed world as well as a source of employment and economic growth. Even though Mexico has been open to any kind of foreign investment, what Mexico has got in more quantity is not the kind of investment to create the most technologically advanced industries. American automakers came to Mexico when the automotive industry in the world was already mature; aerospace industry has recently come to Mexico, when this is not either a new industry. The same is true in the case of electric appliances, retailing, machinery, etc.
No doubt that foreign investment has had in the development of Mexico a very positive impact. It has created jobs and it has given the country an opportunity to catch with the world and form a skilled work force. However, this pattern of attracting investment in relatively old industries is one of the reasons Mexico has never been technologically ahead. For decades, Mexico enjoyed the boom of the car consumption in the US but precisely for this reason now is suffering the crisis of the automotive industry in the US.
I believe that now Mexico has a historical opportunity to change that pattern and make a virtue of a liability. Now that the world needs, as Thomas Friedman argues, a green code in order to cope with a hot, flat and crowded world, there is a historical opportunity for Mexico to put in place a green code of its own.
Since the United States is for Mexico its main source of foreign investment and its main export market, it will be for Mexico very visionary to take a step ahead of the United States, becoming a new neighbor that supplies no fantasy drugs but cheap green technology products and solutions. If this green Mexican code is pursued as a national goal, before than other competitors such as Central America, China and Canada, this will be for Mexico its most visionary project.
The world is experiencing now in this spring of 2009 a very serious crisis. The threats go beyond the troubles of the economy. In the past, every time societies experienced the turn of centuries, there were always people that feared the end of the world. We are just starting a new millennium but the problems of the world are so complex (especially those related to the environment, the energy crisis and the climate change) that fearing that the world is going to end is just understandable..
The transformations in progress are bound to give birth to a new world, where the cars are not going to be gas powered, where people are not going to work in offices anymore but at home and where newspapers are no longer be printed in paper. A new world is in construction and still for a very long time, the United States, Mexico’s largest partner, is going to be the source and the market for all those transformations.
So, why not envisioning a Mexico that takes the wave of the future and that prepares it self for becoming a leading exporter and supplier of electric cars, electronic paper, new batteries and home-office furniture, just to name few examples? I don’t need to elaborate more on the benefits that this turn will bring to Mexico: better environment, better jobs, value added exports, technology, education and prosperity. I believe this can be a master plan for Mexico.
As I write this lines, Danish (Vestas), German (Solarworld), Japanese (Honda) and Spanish (Gamesa) corporations, just to name only few examples (fortune.com/greenbiz), are lining to invest in the US in order to tap on all the new necessities of the consumers of the future. Why we don’t make Mexico a choice for all those companies? Why don’t we change our focus and instead of stay stuck to the old pattern of attracting gas powered cars or flat screen TVs, we don’t try to attract all the green investment of the future?
If we decide to take that path, it will be essential we reorient our external antennas in the world as well as to reform our foreign policy. It will be crucial also adapting our education system to these expected transformations.
My idea is that we better reinforce our presence in all those regions and international forums where the leaders of green technologies are. If you ask me, I will say that we should send more people to study to Sweden, to Denmark, to Germany; that we should create the best possible conditions for the investment in Mexico of big new green projects, such as turbines, lithium batteries, new materials or for providing new services, such as efficient recycling.
We need also human capital to work and support the new industries. At first glance, it looks like there’s nothing like that in Mexico but that’s not true. For instance, the university I graduated from, UMAM, has recently opened a bachelor in technology and it has two relatively new research institutes: the Center of Research on Energy www.cie.unam.mx and the Center of Research on Environmental Geography www.ciga.unam.mx
Transforming problems into opportunities has always been a key to compete and the most successful countries and organizations are those who have understood this truth. This April 2 2009, the New York Times published a note that exemplifies how China is taking advantage of the present automotive industry crisis to become a leader in the production of electric cars http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/02/business/global/02electric.html?hp Why don’t Mexico try something similar? Actually, the cooperation with China in these new fields would be a very interesting endeavor of our Mexico’s foreign policy. I would love to see the Ambassador of Mexico, Mr. Jorge Guajardo, get busy trying to make Mexico board the Chinese locomotive instead of only focusing on trying to sell pork meat or tequila to China. On the same toke, it would had been lovely to see last week the President of Mexico, Mr. Felipe Calderon, bring our ambition of having our own green code to Mr. Hillary Clinton instead of only focusing on who is responsible for the recent drug violence.
We can not change history and geography, but now is the moment to be ambitious and visionary enough to take a step ahead of America and shape our future. A Mexico transformed by a new green code is the Mexico of the future that I can't wait to see.
By Jorge Visoso
Shanghai, April 2, 2009.- For the past decades, one of the most important components of the relationship of Mexico with the international economy has been its policy of attracting foreign investment from developed countries.
Foreign investment has been for Mexico what it has been for other developing countries: an opportunity to bridge the technological gap with the developed world as well as a source of employment and economic growth. Even though Mexico has been open to any kind of foreign investment, what Mexico has got in more quantity is not the kind of investment to create the most technologically advanced industries. American automakers came to Mexico when the automotive industry in the world was already mature; aerospace industry has recently come to Mexico, when this is not either a new industry. The same is true in the case of electric appliances, retailing, machinery, etc.
No doubt that foreign investment has had in the development of Mexico a very positive impact. It has created jobs and it has given the country an opportunity to catch with the world and form a skilled work force. However, this pattern of attracting investment in relatively old industries is one of the reasons Mexico has never been technologically ahead. For decades, Mexico enjoyed the boom of the car consumption in the US but precisely for this reason now is suffering the crisis of the automotive industry in the US.
I believe that now Mexico has a historical opportunity to change that pattern and make a virtue of a liability. Now that the world needs, as Thomas Friedman argues, a green code in order to cope with a hot, flat and crowded world, there is a historical opportunity for Mexico to put in place a green code of its own.
Since the United States is for Mexico its main source of foreign investment and its main export market, it will be for Mexico very visionary to take a step ahead of the United States, becoming a new neighbor that supplies no fantasy drugs but cheap green technology products and solutions. If this green Mexican code is pursued as a national goal, before than other competitors such as Central America, China and Canada, this will be for Mexico its most visionary project.
The world is experiencing now in this spring of 2009 a very serious crisis. The threats go beyond the troubles of the economy. In the past, every time societies experienced the turn of centuries, there were always people that feared the end of the world. We are just starting a new millennium but the problems of the world are so complex (especially those related to the environment, the energy crisis and the climate change) that fearing that the world is going to end is just understandable..
The transformations in progress are bound to give birth to a new world, where the cars are not going to be gas powered, where people are not going to work in offices anymore but at home and where newspapers are no longer be printed in paper. A new world is in construction and still for a very long time, the United States, Mexico’s largest partner, is going to be the source and the market for all those transformations.
So, why not envisioning a Mexico that takes the wave of the future and that prepares it self for becoming a leading exporter and supplier of electric cars, electronic paper, new batteries and home-office furniture, just to name few examples? I don’t need to elaborate more on the benefits that this turn will bring to Mexico: better environment, better jobs, value added exports, technology, education and prosperity. I believe this can be a master plan for Mexico.
As I write this lines, Danish (Vestas), German (Solarworld), Japanese (Honda) and Spanish (Gamesa) corporations, just to name only few examples (fortune.com/greenbiz), are lining to invest in the US in order to tap on all the new necessities of the consumers of the future. Why we don’t make Mexico a choice for all those companies? Why don’t we change our focus and instead of stay stuck to the old pattern of attracting gas powered cars or flat screen TVs, we don’t try to attract all the green investment of the future?
If we decide to take that path, it will be essential we reorient our external antennas in the world as well as to reform our foreign policy. It will be crucial also adapting our education system to these expected transformations.
My idea is that we better reinforce our presence in all those regions and international forums where the leaders of green technologies are. If you ask me, I will say that we should send more people to study to Sweden, to Denmark, to Germany; that we should create the best possible conditions for the investment in Mexico of big new green projects, such as turbines, lithium batteries, new materials or for providing new services, such as efficient recycling.
We need also human capital to work and support the new industries. At first glance, it looks like there’s nothing like that in Mexico but that’s not true. For instance, the university I graduated from, UMAM, has recently opened a bachelor in technology and it has two relatively new research institutes: the Center of Research on Energy www.cie.unam.mx and the Center of Research on Environmental Geography www.ciga.unam.mx
Transforming problems into opportunities has always been a key to compete and the most successful countries and organizations are those who have understood this truth. This April 2 2009, the New York Times published a note that exemplifies how China is taking advantage of the present automotive industry crisis to become a leader in the production of electric cars http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/02/business/global/02electric.html?hp Why don’t Mexico try something similar? Actually, the cooperation with China in these new fields would be a very interesting endeavor of our Mexico’s foreign policy. I would love to see the Ambassador of Mexico, Mr. Jorge Guajardo, get busy trying to make Mexico board the Chinese locomotive instead of only focusing on trying to sell pork meat or tequila to China. On the same toke, it would had been lovely to see last week the President of Mexico, Mr. Felipe Calderon, bring our ambition of having our own green code to Mr. Hillary Clinton instead of only focusing on who is responsible for the recent drug violence.
We can not change history and geography, but now is the moment to be ambitious and visionary enough to take a step ahead of America and shape our future. A Mexico transformed by a new green code is the Mexico of the future that I can't wait to see.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)