Friday, January 1, 2010

Happy New Year! Feliz Año Nuevo!

I don't get a lot of readers, but the quality of my readership is high, and I am grateful for those who follow this blog, which is little more than a year old. The posting may seem schizophrenic: violence in Cd. Juráez, mischief within the political class in New Mexico, events in the South Mesilla Valley, and occasionally national issues. But Cd. Juárez is only minutes away from the South Valley, a metroplex of 1.5 million people. They are our neighbors, and part of our economic growth will depend on our relationship with Cd. Juárez. But the state news media doesn't cover it except when something drastic makes national news. New Mexico should make a much stronger effort to be good neighbors with Juárez and Chihuahua. Our economic future is a lot more closely tied to them than to any of our neighboring states.

Mischief in New Mexico politics directly affects us here in the South, which is the poorest region in the state, systematically neglected by the political system. It affects all of us in New Mexico, of course, and as citizens we need to be much more demanding about our political class, which sometimes acts badly in part because there is little accountability except for the Albuquerque Journal which can't cover it all. And sometimes national issues, the state of the economy, developments in the Hispanic world, have strong impacts on this region, which is growing rapidly. So there is a kind of coherent logic in the sorts of things I cover.

So Happy New Year, Feliz Año Nuevo, and I hope the Beat section here next year has fewer postings.

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