Teaching Comparative Government and Politics

Sunday, May 10, 2009

A healthy state

The flu hurt, but Mexico demonstrates its strength. This is a good background article for teachers and parts of it might be valuable supplements to your textbook.

The Crisis Came. Mexico Didn’t Fail. Surprised?

Just for argument’s sake, let’s compare Mexico’s management of the swine flu epidemic that broke out here last month with China’s handling of SARS in 2002. The Chinese initially tried to deny there was an outbreak, were slow to combat its spread and resisted cooperation with foreign investigators. By the time SARS was brought under control, more than 700 people had died.


Mexico’s conduct has been different. The authorities may have been slow to identify the threat, but once they did, they quickly notified international health agencies, acted efficiently to prevent the epidemic from mushrooming, and began working closely with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States. As of Friday, the death toll was 45.

That response flies in the face of recent descriptions of Mexico as a “failed state” that is “on the verge of civil war” — phrases that seem a staple on American talk radio, cable television and political blogs...


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