A quaint little blog

This is the Mex Files’ 2000th post.

In  October 2003, an Australian computer goddess — and regular Latin American traveler –Catherine O’Neil, took it upon herself to set up something called a “blog” for the e-mails and sometimes overly long posts on Lonely Planet’s Thorn Tree Mexico Message Board I was writing from (and about) Mexico City.  I sometimes think she created a Frankenstein’s Monster, but — with a few rewritten emails from 2002, the Mex Files has outlasted three or four computers (including a laptop built from cannibalized parts from a medical engineering firms’ junk pile and held together with duct-tape) two different hosting sites and three URL name changes.

The “numbers”, if they’re important, have been going up… averaging (and not counting the huge spike from earlier this week) about a thousand hits a day over the last year.  That’s a respectable number for an eccentric niche site, and nothing to sneeze at.

No, the Mex Files is not a superpower in the cyberworld, or even a major regional power.  If the big sites — nearly all in the United States — are the superpowers, then this is the “third world.”

Being a Bolivia of cyberworld is nothing to be ashamed of.  The Mex Files has a tumultous history, has always been financially shaky and — while for a time, there was a second writer, Lyn from Boulder (whose family situation required her full-time attention and disappearance from these pages)  — has achieved relative stability under a less than perfect governance:  for now a caudillo .., me.     The Mex Files is, however, open to immigration (and the caudillo isn’t going to be around forever) .  And, while the Mex Files does require foreign aid from time to time, it still, like Bolivia, entitled to its autonomy.

What struck me about comments on my run-in with The Huffington Post was the assumption — very first-worldish — that the cyber-superpowers had an absolute right to my resources (i.e., writing and translation) and I was mistaken in assuming  “a quaint little blog”  had any reason to reject the argument that they had a right to take my resources for their own (presumably better) use.

There is also the unspoken assumption that bigger and richer is better, and that the superpower knows what is best for us cyber-third worlders … and not buying into their assumptions makes us “fools”.  My reasons for not wanting to be on Huffington Post are not particularly relevant (mostly having to do with their history of running only those posts on Latin America that sensationalize the region, or buy into stereotypes) — like Bolivians and their lithium (and tin, and oil and gas), it’s up to the owners of the resources to decide how they want to manage those resources… or, if we think of posting as “intellectual property,” then the Mex Files has the right to decide ownership rights.

What those who thought I MUST allow Huffington Post to link to my site without my permission remind me of  is the World Bank or International Monetary Fund… they try to convince small, marginal countries (or, in my analogy, websites) that following the prescription of their big clients is the only way to “succeed.”  Unspoken of course, as with World Bank prescriptions, is that this benefits not the little third-world folks (my regular readers), but the superpower.

Finally, who says bigger is better?  I try to keep my regular readers in mind when I post.  What would Nezua say, what would Mr. Rushing say, what would the Council on Foreign Relations say…?  Those are the “citizens” of this funky little republic… who are the ones whose needs should be met.  And, just having more “stuff” — or hits in this case — doesn’t make one better … it just means more stuff.

The superpower incursion has nothing to do with it, but The Mex Files is closing it’s borders for at least the next week. I need to get work on an editing project and get some personal things taken care of, and take a break.

In the meantime, for general U.S. and English-language Mexico coverage, Mexico Institute is a good bet.  Commentary on the Mexican political scene from Xico is always worth reading.  Gancho Blog usually has a news item or two that the English-language media has overlooked.  U.S. immigration issues are well-covered by The Sanctuary, history by Secret History and snark and general Mexican weirdness by Burro Hall.