Breathe
By Regina Reyes-Heroles
We are about to reach the third year since the first case of covid-19 in Mexico, remember?
It was February 27, 2020.
In March, on the 8th of that third month of the year, with a borrowed hat full of flowers, I marched alongside tens of thousands of women.
On March 9, Mexican women did not go to work.
There was a feeling that everything could be better after that departure. But it was short-lived. Around March 19, many of us were already homebound and on Monday, March 23, the National Day of Healthy Distance began.
Remember?
In that confinement Mexico and the world changed. Today we have more than 300 thousand deaths by covid in our country. We all changed. Moreover, we know that inequalities became wider and that for those who have less, the process was more painful.
It all started with giant questions that only led to more questions. The context was not simple: there was death, economic crisis and violence. Nothing like it had ever been experienced before.
Albert Einstein said that "crisis is the best blessing that can happen to people and countries, because crisis brings progress. Creativity is born out of anguish as day is born out of dark night".
In a spirit of seeing the glass half full, I wanted to think that in that crisis there should be a window of opportunity towards a better way. So, in that confinement I began an investigation that resulted in 28 interviews -some of them lasting more than an hour-. For about 20 months I collected data to write, rewrite, record and re-record, to achieve a podcast with 11 episodes titled: How to build a future with well-being?
That confinement, those of us involved in the project thought, was a dark night of violence, deaths, loss of jobs and wages, which would eventually result in a sunny day. But we also knew that sunny day would not come without everyone's commitment. Because the truth is that we would like a Mexico with less inequality and more welfare, wouldn't we? The question is: how to build it?
I confess that I did not quite know how to structure this search for the "window of opportunity". But Carlos Puig told me that "of course it would exist!", he helped me to organize it and we soon found that there were at least seven issues to be analyzed to see if they could become highways to well-being. Among them were: employment, how to make it fair; health, how to make it equal for all; housing, could all Mexicans have access to a safe and affordable home; food, could we face the food crisis and have a more sustainable future; security, do we all have the same level of peace of mind about security, how could we achieve a safer Mexico; education, could we one day have a school that builds citizens who achieve a great future; corruption, how corrupt are all Mexicans and how do we say we are not?
From there we set out to find the experts. In the interviews Gerardo Esquivel, former Banxico, Alejandro Díaz de León, also former Banxico, Alejandro Werner, former International Monetary Fund, Luisa María Alcalde, Secretary of Labor, Carlos Martínez, Director of Infonavit, Julio Frenk, former Secretary of Health, Mónica Flores of Manpower, Eduardo Osuna Osuna of BBVA, María Marván of Transparencia Mexicana, and many others speak.
The objective was to understand what was going on, what welfare meant for everyone and how, after the crisis we were experiencing, to achieve a Mexico with welfare.
There were moments during the research when I lost hope. Here I must say that Galia García Palafox was the one who pushed me to continue finding what we all want or may need in Mexico to live better. Besides, she told me, you have to tell it with your story (which made me panic) and, of course, explain each piece of information so that it makes sense to all of us. She and Carlos knew that we could tell this economic story in a way that we could all feel part of, and that is building the future.
This week this is what I want to share with you, that there are ways to build this future that could be better for everyone. And that it is in the hands of each one of us to achieve it.
I leave you with more than 300 minutes of reflections, of visions that might seem contrary but that, in the end, have a common ideal: a less unequal Mexico with a brighter future. There are 11 episodes that answer the enormous questions: Can we be less unequal? Can we shine a lot?
Please listen to this reflection, published in Así como suena, and share your opinions about well-being and how to have a better future for Mexico.
How to build a future with well-being?
Episode 1. What is wellness?
Episode 2. Fair employment?
Episode 3. Health and Care
Episode 4. Let's start with the house
Episode 5. Believing in education
Episode 6. Your Money Matters
Episode 7. From the field we feed
Episode 8. Healing the planet
Episode 9. Living in peace
Episode 10. Making policy
Epilogue. Without welfare there is no future
If you want to listen to it on Spotify, here is the link to the Así como suena channel.
Did you like what you read? 😁 Leave a tip and support independent journalism.
The opinions expressed are the responsibility of the authors and are absolutely independent of the position and editorial line of Opinion 51.
More than 150 opinions from 100 columnists await you for less than one book a month. Subscribe to Opinion 51.
Comments ()