I hope all of you enjoyed the second presidential "debate", with rules a bit more complex and elaborate than before, but their execution made for a clunky show and much to be desired. Also, I don't want to go into rating each of the candidate's performances, after all, my column today will be about one of the issues of the debate but not about what each candidate said regarding it.

It's about the topic of Mexico in the world stage. What do we want to do? The PRI and the PRD candidates showed some of their protectionist roots of simply reacting to world events neutrally but not making the world react to us. While the PAN and PANAL maintained the need to play a bit more active role in the world in the case of immigrants and trade relationships with the United States, and China in the case of the mustached one.

But none of the four want to really change anything. Maybe their priorities vary, and one of them (Peña Nieto) worries American officials a bit more than any of the other three, as evidenced by the Wikileaks cables. But it doesn't change the fact that we are still talking about Foreign Relations largely within the context of Relationships with the United States. Josefina Vazquez Mota certainly did.

Do we need to change anything?

That is my question for today, because the truth is I don't know. But the big secret is nobody else knows, not even the candidates or Mexicans in general. Just like polls show Mexico split between three or even four options (two, according to AMLO) about where to take the country, there is no consensus of what is it we are at a global level. The truth is Mexico is not a protectionist country, as we have the most number of free trade agreements in the world, but we aren't also a country with influence in another region, outside of our direct relationship with the United States. We don't strike fear into any other country, few admire us, and nobody envies us or takes pity on us. We are better economically than other countries, but that also says little about our own world vision.

President Felipe Calderon's government has dedicated itself more to public foreign relations, as I call them, with some achievements like Mexico being host to conferences, international summits and sponsor to many declarations, even human rights, but in reality without taking the country in a direction that fits our own economic or ideological interest, if there are any.

The problem lies in that, for all the summits we assist or treaties that we sign, we wont impress anyone if we do not show a strong commitment to ourselves. Nobody will care for our efforts in human rights at the UN level, if each year reports are published about the hundreds of human rights abuses happening in our own nation. Nobody is going to care how many commitments against global warming we have if there is not a single initiative, tax credit or program in our country so to incentivize electric cars or a true effort to transform the CFE into a powerful force for renewable energy, not to mention a total lack of any modernization to PEMEX.

Competitiveness? The world doesn't believe us when it sees two of the world's biggest telecom monopolies prospering in Mexico. Economic growth in our country is anemic each year in comparison with Latin America (although, we have achieved some fiscal stability and grown more than Brazil this year), and so no one will look to us as an example of an economic power, for now.

Democratic leader? The PRI is about to regain power, after only 12 years of managing to get them out of the Los Pinos presidential residence, so don't think the world sees us as a bastion of democracy.

That is why when the candidates touched upon the topic, only one or two were correct on saying that development must first come at home, so to lead by example. Bill Clinton said it best at the National Democratic Convention in 2008, offering his endorsement of Barack Obama by saying that, "People around the world have always been more impressed by the power of our example, than by the example of our power", adding before that it is always necessary to be first strong at home to be strong abroad.

I think, and most of you would agree, that in effect the best we can do to present ourselves to the world and opening new frontiers, is to care for our own nation and better it.

NOTE

None of what I said means protectionism, or anti-globalization, far from it. But there are priorities to attend to before signing free trade pacts with China or mediating an international conflict between Great Britain and Argentina.

mjsanchezluis@gmail.com

http://sonofsancho.wordpress.com/

[i]Jose Luis Sanchez Macias is a Communications major from the Universidad Autónoma de Baja California university. He has been part of the iDigital Creative Studio team in the city of Tijuana, as a Marketing Analyst and writing for some productions, as well as a collaborator on the first public television channel in the city, tvTijuana, highlighting his hosting duties in the CocinArte cooking show on the same channel, and general production assistant.

Currently, he works as a Writing and Editing Collaborator and Translator for the Bilingual Business Development Magazine, Business Conexión in Tijuana.