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Writer's pictureVigilance

And this is a Good Thing: Contextualizing the Mexico 2024 Election Part Three: El poder del paso a paso/the power of step-by-step.

Updated: Sep 28


President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and President-elect, Claudia Sheinbaum (Photo Instagram @claudia_shein)


Connected to the development of Mexico’s transportation infrastructure

(as discussed in Part Two) is the criticism that the AMLO (President Andrés Manuel López Obrador 2018-2024) administration has not been participating adequately in the Paris Agreement with the goal of reducing carbon emissions by 45% by 2030 and reaching net zero by 2050. With a quick Google search, however, one finds a glaring double standard: a 2024 report on carbon emissions internationally lists China, the US, India, Russia and Japan as the top five with Canada (my nation of birth) a smidge above Mexico at number eleven and Mexico at twelve.[1]



Nevertheless, in 2023, another sensationalist anti-AMLO article (see Part One and Part Two for more examples of this relentless demonization of a government that has legislated some socialism for the betterment of the lives of the people) entitled “Can Mexico Turn Around its Environmental Train Wreck,” reported that: “[i]f all countries were to follow Mexico’s approach, warming could reach over 3 [degrees Celsius] and up to 4C” and this has to do with what is described as Obrador’s obsession with “all things oil.” First, why is Mexico being focused on as the environmental train wreck when eleven nations are emitting far more carbon and countries like mine (Canada), with 83.80 million fewer inhabitants than Mexico, still rank higher on what can be described as an international environmental train wreck scale? And second, yes, as a protectionist administration revitalizing a previously exploited country, AMLO has re-nationalized Pemex (Mexico’s oil and gas company) and fossil fuels are not being phased out in the same way as claimed and attempted and sometimes succeeded in so-called First World countries. Even though, paradoxically, the US—the main source of condemnation of the left-leaning Morena government because Obrador cut off his country’s 95 years of servility to their northern bully (see Part One)—emits 5,057 million metric tonnes of carbon per year and Mexico 512, let’s look into the historical context of why Mexico is celebrating the repatriation of Pemex at the same time as dismantle another attempt to discredit a socialist president in a neoliberal world.[2] 



The article continues: “It wasn’t always this way. A decade ago, Mexico was a beacon of progress as the first developing country to pass comprehensive climate change legislation, cut fossil fuel industry subsidies and ramp up environmental protections.”[3] The decade ago that the writer is referring to is 2013. This was the year when:


“PRI [right-wing neoliberal, elite-serving party] President Enrique Peña Nieto (2012-2018) submitted to Congress a bill that would end the state's 75-year energy monopoly [over oil and gas production]. Bloomberg reports that Peña Nieto's plan would allow private companies such as Exxon Mobil and Chevron to pump crude for the first time since 1938 by changing articles 27 and 28 of the constitution. According to Enrique Ochoa, Deputy Energy Minster, the proposed bill would enable companies that invest in Pemex to receive a portion of profits.”[4]


Not surprisingly, in 2013, blatantly selling the country to global corporations was celebrated in the American business magazine Bloomberg and by the mainstream American ABC news when the subtitle exclaimed: The government might just be working in Mexico. Logic: even if Peña Nieto’s PRI administration signed and pledged its allegiance to the Paris Agreement in 2015, does it follow that this proclaimed allegiance to the reduction of fossil fuel emissions to net zero by 2050 is true when he was advertising to the largest global oil companies to assist in pumping its crude? What really happened: Peña Nieto cut government oil industry subsidies in order to dismantle a public corporation—privatization being the modus operandi of all right-wing governments. Ending government fuel subsidies had nothing to do with doing his part in working towards the international goal of the Paris Agreement. Peña Nieto’s signature was nothing but an empty subterfuge supporting international corporate investment and profit and a continuation of the elite greed-feed. Dig a bit deeper and discover corruption and hypocrisy behind what some considered Peña Nieto’s pretty face.


Uncle Sam (American symbol of patriotic emotion)/Pre-Morena president Enrique Peña Nieto, servant to the US and international corporate interests.


As a protectionist, AMLO re-nationalized Pemex in order to work towards energy self-sufficiency in Mexico. A rally in the Mexico City Zocalo on March 18th, 2023 celebrated the 85th birthday of nationalizing Mexico’s oil and gas industry in 1938 when President Lázaro Cárdenas created the state-owned fuel company Pemex and expropriated the assets of foreign oil companies operating in Mexico. During the celebration attended by approximately 500,000 people from across the country some of whom had travelled by bus from as far away as the northern state of Sonora, AMLO proclaimed:


“… From here, from this Zócalo, the political and cultural heart of Mexico, we remind the hypocritical and irresponsible politicians that Mexico is a free and independent country, not a colony or protectorate of the United States. They can threaten us, … but never, ever will we allow them to violate our sovereignty and trample on the dignity of our homeland. Cooperation yes, subjugation, no! Interventionism, no!”[5]


Unfortunately, despite Obrador’s statement of being open to cooperation, in a neoliberal world, if subjugation by international corporations of other countries to exploit their resources doesn’t exist, there is a high probability that there will be no cooperation, only the continued attempts to discredit a left-leaning government working towards national sovereignty. After all, how do First World countries fed by their international corporations maintain their position in the hierarchy of prosperity without exploiting other nations? We must always remember: First World countries are First World countries for a reason: they created the Third.


And I ask, undoubtedly most controversially

as I contextualize backlash: even though Mexico is well below the US on the international polluting scale, is a country that has been exploited by the First World (beginning with 16th Century European colonialism, consolidating with 18th and 19th Century Imperialism which laid the foundation for contemporary global capitalism that was and is orchestrated by the First World/original and continuing colonizers) on an even playing field when it comes to investing in clean energy? Western Europe—the birth-place of colonial capitalism—with its subsequent high standard of living and extensive social net, has the ability to focus on and actively reduce carbon emissions (despite the fact that Germany lands at number eight on the polluter meter and the EU still emitted 3,138 million metric tonnes of carbon in 2022; this was a reduction of 32.5 % since 1990, though).[6] But does a nation beginning on the long path of achieving widespread social well-being not have other priorities to attend to first? Do they have enough resources to do everything at once? This begs the question: where does Mexico fall in the classification of First and Third World or developed and developing nations?


Poverty in Mexico (people earning less than $5.50 US per day) 1960-2022


Indeed, the classification of Mexico as one or the other is as complicated as anything pertaining to Mexican politics. Such a classification is like a case of both/and. Some of the world’s wealthiest people are Mexican (Carlos Slim was the richest man in the world from 2010-2013) and the country also has a high level of poverty—which the Morena government has reduced in the last six years. For example, regardless of the international inflation rise since 2020 where the lower, working and even the middle classes in First World nations have and are continuing to struggle economically,[7] under the AMLO administration the poverty rate only increased 1.5% from 2019 to 2020 (see the above graph) and decreased 8.5% from 2020-2022—precisely because Morena's social programs have had time to take effect—where, in nations like Canada and the US, the poverty rate has risen drastically post-Covid and the trend continues.[8]


So I ask again:

as Morena works and succeeds in reducing poverty, can one government administration do everything in six years? Instead of immediate chastisement, could we not instead look at incremental progress, the reality of paso a paso, which is exactly what is being achieved? An administration cleaning up the corruption and ending the corresponding exploitation of its human and natural resources from 95 years of PRI and PAN cannot be expected to “go green” instantaneously and, if Mexico doesn’t fit under the blanket classification of ‘developing’ perhaps, based on the level of corruption and the neglect of the people it inherited, the country can be designated as ‘starting over’ and included in UN chief António Guterres’ proclamation: “developing countries must be supported every step of the way [in the challenge to shift to sustainable energy].”[9] Perhaps, as a tongue-in-cheek postulation, Mexico could be assisted internationally (without intervention, ya right) by the very nations that have profited from its exploitation for centuries while working to alleviate the social effects of that exploitation in order to be on an even playing field in the fight against global warming. And, it must be noted that Canada as the fourth largest oil-producing country in the world with its infamous Alberta Tar Sands and the US as the first [10] along with both ranking higher on the polluter scale, Americans and Canadians certainly aren’t keeping up either.




For anyone who lives or has lived in Mexico City,

air pollution can be atrocious and, yes, most of the pollution is caused by the amount of fossil-fueled traffic and the fact that the city of approximately 23 million people is in a geographic bowl that traps the pollution does not help matters. However, attempts are made to reduce traffic on a daily basis with restrictions on how many days each individual can drive per week. Nevertheless, regardless of accusations that AMLO does nothing to contribute and merely exacerbates greenhouse gas emissions internationally, they are the middle and upper middle classes who complain about this policy because when they can’t drive, they may have to take public transit, read: the dreaded Metro or Metrobus. Ironically, as commented on in Part One, because those who vote Morena typically take public transit, AMLO supporters generate less carbon than those who vote PAN and PRI and criticize Morena for its environmental irresponsibility. And, because driving restrictions are based on license plate numbers and not per family, those with more money and the ability to have more than one car can continue to drive every day, adding some every-day-life hypocrisy to accusations of insufficient attention being paid to global warming by the Morena government even though, yes, like with every nation, more attention needs to be paid. However, for a country focusing on raising the majority of its citizens out of poverty, providing equal opportunity and building national economic sovereignty, this means: paso a paso.


All was not lost at the end of the article “Can Mexico Turn Around its Environmental Train Wreck,” though, when the journalist alludes to the reality of incremental progress in her discussion of incoming Morena president Claudia Sheinbaum’s connection to taking climate action. The journalist writes:


[Sheinbaum] holds similar leftist ideals as the current president, and recently told The Associated Press that the neoliberal economic policies of Mexico’s past leaders were to blame for exacerbating inequities. However, Sheinbaum is also a world-renowned environmental scientist and part of the UN climate science panel, the IPCC, which won the Nobel Peace Prize for its work in 2007. As Mayor of Mexico City, she has introduced sweeping environmental and climate plans including tree planting, tackling river pollution, managing water shortages, recycling initiatives, air quality monitoring and solar power installation. [11]


She has also installed more bike lanes, introduced electric buses and developed an increase in green-space initiatives. This is the reality of incremental progress and how a determined manifestation of paso a paso should be lauded, or at the very least acknowledged. The only way transformation occurs is step-by-step and, based on the attention paid to the environment as mayor of Mexico City, there is no reason why Claudia Sheinbaum will not continue to build on what she has started municipally at the same time as continuing her predecessor’s unwavering attention to improving the quality of life of the Mexican people and extricating the country’s dependence and exploitation by international corporations based predominantly in First World countries.


President-elect, Claudia Sheinbaum (Instagram @claudia_shein)


After her victory on June 2nd, 2024, Sheinbaum told a group of avocado and lime growers: “We are going to keep advancing with renewable energies and with the protection of the environment, but without betraying the people of Mexico.”[12] Developing renewables at the same time as what can be seen as internalizing the oil and gas production as a nationalized industry for the benefit of Mexico and not for the external corporate elite will be balanced so that, Mexico will, regardless of incessant accusations of irresponsibility, be doing the same thing as, say, their biggest critic to the north. Mexico has seven domestic oil refineries including the new Olmeca on the Gulf Coast in the state of Tabasco, a more efficient refinery that Obrador built to wean Mexico off of predominantly American gasoline imports—again, another act of keeping to his agenda for economic sovereignty and cutting off the dominance of foreign corporations in his country.[13] Even though there are 132 active oil refineries in the US as of January 2024, the building of Olmeca is constantly held up as evidence of AMLO’s environmental evil. Indeed, when you think about it, what’s the difference? Consuming imported fossil fuels from the US and inviting international corporations to drill it for you and sell it back to you—as was done under the previous PRI administration—or building energy independence by producing your own which, despite non-stop criticism of over-spending, is starting to pay off, creating more revenue to fund social programs.[14]


Now, hold your global warming horses:

I’m certainly not saying oil refineries are a good thing; I’m not saying that the world’s addiction to fossil fuels isn’t a bad thing. And I’m certainly not saying that global warming isn’t perhaps the greatest challenge and danger humans (and let's not anthropocentrically forget all the non-culpable non-human species) face today. I am talking about the unabashed double standard. What I am saying is that Mexico is relatively low on the oil-producing totem pole, is moderate on the carbon emissions measuring stick especially when one adds per capita into the mix and other nations have been and continue to contribute to the environmental train wreck under their neoliberal radar even though they have made carbon emission pledges following the Paris Agreement. When it’s tossed out in capitalist business magazines like ‘Corporate Knights’ that: “Mexico is the world’s 11th-biggest oil producer, it's the 15th-biggest climate polluter,”[15] it sounds monstrous. Yikes ‘biggest’! That sounds big B bad! But the context, what is not stated at all, the 10 and 14 other bigger producers and polluters are conveniently, well, left out. The obedient are never big 'b' Bad.


Some critics have referred to Sheinbaum’s plans to invest in sustainable energy at the same time as develop Mexico’s nationalized oil and gas refining capacity to create what Obrador referred to as ‘energy sovereignty’ as a Frankenstein energy policy, a balancing act mimetic to Mary Shelley’s 19th-century gothic novel where the protagonist, Doctor Victor Frankenstein, plays God by creating a living being out of body parts he scavenged from an abattoir. When the creature comes to life, though, when his deranged dream is fulfilled, Doctor Frankenstein is horrified because he has created a literal monster, a sad, lonely, shunned, flesh and blood monster who the scientist unleashes on the world out of an act of male ego —with murderous consequences. How this can be compared to a president working towards the betterment of her nation in all respects is beyond me except for the fact that Morena has been putting a dismembered state back together again since Obrador’s victory in 2018—not to mention the fact that neoliberalism is a free-market, elite-serving system that functions through greed and lack of empathy and creates slave nations that could very well be compared to abattoirs.


Why isn’t it possible to take care of the people

at the same time as working towards developing renewable energy (the same thing that is happening in the rest of the world)? Painting Sheinbaum and Morena’s plan to achieve the prosperity that First World nations enjoy to the point of comparing her task to unleashing a fictional monster into the world is bizarre to the point that it can be nothing more than ideologically driven. Working towards a healthy country in all respects is to be celebrated and not slandered as synonymous to a 19th-century gothic novel. And, based on the fact that there have already been improvements for the majority of Mexicans in only six years because of what Morena under President Obrador have just begun, it’s been proven possible. Paso a paso. And it should go without saying that improvement in the lives of the majority is the opposite of monstrous. The exploitation, lack of empathy and greed that ruled Mexico for almost 100 years is, and we can—thanks to AMLO and Morena—now say was, the real monster.


President elect, Claudia Sheinbaum and President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (Instagram: @claudia_shein)


To think I originally thought I’d only write a maximum of ten pages about Mexican politics

and I’m on page thirty-six of what became a three-part essay and I haven’t even gotten to the Feministas which, in the context of machismo and an average of ten femicides per day at the hands of husbands or boyfriends, are justifiably fuming. In March 2023, I spoke with two prominent feminists and asked their opinions on the Morena government led by Orbador; their feelings were mixed. Both had voted Morena in 2018; both were disappointed because of the fact that not only did they say he was ignoring the extreme violence against women in Mexico—be it femicides that go uninvestigated and rapes that are not taken seriously at all and, hence, go unreported—he had turned against feminists, accused them of being coopted and manipulated by the conservative/neoliberal opposition because they were confronting him on not prioritizing the femicide epidemic. He lost a lot of support from feminists.


Obrador, like most if not all politicians, isn’t big on criticism and with the extent of the attacks from the opposition and the level of political vitriol that can be stirred up in Mexican politics, perhaps a bit of paranoia is understandable—back to the point made in Part Two about no president, and no human, being perfect. However, at the same time, we cannot forget—and be grateful for—the fact that under AMLO’s government, abortion was legalized nationwide on September 6th, 2023. We must also acknowledge the fact that, because of machismo, femicide has been an epidemic in Mexico for decades, most likely centuries, and like cartel violence (see Part One), if one looks beyond the temporal bounds of the AMLO administration, has not exponentially increased under his watch, not to mention the fact that, in patriarchy as hierarchal system of power abuse, if men are no longer emasculated through poverty and lack of opportunity, violence against women and children lessens. As feminist theorist Silvia Federici explains:


"It is no accident that we find the most unsophisticated machismo in the working class family: the more blows the man gets at work the more his wife must be trained to absorb them, the more he is allowed to recover his ego at her expense. You beat your wife and vent your rage against her when you are frustrated or overtired by your work or when you are defeated in a struggle."[16]


Morena's social programs, initiated by Obrador, indirectly contribute to the cause of ending violence against women.


In reality, the number of men killing their wives and girlfriends

doesn’t have anything to do with the government. A government is not directly responsible for men murdering their partners. It is machismo and sexism that have been a part of Mexican culture since the Spanish Conquistadores and are a part of all patriarchies worldwide to varying degrees. Changing the way a culture thinks takes decades, if not longer, and can certainly not be done in six years. Yet, what the Mexican government can do something about is reforming the justice system to take violence against women seriously (and not just claim a murdered woman was crazy and committed suicide as has been a common victim-blaming and dismissal technique in Mexico maybe forever) so that victims and families can get some justice for the murders and rapes of their daughters, at the very least acknowledgement. As a sign of a society rife with male impunity, most of the cases go unpunished and families of the victims are often forced to carry out their own investigations.[18] Let’s hope that Claudia Sheinbaum invests in the necessity of legitimizing and investigating femicide and rape; let’s hope she participates whole-heartedly in #IBelieveHer


International Women's Day March 2023, Mexico City (photo: Karen Moe)


However, we need to remember this absence of support is not confined to the first Morena administration nor to Mexico: reporting rape and even getting justice is difficult in all patriarchal societies. In Canada—a country lauded for its level of justice for women—one in ten sexual assaults reported to police led to a criminal conviction from 2009-2014, and 7% resulted in a custody sentence.[19] And, of course in a colonial context, Indigenous women inevitably fare much worse. Because of this low level of justice, the majority of rape victims in Canada do not report rape because of the very real risk of re-traumatization.[20] This is not to excuse the absence of judicial support for sexual assault and femicide in Mexico, it is merely to point out that Mexico is not the only society in the world where far from enough attention is paid to violence against women. The femicide rate increased during the Covid years (as it did internationally because of increased male frustration and disempowerment during lockdown),[21] again demonstrating how extending what happens in one society beyond its national borders is always an enlightening strategy. However, bringing it back to Mexico, like with the development of more sustainable energy, we will see if Claudia Sheinbaum is a not only a president on the left, but if she is also a feminist and prioritizes violence against women and girls as an integral part of prioritizing the people of Mexico.


*


I wasn’t supposed to write this essay.

For two reasons. The first being: I’m in the middle of writing a book. The second: I was told that I shouldn’t be publicly celebrating the landslide victory of Claudia Sheinbaum and Morena by posting relief and joy on my social media the day after the second Morena landslide on June 2nd, 2024. I was told that my support for Morena, Sheinbaum and Obrador goes against everything I believe in and that I will be proven wrong especially because Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro (along with other Latin American countries striving to stand against neoliberal incursions into their countries to exploit their resources)[22] congratulated Claudia Sheinbaum on her victory. Apparently, Maduro’s congratulation is absolute proof Mexico is becoming or has already become a new Venezuela. The latter is what made me disobey the former. A blanket proclamation that the Morena administration is like Venezuela because of an electoral congratulation is like saying if someone wishes me happy birthday, we are one and the same. Moreover, after six years of AMLO’s rigorous and highly successful reforms, if Mexico were to become Venezuela, it would be well on its way and, in a country with a historically high poverty rate, the lives of the majority certainly wouldn’t be improving. Humorously, if one digs a tad deeper than superficial, meme-driven, hysteria, the US also congratulated Sheinbaum.[23] It appears that the opposition/Fifis (Fifi is AMLO’s nickname for his opposition) are sore losers grasping at any straws they can use to point ‘autocrat’ with.


A June 7th, 2024 article in the Financial Times entitled “Mexico’s Elite struggles to comprehend left’s landslide election win”, I came upon these most amusing and ludicrous reactions to the June 2nd election results: “[o]ne executive stayed in bed all afternoon eating ice cream to try to cope …, while another business leader said his WhatsApp chats were marked by a mood of “collective suicide.” In the same article, I read with shock that Fifis are going so far as to proclaim they will no longer tip their waiters or the people who park their cars because they know they all voted Morena. I wonder what will happen to their servants and nannies who have been cleaning their houses, cooking their food and raising their children for decades and commuting for hours from Neza or the Ecatepec to do so because they all undoubtedly voted Morena, too. From my nine years in Mexico, I have witnessed on numerous occasions what Viri Ríos, a Mexican author of a book on inequality, says about Mexico’s elite who enjoy lives in keeping with 19th Century Europeans “living in gated communities and having never known, beyond their employees, the feelings or way of thinking of average Mexicans.” Such a callous lack of compassion for the people who serve them is an example of the lack of empathy and individualism endemic to the neoliberal ideology that the “populist”—there’s that dirty word again emphasizing the people over the elite—Morena government is protecting Mexico from. Apocalyptic predictions fly around Roma and Polanco cafes; “I guess it’s time to move to Houston” is lamented over and over by the wealthy, where even though the US is admired by the Mexican elite, they don’t move there because they wouldn’t be able to enjoy the same luxurious lifestyles with their inexpensive Morena-voting help. These are the reactions of spoiled brats who haven’t gotten their own way and are lashing out mid-tantrum.


Like all children having flung themselves onto the floor

and banging their fists, the Fifis/opposition cannot accept the truth that doesn’t correspond to their ideology supported by the continuation of one-third of Mexicans living below the poverty line and a few others on the top among the richest in the world—and the Morena Party and Claudia Sheinbaum will continue to close that gap. They couldn’t accept the fact that “[t]he people’s mandate was clear: with a difference of two to one, our candidate Claudia Sheinbaum obtained more than 35 million votes, 15 million votes more than the second-place person. No president in the history of Mexico has received so many votes.”[24] They couldn't accept this fact to such an extent that they ordered a recount. Sadly, for them, 2.69 million more votes were found for Sheinbaum.[25] That still wasn’t enough proof. They then demanded the election be held all over again. Luckily, the class of spoiled brats were not catered to like their parents most likely did.


“Everything Obrador has done is bad!”

“Sheinbaum will continue to destroy Mexico!”

“We are becoming just like Venezuela!”

“Morena is taking away our democracy!”

“The poor only vote Morena because they give them handouts!” I have overheard ad nauseum in the privileged colonias of Mexico City and been told over and over by Fifi friends—who will most likely never talk to me again if they read this.


Everything is bad? You may not agree with everything, but can’t you admit at least some good has been done?” I ask, forty pages of context-building later. “If you still feel that way, I recommend you read this essay again (starting with Part One) and hopefully something will register as to why the majority of Mexicans are not only happy, they are also relieved that their country is not going to be sold out to international interests again and that the majority of the people will continue to be prioritized over the elite minority. And, that, with the most votes ever given to a president—and the first presidenta nonetheless—with the re-election of Morena and Claudia Sheinbaum at the helm, Mexico is celebrating more positive developments in Mexico, and this, in the long run, through the power of paso a paso, is a good thing.”

 

*

 

I will conclude with three testimonies from non-elite (or elite wannabe) Mexicans:

I could undoubtedly get hundreds of thousands more (but I must get back to writing my book!). Besides being told I shouldn’t, testimonies and lived experiences such as these are why I wrote this three-part essay, And this is a Good Thing:


“Until Morena and President Obrador and the social support and increase in the minimum wage in Mexico, no president has sided with the workers, has been on the side of the poor people; everything was the rich first, everyone who has money is the one with power. One experience I had: my son was given a scholarship when he was in high school. For people who have children studying, this is a big help.” Isabel, agricultural worker.

 

“Morena is a movement that began a long time ago. We have spent our whole lives waiting for this movement. This movement isn’t over in six years. This is a process that will take 30, 40 years.” Blas Ramos, a 69-year-old electrical engineer.


“I’m 97 and I had never received so many benefits like AMLO has given us. I have always worked since I was a boy because life was very hard. And now I noticed that I like to live in my Mexico.” Facebook post for the community group: La Gran Chairotitlán.



President elect, Claudia Sheinbaum (Instagram: @claudia_shein)


*


About the Writer:


Karen Moe is an author, art critic, visual and performance artist, and feminist activist. Her work focuses on systemic violence in patriarchy: be it gender, race, class, the environment or speciesism. Her art criticism has been published internationally in magazines, anthologies and artist catalogues in English and Spanish, she has exhibited and performed across Canada, the US and Mexico and has spoken on sexual violence internationally. She is the author of Victim: A Feminist Manifesto from a Fierce Survivor Vigilance Press (2022) which received Runner Up at the San Francisco Book Festival. During her North American Tour, she was presented with the “Ellie Liston Hero of the Year Award” by the DA of Ventura County for being instrumental in the life sentence given to a serial rapist. Karen speaks internationally on sexual violence sharing her lived experiences of "trauma & triumph." Victim has recently been translated into Spanish. Karen lives in Mexico City and Vancouver Island, Canada.

 



Notes


[2] Neoliberalism: a political approach that favours free-market capitalism, deregulation (think capitalists rule and zero social programs), and reduction in government spending (think no social net or social programs). An eye for an eye/ dog-eat-dog ideology of individualism, self-importance, greed without empathy that has normalized itself, is aspired to and is also economically and ideologically imperial (think: corporate colonialism). My definition: capitalism on crack.

[20] See: Robyn Doolittle Had It Coming: What’s Fair in the Age if #MeToo and my book Victim: A Feminist Manifesto from a Fierce Survivor.

[21] Along with many other feminist theorists, see Sayak Valencia, Silvia Frederici and Chimanada Ngozi Adichie for more on the connection between male violence in patriarchy and disempowerment/emasculation.




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