{"id":22,"date":"2009-02-16T16:17:58","date_gmt":"2009-02-16T20:17:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/forum\/2009\/02\/16\/mayors-do-the-darndest-things\/"},"modified":"2013-05-20T09:54:50","modified_gmt":"2013-05-20T13:54:50","slug":"mayors-do-the-darndest-things","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/forum\/2009\/02\/16\/mayors-do-the-darndest-things\/","title":{"rendered":"Mayors Do the Darndest Things"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Mexico<\/a><\/p>\n

Mexico City Kiss-In (photo by AP)<\/p>\n

Somehow Mexico City appears to be a big focus for me on the FLoG Blog this year, and so I just couldn\u2019t pass up the opportunity to highlight an article in Friday\u2019s NY Times. <\/span>With midterm elections coming up in July, Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard has starting focusing on some more, ahem, interesting tactics to generate support from his constituents. <\/span>The newest \u2013 free government distributed free Viagra, Cialis and Levitra (erectile dysfunction drugs) to poor men over 60. <\/span>In announcing the plan and noting that many elderly people do not qualify for employer heath plans, the mayor said <\/span>\u201cEveryone has the right to be happy\u2026They don\u2019t have medical services, and a society that doesn\u2019t care for its senior citizens has no dignity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Adding to the amorous spirit, this weekend for Valentine\u2019s Day the government sponsored a \u201ckiss-in\u201d, in which just under 40,000 people gathered in the Zocalo main square to set the world record for the world\u2019s largest group kiss. <\/span>The event was meant to celebrate the holiday and \u201cto show that warmth and love are at the core of this capital\u201d, according to the City\u2019s tourism department. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Now in a city that has been plagued with crime, efforts to encourage people to love rather than hate seem a conceptually nice idea. <\/span>This is true particularly when contrasted with statistics stemming from a <\/span>recent crackdown against drug traffickers that <\/span>has led to widespread violence across the country. <\/span>At least 6,000 people died in drug-related conflicts in Mexico in 2008.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Though the long term benefits of free Viagra and giant group kissing-fests seem dubious and more like politically transparent pandering than anything else, it remains to be seen what the response will be among the voters of Mexico City. <\/span>And who knows, if tactics like these end up having some positive effect, perhaps we in the US might take a lesson and focus on a whole new type of stimulus plan. <\/span>(Sorry \u2013 terrible pun. I just couldn’t resist.)<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2009\/02\/13\/world\/americas\/13mexico.html<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/news.yahoo.com\/s\/ap\/20090215\/ap_on_re_la_am_ca\/lt_mexico_kissing_record<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

-EKK<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mexico City Kiss-In (photo by AP) Somehow Mexico City appears to be a big focus for me on the FLoG Blog this year, and so I just couldn\u2019t pass up the opportunity to highlight an article in Friday\u2019s NY Times. With midterm elections coming up in July, Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard has starting focusing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1950,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/forum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/forum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/forum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/forum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1950"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/forum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/forum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/forum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22\/revisions\/36"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/forum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/forum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/forum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}