After an 8-hour flight from Sao Paulo, we arrived in Mexico City yesterday morning. The stark social inequalities were so apparent in Brazil, and things are no different here. There is a burgeoning middle class in Mexico, but a huge proportion of Mexicans are trapped in poverty, with few signs that things are going to change anytime soon.
The press here have picked up on a quote from Chris that Oxfam put out before the tour started. Chris says that Mexico is a great country with delicious tortillas - but that the tortillas taste so much better when they're made from Mexican maize. It's a great quote, and has caught the imagination of the press, and, it seems, the country. Maize originated in Mexico, and it's not only a staple food and a mass employer, but also a part of Mexican culture.
So when the rural Mexican maize farmers are struggling to survive due to cheap US maize being dumped on the market here, it stirs up some deep passions. And at the concert tonight, that same passion turned into action, as hundreds of concert-goers signed the Make Trade Fair petition. Now that's campaigning!
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