Tortillas are what these people live on, so they are much more than just bread. And when the price of tortillas rises, it is big news.
That is why a recent announcement by Mexico’s National Chamber for the Tortilla and Dough Industry made such an impact.
The chamber predicted that tortilla prices would rise by about 18% in the next month because of rising costs of fuel and corn.[…]
In simple terms, that would mean the price of a kilogram of tortillas would go up from about 8.5 pesos (80 US cents) a kilo now to around 10 pesos a kilo in June.
If you live on $5 a day, that kind of increase is a big deal - and the government knows it.[…]
The crisis that has sent food costs spiraling upward around the globe is causing Ethiopian Jews now living in Israel to give up something priceless: a piece of their culture.
Tens of thousands of the expatriates are being forced to abandon their traditional diets because of the skyrocketing cost of teff grain.
Teff, a nutritious and hardy cereal domesticated in Ethiopia thousands of years ago, is the primary ingredient in injera, a round flatbread that accompanies most Ethiopian meals.
A drastic shortage has caused the price of teff to jump by some 300 percent over the past year.
Both the BBC and National Geographic, as well as other outlets, have reports and on-going series on the looming problem:
Submitted by Robert Daeley on Thu, 2008-04-03 00:11.
From the AP comes a curious item about the potential of Belize having its World Cup qualifier in LA or Houston:
Belize is working to stage its home World Cup qualifier in June against Mexico in either Los Angeles or Houston, the head of the country’s soccer federation said Wednesday.[…]
Belize doesn’t have a stadium that meets FIFA standards for the first leg of the two-match series on June 15, Mexico’s opener in qualifying for the 2010 World Cup.
I imagine getting tickets if it’s here in LA would be a smidgen difficult.
Submitted by Robert Daeley on Fri, 2008-02-22 07:13.
It’s not just Mexico, as this LA Times article points out — women’s soccer is surpassing traditional sports at the college level here in the States as well.
Soccer moms aren’t common yet in Mexico, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t a force to be reckoned with.
In fact, in a country that’s slowly becoming a force on the international sports scene, few teams have risen higher and faster than Mexico’s women’s soccer team. And to get there, they’ve had to beat more than just their opponents on the field. They’ve also had to overcome insufficient funding, a lack of infrastructure, little support and centuries of ingrained social teaching.
Because of his ties to California, Chivas de Guadalajara forward Jesús Padilla earned the nickname “Gringo.”
Turns out, there’s more to his nickname than just his American upbringing, and the reality may cause some serious credibility problems for Chivas, a club whose massive support south of the border is in part thanks to its policy of fielding only Mexican-born players.
SI.com has learned that 20-year-old Padilla was, in fact, born in California and not in the Mexican state of Jalisco, as his bio on Chivas’ Web site states. At any other club in Mexico, such a fact wouldn’t be an issue. At Chivas, however, it’s a big deal.
Submitted by Robert Daeley on Sun, 2006-12-03 23:15.
I came across a song and artist this past week thanks to an accidental switch to one of the digital cable music channels we never listen to. Silverio was the artist (from Mexico, not the famous Italian flamenco singer) and the song — “Yepa Yepa Yepa” — was a hyper, driving electronica song distantly reminiscent of Yello, Emergency Broadcast Network, or some other 80s soundtrack band.
The power of the Intarweb led me to this wonderful live one-man performance of the song — the frenetic, spirited execution of which is best described as drum machines and pre-programmed effects being played during a disco strip-tease. The screenshot here is actually the host reacting:
