Tag Archives: Felipe Calderon

Shakira Calls for Global Education Reform

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Shakira is calling for educational reform globally…

The 39-year-old Colombian superstar and activist appears in a new video calling for action on education.

Shakira

“Our future generations will surpass our greatest expectations if we give them the tools to do so,” Shakira says in a video for The International Commission on Financing Global Education (also known as The Education Commission), that coincides with its new report on financing global education.

“They have the talent the potential and the power to change the world for the better. But we know that their future will be written by how we act today… Education is their birthright, not a luxury.”

Shakira, whose Pies Descalzos Foundation has built schools in Colombia, is a member of the United Nations commission, alongside current and former heads of state, Nobel laureates and education experts who include Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg, former Mexican president Felipe Calderón, and Anthony Lake, the Executive Director of UNICEF.

The Commission’s report calls for national governments to “reform their education systems to maximize learning and efficiency and to ensure that every child has access to quality education, free from pre-primary to secondary levels, through the progressive and sustained increase of domestic financing.”

That amounts to a tripling of the to over three trillion dollars a year by 2030.

Medina-Mora Named Mexico’s Ambassador to the United States

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Eduardo Medina-Mora is heading to our nation’s capital…

The 55-year-old Mexican politician has been appointed as Mexico’s ambassador to the United States by the country’s newly inaugurated  president Enrique Peña Nieto, a move approved by the Mexican Congress.

Eduardo Medina-Mora

Medina-Mora, who will replace the current ambassador in Washington, Arturo Sarukhán, has been praised by Mexican lawmakers as having all the characteristics needed to become the country’s representative to its neighbor to the north, according to the Mexican daily El Universal.

Some Washington insiders have also expressed their support for the Medina-Mora appointment, stating that it his previous work with the U.S. on the Mérida Initiative, the U.S. aid program that hopes to restore Mexican government authority in areas challenged by drug traffickers, is a sign that he knows how to work with the U.S. and will have the ear of Peña Nieto.

“It’s likely that the U.S.-Mexico relationship will be run by Medina-Mora out of Washington and straight back to Los Pinos,” said a senior U.S. official, referring to the Mexican president’s residence, according to the Dallas Morning News.

Medina-Mora began his career as a lawyer before being appointed Mexico’s Secretary of Public Safety under former President Vicente Fox and then taking over the PGR former Mexican President Felipe Calderón’s administration. Since 2009, Medina-Mora has served as Mexico’s ambassador to the United Kingdom, where he dealt with the controversy over derogatory comments made about Mexicans on the BBC show Top Gear.

Upon his arrival in the beltway, Medina-Mora will be faced with two issues that have plagued relations between the neighboring nations for years: Mexico’s drug war and immigration.

“Medina-Mora comes with much more experience than his predecessor and has done a lot in Mexico…His appointment shows that they took the post seriously… they put someone in the position who has directly dealt with the main issue to the U.S., the drug issue,” said Peter Hakim, the president emeritus and senior fellow at the Inter-American Dialogue.

Sanchez & García Dive Their Way to a Silver Medal

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London Olympics 2012

They may have gotten off to a sluggish start, but German Sanchez and Iván García threw caution to the wind in the final rounds to capture Mexico’s first medal at the 2012 Olympic Games…

The 20-year-old and 18-year-old Mexican divers went all out on Monday with a very difficult dive and pulled it off to assure the dynamic duo the silver medal in the Men’s Diving: 10-Meter Synchronized Platform final at the London Games.

German Sanchez & Ivan Garcia

Garcia and Sanchez earned 468.90 points for second place behind champions Cao Yuan and Zhang Yanquan of China, who had 486.78.  The pair beat out U.S. divers Nicholas McCrory and David Boudia, who ended with a score of 463.47.

The Chinese divers, as well as Great Britain’s Thomas Daley and Peter Waterfield went ahead early in the final, while Sanchez and García found themselves in last place after their first two obligatory dives.

German Sanchez & Ivan Garcia

In their third dive, however, the pair moved into fifth place.

That’s when they decided to forget they were competing at the Olympics and visualize themselves alone with their trainer in their gym in Guadalajara. Sanchez and García executed an inward 4 1/2 somersault tuck with a 4.1 degree of difficulty, picking up 95.94 points to vault into second place, with only the Chinese ahead of them.

German Sanchez & Ivan Garcia

“We played it because it was the only way to fulfill this dream,” said Sanchez. “We could have failed because we tried something very difficult, but it worked out and here I have the medal.”

The silver medal was Mexico’s first of the London games and 56th overall.

German Sanchez & Ivan Garcia

Mexican President Felipe Calderon congratulated Garcia and Sanchez via Twitter.

“Congratulations to German Sanchez and Ivan Garcia, silver medal in 10-meter synchronized … Congratulations!” the president wrote.

The divers also received a shout-out from the governor of their home state of Jalisco, Emilio Gonzalez Marquez.

“Congratulations to @IvanGarciaPollo and to @DiverSanchez for giving Mexico its first silver medal. They are the pride of Jalisco,” the governor tweeted.