Crazy little thing called Anger (grrrrrr)

  Today’s Live your legend challenge could not be more appropriate. I am supposed to write about what really makes me angry about the world and, to be sincere, too many things make me angry at the moment. I will first define in one word all the things that infuriate me: injustice. That, I think is my biggest frustration and also my main motor.
As I said, this question could not be more timely. Today the UN urged Mexico to consider an expert-group´s recommendations on the Ayotzinapa case. Also, Save the Children alerted about the half-million teenage pregnancies registered in Mexico every year and I read an article on children sexual exploitation occurring in Acapulco, Guerrero. So, as you might see there is a very clear thread in my frustrations: it is all about injustice.

Injustice in Mexico, as it happens in the US and propably in many other parts of the world goes accompanied by inequality and poverty. The cases I mentioned above have those common ingredients; they normally happen to the poor, to those who from the beggining have less opportunities. In the US these are normally the minorities, while in Mexico it is also true; our majority-minority -indiginous people- are normally the ones who suffer injustice. Neverthless, injustice is pretty much generalized, it goes hand in hand with corruption and lack of accountability...ohh... and I am probably missing the failure of institutions. Yes, I am painting a pretty gloom scene here, but if I describe things this way I guess it is pretty self-explainatory why injustice makes me so angry.

When I was in elementary school my teacher told us to write a speech about a social issue present in our community and somehow I wrote about justice...well... the lack of it. I started by describing the kids on the street, the ones we call "limpiaparabrisas" and who have become an inherent part of our cities. Then, I wondered how could it be that I got to be in school and they did not... and finally I described justice as a human value that if apply purely and clearly brings us closer to perfection. But injustice for those kids was a bigger problem, it was not about the parents being unfair and not sending them to school, it was a systemic injustice. The kind of problem I could only understand years later, when I found out that things are always more complicated than they seem. 

So here I am today, still wondering how a person can be just when the whole system is unaccountable and flawed. I guess that is a very philosophical question, but maybe is also a very important one. How many times have we been the victims of injustice? how many times have we been the perpetrators of it? How much our wrong doings contribute to the systemic failures? If all my babbling was not enough,I'll end this post with a wonderful letter that is just as compelling today as it was when first published. It is an invitation to see beyond what we normally see, a reminder that injustice is pervasive and a call to get angry and to get going; to find or build a road to fairness and equality.