Monday, October 25, 2010

Mexico - what were they thinking about

Some students from the tradeschool Mercantec in Viborg were sent to Mexico to experience the culture and industry.

They were attacked by robbers and lost money together with other values.

Fortunately it seems that they will be able to return to Denmark alive.

The question is what they were doing there in the first place. It is far from the first time Danish students have suffered harm abroad. Some months ago we wrote about another group of Danish students who were exposed of xenophobia in the Czech republic.

Mexico is very close to civil war. The reputation their police had when it came to deal with criminals as they did in relationship with a police action on Plaza de las Tres Culturas just before the 1968 Olympic games is long gone.

Today they use the Marines instead the local police when trying to arrest drug dealers due to the risk of having been infiltrated. Second the criminals are known for execution not only the policemen working to stop them but also the families of the policemen. It is a rather harsh and unfair fight to restore peace in a country who has faces difficulties since 2004 when the authorities shut almost all legitimate businesses in the Northern Mexico down leaving the local population to have only one choice for a living - crime.

I am surprise that a tradeschool did so little background checking before sending these young people abroad. It would not have taken most firms 5 seconds before they had realized that a business venture in Mexico would have meant hiring several security consultants from Biker gangs in Denmark as Danish firms did in larger number before the gang war in Denmark became a larger conflict.

Maybe they tried but was left with a choice to cancel now where the police in a attempt to appear political correct did arrest almost every member of the biker gangs, which on the other hand have left the crimescene in Denmark to other criminals gangs entirely.

It would have been costly to cancel such a trip. The students and the families had properly chosen this particular school because they offered a trip abroad.

So they did choose to gamble and they lost.

Now it is time to rethink the entire concept of sending our youth abroad. It was so bad in Mexico, it went bad in the Czech republic. We were spared of a tragedy, but what about the next time.

We must appeal the Minister of Education in Denmark. Please stop all trips abroad for our students. The firms know where they can get security consultants without taking the past of these people into consideration because they are prepared to pay for safety of their employees regardless of the costs.

It is no area any school in Denmark should deal with - not even if they just were sending the students to Sweden or Germany. In Sweden they have snipers shooting at people and Danes are foreigners over there.

The only place Danish students belong are in Denmark.

Please spare them for further ordeal. The next time a student could be returning in a coffin.

References:
Danish students assaulted in Mexico (Politiken, 25. October 2010)