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An officer at a crime scene in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, 2009
You may not know this about me, but I used to be the BBC reporter in Kingston, Jamaica. For the time that I was there, I reported on crime and the problem the island faced being a drug transit route. I was always looking to report what was happening there in a more enlightening way. To tell the stories behind the headlines kind of thing.
I face the same thing now, today looking at how we cover the Mexico drug cartels.
Alicia with Mark and Ros from World Have Your Say
Luckily, my colleague Alicia, seen in the photo at the centre of the swine flu storm – has found a woman who works with youngsters in Juarez, who are at risk of joining the gangs there. Take a look at this fantastic audio slideshow.
We are in the process of sending recording equipment to this lady, so that she can help us with the real life storytelling.
I really admire so much, the people who put themselves out there for their community. I met a person like this is Jamaica -there was a woman there who risked her own life to get two warring gangs to sit together in a room and talk to each other. I am trying to emphasise – as I do with all the citizen journalists we work with, that safety is the number one priority and that you must not put yourself or anyone else in danger in working with this project.
But these leading lights of a community are the true diplomats in this world I think, and I for one am looking forward to hearing this perspective. Do you think the same, or should we leave this topic to the professional journalists?
Photo by Kemorphosis
I want to find a cocaine user who will interview other drug users they know – about the drug wars raging in Mexico.
Drug rehab centres near the US-Mexico border are a good place to start, so I’ve contacted a couple of them for help on this. I’m also in touch with this guy who posted a photo of himself smoking meth on flickr.
But of course, most people don’t like to admit they’ve taken cocaine or other drugs, to people they don’t know. Have you ever taken drugs? Would you be willing to admit so, on this blog?
Hillary Clinton meets Felipe Calderon in Mexico
Hillary Clinton has been talking about the insatiable demand in the US for drugs and that this means there is a shared responsibility when it comes to dealing with the trade and the violence that comes with it.
But do the people who buy cocaine feel this responsibility? If not, then what, if anything, can be done to change this attitude?
And are addicts really to blame for the drug trade, when their reasons for using may stem from a need to anaesthetise pain in their lives?
Maybe there is someone trying to put a direct and personal message across to western drug users, linking the demand for drugs with the violence they’ve experienced themselves in Mexico. If you know of someone doing this, I’d be interested in hooking up with them.
The message in western schools currently says a flat “no to drugs”, maybe it needs to say “please say no to drugs because the cartels are threatening to kill my family”.
Perhaps that is too big a connection to make in peoples’ minds. Maybe drug users cannot think past their hard week in the office and having a good time in the club. It is after all, a far cry from the streets of Ciudad Juarez.
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