Check out this article on piracy in Mexico. Here’s are some quotes:
“Illegal sales already account for 65 percent of CD sales in Mexico, and the entertainment industry is bracing for things to get much worse now that fast broadband connections have become more common, doubling to 61 percent of Web-enabled Mexicans in the last two years.”
“Internet use in Mexico increased about 20 percent per year from 2001 to 2006, and nearly one-fifth of the population of 107 million will have Web access by year’s end, according to the Mexican Internet Association, which represents Web-related businesses.”
“According to the IFPI, with a pirate market valued at $111 million in 2004, Mexico is now within the top ten countries for music piracy. The major labels say Mexican computer users download about 568 million songs per year.”
“The movie industry already lost about $483 million to counterfeit sales in Mexico in 2005, according to the Motion Picture Association of America.”
What does this mean for youth ministry in Mexico? Probably a lot. I would be willing to bet that the people who are buying and distributing the pirated versions of CDs are young people. It’s not uncommon to see booths with pirated music, movies, or video games. It is done in the open. This is definitely an issue in youth ministry in Mexico.
I haven’t posted much about Nathan lately, and Janell’s mom asked for some more pictures of the boy. We were in Walmart today, and all the World Cup stuff was on sale, so we bought a Mexican wig (see the picture). I decided to let Nathan try it on. Of course, you can see all of the pictures we ever take of Nathan here on Flickr.
As for a general update on the boy lately, he’s pretty much walking anywhere he wants. He’s getting molar teeth now, meaning he can eat a lot of cool stuff. He loves to eat Life cereal (which we can’t buy here) and drinks out of his sippy cups like a pro. He just turned 14 months old on Sunday, and he’s as cute as ever. He still loves cars and animals (especially barking dogs). Well, that should hold you over until the next big Nathan update, I hope.
Our friends over at the National Union of Baptist Youth are lobbying to have the Baptist Youth World Conference come to Mexico in 2013. They have a big presentation on Tuesday, and they asked me to check the English version of the powerpoint proposal. This conference is a meeting every five years of Baptist Youth throughout the world. I’m not sure what other purpose there would be for it besides fellowship, but it seems to be a big deal. We’re talking a lot of young people in one place at one time. It could be interesting. Anyway, I might go with them on Tuesday to help present the proposal.
So, Carson and Cole and I went to Six Flags today. Cole took the day off from his job at the school, and we decided to buy our annual passes. We went to the pharmacy to buy our passes (funny that you can buy Six Flags passes at a pharmacy), but it turned out that this particular pharmacy only had one annual pass left. So, we had to look for the other pharmacy. Luckily, it was near the “transito” office, where I have been a few times before. We finally found it and bought the passes. That put us off schedule, but it was okay. We still had to wait in morning rush hours traffic anyway.
Our plan to go to Six Flags on a day when there would be nobody there backfired drastically. There were lots of people there, and the wait for the major rides was huge. Carson and Cole waited in line for the Batman ride for about an hour and a half. I decided to wait in the shade, sitting down. That’s the good thing about having an annual pass.
We had a good time on the non-major rides like the ferris wheel, swings, and other little things. They went on “The Crazy Pineapple,” but there’s no way I’m going on that again. Been there. Done that. Almost puked. I’m more of a roller coaster type of person. Which made me happy when on the way out we went on Superman, and there was little wait. Cole and I decided to go in the first car. It was awesome. Overall, it was a fun day. And the traffic on the way home wasn’t that bad, either.
Tomorrow I’m going to Six Flags with Cole and Carson. We’re gonna get our annual passes and ride Superman a ton of times. There’s only a week left of public school, so we’re going before the school kids get out. It’s gonna be fun. I get to spend time with two of my favorite people in one of my favorite places. Hopefully, it won’t take us four hours to get home like it did before, because this time, I’m driving.
