4 The Hampton Roads Messenger Editorial Spring Clean Your Finances
you owe. Do not get discouraged if you are surprised by the amount of debt you have. This exercise should inspire one to take control of their finances and get them moving in a positive direction.
Once the lists are complete, subtract
the total of your liabilities from the total of your assets. This total is defined as your net worth. This process should be completed once a year and compared to the previous year to determine progress. One should be realistic when estimating the value of assets to get a more accurate determination.
While you are completing this BY ANGELA JONES Most people think of spring as a
great time to do cleaning around the house. It is an ideal time to clean off the dreary dust of winter by washing windows, cleaning out closets and maybe even sprucing up the yard by planting brightly colored and fragrant flowers. This year, one should not let spring pass without sprucing up their finances.
You may be asking yourself “How
can one spruce up their finances?” They can start by taking an inventory of what tangible assets they have. An asset is any item you own that has value. A tangible asset is, generally, an asset that has a very direct and clear value. Cars, homes, boats, savings, retirement accounts, stocks, bonds and even some life insurance policies are considered assets. You can even include valuable personal items like jewelry and coin collections; although, items worth less than $500 are usually not included. This list, as well as photos of these items, can be helpful if there is a need to prove ownership after a theft, fire or damaging storm.
Next, one should take an inventory
of their liabilities, which include mortgage balances, car loans, credit cards, student loans or any other debt
exercise, it is also a good idea to request a copy of your credit report and spruce it up. Everyone is entitled to one free credit report every year. You may think you know what is on your report; however, the information can even vary from one credit reporting agency to another. Once you obtain the reports from all three reporting agencies, be diligent about making sure all of the information they contain is correct. Write a letter to the credit reporting agency or the company reporting the incorrect information if necessary. There are laws against a company reporting inaccurate information and you may be entitled to compensation based on the Fair Credit Reporting Act. You can read more information about your rights at
www.ftc.gov.
Additionally, your credit report can
assist you in determining if someone has stolen your identity. Today, it is fairly easy for criminals to gain access to your personal information. Using a credit card, the internet and disposing of unwanted mail without shredding it can make you vulnerable to identity theft. Take precautions.
If you are not satisfied with the
condition of your personal finances, create a plan to make improvements. The good news is that you are in control. Whether you decide to save more, spend less, invest in rental property or all of the above, only you have the power to improve your net worth.
Thousands of students protest in Mexico City BY MANUEL RUEDA Thousands of university students
took to the streets of Mexico City recently demanding greater freedom of speech in the country and protesting the PRI’s possible return to power.
It was the third large student protest
in less than a week, and it has prompted some journalists in the country to wonder if Mexico is going through a political transformation similar to the “Arab Spring” that began 18 months ago.
But what exactly do these students
want, and where will their movement go?
We took to the streets of Mexico
City to find out a bit more and discovered that this is a complex movement where protesters have different but overlapping agendas.
How it all began: The organizers of last month’s
protest, were students from the Universidad Iberoamericana and other academic institutions in Mexico City, who advertised the event through the Twitter Hashtag, #YoSoy132.
Several of them appeared on TV
Network Televisa, a day before the protest, to explain their motifs.
“We don’t think that the media [in
Mexico] are providing fair coverage of events,” student leader Maria Jose Lopez said.
“Our main goal is to seek greater
democracy within Mexican media,” said fellow activist, Rodrigo Serrano.
The name, “YoSoy132” alludes
to a group of students from the Universidad Iberamericana, who heckled PRI presidential candidate Enrique Peña Nieto during a recent visit to the university that chased him off the premises.
After the incident, PRI leaders
accused the Iberoamericana students of being intolerant, inconsiderate “stooges” paid to protest against Peña Nieto by the leftist PRD party.
This argument — especially
the accusations by PRI officials — blanketed the airwaves on television giants Televisa and TV Azteca and took up tons of column inches in papers that tend to favor the PRI, like El Sol, which went as far as to label Peña Nieto’s visit to the Iberoamericana a “triumph” for the candidate.
Students claimed that their run-in
with Peña Nieto was a spontaneous protest, which was not paid for by any political party. But their views initially obtained little coverage on Mexico’s mainstream media.
Student activist Sandra Partago,
said that media coverage related to the Peña Nieto incident encouraged students to carry out protests that called for the “democratization” of Mexican media.
“It was a watershed moment,
when we woke up on May 12 [the day following the candidate’s visit to the Iberoamericana] and saw how the media had manipulated [information about] what had really happened,” Partago told Televisa journalist Carlos Loret, who had the students appear on his morning talk show after they staged a protest in front of the TV station’s headquarters.
Partago, Lopez and Serrano said
that their movement was not targeted at any of Mexico’s political parties, although they argued that Televisa was favoring PRI candidate Peña Nieto, in its news programs and opinion shows.
To make a point that their
movement is “nonpartisan,” the leaders of the #YoSoy132 movement, asked their followers to not carry any posters in favor or against any of Mexico’s political parties to the march.
The “Anti-Pri-istas”: Anti-PRI posters and chants
against Peña Nieto were abundant at Wednesday’s march however, perhaps an indication that some of the protesters have a broader agenda than the organizers.
Ana Gomez, an international
relations student at the Iberoamericana, jumped up and down with her friends at the base of Mexico City’s Independence Monument, screaming “El que no brinca es Peña,” which translates roughly to “If you don’t jump, you are Peña.”
Gomez did not approve of Televisa’s
coverage of the Mexican elections, but she also said that she attended the march because she was worried that the PRI could return to power in Mexico.
“We are manifesting ourselves
against what was 70 years of a [PRI] regime that was against liberty, against freedom of speech,” Gomez said. “We don’t want that back.”
Carlos Suarez, a UNAM student
was more blunt. “I don’t want the PRI to win these elections, that’s my goal” he said when asked about the purpose of the protests.
According to political analyst
Hector Faya, one factor that unites Mexico’s student protesters is their frustration with the “monopolization” of Mexican politics and media.
This phenomenon is best
represented by Televisa –- the company that along with TV Azteca controls 95 percent of Mexico’s TV market. It’s also evident with PRI, the party which ruled
PROTESTS IN MEXICO PAGE 6
Volume 6 Number 10
June 2012
Student Protests in Mexico -- The Next Arab Spring?
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16