Anti-Emo Riots Break Out Across Mexico
By Alexis Madrigal
March 27, 2008

Riot police have taken to the streets of several cities in Mexico to ... defend emo kids?

A series of attacks on dyed-hair, eye-makeup-wearing emo kids began in early March when several hundred people went on an emo-beating rampage in Querétaro, a town of 1.5 million about 160 miles north of Mexico City.

The next week, shaggy-haired emo teenagers were harassed again by punks and rockabillys in the capital, prompting police protection and a segment on the TV news. Most recently, a Mexican newspaper reported that metal heads and gangsters have warned Tijuana's emo kids to stay away from the town's fair next month.

But the so-called emos are organizing, too. Last week, they demonstrated against the violence, pictured above, and Wednesday some met with police in Mexico City.

"They're organizing to defend their right to be emo," wrote Daniel Hernandez of LA Weekly on his personal blog, which has provided stellar coverage of the whole affair.

Music-based subcultures have permeated Mexico's major cities for decades, fueled by constant migration from rural cities. But only in the past year have emos begun to make their presence felt in the streets. In response, many of the established so-called tribus urbanas like punks and metalheads are responding with violence. The emo-punk battles are reminiscent of earlier subculture fights among various factions, like the Hell's Angels fighting hippies at the Altamont Music Festival or the Mods taking on the Rockers.   

But while videos of Mexican teenagers with pompadours advancing on equally baby-faced emo rockers seem like scenes from a south-of-the-border version of John Waters' Crybaby, there are ugly undercurrents to the story.

First, by some accounts, the emo subculture is identified with homosexuality in Mexico. As Mexico City youth worker Victor Mendoza told Time.com: "At the core of this is the homophobic issue. The other arguments are just window dressing for that."

Gustavo Arellano, the author of Ask a Mexican and an editor at OC Weekly, said that the sexual ambiguities cultivated by emo fashion helped set the group up for targeting by more macho groups.

"What do you do when you are confronted with a question mark about sexuality in Mexico?" Arellano said. "You beat it up."

Forum posts show similar sentiments. One person wrote on a government youth-website forum, "detesto a los emosexuales," which translates as "I hate emosexuals." Emosexual is an obvious play on homosexual, especially in Spanish, where the H is silent.

Many of the attacks have been planned, or at least fomented, on violently anti-emo websites like Movimiento Anti Emosexual, which features videos of physical violence sprinkled liberally with anti-gay sentiment. Last.fm's Anti Emo Death Squad group has almost 4,000 members.

But Arellano said he thought the riots could have a positive impact here in the US.

"It's a great clusterfuck for the American mind's idea of Mexico," Arellano said. "This teaches the rest of the world that Mexico is not just a bunch of cactuses and sombreros."

Photo: Mexican emo kids gather in response to anti-emo violence by metalheads and punk rockers.

Mukasey: piracy funding terror

By JORDAN ROBERTSON, Associated Press Writer Fri Mar 28, 3:53 PM ET

SAN JOSE, Calif. - Attorney General Michael Mukasey warned Friday that the huge profits generated from piracy and counterfeiting are increasingly flowing into the coffers of terrorist groups.
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In remarks to Silicon Valley executives at the Tech Museum of Innovation, Mukasey said the economy and national security of the United States are increasingly threatened by violations involving copyrighted software code, patented inventions and trademarked properties.

Terror groups are taking their cues from organized crime and increasingly funding their operations from counterfeiting and piracy, he said.

Mukasey said his department is devoting more resources to prosecuting intellectual property crimes, which led to a 7 percent increase in the number of IP cases filed in 2007 over the year before and a 33 percent increase over 2005.

"Criminal syndicates, and in some cases even terrorist groups, view IP crime as a lucrative business and see it as a low-risk way to fund other activities," Mukasey said. "A primary goal of our IP enforcement mission is to show these criminals that they're wrong."

Before Friday's speech, he met privately with representatives from companies including Apple Inc. and Adobe Systems Inc.

Mukasey did not elaborate on the topics discussed in that meeting. The attorney general also met with entertainment industry executives in Los Angeles a day earlier during this three-day California trip, and did not discuss those talks.

Strikebound American Axle places help-wanted ads

THREE RIVERS (Newschannel 3) - Striking American Axle workers say they're feeling betrayed by the company they helped to build.

That's because over the weekend, American Axle's CEO posted a "Help Wanted" ad in local newspapers, looking for entirely new workers to replace the striking workers.

Many of the striking workers say the ads may be a scare tactic by the corporation, to get them to agree to work for lower wages and benefits.

A spokesperson for American Axle says the company anticipates that once a new contract is settled, many workers will take buyouts or early retirement.

Still, workers say if American Axle brings in too many new workers, the quality of their product will suffer.

"It takes quite a while to learn the job," said striking worker Craig Douglas, a 28-year veteran of American Axle. "You can't just throw someone off the street in there and put out a good product, you can't do that."

Workers have been on the picket lines for more than a month, and are striking to stop a proposal from American Axle to cut workers' pay in half.

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) - How much does it cost for a loaf of bread in Zimbabwe?

With inflation raging at more than 100,000 percent, a loaf costs 50 million Zimbabwe dollars.

Now, Zimbabweans will need only one bill to pay for it. Authorities on Friday introduced a new 50 million bank note, state media reported.

The new Zimbabwe dollar note is worth $1 at the widely used black market trading and can buy just three loaves of bread.

It was the third time in three months that the nation's central bank issued a higher denomination note in response to record inflation.