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Mexico Medical Tourism

Many people don’t realize that dozens of Mexican cities south of the border offer American and international travelers the best of services for a multitude of medical services, procedures and techniques at affordable prices. Cost effective medical treatments south of the border in no way mean that such treatments are substandard – quite the contrary.

Mexico employs some of the most highly trained and experienced doctors and surgeons in the Western Hemisphere, found in cities such as Ensenada, Monterey, Tijuana, Cancun, Mexico, Mexico City, and Rosarita, just to name a few. Accredited and experienced doctors and surgeons providing treatments in fields such as obesity surgery, orthopedics, cancer treatments, cosmetic and plastic surgeries, dental care, and stem cell technology can be found in high tech state-of-the-art medical facilities throughout Mexico.

Mexico has long been known as the ultimate tourist destination, attracting not only North Americans, but also visitors around the world to historical ruins of Aztec civilizations, pristine white beaches in Puerto Vallarta and Mazatlan, and entertainment for the younger crowd in Cancun. Visitors have long traveled to Mexico for deep-sea fishing opportunities off Veracruz and Cancun, but each of Mexico’s 32 states has tourist destinations that inspire and create awe, from the rocky cliffs of Acapulco to the ruins of Chichen Itz or the hustle and bustle found in downtown Mexico City.

Mexico has consistently enhanced and increased her reputation for providing medical healthcare services at nearly half the cost of North American providers in the fields of hip replacement surgeries, dental care, and cosmetic and plastic surgical procedures. Travelers visiting Mexico for their medical needs often save an average of 50% on medical procedure costs, without long wait times commonly found in the United States, Canada, and Europe. Mexico has created modern and technologically advanced healthcare facilities in hospitals, surgical centers, and outpatient care clinics that meet the needs, expectations and standards of global care.

Experienced and highly trained surgeons and physicians provide cost effective and quality service in a multitude of attractive destinations throughout Mexico. Americans are familiar with traveling south of the border for the best of vacation spots, and more Americans than ever before are also traveling south for affordable medical treatment for weight-loss procedures and surgeries, affordable cosmetic and plastic surgery as well as reconstructive surgeries, orthopedic care, and dental care that includes root canals, implants, veneers, bridges, and crowns.

Regardless of what brings a visitor to Mexico, combining one of the best tourist destinations with high quality medical care is offering Mexico a chance to take her rightful place as an ultimate medical tourism destination that offers patients and travelers peace of mind, appreciated savings, and the best in technology and training.

Whether a visitor wants to go scuba diving in the Sea of Cortez or shopping for arts and crafts in Guadalajara, climbing Aztec ruins, or horseback riding along the beach in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico offers visitors a vibrant medical or tourist destination that serves the needs of each individual with friendliness, compassion, and excellent medical quality and care.

Mexico Medical Tourism

Robots make world cup quarter-final

A team of robots designed in Scotland have outperformed the national team by reaching the quarter-finals of the robot football world cup.

Scientists developed the small, humanoid robots to use computer vision to find the ball and to estimate positions around the pitch by using visual cues.

The team of robots, known as Edinferno, were programmed at the University of Edinburgh and took part in the 25-team RoboCup tournament in Mexico City earlier this month.

Dr Subramanian Ramamoorthy, assistant professor at the university’s school of informatics, said: “The ultimate aim of our work is to develop robots that can interact with people and carry out work in dangerous environments such as subsea or space exploration.

“Football is a good experimental stage as it allows us and other scientists to test how quickly the robots can respond to a changing environment. It gives us a test tube study on interaction in a small area.

“Once the game begins we have no control over the robots so it really tests our development and programming. Basically, whoever has developed their robots to respond quickest will win.”

The team, led by Professor Ramamoorthy and three PhD students, take part in the Standard Platform League and regularly compete with other humanoid teams.

Scientists behind the league believe the robot team that wins the world cup in 2050 will be able to take on their human equivalents in a full game.

The RoboCup 2012 website says: “By mid-21st century, a team of fully autonomous humanoid robot soccer players shall win the soccer game, comply with the official rule of the Fifa, against the winner of the most recent World Cup.”

The annual tournament, viewed as the world’s biggest robotics and artificial intelligence event, was founded in 1997 and draws scientists and students from around the world. Robocup 2012 was won by Austin Villa, a team of robots from the University of Texas in the US.

Robots make world cup quarter-final

Union boss Elba Esther Gordillo keeps a stranglehold on Mexico’s schools

MEXICO CITY — Elba Esther Gordillo, the 67-year-old “president for life” of the national teachers union in Mexico, rarely ventures out in public without designer outfits and handbags from Chanel, Prada, Louis Vuitton and Hermes.

She flaunts wealth and power, and she can walk through the gates of Los Pinos, the Mexican White House, at any time. Sitting presidents fear and court her.

Routinely ranked as the least popular of the nation’s most prominent figures, friends and enemies alike know her simply as “Elba Esther” or “the Teacher.”

Her opaque and strong-arm style and the personal fortune she’s amassed underscore how the old Mexico of corrupt power and privilege, which reigned in the 20th century, still endures in pockets even as the nation inches toward modernity.

A native of rural Chiapas state in Mexico’s far south, Gordillo rose from a humble post at a primary school in Nezahualcoyotl, a depressed suburb of Mexico City, through the ranks of the largest union in Latin America, eventually becoming the underling and mistress of the union boss. In 1989, then-President Carlos Salinas de Gortari tapped her to head the teachers union, a backbone of strength for the Institutional Revolutionary Party – the PRI, in its Spanish initials – which ruled from 1929 until 2000 and is expected to regain the presidency in voting July 1.

Significantly, the PRI’s 2012 candidate, Enrique Pena Nieto, is the only one of those seeking the presidency who hasn’t pledged to dump Gordillo on taking office.

Gordillo’s raspy voice, her designer tastes and her predilection for the plastic surgeon’s scalpel have made her an easy subject for caricaturists, but as the head of the union, Gordillo displays steely calculation in keeping her foes off balance, leveraging friendly politicians into office and purging those she considers potential internal adversaries.

“She exiles you if you betray her,” said Aldo Munoz, an education researcher at the Autonomous University of the State of Mexico. “She puts together teams of people who are in confrontation. She’ll send four people who hate each other to run a department.”

She also showers supporters with generosity. In 2006, the newspaper Reforma said Gordillo had taken 125 teachers and union underlings, along with their children, on a seven-day Pacific cruise aboard the Pride of Hawaii, later staying at the Hilton Hawaiian Village.

When the media revealed that she’d ordered 59 Hummers for her top aides in 2008, she announced that she’d raffle the vehicles and pay for renovations at 10 schools.

Critics speak of her in caustic and savage tones. a columnist in the newspaper El Universal, Lydia Cacho, labeled her April 23 as “one of the most pernicious cancers” in Mexico. On a Foro TV debate in February, analyst Denise Dresser responded quickly when she was asked what she wished for Gordillo: “it pains me to say it but I think the common sentiment is that she might die during her next plastic surgery.”

Gordillo remained loyal to the PRI after it was cast from power, serving as the secretary general of the party, and also as a federal deputy and senator. but when the PRI candidate trailed badly in the 2006 presidential campaign, she triggered only the second major schism to hit the party in its 83-year history. She took her support – and that of the union – to Felipe Calderon of the center-right National Action Party, trading it for promises of jobs for her family members and key allies. the betrayal allowed Calderon to squeak to victory by the narrowest margin in modern Mexican history.

Gordillo enjoys a nominal salary as a school principal, the equivalent of $2,070 a month, but her wealth goes far beyond what that wage would allow.

Journalistic investigations over the years have identified 64 Mexico City mansions, office buildings, rural ranches and overseas properties that are thought to be linked to Gordillo or her immediate family. among them is a six-bedroom home in La Jolla, Calif., that Gordillo purchased for nearly $1.7 million, according to a March report in Mexico’s newsweekly Proceso. the home has seven baths, a three-car garage, a pool and a private dock on a river, the magazine reported.

Gordillo speaks to reporters only on rare occasions. Her office declined requests for an interview over a six-month period, saying she was too busy.

Political analysts say Gordillo’s eventual departure from the political stage won’t necessarily usher in more democratic or enlightened leadership.

“if we send Elba Esther to Jupiter, the person who takes her place will do exactly the same thing if the rules of the game stay the same,” said Jorge Javier Romero, a political scientist at the Metropolitan Autonomous University.

“It’s not her. It’s an institutional problem.”

Union boss Elba Esther Gordillo keeps a stranglehold on Mexico’s schools

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Union boss Elba Esther Gordillo keeps a stranglehold on Mexico’s schools

Fun Facts About Brazil

Without a doubt, the most famous singer in Brazil history is Antonio Carlos Brasileiro de Almeida Jobim. His best song is The Girl From Ipanema. It is a symbol of Brazil. like Pele (sportsman) and Jorge Amado (writer), Antonio Carlos Jobim, who was best known as Tom Jobim, is one of the most famous Brazilians in the world.

Like Taiwan, Argentina, Peru, and South Africa, Brazil is a democracy in the 21st century.

The Christ the Redeemer, the statue overlooking Rio de Janeiro, is regarded as one of the seven wonders of the modern world.The statue was created by French sculptor Paul Landowski. The Christ the Redeemer is the monument that best symbolizes Brazil.

The Brazilian metropolis has hosted the IV Pan American Games in 1964 and three FIBA Womens World Championships in 1957, 1971 and 1983.

Brazil is famous in history as the birthplace of Edson Arantes do Nascimento, who is best known as Pele, one of the best athletes in the 20th century. Perhaps his greatest triumph was captaining his country to their third FIFA World Cup triumph in Mexico City in 1970.

Brazilian people produce worlds best coffee.

Brasilia is the capital city of Brazil. It was designed by the architect Oscar Niemeyer, who is one of the best architects in the world. Brasilia is considered one of the worlds most beautiful cities.

Brazil is bigger than Japan, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Indonesia and South Africa.

Juscelino Kubitschek, who was president of Brazil (1956-1961), had Czech ancestry.

Brazil has spectacular beauties: Fernanda Tavares (supermodel), Natalia Guimaraes (Miss Brazil 2007), Adrianne Alves de Oliveira (Miss Brazil-World 1984), and Gisele Bndchen (supermodel).

The Maracana Stadium, built in Rio de Janeiro in 1950, is one of the most beautiful stadiums in the third World.

Ivo Helcio Jardim de Campos Pitanguy is one of the most famous plastic surgeons in the world.

In the 20th century, John McEnroe, a famous tennis player, was coached by Tomas Koch, who was born in Brazil.

Fun Facts About Brazil

I love my new heart! Patient gives the thumbs-up after she receives donor organ dropped on floor by bungling medics

  • Erika Hernandez, 28, leaves hospital following successful heart transplant
  • Plastic-wrapped heart was dropped on city street minutes before surgery

by Lee Moran

Last updated at 4:18 PM on 25th January 2012

Two bungling medics caught on camera dropping a donor heart in a city street can breathe a sigh of relief – after it was successfully transplanted into the patient.

Erika Hernandez, 28, gave doctors the thumbs-up yesterday after she was wheeled out of Mexico City’s La Raza Hospital following the life-saving surgery.

But if she looked slightly bewildered at the media scrum following her every move then she had every right to be – as she had not been told about her new organ’s chequered past.

Scroll down for video…

Thumbs up: Erika Hernandez received the heart that was dropped by bungling medics on the street minutes before she due to undergo life-saving surgery

Chequered past: The donor heart pictured as it was dropped in the street outside the transplant centre in Mexico City

The two medics opened themselves up to widespread ridicule two weeks ago when footage emerged of the plastic-wrapped heart tumbling out of a cool box onto the street.

Film crews had followed the organ, of a man killed in a car crash, as it was flown 450km from Leon, Guanajuanto, to the Centro Medico de Enfermedades Reumaticas in Mexico City.

But it was in the final few metres, moments after the helicopter landed, that the pair managed to topple thewheeled coolbox, spilling it onto the tarmac.

Delighted: Erika Hernandez waves as she leaves La Raza General Hospital following the successful heart transplant

Media scrum: Erika Hernandez could be forgiven for thinking what all the fuss was about, as she was not told what had happened to her heart prior to the transplant

It had to be scooped up from the street, along with the ice and accompanying medical fluids.  only after it had been repacked in ice was it taken inside to the waiting transplant team.

An oblivious Erika, who was born with a congenital heart defect, thanked the donor’s family and said: ‘I have no words to express what I’m feeling right now.’

And, in a briefing with journalists, Dr Jaime Saldivar said it would be up to her family to tell her about the accident, which presumably with the media interest will have happened by now.

 

I love my new heart! Patient gives the thumbs-up after she receives donor organ dropped on floor by bungling medics