“Any guy who is desperate knows where to go to sell drugs on his own account,” says a young man from Torreón, Coahuila, who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisals. He was filling gas tanks at a station in the northern city until he lost his job in the crisis triggered by COVID-19.

Just over a quarter of the adolescent workforce in Mexico lost their jobs during the first months of the pandemic, according to data from Inegi, and although jobs are beginning to recover, the country faces an unprecedented economic debacle in its modern history.

From January to September of this year, the gross domestic product (GDP) contracted 9.8 percent, compared to the same period in 2019.

COVID-19 has not only caused health havoc in Mexico as it is the country with the death rate highest in the region and one of the highest excess death rates in the world, but threatens to exacerbate another long-standing epidemic of violence and illegality.

According to a recent Bloomberg ranking of 53 countries, Mexico is currently the worst place to weather the global pandemic.

After looking for work for several months without success, the 21-year-old from Coahuila returned to his old occupation: selling drugs. He acknowledges that this is a setback in his life plans and even in his health, given that in his adolescence he developed an addiction to methamphetamine.

Having a legal job would help you stay sober and focused on what you love the most, music. But getting such a job in a violent environment that calls him and in a job market that rejects him for his lack of experience and skills is almost impossible.

The phenomenon of young people who neither study nor work has long-term negative effects on productivity, wages and employment opportunities in people’s lives, says Rafael De Hoyos, professor of economics at the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM). ) in a report on this phenomenon.

“The kids who leave school are because they have a job, an opportunity or a precarious, poorly paid, and unstable job,” says the academic in an interview. “It’s not because they want to stay home and do nothing.”

The Ministry of Public Education (SEP) estimates that about 8 percent of young people at a higher level have dropped out of school so far after the pandemic.

With school dropout, young people limit the salary they can access. Those who drop out due to need or lack of interest in traditional education take precarious jobs that they can easily lose, says De Hoyos. Once this happens, they almost never return to the classroom.

According to Inegi, young people between 20 and 29 years old receive an average salary of 5,952 pesos per month, while those between 30 and 39,724 pesos. Both are amounts that, according to specialists, are precarious and do not prevent the young population from seeing crime, illegality or informality as an option.

In addition, the pandemic is estimated to make the path even more difficult. According to the OECD, people aged 25 and under are 2.5 times more likely to lose their job right now and earn up to 9 percent less income from their first job than other young people their age in previous years.

In Mexico, in the first quarter of the year, prior to the hardest hit of the confinement by the pandemic, 290 thousand 176 young people between 20 and 29 years old lost their jobs, the age group hardest hit in that period.

“It has to come from somewhere,” says Rogelio, a 28-year-old resident of the Pensil neighborhood, in the Miguel Hidalgo mayor’s office of CDMX and who asked not to reveal his last name. Before the pandemic, he says, he was employed at a Telcel care center, but after being fired in the summer, he turned to illegality to pay alimony for his 6-year-old daughter.

He is currently working with a friend, distributing pirate merchandise in different markets and flea markets in the capital. “I don’t feel so good, but it pays and it doesn’t pay so bad,” he says.

Violence has a high economic cost for the country. In 2018, it cost him 1.5 billion pesos, according to a USAID study. If this trend is not reversed, the cost of crime could represent 24 percent of GDP by 2030.

In March, when the government advised the monitoring of confinement measures, the number of intentional homicides reached the highest point since June 2018. Gender-based violence also rebounded.

During confinement, 911 calls increased by around 20 percent, attention to victims increased in state and municipal instances, and the National Shelter Network registered an increase of more than 70 percent in its services compared to the same period of 2019 After falling in April due to the closures of the pandemic, crimes of the common jurisdiction rose and are on the way to exceed the figure of last year.

“If you compare the crisis of 2009 with what is happening now, there are many red flags,” says De Hoyos in an interview. The economist found that the homicide rate on the country’s northern border tripled in the period from 2009 to 2013 and that there was an increase in young people who neither study nor work.

According to the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Mexico will recover the economic level prior to the pandemic until 2025. And the effect on employment and its precariousness could be severe and there are already signs of it.

Some, like Rogelio, the former Telcel employee in the country’s capital, have even been lucky to have found a job in the informal sector.

According to the most recent data from Inegi, until the end of October there were 29.7 million people working in the informal sector, 2.4 million more than in July of this year, but almost 1.3 million less than in October 2019.

“Informality used to be a valve that absorbed downturns in the economy. How? Many sold food, for example, in government offices or provided other services, ”says Gabriel Lozano, JP Morgan chief economist for Mexico. “With offices closed, with thousands confined, with less traffic, the number of communicating vessels in the economy decreased.”

There are other data that alarm Lozano: the service sector, which absorbs the largest number of young people, has been the hardest hit in the crisis. In addition, the shadow of a second and tougher wave of infections would lead to the closure and eventual bankruptcy of more work centers. On the other hand, underemployed people in Mexico, those who could work longer hours but cannot find where, is high.

According to Inegi, this group represented 15 percent of the economically active population in October, while a year ago it was 7.8 percent.

The economist also pointed to the fall in inflation in services, especially education, which for him is a sign that in the medium term several private educational institutions in the country could go bankrupt and leave with more precarious or lower quality options to thousands of children and youth.

The result? “There is a very great stress situation among the younger population, of a lot of uncertainty”, Lozano mentions.

“The urgency of income, in the absence of economic stimuli for the unemployed during the pandemic, could lead many to work in informal sectors with a greater degree of negative social impact, towards different criminal activities.

With such an uncertain future, JP Morgan considers reducing, for the first time in years, its expectation of potential growth in Mexico from just over 2 percent to between 1.5 and 2 percent.

Wipo, a 20-year-old resident of the Alianza Real neighborhood in Monterrey, miraculously survived a gunshot to the forehead, according to the doctors who treated him. The bullet was not his first brush with death in a neighborhood divided by gangs.

“They call me the immortal,” says Wipo, who asked to be referred to by his nickname, from the house where he lives with his wife and two-year-old daughter. “For the month it was already like nothing.”

The Alianza Real neighborhood dominates the headlines with news of shootings, assassinated youths, assaults and visits by rulers to the area.

It is not unusual for the children in the Alliance to start selling drugs from the age of 10, to meet entire families who enter that business and to girls of twelve or thirteen with children, says Wipo of the neighborhood where he grew up. By the age of 14 he was already joining gangs and 6 later he had already had friction with death.

“Many young people experienced very strong violence in 2009 and 2010,” explains Miguel Díaz, General Director of Supera, a civil organization that works to assist and rehabilitate high-risk youth in different neighborhoods of Monterrey.

“Boys were born, raised and have developed in these circles of violence,” he said. Supera reached out to young people in conflict with the law, like Wipo, and began to empower them through art, music, sports, photography and other creative activities.

Wipo has sold drugs practically his entire life. His dad was the one who established him in the business. “It is the most common thing that happens in the colony, all those who sell started because their bosses put them to sell,” says the young man.

Once he started having disciplinary problems at school, his dad told him to drop out and help him move the drug. This is how he began to sell and consume marijuana, stone, glass and toluene.

“Exclusion hurts more than poverty. Young people have aspirations, but they don’t find opportunities ”, explains Díaz. “They aspire to stop selling drugs, but they say: ‘If I stop selling drugs, how do I make money?’

The forgetfulness in which young people find themselves precedes the pandemic, it is not new. Neither is the inaction of the authorities for decades, a trend that President Andrés Manuel López Obrador seeks to reverse.

During his campaign, López Obrador promised that he would tackle the problem of violence at its roots instead of fighting violence with more violence, as he has said countless times in press conferences.

For this, he created ‘Young People Building the Future’, a social program aimed at young people who do not study or work through which the government pays 3 thousand 748 pesos, a salary higher than the minimum wage, to young people between 18 and 29 years old for do an internship in a company for a year

The program aims to equip young people with the experience and skills necessary to enter the labor market but does not necessarily address the problem of unemployment. This reality is reflected in its budget, which has been reduced twice, before the contingency and after the country went into crisis. Only a small fraction of the 1 million scholarship recipients of the program have found work.

To reach the goal of the 15.5 million jobs promised in the campaign, the federal government estimated a growth of the Mexican economy of 4 percent per year, far from the contraction seen in the two years of the López Obrador government. Still, the president continues to promise job creation.

In April, in the midst of a pandemic, López Obrador decreed that two million jobs would be created just at the peak of job losses. The unemployment rate went from 4.7 percent in April to 5.1 percent in September among economically active people aged 15 years and over, according to the Inegi Telephone Survey of Occupation and Employment.

The experience in the labor market of young people in risky situations is often poorly paid, short-term and in the informal sector, said José Reveles, author of several books on cartels and drug trafficking in Mexico.

In regions of Guanajuato, Guerrero and Coahuila, for example, criminal groups hire young messengers, hawks or spies for a salary, and thus they are recruiting them, says Reveles. The simple act of buying them a cell phone can be attractive enough to pull.

“Criminal activity does increase out of necessity,” added Reveles. “There are going to be more guys incorporated into crime.”

Neither the young man from Torreón, the one from CDMX or the one from Monterrey had heard of ‘Jóvenes Construjando el Futuro’.

None of them seem to recognize the systematic violence that drives them to criminality. For them unemployment and tragedy are your fault, a flaw in your character. They acknowledge the lack of opportunities, precarious salaries, violence, and the presence of criminal groups and gangs, but ultimately it is up to you to get ahead.

The young man from Torreón found a job in an electronics store, but continues to look for other options because the salary he is paid is not enough. The goal is not to go back to the same thing, sell drugs, consume, and end up like some of his friends: dead or in prison.

Rogelio longs to be able to go back to work in a ‘decent’ place, which allows him to go to sleep peacefully because he is not doing anything illegal or running the risk that one bad day someone will harm him or his family. In a recent second interview, her spirits had fallen further after she didn’t receive work calls from at least five sites she applied to and her sister lost her job at a veterinary clinic. She asked him to involve her in the merchandise delivery he carries out, but so far the young man has refused.

In Monterrey, Wipo started a construction job and continues to explore photography with the support of Supera. Completing the technical high school you left half-way is not in your plans for full-time employment. Her goal is to continue in photography to teach classes to young people in her community.

Wipo does not know when he will overcome his addiction or if his life will be attempted again, but he is young and does not lose hope. “I feel good things are coming,” he said at home surrounded by his family. “We all want the best for our children and I want my daughter to be proud of me.”

The online courses Domestika are a great option to complement training in this strange return to the school.

With the shadow of a new confinement over our heads due to the rebound in COVID-19 cases throughout the Spanish geography, online training is configured as an option to take into account.

With thousands of courses of all kinds at very low prices, Domestika allows training to be carried out at the pace of each person, making it perfect to combine with the workday or university studies.

At a time when we probably have to stay more at home than we would like, taking advantage of our free time to learn about the things we are most passionate about is a fantastic opportunity to make the new normal more bearable.

Due to the wide variety of courses available , surely there are some that we are interested in following, either to improve our employability or simply to find a new hobby or a creative skill on which to focus our time.

What is Domestika?
Domestika is much more than an online course platform . At the beginning, Domestika was simply a community of members of the creative industry in all its different fields.

These creative professionals shared their knowledge and learned from each other to become one of the communities with the greatest growth and projection.

While their forums became places of shared knowledge and the most interesting projects were shared, some of the best job offers also began to emerge that gave rise to the current section, one of the most interesting to find jobs in the creative sector .

Continuing with the founding idea, a few years ago Domestika began to design and produce different online courses with its best professionals. Currently, the Domestika community is the largest community of online creatives who participate in the project through their online courses, by offering jobs or sharing their experiences and creative processes.

To this day, Domestika is the largest creative platform in Spain with courses of all kinds, projects and offers that allow you to learn from home with all the facilities.

One of the advantages of Domestika’s courses for this back to school is its 100% online nature. These courses are carried out directly from the Domestika user profile, so to do them it is only necessary to have a good internet connection.

Also, once you purchase a course, you can do it whenever you want. The courses Domestika not expire and you will always have the material at your disposal if you need to keep an eye on anything.

This means that there are no deadlines or dates, you can start, pause or continue the course at any time, depending on your availability.

For this reason, Domestika courses are highly demanded by professionals and parents. They are courses that adapt to the little free time they have, being able to do more or less according to the personal circumstances of each one.

This is not to say that there is no feedback. Each course has its own internal community, which allows interaction and learning with the rest of the students who have acquired it at some point and with the teacher himself. This creates an ideal place to exchange ideas, ask for advice, share work or even publish the final project of the course.

The teachers are professionals from the creative sector with extensive experience in what they teach. Their job will be to guide the student through different online lessons in which there will be space to share their knowledge, influences, techniques and even their career.

Through video lessons, homework and explanatory texts, you will have all the necessary resources and complementary documents to carry out the final project of each course.

As we have already mentioned, the only requirement is to have a profile in the community , which is very easily created through Facebook, Google or with a username and password, to have a device with an internet connection.

Although for some courses it is more convenient to do it on a PC, there are also others that you can do without problem from your mobile phone or tablet, through the Domestika app .

How to take free courses at Domestika?
Due to the current situation with the coronavirus, Domestika has made different free courses available to users under its # QuédateEnCasa initiative .

In the previous link you have the available courses, which are changing, and which allow you to learn about different aspects within the creative and digital field.

For example, at the time of writing this article, the basic techniques of gastronomic photography course , the creation of 3D animated short films for social networks or the digital illustration course: create from your imagination , among other different options, is available.

Unlike paid courses, these courses do not require registration and you can directly access their videos. Of course, in return they do not allow access to the certificate, forums or direct contact with teachers.

To do this, you will have to buy the course, getting all the material in perpetuity.

In any case, they are a good opportunity to get closer to this creative platform and have a first contact with the content at no cost.

In this way we can check how the courses are and see if we are interested in acquiring these or similar ones for payment, to enjoy all their great additional benefits.

The online courses Domestika are divided into categories, areas and software, so that the user can easily find the courses of interest by filtering the option that interests you.

Regarding the categories , Domestika has nine different options: illustration, marketing and business, photography and video, design, 3D and animation, craft, architecture and spaces, technology and calligraphy and typography.

The areas , meanwhile, are divided into illustration, photography, digital illustration, animation, fine arts, graphic design, 3D, character design and drawing.

Finally, the programs section offers courses in the following software : Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe After Effects, Adobe Lightroom, Cinema 4D, Maya, Camera Raw, Adobe InDesing and Procreate.

Looking at all the categories, areas and software available we can realize the great variety of fields that are touched within the creative industries, with many learning options adaptable to each profile.

In addition, in the description of each course you can see the level, if it is a beginner, medium or advanced course, so that you can choose the one that corresponds to your level of knowledge.

400 courses at a maximum price of € 11.90
If there are any of these categories that interest you especially, you are in luck because the second Domestika sales are currently underway.

There is a selection of 400 different courses for a maximum price of € 11.90, so it is very economical to find one to learn what we need.

Some of the most interesting options right now in the field of editing are the Introduction to Avid Media Composer course or the Introduction to Sketch course , both for € 9.90.

The era of the “smart home” is here. The determined commitment of the technological corporate giants to smart speakers and the needs detected in homes during the long months of confinement have given new impetus to a business that anticipates its great definitive leap forward with the massive deployment of 5G .

The smart home is synonymous with safety, comfort, energy efficiency and energy management. And something that is sometimes forgotten, financial savings .

“The first thing home automation does is make your life easier, but it is proposed so that your home can give you money,” says Guzmán Navarro , director of the Master in Home Automation at the University of Malaga (UMA). Smart homes are homes that have home automation, that is, their automated systems are integrated .

«It is the technology that scares but everyone wants. And today we know that it is necessary to have it by joining the concept of home automation to that of energy efficiency “, he points out.

This intelligent control of homes is a technology whose use and application is on the rise. According to the most recent data from the market study that the Spanish Association of Home Automation and Real Estate (Cedom), the turnover of manufacturers of control systems and automation of homes and buildings in 2018 amounted to 79 million euros , 40 % more than the previous year.

The functions most in demand are those related to energy management (climate control, ventilation, lighting, consumption monitoring), followed remotely by those related to comfort . Thirdly, the functions related to technical alarms, access controls and security are grouped together .

“It is observed that the systems that integrate all the functions are gaining weight in the market, since many of them are modular or scalable”, indicates Jordi Sabaté , technical secretary of Cedom.

Home automation is a transparent technology adaptable to the aesthetics of any building, and that provides multiple benefits.

Among them, it allows efficient use of energy, achieving annual savings in the energy bill of up to 30% ; provides both preventive security, through presence simulation, and action, through alarms connected to remote control panels; the system can be controlled both locally and remotely and facilitates maintenance by detecting faults immediately.

«With the incorporation of a consumption monitoring system, the user can become aware of energy consumption and modify habits to reduce spending», Says the technical secretary of Cedom. The services can be integrated through indoor and outdoor communication networks, wired or wireless that can be controlled from the home or from outside.

With the confinement we spent more time at home, something that showed on our electricity, heating and cooling bill. “For this reason, many families have chosen to implement home automation and control systems that, in many cases, do not require major works “, emphasizes Jordi Sabaté.

According to Professor Guzmán Navarro, « nowadays it is cheaper to set up home automation than not , you save on materials and labor. It is a shame that this is not passed on to the user but it will end up being standard.

He also directs the Institute for Home Automation and Energy Efficiency, and in it they are conducting various lines of research for low-cost installations “because this is not just for the rich». It is regretted that architects do not have training in Domotics although at their university they have managed to make it a subject for all Engineering.

Eduardo Suller , director of the Master in Intelligent Architecture at UCAM, also believes that it is necessary to take a turn when talking about home automation, “stop serving luxury homes and develop solutions for what is needed.”

He believes that there is still a long way to go in the field of home automation, starting with having “trained teachers and centers with spaces to do internships. A revision is needed, and it is a very broad subject that must be well studied ».

He used to say to young architects when they design houses that “technical knowledge is very important but often you need your brain.” There is still a change in culture . “The developers sell houses with luxury finishes but basic facilities.

On the other hand, the client requires that the car have all the automated systems incorporated and it is not surprising to buy a house where the blind is raised by hand. There’s a long way to go, ”Suller muses. Trust that over time home automation will improve the comfort of the elderly at home.

« The pandemic has allowed us to see the existing digital divide. Work is being done so that the elderly can benefit from telemedicine or video calls on television. Home automation can help them improve their lives ”, he points out.

Experts point out that the great balance ahead for connected homes will come with voice technology , increasingly implemented in our lives through different devices.

“This technology is the most natural interface for human beings”, highlights Nacho de Pinedo , CEO of the Higher Institute for Internet Development (ISDI) from which a study on its use in Spain has been promoted.

The results indicate that 54% of the population already uses voice technology, although at the moment the most common use is “listening to music, listening to the radio and looking for information . “

Smart speaker penetration is still limited to 15%. The report highlights the growth opportunity that this market has, but calls for a value proposition around this technology.

As Nacho de Pinedo points out, “the logics of the voice are different from the logics of the keyboard or the screen, a different algorithm is generated.” That is why he believes that both companies and consumers “must understand how they work to be present and not be left out.”

He believes that new technological devices such as Alexa will appear and that the normal thing will be to “centralize everything in mobile technology.”

There is little evidence that herd immunity is helping Sweden fight the new coronavirus, according to the country’s top epidemiologist.

“The issue of herd immunity is complicated,” Anders Tegnell agreed at a press conference in Stockholm on Tuesday.

“We do not see signs of an immunity in the population that is slowing down the infection at this time,” he remarked.

Swedes have been more exposed to the SARS-CoV-2 virus than their Nordic neighbors, and one in three Stockholm residents who have been tested has antibodies , according to figures released this week. That happens after the country chooses not to implement containment measures, preferring instead to rely on voluntary measures.

Tegnell has already said that herd immunity is difficult to quantify and even questioned the official figures. Swedish authorities have made it clear that immunity is not a political goal, but the country’s exposure to the virus makes it an obvious test case to test the theory.

In a recent study by the Organization, Sweden consistently ranked among the most affected countries in Europe , in terms of rates of infection and relative mortality from COVID-19. It was also the slowest to contain the spread.

Sweden was recently forced to readjust its strategy against the virus after the daily case rate surpassed 7,000. In what Prime Minister Stefan Lofven this month called an “unprecedented” move, the government ruled that Swedes will no longer be able to meet in public in groups larger than eight . The sale of alcohol is now also prohibited after 10pm.

In a rare televised speech, Lofven pleaded with his compatriots to do more on Sunday.

” The health and lives of people are still in danger , and that danger is increasing,” he said.

The new restrictions come amid warnings that Sweden’s intensive care beds are filling up fast. Meanwhile, authorities in the country warn against placing too much responsibility on a possible future vaccine.

“We are still seeing an increase in patients needing intensive care and care,” said Thomas Linden, department head of the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare, in Tuesday’s briefing.

“The fact that a vaccine is only months away should not be taken as a sign to be careless with measures .”

“In a third wave, the health care system will be even more strained than it has been until now,” he said.

The technology company with more than 365,000 users in Latin America, will offer the functionality for its paid users at no cost.

2020 was the year in which e-commerce was positioned as the # 1 purchase option for people in Latin America, according to Statista the region will close with 267 million buyers and projects growth to 2024 of 351 million buyers in Latin America.

Latin America has had an increase of more than 230% in revenues through Internet sales for this year, demonstrating the great importance of electronic commerce in the economy of the region. According to PayU Latam, Internet transactions have increased by 42.6% in Latin America.

Taking into account this panorama Alegra.com, the technology company with accounting, administrative and electronic invoicing solutions in the cloud joins the world of electronic commerce with “Alegra Tienda” an internet sales solution for more than 364,000 users who they have handled its accounting, administration and billing.Glad . com , the technology company with accounting, administrative and electronic invoicing solutions in the cloud joins the world of electronic commerce with “Alegra Tienda” an internet sales solution for more than 364,000 users who have taken their accounting, administration and billing.

“We are committed to giving superpowers to Panamanian micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), this year 2020 has been the year of digital transformation, electronic commerce is a key element for the growth of MSMEs in the country and the national economy ”, Says Jorge Soto, CEO of Alegra.com.Glad . com .

“With Alegra Tienda, entrepreneurs will be able to sell their products, keep their sales accounting, business administration and billing in one place, each time simplifying processes and thus increasing business productivity”, Soto points out.

Alegra Tienda was created under the Lean Startup methodology, this gives the opportunity to design products or services that meet the needs of people, without the need to make large financial investments and that allows the product to be adapted according to the feedback of the people who use the service.

It is expected that by the end of 2020 there will be more than 2,000 stores configured by Latin American SMEs.

The center responsible for the development of the Russian vaccine against the Sputnik V coronavirus has assured that the treatment has demonstrated an efficacy of 91.4 percent within 28 days of administering the first dose to more than 14,000 volunteers in the third phase of clinical trials , while it has announced that the price of each of the two doses that compose it will be less than ten dollars (about 8.4 euros per dose).

In a statement, the Nikolai Gamaleya Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology noted that preliminary data obtained 42 days after the volunteers were given the first dose and 21 days after the second “indicate a vaccine efficacy of more than 95 percent. ”.

The analysis of the preliminary data obtained 28 days after the administration to more than 14,000 volunteers of the first dose of the vaccine and seven days of the second places the efficacy at “91.4 percent”, as reported by the developer center of the drug in a statement.

Estimates are based on data collected from second checkpoint testing of volunteers given the first and second doses of the vaccine or placebo “according to clinical trial protocols.”

The Gamaleya Center has said that the preliminary data will be published in a leading medical publication in the sector and has said that when the third phase of clinical trials is completed, it will give access to the full report on the tests.

Currently 40,000 volunteers are participating in the third phase of clinical trials using the double-blind method, administering the first dose to more than 22,000 volunteers and the first and second to more than 19,000.

At the moment, according to the Gamaleya Center, no unexpected adverse reactions have been recorded during clinical trials.

“The experts from the Gamaleya Center have once again confirmed the high efficacy of the Sputnik V vaccine, the first coronavirus vaccine registered in the world and based on a well-studied platform of human adenovirus vectors,” he highlighted.