Tag Archives: mexico

Your perception tells more about you than about what is perceived

I recently met a student of cultural anthropology and had a very stimulating conversation like I haven’t had in a long time outside of work.  Her main area of interest are cultural areas in cities, and when I mentioned that the part of Mexico City where I grew up is somehow similar to the part of the Helsinki metro area where I live now as they’re both suburbs we got off to a good start.

During the course of this conversation she mentioned the phrase that gives its title to this post, and it got stuck with me.  The first example that came to my mind was that of the different manifestations of the Virgin Mary: in Europe she’s Caucasian, in Mexico she’s mestiza and in China she’s Asian.  However, I have been reflecting more on that given the current chapter in the Finnish immigration debate, where a university professor has pretty much reached the same conclusions as Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations (conclusions with which I couldn’t agree less).

The other reason why this phrase is stuck in my head is because in the past few days through analysing my behaviour (and a couple of faux pas) I have found a couple of things I’m not sure I like too much about myself.  Then again, the first step in enacting change is discovering what the desired state is.

The power of the community: Case SimCity 4

I grew up playing SimCity, as I’m sure some of you did.  The appeal of simulating how a city would grow and try to create something that would reflect my own choices was definitely very strong.  The last version of the franchise SimCity 4 was released in 2004, and its publisher (EA) has pretty much discontinued support for the game and stopped any sequels.

Imagine my surprise when I found Simtropolis.com, an online community of SimCity players.  Not only do they have City blogs and chat, but a huge archive or user-generated content to improve your experience of the game.  Over the years, the users have created maps (so that you can build your city in the site of Helsinki, for example), landmarks (like the Angel of Independence from Mexico City or the Atomium from Brussels) that you can use in the city you build and other general improvements to the game that the designers hadn’t originally thought of, an example of which you can find below.

It is amazing how much people can do, when you give them means to do it.  A community of devoted fans is all you need.

Commentary on the latest Mexico – USA football game

You know the result, you probably also watched the game.  The second consecutive win for Mexico against the US in just a few weeks featured this time the A squads from both sides playing at Azteca Stadium in Mexico City.

The interesting thing for me as a Mexico fan was not only the win, but the way it was achieved.  After the tactical incompetence of the Hugo Sánchez years and the endless tinkering of the Sven-Göran Eriksson times, it was nice to see a team that had a solid base of players based in Mexico and Europe who understood each other.  Furthermore, we saw that some of the U-17 champions of 2005 have made the transition to the senior team well after a shaky start.

The most important lesson, however, was the way this team finally showed (and used) the patience and maturity to win matches against hard-as-nails opposition.  While any other Mexican team would have started to panic after going one goal down against the Americans at the cradle of Mexican football, these guys kept their cool, followed their game plan, moved the ball around and finally scored.  Maybe Rafael Márquez not being there actually helped as he has a long sad history in situations like these with the national team.

El Tri wouldn’t be in this situation if it were not for the complete lack of long term planning by the Mexican Football Federation, but this victory comes at the right time to steady the ship and qualify for South Africa.  We don’t need this rollercoaster the next World Cup cycle, please.

Improving Mexico City public transport


Traffic in Periférico

Originally uploaded by Chiva Congelado

Mexico City has a great subway network, with 175 stations connected over 11 lines. Even if it has 3.8 million of users every day, it has been completely surpassed by the growth of the city, as you can see in this picture from Periférico, the main ring road.

The problem is compounded by two factors: sprawl and quality. The subway only covers the Federal District (and not completely), while the metropolitan area includes also municipalities in the states of Mexico and Hidalgo. Furthermore, most people who can afford a car try to avoid public transport, as it is perceived to be unreliable, dirty and unsafe (as anybody who has used a microbús can attest).

I would like the European model of reliable public transportation for the masses to be available in Mexico, rather than the American automobile-intensive way, but it needs more political will than there currently is.

And the swine flu was gone

Swine flu information

After the huge media coverage surrounding the A H1N1 situation in Mexico in April, it was a relief to see how calm everything on that front was when we were there in June & July.

The only signs I saw during our trip that anything like that had happened were info posters like the one above in some stores and the availability of hand disinfectant in many public places.  The only people wearing handmasks I saw in my whole trip were Asian tourists arriving to Mexico City airport.  Needless to say, neither I nor anybody I know was affected.

Since it’s summer, the situation in Mexico has calmed down, unlike what is happening in the South American winter season.  I find it funny that hasn’t made the news as much.

One of my friends was working at the National Institute for Respiratory Diseases in Mexico City in the middle of the crisis.  Funnily enough, he says he was not busiest  during the outbreak but afterwards, to return the hospital back to normal.