One thing that really surprised me on my last visit to the US was the amount of health product ads on TV. It is rather annoying to see that, in a country where the health care system is completely private and extremely expensive, pharmaceutical companies target consumers instead of doctors in their marketing, sowing fear and insecurity.
Update June 17, 2008: The BBC has an article on this as well.
Finland is a very egalitarian society, as anyone who has visited Helsinki can attest to. Given that it is also a relatively affluent society, I have somehow come to the conclusion that maybe some Finns (especially of the younger generation) cannot relate to poverty anymore, as they don't necessarily see it (if Kontula & Suvela are the worst the country can throw at you, you're not doing so bad). Or rather, some cannot see it as something that could happen to them, and "if it can't happen to me, it isn't real".
This is especially interesting since Finland was not such a well-off country until the 80's, and even in the 90's there was a terrible economic crisis. How can people so easily forget?
I've heard before criticism of Mexican TV saying that the actors and acresses there depicted have very little in common with the average Mexican (if there is such a thing). I think it shows a certain aspirational aspect of the Mexican psyche, where being fair skinned is desired.
Mexicans use TV to escape, not to see themselves the way they are.
Even though certain sectors of society rant against neoliberalism and whatnot, the truth is that Mexico has become a rather consumerist society. Everybody is trying to sell you something in TV, in the street and even when you're driving as the photo shows. Status is more and more about what you own, less and less about who you are.
At least it means that the economy (at the macroeconomic level) is in good shape with the Mexican Peso being surprisingly strong.
One thing that I really don't like about many Mexican women is the amount of make up they use, especially around the eyes. I understand that the social pressure to be beautiful is rather strong, but looking like a raccoon won't improve your chances of finding the man of your dreams, really. You're more beautiful if you accept who you are and smile (there's nothing more beautiful than a woman smiling) than if you end up looking like a sunburned geisha.
Long life to those with subdued make up!
I didn't feel unsafe in my travels throughout Mexico, but it is true that you find more than enough well-armed security guards and policemen everywhere, and there is plenty of stuff in the crime section of the local newspapers.
Security (or the lack of it) has been named as one of the main reasons for the lack of growth in Foreign Direct Investment in the country, and is one of the most important areas that the government has focused on, with mixed results.
For the first time in my life I entered a Mexican cantina when I was in San Miguel de Allende. Reminded me of my local Finnish lähiöbaari.
As in any country, big or small, there are plenty of cultural differences between Mexicans of different areas of the country. My sister was victim of these in a wedding she recently attended in Monterrey.
She was told that it was going to be a garden wedding, whose dress code in Mexico City is purely in light, pastel colours as they are during the day and surrounded by nature. You can imagine their surprise when they arrive at the appointed place and find out that it was not a real garden, but a hall decorated as a garden and the rest of the guests were dressed in night gowns and smokings. All the people from the capital had made the same mistake, so they stood out at the event.
I suppose this shows that you have to check and double-check your assumptions every time, even in your own country.
As we know, there is not that many foreigners in Finland, society is very homogeneous, and the country has a history of emigrants, not really immigrants. Discussing these details with a couple of friends (a Finn by birth and a Finn by naturalisation) over a beer last Thursday, I started thinking that Finnishness is an ethnic, not only a cultural concept.
This would be behind the perceived fact that an immigrant who comes here, no matter how well he/she (hän) adapts to the place, learns the language and adopts the culture will not be regarded as a Finn, even when holding a Finnish passport as he/she wouldn't "look like us".
If this idea happens to be right, it forecasts trouble for the integration of those immigrants that are already here and those that are coming, since the host society would not be ready for it. Really wonder if that is the case. Any opinions?
Not that nationality being a cultural concept is a guarantee of success. Just ask the French.
Entre este blog post y esta polémica barata de tercera, no me cabe la menor duda que nos encanta tirarnos al suelo y perder el tiempo en babosadas pseudonacionalistas. En lugar de pensar que "es que nos discriminan, y nos tratan mal", "todo es la culpa de la conquista", o incluso síntomas de una falta de autoestima brutal como "nos insultan diciendo que somos feos".
El momento en que empecemos a ver hacia el futuro y hacia el exterior de una forma constructiva, en lugar de hacia el pasado y hacia dentro de una manera simplista y francamente irreal, es cuando realmente empezaremos a hacer algo por nosotros y por nuestro país. Ya basta de echarle la culpa a otros y de quejarnos, si no nos ponemos a actuar seguiremos en las mismas.
Tal vez es lo que queremos, a final de cuentas.