State of fear

I was pretty surprised by the amount of fear I could see in the American media.   I understand the shock caused by the unfortunate events of September 11th, 2001, but I think this doesn't only have to do with that.

The messages you hear in TV, in the news and in the street talk about fear: fear of terrorism, yes, but also of immigration, poverty, bad health, poor eductaion, peak oil, etc.  I find it sad that such an entrepreneurial people can be held back by thinly veiled propaganda of fear.  Awareness is extremely important, but frightening your audience won't take you anywhere.

Service culture

I've talked earlier about the difference between the quality of service in Europe and other places around the world.  I'm happy to report that in the U.S. the service level is in general much better than what we're used in Europe. The downside, of course, if that you need to be aware about how much you should be tipping, which is an arcane art I have pretty much forgotten.

Recommended book: Pattern Recognition

William Gibson, the same author of the classic Neuromancer, wrote this book around the time of the unfortunate events of September, 2001.  Even though it is classified as science fiction, funnily enough I would think of it more as contemporary fiction since its plot contains events that could be happening currently.

There's not that many novels that would star marketers, so that makes it interesting already 😉

La importancia del idioma inglés

Aún cuando estoy a favor de la diversidad lingüística (mascullando ocho idiomas no podría ser de otra manera), estoy de acuerdo con lo que hace algún tiempo posteó Martín Varsavsky en cuanto es muy difícil estar al tanto de lo que pasa en el mundo sin saber manejarse en inglés.

Me explico: alguna vez una persona que conozco me hizo burla cuando dije que tenía días sin hablar español y que en la oficina muy pocos lo hablaban, pero la verdad es que, con todo y que somos alrededor de 400 millones de hispanoparlantes, es muy poco probable que lo hables si no lo aprendiste de pequeño.  Ahondando en el tema, nos damos cuenta que la mayoría de los nuevos conocimientos generados en la mayoría de las ciencias y en buena parte de las artes se diseminan en tal idioma, que es el que tiene mayor audiencia. 

Si a eso añadimos que una importante sección del entretenimiento que consumimos también tiene sus orígenes en culturas de habla inglesa, significa que al esperar traducciones al español nos encontramos con una situación similar a tratar de ver las cosas con anteojos de cristal esmerilado.  Vaya, que incluso tenemos problemas para saber porqué actores de origen hispanoparlante han tenido tanto éxito en el mundo angloparlante si no podemos ser testigos de las razones.

No quiero que se malinterprete, no abogo por el abandono de nuestras raíces y de nuestra lengua (al contrario, la sigo conservando en el entorno familiar y no tengo la menor intención de dejarla), mas no puedo quedarme con los brazos cruzados cuando soy testigo de lo que nos estamos perdiendo por no "entrarle al quite".  El inglés es el latín de nuestra época aunque no nos guste. "De tripas, corazón".

The power of imagination

I'm a big fan of science fiction.  My sci-fi collection (currently under recovery) includes over 50 books and a fair share of movies.  I've always preferred reading that instead of Spanish language literature, even though it's in my native language.  When I was thinking about it, I think I understood why: whereas the classics of Spanish language (especially Mexican) literature tends to dwell on the themes of identity and "how did we get to where we are", sci-fi asks what can we become. 

I for one find that much more interesting.

It’s official, this winter was the warmest of all time in Finland

According to Helsingin Sanomat, climate change is definitely taking its toll.  This winter has been between 4.5 to 6 °C warmer than the historical average.

No wonder I still haven't used my proper winter coat (nicknamed the bear for a reason) very much so far.  This weekend it's been snowing, so I hope it improves, as I didn't move back from Belgium to have the same weather again ;-).

The miracle of modern travel

I was in London again for a business trip this week.  In this day and age, you can travel from Helsinki, have a full day of meetings and be back on the same day.

Even though we may complain about how hard it is to get visas when needed, the amount of security checkpoints and the time it takes to get from one place to another, I am certainly of the opinion that the fact that we can travel over 2000 kilometres and still have a productive day is pretty much a miracle (as tired as it might get you).