The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.
Via Alt1040.
All posts by chivacongelado
How to hook up your home theatre, Goofy style
Can definitely sympathise with Goofy this time.
Recommended movie: Aavan meren tällä puolen / Kid Svensk / That Special Summer
Watched this film last night and really liked it for two reasons:
- Its portrayal of the immigrant integration challenge: the mother, a low-skilled Finnish immigrant to Gothenburg in Sweden in the 1980's, doesn't speak any Swedish and cannot understand her surroundings, and
- The tackling of the situations a kid growing with two languages and cultures can face: supporting her parents in the local community and being harassed for her background.
I found the movie especially poignant given the current immigration debate in Finland. Not too long ago, Finns were leaving the country, facing similar issues in other lands to the ones found by newcomers here.
Cross-country skiing
Snow in Eastern Finland
Originally uploaded by Chiva Congelado
After I moved to Finland, one of the things I learned to love was cross-country skiing, so when I was a student and was awarded a small stipend for school achievement, I used that money to buy myself a set of cross-country skis, poles & boots.
Since the past couple of winters have been pretty lousy in southern Finland and I was in Brussels for a year, it had been at least 3 years since I used my skis last time until yesterday. It was, however, like reuniting again with a long-lost friend.
Maybe I should start the Mexican Nordic Combined team? 😉
Working with interesting people
My work, of which I usually don’t talk about in this blog, can sometimes be great, sometimes frustrating but in the end one of the things that makes it worthwhile is the people.
To have an idea, you can check some of their public blogs:
Suosittelen tätä meksikolaista ruokakirjaa
Monta kertaa olen sanonut että Suomessa ei saa hyvää, aitoa meksikolaista, vaan texmexiä. Kun ei täällä ole laatuisia meksikolasia ravintoloja, suomalaiset ovat vaan tavaneet Santa Maria tai Old El Paso, joka on meksikolaiselle ruualle kuin lohihampurilainen suomalaisille.
Sen takia, tämä kirja on minun puolesta hyvin tervetullut, koska puhuu ruuasta jolla olen itse kasvanut ja löydät siellä melkein missä vaan, ei taco-kuoreista jotka vaan tapasin Pohjois-Europpassa aikuisena.
Helsingin Sanomien arvostelu löydät tästä, ja voit ostaa useimmista paikoista.
Winter
Déjà vu
A man without an abundant experience in politics, a man very different from his predecessors and one of whose parents had been born abroad, runs for the presidency of his country through a grassroots movement, great oratory and the promise of change in big, bold letters. His campaign imposed his candidacy on his party and eventually clinched the presidency with enormous expectations. The handover between administrations was smooth and the incoming government met with support from the international community.
I'm not talking about Barack Obama in '09, but Vicente Fox in 00'. I hope against hope that the sky-high expectations don't crash this time, as the challenges are many.
Mexico a failed state… not
There's been a lot of discussion in the traditional media and the blogosphere about Mexico becoming a failed state after a report by the US military on such eventuality. Frankly, as gross as the news on the Mexican drug cartels are, I think it is an exaggeration for two simple reasons:
- Most of the violence in the country is restricted to the 6 border states (Baja California, Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León & Tamaulipas) plus Sinaloa out of 31 states and a Federal District. Even when the situation in cities such as Tijuana and Ciudad Juárez has become difficult, they don't represent the whole country.
- The growth in the number of violent episodes is mostly due to the fact that the government, instead of ignoring the situation as before, is actually doing something about it and meeting the cartels head on.
I'm not innocent enough to say that everything is going beautifully, but I have a thermometer that most people in the international media don't: family and friends living in the country. I'm sure many of them would among be the first to start leaving if the situation becomes as untenable as these reports claim. Otherwise I'll keep on hoping for the best and agreeing with opinions like this.
In the meantime, tourism seems to be more affected by the international credit crunch than by that kind of news items. Fair, since most tourism attractions are very far away from where these sad events are taking place. As a tourist, I'd be more afraid in Los Angeles or Chicago than Cancún or San Miguel de Allende.
I didn’t understand what’s wrong with exclusive nationalism until I became an immigrant
Mexican education has a very strong nationalist component, and we are taught to view with a certain suspicion foreign influences, which is quite ironic when you consider that everybody came from somewhere else. Phrases like "México lindo y querido" (beautiful & beloved Mexico) or "Como México no hay dos" (there is no other country like Mexico) are commonly heard, and Mexican naturalisation and investment laws are extremely restrictive, which everybody seems to find normal.
When I moved to Finland, after going throught the whole language and acculturisation process, I realised that many of those views held while and where I was born were rather chauvinistic, when I found similar situations in the country where my home is. Phrases such as "On lottovoitto syntyä Suomeen" (being born in Finland is like winning the lottery) and the sad state of the immigration debate in Finland currently have shown me how wrong the attitudes I encountered when growing up are, since they assume that one group or the other hold a monopoly on truth and are categorically better than the rest.
I'd rather learn the best from everybody I encounter.