By now everybody and their mother have heard about the “balloon boy hoax“: a kid was feared to have flown away on a balloon kept in his family’s back yard who garnered huge media and law-enforcement attention until it was found that first he was not there in the balloon and then that it had all been staged.
More than anything, I think it is a commentary on the length to which some will go in order to attain “fame”, even at the cost of everybody else. They got their 15 minutes, but could end up with a 2 million USD fine and 6 years in jail.
Recently read an article in a Mexican business magazine where they mention that the 500 euro bill is the darling of the Italian mafia. The simple reason is that while transporting a million dollars in 100 dollar bills cash would need a portfolio or bag weighing up to 10 kg (as previously seen in Hollywood), a million dollars in 500 euro bills would be much more easily concealed and weigh less than 2 kg. No wonder they are starting to find these in seizures in Mexico, Costa Rica and Russia.
I mean, I have never seen even the 100 Euro bill being used normally in the street, much less the 200 or 500. Given that the larger the denomination the larger the bill, 500 Euro are pretty much a purple papyrus 😛
What started as an emergency procedure during my student years has become a more common practice, and every once in a while I like combining Finnish ingredients with Mexican spices to produce something unique. Two of my more celebrated recipes are below, I hope you like them.
Some of the spices needed can be bought in Meksikolainen.fi or Mexgrocer.co.uk. I just bring them from Mexico when I’m there 😉
Grate the achiote and dissolve in orange juice until you get a bright orange liquid. Put salmon in a flat oven-safe recipient and add achiote marinade. Add the chillies (be sure to rub them with the salmon). Cut the onion in half rings and add. Cut the pineapple/orange in slices and decorate salmon with it.Leave in oven at 170 °C for 1-1.5 hour until ready. It should be crisp but with enough liquid.
Mole nórdico con reno / Manchamanteles negro con reno
450g of reindeer or elk meat in small pieces (if using elk, it’s not “reno” but “alce”).
Blend everything but the meat together. Cook sauce and elk together slowly with a little of added water to give even more time for the flavours to ripen in the fire. Should be ready in 45 minutes to an hour.
If there is one thing that drives me insane is when I turn the TV to get my news fix and stumble into any bulletins by YLE or the MTV3 morning news (their evening news are OK, even if their sense of humour is on the very basic side of the scale). Their focus on inane ultra-local stories (like a recent one on neighbourhood cats) reminds me of a sketch a comedian used when I was growing up called Ranch News, or Noti Rancho in Spanish. The amount of navel-gazing is mind-numbing for a guy like me who needs to know what is going on with the world.
Mexican news programmes, on the other hand, focus on three things: the latest celebrity scandal, the latest political scandal, or the latest violent deaths caused by the drug situation (with as many graphic details as possible).
No wonder I’ll be stuck with the BBC for the time being, even if I couldn’t care less about cricket.
I wonder what would they do if the had disgraceful politicians like this one. If you want to understand why a country with 5 million people, in the middle of nowhere, with terrible climate for a big part of the year and with no natural resources is developed while others are not, please notice that here they invest in their human capital. That’s what they have and it makes all the difference.
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.
My friends can visit their families for the weekend. In my case, it takes me the weekend to get to see my family. That’s why the few times I get to see some of my closest ones I enjoy the occasion immensely.
I watched this Polish movie on TV last night, that deals with the time of the Soviet military presence in Poland and their impact on the lives of 4 people. While I will not divulge the plot, it was very dramatic but what really caught my eye was the political and historical background of the whole movie, from the 60’s to the present day.
