This week was my birthday, and as every year I was planning to take it really, really easy since it was during a working day.
What was different this year was that I was more than a little surprised to have received over 80 congratulations messages over Twitter & Facebook besides a couple of text messages. Of course it is much easier because social networks remind you of your contacts’ birthdays, but I have to say it was quite moving to be on the receiving end, and that’s added value 😉
Reading a report by the Economist Intelligence Unit on the outlook for this year, I found out that lipstick sales can be a very reliable economic indicator. As ridiculous at it may sound, theory goes that if lipstick is selling briskly, the economy is not doing well, as women are substituting other purchases with it.
I’ve heard of other unorthodox economic indicators, but this one is the weirdest.
One of my colleagues posted online the model we’ve been using for planning our digital marketing. If you are involved in this kind of activities and don’t know where to start, it is an excellent tool.
All of this of course relates to spreading the word, participating in & enabling conversations. That’s one of the reasons why I love my job. We are building the future one day at a time.
This week I learned that two of my classmates from high school in northern Greater Mexico City are also in a relationship with Finnish girls and both are also living abroad. That got me thinking about how many of the guys and gals I used to go to school with back then are also overseas, and the sample is quite broad.
I’m not particularly surprised of this development given that we were educated as the so-called NAFTA generation learning English (and sometimes other languages) from childhood, and given a broader view of the world than people before us (I remember attending lessons on economics, global affairs, the stock market and compared history of North America at that time).
What sets us apart from those before us I think, is not that some of us would go abroad, but that we would not concentrate in the United States as before. In my sister’s high school class (she is only a few years older than me) most of those who are working abroad are doing so in the US (a couple here and there in Europe, but it’s a minority), whereas with us the geographic dispersion is much broader: I have classmates in Mexico, and all over the US, true, but also in Canada, Spain, Sweden, Germany, Australia, France, Brazil, UK and I believe even a couple in China. Moreover, many of them who are back in Mexico also have international experience, either as students or during their careers.
I’m sure that this is partly due to American immigration regulations after 9/11, but I believe it also has something to do with many of us wanting to see what else was out there. I wonder if the Institute for Mexicans Abroad will start tapping this kind of talent network too, as many of us are working for institutions like e.g. Shell, Nokia, Microsoft, ESA or Volvo or studying at recognised institutions all over the place. Maybe we should learn something from what the Indians and the Chinese are doing by taking advantage of their expatriates, instead of complaining about the brain drain?
Regardless, it’s good to see that most of them in Mexico or wherever they may be are doing well.
I’ve been listening to a lot of Juan García Esquivel lately. Imagine my surprise when I found this mashup with 2001: Space Odissey, one of my favourite movies.
Currently on my N85:
Plus bookmarks for:
Thankfully I have a flat rate data plan, and WLAN hotspots at work and at home.
What does this mean? What we are seeing is the shift of economic power from the United States & Europe to markets elsewhere, and especially China, India and parts of the Middle East are in good shape to reap the rewards. However, since the system is built around the countries of the G7 with the US as the main motor of worldwide consumption, co-operation between all countries is needed, or else the rise of protectionism will amplify the current situation.
I wouldn’t be surprised if in case the crisis lasts long (hopefully not) China ends up bailing the US so that its own economy can keep on growing…
When I moved to Finland to study in the summer of 2000, 8.35 Mexican pesos used to buy one euro (the Finnish markka, still legal tender, was already pegged to the euro, and transition to banknotes would happen one and a half years later). A non-EU student like me needed to show he had 30,000 markka (5,045 euro or 42,000 pesos of August 2000) for his living expenses for the year in order to be granted a residence permit. I had to sell my car and got some help from my parents to reach that sum, but it seemed a better proposition than continuing studying at a private university where the tuition per half year cost 50,000 pesos (5,990 euro or 35,600 markka of August 2000). Furthermore, I didn’t need to pay tuition in Finland.
Today’s rate is 19.1 pesos per euro. Furthermore, a non-EU student now has to demonstrate that he/she has 6,000 euro every year in order to be given a residence permit, so my present-day equivalent would need to get 114,000 pesos every year to be allowed to come to Finland to study (a 271% increase in almost 9 years!). The Finnish Parliament is also evaluating the possibility of adding tuition fees for non-EU students.
I hope I’m wrong, but I don’t expect many Mexican students coming here anytime soon. I guess it was a matter of timing.
You may have noticed that the rate of new posts in this blog has slowed down a little. Most of it is simply due to the fact that I’m spending a hell of a lot of time working these days (a common joke with my buddy Phil is that we see more of each other during the week than of our wives), so I don’t have that much time to share certain things as when I was studying my masters.
Furthermore, most of the impulses and insights that I have nowadays are related to work, and as you may have noticed I don’t feel comfortable blogging about it externally unless its public, live and water under the bridge (a not-so-uncommon problem). For that reason I have started a Nokia internal blog where I post my thoughts on services, devices, marketing and industry shifts as I see them happening. If you also work for the company and would like to read it, tell me and I’ll send you the link).
This doesn’t mean that this blog will whither and die (on the contrary, I plan to give it more attention now that it has finally moved to its own server and I was able to clean all 800-plus entries), but that I’m still trying to evaluate what focus to give it. Let’s see what it brings, and hope you want to continue reading.
For a long time I’ve wanted to know who my readers are, where do they come from and what kind of stories and insight you would like to read in this space, since I’ve so far only covered whatever crosses my mind (which can be quite varied when you look at the tags).
Whereas Google Analytics and inbound links can give me an idea, it’s of course more human (and the whole point of this blog) to have a conversation with you, dear readers. That said, let’s get started now that you don’t need to register to comment as it was in bloody Vox.
Durante mucho tiempo he querido saber quiénes son los que aquí visitan, de dónde vienen y qué tipo de historias o pensamientos les interesaría leer en este espacio, dado que hasta el momento sólo escribo sobre lo que se me ocurre (que puede ser bastante variado si uno checa las etiquetas).
Aún cuando tanto Google Analytics como las ligas entrantes me dan una idea aproximada, pienso que es más humano (y la razón de ser de este blog) tener una conversación con ustedes, queridos lectores. Con esto, podemos empezar ahora que ustedes ya no tienen que registrarse para comentar como era con el Vox del carajo.