Haciendo mi ronda usual de periódicos ahora que tuve un poquito más de tiempo, me topé con que El País de España ahora se hace llamar "El periódico global en español". Contrastándolo con los contenidos de su página principal, que se concentran en noticias españolas, e incluso con el nombre del periódico (¿o qué, "El País" se refiere a otra cosa y no a ese pedazo de tierra entre Portugal, Francia, el Atlántico y el mediterráneo?), he llegado a dos conclusiones: o es un ejercicio fallido de mercadotecnia que no va a llegar a ningún lado o realmente se lo creen y son más arrogantes de lo que pensaba.
Actualmente ningún medio de habla hispana cumple la serie de requisitos que le pondría a un medio más global (nótese que no digo global) como CNN, France 24 o BBC World, nótese dejar de verse menos al ombligo y más al exterior. Ese es un nicho de mercado que aún no está cubierto en nuestra lengua, pero francamente a Grupo Prisa no le veo cómo con su actual propuesta de valor, aunque acepto que desconozco mucho sobre el negocio del periodismo.
The subtitle of this book, "How Traders, Preachers, Adventurers and Warriors shaped Globalization" explains very well what is it all about: a historical recounting of the processes throughout history that have shaped our societies to reach the level of interconnectedness where we currently are. As such, it is a great description, but the casual reader will not find recipes for solving the world's ills here.
Nevertheless, it is a very well written, enthralling book. If you want to have an idea about how we got where we are since the appearance of the modern Homo sapiens in Africa eons ago and what are the current challenges facing our world, grab this tome. Its examples and anecdotes give colour to the epic tale of the human race, and its last three chapters explain how much of a crossroads are we actually at. As he says, calls to shut down globalization are pointless because there's no one in charge, but we have the power and the responsibility to steer our world in the right direction.
This pale blue dot is the only home we have. We better learn to live together.
On the way back from Japan, surprisingly I didn't listen to my iPod music. I found out that Lufthansa has 30 different radio channels with different music from all over the world, and just spent my 10 hours listening to what they had to offer. Indian, Arabic, Italian, Tamil, French, Korean, Japanese, Mandarin, Hispanoamericana, Brazilian & African channels further enforced the point that international music is not only about the typical Anglo-saxon pop and rock charts.
I even found about a Berliner radio station, Radiomultikulti, that broadcasts music from all over the world. However, I'm not sure they'd have the Japanese punk band I just discovered in Tower Records Shibuya.
Had a business lunch yesterday here in Tokyo. During the conversation, I realised that over half of the people at the table were living in a different country where they were born: Irish, Finnish, Peruvians in Japan, Germans in China, Mexicans in Finland, etc… Those who were not living "abroad" at the moment definitely had extensive international experience.
Certainly interesting, especially since for us it was completely normal.
Este fin de semana es 16 de septiembre, la fecha en que todos los mexicanos sacamos la bandera, los trajes típicos y nuestras mejores recetas nacionales.
Hasta ahí todo bien y sin problemas, estar orgulloso de las raíces de uno es algo muy positivo. Sin embargo, algo que me preocupó bastante es una encuesta que me encontré en el Reforma, donde por desgracia se demuestra que tenemos un concepto de identidad nacional en el que no aceptamos las influencias del extranjero. La respuesta que más me pegó de la encuesta fue en donde la mayoría de los encuestados expresaban sus recelos de aquellos extranjeros que adoptaban la nacionalidad mexicana y de aquellos mexicanos que adquirían un pasaporte extranjero. Otra respuesta que me sorprendió fue aquella en la que la mayoría se expresaba contraria al comercio internacional, cuando buena parte de la economía de eso depende. En dicha encuesta también se expresaba el temor que tienen muchos mexicanos a que su identidad sea afectada porr "la globalización", y el 62% expresaban que la gente que critica al país o su forma de gobierno lo hacen porque no aman a la patria (punto que me parece en extremo incoherente, porque si por algo critico lo que veo en mi país es porque creo que se merece una mejor realidad que la que tiene).
Tal parece que queremos que el mundo se abra a México pero no que México se abra al mundo. Esto en un país que es el producto de la confluencia de culturas me parece tan contradictorio como estúpido.
A couple of random thoughts I have been munching on:
Just finished reading this book. Even though many things are most probably not true, even if this guy did only 25% of what they claim he's worst than most of the other dictators in the world.
Finnair's Asian strategy is working. So much so, that my direct flights HEL-MAD-HEL were full of Spaniards and Chinese coming and going on holiday (there were very few Finns). There were a couple of "little emperors" but nothing too annoying really. The comparison with their partner Iberia couldn't be more lopsided, since in their case the results from their Latin American strategy are a mess (if you fly within Europe service is pretty OK, but if you fly long haul the airline changes from Iberia to Siberia).
I have occasionally wondered if the subtitle of this blog is just too pretentious. Then I am reminded of the accuracy of it by things like those that have happened to me in the last two weeks: we visited a Canadian of Vietnamese origin and his Scottish-Norwegian girlfriend in Norway, I missed an appointment for a couple of beers with a Kiwi friend visiting Finland and just had dinner with a Turkish friend (who was living in the US until very recently) and his wife. The books I read, the media I consume are not necessarily produced where I live or where I'm from. Furthermore, for me and many others, these situations and these backgrounds are completely normal.
Today I had lunch with the "Mexicans" at work. They are under quotation marks since many of them weren't actually Mexican, but people who have for some reason or another spent some of their time in Mexico and not only speak proper Mexican Spanish, but also behaved as Mexican as any chilango, regio or yucateco would. Even though we were an Italian, 3 Mexicans and 2 Finns, the table sounded as having 6 Mexicans.
Globalisation and acculturisation go both ways, I've seen.
At a friend's wedding (he's Argentine, but lived in Canada and is now married to a Finn) we were discussing that we're from everywhere and nowhere. We're at home in all three places, but always missing something (or most usually someone) else who may or may not be there.
That's the immigrant's life. Something that is probably becoming more common given current international mobility patters (yes, part of that thing they call globalisation).