What is the West?

That is somethingI have come accross with a couple of times during my time here, the definition of what comprises the Western world varies widely depending on who you ask: some people will say that it's only Anglo-Saxon North America and Western Europe, some people will include Eastern Europe, some will include Australasia, some Latin America and some all of the above.

Once, when having this discussion about East and West I asked a colleague at work regarding my belonging to said construct, and this person answered "Maybe you are, but I wouldn't say that everyone in your country is". Further expanding that thought, I started wondering what it is. If a country that follows Christendom to the extent of being the second largest Catholic country in the world, is also a heir to the Roman legal tradition and has the second largest amount of speakers of a Latin-based language in the world is not Western given that it also has a strong Native Amarican component, then I don't know what the West it is.

Frankly, I think there is a confusion between the concepts of western, northern and developed countries, but that's just me.

Clases e interés

Como un ejemplo sobre el relativo peso e interés de las economías China y Latinoamericana en donde me encuentro, puedo compartir la observación que mientras en mi clase sobre Negocios en Latinoamérica solamente hay 5 estudiantes (3 de ellos latinoamericanos) en la clase sobre Negocios en China hay unos 20.

New kind of video games: PeaceMaker and FoodForce

I like video games, especially those related to strategy. I've played games in the series of Age of Empires, Total War, Command and Conquer and Civilization, among others. However, a new kind of socially-responsible video games have caught my attention.

PeaceMaker is also a strategy game, but in this case you take control of one of the sides in the Israel-Palestine conflict, and the goal is to achieve peace and the Nobel Prize. Their usage of real news footage in the game seems particularly interesting.

FoodForce is a game developed for the UN World Food Programme targeted at pre-teens, where they are given the task to co-ordinate the food assistance operations of the UN in a fictional country. It has now been downloaded millions of times.

I don't know about you, but I feel these kind of gaming is worth trying. We can teach people that doing the right thing can also be fun.

FIFA official date

• USA 2-0 Mexico (Again... the team needs more than a winning mentality to win)
• Scotland 2-2 Finland (Interesting usage of new players by both teams)
  
• Belgium 0-2 Czech Republic (Belgium still seems to have forgotten how to play)
• UK 0-1 Spain (Horrible game, great goal by Iniesta)
• France 0-1 Argentina (Most entertaining match overall last night)

Racismo a la mexicana

Hablando con algunas personas, me he dado cuenta que nosotros también podemos ser racistas, aunque prefiramos quejarnos amargamente de cómo tratan a nuestros connacionales en Estados Unidos.

Nos llegamos a quejar de la mafia coreana, de los inmigrantes argentinos, centroamericanos, chinos o judíos, y aunque sabemos que somos la mezcla de la mezcla de la mezcla, he oído quejas contra los negros o los árabes.

Tod esto viene a colación porque una persona que me visitó hizo un comentario con una mezcla entre sorpresa y desdén sobre la cantidad de personas de religión musulmana que viven en Bruselas. Cuando le hice la observación que alguien podría quejarse sobre la cantidad de mexicanos viviendo en Estados Unidos, guardó silencio. Eso, francamente, es racismo.

Algunas veces me gustaría que no viéramos la paja en el ojo ajeno sino la viga en el propio. Si queremos que el mundo se abra a México, México también tiene que abrirse al mundo.

The top ten international stories you missed in 2006

The interesting list from Foreign Policy magazine here.

I, for one, didn't know that for example Russia is selling arms to Latin America.

A Paco Calderon cartoon for the weekend

Globalisation ≠ Americanisation

I have seen that a lot of the debate regarding globalisation as such is that we're all becoming "Americanised". Whilst it is true that many of the global brands are American, and that a sizeable part of the media we consume is also from the U.S, there is a lot of interaction that doesn't involve them, and that would even go against their interests. English, however, is one of the platforms that we use for international communication, like the Latin of old. The problem is that native English speakers have no incentive for learning a foreign language, so their horizons are a little bit more limited in the beginning.

How to tell if you're from X

Similar to the post below, I came accross this page before. It's very good, and quite accurate for the countries I know.

República Árabe Saharahuí Democrática

La República Áraba Saharahuí Democrática es un país que fuera colonia española que no es reconocido por muchos estados fuera de África y el mundo hispanoparlante puesto que su territorio está en disputa con Marruecos (en algunos mapas se encuentra como Sahara Occidental). Es una pena dado que ellos reclaman por el mismo derecho de autodeterminación de los pueblos que tienen todos los demás países, y que es parte de la Carta de las Naciones Unidas. Hay un referéndum que determinaría el futuro de los habitantes de este territorio, pero Marruecos y Francia lo siguen bloqueando después de más de 10 años porque no les conviene que haya un país hispanoparlante en esa parte de África. Para desgracia de los Saharahuíes, su lucha por la autodeterminación no es tan ”sexy” como aquella que en su momento tuvo Timor Leste, y aunque son apoyados por la mayoría de los países hispanoparlantes y la Unión Africana, no ha habido mucho progreso con su situación desde que el Frente Polisario depuso las armas.

Con información de ”Más Allá de las Fronteras”, proporcionada por la Embajada de la República Árabe Saharahuí en México.

Movies not to see when you're flying

I have recently seen two movies not recommended for those with frequent flyer platinum status: World Trade Center & United 93. Both were actually not very good from the cinematic point of view, but brought back the memories from September 11^th, 2001. Do you remember what you were doing then?

I definitely do. We had a meeting with some suppliers that day. After leaving the meeting, we took a cab and there we heard from the driver that something had happened in NY. When we got to my boss's hotel, everybody was in the lobby watching CNN. I remember thinking that this was something out of Hollywood, and immediately called my mom to check if my dad was not in the States. He wasn't, but a friend of the family was (we heard later from him that he was fine). When I took the commuter train back home everybody (mostly Finns who are usually very reserved) was talking about the day's events. When I got home I couldn't stop watching TV until I fell finally asleep. A co-worker was flying to Britain. He got home 7 hours late.

March 11^th was similar. I read the news on the BBC website and immediately called our Spanish office. They were all OK and I then called a friend of mine who lives in Madrid. He was rather freaked out because he usually takes one of those trains to go to school, but he didn't that day. That night there was an anti-terror rally in Helsinki, and I attended with my Spanish friends. One good friend of mine just couldn't stop crying (even though I believe nothing happened to any close people to her), and I remember that it broke my heart. And to think that it was my birthday...

The Islamic influence in Europe

Ramadan is widely celebrated near my school. Walking down the streets you find a lot of women with headscarves and other protective clothing. There is talk about agreeing on some sort of European Islam, but the Muslim world itself is torn between tradition and modernity, religiousness and secularism, and the Muslims here have to deal with an unfamiliar (and I guess sometimes threatening) environment. I can only start guessing what goes through their heads when their bazaar is next to the red light district of Brussels, for example. I hope that there is some sense in all parties involved in these discussions, as these are trying times for us all.