"Suomessa on liian vähän ihmisiä"

Sanoi minun suomalaisen tulevan vaimon täti Brysselissä käydessään.

Kuka sitten maksaa sosiaaliturvaa kun kaikki ovat eläkeellä?

Mexican genome study results released

Mexican media report today that the results of a gene mapping study of the Mexican population have been released. As expected, we are a mix of different ethnic groups (around 35) and in average about 65% of our genes are not of European, Asian or African origin (i.e. they are Native American), but the results tend to vary, with the highest incidence of European genes in the northern state of Sonora (58%) and the highest of African genes in the southern state of Guerrero (22%).

So, is science helping us answer the question of who are we, or not yet? ;-)

Tale of two Finlands

Finland is in general a very egalitarian society, where mobility is common and opportunities available, which is something I think other countries should learn from. However, I have noticed certain, if not polarization, at least divisions in society regarding how they see the outside world.

There are those that understand that Finland's economic success is dependent on globalization and those who only see the Chinese threat; those who have travelled and seen the world and those who haven't; the young who are used to having people with foreign backgrounds in their classroom and the old who first saw a black man in their street in the 90's; those that welcome foreign labour and those that feel threatened by it (especially if they are already unemployed); those that speak foreign languages with confidence and those who feel they threaten the status of the Finnish language; those that want a more generous welfare state and those who want to pay less taxes; those who think racism is stupid and those who are unabashedly racist; those who have taken advantage of EU farm subsidies, Erasmus exchange programmes and the like and those who strongly dislike the EU...

Difference of opinion is of course what democracy is made of. Finnish society, however, needs to be aware that these differences exist, and that not everything is smooth and perfect.

Immigration in Finland

I found this old article about Brett Young (whom I know personally and can vouch for his Finnish language fluency), and it got me thinking. I lived in pääkaupunkiseutu (Helsinki & Espoo) for six years, will marry a Finn this summer, have plenty of Finnish friends and speak Finnish fluently at home (with the odd partitive instead of accusative mistake, heh). I also studied engineering in Finland and pretty much became an adult there, having adapted to and adopted parts of the culture, for which I'm grateful.

However, compared with my current stay in Brussels, I noticed that the society in general hadn't truly accepted me. Whereas those closest to me treat me like "one of them", as soon as I was on my own people would be suspicious, or even downright hostile. Why? I guess because I look different. I have brown skin and dark eyes and hair, and my features are very non-descript (people usually can't guess that I was born in Mexico, at times I've been told I'm Spanish, Portuguese, Arab, Turkish and even half-Finnish half-Thai).

Even though I'm currently abroad, I plan to eventually come back to Finland to raise our children there, and in time I would like to apply for citizenship out of gratitude. However, I sometimes have my doubts about whether all the effort to integrate is worth it, since I'm afraid I'll always find somebody shouting at me "Vitun turkkilainen, mene kotiin!"

Sobre las chachas

Una vez, estando en el club en México, estaba platicando con una chava que acababa de conocer. Cuando le comenté que entonces vivía en Finlandia, ella estaba encantadísima. Le dije que ahí hay poca corrupción y poca pobreza, y ella seguía super interesada. El problema fue cuando le expuse que como no hay desigualdad, tampoco hay personal doméstico de limpieza (y si lo hay, es extremadamente caro) a lo cual me contestó: "¡Ay no, es que yo sin chacha no vivo!".

Me ha pasado varias veces encontrarme mexicanos y mexicanas (síguele Ox) que fuera de México no saben vivir sin sus chachas. No saben cocinar, limpiar, vaya, ni hacer la cama o de perdida unas quesadillas. A mí francamente me parece escandaloso que haya tanta gente que dependa tanto de tener ayuda doméstica y lo que refleja sobre la sociedad mexicana.

Vaya, a mí también me gustaría tener alguien que me ayudara en la casa (cuando vivía con mis padres, también había temporadas en la que teníamos "muchacha"), pero me enseñaron a limpiar mi tiradero de igual forma, con o sin ayuda.

Suomen eduskuntavaalit

Kokeilin Sanoman vaalikonetta niinkuin olisin Suomen kansalainen, ja asuisin vielä Helsingissä. Tulokset yllättivät minua vähän.

Ensimmäinen ehdokas jonka olisin valinnut oli Arto Bryggare (Sdp), toinen oli Ben Zyskowicz (Kok) ja kolmas oli Tuomas Nurmela (Kok). Suurin yllätys oli, että puolueiden ehdokkaiden keskimääräinen sopivuus -osassa löysin ehdokkaan nimeltä Marijan Basic, joka on itsenäinen ehdokas joka on syntynyt Kroatiassa mutta asunut Suomessa jo pitkään.

Katsotaan miten menee. Toivottavasti Perussuomalaiset eivät saa paljon äänestystä, en haluaa toista Tony Halmettä eduskuntaan. Joka tapauksessa, en voi äänestää koska en ole kansalainen.

Machismo a la mexicana

Si hay algo que siempre me ha sorprendido y que no cuadra con mi visión del mundo es el machismo. Hablando al respecto sobre eso varias amigas mexicanas que viven por acá, me dí cuenta mucho mejor de cuál es el impacto de estas actitudes sobre la vida de las mujeres.

El haber vivido tantos años en una sociedad tan igualitaria como la finlandesa me dió una perspectiva muy diferente de las relaciones entre miembros de diferente sexo que la que tienen muchas personas en México, además de que tuve la fortuna de haber crecido en un hogar con mujeres fuertes, de esas que no se dejan. Hoy por hoy, en mi casa con mi mujer los dos lavamos, los dos cocinamos, los dos atendemos a las visitas y los dos tenemos una carrera (aunque curiosamente, los dos estamos estudiando).

Hablando con un amigo sobre las políticas sociales vigentes en Finlandia, donde además de ausencias de maternidad largas existe una ausencia de paternidad éste me respondió "¿Y tú para qué la querrías? ¡Si la que iría a parir es ella!". En eso obviamente estamos totalmente de acuerdo, pero si uno también ayuda a hacer al niño también tiene que ayudar a cuidarlo. Tuve la fortuna de crecer en un hogar en el que tanto mi madre como mi padre se ocupaban de mí (en horarios diferentes por cuestiones laborales), y me da pena ver muchas familias en las que el padre de familia se desentiende tanto de las labores de casa y de los hijos. ¿O qué (le diría yo) tú crees que tu esposa no se cansa después de trabajar?

Otra cuestión que ha captado mi atención es que esta actitud no sólo es preponderante entre los hombres, sino que muchas mujeres mexicanas crecen con la idea de que van a ser de una u otra manera menos, de que un buen hombre tiene que ser bastante macho, y de que los roles van a ser tan fijos como eternos. Los casos de mujeres maltratadas son los más extremos, pero esto se manifiesta de múltiples otras maneras, como el típico de que en una salida el hombre es el que tiene que pagar.

Lo bueno es que la sociedad está cambiando. Con más mujeres profesionistas integrándose al mercado laboral (y en algunos, todavía muy contados casos, ganando mejor que los hombres), las demandas del sexo femenino están cambiando, y así también tendrá que cambiar la oferta masculina. O al menos, eso espero.

Y que conste que las feministas extremas también me chocan. Igualdad de géneros sí, extremismo porque sí no.

3G and sign language

I couldn't help but notice in Babel the usage of 3G mobiles by deaf people: using video call to transmit sign language. I was very surprised to discover that this usage is not exclusive of Japan, as in Sweden the municipality of Örebrö gives customer service to its large population of deaf people using sign language (link in Swedish). That's the kind of uses of technology I like: simple and relevant.

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.

The Machine is Us/ing Us

Best explanation I've ever seen of Web 2.0 below. Ties in quite well with what we've discussed on the singularity.


Via Noveno Colectivo and Ceronne.

Demonstrator in the World Economic Forum Second Life room

As demonstrators can't go to Davos, one decided to express his opinions in the Second Life Reuters interview room.

Los cárteles de la droga en YouTube

Los enlaces pueden tener contenido gráfico no apto para gente impresionable. Favor de ejercer discreción.

Leyendo la columna de Katia D'Artigues, me enteré que los cárteles de la droga video se mandan videoamenazas en YouTube(cada link de estos cuatro es una diferente). En una versión mexicana de los gangsta rappers, un cantante de narcocorridos fue muerto por los Zetas del cártel del Golfo por cantar una canción que le encargaron sus rivales del cártel del Pacífico. Ellos se han estado peleando por la ciudad de Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, durante los últimos tres años, y la situación se ha puesto muy peligrosa. A tal grado ha llegado el país.

Mientras tanto, los analistas políticos dicen que así por internet los cárteles se mandan mensajes en clave. A mí esos videos me pareció que clave no tienen, al contrario, están claritos, claritos.

Así ni cómo regresar.

Update: Ya hasta Reuters tiene la historia. Yo me la encontré en The Register.

New Year drunkenness

I had in a previous post written something about Nordic drinking habits. I think that things have gone downhill since I was last time in Finland for New Year (about 6 years ago). New Year's Eve was spent with friends. We walked to the top of a hill to see the fireworks crackling around the Helsinki Metropolitan Area and then went to a party in town (all in all, a nice evening).

However, when going back to where we were staying around 4:30 a.m. I was stuck not only by the amount of drunken people (after all, it's New Year, right?), but the depths of their stupor. One girl literally stumbled and fell accross Mannerheimintie, and we came back and lifted her up so that she would at least be safe. That was not the only one, on Jan. 1st after going to the movies we found a teenager sitting in a staircase, completely lost. After some negotiation, we left him there.

What's wrong with a society if it is widespread that people drink until they lose consciousness?

Small country syndrome

Heard from a Finn who had just visited Costa Rica:

"Costa Rica felt somehow similar to Finland. Also a small country, right after asking where are you from they would turn to "How do you like our country?"."

I'm not so sure it is exclusive from small countries, but it is true that at least in Finland everybody asks you that.

While we were away, Belgium ceased to exist... not!

It's the end of Belgium as we know it... only joking, originally uploaded by Chiva Congelado.

As we came back from London in the Eurostar, I came accross this newspaper article (also reported in the Beeb). If you're not aware of the story, check it first before continuing reading this post.

The good news is that at least now people noticed that this can really happen, and the backlash was, I'd say, healthy. I, for one, would be very sad to see the idea of Belgium be defeated, as this country is very unique, and I quite like the good sides of it (in both Dutch and French). More background about Belgium and Belgian politics in Wikipedia.

Pulp fiction dialogue

Jules & Vincent are talking about Vincent's European experiences.

Vincent: ...But you know what the funniest thing about Europe is?

Jules: What?

Vincent: It's the little differences. I mean they got the same shit over there that they got here, but it's just - it's just there it's a little different.

Jules: Examples?

Vincent: Alright, well you can walk into a movie theater in Amsterdam and buy a beer. And I don't mean just like in no paper cup, I'm talking about a glass of beer. And in Paris, you can buy a beer at McDonald's. And you know what they call a, uh, a Quarter Pounder with Cheese in Paris?

Jules: They don't call it a Quarter Pounder with Cheese?

Vincent: Nah, man, they got the metric system, they wouldn't know what the fuck a Quarter Pounder is.

Jules: What do they call it?

Vincent: They call it a "Royale with Cheese."

Jules: "Royale with Cheese."

Vincent: That's right.

Jules: What do they call a Big Mac?

Vincent: A Big Mac's a Big Mac, but they call it "Le Big Mac."

Jules: "Le Big Mac." [laughs] What do they call a Whopper?

Vincent: I dunno, I didn't go into Burger King. But, you know what they put on french fries in Holland instead of ketchup?

Jules: What?

Vincent: Mayonnaise.

Jules: God damn!

Vincent: I seen 'em do it, man, they fuckin' drown 'em in that shit.

Jules: That's some fucked up shit.

Nordic alcohol consumption

I was discussing about that with a friend of mine who has never been in Finland, and had to explain him the basics: yes, Finns tend to have more, say, heavy-duty drinking habits, some people (especially the young) tend to literally drink to get drunk (so beers with high alcoholic content represent more value for money :-0 ), taxes to alcohol are therefore very high although they were dropped a couple of years ago and alcoholic beverages above a certain percentage are only available at the national monopoly.

The good news is that not everybody drinks like that (or maybe they do, but only in their student years ;-) ) and you find quite a few people who drink in a more Continental European kind of way (maybe some wine with food, but nothing of the harder stuff). Now that's more like it.

Russian Kotka

Funnily enough, I read that Kotka in southeastern Finland wants more Russian immigrants. After the well-known animosities between both nations, and the prejudices Russians face there, it's quite a surprising turn.

Belgian bureaucracy

I had heard before that Belgium is renowned throughout Europe for being so thoroughly bureaucratic. I didn't want to believe it (after all, Latin countries have exacly the same problem), but, boy, were they right. I won't rant here about the immigration/residence permit procedures, which are excruciating as usual, but even simple stuff like ordering cable TV and getting WLAN at our flat has been an ordeal. The bureaucracy at the school has been the exception that confirms the rule, though, they've been spotless.

My advice: if you move here, make sure you don't need anything urgently.

Globalisation is...

listening to "La Bamba" being played and sung in Spanish by a guy with a marked Arab accent in the Brussels Metro...

Priceless!