Globalisation is...

a Vietnamese student correcting the English language usage of a French marketing teacher in Brussels...

And a Mexican posting about it in his blog.

3rd Matchday: Chivas 0-1 Pachuca.

Chivas lost on an injury time goal from Landín at home.

At least the team knows now that they aren't invincible, so they should keep alert.

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.

Le Superbowl

Le Superbowl, originally uploaded by Chiva Congelado.

Few things I know are weirder than a Mexican watching the Superbowl in Brussels via a French
channel at 2 a.m. Shortly thereafter I went to sleep, and Chicago lost.

The photo is from the kickoff and ensuring touchdown run. What an amazing start! And to think I don't even like gridiron that much.

Merci France 2!

The Rainbow

Heard from a friend, having a conversation with his little kid.

"Dad, what's that?"
"That's a rainbow."
"But what is it."
"It is something that God puts in the sky."
"God has to be a little girl then."
"Why?"
"Because only little girls would think about putting so many colours in the sky."

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.

¿Privatizar el petróleo mexicano?

Después de estar leyendo sobre la situación actual de Pemex, el precio del petróleo y las reservas, me encontré con este cartón de Paco Calderón:


Desde antes se me había ocurrido la sacrílega idea de que tal vez el petróleo en México es como una muleta a la que nos hemos acostumbrado y que no nos permite realmente caminar, ya que sentimos que tenemos que seguir dependiendo de ella aunque no sea el caso. Nótese que no estoy diciendo que tenemos que rasgarnos las vestiduras y venderlo todo al "capital apátrida", para que nos "saqueen" y demás, pero francamente estoy hasta el gorro de que sobre este tema no podamos tener discusiones como adultos, con argumentos en la mano en lugar de pasiones en el corazón.

Por ejemplo, ¿no sería mejor idea que Pemex funcionara como una empresa como cualquier otra y simplemente pagara impuestos? Es pregunta. ¿O a ustedes qué se les ocurre?

A ver si no me crucifican, acuérdense que hasta soy de centroizquierda.

Human Rights for Robots

I read this in the Financial Times some time ago and it definitely caught my attention. Given that we would be approaching the singularity supposedly soon, it doesn't sound so out of touch with reality.

Talking about this with some people I know, they were decidedly spooked by this given that, they say, "robots don't have a soul". The issue of having it or not for me is irrelevant, for as long as something is self-aware and can express it they should have rights (this applies also to animals). I wanted to give them an introduction to this, but they dismissed it as a waste of time, and truth be told, our world has more pressing concerns.

I wonder if they will still think that way later on.

Hittail review

I'm using a search hits reporting tool called HitTail. This way, I now know that people searching the internet find my blog while looking for Mexican hand gestures (yes, I still have to post that video in YouTube) or Pan's Labrynth.

If you write a blog, I'm sure this utility will be useful.

Political Compass

I found this from Ceronne's blog, and just had to take the questionnaire. What about you?

Sobre la droga y el estado de Sinaloa

Buscando otras cosas, me encontré un artículo en El País (de España) que ofrece una muy buena descripción de la situación del narco en Sinaloa, a propósito del operativo del ejército mexicano en el "Triángulo Dorado".

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.

Cuando en la familia se empieza a hablar de política...

...prefiero nomás quedarme pensando.

Mexican league 2nd Matchday: Santos Laguna 2-3 Chivas

In the first game against his former team, goalkeeper Oswaldo Sánchez couldn't stop Santos from losing at home against Chivas, even though he had some very good saves.

Alberto Medina confirmed his great form by scoring two goals while Omar Bravo also found the back of the net. At the end of the game, Chivas fell back and Santos's "Hachita" Ludueña scored two. Santos is still prime candidate for the relegation zone.

The last Chivas goal below, the other two here and here.

Playing football

During a my childhood and most of my teenage years I had a love-hate relationship with football. On one hand, I really liked the sport, and I followed the Chivas de Guadalajara with the kind of passion that having most of your family following the same club can give you. On the other hand, I have always been a terrible player, to the extent that during most of my childhood I didn't know how to kick the ball in such a way that it would reach the intended player, let alone score a goal.

Later on, I became relatively tall and developed good reflexes from playing basketball, which made me a better than average goalkeeper in the school (and street) playground, so teams would select me, but I still would be lacking technique. I stopped playing football as I was part of the junior high and high school basketball teams.

Then I moved to Finland. Since football is not the national sport there, kids usually don't play it to such a high standard, and there are teams for all skill levels, so I found one according mine. I played there and enjoyed it immensely, as it was absolutely non-competitive and we could just have fun. Since I had been watching football for so long, I understood many things in the field that I didn't know when I was a kid, and finally got over my love-hate relationship with the sport.

Now there's only love left (mostly).

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.

Vader has some existencial problems

Funniest mash-up I've ever seen. They took some dialogue from other movies by James-Earl Jones, and put it together with Star Wars footage. Amazing result.

I don't watch much TV anymore

I just realised that it's true, I don't watch that much TV anymore. My media consumption is quite diversified these days: blogs, podcasts, a couple of newspapers, books, music, movies, but not that much TV (even though I still watch football matches, CSI Miami and Lost from time to time). If I'm representative of a trend, then there's no surprise the old media moguls are getting in the bandwagon.

Meme: video(s) of my place(s) of origin

Checking Ceronne's blog, I found this meme, the idea being of posting a video or videos representative of your place of origin. Given that some were already used, I decided to go for Ingrata, by Café Tacuba (which has the added bonus that the group and part of the shooting are very close to the places where I grew up).


In the case of Helsinki, even though it's not my place of origin, I was there quite a few years, so I guess it qualifies. Below "Sinä lähdit pois" (even though I was searching for a song about the airport called "Helsinki-Vantaa" that would bring me better memories but I guess it's not in YouTube just yet).

Molotov quiere Ver Golazos

El celebérrimo video censurado de Molotov para Televisa Deportes abajo.


La historia aquí y aquí.
Lo más cómico del asunto es que en el portal de Televisa esmas.com ya le tenían sitio guardado, pero no sé por qué no lo pusieron, ja.

Yo sólo me pregunto, si ya saben cómo son los de Molotov, y la relación previa que han tenido con Televisa (sólo basta recordar "Que no te haga bobo Jacobo" o "El Carnal de las Estrellas"), ¿cómo se les ocurre pedirles una canción?

20 years of the Challenger disaster

Today is the 20th anniversary of the Challenger space shuttle disaster. I remember watching the TV news, wondering what that all meant. I still believe in space exploration, but wonder if we will ever get to solve or manage our problems in Earth first or whether it will be used as an escape valve.

A mis maestros

A todos los que me enseñaron algo, ya sea en la escuela o fuera de ella, gracias.

Mexican President Interview to the Financial Times

The link here.

2nd semester

The classes we're now taking in our second semester are in a way a marked improvement on those we took in the first (which is understandable given that we needed to expand on a common knowledge base). With subjects such as Political Environment of Business, International Accounting and Reporting, Financial Management, Global Information Systems (which I don't need to take as I've worked on that field before), Doing business in Latin America and China or International Marketing this seems to be a more fun period than the one before.

Insomnia

Some people in our class have the same problem I'm having now. After two very intensive exam weeks, we can't get asleep. Tonight I fell semi-dead in bed around 9 p.m., but at 1:30 I woke up and I still can't sleep.

Let's hope it's not the start of a trend.

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.

3 films by Mexican directors nominated for the Oscars

Babel received 7 nominations (including best director and best picture), El Laberinto del Fauno (Pan's Labrynth) 6 (including best foreign language film) and Children of Men 3.

I found the best quote about the three movies in a Brazilian website:

"Del Toro, Alejando González Iñárritu and Alfonso Cuarón are examples of movie makers that never stopped giving their own touch to their productions, regardless of being tied to big studios. Coincidentially, or not, all three are nationals of a country that still today is treated with disdain by the Americans. The prejudices won't end any time soon, but their talent and their success is the best answer."

In other news, the Spanish are also happy. Penélope Cruz is also nominated for best actress, some Spanish documentaries are in the fray, and the possible success of Laberinto del Fauno (Pan's Labrynth) is also theirs, as a big part of the staff and all of the actors are Spanish.

Gustavo Santaolalla from Argentina created the score for Babel, and he's also in the running.

I hope they all win, but of course the competion is tough.

1st Matchday Clausura 2007: Chivas-Toluca

A reload of the Apertura 2006 final, Chivas received Toluca at the Jalisco stadium for the 1st matchday of the new tournament. In between the two games Oswaldo Sánchez, former captain, goalkeeper and idol, was sold to Santos Laguna and Ramoncito Morales was chosen in his place. Chivas was also selected by the IFFHS as the 24th best football team in the world, which doesn't sound too bad either.

According to the news reports Saturday's game was entertaining, with Chivas tying at the last minute with a sublime freekick from our new captain.

More information at mediotiempo.com, the video highlights below.


In other news, Hugo Sánchez had his first team training with the national team as new coach today. Twelve players have been called from those that went to the World Cup in Germany last year, and there are 8 players from Chivas.

I really like the new Adidas uniforms. Nike is not providing them anymore as their contract ran out, and the Mexican Football Federation didn't renew their contract for two reasons: Adidas's offer was better and Nike had serious problems meeting jersey demand from the public during the WC.

The fish I can't eat anymore

The fish I can't eat anymore, originally uploaded by Chiva Congelado.

Tuna stocks have declined worldwide to an alarming extent. While searching for fish for sushi, my girlfriend didn't allow me to buy tuna because "she wants our children to be able to eat it as well". I agree, but I think that, hopefully, market economics will kick in and make it more expensive to buy, so less people will buy it until supplies replenish.

But in case that doesn't work as markets aren't perfect, there is an international meeting going on focusing on tuna stocks.

Bloglines service review

I am using an RSS web reader service called bloglines to keep track of all the blogs and news sites I read. The big advantage is that it is very simple to use and add different feeds, besides not being tied to a single PC.

La bloguera de 95 años

La señora María Amelia empezó su blog el año pasado, cuando por su cumpleaños uno de sus nietos se lo regaló al ver que le interesaba todo eso del internet.

Es, sin lugar a dudas, uno de los mejores blogs que he leído últimamente. No se me hace raro que le hayan hecho tantas entrevistas y ya haya salido tantas veces en periódicos de diferentes países de habla hispana.

Aquí entre nos, a mí me gustaría leer blogs de mis abuelos, de mis tíos abuelos y de los abuelos de mi mujer. Hay muchas historias que quisiera saber completas. Además me parecería muy interesante conocer más sobre sus puntos de vista sobre acontecimientos que nosotros consideramos históricos y para ellos son simplemente parte de sus vidas, y sé que no soy el único.

El mexicano errante

Me confieso chilango. Llevo casi 7 años fuera de México (prácticamente me volví adulto fuera), y he sabido adaptarme muy bien a la vida fuera de mi país, lejos de mi familia y mi gente, aunque el messenger, el skype, las visitas y las largas distancias son una maravilla. Tan bien, que no sé cuándo regrese. Le comentaba a una amiga alemana de mi clase anterior de francés (ya me cambié otra vez) que tengo tres pulseras en la mano izquierda. Una me la compré en Greenwich, en el meridiano cero. Otra es un regalo de graduación de ingeniería de mi abuelo. La última es una pulsera tricolor, en verde, blanco y rojo (o más bien, verde, gris y rojo, porque ya está muy sucia) que me compré en el Zócalo del D.F. justo antes de partir en el 2000. Mi idea entonces era (muy romántico yo) que me quitaría esa pulsera cuando regresara a México a vivir. Cuando le dije la historia a mi amiga me quedé pensando que aún no sé ni le veo para cuándo me la voy a quitar.

Aunque Europa creo que ya la conozco relativamente bien (aunque me falta buena parte de esa área entre Alemania y Rusia que ya no sé si llamar Europa Oriental o Europa Central), del Lejano Oriente sólo conozco un país, de Medio Oriente dos, de Sudamérica tres, de África ninguno y de Oceanía tampoco. Quisiera ver más mundo antes de regresarme a mi tierra, porque sé que cuando regrese para establecerme va a ser muy difícil para mí volver a salir. O quién sabe.

Not recommended book: The Silent Takeover

Not recommended book: The Silent Takeover, originally uploaded by Chiva Congelado.

Read this book during the last month, didn't really like it. On one hand it is good to see the arguments of the detractors of globalisation, but on the other hand I felt really disappointed that the book offers no solutions, just complaints. In some parts it really shows its age.

A favourable review here, an unfavourable here.

El Fogoncito va a China

La cadena mexicana de taquerías El Fogoncito ha decidido abrir sucursales en China. Yo me pregunto, ¿cuánto tiempo tardará antes de que salgan fotos de versiones piratas en Pinches Chinos?

Disclaimer: No estoy de acuerdo con algunas actitudes del site anterior que podrían ser interpretadas como racistas.

Actualización: Las fotos en Flickr. Como la de abajo. ¿A poco no se les antoja?

Fogoncito, Inauguracion 092, originally uploaded by CRoberts.

I knew there was something wrong last night

During the whole day I heard some strange noises coming from the street, but funnily enough no rain. I didn't go out as I've been studying for exams. Now I found out that there was a storm in Northern Europe. Two persons died in Belgium.

Thanks to ceronne and Rafael Peñaloza for the hint.

A friend's adventures in the UK

I was chatting over messenger with a good Mexican friend of mine who is now living in the UK. She told me a couple of stories that dovetail nicely with my own that I've also posted in this blog.

She's rather fair-skinned, with blue eyes and blond hair, so I asked her if people believed her when she said where was she from. She answered that usually they don't, but the worst part was with her doctor, who for half an hour analysed her facial features until declaring that "I thought that all Mexicans were short, dark Native Americans". The funniest part was that he was Pakistani himself.

In another instance, after arriving in Barcelona for spending the holidays she was asked to answer a survey. The interviewer started going through the survey in English and as she stutterd with a word my friend ask her to switch to Spanish. The interviewer then seemed rather taken aback, as she didn't expect my friend to be a native Spanish speaker.

So, the lesson is that in Europe people think she's from an English-speaking country, whereas in my case people think I'm Morrocan, Turkish, Spanish, Italian, Brazilian, or even half-Thai half-Finn, but we're both Mexican.

I think it's time we all get rid of our stereotypes. They might be reference points, but they're not very valid.

¿Y tú, cuánto cuestas?

Olallo Rubio, el alguna vez locutor de la extinta estación de radio chilanga Radioactivo, nos presenta su primer largometraje.

Los teasers aquí, aquí y aquí. El trailer abajo.

Current Mexican rock scene

Another article in the Rock en Español series.

In the last 6 years there has been an explosion of so-called indie rock bands in Mexico, giving it a very active scene. As has been the case before, some bands from other countries have also been performing in festivals such as the Vive Latino or Rock en Exa.

The rock scene in Mexico had been strongly supported in Mexico City with magazines such as Rock and Roll and radio stations such as the defunct Rock 101, Radioactivo and now Reactor. The latter released during the past two years a series of until now 4 EPs with the independent bands they have given airplay to called "¿Cuál es tu Rock? Mi primera caja de música" and they have been warmly received by a young public avid of new music. I have them all and heartily recommend them.

The bands included are (all are links to their Myspace profiles, where you can listen to their music):

• Los Búnkers
• Plastilina Mosh
• Instituto Mexicano del Sonido
• Lady Bombón
• The Cosmetics
• Réplica
• Furland
• De Saloon
• Yokozuna
• Abeja
• Vainilla
• La Live Band
• Subdivisión
• Álbum
• Turbo
• Comando Groovy
• Nortec Collective
• Quiero Club
• Lasser Moderna
• Los Dynamite
• Lost Acapulco
• Niña
• Telefunka
• The John
• Monocordio
• Chikita Violenta
• Fatalist
• Ghaia
• Twin Tones
• Chicote
• Hugo
• El Hombre Bala
• Los Gatos
• Entre Ríos
• Fenómeno Fuzz
• L. Camorra
• Los Abandoned
• Mario
• Los Fancy Free
• Veo Muertos
• Porter
• Pastilla
• Austin TV
• Los Látigos
• María Daniela y su Sonido Lasser
• Columpio Asesino
• Golden Rainbow Kid
• Victoria Mil
• Hummersqueal
• Vaquero
• Phono
• Cahuenga
• Volován
• San Pascualito Rey

Funnily enough, not all of them are Mexican, and neither do they all sing in Spanish, but that's the kind of music that has been making the rounds there in the past couple of years.

More background on the current indie scene from El Universal.

Preview: iPhone, a couple of days after the release

Now, if you follow technology news I'm sure you have heard about the launch of the iPhone, Apple Inc.'s first product that marries an iPod with a mobile phone.

After reading a couple of previews (here, here, here, here and here), and owning both a 60 GB iPod video and a Nokia N93 I've made up my mind.

On the plus side I think that the design is very, very nice (as expected from Apple), and I'm sure that the interface will be easy to use and "sexy". The browser also looks very nice (although those kind of browsers have been available before in other products). However, in my opinion this device has serious shortcomings. First in my mind is that it has no 3G connectivity. WLAN coverage is not ubiquitously available outside of San Francisco, so downloading music or browsing will not be as simple. Other issue that simply makes me literally scratch my head is the use of touchscreen. While in paper it sounds like a great idea, but given that the iPod is very scratch prone (I keep mine in a protecting case, as many people do) I truly wonder whether this will annoy users more than it will delight them. Also the fact of having Google maps without GPS or fast 3G connectivity kind of defeats the purpose of navigation (will you find a WLAN hotspot on the road?).

With my combo of N93 and iPod, I wouldn't have the incentive to switch to a device that doesn't hold as many songs on one hand, and doesn't do photos, video and internet as well either, but that's just me. Somebody who is an absolute fan of Apple's products (and there are many out there) will buy it immediately.

All in all, I think it will be a steep learning curve for Apple, but I'm sure that their entrance to the market hasn't been unnoticed by the SonyEricssons, Motorolas and Nokias of this world.

Mi maestra de francés

Los cuatro lectores (Catón dixit) de este blog desde el principio saben que soy un adicto a los idiomas. Sin embargo, últimamente me he sentido bastante falto de entusiasmo en mis clases y aprendizaje de francés (idioma en el cual leo bien, escribo a un nivel básico y hablo de manera fatal, aunque medio se me entiende). Después de un concienzudo análisis, me dí cuenta de que lo que no me gusta de mis clases de francés es la maestra.

Vayamos por partes (como diría Jack el destripador). Esta no es ni la primera ni la segunda ni la tercera vez que estoy estudiando una lengua que no es la materna, ni la primera vez que estoy estudiando dos idiomas al mismo tiempo (en orden cronológico he pasado por clases de inglés, alemán, italiano, finés, portugués y ahora francés y neerlandés, además de mi amado español mexicano chilango), y a lo largo de este tiempo me han tocado maestros malos, maestros buenos, maestros buena onda, maestros estrictos y maestros barcos entre otros, pero nunca me había tocado un maestro (maestra, en este caso) sarcástico.

Después de hacer el examen de colocación, me dijeron que me podía saltar el primer nivel (que dura un año) a lo que podríamos llamar Loditos II. Empecé con una maestra pero por cuestión de la maestría tuve que cambiar horario, con lo que me tocó la actual. Con ésta tal parece que no me congracié mucho dado que cuando nos preguntó en la clase cuál era nuestra experiencia con la lengua de Voltaire yo simplemente contesté "Ninguna, pero estoy leyendo De la guerra (von Clausewitz) en francés", lo cual parece que no le cayó muy en gracia. De tal manera que cuando me toca leer algún texto o hablar sobre algún tema, no sólo me corrige (que a eso va uno, a que le enseñen y lo corrijan), sino que lo hace de una manera, digamos, poco profesional como (al haber cambiado el sexo de un sustantivo por error) "¿Qué? ¿Ya lo volviste transsexual?" o (en un examen oral, donde expliqué que estoy comprometido) "La única manera en la que vas a mejorar es consiguiéndote una novia francófona" (y uno nada más pensando "¿Y qué ______ te acabo de explicar?").

Lo peor del caso es que creo que fuera de ese detallote es una maestra bastante buena y estoy seguro que he aprendido bastante, pero no la soporto, y la verdad es que ni ganas me dan de practicar mi francés fuera de clase, con lo cual no avanzo como quisiera. En realidad estoy muy desmotivado al respecto.

Lo bueno es que no hay mal que por bien no venga. Por razones de calendarización de la maestría, voy a tener que cambiar a otra clase otra vez, así que espero que me vaya mejor (si me pudieran mandar con la primera maestra que tenía sería excelente).

How to market your blog

Interesting article from problogger.net. Will have to start working on that.

After Star Wars, waiting for movies is not what it used to be

I remember the hype for Episodes I-III. I even went to line up for tickets for the Episode III Helsinki premiere. I used to check TheForce.net and StarWars.com everyday. Not anymore... I miss my Star Wars fix, and I miss anticipating something for so much sometimes. I guess it has to do with growing up. =P

Flavours that remind you of something

I was thinking about that the other day, and started making a list of all the flavours and foods that remind me of something, someone or somewhere.

• Meat balls with chipotle reminds me of my mom.
• Tecate beer in a can with lemon and salt of my dad.
• Carrot cake of my sister.
• Leek and bacon stew of my significant other.
• Anything related to tofu of my in-laws (except miso soup).
• Traditionally prepared mole of my grandma.
• Ham and cheese sandwiches of one of my aunts.
• Coffee and Fazer chocolates of my significant other's grandma.
  
• Soba and nori of Japan.
• Salmon of Finland.
• Good meat of Argentina.
• Apple-flavoured tobacco hookah of Dubai and Timón, a friend of mine.
• A good jabugo ham of Spain.
• Frites and good beer of Belgium (a Leffe especially of my first day here).
• Farofa of Brazil
• Marabou chocolate of Sweden
  
• ...

Yes, I really like food.

Pesadillas en aeropuertos

Inspirado por la última odisea de Ceronne (el cual ya se encuentra sano y salvo en Francia), me acordé de varias de mis aventuras en aeropuertos durante los viajes que he tenido la oportunidad de hacer.

De la que más me acuerdo es de una que también me pasó con Delta, en un viaje Helsinki-Londres-Atlanta-México, D.F. Teniendo un boleto de viaje redondo con validez de un año, al efectuar el viaje de vuelta cuando llegué a Atlanta me dijeron que "qué pena, su vuelo ya no existe". Para no hacerles el cuento largo, después de dar dos vueltas de un lado al otro del aeropuerto, donde me rechazaban en cada mostrador ("No joven, es el que está por allá"), por fin me encontré con un paisano en uno de ellos que por fin me echó la mano, y me dio un pase para abordar mi vuelo final, para el cual tuve que correr como desaforado. Lo más sarcástico de todo es que mi vuelo a México salía a dos salas del vuelo del que había llegado de Londres.

En otra ocasión, íbamos a México para pasar Navidad, volando Helsinki-Frankfurt-México, D.F. Cabe mencionar que esa es mi ruta preferida para cruzar el charco puesto que es bastante directa, y aunque el servicio de Lufthansa no es el más amable ni el hub de Frankfurt el más bonito, es definitivamente funcional. Ese año había habido unas tormentas de nieve espantosas en toda Centroeuropa, y desde que nos documentamos en nuestro vuelo desde Helsinki sabíamos que no íbamos a llegar a nuestro vuelo a México (cabe mencionar que las filas eran inmensas, y al contrario de lo que pasa normalmente, había gente tratándose de meter, por lo que casi organizo una gresca). Al llegar a Frankfurt nos encontramos con lo esperado: el avión a México ya se había ido, pero también con lo inesperado: Lufthansa no nos quería ofrecer alojamiento porque "sabíamos a lo que nos ateníamos". Después de mucho discutir, nos mandaron a un hotel donde pasamos la noche, y al día siguiente pudimos tomar el vuelo al D.F. sin problemas. Lo más chistoso de todo esto es que nos habían ofrecido quedarnos en Bruselas y esperar el vuelo del día siguiente, pero fue mejor que no lo hicimos porque nos habríamos perdido la oportunidad de pasar Navidad en México.

Con los agentes de seguridad y migración, normalmente no me pasa gran cosa. En Heathrow siempre me han tratado bien, en E.U.A. no me la han hecho más de tos que lo normal (ojo, antes del 11/IX/2001) , y en Japón hasta me sonrieron. Lo chistoso es cuando entro a Schengen, ya sea por Frankfurt o por Helsinki, donde aunque hablara finés siempre les tenía que decir dónde trabajaba para que me dejaran pasar, mientras Amsterdam, Viena y París siempre han sido bastante tranquilos. Bueno, todo esto se quedó corto cuando fui a Israel. El problema incluso no fue la entrada (aunque tenía un sello de los Emiratos Árabes Unidos, para ellos no fue mayor cosa, el problema va a ser cuando vuelva a ir a un país árabe), sino la salida. Al salir, pasamos por dos retenes donde tuvimos que enseñar el pasaporte antes de entrar a la terminal del aeropuerto. Antes de llegar al mostrador de documentación, tuvimos que pasar otro control con un militar donde nos hizo preguntas durante al menos quince minutos, en el que le puso a mi maleta y mi pasaporte la espantosa calcomanía violeta. Después, a mi maleta la pasaron por un detector de rayos equis del tamaño de una máquina pequeña de inyección de plásticos (de como 8 metros de longitud). Inmediatamente después, tuve que abrir mi maleta, y sacar todo lo que tenía para que le hicieran un análisis de explosivos (donde pasan un paño por la maleta y lo meten a un analizador para ver si tienes algo raro). Después de eso, pudimos hacer nuestra documentación y seguirnos hacia la terminal. Para entrar a la terminal, tuvimos que pasar por otro chequeo de seguridad, y como yo tenía la espantosa calcomanía violeta (soy moreno y joven, terrorista seguro, jajajaja) pasé por seguridad extra fuerte otra vez. Ahí me hicieron que me quitara los zapatos y el cinturón, y me hicieron varias pregutnas sobre lo que traía (equipos, los cuales les empecé a vender por si les interesaba). Cuando vieron que no los estaba choreando, me dejaron pasar. Yo lo tomé como venía todo el tiempo y fui bastante amable y cortés, pero ahora que lo pienso, sí estaba canijo.

Total, después de estas tres aventuras, ahora que regresé de Bruselas y tuve que esperar varias horas en Munich (al ver que no llegaba a mi conexión, la aerolínea me cambió de vuelo y me imprimió otro pase de abordar automáticamente) la verdad es que fue muy, muy leve.

What's my mental age?

Pretty close to my real age, hehehehe.

You Are 24 Years Old
Under 12: You are a kid at heart. You still have an optimistic life view - and you look at the world with awe.

13-19: You are a teenager at heart. You question authority and are still trying to find your place in this world.

20-29: You are a twentysomething at heart. You feel excited about what's to come... love, work, and new experiences.

30-39: You are a thirtysomething at heart. You've had a taste of success and true love, but you want more!

40+: You are a mature adult. You've been through most of the ups and downs of life already. Now you get to sit back and relax.

What Age Do You Act?

The weather is going nuts

The weather is going crazy, originally uploaded by Chiva Congelado.

13°C in Brussels and still above 0°C in Helsinki. In the meantime it is snowing in northern Mexico. It's obvious to me that the weather is going nuts.

Palestinian scarf

selfportrait, originally uploaded by hme.

I will admit one thing: I have been to both Israel and an Arab country and liked both, including the people of both places. I will take no sides.

I bought a scarf similar to this in London. The following quote from Wikipedia: "As with other articles of clothing worn in wartime, such as the T-shirt and khaki pants, the keffiyeh has recently become both ethnic and military chic among non-Arab hipsters in the West, who may be uninterested in either politics or the military. In Europe and major cities of the Americas and Australia, the black-and-white keffiyeh has become a youth fashion accessory, often worn as a scarf."

This is the sense in which I wear it, I'm neither pro-Israel or pro-Palestine, I'm pro-peace.

However, since I'm not exactly Caucasian, wearing it in Helsinki or Brussels people think that I'm Arab, instead of just following a fashion that other people follow as well. I find it rather stupid, and very annoying.

Economics

I agree that capitalism is probably not the best way to solve our problems, but it's the best so far that we have found to create wealth. Wealth distribution, that's another story, and the attitude towards it varies greatly among societies.

Now I should go back to studying for my exams.

Very funny ads.com: March of the Emperor

A great ad from Canal Plus, one of the funniest I've seen in years.

Link here: http://veryfunnyads.com/ads/24990.html

The singularity

More from Wikipedia.

Are you afraid, or would you like this?

Currently listening to

• Nortec Collective
• Instituto Mexicano del Sonido
• The Babel Soundtrack
• ¿Cuál es tu Rock? Vols. 3 & 4
  

El Laberinto del Fauno (Pan's Labrynth)

The last of the three movies by Mexican directors being released at the end of 2006. I'm still undecided which one I like the most, Children of Men, Babel, or this one. All of them are beautiful, but I have to give a lot of credit to Guillermo del Toro for such a vivid imagination and such a beautiful photography throughout the film.

I'll buy all three, and surely hope all of them win Oscars.

Totoro!

Totoro!, originally uploaded by Chiva Congelado.

If you have the chance, check out this beautiful Japanese movie. It is very touching.

Star Wars quote of the day

I was explaining that many of the people studying with me haven't seen Star Wars.

"Hey, now I know why capitalism is so screwed", somebody else said.
"Why?"
"They haven't seen Star Wars, so they don't know anything about evil empires"

It's still above zero

In case it wasn't obvious, it was a record-breaking warm month of December in Finland.

Hell froze over when Lordi won Eurovision, so probably all the heat is now above-ground ;-)

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?

Suomessa

Tajusin kun olin siellä että loppun lopuksi minusta tuli aikuiseksi kuudessa vuodessa Pohjolassa. Olen iso ja vähän tumma, kuin ruisleipä ;-).

Harmi että sää oli niin surkeaa... =P

Yeah, as if you're going to see this while driving

Yeah, as if you're going to see this while driving, originally uploaded by Chiva Congelado.

Driving in Finland is a lot of fun. You have lots of signs but sometimes they don't even get it right. This picture was taken in the summer, now you can imagine how visible is this in winter...

Sometimes marketing gets it wrong...

You've all heard the stories about the Mitsubishi Pajero (which is not sold with that name in Spanish-speaking countries because then it means the Mitsubishi Wanker), the difficulties when translating slogans and so on...

Eating in a corporate canteen, I noticed that in a drive to improve service they also changed the names of their different sections, so "World cuisine" became "Be global", the vegetarian section became "be green", etc. The problem is that the grill section became "be grilled". I wonder why it looked so empty. ;-)

Ylämäki-Alamäki not like uphill-downhill

The literal translations are the same, but the meanings are opposite. Who'd have thought?

Día de los Santos Inocentes

Las noticias de Reformado.com, Beckham por fin fichó por el Barsa, FIFA le da el FIFA World Player a Zidane y se lo quita a Cannavaro, la federación de Jai-Alai denuncia a Nintendo por plagio del Wii son algunas de las que han dado vueltas este 28 de Diciembre, Día de los Santos Inocentes.

Pero si las creen, es su bronca.

Tex-Mex is not Mexican food!

Tex-Mex is not Mexican food!, originally uploaded by Chiva Congelado.

I bump into this issue from time to time (this photo is from Helsingin Sanomat), so I guess I have to tell my audience about it. The long rant that follows simply boils down to this: Tex-Mex is not Mexican food! The first time I saw hard-shell so-called tacos was in Europe. The only truly Mexican brand of chillies on sale here is "La Costeña", all others are European or American copycats.

Most of the food on sale in "Mexican" restaurants outside of North America (there are honourable exceptions, but they're few) is unknown to a Mexican, including such things as burritos (which are only found in Northern Mexico, if at all) or nachos with cheese. Those things to us are like a salmon burger would be to a Finn, or mussels with cheddar to a Belgian.

I don't deny Tex-Mex can be good food, just please don't call it Mexican. You have no idea how much you're missing. The funniest thing is that now in the States you can get proper Mexican food, but in Europe we're still stuck with the Americanised adaptation (just like the differences between rodeo and charrería).

Winter sunsets over Hanasaari

Were one of those things that I hadn't noticed that I missed so much from Finland. Pity it is so difficult to take a picture.

They're afraid of me...

One of the funniest things that has happened to me in Brussels is that when I find Finns in the street and talk to them in Finnish, they get scared as hell. Why? Because I sure as hell don't look Finnish, so they don't know what's going on.

At least with the younger generation that's not such a big problem anymore, but I sure hope it'd change.

UNICEF Smurfs ad

It is not difficult to see why this ad was so controversial in Belgium. However, I quite like it. We should keep in our minds those who are less fortunate than us, especially at this time of the year.



The text at the end reads: Don't let war destroy the universe of children.

Mandando mensajes de texto a México

No sé si la situación sea diferente con Movistar, pero al menos con Telcel no puedo mandar mensajes de celulares de otros países a números Telcel. Eso me parece muy raro ya que puedo mandar a números de otros países, e incluso haciendo roaming en México me llegó a pasar que recibía y podía mandar mensajes con mi número finlandés de un amigo con un número de Singapur tomando vacaciones en Nueva Zelanda, pero no podía recibir y mandar mensajes a mi papá con un Telcel en el cuarto de al lado.

¿Cuándo van a conectar su SMSC (la parte de la red de GSM que manipula los mensajes de texto) al mundo? ¿Realmente necesitan convencimiento sobre el modelo de negocio, dada la cantidad de mexicanos que vivimos fuera del país que podríamos causar una explosión en el uso de los mensajes de texto internacionales?

Infraestructura telefónica en México

Esta mañana me dí de topes otra vez con la infraestructura telefónica mexicana. Dado que soy uno de los 20 millones de mexicanos que viven en el extranjero, quise hablarle a mi familia a las 00:00 del 25 de diciembre para desearles feliz navidad. Dado que en Finlandia eran las 08:00 a.m. del mismo 25, que mi llamada saliera no fue mayor problema... el problema fue que entrara. Intenté dos números de celular y uno fijo, y durante quince minutos no hubo ni cómo. Recibí mensajes de "Intente más tarde" en finés, inglés, sueco, español y uno hasta en chino. Cuando por fin mi llamada pudo entrar a alguno de los celulares, me mandó inmediatamente al buzón de voz ambas veces.

Con razón el país ha perdido negocios de call centers para América Latina, si la red no puede ni siquiera manejar las llamadas de navidad.

Merry Christmas!

Helsinki Complaints Choir

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.

Lordi Cola

Lordi Cola, originally uploaded by Chiva Congelado.

Picture the scene: I'm in Finland after a while, go to the supermarket and find Lordi Cola. Then a kid around 8 years old stands in front of it, and starts singing "Hard Rock Hallelujah" with a French accent...

Priceless!

Back in Finland

For the holidays at least. Feels really nice actually to be here. I understand the language and the people much better.

Hair colour scales

One thing that has caught my attention for a while now is how people see hair colour differently. For example: many people in northern Europe would describe my hair colour and my eyes as black, whereas in Mexico or in Africa my hair colour is brown, and so are my eyes. Same thing with blond, many people that I would consider blond really don't think of themselves as blond, and vice-versa.

Being nordic

I was in a class the other day, and the teacher asked "Who here is from the Nordic countries?". All my friends turned around and looked at me. Should I have said yes, or no?

Los Fabulosos Cadillacs

Another post in the Rock en Español series.

Los Fabulosos Cadillacs is a group of Argentina that became very famous in the 90's with their eclectic mix of rock, ska, jazz, tango, samba and big band. They had many members, but their singer and co-leader was Vicentico, who has since gone solo, the other leader being Sr. Flavio. They released many albums, but reached continental notoriety through their single Matador (Vasos Vacíos, 1993), whose video is below.


Other videos available in YouTube are:
Strawberry Fields Forever (Rey Azúcar, 1995) A cover on The Beatles.
Mal Bicho (Rey Azúcar, 1995)
Calaveras y Diablitos (Fabulosos Calavera, 1997)
La Vida (La Marcha del Golazo Solitario, 1999) This is a great video, and a great spoof.

More information, as usual, from Wikipedia.

Carl Sagan

Wandering through Technorati while taking a break from studying International Economics I found the Carl Sagan blog-a-thon. Many in my audience will probably not have the slightest idea about who this man who died 10 years ago today was and why is he important, so check out Wikipedia.

In Mexico, where I grew up, I don't think they ever broadcasted the Cosmos PBS series, but I was fortunate enough that my school had bought the tapes (yes, tapes, after all, I was 8 or so at the time). Also at the same age, I received as a birthday present the book "Comet" from a neighbour. It was a present I devoured, and made me realise that science can be as much fun as science fiction (even though later I discovered I don't have the patience to be a scientist myself). During the following years I bought Cosmos, Communication with Extraterrestrial Intelligence, Pale Blue Dot and The Demon-Haunted World. I also joined the Planetary Society as a kid, with which my name went to Mars in the Mars Pathfinder (I'm not currently a member, but plan on rejoining). He is one of two persons (the other being Isaac Asimov) that planted firmly in my mind the idea that colonising other planets is what our species needs if it wants to survive (all this before global warming and the terrorist threat became the issues they are now).

He died on December 20th, 1996 after a long battle with mielodysplasia. Even though he didn't believe in God the way I do, my prayers are with him and his family ;-) .

How was your 2006?

I was checking out some forums I post in from time to time, and they had a thread about your personal highlights for 2006. I have to say that it got me thinking.

This year's gone in a blur! Below my highlights of this year that is about to end:

1. Family & friends are all healthy and doing well.
2. Still with the same girl for the last 6 years and loving every minute of it!
3. Got a lot of recognition at my job, but still went on study leave.
4. Travelled quite a bit: Chilangolandia (Mexico City), London, Dubai, Tokyo, Tel-Aviv, Berlin, Amsterdam, Luxembourg, Barcelona...
5. Moved to Brussels from Helsinki to start a masters in international business. Enjoying it immensely! This city is great, and I needed a change.
5.5. I've found a different side of myself, and got in touch with my creative side (even started a blog).
6. Started another couple of languages (# 7 & 8). I still speak them like crap, though...
7. Met a lot of interesting people, but still keep in touch with my old friends.
8. Reconnected with some people I hadn't seen in quite a while.
9. Learned to cook sushi! And chicharrón en salsa verde, hehehehe.
10. Discovered new music (Nortec Collective rules).

Don't know what life will bring next year, but that makes it even more exciting. I have no idea about where I'm going to live after I finish my degree next summer, and you know what? No problem!

TIME magazine person of the year: You

With 2006 being the year of Web 2.0, it was bound to happen. Head over to TIME.com to read the articles.

Mexican hand gestures

I've been asked so many times about certain things I do that I decided to explain.

1. Extending and contracting your index finger while all others are contracted means yes.
2. Extending your index finger and then moving it from side to side while all others are contracted means no.
3. Extending all fingers, then taking the tips of them to your forehead with your palm facing you and doing a movement outward of about twenty centimetres means thank you.

Update: The video is available here.

Use Sunscreen and the Generation Gap

Two questions:

1. Are you inspired by this video, or just completely bored?
2. Are you below, or over 30?

There's an answer here somewhere...

El Santo contra los Clones

If you know any Spanish and anything about Mexico City, you'll enjoy this miniseries of 5 "El Santo" cartoons. El Santo is a freestyle wrestler, a sort of third-world superhero. He can't be that bad if these shorts are produced by the Cartoon Network, right?



Found at Mexploitation.

m(_ _)m

You know emoticons, right? Things like =) =D =P .

The one above is also an emoticon, but a Japanese one. Do you have any idea what it is?

It's a guy bowing ;-)

Types of Finnish silences

Talking with a friend and my significant other we came to the conclusion that there are different kinds of silences in Finland:

• Uncomfortable silences, those where you don't want to say anything so as to not screw up
• "It's happy to be here" silences
• "I'm working on something" silences
• And the most important ones, silences that just are there. No reason, no message.

There are more, but I can't remember them now...

Te, ystävät ja perhe, olette sitä osa Suomesta että minä rakastan

Ja josta syystä kaipaan Suomea. Nähdään pian!

Great week for Mexican football (almost)

It is said in Mexico that when Chivas does well, the National Team does well. We hope this is the case now that we won the Mexican Championship. To make matters even better, Pachuca won the Copa Sudamericana, becoming the first Mexican team to win a CONMEBOL tournament, where we play as guests.

Now if only Club América had actually done something at the World Club Cup, instead of getting trashed by FC Barcelona and then humilliated by Al Ahly. They don't even deserve our hate, only our pity (their slogan after they qualified to the WCC was "Hate me in Japanese"... I guess it backfired).

Mexican view of death

You may have heard about the Day of the Dead, when Mexicans remember their dearly departed. What you may not know is that this view of death as part of life permeates their (our) lives. You may know that we eat sugar skulls with our names on the forehead around those days, but I'll tell you a story that will leave you speechless.

A young Mexican football fan saw the Mexico 1986 World Cup when he was a kid, and idolised Maradona. He cheered for his local team, UANL Tigres, and his dream was to see his team play in his idol's country, Argentina. Fast forward to 2005. UANL Tigres goes through to the group stages of the Copa Libertadores, and is placed in the same group as Banfield from Argentina. This fan (who is now in his twenties) is very happy and buys his ticket to go with the supporters group all the way there. However, he dies in a car accident the week before. No matter, his friends say. They do all the paperwork and bring the urn with his ashes all the way to Buenos Aires. The team goes to the field with a big sign in his honour, and they duly win 3-0. His friends sing and jump with his urn in their hands. Why? Because "that's what he wanted".

No wonder they sell caskets with the seal of your favourite team in Mexico...

Europe in the seventies

People very close to me lived in Europe in the seventies (the crazy seventies). It seems that moral attitudes have changed since then, as some of the conducts (especially relating to sexual promiscuity) are something that don't seem as widespread here as they once were. It is true that the current twenty-somethings are more moralistic than their parents' generation.

Does it have to do with the rise of AIDS (e.g., it was discovered the year I was born)?

Multiculturalism and different identities

I was talking with some friends about multiculturalism and different levels of culture identification (what do you feel part of, basically). I, for example, am Mexicano, Chilango/Sateluco, Espoolainen, Uussuomalainen and Brusselaar. I'm a North American, a Latin American, but also Europeanised and with a light Asian sensitivity. I'm the couple to my significant other, son of my parents, member of my family, friend of my friends and alumnus of the different schools I've studied in. I've taken parts of the places I've been to, so I eat a lot of Japanese food, listen to Brazilian pagode and read American sci-fi. I'm a techie, an engineer, a photographer, a linguist and a business person. But most importantly, I'm myself, and I know I'm all those things. I'll use them when I need to, and depending on where I am.

As a friend of mine said: "It's like a snowball, wherever you've rolled some things stick to you". Just be sure they're the good ones.

Sunny boy or cloudy boy

A Chinese friend of mine said that I'm a sunny boy, but she prefers cloudy boys (referring to my temperament). I know I might be a little bit too annoying sometimes, but I make the conscious choice to smile as much as possible, as it makes me and others feel good.

HIV drug marketing

In London we had a marketing workshop with Beaconbrands, where they showed some examples of advertising campaigns they have done about drugs that are used to treat HIV/AIDS. What really struck me is that they mentioned that HIV patients have to love life, otherwise it would destroy them emotionally as well as physically. I had never thought about it that way. These people must be tough.

Tama-Chan the seal

I was listening to the Tama-Chan song the other day, and it made me smile... =)

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.

Mind the Gap (London trip review)

The funniest part of London is that they all speak English (sort of). At least that's the first thing that strikes you when you're there after living in countries with other languages for so long ("oh my, all the ads shout at me directly").

I have to say that the city looks in very good shape. Everything seems clean, fixed and properly maintained, besides being a beautiful place per se.

We visited JPMorgan, Mergermarket and Lloyd's, besides attending a marketing workshop with Beaconbrands at the Anglo-Belgian Club. The visits were very well organised and we had plenty of time to explore the city. Even though I had been to London many times before, there were many places I didn't know and enjoyed immensely.

Having visited many firms in the City, I realised one thing: City life is not for me. These guys have no life outside of the office, and no time for marriage or kids. Maybe if I were another kind of person, but I'm not; money is very important, but it's definitely not everything in life. I'd rather have a chat with my significant other any day of the week, and twice on Sundays.

Another thing that really strikes you when you reach London is their different take to multiculturalism form what we're used to in the Continent. In England policement are allowed to wear scarves or turbants, as long as their face is seen. There is many, many foreigners, but they're, if not accepted, at least tolerated. The situation is not perfect, but I believe it fosters less marginalisation in general. The level of society acceptance is reflected in something that is obvious to Brits, but not very well understood anywhere else: the national food of England is not fish and chips, but curry.

The pictures from the trip are in Flickr, of course.

There can be more cultural differences between Belgians than between a Mexican and a Chinese

Which reminded me of bulletpoint #16 in this post. Of maybe it is not that there are more differences, but less awareness of their existence, and therefore less flexibility. All in all, it's always fun.