Hey all!
I guess this post will be slightly different than the other ones -no pics and no descriptions of local traditions, food, the colorful side of life here and so forth.
It's more a letting-loose my current state of mind. So, Mexico.
I remember that my best friend in Berlin (she's from Buenos Aires) told me once, after my ecstatic talk about Latin America, that I actually didn't have a clue about what Latin America was. Didn't put a thought to it back then, but, lately, a clearer vision has somehow popped up.
A great deal of how we perceive the world depends on our culture and the "values" we grew up with. Also, the way the country's reality (in the beginning "normality" when we're children) is. The thing I've constantly been having trouble coping with here is the class gap. A Serb living in Mexico City told me that Europe will never experience the poverty that exists here in Mexico, but neither the richness (speaking in strictly economical terms). The only thing is that the poverty-richness equation here depends more or less directly on the color of your skin and your origin.
As Shakira said once (pardon me my source of quotation): "If a child is born poor in Latin America, it's most likely that (s)he will die poor". The sad fact is that the education is not that available to everyone (as "we" are used to) and that (which might be worse but also depends on the lack of education), it is not perceived as necessary. Still, many do suffer from the lack of money, but do not find studies to be a way of solving that problem. Although, it might have a lot to do with the fact that many people consider education to be a privilege and not a right. A privilege that is reserved for a certain class which is mostly European looking, a remain of the colonial system. That's why many assume that because of my looks I also share the same characteristics -loads of money, land and that I've only went to private schools (it causes a sort of a shock that I've only been in public schools).
On the other hand, many of Mexico's high class members tend to imitate the American way life (shopping/traveling/going to malls/working their ass off, but buying a big house with a big pool, several cars and of course, the indispensable electric fence to protect the whole thing). And that's it, the creation of "us" and "them" and the invisible border (but clearly marked in people's minds) is never to be trespassed. Well, maybe when buying a taco from a señito, while coming out of the smart-building you work in for your lunch break.
So, this new "us" and "them" is currently my coping-with-issue. The thing is, I don't know/can't/won't place the "me" in "us" or "them". Maybe because both "worlds" seem so remote to me. The world of a 20sqm hut with mud floor and the world of a 200sqm marble floor mansion that occupies a whole block. I've wondered over if it's just been me in my Alice in (Wonder)land existence and not noticing this division back in Europe. But, after talking to several Latin Americans residing in Europe, they've actually confirmed that such an abyss doesn't exist there. Nevertheless, there are other social abysses that exist in Europe and that we're well aware of. And, unfortunately, the "us" and "them" tendency seems to be global, but manifests in different way. And maybe it was always that way, or was it not?
So, I guess this was a new part of my Mexico-related existence. Feel free to comment and share your piece of my mind.
Love you all,
Danilo
Oh, and a nice pic for a gloomy post (from a tree around the corner):
I guess this post will be slightly different than the other ones -no pics and no descriptions of local traditions, food, the colorful side of life here and so forth.
It's more a letting-loose my current state of mind. So, Mexico.
I remember that my best friend in Berlin (she's from Buenos Aires) told me once, after my ecstatic talk about Latin America, that I actually didn't have a clue about what Latin America was. Didn't put a thought to it back then, but, lately, a clearer vision has somehow popped up.
A great deal of how we perceive the world depends on our culture and the "values" we grew up with. Also, the way the country's reality (in the beginning "normality" when we're children) is. The thing I've constantly been having trouble coping with here is the class gap. A Serb living in Mexico City told me that Europe will never experience the poverty that exists here in Mexico, but neither the richness (speaking in strictly economical terms). The only thing is that the poverty-richness equation here depends more or less directly on the color of your skin and your origin.
As Shakira said once (pardon me my source of quotation): "If a child is born poor in Latin America, it's most likely that (s)he will die poor". The sad fact is that the education is not that available to everyone (as "we" are used to) and that (which might be worse but also depends on the lack of education), it is not perceived as necessary. Still, many do suffer from the lack of money, but do not find studies to be a way of solving that problem. Although, it might have a lot to do with the fact that many people consider education to be a privilege and not a right. A privilege that is reserved for a certain class which is mostly European looking, a remain of the colonial system. That's why many assume that because of my looks I also share the same characteristics -loads of money, land and that I've only went to private schools (it causes a sort of a shock that I've only been in public schools).
On the other hand, many of Mexico's high class members tend to imitate the American way life (shopping/traveling/going to malls/working their ass off, but buying a big house with a big pool, several cars and of course, the indispensable electric fence to protect the whole thing). And that's it, the creation of "us" and "them" and the invisible border (but clearly marked in people's minds) is never to be trespassed. Well, maybe when buying a taco from a señito, while coming out of the smart-building you work in for your lunch break.
So, this new "us" and "them" is currently my coping-with-issue. The thing is, I don't know/can't/won't place the "me" in "us" or "them". Maybe because both "worlds" seem so remote to me. The world of a 20sqm hut with mud floor and the world of a 200sqm marble floor mansion that occupies a whole block. I've wondered over if it's just been me in my Alice in (Wonder)land existence and not noticing this division back in Europe. But, after talking to several Latin Americans residing in Europe, they've actually confirmed that such an abyss doesn't exist there. Nevertheless, there are other social abysses that exist in Europe and that we're well aware of. And, unfortunately, the "us" and "them" tendency seems to be global, but manifests in different way. And maybe it was always that way, or was it not?
So, I guess this was a new part of my Mexico-related existence. Feel free to comment and share your piece of my mind.
Love you all,
Danilo
Oh, and a nice pic for a gloomy post (from a tree around the corner):
Great reflexion!
ResponderEliminarYou just reminded me of a line from Ursula K. Le Guin's novel "The left hand of darkness", which says something like: There is no "us" and "them", only "me" and "you". In the book's context, it talks about how basically being different (in terms of humanoid species in space) is also due to a categorization of THEM (different of us) and US (all familiar), as a mental/cultural construction too (think that Edvard Said initiated it in theory with his book Orientalism regarding the "Western world" and "Oriental countries"). The question is how to make it more personal, direct, based on less prejudiced basis, how to establish a relationship without this heavy ballast which simply is a construction of the world from your ("ours") own place of origin. Not everybody is aware that it is a context, a historical time and space framework which shaped that view (and which changes over time), rather then something "normal", "universal truth" or "that's the way things are".
Nevertheless, I'm highly recommending the book, check: https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/817527-the-left-hand-of-darkness, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Left_Hand_of_Darkness