Ski Baja
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Food for thought
If America is such a great country, why are the people of Mexico and most other poor, third world countries so much happier, family and community
oriented, and willing to go out of their way to help complete strangers while refusing monetary compensation ?
[Edited on 9-8-2003 by Ski Baja]
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Braulio
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Yeah - I've wondered that too - I've come to the conclusion that the people of Mexico need to be taught a better way.
As an example, every now and then I stop into a cantina in Mexico to have a beer and I see these workers making 50 bucks a week or so enjoying their
weekly caguama and grinning from ear to ear. - It really bugs me to death. Poor folk just shouln't be that happy. Then they go home to their
families and have dinner amongst their loving kids and all that. Someone needs to tell them that they really are miserable.
Excellent point Sr. Ski.
Braulio.
[Edited on 9-10-2003 by Braulio]
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Family Guy
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After a three week trip in Ecuador a few years back traveling the countryside by bus it took a while to adjust back to Bay Area life. The sense of
community was amazing.
When I returned the sense of isolation was striking. Everyone shielded behind the wheels of their cars, suspicious, and annoyed at those around them.
But it's not just that fact that all own cars here. Take a ride on a bus in the US and it's like being in an elevator--most uncomfortable. The
buses in Ecuador were like social hour where people of all classes shared a ride with a chicken or two.
It really does take so little to be happy.
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Packoderm
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During the last summer, I had a co-worker from Romania who described his amazement at how open and friendly American people are in America compared to
how Romanians are in Romania. He said that he would just walk in a park here in Sacramento and everybody he saw was so smiley and would all say hello.
Now I know that Germans, for instance, are typically not at all impressed with these, (I had better edit this: what they perceive to be,)
simpleton-like characteristics of non-Germanic people. I think it says something positive for us Americans that we can at least appreciate the simple
pleasures of Mexican and Belizean society, but we are busy people, not as busy as the Japanese or the Germans, but pretty darned busy, not better or
worse than anybody else, just distracted. Sometimes I can live for life?s little pleasures, but most of the time its all business, and I kind of got
used to it.
[Edited on 9-13-2003 by Packoderm]
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Jim
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JR, your question would seem to indicate, as someone (not I) on another BB pointed out to this same question you posed there, that perhaps your glass
is half empty. Your question suggests a gross generalization.
My experiences (66 yrs old; extensive travel in every state, most of Canada, most of Europe, a large portion of Mexico, and all of Baja; 20-yr
secondary school teacher; father; grandfather; former trustee on six non-profit boards; published writer; and more...) demonstrate to me that
happiness, community and family commitment, "Good Samaritan" traits can be found extensively in the U.S., just as they can be found in the other parts
of the world I have traveled.
As far as family commitment is concerned, we have witnessed first-hand deplorable behavior among family members in Mexico, so not all Mexican families
are as idyllic as you might pre-suppose in your question. We have witnessed wonderful examples of generosity in all of the areas that I mentioned
above, and we have also seen flagrant deeds of greed and selfishness in all of the same areas, Mexico (Baja specifically) included.
I?m no Pollyanna but I generally subscribe to the feeling that a person is a good, trustworthy, happy individual until something proves that to be a
mistake.
I find that to prevent cynicism from controlling me and giving me a half-empty glass all the time, I just get a new glass, one more appropriate for
the quantity of liquid I?m pouring in it.
We live in a small California community of approximately twenty thousand with substantial ethic, religious, and political diversity. There?s
practically no crime, drugs still have not permeated the youth (a never-ending battle), people help people, and many older parents live with their
children, as does my father who is just short of the century mark.
If Mexico were the utopia that you suggest, it would seem to me that the migration of poor people in the U.S. would be flocking south instead of the
reverse happening.
I might be reading something into your question that you do not mean to imply, and, if so, I apologize, but your wording indicates to me that you are
pessimistic about the prospects of the individual in the U.S., maybe even a wider area, but I don?t subscribe to that pessimism. I have much more
faith in the individual to do more than survive. To paraphrase William Faulkner?s observation is his acceptance speech for a 1959 Nobel Prize, ??man
will not merely endure; he will prevail?because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance?.? He didn?t add ??except
for us poor souls who live in the U.S.? I agree with Faulkner.
ON A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT NOTE I believe that you have posted a couple of times about various sea life of one kind and another. There is a super
interesting article about octopuses in the most recent issue of Discover magazine. Fascinating info, news to me but probably not to those
who snorkel and/or dive. I will never eat pulpo with the same gusto again?don?t think I?ll give it up, just won?t be as cavalier about it.
An article by the same reporter, Martha Heil, can be found at the magazine?s web site, www.discover.com and it looks as if this web article is written about the same research, but it isn?t as complete as the one in the mag.
Cheers.
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MrBillM
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Mood: It's a Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah Day
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I think it is a huge generalization to assume that the people in Mexico or elsewhere are happier, friendlier, more contented, etc with their status
and surroundings than are those in the U.S. I've travelled all over the U.S. and have met multitudes of friendly, helpful people.
Also met a lot of Jerks, but then I've met those in foreign countries, too. I do think that you are more likely to encounter the latter in greater
numbers in the big cities. That's one reason I left Los Angeles in 1970 and swore never to live in the city again. I've managed to keep that promise
to myself, although over the years that required moving a number of times. As I told
a friend of mine in San Diego once, it is one of the best cities I've ever been in, but then all cities are sewers. It's just a nicer one.
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JESSE
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Here in Mexico we have a saying about the American lifestyle:
You live in a solid gold cage
[Edited on 9-15-2003 by JESSE]
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