About that video (below this entry)

The video in the post below was recorded on June 9 in my Buenos Aires hotel room. It was impossible to upload using the hotel's wi-fi connection and for fun I tried it out when a few days ago. (It still look a long time on Towson's dedicated line).

Even though I thought eight minutes flew by, I understand now that's an eternity in when watching online videos. Next time I'll know better. Still I'm including it in the spirit of sharing as much as I got.

BsAs video

Links to South American pictures

I still owe some pictures, particularly from Argentina. In the meantime I highly recommend the pictures from two other seminar participants:

Katharine Bjork's photo site:
http://picasaweb.google.com/ksbjork/BuenosAiresJune2008?authkey=9jzseSMadk8

John Buck's photo site:
http://ciee2008.site.shutterfly.com/

Chile v. Argentina v. Finland (plus a memorial note)

Something all three countries have in common is that a large percentage of the population (between 20 and 40%) lives in a large capital city.

Buenos Aires clearly reflects its European roots. You can see this in the people (some mestisos, though the vast majority of the people walking down the streets look European), the architecture and the city planning.  As far as the look of the city, Santiago isn’t dramatically different. There are fewer (though some) big squares with facing buildings. Also the structures themselves tend to be less ornate.

The vast majority of cars in Buenos Aires are European: Citröen, Renault and Fiat. In Santiago Toyota is the dominant brand, with a fair representation of Nissan (not that many Hondas interestingly) and a noticeable number of Kias and Hyundai. Some but not a lot of U.S. brands.  Much more of a mix (Euro and Asian) in Finland, maybe slightly skewed toward their EU neighbors.

Argentina exists under the shadow of its large neighbor to the north and the continent’s dominant social and political power, Brazil.  The fate of Argentina to a large extent is influenced by relations with Brazil and their economic agreement, MERCOSUR.  Chile on the other hand puruses a more independent economic (perhaps even political) agenda through the negotiation of multiple bilateral trade treaties.

Finland is a member of the EU and the euro-zone.  It’s a relatively small player on a big stage. Finland’s relatively remote location provides some advantages and challenges.  The country is blessed with natural resources (fishing, timber, arable land), a desireable tourist location (for summer getaways and winter sports).  The strong presence of Nokia gives Finland a bit of a natural advantage when it comes to communications technologies. (I don’t’ want to play this up too far, since I haven’t seen any numbers on what percentages of Nokia’s operations take place in its home country).  Of course Finland is very much “off the beaten path” and you can’t get to main parts of the continent (e..g Germany, France, etc.) without taking boat or plane (ok, you could theoretically take the long way around, through Russia).

Finland is a beautiful country insofar as it’s exceptionally green, there’s an abundance of clean water and shorelines and it’s well-maintained.  There’s very little garbage on the streets (unlike Santiago and BsAs where it seemed like the mountains would never go away).  There have been a few homeless people around the main city parks and streets but considering the size and dynamism of Helsinki these numbers are negligible.

Couple of other observations about Finland: Finns smoke in higher numbers than anywhere else I’ve been recently (including Latin America), the Finnish language seems absolutely impenetrable, even though I’m not supposed to be distracted by the high prices I am- this is an expensive place, and there is a noticeable presence of heavy metal/punk/goth types (don’t ask me to account for the differences). Lots of black leather clothes adorned with shiny hardware, face piercings and bright pink, green and purple hair.   And that’s just the senior citizens.

The high prices in Finland are somewhat mitigated in that tax (at the retail level, and it's 22%) and the tip (for services) are included in the price.  Of course that's a bit of a double-edged sword.  In Latin America many restaurants have a hawker outside trying to get you to come in. In Finland there's none of that, so it feels much more leisurely. Of course when you go into a Finnish restaurant the service tends to be slooooow and indifferent (why should they care? The servers get paid the same either way).

Also, the Finns pretty much invented the cell phone. Maybe that explains why neither of my hotel rooms has a land line.

Finally, RIP George Carlin, the friend I never had a chance to meet. Thanks for the wisdom, and the laughs.