Young Indian men are excited by the ¨Intel inside¨ sign on the computers which have opened a new window of opportunity for them to connect to, compete with and conquer the world.
The Latin American young women want to excite men with ¨Implant Inside¨to connect to, compete with and conquer the silly guys.
Costa Rica caters both to the ambitions of the up and coming young Indian men and the up and booming bosoms of the Latino women.
Intel Corporation has two plants in Costa Rica and is responsible for a shift in the country's top exports, from coffee and bananas to electric and electronic products. Electronics is now Costa Rica's largest sector with Intel as the largest player. The industry employs 12,000 and exports US$1.65 billion in products a year. The local support industry for Intel alone reflects a base of 460 suppliers and US$50-150 million in local purchases of goods and services per year. The relatively small size of Costa Rica to receive an investment of the dimension of Intel's (US$300 million or equivalent to 2.1 percent of Costa Rican GDP), over two years in 1997 with a total committed investment of about US$600 million, made Bob Perlman, one of Intel's vice presidents, declare that bringing his company to Costa Rica was like "putting a whale in a swimming pool".
After the success of Intel Inside, the next slogan coming out of Costa Rica is Implant Inside. In the first six months of this year, the country exported 134 million dollars worth of silicon implants, seventy percent of which are used to enlarge women´s breasts. Allergan, the silicon implant maker in Costa Rica is the second largest exporter of the country.
According to a report in today´s Argentine newspaper Clarin, the average age of women in the country seeking breast implant is 25. The increase in imports of breast implants last year was forty percent. In a night club called as Sunset in the Olivos suburb of Buenos Aires, they have raffles to choose the winner who gets a free breast implant. Such raffles are becoming popular in other cities too. The name of the Raffle is ¨Quiero mas lolas¨which means ¨want more lolas¨. The original organizers of the event has got this title even patented. Lola was the name of a popular Argentine soap opera in which the heroine is endowed amply.
¨Sin tetas no hay paraiso¨( without tits there is no paradise ) is the title of a Colombian soap opera currently being released in Argentina. The heroine Catalina finds it necessary to increase the size of her breasts to engage the attention of the men.
There is a debate on this subject in Argentina among plastic surgeons, psychologists and social scientists. There are those who are against this practice of cheap raffles encouraging young women to go under the knife to get men under their influence. But someone took the view that this is social justice, which provide opportunities for the have-nots to ¨have more¨. Otherwise it was the haves who had the means to have more. The entry fees, the women pay in these night clubs is between 4 and 10 dollars while the cost of breast implant is between 2300 and 4000 dollars.
The craze for silicon implants is the same story across the region, although Argentina is in the vanguard of social justice for the have-nots to have-more through cheap raffles. Latin America leads the world in breast implants and cosmetic surgery. Even American and European women come to Brazil, Venezuela and Argentina for front enlargements.
So here is something common between India and Latin America... silicon.
Indian men seek faster chips to conquer the silicon valley while the Latino women ask for bigger silicones to conquer the silly men.
Silicon has helped India succeed in the back-end work outsourcing, while it has made Latin America leader in the front end operations.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Ciudad del Este
Ciudad del Este.. ?????......hmm ...
Most Indians have never heard of this city nor would they know where it is located.
But there are about 80 Indian families which have made this city in Paraguay as their home. Some of them are there for more than fifteen years and other have arrived in recent years.
What took them there?
Trade
Who are they?
obviously Sindhis ... Wherever there are free trade zones .. they are part of them. Panama, , Iqique, Punta Arenas, Aruba, Curacao, St Martin, Manaus...
There are some Gujratis and a few Telugu- speaking too. I attended a reception on 18 september which was organised by Prakash, who is a hard working and self effacing natural and popular leader of the community.
Indians are a tiny part of this melting pot in South America. There are people of Lebanese, Syrian, Chinese, Korean, Japanese and Brazilian origin. The heart of the city which is just four by four blocks buzzes with so many languages, colours and one cannot miss the aroma of the food from different parts of the world. Sony, JVC, Panasonic, Samsung, Nokia ... these branded names scream out from shops,boxes and billboards. Ciudad del Este is home not only to people from around the world but is also temporary home to the electronic goods ,before they are sent across to Brazil.
In the narrow dividing point between the incoming and outgoing traffic of the city, there are so many people waving you to stop. Not for parking... but with Gurani, Real, Peso, Dollar and Euro currency notes for changing.
Informal Trade is the name of the game in Ciudad del Este. The informal trade is said to be more than the official imports and exports of the country. Everything is informal in the city; trade, economy, book- keeping and transactions. The authorities have started making them more formal and proper.
There is a free flow of goods, tourists and shoppers in the city which borders Brazil and Argentina and most importantly the magnificent Iguassu Falls. Imports are mostly from China and Hongkong while the main destination of exports is Brazil. People, cars and trucks carry loads and loads of electronic and other goods from the city crossing the Friendship Bridge to Foz de Iguassu , the city on the Brazilian side.
In recent times, Brazilians are getting into Soya farming in this fertile region. Paraguay is the fourth largest exporter of soya in the world
I fell in love with the pretty, curvaceous, inviting and challenging.... golf course.. what else?
The Parana Country club surprised me with all these features. It is located on the right bank of Parana river, overlooking the city. A three wood shot will carry the ball to Brazil over the river !!
The fairways are guarded by lines of trees and the ball rolls over when it is thirsty... lot of water. Here are some pictures
There are about 800 beautiful houses ( a smaller version of Punta del Este, in Uruguay ) in the country club around the fairways of the golf course. Most of the golfers are Chinese and Koreans. I was happy to see two Indians, Vinod and Vikrant living ( and playing too!) in the golf club.
Most Indians have never heard of this city nor would they know where it is located.
But there are about 80 Indian families which have made this city in Paraguay as their home. Some of them are there for more than fifteen years and other have arrived in recent years.
What took them there?
Trade
Who are they?
obviously Sindhis ... Wherever there are free trade zones .. they are part of them. Panama, , Iqique, Punta Arenas, Aruba, Curacao, St Martin, Manaus...
There are some Gujratis and a few Telugu- speaking too. I attended a reception on 18 september which was organised by Prakash, who is a hard working and self effacing natural and popular leader of the community.
Indians are a tiny part of this melting pot in South America. There are people of Lebanese, Syrian, Chinese, Korean, Japanese and Brazilian origin. The heart of the city which is just four by four blocks buzzes with so many languages, colours and one cannot miss the aroma of the food from different parts of the world. Sony, JVC, Panasonic, Samsung, Nokia ... these branded names scream out from shops,boxes and billboards. Ciudad del Este is home not only to people from around the world but is also temporary home to the electronic goods ,before they are sent across to Brazil.
In the narrow dividing point between the incoming and outgoing traffic of the city, there are so many people waving you to stop. Not for parking... but with Gurani, Real, Peso, Dollar and Euro currency notes for changing.
Informal Trade is the name of the game in Ciudad del Este. The informal trade is said to be more than the official imports and exports of the country. Everything is informal in the city; trade, economy, book- keeping and transactions. The authorities have started making them more formal and proper.
There is a free flow of goods, tourists and shoppers in the city which borders Brazil and Argentina and most importantly the magnificent Iguassu Falls. Imports are mostly from China and Hongkong while the main destination of exports is Brazil. People, cars and trucks carry loads and loads of electronic and other goods from the city crossing the Friendship Bridge to Foz de Iguassu , the city on the Brazilian side.
In recent times, Brazilians are getting into Soya farming in this fertile region. Paraguay is the fourth largest exporter of soya in the world
I fell in love with the pretty, curvaceous, inviting and challenging.... golf course.. what else?
The Parana Country club surprised me with all these features. It is located on the right bank of Parana river, overlooking the city. A three wood shot will carry the ball to Brazil over the river !!
The fairways are guarded by lines of trees and the ball rolls over when it is thirsty... lot of water. Here are some pictures
There are about 800 beautiful houses ( a smaller version of Punta del Este, in Uruguay ) in the country club around the fairways of the golf course. Most of the golfers are Chinese and Koreans. I was happy to see two Indians, Vinod and Vikrant living ( and playing too!) in the golf club.
Within the golf club there is a boutique hotel Casa Blanca, straddling the right bank of the Parana river, with a view of the Brazil on the other side.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Borges – a life, biography by Edwin Williamson
This is the biography of Jorge Luis Borges, the iconic writer of Argentina and one of the preeminent Latin American authors whose works have intrigued me. I had tried reading some of his fictions, essays and poems in the past but did not manage to reach the same wavelength of the author. But I found the lifestory of Borges more interesting than his fictions. I am now more fascinated with him and plan to reread his works.
Borges´s writings and life were influenced by three things; the sword , the dagger and the third one.. even more deadly.. women.
His mother Doña Leonor, a strong-willed woman had burdened him with the ¨sword of honour¨. She brainwashed him with the historic and heroic tales of the family ancestors who fought against the Argentine dictator Rosas in the beginning of the ninetieth century. He was under pressure to live upto the expectations of this noble and historical legacy or feel unworthy. His mother had interfered in his love life too. She would approve girl friends for him only those from the high society and wrecked his relationship with women from lesser class. Borges lived with his mother even untill his sixties.
The dagger was a contribution from his father, who kept advising the Bohemian, timid and shy young boy to be a ¨man¨ and take the dagger to stand upto those who challenged him. The father, who himself wanted to be a writer but never made it, also instilled this fear of failure in the son.
The women … inspired and frustrated him throughout his long life. His writings and life were influenced by the bloomings of love and the doomed affairs.. by his ¨anxiety to find love¨ and his eternal search for a Beatrice from the Divine Comedy of Dante. Nora Lange, Haydee Lange, Maria Esther Vasquez, Margot Guerrero, Ëstela Canto and finally Maria Kodama were some of the women who made his story. Norah Lange, the redhaired Scandinavian- origin beauty was the one who inspired his defining writings and tormented him the most. After initial interest in him, she chose to become the lover and later wife of Oliverio Girondo, his rival also in the literary movement of Argentina in that era. She went beyond Girondo when she published a book ¨45 days and 30 sailors¨. During the launching celebration in 1933, she was dressed like a mermaid surrounded by other writers including Girondo in sailor´s costumes. Borges, the pobrecito, never recovered from this.
Then there is Estela Cantes, who plays games with Borges. After several months of courting in the parks, streets and cinema halls, when Borges proposes timidly to her, she says ¨Jorgie, don’t forget that I am a disciple of Bernard Shaw. We cannot get married without first going to bed with each other.¨ Borges mother wrecks this relationship by banning the entry of Estela in her house.
Borges ends up with an Indian-style arranged marriage to Elsa Astete, chosen by his mother when was at the age of 68. But the marriage did not last and the couple separated in a few years.
Towards the end of his journey of frustrated love life, Maria Kodama, junior to him by several decades, fulfills his life by reciprocating love unconditionally. She rekindles love and romance and new creativity in him. She felt attracted to him when she was twelve years old as a student when he was in his fifties. While being fond of Borges, she valued her own independence and resisted being tied in marriage when Borges proposed. Eventually she relented and agreed to marry him at his ripe age of 87 and when she was 41. Maria Kodama, born to Japanese father and Argentine- German mother, gave to Borges fulfillment of love, which eluded him in his whole life.
The end of the life of Borges was like a typical Borgesian fiction. He left Buenos Aires in November 1985, somewhat secretly without telling anyone that he would never return. He settled down in Geneva and married Maria Kodama. Since Argentine law did not allow him to divorce his former wife, he got the marriage papers done in a Paraguay court. His marriage was on 26 April 1986 and he died within two months on 14 June 1986. He was buried in Geneva itself.
Borges ended his life outside Argentina, like the other Argentine iconic figures. Exile, asylum and sad ending seem to be part of the history of Argentine heroes. The liberator of Argentina and the founder and Father of nation San Martin ended his life as an exile in Europe. Che Guevara, the other icon of Argentina died in the jungles of Bolivia. Peron, who left Peronism as a heritage which continues to influence the politics of the country even now, spent two decades in exile in Europe. Even Evita´s corpse was on exile incognito in a cemetry in Milan for two decades. And Carlos Gardel, the Tango idol died away from the motherland in a plane crash in Colombia. Do I see too much of Borgesian coincidence here or am I influenced by the lyrics of Tango which are mostly about bitterness and betrayal; anguish and sadness.
Borges deserved Nobel prize but his political alignment and pronouncements came in the way. He hated Peronism, after the Peron administration humiliated him by transferring from his library assistantship to the post of Inspector of Poultry and Rabbits in the Public Markets of the Municipality. Blinded by his hatred of Peronism, he went overboard in supporting the Argentine military dictatorship which overthrew Peron and he also supported the Chilean military regime of Pinochet. This political indiscretion cost him dearly and deprived him of the Nobel prize..
Borges had a seminal influence on the up and coming Latin American writers of his era and inspired the movement of ¨Magical Realism¨which is a contribution of the region to world literature. Borges was an intellectual giant and was one of the most cosmopolitan personalities. He spoke and wrote in English fluently and had read a lot of Eurpean and American literature, although he never had any collegiate education.
Borges left behind a Borgesian genre of writing….inventive and intriguing, fabulous and fantastic, labyrinthine and puzzling, speculative and metaphysical, weird and witty… Some of his writings are like the pronouncement of wisdom by Indian sages.. never direct. The Argentine judges who denied a literary prize to him in 1941 called his work¨obscure and arbitrary cerebral game¨.
The author of the biography, Edwin Williamson (Spanish professor from Oxford) has done justice in this book( published in 2002) to the greatness of Borges with his vast knowledge of Latin American literature and his objective observations of the politics and society of Argentina during Borges´s life time.
Here is a line from Borges´s poem ¨El amenazado¨
..Being with you, or not with you, is the measure of my time..
Borges defied age and blindness. He got married for the first time at the age of 68. Later, he married Maria Kodama when he was 87. Borges became blind in his fifties and needed help for reading among other things. When he became the Director of Buenos Aires Public Library after his blindness, he wrote ¨I speak of God’s splendid irony in granting me at one time 800,000 books and darkness.” It is extraordinary that Borges not only overcame the handicap after losing his eyesight but in fact he flourished and bloomed with his writings, giving lectures, international travel and even fell in love !!
Did someone say Love is Blind….
Borges´s writings and life were influenced by three things; the sword , the dagger and the third one.. even more deadly.. women.
His mother Doña Leonor, a strong-willed woman had burdened him with the ¨sword of honour¨. She brainwashed him with the historic and heroic tales of the family ancestors who fought against the Argentine dictator Rosas in the beginning of the ninetieth century. He was under pressure to live upto the expectations of this noble and historical legacy or feel unworthy. His mother had interfered in his love life too. She would approve girl friends for him only those from the high society and wrecked his relationship with women from lesser class. Borges lived with his mother even untill his sixties.
The dagger was a contribution from his father, who kept advising the Bohemian, timid and shy young boy to be a ¨man¨ and take the dagger to stand upto those who challenged him. The father, who himself wanted to be a writer but never made it, also instilled this fear of failure in the son.
The women … inspired and frustrated him throughout his long life. His writings and life were influenced by the bloomings of love and the doomed affairs.. by his ¨anxiety to find love¨ and his eternal search for a Beatrice from the Divine Comedy of Dante. Nora Lange, Haydee Lange, Maria Esther Vasquez, Margot Guerrero, Ëstela Canto and finally Maria Kodama were some of the women who made his story. Norah Lange, the redhaired Scandinavian- origin beauty was the one who inspired his defining writings and tormented him the most. After initial interest in him, she chose to become the lover and later wife of Oliverio Girondo, his rival also in the literary movement of Argentina in that era. She went beyond Girondo when she published a book ¨45 days and 30 sailors¨. During the launching celebration in 1933, she was dressed like a mermaid surrounded by other writers including Girondo in sailor´s costumes. Borges, the pobrecito, never recovered from this.
Then there is Estela Cantes, who plays games with Borges. After several months of courting in the parks, streets and cinema halls, when Borges proposes timidly to her, she says ¨Jorgie, don’t forget that I am a disciple of Bernard Shaw. We cannot get married without first going to bed with each other.¨ Borges mother wrecks this relationship by banning the entry of Estela in her house.
Borges ends up with an Indian-style arranged marriage to Elsa Astete, chosen by his mother when was at the age of 68. But the marriage did not last and the couple separated in a few years.
Towards the end of his journey of frustrated love life, Maria Kodama, junior to him by several decades, fulfills his life by reciprocating love unconditionally. She rekindles love and romance and new creativity in him. She felt attracted to him when she was twelve years old as a student when he was in his fifties. While being fond of Borges, she valued her own independence and resisted being tied in marriage when Borges proposed. Eventually she relented and agreed to marry him at his ripe age of 87 and when she was 41. Maria Kodama, born to Japanese father and Argentine- German mother, gave to Borges fulfillment of love, which eluded him in his whole life.
The end of the life of Borges was like a typical Borgesian fiction. He left Buenos Aires in November 1985, somewhat secretly without telling anyone that he would never return. He settled down in Geneva and married Maria Kodama. Since Argentine law did not allow him to divorce his former wife, he got the marriage papers done in a Paraguay court. His marriage was on 26 April 1986 and he died within two months on 14 June 1986. He was buried in Geneva itself.
Borges ended his life outside Argentina, like the other Argentine iconic figures. Exile, asylum and sad ending seem to be part of the history of Argentine heroes. The liberator of Argentina and the founder and Father of nation San Martin ended his life as an exile in Europe. Che Guevara, the other icon of Argentina died in the jungles of Bolivia. Peron, who left Peronism as a heritage which continues to influence the politics of the country even now, spent two decades in exile in Europe. Even Evita´s corpse was on exile incognito in a cemetry in Milan for two decades. And Carlos Gardel, the Tango idol died away from the motherland in a plane crash in Colombia. Do I see too much of Borgesian coincidence here or am I influenced by the lyrics of Tango which are mostly about bitterness and betrayal; anguish and sadness.
Borges deserved Nobel prize but his political alignment and pronouncements came in the way. He hated Peronism, after the Peron administration humiliated him by transferring from his library assistantship to the post of Inspector of Poultry and Rabbits in the Public Markets of the Municipality. Blinded by his hatred of Peronism, he went overboard in supporting the Argentine military dictatorship which overthrew Peron and he also supported the Chilean military regime of Pinochet. This political indiscretion cost him dearly and deprived him of the Nobel prize..
Borges had a seminal influence on the up and coming Latin American writers of his era and inspired the movement of ¨Magical Realism¨which is a contribution of the region to world literature. Borges was an intellectual giant and was one of the most cosmopolitan personalities. He spoke and wrote in English fluently and had read a lot of Eurpean and American literature, although he never had any collegiate education.
Borges left behind a Borgesian genre of writing….inventive and intriguing, fabulous and fantastic, labyrinthine and puzzling, speculative and metaphysical, weird and witty… Some of his writings are like the pronouncement of wisdom by Indian sages.. never direct. The Argentine judges who denied a literary prize to him in 1941 called his work¨obscure and arbitrary cerebral game¨.
The author of the biography, Edwin Williamson (Spanish professor from Oxford) has done justice in this book( published in 2002) to the greatness of Borges with his vast knowledge of Latin American literature and his objective observations of the politics and society of Argentina during Borges´s life time.
Here is a line from Borges´s poem ¨El amenazado¨
..Being with you, or not with you, is the measure of my time..
Borges defied age and blindness. He got married for the first time at the age of 68. Later, he married Maria Kodama when he was 87. Borges became blind in his fifties and needed help for reading among other things. When he became the Director of Buenos Aires Public Library after his blindness, he wrote ¨I speak of God’s splendid irony in granting me at one time 800,000 books and darkness.” It is extraordinary that Borges not only overcame the handicap after losing his eyesight but in fact he flourished and bloomed with his writings, giving lectures, international travel and even fell in love !!
Did someone say Love is Blind….
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