Modern Mexico: Pros and Cons

Mexico is choking these days on it's two cardinal sins, greed and indifference. Greed has always been an issue, but the indifference seems to get worse and worse...
Mexicans succeed in making even the bougois embarrassed.
There is also a streak of Self Entitlement like you have never seen in Mexico. It is the world's oldest Socialist Country, despite the famous reputation of the Soviet Union, and Mexican Politics have harped on charity for so long, since the revolution, and a perception of being screwed and therefore being owed something is so embedded, that the place just radiates with an entitlement. People want a first world lifestyle, and they kind of count on others to give it to them, and they don't have any faith in their ejido or government to lift them up, so their demands for a better life go anywhere they can, and their movement into a market economy and away from self reliance makes that all the more bitter, as their demands and expectations separate even more widely from how the world values what they give and what they need..

Pros

There is a grace that exists in mexico, dying, but a graciousnesss.. it's the fantasy of mexico, harder and harder to find in it's traditional form, the old campesino lady or grandpa type, but they remain an accepting people who are happy to live and let live, and who can make things up to you that you don't expect them to notice or care about, a kind of genial kindness, and forgiveness.
resourcefulness

Cons

cowardice
greed
mimicry without insight, leading to or stemming from incompetence
the endless hassling of foreigners, and the national beleif that foreigners are to be exploited at any opportunity
the Drug War
Horrible Architecture
socialism  and the ejido system
Ignorance
Indifference
being undignified is increasingly seen as a rebellion, and dignified, at the expense of any healthier outlet, in a kind of class war rejection of the rich worthy of american reality television

The National Park Stage of Environmental Devastation

I have started to notice something in my wanderings: As a tendency, countries don't establish National Parks until there is almost no wild land left. As much as we applaud nations for such an act, which was now famously pioneered by the United States (thank you Ken Burns!), it actually can be a sign not that a nation is pristine, but that it is on the skids environmentally, and having an awakening. It's like an Alcoholic admitting he has a problem. I think it is fair to stay this was the case with the United States.. the Logging industry had torn through it by then, and it was a reaction, not necissarily an intrinsically noble act.
Case in point could be a comparison between Costa Rica and Belize. Costa Rica has a well developed National Park System that is one of the drivers of it's thriving Tourism Industry, but it is offically listed as 40% forested (sometimes agencies mickey with these numbers and , and I think it might be less. Belize is pretty casual about the whole national park thing, and it's 71% forested (we get to it tomorrow.. no worry!). In a funny way it seems like when a country finally gets around to making national parks, it's making a funny compromise.. it's dividing up the spoils, and what is left almost always gets eaten up.. you can almost see the edges of a lot of parks because everything up to the line gets developed.. it's almost as if the declaration of the park gives value to all around it.. and people perk up and realize the lumber and all is worth harvesting and up for grabs...
this is why in some funny way, I am more fascinated by countries that haven't gotten their act together to get to this point.. there almost seems to be more wilderness, and less bureaucracy, and bureaucracy in countries like the kinds I am referring to can almost have a negative impact.. the powers that be get involved and start to smell the money, since their cousin just declared a national park, and it isn't always a good thing for the whole ecosystem, assuming the land inside the new boundaries is properly administered and preserved. They come up and gobble up everything up tot he line as if the park gives them permission, like a blessing of sorts..
It's a tricky world this..
The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men
Gang aft agley,
An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,
For promis'd joy!

The Pros and Cons of South Korea

Pros

• Genial People
• Fascinating food, all rooted (quite literally) in what grows locally
• They rarely seem to have a hidden agenda... South Koreans go to great pains to be straightforward, and seem to have a strong sense of if not fairness, a sense of mutual obligation.
• Koreans never dehumanize each other, unless they perceive it's for your own good in some weird way
• There is no expectation of tipping, but the customer service still tends to be quite good
• They are quite industrious
• The country works well, but only if you stay within their conventions... they aren't great outside the box.
• Time matters to Koreans.. they might not know how to relax passively, but they respect that time matters to foreigners and to others, and they move at a pace that satisfies that need when necessary.
• While not wild, they have reforested... they are wealthy enough now to show restraint, and since so many grew up without wealth, they learned restraint actively.
• They are quite unified, and obsessed with unity, and it makes them undeniably a culture and people.. this is not a melting pot.. they are a people who evolved a unique identity over years, often in isolation, but with contact, from neighbors in China, Japan, and perhaps even Siberia.
• Koreans are known for being Highly determined, to the point of almost suicidal focus. If it's what you need, it's there in spades.
• Actions are more important than face in Korea, which is at odds with most of Asia, and helpful to those trying to take action there..they don't loose face.. they either fight with you or agree with you, or laugh, but they don't have that combination of fragility and shame that prevails in Asia to cover insecurities, inabilities and weaknesses. They can be quite honest and forthright about taking criticism and see it as constructive.

Cons

• Koreans are herd creatures... they aren't that interested in expressing individualism, even though they tend to posses a good deal of it, but war and universal military service have taken a toll, and it manifests in them going places at the same time, and doing things that are culturally approved... they don't stray from convention... they aren't that independent in behavior, even though it doesn't come across in conversation that clearly with the young. It can be a pain in the ass when you travel alone.. they just don't, and places are either empty and you get no service, because it's illogical to be there when you went instead of when everyone else goes according to Korean groupthink, or so full you wish you hadn't gone.
• Koreans, especially older ones, are not dumb, but not smart.. it's hard to explain.. they will eventually get something, but they can be dense.. pleasant as ever, but if something doesn't concern them, they have never given it thought. It's as if their minds never wander unless told to. It might be true to say that their early lives, if they lived through the wars, which everyone in their 70's did, and there was poverty for years after, affecting everyone in their 60's and perhaps even 50's today, they just are kind of grateful that life is better, so they aren't surging ahead with new ides.. they just kind of coast, and it's hard to get them to innovate...
• They don't have great aesthetic taste... the obvious comparison is the Japanese.. Koreans are much more jovial than the Japanese, much happier in many ways, but they aren't as complex in their thinking.. they are much more secure with themselves, and therefore just do what works, perhaps the first solution they come up with, and not what is the best possible solution.. they are content not to seek perfection.. in fact, perfection doesn't mean anything to them like it might the Japanese. There is no hierarchy for solutions to them.. just solutions.. so that the idea of perfection and imperfection doesn't enter the picture. They are happier as farmers than philosophers in a sense. They prefer to move on than obsess, but it can lead to what might externally look like half finished ideas.
• Korean determination can go in lieu of perspective and thought.
• The lack of Face issues (the fear of loosing the respect of others) and the practicality of Koreans will make one assume that things are easy to accomplish in Korea, but other language and cultural barriers will still get in the way, trust me.. it's enticing to think about though..

Bankok is a Shit Hole!...Let me explain my theories on why...

Don't take this as a condemnation of Thai Culture.. it's not. Nor is it a condemnation of the Thai people.. they are still pretty likable and affable.. but Bangkok is a shit hole...
Let's start with the architecture.. I've seen bad cement architecture all over the world.. but it almost feels like it was born in Bangkok.
I have been trying to understand Thai Culture since I was about 15, when I lived with a Thai Person for two years, whom I still find to be interesting. I have been trying to understand his culture ever since, through three major trips, and a lot of research, movie watching, and book reading, and I still am intrigued... but I have had enough of Bangkok...
I'll try to explain this city, which was nothing but a flat chunk of jungle east of the Chao Praya river until the Mid 1700's, when the King decided it was time for a clean break from the apparently decadent reputation of Ayuthaya, once the biggest city in the world, about 60 miles up the river. He wanted to be closer to where the ships came in, where the money rolled in from foreign trade, and he almost randomly picked the spot that would turn into the city of 6 Million that everyone knows today worldwide as someplace you go to be indifferent to propriety. It was a flat spot on a river where they could build a new palace. There is only one tributary of any note, and the harbor is just a siding on the river. It was never meant to be what it is today, they didn't even dream of it!
30 years ago, BKK must have been intriguing and cool.. now it's just a mechanical travesty... there is no rebellion left in Bangkok among the regular people.. no one condemns you... it's all pretty pointless.. people shop, and are steamrolled by consumerism in a place with no irony or defense mechanisms towards it, mall after mall popping up on what were old paths for yaks and paddies with no defenses for what came. tourists do illegal things in crappy hotels with no real culture or charm apparent for miles...
Let me try to explain why it is what it is, before I light into what's so subtly but not subtly wrong with it. Until Bangkok became big in the last century, the only place to retreat Thai village life if you didn't fit in, the mega city, the only real city in this nation of 60 million, there was purely village life... there had been Aythaya, and Sukhothai, and there is Chiang Mai and a few other large towns, but they don't tend to be much more than just places of commerce, and a few tourist traps, all kind of sprung up in the last 50 years... Thai life was village life.. that is all there is.. you grow rice, you hang out, and you don't question much, because life is pretty good.
Some of the issues lie in national philosophies not made for the attentive attitude it takes to successfully run a city, of Buddhism and King Power.. life sucks, deal with it, and don't question authority, even though he seems like a nice guy... that doesn't create a dynamic for innovation or adaptation... so what happened when the Thai moved to a city, and turned it into a huge megalopolis.. well, no innovation, and.. no concern for comfort or charm (Buddhists will just tell you you will pay for it anyways) and in that way that the Thai just kind of keep to their families, don't tend to make close friends outside of them unless they grew up in a village among other kids, the whole place is built behind walls and little compounds, not that there is a lot of theft, there really isn't, but there is enough of a fantasy that you are under threat without big men with guns protecting you that Bangkok has no reverence for public spaces... none, Zero! There is no precedent for urban culture.. so people drop Thai behavior for what feels like a combo of Singaporean, Chinese and Japanese Norms... with the under girding of Thai Culture, but it's lost in the modernity.. there is no internal template for them to follow to act like a real city, or to create a modern functioning city.. this is the only one they have, and they kind of don't like to rock the boat.. everyone lives behind a wall and shuffles between life's obligations, surprisingly, with a smile.
Again.. my fight is not with the apparent niceness of everyone, but if everyone is so nice, why is the city such a shit hole? People point to corruption.. but I will point to the people.. you have to put up with corruption, and they do.. you have to not want more than you have, and they don't seem to.. that's un-Thai.. the  King gave you everything you need.. quit complaining.. complaining will make you seem like you are at odds with the King.. don't make daddy angry... if you seem to be at odds with the King, you end up like Thaksin, who wasn't really that corrupt to be honest, but he got aced out..
If it wasn't for Thaksin, Bangkok would be a completely intolerable shit hole.. now it's a barely tolerable shit hole.. what's the difference? well, he built the sky train and the metro, the new airport, and some of the highways, and returned a modicum of functionality to the place. It's just good enough that you don't leave howling about how you spent your whole vacation in trafic now.. of course they exiled him for it, even though the postmortems find barely any corruption by Thai standards in these public works, which while not perfect were the only change in Bangkok in literally 40 years...I'm not for rice farmer socialism, but the guy did some good things.. Maybe his reward is to live in exile in London, a city that actually does work.
So in the 70's Bangkok was the place, and in the 80's, everyone heard that song from the play Chess.. and we were all intrigued... a place with no rules.. a place that will change your northern European perspective on almost anything... the truth is that that can describe almost everyplace in Asia as lax, commercially driven and permissive (except Malaysia for some reason.. I think his name was Mohammad..) but somehow Bangkok got the rep for having no reservations whatsoever about being totally Asian... so now it's just filled with expats who don't have the creativity or drive for places where things are really happening like Singapore or Hong Kong, or more fascinatingly, Phnom Pehn or Yangoon or Shanghai or some places I haven't even thought to think about yet..Battambong or Yogyakarta or Dili or Bali, or just the countryside... or Korea where things are happening fast..
The tourists who come to Bangkok are a pretty uniformly unimaginative bunch.. it's in the collective psyche as 'where you go in Asia' so generation after generation falls for it.. cheap flights and no entry visa, great food you have been eating since some cool kid took you to a Thai restaurant in college. Buddha Ex Machina.. the Thai machine has savory sweet spicy tentacles everywhere!
The Thai way is to accept while not changing.. it's hard to explain that precisely.. they allow for change, but they don't own or embody it. Foreigners and rich people want a highway? sure..ummm.. stick one over there... skytrain.. why not.. that'll work.. but they don't rise or fall on success.. what they do isn't who they are like it is in a more ambitious place like China. everything is kind of good enough... good enough works great in a rice village... it's what's so great about Thailand.. but not in a city.. it just doesn't work...
I try to imagine when it was still intriguing for Thai people to see foreigners.. it must have been back in the 30's.. after WWII they were over us, but we kept coming, so instead of trying to trade cultures, people blew wind up the Thai nations ass like they were super special, and I will admit in some ways they are, and now the Thai take our money in exchange for charmless uninspired access to their hum drum existence that has been on a downhill slope since the first car hit Thailand...
what makes it hard to be mad at Thailand is that they are hard to demonize.. almost to a person, the Thai can smile and disarm you.. but they do stupid shit... and they never really hold each other to task for it.. they just avoid each other.. so it's like a consequence free society... a lot of third world countries are, but you tend to see the dysfunction a lot quicker in places less beguilingly charming as good ol' Siam.
Want to read more about Thailand?
this is a post on The Environmental State of Thailand
Here is another on the simple Pro's and Con's of Thailand

The Pro's and Con's of Thailand

Thailand is essentially a modern country now... arriving here from it's most backward neighbor really put it in focus for me, confirming suspicions I have had... it may be an ancient culture, but they are hell bent to get past that on all but holidays... that characterizes my thoughts almost more so than any other set of ideas. We sometimes forget we have other options in South east Asia because Thailand at first makes it's self so familiar and inviting, and easy to get stuck in... you do have other choices, and as much as the predictability of Modern Thailand can be reassuring, I've had about enough of it...

Pro's

The people are largely intuitive.. they pick up on things big and little, and they work to please you in ways that can be quite complex...
They are reasonably well educated and perceptive...
While there are problems with the veneration of the king, it does add a charm and a thoughtfulness to the Thai.
Good public transportation, although the whole country looks the same about anywhere the public transportation goes.. to get into the nature of Thailand, you do have to rent a bike or a car, but both are also easy to do if a town has nay tourism at all. The trains are a nice combo of old and new, with some bureaucratic tendencies, but they do clickety clack along satisfyingly..
The food tastes great... don't ask about nutrition!

Con's

The Ignorance game with people who deal with tourists
Many of the people you deal with as a tourist will be willfully unperceptive, and un-intuitive and almost take pride in it... they are like happy rats rolling in money. at first it's one of the exciting things about Siam, the meth addled Tuk Tuk driver roaring around and hassling you, but over time it get's old.
Bad Environmental Policies
When it comes into conflict with Consumerism, there is not one iota of respect for the environment in Thailand.
Architecture
Thailand has perhaps the worst urban architecture on earth, from bad boom days in the 50's, 60's and 70's
The streets also tend to be cement prisons of sorts since any exposure of grass invites bugs, erosion problems and such, so that the towns tend to not have parks or greenery, and despite the people being cheery, feel slummy, especially at night..
Visa Runs  
At first it was a cute challenge, even though I had a ticket out, was visiting a thai national who is a good friend. It forced me to explore the region.. now it screams to me one thing.. the powers that be don't know what they want... they want you to come, stay in a resort and spend a lot of money, but they don't really want you to stay for long even thought they have turned their country into the world's tourhouse and whorehouse... work it out among yourselves, but quit making all the tourists suffer.. it's amateur, like so much of Thai Governance.. if they are trying to ensure that you stay a bit but not too long, it feels like a policy built in greed and not genuine hospitality. There are many countries like Mexico that offer 6 month visas and none of the hassle. It seems Xenophobic, and implies a duplicitosness.