Brasil and Mexico. (living, military, law, versus)
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Someone can walk from Cape Town to Vladivostok to Lisbon. It's still three separate continents. An argument can be made that Europe and Asia are the same continent; however, geohistorically speaking, they were once two separate continents that merged together (causing the formation of the Ural mountains).
People don't care about tectonic plates? Then please tell me why 99% of the world defines continents that way?
I would really like to know what crazy history books you've been reading. Europeans first arrived in Newfoundland as the Vikings. Christopher Columbus' first explorations were in the Caribbean. Amerigo Vespucci was the first explorer to suggest that this was a "New World". HE explored the north coast of South America and the Brazilian coast. He was NOT the first to the "New World". America was also not named by him, but by Martin Waldseemüller and Matthias Ringmann.
...and Egypt and France created the Suez Canal which broke apart Africa and Asia. What's your point?
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The south is America. The north who knows... The northern people should come up with a new name if they dont want to be part of America. (wait a minute, some uneducated people are already calling the U.S. As "continental U.S.")
You should take this argument up with 500 years of historians who disagree with you. By the way, you sound just as uneducated as those "certain uneducated people".
Legally speaking, an American can either be defined as a citizen of the United States of America or a resident of various countries that inhabit the North and South American continents. It says "USA" on our passports to avoid confusion.
Last edited by psulions2007; 04-23-2010 at 01:46 PM..
I am from the USA and I call myself an American. Get over it. If you are from Brasil or Mexico and want to refer to yourself as American as well, have at it. Just don't blame me when people all over the world including your own people assume you are saying you are from the United States of America.
If people from the United States of Mexico are entitled to call themselves Mexican, then people from the United States of America are entitled to call themselves American. It's more accurate than saying they are from the States as other countries are also composed of "states".
Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't the USA the only country that cared enough to include America in it's official country name?
Gosh...those European people were sure a bad bunch.
They came to (now called North America and South America) and named the places "America". What gave them the right...after all there were others here before them. Talk about trespassing and illegal homesteaders...they were the pitts.
Who gives a rats behind on who came when and how...the milk was spilled long time ago and all the hoopla here ain't gonna make NO BIG DIFFERENCE.
The History is long past and we need to get on with our todays life and headaches.
Think I will phone me Great Grandfather 30 generations back and ask why he came here and started all our problems.
I will apologize for sounding with a little sarcasm. The OP info on Brazil vs Mexico was okay...a little hard to follow since they are sooo different in productivity when comparing.
Would be like comparing apples and oranges. Spanish vs Portugese...each is different.
The whole continent of South America is varied considering the terrean and GDP. Each country has it's limits and potential productivity so there cannot be any comparison.
Brazil or Mexico...US or Canada...makes NO difference...they are specific in productivity.
We cannot compare one countrys good/bad points against another. It's all a waste in time.
The intent was admirable in showing Brazil and Mexico differences...I learned a lot.
Brazil is a much more federal country that Mexico which is heavily centralized, yet there are several regions of Brazil that are or were completely abandoned by the government where unequality, poverty, prostitution, violence and analphabetism are rampant. But the developed areas of Brazil are awesome if they were a country, they would rival with the USA or Canada.
This happens in Mexico too. Human development indices for parts of Monterrey and many parts of D.F. are comparable to Belgium o Denmark... but places like Chiapas could be compared to Malawi, or other African nations.
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Originally Posted by Travelling fella
Unequality is worse in Brazil than Mexico, this has to do with the fact that for Brazilians is much harder to emigrate to the USA, but also with the fact that the economy of Brazil is much less subsidized, here gasoline, mass transit, food and most services are way more expensive than they are in Mexico, so poor people in Brazil have it much worse than in Mexico and it's way more harder to them to escape poverty.
Just in case anyone doubts you. Brazil has always had one of the highest worldwide income disparities between rich and poor. Looks like it's getting larger in Brazil, while in Mexico it's going down. (Maybe rich Mexicans are getting poorer too? who knows) Brazil is down the list along with many African nations, while Mexico is only about a point away from the U.S. gini index.
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Originally Posted by Travelling fella
Mexico has an open market economy, unlike Brazil which is one of the most protective countries in the world, in Mexico even people who are in the lowest levels of the poverty index can afford some commodities than in Brazil even the rich can't afford sometimes because of the taxes they would have to pay, anything imported here has to pay a tax of 85% of it's value to give you an example, this electronic music instrument APC40 ABLETON PERFORMANCE CONTROLLER that costs 400 dollars in the USA (about 6,500 pesos in mexico) has a price tax of 2,400 Brazilian reais (1,200 USD 14,000 pesos) This has both advantages and disadvantages an advantage is that this has allowed Brazilian industries to grow and prosper in a huge territory with thousands of cities, but it has also made the country terribly unequal for those among the poorest, access to technology is way more restricted than in Mexico, because the prices of goods here. Also a dishwashing machine, washing machine, etc will be of inferior quality than the ones you can buy in Mexico, although it'll be 100% manufactured in Brazil.
Purchasing power in Mexico is a lot better than in Brazil. The average person can consume more, and does, in Mexico than in Brazil. I always show this to someone who claims that China or India will smoke everyone out of the water. Who cares? If our individual standard of living rises,t I don't care if Mexico slumps down a couple points in worldwide economic mportance.
I will be the first to agree that trade makes everyone better off. There are some advantages to protectionism,...but they are at best nationalistic victories and any true benefits from it won't come to fruition for a long time. it allows domestic producers to sell to a captive market, and thus not have to worry about outside competition. And usually, since there is no outside competition, they pretty much sell crap.
Case in point: Chevrolet, Chrysler and GM... three car companies that for years had a capitve American market. In the 80's the state department allowed foreign competition to come in, and 30 years later, the U.S. government is having to bail out these car companies due to bad performance. In a true free market, they should have failed, or at least collapsed in size.
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Originally Posted by Travelling fella
Like Mexico, Brazil has a growing violence problem, with daily murders, shootouts, etc in some places the violence is even worse than in Mexico, drug cartels and police skirmishes happen daily here but they are less publicized though.
Being a huge country, Brazil seems more like a group of countries, regions vary greatly from one place to another, if you go to cities in the south, like Curitiba, Londrina, Sao Paulo, Maringá you'll see that life in those cities is waaay better than life in the USA, Canada, Japan, or even first world countries (for those who have the money) but there are also regions of Brazil (like the nordeste) that look like parts of Africa, there are some regions here where slavery still exists, people are dragged to the fazendas looking for work they get there and literally they are now owned by the fazendeiro, they will work for food and they can't escape or will be killed, there are also parts of Brazil where corruption is next to 0 and others where corruption is as rampant as it is in Mexico.
Now Brazil is Brazil, it doesn't resemble Europe, or the USA or Mexico, although it has more similarities with Mexico than oher countries because of the language and culture, but this varies from region to region, right now I'm in a place that reminds me of Veracruz a lot but i've been in parts that can't be compared to any place in the world. Being a huge country you can find all races here, and it is interesting to see how in most places people mix, unlike the USA or other multiracial countries, white, black, brown, indian, etc all mix and respect each other people are also very tolerant of gays, but like I said only in some regions.
In the end I'll say that both countries are pretty balanced, Brazil isn't far far away from Mexico, although it's making a lot of progress specially in areas we haven't, but the same applies to Mexico in a lot of things, I've always believed that both countries should have a closer relationship, and it would make much more sense to have a free trade agreement with Brazil than the ones we've signed because their economy is more even matched with ours and both countries could benefit greatly from such a deal
Now, I'm not gonna enter into the debate of if America is one continent or 2 but for sure Mexico has much more in common with Brazil that what we have with the USA there is a cultural affinity between Mexicans and Brazilians that is very strong, all people from Brazil know who el chavo del ocho is, or Thalia, Rebelde was a huge phenomenon here, Lambada was very popular in Mexico, although Mexico's cultural influence in Brazil is stronger than Brazilian cultural influence in Mexico Portuguese and Spanish might be different languages, but people can understand each other pretty well, I'll give some examples.
Portuguese O Brasil vai ser a 5ta potencia mundial na proxima decada
Spanish Brasil va a ser la 5ta potencia mundial en la proxima decada
English Brazil will be the 5th world power in the next decade
Portuguese Eu quero comprar um quilo de carne para minha familia
Spanish yo quiero comprar un kilo de carne para mi familia
English I want to buy one kilo of carne for my family
Brazil is in Latin America, the same region as Mexico. Poor fella... this is a subject you very much like talking about and instead the thread got hijacked by some moronic discussion on whether Brazil and Mexico are in the same continent. Saying Brazil isn't in Latin America because of it's language and cultural differences is like saying that Iran, Turkey and Israel are not in the middle east because they don't speak Arabic.
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Originally Posted by Travelling fella
Something Mexico could learn of Brazil? Brazilians are more proud of their country, they don't know what malinchismo is, they don't glorify the USA or feel inferior as most Mexicans do, they have more self respect and aren't as subservient or obseqious to foreigners as we are in Mexico, yet they are very tolerant and acceptant of foreign ideas and influences even though they face very similar problems.
Regards
This is the true crux of Mexican society, isn't it. We are indian and Spanish but we are ashamed as hell about our Indian heritage. Even on this forum I've seen people emphasize their Spanish heritage more than their Indian. We hate the U.S. because we lost half our territory to it not more than 20 years after our independence, but we buy American clothes, electronics, cars, pepper our lexicon with American slang, and the well-heeled send their kids to American schools. We absolutely worship white people, to the point that when the Argentinian economy collapsed, Argentians that showed up in Mexico looking for work had no shortage of modeling jobs, acting gigs, and haute cuisine restaurant positions. In a non-racial world, the argentine in Mexico would have been absolutely destitute, living in Tepito or maybe even Neza, Ecatepec, etc.
I know that on this forum I like to bash Mexico a lot. I'm like a rebellious kid that left his parents' home because he refused to follow the rules. I still love my home and visit often, just can't live there. On this forum, I usually come down hard on Mexico for lack of security, lack of economic opportunities and an unwarranted environment of materialism... but all in all... there are far worse places in the world to live in. I only want the best for Mexico, and I think it's on the right economic path, it just needs to do more about nepotism and about security. I love Mexico... which is why looking at the news everyday breaks my heart. The only way to show my little girl the places that I grew up in, the school that I went to, the house that I lived in... is by google maps street view. (they added Juarez april 15th!!!).
And crime wave or no crime wave, I'll be there this 16th of September in your hometown, fella... celebrating 200 yrs of Mexicanidad and getting drunk off my ass doing it. I'll just be carrying a knife and watching my back.
The U.S. and Mexico share a big slice of their genes, culture, economy, and history.
The U.S. is an anglo/latÃn country. And people should NOT exclude the U.S. from "Latin America" because as of 2010 it doesnt make any sense.
Now, if you want to split the american continent in 2 parts ("developed nations" and "developing nations") the developed ones would be the U.S., Canada, and Chile (before the earthquake).
The U.S. and Mexico share a big slice of their genes, culture, economy, and history.
The U.S. is an anglo/latÃn country. And people should NOT exclude the U.S. from "Latin America" because as of 2010 it doesnt make any sense.
Now, if you want to split the american continent in 2 parts ("developed nations" and "developing nations") the developed ones would be the U.S., Canada, and Chile (before the earthquake).
omg get over it. Ur not going to win and no one cares
Boricua, I was trying to educate you and the other dude who said that native americans were vikings.
If you want to believe that latÃn America is a continent, Good luck with your ignorance.
Read through my post carefully. I called it a region. And if you want to make the case that the U.S. is a latinamerican country...go right ahead. Just effing drop it. No one cares about this mundane detail. Quit polluting the thread with mindless minutae. We don't need to be 'educated' by an online troll.
And while I live and work in Puerto Rico for now, I am not a boricua. I am as Mexican as any other on this forum... born in Parral, Chihuahua, raised in Juarez.
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This has both advantages and disadvantages an advantage is that this has allowed Brazilian industries to grow and prosper in a huge territory with thousands of cities, but it has also made the country terribly unequal for those among the poorest, access to technology is way more restricted than in Mexico, because the prices of goods here. Also a dishwashing machine, washing machine, etc will be of inferior quality than the ones you can buy in Mexico, although it'll be 100% manufactured in Brazil.
Portuguese and Spanish might be different languages, but people can understand each other pretty well, I'll give some examples.
Brazil is in Latin America, the same region as Mexico. Poor fella... this is a subject you very much like talking about and instead the thread got hijacked by some moronic discussion on whether Brazil and Mexico are in the same continent. Saying Brazil isn't in Latin America because of it's language and cultural differences is like saying that Iran, Turkey and Israel are not in the middle east because they don't speak Arabic.
