|
Job Discussion Forums "The Internet's Meeting Place for ESL/EFL Students and Teachers from Around the World!"
|
View previous topic :: View next topic |
Author |
Message |
suite1718
Joined: 07 Mar 2007 Posts: 24
|
Posted: Wed May 30, 2007 3:56 am Post subject: Booing Miss USA in Mexico City? |
|
|
I saw this on the front page of msn.com and was suprised to see Miss USA being booed loudly. I'm really not interested in Miss USA, but it got me thinking, "Do people in Mexico really feel this way?"
The comments made by the host were idiotic (not surprising by what the source was), but I still wonder just what Mexicans think of Americans.
What do people in Mexico feel is the overall view of America?
LINK: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18924788/
Last edited by suite1718 on Wed May 30, 2007 2:01 pm; edited 1 time in total |
|
Back to top |
|
 |
Tarheel 13
Joined: 02 May 2007 Posts: 44 Location: Outer Banks, NC
|
Posted: Wed May 30, 2007 12:24 pm Post subject: Is this a rhetorical question? |
|
|
What do people in Mexico think of the USA?
Let's think awhile...hmmm.
1. USA is a good place to go to feed, clothe and house a family when ends can't be met in Mexico.
2. USA wants our cheap labor and hard workers, and the employers don't really care if we're illegal or legal, but for some reason USA makes it extremely difficult to stay in the USA.
3. USA wants to make it easier to go to the USA. Oh, goody, goody. What? They want me to stay two years, give up my job, come home for a year, and go back for another two years...and they want me to pay a fine of $5,000 before they consider me for a longer stay to feed my families both in the USA and Mexico!
I guess the USA doesn't really want me...they just want my cheap labor...
Is it little wonder that Miss USA was booed. Go figure. |
|
Back to top |
|
 |
PlayadelSoul

Joined: 29 Jun 2005 Posts: 346 Location: Playa del Carmen
|
Posted: Wed May 30, 2007 1:19 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Its easier to boo Miss USA than it is to boo your own. With a little planning and the offer of incentives, a lot of those jobs could be moved to Mexico and you wouldn't have to worry about crossing the border. Higher paid jobs could be had if more emphasis were put on workers learning English rather than on avoiding sunstroke and rattlesnakes while crossing the desert.
Instead of booing Miss USA because some are denied access to the American dream, why not create a Mexican dream. I guess its always easier to blame others and, even easier, to pick on a girl.  |
|
Back to top |
|
 |
lisa1968
Joined: 10 Aug 2006 Posts: 52
|
Posted: Wed May 30, 2007 1:50 pm Post subject: |
|
|
I'm a maid, I'm an albanil, I make tamales for a living and sell them door to door, I sell chicles, I shine shoes, I'm sometimes able to make minimum wage here in Chiapas (75 pesos a day). Wow, English will really open up some doors for me!! Especially since my reading and writing skills are so great!! What part of Mexico are you living in, Playa!? |
|
Back to top |
|
 |
Gary Denness Guest
|
Posted: Wed May 30, 2007 6:11 pm Post subject: |
|
|
I thought it was a pretty mean thing to do. The girl wasn't George Bush, a wall along a border or responsible for Wal Marts being built next to Teotihuacan. |
|
Back to top |
|
 |
salsera_africana
Joined: 30 Aug 2006 Posts: 11 Location: minneapolis, mn
|
Posted: Wed May 30, 2007 7:03 pm Post subject: |
|
|
I agree that it was NOT right to boo Ms. Smith, in fact, many people will probably share that same sentiment. However, the issue much deeper than booing a girl who mistakingly fell on the runway. Obviously, Ms. Smith represents the U.S. (the good, the bad and the ugly) and so people wanted to express their feelings towards the U.S. (Especially in light of the fact that Miss MX didn't make the top 5 and she did).
Playa, actually jobs are being moved FROM MX to places like China and India due to cheaper labor. In this day and age, it's hard to compete with those countries. And just knowing English and living in an extremely limited job market doesn't catapult you to the upper-class status. You need education, skills and and most of all connections to basically get a decent job in much of the developing world.
Also, it's not like many Mexicans are craving to leave their families, language and life for an unknown existance and stuggle in the U.S. They are provoked to leave MX in order to survive especially after they have tried their hand at the job markets in the big Mexican cities like DF and Juarez and Monterrey to name a few. I'm not condoning illegal immigration, but when your back is against the wall, what do you do??
I did a research paper last year that the U.S. "dumps" genetically modified corn to an already saturated corn country: Mexico! These GM corn are sold at embarrassingly low prices and many corn farmers cannot compete with the price of this corn. So, many corn farmers have to find something else to do to sustain their families, including immigrating to big MX cities or the U.S. There is a lot of unjustice happening and people are expressing their feelings. |
|
Back to top |
|
 |
El Gallo

Joined: 05 Feb 2007 Posts: 318
|
Posted: Wed May 30, 2007 8:25 pm Post subject: |
|
|
What did the host say as a reply? I heard "OK" then TNT did its Spanish translation and I didn't hear the rest.
I think this was racist. Mexicans like to call gringos racist but they are hypocrites. I was surprised because, unlike some Americans, most Mexicans are polite enough to keep their racism to themselves. I wonder what the governors of the Mexican states where the pageant visited thought as they sat next to Donald Trump. I think it will be a long time before there will be another Miss Universe Pageant in Mexico. It is obvious from their booing that Mexico is not ready for this type of world event. This wasn't a soccer match where one side yells "putos" when the other team players are introduced - que corriente
Maybe the gringo teachers will need to leave Mexico in the next ten years if this hatred continues to accelerate. Or maybe it will subside when the US is eventually freed from the extremely ugly American image represented by George Bush. |
|
Back to top |
|
 |
ls650

Joined: 10 May 2003 Posts: 3484 Location: British Columbia
|
Posted: Wed May 30, 2007 8:47 pm Post subject: |
|
|
My understanding is that a small portion (not all) of the Mexican audience booed because they felt it was unfair judging. Miss Mexico didn't place in the top five finalists, yet Miss USA did after taking a fall on her backside.
Could there have been bias in the judging of the American panelists? The Mexicans who booed seemed to think so. |
|
Back to top |
|
 |
Samantha

Joined: 25 Oct 2003 Posts: 2038 Location: Mexican Riviera
|
Posted: Wed May 30, 2007 10:25 pm Post subject: |
|
|
EL gallo wrote:
Quote: |
I think it will be a long time before there will be another Miss Universe Pageant in Mexico. It is obvious from their booing that Mexico is not ready for this type of world event.....I think this was racist. |
I believe ls650's comments are much closer to what it was really about.
ls650 wrote:
Quote: |
My understanding is that a small portion (not all) of the Mexican audience booed because they felt it was unfair judging. Miss Mexico didn't place in the top five finalists, yet Miss USA did after taking a fall on her backside. |
I much prefer the worldly classiness of the Spiderman-like building climber from overseas and the US guy who takes pictures of nudes in the Zocalo. Yup, official international beauty contests are way out of our league here in Mexico. We need MORE practice. Keep that world event away till we learn to behave our bad selves. |
|
Back to top |
|
 |
PlayadelSoul

Joined: 29 Jun 2005 Posts: 346 Location: Playa del Carmen
|
Posted: Thu May 31, 2007 12:53 am Post subject: |
|
|
lisa1968 wrote: |
I'm a maid, I'm an albanil, I make tamales for a living and sell them door to door, I sell chicles, I shine shoes, I'm sometimes able to make minimum wage here in Chiapas (75 pesos a day). Wow, English will really open up some doors for me!! Especially since my reading and writing skills are so great!! What part of Mexico are you living in, Playa!? |
There is probably little that can be done to help the chicle salesman or the shoeshine guy, other than to provide a better economy for them to operate in.
Many of the officials in the Mexican government understand that Mexico needs to stake out its place in the global economy. They keep getting blocked by populist local politicians, who prefer the status quo. India and China get those jobs because they have trained workers in place to do them. When those jobs go to cities in India and China, the level of the overall economy gets better in those cities. So, the shoeshine guy has more shoes to shine. The maid has more houses to clean.
Meanwhile, Mexico keeps exporting her labor force to the US. Who wins on that deal? The US, of course. |
|
Back to top |
|
 |
El Gallo

Joined: 05 Feb 2007 Posts: 318
|
Posted: Thu May 31, 2007 12:41 pm Post subject: |
|
|
I agree that Miss Mexico should have been in the top five instead of Miss USA and they may have been some bias amongst the judges. However, this booing wasn't isolated. During the competition, the audiences booed and shouted Mexico! Mexico! during Miss USA's turns to participate. During the 2005 World Cup, Mexicans booed the US team, the US National Anthem and chanted "Osama!, Osama!, Osama!" |
|
Back to top |
|
 |
ls650

Joined: 10 May 2003 Posts: 3484 Location: British Columbia
|
Posted: Thu May 31, 2007 4:00 pm Post subject: |
|
|
... and I'm sure if I went searching on the internet, I could find just as many examples of Mexican sports teams being booed by Americans. I think if we're going to have some battle of "who's the biggest racist?" both sides will have a lot to be ashamed of. |
|
Back to top |
|
 |
suite1718
Joined: 07 Mar 2007 Posts: 24
|
Posted: Thu May 31, 2007 10:14 pm Post subject: |
|
|
ls650 wrote: |
... and I'm sure if I went searching on the internet, I could find just as many examples of Mexican sports teams being booed by Americans. I think if we're going to have some battle of "who's the biggest racist?" both sides will have a lot to be ashamed of. |
While I'm not sure I would agree that Mexican sports teams are booed in America due to race, I would say that the way Americans look down on Mexicans in general is unacceptable. I'm constantly blown away by the stigma attached to anything Mexican. I was even told not to say 'Mexican' once when discussing my girlfriend and her family, no matter how much I explained that the word was a nationality just like 'American' or 'Canadian'. Stunning.
In return, and especially under the 'guidance' of our fearless leader, Mexicans have come to resent Americans - and rightfully so. The idiots on both sides kind of ruin it for the others (like Miss USA), but that seems to be the way it is with many things.
Without face-to-face interaction on a personal level, very few of these problems change. Even then, I can think of more than a few Americans AND Mexicans that would make bad representations of their countries in person. And so the beat of misperceptions goes on. |
|
Back to top |
|
 |
No Moss
Joined: 15 Apr 2003 Posts: 1995 Location: Thailand
|
Posted: Fri Jun 01, 2007 7:54 am Post subject: |
|
|
salsera_africana wrote: |
I did a research paper last year that the U.S. "dumps" genetically modified corn to an already saturated corn country: Mexico! These GM corn are sold at embarrassingly low prices and many corn farmers cannot compete with the price of this corn. So, many corn farmers have to find something else to do to sustain their families, including immigrating to big MX cities or the U.S. There is a lot of unjustice happening and people are expressing their feelings. |
Not to question your basic honesty, but there is a corn shortage in the US due to its use in ethanol production. The US isn't dumping corn anywhere. Corn prices are up 50% from 2005 levels, and farmers are struggling to keep up with demand for the stuff. There is also a shortage of corn in Mexico for the same reason. In fact, there are stories in business news of Mexican farmers converting agave fields to corn production.
I saw the booing of Miss USA, and I thought it was shameful. What ruined her appearance was loutish behavior by wealthy, spoiled Mexicans, period. If you can afford the price of a ticket to the finals for that show, you ain't poor, you ain't disadvantaged..quite the opposite.
For those of you with complaints about the judging, here's a link to the judges. "Judge" for yourself whether there is a fair representation of Latinos on the panel.
http://www.missuniverse.com/mainevent/judges.html
And hello from China. You may remember that Mexico was the last country to sign a trade agreement with China, thus delaying China's entry into the WTO. Wow! They love you guys!
Sorry to put a damper on the sports thing, but I'm formerly a Los Angeles guy, and I remember Fernandomania. Fernando Valenzuela was the Mexican pitcher who broke in with the Dodgers in the early 80's. He won his first ten games and won the NL Cy Young Award as a rookie. He was also NL Rookie of the Year that year (1981). When the kid pitched, it was electric in Chavez Ravine. You may remember that Pedro Guerrero (also a Dodger and a Mexican) won a piece of the NL MVP that year.
As I said, spoiled brats and louts--and you're making excuses for them? |
|
Back to top |
|
 |
No Moss
Joined: 15 Apr 2003 Posts: 1995 Location: Thailand
|
Posted: Fri Jun 01, 2007 10:43 am Post subject: |
|
|
BTW, here's the count of judges with Latin-American connections:
Nina Garcia, Colombia
Mauricio Isles, Mexico
Dave Navarro, USA, Mexican & American heritage
Tony Romo, USA, Mexican heritage (Dallas Cowboys Quarterback)
Dayanarra Torres, Puerto Rico
Justine Pacek, Ukraine, Miss Panama 2002
That's six out of 15, folks. There were no judges of Japanese heritage, by the way. |
|
Back to top |
|
 |
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum
|
This page is maintained by the one and only Dave Sperling. Contact Dave's ESL Cafe
Copyright © 2018 Dave Sperling. All Rights Reserved.
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2002 phpBB Group
|