It’s not unusual to tell fellow Americans about my Uruguayan experience and have their first question be: Where is that? Africa? That’s not a dig at American’s close-mindedness, nor Uruguay’s obscurity, it’s just reality. There’s a little more than 3 million people in Uruguay. In the US, according to the United States Census Bureau, there are more than 16 urban conglomerations in the US with more than 3 million inhabitants. It’s an information overload issue.
Anyways, the point is, Uruguay’s obscurity means that I can probably say, without exaggerating, that I’m probably in the top 0.001% of Americans in terms of knowledge about current Uruguayan politics. That being the case, I took the liberty to share my thoughts about the recent change of economic ministers on a friend’s blog. Read here if you’re interested.
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2 comments:
pero que lastima che, ojala que hagas mas conocido el nombre de Uruguay durante tu tiempo asha.
Hi,
In a way, we Uruguayans enjoy not to be known. We live with the illusion that anonimity gives us some extra freedom from the powerful ones, who we are afraid of.
Some of us also feel superior because we do know where most of the countries are in the planet, but that's often an illusion too... most of us wouldn't be able to say were most African and Asian countries are. And it's a rarity to find a Uruguayan who can tell you between which states California is.
I'm enjoying your blog!
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