El Salvador and Hotdogs
I happened across this article in the Boston.com News, which happend to be about El Salvador and U.S fast foods. The author made some really interesting points in the article that I felt would be good to summarize here considing that in about a month we'll be observing and breathing the situation first-hand:
- Some 20 percent of El Salvador's population regularly purchases US food items. With more women joining the labor force and fewer of them at home to assist in food preparation, the demand for convenience and fast foods is increasing.
- US foods such as hot dogs and hamburgers are preferred by the younger generation, as are American-style food courts in urban shopping centres
- Generally, people living in urban areas consume more bread and meats than tortillas and beans.
- 48 percent of the people remain in poverty
- Salvadorans receive nearly $3 billion a year in remittances from relatives in the United States and the country would
''Globalization might help some people, but we also have Salvadorans in the US who never buy new clothes, go to the worst schools, and who send money home to people who purchase the most expensive shoes, and shop for the biggest televisions in the malls in El Salvador. It ends up being poor dollars sent by poor people, and for what?"And that's what I'm doing. Thinking about the different realities that exist in this world and how reality is fact a social construct.
3 comentarios:
Hmmm interestingly enough, in Haiti (the country of sugar cane), sugar is imported from Miami because it is cheaper to do so then to invest in local sugar production.
Maybe the same pattern exists for the Haitians abroad... I'll have to look into that.
Interesting reflexions. Thanks !
That quote is sad because it is so true. While there are families who take full advantage of the remittences to send their kids to better schools or save or eat, many do buy expensive clothes and televisions.
Still, why does the cycle continue?
I think although remittences help families, no matter which country they are from, they also cause them to live beyond their "normal" means and become dependant.
If the people who DO buy expensive things would have to save and save and save for them, I think by the time they finished saving they would rather spend the money on something else.
Haiti produces heaps of sugar! I would have though that the last place they would import sugar from (if they did) would be from America. Perhaps it has to do with the CAFTA and tariffs or something...interesting thought!
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