I'm a free rider

Free riders from birth

I'm a free rider. I've been riding for free all my life. Not that I really had a choice, it was the only possibility given to me...

I grew up in a house above the average in my country. I had access to a TV, a washing machine, a refrigerator... I had access to a VCR before many of my friends, and later on to a video camera, and eventually a computer, and then a PlayStation. Well, should I mention I also had a nice bed, couch, carpeted floors, and a clean house - cleaned by a maid, who happened not to be a free rider like me, she didn't have free access to half the things I had.

From the moment I was born, I've been riding freely on everything my parents have built and possessed. I didn't do anything specifically to deserve it besides being born in the right household at the right time.

I'm hungry

I'm hungry.

I could quickly go to a restaurant, or order some food...

But... I can't easily know how the food was prepared... Maybe they used those low quality frying pans which release toxic black thingies into the food, maybe they didn't wash well the plates...
I also don't really know what kind of ingredients were used, or where they come from... Low fat milk or fatty milk? Sugar or sweetener? Fresh vegetables or those frozen ones?

Consumer under consumption

Initiatives disregarding consumers in favor of other people 
become a threat to consumption

Consumers are those who consume. Consume something until the end. Consumers are extremely popular, everybody talks about them. The consumer chooses, the consumer demands, the consumer votes with his dollar, the consumer has to be pleased.

Consumers are, of course, people. One kind of people, the kind which consumes. Other kinds of people are not as popular as the consumer kind. Non-consumers don't choose, don't demand, don't vote with dollars and are not pleased.

My image of the USA

Cool, modern, and yet... so primitive.

When I was little, the USA were synonym to coolness and modernity: everything we should aspire to. All the cool stuff like movies, video games, music, the latest technology, fast food, came form there. Anything sounded better in English. The dream of every kid around was to go to Disneyland. I guess anyone from Latin America can relate to what I'm saying, since we all are flooded with anything and everything from the US, which makes us feel like we are good for nothing. In fact, "abroad" meant the USA. Europe, Asia, Africa? Sure, we hear about them in history and geography classes. But the cool thing right then, the land of Hollywood, McDonald's, Michael Jackson, Friends and Microsoft, was the USA!

The religious are the kinkiest!

The "defenders of morality" are not the best example to follow...

Kinkiness is a completely subjective concept with no absolute meaning in nature. Depending on your culture and on your own experiences, your idea of what sexual positions are less conventional will certainly be different. Therefore, taking out forced intercourse and pedophilia, it's impossible to determine the "wrongness" of a sexual act without appealing to subjectivity. This lack of objectivity in arguments is proof that it is no one's business to be dictating what kind of sex other people should be having. The gender of their partners, the number of people involved, the body parts used, the extra props... None is inherently right or wrong and no one is being harmed by other people's choices, and so, other people's sex lives are not up for anyone to approve of or not.

World-Cup Patriotism

No teams in real life

The World Cup is here, and Brasil lives one more quadrennial brief season of widespread patriotism. During these precious two months, Brazilians change their usual displeased attitude towards their motherland into a very special football-nationalism. Might seem like an exaggeration but it's true, most Brazilians are only proud of being Brazilians during the World Cup. But I was different. I used to be a full-time patriot.

Among all the ideologies I've been exposed to throughout my life, no other had me like patriotism did. Unlike other Brazilians, I didn't dream about living a glamorous life in Europe or a Hollywood life in the US. I used to dream about making my country better. After all, what's the fun in receiving a country ready? I wanted to be able to enjoy something I helped to build.

Mi casa no es su Rome

When in Rome... Mi casa su casa?

I guess we all would like to live in a world which is fair and everyone is given a chance to find happiness, right? And in this increasingly globalized world, this means we have to find ways to live in peace with people from different backgrounds and cultures. Having that in mind, I'd like to look at two common approaches to cultural diplomacy.

When in Rome, do as the Romans do. This is a very common approach and we can see evidence for it everywhere. The president of the US bows to the emperor of Japan, the Pope visits a mosque when in Jordan. Doing as Romans do shows you come in peace, and is one of the first steps towards establishing good relations. I consider this to be a very nice approach, from the point of view of the non-Romans, the guests. But from the point of view of the Romans themselves, the hosts, that's a totally different story, and I don't quite agree with acting as a Roman.

Catholicism Paganism!

You really gotta rethink your idea of "devil"...

One funny thing about religions is how they see each other. You know, with that condescending feeling that deep inside, we are the right ones and they are wrong (well at least not as wrong as those dumb atheists!). But even funnier is how the three monotheistic religions consider followers of any other religion as "pagans", basically a pejorative term meaning pre-historic barbarians who perform crazy rituals and sacrifices, and worship things which are more of the devil than of god. Yeah, that's very funny, specially when talking about the largest religious denomination in the world, catholicism.

Not everyone needs to contribute

Capitalism is to reward what eye-for-an-eye is to punishment.

Oh capitalism! Isn't it the fairest social system we've ever known? Everyone gets what they deserve. It's based on a very simple idea: you have to give in order to receive. Simple. When it comes to life in society, in order to receive all the benefits of living in it, you have to give your contribution to it as well. Do your part. This, I guess, follows from the assumption that society requires the contributions from each and every one of its people in order to function properly for all. But does it, really?

A letter to my Muslim friends (on cartoons and Muhammad)

You have the power to stop it.

Have you heard about the recent problem involving South Park and Islam? After an episode was aired this week showing the prophet Muhammad in disguise, the producers of the show received death threats from radical Muslims. This kind of angry reaction towards cartoons of Muhammad is not new, I guess everyone still remembers what happened to Denmark embassies all around the Muslim world after some cartoons were published on a newspaper.