![](\"http:\/\/cyber.law.harvard.edu\/blogs\/static\/dowbrigade\/perftomato.gif\")
There are many differences one notices when one lives
\n an active life between two continents, two cultures. Some are obvious;
\n a different language, different food, a different style of architecture,
\n different racial and facial features in the people you pass on the street.
\n Others are more subtle; not only the language is different, but the whole
\n aural symphony that assails or serenades the ear when out on the street
\n – intonation and sound sets of human voices, grunts and sighs, animal and avian cries, machine noises,
\n the distinctive sounds of traffic, the timbre of sirens, squeals of breaks,
\n different cell phone tones.<\/p>\n
Or intangible things like the pace of the daily grind, the attitudes
\n of the public servants one encounters, the kinds of people just hanging
\n out on park benches or in shopping malls. The differences can be overwhelming. <\/p>\n
Of course, beneath and between the differences are a slew of underlying
\n similarities which speak volumes about the ultimate brotherhood of ALL
\n of the members of our star-crossed species, and the universality of certain
\n innate human and cultural traits. This is the fundamental fascination,
\n this sorting of the differences and similarities, which drew the Dowbrigade
\n into the study of Anthropology, the study of human culture, many long
\n years ago, right here in Cambridge, Mass.<\/p>\n
But that was a different Dowbrigade, and those were different times,
\n and if we had known then what we know now, we would have probably done
\n pretty much the same thing. For we can no more deny or renounce our love
\n of, fascination with, and addiction to our home culture, than we can
\n deny its fatal flaws and the absolute need to experience firsthand other
\n realities, other cultures, in order to realize one’s full human potential
\n and have a ghost of a
\n prayer of a chance of saving this blasted planet.<\/p>\n
Lately, one telling theme we have been hearing, over and over, from
\n different riders on the intercultural interface the Dowbrigade frequents,
\n from Gringos vacationing or living in Latin America, and from Latinos
\n visiting or studying or working in the US, concerns our fruits and vegetables.<\/p>\n
It is almost universally agreed and commented on, that although the
\n fruits and vegetables in the States are visually stunning, physical ads
\n for themselves, brilliant in color, texture and form, when one gets them
\n home and actually tries to cook something with them, or even more directly
\n tries to eat them raw, one is inevitably disappointed by a bland, watery,
\n or in the case of hothouse tomatoes during the long dreary New England
\n winter, cardboard-like tastes which assault the palate.<\/p>\n
The produce produced in Latin America, on the other hand, obtained
\n in open-air markets and outdoor stalls, may seem smaller, sometimes wrinkled,
\n not
\n perfect
\n in form, often with traces of the good earth it grew in still not completely
\n washed off. Yet when you DO wash it off and pop it in your mouth, you suddenly
\n remember what a mango is SUPPOSED to taste like, what a tangerine
\n USED to taste like. To a fan of good, fresh food it is an immediately
\n obvious, stunning difference.<\/p>\n
As well as being emblematic of many differences between North and South.
\n The public transportation systems in the south may look chaotic and dangerous,
\n but they move millions of people to their jobs on time for a fraction
\n of what the T charges for mediocre service in Boston. The tennis club
\n we belong to in Manta, Ecuador doesn’t have the pressurized bubble of
\n the MIT courts we play on, or the space-age surface of the BU Case
\n Center courts, but the level of play is superior, the mayor and the rector
\n and our other local cronies are there EVERY DAY at 6:30 in the morning,
\n before it gets hot, before they go off to their air-conditioned offices,
\n and it costs $35 a month, including lessons, as much as a single set
\n of doubles on the Harvard courts.<\/p>\n
If we take this analogy to a questionable extreme, we can even see the
\n difference in the people populating the two systems. In South American
\n one doesn’t see nearly the number of hard bodies, humongous breasts,
\n perfect hair, chiclet smiles or movie-star good looks easy to spot in
\n any big American city. Yet when you squeeze the Latinos you get a sweeter,
\n stronger juice.<\/p>\n
Which is not to say that the shanty towns are great places to live,
\n or that endemic corruption makes for a promising political playing field,
\n or that it is copasetic that women do almost all of the work and get
\n almost none of the credit. Merely that the infinite variety within
\n the human experience behooves us to get up from in front of our monitors
\n once in a while and actually physically move our asses to get a different
\n point of view. Just do it.\n <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There are many differences one notices when one lives an active life between two continents, two cultures. Some are obvious; a different language, different food, a different style of architecture, different racial and facial features in the people you pass … Continue reading