u/SyntaxDeleter

O sea, hay muchos países cuyo poder blando o reputación afuera es extremadamente fuerte, incluso tras décadas de estancamiento y problemas domésticos, porque han logrado exportar y proyectar una versión brillante, moderna, inteligente, civilizada y fuerte en todo el mundo, más allá de si esto es cierto o no.

Y el resultado es que cada vez que leemos 'Made in Italy' o 'Made in Japan', tenemos inmediatamente una idea de la calidad del producto o servicio, aunque el mismo producto de otro país con menos poder blando no generaría la misma imagen.

Lo mismo pasa con Hollywood, literalmente podés producir una película muy normal, incluso cursi, pero la va a ver un montón de gente, mientras que una película mucho más sofisticada y mejor producida de Letonia no sería tan popular.

Entonces, me pregunto: ¿cómo podría Argentina proyectar una imagen de un país sofisticado, culto, innovador y hermoso, aunque tenga un montón de problemas?

Tenemos ya un cine muy bueno pero poco conocido internacionalmente, teatros y museos impresionantes, naturaleza increíble y un sector tecnológico que ha logrado crecer a pesar de todo.

¿Qué opinan?

So, as someone not from LATAM, I'm curious to understand if the "culture war", as traditionally understood in the many places in Europe and North America, exists here

Stuff like sustainability vs economic growth via extraction, LGBT inclusion and policy, abortion, public vs private, welfare programs, labor rights, historical revisionism and the politicization of art and media, etc

Of course, LATAM is massive and depends on the country, and many places in LATAM are very much progressive in many areas, but I wonder if the very dynamic of "right vs left", as vague and reductive as these labels can be, on "culture wars" maps out neatly here, or if there are some things that are considered "left" here that would be "right" elsewhere, and vice versa, or if there are controvertial topics that aren't considered controvertial elsewhere or vice versa, etc

Hello, I hope you are doing well

So, I'm a 19 yo guy from Algeria, and I am considering Portugal as a destination to immigrate to and settle long-term

I speak C1 English and Spanish, with IELTS and DELE, and I speak B2-ish Portuguese, but I still haven't taken a test

I'm planning on applying for a student visa to Portugal and then, after finishing my studies, see if to stay long-term

But there are two main sticking points, the first being it requires thousands of euros in advance for tuition and the frozen bank account, and my wage is roughly 100 euros as a cashier here, so I'll def need my parents backing me up, at least partially, and then there is the issue of not being able to afford the rest of the course since you can only work for like 20h a week on a student visa and that's unrealistic

Another problem is that I've read on many places the housing crisis is only getting worse and that wages are stagnant, which wouldn't that big of an issue to me if it means "living tight" but def is if the wage is literally not enough to meaningfully function

so what do you guys think? what would you do if you were me?

Looking forward to hearing your responses, thanks!

Estoy aprendiendo espanol, y me di cuenta de que hay un monton de contenido que se relaciona generalmente al cripto/manosphere/anti-"woquismo"/desarollo personal/anti-globalizacion/emprendimiento

son cosas que literalmente no tienen nada que ver una con la otra pero que por alguna razon estan muuuuuy constantes en muchos creadores, por lo menos lo que yo veo, y capaz esté en una camara de eco

qué opinan?

I mean centering national identity around a handful of industries and excel at them globally, and i'm not talking about oil or gas

It would be a massive boost to our soft power and economy if Algeria became "the global hub for video game development" or "the global hub for agritech"

the government could have spent those massive energy revenues on investing in the capital and infrastructure needed to get these industries running

like how taiwan defined itself by chip manufacturing and estonia by tech

what do you think?

Hola, soy de un pais sin convenio y me gustaria inscribirme en el cbc este agosto para el segundo cuatrimestre, y hoy subi mi certificado y analitico en la plataforma del ministerio de educacion para convalidarlos

cuanto me tardara? y si abren las preinscripciones y no los tengo, qué hago? gracias

Slums in these pics are often situated in some of the most expensive land in the city and were built illegally by people who wanted a place to live near their jobs but couldn't afford to

The solution seems obvious, "just give them money to move", except in practice it's very complicated because they don't have land titles, they can't just move away to outskirts without losing their jobs, they often can't afford utilities and property taxes with their wages, etc

Also, there is the problem of perverse incentives and precedent, as in, if you give a land title to everyone who lives there, you're implicitely saying "build a house in a slum, and we'll give you a land title or move you to a free or cheap apartment"

Also, assuming a politician wants to give them land titles so they can sell the land to developers and move out, what happens when one family decides not to move? what happens when the middle class residents of the neighborhood they're moving to oppose the idea? etc

Many politician also decided to give them subsidized utilities and such, which only made moving them out harder

Others decided to simply upgrade them, but the way these settlements are build makes installing grid and sewage very hard without demolishing large parts of them, which again is politically difficult

This applies to many places in eastern europe, but especially Poland

There are many people who are friendly, but others come off as blunt, maybe even unintentionally, and i'm wondering if it's just them being blunt or if they struggle to phrase things politely in English

so they'd say stuff like "give me that" instead of "could you give me that?", etc

So, there is this political concept called "TINA" or "There Is No Alternative", which while it originally had a different meaning, we can define now as a strategy for a regime or system, political, social or economic, to persist simply by convincing people that there is no alternative or that whatever alternative exists is simply never happening, which kills any unified opposition

Taking the case of East Germany, one can easily argue a big reason why the communist regime failed there was that it couldn't possibly convince its citizenry of the absence of an alternative, which in that case was West Germany's model of western-style democracy, economic liberalism, and free trade, all of which demonstrably provided a standard of living that was much higher than the East

This made it possible for people who were frustrated with the regime's failures to channel that frustration to a unified and coherent economic and political framework

Now contrast that to places like Algeria where many people do not manage to channel that frustration into a coherent ideological framework, let alone one with large-scale consensus, and so what you end up having is defeatism and cynicism, that is, a population that knows things are wrong but can't picture an alternative or a measurable path to getting there

If for instance, a large-scale movement gradually formed where Algerians decide OECD accession, to give a random example, should be our priority and an anchor for how the country should behave moving forward, that would make it politically impossible for the government to refuse any concessions

If the movement demands specific reforms needed for OECD accession, they'll have measurable metrics to hold the government accountable

If you're a president, it's very difficult to ignore millions telling you to "reform the tax code to align with OECD standards" or "implement judicial reforms to align with OECD standards", etc

Now, of course, it doesn't have to be an external anchor, but the point remains the same, there can't be accountability or reform without an alternative

This is a bit of a rhetorical question, and it's not just specific to Algeria, but more broadly to formerly colonized countries

So, there is this pervailing sense that we're both the best and the worst, that criticizing how the country currently is makes you unpatriotic, but being optimistic about it makes you naive and foolish

You can say "How can we model Algiers to become a regional AI hub? What specific policies should we implement to incentivize investment in this area?" and you'll get people saying it'll never happen and no change will do anything and that we're doomed, and they refuse to recognize any way in which there could possibly be incremental reform

To them, the "Algeria" vs "First World" is literally an ontological distinction and that we're doomed to always be, in every area, and regardless of anything, worse off

And of course that creates a self-fulfilling prophecy, meaning if you think you're a failure, you'll act in ways that guarantee you become one

And the confusing part is that saying "hey, since X has it better than us in this area, how about we copy their model?" and you get responses about how that's compromising sovereignty, how that's "A western thing", etc

Regardless of your politics, and from a purely economic pov, what did Argentina's Milei do that's necessary radical?

Privatization, austerity, deregulation, etc are all basic libertarian economics, with the pros and cons that they entail, so what's new about his platform?

Espacialmente en el espanol rioplatense, y no hablo de la"g" en palabras como gente, sino mas bien, de la g de "Amigo", "Grande", "Arraigo", etc

Porque yo suelo pronunciarlas como la "r" francesa pero un poco mas suave, y es lo que suelo escuchar tambien, pero otros dicen que deberian pronunciarse como la g del ingles, tipo "goal"

entonces como la pronuncio? gracias

Bueno, hay muchas peliculas LGBT, pero busco especificamente una pelicula que sea tranquila, situada en un lugar remoto como un pueblecito con much vegetacion y belleza natural, y con una trama simple, "lowkey" pero esteticamente hermosa

tienen algunas sugerencias? gracias

This is probably a false dichotomy, but if you had to choose, would you choose paying 30dzd for a train ride that arrives 1h late or pay, say, 300dzd for one that arrives exactly on time? same for stuff like water, etc

and what do you think of the government giving targeted money transfer to the poor to pay for these services, like cards that have 30 free rides a month or a cash sum to pay for gas, electricity, water, etc instead of subsidies that make a millionaire and a homeless person pay the same subsidized price?

Esta ubicada cerca de zonas con tierra muy cara y valdrian mucho en el mercado, y igual a muchos inversores les gustaria comprar las casas

entonces porqué no las venden y en cambio los residentes reciben plata para mudarse a otro lugar??

Bueno, estoy pensando en qué tipo de muebles quiero comprar, y personalmente me encanta el estilo minimalista que se vende en Easy o sitios parecidos, y ademas los precios son muy razonables, y pueden dividirse en hasta 24 cuotas sin interes

Pero estoy un poco indeciso, porque capaz no duren mucho o algo asi

entonces, que recomiendan?

literal una vez un tipo me dijo que en "el primer mundo", se hacen peliculas serias y no como las de aca, o que la educacion "en el primer mundo" es mucho mejor, o que la gente es mas disciplinada "en el primer mundo", y me parece absurdo porque es una idea muy idealizada y irrealista que solo sirve para fomentar el complejo de inferioridad colectiva que tiene la sociedad

hay muchos problemas, claro, pero una cosa no quita la otra, y "el primer mundo" es una categoria muy ampila que incluye a muchos paises con realidades bien diferentes y con sus propios desafios

entonces, porqué creen que pasa eso? porqué se menosprecian los logros locales mientras se idealiza absurdamente los de los otros lugares?

For some reason, my biggest fear is being someone who cares enough and who tries to change stuff

Like staying in a job you hate and trying to make it work instead of just leaving, or trying to fix an interpersonal issue instead of just leaving, or trying to debate politics instead of just leaving the place

it feels absurd because it's both unrealistic to just walk out of any issue and somewhat cowardly, but for some reason, it's so wired to my brain that I just leave whenever there is an issue and this is holding me back

so what should I do?

Why is it so hard to keep them at or above 2,1 regardless of safety nets, housing affordability, economic opportunities, etc?