Wanted to know more about Van Gogh...

Well, no only about Vincent Van Gogh but also other artist and museums around the world. This site contains an amazing collection of some of the most important world artists, and there is the option to make a tour inside the museum as real as people were there. Besides, it is posible to watch some workarts in format of high definition image, with such as clear images as if you have a microscope to zoom in to the picture very close. Of course you could see some paintings of Van Gogh like like "The self-portrait", "The bedroom" or "sunflowers" as we watched on the episode of doctor Who. Awesome!!!

The complete website is

www.googleartproject.com

But if you search for in google with words "google museum project" you can reach the site, and select at the first view Van Gogh Museum

my comment

With respect to the first video I think the hosts were rude with Mexican people. They consider that all Mexican people are lazy, use big hats.
I wonder if they talk in that way about the country they are from. I don’t think they would do that.
They say we eat tortillas but… Is there something wrong in that fact? I think they haven`t visited Mexico.
Mexican people in general are not lazy. We have to work at least eight hours a day, but if we have a lot of work to do we have to work more, as well we are not always allowed to take vacations. Due to the economic situation people have to do the work that the people wich was fires used to do. This is a gossip tv program.
With respect with the second video, the host came to Mexico. I think it was great because he really feel, saw, taste how Mexican people live. He didn`t focus on gossip at all.

Ican´t post my vote on the blog. I don´t know why.
But I vote for mary and maxxx!

Top Gear comments about México

I hadn´t seen this program before, so when I first heard the comments the British hosts made about Mexicans I feel disgusted and offended, but then I realized that the hosts use to made that kind of bad jokes which aren´t funny for the countries they made fun of.
First of all I don´t like the stereotype “Mexicans are lazy” in every country are all kinds of people even in England exists lazy people. One example that contradicts the lazy stereotypes about Mexicans is that many compatriots migrate to the United States looking for a job, because unfortunately here they don´t have many opportunities. Then the comments they said about Mexican food are derogatory and without real facts, they only express their opinion based in stereotypes. I´m sure that every tourist who had visited Mexico knows that we don´t only have “cheesy and greasy food” we have a variety of dishes for every taste, like the ones shown in the program of Anthony Bourdain. Finally I don´t agree when the hosts said that Matretta car was slow they didn´t test it.
People shouldn´t believe in stereotypes, we have to make our own opinion based on facts and our experience. I hope that the people who see Top Gear have an open mind and consider visiting Mexico to notice that many stereotypes about our culture are false.
I`m proud for being Mexican!

No reservations and top gear

In my opinion, I think hosts at top gear don't have any information about Mexican culture at all, so, from my point of view, they can't make any comment about Mexican food and people. First, they have no idea about food heritage in our country, because not everything is tortilla as they believe. Even corn is the base of Mexican food there is a variety of dishes that don't require corn. On the other hand, they suppose that stereotypes are true, but it's false.Speaking personally, Mexican aren't lazy, we work very hard, and everybody can realise in the number of people who travel to USA and look for a job and try to have a better life.

On the other hand,I would say that Anthony Bourdain's travel is a better idea to avoid stereotypes, because he decided to visit Mexico and eat their food before giving an opinion. But I disagree because he just visited places on the street and he ate fat food, also he stayed on a cantina drinking tequila, I think it contributes to stereotypes, because people from other countries can think we always eat junk food and that we are drunk people. In my opinion we could've choosen better places to visit and give Mexico a better image.

TV programs might give wrong stereotypes

Neither Top Gear nor Anthoni Bourdain programs give the realness of Mexican food, however, both stereotype Mexican food. It is true that Mexican food is a World Cultural Heritage and its complexity may attract many people around the world, nevertheless, not everyone loves all Mexican food as Anthoni Bourdain tries to convince you. However, I disagree completely in the idea that Mexican food is made of cheese, greasy and always has tortilla, in addition, in Top Gear, they named the Mexican car tortilla and say that probably it’s slow, but it can actually achieve 240km/hr and accelerates from 0-100km/h in 4.9 seconds.

Both programs leave no room to other opinions; they generalized their experience and probably there is more to say about Mexican food, both pros and cons.

I think that...

With respect to the TV shows that talk about Mexico I think we have two different opinions. In Top Gear they just make fun about the Mexican people but it is clearly they don´t have any idea what is Mexico, they don´t know the real Mexican food and they haven´t ever met a Mexican. It is true that the main idea of this TV show is make fun about everything but they should know there are limits.

On the other hand in the TV show Anthony Bourdain No Reservations he didn´t make fun about Mexico in all the single program, he actually came to Mexico and he made an opinion about Mexico, the Mexican food and the Mexican people. I really liked this TV show I think it is funny and amusing but without be offensive.

About stereotypes

Even though I haven´t watched a whole chapter of the “Top Gear” TV show I think is not the kind of show I would like to watch. The first time I heard about this TV show was on the Mexican’s news showing the hosts of this TV show saying we are lazy, irresponsible and that our food is disgusting. I have to admit that at the first moment I got so mad, but later I just realize that the hosts of that show were only showing their ignorance. In my opinion, ignorance is cause of discrimination and believing on stereotypes.

Actually, many Mexicans are angry and others just loud about the opinions; in my case I think I first got mad because I don´t identify myself with those stereotypes about the food I eat and the way I am.

In the other hand, Antony Bourdain on his TV show “Without reservations” came to Mexico and tried food and knew Mexican people; and we can say that now he is able to emit an objective opinion about it, but I think that as consequence of the huge diversity and differences that in Mexico exist is almost impossible to emit an opinion that generalize us as Mexicans in an objective way. As with the “Top Gear” hosts opinions I don´t feel identify, I have not even try many dishes Antony Bourdain showed on his program!! Those that many people think are a essential characteristic of Mexican culture… and that doesn´t makes me less Mexican! We are just different.

Nevertheless we have to accept those differences and recognize what we deserve, others have no right to make fun in a rude way about us as we have no right to do it about others, more if we don’t know them. And with respect to the food topic, we have to admit that consider something delicious or disgusting is cultural determination; even if Mexican or French or Chinese food are recognize by UNESCO as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity because of their complicatedness there are dishes I would never try! And of course are dishes I really really love!

Top Gear: more about cars and less insults

With respect to the comments of the hosts of "Top Gear", I think all people have the right to say anything and personally, this kind of comments don´t affect me because simply it isn´t true, it doesn´t have to affect us because we know that Mexico is an incredible country, it´s one of the most traditional countries and it´s rich in natural wonders, gastronomy and friendly people, so the ideas of the hosts are unimportant facts. In a positive way, frankly I think it was made in a funny TV show and we have to remember that a joke is made to make people laugh and I would worry if a politician or a educated person had said that comments, but the hosts are insignificant people like their comments.

Obviously I am conscious about the repercussion of the mentioned ideas on air in the TV show because I wonder if the audience are not influenced by the hosts of Top Gear, imagine if someone doesn’t know anything about Mexico and they watched the show, they could think that Mexico is the worst country or they would acquire a new stereotype about Mexicans. Probably at this moment I don´t take importance to this comments because months ago I saw the video and it didn´t affect me because I think we should not worry about all people say or invent.

My comment

The videos reflect the problem of stereotypes. In the “Top Gear” show the presenters talk about the existent stereotypes about Mexican people and food without knowing anything about this culture. On the other hand, Anthony Bourdain comes to Mexico, meets the people, tastes the food and gives his opinion based on it. However I can see how there are important differences between people inside the same culture; for example, he went to a “cantina” and went to see the “lucha libre” maybe because he thinks these are activities that Mexican people do, but it is not completely true because although I am Mexican I never have been to a “cantina” and I don´t like the “lucha libre”.

In the same way I am sure that not all English people believe in the same way as the top gear´ presenters do, all people in a culture are different from each other and we can´t make generalizations based just on a person we have known. Unfortunately it is something that people do, we also laugh or make jokes about other cultures without really knowing if what we say is true or not. Therefore, we shouldn´t take these comments seriously but we ought to try to change as much as we can the existent stereotypes about Mexican people.

It is a fact that the best way to break down a stereotype is going straight to the country or place from which you want to talk about as in the second video.

Talking about stereotypes, there's something I'd like to stand out: if it exists a stereotype about a whole country, then it's because something is going on there. And from my point of view, the mayority of Mexicans, uncluding me, have been working really hard to enrich such stereotypes in at least one way. Let's be realistic and wonder what have we been doing wrong and change the way the whole world look at us.

In the other hand, Mexicans have a particular sense of humor and as everybody knows we laugh about ourselves all the time under any circumstances. But that doesn't mean that the English from that T.V. programme, even if they are making a joke, have the chance to laugh about us or anyone else. Would they react the way we did if someone laugh about their country and traditions? Of course not! I'm completely sure they would make something about Mexicans laughing about UK, especially because we're not a First World Country as they are.

Let's do something with the image we've been giving to the world and laugh about stereotypes.... after all we're Mexicans, aren't we?

My opinion is...

After watching these two TV programs I think that we can't compare this programs because they are headed for different audiences and their goals are different.

About Top Gear is a show dedicated to cars where they manage a black humorous style(this is the way of how they get rating).I have to admit that the first time I saw this episode I got upset because they used a lot of stereotypes about mexicans, and I said this british people are so stupid, how they don't see their own defects!!!. But then I rethought about the situation and we should learn to laugh of ourselves because we'are used to mock about foreigns, the examples are many of the comedy TV programs that we see daily or the jokes which we tell. So we are even!

For Anthony Bourdain TV show I can say that I like too much this kind of programs where they travel around the world, learning about different cultures, food, people ,etc. I'd never seen this episode but I liked how he tastes everything without any prejudgment. When we see this kind of shows we can appreciate our food and customs that hardly other countries have.

Finally, we shouldn't be so extremist due a comment of an sarcastic and stupid program because I'm sure that most people around the world don't think that, an example is Bourdain and many shows from abroad, that come to Mexico because they are very interested and end up very fascinated.

Top Gear Mexican “Joke”

With regard to comments of an automobile of Mexican manufacturing, Mexicans and their food by the presenters of Top Gear, I approached my opinion in four points that I consider important to review,

1) The kind of program. Top Gear is a popular television program of the BBC in the topics of cars. The popularity of this program is based on the irreverent style and sometimes disproportionate of the comments made by the presenters, which said by themselves, reflects the British sense of humor. There have been many occasions when the presenters have had to apologize because allude and offend members of a community or people of an entire nation. Within this context, we must consider that the exploitation of prejudice by the presenters is an important part of its popularity and that the their opinion are not the responsibility of the British People themselves.

2) The automobile Mastreta alias “Tortilla”. It is curious that Top Gear, being a program that focuses on the characteristics of the cars, has not issued a single comment about the technical specifications of the Mexican car, and they dedicated themselves to make absurd associations of “national characteristics”, for example that the car would be irresponsible, flatulent and overweight (a machine with these characteristics? ). Of course, these attributes may not correspond to a car. By the absurdity of this comment, the replica is totally unnecessary.

3) The Mexicans. We know that when we generalize there is a very high probability that we are giving false information. However; we must also be realistic and self-critical. I think that first we must ask ourselves how and from where they built the stereotype of the Mexicans. It is likely that we have ourselves intervened on it. In some tourist sites in Mexico, the Mexican souvenirs show an image of a man with zarape asleep on a cactus! We are a people who has tolerated corruption of our leaders which has resulted in the enormous inequalities, poverty for more than half of our people, the lack of opportunities for many Mexicans and violence in the majority of our territory, this has conducted to have a high unemployment rate.

On the other hand, we have a health system that instead of developing strategies for prevention is totally exceeded in the treatment of diseases. The truth is that we are a nation of overweight people, as much as we have trouble accepting it.

4) The food. Mexican cuisine is considered by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage of humanity for their great variety and delicacy worthy of saving. It is among the three major cuisines in the world counting the French and Chinese cuisines.This information is from the world dominance and Anthony Bourdain did an excellent job in his documentary. I presume that the presenters of Top Gear are not  ignorant but malicious. Quite frankly, I believe that when the comments are obviously false, the arguing is absolutely worthless.

Opinions of Top Gear

With respect to the two T.V. programs that we watched in class, I think they are very different or their objectives are so different. While "Not reservations" is a program that gives information about a country and makes opinions about it after visit it and have experiences there, "Top Gear" is just a "funny" program where its hosts use black humor and sarcasm to fun their audience and they, in their eagerness to do it, say the first stupid thing that have in mind. For this reason they are ignorant of things like Mexican food is one of the most varied foods in the world, together with French and Chinese food; or that the "lazy" mexican people have to be an early reaser because their jobs are far away of their homes and the traffic is terrible. Unfortunately, the photos where our politicians are sleeping run faster around the world.

I agree that the form used for the hosts of "Top Gear" to express of Mexican people was very disrespectful and regrettable, and more that jokes, those were insults; but they don't say things only about mexicans, they say desagreeable things about people in many countries. On the other hand, we must accept that many Mexican TV programs also are full of stereoptypes, including Olimpic Games spots of Televisa. How many times have we heard things about the arrogant Argentinians or stinking Europeans?
Frankly, I think we are a culture to tends to estereotype too. So we shouldn't take things to heart.

Top Gear unfounded comments

First of all, I disagree with the unfounded opinions about Mexico that British hosts said on the program. Frankly, I think all British people are racist. That would be a stereotype isn’t it?

At least, Anthony Bourdain realized that Mexico has more than “vomit with cheese-food”.

I wonder if Top Gear hosts have looked themselves at the mirror when they wake up and look what kind of people they are.

There is no need for criticizing something if you don’t know what are the origins or even the means of support of the thing you are criticizing.

On one hand It is well known that Mexican food has been considered cultural heritage of the humanity. As Anthony Bourdain said: Mexican food is more than tacos, it requires hours of preparing it by hand and years of experience.

On the other hand, the Mexican car called “tortilla” as they said so disrespectfully, comparing to another kind of sports car such as a Corvette, Mastretta MXT weighs 1,200 pounds less and its financial officer Jean-Paul Capin said that they have been proving a lot of stereotypes wrong, such as in Mexico we can't build a sports car.

I believe the best way to eradicate stereotypes is realizing by ourselves about the others, reading books, being informed in order to acquire experience, leaving behind comments from others that could influence our beliefs.

Finally, humor and comedy don’t have to justify xenophobia and discrimination, even more if the arguments are not well supported. It is a matter of values and tolerance.

Opinion

I believe that the program that we watched last class went over the line because they started making comparisons about australian Technology and British technology in a sarcastic way. They also made reference to the history of Australia and they cheated in a competition to find out which technology was better. After that. they made comments about mexican people and a car built with Mexican technology. I think that they should have done more research before making any comment over the car; one of the tv host said that the name of this Mexican car would be "tortilla" which is not. They also make some comments about the characteristics of the car in comparisons to Mexican people. However I'm pretty sure that there is good engineering over it and that stereotypes over Mexican people are not real.

In my opinion the second video was more real. Because the tv host came to Mexico and he tasted some of the normal meals in Mexico. However I don't believe that it is a good show because they only wanted to show the stereotypes of Mexico. It was pretty obvious when they took the tv host to drink tequila and to eat tacos all the time. If the main idea of the show was to talk about Mexican food all i can say is that they could have done better.

Opinion and Facts about Mexican people

Frankly, I think that before someone want to make a good or bad opinion about something, it´s necessary to know or have a clearly idea about it. We shouldn´t stereotype only with the thoughts of other people, the experience give us the key to develop our own judgments.

In fact, it´s completely false that Mexican food is disgusted and only cooked with cheese as the host men of the “Top Gear” program declared it. First of all, Mexico is a pluricultural country that keeps its traditions and customs. One of the reasons Mexican gastronomy is very varied it’s because the weather climate and the ancestor´s heritage.

If you ask me, Mexicans must be proud of our country, that is rich in natural resources and have many people working hard for change it every day.

About Top Gear Commnets

Well, I think there are two situations or ways in order to see the problem of Top Gear conducer´s comments:
The first is very simple: everything they said were only jokes (disgusting jokes, of course).
I am sure that all de Mexicans who knew of these comments felt anger and discomfort for their expressions and ideas, but if we are strict, the job of the Top Gear conducer is, in fact, planning, saying and doing stupid or dangerous (or both) things. Furthermore, is easy to imagine for us that they don´t know almost anything about mexican people and food. Only cheese?? Tortilla (like the name of the car)?? Please!! For this reason, we could laugh and feel consideration beacuse comment things like this, are a meaningful part of their work, certainly, is their only grace.
The second is take the comments as insults.
A way of to show our anger fitting and effective is, for me, decrease, avoid, or being more selective with foreing t.v. programs; maybe this could be hard for us, because lost of programs are funny, interesting or really good, but I believe it is necessary. If the big television enterprises allow this kind of expressions is because this is allowed by us too. So, if we are truly angry, this situation must be reflected in this part of the world. Also, we should think that this false ideas about Mexicans are not only in programs like Top Gear; too many programs like series or soap operas and even cartoons reproduce those stereotypes that, we kmow, are absolutely wrong.

Top Gear, a racist Program

If you ask me, the program “Top Gear” shows how ignorant British people are (the ones on TV). Firstable they have a false image of Mexican people because they criticize us without facts that support it. And secondly they just talk and make up things to make people laugh and increase the rating of their program.

With respect to the comment about the car called “Tortilla”, they are showing how egocentric and limited their minds are. We are capable to be better than British people in new developments, on the one hand we have one of the best Universities of the world called UNAM, and on the other hand I know some people from the UNAM working in big companies in Europe in a high company position. In my opinion, we are more intelligent because we do not waste our time being racist in a TV show. We have the value of respect.

Frankly, if we generalize that all British are racist people, as they think all Mexicans are lazy. It will begin a war between races, even though it is just a TV show, it will generate a great problem between countries for long years.

Opinion about Top Gears

With respect to the video Top Gear in which the men are talking about Mexico, I think their comments are very poor because they didn´t make an exhaustive research about the traditions even the features of Mexico and its people. They didn´t have to express in that way because they only wanted to offend people, in fact they did it, that´s why most of people in Mexico got upset.

But I also think that maybe their intentions were not to offend people but only to have a “fun moment” because that´s the main purpose of the program. However even in this kind of situation they had to be well informed and had real information in order to have a better criticism. So that´s why I didn´t feel very offended watching the video. So, if you ask me, this is not the way to talk about anything, you need first to be informed and then you can give an opinion that can be supported with information or facts.

In the other hand the video No Reservations has better opinions. Why? Just because Anthony Bourdain was in Mexico City and he lived and knew the things as they are. He did a tour in which he could know the kind of places and Mexican food. So I think that you can give an opinion or valid opinion when you know the topic you are going to talk about.  As we can see in the video here, in Mexico there are different kinds of food ant it´s a traditional and delicious food. Our food represent us around the world because it´s unique. There is a phrase in the video that refer to the tortilla which explain that  we can´t find even a similar tortilla in the world, just because the flavor and how it looks is not as it is here in Mexico. Frankly, I think that´s the way to make a criticism about a group of people, places or whatever, knowing the place or the people we are going to talk about, if we don´t do this we are always going to think in the stereotypes and talking without any support idea.

My opinion about the Top Gear comments

Commentary

When I heard first this comments I was a little offended I must admitt, one of the comments that got to me the most was: "Imagine waking up one day and remebering you're Mexican" as if it was something terrible, that made me feel bad, but then I taught to myself why would I be ashamed or feel bad in any way about being Mexican in fact I´m quite proud of belonging to a culture that is so rich and has such an interesting past, I wouldn´t want to have any other nationality, there are so many things we can take pride in: Our pre-hispanic cultures, our art, our architecture, oh! And i forgot our food, which they dissed in their comments by the way, but can you really blame them, I mean most of the fast food chains that sell Mexican food abroad sell this mixture between norhern Mexican food and southern American food known as Tex-Mex, this crazy hybrid is all they know, and actually this food is in fact all about chese and tortillas, shamefully our great diverse cuisine has been reduced to this dishes that aren´t even Mexican; If a foreigner saw a Chile en Nogada he would not recognize it as Mexican food, when in fact this is one of our most traditional dishes, the same with Mole, a very complex sauce to cook that is a challengeto make, even for traditionally French trained cooks.

So I believe we shouldn´t be appalled by this rude remarks, we as Mexicans should just remember the culture we belong to, distinguish between facts and fiction, and not wear the shoe if it doesn´t fit. As I see it, the only way to stop this is to know before we talk, If you were to ask in the streets about American food, for example, people would immediately tell you: American food is all fast food and junk, the only things they know how to make are Hamburgers and Hot-Dogs, they have no traditional food whatsoever, when actually that´s a lie, they have different regional cuisines, like Créole Louisiana food which has a wide variety of dishes such as Gumbo, a preparation that consist in a thick spicy sauce with shrimp and other shelfish, or Crawfish Étouffée, a dish that shows the main characteristics of créole food; But we don´t really know much about these dishes because that´s not what´s commonly labeled as American food, I say this because I think is important that we avoid falling into this stereotypes ourselves and really get to know other cultures before we jump to comment about them, so we don´t take part in this type of ignorant rants, and if we ever hear comments with no base in reality we should just turn a deaf ear because comments like those at the end of the day, end up saying more about the people that tell them rather than what they´re talking about.

Top Gear and their stupid comments of Mexican People

Most of Mexican people have not watched this program, but if they turn on the TV and watch it for the first time, it may result an annoying experience because of the mock of the Mexican food and other particular things done by TV presenters. First of all, either they don’t know anything about Mexican food or just invented disgusting and unacceptable comments about it when said Mexicans don’t have food or their food looks like a vomit with cheese. They should measure or stop these kind of comments and have documented by Internet or watch other videos about Mexican cooking. In Mexico we have a great variety of traditional food that has been awarded as “Patrimonio Inmaterial de la Humanidad” by the UNESCO in November 2010.

On the other hand, when Richard Hammond commented about a particular brand of car reflects the national characteristics, it is clear he doesn´t know about Mexican people. I think people in large cities in Mexico don´t have the stereotype known outside the country for other people around the world (a fat man sit sleeping next to a cactus wearing his big hat). In this point, I disagree with this guy because, according to technical specifications and some pictures I have seen of the Mastretta, it is an sport, beautiful and well done car made in Mexico.

The question then is, how dare one person say or have an opinion about people or things if he/she doesn´t know the real life in that particular place or country?

My oppinion on To

Movies - you decide

Well as I talked about with you in class, I'm sending you the links to the two movie trailers so that you can take your pick and give your vote. Feel free to also read about the movies on Wikipedia if you want to know more information. After watching both trailers, make a comment on this post and vote for the one you want to watch; it doesn't have to be long. You can just say "The Castle" or "Mary and Max" if you wish. :)

The Castle (1997)
Oops - there is no movie trailer for The Castle. (How can this be??!) So this video gives you a very small idea of the beginning of the movie, although it's not like this throughout the entire movie. Just to remind you, it deals with family, relationships, loyalty and fighting for what you know to be right.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TM-GVRvsZrA&feature=related

Mary and Max (2009)
This is not the official trailer of Mary and Max, but personally I liked it better than the official one. If you laugh during the trailer, don't be fooled ... it's not a funny movie the way The Castle is. As I said, it deals with topics of suicide, alcoholism, mental illness, depression, loneliness and friendship.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkUI3SZyKCs

Don't forget to vote!!

Make your opinion known!!

Hello everyone,

Your next task is to write your opinion about what the hosts of Top Gear said about Mexico and Mexican food. If you wish, you may compare their comments on Mexico to the way they dealt with the three Australians, or with what Anthony Bourdain on his show No Reservations said about Mexico and Mexican food. Both of these shows can currently be seen on YouTube if you would like to watch them again and refresh your memory. (Bourdain's episode is available in three parts, starting at  http://www.youtube.com/v/ppPiObBYbtE&fs=1&source=uds&autoplay=1 )

Write 1-2 paragraphs and post your opinion as an entry here on the blog. Express a clear opinion: make sure you know what you want to say and say it clearly! Don't try to "sit on the fence" and not express any opinion at all. Knowing how to express what you think or believe is very helpful when you can give clear reasons as to why you think that way. In your blog entry, you need to use at least 3 opinion expressions and at least 2 facts to support your opinion.

Don't post your opinion until you feel you are completely ready. You will need to "Acceder/Sign in" in order to post on the blog, and create a "Nueva Entrada/New Entry". Once others have posted their opinions, feel free to comment on what they wrote, especially if you strongly agree or disagree with what they said.

This task is due before 23:59 on Monday 19th September. You will have some time to work on it in class before then.

Now go and have something to eat - and enjoy it! :)