Mexican tidbits
Two signs of relative lack of civilization in Mexico. First, there are lots of security officers, public or private, everywhere; they are a symptoms of a high crime rate. Streets are much dirtier than in Boston; unhappily, I cannot vouch for Paris being better these days.
The mexican political leaders have always been the minority of mainly spanish ascent, which makes it all the more interesting that they resurrected the cult of old Aztec emperors as emblems of the Nation. As if indians were happier enslaved by the Aztecs than by the Spanish. Sad national identity. Not that you can ever build a positive identity by looking into the past for reasons of pride. Pride can only be a positive attitude when forward looking into future achievements.
In the metro, advertisement is rare, and half of it is government propaganda. That felt oh so very wrong. I'm told the same about a lot of the radio broadcasts. Taxpayers paying through the nose for services most of them (particularly the poorest) don't use, and the service-users being additionally brainwashed into worshipping the plunderous institutions -- oppression surely hasn't stopped because of a change in regime. As a positive side-effect, rich tourists like me are beneficiaries of these subsidies. Happily, the streets have all the normal advertising of the modern world. Mexico is still civilized, despite government.