May 1

A Change of Phrase

Listening to the BBC this morning, I think I misheard a word, and it got me thinking. The reporter referred to “overdeveloped” countries, a phrase that I don’t think is ever used. Its opposite, underdeveloped countries (or sometimes “developing”), has now replaced “third world” as the acceptable way to refer to countries such as Paraguay. Sometimes I cringe when I’m giving my spiel of what Peace Corps is, when I get to the part about how the US gov’t sends volunteers to developing countries around the world. I don’t want it to seem like an insult or a way of pointing out that Paraguay is less in any way, or that there is something to be embarrassed about. You’re needy, so I’m here – not the message I’d like to give.

What if we did use the opposite phrase – “the US is an overdeveloped country.” Maybe it’s true, a place with so much wealth and a strong economy and democratic institutions so stable we take them for granted. The difference I guess is what you’d consider the standard – what does it mean to be developed? Does every place where people use latrines automatically become undeveloped? Are places in the US underdeveloped because they don’t have a Starbucks on every corner?

Holidays

With some Paraguayan friends we counted up the number of feriados, or national holidays, that exist in Paraguay. Beginning with today, Labor Day, we counted more than a dozen examples of holidays celebrated here – Mothers Day, Independence Day, Victory of Boqueron Day, Veterans of the Chaco War Day, Founding of Asuncion Day, Kids Day, Youth Day, Fathers Day, Teachers Day, plus the Days of the Patron Saints of every neighborhood. (Plus rain days, and the day each month when workers need to travel to the city to go to the bank and get paid.)

I could only name a handful of national holidays in the US, days when schools and banks and such close – Presidents Day, Martin Luther King Day I think is state-by-state, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Veterans Day and Thanksgiving. In the US are we so stuffy that we won’t even take a day off to celebrate and relax? Or is it that in Paraguay (like in Honduras and maybe most of Latin America) they’ll take any excuse to not work?