Trying times abound for the Mexican national soccer team as they head into their World Cup qualifying game this Saturday on zero points after their humbling - although expected - 3-1 defeat to the United States last month left them at the bottom of the CONCACAF table.
For years 's passage to the World Cup has always been a shoo in. This time around, CONCACAF - the soccer sporting body that oversees North and
Central America
- decided to divide the qualifying round into four stages. , as with 11 other nationalities, were given a bye to the second round. At that early stage the competition was negligible for a side ranked 23 in the world. Mexico thrashed neighboring Belize 9-0 (on aggregate) and qualified for the third round with no real idea if they were playing well or badly - Belize are ranked 178 in the world to put things into perspective.
With a new manager at the helm of "El Tri" - as Team is affectionately known - many soccer pundits expected the side to cruise through the third round especially as many of its star players are based in
Europe
which boasts the best leagues in the world. Unfortunately, managed to just scrape through to the final round and only on a better goal difference.
Sven Goran Eriksson, who had been unveiled last year as the manager to turn the national side's fortunes, came under a torrent of abuse for his erratic selection policy. The Swede, who had previously coached the likes of England and Italian side Fiorentina, was criticized by the local media as just another foreigner who was here for the money - Mexico has the richest league in Central and Latin America and attracts many foreign players and coaches. Eriksson has insisted on including European-based players in his first XI despite the fact many of them don't play regularly for their clubs. With a string of poor results, critics are clamouring for him to field players that are performing well at club level. However, Eriksson confounded everyone last week by not including playmaker Antônio "Sinha" Naelson in his squad even though the player has been in exceptional form for
Toluca
who currently top the Mexican soccer division. His reasoning was that Naelson didn't fit in with the system he wanted the national team to play.
Meanwhile, former coach Javier Aguirre, who was fired from Spanish side Atletico
Madrid
in February, is the people's favorite to take over the reins from Eriksson if the Swede fails to score a win in Saturday's game. The Mexico Soccer Federation maintain they will stand by their man especially as Eriksson will be due a hefty compensation pay out should they release him before his contract expires but the idea of not qualifying for the World Cup - to be held in South Africa in 2010 - is unthinkable for a nation who have participated in 13 World Cup Finals and have hosted two.
Monterrey native Manuel Zogbi was chosen as one of 80 lucky finalists to participate in the YouTube Symphony Orchestra at the Carnegie Hall in New York on April 15. Zogbi is one of only two Mexicans to be selected for the competition after 3,000 musicians from 70 countries had uploaded their videos onto YouTube at the beginning of this year which judges - made from a panel including musicians from the London, Berlin and Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestras - whittled them down to 200 finalists who were then subjected to a vote by YouTube members to select the final 80.
An all expenses paid for trip to New York's famous Carnegie Hall awaits Zogbi after he impressed the panel of judges with his interpretation of "Eroica" by Tan Dun - who scored the Oscar-winning film "Crouching Tiger, Sleeping Dragon" - and Bach's Sonata No. 1 in G Minor.
"I hope being picked for the final will give me the opportunity to get more work," enthused Zogbi via phone from Saltillo, Coahuila, where he now lives.
Zogbi, who has shared the stage with artists such as Chuck Mangione, Raul Di Blasio and Henry Brun and has performed in countries as varied as Turkey, France, United States, Bulgaria, Romania and Greece, has never participated in a competition of this kind before. "This is a totally new experience for me," he said.
The violinist will be giving a concert this Friday entitled "Pimp My Vivaldi" and will feature the composer's much loved Four Seasons concertos but with a modern twist.
"I'm going to be performing Vivaldi's Four Seasons but as a contemporary version. There will be a string orchestra but also piano, bass, drums and percussion. It's a very modern interpretation." said Zogbi.
The other Mexican finalist, who hails from Xalapa, Veracruz, and who goes by the user name "Intinsamente", was chosen for his work with the viola.
The concert itself will be transmitted on YouTube on April 16 and will be conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas who leads the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra.
So far, YouTube has kept the winning finalists in the dark as to what music they will be performing in New York.
It’s little glimpses such as these that make life in Mexico a little more interesting and amusing than in the always-predictable US.
This is a mattress salesperson (on duty) getting a haircut by a woman who appears to be the cleaning lady inside of the still open store. Hilarious.
I have two instant reactions to this.
1. Good for him. There is no one coming in, he´s got a whole lot of nothing to do, so why not take advantage of the time to take care of a personal errand, like a haircut? He might also be double-employing the woman, which works to the benefit of them both. From this perspective, it makes sense.
2. On the other hand, it does not communicate strong customer service or reflect well on the store to have their employees getting haircuts while on duty. Perhaps he could be doing other work for the company during down-times. He could be a bad employee, or he could just be a bored employee with no other work to do. Based on my observations passing by this store several times a day, I think the guy is bored.
This photo is a reflection of the lack of work productivity (certainly not personal productivity) in Mexico, as well as the dearth of mentally stimulating jobs available. I’m leaning toward faulting the company for making this poor guy sit around the store for hours with no customers and no additional projects to work on. Why not have their sales clerks also do some accounting or inventory or cold calls or even write a newsletter? It might require more employee skills, but I’m sure they could invest a little in training.
In Mexico there are thousands of valets, guards and store tenders that spend the vast majority of their time standing around doing absolutely nothing. Perhaps these people like and seek-out these jobs. Or maybe those are the only jobs available. Personally, I cant imagine working at a job that would require me to stand still staring into space for hours. Aside from cultural differences in the workplace, there seems to be many more jobs in Mexico that require very little mental capacity of their employees. And being a positivist, I have to assume that not all these employees go seeking out specifically boring jobs.
All this leads me to ponder … Could the lack of motivation and organization in the country be due in part to the literal brain-freeze and dismotivation of the population forced to do mind-numbing jobs with low personal responsibility? Could the very act of giving someone a suitable role that recognizes their talents and challenges them to think and multi-task, actually increase their self-confidence and job satisfaction, thereby improving their productivity and accountability? Could the answer to Mexico’s struggle to get ahead be found in the simple act of greater personal empowerment? Or will chavos like this guy just continue getting haircuts while on-duty, no matter what other tasks they could or should be doing? Hmmm.
Amanda has lived and worked in Mexico City for over 2 years. She is an independent qualitative researcher, marketer, writer, trend-watcher and creater of inspiring ideas. Mexico is her addiction - the culture, language, food, craziness and passion make it all worth the traffic, pollution, and lack of urban planning. You might see her running on the streets of Condesa with a Golden Retreiver named Nena.
If you would like to read more postings by Amanda go to http://culturvista.wordpress.com/
