UDLAP and the rest of the world

To live and study in one of the country's most expensive private universities has some strange side effects. The concentration of Chevrolets and other luxury sports cars is higher than in many places back in Germany. On the other hand the gap between Mexico's and Germany's GDP per capita is enormous: $9,747 vs. $41,514.

Nearly the half of the Mexican population lives in poverty, namely 46%. At the same time 20% of the richest households share 52.8% of the income. For the lowest 20% this number rushes down to 4.9%. Therefore it's not surprising that the country's Gini coefficient at disposable income, post taxes and transfers is the highest, that is showing highest inequality, on a global scale: 0.466, interestingly followed by United States with 0.380 (Germany: 0.286, Japan: 0.336).

So, on the one hand we have the pink fresa world. Fresa literally means strawberry, but in Mexico it's used for snobs. For example yesterday the millionaires' children had some fun on one of the abundant campus fiestas.

The "Aztec" on the very right is our mascot, as our baseball team's name is "Las Aztecas" (Source: UDLAP)

(Source: UDLAP)

(Source: UDLAP)

(Source: UDLAP)

Daily students' life sometimes equals to daily graduation party here...

On the other hand there's the real world.

My roomie recently asked me if I knew the Galletas Marías (Marie biscuits). Yet pretty plain, they are considered to be a staple in the Mexican diet. The name refers to the type of biscuit, rather than a certain brand, but the by far most famous is Gamesa (PepsiCo):

Gamesa's Galletas Marías (Source: Mexican Business Web)

 Of course I wanted to know more about something which is considered a "typical" aspect of contemporary Mexican culture. So I found this touching story:

"I have a Mexican friend whose name is Alejandro. He is a "velador" or gatekeeper for a local company and his wages aren't very high.

He and his wife have four grammar school age children and he tells me that on school days each child gets twelve Gamesa María cookies and a glass of milk for breakfast. That is about 330 calories per child.

There are 40 cookies in each package and he buys six packages per week which makes 240 individual cookies or twelve per child per school day. They cost 4.5 pesos per package which makes a total of 27 pesos [editor's note: 1.5€]. The milk costs 11.5 pesos per liter and he needs five liters to go with the Marias which makes the milk total 57.5 pesos [editor's note: 3.2€].

The total cost of the Marias and the milk together is 84.5 pesos [editor's note: 4.79€] which for him is pretty expensive but still the most economical way to go when you realize that this is about ten percent of the family's weekly income.

What about on the days when the kids don't go to school? What do they eat for breakfast? They get one slice of Bimbo or Wonder white bread and a glass of milk." (Source: Mexico Bob)

 I think I have to reconsider my definition of "everything's so cheap here"...

Sources:

CONEVAL - Consejo Nacional de Evaluación de la Política de Desarrollo Social. Medición de la Pobreza 2012. Mexico, 2012. http://www.coneval.gob.mx/Medicion/Paginas/Medici%C3%B3n/Pobreza%202012/Anexo-estad%C3%ADstico-pobreza-2012.aspx.

„Gamesa meterá al horno 100 mdd - Mexican Business Web“. Zugegriffen 12. Oktober 2013. http://www.mexicanbusinessweb.mx/sectores-productivos-de-mexico/sectorproductivoindustrial/gamesa-metera-al-horno-100-mdd/.

„Income share held by highest 20% | Data | Table“. Zugegriffen 12. Oktober 2013. http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SI.DST.05TH.20/countries.

„Income share held by lowest 20% | Data | Table“. Zugegriffen 12. Oktober 2013. http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SI.DST.FRST.20/countries.

Mexico Bob. „Galletas Marías“, 27. Juli 2008. http://mexicobob.blogspot.de/2008/07/galletas-maras.html.

OECD. „OECD Social and Welfare Statistics  - Income Distribution“, 2013. http://stats.oecd.org/BrandedView.aspx?oecd_bv_id=socwel-data-en&doi=data-00654-en.

The World Bank. „GDP per capita (current US$) | Data | Table“, 2013. http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD.