OK I'll give it a try, using a poll that lists the least likely countries for people to have visited.
South America - Where no Urbanite has gone
- Thread starter toblerone3
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OK I'll give it a try, using a poll that lists the least likely countries for people to have visited.
Aye. I'll do Europe too.
Done everywhere now. Should be interesting. I bet Africa is easily the least-visited.
Orang Utan
Psychick Worrier Ov Geyoor
What's it like?
Col_Buendia
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Bugger, I thought before I got to the end of the thread that I'd be able to claim the Urban glory of Paraguay. At least I'm here in person to report back (from a brief visit in 2001) that my lasting impression of the place was that it is a shit hole. We arrived from Iguazu Falls, and the entry point of Ciudad del Este makes Splott Market look like a bastion of intellectual property rights, lol. Pirate heaven.
Bus continued on to Asuncion, which just felt like a South American twilight zone... in the same continent, looked vaguely similar to other S.Am countries/cities, people of a perceptibly similar racial mixture, but the whole place added up to a really weird vibe that made me think that it was *on* South America, but was a different place.
Ireland were playing Holland in some World Cup match iirc, and I ended up in a large shopping centre where I persuaded the staff to change the enormous TV screen to the football. I happened to be wearing an orange t-shirt, but went into great shouts of delight when Ireland scored. I think the locals came to the same dismissive conclusion about me ("confused Dutchman celebrating opponent's goal"?) as I had come to about their country.
Oh, and the peasants were staging a tent village (how ahead of the #Occupy times were those crazzeeee Paraguayan peasants) outside the presedential palace. The degree of police force visible, just waiting in the sun for an excuse to kick it off, was (even by L.Am standards) quite striking. Like Stroessner had never left. Well, dictators leave or die, but their legacy lives on strong, eh?
Currently living in Colombia, but that seems to be a popular destination these days
Passing Urbanites welcome en mi casa!
toblerone3
Grrrrr
Col_Buendia
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The lyrics are here: http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/l/los_tucanes_de_tijuana/mis_tres_animales.html
At least, I'm assuming they're accurate, I've not compared to the video clip. I'm not an expert on Mexican slang, but the song title is "My Three Animals", and I'd say judging by the lyrics it's a safe bet the animals are a metaphor for the drugs exported from Mexico to the US. The lyrics are hilarious, if you ignore the unmentioned cultural context of burnt out casinos and publicly exhibited corpses of critical bloggers. But the drug war is always better fought on the streets of foreign countries, rather than the streets of the US where the fucken stuff is consumed.
Anyway, in the lyrics he says he has 3 animals, a budgie (perico), a rooster (gallo) and a female goat (chiva). Like I said, I don't know about Mexico, but in Colombia perico also refers to coke, so it's a safe bet that the other two refer to other types of drugs. I'd be keen to hear what Dr. Dwyer has to add!
The song celebrates the income the singer gains from selling his three animals abroad (California, Nevada, Texas, Arizona, Chicago), and laughs at the fact that the government search for him high and low - even beneath the sea. You might have seen recent news reports about the various discoveries of small submarines that the drugs cartels have been building to get their product to the US market. One was discovered a good few years ago not far from Bogota - the mad thing about that is that they were building the bloody thing a good 20hrs drive from either coast, Pacific or Atlantic! And nearly 3km up in the Andes. Not perhaps the best place to construct a submarine from pirated Russian plans, eh?
Col_Buendia
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No, chiva (goat) is smack.
You pretty much nailed it, they're probably the most famous narcocorridos in Mexico. The song celebrates their 'gangsta' lifestyle, adding an attempt at moral rationalization: "Some say that my animals bring great harm to people...but there is no obligation... if you can't fight a bull, don't try."
Sweet FA
✪ Three rounds Lord, in my .44 ✪
Yeah, I think you're right actually. I might've mixed it up with chiba.
Col_Buendia
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If chiva is smack, what is "gallo"? In Colombia, I've just learnt, gallo refers to the female genitalia, given the, err, remarkable similarity between a rooster's crest/comb and the clitoris. (You've really got to wonder if any Colombian blokes have had a good look at the vag
)
Col_Buendia
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Not according to the Beeb - story about the Tigres del Norte beng banned after playing a prohibited song!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-17345549
They played my in-laws' town during the Xmas festivals in Colombia, and apparently the army was drafted in for concert security cos these guys bring out the most fractious elements of the underworld
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