Colombian Extension Ladder

Resourceful.

If it was me...I'd put the step ladder on the bottom...that's just me.

A neat description of Latin America.

I grew up in Argentina and having lived in the United States I often wonder: Latin Americans are the most marvelous people. What is it about their temperament that holds them back from success and an equal footing in the modern world?
Or am I chauvinistic?

Not a question of temperament, but of societal construction, panzade (I also thought it was more logical to put the step ladder on the bottom; but, who knows, perhaps the wooden ladder fits better in the fence, and is certainly easier to grab by the people who are holding it).

I'm listening...societal construction? The Church? The bribe? what is it? And why isn't temperament important?

I like the ladder at the top, myself. You've got more to tie to.

I think the Latin resourcefulness comes from really high import duties. Before NAFTA, and maybe still, imports were screaming out of sight. Necessity was the mother of creativity.

1. The Spanish colonies were over-regulated societies, with many medieval traits, such as castes, guilds and different laws for different types of people. This lead to societies with a strong social differentiation and inequality, in the regions that are now Mexico, Central America, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia.
The Caribbean, and Brazil was built on slave labor, which brings some similar problems and others yet.
Argentina, Uruguay and most of Chile were settlers societies, which naturally led to a higher level of development, comparable to Europe's until the early XX Century.

2. The Catholic tradition was the key in the formation of most of these societies, since their inception. One must notice that early Protestantism and the struggle for democracy came together in Northern Europe, and that democracy was often anticlerical in Southern Europe, since the Catholic church has always been quite authoritarian.
There is a communal participation tradition in most Amerindian cultures, but social participation has seldom been deep in the Spanish influenced cultures, where family reigns.

3. Little social participation, high social unequality, church influence and, in some countries, racial difference, led in most places to political phenomena such as "caudillismo ilustrado", best depicted in García Marquez' "The General in His Labyrinth": the illustrated autocrat who does what he considers best for his country and torpedoes institutions. From Juan Miguel de Rosas and Santa Anna in the XIX Century, to Porfirio Díaz, Getulio Vargas, Juan Perón, Fidel Castro and Alberto Fujimori in the XX Century, to Hugo Chávez today. Almost inevitably, contradictions make those projects of grandeur brake into pieces.
Of course, corruption is rampant when democracy is absent and civil society is not vigil.

4. (skipping a few passages) What you get, at the end, are societies that gather little social solidarity at their roots.
Typically you have:
An upper class unwilling to lose privileges (sometimes, also political privileges and the capacity to twist the law at their favor).
A middle and working class -both urban and rural- that carry most of the burden of modernization, and do use the social services.
An underclass who is undereducated, unskilled, has little productivity, and expects to receive everything from the State.
All with slow legal systems, corruption (going down in most places, but still there) and menaces to the State, such as drug trafficking and other types of criminal associations.
As the middle and upper class have grown, democracy has installed itself in most of the region, laws are being upheld more often than not and corruption is less evident. All this leads to better overall performance. IMHO, the prospects for prosperity are rather good.


See what a ladder can do!

A ladder may be a tool for social ascension!!

Well put guys...thanks for a lucid interpretation

It's the beans, man, all the damn beans.

The world-wise Ugly American...exhibit "A"...lol

Oh for chrissake pan, it's a joke. Lighten up (or even better, let one rip and light it up).

repeat after me up-tight right wing gun nut...
Laughing Out Loud=LoL

I'm still joking with ya'.

Francis, I think you're reaching a bit.

The reason the step ladder is on top is because it's bottom part it embeds better with the ladder than the other way around.

As fbaezer said, the picture accurately describes Latin America's ways of living.

Is it true Columbian women are one of the most beautiful on this planet?

That's "Colombian" and YES!