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10/29/2006 Entry: "Book-reading an unpopular activity in Mexico"
Doing my daily world news review I found this worrying result from a freshly published CONACULTA study: Mexicans read on average 2.9 books per year. Two thirds of the respondents mentioned that they do not read more because of lack of time. Yet I haven't seen anyone in Mexico complaining that time was too scarce to watch TV or go party with friends! This is a poor excuse that fails to explain the facts.
However, compared to other fellow Latin American countries, Mexico's results are actually quite good: Brazilians read on average 1.8 books per year and Colombians fare barely better with only 2.4 books per year. Why such a low popularity index for such an important cultural activity as reading books?
Is there a connection with literacy rates? According to the UNESCO, in 2004 9.7% of the Mexican adult population was illiterate. On a global scale this compares quite favorably with most countries, even European nations like Greece that lags at 9% literacy amongst adults.
Perhaps reading is an acquired taste? We can witness a better correlation between the gross enrollment rate (GER) in tertiary education and national reading habits. Mexico's GER is 18.3% while France's is 51.4%. This may account for the fact that the French read 7 books per year, more than twice as many as in Mexico.
The apparently benign statistic published by CONACULTA is a symptom of Mexico's and Latin America's inadequate (for this information age) educational system and developing economy. Kids do not get an opportunity to enter the higher education and adults are too exhausted by their daily struggle in life to take up reading. Books shouldn't be reserved to an elite, they are the foundation of human knowledge and progress since history began. Mexico must read more!
Replies: 2 comments
How would you catalog a colombian PhD student in the US reading an average of 12 books per year? Appart from that I guess I have read 2 books for pure pleasure, if you call studying not being pleasurable.
Posted by J @ 11/05/2006 07:51 AM MEX
Serge, it's good to have you back after a long absence!
Good posts, like always. I think you are right, Mexicans are for the most part preoccupied by making ends meet and their day-to-day struggles to think of reading books. The Mexico City Metro had a book loan program a couple of years ago where passengers could borrow books before getting on the train, read while on the train and then return the book when done. This was based on the "honor system" and seemed like a great idea. Like everything in Mexico, when you stop hearing news about something it probably means it ended.
It's hard to believe for people who live in Mexico, but even with all its problrms the country is transitioning out of underdevelopment. Mexico is now officially considered a "developed country" Not yet "First World" (though not "Third World" anymore) but rather an in-between category called NIC "Newly Industrialized Country". Also, the country has successfully issued pesos denominated 30 year bonds and the country is a member of the OCDE, the group of the 30 richest and industrialized countried of the world. Millions have new and dignified housing every year and poverty is on the decline (although that needs to accelerate). If Calderon does things right we might see the positive macro effects start to trickle down to peoples' pockets, and then we might begin to see a rising interest in reading, and other activities.
Posted by L'Ombre d'une vague @ 10/31/2006 04:43 AM MEX
