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Monday, July 20, 2009

Happy International Friendship Day


Today is 'Día del Amigo,' or International Friendship Day, celebrated mostly in Argentina, Uruguay, and Chile even though it was the July 20, 1969 manned lunar landing that inspired it.

It was an Argentine teacher, Enrique Febbraro, who campaigned to make the date an international holiday dedicated to friendship, reasoning that on this day the whole world had been friends of three Apollo 11 astronauts...

I think it's a lovely, lovely idea and wish it would catch on internationally. I never forget to send best wishes to my close friends down in the Rio de la Plata region...

This friendship poster features friendly hand holding 'mate,' (pronounced 'mah-tay') the bitter green tea so popular in Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Southern Brazil. It's typically sipped through a silvery metal straw. You keep adding more hot water and sugar and sucking it out of the bitter mate leaves...

What a message it would send if the US adopted this even as a working holiday.. We claim to be a world leader, but a leader must know when to follow, and a relationship must be a two-way street. I wish Americans were more receptive to the idea that the rest of the world might have some things to teach us... We're fine when it's eating something, like sushi or satay, but will we ever be mature enough to change our measurements to match the rest of the world (and the scientific community)? It's something to think about....

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