Bill, I have family and friends in one little corner of the planet that, if it isn't Third World, is maybe World 2.8 or so. One is a professional fotógrafo - when relatively poor people want a photo, they want a good one, not something run off on paper. Anybody at the level of luxury of considering a camera wants a camera, not some electronic widget. They don't have computers in anything like the way we do, it'll be well into the next century before they get even decent phone service. There's one little rip-off 'Escuela de Computadoras y de Inglés' in a town of 100,000 that is the centre for an area of maybe half a million people. They'll hook you up to a real slow connection to the internet for 26 pesos a minute, around 4 loonies, and then they count the time, not you.
It's another world, no way will they have the choices we do, and would likely take the real camera anyway - they're quite aware that it's done with silver, and it is México after all - silver has more significance than it does here. Many old-timers still have silver coins stashed away, they are fully aware of the relative value of metal and paper. |
