The Northern and the Southern hemispheres share the same time zones, but the calendar schedule is dictated by the Northern part. Does it bother the inhabitants of the Southern Hemisphere that the rhythm of life revolves around the Northern Hemisphere’s calendar dates? VideoAge‘s Water Cooler asked its South Cone contributor, Omar Méndez, who’s based in Buenos Aires, Argentina, if residents in his region, now experiencing a harsh and very cold winter, are bothered by the Northern Hemisphere’s dominance.
“The truth? No,” said Méndez. And why doesn’t it bother them? “The inhabitants of the South,” he retorted, “have become so accustomed to the impositions that come down from the North, that in their unconscious minds, they’re used to it.”
They don’t care if dates are imposed on them from above, he said. They accept it without thinking about it or even questioning it. It does not change their lives, nor does it bother them that their own calendar and its seasons are in the reverse order. Since time immemorial, the Northern Hemisphere has dictated the rhythm of the world.
More years of civilization. More history and cultures. More resources. Much more land and a larger number of inhabitants. Too many aspects differentiate one part of the planet from the other. The inhabitants of the South wake up to life looking to the North. After all, that is where superheroes come from. La Dolce Vita. The great stories. The great art. The great entertainment. (Also the bad entertainment.) The inhabitants of the South have grown up waiting for the best from the North. (Also the worst.)
The most famous fictional story is about Santa (Santa Claus, St. Nicholas), the legendary superhero bishop, wintry and charitable, born from a true story set in the Turkish city of Patara in the third century AD. With his red coat, exaggeratedly thick beard and plump waist, he faced the coldest temperatures, and became a Christmas myth, as well as an idol for the whole family. The character and his story found no borders in the North and crossed from the harsh polar winter of the North to the oven that is the summer of the South, without changing his clothes or the story. In the South it never mattered that the plot came from the other side of the world and that it had little to do with their traditions and the time in which it takes place. Each season, the winter Christmas legend of the North is replicated without a dent in the hot summer of the South. No one ever criticized or mocked the ridiculous attire and all the hibernal symbology unfolding during the hottest days of the year in the South.
The history of the audiovisual industry is an example of the imposition of calendars. Since the beginnings of the film and television entertainment the most awaited new productions were those coming from the North.
In the South, it never mattered where they came from, who got them first, or the reasons why they were presented at the most convenient season of the year for the Northern inhabitant. The residents of the South almost always got them in the opposite seasons. If they arrived at all. And they received them without complaint, expectantly, with the same level of interest as their peer in the hemisphere of origin. In the past, it took months, even years, for the entertainment from the North to reach the South. But the Southern population didn’t care. With technological progress and improved distribution, the time window narrowed to modern times. The advent of streaming, another sublime creation of the Great North (United States), has been decisive in bringing the hemispheric model into the South. The borders between the North and the South of the world have been blurred for entertainment. The classic prime time premiere seasons of U.S. broadcast television no longer set the pace in the North. And they have even changed seasons: the warmer months have seen the highest television ratings in recent years. Major productions debut at the same time on both sides of the planet. The audience, for the first time, is truly global.
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