TerraX At 3 Months: From Rhode Island to Mexico
Today Terra Extraneus passes its three-month milestone. We have had 2,247 visitors to our blog, including more than 700 during the last 30 days. Readers have visited from 45 countries and 41 U.S. states. We are averaging 25 or so readers a day, which is down a bit from last month, when several factors contributed to elevated traffic during our second month in the blogosphere (see “Two Months and 1,543 Readers Later”).
Last month I listed 10 states that had not yet visited our blog. One Rhode Islander has since found his or her way to TerraX, reducing the number of truant states to 9: Alaska, Delaware, Maine, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, South Carolina, Vermont, and Wyoming. We can only hope Internet service eventually finds its way to those remote areas.
Traffic continues to come to TerraX for all sorts of reasons. Perhaps the single biggest traffic generator during the past month has been our articles on Christian fundamentalism. There seems to be a lot of interest on that topic, and many people have found their way here by searching on “Christian + fundamentalist” and “Christian + fundamentalism.”
One reader visited TerraX from Beijing, China, by searching “Terry Hull + Enid.” Who in Beijing knows me by name and knows my hometown? Actually, I know the answer to that question. One of these days I will tell you about one of the most remarkable people I have ever known, David Moser. (David, if you see this, I would enjoy hearing from you.)
¡BIENVENIDOS A MEJICO!
I was especially pleased when TerraX had a visitor a couple of weeks ago from Mexico City. Isn’t it amazing that during our first two months we had more than 1,500 visitors from all over the world, including 15 Asian and 5 African nations, but never a single visitor from our neighboring country down south?
I have done some traveling in Mexico. The culture and technology there runs about 50 years behind what we are accustomed to here in the U.S. That has its positive side. People tend to move at a slower, healthier pace. With fewer electronic means of entertainment (fewer TV stations, movie theaters, DVD players, etc.), people in Mexico seem friendlier and more hospitable. In the early evening in a small Mexican town, you are likely to find people on their porches and front lawns, neighbors visiting, children playing in the streets, like something you might have found in the United States 50 years ago, before suburbia and the glut of personal entertainment devices led us into the Cocoon Age.
However, the downside is that Mexico is behind the times economically. Desperate poverty is widespread, and the ordinary lifestyle in Mexico would be considered way below the poverty line by U.S. standards. According to the World Bank, one half of Mexican people live in poverty (having less than the minimum food and other necessities) and one-fifth live in extreme poverty. They are our neighbors, a word which should have special significance to followers of Christ. Only 16% of Mexico’s 106 million people have Internet access, compared to 68% in the United States.
By the way, what brought our Mexico City visitor to Terra Extraneus? He found us by doing a search on Jimmy Carter’s recent book, Endangered Values, which brought him to my review of that book.
