Hilda (Mañanita) Ochoa

Primary Colors

2009-06-23T06:30:00.000-07:00

Political scientists, trained to think in buckets and building intellectual scaffoldings, lose their compass when political processes do not fit perfectly in the buckets that have been useful in the creation of theories that explain the past.

I remember when sets with paint brushes, water colors and drawings with numbered grids became popular. It was suddenly possible to paint by numbers. I received a colorful and splendorous macaw as a gift. I spent days coloring it carefully, making sure to stay within the lines. The result was no work of art, but the process was fun and the toy continues to sell well. None of them is a Picasso, but many could resemble one.

Something similar to painting by numbers occurs when we try to grid the political processes and their dynamics under the rubric of democracy, dictatorship, capitalism, socialism, communism or mercantilism. The labels lose significance when we do not understand how governments and societies combine the primary colors of political organization. In order to understand if a political system is participatory and progressive or repressive and destructive, and other permutations of these four factors in the political spectrum of a society, it is useful to indentify the “primary colors” with which the social reality of a country is painted. Societies and processes that are constructive, participatory and dynamic produce “works of art” that inspire and uplift the citizenry, even if not everyone likes them. When the primary colors do not combine, the end result is a destructive dynamic.

The “primary colors” of constructive political processes are: Freedom of expression (speech and conscience); connectedness, or the opportunity to connect with leaders and everyone else; and constructive recognition and feedback. Freedom of expression is achieved through training and specialization. Social connectivity with my co-citizens and leaders is developed through the growth of mutual respect. Constructive recognition and feedback is achieved through evaluation and reporting systems that we understand and to which we can respond in order to get “good grades.” Freedom, connectivity and recognition are the yellow, blue and red of political growth.

If a government is able to utilize at least two of the three primary colors, the political system will last, even if the economy fails. If a government uses only one or less of the “primary colors” to paint society, the political system will collapse even if the economy is relatively stable. Of course a growing economy allows us to forget the colors for a while, but not indefinitely. Two examples are helpful in the analysis. Cuba has grown poorer over the last 50 years and the political system has lived on. Beside military repression, the Cuban regime has used two primary colors to satisfy the political needs of its inhabitants: connectivity and constructive recognition and feedback. It has not allowed freedom of expression. Those Cubans unhappy with the lack of liberties exiled themselves. Venezuela has gone through extreme economic cycles and there are many more in the future, considering the dependence on the State and oil, and the regime of President Chavéz has survived the economic highs and lows, because the system has used two primary colors: freedom of expression (open to more than 50% of the population and closed to the vocal opposition) and connectivity. It has not given its citizens constructive recognition and feedback. To the contrary, it entices its citizens to behave destructively, critical of one another and loaded with mistrust in all. The Soviet Union fell because it stopped painting with any of the three colors. It survived for many years, just like Cuba, thanks to connectivity and constructive recognition and feedback, but those two colors were lost when the leaders aged and stopped expressing empathy and constructive recognition to their citizens. If freedom of expression disappears in Venezuela and is not replaced by constructive recognition, the only way of maintaining the regime will be through military repression, particularly in the face of an economic crisis.

In order to organize the political systems of countries it is more important to recognize and utilize the primary colors than political and economic memos.

God is a Dilettante

2009-06-03T07:13:00.000-07:00

As all youngsters exposed to religious teachings, I was profoundly impressed by divine powers. God has infinite abilities. By comparison, we are limited but aspire to attain the reach of Gods. Yesterday, while having breakfast with a good friend, we discussed the problems facing the Obama administration, his successes in national and international relations, and the challenges of aggrandizing the tentacles of government, which begin with virtuous promises and end up strangling growth.
While analyzing strategies to improve public health systems and the difficulty in maintaining high rates of innovation vis-à-vis corporate growth and stability, my friend and I discovered something very simple and revealingly tragic. God Almighty is a dilettante, as are many other public and corporate leaders. That is why the world faces such surprising and destructive events. If God had chosen to specialize, humans, especially those that aspire to be gods, would have also chosen to specialize and everything would work much better!

Governments should specialize in covering epidemic risks, defending their tribes from unexpected attacks by destructive troops, and making sure laws are obeyed. Governments do not know how to manage companies, save banks, produce steel or electricity, let alone develop high-tech companies. I won’t even get into whether governments should handle education, since that is a lost battle even in the most advanced countries; but wonder why education is the industry with the lowest growth in productivity in the last one hundred years?

Our breakfast discussion focused on the mounting costs of health care in the U.S., and probably everywhere. Medicine and the efficient administration of public health, also lend themselves to the benefits of specialization. Doctors should not pretend to be more than high level supervisors of pharmacological or surgical intervention processes. Surgeries and the greater share of health care delivery should be, metaphorically, in the hands of midwives. In Venezuela health care worked better when pharmacists recommended prescriptions, even if restricted, in order to cure well known diseases. Technical experts that specialize in repeated surgeries and cures do a better job than great doctors whose responsibilities are split between handling patients, keeping up with advances and managing their practices. Most medicine, except for rare diseases which require creative cures, should be left to the carpenters, electricians and plumbers of medicine. Literally, technicians without a medical degree that focus on routine operations and cures, and do it well, are better than doctors that are not equally specialized and are more interested in becoming Gods or even bullfighters. Countries, such as Cuba, China, Russia, Canada and others in Europe, that have separated routine surgeries from more sophisticated, imaginative, scientific and creative processes, show high success rates in routine treatments and lower mortality rates in basic surgeries, carried out by technicians without a Doctor’s degree (maybe a health technician accreditation). That is why it is better to not have generals acting as police officers or running countries.

Those who believe they can do it all because they count on divine or mythological powers, end up doing it all poorly. If God was not a dilettante he would have eliminated telluric phenomena. But since God wants to be in the business of getting boyfriends, winning lotteries or finding lost keys, s/he does not have time to specialize in the more important problems that humans can’t really solve. The key to a better world is pushed-down, widespread specialization and not dilettantism. Dilettantes should be circumscribed to aimless children of the rich that scatter their wealth as quickly as possible. Even the most creative and capable need to learn how to specialize. Creative people must not try to control all that surrounds them, they should leave that task to specialized managers. It is no accident that the Catholic Church has promoted so many saints. I am sure that the Church’s intention is to help God focus on the more important aspects of human destiny and let the saints take care of everyday miracles.

As you can tell these notes are not about the dilemma of the existence of God or the usefulness of saints, which is indubitable. These notes are about the importance of developing technical training schools, not only for carpenters, plumbers, electricians and beauticians, but for medicine, construction engineering, education, public service and many more, to increase the productivity and integrity of these services. If our public servants obtained diplomas certifying their technical knowledge and ethics, it would be more difficult for them to become opportunistic and corrupt for they would risk losing their professional accreditation and, more importantly, the pride of being a specialist in the field. Professional pride and specialization go hand in hand. Dilettantism is psychological consumerism with low social productivity.

The Liturgy of Life

2009-05-12T07:34:00.001-07:00

In a month I am to give a speech in honor of Philip Glass. Philip Glass is a contemporary composer famous for many reasons. A great pianist trained in Julliard and by Nadia Boulanger, the extraordinary goddess of the keys; a brilliant and unforgettable composer who will go on to posterity as an everyday Mozart or Beethoven; sweeper of concessionary garbage in the composition of feature films such as Kundun, the Illusionist and the Hours, and the artist behind operas such as Einstein on the Beach and Monsters of Grace.

Because I want to praise his work in a way that does justice to his creativity, talent, and humanity, I have entered the world of his music and his life as a joyful Voyeur. Philip Glass does not like experiences or life to begin and end. He wants to live and create eternally. Like Gregorian chants, his perception of life is a form of mundane liturgy. The mundane and the divine are combined in the alienating, hallucinating and precocious repetition of what remains and acquires the meaning we give it. Living life liturgically is the most elegant, generous and engaged way of living it.

Like a tree that extends from the sky to the earth possessed with light and oxygen, and full of infinite seeds, his work, like his life, is full of light, shadow, wind, profound anguish, discoveries and surprises. Storms and calms are the same if we allow ourselves to see their beauty and cruelty. There are no lessons in life or in his work, but there is a shared experience with those we touch and those who touch us. There is extraordinary discipline, noble work as a way of creating a fleeting and lasting connection with time, space and the love that transcends space and time. What a pleasure to share life with his sound, his honesty and his vitality, his sense of humor and his energy. I am charged with hope, even for Venezuela, that distresses me when I do not inhabit Philip Glass’ world.

The liturgy of life in Venezuela does not go on like a Gregorian chant. It goes on more as a mix of Rap, Hip-hop, bolero, and out of tune rumba. What is more, life in Venezuela in no way resembles a liturgy. Nothing is predictable except for the chaos, and because of this chaotic days surprise us with miracles. The liturgy in Venezuela is not baroque or renaissance, but it has miraculous moments of order, virtue and excellence, that appear unexpectedly and give us hope. The country of miracles develops from fright to fright, from bankruptcy to bankruptcy. Mills, dams and factories are built and in time they turn into tin. Highways and bridges are rebuilt centuries after hope has been lost. We are lucky we are not an African desert, but instead a biological and ecological diversity alive with contrasts. If we had been an African desert, we would have been burnt by the sun and our ashes carried away by the wind a long time ago. How lucky we are! We have the luck of lottery winners: rich from one day to another, then poor for the rest of our lives.

The liturgy of our lives is certainly not Gregorian and Philip Glass would have lost his monotonous and adventurous rhythm in the compact and never ending traffic of Caracas.

Indifference

2009-04-28T11:17:00.000-07:00

Love is not the opposite of hate. Both feelings emerge from the same yearning: the ambition of sharing. In love’s case there is the hope of reciprocity. With hate, hope is lost in the perception of rejection. The opposite of love and hate is indifference. Indifference is the forced and successful separation from that which threatens us. Indifference is a powerful and destructive weapon. We grow when we lay bridges that connect us. When we lift these bridges in an effort to protect psychological borders we run the risk of alienation. A temporary alienation is desirable in situations when we need to protect ourselves psychologically from outside attacks. In those cases, lifting the bridges, as in a medieval castle, allows us to temporarily survive the attack. Moments of introspection allow us to anchor ourselves in creative and noble idiosyncrasies. Permanent alienation turns us inhuman. Leaders and criminals assault their communities and fellow people motivated by continuous waves of alienation. Alone and without any type of lasting emotional connections, many of us survive through opportunism and abuse. But alienation ends up killing our souls. People without souls end up cannibalizing their most enduring values and shorten their physical, economic and spiritual life expectancies.

All of this looks like a flood of vagabond words, but it is more than that. In countries where opportunism and abuse reign supreme, human beings search for the lair of indifference in a bid to survive. In countries where respect and rule of law reign, people can open up to the idea of depending more on self- and group-improvement. People with souls create networks that allow for personal and collective improvement because they have protective nets for qualities that transcend the cruelties of the moment.

It is hard to understand how in Hitler’s Germany a couple of guards could abuse hundreds or thousands of unarmed Jews. The victims of Nazi repression had lost the capacity of emotionally responding to the abuse. What happened in ‘30s and ‘40s Germany has also occurred in many other countries, and is increasingly occurring in Latin America, with the rise in governments with dictatorial tendencies that abuse economic, security and political power. The cost for these nations and the continent is high. There will be lost generations that have lived their only life in indifference as an instrument of survival.

But how does one overcome indifference when it has become the most immediate tool for survival? The answer does not lie in miraculous spontaneities. The only way to overcome states of indifference is with “deference.” Deference is the process by which we appreciate our rights, and we carry out the duties of respecting and developing our own personal qualities. We differentiate between good and evil without excessive shows of emotions. We adopt correct ways of acting and reject those deemed improper. We don’t play dumb when it is convenient and accept moral inaction when it is not convenient or when we do not feel like fighting harsh remarks. Deference occurs when we support those that make an ideal effort to rectify mistakes and we respect the rights of everyone, including those we do not personally admire.

Difference and indifference have something in common. Both states subtract emotionality as an instrument for survival. But in “deferent” states emotionality is subtracted in order to respect the rights of others. In “indifferent” states emotionality is subtracted in order to allow the abuse of someone else’s rights. Deference allows us to grow spiritually. Indifference leads to the death of the spirit and profound social violence.

Resurrection of Libya or Diversions of a Despot

2009-04-14T07:09:00.000-07:00

One of the most interesting and chameleonic leaders of contemporary politics is Muammar al-Gaddafi, revolutionary leader of Libya for the last 40 years. I am not, nor do I think of myself as, an expert on Gaddafi. I would rather develop other abilities. I observe Gaddafi from time to time, because he is great at reinventing himself and surprising us. He gives hope to those of us that are forced to withstand, at some point in time, the abuses of a tyrant.

Gaddafi was the leader of the first of OPEC’s arrogant challenges in the ‘70s, he protected terrorists over the years, trained revolutionaries, and threatened the world as much as he could from his poor but petro-powerful country. Gaddafi was a threat to world peace, until one day foreign planes bombarded his military bases and among the victims was one of his daughters and several of his colleagues. He was spared in the bombardment and I thought he would emerge from the experience even more bitter and resentful. It was not the case. Gaddafi disappeared from the public eye for a long time. Sometimes photos of him, looking tired and weary, would appear (I would have felt the same way, but dictators rebound from the punches like magic balls). However, he remained in power. A couple of years ago he put together a series of policies that seemed laudable, albeit a bit carried away by the imagination and dreams of economic grandeur. Libya would become a leader in technological education and would increase its industrial productivity. It sounded promising but a bit unrealistic given Libya’s history. But recently Gaddafi made a surprise announcement. He fired all members of his executive (I don’t think there is a Judicial or Legislative branch, per say, in Libya) for being corrupt. He has also stated that all oil revenues the country produces will be distributed directly to the people, since they are the real owners of the oil, which is true. It is an extreme and extremely sensible measure, assuming it is legitimate in its objective and not just a parody of power.

At a time when politicians around the world are lobbying for more intervention in the economy, justified by the failure of the global banking system and the possibility of a global economic recession, Gaddafi announces he is going in the opposite direction. He is going to leave the economic vote in the hands of the Libyan people. I’ll have to see it to believe it, but it is a valid idea. Increasing aggregate demand to bypass prospects of a global depression is quite sensitive if coupled with rule of law and other growth policies.

Maybe he won’t do anything and this is just his way of diverting the country’s attention, fighting political enemies and experimenting with other ways to communicate with his people. Who knows what problems Gaddafi and Libya face? In any case, the announcement gives some hope to the belief that good ideas can emerge from corrupt and incompetent systems. It give us hope that humanity and leaders that seem stuck from so many vantage points, sometimes, when they hit rock bottom, can come up with redeeming ideas.

History takes many unexpected turns, and that is why we should and should not believe in miracles. The only sustainable miracle is that of being alive and being able to contribute to the economic, spiritual and emotional growth of humanity. If we all pitch in, day in and day out, with work and morality, bravery and sensibility, put a stop to greed and our own pillaging, and signal a better path to our friends, little by little we will gain in economic and political democracy. That is the best and most lasting type of active resistance. Who knows what lies ahead for Gaddafi, but we can learn to respond to the daily and common attacks against our own dignity and responsibility with seriousness, dedication and determination to achieve the moral triumph of the community. If other leaders follow Gaddafi’s example and decide, without the help of vagabond intermediaries, to distribute the public purse, we should then be ready to take full advantage of those resources and invest in our future.

Where are the crickets?

2009-03-31T11:36:00.001-07:00

As I recall, the cricket from Pinocchio, Jiminy, is one of the most meaningful fairy tale characters. I’ll remind you that the fairy godmother sprinkles the marionette with some magic powders that allow him to start moving on his own, if haltingly, and become almost human. One of the aspects of his “humanity” is the ability to tell lies, some gratuitous and dumb, others politically or economically opportunistic. Jiminy Cricket, who plays the part of inmature Pinocchio’s “conscience”, cannot keep up with the responsibility and work generated by his pupil’s fickleness. But Jiminy stays alert, active and innovative in his message. In the end Pinocchio is sorry for his actions and is rewarded by his Godmother, who turns him into a real human (God help us! – but the story has a happy ending). Pinocchio, the human being, promises to be good, brave and generous.

Many of us have a cricket in our own consciences, but many of us gag or put ours to sleep in the purgatory of the millions of forgotten crickets. “When in Rome, do as the Romans” and that is how the decadence of the empire, the people, the family and the individual begins. The crickets of conscience are the most endangered species in societies that lose the sense of respect, the rhythm of intellectual nobility and the tenor of the state of grace. Societies flourish ecologically and economically when crickets are free to sing, sigh, and reproduce, proud of their work and success.

Happy endings never last, but they do permit a return to the right path with determination and a sense of achievable and reasonable goals. The world economic recession is a good juncture to save crickets that are either dormant or annihilated by the goddess of success. Yearnings for fortitude, integrity, work and generosity are lasting yearnings that are refreshed and regenerate themselves through the challenge of their own maintenance.

Let us wake up our internal crickets and begin a campaign to recruit external crickets. I have, among my good friends, three first class crickets. If I have doubts and am not willing to listen to my internal cricket, I can simply call up the three external crickets and listen to the quartet (because mine begins to sing clearly and instantly).

Where are the crickets? They are everywhere. Consciences are dormant, but they are never dead. We can start by waking our own. It is important to do so amidst so much confusion and appreciation for what we have lost. What we have lost in the revelry of liquidity and turbo-consumerism of recent years is not as important as what we can gain with calm, will and the help of Jiminy Cricket. Pinocchio is barely starting his life at the end of the story. He can’t imagine how hard life is, especially when we decide to ignore our conscience. Crickets blow the whistle and don’t sing when we ignore them. If we pay attention to Jiminy Cricket, his sounds are calming and far away songs. They remind us of the calm night in the Llanos, or walks through dark but fragrant gardens. They remind us of the infamy of childhood pastimes of trapping crickets in order to feel brave, without realizing that we are capturing something essential in our history: the ability to listen to the sounds of nature as whispers of a conscience at peace.

Unemployment

2009-03-17T08:14:00.000-07:00

In the last 20 years most of the world has enjoyed full employment. Both men and women; and in many places even the children had more than enough work. If one’s salary was not enough to cover the expenses of uncontrolled consumption, you took two jobs. If pay wasn’t good, one could switch countries, legally or illegally, in search of better economic opportunities.

In the last 20 years more than 20 million people entered the United States in search of better living conditions. Europe also saw its populations, decimated by old age and low birth rates, grow. Even in Latin America we witnessed work related population movements from one country to another like never before in history. For reasons more political than economic, but certainly motivated by the prospect of greater earnings, Venezuela imported 20% of its population in the last 10 years from countries like Cuba, Colombia, China and others. Al of this has ended for several years. Many of the immigrants are back in their native countries. It is preferable to be unemployed in one’s own country, surrounded by loved ones that can lend a helping hand, than in a place were you do not have many friends or family.

Work is something noble and strange. We work more out of duty than out of desire. But if we didn’t need it we would do it anyways. Need and wants are tightly intertwined when it come to work. We hate Mondays and love Fridays (unless we live in Islamic countries where the work week begins on Sunday). I still remember my first day at work. I was so proud of finding a good job as an economist. I arrived at work on the Monday right after the ’67 earthquake in Caracas. I wasn’t sure there would be any work, even though I had walked by the building of Luz Eléctrica de Venezuela on Sunday, to make sure it was still standing. There it was, safe and sound on Avenida Urdaneta. And I arrived punctually on Monday at 8:00 a.m. They gave me a flamboyant grey metal desk, a pile of accounts to work on and a training manual. Everybody was nice and sensible. I was proud and comfortable. In spite of this, I found myself looking at the clock in horror. It was ten in the morning and I still had eight hours before the end of the work day (from 8 to 12 and 2 to 6). I felt overwhelmed and surprised by the cruelty that 50 or more years of my life working in an office implied. I would never again have the freedom of riding my bicycle through the neighborhood or seeing and speaking to my friends between classes at the university. There was no longer time to dream of becoming a trapeze artist or a famous singer. Or of being a writer, poet or actress. My destiny now was to clear up accounts as an economist, even when I didn’t fully understand the need for all the bookkeeping. I was employed and have been lucky to remain that way for more than 40 years. Being employed adds value to weekends and vacations. It domesticates us. It connects us with other humans. Those we like and those we don’t. Most importantly, being employed gives us a salary and a measure of what we contribute to the country’s production, and allows us to maintain a family and dream of a better life. Employment makes us feel useful. Unemployment is corrosive. It makes us feel worthless, disposable. We lose the normal connections that guide our decisions. One can’t decide in a void, one can only make decisions between contrasts and preferences. To be content we have to have restrictions and the ability to overcome them. Employment gives us those restrictions and the tools to overcome them.

Work and family are the two motors that give us identity and impulse in our lives. Unemployment is like a divorce, a destructive and at the same time liberating turn in our lives. But unemployment is worse than a divorce. Once you have gotten over the loss of your life partner, one can begin a new life in search of new friends and partners. Unemployment leaves us without income, insecure, and increases the chance of destroying the family as well. This is a nail that does not take out another nail, instead it crucifies us. Despite how painful and destructive a period of unemployment can be, it can always lead to a reencounter and rediscovery of our real goals. We can do a lot and reinvent ourselves many times in our lifetime. To reinvent ourselves we need to undertake, with valor and tenacity, a period of reeducation, rehabilitation and rebalance of our faculties. The important thing is to stay active and concentrated. Employed or unemployed, tenacity, education and the ability to serve others makes us better. One of the most useful expressions I’ve heard is that if the glass is half empty or half full depends on whether you are filling the glass or drinking its content. If we keep “filling the glass”, there is real hope that we can reconnect, actively and effectively, with the world. If we only drink from the glass, sooner or later we will find it empty. Community services are always an opportunity for employment if we can’t think of or come up with another job. John Stuart Mills, the famous economist, said: “Those only are happy who have their minds fixed on some object other than their own happiness; on the happiness of others or the improvement of mankind, even on some art or pursuit, followed no as a means, but as itself an ideal end. Aiming thus at something else, they find happiness by the way.” Serving others is the most satisfactory mode of self employment, and there is little chance of being unemployed in that occupation.

Witch-Hunt: Battle at Kruger

2009-03-04T06:24:00.000-08:00

One of intelligent animals’ great abilities is that of organizing in order to benefit the group. Among the most watched videos on You Tube is an 8 minute clip called “Battle at Kruger.” The video shows a herd of water buffalos being attacked by a pride of lions, one of which manages to sink its teeth into a calf. When the calf’s life seems lost for sure in the jaws of the lion, a crocodile jumps out of the water and tries to wrestle the calf away from the lion. Poor calf! Surely it is doomed now, stuck between lions and crocodiles. Unexpectedly, the buffalo herd returns ready to claim the calf back. I will not tell you how it ends, so you will watch the video and learn an important human and civic lesson: Strength is in unity in the defense of freedom. Even though we have to fight lions and crocodiles, and the battle looks lost in the jaws of one or another, if the herd sticks together and support defensive tactics, freedom can be won strategically. But just like there are constructive and intelligent collective actions, there are also destructive collective acts. There are abundant examples throughout history of minorities entrenched in power exploiting the majority, or a comparatively advantaged majority exploiting a debilitated minority.

The so-called witch-hunts are one of the destructive results of the human race’s ability to organize itself in order to destroy a perceived common threat. The problem is that there are evil witches that like the lions in the video, deserve to be defied and exterminated, but there are also good witches, agents of change and innovation, that deserve none of that. Extermination groups can be used for good or evil. They are concentrations of the power of many to respond to the excessive power of a minority, or the grouping of few seeking to recover their voice. One thing we learn from the buffalos is that they are not dumb animals. They have an undoubtedly creative capacity to strategize and organize themselves. Interestingly, once they achieve their objective, they do not have criminal minds. Once they scare off the lions, they let them go, even though they could have exterminated them.

So many people are under the attack of hungry lions, and like the calf in the video, have few defenses outside the power of the herd. Unfortunately, the human herd does not always respond consistently to rescue a calf from the claws of a lion. Other times, it is the pride of lions that abuses the minority and gets away with it.

Either way, sooner or later, humans and animals arm themselves to hunt witches, good or evil. Unlike the noble buffalos, when we get together to hunt we usually end up destroying more than what we build, and in the process innocents end up paying for the sins of others. Some people have been, and continue to be, abused by shameless and powerful minorities. The moment will come when crocodiles or buffalos step up and defend the calves. We hope that in the process of witch hunting we do not destroy morality and nobility both at the individual and collective level. Chile achieved this; Argentina did for a while but later ended up losing it. Colombia has rebuilt, little by little and with persistence, all the losses accumulated over years of civil battles. That is something political leaders can achieve. The fundamental role of political leadership is motivating a society to achieve personal and collective success, rescue calves from lions, but without causing disaster and the destruction of institutions and lives. It is a task that requires intelligence, subtlety, humility, and determination. It is not a task for despots. Tyranny is not a useful form of leadership. Tyranny oppresses and destroys. The Battle at Kruger is the most simple and inspiring metaphor I have seen in a long time. Buffalos can teach us more than we could have ever imagined.

Echoes of Valentine’s Day: The Abused Woman Syndrome

2009-02-17T07:23:00.000-08:00

It seems like yesterday when we were celebrating Valentine’s Day 2008, and now it is around the corner again.

Valentine’s Day is a day to eat chocolates, think about future or past romances, and prepare for the lush spring in Northern countries. It is a day of long excitement and short joy. But it is also a day that leads us to think about all the friendships we should have undertook with more determination and all of those failed romances. Romances that began as many others: full of passion, dreams of accomplishments, and infinite possibilities through emotional leveraging and enabling. Romance is one of the great capabilities and examples of human creativity and imagination. We invent possible romances as creatively as we invent Gods. And those possibilities fill us with motivation towards excellence.

But what happens when the object of our imagination and love decides to take advantage of the sad dependency so commonly created, when instead of offering us support and encouragement, we confront deception and abuse? The abused woman syndrome, which impedes her from breaking free from the emotional hold of a destructive relationship, is not only shared by those women afraid of the alternative loneliness, if they dare to escape their torturer. Many countries and their inhabitants experience this syndrome. Many men also experience this syndrome.

In the last 100 years, countries like Germany, Iraq, the Soviet Union, China, Iran, Venezuela, Italy, Zimbabwe and Cuba have been clear cases of the abused woman syndrome. The narcissistic and abusive leader submits the community to all kinds of emotional, physical, economic and judicial tyranny. When he crosses the line and the community responds, the leader asks for forgiveness or tells them he loves them, and the community believes that if he does love them he will behave better and he must not be as evil, since he appears so devoted to the community’s future, and so full of passionate revolutionary promises. And even when we don’t believe his apologies, we still don’t believe that we deserve or can achieve a better captivity arrangement. Or even better yet, a live free of destructive deceptions and manipulations.

In all of these cases of abused women, men and communities, a situation of toxic co-dependency is created. The victim stops growing emotionally and intellectually, looses the capacity to differentiate between constructive alternatives and the freedom to act. Dreams of self-improvement are clouded by the permissive and abusive hand of the tyrant. In the end, either the victim dies, figuratively or in reality, or he rebels against the abuser. For individual, there are more possibilities of a real escape if the emotional captivity can be overcome. For communities, the probability of a collective escape is slim but possible, and requires a strong and decisive social will in order to resist the abuses and eventually break free from the tyranny.

To those abused women and communities that deserve a liberating Valentine’s Day, we should remember that destructive relationships do not improve with time. Quite the contrary. The abuser continues with the abuse and the victim becomes weaker everyday, unless the victim rebels and reclaims its honor and right to self-determination. In the community and one’s own personal integrity is where you can find the strongest support system and the real redeeming and liberating power of love. Let us celebrate this plethora of love and possibilities this Valentine’s Day!

Sweat and Modesty

2009-02-02T15:28:00.001-08:00

It could seem that our lives go by between a sweet and arduous monotony, except when passions increase our productivity and when the possible excesses force us into a modest retreat.

We go from being fierceful actors to modest audiences depending of the circumstances that hound us and the opportunities that present themselves. In politics, as in our professional and private lives, it is important to strike a balance between sweat and modesty. Hyperactive cultures, such as the Huns or Romans, end up getting into trouble. The excessively sweaty alpha males always end up in trouble. Extremely fiery love lives are unsustainable. Like fine cars, spirited passions, cause too much overheating and melted motors, because when we are in more of a hurry than other people, traffic jams and bottlenecks, end up debilitating us undeservingly.

On the other hand, if modesty is a virtue for fifteen year olds and old maids trying to create a sense of scarcity and promote the burning desires of he who cannot posses us, too much modesty causes dangerous problems like excess passion and sweat. As is the case in managing personal impulses, countries, and the people that inhabit them, need to develop personal conscience and institutional mechanisms in order to balance the two opposing and frictional forces.

Northern hemisphere countries, with more survival experience than those in the South, have understood the importance of balancing expansion and mediation forces. Many have adopted constitutions and political systems with division of powers. Companies, in spite of the abuses observed amongst many abusive and narcissistic managers, have directors and shareholders that eventually can take control and call for modesty in an effort to control excesses. Advanced political systems and mature institutions are by no means perfect, in part because the only way to evolve is by finding and correcting new abuses. Errors and correction allow us to improve our processes over time and fortify our rationality and competence.

In the South we tend to be a little more exaggerated in everything: hyperactive or hyperpasive. Either we sweat too much or we are too demure and modest. The Satiro or the Virgen are mistakenly idealized images of human behavior. Witches and saints are still entrenched in the fabric of society. To reconcile both tendencies, we believe in miracles.

If we observe ideal routines for personal and institutional longevity, an hour and a half a day of sweating is enough. The same goes for modesty, an hour and a half should be enough. Sweating includes exercise, acts of leadership and creativity, and vigorously loving activities. Modesty should include some 90 minutes of humility, generosity, meditation and empathy…if we add to that 8 hours of sleep, three for eating and one for transitions, that leaves us five hours of peaceful, dedicated and responsible work, without sweat or modesty.

Division of Power

2009-01-20T12:08:00.001-08:00

There is no leader in the world that does not leave something to be desired. It is fundamental that governments have a division of powers because of the fallibilities and vulnerabilities in the character of leaders and mere mortals. The Gods make even greater mistakes!

There are few situations where the concentration of power does not lead to the abuse of power. In the United States, where the division of power amongst the executive, the judicial and the legislative is reasonably balanced, there isn’t a president, congressman or judge that can rise with limitless power for too long without being denounced and brought down in the process. That is not the case in many Latin American and African countries. The presidents, congressmen and judges in our countries get rich, exact revenge on whomever they please and abuse their positions without being punished or limited by counterbalancing institutions.

Today, left or right wing political regimes no longer exist. What exists today are political regimes where there is a balance of power and regimes were the concentration of power in some individuals is out of control.

Jung, the great XX century thinker and psychiatrist describes in Psychoanalysis of History, how humans tend to abandon the responsibility of deciding their own destiny in exchange for getting closer to any leader that offers to ease their lives. That is why totalitarian leaders like Hitler and Mussolini emerge. In behavioral economics the phenomenon is known as the insider gain vs. the outsider loss. We tend to sell our soul to the devil, to be insiders. We are born with more fear for life than love for liberty. Love for liberty is acquired and strengthened through the individual’s training and his taking responsibility over his individual decisions. It is natural to get close to those that offer us protection. But character, like muscles, grows weak when stop carrying the weight of our responsibilities. Fear is a powerful deterrent for initiative and the greatest obstacle to personal and community fulfillment.

Countries without institutional controls, where anyone that holds public office can do what they please without division of powers to limit them, are destined for failure. Failure for a country is a future in which the citizens grow poorer both economically and spiritually, lose liberties and lose the possibility of carrying out their lives in equality and mutual respect with other members of the human collective. By losing international respect and debilitating as an ideal continent, one falls in the hands of opportunistic and incompetent groups. These opportunistic groups only look out for their short-term gains.

There is no greater crime in the history of humanity than that of a ruler that destroys society’s balance of powers, because the destruction of this balance destroys the motivation for personal improvement and taking responsibility for our actions, and it destroys the political infrastructure and the souls of our people. Without a division of power we end up poor, weak and divided, like a body without an immunological system, vulnerable to any invading infection.

Happy New Year

2009-01-05T09:46:00.000-08:00

This year surprised the world because of the fall in assets all over the world, and a dark outlook for the economy in 2009. Halfway through the year we feared accelerated inflation and nuclear experiments in Iran. Today we have a world recession. The sharp fall in the price of oil, instead of benefiting importing consumers, created a liquidity crisis by stopping the recycling of rich and oil and resource exporting countries’ surpluses towards the financial markets.

That is the nature of surprises. By definition they come unexpectedly. While peaking at 2009, it is worth thinking about what can happen, good and bad, in order to be prepared and be able to handle what happens gracefully.

There are great opportunities. There are financial bargains everywhere. Those with liquidity will be able to invest their savings little by little in a well diversified portfolio, to provide for the needs in their future. But those that invest will have to be able to handle great economic, political, and financial volatility, and maintain their discipline no matter what happens.

In the United States, politically there is change in the air. President elect Obama has chosen an intelligent, well trained and experienced cabinet, with an open mind towards dialogue and a variety of opinions. But there is no doubt that with the rise in importance of the executive power in the economy, a fall in productivity will be felt over the long term, unless fiscal intervention is limited and austere, and it does not take indefinite hold over the budget. Unfortunately fiscal policy is less agile and more sensitive to political contradictions than monetary policies. A strong and determined cabinet will also create controversy and confusion sooner or later, both internally and internationally. We all hope that the wise and well tempered Obama can orchestrate his cabinet towards policies both daring and sensible.

In Venezuela they are getting ready to discus and vote on a constitutional amendment that will allow for the indefinite election of the head of state. That does not seem very democratic, independently of how many people vote for it. It seems ironic that voting for a kind of monarchy without any balance of power would be considered a democratic process of regime. In any case, the economic and political outlook for Venezuela is bleak for 2009, except for those that manage to get rich even though the country grows poorer. People adapt to a lot of what is happening, hoping that with patience and dedication they can lift themselves.

The end of a year is a good time to make healthy resolutions for the coming year. It is important to make everyday and all of our actions relevant. I send all my readers my heartfelt wishes that they maintain their sense of humor despite any political or economic tragedy they have to go through. I wish you can keep your spirits whole in order to encourage your loved ones to keep their personal integrity when so many others are losing theirs. Finally, I wish you the capacity to live life with imagination, grace, creativity and relative peace. Enjoy the music, good books, the lunch and talks with friends, some good hallacas, pan de jamón, ponche crema and wine. I will do the same and ask the Gods who may listen for a Happy 2009 for all.

Managing Moral Risks: Private vs. Public

2008-12-22T09:07:00.000-08:00

The world liquidity crisis has renewed the discussion over the public sectors intervention in the economy and the rise of moral risks associated with said intervention. The simplified and liberally against government intervention in the economy argument, says that it is preferable for financial institutions that abused the leverage boom and made bad investments to go bankrupt, rather than having the government come in and save them. They believe that the only form to teach us all the lesson about being moderate in what we do with credit, investment, and consumption, is taken us into bankruptcy if we haven’t been careful with our use of credit and selection of risk. If the kid wants to put his finger in the flame, let him, that way he’ll learn that the flame burns and he will never do it again.

The argument if favor of government intervention, to avoid a massive bankruptcy by abusers of the system, is that this bankruptcy would make just people pay for sinners. The way the just would pay would be through a global depression with job losses and massive impoverishment, which sadly, would hit the most vulnerable, that are not necessarily those that abused free enterprise.

Truth, as in many other of life’s arguments, is hidden a bit by all sides. I believe in the system of free enterprise. It is the one that encourages the most creativity of the argument and greater productivity and personal and collective satisfaction in the human community. What makes the human species so special is its capacity to innovate, and free enterprise promotes creativity and innovation. On the other hand, it is undoubtable that there are benefits to be found in diversifying collective risk through systems of domestic and international diversification. If we have to live in an island we die lonelier and quicker than if we depend on one another.

How much to depend on one another is a fundamental question. Children depend on their parents till they are 18 or 21 years olds (some more, others less). Parents depend on their children (some more than others) and it has been impossible to eliminate relative poverty, even though relative poverty has been greatly reduced in the last 10 years of a free and global economy. To let the banks fail in an economy is catastrophic because banks administer the payment system. Because of this, governments are forced to intervene when confidence in banks falls to a level where the credit and payments systems stop working. That is where we are today.

The government can and should intervene in order to reduce and diversify the risk in the system when the cost becomes high. Cost becomes infinite when all credit dries up. But when the cost of risk comes back to relatively normal levels, it is no longer necessary to distribute risk between the private and public sectors. Police protection and national defense are basic and permanent community risk reduction functions of the government. Most other risks shaving functions should be counter cyclical and on an exceptions basis. It is unforgivable when the public sector decides to increase social risk and its economic cost by intervening in the economy, when such an intervention is not necessary.

The Argentinean government has just announced plans to nationalize the private savings system, even though it is not in crisis and has allowed Argentineans to save for old age. That type of intervention is criminal and destructive because it does not reduce, but rather raises the risk exposure of all the country’s inhabitants. The risks of the Argentinean State are better diversified internationally and not confiscating Argentinean’s private savings.

Government intervention in the economy is only justified as an emergency mechanism to reduce short and long-term economic risks, but only as a temporary action and aimed at the return and regularization of supply and demand. Most government interventions in private banking is done to restore payments, credit and liquidity and is transitory and subject to disappear once markets stabilize.

The crisis also signals that the IMF’s capital must be increased many times and its governance and quota distribution modified to include more surplus countries, in order to help diversify global risk more efficiently than what each country can do individually. It is equally necessary to make sure that no financial intermediaries of significant size (“too big to fail”) can dip below banking standard capital adequacy ratios of 8-10%. It is time to establish more permanent mechanisms for the reduction of global risks.

Anatomy of the Financial Crisis: a Drama in 9 acts and one intermission.

2008-12-08T08:52:00.001-08:00

Like all crisis, in hindsight, it is easy to analyze its causes, although impossible to ever know the instant they are going to unfold, just like death. The global banking crisis stems from an insufficient capitalization, in the presence o volatile financial assets, that because of this volatility tend to be over-valued from time to time. The banking crisis – that threatens with creating an economic crisis, because of its possible impact on companies and the ability of individuals to finance investing and consumption – can be described in nine acts and one intermission of the tragicomedy of the global economy’s life:

1st Act: Global economic growth.

2nd Act: Increase in liquidity and securitization.

3rd Act: Reduction in the volatility and perception of risk and a rise in the prices of real and financial assets.

4th Act: Increase in financial leverage to maintain or increase the yield of appreciated assets.

5th Act: Increase in the price of raw materials – reaching speculative levels because of the price inelasticity of offer and demand.

6th Act: Real estate prices begin to decline because of excess construction and an increase in interest rates.

7th Act: Financial assets based on real estate prices warn about losses and affect the capitalization of the most leveraged and vulnerable financial intermediaries. Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, WAMU, AIG, etc; the investment banks and insurance companies specializing in insuring financial risk.

8th Act: Vicious circle and collapse. Marking-to-market: In the measure that accounting rules force us to mark-to-market, the falling price of assets begins to affect the capitalization of all Banks (105 of total assets), accompanied by uncertainty about the value and nature of all banking assets.

9th Act: Intensive Care Unit. The role of China and others when faced by the possible collapse of global consumption and its impact on the domestic growth rate. China has two alternatives and infinite combinations of those two alternatives. Sell their inventory of raw materials and products at a discounted price or sell their financial paper and invest in domestic infrastructure. Either of these two scenarios in extreme, like anything in extreme, have bad endings. If China liquidates its inventories in order to maintain revenue and jobs, we have a massive liquidation of inventories in the world, deflation and depression. If China goes in the opposite direction and liquidates its assets for internal investment or recapitalization, this can create inflationary pressures, increases in government bond interest rates and a negative impact in the global economic growth rate. Extremes are always bad. The most probable scenario is one in which a little bit of both measures is taken, leaning towards the inflationary side.

Intermission: What’s more desirable and probable, is that the global economic growth rate will come down about half of were it has stood over the last 5 years, unemployment will rise by 25% (from 6% to 7.5% in the U.S.), China will sell 10-20% of its international assets, and all sellers of consumer products in China and the rest of the world will lower their prices (realization in 75% of the year instead of 50% of the year). A paused equilibrium between savers and consumers, will serve as an intermission in this economic drama.

Extremist governments and politicians are no good anywhere in the world. You need cooperation among countries, the private sector and the public sector. You need constructive dialog instead of lynchings. We need to keep maturing and growing as a species and learning how to solve, with good intentions, knowledge, sensible analysis and maturity, the crises that will inevitably pop-up.

Crisis

2008-11-17T10:36:00.000-08:00

Surprises and traumatic events occur between 5% and 20% of the time. They are as anticipated as a cold and a storm. They arrive tempestuously and unexpectedly, like meteorological phenomenon. Economic surprises are manageable but not avoidable. Washing one’s hands frequently, reduces bacterial contagion, but it also reduces our natural resistance to bacteria. Not everything is lost in societies that appear to have been destroyed by their leaders’ (both public and private) unmeasured greed. Money and power have the capacity of unleashing human impulses and taking them to unstable and transformative situations. Crises also define a society’s capacity to come together and address the problems of the moment and better its perspective of the future.

The current global crisis is not a solvency crisis, except for some banks whose capitalization is not enough to cover their losses. The crisis the world is facing is not a liquidity crisis, even though that was the diagnosis. There is great liquidity throughout the world. Exporting nations, big companies, governments, pension funds, multilateral institutions, all – except for American consumers that bought houses they could not afford – have excess liquidity.

The crisis is simply a crisis of confidence. Banks are suspect of their balances and those of others, and are not lending money amongst themselves. The “monetary multiplier,” that magic table that makes economies work, with communicator vessels that like human arteries pump the rhythm of the economic heart, have become obstructed in a couple of large arteries.

That is a temporary problem. In one or two years we will remember this period as a complex lesson that we do not entirely comprehend, but that has left us more alert. The risk of a crisis is not the crisis itself, but rather the reaction to the crisis; the unhealthy laws, regulations and dependencies that can be generated in the process of solving our uncertainties.

But if society comes together, convinced of the importance of working as one honest, hard working and balanced society, the economy recovers and we move on. But there are longer lasting and more destructive crises that can put an end to the hopes and lives of generations. Those crises occur in societies that have no division and balance of powers, where the corruption of few – or many – is strife, and where individual and collective merit is punished with mockery and disincentives. Those crises are not overcome in a year or two, though the financial crises are temporary.

Windows without Bars

2008-11-03T13:55:00.000-08:00

A couple of days ago I had the chance to meet a talented, educated, intelligent and upright Venezuelan actor. It was on the occasion of the Los Angeles film festival, where the Venezuelan movie, El Pasajero, was being screened and where he was honored for his starring role. Speaking long distance to his wife, he observed surprised, how he was in a second floor apartment, taking in the beautiful views of Los Angeles. The sunset view reminded him of Caracas, with some palm trees and hills in the horizon and the combination of Spanish style homes among skyscrapers. Then he added astonished that there were no bars on the windows. Venezuelans have forgotten that in most other countries people live without bars on their windows. Only in countries were crime and anarchy are strife do citizen have to resort to locking themselves in their homes, apartments and neighborhoods in order to protect themselves from the violence that oppresses those that live in it. The ghettofication of the country where I was born angers me more than I could have ever predicted, when I left many year ago in search of a more intellectual and peaceful life.

In fact, there is a whole generation of Venezuelans that only know to lock themselves behind bars every night in order to avoid being robed or killed. The human capacity to adapt and tolerate such a degree of insecurity and lack of basic liberties continues to amaze me. If we were being held against our will, we could probably rouse the citizenry into destroying those bars that separate us from everyone else, and create a sense of infinite distrust in our surroundings. But what does one do when citizens lock themselves up voluntarily? What does one due when murderers and thieves freely roam the streets and honest, hardworking people are prisoners behind their own bars?

Till when will my compatriots put up with this situation that has deprived them of their basic human liberties? Windows without bars is the destiny and reality of most of the world’s inhabitants, but not that of Venezuelans.

Obama/Biden vs. McCain/Palin

2008-10-07T12:56:00.001-07:00

US politics long ago became the tussle of two fundamental themes: government’s intervention in the economy and government’s intervention into its citizens’ moral liberties. The dichotomy is surprising, because one party believes in individual liberties and the other in economic liberties. Democrats support individual liberties such as a women’s right to choose or terminate a pregnancy and the right of anyone to choose sexual partners including same sex marriage, but they want the government to play a bigger role in the economy and the distribution of wealth between rich and poor. Republicans are disgusted by individual liberties. They want the government to intervene in deciding what is moral and acceptable and what is not. But they don’t like the government intervening in the economy. They want to leave that job to the markets in order to increase productivity and economic growth. However, it was Abraham Lincoln, a republican, who fought for freeing the slaves. It is difficult to reconcile these political ideologies, except if you consider slaves as a production factor, and, from the free market point of view, we justify this kind of individual freedom. It would be preferable to have a party that likes free markets and individual liberties and another party that likes government direction and regulation. But since economic and moral values are so intertwined, annoyed and confused voters lean towards fear as the selection criteria. It shouldn’t surprise us that contradictory coalitions lead us to a 50/50 vote, except in circumstances of severe fear. That isn’t necessarily bad because it contributes to the diversification of power.

After such a long and controversial war like the one in Iraq, and the market difficulties of the past 12 months, President Bush’s approval rating is lower than that of a tyrant with no control over votes. Obama, the democratic candidate, is a first class orator. McCain, the republican, Vietnam hero, promises to reform government’s abuses and straighten congress’ and administration’s manipulation by lobbyists. He promises to better educate children, and rehire adults that have lost their jobs, because the Hindi, Chinese and Brazilians are more productive and complain less than the North American labor unions. At present, McCain more than Obama opposes the bail out of the financial actors that have abused cheap and abundant credit and grown recklessly.

The democrats protect the privileges of the teacher and worker unions, and don’t want education reform or international competition. A democratic victory would present a more human and universal façade in the hands of the inspiring and charming Obama, but could be condemned to restrict trade with Latin America. The promised spike in taxes to cover the fiscal deficit would lead to a loss of competitiveness, production and jobs, and probably more restriction on Latin American immigration. A republican victory, in the hands of McCain the reformer, would maintain North America’s military supremacy, with everything the rest of the world hates about that supremacy; he would have some hope of reducing the size of the government, but less hope in reducing the fiscal deficit unless there is a major reduction in public spending. Reductions in public spending are harder to carry out than successful, lasting diets, particularly when the country is facing a real recession!

None of the candidates want to increase long term personal savings. None is offering what they should offer, which is a long term tax exemption for saving and investing. So, North Americans will continue to consume more than they get paid, until they start dying off of old age in the next 10 years. Long term needs have become the enemy of short term wants and vice-versa.

I want to see a candidate that promotes savings, morality as a personal choice, pay for merit and free trade. I am going to have to vote for the Colombian and Chilean candidates, if they let me. It is unfortunate that people in democracies have to vote for people. Better to vote for a selected list of ideas, and the candidates put the ideas to work or they are fired. It must be that experience also teaches us that ideas have less credibility than candidates.

Corruption and Politics: Rule of Law vs. Law of the Jungle

2008-10-01T10:47:00.000-07:00

Corruption and politics are perceived to have a lot in common. Both words denote that a direct or indirect favor can be bartered in exchange for a (not always) hidden monetary payment. He who grants it is willing to ignore ethics, good judgment and the common good in order to clear the way for his “client.” The communion between in-kind or in-cash corruption and politics is not automatic. Fraud, corruption and favoritism develop like any other animal, little by little, and it feeds and becomes stronger with practice and time.

It takes some time or very little-depending on how we look at it, for a person or country to corrupt itself completely- Maybe 10-20 years? Corruption and political cynicism lead to a destructive anarchy that generally ends badly. Destructive anarchies are like hurricanes. They level everything in their paths and leave a distressing devastation behind them. At the end, those left alive who know how to rebuild can restore progress or move elsewhere, away from hurricane paths.

If we observe countries, companies, families and people, we can see if corruption and politics are on the rise or, on the contrary, if they are in the process of re-building and evolving. In the Americas, despite the obstacles they face, there are a good number of countries in permanent re-construction: Canada, U.S.A, Mexico, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Panama, Colombia, Brazil, Peru, Uruguay and Chile (to name a few). In those countries, the governments, communities and people are making daily efforts to do the right thing, promote merit, build institutions, create balance of power, strengthen individual liberties, punish crime, promote authority, responsibility, and disarm authoritarianism and runaway corruption.

In corrupt and authoritarian regimes, few live off their salaries. In Cuba, for example, the universal salary is $19 a month. No one can survive on that. Those that want to prosper in such an environment have to sell themselves in the black market. Prostitution is universal; people live off tips or the payment for services they do not want to provide. Individuals unfold in multiple lives. Mind, body, emotions and soul are forced to live parallel lives. Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua are all on that painful path of human fragmentation that has been observed in Cuba for 50 years. There is only one life and it is worth living as one in which body, soul, mind and emotions support each other in the achievement of greater development. That way we leave a legacy and platform on which our children can build further growth. Fragmented lives leave behind weak and porous platforms that fall before any individual and collective confrontation. That is a sad destiny we must resist with all the strength and conviction that our past and present intellectual and moral heroes have left us. Where they appear and manifest themselves, integrity and the will to do good are the only path to individual and collective redemption and vindication.

If the world is divided today, it is not between socialism and free markets or authoritarianism and democracy. The world is divided among countries were corruption rules, which are destined for failure, and countries were there is a determined fight for law, order, honesty and ethics, which are destined for development. It is no longer a choice between capitalism and communism, but between the rule of law and the law of the jungle.

Masculine and “lessculine”

2008-09-09T09:17:00.001-07:00

Tastes are as varied as nature. They don’t only vary from one person to the other, but overtime they change direction like boats without a course.

Beautiful boys and girls become big-nosed and big-eared in our eyes even though they continue to be pretty in their love ones’ eyes. Those boyfriends and girlfriends that at 13 turned heads with their flirty walking and disinterest, turn into the target of muggings for street criminals the minute they lose their strut. Fashion magazines and old films are excellent testimonies to the infidelity of mortals. If Rudolph Valentino came to life again, he wouldn’t be more than a street Casanova in Recoleta. Even Clark Gable wouldn’t attract more than scientific stares surprised about him coming to life after so much time had passed.

Famous and powerful characters come and go. They do a lot of damage when they feel like it, mostly because we let them hurt us. As time passes they become human parodies, irrelevant except for the fact that students are forced to remember their names and mischief because of some obscure reasoning forced upon them by the education system.

Masculinity has been synonymous with power, even when real power is hidden in the subtle weapons of persuasion and resilience of some exceptional men and women. The power of persuasion is longer lasting than authoritarianism, except persuasion is easier to elude when the persuader is confronted with common sense, because we are genetically cowards. We are afraid, terrified, of fighting for the truth, excellence, integrity, competence and challenges to intelligence. Resilience does allow us to put in place an effective if somewhat cowardly fight. Resilience is the weaponry of the meek but determined.

Masculine traits are many times “lessculine”. The most voluptuous women are often the most shy and inhibited. Those that choose to fall in love with another human being, whatever their genetic configuration might be, outside societal norms baffle those that think in buckets because it is easier and more comfortable for everyone to look at the world in simplistic silos. Masculine and “lessculine” is that situation in which we often find ourselves. We don’t like where we are, we don’t confront our reality, but we don’t do anything to change the situation. The “lessculines” stand still when they see some that can do something good, decent and lasting, be powerless when confronted by abuse and violence. And as masculine and “lessculine” we voice certain and proud opinions, even though we have no right to do so given our lack of courage, strength and independence of thought. We speak up or remain silent without the communal courage to confront the arbitrary forces of the powerful. All because we prefer to live one more day in peace rather than many days fighting, even though that battle is the only source of liberty. Opportunism and comfort turn us into “lessculines”.

Excellence is not a Luxury

2008-08-25T07:31:00.001-07:00

Excellence is a necessity, not a luxury, not only for the individual and his community, but even more so for its leaders. In many Latin American countries we are always willing to help the hungry and the sick, but we do not feel the same obligation to support the gifted, who excel in some profession or vocation. If we see good students, bright kids, pianists, mechanics, or soccer players that stand out between childhood and teenage years, we abandon them to their precocious destiny, as though those youngsters endowed with excellence do not need our support! We tell ourselves, they don’t need our help because they were already born gifted.

In contrast, those countries that have stood out because of their high rates of economic and institutional growth behave very differently with respect to their most valuable assets. Brazilians stand out in soccer, because the minute their children stop crawling and learn to kick a ball they begin the selection and training process to see who will be the next Pelé. The Chinese, North Americans, and Singaporeans identify their geniuses at an early age and nurture and help them like the national treasures that they are. But so many in Latin America distrust excellence as though it was a bad habit of banal and decadent elites. What confusion! And what a waste.

Excellence does not respect social classes (thank God). Excellence appears like a genetic miracle among all social classes and enterprises, but if we don’t support it, it gets distracted and lost. Our intellectual, political and industrial leaders leave so much to be desired, because we don’t even pay attention to whether their conduct and goals fit into the concept of excellence or if they are merely mediocre salesmen peddling false promises. Excellence is not a luxury; it is one of the least satisfied necessities in the Latin American continent. Access to excellence should be a universal right for all of those that search for it. Recognizing excellence is quite easy. Excellence is noticeable in a child that respects sensible instructions, wants to do good things, in parents that make sure they improve their children’s education, in bosses who nurture the professional and personal development of their employees, and in politicians that do not make wild promises or lie with brazen cynicism, like a frivolous guffaw in an expensive restaurant. You can see it in the respect with which we treat our family members and our fellow countrymen. You can see it in the time we take to learn and do our jobs well instead of trying to see what dirty little business we can concoct with the politician in office. Excellence can be observed in how balanced our actions and ambitions are. Excellence is restrained and it does not brag about its greatness, because it is always demanding and leaves us short and humbled.

Recognizing and supporting excellence does not require great resources. It requires a will and appreciation for the extraordinary contribution that excellence makes towards our social and economic evolution. Prizes for excellence are one way of imparting the message of its importance and motivate us to follow its purpose both individually and collectively. Excellence is rewarded in triumphant societies with good grades, admiration for good deeds, public recognition, respect and appropriate compensation for responsible work, and free and conscientious votes during electoral processes. Mediocrity is reprehensible and corrosive because it destroys the individual and the collective that condones and rewards it. Respect towards excellence should be one of the most important human rights and should even be guaranteed in our constitution. Mediocrity, at a minimum, should be punished with votes against our leaders each time we can elect those that govern us. Societies that elect corrupt and mediocre regimes are just as mediocre and corrupt as their leaders. It is hard to escape the grasp of mediocrity once it exercises its stronghold on our surroundings, but it is possible. The search for excellence is the gate to freedom and sustainable growth.

When the river sounds…

2008-08-13T09:48:00.001-07:00

Rivers and democracies are very much alike. An old Latin American saying goes that “when the river sounds, it carries stones.” I don’t know if that proverbis still in use, but I remember my father, with his threatening and suspenseful tone, saying: “when the river sounds!...” and the threat of the final judgment in his voice. Without even finishing the sentence, those four words put an end to the discussion and whoever embodied the river was annihilated for life, with their reputation in shambles and an uncertain social life. What injustice!. When the river sounds it is because it carries water in addition to stones; it is flowing forcefully and setting new courses for its bed, making and correcting mistakes as all rivers do and opening new paths, leaving behind stones at its banks for future bathers. Totalitarian systems appear to be silent, calm rivers. Sometimes such systems invite one to embark on such peaceful course if only for a short trip, especially if someone offers a free boat or a luxurious yacht. Democracies on the other hand, are strong, unruly, noisy and large rivers that carry rocks and many other surprises, and make so much racket that one feels compelled to jump ship before the boat sinks. Sometimes the seasickness is so strong that many do jump ship disenchanted with the ravages and uncertainties. Democracies are daring and determined rivers, with stones in all sizes and even piranhas, but also beautiful trout and salmon. On the banks of this powerful river you can find monkeys and serpents as well as Tarzan and his concubines.

The jungles by these free rivers grow shaggy like hairs on adolescent legs, ashamed of their Amazonic abundance, but fed to gluttony by the largesse of their waters. Those rivers are scary, but we shouldn’t fear them. There is a lot of life in them and you can find strong and healthy plants and animals by their shores. They are rivers like the Orinoco or the Amazon, with big and beautiful deltas all over the place, and open to any ship, small and large. The sediment is so rich that in time it becomes oil, if the gods so bless the river. But it is the great ships that we build to navigate these rivers that give us just pride and develop industries: tourism, shipyards, hotels, bikini factories, fishmongers and ports.

The Guaire, on the other hand, that forgotten anorexic river that traverses with lame sadness the length of Caracas, is a quite river because it has no water anymore. I have been told that in a more innocent past for Caracas, boats and canoes crossed it and gathered speed near El Paraiso until they reached La Vega. Children and “quinceañeros” dreamt of their fates as captains inspired by far lands and riches. During Carnival feasts, flower carts with long straws would slurp and spread the Guaire’s holy water amongst those celebrating ghosts of rituals past. What fun to have a loud Guaire, even if it had stones and caused other problems for drunks lost in the night and trapped in its current. If I was queen of Venezuela, my first decree would be to make all the rivers audible with water and stones, and I would begin with the Guaire. Then we would have free elections to elect the next queen and we would celebrate with a boat parade from Petare to La Vega!

Disalmed Forces in the Americas

2008-08-05T10:32:00.001-07:00

I am not Chinese or Puerto Rican, nor do I make too many spelling mistakes. That is in case you think the L in the title is really an R. But the mere thought of disarmament reminds me that more than 50 years ago Costa Rica disbanded its army and sold, perhaps to a third world guerilla or criminal organization, all of the canons and rifles it had stockpiled over the years. They wisely decided that what they spent on bayonets and grenades, would go further invested in educating their children and improving the health of beggars and disenfranchised. Since, Costa Ricans have become among the most consistently developed people in the Americas. They eat like Caribbeans: tres leches, arepas, rice and beans, and sweet suckling pigs, but they live differently. They have more youth orchestras, food, health services and good teachers per capita than anyone else in the New World. A couple of years ago they incarcerated an ex President that had been appointed Secretary General of the OAS, for allegedly accepting a $250,000 dollar bribe! That sum, which in some countries is barely enough to buy a nice Mercedes, ended the international career of one of their outstanding leaders.

Costa Rica maintains its progress because of the strength of its souls, their “almas”, the seriousness and respect towards the humanity of others, loyalty, capacity to work, creativity, and their insistence on improving their lot and the pursuit of excellence. That is food for the soul and food for “almed”, soulful forces. Costa Rica is not perfect but it is quite extraordinary as a country. In contrast, other societies that think they know a lot, while children and elders perish due to communal abandonment, spend millions on weapons without any serious threat to justify the spending.

As though we had the souls of dictators, we love planes, helicopters and threatening tanks in tacky parades and macabre displays of power. Remember Hitler’s, Stalin’s, Khrushchev’s, Franco’s and Fidel’s parades, with thousands of people marching and turning their heads while extending their hands towards the dictator of the moment? We were hypnotized by those parades despite the soullessness of the actors. Where is the compass, the north that shows us sensible and respectful roads for all of those with whom we share the walk of life? Where are the forces full of souls that seek to elevate our compatriots and open the way for better countries? Where is the soul that tames alienated leaders, with the force of morality and institutional strength more lasting than that of the military? Where are they when we cannot hear their message, to lead us to higher achievements?

Renewed thought leaders need to emerge in countries to curtail the corruption and foolishness of so many opportunists! May the force of respect arm itself and may the abuses be disarmed! If countries have armies, they should be used for the legitimate defense of their territory and people, against illegitimate aggressors and in defense of the constitution and the citizens’ identities. Such is the case with Colombia, a sister country with which we share borders, and which we mistreat without provocation when we have nothing better to do.

Never should armies be used to defend the personal objectives of any individual. A soldier’s life is just as valuable as that of any other citizen and should not be jeopardized in vane. The soul of an armed force ennobles the destiny of the citizens it protects. Never should an armed force be able to destroy the citizens’ soul.

Long Live the Hummer!

2008-07-16T15:05:00.001-07:00

It is really mesmerizing the different kinds of cars that exist today. And encouraging, we should add. Many of us have gone through the unique experience of purchasing a new car. After we reconcile our transportation needs with our mechanical passions, after we eliminate a shiny and impractical convertible and any other captivating but intolerable model, some of us, full of restraint, intelligence and modesty, will choose the best and most virtuous of the models. It goes from 0 to 60 mph in 6 seconds, it never overheats, in an accident it protects us as though we were made of Baccarat crystal, it smells like new and fine purse, and all at the perfect price. After making the careful and calculated choice, we are convinced that there is no other in the world that could compare. We do not understand how anyone could buy a different car. But once we reach the street, the world confuses us with the amount of bad and incomprehensible cars out there, cars that someone liked and fit them like first communion suits. Amongst the most conspicuous of these machines is the Hummer. An expensive, inefficient, overheating vehicle, that is unusable even in the wars for which it was invented. Superimposed to human confines, it must comfort us to know that bad taste is infinite and that others’ poor decisions allow us to triumph over flashy and powerful contenders.

Furthermore, it is because of others’ poor taste and arbitrariness that we all end up finding couples, friends, shortcuts and businesses that validate our existence and good sense. This all came to my mind when a dear colleague of mine published an arrogant book, full of incomprehensible words, with an ostentatious and promising title but pages devoid of any wisdom; full of famous names and bland statements. “This book is a Hummer!” I said surprised. It will sell a few copies here and there, since the title attributes knowledge of far away places and circumstances to the reader. The Hummers number in the thousands, thank God. If there weren’t that many Hummers, we would have to compete with people that are wiser, harder working, more modest. We might even end up without a job. That said, I think the world would be a better place if Hummers and those people that are their soul mates lived long and intense lives, but always outside our circle of influence, and even better if that place is one where they cannot ruin our natural and intellectual habitats.

Coherent Arbitrariness

2008-07-16T15:04:00.001-07:00

The science of economics has taken giant steps in its development over the last 50 years. It has evolved from the socio-philosophical dreams of Rousseau and Marx, which could have been interpreted and improved upon by Freud, to Keynes’ interventionist methods. After Keynes’ discovery of how governments, by means of taxes, inflations, contractions, nationalizations and privatizations, could take from some to give to others, we stumbled upon “monetarists” like Milton Friedman who revived the countervailing wisdom of economic libertarians like von Hayek and Smith. Monetarists, who are rightly confident of the ability of any powerful group to get it all wrong, proved that governments should try to limit themselves to doing right. Doing right entails intervening as little as possible and letting competitors fight it out from time to time, letting the strongest prevail, until they are beaten by their own hubris or someone else. A process akin to having daily elections by consumers, with winners and losers sorting it out in the marketplace.

Today, the science of Economics has discovered that consumers act impulsively, and that their impulses follow a series of rules that are implanted, like tattoos on the arms of sailors, in the most hidden corridors of the brain. We are more “impulsive” than “rational,” and rationality only reaches us by means of punches and beatings. Despite all punishment, some people never grasp any form of rationality. First they develop the taste for punishment than the taste for wisdom and restrain.

One of the greatest discoveries of Behavioral Economics (the name given to this new economic revolution), is that the impulse to stand in line for anything that is free, a freebie, leads us to pay heavily for giveaways. Can you imagine Economists have just discovered what has been discovered by politicians since the first thirst for power appeared in human consciousness? “Please give me promises, not realities,” is a chant most politicians heed to. There is no country in the world in which a politician does not offer something for free, since they know that humans cannot resist freebies. The tragedy is that these freebies end up costing us more than caviar.

When something is missing in an economy it is because someone wants it for free and someone believes they can give it away. The only thing we can give away without any bad consequences is excellence in what we do. Giving away excellence ends up creating durable miracles among societies and human relations.

Anything they offer you for free in exchange for your vote has a cost for everyone that goes beyond what is predictable. Anything for free comes with a costly and deadly trap, and we almost always fall for it because we suffer from “coherent arbitrariness,” which always leads us to accept arbitrary situations and heroes because, those narcissistic, power hungry heroes know how to toss us a freebie.

Super Dads, Godfathers, and Sugar Daddies

2008-06-18T12:12:00.000-07:00

There is only one mother, but fathers come in many different flavors. First we have the super dads. My father was a super dad. They take care of us since we are born. They teach us lessons in morality and integrity, and they turn our intellectual and room lights on and off when we have dosed off after a lot of studying or a lot of partying. They reprimand us constructively and point us in the right direction with patience and wisdom, even though it might not be the easiest thing to do. There is no doubt, that young leaders like Yon Goicoechea, winner of this year’s Milton Friedman Liberty Prize, have a great father who gives them direction from time to time, and to that great father I send my respects and admiration on this day. He must be very proud of his son’s bravery and morality in the face of temptations that the world throws at us at every corner. I understand that this father is in jail in Venezuela and it makes me extremely sad that he will not be able to be at home with his family to celebrate this special day. He should be freed generously and humanely. No one with a son that good can be so bad as to deserve to be incarcerated, especially in a country where so much crime goes unpunished. Super dads like this one deserve all types of tributes, because they turn their sons into universal leaders and models of conduct. It is not easy to be a super dad. It takes a great amount of sacrifice. They have to say no and restrain the children they love, because the moral highroad is not always the easiest or the most flattering.

Then we have the godfathers. There are a lot more godfathers than there are super dads. It must be because the label does not carry as much responsibility, or because there are plenty of men who are not chosen as godfathers and others who have more than one godson (super dads choose themselves with joy and a vocation, like saints in search of fulfillment and indulgence). Godfathers serve a very important function in the lives of children. They buy us bicycles when our parents can’t afford them. Mine gave me a sparkling black Raleigh, which opened the door to a neighborhood full of defiant and liberating adventures. They give us their blessing every time we see them, making us feel safe from malevolent curses and hexes. When we are all grown up, godfathers emerge, sometimes miraculously for no special reason, most times when they want us to owe them a favor for which they charge interest. We must be careful of those godfathers. They charge usury rates for the favors you owe them. Unselfish godfathers take care of us because they look after those that deserve it. Those godfathers are good people. They are mentors who fertilize life with their kindness and love for others, and water their plants and those of their neighbors. We wish them a happy Father’s day.

Finally, we have sugar daddies. Those generous and loving men with the ability to seduce damsels as though they where flute touting fakirs. They give away jewels and perfumes in exchange for young and not-so-young women’s siren songs. The bad thing about sugar daddies is that they are usually married to someone else and they are immoral and treacherous players. They stop being sweet when the chanting ends and their imagination goes to sleep. They ask for praises that lead to slavery and they develop confusing bad moods considering how tender they are when they are pursuing their slippery objectives. They should not get presents on Father’s Day, because they are scoundrels in search of loyalties they do not deserve. If they haven’t read this column they are capable of remaining lost in thought in the presence of some flirty little gift from the ladies that take advantage of their existential weaknesses. There is a lot to learn from sugar daddies and little to emulate or celebrate on this day. I wouldn’t even give them breakfast in bed.

This Sunday is a beautiful day in which we celebrate the procreation of the species and the fundamental role that men play in focusing responsibility and solidarity towards lifting the loads that come with having a family. There is only one mother, but we can use as many father figures as we can get in an effort to improve the safety net of our troubled communities. For all of those that deserve it, on earth and in heaven, and even some of those that don’t deserve it but try: Happy Father’s Day!