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I think I have neglected this blog for long enough... it is time to make a come back.

Many things have happened in the world as I see it since my last post (in July 2009). Here is a rough inventory with on-the-go comments:

In the World:

• A devastating earthquake hit Haiti in January 2010. It felt utterly unfair, that the most impoverished nation of the hemisphere had to endure this. The recovery is still ongoing.
• Since December 2010, the "Jasmine Revolution" or "Arab Spring" is re-shaping the political landscape in the arab wold. This is probably the single most important event in the last two years. I believe that the consequences of what has happened in the last six months for the world we and our children will live in in the next few years are humungous, and we still haven't really started to grasp their reach.
• The Sudanese people voted in a referendum to favor the independence of Southern Sudan in January. The new country will be officially born in 3 days (July 9th) with huge challenges ahead. May the changes to come turn to be beneficial for its people.
• Japan was hit by a deadly earthquake and a Tsunami in march. This also lead to one of the worst nuclear crisis that humanity has seen since WWII. I was deeply moved by the tragedy, troubled by the risks of nuclear energy, and very inspired by the way the Japanese people reacted to the tragedy.
• Osama Bin Laden was killed. I don't feel comfortable with celebrating a person's death, but I must admit that I felt relief at the news. The means used by this person to advance his ideas were just evil. It is still to be determined wether this will just prompt the emergence of new Bin Ladens, or will really change the nature of the international terrorist threat.
• War criminal Ratko Mladić was captured and extradited to The Hague. This event has helped us learn and/or remember the atrocities of the war in former Yugoslavia, but it is still to be seen if it will really serve justice and reconciliation, or bring about further problems to the republics created after the disintegration of Yugoslavia.

In Latin America:

• The Mexican Drug War has escalated in the last two years. The situation is very serious, and has affected the lives of millions of people. Here, I am still in disbelief.
• A devastating earthquake hit Chile in February 2010. The Chileans showed courage and amazing organization to deal with this tragedy in the midst of a presidential transition.
• Sebastian Piñera became President of Chile in March 2010. This ended the series of governments of the "Concertación" and represents a turn to the right for this country.
• Around the same time José Mujica became president of Uruguay. I have not heard news about his government since then...
• 33 miners were rescued in Chile, after over two months of surviving 700 meter under ground. A unique story of courage. Very inspiring and happy moments.
• Juan Manuel Santos became President of Colombia in August 2010. He was not my favorite candidate, but I have liked many of his actions since he is in power, specially his openness to a tighter integration of Latin America.
• Former Argentinean President Nestor Kirchner died in October 2010. Given his ongoing influence in his country's politics -besides his being married to the current president- this event came as a shock not only for Argentineans, but for many other Latin Americans.
• Dilma Rousseff was elected president of Brasil in 2010. I don't know much about her to comment, but I can say that I have heard more good than bad things about her, and that I am happy that the largest country in my region is led by a woman.
• Just yesterday, Ollanta Humala was elected President in Perú. In full honesty, I am not happy with the news, but I agree with many of my Peruvian friends in that these are not times for complains but for hard work... Everybody deserves the benefit of the doubt, and I wish the best for the future of our neighbors.

In Ecuador:

• On September 30, a major police rebellion led to armed confrontation between the police and the army on the streets in Quito. Blood was shed. The leaders of the revolt acted stupidly, and the President's imprudence put himself in a dangerous situation (for him and for the country). A very sad episode, that ended up bringing political benefits for the government.
• Ruptura de los 25 separated from the governing coalition in Ecuador, over disagreements with the referendum proposed by President Correa earlier this year. I felt we should have done this earlier, when the president showed full support to the Attorney General in spite of the major corruption acts that he was so evidently involved in. At any rate, I find in this decision a source of hope and optimism: we need reasonable critical voices, that expand the debate beyond the "pro or against Correa" spectrum, and this is a clear move in that direction.
• All 10 questions posed by President Correa at the referendum were approved by popular vote, but by a narrow margin. This is probably the most important political drawback for Correa since the beginning of his first government. He is enjoys large political support, but about half of the population expressed concerns and doubts about his policies. This is an opportunity to correct the more authoritarian aspects of his presidency. We'll see...

All and all, the political landscape in Ecuador remains absolutely dominated by the figure of the president. The success of his "revolution", as it stands now, depends exclusively on his leadership. This kind of concentration of power is not good for any country.

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It is mind-blowing! This is an on-going intensive-history-making stretch of our lives. Gotta keep our eyes open, and make our minds ask more aggressively: what role am I supposed to play in all of this? Is the role of the captive observer enough?

Vietnam's Blogosphere

In Vietnam about a quarter of the population is on the Internet. This is a quite impressive statistic: their connectivity is noticeably superior to most other countries in the so-called Developing World. But that is not what impressed me the most, but the use that the Vietnamese are giving to this technology. The government puts much less effort to control access and contents that are divulged through the Internet than other Socialist countries like, say, China. Thus, the Web has become in an instrument for people to exercise their freedom of speech, which is otherwise restricted in the country (although, again, not to the extent of other countries with similar systems).

Not so long ago a lawyer, relatively well known in the Saigon intellectual circles, was charged with sedition and arrested in a very public, well-orchestrated operation. He had been calling for some political changes in the country and questioning the authority of the party for some time, but it looks as if he went a little too far (in terms of the Vietnamese regime level of tolerance) by establishing international connections to support his cause and, above all, by writing an alternative constitution for the country that he used to promote his ideas of change. When we mentioned this news over lunch to a Vietnamese colleague of us, he just commented: “It will be interesting to see how the blogging community reacts…. He wouldn’t have dared to do something as risky if he was not counting on public support….”

It turns out that the blogging community is one of the most influential mechanisms to which independent opinions are expressed in the country. Thousands of blogs, being updated daily from pretty much every point of Vietnam’s geography are the most open, autonomous, and effective means through which information and opinions on the daily happenings are exchanged. Issues like corruption, poor government practices, sports (I love Asia, they really follow soccer!) (what’s wrong with the US!?), and so on are broadly discussed. The most influential bloggers are middle age journalists that have access to more information than the common citizen. They get to say on the web some of the things that you don’t read on the papers or see on TV. However, they still write much less than what they know: they seem to understand better than our hero of the previous paragraph (the apocryphal constitution’s author) that this system can be pushed just up to a certain limit…

In between China and India

A lunch with a couple of professors at the School (who provided a unique combination of the American and the Vietnamese perspectives) yielded a very interesting conversation about land ownership and infrastructure in a country where, at least officially, you don’t have markets to allocate resources.

The topic at hand was land ownership, and here are some of the things I learned. Officially, all land in Vietnam belongs to the State and the Government grants long-terms rights to usage (which because of their length function very much as full ownership). Those rights can be transferred to other people in exchange for compensations (so there is a market…), but the Government in different stages must approve the transfer. There are 3 different “official” uses of land: agriculture, residence and industry. The rights of use of agricultural land usually are in the hands of local farmers, who live in villages close to the plots, and they are most frequently used to grow rice or other agricultural commodities.

What if an investor wants to use some agricultural land to develop an industrial project? This is how it works. The developer first needs to deal with the government, and get a temporary permit that states that the government has authorized to change the type of usage of the land (from agricultural to industrial) and authorized they to advance an agreement with the current owners of the land rights. Then a negotiation process takes place: the developer would approach the farmers, and offer them to take their land in exchange for a given compensation. Sometimes, the compensation would reflect “market prices”, that is, the value that the land would have in the current state given all the available information on possible future developments that would affect the price.

Often enough, though, the developers would trick the farmers into giving them their land, frequently telling them untrue stories… “You know, now the government has declared this land to be for industrial use, so you won’t be able to use it to grow rice anymore. It is of no use to you, so you may as well sell it to me”. The compensation given to the farmers would frequently be as low as it can get: around 2 dollars per square meter. Once there is an agreement with the farmer, the developer needs to go back to the government officials to get a definitive authorization, and then they would have to make an additional payment: since the land is changing classification, it works like they where granting usage rights for the first time, and the government gets to collect the respective fee.

Collusion between investors and bureaucrats seems to be… not uncommon. Frequently, just after the land has been transferred from farmers to developers, there would be “news” about the government building a big road or bridge connecting the recently transferred land to the city or the ports. Thus, the value of the land would increase dramatically. Let me borrow the following example: imagine… that the developer manages to get a large amount of agricultural land deprived of infrastructure and connectivity to the city, with the intention of turning it into some productive facility. They get the land for 2 dollars a meter, and they pay the fee to the government… 5 dollars a meter. Then they invest in basic infrastructure, bringing the costs (and the value of the land) up by 10 additional dollars per meter, for a total of 17 dollars per meter. Then the news of the government’s investment comes and, all of the sudden, the price of the land rights goes up to 100 dollars a meter!



Then come the land disputes. Farmers, seeing the land value skyrocketing and having been paid only 2 dollars per meter, demand from developers an additional compensation. And they go to the authorities asking for justice, and they protest in Saigon or in Hanoi… It wasn’t clear to me how these conflicts usually get settled, but it looks like, at least occasionally, farmers get some additional compensation.

“Here in Vietnam”, our Vietnamese friend said, “we are sort in between China and India. Unlike the way it is in China, here the local governments here cannot decide to allocate a piece of land to an investor; each rights owner has to agree to the transaction. So we are not as efficient as China, but certainly more democratic. However, we don’t get to be as democratic as India…”

What struck me as unique is that in this socialist system ownership rights can be far more extreme than in many market economies. If the owner of a land right, urban or rural, doesn’t agree to transfer his or her right, nothing can be built on that piece of land without authorization. And the point is that sometimes people just do not agree, and you get 4 lanes roads turning 2 lanes along a short stretch, or houses placed right in the middle of a racetrack in a stadium...

"On the Move" Barber Shop

As every day since I got to Vietnam, this Friday was a journey of culinary discoveries. For the first time ever (I love that line, specially because I get to use it a lot lately) I tried Che, which in Vietnam is not a well reputed revolutionary but a sweet soup that can be had hot or cold, and that it is usually served as dessert. It combines fruits and beans, and mine today had also coconut milk. Very recommendable. And, as some of the best things, happened without being planned: Uyen, the administrative assistant of the school, asked me if I wanted to try some just as I was on my way out to find a new place to have lunch.

After the dessert, however, I was still in the need for a bite of… whatever should have come before the dessert… so I headed out for a short “exploring the surroundings” operation. I didn’t find quite what I was looking for, but I did encounter another bit of what will constitute my memories of hot and humid Ho Chi Minh City. In the middle of the sidewalk, quasi blocking the pedestrian transit flow, a small business, testimony of the entrepreneurial spirit of the Vietnamese. It was a mobile barbershop, mobile in the sense that it wasn’t settled in a fixed place, but could be taken to where it could be needed. The C.E.O. and only full time employee of this apparently flourishing business decided to put all he needed in the basket of his bike, along with a chair and a mirror, and just bring the service to the costumers. When I bumped into him in the middle of the sidewalk he was in absolute trance, focusing in his work as I have seen few people focus, while his costumer supervised everything through the mirror. The motorbikes and cars passed one after the other, just a couple of meters away, but somehow this time they seemed not to be as noisy as usual.

When it rains in Saigon...

Since the very first day here, Widhar and I had been telling ourselves that we should get an umbrella or a water poncho. It rains pretty much every day during this season, only that until now it had only rained during office hours, when we were indoors.

I am sure you noticed I said “until now”… Well… today when we where half the way to the school, I felt the first drop… and then the second, and the thousand thirds, and the million forths… we decided to stop and stand on the sidewalk, protected by the salient roof of some store, until the rain stopped. It usually rains unexpectedly and hard, but just for 5 minutes…. Well, not this time. This time it wouldn’t stop. At some point, Widhar disappeared. Alone with my camera and my random thoughts, I tried to capture in images the wilderness of the city under the rain… The motorbikers were still there, as active as always, only that now everyone was wearing a water poncho. For the rest, business as usual.



And just as I was starting to wonder what kind of crazy people venture into such a storm equipped only with that plastic garment and sailed on a two-wheeled vehicle on these streets turned into small rivers and as trafficked as usual, Widhar showed up again, bringing a pair of brand new Saigon-style water ponchos and that big smile of his. So of course we put them on, got on our bikes, rolled up the sleeves of our pants, and resumed our journey.



A day of happenings… Today was also the day of our first blackout in Vietnam. The wind was very strong, and it was clear that it was going to rain again any moment. Then, all of the sudden, the lights went off. And the wind seemed to blow harder. I didn’t feel that surprised; after all, we do get blackouts from time to time in Quito. The people of the School, however, said that it was unusual. It took me a while to understand that it wasn’t unusual to get blackouts in Vietnam, just in the School, since it is placed in the same neighborhood where the Party’s headquarters is, and where many influential people live… A colleague just got to the School a few minutes after the blackout, and told us that the wind was so strong that trees branches were falling on the streets, and that that may have been the cause of the blackout… At any rate, we seized the opportunity to have a long chat with our coworkers about the history of the country, its government and the liberties that there are and that there are not, and possible weekend-travelling locations. Lots of plans already cooking…

So much for the benevolent central planner...

It was a quiet, mildly rainy day that started a little before 6 AM. We were planning on going for a run at 6 in a stadium that is located just half a block away from our alley. On our way out of the house, we bumped into a small magical moment. The landlady was kneeling in front of a small altar that is placed on the floor, by the stairs that lead to the guest rooms. She was holding five lightened incense sticks, while bowing towards the altar in some sort of ritual. The family is Buddhist, like a large part of Vietnam’s population. But you would not see such prayers in other Buddhist countries (Widhar, a Buddhist himself, wasn’t familiar with them), as Vietnamese Buddhism is different than other types, focusing more on ceremonial rituals that on meditation. Thus, it is not infrequent to see small altars, just like the one in our house, in many places around the city… We remained silent for a moment, and waited until she had finished and left the still-burning incenses in the altar before heading outside the house.



We found the stadium right away, and headed right into the racetrack. The first thing we noticed is that it was made out of a seemingly very expensive synthetic material… quite an investment in sports infrastructure, arguably a bit too much for a country with many others evidently unmet needs… Talking about this we started running, among the locals who frequent the place to jog, practice Tai-Chi, or just to hang out and enjoy the open space. Everything was going just fine until we ran into a house.

Yes, well read. A house, right in the middle of the racetrack. The only way of continuing our jog was to go around the corner of the house and resume the track on the other side. Again, the images tell more than a 1.000 words, so check out the pics. What happened? How in a socialist system, where decisions are allegedly centralized, can something like that be? I guess the central planners, benevolent as they may be, were either not such good planners or not as centralized as the name suggests.





Meanwhile in the world, Barack Hussein Obama landed on Saudi Arabia, a visit that is mean to signal that we are living a totally new era in the US foreign policy, which includes new ways of relating to the Arab World…. I love the guy, and I think it is a bit unfair that we stopped paying so much attention to his whereabouts once he made it to the White House. So far, he still seems to be fighting the system, at least some hairy ugly parts of it… way to go.