On How Iván Vallejo Helped Me to Better Know Myself

Who likes group e-mail? I don't. Yet I get plenty of those every day. I can't help but thinking about e-mails meant for groups of people as being somewhere in the middle of the spectrum that goes from very personal messages to online newspapers. The closer and more interconnected the group that the e-mail is addressed to, the closer to the "personal message" side of the spectrum I consider it.

For months, actually for years now, I have been receiving group e-mails from somebody have never met in person. His name is Iván Vallejo, and he is a mountaineer -although he defines himself as an "expeditionary"-. These are emails that are, to my understanding, sent to a relatively large number of people. That is to say, these are the kind of e-mails that I would typically not read or read very briefly, and swiftly take them out of my Inbox. But today, when I received a message from him, I noticed I didn't delete it. Then I looked back at my saved files, and I noticed that apparently I have not deleted any of the many e-mails that I have received from his account...

The question that followed was: What does it mean? Does it say anything about me? Iván Vallejo is a well-known and well-respected person in our country, Ecuador. But I doubt that is the reason why I kept his correspondence - I do receive similar emails from other people with similar characteristics, and I tend to be pretty efficient in vanishing them from my archives. It was then that it clicked that there is something I deeply respect in him, something that I look up to, something that I feel inspired by...

A few years ago, he set a goal to himself: he was to climb the 14 tallest mountains in the world, all above 8 ,000 meters high, and all without oxygen. It was not an easy challenge. Not only did he have to find sponsors to be able to devote himself to this endeavor, but most importantly, he had to overcome thousands of small and huge obstacles along the way. He failed more than once, having to come back from mountains without reaching the top after weeks and even months of preparation, after being just so very close. The only think he had left in those occasions was to turn the page and to start over, not letting the disappointment stop him. And he did star over. Once, twice, as many times as needed. He documented in videos and in his online diary his personal struggles. Not afraid to show the weaknesses, the fears, the lack of air, the pains, the hopes, the frustration, and eventually, the happiness each time a mountain top was reached. And on May 1st. of 2008 he reached the top of the Dhaulagiri, in Nepal, fulfilling his goal.

What did he do next? Well, he set himself a new goal! The new project involves bringing along more people with him. "Somos Ecuador" gathers together group of Ecuadorian mountaineers in order to climb the big mountains of the world, and eventually climb the Himalayas. He proved he could do it on his own. Now he means to lead the way in order to prove that they can do it as a team. This just revealed very clearly what his greater goal is and has been since the beginning. The ultimate purpose of Vallejo's expeditions is to inspire and to mobilize others.

I find here one of the most beautiful metaphors of life, or better, of how to live life to its fullest, facing the challenges with optimism and purpose. It is not about not being fearful, it is about overcoming fear. It is not about the physical strength, it is about the strength of the mind and, above all, of the soul. It is about you as an individual, but just as long as you can also make it about your community, about inspiring and mobilizing other people to set and achieve their own and the shared goals. And this morning, as I discovered that I have not deleted any of the messages that I have received from Vallejo, I learned that these are amongst the values that I hold in greatest esteem, and that I really want to learn more and practice more of. Looking at the picture that I am posting here (which I borrowed from his website), taken from the top of Mont Blanc, I see both the beauty of this landscape as seen from the furthest point above, and the beauty of the path behind, the testimony of the struggle within each of the expeditionaries' hearts, and their success.

This is what I learned from Iván Vallejo about myself. I thank him for that, and wish all of the best to the "Somos Ecuador" team who are currently in Huaraz, Perú.

Back to Blogging

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…

Tres sitios en Nha Trang

Nha Trang es una ciudad relativamente pequeña en la costa vietnamita, a 10 horas en bus de Saigón. Su principal atractivo es su playa, pero también tiene sitios llenos de historia y cultura, sitios que muestran una cara distinta de este país diverso, rebosante de historia, y de un entorno natural hermoso, frondoso, y colorido. Si uno tomara un bote en esta playa y se adentrara en el Pacífico siguiendo una línea recta en la dirección apropiada terminaría en las costas ecuatorianas… pero acá, al otro lado del mundo, la vida de playa se siente distinta. Las motocicletas ubicuas se mezclan con cometas, banderas rojas con la hoz y el martillo, catedrales católicas, estatuas gigantes de Buddha y templos ancestrales del pueblo Cham.

Se me antoja dejar memoria escrita de tres, de los muchos lugares de por aquí que merecen ser recordados. El primero es la catedral: un templo católico construido en piedra en lo alto de un monte, y que parece dominar una parte importante de la ciudad. El templo como tal es precioso, pero lo más llamativo es su contraste con las decenas de banderas rojas que decoran las calles de la ciudad. Las hay con dos motivos: la bandera del país (roja completa con una estrella amarilla en el medio) y el símbolo comunista de la hoz y el martillo.



Una segunda parada fue una estatua de Buda gigante, también ubicada en la cima de un cerro, y que parece reinar sobre un sector de Nha Tram en el que la catedral católica empieza a perderse de vista. La estatua es parte de un complejo más amplio que incluye un monasterio, una estatua de Buda dormido muy conocida en esta región, y un cementerio. La llegada al templo fue mágica. Desde abajo se podía escuchar las voces de los monjes al interior de la Pagoda, cantando plegarias de fe con sonidos extraños pero hermosos. Una mezcla de mantras y música sacra que, intercalados con el tañido de una campana, creaban una atmósfera solemne.

Las escaleras de subida al Buda Dormido estuvieron llenas de ancianos y discapacitados pidiendo caridad, una escena en extremo cotidiana y conmovedora de esta Conchinchina de contrastes. También habían otras gentes, variopintas, curiosas, incluyendo una madre con su pequeño hijo vietnamita, a quien había vestido de pies a cabeza con un uniforme de camuflaje que tenía bordado en los brazos la bandera de Estados Unidos y en el pecho la leyenda “US Army”. A nadie llamó la atención, pero yo no pude dejar de mirar al niño por un largo tiempo, cautivado por lo fácil que es hacerle desplantes a la historia en nuestra vida cotidiana, y con algo de desazón.



Luego de la estatua de Buda Dormido continuamos nuestro camino hacia la estatua gigante de Buda en la cima del cerro. Hacer estatuas de Buda, hay que decirlo, no es un asunto fácil. Lo complicado no es, como uno que otro se apresurará a comentar, la barriga. Lo complicado es la expresión de la cara. No puede estar muy contento, pero tampoco puede verse triste. Una buena estatua de Buda es aquella que retrata al príncipe simplemente en paz, en perfecta armonía interior y con el mundo que lo rodea.



Por una de las escaleras a las que se puede acceder desde la cima de la montaña se llega a un cementerio, en donde todos los nichos son pequeños, conforme a las necesidades de la tradición budista de cremar a sus muertos. Incluso las paredes de la propiedad están hechas de estos nichos y coronadas por tejas rojas. En muchos de los nichos, además del nombre y fecha de la muerte de la persona cuyas cenizas albergan, puede verse una fotografía en blanco y negro. Las fotos muestran rostros de todas las edades, la mayoría inexpresivos… En medio de todos los nombres desconocidos encontré dos nichos, uno al lado del otro, con rostros de personas jóvenes, varón y mujer. ¿Cuál habrá sido su historia? ¿Se conocieron? ¿Quién los cremó, quién colocó las fotos y la inscripción, quién los lloró? Dos perfectos desconocidos que vivieron hace muchos años al otro lado del mundo, y cuya existencia y desaparición no harán ninguna diferencia en la vida de nadie en el resto del planeta… O talvez no tanto. Talvez hicieron una diferencia en mi vida ese día, cuando por mera casualidad me detuve frente a sus cenizas.

El tercer sitio también se encuentra en una elevación, ésta no tan alta como los dos anteriores. Se trata de las torres de Po Nagar Cham. Estas estructuras, la más antigua de las cuales fue levantada en el siglo 7, han servido como sitios de culto religioso a diferentes grupos que, a lo largo de los años, han ocupado este territorio. Sin embargo, por su origen y características arquitectónicas y por el uso que se les ha dado durante la mayor parte del tiempo, se las considera representativas de los Cham, un grupo étnico con mucha historia en esta región del mundo. Una dosis de historia, de esas de más de 200 o de 500 años que me cuestan mucho asimilar a plenitud, quizás por falta de costumbre.

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...

El Barrio Chino de Saigón

Como si andar en bicicleta en medio de motos en Saigón no fuera suficiente para experimentar el Asia a carne viva, decidimos darnos un paseo dominguero por el barrio Chino de esta ciudad (Cholon, Chinatown… el nombre queda al gusto del cliente…)

La primera parada fue determinada por el hambre de media mañana sin desayuno, y fue en un restaurante en donde se podía pedir Dim Sum. Para quienes esto les suena a Chino (impresión bien fundada, por lo demás), aclararé que se trata es una comida tradicional que suele comerse en el desayuno o almuerzo, se sirve con té, y consiste en un conjunto de bocados que vienen en porciones pequeñas. Uno elige los platos que quiere, y típicamente te sirven pequeñas porciones de 2 o 3 bocados. Me recuerda al concepto de las tapas Españolas, solo que aquí en vez de que a uno le sirvan paella, jamones, o quesos; le sirven alimentos también buenos, sabrosos, pero de los que por lo general uno no sabe el nombre. La visita al restaurante vino acompañada de dos pequeñas experiencias turísticas. Primero, es la primera vez que veo en un Menú que se ofrecen platos en base a aletas de tiburón. Me hizo pensar en toda la matanza de estos animales solo para extraerles las aletas, me impresionó. La segunda fue menos amarga: conocí por primera vez (aunque estoy seguro que buscando bien en mi lindo país encontraré más de uno) un baño con un urinario que da de frente a una ventana grande, abierta, y expuesta a una calle transitada y a edificios con balcones perfectamente dispuestos para la que los espectadores no se pierdan un detalle de lo que pasa detrás de la vitrina…



El “plato fuerte” del día, sin embargo, vino después, con la visita a las pagodas de Quan Am y Phuoc An Hoi Quan. Estos lugares no son solo interesantes por su arquitectura colorida y caprichosa, sino también porque a ellos concurren grandes cantidades de fieles de una forma de Budhismo (que no me quedó claro si era puramente Chino o ya incorporaba las variaciones Vietnamitas a esta fe) que, a diferencia de las prácticas estándar de esta religión, no enfatiza tanto la meditación sino la realización de rituales en donde la gente venera a una notable variedad de personajes sagrados. En la puerta antes de entrar, así como en los templos católicos venden velas para que los fieles coloquen a los santos, aquí venden inciensos. La gente compra por lo general un paquete de entre 30 y 50, y los consume en un lapso de 15 o 20 minutos.

El ritual es el mismo para todos: primero toman un puñado de inciensos (5 o 6) y los encienden en candelabros o pequeñas estufas que están distribuidas por todo el lugar. Luego, se dirigen a la figura frente a la cual van a orar (no estoy seguro si orar es el término adecuado en este caso, pero valga para efectos de la descripción) y sostienen los inciensos encendidos por encima de su cabeza, a veces tocando la frente con sus manos, a veces de pie, a veces de rodillas. Las expresiones son de absoluta devoción, incluso se puede ver ocasionalmente lágrimas en los ojos de la gente. Y luego de la oración toman los inciensos, los ubican en un depósito de arena (de los que también hay muchos distribuidos por todo el lugar), y se mueven en dirección de una nueva figura frente a la cual el ritual de veneración se repite desde el principio, una y otra vez, hasta agotar el paquete original de inciensos. Cada 5 minutos los depósitos de arena se llenan de inciensos encendidos, y un trabajador del lugar pasa limpiándolos, arrojando al incinerador todos los inciensos, prácticamente enteros.

Comidas, sitios, creencias tan ajenas para mi, pero que son simplemente cotidianas para tanta, tanta gente…

Placidity

Saturday night was just right, from the start until the end. I started by obtaining the most basic survival resource, which I had longed for since I arrived in Vietnam: Cheese! Real cheese! We found the place to get it (the same French restaurant where we celebrated Widhar’s birthday), and I just couldn’t hold myself. It is unbelievable how something that you are used to have on a regular basis and suddenly becomes scarce can turn into the most precious treasure.

Cheese in hand, we needed to stop by our place in order to drop it in the fridge. As we arrived, we found a very typical scene: in front of the house, on the street, a few small plastic chairs had been placed and the landlady was sitting there with her mother and her son, having a relaxed and happy chat. When she saw us arriving, she promptly took out additional chairs, and invited us to sit and chat with them. It was a very pleasant conversation indeed… although I missed at least half of it. Well, the lady, lovely as she is, doesn’t speak a word in English, and her mother speaks a little less than her. Luckily enough the son does, and between his occasional translations and Djudju’s “Basic Vietnamese Phrases” Book (I should comment on the chapter “romance and sex” of that book one of these days) we managed to learn a little more about our host and her family.



Then, straight to our last stop of the night: Café Serenata, a sound recommendation of Lonely Planet: “Tables here are scattered around a lush, pond-filled courtyard and inside a charming villa. Popular with couples after dark with live music some nights”… and that was one of those nights! The Menu had the most unique feature: there were two sets of prices, one for the day, and one for after dark (s.t.f.e.: a case of effective price discrimination).

And after the talk, the music came. There was a small band that played alone first, and then two lady singers followed. The first of them sang exclusively in Vietnamese, and had a very strict routine for each piece: First, with the most charming smile and a very delicate and feminine voice, she announced the name of the song. Second, her face turned inexpressive and she looked as if she hated each and everyone in the room while she stood there waiting for the band to start playing. Third, just as the melody started to sound and as in an act of magic the smile reappeared, and she graciously sang a song that, although always indecipherable to me, was unequivocally romantic.



The second singer, on the other hand, was specialized in foreign language songs. She didn’t have a routine as structured as her predecessor: just sat there and got the job done. It was, however, a great performance. Inspiration followed. Smiles. Pure placidity.