3/31/2004

Not only bad news from Venezuela

Yesterday the Devil's Excrement a Blog on Venezuela posted a note on the current legalization process of land by the planning office of the Baruta district of Caracas. The interesting thing that it's mentioned is the fact that for the first time, people is really getting land titles, not just the land, but a legal document that they can use to mortgage the property and do all sort of commercial transactions. A revolution in the pure De Soto's style to resolve the mistery of Capital. CEDICE has been also working on the issues of the informal economy and recently Wladimir Zanoni its Chief analyst on the issue was mentioned on NPR


3/30/2004

Territorial conflict between Chile and Bolivia

This morning the Washington Post Published and interesting report on the current sparks between Bolivia and Chile about their territorial conflict because of the land that Bolivia lost in the 1870 Pacific War with Peru and Chile.


Although more than 100 years had passed since that bloody war, the political irresponsibles (Evo Morales, Chavez and it's gang) in Bolivia are trying to capitalize on the feelings of citizens for a land that is no more a part of Bolivia.

The supporters of this claims to Chile argue that the lack of access to the sea has determined that they should remain impoverished for most of their lives. The argument is a fallacy and makes me remember the big lie that ecuadorians lived for most of the last 50 years crying for the lost riches of the Amazon. I don't deny the fact that the land was taken by force, invasion, and pure greed of the military in Peru that always considered Ecuador a part of their country. But the reality is that Ecuadorean military used this battle cry to grab huge benefits in all aspects of society. After 6 or 7 years of closing this chapter the Ecuadorian armed forces still are not able find a proper role in Ecuadorian society, and the corruption flaws of the armed forces still go unresolved and they are reluctant to be questioned.

I should also point out that with todays techonology is possible to live without access to the sea and be a rich nation. A case in point was Berlin that being walled for more than 40 years was able to manage huge amounts of development using planes to bring everything that the city needed. Also the Swiss have been landlocked all their lives, and it's one of the nations with a better standard of living.

What makes societies rich is not their vast natural resources or access to the sea or Oil wells in the Amazon basin but is actually a government that protects rule of Law, does not grant privileges, respects private property and free trade, and among all that respect it's citizens and privileges the Human capital and makes all the conditions for the individual creativity to spark.

If Bolivia wants to get in the path of development and need access to sell their products to the world markets, sign a free trade agreement with the Chilean (and all the surrounding nations), follow their example of liberalization of the local economy, stop crying for bitter episodes of the past and start looking to the future.

3/24/2004

Hayek passed away 12 years ago

Yesterday, March 23 was the 12th anniversary of Friederich A. Hayek passing away. Hayek was an influential figure on the Free Market movement that wrote Road to Serfdom in 1944. The book was reproduced in Readers Digest condensed book section (first and only time to appear at the front of the magazine and not at the back as usual), and featured as cartoons also. Recently there was a celebration for the 60th anniversary of Road to Serfdom . My Dad wrote yesterday some recolections about his meeting with Hayek at a Mont Pelerin Society meeting in Berlin. Dad was the first ecuadorian member of that organization in 1981.


I reproduced the article verbatin below in case the link in spanish dies (sorry in spanish):


Friedrich A. Von Hayek

Verdades Evidentes

by Rómulo López-Sabando

Hoy 23 de marzo se cumplen 12 años del fallecimiento (1992) de uno de los hombres más trascendentes e ilustres en la historia de la libertad: Friedrich A. von Hayek. Austriaco de nacimiento (1900), nacionalizado inglés en 1938, abogado, filósofo, economista, maestro universitario, dictó cátedra en lógica, historia, filosofía, economía, estadística, moral, derecho y ciencias políticas.

Se hizo acreedor al Premio Nobel en Economía en 1974, según la Academia de Ciencias de Suecia, por “su contribución pionera a la teoría del dinero y de las fluctuaciones económicas, y por su original análisis de la interdependencia de los fenómenos económicos, políticos y sociales”.
Fue miembro de la Academia británica, obtuvo sendos doctorados en Derecho y en Ciencias Políticas. Doctor en la Universidad de Viena en 1927 y poseedor de muchos Doctorados Honoris Causas en todo el mundo, Profesor en las universidades de Londres (Economía y Estadística), Chicago (Ciencias morales y sociales) Friburgo, Salzburgo y Profesor invitado en muchísimos otros claustros académicos de América y Europa. Fue también director del Instituto Austriaco de Investigaciones Económicas.

Cuando el mundo vivía el horror del totalitarismo estatista y las convulsiones morales, económicas y sociales, que aherrojaron la libertad, derivados del nacional-socialismo (Hitler), del internacional socialismo (Stalin) y del socialismo corporativo italiano (fascismo de Mussolini), escribió en 1944 su magistral obra “Camino de Servidumbre” en la que con realismo social y profundidad académica exponía que los gobiernos no debían intervenir en la economía para controlar la inflación ni otras variables económicas, excepto la oferta monetaria estatal, cuyo crecimiento es el causante de la pobreza, de la pérdida del poder de compra del ingreso, de las desvalorizaciones monetarias, el deterioro social y moral y el vector más dinámico de la corrupción.

Escribió más de 50 libros de carácter científico. Sus estudios sobre Filosofía Social y Análisis económicos son el sustento del desarrollo, progreso, avances científicos y proliferación tecnológica que asombra y beneficia al mundo contemporáneo. Sus consejos son vitales para rescatar la libertad que día a día se pierde.

En su monumental obra sobre “Derecho, Legislación y Libertad” Hayek trata sobre el concepto de orden, sobre las fuentes generadoras de orden, las propiedades y características de los órdenes espontáneos, los órdenes espontáneos naturales, y el hecho de que los órdenes espontáneos son resultado de la sumisión de sus elementos a ciertas normas de conducta, rescatando los antiguos conceptos filosóficos sobre los orígenes del orden y de la naturaleza de los órdenes espontáneos (cosmos) y las organizaciones (taxis).

Según el CEES de Guatemala, Hayek en su visión y profunda reflexión sobre la libertad., se refiere a la diferencia de sentido en dos interpretaciones de la libertad económica. La una, la concepción original, que puede interpretarse como la “ausencia de coacción” que impide al individuo a actuar libremente respetando el derecho de los demás, o bien la “ausencia del poder que obliga” al individuo a actuar en contra de su voluntad. La otra concepción a que se refiere, es la libertad económica. Siendo hoy muy común la creencia de que para liberar al hombre de preocupaciones económicas es menester responsabilizar a los gobiernos, cobra mucha actualidad el discurso de Hayek, quien nos hace ver el riesgo que corremos al adoptar tal actitud, de perder la libertad en el sentido tradicional de la palabra” por el intervencionismo gubernamental.
En mi calidad de miembro único en el Ecuador de la Sociedad Mont Pelerín, fundada en 1947 por Hayek en Ginebra, (y a la que yo había ingresado en 1981), en una de las reuniones anuales de esta institución académica (Berlín Occidental 1982), tuve el honor de conocerlo, platicar y escucharlo y mientras, junto a él, navegábamos por el Rhin conocí, asombrado y estupefacto el cruel y degradante Muro de Berlín levantado por el totalitarismo de la Unión de Repúblicas Socialistas Soviéticas (URSS).

Los muros y cortinas de hierro, que parecen cosas del pasado aun perviven, pese a las experiencias fatales, para coartar la libertad y someter al hombre a designios totalitarios y fundamentalistas, sin respeto a la vida, la propiedad y el honor ajeno. En sus obras “Fundamentos de la Libertad” y “Fatal Arrogancia” conceptúa el rescate de conceptos y valores tan necesarios en los tiempos que corren.

Venezuela on NPR

National Public Radio (NPR), has been running this week a special on Latin American cities. Although I have disagreed with the comments on Guatemala because of the innacuracies yesterday, today's comments on Venezuela about informal economy were superb. It featured Wladimir Zanoni from CEDICE's projects on Informal economy. CEDICE the free-market think tank was recently recognized within Atlas's Templeton Freedom Awards Program


3/22/2004

OSAMA

Seems like a good movie to see. Welcome Eneas to the blogging world.


Good News in El Salvador

Yesterday general elections in el Salvador between presidential candidates Tony Saca and Schafik Handal took place. The victory for Saca apparently was overwhelming given the high percentage participation of the voters, over 60% for a country used to see rates of barely over 50%.


The people of El Salvador choose wisely for a continuity in reforms, which is making this country a Central American Tiger. What a shame the lack of conformity of FMLN former guerrilla candidate Handal of the results of the election.

El Salvador showed yesterday several important things. Changes and free market reforms can be sold to the people if they bring positive effects to the population. The reason why so many countries in Latin America have apparently rejected the free market reforms has been because of the lack of results or benefits for the general population. The answer to development problems is more reforms and not less reforms. Salvador has proven the contrary and asides from the social problem of the Maras (gang violence) that has to be solved this time, the people in el Salvador seems to be determined to continue the path of prosperity and development.

Equally important is the fact that ARENA is not controlling the congress because that is a powerful reminder to ARENA that they can not in any way deceive people's hopes. FMLN will have to learn also that the only way to become a significant player in the Salvadorian politics is to get away from the revolutionary practices of the past (which they seem to be doing) and to get away from the left rhetoric of class warfare and revenge (which they seem to be having a hard time accepting).

What is happening in el Salvador right now should be also a sign that the reforms are not lost at all as it seemed after the elections of Lula, Gutierrez, the overthrow of President Sanchez de Lozada and the nostalgic feelings for the time of Che Guevara in Argentina. El Salvador and ARENA particularly have a great responsibility in carrying the torch of freedom. Everybody from left to right is seeing what is happening and everybody is going to be keen in making it work and not work. There is too much at stake now in El Salvador. The challenge now for ARENA is to make a reality in a widespread way the benefits of a free society to the vast majority of it's population.

3/18/2004

Inmigrants settle in Suburbia

The Economist of March 13 has an interesting article about inmigrant trends about where they live when they come to the US. The article points out the fact that Hispanics more and more are settling into the suburbs. This is another reason why Huntington is wrong.


3/17/2004

Blogging and good news from Ecuador

One of the reasons why I started this blog was to force myself to write after 3 year hiatus of not doing it. I have to admit that after a trial period of 1 month I am satisfied with it although the discipline of trying to write everyday is harsh.


During this trial period I have discovered what RSS is, how trackbacks work and how ahead of the news you can be if you use Newsreaders or aggregators. I think I am hook into this and ready to go the next step further which is start paying for this service. I know there are some "free" options out there, but as I told one friend, I am not willing to spend more time learning more code from what I need to continue doing this for free.

Let's see then if I am able to continue blogging and making the paid subscription services of typepad worth. I have added a wishlist in case somebody out there considers this Blog worth reading and would like to make a gift. I have been considering also adding a Pay Pal account to receive donations or payments, but I am not so sure that I want to start keeping track of receipts and donations to declare taxes for uncle Sam. Maybe if in the future if I become good enough at this and people find my comments worth reading them, I will start accepting donations. In the meantime this Blog is just for my pure pleasure and readers are welcome to enjoy it too.

Finally looking out for some information to add to this BLOG I found this article by Carlos Alberto Montaner in english and spanish. What I like about this article is the fact that I have notice that Ecuadoreans (and I include myself) because of the recent political and economic crisis of the late 90's and early millenium, have become pessimistic and cynical about our future as a country. I don't know how much of what Montaner says is real and how much of it is just a facade that somebody painted to him (the cynical inside me). Nonetheless if this holds to be true it will be worth praising it and a proof that not all is lost in my native country, there is hope and future in it.

3/15/2004

Get ready for fried Cicadas

I grossed out after reading this morning's Washington Times forecast for an expected Cicada Invasion to surface after 17 years of pleasant sleep on the soil. The invasion is forecasted to be like the egiptian plagues of the bible and its expected to last for a month. It seems that we will have to get ready to cook them and try all sort of recipes with Cicadas during May and early june.


New way of doing politics

I was not at all surprised on sunday night when I learned about the Socialist Party winning the elections after the stupid attack on the trains on 11-M as the spanish are calling the tragic events of March 11 at the train system.


Instead I have been feeling uneasy by the results and the subsequent commentaries on different BLOGS I have been reading about the possibility that the elections have been turned upside down by the tragic events. Will this means that potentially dangerous groups might be targeting elections on the very last days before they take place? Can this be called a victory for Al Qaeda?

I don't think it matters if it was ETA or Al Qaeda the authors, they are equally destructive and equally evil when they hit innocent people to accomplish their wicked objectives. Terrorism I believe only has two ways of being fought. With a strong hand, lots of intelligence and going to the roots of the problem.

It seems to me that Aznar government so far did well engaging into fighting ETA with a strong hand and choking their leadership. That is the only response possible. On the other hand they went the wrong direction when they engaged into the fight of terrorism internationally up-front. By this I mean that perhaps Aznar should have been collaborative with the war but not engaging into it. This proved to be fatally tragic on one hand and on the other hand it didn't bring home any additional benefit, not politically and not defeating ETA.

The US has definitively to get rid at all cost of the threat of Al Qaeda, for political reasons and for security reasons. Too much effort although is spend on defeating minor players (like Saddan and his cronies) on the scene and doing too much international activism. Defeating Taliban regime and capturing Bin Laden would have been more than enough in the war on terror. That would have been a strong statement that nobody should mess with the US. Instead of that Bin Laden whereabouts are unknown and a difficult war on Iraq has been fought. I don't deny that the world is better off without this fellow copycat of Hitler. But that was a problem that should have been resolved by the Iraqis themselves.

Republicans and some War Democrats don't seem to understand that in many parts of the world in distress for their wicked rulers or by the corruption of their government officials, many people like to think that their problems are the consequence of the American or European imperialism. All their problems and misfortunes are according to their theory caused by the interventionist policies of another country. The reality is that their problems have been caused by the lack of their citizens of tacking responsibility of their decisions, at elections, electing the worst or politician giving the worst to win the elections.

Obviously I don't deny the fact that some situations started because of that intervention, but definitively is the people's choice to change that. For instance the American's intervention support of the Sha one way or another caused a violent outburst that ended with the deposition of him and the dictatorship of conservative Clerics. Fast forward 20 years later, the best thing that the US could do about Iran is stay away from there. The people is finally taking care of their problems, and even though the last elections were severely compromised because of the clerics rejection of the reformist candidates the people more and more is pressing for more secular society inside Islamic world.

That would have been the case of Iraq if it wasn't because the US tried to accelerate things. Everybody is better without him, but Iraqi people will always feel that their problems could only be resolved with the external help, and for instance some stupid people (hopefully not) will always be tempted to continue helping would be Saddams to become rulers. This nation building policy does not help other countries to learn how build their own country.

What I liked about Haiti situation as it started was that nobody on the international arena dared to get into the conflict. It seemed as if the conflict was going to be resolved by Haitians. Unfortunately at the very last minute the US and the French stepped in. My worst case scenario for Haiti (hopefully not) sooner or later the Haitians have not learned the lesson, and Aristide or any would be dictator will be taking power. And that has been the case in Haiti in the last 200 years.

Learning is a difficult process that only can be accomplished when you suffer the results of your decisions. The world is better without the Duvaliers, Chavezes, Husseins, Noriegas, or Castros, but they have to be taken out by the people who have the power to support or elect them. Otherwise there is huge risk of seeing every 10 years a replay of the same events. There are no shortcuts into the nation building process only when people are made responsible of their decisions the countries will have incentives to have better societies no matter how long it takes.

As for the US regarding the fight on terrorism I think they should focus on hunting Bin Laden and deactivating all the sleeper cells around. In the meantime stop loosing time in the nation building bussiness.

3/12/2004

Scared at the airport

Life Liberty and Property Blog features an interesting encounter of a Spanish member of the IMF with the USA immigration authorities. Check also HIT and RUN Reason's Magazine interesting discussion about the implications of this episode.


The way I see it as a foreigner in the USA it's that the story is really scary and we can not expect anything less whenever anybody travels to the US. The bad part of this story is the sheer abuse of force by immigration officers, instead of conducting a questioning without handcuffing the passenger and respecting his dignity (why treat him as delinquent alien instead of presuming his innocence).

Moreover the lack of protection by a lawyer or at least the embassy or the IMF as granted by the sixth amendment in the US constitution (that does not make distinction between Citizens and non - Citizens) is regrettable

Article [VI.]
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense.



The interesting part is that the victim was member of a multinational organization that has some sort of privileges like not needing any sort of visa approval, not paying taxes in the US, and a quasi diplomatic status. What would have happened if the victim in case was a simple traveler without all this added protections.

Don't get me wrong I am not against questioning and this is something that we will have to get used to in a new world order with terrorist threats around us, but that does not justify trashing the constitution or violating your rights. Maybe this is a case for the Institute for Justice

3/11/2004

Idiocy strikes again

This morning that I heard the news from a friend that was asking me about the terrible terrorist attack in Madrid I felt again what happened 3 years ago on september 11.


At first I couldn't believe that I did not see anything on the morning news while I was getting ready to leave to the office. It was later when talking to some friends that they told me that the news were on the TV but most networks only mentioned it and then continued talking about the campaign. I was surprised by the sheer parochialism of the TV media in the US (at least during the morning) of not giving enough importance to it while in other parts of the world it was front news and some channels as some friends told me were just pluggin in the spanish channels directly into the local network.

This sort of attacks rather than advancing political objectives of the terrorist organizations as one might think only pollarizes the public opinion into more security and total rejection of those tactics. What has september 11 brought to Al QAEDA besides offering terror for a while to a nation? 2 nations that were dominated by rogue rulers have been rebuilt or are in the process of being rebuilt. The terrorist and rogue rulers have been hunt down like rats, and their objectives so far are less and less far from being accomplished.

Maybe I am naive but I don't see how this terrorist attacks are bringing forward the terrorist objectives. Sooner or later this terrorist attacks are going to wake up the muslim world into total rejection of this tactics, and their objectives will be totally wiped out of the minds of simpatizers of this idiotic war against the western world and it's values.

You can check more interesting discussions on what is happening in Spain at Daniel Drezner's website.

Also the Main Spanish newspaper El PAIS is accesible at least today without subscription

P.S. While searching for news after posting this I found this list of victims. This is for those who have friends in Spain, but also reminded me of a conference by José Calleja, Journalist and Member of Basta YA during a workshop on Terrorism and Rule of Law in Colombia in which he emphasized that only when we remember the name of the victims, recognize them politically and stop counting them as statistics the war on terrorism will be won.

Right Now Venezuela is another Cuban province

I heard last night on my way home a funny note on NPR radio about how Cuban doctors that have been brought to Venezuela to help move forward Chavez Bolivarian Revolution. Nonetheless this doctors once they settle have been trying to flee Venezuela through the Colombian border or going into hiding. The comment from one cuban doctor was "Right Now Venezuela is another Cuban province"


3/09/2004

Huntington's new book causes ruffles

I have to admit that when I read Samuel P. Huntington's article in Foreign Policy about the Hispanic Challenge I felt outraged by its conclusions


This article is article featured by a number of blogs like Tyler Cowen's Marginal Revolution that features a link to Daniel Drezner about several facts that Huntington touches in his article.

My main concern with Huntington article is that he rants all over the article about the lack of integration of the Hispanic community into the wider American experience without ever touching the institutional reasons why this happens. He mentions as possible explanation the fact that this group feels proud of its language and its traditions, but he misses the point totally when the fact is that most immigrants feel proud of their heritage. Many immigrants leave their country with great pain and just because they face economic hardships or political intolerance at home.

People come to the US primarily not because it's culture but because the economic opportunities it brings. My guess is that many when they arrive and start discovering the intricacies of the American culture discover also its virtues. Liking the American culture does not means that you reject your own culture. Having loyalties to both cultures does not mean that you hate one or the other. Latinos as I have experienced in my short time here in the US admire the American system and they want to participate more on it.

Currently the biggest stumbling block, as opposed to what happened in the past with other ethnic groups, for integration I believe is the immigration law. Latinos or Hispanics are less and less integrated because of the legal system that leave little or no room to be here in the US legally and with the same rights as any American. This forces Latinos to live in ghettos permanently and not as a stage in their settling in this country. The ghetto provides shelter and anonymity in a world where being illegal is becoming more difficult. Why leave the ghettos and settle in a community where you can be easily pointed out as an outsider. This I believe is the reason why less and less Latinos are refusing to learn the Language and integrate. The ghetto provides them security from the police and the ability to remain there without learning the language. Why move to a neighborhood were he will be pointed out as a foreigner and potentially be singled out by the authorities?

On the other hand I agree with Huntington’s allusion to the fact that the American culture is going to be affected by the huge influx of Latinos to the US, but my question is what is wrong with it? Latinos have a lot of virtues that are cherished and are desirable like family values, appreciation for the history and hard work. I don’t see where Huntington sees the problem. If he is worried about the ever increasing influence of the Democratic Party on Latino’s it’s because the Democratic Party has opened the doors to them. The Republican Party until recently had paid no attention to them, and have crazy guys like Representative Tom Tancredo (by the way his last name sounds Portuguese) or Pat Buchanan that are the most outspoken anti-immigration or anti-Hispanic. I will definitively agree with Peter Carlson in a review of Huntington’s Article at the Washington Post. He says that at some point a new crisis will send a new flood of immigrants to America and some fully assimilated Hispanic politician or pundit or Harvard professor will denounce this new comers citing their ignorance, their barbaric customs and so forth and he will at last find a Hispanic soul brother.

Other comments on Huntington's Book:

The Economist

Civil War

If things continue as they are currently most likely civil war is going to break out in Venezuela. Unfortunately, Chavez again and again has deceived the opposition leaving two possible solutions, either he resigns or allows the referendum to recall him.


I just read a highly emotional article article about civil war and its effects in Spain and an analogy to today's Venezuela. I have to admit that I have always felt curious about the trilogy of Jose María Gironella about the Spanish Civil war, but I have always been deterred by the huge size of the books. Maybe one, but 3? Anyhow, the article in warns about the potentially dangerous trend developing in Venezuela.

Not doing so will make him face the ever increasing violence from angry Venezuelans that see no alternative to a government that keeps closing or stumbling every political alternative to a pacific solution over the continuos violations of human rights and democracy through the Chavez Bolivarian Revolution.

Venezuela as the article points out had it's last civil war over a hundred years ago. It seems that Chavez does not care at all about it's effects.

3/08/2004

One point for the Mexicans Zero for the Rule of Law

It seems that the Mexicans are going to get away of the increased controls of the USA new Visit program that has raised so many concerns from the advocates of privacy and from Latino leaders in the US that complain about the fact that Latin travelers are asked to be fingerprinted and taken a photo at the port of entrance, while Europeans don't get any sort of treatment like this.


My problem with this new security measures is the fact that why some countries yes and why some not. The US inmigration program even it affects the privacy of the travelers has the right to screen foreigners and see if they are international criminals or terrorists that try to sneak into the country. Aside from the fact that this is a clear violation of your privacy I don't see what else in the short term the US can do to protect itself from that threat.

No where I see troubles is the fact that this new fingerprinting does not apply equally to all people coming into the US, why the Europeans (and soon the Mexicans) are free from that requirement? Have the state department not seen that there are a lot of would be terrorists that are breeding their seed of hatred in Europe? Many of them are European nationals and they are free to come to the US. On the other hand the vast majority of Latins are people coming into the US to seek better opportunities and enjoy the rule of Law that characterizes this country, why they are treated so badly being required to do all this security. Most of them don't even have the same feelings of hatred to the US as many people from the left have in Europe.

I think that the fingerprinting and screaning of foreign visitors is inevitable in this new world. The only thing that we ought to ask then is for an equal treatment, and rules for everybody, not for a special group of people.

In the long run, frontiers have to be open, and the US has to be out of the nation building business. As we have seen recently this is only bringing hatred to the US and millions of taxpayers dollars pour in nation rebuilding abroad.

3/04/2004

For those who came late

Searching for information on how the explain the Venezuelan conflict to the ones that are just getting in touch with it I came across a video in several languages that is worth seeing to understand the whole conflict. Of course there is a little bit of propaganda on them, but nonetheless very accurate on the reasons why Chavez must go.


All these links can be found in VenezuelaNet.org

NUEVE MINUTOS DE VIDEO SOBRE LA SITUACION ACTUAL DE VENEZUELA

Haga click aquí

NOVE MINUTI DI VIDEO SULLA SITUAZIONE ATTTUALE NEL VENEZUELA

Clicca quì

NINE-MINUTE VIDEO ABOUT THE ACTUAL SITUATION IN VENEZUELA

Click here

VIDÉO DE NINE-MINUTE AU SUJET DE LA SITUATION RÉELLE AU VENEZUELA

Clic ici

3/03/2004

Congratulations Dad!!

Congratulations Dad. He was recently elected a member of the Comité de Control Cívico de la Corrupción (Civic Committe for the corruption control) in Ecuador, as a representative of the universities.


The CCCC is an independant organism that has less than a decade of existance in Ecuador. Their members are appointed by several members of the civil society like Chambers of industries, Universities, unions and ratified by the congress.

Traditionally the comitte has been in the hands of people that although might had good intentions has been biased by being most of their members foes of the market system.

Hopefully his nomination will bring a little more balanced view to that institution and together with the well deserve prestige of their members have a more effective role uncovering corruption in Ecuador. Ecuador in recent years have been considered as one of the most corrupt countries in the world. The CCCC has so far being considered one of the few organizations that have been pointing out corruption and have a high reputation. However most of their recommendations point out the moral problem but generally have been very unspecific about the institutional causes of corruption.

Corruption in my point of view is not only a moral problem, but also a transaction cost problem. I am not naive as some free market friends to think that only economic analysis and a simpler rules will solve the problem. Corruption is a problem that should be fought on both areas, the institutional and the moral roots of it. Corruption fight should not be a monopoly of the left, our free market friends should be more outspoken against corruption.

Other links related

El Telegrafo

Woman surrenders after girl found alive

Last night I was struggling inmsomnia trying to get tired to get sleep browsing the internet, and I found this news. I think as a parent that this is one of the most difficult things to face, to loose your children or your loved ones to a criminal that abducts them.


That made me think again of a conversation that I had with a friend in Ecuador few days ago who is getting into the bussiness of security tags to track products and perhaps in the near future to have it implanted under your skin to follow you while you shop, visit the doctor or to pay at the cashier without ever taking out a credit card.

I am worried about privacy issues as any other libertarian but I have to admit that I find more benefits than problems in having such a device. Specially if you live in countries outside of the USA where the chances of being abducted are certainly higher (although Child abductions like the one I mentioned at the beginning are far too common here in the US). A product that allows you to be tracked via GPS like the one offered by a Mexican company is surely a hit product.

Although some people are already developing devices to block them to protect people's privacy, in the end I believe that the devices designed to track down people when they are in danger, will have overriding mechanisms to avoid the blocking and transmit the finding data. I think that the current discussion from the Activists for privacy or the Lawmakers should not be whether this kind of devices should exist or not or if they should be regulated, but rather how to protect yourself from being spyied by the government or marketing companies and how to use the technology for your protection and best interest.





3/01/2004

Another protest or time is running up for Chavez?

It seems that Chavez is scared of what happened to Aristide. Otherwise he won't be vociferating all his attacks against the US, and saying that he would not leave power as runaway Aristide.




The alleged fraud of the signatures collection because the signature does not match the handwriting of the data like name and ID number is to say the least laughable. How many times have you let a clerk at a store to fill out the data so you only sign in your name on coupons, and other forms?



Still Chavez friends think that they can derail the recall referendum using this tactics. Watch Mr. Chavez that the patient of the people might be wearing out and has limits. As I mentioned earlier, only seriousness from the international community and unity of criteria from the Venezuelans will lead Chavez out of the presidency.

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