Global conflicts tend to start in small places over relatively small issues that somehow get out of hand when other countries divide themselves along different sides of the dispute in question. Unfortunately this is happening with Iran. Iran could be just another country that goes nuclear, like Pakistan, or Israel, but because of Iran´s aggresive foreign policy which directly clashes with America´s plans for the Middle East, the Iranian violation of the nuclear proliferation treaty is dangerously dividing the world in two. These two blocks could potentially be the two sides of WWIII. All the authoritarian countries are on one side, the democratic countries on the other. Democracies are strongly opposing Iran becoming a nuclear power. These include USA, the European Union, Japan, India and others. Authoritarian countries including most Muslim countries, Russia, China, and the authoritarian countries of Latin America, are with Iran. This division is dangerous for the world. How did we get to this point? The US invasion of Iraq combined with the respect that North Korea got out of developing nuclear weapons made it clear to Iran that if the Bush Administration was going to call them names (axis of evil) they better be evil….and smart. By destroying Iraq and ignoring North Korea America rewarded the nuclear power. As a result the Iranians want nuclear weapons and they want them now. The Bush administration seems to have a tragic ability for escalating conflict into war.

We generally understand hemispheres as the two halves of the world that end up North and South of the Equator. But having grown up in Argentina surrounded mostly by water, I started thinking of a different way to split the world namely into an acquatic hemisphere and a land hemisphere. As it usually happens nowadays even ideas that seem very original are not and googling I discovered that somebody had already developed this concept. He calls it the continental hemisphere and the oceanic hemisphere. When I was a child I used to think that if you sailed East from Argentina you could go all the way around the world and after endless miles over water you would end up next door… in Chile. Never going over any other country. In the Southern Hemisphere, water is almost all there is.

A year ago I blogged about the opportunity to create political parties made of immigrants joined by native citizens who felt that to them humanity was a stronger concept than nationalism. Well, it´s happening!

I am an entrepreneur, not a politician, but I guess that in politics, as in business, there are “empty niches” ready to be occupied and in that sense politics is like business. Immigration was one of them. To me leaving enormous masses of people without political participation while doing legal work for illegal pay was an unfairness that was bound to explode sooner or later. And it did. Citizens of the United States and Europe can´t continue seeing immigrants as people who take advantage of them when the reverse is mostly true. While it is the case that a few immigrants take advantage of the welfare systems of rich nations most contribute much more than what they take. As the May 1st walkout is proving, America would suffer very badly without the hispanic participation. And when all the other immigrants join in, Asians, Eastern Europeans, Africans, it will be time for mainstream political parties that something must be done to end the tremendous unfairness of people working every day who are treated as criminals. Spain declared a huge amnesty and increased its legal population by over 1% in a few months increasing its working pool and its tax base. That was a very good move. Personally I think that immigration should be open to all of those with working contracts but clearly with some tests. I would recommend a 3 year testing period during which immigrant status can be ended if the immigrant ends unemployed. But if a worker is able to sustain a job for 3 years they should be allowed to become permanent immigrants and in 2 more years nationals of the countries to which they immigrated. What Europe does, namely growing ever larger populations of citizens who can´t vote, is tremendously unfair, especially since in Europe even people who are born in a European country and live their all their lives are considered permanent immigrants. This is not sustainable nor fair. The current status quo is too unfair and what immigrants want is reasonable…and most will get it. The ultimate remedy to the immigrant problem however, will not be immigration but investment in education, political reform, family planning, and businesses in the countries that are exporters of people. Some immigration is positive, massive flight of economic refugees is not.

US Foreign Policy is mainly focused on the Middle East. So it´s Spain´s. Both countries have strong historical and economics ties to Latin America. Both should focus on the region. None of them do. Latin America, 560 million people, GDP of $2.3 trillion dollars. Israel and the Palestinian Territories, 10 million people, GDP of $140bn. No comparison. Oil reserves? Venezuela´s are almost as high as those of Iraq. Wonder how Hugo Chavez is doing so well promoting his foreign policy around Latin America? Look at where the foreign ministers of USA and Spain spend most of their time. America and in a smaller scale Spain have created a power vaccum in the region and now Chavez clones are sprouting in the region with unexpected results.

50m? 100m? 200m? How about 279km!!!

These days when you Googled you saw symbols showing that Google was promoting solar and wind energy. Personally as an investor in both I support that move. But when I saw the icons I remembered a dinner with Larry Page at the Clinton Global Initiative in NYC last September when I asked him what he thought was the limits to growth of Google and much to my surprise he did not say servers, or people, but he said electricity. It turns out that Google is by now the largest owner of computers in the world and that computers are consuming more and more of the electricity that is used in the world. Therefore Google has the largest utility bill in the planet. And Larry is concerned about this. And not because of the bill itself but because he truly cares about the polluting effect of Google (do no evil). We tend to think of the internet as a very clean industry. It´s hard to imagine eBay, Amazon, Yahoo, Microsoft, Google as being responsible for global warming but partly they are, they are hardly carbon neutral and in a small way, nor is Fon. What can we do about this? In the case of Google I wonder if there is a different way of searching that could save a lot of energy. One idea is that if all sites pinged Google a la Technorati, instead of Google crawling them that would save a lot of MWs!

Most Europeans are born in Europe, of course. I am a European born elsewhere. I was born in Argentina, but when I came to Europe I had lived 18 years in the United States and had already acquired my US Citizenship. After a few years of being in Spain I learned that if I wanted to be a Spaniard I had to give up my US Citizenship and I did so. I became a Spaniard because while it was sad for me to give up my US Citizenship, I found Spain specifically and Europe in general a better place to live, raise a family and practice my skills as an entrepreneur than the United States. I have been in Europe for 11 years. During that time I built five telecom and internet companies, Viatel in the UK, Jazztel and Ya.com in Spain, Einsteinet in Germany and now Fon based in Spain but active around the world. Overall these companies have generated around 2000 jobs and invested over 1.5 billion euros in infrastructure. Some with better results than others but all contributing to the economy. So while being an immigrant in Europe I am a different kind of immigrant. I have not come here seeking employment. I have come here and created employment. I also did in the United States where I started two companies. Having lived through the experience of being an immigrant both in the United States and in Europe I would like to make some comments on what are the key issues that Europe needs to address for a better assimilation of immigrants.
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First a disclosure. I am a small investor in Netvibes and Tariq Krim, Netvibes founder and CEO is on the French Board of Fon. Now having said this let´s focus on Netvibes.

I find Netvibes fascinating. When it started it was a cool place to read your blogs. Now as it reaches the 2 million unique users per month I see that Netvibes is becoming a tool to do practically everything on the web, indeed I would say that it´s becoming a browser in itself. For those who don´t know Netvibes I recommend that you go to the site and survive the most difficult moments at Netvibes, the first 3 minutes. Yes, even though the growth of Netvibes is spectacular Netvibes is not that easy to use at first. Indeed the best thing would be if a techie friend helps you out for the initial minutes. But after that, after you learn how to program RSS feeds, how to create tabs to divide subjects (mine are blogs, news and tools) you start feeling that netvibes creates a garden out of the internet jungle that was growing uncontrollable in front of your eyes every day. At Netvibes now you can store your documents, see pictures, listen to podcasts and music, read your g mail, keep track of what happens in flickr, etc, etc, etc. If I was allowed to visit only one site per day, Netvibes would be it.
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I recently read that David Sedaris moved to Paris and started writing on France only to be sorry a few months later he had so quickly written about Paris and ended up sounding like the typical American in Paris. Nevertheless because I belong to a more rare group, that of an Argentine in China I will dare to make a series of comments on China with the caveat that I am no China expert and have only been four times to China since 1988. My last visit ended yesterday.

On China and Cars:

China invested a lot in car plants. Chinese have bought cars like crazy during the last 5 years. In 1988 it was all bikes. Now it´s all cars. Madrid has one avenue, Castellana which is extremely wide and cuts the city in two. In Beijing a Castellana is a normal avenue. Most avenues have 6 to 8 lanes. This policy is not sustainable because China does not have the resources that it takes to make and use cars, namely iron, oil, oxygen... It is also dangerous. Since so many people in China just got a car for the first time it is probably the nation with most drivers in the world but also with the least experienced drivers. Moreover the conversion of bicycle nation to car nation seems to be the opposite of what the world needs. In Europe bicycle riding is on the rise, in China cyclists are a dying breed….literally.

On China and Pollution:

Mostly as a result of oversupply of cars and taxis and lack of a subway system, Beijing has an incredible level of pollution. Horrible. The worst I have ever experienced. Indeed when I was there last week even the Chinese newspaper in English that is put out by the government was saying that Beijing was experiencing the worst pollution crisis ever. The paradox of China is that government seems to intervene heavily in controlling unnecessary things, such as what people Google, and not in controlling necessary things, such as what people drive. Government intervenes in environmental policy much more in Europe than in China even though government in China is supposed to be more interventionist. I think that China has an amazing opportunity to lead the world in hybrid cars for example. In the perennial traffic jams of Beijing hybrid cars would do wonders for the environment. Why doesn´t the government act?

On Health Care:

China seems to have a very unusual Communist health care system in which all health services are provided by the government (very Communist) but they cost a fortune to the average Chinese (very capitalist) and the average Chinese lives in fear of getting sick (very American).

On Monopolies:

How come the most populous nation on earth remains the most competitive nation on earth without government intervention in the form of anti trust? As we saw in the West capitalism tends to lead to quasi monopolies or oligopolies as the best companies simply win over everyone else (Microsoft and Google are examples) and sooner or later they end up being regulated as they accumulate enormous market share. But in China this does not seem to happen. Without government intervention capitalism so far seems to work. Indeed where capitalism does not work in China is in the businesses in which government gave itself the monopoly (the election outcome business for example). Other than that there are no killer category businesses in China. America is the country of the killer category retailers, Walmart, Starbucks, Mc Donalds, u name it. But in China fragmentation rules. Even in the computer sector tons of brands compete selling their products through extremely competitive TINY outlets. I could not find one big computer shop in China. China´s brand of capitalism actually works very well.

On Soy Sauce:

Where´s the soy sauce? Isn´t Chinese food suppose to come with soy sauce? On all my meals there soy sauce was never part of the equation. Is soy sauce like the spoon for Italian pasta that nobody uses in Italy but outside Italy everyone thinks it´s very Italian to eat pasta with a spoon?

On Piracy:

I went to a fake market. These are the prices. Adidas Shoes: $6. DVDs: $1 to $2, Games: $2, Hermes wallets: $10, Bulgari, Cartier, Rolex, Watches, $7. Diesel Jeans: $8. Guess T Shirts, $6. In short things at the fake market cost around 90% less than the real stuff. Now as I was in the fake market I wondered about what is fake and what is real. Most of the goods we buy in Europe and USA are made in China and seeing how much it really cost to make them in China and realizing that European companies say Adidas are paying $5 for shoes they sell us for $80 you wonder who´s really faking what here. Is intellectual property worth 90% of the value of things?

On Spitting:

When I was at the Avellaneda High School in Buenos Aires, my class mates an I used to have spitting contests. Distance spitting, precision spitting were some of the common competitions. While most of my class mates and I have given up on the sport, spitting is alive and kicking all over Beijing. Olympic sport? Not sure. Yet, spitting in public is as common in Beijing as say, coughing in public in Europe. Other than the fact that to most foreigners spitting is disgusting I think that the moment the avian flu is transmitted from human to human, the Chinese practice of spitting will become akin of that of having unprotected sex. Simply deadly. Now again, can´t the Communist Party do something about spitting? As I said before there are instances in which strong government helps. If the NYC government, another quasi Communist institution (the tax burden of well off people in NYC is higher than that of well off people in China), was able to fine pet owners $200 for not cleaning after their dogs, what about huge fines in China for…spitting!!

On China Taiwan and Democracy:

Every large democracy has two main parties, the progressives and the conservatives. China also has two main parties the Communist party and the KMT. The only problem is that the Chinese opposition party is in…Taiwan. Now as the entrepreneur that I am I see a great opportunity here to kill two birds with one stone namely unite China and become a democracy. How? By allowing KMT to be the first legal opposition party not only in Taiwan but in China as a whole. In this way China would be united with Taiwan and become a democracy without firing a shot. How about that?

Movie Piracy is bad for Hollywood but Great for America´s image

Whatever Hollywood may say about movie piracy it is thanks to piracy that the Chinese are so exposed to American culture which otherwise they could not afford. The result is a very pro American culture view prevalent in China. Considering the disastrous foreign policy of George W Bush I would argue that if it wasn´t for piracy the average Chinese would have a much worse image of the United States.

On the Yuan:

The largest bill available in China is equivalent to a 10 euro bill. The largest bill available in Europe is a 500 euro bill. Moreover in China credit cards are not widely accepted. Most Chinese don´t have them. Personally I don´t understand this policy as it encourages Chinese with money to save in dollars or euros. Again a missed opportunity for the Chinese government, in my view if they printed at least 1000 Yuan bills they could release considerably more currency in the marketplace without causing inflation. You can´t have a serious currency whose largest bill is worth 10 euros.

On the Chinese and the Indians:

When I am in India people speak perfect English and yet I have a hard time understanding them. When I am in China people speak poor English yet I understand them very well. What I like about Chinese people in business is that they are straightforward. They are single minded about being successful and it is easy to understand what they want. You may say yes or no but you won´t leave the meeting wondering about what their objectives are.

On Mao:

Why do the Chinese continue printing bills showing Mao Zedong a man responsible for the death of an estimated 38 million people during the cultural revolution? Why isn´t Mao for the Chinese more like Franco for the Spaniards or like Stalin for the Russians? I don´t get it.

On Economic Growth and Freedom of the Press:

Economic growth in China is amazing. Since my first visit in 1988 China has been completely transformed. While China is not a democracy it is certainly much, much freer than it was in the 70s, 80s, the trend is in the right direction and in any case for a country in which people until not so long ago starved economic success is more important than democracy. Yet one of the most important elements of true democracy is transparency and I wonder if the Chinese won´t adopt more of the elements we associate with democracy not so much for a love for democracy itself but simply to be able to sustain their economic growth. The Wall Street Journal for example while being extremely conservative in politics it´s very fair in business reporting. As such The Wall Street Journal is a tool for investors. A fair an open press is necessary for investors to make choices. Will this be a loophole towards freedom of the press?