I oppose America bombing people into democracy. Saddam was a genocidal dictator reputed to have killed over 200,000 of his own citizens. But with casualties of the Iraqi war exceeding 100,000 we can hardly make a case that we, in the “West”, don’t have blood on our hands. I have no doubt that continuing to contain Saddam would have been a better policy than bombing the Iraqi people to the polls. Iraq is still in chaos and the almighty US Army is now one more armed band operating in the Middle East, unable to achieve concrete results.
But while I oppose the tactics of George W. Bush and Tony Blair, I do share with them their stated objective, namely the establishment of democracy in the Middle East and elsewhere.
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2005 12
China is only One Party Away from Democracy
Published by MartinVarsavsky.net in General with No Comments
Thirty years ago in China there was no competition. Even in 1988, when I first visited China, there was very little competition. But after a failed experiment with Marxism, the Chinese started in the late 80s a much more successful trial of Ricardean economics and…it worked. China as we all know has been growing at a sustained of over 8% per year for 15 years in a row and is now the main consumer of most of the world´s commodities. Now that the Chinesehave experimented with competition in business with such enviable results I believe that it is a matter of time until China experiments with competition in politics.
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2005 12
I Belong to OpenBC… and Maybe you Should as Well
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OpenBC is a super succesful web site that links business people around the world. It is relatively new and growing fast. I joined a month ago, encouraged by my friend Ola Ahlvarsson from Sweden, and did not think much of it. Surprisingly, two days after joining, an executive from a large multinational contacted me with a project that they wanted to do teaming up with an entrepreneur. Even more suprisingly, I found the project so interesting that we now have a letter of intent signed and hopefully I will soon be able to announce that we are launching it.
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2005 12
Tired of losing: Outsource your Rival, American Law Firms
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I lived in the States for 18 years. During that time I completed my schooling at NYU and Columbia University and my first 10 years as an entrepreneur. Overall I loved living in NYC, this city has some of the best universities and most remarkable entrepreneurial opportunities in the world. Everything is there. Unfortunately everthing includes a serious impediment to business: expensive American law firms. Americans called Europe beaurocratic and that is true. But at least European beaurocracy is mostly free. American beaurocracy comes in the shape of law firms and it´s outrageously costly. Lawyers in America are as priviledges as members of the Communist Party of China: they are people who walk around charging $400 an hour to talk to each other while they make rules for all the rest of us to live by.
But wait, there´s hope for this abuse and it´s in India. Some American entrepreneurs have realized that the “knowledge” that American lawyers have can easily be replicated in India and there are now people in India who are receiving an American Legal Education. Imagine the education institutions now focus on turning out amazing software engineers coming up with a new training, American Law and graduating lawyers who can do most of the legal work that needs to be done supported by a few coordinators in America who yes, could bill $400 an hour but for very very few hours. And after that, how would you like to have Indian lawyers trained in American law working for you over the net at $10 an hour? Well, it´s coming. Soon one of the most important useless drains of cash for American businesses will stop… in India.
I think it´s time the United Nations, that so frequently criticized yet so very needed institution, did something concrete for education around the world. I propose this simple idea.
Children (those fortunate to go to school of course) spend around 10,000 hours at school from from ages 6 to 17. Now, if they do spend 10,000 hours at school studying different subjects around the globe, learning sometimes inflamatory educational content that makes them prejudiced later on in life, isn´t it time that at least 100 out of those 10,000 be the same for all children in this planet? No matter how local we think we are we all share planet earth. So what about 100 hours out of 10,000 in which students follow a United Nations curriculum that is the SAME for all kids in the planet. My proposal is that during this 100 hours students learn the basic principles of human rights, understanding and respecting others, and as importantly learning about our fragile environment and how to protect it. That´s it, 100 hours. If we implement this, any person in the planet who meets anyone else will in the future have at least 100 hours of a common background.
2005 27
Letter: Admiration
Published by MartinVarsavsky.net in General with No Comments
Dear Martin,
I am writing to you to let you know that I am really impressed with your success. You are an inspiration to me. I am the type of person that cannot sleep at night wondering all of the things I could do. I always come up with tons of business ideas and solutions but somehow they all remain in just ideas. I currently live in Miami where I work as a credit analyst for an international bank. Prior to that I lived in Boston for seven years where I got my bachelors degree in Finance and International Business at Northeastern University. I guess I am seeking for advice in regards to my career. I am a very ambitious person who cannot stand mediocrity. I just wish one day I could get my career on the right direction. The path of success and achievement where I can feel proud of my accomplishments.
By the way, I have to tell you that I personally think the recent offer you made to South Winds was genius. I just admire the way you move. You are everywhere without even being there. Thank you for listening,
Diego H. Lodeiro
Credit Analyst
Banco Internacional de Costa Rica S.A.
I just came back from a tour of Israel and soon to be Palestine. During this tour I met with a significant number of top Palestinian and Israeli political leaders. I met with Vice Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, political leaders from Likud, Labor, Shaz, Mafdal, Shinui and others. I also met with the Minister of the Economy of Palestine, leaders from Fatah and Hamas, as well as other young political leaders and activists in Palestine.
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Sometimes things are wrong in the world and we think we know how to fix them. For example, we know that we’re polluting the atmosphere and we know that if hybrid cars became mandatory around the world, pollutant levels would drastically fall. We know the problem, we know the solution. But what about situations when we know something is wrong in the world and the solution we’d like to propose would make things even worse? This is the case with US military spending.
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2005 11
Kirchner’s Surplus
Published by MartinVarsavsky.net in Argentina with No Comments
Kirchner is doing something that no one has done in the history of Argentina in the last 50 years. He’s created a surplus. While all of his predecessors poorly managed, issued worthless money, and got themselves even deeper into debt, Kirchner has taxed the country to a point where he now sits on the biggest fiscal surplus in the world. The fiscal prudence of Kirchner, combined with a generous social policy, is one of the greatest achievements during his presidency. However, it’s a strategy that represents an enormous danger for him and the country.
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2005 11
The Basques Seen from the Outside
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The Spanish papers dedicate about 3 pages everyday to the Basque Country debate, and some days, even more. The Spanish people are obsessed by the situation in the Basque Country, in part because of terrorism. However, just the other day I found out that every year in Spain more people die in car accidents than have died in the entire history of ETA, yet, I don’t see as much ink spilled to cover that story.
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