Central and South America Round Up

Book Review

I had three different people recommend the book, The Confession of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins.  It was incredibly well written and a compelling read. The book highlighted the work that Mr. Perkins did in the 70’s and 80’s in the field of international aid and development. 

He outlined the formula for his work, which was to go into a country work with their government to build infrastructure such as power grids, water systems, and highway systems. American companies would get the large contracts to build the infrastructure and the government would get a project they could roll out to their people to show their administration’s progress.   On the surface, it doesn’t sound nefarious but one has to look deeper.

He explained that they would often inflate the need, the costs or the scale of a project to ensure that the most amount of money could be borrowed.  Since the countries trusted the consultant or they needed them to get World Bank approval, they were rarely questioned. The secondary byproduct was that the government went into debt and since the numbers were inflated or the project was not even necessary the debt would eventually spiral out of control.

The countries were now beholden to the US, the World Bank and the large multinational corporations.  They would use this power to bully the governments to give their firms additional contracts or unlimited access to their natural resources such as oil and timber.  You might have heard of some of these companies-- Haliburton and Bechtel.

Perkins contends this compounding feature perpetuates the current problems for many countries because they are not able to get out debt and focus their own resources on their own people.  Ecuador has incredible resources in oil but on annual basis close to 50% of their budget goes to repaying debt so they can’t utilize those resources to lifting their people out of poverty. As he puts it, the empire building of the 21st century is not to rule the country, just to be able to control its resources. 

I would highly recommend reading it.  It was a powerful book.  It opened my eyes to the complexities of international development and the corruption of the current system.  If it doesn’t make you angry in the end, then you need to reevaluate your value system.

Random Thoughts

•    Good quote from the Concha y Toro Winery- “The best wine in the world is one that you like and you can afford!”

•    Small World Experience- I went to the bathroom at the visitor center at Machu Picchu in Peru.  A company based in my hometown of Livonia, Michigan made the electric hand dryers.

•    I was surprised how popular Iron Maiden was with the young people in Chile.  There wasn’t a day that would go by without seeing at least one kid with an Iron Maiden shirt on.

•    One of the highlights for birdwatchers on the Galapagos Islands is the blue-footed booby.  We saw a number of them.  The problem was all the retired men we would bump into, who were wearing “I love boobies” T-shirts and hats. Have some respect for yourself, Grandpa.

•    When people talked about American politics no one questioned how American’s would elect President Bush.  They all, to the person, questioned how American’s re-elected him.

•    At a photo exhibit I went to in Buenos Aires, there was a description of the start of Life Magazine.  Their motto describes Singh Around the World perfectly. “To see life, to see the world, to eyewitness great events.”

•    I am amazed at how prevalent free wi-fi is in Central and South America.  American businesses and cities need to get on the ball.  We were making progress in East Lansing before I left.  I hope that Councilmember Beard is still pushing to make our entire park system wireless.  I wasn’t able to get that done before I left.

•    I was surprised how many times people when they found out I worked for a nonprofit asked, “Why do they have nonprofits in the United States?”  With our country’s wealth and power they didn’t understand why we wouldn’t take care of own people.  Interesting observation.

•    Technology is a great way to connect with kids.  The videos from Antarctica have been a great hit especially the one with the penguin being eaten by the seal.

Ecuador- The Galapagos Islands -Final Thoughts

I read excerpts from Charles Darwin’s The Voyage of the HMS Beagle prior to coming to the Galapagos Islands. Though I found his writing to be stale and too tedious to digest in large quantities, it was evident that he was impressed with the islands and the uniqueness of the wildlife, marine life and the fauna. We only went to four of the 26 major islands and I was surprised the amount of times our guide would point out that a certain species of wildlife could only be found in the Galapagos Islands and in some cases only on that specific island. Though Darwin’s travel on the Beagle took him to many places, the Galapagos Islands had a significant impact on him and his eventual theory on evolution.

My favorite part of the expedition was the time we spent snorkeling. I wish I had an underwater camera to be able to share with you the amazing things that I saw. At times, we would be surrounded by schools of fish and if you swam at the right speed, one could swim with them without having them scatter in all directions. At other times, we would swim by reef sharks, which would make me a little nervous unlike others on our boat that would chase them. During one snorkeling session, something darted by and startled me. It was two sea lions and the chase was on. They were curious about me but never let me get too close to them. It was like they were taunting me to catch them, as they would slow down to allow me to get closer and then shoot off when I was too close. They would then circle back to be near me and then shoot off again. We did that for about fifteen minutes and it quickly became the highlight of the Galapagos Islands for me.

Ecuador-The Galapagos Islands

We had signed up for a four day expedition cruise of some of the Galapagos Islands.  In retrospect, I would have preferred taking a longer tour of the islands but based on our schedule and the last minute nature of our purchase the best deal we could get was the four day tour.  If you have the opportunity I would suggest a minimum of a seven day tour.

We flew from Quito, the capital of Ecuador, to the Island of Baltra where we joined the boat, the Estrella del Mar II.  The boat was already in mid-expedition for an eight day cruise and was picking us up for the last four days.  It was a small boat with fifteen guests and eight crew members.  Eight of the passengers had been on the boat from the start so some relationships were already formed. Though everyone was very nice, it felt like we were intruding on someone else's tour.

Our guide was very knowledgeable about the islands and the species that we came across but he was somewhat aloof.  Unlike some of my other guides on the trip, it didn't seem like he wanted to mix with the passengers.  The guide is such an instrumental part of the experience and can really make a good trip even that much better.  In the end, he did his job and was a professional and competent guide.

Each day, we had the opportunity to do a number of excursions to the islands which often included snorkeling.   The  Islands have a remarkable beauty and the Ecuadorian government is very aggressive in trying to maintain it.  The islands were declared a national park in 1959 and the surrounding ocean was named a marine reserve in 1986.  Each foreign visitor is required to pay a $100 (US) national reserve fee as pat of the entrance to the Galapagos Islands.  The nonprofit, Charles Darwin Foundation, was formed in 1959 through the work of UNESCO, "to conduct scientific research and environmental education about conservation and natural resource management in the Galapagos archipelago and its surrounding Galapagos Marine Reserve".

I had the opportunity catch much of the beauty of the wildlife of the Galapagos Islands through photos.  Please take a look at this youtube video that gives you a flavor of our experience. 

Quito, Ecuador-Getting Ready for the Galapagos Islands

I had been to Quito, Ecuador back in 2003 and so I was looking forward to getting back there.  It was Patrick, Pam and myself and our chief objective was to get to the Galapagos Islands.  We hadn't booked a tour yet and it was something we should have done months earlier.  I had kept putting it off and by the time April came rolling around I decided we would just wing it because if it was meant to be, it would work out.  We found a company near our hostel that specialized in last minute tours to the islands and we signed up for a four day tour.  Because it was a last minute fare, they required us to pay in cash.  The amount of the fare was more than our banks would allow us to withdraw in one day so we were escorted to a bank so we could make cash advances on our credit cards.  We then needed to buy a plane ticket to the Islands at another facility.   It took us almost a full day to make our arrangements.

The next day we had free and Patrick and Pam wanted to go sightseeing. We we went to the old town area and started an informal tour.  We decided to also tape our friend Patti Dolan's birthday video. So throughout the day, I would talk in my broken Spanish to people to see if they would participate in the video.  During the lunch hour, there was a group of protesters organizing by the Presidential offices.  They were protesting worker's wages and conditions.  There were police throughout the square just in case the protest went out of control.  I thought who better to have in the video but both the police and the protesters.  The protesters were quite easy but it was the police that I needed to talk into helping out. Somehow it worked in the end but I wouldn't suggest that you try it on your own.

After the protest disbanded, Patrick and Pam wanted to go see the equator.  I wasn't too keen on it. Now we all know that the equator is a fake imaginary line around the world that divides the globe into two hemispheres.  The Ecuadorians knew that they could get "sucker" tourists to pay money to see the equator so they set up an attraction site and park.  We ended up being one of those tourists.  We went there and spent money to see an imaginary line.  The truth is that scientists have shown that the Ecuadorians were off by a few hundred meters so we actually paid to see an imaginary line that was near the equator.  Good times!