Sunday, December 19, 2004
On Friday I traveled to Guadalajara to meet a distinguished group of people from the second largest university in Mexico. Their campus is a beauty, even by European standards, missing only some historic building at its heart. Since it was the last day of the semester, the place was strangely quiet, awaiting the chaos of graduation day this Saturday.
The meeting itself was truly fascinating and it opened my eyes on how business experts and intellectuals view the struggle of their own country to catch up the more developed economies. Ricardo Lagos, the president of Chile, mentioned during a recent summit that “technology is the sovereignty of the 21st century”. Our hosts echoed that statement mentioning a telling anecdote “a government official of Jalisco was sitting in a conference about how to attract foreign businesses to his region, and he couldn’t help feeling like looking at the sky watching the clouds pass overhead, a metaphor of how Mexico is overtaken by more dynamic countries in this race”.
I was delighted to discover that recognized academic figures share the same concern as I do. So I’m not just a bitter lunatic after all? Mexico must at all cost increase its competitiveness in the years to come or be relegated to the economic backwaters of this world, with all the possible social consequences. Already, Mexico slipped from 31st place to 39th between 2003 and 2004 in the “e-readiness” rankings published by the Economist magazine. Chile on the other hand, remains the leader of the Latin American pack with an honorable 29th position, exceptional for a country whose economy is dominated by industries like fishing and copper extraction.
Foreign and domestic businesses need, amongst other things, a solid communication infrastructure to perform competitively. In this regard, Mexico City offers an absolutely pathetic spectacle. Ask any “chilango” about what he/she dislikes most about his/her home and traffic is likely to come first, or second to crime only. This gives me the opportunity to list a few of my gripes against the road system and its public servants in the capital of Mexico:
- Mexico City is the only place in the world where you can spend 7 horrendous hours in traffic and attend just two meetings in a day. If your first stop is in the South and the second in downtown, you can already stock up with food, CDs and holy patience for hours of bumper-to-bumper sightseeing.
- The Periferico’s second floor was supposed to create more fluid traffic conditions, instead for a seemingly endless time it made it nearly impossible (for people who can’t afford a helicopter ride that is) to reach the South of the city at peak times.
- In most cities, public transportation helps in diminishing the traffic. Here, it’s exactly the opposite: micro-buses stop anywhere on the street to unload their passengers, not minding blocking thousands of irate drivers behind them.
- The best way to tell where the police are regulating traffic is by observing the build-up of congestion in their presence. The dearly beloved “tamarindos” of Mexico City have a tendency to stick their luxury patrol cars in the middle of the most essential arteries of the capital for reasons only known to their superiors, to the extreme distaste of all drivers.
- Street protests are a spontaneous expression of the Mexican democracy motivated by profound reasons, like some employees receiving coupons from a brand of food store they don’t fancy and them blocking traffic to vent their justified anger. This democratic activity is particularly popular on Reforma, which also happens to be one of the most important axis of communication in the city.
- Pedestrians are also characterized by a common death-wish, preferring a hair-rising crossing of a busy street instead of walking 50 yards to safely take a bridge and ensure that their children will see them in the evening.
Does all this sound like good healthy fun? Then please join me in starting your business in Mexico City – but don’t say that I haven’t warned you!
Posted by Serge @ 12:41 PM MEX [Link]
Monday, December 13, 2004
Why am I still here in Mexico, provoking some readers of my blog with spicy statements about their beloved country? Why am I not taking the first flight to Europe and finally enjoying a peaceful organized life amongst my fellow countrymen? I ought to answer these questions that have been asked directly or indirectly in so many comments. The matter is straightforward: I remain in Mexico for the same reason as the captain stands on the deck of his boat no matter how rough the seas are – because it is my duty.
In this day and age of worldwide near schizophrenic mobility, some people seem to have forgotten the meaning of the word “responsibility”. Nearly a dozen Mexican developers, my colleagues and friends, work in my company. An equal number of investors, private or institutional have believed in my dream (or so do I fancy believing) and plucked out their savings or taken the keys of their vaults to allow us to create better technology. All these people, and my business partner more than the others, rely on me. I simply can’t let them down, I must fight this battle until its bitter end or glorious success.
Perhaps I’m double faced like Janus, complaining loudly about the firecrackers exploding above my head at 3AM and depriving me of a welcome sleep last night, while quietly doing my duty every day. I’m not blind and I’m not willing to close my eyes on all the factors that hinder the economic growth of Mexico. Nobody can grow oranges in a salt lake, a fertile ground is needed for that feat. Likewise, my business and other endeavors from fellow entrepreneurs will have a hard time succeeding if Mexico as a whole doesn’t give them a more supportive environment. Would anyone argue that Mexico doesn’t need entrepreneurs? If you do, please do comment on my blog.
I’m not advocating a drastic solution of high import taxes like what Brazil used to protect and then sink its own IT industry in the 80s. This country must give itself the adequate economic tools and legal framework to reach its stated goal of promoting “creado en Mexico” as opposed to “hecho en Mexico”. Right now, and despite the best intentions, there is still a long way to go for Mexico to emulate the success stories of former under-developed countries like Israel (whose oranges exports far exceeded its technology sales no more than 20 years ago) or Taiwan.
Yes, I claim the right to express my shock and dismay at all the monumental examples of sheer stupidity that I see almost every day in Mexico. Firstly I like to complain, it makes me feel good, but more importantly I state realities that are all too often kept under wraps or denied. Agreed, I use a polemical tone and I do not refrain from attacking those “little somethings” that bother me on my daily life – I’m only human. Yet the purpose of my blog goes beyond a mere tribune to propagate my stiff-necked European views. It accounts for an experience that I believe to be original enough, convey a viewpoint that I have almost never seen elsewhere, making it in my mind a worthwhile use of my time. My little grain of salt that, perhaps, will convince some souls to view their country under a different light and join the utopian quest for making Mexico an oasis of high-tech SMBs.
