Then When They Came for the Metro, There WERE No Buses...

So, Santiago de Chile once had a mass transit system with substantial redundancies, parallel routes on private buses.  If the Metro went down there was some other way of getting around.

Redundancy is a good thing, for engineers (in other words, smart people), but to planners (i.e., morons) seems ...well, redundant.

So they outlawed the redundancy and built a hub-and-spoke system.  You had to take a bus, take the Metro, and then take a bus.  Using public buses.  I told the story here.

Things had been getting a bit better.  (Although....)

But now (segun La Tercera) there is a pretty big Metro breakdown.  And that means folks are pretty much foo-ked.

Of course, the city will say that such breakdowns are bound to happen.  And that's right.  But the consequences of the breakdown are magnified dramatically by the hubris of shutting down redundant private lines to "maximize the efficiency" of the public transit system.  Public monopolies leave citizens with no alternatives when the public monopolies--inevitably--fail.  It's happening pretty often now.... People think, "Oh, there's nothing you can do."  But there IS something you can do:  don't create public monopolies on services that are actually private goods, like urban surface transport.

We see the problem, but the solution--private provision of redundant services, which before 2007 were legal--is unseen.  And the state's best answer is "It's hard" instead of "We're stupid."

It's like Atlas Shrugged, but right on your TV in your little apartment on Avenida Apoquindo.

With thanks to Fundman.

La Bebida Bigoteada

So, Chileans have this custom, "vino bigoteado" or just "bebida bigoteada" or simply "bigoteado," generically.

It means that you go around and take the dregs from everyone's wine glass, or cocktails, or pisco sours, or even beer or cigarette butts from nearby tables if you are feeling mean, and mix all those leftovers into a glass, and make it a "drink" (el bigoteado).  The origin is a slang take on drinks pasados por los bigotes, or "passed/filtered by the whiskers" of other people.

It is traditionally consumed under two circumstances:  (1) A macho (a woman doing it would be most rare, for reasons I think are obvious, since it is stupid) intentionally chugging the whole thing down, to show that he is a macho.  (2) An inebriate who is so drunk that he does not notice that his "drink" is in fact the left-over spit backwash of ten people he doesn't know.

#2 is actually quite effective as a prank, if done only with red wine, which in Chilean gatherings is usually easily done.  And the word originated with the practice with only wine, so it wasn't quite so nasty.  Now, all bets are off:  there is no telling WHAT is in the vaso.

Either way, obviously, hilarity ensues.  And, YOU have learned a new word, one you will NOT find on brendannyhan.com!

Farewell, From La Mar

Had dinner our last night in Chile at La Mar. (Nice review, with good pictures, here).  It's over-priced, okay, but wow is the cebiche fantastico.

Juan Pablo had the grilled pulpo (yum!), the EYM a fantastic sopa de mariscos, and I (pig!) had the four-way cebiche platter.  I "shared" (the EYM had a few bites) but mostly it was MINE, precious, all MINE.  Oh, and Eugenio is on the phone.  Of course.  Eugenio is ALWAYS on the phone.

The LMM had, as always, something not on the menu.  Sometimes the waiter tries to hold firm, but LMM is remorseless.  She wants a particular thing, no restaurant has it, ever, and that is the thing she wants.  In this case, a  salad of lettuce, carrots, and tomatoes, and a side of lightly grilled mushrooms and zucchini.  No meat, no cheese, no onions, no sauce, no peppers, no (I could go on).  The waiter almost cried, but he brought it, exactly as requested.

Farewell to Santiago

Heading back to US tonight.  Flight leaves SCL at 22:10.  (Question:  not really a time zone issue.  Why aren't there some day flights?  It's ten hours.  Could leave at 9 am, be in at 7 pm.  That's a lot more civilized than this $%&^! overnight thing, which is awful.  But anyway...)

Had our last lunch with the EYM today, at the "traditional" Chilean restaurant Tip y Tap.  (Check it out).  The EYM and I split an order of crudo, and papas salteados.  Really, really excellent.  The crudo was unusually good, and the papas were outstanding.

You would have to be seriously hungry to eat an entire serving of crudo, that's pure raw ground meat there.  But to split...yum.  Papas salteados are hard to describe.  It's a kind of frying ("jumping," or stir-frying, is the etymology).  But if it is done well it creates a combination of good moist potato with a little crust on the outside.  Definitely not french fries or home fries, but a Peruvian genius move.  Salteado is a fine preparation, generally, but just papas by themselves work well.

From our hotel window in Belles Artes

A short movie of the Concon beach

Took this out of the hotel room window.  Pretty great stuff.  Water right up to the rocks at the foot of the hotel.  Beaches within waking distance, but the hotel has huge windows, making the whole room feel like a balcony.  Cloudy until early afternoon, but then bright fierce sunshine.  Nice.

Concon

A picture from our walk yesterday, at the beach in Concon.  The LMM sits and looks out over the biggest patch of "nothing but water for 14k kilometers" in the world.  There is nothing west of here except New Zealand, unless it´s wet and salty.

You can see the hotel there on the right.  Lots of little beach kitsch stores and shops nearby, but the immediate area of the hotel is pretty rocky and natural.

Ayer, Santiago! Hoy, Concon!

Got in to Santiago yesterday, Saturday.  Spectacular day.  Had lunch at one of my favorite places, El Galindo; had humidas and Kross #5.  Then a delightful dinner at Tiramisu, and helados and coffee at Fragola.  Spent the night at the Tulip Inn, in the Cuarto Matrimonial (!).  Having not slept the previous night of plane travel, we were not as "matrimonial" as the honeymoon suite would normally require.

Today, to Concon, and the Radisson Concon, right on the water.  Will likely have dinner at one of two intriguingly named restaurants:  "Aqui Jaime" or "Donde Jacobo?"

Nuevo Congreso, las mismas viejas divisiones

Or, "New Congress, " a chance to talk to my friend Carolina Alvarez.  (gated, free registration, in Spanish)

Excerpt:

El nuevo Congreso mantuvo el balance de poder e incluso a sus líderes. Y con eso consolidó las divisiones que causaron una parális política en los últimos años, mientras enfrenta los mismos temas urgentes sobre los que no hay acuerdo: si elevar el techo de la deuda del país (que llega a US$ 16,4 billones) y qué hacer con los recortes en los gastos militares y programas domésticos (por US$ 109 mil millones) que el pacto sellado esta semana pospuso apenas por dos meses...

"Será lo mismo. Esperar hasta el último minuto, llegar a un falso acuerdo, pretender que todos sacrificaron algo y después todos irán a la reelección. Es una 'danza kabuki', el estilizado teatro japonés de sombras, sin sustancia", señaló a "El Mercurio" Michael Munger, profesor de política y economía de la Universidad de Duke. 

Or, in my awful Spanish-to-English translation:  

The new Congress maintained the balance of power and even kept the same leaders. And that cemented the divisions that caused political paralysis in recent years, as it faces the same urgent issues on which no agreement: whether to raise the debt ceiling in the country (which reached U.S. $ 16.4 trillion) and what to do with the cuts in military spending and domestic programs (U.S. $ 109 billion) to seal the deal this week postponed for two months only...

"It will be the same. Wait until the last minute, reach a fake agreement, pretend that everybody sacrificed something and then everyone goes home and gets re-elected.'s A 'kabuki dance,' the stylized Japanese theater of shadows, without substance," said Michael Munger, professor of politics and economics at Duke University. 

Heh heh.  Heh.  He said "Kabuki."

UPDATE:  Typos corrected, as suggested in comments.

EYM and the Santiago Giants

The EYM is teaching down at UDD, in Santiago de Chile, or in Los Condes, actually.

He found a "gringo beisbol" team to play on, the Santiago Giants.

The EYM is the very dirty one, on the left.  Apparently they had fun, though there were tensions when they played the Venezuelan team.  Those Hugonos have little use for imperialist gringos.  And, yes, that is the foothills of the cordillera in the background.  Early summer down there, like late May here.  But those little hills still have snow.  Very, very pretty.

Santiago: Good, Bad, Strange, and Really Bad

Did some restauranting.  With the EYM here in his new home, Santiago.  Los Condes, actually.  Some quick thoughts.

1.  Tiramisu.  Really, really good pizza.  Everything is good.  Everything.  Pricey, but good.  Service is good.  Room is beautiful.  It's good.  That's what I'm saying here:  Good.

2.  Fragola.  Dessert place.  Again, beautiful, all good.  But the kuchen de nuez may be the best dessert I have ever had.  All time, no qualifications.  The best.  Astonishing.  More generally, though, you simply cannot go wrong with Fragola.

3.  Black Rock Pub.  Odd.  Strange, in fact. In a very good way.  The publican is a bear of a man, an Aussie.  Loves beer, loves to talk about beer.  Has big selection of Chilean artisenal beers, more than you will find....anywhere, actually.  Interesting some of them are not that great, though some are.  His philosophy:  If you can buy it at Jumbo, we don't carry it.  You'll like it.  Happy Hour prices are good, and Happy Hour lasts until 22:00 (it's Santiago...)

4.  "Fresh"  Empanadas at Lider.  (Lider is mid-scale grocery store).  Not health food.  And bad, in a way.  But also good.  Still warm.  Tasty, comfort food.

5.  Astoria.  Comida Peruana.  VERY expensive, by Chilean standards.  We had trio de cebiches (outstanding).  Then the EYM had a turbot entero (a whole turbot, a flounder-like fish, huge, with skin and head still on.  Vegetables, some cooked seaweed, and a chaufa on the side.  Excellent.  I had, as always, the skewers of corazon (beef heart), which came with some slightly mashed roasted potatoes.  The food was great.  For dessert, we had custard/quinoa and ice cream combo.  Sounds weird, was delicious.  And espresso.  But, do NOT go to Astoria.  The service was TERRIBLE.  Not sure why, in Chile, where there are "guards" everywhere and thousands of people paid to do basically nothing, this place couldn't get decent help.  Our waitron was awful:  ranging from hostile to indifferent to inattentive.  The delivery of dishes was just rude.  We had to beg to get her to let us order anything, and when we did it took a very long time to get.  The worst (it's a bad sign that I was timing it, but I was, at this point) was the dessert.  We ordered dessert and espresso.  The dessert came 12 minutes later.  Fair enough, not fast, but okay.  The espressos came 22 minutes AFTER THAT, and were cold.  32 minutes to get espresso.  Then, $97 for the two of us, and we had just one drink, a pisco sour (which was very good, by the way).  So, the food was fine, but the service was so terrible and rude it ruined the experience.  And for the money, there are lots of Peruvian places (La Mar, El Chelan, etc.) that are better.  Do. not. go. to. Astoria.  Awful.

With the EYM in Santiago!

I made it.  My back was very sore (bulging/borderline herniated disc, it's not clear just what is going on).  But I made it.

Extremely long line in immigration/customs.  The Santiago airport has two peak load times, early morn and late evening.  The morning is bad.  Four or five large flights all arrive within 20 mins of each other.  And there are 8 functioning passport control stations.  We're talking about 1,000 plus people all waiting for some very calm and placid public officials here.  Took an hour to have immigration control person spend all of 20 seconds on my passport.  Ugh.

Then stood outside a door that was only about 50 meters from the door where my taxi driver was standing, with a sign with my name on it.  A bad equilibrium, for another 30 minutes.

Still, I made it, and now the EYM are going out for a coffee and pastry.  Then, 2 pm we are heading for Cafe Tiramisu for some very nice pizza.

Tomorrow, lunch with el Decano.

Government = Anarchy

Chile and Bolivia find common ground.  Okay, not in politics, but in markets.  Okay, illegal markets.

But isn't that interesting?  Far from anarchy, the ONLY place these two countries can cooperate is in a sector where the government is not only not there to enforce contracts, but is actively trying to suppress the cooperation.  In every other way, Chile and Bolivia are nearly at war (to the extent that a national clown car like Bolivia can be "at war" instead of "at lunch").   POLITICS is anarchy, markets are orderly.  Even without government.

For markets, war is a liability, a cost.  For governments, war is an asset, and a revenue source.

Vacas!

Driving back from Chillan to the airport at Concepcion, we encountered a stampede: a LOT of cows, running hard, straight at us. They were hemmed in by the fences on both sides. Eugenio came pretty close, then backed up, and then backed up hard. Those cows would come up on the hood, because there was no room.

By the time I got the camera out, the vaquero had appeared, a big pissed off guy on a big pissed off horse. One vaquero for a LOT of vacas. He managed to get the gate open.

The vacas, who prefer grass and familiar surroundings, were very happy to go through the gate, except for one calf that simply would not go.  We left without knowing how that story ended.  Mr. Vaquero was almost ready to make some veal, I think, because the calf was not cooperating.   Note the big, flat Chilean vaquero hat (chupalla), straight flat brim, very wide.

Vino de Fundo Santa Ana

Went down to Chillan, after flying to Concepcion, toward the south of Chile. You can't say "in the south," because the country is so tall. But Chillan is quite a bit south from Santiago.

Got to stay at the winery/home of the in-laws of Eugenio. All the estates there are "Fundo BLANK BLANK," where the blanks are the names of the wife of the estate owner; in the case of Fundo Santa Ana, that was Ana. Amazing to watch the grapes being taken in, and the wine being made. There are VERY few concessions to the 20th century here, except for the use of gasoline powered engines on the tractors and the grinders. Everything else is escuela vieja.

The view of the big house from the vineyard:

The field, with the wagon and boxes of grapes:

A short video of the delivery of the grapes to the grinder. A centrifuge separates the stems, which still have a lot of sugar in them. These are used for compost and animal feed. The noise is the grinder.

The press. This could have been from 1600. Absolutely no mechanization of any kind. Here they are removing the pressed skins, which still have quite a bit of sugar in them, to use for one more pressing and fermentation.

The sunrise, looking out over the vineyards from the big house.  Fire on the mountain.  Amazing.

Que Pasa article on primaries

Chile is considering moving to primaries. I wrote a piece for Que Pasa, a weekly here in Santiago, saying that may not be such a good idea.

If you want the Spanish (edited down to a very short version), it's here.  The slightly longer, English version is here:

Primary elections: Who Needs Them? Michael Munger, Duke University

There are debates in Chile about reforming the process by which parties choose candidates. As a political science professor, frequent expert witness in court, and former candidate myself, I can report on a century of US experience. The short answer is that primaries are little more than poorly designed lotteries. Primaries reward extremism, reduce the accountability of parties, and devalue the brand name that parties depend on to represent the voting public.

For most of US history, the parties were entirely responsible for choosing their own candidates. Since these candidates then had to face each other, and the electorate, in the general election, the parties were obliged to try to balance their own ideological goals with genuine leadership ability and experience in administration. The result was true competition among the party's best, a system that gave us great Presidents such as Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt. Of course, the system also often chose weaker leaders, but the point is that the party organization, those who cared about the party, chose the party's standard bearer for the election.

In a primary system, all power is taken out of the hands of the party leadership, and placed into the hands of a fragmented, disorganized group called "the party in the electorate." In most primary elections, turnout is 15% or less, with some votes seeing less than 10% of the eligible electorate. These tend to be the most extreme, most ideological voters, because centrist voters are not interested in primaries. Furthermore, because primary votes often choose between 3, or 5 or even 7 candidates, the results simply reflect random chance. The candidate who happens to be more extreme, or by himself ideologically, will win because all the centrist candidates split the centrist vote. The US system has become increasingly polarized, as extremist voters with ideological motivations have come to dominate the party professionals who are also concerned about electability and leadership.

In one famous example, American Nazi Party leader David Duke decided to run as a Republican in Lousiana. In order to run as a Republican, Mr. Duke needed only to sign a piece of paper. He did not need the permission of "his" party, and in fact the Republicans had no way of stopping him from soiling their party's reputation. Mr. Duke, who routinely wore a full Nazi SS uniform and celebrated the birthday of Adolph Hitler, "won" the 1988 primary for a Louisiana House seat with just 33% of the vote. Many Republicans were forced to work against him supporting other candidates, because they had no control over their own party's candidate.

In a perfect world, a primary system would seem to bring candidate selection and the political process closer to the people. What could be wrong with that? The problem is that, in politics, there are two things that economists call "public good." The first is information: voters don't know much about candidates. The job of parties is to recruit, train, and then put forward the best candidates, the most BLANK leaders. In a primary system, a candidate who is excellent but unknown will never be selected.

The second public good is collective action: the ability to excite voters about the coherent message, and legislative program, of the party. But if the party cannot choose its own candidates, then it cannot possibly present a coherent, attractive program to voters. The party will not even be able to agree among itself, because its own members will represent a confused and incoherent random sample of opinions.

In my work in federal courts in California, Washington, Texas, and Florida, I have written and argued for the position that parties must be able to present a candidate of their choice, and to pursue a legislative program of their choice. Some political scientists go so far as to say that, without responsible parties, democracy itself is impossible. If that is right, and I believe that it is, then a primary system that weakens parties also weakens democracy.

Big Day

Great day here yesterday. Got some good work done with JP, had a great lunch at an asian restaurant, cold spicy noodles. Worked some more.

Then JP thought we might go out for coffee. So, we did. Except he took me to a kind of place that is uniquely Chilean. A little video for you (NSFW):

The video cafe is more glamorous than the one we went to. Instead of "Cafe Con Piernas," the one we dropped in on was more "Cafe con culos como camiones." What makes a 75 kilo young woman decide, "I'd like to be a stripper in a place that serves nothing but terrible coffee!" The poor things, they were a whole lot bigger than their skimpy outfits could possible contain. But, there, now I have been to a "Cafe con piernas" place, and that will be plenty.

Went to dinner with Eugenio, Carlos, and Ricardo. Comida Peruana place called "Puerto Peru." Much more reasonable on price, but still just fine food. I had the anticuchos de corazon again, and a papas with sauce dish. Also "causa," which I had not seen before. Corazones were completely different, but once again very good. Really fun dinner, laughed so much we couldn't breath. Stories about coauthors. (I'll say no more, except to admit I did have some stories of my own).

Then, it was midnight. Of course, not even leaving to go to dinner until 9:15, and then getting lost, does tend to make it late. Still, Ricardo had enough energy to hit a truly amzing high note when Eugenio turned the wrong way down a one way street and came a hair's breadth from ramming a police car with lights flashing. Since the police car was PARKED, this would have been quite embarrassing. Eugenio managed to extricate the car from this predicament, without a ticket or a scratch.

Tomorrow: I fly to Concepcion, and then we head out into the campo. We'll be verdadera campesinos surenas.

Santiago Street Dogs

Very common for dogs, even packs of dogs, to roam the streets of Santiago.

Sometimes they get hit by cars, and someone will just toss them over against the wall on the sidewalk. I took a picture of this poor guy.

Poor thing, legs all up in the air, just tossed like garbage. Except I noticed he was breathing. So I rubbed his belly. Dog was momentarily startled, but then stretched out his front legs and did that loud "mmmmmmmm" that dogs to do react to belly rubs, and he went back to sleep. Not a very comfy position, but then he's a dog. Living the dog's life, not hit at all, just laying around.

Lengua vacuna

Went to Fuente Chilena, right by the apartment, for dinner last night. Not much of a web site...

But, a very fine cow tongue, lengua vacuna. Fortunately, it did not look like this. Doubt if I could have eaten that.

I got the chacarero platter version, which came with tomatoes, sliced chilis, and a big helping of green beans. Tongue was thin sliced, and both tender and nicely spiced. Aji sauce on top of the green beans....yum.

And, of course, Kross. Lots more Kross.

Quite inexpensive, and a nice setting. Fuente Chilena is a win.

Sangucheria Fresia en Bella Vista

Sandwiches are very BIG in Chile. Both in terms of size and popularity.

Yesterday it was 31, unbelievably bright sunshine, the kind of light and blue sky that makes everything just sparkle. My cell phone camera can't really capture it, but here is a view I noticed walking down the street (I was walking; the view was stationary).

Bright red flowers, bright red chimney, bright blue sky. And warm, warm, warm, with no humidity.

JP and I worked on the problem of entrepreneurship and mistakes from 11 until 1 pm, drinking espresso and eating torta chocolate (remarkable torta, chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, though JP, who in this regard could be an honorary female, kept whining, "It could use more chocolate...")

So, exhausted from our labor, we went in search of sanguches. (Sandwich and sanguche are used interchangeably, sometimes on the same menu.) Went to three different places, but all were closed because of Easter weekend.

Then, JP had a brilliant idea: Bella Vista! Lots of tourists there, so all will be open. And, he was right. Bella Vista is an odd comuna/barrio, old houses and awful things like "Hollywood Hamburger" and souvenir shops that sell t-shirts with pictures of Allende, Subcomandante Marcos, Che, and other evil half-wits so lefty Americans can get their tacky souvenir lefty t-shirt and brag back home that they sampled local culture.

But the restaurants, outside of the tourist kennels, are just fine. We went to Fresia, a sangucheria Chilena. The way you order sandwiches is to pick a bread, a meat, and a style of preparation. (Here's the menu, click on the sandwich)

I had had the good sense not to blunt the edge of a noble hunger on torta, and of course it was lunchtime in Chile which means 2:30. Asi, tuve HAMBRE. I ordered the "frica" bread (panes, at the bottom of the menu), and the "mechada" meat (carnes, at the top center of the menu). Frica is a huge, plate-size split roll, and mechada is grandma-style roast beef, the kind she cooked for six hours with carrots and onions in the oven or crock pot.

So, that left style of presentation to choose. Solo (why?), completo, Italiano... but for me the only choice was "a lo pobre." Sandwich with a little mayo, meat, onions... a fried egg and a pile of french fries. Chilean health food, squirted liberally with fiery aji rojo.

A meal that size clearly cries out for cerveza, so I had three. A very nice Kross 500 ml each time, schop (on tap). Kross is one of my new favorite beers. Astonishing. I had no idea. (Side note: In Chile, if you order pale ale, which Kross is NOT, but I'm just saying, ask for "pah-lay ah-lay," and then be amused for an hour, just quietly and by yourself).

Inside, the Colo-Colos were getting hammered, 4-2, by JP's favorite team, Union Espanola. The screams of the Colo-Colinos were very musical, and entertaining. The reason I enjoy the screams of Colo-Colinos is that they are exactly like Yankee fans, except that....actually, that's it. They are exactly like Yankee fans. That's enough. Last time, we had to listen to their horrible songs. This was better.

Had to have a nap at 4 pm. An exhausting Saturday in the southern hemisphere. But I do recommend Sangucheria Fresia, in Bella Vista, as a very fine afternoon outing. You might try the "plateada" as an alternative for the carne. Plateada is a slow-cooked "rib cap," a cut of meat that doesn't exist in the US (it's the part of rib eye steak furthest from the bone, but cut with the grain rather than across it). Plateada and mechada appear, to me anyway, to have very similar preparations, but are different cuts of beef.