Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Libre Encuentro

Is Canal 3's weekly televised debate between journos, businessmen and analysts hosted by Dionisio Gutierrez from the Campero clan.

A better name for this programme might be Individually clever, collectively stupid.

Sunday's panel tossed out their thoughts about the current mood of systemic malaise and specifically the pain caused by rising fuel and grain prices.

One particularly counter-productive suggestion for cushioning Guatemala from the global crisis was to encourage Chapines to eat out less on Sundays. Gutierrez nodded sagely, perhaps thinking about his helicopter commute. (He has the same dumb jawline as George Dubya.)

That the country is set up like one of those rickety homes built on the edge of a muddy barranco with structural dependencies and inequalities that make it likely to topple as soon as the global economic weather turns sufficiently unpleasant, didn't really crop up in this particular discussion.

No comments: