What Latin America needs is a little respect
for the rules
Contempt for safety codes likely led to supermarket disaster
in Paraguay
By Steven Edwards
QUITO, Ecuador - At a "controlled" traffic intersection, I step into the road when the pedestrian light displays green, then turn green myself as I watch vehicles big and small racing toward me.
Horns blast, drivers furiously wave their arms, but no one is slowing down, so I have only one option: Run for my life.
So much for having the "right-of-way" on the streets of the Ecuadoran capital. I'd been lulled into a false sense of security by the signs.
Like most nations in Latin America, Ecuador looks like a developed country, but its people show little respect for the codes, norms and rules that regulate human interaction in the West.
The result of this attitude is not simply a high number of "accidental" deaths. It also retards economic progress, as the disregard for order and what's right is reflected in widespread corruption.
The constant refrain on the street is that the United States, that devil in the north, is to blame for most, if not all, of Ecuador's ills. U.S. exploitation, the feeling goes, has stripped Ecuadorans of any chance to get ahead. But in reality, the huge potential of a country such as Ecuador is stymied not by outsiders, but by the shortsightedness of the Ecuadorans themselves.
You don't need a master's degree in international development to see why countries such as Ecuador are struggling. Quite apart from any failings at the level of big business, most tourists can daily catalogue acts of negligence, poor management and corruption that impede economic growth.
The national airline, TAME, lost $400 worth of my family's business because its reservations agents failed to pick up the phone when we called repeatedly to book a flight from Quito to the southern city of Cuenca.
We ended up taking the bus, at a cost of only $35 -- and a loss of $365 to the Ecuadoran economy.
Countless restaurants and shops did not get our repeat custom because staff thought they could stiff us by upping the bill a small amount, which they would presumably pocket.
Pointing out their "errors" produced Oscar-worthy displays of apologetic behaviour. But the pervasiveness of this type of gouging made it clear many Ecuadorans do not believe good customer service is more profitable in the long run than making an extra buck on the spot.
With trust being non-existent between vendor and client, we ate and shopped only at establishments where prices were clearly marked. Or else I got my Hispanic wife to do the shopping on her own, knowing my pale face and English-accented Spanish would be a signal to the vendor to impose instant inflation.
Of course, shopping this way became so complicated we surely did less buying than we might have. That's more money lost to the Ecuadoran economy.
Disregard for myriad other norms and safety codes also deters tourists, who should be arriving in droves, given the country's rich heritage as a northern Inca territory and Spanish colony.
Despite anti-littering poster campaigns, Ecuadorans seem incapable of using trash cans. Parks in Quito are carpeted with rubbish, while lookouts and rest spots on the city's many steep hillsides have garbage streaming down them like cascading water.
Ecuador surely has vehicle emission rules and standards, but that is not apparent from the thick black exhaust fumes that bellow from each passing truck or bus.
One Ecuadoran friend quipped that North American males of European descent lose their hair because of the pollution at home.
But we breathe cleaner air in Manhattan, where the streets are clogged with cars, than in the countryside in Ecuador -- such is the failure of the Ecuadoran government to minimize pollution.
Tragedies such as this week's inferno that claimed at least 464 lives at a Paraguayan supermarket are also waiting to happen in many establishments in Ecuador.
In Paraguay, the death toll was elevated because emergency exits had been locked to prevent looting.
At a nightclub we visited in the Ecuadoran coastal town of Manta, the chief doorman controlled the inflow of people by locking the front door. Then he would wander off for 15 minutes at a time, forcing people to wait for his return before they could leave. In another shocking display of carelessness, the club's shotgun-toting guard left his weapon unattended on a chair while he went off to the toilet.
On my first visit to Ecuador a decade ago, I was robbed at gunpoint by street thugs. But the real scandal was the police reaction. As three officers drove me around, ostensibly to find my attackers, they questioned me about the contents of my rented apartment. If they had later found the thieves and recovered my keys, I'm not sure my home would have contained much when I returned the next day.
Official reaction to the robbery at knifepoint of a female friend was similarly disturbing. When the police officer heard only a few dollars had been taken, he lost all interest in making a report. It mattered little that there was a guy out there putting knives to the necks of women.
None of that is the result of "American exploitation."
When Ecuadorans and people in other developing countries wonder why they are still decades away from making it into the "First World" of rich countries, they might reflect on the improvements they themselves can make -- whether or not they receive billions in foreign aid.
Thu Aug 5 2004
Horns blast, drivers furiously wave their arms, but no one is slowing down, so I have only one option: Run for my life.
So much for having the "right-of-way" on the streets of the Ecuadoran capital. I'd been lulled into a false sense of security by the signs.
Like most nations in Latin America, Ecuador looks like a developed country, but its people show little respect for the codes, norms and rules that regulate human interaction in the West.
The result of this attitude is not simply a high number of "accidental" deaths. It also retards economic progress, as the disregard for order and what's right is reflected in widespread corruption.
The constant refrain on the street is that the United States, that devil in the north, is to blame for most, if not all, of Ecuador's ills. U.S. exploitation, the feeling goes, has stripped Ecuadorans of any chance to get ahead. But in reality, the huge potential of a country such as Ecuador is stymied not by outsiders, but by the shortsightedness of the Ecuadorans themselves.
You don't need a master's degree in international development to see why countries such as Ecuador are struggling. Quite apart from any failings at the level of big business, most tourists can daily catalogue acts of negligence, poor management and corruption that impede economic growth.
The national airline, TAME, lost $400 worth of my family's business because its reservations agents failed to pick up the phone when we called repeatedly to book a flight from Quito to the southern city of Cuenca.
We ended up taking the bus, at a cost of only $35 -- and a loss of $365 to the Ecuadoran economy.
Countless restaurants and shops did not get our repeat custom because staff thought they could stiff us by upping the bill a small amount, which they would presumably pocket.
Pointing out their "errors" produced Oscar-worthy displays of apologetic behaviour. But the pervasiveness of this type of gouging made it clear many Ecuadorans do not believe good customer service is more profitable in the long run than making an extra buck on the spot.
With trust being non-existent between vendor and client, we ate and shopped only at establishments where prices were clearly marked. Or else I got my Hispanic wife to do the shopping on her own, knowing my pale face and English-accented Spanish would be a signal to the vendor to impose instant inflation.
Of course, shopping this way became so complicated we surely did less buying than we might have. That's more money lost to the Ecuadoran economy.
Disregard for myriad other norms and safety codes also deters tourists, who should be arriving in droves, given the country's rich heritage as a northern Inca territory and Spanish colony.
Despite anti-littering poster campaigns, Ecuadorans seem incapable of using trash cans. Parks in Quito are carpeted with rubbish, while lookouts and rest spots on the city's many steep hillsides have garbage streaming down them like cascading water.
Ecuador surely has vehicle emission rules and standards, but that is not apparent from the thick black exhaust fumes that bellow from each passing truck or bus.
One Ecuadoran friend quipped that North American males of European descent lose their hair because of the pollution at home.
But we breathe cleaner air in Manhattan, where the streets are clogged with cars, than in the countryside in Ecuador -- such is the failure of the Ecuadoran government to minimize pollution.
Tragedies such as this week's inferno that claimed at least 464 lives at a Paraguayan supermarket are also waiting to happen in many establishments in Ecuador.
In Paraguay, the death toll was elevated because emergency exits had been locked to prevent looting.
At a nightclub we visited in the Ecuadoran coastal town of Manta, the chief doorman controlled the inflow of people by locking the front door. Then he would wander off for 15 minutes at a time, forcing people to wait for his return before they could leave. In another shocking display of carelessness, the club's shotgun-toting guard left his weapon unattended on a chair while he went off to the toilet.
On my first visit to Ecuador a decade ago, I was robbed at gunpoint by street thugs. But the real scandal was the police reaction. As three officers drove me around, ostensibly to find my attackers, they questioned me about the contents of my rented apartment. If they had later found the thieves and recovered my keys, I'm not sure my home would have contained much when I returned the next day.
Official reaction to the robbery at knifepoint of a female friend was similarly disturbing. When the police officer heard only a few dollars had been taken, he lost all interest in making a report. It mattered little that there was a guy out there putting knives to the necks of women.
None of that is the result of "American exploitation."
When Ecuadorans and people in other developing countries wonder why they are still decades away from making it into the "First World" of rich countries, they might reflect on the improvements they themselves can make -- whether or not they receive billions in foreign aid.
Thu Aug 5 2004
© 2004 Postmedia Network Inc. All rights reserved.
Edition: Toronto Story Type: Business; Column Note: sedwards@nationalpost.com Length: 896 words Idnumber: 200408050154
Edition: Toronto Story Type: Business; Column Note: sedwards@nationalpost.com Length: 896 words Idnumber: 200408050154
No comments:
Post a Comment