Uruguay, the small country, has a Big lesson for the democracies of Brazil and USA.

In the presidential elections held in Uruguay on Sunday, Yamandu Orsi from the Centre-left was elected as President. He beat the candidate of the Centre-right ruling party.

 
By the US standards, the Uruguayan election campaign was boring. No polarization, no hate speeches, no fake news, no lies, no attacks against the election system, no threats to challenge electoral outcome, no vulgar language and no abusive behaviour. The debates were decent and the campaigns were civilized. 
 
The authorities conducted the election competently and transparently and delivered the results  quickly. There were no anachronistic procedures or attempts to rig as happened in the USA. 
 
Both the winner and the defeated are moderates and pragmatic. The opposition candidate who won did not threaten to undo what the ruling party had done. The ruling party which lost the election accepted the outcome gracefully and congratulated the winner.
 
Since the restoration of democracy from military dictatorship in 1985, the right and left have been in power alternately. The conservatives ruled for four terms from 1985 to 2005 followed by three terms of the left from 2005 to 2020. The conservatives returned to power in 2020 and they have now been replaced by the leftists.
 
The only difference Orsi would make in foreign policy is that he would show solidarity with the leftist governments in the region unlike his predecessor who aligned himself more with other conservative presidents.  
 
In domestic policies, Orsi would spend more on social welfare but would let the private sector also flourish without constraints. 
 
The President-elect Orsi is a former history teacher who was elected twice as mayor of a town. He says he would not move into the stately presidential house, following in the footsteps of ex-president Jose Mujica who set an example of austerity and simplicity. Mujica was described by BBC as the ” world’s poorest President”. He refused to move to the official residence and continued to stay in his ramshackle farmhouse outside the city. He drove his own 1987 model Volkswagon Beetle, worked on his field growing flowers and vegetables . He lead a simple and unostentatious life. He donated 90% of his salary to charity. 

Mujica was a leftist guerrilla fighter and was put in jail for fourteen years by the military dictatorship. So when he stood for election, there was fear that he would be vengeful. But he forgave the military and showed magnanimity and pragmatism. In one of his campaign speeches, Mujica vowed to distance the left from "the stupid ideologies that come from the 1970s — I refer to things like unconditional love of everything that is state-run, scorn for businessmen and intrinsic hate of the United States. He said, ¨I'll shout it if they want: Down with isms! Up with a left that is capable of thinking outside the box! In other words, I am more than completely cured of simplifications, of dividing the world into good and evil, of thinking in black and white. I have repented!" 

 
Although the economy is small, the country has a solid economy with thriving agriculture and tourism. The levels of poverty and inequality are very low while the literacy rate is high.  Uruguay is part of the Mercosur customs union which includes Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Bolivia. 

The Indian IT giant TCS opened its first Latin America office in Uruguay in 2002. Gabriel Rozman, an Uruguayan, took TCS across Latin America and scaled up the operations. The TCS Chennai office building, the largest in India, was designed by an Uruguayan architect Carlos Ott.  

The small market of Uruguay is big destination for India' exports. Last year India's exports were an impressive 521 million dollars. This is more than India's exports to the neighboring Cambodia (185 million dollars) or Kazhakstan (237 million) whose populations and economies are much bigger.
 
Uruguay is considered as the Switzerland of South America. Many rich Argentines and Brazilians as well as other South Americans spend vacations in Uruguay, have houses there and keep their money in Uruguayan banks.
 
Uruguay is in the vanguard in Latin America in legalizing same-sex marriage, consumption and production of Marijuana and abortion rights. Uruguay passed a law in December 2013 decriminalizing, legalizing and regulating the production, sale and consumption of cannabis
 
Of course, Uruguay is a small country of 3.6 million population sandwiched between the big brothers Brazil and Argentina. But the little Uruguay has a big lesson for Brazil and USA which have suffered the disgraceful culture and dangerous power of violent far-right extremism. Uruguay has demonstrated to these countries and the world that politics can be pursued without extremism, hatred and polarization. 

There will never be an Uruguayan Trump or Bolsonaro. 
 
 

Pedro Páramo – Mexican movie

 
Pedro Paramo, the latest Mexican movie released in Netflix, is based on a famous Magical Realism novel written by Juan Rulfo in 1955. 

 
The  surreal story brings out the Mexican culture which has blended the indigenous roots with that of the invaders and colonisers from Spain. It explores life and death and ghosts and spirits reminding us of the Dia do los Muertos (day of the dead) when dead ancestors are remembered in Mexico. At the same time there is the culture of the Spanish colonists who took over the land of the indigenous people and exploited them.
 
The story starts with Juan Preciado, who promises his mother on her deathbed that he would go to the town of Comala to look for his father Pedro Paramo, whom he had never met. When he reaches the town he finds it ghostly. He encounters friends and the other family members of Paramo who tell him fragments of the life of his father. But some of these characters disappear when he is talking to them. He learns that his father was a landlord who ruled the area with his ruthless methods of land acquisition and murders. His father was also tormented by the death of his boyhood sweet heart Susana who turns mad after the murder of her husband by Paramo.
 
I had read the novel two decades back but found it difficult to understand and appreciate. Having learnt more about Mexican culture over the years, the movie has helped me to understand the novel better.
 
Pedro Paramo is considered as the precursor to the boom of Magical Realism genre novels of Latin America in the second half of the last century. Gabriel Garcia Marquez drew inspiration after reading Juan Rulfo’s work. The legendary Argentine writer Luis Borges has called Pedro Paramo as one of the greatest works of literature.

 
The main actor in the film Manuel Garcia Rulfo is distantly related to the novelist.
 
Music for the film has been composed by Gustavo Santaolalla, the Argentine who had directed the music for the Indian film ‘Dhobi Ghat’