Mark James Russell

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Category: Spain (Page 1 of 3)

JoongAng Sunday Redux

December 21, 2013 / / 0 Comments

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote my first column for the JoongAng Sunday (a relative to the JoongAng Daily, where I work). It only ran in Korean, so, for those who might be interested, here it is in the original English:

Having recently returned to Korea after four years of living in Spain, I’ve been really enjoying being back. It’s like all the things I enjoy the most about Korea have gotten bigger and better, while the things I dislike have shrunk and grown less common.

When I first came to Korea in 1996, living in smaller cities outside of Seoul, Korea felt like a very different country. Back then, it was very hard to find variety and non-Korean things. Movie theaters were old and run-down, live music clubs were few, and not many supermarkets stocked imported goods. Day to day living was tough, but I really liked it.

Even then, there was definitely an energy to Korea that was very interesting, a sense that something special and powerful was brewing just underneath the surface. I can still remember the first time I saw Hwang Shin Hye Band live at a tiny club in Daejeon, I was so blow away. I can remember seeing movies like “The Gingko Bed” and “The Power of Kangwon Province” and being so impressed.

Once I moved to Seoul, especially in the Hongik University and Shinchon neighborhoods, things were even better, as I met all sorts of creative young people who were pushing so hard against the limits of the day, trying to make something new.

Over the years, Korea kept getting better, but, strangely, as it became easier for foreigners to live here, I could feel my attitude not always appreciating those changes. Sometimes I would fixate on the things I did not like — like pushy people on the subways or rude taxi drivers — and let petty problems annoy me.

Which is a big part of why I moved to Barcelona four years ago. I just needed a change of pace. Hong Kong or somewhere else in Asia would have been too similar. I needed something very different.

Indeed, living in the beautiful, historical Europe was a wonderful change. At first. But it wasn’t long before I began to notice all the ways Europe falls short, compared to what I liked about Korea. I quickly began to realize how many of my complaints about Korea were not about Korea at all. They were about life in general. Or about myself.

Over and over, Spain and Europe showed just how tired and boring they could be. Need a new pair of glasses? Come back in a week. Need your cable TV turned off? You need to submit a request in writing at least two weeks ahead of time. So many little things that Korea just does in minutes took days or weeks there.

It has now been more than five years since the Spanish economy crashed. I was living in Korea when the Asian economic crisis of 1997-8 hit, and the difference could not be bigger. In Korea, it was a terrible time, and the value of the won plummeted, companies went bankrupt and so many people lost their jobs. But Koreans rallied. They dug in, took action, and overcame the crisis in just a couple of years. Even though Korea can be a very divided place between left and right and other factions, in the face of a true crisis, the country rallied together and fixed the problem.

Spain, like all of Europe, however, continues to limp along, utterly without the political will to fix the problem (which is not a debt problem, but a fatally flawed currency that just does not work). Rather than address Spain’s real problems, the Catalans and other ethnic groups debate breaking away and forming new countries.

Korea, however, is faster than ever. There are at least three coffee shops within 100 meters of my apartment that are open all night, and that make excellent coffee and food. There is more variety with food, music, and all the cultural things that I so enjoy.

Of course, I’m not blind to Korea’s problems. The housing market is too expensive and full of inefficiencies. The endless left-right political squabbling helps no one. The lives of young people are packed with way too much school and not nearly enough education. And, dear god, it’s time to clean up the garbage on the streets.

But when it comes to day-to-day life, it’s amazing how Korea keeps getting better. I’m really excited to be back here, and I’m excited to see where Korea will go next.

 

A More Complete (But Still Very Incomplete) List of Differences Between Korea and Spain

June 6, 2013 / / 1 Comment
Difference Who’s Better
Movie theaters Korea – cheaper, bigger, nicer
Shopping Korea – most things open Sunday, convenience stores open 24 hours/day
Customer service Korea – much much faster and more helpful
Korean food Korea (duh)
Spanish food Spain (also duh)
Wine Spain – cheaper, nicer
Beer tie – both terrible
Weather Spain – sunnier, less hot, less humid
Traffic Spain – also bad, just Seoul has much more of it
Subways Korea – can use phone, cleaner, fewer pickpockets
Buses Spain – smoother
Fast food blerg. Hoping not to have an opinion for some time
Television tie – both terrible
Beaches Spain (duh)
English ability Who cares? Study the local language more, you uncouth foreigner
But what about tourists and people without the time to learn the local language? Fine … Tie, I guess.
Geopolitical danger Tie – Barcelona is apparently a big al-Qaeda hub. South Korea has the North. But neither worry me much.
Geopolitical danger Tie – Barcelona is apparently a big al-Qaeda hub. South Korea has the North. But neither worry me much.
Access to North Korean websites Spain – all things NK remain blocked in South Korea, even North Korean news’s handy new Facebook page. It was nice being able to read anything I wanted about the North without going through the hassle of elaborate workarounds (and someone I was able to read it all without turning communist)

There’s plenty more to talk/whine about, I’m sure, but that’s a list of what has occurred to me after being back four days.

Adios and Annyeong

May 27, 2013 / / 0 Comments

Hard to believe it, but my time in Spain has nearly come to an end. Somehow our quick jaunt turned into nearly four years. But it has been a (mostly) fun four years, so no regrets. Living so close to all those Spanish beaches was good fun. Making new friends was quite nice. Working on another language was interesting.

Best of all, it was great to return to writing, after stopping for a couple of years to try out documentaries. In addition to the journalism and think tank writing, I should have a couple of books coming out later this year — two very different projects that I hope to talk about very soon.

But living here has also made it clear to me that I’m more of an Asia person than a European. It should be fun returning to a part of the world that I’m more accustomed to. Not to mention returning to the foods I like. It’s only been four years, and I have visited Korea a couple of times, but I’m still curious about what has changed. Korea is always changing, and I think that last few years were no different.

Spain’s Economy: Two Malos Don’t Make a Bueno (and 3 is right out)

May 13, 2013 / / 0 Comments

Another weekend, another round of protests here in Spain by the indignados, or “the outraged”, demanding an end to cuts and other austerity measures. I was taking a walk along the Gran Via yesterday when one troupe of demonstrators from Badalona came marching down the road, blocking traffic and shouting their uncoordinated, mismatched chants (for someone used to Korean demonstrations, Spanish protests are rather underwhelming).

But protest quality aside, what is most irksome is seeing how profoundly all involved in Spain — the pro-austerity crowd and the indignados — continue to miss the point.

On the one hand, cutting and slashing budgets in Spain (and much of Europe) are terribly bad macroeconomics. This budget was in surplus with a very small debt when the economic crisis happened, and austerity now in such a miserable economy only creates more problems than it is supposed to cure.

On the other hand, so much of Spain is still so horribly inefficient. Businesses have 20 people doing the work of four or five in, say, New York. One cultural organization I know here in Barcelona has 18 people employed in its tourism division — despite not offering any tours of its facilities or doing anything tourism-related. It’s crazy. The good years of 1996-2006 or so  led to massive bureaucratic expansion, much of which is still in place.

So what solutions are politicians talking about? Instead of trying to figure out how to make the reforms that are needed to make Spain more efficient while creating projects that will help Spain in the long-term, we get arguments about Catalan independence. Instead of cutting the fat and adding to the efficient, we have institutions cutting the meat and protecting the fat.

People aren’t dumb, and as the Spanish political system proves itself to be thoroughly useless in solving the country’s problems, Spaniards are rapidly losing faith in the political system:

So we will very soon be in a situation in which the four main parties in Spain—the ones represented in the Metroscopia survey—all have around or less than 20% support, within a political and constitutional system that is rotting away all by itself due to so much corruption, incapable of bringing about the institutional changes necessary to adapt Spain to a new century, and in which there is no realistic alternative anywhere on the horizon capable of governing the country.

Of course, with the European economy as a whole shrinking for six quarters in a row — worse than the initial crisis of 2008/9 — it’s not like the rest of the continent is doing much better. It’s a beautiful place, but I’m happy I’ll be moving on soon.

Catalonia Tourism Without Tourists

December 2, 2012 / / 0 Comments

Barcelona — like much of Catalonia and Spain — is a great place to live and explore. There is so much wonderful architecture, nature, food, and other good stuff, it can be a real embarrassment of riches. However, that great stuff does attract a lot of tourists, and the most popular locations can be crazy busy. Park Guell, Montserrat, Tibidabo, the beaches, the old city center of Barcelona are all wonderful, but they can get a little overwhelming.

Which is why it is so much fun to discover wonderful locations that are not on the usual tourist map. Yesterday I made a trip out to the medieval Catalan village of Rupit, and really enjoyed it. High recommend, if you are coming to Spain and are looking for places to go.

Rupit is located in a hidden river valley about 100 km north of Barcelona, not far from Vic, another lovely town in Catalonia. It has roots over 1,000 years old, was built up more in the 12th century, but most of the buildings there now are from the 17th century. The buildings are all stone, like something out of Lord of the Rings. The river is gorgeous, and there are plenty of great walks in the area.

The food is pretty much all Catalan (lots of Catalan Butifara sausages), but quite good, and most of the restaurants have amazing views of the river and gorge. This is a pic of the restaurant where I had lunch, from the other side of the river.

Europe’s Long, Slow Suicide, Part XCVII

July 23, 2012 / / 0 Comments

So, Germany and the IMF are now openly talking about letting Greece default and kicking it out of the euro (even though there is no mechanism in place for removing a country from the euro and no one really knows what a default will do to the region).

And, with Spain’s 10-year bond rates climbing to nearly 7.5% this morning, clearly investors don’t believe that the latest bailout plan for Spain is going to work. Just as clearly, Mariano Rajoy has no clue what is going on or how to deal with the crisis. Spain’s whole approach seems to be: delay, deny, do nothing, and wait for things to get so bad that the Germans force you to do whatever; then, you can tell your citizens that it is not your fault all these bad things are happening, the Germans are making you do them. Good times.

As it happens, I’ve been having fun reading some old economics stuff lately — kind of like the angst a teenager gets from reading Romantic poetry, but for middled-aged people — and the big thing I have noticed is how familiar all this feels. Yet again, the political, the clueless, and the spiteful is trumping the economically sound. As JM Keynes said soon after the peace of WWI:

[…] the fundamental economic problems of a Europe starving and disintegrating before their eyes, was the one question in which it was impossible to arouse the interest of the Four. Reparation was their main excursion into the economic field, and they settled it as a problem of theology, of politics, of electoral chicane, from every point of view except that of the economic future of the States whose destiny they were handling.

– Keynes, The Economic Consequences of the Peace

UPDATE: Of course, Paul Krugman weighs in on Germany’s threat to let Greece leave the euro and makes some good points:

Once a country, any country, has demonstrated that the euro isn’t necessarily forever, investors — and ordinary bank depositors — in other countries are bound to take note. I’d be shocked if Greek exit isn’t followed by large bank withdrawals all around the European periphery.

And, just to hammer the point home:

My advice here is to be afraid, be very afraid.

 

South Korean Dreams, North Korean Rocky, and Spanish Nightmares

July 12, 2012 / / 0 Comments

– I’ve talked a few years ago about the end of the Dream Cinema, the last old-style, single-screen cinema left in Seoul. Well, after stumbling along on life support, Dream Cinema (aka Seodaemun Art Hall) finally screened its last movie yesterday, Bicycle Thief. Theater head Kim Eun-ju was apparently so upset, she shaved her head at the screening.

Dream Cinema opened in 1964 and for many years was one of the nicer theaters in Seoul. But that was quite a while ago, and it was terribly run down when I first went there in 1998-ish. Sad to see the theater go, but, still, considering it was supposed to close in 2007 or so, it had a pretty good run. Besides, who isn’t excited about a new high-rise hotel filling the Seoul skyline?

– Not only is North Korean leader Kim Jong-un apparently dating a famous singer and incorporating Disney characters into its stage performances, but now Kim is reportedly using the theme from Rocky, Sinatra’s “My Way”, and “It’s a Small World.”  All that is, of course, in addition to the North Korean accordion version of “Take Me On”:

– Meanwhile, over here in Spain, the torpid Rajoy government seems intent on running down the struggling economy any way it can. Remind me again why Spain has to undergo this sort of pain when its debt-to-GDP ratio is lower than in Germany, France, the United States, or Japan? What a crock.

 

United States of Europe or Bust

June 20, 2012 / / 0 Comments

Edward Hugh has another great article on the state of the euro, the Spanish economy, and what the future might hold for the region. Key graph:

Whatever way you call the aid Spain is now receiving from Europe it is clear that this is the beginning and not the end of what is likely to be a long process, one which will now inexorably lead to either the creation of a United States of the Euro Area, or to failure and disintegration of the Euro. There will be no middle path, so the stakes are now very high for all involved. Unfortunately Europe’s leaders are still too busy thinking short term, and practicing one step at a time-ism.

Housing prices, after putting up a fight for a while, are really in freefall now, plunging 13% last year alone — that’s the fastest rate since the economic crisis began five years ago. And since the housing bubble is the key part of the crisis in Spain, the plunge in prices (down 30% from the peak and no bottom in sight) means at last real decisions will have to be made.

It’s still amazing to me, though, how little has changed in daily life for most people here, despite the massive amounts of pain the economy is going through.

Soros on the Euro

June 5, 2012 / / 0 Comments

George Soros has published a very good presentation on the state of the euro and what went wrong here. It is a bit dense in parts, but totally worth a read.

Like many analysts (at least the ones I like), he notes that the euro crisis is not a fiscal crisis as much as it is a problem with banks and balances of payments. But he adds a unique wrinkle I had not heard before, calling the euro crisis a political bubble, not a financial one.

The authorities did not even understand the nature of the problem, let alone see a solution. So they tried to buy time.

Usually that works. Financial panics subside and the authorities realize a profit on their intervention. But not this time because the financial problems were reinforced by a process of political disintegration. While the European Union was being created, the leadership was in the forefront of further integration; but after the outbreak of the financial crisis the authorities became wedded to preserving the status quo. This has forced all those who consider the status quo unsustainable or intolerable into an anti-European posture. That is the political dynamic that makes the disintegration of the European Union just as self-reinforcing as its creation has been. That is the political bubble I was talking about.

(Emphasis mine.)

Having read the whole Game of Thrones series recently, I cannot help but think of Rob Stark, who won every battle but could not win the war (not really a spoiler, since that is kind of the theme of the books). The economists really have won battles, showing that the euro as constructed was a bad idea, then once the euro crisis began, describing how serious it was and what was needed to stop it. But despite having the winning arguments, time and time again the politicians win the day with one half-baked agenda or another. There just is not the political will to do what needs to be done, in the United States, China, and especially in Europe.

Which, by the way, makes me ever more impressed with how Korea handled the Asian economic crisis of 1997-8. Korean families donating their gold to fight the crisis might not have been useful in any direct sense, but it did show a certain unity of spirit, enabling Korea’s politicians to do what needed to be done. Considering how divisive Korean politics usually is, it is amazing how much political will that country can generate when it needs to.

Anyhow, where does Soros think all this is going?

In my judgment the authorities have a three months’ window during which they could still correct their mistakes and reverse the current trends. By the authorities I mean mainly the German government and the Bundesbank because in a crisis the creditors are in the driver’s seat and nothing can be done without German support.

He think Europe needs to fix the immediate problems, to give itself some breathing space and pass new legislation/treaties required to fix the euro. But there is just three months to get things done, and so far there is no political will in Germany at all.

UPDATE: Right on cue, here’s Edward Hugh with a big dose of sunshine. And by “sunshine,” of course I mean incredibly depressing facts. “Global Growth Shutters Toward a Halt” at Fistful of Euros.

Spain Economy Meltdown (Just the Previews for Now)

April 17, 2012 / / 0 Comments

Always great to see Paul Krugman turning his eye to Spain, even if it is because the Euro crisis is spreading its way over here. As he succinctly says, Spain is no case of meltdown by excess spending: it was running a surplus in 2007 and its debt level was very low. What Spain did have, however, was a housing bubble–created in no small part by way too much cheap money from Germany.

I’m still amazed at how the PIGS countries are putting up with German-led nonsense about how to solve this crisis. Foolish Northern lending was as responsible for Europe’s current woes as anything, so it is not unreasonable to ask those responsible to bear a share of the pain of fixing the problem.

There is that old saying: If you owe the bank $1,000, the bank owns you; but if you owe the bank $1 million,  you own the bank. If I were Spain–and Portugal, and perhaps Italy (but not Greece: they really are messed up with excessive spending–I would be pushing back. Sure, Spain pulling out of the euro would create havoc here, but it was be just as bad for the rest of Europe. The threat would go a long way to righting the balance between Europe’s north and south.

For more information about the Spanish economy, there is always the wonderful Edward Hugh. He has a new interview up here. I wonder what Mr. Hugh would make of Krugman’s suggestion that Germany should raise its inflation rate up to 4% or so, while the PIGS are kept at 1%-ish, to help re-balance the north and south of Europe.

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