ILE DELIVERED MESSAGE OF AUTONOMY AND FREEDOM TO MOQUEGUA, TACNA AND ILO

ILE DELIVERED MESSAGE OF AUTONOMY AND FREEDOM TO MOQUEGUA, TACNA AND ILO

December 14, 2006

Lima, Perú.- Not too long ago (Nov. 29 – Dec. 1) ILE organized a series of seminars in the southern Peruvian cities of Moquegua, Tacna and Ilo. The main goal behind this reverse ideological pilgrimage was to deliver a message of hope --of hope based on economic facts.

In this part of the globe, political discourses on the practical results of secure property rights, where free and competitive markets interact, are, without exaggeration, unheard of. The state’s paternalistic omnipresence at all levels of private, economic and community life, has anesthetized the individual’s intellectual receptiveness to new ideas…

…that is what we thought, at first! But, as the seminar went on and time went by, skepticism and incredulity in the audience’s eyes were diffusely replaced by confidence and hope.

Each seminar consisted of videos and speeches --three hours all in all. Two videos were shown: “La Salida: El Capitalismo Liberal” (The Way Out: Liberal Capitalism)*, by Oliver Laufer, a Venezuelan producer, and Prof. Milton Friedman’s “Free to Choose: The Tyranny of Controls”. Two speeches were given: Charles M. Philbrook, Director of Economic Research at Datum Internacional, S.A., delved into what historical denominators all successful countries have in common, in “Capitalismo y el Éxito de los Países” (Capitalism and the Success of Countries). José Luis Tapia, ILE’s Executive Director, with “La Salida: El Capitalismo Liberal”, provided the roadmap on how these ideas, in countries such as Peru, could be put into practice and what likely outcomes, in terms of individual freedom and economic opportunities they, as citizens, should expect.

Surveys conducted among the participants show that 90% thought these seminars were “good” and “very good”. It is that other 10%, though, that we believe makes the difference between utter triumph and a mission accomplished.

Building that bridge between these two groups will be, for all of us at ILE, our reason for being, our élan vital…

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*Liberal in the Smithian classical sense, not the American.