It is nice to be liked and wonderful to be loved and as a politician it is always pleasant to be one or the other.

President Piñera has just passed (on March 11) the halfway mark of his four-year presidency and President Obama is warming up to take on the Republican nominee – as yet undecided.

You've got to know when to hold 'em

Know when to fold 'em

Know when to walk away

Know when to run

“The Gambler” by Kenny Rogers

"Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time,"  Sir Winston Churchill (July 1945, after he had just won WWII but lost power in a general election in).

Mr. Churchill may have exaggerated slightly, but he had a point. Democracy, defined by Wikipedia as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives, seems to be on the ropes. But, what comes next?

It turns out I was edumancated - not educated like most of you. For this reason I am fully supportive of the students who have taken their demands to the streets and negotiated directly with the President. No doubt, by the time you read this we will already have free schools and universities for all, but probably without a quality education as the primary component in the equation.

Resulta que fui masculinstruido, no educado como la mayoría de ustedes. Por esta razón apoyo completamente a los estudiantes que han llevado sus demandas a las calles y negocian directamente con el presidente. Sin lugar a dudas, para cuando usted lea esto ya tendremos colegios gratuitos y universidades gratuitas para todos, pero probablemente sin una educación de calidad como el componente primario de la ecuación.

Para aquellos de ustedes que han tenido la suficiente fortuna de seguir mi recorrido global en las últimas tres ediciones de bUSiness Chile les encantará saber que volví a la seguridad de mi casa en Santiago… ¿Seguridad? ¡Tienen que estar bromeando! Tras la paz, tranquilidad y el aire increíblemente limpio de Mongolia volví al caos. Incluso cometí el indigno acto de llorar en público, porque me ardían los ojos (y la garganta). Resulta que estaba en la dirección del viento de las manifestaciones de los estudiantes en Providencia. Para mí, fue un “aterrizaje chocante”.

For those of you who have been fortunate enough to follow my global trotting in the last three issues of bUSiness Chile you will be delighted to know I have made it back to the safety of my home in Santiago. Safety? You’ve gotta be joking! After the peace and quiet and incredibly clean air of Mongolia I returned to chaos. I even suffered the indignity of crying in public because my eyes (and throat) were stinging. It turns out I was down wind of student demonstrations in Providencia. For me, it has been a “shock landing”.

El término de mis tres meses de viaje se aproxima rápidamente, tiempo que me ha llevado a tres fascinantes países: Bután, Nepal y Mongolia. ¿Fue una “experiencia que me cambió la vida”?  Es probable que esté un poco viejo para eso, pero con toda certeza me dejó impresionado. En los últimos 10 días he estado en -o en los límites- del desierto de Gobi, que ocupa parte importante de la zona sur de Mongolia, país mediterráneo atascado inconvenientemente entre Rusia y China.

Hice un viaje en camello.

I am fast approaching the end of three months of travel that has taken me to three fascinating countries - Bhutan, Nepal and Mongolia. Was it a “life changing experience”?  I am probably a bit long in the tooth for that, but I have most certainly been affected. For the past 10 days I have been in, or on the fringes of, the Gobi Desert, which consumes a substantial part of southern Mongolia, a landlocked country stuck inconveniently between Russia and China.

I went on a camel trek.

Two thousand three hundred and seventeen… That is the number of steps, of very varying height, depth and shape I climbed just three days ago to get from the valley of the River Madi in Western Nepal up to the village of Chhomrong. And this was after trekking for six hours to get to the river valley from the Annapurna Base Camp.  How do I know it was 2,317? Very simple – I counted every step! Mad?