A Moment of Clarity

To begin, I am not a Luddite, I happen to love technology and see the potential that it has in our world. However, technology and all of its applications, dashboards, software, programmes, clouds, networks, codes…….do not replace the need to learn the foundational backbones from the ground up for many intelligence and information processes. In other words, it means doing things manually. 

When I first learned about link analysis it was by chance through a course run by a company called i2. At the time, I was recently inducted into the world of military intelligence and had no prior thoughts on the subject. The course was great and I learned a lot about how networks and the relationships (links) between nodes work and affect our lives. We used a program called Analyst Notebook and it made everything seem so easy. After a tour overseas I still never received any formal link analysis training. While preparing to go back on operations the following year I attended a course that actually taught me the theory behind link analysis and the manual methods involved. This was like a moment of clarity and I had wondered how I managed to get by the previous year.

On a separate occasion while deployed on a disaster assistance mission I was without a computer in the middle of nowhere. I had an entire area of operations to map and understand in order to contribute to the decision making process. How would I pull this off? It then dawned on me what I could do. Hey!! I have paper and a pen and go figure I used the manual methods to conduct intelligence processes to include link analysis, collection planning and analytic's, all of which fed into my understanding of the environment and the effective and relevant contribution to decision making. It was actually quite liberating and once I received a laptop I was able to manually input all of my information into the digital automated world. I then realized how much work I was actually able to accomplish with a pen and paper. 

All this to say is that I learned a valuable lesson and that is it is much more beneficial to learn your foundational skills through the “old school” ways before proceeding to any automated process. Don’t get me wrong, automation can be a great thing but if you do not understand the manual ways it becomes much harder to really maximize the effort. Additionally, people become too dependent on the tools and forget to use their noodle.

  So what is up with Uruguay? 

  At the forefront of Uruguay stable and accepting sociopolitical persona is incumbent President Jose Mujica (elected 2009), also known as “Pepe”. He has referred to himself as a “humble peasant” and lives on a farm outside of the capital. He has endeared himself to the international community, receiving numerous accolades and praise by Latin and North American leaders while being portrayed by the Guardian as the “best leader in the world.” [1] Many of his policies, controversial and the widely accepted, such as legalization of marijuana, gay marriage and acceptance of GITMO detainees all stem close to social equality and quality of life for Uruguay’s citizens. “Pepe” is also a critic of lavish lifestyles and over-consumption of resources and goods. He has been quoted as saying “I’m an enemy of consumerism. Because of this hyper-consumerism, we’re forgetting about fundamental things and wasting human strength on frivolities that have little to do with human happiness.”[2]  

 Jose Mujica is a member of the majority party the Broad Front Coalition and was once a leader within the Tupamaro Guerilla group that operated in Uruguay in the 1960-70s against the military dictatorship that ruled the country from 1973-85. President Mujica was arrested on several occasions during this period and spent at least fourteen years in prison. However, he still managed to support amnesty for military personnel convicted of human rights abuses from the era of dictatorship.[3] He also served in politics as the Minister of Agriculture prior to winning the Presidential elections in 2009. President Mujica is for all intents purposes “the real deal” there has been criticism but no indications of corruption. Due to Uruguay's past history with peaks of stability and low points of economic decline and civil unrest, insurgency and dictatorship, any indications of corruption or political covertness will likely be a significant negative impact on the trust. The President has managed to lead Uruguay on to a path of increased stability and manageable prosperity focusing on the truly important aspects of a strong and sustainable society. "Pepe's" style of living and leadership is probably best described by Eddie Vedder’s lyrics “you think you have to want more than you need. Until you have it all, you won't be free”.[4]

Although President Mujica is perceived as a staunch socialist, man of the people and an example of a realist/minimalist he is also the leader of a country that is small in size and draws real power from the people. "Pepe" must carefully weigh his objectives in order to set the conditions for voter confidence to stay the course for the policies that he and his majority government have initiated. By sticking to socialist platforms in a country that is relatively stable economically and with a low wealth gap his policies will likely survive and endure the test of time. Overall, his leadership has put Uruguay on the map internationally for all the right reasons.

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[1] Bourcier, Nicolas, and Christine Legrand. "Uruguay's José Mujica: The 'humble' Leader with Grand Ideas." Guardian Weekly. Guardian News and Media, 27 May 2014. Web. 27 May 2014. .

[2] Planas, Roque. "‘World's Poorest President' Rages Against The Necktie, Calling It A ‘Useless Rag'" The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 21 May 2014. Web. 27 May 2014. .

[3] Bourcier, Nicolas, and Christine Legrand. "Uruguay's José Mujica: The 'humble' Leader with Grand Ideas." Guardian Weekly. Guardian News and Media, 27 May 2014. Web. 27 May 2014. .

[4] Vedder, Eddie. Society. Eddie Vedder. I Tunes, 2007. MP3.