I am Colombian by birth, but San Francisco has been my home since 1997 though I attended Stanford University both undergrad and grad so I have lived in the Bay Area on and off since 1981 with stints in San Diego, Vietnam, Indonesia, Colombia and Switzerland. I hold three passports and I consider myself a freethinking citizen of the world. I am a devoted Darwinist and skeptical of all religion but a tireless advocate of indigenious peoples to hold and develop their own unique culture.
A historian by training, I also have an MA in International Public Policy and an MBA and that led to a long stint on Wall Street as an equity analyst but I have also found employment as a university professor, an employee of UNICEF doing relief work in West Africa, a food writer, and an export consultant. Now I work for a non-profit that does development/education work in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. I believe that to change the world requires first and foremost the education of girls to free them from the shackles of their husbands and the tyranny of gender.
I also sit on the Board of Directors of two other non-profits that primarily do community work in the US and abroad. I also write and travel extensively, five months a year. I’ve been the world over and that tempers my judgment and extends my horizons, oddly enough confirming my earliest suspicions about the beauty and wonder of this one planet of ours.
Politically, I consider myself a progressive Liberal but primarily a dissenting voice of caution. Historians are canaries in a coal mine, we have seen it all before. The players are different but the game is the same. Once I thought neo-liberal economic theory the key to progress but now I confess my guilt for the evidence does seem to run to the contrary. Globalization in my mind is becoming a race to the bottom for most of humanity. That’s quite statement considering I once worked at Wall Street investment banks such Alex. Brown & Sons and Goldman Sachs. I am also a member of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil and I believe that we live in a world of rapidly diminishing resources that when coupled with unrestrained population growth amidst climatic change and environmental degradation presents significant challenges to humanity.
I supported John Edwards in his campaign for the Presidency as I share his views that fighting poverty is a moral imperative. Since he suspended his campaign, I have advocated for Hillary Clinton in part because since she found her voice it sounded a lot like John Edwards’ voice. I am to say the least shocked by this development because I began the US Presidential campaign firmly in the ABC camp, Anybody But Clinton. While I cannot say that I agree with Senator Clinton on everything, free trade comes to mind, I like her style, the causes she espouses, her more private faith but above all her fierce devotion to fight for the underpriviledged and for us all. Her combination of experience and the fortitude of her character will make her the most uniquely qualified person to sit in the White House since FDR.
As per the very junior Senator from Illinois, I simply find him odious and duplicitous. Is there a better description of the very junior Senator from Illinois than duplicitous? I think not.
I have many hobbies from travel to photography to cooking. Another is that I monitor elections the world over.
Quoted in the Press:
San Francisco Chronicle, October 2000
Forbes Magazine, March 2001
The Olympian, January 2002
Retail Traffic, June 2002.
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, September 2002
Odds and Ends
My Liberal Identity:
You are a Working Class Warrior, also known as a blue-collar Democrat. You believe that the little guy is getting screwed by conservative greed-mongers and corporate criminals, and you’re not going to take it anymore.
Take the quiz at www.FightConservatives.com