Clay Sparkman
A friend of mine likes to make up words. He comes up with some pretty good ones. A recent invention of his—ireloquent—strikes me as particularly utilitarian. It is useful in those situations where someone is going on and on about something in the most eloquent way, but in fact has provided a response that is completely irrelevant to the matter at hand. You know what I’m talking about and who—don’t you?
And thus for your reading pleasure today, I provide you with a completely ireloquent post:
If I haven’t posted so much lately (and I assure you that I haven’t), it is because I am on my annual pilgrimage to Chile. I won’t say that my primary consideration in choosing a spouse was that she be from a beautiful country in the southern hemisphere where it is 80 degrees and sunny whenever it is cold and rainy in Oregon—and yet … well let’s say it worked out that way.
So each year when it gets really nasty in Oregon (December/January), we come down (our family of three, which includes my five year old son) to visit our beloved family here in Chile (who fuss over us constantly catering to our every need), and we bask in the golden goodness of Chile for 1-2 months before packing our things up again and schlepping our way back home up to Oregon. I won’t go on and on about how nice it is to spend your Christmas eve sipping cocktails at poolside and all that, mostly because so far as I know all of my readers are from the northern hemisphere and I don’t want to make my readers cranky. (Still … golden sun, light breeze, birds singing everywhere … NUFF SAID.)
Really I just wanted to share some thoughts about different perspectives on the New Year as we move into 2011. 2010 was tough for so many of us up north. We struggled to hang on and waited for things to get better … and waited and waited. But I must say that Chile had a 2010 that in some ways makes ours in the USA look like child’s play.
First of all, they elected a new president—Sebastian Pinera—the first president representing the conservative right since Pinochet stepped aside (well sort of; that is another story) to make room for Aylwin in 1990. (When you think about it, that is a pretty good name for a presidential candidate. It sounds quite a bit like “I’ll win.”) Now this change was not necessarily a bad thing for Chile, but it was–at the very least–a stressful transition for a nation that had just spent the past 20 years recovering from the iron fisted reign of Augusto Pinochet.
Before the new president could even be sworn in, the country was devastated by a horrible earthquake and flooded by massive tsunami waves, leaving many dead, injured, homeless, and without basic food and supplies.
As bad as it was, it could have been a lot worse. The various governmental and non-governmental agencies really stepped up to save lives and get basic infrastructure back in place quickly.
And then just when the country was beginning to pull itself back together somewhat from the earthquake, and as if that trauma hadn’t been enough for the nation to bear, a mining accident in the northern part of the country left 33 miners trapped underground, lost and waiting for rescue. (Of course if you don’t know about that story, then it is likely that you were also living underground at the time.)
It took more than two weeks, but through a series of drillings the miners were located, and it was determined that they were all alive and in reasonable condition. That was the good news. The bad news was that rescuers estimated that the miners might not be back up top even in time for Christmas. Need I say, that is a long time to hangout a half-mile below the surface of the earth even if you know the rescuers are on their way?
In September, Chile celebrated its bicentennial. This was bitter-sweet, as you can imagine, as the entire nation (actually the entire world) was waiting, hoping, and praying for these 33 to men to get our alive. Chile is very proud country, and I can tell you that during my 20 year love affair with this nation, I have never seen it so united as it was at that point in time. The entire nation was breathing it seemed with one collective breath.
In some of the most stunning press coverage I have ever witnessed, after 69 days underground the first miner was pulled to the surface, and stepped out of the specially designed capsule into the arms of a nation. My wife and my son and I were all watching on CNN at this moment, and my mother-in-law was on long-distance from Chile, and I am not ashamed to say that at that moment I sobbed like a baby. Rather sooner than expected, every single miner and every single rescuer came out alive and well. Amazing! Pinera’s approval rating jumped some 20 points (and I say deservedly so). Vivan los mineros, viva Chile!
What a year was 2010 for Chile! We all celebrated on New Year’s Eve together and made many toasts for a better year for Chile in 2011. Needless to say, I was horrified when a live report on CNN international on the afternoon of January 2nd, reported an earthquake registering 7.1 in the Temuco region of southern Chile. How could this be—only just 2 days into the New Year? As it turned out, it was a bit of a false alarm. The quake was ultimately downgraded and seems to have done very little damage.
And so, what exactly is my point, you say? My point is that this post has nothing to do with private money. It is completely and utterly ireloquent.
Oh yes, and one last thing: May we all avoid calamities in 2011 (great and small, north and south), and may we prosper immensely in our private money investments! (Sorry, I couldn’t help myself.)
— Clay (sparkman@lendicom.com, 503-476-2909 or 800-971-1858)
Clay is Vice President of Fairfield Financial, a primary source for private money loans since 1964. Fairfield works with a broad range of private money investors, in a broker capacity, finding, underwriting, presenting, closing, servicing, and when necessary, assisting in the workout of difficult loans.
Tags: Chile, hard money investing, hard money lending, hard money loans, investing, private money investing, private money lending, private money loans, real estate, real estate investing, trust deed investing, trust deed lending, trust deed loans
