Episode Transcript
Transcripts are displayed as originally observed. Some content, including advertisements may have changed.
Use Ctrl + F to search
0:00
Hello and welcome to this podcast
0:02
from the BBC World Service. Please
0:04
let us know what you think and tell
0:07
other people of Isis on social media. Podcasts
0:09
from the BBC World Service. are
0:12
supported by advertising. Want
0:18
to teach your kids financial literacy, but
0:20
not sure where to start? Greenlight
0:22
can help. With Greenlight, parents can
0:24
keep an eye on kids spending and saving,
0:27
while kids and teens use a card of their
0:29
own to build money confidence. As a parent, you can send
0:31
instant money transfers, set up chores, automate
0:33
allowance, and more. It's a convenient way
0:36
to run your household, customize to your
0:38
family's needs, and the easy way to
0:40
raise financially smart kids. Get started
0:43
with greenlight today and get
0:45
your first month free at
0:47
greenlight.com/ACAST. At Vertex, we
0:49
know the pace of global commerce is
0:51
increasing, which makes managing tax more
0:53
complex, and your enterprise systems
0:56
weren't built to handle that tax complexity.
0:58
This is where we come in
1:00
with our platform that enables continuous
1:02
compliance, giving you more
1:05
transparency, improved accuracy, and
1:07
better confidence in your tax
1:09
data. To learn more about
1:11
continuous compliance, visit vertexinc.com. Hello
1:22
and welcome to Business Matters. I'm Roger
1:24
Haring, coming up on the programme today,
1:26
an attempted coup in Bolivia after
1:28
months of protest over the declining
1:31
economy. Kenya's President U-turns
1:33
on his tax bill after bloody
1:35
protests will look at the pressure
1:37
on many developing countries with IMF
1:40
agreements. Also the incredible
1:42
sinking yen and how
1:44
Spanish farmers are building cooperatives
1:46
to rival supermarkets. I also
1:48
used to come here to buy
1:51
fruits and fish and
1:53
like food. And
1:55
now this market has
1:57
become mostly like a
2:00
place for drinking.
2:04
And I'll be joined throughout the program
2:06
by two guests on opposite sides of
2:08
the world, Sejiro Takeshita, who's professor at
2:10
the Graduate School of Management, Informatics and
2:12
Innovation at the University of Shizuoka. And
2:15
joins us from Shizuoka. Sejiro, a very
2:17
good morning to you. Thank
2:19
you very much, good morning. Good to have
2:21
you there. And across the other side of
2:23
the world, Tony Nash, CEO and founder of
2:26
Complete Intelligence, an AI-based financial forecasting firm, who
2:28
joins us on the line from Houston, Texas.
2:30
Tony, very good evening to you. Good
2:33
evening, Roger. Good to have you both with us.
2:35
Let's start, as we always do, with a sense
2:37
of what's going on where you are. So Sejiro,
2:39
what's caught your eye news-wise this morning? Well,
2:42
weekend, weekend, weekend is definitely something that people
2:44
are talking about, the consequences of that and
2:46
how our living standards will be affected. This
2:48
is something that is catching and in minds
2:51
of every Japanese that's walking on the street.
2:53
Yeah, I can imagine. And something that we're
2:55
definitely going to be coming on to later
2:57
in the program, digging in, no doubt with
2:59
your help as to what's going on in
3:01
there. And Tony, let me ask you, what
3:03
are you looking at at the moment? What's
3:05
interesting you? We've
3:08
got our first presidential debate tomorrow, which
3:11
is kind of interesting here
3:13
in the US. It's summertime. I'm in
3:15
Texas. It's hot. And
3:17
we're watching tech markets and Nvidia
3:19
and what's happening there, as well
3:21
as gold. Yeah, indeed. I mean,
3:23
Nvidia, very interesting, of course, having
3:25
been the most valuable country, or
3:28
country, or is it valuable company
3:30
in the world now
3:32
isn't anymore, but it's still obviously doing a lot
3:34
of business. Anyway, we will also be talking about
3:36
that perhaps later in the program. But let's start
3:38
with what's been going on in Bolivia because it's
3:40
been a strange few hours. Earlier
3:43
in the day, troops moved into
3:45
the square outside the presidential palace
3:47
and the administrative capital, La Paz.
3:56
As you can hear a lot of confusion as
3:58
a tank knocked down the main gate of the
4:00
presidential palace and the troops attempted
4:02
to enter and the man leading
4:04
them, the army commander General Juan
4:06
Jose Zuniga, declared he was trying
4:08
to restructure democracy. The
4:10
president of Bolivia, Luis Arce, went on
4:13
TV and social media condemning what he
4:15
said was a coup and he
4:17
swore in new commanders for the military. Shortly
4:19
after, the soldiers withdrew and now it's
4:22
reported that General Zuniga has been arrested.
4:24
Let's get the latest from La Paz.
4:26
We're joined by Madeline Aguirre, who is
4:28
the journalist at the local Bolivian newspaper,
4:31
La Nube. Madeline, thank you so much for being
4:33
with us. Can you just bring us
4:36
up to speed? What's been happening in
4:38
the last couple of hours? Yes,
4:41
sure. Yes, as you
4:44
said, there have been like
4:46
really strange hours for Bolivian,
4:48
but the latest news would
4:50
be that the Zuniga, the
4:53
military who lead this attempt
4:55
of a coup was arrested, but
4:58
when he was moving through
5:00
the police offices,
5:03
he informed
5:06
that the president, Luis Arce,
5:09
himself told him to
5:11
move the military vehicles
5:14
because this week will be critical for
5:16
the country. So people
5:18
are talking about a self-coup,
5:21
like this was organized by
5:23
the same government. That's what
5:26
people and even political analysts
5:28
are saying. That's extraordinary,
5:30
isn't it? A suggestion that this was actually
5:32
staged by the president himself. Yes,
5:35
it seems like it's a
5:38
strategy to bring
5:40
up the popularity because, as you said,
5:42
there has been a crisis
5:44
here in Bolivia and the president
5:46
image was not good. So this
5:48
set him as a good president,
5:50
someone who can reestablish the democracy,
5:53
who can face someone that is
5:55
against it. So it can
5:57
be a strategy and that's what people are thinking.
5:59
I was going to say, I mean, we obviously
6:01
haven't heard from the president himself on that, but
6:03
there's no evidence, I guess, beyond
6:05
what General Zenyiga has said, but it is
6:08
interesting that people are talking that way. I
6:10
mean, just give us a sense of how
6:12
do people in La Paz feel about what's
6:14
happened? Were they surprised? Yes,
6:17
it was really a surprise for
6:19
us because even though we had problems,
6:22
economic problems like prices going up, also
6:27
there's not gasoline and there are not
6:29
dollars here. And
6:33
also the principal roots of
6:36
the country were blocked until
6:39
yesterday. So we were in a
6:42
crisis mode, but we were inspecting
6:44
a military movement. So when we
6:47
saw that, everybody got scared. The
6:50
people start buying things and
6:52
the classes were suspended. People
6:54
were trying to buy gasoline. There
6:57
are long lines even until now. So
7:00
we were really surprised. Yeah. And
7:02
many people, I guess, relieved that this isn't a
7:05
coup. I mean, that the democracy, at least
7:07
as it seems, is safe.
7:11
Yes, it seems like everything is
7:13
going back to normal. However, it's
7:15
obvious that it's pretty strange how
7:18
things happened. How things changed because
7:21
this Sunyuga military was
7:24
moved out of his position
7:26
after declaration against Evo Morales,
7:29
the former president. But
7:31
he still was working normally,
7:33
even gave a speech today
7:36
in the army saying that today will be a
7:38
memorable day. And that was strange.
7:41
I was going to say, but it certainly
7:43
has been a memorable day. Very clearly,
7:45
perhaps not for the right reasons. Madeline,
7:47
we'll have to leave it there. But thank
7:49
you so much for being with us, Madeline.
7:52
Aguiar, there, live on the line from La
7:54
Paz after a very strange few hours. But
7:56
why did this happen? How far were, as
7:58
Madeline suggested, Bolivia's economic? problems, perhaps
8:01
underlying some of it. Joining me now
8:03
is Diego Von Varkano, who's Professor of
8:05
Political Science at Texas A&M University, also
8:07
a former advisor to President Arce. Joins
8:10
me now from College Station in Texas.
8:12
Diego, thanks for being with us. I
8:14
mean, what are your thoughts about
8:16
this? You were a former advisor to President
8:18
Arce. What do you think happened? Thank
8:21
you very much for the invitation. Yes, over
8:24
the last three years, the economy and generally
8:27
believe it has not been managed well by Luis
8:29
Arce and Lucho, as they call him. And
8:32
to some extent, it's not really that surprising
8:34
because he did not follow through his
8:37
strategy that he developed in the first six months
8:40
when I was advising him and other people advising him
8:42
to focus on lithium. And
8:44
over the last three years, basically,
8:46
his focus has been to maintain
8:48
self-empower sometimes
8:51
through illegitimate and even corrupt methods.
8:53
So unfortunately, it's not a big
8:55
surprise when this happened today. I
8:58
thought it was a autogol pia self
9:00
coup, a coup d'etat, mainly because the
9:02
media in the way that was covering
9:04
in Bolivia, there's a couple of
9:06
media outlets are recovering very closely. And those
9:09
media outlets are very closely aligned with the government,
9:11
with the Luis Arce government. So
9:13
it almost looked like the TV was almost
9:15
there, you know, exactly at the right moment.
9:18
The Minister of Government del Castillo was also
9:20
there sort of. So it
9:22
seemed to me an artificial crisis in a
9:24
sense, to prop up the
9:27
popularity of Luis Arce and to say that
9:29
we believe in democracies in crisis. So to
9:31
be honest, I was not surprised. Well, obviously,
9:33
I guess get more details about what happened
9:35
in the days ahead when the smoke clears.
9:38
But Diego, just just take us through why
9:40
Bolivia is in this dire economic situation with
9:42
Matt, which Madeleine was talking about. I mean,
9:44
it's a country that has a lot of
9:46
resources. Why are things so bad? I would
9:50
say that the Bonanza years of the Evo Moros,
9:52
because the first 10 years are very good. But
9:55
he did stay in power too
9:57
long. This created a political crisis.
10:00
He chose his former economics minister to be
10:02
the candidate. That's when I was advising him
10:04
through the campaign and he was successful to
10:06
get over 55% of the vote. But
10:10
Luis did not really use that
10:12
political capital to benefit and sort of
10:14
have an economic strategy. So
10:17
I think the lack of economic planning for
10:19
Bolivia to realize that the gas reserves were
10:21
dwindling, the lithium should be the main backbone,
10:23
that really fell to the to the wayside
10:25
and to the side and that really became
10:28
a minor issue when in fact
10:30
that should have been the main focus of the
10:32
government. And again, I think the
10:34
main objective of his party and his group
10:36
was to maintain power that to push aside
10:38
the Evo Morales camp instead of working
10:41
with Evo Morales and others. So I
10:44
think this is a completely unnecessary crisis that
10:46
was created by Luis Arce and his people.
10:49
Again, some of the ministers like the Castillo, also
10:52
the corruption by his son Marcelo Arce in
10:54
the lithium sector. So these
10:56
things are not necessary. Okay,
10:59
Diego, thank you so much for being
11:01
with us. Diego Von Varkano there, professor
11:03
of political science at Texas A&M and
11:05
as we said, a former adviser to
11:07
President Arce. Tony, let me bring you in
11:09
on this because I mean, speaking
11:11
of just up the road from where you are, I guess. And
11:14
obviously it's hard to see from this sort of distance quite
11:16
what was going on. But this used to be US backyard
11:19
and the US would be perhaps even pointed
11:21
a finger at when a coup or attempted
11:23
coup happened. Not really like that anymore, is
11:26
it? No,
11:28
the US is really not
11:31
done well in Latin America for
11:34
the last probably 20 years. So
11:36
first of all, Diego, great
11:38
choice there. He teaches at the absolute
11:41
best university in America. So thank you
11:43
for having him on. Right. But
11:46
yeah, influence in Latin America. Yeah,
11:50
it's really withered away and we've really
11:53
kind of let a lot of opportunities go
11:55
over the last couple of decades. Yeah. So,
11:58
Jira, let me bring you in on this too. Obviously, it's
12:00
not, I guess, a country that you know,
12:02
but this problem of a country with a
12:05
lot of resources, but they're just not well
12:07
managed, and an economic problem then brings political
12:09
instability. It's quite a familiar story, isn't it?
12:12
Oh, absolutely. I mean, especially if
12:14
you do have these resources, then
12:16
you have various interests, particularly through
12:19
the interest of multinationals, which
12:21
obviously would complicate things. So it
12:23
could be considered the other way
12:25
around. Because they do have resources,
12:27
there tend to be a lot of interests
12:30
that would be involved, which would really complicate
12:32
these geopolitical issues. Yeah, and it's something, I
12:34
mean, do you think, Tony, that the US
12:36
government wants to be involved at
12:38
all? I mean, we talked about in
12:40
the old days how it would be, and it wasn't
12:42
a happy history, but is the feeling now just stand
12:44
well back and see what happens? Well,
12:46
I think with the victory
12:48
of Javier Mallet in Argentina, I
12:51
think there is a sense that
12:53
things are changing in Latin America,
12:55
and I think there
12:57
is a desire to be more involved. When
13:00
we look at things like I've been watching the
13:03
gold price after hours, and it's bumped up and
13:05
down a little bit because there
13:07
is three, four billion dollars
13:09
of gold exports, I think, from Bolivia every year.
13:11
So I'm just keeping an eye on that. But
13:14
yeah, I think the US would like to
13:16
be more involved. But to be honest, our
13:18
State Department really has lost a lot of
13:20
their skills. And so I'm really not sure
13:23
that we know how to engage well in
13:25
Latin America. And Sergio, one of
13:27
the things that was mentioned interestingly by Diego was,
13:29
of course, about lithium being a resource.
13:33
Highly in demand now, as we know, for batteries
13:35
for electric cars and many other things besides. I
13:37
mean, that really is a resource that's
13:39
really important in the world now, isn't it? Absolutely,
13:42
especially where at the time that
13:44
is trying to change or alter
13:46
our global supply chain with excessive
13:48
inclination to China, we're trying to
13:50
rectify that. So we do
13:52
need these countries, particularly the likes of
13:54
Bolivia, which have recently
13:57
joined a MERSECOR, to basically.
14:00
be a partner to providing safe
14:02
and secure provision of goods. So these
14:04
are pretty bad news, especially when
14:06
we're having the war of hegemony between
14:08
the United States and China. Well,
14:11
let's now have a look at something that's very much close
14:13
to home where you are. Sichiro, of course,
14:15
and economic problems with very
14:17
different nature and scale, but interesting all
14:19
the same. And that's to do with
14:22
Japan because the currency, the yen,
14:24
is in a bit of trouble. It's reached
14:26
its lowest value according to some against the
14:28
dollar for 38 years. Now,
14:30
I'm going to ask what's going on. I'll come
14:32
back to you in a moment, Sichiro, but
14:34
I'm going to go to Takatoshi Ito, who joins
14:37
us. He's professor at the School of International and
14:39
Public Affairs at Columbia University in the US,
14:41
and obviously Japanese, at least in origin. Takatoshi, thank
14:43
you for being with us. Obvious
14:46
question, why is the yen so
14:49
low against the dollar right now? Well,
14:52
the immediate cause is the
14:55
interest rate differential between the US
14:57
and Japan. And this
14:59
started in 2022 when inflation rate in the
15:01
US and Europe
15:06
shot up to 8%, 10%.
15:10
And Federal Reserve and
15:12
ECB raised in policy rate
15:15
very quickly to a very high level. BOJ
15:18
didn't move because the Japanese
15:21
inflation rate was at
15:23
most 4%. So this
15:26
created a huge differential between
15:29
the US interest rate
15:32
and Japanese interest rate. And this
15:34
interest rate differential encouraged
15:38
the capital
15:40
flows out of Japan
15:42
into the US. And
15:44
so this started two years ago,
15:47
and as
15:51
the economic conditions stayed
15:56
similar, the same
15:58
for two years. I
16:00
think the yen depreciation continued.
16:02
But that's really interesting Takatashi. If I
16:05
can interrupt you there, because that difference
16:07
in the way of playing the interest
16:10
rate, you can understand it. But
16:12
was that because of the rather unique
16:16
economic conditions that have been in Japan for a
16:18
long time now, and people talk about stagnation going
16:20
back a very long way, was that
16:23
the reason? Because there was no need,
16:25
in effect, to do anything strong with
16:27
interest rates, because the Japanese economy just
16:29
didn't have the kind of push that
16:31
would require it. Yes
16:33
and no. The
16:37
long stagnation has, I
16:39
think, ended with the
16:41
economics and economic growth
16:43
and the vitality came
16:45
back since 2013. However,
16:50
that relied more
16:52
on the domestic strength
16:54
and foreign
16:57
choice to Japan. Now
17:00
the more recent
17:02
phenomena is that
17:04
even with this
17:06
depreciated yen level
17:08
around 150 years
17:11
since 2022, it did not cause the export boom. And
17:20
yes, the profits of the exporters
17:22
increased because the profit margin increased
17:25
with the yen depreciation. But they
17:27
did not produce
17:29
more to export from Japan.
17:32
They were content with producing
17:35
outside Japan and
17:37
take the profits in
17:41
their balance sheets, but
17:44
a profit loss and balance sheet.
17:46
But the actual movement
17:49
of the dollar into the
17:51
yen did not
17:53
happen. As you said,
17:56
that was Abenomics and Shinzo Abe is gone and
17:58
it has changed a bit. There
18:00
is still, it feels as if
18:02
the Japanese economy hasn't really moved on that much
18:04
from that. Well,
18:08
there are bigger other
18:10
reasons like working age
18:12
population has declined and
18:14
wage has not risen much. So
18:17
the consumption is still stagnating.
18:20
This is expected to change this year as
18:22
wage increase was very big in this ring.
18:24
Well, I was going to ask you about
18:26
what might, we've done describe the situation. What
18:29
is it that you expect from either the
18:31
Bank of Japan or the government or both
18:33
to try and deal with it? Right.
18:36
So some people,
18:39
including some politicians, demanding the
18:41
BOJ to increase the interest
18:43
rate so that interest rate
18:45
differential will be
18:47
narrowed, which would theoretically
18:49
cause the yen appreciation
18:52
or stop the yen depreciation.
18:55
However, the BOJ is still
18:57
very cautious that the inflation
19:01
rate is now coming down close
19:03
to 2%, which is a target
19:06
and inflation expectation has not risen
19:08
to 2%. So the
19:10
2% inflation target has not
19:12
been achieved sustainably.
19:18
That's the judgment of the BOJ.
19:20
So BOJ is reluctant to
19:22
raise interest rates very quickly.
19:25
Okay. Take it to us.
19:28
We're going to have to leave it there. But
19:30
thank you so much for being with us. Take
19:32
it to us. It's a there of Columbia University.
19:34
Well, Sajiro, let me come to you. I
19:37
guess this is a rather important thing for you. And
19:40
how does it work? Because we heard there
19:42
the suggestion from Takatoshi that the Bank of
19:44
Japan is still being very cautious. Kazuo Ueda,
19:47
the governor is very focused,
19:49
I think, on the targets. But
19:52
do you get a sense that the Bank of Japan
19:54
and the government have the means to try and sort
19:56
this out? That's a
19:58
good question because, well, You know,
20:00
you've used the word cautious, but I think
20:02
that is a very kind methodology of expression
20:05
because basically, in my opinion, they do not
20:07
have the deep pocket like that of the
20:09
Fed or the ECB. If
20:11
you consider the macro factors, you know, fastest
20:13
aging population with the second lowest birth rate,
20:15
along with the fact that, you know, inflation
20:17
that we've been talking about is not demand
20:19
pool inflation like that in the US, which
20:21
means that it's cost push inflation, meaning that,
20:24
you know, it is not as serious or
20:26
it's not, you know, longevity of this negative
20:28
issue of inflation fear
20:30
is going to prolong. So basically, you
20:32
put all these things together along with
20:34
the fact that economic situation really hasn't
20:36
come back as you just reported. You
20:39
know, it's very, very difficult for Bank of Japan
20:41
to raise the rates at this point. It's
20:44
almost like shooting your own foot. So, you
20:46
know, in my opinion, Bank of
20:48
Japan may give a lot of verbal intervention,
20:51
but actual intervention is very
20:53
difficult considering the reality of
20:55
economy and our macroeconomic environment.
20:58
Because it is that stagnation thing. Tony, what's
21:00
your thoughts as an outsider looking at this?
21:03
How do you see any progress
21:05
there could be for Japan in this? Because it's
21:07
a dire situation to be in. I mean, okay,
21:09
the economy is incredibly strong still, of course, but
21:12
being in this position with the yen is not good. Well,
21:15
you know, you had what I believe is a
21:17
planned devel in 2022 before Abe left office. When
21:22
Ueda came in, he's an extremely weak
21:24
central banker. And
21:27
I'm not sure markets believe him.
21:29
And because he's been trying to
21:31
talk strong without actually taking action,
21:34
markets don't believe him. And so it's pushing
21:36
against a piece of string effectively. So
21:38
you have to have the Ministry of
21:40
Finance actually take actions in the same
21:43
way in the US. When
21:45
Janet Yellen was the head of the Fed, she kept
21:47
complaining, we have monetary policy
21:49
actions, but there's no fiscal spending.
21:52
And so that's why the US economy wouldn't
21:54
move. Now that she's the
21:56
Treasury head, she's spending fiscal like
21:59
mad. Okay, so we have
22:01
Fed policy, central bank policy, and we
22:03
have fiscal policy. So in
22:05
Japan, I think there's a fear of active fiscal
22:07
policy because of things that happened in the 90s
22:09
and 2000s. But
22:12
until we have active fiscal policy, we're not going
22:14
to have wage rises and we're not going to
22:17
have consumption rise. So all of the, say,
22:19
growth you heard our friend from Columbia
22:22
talk about was in JPY terms, in
22:24
Japanese yen terms, it wasn't in US
22:26
dollar terms. So in US dollar
22:28
terms, things have really been flat. In
22:31
Japanese yen terms, things have because you
22:33
have D-Val, you know, in 2012,
22:35
the Japanese yen was trading at 76. It's now
22:38
trading at 160. So it's actually halved in value.
22:40
That's an extraordinary figure, isn't it? I mean, when
22:42
you think about it. But so Jerry, let me
22:44
put that to you the point that Tony was
22:47
making about the fiscal spending. Do you agree? Do
22:49
you think that's where it needs to be? I
22:52
totally agree with Tony in the sense that we
22:54
need a structural transformation. And this is something that
22:56
Japan had its homework for
22:58
over two decades. People say, you know,
23:00
we have two lost decades, but that's
23:02
exactly what they should have been doing,
23:04
but hadn't because of vested interest involved.
23:06
And this is our structural problem where
23:08
the corporations aren't taking any risks, for
23:11
example, and neither are the government. Now
23:13
this is the problem that we've got.
23:15
And particularly it may be from the
23:17
aftershock or PTSD from, you know, our
23:19
pop of the bubble days, but, you
23:21
know, corporations and the government are not
23:23
taking risks. So this is the biggest
23:25
problem. Also with the private consumption as
23:28
well, you know, the propensities will not
23:30
go up even for cash in the
23:32
faces of Japanese, because what they'll do
23:34
is they'll go to savings. It's
23:36
a very conservative nature. It's the conservatism, the caution,
23:38
the risk avoidance. I mean, these are the terms
23:41
that are always used, aren't they? But it does
23:43
seem to be a major part of the problem.
23:45
Well, thanks to both of you. Some really interesting
23:47
insights there, I think, into what is going on
23:50
in Japan. But stay with us much more coming
23:52
up here on Business Matters. Just a moment. We're
23:54
going to talk about another country with problems, very
23:56
different problems again. That's Kenya and other countries in
23:58
their involvement with the IMF. But we're all We're
24:01
also going to look at Spain's efforts to bring
24:03
some of its commerce back to the people locally
24:05
and talk about commerce conservation and rock music. That's
24:07
all coming up next. Stay with us. Hey,
24:20
Hey, I'm Ryan Reynolds at Mid Mobile.
24:22
We like to do the opposite of
24:24
what big wireless does. They charge you
24:26
a lot. We charge you a little.
24:28
So naturally when they announced they'd be
24:30
raising their prices due to inflation, we
24:32
decided to deflate are prices due to
24:34
not hating you. That's right, we're cutting
24:36
the price of Mid Unlimited from thirty
24:38
dollars a month to just fifteen dollars
24:41
a month Give to try it Mint
24:43
mobile.com/switch. Forty Five dollars up front for three months plus
24:45
taxes and fees. Promoting for new customers for limited time Unlimited: more
24:47
than forty gigabytes per month. Floats full turns. Up mobile.com.
24:50
Ready to start talking to your kids about
24:52
financial literacy? Meet Greenlight, the debit
24:54
card and money app that teaches kids and
24:56
teens how to earn save,
24:58
spend wisely and invest with your
25:00
guardrails in place. Parents
25:03
can send instant money transfers, automate
25:05
allowance and more. Plus, keep an
25:07
eye on spending with real time
25:09
notifications. Join more than 6
25:11
million parents and kids building healthy
25:13
financial habits together on Greenlight. Get
25:16
your first month free at
25:18
greenlight.com/ACAST. That's greenlight.com/ACAST.
25:32
Welcome back to Business Matters with me,
25:34
Roger Heering and my guests today, Sajiro
25:37
Takashita and Tony Nash. Now Kenya's president
25:39
has backed away from a finance bill
25:41
that led to deadly riots on the
25:43
streets of Nairobi on Tuesday. William
25:46
Ruto said the people had made it clear
25:48
they wanted nothing to do with the bill
25:50
and its plan to increase taxes. He promised
25:52
to cut spending in the presidential office and
25:55
work to tackle the country's debts. It
25:57
is necessary for us to
25:59
have... a conversation as a nation going
26:03
forward. How do
26:06
we manage the affairs of the country
26:09
together? How
26:11
do we manage our debt situation
26:14
together? How do
26:16
we work on the budget
26:19
with the deficits that now exist together?
26:23
President William Rute, well the tax rises
26:25
Kenya has now abandoned, also
26:27
agreed in a deal with the International
26:29
Monetary Fund. Now some think there's a
26:32
pattern here because there have been similar
26:34
deals done in countries like Sri Lanka
26:36
that have also suffered civil unrest. Some
26:39
think the pressure on debt is
26:41
unfair and destructive. Sarah
26:43
Sedoon is a senior researcher and
26:45
advocate at Human Rights Watch in
26:47
New York. I asked her what
26:49
she thought was the big problem
26:51
with the Kenyan economy overall. Well
26:53
I think the Kenyan economy is
26:55
facing similar problems to many economies
26:57
across the globe in the wake
27:00
of COVID, of increasing prices following
27:02
Russia's invasion of Ukraine, of a
27:04
rise in interest rates that have
27:06
forced governments, particularly African governments, to
27:08
spend huge amounts of their revenue
27:11
on servicing debt. And so many
27:13
have gone to the IMF and
27:15
requested loan programs and as part
27:17
of those programs they are forced
27:19
to raise revenues and
27:21
reduce spending in ways that
27:23
can really hurt people's ability
27:25
to afford what they need,
27:28
to hurt their economic and
27:30
social rights. And rather than
27:32
making sure that the
27:34
cost of recovery, the burden of
27:36
recovery falls on those who can
27:38
afford it the most, they end
27:40
up cranking up regressive taxes or
27:43
cutting spending that for programs that
27:45
people rely on like health education
27:47
and it is fueling anger around
27:49
the world, not just in Kenya,
27:51
but we've seen of course most
27:53
recently in Kenya huge protests against
27:56
these measures. But Sarah isn't the
27:58
point that the IMF broke her
28:00
deals are there to try and
28:02
repay debt, to try and help the Kenyan
28:04
economy come out of debt so that it
28:06
can function in the world of
28:08
borrowing money around the world if it needs
28:10
to. And in a way,
28:12
it's the Kenyan government's responsibility or individual state's
28:15
responsibility as to how they divide up where
28:17
the money has to come from in that.
28:19
So this is what the IMF claims that
28:21
it's setting targets and it's on the government
28:23
to decide how it achieves them. But this
28:26
obscures a much more complex reality. First
28:28
of all, the position itself is a
28:31
problem. The question of whether a government
28:33
raises new revenues by, for example, increasing
28:35
the cost of goods and services that
28:37
people rely on versus, for example, kind
28:39
of closing loopholes, the
28:41
benefit wealthy corporations and individuals or
28:44
tackling corruption. These questions have serious
28:46
repercussions not only socially and on
28:48
human rights, but also from an
28:51
economic perspective on poverty and inequality.
28:54
And so it is absolutely within
28:56
the IMF's mandate and interest to
28:58
systematically conduct impact assessments of policies
29:00
to achieve targets to make sure
29:02
that the burden of recovery is
29:04
falling on people who could afford
29:07
it and not making life harder
29:09
for people who are already struggling.
29:11
But the IMF is a body
29:13
that has people who contribute to
29:15
it across the globe, nations, rich
29:17
nations, inevitably, who put money into
29:19
it and expect a kind of return and an
29:22
improvement in the economic health of the countries
29:25
that are being helped. So it's in
29:27
their interest to try and make sure this
29:29
works, but it has to work in quite
29:31
a rigorous way, doesn't it? You can't just
29:33
say, well, let them carry on as
29:35
before. So there's pressure coming from that side,
29:38
too. The suggestion is not to have the
29:40
government carry on as before. The suggestion
29:42
is actually to address the systemic problems that
29:45
actually force governments to come back over
29:47
and over and over again to the
29:50
IMF for more and more lending. If
29:52
the IMF's approach was working, we would
29:54
not be in the situation we are
29:57
in today where many governments are on
29:59
their seventh, eighth, fifteenth, twenty-second loan. And
30:01
part of the problem is that when
30:04
you cut public services, when you raise
30:06
taxes in ways that make people be
30:08
able to spend less, you're actually undermining
30:11
the health of the economy. The
30:13
way to a sustainable economy is
30:15
actually by fulfilling people's human rights,
30:17
by ensuring people have access to
30:19
health, to education, to universal social
30:22
security systems, and reducing
30:24
the vast economic inequality both within
30:26
and between countries. And until we
30:28
address these root causes, we will
30:31
be in the same cycle of
30:33
debt and IMF programs that many,
30:35
many governments are trapped in. Sarah Sadeun
30:38
there of Human Rights Watch speaking to
30:40
me from New York. Tony, do you
30:42
take the same view? Do you think
30:44
that the IMF really isn't handling these
30:46
things well? No,
30:49
you know, it's interesting countries like
30:52
Kenya could take the
30:54
path that Malaysia took in
30:56
1997 and refuse IMF money.
30:59
Malaysia was given a really hard
31:01
time at that time for refusing
31:03
to take IMF money. And
31:05
they ended up coming out of their
31:07
problems much quicker than other people. Thailand
31:09
took money and Thailand had to make
31:12
huge trade offs in order to pay
31:14
that loan back. So, you
31:16
know, I think it's sure it's easy
31:18
to take the view
31:21
that IMF is just trying to turn every
31:23
emerging country into kind of debt slaves, but
31:25
I really don't think that's what they're trying
31:27
to do. I think they're,
31:29
you know, these countries spend money, they need to
31:31
get out of debt. There is a global institution
31:33
that can help them get out of debt. You
31:36
know, are, is the IMF your best friend? No. I
31:38
mean, when they come in town, they're going to get
31:40
their money back, right? Well, yeah, but the point Tony
31:42
is, is yeah, they're not their friend, but they are
31:45
a friend in the sense that they want the country
31:47
to do better. And I suppose the argument is that
31:49
they're not going about it necessarily the right way. Well,
31:52
yes and no. I mean, I think it's always,
31:54
as a debtor, it's always hard. And I don't
31:56
mean this to sound harsh at all. I mean,
31:58
I've done a lot of work in places
32:00
like Cambodia, Myanmar, other places. So I'm not
32:03
just some guy sitting in Texas who, you
32:05
know, has never experienced these places. It's
32:07
very hard to pay back debt. But
32:10
those terms are on some
32:13
level somewhat negotiable. And
32:16
if progress is made, these
32:18
multilateral institutions on occasion will
32:21
work with those countries. Sri
32:23
Lanka is a good case where, you
32:25
know, they had the leader of that
32:27
country came in after a decade
32:30
and a half of another leader who just spent
32:33
wildly. The new
32:35
president was not popular because
32:37
he took IMF money. They're now having
32:39
to make a lot of trade offs
32:41
to trade offs to pay back the
32:43
IMF. But they're making progress, right? And
32:45
Sri Lanka is, you know, is slowly,
32:47
you know, making it back. And so
32:49
I think Kenya made some difficult choices.
32:53
The current president inherited a lot
32:55
of problems from his predecessor. That's not
32:57
a unique situation for these leaders
33:00
to be in. And the
33:02
poor are the ones who suffer. And
33:04
that's terrible. And that's the way it
33:06
is in every debt situation because the
33:09
poor are the ones who are typically the
33:11
most dependent on government services. And again, it's
33:13
a terrible situation. I'm in no way excusing
33:15
it. But that's, you know, that's the way
33:18
it happens because they're the ones who are
33:20
most dependent on government services. They're awful lying.
33:22
The poor suffer what they must. She's grim.
33:24
Sajirah, what's your take on this? Well,
33:27
one thing that we have to be careful
33:29
about is I totally read what Tony and
33:31
the lady from IMF is saying. But one
33:34
thing that we have to be careful about here is that 72%
33:37
of debt is towards China. And
33:40
the methodology that they adopt
33:42
is basically giving these debt
33:44
and confiscating the hard, for
33:46
example, infrastructures. And
33:49
that's a methodology that China had been taking. So
33:51
we have to be very careful about this, especially
33:53
with the likes of transaction 25 or the likes
33:55
of transaction 25. Oh,
34:01
it's basically countries that does not necessarily belong
34:03
to the free world side or the Unitarian
34:06
state side, but want to benefit both like
34:08
that of Brazil. And
34:10
of course, you know, these countries like in African
34:13
nations. So they want to
34:15
benefit from both. That's totally understandable. But
34:17
you know, behind it, there is a
34:20
war of hegemony, again, between China and
34:22
the United States and I should say
34:24
the free world versus Unitarian states. And
34:26
this is where we have to be very
34:28
careful to make sure that, you know, Kenya
34:30
doesn't lean towards the Unitarian state side. I
34:33
think this is one of the big pictures
34:35
that we have to always remind
34:37
ourselves in the back of our head. Yeah, I should.
34:40
Something like $8 billion owed to China, right? How
34:43
much did you say, Tony? I think it's $8
34:45
billion that Kenya owes to China. I
34:48
don't have that figure. I mean, so, Jerry, do you know that
34:50
what the figure would be? How much can you
34:52
owe to China? On the bilateral
34:54
depth, it's 72% to China, 8% to France, also 8% to Japan.
34:59
So you can see that they're very heavily
35:01
reliant on China in that sense. And
35:04
that's what I'm worrying about. You know, they do have
35:06
the rope around their neck, I think. Yeah. Well,
35:08
I should add that we did attempt to speak to the IMF on
35:11
all this, of course, because they've been, fingers
35:13
wagged at them, but they weren't able to
35:15
speak to us, unfortunately. Let's
35:18
move on to a different country
35:20
again. We're talking about Spain. In
35:22
Spain, the tourism boom in major
35:25
cities and gentrification are changing the
35:27
face of Spain's cities, once vibrant
35:29
community hubs, many traditional markets, and
35:31
now trendy nightlife spots with bars
35:34
and gourmet food stalls. As
35:36
supermarkets move in, locals who prefer
35:39
fresh, locally sourced food are forming
35:41
small cooperatives with local farmers. Well,
35:43
Ashish Varma visited one such group
35:46
at the San Fernando Market in
35:48
La Vapiez, Madrid. Luthia
35:51
and Marta prepared the shopping
35:53
bags for the 30 members
35:56
of their food association. Today, apart
35:58
from a butcher. and a fruit
36:01
store, this market is full of
36:03
chic bars and trendy eateries, largely
36:05
visited by tourists. According
36:12
to agri-food cooperatives of Spain,
36:14
associations like the one in
36:16
San Fernando contribute to generating
36:18
a turnover of over $43
36:20
million through a national membership
36:22
network of more than one
36:24
million people. These associations
36:27
have helped create over 122,000 jobs, predominantly in
36:29
rural areas. They're
36:34
formed by local people. My eggs, I'm going
36:36
to get the eggs. People
36:38
like Irené. I also used to come here to buy
36:42
fruits and fish and food.
36:46
And now this market
36:48
has become mostly
36:50
like a place for
36:53
drinking. Local shops,
36:56
local family
36:59
markets are disappearing in our neighborhoods.
37:01
Irené McNulty works for an organization
37:04
called Food Justice. She says the
37:06
problem with many markets like San
37:08
Fernando is that they're partially privately
37:11
owned and that means to pull
37:13
towards enterprises that can make money
37:15
overrides the needs of a local
37:18
community. We need the markets to
37:20
be back in public hands. They
37:23
need to be in network with local
37:25
food systems. They should include these local
37:27
markets as points to
37:29
guarantee local access to
37:31
food. And at the moment the food,
37:33
national food strategy is only thinking about
37:36
exporting food and it's not thinking about
37:38
feeding the local population. Now I've just seen
37:40
you Marta going up to collect your little
37:43
basket. So what have you got this week?
37:46
Eggplant, cucumber, garlic,
37:49
lettuce. How much do you pay for that?
37:51
In fact, I am the person who collects
37:53
all the money over all the people. So
37:55
you know. For
37:57
example, my bag is only veg-veg-veg-veg-veg-veg.
38:00
and is 26 euros per
38:02
month and with fruit is 36
38:04
per month. 24x for 8 euros, that is cheap
38:12
as well." The association is
38:14
driven by the principle of eating
38:16
food that is locally produced, ecologically
38:18
cultivated and seasonal, which means group
38:20
members don't know what food they
38:22
will have every week, as another
38:25
member Carol explained. We know the
38:27
vegetables when we collect that, not
38:29
before. We can choose.
38:31
Fruit is very difficult to have
38:33
from season, but most of the
38:35
vegetables are from Madrid and from
38:38
this farmer. I think it's good
38:40
to help and to
38:42
support local farmers, also
38:45
to eat ecological vegetables. In
38:47
Madrid there are a lot
38:49
of different groups that support
38:52
this kind of local farmers.
38:54
Here in Spain, the choice of
38:56
buying locally and more ecologically from
38:59
markets is now under threat, as
39:01
stall owners convert their spaces into
39:03
bars or gas drive food stalls.
39:06
But the growth of cooperatives and
39:08
associations filled with people who prefer
39:10
to support local producers does suggest
39:13
and forgive the pun that there
39:15
is a market that can cater
39:17
for all tastes. Ashish
39:19
Sharma there reporting from Spain. Now, Sajiro, last
39:21
time I was in Japan I remember I
39:23
was travelling to the area for kushima. Now,
39:26
for kushima of course has its own problems,
39:28
but it was a huge thing about local
39:30
produce, people buying local food. Obviously the fear
39:32
there at the time was to do with
39:35
radioactivity after of course the nuclear problems they
39:37
had around there. But is this thing of
39:39
eating local, avoiding I
39:41
suppose the big supermarket way of doing things,
39:44
is that active in Japan? Very
39:47
much so. Regressing back to
39:49
nature, regressing back to local food
39:51
is something that, especially in areas
39:53
like Shizoka, we tend to emphasize,
39:56
partly to induce and expel
39:58
the economy. of the local
40:00
side, but also to basically
40:02
prolong our tradition that we had
40:05
in the area. So, yeah, this is something that's been
40:07
going on very strong within
40:09
Japan. Mason- What would I
40:11
buy? What would I eat there? What would be
40:14
the local produce I could find? Kline-
40:16
We have the biggest fish
40:19
dock right in front
40:21
of us, the biggest bay of
40:23
Asuruga, which is the deepest in
40:25
Japan, meaning that the variety of
40:27
fish is just immense. We've got
40:29
mountains, so you can get all
40:32
these kind of mountain-related vegetables. We're
40:34
the only prefecture
40:36
in mainland Japan that
40:38
produces very heavily
40:40
on things like strawberries, because it's very
40:43
warm, etc., etc., etc. So, it's very
40:45
abundant. We've got the largest number of
40:47
onsen, which is spa hotels,
40:50
meaning that you can have a real
40:52
good relaxed time here. Mason-
40:54
I think you're selling shizuka pretty well
40:56
along around here. Tony, are you beginning
40:59
to ache to take yourself off to
41:01
shizuka? Tony- Yes, immediately. Mason- Welcome. Tony-
41:03
All right, I'm going to bounce the
41:05
question back to you then, Tony. In
41:08
Texas, when things of
41:11
Houston, big city, of course, huge amounts
41:13
of product on a very industrial scale,
41:15
but what about local produce and buying
41:17
local produce? Does it happen in Houston?
41:20
Tony- Oh, absolutely. I'm
41:23
sure you've heard of this secret
41:25
called Texas Barbecue and Texas
41:27
Brisket. All those cows are
41:30
raised here. Texas is a
41:32
very large farming state, and
41:34
there's a lot of beer, a lot of other
41:37
things made here. The other
41:39
interesting thing, Roger, is
41:41
Houston is the most
41:43
diverse city in America.
41:45
We have international dishes
41:47
made from local dishes.
41:50
Vietnamese groups, Latin American groups,
41:52
and Indian groups. There are
41:54
huge populations,
41:58
more so than any other city in
42:00
America. So we're not just making text
42:02
in dishes with text and ingredients.
42:04
We're making global dishes with local ingredients That's
42:06
really interesting. Isn't it that that is and
42:08
it's accepted by everybody I mean you are
42:10
you know, I suppose the original Immigrant
42:13
state in a way, you know, everybody comes
42:15
to America and becomes American but they bring
42:17
with it their own cultures And that is
42:20
observed and and enjoyed by everyone Absolutely.
42:22
Yeah here to you said we absolutely do that.
42:24
Yeah and Let
42:26
me play that back then to you so jury
42:28
because you have a kind of
42:31
monoculture in Japan I've noticed that
42:33
you don't have people coming in and bringing
42:35
this kind of variety Do you think that's
42:37
that's a lack really in Japan? I mean
42:39
you have a vibrant local culture, but you
42:41
know, maybe something more like the diversity of
42:44
Houston would help Well
42:46
is one of the biggest problem that I think
42:48
Japan will face and that is basically in inheritance
42:52
of immigrants We
42:54
have a large number of foreigners coming to Japan
42:56
not only the tourists but the workers as well
42:59
But you know will they stay in
43:01
Japan? The answer is usually no particularly
43:03
because we do have a very strong
43:05
regulations as well as people's perception of
43:07
I should say Accepting these foreigners are
43:09
not really open So the mindset really
43:11
has to change to a much more
43:13
diverse, you know a community And this
43:16
is what we lack about and this
43:18
is what I always argue about here
43:20
in Shizuoka But we really have to
43:22
open up particularly. Yeah, we there's a
43:24
lot of things that we can learn
43:26
from Houston Maybe yeah, so maybe you
43:28
should have some I don't know food
43:30
from all sorts of other places Arabic
43:32
food and maybe glad to visit to
43:35
teach you There's
43:37
an offer. There we are. You've got an offer
43:39
there. So Giro well, we can exchange we can
43:41
exchange Yeah, bring it all through. All right Well
43:44
another aspect of all this of what
43:46
we preserve and what we change I
43:48
guess is is to do with ecology
43:50
and the environment now saving animals from
43:53
extinction Isn't exactly an easy task at
43:55
the best of times. We're gonna stick
43:57
in Spain though because a conservation center
43:59
there has found the task particularly tough
44:02
just in the last few days. And
44:04
with, one has to say, tragic results.
44:07
The centre is near the southern Spanish
44:09
town of Almería, and it's become the
44:11
home for an endangered species of gazelle.
44:14
But staff there say loud music from
44:16
a nearby festival over the weekend scared
44:19
the animals so badly they panicked, they ran
44:21
into walls, breaking bones and leaving four of
44:23
them for dead. This may have
44:25
been part of what they were running from. I
44:29
think you'd agree it
44:32
doesn't sound too frightening,
44:34
but it's the music
44:36
of Ogun Afrobeat, one
44:42
of the bands that was playing on Saturday. Now,
44:44
the City Council in Almería, who organised the
44:46
festival, say the conservation centre's been
44:49
too hasty, pointing the finger at them. They
44:51
think the cause of the animals' deaths isn't
44:53
clear-cut at all. Well, the
44:55
BBC's Malu Cursino has been following this
44:57
story and explained why the festival has
44:59
been allowed to go ahead with vulnerable
45:02
animals so close by. They measured the
45:04
decibels on rehearsals beforehand and
45:06
they didn't think it would disrupt the
45:08
animals at all. So the local authorities
45:10
have said that the decibels measured were
45:12
65 decibels, which in
45:15
their opinion was not enough to
45:17
cause any huge disruption, but the
45:19
conservation centre begs to differ. Well,
45:22
Malu also explained why the gazelles
45:24
are particularly important and why the
45:27
noise may have caused an issue.
45:29
So these gazelles, they're three different
45:31
species at this conservation centre and
45:33
what makes them special is that they're
45:35
native to Northern Africa, but
45:38
where they are from, originally
45:40
they're endangered and not able
45:42
to survive in the wild
45:44
as well. So this conservation
45:46
centre serves the community, the
45:48
biodiversity community worldwide, and
45:50
they've been able to build up numbers
45:53
quite significantly to the point that now
45:55
they're around 400 gazelles at the centre
45:57
and they are particularly sensitive to noise.
45:59
particularly at this time of the year.
46:02
So it's their breeding season right now.
46:04
So it's not just the
46:06
music, but it's also the vibration and
46:08
everything around it. Some of
46:10
them ran into walls, breaking their neck
46:12
and legs. It was quite traumatic. Malo
46:15
Cosino, they're reporting. Now, Tony, I mean, this throws
46:18
up a whole issue. People, Generation
46:20
Z or Z, whatever you want to call
46:22
them, they like going to festivals, but they're
46:24
also very into conservation. There is this clash,
46:27
if you like, I suppose, between the way
46:29
we enjoy ourselves and the way we try
46:31
and preserve the environment. It
46:33
can be difficult. And who
46:35
wants to herd a gazelle, Roger? I looked
46:37
up photos of gazelles as you were talking.
46:40
Okay, well, just tell us what these ones
46:42
look like. Give us a sort of verbal
46:44
picture. They have really
46:46
long horns and they look like
46:49
kind of like deer, but they look
46:51
really graceful. Yeah. So nobody wants to
46:54
herd a gazelle, right? Right. I think
46:56
so. So, you know, it's
46:58
a balance. It really is hard. And so when
47:00
people have festivals saying the country or whatever, and,
47:02
you know, I really don't know
47:05
the answer. I'm not an expert there, but it's
47:07
a balance. And I don't think any of the
47:09
contours would want to herd a poor gazelle or
47:11
any animal. I just
47:13
think they probably weren't aware of it. Well, yeah. And
47:15
I suppose if you get a hold of festivals somewhere,
47:18
maybe there are things nearby that
47:20
aren't going to enjoy it. I mean, that's the
47:22
nature of it. It's a gyro. I mean, you
47:24
know, many of us would have different choices of
47:26
music. We might not be terrified about the music,
47:28
but we don't want it necessarily. But where do
47:30
you stand? Because I mean, a country like Japan
47:32
in many areas is quite crowded. Trying to preserve
47:34
nature and at the same time let people enjoy
47:36
themselves is an issue. Well,
47:39
you know, where we forgive and where we don't
47:41
forgive, I think is a very, very difficult line.
47:43
You know, as you just pointed out in Japan,
47:45
we have a lot of these rules, unwritten rules.
47:47
For example, for all the foreigners coming to Japan,
47:49
I must warn you not to use your mobile
47:51
phone when you're on the train. You're
47:53
not supposed to talk on the train. Oh, that's actually
47:55
that's really interesting. That's news you can use. I didn't
47:58
know that. What why is it a problem? to
48:00
use your microphone on the train? Because
48:02
it's noisy and it annoys other people, so you have
48:04
to go to the deck to talk. But
48:07
on the other hand, when it comes to election time in Japan,
48:09
you have these candidates on their
48:11
car with a big microphone yelling
48:13
into your house, vote for me,
48:16
which is irritating and very, very
48:18
noisy. But that's forgiven. So it
48:20
depends. It's very difficult with our
48:22
diverse cultures, which is
48:24
really starting to have many types
48:27
of values. It's very difficult,
48:29
I think, to really draw the line on
48:32
where you're stating. Now that is interesting, isn't it? And
48:34
Tony, I mean, you've worked in that neck of the
48:36
woods, I think. You worked a lot in Asia. There
48:38
are lots of social rules like that and things that
48:40
are permitted not permitted. And it's all to do with,
48:43
I suppose, being living on one on top of
48:45
each other. Does that cause problems in Houston? Because
48:47
you said you've got a multiplicity of cultures there.
48:49
Do people always get what's allowed and what isn't?
48:52
Yeah, I think so. In Japan, you
48:54
have what's called a high-context culture. There's
48:56
a lot that's not communicated but understood.
48:59
In the US, generally, we have a
49:01
low-context culture where everything's
49:03
pretty explicit. I mean, Americans,
49:06
we put everything out on the table. We're
49:10
pretty transparent about things, that sort of thing.
49:12
That's because we live in a low-context immigrant
49:15
culture. And so we're not
49:17
really secretive, typically. Let's just explain. What
49:19
does low-context mean or high-context? How do
49:21
you define that? Low-context means there's
49:23
a lot of explanation behind what's
49:26
going on. So there might be
49:28
cultural traditions. There might be social
49:31
traditions. These sorts of things. In
49:33
a low-context culture where you have a
49:36
lot of different people, you can't have
49:38
those complicated rules. You just can't. So
49:41
a low-context culture is almost like what
49:43
you see as what you get culture.
49:47
Because there are so many different
49:49
people from different perspectives interacting that
49:51
you can't have unspoken rules.
49:56
So if I were to go to Tokyo and go to
49:58
the Tsukiji market and buy fish or something, something like that,
50:01
I could not buy fish because I wouldn't
50:03
know what to do. There are so many
50:05
things to do there that you have to
50:07
know by tradition, right? If I were
50:09
to go down to my local supermarket here in
50:11
Houston and buy fish, it would be very easy.
50:13
The price would be out. I could ask questions,
50:15
you know, that sort of thing. It would be
50:18
very transparent and very easy. So I
50:20
think in a place like Japan,
50:22
you know, you really have to
50:24
understand a lot of context. And
50:26
that's why when I was working in Japan,
50:29
I would stay quiet a lot, just
50:31
so that I didn't embarrass myself. So,
50:34
Geri, does that all ring true? Do you think that's right?
50:36
I mean, you've traveled in America. Do you find it easier?
50:38
You can just see what there is and demand it or
50:40
do whatever and you're not going to offend anybody? No,
50:43
absolutely. That is exactly the case. I
50:45
mean, it's
50:47
evolving a lot of cultural traits
50:49
as well as, I should say,
50:52
peer pressure, especially in Japan, where
50:54
you don't hurt other people's feelings.
50:57
And this is very much of an
50:59
egalitarian society. So it involves a lot
51:01
of cultural value as well as our
51:03
societal picture of what we are right
51:06
now. So it's a very complicated
51:08
issue. But, you know, just to give you
51:10
one example, you know, like in diet session
51:12
in Japan, when you have the opposition giving
51:15
out a proposal and the government saying, we
51:18
will take that into consideration, it basically
51:20
means get lost. But that is one
51:24
message. We have a similar thing in Britain. We say,
51:26
oh, yes, I'll think about that. And
51:29
of course, we don't mean it. And all
51:31
this came from gazelles, those poor gazelles. I
51:33
guess if it happened in Japan, there'd be
51:35
a lot of apologizing and bowing going on
51:37
from the concertgoers for the poor gazelles. But
51:39
we will apologize for expanding your time
51:41
over business matters. But I hope you'll come back tomorrow.
51:43
My thanks to Sir Giro, my thanks to Tony, my
51:45
thanks to all of you for listening. That's it from
51:47
us. Bye bye. a
52:00
little, Selling a little?
52:03
Or a lot? Shopify helps
52:05
you do your thing however you chitching. Shopify
52:08
is the global commerce platform that helps you sell
52:10
at every stage of your business. From
52:13
the launch your online shop stage to the first
52:15
real-life store stage, all
52:17
the way to the did we just hit a
52:20
million orders stage, Shopify is there to help you
52:22
grow. Shopify helps you
52:24
turn browsers into buyers with the internet's
52:26
best converting checkout. 36% better on average. compared
52:28
to other leading commerce platforms
52:31
because businesses that grow,
52:33
grow with Shopify. Get
52:35
a $1 per month
52:37
trial period at shopify.com/work.
52:39
shopify.com/work. Welcome to the
52:42
Bright Side, a new kind of
52:44
daily podcast from Hello Sunshine hosted
52:46
by me, Danielle Robe and me,
52:48
Simone Boyce. Every weekday
52:50
we're bringing you conversations about
52:52
culture, the latest trends, inspiration
52:55
and so much more. We'll
52:57
hear from celebrities, authors, experts
52:59
and listeners like you. Bring
53:01
a little optimism into your life with
53:04
the Bright Side. Listen to the Bright
53:06
Side from Hello Sunshine on the iHeartRadio
53:08
app or wherever you get your podcasts.
Podchaser is the ultimate destination for podcast data, search, and discovery. Learn More