We are nearly 4 years into El Salvador’s Bitcoin experiment which seems a great time to take a big step back and evaluate how things are going There’s been lots of talk about expectations vs reality for those that move down here and that’s a valuable conversation to have and I hope it continues. I firmly believe that El Salvador will benefit greatly if we can close that gap I want to highlight a topic that I think is even more valuable to discuss though: censorship Bitcoin attracts each of us for different reasons; at the very top of my list is censorship-resistance so that’s the lens from which I view things There is a worrying trend here of a shrinking independent civil society. In recent weeks prominent critics have been arrested, dozens of journalists are now in exile and questioning the official narrative is more likely to result in name calling rather than a serious response of the issue raised So that’s the problem—what is the solution? IMO it’s two-fold, an open discussion & education that encourages critical thought I’d love to see the shrinking civil society in El Salvador openly discussed El Salvador needs builders and independent thinkers—as many as possible!

In 2018 I traveled to Iran While in Isfahan I visited the 450 year old Khaju Bridge. The river it was built over had decreased over time and on the night I visited there was no water. It had become a local tradition for Iranians to take advantage of the acoustic echos and sing, often the songs were well known and strangers would come in to sing the chorus or alternate parts. It was not a performance, no one asked for money, it was just strangers singing with each other in the cool night air. It was beautiful Isfahan has been heavy bombed by Israel this week and it's unclear if this bridge still stands These are the kinds of things war destroys NO WAR

When I moved to El Salvador in 2021 there was a hopefulness among the general population which was intoxicating and contagious. In the four years since, much has changed What I felt here in 21' rhymes with what I've felt at various times in various places over the past two decades and I've been reflecting on that a lot lately; what conditions lead to it and why it never lasts First, some personal history. In the early 2000s I was in university in the US and heavily involved with activism. My targets then were the IMF & the military industrial complex (they still are, that’s about the most consistent thing in my life actually). As an organizer who never asked the state for permission, I found myself arrested often and one of those nights in jail I made the decision to leave and to stop spending most of my efforts trying to slow the bad and instead spend them trying to speed the good I moved to Ecuador and in 2005 I participated in my first revolution. I was at the barricades when the president fled the country, and the military began to take off their uniforms and join us. It was euphoric. I had never in my life experienced such a feeling of 'mass hope.' Everyone believed that a corner had been turned and was supremely confident that tomorrow would be better than today In 2011 I felt something similar while living in the encampment those first weeks at Occupy Wall Street in New York I felt it again in Myanmar in 2016 when the military dictatorship ended, and Aung San Suu Kyi assumed office It's a feeling I've been chasing my entire adult life and I found it again in El Salvador in 2021--this communal certainty that tomorrow would be better than today. It’s amazing to be surrounded by that and extremely motivating There are always two things in common: it’s preceded by times with little hope, and it never lasts In Ecuador, a charismatic academic who spoke on behalf of the social movements became president, then became authoritarian, built mega-jails, then filled them with his people. Occupy Wall Street descended into infighting, banks got more powerful, and the rich got richer. Myanmar is now in a civil war between a new military dictatorship and various ethnic minorities For me, the honeymoon is over in El Salvador. That hope I felt in 2021 and 2022 is still there but it is far more tempered among Salvadorans now than it had been. Extreme human emotion can’t be sustained, not for the individual and not for the group—after all the basis is contrast. You need some rain to appreciate the sun Just some morning reflections as I watch the clouds over San Salvador on a rainy Tuesday

Breakfast on San Salvador volcano Today we explored the various trails that criss cross the lower regions and met some of the farmers who cultivate in this area. No views but great walking and conversation Sundays are for father-son hiking 🧡