Last week I went to a training provided by my company about Project Management. One of the best parts about the training was the instructor. He told some very amusing anecdotes about projects he had worked on in the past and where they went right and went wrong.
One of the stories he told was about a project a major technology company (but not my employer) did for the Mexican federal government in the late '80s or early '90s. The major technology company was hired to provide a computer system to completely overhaul the federal voting records and make all the records digital. This involved a lot of data entry at the central offices in Mexico City and registration of voters in regional centers. This was an important contract for the major technology company because it represented one of the first developing countries to have digital voting records and a successful completion of the project could mean many future contracts with other governments.
The first problem encountered was with the computers used for data entry in Mexico City. The major technology company started getting reports of high failure rates and very slow progress in migrating the data. The problem was how the employees in this area were hired. The Government was responsible for hiring these employees and rather than hire a temp. agency to hire workers skilled in data entry, the government sent people to the busy subway stops and hired people as they were exiting the subway. This meant that most of the people hired had little or no computer skills and little or no knowledge on how to treat computers. When technicians for the major technology company showed up to perform service at the office they found computers with food (tortas de tamale mostly) and drink spilled all over the computers. Generally the computers were treated badly and the progress was slow because most of the data entry was done by employees who typed using the good ol' hunt 'n' peck method.
The second problem had to do with high failure rates for the servers at some of the regional centers. The government was responsible for leasing the buildings for these regional centers, but had failed to check the condition of the roofs at many of these centers. When the rainy season started many of the servers at these centers started to get dripped on by leaks in the roofs. Workers at theses centers either didn't understand or didn't care that this was bad for the computers.
By this point news of the problems with the elections system started making its way into the press. Most of the articles didn't talk about the cause of the problems, but simply blamed the major technology company for "delays" in the deployment of the system. Eventually news of the problems made its way to the executive management of the company. Finally, the CEO of the company made a decision. No matter what the cost, even if it meant a loss on this project, the major technology company would fix the problems and complete the project on schedule. This meant hiring a temp. agency to hire qualified replacement workers for the data entry. This meant repairing and sealing the roofs at the regional center. This meant a lot of many spent by the technology company on non-technology solutions. The project did get completed, but at a significant loss to the company.
What did this teach us about Project Management? Well, for one, make sure that the contract spells out the responsibility of both parties and make sure both parties understand these responsibilities.
Last night Megan and I went to downtown and saw the Nortec Collective in concert. This was a free show that was part of the 10th annual Festival Cultural de Mayo.
The Nortec Collective is a art and music group based in Tijuana and are best known for an album they released 2000 called "The Tijuana Sessions". The artists in the collective sample instrumental parts from old norteņo recordings and combine them with electronic and dance music. This makes for great music and an entertaining album, but I was worried that it wouldn't make for a very good live show.
Happily, the band blew my expectations out of the water. It really helped that they invited Banda Agua Caliente, an excellent typical norteņo band, to play along with them. This meant that instead of using noreņo samples, they had a live band to play these parts. The band knew the songs well and enhanced the electronic music perfectly. I particularly liked the version of "Dandy del Sur" and "Don Loope" that were played.
Since Nortec is an art and music collective they had some really great graphic design showing behind the band during the songs. The art perfectly complimented the songs and enhanced the entire concert.
After a very large set with both the banda and the electronic musicians, there was a shorter set featuring just the Nortec Collective and some of their more club music songs. After this the banda did their own set. We left just before midnight, but not before hearing a truly amazing cover of Depeche Mode's "Never Let Me Down Again". It was really great to hear a new wave song covered by a banda group with it's big brass band sound and supported by the electronic musicians of Nortec.
If you would like to hear some of the Nortec Collectives songs, download some o f the following mp3s:
Colorado - Fussible
Dandy del Sur - Hiperboreal
Last weekend Megan and I went to what is billed as the largest festival in Mexico, the Feria de San Marcos in Aguascalientes. Aguascalientes is the capital of the state of the same name and is northeast of Jalisco (where Guadalajara is located). The fair runs for a month in April and May every year. The fair features many concerts, exhibits, carnival rides, lots of partying and two of the more cruel animal related sports around.
Cockfighting, while normally illegal in Mexico, is allowed at the Feria de San Marcos because of a tradition of cockfighting at past festivals. We didn't get to go to a cockfight while we were in Aguascalientes since they had finished a few days earlier.
We did however go to our first ever bullfight on Saturday evening. Megan and I both had mixed feelings about going to a bullfight. It is an inherently violent and cruel death for the bull, but it is also supposed to be one of the most beautiful and interesting cultural activities in Latin America.
[More after the jump and more photos to come later in the week]
We went to the arena about 6pm and took our seats in the top of the shady side of the arena. We were just in time for the first of 6 bulls. There were 3 matadors, so each were to fight 2 bulls each. Here is how each fight goes (more or less).
As the bull enters the arena there is the main matador and three assistants (banderilleros) test the bull to make sure it is up for a fight. They provoke the bull into charging them and then deftly dodge out of the way. After they are satisfied that the bull means to trample them and the crowd is satisfied they will get a good show, they move on to the next phase. If they or the crowd aren't happy with the bull, then the bull gets sent out of the arena to await another fight. This happened once during the fight we watched and subsequently a "reserve" bull was brought out to fight.
The next phase begins with the entry two horse-mounted picadores. The picadores each have a long spear and their horses are very well padded and protected. The banderilleros draw the bull towards one of the picadores at the outside of the ring. The picador then stabs the bull in the back with the spear. It seems like the picadores are not looked upon very favorably by the crowd. The crowd views them as a necessary evil, but if the picador is to enthusiastic about doing his job the crowd starts to boo and yell at him. This was nearly my least favorite part of the fight. It seems very cruel and weakens the bull to a very large degree. In a few of the fights we saw the bull was so hurt by the picador that it could barely fight or standup.
In the next phase the banderilleros or the matador try to stab the bull with 3 sets of 2 barbed sticks. This further weakens the bull and prepares it for the ultimate phase.
In the last phase, the matador faces the bull by himself. The matador again dodges the bull over and over. The bull is generally bleed very badly by this point and seems to understand that this is a fight for its life. After a lot of dodging and taunting the matador will get a sword from ring side. He faces off against the bull and while the bull charges he will try to stab the bull behind the head in spine. If successful, the bull will drop to the ground and die, but this is very rare, in the 8 fights we saw (there were two extra fights that night) only one of the matadors managed to do this. If they are unsuccessful, then the bull will walk around with a sword stuck in its back and the matador will try once or twice more. If the bull collapses, but does not die, then the fight is over and a assistant will stab the bull in the back with a long knife to insure it is dead. The bulls body is then dragged out of the arena by a team of bulls.
I left the arena after 8 bullfights with similarly mixed feeling about the sport. It is a beautiful event to watch, with the matadors and banderilleros more like very talented dancers than anything. The crowd participation is very interesting and important aspect of the entire event. At the same time, the killing of the bull was unnecessarily cruel and violent. Most of the fight seems to involve taunting the bull into charging the fighters, but I don't believe this is really the natural inclination of the bull. In the end, both Megan and I decided we would like to go to another bullfight here in Guadalajara, but I still think it will be difficult to watch.