One of my main goals for 2026.

Good afternoon David, I read the book and I happen to ask myself if there’s not an error in the map.
The eastern shore of Rio de la Plata was under Spanish control. By the 1740 Montevideo was already established and I have read that some of the mutineers ended up sailing to England from Montevideo.

I can imagine a thorough restructuring of the Uruguayan armed forces to a third of the current number. In doing that Uruguay could cut its spending by more than 900 million dollars or invest that or part of that money on its educational system. The same applies to all nations mention above.

… as our army do not stand a chance against Brazil or Argentina we made it very clear in the last 130 years that Uruguay will always resolve its problems by peaceful negotiations thus spending 1.4 billion dollars per year on defense is preposterous.

… more money than the defense budget of the Dominican Republic (9th) and Bolivia (10th) combined.
It’s useless to have an armed forces of 30k when the only main task is to secure borders, sea, air, peace missions abroad and the collaboration of the armed forces in catastrophic events…

… a restructure of the spending in defense is a must.
There’s no need to spend that amount of money in a continent where inequality rules.
Just take my country. Uruguay spends 1.4 billion dollars on defense…

In the Spanish of the 16th and 17th century the orthography of the language wasn’t even stablished.
The use of v and b was a preference of the author. Cervantes used to sign Cerbantes.
Accentuation, word formation, sentence formation, all of that was at the freewill of the writer.

… this is one of the things why I read English classics in their original (as well as anything hehe).
But for the modern Spanish speaker, and I suppose something similar happens with English classics, you have a sense you are reading a “language in formation”…

This is the translation to English by John Ormsby.
An excellent translation.
The red line is where the Spanish text in the picture ends (more or less).
But despite being an excellent translation there is a lot that is lost in it.
The language is that of the Golden Century of the Spanish Empire…

The other big point is the lack of opportunities in various fields including science. If Einstein was to be born in Montevideo I’m fairly sure that he was going to have a tough time making his name known in the rest of the world, even with his Theory of relativity.
Small places are not so idyllic.

I cannot speak for those who were born in great cities but I can speak for the experience of being born and grown on a small country.
It is true: things are more calm and slow, sometimes that could be good many times that could be unnerving.

… The same happens on the other hand. People who born or live in small cities or countries idealize big cities and countries. For example, all people that I know in Uruguay would love to live in a City like New York, Buenos Aires or Tokyo.
Me: I would love it too.

… I think the genius, despite being born in a smaller German city, experienced a lot of his life in those great capitals of Europe where old Babylon its just a child’s game. And from my experience those who born or live in big cities tend to idealize small towns or countries…

… I don’t remember now precisely what he wrote in his diary about Montevideo but it was something like this: he wished that the world could be divided into smaller nations because he felt that the people in smaller countries where more polite and enjoyed a better quality of life…