Explore "A Fish in the Water" by Mario Vargas Llosa on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Between the end of September and the middle of October of 1989, after registering my candidacy at the national election board, I made a lightning-quick trip through four countries which, ever since the beginning of the campaign, I had been referring to as an example of the development that any country on the periphery that chooses economic freedom and joins the world's markets can achieve: Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, and Singapore.
They lacked natural resources, they were overpopulated and had started from zero, because of their colonial status or backwardness or because of a war that left them devastated. And the four of them, opting for development outward, had succeeded in becoming countries that exported and, by promoting private enterprise, brought about industrialization and a very rapid modernization, which ended mass unemployment and noticeably raised their standard of living. The four of them-but Japan in particular-were now competing in world markets with the most advanced countries. Were they not an example for Peru?