End of an Empire: Telefonica Profits Dropped by 50%

Today, a century-plus-change after Spain lost Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philipines and catapulted the forgone empire into an existentialist crisis whose chief philosophers banded together into the Generación de '98 (as in 1898), Spanish owned CTC Telefonica SA is dealt a crushing blow: 50% reduction in profits this year compared to the last.

Perhaps my nod to Spain's devastating past is exaggeratedly wishful thinking for the present state of Telefonica CTC, but something went wrong in that dark closet known as "my time with a Telefonica contract" and I didn't get Stockholm Syndrome, just a yearning for vengeance.

Let this trend of profit loss continue and may they Burn, in, Hell.

But is my twisted happiness a reflection of Latin Fatalism rubbing off on me? According to a slimy Bay Area VC who traveled to South America and got stuck in the airport at Buenos Aires, the problem with the natives is that they're too blasé about other peoples' success:

In Argentina, one of the most successful startups is Mercado Libre, the ebay of Latin America. They went public this year and have a market cap of almost $2B. When I asked people about it, many didn't know that it was so successful. I realized then how much we celebrate such success in the USA and glorify it so others will strive to emulate it.

It makes me think about what is held up to be celebrated. When the plane took off people clapped. Some of it was relief but some of it was just the basic idea that a plane was taking off. That seems a bit low on the Maslowian hierarchy of celebrations.

I'd rather glorify big failures, when deserved. Perhaps 50% drop in profits isn't as bad as it sounds, but it sounds bad and that's enough to make me happy.