Green chile stew

Even if you don't care for it, you have probably seen people eating chili. Fast food chains like Wendy's and Burger King sell it. In most places, chili is made with dried and ground chile peppers - RED chiles (note that a pepper is a chile, a stew made with chiles is chili). Chili can be made with ground beef, or with chicken, or even meatless with tofu and vegetables. It can have beans - or not. The basic style that places like Wendy's make, includes tomatoes, bell pepper, onions, ground red chile, cumin, and other spices - along with ground beef and red kidney beans.

But in the Land of Enchantment - New Mexico - the cuisine evolved differently. In the immortal words of that great traveller Bugs Bunny, "must have mnade a wrong turn at Albuquerque." In New Mexico, when you order chili, or chile sauce atop your burrito or burger, you will be offered a colorful choice. "Do you want that red, green, or Christmas?" (the latter meaning you want both read AND green chile sauce on your food).

You can get whole roasted and peeled green chiles in a can at your local grocery store. But nothing compares to the flavor and aroma you get from fire-roasting your own at home. The best green chiles arguably come from Southern New Mexico. The local varieties are similar to the Anaheim chiles carried by your grocer. The pods are long and not too wide. Eaten raw, they vary in intensity from mild to medium heat.

I've been a fan of new Mexican cuisine since my first visit in 1985. One of the dishes I had, that is easy to make at home, is the wonderful green chile stew. This is typically made with chunks of chicken or pork. The meat is braised and simmered in a flavorful infusion of chicken broth with chopped roasted green chiles, together with onion, salt, and not much else. White potatoes are added at the end, roughly chopped and chunky-tender. Done right, the meat is fall-apart tender, thoroughly saturated with the flavors of the broth.

This is a simple dish with many layers of flavor. But unlike the typical Tex-mex creations, you won't find green chile stew in many restaurants outside New Mexico. On a recent visit to Minneapolis, I stopped for lunch at a branch of a Tex-Mex restaurant chain. They advertised "Green chile stew with pork" on the menu. I eagerly ordered up a bowl. Folding back the soft tortilla on top, I was shocked to loko down at a bowl of - RED stuff. Yes it had green chiles in it, but it was most defintiely NOT authentic Green Chile Stew. Not even close. A letter to the home office followed - with no reply to date.

So go make yourself a big pot of true New Mexican delight. Hearty green chile stew is perfect on a cold wnter's night. Or anytime. Maybe you'll even get ambitious and make some blue corn posole to go with it!

From Blogology to Mobocracy

From Blogology to Mobocracy

Web-based collaboration and the implications for government


Recently I received an email with an attached PowerPoint file. A near-daily occurrence. My friend and colleague shared a presentation about the use of "web 2.0" technologies for online citizen engagement in Canada. The slides describe wikis, podcasts, blogs, and other on-line tools. I am an "early adopter" of these collaborative technologies. I have been using chat, groupware, ListServs, and other collaborative tools for around 20 years. The wiki and blog technologies are just the latest software tools to help groups of people make better decisions together. Microsoft Sharepoint technology is a simple form of a collaborative computing environment. You may know that Microsoft acquired the groupware system called Groove. Groove was created by Ray Ozzie - the guy who created Lotus Notes. Groove is now a centerpiece of Microsoft's expanded Sharepoint and collaborative platform. The XO laptop - the so called "hundred dollar laptop" - uses a unique mesh network technology. The computer automatically connects with others of its kind within range. Users can surf the web together, adding notes and comments in real-time, that can be seen by everyone in the group. Networked XO users can also collaborate in shared journals, containing text, images, media files, and so on. Start-up firms are developing this kind of mobile social network for cell phones.

Systems like the citizen web sites in Canada and elsewhere point to some of the key features - and challenges - of newer web systems. For example:

- do you want to control who can post to your blog, or wiki?
- if so, how will you assure the identity of new users?
- do you want to control what people say? We usually want to review submissions in advance of posting, to assure legality, and appropriateness.
- how will we decide what is appropriate? Who will define the standards, and who will apply them?

.. "information wants to be free" is a famous quote from the internet era. The rise of music and other file sharing has re-defined notions of intellectual capital

.. implicit in government sites is the issue of "governance." Collaborative technologies are by their nature and design, typically self-organizing. The objectives of the initiative in part drive the degree of oversight and control that should be implemented.

.. the complex self-organizing dynamics of wikis and blogs also reveal patterns of self-regulation. In many cases "control" emerges spontaneously, as participants express approval or disapproval of posted content. Ideas that may be controversial, often just fade out from the lack of ongoing interest and response. We see that we may be able to influence the direction of a group, even if we can not control it. The exact outcome may be probable, but uncertain.

.. one of the major concerns in the use of the internet for mass collaboration is what we may call "mobocracy." We know that the majority may always prevail, but they may not always be right. Likewise, they may not always know about the Next Big Idea which will trigger innovation. Those of us committed to quality and continuous improvement understand that there needs to be a perceived gap between where we are and where we want to be. Stability might be good in a manufacturing process, but it equates to complacency, stagnation, and eventual extinction in communities and organizations. The dynamics of the internet may be having the effect of moving mass thinking and opinion towards a central tendency of status quo, and thus denying the creative tension needed for growth.

The implications of this technology for those in government have to be significant. We have the opportunity to engage a much larger portion of our citizens in meaningful dialogue than ever before. Are we up to the challenges of adapting our systems of governance to meet the new expectations of our customers ?

cmplxty is an associate of the Plexus Institute. cmplxty can be reached at cmplxty@gmail.com