New light on the concepts of “private” and “public”

At a meeting held in honour of the memory of José Medina Echavarría, it seems appropriate to begin our conversation concerning the role of ideas by relating an anecdote about this great man. At some point in the late 1970s, I once ran into him as, with a disgruntled look on his face, he was leaving a discussion held at ECLAC “How’s it going, don José?”, I asked him in greeting. “Oh, these people”, he sighed. “Do you know what they have just said? That we should come up with new ideas. What do you think of that? Just coming up with ideas of any sort is difficult enough...”