THE RULES OF THE GAME ARE BROKEN: A Manual for Understanding and Repairing the Systems That Govern Our Lives (From Your Local Municipality to the UN Security Council) - Softcover

Inhaltsangabe

PROLOGUE

The Day I Realized I Was Living in a Broken Simulation

It was an ordinary Tuesday.
I was at my job as a systems administrator for the Municipality of Quito. Nothing special. Just another day fixing server problems, checking networks, making sure the systems worked so citizens could complete their paperwork.
The news arrived: 65% of employees would receive a salary increase.
My first thought was joy. Finally. After years of effort, of arriving early, staying late, solving problems no one else could solve.
Then I saw the list.
I wasn't on it.
My second thought was confusion. I checked the criteria: to reach grade 13 and earn $1,700 a month, you needed two things: 1) a systems engineering degree, and 2) coordination of a work team.
I coordinated two colleagues. My boss, who had been my college classmate, knew this perfectly well. But according to the system, that leadership didn't exist because it wasn't on any official paper.
The worst part came next.
Colleagues on contract —with less experience, no degree, no team under them— did get the raise. Their criteria were "adjusted" to fit. For me, with a stable appointment, the rules were applied strictly.
That afternoon, while restarting municipal servers that serve millions of citizens, I had a devastating epiphany:
The problem wasn't just in my municipality. It was the same problem, on a global scale.

While I was writing this book, the world proved me right. Again and again.

February 28, 2026. The United States and Israel launch a military offensive against Iran. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei dies. More than 1,300 people die in the attacks. 153 girls in a school hit by the bombing.
China and Russia vetoed resolutions in the UN Security Council. It was irrelevant: power acted without asking permission.
April 7, 2026. China and Russia vetoed a resolution seeking to allow armed escorts to protect merchant ships in the Strait of Hormuz. The proposal received 11 votes in favor out of the Council's 15 members. But the vetoes blocked the measure. The strait remained blocked. Oil prices rose. Your gas prices rose.
January 2026. The United States captures Nicolás Maduro in Caracas. One country decides international rules don't apply to it. 32 Cubans die in the operation. The UN can do nothing.
April 2026. Ecuador imposes a 30% security tariff on Colombian imports. It escalates to 100%. Colombia responds with tariffs and suspends electricity sales. Two sister nations on the brink of rupture.
June 2026. Peace is signed between the US and Iran. And also between Ecuador and Colombia. But the system that caused these wars remains intact.

What do all these events have in common?
The same pattern as in my municipality: the powerful decide, the powerless pay. Those with power change the rules in their favor. Those without power watch and stay silent.

The only difference is scale. And scale, in systems, only changes the size of the damage, not its nature.
This book isn't only about fixing the problems at your job. It's about fixing the problems in your government, your country, the world.
Because the problem isn't "bad people." The problem lies in the architecture of power.
And what was designed can be redesigned.
Welcome to the movement of those who prefer to build rather than destroy.
— The Author
Quito, 2026

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