SUCCESSFUL GROUPS

By: Sylvia Davila MM

Bogotá

www.pipolmagazine.com

Copyright
December 28/2012

A Word on Earth News

ABAJO EN ESPAñOL
Illustration: Google Images

Certain things on Earth work very well at a certain level but then, at a different scale, they tend to miss their inner logic and power as they become bigger. Again, scales relativity.

In every part of the world a family that pulls up every one of its members - the bright and the dumb, the beautiful and the ugly, the swift and the slow, all of them - by giving a hand here, finding a solution there, lending to this one, sharing with that one, caring, giving that needed push to the one that can't reach, by making sure that no one is left behind, that every one gets along and becomes able to deal and lead his or her own life, those families are always and everywhere in the world successful. If they are poor they become successful survivors. If they are mid way in a social scale they become successful producers and consumers. If they have means they become powerful and set a leadership. It happens always and everywhere because what matters is not the group itself, families come and pass in time, what matters and prevails in time is the principle - sharing, giving, caring - the force that manages to pull them together to make them a solid, compact, successful group. The ablest its members the stronger the group. It is an equation that always works in families and small groups, so it does not work different with Nations, at all. On the contrary, when that same principle is applied in every scale, not the group nor any of its members ever falls into a cliff. 

Sylvia Davila Morales M (c)- December 28/2012


GRUPOS EXITOSOS

Ciertas cosas en este mundo funcionan muy bien a cierto nivel, pero en una escala diferente tienden a perder su lógica y poder a medida que se vuelven grandes. De nuevo, relatividad de las escalas.

En todas partes del mundo, una familia que saca adelante a cada uno de sus miembros - al despierto y al lento, al bello y al feo, al veloz y al demorado - dando una mano aquí, una solución allá, prestándole a este, compartiendo con aquel, dando el empujón necesario al que no alcanza, asegurándose que ninguno se quede atrás, que cada uno sea capaz de manejar y liderar su propia vida, esas familias son siempre y en todas partes exitosas. Si son pobres se convierten en exitosos sobrevivientes. Si van por la mitad de la escala social se convierten en exitosos productores y consumidores. Si tienen medios se vuelven poderosas y establecen un liderazgo. Esto sucede siempre y en todas partes porque lo que importa, lo que prevalece no es el grupo mismo - las familias llegan y se van en el tiempo- lo que importa y prevalece en el tiempo es el principio - compartir, dar - que consigue mantenerlos unidos y que los convierte en un grupo sólido, compacto y exitoso. Cuanto más capaces sus miembros más fuerte el grupo. Es una ecuación que funciona muy bien en las familias y en grupos pequeños y, por lo tanto, no sucede diferente con las Naciones, en absoluto. Por el contrario, cuando el mismo principio se aplica, ni el grupo ni ninguno de sus miembros cae nunca a un abismo. / Sylvia Davila Morales M (c) - December 28/2012

BRAVE HEART

PROFILES

By: Sylvia Davila M/Bogotá
www.pipolmagazine.com
Copyright
December 21/2012

VERSION EN ESPAñOL
http://www.pipolmagazine.com/p/podra-la-cu-nos-ensenan-subir-pero-son.html

It was December, before Christmas, the last time I saw my brother standing on his feet. He died in January three years ago. He was especial to me, of course, but his very special character helped him to deal with his illness - cancer - in a way that led him to beat world statistics. He was given two years but lived eleven good years. Who knows, may be his experience may give tips, ideas, inspiration or courage to other people in similar circumstances in this 2012 Christmas time. Here is his story.

A pain on his right shoulder while changing a car tire launched a medical research that ended in the much feared diagnosis: cancer. Not just any cancer, a rare blood disease that science continues to investigate. The first thing Alfredo Davila Morales, born in Bogotá, Colombia, did was to engage in a thorough review of the information about it worldwide. Stats were devastating: an average of two-year life expectancy, and no cure in sight. The monthly report on survivors appeared blank.

Upon facing death – life on hold – an untamed spirit surfaced, a serene determination, a unique strength that beat all statistics: he survived eleven years. At the time when his disease was found, he had three sons: two in college and a nine-year-old in school. He made a pact with God: “You help me, and I will help myself until my youngest graduates”. Having made the pact, he assumed his illness as a project that would be driven by his unique personality.

He began by declaring himself healthy. During the various stages of his illness he was never treated by anyone as a sick person because he did not seem like one. He gave the worst of daily battles – getting out of bed when his body did not and could not do it – early in the morning and it was never lost. At eight, every day, he was bathed, dressed, and ready to begin the journey. Chemo became, in his agenda, an appointment that he would attend to on his own. Soon, he learned to cope with its side effects and manage them. He would stay cooped-up at home for twenty-four hours and, the next day, he would emerge again as if nothing had happened.

Another decision he made was to choose a physician and trust him without question. It happened to be a she, an expert in that kind of cancer that became his scientific battle partner and his friend to the last day. At home he arranged an office in the mezzanine from where he handled his business – flowers – and his personal agenda. In a family of thirty, among adults and children, Alfredo was the one to be always updated about every one’s daily life matters. When he died, his siblings were surprised to find out that every one of them was certain to be his or her favorite. While working at home, the comings and goings of his three children became a priority in his agenda.

During his free time, he would unleash his passions onto a variety of personal projects stamped on small papers that he hung on his office wall:  to paint an oil on canvas, even though he had never handled a brush (easel and pinafore); to carve a barracuda on a stone (graver and hammer); to build in his garden a huge cage for a couple of birds which, four months later, became forty; or to organize trips to places he wanted to visit.

He also kept busy by researching issues that interested him. Such as enquiring about an old piano which had been inherited from his wife’s family and whose origin nobody knew. The day he found inside the instrument an inscription in a language he did not understand, he launched a research that led him to the manufacturer that had built it two centuries ago. Dozens of E-mails, throughout a period of nine months, traced the piano to a factory in Russia, then through Paris and Madrid, to its arrival in Peru in 1800. He had the ability to draw fun out of everything and always found something to do. Unable to see an owl that hooted on his home roof because it would disappear whenever he stepped out into the garden, he bought cardboard, lenses and pulleys to build a periscope. He actually built it, assisted by Clemencia, his life companion – a serene, strong-hearted, keen-headed personality – who shared with him the good and the bad times for thirty-five years.

He ignored sickness and death by keeping physically and mentally active, always in motion, under all circumstances. The lowest point of his physical strength came with a medulla transplant, which gave him some extra time but from which he came out battered. After the procedure, though pale, bald, slow and weak, he would carry a ladder to the garden to remove leaves from his home roof. In that same condition, he walked his youngest son all over Disney World because he did not even consider such a trip happening without him. Both experiences gave him strength.                                                                    

In facing death every morning, as he opened his eyes, Alfredo challenged the day with discipline, determination, and joy for life. He once saw on the Web a lake covered by phosphorescent plankton that shone under the moonlight.  Backed up by old school friends that had become his brothers, he got onto a barge surrounded by phosphorescent plankton one unforgettable starry night, with his wife, children, and friends. He checked that off in his agenda.

To a situation that was already difficult – cancer – he interpolated unthinkable projects: rafting was one of them. He arranged the trip between two chemo sessions, filled his pockets with pills, and always with his wife and kids, he launched himself down the river. One year before his death, he joined a group of young climbers and tackled a hundred-meter cascade.

          

He would only keep still while sleeping or watching his favorite TV shows. At home, he would work, read, write, speak over the phone, supervise his meals personally, and spend long hours taking care of his terrace garden. When his wife came back from work and saw the terrace floor carpeted in weeds, leaves and soil, she would calmly say: “Alfredo! Have you been getting rid of stress again?!” He was fortunate to have a family that managed their tragedy with strength, care and  sense of humor because he dictated it so. When the disease resumed its course after being in remission, and his “Benjamin” graduated from High School, he spent a couple of days pondering the best way to explain to God that, when he said “until my youngest son's graduation”, he actually meant: graduation from College.

Death set him an appointment at an intensive care unit. During a family trip to New York at Christmas – another one of his projects in his agenda – a fainting episode sent him to the hospital. Later, he was moved to Bogotá to an intensive care unit. When his doctor was about to allow his transfer to a room and the family thought his unbelievable strength would pull him through once again, an unexpected internal bleeding brought an end to his journey. Eleven years of daily victories were over.

An avid mind fed by curiosity, a steel-made determination that accomplished all purposes, and the ability to care for others, gave Alfredo Davila five times the promised time and a good quality of life. He left behind the painting, the carved stone, his tools, the little handmade angel that used to climb up and down the fireplace at Christmas held by a string hid in his pocket, the periscope, his trips’ photographs, his dog, expressions that was very much his own like: Close that door! I won’t be as stupid as to have multiple myeloma and die of a cold!; his tennis and car racing hobbies, his caring for his family, his laughter, his three children, and the profound trace he left in every one who knew him. During his eleven years of struggling against unfair and cruel enemies, Alfredo Davila exhibited decision, discipline, strength, and courage. But, perhaps, the deepest impact he left in our lives was to show us that when life calls retreat the only sensible thing to do is to live. 

/Sylvia Davila Morales M. (COPYRIGHT) - December 21/2012

ALFREDO DAVILA MORALES  M/ 1948 - 2010
Born and died in Bogotá

We miss you.....a lot

THROUGH THEIR FINGERS

A Word on Earth News

By: Sylvia Davila MM

Bogotá

www.pipolmagazine.com

Copyright
December 16/2012

The massacre of children in Newtown, US, is so hurtful that every heart in the world felt the burn. Five years old children found death with three impacts of rifle bullets in their bodies, bullets that are twice the size of their fingers. Many voices in America and in the world have raised their voice. The statistics on that issue are impacting and surprising. Impacting because fifty percent of the massacres occurred in the world in the last fifty years happened in America. Around 300 millions of the inhabitants of a country that have not an indoors war have a fire gun. The surprising fact is that the whole scenario of guns possession there, holds from two lines of their Constitution, Second Amendment- which says: A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. Two lines that were written in 1791.

It is surprising because laws have always meant to serve peoples. Those that relate to what is essencial to human life - right to live, to work, to express, to worship, to education, etc - have been kept in time by every liberal community in the world and in history. The roots of freedom. But those that relate to human social organization and ways of life have develop according to the evolution of times. Plagues in Europe in the past obliged a set of laws that ceased from existence once the disease was controlled. Many laws written against piracy at sea no longer exist since the motive for their existence disappear. Racial laws in many countries became history when the rights of all peoples were seen under a different light. As societies become more complex and bigger, necessarily, the laws that rule them turn with their growing. 

At the time of their Independence the inhabitants of North America were fewer, spread all around, dealing with a huge wild land. They had just fought the indians, the British, the French and one another. The union was just forming under the leadership of brilliant minds that managed to put together the variety of fifty different regions in one single vision. However, the organizational structures that would build a nation were just taking their first steps. At that time, agression from all fronts were still possible. The need for self-defense was deeply felt. But since then, not just some other amendments to the Constitution have taken place, but two hundred and eleven years have passed. It is, certainly, a different nation that it was in 1791. Even fears have changed. 

The Americans built a democratic nation with three power in charge, they developed technologies that lead the world, they have sophisticated armed forces, and a quite unique police sense of solidarity, they even have special organized forces to protect animals. Their laws serve them to keep building community. So, the rights of peoples are maintained in time when human essence is concerned, and change in time as social organization develops. "Militias" where needed back in time and faded as organized, unified defense forces developed.  Keeping every citizen armed is no longer needed and, on the contrary, it implies the concept of "justice by own hand" which contradicts the very essence of a civilization, and that in the hands of confused minds playing the pathetic role of their film and television heroes, produce the astonishing stats, the avoidable hurt. Those new lives blew up in Newtown and so many other places did not even have the time to see a bullet they did not understand and that was not needed. Peoples right for those children was life, fourteen amendment.

Once it is clear that the Second Amendment in the American Constitution is today an unnecessary "history pearl", what remains is the use of it by some Americans to put guns in the hands of other Americans who kill some other Americans. A very strange and bloody vicious circle. Piers Morgan's CNN programe is conducting these days a debate on gun possession which, in fact, is interesting to every country in the world with a similar problem. Also, president Obama, while announcing the study of measures to deal with an intricate difficult situation and to prevent future tragedies gave this data:  "Since Friday morning, a police officer was gunned down in Memphis, leaving four children without their mother.  Two officers were killed outside a grocery store in Topeka.  A woman was shot and killed inside a Las Vegas casino.  Three people were shot inside an Alabama hospital.  A four-year-old was caught in a drive-by in Missouri, and taken off life support just yesterday. Each one of these Americans was a victim of the everyday gun violence that takes the lives of more than 10,000 Americans every year -- violence that we cannot accept as routine."

Watching the debate and reading the data, the whole issue in America reduces to a quite unbelievable closed circle reasoning: giving the fact that they are not at war and they do not have agressive neighbors, people claim their right to bear weapons in order to defend themselves from people who bear weapons. In other words, they claim the right to defend themselves from the very same right. 

December 16/2012- Sylvia Davila Morales M (c)

  

A WATERY JEWEL / UNA JOYA AGUADA

By: Sylvia Davila MM

Bogotá

www.pipolmagazine.com

Copyright
December 14/2012

ABAJO EN ESPAÑOL

Le Hague international Court has just ended a long time dispute between Colombia and Nicaragua. The scenario: the Caribbean Sea. The discussion: demarcation of the continental platform and some islands.  But what the court actually did was to demarcate the continental platform, indeed, and to offer the world a jewel of international jurisprudence. About the demarcation Nicaragua got the best part while Colombia lost with all the consequences it represents in terms of natural resources. The jewel comes with the decision on the little islands. According to Le Hague's magistrates, the islands marked in the map with numbers 2 and 3 belong now to Colombia but the sea that surrounds them belongs to Nicaragua. I would dare think that there exists not such antecedent in the world or in history. It is as if you told England, an island, that the land is theirs but the sea around them belongs to France. Or Japan surrounded by Chinese sea. The size does not matter, it is the principle what counts. The court decision creates an impossible situation for a piece of land which geographical destiny is the sea in its entire perimeter and, therefore, the decision is meaningless. The fact that those little islands are not inhabited does not justify the decision. They are land and, therefore, they are susceptible to be inhabited. What would those inhabitants do in islands which main resource is obviously the sea? How would they defend themselves should there be an aggression if the cannot leave the beach? This decision is, in fact, an historic jewel in jurisprudence.

Maybe, the only advantage of this decision for the inhabitants of these islands would be that to travel abroad during vacations all they have to do is walk to the beach, sink a foot into the water and there they are abroad.

However, all estern jurisprudence since de Roman senate until today has got hold of a very simple fact: antecedent, precedent, record. Whenever a case faces the wall of uncertainty, lawyers spend long sleepless nights looking for an antecedent. If one is found to have been proved right in the past in a similar case, the weight of history falls following antecedent. Therefore, if Le Hague court keeps their decision on Colombia-Nicaragua sea demarcation conflict,  an antecedent would be set for history and, from this very moment in time on, the same principle is feasible to be applied to every island in the planet. Being that the case, and once it is clear that Le Hague magistrates can legislate against common sense, every island in the world  - around 173 that belong to more than 50 countries - should do well to sleep with one eye open and, certainly, embracing the sea that surrounds them. 

The fact is, that this world that turned from the very beginning, has seen in its history waves of hegemony from various civilizations. From Cirus to Alexander, from Temistocles to Cesar, from Gengis Khan to the European empires, all of them influenced this world with all the colors and shades it implies. And the world keeps on turning. In one of its turns - see map - the Americas show up as a big, strong, powerful piece of Earth facing another big, strong, powerful piece of land across the sea. Just the economies of the United States, Canada, Brasil, Mexico, Chile and Colombia together create a solid view. 

The Americas count with an inter-American system to deal with their various issues, to join forces, to face conflicts. It makes sense. In this challenging presente times where natural resources are key to present a future generations, the neighbors that nature gave are an irreversible fact. Holding strong a system that would keep them together, deciding the way they are going to live, thrive, share, divide, would make that portion of the map a true strong hold. In this specific case where Le Hague magistrates showed the world that they can legislate against human reason and common sense, it is the right of peoples to determine their own fate. After all, it is about the resources nature gave, their lives and the lives of their children what is at stake. A simple shift of a point of view always changes precisely that, the view. / Sylvia Davila M (c)

UNA JOYA AGUADA

La Corte Internacional de La Haya acaba de fallar sobre un viejo litigio entre Colombia y Nicaragua. El escenario: el mar Caribe. La discusión: la plataforma continental, islas y cayos. Pero lo que la sentencia de la Corte hizo, de hecho, fue delimitar la plataforma continental, de un lado, y de otro ofrecerle al mundo una joya histórica de jurisprudencia internacional.

Sobre la delimitación de la plataforma en el fallo Nicaragua consiguió la mejor parte y Colombia perdió con las implicaciones que tiene la decisión en términos de recursos naturales. La decisión sobre los cayos es la joya histórica. Según los magistrados de La Haya las porciones de tierra en el mapa referenciadas con los números 2 y 3, pertenecen a Colombia pero el mar que los rodea pertenece a Nicaragua. Me atrevería a pensar que no existe antecedente de esto en el mundo o en la historia. Es como si le dijeran a Inglaterra, una isla, que el terreno es de ellos pero el mar que los rodea de Francia. O que Japón se viera rodeado por mar de China. En este caso el tamaño no importa, es el principio lo que cuenta. El fallo de la Corte crea una situación imposible para una porción de tierra cuyo destino geográfico es mar en todo su perímetro, y por lo tanto, la decisión es un despropósito. El hecho de que no estén habitados no justifica la decisión. Es tierra y, por lo tanto, es susceptible de ser habitada. Qué harían los habitantes de esos cayos cuando el mayor recurso de toda isla es obviamente el mar que la rodea? Cómo podrían defenderse de posibles agresores si no pueden salir de la playa? Es por eso que el fallo a este respecto es una joya histórica de jurisprudencia internacional. Quizás la única ventaja que tendría sería que para salir de vacaciones al extranjero sus habitantes sólo tendrían que caminar hasta la playa, meter un pie en el agua y ya están en el extranjero.

Sin embargo, toda la jurisprudencia occidental desde el Senado Romano hasta nuestros días, ha echado mano de un simple hecho: antecedentes. Siempre que un caso se enreda en la incertidumbre, los abogados pasan largas noches buscando un antecedente. Cuando encuentran uno que en el pasado haya sido aprobado en un caso parecido, el peso de la historia se impone siguiendo el antecedente. Por lo tanto, si la corte de La Haya mantiene el fallo sobre el conflicto de demarcación marítima entre Colombia y Nicaragua se habrá establecido un antecedente para la historia y, a partir de este momento y en el futuro, el mismo principio es susceptible de ser aplicado a todas las islas del planeta, alrededor de 173 islas pertenecientes a más de 50 países. Siendo ese el caso y una vez quedo claro que los magistrados de La Haya pueden legislar en contra de la razón humana y del sentido común, cada isla de este mundo haría bien en dormir con un ojo abierto y abrazando al mar que los rodea.

El hecho es que este mundo que ha girado desde su mismo comienzo, ha visto en su historia oleadas de hegemonía de diferentes civilizaciones. De Ciro a Alejandro, de Temístocles a César, de Gengis Khan a los imperios Europeos, cada uno ha ejercido influencia en este mundo con todas las luces y sombras que ello implica. Y el mundo sigue girando. En uno de sus giros - ver mapa - Las Américas aparecen como un pedazo de Tierra, grande, fuerte y poderoso mirando a otro grande, fuerte y poderoso pedazo de Tierra al otro lado del océano. Sólo las economías de los Estados Unidos, Canadá, Brasil, México, Chile y Colombia juntas, crean una vista sólida.

Las Américas cuentan con un Sistema InterAmericano para atender todos sus asuntos, unir fuerzas, dirimir conflictos. Todos sus asuntos. Tiene sentido. Frente a los profundos retos de estos tiempos en los que los recursos naturales son clave para las generaciones presentes y futuras, los vecinos que la naturaleza tuvo a bien dar son un hecho ineludible. Echar mano de un sistema de actuación conjunta que los mantenga unidos y decidiendo la forma en que van a vivir, trabajar, compartir o dividir, haría de esa porción de tierra en el mapa una verdadera fortaleza.  En este caso específico en el que los magistrados de La Haya le demostraron al mundo que pueden legislar en contra de la razón y el sentido común, es derecho de los pueblos determinar su propio destino. Después de todo, son los recursos que la naturaleza dio, sus vidas y las vidas de sus niños lo que está en juego. Una simple modificación del punto de vista siempre cambia exactamente eso, la vista./ December 14/2012- Sylvia Davila Morales M (c)