safe passages

There is this phrase which more or less in english goes like: we’re making the effort for having a better country. Now everything is for having a better country. Last Saturday I went to the venezuelan version of a Food Truck Fair and, like everything lately, it wasn´t enjoyable at all. Many people complained and they had a point to do so, the thing is that the producers of the event weren´t, in my opinion, respectful enough with the upset ones. This mainstream way of management through cell phones and by posting flattering moments of itself is not being well used as I can see. We are supposed to be cheering and grateful because they’re making the effort for having a better country; just like the government. Chavez used to speak about the new man as a person with new values. A lot of money in propaganda got spent to convey such an affirmation. I think it worked, there’s indeed a new man, only that perhaps it is not what’s expected, not to me at least.

The new politicians for instance. They’ve become so popular and then, at last, it turned too little (almost nothing) all these growing alliance against our oppressors. Yesterday, for example, these representatives, both sides, gathered at Dominican Republic to renegotiate terms. I’m kind of lost with those terms. I need my income to reach the next payment. We need a whole new economy system and we need it right away. This terms thing just delay while prices keep increasing. On the other hand, like the people of the Food Truck, these ones also are making the effort for having a better country…

It seems like everything is being done through safe passages. It seems that’s the excuse we better believe so, yes, we’re supposed to self-deceive one another, post it as a good thing to then, by lying each other, make the phrase a slogan. Therefore, let’s say I’m making the effort for having a better country I guess…

Papus

I’ve heard quite some about how important it is to handle English nowadays, mostly from people who don’t use it so much. I’ve learned it long ago, long enough to say long actually. I also worked as an English instructor for some time but, sincerely, I don’t know, no sé si vale la pena el esfuerzo;  trato de transmitir un mensaje cuyo destino se presenta algo borroso, así que, ante la incertidumbre de si vale la pena o no writing this, I’ll do it like this, usando ambos idiomas. El corrector de word ya lo evidencia como locura…

I was reading this book of Papus and I really enjoyed lots of things. Actually it made me come up with the idea that everything symbolizes something; to someone, somewhere, for some reason, at any time, y eso se debe a que uno es un universo en sí, y el mismo dilema que suscitan el cerebro y el corazón; del cual a lot has been written about, es el mismo que se presenta entre el materialismo y la fe. I’ve found it revealing because I spend many days surrounded by gente que se proclaman ateos y agnósticos, and this is mostly because internet gave such a chance. No es un tema de convicción, como nos lo queren vender, it is more like doubting (but without researching) is kind of cooler, y eso, en una crisis como la que vivimos los Venezolanos, and besides, in a time where we’ve become in a nation where heroes are now satellites, news; propaganda, celebrities; politicians (imagínense eso) and achievements; things merely working. Obviamente eso es un cocktail para la percepción.

No quiero pasar por alto lo del materialismo, so I’m going to quote a bit from the book:

El materialismo nos enseña a trabajar por la colectividad sin esperanza alguna de recompensa, ya que sólo el recuerdo de vuestra personalidad es lo que puede subsistir detrás de vosotros; esta doctrina, que deseca el corazón y enseña a no considerar más que a los fuertes en la lucha por la vida, tiene, no obstante, una poderosa influencia sobre la razón, y ésta retiene un poco sus violencias y sus peligros… 

This should be important, at least I think it is porque detrás del presunto antagonismo, hay otros, más concretos, como el del poder y la sumisión: un grupo significante de gente cree que en la sumisión está el deber, y que en el deber está la necesidad, entonces, cómo levantas a una población en nombre de la libertad, cuando el deber está en la necesidad y ésta última en la sumisión… You have to do it from a position of power, which is what happens with the politcians, and that’s why people still wait on lines for cash and bread, for example…

and the slogan becomes a song…

I was having a little chat with some coworkers. One was saying about English importance: the treaties, the way to get in touch with the world, the advantages and, in general; all those things we’ve been always told but not so many cared. The interesting thing was what the other one said:  why English? That’s a language I won’t be submitted (and it won’t be necessary to write what else he said)

I pictured some scenarios in my head: let’s take this guy and sit him over a chair with power, let’s say he will be named a minister or a director: what kind of management would it be his? The possible answers of this question actually remove you from any doubt. It would be nefarious, just as it is Venezuela nowadays.

We’ve been living the time of free market and globalization; something opposing will hardly reach a common good. The only way a government controlled market may work is by sponsoring perceptions through alms; you see: I set up an insult, something that makes minds feel rather than understand, so perceptions get open through this sort of offensive feeling via, which also make them get eager, eager for an explanation, and the explanation comes, an archetype: there must be someone, someone evil, evil from abroad; and now I get why I’ve been poor, why wealth is a concept for frustration, then I start summarizing: what do I really want, or need? What the government gives: a box with several products so you don’t get hungry, but remember, this is not just to solve hunger, it isn’t. This is a struggle against the enemy, an enemy who imposed English and a wrong concept of wealth. I don´t know what’s wealth anymore. Wealth is what government tells, so you better start paying attention to its words, so its words become a slogan, and the slogan becomes a song…

What about now? Alms have been reduced because Oil price crumbled. Now the song is about production: what such a thing could be if you first told me I wasn´t responsible for who I’ve been? 

Now that I’m aware my ignorance was planted by the enemy… I just wait for my box of food.

Power is power, Cercei said.