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COLOMBIAN Youth Spirit By GABRIEL
BEST KNOWN LETTER
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JACK´S LETTER
This is a letter that the 9th of August of the year 2006, will receive in Scotland a Investment Banker, sent by its brother:
Dear Jack:
In fifteen days we will be seeing each other again in Edinburgh, where as always you’ll entertain yourself listening to my stories of my journeys all over the world. Nevertheless, in this opportunity I have not been able to hold the desire of telling you early part of my impressions on this Colombia that you said at home, constituted the most difficult destiny of all of what I had visited. My curiosity did more on knowing what in the world of tourism is being called "THE NEW DISCOVERY".
This nation, Jack, has the most spectacular landscapes than a human being can imagine, you can go in a few hours from the fascinating caribbean sea to the top of one of it’s three mountain ranges, to converse with a millenarian tribe, the Kogis Indians and also to receive from them their rich cosmology in symbols but in realities, with an infinite kindness. Not very far from there, in a zone of salt operation, called the “Guajira”, where the old ranch homes hospitality, the exotic beauty of its indigenous women and the amplitude of their spirits impressed me. I went to an Island, Providence, where the colors of the sea would bewitch the most exquisite of the painters and where the placidness of its abundant orange crab beaches is fed by its exotic inhabitants, brown men of blond hair, polyglots, with a music that gathers with delight and harmony the crossing of human races and cultures. I do not know what happens there, but the sensuality is at skin level. The natives make the tourists float in the space with the calm interpretation of the relation between the sky constellations in one starred night and love. I also went to one of the most rainy places on the planet with the greatest biodiversity known, the “Chocó”; in the middle of colourful butterflies I learned what is matting fishing, where the calmed and generous “BOGA” shared to me, speaking very gentle, the secrets of the rustic surroundings and the centennial pain remedies for the body and soul, and I bathed in immense cascades. In Colombia, within its forests, I understood the Earth lungs matter.
I lowered later to the “Vallecaucano” Pacific to appreciate the arrival of the hunchback whales, that every year for decades, have been coming from the South Pole to mate in these warm waters and they return to continue with the gestation period, until a year later when they return to give birth to their breeding; here they learn to swim and here they will return throughout its life. The region is populated with descendants of Africans where their music and gastronomy makes them proud of that umbilical cord.
Soon I went to the coffee zone where the landscapes generated by the sinuosity hills, and the diverse tree shades over the coffee plantations, give a gorgeous contrast to the above added, majestic wax palms which have been standing elegant watching the arrival of tourists in small trucks,which are conserved perfectly, manufactured for more than 40 years ago. But nothing more pleasant than getting in the mornings the kind smile of a countrywoman from Salento that has just brought to you the strained coffee and enjoys as nobody does, seeing you delight it with its scent and its flavor.
Throughout the day, the family of farmers, brings to you fruits of those shaded trees, sometimes as juice other times in their natural state and you happen to see the glad passage of "jeeps" loaded with goods and hens or in the afternoon the return of the children which come in bunches from the nearest school.
When we'll chat in Edinburgh, I will tell you some other pleasing surprises: as diverse people as charming, the valleys landscapes; in short, I have spent nights in blank thinking about what I have told you here and about so many good people those who I have known. You might be asking yourself why I don’t talk about the cities? I believe that it will be your duty now that you are the financial brain of the family. If you don’t come as soon as you can, you will lose magnificent businesses opportunities that are being held specially in Bogota, Cali and Medellín. They told me that at their magnificent hotels amounts of investors arrive from America, Europe and the Eastern countries. Imagine how would be like wasting a potential of 45 million consumers, in a country with a privileged position, great influence on the countries of the Andean area and with an industrial infrastructure that would turn it into the ideal supplier for Central America and Caribbean islands. In addition, it has received the solidarity of some of the most powerful nations as a result of its fight against drugs, which has generated preference tariffs that made Colombian products so competitive in the United States and Europe. Do not doubt about it Jack, that great part of your businesses future is here.
But you might ask me what happened, why that Colombia that would be in 2006, is so positively different from that impossible country of which it was told until some time? The answer is that during the previous Government, the visionary governors and the guerrilla leaders agreed that after so many years of conflict, Colombia deserved a better destiny. The Presidents were conscious that the country needed to change and that their fellow citizens had to make sacrifices, to find peace and a more tolerant and balanced way for all. The veteran guerrilla leader understood that the balance of its existence would not have to be in harvested human lives, in the number of widows or orphans or in the amount of blood spilled all over the country. That great revolutions heroes must go beyond posterity, not by the amount of generated violence, but by the effective success of a social transformation. That a life achievement is not to receive a small revolutionary army and to return a big one, but to be born in a country with injustice and at the end of the days be one co-protagonist of a new country where everyone fits peacefully and with a clear future.
Finally Jack, everyone here realized that and great sacrifices were made. It was not easy. Many of the guerrilla men make part of the army now. Others are ecotourism or agricultural entrepreneurs in their regions. All of them understood something that I hope to have transmitted to you with this letter. That the best of all the Colombian landscapes, is the human. Each beautiful place of this land, is complemented with good, amused, laborious and warm people. That sum of factors, people, climates, biodiversity and mainly the peace that was obtained and that was welcomed by all the guerrilla groups and supported by the Government and the society, is what has given origin to which the Travel agencies worldwide call "the new discovery". The great beneficiary of all this subject are not just the great cities executives that are receiving the foreign investors, are the million countrymen, the “bogas”, butler’s children cattle carriers, young guides, rural small hotels that have made of the tourism their more beautiful form to live and to share.
Jack, don’t hesitate to come, this country of these days is so fascinating that it would be irresponsible to die without coming to know it.
Your brother, Andrew
Eduardo José Victoria / Stellar Hotels Manager
(translation done by GMS)
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The bloody connection between drug money and terrorism
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The bloody connection between drug money and terrorism
Over and over again we have been told that drugs are bad for our health. But little is said about what goes on beyond the physical and mental damages caused by drugs. Beneath the surface of the drug business, there is a much more horrible reality than killing neurons: a reality about corruption, terrorism, and blood. Many people believe that consuming drugs is a personal experience. It is not. The consequences of consuming drugs go far beyond the personal level.
El Dorado International Airport, Bogotá, Colombia, any given day. A fifteen-year-old girl from a low-income family is captured by the authorities for being a “mule.” A “mule,” and rightly named so, is a person who decides to carry drugs from Colombia to the United States while trying to avoid the police controls. Someone in the drug business contacted her a month ago. He offered her US$5,000 if she would swallow pills containing cocaine, travel to the United States and “discharge” them in a bowel movement once she arrived there. He probably told her it was easy, and that she wouldn’t get caught, but she did get caught. Now the kilograms of “white powder” will not be delivered to consumers who can’t find any other satisfaction in their lives but that white powder. What they don’t know is that the powder is not white; it is red, red, red!
Here’s how the story begins. Someone buys the white powder in the streets of his town from a guy to whom he probably wouldn’t want to be related. There is no guarantee that what he has is really what he is looking for, or what he believes it is, but he decides to trust this criminal and put his life in his hands. That man has gotten the “merchandise” from another guy who may have paid the local police not to put him in jail and to allow him to deal the drugs freely. This guy got it from the greater distributor, someone who may live in a mansion in San Diego, Los Angeles, Miami, or New York, who may be related to some important person, such as a politician, a businessman and so on. People who you wouldn’t think are involved in the drug business are reaping the benefits of the trade without facing any consequences.
One of the greatest problems in the war against drugs is that the desire for easy money has permeated society at all levels. Many governments are reluctant to impose greater laws against drug consumption and distribution because they are afraid of two things: who might end up in jail and what would be the economic impact of stronger campaigns against drugs. A clear example of the latter is found in Switzerland, a country that calls itself civilized but is opposed to classifying the Colombian rebels as terrorists. This is due to the fact that the Colombian guerrillas and drug lords have huge bank accounts in Switzerland and the banks and government of Switzerland are unwilling to lose those millions of dollars.
Now, the chain goes on: the big distributor gets the merchandise from a cartel in Mexico or from the “mules” coming into the United States. That cartel in Mexico gets the merchandise from another cartel in Colombia. And here is the most horrible part of the chain; this is what makes the powder really red. The three major terrorist groups of Colombia are the leftist FARC (18,000 combatants), ELN (4,000 combatants), and rightist paramilitaries AUC (8,000 combatants). It needs to be understood that, contrary to what many people believe, the terrorists of Colombia are one and the same with the drug dealers. The business of drugs, which makes an amount of money equivalent to the GDP of certain South American countries, finances the war against the legitimate Colombian state. In exchange for protecting the coca crops and getting the drugs out of the country, the terrorists receive money to buy weapons and make bombs. The crucial element in the Colombian conflict is that the terrorists are not fighting for a just society; they are fighting to maintain the drug business, a business from which they make amazing profits.
To protect the crops and get the drugs out of Colombia, the narco-terrorists have to kill 34,000 Colombians each year (34,000!), kidnap 3,000, place bombs, kill civilians, corrupt the authorities, and leave children without an arm or a leg, or both. Earlier this year, the FARC placed a bomb in a social club in a residential neighborhood of Bogotá, killing 38 and wounding 170. A year ago in the remote town of Bojayá, Chocó, the FARC and the AUC killed 119 when they threw a cylinder bomb into a church where people were taking refuge. In other words, the terrorists have to destroy a country before they destroy the body.
Remember that white powder at the beginning of the article? Now it’s red. It helped kill the people in the church and in the club, and 34,000 Colombians each year. The narco-terrorists appreciate the money from consumers around the world; without it, they j
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Como Vamos?
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Los valores que posee nuestro pueblo, y que hemos ido forjando a través de la historia, representan un cúmulo extraordinario de riquezas. Hablamos de la integración familiar, la hospitalidad, la lealtad al amigo, nuestra propia moral cristiana, el arraigo a nuestra tierra, nuestras tradiciones, etcétera. De hecho, la mayoría de los extranjeros que visitan nuestro país reconocen la enorme riqueza de nuestros valores.
Debemos conocernos más a nosotros mismos y aquilatar todos los extraordinarios valores que poseemos, y no dedicarnos solamente a degradarnos y devaluarnos sistemáticamente como lo hacen nuestros comunicadores a través de los diferentes medios masivos de información.
¿Qué nación deseamos tener? Esta pregunta nos la debemos formular todos los líderes de esta nación. Y si usted es de los que creen que todavía podemos mejorar sustancialmente nuestra calidad, podrá contestarla con toda certeza. A la misma pregunta, esto es lo que han respondido los participantes en mis programas de liderazgo de Excelencia:
Un país honesto que erradique la miseria.
Un país que elimine la ignorancia a través de la educación.
Ciudades sin contaminación donde sus habitantes conserven la ecología.
Que se genere la lealtad y gratitud a la nación a la que pertenecemos.
Que su sistema sea democrático y pleno de libertades.
Que preservemos nuestros valores históricos y nuestras costumbres.
Que se genere un auténtico interés y salgamos al auxilio de los miserables y desposeídos.
Que busquemos permanentemente la realización de nuestra juventud.
Que vivamos plenamente el espíritu de superación en todos los órdenes, en lo material y en lo moral.
Éstas son, entre otras, las opiniones que he recabado de las personas que sueñan con un país mejor, y entonces la pregunta clave es: ¿Cómo vamos a lograrlo? La respuesta está en cada uno de los individuos que deseen una nación con una vida diferente, y se podría resumir en las siguientes acciones:
Vivir de acuerdo con los valores con que se desea ser.
Realizar todas las actividades de acuerdo con valores para que el hacer sea congruente.
Permanecer, a pesar de todas las adversidades, fiel a los valores buscando estar en el orden deseado.
Y, finalmente, tener la determinación de dirigirse decididamente hacia la realización del país que deseamos construir.
Si a partir de hoy mi ser, hacer, estar y tener están de acuerdo con este nuevo orden de valores, y si cada uno de nosotros decidimos asumir la responsabilidad y compromiso personal hacia este nuevo ordenamiento, con toda seguridad lo lograremos. Cuando un ser humano decide convertirse en un ser excelente, entonces existe un mediocre menos en el mundo.
Me gustaría precisar y esquematizar el camino a seguir para lograr un cambio que enriquezca nuestro liderazgo de Excelencia y nos ponga en marcha hacia donde deseamos llegar:
Definir la actual escala de valores.
Definir qué cambios se deben realizar en la escala de valores para construir en nosotros mismos al ser que se desea ser, la familia que se desea tener, la empresa que le gustaría realizar y, finalmente, el país al que le gustaría pertenecer.
Vivir en forma congruente de acuerdo con la nueva escala de valores.
Nunca confrontar los valores individuales y respetar profundamente los de los demás.
Luchar por valores universales y contribuir a escribir la historia.
Ser un auténtico vendedor de valores a través del testimonio personal.
Pensemos que la única forma de saber de qué somos capaces es haciéndolo, es decir: Haz lo que tengas que hacer y te conocerás.
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