The land of the heroes

I always remember the Atlanta-Journal Constitution as an icon of poor quality and coverage in the media. Many years ago I remember reading a piece on how a fireman was called a "hero" for saving a lady's kitten that had climbed to the top of a magnolia tree in Buckhead. I wouldn't be surprised if I read this on the front page of the AJC. After the attacks of New York I remember how almost anyone wearing a uniform had instantly become a hero. To me something was wrong. A hero had to be something else, perhaps in the broadest sense, someone who out of courage sacrifices for others, but who does not seek a reward. My humble opinion: Firemen and others should not be included, however commendable their work is, saving people is their job.

The other day I was riding with a realtor lady who was going to show me a farm house close to the city of Rionegro. I wasn't bothered as much by the countless sessions of botox evident in her overstretched face, but at the level of her unsolicited opinions. At one point she started to talk about how safe the neighborhood she was showing me was and her view of how society should deal with the increasingly higher crime rate in the city. She thought that the best way to deal with thieves was to shoot them dead right away, just so they wouldn't develop “a taste for stealing”. My response was a silence that I hope she understood as a deep sentiment of sadness for her ignorance. I am glad we didn't purchase the house she was showing and didn't support the idiotic idea that everything can be fixed the way of the gun.

However unlikely I was to agree with her; that ignorance of thought had its justification. It is the built up resulting of years of inefficiencies in the political, judicial and economic system. In the case of Medellin (where it seems almost everyone has had a taste of violence) the city is dominated by a red-neckish bourgeoisie that glorifies money -no matter the source-, Mexican icons and the view that everything that comes from Miami is good, even if it stinks rotten. The elites of a country are by definition the highest of the class-culture spectrum…but here they are dominated by religious fanatics with no education, and the supposedly marked differences existing between the poor and pseudo-rich. These differences exist only in their obtuse heads of course, but this resulting divide ends up hurting the whole of society.

As a person with an economics background I cannot see how this game of inefficiencies can benefit the economy as a whole in the long-term.

For all those who stand tall against injustice through peaceful means I have my deepest sense of respect; for all those who have found a tragic end pursuing the dream of a better society through peaceful ways they have my admiration.