A day well spent

     Yesterday, my intentions were clear to me: Catch up with all the pending delayed work. Pending is a good choice of words here. Thinking of the infamous Sword of Damocles that now and then we all have over our heads and its inseparable friend "Procrastination". Always hand on hand, annoying everybody, but mostly me.

     Chinese, coding, paper reviews, paper reading, my own research...even vacuum cleaning the house. All waiting there till I decided which one would be first.

       Then, out of nowhere, my little 6 years old daughter did appear with her sweet smile. Just looking at me. Smiling. She is about to start primary school next Monday here in Taiwan. That is not going to be a problem neither on the academic side nor the social part. She has been attending the kindergarten for almost 4 years and seems to enjoy going to school. Is the whole system what bothers me. The way knowledge is passed to the new generations. Looks as if everything must be painful and boring. No trace of the joy of new knowledge whatsoever. 

        What to do then? So far we have tried to be ahead of what she is "supposed" to know. Something that all parents try to do here, flooding their busy children with more and more extra classes but always for the wrong reason. In my days, if you failed some subject or get sick for too long, you might opt for some extra help outside school to let you reach the level of the rest. The key thing here was that this is just a temporal solution. Nowadays, has become the normal thing rather than an exception and the goal is to beat the others, to be the top student. Translation, stress for the children, the parents and the teachers.

        We, on the other hand, have a different motivation: just to keep the joy of learning. Keep her at the limit of her comfortable zone, crossing the line from time to time, challenging her abilities. I know her, she trust me and I can see her eyes when I teach her some new concept and decide how deep, how slow I must proceed on my explanation. I sense if it is too soon for her to understand and reassure her if she does it wrong the first time. If you are not there this might sound as a tiger parent approach but that is the exact horrifying concept we are trying to avoid. The point is to have her coming back for more, like a good customer hooked on the product you are marketing. That product is knowledge in this case but the main goal is not to fill her little brain with stuff. What school and parents must pursuit together is the desire of knowing in the kid´s heart. Whether that means the names of all rivers in Taiwan or the names of all countries in the world is irrelevant. That is what everybody is missing here.

      So, what did I do with that little girl hiding behind the smile? I taught her some mathematics.

Why in the world would you do that? Don´t you like your daughter´s smile? Precisely. Of all subjects, mathematics is by far the most commonly hated one. I myself have a love-hate relationship with her too. But deep inside I know it is just a language, nothing more. Some way to express concepts like English, Spanish or music. I know the language and I have the patience and time required to pass it to Ariadna. Because that is what is going to make the difference. The way you learn something is going to make you love it or run from anything that requires its use or understanding. My duty here is to make her like mathematics by slowly introducing them to her and do it before others. You can see this like trying to avoid spoilers before you go watch a movie so you can enjoy the whole experience. The bright side is that she is smart enough to understand "advanced" concepts and I guess we can stay ahead of school for the time being. 

     I must note here how I have quoted "advanced" on purpose. I am not saying: - Look how intelligent she is! I am saying that the system is designed to educate a country, not my daughter or your son. There must be some common grounds that most children can and should achieve "if we teach them in a class with 30 other children with just one busy teacher". So, having the time and will to do it means your kids can go beyond what the systems demands from them whether they are geniuses or not. In my particular case, to me, Ariadna is just smart and I have no intention of finding out how smart compared with others as long as I can keep on providing the tools she needs to show the best she has to offer and that does not interfere with her happiness.

      The day ended and now she can tell you about how to measure the area of a square or the volume of a cube. What square centimeters are, the concept of cubic centimeters and how to go from one to the other. Told her she is the only one of her friends that knows about it (yes, yes, I know, but a little pride in her heart is not as bad as it sounds). 

      She left with a smile, enter the other room, took a book from the shelf and minded her own business again. Me on the other hand...well, procrastination, you know.

"Good" as in "He was a Good Man"

Note: I began to write this post the very same day Steve Jobs died. Reading the huge amount of information about him and how others ponder his life gave me second thoughts. So many people saying wonderful, marvelous stories on the way he changed their lives...by giving them a device to listen to music, a really, really cool laptop or a phone to do far more than just a phone call. It allows you to play endless hours killing angry birds (let´s be honest here, that is one of the most used apps, not the mobile version of the Wikipedia). Now I am indeed tired of it and would like to add some details to balance the legacy he has left behind.

      "The man is dead. It was all over the news today. Few men more notorious than the late Steve Jobs, CEO and endless times re founder of the Fruit Logo Company.

     I am sure that he was a good man to his family, friends, even coworkers at Cupertino (even though many stories about the possibility of been fired after an encounter with him in the elevator in one of his bad days can be found out there to refute this one). Certainly not to employees in China working over the clock to satisfy the hunger for new sets coming from the Apple stores across the globe. But all that is not my point here. How people is about to describe him and make us read countless obituaries is the reason of this post. When someone dies, sad as it is, people related to him and, like in this case, many others will express condolences, say things about the deceased and comfort those who grieve the big lost.

     To wait for today may be seen as an opportunistic attempt to look for attention. One speaks or writes about whatever is in his mind and from now on is going to be virtually impossible not to think about Jobs in every available angle. One can say that almost everybody liked him because he represented the most precious value nowadays, success. Over and over again, against all odds. The best Hollywood movie is always in the real life somewhere. He gave us hope? Yes, in a way. He is a good value for our children to pursue? May be, may be not. What he characterized is one side of mankind. That one that makes it progress based on hard work of the brightest leading the way to the rest of us. But don´t look for a purpose there, at least not a higher one. Picasso, whom some call the greatest artist on the 20th century, changed the concept of art. New ways to approach to beauty are now present thanks to him and more artist like him. At the same time he also painted that scary, dragging, dark masterpiece called Guernica denouncing the bestiality of war. Probably that picture has had more impact in the hearts of people around the world than most other well-intentioned speeches against war, and for that he has my respect. But when I look to Steve, with so much power to influence in multiple different ways to an entire generation, I see him spreading hunger for consumer products, luxury devices, crammed with beauty, expensive ones that set off the purchase lust like madness all over the world.

     On a certain interview he said philanthropy is something that requires a full time job to do it properly and, at the moment, he had other priorities concerning his company. That is as much as saying no to almost everything we cannot be certain to achieve perfectly. That sends a message too. The ultimate excuse not to do so many things. For those who have spent their lives telling people that a little bit of them multiplied by millions can make the difference is not a good view to see how they have to fight "priorities". Instead of "help what you can even though you cannot change the world because many others are doing the same", we have now the "life is too short, pursuit your dream" being advertised by a far better, far cooler and far more alluring succeeder.

     Good men are those who ease suffering, struggle for peace, discover new medicines, not those who just enhance the user experience."

The Tryumph of Capitalism...Not Really

For some time now I have been thinking about what they said in 1991, following the events that dissolved that weird thing called U.S.S.R. Without exceptions the press was editorializing the whole thing as a victory: "Communism has died, long live to Capitalism!". Could have been a perfect headline for a news summary those days. While writing this I am realizing how always hated the way some people mix the words Capitalism and Democracy. It is like giving credit to the former by association to the later, undoubtedly more respectable.

Going back twenty years ago, I was a young man then, but not so young as not to care about what was taking place in front of my eyes. I recall me thinking: first the wall, now this, and broadcasted all over the world on live feed! Happy then to see that monster disappear, still happy now with the perspective of time and some white hair (not much actually) inhabiting my head. Everybody thought that was the beginning of a new era where people could mind their own business and stop worrying about the bomb or the Evil Empire (Reagan dixit).

But what do you expect to happen to Batman if there is nobody out there defying his supremacy and keeping him in shape? Yes, of course, Russia was still there and China, no doubt about it, is here now. But lacking new ideas to confront the so called Capitalism concept, they have just embraced they own wicked version of it and are more worried on the pursuit of their Eldorado than entering a discussion on where we all, and by that I mean the World, are heading. As a result we have a big fat guy with his underwear over the trousers sitting in our living room and drinking our beer while the World...well...

So the small guys took over long ago. "Don't worry, have a rest, from now on we can manage on the details". They are smart, this people. They use to work at places like Lehman Brothers or Merrill Lynch and believe it or not, still do, same place, same desk, just a different name on the door. They have mastered the ability to use the details of the law to betray the spirit of the law. They refer to it as Financial Engineering and for that they should be awarded because it is not small achievement to make things like putting some junk on a pretty box, label it and make everybody buy with the least clue of what was in the box. While Batman was watching the game the men with the fancy suits changed the operating system but kept the name and nobody noticed...or at least nobody took the time to explain the common citizens what was going on with their beloved Democracy.

The Wikipedia says: "Democracy is a form of government in which all people have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives." I do believe this is the best way for us, human beings, to live together protecting our children against whatever is out there. On the other hand it stipulates the following: "Capitalism is an economic system in which the means of production are privately owned and operated for profit, usually in competitive markets." This may not sound strange at all because is a concept we are utterly used to. Nothing more and nothing less than the law of the jungle. Precisely what mankind has tried to avoid for the last thousands of years. The victory of the strongest to ensure a better ADN for the next generation.

Let's think it over. If a certain people (or country) are doomed for starvation it cannot be called Democracy even though they have non tampered electoral processes because they didn't choose such fate and still there it is. The problem is citizens on the so-called first/rich world, not being asked whether they prefer a new highway or food for a kid in who knows what poor country. As rich as we are, so eager for cool phones and new ways to read a book, when the question is presented in the correct way I don't think anybody would hesitate on the answer.

But that easy-to-make polling proposal, simple as might look, hides a more deep analysis of today's acknowledge of the Democracy concept. The idea that in nowadays globalized world it could work for only some of us. When we speak of a person no one says he or she is a good person because so far he has been nice to you. A criminal is a criminal no matter how fair treats us and so is a corporation, no matter whether it complies with the laws of one country if it uses unfair countries with unfair laws to make the things it sells to you. They will argue that they respect the law in every country they have presence but it is again that imaginative interpretation of the letter to betray the spirit.

The sooner voters agree that borders and countries should only be seen for cultural purposes and human beings are essentially the same and should be treated the same the earlier politicians will understand the notion and defend it as our true representatives.

"Democracy should be a form of government in which all people have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives ... as far as those decisions do not cause pain and injustice anywhere else around the world either directly or by omission".

Meanwhile, Capitalism has not prevailed, simply we have just lost out.

Drugs and oldtimers

A typical Typhoon Sunday morning in Taiwan is not the best time to be inspired to save the world. Utterly dark outside, let me explain to you how the wind trying to get inside the house blows hard and makes nearly everything whistle like you are in a cheap horror movie from the Corman Factory. Already two days raining. We don't have the thrill of real typhoons here. There are mountains that prevent the storm from showing its real power. Not the real deal you may say. This is the stage I am in right now. Your state of mind contaminates from that surrounding you.
And then you almost feel compelled to watch again those old Guns'n Roses videos from the nineties while you are doing a little bit of exercising. Trying to aisle from the outer world I use my earphones and pump up the volume (always wanted to actually said that somewhere it makes sense). So, here I am, hoping to remain in shape and listening Hard Rock in an absolutely not recommended high volume penetrating my brains. Add some strong coffee to the equation.
Suddenly I feel 18 again, like been high with the sensation of invincibility. Hello World and watch out, I am going to eat you! That is how I felt then, almost everyday sensing there was something outside waiting for me to be done, discovered, achieved. I don't believe it was anything exclusive to me. Every kid in the process to became a man or woman experiences the same, at least that's how things should be, from my point of view.
Somewhere I kind of lost those feelings, became a grown up and estabilized my life and way of thinking. That is the politically correct way of describing the way we betrayed ourselves and stopped looking for the Holy Grail. Listening to the music you used to like then, may make you feel sorry for those forgotten days. But in my case also brings hope. There is still time. We have more experience, may be a bit more wisdom. It is only that pulse for life what was left behind and I see no medical or physiological reasons not to bring it back.
Can you call strong coffee with old hard rock music in the morning a real drug? To me, yes, it is. It is a question of resetting your spirit. Like a bad dream means a bad morning even though you don't remember what was in your nightmare or thinking about what you would do if you win the lottery puts a smile in your face that nobody knows where came from. That music makes me feel like nothing can stop me, forget all the impediments to reach whatever I want and seems as if everything is possible. It is just a matter of going for it. Because that was the music I use to listen when things where easier and simpler. No commitments, just the future awaiting for us to conquer it.
Please, somebody make coffee-rock pills so I can overdose in the morning and overcome the gray and rainy Sundays.
Life is a roller coaster. We think the world is a strange place. We do not understand it and we are totally stranded there. Finding those things that bring us to the time when we where kings help regain the strength to make amazing things or just live a fulfilled life with those we love. Because only when in the wooden suit you may say the game is over...and in my case they haven't even planted the pine for that kind of furniture :-)

War

I have realized one thing hard to admit: war is inevitable.
If things go as planned, I intend to live some good 80 years, may be 90 with a little bit of luck. My father lived 88 years and one war in his lifetime, the Spanish Civil War.
In my first sentence in this entry, I am not referring to something that could happen in a foreign country, far away. I speak about your own backyard. Your house, your family threatened by a real danger. One you can smell or be touched by. In Spain or Western Europe, war seems so distant. Things have changed so much. ..Have they?
And then, there is my wife. She is from Taiwan, the most distant place from my hometown you can imagine. She was lucky enough to spare herself from such thing but again her parents and grandparents generation suffered the taste of military and the rotten odor left by gunpowder. Same thing everywhere, no exceptions.
A country may have reasons to go to war, but does a man ever have them? You don’t fight against a country, you shot people, not ideals. You kill citizens, coming from a town like your own. His sons and wife not so different from yours. How can you show anger to someone you don’t know? And yet it seems far easier to kill the unknown soldier and feel no remorse. Just because they said so. Kill a nobody in the battlefield is allowed when defending your country. Self defense.
What are the odds of being in a war in your lifetime? Pretty probable. Did the Germans really hate so much the rest of European countries and people? Did Japanese actually feel hate towards the Chinese peasants or Americans? It is clear that the answer is no. You can say Americans indeed did hate Japan as a whole after Pearl Harbor. But this is only as a result of misinformation. If they only knew the truth beneath that aggression, for sure their feelings would have changed.
From these facts you can deduce that Information is the best and sometimes only weapon to fight war. From the other point of view, Information is always the first casualty prior to make a country go to war. With the world kept well informed and access to information being a non alienable right it would be difficult for any government to convince its population to joint the army to kill. But, all this said, what I really wanted to say is that good chances are you will experience a conflict in your lifetime, in your country. And that should be enough to not be able to sleep at night anymore and to start working to avoid the unavoidable.
But when the time comes, what should a human being do? Defend his country or his family? When wars are over, those who parted are seen in a different way depending on whose side the victory was. If war was won by your country you will never be able to come back. An outcast for ever. Better even change your name. If, on the other hand, defeat was the result, you won't be able to come back either, but mainly because the country will probably be closed for some time till the loser's purge is completed. And the new rulers won't like you anyway.Your once compatriots will hate you because your wife was not raped, your children not slaughtered and you did not have to kill anyone. It is the price they paid for the victory or the defeat, the reason why they hate you. The more they paid, the more they hate you. They do not seem to recognize that you were not the one who drove them to war. It will be soon forgotten. Rulers, good or bad, pass by and their mistakes forgotten. But deserters remain traitors no matter what. Not to kill is always harder.
A killer or an outcast, certain death with honors or hated by your old folks for ever, a murderer or a coward.
Rather than prepared for war, a man should be prepared to die to avoid war.
Because is a nasty business that of war.