The curvature of capitalism

(ES)

In physics, black hole is known as a finite region of space-time caused by a high concentration of high-density mass inside that creates a gravitational field so powerful that no particle of matter, even photons of light, can escape this region.
The curvature of space-time was studied by Einstein in his theory of General Relativity in 1915.

Let's imagine an elastic surface stretched by its four corners. If we place a small sphere but large mass in the center of the surface, this, by the action of gravity will bend and deform to form a funnel and at the bottom would be the sphere. Any object in the vicinity of the funnel will slide helplessly to the bottom of it.

When socialism and communism are a vague memory in history, only recalled by their excesses, capitalism becomes since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 in the prevailing system in our globalized world.

Since then, capitalism, as the sphere of the simile above, it becomes a black hole from which nothing can escape.

An economic oligarchy concentrating global wealth and whose force of gravity is greed.

An unstoppable force of gravity that drags toward poverty the rest of world. That evicts families without financial resources of their homes because they can not pay their mortgages. That evicts from their land to farmers who occupy them for generations in order to monopolize the means of production. That leads young people to an uncertain future because they can not pay their student loan debts to enter college. No work, no hope...
That speculates on food prices, condemning millions to starve. That speculates on sovereign debt, condemning millions to lose social rights. That makes credit flows difficult, condemning entrepreneurs to reject their projects for lack of funding.

Ultimately, a huge black hole from which nothing and no one escapes. Faced with a social and sustainable economy, a capitalist system whose survival is based on the unequal distribution of wealth, increasingly exacerbated, increasingly greedy and the source of many conflicts that plague our planet. But like a black hole collapses and leads to the creation of new stars and galaxies, perhaps it is close the collapse of capitalism and the birth of a new economic and social model more egalitarian in distribution of wealth, sustainable and respectful on the environment.

.

Why do the acacias weep?

(ES)

The acacia is a tough and strong tree that lives in extreme conditions in the most dry and arid lands. Its branches are covered with thorns, and when in flower it is filled with bright yellow clusters. Where the acacia lives rarely grow other plants, so acacias always thought that thorns of its branches, lashed by the sun and wind, were common to all plants. They also thought that the injuries caused in its trunk by man to extract the sap were something natural. The cut on the branch was painful, but suffered in silence, because to every acacia men were doing the same thing every so often. Sometimes a bad blow with the ax has broken off a branch and the tree has died. The rest of acacias thought that fate was that way and that nothing could be done, had always been so.
The acacias never felt different or complained about his harsh existence until the time the rains came. Emerging out of nowhere, like a miracle, slender stemmed plants, neither a single thorn and brightly colored petals; and the acacias wept because their scars and their thorns were no longer seemed natural. Wept knowing that their appearance is different from other plants, and wept to find that their suffering only was useful to man satisfaction, and above all, wept when knowing that their thorns have condemned millions of girls and women to a fate similar to theirs.

Every year, three million girls and women suffer some form of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).

The most severe form of FGM is infibulation, which involves the partial or total removal of the clitoris and the inner labia, and excision of the outer labia, which once cut are drilled with acacia thorns and stitched up to the healing in order to seal the vagina, leaving a small hole to allow passage of urine and menstrual flow. After the mutilation, the girl should remain with their legs tied to the knees until the wound heals. The age at which FGM is usually performed is between four and fourteen, although the operation of stitching the vagina can be repeated after each childbirth.
The first sexual act of infibulated women generally requires a previous incision usually done by the husband, thus ensuring his wife's virginity. Also during childbirth is necessary an incision to allow the baby out. Otherwise there is danger of tears or even death for mother and baby.

The lack of asepsis during the practice of FGM favors the occurrence of infections, which in the worst cases can end the life of the girl. Also the heavy bleeding during surgery can cause death. Women who have undergone FGM face physical and psychological scars for the rest of their lives, and every birth is a risk to themselves and their babies.

Nobody should die to fulfill a tradition. No one should suffer for a custom. The honor of a man or a family should not depend on the suffering of their daughters and wives.

It is true that acacias will go on weeping and only a few will dare to challenge the men, they do not want more injuries and more scars. But now I know that acacias are not alone in the desert, and somehow, those who know their pain, will do their best to make their thorns help them to fend off those who attack them, and not to hurt women and girls, strong and resilient themselves as acacias.

.

Postponed childhood

(ES)

Drawings by children recruited in Sierra Leone

They can not erase the past, and its memory haunts them day and night, endless nightmare that it is impossible to wake up.
They are locked in a present without the possibility of looking to the future, because their memories of the past are the ballast that keeps them from moving forward.
Terrible memories of killings, rapes and mutilations. Of dehumanized life, full of hate and fear.
The vague memory of a happier time yet cause even more damage, because it was violently taken away.

A childhood of games, friends, family and neighborhood that was broken the day when the military arrived. They killed men and women, also the babies. Suddenly, the flames only. The younger boys and girls were taken with them, either fled and joined an armed group seeking safety and shelter. Children who have seen how their parents and siblings were murdered and their homes burned down.

Boys forced to kill a friend in exchange for their own lifes to show loyalty and courage. Girls used as sex slaves, raped over and over, pregnant and forced to abort. Minors beaten, tortured, raped, brutalized, scared ... and so a long list of abuses.

Fear, hatred and uprooting are the keys to turn a minor into a soldier. It is estimated that there are more than 300,000 worldwide.

The disarmament, demobilization and reintegration programs turn them again into civilians when they achieve to leave the army, whether regular or irregular. But it is not easy to return to civilian life when they have spent so much time as soldiers in armed conflicts. Orphans, homeless, rootless, with shame for the atrocities committed and the fear of not being accepted back by their communities. This, together with the strong links forged with military life, makes reintegration very difficult but not impossible. Many of these children return to study and learn a trade. Hopefully, they will be forgiven and accepted by their communities. Other re-enlist, unable to forget their past and find their future.

Any peace process requires to look forward, remember the innocent victims, to forgive and regret.

As we age we only left our memories. If stealing a life is death, stealing the memories is like dying in life. It is disheartening to think that child soldiers have died in life twice. The first when their families were snatched from them, the second when they were forced to kill or die in a forgotten war. Both memories are so heartbreaking that they prefer not to dwell on them. Memories stolen, postponed childhood.

©UNICEF/Olivier Asselin

"I remember the day I decided to join the mayi-mayi. It was after an attack on my village. My parents, and also my grand-father were killed and I was running. I was so scared. I lost everyone; I had nowhere to go and no food to eat. In the mayi-mayi I thought I would be protected, but it was hard. I would see others die in front of me. I was hungry very often, and I was scared. Sometimes they would whip me, sometimes very hard. They used to say that it would make me a better fighter. One day, they whipped my [11-year-old] friend to death because he had not killed the enemy. Also, what I did not like is to hear the girls, our friends, crying because the soldiers would rape them."

Jacques, from DRC, was recruited into an insurgent group (mayi-mayi) when he was 10 years old

.

Helpless heroes

(ES)

Sometimes the answers to simple questions are harder to find. And the context of the question is as important as the answer itself.

I wonder why the heroes are those who decide to help the weakest. In our society most of us have sufficient ability and resources to do so.
I wonder why the courageous are those who defend their ideas. In our society the rights and freedoms are guaranteed constitutionally.
I wonder why the commitment and critical thinking are misfits attitude. In our information society, injustice, Human Rights violations, corruption and abuse of power are exposed to the public and are the source of the indignation from which commitment is born.

Is not this a distorted view of reality to keep alive a socially unfair and unsupportive system?
I wonder why social success is so away from commitment, activism and solidarity.

And ultimately, why we are not more supportive? Why commitment is the exception not the rule?

People of the global world we inhabit are also searching for answers. But only find silence, and silence is helplessness.
People who want democracy and whose governments use security forces that should protect them to suppress any peaceful demonstration, killing their sons and daughters.
People dispossessed of their lands, forced to become refugees in their own country.
People starving because their means of production have been stolen.
People whose natural resources are plundered and raped their sons and daughters.
Peoples enslaved and brutalized.
People looking for their dignity and freedom.
People who want peace and justice.
Braves to their chagrin. Heroes out of obligation.

Only those who are facing with the silence, oblivion and death, are chosen by fate to become real helpless heroes.

That their heroic gestures of every day for their survival, for their dignity, for defending their rights, for justice and for freedom that have at least a courageous response by those with the ability to choose.

Maybe I may never find answers to my questions, only silence, but while there are oppressed people is our duty to give them voice and not give up the fight to prevent the shadow of helplessness to be spread as a lethal blanket across our planet.

.

Doubts allowed

(ES)

"Humanity follows two world-wide sects:
One, man intelligent without religion,
The second, religious without intellect."

"But some hope a divine leader with prophetic voice
Will rise amid the gazing silent ranks.
An idle thought! There's none to lead but reason,
To point the morning and the evening ways."

"A little doubt is better than total credulity"

The world was seen that way 1.000 years ago by Abul 'Ala Al-Ma'arri a blind philosopher and poet born in Syria.

The world remains intolerant, based on power relationships, governed by leaders who think they possess the truth and inhabited by subjugated peoples.

Subdued by the power of arms.

Subdued by the power of ignorance.

Subdued by the power of capitalism and consumerism.

And subdued by a system designed to the measure of the powerful, in any form of social organization and government. A system that does not support the doubt, because doubt is born of reason and the reason is the source of dissidence.

The change starts in each one of us; no one will lead us but the reason and the power of love.

.