Images IV

Felicitaciones Alan! A few weeks ago my brother graduated as a professional photographer. The following photographs are not representative of all the ones he has taken nor of his 'magic' with the camera, or maybe they are, but they are pictures I especially like.

Como aclaración, Alan: de los CDs y DVDs que mandaste, tengo una carpeta con 310 fotos que especialmente me gustaron, asi que la selección de estas fotos en particular es meramente resultado de una selección rápida, arbitraria y carente de conocimientos técnicos fotográficos. Asi que, nuevamente, es probable que no hagan justicia a tu talento ;) (pero solo aclaro para que después no rompas las bolas)

Fotógrafo:
Alan Schamber
alanschamber@gmail.com

Think different

Powerful & Emotive & Inspiring.

Blog Action Day

Solidarizing myself with the Blog Action Day initiative, here goes a short note on environmental awareness.

To begin with, my general and incomplete definition of Man: Arrogant and intrusive animal that disposes of nature as it pleases, without caring to consider other animals with as much right as ours to live and enjoy nature as they please it.

Of course, this is in general. Is there anybody out there that actually does care about nature? I’m sure there is. In fact, I’m sure there are many. I would go even further and bet that the number of people that actually cares about the environment is by far much more than the number polluting it. But then, what’s the problem? Are we too comfortable with the way we live and too indifferent to actually do something about it? Is our ‘caring’ enough? Evidently, it isn’t.

The world is a very unequal place. In general, the people suffering the greatest and harshest consequences due to the destructive activity of man in nature are those living in the poorest regions of the world, those who depend on the generosity of nature to make use of its resources and be able to subsist, those who live in countries that do not have the necessary legislation, or don’t have the means to restrain industries from indiscriminately polluting the environment, and those in countries that are generally the ones that contaminate the least.

Those in the industrialized countries, on the other hand, are the ones that suffer the least. These countries enjoy advantageous geographic locations, they are the strongest, the richest, and the best equipped and prepared to face the effects of our meddling with the environment. For instance, let’s take the case of global warming: These rich countries are located in their majority in regions of medium latitude, with climates not too cold nor not too warm, and are much more prepared to face these changing global conditions than the most vulnerable and poorest countries near the equator, which suffer the most regardless of the fact that are the least contributors to the accumulation of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

The United States for instance, where agriculture represents only 4% of its economy, can endure a climate change problem with much more flexibility and easiness than, say, Malawi, where 90% of its population lives in rural areas, and 40% of its economy is based on agriculture...

All around the world there are examples that wealth enables some countries to better prepare against the gradual but constant destruction of nature, while poverty and geography condemns the most vulnerable regions of the world to suffer greater damages.

... and how unfair it is… these countries accumulated their wealth, at least in part, throughout a century of burning coal, oil, and other fossil fuels which are the base of their lifestyle and of their industries, and the resultant emissions are responsible for yet another preoccupation to deal with for the poorest countries.

Things that we can do:

* Use alternative sources of energy.
* Live in green houses.
* Illuminate cities with LEDs.
* Use Internet to pay the bills.
* Live near the workplace.
* Prefer public transportation rather than a car.
* And if you need a car, then buy a fuel-efficient one as small as possible according to your needs.
* Don’t use plastic bags.
* Just use your imagination and common sense, and you'll come up with other ways to help the planet, and ourselves...

Images III

I don't feel like writing anything this month... really tired, sleeping 3 hs per day, working at Comarch Inc., taking 6 courses, involved in a project... pretty insane... and it's just the beginning of the semester... so a few cool pictures will have to do the job this month.





[1] Comarch pic-nic. Pretty sweet picture.










[2] Americans don't know what a good barbecue is like... I miss Argentine cuisine!







[3] I will do this.











[4] Monkeys cuddling. Another sweet picture.




[5] And of course, the last pic is in honor to the already amazing performance of Los Pumas in the Rugby World Cup - France 2007.

Argentina 17 : 12 France
Rugby World Cup - France 2007

They play for themselves, they play for their team, they play for the pride and the love they have for the shirts on their backs, they play for their country, they play with courage, they play with their hearts, they make me cry... AGUANTE LOS PUMAS CARAJO!!

What if... ?

‘What if’ is a question often posed in the context of counterfactual history; what would have happened if some event would have turned out in a different way? There are countless of inconsequential questions that occupy the time of people that have nothing to do but to waste their time in cheap philosophical thoughts that lead to nowhere; these kinds of questions are good for nothing and just contribute to more idle and ignorant minds in a world already overwhelmed by them.

No doubt, It is oftentimes useful to analyze relevant ‘what if’ questions dealing with events that took place in some certain way, to study previous knowledge, to formulate hypothetical situations, to elucidate possible future events and their outcomes, and to apply any measures and corrections necessary to modify, improve, or make certain that a result will come up as desired.

However, the kinds of questions which I find completely unproductive are those ‘what if…’ questions that introduce hypothetical new factors when reconstructing historic events, making us follow vague train of thoughts to imagine the situations from radically different perspectives, speculate about the resulting consequences of those modified events, and start general, ambiguous, endless, and useless debates from which irrelevant conclusions are spitted out indiscriminately, remaining in the air for a few moments, and soon forgotten... For instance, I feel uneasy and find totally unproductive when people start debating historical events for the sake of cheap philosophizing, and say: what if this or that would have happened? how would the world be like? What if Jesus wouldn’t have been killed? What if Hitler would have won the war? What if Marx wouldn’t have been born? What if Newton wouldn’t have seen the apple fall? What if the father of capitalism, Adam Smith, would have been born in Marx’s country, Germany? What if Marx would have been born in Scotland? (I must admit these last two are pretty interesting to consider) What if…What if…

These events have already happened in a certain way, and their consequences have henceforth already taken place in history; why wonder about different hypothetical outcomes for events which have precise moments in history, precise and definite outcomes, and is therefore senseless analyzing them more than just accepting them as facts?

Not only are these purposeless questions limited to imagining modified historic events, but also there are many philosophical questions from which no rational definite answer could ever be obtained, and this weakness renders them of little practical significance, almost useless. For instance, what if a question that has distressed and entertained philosophers for centuries was solved? What if there’s actually no especial meaning in life? Why not to accept we don’t have predisposed lives and that we give our lives the meaning and purpose we want to? (Why don’t we just assume we are all animals and our life is as meaningful as that of an ant, if we were to place ourselves in the role it plays in its own simple and minuscule ‘society’?) (hehe we are not of that ‘little’ importance, but the analogy makes the point…here religion could come in, but I don’t want to get into that…) If there is only one truth, what is that truth? … What if there are only two truths, what are those two truths?? … What if there are three???…

I must admit it is fun from time to time to divagate in such inconsequential questions just for the sake of imagining the situations and letting our imagination flow freely across the immensity and abstraction of ideas, to try to deform already established facts and events, bend them in the air, remake them as desired, and with the pressure of our insistent and full of imagination thoughts, have a real deterministic effect on them. It is in fact amusing to believe that, for an instant at least, our powerful mind can actually change events determined by a chain of prior occurrences; however, I believe that even though it might be fun, these kinds of questions should not be seriously considered.

Having said this, here are a few ‘what if’ questions for you to think about, and if you have others, feel free to share them in the comments section :)

* What if America would not have been conquered by the Europeans, and the Mayans, Incas, and other Native American civilizations would have prevailed? How different would the present America be?

* What if in Africa there were the same proportion of psychologists and therapists per capita that currently exist in the US?
(Millions of children would not only have aids, but also ADD, ADHD, anxiety disorders, stress, autism, depression, etc., etc., etc. - There’s a subtle and very controversial view here. - )

* What if the most transcendental, used, and relied upon invention of humankind, time, would have never been conceived? For instance, what if the world, especially densely populated cities, would live one day without time i.e. no watches, no clocks, just the sun?

* What if powder would have never been invented?

* What if humans walked in four legs?

* What if some people were not so big?




* What if humans were not so stupid?









* What if another one of the best inventions of humankind, the toilette, would have never been invented?

* What if a tree fell and crushed George Bush in the forest? Would anyone care?

* What if we wouldn't need to sleep?


Serious neck injuries would be prevented hahaha! (Mi viejo. Un grande!)

* What if spaghettis and pizzas were not around? What would humanity be like?

* What if Jesus would have left any written legacy?

* What if Irak would have invaded the U.S.?

* What if in an experimental society the 7 capital sins Lust (Luxuria), Gluttony (Gula), Greed (Avaritia), Sloth (Acedia), Wrath (Ira), Envy (Invidia), Pride (Superbia) were not considered sins?

* What if people, instead of labeling this man a rebel/totatalitarian/communist, would know and understand what he fought for?

* What if I stopped writing my blog? :P

* What if…

Dependable dog walking service!

Here goes an anecdote… this took place in the months of December 2004 and January 2005. Back when I was in Buenos Aires, I would see how guys would take for a walk ten or more dogs at the same time, and I have never seen that in Chicago nor in the suburbs; so I wondered: why don’t I do the same thing here?

I commented this ‘bright’ idea of starting a dog walking service to two other friends, Victor and Edino, both living in Hinsdale, and we decided to push the idea forward. I designed the flyer, we printed a few hundred, and Edino, Kevin (my youngest brother), Alan (another brother - helped once… he was working somewhere else though), and I started distributing them house by house.

It was a pretty ambitious idea to go and distribute the flyer all around Hinsdale, but we were excited and with lots of energy, so not even the cold stopped us… I mean bitter cold… we couldn’t have chosen a better time to do this but during the winter, enthusiastically enjoying freezing temperatures, snow, wet shoes, and the lack of public restrooms… of course, hiding behind some not so visible tree would compensate for that…

We soon realized that our merchandising strategy was doing ok, as a few interested people started calling, but a major logistics problem arose! At first, we had just limited our services to give the dogs a walk, but that significantly narrowed our business opportunities… we were going from house to house distributing these flyers, but we did not have any convenient place where to take care of the dog if the owner would go out of town… Hinsdale is a wealthy area, and it turns out many decide to spend their weekends out of town and need someone to take care of their pet while they are away, so we decided to provide this service as well haha but where? I lived in an apartment, not in Hinsdale, and while Edino did live in Hinsdale, he lived in a very small house not appropriate to bring a dog and take care of it for a few days. We lost a few potential customers for that =P

A few other problems… there is no public transportation to get to Hinsdale except the Metra (which is pretty expensive), and we did not have a car available, so we had to depend on borrowing my father’s van not only to get to Hinsdale, but also to possibly go and pick up a dog. Very impractical… In addition, I was not confident with my English yet, so phone calls were received by Victor; he would take down the information, pass it to us, and we would be responsible for contacting the possible client, answer his questions, and try to explain and sell our services.

Well, due to different reasons, we ended up taking for a walk zero dogs =D Yep, a complete failure! But was it? In retrospective, every time we think about it we now laugh and ridicule ourselves… as in everything, we learnt from it valuable lessons, and even though it didn’t work, I, at least, do not regret having had done it… I would bet that in the future I’ll do something similar to this (perhaps the Schamber bros. working together :) ...), some entrepreneurial enterprise (but of a different nature), a more serious business endeavor, and we will analyze our possibilities much more carefully, study meticulously what others have already done before us, what others are already offering and how can we differentiate from them, what can we offer that will make us unique in the market (?), think about the possible risks, and always with the same huge determination, same perseverance, same strong spirit, as aggressive, competitive, active and hardworking, though with a little bit more intelligentce this time ;P …and I am sure it will turn out to be a complete success!

Note: Thanks Alan for the dog walker picture!
http://flickr.com/photos/alanschamber/

Images II

[1] Make an effort and zoom in the sign. Then, think that if it is for sale, it's because people are buying them.













[2] One of the best, if not the best, bands of all time.













[3] Buenos Aires! Of course I miss it =(







[4] This is art.












[5] Great picture!!

Las Malvinas son Argentinas

25 years have passed; I will not write about the history of the islands, nor about the unfair British occupation, nor about the war, nor about the memorable battles there fought, nor about the incompetent Argentine commanders, nor how they underestimated the British reaction to our attempt of recovering them, nor how Chile helped the British during the war, which by the way, it was partly justified for they were threatened by the Argentine military regime and our military superiority (during those years…), since all of this can be read in detail in more serious sources where you would get a much more complete account of what happened.

I will just limit myself to express my complete solidarity with the Argentine soldiers that fought in the conflict against an immensely superior enemy, a much better equipped professional army, but that regardless of their scarce and inappropriate equipment, and that even though many were sent to war without having finished their training, against their will, and with no other option but to fight, they fought with courage, with honor, with their heart, for what they believed theirs, ours, for our nation, for our territory, for their love for our country.

Las Malvinas are Argentine.

They will always be.

Xavier Renard - Qu'est-ce que je vais lui dire?

This is a song I have been looking for years, since High School (I know... as in the purple violin case) ... it's just that there is some music that flows into your ears while busy doing others things, and that it's so good that ends up stored in some part of your brain, and even if you have never listened to it before, you don't know who sings it, nor what is its name, it would occasionally resurge to your consciousness, just for you to look for it in the internet, or ask friends if they know it, but with no success.

I once listened to it in a French class at St. Michael's College, in Argentina, when Prof. Ana Ceroni brought it to us for a listening comprehension lesson, and the class ended up singing it altogether.

It's unfortunate that there are such great songs out there that are so little known, while other crap in the radio is diffused day and night and we get sick and tired of listening to it. I've even shared it with a few French friends and they have never heard of it, so in order to spread the word about it, here it is.

02 Qu'est-ce que je vais lui dire-
Audio
Envoyé par Pil sur wat.tv

Purple Electric Violin

About ten years ago I listened to this person playing his purple violin and I never forgot that peculiar and rich sound. I didn't know his name, and from time to time I would look for him in the web, though I was never lucky. Today, while looking for something else - why doesn't it surprise me?? -, I found it.

This video stimulates my imagination, its the kind of music that makes you dream away and take you to beautiful and peaceful places where you have never been before.

How awesome it would be to have this kind of deep and culturally enhancing street performances everywhere!

Trip of a lifetime

Inspired by the movie ‘Motorcycle Diaries’, this is a trip I am planning to do some time in the coming years. The idea is this: I would start in the north of South America, go along the east of the continent, the Atlantic side, all the way south to Buenos Aires, Argentina. Once I get there, I would rest for a few days, maybe weeks, and then continue the journey to La Patagonia, cross the Andes to Chile, and start moving north by the Pacific side.

Too crazy?!… well, perhaps… these kinds of trips have to be done while still young, so this is my plan… I will graduate in about two years, find a job and work for about 3 years to pay back the money spent in college; I would probably work one more year to save money for this trip, some money to go back to graduate school, and some as back up… once I have paid back the college money and with still little to no financial responsibilities (hopefully), then I would be ready for the trip, at around 28 years old, which is still pretty young ;)

How would I do it? Well, I have no idea yet… would it be by bike, hitchhiking, by bus, a combination of the three? Don’t know… but I have plenty of time to think about it. Naturally, no itineraries… it would probably take more time than the expected anyway… in fact, it’s kind of impossible to develop a timetable specifying when I would arrive at each place…. but this is the BEAUTY of the trip… you don’t really know what to expect, what the road will present you with, and you can’t really imagine all the countless situations you might encounter.

Why do I want to do such a trip? Considering the fact that I am breaking my butt studying, studying, and studying all these years, I am entitled to having a ‘little’ vacation and some fun… =P … but also, I don’t like going to a place on vacations, staying comfortably in a hotel, enjoying it’s good food, it’s piscine, going to the downtown area and buying at its expensive stores, etc… that’s very superficial… In my view, it is much more preferable going to those ‘different’ places where one can appreciate directly its culture, the place, learn from it, and let others share their traditions and lifestyles with you.

It is also very eye-opening as one is directly exposed to the conditions and characteristics of the places visited. I’m sure I’ll find poverty along the way, and getting familiar with these places at a young age will definitely help in the future if I have the means and time to do something and help, probably in that place that would impress me the most. I am convinced the knowledge and experience gained in such a trip would be essential in objectively and ‘precisely’ determining what the real needs of the people living in some rural village of Latin America are.

I want something different, something most people don’t even think about, and those that do, dream about but end up never doing; a direct consequence of the structured, narrow-minded, boring lifestyles that society, in general, imposes to us. Some have told me that once I start working I will like the money and I will not want to stop working and go back to school, nor to quit the job to do such a trip… well, it takes determination to do it… it would probably be hard to find a job after 6 months of being inactive, but the idea is that after the trip I would go to graduate school, so after finishing a graduate program it’s much easier to find a job directly through the connection that companies and the university already have.

I am writing this part of the post not precisely for others to read, but for myself to read as many times I think necessary so that I will not make the same mistakes others have done. I will repeat the phrase I have already posted on July 30, 2006:

“The intelligent person learns from his own experience
The wise learns from that of the others
The fool never learns.”

Many friends whom I respect also had plans in their youth, but once they started working, for some reason or another (they begun getting raises, having more responsibilities at work, had children, etc.), their projects and ideas faded away, and they could only accomplish some of their goals they had set in their youth. Learning from their experience, I will not make the same mistakes. Some of these projects can only be done when still young. Money can wait. Respect in the job environment can wait. Promotions can wait. Life and time don't, they just pass by. As John Lennon said, “life is what happens while we are busy making other plans”. I will live my life wisely, open-minded, flexible to any situations that might present, and enjoy every moment of it.

If an employer happens to someday read my blog, he / she will have to understand that if they appreciate me, or my capacity, and if I like the job, then I will probably want to continue working for them after going to graduate school. They will also understand that this kind of trip can only be done while still young, and that I will not allow myself to miss this opportunity, not for money, not for a job, not for recognition, nor for promotion. I can always have this a little later in life.

This is the way I think, at 22, would be the wisest way of spending the coming years of my life. I thank God for the opportunities that I have, I thank my parents for their support, and if no unexpected problems arise in the coming future, this is a trip of a lifetime, something I would never regret having done, worth the effort and time spent on it.