i can't quite put my finger on it, but there is some sort of special air about those people who have touched me, really touched me, inside.

no matter who i end up being...no matter where i end up being it...it's like those people stay still in time. even if they have also evolved into someone else, even if age has taken notice in their smiles...they are the same to me. they still belong.

he is one of those people. he belongs to me, even if he never will. he won't. i know it, he knows it. and that's okay, it's okay because of that link that will keep us attached to each other for life. no matter what. we belong to each other, like all those special ones belong to me. they're mine.

tomorrow 14.01.08 at 14 hours, álvaro colom will officially be guatemala's president. and if all goes well, he will remain so for the next 4 years.

politics are hard to understand. they're not always about reason, nor should they be, but there is one thing i know for sure: information is a key to good governance. i hope this will be a transparent government that will bring progress and solutions to at least some of the most urgent problems that guatemalans face today.

i too, believe in the audacity of hope. it wouldn't be smart nor would it be realistic to compare álvaro colom to barak obama, but they both call to change and hope.

there are a lot of reasons why colom shouldn't be trusted. but then again, that could be said about most politicians. i don't want to make excuses for him or his known or unknown actions, but at the same time, you can't believe everything you hear. there's too much corruption and black campaigning.

i prefer to think that colom and his team will bring good things to this country. i want to believe that the next four years of government will result in progress and development for guatemala. and i also hope that, for the sake of all guatemalans, we will manage develop a more vibrant civil society that will stop waiting for the government to bring solutions to all the problems and start acting by itself, motivating the government to improve its performance at the same time.

to achieve that, guatemala needs a transparent government to provide a healthy environment that allows and calls people to participate, dialogue and cooperate.

i hope this is when it will happen. i would say it's about time...

"i don't know what he's so afraid of" "death is another stage of life, just like childhood, adolescence or motherhood..."

those were the words of a heartbroken woman trying to convince herself that the grave health condition of the love of her life was something she should accept humbly.

the man she was crying for is a man a lot of people will cry for. he's a wonderful person. i too hate to see him go through this. he loves life and doesn't want to let go. i, myself, wish he wouldn't but i can't deny that it might just be time to. he's suffering and by the looks of things he won't be able to recover. he's had an amazing life: seriously, someone could write a best-selling book about it.

it's so hard, every time, to accept it. death. but that isn't really any one's prerogative, is it?

well. you have to accept it. there is no other choice. and you can always keep your memories and learnings. nothing and no one can take that from you. i've learned and received so much from quique. he will always exist in my heart, no matter when his time comes.

i got "the book thief" as a gift. as i started reading it i realized how original the author was in the way he told the story of a german girl during world war II. it's a long book, but at the end you find yourself completely into the story, and for a second, you feel like you understand how human beings are so imperfect that they actually make sense and how tragic and beautiful the human behavior is, all at the same time. needless to say, i really liked it.

i have a new blog. i don't want to stop writing in this one, but i just can't help being annoyed by the fact that people that don't belong to the twoday.net community aren't aloud to comment on it.

i will still be here. just not as much.

CORRECTION, IT WAS MY MISTAKE

timanfaya was nice enough to explain to me how letting people comment on my blog was my choice, thank you!!! now everyone is allowed to comment, which is great!

also, timanfaya: since you obviously know much more than me about twoday.net, do you know how i could get more space? i have too many pictures i guess, and i can't upload any anymore. if there isn't a way to expand my space, then i'll just erase my galleries which aren't important really.

thanks so much!!!

xoxo

rocio

my dog is crazy

Hoy fue un buen día para nosotros: la Ley de Adopciones fue aprobada en el Congreso, por unanimidad (aunque hubo diputados ausentes).
Afortunadamente, después de años y años, las adopciones de niños y niñas guatemaltecas van a dejar de ser un negocio. Finalmente, los niños y niñas guatemaltecas en las casas hogar del Estado que esperan y esperan ser adoptados van a dejar de esperar. La Ley de Adopciones elimina la segunda vía de adopciones en Guatemala (prácticamente la única vía utilizada hasta ahora), es decir, la tramitación notarial.
Y es que no pocos abogados guatemaltecos convirtieron las adopciones en un gran negocio, lo que representaba un verdadero problema, pues los niños y niñas adoptados a través de ellos no eran los niños y niñas en orfanatos públicos, sino niños y niñas de origen incierto, comprados en ocasiones, y obtenidos de quién sabe qué otra manera.
Me imagino que se espera, a través de esta ley, tener un mayor control del origen y de la legalidad de las adopciones y, al mismo tiempo, prevenir y evitar el robo o compra de bebés, no poco común entre la población más necesitada (y vulnerable, claro) de Guatemala.
Que esta ley haya sido aprobada es muy bueno para Guatemala, pero espero que no sólo represente la eliminación del "negocio de las adopciones" en el país, sino que también conlleve la agilización y mayor eficiencia de las adopciones a través del Estado. Porque sino, lo único que provocará es una disminución en el número de adopciones, y eso no es lo que se busca, pues Guatemala cuenta con muchos niños y niñas necesitados de familias que los deseen y que tengan la capacidad de ofrecerles una buena vida. Eso no es ningún secreto. Sin embargo, las oportunidades de una mejor vida deben de obtenerlas de la manera correcta. Eso no debe de ser cuestionado.

La otra razón por la que este fue un muy buen día para Guatemala, es porque hoy estuvo acá Mohammed Yunus, promoviendo el programa de microcréditos para combatir la pobreza. Los "bancos de los pobres" promovidos por M. Yunus han dado grandes resultados en varios países en desarrollo, y me parece que podrían funcionar aquí también. En los últimos años un banco nacional llamado "Banrural" ha crecido increíblemente. Su clave: accesibilidad. A diferencia del resto de los bancos en Guatemala, cuenta con agencias en lugares considerablemente aislados, siendo accesible a la mayor parte de la población. El crecimiento de este banco es un factor que posibilita el programa de microcréditos en Guatemala. El problema con el momento de la visita de M. Yunus al país es que estamos a punto de cambiar de gobierno. Espero, de cualquier manera, que la genialidad de este Premio Nobel de la Paz se mantenga en las cabezas de todos los guatemaltecos y guatemaltecas, y que nos encarguemos de recordárselo al próximo gobierno, si fuese necesario.

Buenas noches.

Los guatemaltecos y guatemaltecas decidimos, en la primera vuelta electoral, que los dos candidatos más adecuados para la presidencia de nuestro país en el período 2008-2012 eran Álvaro Colom y Otto Pérez Molina. Resulta, de cualquier manera, curioso. El momento de la decisión final se acerca, y lo que se percibe es una indecisión generalizada. Me pregunto, como tantas veces, ¿cómo llegamos acá?

En mi picasa web album 2a vuelta electoral 2007:un callejón sin salida incluyo unas fotos que tomé en la URL, Facultad de Ciencias Políticas y Sociales. Las fotos deberían de reflejar lo que opinan futuros politólogos e internacionalistas.

Los comentarios no son sólo reflejo de una juventud desesperanzada que hace chiste de su propia realidad para evadirla, sino que también ponen en evidencia una sociedad racista, homofóbica y resignada.

Racista, en cuanto a su mención del partido de Rigoberta Menchú, Encuentro por Guatemala. El dibujo de una mujer rodeada de vegetales y con una canasta en la cabeza no es exactamente fiel a la imagen real Premio Nobel de La Paz.

Homofóbica en cuanto al comentario que se hace de aquellos que voten por la UNE.

Resignada en cuanto a la ironía y naturaleza de los comentarios en general. No son precisamente constructivos ni razonados.

La verdad es que nadie sabe lo que le espera a Guatemala para los próximos cuatro años. Una cosa es segura: es responsabilidad de todos y todas.

History seems to be trying to say something, only...those who can hear it won't listen and the rest of us are just helpless. I don't mean to be pessimistic, but it seems like Thomas Hobbes was right after all.

I've been thinking and seeing Guatemala through history lenses. And what I fear might be the truth beneath it all might apply to all societies through out human history. This is not a good thing.

It would seem like we've progressed (human kind). It would seem like we've changed. And then there's that famous quote "those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it". And there are soooooo many history books and essays and articles and testimonies and movies and web pages and and and...so many ways to learn and understand history. So many people have tried to...sooo many. But still: history continues to repeat itself. So I guess we haven't been "able to learn it".

I'm going to use Marx's historical-perspective not because I agree with his political views but because I think that most people would agree that he did a great job at analyzing human history: let's say there was primitive Communism (???), and then slavery, feudalism and capitalism. I find it clear that these are three different systems, but I worry that they have the same essence.

I just read a book by Juan José Arévalo. It's called "The Shark and the Sardines". I realize that it is ideologicalized (what isn't???) but it's still a very strong book. Tough, because it states something that I must admit to believe. The world is ran by a small number of hyper-powerful people/families. This is the essence of history: concentration of power, only it is so concentrated now that it makes it hard to believe anything can change. Robert Michels said: "all forms of organization, regardless of how democratic or autocratic they may be at the start, will eventually and inevitably develop into oligarchies. The reasons for this are the technical indispensability of leadership, the tendency of the leaders to organize themselves and to consolidate their interests; the gratitude of the led towards the leaders, and the general immobility and passivity of the masses"... and of course, the human nature, which hasn't proven to be all that great, in general. But then again there's always this amazing people who change the world by love, like Mother Theresa, Mahatma Ghandi or Nelson Mandela. But have they REALLY changed the world, or just filled up our empty hope-tanks?

I feel so helpless. I don't have enough power to know the truth about anything that goes on in the world today. I have to settle for what the newspapers want me to believe. And it's frustrating to think that it isn't "the system" but ourselves, our human nature, to blame for the world's reality. Can this be true??? I won't ever lose hope, but I wish I could know how high I should set it. What world is really possible??? I know we can do much better. But how??? What can I DO???

P.S. I'm not in this mood just out of the blues: this week I read a lot on Guatemala's twentieth century history, went to a forum today on the 36 year-long Guatemalan internal conflict and saw an interesting movie I recommend: "Un mundo maravilloso", directed by Luis Estrada. Of course, the movie is a bit exaggerated, but it certainly has a point.

I have to go to sleep. Good night.