It is been almost a month since I thought to write about the topic the whole World is talking about. I thought to write about what was going on and how it was developing. However I quickly realized this was something different to other recent crisis and I started to see how people, normal people, respond and behave to it. And this catched me.
I consider myself a curious and analytic person. Someone who prefer to listen rather than talk and I was amazed (still I am) about all of this so I was listening, reading, watching what people was saying and how goverments have reacted to control and fight this.
The title of this post is inspired by the film The Day the Earth Stood Still. A sci-fi classic which also happens to be a cult movie and one of the best of its kind (I totally recomend to watch it). The quote is taken from the same film and I believe it sumarizes very well what I saw in the last weeks while SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) spread thought the whole World becoming a pandemic.
And it is true that fear and panic are the real enemy in crisis like this. They drive people’s decitions to be irrational and people’s acts to be the wrong ones. This is one of the things I am seeing in many people (as individuals) and countries (as comunity).
Individuals
Things look very different when happens far away from our comfort zone. Western countries were almost convince that the epidemic in China would be contained and erradicated there; one more asian epidimic similar to the ones at the begining of this milenia like the first SARS or MERS. But the truth is that it quickly developed to a mass spread; so quickly that we barely realized.
People then get shocked when they feel the danger is knoking the door, their security gets compromised and their leaders don’t do anything to protected them. In this scenario, it is natural to feel fear leading to panic. And panic in a society makes people to be selfish, think on their own safety and survival. In essence, panic leads to the end of society. And we can see this when people start to do panic buying of essentials and food; even though this is irrational (suplies will still going through), people do it believing this is the right and safest thing to do.
Dis-information and fake news dramatically contributed to this scenario. In an era where we are all connected and the information is spreading even faster than a virus, false information can step in and influence people when they are more vulnerable.
Then comes the enforced measures needed to stop a pandemic like this. Those measures goes against the “engine” of a society which is social interaction; social contact, and this is something we are not used to. In some countries where this social isolation is enforced, I saw something similar to the Kübler-Ross stages of grief in people: first days of denial about what really is happening, then resignation and finally acceptance that these measures are key to stop the virus spread.
As today when I am writing this post, looks like most countries are struggling between resignation and acceptance. And seems the worst is yet to come within weeks or few months, so a big uncertenty is uppon us yet are we are still “learning”. But there is something we all need to have it clear: this will end, and sooner if we are smart.
Communities
During the pandemic I have seen different aproaches to tackle and fight the spreading in many countries. Funny enough only one seems to be working (at least up to this moment) but not all the countries seems to follow it. Why is that? Sadly the answer is the usual suspect: politics. In some countries seems that secure a re-election, the need to remain in the power and destroy the opposition come before anything else; even health. I know it is unbeleable (I still don’t believe it while I am writing), but it is true. These governments have reacted in a wrong way even knowing it (!!) and when the things got worst, they had not other choice than change the approach to the only one that is working…
In crisis is when you can see the real face of people and real intentions of leaders and governments. If there is something good from all of this, I believe it is that we have seen the real face of a lot of people, institutions, companies and governments. And when all of this ends (and it will) I hope we will not forget and make whaever is neccesary to change.
An underlying problem is developing along with the pandemic, and it is an accute global recession. To be honest, at the beginning I thought I would see more news talking about economy and more measures would be taken around it. I think we are living in a financial system that is highly unsustainable and in a society totally driven by rotten money, so I though governments would be reacting to economy first. Luckly seems it is not the case (at least one good thing) and health is being considered first as it should be.
Clearly 2020 will be a year to be remembered forever by our generation. Trully the World stays still. This is one crisis that have not been something similar since World War II where we are all being tested; as individuals, as society and as leaders. We are leading to an unprecedented uncertainty not knowing how we will be in just a couple of months. But there is something sure: we will overcome this together and this is the right time to really CHANGE the things that are not working. Be better, smarter, cautious with the environment and restructure the society to prioritize the health sector and science research over others.
https://www.eretit.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Virus-scaled.jpg10001500SumotaYhttps://www.eretit.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Logo_wd.pngSumotaY2020-03-22 01:43:432020-03-22 01:43:43When the World stood still
Extrañamente habitual, he vuelto a revisar los libros de arte antiguos con obras extrañas. Arte de grandes autores de todos los tiempos como el gran Goya. Ya el año pasado me referí a él sobre una de sus obras muy poco populares y que me impactó someramente.
Y es que no hay nadie como Goya para reflejar la angustia del hombre frente a su destino. Esos hilos de la vida que en cualquier momento nos puede dirigir a un camino u otro y que no sabemos si somos dueños al 100% de esa decisión.
Revisando las Pinturas Negras de Goya me fijé especialmente en una de ellas. Como ya había mencionado anteriormente, siempre que me sumerjo en estas obras descubro nuevas cosas. Matices que de primeras pasan desapercibidos pero que al re-descubrir esas obras, me ofrecen nuevos puntos de vista y significados conectando con otras áreas de nuestro ser.
Las Parcas o El Destino es una de las obras que formaron parte de la decoración de los muros de las casa de Goya, la Quinta del Sordo. Se trata de las Moiras o las Parcas que eran, según la mitología griega, tres hermanas que en el momento del nacimiento de la persona decidían cuál iba a ser su destino, así como cuándo y cómo moriría la persona.
Cloto era la más joven de las tres. Con su rueca ovillaba los hilos de la vida. Láquesis era quien decidía el largo de la hebra de esa vida humana; es decir, cuánto iba a vivir. Y Átropos era la más terrorífica de todas. Con sus temidas tijeras cortaba el filamento de la vida; decidía el momento de la muerte. Por tanto, lo habitual en la historia del arte era representar a las tres hermanas hilando, cada una a su tarea concreta: una con las tijeras, otra con la rueca y otra midiendo el hilo.
En primer plano, un hombre maniatado, quizás esperando que las Parcas que hay tras él decidan si acaban o no con su vida. La obra puede verse en el Museo del Prado.
Es un tema terrorífico y aterrador que estaba unido a la idea de que a cada ser humano se nos escribía un destino incluso antes de nacer, y sin posibilidad de escapar de él. Ese hado ineludible incluía cuándo y cómo íbamos a morir, momento en el cual entraban en juego las temidas Parcas.
Magistralmente Goya nos expone la eterna pregunta sobre el Destino. Como las demás Pinturas Negras, el misterio, la falta de color y la máxima expresión reducida al mínimo nos impacta directamente con un solo vistazo esa angustia de saber cual será nuestro destino en el mundo.
Y es que la cuestión sigue latente: ¿tenemos un destino ya escrito para cada uno de nosotros o somos nosotros los autores del mismo? los antiguos ya filosofaban sobre lo mismo y lo tenían claro.
“El destino baraja las cartas, nosotros las jugamos”
https://www.eretit.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Atropos_o_Las_Parcas-scaled.jpg7211500SumotaYhttps://www.eretit.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Logo_wd.pngSumotaY2020-01-05 03:19:112020-01-05 03:19:11Las Parcas al acecho de Goya
It is that time of the year when some of us think on all the things that happened this year and make our personal review. In my opinion, it is a very healthy and enriching exercise that I strongly recommend everyone to do. I have been doing this for many years now and this year I though to share it.
I will try to go through some of the hightlights of the year but focused in my persona and the things that were somehow important for me.
I will start with the topic that most influenced me this year: the 50th anniversary of the first man walking on the Moon. I was really commited to give my small contribution to celebrate this huge and transcendental moment in our history. By doing this, I have learnt even more about how this feat was done with movies, documentaries and books. And I am even more convinced that it was the pinnacle of human endeavour for a single goal to push further our bounderies. Truely this made me realize how good we can do as species, how much technological potential we have now and how much to learn we have yet about our very near universe.
This year also I was shocked by events to the opposite side. Horrible things that really shakes our morality and shows how evil we can be. We are all playing the macabre lottery just by living on this society and sadly some people get the winning ticket. This things must show us what really matters in life and how we must protect it above any other thing.
And going down to things more personal, this year I managed to push further my creativity. If last year it was the creation of this blog, this year I started to experiment creating my own music with a synthesizer keyboard. It showed me new ways to express myself through music and opened a window to many ideas that I have in my mind. Soon I will have a couple of new creations to share but the two bellow opened the path.
On the professional side, this year has been a busy one specially towards the end. But busy means we have done important and complex things which is always good. Of course there are ups and downs like in every place but in general I am happy with what I had done and with what I have learnt this year.
To finish, I would like to mention about the books that more have impacted me this year.
Life 3.0: Being human in the age of Artificial Intelligence from Max Tegmark, a Swedish-American physicist and cosmologist from the MIT and co-founder of the Future of Life Institute, a nonprofit organization backed by big names such Elon Musk or Stephen Hawking, and whose work has helped mainstream research on how to keep AI beneficial. The book talks about AI today and the paths it is taking for the future; all from a technology perspective.
The NASA Archives: 60 years in space. A collectors book built in very high quality by Taschen. It tells you the details of all NASA’s history since its creation until today accompanied with new high definition pictures. Very recommened if you are interested on space exploration.
https://www.eretit.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/scrabble-resolutions-3237.jpg8531280SumotaYhttps://www.eretit.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Logo_wd.pngSumotaY2019-12-17 19:40:392019-12-17 19:40:39A year in words
When the World stood still
It is been almost a month since I thought to write about the topic the whole World is talking about. I thought to write about what was going on and how it was developing. However I quickly realized this was something different to other recent crisis and I started to see how people, normal people, respond and behave to it. And this catched me.
I consider myself a curious and analytic person. Someone who prefer to listen rather than talk and I was amazed (still I am) about all of this so I was listening, reading, watching what people was saying and how goverments have reacted to control and fight this.
The title of this post is inspired by the film The Day the Earth Stood Still. A sci-fi classic which also happens to be a cult movie and one of the best of its kind (I totally recomend to watch it). The quote is taken from the same film and I believe it sumarizes very well what I saw in the last weeks while SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) spread thought the whole World becoming a pandemic.
And it is true that fear and panic are the real enemy in crisis like this. They drive people’s decitions to be irrational and people’s acts to be the wrong ones. This is one of the things I am seeing in many people (as individuals) and countries (as comunity).
Individuals
Things look very different when happens far away from our comfort zone. Western countries were almost convince that the epidemic in China would be contained and erradicated there; one more asian epidimic similar to the ones at the begining of this milenia like the first SARS or MERS. But the truth is that it quickly developed to a mass spread; so quickly that we barely realized.
People then get shocked when they feel the danger is knoking the door, their security gets compromised and their leaders don’t do anything to protected them. In this scenario, it is natural to feel fear leading to panic. And panic in a society makes people to be selfish, think on their own safety and survival. In essence, panic leads to the end of society. And we can see this when people start to do panic buying of essentials and food; even though this is irrational (suplies will still going through), people do it believing this is the right and safest thing to do.
Dis-information and fake news dramatically contributed to this scenario. In an era where we are all connected and the information is spreading even faster than a virus, false information can step in and influence people when they are more vulnerable.
Then comes the enforced measures needed to stop a pandemic like this. Those measures goes against the “engine” of a society which is social interaction; social contact, and this is something we are not used to. In some countries where this social isolation is enforced, I saw something similar to the Kübler-Ross stages of grief in people: first days of denial about what really is happening, then resignation and finally acceptance that these measures are key to stop the virus spread.
As today when I am writing this post, looks like most countries are struggling between resignation and acceptance. And seems the worst is yet to come within weeks or few months, so a big uncertenty is uppon us yet are we are still “learning”. But there is something we all need to have it clear: this will end, and sooner if we are smart.
Communities
During the pandemic I have seen different aproaches to tackle and fight the spreading in many countries. Funny enough only one seems to be working (at least up to this moment) but not all the countries seems to follow it. Why is that? Sadly the answer is the usual suspect: politics. In some countries seems that secure a re-election, the need to remain in the power and destroy the opposition come before anything else; even health. I know it is unbeleable (I still don’t believe it while I am writing), but it is true. These governments have reacted in a wrong way even knowing it (!!) and when the things got worst, they had not other choice than change the approach to the only one that is working…
In crisis is when you can see the real face of people and real intentions of leaders and governments. If there is something good from all of this, I believe it is that we have seen the real face of a lot of people, institutions, companies and governments. And when all of this ends (and it will) I hope we will not forget and make whaever is neccesary to change.
An underlying problem is developing along with the pandemic, and it is an accute global recession. To be honest, at the beginning I thought I would see more news talking about economy and more measures would be taken around it. I think we are living in a financial system that is highly unsustainable and in a society totally driven by rotten money, so I though governments would be reacting to economy first. Luckly seems it is not the case (at least one good thing) and health is being considered first as it should be.
Clearly 2020 will be a year to be remembered forever by our generation. Trully the World stays still. This is one crisis that have not been something similar since World War II where we are all being tested; as individuals, as society and as leaders. We are leading to an unprecedented uncertainty not knowing how we will be in just a couple of months. But there is something sure: we will overcome this together and this is the right time to really CHANGE the things that are not working. Be better, smarter, cautious with the environment and restructure the society to prioritize the health sector and science research over others.
Las Parcas al acecho de Goya
Extrañamente habitual, he vuelto a revisar los libros de arte antiguos con obras extrañas. Arte de grandes autores de todos los tiempos como el gran Goya. Ya el año pasado me referí a él sobre una de sus obras muy poco populares y que me impactó someramente.
Y es que no hay nadie como Goya para reflejar la angustia del hombre frente a su destino. Esos hilos de la vida que en cualquier momento nos puede dirigir a un camino u otro y que no sabemos si somos dueños al 100% de esa decisión.
Revisando las Pinturas Negras de Goya me fijé especialmente en una de ellas. Como ya había mencionado anteriormente, siempre que me sumerjo en estas obras descubro nuevas cosas. Matices que de primeras pasan desapercibidos pero que al re-descubrir esas obras, me ofrecen nuevos puntos de vista y significados conectando con otras áreas de nuestro ser.
Las Parcas o El Destino es una de las obras que formaron parte de la decoración de los muros de las casa de Goya, la Quinta del Sordo. Se trata de las Moiras o las Parcas que eran, según la mitología griega, tres hermanas que en el momento del nacimiento de la persona decidían cuál iba a ser su destino, así como cuándo y cómo moriría la persona.
Cloto era la más joven de las tres. Con su rueca ovillaba los hilos de la vida. Láquesis era quien decidía el largo de la hebra de esa vida humana; es decir, cuánto iba a vivir. Y Átropos era la más terrorífica de todas. Con sus temidas tijeras cortaba el filamento de la vida; decidía el momento de la muerte. Por tanto, lo habitual en la historia del arte era representar a las tres hermanas hilando, cada una a su tarea concreta: una con las tijeras, otra con la rueca y otra midiendo el hilo.
La obra puede verse en el Museo del Prado.
Es un tema terrorífico y aterrador que estaba unido a la idea de que a cada ser humano se nos escribía un destino incluso antes de nacer, y sin posibilidad de escapar de él. Ese hado ineludible incluía cuándo y cómo íbamos a morir, momento en el cual entraban en juego las temidas Parcas.
Magistralmente Goya nos expone la eterna pregunta sobre el Destino. Como las demás Pinturas Negras, el misterio, la falta de color y la máxima expresión reducida al mínimo nos impacta directamente con un solo vistazo esa angustia de saber cual será nuestro destino en el mundo.
Y es que la cuestión sigue latente: ¿tenemos un destino ya escrito para cada uno de nosotros o somos nosotros los autores del mismo? los antiguos ya filosofaban sobre lo mismo y lo tenían claro.
“El destino baraja las cartas, nosotros las jugamos”
A year in words
It is that time of the year when some of us think on all the things that happened this year and make our personal review. In my opinion, it is a very healthy and enriching exercise that I strongly recommend everyone to do. I have been doing this for many years now and this year I though to share it.
I will try to go through some of the hightlights of the year but focused in my persona and the things that were somehow important for me.
I will start with the topic that most influenced me this year: the 50th anniversary of the first man walking on the Moon. I was really commited to give my small contribution to celebrate this huge and transcendental moment in our history. By doing this, I have learnt even more about how this feat was done with movies, documentaries and books. And I am even more convinced that it was the pinnacle of human endeavour for a single goal to push further our bounderies. Truely this made me realize how good we can do as species, how much technological potential we have now and how much to learn we have yet about our very near universe.
This year also I was shocked by events to the opposite side. Horrible things that really shakes our morality and shows how evil we can be. We are all playing the macabre lottery just by living on this society and sadly some people get the winning ticket. This things must show us what really matters in life and how we must protect it above any other thing.
And going down to things more personal, this year I managed to push further my creativity. If last year it was the creation of this blog, this year I started to experiment creating my own music with a synthesizer keyboard. It showed me new ways to express myself through music and opened a window to many ideas that I have in my mind. Soon I will have a couple of new creations to share but the two bellow opened the path.
On the professional side, this year has been a busy one specially towards the end. But busy means we have done important and complex things which is always good. Of course there are ups and downs like in every place but in general I am happy with what I had done and with what I have learnt this year.
To finish, I would like to mention about the books that more have impacted me this year.
Life 3.0: Being human in the age of Artificial Intelligence from Max Tegmark, a Swedish-American physicist and cosmologist from the MIT and co-founder of the Future of Life Institute, a nonprofit organization backed by big names such Elon Musk or Stephen Hawking, and whose work has helped mainstream research on how to keep AI beneficial. The book talks about AI today and the paths it is taking for the future; all from a technology perspective.
The NASA Archives: 60 years in space. A collectors book built in very high quality by Taschen. It tells you the details of all NASA’s history since its creation until today accompanied with new high definition pictures. Very recommened if you are interested on space exploration.