The following information is used for educational purposes only.
EDITORIALES | ELECCIONES 2019
31 de Agosto de 2019
Thelma y Louise, en la Argentina
No hay margen para saltar al vacío; es necesario un programa de gobierno que mejore expectativas, calme los mercados y respete la dignidad de las personas
Thelma: -Oíme, Louise, no nos dejemos agarrar.
Louise: -¿Qué querés decir?
Thelma: -¡Que sigamos adelante!
Louise: -¿Pero qué decís?
Thelma, señalando el Cañón del Colorado: -¡Allí vamos!
Louise: -¿Estás segura?
Thelma: -¡Sí!
Desde hace décadas, la Argentina arrastra problemas que es incapaz de resolver: el exceso de gasto público, la presión fiscal, las prebendas políticas, los privilegios sectoriales, la corrupción regulatoria, la falta de competitividad, el costo insoportable del trabajo regular, la economía informal, el desempleo y la exclusión de los marginados. El eslabón final de esa acumulación de patologías es la falta de moneda, madre de todos los vicios: ausencia de ahorro, ausencia de crédito, ausencia de empleo, ausencia de equidad y entronización del dólar. Podrá decirse que es la falta de educación, pero, sin presupuesto, no hay quien enseñe.
El presidente Mauricio Macri, con la mejor buena voluntad y con los límites fijados por la oposición, pretendió superar esos dilemas de antaño, agravados por el kirchnerismo, con un gradualismo que terminó en crisis. No fue por "estar lejos del pueblo", ni por falta de diálogo, sino por haber intentado sortearlos con financiación externa y un despliegue excepcional de obras públicas que no recompusieron la monetización ni el crédito abundante.
Tampoco la oposición victoriosa en las PASO aclara cómo logrará volver a la cultura del trabajo, impulsar proyectos productivos, favorecer a las pymes, fomentar la inversión, erradicar la especulación y aumentar las exportaciones, sin antes recrear la moneda.
Como dos hermanos siameses, Gobierno y oposición comparten, en forma involuntaria, el destino de los argentinos hasta fin de año. Como en aquel film de 1991, cuando Thelma y Louise mantenían el diálogo que encabeza esta columna editorial. Aunque se espera de nuestros candidatos un final feliz y no el salto al vacío en el Thunderbird 1966 con toda la población adentro. Es indispensable que evitemos el acantilado e ingresemos en 2020 con relativa estabilidad económica y paz social, ya sea Macri reelegido, ya sea reemplazado por Alberto Fernández.
Las chicanas no mejorarán las ventajas de uno u otro en la liza eleccionaria, sino que crearán un contexto de descontrol, en perjuicio de todos.
Ambos contendientes evitan referirse al tema más importante para disipar nubarrones y despejar el horizonte: la salud de la moneda nacional. No se puede construir ningún modelo productivo si no existe ahorro por ausencia de moneda. Pero ello exige hablar de confianza, tema tabú para la política pues, durante la pugna electoral, promesas y guiños valen por igual. Y quien dice la verdad pierde.
Confianza en la moneda significa la certeza de que no habrá golpes devaluatorios, ni shocks inflacionarios, ni corralitos, ni corralones, ni ahorros forzosos, ni alteración de contratos, ni congelamientos, ni excepciones, ni estados de emergencia, ni "por única vez", ni por primera, ni por última. Tampoco ajustes insostenibles, con tasas de interés demoledoras, que presagien estallidos posteriores. Habrá confianza cuando se celebren contratos en pesos, sin cláusulas absurdas para prever lo impredecible. Cuando las casas y los autos se vendan en pesos; cuando puedan hacerse depósitos en pesos sin dormir con sobresaltos. O cuando el Gobierno pueda colocar títulos en un mercado local estable y profundo.
Desconfianza implica percibir desajustes fiscales, tensiones cambiarias, distorsiones productivas, corrupción endógena, endeblez institucional, manipulación judicial, falsedad estadística, arbitrariedad administrativa u otros desarreglos que debilitan los contratos, carcomen el derecho de propiedad y reemplazan el largo plazo por la influencia política y el oportunismo especulativo. Sin horizonte de certezas, no hay posibilidad de regresar al peso. Solo el trueque bolivariano, el racionamiento cubano o el saqueo a supermercados.
Como puede advertirse, para superar esta crisis es indispensable enfrentarla en todas sus dimensiones. Hablar de moneda implica poner a la sociedad ante el espejo, de cuerpo entero. No es un tema de números, ni de fórmulas, ni de posgrados universitarios. No es rol exclusivo del Banco Central, ni del ministro de Hacienda. No basta un buen economista, ni un gurú de las encuestas, ni un dirigente locuaz, ni un caminador del conurbano, ni un conocedor del Interior, ni un amigo del Vaticano, ni un traficante de votos, ni un decidor habilidoso. Ni es tarea singular de un hacedor de obras o un entusiasta del esfuerzo hecho en conjunto.
La construcción de confianza (luego de décadas de demolerla) requiere encarar muchas batallas, desatar muchos nudos, enfrentar múltiples intereses. Exige tener las ideas claras, saber transmitirlas y exhibir el poder para lograrlas. Es más fácil para quien tiene buena reputación y casi imposible para quien de ella carece.
Como plan de trabajo se deben enfrentar las cuestiones planteadas en el primer párrafo. No admite postergación hasta el último momento: la hoja de papel debe haber sido circulada y consensuada para asegurar un discurso unívoco. La construcción de confianza no es compatible con zancadillas, parpadeos, rectificaciones o medias verdades.
Por ello, es necesario que ya mismo los candidatos expliciten cómo harán para recuperar la moneda, el deseo de conservar los horneros, ballenas y yaguaretés, sin compararlos con el inventor del pararrayos. Mientras ello no ocurra, los programas y anuncios serán cartón pintado; no habrá crecimiento alguno y hasta Vaca Muerta quedará como otra frustración argentina. Sin ahorro interno ni crédito externo, no habrá soberanía y hasta los venezolanos se irán de aquí. Y un ajuste, sin confianza, puede ser destructivo como el salto al vacío de Thelma y Louise.
No es necesario que los candidatos se pongan de acuerdo, cada cual tiene sus distintas visiones y tendrá sus prioridades diferentes. Pero, aun con esas divergencias, deben converger en una sola cosa: a partir del año próximo, la Argentina se tomará en serio la cuestión de la moneda, como prioridad absoluta y metro patrón del resto de las medidas económicas. Esa afirmación encierra, de por sí, todo un programa de gobierno capaz de mejorar las expectativas, calmar los mercados y respetar la dignidad de las familias, cualquiera que haya sido su voto.
Fuente:https://www.lanacion.com.ar/editoriales/thelma-y-louise-en-la-argentina-nid2283186
In this blog, teachers, students and all those who have some kind of interest in the English language will find useful, interesting, curious and funny things to be used in their classes or for their personal enjoyment.
Saturday, August 31, 2019
Sunday, August 11, 2019
OPINIÓN | ELECCIONES 2019-El voto, ese papelito, por Graciela Guadalupe
The following information is used for educational purposes only.
OPINIÓN | ELECCIONES 2019
El voto, ese papelito
Graciela Guadalupe
11 de Agosto de 2019
"Fijate si estoy en esa lista larga que cuelgan en las escuelas".
(De Carmen, 98 años.)
Cuando Carmen ingresó en el geriátrico -"por decisión propia", aclara cada vez que puede-, le preocupaba hacerse de nuevos amigos con quienes leer, charlar y jugar a las cartas. Nada muy sofisticado. Lo consiguió. Algunos -como ella, que supera largamente los 90- la siguen acompañando. En realidad, se acompañan mutuamente. Otros partieron y no pocos, también como ella, empezaron a tener días buenos, alternados con algunos malos, matizados por recurrentes lagunas de memoria.
En 2015, me pidió que la fuera a buscar para ir a votar. Y allí fuimos. En 2017, no solo me reiteró el pedido, sino que sumó a una amiga, Beatriz, a la "salida cívica", cuyo corolario es siempre un té con masitas y un largo paseo en auto. Esta vez fue la enfermera que la cuida quien me mandó un mensaje: "Dice Carmen que por ahí ella se olvida de pedirle que la lleve a votar este año. Que le está fallando un poco la memoria. Por eso le escribo yo. Para que lo tenga en cuenta", me llegó por WhatsApp.
No solo no hacía falta el recordatorio, sino que me le aparecí anteayer en el geriátrico para confirmarle que temprano esta mañana iríamos camino del cuarto oscuro.
Hablamos de todo, aunque esta vez los silencios entre frase y frase eran más largos. Estaba contenta por la visita, aunque por momentos miraba como queriendo saber quién la visitaba. Le pregunté si había decidido el voto y me dijo que sí. Y me mostró recortes de diarios y revistas que la habían ayudado a elegir. Algunos párrafos estaban subrayados. Papeles, lapiceras y sus anteojos de lectura se trasladan siempre con ella. Al igual que el bastón.
El aroma de la tarta de ricota que le llevé la transportó a su infancia y, con el primer bocado, los recuerdos se le amontonaron. Fue maravilloso ver cómo los ordenaba por fecha, tema o protagonista. Y cuántas acotaciones al margen hilvanaba sin alterar el hilo del relato. "Fijate si estoy en esa lista larga que cuelgan en las escuelas", reclamó, enérgica, por los padrones. Hasta que una nueva laguna, esta vez más extensa, se le instaló sin pudor.
La enfermera, que todo lo veía, me sugirió dejarla descansar y me entregó un poema que Carmen había resaltado para que me dieran en caso de que le ganara el olvido. Era un pasaje del Testamento gaucho, de Claudio Martínez Paiva: "Cuando le toque votar -le advertía el gaucho al hijo- tenga presente que en ese papelito que usted deja / deja lo más sagrado que tiene un hombre / porque ahí deja usted su honor, su libertad y su conciencia".
Fuente:https://www.lanacion.com.ar/opinion/las-palabrasel-voto-ese-papelito-nid2276288
OPINIÓN | ELECCIONES 2019
El voto, ese papelito
Graciela Guadalupe
11 de Agosto de 2019
"Fijate si estoy en esa lista larga que cuelgan en las escuelas".
(De Carmen, 98 años.)
Cuando Carmen ingresó en el geriátrico -"por decisión propia", aclara cada vez que puede-, le preocupaba hacerse de nuevos amigos con quienes leer, charlar y jugar a las cartas. Nada muy sofisticado. Lo consiguió. Algunos -como ella, que supera largamente los 90- la siguen acompañando. En realidad, se acompañan mutuamente. Otros partieron y no pocos, también como ella, empezaron a tener días buenos, alternados con algunos malos, matizados por recurrentes lagunas de memoria.
En 2015, me pidió que la fuera a buscar para ir a votar. Y allí fuimos. En 2017, no solo me reiteró el pedido, sino que sumó a una amiga, Beatriz, a la "salida cívica", cuyo corolario es siempre un té con masitas y un largo paseo en auto. Esta vez fue la enfermera que la cuida quien me mandó un mensaje: "Dice Carmen que por ahí ella se olvida de pedirle que la lleve a votar este año. Que le está fallando un poco la memoria. Por eso le escribo yo. Para que lo tenga en cuenta", me llegó por WhatsApp.
No solo no hacía falta el recordatorio, sino que me le aparecí anteayer en el geriátrico para confirmarle que temprano esta mañana iríamos camino del cuarto oscuro.
Hablamos de todo, aunque esta vez los silencios entre frase y frase eran más largos. Estaba contenta por la visita, aunque por momentos miraba como queriendo saber quién la visitaba. Le pregunté si había decidido el voto y me dijo que sí. Y me mostró recortes de diarios y revistas que la habían ayudado a elegir. Algunos párrafos estaban subrayados. Papeles, lapiceras y sus anteojos de lectura se trasladan siempre con ella. Al igual que el bastón.
El aroma de la tarta de ricota que le llevé la transportó a su infancia y, con el primer bocado, los recuerdos se le amontonaron. Fue maravilloso ver cómo los ordenaba por fecha, tema o protagonista. Y cuántas acotaciones al margen hilvanaba sin alterar el hilo del relato. "Fijate si estoy en esa lista larga que cuelgan en las escuelas", reclamó, enérgica, por los padrones. Hasta que una nueva laguna, esta vez más extensa, se le instaló sin pudor.
La enfermera, que todo lo veía, me sugirió dejarla descansar y me entregó un poema que Carmen había resaltado para que me dieran en caso de que le ganara el olvido. Era un pasaje del Testamento gaucho, de Claudio Martínez Paiva: "Cuando le toque votar -le advertía el gaucho al hijo- tenga presente que en ese papelito que usted deja / deja lo más sagrado que tiene un hombre / porque ahí deja usted su honor, su libertad y su conciencia".
Fuente:https://www.lanacion.com.ar/opinion/las-palabrasel-voto-ese-papelito-nid2276288
Sunday, August 4, 2019
El programa de inclusión social que revoluciona La Matanza, por Carlos M. Reymundo Roberts
The following information is used for educational purposes only.
FOTOS DEL DÍA
El programa de inclusión social que revoluciona La Matanza
Carlos M. Reymundo Roberts
4 de Agosto de 2019
A veces, las revoluciones son silenciosas. En uno de los rincones más pobres y violentos del conurbano viene creciendo, sin que el fenómeno haya sido captado por los radares, un programa social que, por volumen y velocidad, no tiene parangón en el país.
El escenario grande de este proyecto impulsado por curas villeros es el partido de La Matanza, el más poblado (2,5 millones de habitantes) y postergado del conurbano, histórico feudo del peronismo. El escenario chico, algunas de las villas que, como Puerta de Hierro y San Petersburgo, en Isidro Casanova, han cobrado celebridad por ser verdaderos shoppings de la droga. Junto con la 17 de Marzo y la 17 de Marzo bis, conforman lo que se conoce como "el triángulo de las Bermudas".
Allí llegó, hace poco más de dos años, el padre Nicolás Angelotti, al que nadie llama por su nombre. Es "el Tano". O "el padre Tano". De 34 años, ojos verdes y pinta de galán de cine, exjugador de fútbol en las inferiores de River y San Lorenzo, lo que encontró al hacerse cargo de la entonces pequeña capilla de Nuestra Señora de la Esperanza -después, parroquia San José, en 17 de Marzo, diócesis de San Justo- fue un panorama desolador. Pobreza extrema, dominio del narcotráfico, delincuencia, guerras entre barrios. "Esta era una zona marginada, abandonada por el Estado y también por la Iglesia, hasta que monseñor Jorge Bergoglio empezó a venir y a involucrarse", dice.
Así funciona el programa social para contener a la población más vulnerable de La Matanza (Video disponible en La Nación +)
Aplicó entonces lo que había aprendido desde que, a los 17 años, ayudaba al padre Pepe Di Paola, el más famoso de los curas villeros, en la villa 21 de Barracas, y después con el padre Gustavo Carrara en la 1-11-14 del Bajo Flores: un plan integral que, con epicentro en las parroquias, abarque todas las edades y prácticamente toda la vida de la comunidad. Lo llaman "pastoral capillera".
Hoy, el mapa de la zona ha sufrido una brutal transformación. En apenas dos años afloraron, distribuidos en las cuatro villas, una escuela primaria de dos turnos (desde marzo del año próximo, también la secundaria, cuyo edificio está muy avanzado), jardines de infantes, hogares de día para chicos, un club con un estadio polideportivo, sala de primeros auxilios, comedores populares, centros de formación de oficios, granja para rehabilitación de adictos, una cadena barrial de medios de comunicación y 12 casas, llamadas Hogares de Cristo, para personas en situación de calle, adictos, ancianos, enfermos y discapacitados.
"Todo esto se hizo con aportes privados, en primer lugar, y de los tres niveles de gobierno. El 80% de los recursos vienen de empresas y particulares, y un 20%, del Estado", explica el obispo de San Justo, monseñor Eduardo García. Su diócesis, que comprende a 1,8 millones de personas, es una de las más postergadas del GBA. "Las necesidades en estos barrios son tremendas. En las casas viven hasta cuatro generaciones de la misma familia, y acá reinan la droga y el sicariato. Hay chicos zombis de 15 años y sicarios que matan por una paga de 3000 pesos".
La nueva capilla Virgen de Itatí, en la villa 17 de marzo bis; hay otras dos en Puerta de Hierro y San Petesburgo Fuente: LA NACION - Crédito: Ricardo Pristupluk
La cruda realidad de la zona se manifiesta a gritos en la cantidad de gente que asiste a los cuatro comedores de la parroquia, uno en cada villa. Allí se distribuyen, todos los días, 4000 raciones de comida, provista por el Ministerio de Desarrollo Social de la Nación, el gobierno provincial, el municipio, empresas y ONG, como el Banco de Alimentos.
RM, ejecutivo de una importante empresa privada, conoció al Tano en 2017 durante una obra de teatro a beneficio del programa que empezaba a desplegar la parroquia San José. "Quedé impresionado por su carisma, y además después fui a La Matanza y cuando vi aquello y lo que se proponían hacer, dije: 'Hay que ayudarlos'". Convenció a la empresa y también a un grupo de amigos, que desde entonces se convirtieron en impulsores del desarrollo.
Detrás de la multiplicación de centros educativos, culturales, deportivos y sociales que están cambiando la cara de barrios que en 60 años de existencia (nacieron como núcleos habitacionales transitorios) no han vivido otra cosa que su degradación, hay una estrategia de despliegue territorial que el Equipo de Sacerdotes para las Villas de Emergencia los curas villeros tiene muy claro: estar adentro de las comunidades, ser parte de ellas, llegar a todos, aportar soluciones. "Se trata -dicen- de cambiar las tres C de calle, cárcel y cementerio, que son las sedes del abandono, por las C de capilla, colegio y club, que son las sedes de la vida".
El programa de inclusión social que revoluciona La Matanza Fuente: LA NACION - Crédito: Ricardo Pristupluk
El programa de inclusión social que revoluciona La Matanza Fuente: LA NACION - Crédito: Ricardo Pristupluk
La ministra de Desarrollo Social, Carolina Stanley, empezó a trabajar con los curas villeros desde que ocupaba el mismo cargo en el gobierno porteño. "El modelo que se está aplicando en La Matanza es muy similar al de la 1-11-14. Se basa en el empuje de todo un equipo, en este caso comandado por el obispo García. Yo recorro el país y no he visto ninguna iniciativa como esta, que en tan poco tiempo haya logrado tantos resultados. Por eso estamos ayudándolos, y porque además es una zona históricamente olvidada y muy necesitada", dice Stanley, que sigue de cerca el plan que impulsa la parroquia.
"San José no es una isla", afirma monseñor García. "Tenemos 10 curas villeros en la diócesis, que trabajan muy juntos y con la figura del papa Francisco como gran inspirador".
Inquietos, no pararon hasta involucrar al Estado en forma directa: cedieron terrenos de la parroquia para que allí se ubicaran, en oficinas y trailers, representaciones permanentes de Anses, AFIP, Renaper, Poder Judicial, Defensoría del Pueblo y Desarrollo Social.
Otra forma de empujar fue ir por delante. "Construimos la escuela y entonces llegaron el asfalto, la luz, el agua... Va dejando de ser tierra de nadie", apuntan colaboradores del párroco.
El programa de inclusión social que revoluciona La Matanza Fuente: LA NACION - Crédito: Ricardo Pristupluk
Pero al programa le falta su golpe maestro, que, afirman, está cerca de concretarse. También por iniciativa del obispado de San Justo y la parroquia San José, en un predio ubicado sobre la avenida Crovara el gobierno bonaerense construiría 1100 viviendas, para ubicar allí a todas las familias que hoy están en Puerta de Hierro y San Petersburgo. Sería el final de los dos asentamientos.
El predio pertenece al Estado nacional, que lo cedería, y la infraestructura estaría a cargo de la municipalidad de La Matanza. "Llevará tiempo, pero confiamos en que va a hacerse", dicen en el obispado.
El programa de inclusión social que revoluciona La Matanza Crédito: Gentileza Comunidad San José
Estudiar bajo las balas
En un auto que le prestaron (él se maneja en bicicleta), el Tano lleva a LA NACION a una recorrida por Puerta de Hierro, un descenso a los infiernos de la precariedad y la marginalidad. En una calle de tierra apenas transitable, que cruza largos y oscuros pasillos, tres chicos de no más de 11 o 12 años lo saludan y le sonríen. "¡Grande, Tano!" Uno de ellos levanta la mano derecha, le da forma de revólver y simula que apunta al auto y dispara. "Es su manera de jugar tranquiliza el sacerdote. Están acostumbrados a llevar armas desde muy pibes".
Hace dos años, una visita como esa, pero a San Petersburgo, produjo un antes y después en la vida de Katherine Crichigno, una maestra de Boedo a la que el Tano llamó con idea de sumarla al proyecto educativo. Recuerda que le impresionó la cantidad de chicos que estaban en las calles, es decir, no escolarizados, y cómo se sorprendían al verla. "¡Una seño, una seño!" Colgándose de su delantal, uno le preguntó: "Seño, ¿te vas a quedar?". Eso la decidió. Ahí sí que la necesitaban.
El programa de inclusión social que revoluciona La Matanza Fuente: LA NACION - Crédito: Ricardo Pristupluk
Cuando Katherine 45 años, casada, dos hijos aceptó el ofrecimiento para ser directora de la primaria y de tres jardines, la escuela todavía no existía. Pero en poco más de un año se levantó el edificio, de tres pisos. Hoy lo muestra con orgullo. "En diciembre del año pasado abrimos la preinscripción y a las pocas horas ya se había completado el cupo de 300 chicos, 150 a la mañana y 150 a la tarde, de primero a sexto grado. Es que es la única escuela que está dentro de la villa".
Junto al polideportivo se está construyendo el Centro de Formación de Oficios, que busca facilitar la inserción laboral Fuente: LA NACION - Crédito: Ricardo Pristupluk
El equipo docente 25 maestras y una psicopedagoga, cuyos sueldos son pagados por el gobierno bonaerense debe lidiar con situaciones complejas: familias desintegradas, chicos que no tienen DNI ni están vacunados, o que a los 12 años no saben leer ni escribir. "Se ven muchas carencias afectivas y también materiales. La semana pasada se incendiaron dos casas de alumnos nuestros porque las calefaccionaban con brasas", cuenta Katherine, que sigue viviendo en Boedo y todas las mañanas se toma el colectivo 180, que tarda 1 hora en llegar a La Matanza.
Este año, la inauguración del jardín de San Petersburgo terminó de la manera menos esperada: un tiroteo en la puerta que obligó a maestras y chicos a tirarse debajo de las mesas. Como hechos así son habituales, tuvieron que diseñar un protocolo para esos casos. "Este no es solo un proyecto educativo, sino social y pastoral dice la directora-. Eso es lo que me gusta, lo que me enamora de trabajar acá".
El polideportivo,orgullo del Club San José, tiene tribunas y se usa también para actividades artísticas y culturales Fuente: LA NACION - Crédito: Ricardo Pristupluk
Junto a la escuela y los jardines, que son gratuitos, hay, en contraturno, lo que llaman "casitas", hogares de día atendidos por personas del barrio, con actividades instructivas y recreativas. El objetivo es que los chicos están al menos 9 horas seguros, contenidos y alimentados, lejos de la calle. "Calle es droga", dice un colaborador del Tano.
Las tareas las hacen en el aula y la escuela les provee de todos los materiales. También trabajan con kits de robótica que distribuye la provincia. Y a partir de las 5 de la tarde tienen actividades en el campo de deportes del club.
En Puerta de Hierro, un jardín y una "casita" a los que asisten 140 chicos es el orgullo del barrio y de la parroquia: hasta hace poco más de un año ahí vivían dos transas (traficantes).
"¿Ven ese chico? pregunta Katherine mientras muestra el patio de la escuela durante un recreo. Es Tobías, de 6º grado. El otro día me dijo que estaba recontento porque antes no tenía nada que hacer y se entretenía tirándoles piedras a los trenes".
La primaria abrió este año con 300 alumnos en dos turnos, en la villa 17 de Marzo Fuente: LA NACION - Crédito: Ricardo Pristupluk
Conectar con la vida
En un predio de dos manzanas frente a Puerta de Hierro, el Club Atlético San José es, a la vista, el emprendimiento más poderoso y llamativo de la "pastoral capillera". Hasta no hace mucho era un terreno abandonado, un basural a cielo abierto. Se inauguró el año pasado y tiene un polideportivo techado y con tribunas, una cancha de fútbol grande, cinco chicas (una, de pasto sintético), cancha de básquet, dos quinchos y cinco parrillas. Y están casi terminadas seis aulas para la escuela de formación de oficios.
Un baldío infame se convirtió así en polo de atracción para cuatro barrios en los que el 60% de la población son menores de 21 años. "El club está abierto a toda la comunidad y a otras escuelas de la zona dice Nidia González, de 32 años, catequista y una de las coordinadoras del club. Unos 1000 chicos de 4 a 18 años y sus familias pasan semanalmente por acá". Barrios que antes estaban enfrentados ahora aprenden a convivir, afirman en la parroquia.
Además de fútbol, básquet, taekwondo, volley y boxeo hay danza, jazz, folclore, canto, guitarra, violín, orquesta, teatro, patín y acrobacia. Y talleres para jóvenes (la Fundación River tiene a su cargo uno de fútbol). "Si se conecta el deporte con el arte es una conexión con la vida, frente a la delincuencia y la droga, que es cultura de muerte", dice Nidia.
El programa de inclusión social que revoluciona La Matanza Fuente: LA NACION - Crédito: Ricardo Pristupluk
Familias extendidas
El padre Tano tiene una pequeña oficina pegada a la parroquia. Allí, siempre vestido con bombachas de campo, zapatillas y una camisa con cuello de cura, se convierte en una suerte de asistente social todoterreno: a cada momento llega alguien que va por trabajo, comida, enfermedad, adicciones, un hijo que desapareció, un marido golpeador... "Así es la vida acá. Yo siempre digo que a la vida hay que abrazarla como viene. Después se buscan los recursos, y no al revés", dice.
Con ese criterio, a la velocidad del rayo crecen y se multiplican los Hogares de Cristo: casas distribuidas por las cuatro villas en las que se acoge a gente desamparada, básicamente proveniente de la calle, la cárcel u hospitales. En su mayoría, adictos al paco. Ya hay 12, en las que viven 280 personas. Y cada día se suman de 8 a 10 personas más, lo que obliga a abrir nuevas casas. "No hay cupos, porque la realidad es acuciante y no queremos dejar a nadie en la calle", explican en la parroquia.
Concebidos como "familias extendidas", esos hogares, que son chalets sencillos que se compran y reacondicionan, dan techo, cama, ropa, comida, acompañamiento y asistencia de profesionales médicos, psicólogos, psiquiatras, trabajadores sociales, talleristas, profesores de educación física a gente desahuciada o que no tiene dónde vivir. También a discapacitados. "Es la obra más linda que hace la parroquia. La más evangelizadora", dice el Tano. En cada casa hay entre 20 y 30 residentes, más otros que están bajo un régimen ambulatorio.
En el estadio se dictan clases de danza, canto, guitarra, violín, orquesta, patinaje y acrobacia, además de diversos talleres Fuente: LA NACION - Crédito: Gentileza Comunidad San José
Ángel Nieva (35 años) llegó a un Hogar de Cristo hace 3 años, en la villa 1-11-14. "Mi vida estaba perdida. Yo me drogaba desde chico y había estado cuatro años preso por robo en Ezeiza, Devoto y Marcos Paz. El hogar me rescató, me dio un lugar en el mundo".
Ya recuperado, en 2017, cuando el Tano se trasladó a La Matanza, decidió acompañarlo. Hoy forma parte del dispositivo de atención a los hogares. "Los recorro permanentemente, porque siempre aparecen dificultades, situaciones complicadas".
En cada hogar hay dos o tres acompañantes fijos, en general exresidentes ya recuperados. Y una madraza: una vecina que supervisa el funcionamiento de la casa y que no falte nada, desde jabones y toallas hasta frazadas y comida. Andrea Flores (74 años, una hija) es madraza del Hogar de Cristo Don Orione, en el barrio 17 de Marzo. "Cuando perdí a mi hijo Pedro Antonio en Cromagnon, pensé que ya nunca me iba a poder recuperar recuerda, llorando. Pero ellos [los residentes del hogar] son ahora mis hijos. Los quiero y los cuido como hijos".
Nieva cuenta que periódicamente los hogares organizan "noches de caridad", en las que salen a hacer rondas para buscar a personas en situación de calle, enfermas o bajo efectos del consumo de droga. "Solemos ir a la estación Justo Villegas, del llamado 'tren del paco', porque ahí es habitual encontrar gente que ha sido acuchillada o baleada en enfrentamientos con los transas". También recorren cárceles y hospitales.
Pegado a un Hogar de Cristo que está en la parroquia San José vive el Tano, en un cuarto sencillo y despojado. Al caer el sol, se lo ve destruido. Desde muy temprano ha pedaleado en su bicicleta de acá para allá y ha tenido que hacerles frente a dramas que ahí son el pan de cada día. Dice que su único secreto es trabajar y rezar. "Todas las mañanas, al despertarme, me pongo en manos de Dios. Sin su ayuda ya hubiese abandonado".
Desde escuelas y comedores hasta arte, salud y deporte
En poco más de dos años, la parroquia San José, de la villa 17 de Marzo (La Matanza), desplegó un programa integral que involucra en forma directa a unas 7000 personas de cuatro barrios históricamente olvidados
El programa de inclusión social que revoluciona La Matanza Fuente: LA NACION - Crédito: Ricardo Pristupluk
Escuela Primaria San José (17 de Marzo). Se abrió este año, para 300 chicos (dos turnos). Tiene de primero a sexto grado y es gratuita. Es la única escuela que está dentro de la villa
Escuela secundaria. Se está construyendo al lado de la primaria. Comienza a funcionar en marzo próximo, con 300 alumnos
Escuela para adultos. Asisten 150 y funciona en el edificio de la primaria
Comedores. Hay cuatro y distribuyen 4000 raciones de comida por día
Medios. Radio FM, periódico, sitio web y canal de YouTube
Jardines. Cuatro, uno en cada villa (Puerta de Hierro, San Petersburgo, 17 de Marzo y 17 de Marzo bis), y asisten, en total, 1300 chicos. Es la primera vez que hay jardines dentro de los barrios
El club tiene cinco canchas más y una de básquet Crédito: Gentileza Comunidad San José
Casitas. Hogares de día, pegados a los jardines y a las escuelas. Funcionan en contraturno, para que los chicos tengan al menos 9 horas de contención y alimentación, y no estén en la calle
Hogares de Cristo. Son 12 casas que albergan a personas (280) en situación de calle, adictos, ancianos, enfermos y discapacitados, que son asistidos por acompañantes y profesionales
Granja. Destinada al tratamiento intensivo de adictos a las drogas
Club Atlético San José. Funciona en tres sedes, pero la principal es un campo de deportes de dos hectáreas sobre la avenida Crovara, que tiene un polideportivo techado, quinchos, canchas de fútbol y básquet, talleres y actividades artísticas y culturales. Asisten semanalmente 1000 chicos y sus familias. Está abierto a la comunidad
Centro de Formación de Oficios. Para mayores de 16 años, destinado a facilitar la inserción laboral. Se dan cursos de carpintería, electricidad, plomería, peluquería y panadería. Asisten 450 chicos y tendrá su sede definitiva junto al polideportivo, donde se están construyendo seis aulas
Exploradores. Movimiento para jóvenes (150) de entre 14 y 21 años. Mediante diversas actividades (cursos, campamentos, jornadas, deportes) se busca generar "líderes positivos"
Juventud de San José. Para chicos de 15 años o más, en los que se inculca la "mística del servicio y la solidaridad": desde acompañar a ancianos hasta arreglar veredas
Sala de primeros auxilios. Está ubicada en Puerta de Hierro
Capillas. Son cuatro: la parroquia San José (cabecera, en 17 de Marzo) y las capillas Madre del Pueblo (Puerta de Hierro), Virgen Peregrina (San Petersburgo) y Virgen de Itatí (17 de Marzo bis)
Fuente:https://www.lanacion.com.ar/sociedad/el-programa-inclusion-social-revoluciona-la-matanza-nid2274052
FOTOS DEL DÍA
El programa de inclusión social que revoluciona La Matanza
Carlos M. Reymundo Roberts
4 de Agosto de 2019
A veces, las revoluciones son silenciosas. En uno de los rincones más pobres y violentos del conurbano viene creciendo, sin que el fenómeno haya sido captado por los radares, un programa social que, por volumen y velocidad, no tiene parangón en el país.
El escenario grande de este proyecto impulsado por curas villeros es el partido de La Matanza, el más poblado (2,5 millones de habitantes) y postergado del conurbano, histórico feudo del peronismo. El escenario chico, algunas de las villas que, como Puerta de Hierro y San Petersburgo, en Isidro Casanova, han cobrado celebridad por ser verdaderos shoppings de la droga. Junto con la 17 de Marzo y la 17 de Marzo bis, conforman lo que se conoce como "el triángulo de las Bermudas".
Allí llegó, hace poco más de dos años, el padre Nicolás Angelotti, al que nadie llama por su nombre. Es "el Tano". O "el padre Tano". De 34 años, ojos verdes y pinta de galán de cine, exjugador de fútbol en las inferiores de River y San Lorenzo, lo que encontró al hacerse cargo de la entonces pequeña capilla de Nuestra Señora de la Esperanza -después, parroquia San José, en 17 de Marzo, diócesis de San Justo- fue un panorama desolador. Pobreza extrema, dominio del narcotráfico, delincuencia, guerras entre barrios. "Esta era una zona marginada, abandonada por el Estado y también por la Iglesia, hasta que monseñor Jorge Bergoglio empezó a venir y a involucrarse", dice.
Así funciona el programa social para contener a la población más vulnerable de La Matanza (Video disponible en La Nación +)
Aplicó entonces lo que había aprendido desde que, a los 17 años, ayudaba al padre Pepe Di Paola, el más famoso de los curas villeros, en la villa 21 de Barracas, y después con el padre Gustavo Carrara en la 1-11-14 del Bajo Flores: un plan integral que, con epicentro en las parroquias, abarque todas las edades y prácticamente toda la vida de la comunidad. Lo llaman "pastoral capillera".
Hoy, el mapa de la zona ha sufrido una brutal transformación. En apenas dos años afloraron, distribuidos en las cuatro villas, una escuela primaria de dos turnos (desde marzo del año próximo, también la secundaria, cuyo edificio está muy avanzado), jardines de infantes, hogares de día para chicos, un club con un estadio polideportivo, sala de primeros auxilios, comedores populares, centros de formación de oficios, granja para rehabilitación de adictos, una cadena barrial de medios de comunicación y 12 casas, llamadas Hogares de Cristo, para personas en situación de calle, adictos, ancianos, enfermos y discapacitados.
"Todo esto se hizo con aportes privados, en primer lugar, y de los tres niveles de gobierno. El 80% de los recursos vienen de empresas y particulares, y un 20%, del Estado", explica el obispo de San Justo, monseñor Eduardo García. Su diócesis, que comprende a 1,8 millones de personas, es una de las más postergadas del GBA. "Las necesidades en estos barrios son tremendas. En las casas viven hasta cuatro generaciones de la misma familia, y acá reinan la droga y el sicariato. Hay chicos zombis de 15 años y sicarios que matan por una paga de 3000 pesos".
La nueva capilla Virgen de Itatí, en la villa 17 de marzo bis; hay otras dos en Puerta de Hierro y San Petesburgo Fuente: LA NACION - Crédito: Ricardo Pristupluk
La cruda realidad de la zona se manifiesta a gritos en la cantidad de gente que asiste a los cuatro comedores de la parroquia, uno en cada villa. Allí se distribuyen, todos los días, 4000 raciones de comida, provista por el Ministerio de Desarrollo Social de la Nación, el gobierno provincial, el municipio, empresas y ONG, como el Banco de Alimentos.
RM, ejecutivo de una importante empresa privada, conoció al Tano en 2017 durante una obra de teatro a beneficio del programa que empezaba a desplegar la parroquia San José. "Quedé impresionado por su carisma, y además después fui a La Matanza y cuando vi aquello y lo que se proponían hacer, dije: 'Hay que ayudarlos'". Convenció a la empresa y también a un grupo de amigos, que desde entonces se convirtieron en impulsores del desarrollo.
Detrás de la multiplicación de centros educativos, culturales, deportivos y sociales que están cambiando la cara de barrios que en 60 años de existencia (nacieron como núcleos habitacionales transitorios) no han vivido otra cosa que su degradación, hay una estrategia de despliegue territorial que el Equipo de Sacerdotes para las Villas de Emergencia los curas villeros tiene muy claro: estar adentro de las comunidades, ser parte de ellas, llegar a todos, aportar soluciones. "Se trata -dicen- de cambiar las tres C de calle, cárcel y cementerio, que son las sedes del abandono, por las C de capilla, colegio y club, que son las sedes de la vida".
El programa de inclusión social que revoluciona La Matanza Fuente: LA NACION - Crédito: Ricardo Pristupluk
El programa de inclusión social que revoluciona La Matanza Fuente: LA NACION - Crédito: Ricardo Pristupluk
La ministra de Desarrollo Social, Carolina Stanley, empezó a trabajar con los curas villeros desde que ocupaba el mismo cargo en el gobierno porteño. "El modelo que se está aplicando en La Matanza es muy similar al de la 1-11-14. Se basa en el empuje de todo un equipo, en este caso comandado por el obispo García. Yo recorro el país y no he visto ninguna iniciativa como esta, que en tan poco tiempo haya logrado tantos resultados. Por eso estamos ayudándolos, y porque además es una zona históricamente olvidada y muy necesitada", dice Stanley, que sigue de cerca el plan que impulsa la parroquia.
"San José no es una isla", afirma monseñor García. "Tenemos 10 curas villeros en la diócesis, que trabajan muy juntos y con la figura del papa Francisco como gran inspirador".
Inquietos, no pararon hasta involucrar al Estado en forma directa: cedieron terrenos de la parroquia para que allí se ubicaran, en oficinas y trailers, representaciones permanentes de Anses, AFIP, Renaper, Poder Judicial, Defensoría del Pueblo y Desarrollo Social.
Otra forma de empujar fue ir por delante. "Construimos la escuela y entonces llegaron el asfalto, la luz, el agua... Va dejando de ser tierra de nadie", apuntan colaboradores del párroco.
El programa de inclusión social que revoluciona La Matanza Fuente: LA NACION - Crédito: Ricardo Pristupluk
Pero al programa le falta su golpe maestro, que, afirman, está cerca de concretarse. También por iniciativa del obispado de San Justo y la parroquia San José, en un predio ubicado sobre la avenida Crovara el gobierno bonaerense construiría 1100 viviendas, para ubicar allí a todas las familias que hoy están en Puerta de Hierro y San Petersburgo. Sería el final de los dos asentamientos.
El predio pertenece al Estado nacional, que lo cedería, y la infraestructura estaría a cargo de la municipalidad de La Matanza. "Llevará tiempo, pero confiamos en que va a hacerse", dicen en el obispado.
El programa de inclusión social que revoluciona La Matanza Crédito: Gentileza Comunidad San José
Estudiar bajo las balas
En un auto que le prestaron (él se maneja en bicicleta), el Tano lleva a LA NACION a una recorrida por Puerta de Hierro, un descenso a los infiernos de la precariedad y la marginalidad. En una calle de tierra apenas transitable, que cruza largos y oscuros pasillos, tres chicos de no más de 11 o 12 años lo saludan y le sonríen. "¡Grande, Tano!" Uno de ellos levanta la mano derecha, le da forma de revólver y simula que apunta al auto y dispara. "Es su manera de jugar tranquiliza el sacerdote. Están acostumbrados a llevar armas desde muy pibes".
Hace dos años, una visita como esa, pero a San Petersburgo, produjo un antes y después en la vida de Katherine Crichigno, una maestra de Boedo a la que el Tano llamó con idea de sumarla al proyecto educativo. Recuerda que le impresionó la cantidad de chicos que estaban en las calles, es decir, no escolarizados, y cómo se sorprendían al verla. "¡Una seño, una seño!" Colgándose de su delantal, uno le preguntó: "Seño, ¿te vas a quedar?". Eso la decidió. Ahí sí que la necesitaban.
El programa de inclusión social que revoluciona La Matanza Fuente: LA NACION - Crédito: Ricardo Pristupluk
Cuando Katherine 45 años, casada, dos hijos aceptó el ofrecimiento para ser directora de la primaria y de tres jardines, la escuela todavía no existía. Pero en poco más de un año se levantó el edificio, de tres pisos. Hoy lo muestra con orgullo. "En diciembre del año pasado abrimos la preinscripción y a las pocas horas ya se había completado el cupo de 300 chicos, 150 a la mañana y 150 a la tarde, de primero a sexto grado. Es que es la única escuela que está dentro de la villa".
Junto al polideportivo se está construyendo el Centro de Formación de Oficios, que busca facilitar la inserción laboral Fuente: LA NACION - Crédito: Ricardo Pristupluk
El equipo docente 25 maestras y una psicopedagoga, cuyos sueldos son pagados por el gobierno bonaerense debe lidiar con situaciones complejas: familias desintegradas, chicos que no tienen DNI ni están vacunados, o que a los 12 años no saben leer ni escribir. "Se ven muchas carencias afectivas y también materiales. La semana pasada se incendiaron dos casas de alumnos nuestros porque las calefaccionaban con brasas", cuenta Katherine, que sigue viviendo en Boedo y todas las mañanas se toma el colectivo 180, que tarda 1 hora en llegar a La Matanza.
Este año, la inauguración del jardín de San Petersburgo terminó de la manera menos esperada: un tiroteo en la puerta que obligó a maestras y chicos a tirarse debajo de las mesas. Como hechos así son habituales, tuvieron que diseñar un protocolo para esos casos. "Este no es solo un proyecto educativo, sino social y pastoral dice la directora-. Eso es lo que me gusta, lo que me enamora de trabajar acá".
El polideportivo,orgullo del Club San José, tiene tribunas y se usa también para actividades artísticas y culturales Fuente: LA NACION - Crédito: Ricardo Pristupluk
Junto a la escuela y los jardines, que son gratuitos, hay, en contraturno, lo que llaman "casitas", hogares de día atendidos por personas del barrio, con actividades instructivas y recreativas. El objetivo es que los chicos están al menos 9 horas seguros, contenidos y alimentados, lejos de la calle. "Calle es droga", dice un colaborador del Tano.
Las tareas las hacen en el aula y la escuela les provee de todos los materiales. También trabajan con kits de robótica que distribuye la provincia. Y a partir de las 5 de la tarde tienen actividades en el campo de deportes del club.
En Puerta de Hierro, un jardín y una "casita" a los que asisten 140 chicos es el orgullo del barrio y de la parroquia: hasta hace poco más de un año ahí vivían dos transas (traficantes).
"¿Ven ese chico? pregunta Katherine mientras muestra el patio de la escuela durante un recreo. Es Tobías, de 6º grado. El otro día me dijo que estaba recontento porque antes no tenía nada que hacer y se entretenía tirándoles piedras a los trenes".
La primaria abrió este año con 300 alumnos en dos turnos, en la villa 17 de Marzo Fuente: LA NACION - Crédito: Ricardo Pristupluk
Conectar con la vida
En un predio de dos manzanas frente a Puerta de Hierro, el Club Atlético San José es, a la vista, el emprendimiento más poderoso y llamativo de la "pastoral capillera". Hasta no hace mucho era un terreno abandonado, un basural a cielo abierto. Se inauguró el año pasado y tiene un polideportivo techado y con tribunas, una cancha de fútbol grande, cinco chicas (una, de pasto sintético), cancha de básquet, dos quinchos y cinco parrillas. Y están casi terminadas seis aulas para la escuela de formación de oficios.
Un baldío infame se convirtió así en polo de atracción para cuatro barrios en los que el 60% de la población son menores de 21 años. "El club está abierto a toda la comunidad y a otras escuelas de la zona dice Nidia González, de 32 años, catequista y una de las coordinadoras del club. Unos 1000 chicos de 4 a 18 años y sus familias pasan semanalmente por acá". Barrios que antes estaban enfrentados ahora aprenden a convivir, afirman en la parroquia.
Además de fútbol, básquet, taekwondo, volley y boxeo hay danza, jazz, folclore, canto, guitarra, violín, orquesta, teatro, patín y acrobacia. Y talleres para jóvenes (la Fundación River tiene a su cargo uno de fútbol). "Si se conecta el deporte con el arte es una conexión con la vida, frente a la delincuencia y la droga, que es cultura de muerte", dice Nidia.
El programa de inclusión social que revoluciona La Matanza Fuente: LA NACION - Crédito: Ricardo Pristupluk
Familias extendidas
El padre Tano tiene una pequeña oficina pegada a la parroquia. Allí, siempre vestido con bombachas de campo, zapatillas y una camisa con cuello de cura, se convierte en una suerte de asistente social todoterreno: a cada momento llega alguien que va por trabajo, comida, enfermedad, adicciones, un hijo que desapareció, un marido golpeador... "Así es la vida acá. Yo siempre digo que a la vida hay que abrazarla como viene. Después se buscan los recursos, y no al revés", dice.
Con ese criterio, a la velocidad del rayo crecen y se multiplican los Hogares de Cristo: casas distribuidas por las cuatro villas en las que se acoge a gente desamparada, básicamente proveniente de la calle, la cárcel u hospitales. En su mayoría, adictos al paco. Ya hay 12, en las que viven 280 personas. Y cada día se suman de 8 a 10 personas más, lo que obliga a abrir nuevas casas. "No hay cupos, porque la realidad es acuciante y no queremos dejar a nadie en la calle", explican en la parroquia.
Concebidos como "familias extendidas", esos hogares, que son chalets sencillos que se compran y reacondicionan, dan techo, cama, ropa, comida, acompañamiento y asistencia de profesionales médicos, psicólogos, psiquiatras, trabajadores sociales, talleristas, profesores de educación física a gente desahuciada o que no tiene dónde vivir. También a discapacitados. "Es la obra más linda que hace la parroquia. La más evangelizadora", dice el Tano. En cada casa hay entre 20 y 30 residentes, más otros que están bajo un régimen ambulatorio.
En el estadio se dictan clases de danza, canto, guitarra, violín, orquesta, patinaje y acrobacia, además de diversos talleres Fuente: LA NACION - Crédito: Gentileza Comunidad San José
Ángel Nieva (35 años) llegó a un Hogar de Cristo hace 3 años, en la villa 1-11-14. "Mi vida estaba perdida. Yo me drogaba desde chico y había estado cuatro años preso por robo en Ezeiza, Devoto y Marcos Paz. El hogar me rescató, me dio un lugar en el mundo".
Ya recuperado, en 2017, cuando el Tano se trasladó a La Matanza, decidió acompañarlo. Hoy forma parte del dispositivo de atención a los hogares. "Los recorro permanentemente, porque siempre aparecen dificultades, situaciones complicadas".
En cada hogar hay dos o tres acompañantes fijos, en general exresidentes ya recuperados. Y una madraza: una vecina que supervisa el funcionamiento de la casa y que no falte nada, desde jabones y toallas hasta frazadas y comida. Andrea Flores (74 años, una hija) es madraza del Hogar de Cristo Don Orione, en el barrio 17 de Marzo. "Cuando perdí a mi hijo Pedro Antonio en Cromagnon, pensé que ya nunca me iba a poder recuperar recuerda, llorando. Pero ellos [los residentes del hogar] son ahora mis hijos. Los quiero y los cuido como hijos".
Nieva cuenta que periódicamente los hogares organizan "noches de caridad", en las que salen a hacer rondas para buscar a personas en situación de calle, enfermas o bajo efectos del consumo de droga. "Solemos ir a la estación Justo Villegas, del llamado 'tren del paco', porque ahí es habitual encontrar gente que ha sido acuchillada o baleada en enfrentamientos con los transas". También recorren cárceles y hospitales.
Pegado a un Hogar de Cristo que está en la parroquia San José vive el Tano, en un cuarto sencillo y despojado. Al caer el sol, se lo ve destruido. Desde muy temprano ha pedaleado en su bicicleta de acá para allá y ha tenido que hacerles frente a dramas que ahí son el pan de cada día. Dice que su único secreto es trabajar y rezar. "Todas las mañanas, al despertarme, me pongo en manos de Dios. Sin su ayuda ya hubiese abandonado".
Desde escuelas y comedores hasta arte, salud y deporte
En poco más de dos años, la parroquia San José, de la villa 17 de Marzo (La Matanza), desplegó un programa integral que involucra en forma directa a unas 7000 personas de cuatro barrios históricamente olvidados
El programa de inclusión social que revoluciona La Matanza Fuente: LA NACION - Crédito: Ricardo Pristupluk
Escuela Primaria San José (17 de Marzo). Se abrió este año, para 300 chicos (dos turnos). Tiene de primero a sexto grado y es gratuita. Es la única escuela que está dentro de la villa
Escuela secundaria. Se está construyendo al lado de la primaria. Comienza a funcionar en marzo próximo, con 300 alumnos
Escuela para adultos. Asisten 150 y funciona en el edificio de la primaria
Comedores. Hay cuatro y distribuyen 4000 raciones de comida por día
Medios. Radio FM, periódico, sitio web y canal de YouTube
Jardines. Cuatro, uno en cada villa (Puerta de Hierro, San Petersburgo, 17 de Marzo y 17 de Marzo bis), y asisten, en total, 1300 chicos. Es la primera vez que hay jardines dentro de los barrios
El club tiene cinco canchas más y una de básquet Crédito: Gentileza Comunidad San José
Casitas. Hogares de día, pegados a los jardines y a las escuelas. Funcionan en contraturno, para que los chicos tengan al menos 9 horas de contención y alimentación, y no estén en la calle
Hogares de Cristo. Son 12 casas que albergan a personas (280) en situación de calle, adictos, ancianos, enfermos y discapacitados, que son asistidos por acompañantes y profesionales
Granja. Destinada al tratamiento intensivo de adictos a las drogas
Club Atlético San José. Funciona en tres sedes, pero la principal es un campo de deportes de dos hectáreas sobre la avenida Crovara, que tiene un polideportivo techado, quinchos, canchas de fútbol y básquet, talleres y actividades artísticas y culturales. Asisten semanalmente 1000 chicos y sus familias. Está abierto a la comunidad
Centro de Formación de Oficios. Para mayores de 16 años, destinado a facilitar la inserción laboral. Se dan cursos de carpintería, electricidad, plomería, peluquería y panadería. Asisten 450 chicos y tendrá su sede definitiva junto al polideportivo, donde se están construyendo seis aulas
Exploradores. Movimiento para jóvenes (150) de entre 14 y 21 años. Mediante diversas actividades (cursos, campamentos, jornadas, deportes) se busca generar "líderes positivos"
Juventud de San José. Para chicos de 15 años o más, en los que se inculca la "mística del servicio y la solidaridad": desde acompañar a ancianos hasta arreglar veredas
Sala de primeros auxilios. Está ubicada en Puerta de Hierro
Capillas. Son cuatro: la parroquia San José (cabecera, en 17 de Marzo) y las capillas Madre del Pueblo (Puerta de Hierro), Virgen Peregrina (San Petersburgo) y Virgen de Itatí (17 de Marzo bis)
Fuente:https://www.lanacion.com.ar/sociedad/el-programa-inclusion-social-revoluciona-la-matanza-nid2274052
Saturday, August 3, 2019
EDITORIAL-Política sin propuestas
The following information is used for educational purposes only.
EDITORIALES
Política sin propuestas
La campaña electoral ha transcurrido hasta ahora alrededor de generalizaciones vacías de contenido y sin soluciones concretas a problemas conocidos
3 de Agosto de 2019
La campaña previa a las PASO, que tendrán lugar dentro de ocho días, ha transcurrido alrededor de grandes enunciados que poco o nada dicen sobre la forma en que habrán de concretarse. Esta conclusión queda a la vista cuando se transcriben algunas definiciones de los dos principales precandidatos presidenciales, que surgen de una serie de preguntas que, a pedido de este diario, se publicaron el domingo último.
"Para facilitar el empleo formal, necesitamos una legislación moderna"; "Debe empezar una conversación con toda la sociedad sobre la sustentabilidad de nuestro sistema previsional"; "El objetivo, a medida que se estabiliza la situación macroeconómica, es seguir bajando los impuestos", dijo Mauricio Macri.
"Queremos recuperar el poder adquisitivo de las jubilaciones"; "No necesitamos una reforma laboral. Antes de quitar derechos a los que trabajan, debemos recomponer el salario real"; "Vamos a alinear el sistema tributario con el fin de poner la economía en marcha", dijo Alberto Fernández.
Las plataformas partidarias publicadas este año reiteran la vieja fórmula de numerosas promesas y nulas precisiones. Que ello se mantenga sin cambios no es responsabilidad exclusiva de los candidatos. También es obligación de los medios y de la ciudadanía en su conjunto reclamarles que, además del qué es lo que quieren hacer, nos expliquen el cómo, el porqué y, de ser posible, el cuándo.
Las plataformas de Juntos por el Cambio y del Frente de Todos, por citar las de las dos fuerzas con mayores probabilidades de imponerse electoralmente, según las encuestas que se conocen hasta el momento, son muy generosas en definiciones como defensa de la democracia, construcción de cimientos económicos, crecimiento sostenido, competitividad, equilibrio fiscal, combate a la inestabilidad monetaria y aliento al crecimiento. También, en augurar un cambio sustancial en políticas impositivas y un aumento de las exportaciones. Pero son todas generalidades. Falta establecer prioridades, recorridos y medidas tendientes a lograr esos objetivos y plazos.
En otros tiempos, los partidos difundían sus plataformas programáticas informando a la ciudadanía su propuesta concreta de gobierno. Se suponía que, en caso de alcanzar el poder, la fuerza triunfante se comprometía a llevar a cabo dichos postulados, elevando los correspondientes proyectos de ley o tomando las medidas requeridas.
Esas plataformas permitían a los ciudadanos un doble control: el de la comparación de la oferta diferenciada de los partidos y el que permitía al votante evaluar el tratamiento que recibiría el tema de su interés, permitiéndole optar entre las distintas propuestas. Un segundo control, más cercano al seguimiento que hoy hacen algunas ONG, se refería a fiscalizar el grado de cumplimiento de aquellas promesas electorales una vez instalado el partido en el poder, comparando su acción u omisión respecto de la plataforma o de las promesas de campaña.
Hoy las cosas han cambiado mucho. Los partidos parecieran haber perdido buena parte del contacto real con el ciudadano, mas allá de lealtades históricas o simpatías hacia determinadas personas o hacia un ideario cada vez más difuso.
Es particularmente grave que ni los candidatos, ni las alianzas electorales, ni los partidos propiamente dichos expliciten claramente cuáles son sus propuestas de gobierno para el período para el cual pretenden ser elegidos. Peor aún es que hagan esto deliberadamente con el fin de navegar entre dos aguas o ser lo más ambiguos posible para no perder votos. Cualquier método parece válido cuando el objetivo es evitar el debate profundo. No se habla de las necesarias reformas estructurales que el país requiere, al tiempo que las dos fuerzas mayoritarias han reflotado en los últimos días el burocratismo, al prometer volver a transformar algunas secretarías de Estado en ministerios, cuando el aumento del peso del Estado no ha sido ni es la solución a nada, sino parte del problema.
Resulta tan lamentable como peligroso que algunos candidatos jueguen a favor de desestabilizar la situación económica. La frase de Alberto Fernández respecto de que para aumentar un 20% las jubilaciones durante un eventual gobierno suyo dejará de pagar los intereses de las Leliq -luego aclaró que apuntará a bajar considerablemente las actuales tasas- y que hoy el dólar está atrasado, pisado por las actuales autoridades, recuerda las expresiones de dirigentes peronistas en el exterior pidiendo, en 1989, que no le prestaran más dinero al gobierno de Alfonsín. El resultado es harto conocido: hiperinflación más pobreza y entrega adelantada del poder al menemismo.
Tal vez haya que buscar en esos exabruptos las verdaderas intenciones de algunos sectores. Por ejemplo, la necesidad de eliminar el Poder Judicial (Mempo Giardinelli), la de reformar la Constitución nacional para que la Justicia se "subordine" al poder popular (Raúl Zaffaroni y Francisco Durañona) o la de ejercer un estricto control de los capitales (Axel Kicillof).
En el camino, en tanto, van quedando intentos interesantes como el de acordar un decálogo de asuntos trascendentes para la Nación, las famosas "cuestiones de Estado", cuyo peso las vuelve impostergables y que deberían sumar un acuerdo multipartidario. La propuesta en ese sentido del actual gobierno al resto de las fuerzas políticas, conocida como "los diez puntos", solo tuvo un incipiente esbozo que se fue diluyendo de a poco, al punto que hoy pocos recordamos esa valiosa iniciativa -a la que le faltó una referencia a la cuestión educativa- que procuraba permitir el tránsito hacia un futuro con consensos elementales.
Se ha diluido, si no ha desaparecido, el tan necesario como decisivo debate de ideas y propuestas. La intención de captar el mayor espectro de votantes posible no debería conducir a ocultar o disfrazar las verdaderas ideas que impulsan uno u otro postulante. La publicación de las plataformas partidarias debería constituir una exigencia de cumplimiento ineludible planteada por ley.
Nuestra Nación atraviesa horas decisivas de cara a esta instancia electoral. Se suele decir que los pueblos tienen los gobiernos que se merecen. Precisamente, los argentinos hemos de preguntarnos cuáles son los méritos que ponderamos en los candidatos, tan proclives a endulzar con el olvido episodios recientes, como a extrapolar una carismática simpatía de la pantalla a una boleta.
La Argentina necesita estadistas que puedan diseñar propuestas y aunar voluntades para plasmarlas en la realidad. Las plataformas electorales o, en su defecto, un detallado plan, dan precisamente contenido al futuro de cualquier gestión. A la hora de elegir, el pueblo debe "saber de qué se trata". Nuestro futuro como Nación está en juego.
Fuente:https://www.lanacion.com.ar/editoriales/politica-sin-propuestas-nid2273837
EDITORIALES
Política sin propuestas
La campaña electoral ha transcurrido hasta ahora alrededor de generalizaciones vacías de contenido y sin soluciones concretas a problemas conocidos
3 de Agosto de 2019
La campaña previa a las PASO, que tendrán lugar dentro de ocho días, ha transcurrido alrededor de grandes enunciados que poco o nada dicen sobre la forma en que habrán de concretarse. Esta conclusión queda a la vista cuando se transcriben algunas definiciones de los dos principales precandidatos presidenciales, que surgen de una serie de preguntas que, a pedido de este diario, se publicaron el domingo último.
"Para facilitar el empleo formal, necesitamos una legislación moderna"; "Debe empezar una conversación con toda la sociedad sobre la sustentabilidad de nuestro sistema previsional"; "El objetivo, a medida que se estabiliza la situación macroeconómica, es seguir bajando los impuestos", dijo Mauricio Macri.
"Queremos recuperar el poder adquisitivo de las jubilaciones"; "No necesitamos una reforma laboral. Antes de quitar derechos a los que trabajan, debemos recomponer el salario real"; "Vamos a alinear el sistema tributario con el fin de poner la economía en marcha", dijo Alberto Fernández.
Las plataformas partidarias publicadas este año reiteran la vieja fórmula de numerosas promesas y nulas precisiones. Que ello se mantenga sin cambios no es responsabilidad exclusiva de los candidatos. También es obligación de los medios y de la ciudadanía en su conjunto reclamarles que, además del qué es lo que quieren hacer, nos expliquen el cómo, el porqué y, de ser posible, el cuándo.
Las plataformas de Juntos por el Cambio y del Frente de Todos, por citar las de las dos fuerzas con mayores probabilidades de imponerse electoralmente, según las encuestas que se conocen hasta el momento, son muy generosas en definiciones como defensa de la democracia, construcción de cimientos económicos, crecimiento sostenido, competitividad, equilibrio fiscal, combate a la inestabilidad monetaria y aliento al crecimiento. También, en augurar un cambio sustancial en políticas impositivas y un aumento de las exportaciones. Pero son todas generalidades. Falta establecer prioridades, recorridos y medidas tendientes a lograr esos objetivos y plazos.
En otros tiempos, los partidos difundían sus plataformas programáticas informando a la ciudadanía su propuesta concreta de gobierno. Se suponía que, en caso de alcanzar el poder, la fuerza triunfante se comprometía a llevar a cabo dichos postulados, elevando los correspondientes proyectos de ley o tomando las medidas requeridas.
Esas plataformas permitían a los ciudadanos un doble control: el de la comparación de la oferta diferenciada de los partidos y el que permitía al votante evaluar el tratamiento que recibiría el tema de su interés, permitiéndole optar entre las distintas propuestas. Un segundo control, más cercano al seguimiento que hoy hacen algunas ONG, se refería a fiscalizar el grado de cumplimiento de aquellas promesas electorales una vez instalado el partido en el poder, comparando su acción u omisión respecto de la plataforma o de las promesas de campaña.
Hoy las cosas han cambiado mucho. Los partidos parecieran haber perdido buena parte del contacto real con el ciudadano, mas allá de lealtades históricas o simpatías hacia determinadas personas o hacia un ideario cada vez más difuso.
Es particularmente grave que ni los candidatos, ni las alianzas electorales, ni los partidos propiamente dichos expliciten claramente cuáles son sus propuestas de gobierno para el período para el cual pretenden ser elegidos. Peor aún es que hagan esto deliberadamente con el fin de navegar entre dos aguas o ser lo más ambiguos posible para no perder votos. Cualquier método parece válido cuando el objetivo es evitar el debate profundo. No se habla de las necesarias reformas estructurales que el país requiere, al tiempo que las dos fuerzas mayoritarias han reflotado en los últimos días el burocratismo, al prometer volver a transformar algunas secretarías de Estado en ministerios, cuando el aumento del peso del Estado no ha sido ni es la solución a nada, sino parte del problema.
Resulta tan lamentable como peligroso que algunos candidatos jueguen a favor de desestabilizar la situación económica. La frase de Alberto Fernández respecto de que para aumentar un 20% las jubilaciones durante un eventual gobierno suyo dejará de pagar los intereses de las Leliq -luego aclaró que apuntará a bajar considerablemente las actuales tasas- y que hoy el dólar está atrasado, pisado por las actuales autoridades, recuerda las expresiones de dirigentes peronistas en el exterior pidiendo, en 1989, que no le prestaran más dinero al gobierno de Alfonsín. El resultado es harto conocido: hiperinflación más pobreza y entrega adelantada del poder al menemismo.
Tal vez haya que buscar en esos exabruptos las verdaderas intenciones de algunos sectores. Por ejemplo, la necesidad de eliminar el Poder Judicial (Mempo Giardinelli), la de reformar la Constitución nacional para que la Justicia se "subordine" al poder popular (Raúl Zaffaroni y Francisco Durañona) o la de ejercer un estricto control de los capitales (Axel Kicillof).
En el camino, en tanto, van quedando intentos interesantes como el de acordar un decálogo de asuntos trascendentes para la Nación, las famosas "cuestiones de Estado", cuyo peso las vuelve impostergables y que deberían sumar un acuerdo multipartidario. La propuesta en ese sentido del actual gobierno al resto de las fuerzas políticas, conocida como "los diez puntos", solo tuvo un incipiente esbozo que se fue diluyendo de a poco, al punto que hoy pocos recordamos esa valiosa iniciativa -a la que le faltó una referencia a la cuestión educativa- que procuraba permitir el tránsito hacia un futuro con consensos elementales.
Se ha diluido, si no ha desaparecido, el tan necesario como decisivo debate de ideas y propuestas. La intención de captar el mayor espectro de votantes posible no debería conducir a ocultar o disfrazar las verdaderas ideas que impulsan uno u otro postulante. La publicación de las plataformas partidarias debería constituir una exigencia de cumplimiento ineludible planteada por ley.
Nuestra Nación atraviesa horas decisivas de cara a esta instancia electoral. Se suele decir que los pueblos tienen los gobiernos que se merecen. Precisamente, los argentinos hemos de preguntarnos cuáles son los méritos que ponderamos en los candidatos, tan proclives a endulzar con el olvido episodios recientes, como a extrapolar una carismática simpatía de la pantalla a una boleta.
La Argentina necesita estadistas que puedan diseñar propuestas y aunar voluntades para plasmarlas en la realidad. Las plataformas electorales o, en su defecto, un detallado plan, dan precisamente contenido al futuro de cualquier gestión. A la hora de elegir, el pueblo debe "saber de qué se trata". Nuestro futuro como Nación está en juego.
Fuente:https://www.lanacion.com.ar/editoriales/politica-sin-propuestas-nid2273837
TED TALKS-Margaret Heffernan:The human skills we need in an unpredictable world
The following information is used for educational purposes only.
TEDSummit 2019
July 2019
Margaret Heffernan:The human skills we need in an unpredictable world
The more we rely on technology to make us efficient, the fewer skills we have to confront the unexpected, says writer and entrepreneur Margaret Heffernan. She shares why we need less tech and more messy human skills -- imagination, humility, bravery -- to solve problems in business, government and life in an unpredictable age. "We are brave enough to invent things we've never seen before," she says. "We can make any future we choose."
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Margaret Heffernan · Writer, entrepreneur
The former CEO of five businesses, Margaret Heffernan explores the all-too-human thought patterns that lead organizations and managers astray.
Transcript:
Recently, the leadership team of an American supermarket chain decided that their business needed to get a lot more efficient. So they embraced their digital transformation with zeal. Out went the teams supervising meat, veg, bakery, and in came an algorithmic task allocator. Now, instead of people working together, each employee went, clocked in, got assigned a task, did it, came back for more. This was scientific management on steroids, standardizing and allocating work. It was super efficient.
Well, not quite, because the task allocator didn't know when a customer was going to drop a box of eggs, couldn't predict when some crazy kid was going to knock over a display, or when the local high school decided that everybody needed to bring in coconuts the next day.
Efficiency works really well when you can predict exactly what you're going to need. But when the anomalous or unexpected comes along -- kids, customers, coconuts -- well, then efficiency is no longer your friend.
This has become a really crucial issue, this ability to deal with the unexpected, because the unexpected is becoming the norm. It's why experts and forecasters are reluctant to predict anything more than 400 days out. Why? Because over the last 20 or 30 years, much of the world has gone from being complicated to being complex -- which means that yes, there are patterns, but they don't repeat themselves regularly. It means that very small changes can make a disproportionate impact. And it means that expertise won't always suffice, because the system just keeps changing too fast.
So what that means is that there's a huge amount in the world that kind of defies forecasting now. It's why the Bank of England will say yes, there will be another crash, but we don't know why or when. We know that climate change is real, but we can't predict where forest fires will break out, and we don't know which factories are going to flood. It's why companies are blindsided when plastic straws and bags and bottled water go from staples to rejects overnight, and baffled when a change in social morays turns stars into pariahs and colleagues into outcasts: ineradicable uncertainty. In an environment that defies so much forecasting, efficiency won't just not help us, it specifically undermines and erodes our capacity to adapt and respond.
So if efficiency is no longer our guiding principle, how should we address the future? What kind of thinking is really going to help us? What sort of talents must we be sure to defend? I think that, where in the past we used to think a lot about just in time management, now we have to start thinking about just in case, preparing for events that are generally certain but specifically remain ambiguous.
One example of this is the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness, CEPI. We know there will be more epidemics in future, but we don't know where or when or what. So we can't plan. But we can prepare. So CEPI's developing multiple vaccines for multiple diseases, knowing that they can't predict which vaccines are going to work or which diseases will break out. So some of those vaccines will never be used. That's inefficient. But it's robust, because it provides more options, and it means that we don't depend on a single technological solution. Epidemic responsiveness also depends hugely on people who know and trust each other. But those relationships take time to develop, time that is always in short supply when an epidemic breaks out. So CEPI is developing relationships, friendships, alliances now knowing that some of those may never be used. That's inefficient, a waste of time, perhaps, but it's robust.
You can see robust thinking in financial services, too. In the past, banks used to hold much less capital than they're required to today, because holding so little capital, being too efficient with it, is what made the banks so fragile in the first place. Now, holding more capital looks and is inefficient. But it's robust, because it protects the financial system against surprises.
Countries that are really serious about climate change know that they have to adopt multiple solutions, multiple forms of renewable energy, not just one. The countries that are most advanced have been working for years now, changing their water and food supply and healthcare systems, because they recognize that by the time they have certain prediction, that information may very well come too late.
You can take the same approach to trade wars, and many countries do. Instead of depending on a single huge trading partner, they try to be everybody's friends, because they know they can't predict which markets might suddenly become unstable. It's time-consuming and expensive, negotiating all these deals, but it's robust because it makes their whole economy better defended against shocks. It's particularly a strategy adopted by small countries that know they'll never have the market muscle to call the shots, so it's just better to have too many friends. But if you're stuck in one of these organizations that's still kind of captured by the efficiency myth, how do you start to change it? Try some experiments.
In the Netherlands, home care nursing used to be run pretty much like the supermarket: standardized and prescribed work to the minute: nine minutes on Monday, seven minutes on Wednesday, eight minutes on Friday. The nurses hated it. So one of them, Jos de Blok, proposed an experiment. Since every patient is different, and we don't quite know exactly what they'll need, why don't we just leave it to the nurses to decide?
Sound reckless?
In his experiment, Jos found the patients got better in half the time, and costs fell by 30 percent. When I asked Jos what had surprised him about his experiment, he just kind of laughed and he said, "Well, I had no idea it could be so easy to find such a huge improvement, because this isn't the kind of thing you can know or predict sitting at a desk or staring at a computer screen." So now this form of nursing has proliferated across the Netherlands and around the world. But in every new country it still starts with experiments, because each place is slightly and unpredictably different.
Of course, not all experiments work. Jos tried a similar approach to the fire service and found it didn't work because the service is just too centralized. Failed experiments look inefficient, but they're often the only way you can figure out how the real world works. So now he's trying teachers. Experiments like that require creativity and not a little bravery.
In England -- I was about to say in the UK, but in England --
In England, the leading rugby team, or one of the leading rugby teams, is Saracens. The manager and the coach there realized that all the physical training they do and the data-driven conditioning that they do has become generic; really, all the teams do exactly the same thing. So they risked an experiment. They took the whole team away, even in match season, on ski trips and to look at social projects in Chicago. This was expensive, it was time-consuming, and it could be a little risky putting a whole bunch of rugby players on a ski slope, right?
But what they found was that the players came back with renewed bonds of loyalty and solidarity. And now when they're on the pitch under incredible pressure, they manifest what the manager calls "poise" -- an unflinching, unwavering dedication to each other. Their opponents are in awe of this, but still too in thrall to efficiency to try it.
At a London tech company, Verve, the CEO measures just about everything that moves, but she couldn't find anything that made any difference to the company's productivity. So she devised an experiment that she calls "Love Week": a whole week where each employee has to look for really clever, helpful, imaginative things that a counterpart does, call it out and celebrate it. It takes a huge amount of time and effort; lots of people would call it distracting. But it really energizes the business and makes the whole company more productive.
Preparedness, coalition-building, imagination, experiments, bravery -- in an unpredictable age, these are tremendous sources of resilience and strength. They aren't efficient, but they give us limitless capacity for adaptation, variation and invention. And the less we know about the future, the more we're going to need these tremendous sources of human, messy, unpredictable skills.
But in our growing dependence on technology, we're asset-stripping those skills. Every time we use technology to nudge us through a decision or a choice or to interpret how somebody's feeling or to guide us through a conversation, we outsource to a machine what we could, can do ourselves, and it's an expensive trade-off. The more we let machines think for us, the less we can think for ourselves. The more --
The more time doctors spend staring at digital medical records, the less time they spend looking at their patients. The more we use parenting apps, the less we know our kids. The more time we spend with people that we're predicted and programmed to like, the less we can connect with people who are different from ourselves. And the less compassion we need, the less compassion we have.
What all of these technologies attempt to do is to force-fit a standardized model of a predictable reality onto a world that is infinitely surprising. What gets left out? Anything that can't be measured -- which is just about everything that counts.
Our growing dependence on technology risks us becoming less skilled, more vulnerable to the deep and growing complexity of the real world.
Now, as I was thinking about the extremes of stress and turbulence that we know we will have to confront, I went and I talked to a number of chief executives whose own businesses had gone through existential crises, when they teetered on the brink of collapse. These were frank, gut-wrenching conversations. Many men wept just remembering. So I asked them: "What kept you going through this?"
And they all had exactly the same answer. "It wasn't data or technology," they said. "It was my friends and my colleagues who kept me going."
One added, "It was pretty much the opposite of the gig economy."
But then I went and I talked to a group of young, rising executives, and I asked them, "Who are your friends at work?" And they just looked blank.
"There's no time."
"They're too busy."
"It's not efficient."
Who, I wondered, is going to give them imagination and stamina and bravery when the storms come?
Anyone who tries to tell you that they know the future is just trying to own it, a spurious kind of manifest destiny. The harder, deeper truth is that the future is uncharted, that we can't map it till we get there.
But that's OK, because we have so much imagination -- if we use it. We have deep talents of inventiveness and exploration -- if we apply them. We are brave enough to invent things we've never seen before. Lose those skills, and we are adrift. But hone and develop them, we can make any future we choose. Thank you.
Source:www.ted.com
TEDSummit 2019
July 2019
Margaret Heffernan:The human skills we need in an unpredictable world
The more we rely on technology to make us efficient, the fewer skills we have to confront the unexpected, says writer and entrepreneur Margaret Heffernan. She shares why we need less tech and more messy human skills -- imagination, humility, bravery -- to solve problems in business, government and life in an unpredictable age. "We are brave enough to invent things we've never seen before," she says. "We can make any future we choose."
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Margaret Heffernan · Writer, entrepreneur
The former CEO of five businesses, Margaret Heffernan explores the all-too-human thought patterns that lead organizations and managers astray.
Transcript:
Recently, the leadership team of an American supermarket chain decided that their business needed to get a lot more efficient. So they embraced their digital transformation with zeal. Out went the teams supervising meat, veg, bakery, and in came an algorithmic task allocator. Now, instead of people working together, each employee went, clocked in, got assigned a task, did it, came back for more. This was scientific management on steroids, standardizing and allocating work. It was super efficient.
Well, not quite, because the task allocator didn't know when a customer was going to drop a box of eggs, couldn't predict when some crazy kid was going to knock over a display, or when the local high school decided that everybody needed to bring in coconuts the next day.
Efficiency works really well when you can predict exactly what you're going to need. But when the anomalous or unexpected comes along -- kids, customers, coconuts -- well, then efficiency is no longer your friend.
This has become a really crucial issue, this ability to deal with the unexpected, because the unexpected is becoming the norm. It's why experts and forecasters are reluctant to predict anything more than 400 days out. Why? Because over the last 20 or 30 years, much of the world has gone from being complicated to being complex -- which means that yes, there are patterns, but they don't repeat themselves regularly. It means that very small changes can make a disproportionate impact. And it means that expertise won't always suffice, because the system just keeps changing too fast.
So what that means is that there's a huge amount in the world that kind of defies forecasting now. It's why the Bank of England will say yes, there will be another crash, but we don't know why or when. We know that climate change is real, but we can't predict where forest fires will break out, and we don't know which factories are going to flood. It's why companies are blindsided when plastic straws and bags and bottled water go from staples to rejects overnight, and baffled when a change in social morays turns stars into pariahs and colleagues into outcasts: ineradicable uncertainty. In an environment that defies so much forecasting, efficiency won't just not help us, it specifically undermines and erodes our capacity to adapt and respond.
So if efficiency is no longer our guiding principle, how should we address the future? What kind of thinking is really going to help us? What sort of talents must we be sure to defend? I think that, where in the past we used to think a lot about just in time management, now we have to start thinking about just in case, preparing for events that are generally certain but specifically remain ambiguous.
One example of this is the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness, CEPI. We know there will be more epidemics in future, but we don't know where or when or what. So we can't plan. But we can prepare. So CEPI's developing multiple vaccines for multiple diseases, knowing that they can't predict which vaccines are going to work or which diseases will break out. So some of those vaccines will never be used. That's inefficient. But it's robust, because it provides more options, and it means that we don't depend on a single technological solution. Epidemic responsiveness also depends hugely on people who know and trust each other. But those relationships take time to develop, time that is always in short supply when an epidemic breaks out. So CEPI is developing relationships, friendships, alliances now knowing that some of those may never be used. That's inefficient, a waste of time, perhaps, but it's robust.
You can see robust thinking in financial services, too. In the past, banks used to hold much less capital than they're required to today, because holding so little capital, being too efficient with it, is what made the banks so fragile in the first place. Now, holding more capital looks and is inefficient. But it's robust, because it protects the financial system against surprises.
Countries that are really serious about climate change know that they have to adopt multiple solutions, multiple forms of renewable energy, not just one. The countries that are most advanced have been working for years now, changing their water and food supply and healthcare systems, because they recognize that by the time they have certain prediction, that information may very well come too late.
You can take the same approach to trade wars, and many countries do. Instead of depending on a single huge trading partner, they try to be everybody's friends, because they know they can't predict which markets might suddenly become unstable. It's time-consuming and expensive, negotiating all these deals, but it's robust because it makes their whole economy better defended against shocks. It's particularly a strategy adopted by small countries that know they'll never have the market muscle to call the shots, so it's just better to have too many friends. But if you're stuck in one of these organizations that's still kind of captured by the efficiency myth, how do you start to change it? Try some experiments.
In the Netherlands, home care nursing used to be run pretty much like the supermarket: standardized and prescribed work to the minute: nine minutes on Monday, seven minutes on Wednesday, eight minutes on Friday. The nurses hated it. So one of them, Jos de Blok, proposed an experiment. Since every patient is different, and we don't quite know exactly what they'll need, why don't we just leave it to the nurses to decide?
Sound reckless?
In his experiment, Jos found the patients got better in half the time, and costs fell by 30 percent. When I asked Jos what had surprised him about his experiment, he just kind of laughed and he said, "Well, I had no idea it could be so easy to find such a huge improvement, because this isn't the kind of thing you can know or predict sitting at a desk or staring at a computer screen." So now this form of nursing has proliferated across the Netherlands and around the world. But in every new country it still starts with experiments, because each place is slightly and unpredictably different.
Of course, not all experiments work. Jos tried a similar approach to the fire service and found it didn't work because the service is just too centralized. Failed experiments look inefficient, but they're often the only way you can figure out how the real world works. So now he's trying teachers. Experiments like that require creativity and not a little bravery.
In England -- I was about to say in the UK, but in England --
In England, the leading rugby team, or one of the leading rugby teams, is Saracens. The manager and the coach there realized that all the physical training they do and the data-driven conditioning that they do has become generic; really, all the teams do exactly the same thing. So they risked an experiment. They took the whole team away, even in match season, on ski trips and to look at social projects in Chicago. This was expensive, it was time-consuming, and it could be a little risky putting a whole bunch of rugby players on a ski slope, right?
But what they found was that the players came back with renewed bonds of loyalty and solidarity. And now when they're on the pitch under incredible pressure, they manifest what the manager calls "poise" -- an unflinching, unwavering dedication to each other. Their opponents are in awe of this, but still too in thrall to efficiency to try it.
At a London tech company, Verve, the CEO measures just about everything that moves, but she couldn't find anything that made any difference to the company's productivity. So she devised an experiment that she calls "Love Week": a whole week where each employee has to look for really clever, helpful, imaginative things that a counterpart does, call it out and celebrate it. It takes a huge amount of time and effort; lots of people would call it distracting. But it really energizes the business and makes the whole company more productive.
Preparedness, coalition-building, imagination, experiments, bravery -- in an unpredictable age, these are tremendous sources of resilience and strength. They aren't efficient, but they give us limitless capacity for adaptation, variation and invention. And the less we know about the future, the more we're going to need these tremendous sources of human, messy, unpredictable skills.
But in our growing dependence on technology, we're asset-stripping those skills. Every time we use technology to nudge us through a decision or a choice or to interpret how somebody's feeling or to guide us through a conversation, we outsource to a machine what we could, can do ourselves, and it's an expensive trade-off. The more we let machines think for us, the less we can think for ourselves. The more --
The more time doctors spend staring at digital medical records, the less time they spend looking at their patients. The more we use parenting apps, the less we know our kids. The more time we spend with people that we're predicted and programmed to like, the less we can connect with people who are different from ourselves. And the less compassion we need, the less compassion we have.
What all of these technologies attempt to do is to force-fit a standardized model of a predictable reality onto a world that is infinitely surprising. What gets left out? Anything that can't be measured -- which is just about everything that counts.
Our growing dependence on technology risks us becoming less skilled, more vulnerable to the deep and growing complexity of the real world.
Now, as I was thinking about the extremes of stress and turbulence that we know we will have to confront, I went and I talked to a number of chief executives whose own businesses had gone through existential crises, when they teetered on the brink of collapse. These were frank, gut-wrenching conversations. Many men wept just remembering. So I asked them: "What kept you going through this?"
And they all had exactly the same answer. "It wasn't data or technology," they said. "It was my friends and my colleagues who kept me going."
One added, "It was pretty much the opposite of the gig economy."
But then I went and I talked to a group of young, rising executives, and I asked them, "Who are your friends at work?" And they just looked blank.
"There's no time."
"They're too busy."
"It's not efficient."
Who, I wondered, is going to give them imagination and stamina and bravery when the storms come?
Anyone who tries to tell you that they know the future is just trying to own it, a spurious kind of manifest destiny. The harder, deeper truth is that the future is uncharted, that we can't map it till we get there.
But that's OK, because we have so much imagination -- if we use it. We have deep talents of inventiveness and exploration -- if we apply them. We are brave enough to invent things we've never seen before. Lose those skills, and we are adrift. But hone and develop them, we can make any future we choose. Thank you.
Source:www.ted.com
TED TALKS-Nicola Sturgeon: Why governments should prioritize well-being
The following information is used for educational purposes only.
TEDSummit 2019
July 2019
Nicola Sturgeon: Why governments should prioritize well-being
In 2018, Scotland, Iceland and New Zealand established the network of Wellbeing Economy Governments to challenge the acceptance of GDP as the ultimate measure of a country's success. In this visionary talk, First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon explains the far-reaching implications of a "well-being economy" -- which places factors like equal pay, childcare, mental health and access to green space at its heart -- and shows how this new focus could help build resolve to confront global challenges.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Nicola Sturgeon · First Minister of Scotland
As the first woman to hold the office of First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon is an important progressive and feminist voice in the governance of the United Kingdom.
Transcript:
Just over a mile away from here, in Edinburgh's Old Town, is Panmure House. Panmure House was the home of the world-renowned Scottish economist Adam Smith. In his important work "The Wealth of Nations," Adam Smith argued, amongst many other things, that the measurement of a country's wealth was not just its gold and silver reserves. It was the totality of the country's production and commerce. I guess it was one of the earliest descriptions of what we now know today as gross domestic product, GDP.
Now, in the years since, of course, that measurement of production and commerce, GDP, has become ever more important, to the point that today -- and I don't believe this is what Adam Smith would have intended -- that it is often seen as the most important measurement of a country's overall success. And my argument today is that it is time for that to change.
You know, what we choose to measure as a country matters. It really matters, because it drives political focus, it drives public activity. And against that context, I think the limitations of GDP as a measurement of a country's success are all too obvious. You know, GDP measures the output of all of our work, but it says nothing about the nature of that work, about whether that work is worthwhile or fulfilling. It puts a value, for example, on illegal drug consumption, but not on unpaid care. It values activity in the short term that boosts the economy, even if that activity is hugely damaging to the sustainability of our planet in the longer term.
And we reflect on the past decade of political and economic upheaval, of growing inequalities, and when we look ahead to the challenges of the climate emergency, increasing automation, an aging population, then I think the argument for the case for a much broader definition of what it means to be successful as a country, as a society, is compelling, and increasingly so.
And that is why Scotland, in 2018, took the lead, took the initiative in establishing a new network called the Wellbeing Economy Governments group, bringing together as founding members the countries of Scotland, Iceland and New Zealand, for obvious reasons. We're sometimes called the SIN countries, although our focus is very much on the common good. And the purpose of this group is to challenge that focus on the narrow measurement of GDP. To say that, yes, economic growth matters -- it is important -- but it is not all that is important. And growth in GDP should not be pursued at any or all cost. In fact, the argument of that group is that the goal, the objective of economic policy should be collective well-being: how happy and healthy a population is, not just how wealthy a population is.
And I'll touch on the policy implications of that in a moment. But I think, particularly in the world we live in today, it has a deeper resonance. You know, when we focus on well-being, we start a conversation that provokes profound and fundamental questions. What really matters to us in our lives? What do we value in the communities we live in? What kind of country, what kind of society, do we really want to be? And when we engage people in those questions, in finding the answers to those questions, then I believe that we have a much better chance of addressing the alienation and disaffection from politics that is so prevalent in so many countries across the developed world today.
In policy terms, this journey for Scotland started back in 2007, when we published what we call our National Performance Framework, looking at the range of indicators that we measure ourselves against. And those indicators are as varied as income inequality, the happiness of children, access to green spaces, access to housing. None of these are captured in GDP statistics, but they are all fundamental to a healthy and a happy society.
And that broader approach is at the heart of our economic strategy, where we give equal importance to tackling inequality as we do to economic competitiveness. It drives our commitment to fair work, making sure that work is fulfilling and well-paid. It's behind our decision to establish a Just Transition Commission to guide our path to a carbon zero economy. We know from economic transformations of the past that if we're not careful, there are more losers than winners. And as we face up to the challenges of climate change and automation, we must not make those mistakes again.
The work we're doing here in Scotland is, I think, significant, but we have much, much to learn from other countries. I mentioned, a moment ago, our partner nations in the Wellbeing network: Iceland and New Zealand. It's worth noting, and I'll leave it to you to decide whether this is relevant or not, that all three of these countries are currently led by women.
They, too, are doing great work. New Zealand, in 2019, publishing its first Wellbeing Budget, with mental health at its heart; Iceland leading the way on equal pay, childcare and paternity rights -- not policies that we immediately think of when we talk about creating a wealthy economy, but policies that are fundamental to a healthy economy and a happy society.
I started with Adam Smith and "The Wealth of Nations." In Adam Smith's earlier work, "The Theory of Moral Sentiments," which I think is just as important, he made the observation that the value of any government is judged in proportion to the extent that it makes its people happy. I think that is a good founding principle for any group of countries focused on promoting well-being. None of us have all of the answers, not even Scotland, the birthplace of Adam Smith. But in the world we live in today, with growing divides and inequalities, with disaffection and alienation, it is more important than ever that we ask and find the answers to those questions and promote a vision of society that has well-being, not just wealth, at its very heart.
You are right now in the beautiful, sunny capital city ...
of the country that led the world in the Enlightenment, the country that helped lead the world into the industrial age, the country that right now is helping to lead the world into the low carbon age. I want, and I'm determined, that Scotland will also be the country that helps change the focus of countries and governments across the world to put well-being at the heart of everything that we do. I think we owe that to this generation. I certainly believe we owe that to the next generation and all those that come after us. And if we do that, led here from the country of the Enlightenment, then I think we create a better, healthier, fairer and happier society here at home. And we play our part in Scotland in building a fairer, happier world as well. Thank you very much.
Source:www.ted.com
TEDSummit 2019
July 2019
Nicola Sturgeon: Why governments should prioritize well-being
In 2018, Scotland, Iceland and New Zealand established the network of Wellbeing Economy Governments to challenge the acceptance of GDP as the ultimate measure of a country's success. In this visionary talk, First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon explains the far-reaching implications of a "well-being economy" -- which places factors like equal pay, childcare, mental health and access to green space at its heart -- and shows how this new focus could help build resolve to confront global challenges.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Nicola Sturgeon · First Minister of Scotland
As the first woman to hold the office of First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon is an important progressive and feminist voice in the governance of the United Kingdom.
Transcript:
Just over a mile away from here, in Edinburgh's Old Town, is Panmure House. Panmure House was the home of the world-renowned Scottish economist Adam Smith. In his important work "The Wealth of Nations," Adam Smith argued, amongst many other things, that the measurement of a country's wealth was not just its gold and silver reserves. It was the totality of the country's production and commerce. I guess it was one of the earliest descriptions of what we now know today as gross domestic product, GDP.
Now, in the years since, of course, that measurement of production and commerce, GDP, has become ever more important, to the point that today -- and I don't believe this is what Adam Smith would have intended -- that it is often seen as the most important measurement of a country's overall success. And my argument today is that it is time for that to change.
You know, what we choose to measure as a country matters. It really matters, because it drives political focus, it drives public activity. And against that context, I think the limitations of GDP as a measurement of a country's success are all too obvious. You know, GDP measures the output of all of our work, but it says nothing about the nature of that work, about whether that work is worthwhile or fulfilling. It puts a value, for example, on illegal drug consumption, but not on unpaid care. It values activity in the short term that boosts the economy, even if that activity is hugely damaging to the sustainability of our planet in the longer term.
And we reflect on the past decade of political and economic upheaval, of growing inequalities, and when we look ahead to the challenges of the climate emergency, increasing automation, an aging population, then I think the argument for the case for a much broader definition of what it means to be successful as a country, as a society, is compelling, and increasingly so.
And that is why Scotland, in 2018, took the lead, took the initiative in establishing a new network called the Wellbeing Economy Governments group, bringing together as founding members the countries of Scotland, Iceland and New Zealand, for obvious reasons. We're sometimes called the SIN countries, although our focus is very much on the common good. And the purpose of this group is to challenge that focus on the narrow measurement of GDP. To say that, yes, economic growth matters -- it is important -- but it is not all that is important. And growth in GDP should not be pursued at any or all cost. In fact, the argument of that group is that the goal, the objective of economic policy should be collective well-being: how happy and healthy a population is, not just how wealthy a population is.
And I'll touch on the policy implications of that in a moment. But I think, particularly in the world we live in today, it has a deeper resonance. You know, when we focus on well-being, we start a conversation that provokes profound and fundamental questions. What really matters to us in our lives? What do we value in the communities we live in? What kind of country, what kind of society, do we really want to be? And when we engage people in those questions, in finding the answers to those questions, then I believe that we have a much better chance of addressing the alienation and disaffection from politics that is so prevalent in so many countries across the developed world today.
In policy terms, this journey for Scotland started back in 2007, when we published what we call our National Performance Framework, looking at the range of indicators that we measure ourselves against. And those indicators are as varied as income inequality, the happiness of children, access to green spaces, access to housing. None of these are captured in GDP statistics, but they are all fundamental to a healthy and a happy society.
And that broader approach is at the heart of our economic strategy, where we give equal importance to tackling inequality as we do to economic competitiveness. It drives our commitment to fair work, making sure that work is fulfilling and well-paid. It's behind our decision to establish a Just Transition Commission to guide our path to a carbon zero economy. We know from economic transformations of the past that if we're not careful, there are more losers than winners. And as we face up to the challenges of climate change and automation, we must not make those mistakes again.
The work we're doing here in Scotland is, I think, significant, but we have much, much to learn from other countries. I mentioned, a moment ago, our partner nations in the Wellbeing network: Iceland and New Zealand. It's worth noting, and I'll leave it to you to decide whether this is relevant or not, that all three of these countries are currently led by women.
They, too, are doing great work. New Zealand, in 2019, publishing its first Wellbeing Budget, with mental health at its heart; Iceland leading the way on equal pay, childcare and paternity rights -- not policies that we immediately think of when we talk about creating a wealthy economy, but policies that are fundamental to a healthy economy and a happy society.
I started with Adam Smith and "The Wealth of Nations." In Adam Smith's earlier work, "The Theory of Moral Sentiments," which I think is just as important, he made the observation that the value of any government is judged in proportion to the extent that it makes its people happy. I think that is a good founding principle for any group of countries focused on promoting well-being. None of us have all of the answers, not even Scotland, the birthplace of Adam Smith. But in the world we live in today, with growing divides and inequalities, with disaffection and alienation, it is more important than ever that we ask and find the answers to those questions and promote a vision of society that has well-being, not just wealth, at its very heart.
You are right now in the beautiful, sunny capital city ...
of the country that led the world in the Enlightenment, the country that helped lead the world into the industrial age, the country that right now is helping to lead the world into the low carbon age. I want, and I'm determined, that Scotland will also be the country that helps change the focus of countries and governments across the world to put well-being at the heart of everything that we do. I think we owe that to this generation. I certainly believe we owe that to the next generation and all those that come after us. And if we do that, led here from the country of the Enlightenment, then I think we create a better, healthier, fairer and happier society here at home. And we play our part in Scotland in building a fairer, happier world as well. Thank you very much.
Source:www.ted.com
WE HUMANS-7 things everyone should do while they’re in college that can help them in the future, by Daniella Balarezo
The following information is used for educational purposes only.
WE HUMANS
7 things everyone should do while they’re in college that can help them in the future
Aug 1, 2019
Daniella Balarezo
Justin Tran
Here are the must-dos that you need to check off your list before you get your diploma, from entrepreneur Liz Wessel.
For those fortunate enough to be able to go, college can feel limitless — full of endless quantities of new people, new ideas, new experiences, and new possibilities. This abundance can be enough to make students lose sight of a hard fact: College isn’t forever. That’s why Liz Wessel, entrepreneur and founder of Way Up, a US-based job site for college students and recent grads, wants people to seize all of those opportunities now — before graduation.
“I have too many friends who have graduated from school after spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on their education, after spending four years of their life, if not more … and then they come and they tell me how much they regret not doing something [during college],” says Wessel in a TEDxRutgers talk. To prevent you from feeling those future pangs, she shares the 7 things she thinks every student should do before they leave campus for good.
1. Send out cold emails (even if you don’t want to).
Think about someone you’d really like to meet — maybe it’s a distinguished alumna of your college, a writer whose work has changed your outlook, or a person who is a pioneer in an industry you’re curious about. Then, find their email address (“there are a million tricks and hacks on how to do it online,” says Wessel), and start a conversation with them.
It worked for Wessel. By the end of her senior year at the University of Pennsylvania, she had two job offers: one was to be a product marketing manager at Google, and the other was for a position at a venture capital fund. Both positions seemed great, but Wessel was torn. While she wasn’t quite sure what either role entailed, she did know that she wanted to start a company within a few years after graduation. So she emailed a venture capitalist, told him she was a student at Penn and trying to figure out her life, and explained her dilemma. He replied and told her if she wanted to start a business some day, she should take the job at Google.
Why you should do this while you’re still in college:
For many people, sending out cold emails can be awkward, uncomfortable, maybe even an exercise in rejection. But one major reason to look beyond your doubts and do it anyway is because you’re still a student. As Wessel puts it, “Everyone in the world wants to help college students, so please use that to your advantage.”
But do not bury this advantage deep in your email. Wessel adds, “In your first sentence in your cold email, you should be saying, ‘Hi, my name is ___ and I’m a college student at ___ .’” And if there’s any other connection you share with the person — they went to the same elementary school as you, volunteer for the same cause, support the same sports team — mention that up front, too.
2. Find your five.
Wessell credits her present success to the people she met when she was in college: “I would not be where I am today at all had I not made the friends that I made.”
Her recommendation:“Befriend five people who you would bet on … If you’re truly friends after you graduate, they’re gonna help you and you’re gonna help them.” By “bet on,” this doesn’t mean they must all be future-Time-magazine-cover material; rather, they’re people you like and admire and seem to be on a trajectory to make their mark on the world. Through your life, they’ll also serve as your personal board of directors, or legion of superheroes, as coach and consultant Tania Katan puts it.
Why you should do this while you’re still in college:
Wessel says, “There’s never going to be a time again where there are going to be … thousands of brilliant minds around you, learning alongside you, except when you’re in college.”
3. Take a class that teaches a practical skill.
While Wessell truly enjoyed studying the subjects she majored and minored in — political science, Japanese and math — one elective she took has proven to be surprisingly beneficial. She says, “That one graphic design class has helped me in my day-to-day life more than all of my other classes combined.”
For Wessell’s WayUp cofounder, it was a negotiation class he took in college. Now, she says, “he’s the guy who negotiates when we get term sheets from venture capital funds.”
Why you should do this while you’re still in college:
Even if your first job aligns perfectly with your major, the working world will inevitably call on other parts of you. That’s why it’s smart to acquire a skill or skills — such as the ones just mentioned — that will provide you with tools and a perspective which you can apply to a variety of fields. “If you take one class in a very practical skill, whether it’s a computer science class, a negotiation class, or a writing class, it will pay off dividends,” says Wessel.
4. Start something.
Wessell realized she was an entrepreneur in college, and she doubts she would have started WayUp if she hadn’t launched a business as an undergrad when she was 19. There are so many kinds of things you can start — while it could be a business, it might be an extracurricular club, a publication, a public-service drive or campaign, a film series, a TEDx event (apply here), or anything else you can dream up.
Why you should do this while you’re still in college:
Conceiving of a venture, bringing it into reality, and keeping it going will provide you with an education like no other. It also preps you for future jobs, no matter what they may be. “Once you get into the real world of work, you’re going to see that executing projects is pretty much all you do, and it’s really hard,” says Wessel. “It’s great to get that experience during college.”
Similar to cold emailing, college students have a tremendous built-in advantage here. Says Wessel, “corporate sponsors are way more willing to help you when you say you’re a student and this is a university project … versus you’re just another recent grad.” Plus, on campus, there are professors, deans and staff to advise you, competitions and grants to earn seed money, peers who’d like to collaborate, and auditoriums, offices, conference rooms and other facilities to use. Make use of all these resources while you can.
5. Find the professor.
“Everyone’s ‘the professor’ is different,” Wessell says. How to identify them: They’re the one who teaches the class that sets your mind on fire (in a good way), conducts research in the precise area that you’re passionate about, or sees the world in such a distinctive way that you can know you can learn from them.
When she was at Penn, Wessell was determined to study with a particular expert in entrepreneurship — only to learn that undergrads couldn’t take his courses. She kept showing up at the professor’s office until she was finally granted permission. He later helped Wessel with a business plan, which provided the foundation for WayUp, and they’ve stayed in touch. “I can safely say that professor changed my life,” she says.
Why you should do this while you’re still in college:
It’s so much easier to find the professor when you’re at college — and much harder after.
6. Go on an adventure.
While there are many great things about life after college, vacations aren’t usually one of them — at least not for entry-level employees. Unless you’re a teacher or get a job in education, Wessel says, “there’s no such thing as spring or summer break. There’s barely a winter break.”
One summer during college, Wessel had a marketing internship in Tokyo and it made her realize that she wanted to work abroad sometime after graduation. Thanks to the experience, she eventually led a brand team in India for Google.
Why you should do this while you’re still in college:
“You’re never going to have the opportunity [later in life] to just be carefree,” explains Wessel. Take the time while you’re in college — even if it’s for a week in summer — to have a completely new experience. She says, “Figure out where’s your comfort zone. Do you like being out of your comfort zone? Or do you like being in it? What do you enjoy doing?” Get a job abroad, go on a road trip, take a workshop or class at another college or school.
7. Get as much work experience as possible.
Although Wessell suggests logging as many on-the-job hours as possible, she cautions, “I don’t mean [that you should] have one internship you do every single summer, or [that you should] be a camp counselor every single summer, or be a receptionist at the local dentist every weekend.” Instead, try out as many different kinds of work experiences as you can.
Why you should do this while you’re still in college:
It’s a time when you can job-hop without looking unreliable or flaky. “During college, you’re totally OK to have a new internship every summer; you’re totally OK to have a job every year of college, maybe even every semester,” Wessel says. “When you graduate from college, if you have a new job every six months, that looks really bad.”
Doing a variety of jobs is the best way for you to figure out what you want to do after college — and, just as important, what you don’t want to do. Wessel explains, “This is the time you should figure out what you love doing, what you hate doing, what you’re good at, what you’re bad at.”
Watch her TEDxRutgers talk now:
7 things to do before you graduate college | Liz Wessel | TEDxRutgers
TEDx Talks
Published on May 13, 2016
As an young entrepreneur, Liz has learned a lot about maintaining a passion, building meaningful connections and growing a business - all in a relatively short time. She feels her pivotal point of growth was during her four years at college - in her passionate talk, she highlights seven things she believes each student should do before they graduate and how these actions will affect who they grow up to be.
As a student at UPenn, Liz had observed peers who struggled to find relevant work during the school year. Later, as a Google employee, she saw that even the largest, most well-known companies struggle to find key hires. Liz wanted to fix this problem through tech. With smarter filtering and a focus on quality over quantity, the two sides of the marketplace would finally match up. So, 18 months ago, Liz quit her job at Google to start WayUp, recently named by CNN as one of the 30 most innovative companies changing the world in 2015, with her co-founder, JJ Fliegelman. Today, they’ve got 35+ employees and the site is currently getting 1 out of 3 users hired. Liz hopes that one day WayUp will land every student their first job.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Daniella Balarezo is a Media Fellow at TEDx. She is also a writer and comedian based in NYC.
Source: https://ideas.ted.com/7-things-everyone-should-do-while-theyre-in-college-that-can-help-them-in-the-future//www.youtube.com
WE HUMANS
7 things everyone should do while they’re in college that can help them in the future
Aug 1, 2019
Daniella Balarezo
Justin Tran
Here are the must-dos that you need to check off your list before you get your diploma, from entrepreneur Liz Wessel.
For those fortunate enough to be able to go, college can feel limitless — full of endless quantities of new people, new ideas, new experiences, and new possibilities. This abundance can be enough to make students lose sight of a hard fact: College isn’t forever. That’s why Liz Wessel, entrepreneur and founder of Way Up, a US-based job site for college students and recent grads, wants people to seize all of those opportunities now — before graduation.
“I have too many friends who have graduated from school after spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on their education, after spending four years of their life, if not more … and then they come and they tell me how much they regret not doing something [during college],” says Wessel in a TEDxRutgers talk. To prevent you from feeling those future pangs, she shares the 7 things she thinks every student should do before they leave campus for good.
1. Send out cold emails (even if you don’t want to).
Think about someone you’d really like to meet — maybe it’s a distinguished alumna of your college, a writer whose work has changed your outlook, or a person who is a pioneer in an industry you’re curious about. Then, find their email address (“there are a million tricks and hacks on how to do it online,” says Wessel), and start a conversation with them.
It worked for Wessel. By the end of her senior year at the University of Pennsylvania, she had two job offers: one was to be a product marketing manager at Google, and the other was for a position at a venture capital fund. Both positions seemed great, but Wessel was torn. While she wasn’t quite sure what either role entailed, she did know that she wanted to start a company within a few years after graduation. So she emailed a venture capitalist, told him she was a student at Penn and trying to figure out her life, and explained her dilemma. He replied and told her if she wanted to start a business some day, she should take the job at Google.
Why you should do this while you’re still in college:
For many people, sending out cold emails can be awkward, uncomfortable, maybe even an exercise in rejection. But one major reason to look beyond your doubts and do it anyway is because you’re still a student. As Wessel puts it, “Everyone in the world wants to help college students, so please use that to your advantage.”
But do not bury this advantage deep in your email. Wessel adds, “In your first sentence in your cold email, you should be saying, ‘Hi, my name is ___ and I’m a college student at ___ .’” And if there’s any other connection you share with the person — they went to the same elementary school as you, volunteer for the same cause, support the same sports team — mention that up front, too.
2. Find your five.
Wessell credits her present success to the people she met when she was in college: “I would not be where I am today at all had I not made the friends that I made.”
Her recommendation:“Befriend five people who you would bet on … If you’re truly friends after you graduate, they’re gonna help you and you’re gonna help them.” By “bet on,” this doesn’t mean they must all be future-Time-magazine-cover material; rather, they’re people you like and admire and seem to be on a trajectory to make their mark on the world. Through your life, they’ll also serve as your personal board of directors, or legion of superheroes, as coach and consultant Tania Katan puts it.
Why you should do this while you’re still in college:
Wessel says, “There’s never going to be a time again where there are going to be … thousands of brilliant minds around you, learning alongside you, except when you’re in college.”
3. Take a class that teaches a practical skill.
While Wessell truly enjoyed studying the subjects she majored and minored in — political science, Japanese and math — one elective she took has proven to be surprisingly beneficial. She says, “That one graphic design class has helped me in my day-to-day life more than all of my other classes combined.”
For Wessell’s WayUp cofounder, it was a negotiation class he took in college. Now, she says, “he’s the guy who negotiates when we get term sheets from venture capital funds.”
Why you should do this while you’re still in college:
Even if your first job aligns perfectly with your major, the working world will inevitably call on other parts of you. That’s why it’s smart to acquire a skill or skills — such as the ones just mentioned — that will provide you with tools and a perspective which you can apply to a variety of fields. “If you take one class in a very practical skill, whether it’s a computer science class, a negotiation class, or a writing class, it will pay off dividends,” says Wessel.
4. Start something.
Wessell realized she was an entrepreneur in college, and she doubts she would have started WayUp if she hadn’t launched a business as an undergrad when she was 19. There are so many kinds of things you can start — while it could be a business, it might be an extracurricular club, a publication, a public-service drive or campaign, a film series, a TEDx event (apply here), or anything else you can dream up.
Why you should do this while you’re still in college:
Conceiving of a venture, bringing it into reality, and keeping it going will provide you with an education like no other. It also preps you for future jobs, no matter what they may be. “Once you get into the real world of work, you’re going to see that executing projects is pretty much all you do, and it’s really hard,” says Wessel. “It’s great to get that experience during college.”
Similar to cold emailing, college students have a tremendous built-in advantage here. Says Wessel, “corporate sponsors are way more willing to help you when you say you’re a student and this is a university project … versus you’re just another recent grad.” Plus, on campus, there are professors, deans and staff to advise you, competitions and grants to earn seed money, peers who’d like to collaborate, and auditoriums, offices, conference rooms and other facilities to use. Make use of all these resources while you can.
5. Find the professor.
“Everyone’s ‘the professor’ is different,” Wessell says. How to identify them: They’re the one who teaches the class that sets your mind on fire (in a good way), conducts research in the precise area that you’re passionate about, or sees the world in such a distinctive way that you can know you can learn from them.
When she was at Penn, Wessell was determined to study with a particular expert in entrepreneurship — only to learn that undergrads couldn’t take his courses. She kept showing up at the professor’s office until she was finally granted permission. He later helped Wessel with a business plan, which provided the foundation for WayUp, and they’ve stayed in touch. “I can safely say that professor changed my life,” she says.
Why you should do this while you’re still in college:
It’s so much easier to find the professor when you’re at college — and much harder after.
6. Go on an adventure.
While there are many great things about life after college, vacations aren’t usually one of them — at least not for entry-level employees. Unless you’re a teacher or get a job in education, Wessel says, “there’s no such thing as spring or summer break. There’s barely a winter break.”
One summer during college, Wessel had a marketing internship in Tokyo and it made her realize that she wanted to work abroad sometime after graduation. Thanks to the experience, she eventually led a brand team in India for Google.
Why you should do this while you’re still in college:
“You’re never going to have the opportunity [later in life] to just be carefree,” explains Wessel. Take the time while you’re in college — even if it’s for a week in summer — to have a completely new experience. She says, “Figure out where’s your comfort zone. Do you like being out of your comfort zone? Or do you like being in it? What do you enjoy doing?” Get a job abroad, go on a road trip, take a workshop or class at another college or school.
7. Get as much work experience as possible.
Although Wessell suggests logging as many on-the-job hours as possible, she cautions, “I don’t mean [that you should] have one internship you do every single summer, or [that you should] be a camp counselor every single summer, or be a receptionist at the local dentist every weekend.” Instead, try out as many different kinds of work experiences as you can.
Why you should do this while you’re still in college:
It’s a time when you can job-hop without looking unreliable or flaky. “During college, you’re totally OK to have a new internship every summer; you’re totally OK to have a job every year of college, maybe even every semester,” Wessel says. “When you graduate from college, if you have a new job every six months, that looks really bad.”
Doing a variety of jobs is the best way for you to figure out what you want to do after college — and, just as important, what you don’t want to do. Wessel explains, “This is the time you should figure out what you love doing, what you hate doing, what you’re good at, what you’re bad at.”
Watch her TEDxRutgers talk now:
7 things to do before you graduate college | Liz Wessel | TEDxRutgers
TEDx Talks
Published on May 13, 2016
As an young entrepreneur, Liz has learned a lot about maintaining a passion, building meaningful connections and growing a business - all in a relatively short time. She feels her pivotal point of growth was during her four years at college - in her passionate talk, she highlights seven things she believes each student should do before they graduate and how these actions will affect who they grow up to be.
As a student at UPenn, Liz had observed peers who struggled to find relevant work during the school year. Later, as a Google employee, she saw that even the largest, most well-known companies struggle to find key hires. Liz wanted to fix this problem through tech. With smarter filtering and a focus on quality over quantity, the two sides of the marketplace would finally match up. So, 18 months ago, Liz quit her job at Google to start WayUp, recently named by CNN as one of the 30 most innovative companies changing the world in 2015, with her co-founder, JJ Fliegelman. Today, they’ve got 35+ employees and the site is currently getting 1 out of 3 users hired. Liz hopes that one day WayUp will land every student their first job.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Daniella Balarezo is a Media Fellow at TEDx. She is also a writer and comedian based in NYC.
Source: https://ideas.ted.com/7-things-everyone-should-do-while-theyre-in-college-that-can-help-them-in-the-future//www.youtube.com
Thursday, August 1, 2019
Great Leaders Recognize and Value the Power of Emotions
The following information is used for educational purposes only.
Great Leaders Recognize and Value the Power of Emotions
The story of a group of summer interns was burning up the Internet a while back for lessons learned in a painful way. The interns working temporarily for a company were distressed about a strict dress code that they felt was unfair — especially since one employee was seen regularly wearing shoes that didn’t fit the code. So, they wrote and signed a proposal asking for leeway under the dress code. After submitting their petition, all those who signed it were promptly released from their internship positions.
That’s right — the young interns were fired.
One of the interns posted the following information online at askamanager.org: “We weren’t even given a chance to discuss it. The worst part is that just before the meeting ended, one of the managers told us that the worker who was allowed to disobey the dress code was a former soldier who lost her leg and was therefore given permission to wear whatever kind of shoes she could walk in. You can’t even tell, and if we had known about this we would have factored it into our argument.”
Business bloggers had a field day with that last line (If you want to read all the details, visit the Related Links section of this article). Why? Because it totally lacked emotional intelligence, at the heart of which is empathy and understanding for the experiences of others. In the end, the interns seemed only to care about themselves, and to care very little about their coworker’s actual situation as it related to the “unfair” dress code.Emotional intelligence, known both as EI and EQ (emotional quotient), is considered one of the most important skills to have in the workplace. Here’s why, and also how you might develop stronger emotional intelligence…
In June 2016, Edward Yu, a then-partner in the health industries strategy practice for PwC, a professional services firm with 200,000 employees around the world, presented on emotional intelligence during the PwC-KWHS Seminar for High School Educators at Wharton San Francisco. Yu, who mentors many young PwC professionals, talked about what corporate executives want to see in young leaders, and why emotional intelligence tops the list. “What allows young people to be successful is your ability to manage behaviors that promote getting along with others,” said Yu.
Here are a few valuable takeaways from Yu’s presentation on leadership and emotional intelligence:
• Relationships matter. People who are going to be successful in the job market are those who are able to have live, interpersonal interactions with people. Plenty of people will type at each other. But those who can develop a relationship with someone will be successful. You must have emotional intelligence in order to develop relationships and trust.
• Empathy is the most crucial leadership skill. Simply put, empathy is the ability to communicate (send and receive messages) and lead by understanding others’ thoughts, views and feelings. To better understand empathy, think of the African word Sawubona, which means “I ‘see’ you,” said Yu. “When you meet somebody, you really see them — not just because you notice them, but because you respect them and understand where they come from.” Empathy – connecting with a coworker or a client on a deeper level than just quoting numbers or business studies – is extremely important to effective leadership.
• Situational leadership demands both technical and emotional skill. Effective leaders understand the situation and lead accordingly. How well can you read a room? “When you meet with somebody, you have to figure out very quickly how to make connections,” explained Yu. “This extends to how you look at non-verbal cues.” What is the vibe, and how will you adapt your leadership approach to meet it?
• Emotional intelligence requires self-management. In other words, capable leaders stay calm under pressure and are resilient. Resilience is especially important in that you must learn to persevere through failure. You may want to throw your hands up in despair, but the best approach is to take constructive criticism, learn from your mistakes, and move on. “Rapid failure means rapid learning, and that means refining your strategy. What didn’t work and what would you do as a result?” said Yu. “Students who can fail and learn will be much more successful.”
• Getting along means getting ahead. Strong leaders don’t command and control, they connect. Relationship-building, social skill, empathy, collaboration and awareness of yourself and others are all key components of emotional intelligence. Laura Guillen, professor of organizational behavior at ESMT in Berlin, says, “EI allows individuals to engage in interpersonal processes, thus promoting getting-along behaviors at work, which in turn impact getting-ahead leadership behaviors.”
• RULER is a true measure of emotional intelligence. Remember this guide as you work on building your emotional intelligence skills for the workplace:
R=Recognizing emotions by paying attention to facial expressions, vocal tones and body language.
U=Understanding emotions by being able to identify the causes and consequences of various emotions.
L=Labeling emotions and developing a vocabulary to express a full range of emotions.
E=Expressing emotions and learning to do so with different people, contexts and cultures.
R=Regulating emotions by developing strategies to manage your own emotions and help others to manage theirs.
Bottom line: it’s not enough in the workplace to choose the right emoji for how you are feeling in the moment. You need to explore emotions – both yours and others – more deeply if you want to begin building your path to great leadership.
Conversation Starters
It has been said that emotions are the insight to who you truly are as a person. Ignoring them means that you are denying your true self. In the end, why is it so important to understand yourself and others on an emotional level? How does this make you a stronger leader? Why can’t you just lead with technical skills? What might happen if you discredit the value of emotions as a leader?
An important part of emotional intelligence is recognizing and accepting that not everyone reacts to a situation or expresses emotion the same way. Take crying at a funeral, for example. Some do so openly, while others express their grief in different ways.
Do you find yourself judging others for how they express emotion? Create a scenario and discuss in a small group how you might respond to it. What does this teach you about your own emotional intelligence? Remember to focus on the meaning of empathy.
Using the “Related Links” tab accompanying this story, further research the plight of the interns introduced at the beginning of the article. Open a discussion with your class and peers about what happened here. Do you agree with their approach? Disagree? Why or why not?
Choose 10 emojis from your phone or online and identify the related emotions. Now discuss them with a group. Did you identify them similarly? What did you learn about how people perceive certain emotions?
Source:https://kwhs.wharton.upenn.edu/2016/07/great-leaders-recognize-value-power-emotions/
Great Leaders Recognize and Value the Power of Emotions
The story of a group of summer interns was burning up the Internet a while back for lessons learned in a painful way. The interns working temporarily for a company were distressed about a strict dress code that they felt was unfair — especially since one employee was seen regularly wearing shoes that didn’t fit the code. So, they wrote and signed a proposal asking for leeway under the dress code. After submitting their petition, all those who signed it were promptly released from their internship positions.
That’s right — the young interns were fired.
One of the interns posted the following information online at askamanager.org: “We weren’t even given a chance to discuss it. The worst part is that just before the meeting ended, one of the managers told us that the worker who was allowed to disobey the dress code was a former soldier who lost her leg and was therefore given permission to wear whatever kind of shoes she could walk in. You can’t even tell, and if we had known about this we would have factored it into our argument.”
Business bloggers had a field day with that last line (If you want to read all the details, visit the Related Links section of this article). Why? Because it totally lacked emotional intelligence, at the heart of which is empathy and understanding for the experiences of others. In the end, the interns seemed only to care about themselves, and to care very little about their coworker’s actual situation as it related to the “unfair” dress code.Emotional intelligence, known both as EI and EQ (emotional quotient), is considered one of the most important skills to have in the workplace. Here’s why, and also how you might develop stronger emotional intelligence…
In June 2016, Edward Yu, a then-partner in the health industries strategy practice for PwC, a professional services firm with 200,000 employees around the world, presented on emotional intelligence during the PwC-KWHS Seminar for High School Educators at Wharton San Francisco. Yu, who mentors many young PwC professionals, talked about what corporate executives want to see in young leaders, and why emotional intelligence tops the list. “What allows young people to be successful is your ability to manage behaviors that promote getting along with others,” said Yu.
Here are a few valuable takeaways from Yu’s presentation on leadership and emotional intelligence:
• Relationships matter. People who are going to be successful in the job market are those who are able to have live, interpersonal interactions with people. Plenty of people will type at each other. But those who can develop a relationship with someone will be successful. You must have emotional intelligence in order to develop relationships and trust.
• Empathy is the most crucial leadership skill. Simply put, empathy is the ability to communicate (send and receive messages) and lead by understanding others’ thoughts, views and feelings. To better understand empathy, think of the African word Sawubona, which means “I ‘see’ you,” said Yu. “When you meet somebody, you really see them — not just because you notice them, but because you respect them and understand where they come from.” Empathy – connecting with a coworker or a client on a deeper level than just quoting numbers or business studies – is extremely important to effective leadership.
• Situational leadership demands both technical and emotional skill. Effective leaders understand the situation and lead accordingly. How well can you read a room? “When you meet with somebody, you have to figure out very quickly how to make connections,” explained Yu. “This extends to how you look at non-verbal cues.” What is the vibe, and how will you adapt your leadership approach to meet it?
• Emotional intelligence requires self-management. In other words, capable leaders stay calm under pressure and are resilient. Resilience is especially important in that you must learn to persevere through failure. You may want to throw your hands up in despair, but the best approach is to take constructive criticism, learn from your mistakes, and move on. “Rapid failure means rapid learning, and that means refining your strategy. What didn’t work and what would you do as a result?” said Yu. “Students who can fail and learn will be much more successful.”
• Getting along means getting ahead. Strong leaders don’t command and control, they connect. Relationship-building, social skill, empathy, collaboration and awareness of yourself and others are all key components of emotional intelligence. Laura Guillen, professor of organizational behavior at ESMT in Berlin, says, “EI allows individuals to engage in interpersonal processes, thus promoting getting-along behaviors at work, which in turn impact getting-ahead leadership behaviors.”
• RULER is a true measure of emotional intelligence. Remember this guide as you work on building your emotional intelligence skills for the workplace:
R=Recognizing emotions by paying attention to facial expressions, vocal tones and body language.
U=Understanding emotions by being able to identify the causes and consequences of various emotions.
L=Labeling emotions and developing a vocabulary to express a full range of emotions.
E=Expressing emotions and learning to do so with different people, contexts and cultures.
R=Regulating emotions by developing strategies to manage your own emotions and help others to manage theirs.
Bottom line: it’s not enough in the workplace to choose the right emoji for how you are feeling in the moment. You need to explore emotions – both yours and others – more deeply if you want to begin building your path to great leadership.
Conversation Starters
It has been said that emotions are the insight to who you truly are as a person. Ignoring them means that you are denying your true self. In the end, why is it so important to understand yourself and others on an emotional level? How does this make you a stronger leader? Why can’t you just lead with technical skills? What might happen if you discredit the value of emotions as a leader?
An important part of emotional intelligence is recognizing and accepting that not everyone reacts to a situation or expresses emotion the same way. Take crying at a funeral, for example. Some do so openly, while others express their grief in different ways.
Do you find yourself judging others for how they express emotion? Create a scenario and discuss in a small group how you might respond to it. What does this teach you about your own emotional intelligence? Remember to focus on the meaning of empathy.
Using the “Related Links” tab accompanying this story, further research the plight of the interns introduced at the beginning of the article. Open a discussion with your class and peers about what happened here. Do you agree with their approach? Disagree? Why or why not?
Choose 10 emojis from your phone or online and identify the related emotions. Now discuss them with a group. Did you identify them similarly? What did you learn about how people perceive certain emotions?
Source:https://kwhs.wharton.upenn.edu/2016/07/great-leaders-recognize-value-power-emotions/
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