Friday, September 28, 2007

tan solo escribo para dar las gracias

Poema de José Luis Mejía, el mejor profesor que nunca tuve, que sabe mucho de literatura, pero más aún de cómo vivir y cómo enseñar a vivir.

TAN SOLO ESCRIBO PARA DAR LAS GRACIAS

Nací en un mediodía de setiembre
cuando en el Sur el tiempo es primavera,
cuando se anima el sol y se levanta
cansado y remolón, de tanta siesta.
Tuve paz, tuve amor, tuve familia,
mi madre fue mujer valiente y buena,
mi padre fue varón bueno y valiente;
ambos me dieron decisión y fuerza.
Tuve la suerte de tener hermanos
y aunque nunca faltaron las peleas
somos aún un cuerpo que defiende,
leal y solidario, sus fronteras.
Tuve una infancia como cualquier otro,
entre la fantasía y la inconsciencia;
recuerdo que jugaba desde niño
con las manos tenaces de mi abuela.
Tuvimos, unas veces, vino y carne,
otras veces besamos la pobreza,
un tiempo anduve en carro y muchos años
tuve que andar a pie o en bicicleta.
Fui como todos, fui como ninguno,
jamás me acompañó la buena letra
y fui, por hablador y distraído,
una queja común de las maestras.
Me salvaban las notas, los guarismos,
los números que honraban mi libreta,
¡aunque yo me aburriera como un hongo
al "ma-me-mi-mo-mu" y su cantaleta!
Crecí bastante más de lo debido
y pronto comenzaron con las dietas,
con los dulces prohibidos, con las pastas
"que no debes comer, porque te aumentan".
Me dijeron "camina" y caminando
compartí parques, plazas y veredas,
primero con mi padre y de repente
con muchachas que son viejas ausencias.
Con audacia, victorias y fracasos,
llegué sereno hasta la adolescencia
y supe que el amor se viste, a veces,
de esa amiga que tiene lindas piernas.
Anduve con amigos de los cuales
conservo a los mejores, sin urgencias,
pasamos por los mismos desafíos
y compartimos lágrimas y piedras.
Conocimos mujeres para el rato,
unas en alquiler, otras en venta,
y dijimos mentira tras mentira
tan solo por un beso, ¡qué inocencia!
Nos lo jugamos todo en la partida
—que todo es nada cuando se comienza—,
y empezamos a hacernos un camino
a paso lento, sin pensar siquiera.
Cuando se es joven nunca pasa el tiempo,
lo mismo da verano o primavera,
se avanza sin volver atrás la cara,
sin extrañar las cosas que se dejan.
Nunca supe si estuve enamorado,
si fueron ilusiones o luciérnagas,
si alguno de los tantos abandonos
pudo llamarse amor, a ciencia cierta.
Sin embargo las quise como nadie
jamás en su existir podrá quererlas,
los otros se llevaron las caricias,
yo me robé su fe, simple y primera.
Un día le escribí algunas palabras
a la que entonces era la más bella,
alguien lo supo, comenzó a burlarse,
y desde entonces dicen: "es poeta".
Estudié abogacía por un lustro,
soy bachiller en leyes —sin ofensa—
decidí no ejercer la vez que supe
que la justicia se encontraba en venta.
Me volví profesor porque a los veinte
la mala paga del docente es buena,
y vi la luz de tantos maniatados
tras la ferocidad de una carpeta.
En ellos aprendí ganas, coraje;
valor y voluntad, aprendí en ellas;
mis alumnos le dan vida a mi vida
y una alegría insospechada, inmensa.
También he publicado algunos libros
que unos cuantos leyeron con paciencia,
y he descubierto que la vida tiene
algo de cierto y mucho de novela.
Tengo a mi lado una mujer que existe
sobre las olas de cualquier anécdota,
con un alma sencilla y generosa,
con pasión, voluntad e inteligencia.
Tengo una patria que no se limita
a la vulgaridad de las banderas
y una ciudad sin cielo a la que extraño
porque en ella nací, y ella me espera.
Tengo familia, amigos, libertad,
tengo tres perros y una biblioteca,
un corazón que late todavía,
un sueño, una emoción y algún poema.
Le debo tantas cosas a los tantos
que fueron guías, brazos, centinelas,
y soy mal pagador; pido disculpas,
siempre fui torpe cancelando deudas.
La vida es un hermoso sinsentido
y es dándole sentido que se eleva,
nos consuela, nos da, nos eterniza
y nos redime de nuestras miserias.
Tan solo escribo para dar las gracias
a todos, por su tiempo y su paciencia,
porque son cómplices en el milagro
de querer y querer y que me quieran.

José Luis Mejía

Trabajar en el gobierno


Muy emocionante recibir un mail de mi mejor amiga de toda la vida, Sofía García, en donde me cuenta sobre su trabajo en el Mincetur (Ministerio de Comercio Exterior y Turismo del Perú.) Rodeados siempre de tantas acusaciones de corrupción e ineficiencia, es muy lindo escuchar que en muchos casos, la cosas sí funcionan.


"el trabajo espectacular, la verdad es que el gobierno no es un sitio para nada horrible de trabajar, tiene una reputacion de lo peor, y dicen q es una mierda, que aca nada funciona pero la verdad es que cuando estas adentro te das cuenta de la cantidad de cosas q se pueden estar haciendo, vives la verdad de las cosas, las ves como son. Ese tema de que el gobierno despilfarra plata por donde puede, bueno lu te cuento que para que me den un corcho para mi pared y poder colgar ahí mis papeles, mi jefa tiene que pasar un requerimiento formato 2 y no se q tanta vaina mas para justificar el por qué de mi corcho, ahí por supuesto entra la burocracia, pero las intenciones son buenos, es justificar hasta el ultimo sol que se gasta aqui adentro que dentro de todo esta bien… no deberiamos gastarnos los tributos del Peru en cojudeses no?"

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Yale devuelve piezas de Machu-Picchu

Me da mucho gusto que Yale finalmente haya cumplido su compromiso con el Perú al devolvernos las piezas de Machu-Picchu que les prestamos hace ya casi 90 años. Pero me da aún más gusto que Francesco Ciabatti, el mejor amigo de mi hermano, haya defendido tan elocuentemente a nuestro país ante las falsedades presentadas en el siguiente artículo publicado en el Yale Daily News. Con gente tan inteligente y dedicada como Francesco, el Perú va a seguir dejando atrás la imagen de inestabilidad y corruptela que, gracias al trabajo de todos nosotros, ya no caracteriza a nuestros país. Arriba Frani!


ARTICULO
http://www.yaledailynews.com/articles/view/21382#
Published: Wednesday, September 19, 2007
(More Opinion articles)
University, not Peru, is best place for cultural treasures

Noah Mamis and Frederick Mocatta

Yalies should be appalled at our administration’s betrayal of our commitment to the preservation and dissemination of culture for ourselves and for future generations. Yale is fortunate to have been endowed with some of the greatest cultural artifacts from around the world. We are therefore burdened with the duty to ensure that such objects are available in the best condition to the widest possible audience, for all time.

In considering the question of Yale’s Andean collection — bequeathed to us nearly a century ago by Hiram Bingham III 1898 — administrators ought to have borne in mind their duty to academia at large and to the general public, domestic and foreign, not to mention those by whom it was bequeathed to us. This decision was a cowardly one, delivered at the point of a bayonet. To relinquish the overwhelming majority of Yale’s South American collection is an exchange of, as Oakeshott would have said, “present laughter for future utopian bliss.”

Successive Peruvian governments have proven themselves thoroughly incapable of adequately safeguarding, preserving and displaying their nation’s own cultural heritage. A tradition of endemic corruption, political instability, occasional restraints on academic freedoms and the results of a nearly 30-year anarcho-Communist insurgency that has left 70,000 Peruvians dead make it eminently clear that Peru is a flawed home for these treasures. The most recent terrorist attack in Peru, this June, left six people dead and dozens injured in the market of an obscure town near the shores of Lake Titicaca. This is a home-grown, determined and concerted terrorist effort that shows a failure on the part of the Peruvian government to create a stable and inclusive political environment. This not yet considering the dereliction of duty by a century of Peruvian governments to adequately preserve, maintain and display the country’s own collection of some of the finest cultural relics in the world, let alone to ensure that the collection remains accessible to scholars. Foremost as an example of this is surely the disaster that has befallen the great Machu Picchu. One of the “New Seven Wonders of the World” and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, it faces severe threats from unregulated urban development in the nearby town of Aguas Calientes. Furthermore, the government has taken few steps to protect the site from the dangers of the burgeoning tourist industry, from the risks posed by earthquakes, or from the contractors and businesses that swarm the ancient ruins.

All this, compared to the environment that Yale is and has for almost a century been capable of providing. Admittedly, though Yale has not hitherto been adequately displaying its Andean collection to the general public, it nonetheless has been preserved and curated to a remarkable degree, and it has been easily accessible to scholars and academics from all backgrounds. Indeed, the location of these pieces at Yale implies that they are important to world heritage, for the Andeans of old who made them have about as much in common culturally with those of us in America as they have with the Peru of our day. There is no political continuity between post-Bolivar Peru and the lands of the Incan Empire.

Another concern following the capitulation of the administration of this university is the precedent that it creates. Yale was threatened with punitive legal action, and by essentially delivering an unconditional surrender in a series of closed and unaccountable agreements, without a day in court, it has only succeeded in encouraging other governments to make claims not only on Yale’s collections, but also on countless other university collections across the globe. The governments of Greece, Egypt, Italy and others, all of which have frequently made similar demands, will only be emboldened by Yale’s concession. The effect for our Roman collections, the Chinese art at Harvard’s Sackler Museum, the Native American art at Stanford or the Greek vases at the University of Chicago is inestimable. From now on, governments can — and will — blackmail our universities for art.

The writers of Monday’s “News’ View” wrote at great length about multiculturalism. Yet multiculturalism does not mean shipping Peruvian artifacts to Peru, nor the Turners in Yale’s Center for British Art to Britain. The cause of multiculturalism is not served by sending works of art back to their geographic area of origin; rather, it is promoted by continuing to encourage truly international collections in diverse locations around the world, accessible to all.

At the very least, the Peruvian government should now pay Yale a century of rent and maintenance costs.


Noah Mamis is a senior in Branford College. Frederick Mocatta is a sophomore in Branford College.




RESPUESTA DE FRANCESCO
http://www.yaledailynews.com/articles/view/21474
Published: Monday, September 24, 2007
(More Opinion articles)
Column on artifacts based on falsehoods

Francesco Ciabatti

It is discomforting to realize that some Yalies are willing to write op-ed pieces based on deliberate lies. After reading Noah Mamis and Frederick Mocatta’s column “University, not Peru, is best place for cultural treasures” on Sept. 19, I feel the need as a Peruvian to respond, by saying that the authors’ argument that Peru is not fit to house the Incan artifacts is flawed, considering that most of the evidence they presented in the article is absolutely false.

With respect to the Andean collection “bequeathed to us nearly a century ago by Hiram Bingham III 1898,” it must be clarified that these artifacts were lent to the University for research purposes, rather than given as farewell gifts for the rediscovery of Machu Picchu. The fact that the University has recognized that Peru holds title to all of these pieces nearly 90 years later is not “capitulation” or “betrayal,” but rather proof that the University stands by the law and will take the necessary steps to honor an agreement and return the artifacts to their lawful owners: Peruvians.

Regardless of the authors’ views of the agreement, it is their portrayal of Peru that I find most upsetting. Calling the country one with “a tradition of endemic corruption, political instability [and] occasional restraints on academic freedoms,” as well as the home of a concerted 30-year terrorist militia “that has left 70,000 Peruvians dead” is preposterous in light of the booming economic conditions the country has been experiencing in the last few years. In economic terms, real GDP growth has averaged 5 percent a year since 2000, among the region’s highest, while average inflation, at 2 percent, is among the lowest. Per capita income has increased notoriously. The communist militia known as the Shining Path, to which the authors attribute the death of 70,000 Peruvians (real numbers are around 23,000), was eliminated more than 15 years ago following the capture of its leader, Abimael Guzman. The specific event that occurred on June 6 was not a terrorist act, but rather a confrontation between smugglers with no political intentions. The IMF has categorized Peru’s democracy and economy as one of the best in the region, far from the chaotic and unconstitutional picture painted by the authors’ false allegations.

Disaster has not befallen the great Machu Picchu. Anyone who has ever visited the UNESCO World Heritage Site knows that the “threats from unregulated urban development in the nearby town of Aguas Calientes” are completely absurd, taking into consideration that the small town is only accessible once a day by train and consists of a flea market and a few restaurants. Even then, the small community living in Aguas Calientes does not pose any threat to Machu Picchu, simply because the Wonder of the World is located 8 kilometers away, on a mountaintop. Having been in Machu Picchu only weeks ago, I can only reinforce that there is no unregulated urban development, and that rather than a “disaster,” it is a cultural jewel treasured by more than 900,000 tourists who visit Peru every year.

Lastly, I would like to say that the authors have been irresponsible in asserting that “the Andeans of old who made [the artifacts] have about as much in common culturally with those of us in America as they have with the Peru of our day.” Millions of people in Peru still speak the Incan language, Quechua, and preserve Incan traditions like the veneration of the Sun God at the ceremony of Inti Raymi. As a sign of respect to the direct descendants of the Incan culture, the authors should refrain from making unfounded generalizations about Peruvian culture without having any knowledge of the beliefs of the Andean populations.

Rather than having “blackmailed” the University for art, Peru has reached an exemplary agreement with Yale that recognizes the rule of law and promotes research, education and development. The new museum to be opened in Cuzco will undoubtedly attract more tourists and strengthen Peru’s position as the rising star in Latin America while simultaneously promoting cultural exchange with Elis from around the world. As for Mamis and Mocatta, I encourage you to visit Peru and discover that the country that you depicted as chaotic and unstable is in fact a nation with a rich past, dynamic present and very promising future.


Francesco Ciabatti is a sophomore in Branford College.

Monday, September 24, 2007

dibujo 2

Thursday, September 20, 2007

dibujo

The Heights cartoon- BC's new printing policy


http://media.www.bcheights.com/media/storage/paper144/news/2007/09/20/Opinions/Todays.Cartoon.And.Quote-2980618.shtml?reffeature=htmlemailedition

Monday, September 17, 2007

A Pleasant Aftershock-Articulo en The Heights

I grew up in Lima, Peru, where small tremors are commonplace; but what happened on the afternoon of August 15 was like nothing I had ever experienced. For two endless minutes, I stood with my mother and sister below the sturdiest doorframe in our house as the ground shook violently below us. Rattling windows drowned my mother's calming words. The sky was lit up by flashes of white light. Shattered glass littered my bedroom floor. I thought it was only a matter of time before the walls collapsed on top of us and we were trapped in our own home.

But the walls did not collapse. Just as suddenly as it had begun, the trembling ceased. "Was that really an earthquake?" I asked my mother. "Yes," she answered. As scared as I had been, this experience seemed way too tame in comparison to the horror stories of the quakes of the 1970s.

The real earthquake came over the next few days. Local headlines read: "7.9 ON THE RICHTER SCALE," "CHAOS AND PILLAGE IN THE SOUTH," "MORE THAN 540 DEAD," "1200 WOUNDED," "80% OF THE TOWN OF PISCO DESTROYED." The capital city of Lima barely endured a few scratches, but the southern province of Ica was bleeding to death. The southern portion of the Lima province and the Andean provinces of Junín and Huancavelica were not much better off. The saddest thing was that, as with most natural catastrophes, the poor were hit the hardest. Their humble homes crumbled even in areas where properly built structures remained intact.

The government, lacking any coherent emergency plan, tried at first to divert the public's attention by criticizing the temporary collapse of the phone lines and the response of human rights organizations to the crisis. Nonetheless, the government later depoliticized the issue and set up a group led by efficient businessmen to deal with the rebuilding process. This is probably the area's best chance for recovery.

But what really touched me happened in between the lines of the newspapers. Peru has a history of terrorism, economic instability, and political disasters - it is a country where people are accustomed to fending for themselves and distrusting their neighbors. Surprisingly, I have never seen so much solidarity.

On the day after the earthquake, I went to the national stadium to sort out donations and was greeted by mountains of clothing, food, medicine, and diapers. People of various ages and social classes were working tirelessly side by side, yet no one was telling them what to do. It was not necessary; they were working as one. I tried to donate blood and the nurses told me to wait a few weeks because they had too many donors. Everyone I called was at the supermarket buying food for the victims, or rummaging through their closets for blankets, or even down south building houses or helping out at health centers.

Even if this atmosphere of solidarity does not outlive the quake's headlines, it marks a shift in the Peruvian mindset. When I was standing below the doorframe and saw the sky lit up, I thought it might be the end of my city. In retrospect, I think it could be the beginning of something good.

Lucia Benavides is a junior in the College of Arts & Sciences.

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

viaje a iquitos

Saturday, September 8, 2007

fotos amarillas


Por eso, cuando el tiempo hace resumen
y los sueños parecen pesadillas,
regresa aquel perfume
de fotos amarillas.

Joaquín Sabina