Gus In The Real Life

My Prerogative

By: Gustavo Lequerica-Calvo

I’m really self conscious on how I look, I know that I’m not an Abercrombie model or an Adonis, I’m just a average guy who struggles every single day to accept what I can give to the world. I’m not good looking but I don’t care, I never pay attention to the looks because that would be shallow from my part, I know I can rely on my wits and charms to achieve my goals, and my ideal job would be as a news broadcaster and investigative journalist; I’m achieving my dream in baby steps, but at least are safe baby steps where I learned from the experience and from my mistakes; I know is an odd choice of job where sometimes image is the main factor to define the success of an individual, but I’m really confident on my talent as a writer as well as I’m not a pretentious individual, who likes to impose his POVs but rather I am an average guy who likes to tell his experiences by the mere enjoyment of being read, which should be the main focus of every writer, enjoy being read.

My prerogative is the path I took, the path of the Herald, a difficult path that sometimes is not well received because is difficult. Many people think that Journalists are there for the fame and fortune but I always remember the sweet and sincere words of a fellow Asturian journalist and friend, Ainho “We are not here for fame, fortune or money, we are here because we heard the call to inform and to satisfy or thirst of adventure” I never forget those words that helped me to move and continue the fight, as I know I’m not alone in the struggle, I guess she helped me to remember my prerogative, and there is no enough words that I can say to thanks.

At the end I’m happy with the path I chose, being happy with myself with the way I am and slowly but steady building my dream to become a professional writer.

There is a Thin Line between Passion and Fanaticism

By: Gustavo Lequerica-Calvo

The complexity of the human psyche is really complex and really frail, is true we are complex beings, animals that can rationalize, create and destroy. We can live to our rational impulses but at the same time we are slaves of our passions, we suffer for our humanity because even with our many technological and sociological progress we are primordial beings who emotionally aren’t away from the big primates in the Paleolithic period.

As complex beings, we tend to develop different aspects that fulfill our personality and desires such as art, religion, science and many other social dynamics that compose only a small fragment what the essence of humanity really is. We can feel passion for activities we develop and our beliefs, we tend to love what we do and with passion we can go as far away as our talent and multiple intelligences let us and even we can feel proud of what we can achieve. That is one beautiful aspect of the psyche, passion let the creation process to develop; but at the same time there is a thin line between passion and fanaticism that can generate cruelties toward opinions and different attitudes toward the currents of thoughts or expression people accept, and let a person to become obsessed with his way of thought and behave aggressive toward people who is different from him or her.

They’re many examples in the history books to discuss them in one single paragraph, a work from love that ended in fanaticism or a misinterpretation of a thought; is hard to say or point an specific example as there are many to tell; but maybe part of that fanaticism comes because of the intolerance of accept people who think or act different from the mainstream and it can be difficult to tolerate a difference from what an individual is accustomed too.

El Hecho del Celibato

Por: Gustavo Lequerica-Calvo

Con las recientes fotografías del Padre Alberto Cutié, los diferentes cuestionamientos acerca del celibato para las personas que desean ingresar al sacerdocio, han salido a la luz pública nuevamente; dejando dudas sobre feligreses y críticos a dicha práctica sobre la necesidad de mantener al clero sin descendencia. En la ley eclesiástica Católica los aspirantes al sacerdocio y las pretendientes al noviciado deben seguir la doctrina del celibato ya según la ley ellos son los representantes de Jesús y La Santa Madre en la tierra, pero más allá de ser los representantes de dichas figuras son también seres que aunque hacen un sacrificio y sirven a la comunidad abnegadamente a veces dejando en negligencia su propia humanidad para ver a otras personas felices a expensas de su propia felicidad; pero también son seres humanos que aunque con sus virtudes igual cometen errores como todos los mortales pero la diferencia es que sus falencias serán juzgadas por sus feligreses y el las masas, ya que al ingresar al clerecía la comunidad los vera como ejemplos a seguir.

Pero, a largo plazo y en pleno siglo veinte ¿aun es válida la doctrina del celibato? Cuando muchas religiones diferentes a la católica y que siguen el mensaje de Jesús, han sabido adaptar posiciones más contemporáneas referentes a las necesidades de su clero y han aceptado el matrimonio entre sus representantes. A un nivel teológico y personal, puede ser válida la aceptación del celibato para emular el ejemplo de Jesús, pero una teoría también comenta que el motivo del celibato en el Vaticano es para proteger la propiedad intelectual de dicha institución, ante los derechos hereditarios de padres a hijos, ya que dicho asunto traería serias consecuencias legales si los sacerdotes o monjas tuvieran familia; pero ¿Por qué no hacer lo mismo que la comunidad Protestante? En vez de andar promulgando una contradicción entre la institución del matrimonio y llevar una vida de celibato y abstención, ¿Por qué no adaptar la ley? a un mundo que está evolucionando constantemente y las personas son cada vez mas consientes acerca de la sexualidad y sensualidad que es innata en el ser humano.

No se puede negar que en la naturaleza humana está la necesidad sensual, no vista desde una perspectiva xxx pero desde una representación primordial donde no hay nada obsceno en una caricia, un beso o en el hecho de amar sin sentir culpabilidad por negar parte del ser, y el celibato al final es solo una negación a una parte importante de quienes somos.

At least he wasn’t found with an altar boy, thank God!, it is the first time within the Catholic Church scandals that a padre is not a child molester, but all of these makes me think about if the celibacy issue is really necesary for the clergy. I mean the organization tries to prevent any children from any nun or father as they are trying to protect their millenarian treasures from the rights of inheritances rather than anything from the exemplary cannonic laws that say they are representing Jesus Christ; but I been wondering, many religions accept their clergy to marry?, because these men and woman even if they are doing a sacrifice, at the end they are mere mortals with no divinity on their flesh and mortal body, and we their followers we tend to forget that, because we see them as something else than human beings, and when the divinity image is shattered we tend to judge them because they broke our fantasy that we are speaking to a demi-god.

Is not a secret that I’m not a fan of Charlie Crist (not that I hate Republicans, I was a fan of Jeb Bush) but what this guy is thinking of going to the Senate? I seen this kind of absurd because of Charlie Crist hasn’t been very clever to put a relief on the billionaire debt that the State has and now he wants to run for Senate, definitely the world is crazy if he takes the decision but according to the Tampa Tribune he is going to probably give the announcement today May 12th of 2009. On the other hand the idea if he goes to the Senate is going to be cool, as Democrats can have an opportunity for the next political round because the reign of the Republicans is crumbling after Bush administration and the rise of Obama to the Presidency, but one thing is for sure after 2010, politics in Florida are not going to be the same.

Is interesting how the social behavior of humanity is; living in different parts can give to you another perspective of how heterogeneous the world is, but one of the social and corporal aspects that I have found interesting are the different views about obesity in different parts of the world. Originally I was born and raised in Colombia, but then I emigrated to the United States; while I was in Colombia the view of an obese person was relatively strange, sure there were (including myself) fat or chubby individuals, it wasn’t uncommon but when someone obese appeared on sight comments where heard regarding the look of the individual, but that was 15 years ago. 6 years ago for the first time in my city Cartagena a McDonald opened for the very first time the habits of a society that had prejudice against fat individuals started to change as soon the dietary habits evolved and adapted to the rich oily and greasy food of the Fast Food Nation, but the changes of views weren’t complete because even with the introduction of the fast food, the fat community was more on the shadows; but is interesting that in a society people think that obesity is more related to the ingested calories rather than a compound of a metabolic problem.

When I moved from Cartagena to U.S.A.found myself in the middle of another perspective, probably some people are hipocrite to say that Americans are intolerants, but is only a small ignorant fragtion; the perspective that I found myself was a society that has more acceptance to the heterogenous significance that mankind is, I saw that overweight people are treated with dignity and they have access to more places that they could have in other places; but, not only that, also I saw a society that even that have a fascination with beauty and perfection is at the same time a society that accepts is individuals without judging the way they look, which I think is something great, but at the same time I’m seeing a society that is having a problem, a complex problem that has moved from a medical condition to the point of sexual fixation by some individuals who gain weight to expand their sexual pleasure, is good that there is acceptance but at the same time is not good that people are putting a string on their health just because they want to explore a different aspect of their sexuality that involves an increment in body mass. I don’t say that is healthy to be thin, but is not healthy to be extremely fat as an election, is better to search for a point of balance to live long and healthy no matter if you are fat of slim.

So a custom of going to the movies is getting lost slowly because of the high prices of the entrances as well as the high prices of the candies; really not many people are willing to pay the US$8.00 per adult and less they are going to pay almost US$20.00 for popcorn and other silly things; I say I don’t like to pay all that just to enjoy a movie; the last time I went to the movies (Madagascar 2: Escape From Africa) I planned to not buy anything but my intestinal problems made me hungry so I ended paying US$6.00 for a package of Whoopers (a candy that I hate, because I’m allergic to popcorn so at the end I ate the only thing I could find that was cheap and less intrusive to my stomach) and almost US$5.00 for a small Coca-Cola; damn! you can get that at Publix or Walmart for less than US$5.00; no wonder people are resorting on downloading the movie or going to Blockbuster because is almost a scam going to any cinema to see a movie, is expensive for the common the folk; you end paying almost the double of the entrance just to have a really nice time; hey, I’m not talking about going with any one, going alone is almost US$20.00 and if you go with children you end almost paying the triple because they want to eat almost everything in the caffeteria and they will want to buy any memorabilia that is sold by the price of an eye in the inner stores.

So far, so now people like myself prefer the download or going to Blockbuster to rent the movie (we don’t care about the spoilers) because we only like to see the movie without spending too much money as these harsh economical times aren’t made to be spending and the theaters should know that they charge too much for going to see a movie, they should think better that their market isn’t composed of rich people but common people who are trying to make a living every day.

One thing that in Communication is spoken is the theory of the Hypodermic Needle or as is known the magic bullet theory where the message given is not going to be interpreted by the people completly, but rather they will act according to the background of the message. CNN or FOX News, two channels that have a 24 hours news loop, where after certain time at the day they will start repeating the same news, thus by consequence the same gorey images or images showing no hope with certain matters; or the horror the victims had to live (9-11) will create an effect of paranoia in the viewers as there are no complete regulations on what is shown on tv beyond the yellow journalism to boost rating in one way or another because t the end the only thing that matter is rating. I say that channels like CNN or FOX News they must regulate the “strong” notes with more simple notes or happy notes as I like to call them, because 60% of the public will be affected psychological by the “strong” notes; think about the swine flu, yes is a big problem but media is exposing the problem into something greater, I don’t think by the connotation of their reports they are trying to show the tragedy but rather a way to boost ratings.What do you think?