Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.

¿Pa´ qué me sirvió el colegio?

2009-06-02T16:49:00.003-03:00

¿Pa´ qué me sirvió el colegio?

Por Oriana Torres

(escrito a finales de 2008)

El pasado domingo estaba hablando por teléfono con mi mamá acerca

de la final de la Eurocopa 2008 (a ser jugada entre Alemania y España).

En la mitad de la conversación de repente me pregunta sarcásticamente:

“¿Y a quién le vas a dar?”. Yo con voz ridículamente orgullosa

le respondí: “Pues a quién, crees, ¡a Alemania!”. Ante esto ella me

respondió para mi sorpresa igual de orgullosa y decidida: “Pues yo

también, acá en la casa todo el mundo le da a España, pero fueron

casi 20 años entre el tiempo que tu y tu hermana estuvieron en el Colegio

Alemán, y ese Colegio ha hecho tanto por ustedes, que le tengo

que dar a Alemania”. A primera vista, la respuesta de mi mamá me

sonó totalmente desenfocada (o como se dice en inglés “random”),

¿qué diablos tiene que ver el apoyar un equipo de fútbol - cuyos jugadores

ni idea tendrán que hay colegios alemanes en Colombia- con la

gratitud que uno siente para con su propio colegio? Pero no le dije

nada al respecto a mi mamá, porque en el fondo yo sentía lo mismo…

y todo lo que se asocie a mi colegio, por muy “random” que sea a mí

siempre me va a causar un gran sentimiento de orgullo y añoranza.

Hugh McLeod (http://www.gapingvoid.com/Moveable_Type/archives/000009.html) hizo hace cierto tiempo una caricatura que

me encanta, cuyo mensaje dice: “The market for something to believe in is infinite”. Esta frase me encanta ya que me recuerde

el espíritu libre que tenemos los seres humanos para creer en lo que queramos y actuar conforme a ello.

“¿Qué tiene que ver esto con el Colegio Alemán?” – estarán pensando. La respuesta es sencilla; para mi los cimientos de lo

que uno cree y por ende en lo que uno se convierte, los da en gran parte el colegio donde uno estudia, y esa libertad de pensamiento,

creencia y acción definitivamente es para lo que mas me sirvió el colegio.

Cuando pasa el tiempo, y uno de vez en cuando se pone con el novio o con los amigos de la universidad o del trabajo a hablar

de sus épocas del colegio, es impresionante como uno empieza a darse cuenta que muchas cosas que uno vivió en el colegio

eran excepcionales. Todos hablan o de las monjas y los curas y los castigos que les ponían, todos hablan de los uniformes y

las reglas irrompibles, todos hablan de los idiomas que nunca les enseñaron y de malos profesores que nunca disfrutaban el

placer de maltratar… Y que placer da cuando uno se da cuenta que para los alumnos del Colegio Alemán no tener uniforme

era una delicia y que cada uno se vestía a su modo sin temer ser la lanzada o el boleta del curso, para nadie era raro ver un

cabello teñido de rojo o un hombre con arete y cabello largo. Qué alegría da pensar que teníamos una emisora, que aunque

era simplemente un chuzo se manejaba con toda la mística del caso, que teníamos un periódico, que aunque éramos solo 5

personas las que nos inventábamos los artículos, salía cada 6 meses, y traía un motivo más de polémica y diversión al colegio.

Que nota reconocer que fue el colegio quien me enseño a emprender, que si no había plata para las meriendas, para rumbear

o para viajar a Alemania, nadie me impedía sacar un tarro de obleas con arequipe y ponerme a venderlas en el recreo o a la

salida del colegio, como tampoco nadie me impedía vender camisetas “batik” o perfumes de San Andresito, de hecho personas

como la “Profe Cecilia” me compraba fielmente. Que lindos recuerdos hay de aquellos bazares, donde uno añoraba montarse

en los “caballitos de mula”, comerse un paella hecha por el Profesor Lobo, luego comerse un postre en el salón de té de las

damas alemanas (que quedaba en la sala de profesores), eso sin contar las ganas de meterse al polideportivo a bailar al ritmo

de “Bananas” … y que importa si había que ir al día siguiente a limpiar el colegio, bien que mal era un día chévere, que sin

querer queriendo nos inculcó responsabilidad y disciplina. Que admirable saber que uno creció entre animales y supo siempre

respetarlos, o quien no se acuerda de las iguanas que se metían en nuestros cursos, o de las boas que dormían todo el día en

su jaula que quedaba camino al salón de dibujo, o de la cantidad de jaulas de pajaritos que habían por todas partes. Que buenas

las competencias deportivas, donde hasta los más malos concursábamos y salíamos felices con nuestro cartón de participación,

que buenas las premiaciones de final de año donde los mas nerds nos veíamos recompensados por tantas horas de

estudio y colaboración. Que maravilloso a la edad de 15 años haber tenido la oportunidad por 5 meses de vivir el otro país, ver

lo grande que es mundo, lo diferentes que son las culturas y hacernos entender que solo somos un puntito en este planeta.

Que inolvidable poder haber leído un discurso de grado en un idioma diferente al español, que aunque el 80 % del auditorio no

le entendía, sentaba el precedente que esa era una promoción de seres humanos de preparación excepcional.

¿Qué para que me sirvió el colegio? Todas esas maravillosas experiencias me formaron como alguien sanamente competitivo,

con pensamiento global, emprendedor, sostenible y sobre todo, libre de expresar lo que piensa y en lo que cree. He tenido

oportunidades maravillosas en mi vida, antes y después del colegio, la formación de mi familia, mi universidad, AIESEC, pero

jamás pese a lo irremplazables que están han sido, le negaré el crédito a mi querido colegio de haber sentado las bases más

sólidas para ser quién soy.

Y por eso, ¡qué importa si mi mama le quiere dar Alemania durante la final de la Eurocopa 2008, porque el lugar que me hizo

ser lo que soy se merece todo!

Ecological Debt Day

2008-12-02T21:28:00.002-02:00

By Annie Leonard

Taken from: http://www.storyofstuff.com/blog/?p=

This past September, news of the economic crisis dominated the headlines. At the exact same time another debt crisis was intensifying, yet was barely noticed.

Earth Overshoot Day, also known as Ecological Debt Day, was September 23.This is the day in 2008 by which humanity had used all the resources that the planet will generate this year. As viewers of The Story of Stuff already know, we currently consume 1.4 planets’ worth of global resources each year. From September 23rd on, we’re eating into the natural capital, undermining its ability to produce for the future. We’re consuming on credit and accumulating ecological debt that we have no way to repay.

Ecology and economics share a common root: the Greek word oikos, meaning “home.” Economics and ecology both are about managing our home. In our current situation, we have messed up both. Continue reading here.

We’re obsessive over economic indicators. We track indicators hourly, panic at the slightest decline, invest billions when it is shaky. Yet, we have a huge collective blind spot to the other ecological management, even though it’s a bigger problem, both in terms of survival and even in terms of finances. There is a growing call coming from all over the world, to integrate our understanding of the economic and ecological crises and to ensure that a solution to one is a solution to both.

Crisis and opportunity are often referred to as two sides of the same coin. That is definitely true here. The current economic crisis provides us a much needed opportunity to re-evaluate the priorities of our economy, to develop new metrics for measuring real progress, for reducing superfluous consumption while increasing economic equity and ensuring the integrity of the ecological systems on which life depends.

My friend Rita always says “If you keep doing what you’re doing, you’ll keep getting what you’re getting.” Clearly, what we’re doing isn’t working. As David Korten, author of The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth, suggests, it’s time to try something new.

NETworking or NOTworking? - and other Silicon Valley Stories

2008-10-30T19:45:00.002-02:00

Taken from gapingvoid.com

ALSO TAKEN FROM MY ENTREPRENEURSHIP BLOG

http://entrepreneurial-discovery.blogspot.com/

I want to start this post highlighting this amazing quote I found recently on gapingvoid.com: "BLOGS AREN´T DEAD, PEOPLE ARE". It´s amazingly simple and logic, but at the same time it was amazingly harsh for me to read it ... "Man it means I´m dead ... my creativity is dead, my capacity to share experiences is dead since I do not blog since a good couple of weeks"

Anyways, after couple of minutes I recivered from my paranoia and well, FYI, I´m not dead!

I was busy doing NETworking, ehemmm, and NOTworking as well!

I was for a week abroad, half of it on a very short vacation and half of it participating in an amazing Immersion Tour of Endeavor in Silicon Valley (SV).

At Facebook, San Jose (CA)

The experience was just amazing, it felt like being in the "mecca" of entrepreneurship and capitalism, well in some aspects, it still is.

We had the opportunity to witness interesting and content-rich panels with all sorts of Venture Capitalists (VCs) of the Bay area that were willing to tell Entrepreneurs lessons on how the industry works and how to raise money effectively.

Another big block of the tour were of course the company visits ... we visited companies that today are icons for all of us, such as Google, Facebook, eBAY, PayPal and Eletronic Arts. Of course we saw what we all expected to see ... "thousands of crazy, diverse-looking employees living in wide campuses within a very unique, free, wild organizational cultures". However even if that was cool, won´t deny, I must say that was not what amazed me the most. What was unique of the experience was reflecting on how small these organizations started (just as any other entrepreneur) and how someone believed in them, invested in them, how the chose the right people to manage and envision the business and ... eureka! how they turned to be what they are now. It was a powerful lesson on THINKING BIG, on TAKING RISKS. Failure is not one of the options, but if it happens, it´s well embraced and powerful reason to stand up again.

At Electronic Arts

Well, since I´m a quotes person, I leave you with some of the most interesting quotes or expressions or terms I heard in the tour from VCs, Entrepreneurs and employees from some SV-based Companies:

"In Silicon Valley one new company is born every hour"

"We work on technology because we want to change the world" - COO Facebook

"Silicon Valley - Wild West approach to risk"

"DISRUPTIVE INNOVATION"

"Queen Isabel of Spain - one of the first Venture Capitalists of history" - Bill Draper making the analogy since as we all know the Queen financed Columbus, one of the greatest Entrepreneurs ever

"Demographics Vs Psicographics"

"It´s not the strongest of species that survive, not the most intelligent, but the ones most responsive to change"

"You´re the heart of our existence" - Venture Capitalist Bill Draper refering to Entrepreneurs

"Being a VC is all about making money without working. The job is about identifiying great business ideas and put in the right management"

"Self-actualization", "Identity refreshment"

"VCs serve Entrepreneurs, it´s a service"

"I do not do HR, I advice the leaders of the organization to do HR, I empower the business leaders to do their job" - VP HR PayPal

"People want to work for winners, people want to for something that is going somewhere" - VP HR PayPal

"The culture of you organization tomorrow is who you are recruiting today" - VP HR PayPal

"If you are scared with the crisis right now, maybe you should not be an entrepreneur"

"There are 3 kinds of people: people that start companies, that grow companies and tha run companies - not all entrepreneurs are ready to make this transition"

"5 words an Entrepreneurs does not want to hear from an employee: - IT IS NOT MY JOB - be ready to look for people that are willing to go beyong its resumee"

"You do not need to be in high-tech to make a lot of money"

"Finding one´s calling by looking at one´s purpose and it´s impact - not at the tasks we do"

"The ultimate time to differentiate ourselves (as companies) in the the times of recesion/crisis"

"VC money is not a commodity, it comes with a partner that makes it special"

"Fun is a very important element when building a culture"

"Sucess is failing repeatedly with ENTHUSIASM"

"It´s all about IQ that generates IP" - IQ= Intelligent people who generated Intellectual Property!

"The (Silicon) Valley isn´t anymore the only thought leader ... we need to re-create the valley in other places"

"A great business leader deeply understands the motivations of his/her employees, investors and of course, customers"

1492

2008-10-30T18:53:00.003-02:00

TAKEN FROM MY ENTREPRENEURSHIP BLOG

http://entrepreneurial-discovery.blogspot.com/

This is supposed to be an old movie; it was released in October 1992 for the celebration of the 500th anniversary of the discovery of America. I never heard of it before last weekend though, that I randomly stopped by the video store to ask for any movies related to Columbus, and in general, the preparation of his endeavor to discover “the new world”.

The reason why I was looking for such a movie, is because I kept intrigued by one of the analogies I heard at the Silicon Valley Tour, pointing Queen Isabel of Spain as one of the first Venture Capitalists of the history, when she accepted financing Columbus on his “crazy” project of reaching Asia through a new, never tried before route.

I´m not a movie expert. Also I am aware that movies many times are not as good as books to describe history. Though, I loved the movie … and I think it´s a wonderful piece to use and display, if anyone wants to set up a workshop to explain what entrepreneurship is.

Key moments of the movie to capitalize on:

- The first time, that the project of Columbus was presented to the University of Salamanca, it was harshly rejected. The “experts” did not believe in his not proven, risky proposal, so it did not even reach the stage of being eligible to be presented to the Queen. Even if he had a crisis, he did not stop believing. Lesson: Entrepreneurs never give up. They´ll find many “NO”s on their ways, but that won´t be a reason to quit their dreams.

- He kept fighting, and fighting and despite of the previously described rejection, he reached the Queen. How? Networking … even at that time networking was a key tool for things to happen. A sailorman that knew Columbus and somehow was attracted by his project (and wanted to make part of it), approached him and introduced him to a banker, which had “contacts” with the Queen and was willing to enable a direct meeting with Columbus. Basically, the Queen owed this banker money, so she could not refuse the favor of meeting Columbus. Lesson: Networking matters.

- Columbus was a genuine seller. The movie showed a great first conversation between Columbus and the queen, where you could really see how good he could sell what he wanted to do and how Spain could benefit from that. Beyond that, he was charming enough to make the Queen feel comfortable in his presence, and well, in general, make her just love him. At the end of the day it was clear that the Queen did not necessarily believe in the project, but she believed in him. As a today´s Venture Capitalist would do, Queen Isabel bet on Columbus, she took the risk. Lesson: The entrepreneurs as individuals, their charisma, and their ability to inspire others, is the engine of the entrepreneurial activity. The business is just the platform for the entrepreneur to show its geniality.

- Columbus was a starter. He was maybe the only man of that time that could dare to find the Indies the way he did. But once the “new world” started to be conquered, he showed not to be the best man to rule this new land. The movie shows all kind of crisis he confronted managing the first colonies, even if the Queen upgraded him to Vice-king. I would even say he did not even enjoy running these islands (Columbus discovered first some islands, not the continent), he looked miserable, his heart and mind were focused on moving on, sailing further until he could reach the continent. But he couldn´t, cause the “logic” said that since he was the leader of this new world discovery, so nobody else could be the governor of this new land. Lesson: "There are 3 kinds of people: people that start companies, that grow companies and that run companies - not all entrepreneurs are ready to make this transition".

- At some point of history, nobody recognized and valued Columbus work. The movie shows an amazing scene about this. After the new colonies were “a mess”, under Columbus administration, the high administration of the Kingdom of Spain just decided to send a replacement for him, someone that really had the profile to run the colonies. They did not only decide this without even consulting or announcing Columbus, but parallel to the arrival of the new governor, they arrested Columbus, blaming him for incompetency. The bad news for Columbus were not leaving his position as governor, he textually said “it was a relief for him, because now he was free to sail away and reach the continent”. What broke his heart was hearing that while he was so busy ruling the colonies, the explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci, another Italian, was the first person to reach the continent. When he came back to Spain, all the “flowers” of the new discovery, were given to Amerigo. Colombus was a random person, “the guy that could not rule the new world”, but nobody acknowledged that because of him, this entire discovery started. The movie showed though, that Columbus gained his position back in the history, thanks to his son Fernando, who years after and before his father died, started to write his biography. Lesson: "Humanity/society isn´t many times ready to recognize real entrepreneurship”

Well, Amerigo Vespucci did an amazing thing actually – he demonstrated that the New World discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1492 was not the eastern appendage of Asia, but rather a previously-unknown "fourth" continent - and that was huge. With all the right this new world was called AMERICA. Still while watching the movie, one has the feeling that Columbus should have been the one responsible for doing that … he deserved it.

The thing that makes me happy is that at least my country is called COLOMBIA, in honor to Columbus (in Spanish “Colón”).

Feel free to see the movie review of 1492 at IMD: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103594/

About Vertigo and being kids again

2008-08-16T13:29:00.003-03:00

August 2008

Last weekend I went after 4 long years to an amusement park ... it´s not the kind of first plan that comes to your mind when it´s about having fun (at first it feels sooo random), but indeed when you go there, it´s always like the very first time ... vertigo, anxiety, laughters, curiosity, it´s indeed a funny mix of feelings that after some hours become a perfect therapy to kill routine.

Well, but when was then my last time?
VIENNA, back in 2004 when I lived there. *Sigh*

June 2004

The house car

2008-08-03T21:20:00.003-03:00

These are the kind of random things you see only in Colombia. The photo was taken in a town called EL ROSAL, 1 hour from Bogota. The "car" was driving extremely slow towards us, at the beginning we did not know what the hell that was, but then we realize it it was just a mobile store!

Endeavor profiled in The Economist

2008-08-02T09:42:00.001-03:00

You can red more on my Entrepreneurship Blog.

Yesterday´s view from my office window

2008-08-01T10:56:00.002-03:00

Before yesterday, I did not remember tha last time I saw a rainbow. It was such a beautiful surprise when yesterday, after a small rain in the city I looked outside my window and saw this spectacular rainbow all over the eastern hills of Bogotá. Happy weekend!

Life Update

2008-07-29T19:30:00.006-03:00

Yes, I know ... long time.

But I won´t start one more time with the typical "oh sorry, it´s been a while, bla, bla ..."

Lately I have identified I fall under the category of "expat" or "tourist" blogger, then it looks like that my high seasons for blogging have been the ones when I´ve lived abroad ... too bad, specially since it´s kind of unfair with my current life, one might thing there is nothing interesting going on! But it is .. :-)

So, I decided to stop procrastination today (see my previous post on this blog, how inconsistent am I!!!) on this my personal blog, as well on my Entrepreneurship Blog - let´s see how ot goes. So, what have I been up to?

- I started trekking a month ago. I used to do that when I lived in India back in 2006. With so much work going on back in Colombia, we tend to become sedentary, so Javier took the lead and we joined a Trekking Group called Viajes Clorofila, in Bogotá.

You can also check other trips here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=135326&l=db845&id=787435612 and http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=137230&l=f8bd8&id=787435612

- Oh yes, I started using Facebook, but that has nothing to do with my lack fo blogging. I realized after trying it that, sure, you have to be on Facebook and it´s indeed fun and "light" (you re-estabilish contact with so many old friends and family), but it will NEVER replace or be equivalent to the experience of blogging. So the ones that changed the blog for Facebook, you definitively changed "strawberries for nuts" - both good, but certainly different.

- Job gets every day more instense and challenging. After almost 1,5 years at Endeavor Colombia the "excitement/learning" phase is over and now it´s all about maximizing performace and increasing contribution. The portfolio of the Entrepreneurs I manage keeps growing and that demands more focus. But it still is an amazing experience - we started to set up real Talent Management Systems (perfomance appraisals, development plans, upgraded job roles) and that has increased even more the motivation towards what I´m doing!

- I kept volunteering. I closed my third course on entrepreneurship for children with Junior Achievement and closed my trainning on NGO mentoring with Alianza Social Uniandina. I guess by next month I shall get some NGOs assigned to start consulting them.

- I went home for vacations last april/may.

- We celebrated the 50 years anniversary of AIESEC in Colombia. Nice party (awesome organization) and great to meet with friends.

- I happen to be in the organizing committe of the 10 years anniversary of my school! It will take place in december this year, in Barranquilla.

All that ... but now that I´m writting this, I realized how much I´ve missed blogging!

Stop Procrastinating!

2008-03-11T11:14:00.001-03:00

Too funny!

Attitude

2008-02-28T12:20:00.002-03:00

I just found again this beautifully simple reflexion of Swindoll about attitude.

"The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life.

Attitude to me is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than success, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, gift, or skill. It will make or break a company...a church...a home.

The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past...we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable.

The only thing we can do is play on the string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10 percent what happens to me and 90 percent how I react to it.

And so it is with you... we are in charge of our attitudes."

Charles Swindoll

Back to study!

2008-02-25T11:06:00.003-03:00

In two days "school" will start again for me! I was selected by the Alianza Social Uniandina to participate in a 17 session program on "Institutional Strengthening" (hope the translation makes sense!). They funded this year in total 8 students like me to get trainning on how to make organizations, specially those in the social sector, stronger through consulting. After the program ends, we shall still provide consultancy to some organizations they will assigned to us on a volunteer basis.

Looking forward!

Love on the Streets - a propo of St. Valentin´s day

2008-02-14T16:45:00.003-02:00

St. Valentin´s day (even if worldwide known) is not precisely "the most celebrated day" in Colombia, we celebrate the love "day" in the month of September ... still today I found a very nice set of stories - actually videos - narrated by former homeless and current homeless people ...

"Love that brings you to the streets" and "Love that takes you out of the streets" are two of the most impressive and touching stories ... (all in spanish)

Random B-day pics

2008-02-14T16:31:00.002-02:00

So, maybe bit late to report, but I turned 27 last 23.01!

Below some random pictures of the day! It was a working day, so there was not much space for wild party, still was a very special one ... as always, the winning gift of the day was Javier´s: a wonderful 2-hour wine-therapy (all kinds of messages and aromatherapies based on grapes/wine)!

Hope to make it to this great wedding!

2008-01-30T13:13:00.000-02:00

http://www.veroandjoost.com/

And hopefully our first AI 05 06 Team reunion!

For all you fishetarians and sushi lovers - be aware of this new study

2008-01-29T14:36:00.000-02:00

From the NY Times

January 24, 2008, 2:40 pm

National Study Finds High Levels of Mercury in Tuna
By Marian Burros

The international conservation group Oceana has issued a report that found levels of mercury in fresh tuna in stores and restaurants across the United States that were as high as those reported yesterday in a New York Times article on tuna sushi sold in Manhattan.

Like those samples tested by The Times, many of the Oceana samples had levels of mercury exceeding those that would allow the Food and Drug Administration to take legal action to remove it from the market.
Mercury is believed to affect neurological development of fetuses and young children. Some studies have suggested it may cause health problems in adults, too. Since 2004, the Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency have recommended that women of child-bearing age and young children eat no more than 12 ounces of fish a week, including no more than 6 ounces of canned albacore tuna, and avoid swordfish, tilefish, king mackerel and shark because they are high in mercury.

Oceana tested samples of fresh tuna, swordfish and tilapia, as well as tuna and mackerel sushi bought in 26 cities and found that the average mercury concentration of tuna steaks in 23 grocery stores was 0.68 parts per million, even higher than the 0.57 parts per million that was the average for tuna sushi that The Times bought in stores. Swordfish levels were even higher; tilapia and mackerel were very low.

The mercury content of tuna sushi from the 24 restaurants in the Oceana study was 0.86 parts per million, quite similar to the average of 0.88 parts per million that The Times found in tuna sushi in restaurants. One third of the tuna sushi in the Oceana study had more than one part per million of mercury, the level that would allow F.D.A. to remove the fish from the market, something it rarely does.
In 2005 Oceana launched a campaign to make major grocery chains post at their fish counters government warnings about tuna. Since then several chains, including Whole Foods, Vons, Dominick's, Safeway and Trader Joe's, have agreed to post some information.

But Oceana said that when seafood counter attendants were asked what the FDA advice is for those women and children, they found that 87 percent either gave an incorrect answer or incomplete information or simply said they did not know.

Oceana is asking the FDA to require warnings at seafood counters, to add fresh tuna to its "do not eat" list and to increase the frequency of its testing of fish.

One Red Paper Clip

2008-01-22T13:53:00.001-02:00

What an amazing story!

Join us! For a peacefuly Colombia

2008-01-21T18:35:00.000-02:00

A million voices against FARC...

We need our voices to be heard.

Let’s not be silent anymore, let the world hear us; let every guerrilla man or woman hear us: We repel FARC - EP (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - People's Army).

We DON’T want more armed fight.FARC have deceived the world once again by not freeing the thousands of kidnapped people they have kept captive for almost a decade now, recurring one more time to all kinds of tricks and evasive lies.Kidnapping is the worst of acts against human dignity, and FARC have kidnapped and kept captive thousands of people over the last years, while they keep growing their drug production and drug traffic business, perpetrating all kinds of crimes and terrorist attacks against people, bringing poverty and misery to our country, which has suffered this plague and humanitarian tragedy for more than forty years now.

Colombia, Colombians, friends from all over the world, let’s unite to shout loudly:

NO MORE!

NO MORE KIDNAPPING!

NO MORE LIES!

NO MORE MURDER!

NO MORE FARC!

Let’s commit ourselves to join a million voices in this group so we can make a difference, and let the entire world know that we don’t need that “People’s Army” here in Colombia; that FARC is a terrorist group, led by murderers and enemies of the Colombian and World’s People.

This is a cause beyond all political interests or colors. It’s a humanitarian cause, encouraged by a simple sense of solidarity, for the sake and welfare of our citizens. Join us; We need our voices to be heard.

A million voices against FARC.

Join us on Feb. 04 in a global march against FARC.

PLEASE VISIT www.colombiasoyyo.org AND GET DETAILS!

Meeting points in Colombia

BARRANQUILLA, AtlánticoPlaza de la Paz. Al frente de la Catedral. 12:00 del medio día Contactos: Oscar Morales Guevara nomasfarcbarranquilla@gmail.com

BOGOTA, D.C.Movilización en toda la ciudad. En donde se encuentre salga a la calle y hágase sentir. Puntos iniciales: Plaza de Bolívar y Calle 72 con 7a. Corredor vial: Av Cra 7 Contactos: Pierre Onzaga, Rosa Parra, Cristina Lucena nomasfarcbogota@gmail.com

FUSAGASUGA, CundinamarcaPor confirmar sitio.Contacto: Jenny Angelica Quicano nomasfarcfusagasuga@gmail.com

FACATATIVA, CundinamarcaPor confirmar sitio.Contacto: Catherine Miranda nomasfarcfacatativa@gmail.com

SOGAMOSO, BoyacáPor confirmar sitio.Contacto: Jorge Ferney Cubides nomasfarcsogamoso@gmail.com

MEDELLIN, AntioquiaPlaza de Banderas de la Alpujarra, al lado del Centro de Convenciones Plaza Mayor. 12:00 del medio día Contacto: Edward Naranjo nomasfarcmedellin@gmail.com

CALI, ValleParque del Perro. 12:00 del medio día Contacto: Andrew Cupp nomasfarccali@gmail.com

ARMENIA, QuindíoPlaza de Bolivar. Carrera 14 Calle 21. 12:00 del medio día Contacto: Alejandra Estrada nomasfarcarmenia@gmail.com

BUCARAMANGA, SantanderPlaza Luis Carlos Galán. 12:00 del medio día Contacto: Carlos A. Santiago nomasfarcbucaramanga@gmail.com

OCAÑA, Norte de SantanderPor confirmar sitio.Contacto: nomasfarcocana@gmail.com

SANTA MARTA, MadgalenaPor confirmar sitio.Contacto: Oscar Ortiz Celedón nomasfarcsantamarta@gmail.com

MONTERÍA, CórdobaPor confirmar sitio.Contacto: León Jaime nomasfarcmonteria@gmail.com

VILLAVICENCIO, MetaPor confirmar sitio.Contacto: María José González nomasfarcvillavicencio@gmail.com

International Meeting Points

CENTRO Y SUR AMERICA

BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINAObelisco, Avenida 9 de Julio. 3:00 p.m. (Hora local Buenos Aires) Contacto: Laura Puerta nomasfarcbuenosaires@gmail.com

CIUDAD DE GUATEMALA, GUATEMALA Por confirmar Sitio. Contacto: Sergio Ramírez nomasfarcguatemala@gmail.com

SAO PAULO, BRASIL Por confirmar Sitio. Contacto: nomasfarcsaopaulo@gmail.com

PUNTA CANA, REP. DOMINICANA Por confirmar Sitio. Contacto: Maria Catalina Serna nomasfarcpuntacana@gmail.com

MEXICO, D.F. Por confirmar Sitio. Contacto: Jorge Hernández nomasfarcmexicodf@gmail.com

NORTEAMERICA

NEW YORK CITY Al frente del edificio de las Naciones Unidas. 12:00 del medio día. (hora local NY) Contacto: Jaime Caballero nomasfarcnewyork@gmail.com

MIAMI, FLORIDA Parqueadero del consulado de Colombia. 10:00 a.m. (Hora local MIA). Contacto: Adelaida Vengoechea nomasfarcmiami@gmail.com

WEST PALM BEACH, FLORIDA Por confirmar Sitio. Contacto: Carlos Grajales nomasfarcwestpalmbeach@gmail.com

PHILADELPHIA, PA Capilla de la Catedral. 12:00 del medio día. (Hora Local Phily) Contacto: Maria Martinez

BOSTON, MA Plaza de Government Center, en frente del City Hall. 12:00 del medio día. (Hora Local Boston) Contacto: nomasfarcboston@gmail.com

CHICAGO, IL Por confirmar sitio. Contacto: Paola Susan nomasfarcchicago@gmail.com

WASHINGTON, DC Por confirmar sitio. Contacto: Laura Busche nomasfarcwashington@gmail.com

SAN FRANCISCO, CA Por confirmar sitio. Contacto: Marcela Junguito nomasfarcsanfrancisco@gmail.com

HOUSTON, TEXAS Por confirmar sitio. Contacto: Javier Saavedra nomasfarctexas@gmail.com

STATE COLLEGE, PENNSYLVANIA Por confirmar sitio. Contacto: Natalia Santamaria nomasfarcstatecollege@gmail.com

IOWA Por confirmar sitio. Contacto: William A. Montoya nomasfarciowa@gmail.com

TORONTO, CANADA DUNDAS Square. Centro de Toronto. 11:00 a.m. (Hora local Toronto). Contacto: Luis Orellano nomasfarctoronto@gmail.com

CALGARY, ALBERTA - CANADA Por confirmar sitio. Contacto: Daniel Vargas nomasfarccalgary@gmail.com

EUROPA Y ASIA

PARIS, FRANCIA Place de l'Hotel de Ville. 75004 PARIS. 1:00 p.m. (Hora local París) Metro: Hotel de Ville. Lineas de metro: 1 y 11. Contactos: David Velilla. Heider Pardo (Bordeaux). nomasfarcparis@gmail.com

MADRID, ESPAÑA Plaza Mayor en Madrid. Contacto: Camilo Garavito nomasfarcmadrid@gmail.com

TORINO, ITALIA Por confirmar Sitio. Contacto: Jorge Tobón nomasfarctorino@gmail.com

DÜSSELDORF, ALEMANIA Por confirmar Sitio. Contacto: Javier Amaya nomasfarcdusseldorf@gmail.com

HAMBURGO, ALEMANIA Por confirmar Sitio. Contacto: Camilo Palacios nomasfarchamburg@gmail.com

MUNICH, ALEMANIA Marien Platz. Contacto: Susana Vélez Haller nomasfarcmunich@googlemail.com

LONDRES, INGLATERRA Por confirmar sitio. 5:00 p.m. (hora local Londres) Contacto: Carmelita Hurtado nomasfarcengland@googlemail.com

LA HAYA, HOLANDA Plein al Frente del Parlamento. 11:30 a.m. (Hora local Holanda) Contacto: Alejo Bernal nomasfarclahaya@gmail.com

COPENHAGEN, DINAMARCA Contacto: nomasfarccopenhague@gmail.com

TEL-AVIV, ISRAEL Por confirmar Sitio. Contacto: Juan Valenzuela nomasfarctelaviv@gmail.com

DUBAI, EMIRATOS ARABES Contacto: nomasfarcdubai@gmail.com

Highlights of family holidays 2007 - 2008

2008-01-17T23:01:00.000-02:00

Last Xmas and New Years festivity were very family oriented ... well, it was about time after so many years randomly travelling around the world!

Xmas (24th of december) we spend in Manizales at Javier´s family. It was fun, it was the first time that I spent such a date in Manizales and also the first time that I ate really home made natilla, instead of buying it ready to make from the package! Natilla is typical desert for Xmas in the center of Colombia, and it´s a custard-like pudding made with corn starch instead of eggs.

For new years we came back to Bogotá and received my family that came from Barranquilla. It was a really different experience (I guess specially for them!). Normally when you think of Xmas and new years holidays you rather imagine you going to your parents house and letting them hosting you and taking care of you in all senses ...! well, this time was the opposite, it was them who came to our flat and Javier & me the one that took care of them for a week.

What better than pictures to show some highlights of those days!

One recommended site to go around Bogotá, where we took my family, and also was the first time for me to visit:

PANACA - http://panaca.com.co/: Which in spanich means PARQUE NACIONAL DE LA CULTURA AGROPECUARIA (National Park of the agricultural/farming culture) is one of the best and more structured options that one has to experience the agro sector without needing to have an own farm. It´s a well dotated place with fauna and flora that you can closely appreciate and interact with. Panaca, a colombian enterprise, has parks in Colombia (2) and also one in Costa Rica and one in Mexico.

Cheers!

New York, New York ...

2008-01-11T11:29:00.000-02:00

To see the complete picture set, click here.

I feel almost bad for not having shared before some highlights of my first visits to New York! I visited New York last December 2007 for 5 days, short time but what can I do!? It was primarely a work trip. However thanks to my amazing hosts (my cousin Reuben and his wife Perla) these few days were more than enough to discover the main aspects of the city!

New York Skyline seen from New Jersey

The city that never sleeps

It´s true, New York never sleeps ... I arrived from Colombia to NY on a saturday evening, that must have been 7.00 p.m. and I was a bit suprised when my hosts told me this same day we would start doing sightseeing, "bit late to be around", I thought. But no ... for NY standards seemed to be a perfect timing, specially during X-mas, that is one of the coolest seasons to experience NY. As a matter of fact, all the next photos were taken between 10.00 p.m and 1.a.m. (if a look kind of tired in some of them, now you know the reason!) and the city was as alive, as if it would be 10 a.m. in the morning ...

Walking around Rockefeller Center!

Discovering good street/junk food: Grays Papaya´s

Gray's Papaya is famous for its very inexpensive, high-quality hot dogs. The "papaya" in the name refers to the fruit drinks sold at the establishment, which include orange, grape, piña colada, coconut champagne (non-alcoholic), and banana daiquiri (non-alcoholic) in addition to papaya. Come on! even my beloved Carry Bradshow likes the place (I´m sorry, but I can´t hide that I love Sex and the City)!

Welcome to Times Square and Broadway!

Times Square is a major intersection in Manhattan, New York City at the junction of Broadway and Seventh Avenue and stretching from West 42nd to West 47th Streets. Times Square has achieved the status of an iconic world landmark and has become a symbol of its home city. Times Square is principally defined by its animated, digital advertisements.Times Square was named after the Times Building (now One Times Square) the former offices of The New York Times.

Central Park

Central Park is a large public, urban park (843 acres, 3.41 km², 1.32 mi²; a rectangle 2.5 statute miles by 0.5 statute mile, or 4 km × 800 m) in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. With about twenty-five million visitors annually, Central Park is the most visited city park in the United States, and its appearance in many movies and television shows has made it among the most famous city parks in the world.

Don´t confuse me with The Apprentice!

The Apprentice is a television franchise that originated in 2004 in the United States. As originally conceived, the show depicted 16 contestants from around the country with various backgrounds competing in an elimination-style competition to become an apprentice to Donald Trump. The following two pics were taken right on front of two of the many (Donald) Trump Towers in NYC.

FAO Schwarz

FAO Schwarz is the name of a specialty toy retailer based in New York City. The New York City store, located in the General Motors Building at Fifth Avenue and 58th Street in Manhattan, is still very popular and a famous destination in the city. I seriously loved to go there, I have to admit I did not feel random taking picture is Bob Sponge or sitting down to design my own Barbie by computer ... !

And to prove that it was a work trip ...

The working reason of travellin got NYC was to make part of an Steering Committee of the organization I currently work for. We were around 10 people from all Latin America, Turkey and US mainly redesigning for one week the global IS tool we currently use. It was a great experience, since it was all about mapping the core processes we do and trying to figure out how a system could support us to deliver those processes in a more efficient and collaborative way. Below you can see the team (yes, we were on 2 girls, and precisely from Colombia) during one of our meeting in Manhattan.

A big Thank You

Even if 50 % of my travel I stayed in a hotel in Manhattan, the other 50 % I was hosted at my cousin´s home in New Jersey. I want to end this post thanking him, his wife and son for being excellent hosts and showing me the best they could New York and surroundings. I had a very good time and I really hope to come back some day to keep discovering NYC!

My new entrepreneurship blog

2007-12-20T19:03:00.000-02:00

http://entrepreneurial-discovery.blogspot.com/

I just thought of leaving my personal blog just for personal sharing and open a new, bit more structured on to talk about entrepreneurship. See you there!

Ashoka's Changemakers Collaborative Competition News

2007-12-18T20:23:00.000-02:00

One of the things that I love the most from Ashoka's Changemakers and it´s online updates are the contests that they are constantly running. Join and nominate!

1. Sport for a Better World
http://www.changemakers.net/en-us/competition/sports
Join Nike and Changemakers in the global search for innovations using sports to promote social change
Enter by: Jan 8, 2008 Voting begins: Feb 18, 2008 Winners Announced: Mar 3, 2008

2. Young Men at Risk: Transforming the Power of a Generation
http://www.changemakers.net/en-us/competition/men
Enter this global competition to find the most innovative approaches to supporting a generation of young men in realizing their highest potential, presented by Ashoka's Changemakers in partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Enter by: Jan 23, 2008 Voting begins: Feb 26, 2008 Winners Announced: Mar 11, 2008

And here comes my favourite, I will nominate BARICHARA (Colombia), where I was in October 2007, for this contest. I guess many other nomads have tones of amazing places to nominate!

Welcome to the 2008 Geotourism Challenge!

http://www.changemakers.net/geotourismchallenge

Exploration is at the core of human nature. For thousands of years travel has been the source of unparalleled experiences. We express the wonder of discovering places in the exchange of photography, stories, music, craft, recipes, and design. As travelers, we gain wisdom and knowledge from this cross-cultural engagement.
In recent decades tourism has exploded into one of the largest, most all-pervasive industries on Earth. Hundreds of millions of us now travel. When done well, tourism can alleviate poverty, educate the public, and motivate preservation and conservation of unique cultural, natural, and historic resources. But when done poorly, tourism may destroy environmental and cultural distinctiveness, perpetuate great disparities in wealth, and educate few.

National Geographic is committed to protecting the world's distinctive places. To further our mission, we welcome you to the global Geotourism Challenge: Celebrating Places/Changing Lives, the first of three annual collaborative competitions in partnership with Ashoka's Changemakers.

The goal of the Geotourism Challenge is to identify and showcase innovators-individuals and organizations- that support the approach known as geotourism: tourism that sustains or enhances the geographical character of a place-its environment, culture, aesthetics, heritage, and the well-being of its residents.

We invite you to participate in Ashoka's Changemakers collaborative competition through several actions:
nominate candidates between December 13, 2007 and April 19, 2008; enter the competition itself and encourage others to do so, starting January 30, 2008; comment on entries in the online discussion, throughout the competition, to help tourism innovators refine and improve their ideas; vote for three Geotourism Challenge winners from a slate of finalists chosen by expert judges, starting May 28, 2008.

Help us identify remarkable examples of innovation that demonstrate ways for tourism to do the most good and the least harm. We seek information on innovators from around the world and from every kind of enterprise, government, or organization-large and small- who are helping destinations benefit from tourism while protecting the assets that make their places special.

Who are the best Geotourism Challenge candidates? People and organizations that build community pride, increase knowledge about a place, help to protect or enrich the character of a place, and improve residents' well-being.

Please share your knowledge with us and with the world. Even if you do not nominate a candidate or enter the competition, visit Ashoka's Changemakers community discussion and comment online. If you are a traveler or tourism professional, you may already be working to improve a particular destination. If you live there, you may be working to make your place more attractive-both for visitors and for the local population. Your insights will be valuable and help shape the growing field of geotourism. Together, we can move tourism toward a model that protects and enhances the world.

Sincerely,
Jonathan B. TourtellotDirector, Center for Sustainable DestinationsNational Geographic

December starts with casual enjoyable reunions

2007-12-02T17:31:00.000-02:00

Yesterday, 1st of December was a day of incredibly nice, not very long ago planned reunions with special AIESEC friends in Bogota.

National Committee 2002 - 2003 of AIESEC in Colombia reunion

Since I came back to Colombia in January was so cool to start going out to party ocasionally with Santi (originally from Medellin), who was part of my MC team back in 2002-03 and also Local Committee Presidente of AIESEC EAFIT in 2001, same year I was LCP of Uninorte. But the feeling became every more special when we met, the three of us together, with Andres, also part of the MC team that year (and LCP of Cali, also in 2001). In the MC 2002 - 2003 we were all Vicepresidents, me of A night full ot FAT (f%$#cking AIESEC talk!!), nice food and drinks (being those last two the main differences experienced since the last time we were together back in 2003, when with our poor MC salaries we could hardly survive) and the most important, a night full of memories and gossips ...

Me, Andres and Santi: MC 2002 / 2003 AIESEC in Colombia

Mr. Elias in Bogota for couple of hours

Elias is a brazilian friend of mine, that during 2005 - 2005 was National President of AIESEC in Brazil and also that same year, was the chair of the Spanish Speaking Region and therefore, a big support that year that I was the Director of the region. I've always appreciated Elias a lot because he has been a perfect combination of challenging views and opinions and sooo much fun and randomness. We met for couple of hours for lunch in Bogota, while he was doing a stop from Brazil and on her way to the US, where he lives and works for DHL.

Me and Elias, same as a we are ... a very random picture!

India Richest

2007-11-25T16:57:00.000-02:00

Bit old article ( from last week on Forbes.com) and video but still interesting to share.
The subcontinent's wealthiest doubled the value of their fortunes over the past year. Howcome I didn´t meet any of them (specially the mumbaikars!) when i lived there? hehehehe ...

You can take a look at India´s richest men and women of them at:
http://www.forbes.com/2007/11/13/india-billionaires-richest-biz-07india-cx_nk_1114india_land.html

Random fact: I shaked hands with number 15 last year! (I guess many members and alumni of AIESEC in India have since he´s a big supporter of this organization!)

A good movie

2007-11-22T12:32:00.000-02:00

For those who are hesitating in watching EL CANTANTE or not, just wanted to drop a Top 5 on why to see the movie.

1. I think JLo and Marc Anthony acted very well and their team work as actors in the movie went beyond the fact that they´re a couple (and therefore were meant to act together).

2. If your grandparents or even parents were Hector Lavoe´s fans (as it is in my case) this movie can bring you closer to all that frenetic feeling that people had towards the whole Salsa movement, and it´s kind of cool to understand that!

3. Building on that, was also nice to see how the FANIA story (and the paralell of FANIA being the Motown of the latin salsa at that time) started and why the New York Salsa of the 70´s and 80´s is such an icon.

4. It´s just great to watch a movie with such a good music sound and known songs (and short enough to still enjoy them, not as in the hindy movies that the songs and dances are everlasting! - just kidding)... even if Hector Lavoe is not of my generation, you´re able to sing at least the chorus of almost every song of the guy!

5. It´s a real story, and it always makes stuff extremely interesting.