The Risks of flying on an plane
Everyone that flies from time to time, knows that aeronautics are an overwhelmingly safe way to get yourself around. Much safer than any other of your alternatives.
Even so, when an accident occurs like the Air France disaster, frequent travelers feel stressed out by the monstrous drama that generates an improbable situation in which something (or better yet, everything) turns out bad. (the previous post seems prophetic, right? Leer más…
Stop War
For the last few days I have read in despair the news coming from the Middle East. They cause me a great deal of pain and sadness. After so many years of failed efforts, how can we finally find the way towards Peace?
As Amos Oz wrote in this article that was almost a prophecy, I am convinced that in this conflict there is no way that Peace may come from War. That is why I find it so hard to stomach this Israeli attack. At the same time, I see very clearly that every time there was a truce to try to find a way towards Peace it was Israel that cooperated and the different Palestinian factions that boycotted, starting with the renowned Triple Negative of 1967 (No to Peace, No to Recognition of Israel, and No to Negotiation).
I also oppose this war because I am convinced that, as Martín Varsavsky explains in this post, this war does not serve the long term interest of Israelis to stop the missile rain and the suicide bombings. On the contrary, it gives more fuel to the perverse logic of hate that Islamic extremists need.
This conflict is very complex and cannot be thought as having “villains” and “victims”. And above all, it cannot be analyzed without putting ourselves in the place of those who suffer the pain. For that reason, I feel particularly bad to see the different demonstrations here in Argentina (especially from the left) that, in my opinion in a totally ignorant and dogmatic way, condemn unilaterally the Israeli attack, turning ones into complete villains and others into pure victims.
What is the FUBA (Federation of the University of Buenos Aires) taking part in a demonstration like this, in which there seems to be no reflection, no search for truth before acting? And what can we say of the attitudes and speeches of Luis D’Elia y and the actions of the President of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez?
The country where the bad guys always win
In the international corruption rankings, Argentina is very bad located. According to Transparency International we are in the 109th place, worse than the prior year, and have a score of 2,9/10. As a reference, we can compare this situation with that of our nearest neighbors, Uruguay and Chile, who share the 29th place and have a score of 6,9. How can we understand why are we such a corrupt country?
In my opinion, the answer is simple: you get from people what you recognize and reward, not what you condemn and punish.
Leer más…
Is Life a right or an obligation?
Yesterday night a television channel aired a British documentary called “Right to Die: The Suicide Tourist” showing the process by which Craig Ewert, a U.S. university professor who suffered an incurable degenerative disease, took his own life at the Swiss clinic Dignitas, where he practiced euthanasia .
This generated a wide range of reactions, most of them against euthanasia and contrary to the broadcast of the show itself.
I find it hard to believe that in the 21st century most people oppose to something as basic as the right of every person to decide how and when to die.
In this world where the right to a dignified life is denied to millions of people suffering from hunger and poverty, and millions of victims die from preventable diseases, there are also those who turn the “right to live” into a “duty to be alive”, as long as possible at any price, thereby denying the dignity both in life and in death.
Argentina para Armar, Palermo Valley and we are done for the year
Yesterday afternoon, together with several Endeavor Entrepreneurs, I was in the recording for Maria Laura Santillan’s “Argentina para Armar“. The subject was “The Entrepreneurs and the current crisis” and will air on Sunday night for those who want to see it. Along with me were Jessica Trosman, Rodolfo Montes de Oca, Mike Santos and Guillermo Gotelli. I am not thrilled with how I fared but the others were very good so it’s worth a look.
The best award of all
This week Officenet won the Mercurio Award, given by the Argentine Marketing Association, in the Technology category. This award recognizes the companies with best marketing in the country. For me this is the best prize of all because it wasn’t won thanks to me but despite me! Leer más…
Wordcamp BA is past, Buenos Aires 2.0 comes next
Last Saturday I presented in WordcampBA. The event was great. Mariano Amartino was perfect in the organization, Matt Mullenweg was all I expected and more (I am dying to upgrade my WP to 2.7!) and the three lectures that I saw were very good.
Speaking to that audience, full of super experienced bloggers, was very challenging (I share my ppt below). As I said at the start my talk, “if that’s not going out of the comfort zone I do not know what would be. ”
Great to Good?
A few weeks ago I was at a meeting of the Advisory Council of Prosperar, the National Investment Agency of Argentina. There, Alec Oxenford mentioned something that truly concerns me: He said that in a speech a few days ago he asked the audience who was their most admired businessperson. And everyone in the audience looked at him as if he was crazy. And that, after thinking for while, the only answer they could think of was Marcelo Tinelli.
You may like better Bill Gates or Steve Jobs. Larry Ellison or Jack Welch. Sergey Brin and Larry Page or Jerry Yang and David Filo. But what there is no doubt about is that in cultures such as the U.S., among the most admired people there are many entrepreneurs. In Argentina being a businessman is a stigma.
A fake slew of visits
Let’s see if any of my fellow readers who are more experienced bloggers can help me with this. Last Tuesday the blog had almost three times the normal number of visits. I was totally confused in trying to figure out what could have generated such a peak of traffic.
E-commerce day
Last week I was invited to speak at the E-Commerce Day. There, I made a presentation and received a award from CACE for “my support to the development of the Digital Economy”. It was a great honor to receive it together with heavyweights such as Alec Oxenford , Esteban Brenman, Facundo Garretón and Santiago Pinto.
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Riesgo & Risk & Reward is Santiago Bilinkis' blog. Santiago is a serial entrepreneur, who created this blog to ignite a discussion and share his experiences, thoughts and anecdotes.
The main subject will be Entrepreneurship, but he plans to cover a broad range of topics. The common ground will be Risk. Welcome to this adventure!
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