Santiago Bilinkis l Risk and Reward - Trying to live a life out of the comfort zone

The classes we’re having down here at Singularity University are really amazing. It’s a unique opportunity to listen to speakers who blow your mind off. I must confess, however, that there’s something I’m quite worried about: When taking some distance from what is going on at the classes, you can notice that, hard as we may try, we students don’t manage to pay attention for an extended period of time.

It seems as if the culture of brevity reflected on Twitter or TED (the shorter the better) had destructed our capacity to stay focused for more than just a couple of minutes.

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I always admired people who, in whatever context, dare to go after what they want -even if that means contradicting what a majority around them expect from them. For example, those who choose to be geologists or artists, when everybody around expects them to become a lawyer. This applies in particular to choosing sexual orientation. To be gay is one of the bravest decisions one can make. Popular belief that states you have to be a real macho to admit you’re gay is a big truth -especially if we associate macho with courage and not with merely exalting manliness, which has nothing to do with courage.

That’s why I think today, the day Gay Marriage has become legal, is a historic day for Argentina. It’s a day when many of the bravest people in the country can get the admiration and respect they deserve for their courage and the struggle they held for years. Today we celebrate that the greatness of the human being lies in diversity and difference, not in over-adaptation or uniformity. In a couple of decades from now, we’ll find it hard to believe that this debate even existed, as much as nowadays it sounds unreal that just 60 years ago women didn’t have the right to vote.

It was a close vote at Congress. This says a lot about a society which is yet distant from embracing diversity. There is still people out there who believe there is only one way to be a husband/wife; one of being a mom/dad. What we learn from this is that legal recognition is just the first step of a process that has just begun: learning to see the world beyond our own eyes.

However, although there are many challenges ahead to leave discrimination behind, today is a day to celebrate. A day to admire the the courage and struggle of those who fought to make this happen. A day to hug each other and feel that we are all different, we are all unique, we are all gay.

Picture: Essygie

Translated by: Palindromic

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?

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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?

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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 29^th 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.

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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.

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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.

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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. ”

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