ESL's column

Hello you!

 

I was recently talking to a dear friend regarding how people are often scared to visit certain countries because of the “bad press” that is wired all over the world on a daily basis; or should I say “wrong press”? Bad, wrong, biased, inaccurate, erroneous, inexact, misleading, the adjective it’s up to you. Now, I am not saying to ignore “real” threats to your own integrity, but let’s not exaggerate.

 

Risks are always present. Every day, every single second something can happen to any of us. There are obviously different degrees of risk depending on the current situation of a certain zone/country. There is also every person’s threshold, their own limit to a risk they are willing to undergo. I am not concerned with that at all. I am concerned, though, with the way government agencies rank countries and advice co-nationals against visiting certain nations because they are too “risky”.

Colombia, my country, is one of those places that are considered “extremely dangerous”. The US state department and other developed countries issue travel warnings on a monthly basis just to remind their citizens not to visit Colombia, placing fear on top of their minds every time a trip there is suggested. It is unfortunate that Colombia is nowadays a synonym of drugs, kidnapping and violence. It is disappointing that “Oh, have you got some cocaine?” are the first words I repeatedly hear when a foreigner asks me where I come from. Not to blame them though, that is what press have fed them in the last couple of decades.

 

All of this “bad press” has adverse repercussions in every strata of our society. About six years ago, I had the opportunity of travelling to Sweden as an exchange student together with other 200 students from all over the world. The main objective of these exchange programs is to increase cultural-awareness both for the foreign student and the host university. Before leaving, at a short preparation seminar, we were rightly instructed that we were then ambassadors of our culture, and we had to show the good facet of Colombia and its people. I happily assumed this role and worked hard on patiently try to change the image my country had in the minds of most of the other exchange students and locals. One year later, this program excluded Colombia as one of their destinations because a travel warning was issued by the US State Dpt. How many foreigners lost the great chance of coming here and explore the real Colombia? How many young Colombian students lost their chance of going abroad to become an ambassador of our culture and keep on changing a wrong image? Wouldn’t this kind of programs increase cultural awareness all over the world? Is it by alienating a country how you make it a better place to live? It is immeasurable the damage this decision might have caused to our generation.

 

Fortunately, there are some organisations that understand that the only way not to be afraid of each other is to get to know each other. AIESEC (www.aiesec.org) is the world’s largest student-run organisation. Their main objective: increase world co-operation through cultural understanding; and how do they do it? Exchange people all over the world, making them see different realities. During my years working with them and enjoying the organisation, it certainly changed the way I see many of the problems that currently affect our society. It gave me an insight on how my people behave when abroad; and how foreigners behave when they visit us. I could see how hundreds of frightened young professional came to work in Colombia for a year and enjoyed it so much that they ended up staying longer, settling here, and even starting their own families here. These people will obviously come back to their own countries and talk wonders of Colombia, and probably people would say “WHAT? Are you out of your mind?”. However, they would be as seeds that germinate to become the good word for an “extremely dangerous” country, and not only will they become Colombian ambassadors as well, but a socially aware individual. Someone who is able to understand that press is not always right, that appearance seldom concords with reality. AIESEC “shakes up” the way young people see the world. And it succeeds quite easily.

 

Press is always searching for “shocking” news, raw bits of reality carefully handled to shock the most vulnerable part of ourselves. It is obvious that the human kind has the ability to adapt to most of the situations he is subjected. Hence, we have become accustomed to violence in our daily lives. We now rarely shock because of death, hunger, inequality. The farther it is from our small social sphere, the less we care. Press thus adapt to the new state of humanity and search for other dreadful ways to shock our perception of the world. You can now see the vicious circle. Where will this lead humanity? Why are we so appealed by other’s sufferance and pain?

 

How nice it would be that we were “shocked” or “shaken up” in the way AIESEC does, instead of having a bunch of “pain predators” feeding us with the world most outrageous sufferance. How good it would be that we all got accurate information of what is really dangerous and what not. How pleasant it would be that many of us had the chance to see different realities in order to become tolerant and real citizens of the world.

 

Have a good life!

 

Cheers!

 

ESL

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• You would have noticed that I "meto entre comillas" many words, that is because I believe these words are very subjective and quite personal concepts that I do not wish to generalise.