Periodista is What Some Call a Journalist

Mago Bill: First Essay on Colombian Travel, Beginning With Bogota

                Working from The Pocket Guide of Colombian Hostels, I find that the Casa Platypus is a good place to sleep in Bogota. Bogota is a great big city and the capital of Colombia. The Casa Platypus is a hostel. A hostel is a kind of hotel designed for foreign travelers. It is also often a place to get useful information and to have a chance for finding someone who speaks a language you know. The personnel and proprietors of such hostels are often welcoming people from far off lands. You may expect those of the Casa Platypus to be such.

                The colonial(or republican style) building of the Platypus overlooks a plaza called Parque de las Periodistas.

Journalist:   

                "Periodistas" can be translated as "journalists." I find journalists to be an interesting breed which has not quite died out. "Died out" may not quire be the best way to put it. World-wide, journalists seem too often to be killed before they can die a natural death. Assassinated my be the more honest word.

                Journalists around the world are being assassinated for doing their best to inform us honestly. They would like to tell us the truth about what the see going on around us. They used to find out about goings on, happenings, and doings far and wide as well as close to home. They used to be able to us about them without so often having to gamble their lives to do so. Today their odds are worse than ever.

                Journalists have carried on their craft for a couple of hundred years or so. Some of them are still trying to inform us about that which is going on. However, we have been killing, jailing, imprisoning them and hiring fewer of them per capita for decades. So now we have fewer of them and they have fewer employers. I remember, as a Boy Scout, being taught that "honesty is the best policy." Still, perhaps, true. Now for our lack of responsibility or even interest, it has been a death sentence for journalistic honesty. What are we to tell our youth and children? The answer is "nothing," isn't it? Shall we say that raising our children and youth in ignorance is for the best.

                Rather than not getting  the backstory, we get no story at all. Unless it be the watered down fairy tales we are beginning to learn to prefer. We have yet to get from the WWW that which we had from a free press. We are beginning to get some stability of stable reporting on the web, but often just as we source of reporting which we feel we trust, it may disappear.

                There are other "Parques de las Periodistas" in other Colombia cities. I know of one in Medellin. What remanent of journalism do you have in your country?

Gabriel Garcia Marquez:

                This park in the Candelaria section of Bogota has been dedicated to a good and careful journalist whom you may know as a famous modern novelist. That novelist is Gabriel Garcia Marquez. He is an admirer of those who still practice journalism and has backed up his admiration with solid support.

                One can't find a place to sleep in Colombia without learning something interesting there. 

                Tell us where you find your most useful reporting.

                Thank you for reading.

                                                                                                                        

                                                                                                                             

                                                                                                           RCS

Colombia: Introductory Comments

Colombians are new-world Americans. They live on the best part of the far north of South America. They are largely of of Spanish heritage and they speak Spanish.

    When you intend to visit Colombia, it may contribute to your pleasure to be prepared to deal with them in their own language. Have an oral translation app on your iPhone, or a bilingual friend with you. You might take a Spanish class where you live or sign up for one here in Colombia. All the biggest cities and more important tourist cities have language schools available when there is no pandemic. It's also possible to arrange to have your visit guided by one who speaks speaks your language.

    If you are making realistic plans for a visit, investigate getting  a correct chip for your mobile phone. It may be that phones from your country won't work here without a change of chips. There are smart phones available here, but you could find them to be an unneeded expense. However, with some care, you can buy an ordinary cell phone here and have it nicely set-up at a reasonable price.

    In many parts of the major cities and tourist areas one finds pleasing places to eat and sleep. It is good to take special care in your eating at first with out being fearful of trying the local specialties. If you are not eating at a bit better than average restaurant, it may be best to stick to dishes hot off the stove.

    Ah, yes. In those same parts of major cities you will have a fair chance of meeting travelers or others with whom you may speak your own language.

    Enough about you.

       

    This is meant to be a short series of tiny essays about Colombia and Colombians. But first, a few words about me.

    I am an old American citizen who has lived in Colombia among Colombians for some time. Some have said to me, "You have lived here for a long time, why haven't you written about Colombia?" and "Why don't you write about Colombia?" and other such questions. So, instead of thinking of answers, I thought, "Why not?"  I thought to myself "I can note some observations of mine and maybe even say something about what I have made of a couple of them."

    More to come.

RCS

    

What's There to Like in an Organization

Some of What I like 

I know that organization increases our power enormously. I know that our organization informs and educates us well.

                    We are capable of forgetting the pleasures and satisfactions  of organization. I expect that the pleasures and satisfactions I am recalling just now will not be the same as yours. Still among mine you may find one or two of yours.

                    I have an interest in ad hoc organizations and and those of longer term.

Below are many of my personal likes in organizations. You may find some of your likes listed.

An organization which attracts me often has:

~ members who feel connected, involve, and respected.

~ the motive of helping me and others to thrive.

~ a clear understanding of costs and benefits.

~ members who promote widespread participation and responsibility.

~ members who embrace reality and who are willing to approach the truth.

~ members who value honesty and justice.

~ a mission I find valuable and pleasing.

~ plenty of talk in which all participate.

An organization which pleases me is one which:

~ Keeps me in the information loop.

~ most members feel well connected with leadership.

~ Makes very clear who pays how much and who gets what.

~ moves in the direction of democracy.

~ tends to be inclusive.

~ tends to safeguard that which I value.

~ includes those who study and promote actions good for me and others.

~ advocates and protects people and process important to me.

~ promotes dialogue which leads to appropriate action.

I find an organization congenial when it includes:

~ teaching the process of organizing.

~ the purpose of advocating and protecting me.

~ objectives very like my own.

~ intelligent, respectful, loving ladies.

                I am very interested in hearing of your likes in organizations. I expect to post more about organization and organizing. Dialogue skills are organizational skills for all participants in society.

                Organizing can be a wonderful move toward governance.

                More as soon as I can.

                Thank you for reading. Take some

                                                                                                            RCS