What I don't like about the USA is that they work a lot

When you meet someone who has left their homeland in Latin America, and you start to ask them how things have been for them, how they feel in the United States of America, they will most likely tell you that they find everything better than in their country wher they come; but he only doesn't like one thing and he exclaims to you: the bad thing is that here you have to work like a donkey! Then you listen to the interlocutor, without doing a brief analysis or simple reflection and asking yourself: Could it be that this person is enslaved and they don't even pay him anything, and why doesn't he report it to the police authorities? No, the attitude is to respond: Aha, it's true, I agree with you, there is too much work done here! And, later on, the jokes begin, yes, the same ones we find on social networks.

There is a principle of capitalism that says: "the boss buys your work time", so don't try to slack off at your workplace, since, "that time does not belong to you, but to your employers." Maybe in Latin America it is customary to waste time on activities that do not correspond to the pay they receive and when working in the USA, they think that they are being exploited and no, what happens is that they are only knowing the true duty of the job well done.

The other impression where a false conclusion can be drawn is the relationship between salary and cost of living. In general, Latin Americans have historically attempted to live a low-cost existence, that is, leaving material aspirations and ambitions aside, in most cases influenced by beliefs and practices of the Catholic Church, which taught among its acolytes that loving riches was a sin, and therefore hell would be their final destination.

What is noticeable in everyday reality is that those who work to live day to day, only to pay the bills, without hope of a future linked to savings and investment, will sadly give up their job.

When one has these parameters, beliefs and patterns rooted in the psyche, when comparing the reality of the countries of origin with the North American socioeconomic reality, it results, at least for the subject who thinks about it, as a society in which one feels and at the same time he thinks and finally comes to believe that he is a slave to work and someone is enslaving him. That's where the false and unhealthy opinion that is repeated so much within the Latin community would come from: "What I don't like about the USA is that they work a lot."

Author: Miguel Ángel Moreno Villarroel

 

The Transformative Power of Reading

The idea came to mind of capturing, through writing, what the reading activity produces within the lives of human beings, who are until now the only living beings that have this natural capacity; putting aside man-made administrators to replace him in this task such as: code readers, fingerprint and face readers, etc.

There are those who believe that reading: creates a greater vocabulary; builds speaking skills; They link man with his environment and improve his understanding of it; helps capture first-hand knowledge; helps improve reading language and memory; creates better humanistic bonds and social empathy with our fellow human beings. There are those who claim that reading beneficially transforms the structure of the brain, that is, it generates relevant organic changes in the conformation of the gray matter; The French scientist Jean Baptiste de Lamarck already said that organs are acquired or lost as a consequence of use or disuse.

In relation to its connection with oral or written expression, I have to say that the experience that I have had to live and observe first-hand, says that: indeed, those who have read the most can face the challenges that come with both oral and public presentations, as well as the best-finished writing of texts of texts. different types and genres. From the above I can say that every time I see on social networks the promotion of courses to teach creative writing, leaving an understanding as a promise that they will teach the contestants to write the genre of novel, short story, essay and who knows how many other things. He left them as a comment: "it is useless, whoever has never read in his life, he cannot and will not be able to write." I don't know if this lapidary sentence doesn't sit well with them or not; but it is what my reality and experience dictate to me.

Regarding the vigorous development of spoken language, I recently had to closely experience the episode experienced by a good friend, who today has been reading the genre of novels for about a year, and more specifically romantic ones. This reader told me that her son and then a niece, separately, upon seeing her leaving a voice note on her mobile phone, expressed their astonishment by saying: Aha, but if you speak differently, like with more propriety and confidence ! Then, on one occasion, I saw the same person leaving a voice note and the difference was how slowly she spoke, and the search for the most appropriate term for what she wanted to mean.

So, in conclusion, I can affirm: that is why I have no doubts about the transformative power of reading.

Author: Miguel Ángel Moreno Villarroel