In these southern lands characters abound who seem right out of One Hundred Years of Solitude, the famous novel by Nobel Laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez. The terrible thing is, unlike in the novel, they become ministers and even presidents. One of the latter appeared some time ago declaring that to end drugs it was necessary only that the consuming countries stop consuming them.
A simple and ingenious formula: no consumption, no production. It’s surprising that such an intelligent solution has never occurred to anyone before. With this formula many problems could be solved: if we stop drinking alcohol, alcoholism will end; if we stop smoking, no cigarettes will be produced and smoking will end; if the poor stop having children, they won’t be born and there will be no more poor people.
It’s noteworthy that after this important discovery, the character has not been nominated for a Nobel Prize in something.
Also, some time ago, I think the same character suggested that if men continued to eat poultry, within a short time they would all be gay. So along with his homophobia, he proved one more time, in case anyone had any doubts, the freshness and depth of his thinking. Pure Macondo cubed!
The concern is that, despite these demonstrations of mental acuity, some international personalities are lavished with applause and even laudatory articles. This is just one example: characters like this are too abundant around here. Perhaps this is one of the causes — not the only one of course — of our difficulties and problems over the centuries.
They can hold many summits of heads of state and organize all the groups, pacts and economic and political communities they consider suitable to solve problems and achieve integration, but as long as these eccentric buffoons form a part of them, it is very difficult to achieve serious results. Let’s be optimistic and trust that sooner or later they will be replaced by intelligent and responsible people and that the latter will prevail and constitute a majority.
April 17 2012
