Monologos Esporadicos

The side effects of Google Analytics

2011-02-11T15:53:00.005+01:00

Google Analytics is a very useful tool that allows webmasters to find out what's really going on with their websites. For instance: How many people are visiting your blog? Where do they come from? Are they reading it or rather skipping it? How long do they stay in your webpage?

A couple of weeks ago I went to a job interview which required me to know a bit of web analytics, so I decided to test Google Analytics and see what the fuzz is about (or was, since it's no longer a new tool and I am not sure if there's something better out there). So.. I opened a Google Analytics account, copied a piece of tracking code to my blog.. and believe it or not, people actually visit my blog!

Well, it's definitely not the most visited page on the web (10 visits per day during the last week, and 90% of the visitors never click on a link), but... its much more visited than I thought :)

Thanks to Google Analytics I know, for instance, that 38% of my visitors come from the US (see map below), and that British are more likely to keep reading it, rather than jumping to another webpage.

This is, truth be told, amazing news. I haven't written here anything at all for almost a year, and yet people still visit it.. now imagine: what if I actually wrote something? Can I improve traffic? An interesting experiment...

Blogs are dead

2010-07-25T11:04:00.003+02:00

Its official: blogs are dead. They are so 2003. No one read blogs, and the reason is, that you can read the same things in Facebook or twitter. Well, actually not the same stuff, cause you wouldn't write more than a couple of sentences in any of these pages, but people don't want to think more than a couple of catchy phrases per day. Who wants to read three paragraphs about the life changing experience that I had last week when I found a dog hunting a rabbit, when all the people who care about it, could read it from your status update in Facebook?

Moreover.. who wants to have to deal with these freaking chinese porn comments? Its been ca. 30 since April... I just dont feel like having to log-in once a day to erase these comments. Come on China, how come you censor everything, and you cannot keep these idiots out of my blog?

NO CHINESE PORN AFTER THIS POST, PLEASE!!!

Finding myself

2010-04-10T10:47:00.002+02:00

So, you may think, everything has happened before. But there I am, lying inside this metallic cylinder, trying to figure out what's going on. The place is dark, but you can spot a small window to the outside world. I can barely move, the place is simply too small. I wonder if it's only a dream or a metaphor of my life. Or a bit of both. I am trapped in this box and things are about to get worse. Outside the window I see a woman. She hesitates, she is not sure what to do. She seems to be pushing buttons - first gently, then desperately. Then, suddenly, I hear a click. The machine is now sealed, I realize, and she looks at me for the first time. Her eyes seem familiar, but the glimpse is too short to tell. Ten seconds, perhaps twenty, and the device starts filling in with water. The cylinder trembles, and then, starts moving. I am inside a fucking washing machine, I see it clearly now. And the fun is about to start...

This is why I dont like Italy

2010-01-23T11:24:00.001+01:00

Rigid codes of behavior govern everything from how to dress to the proper time of day to drink a cappuccino. Far from being a melting pot, Italy remains a three-course meal, with the pasta carefully segregated from the appetizer and main course and no place for a bowl of hummus or plate of egg rolls.

Source: Time.com

Fat Cells Are Forever

2009-11-29T19:35:00.002+01:00

Swedish scientists have killed all my hopes to become thin one day. According to some studies conducted at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, it seems that "the number of fat cells we develop as kids and teenagers determines how many we'll have for the rest of our lives".

"Scientists already suspected that the overall number of fat cells remains constant throughout adulthood and that that number appears not to be influenced by how much you eat or exercise (when you lose weight, your fat cells shrink but don't go away; when you gain, they fill up with fat and expand). But until this research, they weren't sure how long fat cells live, or how often they die and are replaced. Understanding fat cell "turnover" could possibly lead to treatments for obesity that block fat-cell regeneration."

Source: The Washington Post

Rascasse has a video!

2009-09-17T20:32:00.001+02:00

Incredible, but true...

Quite a summer

2009-08-29T12:04:00.001+02:00

European summers are usually a mix of endless days and a lot of sweat. Time seems to go by so slowly, and staying at home just feels weird. Friends scatter along the continent for weeks, and the few that stay at home become your picnic companions. All in all it feels like in one of those lethargic Garcia Marquez novels, where yellow, sandy towns seem to be frozen in time.

This summer, however, was simply too intense. Lots of new faces. Lots of new places. A new flat. A new neighborhood. Crete, Brussels, Rüggen, Bonn and Düsseldorf. And many visitors. Lots of beer. Lots of food. Lots of everything. Perhaps too much... though, is there really too much? My belly is 5 kilos heavier, so yes, there is too much...

I thought I would never say this, but yes, I am tired of the summer. I need a pause. I need to rest. But only for a bit. Cause hey, Istanbul is coming next week...

About home-ownership and unemployment

2009-04-05T21:10:00.001+02:00

A decade ago Andrew Oswald of the University of Warwick in Britain argued that excessive home-ownership kills jobs. He observed that, in Europe, nations with high rates of home-ownership, such as Spain, had much higher unemployment rates than those where more people rented, such as Switzerland. He found this effect was stronger than tax rates or employment law.
If there are few homes to rent, he argued, jobless youngsters living with their parents find it harder to move out and get work. Immobile workers become stuck in jobs for which they are ill-suited, which is inefficient: it raises prices, reduces incomes and makes some jobs uneconomic. Areas with high home-ownership often have a strong “not-in-my-backyard” ethos, with residents objecting to new development. Homeowners commute farther than renters, which causes congestion and makes getting to work more time-consuming and costly for everyone. Mr Oswald urged governments to stop subsidising home-ownership. Few listened.

Source: The Economist

Voyage

2009-02-15T16:06:00.001+01:00

La vida es una especie de viaje. Y aunque tanto el principio como el final son relativamente predecibles -no olvidemos que comienza en un vientre y termina en un ataud-, el transcurso entre lo uno y lo otro siempre sera una incognita para el viajero desprevenido. En mi caso, la vida me ha llevado a conocer lugares curiosos, climas extremos y personajes intrepidos. Pero sobretodo, me ha colocado en situaciones particulares que nunca habria creido posibles. Hoy, montado en un tren camino a casa, reflexiono sobre lo benevola que ha sido la vida conmigo, apesar de los altos y bajos caracteristicos de todo viaje - un viaje que ahora parece tomar un rumbo ciclico, llevandome de vuelta a un lugar que consideraba perdido. Sin mas preambulos, un recuento anecdotico de mi vida:

1979 - Primera etapa del viaje. Comienza a las 9 de la noche en un hospital de Barranquilla, una de las ciudades mas calurosas del mundo conocido. Mis primeros gritos me acercan mas a una chicharra que a un ser humano, pero es apenas normal, teniendo en cuenta el trauma de llegar a un mundo tan diferente del ya usual vientre materno.

1984 - Llegada de mis hermanos Pier y Angela al paseo. Al ser mellizos, se convierten en objeto de admiracion por parte de familiares, amigos e incluso desconocidos. Son dos criaturas tiernas, si bien disimiles, que habran de confabularse mas tarde contra su hermano mayor, para asi poner fin a la injusticia natural que conlleva ser el mas pequeño.

1990 - La seleccion Colombia llega a la segunda ronda del mundial de futbol. Rene Higuita comete un error garrafal, y Camerun nos saca del mundial. Marcelo no puede contener la tristeza y se tira en su cama a llorar. Media hora mas tarde sube a la casa de su amigo Santiago, donde olvida el percance luego de jugar Pacman en un Atari voluminoso de primera generación.

1993 - Marcelo conoce el amor. Se trata de una forastera de cabellos negros y cachetes rosados, cuyo discutible parecido fisico con roger rabbit inspiraria mis primeras obras de arte. Pero asi como el primer amor es pocas veces eterno, muchas cosas cambiarian en los años venideros, incluyendo su sensual acento iberico, el cual se convertiria en una impredecible mezcla de dialectos caribeños, andinos y del cono sur...

1995 - Primera estadia prolongada en el exterior. El internado Alonei Itzhak, ubicado estrategicamente entre las ciudades de Tel Aviv y Haifa, en Israel, habria de recibirme por cuatro largos meses con una oferta inusual: clases en Hebreo, tardes de futbol, travesuras adolescentes, habitaciones compartidas y algo de estudio.

1997 - Graduacion de bachiller. La ceremonia se asemeja a una reparticion de Oscares a la pelicula mas taquillera. Recibo un diploma y mas medallas que un ciclista dopado. La presion es latente - debo estudiar algo que "valga la pena", una ingenieria, o algo por el estilo. Ser periodista? Ojala hubiese escuchado mi voz interior... y es asi como ingreso a la Facultad de Ingeniera Electrónica en la Universidad Javeriana, una institución que habría de cambiar mi vida por siempre.

1999 - La capital colombiana es tan grande como fria. Pero la locacion es una especie de ruido atmosferico con respecto a mi cotidianidad Javeriana. Mi mente se encuentra en estado de exaltacion, en medio de clases de fisica de fluidos y calculo vectorial. Mi principal rival academico, Andres Vila, se convierte en mi compañero de apartamento. Dos titanes de la electronica reunidos en un espacio de 80 metros cuadrados es un escenario tan prometedor en terminos academicos como dudoso desde el punto de vista social. Cualquier parecido con The Big Bang Theory es pura coincidencia...

2001 - Marcelo practica su ortografia italiana en una clase de Codici di Canale, mientras que Andres presta atencion a las explicaciones del profesor Garello. Los mismos "titanes" se enfrentan a un reto diferente: sobrevivir a la vida academica y social en la vieja Italia. Y aunque lo primero resulta sorprendentemente facil, lo segundo resulta realmente complicado. Como extraño la buena comida, mi fria Bogota y mis escapadas a mi Barranquilla surreal...

2003 - Graduacion con honores, y con ello, un nuevo reto: la vida corporativa en un lugar tan pequeño como aburridor. No duro mucho en Luxemburgo, solo lo suficiente para darme cuenta que todavia soy joven y que no vale la pena envejecerse en dicho lugar, asi trabaje para General Electric. A donde me voy? Buena pregunta... vivo en Barcelona por un par de meses, pero mi afección por una mujer especial termina por atraerme a una ciudad igualmente especial.

2005 - Marcelo saborea un chuzo de carne, mientras que Kerstin prepara unas mazorcas. Pero lo mejor esta por venir: queso halumi cocinado al carbon, forrado en pan de pita y aderezado con salsa de humus. Se trata de un barbecue veraniego con Ingrid, Chris, Baris, Genevieve, Alper, Anna y Sonja. Una casa grande, un patio enorme, pinos gigantes y unas buenas cervezas. Como ha cambiado mi vida, del solitario Luxemburgo al magico Berlin. Amistad, amor y nuevas maneras de pensar complementan mi vida laboral. An absolute highlight.

2007 - Valentin insiste que no hay nada mejor que la comida peruana. Me muestro esceptico, pero reconozco que el ceviche tiene un sabor incomparable. Sentado bajo un arbol de castañas, el señor Checa se confiesa: otra victima en Berlin. Esta vez se trata de una rubia despampanante, la cual trabaja en nuestra universidad. Ser estudiante de MBA es tan interesante como divertido, pero sobretodo, abre tu mente a nuevas posibilidades. No soy un experto en Mercadeo o Finanzas, pero a lo largo del año comienzo a entender los misterios del mundo de los negocios. El intenso trabajo en equipo puede ser tan edificante como exasperante, pero quizas lo mas importante, es que te da la oportunidad de conocer aspectos increibles de otras profesiones, culturas e individuos.

2008 - Catherine entra a mi oficina y me saluda en un español semi-tropical. Su sonrisa es sincera, pero su posterior expresión la delata: la chica quiere celebrar el Halloween. Le digo que nadie en la oficina se ha manifestado al respecto, pero que si ella se le mide, yo tambien. Sus ojos brillan de felicidad y en menos de media hora revivo la fiesta que creia sepultada. Esa misma noche la ciudad de Colonia experimenta un fenomeno atipico para esa epoca del año: 10 personas disfrazadas en busca de una buena fiesta de Halloween. La mision es dificil de completar, pero Dios sabe lo que hace, y es asi como en el tranvia un irlandes disfrazado de perro nos guia al Eden. May God bless Ireland.

2009 - El cielo gris cubre el horizonte. Es un domingo palido, raquitico y quizas escualido. Marcelo vuelve a Colonia luego de pasar un par de noches en la casa de Alejandro. Los pensamientos se agalopan y lo hacen reflexionar sobre nuevas posibilidades. Se da cuenta de lo curiosa que es la vida, y decide encender su laptop. Es hora de escribir en su blog.

El silencio de los administradores

2009-01-11T14:45:00.001+01:00

Hace pocos dias tuve una conversación interesante con un compañero de mi MBA (master en administración de empresas). Resulta que el tipo habia invitado a media clase por e-mail a un evento social organizado por el mismo, el cual, a decir verdad, sonaba bastante divertido.

Para sorpresa de mi amigo, solamente tres personas respondieron a su e-mail. Una de ellas fui yo, en el cual le explicaba los motivos por lo cuales no podia asistir. Las otras dos personas desistieron igualmente por razones diversas, y asi se lo hiceron saber. Sin embargo, el resto de los invitados, decidieron no responder a dicho e-mail. Mi amigo, consternado por la poca resonancia del evento, un paseo en bote a traves del rio Spree en Berlin, me pregunto que opinaba del hecho que casi nadie le hubiese contestado.

Aunque las razones podrian ser muchas, creo que mi amigo, arquitecto, se enfrento a un fenomeno poco documentado en la literatura, al cual he bautizado con el nombre de "managerial silence" o "el silencio de los administradores". Segun mi teoria, los administradores de empresa tienen una tendencia natural a evitar situaciones embarazosas, razon por la cual tienden a callar en disyuntivas peligrosas. Mientras que ingenieros, matematicos y otros profesionales con predileccion natural para resolver problemas siempre encuentran una respuesta para toda clase de preguntas, los administradores prefieren evitar una respuesta en situaciones donde saben que ninguna respuesta es satisfactoria. Por ejemplo, mientras que un ingeniero responderia a una pregunta embarazosa con un "que pena con usted, la verdad no se la respuesta", el administrador decidiria callar, esperando que el interlocutor olvide el tema.

Evidentemente, mi teoria esta aun por comprobar, y a decir verdad, no sabria como probarla, pero si ustedes saben algo del tema, les agradeceria que me ayudaran con dicha informacion.

Que significa "malparido" en alemán?

2009-01-08T15:35:00.001+01:00

Estuve hace poco estrenando un traductor español-aleman, y por mamar gallo, decidir buscar la palabra "malparido". El diccionario no dio una respuesta convincente, pero mostraba un comentario bastante interesante de uno de sus redactores:

Die Menschen wissen nicht einmal was sie da genau sagen, es ist ein Schimpfwort wie jedes andere. Zwischen Unbekannten ist es sehr hart, also bedrohlich. Doch zwischen Freunden ist es meistens ein übliches Schimpfwort ohne viel bedeutung. Es liegt in der Zunge der Kolumbianer, meist sind es die Paisas (aus Medellin), die es mehr betonen. Selbst der Präsident Uribe, hält sich mit seinem ständigen "marica", das so viel bedeutet wie Schwuchtel, nicht zurück... Quelle: dict.leo.org

Traducción: Malparido es una de esas palabras que nadie sabe usar realmente. Entre desconocidos se considera una palabra fuerte, amenazante. Pero entre amigos es una palabra comun, sin mayor significado. Abunda en el hablar de los Colombianos, siendo los paisas (de Medellin) los que mas la utilizan. Como seran de malhablados, que ni siquiera el presidente Uribe puede evitar soltar un "marica" de vez en cuando...

Me gustaria ser un escritor

2009-01-07T04:47:00.001+01:00

Estando en Barranquilla tuve la oportunidad de conocer un escritor bastante especial. Se trata de Santiago Forero, un amigo de la infancia, que ademas de ser psicologo y trabajar como supervisor en un call center bilingue, escribe columnas de videojuegos para El Heraldo, el periodico de mayor circulacion en la Costa Caribe colombiana.

Me imagino que se deben estar preguntando por que hablo de conocer a este escritor, dado que se trata de un amigo de la infancia. Pues bien, a pesar de conocer a Santiago por muchos años, la verdad nunca pense que fuera a conocer su faceta de escritor asalariado. Si, es cierto, ambos fundamos una revista a la edad de 13 o 14, la cual repartiamos en todo el edificio por un modico precio de 80 pesos, pero de cierta manera esa experiencia se habia disuelto en mis recuerdos de infancia. Despues de eso, Santiago y yo emprendimos toda clase de actividades, las cuales nos llevaron, entre otras, a la venta callejera de limonada, la composicion de musica rock en las escaleras del edificio, el prestamo auto-aprobado del Sprint de su abuela, y otras hazañas de baja y alta calaña.

Me viene cierta pregunta en mente: si Santiago, mi compañero de aventuras por tanto tiempo, es capaz de escribir una columna de videojuegos en el Heraldo, por que no puedo hacer lo mismo? Bueno, lo mismo seria repetitivo, y la verdad es que poco me apasionan los videojuegos, pero si hay muchos temas que me despiertan curiosidad, como las tendencias sociales, economicas y culturales. Mhm, quizas deberia prepararme para dicho fin y refinar mi pluma digital con ejercicios de periodismo mordaz e ironico. Sera que lo logro? Ustedes son mis testigos...

Jet Lag

2009-01-07T04:26:00.001+01:00

El jet lag es una de las enfermedades mas curiosas que conozco. Primero que todo, carece de causas biologicas -es decir, ni la causa un virus, ni una bacteria-. Segundo, es bastante costosa de adquirir -de hecho se necesita un trecho mas largo que el de Barranquilla a Bogota para convertirse en candidato-. Y tercero -ya que siempre debe haber un tercero-, es de las pocas enfermedades con efectos secundarios positivos. Bueno, no es que la falta de sueño sea positiva en si, pero de cierta manera lo lleva a uno a pensar en cosas que uno no pensaria si estuviera dormido -en cuyo caso se estaria soñando, y no pensando-. Con lo cual me surge la duda: cuantos problemas se habran resuelto en un ataque de jet lag? La verdad, no tengo cifras para sustentar mi hipotesis, pero juzgando por este articulo, escrito a las 4:25 de la mañana, tengo la sospecha de que los jet lags juegan un papel fundamental en la formulacion de teorias interesantes y por confirmar...

La paradoja laboral colombiana

2009-01-04T17:22:00.001+01:00

La situación

En el mundo se trabaja en promedio 40 horas a la semana. Los latinos lo hacen 43,7 y los colombianos 48 horas, siendo los trabajadores de la región que más tiempo pasan en sus oficinas (!).

Por otro lado, la estabilidad laboral en la región es baja, pues apenas un poco más del 20 por ciento de los asalariados tienen contratos a término indefinido (!). Los empleos temporales están al alza, en particular en Brasil y Colombia.

La paradoja

Las encuestas que analizadas por el Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID) muestran que el 81 por ciento de los latinoamericanos están satisfechos con su empleo. Los colombianos están por encima del promedio, pues el 86 por ciento se declara satisfecho con su puesto (!).

La explicación

La explicación parece ser, que entre más crece un país, más insatisfechos están sus ciudadanos, pues a medida que aumenta la producción económica la gente tiene más expectativas y se siente mal si no las puede cumplir. Por el contrario, cuando se vive en la pobreza se está satisfecho con poco.

"En términos generales, los latinoamericanos están satisfechos con sus vidas, pero curiosamente, las personas que viven en algunos de los países más pobres, son las más optimistas, mientras que los ciudadanos de algunos de los países más desarrollados se encuentran entre los más pesimistas", explica el presidente del BID, Luis Alberto Moreno.

Fuente: Portafolio.com.co

Acerca del matrimonio

2008-12-23T21:47:00.005+01:00

En una entrevista reciente, el escritor colombiano Hector Abad Faciolince explico a la revista Semana su opinion sobre el matrimonio. La claridad de su analisis es tan admirable como terrorizante:

El matrimonio es un contrato, algo asi como la escritura de quien compra una finca, con unos linderos y unos plazos de pago. Occidente lleva siglos confundiendo el amor con el matrimonio. Ahora hasta los gays quieren casarse, porque ven el matrimonio como el premio mayor del amor. Ese es el gran error. Casarse es una transaccion legal: se divide el trabajo, se comparten gatos, se levantan los hijos y se les deja una herencia. El matrimonio protege el patrimonio. El amor no es nada de eso; amor y matrimonio no tienen nada que ver. El matrimonio, como el divorcio, es algo que se decide racionalmente; el amor es algo que nos ocurre o no.

Back to Barranquilla

2008-12-22T05:14:00.002+01:00

Barranquilla is a remarkable city. Populated by 1.5 million inhabitants, it´s one of those places you cannot forget, even if you try to. I have been trying to escape from it all of my life, but in spite of my efforts, I keep coming back, year after year, hoping to renew the little costeño inside me.

When I think of my hometown, I cannot really focus on one single thing. Its more like the combination of things that make it special to me. Warm weather & fresh breeze. Hot dogs covered with mountains of papitas. Loud people. Colorful Christmas lights. The cheapest cable TV in the world. Red brick buildings with modern designs. Packed streets. Ceiling fans. Green parks where nobody walks. Lots of fast food stands. The feeling you are never alone, even if you try to.

Defying gravity

2008-11-23T14:16:00.003+01:00

Dark Angel

2008-11-23T13:16:00.001+01:00

It's coming

2008-11-23T13:00:00.002+01:00

And then he popped the question

2008-11-23T12:52:00.003+01:00

Flobots

2008-09-16T23:55:00.001+02:00

If you type Flobots in Google, you get 1.2 million hits. However, if you organize a Flobots concert in Cologne, you get 60 fans in a very uncool bar. What's going on in this country?

Flobots - Handlebars from Jesus Christ on Vimeo.

Rheinigung

2008-09-03T23:16:00.001+02:00

Rheinigung from Marcelo on Vimeo.

Efectos Especiales

2008-08-09T20:42:00.002+02:00

Super Mario Bros

2008-08-03T19:04:00.001+02:00

Falling in love

2008-08-02T18:05:00.002+02:00

Falling in love is a strange process. With some of them it may happen from the first moment. With some others it may take a bit of time and knowing each other better. But with most of them, love never happens.

You might wonder what I mean with love never happens, so let's just do a simple exercise. First of all, think of all the people you have met in your life. How many are these? Maybe a hundred? Perhaps a thousand? And now think again: out of all these people, how many have you actually loved? Maybe one or two? Perhaps a dozen? If you count carefully, those you have loved will probably not exceed a 1% out of all those you have met. A really low percentage, which at least statistically speaking, suggests that love is -indeed- a rare thing.

I know, love is a boring topic. And the reason it's boring, it's because it appears everywhere. It's the topic of songs and movies. Of women's magazines and soap operas. Of books and most weddings. Yes, love is overrated and ubiquitous, so why bothering?

Well, motivation can originate from different sources. Need. Ambition. Boredom. Love. If you have enough, covering your needs is no longer motivating. If you have everything, all your ambitions may well be fulfilled - and that's precisely where boredom and love can kick in. Doing things out of boredom is usually non-sense, but it can be fun for a while. Doing things out of love may not make sense either, but at least it gives you the impression that you are doing the right thing...

Yes, love is a rare thing, so I keep trying. Real hard. Who knows, maybe one day I will fall in love with Cologne?

Little cousins

2008-07-26T23:21:00.001+02:00

Little cousins in action from Marcelo on Vimeo.

Visitors

2008-07-19T23:57:00.004+02:00

What would Chavez say about this?

2008-07-18T16:37:00.002+02:00

Why German men don't flirt

2008-07-13T11:17:00.001+02:00

A couple of days ago I came back to my office after a well-deserved lunch break, only to find a bizarre e-mail in my inbox saying something like "I can't believe you are flirting with Jennie!". I was like: Jennie? Who the f*** is Jennie? However, reading through the e-mail, I found a copy of an e-mail I had once sent to a colleague asking for some information. The e-mail itself was boring, but it finished with a phrase saying something like: "Feel free to answer these questions by e-mail, or if you prefer, I can give you a call and save you some typing :)". That smilie, according to my German colleague... was flirting!

Anecdotes of German men misunderstanding (or simply ignoring) the science of flirting, are abundant. Already in my first year in Germany I told my friend Sonja, a blond, tall girl who would turn around heads in other hemispheres, that she would never find a German boyfriend in Berlin, because -according to my first observations- Berlin men simply don't care about women. That was four years ago, and since then Sonja has met many interested guys, but none of them from Berlin. The story has repeated itself many times, being my Swedish friend Maria the latest victim of German flirting clumsiness. I am already tired of telling her "it just doesn't make sense, let it go", but she still insists in finding a kind, always caring German boyfriend.

Now, to be honest, I don't care whether German guys flirt or not. That's their problem - and an advantage for foreigners . But, I found today a very interesting article explaining the whole thing, which confirmed my early theories. Here's part of the explanation, extracted out of the Babel Berlin blog:

So why don’t men here flirt? Partly it’s about conforming to standards: getting a wolf whistle as you walked down Unter den Linden would be a bit much. But I don’t believe any German woman could justifiably be offended by being approached by a friendly stranger – that’s just an excuse. Basically, men are afraid to make fools of themselves, because that’s precisely the risk that flirting entails, and Germans don’t go in for risks. They like to do things properly and thoroughly, not spontaneously or irrationally. Forget genetic predisposition, or even cultural conditioning. Germans just aren’t into extreme sports. Although, come to think of it, I’ve never been one for the adrenalin rush either. Perhaps it’s time I checked out one of those flirting seminars?

Very interesting. Is this perhaps also the reason why everyone wears ties in this country, even if we have 32 degrees outside?

British Students Outsource Work to India

2008-07-03T14:46:00.003+02:00

UK IT students are hiring coders in India to complete their coursework for as little as £5 a go (...) Students contract their work to the lowest bidder, with prices ranging from £5 for simple undergraduate coursework, to £100 for postgraduate dissertations.

Academics at Birmingham City University have detected 1,000 students cheating worldwide since they began monitoring the websites in 2004.

Source: Business Week

P.S. I wonder when Colombians will start offering their services to Spain...

Historic Day

2008-07-03T10:27:00.003+02:00

Ingrid Betancur, Colombian citizen, former presidential candidate and war prisoner for the last 6 years (you can thank the FARC guerrilla for that), has been just released from captivity. A historic day for Colombia, and a clear signal of better times to come...

[UPDATE] Scrat just made me realize how Betancur was released! Wow, brilliant! Read below:

(CNN) -- In a secret operation a U.S. official called "brilliant," the Colombian military infiltrated rebel group FARC and deceived its members into giving up 15 hostages including former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, Colombia's defense ministry said.

Betancur said she awoke Wednesday at 4:30 a.m. and said the rosary, then was told by her guards that she and the other hostages were to be transferred to another location, where their detention was to continue.

"My heart broke because I did not want another transfer, another time, in captivity," she said.

But her guard, a woman, was unmoved, and ordered Betancourt to cross a river to the pickup spot -- "very harsh, move, hurry up fast, as always," she said.

Soon, two white helicopters approached and several men approached the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia commanders who were overseeing their transfer, she said.

"They spoke with Commander Enrique and Cesar," she said of her captors. As she looked closer, she saw that the men from the helicopter were wearing shirts emblazoned with the likeness of Che Guevara, the Argentine hero of the Cuban revolution. "I thought, this is FARC," she said.

Placed in handcuffs, Betancourt got into the helicopter, still unaware of what was happening. "They closed the helicopter doors, the helicopter started flying and suddenly there was something happening," she said.

"Suddenly I saw the commander who, during four years, had been at the head of our team, who so many times was so cruel and humiliated me, and I saw him on the floor naked with bound eyes."

Then, the reality of her liberation hit home.

"The chief of operations said, 'We are the national army and you are all free,' and the helicopter almost fell because we started jumping, we screamed, we cried, we hugged. We couldn't believe it."

A strange truth

2008-07-01T16:50:00.001+02:00

There are two ways to slide easily through life: to believe everything or to doubt everything; both ways save us from thinking.

Breakfast with Tendie

2008-06-29T22:49:00.003+02:00

In a weekend where absolutely everything went wrong, a nice English breakfast with Tendie saved the journey...

Germany 3 - Turkey 2

2008-06-27T00:58:00.003+02:00

American stupidity

2008-06-27T00:49:00.001+02:00

Two-thirds of doctoral candidates in science and engineering in U.S. universities are foreign-born. But only 140,000 employment-based green cards are available annually, and 1 million educated professionals are waiting -- often five or more years -- for cards. Congress could quickly add a zero to the number available, thereby boosting the U.S. economy and complicating matters for America's competitors. Source: A wall against talent

Meanwhile, thousands of unskilled Mexicans cross the Rio Grande each year without having to queue for the same green cards...

Garter Toss

2008-06-24T01:48:00.004+02:00

A very disturbing article about the origin of the garter toss:

What could possibly be more humiliating than being forced out to the center of a parquet dance floor while a wedding DJ advertises your lack of a boyfriend and then being expected to further demonstrate your desperation by diving for flying flowers? Wait…. Yup, we can top that. How about grasping in the air for a lacy piece of undergarment that until moments ago resided uncomfortably close to the crotch of your buddy’s wife? At any other point in time, that would make you a total perv, so why is it acceptable at a wedding? Well, hold on to your scruples boys and girls, because the history behind these customs is downright dirty.

It used to be that after the bride and groom said, “I do,” they were to go immediately into a nearby room and “close the deal” and consummate the marriage. Obviously, to really make it official, there would need to be witnesses, which basically led to hordes of wedding guests crowding around the bed, pushing and shoving to get a good view and hopefully to get their hands on a lucky piece of the bride’s dress as it was ripped from her body. Sometimes the greedy guests helped get the process going by grabbing at the bride’s dress as she walked by, hoping for a few threads of good fortune. In time, it seems, people realized that this was all a bit, well… creepy, and it was decided that for modesty’s sake the bride could toss her bouquet as a diversion as she made her getaway and the groom could simply remove an item of the bride’s undergarments and then toss it back outside to the waiting throngs to prove that he was about to, uh, get ‘er done.

From: http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/15969

Set back

2008-06-17T23:37:00.001+02:00

Bye bye, small apartment... what will I do now?

Insider joke

2008-06-15T11:48:00.003+02:00

It's sad, but true: I actually think this is funny...

Our new flat

2008-06-14T22:29:00.006+02:00

A small, 45 m2 flat in the heart of Cologne's student district...

Express Strategy Team

2008-06-12T11:01:00.001+02:00

A brief look to my office environment...

Starting a new life

2008-06-08T10:22:00.001+02:00

In terms of energy consumption, it has definitely been a very intensive month (those who know me will agree that I have only limited energies, and that day-to-day mobility has never been one of my strengths). But on the other side, it has been one of the most exciting times of my life. I wish I had had time to write about all of the things that have been going on in my life lately, but I guess I'll have to settle with summarizing it all. I hope you enjoy the ride:

May 5: After considering the idea for a couple of months, Marcelo decides to sign up for Deutsche Post World Net, becoming one of 150 management consultants analyzing and implementing global business proposals for the express & logistics conglomerate. It was not an easy decision, but probably the right one. On the way to DPWN, I had the chance to talk to over 25 employers, including Siemens, SAP, Lufthansa, Johnson & Johnson, Boston Consulting Group and British American Tobacco, just to name the most prominent. It may seem as if everyone wanted to interview me, but in fact I sent over 100 applications to get those 25 employers talking to me.

In any case, the whole interviewing process was a very enriching experience which allowed me to meet many of the top decision makers in a wide range of industries. Needless to say, my heart was severely broken by Google, a company that refused to interview me in spite of my extreme eagerness and (arguable) competence & personality fit. Fortunately for me, some companies did show great interest, such as Siemens, Potential Park, Mental Images, SER Solutions, and, DPWN Inhouse Consulting. Of all the options available, probably DPWN IC offered me the best career development opportunities, prompting me to abandon my beloved Berlin and embrace infamous Bonn.

May 9-22: Having decided my professional future, I decided to embark on a "relampago" trip to the US. What started as a joke ("If I sign a contract I'll go and travel the world"), ended up being an amazing tour. To break it up for you, we are talking about 4 cities (New York, Chicago, Pittsburgh and Houston), 4 different hosts (Chris, Ingrid, Adriana and my sister Angela) and lots of calories. If you haven't seen the pictures, please check them up on my Facebook profile. From a purely emotional perspective, this trip allowed me to fulfill several dreams (doing a "road" trip by myself, visiting some of my best friends, spending money I had not earned yet, and so on). But from a philosophical perspective, the trip also made me realize how humans can find happiness in almost every corner, needing only good friends and very good insider knowledge about the cool things to do and see in their respective cities.

May 22-31: The US trip was a crazy, sudden experience that will never be forgotten. However, it delayed many of the tasks required to prepare myself for Bonn. Having said this, the last days in Berlin were a combination of intensive networking (meeting friends for lunch, dinners and drinks), desperate calls to all sort of organizations (health insurance, arbeitsamt, etc), lazy packing (a couple of shirts per day), and a final, yet uneventful good-bye party at my place (the guests leaved around 1 AM, no one got drunk and no one spilled wine, as if people refused celebrating my departure).

June 1-8: My girlfriend calls it the B-witching. I call it destiny. Basically, for some strange reason, I have always spent long times in cities whose name starts with B. Or let's put it like this: of all the cities I have spent more than a whole month (8), six of their names start with B (Barranquilla, Boston, Bogota, Barcelona, Bollendorf and Berlin). And now it's Bonn.

B-witching or not, the fact is that I am very happy of being here, or at least for the moment being. Believe it or not, the small and relative unknown city (once capital of West Germany), displays some of the most exquisite residential architecture I have seen in Europe. It is definitely not my type of town (provincial in nature but yet very fancy-looking, similar to a rich holiday town), but I have to admit Poppelsdorf and Südstadt are probably two of the most beautiful districts I have seen in my life, and it is only fair to write it down.

Having said this, my last week has been a mixture of very intensive experiences, such as getting to know my way around the company, working already in two different projects (to be fair, clearly underperforming), meeting young and fascinating colleagues, and of course, fighting for a flat in Bonn or Cologne with hundreds of hungry individuals looking for the best deal.

Phew, I never thought I would make it all the way here. I hope this story is not too boring for my "long" list of avid readers, but I am sure most of you will find something interesting in these lines, if you spend enough time looking for it ;)

About the Swiss

2008-05-26T12:52:00.001+02:00

My aunt has been living 12 years in Switzerland. Although she is much wealthier she could have ever been in Colombia (she probably goes 3-4 times in a year on holidays, including the sacred skiing week), she still has problems to speak German. Don't get me wrong: she does know all the words, but her level of grammar is so basic, I probably beat her 4 years ago, i.e. 3 months after I arrived to Germany.

To be fair to my aunt, I would not like to be in her situation. Unlike the Germans, the Swiss speak two varieties of German (the Swiss and the "Oxford" German), which means I would definitely go crazy if I had to learn proper German (which is only learnt in school and seen on TV) if everyone speaks Swiss German. Nonetheless, I still think she could do much better.

I visited her recently and, after listening for 15 minutes how she massacred Goethe's language, I asked her: "Why don't you inscribe to German lessons?". Her answer was as simple as incomprehensible: "I have no time". Wait a second, let me process this: "I .. have .. no .. time". Are you serious? What do you mean by that? I thought you were a housewife in a country were food is taken out of the freezer onto a dish! I didn't tell her that, but after recognizing my expression of horror, she went on to tell me that her children were still young, which meant that she had to wake up every day to send them to school, clean the house, prepare their lunch, send them back again to school, pick them up, take them to extra-curricular activities, prepare dinner for her husband, and so on.

Well, I guess she has a point, but... is that an excuse not to speak proper German? Well, today I found an article in BBC News which might explain the problem with my aunt, and many other housewives in Switzerland. As incredible as it sounds, the country with the highest quality of life suffers from a very bizarre problem:

But the school timetables [in Switzerland] are not just strict, they are Byzantine in their complexity. A regular nine-to-four day is unheard of. Instead children come and go throughout the day.
Here, for example, is a snapshot of my two sons' timetable.
On Monday, one starts school at 0730, the other at 0820. One comes home at 11, the other at 12, one goes back at two, the other is home for the afternoon. It goes on like that all week but not in the same way, of course. Each day is cleverly different. The only thing that is sacrosanct is the two-hour lunch break. Forget about school dinners. Switzerland still operates on the principle that Mum is at home, so children are always home for lunch.
I have a friend with three children who tried for years to get a job but never succeeded because - and she worked it out precisely - given the school timetable, she could never be out of the house for more than an hour and 43 minutes.
Source: BBC News

The article by itself is very entertaining (if you are into quirky humor), but more importantly, it makes me feel a bit of empathy for my aunt, a hero of the absurd Swiss system, and to wonder whether such system has been ever considered as a criteria for the international rankings on quality of life.

El día que conocí el cielo

2008-05-07T22:43:00.001+02:00

Otro escrito pseudo-literario traído del más allá...

Estaba yo sentado con mis dos mejores amigos sobre una de las anónimas aceras de esta ciudad. A medida que el sol parecía ocultarse detrás de los cerros, la cantidad de personas que desprevenidamente transitaban por ambos lados de la calle aumentaba. Estudiantes, empleados y vendedores constituían una masa amorfa de vida que poco a poco iba inundando el lugar.
Laslo, de ojos profundos y palabra sincera, me dijo que un día de estos yo también iba a ser parte de esa masa, que iba a tener que luchar un pedacito de espacio junto a la gente que la constituía. La idea no me pareció del todo atractiva, pero tal como sucedía con la mayoría de realidades que me negaba a aceptar, pronto habría de olvidar el comentario.
Las primeras estrellas se elevaron sobre el firmamento y me apresuré a pedir un deseo. Cerré los ojos, formulé en silencio unas cuantas peticiones. La sensación de poder comunicarme con el resto del universo se hizo evidente en ese instante tan real y sugestivo a la vez. Me imaginé entonces colándome por entre las nubes, como tratando de ver mas allá de lo que cualquier persona hubiese visto antes. Sentí el frío de las alturas, la helada profundidad del cosmos, el tierno rocio que acariciaba mi rostro. El aire, mas puro, mas ozónico, se hizo denso ante mis pulmones. Un manso temblor se apoderó de mis rodillas, posteriormente de mis brazos, y luego de todo mi cuerpecito; ahora tan diminuto como las gotas que antes deslizaban por mi mejilla. La presión del aire, mas fuerte que de costumbre, comenzó a elevarme cada vez más, dejándome apreciar desde las alturas el panorama desolador de una ciudad que pretende ser grande, pero que está constituida por seres mucho más pequeños e insignificantes de lo que yo era en ese instante.
El viento se hizo más recio todavia, y a manera de remolinos, me transportó en el tiempo y el espacio, elevándome tanto que ya el aire dejó de serlo y el mínimo sentido de gravidez se hizo ausente. Me elevó tanto que nisiquiera el grueso susurro del viento era audible. Me elevó tanto, pero tanto, que cuando estuve arriba, más arriba de lo que cualquier persona hubiese estado antes, me desvanecí.
No recuerdo más. Mis amigos dicen que me puse muy mal y comencé a vomitar. Pensaban que en realidad si me había ido, que nunca mas habría de volver. Me llevaron a un centro de urgencias, en el cual hicieron todo lo posible por mantenerme anclado a este mundo. Lo lograron, y por eso cuento la historia.
Ese día conocí el cielo.
Ese día dejé la droga.
Fecha: Noviembre 24 de 1999

Todo sobre mi madre

2008-05-07T22:03:00.001+02:00

Las cosas que uno se encuentra revisando documentos antiguos...

Mi madre es una mujer sumamente religiosa. Su convencimiento en la fe cristiana es tal que ni siquiera el más elocuente agnóstico podría hacerle dudar. Para ella, el mundo fue creado en 7 días, Adán fue el primer hombre y Eva la primera mujer. Bajo sus ojos, la Biblia no es un libro interesante, sino un recuento verídico y pormenorizado de los hechos que acontecieron antes y después de la llegada de Jesús al mundo. Venera a Dios, y considera que para llegar a el se debe creer igualmente en su hijo.

Explayarme en detalles sobre su fe sería tan absurdo como registrar en un libro el paso de los segundos, no solo por la enorme cantidad de espacio requerido, sino por la innecesidad de dicho fin. Su fe no difiere de aquella que experimentan millares de cristianos en el mundo, y por tanto, no existe un buen motivo para recopilar datos de conocimiento público.
Lo único que puedo agregar al perfil religioso de mi madre es que, a diferencia de muchas mujeres cristiana, ella ha escogido su camino luego de experimentar los más variados movimientos religiosos, filosóficos y espirituales. Su conocimiento de temas esotéricos es tan vasto, que realmente su reciente incursión el campo religioso cristiano podría parecer una moda superficial. Sin embargo, nunca he visto a mi madre mas convencida de algo, y es por eso que me he tomado el trabajo de redactar esta petición.
Señores, sin más preámbulos ni palabras vacilantes, solicito por medio de la presente que salven ustedes a mi mamá. La pobre, ojala me perdone Dios por esto, no sabe lo que hace, y aun peor, no sabe lo que dice. Ella asegura que Dios le habla a través de las escrituras, mediante versículos escogidos aleatoriamente entre el antiguo y el nuevo testamento. No es por hacerle la vida imposible a mi madre, pero digan ustedes con toda la honestidad del mundo, sino es una buena iniciativa aquella de apartar mi madre del camino de la confusión.
Fecha: Julio 6 del 2003

A life without Facebook

2008-04-26T10:33:00.001+02:00

The experiment started yesterday, when I decided to deactivate my Facebook account indefinitely. The reasons behind the move were actually quite simple: the constant messaging, picture tagging and status updating can become very stressful after some time, so I decided it was time to take a break. One day after, however, I found myself in the situation of sending a message to a friend whose e-mail address I ignored. Guess what: the minute I try to re-activate my account, all my pictures and friends are gone! According to Facebook's web site, this should have never happened, but, well, it actually does!

So if you see this message and you want to save me some efforts sending invites to the whole world, please add me again... for the time being, I will just enjoy the freedom of not having to log-in to Facebook three times a day :)

Cannot explain this

2008-04-16T20:03:00.001+02:00

But I just love this song...

Juanes

2008-04-16T00:07:00.001+02:00

El mismo tipo, con 20 cms menos de greña y unos kilitos de mas...

Ekhymosis

2008-04-15T23:43:00.001+02:00

Y pensar que este era mi CD favorito...

Low taxes 'boost public sector'

2008-04-07T10:03:00.001+02:00

Countries with low taxes are better able to boost funding for public services and enjoy higher growth, a report from a UK think tank suggests. And so called "slim governments" have created more jobs while income distribution has not been harmed.
The findings are based on data, from 20 nations over 10 years, for the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. The report by the Centre for Policy Studies seeks to show that low tax governments work better. Source: BBC News

Hey, come on, this is no rocket science. Less taxes = more private sector and household spending = economy growth = job creation = increased taxable volume = higher tax income for governments. Why are large European countries still so stupid to believe that higher taxes are better?

Not even a real country

2008-04-03T18:13:00.001+02:00

Who said Canada is not even a real country? Look at this:

"People in foreign countries, especially Europe and the Middle East, get so hostile when they hear you're American, me and my husband sometimes pretend we're Canadian when we travel" - Julie Moss, Teacher, USA

To Bonn or not to Bonn

2008-04-03T15:31:00.002+02:00

That is the question...

Pimp my sidebar

2008-04-02T01:41:00.001+02:00

Given that I am not writing very often in my blog, I decided at least to "pimp my sidebar". As you can see, now I have some RSS feeds to some of my friends' blogs. The order has nothing to do with "how much I like them", but rather with "how often do they write". So if you come to this blog and find nothing new, at least check the sidebar and see if there's something interesting...

Teachers

2008-04-02T01:02:00.001+02:00

I was surfing a couple of minutes ago and found one of the most hilarious self-descriptions I have seen in years. Please indulge yourself:

I am the official wife of Mr John Smith (*). I am a teacher, which apparently means an upstanding, moral member of the community, but actually means the following: I can spot incorrect grammar and spelling a mile off. I know all of the top children's TV shows. I can make up games on the spot. I realise there are never enough pencils/gluesticks/scissors in the world. When I see a child misbehaving in the supermarket I automatically give them "the glare". I am immune to the smell of farts and urine. A social life was a thing I used to have at uni. I know the life story of every single child in my class, and can recognise them all from the back of their head. Wine is essential to help me mark books. I have programmed myself to say "my love" or "yes darling" instead of "you fucker". In the same way, I automatically say "oh sugar" when something goes wrong. I dread notes from parents. The word OFSTED or OBSERVATION sends blind panic through my system. Weekends are spent planning for next week, holidays are spent writing reports. I can maintain a straight face in ANY (farting) situation. I soon realised that although school hours are 8.30-3.30, my day begins at 6am and finishes at 10pm. I realise some names I will never name my own children, due to experiences with children who have that name! Tea and Coffee are my life (except when marking). The staffroom is my sanctuary. Packed lunches are a part of daily life. I want to choke a person when they say "Oh, you must have such FUN everyday. This must be like playtime for you." I also want to stab any person who says the following with a compass "Teaching? That's just about learning how to write on a whiteboard right?" I know what all the "must haves" for children are right now. I Know it's all about the blag. I can sense misbehaviour without actually seeing it. I don't know whether to laugh or cry when someone says "Teaching? That's a 9-3 job! You're so lucky!" - FUCK OFF! I say things once, then repeat them, then ask if everyone understands what I'm saying, before repeating again.

(*) Fictitious name

Monologos is back

2008-03-27T19:15:00.002+01:00

After recovering from an urge to change things that affected the author of this blog, Monologos Esporadicos is now back. The road has been figured out...

The road

2008-03-17T03:06:00.001+01:00

All roads lead somewhere
We just need to figure them out!

So predictable

2008-03-14T19:08:00.001+01:00

The other day Mari send me a link of a song she knew I would like. I was like: what, are you sure? The last time I told Mari I liked a song was probably what, 14 years ago??? The funny thing is that she was right, which maybe means I am a bit too predictable :)

Martial Arts Audition

2008-03-14T18:05:00.001+01:00

This is probably one of the silliest videos ever, but I cannot help laughing every time I see it... hahaha

Cortina de humo?

2008-03-07T13:07:00.001+01:00

The few that read my blog know that it rarely gets political (in fact, I think most of the time I am just philosophizing about those things no one really cares about). However, Mr. Chavez is deserving special attention in these days:

First, he cut diplomatic ties with Colombia over Colombia's attack to Colombian terrorist groups in the border with Ecuador (see post below).
Second, he convinced Ecuador's president to also cut diplomatic ties with Colombia, in spite of our apologies.
And now, Mr. Chavez has convinced Ecuador's president to go around Latin America and ask their leaders to also cut diplomatic ties with Colombia. As funny as it sounds, he already found support, and guess who that is: Nicaragua, the country that has been asking Colombia for years to give them "back" a group of islands that never belonged to them!

I am not a political analyst, but this situation, even though absurd and embarrassing for the whole region, really gives us hints about the unclear political landscape in Latin America.

Now some issues to think about:

If Chavez is allowed to say that Uribe is Bush's puppet, shouldn't we also tag Nicaragua's president as a Chavez sub-puppet?
Why doesn't Chavez focus on stopping the 25% inflation problem in Venezuela, and rather sends thousands of troops to the Colombian border, even though there are no Colombian soldiers there to fight with?
Why is everyone talking about soldiers and attacks, when we should be talking about the recent discovery of a 300 million dollar transaction from Chavez to the FARC?

When I first said Chavez was the real Mr. Danger, I probably did not have enough facts to support my thesis. But the last happenings in the region clearly demonstrate that something strange is going on...

Mr. Danger

2008-03-03T10:23:00.001+01:00

Alvaro Uribe is a former lawyer educated at Harvard and Oxford, and a political conservative who believes in free trade. Since coming to power in Colombia in 2002 he has maintained a hardline policy against the Farc rebel movement, which killed his father during a kidnap attempt.
In contrast, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is a former paratrooper and the charismatic leader of the new left in Latin America. Backed by vast oil reserves, he has attempted to direct the continent away from the influence of Washington. For Mr Chavez, that role includes offering to use his influence in hostage negotiations with the Farc, who regard him as an ally.

[Source: BBC News]

I like Venezuelans, but Chavez is driving me crazy. If there's a country that has suffered the consequences of perpetual violence, it is Colombia. We have been fighting terrorists for over 40 years, but in spite of the large efforts, we are still unable to beat them. A couple of days ago, the Colombian military forces were finally able to hit the Farc guerrilla, by tracking and killing his second man in command, Raul Reyes, who was hiding in Ecuadorian territory. Now, if Ecuador's president gets angry at us for invading his territory, fine, he has the right to do so, even if it was only 2 kms away from the Colombian border. But the part I cannot understand is Chavez protesting against the attack, and denouncing it as "a cowardly murder" of a "good revolutionary". A protest backed by the mobilization of tanks towards the Colombian border (!), and by closing Venezuela's Embassy in Colombia (!).

Let's stop here for a minute. Why would Chavez do this? What has Colombian relations with Ecuador to do at all with Venezuela? Or does he owe too much to Colombian terrorist groups to just keep quiet? When will Chavez understand that Colombia needs to put an end to this conflict that has cost us so many innocent lives, not to mention deterioration of our economy and international reputation? If you like Farc and Eln so much, why don't you host them all in your beautiful country? Give them a piece of your land, embrace them with your Bolivarianism, and even use them as your army to invade the rest of the continent, so that your leftist trail finds no borders.

So, Mr. Chavez: if you are supporting the terrorist group that has kidnapped and killed thousands of Colombian inhabitants, including Mr. Uribe's father, if you lament the death of a villain that has helped grow a criminal organization, if your pain is so strong that you are even willing to stop diplomatic relations with Colombia, doesn't that make you a threat to the continent? You once referred to President Bush as Mr. Danger, but I am starting to think that the real Mr. Danger is no one else but you...

Job search

2008-02-26T15:31:00.001+01:00

If there's a topic MBAs are passionate about, it is job search. By now I have sent several dozens of CVs and cover letters, but the job search is still far from over. One of the most interesting auto-responses I have got in the last days came from a company specialized in home care products. Unlike most responses, this one had a lot of emotion and, unlike Amazon.com, good taste. I won't publish the whole letter, but I'll post its opening, which I thought was quite true:

There are three things in life that people begin without knowing how they will end: love, revolutions and careers.
- Markus M. Ronner

Fidel never dies

2008-02-25T13:16:00.002+01:00

You can remove Fidel from power, but his spirit will always remain...

Strange things going on...

2008-02-20T16:09:00.001+01:00

How many bad things can happen to the people you know over the course of a week? Apparently, there's no limit to this, as you can appreciate from some of the strangest events surrounding my unlucky friend:

Boyfriend got sick
Grandpa had an emergency surgery
Friend's house burnt down completely
Relative died

I am not particularly superstitious, but if there's some bad luck in the air, I prefer to break the chain with this post...

Insead out?

2008-01-30T11:27:00.001+01:00

Oh, this is good publicity for my school. Look what I found in The Economist:

"TIME was when INSEAD in Fontainebleau, near Paris, was the top business school in Europe, with no competition. In Europe the only schools that could call themselves rivals were the London Business School (LBS) and IMD in Switzerland (...). But now the heat is on for INSEAD, as a crowd of rivals has come forward, including a new, generously funded school in Berlin."

"This week 30 executives from 13 different countries are entering their fourth month of the first executive MBA course at the European School of Management and Technology in Berlin (ESMT). Germany only got round to founding an international business school in 2002, and started small MBA classes two years ago. To be sure, a class of 30 students is puny compared with the 920 going through INSEAD this year. INSEAD's joint campus (it runs a parallel school in Singapore), has 143 teachers compared with ESMT's 22. But the infant German institution has the financial support to triple the size of its faculty within five years. Its backers span the alphabet of leading firms from Allianz and Axel Springer through BMW, Bayer and Bosch to Siemens and ThyssenKrupp. The president of ESMT is Lars-Hendrik Röller, a former INSEAD professor with a distinguished academic career on both sides of the Atlantic. He says the strength of the new school will be business and its interaction with technology and public policy."

Maybe I should take this piece of paper to my interviews ;)

Source: The Economist | Insead out?

New Year's Resolutions

2008-01-19T22:32:00.001+01:00

I know, it's January 19th and New Year's resolutions are no longer a topic. However, I have been thinking in the last days that I should indeed have at least a couple of goals for the new year. After some hesitation, this is what I came up with:

1. I will find a job

2. I will lose at least 10 kilos

3. I will convince at least 5 Germans to switch from StudiVZ to Facebook

4. I will find a way to watch American Prime Time TV in Berlin (or wherever I end up)

Guatavita

2008-01-01T23:06:00.000+01:00

Lake Guatavita was one of the sacred lakes of the Muiscas, where they celebrated a ceremony in which the chief (or Zipa) was covered in gold before bathing in its waters. For centuries, researchers and gold hunters have tried to locate the gold - without any success.

Nonetheless, the location remains highly attractive for tourists and those looking for a place to relax, as you can see in the video below...

Bocas de Ceniza

2007-12-20T01:02:00.000+01:00

I was born in Barranquilla and lived there for 18 years. However, it took Chris Loonan to come here for me to discover one of Barranquilla's best sightseeings. I am talking about Bocas de Ceniza, the place where Colombia's longest river, the Magdalena, meets with the Atlantic Ocean. The view is quite nice, but the trip to the place is even more exciting, even if a bit primitive...

Officially MBA

2007-12-17T13:34:00.001+01:00

Do you see that tiny smile on my face? That's how it feels to be an MBA :)

The last bergfest

2007-12-13T16:32:00.000+01:00

The taste of freedom

2007-12-08T17:13:00.001+01:00

Strange, but true: we are free..! No more case studies, no more group work, and more important: no more frameworks..! Graduation is next week, but we had to celebrate the end of the academical activities with a party at Felix (strange name for a disco, I agree). What you see here is a sample of what I call "the taste of freedom"...

JnJ weekend

2007-11-23T21:19:00.000+01:00

I dedicate this post to the customers, employees and communities that have made JnJ such a great company. Stockholders: thanks for the trip..! If you are not sure what I am talking about, take a look to JnJ's credo. If you are still lost, you probably need to improve your ethical decision making skills..!

Roberto's Wedding

2007-11-19T21:06:00.001+01:00

Sand Sculptures in Hauptbahnhof

2007-11-12T01:13:00.003+01:00

Sorry for the three months delay...

Cat Empire in Berlin

2007-11-12T01:08:00.001+01:00

Great concert... but I need a better cell phone !

Cumbia Cienaguera

2007-11-10T01:29:00.001+01:00

This is what happens when a crazy Swiss guy converts Colombian Vallenato into minimal techno. The rhythm is there... the movements not quite!

Latin American Bergfest

2007-10-28T23:32:00.000+01:00

Survey

2007-10-19T17:45:00.001+02:00

If you are a student and are willing to help serious researchers in knowing more "how students choose careers and the way companies influence those decisions", please take this survey:

http://esmt-research.career-choice.sgizmo.com

It won't take more than 10 minutes to complete, plus it can be very revealing about your own preferences...

Scootcase

2007-09-28T09:45:00.001+02:00

It is 7 AM in the morning. A seasoned business traveler rushes out of her place, pulling a heavy suitcase with her right arm. As she walks towards the metro station, three or four streets away from her house, she wishes she had just taken her car and avoided carrying such a bulky case. However, parking fees at the airport are rather expensive, and therefore, it makes sense to leave her vehicle at home, at the expense of the physical efforts.

Now, put yourself in this executive’s position. Wouldn’t it be great if your suitcase would be easier to carry? Or even better… what if your suitcase was your vehicle? That's precisely the idea behind Scootcase, our latest invention. If you want to know more about our product, visit http://www.scootcase.de/.

Dawanda

2007-09-20T15:58:00.001+02:00

Once upon a time, grandmas used to spend their days knitting socks and giving them to their grandsons. Today, grandmas have a better option: selling their production online..!

If you are wondering what I am talking about, please visit www.dawanda.com. The page -targeted at those fascinated by handmade stuff-, offers an online marketplace where buyers and sellers meet to exchange very particular goods. From jewelry to miniature sponge cakes, the chances you will see someone else using the same product you buy are rather limited. "Uniqueness" is Dawanda's motto, and judging by the pictures I have seen, they seem to deliver on that.

The question is: will grandmas be able to leverage this new opportunity? Or will Dawanda -and other online marketplaces- remain the realm of the young and tech-savvy?

Looking for a job

2007-09-12T10:51:00.001+02:00

The time has finally come. After 9 months of intensive learning, the ESMT MBAs are starting to think more seriously about getting a job. Being one of them, it is also time for me to take a decision. What should I do next? Should I settle for a high-paying variation of what I have been doing so far or should I further invest in myself by exploring unknown waters? If the latter, where can I transfer my skills? These kinds of decisions are never easy -unless you don't think too much about it-, but doing an MBA is precisely about decision-making. As usual, good ideas -and job offers- are always welcome..!

Shift happens

2007-08-19T22:03:00.001+02:00

Incredible presentation on how our world is changing...

Multiple Intelligence

2007-08-03T01:23:00.001+02:00

I would really like to thank Catalina for showing me this great link. Basically the test allows people to find out how often they use each kind of intelligence in their daily life. To my surprise, this test seems to favor my musical intelligence (if I had just known this before!). But math and interpersonal skills come right afterwards, so I guess the test cannot be that wrong... If you decide to take the test, let me know your results..!

Deathly Hallows en Español

2007-07-30T11:17:00.001+02:00

Increible pero cierto: el nuevo libro de Harry Potter ha sido traducido al Español por un grupo de fans que lo ha publicado en su blog en menos de una semana...

Barcelona

2007-07-30T10:39:00.001+02:00

After four years of "artistic inactivity", I am proud to present my newest creation. The resolution sucks -YouTube and art don't go together- but I still hope you can get an idea of Barcelona's amazing flair. If you want a high-resolution version of this video, please let me know..!

P.S. To see some pictures from our trip, please click here

Lack of Trust

2007-07-19T16:11:00.001+02:00

This morning a friend sent me a link about the US rejecting negotiations on a Free Trade Agreement with Colombia. Though sad, these kinds of news are very common in my country, so they really do not surprise me anymore. After reading the article I decided to answer my friend with a thought that I have been processing on the back of my mind for a long time: the real problem we have in Colombia is not poverty or violence, but lack of trust.

Although the concept is very simple, I was never aware of the problem until I left my country. In Colombia it is completely normal to be in paranoia, though most of us have grown used to it and do not even know that we are paranoid. For instance, Colombians tend to avoid many "dangerous" situations, such as talking to strangers on the street/phone, walking in unknown neighborhoods or even leaving their objects unattended in a classroom. I do not say there are not good reasons behind Colombians avoiding problems -history shows that you must be prudent in our country-, but the fact is that lack of trust is so present in our lives, that our lives become much more complicated than they should be.

I will give you an example. If you go to Bogota by plane, the first thing you notice when you try to leave the airport is a guy checking that your luggage matches the stickers you got on your plane ticket. Though this is exactly what every airport in the world should do, my experience tells me that Colombia is actually the only place where these tickets are checked. As a Colombian, I find it horrifying to arrive to Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport and think that someone could have taken my luggage while I tried to get out of the airplane. But still, French live with their unsafe system. The result: good or bad, French people need to do one queue less thanks to the trust authorities have granted to their citizens.

If you think this example is lame, think of this. One week ago I put a board game in the back of my bicycle. I just didn't want to throw it away, and not knowing who to give it to, I decided to leave in the back of my bicycle, expecting someone to steal it and make a better use of it. As of today, the board game is still there as no one seems to fancy it.

But trust is not only about believing no one will steal from you. Trust takes many shapes. For instance, if a German promises you something, you know he/she will do his best to fulfill his promise. Unfortunately, I am not sure you can expect the same from a Colombian. The difference is that we believe everyone has the right to say something he/she does not really mean with the purpose of appearing charming or avoiding shame. We do not mean any harm by hiding our real intentions, but by doing this, we need to invent mechanisms to double check people and make sure that they do what they say. These mechanisms -written contracts, tests, consultation with 3rd parties, etc-, are very time consuming, and as a result, valuable time is lost to "administrative" activities. Every minute we lose double checking people, is a minute other societies gain an advantage over us doing something productive.

Of course, trust also affects our view of the political system. Or our attitude to authorities. Or our relationship with foreigners. So once again, the fact that an FTA deal is not closed does not come as a surprise: if we cannot trust each other, how can foreigners trust us?

Almost famous

2007-07-19T15:16:00.001+02:00

We all know sitting in the last row of the classroom sucks. First, professors ignore you. Second, when you actually get to speak, you need to do it louder. Third, when they shot a promotional video, you lose your chance of becoming famous. However, if you watch carefully, you will see several parts of my body, including hear, ears and back... Are you up to the challenge?

My Chinese Friend

2007-07-12T19:42:00.001+02:00

Looking at Valentin's pictures I found this piece of art. On the background you can see Shanghai's skyline -very impressive, in fact-, but the best is definitely what you see on the front. Chinese love been photographed, so when I told this manga character to give me some room to appear alone in the picture, he actually thought I wanted him to be there...

What seems to be an isolated case of Chinese friendliness, is actually a rule in this great country. In several occasions people offered themselves to take us pictures, and once someone even stopped Valentin and I to ask: "Why are you guys so happy?". Our simple answer -we are just happy people- developed into a vivid conversation with the local, who told us some dark secrets about Shanghai.

Looking at this country I ask myself: what has happened to Latinamerica? Why are these Chinese so far ahead in comparison to us? They are definitely not more intelligent -at least not necessarily-, so all I can think of is commitment and friendliness... We are definitely friendly people -in average-, but do we care about commitment?

Back from... China!

2007-07-04T22:09:00.000+02:00

If one year ago you had asked me what is the most improbable place for me to visit in the near future, China would have definitely ranked top of my list. But yet, I never thought of living in Germany, so I am getting used to end up in improbable situations.

China is a remarkable country. Although I only had the opportunity of visiting a couple of cities -Shanghai and Beijing-, what I saw was enough to keep me thinking for a week. First of all, China is not afraid of heights. A typical taxi ride in Shanghai will lead you through a vast forest of skyscrapers, no matter whether you are in the financial district or in a residential area. How can so many people live in such a small area is for me still an enigma, but what strikes me even more is how traffic seems to accommodate so many cars without reaching the saturation level of Bogota, even though Shanghai's 14 million inhabitants makes it twice as large..!

The next thing that struck me was Shanghai's exquisite flair. Before embarking on this trip, China was a place where small people wearing hats spent their precious time collecting rice from the fields. Today's China is in fact so different, that rice has virtually disappeared from most meals, allowing more high-end dishes to invade their daily nutrition (don't get me wrong, I love rice, but Chinese think its only value is to fill you up quickly). Having said this, Shanghai's night scene offers visitors and locals almost everything, from embracing patios like that of Zapata bar (Valentin didn't believe me, but sitting there felt like looking out of a balcony in Barranquilla), to sophisticated lounges like Bar Rouge, with an spectacular view over the financial district's skyline. In fact, you can see so many expats and tourists enjoying Shanghai's nightlife on a Monday night, that you wonder whether it can actually get boring in this city. Believe it or not, if I got a good job there, I would seriously consider staying there for a while.

Beijing is a bit more conservative than Shanghai -maybe because it's the capital, maybe because it lies further away from the coast-, so spotting the fun places from the street is a bit more difficult, but with the right guide, you can see also many interesting places. Allowing my creativity to speak up, Shanghai would be to Barcelona what Beijing is to Madrid - but much bigger. As a tourist, the best way to move around the city is by using a taxi. It's fast (thanks to the five highway rings inscribed within the city) and cheap (prices are just like in Colombia). The only drawback is that you need to have the address written in Chinese, otherwise these people won't take you anywhere..!

Reading these paragraphs you might think I was on vacation, but the truth is that I was actually on a field trip. ESMT decided it was a good idea for its MBA students to visit an emerging market and learn about the ways European companies do business there, so with that objective in mind -and 19 other students besides me- I spent 10 days visiting companies such as Siemens, ThyssenKrupp, Bosch and others, asking them about the particularities of doing business in China, their challenges and advantages, and so on. If you ask me, this trip has been definitely the highlight of the MBA so far, and neither reading dozens of market research reports nor spending hours in Internet could have given me such a good idea of how it is to be there.

I wish I could write more, but the experience has been so intense that it's impossible to summarize it in a few lines. Besides, I need to write a report on the trip, so I do not have the time either. But I hope that a couple of pictures help you understand what I went through...

For more pictures on China, visit this link.

Lake season is back

2007-04-29T10:36:00.000+02:00

Some images from yesterday's visit to Schlachtensee...

Why I love Berlin

2007-04-22T22:52:00.000+02:00

Some images from my last photo shooting session...

Another blog

2007-04-21T18:56:00.000+02:00

ESMT just launched a student blog, so if you are interested in knowing what I -and other MBA students- are going through, please visit the ESMT MBA Blog.

La psicologia me quita mucho tiempo

2007-04-13T01:12:00.000+02:00

Bueno, a mi realmente lo que me quita tiempo es ordenar mi casa, lavar platos y doblar mis camisas, pero desde que lei un post muy interesante en Neurosis Noogena, no he podido dejar de pensar en un asunto muy particular: por que perdemos tanto tiempo?

El otro dia me preguntaron en una entrevista cuales habian sido los tres "highlights" de mi carrera, y aunque fui capaz de responder con un poco de imaginacion, la pregunta puso a descubierto la tenebre realidad: los momentos significantes son muy pocos en comparacion a los insignificantes.

Haciendo un calculo a la ligera, por lo menos el 99% de nuestras vidas se va en momentos insignificantes. Si no me creen, comencemos por lo primero: nacer. Salir del vientre de tu madre podra ser muy importante para tus padres, pero realmente no lo es tanto para ti. De hecho, es un fastidio, y la prueba es que comienzas a llorar apenas ves lo feo que es el mundo fuera de tu universo amniotico. Luego de eso te lavan, te cambian de pañales, te dan seno, te jalan los cachetes, y luego de unos cuantos meses, por fin, acontece un momento significante: comienzas a caminar. Eso si que es importante, porque es el inicio de tu independencia. Adios a tu madre posesiva, la cual determina donde debes estar y como debes de estar. Tus primeros pasos son un simbolo de tus primeras inclinaciones anarquistas, de tu propensidad a la omnipresencia voluntaria.

No me se muy bien las etapas de desarrollo de los niños (sera que hablan antes de caminar o viceversa?), pero no debe ser sorpresa para ninguno que entre el uno y el otro evento ocurren una infinidad de momentos totalmente desabridos y sin significado, de los cuales ninguno merece ser recordado. La prueba es que nadie se recuerda de las incontables cambiadas de pañales a las que fuimos sometidos, sino del concepto de limpieza que (la mayoria de nosotros) llevaremos con nosotros hasta la tumba.

Luego entramos al colegio y las cuentas se vuelven un poco mas complicadas. Que es lo que vale la pena? Bueno, yo me acuerdo que eramos 10 en la clase, que era bueno en matematicas y que me gustaban un par de niñas. Tambien me acuerdo que jugaba futbol (mal), que en recreo me iba a la biblioteca (porque habia aire acondicionado) y que me encataban los deditos de queso en el recreo. Recuerdo igualmente que la ida al colegio era una tortura, y que sino me levantaba a tiempo mi papa me tiraba una chancleta. Evidentemente no me acuerdo de cada una de las tiradas de chancleta ni de las mordidas de deditos, pero de alguna manera esa serie de momentos (insignificantes?) fueron condensados y grabados en mi memoria como imagenes genericas de lo que era jugar futbol o ir a la biblioteca. Son imagenes alegres, pasteurizadas, beatificadas por el pasar del tiempo, pero cuales son las mas importantes? Es dificil de decir, pues si fuera facil, la ida al colegio duraria un par de años menos...

La ida a la universidad es parecida a la ida al colegio, con la diferencia que por primera vez estudiamos algo que hemos escogido. Por definicion, dichos estudios son mas importantes que los primeros, pues estos reflejan lo que es importante para nosotros. Sin embargo, para nadie es un secreto que la educacion es un negocio, asi que sin querer terminamos viendo "costuras" del estilo "introduccion a la fe", "cristologia" y "etica for dummies". Pero incluso en las materias que supuestamente nos deberian llegar al alma, son realmente pocas las que cumplen su cometido (a quien le importa la existencia del motor jaula de ardilla? de que me sirve saber programar un dispositivo que ya nadie usa?). Si le sumamos las sacadas de fotocopia, las eternas montadas en bus, las colas en secretaria, las mostradas de maletin en la biblioteca y todos los detalles insulsos que me permitieron aprender lo que realmente me interesaba, pues es evidente que perdi mucho tiempo haciendo cosas que no tenia por que haber hecho.

En fin, el recuento sigue, y se vuelve peor cuando comenzamos a trabajar. La razon es muy simple, y es que mientras nosotros pagabamos por estudiar lo que queriamos, ahora es al reves, osea que alguien mas decide que es lo que nosotros tenemos que hacer, y para asegurarse de que esto suceda, nos pagan por nuestro silencio. Los momentos significantes se vuelven menos frecuentes, incluso si tenemos la suerte de hacer exactamente lo que nos gusta.

Bueno, esta historia ya resulta muy larga y aburrida, y peor aun, con tanta repetidera corre el riesgo de volverse insignificante, asi que para resumir: no pierdan tiempo leyendo mi blog y hagan lo que tengan que hacer!

Intermezzo

2007-04-10T21:47:00.000+02:00

The last days have been crazy, but thanks to God, Module 2 is now over. What seemed a rather easy module, with almost no scheduled group work (in case you didn't know it, group work is the most challenging and time consuming part of the MBA), ended up being quite stressful. So after surviving a very intense "consulting week" and losing 200 million euros in a simulated business environment, spending five days in the island of Rügen was just the right thing to do...

Are you evil?

2007-03-12T00:25:00.000+01:00

Interesting test..! Let me know your results..!

You Are 52% Evil

You are evil, but you haven't yet mastered the dark side.
Fear not though - you are on your way to world domination.

How Evil Are You?

Time travelling?

2007-03-07T08:23:00.000+01:00

What would you think of a guy that wakes up at 8.35 AM for his 9 o'clock class, takes a quick shower, skips breakfast, calls a cab and arrives to university... at 8.05 AM? Well, if we assume that time travelling is not possible (at least not in this point of time), and that the university in question is actually located in the same time zone as the charachter's home, only one possible explanation remains: this guy is pretty fucked up.

Of course, this is not an imaginary story. It actually happened to me this morning, and since I arrived 1 hour early to class, I decided to spend my time doing something productive and sharing it with you :)

But OK, I've still got half an hour for you guys, so I will now upload some pictures from last week's Egyptian night:

Surviving

2007-02-17T23:31:00.000+01:00

Before starting my MBA, I thought I would be able to write frequently in my blog, no matter the size of the workload. Moreover, I thought I would be able to keep personal and blog life separated, as I had more or less done during the last couple of years. However, the MBA has proved to be a very time -and brain- consuming experience, so I am afraid this year my blog will be strongly influenced by those things happening at ESMT (my apologies to those people who do not like business).

The first surprise I had at ESMT was realizing that most of the people joining the program actually wanted to study. Before that, my line of thought had been more or less the following:

a) No one knows ESMT
b) Whoever joins ESMT must be crazy
c) Crazy people are fun
d) I am going to have a crazy, fun year

However, reality has superseded theory once again. Many of the people joining the program have come from far away countries, so for many of these doing the MBA is a serious thing. After all, you don't leave your wife and kids in China to party all weekend long in Germany, do you?

After accepting the sad fact that I had not joined a party school, like Instituto de Empresa and other similarly well-ranked institutions, I got surprised by the fact that MBAs do learn a lot and they learn it fast. I have been only one and half months inside, but I feel as if I had studied for three months already. No wonder MBAs usually find good jobs after they graduate: they genuinely believe they know more about everything than anyone else, so recruiters fall in the trap as well. Just as 80% of the drivers believe their driving skills are above average (which is impossible, because evidently that amount cannot exceed 50%), MBAs will rarely admit not being in the top 20% of their class.

Of course, there have been many other surprises, but to write them all here would take me ages. However, I can list some of the most curious things I have learnt during the last "three months":

-Losing something is perceived, in average, 2.25 times more strongly than winning that same something. Therefore, managers will usually take decisions that minimize losses.

-Japanese employees perceive long working hours as a privilege. If you go to work at 6 in the morning and stay there until 11 pm, you can say you have "worked like ants", and feel proud about that.

-Zimbabwe is one of the few countries in the world where women start more businesses that men. Russia is another one, although official figures won't show that, since men usually register their wife's businesses to keep a good image.

-George Bush has no clue about anything, but from a management perspective, he has a very interesting and exemplary management style (!).

Back to blogging

2007-01-21T22:16:00.000+01:00

After three amazing weeks in Colombia and two extremely busy weeks in Berlin, I am finally back to blogging. In the meantime, several things have happened. For instance:

In Colombia:

-I spent a really nice time with my parents in Cartagena
-I hanged out with Santiago and Roberto in several occassions
-I got to know Ana and Jennifer much better
-I could talk to Tania, Natalia and Laura again after a very long time
-I met my brother's girlfriend
-I earned a couple of kilos
-We failed to get Roberto drunk

In Berlin:

-I started my MBA
-I have met many interesting people
-I have studied like crazy

Well, I could write a little bit more, but MBAs do not have much time for that, so I'll finish this post by summarizing the whole experience with a picture:

Is this really a good marketing strategy?

2006-12-31T16:21:00.000+01:00

I recently received a video from my aunt showing how 'Colombia is passion'. The first time I saw it, the speakers were turned off, so all I saw were stunning images from my country. For a moment I felt proud of being Colombian, because these images not only featured beautiful landscapes (which is what you would expect from a video that invites you to go on vacation somewhere), but they actually showed accurate and still fancy shots from people and situations from our daily life. That is, the video really showed who we are, and I thought that was a great idea.

But then, I had the marvellous idea of turning on the speakers and watching the video again... The result? The worst invitation ever to Colombia. First, they had a kid talking about Colombia with a Baby Pooh voice: "In Colombia we have many many many good people". Now, if you have a bad image from Colombia, what makes you think that this kid wasn't coerced with a gun to say these 'innocent' words about his country? :)

No, seriously, the audio in this video is simply horrible, and it only shows how we desperately want to get rid of an image of violent drug traffickers (which we are not... saying that would equal to saying that all Muslims are terrorists or that all Germans are Neo-Nazis). But showing how desperate we are doesn't really help us, because it only raises suspicions.

To get my point, please turn off the speakers, put some nice music on your stereo, watch the video, and imagine a male voice at the end saying "Colombia is Passion".

One year ago...

2006-12-10T22:18:00.000+01:00

1. One year ago I weighted 5 kgs more than today (Score: +1)
2. One year ago I sent a quiz to all my friends asking them tricky questions about me. This year I don't know myself anymore, so I have decided to spare them another quiz (Score: depends on whether you like quizes)
3. One year ago I flew on December 15 to Colombia and stayed there three weeks. This time I will fly one day later, but will stay just as long (Score: 0)
4. One year ago I used to earn less than I do today (Score: +1)
5. One year ago it was freaking cold here in Berlin. This year wearing a thin jacket is enough to keep you warm (Score: depends on whether you care about global warming)
6. One year ago I had never been to California (Score: +1)
7. One year ago I had never been to Copenhagen (Score: +1)
8. One year ago I still thought I could get any girl if I tried (hard enough). Today I wouldn't try too hard to get any (Score: depends on whether you are a girl and would like me to hit on you. If you are Kerstin, this means less competition, so +1)
9. One year ago I wanted to work for Microsoft. Today I want to have fun (Score: I don't know)
10. One year ago at least one of my best friends used to live in Berlin (Score: -1)
11. One year ago I was younger (Score: -1)
12. One year ago I didn't know what I was going to do next year. Now at least I know that (Score: +1)
13. One year ago I thought I was funny. I still think so (Score: -1)

Balance: In the last twelve months I have scored many points, but also have 'unscored' some, so altogether it's been a slightly positive year (Total score: +2). If you have some evidence that I might have ignored in evaluating my life in the last year, please drop me a comment...

European School of Management and Technology

2006-12-03T23:49:00.000+01:00

Starting January 8th 2007, this building will be my new home. Located in the heart of Berlin, just across the former seat of the East German parliament, the ESMT campus will represent next year for me, what the sixth floor of the Javeriana's Engineering Faculty building did five years ago: a place to spend days, nights and weekends.

Founded by some of Germany's most influential companies, such as Siemens, Lufthansa, Daimler Chrysler, Deutsche Bank, Schering, SAP, Deutsche Telekom, among others, ESMT is an attempt to put an end to Germany's lack of interest in creating a world-class business school.

At the beginning I was a little bit sceptic about applying to ESMT's MBA program, since it just started this year, but after visiting the building, meeting some of the staff and talking to some students, it became clear that I wanted to be part of it.

Some facts about my new school:

Number of MBA students: 30
Nationalities: Students practically come from everywhere, including India, Japan, Germany, Eastern Europe, South Africa, USA, Canada, and starting next year, Colombia..!!
Teachers: Nearly 50% are visiting staff, meaning we can "borrow" good teachers from virtually every university in the world.
Classrooms: They have everything you can think of, plus one computer per person.
Women: Important topic (the more, the less testosterone per study group). Next year we'll have apparently at least 8 or 9 female students.
GMAT: I thought my 700 would rock, but it turned out we even have 760s..!
Scholarships: Most students get a basic 20.000 Euro scholarship, paid by one of the sponsor companies. Some people get even more.
Professional Experience: You need at least three years to get in.
Career advancement: No one really knows (yet), since the first students will graduate in a couple of weeks. But for what I have heard, many of them have already good offers.
Field trips: This year the students visited for a couple of weeks countries like India, China and Mexico.
Meals: Lunch is for free!

My conclusion: Germans know how to do things. Although we do have many high quality programs in Colombia (yes, I am proud of our system, in which creativity beats resources), I cannot think of Bavaria and Postobon creating such an interesting program in such a short time. Whether we'll be able to play in the same league of London School of Economics, INSEAD or IMD, well, I guess we'll have to wait a couple of years to answer that question, 'cause at the moment we are still not 'rankeable'...!

&lt;br>

Women with graduate degrees are more attractive

2006-11-25T13:57:00.000+01:00

For those who like social statistics:

"As late as the 1980s, according to economist Elaina Rose, women with PhDs or the equivalent were less likely to marry than women with a high school degree. But the "marital penalty" for highly educated women has declined steadily since then, and by 2000 it had disappeared. Today, women with a college degree or higher are more likely to marry than women with less education and lower earnings potential. Highly educated women are also now as likely to have children as their less-educated counterparts -- and much more likely to have children born in wedlock."

Taken from Greg Mankiw's Blog