Egyptian Mind

The Mafia is very powerful, Hollywood gave us many proofs. Why they are powerful is because they operate as united families, each one helping the other, and every member of every family being strongly committed to the big goals of the “community”. Their goals were, or are (they’re still out there?!) evil and harmful. Selfish. Enriching to a small group of people, but destructive to the broader community.

Organized crime is successful because of its very same descriptive name: “organized”!

People of good intentions have at least one lesson to learn from criminals, about efficiency. We already see Organized Good Intentions at work (look at non-profits and charities), but the world needs much more to function properly. There are way more UGI (Unorganized Good Intentions) than OGI!

We have enough people believing in justice and sustainability to change the world, but most of them are operating individually. Their influence is therefore negligible. The same number of people networking and working together would sweep away many wrongs and problems, like a strong tsunami of goodness and wellness. We now have networking tools, a fertile Internet and its universal fruits, that never existed before in human history. It should make OGI much easier and more attainable.

We need to look around and spot the like-minded and like-hearted people. Find common goals. Form small “mafias”! Every small mafia will then connect to the other kind and unselfish mafias of the world. Together, those mafias working their Organized Good Intentions will restore the sanity of our Earth, dethrone the happy criminals roaming freely, and ensure a livable Planet for the generations to come!

The following is not a breakthrough: many people spend their lives waiting. When young, we wait for when we’re grown up. When we’re single, we wait for when we’re married. When we’re married, we wait for when we’re divorced (sometimes, sadly!), When we’re in college, we wait for when we’re “free” and having a good job. When we have a job, we wait for when we have a better job! When we have a better job, we discover it’s not really what we were hoping for, so we wait for yet another job that’s even better. We get that one, then we wait for having our own business and being our own boss! We have our own business, we wait for it to pick up! It picks up, we work too much and wait for our retirement!

If we’re constantly waiting, it’s not that we’re really waiting for anything. It’s not an illusion either, we’re indeed waiting. What we’re really waiting for is ourselves! We’re waiting for something that’s within, but we seek for it outside, so we never find it. That’s where the illusion resides. We’re just heading in the wrong direction, that’s why we never seem to get to our destination.

Waiting for a change means that we did something wrong in the past, we’re still doing it in the present, which promises that it will continue into the future! Unless we take our rightful ownership of the Now, turn our faces to the right direction/destination, and embark on the joyful journey!

BECAUSE,

Waiting is a sure symptom that something is missing.

Waiting is a state of lack and poverty and incapability.

Waiting is ungrateful to all what we already have, which in many cases is a dream and a luxury for hundreds of millions of fellow humans.

Waiting is a pessimist! Don’t confuse it with the (good) expectations that come with optimism.

Waiting is an infidel! It’s an accusation to God that He is not treating us right! Because the truth is, it’s a sign that we’re the one doing, or more accurately, THINKING wrong!

Waiting is a virus, it disrupts our system and our perception of reality; it damages our to-do-list; it causes the loss of our old files, therefore keeps us from building on it; it causes our mind to suddenly shut and stare into a blank screen, as in a state of sleep-waking! 

SO,

We need to stop attacking this poor Wait, right now! And focus on the real problem: Ourselves! Our Thinking, and our Focus.

We will never get what we want as long as we think it’s somewhere else, be it another time (future) or another place.

I recently wrote about my desire to get out of working for money and being stuck doing something that I don’t enjoy. That’s impatience. Impatience is counterproductive because it keeps us stuck in negative refusal of our current state, instead of focusing our energy on what we can do to improve our life.

I’m now shifting my focus in another direction: how to do what I want to do when I’m not working (week-ends, evenings), and how to embrace the challenge of making the best of my current situation. The wait can end, right now. We just need to start doing what we really want to do. We don’t need to do it full-time, we start part-time. We do it in the week-end, instead of spending it shopping or seeking distractions as if to compensate for the work week behind, and the work week ahead! Instead of renewing our energy and build something that is meaningful to us, we just destroy this time off, then here comes a sad Monday and we feel even more tired than when the week end started!

Doing something meaningful is the only sure way to renew our energy during our time free of work. Simply doing the things that we think we want to do full-time. At least this way we can make sure that we really want to do it full-time, so we don’t one day come to actually do it full-time, then discover that it’s not really what we were hoping for, and wait for when we can do something we like for a living!

God created Adam and Eve, and from them descended billions upon billions of people. Equal in their humanity, due to their one origin, they came different in many other aspects: color, tongue, religion, and place of birth. Among those children, some were born in what is currently known as the USA, some others were born further north (Canada), yet some others found themselves in a place totally different from the rest of the continent, a poor country with the name of Mexico.

In our present time, Americans don’t have the smallest problem with their northern border; beyond it lays a brotherly country with a similar style of life and economic conditions. No Canadian enters the US illegally, because their birth given pieces of paper, called citizenship documents, allow them free movement. But more importantly, their conditions of life do not make them feel that fleeing their mother land is the only way out of inhuman conditions. And this is what makes the southern border a complete opposite. On the other side of this border, millions feel that they are deprived of their basic human rights and needs. Their human nature, shared with all other humans anywhere in the world, is to escape from danger, and to look for ways to survive. The closest solution to their dead-end conditions is a rich country whose media promises equal opportunity for everyone, a happy life and easy money. It is close, but not easily accessible. Millions with otherwise no hope are willing to risk all their money, and even their life, for a chance to find themselves in the northern side of the border. They are not sure what to expect once in America, all they think of at this time is to escape and to get there.

And here the problem starts and grows. Millions cross the southern border into the US. They enter and stay in the country undocumented, another word for “unknown of”. People are nowadays reduced to papers, if they are not on paper, they don’t exist. But they do exist, no matter what the papers say or don’t say. They work, rent apartments, pay bills and spend money every day. They will even have kids who will automatically be US citizens. But on paper, they remain in the shadow. Some look at this situation as a healthy and necessary one. Those poor, undocumented workers have to accept any job; they don’t have much of a choice. Businesses will prefer them because they work long hours without complaining, and they accept lower wages. They are good for the business, so they should stay and keep coming. On the other side of the debate (not the border!) stand those who see the danger of having millions living in the shadow. Their solution to the problem? Well, building a 700 mile long fence, high enough that Mexicans will not be able to climb it!

To say the least, the idea of building this fence reflects a great lack of creativity. It suggests a superficial solution to a complicated problem. Illegal immigration is not an illness, it’s a symptom of a complicated one, and we all know that treating the symptom is of no real help. Those who cross the border every year in terrible conditions risk their life, with the fence on their way, they will just figure out other ways to go for their quest of a new land. Let’s also not forget that they represent a multi-million dollar business for smugglers, and this kind of business will always find ways to keep going and making money. The fence would be a distraction as far as the real sources of the problem, which would let the problem grow bigger and bigger, until it eventually destroys the fence itself.

The kind of fence required to block the border is neither an easy nor an affordable project. All the money and efforts and time that will be spent to build it could be used for more realistic and fruitful action toward solving the problem. What if this kind of money is to be spent on US-Mexican partnership aiming to improve the conditions of life in Mexico, which would lessen the number of those willing to risk their life to escape from their country?

History teaches us lessons for our present and our future: Once upon a time, not too long ago, a big “fence” separated two countries, people on the eastern side wanted to flee to the western one, and they kept trying, until they no longer needed to, when the Wall of Berlin came down. I believe that the fence, if built, will not have a better luck.