2023-12-29 08:04:53
There are 48 hours left this year. An old adage is true: evil does not last, it does not last a hundred years. The first 14 days of 2024 may be a continuity of the current evil, but a new chapter of Guatemalan political history will have begun, so full of nooks, hiding places, dark areas. This year was especially full of a host of regrettable, shameful, novel, incredible events, as they were the direct effect of the implosion, or collapse, of the prevailing political system, especially since 2000. It is almost a quarter of a century, a period in which which 52% of the current population was born. If we count from the beginning of the era of electoral democracy, it is 90. Therefore, almost all Guatemalans today do not know old-style dictatorships.
There is, once again, the opportunity for change, but it must be done by people other than those responsible for the current tragedy.
Mario Antonio Sandoval
Among the lessons of 2023, the disastrous effects of judicialization stand out, not even of politics, but of politicking and its endless abuses. The legal system is a weapon to attack the opponents of the ruling party. From the overpopulation of so-called political parties, even if they are anything but that. From the widespread awareness of the disastrous results of corruption, that flaming thousand-headed dragon. From the initial awareness, especially among youth, of the effects of constituting a disinterested majority in politics, without understanding the difference between this and politicking. From the lack of real leadership, obtained and achieved, not bought based on evil dreams of dark characters disqualified by their past and present. In that, it may perhaps be the beginning of a new stage, this time good or acceptable.
Among citizens not interested in managing the country, there are generally economic entrepreneurs, and this attitude is due to little or no time available for the maintenance and expansion of their activities. Very little by little, the understanding and need to practice traditional humanistic values, therefore, centered on the human being, are being reborn. The road is long, but as the ancient Chinese adage says, a road of a thousand miles begins with one step. There have already been some, and all this is an effect of the ease of communication provided by current instant technology, which is today dangerous due to its lack of standards, which provokes actions by irresponsible or corrupt individuals. But this is a separate topic.
This 2023 also confirmed the truth of not being able to expect different results by doing the same thing and with the same people or new versions of them and heirs of debatable, vituperable criteria, and with the counterproductive and useless action of clinging to the past, denying the present and wanting stop the future. Many times the latter is already the present, but admitting it causes fear, the worst human reaction when it comes to analyzing progress, although these do not necessarily mean improvements for human beings in general, but only for certain often privileged groups. It has been a year where in Guatemala the possibility of achieving the true goal of politics and economics has once again been opened: achieving the benefit of the majority.
2024 is an open enigma. Times change, they are changing and they have changed, and those of us who are already carrying half a dozen decades or more must decide to try, to confront our convictions and prejudices with those of people with contrary or contradictory thinking. It is difficult, but one should not think of defeat or victory, but of progress in maturity granted by the knowledge of new criteria expressed without shouting, insults or disqualifications, in order to improve each one of us as human beings. Someone said: “There is nothing more practical than a good theory” and these are the result of initial thoughts improved precisely by the mixture of diverse criteria to solve problems. That being said, I wish a happy new year to all my readers.
#days #long #tragic #year