No way through

20 years ago

20 years ago a wall fell. And it wasn't only a physical wall, in the end, those are the easiest to break down. The fall of the Berlin wall meant far more than just that. It meant the reunion of families and friends that hadn't seen each other in years, it meant the come together of two cultures that had been fighting each other through the ways of fear, espionage and psychological torture. Two cultures which tried to bend and shape the human nature to their own will, to represent their ideals and interests.

The fall of the Berlin wall, however, was far more than the symbol of the end of the Cold War. In its own way, it meant the failure of communism in Europe. The realisation that the human nature wasn't prepared for a proletariat society, where the government was the people and the people was the government. This idea, which has been unsuccessfully tried many times, seems to clash with something which is buried deep within us. That "something" is selfishness. Why do something for the common good when I can do something that will benefit me more? This is, to put it simply, the reason why probably communism as Marx and Engels understood it will never work in our society. The human being is selfish by nature, probably due to the survival instinct which we are born with. It is possible to overcome and to teach that the "greater good" is always more beneficial than the private "smaller good" on the long run, however, this concept is only viable in practice within small communities of individuals; once it is expanded to a whole nation, it seems it is doomed to fail.

The celebration they put up stroke me as quite hypocritical, all the presidents standing together and smiling at the cameras as if to show how big friends they now are. When everyone returns to their home countries, this false friendship is turned into studied enmity. The Cold War is over, but Russia still doesn't want US military bases in Poland or the Czech Republic, countries which it still considers its influence zone. Europe condemns the construction of the Berlin wall and celebrates its fall, but still closes its eyes on the 6 times longer wall that exists in Gaza. Hypocrisy seems to be the (un)ethical value politicians fashion these days.

No man is an island

"No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were. Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee..."

- John Donne (1572-1631)

Poema 6

Te recuerdo como eras en el último otoño.
Eras la boina gris y el corazón en calma.
En tus ojos peleaban las llamas del crepúsculo.
Y las hojas caían en el agua de tu alma.

Apegada a mis brazos como una enredadera,
las hojas recogían tu voz lenta y en calma.
Hoguera de estupor en que mi sed ardía.
Dulce jacinto azul torcido sobre mi alma.

Siento viajar tus ojos y es distante el otoño:
boina gris, voz de pájaro y corazón de casa
hacia donde emigraban mis profundos anhelos
y caían mis besos alegres como brasas.

Cielo desde un navío. Campo desde los cerros.
Tu recuerdo es de luz, de humo, de estanque en calma!
Más allá de tus ojos ardían los crepúsculos.
Hojas secas de otoño giraban en tu alma.

- Pablo Neruda (1904-1973)