Learned Lessons
Today we began our third year living here in Canada with Sol and Noah, and it is a good time to write down some thoughts that I have been having these days.
In recent years I had the opportunity to meet many people and live new and old situations. And I'm not talking about specific things from Argentina, but I was lucky enough to get to know common and different behaviors and idiosyncrasies in different countries. I have known miseries, mine and from others, that many people think are confined to a Third World country and also occur here, and also virtues that greatly explain the differences between societies.
I was able to work with politicians and governments from 3 countries, and I have known of their good intentions and ineptitudes that make it impossible to push any good ideas that you want to make happen. And sometimes it is not bad will, but it is simply, as they say in many management books, to have the wrong people in the wrong place.
But some of the things that I rescue most is to have met good people, from whom I have been able to learn, and whom I hope to have positively impacted. With all of them we have had different conversations over the years that made me think, even if it were coffee talks that seemed to have no meaning other than the pleasure of sitting there.
This situation of meeting people of all kinds, nationality, sex, religion and color is what made me start thinking about integration through segregation. And more precisely I thought of that because many causes use integration through segregation as a powerful marketing tool.
A friend told me the other day that I was doing a great job, innovative too, but that I lacked marketing. And he is right because unfortunately I grew up thinking that the best marketing about my work are the obtained results.
Can I run a course for women only? Or a course for Syrians instead of for all the refugees who need it? Or for the First Nations? Or for, or for ...
Yes, technically I can. But as I said to this friend, should not I try to help anyone who needs it? Is segregation necessary to achieve further integration? Is it necessary to run a women only course so that they are not afraid of men or should I promote a healthy environment of equality and mutual respect, and perhaps work with women or men specific aspects of integration?
I mention this separately from the fact that there is obviously a low involvement of women, First Nations, refugees, etc. in technology, and programs should be developed to promote awareness, but then, we must work on integration from the first moment we get the people onboard.
This has been spinning in my head lately as I see more and more money going to projects that work only with minorities and isolate them from society in pursuit of integration.
Do you know how was I integrated into Canadian society? From the first day I did not shut myself up in the Argentine ghetto in Winnipeg, or in the Winnipegers ghetto in Canada. From the moment we moved in, our neighbors approached us, and today I can say that I am happy to have them around us. They are my neighbors, my friends, and a kind of family, who share their table with us on Holidays, who bring gifts to my son, and who talk cheerfully to us on a daily basis without seeking any benefit in return. And like them, I developed other friendships, found other acquaintances, other work peers. And I have treated everyone with respect and tried to understand our differences in order to be able to accommodate ourselves the possible best way, leaving aside preconceptions.
Just to make it clear, I do not seek to be someone I am not to fit. I do not play football, I do not say soccer, I'm not a hockey fan or anything. I did not stop drinking mate, we explain our meals or goodies, or even I talk about the IT market in Buenos Aires, which many do not even know it exists. I do not leave aside my essence but I seek to be part of a whole, while learning and growing. I do not seek to be an Argentine living in Canada but to be a member of Canadian society. That is why I truly believe that integration does not come from segregation but from learning about our differences and then respecting them and seeking our place within the society or group we belong to.
These were years of personal learning, and I still learn, and meet people (the good and the other ones). And as I said the other day, it is not something that you are looking for (to meet people), but being open to do so makes it happen naturally. Sometimes we just have to know how to get rid of the weight we bring with us ...
In recent years I had the opportunity to meet many people and live new and old situations. And I'm not talking about specific things from Argentina, but I was lucky enough to get to know common and different behaviors and idiosyncrasies in different countries. I have known miseries, mine and from others, that many people think are confined to a Third World country and also occur here, and also virtues that greatly explain the differences between societies.
I was able to work with politicians and governments from 3 countries, and I have known of their good intentions and ineptitudes that make it impossible to push any good ideas that you want to make happen. And sometimes it is not bad will, but it is simply, as they say in many management books, to have the wrong people in the wrong place.
But some of the things that I rescue most is to have met good people, from whom I have been able to learn, and whom I hope to have positively impacted. With all of them we have had different conversations over the years that made me think, even if it were coffee talks that seemed to have no meaning other than the pleasure of sitting there.
This situation of meeting people of all kinds, nationality, sex, religion and color is what made me start thinking about integration through segregation. And more precisely I thought of that because many causes use integration through segregation as a powerful marketing tool.
A friend told me the other day that I was doing a great job, innovative too, but that I lacked marketing. And he is right because unfortunately I grew up thinking that the best marketing about my work are the obtained results.
Can I run a course for women only? Or a course for Syrians instead of for all the refugees who need it? Or for the First Nations? Or for, or for ...
Yes, technically I can. But as I said to this friend, should not I try to help anyone who needs it? Is segregation necessary to achieve further integration? Is it necessary to run a women only course so that they are not afraid of men or should I promote a healthy environment of equality and mutual respect, and perhaps work with women or men specific aspects of integration?
I mention this separately from the fact that there is obviously a low involvement of women, First Nations, refugees, etc. in technology, and programs should be developed to promote awareness, but then, we must work on integration from the first moment we get the people onboard.
This has been spinning in my head lately as I see more and more money going to projects that work only with minorities and isolate them from society in pursuit of integration.
Do you know how was I integrated into Canadian society? From the first day I did not shut myself up in the Argentine ghetto in Winnipeg, or in the Winnipegers ghetto in Canada. From the moment we moved in, our neighbors approached us, and today I can say that I am happy to have them around us. They are my neighbors, my friends, and a kind of family, who share their table with us on Holidays, who bring gifts to my son, and who talk cheerfully to us on a daily basis without seeking any benefit in return. And like them, I developed other friendships, found other acquaintances, other work peers. And I have treated everyone with respect and tried to understand our differences in order to be able to accommodate ourselves the possible best way, leaving aside preconceptions.
Just to make it clear, I do not seek to be someone I am not to fit. I do not play football, I do not say soccer, I'm not a hockey fan or anything. I did not stop drinking mate, we explain our meals or goodies, or even I talk about the IT market in Buenos Aires, which many do not even know it exists. I do not leave aside my essence but I seek to be part of a whole, while learning and growing. I do not seek to be an Argentine living in Canada but to be a member of Canadian society. That is why I truly believe that integration does not come from segregation but from learning about our differences and then respecting them and seeking our place within the society or group we belong to.
These were years of personal learning, and I still learn, and meet people (the good and the other ones). And as I said the other day, it is not something that you are looking for (to meet people), but being open to do so makes it happen naturally. Sometimes we just have to know how to get rid of the weight we bring with us ...
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