prjSMAC HISTORY: JULY 2022
On this issue of the COSMA blog, we’ll cover the following topics:
- Some People Have Been Proposed to Join the COSMA Team
- COSMA’s Projects Director Has a Brand New Job
- Why I Stopped Being a Teacher
- What Are the Probabilities for My Going Back to a Teaching Job?
- Again, No Transportation on Election Day in Majo Hamlet
- Harassment Can Make You Go Literally Nuts
- A Few Words to the Future about These Times of Tragedy Due to COVID-19
This quarter, I was worrying the whole time that I might not have enough time to finish the blog by the end of June, but luckily, we could do it on time. It would have been such a huge embarrassment to have been late one more time. Thank you dear Universe!
Some People Have Been Invited to Join the COSMA Team
Despite having so little time available for working on so many things related to Saint Michael Archangel Universal Corporation: COSMA and its projects, many activities have been done in terms of COSMA’s creation. For example, some people have been proposed to participate in COSMA’s projects. Such activity is something that has to be done very slowly because there is a lot of thinking, processing, and preparation for every person invited. The names of the people who join the COSMA team will be known when the right time comes. At this point, we can only say that COSMA is going steadily in the right direction.
COSMA’s Projects Director Has a Brand New Job
A new townhouse complex is being built in Majo hamlet (there is another one that was built shortly before I came to live here). Since some time ago, I had the idea that I wanted to work on the construction of that complex. On the first days of April, I saw workers on the lot where the complex is going to be built; so I came in to enquire about any jobs available and now I’m working as a construction helper at “Urbanización Altos del Peñón (Altos del Peñón townhouse development)” in Majo hamlet.
On Saturday, May 07, I got started at the new job. It’s really hard work. Actually on the first days, I got convinced that construction (at least in Colombia) is probably the hardest job on Earth (I had worked in construction very little in the past); and the pay is only 9, 98 US dollars a day (which is about a Colombian minimum wage[*]). But I have no choice as will be explained below. When there’s not much to do, my boss sends me home. But it’s a good thing that he gives me work only some days because, in that way, I have time to do some activities related to COSMA’s projects (like this blog), go do some errands in town, and help with housework at least in part. Of course the skipped days are in some way a problem since the pay gets even lower, but what are you gonna do!
Because of my new job, I have a lot less time for COSMA’s projects. That contingency causes the projects to slow down, but at the same time, it’s good news for COSMA and its projects as is explained some paragraphs below.
Working on the hardest job on Earth makes me think that perhaps… Well, I’d rather stay quiet. Whatever I can say is not gonna fix anything!
Why I Stopped Being a Teacher
In total, I was an EFL teacher for a little longer than 8 years (1992-1999 and 2010-2011). Image courtesy of www.pixabay.com.
There are some people who know that I was an EFL teacher at some point in my life, but I think not even my family knows the reason why I’m not working in that field anymore. Actually there are a couple of reasons for that, but I don’t think it’s appropriate to mention all of them at this point. I’ll mention only the main reason:
In about 2013, I entered a contest to obtain a teaching job with the Colombian government. The selection process lasted for about 2 years (or even longer). In 2015 (when the contest finished), I got the job and was assigned to a “vereda” (rural area) of a faraway town named Íkira, in the same departamento that I live (Huila). I started doing all the paperwork the appointment required (with money that a sister of mine lent me), but then, after having waited for all that time, I realized a couple of things:
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Number one, that I didn’t have a way to get all the money that was needed for me to get started. There were many things that I had to pay for, namely: pay for the move from Majo hamlet to the workplace, pay a month of rent at the place where I was going to live, pay a month of meals until I got the first paycheck, do all the paperwork (some documents had to be gotten in Manizales, which is 12 hours far from Garzón, some others in Neiva, the departamento’s capital), buy the textbooks and materials I needed, buy clothes, open a bank account in Íkira, etc.
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Number two, for an unknown reason, the time that was allowed to do all the paperwork was too little, so I realized I wouldn’t be able to complete all the paperwork in such a short time.
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And last but not least, I realized that I would have to work with zero resources, and I didn’t have any materials prepared, and I didn’t have any textbooks, and I already knew how hard it was to be an EFL teacher at the high school level, and I already knew how hard was to be an EFL teacher with zero resources. That also helped negatively.
After not being able to take a job with the government, I completely came to the conviction that the only choice left for me was homelessness (2015). Image courtesy of www.pixabay.com.
I should have seen it coming, before I wasted time and money. Long story short, I realized (too late) that I wouldn’t be able to make it through, so I decided to stop doing the paperwork and started getting so depressed, thinking it would be impossible for me to get a teaching job anywhere else or even in any other field, and feeling that what was coming for me was nothing less than homelessness... I got so scared and depressed that I thought the worst things you can ever imagine.
But then, a short time passed before I made the decision to start Saint Michael Archangel Corporation: COSMA’s projects. I knew it (and was so sure) that in no time I would get the first project (COSMA) running. When it gets to be running, COSMA will have a job for me and I won’t have work problems anymore in my life, I thought. But time has been going by so quickly and it’s already 2022 and COSMA doesn’t at all take off.
On the contrary, money is needed for COSMA’s projects. And it has to be gotten somewhere. My friend Orlando Ramos has been for such a long time helping us with some money, which helps us to feed RESMA’s animals and do birth control on them. Still all projects all around the cosmos need a budget, which we don’t have.
That’s how I began thinking that it was urgent for me to get a job in order to provide for my sister and me and (if possible) save some for COSMA’s projects. Then I realized that construction of the new townhouse complex in Majo hamlet was going to get started soon, so I knew that was the best choice since there’s no way that I can work in town due to insufficient transportation service. It’s real that the only choice in Majo is farming, so it was a miracle that a second choice (construction helper) sprang up. I made up my mind for the construction option because I was so sure that it would be a steady job for a year (maybe more, I thought). It’s not being so, but here we are.
It might seem impossible that we can save any money to help COSMA's projects, but that's what needs to be done; with the Universe's help! Image courtesy of www.pixabay.com.
My determination is that (from now on until the end of my life) I will be as frugal as anybody can possibly be, in order to be able to save some and try to get the projects started someday. Every single penny that the Universe helps me save (from now on until the end of my life) will be used for COSMA and its undertakings. Nothing matters to me more than COSMA and its projects because I know why they're being started and how much they're needed.
What Are the Probabilities for My Going Back to a Teaching Job?
I remember my teaching experience (1992 -1999) as something really beautiful, in spite of some things. I really enjoyed it and I know I did a good job. But working as a teacher in Colombia is such a horrible experience nowadays, due to the fact that, some years ago, the government implemented some policies which turned the job of the teacher (especially at the high school level) into the worst nightmare you can ever imagine.
The result of a school in which there's no respect for the teacher is a society in which there's no respect for authority or the law. Image courtesy of www.pixabay.com.
Under the guise of the free development of one’s own personality, the students are allowed (by the educational authorities, the law, and the jury system) to do whatever they wish (especially abuse the teachers) and are treated in a total lax way; and, whatever the fault is, they can get away with it, because educational authorities allow them to (ignoring the teacher’s reasons). That results in selfish individuals who care only about themselves, having the conviction that they’re the kings of the cosmos who can do whatever they please, with no regard for laws, rules, norms, authority, or even less the elderly, etc. Even, after those policies began to be implemented in the Colombian educational system, parents started complaining about their children's behavior. I wonder if parents know that it’s one of the consequences of those policies.
That makes me not have the least desire to return to the teaching field. To that, we have to add that I know being a teacher again would leave me with virtually no time to work on COSMA’s projects. I know how hard teachers work. And nobody seems to see it.
Many reasons prevent me from starting as a teacher again and helped me become a construction helper instead. Image courtesy of www.pixabay.com.
Another reason is that I’m already 56; so at this old, I would be starting as a teacher again almost from scratch (because I have been totally committed to COSMA’s projects for such a long time and because I was doing jobs other than teaching in the USA [1999-2007]); and I have very little experience at the high school level. From some experience that I have at that level, I can infer that high school kids wouldn’t have any respect for me whatsoever, once they know that I was working as a construction helper. I imagine it would be a nightmare trying them to believe in my discourse; only for having committed the crime of having been a construction helper in the past. You bet that if construction helper were about Lamborghinis, private jets, mansions, thick gold necklaces, money... it would be a completely different story with high school kids. Those are the kind of values kids are learning on the media.
But the main reason for not returning to the teaching field is that, for being a teacher again, I would have to spend a small fortune (which I don’t have), as was explained some paragraphs above. Actually, if I had that kind of money, I’d rather put it into COSMA’s projects, which are a really giant need of the planet (and of the Universe); although nobody seems to see it. Where can I be more useful? As a teacher or helping the planet? That's the bottom-line question!
All those reasons and some that I may have forgotten, make me see it as not possible that I look for a teaching job ever again (considering my age).
Again, No Transportation in Majo Hamlet on Election Day
On June 19, 2022, there was another election day in my country (Colombia), which chose Gustavo Petro as president of the country. On that day in the morning, I wanted to go cast my vote. I was waiting for the bus for about an hour and it didn’t show up, so I decided to walk all the way to the polls. It took me 1 hour and 14 minutes to go. This time there were absolutely no surprises on the way or at the polls. Everything was completely as expected. It’s important to contrast with last time I did that same walk with that same purpose since it explains why it was normal to consider some unusual events of last time as paranoia-producers.
This was the atmosphere at the polls in Garzón (Huila) when I arrived to vote (11:30AM): complete calm.
My decision to do that long walk was because again I wanted to be naïve enough as to want to protest in that way. At least the people who read this blog will notice my protest (of course, nobody else did). When coming back, I was so tired (obviously because of my construction job), that I wished for somebody to pick me up. When I was about to leave the town, it started raining a little bit, so I feared that it would rain harder on the road. I decided to wait and get cover from the rain for a while and eureka: a bus appeared and picked me up. On the bus, I heard the driver say that he was working for one of the candidates. Conclusion about this exercise: I was naïve again and (unlike last time) there were no weird events happening in the whole morning.
Harassment Can Make You Go Literally Nuts
As has been usual for so long already, I have felt harassment, threats, and signals this quarter. I’m so used to those things that I consider myself an expert in them already.
By the way, I don’t know how I could possibly have forgotten to say that you can go literally insane as a consequence of harassment. Even the excerpt on harassment that I presented last quarter doesn’t mention it. But it’s true:
In Colombia, doctors can literally tie you to a bed if they decide that you're not behaving. That's torture and violación of human rights. Image courtesy of www.pixabay.com.
When you’re being the victim of harassment, you start having thoughts like: why is this happening to me? What are they going to do to me next? I can’t go to this place or this other because the harassers are going to be there. They’re everywhere, etc., etc.; and then you don’t know who is a harasser and who is not, so everybody becomes a harasser to you and everything becomes harassment to you. Your mind starts to imagine the worst kind of scenarios and there’s no way anybody can convince you that’s not going to happen because, deep inside, you feel it will. And then you start crying in fear, or telling others your worst fears (which to them are just imagined) or blaming the wrong people or acting weird because of your fears, maybe trying to escape your harassers and persecutors; and you tell your relatives (or friends or coworkers) that you’re being harassed and nobody is going to believe you because harassers know how to do things and because harassment is seen only by the victim and not by spectators.
That’s what they call “being crazy”: starting to imagine (due to causes such as harassment) that it’s happening more than what is actually happening; and gradually (or should I say all of a sudden) you become unable to tell what is real from what is imagined (as a consequence of reasons like harassment).
And then your relatives (or friends or coworkers) decide that you’re acting weird and therefore you're nuts and that they have to call the police or the paramedics; and they get you into an ambulance; and while you’re in the ambulance, you think it’s no ambulance at all, they surely are my persecutors and they’re gonna kill me, who knows where they’re gonna take me; and that’s how you end up being locked up (or even tied up).
And no matter how much medicine they give you, if the harassment continues, the symptoms are going to stay there (but if harassment stops, the problem will too). And remember nobody is going to believe you that you’re being harassed. Nobody. They’re just gonna think you’re nothing but a lunatic and every time you’re afraid of your harassers, they’re gonna call the police or the paramedics. And remember: once you fall into a mental institution for the first time, you’re a lunatic (to everybody’s eyes) for the rest of your life; and your harassers can now sit and celebrate.
A few words to the future about these times of tragedy due to COVID-19
The pandemic is over as far as most of the people are concerned (at least that’s what I see for real and listen on the news). The only signs of the pandemic that you see are a few people wearing masks and a few restrictions in a few places; and the same seems to be happening on the radio[**]; except for occasional comments on the radio about it.
In Colombia, the end of the phytosanitary measures was ordered in the whole country for June 30, 2022. However, national authorities emphasized that the pandemic hasn’t finished yet.
Death toll for COVID-19 as of June 30, 2022 has been: worldwide, over 6,357,000; in the USA, over 1,042,000; in Colombia, over 140,000; and in Garzón, 5,523 COVID-19 cases have been detected and there have been 190 deaths. I don't have access to any records for Majo.
This data mean that in the last quarter, approximately 135,000 people died in the world due to the COVID-19 pandemic, 27,000 in the USA, 1,000 in Colombia, and zero in Garzón.
