| | |  Editorials | Opinions 
Value Crisis
 Guillermo Ramón Adames y Suari - PVNN
April 27, 2010
 |  | Where are we leading? Which values do we have today? Have we lost our self respect? |  | | |
Definitely our society in its current evolution does not seem to have any respect for anything and even worse, not even respect for ourselves. We seem to accept anything: Any type of corruption both from and to ourselves. We "tolerate" police corruption, or to put it nicely, we tolerate the large lack of strictness of police officers. We seem to accept lack of respect and lack of responsibility everywhere. Even in the medical domain. On the name of freedom and help to your fellow men, we tolerate that our taxes are used for means that were not originally collected for. We accept that politicians become extremely rich from our taxes and we even vote for them. We accept political disrespect to each and every one of us. In a sentence: We swallow everything from everybody.
In the educational arena, the situation is not any better: At university, about 84.9% of students declared that they cheat: They simply copy homework assignments or exams. This figure was obtained at the Universidad Iberoamericana from an under graduate statistical study (Estadísticas de Trampa en la Universidad Iberoamericana). The main idea was to establish the percentage of "cheating level" by branch of studies. In the "human sciences" branches', students copy at about 95% rate. This means roughly that in a group of 100 students, only 5 work and the other 95 repeat the 5%'s work. Yet at the end of the semester 80% or more have a pass the subject. So universities grant degrees under high cheating levels and we accept that.
Other friends and colleagues who teach in other Mexican universities complain of the very same cheating procedure. The worse part of that is that if you have a bad group of students, if you flunk them all, then YOU are a bad professor. Not the students: Since they pay tuition, they ever are wrong. Face it. It is easier and cheaper to fire a professor than facing 95 parents of "paying" students challenging to switch university. At a rate of some $10,000 Mexican pesos in tuition per month… Corruption in religion nowadays is in fashion: We get to know of scandals all over and even worse, in almost any religion. The media is not any better: The Media: "The new kings", seem to do the favor of showing us the path. The media decides what humanity must know and what we must not know and I which way we must know it or about it.
So: Where are we leading? Which values do we have today? Have we lost our self respect?
I recall that in the past, you would go to school and work hard to get a degree. There was not this level of cheating. Afterwards, you competed for a job and/or a scholarship. If you were chosen for the job, there was a feeling of "a well done job". And: what is the situation today? You simply do not get a job if you do not have a "godfather". Anything beyond sweeping requires of a "godfather" and as time goes on and with a job shortage, even sweeping will require a "godfather". Group working in large corporations has become almost a social network. Group work is often done by a single individual (the one whose "godfather" is the lowest in hierarchy). When the job is completed, "everybody" cooperated. OK there are ups and downs in a job environment, there is always someone who is "the most intelligent of the crowd" and managed to do nothing and some credit.
Has anybody questioned why our brightest kids leave Mexico? Many of them when they arrive to large American or European corporations compete solely in a professional basis. Something inexistent in Mexico. When you see how people get appointed today in Mexico, it is based more and more in a "political party" context. Even in private companies, political parties are present everywhere: Don't forget: any kind of governmental permission for the company will depend in the "who is who" and it is better to have a "friend" in the company.
This overall lack of values has invaded our own personal lives. Relationships amongst people have lost its spontaneity. Today you only mix "wherever is convenient" for you and your family. It seems that we ask people: What are your credentials before I consider you for a (disguised) "personal" relationship. People seem to go meet the son of so and so; not a good friend you met at school. Likewise the "love" relationships. You choose a potential wife from a group of "selected girls whose parents are either wealthy or well placed". Rarely, somebody you are mad about. And now we have to be open: Your son or daughter can be gay and choose from a selected group of gays or bi-sexual or you name it…. Where are we leading to? Has any reader an idea or am I lost (together with a number of people who surround me and also have no answer) of where are we heading?
Guillermo Ramón Adames y Suari is a former electoral officer of the United Nations Organization. Contact him at gui.voting(at)gmail.com |
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