How to crush a non-informatic virus by using your fingertips

The World Bank states 1.6 billion students around the planet are not attending the school due to Covid-19, the new kind of corona-virus. In Peru, the (theoretically) mandatory quarantine imposed to hold the virus was extended until April 12th. Considering the classes began last March 16th, it means a 2020 Annual Course’s month is lost, and it’s possible that coming back to the classroom takes more time.

Around the globe, the initiatives to avoid the students to lose the scholarship’s rhythm are beginning to outbreak and that’s good. Many teachers have recalled a not-so-new ally to achieve it – information technology. And they are taking any resource, any platform to continue, because it’s not about we are on vacation, we have kept not to infect. It’s not the same thing.

Along Peru, the government is setting up a whole platform including the public radio & television, the Ministry of Education, and some associations which are implementing collaborative and friendly environments. Along Piura? I learned this week it does, and it happens in Sullana Province, Marcavelica District indeed, more specifically in Vista Florida Village.

Virtual classroom

14854 José Santos Chocano School, as thousands of schools across Peru, is closed doors but not its communication channels. So Principal Leonila Saavedra had the idea to do in virtual environment wwhat was interrupted in physical or presential ones.

Let’s push pause here because this school and this principal don’t appeared in the air after a blink. It was one of the seven schools across Piura Region recognized by the Ministry of Education (Minedu, as its acronyme in Spanish) with Valora grade, a kind of certification granted for innovating all processes of management and teaching, three years ago.

In José Santos Chocano’s case, its competitive advantage was precisely the use of tools based on information technology. Let’s get back to March 2020. Mrs Saavedra summoned the engineer Iván Martín Rotta, who worked with the platform that allowed her the Minedu’s recognizement in 2017, and who has developed interesting related ideas about this issue at Piura’s César Vallejo University, where he studied.

The engineer designed a virtual classroom as a technologic solution, first for the teachers to coordinate strategies and contents, then for the parents to join the companion of their kids, ultimately to incorporate the children in the whole process. Look what an interesting strategy to add all the members of the basic educational community. If they can add later to the ones who are not part of this community but who are going to contribute in the process, perfect! They’re going a good way!

The teachers who participate in this experience see it much expectant, judging what they have shared on the virtual classroom’s forum. How did I have Access to the system not having an user and a password? Surprise, surprise! When my radar detected this story, I asked Iván to launch two simple questions: what they think of the environment, what challenge it produces them. Then, the quotes you’ll see on this op-ed are spontaneous reactions of those proffessionists. Get your own conclusions.

“They’re the right place to ask questions, to propose activities, or to solve doubts, because there’s no only interaction by asking the teacher, but seeing also what other students ask,” teacher Luis Estrada wrote.

“The virtual education is other vogue in those times and its use gets into different current spaces, although it also has some inconsistences, for example, not all the parents know those virtual environments, who will accomplish a very important role in this process,” teacher Paola Farfán adds.

“Anyway, despite social disagreements, the current scenario makes the virtual education to be already the solution for the problems in Peruvian education. It’s true that a big advantage of virtual education there is a lower Covid-19 contagion risk, because to access the classes for the students, eliminates the displacement to a specific location, situation not able to be done in this emergency,” teacher Yuliana Astudillo complements.

Growing hurts

For the teachers to adapt to the environment, even borning in the Informatics Age, has not been easy because the traditional education usually trains everybody for a predictable space: the board in the background, the door beside the board, the desks in front of the board, teacher’s desk beside the board, wide windows, four walls and a ceiling.

But in the virtual environment, that fades, and especially another factor – time. Perhaps it’s not necessary the 45-minute pedagogical hour. Perhaps you require more time, perhaps you need less. Everything is going to depend on your attention and understanding rate.

And that has been the same challenge of the teachers in Vista Florida, Marcavelica. Let’s reflectionate through their own reactions on their school’s virtual classroom.

“Too much confused in the beginning because we have changed our traditional way to work in classrooms due to the use of a mobile device, lap-top, or computer,” teacher Farfán underlines.

“However, when investigating a bit more and having an virtual education technology  back-up, I feel more secure. That’s why we have focused that in this emergency it’s important to strengthen the interaction media among the students, teachers, and contents, as well as promoting the use of infovirtual tools because the educational stakers will move in a digital environment,” shee adds.

“It’s complicated in the beginning, but to have the motivation of knowing that your students will not lose the Academic Year, makes we work hard on learning with the expert Iván Martín Rotta these virtual educational environments, those are also totally free, so facing this emergency,” teacher Astudillo opines.

“It has not been easy to enter the field of virtual education, but with the back-up of technology we are receiving by the expert Iván Martín Rotta, the learning becomes easier,” teacher Estrada says in his side. “Meanwhile, I can opine that the virtual education requires teachers with technological profiles, but also human, practical, pedagogical, and ethical, different to presential education’s.”

Well, it’s overunderstood that one of the contributions of the Internet to the life of everybody is now we can custom the contents we receive, precisely, to give utility and pleasure to our experience. And why shouldn’t the education be also a pleasant experience, as well as useful?

“The education in virtual environment also will help to improve the student’s mood for not feeling missed. We also ccan approach the care measures before the Covid-19, helping the work the Peruvian State comes doing,” teacher Astudillo stresses.

And this is every crisis’ about, putting creative, not letting to overwhelm by the problem and the impact it can have over our lives. It’s about how we turn every problem into a solution, but also, and this is the lesson of the story I share you today, how the unity of many talents and wills can make something more than solving the problem – innovating, reinventing, becoming a better version of who I used to be.

And Peru is rich in that but it fears to leave the comfort zone (I’m not meaning you go out your home during the quarantine). Vista Florida is understanding it, and according to engineer Rotta told me, other schools are thinking to join. Congratulations about that! Goa head!

My radar also has detected that a similar initiative is making in Fe y Alegría 48 Network in Tambogrande. I don’t have hard facts, but I promise when I know something else, you’ll know it on here.

Antes de afirmar, verifica si tienes la razón

Hay historias que son realmente buenas para contar, pero que al disponerse para su cobertura encuentran una seria dolencia: el manejo de los datos. Un caso típico ocurrió hacia 2010 en Sullana, la ciudad donde vivo cuando una serie de hedores comenzaron a atormentarnos todas las tardes. Imagina a una ciudad de casi 200 mil personas aguantando oler algo parecido al excremento de cerdo, y nadie parecía tener una respuesta.

Y en principio ésa fue la hipótesis general, así que todo el mundo, incluyendo las autoridades, se puso a buscar si acaso las granjas de cerdo estaban haciendo algún tipo de manejo que generara ese hedor molesto. Cuando la búsqueda terminó, no se halló nada de eso. Entonces alguien culpó a las procesadoras de aceite esencial de limón, el que, cuando se fermenta, apesta de una forma que no tienes idea. Pero se necesitaba un océano de aceite para generar ese problema.

Fue cuando alguien descubrió que no eran ni los cerdos ni el limón. Rastreando la fuente del hedor, todos los caminos conducían a las plantas de etanol ubicadas al oeste del área metropolitana de Sullana, donde se procesaba la caña de azúcar, que dejaba como residuo la vinaza. ¡Ésa era la fuente del hedor!

Aunque su cantidad no era masiva, sí tenía el poder suficiente para generar esas olas que atormentaban (y que aún atormentan de vez en cuando) a la población todas las tardes. Incluso hubo una verificación oficiosa que comprobó el dato. Fue cuando alguien de nuestra comunidad saltó hasta el techo y acusó directamente a una de las empresas procesadoras de etanol por contaminar el aire. Como respuesta, la empresa amenazó a esa persona con una querella por delitos contra el honor y la buena reputación. ¿Actuó bien la empresa? Pues… sí y no.

Sí actuó bien desde el punto de vista estrictamente legal. Una investigación de FACTORTIERRA.NET basada en el Código Penal peruano, donde se compendian todos los delitos y sus posibles penas, encontró que existe un vacío legal en la forma cómo se denomina a la contaminación: los supuestos eran amplios, pero obviaban el asunto del mal olor por una razón puramente técnica, ¿cómo podrías ccuantificarlo? [Lee la historia completa]

Si tú acusas a alguien de algo, y mas aún si haces una acusación pública, necesitas una base que lo sustente todo. Si la empresa contaminaba el aire con hedor, ¿en qué cantidad lo hacía? La respuesta de la gente solía ser mucho, poco o nada. Pero, si todo termina en una acción legal, ¿cuánto es mucho, cuánto es poco, y hasta cuánto es nada? Peor aún, si no existe delito bajo el que puedas acusar a alguien, no hay caso, se derrumba, se archiva y ahí quedó todo. Empresa, 1; población, 0.

Ya en términos de imagen, de responsabilidad social si quieres, es obvio que la empresa pudiera haber actuado mal porque su actividad, si bien da empleo y todas esas cosas, debería considerar como un factor clave la satisfacción de la comunidad, la buena imagen de ella, el hecho de que generas ganancias sin afectar a terceros. En mi opinión, creo que una salida digna para la empresa debió ser una petición de disculpas y la promesa de que están trabajando para corregir o mejorar el problema que causa la molestia. Eventualmente, se requirió la presión de las autoridades para hacerlo, lo que resquebraja más la relación entre empresa y comunidad.

Al margen de ese caso en especial, la lección detrás es que si bien es cierto puedes tener tu problema a comunicar perfectamente identificado, el otro aspecto que debes cuidar es que esté debidamente ssustentado, y sustentado sobre una base oficial. Pensemos en el sujeto que acusó a la empresa por contaminación. Quiero creer que en su pensamiento, causa-efecto, el delito era evidente. Yo pensaría lo mismo, déjenme confesarles. ¿Dónde falló esta persona? Debió verificar si tal delito existe, y aquí el razonamiento es interesante: si el delito existe, claro que podía denunciar y eventualmente eso iba a proceder; pero si no existe, hay dos opciones, o frenar en seco o darle la vuelta a la tortilla.

Sobre darle la vuelta a la tortilla, podemos dedicarle otro artículo si lo deseas; pero yo quiero mas bien concentrarme en la moraleja que nos deja esta historia: antes que nada, verifica en la fuente oficial si aquello que vas a decir en público puede ser probado. Si existe, úsalo como tu referencia básica; si no existe, tendrás que generar el dato usando el método científico, y siendo muy inteligente en el manejo de las conclusiones de tal modo que si alguien quiere rebatirte, le sea altamente complicado lograrlo, o simplemente le dejes sin palabras.

Como alguien me lo reflexionó en redes sociales, el asunto aquí no es si el público piensa que eres acertado o no; tienes que ser forzosamente acertado muy a pesar de lo que el público piense de ti. Si consideras que no eres capaz de ganar el grado de certeza, lo mejor es esperar hasta lograrlo, o desistir si no hay manera de probarlo… o voltear la tortilla de manera inteligente, como lo sugerí hace poco.

En nuestro caso, no insistimos en si el mal olor configura delito de contaminación porque la respuesta era obvia: según la ley peruana, no. Mas bien decidimos no atacar a la empresa sino llamar la atención de los legisladores peruanos: hay un vacío legal sobre el mal olor, y al existir un problema social en progreso, el legislador debería buscar las herramientas técnico-legales para regular. ¿Lo hizo? Hasta ahora no, pero fíjate cómo de pronto la fuente oficial nos permitió mover la historia hacia un arista que nadie había explorado. Habrá que seguir insistiendo.

Recuerda que me encantará mejorar tus técnicas y estrategias de cómo te relacionas con los medios de comunicación. Contáctame a mi cuenta de Facebook, Twitter, mi canal de YouTube, LinkedIn o aquí abajo en los comentarios.

Don’t mistake exactly like Sullana

This is a real story at the Peruvian Northern, where I live. I dont know if it happens to you, but I feel the smallest, furthest towns use to be the most proactive when it’s about recognizing and saving in every sense. It happens me with Malingas, Tambogrande District, it is beginning to happen me with Sapillica again, which I just have a journalistic relationship, where something happened this week that encourages particularily to me.

It was just the last Sunday when checking out the filtered messages on Facebook, I found one from José encalada, whom I have met 19 years ago, and who has been a Radio Cutivalú’s Correspondent in Sapillica during his lifetime. I was introduced to him while a trip with Margarita Rosa vega and the Tambogrande Collective, once we had the first news of non-formal mining activity out there the nascents of Chipillico River.

Then, José was our guide, although that was not my first time in Sapillica. Actually, this year marks two decades since I knew that beautiful place for the very first time. I worked for the Fe y Alegría’s Project in Malingas that time, and only by one school, located in Sesteadero, it was necessary to sspend three hours tripping by pick-up for doing paperwork.

Including the Catholic nuns I worked for, a Mississauga, Ontario-based stock broker named Matthew sammut came with us, whom I browsed many times on Facebook but I have not found yet. And the joke with Matt was he came ignoring much about Spanish, intended to learn Spanish, and got back not speaking more Spanish than some basic greetings and thanks. And as I was the only bilingual guy at the office, discounting the nuns, so match him to Nelson for the man doesn’t feel very isolated in some meaning.

What I remember much of that friendship with Matt is he taught me to read the NBCUniversal’s business channel CNBC stocks ticker running below the screen, and the trip to Sapillica, that was scored by Shania Twain’s hits, whose both resulted to be fans.

Matt didn’t let to take photographs of everything in Sapillica, especially the cattle gracing at the nearby hills to the town.

 “It’s great!,” he repeated once and once again.

Already in previous days, we tried to hik Malingas Mount,where the nuns have their convent – he was not tired to shot photos.

 “Do you feel this looks like something in North America?,” I asked.

“Yes… like… Montana.”

When we traveled to Sapillica, I didn’t ask him what it looked like but if that motivated him to come back further. He said yes, and that was one of many experiences those convinced me about an additional development possibility for those towns beyond agriculture and cattle – tourism. Of course I was not clear that time what kind of tourism, as I came to learn it 11 years later in Malingas, but there was a chance, indeed, and that increased me the pride about that Piura where the Andes start to rise. [Check out Matt’s YouTube channel] 

As everybody, the next one we learnd about Sapillica was the invasion and the infestation of the illegal mining, that instead to keep beauty the mountains and the forests, drill them with holes and tunnels every size. The today congressman Daniel Urresti interestingly worked for pacification in the zone due to the interdiction policy, for the Farmers’ Patrol took the control of the district later, at the point that nobody comes out to the street after nine at night.

But in July 2016, an urgent call put me over the track of a science I was starting to appreciate – archeology, and that has been one of the recurrent coverages of FACTORTIERRA.NET. Then, my partner Marco Paulini was beginning the journey to decrease the maternal mortality across Sapillica from three per year to zero –what he achieved and held until the Health officials decided not to hire him again—when he found a beautiful trace on the rock that made him to remember the sites we have identified and registered in Malingas. [Check out the full story] 

It’s about a big spiral on a 20-feet-height rock, just at the entrance of Loma Alta Village, Masías Bajo Community, that when he sent it, he put the whole newsroom on alert and eased next to other producer, estany Tineo, I traveled with to verify what seemed to be incredible on the photograph – A petroglyph! A more-than-touchable evidence of the Formative Age’s people needed to picture something on the rocks for marking something we are trying to understand since 11 years ago! [Check out the full story] 

In Malingas, we came to convince that work could be until 4000 years old, much more ancient than the Incas, the Aztecans, the Mayans! Anyway, could it happen the same in Sapillica? The first photographic and spectrographic analysis by the archeologist Daniel Dávila upon high-resolution images we got to take at that place leave the suspicion more than open, and a hypotheses for the moment: they could be part  of the so-called Samanga Tradition, in reference to the site at el Toldo Village, Ayabaca District, where the best conserved traces are located.

My initial reaction during the two trips I did to identify and register petroglyphs was notifying José encalada because, to begin, before than me, I ever tought he is the fair person who has to tell the world what we are finding. It’s his district, isn’t it?, I mean. What matters if I have or don’t have an interchange agreement with Cutivalú! The issue here is it must establish it exists, and it’s there when the journalism does one of its most wonderful works, increasing the science and the knowledge.

I never could met Pepe but I ever kept the connection, we ever have been in touch. I also have known his house and met his beautiful family that had me much kindly, what I will ever thank. And, look what nice the human relations are, Pepe call at my cellphone Sunday night to release me the story: “I was noticed about some petroglyphs in Pampa Verde.”

I confess I tried to hold moody, something it’s not happening while I write this op-ed, that I write pretty enthusiastic, but I was fascinated of the story, because it proves a work hypotheses launched by the same Sapillica people since the first time we arrived: the district is nailed by archaeological evidences. I have mentioned you Loma Alta, now Pampa Verde, that is in the occidental side, add Tunal in the southern side, and Trujillo, very close to the Sapillica Town. Is there much in that territory that is just over 150 square miles? We do suspect that. [Check out the story]  

The good to be in 2020 for Sapillica, for you, for our crew, and for me, is we are not in November 2009 anymore, when we started underground and following fake clues. Today we can say, almost not mistaking, the petroglyphs networks in Sapillica and Tambogrande could be connected, being part of one only way, that also disperses across Quiroz Valley, climbs up through Pacaipampa, reaches Huarinjas (Huaringas), passes over Sang Ignacio and Jaén, in Cajamarca, and could have one of its starting points in Luya, Amazonas, at the Peruvian Jungle highlans.

José, as well as us, has wondered to know more, to understand the message it has been kept (who knows) during four millennia on those rocks, to explain the district, the region, the country, and the world what they all are about and how it can evolve the history as it has been taught for decades. That would be a nice Project, actually, that the people of Sapillica must engine! Look at Malingas, where they are very motivated to retake it.

And while I look at Sapillica encouragingly, when I get back mentally to Sullana and I watch around, I can’t say the same. Here, in the second most important province of Piura Region, we are predating our past rather, as it happens in El Cucho, or we treat it indifferently, despite, as a colleague of mine whom I covered one of those stories told, there is evidence wherever you step on.

If Sapillica (and Malingas) gets to arrange an archaeological research and changes the History books, it will have something real to blame to Sullana everytime it wants because it will be a positive example that everybody will wish to imitate. And if the tourism comes in a planned, ordered manner, it would be much better. They really deserve it, and they have to work since today for that becomes another local economic axis.

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