Bye 2017: You got to the other side

What a year!

Many things happened in 2017! It started with a very hot summer which was alongside with an even hotter politic situation: interpellations, accusations, debates for the gender ideology, ex-president Toledo's capture order, among other things. Right after that, mudslides in different parts of Peru leave desolation and pain for whatever they went, whose consequences are still far from being restored.

Then a tragic fire touched many Peruvians because it revealed the slavery situation that many young people endured. The politic world didn't stop getting tense. In the middle of the year the ex-president Toledo and his wife were put in custody. Thousands of students were afraid to loose the school year because of the constant strikes of their teachers.

The interpellations to the state secretaries continued and corruption accusations reached the current president of Peru. The cabinet fell. The year crowned with the request of presidential impeachment.

And this is just in Peru. I have said nothing about Venezuela, the Middle East, the fear of a nuclear war, the earthquakes devastating different places, slaughters and shootings, etc. And of course, all of this is just the frame where all our personal problems took place.

But, you know something?, 2017 finished and we're still here. We got to the other side. The marks that 2017 left you are not of failure, but the prove that you got to the other side.

I explain it to you with this story: One mom watched over her kid from afar while he played in a river. Suddenly, a crocodile appeared, grabbed the boy's arm and started taking him inside the river. His mom run to him with all her strength while crying out loud for help. Surprisingly she got just in time to grab her other son's arm. The boy was pulled in one side by the crocodile, and in the other side, by the her mom. Thanks God there was a hunter in the area that heard her crying out for help and quickly approached to help and killed the crocodile with his weapon. The boy was taken rapidly to the hospital.

Once the boy was out danger, his mom allowed a journalist to interview him. The journalist asked him: "What do you think when you see the marks that the crocodile left you?" The boy answered: "Those marks mean nothing to me". Then he showed her his other arm and said: "This marks are the ones that do have a great value to me, because they represent that my mom didn't leave me and saved my life".

Maybe this 2017 left you with some marks, but those marks aren't of failure, because if it was so, you wouldn't be here. But you are here! You got to the other side! Those marks are the ones left by your Heavenly Father because He didn't let you go all this time. It was hard, but you got to the other side. And your Father promises you that He will be with you in 2018 no matter what it brings! Will there be difficulties? I'm positive that there will, but you won't be alone, He will keep holding your hand, and you can be sure that NOTHING will make Him to let you go.

Please, pray with me for my country Peru

Father, bless my Peru. I pray for your unmerited favor over this land, over each Peruvian, but specially, over each of your sons and daughters that in these moments are lifting their faces to You with faith that they may receive the help that they need to go through this time of uncertainty and disappointment.

Give us the strength so we may decide to quit putting our trust and expectancy on our governors and authorities, and to start putting it on You alone, as always should have been. We take responsibility of being disappointment, because we are aware that disappointment comes when we received less than we expected, and we recognize that it was our mistake to expect from them what we always had to expect from You. We decide to put our trust no longer on a man or woman, but only on You.

We decide that peace, joy, the opportunities, the hope for a good future and the certainty that the best is yet to come, we no longer expect them from our authorities, but from You. You're our joy and peace! You open the door for us for the opportunities that we need! We believe that with You, nothing is never lost, but everything is getting better every time, from glory to glory, from victory to victory! We believe that with the little that we're able to give to You, You're able to do much!

We pray that You may turn into something good all this time of instability. You didn't send this evil of corruption, but we know that with You all things work together for good. We pray so that all of us may learn our lesson and take with responsibility and seriousness the next times that we'll have to go to vote to elect our authorities, not by only getting well informed, but also by asking You for wisdom to elect wisely.

We pray so that corruption may completely fall, that the light may illuminate in the darkness so that those selfish acts that have been done secretly to rob everybody's resources, might be exposed. We ask You that that won't happen again, that might be angels protecting what belongs to all Peruvians, that corrupters may be discovered and stopped before they fulfill their plans to steal. We pray that fear invades their hearts so they won't dare to take for themselves what belongs to all of us, that they might be unease until they desist to do those misdeeds, that their consciences won't le them be in peace, so that they decide stop their wickedness.

Heavenly Father, we ask You to put in our governors the conscience that the office they're on is holy because is designed to serve millions of people. We ask that they may realize the fact that their decisions affect so many people it's a privilege that not many people have. We pray for the conviction of being there to serve may be very real in them and that they may take it with responsibility, honesty, sacrifice and dedication. Bless them with the wisdom they need in every step they take. Bless their families and personal lives, and let them know that You rewarded them for their service.

Father, we decide to quit complaining, but to take responsibility from where we are. As your children, we decide to pray for them so that You may cover them constantly from all temptation and that they may be filled with guidance to execute their office with excellence. Speak to us Father, tell us the ways to contribute to form a better Peru, that we may not expect to receive a better Peru, but being, from now on, builders of it.

Thanks because we know that You hears us, that You're with us and that You will never leave us, and because of it, we know that we are going to go through this We will be in the other side, and we'll be stronger, wiser, better persons, better Peruvians and better Christians.

Amen.

"I am corrupt, but not so much"

If I have in a recipient 95 red balls and 5 white ones, and if I randomly take one, what ball is most probable that I take, red or white? Obviously, a red one!

That's how I like to explain why is that there is so much corruption in our authorities.

Our authorities hasn't always been authorities, but they once were part of the people (and they'll return to the people!). Why, then, there is so much corruption in our authorities? Because we, the people, are the ones that carry that corruption.

They didn't become corrupt when they became an authority. No. That corruption has always been there, and then it manifested in the form we see it in the news.

Maybe the Peruvian people didn't change the contract for the Lima's public transportation, but they do try to bribe the police officer to not get a ticket. Maybe the Peruvian people didn't accept a 20 millions dollars bribe to build a useless highway in the middle of nowhere, but they do steal the TV cable signal. Maybe the Peruvian people didn't steal the donations destined to the damaged people by the earthquake, but they do buy stolen or pirated stuff because it's cheaper. Maybe most of the Peruvian people can't make fun the Peruvian authorities by not returning to Peru to give explanations of their illegal acts, but they do make fun traffic laws.

Etcetera, etcetera y etcetera.

Corruption is, by definition, the alteration of the norm or the structure of something. In this case, of the Peruvian laws. And always is SEEKING THEIR OWN BENEFIT.

Either that those authorities have been democratically elected, called or got their public service position by running for it, all the authorities came from the people. So, if most of the people is corrupt, what chance do we have to get a honest and wanting-to-serve authority?

Our "recipient", Peru, has "95 balls of corruption", that's to say, most have corruption in their hearts. This is not a problem that started nowadays, but long ago. Almost 200 years ago Simón Bolívar denounced this in a letter:

"One of the main causes for the disasters of the Republic,

has been the scandalous squandering of

their funds..." - Simón Bolívar, 1824.

I'm not saying that I'm not agree that the corrupts have to go to a trial. I'm just pointing out the indignation that many manifest at seeing the corruption. They condemn the corruption as if they were free from it. They scandalize as if corruption was something new, when, on the contrary, it has been very permitted in them for long time. They are saying without realizing: "I am corrupt, but not so much!", or "a little bit of corruption is OK, but not too much!"

AS LONG AS WE DON'T CHANGE, DO NOT EXPECT FOR AUTHORITIES TO CHANGE. Our authorities must not change in order for us to change. It's the other way around. When we change, they will change, because they come from us.

If you're one those that think that complaining about that guy disrespecting Christian Cueva recording themselves while he insulted him for missing a penalty is worrying about nonsenses when there are more important problems in Peru, you haven't understood the real problem of Peru. There are a looooot of guys like him, without any respect for anybody else, and like that get to be in authority.

When current corrupted authorities weren't in authority yet, surely that their regular lifestyle evade taxes, running red lights, buying stolen stuff, steal wifi, cheating their clients by not giving them the best, etc.

And it's very likely that if your lifestyle is so, if you get to be in authority, you'll be one more corrupted.

That's why, if you are ONLY sick and tired of our authorities's corruption but not so of the lack of respect we see in daily basis life, if the current corruption problem we see in our authorities is solved, sooner or later new corrupted authorities will appear again.

Peru has more than 30 million problems. One of those problems concerns me. One of those problems concerns you. When you and I change, Peru will change. Not before.