The differences | Anecdotes, parables and organizational reflections
Anecdotes, parables, fables
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The primary wishes of everyone are progressing and be happy; many people think that wealth is an effective way of achieving those aspirations.
Just as there are poor and rich people, there are countries with the same characteristics. The difference between the two is not in the time during which have been inhabited; This is demonstrated by cases such as the one from India and Egypt, which hosted great civilizations for thousands of years and today are poor. In Australia and New Zealand, change that makes little more than hundred and fifty years were almost unknown and uninhabited territories, are now developed and rich countries.
The difference between poor and rich countries is not in the natural resources. Japan, for example, has a very small territory, of which eighty percent is mountainous, not suitable for agriculture or livestock; However, it is a global economic power which, as an immense floating factory, receives raw materials and exports them, transformed, a good part of the planet, gaining this wealth. Switzerland has no Ocean, but has one of the world's largest shipping fleets; It has no cocoa, but it produces the best chocolate; in its few square kilometers is it pastor and cultivated only four months a year, since in all weather conditions are not favorable, but it produces the best dairy in Europe. Like Japan, a country without natural resources exported goods and services of excellent quality, Switzerland is a small country whose image of safety, order and working has made it safe in the world.
Nor the intelligence of people makes a difference, as evidenced by many students from poor countries who migrate to wealthy countries, achieving excellent results. Another example are the executives of rich countries who visit the factories in poor countries, and to talk to them, we realize that there is no intellectual difference.
Finally, neither the race makes the difference: we have mind that Central European or Nordic countries, the so-called "BA South" prove to be a productive force; not so in their own countries, where you never knew to undergo the basic rules that make great a nation. What makes the difference, then, is the attitude of the people.
By studying the behavior of individuals in rich countries is discovered that most of the population follows these rules, no matter the order in which we discuss:
Morality as a basic principle.
The order and cleanliness.
Honesty.
Punctuality.
The responsibility.
The desire to overcome.
The rule of law and regulations.
Respect the right of others.
The love for the work.
The desire for savings and investment.
Do we need more laws? No, it would be sufficient to meet and enforce these simple rules. In our Latin American countries, and the rest of the poor countries, only a fraction of the population follows them in their daily lives. We are not poor because we lack natural resources or because nature was cruel with us: simply lack the character to meet these basic and basic premises of social functioning.
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* Contribution of Victor Manuel Uribe, 24 August 2000.