THE AFFECTIVE WORK

One of the problems to those that faces our society at the present time, although in smaller quantity that more cosmopolitan and liberaler societies, it is the growing decrease of the affective work.
Understood the affective work as the valuable and invaluable work that implies the care, the attention and the delivery of affection to children, people of the third age and sick inside the family. Until recently, work made it and covered in more percentage for the feminine sector inside the family and the same society.

We can attribute the blame of the decrease of the affective work basically to the congenital dissatisfaction of the human species. Dissatisfaction that has led inexorably to the current reign of the materialism and the consumerism and for this way to the vertiginous career of satisfaction of a more and more growing universe of necessities. Same dissatisfaction that has made us undertake the search of ideologies with the desire of to organize and to endow of a clear horizon our more and more chaotic society. Sometimes forgetting that for the same fact of this congenitally dissatisfaction, our theories, our ideologies, more and more tendentious to the utopism, they are born condemned.
It would be unjust, however, to deny to the human species the same right to the experimentation. But we should never forget that the experimentation bears risks that in the best in the cases, our system has taken very little in our bill society.
A clear example is in fact the topic that now occupies us, almost invisible and less valuable at this time but with big repercussions to medium and long term.
We cannot make ourselves those of the fat view and to deny that the nucleus of our society, the family, it is suffering irreparable damages to the point of running the risk of a definitive separation. Fact that is clearly demonstrated mainly in the high index of divorces and the populational descent in western societies or going to the weesternization.

This is it that in fact at that the big ideological movements of political order as the socialism, the communism, the capitalism and the same feminism didn't foresee, movements born of conceptual theories that seek to contain and to homogenize an individual and heterogeneous collective where the really important differences, (as the virtues and defects), they are, completely, passed for high. Differences that are, exactly, those that grant defined the position to each individual of a society. They have endowed us of one idealized and ephemeral freedom that it has allowed to break up with certain and preset lists, unchaining a widespread chaos with disastrous consequences to medium and I release term.
Without forgetting that it was the Catholic doctrine the culprit of the centuries of darkness regarding the woman's rights, we should return the look on the shoulders and to observe to the old civilizations (as the Egyptian in east or the Catarian in occident) where the women and the femininity had a fundamental list in the society.
It would be absurd, for example, not to recognize that, so much physical as spiritually, men and women are born differentiated. It would be absurd not to recognize that each one is born with tendencies and defined lists, replaced in some cases but never completely. It is not a fotuituos thing that is the woman the one that has been blessed with the gift of the conception. It is not a fortuitous thing that has been the woman the main one not in charge of the affective work alone inside the family, but also in our same society.
It is certain that a special relationship exists between femininity and affection. Observing for one second some other animal species because after all we are, also, animals, could we hope a male fulfills the maternal function just as at would make it a female of the species?
Grateful the fundamental importance of the affective work for the subsistence of the family as the nucleus of our society and its considerable decrease, would be necessary to wonder: Are we prepared to replace a growing market of affective work?
Today, as the labor freedom for the feminine sector has grown, we face a drastic decrease of the affective work and that, what is more dangerous, this will be inside in a little time one of the biggest lacks in our society. It would be more simple if this work it could be managed with the laws that govern the current labor market. That makes of the affective work something difficult of manage - the intrinsic value that this supposes why it implies an interaction that is much more than the physical aspect. It is very difficult, due to the grade in that an affective worker is forced to be involved with the object of his care, much more if this work is carried out inside its same family, for this it is very difficult to implant a control that can settle down standard of quality, (we should realise that this quality will vary substantially if the work is carried outside of the family environment), fact that makes impossible the handling of this sector with the rules that govern to the rest of the labor market.
Another important factor is the depreciation of the affective work. It is undeniable that the works that imply the service and people's care directly, it is still in the lowest steps in the labor pyramid, so much in what refers at the salary like in what refers to social prestige.
Through the history, the importance of the affective work, it has always been observed from points of view different to the really important one. To mention an example, in the Rumania previous to the ninety, the one that was the last communist bastion in Europe, the affective work was seen as an important factor although not for the real value that implied the care and the union of the family. It existed, even, a reconciliation system for the families that wanted to get divorced, wants that, finally, it was granted them after draining in different instances, all the possibilities of a reconciliation. However, "(…) the political system was not really interested in the health and the well-being of the family. The only thing that wanted was the individual's control. A control exercised through the fear, through the mistrust, impairing the channel of the trust inside the family and the friends through the totalitarist speech of subjection to the ideological régime. Ingrained speech with such an effectiveness to each person, mainly to the youngest that it was frequent to see friends and even children denouncing co-workers, school teachers or parents for anticommunist comments. (…) This was the grade of importance of the family nucleus with it was considered for the régime that in cases of accusations for the style, without caring of where they came and without mediating trial some, "Securetatea", the intelligence system and the interior politics's armed arm that Ceausescu implanted for such an end, disarticulated the family in question of hours, sending the children to orphanages and the parents to lingering imprisonments." (I summarize of interview with Andrei Ciobutaro, outstanding artist and Romanian thinker liberate.)
It is undeniable that the capitalism also founded its pillars in the family nucleus, but mainly in the affective work made, even at the present time, by the feminine sector, on the main function, the administration of the home and the fabric of the cooperation nets and solidarity, base of the patriarchal institution. This without speaking about the main function: the reproduction of the human species, or rather, the producer of the biggest value in the capitalism, the manpower.
In our days, the affective work, (although in different scale and level that the one carried out in the family nucleus), so scarce and minimized lately, it is beyond the family environment. The globalization, the saturation of the markets, the politics of limitless consumerism and the levels of competition of the modern companies, it have forced to the search of new techniques and technologies that are able to increase the redeeming and the time of answer to markets more and more difficult of satisfying and specialized. In such a way, it is not a secret that the fixed capital, the goods properties or the machinery, it is not more the biggest for the modern companies. What is really important is the human structure, the grade in that the personnel is involved with the objectives of the company, the way in that they socialize among themselves until getting the ideal comfort in the work atmosphere that allows them to develop to the maximum his invention capacity, of search of solutions for the changes of the market "just in time" and finally the organizational and re-organizational capacity. It is in this environment where the affective work acquires an enormous and new dimension: the complicated fabric of an affective net of communication, among a heterogeneous group of individuals with the purpose of improving the productivity.
It suits, observed and grateful the undeniable importance and the necessity of the affective work, to foresee their future lack. We would not need to be geniuses or seers to glimpse a future in which the affective work is one of the most important professions and required by our society in its different levels.
We need however, first, to recognize the essential value of this work. We need to change the false conception of smaller quantity that our society have granted him. Maybe this it is the biggest obstacle that we have to conquer. For such an effect it is of vital importance, in the first place that glimpse that this goes a lot beyond the dispute between machismo and feminism. In second place that the same state, through the educational sector, it should be involved with the preventive task, through the integration to the educational curricula, of courses in those that the student, not alone it learns and recognize the importance of the affective work in our society, but rather it also teaches to the new generations, be men or women, for to be prepared to replace in this function at family level in first time.

Felipe

ONE MORE DAY IN THE JUNGLE

The night falls and it dawns another time in the forest. The time seems detained here, beside the Ucayali river in a town a day from Iquitos. The first school that I came to build is almost finishedand we have begun a new one not far from here.
Some months have passed since I began to work here and I have not still stopped to wonder if we are right in sowing cement where before alone there were trees and animals, but that is a big and different topic from what I want to relate.
What I want to relate is that the earth here has another color, the heat is so strong that sometimes one wonders why we are here. That the forest sometimes squashes us with its constant sample of life. That the insects are unbearable alone between the 6 and 7.30 in the night.
What i want to relate is that the children still go barefoot to the old wooden school. That they still play in the torrential rains as if these were a blessing, that an indescribable innocence exists in their eyes. That innocence that we have lost in the big cities. That trying not to get their attention - always impossible - I observe them every morning wondering to myself if some of them imagine thatother world of which we come. but the probable thing is that it does not even interest them although some of them will finish working driving a taxi for the streets of some great city.
15 men have come with me to build this first school. 15 men that make their work very well between laughs and jokes. 15 both young and old people that have become as siblings after a time. But only 14 have returned. One of them, my friend Henrry, the nearest to me, the one that followed me in range, one that the same as to my he liked the fishing, he died while he was transported to our camp bitten by a snake. Him and four more of them went to cut the wood that we needed for the construction in a place amid the forest 8 hours from our camp. One week they had to finish their work and to return with the wood, but they returned on the third day with my friend dead.Although I have wanted a lot, I have not been able to leave the jungle to go to his funeral, neither have I met his family - he had two daughters and a woman waiting for him .
I know that theinsurance for accidents or death of the organization with which I work will give to his family enough money so that they can live calm and that they will send us a new antidote easier for transporting and of oral administration, the previous one was via veins and given by the male nurse that travels with us. The new antidote is not as efficient as the other one but it slows the action of the poison enough time to arrive to the camp.
Some days ago in the blog of a friend I read about the necessity of the search of the truth, of the love and of oneself and remembering my first months here, i thought that it is true that we all are looking for something although some people do not even know that they are doing it. I also remembered to Henrry and I thought that we always look for ephemeral things. That the truth is what we look for things or feelings or states of spirit that the only thing that it does is to exalt our ego.
One afternoon, talking about the poverty, after a moment of silence, my friend - a bit sad - said to me: "for me, to be poor, just can be to see die of hunger to my children" This one, was my friend's truth, this one it is an universal truth.



Felipe.

Ciao Sarita

Its a bit raro how quickly people can just come and go here. Although most volunteers stay for at least a month, I have met one who stayed for under two weeks, and others who sign on for up to two years. Unfortunately, we just lost one of the best, our English Teacher volunteer, Sara. She has left behind a formidable legacy- just this morning she gave a presentationt to the heads of other local Peruvian NGOs about an online Directory that she worked hard to realize. This directory will help create contacts between the various organizations, so hopefully we can work juntos and have a greater impact on the community.
Sara was also an invaluable teacher at the SKIP school. Recent attendance levels have been the highest ever at SKIP English class, and the students really opened up to her and started talking, even the shyest of the shy. She helped Joshua plan the saturday classes and orchestrated an evening trip to the Teatro Municipal in downtown Trujillo to see a presentation on traditional Peruvian and Mexican dances.
Although we all understand that she needs to return home and earn some money, it will be strange not to grab a morning taxi with her to El Porvenir, or plan the next baking endeavor with her and Josh.
Ciao Sara, ya te extranamos!

Don't Throw Out Dead Dogs

There's the obvious that makes life in El Porvenir so shockingly different from what i know- the extreme poverty evident in the houses made of crumbling adobe brick, the trash heaps lining the unpaved roads, the little girls walking around in skirts and flipflops in the middle of winter while I wouldn't be able to survive without my NorthFace. But then there's the smaller, less evident things. For example, in one of the classrooms at the public school, the students were studying how to protect the environment. They had written on strips of posters (about 2 or 4 whole posters for the entire class to share, unlike back home where my Spanish teacher could pull out stacks of different colored papers and a carton of markers to draw with) advice such as "don't burn trash," "dont use persticides" etc. While there was nothing about wasting water or turning off the light when you don't use it (not things they have to worry about since most houses don't have those amenities) there were a few strips that read "don't throw dead dogs onto the street." At first I thought I had misread it, but upon consideration, I see how that can be a huge problem. Somedays I see as many dogs as little kids running around unattended. Once, we even had a dog walk right into the classroom that I was teaching in. Those kids ended up getting an extra lesson on animals that day, until I finally had to kick the poor animal out because it was becoming to much of a destraction.

In other SKIP news, Mythri, our amamzing Economic Development gal, brought four mothers to open savings accounts in a local bank- a huge first step. The bank requires 50 soles to open an account, and a minimum blalnce at all times of 10 soles (a little under $4) so we used SKIP money to help them open the accounts and then just took out whatever was not theirs. When Mythri first brought up the idea of savings accounts to the mothers at one of the Saturday charlas, many of them were intrigued by the idea. As one of the mothers explained, its very hard for them to keep moeny in their pockets, even though they have so little. What happens is that one of their kids begs and begs for a sweet so she relents, and then the 4 or 5 other kids she has come begging to, and there goes the sol or two she had saved. However, with the money in the bank, so won't be able to feel guilty and give in. So, we have high hopes that this will be a great new project and really help the mothers of El Porveir.

One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind

Yesterday was a day to remember for SKIP, as we finally inaugurated the new office that has been under construction for a little while now. Previously we had been working out of the building belonging to the Mother's Club of El Porvenir, with temporary walls wedged in place with plastic water bottles and offices the size of closets.

Now, each section- education, psychology, social work and economic development has their own separate space, along with an area for overall managment. The building is located right within the SKIP school, only about 10 feet from where we were before, but it gives SKIP a vital sense of independance, identity and accomplishment.

The ceremony itself was the typical pomp-and-circumstance affair, with the local alcalde arriving about one hour late to break a bottle over the doorjamb. Although most of the mothers left as soon as all the free food was gone, overall the day was a success.