Hector A. Ruiz

MBA, Project Manager, Tennis Player, Musician, and Author of "How to Destroy a Country"

Tag: History Page 2 of 3

Chernobyl

I came across this wonderful series on a recent flight I took and since the seat’s TV screen is not quite the most comfortable way to watch audiovisual material, I decided to re-watch it at home to have a better appreciation of the series.

Without jumping in the political discussion of left vs. right, democrats vs. republicans, Team Jen vs. Team Angelina, this is a series that everyone should see in order to understand how poor leadership and how unqualified people in high positions can cause major disasters in society. This is something that has happened throughout the entire history of the human race and sadly I must say, that most likely it will keep happening for quite some time. I hope that one day, someone will finally realize the tremendous negative consequences that having a bad leader, a bad CEO, a bad General Manager, a bad Governor or a bad President, has to a company or a country. I really hope that playing politics as a professional skill one day finally ends, and connections and butt-kissing will finally come to an end, and that mediocre leaders managing capable smart employees realize they should step down and let somebody else who actually is qualified, run the business or the country.

I have been lucky that during my professional career I haven’t really ran into these type of corporate profiles. It has only happened twice when I was working in Venezuela. Fortunately, it has never happened to me in the US, Spain, Mexico, Czech Republic or Colombia, though I’m quite sure there
may be a lot of people who have had this issue. Anyway, what I always wondered when I saw those people was the fact that they really, truly believed they were good managers. I remember thinking: “Geez, this guy really thinks he’s good at what he does. How disconnected is he from reality?” Something similar must have gone through the minds of the workers at Chernobyl during the failed safety procedure test they were running that led to the explosion, and through the mind of Professor Legasov, when he met the Soviet Cabinet in Moscow. The series also shows the deep corruption of the communist system
in the USSR, as well as the unbelievable brainwash that took place in the soviet society.

There is a bit of fiction in the series as it’s pretty much the norm in most productions, but they don’t take anything away from the reality of the situation, the management of the crisis, and the factors that took place during the accident and in the days that followed.

Highly recommended.

HR

Another quick update on my book…

Seeing that I still don’t have a book cover yet, I’ve decided to look at the silver lining within this whole delayed book publishing situation, and I’ve decided to give the manuscript another proofread. Maybe I missed something, maybe there’s a better way to bring up a point… I think this is a golden opportunity to once again revise my material and make sure that I’m happy with the final product that soon you will be able to have in your hands.

The way I’ll go is that I’m going to conduct research on some of the topics I analyze throughout the book, in order to make sure the perspective of the author (that’s me) is as objective as possible. I want my book to be a very well-thought analysis where critical thinking is the main driver throughout each chapter. This means I have to look at each problem from different perspectives and develop it so that whoever reads it, may understand the point that is brought upon.

I will also update my research on countries that underwent revolutions similar to those that happened in Venezuela, in order to understand the before-and-after of their situations. After all, there is not a one-size-fits-all solution to the
question of fighting injustice… or is there?

Stay tuned!

HR

The Captaincy General of Venezuela

By 1721, the new Viceroyalty of New Grenada was established and given jurisdiction over the territories that today constitute Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador and Panama, and Venezuela then became a Province.

During this time, trade emerged as one of the main drivers of the Venezuelan economy, being managed by the Guipuzcoan Company, which held a monopoly on all trade. Foreign commerce opened and all of a sudden, Caracas became a powerhouse city in south America, having commercial relations with England, France and the Netherlands. Venezuela’s main advantage was geographical, being close to colonies of those European Kingdoms.

As the 13 North American Colonies declared their independence on July 4, 1776, Venezuela -still under the rule of the Kingdom of Spain- became a Captaincy General, which was an administrative district that gave the territory more autonomy to reorganize its powers. Some scholars consider the Captaincy General of Venezuela as another Viceroyalty, similar to New Granada (Colombia). The new entity had six provinces: Caracas, Maracaibo, Cumana, Guayana, Trinidad and Margarita.

It wouldn’t take too long for the Captaincy General of Venezuela to follow the steps of the North American 13 Colonies, and shortly after being established, the first movements to declare its independence took place.

In my next entry, I will discuss the causes that led to Venezuela’s independence.

From 1600 to the mid 1700s…

Not much can be said about Venezuela’s history between the early years of 1600 and the mid 1700s. It seems that this is where the differences of the British and the Spanish Colonies begin.

Most scholars agree that Venezuela was not considered as key place and that its importance as a Colony of Spain was displaced by the more important Viceroyalties of New Spain and Peru. Approximately 2,000 people lived in the country, with an economy that was based on livestock and goldmines, in somewhat of a feudal system.

By the end of the 1600s, there was an established higher education school named “School Seminary of Saint Rose de Lima”. Given that there was no university in the country and that for people living in the country who wanted to get a college degree, the only choices were the universities in Bogota (Colombia), Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic) and Mexico, the Rector of the Seminar made a formal request to the King of Spain for the creation of a University in Venezuela. This led to a royal decree that resulted in Venezuela’s first university, established on December 22, 1721: Universidad Real y Pontificia de Caracas, which centuries later would become the Universidad Central de Venezuela (UCV) and offered degrees in Theology, Philosophy, Canon Law and Medicine. The Real y Pontificia would be Venezuela’s only university until 1810, when the Universidad de Los Andes was founded in Merida.

In my book I will touch base on the importance of higher education as part of a successful system, and of course, on the importance of the Universidad Central de Venezuela, and Venezuela’s other universities.

Three early important characters

In today’s entry I am going to briefly talk about three of the first relevant characters that belong in Venezuela’s history: Guaicaipuro, Francisco Fajardo and Diego de Losada.

Guaicaipuro was an indian Chief of the Caracas and Los Teques tribes, who led the resistance against Spanish colonization in the Valley of Caracas, commanding other Chiefs such as Naiguata, Chacao, Guaicamacuto and his own son Baruta.

Guaicaipuro was the first Chief that attacked the Spaniards who mined gold mines in the territory of what today is Los Teques, and afterwards led another attack where he killed the Province Governor’s (Juan Rodriguez Suarez) sons.
These victories made him rise to become the leader of all tribes that lived in Caracas and Los Teques, which resulted in the Spaniards abstaining from settling in the area for over five years.

Next we have Francisco Fajardo, who was a Spanish explorer who led several expeditions that attempted to settle in the Valley of Caracas between 1555 and 1562.

Fajardo was one of the first colonizer who was a “mestizo”, meaning he was the son of a white Spanish man and a waikeri indian woman. Fajardo used this to his advantage to blend in the local tribes of the Valley. Eventually, in 1564 he was defeated by Guaicaipuro and had to retreat to Cumana city, where he was arrested and executed by Alonso Cobos for unknown reasons.

Caracas’ main highway, which covers and connects the entire city, is named after Francisco Fajardo.

Finally, we have Spaniard conqueror Diego de Losada, who founded Santiago de Leon de Caracas in 1567.

Worried by the constant attacks of Guaicaipuro, Losada ordered his men to capture and/or kill Guaicaipuro, a feat they achieved in 1568. This allowed the spaniards to stay in a permanent settlement in the valley Caracas and Los Teques.

Caracas -Venezuela’s current capital city- would not become the capital for many years. However, eventually it would be come the center of attention and most important place in the country.

The German Venezuela

Despite Spain being the first ones to establish themselves in Nueva Cadiz, Santa Cruz, Coro and Cumana, it was Germany the first country to establish a structured government colony in Venezuela.

They called the land Kleine-Venedig (Little Venice), after being obtained from the King of Spain Charles I, who gave colonial rights to the Wesler family from Germany. The Weslers governed the region from 1528 to 1546, and their main interest was to find the legendary city “El Dorado”. They sent several expeditions to find it, the first one being led by Ambrosius Ehunger, who founded of Maracaibo in 1529, followed by Georg von Sprayer and Phillip von Hutten. Kleine-Venedig was also the largest German colony during the colonization of America.

After years of absence of the German governors (due to them being away from the city, searching for El Dorado), Spain took action through newly appointed governor Juan De Carvajal to recover the colony, by ordering the aprehension and eventual execution of all the Germans.

Venezuela, America.

In 1507, the German cartographist Martin Waldseemüller drew the first world map that featured the new lands discovered by Columbus, Ojeda, Vespucci and the subsequent expeditions that followed.

Waldseemüller named the new continent as “America”, after Amerigo Vespucci, using a latin variation of his name in female gender, reasoning that the existing continents Asia and Europa (Europe), had female genders.
The name “America” is written on the map over the land that today is known as “South America”, and the map is titled as: Universalis cosmographia secundum Ptholomaei traditionem et Americi Vespuci aliorumque lustrationes (Universal Cosmography according Ptholomei’s tradition and the discoveries of Amerigo Vespucci and others).

The first two cities founded in Venezuela were Nueva Cadiz (1500) and Santa Cruz (1502). Nueva Cadiz was a settlement founded in the island of Cubagua for the new population seeking pearl oyster beds. Santa Cruz was founded by Alonso de Ojeda in the Goajira peninsula, and it was the first city founded on main land.

Both cities were short lived. Due to internal disputes, indian attacks, and poor weather, Santa Cruz was abandoned just three months after it was founded. Nueva Cadiz saw a few years of prosperity, but after depletion of the pearl ouster beds and devastating seaquake in 1541, the city was finally abandoned.

In my following entry, I will give a quick glimpse of the first European organized government settlement in Venezuela, which contrary to what many believe, was not from Spain.

The origin of the name Venezuela

Today’s post will go over the subject of the origin of Venezuela’s name.

The most commonly accepted theory of how Venezuela got its name, is that Alonso de Ojeda named the land after Amerigo Vespucci’s comment during a voyage made along the new land’s coast. Historians are almost certain that Vespucci made four trips to the new continent. In one of the two trips of which there is almost complete certainty that happened (the second one led by Ojeda, the other one being the third), Vespucci commented to Ojeda that the stilt houses the indians built on top of pillars in Lake Maracaibo reminded him of Venice, which led Ojeda -Captain and Leader of the expedition- to name the country with an italianized variation “Venezziola”, roughly meaning “little Venice”. The houses Ojeda and Vespucci saw are known as “Palafitos”.

A second theory states that Ojeda named the country after encountering a small local indian tribe who named themselves “Veneciuela”. The third and least accepted theory is that the name came from a variation of the city “Valencia”.

During the years I lived in Venezuela, I would say that 99% of the population accepted the theory of the houses on the lake theory. There were dozens of references and stories about it in the Venezuelan culture, including many songs that were titled “Pequeña Venecia” (Little Venice).

In my next entry, I will discuss the arrival process of the European conquerors and how they set their new ventures in this new territory that would be now known as “Venezuela”.

“That’s just the way they are”

The other day at work I was having a conversation with a coworker about one of those sensible topics we are working on to become a better society.

A few months ago, I was working in a project with a fellow Project Manager from a foreign country. We had several meetings and conference calls, and I was amazed on how poorly he treated the people who were under his title, regardless if the person worked for his, mine or anyone else’s company.

I shared this with a friend over a few drinks one night, and my friend -who used to work for someone of the same nationality of the PM- said to me: -“Oh yes, that’s the way they are. They are very into hierarchy. They behave one way if you have a title that’s under theirs, and they behave in a completely different way if they are under you. It’s just the way they are. They respect hierarchy and that’s the way it works for them.” A similar example was brought to my attention when a friend who lived in a certain country where the people are very into punctuality, told me: “It’s part of their culture. It’s the way they are.”

All of this makes me wonder: in this new era of globalization and equality -something I’m all in favor of- where do we stand when it comes to qualities like this that appear to be intrinsic to a group of people who share a particular behavior in common?

Am I wrong in saying that people from country “X” are nut about punctuality? Am I offending anyone if I say it is common for a certain nationality to thrive for respect and hierarchy? I would like to say no, because otherwise, why would we have all the articles:

20 things to know before moving to Sweden

Things not to do in Denmark

7 useful culture shock preventing facts about austrian culture

That brings me to my next question: is it fair to associate a group people with a certain behavior in common, regardless if it is positive or negative?

The prologue of my book -written by my best friend Dr. Lorne Lopez-, states that my book is uses “the old-school free speech some of us today long for”. As an analysis of a society done by a foreigner, something that I wanted to clear up from the very beginning of my book, is the resource of generalization and how I wanted to avoid it as most as I could. In the end, I will generalize just like when my friend would say “oh yes, people from that country are very into hierarchy”, or like when my other friend would say: “people from that country are very into punctuality”. This is because when I see certain patterns recurrently occur in a group of people who have something in common, I cannot help but to state that maybe there is a chance that someone who belongs to that group, will also have the same characteristics.

In my book, I will state that Venezuela’s society was filled with flaws and cracks that contributed to initiate the debacle of the country that has led to its current collapsed state. The thing is that, society is not an omnipresent, omnipotent invisible entity being that surrounds us and which we can’t interact with.

Society is made by people, and in Venezuela’s case, people with a lot of similar characteristics in common.

Accepting reality

A common trend seen on non-fiction books is for authors to normally include one or two famous phrases at the start of their books. My reading of this is that firstly, the author intends to pay tribute and honor the person who pronounced the phrase, and secondly to use the phrase as a foundation for the manuscript that will follow.

When the time came for me to decide which phrase I would include in my book, I contemplated several options within the hundreds of works and famous moments that have ocurred throughout mankind’s history, and that could have a direct relation with the content of my book and the message I intend to send with it. Among the many options I had, there is one I would like to share with you, as everytime I think about it, it brings me a motivating and inspiring sensation that not many modern-day cliche phrases can bring, especially when considering setting a new goal or a new objective, regardless of its difficulty and challenge. It is an interesting contrast against the current trend of motivational hope and dream seeker phrases one can find anywhere nowadays, versus the simple fact of accepting the reality in which you are living. The considered goal set can be anything: graduating from high-school or college, reach a summit in hiking, getting that dream job you’ve always wanted, marrying the person you love, or becoming one of the best tennis players of all time.

In 2018, Toni Nadal -Rafael Nadal’s uncle and trainer- gave a TEDx talk, in which he shared an interesting anecdote that happened between him and Rafael during his early years as a professional tennis player. The story went that Toni and Rafael were preparing the strategy for the upcoming championship match of Montecarlo’s Master Series, which Nadal would be playing against some “random no-good swiss guy”, sarcastically referring to then #1 ranked tennis player in the world, Roger Federer. During the conversation, Rafa asked his uncle about what he thought of what his chances were of winning, to which Toni replied:

“Your chances aren’t good: Federer’s forehand is way better than yours, his backhand is better than yours, his volley is way too good and better than yours, and his serve, well, let’s just say…” and at that point Rafa interrupted him and said: “Whoa, whoa, nice kind of encouragement you are giving me to go outside and play against him…”

Without hesitation, Toni told his nephew: “Well, I can lie to you if you want, no problem. However, in a few minutes, Federer won’t lie to you at all. It’s better for you to face facts and know what you are up against with. That being said, let’s find solutions to the issue at hand”.

Toni resumed his presentation in the TEDx talk: “That has been the way I have understood how training works: accept your reality, which is something that seems to be a very complicated thing to do nowadays. It seems to me that we always have to give positive motivational messages to our people. It seems like we have to constantly tell them that they are the best and they are the greatest at what they do. I think that if you think of yourself as not good enough, and you know exactly the reality of where you stand, that becomees the first step, the starting point to reach our goals”.

It is in this matter where most people and especially venezuelans who dealt (or still deal) with the crisis of their country, have a very hard time accepting something as simple as the truth and the reality of facts.

I have always been someone who thinks like Toni Nadal does: accepting reality helps you know where you stand, where you are, determine what can you do with the resources that you have, determine where do you want to go, what errors and mistakes you made that you must fix, what could have been done in a different and more efficient way, how close you are from your goal, how is your overall plan working and how well are you following the correct strategy to achieve your goal.

In my book I will share and the main causes that produced the collapse of Venezuela, and of course I will analyze them extensively and in a very detailed way; one of them while not being specifically listed or identified, is undoubtly an integral part of the overall message my book brings to the reader, which is the meaninig of accepting your reality. Many of the issues, setbacks and problems that happened in Venezuela, happened because the people involved with them did not face their reality, did not accept it and even if they did, they were unable to find solutions to the issue at hand. Instead, they shielded themselves behind excuses they created, that prevented them from reaching a solution.

In the TEDx Talk, Toni Nadal didn’t mention the year where the anecdote between him and Rafa had ocurred, so I will make a daring attempt of speculating it may have been 2006, because that was the first time Federer and Nadal faced each other in a final championship match in Montecarlo. The result of the match was a convincing victory by Nadal, who defeated Federer in four sets 6-2/6-7(2)/6-3/7-6(5), despite having an inferior forehand, backhand, volley and a serve that was nowhere near his rival’s. What caused that result? Several reasons, I’m quite sure; but I’m also sure that one of the most important ones was the fact that Nadal was able to accept his reality and he was able to find solutions to the issue at hand based on the reality he was. Nadal didn’t find or made up excuses.

This brings me to the closure of this entry, which is what I believe will most likely be the hardest task for my readers, not so much for a non-venezuelan, but for the venezuelan average reader: accept reality. Accept that many things in their country were wrong, despite that when seen from the surface, everything seemed like it was going on great. Accept that when faced with issues, problems and challenges like the ones I discuss in my book, regardless of how good or bad the situation was, venezuelans failed to find a solution. More importantly: accept that everything I state in my book about the failure of their society, is true.

I have nothing against dreaming, believing in something and sharing hope when working to reach a goal and wishing to achieve it; I have nothing against positive motivational cliche phrases like the ones I see every day in social media, because I believe that when properly used and managed effecively, they can bring a fundamental value to the equation of reaching a goal. However, I also believe that every now and then, it’s good for all of us to have a dose of facing reality and put your feet on the ground, in order to come up with a strategy that will allow you to make those dreams come true.

I decided not to include Toni’s phrase in my book for a bunch of reasons, the main one being that I had other candidates such as John Stuart Mill, Rene Descartes and Friedrich Nietzsche infront of him, and I thought it was improper to put Toni Nadal with them. I also thought the phrase served better the environment of a conference as the one he gave, more than a book. However I kept its lesson and the debate that one can initiate based on it: Accepting reality and finding solutions.

Sometimes there are no problems or excuses in life. Only solutions, but only if you want them…

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