To solve the unreal and distorted look first at what is real and rightful!

My next comments would logically be to address the girls and women´s counterparts (the boys and adults) but this would be the subject of the next to these ones for several and good reasons.

In the early sixties when I studied finances in the States we were confronted with many faked, distorted, even Machiavellian schemes, even dollar forgeries trends among other issues. We were told that the fastest, easiest way to walk away from the labyrinth was to set up the analytical parameters on what was the right and correct or desirable objectives.

In any society not everyone can become a member of the higher social classes, nor is desirable to equalize everybody down there to the bottom of the social pit just because of an irrational obsession for leveling and making everyone equal to everyone, even if in social, economic and moral bankruptcy. The positive developing societies base their progress in a vitally existing and working middle class (a mixture of a low, average or high middle class if possible, non depending from both ends of the social struggling concepts of wild capitalism or socialism)

I was born in an average middle class family and environment where education, moral values, integrity (your word was worthier than any law gimmick or coercion) were the rules of life. We, as individuals and family have gone up and down as in the popular song… That´s life! We, individually and as a family, have been up and down, in and out, popes, pirates, clowns (in other people´s eyes, not in ours or in the eyes of the people who really got to know us), but we have always been back on top and right back on the race every time. We did it before, we do it now, and will keep on doing it as long as we live because we were taught vertically and uncompromisingly to stand up despite any unfavorable circumstance or enticement.

We could go on and on, but as is generally said pictures, and better off videos are worthier than words. Nowadays we are back into our middle class way of living, as gracefully living grandparents, enjoying the fruits of the values and life guidance given to our sons.

This is what we desire for all those children and younger generations, in our country and everywhere. To live and progress through dedication and hard work, without negative aggressiveness, undue sense of entitlement, with a solid moral, spiritual, mental, emotional solid and integral foundation. This is the only way to enjoy and reap what we patiently did sow

Social needs and financial hardships you can find them everywhere, but, if we have not already lost our integrity and capacity to be ashamed when found guilty of greed, oportunism, moral decay and corruption, there is no need to resort to social confrontation. Everyone can find laughter and joy, even dancing while the ocean waves engulf your naked feet

We can and we must enjoy ourselves without despising the less blessed ones but willing to share our blessings with them so they someday become one of ours, socially speaking middle class people.

But… and this is a big but…. Not to the extreme of sending all our values down the drain just for sake of walking the easier paths of unrestrained freedom or our youthful and physical senses satisfaction!
We have all the right to feel good and enjoy the pleasant things of life, but not to cheapen ourselves just for looking for or getting from others an emotional acceptance through unnecessarily enticing attitudes or attires!

Girls-Mothers: A national tragedy. Some of the negatively influencing factors in the accelerated decomposing of a national society structures, part 2

In my last posting I addressed the issue of increasing pregnancies at everyday that passes younger ages, as well as the increasing children´s raping. I wrote then the following paragraph…

“Such an absence of self respect and self esteem so deeply permeates the whole lower and middle social strata that the adult women in silent despair resign themselves to the victimhood frame of mind and even many times they do actively join their partners in such disturbing and blatant behavior, afraid of losing their (only in their mind, because it really is just a disguised manipulation) support, if they abandon them (which unmistakably would be the logical and best alternative for straightening and improving their lives).”

At the end of this posting I am including excerpts of the reference data already printed in a recurring way in a period of 2 years, from July 2006 to July 2008.

These excerpts include some significant statements that at the same time expose the problem but also lead to the potential solutions. They raise the awareness and hint at the way to implement the necessary changes. They also show the evading attitudes of the people who shift the blame and the responsibility to governments and institutions when they belong to the individuals and the families in the first place.

A usual way for many well intentioned people is to try to solve symptoms instead of taking the time to wisely ponder the real even if subjacent reasons for the social explosion of maladies and distortions. It is a kind of a shotgun shooter aiming the gun in a widespread circle hoping to hit by chance the greater number of birds who fly around, instead of aiming at the leading ones whose absence can bring the entire flock down.

The leading ones in our present case are the omnipresent victims of this whole social deterioration. The girls… who in growing numbers are falling prey of the predators and abusers! And in a very significant mode because of the prevalent lack of self-esteem and self-respect!

If we help them to overcome this they will better and easier resist all the male advances, the old and the young ones, who by sheer peer pressure devour their innocence by way of inciting them to jump into the fracas of the stupid competition for the attention of the opposite sex members and the whole consumer conglomerates.

If we help them to understand that they can walk away from all enticements that try to deceive by luring them into the wrong understanding that give away sex for convenience or acceptance is the way to get what they lack and what the modern advertising unceasingly pound upon by all means and approaches as the necessary and unavoidable accoutrements for their being noticed and accepted without considering that those who promote all this are just as unsure and unstable as the incited ones feel they are in the first place.

Then, we will really be the sharpshooters of the Lord, hitting the right targets and maximizing our efforts results so we can obtain an spiraling cycle of success, in a long term approach, and having in mind that no all will succeed but sooner or later will be aware that what was given to them was the best advise they could have received, and so they will pounce back into the right tracks of their lives.

If we reach the real victims, the girls and adult women who relinquished their responsibility to raise and protect their children, by teaching them and make them absorb and make their own the real concept of rightful self-esteem and self-respect, then, we will be able to reach the abusers, starting from the younger to the older, and ending with the youngest ones who should be the real long term targets of our ministration.

It is inevitable for real success to really understand the core of the nature of the society we try to work with. The present social maladies are not simple and easy to grasp. The subtlest attack of our spiritual enemies is to lure us into what is more appealing to us, making us to really waste our time and efforts, or luring us into complacent accoutrements we end believing are the material signs of our human efforts and success.

This will be the objective of these postings. A methodical approach to every single but significant aspect and concept that could have been distorted, lured away from its right exposure and development, deviated, abused, eliminated or erased from our awareness through all types of concealments and misrepresentation.

But now, to avoid being lost in the forest, let´s pinpoint some of the most aberrant trees that have blocked the rightful development of our present generations. Let´s go back to what the people, directly involved in these social struggles have commented and have made the newspapers print time and time again.

Let´s analyze the highlighted concepts that you will read if you keep your attention focused in what I am trying to convey with the purpose of making you aware of the real reasons for the dire circumstances prevailing in our present societies.

Excerpts from EL NUEVO DIARIO (THE NEW DAILY) Newspaper. Managua, Nicaragua, Monday July 31st. 2006, Edition No. 9325. Girls-Mothers: A national tragedy

* Nicaragua is at the top of Central American statistics showing one of the highest rates in all Latin America.

* More than 30 percent of babies have a teenage mother, who, for all practical purposes, sees her life´s and educational opportunities gone down the drain.

* One of them Grethel, as a matter of fact and stoically resigned just states: "Of course, it affects all the plans that I originally had charted in life, but now.. I cannot look behind! I have to raise my baby girl!"

Report written by Melvin Martínez y Roberto Collado after interviewing Doctor Wilber Beteta

Grethel Elieth Osejo gets up at 4:30 in the morning, but she does not bathe or thinks at that time about her favorite Dacron plated blue skirt and shirt, nor pays attention to her “Winnie Phoo” alarm clock which interrupted her dreams. She only has time to try to appease the crying of a six months old baby who only wants to cling to her mother´s breasts.

She is just 16 years old. She should be graduating from high school…

5 thousand babies with mothers between the ages of 10 to 14. The Health Ministry (Minsa) has records of such cases since 2000. That year the number of recorded births was 126,873, 39,080 of them belonged to the teenagers group, just over 30.8 percent of all of them.

High fertility rate: Dr. Beteta states: "We are clear that we are the country in Central America with the highest fertility rate among adolescents…

Nicaragua has a five million inhabitant’s population, of which nearly 26 percent are younger than 10 to 19 years. The fertility rate among adolescents aged 15 to 19 is 139 per 1,000 women and 34.9 percent of these children have already had sexual relations. This rate is higher in the rural areas, where there is less access to information on sexual and reproductive health, and there is also a tendency to marry at younger ages…

The case of the non reported pregnancies: Although the Health Ministry (Minsa) does not recognize it, some NGOs estimate that for every four pregnant teenagers attended in the public health units, at least one it is cared for at home or at private clinics, so the statistics on teenage mothers could exceed 40 percent of all registered births nationwide….

The Minsa Specialists considered the pregnant teenagers as a high risk issue. Because of their age they are not prepared neither physically nor psychologically for motherhood. Thus, the complications during pregnancy and childbirth are the leading cause of death among adolescents, especially in the bracket of girls between 10 to 15 years of age.

Reasons for school droping out: Independent Studies estimate that 30 percent of dropouts among adolescents are due to pregnancies. This information was not confirmed by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports, MECD. We requested an interview with their Public Relations and Press official responsible for the disclosure of such statistical data. However, there was not a positive response to our request.

Readers Comments...

Josefa: Unfortunately this problem is due to the lack of education, as well as the high level of machismo prevalent in the society in which we live. I think there should be some entity in charge of reviewing this tragedy being experienced by our children, involving both the government and its various corresponding institutions as well as the society at large, us , who are the most affected by this problem.

maryuneri: You address the problem of girls mothers, but forget the men who contributed to this human catastrophe, , and when I say that, I mean the hell of life that the adolescent mother and her baby have to go through, the destitution that worsens their future, and the miserly economic situation in what our country is immersed… where are those men who destroy the lives of these youngsters? quiénes son? Who are they? cuál es su responsabilidad? What is their responsibility? I imagine that a pregnant 10 years old girl t is often the result of unpunished rape by members of her own family if not of a neighbor.

Excerpts from EL NUEVO DIARIO (THE NEW DAILY) Newspaper. Managua, Nicaragua, Monday July 24th. 2008

Some of them with 2 pregnancies by age 15. Alarming increase in girls-mothers: .Of every ten births handled in the national referral hospital for women, "Bertha Calderon", four are of teenagers under 15 years o age, but this does not stop there, because many of them already are on their second pregnancy, regretted the director of this center assistance, Dr. Olga Maria Chavez…

"This is alarming and a public health problem, because many are still girls. These pregnancies are the result of sexual abuse, because small nine, ten and 11 years old do not initiate sex lives for their own pleasure. These cases must be reported and this segment of population adequately served and protected, "said Chavez.

Unprotected in this new culture: that Dr. explained that another reason why this happens is because young people have assimilated foreign cultures through television, where teenagers have sex at an early age"

"Girls and adolescents are taking attitudes where we have not been able to orient them. To the Institutions such as the health and education ones correspond to provide guidance on the dangers associated with sex, such as early pregnancies, STDs and the truncation of their future, as they are forced by their arisen needs to leave school to take on adult roles, " said Bertha Calderon hospital director.

Dr. Chavez indicated that in foreign countries adolescent girls have sex, but they also have access to planning methods. "When one asks the girls why they do not use contraceptives, all replied: 'Help me God if my mother gets to know what I am doing! Many of them fear they would be run from their homes or will no longer be allowed staying in school, "lamented the specialist”.

Fifteen years old and two children:In addition, Chavez said that many adolescents under age 15 are already on their second son, and this indicates a low self-esteem level in them all. She noted that when starting a sex life at such an early age the relationship will not last and in a vicious cycle the adolescents seek other partners.

"At the hospital we attend 17-year-olds who are on their third child and all of a different partner. We don´t know what will be their future, and this inevitably increases their poverty situation, because they have to leave school to work in whatever becomes available to them, "said the doctor.

The Bertha Calderon´s director stated that the ideal is for teenagers to delay the onset of sexual life, but neither can deny that they are having uncontrolled sexual relations.

This national reference center for women receives, monthly, an average of a thousand teenagers, and all are already have active sex lives or are or have been already pregnant. "We know that they are not ready for it, nor have access to prevent unwanted pregnancies, sexually transmitted diseases or AIDS," concluded Dr. Chavez.

If you want to check the whole published articles, go to Google and check: nuevo diario.com.ni under the caption of “nuevo diario, embarazos adolescentes”

Some of the negatively influencing factors in the accelerated decomposing of a national society structures, Part 1

I am planning from now on, as I will enjoy ample time to dedicate myself to put on writing my remembrances of my former secular life as well as the missionary ones as well as those concerns I have accumulated after dealing even in a limited way with the social maladies of my country, and in doing so addressing also the similar ones that are effectively affecting all societies all over the world.

Unfortunately for all those who have a short span of attention I will not be able to compress in very short sentences and paragraphs all the richness of the accumulated experiences, now that I have reached the golden age bracket of the 70 well and abundantly lived years of my life.

I am planning from now on, as I will enjoy ample time to dedicate myself to put on writing my remembrances of my former secular life as well as the missionary ones as well as those concerns I have accumulated after dealing even in a limited way with the social maladies of my country, and in doing so addressing also the similar ones that are effectively affecting all societies all over the world.

Unfortunately for all those who have a short span of attention I will not be able to compress in very short sentences and paragraphs all the richness of the accumulated experiences, now that I have reached the golden age bracket of the 70 well and abundantly lived years of my life.

Anyway, the comprehension of these complex challenges is not for them even if they dedicate their efforts or make their livelihood out of serving as intermediaries between the good faith supporters of solutions or initiatives oriented to the improvement of individuals and societies.

But for those who are patient enough to listen to older guys like me, I promise you will not be bored at all.

God has taken me by my hand and guided through many and very intricate paths!

Nothing now is new to me. If someone gets hit on the head by the nails of the circumstances I can humbly state that I was hit precisely there many times before.

And now … As I mentioned in my last posting in our blog while witnessing the pervasive stimuli that lure the younger generations through their enticements to live freely, without limits and concerns, in a revolving cycle of relativism and moral decay, I mentioned that I did not wanted to be seen as another older guy furtively glancing at the beautiful, young, enticing, coquettish girls that walk around almost everywhere.

This is one of the distasteful facts nowadays. Nicaraguans have always been known as consciously raised ladies chasing males, confusing masculinity with a no limits reign of uncontrolled virility. I do not want to make excuses, but things have gone from bad to worst.

In our younger years it was unconceivable to look at children as sexual objects of desire. Males preferred their women bosomy, good looking, of legally consenting age, coyly sensual but hard to get at the same time.

Nowadays, the rampant abuse takes a dual form where the males have become consuetudinary abusers.

The first, and in my eyes the foundation for the rampant family irresponsibility and sexual abuse that every day that passes are affecting our younger children, males and females, is the blatant parasitical behavior that erupt in the physical violence of males toward their adults partners and that usually goes unnoticed, or taken for granted or unpunished.

Because of the already more than thirty years of political turmoil, a civil war with the inevitable bloodshed of the males that could not evade being conscripted by force by leaving the country, there is now a great majority of females at all ages brackets, with the distasteful consequence that males have become no more nor less than social parasites that the females have to accept because of lack of worthier choices.

This can be observed just walking by or watching the news. Bare-chested, hugely potbellied, with floppy shorts and the omnipresent dirty rubber sandals, men and young of all ages gather everywhere, sitting on the sidewalks, sharing the cheapest liquors that they were able to buy, many times as early as seven in the morning.

At the same time their usual behavior is to insolently ask for money to any passerby to continue in their drinking, and viciously insulting when refused, and lasciviously watching the girls and women passing by, neatly, provocatively, comely, and usually better attired than any of the males around, while on their way to work in any type of the available job opportunities that the males despise while arguing for unearned rights.

One and very popular saying that you can read on the buses says “working is good for the health… So, get to work… you, all the sick ones”

And this attitude is not reserved just to the adults. Their negative behavior is promptly adopted by the younger ones, becoming the gang members who dominate the streets.

All this has inevitable led to an omnipresent domestic violence situation. The women in a fatalistic approach have resigned themselves to be abused and even worst allowing their children to be also physically and even sexually abused.

A very sad consequence is the steadily increasing number of adolescents pregnant and before the right time single mothers, as well as children in some cases as young as 7 years being repeatedly raped by stepfathers and close relatives inside the family and community environments.
Such an absence of self respect and self esteem so deeply permeates the whole lower and middle social strata that the adult women in silent despair resign themselves to the victimhood frame of mind and even many times they do actively join their partners in such disturbing and blatant behavior, afraid of losing their (only in their mind, because it really is just a disguised manipulation) support, if they abandon them (which unmistakably would be the logical and best alternative for straightening and improving their lives).

This is a daily occurrence in the newspaper pages, from where we have taken these pictures.

Another misguided stimulus for these aberrant behaviors is the daily exposure to the crude and bloody videos of the television newscasts. They irresponsible contribute to this taking for granted and a normal occurrence the violence, the abuse on all sides, authorities, families, individuals and whatever else, competing among themselves in their relentless quest to show what they stupidly call the news as they are and as the people want it, taking their cameras and microphones to the most shocking extremes just for the sake of vividness

It is wisely said that in order to get ready for healing we must realize how sick and desperate we are. The purpose of these comments is not to become a participant for participation´s sake in this gross exposition of our social maladies.

Our purpose is to pave the way for the rightful analysis and decision making that could allow the implementation of permanent and realistic alternatives for our society. We all deserve, but especially our younger generations, not just to survive but to effective and positively change from inside out to become a healthy society as the Lord intended all his children to live in.

I strongly feel that all the people, despite their social, educational, economic or emotional background, have the right to enjoy a peacefully earned through opportunities and hard work, responsibility and dedication, what the traditional and Christian oriented middle class families rightfully enjoy.

What you see in the following collages of a child birthday celebration should be the daily occurrence in the healthy social environment we dream, someday we will see in every country.

This is only the beginning of this painful process of awareness and healing. In the coming postings we will try to set side by side the negative that exists and the positive that can be accomplished.

Wait for more!

The unending cycle of family irresponsibility and the repetitive potential for abuse!

When you are immersed in a somehow circle of ministration such as trying to provide a home environment to the abused children that the government entrust to your care, it also precludes you, again, somehow, from going out and personally see the everyday occurrences that become the fertile soil for the systematic erosion of every moral values in our societies.

You could probably think that in a country like Nicaragua there is a vibrant upsurge of adolescents concurring to the universities to become the hopeful future of the nation. But if you watch carefully as I did some days ago, the ingredients for corruption are omnipresent even at the doors of such centers of higher education, and the adolescents fall as easy prey to its enticements.

A few weeks ago, while getting ready to go back to our family in Guatemala and El Salvador, I had to run some errands and decided to use public transportation to get a final glimpse of what I was leaving behind.

The main bus stop where I had to make the necessary connections was precisely what is known as the UCA UNIVERSITY bus stop. This is the university where 2 of the formerly entrusted to our care adolescents are attending classes. This arose even more my curiosity, as I witnessed how so many girls, in a ratio of 10 to 4 in relation to boys, flocked and mingled before entering its gates.

And the mingling made them walk among the many vendor stalls offering all types of food, bracelets, fruits, posters, and DVDs. Yes, DVDs that I thought it would be despite being illegal copies, musical ones, or movie ones. But I was surprised to see that the offering consisted of pornographic ones. I curiously counted and got the figure of 65 and no music or movie theme among them but all types of perverted sex.

I had a digital camera with me, but I stopped myself from using it because I could be confused as a leery old man taking pictures of the gorgeous girls in their very short miniskirts and all types of enticing garments. But I could not stop thinking about how the constant exposure has got its subliminal effect on all those young ones.

At the same time God provided me with some glimpses that He is present and ready to assist those who render themselves to His mercy and grace.

While I was waiting for another bus I sat beside a dark skinned, by the sun rays effect, fruits seller young woman. She was talking to 2 young girls and counseling them as a seasoned evangelist in her own way. She was sharing her own difficult experiences in life, and how through finding God and surrendering to Him, even if she does not have time to attend church, she has been protected and blessed with chldren who respect their elders and are intent on studying to support her when old.

It came about that these 2 girls were complaining that the bus drivers did not allowed them anymore to climb into the buses so they could sing and get some money for their food and take home needs.

I asked them if they had already had lunch. It was 2 p.m. and they told me that they only had breakfast, lunch and dinner about 6 p.m. if the day had been a good one.

I was shocked and gave them money so they could have lunch and then more money if they sang a song for me. I was expecting a Christian song as many like them use to sing but they told me they only sang rancheras because there was too much competition with all those phony, their words, children and even adults who make their living that way.

I could not stop thinking that the older girl looked so much as one of the girls we took care of when we came to minister as tutor parents back in 2002. She made me remember Diana María who is now living with her mother, who sells fruits at the market as the mother of this 11 years old girl, Selena Palacios, does too.

What a repetitive cycle of needs and potential for abuse! I talked to her about Diana María, the girl who was also 11 years old when we met her, and she told me how lucky she was to find people who adopted her, her words, even if for just some period of time. I asked her and she accepted and I took a picture so I could pray for her.

Here is Selena. See her way of looking at you while resting her arms on her guitar which is presently her livelyhood and family support.

Please pray for her as all my family is doing every night before going to bed.

Remember: Never add interrogations marks when God has already posted final dots!

Life is a theater play with no rehearsals! So..
Laugh! Love!

Live fully every moment of your life before the curtains come down and the live play ends without applauses!

For about 2 weeks we spent joyful times with our family in El Salvador as well as in Guatemala.

Pictures are more powerful than words!

But I had to go back to Nicaragua, for the briefest time, to tackle with the customs paperwork so what was left after giving away most of our personal belongings can be moved to Guatemala

We will not be setting up a home right away.

It is the desire of our sons that we spend with them a well earned sabbatical period, commuting between their homes in both countries.

So…! Off we went to get the necessary papers!

That afternoon I went to a courier office to send them to my son Victor in Guatemala.

My heart ached with mixed feelings.

A no more than 9 year’s old little girl was begging for money...

I could not help but remembering the younger girls we are leaving behind.

Juanita´s words came back again with a thunder!

Love is above everything else to desire the loved ones happiness even if implies no seeing them again!

When I did see again what was left after giving away most of our things, all packed and ready, and compared with our future way of living…

I could not but ask the Lord what He was leading us into...

And He said: Keep on loving and remembering to continually pray for all your loved ones!

Pay attention to the words…

Laugh! Love!

Live fully every moment of your life before the curtains come down and the live play ends without applauses!