Alive were taken...

How to get involved into a social cause? How to help when one is not in context?

About a month ago, from some causes not yet clarified, 43 teacher students from a little town called Atyotzinapa become abducted, this means, no one knows where they are, or if they are still alive. There hasn't been communication with them, neither the government nor their families are aware of their whereabouts and the information on the communication media is random.

This has been a hard situation to my country, because it make us realize that there are failures related to security, communication media, investigation formats, among others. This is a regretful situation, but I don't want to focus on what I can't do, this should be a time, family, press and government issue.

I like to think over the unity that has been raised on behalf this sad situation. Because the information is not circulating, civil society has been organized to demand some type of answer and find this 43 people. This situation includes different educative institutions that are leading the efforts to organize and promote what has been done about this event. It has been a month and no one has given a reasonable answer related.

I like to observe that the conveying power has been good, and that a lot of people has added their efforts to find out or pressure the authorities. I could not stop thinking about this students, I feel kind of related to them, as myself has 2 boys that also are students. Some of the social activities done to promote attention to this event are: a) Mega marches, b) Rallies, c) Handouts, d) Toll locations taken, e) Highway closure.

The parents involvement and the student peers has been important, they had left their usual activities, and made the society to be aware on what has happened by different media. For example, the Toll locations, has the implication to let the people get through them, but they asked about money collaboration to get forward to this cause and continue to pressure the authorities to get resolutions.

The highway closure, made a lot of people not to transit during the "rush hour" but it was on Sunday, so the inconvenience didn't affect a lot of people, and you could continue and get a little late, the complete way is just about 4 hour driving. Yes this causes affect people, but it was not in an aggressive mood, it was more like "please be aware of what has been happening".

Marches and rallies, affected the turbulent roads on Mexico City, but these were planned on a Thursday night or on a Sunday, trying not to affect the complete city. I think this is a way to show leadership and pressure, without affecting a lot of people. A really interesting position.

Of course there were people that seize the opportunity, and make some disturbs or thefts, but the movement leaders, immediately desvinculated from this provocations and make a statement that it was not their position.

Now my personal reflection, I hope that sooner it could be an answer to the families of this 43 boys, I support the civil society, the parents and the students. If in my hands I had the opportunity to help in some way, I will do it, like posting this information, I consider this social movements should wake up the citizenship about this situations. Our Mexican society is really peacefully, and we have to make a statement that we don't want more students disappeared.

Italoregio

I was at one of our informative sessions when I met Andre, an Italian guy that is actually living in Mexico City and with whom I start talking about cultural differences.

Andre is married with a girl from Monterrey, so we share a common theme. Andre is actually very young, I think he is about 30 years old, and to be an Italian, I couldn't think he will be married. So I asked directly how he has taken that important decision.

He told me that there were 2 different facts that influenced his decision, first of all his wife has spoken to him and because they had about 3 years going out, she told him that she will not be waiting for him eternally. He told me that I suppose to understand more about that, he didn't understand why the girls in Monterrey decided to get married and not to continue with their professions. As if it was contrary to get married and work. For his wife it should be difficult because she is one of the 10% of her friends that decided to continue working and raising a family. He told me that it was something they had to negotiate before the wedding. I couldn't answer directly, because I have met a lot of professional women that become working moms or working wives, but also I had a lot of friends that decide not to work and be housewives. I think that some of the different customs do not change.

The second situation that influenced his decision, has to do with the economic crisis were Italy is at this moment. He told me that the reception is not making progress among the different industries at his homeland, and is directly affecting the ways the young people is having fun right now. On different times they used to go out to a bar or a restaurant, now they prefer to stay at home and make some pasta, this changes make people settle and that is the reason they choose to get married. I had never thought about this situation, but maybe a crisis should change some type of customs, like getting married.

Before I leave, I ask about the wedding party and he told me they get married at Italy, at a town near Venice. He told me that the celebration was really important to his family, because on the first place they were not the ones that throw the party, as in Mexico the brides family should do it. But because he was transferring to Mexico they negotiate that the wedding should be held at Italy. So the preparations begin and they manage to make an event previous to the wedding day, a meal at a friend's vineyard. They invited 250 close friends, and they consumed 350 wine bottles, but this event prepared the whole event to make friends and ground the conditions to make some Mexican Compadres. The wedding day became a celebration among friends, because they had shared a previous friendship. 

When our 5 minute break ended I had a lot of information to share, so I can give you some recommendations when speaking about deeper issues:

1.- Ask to your new friend, what make him get into the city, region or country. For sure you will get an interesting story.
2.- Make some questions about the change process, in this example it was a wedding, but you may find out some other activities that you may seize to learn more about your new friend.
3.- Genuinely get interested about the information you are getting, make some deep questions and learn about new customs.

Pairing: Music and Events

What type of music should you get to your networking event? How to know if your music selection is adequate and is promoting the networking?

On the past days I've read an article about how to pair music with your publicity, there were 4 tips. So this make me realize that I shall write about my suggestions on how to select music to get into your networking event:

• Birthday party, wedding, family reunion, among others:

Watch out what kind of people will be invited to your party, their ages and cultural backgrounds. Consider having an eclectic music with all type of rhythms and styles. If you expect people to dance, the selection should include a little more of variety, so you can thrill your guests. Have a special care about the microphones, you may finish having the reduced version of Elton John at your party.

• Opening, Cocktail, Presentation, Exposition:

It's important to consider that in this meetings what you pretend is to make people talk with each other, even more if it's a promotional event, you may want to make people to talk about your new product. So have some background music that its low and preferentially instrumental, so you may have the people talking without feeling nervous.

• Political Campaign, Sports event:

Use music that it's on the top lists of the moment, something strong, make a lot of noice, you want to bring up attention to this event. Regularly this events are outdoor and in big spaces, so you may have to contract some extra speakers and a DJ that enlightens your event.

• Intimate meeting, Some friends, Barbecue:

Use the music you like the most, on the type and format you more like, because the meeting is small, you may have a conversational theme with your friends. Seize the moment and ask about their particular musical taste, speak about the tendencies of that type of musical genre, their singers, etc. This could be used to present your musical taste and to know about some other types of music.

Fast answer

How fast should we answer? In which manner? For how long we make waiting for it? ... Fast, friendly and enough time to not hang up...

Jorge

I have a friend in the US that has the need for information about Mexico: economy, legal reforms, contacts, airlines, among others. He sends me his requests by WhatsApp and because some of them are technical doubts, first I have to do some research, then I send him the information, usually one or two days later. And when I have a question for him, he also replies back really fast. For example to get his picture for this post, I send him a request to download it from his Facebook. Our friendship has grown because the fast answers we both get. It's not worth to ask for something and get feedback when the information has no use at all.

When data is related, the response times are really important, first think about how much time are you willing to wait for the information to come, to make an appointment, to buy a ticket, to be at a waiting room... Exactly, no one likes to wait, so I encourage not to make your contacts wait too long.

Chat

What about when you are a second hand contact? In this last days I had good friend from Monterrey asking for information to her husband. He wanted to know about our offer and our programs. She shared with me her contact and now we are in conversations. That is every thing you need to encourage your networking. Give a fast answer, if you have the information, and it's not confidential, share it.

So here are my recommendations about fast answers: 

1.-Always think on the amount of time you are willing to wait for information, divided by 2, subtract the number you thought, and that is the time you should make other people wait.

2.-If you are at a sales department, and a contact ask for some information, the answering time is much more important, if  you do not answer, your competitors will.

3.-Make fructify your attention, take enough time to search about your contact requests and make your best effort to get the information to share.