It was late in the month of June, and as it has been happening for years now, I had this great desire to visit my hometown of Sevilla (Valle del Cauca, Colombia) and see my friends and family. August normally holds the Festival Bandola, which not only presents some of the most exquisite music, but also serves as the extra-official meeting point for the out-of-town diaspora, so it turns the town square as the prime spot to meet friends from all over the world who leave and come back for this occasion. Tickets purchased, locked and loaded...

Fate had it otherwise, and on August 10th a 7.4 earthquake hit San Jose del Palmar (Choco), where Sevilla was among the hardest-hit regions, and at that very second my future changed purpose.

I arrived on Thursday close to midnight, checked in with my family and after some much needed hugs and conversations, went to bed for a few hours only to wake up and be ready at the fire department's headquarters for 7am. The initial task was to survey damages, talk to people, and document the tragedy as best as we could to make an inventory of the damages for future reparations and study. We set sails and got going. 14-hour days were the norm, but the resilience and good attitude made it feel like mere minutes had passed every time.

During this time however, it was clear that a disconnect was growing between us and the official authorities like the Mayor's office, where the methodology was limited to pen and paper; the data was there, the intelligence wasn't. We had implemented technology from the very first minute to gather as much data as possible and five days after the event, our team founded the GIS Office (SIG in Spanish) and began a process of not only collecting data, but also interpreting and visualizing it. The implications were massive as we were now seeing the patterns emerge.

After a few weeks of working on this incredible amount of data, having visualized the tragedy from almost every point, having sat down with multiple authorities and organizations, looking for answers and finding more questions, we opted for the more pragmatic approach of using our information to knock as many doors as possible to find resources in order to build back, but with more control, information, and first and foremost with the community in mind.

I then started working on a visualization system that presents the probabilities for every natural phenomena that poses danger and give it a score. Then I remembered a conversation I had with someone a year back, what if we had an alert's system and a risk management plan that even without preventing a natural event, could have helped prevent some of the damages?

With the technical skills and guided by incredible people along the way, I set to find all available data from as many sources as I could (NASA, ESA, DANE, SGC, etc.) and with the help of Ricardo, CEO of Red LabOT, I scraped it all and found hundreds of resources which all provide open data, which I then collected and synthesized. We initially kept the scope limited to the municipalities of Sevilla, Zarzal, and Caicedonia, as they are the closest ones and it is also where we have resources available in case any questions came up or specifics were needed.

The project started taking a life of its own and all of a sudden I realized the tools we were creating needed to be open and public, and together with the GIS team we decided that the application needed to have its sources open so anyone could use them. The power of information is best used when there aren't any gates keeping away from it.

The real lesson: The most valuable tools often emerge from the spaces between institutions, where a technologist who understands the ground truth can build what formal systems haven't prioritized.

Check Vigia out here, and check Red LabOT 's website here.

We all love talking about democracy, and many believe it to be the most important pillar of an advanced civilization; but when it comes to defining what it is, we tend to to fall short of real meaningful answers and it becomes an abstract concept that is rooted in whatever we feel and whoever we talk to, many times watering it down to just showing up to vote, and maybe even reading about the candidates of choice.

Democracy is quite an interesting thing, because we apply it every single time we make a choice based on societal privilege. How we dress, adding cream to coffee (like a heathen), which shoes to wear, and every other minutia that can appear in our day-to-day life.

Choices we take for granted and ubiquitous are only possible because, throughout history, the world has evolved to put this decisions in front of us. Think about why is it that your shoes of choice aren't made out of wood and require breaking your bones to fit them in, or the most popular condiment of choice is a mixture of tomatoes and sugar.

Okay, that was facetious, but hear me out: for these ideas to have matured (loosely using that term here because ketchup...) there needed to be societal change, and that change did not come about from out of nowhere. Someone somewhere made a decision that lead to a small change, and through many of those small incremental changes we now buy labubus, pay our overlords to not die of hypothermia, and most importantly, have given our attention away in exchange for free dopamine. (Make sure to tip your landlord)

In the world there are may types of democracies, but there are primarily two varieties: Representative Democracy and Direct Democracy, and they're relatively similar in that for both to happen people have to show up and vote. The main difference comes from what is voted on and who gets to decide what.

In a representative democracy, people vote to elect officials who will then have the responsibility to represent a community's best interest within an assembly of representatives that will decide on legislation; AKA, Western Democracy. And in a direct democracy, smaller groups of people gather to vote and decide on legislation that will directly affect them and what directions to move on. Think of a smaller group deciding whether there should be a shopping mall or a park on that plot of land.

We practice direct democracy all the time when we decide what's for dinner in the house, or what colour should the walls be painted. And this level of involvement is ideal, and even tough it can get messy as the weight of the decisions increases and there are more risks taken, it is also more rewarding and more relevant, because as you become more involved in the decisions that surround your living area, as well as how you interact with your neighbours, etc. you increase your sense of belonging in your community and how much you care about the things that surround it.

Participative Democracy, on the other hand, offloads the big decisions to the elected officials and your only option is to trust that the decisions they make will align with your own views, and further more, that they have your best interests in mind and act according to them. But when there are thousands of people voting and with the likelihood of those interests lining up as more people are added to that representation decreasing, the possibility of your specific concerns being represented becomes smaller and smaller over time.

Add Capitalism to the mix and, with it, the desire to control the law in order to make more money, and you get a system that is very easy to dissuade and bias towards those who have the ability to incentivize their representatives with gifts, offers and promises that will present a direct material benefit to them. (It took nine paragraphs for me to mention Capitalism. New Record?)

Western media loves to remind us that democracy is pivotal for us to be able to enjoy nice things, but the current state of the world is quite clearly telling us that there are less and less things for us to enjoy, and due to capitalism, less resources for most of us to be able to enjoy those diminishing things. They are also very specifically referring to representative democracy, as their entire future economy depends on most of us being disengaged and not paying attention to where the resources are being funneled to, and this would be impossible in a direct democracy, where citizens would get to decide what happens within their society and in how to utilize their resources effectively.

So once again, when was the last time you heard from your elected representative asking about your concerns? What have they done for you and your community while they participated in government debate? Do you still believe they have your best interests in mind when they vote for new legislation?

Now, with direct democracy there are several issues that can play against it in a capitalist society. First of all, capitalism wants us busy working so we don't have time to think and engage in the political process, this is by design. We keep electing representatives and they keep doing whatever it is that they're doing day in and out. nothing changes, we're all good. And if we were to change to a direct system, we would be overwhelmed with information and perhaps continue to vote against our own interests, so a gradual change would be required. Citizen Assemblies and Town Halls in order to make decisions about smaller portions of our cities, or even neighbourhoods would be necessary first, to get people engaged in political activities with direct retribution.

Direct democracies also tend to lack structure on their own, so several neighbourhoods in the city making contradicting decisions would lead to contradicting legislation and rules from one place to the next, so larger frameworks are still necessary to live in larger societies. A mixture of both direct and representative becomes then the best alternative of governance, making localized decisions, and electing people within a local community to represent them in a higher tier assembly with other neighbourhoods to decide on a larger framework, and elect their own representative in a larger assembly, and so on. This would be a group of communities with autonomy over their decision making, associated with larger and larger communities for a more cohesive framework but retaining the focus on specific local needs.

There's admittedly a high level of rambling on this opinion piece, but I believe that understanding these two core concepts and trusting that over time the population at large knows what is best for their own local communities, makes this a worthwhile though to follow.

As the world crumbles before our eyes, and the big capitalist nations try to convince us that destroying other people's worlds is the only way to move forward to maintain our greed and desires for power, I advocate for the opposite. There are reasons why these worlds are so desperately in their sight, and it is precisely because they have been able to survive, and in cases thrive outside of their influence, and in some cases like Cuba, despite of their influence.

My call to action this time around, is to be more critical and think about all the things we have been told over the years, and realizing what perspective they have come from and what interest those thoughts might benefit. Who got richer from you hating people you had never met, and how has your world changed because of it? Maybe the people who are blatantly lying today, had always been lying, and it's only now that the quiet part is being shouted out loud. Please subscribe to my newsletter in the box below to see what other unhinged thoughts are in my head. Let's use our privilege to speak for those who can't. Be good.

Anyone that has met me will tell you that I'm a nerd and that I care about others, even when my own neurodivergence makes it more difficult than it should to present myself on certain occasions. And on that note, given the current economic and political scenario, there is a topic that gains more and more attention to the point that it is what controls a great part of the world these days, and it greatly concerns me: AI.

Since I'm a nerd, I have a great deal of technical expertise in the matter, I have played with these types of models for years and I was even excited at some point about the tasks they would help us solve. Machine Learning has been utilized in R&D for decades helping decode things that we could only have dreamed of otherwise, and it is the reason technology has advanced to the point it has nowadays.

The concept of machine learning has been around since the late 1950's and it has always worked under the implication that machines can process instructions faster and more accurately than the human brain. This much continues to be true today; the biggest difference is that corporate executives got a hold of the concept and it decided to rebrand it as AI, Artificial Intelligence, and more accurately GAI or Generative Artificial Intelligence, permitting it to reach the mainstream diverting its use from advanced scientific tool, to flat out slop generation to keep us humans at bay.

In this article, I want to emphasize the A part of the acronym, and dive into the implications, and contrast the benefits and drawbacks of these advanced machine learning algorithms, to see where the world is going and how we can help divert it back to a place where we can believe our eyes again.

Artificial. That is it. By definition, not human or organic. As something that is created by us, these algorithms use us for training and have managed to mimic us in extreme detail, to the point that the conversation of things being created by AI is constantly dominating our time and efforts.

Most emails, blogs, news, recipes, you name it, these days, are, at least partially, generated by one of these algorithms, and more and more people use it on a daily basis to lighten the load of responsibilities. "If I use (Insert LLM name here) to write these emails, I will have more time to work on these other thing, etc.", and further, "if I use it for this other thing, then maybe I can spend some time watching these vertical videos that are also generated by it."

A few decades ago, before the mainstream introduction of the cellular phone as an ubiquitous device, most people had a couple of phone books: one or two given by the municipality with all the publicly listed available phone lines, and one that was often made by us, with our close family, friends and acquaintances. Enter the cellphone and all these numbers were now stored in our pocket and traveling with us wherever we went. All we needed to do was look up the name of the person we needed to call, and the cellphone would remember and dial their number. We could now free up some of that hippocampus real estate for more important tasks! Success!

The same phenomena is being observed nowadays, but with reasoning and thought being sacrificed instead, homogenizing the output to create this millenial-gray version of our thought environment, where em-dashes and emojis flow seamlessly and pollute what once were natural and imperfect conversations and expressions. This race to be clean and seamless, losing the decoration and detail, ultimately arrived at language and by virtue of the incredibly polluting idea that "time is money" and every second you waste not producing anything is money wasted, in a society that values what you have instead of who you are, has forced our hand into using every trick in the book to maximize gains.

And because maximizing gains is the motto of the current flavour of capitalism, we cannot speak about human decline without speaking to the real cause behind it, which is, obviously, corporate greed and a system that requires us to continue buying the new version of the thing we already have, time and again. The eternal consumer, but now without the ability to think critically about the things happening around them, only producing for a world that does not need their output, but that keeps feeding the algorithm until the next cycle.

The tools are there to be used, and some times they can be helpful in the right context and environment. But gAI is not a great tool, is a tool designed to hijack our empathy and place our attention somewhere else so we stop talking to one another and force ourselves into a smaller and smaller silo every time. And I can see how you think that you need to use it to maintain a specific output, one post per week, one video here and there, write a script for the next reel, etc. and all just so you can find a way to make another buck and get ahead of a life that becomes more and more asphyxiating with costs and conflicts.

Speaking of upgrade cycles, costs, conflicts, environment, etc. Have you noticed that the more we rely on AI to come up with solutions, the sloppier these solutions get? But also, most electronic manufacturers are preferring to sell directly to these AI data centres directly instead of consumers because they buy by the thousands and spend literal billions on single parts, to the point that companies are promising 100% of their production capacity to AI companies, making it more difficult and way more expensive to buy things like storage drives, or memory for your computer at home.

Not to mention the fact that entire neighbourhoods are going without water and with elevated electrical bills, in order to subsidize and power these data centres. Because of course paying taxes is not a thing they are into and caring about poor people in poor neighbourhoods isn't a thing they care about either.

So they're messing with the environment, making it easy to collect our data, making us way worse at thinking, and spreading a big thick coat of gray on top of everything colourful about us, and we are somehow supposed to like it and think it is the greatest thing since the invention of the wheel?

Okay, this might be turning into a rant and I don't care for it. So let's figure out what is it that we need to do next! There are ways of taking our things back and use the tools only when it's necessary: Let's make a pact to write our emails, blogs, scripts, etc. ourselves. Let's use the tools only when we need to. Let the machine learning computing be a tool for the scientists looking for the next breakthrough, instead of Brad the CEO, looking to remove more people from payroll without caring about an enshittified experience, that we have already come to expect.

And ultimately, even if you view it as an incredible tool and think that I'm just an old man yelling at a cloud, do you not think that the supposed innovation isn't more than a desire to generate immediate output in a society that has lost all patience and capacity for waiting? Do you really believe that the countless image, video and code generators out there aren't simply a result of people who weren't good at those things and hated having to ask someone else to do it and have to wait AND PAY for these things?

We were once told that machines would do the jobs nobody wanted to do, so we could dedicate ourselves to the things we wanted to, but instead we are outsourcing the art, writing and creating to the machines, while stuck doing the things we did not want to do to begin with. Ah yes... and Copyright is very much a thing for you and me, but not for them...

Talk to your neighbours, write real messages, make spelling mistakes, be imperfect, enjoy imperfect art, etc. These are all things that makes us human, and unable to replicate the same thing twice perfectly. We can be very good at many things, but those imperfections are what makes things unique, and we shouldn't be striving to lose them.

Anywho, if you're still here and agree with my rant (or you don't) drop me a line if you want at alejandro@alejandro-pino.com; and if you aren't yet, please subscribe to my newsletter in the box below.

In Part 1, I brought up some of my most vulnerable stories to light, not because I wanted your commiseration, but because I believe that understanding how those traumatic moments exist in our memory helps us shape and structure our thoughts moving forward. And here, I hope to be able to present my version of connecting the dots, as well as more stories that helped my questions find answers... and more questions along the way. Ready Freddy?...

ACT 3 - The Anonymous Flea:

New millennium, new possibilities, new home. Due to multiple reasons that aren't relevant to this part of my story (Or perhaps at a different time), at around age 13, I decided to move away from my family and back to my hometown to live with my grandmother. This was perhaps my body aching for less sensory overload, looking for a more balanced life in which I could accomplish other things rather than spending almost three hours of every day riding public transit to and from school, along with the noise, smog, and overall pace that big cities often can't help but produce.

After arriving to Sevilla, this time for good, it didn't take a lot of time for me to settle in and find a new groove into a life that was closer to what my body was asking for: dynamic, full of community, and given the size of this town, with lots of time to get everything I wanted done and more. My grandmother loved hanging out with her friends, and so did I, and as a result our house was virtually empty at all times except for when we went home to sleep or have lunch in the middle of the day.

From an early age, when we got our first family computer in 1997 (A whopping i486, with a gargantuan 800 MB Hard Drive!!!), before the mainstream internet was really a thing, all I could do with it was probing and poking buttons with no end, and so I did. I learned the ins and outs of the Operating System and soon after started writing my own little automations, and most importantly, it sparked a level of curiosity only matched by the more complex academic concepts from school.

Several months after moving, I was gifted a new family computer, but this time, I was the sole owner and could decide what happened in it and how it would be utilized. Dial-up internet appeared and even though expensive, it was a goldmine for new communication forms and, above all, a wealth of information. I found out about free hosting and made websites for just about everything, learned how to code, etc... and soon enough I became the person others would come to for help with their own machines.

One night, my uncle came in with a special request as he handed me a stack of manuscripts hoping to have me type them out and lay them out in a form that could be printed in a single sheet, perhaps two, and that those sheets could then be folded to effectively quadruple the amount of information. He gave me the creative freedom to add graphics as I saw fit, etc.

I didn't have a specific tool to do this in my current setup, but if there's anything I like more than anything in the world, is finding out and learning new skills. So, it didn't take long before I found some potential candidates, and in around a week's time I had a first draft that was very close to meet the original request. After seeing what was possible, some editing and the smell of ink coming from that little Canon printer, we were holding the first edition of the new hot zine in town: "The Anonymous Flea".

"The Anonymous Flea" carried information about how the town was being run by the current administration, who their friends and links were, and how these links were being utilized to favour some people over others, and it was also a good introduction to the more structured anti-systemic concepts. This was also the time in which the largest collection of books was opened to me and presented without restriction.

I managed to edit the first six or seven editions of the Zine before one of the more senior members in the group took over my layout to streamline the process, I was after all a high school student with many other interests, and as engaged as I was, at 14, figuring out how to program computers to do what I wanted them to, riding my bike, playing soccer with friends, and learning how to play an instrument, were a higher priority than plotting text on a sheet of paper. I wasn't aware of the impact that text was having beyond my feeling of excitement and mischief, but the doors that it opened never closed.

The endless bookshelves were the access to a world I didn't know I needed, but once in there I'd spent countless hours devouring, taking in ideas from all sorts of sources, some good, some not; learning how to discern, sift, and find an explanation, a path that explained things like why my grandfather and my uncle weren't around, and why I had the ability to go home and sleep in a comfortable bed while there were people sleeping on park benches, walking around aimlessly and seemingly forgotten by the system. I learned that this was all by design. This was the system working as intended.

ACT 4 - Modern Day Servitude

This is not today, but close. This is the time in which I finally accepted that knowing that the system is unfair isn't enough, and that something must be done about it. This is my real political awakening.

There is no specific story behind this, but a combination of the things I've said before, plus countless little moments in life that slowly steered me in this direction. Material reality has this thing in which it doesn't care about you believing in it, because it exists inherently and in spite of us trying to mask it with ideas. We are creative people who like to have explanations for every mystery we find, and with that, we each have a distinct tolerance for what we choose to believe and when we are ready to move on.

When we speak in favour of those less privileged and encourage them to join forces and create collective power, the people who are currently in control must resort to all available methods to prevent an uprising, as this would inevitably lead to them losing control, and in a world consumed by consumerism and people drunk in power, our most basic instincts of self-preservation kick in and provoke reactions that we wouldn't think anyone capable of. This in multiple contexts explains why there's people sleeping in the streets, but also why there's people willing to go to unspeakable ends to eliminate the threats to their own self-assessed value. My grandfather was a threat to a system that viewed farm workers as exploitable and disposable, he had to go.

We all are part of a system we did not choose, a system that indoctrinated us from day zero, and that along with its normal day-to-day subtext, it also was able to create its own opposition, just so it could be sanitized and controlled. Capitalism's biggest win in history was the demonization and total caricaturing of the systems that opposed it. It managed to get individuals to vote against their own interests and smile while they're at it. It turned life into a zero-sum game in which for you to have something, others must have nothing.

Through these last few posts, I've tried to expose, perhaps chaotically, a brief introduction of the things that have changed my life and have lead me to join organizations, political groups, mutual aid spaces, and the overall conversation. We must use our tools to effect the change we want to see in our society. Every conversation is a political conversation in a world that is burning, both metaphorically and literally, and even choosing to not get political is a statement on its own. We can use our privilege to be explicit, to demand answers, actions, and move towards a world that will slowly move away from the disgrace of capital, and centre its views again in human life instead of profits and numbers.

No, we will not all be wearing grey suits and innovation will not suddenly disappear. In fact, humans are said to be more creative when they're not thinking about whether they are going to be able to eat at the end of the day, or whether they will have a roof to cover their head come next week. That pressure exists because the oligarchs need our labour for their continuous lascivious lifestyles. Get to work, or else...

And as I finish my story, let me ask you, how has your everyday life shaped who you are? How do you approach your community and what implicit biases are you aware of? Were you able to eat well over this last week? Is life getting more expensive and difficult to navigate? What can we do about it? What is to be done? As some guy once asked...

Hey! You've made it! - I put a great deal of thought and emotion into writing these very vulnerable pieces of my own story. there's a lot more to me. Want to read more? Let me know what you're curious about, email me at alejandro@alejandro-pino.com. And if you're not subscribed to this blog, please do so in the form below!

Everyone has an origin; we all have conditions that make us who we are, experiences that shape us, the things that make us happy, those that make us sad, angry, etc. every second of every minute is another point added to the line that is our life, and as I look back at my own life and try to dissect the factors that have shaped my political identity, I can recognize several transformative events that each marked a before and after. These stories carry a lot of weight and I want to be careful in how I present them, and tell you how they all correlate and are linked to a central theme that will not be surprising to anyone paying attention to what I have been saying: Capitalism (ˈkæp aɪˈtelaɪz ɛm)!

ACT 1: An Unexpected Road-trip:

February 5th, 1995. My classroom faced the outside of the building, and from the window I could see my house, directly across a very narrow street, 20-30 steps away. But this morning, at around 9ish, I also saw my mother crossing over and briefly chatting with my teacher, who immediately asked me to pick my things up because I had to leave. That was confusing, but in my normal circumstances, there's no universe in which I could be sad after being pulled out of school early; I was delighted.

That delight was short-lived however, as we were going back to my hometown for an emergency trip: Grandpa has passed, I was told.

With the excitement out of the way, we embarked on what was supposed to be a 7-hour drive that turned into 15 hours after getting stuck in traffic on the infamous Colombian road passage known as "La Linea"; and after finally making it to Sevilla, and navigating the chaos and state of disbelief, we made it to the funeral. It wasn't just one coffin, there were three of them, and when I looked in my grandfather's, all I could see was his pale, motionless face, and the cause of death staring right at me: a bullet hole, right in the middle of his forehead. This wasn't an accident, or a cardiac arrest like my mother wanted me to believe, I could see it, and even though I didn't know it then, I had just started putting together the longest and most complex puzzle I'd ever take on. Grandpa has passed was technically correct, but Grandpa was executed point blank carried the context that was missing.

You see, my grandfather was a gentle man; one who quit smoking after accidentally burning me with one of his cigarettes once, he couldn't forgive himself and left it aside (At least when I was around), he would pick me up when I visited on vacation, take me out for bike rides, and give me the occasional extra cash you don't normally disclose to your parents. He was an accomplice, but he was also a role model, someone who cared about his people, and by his people I mean everyone else around him. He loved everyone and was loved by everyone... Almost everyone.

Arturo, that was his name, was a politically involved individual, city council, departmental assembly, and many other things, and this wasn't the first time his life had been threatened. In October 1985, my uncle, Quique, came along for the ride with him to visit farm workers in the town's outskirts; and after a full day of work helping out, talking to friends, and participating in community, when driving back, Arturo, feeling tired, asked him to take the wheel; they did so without leaving the vehicle, which would prove a fateful move, as they were being tailed by a motorcycle whose passengers were tasked with ending Arturo's life, but after the swap, shooting the driver yielded the wrong outcome: Quique did not make it.

Quique, says the family lore, was the one who told my mom she was expecting me, on that very same day he'd leave to not come back; and because of that, and the greater implications, I count that day as a tragic political event that was naturally how I was going to start my own life.

ACT 2: The School With No Principal:

In 1996, I made it to the highest rated high school in Colombia, after having achieved the highest score in the entry test from a group of nearly 1000 people. I was incredibly proud, as this school had all the things I wanted: it was public, it offered trade and skills trainings normally unavailable to kids our ages, high standards, and as a bonus, two of my friends already went there so not everything would be new. I loved it there at first, even if it would prove a challenge for my neurodivergence in the future.

Nonetheless, I had always loved learning, and so I did: Computer labs, electronics, chemistry, foundry, metal works, electricity, the lot; and through all of this, with public school in Colombia in the 90s also comes the street, vices, and knowing people from all origins. I came from a very sheltered period due to my neurodiversity, but also because I grew up with everything being close to me. High school turned the sensory experience to 11, but it also sparked something I had not experienced before outside of my family and close circles: A sense of belonging.

I met incredible people, peers and teachers, was introduced to some of the coolest things I have ever seen, I was introduced to history shows told as stories rather than academic journals, I was introduced to the concepts of logic, and the precisions of engineering. I was in "artistic" paradise, and that institution was once threatened by the sudden dismissal of beloved principal, Hernan Bustos, after standing his ground when the city came to take school property to expand the adjacent avenue, and build an office that would most certainly rot away in the years to come and take space away from the students.

After removing Bustos from office, the district did not appoint a principal in fears of having to have yet another confrontation, and the school was left with an interim who was notoriously in favour of whatever the city wanted, and like that the school lost the battle. But not without a fight...

One 1998 morning, after noticing turmoil, we were encouraged by other schoolmates to leave the classrooms and come out to the streets, something big was going to happen. the anticipation, and the incredible gut feeling after learning that fellow students had decided to start a student strike in order to be heard by the city and present our case. The strike wasn't meant to last days, but instead it was supposed to be a direct action protest to show that even though we were young, we could be loud. And loud we were; a large number of us sat down on the street blocking all car traffic in both ways, making it so it was no longer children yelling from the sidewalk. The city no longer could ignore us: Riot police arrived, and charged without hesitation; their routine started, their evacuation ballet: tear gas, high pressure water jets, armoured vehicles, and an intimidation force that finally, after several hours, was able to get the best of us and clear the streets. We were between 10 and 16 years old. Good job, government guy!

A government that will attack children to "restore peace" is one of the things I was not expecting to find out first hand at age 11, and that was yet another one of those moments that shaped my political mind and fed that idea that things weren't right. That the government taking things away from those who needed them, only to give them away to those who wanted them, was yet another blow to a child, whose ideas based in logic and order were starting to present more and more questions. The political mind awakened.

On Part 2, I will tell you how I connected all these things together, and how I figured out how to move forward. It included computers, paper, ink, and fleas...

This story is a window to peek inside a small side of my life. These stories are memories that have shaped me as an individual, but also as part of a greater collective. We all have stories, people, circumstances that have made us into who we are today. Recount your story, and think of every moment that has had an influence, what was the context, what effect did it have in you? How have you changed because of it?

Thank you again for making it all the way down here! If you think we should be friends, drop me a line at alejandro@alejandro-pino.com and let's get in touch! Want to read more from me? If you're not subscribed already, type your email in the form below and sign up for my newsletter!

Two observations before we begin:
First: I will speak about an existing theory and will refer to it by its name, but I also recognize the damaging effects of the patriarchy and will speak on that in the near future, I'm sure, and
Second: Bold of me to start this piece, embellished by a great mosaic in honour of Ilyich, with a quote from one of the most infamous members of his party, accused to have been backed by anti-Soviet forces, having lived in a mansion in Türkiye, before ending his days in Mexico, where he would find himself with an ice-pick inside his head.

Okay, let me give you a lot of context for what I am about to speak here, which picks up on a lot of what I have been saying through my more creative pieces, and my essays on idealism and materialism. I currently exist as a settler on the land formerly primarily inhabited by the Anishinaabe, known as Turtle Island. So-Called Canada, after being forcefully and brutally occupied by the British Empire.

My Material reality places me in a time of turmoil, and the enjoyment* of late-stage capitalism, where workers, of which I am one, enjoy the perks of having to do work or face homelessness, prison, illness, etc. and also a time in which that hard-earned democracy of ours that we have taken for granted, is nothing else but a tool for the oligarchs to dictate who gets to manage their policies for the next few years and see how those can be exploited in order for the wealth to trickle [up] to its rightful owners. But enough of that, cynicism isn't going to take us anywhere.

Within that reality, there exists a political party that at some point aimed to represent the working class in the country, but has since been decimated by itself in multiple ways, and perhaps with strong external collaboration from the parties that actually enjoy the corporate funding. The New Democratic Party of Canada, known as the NDP, has the fortune of representing the actual working class and building collective power.

I didn't join the NDP because I liked them, but because they were my only choice based on principle, and as I got deeper into knowing how the party operated, I wanted to become more involved in the actual workings. And even though that description might be a tad generous as the party barely works as is, I decided, along with many friends and dedicated people, that change was necessary.

The NDP is currently undergoing a Federal Leadership change, and there are a few people with a chance of becoming the new leader of the party, and just like with any community, internal debate always has different groups, with different interests, who resonate with one candidate or other depending on what their values are, and what is important to them.

I have privately communicated with some group members about who I personally will be supporting, and even though I am currently volunteering with their campaign, I have chosen to not bring that specific conversation with the group at large in an effort to maintain myself open to possible changes in circumstances, as well as with a broader mission to not divide within our already smaller collective, and instead focus on talking to everyday people in my neighbourhood, at work, at third spaces, etc.

A big point of discussion that is constant from my commentary, has to do with the fact that no matter who gets elected, it is us, the organizers, who have to put our boots on the ground and talk to people, join them where they're at, talk to them and move the party to solve their issues, rather than expecting whatever new charismatic person to come out and say something out on TV. The term "grassroots" is utilized a lot, but if we externalize it and don't understand what it means, we might as well not do anything and go home without the prize.

This is why the "Great Man Theory" comes to mind. In modern times we have been convinced that it takes a great person, a hero, to come and save us by saying the right things, making the right moves, etc. and while this sounds good in theory, in practice it is all sorts of wrong. There has never been a "Great Person" without the material conditions. Had Lenin not being born, the material conditions for the Bolshevik revolution would still have been there, and someone else would have taken it upon themselves to say the things that sparked the flames of the October Revolution, it would perhaps have been a September Revolution, or a November one. Point is, history is not a single moment, but a collection of smaller moments through time, not all related to each other, but all leading towards an event.

The NDP specifically pedestals Jack Layton, and wile I agree that he was indeed a charismatic individual, it is impossible for me to ignore that it wasn't just him, but instead that the material conditions at the time allowed for someone like him and with his values to rise up within the party; and if Jack hadn't been there, the main issues he stood against were very much still there, and someone else would have taken the chance to use their voice. Jack did what he needed to do, and he surrounded himself with strong people who supported and amplified him.

I'd argue that Layton would have a much more difficult chance of running if he were alive today, because the material conditions of the world are dramatically different from 20+ years ago, we have a world that is fighting for its very own existence, where capital is making us fight one another violently removing the focus from themselves, and with that, no matter who we elect this time around, listening to the majority will still have to come first. No one is coming to save us.

We tend to think of people like Lenin, Fidel, Guevara, Mao, Sankara, Allende, or indeed in a different context, Layton, as single individuals who did something great and took on an entire nation or party, when it has been proven throughout history that none of them would have been able to do anything if the conditions had been different, and definitely not on their own.

Fidel and Guevara wouldn't have been able to convince the people of Cuba to join a revolution had their conditions not been desperate enough that a revolution seemed to be the only viable solution to end the brutal, US Backed, dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. The Bolshevik Revolution wouldn't have happened if the people from the soviets had been comfortably living under their current conditions, etc.

And as such, regardless of who gets elected as leader of the NDP, it is our responsibility, mine and yours, to speak to those who have been convinced to lack interest, and spreading the word that not only is the NDP the only viable party for the workers, but also that we can only find our strength in community. So this time around, I invite you to talk to your friends, family, coworkers, and get political, face the fear of a forbidden conversation and keep a finger on the pulse of those close to you!

If you agree with what I have to say, say hi! email me at alejandro@alejandro-pino.com and let's work together. I am a strong believer that the system can only fall if we take it down. So you and I both have to push harder!

*Turns out I'm not enjoying it at all, this is categorically false.

Last time, we left off at very rich people paying their governments to destabilize countries from the Global South so they could have access to natural resources, cheap labour, and intellectual talent at will, while also promoting an ethical and moral life in their own countries, and the protagonist of the story starting to question whether the kid from the coffee shop was really at fault here.

Material reality, the things that we touch and see everyday, the objects and people we interact with, the smells, the textures, the balance in our bank account, that problematic workmate, the flat tire, the snow, the sun, you get the picture. That is what forms our everyday life and our living conditions, and as much as I'd love to be by the pool in a warm place, turns out that my reality feels more like -27°C and snowy without much option for doing much more than drinking some tea and reading books. (Which sounds kind of amazing nonetheless! Because privilege.)

This might sound trivial, but material reality for some people is the same -27°C but trying to fit in a camping tent that is broken from overuse, trying to keep warm in random bus shelters, burn barrels, or just not even thinking about that, and giving into substances that can help mitigate the pain, at which point there's no room in anyone's mind to think about a pool, or books, or tea.

Some other people, across the water, are just being born amidst the rubble because their families were condemned to misery by virtue of existing and being autochthonous to a land where the bosses want to put hotels on. No choices have been made by that person being born, yet they're condemned to a life full of suffering and despair and there is no picking yourself by the bootstraps here. There are no bootstraps, or indeed boots.

All that to say that what we are presented with is what we have to work with, nothing more and nothing less. And once this truth is discovered, the rest becomes a lot easier to grasp, problems start becoming symptoms, and the causes of these symptoms get progressively larger and easier to identify, albeit more difficult to confront, and the conditions for this problem to arise didn't happen overnight, the material conditions for today's global pandemonium have been brewing through history, some repeating events, manufactured consent, and most important of all, loads and loads of apathy from people who could see, but chose to ignore.

Understanding our material reality also should help us understand and identify our privilege, which is by far the most troublesome of all concepts spoken about here, because without those ideals, all those talents, blessings and accomplishments start losing the meaning we had given them. Turns out that having the money to afford to go to a prestigious university for a diploma that can dictate what places you're allowed to walk into, isn't you being better than someone else, but someone whose material conditions allowed for it to happen; and most of us enjoy these privileges without having to lift a finger.

Being born with a specific skin colour, or in a country that guarantees your rights and has the resources to ensure you survive early childhood, or family wealth built for generations on land that once belonged to other peoples, housing, transportation, not having to guess whether there would be food on the table or not, etc. You get the point, and my intention is not to make anyone feel guilty (hell, this is also part of the superstructure of idealism), but instead it is to help you understand that what could be a walk in the park for you, could feel like running a double-marathon without shoes for someone else, and it isn't either one's fault; it is however the responsibility of the former to understand their privilege and how the conditions were different for both.

Back to the material world, and the bosses building hotels, and problematic workmates, these aren't just static entities, the problematic workmate isn't just a figure that appeared out of nowhere, but instead this is also someone who has been let down by the system, probably suffering from economic conditions due to low wages or job insecurity, the prospect of a robot coming to take their job, having bills to pay, having fallen into consumption by committing future earnings and falling into debt, health risks from questionable food and lack of exercise, both forced in by a machine that does not allow them to slow down, and contrast that with the bosses who are rushing to tear down permanent hoses owned by those native to the land, just to replace them with foreign structures to be rented out to new temporary tenants, who simply have more capital to add back to the system; this friction is where history happens.

The person sleeping in a tent during a winter night, whose situation is often presented as one of bad luck, bad habits, and not being able to control themselves, when in reality the housing market has been commodified to the point that people can no longer afford to live in the places they had been for as long as they could remember, along with the well documented introduction of drugs into society by the establishment to stoke a metaphorical fire that isn't running out any time soon, and that, along with the prison system (for which I will have plenty of words in the future), serve as a warning for others to stand in line and continue their role as a cog in the machine.

Acknowledging privilege, then, is the first step in a more radical project: the deliberate, collective reorganization of our material world. It means looking at the diploma, the stable address, the guaranteed meal, not as personal trophies, but as social resources that should be available to all. Our responsibility is to work toward a world where such things are not privileges, but rights. This work takes countless forms, from the hyper-local to the global, but it is united by a single, material aim: to dismantle the machinery that turns homes into hotel investments, and people into disposable cogs, and to build in its place an economy that starts from the premise of meeting human needs. Your unique position gives you a unique lever. Pull it! Whether it's in your workplace, your community, or in the struggle to reshape the rules themselves, act to change the conditions. We didn't choose the starting line, but we can choose to fight for a course where everyone has boots, and where the finish line is a decent life for all. The warmth in your room can be a reason to open the door, not to bolt it shut.

I will be sharing my own personal journey of political consciousness next!

If you have made it this far, once again, we should be friends! drop me a line at alejandro@alejandro-pino.com and make sure you're subscribed to this blog so we can continue this story together!

From Wikipedia:

Fascism (/ˈfæʃɪzəm/ FASH-iz-əm) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement that rose to prominence in early-20th-century Europe. Fascism is characterized by support for a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy, subordination of individual interests for the perceived interest of the nation or race, and strong regimentation of society and the economy. Opposed to communism, democracy, liberalism, pluralism, and socialism.

Buckle up, buttercup! Let me take you to the depths of my brain and to the land of dialectical and historical materialism, and let's dive into the thoughts, concepts, and tangents that make this ridiculously complex story into something fun and exhilarating! (And incredibly exhausting).

First of all, it's very important to establish that the vast majority of people on this planet are part of the 99%: those who don't own the means of production; even when some may think differently, feel superior, inferior, support Team A instead of Team B or vice-versa, etc. we are all fighting the same fight: trying to survive in a world that becomes more hostile by the minute.

Modern fascism is predominantly an ethnocentric movement that is protected by the dominant economic system, which has found incredible domination strategies, all of them based on promises and ideology, and here is where I'm going to make my first tangent and talk about the market of ideas, which is the cornerstone of modern day liberalism, and consequently Neoliberalism. The concept that everything is in your head and if you can set your mind to it, you can make it happen! That when X occurs, the we can do Y! And that all those beliefs we hold dear to our heart are the only truth we need! These things sound super nice, and perhaps even plausible, but they are as effective as thoughts and prayers are for traumatic events in some countries.

Having to deal with idealism makes fighting capitalism 1000x* more difficult, because people only has to believe in it. It is a lot easier to attribute your current situation to your own talents or shortcomings, and not to a system that is designed to serve capital instead of human needs: the more capital we have, the better off we will be, except that when you think you have enough the goal posts have moved dramatically, and you get to start again! just work a little bit harder, make that extra effort, go the extra mile, because at the end of the day, how else is your boss going to to buy that new house by the lake? Or that boat!

I work hard so my boss can live well!

But how? Are people that stupid? (I hear you ask!). Well, no. The answer really is no, people aren't stupid, we are just conditioned to think in a certain way because the system has been indoctrinating us since day one, we all learn from a very early age that our mission as human beings is: birth, study, get a job, get a family, get a car, a house, and if you do this, life will reward you at the age of retirement, when you can no longer feel your legs and are too tired to do the things you wanted to do anyway. But hey! check out Disneyworld!. It's the carrot on a stick conundrum, and idealism convinces us that to get through it we just have to go at it one day at a time. Eyes on the prize!

Then BOOM! Catastrophe! Some guy from a country whose name you can't even pronounce, with a funny accent, and a skin colour different than yours comes around and starts working in your company, suddenly you notice that this person is doing a lot more, but not getting paid nearly as much, this person doesn't share your spiritual beliefs and can totally work over Christmas break without raising much issue, and next thing you know your own job might be at risk! What a sellout that guy is!

Back from my tangent, that very common example is one of the many ways in which material reality differs from the ideal world, one is happening before our eyes, and the other is happening exclusively in our heads and we get to make the narrative. This is the gap exploited by fascists and the like.

Back to the tangent; now, that person from the example was then told that they were being rejected because of who they were, and that the things they were saying were wrong (and if there's something people does not like, is being told what to do with a tone). Yet another easy way to hijack their mind and tell them who their target is.

So, those who are being called fascists these days are, by and large, just incredibly misinformed people who are frustrated with their material reality, but don't have the tools to understand it in those terms because all they have been given are concepts that should be working but aren't. Let me be clear here, some people in this group are far gone, and to those I say fuck 'em, but I know from experience that getting people to ask questions instead of being told what to think can lead them to understand their issues and if they try hard enough, even feel empathy for those affected.

The person with the accent did not come down to steal your job, they were brought in by your boss in order to increase their profit margin, cut down on salary expenses and increase revenue. Bosses love this one life hack! And because our bosses' bosses have been colluding with governments to bomb some countries to create instability and extract their resources, it's all a happy cycle of people leaving their homelands due to the conflict and becoming available cheap labour in the countries that control the wealth. Perfect recipe!

We are getting to the end of this first part of the story, and for now, I invite you to talk to your friends and family, talk to your neighbours and remember that your community is more important than your boss' new motorcycle. Talk to those you think you're different from and you might realize that you probably have more in common than you imagine. Ask them what their troubles are, and you'd be surprised to find that their answer might not be as different as yours would be, then with that knowledge, find a way to ask questions and listen to what they have to say. Remember that for the privileged, equality feels like oppression; and that they have been convinced that human dignity is a zero-sum game, where they are supposed to have more than others. We can tell them otherwise with empathy, and I trust you will!

Next time I will finally get into historical materialism!

Thank you for reading all the way down here! That was over 1200 words in a world of 30-second videos! - email me at alejandro@alejandro-pino.com. Let's connect and use our privilege to amplify the voices of those who can't speak!

* Trust me, I did the math

It’s been a while since I’ve paid attention to this little corner of the internet. I have a lot on my mind, and I’ve decided the best thing to do is to start writing it down again.

First off, if we’ve never met -hi! My name is Alejandro. I’m a musician, a tinkerer, a teacher, and a human on the internet (which, these days, feels like a detail worth stating).

For close to thirty years, music has been my primary language, as a listener, a writer, a creator, and even, for a time, a professional. I chose to leave the music industry when it began to grind my passion into resentment. That experience was my first major lesson in how systems can distort what we love.

That lesson led me to my other great love: technology. I love it with the passion of a fascinated outsider, which is why I made it my day job. I’m the person who enjoys troubleshooting. Where some see a working system and think "don't fix it," I see a puzzle and think "let's understand it." I believe in the "teach a person to fish" philosophy, because equipping people with knowledge and agency is my happy place.

This brings me to my outlook. I am, quite openly, an anti-capitalist. Wait! Don’t leave! My goal here isn't to shout slogans, but to explain the "why" behind that perspective. I believe every conversation is political at its core, because politics is about power, context, and how we structure our shared world. Choosing to be "apolitical" is often a privilege afforded by a status quo that isn't actively harming you (yet). I care deeply about those for whom the current system is failing.

I care about people, those born without advantage, those marginalized for how they look, who they love, or what they believe. I care about silenced voices. And my care translates into a desire to use my own unearned privilege to redirect attention and resources to those who need it more.

If, after all this, you think we might be on similar wavelengths, or even intriguingly different ones, welcome. I’d love to hear from you. Email me at alejandro@alejandro-pino.com. Tell me your story. How did you get here? Why did you read this far?

Let’s figure this out together. We owe it to each other, and to those the world leaves behind.