Posts Tagged history

Conquer the world

Posted by Blanca in Everything else on March 7th, 2009

Conquering the world has probably been one of the main incentives of many civilizations over the centuries. Ever since Alexander the Great’s conquest of the Persian Empire (which was pretty much all that was known of the world at the time), the rule of the Roman Empire during the Pax Romana, and later the reigns of Spain, France and Britain starting at the end of the 1500s, and all the way to Hitler’s mad wish to take over the world; the thought of being in charge of it all has been a strong motivation to many.

Other than in politics, the concept of “conquering the world” can also be applied, in a smaller scale, to the business world and even at the personal level.

Businesses try to conquer the world within their scope and over their competition. It’s all about the survival of the best. And, just as with Alexander the Great in his time, the winner is always the one with the best strategy.

The problem with many small businesses nowadays is when the boss decides to apply the same world domination strategy within his own organization: the number one symptom of the bad manager.

The easiest way for a manager to make sure that he is always in charge and in control of his own little world is to hire under qualified and inexperienced employees. These workers will always feel grateful for the opportunity and work hard in return executing the boss’ commands. But, these employees have absolutely nothing valuable to contribute since they don’t know any better, and therefore, the entire organization relies on the vision of one individual only.

Not exactly a winning strategy unless you are a genius and the other’s insane.

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Eleven years tyranny

Posted by Blanca in motherhood on March 5th, 2009

Back in the 17th Century, King Charles the First decided to rule England without a parliament and pretty much did as he pleased when it came to introducing high taxes and other reforms. This period of ‘personal rule’ lasted between 1629 and 1640, hence it’s known in history as the “Eleven Years Tyranny.”

The reason I am mentioning this history nugget is because tomorrow is my daughter’s 11th birthday, which means that I have been a mother for exactly, yes, eleven years (duh!). And as a single mom in a foreign country and with an only-child I could easily be labeled as a tyrant mom. You know, the absolute dictator, in absolute control of her kid’s life, with no opposition and, of course, with no one other than me to dictate the rules.

Seriously, how do you know if you are doing the right thing when you have no benchmark and no one to discuss your decisions with? You need to be extremely egocentric to believe that every single one of the steps you take is the best one, and on the other hand, you can sometimes feel overwhelmed by the responsibility of it all.

The only way to know is to focus on the output. On whether your actions and decisions to guide your child one way or the other result in the formation of a confident, generous and happy human being.

Whenever I see her, I believe that I see all that and give myself a pat on the back thinking that ‘so far, so good’. But there are still seven years to go – probably the most difficult ones – until the time comes when she will not be under my wing anymore.

I just hope I won’t be writing about my own version of the “Seven Years War” the day before her 18th birthday.

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The guy who got away with murder

Posted by Blanca in Everything else on November 7th, 2008

Can you imagine a man who already had six wives by the time he reached his early 50s? What if I told you that this guy actually had two of them killed and got away with it? And not only that, but this bloke managed to change the official religion of his country so that he could divorce his first wife.

If you are Mexican, you probably think this is a good plot for a telenovela … if you are American you might be wondering if this is what the next season of ‘24’ will be all about … if you are British, you better know who I am talking about!

Henry VIII was king of England back in the early 1500’s and was quite a character. I seriously don’t want to bore you with a history lesson; it’s just that I was wondering if a country’s ruler would be able to get away with so much these days …

Let’s pretend that a mainly Catholic country – Mexico for argument’s sake – had a king and not a president. Let’s call him Enrique, which is Henry in Spanish.

Well, Enrique decides that his wife of 24 years, Caterina, is not good enough because she has not given him an heir and wants to divorce her and marry his wife’s maid: Anita. Now, the obstacle here is that they are Catholic, right? So, he goes to Benedict XVI and asks for an annulment of his marriage and the Pope says ‘nein’. So Enriquito, decides then and there to make Mexico a Protestant country, and calls himself head of the Church of Mexico.

He marries Anita just to get bored of her three years later and puts his eyes on Anita’s maid, Juanita (told you – soap opera material). So he accuses Anita of links with a drug cartel (actually he accused her of witchcraft, but this is the 2008 version after all), has her beheaded (ouch!) and 24hrs later marries Juanita. Juanita dies while giving birth to a son within the year; so Quique (short for Enrique) goes to a dating site online and finds a German gal called Anita (yes, he also had a thing for Anas and Caterinas).

But when he sees Anita the German in person, he realizes that the photo she used on her profile is much better than the real thing. He marries her, but divorces her 6 months later to tie the knot with 19 year-old Caterina. Quique is already 49 by now, so Caterinita starts having fun with some younger boyfriends around the palace making her hubby jealous. Good’ol Quique does what he does best and has her beheaded.

That same year he marries yet another Caterina who looks after him in his old age – yes, 50 is old age – until he dies 4 years later.

I learned all this gossip while helping my daughter revise for a history test. No wonder she keeps telling me that she loves history!

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