Today, as in the jungle, those without the tools to survive risk being swallowed up by hypermodernity. Regardless of age, gender, faith, profession or nationality, technological skills, bilingualism and inclusion have become a challenge that cannot be postponed.
We have already seen how technology has penetrated into all vital spheres. Not only does she play music, she also schedules doctor’s appointments, does paperwork, goes to the bank, connects us at work and with our families. It is clear that there are not many analog spaces left.
This is why it happens every day that every time a leprechaun drives our phones or emails crazy, the most desperate of us have to rush to the aid of young people nearby (children, nephews, grandchildren, neighbors). We swear, because we believe it, that it wasn’t our fault that the cell phone jammed, stopped ringing, or rang very loudly. We’re even innocent of putting our finger in the wrong direction when opening an email and ending up clamoring for a recipe for arroz de leche from TikTok, among other things.
Now it is shocking that all of this is possible when 21% of the urban population and 56.6% of the rural population in Latin America and the Caribbean do not have access to the Internet, according to a study presented at the end of 2022 by the Inter-American Institute for Agricultural Cooperation (IICA), the World Bank, Bayer, CAF-Development Bank of Latin America, Microsoft and Syngenta.
Another competence that reaches vital status is bilingualism. Hundreds of minutes of awkward silence, missed opportunities, lost income – in Latin America, English is still far away for the vast majority. It’s worth highlighting the efforts of the most proactive, who download applications to use for a week, or “surprise” pay fees for courses they don’t take, and end up thinking that maybe learning while sleeping is the way to go her thing. But it is clear and regrettable that in education systems the responsibility for effective language teaching requires a transformation of the kind that the last pandemic gave to technological delivery and the adaptation of the academy to the needs of the youngest.
When it comes to inclusion, we believe we are the most inclusive because we confuse it with compassion, which I wish was a virtue practiced by everyone. Because of excessive fear, we despise everything that is different from us. We hide behind the principles of double standards so that nothing comes into our small space that makes us rethink or threatens an unsustainable status quo. We insist that we are inclusive, without realizing that in this matter, as in many others, there are no intermediate levels. One is inclusive or discriminatory, just as one is honest or dishonest. There are no shades of gray. It is the new generations who use their example to demand clear and coherent positions from us and show that it is the only way for everyone to survive in this jungle.
In the end, the formula could be not to give in, not to go to the other side and not to bother having the minimum to survive in a world that became global for global people years ago. A world where those of us who don’t do so suffer consequences and may face extinction.
