Today I would like to share with you what I am learning about what it means to "live well". I am not saying "live better", there is a subtle but important difference. I don't say live better because this implies, according to the Native Andean wisdom, to live better than someone else, to live in inequality, and this concept when analyzed carefully reveals that this eagerness to live better has created an imbalance in human relations and with nature. Now is the time for this imbalance to be corrected or nature will do it for us. Witness the global warming dilemma.
A while ago, I have been thinking about what I really should be doing now. I've always had this restless desire to help others in one-way or another. I believe that helping others is something innate of ourselves; we only have to respond to this feeling according to our possibilities. In a way, I have been able to respond to this internal restlessness for more than 25 years of my life by working as a volunteer with Amnesty International a well known and respected human rights organization. Thorough the years, this work has given many rewards and I have certainly learned much about the human quality. Some people are incredibly resilient in extreme adverse situations and others are cowardly strong, taking advantage of their authority or economic power.
Now I sense I have to do more, I feel I must contribute in a greater scale, so I have decided to dedicate all of my time to a more direct humanitarian work aimed at the country where I was born, Bolivia.
Bolivia is an incredibly beautiful country, with great ecological and cultural diversity however, the majority of the population are poor, specially in the rural areas where potable water is not necessarily accessible.
According to the United Nations' estimates for the 2005-2010 period, the infant mortality rate (children less than one year of age), in Bolivia is 48 per 1,000 live births. Compare this number with the lowest rate in the world found in Iceland (2.9), or the United States (6.3) or Mexico 16.7. The highest rate is found in Sierra Leone (160.3) in great part due to the armed conflict that afflicts this nation. Another revealing finding is that diarrhea is one of the main causes for the high death rates in children less than 5 years of age.
Like many people who live away from their country of origin, I think it is indispensable to do 'something' to improve the living conditions in my country. For this reason, with two childhood friends of mine, we have decided to form a non-profit organization and develop humanitarian projects in Bolivia focused in two basic human necessities: access to (potable) water and (solar) energy, in rural communities where these basic services are deficient or nonexistent. We are in the process of raising the necessary funds ($US 100,000) for our first year of work.
I will be very happy the day when I see our first project completed. By then I will be closer to fulfill with the ancient Andean resolution of living well. In Qi Gong terms, and according to my teacher, Grandmaster Hong Liu, to live well is to walk the line between Yin and Yang, in harmony with all that surrounds us. That two ancestral cultures like those from China and the Andes coincide in this foundation is not really surprising. If you have red this far, I thank you for your attention.
