Topic of discussion:
If an American or European (other than Greek, Southern Italian or Spaniard) look you in the eye and say they will return tomorrow at 3:00pm and they do not call or come back, are they lying? If they ask to borrow $100 and they promise to pay you back in 1 week and they do not, are they a thief?
The answer to both questions is YES!
If a Colombian, in Colombia does the same, are they a liar and a thief?
The answer is NO!
Here is why. First world citizens grow up with a very sophisticated sense of time and money. We live in a world regulated by the clock. We are tought to think beyond the moment. We are given the tools and ability to somewhat controll our environment. We associate our present actions with future consequences. We live as much in the future as we do in the present.
This training gives us the ability to foresee the probability that our promise today can be met in the future. We have capacity!
Colombians for the most part, do not receive this kind of training and education. They live only in the today and have little capacity to connect current behavior with future outcome. When a Colombian makes a promise, he is sincere, he is not lying. At that moment, he or she truly does want to fulfill the promise. The difficulty lies in thier capacity to reason out in thier head if it is reasonable that at some future date, they will have the capacity to fulfill thier promise.
Most Colombians just do not have the capacity to conect thier current behavior with the future consequences.
For this reason I have decided that if a Colombian makes me a promise, to which there are many, and does not fulfil there promise, which is the norm, they are niether lying nor are they a thief.
Once I accepted this concept, my life here in Colombia became so much better, my daily frustration level dropped and things all made so much more sense to me.
Perhaps there are other expats here that are experiancing similar frustrations but have a different take. I am open to coment and critic.
If an American or European (other than Greek, Southern Italian or Spaniard) look you in the eye and say they will return tomorrow at 3:00pm and they do not call or come back, are they lying? If they ask to borrow $100 and they promise to pay you back in 1 week and they do not, are they a thief?
The answer to both questions is YES!
If a Colombian, in Colombia does the same, are they a liar and a thief?
The answer is NO!
Here is why. First world citizens grow up with a very sophisticated sense of time and money. We live in a world regulated by the clock. We are tought to think beyond the moment. We are given the tools and ability to somewhat controll our environment. We associate our present actions with future consequences. We live as much in the future as we do in the present.
This training gives us the ability to foresee the probability that our promise today can be met in the future. We have capacity!
Colombians for the most part, do not receive this kind of training and education. They live only in the today and have little capacity to connect current behavior with future outcome. When a Colombian makes a promise, he is sincere, he is not lying. At that moment, he or she truly does want to fulfill the promise. The difficulty lies in thier capacity to reason out in thier head if it is reasonable that at some future date, they will have the capacity to fulfill thier promise.
Most Colombians just do not have the capacity to conect thier current behavior with the future consequences.
For this reason I have decided that if a Colombian makes me a promise, to which there are many, and does not fulfil there promise, which is the norm, they are niether lying nor are they a thief.
Once I accepted this concept, my life here in Colombia became so much better, my daily frustration level dropped and things all made so much more sense to me.
Perhaps there are other expats here that are experiancing similar frustrations but have a different take. I am open to coment and critic.
