Even before the economic crisis, plenty of New Yorkers lacked health insurance. Now, with the increasing number of layoffs, the ranks of the uninsured are swelling.
I’ve been among them since I quit my cube farm job with full benefits in 2004. I had no plan B. Until this year, I was living without any insurance, a self-employed New Yorker unwilling to trade fierce independence and the freedom of crafting my own career just to have a 401(k) and an insurance card.
In the past five years, though, I’ve done a lot of research about how you can live in NYC without insurance– and how you can find health care and insurance when you decide that you need it.
Here are some of the city’s best resources:
Freelancers Union:
The Freelancers Union is an excellent resource for any independent contractor looking for networking opportunities, gigs, and a critical mass of like-minded indie workers, but one of the biggest achievements and best resources of the Freelancers Union is its insurance offerings.
At present, the union offers five distinct insurance plans. The plans can cover you, your partner, your child(ren), and/or your whole family. Monthly rates range from $149.00 to $460.00 for individual coverage with Blue Cross/Blue Shield.
There are eligibility requirements, of course, just like any insurance plan. For one thing, you’ll need to prove that your freelance income was at least $10,000 in the past six months. You can read all about the Freelancers Union insurance plans and eligibility criteria here.
Hello Health:
Let’s say–and it’s a real possibility, right?–that you didn’t make $10,000 as a freelancer in the past six months or you didn’t meet one or more of the other requirements for the Freelancers Union insurance plan.
Let’s say that you want to circumvent the insurance system entirely.
Well, so do some health care providers… especially the ones who founded Hello Health.
Hello Health is a doctor-founded model of health care that is totally unaffiliated with insurance companies. You don’t have to have insurance to see the docs at Hello Health. Instead, you pay a $35/month membership fee (far more affordable than the monthly rate of any insurance plan I’ve ever seen). Visits are priced between $100 and $200 depending on the complexity of the visit.
What’s that monthly membership fee for? You get e-mail and social media access to your doc between visits, helping you prevent or manage any non-acute concerns before you even need an office visit.
Currently based in Brooklyn, Hello Health recently announced that it will soon be opening an office in the West Village. This, in my opinion, is the single-most exciting health option in NYC if you don’t have serious existing conditions.
The DOH isn’t a replacement for insurance or primary care, but it provides a hell of a lot of services that you may not even be aware of…and most of them are free, paid for with your tax dollars.
Are you a smoker? Cigarettes went up to $9.00 a pack today. If that’s too much for your meager budget, get on over to your local DOH office; it’s giving away nicotine gum and patches.
Thinking about having unprotected sex? You’ve got no excuse. The DOH gives away free condoms…and you don’t even have to make an appointment. Already having unprotected sex? Get those condoms anyway–and while you’re at it, make an appointment for a free STD/HIV test. New York state offers confidential AND anonymous testing. You choose (anonymous, of course, means you don’t even have to give your name).
The DOH offers lots of other services. You can read about them here or call the city at 311 to ask specific questions.
Health Plus:
You don’t make quite enough for Freelancers Union insurance or you’re not a freelancer. You’d like the security of a more robust form of insurance coverage. An alternative may be Health Plus, a subsidized insurance for residents of the 5 boros and Nassau County. It’s a complicated cluster of services–there’s Child Health Plus (for people under 19), Family Health Plus, Health Care Plus, and Health Plus Elite–but for a single person, an annual income of $14,580 or less is the primary eligibility criterion for coverage. Read more about the Health Plus program here or call 1-800-300-8181 for more information.
Have you found a resource that hasn’t been included here? Leave your advice in the comments.
Text & Photos: Francisco Collazo
[vease abajo para la version en espanol]
*
In the 80s all the major credit cards– Mastercard, Visa, and American Express had ad campaigns directed to the consumer that were intended to appeal to their conscience– their purchases could fulfill a social mission: “With the purchase of this product”-the ads indicated- “a percentage will go to help such and such cause,” or “With the use of this credit card, you’ll be supporting such and such program.” The conscious consumer would clearly prefer these cards over those that didn’t offer such opportunities. These types of ads, which appeal to human emotion, are extremely effective and far stronger than those that appeal simply to reason. The great Greek philosophers knew this centuries ago.
Besides all the ads announcing all the latest products available in the market in Gothic or Helvetica font, the city of New York is also characterized by its ads that are of a philosophical or inspirational nature. These are often much more difficult to associate with a specific product. Their marketing motive is less obvious, more subtle in its approach. There’s poetry and deep philosophical thoughts in them.
The poems and philosophical tidbits that are pasted on posters in the subway cars in New York are the ads that particularly capture my attention. They’re in the perfect place, illuminated in spaces just above the heads of passengers. You can’t miss them– you have to look at them because to look at the person sitting in front of you would be rude. You have no choice but to read them!
In Mexico City, the ads are even more creative. Banner ads are pasted inside the tunnels between train stations for passengers to look at through the windows of the train while it moves along ad maximum speed, much in the same way you can look at a group of animated photos in a flip book.
There’s an immense amount of logistics involved in this kind of advertising–from conception of the idea to its final execution. But still, I have to ask how effective all this effort is. How many people, after reading these ads, go out and buy the product? Marketers prove themselves to be more and more creative and intelligent, but maybe the consumers are too. Who knows?
Plato talked about the moment at which reason and emotion collide and advised that in such situations, emotions should take a back seat to reason. Deception and irrationality appeal to human emotions so easily. Politicians have known and used this since the first republic formed in Rome. Banks, universities, casinos, and travel agencies…they’ve all used this approach one way or another.
Whether we’re prepared for them or not, these ads–competing between our emotion and our sense of logic and reason–are invading the marketplace, still deceptive and influential.
*
En los 80s las cartas de creditos Mastercard, Visa y American Express llevaron una campana dirigida al consumidor para que comprara con una mision social: “Con la compra de este producto”-decia el anunciador- “un porciento ayuda a esta causa o la otra” o “Con el uso de esta tarjeta de credito su dinero va hacia este programa o el otro.” Era cosa justa como consumidor conciente preferir la una o la otra. Los acercamientos de los comerciales que apelan a las emociones humanas venden muchos y son mas fuertes que la razon. Los filosofos griegos conocian de antemano los efectos de esto.
Aparte de los letreros de todo tipo anunciando los ultimos productos disponibles en el mercado y los grafitis en letras de estilo gotico o helvetico, la ciudad de Nueva York tiene otra cara, las de los anuncios de caracter filosofico o inspiracional. Estos ultimos son muchas veces mas dificiles de asociarlos con un producto u otro. Son menos obvios y mas sutiles en su acercamiento. Hay poesias en ellos y pensamientos filosoficos profundos.
Los poemas y los pensamientos profeticos en los vagones de los trenes de Nueva York son particularmente los que capturan toda mi atencion. Estos estan en lugar preciso e iluminado en la cabecera de los asientos laterales; no los puedes escapar porque seria rudo y descortes mirar a la persona sentada frente a ti y no hay mas opcion que leerlos. Es una situacion favorable para ello. Estas apresado!
En la ciudad de Mexico todavia son mucho mas creativos. Estos anuncios estan dentro del tunel entre estaciones y se pueden ver a traves de las ventanillas del tren mientra este va a toda velocidad, de la misma manera que uno puede ver un grupo de fotografias animadas pasadas en frecuencias en las esquinas de las paginas de un cuaderno.
En conjunto hay una inmensa cantidad de trabajo logistico envuelto desde la concepcion de la idea hasta la ejecucion final de la misma.
Sin embargo me pregunto cuan efectivo es todo este esfuerzo? Cuantas personas despues de leerlos van y compran ese producto? El mercado se muestra cada vez mas creativo e inteligente, pero quizas tambien los consumidores; quien sabe?
Platon discutio que cuando la razon y las emociones chocaban, el lugar de las emociones deberia ser la silla de atras. Decepcion e irracionalizacion apelan con facilidad a las emociones humanas con gran facilidad. Los politicos han usado esta desde que la primera republica se formo en Roma. Bancos, universidades, casinos y agencias de viajes… todos han usado este aceramiento de una manera u otra.
Mas que nunca los anuncios con pinceladas de logica y razon tratan de invadir el mercado sin dejar de ser deceptivos, dominantes, e influenciadores al final del dia si no estamos preparados para ellos.
Text: Martin Pei de la Paz
Photos: Brayan Collazo
[vease abajo para la version en espanol]
*
After conducting a biopsy of the “death of racism in Cuba,” I have to ask whether the promises of equality implied by the Revolution have actually benefited the darker members of the Cuban population.
The manner in which the contract with the people was written seemed to promise that everything would be different during the Revolutionary era.
So why, then, is it the case that some people are treated better than others when the achievements of the Revolution were made at the cost of Cuba’s darkest? What’s happened to the Cimarron (the black man who fled to the mountains in search of freedom?)
It was one of the nights when these questions preoccupied my mind that I found myself at a party in East Havana, at a Soviet style housing project on the edge of the Havana Bay. These units were constructed at the beginning of the 70s to alleviate the housing shortage for the city’s poorest. It was here that all the questions flooded me suddenly.
And it was clear I wasn’t the only one thinking about these issues.
I heard a conversation between two young people in which one said to the other that Father de las Casas (known as the protector of the Indians after the Spanish conquest) felt compassion for the Indian and brought Blacks in his place. Welcome to Havana.
The young people at the party wore shirts with images of Che Guevara; the majority of them were blacks and mulattos, all high school or university graduates. They shouted, “Viva la revolucion!” while the groups played their songs, all of them singing about Afro-Cubanness and questioning what would have been unthinkable in past years.
They sang about the current conditions for young Black Cubans and their role in society. The lyrics were sung poems, intelligent and authentically Cuban and Mambi (a name given to the rebel forces that fought for Cuba’s liberation from the Spanish empire). Sounds came from their mouths like bullets from machine guns. The music didn’t just invite you to dance, but also to think. Their songs were ammunition leftover from the Cuban struggle of the past 100 years, but now shooting out of new rifles.
They look young on the surface, but on the inside, they’re from another era; they’re not the sons of the Revolution. They sang about people from other epochs: men of war, all rebels. The emotion carried over into the dance, into the African movements and the heat of the sea, mixing with the youthful spirit in the air on this warm Havana night.
The refrains in the background of their songs came from songs much older than the 1959 Revolution that brought Fidel to power, songs like “Canto a la Vuelta Bajera,” which was written by Afro-Cuban composer Ignacio Pineiro around the 1930s, and which said in the original version:
On the Havana plain,
between Madrugas and Guines,
sings the woman from Vueltabajera…
Who without boasting about her courage
just asks for harmony
among the good Cubans…
My beloved brothers,
save my homeland,
Cuban! With sweet pride,
Don’t mistreat your brother, but
defend what’s yours…
*
The conversations among the young people preoccupied me and transported me to a post-Fidel Cuba and what that would mean for all of us. It’s inconceivable to think of continued marginalization. In today’s Cuba, it’s neither a good idea nor a healthy one.
The idea of a racial struggle in Cuba is one that torments us all, as it would be devastating, a fight beyond that which Cuba has, perhaps, ever seen, even though the majority of us are “too white to be black and too black to be white,” as my grandmother’s Spanish neighbor who has lived in Cuba for 87 years told me.
I walk home late, with all these radical thoughts in my head, with the songs from the microphones echoing in my head. I sit at the edge of the sea to meditate, looking toward the horizon. I can’t stop thinking about the struggle for human dignity and the resistance we face when we fight against living on our knees. It’s a fight that we humans as a group have had to fight for all time. There’s nothing bad in the world that we haven’t had to go through as a group together. It’s critical to think about unity before it becomes too late… or, at least, to finally uproot the problem altogether.
The last thing I expected when I entered the hall of the housing complex was a party that would continue to speak to me after I’d left her behind. It was at that moment that my vision changed forever. It wasn’t that the realization was strange for me in any way; rather, it was the force with which the message was conveyed, as if I’d been spoken to in tongues.
Tomorrow will be a new day for our island nation, though with all the old problems the world has always faced: poverty, illness, a shortage of resources, and everything that comes along with life in the third world.
In truth, we haven’t changed at all. Racism, though unofficial, has arrived, or–better said–it never really left. And for that reason, we’re fighting and singing just like Pineiro: Cuban! With sweet pride, don’t mistreat your brother, but defend what’s yours!
*
Despues de realizar una biosis a la “muerte del racismo en Cuba” me pregunto si las promesas de igualdad llegaron a beneficiar a los mas oscuros de la poblacion cubana.
La manera que el contrato fue escrito reflejaba que todo iba ser diferente en la etapa revolucionaria.
Entonces, por que hay unos que se tratan mejor que otros cuando todas estas revoluciones se han hechos a costa de los mas oscuros de la poblacion cubana? Que le ha pasado al Cimarron (negro que huia a las montanas en busca de libertad)?
Fue en una de las noches que me encontraba en una fiesta en la Habana del Este: un complejo de viviendas al estilo sovietico que bordea las orillas de las costas de la bahia de La Habana. Estas fueron construidos en los principios de los 70s para aliviar los problemas de viviendas para los mas pobres de la ciudad. Fue aqui que estas preguntas me vinieron a la mente de una manera repentina.
Escuchaba una conversacion entre dos jovenes donde uno le decia al otro que el Padre de las Casas (protector de los indios despues de la conquista espanola),sintio compasion por el indio y en su lugar trajo al negro…. Bienvenido a La Habana!
El grupo de jovenes llevaba camisetas con las imagines del Che Guevara y en su mayoria negros y mulatos todos graduados de escuela superior o la universidad. Gritaban “Viva la revolucion!” mientras la banda interpretaba sus canciones, todas ellas con el tema de la afro-cubanidad y cuestionando lo impensable en anos pasados sobre la situacion cubana.
Se cantaba de las condiciones existentes para los jovenes negros cubanos y de su papel dentro de su sociedad. Sus canciones eran poemas cantados, inteligentes y genuinamente cubanos, y mambis (nombre que se le dio a la fuerza rebelde que luchaba por la liberacion de Cuba del yugo espanol). Todo pasaba muy rapido como disparos de metralladoras en bocas que conocian lo que cantaban. La musica no solo te invitaba a bailar, pero tambien a pensar. Eran sus canciones como cartuchos de municiones que sobraron en la lucha revolucionaria de Cuba en los ultimos 100 anos, ahora disparado con rifles nuevos.
En la superficie se veian jovenes pero, en lo interior eran como jovenes de otra epoca y de otros siglos y no los hijos de la revolucion. Los jovenes hablaban de personajes de otras epocas: hombres de guerras todos, inconformes todos. Emocion contagiada con el baile, los movimientos afro-exoticos y el calor del mar unido con el aliento joven eran factores dominantes en esta noche calida habanera.
Los estribillos de fondos de para sus canciones eran de canciones de otros tiempos mucho antes la revolucion de 1959 que trajo a Fidel Castro al poder como “Canto a la Vuelta Bajera,” compuesta por el compositor afrocubano Ignacio Pineiro alrededor de los anos 30s, y que en su original dice:
En la llanura Habanera
entre Madrugas y Guines
canta la Vueltabajera….
Que sin alarde de valia
tan solo pide armonia
entre los buenos cubanos…
tan queridos hermanos
salven a la patria mia..
Cubano! Con dulce orgullo
no maltrates a tu hermano pero
defiende lo tuyo…
Estas conversaciones entre los jovenes me trastorna y transporta a una Cuba post-Fidel y lo que esta nos traera a todos. Es inconsebible pensar en la marginacion en un momento como este. En la Cuba de hoy no es una idea ni muy buena ni tampoco saludable.
La idea de una lucha racial en Cuba es una idea que nos atormenta a todos por lo desbastadora que esta seria: una lucha que quizas no se ha visto en Cuba todavia, aunque somos en nuestra mayoria “muy claros para ser negro y muy negros para ser blancos,” segun me dijo la espanola vecina de mi abuela que ha vivido en Cuba por los ultimos 87 anos de su vida.
Camino a casa ya muy entrada la noche con todos estos pensamientos radicales y con las canciones que salieron de los microfonos resonando las paredes de mi cabeza, me siento solo a meditar a la orilla de la costa mirando al horizonte. No dejo de pensar en otra cosa que en la quejas que emanana de la dignidad humana y en la resistencia a vivir de rodillas. Despues de todo, no hay una cosa mala que exista en el mundo que como grupo no hemos pasado. Es preciso pensar en la unidad antes que sea muy tarde o por lo menos cerrar fila de una vez por todo para sacar este problema de raiz.
Lo menos que espere al entrar los pasillos y los corredores de este complejo de vivienda fue una fiesta que me hablara hasta despues de irme de ella. Fue en este momento en que mi vision ha cambiado para siempre. No fue que esta vision era extrana para mi en ningun aspecto; sino, fue en la fuerza en que esta se dijo, era como si me hablaran en lenguas.
Manana sera un dia nuevo para nuestra isla nacion con los problemas viejos del mundo: pobreza, enfermedades, escases de recursos y todo esto que le acompana en el tercer mundo.
En realidad no hemos cambiado nada. El racismo no legalizado oficialmente ha llegado o no se ha ido nunca y por eso estamos luchando y cantando como hizo Pineiro: Cubano! Con dulce orgullo no maltrates al extrano pero defiende lo tuyo!
Text: Julie Schwietert Collazo
Photo: Francisco Collazo
* Earlier this week, I attended two days of keynote speeches and panel presentations at the ThinkMobile Conference in New York City.
The purpose of the conference was to talk shop about mobile technologies and, especially, to discuss ideas about how to monetize ads and content delivered by mobile devices.
To be honest, it wasn’t a topic that interested me all that much. I’m certain I owned the oldest cell phone in the room (see photo). I don’t text, I don’t have a catchy ring tone, I don’t know (or care) what games are on my mobile, and I’m not interested in spending money on doodads to attach to my phone or “wallpaper” to make my phone look cuter. Really, I just want a phone to… um… make phone calls.
But I wanted to attend the conference to learn what mobile gurus are saying about their favored technology and to think about how their insights might be applied to online platforms.
I did come away with some of those insights, but mostly, I came away with some reflections about what mobile folks may be doing wrong… or, at the very least, could do a lot better.
1. Mobile users (especially those with a Blackberry, and ESPECIALLY those with an iPhone) frequently make the mistake of turning their personal anecdotes into universal generalizations.
A CEO who gave a keynote speech noted how mobile devices have transformed from phones to all-purpose life companions. As an example she cited a statistic: 38% of people have interrupted sex to check their mobiles. It’s a frightening number, I think, but it doesn’t represent the majority.
Another panelist reflected about print ads and wondered why these rarely include “calls to action” to text. “Everyone texts,” he said. “People want to text in response to ads.” I know plenty of people who don’t text and plenty more who do but who would never respond to an ad’s call to text.
An audience member talked about his willingness to spend money on iPhone app downloads, hyperbolizing his own habits to the entire population. His input was received enthusiastically, but I had to wonder if that was because all of the audience members are already convinced of the benefits and reach of mobile because of THEIR own habits.
2. Mobile media and online media aren’t collaborating in critical contexts.
Jeffrey Litvack, General Manager of Mobile and Emerging Products at the Associated Press, and Jason Fulmines, his counterpart at Gannett, the parent company of USA Today, talked about the mobile initiatives being developed at their respective media outlets. Both companies are operating under the reasonable assumption that more people, both in the US and abroad, will be consuming their news via mobile devices rather than conventional sources. The other focus of the companies’ mobile development implies that end consumers will also become producers of news. In other words, they’ll send in photos and breaking news, having become citizen journalists.
Yet both men acknowledged some of the challenges of developing mobile interfaces for their target clients. Litvack talked about the fact that those users most enthusiastically embracing the mobile platforms the AP has developed are also sending in material that’s specious, wrong, or totally irrelevant.
When I asked the panelists if they’re collaborating with their online media departments (they could, after all, learn a great deal from one another, harness one another’s expertise, and develop cross-functional applications), both men admitted that the two departments are not interacting.
That’s too bad– though this article isn’t exactly about online/mobile collaboration, it alludes to some of the exciting possibilities that are generated when news outlets’ departments collaborate.
3. The double-edged sword of mobile advertising may be its hyperlocalism.
One presenter clicked through a presentation that included a case study about Virgin’s creative campaign that integrated print-based poster ads on bus shelters around New York City with “calls to action” for viewers to text… leading them to pubs where they could enter for a chance to win round-trip tickets to London.
The ad was brilliant. It effectively captured and channeled the New York vibe. But it was also clearly a huge investment of effort and money for Virgin and its marketing/PR teams. It was also not replicable in other markets. Virgin could take the idea of the campaign and design a similar one in other US markets; however, doing so would require almost the equivalent investment of effort and money to craft a campaign that was customized to Chicago or Boston or San Francisco.
And here’s the huge, looming question: Did that brilliant campaign produces brilliant results in the form of a profitable return on Virgin’s investment?
It was a question that wasn’t answered.
4. Mobile is not yet truly universal.
I can take my laptop almost anywhere I travel–even Cuba–and be sure I’ll be able to connect. I won’t have to buy an adapter or SIM card or any other gear that I may never need again in order to get online.
Yet the same isn’t always true of mobile devices. Admittedly, my cell phone is terribly outdated. But even when I took the Samsung Blackjack–a phone marketed as usable to, from, and in more than 200 countries– around the US, Mexico, and Colombia for a review, I learned that mobile devices far more modern than mine are pretty uneven and unreliable. Phone calls were dropped frequently calling to the US from Mexico. It was nearly impossible to get a consistent Internet connection in Colombia.
The take-away? Mobile as a platform has a long way to go before it will be able to realize some of the goals and opportunities that industry insiders have for it.
Text & Photos: Francisco Collazo
Additional Photos as noted
[vease abajo para la version en espanol]
* During the 2008 Olympics, we were in Mexico City, where we had to exert extraordinary efforts to be able to enjoy the games on TV. We didn’t have a TV at the time, so we bought one–along with cables, extension cords, and other equipment to be able to get reception.
Today, in New York, we had to make similar efforts in order to see the World Baseball Classic. Because we don’t have ESPN, we decided to invest in a package offered by MLB.com for $19.99. To be honest, I wasn’t really enthusiastic about the purchase, especially when I thought about the fact that the games are broadcast for free in Cuba so that everyone can enjoy them, but after all, I’m glad we made the decision.
I think back with pleasure to the WBC game between Cuba and Panama that we saw live at the Hiram Bithorn Stadium in 2006, when we lived in Puerto Rico.
This was an unforgettable memory for my wife, who before our marriage had no interest in baseball. But from the stands, it was hard for her not to be interested. The shouts and taunts among the competing teams dominated the atmosphere: Panamanians on one side and Puerto Ricans in support of Cuba on the other.
In the current World Baseball Classic series, the teams that impressed me the most have been Korea and Japan. Both teams are like old wines in new glasses: they know all the elements of Western baseball, but their batting and running, robbing bases, pitching, and above all, their emphasis on playing with strict physical and mental discipline are markedly their own. Their emotions are always under control; it’s just one of their virtues, and it’s not abstract, but real.
I don’t really wear two hats on my head– those of Cuba and Japan–not even taking into account the fact that the blood that runs through my veins has traces of Oriental ancestry. But my passion for the game and, above all, the tendency of my heart to side with the weakest team or the one most unlikely to win does influence me. I can’t deny it.
I’m pulling for Korea and Japan because I’ve learned that baseball isn’t only the favorite pastime of the Americas. There are other countries that practice the sport with equal energy and enthusiasm as Cubans, Dominicans, Americans, Venezuelans, and others.
The presence of the Japanese and Koreans in the game leaves me with doubts about Western theories about ideal height and weight requirements of players. The Asian players of shorter stature and lower weight seem to prove that all those theories are just myths. The true secret to success has nothing to do with height or weight– it has to do with who plays best on the field, and there’s no secret science here: the one who wins is the one who is tenacious, who executes his moves effectively.
The tricky, surprising moves of the Asian teams have been marvelous. Teams expected to make it to the finals–like the Dominican Republic– are already at home resting after their elimination by the team from the Netherlands in the first round.
The presence of Asian teams in baseball isn’t really a new phenomenon. As early as 1933, baseball was played in Japan–in fact, it was the country’s only professional sport. But what is new, perhaps, is that they’ve entered the international ball scene with the spirit and will to win, and the intelligence and strategy to do it. The rules of the game are different in the East–for example, in Japan, the game is played with a smaller ball and the strike zone is much larger than that in the Americas. Yet they take these differences and turn them into advantages, both in their defensive and offensive roles.
As in daily life, errors are an incredible opportunity to learn what doesn’t work. The Japanese and Koreans have demonstrated that they have an ability to adjust after every single error.
The Cuban team, on the other hand, has suffered the same fate as Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. A favorite to win, but a loser in the attempt. The Cuban team played two full games without scoring a run against Japan’s young team. Japan’s superiority was inarguable, and left the Cuban team with the bitter taste of defeat again and again.
The positive chi and emotional balance of the Japanese and Korean teams has been evident. Their games aren’t based solely on physical skill, but on mental agility, too, and it’s this quality that clenches the victory in situations that seem almost impossible to overcome. The take-away teaching is helpful for other teams, as well as spectators. For that reason, I say “Arigato!” to the Asian teams for everything I’ve enjoyed during this year’s World Baseball Classic.
Let the games begin!
* En las ultimas olimpiadas nos encontrabamos en la Ciudad de Mexico. Para poder disfrutar algunos de los eventos tuve que hacer esfuerzos extraordinarios para ver los juegos en la television. Tuvimos que invertir en la compra de un televisor, cables, extensiones y otros equipos para facilitar la recepcion de las transmisiones.
Hoy en Nueva York algo parecido en esfuerzo he tenido que hacer para ver el Clasico Mundial de Beisbol. Decidimos en la compra de un paquete en la red electronica MLB.com por $19.99 ya que no tenemos servicios de cable para disfrutar de estos eventos. En realidad no me senti muy dispuesto hacerlo, especialmente cuando recuerdo que estas transmiciones son libres de cargo en Cuba para el disfrute de todos, pero bueno, muy contento estoy de haber hecho esta decision.
Recuerdo que con mucha alegria pudimos ver el partido entre Cuba y Panama en vivo en el estadio Hiram Bithorn en 2006, cuando vivimos en Puerto Rico.
Esta fue una memoria inolvidable para mi esposa que antes de nuestra union el beisbol estaba lejos de su alcance o interes. En las gradas los gritos e insultos a los jugadores de los equipos contrarios dominaban la atmosfera: panamenos por un lado y los puertorriquenos a favor de Cuba por el otro.
En esta serie del clasico mundial 2009, entre todos los equipos participantes los que mas me impresionan son los de Corea y Japon. Ambos equipos han traidos los viejos vinos y los han puestos en copas nuevas: bateo y corrido, robo de bases, toque de bola, y sobre todo la importancia de jugar con la disciplina fisica y mental con que lo hacen. Las emociones estan bajo control por decir solo una de sus virtudes y no es una cosa abstracta sino real.
Realmente no llevo dos gorras en mi cabeza Cuba-Japon o el hecho de que corre un pequeno porciento de sangre oriental por mis venas pero si, la pasion por el juego y sobre todo mi corazon tiende a apostar por el mas debil y el imposible. No lo puedo evitar!
Lo que no es usual en este momento es el saber que el beisbol no es el pasatiempo favorito solo en las Americas, sino que hay otros paises que practican esta disciplina con igual furia y entusiamo que los cubanos, dominicanos, americanos, venezolanos, y otros lo hacen.
Presenciar estos juegos me deja mucha duda en la teoria del jugador de mas de 6 pies de altura y 200 o mas libras de peso. La presion puesta por los jugadores asiaticos de menos estatura y peso deja entrevisto que peso y estatura es un mito para la victoria. El que juega mejor en la arena se lleva la victoria, y no es ninguna ciencia secreta la coneccion y el papel que juega el dominio de la tenacidad y la ejecucion de los movimientos.
Maravillosas han sido las jugadas de enganos y decepcion. El equipo de la Republica Dominicana, que era unos de los favoritos para las finales, ya esta en casa descansando despues de su eliminacion por parte del equipo de Holanda en la primera ronda.
De todo esto puedo decir que no es que los humanos antes no hemos visto semejante fenomeno. Lo que los orientales y en especial los Nipones que hasta hace muy poco (1933 era el beisbol el unico juego profesional en el Japon), han traidos de nuevo al parque de pelota es el espiritu que domino estos juegos en los anos 40s y 50s, inteligencia con una estrategia exquisita para ejecutar las jugadas que de el se espera. Generalmente en el Japon se juega con una pelota mas pequena y la zona de estrai es mucho mayor que en el beisbol de las Americas, haciendo de este cambio una ventaja para ellos en la defensa y en la ofensiva.
Como en la vida diaria hay en los errores una oportunidad inmensa para conocer lo que no funciona. Japoneses y Coreanos han demostrado la tremenda habilidad de ajuste despues de cada error.
El equipo cubano sufrio la misma suerte que Puerto Rico y la Republica Dominicana, favoritos para ganar pero perdieron en la contienda. Jugaron dos juegos completos sin anotar una carrera contra el equipo joven del Japon. Su superioridad es indudable y le dejo a el equipo cubano el sabor amargo de la derrota por tercera vez en sus ultimos encuentros.
En los equipos del Japon y Corea veo un juego espiritual lleno del chi positivo y balance emocional. Hacen de este un juego no solo de fuerza fisica pero de inteligencia, lugar que te da la victoria en situaciones casi imposible de lograr cuando mas lo necesita. La ensenanza es unica y refrescante, dandole a este el paquete de estimulo que el consumidor como yo necesita. Por eso les digo, “Arigato!” por todo lo que he disfrutado en esta temporada del clasico del beisbol mundial.
En conjunto hay una inmensa cantidad de trabajo logistico envuelto desde la concepcion de la idea hasta la ejecucion final de la misma.
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