16 June 2005

Doom or Zoom?

Note: SNAP Platform--created and based in Puerto Rico--is now ranked in the TOP 10 PROJECTS over at SourceForge, the leading compiler of open source software projects in the world. It means that SNAP is one of the 10 highest-rated projects in terms of usage, in a community of over 101,200 projects.


The Jenius was asked earlier this week if Puerto Rico was doomed. The Jenius asked the person to define "doomed" and she replied, after much thought: "To become a useless and forgotten part of the world." (Convertirnos en una parte inútil y olvidada del mundo.)

Of course, the answer is yes.

Are You surprised? Miffed--if not worse--at my lack of patriotic fervor? Annoyed at My apparently hypocritical turnabout? Upset that I said "of course"?

The Jenius was asked "if Puerto Rico was doomed" in the sense of opinion, not mathematical fact. As the question was posed, the only honest answer is "yes."

Fact: Puerto Rico's competitiveness--the measure of national attractiveness and effectiveness as a production center--is dropping relative to most other countries.

Fact: Puerto Rico's graduation rate in scientific and technical fields is dropping, Without these experts, key factors in the new global economy will have to be found outside of Our shores, no matter how talented the dwindling few are (and believe Me, We have world-class talent.)

Fact: The current educational system--based on a curriculum developed in the mid-1950s--is falling farther behind every year in its ability to create the knowledge workers of The Future.

Fact: The Fools continue to act like they run the country, doing so in the manner of drunken apes in a battered 1953 Ford pickup. (My apologies to Ford.) The Fools don't see the road We must take and We are thus headed for further disasters.

Fact: Our media is more intent on slapstick and chatter than on vital issues. If the media doesn't define what's vital to Our interests and foster proper debate about those issues, We are left at the mercy of frenzied parrots, squawking magpies and the largely-irrelevant mutterings of media sources outside of Puerto Rico.

Fact: We can change all this.

Are We doomed? If We continue what We are doing--and not doing--yes, We are doomed to becoming irrelevant and mostly useless to the world.

The Jenius will do His best to see that that doesn't happen. He is one of hundreds, hopefully thousands, who will alter the course from doom to zoom, from useless to peerless, from irrelevant to irreplaceable.

You know what you're going to do. You do, right?

The Jenius Has Spoken.

No comments: