How do people win the lottery?

This is a story about coincidences. But if you want to be more rational, I can say it's about probabilities. It happened to me and some of my friends in the summers of '95 and '96 during our traveling across Europe.
Here is some data that is important to really appreciate the magnitude of this story:
European countries - 42
Europe's surface – 10.404.000 sq. Km (4.017.000 sq. mi.)
Number of Europeans – 702.300.000 (with the Russian Federation)

August 1995
Hot summer. We were at Tessaloniki in Northern Greece, and wanted to go to Istanbul, Turkey. The travelling conditions were not the best ones. The train was really old and full. When I say 'full', I want to mean the kind of 'full' where people can't move a muscle. Fortunately we had reserved our seats. The search began, after a while someone found them, but... they were occupied by some soldiers and two old persons! Now it will be difficult to explain, how difficult it was to explain them, that those seats were ours. We tried every language we knew and then we started what it seemed a mimic game. He had no luck! I think that after a while they were pretending they didn’t understood us. After the ticket collector appeared they left, and we finally had a little more space.

After some long hours of travel, we arrived at the 1st stop in Turkey. The station is called Uzunkopru. It was about 1AM. The necessary tourist visa had to be bought. The price was 10 USD, valid for 3 months. The way people had to pay, was very original. For example, persons from England had to pay in British Pounds, people from Germany had to pay in DM. To worst the story there wasn't any exchange office in the station. A couple (he was English, she was Spanish) was in trouble, because he didn't have Pounds at the moment. They asked us if we had Pounds to exchange, but unfortunately we didn't. After an exhausted search in the train, they had luck, and found someone who was able to exchange the money.

After this episode in the border, we faced some more long hours of travel, before arriving in Istanbul. The beautiful Bosporus separates the only city in the World that belongs to two Continents (Europe and Asia). We stayed in Istanbul for 2 days, enjoying the culture, the mosques, the people, the "Grand Basaar" and of course the tea!We had to do the same way back to Greece. I remember that the train was at the beginning of the night. Suddenly it starts to rain so strongly that in 10 min. the streets near the station (in downtown) were completely flooded. It was like a tropical rain, the weather was hot and humid. This time we had lots of space in the train, which has almost empty. The train was starting to move when the English/Spanish couple appears! We remembered each other's from the opposite journey so we stayed together. They had bought a wine bottle and they shared it with us. It tasted so good! Even from plastic glasses! When the train arrived to Tessalonik we said goodbye, and thanked them for the nice company. We then took a train to Athens and stayed there for one day, after we took another train to Patras in the Southwest.

Our objective has to catch the ferry in Patras that would take us to Corfu (or Kerkira), a Greek island in the Ionian Sea. After walking some minutes from the train station, we arrived to the harbor and there was a boat almost departing! We run the fast we could and we managed to catch it! (At this time you may be thinking, nice holidays... always running to catch trains, boats, ... Nice stress!! My experience tells me that it can be very fun!) When we where trying to find a place free (the ferry was crowded), guess who we found? That’s right the English/Spanish couple!! We started laughing!! We had dinner together and continued our talk braked in the Tessaloniki/Istanbul train.After the dinner we said goodbye and wished each other's luck. And where ends the 1995 part of the story. Let me tell you only one more thing. This ferry trip was one of the great trips I’ve made so far! I sleep outside and we catch a storm (no rain fortunately). It looked like I was in a roller coaster. 80% of the ferry’s "population" was vomiting! I’ll let with your imagination the work of picturing the bathroom’s in the day after...

August 1996
In that year’s InterRail, we focused more in Northern and Eastern Europe. One of the countries that we visited was Poland. We planned to go to Warsaw, Krakow and Auschwitz (near Krakow). We spent one day in the concentration camps of Auschwitz and Auschwitz/Birkenau. It was exactly in that day that the unexpected happen.
At the end of the day we were taking the train from Auschwitz (Katowice in Polish) to Krakow. It was a day full of strange emotions. It’s difficult to imagine the awful things that happen in those places. The number of lives destroyed. The camps are surrounded by forests. Silence ruled. Well... but I was saying that at the end of the day we were taking the train to Krakow. I was absorbed in my thoughts when I saw a girl. I had the sensation I knew her from somewhere. But, who could I possible knew in Poland?? Some moments after, Bekas (a friend) called me, really excited. "Miguel, guess who is in the train!" – she said. "I have no idea". "The English/Spanish couple of last year in Greece!!" – she said really excited. In that moment my neurons made the missing connection! The "mysterious" girl was the Spanish!
"We must speak with them!" – I said. When we approached them, they started looking us with a strange-confused face. Suddenly they remembered us! It was a really strange moment. The Europe is so big, with so many persons, with so many trains,... When I think the probability of one thing like that happen I stay very confused! We were all so excited that we didn’t spoke big thing. All we could say was "It’s amazing!", "It’s incredible!",... And were ends this story. I never saw them again. But how knows the future?

Who are our present change engines?

How did you became who you are? Do you like who you are? Do you want to change? Who you are is the sum of the experiences you went through your life, and the way you choose to deal with them. You are a product of the social environment you grew up in. IImagine how different you would be if you were born in some far exotic place. The environment you live in clearly influences who you are. But can you influence the environment that surrounds you? Can you change it? Can you make it better? Maybe, just different? I believe that you can. I'm going to tell you why and how.

History is full of people that dared to be different. They invented. Imagined. Healed. Explored. Created. Inspired. Shocked. They push the human race forward. How different would the world be if these past change engines didn't existed? Society is a very static environment. It is traditional and suspicious of new ideas, especially about those that go against or question its most fundamental beliefs. Religion, advertising, movies and other mediums of message spreading tend to homogenate human brains. Not that those messages are good or bad, that's irrelevant for this discussion. The point is that they are the same. They encourage homogeneity. It is sad when the best you can do is a perfect imitation of those that surround you. It takes courage to go against the majority. Imagine Galileo's audacity to challenge the powerful catholic church by supporting Nicholas Copernicus idea that the Earth orbits the Sun. This on a time where one could pay the hefty price of dying on top of a woodpile while engulfed by flames. By the passioned defense of his beliefs he was condemned in 1630 to indefinite house arrest.

Who are our present change engines? You are. Whatever your life is, any time you decide to convert your thoughts into actions you are influencing your surroundings you and by doing that you are changing the world. Changing the world doesn't involve only glorious actions that you may read on the New York Times' front-page. They can be as simple as giving feedback to others, planting a tree, donating 5 dollars or speaking about something you believe in. It's just like filling a glass a drop at a time. It may take some time to see visible results but the filling is already happening. Today while driving home take a moment to think about the ways you are already influencing the world.

Are you another dot in a gray painting? Are you just like the rest? Thinking the same thoughts? Performing the same actions? We grow up with underlying messages of 'Independent Thinking Unwelcome'. Just look back on your school days. What defined your level as a student were the memorization and the pseudo-comprehension of established ideas. Why bother thinking differently when we don't get any reward for it? There are three methods that will help you to change the world. First, think independently. Defy and ignore precedent. I challenge you to do that. Be opinionated. Question the world that surrounds you. Why? Can I do it differently? Who said that? What's not necessary? What else can be done? What are the negatives? How about down instead of up? Second, take action on your ideas. As important as creating new ideas is to have the courage to take action on them, to make them real. This is where most people fall short, because they are too afraid of failing or compromising. The ideas die in their brains. Third, increase the number of change engines. Ask help from people that have ideals similar to yours. Going back to the water glass analogy, this will be like having multiple drops falling into the glass simultaneously. The results will be seen faster, which will motivate more people to join in, creating a chain reaction. The secret resides on the powerful consequence that the sum of all our actions can have!

It is historically proven that one single person's ideas and passions can change the world. You have that power inside of you. Use it. Give something back. As Mohandas Gandhi said, be the change you want to see. Go change the world!

What's up with the death penalty?

Freddie Pitts and Wilbert Lee had meet that night on 1963. That night was the night when two gas station attendants at Port St. Joe in Florida were killed. Freedie and Wilbert were condemned to death for that crime, though no physical evidence linked them to the scene. They lived twelve agonizing years waiting to die for a crime they knew they didn't committed. Their convictions were a result of coerced confessions, erroneous testimony of an alleged eyewitness, and incompetent defense counsel. Waiting for death, in a six feet wide, 9 feet long cell, was their life until another men - sentenced to life for another homicide - confessed to the murders. That new information prompted a second trial. Again, the jury convicted Freedie and Wilbert. In 1975 Florida's governor pardoned the two, mentioning "I am sufficiently convinced that they are innocent". Had their execution not been stayed while the constitutional status of the death penalty was argued in the courts in the early 70s, these two innocent men probably would not be alive today. There are dozens of stories like this. There is Anthony, Ray, James, Robert, Andrew… How do feel about Freddie and Wilbert? What if they were your parents? Or your brothers? Or you? The death penalty was to be abolished. I'm going to tell you why.

I don't believe in the argument of deterrence. Death penalty does not prevent future murders. The US, with the death penalty, has a higher murder rate than any European country, which banned it. Persons who commit murder either premeditate them or they do not. If the crime is premeditated, the criminal is concentrated on escaping detection and conviction. They are sure they are smarter than the justice and don't believe the shadow of capital punishment will touch them. If the crime is not premeditated, is hard to imagine how any punishment will deter it. Most capital crimes are committed during moments of great emotional stress or under influence of drugs or alcohol, when logical thinking had been suspended.

I don't believe in the argument of retribution. Death penalty is not a just response for the taking of a life. Retribution is another word for revenge - an eye for an eye. Our laws should lead us to higher principles that demonstrate a complete respect for life. We don't allow torturing the torturer, or raping the rapist. When someone takes a life, the balance of justice is disturbed, but killing someone does not rebalance the scale, it tips it to the other side. The standards of a mature society demand a more measured response. It should lead us to higher principles that demonstrates a complete respect for life. Vengeance is a very strong and natural emotion, but it was no place in our justice system.

I believe in the argument of innocence. Death penalty imposes an irrevocable sentence. Since 1973, at least 88 people have been released from death row after evidence of their innocence emerged. During the same time 650 people have been executed. How many of those 650 were really guilty? The irrevocable sentence of capital punishment doesn't allow injustices to be corrected. According to the Innocence Project organization as many as 10 percent of inmates in the United States may be factually innocent of the crimes of which they were convicted, according to the National Institute of Justice. That's as many as 200,000 innocent people languishing in American prisons. How do you feel if you were the one that was mistakenly sentenced to die for a crime you didn't commit?

I believe in the argument of arbitrariness and discrimination. The death penalty is applied unfairly. It does not single out the worst offenders. It selects an arbitrary group based on such irrational factors as the quality of the defense counsel, the county in which the crime was committed, or the race of the defendant or victim. A poorly represented defendant is much more likely to be convicted and given a death sentence. Prosecutors also have an enormous discretion about when to seek the death penalty and when to settle for a plea bargain. Situations where police used coerced confessions or questionable eyewitness identifications; prosecutors who exploit false testimony or inaccurate scientific evidence; jurors who are tainted by prejudice; judges who are out for headlines; and suspects who are easy marks -- because of their race, criminal background or inability to afford a good lawyer.

Let's replace the death penalty with life without parole for serious crimes. The safety of society can still be assured without using the death penalty. Let's make the prisoners live a simple life, a life without luxuries or privileges. Let's allow them to give back to society. I don't believe in the death penalty. I don't believe it prevents future murders. I don't believe it is a just response to crime. Let's end this example of barbarity. No society can safely entrust the enforcement of its laws to torture, brutality, or killing.

Why should you become a mentor?

He is 12 years old. He was adopted when he was a little child. Three years ago, after his parents divorced, he moved from Illinois to Michigan with his mother, which lives on social security due to serious health problems. He struggles with school, in part due to ADD. He is African American in a community where the majority is Caucasian. He is a great kid and he's been my mentoree for ten months. I was quite nervous on our first encounter. I've never mentored anyone before and I was not sure if we would get along. The social worker for the mentoring organization was going to introduce us. After the initial moments I went to his room while Sandy, the social worker, talked to his mother about me. His room was a big muddle! Just imagine a room where everything is where it shouldn't be. I was looking for a place to sit. Looking around I found that the bed was the only place uncluttered. The challenge was to arrive there without steeping on the cloths covering the floor. After successfully completing his room obstacle course we started to talk. We found that we both love basketball and sports in general, so we arrange that the first time we went out would be to play some hoops.

Mentoring comes from the Greek word meaning enduring. A mentor is an adult who, along with parents, provides young people with support, counsel, friendship, reinforcement and constructive example. Mentors are good listeners, people who care, people who want to help young people bring out strengths that are already there. Why is mentoring so important? The number of single-parent homes has radically increased, as have two-parent working families. More preventive care is needed, as are support networks to fill the void left by busy or absent parents. Other statistics are equally troubling: each day in the United States, 3,600 students drop out of high school, and 2,700 unwed teenage girls get pregnant. You can help stop and reverse this statistics by becoming a mentor. There are some important lessons I've learned about mentoring.

Mentoring must be a sustained relationship. Investing time in a consistent way is very important for the success of the relationship. The kid will understand that you are there to stay and that you are interest in spending time with him/her. You will see the kid open up to you and every encounter he/she will be more at easy with you.

Benefits go both ways. As in any relationship you also receive by giving. Mentors share in the joy of the quirky humor; the curiosity and wonder; the excitement of learning and discovery; the special bond of friendship. Your personality will become younger and you will relearn the excitement towards many facets of life that you forgot while you were growing up and society transformed you in a very serious individual.

Think like a kid. Things that may seem easy or straightforward to you are often mysterious to young people. Remember when you were young. Recall the questions and doubts you had. Mentorees typically have a number of challenges in their life. Talk with them about the problems you faced in your childhood.

I challenge you to consider mentoring. I hope that the information I gave you will encourage you to want to learn more. You'll be able to handle the mentoring commitment. You can find a list of mentoring organizations in you area at www.mentoring.org - go there today! It's an experience that will change two lives - the kid's and yours.

Why do people give up?

The key to succed is not to give up on your vision and dreams. Here are some example of the kind of 'enlighten' feedback you may receive on one of your ideas. There are millions of people living in the past, afraid to risk, uncapable of dreaming the future. Listen, take any positive aspect out of those comments and keep moving on to your vision. The reason number one why people give up is that they didn't believed strong enough on their ideas, on the first place. You have to see it in your mind, to feel it, to live in a world where your idea is already living.

• "This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us." Western Union internal memo, 1876.
• "The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?" David Sarnoff's associates in response to his urgings for investment in the radio in the 1920s.
• "The concept is interesting and well-formed, but in order to earn better than a "C," the idea must be feasible." A Yale University management professor in response to Fred Smith's paper proposing reliable overnight delivery service. Smith went on to found Federal Express Corp.
• "Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?" H.M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927.
• "I'm just glad it'll be Clark Gable who's falling on his face and not Gary Cooper." Gary Cooper on his decision not to take the leading role in "Gone With The Wind."
• "A cookie store is a bad idea. Besides, the market research reports say America likes crispy cookies, not soft and chewy cookies like you make." Response to Debbi Fields' idea of starting Mrs. Fields' Cookies.
• "We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out." Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles,1962.
• "Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible." Lord Kelvin, president, Royal Society, 1895.
• "If I had thought about it, I wouldn't have done the experiment. The literature was full of examples that said you can't do this." Spencer Silver on the work that led to the unique adhesives for 3-M "Post-It" Notepads.
• "So we went to Atari and said, 'Hey, we've got this amazing thing, even built with some of your parts, and what do you think about funding us? Or we'll give it to you. We just want to do it. Pay our salary, we'll come work for you.' And they said, 'No.' So then we went to Hewlett-Packard, and they said, 'Hey, we don't need you. You haven't got through college yet.'" Apple Computer Inc. founder Steve Jobs on attempts to get Atari and H-P interested in his and Steve Wozniak's personal computer.
• "Professor Goddard does not know the relation between action and reaction and the need to have something better than a vacuum against which to react. He seems to lack the basic knowledge ladled out daily in high schools." 1921 New York Times editorial about Robert Goddard's revolutionary rocket work.
• "You want to have consistent and uniform muscle development across all of your muscles? It can't be done. It's just a fact of life. You just have to accept inconsistent muscle development as an unalterable condition of weight training." Response to Arthur Jones, who solved the "unsolvable" problem by inventing Nautilus.
• "Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You're crazy." Drillers who Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist to his project to drill for oil in 1859.
• "I think there's a world market for about five computers." Thomas J Watson, Chairman of the Board, IBM.
• "The bomb will never go off. I speak as an expert in explosives." Admiral William Leahy, US Atomic Bomb Project.
• "This fellow Charles Lindbergh will never make it. He's doomed." Harry Guggenheim, millionaire aviation enthusiast.
• "Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau." Irving Fisher, Professor of Economics, Yale University, 1929.
• "Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value." Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre.
• "Man will never reach the moon regardless of all future scientific advances." Dr. Lee De Forest, inventor of the vacuum tube and father of television.
• "Everything that can be invented has been invented." Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899.

How can we fight Italian bureaucracy?

"The problems that exist in the world today cannot be solved by the level of thinking that created them." - Albert Einstein

Italy is unique when it comes to government bureaucracy. Italians are known for great design, delicious food and overcomplicated governmental processes. Moving to Italy I knew I was probably going to experience it all first hand.

Bureaucracy in Italy is like Hydra of Lerna, the seven head dragon that Hercules defeated in its second labor. Imagine the danger created by thousands of heads belonging to governmental officials, constantly thinking on how to complicate the simple. The Hydra legend says that when you successfully severed one head you would soon find it replaced by two others. Governmental bureaucracy works in a very similar way. Due to the constant work of complicating the simple, the government constantly needs more heads to deal with the complications produced by the current employed heads. The end result is a perpetual growing of bureaucratic heads, with the news ones bringing a renewed enthusiasm of complicating the simple.

Unlike Hercules I never dreamed about defeating the dragon. You may think that this decision was taken due to a lack of bravado. I simply didn't want to bother myself; I just wanted to start my new life. What could I hope to achieve? I would be dealing with low ranked heads, those that only obey and dutifully follow the complicated web of processes thought by the less numerous, but highly dangerous, high ranking heads. If I dared to challenge the status quo they would probably use one of the many survival techniques heads all over excel at. They would use "I'm just following orders" or "It's been done like this since I started working 30 years ago" or, the most feared one, "We have a reclamation book". This book works in similar ways to a black hole - things go in but nothing comes out.

The first labor was the fiscal code. I arrived to a well organized Ministero delle Finanze office in Bologna. I took my ticket and in 10 minutes I was out the door with my fiscal number. I was stupefied - fast and easy. Where was the wicked work of the heads? Perhaps some big head suddenly realized the painful reality caused by his horde and succeeded in converting every single head into producing constructive thoughts.

The second labor was to get the permesso di soggiorno, which allows a person to work in Italy. Being a European Union citizen I was hoping the process to be effortless, so on a sunny winter morning I went to the Questura (police HQ). When I arrived I took a waiting ticket, I had number nineteen and number four was being served at the moment. I smiled and relaxed while dreaming about a quick wait. A little display was being updated to show the current ticket being attended. After some minutes I noticed that the display and the number of people getting in did not match. There were way to many people getting in! I decided to take no notice of this fact, although deep inside I knew I just had my first chilling contact with some head evil work.

The moment of truth finally came when, in a slip second, the numbers on the display went from fourteen to eighteen. Hell just broke loose in the place - people getting up, yelling, demanding to be received by the capo (chief) head. The situation got worse when, due to the turmoil, number sixteen went first than number fourteen. He was not happy about it and make sure to let number sixteen, the fellow number holders, the heads, and the rest of the police building know about his feelings! I could not believe my luck, I had been one number away from doom.

A lady waiting her turn to be attended decided to mount guard to the door, ensuring that every person entering had in their possession a ticket with a number inferior or equal to the one currently displayed. I look with admiration - there was a true head fighter!

The third labor involved getting the Carta d'Identita (Identity Card). This labor was to be accomplished at the Comune (Mayor's Office). I entered into a spacious room with a very high ceiling. It was probably an old palace now ruled by heads. There weren't any people waiting in line, I felt that maybe luck was again on my side. A head greeted me with a smile and asked me how she could help. I delivered all documents I had and explained that I wanted my Carta d'Identita. The head checked them and said "Very well". In five minutes I had the Carta! I could not believe on how simple it was.

I was leaving the Comune admiring my new document when I noticed that the residence section read 'Lisbonna, Portogallo' although with the correct street address in Forli. I thought going back in, but quickly decided against it. I didn't want to potentially create delays. After all I had in my hands an official document; I was sure they knew what they were doing. A day later I found out that I ought to have returned inside, because the problem returned with a vengeance.

Please go to my page to continue reading the remaing four labors.