When a dream becomes a nightmare (story of an immigrant in Panama)

Last year, when doing my internship in Panama, i had the chance to meet a colombian girl named Luz. It was a sunny sunday and i went to the salon because i wanted to do my nails.

When i got there and asked if there was someone free, the manager (a panamenian 50 years old woman) said: "Yes, there´s a colombian".

Luz introduced her self and i could perceive she felt relieved when she realized i was colombian too. She was tall, with red hair and big, brown eyes. She began doing my nails and asked me what was i doing there, i told her about my job and she asked: "But are you legal here?", she was surprised when i answered that i was and then she began telling me about her...

"I'm 27, and i was bored in Medellin, i had my motorcycle there and it was the only asset i had for working. Ilm hair styler and i used to visite my clients in their own homes.. until when i got robbed. There was when i lost my job because without the scooter, the transportation became really expensive and its wasnt worthy. So, i dedicated to look for a job and i never could get one. There was when a friend's friend told me about Panama and the huge amount of money i coud get here. She told me i needed no visa, and as a tourist i could stay  for a month..then, i just had to hide from immigration police and get a job, earn in dollars, save, and go back to colombian with the amount of money necessary to establish my own beauty salon... so i left everything and i came.

Im here since three months ago and at the beginning i was really excited and happy. The lady who told me about this, contacted me with a friend of her and this friend received me for two weeks while i got a job...but the situation wasnt as easy as i thought.. i visited every salon in the down town and they werent interested in new personnel. After those two weeks, the host told me i had to pay or to leave...and i had no money at all so  i had to beg and implore for more time... se was almost feeding me with some rice and soup at night.. and during the day i could only buy some bread.. i cried a lot and felt desperate...i had never have to beg for nothing.. and i began missing my life in Colombia but i insisted  and tought on how coward would i look like if i came back that soon... so i tried to handle it longer...

Until when i found a guy who knew Karla (the salon owner) and she hired me. I thought i had found the remedy and i was really thankful...but the rest of the people here (the other 5 girls; 4 panamenians, 1 from Dominic Republic) werent good at me...they began doing comments and jokes against me calling me hore or saying they were going to call the police...i've cried a lot and now that, on top of that, the owner is paying me half of the wage she promised at the beginning, i wanna leave, i hate this country, this people...i havent left case im waiting until i save enough money for paying at least the ticket cost...but im counting down...i just cant wait"

That was the first and only time i saw Luz. Two weeks after, i came back to the salon and i didnt see her, so i asked the manager and all what she said was that the police went to the salon surpresily and had deported her, that she was may be in Colombia or in jail.

(Panama receives more ilegal immigrants form Colombia and Venezuela than any other country in the region. The government has no mechanisms designed to face the situation and provide the legalization opportunities, proper employment, job security and adequate incomes that any person deserves)

The Organizational Culture Importance.

The Organizational Culture Importance.

Nowadays, human beings spend 40 hours or more each week working for organizations. Sometimes the time spent in a company is more than the time shared with the family.

According to this, for our current society to produce self-fulfilled and happy people, it must provide them a valuable element found precisely there, in the company itself; a corporative culture.

The mentioned term refers to the set of values, behaviors, attitudes, principles and beliefs that characterizes and gives “personality” to each company making it unique and giving the employees the possibility of feeling identified with that culture and thus, developing a belonging feeling that will not only affect him/her in a positive way but that will also bring many benefits to the company.

What an individual can achieve when working in an enterprise with a clear, coherent and shared culture is much bigger than what we commonly think and goes from discovering and developing skills (exploding those resources that employees potentially have when hired) to performing to his peak and getting to love his job as if it was his family or his own company. This level of engagement can only be reached when the individual builds a bond with the company that goes further than a contractual relationship and becomes an essential component of his self-identity.

Thus, the company receives a pay-back represented by engaged, motivated employees that will cooperate with each other because they feel they become to a group stronger than each of them and they will more likely do a better job for getting to the company goals given that they feel they are their goals also.

In this way, organizational culture must be considered as one of the most valuable sources of competitive advantages, not only because it generates efficiency and compromise but also because there is no representative asset when there’s no passionate labor force.

THE INDIVIDUAL & THE CORPORATION

SAMUEL PLEASE REMEMBER I HAD TROUBLES WITH THE BLOG ACCESS AND SENT THIS TO YOU AS AN ATTACHED WORD DOCUMENT TO INTERACTIVA ON THE ESTABLISHED DATE.

The individual & the Corporation

Although the corporation is nowadays the most important institution and its power is big enough to influence and control most of the economic, political and social aspects that determine our society, its constant and fierce seek for profits causes the common violation and disregard  of human health, human well being and environmental care.

Corporation´s role is constructive and positive in many aspects. In fact, there are a lot of economic benefits that we would not experience today if it were not for corporations, nevertheless, as a juridic person, corporations must limit their actions not only to the legal, but to the correct and responsible frame. When they don’t, individuals can react (which I consider is more a responsibility than just a right) and oppose to the corporation’s practices that harm their integrity and the integrity of the planet in which they live.

 The mechanism that serves the individuals to react against violations is precisely based on their freedom of expression according to which the people can denounce and condemn what they think interferes with the conditions already explained. Said that, what impacts the most and what corporations are always trying to avoid is a bad  image or reputation which will probably affect their economic development. Making public the issues found in corporation´s practices is the role of individuals that when are not part of a powerful groups cannot do better than alert those groups such as activists, political  and legal figures so they can take corrective actions. I find it useless to take position against a corporation by not consuming what it offers if this position , its cause and above all, the solution that could solve the problem, is not communicated and thus, not taken as a social protest of unsatisfied people. In the same way, corporations that follow the correct practices and processes will find their reward in the consumers acceptation which will be also reflected in the penetration, sales and other variables that measure their success level.