Meet José

José María De Lorenzis, septuagenarian, former secretary of the Ministry of Culture in the government of Argentina, and the first grandparent to join Webheads back in June 1999, has 'published' his treatise on culture on the web and sent us the URL.

It's called LA ARGENTINA POSIBLE El desafío and it's here: http://cablemodem.fibertel.com.ar/desafio/

It's in Spanish but if you would like to read it in English you can do that. You simply visit http://world.altavista.com/ and type in the URL above, and select your translation from Spanish to English. The page will open with its English translation with all the hyperlinks translated, so that as you click on the links labeled 'following' you can easily read the document in English.

Message from José, Sept 19, 2002 -

Dear Vance:

Sorry not to have been in contact. Too much work and activities surrounded by a crazy world, and with constant effort to keep values and ethic principies with no complains and accepting the challenge of giving to those who are arround us the enforcement and courage to work hard for the solving of our economic, moral and cultural problems. Of course I want to keep on as a participant of weheads, and be sure that on labor days when I open my e mails I enjoy the value of all your dialogues.

With my best regards As always

José María

I am very happy to be here at Webheads and I would like to introduce myself. I'm José María De Lorenzis. I'm a former Secretary of Culture in Argentina 1980-1983. Now I'm a Public Notary with global activities in Argentina in private corporate affairs. I'm very interested in contacts and exchange of experiences and to improve my English.

I´m 60 years old, married and have four daughters and two sons. Three of my daughters are married and we have four grandchildren with three more grandchildren "in waiting", because all the married daughters are pregnant.

Late breaking news, May 17, 2000: please add to my page that we have now 7 grandchildren, all of them fortunately born four months ago, and that I’m now 61 years old. Thanks. José

The oldest daughter is now coming back to Argentina after a journey of two years to Atlanta, Georgia in the USA, because my son-in-law works as a marketing manager for TETRAPAK, which is a packaging company from Sweden which makes containers for milk and juice, for example. So now they are coming back and we are very happy about it. All the others live here in Buenos Aires.

I work as a notary lawyer with my own private office. I started out as an adviser to the Minister Of Education from 1960 to 1962. I was President of the Inter-American Institute for the Coordination of Scholarships from 1962 to 1965, Public Relations Manager for L´Oreal of Paris from 1965 to 1968, Public Relations Manager for Renault from 1968 to 1975 and then I returned to law activities from 1975 to 1980. I was Secretary of Culture of Argentina from 1980 to 1983 and then I returned to private practice from 1983 until now.

Last week I signed an edition contract for my book "The Possible Argentina". It is simple to talk about what we wish for Argentina with words, but without some sort of common sense it is not easy to think about how to get what we want.

I am trying to challenge the new generation to find out new ways for new achievements and discover what we all have in common. All of these ideas are with the sole purpose to discuss experiences, if somebody finds them attractive, from the cultural point of view.

If we can assume that culture is a universal theme where all subjects are involved, there can be no misunderstandings once we see that the world of culture open doors to a better life for all of us.

Read José’s essays on: (1) The meaning of culture, (2) Culture and nothing but culture, and (3) Ethics

Vance responds, May 16, 2000

Thanks, José, for sending us your essays.

José, on reading your essays, I have some questions for you. First, did you have a purpose for writing these essays? For example, are they for publication or your professional work, or are they meant entirely for our consideration? And second, as a member of our webheads group for quite some time now, how do you see the impact of the Internet on culture and ethics? (Particularly on culture, but also, why not, on ethics).

Does anyone else have any questions for José? – Vance

José responded to these questions. The essays are part of a book he is writing. Maggi has corrected the response, and now you can read it HERE.

Vance and all webheads:

Thanks for the eventual comments you might have on these topics.

What I want to do is to contribute with these opinions to what we might call the universal rescue of common sense. No matter how abstract the themes appear, the fact is that we all need to think about the real reasons to fight, not only for the subjects we have now in front of us, but for the future we want to live and let our descendants live.

I do believe that in order to be remembered, we have now to get together for the exchange of experiences and the improvement of ways for the better kind of life which, although difficult to obtain, is not impossible to try.

Cheers

José María

Eduardo responds, August 11, 2000

José:

I'm from Argentina, even though I've been living in Mexico for a long time, and it's very nice to know that there are people in my country, in such a position as yours, who care not only for economics and technology. Congratulations.

I am also in the process of having a book published. It’s about reading and how to do it better. I will try to translate a few chapters so I can share it with you all.

Best regards.

Eduardo Rhó

José responds, August 15, 2000

Eduardo:

As you are from our country our coincidence of mind will be that cultural subjects are not concerned only with fine arts such as concerts and paintings exhibits, because culture has no limits of issues, since talent, the real and honest talent that exists here now, faces the challenge to give a competitive and clear proposal to a society that strives for a balance between being devoted to the facile nature of Shakira´s activities, and the answers for the unusual question: What do you know how to do?

This is a time for doers and the fact is that we have no more time for critical words, but for sacrifice and efforts to regain the common sense and the ethical basis to be a serious society.

I´ll be glad to exchange experiences with you.

Cheers,

José María De Lorenzis

Vance asked about the reference to Shakira. On 18 Aug 2000 José explained:

It happens that Shakira is now having a romance with our President´s younger son, and papers, radio and TV reporters seem to be so occupied with this affair that it appears as the main problem that we have in Argentina. So my criticism is about the way to create a theatre novel with themes so typical of the heart reviews and comics, but if the mass media present this as an image of a society working to resolve economical, political, and cultural problems, the theme of our President´s son’s romance appears as a joke.-

That is the reason for my criticism.

Cheers

José

José has written on the following Webheads writing assignments:

Click below to find out what José thinks about ...

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Meet José

Last updated: July 8, 2003 in Hot Metal Pro 6.0