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EL ESPECTADOR

Terrorist "Rebranding"? FARC Needs A New Look — And New Name!

No doubt the rebels cherish their history of armed struggle against the Colombian state, but if they're serious about entering politics, an image makeover is very much in order.

FARC leader Timochenko
FARC leader Timochenko
Daniel Pacheco

-Essay-

BOGOTÁ — With an end to Colombia's decades-long civil war finally in sight, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerillas are expected to disarm at some point, and perhaps even enter public and political life. To accomplish the latter, they'll need to "sell" themselves to voters, a task that won't be easy for a group associated with murder, kidnappings and extortion.

So FARC should start to "rebrand" itself, marketing the group as a new kind of "people's party."

The problem there, of course, is that rebranding belongs to another, ideologically opposed universe: the world of business and advertising; the consumer society; private enterprise! It is "oligarchical," some supporters will say. It's downright capitalistic!

Rebranding is about changing that first impression in a world saturated with labels, and in that sense it's inherently superficial. But it may also prove to be crucial and simply unavoidable for the FARC.

The rebel group won't be able to keep its name and just wrap a perky lizard around it, like the state oil company Ecopetrol did. The big Bogota-based oil firm has somehow "greened" its black soul using the letters ECO its name coincidentally bears (it used to be the Empresa Colombiana de Petróleos).

The FARC-EP (FARC-People's Army) is too loaded with bullet lead for that kind of cosmetic change. It won't be enough to just draw a heart around the acronym, or gussy it up with flowers, because the words each letter represents reek of war: Revolutionary, Armed, Forces, Army.

At the same time, one understands the FARC's reluctance to rid itself of a name that has withstood the vicissitudes of six decades of fighting against a list of opponents with their own memorable names and initials: the AUC paramilitaries, CIA, Plan Colombia. Many fighters will have an emotive attachment to those four capital letters.

[rebelmouse-image 27089803 alt="""" original_size="640x480" expand=1]

Protester at an anti-FARC march in Medellín, Colombia — Photo: medea_material

Marketing gurus might say the FARC has etched out its place in the ideological marketplace, and become an undeniably international brand. The rebel group could try keeping the initials and change the words they stand for. They certainly wouldn't be the first political group to bank on the ignorance or total memory loss of the Colombian people. The beloved FARC-EP initials could perhaps represent the Federación Amada Reformista Campesina-Empresa Patriótica(Beloved Reformist Peasant Federation Patriotic Enterprise) or the more candid Familias Andinas Resentidas del Campo Estamos Putos(Resentful Andean Rural Families We're Furious).

But regardless of whether people actually know what the letters stand for, the negative connotations to violence, first off, but also to secrecry are unavoidable. The name will always conjur up what sociologist Daniel Pécaut calls the "introverted origins" of the group, as bequeathed by its late leader, Manuel Marulanda.

The whole point of rebranding is that FARC fighters would emerge from their hideouts and utilize the platforms of peace and international mediation to put their past behind them. They need to start a new, leftist political party that can last and, who knows, perhaps even govern one day.

I would not recommend organizing again as the Patriotic Union, a party the FARC helped found three decades ago following previous peace talks. The history of that group is bloodstained as well. I'd suggest a totally new approach, one that would still be rebellious, irreverent, and even angry, but also with that eminently democratic trait: humor.

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Future

AI Is Good For Education — And Bad For Teachers Who Teach Like Machines

Despite fears of AI upending the education and the teaching profession, artificial education will be an extremely valuable tool to free up teachers from rote exercises to focus on the uniquely humanistic part of learning.

Journalism teacher and his students in University of Barcelona.

Journalism students at the Blanquerna University of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.

© Sergi Reboredo via ZUMA press
Julián de Zubiría Samper

-Analysis-

BOGOTÁ - Early in 2023, Microsoft tycoon Bill Gates included teaching among the professions most threatened by Artificial Intelligence (AI), arguing that a robot could, in principle, instruct as well as any school-teacher. While Gates is an undoubted expert in his field, one wonders how much he knows about teaching.

As an avowed believer in using technology to improve student results, Gates has argued for teachers to use more tech in classrooms, and to cut class sizes. But schools and countries that have followed his advice, pumping money into technology at school, or students who completed secondary schooling with the backing of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have not attained the superlative results expected of the Gates recipe.

Thankfully, he had enough sense to add some nuance to his views, instead suggesting changes to teacher training that he believes could improve school results.

I agree with his view that AI can be a big and positive contributor to schooling. Certainly, technological changes prompt unease and today, something tremendous must be afoot if a leading AI developer, Geoffrey Hinton, has warned of its threat to people and society.

But this isn't the first innovation to upset people. Over 2,000 years ago, the philosopher Socrates wondered, in the Platonic dialogue Phaedrus, whether reading and writing wouldn't curb people's ability to reflect and remember. Writing might lead them to despise memory, he observed. In the 18th and 19th centuries, English craftsmen feared the machines of the Industrial Revolution would destroy their professions, producing lesser-quality items faster, and cheaper.

Their fears were not entirely unfounded, but it did not happen quite as they predicted. Many jobs disappeared, but others emerged and the majority of jobs evolved. Machines caused a fundamental restructuring of labor at the time, and today, AI will likely do the same with the modern workplace.

Many predicted that television, computers and online teaching would replace teachers, which has yet to happen. In recent decades, teachers have banned students from using calculators to do sums, insisting on teaching arithmetic the old way. It is the same dry and mechanical approach to teaching which now wants to keep AI out of the classroom.

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