Costa Rica: Sentido homenaje a Don Rodolfo Méndez Mata
Ninguna persona ha sido honrada por lo que recibió. Los honores se extienden por lo que ha dado. Calvin Coolidge.
El 3 de enero de 1937 – hace casi 83 años – vino al mundo don Rodolfo Méndez Mata. Nacido en San José, cursó la primaria en la escuela Juan Rudin y la secundaria en el Colegio Seminario. Se graduó luego como Ingeniero Civil en la prestigiosa Universidad de Kansas, Estados Unidos. Hombre de familia, procreó cuatro hijos.
Don Rodolfo ha ejercido variados cargos públicos, incluyendo el de Diputado de la República (1994-1998), Ministro de la Presidencia (1990-1992) y es el único costarricense (a mi entender) que ha ejercido el cargo de Ministro de Obras Públicas y Transportes en tres ocasiones, como lo atestiguan sus años de servicio en el puesto entre 1978-1982, 1998-2000 y desde el 2018 hasta la fecha. Es precisamente este último periodo de servicio público el que me ha impulsado a escribir este artículo. Dicen que los honores deben extenderse en vida: sean entonces estas líneas mi humilde contribución al honor que don Rodolfo merece. Porque… ¿Quién, pasados sus 80 años y merecidamente jubilado, optaría voluntariamente por salir del retiro para ejercer de nuevo la complicadísima, casi tortuosa labor de regente del MOPT? Hay que estar loco – y don Rodolfo está más lúcido que todos nosotros – o bien tener una vocación profesional sobresaliente, amén de una voluntad y espíritu de servicio casi sobrehumanos.
Son precisamente esas cualidades, aunadas a su experiencia y calidad profesional, las que están convirtiendo su actual gestión en la más productiva que ha tenido el alicaído MOPT durante los últimos 40 años. Y no lo dice únicamente quien suscribe, lo reconocen voces tan variopintas como Olman Vargas, Director del Colegio de Ingenieros y Arquitectos; la Directora de la Cámara Nacional de Transportes, Silvia Bolaños; Rubén Vargas, Secretario General de la Unión de Taxistas y muchas otras.
La evidencia soporta estas positivas opiniones: nunca habíamos visto tanta obra en inminente o franca ejecución. Considérense la ampliación de la vía Limonal-Cañas, la ruta 32, Lindora, Circunvalación Norte, pasos a desnivel en esa misma ruta, pasos a desnivel en la ruta a Cartago, asfaltado en la ruta a Monteverde, los pasos a desnivel en la carretera a Cartago, la próxima ampliación de la ruta 1, las vías exclusivas para el transporte público, el puente del Saprissa, solo por mencionar algunas intervenciones.
De mi parte, quisiera simplemente extender un reconocimiento a don Rodolfo acompañado de un sentido agradecimiento. Su valentía, su voluntad y su capacidad están a punto de resolver una serie de “nudos viales” (espejos de nuestros nudos mentales como sociedad) que han tenido ahogado al país por décadas. Que Dios le conceda muchos años más, caballero, para que mire prosperar su obra, la cual debe ser reconocida por todos los costarricenses de esta y las próximas generaciones.
PD: Estoy terminado de escribir este artículo cuando miro en las noticias que pronto iniciarán además las obras para acabar con los problemas de tránsito asociados a los semáforos de los Hatillos. ¿Será posible que pronto podamos circular sin detenernos a lo largo de toda esta crucial carretera? Les propongo una idea: bauticemos al anillo de circunvalación como la Ruta Nacional Rodolfo Méndez Mata.
ARTÍCULO PUBLICADO EL 27 DE NOVIEMBRE EN EL DIARIO DIGITAL CR HOY
DC Summit 2019: it just keeps getting better.
Yes it does! I was kindly invited by Data Center Consultores to this year´s edition of the Datacenter Summit, indeed the biggest event on datacenter technology & related topics in Costa Rica and the region.
What I liked the most about the event was the fact that the portfolio of lectures was really varied, with a nice balance between “techy”, really “inside the DC” topics and the contextual ones: the impact of tech in our society, updates on technological advancements and even the ecological footprint of our progress. Actually the motto for this year was “Revolución 4.0”, which of course is all about entangling the summit with the 4th Industrial Revolution concept as per Herr Klaus Schwab, founder and chairman of the World Economic Forum. So let me share some of the facts & opinions presented during the different conferences, at least the ones that impressed me the most.
In my post from last year´s event “DC Summit 2018: Game of Phones / 5G is coming“, we enforced the “winter is coming” analogy (GoT fan I am…). It is indeed coming, and sooner than what we thought before. As Oscar Chacón, leader for Claro Costa Rica (local subsidiary for the major carrier America Movil) shared, tests on this tech are already happening in the region, and Costa Rica will have its own set of exercises next year. It is quite impressive to compare the latency and speed specs of 5G to 4 & 4.5G networks. Just as a teaser, Mr. Chacón mentioned that the test – not even the final results – in Guatemala delivered a 1100Mbps speed, full duplex. The SMEs panel on this topic discussed the impact and benefits of 5G – this technology is not just a step ahead in speed, its a revolution that includes a new network topology (more granularity), less demand of energy for devices connected to it, an extraordinary small latency and above all, superb performance and stability. 5G, as per the panel of experts, will be the backbone of the Internet of Things and the enabler of a variety of other techs: robotics, a variety of Artificial Intelligence (A)) branches, biomonitoring and many other. It will be the “nervous system” of tomorrow´s world.
Another lecture that captured my attention was the presentation by Mr. Karlo Flores, where he revealed the astounding implications of AI for the medicine of the future. And believe me, astonishing these are… for good and bad. On the positive end, the customization and individualization of medicine will produce astounding benefits. Imagine individually-tailored drugs, treatments, tracking. 24×7 tracking. Customization as per the persona´s DNA. AI-powered prognosis, including the detection of nowadays undetectable early signs of many diseases. Moreover, future horizon of possible events and diseases as per medical history of the person, family, environment and related. On the other hand… privacy is a topic to address. Perhaps you are not aware of it, but we are already sending tons of personal data – including medical info – to undisclosed recipients worldwide. How? Well, “eyes are the window to the soul”, the saying says. Apparently corporations, governments and other have found a backdoor: our cell phones. These things, as per the presenter, are right now monitoring more than 100 physical parameters, including images of us, voice, movement, etc. And the kind of things that whoever is listening can conclude are amazing. Apparently, AI systems can detect early signs of Parkinson by humanly-undetectable speech treats. The voice and breath sound is also used to detect cardiac and respiratory trends and diseases. They also can detect balance and structural issues in our bodies as per gyroscopic + GPS tracking of ourselves when walking with these things in our pants´ pockets; and much more… Who has that data? To what purposes? Will our health insurance policies be affected in the future, for example? All these are questions demanding answers.
On a more positive note, Pascal Toque, expert in Smart Cities, delivered the most practical, concrete talk on this topic that I have heard. He outlined a blueprint for transforming a city into a Smart one. How? Well, three major steps as per him: 1) Connect IoT to the current infrastructure (talking about 5G…) 2) Create a Safe City: a city that is monitored and where data is collected. 3) Create a Smart City: data is not only collected, but analyzed, and trends, conclusions, recommendations and interactions are derived from it. A centralized command center is a requisite for this. Of course, “the devil is in the details”: curiously enough, Mr. Pascal shared that, as per his broad experience, the most challenging aspect is not the technical one, but politics: for a city to be smart, all its different “bodies”/areas (police, firemen, traffic control, water, power, telecommunications, etc. etc.) need to work as a joint force, sharing data, insights and pretty much everything. This is where “siloed” mentality gets in the way, and power feuds ruin the fest. Oh well… its human nature. We will get there somehow.
The lady on the photo atop – Lorraine L. – delivered an interesting speech on infrastructure resiliency vs climate change. Climate is changing – its a scientific fact – and it is causing extreme weather effects everywhere, ever more frequently. Our infrastructure – and IT/COM is not the exception – our infra needs to be designed so to endure these conditions. Eg, 5G will not be of any good if the 12% increase in lightning experienced by every 1 degree of temperature increase is not accounted for, not to mention floods, severe storms and other events. The speech was a nice refresher mixing the “Al Gore” flavor with the IT world.
Of course there were more lectures ranging from battery topics, electrical design for DCs, machine learning, digital transformation and future hospitals. What a menu! I´ll tell you something: you always learn something at the DC Summit event – loved this year broad scope, it is a day for you to catch-up with the latest. I´m already looking forward for 2020 – cheers and thanks for a superb summit!
Fernando
