In this powerful episode of Bitcoin for PEACE, we delve into the intersection of women's rights, financial autonomy, and Bitcoin with Mercedes Juarez, a seasoned women's rights expert who has worked in over 50 countries. Mercedes shares her extensive experience in advocating for women's health, wellness, and financial independence, particularly in the Global South. We discuss the challenges women face in escaping violence and becoming autonomous, and how Bitcoin can be a transformative tool in this journey.
Mercedes highlights the systemic issues within the development industry and the importance of strategic, culturally sensitive interventions. She emphasizes the need for a holistic approach that includes financial education and community support. We also explore the concept of circular economies and the importance of creating sustainable, self-sufficient communities.
Throughout the conversation, Mercedes shares poignant stories and insights from her work, illustrating the profound impact of empowering women with financial tools like Bitcoin. We also touch on the importance of ethical considerations and the need for a shift in mindset within the Bitcoin community to truly leverage this technology for social justice and equity.
Join us for an enlightening discussion that underscores the potential of Bitcoin to create a more peaceful and equitable world, especially for women in vulnerable situations.
ABOUT MERCEDES:
International women’s specialist with 40 years’ experience as a consultant, trainer, and researcher in the fields of education, development aid, global health and gender issues. Senior adviser in the education and health sector to governments and international institutions such as the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT), Directorate-General for International Cooperation-Dutch government, Danida-Danish Government, Foreign Commonwealth & Development Office-UK Government, UNICEF, UNFPA, WHO and World Bank, in Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America. She agrees with Saifdean’s definition from the FIAT standard that all of the above can be characterized as “the misery industry”.
In her teenage years she participated in community development programmes organized by the Jesuits throughout Mexico. Growing up in the slums of Mexico City Mercedes' activism was born as a result of experiencing the drastic social contrast in Mexican society which still prevails to this day. As many of her peers in the 70’s she studied Marxism and it’s most prominent critics such as Foucault in depth, and considered it as the most viable route towards social justice, however now in her 70’s she has become an ardent supporter of bitcoin for achieving her life long goals of supporting underprivileged populations and particularly women.
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(00:00:02) Introduction and Episode Overview
(00:01:19) Meet Mercedes Juarez: Women's Rights Advocate
(00:02:14) Mercedes' Background and Work in Women's Health
(00:07:59) Challenges in Women's Health and Domestic Violence
(00:13:47) Bitcoin as a Tool for Escaping Domestic Violence
(00:20:04) Community Support and Strategic Interventions
(00:27:26) Cultural Sensitivity in Bitcoin Adoption
(00:33:01) Creating Sustainable Economic Opportunities
(00:41:00) The Role of Women and Family in Bitcoin Adoption
(00:51:29) Future of Bitcoin and Cultural Capital
(00:55:06) Building a New Society with Bitcoin
(01:00:07) Final Thoughts and Call to Action
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[00:00:03]
Unknown:
Hey, guys. If you care about helping women understand Bitcoin from the lens of how to escape violence, how to become more autonomous and sovereign, and how to build a better future for their lives and family, especially in the Global South. Please tune into this episode. It's very powerful with Mercedes Juarez who is a women's rights expert. And she's been working around the world in more than 50 countries and serving women and helping them understand best practices for their wellness, their healthcare, community building, and then the financial layer. And so Bitcoin is a really, really powerful tool and we discuss her work. And I really, really am so grateful. You guys have got to check this out. All right. Aloha.
Hey, aloha. Get ready for an epic episode. And if you love it, please share it. You know why? Because you got the love. Enjoy, my friends. Hey. Aloha, love tribe. Welcome to Bitcoin for Peace. I have somebody here with me who has spent the better part of 4 decades advocating for women and women's rights all over the world. This is Mercedes Juarez. Thank you so much for being here, Mercedes.
[00:01:35] Unknown:
Thank you for your invitation, Valerie. It's a pleasure to be here with you.
[00:01:39] Unknown:
It is. I'm so glad to finally get to have this one on one with you. Daniel has been on me for the last year or probably more. He's like, You need to talk to my mom. And I'm like, Okay. So, I know our paths have crossed in a couple other areas on some on some spaces, and I got to interview you guys before you had done the retreat, and it's just such an honor to have you here. Can you, intro you know, let everybody here know, like, what you've been doing, who you are, how your background, you came from women's work, and obviously now you're integrating Bitcoin into the women's work that you're doing?
[00:02:14] Unknown:
Yes. Well, my background, it's from the development industry, is precisely broadly summarizing what Saifedean Amusco called, in the Fiat Standard, the misery industry. There you can find a lot of well intended people that I tend to identify with the Bitcoiners, some that are trying to go into this kind of the general known as development world. And, one would think that they take all the different values that the Bitcoin community is taking pride on, like motives, like don't trust verify, for instance. Mhmm. But to my surprise, when they go to the community, they don't do any coherent things of what we are advocating in terms of what it means to adopt Bitcoin.
And one of the things that I have encountered in this for decades or more, traveling and working with different communities in over 50 countries. The first thing is I had to work with different cultures, with different women. My area of expertise is health. So my main concern was to protect women's health, and promote women's health. That's because, I identify, coming from social sciences background, identify when there is a health crisis, the poor women go into a deeper crisis in poverty. And then there's no way that they regain even the same level of poverty they were in.
Not to talk when they die, that can also be the case. The man who is led as widow with his children, it's just almost impossible that he's able to to take the children ahead on his own. Mhmm. And I contextualizing this, the vulnerable population. So the this has made me think that my experience could contribute with all this agenda that we are seeing nowadays in Bitcoiners, trying to assist some unbanked population. And I think, the mistake the mistakes that we have made in development, I've seen them very often replicated nowadays in what the Bitcoiners are promoting as development.
What I mean is we tend to fall again into this misery industry. Mhmm. That that, is criticized in somehow in the field standard. So, having worked in all kind of international agencies, what happens is in these agencies, you talk about NGOs or the UN system, you have very well intended people like in the Bitcoin community. Yeah. But that doesn't mean that the output is gonna be a positive one. And, so far, I've been seeing a lot of serious mistakes. And I might sound as a grumpy old woman now, but I would really like to share what it has meant this over 40 years of experience in this area. Mhmm. And not only in the health sector, but working with professionals that don't understand most of the time what they are dealing with these, patients.
And for them, it's it's a body. It's not a women or men's body, it's a body. So my work was really some kind of sensitization to learn basically doctors and and biomedical professionals to see different women's body. Because it's totally different physiological, biological, and the roles that we play into society, which means the pattern of morbidity and mortality is gonna be different to the men. But also physiological, for instance, I had the at at some point during my career, I had to train doctors to identify, for instance, the signs for, diagnosing heart attack, because the anatomic books are based on the men's body. Right?
And then, I mean, for instance, back pain didn't mean anything to them as related to heart attack, but for the women, it tend to be the the back. So then also this anxiety, doctors tend to prescribe, oh, well, you have some calming drugs because you're anxious, you're nervous, the stereotype of a woman, a neurotic anxious woman. And it's giving signs the body that is coming under a crisis like a heart attack. So all these misconceptions are reflected in all kind of diseases. I work a lot of in chronic diseases and in infectious diseases, for instance. And the pattern was the same all the time. For instance, women try very hard to support the men in a in a couple relationship, for instance, for regaining the health.
But if the woman falls ill, the man is not supportive at all. In serious illness, like, for instance, TB, that the treatment is very long, men tend to be the most complicated development of tuberculosis, and it kills much more than COVID, for example, isn't it? So there are trends in in diseases and in health. So these, for instance, diseases that have been forever like leprosy, nobody cares anymore. But women are suffering that in very specific situations just because they are women, just because the treatment is designed for men, or just because culturally, society treats differently the men and the women who are ill. So these minor things happen in, situations like domestic violence.
I had a very hard time to convince my male doctors colleagues to include, for instance, in some countries, as indicator, domestic violence. And the main reason they gave me, it was a very solid one, well, we report when diseases are decreasing because that's the success story. So TB, malaria has decreased in such percent due to our intervention as biomedical field. Mhmm. But then when it's domestic violence, it was the opposite, because you report the increasing number of women who are reporting domestic violence. To start with, domestic violence reflects a lot of problems because, for instance, in poverty, the men want sex, but they don't want the women to get pregnant because it's a burden. It's another child to feed.
So they resort to being violent with their partner. And the doctors, when they received this woman, completely abused, they say, well, I'm a gynecologist, I don't deal with all the other. So they see the bit of the body, even if the the pregnancy is in danger, they they don't act or they cannot even act because in the system there's nothing for these abused women. There's one area of pregnancy but that's it. You see? So the whole system, the whole society in this fiat economy is designed in a way that women don't count.
And when we talk about the global south, I'm talking about all different groups of women. We all go to the market, we might buy different things, upper class women are more resourceful, can buy more things, but the poor women are left on their own. But all of them are under this cultural dynamic, where you have to please, where you have to be always presentable, where you are approved by the man to become someone, and if you're depending on that man. In the south global, this is the prevalent domain, so another problem I see in the Bitcoin community is we are portraying an image of a distorted women, TV presenters for instance, or models that go and say adopt Bitcoin.
These very fancy girls that are completely far away from what is the reality of our women, at least for Latin America. But having worked in Southeast Asia, for India, Bangladesh, nothing to tell. So for me, the number one question is, what kind of women are we portraying? And are we using the women's body just to say, oh, adopt Bitcoin, this is a new story and, now you are convinced that you have to use Bitcoin. But that's a TV presenter, it's a show, or is to put something on the on the social media, but it doesn't evolve further because we're not thinking strategically.
And that's my main concern. Throughout my history, I was a Marxist, very solid, convinced Marxist, because I come from a very, very poor background. A a Marxist, you said? Yes. Yeah. Marxist because I come from a very poor background, and I managed by different situations to reach primary school, then secondary school, and I made it to the university which in Mexico, where I was born, is very unlikely that you can make it if you come from where I came. My grandmother was an indigenous woman, barefoot, who hardly spoke Spanish because she spoke the dialect now at all. So then in this context, what I saw and I learned to live among them, the indigenous people, is they don't have the way to decodify the dominant culture.
Unbanked women and unbanked population are unbanked, not because the banks are not there, it's because they cannot decode the banking system. And of course sometimes they don't mean they don't fill in all the requirements demanded by the banks. But basically they don't know how to administer the money or how to save their money. So bitcoin is the opportunity in history for them to come and belong to the financial world, and make use of these resources, and be as all we want to be, independent, self sustainable. They want it as well, but the means are not available to them.
[00:13:15] Unknown:
Let's talk about because I wanna come back to when we were on a spaces about a month or so ago. It was a women's spaces, and we were talking about, you know, escaping domestic violence using Bitcoin. So a couple of things. I would love if you could maybe share a story of how, you know, you've encountered women who are working, and they're utilizing Bitcoin as a savings tool so that perhaps they could leave a situation that is, abusive, that's hurting them, that possibly they can start a new life. And and then we're gonna do a second question just about what are, you know, some ways that, you know, you're supporting women on the ground, like in groups or in the projects, that you're working on so that we can help support you, obviously, with your work. So so Yeah. You know, I would love the audience to understand, like, okay. Great. Now you have Bitcoin. How is that gonna help you get out of a domestic violence situation, and what would be an example of of that? Yes. Well, I'm gonna talk to you
[00:14:16] Unknown:
in, in, I'm gonna say, in the future to come. Because what we are doing now is working we are working at community level here in Yucatan with different groups of women that produce different kind of products. For instance, they are in the textile industry, they they, need hammocks, they provide all kind of products resulting from honeybees that is our specialty only locals with this honey has some properties, some key properties from the Maya tradition, from centuries it's existed. So they are rescuing back, and they are creating all kind of products. Some of them are from the old tradition, like drops for the eyes, but nowadays they are creating creams, for instance, or soaps with this honey.
And others, for instance, are growing their own food. They have eco friendly practices, rescuing the Maya practices. So all this, is to say that we intervene strategically. We choose communities that have something to offer, that they are already producing, Because we don't believe that circular economy is just you introduce and you give Bitcoin, and they start to pay teachers, and they start to and what is gonna happen when these Bitcoiners externally are not introducing Bitcoins in that community? Mhmm. And so where is the sustainability of that? And that's exactly the mystery industry.
We call it donor driven, we have a term for that. Donut driven is when you want to see something and you artificially create something. I can come from the Eastern Europe, I can come from American Evangelist Church, and then I create my NGO, and then I introduce Bitcoin. Not necessarily is gonna be the result positive because what's gonna happen when you're not there? When you find a better job? Or, some girls have seen that they are offered a better job with another Bitcoin company, and in no time, they they reaccommodate themselves.
So I think the Bitcoin community has to examine also a set of values. It's not only about personal gaining and self promotion. It's about how are you there to take this historical opportunity to advance all the population that has been very vulnerable, at least for the global south, that's essential. Maybe you don't feel it in the northern economies. I think you do, but in a different way. Yeah. Because sometimes the government subsidizes artificially these vulnerable groups. But in the, global south, the government is absent totally. So then poor people have to find their own solutions.
And in this case, for me, talking about women is you have to identify all the hats that we normally use as women. One of them is the finances, but maybe most important is being a mother. And they think about money just because they are mothers and they want to feed their children, but it's money in itself is not the essence, you see? That's the main difference that I see, from the feminist point of view. Men and women have different social roles, and because of their social roles, their needs and priorities are gonna be different. So women, and and I did a long, long time, projects that were reinforcing men, And when they were able to be more productive, to have better income, they used that extra money, not for their families, but to drink with their friends, to go and have fun, or to do something for themselves.
When you support women, they usually tend to use that for their family, for their children. So that's a different story, and the output is gonna be totally different. So women, in the long term, what I see with Bitcoin, it's very clearly that they can become independent. Just because Bitcoin, because it's proper characteristics, you don't need physically to deposit in someone else's hands. You can use it yourself. That in itself, if you are in an abusive relationship, is an incredible freedom. Because you can walk out of this relationship without the fear how will you survive economically, Alone or with your children?
[00:18:51] Unknown:
And and let me ask you this. So because, obviously, you know, I had another interview with somebody about domestic violence a couple months ago, and I had to take the interview down, because she was threatened, for telling her story. And so a couple of things. So when somebody let's say they're in a situation that is is volatile and violent and perhaps involves, you know, the partner's drinking and not really thinking clearly. If you're somebody who is vulnerable and you're trying to save some Bitcoin on your phone, right, if that's the only place you can have Bitcoin. Are you helping people understand, like, 2 things, like deleting the apps so that you don't have a trace of them and just kind getting the apps on and off when you need to use Bitcoin, and then secondly, having a decoy setup so that if your partner does find that you're saving Bitcoin, that you can be like, oh, here you go. Yep. You found it, and it's like a small stack versus, like, your real stack somewhere else.
Is that you know, how do you solve for those 2 issues?
[00:20:00] Unknown:
Well, what I was trying to tell you is to be there where the women in the north are. For the women in the south, this is a huge distance. To start with, we don't have electricity regular, we don't have the the regularity to put, in the cell phone some credit. Sometimes they and I saw it in Salvador as well. One of the limitations for using Bitcoin is that they didn't have always credit, the women, for their funds, which means you can reduce it. Yeah? Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then another limitation was that in Salvador, it was promised that they would have access, for free to Internet, and all of a sudden it was not there. So then if you don't have access to Internet, it's another story.
So the only way we see it is, that's why we go to community because we need a group, we need other women's support. Because if you, your cell phone doesn't have money and mine has, we might be able to help each other. In this month, you don't have to pay Internet, and we have access to other means for Internet, we might be able to help each other. So still we are in the process of creating all that because, when you talk with vulnerable population, all the situations and conditions we take for granted in a middle class, in the global south as well, but in the northern countries, it's not there. Yeah. It's not there, and that's number one thing. The partner usually here is an uneducated man, is, probably women might know better to use the iPhone than he does. Mhmm. So there is it's not, a situation that you will encounter very very as as clear as you depicted this situation, for instance.
But if the women is so advanced that it has been able to keep some, say, bitcoins, she will need another kind of protection in the Mexican context. And sometimes, women are very reluctant to hide from the men, even if they are abused and maltreated. In our culture, women are taught, and I saw it in Africa as well. I can give you examples where the chief is always a male or tends to be a male. Maybe there is 1 or 2 women as as chiefs over the whole tribe. So for instance, I remember perfectly well in this was in Mozambique, and checking on the different girls, one was extremely abused, and she was very young in in 16 years old. When I went to check, according to health sector, we they report to the chief, they report to the police, and they should be helping them.
So when I asked her, do you report to the chief? Did you report to the police? And said, no. I didn't go to police because my chief told me you have to be obedient with your husband. And I did many times, and he insists that I have to be obedient with my husband. That's nowadays, it it hasn't changed. So then for them are hierarchies and authorities in the community that they cannot at all challenge. You see, sometimes it's not the partner in itself. And sometimes, for instance, working with Arab women is the mother-in-law, the one who decides. She knows that the girl is abused, but she will protect the son. And she will decide when the women are pregnant, for instance. It's not the man who decides. So culturally, there are a lot a lot of things that you have to take into account in order to introduce Bitcoin.
For instance, if you go to the top of El Cusco and you find these indigenous people say, oh, amigo, and then here is your Bitcoin, a picture with you and me. I mean, it's very patronizing. It's almost insulting to our indigenous cultures. They will say yes because they they want the money. But it's the fiat understanding of the money, not the Bitcoin understanding of the money. And that's what is very sad, because we have the opportunity to make a difference. Our interaction with unbanked population, with women, with abused women, with indigenous people. Everything can be redefined, but we need to be aware as Bitcoiners that that we need really to create a different society, and Bitcoin is an instrument.
So if we are willing to do that, it's not only about my self promotion, it's not only about me having Bitcoins and being one of the most eligible bachelors, or me, women, going with the bitcoiners because I will secure my future economy. You see? The distorted mind of the fiat economy is too strong, And Bitcoin is I I think we need to work also having worked with Buddhist cultures. We need to work on self transformation as well together with the economy.
[00:25:10] Unknown:
Total yeah. And I think a lot of us get excited because we're like, yeah. Look. We have a tool. It's one tool in the toolbox to create a more peaceful planet on Earth for everybody. And Exactly. It's if we're not doing inner work, if we're not doing work on the system itself and how things function, whether it's the system of our family, the system of our community, the system of Yeah. Nation states, it's it's not gonna work. You have to have a holistic approach, you know, and there's no one size fits all. Like you said, what goes on in one country culturally is gonna be very different than what goes on, you know, in the North or the South or or elsewhere. So so this isn't just, yay, we have the tool, and let's go hooray. Exactly. Okay. Yay. We do have a tool, but how do we implement it, strategically and compassionately in in different areas. Exactly. Yes. You know? And it does take time. You know? And I think, you know, to your point, I have I'm actually interviewing Isabella Santos right after you. Yeah. And I think she worked on the movie with Motive in Peru, and I think that's what you're talking. I'm not sure if that's what you're speaking of about just going in and, yay. Here's Bitcoin, and we're just gonna donate it to everybody. Like, I really like what you're saying about, you know, when we're thinking in terms of a circular economy, when we're thinking in terms of adoption.
You know, I've been in Ubers before or at a, you know, restaurant. I'm like, I wanna tip you in Bitcoin. And they're like, Well, okay, cool. But then what do you do after? If you don't have a follow-up and follow through and ability to keep that consistency going so that people on their learning journey understand one step at a time and feel held on that journey, and they've got other people to connect with to talk about. So it's it's not effective if it's just throwing it out to one person here and there. And so I think we're all learning, I believe, as new Bitcoiners and as new change makers who wanna enter this, you know, the the the space of the future of money and the space of, hopefully, a a more harmonious planet, I think we're all kinda coming at it from, you know, the angle of our our own experience of what we've had to work with and then learning in our own little, you know, micro communities. And, obviously, you've been,
[00:27:29] Unknown:
wow, 50 countries. This is amazing. And you know, over 50 countries. It's it's just it's incredible. It's it's to me is my experience is the opportunity to encounter different cultures and to see how the programming is so so strong, that if we don't start understanding the culture we're interacting with, like, if I come from Eastern Europe, well, it's fantastic, but your experience is totally different to Peru. And Peru, why? Why strategically do you choose Peru? Because, I mean, I am from social sciences background. I will study what is the social, political, and economic situation minimum. What this little village is gonna represent in terms of a country that is falling apart is one of the worst in Latin America in the pressing history that we have, and we have many, including Mexico as example, of how terrible is the politics nowadays, in terms of being so shameless about how to use the poor people. And so we are repeating the same, being beat corners, that's not fair. That's not fair because we claim that, basic principles like don't trust, verify.
Well, that forces you to be strategic. Go and check how is going to be the impact. Not any women, you have to choose the women, They have to fill in some characteristics. Ideally, you would like to help every woman on the planet, but within that, I see some women that have more resources, so I will opt for the ones who are less privileged and more marginalized. Once I choose them, I will choose the ones that are productive, that are trying very hard because I don't want to create dependency. I mean, in this I mean, it's it's incredible because in this misery industry, jargon, Still we recognize like Lao Tzu, what he said give a man a fish and you feed him a day. Teach him how to fish and you feed him for a life.
Yeah. We all know that, but at the end it's easier to give the fish and then take the picture and put it in the social media, and then there we are with the with the man sorting out poverty. Or even worse, using poor people for marketing ourselves. And and and I think there's a tendency now because all these Bitcoin companies are hiring all these very beautiful girls, which is fantastic that they are ambassadors of Bitcoin. But the problem is if they don't think carefully how they are used to promote an image, Because that beautiful woman is not at all related to the prevailing physical concrete woman we have in the communities.
It doesn't have to, but at least to identify culturally could be essential, and not arrive in Laivu. Do you prepare tacos and take the picture? I mean, it's just so insulting to our own culture, And that doesn't give a good example to the fiat way of doing things traditionally. I don't see the difference, you see? The difference is even worse because it portrays that it's different because comes from the Bitcoiners. It's not enough. That's what I'm thinking. So the second question you ask is ways to support women in the ground. What we had found is that it's important for the women, these strategically chosen women that are productive, that they have been educated since 30 years ago how to raise you back the traditional practices in the Maya culture, that they have a lot of things to be pride of of themselves in terms of how they produce beautiful garments, delicious honey, or wonderful creams for the skin, whatever.
What you see is that these women are ready because they know what it is financially to be productive. They know the value of the money. Now they need the means to save that money and to administer their own money. And this is a different story because it's a woman that is educated financially indirectly. But now we have to teach her a different language of finances. So educating financially these women is based on their daily life, it's not artificially created, it's not introducing something. But what is crucial is we're gonna try to give access, for their products in a place where all the people buy and the tourists come. So we are creating a center, a Bitcoin Casa, in Central America, with many rooms where they can come and offer what they produce.
And for us, that is really supporting because to start with, we're avoiding intermediaries. Yeah. Because these women nowadays, for instance, it's very sad. I'm working now with women that produce textiles and garments. There are beautiful things. They stop because they said now there are so many intermediaries. We only rescue back what we pay for the, for instance, for the thread or for the items we used to produce the carpet, but there's no income for them. So we want to avoid intermediaries so that they can be paid directly for what they produce. And for us, that's something that will give them a different opportunity in financial terms.
[00:33:02] Unknown:
And and so the so let's talk about this bazaar, this Casa. Is it up and running yet?
[00:33:09] Unknown:
Not yet. We figure out that we'll start in in couple of months. We are transforming yes. It's in the center of Merida. We are now redesigning the space so that different people have different access to offer different things.
[00:33:23] Unknown:
Amazing. And they're all under they're all women who are producers and creating something, and then they're also gonna accept Bitcoin. And, obviously, if they wanna accept Fiat, they can would they accept Fiat too or just Bitcoin?
[00:33:36] Unknown:
No. For the time being, we are making an arrangement. A service in process, Daniel, is is making an agreement with different companies. For instance, we we plan to have a machine there that people can exchange their Bitcoin if they want, but that means they can all receive Bitcoin because they can exchange it to Mexican pesos there on the spot. But we want to educate people to receive Bitcoin.
[00:34:01] Unknown:
And and so is this space gonna be like a place where you're having different meetups and financial literacy opportunities
[00:34:08] Unknown:
to come and learn. The idea the idea is also, it's kind of a cultural hub, where people come in from outside. We also have expats here, so maybe these people would like to come. Well, Daniel has, done couple of events where the expats living here that are Bitcoiners. We met with, a company also that is working in Cancun. Different people, like, generate knowledge and circulate information. Yes, we we we are intending to have it as a center of information and exchange, and also people come and meet meet up and exchange different perspectives.
And also we think that if people from the community are there, they will benefit of this education slowly, and they will see, because they don't see it now, that it's a real community, you see. And then that might inspire them to feel more secure in terms of adopting Bitcoin.
[00:35:08] Unknown:
Yeah. I I think it's super important. Do you know Lynn Bee who's in she's in Mexico I think she's in Mexico City and that she's got, I think she just started a podcast building with Bitcoin. She's finance superwoman. I wanna connect you guys if you don't know her already, but,
[00:35:25] Unknown:
Lynn. I think I know Lynn. Yes. You know Lynn? Yeah. Yeah. She stays here at the house. Yeah. She came here when when we organized this, Daniel organized this Sisal meeting for Bitcoin. Okay. Okay. Yeah. She's a lovely, lovely girl. The I mean, she's doing a fantastic job. Yeah. She's amazing.
[00:35:45] Unknown:
Yeah. My mind is always thinking in terms of, like, little how do we building community in our different areas. Right? And so there are some places, you know, there's Bitcoin Park. There's Bitcoin Commons. Denver is starting to build the space, but they're more just like, you know, Bitcoin focused workspaces. But the another place that's up in New York City is called, Pub Key. And Okay. So it's a, it's a bar and restaurant, and they have tons and tons and tons of meetups and workshops and hands on stuff and talking about Bitcoin. Do you envision, like because I've been thinking about here too where I live, and I'm like, should I open up, like, a Bitcoin coffee shop or something so that we can just have everybody gets their coffee, and then we'll have, like, little learning things.
[00:36:33] Unknown:
We're glad you have to talk to Daniel because, he just yesterday, he finished the project together with Mexico City that they are creating this very beautiful place with a it's kind of a big con park, but also it has other components. And Daniel will be part of that, and then we are making a a bridge between Mexico City and here. Yes. That yes. Awesome. And then Daniel might be able to tell you that and about another part of our project is the Citadel. Because that's a very strong, solid thing that we are doing. But he's more into that creating the self sustainable branch with local community and with different kind of, a Bitcoiner for instance in in, I think it's in Austria based, he has been here. So now he's, drawing the the whole design of this Citadel. Daniel is busy with all kind of legal documents that he has to have ready.
And I think in I believe in 2 weeks' time, this he starts the ranch already. And it's a very beautiful place that, they they have now with almost untouched land in a bit over 90 hectares, and they are gonna yeah. They are go they starting to plant Nepal and cactus and things like that, but it's very, very beautiful, the idea of having this pristine place. We have these cenotes, I don't know if you're familiar with the term. Mhmm. We got 2 cenotes. So all in all, it's kind of an incredible experience because then we think the community will be also created with Bitcoiners, with these self sustainable and eco friendly practices.
And then people from the community will come and teach us how, and we will support them in selling their products in the capitalized by Bitcoinerscom. So we think we close this cycle. Yeah. The circular economy is giving access to the people to sell the products. Otherwise, we artificially are creating a situation that is not sustainable. If you are gonna pay the teachers, I mean, that's very distorted because in our Latin American, I think it's it's a basic principle in all the constitutions that education should be for free and should be provided by the state because the state gets a lot of money from our taxes.
So now we're taking away the responsibility, and we're paying the teachers through the mothers, and we're giving the money to the mothers. For me, that's totally wrong, because how can you artificially create that when the state has the responsibility, but on top of that, you're introducing a factor that is not guaranteed that's gonna be there next year or in 2 years' time. But are the mothers gonna do the teachers are gonna continue to educate without being paid? You see? We need to think in advance.
[00:39:34] Unknown:
Yeah. And well, and it's like it sounds like the government's not upholding its end of the deal by, you know, paying for the the proper education. And so I think you like you said, with the misery industry and people coming in in the nonprofit mindset of just like, here, let's just donate, donate, donate. Exactly. No. You want to teach people to produce value that is exchangeable in the marketplace in a way that is sustainable. Because you're right. There's a lot of, you know, studies done where it's like, cool. Let's just drop some money in x y z location on planet Earth. And then once that money is gone, there's no sustainable opportunity for those communities or the individuals to flourish in a long time. Exactly. And then you give me individually,
[00:40:15] Unknown:
they are wonderful beings. Of course. The ones who are intervening are well intended, and the shoemaker that is a widow, yes, I feel sorry for him, but there are thousands of that in Latin America. In Peru for sure, but throughout Latin America, there are widows that are in extreme poverty. I have worked in Bolivia, for instance. The indigenous people are very often because the women die in labor. Mhmm. So then, and and I mean with the medical information we have now, women shouldn't be dying of delivery. But in most of our indigenous community throughout Latin America, they die.
So then, of course there are many men widows, and we need to help them, but we need to be strategic to do it. It's not that I am Catholic and I want them to become Catholics and then I go and preach them. It's okay. I'm well intended, but it's not sustainable and might not be the best for the community, you see.
[00:41:13] Unknown:
And and so with this and this understanding, how are you helping people, like, in the Bitcoin community start to understand,
[00:41:24] Unknown:
like, getting out of that space? Are you are you doing anything to kinda help us or deeper Well, wait wait. I will not attend them. I will not attend them the the gatherings, like I did the last one when I met you in El Salvador. Mhmm. For instance, I think those are beautiful opportunities because people are very happy, and you feel the community of the Bitcoiners. I I think it's a wonderful opportunity just to tell your story and what you're doing. But, what I find difficult in terms of the Bitcoiners, some of them are very arrogant, and it's, rightly so because, I mean, they are so clever, so gifted in terms of understanding this highly sophisticated mathematical model that I hardly can grasp the basics.
Thank God I have a son because he's very patient and he quotes all the basic things for me. But, I mean, my generation doesn't have a chance to be to become Bitcoiners just because we cannot grasp basic things in terms of technology.
[00:42:31] Unknown:
So for the Do we need to do that? That's the question too. You know? Like, I don't care how the SWIFT network or the ACH or any of it. I couldn't care less. All I care is that I got to buy some groceries today or whatever. Like, I'm You're right. Like, 90% of us couldn't care less about cryptography or sha2.
[00:42:51] Unknown:
Nobody cares. The minimum you need to know how to to function the wallet, to operate the wallet. Yeah. That in itself might be very difficult for people in my generation because we are not digital. But anyway, having said that, what I think is important is people in the Bitcoin community are very talented, very, very bright voice. And so sometimes they don't feel the need at all to learn anything else. They think they just take for granted that, knowledge and wisdom transfer to all the other areas in their lives, which is not the case. You see? And then on top of that, the predominant population is male, and they are very conscious that they are males because they have the upper hand in our society.
They have been educated to have the upper hand in our society. Why should they share with women something they don't have to? And if the women arrive there as, okay, look at me how beautiful I am and take pictures of me, Well, this is we're lost because there's no I know there are a presence of women. And the ones I try to link with, for instance, within Mexico and Jose, the programmers. Oh, they are programmers. And to my surprise, I encountered the same jealousy between women than with other women because they're they don't work spiritually. They don't work on self transformation. And we need, for instance, I from the Marxist point of view, what I learned is the economic structure is determinant in everything else. And I was not an orthodox Marxist. I was a Gramscien Marxist, which Gramsci put emphasis on like Marx, on the what we call the super structure in the theory, which means all the net of institutions like family, church, work, education, all of them program you in a way that you function according to the economic system.
So if we don't work on that, we don't, unprogram this way of thinking, we don't perceive that. And now for me, the essential part is how are we gonna educate? How are we gonna educate in financial terms? Because when I see, Paco standing at the top of the pyramids in Cusco, I mean, you say, okay. That's very nice, but you come from India. I've been in that country working for years. You know that ordinary people don't just say, yes, I adopt Bitcoin and that's it. You have to do some work that progressively, the awareness of the people grows and the
[00:45:38] Unknown:
Seth Bunny wrote a really great book. I got to interview him recently. Yeah. And he was talking about the family structure and how the family structure is decimated now in most areas because of, because of the fiat system. And a lot of people, of course, we don't understand. We think, oh, it's just, you know, people get divorced. Both parents have to work, etcetera. And he talked a lot about the trauma that comes with, you know, being a child who grows up without their parents' home after school, or the parents are fighting a lot because of money or a lot of time, obviously, folks get divorced because of money. And so it's his book's The Hidden Cost of Money. And, excellent book, by the way. Everybody should read it. You know, when we're talking to new audiences who don't understand technology, who don't understand the financial system, who don't understand, you know, finance, etcetera, but but they're they're victims of the fiat system. Right? And these families are victims of the trauma, and sometimes there's, you know, emotional violence. There's, like, a consequence of physical violence, you know, that that can come from overstressed, right, when you're just know, people can start recognizing, wow. This is could be a tool to you know, people can start recognizing, wow. This is could be a tool to keep our families together.
This could be a tool for creating more harmony inside, you know, so that we're not so stressed all the time, and then not taking it out on our children or our loved ones. How do how do you talk can you talk to that a little bit?
[00:47:23] Unknown:
Yes. I think, one has to be careful about about how we are interacting with our families because it's not only money. You're right in terms of, for instance, the stress that adds to the, for instance, the providers, could be the parents, is such that they are at home. For instance, United States has some phenomenon like children are not experiencing any more undivided attention, because the parents are all the time with their iPhone or talking to someone. And that's very serious because in your brain as a little child, in terms of self esteem, it's it's very, very powerful that your parents cannot pay attention to you or undividedly.
Yeah. That's what but an example. So money is 1 yeah. The stress of earning money is another one, but there are another layers that we have also to take into account. And sometimes these basic rules, I do a lot of things about positive parenting, and and what I like is that, for instance, simple rules, like, for instance, when we eat, the cell phones are gonna be left out. Mhmm. Because it's time for us to interact with each other. Or or when you gather at some point in the family, we respect that we are there and we don't take calls to say something.
Little Ruth could help a lot. Yeah. But having said that, the essence of course is the financial burden that we have. And young, parents feel the financial burden. But, I think, for instance, different layers of society, like I see the tendency of the people who move to El Salvador, well, they will resort to home education because they can afford to. But if you go to the real population in El Salvador, that they cannot afford to have that. Yeah. They don't have the cultural capital. That's why I always use this category of the French sociologist, Berdye, because, financial capital is one thing, but cultural capital is another thing. If you don't have That define cultural capital. Like, when Cultural capital for the sociologist Pierre Bourdieu is all the things that the system gives you indirectly and outside of the school, but are validated by the school.
So when you go to primary school for instance, if you if your parent use iPhone, if you use a recorder, if you then you are more equipped than an ordinary child in Mexico, for instance, that comes from a family whose parents are illiterate, for instance, because they don't have access to those media. But the school will will assess you the same, like if you have the same cultural capital. Because the school will give you some input, but not all of it. The other is given at the family. And then financial capital is one thing, but cultural capital is also validated by our society. If you are a lawyer and if you don't comb your hair in some way and if you are not dressed in some way, well, you are discriminated against. Here in Mexico, it happens. If they are dusting, if their hairstyle is not according to the trend, they will prefer the upper class kid that has the same degree, because cultural capital is prevalent as well as much as the financial capital.
So it gives a a answer to, to us, and Bitcoiners think it's only financial capital. It's not. Mhmm. The cultural capital is essential.
[00:51:06] Unknown:
And do you feel like looking forward, you know, 10, 20, 30, 50, a 100 years from now, do you feel that Bitcoin could you know, once people start adopting it and understanding like, wow, this is one of the legs of the the table that we need to have, do you think that the cultural capital component is going to shift in a way that's more fair and more,
[00:51:30] Unknown:
it will be Provided provided us at Bitcoiners as Bitcoiners, we need to reflect on ourselves. We need to perceive ourselves in a different way. You know, we have we have I've been I belonged for some time. I was educated by the Jesuits as well. And we used to have a very strong movement in Latin America, it was called Theology of Liberation. Okay. And it was called Priests for the People. And some people were killed, like Monsignor Romero in El Salvador, the airport has its name. And it was the highest authority in the Catholic church, and it was killed because he was seen as communist, and we were a movement from Theology of Liberation.
We had in Peru, a beautiful priest, Gutierrez. So it was a very strong movement. And and I'm bringing this because sometimes we don't know history. We cannot go again through that. But in Brazil, part of this movement, there was a bishop as well, and he used to say, it's not what matters to arrive soon and alone. The most important is to arrive together and on time.
[00:52:43] Unknown:
I like that a lot.
[00:52:46] Unknown:
I think so, and it's the same with Ubuntu in South Africa. If you see, it's very similar and when you see for instance, all the cosmovision that has some African cultures, especially the area of South Africa with Ubuntu, You must know this when the American anthropologist arrives and tells the little children in the village, the one who runs faster will get that basket with all kind of goodies, chocolates, fruits, everything. And then he says, when I count 3, you run. And the children remain sitting there after 3. And then he goes and says, why do do you want that? And then all of a sudden, they stand up and they run together and they get the basket together.
Because for them, it's not competing against each other. It's joining efforts to get the goal. You see, it's a different approach. It is. It's it's it's
[00:53:40] Unknown:
it's a hugely different approach. And, well, when I think of Bitcoin, it's funny that you mentioned Ubuntu. I don't know if you know this, but, I mean, you can probably see it up on the logo there, but the the font for the Bitcoin logo is Ubuntu. Ubuntu. Yeah. And so
[00:53:56] Unknown:
And and mainly like Desmond Tutu. Desmond Tutu used that for the parquet, to find the parquet. So we we had what I'm telling is we have in history a lot of examples. When it's a shift into society, we have to bring the memory back of what happened in history because, Bitcoiners think they are arriving. They are gonna create a new society out of I mean, from scratch. And it's from scratch is the work we have to do, but there's a lot of history that is there that we use, in order to enlighten ourselves to intervene in the best possible way, I think. Yeah. I and I think it's something that, you know,
[00:54:36] Unknown:
everybody thinks like, oh, we're just gonna build this whole new world. Well, you're still gonna have a new society if we want this society. It's gonna have some rules. It's gonna have a system in place to govern. And so, you know, as much as I'm not I'm not a fan of our current systems at all, and I I want them I know that we might. But but we have to you know, we're gonna fall into old ways of doing things if we don't pay attention to the mistakes of the past and obviously the gifts and the the wisdom of the past, the good and the bad. And so so I think it's very important that we we stay clear eyed as we get excited about the future and wanna build it and, you know, not be too pie in the sky because, you know, as much as we wanna think everybody's thinking in terms of an Ubuntu mindset and philosophy, as adults, like, we've gone away from that, you know, and I think your to your point, and I know we're gonna wrap up here in a couple of minutes, to your point about, you know, the the screens and the people adults and their, you know, constant, you know, distraction, and we're we're programming ourselves every time we pick up that phone and we consume some information.
Doesn't matter if it's on social or regular or email or news, whatever it is, we're constantly getting, you know, chemical reactions in our minds, in our brains, in our minds, but and it's feeding that addiction loop. And so we're letting something else program us. You know? I think of us, we have a human operating system. We have code. And if we're not really, really diligent and careful, we're gonna keep getting coded into this destructive, divisive consciousness. Exactly.
[00:56:15] Unknown:
And then and then we are very market oriented. Marketing is the force, pushing us to act. And for instance, I think the goal long term is adoption. So acceptance is not a norm, but adoption implies being strategic, learn from the past, and avoid the the same mistakes, preferably work on narrow ends, and self transformation is important, and question yourself, and, something that is also a code of ethics. Because we need financial means, but we also need, for instance, Eliquasco, I was saying cultural capital is important. But then we love aesthetics, we love beauty, we love nature.
So all of that has to flow into this economic model, I think. And Bitcoin for me is the the beauty of it is that being Marxist, I'd really know this is a historical opportunity because with Marx, he wanted something, but the tools were not there. Mhmm. And you see, and now we have the tool, but we might, not use it properly because our arrogance, because our interest in me me me and having lots of money in me, and I don't care about the rest of the society.
[00:57:35] Unknown:
Yeah. Well and again, we're programmed in a scarcity mindset, you know, whether it's, oh, you're not pretty enough, you don't have enough money, you don't have the right card, you don't have the right status, da da da da. It's that machine that keeps us feeling less than, you know, like and so that we think, like, oh, I have to go outside of myself to go buy something and become a whole human so that I can fit in and belong into this society and be accepted and be safe. So it feeds upon our our survival instinct that we have as humans as natural. It does. Yeah. Yeah. And so, yeah, so this is this is so such a great conversation, and I could go on for hours with you for sure. No. And thank you so much, Valerie. It's been fantastic to talk to you. This is amazing. So okay. So everybody who's listening, and I'm not sure I'm not sure for those of you who are watching if if everything came through okay. I know Mercedes said you've been having some, some power issues because of the weather that's going on down there in Mexico right now, so, hopefully, everything, came through clearly for for everyone watching and listening. But, if you guys wanna go follow Mercedes on Twitter at ut640.
She's got a QR code there that if you guys wanna donate and help some of the initiatives that she's doing down in Mexico or just definitely follow her, that would be amazing, and say hello. Thank you so much for what's going on. Thank you, Valerie. Yeah. Any final words for somebody who maybe is listening and wants to help introduce, Bitcoin into their their family, their community, into their ecosystem?
[00:59:08] Unknown:
Well, I think, what you were talking about, the family, I think it's important to emphasize the importance of of the women's role. Even in some spiritual traditions, they are now, even the Dalai Lama has said, well, they expect some leadership from women that can lead us to a different society. So I think it's, we have a lot of responsibility just, in practical trans motherhood for instance. Our gender role, is not only at philosophical level. We encounter everyday qualities to help a new human being to go through life. Yeah. And if we monitor ourselves, if we are less tempted to compete, and not so greedy that we want everything for ourselves, I think that would help a lot. For instance, we receive a donation, and all of a sudden, the man changes his mind and says, oh, no. After months, give me back my donation. And, okay, we send it back. But he doesn't reflect the commitments that on his behalf we made in the community, for instance. He just doesn't care. And I thought, well, what kind of Bitcoiner is this man?
Because, I mean, he changed his mind, but, I mean, that's not solid, and we are working with poor people. And when you are interacting with community, things are serious. It's not a matter of changing your mind, and, oh, sorry. That that, money I know it's gonna be used differently. Because now I have a big show with a big gathering where he can promote himself better, which is I respect a lot of that. But then when Bitcoiners do something, they have to be more responsible with their actions, I think. Because and that's what I miss in the Bitcoin community.
Some kind of spirituality, and that's not religion at all, it's just some code of ethics that guides you. Because otherwise, Bitcoin is gonna be the same as any other tool for grabbing money, and that's not the case. Become once something differently, was designed to, I believe, to bring
[01:01:14] Unknown:
more social justice. I really believe it. Me too. I agree, and I believe, obviously, this podcast is called Bitcoin for Peace. And I do believe that, you know, in order to have a more peaceful planet, we need to have these tools and we need to use them consciously, you know, and with intentionality and love and care. So this is it's a learning lesson for all of us, I suppose, as we keep going. You know? It's all to be a different word. Yeah. It's just a big experiment, but, like, if we can experiment with love as we make these decisions and choices, I think we're gonna have better outcomes too. And, yeah, we're gonna make mistakes and mess up, but, you know, hopefully, we'll we'll keep seeing the light and moving forward together. So, well, I really, really appreciate you, Mercedes. And, hey, I know you're available Saturday morning.
We're gonna be doing a mother a pre mother's day spaces on Twitter. Oh, that's nice. And so I can do Yeah. Jump on. I think, it's at are are you are you what time zone are what what time is it there right now? Is it 1 o'clock? I think we're on the same time zone, 1 o'clock. Time zone? Okay. So I think it's gonna be 10 o'clock our time. Okay. We'll just hang on for a couple hours and do spaces and talk about motherhood and Bitcoin and all the fun stuff. That's a nice idea. Just to kinda celebrate, you know, how how women are in the world in the Bitcoin space. So I'd love to have you there. Yay. Alright, everybody. Well, thanks again, and please make sure you follow Mercedes on Twitter or xut640, and, we'll keep rocking the good fight.
Hey, guys. If you care about helping women understand Bitcoin from the lens of how to escape violence, how to become more autonomous and sovereign, and how to build a better future for their lives and family, especially in the Global South. Please tune into this episode. It's very powerful with Mercedes Juarez who is a women's rights expert. And she's been working around the world in more than 50 countries and serving women and helping them understand best practices for their wellness, their healthcare, community building, and then the financial layer. And so Bitcoin is a really, really powerful tool and we discuss her work. And I really, really am so grateful. You guys have got to check this out. All right. Aloha.
Hey, aloha. Get ready for an epic episode. And if you love it, please share it. You know why? Because you got the love. Enjoy, my friends. Hey. Aloha, love tribe. Welcome to Bitcoin for Peace. I have somebody here with me who has spent the better part of 4 decades advocating for women and women's rights all over the world. This is Mercedes Juarez. Thank you so much for being here, Mercedes.
[00:01:35] Unknown:
Thank you for your invitation, Valerie. It's a pleasure to be here with you.
[00:01:39] Unknown:
It is. I'm so glad to finally get to have this one on one with you. Daniel has been on me for the last year or probably more. He's like, You need to talk to my mom. And I'm like, Okay. So, I know our paths have crossed in a couple other areas on some on some spaces, and I got to interview you guys before you had done the retreat, and it's just such an honor to have you here. Can you, intro you know, let everybody here know, like, what you've been doing, who you are, how your background, you came from women's work, and obviously now you're integrating Bitcoin into the women's work that you're doing?
[00:02:14] Unknown:
Yes. Well, my background, it's from the development industry, is precisely broadly summarizing what Saifedean Amusco called, in the Fiat Standard, the misery industry. There you can find a lot of well intended people that I tend to identify with the Bitcoiners, some that are trying to go into this kind of the general known as development world. And, one would think that they take all the different values that the Bitcoin community is taking pride on, like motives, like don't trust verify, for instance. Mhmm. But to my surprise, when they go to the community, they don't do any coherent things of what we are advocating in terms of what it means to adopt Bitcoin.
And one of the things that I have encountered in this for decades or more, traveling and working with different communities in over 50 countries. The first thing is I had to work with different cultures, with different women. My area of expertise is health. So my main concern was to protect women's health, and promote women's health. That's because, I identify, coming from social sciences background, identify when there is a health crisis, the poor women go into a deeper crisis in poverty. And then there's no way that they regain even the same level of poverty they were in.
Not to talk when they die, that can also be the case. The man who is led as widow with his children, it's just almost impossible that he's able to to take the children ahead on his own. Mhmm. And I contextualizing this, the vulnerable population. So the this has made me think that my experience could contribute with all this agenda that we are seeing nowadays in Bitcoiners, trying to assist some unbanked population. And I think, the mistake the mistakes that we have made in development, I've seen them very often replicated nowadays in what the Bitcoiners are promoting as development.
What I mean is we tend to fall again into this misery industry. Mhmm. That that, is criticized in somehow in the field standard. So, having worked in all kind of international agencies, what happens is in these agencies, you talk about NGOs or the UN system, you have very well intended people like in the Bitcoin community. Yeah. But that doesn't mean that the output is gonna be a positive one. And, so far, I've been seeing a lot of serious mistakes. And I might sound as a grumpy old woman now, but I would really like to share what it has meant this over 40 years of experience in this area. Mhmm. And not only in the health sector, but working with professionals that don't understand most of the time what they are dealing with these, patients.
And for them, it's it's a body. It's not a women or men's body, it's a body. So my work was really some kind of sensitization to learn basically doctors and and biomedical professionals to see different women's body. Because it's totally different physiological, biological, and the roles that we play into society, which means the pattern of morbidity and mortality is gonna be different to the men. But also physiological, for instance, I had the at at some point during my career, I had to train doctors to identify, for instance, the signs for, diagnosing heart attack, because the anatomic books are based on the men's body. Right?
And then, I mean, for instance, back pain didn't mean anything to them as related to heart attack, but for the women, it tend to be the the back. So then also this anxiety, doctors tend to prescribe, oh, well, you have some calming drugs because you're anxious, you're nervous, the stereotype of a woman, a neurotic anxious woman. And it's giving signs the body that is coming under a crisis like a heart attack. So all these misconceptions are reflected in all kind of diseases. I work a lot of in chronic diseases and in infectious diseases, for instance. And the pattern was the same all the time. For instance, women try very hard to support the men in a in a couple relationship, for instance, for regaining the health.
But if the woman falls ill, the man is not supportive at all. In serious illness, like, for instance, TB, that the treatment is very long, men tend to be the most complicated development of tuberculosis, and it kills much more than COVID, for example, isn't it? So there are trends in in diseases and in health. So these, for instance, diseases that have been forever like leprosy, nobody cares anymore. But women are suffering that in very specific situations just because they are women, just because the treatment is designed for men, or just because culturally, society treats differently the men and the women who are ill. So these minor things happen in, situations like domestic violence.
I had a very hard time to convince my male doctors colleagues to include, for instance, in some countries, as indicator, domestic violence. And the main reason they gave me, it was a very solid one, well, we report when diseases are decreasing because that's the success story. So TB, malaria has decreased in such percent due to our intervention as biomedical field. Mhmm. But then when it's domestic violence, it was the opposite, because you report the increasing number of women who are reporting domestic violence. To start with, domestic violence reflects a lot of problems because, for instance, in poverty, the men want sex, but they don't want the women to get pregnant because it's a burden. It's another child to feed.
So they resort to being violent with their partner. And the doctors, when they received this woman, completely abused, they say, well, I'm a gynecologist, I don't deal with all the other. So they see the bit of the body, even if the the pregnancy is in danger, they they don't act or they cannot even act because in the system there's nothing for these abused women. There's one area of pregnancy but that's it. You see? So the whole system, the whole society in this fiat economy is designed in a way that women don't count.
And when we talk about the global south, I'm talking about all different groups of women. We all go to the market, we might buy different things, upper class women are more resourceful, can buy more things, but the poor women are left on their own. But all of them are under this cultural dynamic, where you have to please, where you have to be always presentable, where you are approved by the man to become someone, and if you're depending on that man. In the south global, this is the prevalent domain, so another problem I see in the Bitcoin community is we are portraying an image of a distorted women, TV presenters for instance, or models that go and say adopt Bitcoin.
These very fancy girls that are completely far away from what is the reality of our women, at least for Latin America. But having worked in Southeast Asia, for India, Bangladesh, nothing to tell. So for me, the number one question is, what kind of women are we portraying? And are we using the women's body just to say, oh, adopt Bitcoin, this is a new story and, now you are convinced that you have to use Bitcoin. But that's a TV presenter, it's a show, or is to put something on the on the social media, but it doesn't evolve further because we're not thinking strategically.
And that's my main concern. Throughout my history, I was a Marxist, very solid, convinced Marxist, because I come from a very, very poor background. A a Marxist, you said? Yes. Yeah. Marxist because I come from a very poor background, and I managed by different situations to reach primary school, then secondary school, and I made it to the university which in Mexico, where I was born, is very unlikely that you can make it if you come from where I came. My grandmother was an indigenous woman, barefoot, who hardly spoke Spanish because she spoke the dialect now at all. So then in this context, what I saw and I learned to live among them, the indigenous people, is they don't have the way to decodify the dominant culture.
Unbanked women and unbanked population are unbanked, not because the banks are not there, it's because they cannot decode the banking system. And of course sometimes they don't mean they don't fill in all the requirements demanded by the banks. But basically they don't know how to administer the money or how to save their money. So bitcoin is the opportunity in history for them to come and belong to the financial world, and make use of these resources, and be as all we want to be, independent, self sustainable. They want it as well, but the means are not available to them.
[00:13:15] Unknown:
Let's talk about because I wanna come back to when we were on a spaces about a month or so ago. It was a women's spaces, and we were talking about, you know, escaping domestic violence using Bitcoin. So a couple of things. I would love if you could maybe share a story of how, you know, you've encountered women who are working, and they're utilizing Bitcoin as a savings tool so that perhaps they could leave a situation that is, abusive, that's hurting them, that possibly they can start a new life. And and then we're gonna do a second question just about what are, you know, some ways that, you know, you're supporting women on the ground, like in groups or in the projects, that you're working on so that we can help support you, obviously, with your work. So so Yeah. You know, I would love the audience to understand, like, okay. Great. Now you have Bitcoin. How is that gonna help you get out of a domestic violence situation, and what would be an example of of that? Yes. Well, I'm gonna talk to you
[00:14:16] Unknown:
in, in, I'm gonna say, in the future to come. Because what we are doing now is working we are working at community level here in Yucatan with different groups of women that produce different kind of products. For instance, they are in the textile industry, they they, need hammocks, they provide all kind of products resulting from honeybees that is our specialty only locals with this honey has some properties, some key properties from the Maya tradition, from centuries it's existed. So they are rescuing back, and they are creating all kind of products. Some of them are from the old tradition, like drops for the eyes, but nowadays they are creating creams, for instance, or soaps with this honey.
And others, for instance, are growing their own food. They have eco friendly practices, rescuing the Maya practices. So all this, is to say that we intervene strategically. We choose communities that have something to offer, that they are already producing, Because we don't believe that circular economy is just you introduce and you give Bitcoin, and they start to pay teachers, and they start to and what is gonna happen when these Bitcoiners externally are not introducing Bitcoins in that community? Mhmm. And so where is the sustainability of that? And that's exactly the mystery industry.
We call it donor driven, we have a term for that. Donut driven is when you want to see something and you artificially create something. I can come from the Eastern Europe, I can come from American Evangelist Church, and then I create my NGO, and then I introduce Bitcoin. Not necessarily is gonna be the result positive because what's gonna happen when you're not there? When you find a better job? Or, some girls have seen that they are offered a better job with another Bitcoin company, and in no time, they they reaccommodate themselves.
So I think the Bitcoin community has to examine also a set of values. It's not only about personal gaining and self promotion. It's about how are you there to take this historical opportunity to advance all the population that has been very vulnerable, at least for the global south, that's essential. Maybe you don't feel it in the northern economies. I think you do, but in a different way. Yeah. Because sometimes the government subsidizes artificially these vulnerable groups. But in the, global south, the government is absent totally. So then poor people have to find their own solutions.
And in this case, for me, talking about women is you have to identify all the hats that we normally use as women. One of them is the finances, but maybe most important is being a mother. And they think about money just because they are mothers and they want to feed their children, but it's money in itself is not the essence, you see? That's the main difference that I see, from the feminist point of view. Men and women have different social roles, and because of their social roles, their needs and priorities are gonna be different. So women, and and I did a long, long time, projects that were reinforcing men, And when they were able to be more productive, to have better income, they used that extra money, not for their families, but to drink with their friends, to go and have fun, or to do something for themselves.
When you support women, they usually tend to use that for their family, for their children. So that's a different story, and the output is gonna be totally different. So women, in the long term, what I see with Bitcoin, it's very clearly that they can become independent. Just because Bitcoin, because it's proper characteristics, you don't need physically to deposit in someone else's hands. You can use it yourself. That in itself, if you are in an abusive relationship, is an incredible freedom. Because you can walk out of this relationship without the fear how will you survive economically, Alone or with your children?
[00:18:51] Unknown:
And and let me ask you this. So because, obviously, you know, I had another interview with somebody about domestic violence a couple months ago, and I had to take the interview down, because she was threatened, for telling her story. And so a couple of things. So when somebody let's say they're in a situation that is is volatile and violent and perhaps involves, you know, the partner's drinking and not really thinking clearly. If you're somebody who is vulnerable and you're trying to save some Bitcoin on your phone, right, if that's the only place you can have Bitcoin. Are you helping people understand, like, 2 things, like deleting the apps so that you don't have a trace of them and just kind getting the apps on and off when you need to use Bitcoin, and then secondly, having a decoy setup so that if your partner does find that you're saving Bitcoin, that you can be like, oh, here you go. Yep. You found it, and it's like a small stack versus, like, your real stack somewhere else.
Is that you know, how do you solve for those 2 issues?
[00:20:00] Unknown:
Well, what I was trying to tell you is to be there where the women in the north are. For the women in the south, this is a huge distance. To start with, we don't have electricity regular, we don't have the the regularity to put, in the cell phone some credit. Sometimes they and I saw it in Salvador as well. One of the limitations for using Bitcoin is that they didn't have always credit, the women, for their funds, which means you can reduce it. Yeah? Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then another limitation was that in Salvador, it was promised that they would have access, for free to Internet, and all of a sudden it was not there. So then if you don't have access to Internet, it's another story.
So the only way we see it is, that's why we go to community because we need a group, we need other women's support. Because if you, your cell phone doesn't have money and mine has, we might be able to help each other. In this month, you don't have to pay Internet, and we have access to other means for Internet, we might be able to help each other. So still we are in the process of creating all that because, when you talk with vulnerable population, all the situations and conditions we take for granted in a middle class, in the global south as well, but in the northern countries, it's not there. Yeah. It's not there, and that's number one thing. The partner usually here is an uneducated man, is, probably women might know better to use the iPhone than he does. Mhmm. So there is it's not, a situation that you will encounter very very as as clear as you depicted this situation, for instance.
But if the women is so advanced that it has been able to keep some, say, bitcoins, she will need another kind of protection in the Mexican context. And sometimes, women are very reluctant to hide from the men, even if they are abused and maltreated. In our culture, women are taught, and I saw it in Africa as well. I can give you examples where the chief is always a male or tends to be a male. Maybe there is 1 or 2 women as as chiefs over the whole tribe. So for instance, I remember perfectly well in this was in Mozambique, and checking on the different girls, one was extremely abused, and she was very young in in 16 years old. When I went to check, according to health sector, we they report to the chief, they report to the police, and they should be helping them.
So when I asked her, do you report to the chief? Did you report to the police? And said, no. I didn't go to police because my chief told me you have to be obedient with your husband. And I did many times, and he insists that I have to be obedient with my husband. That's nowadays, it it hasn't changed. So then for them are hierarchies and authorities in the community that they cannot at all challenge. You see, sometimes it's not the partner in itself. And sometimes, for instance, working with Arab women is the mother-in-law, the one who decides. She knows that the girl is abused, but she will protect the son. And she will decide when the women are pregnant, for instance. It's not the man who decides. So culturally, there are a lot a lot of things that you have to take into account in order to introduce Bitcoin.
For instance, if you go to the top of El Cusco and you find these indigenous people say, oh, amigo, and then here is your Bitcoin, a picture with you and me. I mean, it's very patronizing. It's almost insulting to our indigenous cultures. They will say yes because they they want the money. But it's the fiat understanding of the money, not the Bitcoin understanding of the money. And that's what is very sad, because we have the opportunity to make a difference. Our interaction with unbanked population, with women, with abused women, with indigenous people. Everything can be redefined, but we need to be aware as Bitcoiners that that we need really to create a different society, and Bitcoin is an instrument.
So if we are willing to do that, it's not only about my self promotion, it's not only about me having Bitcoins and being one of the most eligible bachelors, or me, women, going with the bitcoiners because I will secure my future economy. You see? The distorted mind of the fiat economy is too strong, And Bitcoin is I I think we need to work also having worked with Buddhist cultures. We need to work on self transformation as well together with the economy.
[00:25:10] Unknown:
Total yeah. And I think a lot of us get excited because we're like, yeah. Look. We have a tool. It's one tool in the toolbox to create a more peaceful planet on Earth for everybody. And Exactly. It's if we're not doing inner work, if we're not doing work on the system itself and how things function, whether it's the system of our family, the system of our community, the system of Yeah. Nation states, it's it's not gonna work. You have to have a holistic approach, you know, and there's no one size fits all. Like you said, what goes on in one country culturally is gonna be very different than what goes on, you know, in the North or the South or or elsewhere. So so this isn't just, yay, we have the tool, and let's go hooray. Exactly. Okay. Yay. We do have a tool, but how do we implement it, strategically and compassionately in in different areas. Exactly. Yes. You know? And it does take time. You know? And I think, you know, to your point, I have I'm actually interviewing Isabella Santos right after you. Yeah. And I think she worked on the movie with Motive in Peru, and I think that's what you're talking. I'm not sure if that's what you're speaking of about just going in and, yay. Here's Bitcoin, and we're just gonna donate it to everybody. Like, I really like what you're saying about, you know, when we're thinking in terms of a circular economy, when we're thinking in terms of adoption.
You know, I've been in Ubers before or at a, you know, restaurant. I'm like, I wanna tip you in Bitcoin. And they're like, Well, okay, cool. But then what do you do after? If you don't have a follow-up and follow through and ability to keep that consistency going so that people on their learning journey understand one step at a time and feel held on that journey, and they've got other people to connect with to talk about. So it's it's not effective if it's just throwing it out to one person here and there. And so I think we're all learning, I believe, as new Bitcoiners and as new change makers who wanna enter this, you know, the the the space of the future of money and the space of, hopefully, a a more harmonious planet, I think we're all kinda coming at it from, you know, the angle of our our own experience of what we've had to work with and then learning in our own little, you know, micro communities. And, obviously, you've been,
[00:27:29] Unknown:
wow, 50 countries. This is amazing. And you know, over 50 countries. It's it's just it's incredible. It's it's to me is my experience is the opportunity to encounter different cultures and to see how the programming is so so strong, that if we don't start understanding the culture we're interacting with, like, if I come from Eastern Europe, well, it's fantastic, but your experience is totally different to Peru. And Peru, why? Why strategically do you choose Peru? Because, I mean, I am from social sciences background. I will study what is the social, political, and economic situation minimum. What this little village is gonna represent in terms of a country that is falling apart is one of the worst in Latin America in the pressing history that we have, and we have many, including Mexico as example, of how terrible is the politics nowadays, in terms of being so shameless about how to use the poor people. And so we are repeating the same, being beat corners, that's not fair. That's not fair because we claim that, basic principles like don't trust, verify.
Well, that forces you to be strategic. Go and check how is going to be the impact. Not any women, you have to choose the women, They have to fill in some characteristics. Ideally, you would like to help every woman on the planet, but within that, I see some women that have more resources, so I will opt for the ones who are less privileged and more marginalized. Once I choose them, I will choose the ones that are productive, that are trying very hard because I don't want to create dependency. I mean, in this I mean, it's it's incredible because in this misery industry, jargon, Still we recognize like Lao Tzu, what he said give a man a fish and you feed him a day. Teach him how to fish and you feed him for a life.
Yeah. We all know that, but at the end it's easier to give the fish and then take the picture and put it in the social media, and then there we are with the with the man sorting out poverty. Or even worse, using poor people for marketing ourselves. And and and I think there's a tendency now because all these Bitcoin companies are hiring all these very beautiful girls, which is fantastic that they are ambassadors of Bitcoin. But the problem is if they don't think carefully how they are used to promote an image, Because that beautiful woman is not at all related to the prevailing physical concrete woman we have in the communities.
It doesn't have to, but at least to identify culturally could be essential, and not arrive in Laivu. Do you prepare tacos and take the picture? I mean, it's just so insulting to our own culture, And that doesn't give a good example to the fiat way of doing things traditionally. I don't see the difference, you see? The difference is even worse because it portrays that it's different because comes from the Bitcoiners. It's not enough. That's what I'm thinking. So the second question you ask is ways to support women in the ground. What we had found is that it's important for the women, these strategically chosen women that are productive, that they have been educated since 30 years ago how to raise you back the traditional practices in the Maya culture, that they have a lot of things to be pride of of themselves in terms of how they produce beautiful garments, delicious honey, or wonderful creams for the skin, whatever.
What you see is that these women are ready because they know what it is financially to be productive. They know the value of the money. Now they need the means to save that money and to administer their own money. And this is a different story because it's a woman that is educated financially indirectly. But now we have to teach her a different language of finances. So educating financially these women is based on their daily life, it's not artificially created, it's not introducing something. But what is crucial is we're gonna try to give access, for their products in a place where all the people buy and the tourists come. So we are creating a center, a Bitcoin Casa, in Central America, with many rooms where they can come and offer what they produce.
And for us, that is really supporting because to start with, we're avoiding intermediaries. Yeah. Because these women nowadays, for instance, it's very sad. I'm working now with women that produce textiles and garments. There are beautiful things. They stop because they said now there are so many intermediaries. We only rescue back what we pay for the, for instance, for the thread or for the items we used to produce the carpet, but there's no income for them. So we want to avoid intermediaries so that they can be paid directly for what they produce. And for us, that's something that will give them a different opportunity in financial terms.
[00:33:02] Unknown:
And and so the so let's talk about this bazaar, this Casa. Is it up and running yet?
[00:33:09] Unknown:
Not yet. We figure out that we'll start in in couple of months. We are transforming yes. It's in the center of Merida. We are now redesigning the space so that different people have different access to offer different things.
[00:33:23] Unknown:
Amazing. And they're all under they're all women who are producers and creating something, and then they're also gonna accept Bitcoin. And, obviously, if they wanna accept Fiat, they can would they accept Fiat too or just Bitcoin?
[00:33:36] Unknown:
No. For the time being, we are making an arrangement. A service in process, Daniel, is is making an agreement with different companies. For instance, we we plan to have a machine there that people can exchange their Bitcoin if they want, but that means they can all receive Bitcoin because they can exchange it to Mexican pesos there on the spot. But we want to educate people to receive Bitcoin.
[00:34:01] Unknown:
And and so is this space gonna be like a place where you're having different meetups and financial literacy opportunities
[00:34:08] Unknown:
to come and learn. The idea the idea is also, it's kind of a cultural hub, where people come in from outside. We also have expats here, so maybe these people would like to come. Well, Daniel has, done couple of events where the expats living here that are Bitcoiners. We met with, a company also that is working in Cancun. Different people, like, generate knowledge and circulate information. Yes, we we we are intending to have it as a center of information and exchange, and also people come and meet meet up and exchange different perspectives.
And also we think that if people from the community are there, they will benefit of this education slowly, and they will see, because they don't see it now, that it's a real community, you see. And then that might inspire them to feel more secure in terms of adopting Bitcoin.
[00:35:08] Unknown:
Yeah. I I think it's super important. Do you know Lynn Bee who's in she's in Mexico I think she's in Mexico City and that she's got, I think she just started a podcast building with Bitcoin. She's finance superwoman. I wanna connect you guys if you don't know her already, but,
[00:35:25] Unknown:
Lynn. I think I know Lynn. Yes. You know Lynn? Yeah. Yeah. She stays here at the house. Yeah. She came here when when we organized this, Daniel organized this Sisal meeting for Bitcoin. Okay. Okay. Yeah. She's a lovely, lovely girl. The I mean, she's doing a fantastic job. Yeah. She's amazing.
[00:35:45] Unknown:
Yeah. My mind is always thinking in terms of, like, little how do we building community in our different areas. Right? And so there are some places, you know, there's Bitcoin Park. There's Bitcoin Commons. Denver is starting to build the space, but they're more just like, you know, Bitcoin focused workspaces. But the another place that's up in New York City is called, Pub Key. And Okay. So it's a, it's a bar and restaurant, and they have tons and tons and tons of meetups and workshops and hands on stuff and talking about Bitcoin. Do you envision, like because I've been thinking about here too where I live, and I'm like, should I open up, like, a Bitcoin coffee shop or something so that we can just have everybody gets their coffee, and then we'll have, like, little learning things.
[00:36:33] Unknown:
We're glad you have to talk to Daniel because, he just yesterday, he finished the project together with Mexico City that they are creating this very beautiful place with a it's kind of a big con park, but also it has other components. And Daniel will be part of that, and then we are making a a bridge between Mexico City and here. Yes. That yes. Awesome. And then Daniel might be able to tell you that and about another part of our project is the Citadel. Because that's a very strong, solid thing that we are doing. But he's more into that creating the self sustainable branch with local community and with different kind of, a Bitcoiner for instance in in, I think it's in Austria based, he has been here. So now he's, drawing the the whole design of this Citadel. Daniel is busy with all kind of legal documents that he has to have ready.
And I think in I believe in 2 weeks' time, this he starts the ranch already. And it's a very beautiful place that, they they have now with almost untouched land in a bit over 90 hectares, and they are gonna yeah. They are go they starting to plant Nepal and cactus and things like that, but it's very, very beautiful, the idea of having this pristine place. We have these cenotes, I don't know if you're familiar with the term. Mhmm. We got 2 cenotes. So all in all, it's kind of an incredible experience because then we think the community will be also created with Bitcoiners, with these self sustainable and eco friendly practices.
And then people from the community will come and teach us how, and we will support them in selling their products in the capitalized by Bitcoinerscom. So we think we close this cycle. Yeah. The circular economy is giving access to the people to sell the products. Otherwise, we artificially are creating a situation that is not sustainable. If you are gonna pay the teachers, I mean, that's very distorted because in our Latin American, I think it's it's a basic principle in all the constitutions that education should be for free and should be provided by the state because the state gets a lot of money from our taxes.
So now we're taking away the responsibility, and we're paying the teachers through the mothers, and we're giving the money to the mothers. For me, that's totally wrong, because how can you artificially create that when the state has the responsibility, but on top of that, you're introducing a factor that is not guaranteed that's gonna be there next year or in 2 years' time. But are the mothers gonna do the teachers are gonna continue to educate without being paid? You see? We need to think in advance.
[00:39:34] Unknown:
Yeah. And well, and it's like it sounds like the government's not upholding its end of the deal by, you know, paying for the the proper education. And so I think you like you said, with the misery industry and people coming in in the nonprofit mindset of just like, here, let's just donate, donate, donate. Exactly. No. You want to teach people to produce value that is exchangeable in the marketplace in a way that is sustainable. Because you're right. There's a lot of, you know, studies done where it's like, cool. Let's just drop some money in x y z location on planet Earth. And then once that money is gone, there's no sustainable opportunity for those communities or the individuals to flourish in a long time. Exactly. And then you give me individually,
[00:40:15] Unknown:
they are wonderful beings. Of course. The ones who are intervening are well intended, and the shoemaker that is a widow, yes, I feel sorry for him, but there are thousands of that in Latin America. In Peru for sure, but throughout Latin America, there are widows that are in extreme poverty. I have worked in Bolivia, for instance. The indigenous people are very often because the women die in labor. Mhmm. So then, and and I mean with the medical information we have now, women shouldn't be dying of delivery. But in most of our indigenous community throughout Latin America, they die.
So then, of course there are many men widows, and we need to help them, but we need to be strategic to do it. It's not that I am Catholic and I want them to become Catholics and then I go and preach them. It's okay. I'm well intended, but it's not sustainable and might not be the best for the community, you see.
[00:41:13] Unknown:
And and so with this and this understanding, how are you helping people, like, in the Bitcoin community start to understand,
[00:41:24] Unknown:
like, getting out of that space? Are you are you doing anything to kinda help us or deeper Well, wait wait. I will not attend them. I will not attend them the the gatherings, like I did the last one when I met you in El Salvador. Mhmm. For instance, I think those are beautiful opportunities because people are very happy, and you feel the community of the Bitcoiners. I I think it's a wonderful opportunity just to tell your story and what you're doing. But, what I find difficult in terms of the Bitcoiners, some of them are very arrogant, and it's, rightly so because, I mean, they are so clever, so gifted in terms of understanding this highly sophisticated mathematical model that I hardly can grasp the basics.
Thank God I have a son because he's very patient and he quotes all the basic things for me. But, I mean, my generation doesn't have a chance to be to become Bitcoiners just because we cannot grasp basic things in terms of technology.
[00:42:31] Unknown:
So for the Do we need to do that? That's the question too. You know? Like, I don't care how the SWIFT network or the ACH or any of it. I couldn't care less. All I care is that I got to buy some groceries today or whatever. Like, I'm You're right. Like, 90% of us couldn't care less about cryptography or sha2.
[00:42:51] Unknown:
Nobody cares. The minimum you need to know how to to function the wallet, to operate the wallet. Yeah. That in itself might be very difficult for people in my generation because we are not digital. But anyway, having said that, what I think is important is people in the Bitcoin community are very talented, very, very bright voice. And so sometimes they don't feel the need at all to learn anything else. They think they just take for granted that, knowledge and wisdom transfer to all the other areas in their lives, which is not the case. You see? And then on top of that, the predominant population is male, and they are very conscious that they are males because they have the upper hand in our society.
They have been educated to have the upper hand in our society. Why should they share with women something they don't have to? And if the women arrive there as, okay, look at me how beautiful I am and take pictures of me, Well, this is we're lost because there's no I know there are a presence of women. And the ones I try to link with, for instance, within Mexico and Jose, the programmers. Oh, they are programmers. And to my surprise, I encountered the same jealousy between women than with other women because they're they don't work spiritually. They don't work on self transformation. And we need, for instance, I from the Marxist point of view, what I learned is the economic structure is determinant in everything else. And I was not an orthodox Marxist. I was a Gramscien Marxist, which Gramsci put emphasis on like Marx, on the what we call the super structure in the theory, which means all the net of institutions like family, church, work, education, all of them program you in a way that you function according to the economic system.
So if we don't work on that, we don't, unprogram this way of thinking, we don't perceive that. And now for me, the essential part is how are we gonna educate? How are we gonna educate in financial terms? Because when I see, Paco standing at the top of the pyramids in Cusco, I mean, you say, okay. That's very nice, but you come from India. I've been in that country working for years. You know that ordinary people don't just say, yes, I adopt Bitcoin and that's it. You have to do some work that progressively, the awareness of the people grows and the
[00:45:38] Unknown:
Seth Bunny wrote a really great book. I got to interview him recently. Yeah. And he was talking about the family structure and how the family structure is decimated now in most areas because of, because of the fiat system. And a lot of people, of course, we don't understand. We think, oh, it's just, you know, people get divorced. Both parents have to work, etcetera. And he talked a lot about the trauma that comes with, you know, being a child who grows up without their parents' home after school, or the parents are fighting a lot because of money or a lot of time, obviously, folks get divorced because of money. And so it's his book's The Hidden Cost of Money. And, excellent book, by the way. Everybody should read it. You know, when we're talking to new audiences who don't understand technology, who don't understand the financial system, who don't understand, you know, finance, etcetera, but but they're they're victims of the fiat system. Right? And these families are victims of the trauma, and sometimes there's, you know, emotional violence. There's, like, a consequence of physical violence, you know, that that can come from overstressed, right, when you're just know, people can start recognizing, wow. This is could be a tool to you know, people can start recognizing, wow. This is could be a tool to keep our families together.
This could be a tool for creating more harmony inside, you know, so that we're not so stressed all the time, and then not taking it out on our children or our loved ones. How do how do you talk can you talk to that a little bit?
[00:47:23] Unknown:
Yes. I think, one has to be careful about about how we are interacting with our families because it's not only money. You're right in terms of, for instance, the stress that adds to the, for instance, the providers, could be the parents, is such that they are at home. For instance, United States has some phenomenon like children are not experiencing any more undivided attention, because the parents are all the time with their iPhone or talking to someone. And that's very serious because in your brain as a little child, in terms of self esteem, it's it's very, very powerful that your parents cannot pay attention to you or undividedly.
Yeah. That's what but an example. So money is 1 yeah. The stress of earning money is another one, but there are another layers that we have also to take into account. And sometimes these basic rules, I do a lot of things about positive parenting, and and what I like is that, for instance, simple rules, like, for instance, when we eat, the cell phones are gonna be left out. Mhmm. Because it's time for us to interact with each other. Or or when you gather at some point in the family, we respect that we are there and we don't take calls to say something.
Little Ruth could help a lot. Yeah. But having said that, the essence of course is the financial burden that we have. And young, parents feel the financial burden. But, I think, for instance, different layers of society, like I see the tendency of the people who move to El Salvador, well, they will resort to home education because they can afford to. But if you go to the real population in El Salvador, that they cannot afford to have that. Yeah. They don't have the cultural capital. That's why I always use this category of the French sociologist, Berdye, because, financial capital is one thing, but cultural capital is another thing. If you don't have That define cultural capital. Like, when Cultural capital for the sociologist Pierre Bourdieu is all the things that the system gives you indirectly and outside of the school, but are validated by the school.
So when you go to primary school for instance, if you if your parent use iPhone, if you use a recorder, if you then you are more equipped than an ordinary child in Mexico, for instance, that comes from a family whose parents are illiterate, for instance, because they don't have access to those media. But the school will will assess you the same, like if you have the same cultural capital. Because the school will give you some input, but not all of it. The other is given at the family. And then financial capital is one thing, but cultural capital is also validated by our society. If you are a lawyer and if you don't comb your hair in some way and if you are not dressed in some way, well, you are discriminated against. Here in Mexico, it happens. If they are dusting, if their hairstyle is not according to the trend, they will prefer the upper class kid that has the same degree, because cultural capital is prevalent as well as much as the financial capital.
So it gives a a answer to, to us, and Bitcoiners think it's only financial capital. It's not. Mhmm. The cultural capital is essential.
[00:51:06] Unknown:
And do you feel like looking forward, you know, 10, 20, 30, 50, a 100 years from now, do you feel that Bitcoin could you know, once people start adopting it and understanding like, wow, this is one of the legs of the the table that we need to have, do you think that the cultural capital component is going to shift in a way that's more fair and more,
[00:51:30] Unknown:
it will be Provided provided us at Bitcoiners as Bitcoiners, we need to reflect on ourselves. We need to perceive ourselves in a different way. You know, we have we have I've been I belonged for some time. I was educated by the Jesuits as well. And we used to have a very strong movement in Latin America, it was called Theology of Liberation. Okay. And it was called Priests for the People. And some people were killed, like Monsignor Romero in El Salvador, the airport has its name. And it was the highest authority in the Catholic church, and it was killed because he was seen as communist, and we were a movement from Theology of Liberation.
We had in Peru, a beautiful priest, Gutierrez. So it was a very strong movement. And and I'm bringing this because sometimes we don't know history. We cannot go again through that. But in Brazil, part of this movement, there was a bishop as well, and he used to say, it's not what matters to arrive soon and alone. The most important is to arrive together and on time.
[00:52:43] Unknown:
I like that a lot.
[00:52:46] Unknown:
I think so, and it's the same with Ubuntu in South Africa. If you see, it's very similar and when you see for instance, all the cosmovision that has some African cultures, especially the area of South Africa with Ubuntu, You must know this when the American anthropologist arrives and tells the little children in the village, the one who runs faster will get that basket with all kind of goodies, chocolates, fruits, everything. And then he says, when I count 3, you run. And the children remain sitting there after 3. And then he goes and says, why do do you want that? And then all of a sudden, they stand up and they run together and they get the basket together.
Because for them, it's not competing against each other. It's joining efforts to get the goal. You see, it's a different approach. It is. It's it's it's
[00:53:40] Unknown:
it's a hugely different approach. And, well, when I think of Bitcoin, it's funny that you mentioned Ubuntu. I don't know if you know this, but, I mean, you can probably see it up on the logo there, but the the font for the Bitcoin logo is Ubuntu. Ubuntu. Yeah. And so
[00:53:56] Unknown:
And and mainly like Desmond Tutu. Desmond Tutu used that for the parquet, to find the parquet. So we we had what I'm telling is we have in history a lot of examples. When it's a shift into society, we have to bring the memory back of what happened in history because, Bitcoiners think they are arriving. They are gonna create a new society out of I mean, from scratch. And it's from scratch is the work we have to do, but there's a lot of history that is there that we use, in order to enlighten ourselves to intervene in the best possible way, I think. Yeah. I and I think it's something that, you know,
[00:54:36] Unknown:
everybody thinks like, oh, we're just gonna build this whole new world. Well, you're still gonna have a new society if we want this society. It's gonna have some rules. It's gonna have a system in place to govern. And so, you know, as much as I'm not I'm not a fan of our current systems at all, and I I want them I know that we might. But but we have to you know, we're gonna fall into old ways of doing things if we don't pay attention to the mistakes of the past and obviously the gifts and the the wisdom of the past, the good and the bad. And so so I think it's very important that we we stay clear eyed as we get excited about the future and wanna build it and, you know, not be too pie in the sky because, you know, as much as we wanna think everybody's thinking in terms of an Ubuntu mindset and philosophy, as adults, like, we've gone away from that, you know, and I think your to your point, and I know we're gonna wrap up here in a couple of minutes, to your point about, you know, the the screens and the people adults and their, you know, constant, you know, distraction, and we're we're programming ourselves every time we pick up that phone and we consume some information.
Doesn't matter if it's on social or regular or email or news, whatever it is, we're constantly getting, you know, chemical reactions in our minds, in our brains, in our minds, but and it's feeding that addiction loop. And so we're letting something else program us. You know? I think of us, we have a human operating system. We have code. And if we're not really, really diligent and careful, we're gonna keep getting coded into this destructive, divisive consciousness. Exactly.
[00:56:15] Unknown:
And then and then we are very market oriented. Marketing is the force, pushing us to act. And for instance, I think the goal long term is adoption. So acceptance is not a norm, but adoption implies being strategic, learn from the past, and avoid the the same mistakes, preferably work on narrow ends, and self transformation is important, and question yourself, and, something that is also a code of ethics. Because we need financial means, but we also need, for instance, Eliquasco, I was saying cultural capital is important. But then we love aesthetics, we love beauty, we love nature.
So all of that has to flow into this economic model, I think. And Bitcoin for me is the the beauty of it is that being Marxist, I'd really know this is a historical opportunity because with Marx, he wanted something, but the tools were not there. Mhmm. And you see, and now we have the tool, but we might, not use it properly because our arrogance, because our interest in me me me and having lots of money in me, and I don't care about the rest of the society.
[00:57:35] Unknown:
Yeah. Well and again, we're programmed in a scarcity mindset, you know, whether it's, oh, you're not pretty enough, you don't have enough money, you don't have the right card, you don't have the right status, da da da da. It's that machine that keeps us feeling less than, you know, like and so that we think, like, oh, I have to go outside of myself to go buy something and become a whole human so that I can fit in and belong into this society and be accepted and be safe. So it feeds upon our our survival instinct that we have as humans as natural. It does. Yeah. Yeah. And so, yeah, so this is this is so such a great conversation, and I could go on for hours with you for sure. No. And thank you so much, Valerie. It's been fantastic to talk to you. This is amazing. So okay. So everybody who's listening, and I'm not sure I'm not sure for those of you who are watching if if everything came through okay. I know Mercedes said you've been having some, some power issues because of the weather that's going on down there in Mexico right now, so, hopefully, everything, came through clearly for for everyone watching and listening. But, if you guys wanna go follow Mercedes on Twitter at ut640.
She's got a QR code there that if you guys wanna donate and help some of the initiatives that she's doing down in Mexico or just definitely follow her, that would be amazing, and say hello. Thank you so much for what's going on. Thank you, Valerie. Yeah. Any final words for somebody who maybe is listening and wants to help introduce, Bitcoin into their their family, their community, into their ecosystem?
[00:59:08] Unknown:
Well, I think, what you were talking about, the family, I think it's important to emphasize the importance of of the women's role. Even in some spiritual traditions, they are now, even the Dalai Lama has said, well, they expect some leadership from women that can lead us to a different society. So I think it's, we have a lot of responsibility just, in practical trans motherhood for instance. Our gender role, is not only at philosophical level. We encounter everyday qualities to help a new human being to go through life. Yeah. And if we monitor ourselves, if we are less tempted to compete, and not so greedy that we want everything for ourselves, I think that would help a lot. For instance, we receive a donation, and all of a sudden, the man changes his mind and says, oh, no. After months, give me back my donation. And, okay, we send it back. But he doesn't reflect the commitments that on his behalf we made in the community, for instance. He just doesn't care. And I thought, well, what kind of Bitcoiner is this man?
Because, I mean, he changed his mind, but, I mean, that's not solid, and we are working with poor people. And when you are interacting with community, things are serious. It's not a matter of changing your mind, and, oh, sorry. That that, money I know it's gonna be used differently. Because now I have a big show with a big gathering where he can promote himself better, which is I respect a lot of that. But then when Bitcoiners do something, they have to be more responsible with their actions, I think. Because and that's what I miss in the Bitcoin community.
Some kind of spirituality, and that's not religion at all, it's just some code of ethics that guides you. Because otherwise, Bitcoin is gonna be the same as any other tool for grabbing money, and that's not the case. Become once something differently, was designed to, I believe, to bring
[01:01:14] Unknown:
more social justice. I really believe it. Me too. I agree, and I believe, obviously, this podcast is called Bitcoin for Peace. And I do believe that, you know, in order to have a more peaceful planet, we need to have these tools and we need to use them consciously, you know, and with intentionality and love and care. So this is it's a learning lesson for all of us, I suppose, as we keep going. You know? It's all to be a different word. Yeah. It's just a big experiment, but, like, if we can experiment with love as we make these decisions and choices, I think we're gonna have better outcomes too. And, yeah, we're gonna make mistakes and mess up, but, you know, hopefully, we'll we'll keep seeing the light and moving forward together. So, well, I really, really appreciate you, Mercedes. And, hey, I know you're available Saturday morning.
We're gonna be doing a mother a pre mother's day spaces on Twitter. Oh, that's nice. And so I can do Yeah. Jump on. I think, it's at are are you are you what time zone are what what time is it there right now? Is it 1 o'clock? I think we're on the same time zone, 1 o'clock. Time zone? Okay. So I think it's gonna be 10 o'clock our time. Okay. We'll just hang on for a couple hours and do spaces and talk about motherhood and Bitcoin and all the fun stuff. That's a nice idea. Just to kinda celebrate, you know, how how women are in the world in the Bitcoin space. So I'd love to have you there. Yay. Alright, everybody. Well, thanks again, and please make sure you follow Mercedes on Twitter or xut640, and, we'll keep rocking the good fight.
Introduction and Episode Overview
Meet Mercedes Juarez: Women's Rights Advocate
Mercedes' Background and Work in Women's Health
Challenges in Women's Health and Domestic Violence
Bitcoin as a Tool for Escaping Domestic Violence
Community Support and Strategic Interventions
Cultural Sensitivity in Bitcoin Adoption
Creating Sustainable Economic Opportunities
The Role of Women and Family in Bitcoin Adoption
Future of Bitcoin and Cultural Capital
Building a New Society with Bitcoin
Final Thoughts and Call to Action
