Archives on Rielo Institute for Integral Development

Tired of freedom

Isaac Eliseo Gaspar Morales — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

We are truly tired of flowery rhetoric about freedom, self-actualization, and human rights. Not because these are undesirable realities or shamefully incomprehensible concepts. On the contrary, they are aspects of life that we strive to preserve, nurture, and make possible so that others may enjoy or attain them. Rather, I am referring to the fact that, in the name of freedom, self-realization, and elegant discourse on human rights, we have been subjected to a sordid practical relativism, to living life any which way, to justifying ourselves to avoid the harsh blow of correction, failure, or sin. I speak as a child of my time. I grew up amid the escalating clash of ideas, the allure of self-assertion, and the dream of freedom. I was repeatedly told that I must seek what fulfills me, what makes me feel good, and what showcases the best of me to everyone. My failures are not mistakes; they are “areas of opportunity.” My sins are not moral breaches, but mere products that necessarily stem from my weakness. Whatever I decide is fine, as long as it springs from the core of my creative will. But few have directed my heart outward from itself, to where Truth dwells. For if it is true that Truth dwells within the inner man—as Augustine says—Truth is at once what is more intimate than one’s own intimacy and the highest transcendence, beyond every limit of my being. True interiority is always ecstatic, always outside of itself, always seeking beyond boundaries of every kind: conceptual, ontological, moral, spiritual.

Fragmentation

Silvia Gonzalez Perez PhD — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The well-known phrase ‘divide and conquer’ has not only been applied to winning battles and subsequently wars, or in commercial transactions to maximise profits; it also applies to human beings themselves, in their various spheres (work, family, social, professional); for example, in medicine, the focus has been on treating the patient’s specific ailment, without considering that they are a whole human being with multiple conditions; and that even if they suffer from localised pain, that organ is affected and is affecting the rest of the body.

Human geese

Riccardo Colasanti MD — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Those who go against justice are like wild beasts to other men. With sharp teeth and sweaty, shivering skin. The harshness of strong men, their animal nature, which nothing can stop because they are dominated by their passions, is that of The Genealogy of Morals, when Nietzsche states that evil birds love lambs, “because there is nothing more delicious than a tender lamb.”

This principle of forced saturation of one’s own being, this revelry to the point of bursting, eating everything, digesting everything, destroying everything, could be mistaken by some unhappy people for some kind of greatness, like towering above ordinary mortals. But the light is given to tyrants by mediocrities. The demigod, the superman, needs crowds of cheering mediocrities to praise and support him.

The autor has passed away

Riccardo Colasanti MD — Wed, 14 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The year 2026 will likely mark the beginning of a new era, one of artificially produced literature that is indistinguishable from text written by humans. As the practice of writing with AI becomes more widespread, it will no longer be possible to distinguish between the human and the artificial. Everything will be open to question.

Only works written before 2026 will be able to be attributed with certainty to a human author. But after 2026, we will no longer be able to be sure. A new era is dawning.

Reconciliation and Philanthropy: Serendipitous Siblings

Robert Cote, Basilio Monteiro Phd — Sat, 19 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Reconciliation as a critical component of peacebuilding project usually does not get prioritized; to imagine reconciliation in tandem with philanthropy will sound preposterous to many. Let us re-imagine: “money” is the mover and shaker of everything, big and small, of significant and insignificant. Everything is a commodity which necessitates monetary transaction of high-significant or low-significant value. Use of money is a symbolic manifestation of the meaningfulness, commitment and engagement we attribute to any activity we engage in, whether material, emotional or intellectual. Peacebuilding is a lifetime ever-evolving project with many components to ti, some very visible, others are not visible, some demonstrable, others very subtle, but crucial linchpins.

In a fragmented world the need of the hour: Reconciliation

Basilio G. Monteiro PhD — Mon, 31 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Since World War II multi-lateral international relations emanated from political science dominated the peacebuilding efforts. Eighty years later it is proven to be an unmanageable patchwork in search for a solution.

The grand idea of globalization and the aspirational global peace is facing an increasingly fragmented world at war with each other, either an economic war or an actual one with sophisticated and mutually destructive weapons. The forces for conflict resolution, reconciliation and peacebuilding are feeling a gut punch and the wind taken away from them in the prevailing and evolving geo-political realities. The forces of warmongering have the global megaphone.

Discouraged, we approach the abyss

Riccardo Colasanti MD — Wed, 05 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

As is well known, the distinction in politics between “right” and “left” has long since lost its raison d’être. Today, the division between progressives and conservatives is more valid. Progressive or conservative ideas that take root in the two camps of the old “right” and “left”.

We must consign these obsolete concepts to the annals of history. But once we have rid ourselves of the words “right” and “left” we must understand the differences, analyze this antagonistic global tension between conservatives and progressives, because this exhausting struggle is tearing the world apart.

Women crossing Mexico's southern border, confronting criminal groups

María de Lourdes Rosas López PhD — Mon, 16 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

“We are from Guatemala, we are on our way to the United States, my friend, myself and my 5-year-old daughter. I am 24 years old and a widow. My husband was killed when my little girl was only 2 years old because he worked for the Guatemalan police. After that, I went to live with my mother and when she died I worked as a maid in the house of some elderly Spanish gentlemen, where my daughter and I lived, until their death, recently. Not having a place to live or a job, my friend told me “let’s go to the United States”, I was afraid because we have no papers and no money. But she told me she would support me.

Law as Social Software

Riccardo Colasanti MD — Tue, 20 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The ordinary person, the one who is not an expert and has not studied the “sacred texts” of law believes that the essence of the law is justice. Concept that seems self-evident.

Of course, people know that there can be problems. Corrupt judges or politicians can use the law to commit injustice, and use their power for sleazy self-interest. But this only indicates a disease, a pathology of the system.