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Who has not ever been a victim or a protagonist of a misunderstanding?

This unfortunate situation was caused by a misunderstanding by both sides and not by a bad intention to ruin the expected meeting.

Generally a misunderstanding is not originated by a bad intention but by a lack of good communication. Though, sometimes by an incompetence of the communicant or receptor of it.

The worst example of it is the following: Just some minutes before the execution of an accused in the electric chair, the police caught the true assassin. In an urge to stop the execution, the judge dictated: "Pardon. Impossible the immediate execution", but the staff in charge of sending telegram, complete ignorant of the most elemental rule of where to write a point, wrote down : "Pardon impossible. The immediate execution" . This small "Point" cost the life of an innocent.

A lot of misunderstandings have provoked grave incidents in the history or very comic situations. And that was a misunderstanding of communication in a native language! Then, when we must communicate in another language which is not our native mother tongue or when you are conversing with a person of a different culture, there are more possibilities of misunderstanding each other.

Regarding to human relationships, I have observed a big gap existing between different cultures, which produces sometimes impotence and frustration. Sometimes a sentiment is not explainable in words, and it is only fully understandable by someone with the same cultural base.

For example, a Japanese is traditionally very rich in sensibility to understand the mind of another person without the necessity to receive 100% of explanation of a concept. That is, a Japanese gives 50% of explanation and the listener put 50% of understanding-supposing to complete 100% of understanding. On the other hand, an "occidental" firstly learns at home and at school to explain oneself accurate and clearly. And, secondly, to appeal perfectly one’s point of view, which forms a less sensibility in understanding the mind of the other party (if you explain to the last detail your view, then you don't give room for discussion - Japanese see this very confrontational and they tend to avoit this kind of imposition of an opinion. Sometimes, the lack of extra communication may provoque that an 'occidental' may easily think that the Japanese in front of him is dumb).

This "gap" produces many times a sense of impotence, frustration and parallel lines which never intersect and which disable full communication between the parties concerned.

An UN act proposed by the initiative of the Spanish Prime Minister which reads "Alliance of Civilizations" to mitigate the current world conflicts, that the most important thing is to have an attitude to listen, communicate and understand each other, instead of imposing a unilateral view: "our principle is the best and the one to be adopted in the whole world". What a medieval principle this is and also how difficult is to change our principles cultivated in each different culture for generations!!