Corruption III

Over the past few months the Spaniards have been bearing a lot of scandals in the media of news, of course I mean corrupt politicians. But in my opinion we are living a moment of glory because at last, we start to see corrupt people entering in prison, Because of pressure of public opinion, the judges and the police unit special UCO (Central Unit of Operations) are working hard, and we hope there will be cleansing here. The typical situation of corruption happens when a mayor has to tender of contracts, then he receives money for delivering contacts to entrepreneurs who trying to buy his decisions. Frequently these mayors win a percentage of commission of the construction budgets. I think that it's a good time because the worst would be to have the perception of corruption when no one does anything.

10 Hours of Walking in NYC as a Woman

The actress Shoshana B. Roberts is walking in silence on a two-minute video along Manhattan. She wore a black t-shirt and some jeans with a hidden camera. Probably she want to denounce the women situation who are harassed frequently walking by the street.
When she ignored their comments, she was answered with rude or unfriendly comments.
Some insisted to talk her and other followed her and it is something that got nervous and uncomfortable.
This video was produced by charitable organization Hollaback which is dedicated to street harassment. it took 10 hours to produce it.
The organization claims that women, blacks, gays, lesbians and transsexual people are susceptible of street harassment, so these people are most vulnerable to suffer agressions.
I am harassed when I smile and when I don't. I am harassed by white and black men and latin men too. There is not one day when I am not going through this. She added. Now, she is receiving threats to be raped.

Reihané Yabarí

"I tell you from the deepest of my heart that don't want a grave in order to you are going to cry me and suffer. I don't want that you are in mourning. Try to forget my hard days. Let me that the wind carries me" These were her last words in a letter sent to her mother before being hanged. She is Rehihané Yabarí an Iranian woman condemned to death by Iranian court , charged with murdering of a man who tried to rape her.
In the same letter she asked for donating her organs as her last will. She wrote: "I don't want to rot underground. I don't want that my eyes and my young heart become dust. I beg you that as soon as I am hanging, my heart, my kidneys, my eyes, my bones and everything that might be transplanted are taken from my body and given away to those who need it. I don't want that the final recipient knows who am I, nor my name, nor that person buys me a bouquet of flowers, nor prays for me.

The word allowed me living during 18 years more. That ominous night was I who should have been murdered. My body would have been thrown over some place of the city and after you would have been taken by the police up to medical examiner's office to identify my corpse and communicate you that I had been raped.

They had never found the real murderer because we lack of their wealth and power. Later you had gone on your life by suffering and ashamed. And some years later you would had died of sorrow.

[She declared that though she hurted him with a knife, actually the murderer was another person who appeared later]

However with that damned blow, my story changed. My body was not thown over some place of the city but in the grave of the Evin prison and its alone cells. So that, give in destiny and don't complain you. As you know, death is not the end of life."

She claimed that was treated as a ruthless criminal and that nobody listened to her, and she asked for her family that didn't try to save her.

The court of Teheran justified the condemn saying that the rape was a alibi to murder to the man.

When You Are With Him

When you are with him,
you have to create a phrase of love
that makes him believe that there is only truth in your heart.
When you are with him, you seek to think what you are going to say
because may be that upon being called by you, you say my name.

Seek to be him faithful in everything,
don't remind you anymore of our yesterday,
make him happy of anyway
because you owe it to him now,
I resign to lose everything
though I peeled my skin off of sorrow.

When you are with him,
you have to pretend not to declare that
once you were already happy, a real love.

When you are with him,
you manage to forget
the world where I couldn't build,
which it was a prision for the two of us.
Lyrics

Nonrecourse Debt

It's well known the economic crisis due to the Mortgage Subprime Lending specially in USA and Europe. It's well known that a lot of people have lost their homes removing of the occupants by evictions.
I want to speak about the Spanish case where the Nonrecourse Debt doesn't exist, that is to say, in addition to the misfortune to lose the home, acquired by bank, you incur a debt which pursues you the rest of your life. Which means that if some day, you have new properties, salaries or money in some bank, it would be seized via judicial.
In this procedure, the bank recovers part of its money by auctioning the home for half of price according to law, the debtor has to pay the rest of debt who usually has no money.
Some citizen platforms have been constructed to fight against to law in this regard.
There are people who are caught because of they can't sell their homes because they would receive less money that the necessary amount for paying the mortgage.
The Spanish government and the Europeans economic authorities have helped banks to avoid its crash, but who helps the families?
Besides it's unbearable to know the amount of finantial scandals and corruption in relation to chief executives of banks and politicians.
And now, a little political parties is taking the chance to grow by selling us that they are going to change everything. We think that the governments are more honest in other developed countries.

Escuchado

Anoche estuve escuchando a dos latinos hablando, y lo bueno es que pude entender mucho de lo que dijeron. Un término que me gustó fue "Tío Sam", una personificación del gobierno estadounidense. Estaban diciendo que, cuando sacas dinero de tu cuenta para el retiro, Tío Sam quererá su parte (impuestos). Otra cosa que mencionaron fue la palanca, en contexto del contratamiento de nuevos trabajadores. Es un fenómeno muy común y muy fuerte en países latinoamericanos, y no está ausente aquí. Por último, escuché "hipoteca reversible", un arreglo financiero en el que el dueño vende lentamente su casa a un banco, recibiendo pagos mensuales.

Contránimos

Anoche escuché un nuevo término - "contranym" en inglés - o "contránimo". Es una palabra que tiene dos significados contrarios. Por ejemplo, el verbo "to sanction", especialmente en las noticias, quiere decir imponer sanción o penalizar. Pero también puede significar "aprobar" como en "I did not sanction his actions." Otro ejemplo es "to dust", que puede decir o aplicar o quitar polvo, dependiendo en el contexto.

Si te gustaría otra locura del idioma, considera la frase "shelled peanuts". Creerías que quiere decir "cacahuetes descascarados" y tendrías razón. Pero también puede decir "cacahuetes con cáscaras". Así que si alguien te ofrece "shelled peanuts", debes pedir mas detalles.

Finalmente, una de mis responsibilidades en mi trabajo es dar consejos a ingenieros con menos experiencia. Pero no es claro quién está "consulting". ¿Es el que pide los consejos, o el que los da? Quizá sea mejor pensar en "to consult" como "colaborar con un intercambio de consejos".

De todos modos, no estoy seguro de que contranym/contránimo es una palabra real, pero sí es un fenómeno interesante.

Greek Wine

It was late on the cold big city,
I came back home when suddenly
I saw light in a bar,
I didnt doubt it, it was cold, I step into it.
It suddenly seemed to be in another country,
that people, that music, new for me,
an old man approached me and talked me in this way:

Come on for toasting
with Greek wine from my natal land,
the red wine that will make to remember
a white village that I left beyond of the sea.
Come on for toasting
with Greek wine and I am going to sing you
old songs that make us dreaming
with the time of returning home.

They told me about the day that they had to depart,
about how parents, siblings and girlfriends stayed there,
and from everyone of them the heart remained.
May be, one day the lucky will smile them,
very soon no one will remember that he was here
and he will return to his white village, to home.
Lyrics

Melina

You are fire of love,
sun's light,
volcano and earth.
You leave a path
where you pass.
Woman, you were born to love,
you has fought to return
to your land, with your people.

You has returned; Melina
raise your hands towards god,
that he listens your voice.
You has returned, Melina
your eyes show your sorrow
and your soul do your love.
The print of your singing
put down roots, Melina.
And your grey eyes
laugh again, Melina.
Your life and your reason
is your country
where the sea became grey
where the crying is the singing now.
Lyrics
This song pays a tribute to
Melina Mercoúri, actress, singer and Greek political activist. She was a Greek parliament member and in 1981 she became the first woman getting the culture minister position.

Guarani Language

Some days ago, concretely on Thursday, my wife and I were in a bar drinking a "caña", that is as it is called a glass of beer in Madrid.
The bar was a quite quiet and the waiter was talking to a customer behind the counter, it was a calm and long conversation.
I am not telling anything extraordinary except they were speaking an strange language for me. Normally it's easy to recognize languages as French, English(Of course), Russian, Portuguese, Italian, Arabic, Greek and German mainly due to its accent, but in this case I can't recognize that language. It was the first time that I heard something similar.
Besides of that their race or looking didn't tell me anything special, they could seem Spaniards.
After, the customer walked out and my curiosity was very big about that language. I decided to launch me and to ask.
- Where are you from? I asked.
- I'm from Paraguay, he answered with native accent.
- and I responded: But if I have heard that you were speaking a different language.
I dared to ask, perhaps because he was the waiter. And he answered:
- Yes, it's Guarani, it is spoken mainly in Paraguay, in fact, it is an official language besides Spanish.
- It's interesting, I didn't know that, I answered.
In South America there are several languages from native origin called Tupu-Guarani, but actually they are spoken by a lot of people not only natives Indians. When Spaniards arrived to America,  they  taught  writing his own language according to I have read.

Body Positions.

I am going to try to describe this picture,
From left to right and from up to down:
1. The individual is stood up and his hands are joined.
2. She is stood up and stretched towards back with her arms stretched, looking towards up.
3.She is stood up and bent down up to touch her toes in stretching. This position is often when you want to pick up something.

4.She is on the floor with her right leg stretched and her left leg squats. Her body is stretched slightly towards back.
5.She is on the floor upside down leaning between his feet and hands with his body stretched in triangle form.
6.She is laying on the floor upside down but leaning on her hands in stretched way, looking towards up.
7.She is laying along the floor upside down, in relax position

This Cowardness

She doesn't realize that when I just look at her,
due not to give me away I keep a sigh,
that my quiet love lights up when I see to her,
that I would give my life to possess her.

She doesn't realize that my eyes are bright
that I tremble at her side and even blush
that she is the reason that my love wakes up,
that se is my delirium and she doesn't realize.

This cowardness of my love of her
makes that I see her the same that a star,
so far, so far in the immensity
that I don't hope to be able to reach.

She doesn't realize that I have achieved for her
the warm kisses that she hasn't asked for,
that in my sad nights and sleepless,
on my crazy desire I feel to be her owner.

She doesn't realize that I have already enjoyed her
that she has been mine without having loved her
that her cold soul is the one that torments me
that she sees that I am dieing and she doesn't realize.
Lyrics

Creencias II

(a continuación)

4. Dar poder y alenta al uno al otro
Da autoridad de tomar decisiones a todos. Homenajea a los que corren riesgos para satisfacer a un cliente.

5. Produce resultados en un mundo incierto
A veces parece que nuestro mundo sea más inestable que nunca. Los clientes buscan a los que pueden realizar sus promesas a pesar del incertidumbre con el que vivimos.

¿Qué opino de estas lineas estratégicas? Por general, apoyo tales declaraciones de objetivo o misión. Su eficaz depende de cuánta atención prestan los líderes. Con repetición y uso real para tomar decisiones, este tipo de comunicación puede mejorar la unidad y rendimiento de un equipo.

(Con respeto a "magro", fue un intento de traducir la palabra "lean" en inglés que, como "magro", usualmente se refiere a carne. Pero en el mundo de negocios, ha llegado a significar simple o "que tiene sólo lo necesario". Vemos "lean manufacturing" y "lean management". Ví una referencia a "magro" como una traducción pero creo que se usan frecuentemente los términos ingleses sin traducción).

My Soul Falls in Love

My soul falls in love, it falls in love,
every time I see you
to go around the corner
perfumed of basil and chamomile.
The moon turns on when you look at me.

We are late.
Life has gone between laughing and crying.
I'm dreaming with him, deflowering the nights.
You're living with someone who you have never loved.
We are late.
Your smile and mine took them the river.
Your look and mine became seagulls
and they flew into the air.

My soul falls in love, it falls in love,
every time I see you
to go along my street
by keeping an eye on my home morning and afternoon.
The fire is ignited
the firewood burns
Lyrics

Creencias I

Mi empresa ha promulgado un nuevo grupo de "creencias" para guiar y unir a casi 300 mil empleados en todas partes del mundo. Deben ser lo que creemos sobre el negocio, nuestro propósito y cómo queremos comportarnos en nuestro trabajo cotidiano. Las creencias son:

1. Los clientes determinan nuestro éxito
        Es algo bastante óbvio, pero fácil de olvidar frente a las presiones de ganancia, horarios y prioridades en conflicto. Me alegro de que trabajo con clientes regularmente, así que sus intereses nunca están lejos de mi mente.

2. Mantente magro para ir rápidamente
        Con frecuencia estamos cargados por reglas y procesos que, aunque instituidos con buena intención, nos impiden responder a las necesidades del cliente. Hay que ser implacable en quitar lo innecesario.

3. Aprende y adapta para ganar
        Nunca vamos a entender completamente el mercado. Vamos a cometer errores. La empresa éxitosa aprende de sus errores y adapta a nuevas condiciones con agilidad.

(continuará)

Nor You, Nor No One

You are very wrong by raising my tension
by quashing my ambition, go on like that, you will see.
I look the clock, it's later than yesterday,
I would wait for you again and I won't, I won't.

Where is our mistake without solution, you were
the guilty or it was me.
Nor you nor no one can change me.
A thousand bells sound in my heart, how hard it is
to apologise
Nor you...

Go away from here, you couldn't understand me,
I only think of your sake,
it isn't necessary to say lies.
How easy it is to eat my heart out after,
but I will survive, I know that I am able to survive.
Lyrics

La homilía

En misa esta mañana nuestro párroco nos dio una homilia más corta que la normal. Trató del evangelio en el que Jesús cuenta una parábola sobre un banquete de bodas. En la historia, uno de los invitados es despedido porque no se ha vestido adecuadamente para el banquete. Nuestro párroco nos dijo que podemos ver que somos los invitados al banquete eterno, pero tenemos que prepararnos adecuadamente. Si aceptamos la invitación, debemos realizar los cambios necesarios para habitar en el reino de Dios.

Más tarde, el sacerdote explicó que mantuvo la homilía corta por dos razones. Primeramente, lo hizo como recompensa de asistir a la misa a pesar de la lluvia. La segunda razón fue que su homilía de la semana anterior había estado muy larga, porque había hablado del presupuesto de la parroquía, una tarea anual. Supongo que recibió unas pocas quejas sobre ella, probablemente indirectamente.

De todo modos, la homilía de hoy fue una buena, mostrando que la eficacia y la duración son cosas diferentes.

America

Where shines the warm sun
with a new glimmer
browning the sands.
Where the air is still clean
under the soft light
from the stars.
Where the fire becomes love,
the river is talker
and the mountain is jungle.
Today I found a place for the two of us in this new land.

America...
All a huge garden, that is America.
When God made the Eden,
he thought in America.

Each new sundown,
the sky starts to burn
and listen the wind
which brings me a claim of love
with its song,
like a regret.

The parfume of a flower,
the beat of a drum
in the prairies.
War and peace dances
of a people who has not
broken their chains yet.
Lyrics

Who Will Be

Someone will delete the taste and the memory
of the love that I keep due to your love,
someone will win your place in my body and my heart.

Someone who is faithful,
someone who is not so cruel as you,
someone who loves me but truly.
eternally.

Who will be
who will breathe life into my life
unreservedly and beyond measure
...
who will be
who will dye of tenderness
my silences and bitterness
...
Someone will stop the time's clock
and everything will change from this moment,
the river will meet its track again
...
Someone but who? Lyrics

A Star In My Garden

It arrived without permission
the old star,
the one that was only light.

It suddenly dropped
from a such blue world
and it makes my heart bleed.

Now I know
where you hide.
Now I know
where you live,
but I don't know
why you have come again,
here in my garden.

Why to me? A star has dropped me
in my garden.
...
Now I don't know what I can do with you,
I am going to catch you, I am going to adore you
and launch you to your sky.

Why to me?...
Because in this way you have come
from another time,
here in my garden.
Lyrics

Anduriña

I listened one day in Galicia,
an old story in a café.
It was a little girl who fled from the village,
young Anduriña who flew.

They are crying upon thinking where she would be,
but no one wants to be going to look for her.
Anduriña was called by those who she left there,
Come back to port soon, please.

A grandfather is close to home,
he speaks me and smile me with evil.
Anduriña is young, she will return, you will see,
she is a little bird without feathers.

She will land in a grey day,
her mystery won't already be itself.
By the name Anduriña she won't be called,
But, by the way, where is she?
Lyrics

And So You Are Walking Away

I gave you my smile,
my time of love,
my sunny days,
my sky of April.

I gave you my heat, my flower.
I gave you my sorrow.
I gave my truth, my I
I gave you what I was.

I offered you the skin of my hands,
my best time,
my humble corner,
my nights without you,
my life and my liberty
and a little of love.
How little I was, my love,
how little I was.

And so you're walking away,
I wish you are happy.
You will forget about what I was
and at my window I will watch the morning to wear grey

I gave you my eyes,
my honey time,
my crying of bile,
my breath,
my morning light,
my firewood and my home,
the singing of my sparrow
and a little of bread.
Lyrics

No permitieron que "vosotros" subiera al barco

En un chat de ayer con un amigo, hablabamos de los cambios que experimenta un idioma con el paso de siglos, migraciones, contacto con otros idiomas, etc. Yo había mencionado la palabra "gotten" en inglés, que usamos en los EEUU, pero que les parece muy anticuada a los ingleses. Había leído que esto muestra que "gotten" se hizo obsoleto en Inglaterra después del partido de los primeros colonistas a América.

Mi amigo mencionó la falta de "vosotros" en el mundo latino. A estas alturas escribí el título arriba, que me gustó porque incluyo un subjuntivo y un poco de poesía. Supongo que podríamos decir que los ingleses exiliaron la palabra "gotten" a otro lado del planeta.

P.D. Me gusta también la palabra "estadounidense", algo que nos falta en inglés. ¿Existe "reinounidense" también?

How Brave!, I Can't Believe It.

I am shocked by the courage(sarcasm, of course) shown for the barbarian group ISIL by beheading Alan Henning, A simple taxi driver from Manchester volunteering in Syria. What a coward!.
How was it expected, they didn't want to listen to his wife, they don't care actually. They didn't care that had two children either. This is an evidence that they are not of the side of justice, but they are only a coward fanatic terrorist group.
Alan went to Syria, paradoxically, with a group of muslim friends with medical equipment and ambulances to help for the refugees. He was kidnapped close to Turkey border when they saw his passport.
There is a quote in Spanish that says "A todo cerdo le llega su San Martín", that it means "Each dog has its day". San Martin's day is an event celebrated in 11 of November by a lot of villages in Spain, pigs are sacrificed to eat doing a party in honour to San Martin.
I have red that Spain is going to participate in this war by installing Patriot Missiles in Turkey close to border and I agree.

You Call Me

You call me to tell me that you'll go,
that you are fed up of seeing him everyday,
of sharing a bed, of Sundays of football
by staying at home.

You tell me that the love passes the same
that it comes.
And yours went by the window
and it found a place in another bed.

And you have put your smile by lipstick
and you have hung the purse that he gave you away
and that dress which is brand-new
you try it today
and you go out on the street looking for love

You call me to tell me that he cheats you
that from your love left nothing,
that he looked for another nest,
that he left your home,
that you have a lack of caresses
in the morning
....Lyrics

A Kiss and A Flower

I will leave my homeland for you,
I will leave my fields and go far away from here.
I will go crying through the garden,
and just with your memories I will leave
far away from here.

In the morning I will live
thinking about your smiles,
At night, the stars will accompany me.
You will be like a light that lights my way,
I'll go but I swear you that I will come back tomorrow.

Upon leaving, a kiss and a flower,
an I-love-you a caress and a goodbye,
It is  a light baggage for a such long journey,
the sorrow weighs on my heart.
Beyond to the sea there will be a place
where the sun shines more every morning.
The stones from the way will forge my destiny,
that which is loved is always remained behind.

I will look for a home for you
where the sky is united to the sea
far way from here.
With my hands and with your love
I will get to find another looking forward
far away from here
....Lyrics

A Sailboat called Freedom

He was leaving yesterday, he took his stuff
and started to sail,
A shirt, some jeans and a song
Where will he go? where will he go?
He said goodbye and decided to fight the duel against the sea
and travel around the world on his sailboat
and sail,....

And he left and his sailboat was called freedom
and in the sky he discovered gulls and painted trails over the sea.
....
His heart looked for a different way to live
but the waves shouted him,  go with the others,...

And he felt slept and the night shouted him
Where do you go?
And through his dreams he drew gulls
and thought: I must return today.

And he returned and/while a voice asked him
How are you?
And upon looking it, he discovered some eyes,
blue ones like the sea
...Video Lyrics

Dedicado

Encantado de asistir a un campeonato de fútbol, un aficionado no estaba tan feliz con su asiento. Con sus binoculares vio un asiento vacante al otro lado del campo, cerca de la línea media - y se dirigió allí.

Le preguntó al hombre en la silla contigua, "¿Puedo sentarme aquí?"

"Sí, está bien," dijo el hombre. "Esa era la silla de mi esposa. Ella era una aficionada de fútbol tan grande como yo, y veníamos juntos a todos los partidos, hasta que falleció."

"Dios mío, siento tu pérdida" dijo el fan, "pero ¿no podrías buscar a un amigo o familiar para que venga a este gran juego?"

"No," replicó el viudo, "todos están en el funeral."

Haunted

Long time that she lives in a tale
which doesn't want to leave,
charming she sleeps with the pillow
and forgets about laughing.
Some say that she is the witch,
with stiletto heels,
is allied of Lucifer.
Some tell that she was the star,
but the bottle,
gets rid of her until to go mad.

Stop my fairy
invited star,
victim from unlove,
go up to the car,
queen of night,
forget your bad mood.

Bewitched lives enchained
to an old TV,
a lot of ideas
tell that she was muse
from some mediocre painter.
All was a waste,
queen of the night,
Who  saw you in the past and who sees you now?
Some say that you are sexy
glittering star
but the bottle got rid of her power.

This is my witch
with stiletto heels,
victim from unlove,
hurry up, wrap yourself in the breeze,
forget your bad mood.

This is my fairy,
revenge's games,
victim from unlove....Lyrics