U.S. and Cuba

President Obama announced today that his government will take the first steps to reestablish diplomatic relations with Cuba. I applaud this decision because the U.S. doesn’t gain anything positive maintaining the blockage to Cuba, nor this U.S. policy has helped to democratize the island.

I asked my mother—she fled from Cuba in the sixties—her opinion on Obama’s decision, and she couldn’t care less. After so many years away from her country, I don’t think she expects to come back.

Debate: The New York Times vs Spain

After writing my last post about the article published in The New York  Times. I would like to know if all of you agree with these arguments.

CORRUPTION is something that we have to suffer in all democratic countries. It is a pity but it is a reality. We, the citizens, can't fight against our politicians. The only way to solve this situation or change the people who is managing our countries it would be changing them for another ones. But I wonder, is Democracy the best politic system. Or we should think in changin for another new system, where the people had more impotance to take decissions.

We can't fight against  our politicians, because if they weren't there, presumably there would be another ones and surley they would do the samethings.

In Spain, we are suffering a lot of economic problems, as all of you know. There is more unemployed people, companies that have to close because they don't find market where can sell their products or services. Most of people are in red. They can't afford their mortgages, they are overdrawns, and in a lot of cases the evitions are a real threat.

I agree with the article about the CORRUPTION, but do you think all spaniards are corrupts.

How do you see us?

Thanks for letting me to express my opinion, but i would like to read your opionions about us. The Spanish's imagen has been damaged. But in my opinion in this newspaper, they are writting all that it is happening in my country.

The New York Times vs Spain

Having read some news published on The New York Times about Spain, specifically about corruption, I would like to show you my opion about the spanish situation.
As all of you know, in Spain ( like in a lot of europeans countries), we are going through a huge economical crisis. This problem affects as Government as citizens. But we are, the spanish civil population who are suffering the problem.
In a society, where each time the number of unemployees is higher, where the problems of the most families to pay their mortgages are very serious, where the number of evictions is more increased...... Which do you think that it should be the attitude of our politicians?
What question!
The consequence of a bad management of our politicias, and the result of their own ambitions are the main arguments for the situation that everybody is living.
Never had I thought that our own politics mainly choosen by the citizens in the general or local elections, would finish working in their own benefit.
The fact of building a new airport is sended us like a new fresh air for our local economy. More tourism, more work ..... Great ... but after having our new airport builded, or a new motorway or new public works ... the situation each time goes worse. But as a consequence of all these enormous develpments of our local eononies .. we find that the most of our politicias are earning a lot of money. Whereas the majority of the Spanish society  ( not only we, but also the rest of society of the world) are earning our salary with our own work, our rulers are earning a lot of money thanks to the favours that they have done to allow the constructions of all these "monuments" to all the companies that have been working for them.
Favour is paid with another favour. It looks like a children game, but not, my dear readers, unfortunately it is a real reality. Everybody know who is the culprit, but they never will admit it. It is a real evidence. They will be judged but they will never go to the jail.. Why?  I don't know why. If i steal something, surely I would go to prision. Why they not? Can we rely on our own justice?
All these acts are damaging our own imagen in the exterior.
Not all the spainsh people are like the majority of our rulers. We are people that we can't relay on our politicians.
I feel very bad when I read all these news. They are right but the reality is pretty different.   Please rely on us. Not in our polical society.

 

El Servicio de Salud

Recientemente ha habido en las noticias escándalos sobre el servicio de salud en el Reino Unido. Ha habido muchos recortes en todos los servicios.  Los hospitales se les ha dicho que deben reducir sus presupuestos.  El problema es que, los funcionarios de los hospitales han sido muy concentrados en las cifras de los presupuestos que olvidaron a cuidar a la gente bajo su cargo!  Especialmente los mayores. Es increíble que una vez tenemos los mejores hospitales del mundo con equipo muy moderno y al día.   Todavía tenemos en los hospitales equipo moderno,pero la atención básica a los pacientes ha ido.  Fue grabado en camara un pobre hombre que bebía de un jarrón de flores debido a que no tenía agua!  En el mismo hospital había una investigación porque alguien se dio cuenta que había habido muchos muertos en este hospital en los últimos años.

Ahora va a ser un investigación en el número de víctimas mortales en todos los hospitales, y los doctores y enfermeras deben prestar más atención a los pacientes y  sus bienestar.  Aunque es un poco tarde para mucha gente.

Interpreting the Reality

These last days while I was working (in a repetitive and monotonous work, like the majority in a factory) I thought in an issue which lately has been giving a lot of laps in my head (or: has been going round my head) \\ An English speaker, How would tell it?.

Well, the subject matter was the civil servants and the public sector.

In the Christmas season sometimes we met with my wife's family and others times with mine. It turns out that in my "in-laws" there are several civil servants. Some of them in the field of Health and others in Education. Well, their way of interpret the economic measures that the Government is adopting differs a lot of from mine.

I can say that I had the chance of hearing a couple of "philosophical pearls". My sister in law (public nurse) exclaimed: "I passed my professional exam ... "in its moment, evidently"... and this entitles me to all that we had achieved ..."the hard-working trade unionists, of course".


The another, well, actually a series of eloquences, came from a female cousin of my wife. She is English teacher in a Language School and to her all cutting measures in education  are a plot against "The Public" by the Government "conservative, of course".

My opinion is that then there was a reality and now there is another very different. Now we can not afford what we could afford before.

The moral of this story is how different can be the interpretation of reality according the "interest of the beholder".

Are you ready USA?

After 4 years, the final countdown is coming. Tomorrow, USA will vote between 2 options. Obama vs Romney. Who will win the election? Who knows. I am sure of one of them ;)
I don't want to talk about politic, I only want to make a reflection.
Our world is living a hard crisis. Whereas in Europe, we are through a big economical crisis, in USA or in another countries ( In South America, Asia ...) are out this critical situation. Everybody wants the best for themselves, for they countries.
I only want to tell two things, I don't mind who will win the election, I know the loser will be proud of his president, because his country is the first. Perhaps the winner will do things of different way than the other but at the end their target will be the same. The pride of his country.
4 years ago Mc Cain recognized his defeat, swearing loyalty to his new president! 
Good Luck USA!

Obama-Romney Round III

More than a foreign policy debate, last night’s debate was circumscribed on two topics: the Muslim world and China’s economic policies. Many important topics were totally forgotten, such as global warming, drug trafficking, and human rights. Latin American? Only one sentence by Romney. Neither of the candidates (nor the moderator) mentioned anything about Mexico’s problems and their impact on illegal immigration. Europe crisis, anyone?

Questions about Libya have pursued Obama during the last month; and until now, nobody knows what exactly happened there. On the other hand, Romney tried several times to change the discussion to the national economy. At moments, the debate seemed to be more over domestic issues rather than foreign policy. Unfortunately, after a while, the moderator lost control of the debate.

Both candidates agreed that the US needs a strong national economy to lead the world, they will stand with Israel if Israel is attacked, and China must open its economy and change its currency manipulation policy. What is the US major security threat? Obama answered the terrorism networks; Romney, a nuclear Iran.

Could last night’s debate incline the balance to any candidate? Probably not. Americans are more concerned about domestic issues than in whatever happens in Syria.

Speaking of politicians

Politicians have a tough job. They must be persuasives. But, How do they do this?
There are some clever techniques called "Spin Tactics". This way they can "spinning the facts" to say what they want to say. I am not saying that all politicians do it but it's good keeping that in mind. And I am not saying either that they are "lying", but I reckon they are all good comunication strategies. If we would learn how to recognize this, we could have a complete understanding about what they are saying.

Spin tactics:

1º) "Cherry picking", just like a farmer picks the best cherries for him, a politician could collect only a part of the information that another politician said.
For instance:
Politician # 1: "I admire Mr. Fernandez, but he has done a terrible mistake". Then politician # 2 could say regarding to it: "Mr. Rodriguez said today that he admires Mr Fernandez". But, I think this is a bit improbable because we are in the internet era and we can check what really Mr. Rodriguez said.

2º) "Non denial-denial".
This spin tactic is about denyeing something without denieying anything. It's a very tricky one.
For exmaple: One politician, being in campaign, could say: "I have no plans to raise taxes". Later, if he actually rise taxes he could say:  "I didn't want to rise taxes but I had to do it anyway". Don't you think that He would be in serious troubles if he would have said:  "I will not raise taxes"? He would have broken his promise.

3º) "Speak in the passive".
Politicians don't want to be blamed for their mistakes. You'll never listen them saying:  "I made a mistake" or  "I really messed up". But you could listen them to say something like: "Mistakes were made" what is almost the same but in other words. hehe.

So, You will find a lot of these examples in your local politicians, I think. It's just a matter to be able to identify the way they spin the information to change the facts in their favour. We could made intelligent decisions if we would learn how they do it. By the way, la señora de la derecha "no le llega ni a los talones" a la señora de la izquierda, hehe!, that's true.  

Obama-Romney Round II

The debate started with a university student question about jobs that set up the stage for what can we expect during the contest: An intensive and intellectual fight between two presidential contenders about who is more prepared to lead the country.

President Obama seemed to be more secure than in the first debate. Governor Romney looked more aggressive and interrupted Obama several times. During the second question, Romney and Obama exchanged blows, but the moderator took the helm and set the tone for the rest of the night. In sum, Obama spoke three minutes more than Romney.

The debate consisted of eleven questions asked by undecided voters. I scored six questions for Obama (oil prices, taxes, gender disparity pay, Obama's record as president, assault weapons, and misperceptions about the candidates) and five questions for Romney (jobs, Bush's foreign policies, immigration, Lybia, and outsourcing). I was surprised that Romney distanced himself from Bush's foreign policies, risking hardline Republicans but appealing to moderate voters.

For me, Obama won the debate slightly. On the other hand, Romney delivered the best quote of the night: “China is not playing by the rules.” A CNN's post-debate poll about who won the contest gave Obama a seven percent advantage (46% to 39%) over Romney among debate's viewers.

Again!!

From the outset of the last September we are going through a weird period. If we follow the word news, we can noticed the new revival called nationalism. This movement is not new, is older than the world. I we read the spanish news Catalonia, if we read british news Scotland, by the way this one in one year later will vote if they want to be separated of the United Kingdom. Catalonia in Spain is thinking in the same way. But this movement is not new, as I wrote before. Is it a strategy? Why? Frankly, we don't know if it is or not a strategy. In my interior thoughts, I think that it is a strategy.
Few years ago, we saw as the ancient URSS change and then appeared new states. These new states were born to flee to the sovietic system. ( Comunism system)
I will never understand these new movements. ¨When everybody wants to be united.  Is there a strategy behind to hide the real economical problems? If all these "new states" will want to be independent why they want to be part of the European Community? Are they using to the people to behind the real problems? Are the people a toy? Can they manage the behaviour of the people? The citizens want solutions, no more problems.
It is said that the History repeats, is like a ball? never stops spinning.
Only the future will let us know what will happen. Let's wait for !!!!

Indignants, Anonymous .... What is happening in Spain?

As all of you know, in Spain we are going throught a serious and a big economical crisis. Each more time there is more unemployment. The worst of this problem is that there is a lot of young people with good qualifications and they don't find a job. Most of them have to look for a job abroad, but not everybody can do it. The language is a serious problem. But now, most of the young people are learning foreign languages such us German, French, Chinese, Japanese.... looking for a chance. Not only we can find the unemployment betwen young people but also in older people. And in this group of people we find big problems.mortgages, loans, children in the university, children looking for a job .....
Yesterday a new movement called 25S was born with the finality of asking for our politicians new actions to stop this situation. Our politicians have a lot of rights but none of them want to resign them. They say that they understand people in the street, but the don't leave their rights, their salaries, cars , laptops, .... all of them paid for spaniards.
Now our Prime Minister is in NY, and this movement appears there to claim the same .... but I wonder .... Will we change our country? Will we have the chance of giving our own opinion? I don't know. Words and Actions but never Violence. If you ask me if I am an indignant ... I don't know but I want to contribute to change my country, to help in it development.

Describing a painting

This painting is in the Hall of Remembrance, inside The Imperial War Museum, and in that particular place you can see a huge painting by John Singer Sargents. In fact, it is a mural 20 feet long and probably 10 feet high, and it shows ten soldiers, almost life size being led by a medic through hundreds of injured bodies lying on the floor. All of the man have bands across their eyes, describing that they have been damaged after a gas attack during the First World War. But, through their legs in the background of the painting, you can clearly see a football match taking place.

Historians say that sports had become an escential part of army life. Informal football matches were used to bring worries soldiers together. Those sort of matches entertained the troops meanwhile they were recovering from the fight and preparing for it. It was also a great distraction from the horror what was going on around them.
Of course, the military autorities were very keen on providing oportunities to play football as well as to watch others play. In the 1940's, football had a great fame among the troops and the working class, the soldiers could watch few professional football players playing it. The common enjoyment of taking part or watching sport together gave people a form of equality, and because of that, sport in war was little different from sport in peace.

El Veep

El fin de semana el candidato presidencial republicano anunció su elección del candidato para vice-presidente. En los EEUU los dos candidatos se presentan como un equipo. Esta es siempre una decisión importante para un candidato presidencial, y se escudriña por los medios de comunicación y las críticas. Hace cuatro años, la nombramiento de Sarah Palin, una mujer bastante desconocida, generó muchas emociones, pero ella no fue bien preparada para el escrutinio de un candidato nacional. Esta vez, el candidato para "Veep" es bien conocido por sus propósitos presupuestarios, y los afectos correspondientes de impuestos y beneficios. Sólo el pasaje de tiempo revelará si la elección es una buena o una mala.

Europeanism

It's true, perhaps I was very drastic. I was too tired. It's hard to get used to the frantic and hard work of a factory as a laborer after having spent so many years sitting in the office of another factory.
The match was great. It was a rare confrontation. I enjoyed watching it. In this occasion there I wasn't  felt a knot in the stomach.
It didn't seem like the selection I knew. It was a smooth and orderly group that performed a very nice football to watch.
The huge result, formerly would have seemed extreme to me, but this time, it seemed normal. Italy did not exist as an opponent. Nor was the Italy that I knew.
The point is that when I was reading the press the next day it gave me goosebumps reading the headlines in Europe. It was all praise, all right, but I am refering to  the other issue.
In occasions like this is when you know that you are European. Before me were the headlines of the historic nations that have shaped the history of the world talking about the good time of the Spanish selection and the decline of the Italian.
It was nice to read allusions to the past. We are all old acquaintances. We share a common history. I felt I was within that group, I was European. It's like the marriage...for better and for worse. There have been many umpleasant events over the centuries, but also memorable episodes.
In occasions like this, I miss the American and French nationalism in the sense of feeling connected and involved in something. I miss to shape a large group, feel us united and strong.