Quotation of the month

'What I did not know -I was a young man- is that there are two kinds of love. The kind that starts off big and slowly wears away, that seems you can never use it up and then one day is finished. And the kind that you don't notice at first, but which adds a little bit to itself every day, like an oyster makes a pearl, grain by grain, a jewel from the sand.'

Brick Lane by Monica Ali

Then things a teenager should know.

Bill Gates recently gave a speech at a High School about ten things teenagers will not learn in school. He spoke about how feel-good, politically corrrect teachings created a generation whit no concept of reality and how this set them up for failure in the real world.

1. Life is not fair - get used to it.
2. The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world expect you to accomplish something before you feel good about yourself.
3. You will not make $60.000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.
4. If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.
5. Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.
6. If you mess up, it's not your parents' faul, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.
7. Before you were born, your parents weren't boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and save the rain forest from the parasites of your parents's generation, try delousin the closet in your own room.
8. Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life has not. In some schools, they have aoboslished failing grades ant they'll give you as many times as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to anything real life.
9. Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you find yourself. Do that on you won time.
10. Television is not real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop an go to jobs.

Post script: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

What do you think about these ten things?

Princesees

Princesses from fareway lands. Catalonia and Hungary in the Middle Agges, is an exhibition that open on 12th May at Barcelona's History Museum of Catalonia.
Four travelling princesses who married and became queens in other countries, four extraordinary (and sometimes very sad) personal stories; four moments during the Middle Ages in which the destinities of Hungary and the Catalan-Aragononese crown became joined through conjugal diplomacy.
The exhibition focuses on Constance, as well as Violante of Hungary who married James I of Aragon in the 13th century, Beatrice of Araon who was wed to Matthias Corvin in the late 15th century, and on Mary of Hapsburg who was married to Louis of Hungary in the 16th century.
Although in many cases the marriages were not a great succes (Beatrice of Aragon was despised for being a strange), the case of Violante is special: it seems as thought there was real love between her and James I.

Clamp down on internet piracy

Obama and Zapatero recently enjoyed a warm meeting where they found plenty of common, but the two leaders have already found a point of friction: the internet. Obama’s White house is more critical with Spanish policies against piracy on Internet.
The USTR (United States Trade Representative) produces every year a report to encourage countries to respect laws that cover intellectual property rights –in particular with regard to internet downloads. Countries in the special 301 Report must enter into negotiations with the United States to leave the list and will face trade sanctions if they do nothing to fight piracy and illegal downloading. Countries are classified in this report in different categories, according to the level of piracy present here. Spain doesn’t appear in the “priority watch list”, but for the second year appears in the Watch List. Countries like Italy and Norway are also include in this list but is Spain the country that received more rebukes.
Futhermore, last year Spain appears on a blacklist edit by the US congress as one of the countries where internet piracy was most frequent.
301 Report appeals the Spanish government to ban commonly used peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing programs such as eMule or Ares.

Finally, this report has some severe words for Spanish judges and prosecutors for having systematically absolved the owners of WebPages that shows link for downloads, given that there has only been one case that ended in prosecution.

Do you agree with the content of this report? Are the law so permissive with regard to piracy on Internet in Spain?

SOMALIA PIRATES

A Spanish tanker picked up seven suspected pirates off the coast of Somalia after they fell into the sea while trying to hijack another vessel. This new has appeared today in the newspaper. We can read news as this one every day, but who are Somalia's pirates? To know those modern-day pirates a bit better I propose you watch this video.

http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yj5f6ApIjUE

Chema Madoz: Visual metaphors

Last year I visited the exhibition entitled "Chema Madoz" 2000-2005. Madoz is a point of reference in Spain's contemporany art scene because of his unique way of interpreting art trough photography and his searching of visual poetry.

This artist manipulates the objects with studied delicacy. He modifies the objects looking for a balance between the essence of things and their latent significance.

Madoz is a incredible and fascinating collector of ideas that he photographes in black and white. This artist, with his poetic vision provides us with a window to better understand the world around us. As Confucious says: "Everyting has its beauty, but not everyone can see it".

Madoz uses the objecs and his graphic representation as if they were words froma very clear vocabulary. Madoz worked with Joan Brossa on a book (Fotopoemario), and Madoz's work has also been compared to the visual poems of this catalan poet.

The black-and-white format lends a melancholy distante to his work. The scale of greys turns things into shadows. The work with shadows allows the artist to obtain a plastic elegance in his photographs. Chema Madoz works on the delicate border existing between the real and the imaginary. In his works he proposes to us a split between whats exits and what is possible. As usually happen in the plastic arts, what is intellectual in Madoz's work is precisely what is abstract. Madoz has produced images with such a clear surrealist content, that remember the work of Magritte.

Uncanny, but real story

Real life is more impressive than fiction. How many times have you have listen to the sentence “reality exceeds fiction”?
It is difficult for me to imagine an uncanny story, but it is not necessary to imagine one, you can simply swim into daily news to find uncanny, terrible or touching stories.

Chris Biblis was sixteen when doctors diagnosed him leukemia and told him that he needed radiotherapy, and this treatment would leave him sterile and doctors advise him that if he ever wanted to become a father he would need to freeze his sperm before the treatment, so he decided to do it.

Now, he is 38 years old and he and his wife are celebrating the birth of a healthy baby daughter Stella, who was conceived after scientist injected a defrosted sperm into an egg of his wife, Melodie, and implanted it in the uterus.

Five remaining eggs have been fertilized and are now frozen for possible usy by the couple in the future, if they want to have more children. This is a touching story with a promising end because Chris lives 22 years after doctors communicated him his leukemia. He has overcome his illness as well as this year he has celebrated the birth of Stella, his daughter.

A joke about computers

Here is joke for us:
A SPANISH Teacher was explaining to her class that in Spanish, unlike
English, nouns are designated as either masculine or feminine.
"House" for instance, is feminine: >"la casa."
“Pencil," however, is masculine: el lapiz...”
A student asked, “What gender is 'computer'?"
Instead of giving the answer, the teacher split the class into two
groups, male and female, and asked them to decide for themselves whether
"computer" should be a masculine or a feminine noun.
Each group was asked to give four reasons for its recommendation.
The men's group decided that “computer” should definitely be of the…..
feminine gender ("la computadora"), because:
1. No one but their creator understands their internal logic;
2. The native language they use to communicate with other computers is
incomprehensible to everyone else;
3. Even the smallest mistakes are stored in long term memory for
possible later retrieval;
4. As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find yourself spending
half your pay check on accessories for it.
(THIS GETS BETTER!)
The women's group, however, concluded that computers should be Masculine
("el computador"), because:
1. In order to do anything with them, you have to turn them on;
2. They have a lot of data but still can't think for themselves;
3. They are supposed to help you solve problems, but half the time they
ARE the problem; and
4. As soon as you commit to one, you realize that if you had waited a
little longer, you could have gotten a better model.
The women won.

Susan Boyle

This morning I was listening to the radio and I started to become interested in a new about Susan Boyle's video with millions of hits on You Tube.
This woman surprised the judges and audience on TV's Britain's Got Talent with a strong perfomance of "I dreamed a Dream" from Les Miserables. Ms Boyle has now become the favourite to win the talent show. Her life will never be the same after that.
She was born with a disability and she was offended when she was a child in school. She asked the teachers for help, but she never received their support. She says "words often hurts more than cuts and bruises and the scares are still there".
She told viewers she had "never been kissed", said she had always wanted to be a singer. Susan Boyle has had a small life. She lives in the same house where she lived with her parents. She was raised there and still sleeps in the same room she did as a child. Susan Boyle, is currently unemployed, is a keen church-goer and community worker who is well-known for her karaoke perfomances. Susan Boyle's story shows us that prejudices are unfair, and that very often big talents are socially rejected.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY

Two films about education

The class

Rainer Wenger addresses The Wave members in The Wave.

The film “The Wave” is based on an incident, which took place in 1967 at a high school in Palo Alto, California.
A popular teacher is assigned to teach a week- special project of autocracy. The students are initially unimpressed, and especially bored about the mention of Nazis. So, rather than explains autocracy, the teacher does a real demonstration of this movement.
The film shows us how the totalitarianism can grow easily in modern and democratic societies.
In the film the students have a comfortable life, but if we observe them with more attention, we notice that some of them feel alone, without motivation, without ideas in life and with families who don’t pay attention them. They end up by turning into easy victims of the “Wave”.

The pupils, little by little, starting to feel comfortable with the ideals of “the Wave”. They discover in the group values like unit, force, and identification. In the film, the individual behaviours contribute to collective desires.
Nowadays, realities like social inequality, the need to belong, the rootlessnes help in the promotion to fascist movements.
Among the students, the most weakness character are the first to giving in “the Wave”, others leave the group because they have some values or beliefs, other students go against it, but on the whole the class follow the teacher, who becomes the leader.

The teacher insists on orderly behaviour and suggests everyone adopt a simple uniform (plain white skirts and jeans). The teacher forgets the original point of the experiment and he finds himself by having fanatical followers.
The film is interesting because make us ask ourselves if a new dictatorship is possible in a modern and civilised society.

The Class (between the walls in French) is an interesting journey into a multicultural high school in Paris over the course of a school year. The class is a mix of a documentary and dramatic plot. It is not difficult to empathise with the main character, the literature teacher François Marin. He struggles to maintain order in his class of young teenagers, trying to create a good environment. We can see the process of educating a fresh class of bubbly and wide awake adolescents in a Paris suburban school. Today, teaching in public schools is more democratic, and the teacher allows student participation, and the student is encouraged to talk and become an integral part of the education.
Everything he tries to teach in class is constantly rejected and he finds himself arguing with the students that he so clearly wants to help. As the school year progresses the tension rises, until François finds himself in a difficult position. In my opinion, the students want to find their own identity in the hostile and tough society they live in. In the film the frustration of parents and teachers are clearly portrayed.
The film shows the difference between the education before versus the education now. For me, there are some values, like the respect, that now don’t exist in the classrooms. The lack of motivation due to new technologies and the low quality of education are some of the most problems, that existing in own societies. The quality of public schools is decreasing each year because of the high number of immigrants’ students that comes from different countries. Africans ands Asians are now citizens of France. The student Suleyman says in the film: “I have nothing to say about me because no one knows me”.
In this film the teacher is not a revolutionary person with innovative ideas like Mr Keating in the film “Dead Poets Society”. Mr Keating helps his students with original methods, but in “The Class”, Monsieur Martin tries to do his job the best he can, and sometimes he makes mistakes and he has to assume the consequences. I think the film is very realistic and very accurate.

DE FACTO. JOAN FONTCUBERTA. 1982-2008

I recommended you an interesting exhibition: “De Facto. Joan Fontcuberta 1982-2008. “From nature photography to the nature of photography: That might summarize the artistic career of Joan Fontcuberta.

In this exhibition are showed a selection of works from eighteen of the artist’s projects. In these works Fontcuberta tries to explain, poetically and ironically, the role of the image perceived as a document. He suggests a critical practice of photography. The artist rejects the simple description of reality, which has been historically the traditional concept in photography, so he investigates with humour and imagination in the paradox of the image.

Before starting the exhibition to understand it better I recommended you to watch the documentary where the artist explains their works and read the supporting text to fully capture the real meaning of these images. Like a kind of provocation, he organizes photographic jokes that often question the basis of knowledge (the science ant the monopoly of the reality). The works seen here include Herbarium (fake biological and botanical discoveries), Googlerama (a series of photo-mosaics using Google) and Sputnik (a story about a Russian astronaut who is still lost in the space).

But the project that more shocked me it is “Desconstructing Ossama”. In this work Fontcuberta explains the theory that all the images we see of Al Qaeda are part of a vast conspiracy to manipulate the viewers. The men in the images are, in fact, actors. In 2006 Ben Kalish and Ben Sallad, photojournalists for Al-Zur discovered that a leader of Al Qaeda’s military wing was in reality an actor and singer who had appeared in soap operas (the lies of power, the power of lies).

Finally, Fontcuberta is more interested in the philosophical possibilities than the pictorial qualities of photography because he makes us think as much as look.

Positive squatting

Days ago I read an article in a Spanish free magazine “calle 20”, the magazine of the new culture about new tendencies in the squatter movement. A group of artist squatters live in a large house in Leytonstone near London. Immediately I started to be interested in this new and I read more about “positive occupation”
The word squatters often provoke negative thoughts in people, but little by little the situation is changing. The new generation of squatters seems less politicised than its predecessors. After two decades of decline, statistics showed that the number of people living in squats in Wales and England has risen by 60 per cent since 1995. The growth has been particularly pronounced in large commercial properties, disused houses, offices and cinemas.
Today’s squatters are highly organised and efficient. Many have full-time work and drug problems are rare.
The occupants of the 491 Gallery in Leytonstone, east London, have transformed an old warehouse into a clean, attractive home. This group of artists has changed the space in a white-walled gallery with airy rooms and a big garden. The housemates invite the local community to use the space for artistic and environmental events. For some artists the squatting is the only way to get their utopia, because pays a rent in London costs between 1000 and 1500 euros. In this house a fair principle is applied and people who have financial resources pay a modest fee that help to those who cannot afford to pay. Positive squatting consists of occupying buildings and turning them into community resources.

Sometimes squatting is a good way to maintain the occupied buildings while the organisations planning for its future. For example it is very expensive to pay 24-hour security for an empty building. Squatting can save this money and allows recycling spaces. Sometimes squatters focus their activities on offering a wide range of services to the local community. What’s more, occupying empty buildings is positive because if a property is empty it can get damaged.
Some people who live in occupied houses are very proud of giving artistic spaces to people who need time and places to make beautiful things, like paintings or sculptures.

In this video we can see an example of “positive occupation”. In this house squatters have transformed the place from a derelict house into a comfortable place. For some people squatters are very pleasant neighbours and squatters help elderly people when they are in trouble.

Anorexia in the media

Young girls are taken into hospital every year for eating disorders but do you thin it’s the media’s fault?
The general public appears to be obsessed about media celebrities. This obsession can be dangerous for young people, especially teenagers who can be an easily influenced public.
Some women and teenagers are fascinated with the latest fashion tendencies and when they notice that this fashion is not the better for them, they can fall ill. I think there is a connection between the increasing of so many celebrities and the fast rise in eating disorders such as anorexia. The media contributes greatly towards young’s people images. If a little girl sees a variety of thin celebrities on TV, in magazines and she think they are beautiful, if she decides to start to lose weight, they can be very dangerous. The most important thing is that there are a number of women who have uncomfortable thoughts about their bodies and they feel guilty because they can’t emulate the bodies of models and celebrities. Most people want to be happy and successful. The media especially ads and commercials for clothes and other fashion’s items, suggest that we can be successful and more happy trying to modify their bodies into copies of the icons of success. Young naïve women feel that if they follow their idols they will be popular. If we read between lines of many ads we can find dangerous messages in a few words (“the thinner, the better”). Some many famous people are thin because they feel that they will be more popular, good-looking and admired. Some young models are under a strong pressure from the media.
It is the responsibility of the society to show young girls and women that beauty is not a synonym of ultra-thin bodies. It is necessary to encourage girls to enjoy themselves with their beauty in a healthy, natural way.
On the other hand, governments have to create an anti-anorexia legislation that bans anorexia promotion in media. For example, Spain had banned ultra-thin models from catwalks.

Buy-ology by Martin Lindstrom

I found this video about the book Buy-ology by Martin Lindstrom.

The book is based on studies that used brain-scanning methods to investigate into our minds and to study the influence of the advertisement in our shopping preferences and unconscious desires when we choose among different products.

The video explains which are the subtle factors that motivate us to buy what we buy and how powerful a brand or advertisement is.

For me publicity shows the most positive side of life to encourage people to buy. This kind of practice is sometimes based in lies because daily life is normally less marvellous than publicity world.

Publicity influences in our behaviour and we don’t know what is the information that really goes into our heads when we see an advertisement or when we hear a marketing slogan.

What do you think about this video? Do you share Martin Lindstrom conclusions?