Spain in the City

Until 30 April, the Gabarrón Foundation in NYC is showing "Spain in the City", an exhibition devised as a platform and showcase for young Spanish artists currently living in New York City. Gathered in a single space are a variety of artistic languages and ways of perceiving the same reality from different viewpoints and sensibilities. The show thus includes video, photography, painting, sculpture and installations.

An Injustice in Spain

The New York Times

Published: April 8, 2010 Spain’s best-known investigative magistrate, Baltasar Garzón, is now being prosecuted in a politically driven case that should have been thrown out of court.

Judge Garzón is charged with ignoring a 1977 amnesty law when he decided to investigate the disappearances of more than 100,000 people during Spain’s 1930s civil war and the decade of Francoist repression that followed. The charges were brought by two far-right groups who fear an open investigation of the Franco-era record. Unfortunately, one of Mr. Garzón’s fellow magistrates sustained the complaint and brought formal charges this week.

As a result, he will now be suspended from his duties pending trial. If convicted, he could be barred from the bench for up to 20 years, effectively ending a career dedicated to holding terrorists and dictators accountable for their crimes. That would please his political enemies, but it would be a travesty of justice.

The real crimes in this case are the disappearances, not Mr. Garzón’s investigation. If, as seems likely, these were crimes against humanity under international law, Spain’s 1977 amnesty could not legally absolve them. The suspected perpetrators are all dead, and Mr. Garzón long ago halted his investigation, passing jurisdiction to local Spanish courts in the areas where the victims were exhumed.

Mr. Garzón is a fearless and controversial prosecutor who has made many enemies over the years. He has brought cases against Basque and Al Qaeda terrorists, powerful Spanish politicians, Latin American dictators and Russian mafia thugs.

High-profile cases, like his bid to try the former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, appeal to him, and sometimes he overreaches. But his consistent goal has been to deny impunity to the powerful and expand the scope of international human rights law.

Mr. Garzón should be allowed to resume that work at the earliest possible date. Spain needs an honest accounting of its troubled past, not prosecution of those who have the courage to demand it.

Irish Pop Singer Sinead O'Connor on Child Abuse

A Brutal Version of Catholicism by Sinead O'Connor The Washington Post Sunday, March 28, 2010

When I was a child, Ireland was a Catholic theocracy. If a bishop came walking down the street, people would move to make a path for him. If a bishop attended a national sporting event, the team would kneel to kiss his ring. If someone made a mistake, instead of saying, "Nobody's perfect," we said, "Ah sure, it could happen to a bishop."

The expression was more accurate than we knew. This month, Pope Benedict XVI wrote a pastoral letter of apology -- of sorts -- to Ireland to atone for decades of sexual abuse of minors by priests whom those children were supposed to trust. To many people in my homeland, the pope's letter is an insult not only to our intelligence, but to our faith and to our country. To understand why, one must realize that we Irish endured a brutal brand of Catholicism that revolved around the humiliation of children.

I experienced this personally. When I was a young girl, my mother -- an abusive, less-than-perfect parent -- encouraged me to shoplift. After being caught once too often, I spent 18 months in An Grianán Training Centre, an institution in Dublin for girls with behavioral problems, at the recommendation of a social worker. An Grianán was one of the now-infamous church-sponsored "Magdalene laundries," which housed pregnant teenagers and uncooperative young women. We worked in the basement, washing priests' clothes in sinks with cold water and bars of soap. We studied math and typing. We had limited contact with our families. We earned no wages. One of the nuns, at least, was kind to me and gave me my first guitar.

An Grianán was a product of the Irish government's relationship with the Vatican -- the church had a "special position" codified in our constitution until 1972. As recently as 2007, 98 percent of Irish schools were run by the Catholic Church. But schools for troubled youth have been rife with barbaric corporal punishments, psychological abuse and sexual abuse. In October 2005, a report sponsored by the Irish government identified more than 100 allegations of sexual abuse by priests in Ferns, a small town 70 miles south of Dublin, between 1962 and 2002. Accused priests weren't investigated by police; they were deemed to be suffering a "moral" problem. In 2009, a similar report implicated Dublin archbishops in hiding sexual abuse scandals between 1975 and 2004.

Why was such criminal behavior tolerated? The "very prominent role which the Church has played in Irish life is the very reason why abuses by a minority of its members were allowed to go unchecked," the 2009 report said.

Despite the church's long entanglement with the Irish government, Pope Benedict's so-called apology takes no responsibility for the transgressions of Irish priests. His letter states that "the Church in Ireland must first acknowledge before the Lord and before others the serious sins committed against defenceless children." What about the Vatican's complicity in those sins?

Benedict's apology gives the impression that he heard about abuse only recently, and it presents him as a fellow victim: "I can only share in the dismay and the sense of betrayal that so many of you have experienced on learning of these sinful and criminal acts and the way Church authorities in Ireland dealt with them." But Benedict's infamous 2001 letter to bishops around the world ordered them to keep sexual abuse allegations secret under threat of excommunication -- updating a noxious church policy, expressed in a 1962 document, that both priests accused of sex crimes and their victims "observe the strictest secret" and be "restrained by a perpetual silence."

Benedict, then known as Joseph Ratzinger, was a cardinal when he wrote that letter. Now that he sits in Saint Peter's chair, are we to believe that his position has changed? And are we to take comfort in last week's revelations that, in 1996, he declined to defrock a priest who may have molested as many as 200 deaf boys in Wisconsin?

Benedict's apology states that his concern is "above all, to bring healing to the victims." Yet he denies them the one thing that might bring them healing -- a full confession from the Vatican that it has covered up abuse and is now trying to cover up the cover up. Astonishingly, he invites Catholics "to offer up your fasting, your prayer, your reading of Scripture and your works of mercy in order to obtain the grace of healing and renewal for the Church in Ireland." Even more astonishing, he suggests that Ireland's victims can find healing by getting closer to the church -- the same church that has demanded oaths of silence from molested children, as occurred in 1975 in the case of Father Brendan Smyth, an Irish priest later jailed for repeated sexual offenses. After we stopped laughing, many of us in Ireland recognized the idea that we needed the church to get closer to Jesus as blasphemy.

To Irish Catholics, Benedict's implication -- Irish sexual abuse is an Irish problem -- is both arrogant and blasphemous. The Vatican is acting as though it doesn't believe in a God who watches. The very people who say they are the keepers of the Holy Spirit are stamping all over everything the Holy Spirit truly is. Benedict criminally misrepresents the God we adore. We all know in our bones that the Holy Spirit is truth. That's how we can tell that Christ is not with these people who so frequently invoke Him.

Irish Catholics are in a dysfunctional relationship with an abusive organization. The pope must take responsibility for the actions of his subordinates. If Catholic priests are abusing children, it is Rome, not Dublin, that must answer for it with a full confession and in a criminal investigation. Until it does, all good Catholics -- even little old ladies who go to church every Sunday, not just protest singers like me whom the Vatican can easily ignore -- should avoid Mass. In Ireland, it is time we separated our God from our religion, and our faith from its alleged leaders.

Almost 18 years ago, I tore up a picture of Pope John Paul II on an episode of "Saturday Night Live." Many people did not understand the protest -- the next week, the show's guest host, actor Joe Pesci, commented that, had he been there, "I would have gave her such a smack." I knew my action would cause trouble, but I wanted to force a conversation where there was a need for one; that is part of being an artist. All I regretted was that people assumed I didn't believe in God. That's not the case at all. I'm Catholic by birth and culture and would be the first at the church door if the Vatican offered sincere reconciliation.

As Ireland withstands Rome's offensive apology while an Irish bishop resigns, I ask Americans to understand why an Irish Catholic woman who survived child abuse would want to rip up the pope's picture. And whether Irish Catholics, because we daren't say "we deserve better," should be treated as though we deserve less.

For a Spanish translation of this article, click here.

United States of Israel_Rafael Iglesias design

The ESI Class Photo

Let's Kick Homophobia Out of Football_video

Escuchemos a Umberto Eco

El filósofo y escritor italiano Umberto Eco, quien fue investido este miércoles doctor honoris causa por la Facultad de Comunicación de la Universidad de Sevilla, afirmó que Internet es una "especie de parodia de la enciclopedia que reúne todo el saber del mundo, porque incluye también información falsa", por lo que consideró que el medio ha "fracasado en su intento por ordenar el conocimiento del mundo disponible".

"Con Internet no sabemos quién habla". Las palabras del escritor italiano Umberto Eco tenían ayer un cierto fatalismo. Las posibilidades infinitas de la nueva tecnología ocultan monstruos. El autor de El nombre de la rosa alertó sobre las carencias de la red. "Internet parece, en cierto sentido, la enciclopedia que reúne todo el saber del mundo; pero es también una especie de parodia porque recoge informaciones falsas", afirmó.

"La función de una cultura no es sólo conservar, sino que es también deshacerse de cosas. Una biblioteca es la imagen de una cultura no sólo por los libros que tiene sino también por los libros que no ha querido tener", comentó Eco. La presencia de uno de los intelectuales más carismáticos del mundo, del hombre que concilió los estudios sobre la Edad Media con la reflexión en torno al cómic y la televisión, tiene una enorme capacidad de arrastre. No cabía un alfiler en el paraninfo de la Universidad.

No obstante, el semiótico italiano, quien fue precedido en su discurso de investidura por la laudatio del catedrático de Literatura y Comunicación de la Universidad de Sevilla Manuel Angel Vázquez Medel, rechazó la idea de introducir pautas de control en el universo de Internet, ya que, según aseguró, "el más mínimo criterio supondría la reducción de libertad", por lo que se mostró partidario de "educar a la gente a utilizar críticamente la libertad".

Asimismo, el autor aludió durante su discurso, pronunciado en italiano, al "sueño de toda filosofía y de toda ciencia por conocer y definir las cosas por su esencia", aspiración que ilustró haciendo un recorrido por las diferentes herramientas que ha utilizado el ser humano para realizar un compendio del conocimiento existente, entre ellas, la enciclopedia durante el Barroco.

Destacó el Príncipe de Asturias de Comunicación y Humanidades las relaciones entre la enciclopedia barroca y la World Wide Web, indicando que la red no es un sistema ordenado de géneros y especies, sino una lista "infinita e indefinida" de fenómenos, definiciones, descripciones o propiedades. "La web es incapaz de reducir al orden su propia multiplicidad ni nos ofrece instrumentos para crear desde su caos un orden posible", afirmó, reconociendo, sin embargo, que "cualquier orden posible de nuestros conocimientos tendrá que ser elaborado usando la enciclopedia infinita de la web, pero sin sucumbir al vértigo de su laberinto". Eco llevó a un paraninfo lleno de cuadros de reyes y escenas religiosas el aire fresco de un siglo XXI marcado por Internet y el sueño de muchos hombres y mujeres de no perder su libertad.

WORLD PRESS PHOTO 2009

The international jury of the 53rd annual World Press Photo Contest has selected a photo by the Italian photographer Pietro Masturzo as the World Press Photo of the Year 2009. The picture depicts women shouting in protest from a rooftop in Tehran on 24 June. The winning photograph is part of a story depicting the nights following the contested presidential elections in Iran, when people shouted their dissent from roofs and balconies, after daytime protests in the streets. The story as a whole was awarded first prize in the category People in the News.

Sin fútbol_análisis

DAVID TRUEBA

El País, 04/02/2010

Hace años traté de patentar con un amigo la semana de ocho días. Nos pareció un invento prodigioso. Se trataba de añadir un día más a la semana donde nos permitiríamos todos los vicios y placeres acumulables, sin ninguna de las obligaciones. Porque el domingo no bastaba. El domingo fue desde su origen un día saturado de obligaciones disfrazadas de aficiones. Basta con mirar la cantidad de compromisos que uno adquiere con la religión, la familia, la ciudad, el comercio y el entretenimiento, para desacreditar el domingo. El octavo día nos iba a garantizar que ya nunca más nos sentiríamos tan terriblemente tristes los domingos por la tarde viendo cómo se nos escapaba la vida entre los dedos. Ahora es urgente retomar la idea. Sobre todo desde que en reunión extraordinaria de la LFP, que no es un partido trostkista, sino la Liga de Fútbol Profesional, se decidiera ampliar al lunes y al viernes la retransmisión de partidos por televisión. Necesitamos el octavo día por la sencilla razón de que necesitamos un día sin fútbol, ¿es que nadie lo entiende?

El fútbol y la tele viven la historia de proxenetismo más esclarecedora de nuestra civilización. El fútbol da audiencia y fidelidad a los canales. A cambio la tele les da dinero. Pero, como en cualquier negocio turbio, las cuentas nunca salen. Los clubes de fútbol tienen una deuda que supera los 2.000 millones de euros y las televisiones aseguran que emitir fútbol al precio que está no les sale rentable a menos que sea en canales de pago exclusivos. Como muestra de la importancia capital no existen leyes que se aprueben a más velocidad que las que conciernen al fútbol y la tele. Basta un plumazo y sin debate ni enmiendas se cambia lo que haya que cambiar. Y no es de ahora, hace años la doctrina Cascos impuso que España necesitaba un partido de fútbol en abierto porque el interés general es redondo y se maneja con los pies. Ay, si el interés general fuera otra cosa. Ahora vamos a tener fútbol en la tele todos los días. Y no sé ustedes, pero yo sigo soñando con el octavo día, ése en el que hasta Dios o Messi o Cristiano Ronaldo descansan y nos dejan en paz.

Laughter Therapy_Risoterapia :)

Hay quienes dicen que hacerlo de pie fortalece la columna,
boca abajo estimula la circulación de la sangre,
boca arriba es más placentero,
hacerlo solo es rico pero egoísta,
en grupo puede ser divertido,
en el baño es muy digestivo,
en el coche puede ser peligroso,
hacerlo con frecuencia desarrolla la imaginación,
entre dos enriquece el conocimiento,
de rodillas resulta doloroso,...
sobre la mesa,
sobre el escritorio,
antes de comer o en la sobremesa,
sobre la cama o en la hamaca,
desnudos o vestidos,
sobre el césped o la alfombra,
con música o en silencio,
entre sábanas o en el armario.
Hacerlo siempre es un acto de amor.
No importa la edad,
ni la raza,
ni el credo,
ni el sexo,
ni la posición...

¡Leer... leer es un placer, siempre!
Hay que leer más.
Leer es +

Viñeta Interferencias, El Roto

The Aroma of Tea_animation short

Amazing animation short film by Michael Dudok de Wit (Holland, 2006), 3 min.

50 (British) Reasons to Love the European Union

As the EU celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2007, The Independent, one of Britain's quality newspapers, looked at 50 benefits it has brought, and asked: "What has Europe done for us?" Here are the answers:

1 The end of war between European nations
2 Democracy is now flourishing in 27 countries
3 Once-poor countries, such as Ireland, Greece and Portugal, are prospering
4 The creation of the world's largest internal trading market
5 Unparalleled rights for European consumers
6 Co-operation on continent-wide immigration policy
7 Co-operation on crime, through Europol
8 Laws that make it easier for British people to buy property in Europe
9 Cleaner beaches and rivers throughout Europe
10 Four weeks statutory paid holiday a year for workers in Europe
11 No death penalty (it is incompatible with EU membership)
12 Competition from privatised companies means cheaper phone calls
13 Small EU bureaucracy (24,000 employees, fewer than the BBC)
14 Making the French eat British beef again
15 Minority languages, such as Irish, Welsh and Catalan recognised and protected
16 Europe is helping to save the planet with regulatory cuts in CO2
17 One currency from Bantry to Berlin (but not Britain)
18 Europe-wide travel bans on tyrants such as Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe
19 The EU gives twice as much aid to developing countries as the United States
20 Strict safety standards for cars, buses and aircraft
21 Free medical help for tourists
22 EU peacekeepers operate in trouble spots throughout the world
23 Europe's single market has brought cheap flights to the masses, and new prosperity for forgotten cities
24 Introduction of pet passports
25 It now takes only 2 hrs 35 mins from London to Paris by Eurostar
26 Prospect of EU membership has forced modernisation on Turkey
27 Shopping without frontiers gives consumers more power to shape markets
28 Cheap travel and study programmes means greater mobility for Europe's youth
29 Food labelling is much clearer
30 No tiresome border checks (apart from in the UK)
31 Compensation for passengers suffering air delays
32 Strict ban on animal testing for the cosmetic industry
33 Greater protection for Europe's wildlife
34 Regional development fund has aided the deprived parts of Britain
35 European driving licences recognised across the EU
36 Britons now feel a lot less insular
37 Europe's bananas remain bent, despite sceptics' fears
38 Strong economic growth - greater than the United States last year
39 Single market has brought the best continental footballers to Britain
40 Human rights legislation has protected the rights of the individual
41 European Parliament provides democratic checks on all EU laws
42 EU gives more, not less, sovereignty to nation states
43 Maturing EU is a proper counterweight to the power of US and China
44 European immigration has boosted the British economy
45 Europeans are increasingly multilingual - except Britons, who are less so
46 Europe has set Britain an example how properly to fund a national health service
47 British restaurants now much more cosmopolitan
48 Total mobility for career professionals in Europe
49 Europe has revolutionised British attitudes to food and cooking
50 Lists like this drive the Eurosceptics mad

We are being watched

Surveillance cameras at London Victoria Station.

How To Live Longer :)

It's a relief to know the truth after all those conflicting medical studies: 1. The Japanese eat very little fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than the British or Americans. 2. The French eat a lot of fat and also suffer fewer heart attacks than the British or Americans. 3. The Japanese drink very little red wine and and suffer fewer heart attacks than the British or Americans. 4. The Italians drink excessive amounts of red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than the British or Americans. 5. The Germans drink a lot of beer and eat lots of sausages and fats and suffer fewer heart attacks than the British or Americans. CONCLUSION: Eat and drink whatever you like. Speaking English is what kills you.

UP :) English is a difficult language!

Lovers of the English language enjoy this. It is an example of why people learning English have trouble. Learning the nuances of English makes it a difficult language. This two-letter word in English has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that word is 'UP.' It is listed in the dictionary as an [adv], [prep], [adj], [n] or [v]. It's easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP? At a meeting, why does a topic come UP ? Why do we speak UP, and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report? We call UP our friends and we use it to brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver, we warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen. We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car. At other times the little word has a real special meaning. People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses. To be dressed is one thing but to be dressed UP is special. And this up is confusing: A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP. We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night. We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP! To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look up the word UP in the dictionary. In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4 of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more. When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP . When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP. When it rains, it wets UP the earth. When it does not rain for awhile, things dry UP. One could go on & on, but I'll wrap it UP , for now ........my time is UP. Oh...one more thing: What is the first thing you do in the morning & the last thing you do at night? UP Don't screw up. Send this on to everyone you look up in your address book... Now I'll shut up 

You can find more funny texts like this on the website Laugh 'n Learn.

President Obama's Speech on Equal Rights

Amenábar's ÁGORA

Set in 4th-century Roman Egypt, Rachel Weisz plays astrologer-philosopher Hypatia of Alexandria, an atheist scientist who fights to save the collected wisdom of the ancient world. Her slave Davus (played by Max Minghella) is torn between his love for his mistress and the possibility of gaining his freedom by joining the rising tide of Christianity. Ágora is a historical epic story about the clash between scientific knowledge and superstition, free thinking and religious fanaticism. Spectacular and highly entertaining, this is Alejandro Amenábar at his best. 

Flamenco Project

Flamenco has attracted significant international interest since the early 1900s. The 1960s and 1970s witnessed an unprecedented "foreign invasion" of committed and adventurous musicians traveling far from their homes and cultures to experience flamenco first-hand in the pueblos of Andalusia. Many not only lived the life and studied the music, but also documented their experience at its heart and core with photographs, audio recordings and films. It was an extraordinary period of cross-cultural exchange made possible by the generosity and openness of many of the great flamenco artists of the 20th Century. 

The Flamenco Photo Project consists of a growing collection of more than one hundred images culled from the work of 12 photographers, all non-Spaniards and lovers of the art of Flamenco. They have seen things as others have not, bringing a fresh and vivid point of view to the visual history of the Flamencos from 1960 to 1985. 

The Flamenco Project is dedicated to assembling, preserving and publishing these unique documents of that memorable time. The Flamenco Project Collection is now on display at two of the Cajasol exhibitions halls in Seville (Sala Imagen + Sala Chicarreros) until November 1st. A must-see! You can access the online photo gallery by clicking on the title link above.

STOP CRUELTY TO ANIMALS

Spanish Conservatives and Spanish Socialists reject legislating against festivals involving cruelty to animals: "Why is it that they are only able of reaching consensus at our expense!"

100% Tarantino

A band of US soldiers facing death by firing squad for their misdeeds are given a chance to save themselves - by heading into the perilous no-man's lands of Nazi-occupied France on a suicide mission for the Allies... Inglorious Basterds is Quentin Tarantino at his best! Spoken in English, German, French (and a little Italian, enough to make you crack up in your seat), make sure to watch it in the original version, as regional accents do play an important role in the storyline. If you weren't a Tarantino fan before, your are surely bound to become one after this hair-raising thriller! A truly cathartic anti-Nazi experience. Watched it only last night and I am still palpitating with excitement :) A must-see film!