Meme

USING ONLY ONE WORD! It's not as easy as you might think!

Copy and change the answers to suit you and pass it on. It's really hard to only use one word answers.

1. Where is your cell phone? Home
2. Your significant other? Working
3. Your hair? Cropped
4. Your mother? Outwordly
5. Your father? Uninterested
6. Your favorite thing? Conversation
7. Your dream last night? Friends
8. Your favorite drink? Orchata
9. Your dream/goal? Success
10. What room you are in? Studio
11. Your hobby? Art
12. Your fear? Illness
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Alive
14. Where were you last night? Home
16. Muffins? Blueberry
17. Wish list item? Friendship
18. Where you grew up? Everywhere
19. Last thing you did? Dinner
20. What are you wearing? Underwear
21. Your TV? Samsung
22. Your pets? None
23. Friends? Few
24. Your life? Aloof
25. Your mood? Melancholic
26. Missing someone? Many
27. Car? Nope
28. Something you're not wearing? Pants
29. Your favorite store? Sanborns
30. Your favorite color? Blue
31. When is the last time you laughed? Yesterday
32. Who will resend this? Unknown
33. One place that I go to over and over? London
34. One person who emails me regularly? Lise
35. Favorite place to eat? Farrell's
36. Why you participated in this survey? Vanity
37. What are you doing tonight? iTunes

Swine flu and the Moon

AOG, Madrid

Panic over. It seems that this year’s swine flu plague is just a lot of hype. Not to say this it is not dangerous, it is just that places like the UK are taking it all in their stride and are keeping their wits about them.

I’ve spoken with my sister in the UK and since swine flu has reached pandemic proportions, doctors are just prescribing paracetamol and rest. They cant be bothered, she says, to even diagnose swine flu.

“You feel flue-ish? Take a pill”.
“You sick luv? Stay at home... and take a pill”.

However, there are as of today, 840 people being treated for it in hospital there, according to The Guardian.

Gotta say, if the British aren’t panicking, there might be hope yet. Why? Well, they do seem to panic about everything else, so this can’t be too bad.

Proactivity!

A friend of my sister’s is trying to catch the flu now so that when he goes on holiday he may be able to travel. His girlfriend has caught it. As did one of the employees who work for my sister.

She did have to send the lady in question home and blitzed the office and workspaces afterwards.

Here on the homefront, my partner has begun a long list of countries we should not visit because of the flu.

Two top destinations are heading the list: Brazil and Argentina.

According to my partner and Spanish media, it is not wise to try and catch swine flu now, rather than in the Fall.


I think it is ironic that this week we are celebrating the 40th anniversary of man’s first landing on the moon back in 1969, and at the same time, here we are, knee deep in organic plague.

To say nothing about the lunar eclipse which has graced Asia for the first time in decades.

All in all, the world somehow manages to continue turning.

The running of the bulls in Pamplona

AOG, Madrid

Last week Spain witnessed once again the spectacle of the running of the bulls in Pamplona, so beloved of Hemingway. Have you read "The Sun also rises"? It occurs during the San Fermín festivities starting on the 7th of July of every year.

Unfortunately, this year there was another death. The first in 14 years.

This time it was a young man, Daniel Gimeno Romero, 27 from Alcalá de Henares, just outside of Madrid, was one of more than a dozen people rushed to hospital after one of the most dangerous runs in recent years.

A video on the Cuatro television station website shot by an onlooker showed Romero on the ground and trying to scrabble towards the thick wooden railings that mark the edge of the course as the bull turned back on the runners.

As he sat up and turned around, the bull lowered its head and rammed a horn into the join of his neck and shoulder.

The animal, named "Capuchino" managed to pierce the poor guy's jugular with one of his horns. Spanish television showed the last minutes of this guy's life throughout the day. Sad.

Given the danger of the event, and the fact that many of the runners are drunken foreigners, I am truly surprised there aren’t more deaths per year. Fighting bulls are huge animals known for being bad tempered and ready to kill. Hence why they are bred.

I suppose that back in Hemingway’s time, the world he lived in needed things like this sort of event to make one’s life more interesting. Today, however, tradition aside, I’m not entirely sure why this is still going on.

To say nothing of bullfighting, which I am opposed to 100%.

This is what Hemingway wrote about it back in 1923:

“... It was really a double wooden fence, making a long entryway from the main street of the town to the bull ring itself. It made a runway about two hundred and fifty yards long. People were jammed solid on each side of it. Looking up it toward the main street.

Then far away there was a dull report.

"They're off," everybody shouted.

"What is it?" I asked a man next to me who was leaning far out over the concrete rail.

"The bulls! They have released them from the corrals on the far side of the city. They are racing through the city."

"Whew," said Herself. "What do they do that for?"

Then down the narrow fenced-in runway came a crowd of men and boys running. Running as hard as they could go. The gate feeding them into the bull ring was opened and they all ran pell-mell under the entrance levels into the ring. Then there came another crowd. Running even harder. Straight up the long pen from the town.
"Where are the bulls?" asked Herself.

Then they came in sight. Eight bulls galloping along, full tilt, heavy set, black, glistening, sinister, their horns bare, tossing their heads. And running with them three steers with bells on their necks.

They ran in a solid mass, and ahead of them sprinted, tore, ran and bolted the rear guard of the men and boys of Pamplona who had allowed themselves to be chased through the streets for a morning's pleasure.

A boy in his blue shirt, red sash, white canvas shoes with the inevitable leather wine bottle hung from his shoulders, stumbled as he sprinted down the straightaway. The first bull lowered his head and made a jerky, sideways toss. The boy crashed up against the fence and lay there limp, the herd running solidly together passed him up. The crowd roared.

Everybody made a dash for the inside of the ring, and we got into a box just in time to see the bulls come into the ring filled with men. The men ran in a panic to each side. The bulls, bunched solidly together, ran straight with the trained steers across the ring and into the entrance that led to the pens.”

I don’t think anything has changed.

In all, 15 people have died at the Pamplona event over the past century. The last fatal goring was that of 22-year-old American Matthew Tassio in 1995.

In case you are wondering, “Herself” refers to Hemingway’s wife, Valerie.

The last few days of June

AOG, Madrid

What a week, what a week. A week for freedom in more ways than one.

First off the continuing struggle for freedom in Iran and the search for truth defies the will of the Ayatollahs.

As if that were not enough, shock horror, Farrah Fawcett died. My favourite Angel.

But, wonders did not cease, since a few hours later, Michael Jackson died too, trumping and obliterating any further mention of Ms. Fawcett’s struggle with cancer.

Both artists are, in their own way, free from the struggles their daily lives, according to the press, had become. I wish them happiness.

Come Sunday, Honduras stages a Coup, and president Manuel Zelaya is kidnapped by the Honduran Army and flown to Costa Rica, from where he stages a press conference and assures all and sundry that he will remain as President elect until next year.

Soon enough, Hugo Chávez and Cuba started their outpour of support.

MIchael Jackson

AOG, Madrid

In 1977 Elvis passed away. My family were living in Mexico. I still remember watching the news and not knowing who the "King" was.

I remember waiting for my mother to come home to tell her about it. She knew who he was. She was sad and surprised.

Yesterday, another king passed away.

His music has been in my life for as long as I can remember.

Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough

Rock With You

These songs populated my childhood before I even knew who he was.

I remember the event that was Thriller. We were in Houston then. Everyone was talking about it. I remember thinking that the song was ok, but the video was something else. Here was a different scale.

A different magnitude associated with music and a performer.

And even more hits:

Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'
The Girl Is Mine
Beat It
Billie Jean
P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)

These songs stood out in my mind. Their sound, their feel. I don’t know. Magic?

When Bad came out, we were living in San Antonio. More great sounds.

The Way You Make Me Feel

Another Part Of Me

Man In The Mirror

I Just Can't Stop Loving You

Dirty Diana

In 1991 my family had moved to London. Another great album- Dangerous -, yet my interest had begun to wane slightly. Obviously other things occupied my mind.

But there were still good songs to play as background music to my life:

Remember The Time

Heal The World

Black Or White

It was in London when the press first started to pick on him. Or at least it was there where I first became aware of it.

From then on, the albums just seemed to re-release old stuff. I don’t know what happened.

He became more farce than real. His life, his skin, his children, he himself grew out of all proportion.

Finally yesterday he passed away. I was not aware of it, but a small part of me passed away with him. I guess it is true what they say, you don’t know what you’ve got until its gone.

Wherever he is, I hope he is happy. He left a great legacy behind.

Iran 2009

AOG, Madrid

The past few days have shown the less friendly face of the Islamic Republic of Iran. I have read testimony after testimony of the protesters in Iran regarding their Government. Many of them, perhaps most, are amazed at the actions of their Government. Some say that they cannot believe that an Iranian would ever harm another Iranian. Disbelief seemed to permeate the early stages of the, in my opinion, soon to be aborted Iranian version of the Orange Revolution.

Certainly the people in charge will ensure that they remain in charge for a long time to come. As with China and Tiananmen Square 20 years ago last month, so with Iran.

It everything points towards that being the ultimate outcome of this national happening, if that is the word that can be allowed to describe the recent events in that country.



Today it surfaces that president elect Ahmadineyad is asking the US for a formal apology, all the while the G8 condemns and threatens to isolate Iran even further.

My question is, how much can one isolate a country already isolated? And what purpose will this solve?

I wonder what kind of brainwashing must go on in authoritarian regimes that its own population seems to believe time and time and again that it is somehow impervious to the greater evils of its Government?

Time after time History has shown that authoritarian, as well as pariah, states are the first to turn their might against their own citizens. True, democracies are known to do this as well, but never like these countries do. Never on that scale.

So I wonder what it is that people get told to make them think that their form of Government is benign, when the rest of the planet seems to think otherwise.

Where is the criteria that allows people to understand that any state which calls for the destruction of another (like Iran and Israel and, lately, North Korea and the US), is far from benign. Far from just. And far from sane.

Perhaps it is a sign of weakness the fact that the Ayatollahs endeavour to harm their citizens so freely. However, as with China, I’m sure that just as they can fool people into thinking they are a force for the greater good, they can also fool them into thinking that they are still powerful. And that Iran will not withstand, under any circumstances, any more revolutions other than the 1978 Islamic one.

Nevertheless, according to French philosopher and writer Bernard Henri-Levy, "Whatever happens, the people know, from this point on, that they are the people and that there is not a regime on earth that can remain in power against the people", as he wrote for the Huffington Post in reference to Iran's situation.

I wish he were right, but then I think of China, Cuba, North Korea, Zimbabwe, and a host of authoritarian regimes intent of maintaining power no matter what, and I can't help but disagree.



PS: According to today's Guardian, Mousavi is defying the Government's crackdown and accuses his opponents of an "evil conspiracy". Is there hope yet for change, positive change, in Iran?

French Wants To Study Burqa Wear, May Ban It In Public

AOG, Madrid

Should France ban the burka? Why not? When Western women move to Islamic countries they are required to observe their customs and often have to wear some sort of head covering in many (though not all) of them.

To ask people living in your country to observe your country's accepted way of dress, though in imposition, is not the worse thing you can be asked to do. Nowhere in the Koran does it state that women HAVE to wear a Burka.

It is a cultural, rather than a religious, custom. Is a woman any less Islamic for not wearing this type of dress? Obviously not, yet religious fanatics attach belief to cultural practice and sell it as dogma. This, of course, always in detriment of women.

I think it is plainly obvious that the main problem with Islamic fanaticism is its treatment of women rather than if women have a choice to wear the burka or not.

If you are the type of man who will not allow his wife to leave the house covered from head to toe, then Western society has a problem with your treatment of your wife, not with your religion, unless your religious views color your actions in regard to your wife.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Iran

AOG, Madrid

Iran is on a knife-edge, with millions of voters taking to the streets in outrage as evidence mounts that the government may have massively rigged and stolen last Thursday's election.

The Islamic regime has cracked down brutally on the protesters and is imposing a blackout on Iranian society - shutting down domestic and international media, the internet and even text-messaging. For many, it the best thing that could have happened to Twitter.

The voice of Iranians may have been silenced at the polling booth, now the regime is attempting to silence them everywhere else.

Facing beatings and gunfire, the opposition, according to Western media, is organising mass demonstrations and a general strike.


This election is of international importance. Iran is a major regional power, and the international community is seeking diplomatic engagement that holds a key to peace in the Middle East.

The conservative Guardian Council, headed by a key Ahmadinejad ally, is reviewing the vote over the next 9 days.

According to some Western media, “There is a real possibility that democracy will prevail.”

However, just because a regime allows for elections, a voting booth, and an electoral list, this does not mean it is a democracy, nor that the elections are free.

Ultimate power in Iran lies with Ayatollah Khamenei, who may have backed the rigging - but he is hired and fired by the Assembly of Experts, chaired by ex-President Rafsanjani who has condemned vote-fixing.

If Rafsanjani and allies can get enough votes on the Assembly this week, they can press to re-open the results, even to remove Khamenei from power.

But will any of this happen?

The Islamic Revolution came into power back in the 1970s in a similar way, and the religious right took over the country.

Is the West not expecting too much in hoping that a recount, if it goes ahead, will show a true vote count?

Are we to think that the regime will welcome change peacefully?

Of course, it could also turn out that Ahmadineyad won the election fair and square.

But the current state of affairs in the country certainly points to a feeling of insatisfaction within the Iranian population.



Even if the election was not rigged, there is obviously a certain malaise in the country which the ruling oligarchy would do well to address. Sooner rather than later.

Here are some international sources:

1. The Guardian: "Iran's regime cracks down on opposition and media", 16 June 2009


2. Al-Jazeera: "Supreme Leader Under Pressure", 15 June 2009


3. "Evidence that the Iranian Presidential Election Was Stolen", Juan Cole, 13 June 2009


4. More detailed analysis by a polling expert of "fishy numbers" in the results announced by the interior ministry.


5. One of many active live-blogs.


6. #IranElections - live, unfiltered updates via Twitter from Iran and around the world

North Korea May Fire A Missile Toward Hawaii

AOG, Madrid



The struggle during the Cold War made for a, sort of, peaceful world (in its own radical and paranoid way) where tensions were drawn out through proxy countries, but what about today? It isn't just the "good" guys these days who have their finger on the button.

Yes, it is so cool that nowadays any tinpot little dictator can get his mittens on nuclear weapons and threaten the planet, just like the tinpot little democracies which invented the dammed thing in the first place.


Modernity so rules!


I wonder how long before we blow each other to pieces in the name of...wait, what was it again?

About North Korea
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Obama Shoe Photo Seen As "Insult" By Some Israelis

AOG, Madrid

From the sublime to the ridiculous. Is the sole of Obama's shoe such a major event that Israel can no longer go ahead with the peace plan?

Will Palestine no longer be a state because of this photograph?

I think this is all about trying to distract from the main issues. Fine. Whatever. Get a grip and get on with things. Peace awaits. Sole or no sole.

About Israel
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost