this was my video response to the racist comments i got about the other video. the response is in spanish so you might not understand what i'm saying but it's basically that those comments were hurtful and that those kind of attitudes can only worsen the problem, far from solving it.
Tuesday 29 January 2008
one more...
Why does a FOREIGN have to comment on our INTERNAL politics?
You better worry about your THIRD WORLD COUNTRY and leave us spaniards in peace, CLOWN
(this comment was made by a 19 year old)
So far 1281 views, 3 comments
a crude reality
"Sudaca" is a racist term used against latinamericans mainly in Spain. I posted a video on www.youtube.es/elecciones08 asking the Spanish presidential candidates for some key words about themselves or their parties. I don't live in Spain and I obviously can't vote there but i'm a firm believer in the power of technology to make democracy a reality, or at least bring us a little closer to it. I wish that someday we would have the same kind of iniciative (as www.youtube.es/elecciones08) in Guatemala and in every country so that candidates could be more accesible and real to the people. And I was also interested because Spain is, still, very close to Latinamerica when it comes to politics.
I posted my video late sunday evening and today I come to find it's been watched 1,030 times already- and 2 comments have been made, both of which were pretty strong and...well i can't really define them, but i'll translate one of them so you'll get the idea:
The person who made this comment is 20 years old. His user name is "europeanpatriotism", and he defines himself as a profound patriot, lover of Spain and Europe...
Xenophobia and Racism are a crude reality, all over the world. And the worst part is that they're spreading. I guess that's the duality of globalization.
I posted my video late sunday evening and today I come to find it's been watched 1,030 times already- and 2 comments have been made, both of which were pretty strong and...well i can't really define them, but i'll translate one of them so you'll get the idea:
SHIT "SUDACA"!!!! GET OUT OF SPAIN!!!!
you don't have the right to comment on our politics....DIE BITCH
GET OUT OF SPAIN
SPAIN FOR THE SPANIARDS
I OUGHT TO PUT A BULLOT BETWEEN YOUR EYES
SPEAK FOR YOUR SHIT COUNTRY, DON'T SPEAK FOR SPAIN
The person who made this comment is 20 years old. His user name is "europeanpatriotism", and he defines himself as a profound patriot, lover of Spain and Europe...
Xenophobia and Racism are a crude reality, all over the world. And the worst part is that they're spreading. I guess that's the duality of globalization.
Monday 28 January 2008
Cleo
Cleo tiene al menos veinte años de trabajar cuidando carros en la 12 calle y 2a avenida de la zona 10 de la Ciudad de Guatemala, en frente del Géminis (donde está T.G.I.Friday's). No es originario de la ciudad, y le tocan noches duras, largas y frías la mayor parte del año. Sin embargo, nunca falta en su expresión un gesto de amabilidad, con un indiscutible toque de ternura.
El sábado pasado tuve el gusto de poder platicar con él un rato, y aunque no lo sabe, hizo mucho por mí esa noche. Y es que cuando se vive envuelta en una realidad socio-cultural como la de la Ciudad de Guate, es inevitable que la llama de la confianza, la llama del "auto-estima social" se debilite...hasta casi extinguirse. Son personas como él las que me devuelven la esperanza, son espíritus como esos los que me llenan de ganas de ser mejor y contribuir a producir los cambios que tanto necesitamos.
Le pedí que pensara en lo que quisiera pedirle a un político extranjero. Con mucho gusto, se tomó el tiempo necesario y finalmente me dio una respuesta que me cautivó; me cautivó por su humildad y por la profunda sinceridad con la que apeló a algo tan humano como el amor: la solidaridad.
La solidaridad, como el amor, es algo tan abstracto y tan mágico que hace imposible el encontrar una receta para producirla. Es algo que tiene que nacer del corazón de cada persona. De todas las personas.
El sábado pasado tuve el gusto de poder platicar con él un rato, y aunque no lo sabe, hizo mucho por mí esa noche. Y es que cuando se vive envuelta en una realidad socio-cultural como la de la Ciudad de Guate, es inevitable que la llama de la confianza, la llama del "auto-estima social" se debilite...hasta casi extinguirse. Son personas como él las que me devuelven la esperanza, son espíritus como esos los que me llenan de ganas de ser mejor y contribuir a producir los cambios que tanto necesitamos.
Le pedí que pensara en lo que quisiera pedirle a un político extranjero. Con mucho gusto, se tomó el tiempo necesario y finalmente me dio una respuesta que me cautivó; me cautivó por su humildad y por la profunda sinceridad con la que apeló a algo tan humano como el amor: la solidaridad.
La solidaridad, como el amor, es algo tan abstracto y tan mágico que hace imposible el encontrar una receta para producirla. Es algo que tiene que nacer del corazón de cada persona. De todas las personas.
Sunday 27 January 2008
those special ones
i can't quite put my finger on it, but there is some sort of special air about those people who have touched me, really touched me, inside.
no matter who i end up being...no matter where i end up being it...it's like those people stay still in time. even if they have also evolved into someone else, even if age has taken notice in their smiles...they are the same to me. they still belong.
he is one of those people. he belongs to me, even if he never will. he won't. i know it, he knows it. and that's okay, it's okay because of that link that will keep us attached to each other for life. no matter what. we belong to each other, like all those special ones belong to me. they're mine.
no matter who i end up being...no matter where i end up being it...it's like those people stay still in time. even if they have also evolved into someone else, even if age has taken notice in their smiles...they are the same to me. they still belong.
he is one of those people. he belongs to me, even if he never will. he won't. i know it, he knows it. and that's okay, it's okay because of that link that will keep us attached to each other for life. no matter what. we belong to each other, like all those special ones belong to me. they're mine.
Sunday 13 January 2008
colom 14.14
tomorrow 14.01.08 at 14 hours, álvaro colom will officially be guatemala's president. and if all goes well, he will remain so for the next 4 years.
politics are hard to understand. they're not always about reason, nor should they be, but there is one thing i know for sure: information is a key to good governance. i hope this will be a transparent government that will bring progress and solutions to at least some of the most urgent problems that guatemalans face today.
i too, believe in the audacity of hope. it wouldn't be smart nor would it be realistic to compare álvaro colom to barak obama, but they both call to change and hope.
there are a lot of reasons why colom shouldn't be trusted. but then again, that could be said about most politicians. i don't want to make excuses for him or his known or unknown actions, but at the same time, you can't believe everything you hear. there's too much corruption and black campaigning.
i prefer to think that colom and his team will bring good things to this country. i want to believe that the next four years of government will result in progress and development for guatemala. and i also hope that, for the sake of all guatemalans, we will manage develop a more vibrant civil society that will stop waiting for the government to bring solutions to all the problems and start acting by itself, motivating the government to improve its performance at the same time.
to achieve that, guatemala needs a transparent government to provide a healthy environment that allows and calls people to participate, dialogue and cooperate.
i hope this is when it will happen. i would say it's about time...
politics are hard to understand. they're not always about reason, nor should they be, but there is one thing i know for sure: information is a key to good governance. i hope this will be a transparent government that will bring progress and solutions to at least some of the most urgent problems that guatemalans face today.
i too, believe in the audacity of hope. it wouldn't be smart nor would it be realistic to compare álvaro colom to barak obama, but they both call to change and hope.
there are a lot of reasons why colom shouldn't be trusted. but then again, that could be said about most politicians. i don't want to make excuses for him or his known or unknown actions, but at the same time, you can't believe everything you hear. there's too much corruption and black campaigning.
i prefer to think that colom and his team will bring good things to this country. i want to believe that the next four years of government will result in progress and development for guatemala. and i also hope that, for the sake of all guatemalans, we will manage develop a more vibrant civil society that will stop waiting for the government to bring solutions to all the problems and start acting by itself, motivating the government to improve its performance at the same time.
to achieve that, guatemala needs a transparent government to provide a healthy environment that allows and calls people to participate, dialogue and cooperate.
i hope this is when it will happen. i would say it's about time...
Saturday 12 January 2008
Monday 7 January 2008
about life and death
"i don't know what he's so afraid of" "death is another stage of life, just like childhood, adolescence or motherhood..."
those were the words of a heartbroken woman trying to convince herself that the grave health condition of the love of her life was something she should accept humbly.
the man she was crying for is a man a lot of people will cry for. he's a wonderful person. i too hate to see him go through this. he loves life and doesn't want to let go. i, myself, wish he wouldn't but i can't deny that it might just be time to. he's suffering and by the looks of things he won't be able to recover. he's had an amazing life: seriously, someone could write a best-selling book about it.
it's so hard, every time, to accept it. death. but that isn't really any one's prerogative, is it?
well. you have to accept it. there is no other choice. and you can always keep your memories and learnings. nothing and no one can take that. i've learned and received so much from quique. he will always exist in my heart, no matter when his time comes.
those were the words of a heartbroken woman trying to convince herself that the grave health condition of the love of her life was something she should accept humbly.
the man she was crying for is a man a lot of people will cry for. he's a wonderful person. i too hate to see him go through this. he loves life and doesn't want to let go. i, myself, wish he wouldn't but i can't deny that it might just be time to. he's suffering and by the looks of things he won't be able to recover. he's had an amazing life: seriously, someone could write a best-selling book about it.
it's so hard, every time, to accept it. death. but that isn't really any one's prerogative, is it?
well. you have to accept it. there is no other choice. and you can always keep your memories and learnings. nothing and no one can take that. i've learned and received so much from quique. he will always exist in my heart, no matter when his time comes.
Sunday 6 January 2008
free rice
if you go to www.freerice.com and play a game about guessing words' meanings, you may learn something, but most importantly you will be helping donate rice to hungry people. for each word you get right, 20 grains of rice are donated through the United Nations to help end world hunger.
the importance of history
it never ceases to amaze me how history, and i don't mean every person's personal history/past, which is in a very obvious way important to that person, but the history we read in books and watch in movies, is so important to some. i guess if you think about it, of course it is. it's important to understand, important to learn. the world is a complicated place, that's no secret, and to those who take the time to think about it (because not everyone does) history helps. sometimes it's about pride, sometimes about honouring the truth.
about a month ago i was walking around in burbank, los angeles, and i saw this:
and then i remembered that a few years ago i got as a gift "the 40 days of musa dagh", a novel written in 1933 by an Austrian writer, Franz Werfel.
"For months the ruthless Turks had waged a campaign of terror against the Armenians -- hanging, looting and raping.
And now, in 1915, they embarked on a campaign of complete extermination.
Faced with certain death, the Armenian villagers revolted. It fell to Gabriel Bagradian to lead some five thousand of them into the impenetrable mountain area of Musa Dagh. Here they constructed primitive but almost impregnable fortifications.
The tough, courageous villagers--poorly armed and with meager provisions-- looked out across the rocky slopes to see the first Turkish patrols inching slowly up the mountain.
The bloody battle of Musa Dagh was about to begin..."
the truth should be honoured.
about a month ago i was walking around in burbank, los angeles, and i saw this:
and then i remembered that a few years ago i got as a gift "the 40 days of musa dagh", a novel written in 1933 by an Austrian writer, Franz Werfel.
"For months the ruthless Turks had waged a campaign of terror against the Armenians -- hanging, looting and raping.
And now, in 1915, they embarked on a campaign of complete extermination.
Faced with certain death, the Armenian villagers revolted. It fell to Gabriel Bagradian to lead some five thousand of them into the impenetrable mountain area of Musa Dagh. Here they constructed primitive but almost impregnable fortifications.
The tough, courageous villagers--poorly armed and with meager provisions-- looked out across the rocky slopes to see the first Turkish patrols inching slowly up the mountain.
The bloody battle of Musa Dagh was about to begin..."
the truth should be honoured.
if i ever write a song...
i hope it comes out at least close to being as good as "que alguien me diga". the melody and the lyrics...they're a real piece of art.
Los días pasan,
y yo me siento,
sin darte un beso,
como uno más,
cada mañana,
hago el intento,
para olvidarte,
pero que va,
tu recuerdo me golpea,
aquí en el alma
cada vez que me descuido,
como un cazador furtivo
me persigue por
toda esta soledad,
cuando creo que por fin
ya te he olvidado
y que voy a enamorarme
aparece de la nada
tu recuerdo y no soy nadie
Que alguien me diga,
cómo se olvida,
cómo se arranca para
siempre un amor del corazòn,
que alguien me ayude,
se me hace urgente,
ando buscando entre la gente
quien me quite este dolor,
busco alguien que me
quiera por siempre,
que me acepte en realidad
como soy,
ese alguien que me
de su cariño,
la que sea venga a mí,
por favor
love hurts, or so i've heard
Los días pasan,
y yo me siento,
sin darte un beso,
como uno más,
cada mañana,
hago el intento,
para olvidarte,
pero que va,
tu recuerdo me golpea,
aquí en el alma
cada vez que me descuido,
como un cazador furtivo
me persigue por
toda esta soledad,
cuando creo que por fin
ya te he olvidado
y que voy a enamorarme
aparece de la nada
tu recuerdo y no soy nadie
Que alguien me diga,
cómo se olvida,
cómo se arranca para
siempre un amor del corazòn,
que alguien me ayude,
se me hace urgente,
ando buscando entre la gente
quien me quite este dolor,
busco alguien que me
quiera por siempre,
que me acepte en realidad
como soy,
ese alguien que me
de su cariño,
la que sea venga a mí,
por favor
love hurts, or so i've heard
the book thief, markus zusak
i got "the book thief" as a gift. as i started reading it i realized how original the author was in the way he told the story of a german girl during world war II. it's a long book, but at the end you find yourself completely into the story, and for a second, you feel like you understand how human beings are so imperfect that they actually make sense and how tragic and beautiful the human behavior is, all at the same time. needless to say, i really liked it.
Saturday 5 January 2008
a bottle left behind...
what to do with it?
a lonely bottle lies in my desk and i don't know what to do with it. it's not mine, it was forgotten by its owner. drinking it without that person doesn't seem right and the time when we'll meet again seems far away.
poor little bottle.
a lonely bottle lies in my desk and i don't know what to do with it. it's not mine, it was forgotten by its owner. drinking it without that person doesn't seem right and the time when we'll meet again seems far away.
poor little bottle.
introduction
i'm just another person in the world, living life. enjoying it, surviving it, making the world an even more complicated place. that's me.
i'm confused about something most of the time. i feel that there's nothing i can know for sure. i think about unimportant things too much.
oh...and i'm inlove.
i'm confused about something most of the time. i feel that there's nothing i can know for sure. i think about unimportant things too much.
oh...and i'm inlove.
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