"The Unobtrusives"

Environment & Commerce

2010-09-17T02:30:00.000-07:00

It’s true that these days we get so inundated of new products, gadgets and modern ways to deal with customary behaviour. My question is, are these products only targeting consumerism and profit to the companies that create them? Are products in tune with the major issues our contemporary life now faces? Are they trying to minimize our impact/foot print in this world? Well, I have my doubts. But, I would like to bring two very different subjects into discussion that may shed some light into this paradigm.

The first one is a product already in the market for some time now. The e-reader is now being produced by several gadget companies and the product has been launched to create a substitute of the book with the appeal of being a modern device that it is easy carry, read, and with the ability to storage hundreds of books, especially when travelling, but making it even smarter way to save space at home. So many new versions of the product have been commercially launched; and now they have made it even more like the experience of reading a book by getting rid of the glare and using multiple shades of gray so the print looks like that of a regular book. They also have a long battery life so you don't have to be continually charging them or worrying that you are going to run out of juice in the middle of your story. This really means that the product is kicking off for the end consumers, but it does mean anything else? Does the e-reader generate any substantial and sustainable environmental advantage by substituting books, newspaper and magazines? Well, we may argue that the carbon foot print generated to produce the zillions e-readers is not very promising. But in the long run, considering that the carbon foot print generated by one of these gadgets is break even by the production of 23 paperbacks, it means that it may be doing well for the environment. It all boils down to the consumer behaviour, if the gadget is bought to satisfy a consumer tendency and in this way after 3-5 or even 1o e-books the device is forgotten or is replaced by a new more modern version, all the environmental talk is wasted. And the consumer behaviour is a very complex but compelling subject, but not subject of this post.

In the other hand, a new “product” has been trialled and soon may be available for us to experiment. I hope it will not be a substitute of our current way of flying, but an alternative for budget flying. A new aircraft “standing seat” model aimed at cramming more airline passengers onto budget flights has been unveiled recently and it will cause great controversy. But it proposes a better environmental response of the aviation industry, as it will help reduce CO2 per passenger by increasing the capacity of the plane. BBC News Mobile said today that “One Chinese airline estimated that such a seating policy would cut costs by 20%. If it cut emissions per passenger by 20% that would be a massive achievement in a sector where it's notoriously difficult to reduce greenhouse gases.”

Clearly, airlines were working on other fronts to reduce the impact to the environment. Some of them are trying to move to biofuels, but in contrast the usage of biofuels can push up food prices and cause the destruction of rainforests. Therefore this passengers’ cramming on planes seems to be better for the planet. And unlike many other aviation techno fixes, the standing seat is available more or less now if it can get safety approval. But, is it good any good for the passengers? It is currently a nightmare to travel overseas, let’s say a 12-hour flight, in the economic class, with the already minimal space between seats. What will then happen if you are travelling almost standing for maybe not 12-hours, but for 3 or 4?! But guess what? BBC says that “Modern ergonomists say the monks had it right. This is the ideal position for the body. It keeps a good air flow through the lungs, straightens the back, and improves the concentration. If you go into one of those expensive orthopaedic shops with back ache, they'll possibly sell you a seat that allows you to perch in exactly this way.” Well, I don’t know about you, but maybe travelling by train would be better?

Definitely, this move from sitting to standing on flights seems to provide the response airlines were looking for in economic and environmental terms. In a broader context, it may question people of the over usage of flights: Shouldn't we be taking the train if we worry about climate change? Shouldn't we be building communities at home instead of constantly jetting off in search of novelty? Those are powerful arguments, but it seems we are not there yet. Maybe with this move, these questions are going to be screaming at us. And we may decide to change our views for the better.

Adorable and unappealing cities - the tales of Oxford and Stevenage

2010-09-16T06:50:00.000-07:00

Yesterday for the second time I visit Stevenage. Stevenage is located north of London at exactly 19 minutes from Kings Cross Station by train. It is an English city, and because of that one would think of the magnificence taht could be presented across and surround it. But not exactly. And I could prove it twice. Of course, I did not have enough time to explore the ins and outs of the city, but you feel anticipation when you are in an exciting, vibrant community. It’s not the case here, I mean there! In contrast, the city is dull, plain, and with no resemblance to the great cities of Britain whatsoever. No wonder, I have not heard of it before, well, vaguely it seems I had, as of being the birth place of someone interesting … well, you know, it does not ring a bell at this moment …

Back to my journey, I got there by train, excited to get to know one more place in my “home” country, but suddenly my enthusiasm disappeared as I could not find a restaurant, or a café, or a cosy place to suck in the atmosphere, even a dull one. So, finally, after walking in circles, I had my lunch at McDonalds. And how depressing is that? You may agree with me that one of the main things of visiting a new place is to experiment its cuisine specialities. But, where are they in this place? Well, issue ignored, I enjoyed my filet o’fish and headed to work, after all, it was not a leisure day.

I decided to bring this subject to the blog because the juxtaposing behaviours cities may impose on us. I could feel a cloudy weather and thunderstorms forming and building upon my head as soon I left that train and step in Stevenage. And the real weather wasn’t bad at all. But my imagination went wild and created this unpleasant outdoor as to justify a plain, uncharacteristic environment. I felt afraid of my own consciousness.

But, in contrast, the sun comes out and the blue sky turns unbearably bright every time I visit Oxford. Ok, Oxford has this very singular British tradition, it has been recognized as a city since 1542, and it has been built using every British architectural period since the arrival of the Saxons. It’s exhilarating, just to be there, and smell, and fell how the city unfolds for a new day. Oxford has the most stimulating library that a place could have, and you know what better word to describe a library, other than stimulating?! The Bodleian is one of the oldest libraries in Europe, and in Britain is second in size only to the British Library and the place most people feel attracted to because of its grandeur, its openness to knowledge, and the enablement of the past in the present times. Oxford also maintains a number of museums and galleries, the Ashmolean Museum, founded in 1683, is the oldest museum in the UK, and the oldest university museum in the world. How enthralled is that? And I didn't even start to talk about the cafes, the restaurants and the very tradicional pubs. It's a culinary festival!

Well, of course my imagination goes wild in Oxford as well, but it presents me with a perfect world, with a nice atmosphere, a place that one would be hesitant to leave, but with one certainty, that there will be a return.

September: A love story begins

2010-09-10T13:40:00.000-07:00

Have you ever noticed, or maybe someone whispered to you that September is magical, that all good things commences now?!
Well, this has something to do with the season. Although, it’s the start of the spring in the countries below Equator line, it is autumn season for the north continent; this month reflects possibilities, the entrance of a new phase in our lives.
And to celebrate September, I would like to share with you a passage, a magical passage, that I read today by Michael Bywater:

“September.
If there was ever a month you could fall in love with, it's September. And like real beauty, September wears her glories subtly. To appreciate her (and if ever there were a female month, it's September) it's necessary to gaze directly, with a new eye. Look out of the window. Look at the light: the sun low enough to cast shadows, like side-lit danseuses, but not yet veiled and peremptory. Smell the air: dust and the first trace of wood smoke, the silver ghost of a dormant frost moon. The scent of September is the scent of creosote, privet, warm stone and the strange, cleaned smell of traffic on the evening streets. September mornings are alive with promise. The air lies slantwise, a slight pinch of chill with the windows open in the evening and the murmur and laughter in the streets below. Other months we hope our way through like gruff men with sticks and a purpose, or loll, stiff and unaccustomed, like chrysalids. Only September is now. For once in the year, we're here and we're happy.”

Do you still sparkle?

2010-09-09T02:07:00.001-07:00

Recently I have been watching movies that ask that question. Not straight to me, but intentionally for me. Ok, these movies may seem to be quite old considering the velocity of the movie industry; therefore, I am not quite sure if it’s really a cultural question: Do I still sparkle? But, curiously enough, I found the subject 100% pertinent. Let me explain why.

We sometimes live life in the autopilot: wake-up, dress up, work, have lunch, participate in meetings, have or make dinner, enjoy the spouse, friends, and family, of course, not in this particular order, but more times than not we just go and move with the flow. And suddenly, the sparkle is gone. Or is it hidden?? I like to believe that for sometimes the oomph is just there slumbering, and that with a nice real loud laugh, I could remember that I still have a sparkle. But is it really like that?

Well, I know that children have it all the time, more times than not. And, we as the children we were one day, should be able to continue to carry on life with that sparkle, the innocence, the inherited joy of being alive. Easier said that done, though. It seems that the life we choose to live as adults promote the loss of the child in us, or at least let us forget about it, because if we are adults, we must be responsible. Adults who have committed to realize the dreams we once dreamed for, or maybe to outlive the lives other people have created for us.

Well, anyways, independent of the life we choose to live, I am a truly believer that we can rescue or “feed” the sparkle on us. These days I decided to do it by watching these silly movies that remind me of my youthful aspirations; movies that enliven my soul. Not only that, specially because there are more dramatic movies out there than cheer up movies, but furthermore, remembering to live life judgment free can be such a bliss. And I noticed it all happens in a ripple effect, to then feel the sparkle again, the innocence, the joy of living the life I have chosen for.

Yes, I still sparkle. Do you?

Good bye Facebook!

2010-09-08T06:02:00.001-07:00

I left Facebook. Yesterday. Actually I have been thinking about making this move for sometime now. But, it took me more than I wanted to to effectively deactivate my account. Since it has been a debate whether or not to keep my Facebook account, I had to let my friends know about this decision. And what a better place to do so, if not in my blog! ;-)

Needless to say, it has been complicated to move away from my electronic friendships. Well, it has not been an easy choice after all; which it’s aggravated by the fact that the whole world is connected thru the Internet. Therefore, my leaving represents something like a counteraction... But it felt right for me, especially because my desire for a real life, real friends and real conversations are becoming louder and louder. And therefore, I am not totally convinced Facebook is the right tool to address the above.

And even though I would like to believe it’s not just the right tool for me, Facebook has also some flaws in their company statement: “Founded in February 2004, Facebook is a social utility that helps people communicate more efficiently with their friends, family and coworkers. The company develops technologies that facilitate the sharing of information through the social graph, the digital mapping of people's real-world social connections. Anyone can sign up for Facebook and interact with the people they know in a trusted environment. (Facebook, 2009a). Few problems I can infer from this statement (as there have been so many allegations against Facebook to support my theory): I am not totally convinced we are interacting in a trusted environment, and on top of that, I am not sure either what they do with our information posted on their website. I know they have been faced issues with the misuse of personal information (by Privacy & confidentiality laws), Authentication & Identity Theft, and Intellectual Property Theft, and Spam & Cybersquatting (which increases the number of identity & intellectual theft) and others.

Of course, these are not unique problems posed to Facebook users, the same security risks and threats that exist within the general internet community also relate to Facebook. But in many cases these risks are greater for systems such as Facebook due to the fact that people trust their Facebook friends meaning that the potential impact for identify theft is even greater.

In the other side, it’s just astonishing what Facebook has achieved (Facebook, 2009a):

More than 300 million active users;
50% of our active users log on to Facebook in any given day;
Average user has 130 friends on the site;
More than 6 billion minutes are spent on Facebook each day (worldwide);
More than 350,000 active applications currently on Facebook Platform;
More than 250 applications have more than one million monthly active users;
More than 65 million active users currently accessing Facebook through their mobile devices;
Facebook employ 900 staff.

All points taken, I am now out of Facebook. I will experience life without having to report my feelings, my moments. I will see how it looks to be free of it after 3+ years of being an active user. Of course, I will continue to log my experiences in the electronic world, in a more complete way thru my blog. And I would love to continue to evolve my friendships as I used to do in the past: by riding alongside with the loved ones for real.

England, it is!

2010-08-31T14:09:00.000-07:00

Not that my Africa saga has ended, I have just decided to pick another subject. Friends these days ask me undoubtedly which part of the world I am now calling home, whether it’s Africa or the UK, so I guess it’s about time to talk a little a propos the place I actually live in, for a change.
Sometimes I take for granted the places I visit or the tranquillity that the UK country side offers me. Actually, the county side type of living is something I have never imagined. Funny, hah? Yep, I guess. But no, in a second thought. Life now has more time for thinking, for realizing the beauty, the love, and the companionships. Also, this new arrangement releases a new type of energy, vibration, in synch with what really matters (of course, for me!).

During this bank holiday, my husband discovered a secluded beach that I was longing for, forever… since I moved to the UK. The place is called Blackpool sands and it’s astonishing. In case you decide to research the place that became one of my top 10 favourite UK locations, you may find the following description: (below you'll see some of it that may help you to picture this beauty) “Blackpool sands, is set in a sheltered bay surrounded by evergreens and pines is one of South Devon's most beautiful natural treasures. An award-winning privately managed family beach with turquoise blue sea giving it an almost Mediterranean feel.”
Forget about jet setters and anything related to posh locations that may once come to mind when describing interesting places on earth (let’s say London?!). This place is anything but. And it provides the best nature-human relationship. And it has an organic restaurant. Well, what else could I ask for? Golden sand (made of tiny rocks, but never mind), blue ocean, azure sky surrounded by lush greens filled with cows and sheep overlooking the magnificent sea. Well, I am pretty sure that there’s nothing else I could ask for during my bank holiday weekend. And I had plenty.

Of course, life gets back to normal. Work schedule, meetings, and other business related tasks that have really nothing to do with a relaxing sea-blue-sky panorama. But, nevertheless, I had the energy to endure one more day of real life in my real down-the-earth life I chose for. And I am grateful for that. I really am.

African Philanthropists

2010-07-23T05:57:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, most often than I actually realized, I feel the frenzy and the craziness of my own world. My friends keep reminding me that the last time I have posted something on these pages was February. Yeah, February, and I suddenly realized that I am already living the end of July days. A month that is almost gone and my frenetic style of life doesn’t even allow me to recognize that. I bet you feel the same way too, don’t you???

But, I am back. And let’s get to the point…

My Africa experience is growing at fast speed. Getting to know Kenyans and Tanzanians has been a stimulating subject. Then, the World Cup came into play and helped me to get even more cultural aspects of this great continent. Not that I am a big fun of these epic sports events, but if not for it, how would the world see the beautiful of that corner of Africa? It was a delightful experience to see a country like South Africa in all news and media at prime time. And, interesting enough, not only was South Africa the curious subject of reporters and the public, but all other cultural and social and education matters of all other African countries were zeroed in on by the media. The world had finally discovered Africa and the potential associated with all the different countries that create this amazing continent. It may be the cultural richness that nobody had noticed before, a different condiment in their food, the beauty of their mountains and beaches, the warmth of their sea, the picturesque safaris and jungle. But now, we all know!

I know, the world has always been aware of Africa maladies, corruption and poverty. Of course, it hasn’t vanished with the end of the World Cup and its publicity, unfortunately we know it will not end soon. But, the optic of the world has changed in relation to the continent. I see a movement that is now interested in targeting social, education and financial support to less fortunate African countries, not today, but this has been happening positively for quite some time now. A movement that is interested in sustainable growth that does not withdrawal from other people, other cultures; instead, it creates its own legacy that could blossom generations to come.

Reading about the investments and creativity efforts implemented to solve some of major problems of the continent, I found an intriguing initiative: “Mo Ibrahim African Leadership Prize”. Mo Ibrahim, a very rich Sudanese telecommunications tycoon once owner of Celtel, has launched a crusade against corruption in the African continent - the “Mo Ibrahim prize for leadership”. As a businessman he learned that what mattered more than anything else in Africa was politics –bad governments are bad for business and even worse for citizens- therefore, he launched the “largest prize in the world”. “Winners of the Mo Ibrahim Prize for Leadership receive $5 million up front, plus a $200,000-a-year pension for life. Only former presidents and prime ministers from Africa need apply.” (Extract from book: philantro-capitalism by Matthew Bishop & Michael Green). The prize has a subversive purpose: to build a public debate within Africa about leadership and how to improve it.

In 2007, when the prize was first launched, the former president of Mozambique, Joaquim Chissano, was awarded with the Mo Ibrahim Prize for Leadership. He and his government were measured on the performance of issues such as human rights, rule of law, and sustainable economic development. However, for the second year in a row, the prize recognizing excellence in leadership in Africa will not be awarded. The Mo Ibrahim Foundation reported that no new candidates for the $5 million prize had emerged in the year since its selection committee decided that none of the eligible African former heads of state met the criteria for 2009.
Too bad...

Not everyone in Africa appreciates Ibrahim gesture and ideas, many understand this as still a way of stigmatizing Africa, as there are still much corruption outside Africa, let’s just look at Enron and WorldCom. Therefore, for many, in the current state of the world, everywhere needs an overdose of leadership.

Still, Ibrahim giving generates some good ideas and terrain for African leaders to solve local problems by incentivizing them with part of his fortune.

So, going back to the beginning of this chat, I will miss the South Africa World Cup, not the players, not the teams that once more played football without the passion fans were eager to see, but this World Cup will leave me with a remarkable understanding of the South African ability to pull off an event of such magnitude, presented in the beautiful backgrounds of Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban, Port Elizabeth among other cities, and the exuberance of Africans, every time I read about the continent.

A true African heart

2010-02-24T23:03:00.000-08:00

Getting ready for my last day in Dar es Salaam has not been easy. I already miss the warmth of its people and of course the weather. Hadn't have the time I needed to explore more about African culture; however, I do get a feeling of that.

Working in Dar es Salaam has been an invaluable experience. Although the office atmosphere still looks like very much uneven, between outsider managers and Tanzanian staff and their hierarchical levels; it was amazing to see everything thru my eyes. I am very glad of the opportunity to come to Africa.

During a field trip yesterday, I managed to visit 5 Dar es Salaam neighborhoods, all kind of very similar, with loads of people on the streets below the sun of 40 degrees Celsius. Unbelievable! The African women often wear something on top of their heads to protect them from the sun. Whereas the men, don't seem to care. Normally wearing nothing but trousers. Again, unbelievable. There are no sidewalks in most of the neighborhoods I visited, so people have to stretch themselves on the roads, mingling with the cars, buses and small trucks. Whenever I found a sidewalk, it was half finished (at least in my interpretation), because there were just sand and rocks on the floor. Yet most of the time, filled with parked cars. Therefore, leaving the Tanzanians to walk and move in the middle of the roads.

Another day of work, and as I prep for today, I kinda of plan what I could do to make this trip unforgettable. The more I think, the more convinced I am that there’s nothing else I could do to keep the gorgeous landscape, ocean views, the people, the smiles, the dedication and curiosity of African people away from my heart. It is just unforgettable.

Good Morning Africa

2010-02-22T22:22:00.000-08:00

Missed my alarm clock ringing. Woke up, after an hour still feeling tired. Opened the curtains of my room just to see the bright of the sun and the lush green of the vegetation; the gleaming of the ocean from the far was something special to wake for. What a wonderful day, I thought.

Got dressed for my first day at a Tanzanian office. But, breakfast first. The aroma of the coffee, had definitely the power to wake me up for good. So rich and so strong, a real coffee; which made me question if Tanzanians enjoy highly-flavoured coffee or if this is just for tourists to see ... To be inquired later.

I noticed while enjoying my first African breakfast that the lush gardens were being watered, and that relaxed me somehow. It has been a while since the last time I enjoyed myself in a scenery like this, tranquil, exotic and invigorating. Eventhough, I love England countryside for its tranquility and peace, what this place offers me right now it's completely new and exactly what I needed, not knowing that I really needed it.

The air is humid and I can feel it in my hair and in my skin. Sometimes, I question myself if this place should not remind me of my home country, Brasil. But, somehow it doesn't. The sensation is different, the local vibe is still strange for me. Strange in a good way, I must say, of something never tried before.
Discovering the new, this is what I feel right here, right now.

See you soon!

Kwaheri! (Good Bye in Swahili)

Dar es Salaam - Africa "Here I am"

2010-02-22T10:24:00.000-08:00

Getting to know a little about this great continent triggered the desire to share my experiences, what I see and what I interpret from this exotic yet uneven country. I am in Dar es Salaam, a coastal city of Tanzania.

Dar es Salaam in Arabic means "house of Peace" and it is the largest city in Tanzania. Interestingly enough, it is also the country's richest city and a regionally important economic centre. Even though I did not notice much of the latter expressed by the African people I saw and met today. But again, I’ve been here for so little that I cannot draw any conclusions! Well, there a couple of things I can definitely say, and one of them is about the weather. Dar es Salaam is situated so close to the equator and the warm Indian Ocean, that the city experiences tropical climatic conditions, typified by hot and humid weather throughout much of the year. An example of the above was greatly given to me today, and although I was very thrilled about the warm weather (after at least 4 months of cold and snow), the hot breeze and burning sun were just too much for me to handle. I’ve tried the swimming pool, a very chilled local beer: Kilimanjaro, a restful chair under the palm trees, and a combination of all; but it didn’t work. I was back to my hotel room in one hour, A/C running fast, and I was melting like an ice cream in the sun …

I landed this morning, from Nairobi – Kenya, after an 8-hour flight from Heathrow, United Kingdom. Excitement was all over me since the first time I heard about my travel to this undiscovered country, in my perspective. Undiscovered to me, because I had never venture to this land before; which now gives me a great excitement to discover its people, its food, its characteristics. Also a fear from the unknown, but part of the excitement, I guess!

Day 1 – still tired from the air travel and the time and climate difference. I decided to venture the sun and relax a bit. I remember the story the taxi driver told me while driving to my hotel. It's the same story still, vessels coming to the east coastal Africa as it was done for hundreds of years to trade down along this coast at forefathers times. Those days back, foreign entrepreneurs set up trading posts and became over generations, successful merchants, which dominate then and today the economical life in Dar Es Salaam and beyond. The Chinese set up businesses mostly in Export from China (like what happens elsewhere nowadays). Also Indians migrate to this area for commercial purposes. However, good for some, it's not so good for the overall Tanzanians. I understood from the locals in their unique way of representing the scenario, that Chinese and Indians settle down their businesses in the area, so they could become richer; but not allowing locals to develop and prosper alongside. Some may even carry a Tanzanian passport, which really doesn't make them them a true Tanzanian, because they mingle only among themselves, share the wealth only among themselves and thus the locals, the "Bumis of Africa", are left out, become servants at its best, as they cannot match such financial power and cleverness.

Unfair ...

Disappointed, because I could not walk around the city by myself; I was advised to stay in the hotel and not to go out as it was too late (about 5:30pm) for a women to be alone in the city. So, I stayed in and chatted with the hotel staff while having dinner. A bit upset, because in a certain way, I felt locked up. A very strange feeling after being free to do whatever I want for the last 14 years, living everywhere … But, again, part of the experience …

I’ll spend 5 days in Tanzania, not close enough to really unveil Africa secrets and culture, but better than nothing. Still to come in my little diary of Africa travel are the details about its welcoming people, their sincere smile and their willingness to help the foreigners. African's struggle with politics and politicians, their economic power, which lead them to a somewhat submissive attitude towards government supremacy.

That's all for now. Till next time!

The others

2010-01-06T08:52:00.000-08:00

Could not think of another outline so precise to describe an outsider life, and thus its both joy and anguish. I rather include it here for your delight as it was for mine when I surprisingly found it after skimming through the original article. It highlights what it means to live away from the pleasures of belonging yet considering the advantages of freedom and exploration.

The full article is part of the UK The Economist magazine, Dec19th - Jan 1st issue.

"The foreigner answers that question by thinking of himself as an exile—if not in a judicial sense then in a spiritual sense. Something within himself has driven him away from his homeland. He becomes even a touch jealous of the real exile. Life abroad is an adventure. How much greater might the adventure be, how much more intense the sense of foreignness, if there were no possibility of return?
For the real exile, foreignness is not an adventure but a test of endurance. The Roman poet Ovid, banished to a dank corner of the empire, complained that exile was ruining him “as laid-up iron is rusted by scabrous corrosion/or a book in storage feasts boreworms”. Edward Said, a Jerusalem-born Palestinian-American scholar, caught the romance and pain of exile when he called it “a strangely compelling idea, but a terrible experience”. The true exile, he said, was somebody who could “return home neither in spirit nor in fact”, and whose achievements were “permanently undermined by the loss of something left behind for ever”.
The willing foreigner is in exactly the reverse position, for a while at any rate. His enjoyment of life is intensified, not undermined, by the absence of a homeland. And the homeland is a place to which he could return at any time.

Of pain and pleasure

The funny thing is, with the passage of time, something does happen to long-term foreigners which makes them more like real exiles, and they do not like it at all. The homeland which they left behind changes. The culture, the politics and their old friends all change, die, forget them. They come to feel that they are foreigners even when visiting “home”. Jhumpa Lahiri, a British-born writer of Indian descent living in America, catches something of this in her novel, “The Namesake”. Ashima, who is an Indian émigré, compares the experience of foreignness to that of “a parenthesis in what had once been an ordinary life, only to discover that the previous life has vanished, replaced by something more complicated and demanding”.
Beware, then: however well you carry it off, however much you enjoy it, there is a dangerous undertow to being a foreigner, even a genteel foreigner. Somewhere at the back of it all lurks homesickness, which metastasises over time into its incurable variant, nostalgia. And nostalgia has much in common with the Freudian idea of melancholia—a continuing, debilitating sense of loss, somewhere within which lies anger at the thing lost. It is not the possibility of returning home which feeds nostalgia, but the impossibility of it. Julia Kristeva, a Bulgarian-born intellectual resettled in France, has caught this sense of deprivation by comparing the experience of foreignness with the loss of a mother.
But we cannot expect to have it all ways. Life is full of choices, and to choose one thing is to forgo another. The dilemma of foreignness comes down to one of liberty versus fraternity—the pleasures of freedom versus the pleasures of belonging. The homebody chooses the pleasures of belonging. The foreigner chooses the pleasures of freedom, and the pains that go with them."

A biased society

2009-11-07T12:38:00.000-08:00

As the week gets busier and busier, I try to find ways to relax once I get home from work. Sometimes I hit the gym, but this is not a proper relaxation as I tend to leave the gym satisfied and yet exhausted. I’ve tried the tellie (as Britons call the TV) and unfortunately I found just one show interesting enough that has almost the power to erase any dissatisfaction I faced during the day. One show, one hour, one day of the week. Not enough though.

Then I found “Mad Men”. Well, actually I bought a bundled seasons one & two of this acclaimed TV show. Quite interesting and very provocative. The show is set in the America in the 60s. A time where consumerism was becoming a mass behavior, where men and women were mass-moving from the factory work to the newly office cubicles (where smoke and alcoholic drinks were allowed at working hours) and when advertisement agencies were at a peak. The series also depicts authentically the roles of men and women in this era while exploring the true human nature beneath the guise of 1960s traditional family values. The setting is the start of the decline of the tobacco industry advertisement power as government intends to enforce rules as to what could be said about cigarettes. It also provides hints of how much a society can be manipulated by the ad channel. A cruel but truthful application of the man mind and his beliefs in the mainstream America.

Often times watching the show I find myself perplexed on how biased the society was at just 50 years ago. The roles of women of the 60s depicted in the show are purely secondary. Mainly treated not at the same level of their men peers, the women were simple called "girls" as a common name adopted for the men to refer to their assistants; the women often lived off a misery salary or as frightened spouse in the show, who often hides their knowledge of their husband' affairs, as to avoid the unconceivable divorce. In a quick passage in second episode another crush truth come along: a divorcee with two kids move to a renowned neighborhood where married women start to wonder of a possible depreciation of real state due to the new mover. It’s real revolting, I guess, specially for women! Although it doesn’t seem relaxing at all, I am still eager to watch as an entertainment in order to understand how much we, as a society, have evolved towards a fair environment that respects the individual and differences, that enables everyone to have a voice and to choose their own way of living rather than mainstream one.

This makes me happy

2009-10-31T15:47:00.001-07:00

These days I cannot find the discipline I need in order to keep my blog updated. Not because of a shortage of subjects. On the contrary: the abundance of themes and reflections got me stucked in my analogical life; and I am not broadcasting enough.

Nowadays a lot of news overloads my inbox daily, and curiously they are not spams. The change is that some friends and I formed a community to share and discuss facts, cases and reports produced by the media in the internet through e-mail. My newest e-friends (as I used to call them) inundate my mailbox with loads and loads of publicized news from Brazil, Venezuela, USA, Europe among other places. And by trying to keep up with the velocity of news I receive, I created this ability to dig into each e-mail I receive, perform some dynamic reading in order to assimilate something about it and in a couple of seconds (depending of the length and my interest in the article) I can desiccate the message. At the same time, I look into Europe’s online newspapers searching for inspiring and/or controversial cases that might represent what means to live in this part of the world. Moreover, we share what we believe constitutes our current world affairs, the good and the bad with no filter whatsoever. Promoting between us what we believe a pure synthesis of what we see today.

Not that I’ll try to transcript here any of what we’ve being sharing; it would take ages. What I want to share here is my surprise towards the outcome of this community. Perhaps because my e-friends and I are very different people who are very curious and very inquiring about life, this community brings to the table a plethora of subjects. Therefore, making our virtual interaction so satisfying and different from everything else out there. I believe, we don’t just share information, we help ourselves to understand what we don’t know, and we collaborate with facts and with our own accumulated experience to raise different points of view; to criticize and to question the media that tries relentlessly to manipulate our thoughts and to drive our actions. We demystify them in our little community. This makes me happy.

The myth of the maestro

2009-10-07T10:05:00.001-07:00

Today I had to ask the opinion of friends because of an disturbing article published at "The Guardian" entitled "The myth of the maestro" by Phillippa Ibbotson. In short, she argues about the difference that the average conductor could make in a concert, highlighting the enormous salaries they are paid in comparison to the small amount paid to musicians; moreover, the acquired status of celebrity that many conductors enjoy.

She provides some examples to root her thesis: "In London, the resident conductor for a major symphony orchestra receives £25,000 per concert. Rank-and-file players, meanwhile, typically earn £107 for a rehearsal and concert." Although, many people can agree that such distortion is not health nor economically viable for institutions linked to classical music, the author goes on trying to make us believe maestros are not really needed.

So for that matter, I consulted a friend of mine, much music knowledgeable about his opinion and if he could enlighten with some information against what Phillippa had said.

He said:

"First, it’s may be true that maestros are really overpaid especially having their salaries are compared to those who actually play the music – the musicians. However, nowadays, with the MP3s and alike technological gadgets, it's rather difficult to distinguish the nuances amongst the orchestras in order to find who is directing them. Moreover, not a lot of people are really interested on the different nuances derived from conductors. But there're people who are, very much.

So, following this though, Philippa's article is weak and superficial. Mostly because to become a maestro one must endeavor and pursue a much higher education than of what is needed from a musician. Furthermore, a maestro must play at least the piano and some other musical instrument. And it must be rather well. In spite of the coordination it must be endured to make an orchestra with 100+ musicians alive.

Contrary of what she writes, a maestro is almost dispensable at the concert day; however he is indispensable throughout the daily rehearsal meetings that take place preceding a public concerto. It is indeed during rehearsals that a maestro forms, directs and impose himself as an artist. Thus, during the public performance he is just there to guarantee everything is as it’s supposed to be.

In order to help exemplify the case above it’s important to highlight that there's no orchestra in this world that could play Erudite contemporary music without a maestro. Due to the technical difficulties and particulars of each compositor, it’s rather an impossible task for an orchestra to come live without clear direction. So, here's a proposition: try listening to the Beethoven 5th Symphony, directed by Karajan in conjunction with Berlin Philharmonic (an enormous success some decades ago) and compare with an actual version of the same piece being directed by maestro Cláudio Abbado and Berlin Philharmonic or moreover, try the same symphony played by Vienna Philharmonic and directed by Collin Davis. One might noticed that the differences are enormous and the piece it is just the same."

Read "The Guardian" full article at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/oct/06/orchestral-conductors-pay-cut/print

One of the wonders of the world, Stonehenge

2009-10-04T11:46:00.000-07:00

Intriguing and interesting site in England is Stonehenge. We toured there today to understand its magic yet mystery. Could not really comprehend everything at once, but staring to the great stones were more that enough, was awe-inspiring. Stonehenge is one of the wonders of the world. Its great stones were raised more than 4,000 years ago as a temple to the sun; its banks and ditches are older still.

Still a mystery as to why the great stones were brought from north Wiltshire (the huge sarsen stones) and smaller bluestones from west Wales. Although it not seems certain that Stonehenge was built as a temple to the sun and the changing seasons, carefully aligned to mark midsummer and midwinter; it is impossible to say what took place there at these special times of the year. Were the ceremonies simple or elaborated? Were the stones decorated with paint or garlanded with flowers? These are secrets that Stonehenge still keeps - archeology cannot provide the answers.

(source: English Heritage guidebooks)

"It is time to address this imbalance"

2009-10-03T07:30:00.000-07:00

said Brazil's president Lula da Silva. "It is time to light the Olympic cauldron in a tropical country.”

Not sure how Brazil is going to sort things out hosting to back-to-back sports events, the World Cup in 2014 and the Olympics game in 2016, but I am here happy to watch world's attention veering to South America. Hopefully the following will turn out to be true about my so loved country:

"Brazil has a rising status in the G20 reflecting its rapid growth that will place it in the top five by 2016, according to the World Bank." (source: UK The Times)

Why people support Polanski?

2009-10-02T11:31:00.000-07:00

It has been the topic of the day. Not just at my friends circle, but online and at all UK papers. Just found a very interesting point of view with some alternatives as to why people in Hollywood support Roman Polanski. I haven’t formed an opinion yet. However, it’s sad to see the repercussion of this case without picturing the victim and how the situation affected her, who is been almost ignored by the media.

The following: Stumbling and Mumbling blog post walks us through an explanation of why the arts world might be calling for Roman Polanski's release. It also provides several internauts point of view to help produce a better context and ground of this case.

For more information on Samantha Gailey - the victim, please visit "The Guardian's Those who arrested Roman Polanski have ignored his victim” article.

Andy Warhol: some reflection afterwards

2009-10-01T08:40:00.000-07:00

Talking to a friend the other day about the exhibit Pop Life: Art in a Material World, in display at London’s Tate Modern till January 2010, provided me with a new light on the subject. Thus, it made me think through it once again. So, I could unveil some fresh thoughts from my own mind, which I was unconscious about.

The subject of pop art always had left me feeling uneasy; however I was never able to articulate what exactly I feel about it. Awhile ago, I left a solely Warhol’s exhibit at Grand Palais in Paris completely puzzled. The exhibition presented at least 200 works, amongst videos, photos, and some narrative of Andy Warhol. This time I wasn’t sure if the crowd who was attracted to the display was doing so because of the iconic and very commercial artist or because it was an exhibition at the Grand Palais, or maybe the fact that the curator of Warhol’s works were just interested in getting tourists attention inwards (which often happens in very touristic places). I was curious by his works so I allowed myself to come inside the museum to discover more.

Recently in Berlin, I noticed an excessive admiration of this type of art especially from contemporary art museums. Various displayed at least 3-4 works of Warhol and others of the same style. I was then impressed by the magnitude of his works; most museums carried Warhol’s big canvases covering big chunks of their rooms. Producing a magnificence effect for the viewers; thus recalling Warhol as this big, untouched myth, and a question pops into my mind: who does really understand his art?

While in Berlin I found myself reading some extracts of Warhol’s books available for its visitors in the museums and at an English bookstore in a suburb of the city. Soon, some language started to pop up in my head in regards of all this experience, transporting those unacquainted feelings into something more plausible.

In a book called “Pop” Warhol explains his perspective of art during the 60s: influences, and how he was turning out to be a commercial artist. Fundamentally, he couldn't care less about how others saw him, he was focused on proposing something new to his world. I read 20+ pages. However, I could not buy the book, it was enlightening enough, as I soon discovered. It was too real of his thoughts, and I could not linger on them. In another setting, another book – I don’t recall its title – where I discovered something more interesting about the artist: in a reflection moment, Andy described how hard it was to compete for the same things everybody else was demanding for. Simply put (however an extreme behavior), he started to like things that nobody else wanted or liked. So he realized how much opportunities and possibilities can be made of from this void. He then transported this idea to his work, by using recycled and unwanted materials he transformed his work into something that it was sustainable and yet cheap.

My impression of him and his work started to create a momentum. Some aspects more than others, after all, I am not an art critic, so I cannot interpret all possible facets. But still, a slight understanding of it. I see Warhol and other pop artists somehow as slaves of the system, even when they are using their art as a vehicle to criticize, satirize, and rebel against society and its standards. Which I really think is very cool and needed. However, they only do it because of the financially means their art had provided them with. A vicious cycle, because they rebel against a society that served them very well – giving to them the prominence and fame and glamour they were searching for; therefore, creating and establishing a brand.

Art follows life and life follows art. It’s extremely important the characterization of an age, its personality and impulses. I see Warhol’s work as an expression of our days; therefore, I accept and respect his works. It’s a movement that replicates our desires and hungry for material things, our ego and the misplaced appeal for celebrities. Maybe his works make us think if it’s real art, because it differs from other earlier movements – but shouldn’t be it like that? An art movement should frighten us to incite different views and beliefs. However, what disappoints me is not how we have decided to translate our lives. But often times I am disappointed by how we decided to live our today.

Moctezuma – The saga continues

2009-09-28T05:47:00.000-07:00

"The celebrated turquoise mask, which the British Museum is so fortunate to possess. Apparently, the turquoise was chosen for its symbolic value because its varied blues were thought to mirror the life-giving shimmer of water"

It seems UK “The times” is not exhausted at all about Moctezuma (or is it Montezuma, Muteczuma, Motzume, Moteuczoma?!) the Mexica Ruler subject as well as the exhibition of its artifacts and controversial history at the British Museum. This time was Waldemar Januszczak who reported on how to understand the show as it seems to be a timely effort of contemporary revisionism:

The British Museum since 2008 has been staging to its public fine series of exhibitions about great rulers — The First Emperor, Hadrian, Nebuchadnezzar, Shah Abbas and now Moctezuma. Therefore, it has become evident that not one of the great leaders examined so far has turned out how we usually imagine them.

Some posts earlier, I’ve proposed a different view of the Mexica Empire. Despite their intelligence and advanced civilization, they often used sheer scale of human sacrifice to sustain it and therefore control the state. These governing rules had revolted some of its own members who deliberately chose to be at the Spaniard side and confront its ruler.

However, history has marked Moctezuma as a tragic loser, handing over his state – Mexico to its Spanish invaders in a cowered behavior.

The British Museum (BM) exhibition intelligently decided, in its attempt to propose and educate visitors into a contemporary revisionism approach, to flesh out Moctezuma’s long and complex rule. He is defined as a warrior, builder, instigator, earthly divinity; a figure of remarkable magnificence and power. Therefore, BM tries to avoid the mentioning of human sacrifices and the ruthless ripping out of hearts. “But it cannot resist adding a trickle of blood to the vertiginous stairs leading up to Moctezuma’s giant temple.” (Which I thought it was cool and subtle, therefore not completely forging the rule’s own nature and behavior). Insinuating that the Mexica civilization were never quite the placid, organized, civilized nation imagined for us now (till now).

Januszczak mentioned that BM has learnt to control its greed for treasures and for this exhibit it has been decided to progress Moctezuma’s story to the next chapter: proposing an informative rather than thrilling presentation. Januszczak reports that the show has fully succeed in its ambition to redraw Moctezuma as a potent and complex Mexica ruler. However, it finishes on a collection of Spanish baroque paintings that colorfully propagate the Moctezuma-as-traitor myth. As no proof of an alternative story line has survived.

Andy Warhol: Is it art, plain life or neither?

2009-09-27T14:31:00.000-07:00

It’s a new exhibition at Tate Modern, Pop Life: Art in a Material World presenting Andy Warhol and 20 other hot artists of their moments, such as Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin, Keith Haring, Jeff Koons and Takashi Murakami, as Matthew Collings from “The Times” puts it: “all doing art that isn’t ashamed of showbiz values and making money — is that Warhol is simply true to how life is now. Goodness isn’t so much the point as realism.”

I found it utterly interesting. I visited so many galleries and museums that showed Andy Warhol’s work that I felt I know the guy and his art, sometimes confused when the term art was linked to Warhol’s commercial work. Simply because the type of art I am keen on is not much like the work he produced and is famous for; although I respect it. Feeling more old-fashioned in respect of art, I can assume a different style; although always searching for comprehension on the vast art possibilities. So, for that reason, I was delighted by such awakening review of the Pop era art.

It’s explained that the organizers of the Pop Life exhibit “are very impressed by the whole idea of artists making their identities into sellable brands. So, it’s about being relevant.” Collings thinks otherwise. He goes on explaining that “Van Gogh is a brand, perhaps the most sellable one in the history of art. But Van Gogh didn’t set out to achieve that. It’s an accident that happened to him after his death, as his sunflowers began to appear on postcards and teatowels and his self-portrait (complete with added spliff) was put up as a poster in student bedrooms.” So, it’s unpleasant that an arbitrary societal glitch — an assumption that something is good because it is famous — is now revered as a creepy new holy grail that artists are supposed to strive to grasp.

On the other hand, Collings is keen to highlight the important aspects of the exhibit: “The artists in this show are bright; their brightness consists both in their clever strategies to position themselves, and their intuitive sense of the grimness of culture today. They grasp that democracy’s advance, which is only right, has caused cultural standards to fall, which is bad and wrong.

The author finishes up with: “What about this idea of Warhol being “real”, true to our times? Realism of this kind is value-neutral. It’s neither good nor bad. It’s not an achievement. According to my sense of reality Warhol’s influence is not bad so much as overdone. He shows us how to express a sort of anarchic despair, and he does it with such a concentrated flair and cleverness that you have to applaud. But I don’t think you have to believe that’s all there is to either art or life.”

Much agreed!

Who voices requests and how to better manage them

2009-09-26T13:45:00.001-07:00

Since we all, even if not project managers, are often managing somebody else expectations or our own (in the business world we can them stakeholders); therefore, I found the below useful to help us understand the level of risk and investment that should be devoted when managing requests, needs, or simple desires. Well, it fits very well the role at work, an understanding that can be implemented right way. It was recently published in a blog held by the Project Management Institute (PMI).

Once you understand the stake the stakeholder is seeking to protect, profit from or enhance, you can structure your communications to let the person know you understand their hopes or concerns. From this starting point, you're in a much better position to manage the relationship to the benefit of both the project and the stakeholder.

Here are some of the different stakes a person or organization may have (most have more than one):

Interest: To be affected by a decision related to the work or its outcomes

Rights: To be treated in a certain way or to have a particular right (including legal or moral) protected

Ownership: To have a legal title to an asset or a property

Knowledge: To possess specialist or organizational knowledge needed for the work

Impact or influence: To be impacted by the work or its outcomes, or have the ability to impact (or influence) the execution of work or its outcomes

Contribution: Relating to the support or assets including the supply of resources, the allocation of funding, or providing advocacy for the objectives of the project

The Lolita effect

2009-09-25T02:42:00.000-07:00

I have started to follow Carol Midgley reports on line, which I found were the most delightful thing to do between one thing and another on my getting busy schedule. She often tackles very rooted societal behavior and tries to dismantle them using examples of real life that most likely you and I would agree (well, sometimes!). Yesterday at Times Online, Midgley reports about Gigi Durham’s new book, The Lolita effect, a critique of the modern obsession with prematurely sexualizing young girls and a manifesto on how to renounce it. Some aspects depicted interested me a lot because again I felt I’ve seen this before and I am truly glad that such subject are now being presented over and over and over again. Durham is strongly contrary to the “media’s one-dimensional, profit-driven version of it (sex), which is based purely on male fantasies without a nod to female needs or desires.” Therefore, she encourages a health behavior that “empowers girls to see how skewed marketing messages manipulate females to reach for impossible standards of beauty — the Barbie body — as the one and only way to be “hot””.

Getting on this line, smartly Midgley focus its lenses in the lucrative, billion-pound industry of cosmetics, diet aids, fashion and plastic surgery that corroborates and dictates the modern beauty standards of today. She argues that “It is hugely profitable for women to spend huge amounts of money chasing an unachievable beauty standard under the guise of empowerment because it is just that — unachievable — and so the beast is never sated.” Moreover, it is very important, she says, for marketers to glamorize and fictionalize sex, offering a nefarious mixed message: “Be sexy but not sexual. Flaunt your sexuality IF you’ve got it, but don’t act on it. Attract male attention but fend off sexual advances . . . Good girls, according to the Lolita effect, don’t feel desire, but they need to transmit the playful message that they are ‘sluts’ or ‘hotties’ as their glittering T-shirts attest.”However, she mentions that the media is not the only one to blame, none of this would happen if people didn’t buy into it, like promoting beauty over achievement: girls don’t get complimented on their achievements [in the same way that boys do] or at least is much more infrequent.

The article concludes that we must find a way to “think about sex separately from money and with young girls perpetually cast in the man-pleasing role. “Can we move to a place where we can consider sexuality as a human impulse that’s about ethical relationships between people and not just something that generates profit?”

Contrastring lenses and opinions at UK “The Times” about man-god Moctezuma

2009-09-24T10:08:00.000-07:00

The last two articles on Moctezuma (Mexica/Aztec leader) - one published Saturday the 19^th and the second today the 24^th- provoked a big question mark in my head. Both articles comment on the new British Museum series’ exhibition called “Great Rulers” and intend to prepare the reader and visitor with some knowledge of emperor and empire. Not sure, if on purpose or not, the articles propose different lenses on who Moctezuma was, what he did and the role Cortés (leader of Spanish army) and Spain played across Central and Latin America.

The “Visual Art” section of Saturday paper presents an extract/summary of an interview made with British Museum’s director Neil MacGregor and some knowledge about the “Great Ruler” (the latter, I am not sure if it is derived from the interview or from basic literature). MacGregor shares that Moctezuma was the first ruler who confronted the phenomenon of armed European expansion, becoming a model for all rulers who had to confront military and economicaly superior powers. The article goes on providing some context for the reader/visitor, trying to match up some historic information with the artifacts that will be on the exhibit. In sum, the article does not provide elements to the reader to really understand in which situation the Aztec (Mexica) people/empire was under; moreover it doesn’t either provide a whole characterization of how Moctezuma ruled its empire. It highlights the drastic episode of when the Spanish army overcame the empire bringing disease and devastation to Central and Latin America. Simply by proposing a unilateral view of the conflict, it portrays the cruelty of the Spanish against Moctezuma’s helpless victims; I guess to incite visitors to the Museum’s exhibition, to hopefully discover something more.

In the other hand, the article published today, entitled “Cortés’s regime change was good for Mexico” gives its readers a lot more depth into Aztec/Mexica Empire. Thankfully to Hugh Thomson, readers can now have a great deal of ammunition of what really took place between the Aztecs and the Spaniards around 1519. He agrees that the Spaniards did, of course, bring both guns and germs to the New World, with devastating effect. However, it clears out that although the Aztecs were an advanced and very sophisticated civilization, they often used sheer scale of human sacrifice to sustain it. BBC show recently broadcasted in the UK referred to this as being “a solemn sacrament” running in the subtext something like: “who are we anyway to judge the values of another culture?” However, these rituals became the brutal instrument for emperors to control the state.

So, why we nowadays still find Rulers like Moctezuma being remembered as “gentle prince”in such broad media? Thompson mentioned that the English had a hand in this: “the conquest of the New World by Spain made it the European superpower and helped to finance the Armada. Hardly surprising that English propaganda should seize every opportunity to play up the “black legend” of Spanish cruelty in Mexico, and portray Moctezuma (and later Atahualpa in Peru) as hapless victims.”

High-Heels: is the polemic necessary?!

2009-09-19T03:30:00.000-07:00

There’s been discussion and a great media involvement in the sudden attention gave by trade unions in UK about “the terrible threat to the workers that is posed by high heels” in the workplace. I am closely following articles and opinions expressed 3 or 4 times this week at the “The Independent”. It was a safety issue at the beginning (well, everybody knows about the potential hazardous of wearing high heels constantly: callus, painful bunions, corns and deformity, and spine problems) but now the issue is moving from its health implications and landing more at a societal dilemma. So far, it has been very funny to read comments and people’s ideas around the arguments. Sometimes it just feels that we spent so much time with useless discussions of problems that could have been solved with the right message in the first place (and of course, we are far for producing the right message due to companies interests, fashionists, profits, etc, etc). Moreover, attaching the consequences of a situation will not make the root cause of the problem to vanish. And, YES, of course, the fashion industry with the continual creation of trendiness, which often are not commercially accepted, eludes young girls to what to wear or not. These young girls just follow what magazines, TV, and celebrities promote, without judgment (of course, they're not fully grown yet) carrying out a domino behavior.

Janice Turner in her last appearance at “The Independent” move from the subject-core about the health problems related to high-heels to power and ambition in the workplace.

Here’s the article, some food for thought:

There are times when I’m so baffled by my own sex that I wonder if I’m really a woman at all. The atelier of the fashion designer Diane von Fürstenberg in Lower Manhattan has a central staircase like a waterfall, a four-storey cascade of slippy, shiny opaque glass.

If I had to schlep up it thrice daily I would wear a safety harness or at least hiking boots. But DVF’s luminous young staff — half of whom were ripely pregnant — picked their way down in 4in spike heels, striving to look insouciantly chic while gripping the banister and trying not to die.

I’d love to know what they would make of the TUC’s resolution, passed unanimously this week: “Congress believes high heels may look glamorous on the Hollywood catwalks but are completely inappropriate for the day-to-day working environment.”

It was carried, after all, to liberate gals in glitzy professions just like them, compelled by evil employers to totter about in back-breaking, bunion-breeders just to look decorous and sexy.

Although my guess is that no boss — except maybe a strip-club owner or a pimp — has ever issued such an explicit edict. Women inclined to work in ritzy boutiques or fashion houses do so for the limitless opportunities to wear ridiculous shoes at glorious discounts. If, say, the whole of Bond Street had a TUC-advised risk assessment that concluded “the wearing of high heels is hazardous . . .” and “should be replaced with sensible and comfortable shoes”, there would be a protest march. A very slow, mincing one, ending in a queue for plasters outside Superdrug.

So I called the Society of Chiropodists and Podiatrists, which tabled the motion, to ask if it was inspired by members constantly getting earache from Vogue staffers or Stringfellows hostesses sick of their professional uniform code. The pleasant man said, er, no, but was I aware that the NHS spends £10 million a year on bunion correction alone? Yes, quite.

But was this motion — greeted with such indignation by puffed-up pygmies like the Tory MP Nadine Dorries — the true voice of hobbling womankind or not? And the nice SC&P guy said: “The other day at breakfast my delegation saw a party of cabin crew. And someone said: ‘Look, the men stewards have flat shoes and the women wear tottering heels. It doesn’t seem fair.’ ”

So bless the SC&P, as it sits stoically excavating verrucas, shards of the nation’s hard skin pinging into its eye, it just wanted to help. Except that those stewardesses probably thought they were being admired for their foxy legs, not having their feet professionally assessed for hammer toes. In any case, once aboard they change into union-approved flats or they’d pop the emergency slides.

Surely the SC&P must realise that, for most women, sensible has nothing to do with shoes. High heels are the irreducible symbol of female sexuality, how a little girl first imagines becoming her mother, the drag queen’s must-have. (What better preparation for Eddie Izzard’s 43 marathons than being a sometime transvestite: the lost toenails of a 1,000-mile run are as nothing compared with a night at the Baftas squeezed into Jimmy Choos.) Painful, ungainly, impractical they may be, but they are the only reliable props of female power. “The bigger the meeting,” an executive friend says, “the higher my heels.” They provide eye-to-eye equality with men, emit a beguiling batsqueak of sexuality in a grey-clad business world. In politics the flash of a leopard-skin slingback makes even scary marys such as Theresa May appear frivolously human.

Besides, in the recession, retailers say, women are buying ever higher shoes: perverse fantasies such as Louis Vuitton’s Cancan range or Nicholas Kirkwood’s podiatric sculptures. Grazia this week informs us of the rise of the pencil heel “so slim and high they are only for lying down in”. Perhaps women clinging to their jobs are striving harder than ever to assert their power — shoulder pads too are back in town.

Of course we have long worn ludicrous shoes for clip-clopping into clubs. But now I see young women tottering up Oxford Street from lunch to office, navigating escalators and exiting the Tube, Helmut Newton models in motion. Few follow that unsightly New York compromise of commuting in brick-like trainers, then shoving on sexy shoes at the door. Today female mystique can’t slip for a second.

And the cult of celebrity fashion icons and the ability to snap up quick, cheap copies of what Madonna or Angelina wore to the Oscars have led young women to forget that they are buying limo shoes for a bus-pass life. Their TUC motion would read: “We believe a bit of Hollywood and catwalk glamour is the only way to cope with the day-to-day of working life.”

No generation has so risked financial ruin or ill health in pursuit of fashion. What’s an aching arch for girls unqueasy about an acid facial peel. Now that Victoria Beckham has had her bunions — born of wearing 6in heels even while dragging the kids round Disneyland — removed surgically maybe they will switch from comedy old-lady ailment to badge of courage.

Running in heels is a female attainment, the ultimate triumph of grace under pressure, and the title of a new documentary about three interns battling for a job at US Marie Claire. Glamour magazine has actually staged races where readers risked broken ankles sprinting to the line.

So what does it say about those of us who have tried and failed even to walk in heels? Throughout those skittery Sex and the City years, I would pretend to coo over what I really regarded as caribou-coated instruments of torture. I even tried on Manolo Blahniks after I’d read that they are so cleverly designed that you forgot they are 4in high, but left empty-handed since they are not, after all, as comfy as the bust-up Crocs I’m wearing now.

Two-and-a-half-inch heels I can manage on a night out, with a taxi waiting and a husband to lean on. Working in magazines, I was expected to go higher. All my dust-coated shoeboxes from that long-gone age. But I want to stride out, to run — not to count down the minutes of my day until I can pull off my shoes and liberate my poor barking dogs. Heels are just an illusion of power, not the real thing. As I was reminded, at the top of that staircase when I met DVF herself, padding around in bare feet

Good to Great

2009-09-18T04:37:00.000-07:00

Very interesting how some books just start to get real and exciting after page 100 is reached. I, often lag from the beginning of a book waiting for something unusual, eye-opening to happen – but usually it takes 100 pages to get to the core of it and enjoy the ride. Not sure about you , but yesterday, a feeling just crossed my mind: don’t authors get rid of those unflattering drafts that are not good enough to be published?? Or why they don’t cut to the chase, so I could save time reading other significant literature? Well, not all books follow this rule, fortunately; however, I am just reading one (I’ve already passed the 100-page mark) that it does, and the book is “Good to Great” by Jim Collins.

I know, many might say that my opinion is just off, simply because the book is a success, with lots and lots and lots of business people who LOVE the book. I can’t agree more with the great CEO lessons that inundate the transition processes of “Good-to-Great” companies (borrowing Collin’s phrase) and all the insights the author and his research team offer to readers. However, it just took me some time to get this warm and nice feeling of it. Unfortunately or fortunately, I am so eager to finish it and learn more of the methods and procedures Good-to-Great companies apply that differentiate them from the mediocre companies. But, here are some:

Discipline – disciplined people, disciplined thought, disciplined action
Motivation - in fact, the author is inclined in not de-motivating people, rather than motivating. Which makes me think on why so many companies still believe they are responsible for motivating people to perform well, whereas, if they like what they do, they already are self-motivated people
Simplicity – straight forward objectives and strategies

Page 129 depicts a very interesting characteristic of Good-to-Great companies: they have a CULTURE, not a TYRANT:

Their research showed that the comparison companies were just as disciplined as the Good-to-Great companies. However, the approach to discipline of the former was very distinctive from the way Good-to-Great companies implement the variable. Whereas the Good-to-Great companies had leaders who built an enduring CULTURE of discipline, the unsustained comparisons had leaders who PERSONALLY disciplined the organization through sheer force (inciting fear, control, unproductive critics, pressure, and vises).

A nice reading after all, a proposed way to remodel the way leaders and companies must act for a sustainable future. However, the call of the moment is REGULATION walking hand-in-hand with these “magnificence” companies that obviously always look for more frenzy to be the Great, which would lead them to more profits. Fannie Mae make the cut as a Good-to-Great company by the author, and examples of such greatness are shared throughout the book, which makes me laugh at times and cry for the huge acquisitive that sponsored thousands and thousands of Americans the American dream without the necessary accuracy, analysis and clarity.

I am still firm that the book could have had 100-page plus the appendix and suppoting information about the research. It would be succint, objective and straightforward, as Good to Great companies must be.

Helmut Newton SUMO at Museum für Fotografie

2009-09-09T06:56:00.000-07:00

Polemical and controversial photographer Helmut Newton was born in Germany in 1920. Curious about photography he bought a cheap camera, a Zeiss Box Tengor, at the age of 12 when he started to take photographs in the underground stations and other scenes. Not many photos were useful or pretty at that first time endeavor; however, one photograph took Newton’s attention, making his heart passionate about this leisure yet promissing hobby; which later became a prosperous career.

Newton escaped from the Nazi and moved to Singapore, where he started working as an image journalist, but disinterested about the job, soon moved to Australia where he married June Brunnel – known in the artistic field as Alice Springs – with whom he shared his profession. In Australia, he effectively started to work with fashion, photographing for Vogue Australia.
But it was just in the 60s that Newton’s works became consistent in the fashion world. Till then he was struggling to survive. His controversial works that publicized nude models made him notorious. However, commercially, only Vogue Paris would remark his works and accept those images in the pages of its magazine. Despite his work controversy, his bibliography tells he was breaking a taboo – promoting and publicizing sex in a mass manner. What was not achieved by others photographers in the sex, chic-fetishism field of that epoch, Helmut Newton was incipient. Commercially exploring this untapped market, promoting his eager for voyeurism and fetishism as a form of art and knowledge not openly divulgate, Helmut Newton made fortune and savor his appetite. But, at the same time as he grows as an renowned artist, various entities, especially the feminists, critics and alike accused him of being a misogynist due to the constant use of prostitutes, fetishists, voyeurs in his work; a concept he believed permeated common life. He once said “I am superficial, my pictures are not profound, and I love everything that is artificial, beautiful and funny. The good taste is the anti-fashion, the anti-women, the anti-erotic! Vulgarity is life, entertainment, desire of extreme reactions”. He often portrayed the feminine as a strong woman, determined, often times masculinist, but always sensual.

The Museum of Photograph is house of the Helmut Newton Foundation in West Berlin and exhibits his works. Its current exhibition is entitled SUMO and presents 394 photographs of the artist to mark the 10th anniversary of the photography publication of the same name. In one of the rooms, a brief bibliography of Newton’s early days is on the wall, side by side with its provoking and “repetitive” work. On a brief description it’s mentioned his opinion about the difference of America and Europe cultures that influenced the outcome of his commercial work. In America he would be less appellative, less pornographic, playing by the rules, because in America people would not buy or praise for such art, whereas in Europe he could be himself by performing his fantasies as he wished.

Although many would have agreed with Helmut Newton’s point of view and way of life, it strongly infringes and tries to generalize and influence a style much praised in a masculine world. Assuming that life is vulgar is to level us all too low. Not at all enhancing the feminine or promoting the way women want to live their lives; this view, unfortunately, sends a message that this a praised behavior and people should appreciate and conform.

As Germaine Greer said: “Men like the masculine world that they have built for themselves; if enough men had not enjoyed what they euphemistically call the ‘cut and thrust’ – the sanctioned brutalities of corporate life – such behavior would never have been institutionalized and women would not now be struggling with it. In constructing a male elite, masculinist society contrives to be cruel to most men, all women and all children. If women can see no future beyond joining the masculinist elite on its own terms, our civilization will become more destructive than ever. There has to be a better way.” (“The whole women, 1999”)

Museum für Fotografie

The outrageous Wall

2009-09-09T01:07:00.000-07:00

Although the Wall is not very present in the city anymore, there is still a dynamic towards it in the streets of Berlin, especially on the location where the Wall stood up. It was easy to find fragments of the Wall scattered through the once-border West-East Berlin. On these sites, the Wall is very much being marketed to draw tourists to these areas, so passports stamps can be sold, photographs of the once military checkpoints can be taken; representing a time, not so long ago, where horrific events took place.

It's hard though for a tourist to really understand the dramatic pressure and unwelcoming times of divided Berlin (and Germany) by just visiting the fragments spreaded out and displayed at Potsdamer Platz.

At Oberbaumbrüke along the spree there is a great stretch of the Wall – 1300m/1420yd, which was painted by artists often of considerable renown and which has become known as the East Side Gallery. Although, I later realized that this stretch is actually a strip of the inner wall rather than the outer wall that faced the west not the east side. It seems that even though the site is listed and attracts lots of curious and tourists to the area, looking for better comprehension of the Berlin Wall and its associated events and history, no one seems to want to take responsibility for its upkeep, and it’s in danger of collapsing.

Some restoration work was happening at the time of my visit, I believe, some organizations are taking responsibility and trying to make this stretch survive a little longer. Its degradation is visible to anyone who was there; water is being spilled out from the base structure of the wall in several locations of the stretch. Workers are cementing the wall base in an attempt to prevent the wall from collapsing.

"The Wall was not just one wall; it was a multitiered installation that was practically impossible to cross. In 1988 the barrier was 155km/96mi long, of which 43.1km/27mi were within the city centre. Museums and memorials are also scattered throughout the city in order to provide accurate information of this time -1961 till 1989."

Amsterdam’s Concertgebouworkest @ Berlin Philharmonic

2009-09-08T13:49:00.000-07:00

To spend an evening at the Berlin Philharmonic is always not enough, but at least one evening was dedicated to unequaled music in an architectural supreme place. The Berlin Philharmonic has its stage layout as an audience with its row layers one a little higher than the other; allowing spectators to enjoy a complete view of the orchestra, from its instruments to the amazing recognition of skilled musicians.

This evening the Berliner Philharmonic wasn’t on stage, unfortunately; nor was the UK major orchestras, which are also guests at this year’s Musikfest Berlin (Sept 3-21). All of the city’s principal symphony orchestras are taking part, presenting a united front to commemorate the fall of the Wall. Although, I didn’t manage to get tickets from the Berliner Philharmonic before they were sold out; I did manage to buy tickets for Amsterdam’s Concertgebouworkest, which competes with the Berlin Philharmonic for the title of ‘number one orchestra in the world’.

The concert was simply magnificent; moreover the works presented were also intended to provoke reflections about the tensions between art and society during the tormented years of Berlin Wall. At times during the orchestra performance I felt like no one else but the orchestra and me were sharing the same opulent room that is the Philharmonic. Not sure if it’s all the orchestra’s fault (or bless) or it’s a mix of its impressive music with room’s acoustics. A phenomenon! It’s not rare that a concert leaves me gobsmacked, but the Amsterdam’s Concertgebouworkest did just that. With mobile musicians walking while singing with their instruments, the vigorous orchestra’s dirigent Mariss Jansons and the dramatic program, these all made to an unforgettable evening – hopefully it will soon be repeated!

Berliners' oasis

2009-09-07T13:44:00.001-07:00

Berlin has been a nice surprise day and night. Through the windows of the U-Bahn U2 underground line between stations Büllowstrasse and Gleisdreieck, where the train is actually above ground not underground, we could see a conglomerate of at least 60 beach volleyball courts every time we traveled from West Berlin to East Berlin. U2 underground line connects the centres of east and west Berlin, juxtaposing their sights, department stores and sausage stands.
With real sand, Berliners enjoy summer time competing and working out (if not, they're drinking beer, chatting and having a great time with friends at the busy bar) at this location nested away from the traffic and the city yet just minutes away from the civilization; the volleyball courts are hidden in a vast field of nothing but trees and grass in the intersection of subway and train rails in the heart of Berlin city.

Dreams in Pictures. Ulla and Heiner Pietzsch Collection at Nationalgalerie in Berlin

2009-09-06T11:49:00.000-07:00

For the first time in Berlin more than one hundred and eighty works of Ulla and Heiner Pietzsch collection is being showed at Nationalgalerie. The fascinating art of Surrealism forms the core of the collection with works by André Breton, Salvador Dalí, Paul Delvaux, Max Ernst, René Magritte, Joan Miró, André Masson and Yves Tanguy, as well as numerous works by other artists broadly connected to the Surrealist movement. A second focus lies on early works of Abstract Expressionism, in which the influence of artists who had emigrated from Europe to America - an art movement that rose directly from the roots of Surrealism to flourish in the New York of the nineteen-fifties. Works by Jackson Pollock, Ad Reinhardt, Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman are all represented in the collection together with works by the great Mexicans Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo.

Almost two entire rooms of the collection are dedicated to Miró’s sculptures and paintings. A delight! Recently, Mr and Mrs Pietzsch purchased Miró’s bronze sculpture "Moon Bird" for the exhibition from a private collection in New York. The sculpture is now going on show to the public for the first time in Germany!
The surrealist movement of visual art and literature, flourished in Europe between World Wars I and II against what its members saw as the destruction wrought by the "rationalism" that had guided European culture and politics in the past and had culminated in the horrors of World War I. André Breton, who published "The Surrealist Manifesto" in 1924, often described that Surrealism reunited conscious and unconscious realms of experience so completely, that the world of dream and fantasy would be joined to the everyday rational world in "an absolute reality, a surreality." The wellspring of the imagination.

Several of “The Surrealist Manifesto” publications are now on display at the Nationalgalerie, unfortunately, however, they are all locked in glass shelves. In the same room, a small number of women works connected to the Surrealist movement are also on display. It is said that although the innovative and creative work created, female artists did not reach the success and reputation their male peers have savored. Furthermore, female artists often served as only models and inspiration for male artists at that epoch.

The Haus der Kulturen der Welt

2009-09-03T09:09:00.000-07:00

Tonight is the show of two multi-cultured artists at “The House of World Cultures” - The Haus der Kulturen der Welt: Monica Salmaso from São Paulo – Brazil and Malian singer Oumou Sangare from Africa. ExBerliner had advertised the show saying that Oumou Sangare possesses one of the greatest voices on the planet, blurring the boundaries between Wassoulou music and contemporary sounds without selling out. I came to know about the show yesterday while relaxing at Strandbad Wannsee, and then, I asked my newly friends about the venue and its location. Funny enough, my newly friends were from UK-Cardiff, a city within 15-min from Bristol.
Researching today about the place, I found out that “The House of World Cultures” is a leading centre for the contemporary arts and a venue for projects breaking through artistic world boundaries. It has set itself the task of presenting non European cultures through their fine arts, theatre, music, literature, film and the media and engaging them in a public discourse with European cultures.
It focuses on the contemporary arts and current developments in the cultures of Africa, Asia and Latin America as well as on the artistic and cultural consequences of globalization. It gives priority to projects that explore the possibilities of both intercultural co-operation and its presentation. The house also assumed the unexpected role of discoverer, exploring the world out there, and finding artists and thinkers who aren’t popular at the time.

The current exhibition “Spirit of the Haus” celebrating the 20 years of non European cultural propagation is by Kwame Anthony Appiah, a key figure in the intellectual struggle of marginalized cultures in the post modern world. It shows his ideas based on his book entitled “Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Stranger” that perfectly suit the HKW’s (Haus der Kulturen der Welt) leitmotif very well.

Strandbad Wannsee - Berlin's beach

2009-09-02T12:26:00.000-07:00

Leisure day in Berlin – a gem was discovered hidden some 19 km away of Berlin’s downtown in the west side of the city. Strandbad Wannsee is a nice beach alternative for those who like me were looking to relax and unwind from the rustles and bustles of the city. Packed with towels and an issue of “ExBerliner” – the only Berlin monthly publication written in English - I headed to the unknown, to discover a quiet and quaint place to read and enjoy summer.

After getting lost and finding the secluded beach, a 4€ had to be paid in order to enter in the place. Finally, I could rest in one of those exquisite chairs facing the sun and the lake reading about Berlin’s whereabouts.

Beerlin

2009-09-01T13:06:00.001-07:00

This is how my husband has nicknamed the city after noticing 2 major and local characteristics: its beer and its bees.

Well, I guess everybody knows about Germany’s beer tradition: supposedly it’s the world best beer, contains no conservatives, each and every region produces its own beer that tastes very differently from one another, and on top of everything Germans love beer, they drink it all the time especially during summer time … well, this list could go on and on.

However, nobody told me about Berlin’s bees! They’re also everywhere, in the parks, in the streets and especially when the setting includes food! This behavior is not quite as nice as the first one, though, but apparently, Germans know how to deal with it: ignoring the annoying bugs that insist to show up at unexpected times. I rather domain the art of overlooking them; although I am far from mastering it, therefore, the bees seem to enjoy and make fun of unskilled tourists like us!

Lunchkonzert at Berliner Philharmoniker

2009-09-01T12:41:00.001-07:00

Berliner Philharmoniker

Henri Delbeau at Philharmoniker foyer

Philharmoniker foyer

Free music at Berlin Philharmonic is not something that one should miss, so there I was this afternoon enjoying a bit of classical music during lunch time at the Philharmonic foyer with some other hundred or more people.

The setting wasn’t what I was expecting at all: lunch was bought and then eaten while I was standing because available tables were already taken; shortly, I noticed that the seats in front of the stage were for members of the philharmonic, so non-members, that is to say, the majority of the public, were getting seated at the steps of the various staircases around the stage, on the floor, or, like myself, on top of a coat’s counter.

Henri Delbeau played Franz Schubert (Klaviersonate G-Dur D 894) and Franz Liszt (Venezia e Napoli) on the piano. The concert took one hour and it was splendid, peaceful and relaxing – specially knowing that outside the foyer the temperature was up 30 degrees Celsius – and thus, I felt happy!

Throughout this week other venues, besides the Philharmonic, will house free events called Piano Festival Berlin 2009 at lunch time or even during evenings. Artists such as Terry Eder, Caroline Kirchhoff, Olivier Herbay, Jun Fujimoto, Ronald Potts and Ye Feng will enlighten Berlin’s afternoons and evenings with their music and soul.

Bravo!

Long night at the Museums

2009-08-31T22:57:00.000-07:00

Rogier van der Weyden - Gemaldegalerie, Berlin

Fortunately one of the two long nights at the museums event happened while we were in Berlin. This event the long night at the museums happens twice yearly. Normally, it happens in April and another in the end of August; therefore, we could not miss it!

It was a long and tiring night, although, it was a very cultural and entertaining night with lots of live performances, music and food at mostly all venues. Most of the museums I was curious to visit were participating at the event, in this way I could sneak peak some of them to savor them even more later on (I always believed that one good museum could not be seen in a few hours, at least, one night is needed in between visits for me to process and understand what has been seen – “… night brings counsel” I learned … ).

Event’s sponsors provided free transportation amongst the several museums and art venues – 8 routes were available to visitors every 10-30 min – from 5pm of Saturday to Sunday’s 2am. However, buses and subway were also free of charge during the period. I was able to visit 5 museums, Gelmädegalerie (old art-European old masters) once again, Guggenheim Berlin (modern art – expressionism), Museum of Natural History, the Berliner Dom (Berlin’s cathedral) and the museum of the automobile with Romero Britto’s exhibit. It was a full and long night at the city - an enjoyable enriching event.

Altes Museum or Old Museum designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel and opened in 1830. It is one of the oldest museums in Berlin

Jan van Eyck - Madonna
Gemäldegalerie, Berlin

Vermeer - Woman with a pearl necklace
Gemäldegalerie, Berlin

Johann Gottfried Schadow - The princesses Luise and Friederike von PreuBen

Alte Nationalgalerie at Museumsinsel (Museums' island). This museum served as one leading museum of moderm and expressionist art. Around 1900, its directors bought controversial works by Manet, Monet, and Cezanne, as well as Menzel, Feuerbach and Bocklin. However, the museum was closed down in 1937 by the Nazi's violent campaign against "degenerate art". Many masterpieces were confiscated and important works fell victim to the effects of the war when the NationalGalerie was bombed in the spring of 1945.

Ich verstehe Sie

2009-08-31T07:34:00.000-07:00

Beer Garten at Tiergarten
Photo of the wall displayed at open air gallery at Alexanderplatz

Gendarmenmarkt - the loviest square in Berlin

After one week enjoying a real summer in Berlin I cannot say I miss UK at all… Although I don’t understand a word Germans say, I feel really at easy in the city that is truly celebrating the hot weather with open air concertos, operas, theater and art exhibitions. Here are things I’ve noticed so far,

Thumbs up:
1. Sun and warm weather averaging 25°C
2. The cafes scattered by the sidewalks and at lovely piazzas (platz) alongside canals and/or monumental cathedrals and museums
3. The friendly atmosphere of the city and its people
4. The GREAT food! Check café Einstein website, a Viennese-like breakfast place close to Tiergarten (http://www.cafeeinstein.com/)
5. Tiergarten and its beer gardens
6. The museums and German’s history accessible everywhere in the city
7. The long night of the museums
8. Berlin Philharmonic
9. Summer rain that lasts 5-10 min once in awhile in the evenings
10. The lovely east Berlin and its colorful neighborhoods attracting very curious people, shops and art galleries
11. The extensive subway with its U-Bahn (underground subway) and S-Banh (over ground subway) lines

However, I have a few thumbs down:
1. No free internet; well, at Starbucks one can enjoy 60min of free internet/per day, however, you know, it’s never enough!
2. Paid museums – each one costing at least 8€, although audio guides are included in the price tag!
3. Few people understand English in local restaurants, but a handful places have English menu available
4. City high costs – a “milchkaffee” (coffee with milk) costs an average of 4€ for a small glass

So, my list of city’s great things outnumbered the few items I dislike about Berlin and as you may agree with me, travelling throughout Europe is always expensive but its uniqueness, cultural and art accessibility and beauty are always very rewarding!

Postdamer platz

Hackescher Market - where Anne Frank's museum is located

Education Reform

2009-08-21T02:13:00.000-07:00

Even now living in the UK, I continue to be interested in what’s happening in the America (this is how Britons call the USA). Last issue of the Wired magazine (Sept. 2009) I received from there has a small article about the education reform entitled “Revenge of the nerds”, well, I could not wait for any other title from a tech magazine, but the subject is much more greater than the view of Daniel Roth expressed in his article. It successfully acknowledge the fact that schools are trying to embrace the “digital culture” in order to transform education; however it fails to describe what effectively is being done to achieve it in a countrywide spectrum. Roth uses unrepresentative examples to compel readers to believe that to reform schools one must transform the students into geeks. His definition of geek however is not completely satisfying and it seems to be misappropriating the merit of good and dedicated students who get things done as the characterization of contemporary geek.

Roth uses an example of an institution called “High Tech High” located in San Diego to base his theory that the key to transform school is to “geekifying” education. Some of the techniques presented seem to be working great and could be used as an example for public schools: they keep students surrounded by adults therefore there’re no teachers’ bathroom or lounges, and moreover students are required to present their work to outsiders in an attempt to break the youth-owned culture inundated in a high-school environment. Those are great artifacts but much more need to be done to really embrace all the new opportunities technology gives us, as well as the knowledge acquired from years and years of archaic techniques applied to students all over the world. In another literature, Malcolm Gladwell, raises the question of the number of days during summer vacation students have in a regular scholar year, highlighting that it might be the cause of children’s low efficiency especially in poor areas where during this extended time their families have no further resources to enhance their children education with stimulus, for instance, tutoring.

Yes, there’s a lot to be done in this scenario. Hopefully, more articles in magazines like Wired can raise the importance and the hard job some institutions are doing tentatively to reform education. Maybe, these ideas and more applicable research can introduce a real education reform to strengthen the sector and to produce not huge number of geeks but genuine educated human beings.

A very much Brazilian in Berlin ?!?

2009-08-18T14:15:00.000-07:00

Soon I’ll be packing for my next adventure in the European land: Berlin. I’ll be spending a great of time there, so I am trying to get myself acquainted with the city, its public transport, best museums, best price museums – or even better, free!!, parks, boutiques, art nouveau, and the old landmarks (even a fraction of the wall). However, I would love to hear from you your best tips about the city and its neighborhoods, stylish cafes, shops, its life, art and culture. Much appreciated!

Recently, I bought two city guides, one is very compact, but knowing “TimeOut” tradition I decided it would be the one to carry on with me all over the city. It’s an abridged version of its former Berlin TimeOut containing the essentials, such as the tube map! Moreover, it depicts the “what not to miss” and tells where inaccurate information – specially about past history – is presented to avoid disappointment or biased understanding of what happened in the past amongst Germans, Americans and allies. The other book is a real book about Berlin and Potsdam, telling more about the history, art and architecture, cultural life, famous people and all the bla, bla, bla around sightseeing, accommodations, and food&drinks. Berlin is house of 150 museums, so most likely, I’ll be not visiting them all, but a handful, usually the recommended ones. Besides, on Saturday 29th August 2009 happens the Berlin's 25th Long Night of the Museums. The theme is "Museumslandschaft im Wandel" (Museum landscape in flux) and from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. over 100 museums, collections and other cultural institutions will be open and offering visitors an unusual and privileged insight into Berlin's lively museum scene for just €12. I guess 100 museums open in one day from 6 p.m to 2 a.m will be overwhelming enough just to think about, imagine when I am there?!?

So, I have readings to do. Will get back as soon as I have some of my itineraries done!

Reichstag

Olympic Stadium

Brandenburg at night

Berlin Cathedral and TV Tower

PS. Images were downloaded from the web. My pics will be coming soon!

A beginners nostalgia

2009-08-16T12:52:00.001-07:00

It is so funny how people are never completely satisfied with their location, sometimes their jobs, or the number of days they have available to go on holidays, we complain about the weather, whether it’s too hot or too cold, or even if it’s raining; myself included. I just found it interesting, this human condition and I would rather be more pleased with the choices I made, but sometimes it just doesn’t work like that.

Reviewing some of past photos from Seattle and friends I met along the way, I noticed that most of them were happy to be away from the city in someplace else, and they were sad to return. I guess I had felt the same way once I was living there, as I used to love to go on vacation to Hawaii, Vancouver or simply Leavenworth, a few hours away from the buzz of the city, and I was always so sad I had to come back. Seattle and the region surroundings (pictures shown here depict the richness of the Pacific Northwest during summer time) are a great place to live, to enjoy nature and to work, especially if you are in the tech industry – Seattle is home for Microsoft, T-Mobile, Amazon, Expedia and Starbucks, ok, the latter not so much related to technology as it is to coffee! One could experience the cold from the mountains, its fresh air and the welcoming breeze, the adventurous trails when tracks are packed with snow or maybe a deep dive in the chilly water of Lake Washington during summer time, which is refreshing, and then to lay down in the grass to let the sun warm you and the gentle wind to unwind our heads from real life and enjoy a piece of heaven in mother earth. The latter, I used to do every summer, during all summer in a secluded beach park called Groveland in Mercer Island, accompanied by books, music, and sunscreen. Sometimes, it was just me.

Nostalgia apart, literature has expressed this human condition and the universal human impulse for idealized fulfillment in “Madame Bovary” a famous novel by Gustave Flaubert published in 1857. I am still quite in the beginning of the book, however, I can feel the tension and the uneasiness of its characters by not living the life they would have expected, that they don’t suffer or endure a greater love affair, one with ardor and fire enlightening their deprived existence. One beautiful passage is about Emma Bovary and her thoughts about her marriage with Charles Bovary:

“Emma at home once more, first took pleasure in looking after the servants, then grew disgusted with the country and missed her convent. When Charles came to the Bertaux for the first, she thought of herself quite disillusioned, with nothing more to learn, and nothing more to feel.

But the uneasiness of her new position, or perhaps the disturbance caused by the presence of this man, had sufficed to make her believe that she at last felt that wondrous passion which, till then, like a great bird with rose-coloured wings, hung in the splendor of the skies of poesy; and now she could not think that the calm in which she lived was the happiness she had dreamed.”

In perspective, dreams and real life complement themselves in a flourishing form when balanced objectives and clear direction are known and sought for. I guess one will always feel uneasy when things are not quite the way they were supposed to be, but it’s a great gift to put us back in reality, to validate our options, to make us endure for life and its possibilities, to make us think about choices made and preferences to be picked in the future and then relax and enjoy the journey!

Still Waiting for Godot

2009-08-10T03:55:00.000-07:00

Amazing production and art work performed by two geniuses at stage. “Waiting for Godot” was one of those comic surprises one certainly is looking for but hardly found. With very simple and hilarious dialogs that go on and on between Vladimir and Estragon, the main characters of the play, the rhythm is joyful and harmonious like a beautiful poem. However, they keep waiting for this Godot that never came, fortunately for us the spectators!

The very know actors Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart – they worked together in the "X-Men film trilogy", as Magneto and Professor X and also known by the personas Gandalf in "The Lord of the Rings" and Star Trek’s Jean-Luc Picard – played it masterfully, showing cheerfully their character’s fears and hopes in a long wait for salvation.

Ian Mckellen as Estragon

Patrick Stewart as Vladimir and Ian McKellen as Estragon

Photos downloaded from "Waiting for Godot the play" website: http://www.waitingforgodottheplay.com/

Actors' Interview and review can be read at "The Independent" website: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/features/godot-has-arrived-the-stars-of-becketts-masterpiece-reveal-what-the-play-means-to-them-1648232.html

The secrets and little pleasures of Hampstead - London

2009-08-06T13:35:00.000-07:00

Almost by mistake or because of it, I surprisingly met a very refreshing, European-like area in the middle of London that doesn’t seem like London to me at all, which it’s quite an exciting discovery considering that I don’t fell hearty by the city anyways.

Hampstead is located in the north of the city and exhibits an interesting and vivid topography. A good number of its green streets and villas are shaped on valleys and hills, a scenery very uncommon in flat Central London, giving to this borough a even more charming look. Visitors and residents can experience a challenging but rewarding panorama full with cafes, shops, pubs and breathtaking mansions (regularly listed for sale at over twenty million pounds). The Hampstead is home for the intellectual, artistic, musical and literary clans, it was one day a bohemian place with avant garde artists, most of them exiles from Nazi Europe. Nowadays, the area still calls for the artistry and intriguing; it is current or it was recently the home for some of my favorite actors/actresses: Kate Winslet, Jude Law, Ralph Fiennes, Björk among others.

Discovering this little pleasure, hidden from me till now in London, was a lovely surprise. In fact, it encourages me to continue in my journey for places that blossom the type of energy, sympathy and intellectuality I was unable to immerse to in this cosmopolitan and cultural rich city.

An enjoyable Paris

2009-07-02T04:14:00.001-07:00

Tour Eiffel and Seine

Some days it’s just better to leave and go someplace else … and this is particularly easy to do when you are living in Europe. With all the possible means of transportation to get from one city to another, it’s a pleasure to travel here. Paris is just 2 hours and half away from London – St Pancras station, by train. The travel is comfortable and one can enjoy the meadows that can be seen through the windows, and the blue sky you’ll probably get when you leave London behind.

Arc du Triumph

Arriving in Paris is always a great pleasure; although Gare du Nord station has not yet been transformed in the state of the art type of place, as St. Pancras currently has been, it’s delightful to observe its character, its strength and age. Walking through its corridors and small shops, one can feel and hear real life pulsing as energetic as it can be!

Canal St Martin

It’s lovely to be back in Paris and to revisit old places and old memories. The shops, the cafes and brasseries are still at the same places from years ago, with the same old charm and presence. Although, many other things are created at the mature city, it’s really the old places that interest most of the people who come to visit its magnificence.Petit Palais museum
Jardin du Luxembourg

Jardin du Luxembourg

This time, the great buzz, maybe because it’s summer in Europe, is the Velib system, where you can rent a “velo” (bike) from its various posts (there are 10,000 bikes available at 750 locations across the city) and ride it in the city. You just pick up your bike in one place and turn it in at another. So, it's a great way to get from point to point without having to deal with the hassle of keeping up with your bike all day, or using the crowded public transportation. Paris has been transformed to accommodate the ever growing number of bikes in a tentative to diminish the chaotic traffic through the city; and I can say, it’s really great to “hop in” and “hop off” as you wish.

Velos - velib system - in Republique

It has been a rewarding week in Paris, the lay back type of life in the summer in crowded parks, the “soldes” (great summer sales), the unforgettable food, the different language, and the Berthillon glace made me remember about the simple gestures and life greatness when vacationing. It’s so good to leave some things behind for a while.

Soldes in Marais

Usury - the predicament?!

2009-06-23T04:32:00.000-07:00

Usury, from the Medieval Latin usuria, originally meant the charge of interest on loans, a commonplace in the world’s economy. However, as the world evolved, the term also evolved to mean the charging of unreasonable high rates of interest, which might be the reason of world’s financial system’s downturn. Do you think that the approach banks take to charge interests when loaning you money led us to the economic downturn? Do you know when this practice got mainstream? Here is some food for thought …

It seems that the pivotal change in the English-speaking world have come with the permission to charge interest on lent money: after the Act “In restraint of usury” in 1545 by Henry VIII in England. However, this term, in historical context, has always been associated with economic abuses, mostly of the masses and of the poor for a euphemistic “just for profit”.

This behavior is found very early in our human society, rooted in religion context of the Old Testament, Torah, New Testament and Qur’an. However, this text will not discuss the religion background of the behavior. The statement serves to point out how old the term/behavior exists and to illustrate its grounds.

Some ethical arguments for usury: As an investment – charging interest is essential for the investment process, as the profits are required to direct investments to their most productive use, also high interest rates reflect the high risk of default of creditors in a competitive debt market.

On the other hand, some societies believe that the type of economic instability we live in today is a result of the taking of interest. Some countries have developed other means, a fair approach if you like, to deal with interest or the absence of it. Sweden has a cooperative type of bank called JAK (an acronym for Jord Arbete Kapital in Swedish or Land Labor Capital).

The research shows that “JAK operates under the following premises:

The taking of interest is inimical to a stable economy
Interest causes unemployment, inflation, and environmental destruction
Interest moves money from the poor to the rich
Interest favors projects which tend to yield high profits in the short-term

The ultimate goal of JAK is to abolish interest as an economic instrument and to replace it with instruments that are in the best interest of people. First aim of the bank is to offer a feasible financial instrument to its members, sustainable for the environment and serving local economy.”

Although, the JAK bank only has 35,000 members (remember, it’s a cooperative) as 2008, members were able to save 97 million Euros, of which 86 million are given as loans to members. Administrative and developmental costs are paid for by membership and loan fees.

Another society that made no use of interest is the Islamic Banking, that follows principles that prohibits the payment of fees for the renting of money for specific terms, as well as investing in businesses that provide goods or services considered contrary to its principles.

Research says that “Islamic banks have grown recently in the Muslim world but are a very small share of the global banking system.” With some banks using conventional lending practices as in Bangladesh and while others are consistent with the Islamic prohibition of usury.

Royal Ascot

2009-06-17T02:36:00.000-07:00

From June 16th to 20th happens the Ascot Racecourse that is situated in beautiful wooded countryside adjoining Windsor Great Park and about 50 minutes drive or train journey from London. I felt compelled to talk shortly about the event since it has the most beautiful pictures of women wearing hats, which is something very much unusual for me, and men in luxurious outfits I have seen. Very glamorous, very British!

Images from the guardian.co.uk

Happens in London

2009-06-16T12:17:00.001-07:00

Despite London’s famous pubs, some interesting news about this world-known commercial icon has been hitting the papers lately. Last March, papers throughout the city were reporting about pubs closure. Their headlines: “… More than 280 pubs have closed in London since the smoking ban was introduced and many others are struggling to survive the recession…“ It’s funny because everywhere I look there’s a pub there standing and in most cases with lots of people outside talking and drinking their pints. However, it seems that not all public houses are making profits.

The smoking ban is recent: in June 2007, before the smoking ban, there were 6,638 pubs in the capital – said CGA Strategy analysts. Last month there were 284 fewer in London and more than 3,000 fewer across Britain. In my recent visits to a few popular pubs, I could smell a stink odor of old cigarettes mixed up with beer scent. Not pleasant at all; but the beer is great, which I cannot complain.

Also, I’ve noticed that most pubs are very quaint and cozy, like being hanging out in someone’s home and there are the pubs that time forgot. From Victorian grandeur to the glamour of art deco, each is a magnificent watering hole that has avoided being swallowed by a faceless chain (sounds like US?!)

Bristol Sprint

2009-06-15T04:12:00.001-07:00

Our next quick trip will be to Bristol (southwest city of London) this week. We’ve been there for a couple of days last week and we’ll be coming back for business purposes.
Bristol is 169km west of London with an estimated population of 416,400 – the most populous city in the South West England. I have learned that Bristol is the largest centre of culture, employment and education in the region and its prosperity has been linked with the sea since its earliest years. I also know that Orange headquarters and Nokia Siemens – technological companies are also rooted there, which is good for tech guys!

During the time off we were able to discover the city and enjoy a more lay back day and avoid the rat race of crazy London. I am also noticing that lots of Britons are looking forward to move out from hectic cities to enjoy more quality time with family realizing that life is too short to live 5-day a week in trains, traffic and away from loved ones.

This time in Bristol, I hope to be able to visit and discover a little bit more of the England’s “country side”: museum, cathedrals and classic music. Also, I am very curious to discovers about its college/university programs, MAs, MPhil*, MLitt**.
*MPhil - a Master's level research programme leading to a dissertation of 25,000 words
**MLitt - a research programme above Master's level, culminating in a dissertation of 50,000 words

Summer Weekend in London Royal Parks

2009-06-14T12:12:00.000-07:00

Summer time in London, finally! Well, at least I have enjoyed a couple of sunny and warm days during the weekend; which turned London even more interesting matching it up with royal parks and "almost" free amenities all over the city. It feels fresh, alive and packed with all over the world people looking for a place in the sun!

This was my first sunny weekend in the city and I enjoyed it immensely. After returning home from Bristol (a city close to Bath, southwest of London) last Friday I could deeply explore Hyde Park, Regent’s Park and St. James Park in the weekend. All of them minutes away walking from our cozy temporary home! All parks get really crazy with children, tourists and young people getting a tan around 2-3pm. However, before the afternoon London parks are just as pleasant as they can be, we can hear the birds singing and the city noisy in a distance … away … There’re just quiet toddlers and moms and dads enjoying their early sun, some funny dogs and lots of joggers like us.

Despite all the free enjoyment, I could not avoid taking a glimpse of Selfridges – it’s the second largest department store in UK after Harrods – and then Harrods. It’s an oasis of Haute couture in the middle of the frenetic city (with astronomical price tags)!

All pictures were taken at Hyde Park and Regent's Park. For "almost" free amenities I meant the great beach chairs available in the parks depicted here for £1.50 for 2-hour sitting or £2.00 for 4-hour sitting. All parks have great cafes and restaurants, most of them holding an alcohol license, which allow them to sell beer and wine to their customers. A meal (informal lunch) costs an average of £20.00 for 2 people (including alcohol).

London tube strike

2009-06-10T11:52:00.000-07:00

No time was spent today at the National Gallery, unfortunately… Today was a day to connect with people jammed in the traffic! London tube strike started yesterday around 7pm and it got gigantic by today’s morning commute causing a severe travel disruption; not that I was part of the morning commute, but I was checking it thru the web … However, by 11ish I took a bus to visit my sister in the North London - Stoke Newington - what a day to visit my sister in the other end of the city!! The bus was already crowded when I made me in; moreover the traffic was horrible, taking us an hour and half to get to my sister’s place – a drive of 5.3miles.

I was surprised when I first heard about the strike, I said joking: “Ahh, this is going to end up in pizza* and the tube will be running normally by tomorrow morning” (*to end up in Pizza, which means to end up in nothing, to end up with no significant consequences). But no, the matter is much bigger to be resolved in one day: the rail and transportation union said the strike was being solidly supported by workers and that the mayor – Boris Johnson - was sabotaging the efforts of the union to get what they believe is needed over pay, jobs and disciplinary issues.

Some tube lines are working but they don’t unclutter the cluttered city of London. Londoners are trying better options than waiting in queues for packed buses: cycles, vans, shared cabs or simply taking the day off to avoid the disorder. Hopefully, some people can steer clear of the city and its problems till Friday (the 48-hour strike started at 7pm last night and is expected to cause disruption until Friday morning); however, the majority of people is not that fortunate and need to deal with the issue face-to-face.

Some photos published by the guardian.co.uk are here to depict the mess, absurdity and the creativity of the people observed today.

National Gallery

2009-06-09T14:27:00.000-07:00

After waking up, sleeping, having breakfast, sleeping again, we finally made to the National Gallery. I am still feeling a little messy because of the time difference of 8 hours … ahead of Seattle. Well, ok, at least we were able to visit a third of the 13th-15th century paintings section at the beautiful National Gallery of London. A third of one section (I used to do better, but I am coming back tomorrow!) – meaning 6 small rooms with paintings from mainly Italy (Tuscany, Central Italy, Northern Italy and some from the Netherlands) from the 1250 till 1450.

Some of the paintings are depicted here, however I could not find the great paintings from Greek mythology that really astounded me. Most of the pictures of this age used egg tempura in wood/oak or some other solid structure. But around that time some painters started to use canvas and fortunately National Gallery has one of the first paintings on canvas made by that time. It’s so great to compare the work made on oak with one on canvas, such an interesting study!

At last, we toasted our first pub night-out tonight with fish and chips and a half-pint of local beer!
What a great day!

London - Great Expectations

2009-06-08T13:30:00.000-07:00

Despite all curiosity and anxiety I was living in before moving; I feel a little bit more grounded on this quaint yet frantic city: London.

Sometimes the word “trap” came to my mind in my early days in the city; I have never imagined that London would in some way disappoint me and embrace me so little. You know the sensation of when you buy a product, you read the package, you investigate about it and you’re pretty sure it is going to deliver up to your expectations ?!?! But then you get home and open the package … and it just fails to meet your standards or you're unsure how to make best use of it ?!

I was disappointed about the city after my third day in London: the crowds of people from everywhere in the world crunched in small little curbs, in retail stores, and in all types of transportation. The noisy of cars speeding up to cross yellowed traffic lights (and they even drive on the wrong side of the road! :-)) and the overexposure of Gordon Brown (UK Prime Minister) political scandal by British media to cite a few.

I tried to remain quiet during my first weekend in London. I cooked health and warming meals, read the papers, spent time with my local sister, all helped me to regain some steadiness and concentration on what really matters: to move forward and discover a place that will fulfill my dreams and will give me the resources to stretch myself a little bit further.
Today, visiting the British Museum and embracing the differences a little deeper were grateful surprises which gave me some strength and enticed my curiosity for tomorrow and the day after and the day after that…

I discover some great venues and cultural programs:

a FREE live music: 'Out To Lunch' at Cadogan Hall (http://www.cadoganhall.com/index.php) that runs every Tue and Thurs at lunch time from June till August.

The numerous great Operas: Cosi fan tutte, Madam Butterfly, L'Amour de loin (Love from afar) with tickets from £10 at English National Opera (ENO)!

An interesting literature programme of the world’s best writing, poetry and debate at Southbank Centre that will address the subject of democracy.

With so many different cultural options I felt live again. Once back in Seattle I felt lost till I found my own nest, which took me months. I hope this time to take days! (supposedly I am smarter, now :-), the thing is the city is just insupportably busy to someone coming from a small quiet city nested in the US, that's all!)

Remember that story about the wrong or dissatisfying product?? I would return it, try something new or maybe adjust my perspective to see a little bit further … :-)

PS. all images were found in the internet. My photos are still going to be published... I am waiting for a sunny day, londoners said it's coming! :-)

Farewall Seattle

2009-05-31T17:47:00.000-07:00

My Seattle chapter ends here with some astounding views of one of my preferred locations in the area: Mount Rainier. A new chapter is just beginning, but I will certainly miss the gorgeous and refreshing life of the Northwest, willing one day to come back and live here once again.
So many discoveries and growth happened here while living in this busy yet surprising city.

Corners that are full of hidden pleasures which had invited me to experiment and enjoy a different me. I am so grateful for this sparkling opportunity wishing that my next stop will provide and provoke me in the same way.

Enjoy a little bit of one of these corners as I enjoyed every bit of it!

Namaste!

Spring in Seattle - Isn't it gorgeous?!?!

2009-05-13T17:09:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately, today is raining again and it’s a little bit cold; therefore, great to stay in with my hubby sipping tea and eating a nice loaf. That’s what I was doing just before creating this post with lovely pics of spring time in Seattle!
Enjoy!

Mira Nair - her Indian, American and African roots

2009-05-12T20:55:00.000-07:00

Continuing my Indian saga, this time I was blessed by such a great and humane Indian film director: Mira Nair. She came to Seattle a couple of weeks ago and I gave a lecture at Benaroya Hall in one chilly evening of April. Benaroya was completely full, which I found completely interesting: how could a film director draw so many people into a lecture in a Tuesday evening?! I was puzzled, however, I certainly discovered why after a couple of minutes with Mira on the stage …

She was in the city to talk about her film projects – specially Amelia and The Namesake, among others - which have a common line amongst them all; either produced with little cash (like when the whole movie was produced in her backyard, or made with African children with no cinema experience) or with the involvement of big investments and Hollywood stars, like Denzel Washington, Marisa Tomei or recently with Johnny Deep as a potential actor for an upcoming project. Her recurrent theme goes around a blend of cultures: American, Asian and most recently African explained through its intricacies of real-damn world with its glorious moments and slumps.

She found incipient success as a documentary filmmaker, winning awards for So Far From India and India Cabaret. In 1988, Nair’s debut feature, Salaam Bombay! was nominated for an Academy Award, Golden Globe, and BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Educated at both Delhi University and Harvard University, Nair began her artistic career as an actor before turning her attention to film.

One phrase depicted in the SAL (Seattle Art Lecture) brochure that drove my curiosity to learn more about Mira Nair was the following:

“I always try to make films about things that get under my skin,” says writer, producer, and director Mira Nair. … In all her work, she has built her stories on carefully composed shots, creating visually stunning and emotionally deep narratives of love and country.”

Selected Works
Feature Films:Amelia (2009)

The Namesake (2007)

Hysterical Blindness (2001)

Monsoon Wedding (2001)

My Own Country (1998)

Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love (1996)

The Perez Family (1993)

Mississippi Masala (1991)

Salaam Bombay! (1988)

Web Links
Mirabai Films website: http://www.mirabaifilms.com/home.html
Interview with Mother Jones: http://www.motherjones.com/arts/qa/2007/03/mira_nair.html
As recipient of the ninth annual Harvard Arts Medal, an interview from the “Learning From Performers” Series: http://athome.harvard.edu/programs/cmn/

Indian Art - the Marwar-Jodhpur maharajas, Garden & Cosmos

2009-05-12T20:09:00.000-07:00

Incorporating Yoga into my yet busy schedule was not something easy; however with the number of classes in the Eastside flowing from 6am till 8:15pm, I found it flexible enough to transform Yoga into one of my daily routine activity. And then, once included in my routine, I was again able to search for new discoveries …
I found Seattle’s Volunteer Park where Seattle Asian Art Museum is nested. I spent some time enjoying the beautiful gardens in a warm sunny afternoon after work and also at another opportunity: with our typical rain, so I was encouraged to get inside the museum to visit “Garden and Cosmos” exhibit. Again, the theme: Yoga, India, mind-soul balance, was around me during April, which it was very interesting. Not sure why my curiosity has led me to this exuberance country, but definitely it has been a constant topic for me since I started working with India in my real work job.

“Garden and Cosmos” was a groundbreaking exhibition of newly discovered Indian paintings from the royal court collection of Marwar-Jodhpur (in the modern state of Rajasthan) from October 11, 2008 to January 4, 2009. There were three sections devoted to the garden and cosmos leitmotifs, with an introduction about the kingdom of Marwar-Jodhpur and the origins of its court painting traditions in the 17th century. Produced for the private enjoyment of the Marwar- Jodhpur maharajas, virtually none of the 60 works on view in Garden and Cosmos have ever been published or seen by scholars since their creation centuries ago. Strikingly innovative in their large scale, subject matter, and styles, they reveal both the conceptual sophistication of the royal atelier and the kingdom's engagement with the changing political landscapes of early modern India.

On the Garden section of the exhibit, pictures depicted court scenes done in a manner with focus on fauna, lush garden oasis accommodations and palaces, the natural world, and of course the Raj himself surrounded by his female attendants. Interesting for me were the details in every picture: the peacocks (very popular in India as a popular art motif representing different qualities depending on time, culture or religion), the curly clouds, the small and colorful birds. SAAM (Seattle Asian Art Museum) even provided its visitors with magnifying lenses so we could enjoy the minutiae of all drawings and pictures. Another high point in the exhibit was the way ancient artists drew in the canvas: as a flat, without perspective shot of the realization of maharajas’ life (or at least how mahajaras would like to have their lives depicted for prosperity). However, after a while, the constant theme of a single man surrounded by a litany of subservient woman certainly got old to me. One painting’s plaque even went so far as to address my consternation by commenting on the important role that women played in the court in terms of cementing alliances, managing political intrigue, and some were even authors. However, why you never saw women being the center of a picture or realizing one of these major gestures, they didn’t explain. Maybe it was because the Raj himself commissioned the paintings? That must be it.
When it came to exploration of the Cosmos, the second part of the exhibit was simply stunning in its representation of the diversity and complexity of India’s spiritual traditions and beliefs. You’d have to stand in front of some of the paintings for days before you’d be able to identify all the animals, gods, goddesses, and other manifestations of the divine contained within in it. It also explain the importance of the Yoga practice, which it was believed as if practiced for 12 years in a row could transform one simple person in god. This god would then have special powers to transform objects into gold, to make it rain and other dramatic and inexplicable doings. I am relieved to know that this belief is part of ancient history now, and Yoga is used as a body and mental activity to enable better health!

See the interesting pics of the exhibition!

Namaste!

Peace for the mind

2009-05-10T20:51:00.000-07:00

It’s been more than a month since my last posting … wow, I cannot believe I have been away from blogging all this time, but anyways, I am back and happy for being back!
So many things happened in April that I’ll need at least 4-5 postings to describe the new experiences and opportunities that opened up for me. I am so honored I had such joy in the midst of such challenging times!

First, it is spring time and for me spring always brings new ways of looking to the same old things, it gives hope and replenishes my mind, soul and body with tranquility and renewed energy! With all these going on, I once again felt free to rediscover my home, my city, and my passions.

Second, I found once again Yoga practice, which encouraged me to search for life balance, peace and ways to make communion with all the changes I’ll be facing soon. At first, Yoga was just a caring way to exercise my body, with lots of slow (but strong) movements coordinated through breath-ins and breath-outs. The results? I felt in control of my body and ready for my daily work-home-study routine; which by the way was consuming all my fuel... However, after 2-3 weeks of daily practice, I discover that Yoga was giving me the fulfillment and unity I was looking for, not only energy to pass through the day, but the humor and the acuity to enjoy the present moment without judgment or distress.

Being spunk as I am, I quickly found a Yoga retreat in which I would practice Yoga for 3 days in a row (twice a day). I was totally in, well, actually I loved the Yoga teacher/her practice who created the retreat, which made my decision so effortless! I drove to Whidbey Island on a Friday afternoon after work and I encountered a beautiful and tranquil place nested in 5-acre of luxurious green land. Everything in the lodge was simple (organic/vegetarian cuisine, shared bathroom, etc) yet conscious and warm. I revived my childhood while sleeping in the top bunk and sharing the bedroom with other 2 yogis’ new friends. This retreat helped me to get deeper into the Yoga practice, making me more adventurous and courageous to try new postures and inversions. But more importantly, this discovery made me embrace Yoga for real, not just as an exercise for the body but for my whole being. And I am so grateful for it!

Well, Yoga was one of my discoveries of April. There’re more playful things I tried during this amazing month. I’ll keep writing …
If you live in the Seattle area and are curious about Yoga, check these websites:
http://www.beyogaandmeditation.com/
http://www.thefaceofcompassion.com/

http://www.yogalodge.com/

Namaste!

Johannes Brahms – Violin Concerto in D major, composed in 1878

2009-04-07T20:43:00.000-07:00

Benaroya Hall in Seattle - Exterior and Interior (photos above)

This last warm sunny Sunday (75° F) in Seattle I visited the Seattle Symphony at Benaroya Hall. It was a matinee (2pm) program of the Musically Speaking Series, which includes commentary from the podium by Gerard Schwarz (conductor) and his special guests. The program had one trombonist, Ko-ichiro Yamamoto, and one violinist, Vadim Repin. The latter played with the Seattle Sympony the “Violin Concerto on D major” from Johannes Brahms. Magnificently and inspiring!

It is explained in the program that Brahms (born May 7, 1833, in Hamburg) was a very lonely and an asocial composer. He never married and lived alone for most of his adult life. Yet he maintained closed relationships with a number of sympathetic individuals. One of them being Joseph Joachim, who was a great musician. Their friendship produced a number of tangible results, the greatest coming in 1878, the Violin Concerto in D major.

Here’s an excerpt of Paul Schiavo interpretation of one of the great Romantic concertos for violin and orchestra, which in sum represents in its opening movement the characteristic Brahmsian qualities of strength, grandeur and energy. After a tender slow movement, the finale brings a fiery evocation of Hungarian gypsy music.

“The first movement is marked by the blend of unpretentious grandeur and controlled energy established in the long orchestral exposition. Characteristically, Brahms forges each of the themes presented in this passage from several brief interlocking melodies which can expand, develop and play off each other. The violin proceeds to amplify this thematic material presented by the orchestra and contributes an exceptionally lovely melody of its own.

The “poor adagio” is clearly an expression of great tenderness and affection. Brahms opens with one of his most beautiful and long-breathed melodies – It is also one of the great oboe solos in the orchestral literature. Although the music passes across more troubled thoughts in the central portion of the movement, it returns to its initial melodic impulse and the peaceful vein in which it began.

The Hungarian flavor of the finale is certainly a bow to Joachim, who not only was of Hungarian background but had himself written a “Hungarian Concerto” and dedicated to Brahms. It is above all the recurring principal theme of this rondo-form movement that evokes the gypsy violin style that Joachim knew and Brahms loved so well. The intervening episodes contribute energy and bravura passagework.”

The New Yorker - Who ends up paying for it?

2009-04-05T10:13:00.000-07:00

Great comparison and explanation on how USA and Europe have been dealing with the economic downturn. Thanks New Yorker!

The Financial Page
Continental Drift
by James Surowiecki March 30, 2009 .

In American politics, “Europe” is usually a code word for “big government.” So in the midst of a global recession, with the U.S. and China shelling out trillions in fiscal stimulus, you might expect that European governments would be spending furiously, too. Far from it. While the U.S. is devoting almost six per cent of its G.D.P. to fiscal stimulus, France and Germany are spending a barely noticeable twenty-six billion euros and fifty billion euros, respectively. Whereas the U.S. hopes that the upcoming G20 summit will lead to a global stimulus package, European policymakers have been warning against the dangers of “crass Keynesianism.” The U.S. Federal Reserve has been flooding our economy with money, but the European Central Bank has cut interest rates slowly and reluctantly. Far from wild-eyed leftists, Europeans are looking downright conservative.
Europe’s response has earned it plenty of criticism, with pundits arguing that its politicians are oblivious of the seriousness of the crisis. There may be some truth in this charge, but Europe’s caution also reflects important differences between its economy and ours, as well as a profoundly different attitude toward things like inflation and debt. If European and American policymakers seem, in their public statements, to be dealing with two very different financial crises, it’s because, in some sense, they are.
To begin with, the biggest European countries, which have the most influence on policy, have not been crushed by this recession. In countries like Ireland and Spain, where huge housing bubbles burst, the devastation has been immense. But in Germany, where there was no bubble, fewer people are struggling with debt or watching their wealth go up in smoke. To be sure, Germany’s economy, which is heavily dependent on exports, is not in good shape; it looks set to shrink more this year than the U.S. economy. But the unemployment rate in Germany has risen much less than it has here. Indeed, in most of Europe job losses have been less severe, in part because unemployment was already quite high. The U.S. unemployment rate has risen nearly three percentage points since January, 2008. Europe’s is up barely one per cent.
In addition, since most European countries have an elaborate social safety net, a recession has a less dramatic impact on people’s daily lives. In the U.S., unemployment insurance pays relatively little and runs out relatively quickly, so losing a job usually means a precipitous decline in income. In European countries, unemployment benefits are typically substantial and long-lasting. This is not entirely a plus—it probably makes unemployment higher than it otherwise would be—but in hard times it keeps money in people’s pockets. (And paying for it means that European government spending automatically rises quite a bit during recessions.) Furthermore, universal health care enables Europeans to see a doctor even if they’re out of work.
None of this means that Europeans are indifferent to recessions or unemployment. But it does reduce the pressure to get their economies moving again at any cost. Furthermore, there seems to be an underlying difference in psychology. Americans talk a good game about the need for balanced budgets and fiscal responsibility, but we’ve proved ourselves happy to borrow trillions in order to maintain our life styles. And, while Americans hate inflation, they love economic growth more: the Federal Reserve’s mission is not just to fight inflation but also to maximize employment. Europe runs a much tighter ship: if an E.U. member has a deficit of greater than three per cent of G.D.P., it’s subject to disciplinary action. And the European Central Bank has only one mandate: keep inflation low.

European economic policy seems to reflect the conviction that inflation, not stagnation, is the greatest threat to an economy. If the episode that haunts the U.S. is the Great Depression, in Europe, where the Germans have been dominant in shaping economic policy, the defining historical moment is the hyperinflation of Weimar Germany, when prices rose more than seventy-five billion per cent in just one year, 1923, and, in the words of Walter Benjamin, “trust, calm, and health” vanished. The legacy of that episode lives on not just in German policymakers’ inflation phobia but also in their sense that there is something fundamentally distasteful about debt. For Germany, fiscal rectitude even in the face of a crisis is not just economically sensible but morally correct.
There’s a price to be paid for hostility toward fiscal stimulus and easy money: Europe and, arguably, the world will take longer to recover. But European policymakers seem willing to weather this outcome in exchange for stability. They’re also probably counting on the fact that, even as they sit tight, their economies will get a boost from the American and Chinese stimulus packages. The thing about government spending is that it “leaks”: a good chunk of our stimulus package will buy other countries’ goods. So Europeans can avoid getting too deeply into debt and still reap some of the benefits of our borrowing. This is unfair: in effect, Europe is refusing to carry its share of the global economic burden and is piggybacking on us. But it’s hard to see how things could have turned out otherwise. The U.S. economy, much more than Europe’s, is like the proverbial shark: if it doesn’t keep moving forward, it dies (or at least creates a lot of misery). In some sense, we need economic growth more than Europe does. It’s not surprising that we’re going to be the ones who end up paying for it. ♦

Woodland Park Zoo - Seattle, WA

2009-04-05T09:21:00.001-07:00

Listening to Diana Krall "The boy from Ipanema" I write this post... Seattle, since yesterday, has been enjoying the first and second days of nice sunshine and a special hope that spring is around the corner, to bless us with its smells, colors, and lavish green. I am so anticipating this moment, with great music and joy …

Yesterday, I delighted myself with a visit to the zoo. The gardens and parks that surround the area, although still getting their green and flowers back due to the just over winter, still exude the peace and comfort that one may look for, to distress and unwind from daily life. It was my first visit to this place since I moved here, and getting around with friends was just the perfect thing to do in a sunny afternoon.

T.S. Eliot - Four Quartets (The Dry Salvages)

2009-04-02T20:34:00.000-07:00

"It seems, as one becomes older,

That the past has another pattern, and ceases to be a mere

sequence -

Or even development: the latter a partial fallacy

Encouraged by superfical notions of evolution,

Which becomes, in the popular mind, a means of disowning

the past.

The moments of happiness - not the sense of well-being,

Fruition, fulfillment, security or affection,

Or even a very good dinner, but the sudden illumination -

We had the experience but missed the meaning,

And approach to the meaning restores the experience

In a different form, beyond any meaning

We can assign to happiness. I have said before

That the past experience revived in the meaning,

Is not the experience of one life only

But of many generations - not forgetting

Something that is probably quite ineffable:

The backward look behind the assurance

Of recorded history, the backward hald-look

Over the shoulder, towards the primitive terror.

Now, we come to discover that the moments of agony

(Whether, or not, due to misunderstanding,

Having hoped for the wrong thisngs or dreaded the wrong

things,

Is not in question) are likewise permanent
With such permanence as time has. We appreciate this

better

In the agony of others, nearly experienced,

Involving ourselves, than in our own.

For our own past is covered by the currents of action,

But the torment of others remains an experience

Unqualified, unworn by subsequent attrition.

People change, and smile: but the agony abides.

Time the destroyer is the the preserver,

Like the river its cargo of dead negroes, cows and

chicken coops,

The bitter apple and the bite in the apple.

And the ragged rock in the restless waters,

Waves wash over it, fogs conceal it;

On a halcyon day it is merely a monument,

In navigable weather it is always a seamark

To lay a course by: but in the sombre season

Or the sudden fury, is what it always was."

"Eliot was born in the United States, moved to the United Kingdom in 1914 (at age 25), and became a British subject in 1927 at the age of 39. Of his nationality and its role in his work, Eliot said: "[My poetry] wouldn’t be what it is if I’d been born in England, and it wouldn’t be what it is if I’d stayed in America. It’s a combination of things. But in its sources, in its emotional springs, it comes from America."

Renaissance: Rome, Florence and Venice

2009-04-02T19:47:00.000-07:00

Sistine Chapel

Michelangelo - The creation of Adam

Marchesa of Mantua - Isabella d'Este

One of the leading women of the Italian Renaissance and a major cultural and political figure

Renaissance Architecture

Trying to focus some of my attention on other subjects different than work, yesterday, I enjoyed an Art Lecture from SAL (Seattle Art Lecture, in association with UW – University of Washington) about Art and its publics, from Renaissance to the Present.

It’s a 5-day class that happen every other week inside the UW. The subject of yesterday class was: “Renaissance Patronage Systems: Rome, Florence, and Venice”. Although, I love lectures and art as well as being once again a student, I was somewhat disappointed by the lecture rhythm … The material for the lecture was really well prepared; however, the professor spent her time reading the material as if we were in a book reading type of assignment. Very monotone and very disengaging …

However, I decided to enjoy my time there while listening to the reading and looking at all the marvelous places of my preferred continent: Europe. I cannot say I am completed disappointed, I’ve learned great things about the renaissance, its artists and their relationship with their patrons (sometimes as simple servants other times as part of patron's families) and higher up society people. On top of that, I learned something very remarkable .. the professor, who has being studying the Renaissance subject for 30 years, had an opportunity to go to Italy and study her subject matter recently and “for real”. Could you imagine that ?!

The lecture yesterday talked about the Renaissance in Rome, Florence and Venice and their fertile environment for innovations in the arts, particularly the propagation of church and family ideologies. The expenditures on palaces and church buildings were also a very expressive theme, that put a relief on questions of taste, status of both patron and art and the justification for the consumption of luxury goods.

By the end of the lecture, I felt enthusiastic again, because the Q&A session was open .. For my surprise, the better came at last. Great questions were asked by the audience and the professor finally show her ability to answer questions on the spot ... really perfectly and engaging the audience!

Overall rate of the lecture: Great!

Branford Marsalis

2009-03-31T19:25:00.000-07:00

Seattle – Jazz Alley – presented Branford Marsalis last Saturday March 21st with his band. The quartet is touring throughout the USA to promote the CD entitled Metamorphosen.

The Seattle Times mentioned: “The Branford Marsalis Quartet has been together in its current form for a decade, long enough to develop a common intuition and a strong collective voice: the elusive goal of any band in the ever-mutating post-bop mainstream. Taking its lead from Marsalis, the band has become both looser and more imposingly self-assured. "Metamorphosen" captures that dynamic almost perfectly.”

The show, albeit short for my point of view, was rich and entertaining. Along with smooth melodies, Branford proposed to the audience, a strong and vigorous music, showing his unambiguous style.

Amazing performance and emphaty!

Happiness Hypothesis

2009-03-29T21:15:00.000-07:00

“The whole universe is change and life itself is but what you deem it” – Marcus Aurelius

“What we are today comes from our thoughts of yesterday, and our present thoughts build our life of tomorrow: our life if the creation of our mind” – Buddha

Jonathan Haidt, the author of The Happiness Hypothesis, opens the second chapter of his book with the two quotes above to highlight how events in the world affect us ONLY through our interpretation of them. In this way, if we control our interpretations we can control our world (we need also a good understanding of the meaning of “our world” in order to comprehend what Haidt is saying).

An ancient example is given for readers to understand what the above means. He depicts Anicius Boethius story, a Roman scholar who lived in 480 CE, who was imprisoned by a Roman emperor before being murdered, which is a very extreme story but serves its purpose.
The story goes around Boethius’ great fortune; he was born to one of the most distinguished Roman families and received the best education available. He wrote dozens of works on math, science, logic, and theology at the same time rising to become consul of Rome in 510. But in 523, at the peak of his power and fortune, he was accused of treason for remaining loyal to Rome and its Senate. Long story short, he could not defend himself and was executed in 524.

While in prison, he cursed injustice, and the Goddess of Fortune, who he believed had blessed him with wealth and joy; but then abandoned him. However, at some point during his incarceration, he discovers the truth of philosophy and understands that CHANGE is normal. (“The whole universe is change,” Aurelius had said).

Haidt explains: “Boethius was fortunate; now he is not. That is no cause for anger. Rather, he should be grateful that he enjoyed “Fortune” for so long, and he should be calm now that “she” has left him.”

He continues: “Nothing is miserable unless you think it so; and on the other hand, nothing brings happiness unless you are content with it.”

In prison, Boethius wrote “The Consolation of Philosophy” which had served a great purpose, not just as being a Roman pop psychology; but also telling a story of freedom through insight.

Life Liberty and the Pursue of Happiness

2009-03-29T19:42:00.000-07:00

The Peaceable Kingdom, an attempt at portraying utopia by Quaker artist Edward Hicks

Seattle Art Museum brought to the Northwest an amazing exhibit about American Art, which probably will drive a lot of traffic to the museum. The works came from Connecticut to Seattle and they’re unique because the pieces are not allowed to often travel out of Yale Gallery, where they normally reside. Due to current renovations at the gallery, the collection is on the road for some of us to enjoy without the need to travel to the East Coast.

With more than 275 items, the collection – Life, Liberty and the Pursue of Happiness - depicts the history of the USA and its understanding of art, beauty and happiness. A version different from the British influence on life and its matters. It goes from the first European settlements up to the Columbian Exposition in 1893. There are paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, furniture (which are incredibly charming), silver and ceramics. It’s a story of American history told through art.

The exhibition shows 3 Main Areas:

Expressions of Heritage, depicting the religious and ethnic diversity of American early years (image above)
Citizenship and Democracy - one of the great sections of the exhibit that presents the country’s struggle for freedom and equality. The painter John Trumbull (images below) records in pictures the principal events of the Revolution. By conveying the values of the epoch and honorable actions, Trumbull proposed a common heritage of all Americans

Cultural and Material Aspirations, showing American wealth, ambition and land upon the arts. It also demonstrates the great interest for science, the seeking for understanding human conditions through topics of theology, philosophy, and self-improvement

John Trumbull - Trumbull considered the general's resignation (image above) "one of the highest moral lessons ever given to the World" and saw this painting as a companion to The Declaration of Independence (image below)

Feather Shoes

2009-03-17T21:48:00.000-07:00

I could not help myself and imagine wearing these feathers ... Aren't they gourgeous??

“The woman who wears our shoes is going out; this is not sportswear,” says Michelle Boor, wedding shoes designer who interned with Alber Elbaz at Guy Laroche after graduating from New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology. Indeed, with their pheasant plumes and black lace, these shoes can hardly be imagined tucked under a denim hem.”

Salary Report: Women are still getting short changed

2009-03-15T22:43:00.000-07:00

Just read this little article at Marie Clarie’s April issue, and found it profoundly sad (but true), albeit the huge amount of work women do, it seems we’ll be facing disadvantages for a while …

“In honor of Equal Pay Day (April 28), a look at how women are stacking up, salary wise:

For every dollar a man makes, a woman makes 78 cents. That number has climbed 1 cent since 2006.
Fresh-out-of-college women make $15,498 less per year than the boys; over a 35-year career, they'll make $210,000 less.
A 25-year-old female PR specialist makes the same as her male colleagues; 20 years later, she'll make about $35,000 less.
She-EOs make $303,000 less than their male counterparts.
Male primary-care physicians make 22 percent more than lady docs.
Male IT workers make 11.9 percent more than geekettes.

According to the American Association of University Women, at the current rate, we'll reach pay equity in 2040."

Abu Dhabi - Shape-Shift Dynamic Tower

2009-03-13T14:33:00.000-07:00

Yesterday reading a publication on Project Management I was stunned by the amazing photograph of the shape-shifting tower that are going to be built in Abu Dhabi. Although the exact location hasn’t been revealed yet, its opening is schedule to 2010.

As I tryed to find out more about the architecture and construction of the moving tower, I learned that the building was designed by the Dynamic Architecture Group (estimate cost US$700 million) and the tower will have 80 floors, which can rotate independently and at different speeds. 79 wind turbines squeezed between floors will provide power and approximately 20 percent of each roof will be exposed to the sun.

Seattle architecture

2009-03-12T20:05:00.000-07:00

Another BEAUTIFUL day in the so called the city of rain!

Life Changers

2009-03-08T20:28:00.000-07:00

A survey was conducted to define the top innovations of the last 30 years, according to judges at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania (the survey was sponsored by Knowledge @ Wharton, the school’s business publication). Some of my comments on the top innovations are below:

1. Internet, broadband
And just yesterday, a friend of mine and I were contemplating the benefits of VoIP phone, e-mail, blogging and the various ways one has to be in touch with family and friends. In contrast, all these benefits have substantially increased our time in front of the computer, while diminishing face-to-face time with family, friends …

2. PC and laptop computers
Thanks to Mr. Gates, we’re now connected to the WORLD WIDE WEB. Enjoying the benefits of portable computers, smartphones, and other devices. I guess it also means more work at home, while travelling and at Starbucks, over coffee … increased productivity?!?

3. Mobile phones
4. E-mail
I like the idea of e-mail and mobile phones working together, the easy way to text someone and be virtually in touch. Drawbacks: once again, e-mail = work = mind always busy (not a direct proportionality to productivity increase). Also, the recently launch of Google’s new application: Latitude - GPS kind of application used in smart phones that enables friends/family/workers to track your whereabouts - is scary controlling.

5. DNA testing and sequencing
Would love to see this working in 1928: Who didn’t get really upset and miserable with “Changeling” the true story movie of Christine Collins and her missed son??

6. Magnetic resonance imaging
7. Microprocessors
The architecture emphasizes efficiency/watt, prioritizes bandwidth over latency, and favors peak computational throughput over simplicity of program code. Software adoption remains a key issue in whether microprocessors ultimately deliver on its performance potential. Despite those challenges, research has indicated that microprocessors excel at several types of scientific computation

8. Fiber Optics
9. Office software
10. Laser/robotic surgery
11. Open-source software
12. Light-emitting diodes
13. Liquid crystal display
14. GPS devices
15. E-commerce and auctions
16. Media file compression
17. Microfinance
18. Photovoltaic solar energy
19. Large-scale wind turbines
20. Internet social networking

Free public library - The republic of letters (Andrew Carnegie)

2009-03-06T16:34:00.000-08:00

I apologize for not being around as often as I was in the past, posting ideas and findings from life every now and then. I’ve been busy, so busy that even those 20 something hours that I said, some postings ago, I have for free time, was eaten up … work, work, work…

I’ll try to make my come back to the blogging world again, in a way to pursue a dream that is to show and reiterate the views I have, not just the ones biased in my cultural roots, but also the ones I’ve been perceiving throughout my journey.

This week I had training in Seattle, so I could enjoy a little bit more of the city during its work busy days. The training location was a block from the Seattle Public Library. So, that’s what I would like to show you, some pics of the beautiful public library Seattle has and its exquisite architecture.

The public library building has just 5 years and it’s yet one of the best libraries in the USA. I met one of the library’s administrative personnel while touring on one of the 10 stories of the library (10 stories, could you believe it?), and she mentioned that the individual letters of the quote by Andrew Carnegie (showed in the photo below) was actually moved from the old Seattle library to this new building. Amazing, hah!

Hope you enjoy as much as I did when I was visiting it over lunch during this week!

"There is not such a cradle of democracy upon the earth as the free public library, this republic of letters, where neither rank, office, nor wealth receives the slightest consideration." Andrew Carnegie

Confucius Sayings

2009-02-21T10:46:00.000-08:00

"By three methods we may learn wisdom:

First, by reflection, which is noblest;

Second, by imitation, which is easiest;

and third by experience, which is the bitterest. "

Confucius 孔夫子 **

** Chinese thinker and social philosopher, whose teachings and philosophy have deeply influenced Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Taiwanese and Vietnamese thought and life.

"The Last American Man" - by Elizabeth Gilbert

2009-02-16T22:09:00.000-08:00

Talking about Elizabeth Gilbert, I would like to share some perspective she discusses in her book “The last American Man” a kind of memoir about how Eustace Conway – The Last American Man – sees society and how he sees it evolving by forgetting our roots or over simplifying the basic needs of humanity.

Read below a short review of the book and its main character:

"Eustace Conway discovered nature's wonders as a boy growing up in South Carolina during the 1960s. Miserable at home, a born perfectionist and fanatic, he took to the woods and developed wilderness skills unknown to most modern Americans. By the time he finished high school and moved into a teepee (his abode for 17 years), he was convinced that only encounters with "the high art and godliness of nature" could help save American society from its catastrophically wasteful habits and soul-deadening trivial pursuits. Conway is not alone in his beliefs, but he is unique in his maniacal drive to proselytize, and, ironically enough, he's taken his teaching mission to such extremes by attempting to create an Appalachian wilderness utopia that it's impossible for him to live the very life he champions. Tough, shrewd, gifted, vigorous, and contradictory, Conway, who set a world record crossing the continent on horseback in 103 days, both enlightens and confounds all who know him. Gilbert, a top-notch journalist and fiction writer, braids keen and provocative observations about the American frontier, the myth of the mountain man, and the peculiar state of contemporary America with its "profound alienation" from nature into her spirited and canny portrait, ultimately concluding that Conway's magnetism is due in part to his embodying society's most urgent conundrums." Donna SeamanCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Here's a excerpt of how Eustace Conway ideals are expressed in Gilbert's book:

“... through our constant striving for convenience, we are eradicating the raucous and edifying beauty of our true environment and replacing that beauty with a safe but completely faux “environment”. What Eustace sees is a society steadily undoing itself, it might be argued, by its own over-resourcefulness. Clever, ambitious, and always in search of greater efficiency, we have, in two short centuries, created a world of push-button, round-the-clock comfort for ourselves. The basic needs of humanity – food, clothing, shelter, entertainment, transportation, and even sexual pleasure – no longer need to be personally labored for or ritualized or even understood. All these things are available to us now for mere cash. Or credit. Which means that nobody needs to know how to do anything anymore, except the one narrow skill that will earn enough money to pay for the conveniences and services of modern life.

But in replacing every challenge with a shortcut we seem to have lost something, and Eustace isn’t the only person feeling that loss. We are an increasingly depressed and anxious people – and not for nothing. Arguably, all these modern conveniences have been adopted to save us time. But time for what? Having created a system that tends to our every need without causing us undue exertion or labor, we can now fill these hours with …?

Well, for one thing, television – loads of it, hours of it, days and weeks and months of it in lifetime. Also, work. We spend more and more hours at our jobs every year; in almost every household both parents must work fulltime outside the home to pay for all these goods and services. Which means a lot of commuting. Which means a lot of stress. Less connection to family and community. Fast-food meals eaten in cars on the way to and from work. Poorer health all the time.

There’s an arrogance to such attitude, but – more than that – there’s a profound alienation. We have fallen out of rhythm. It’s this simple.”

I like to think that we take pleasure in being pampered, but we also want to be part of something bigger, be able to build a better world and a sustainable community. Something that brings light and hope to our lives. We are evolving as human beings throughout the ages; therefore we learn from the past and we always seek for improvements. However, our both sides come to light. Even though we are able teach and spread the good, the caring, the tenderness around us; we are also able to edify the opposite. I like to think we are somehow wisely enlightened of with virtuous and noble actions, and that we decide to act upon them. I always try to see the bright side of everything to change the things that I may control or entice in others the same behavior.

I hope.

Elizabeth Gilbert - author of Eat, Pray, Love

2009-02-16T19:27:00.000-08:00

I came to realize how fascinating it is to hear live the stories book writers share with an audience. It’s so incredible how they graciously master on engaging people’s attention on paper and live! Reading their books or hearing their lectures has been an adventure so rich and enchanting for me, that for now on I will not miss a lecture of my favorite writers! It’s like living different life experiences every time I open a book or sit curiously in the audience hearing one good writer.

Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love - her most recent book the #1 New York Times Bestselling memoir - came to Seattle last Thursday (Feb 11th). Curious as I am, I could not wait to hear what she had to say about life lessons, writing process, relationships and her upcoming book.

She’s marvelous, witty, fast, engaging story teller. She opened up her lecture telling us about two stories that would unfold with clues on how she came about to write Eat, Pray, Love. Ordinary life stories, lived throughout the course of a year, showed her how ephemeral life is and how messed up we are in this modern era.
She explained that we are a confused society, in which we are becoming a neurosis machine produced by this contemporary western type of life. A life style, maybe once praised, that now is contributing to this overwhelming number of people incapable to see clear through the lens of the hectic era, losing themselves in the midst of millions of options, unable to find the true answers within their own body and soul. Even though, she didn’t walk us through the answers to solve this puzzle nor either had a recipe on how to live a fulfilling life amongst all the common issues of contemporary life; she unselfishly shared with us what she learned when her own daemons were agitating her soul and body right after her divorce:

She learned how to limit her choices without limiting herself
She learned to scale back a little bit and feeling comfortable with it
She applied ferociously effort to limit the material life
She followed her passion, her curiosity as a glimpse of a shadow
She chose to focus on what she loves about, what fascinates her. Ideas that don’t live her alone

About writing, she gave us a few tips:

· Try to find your own voice: in doing so, go to the library, look for books, subjects that interest you, read yourself blind, start to write in the matter of your favorite writer, emulate
· Move to your own voice, your own experiences
· Show your work to kind people – get a confidence boost
· Show your work to different people
· Research who is publishing things that are similar to your work. Send a praise personal letter to the publisher

Gilbert's awesome lecture at TED: Ideas worth spreading.

Click on the link to hear Elizabeth Gilbert: A different way to think about creative genius. She muses on the impossible things we expect from artists and geniuses -- and shares the radical idea that, instead of the rare person "being" a genius, all of us "have" a genius. It's a funny, personal and surprisingly moving talk.

So, I believe I had my craving settle after hearing and meditating about Gilbert’s point of view.

Happy Valentines Day

2009-02-14T18:28:00.000-08:00

Slumdog millionaire

2009-02-08T22:20:00.000-08:00

I just got back home from a movie session with friends. We hurriedly got into the movie theater and did not have time for conjectures about the movie. We were late and movie trailers were playing. After the end of the movie, we then spent some time chatting. To get our impressions reunited and to put them into perspective based on our cultural differences, over Starbucks coffee, mine a grande americano with room. Two Brazilians, one Italian and one American chatted merrily about “Slumdog Millionaire”.

"Slumdog Millionaire is about Jamal, a poor, young man from the slums of Mumbai, who through a stroke of luck appears in the wildly popular TV game show “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. And through the game Q and A, Jamal remembers his struggles and stories that curiously made him know the answers of the game questions."

I was still trying to get my own perceptions and emotions managed. I left the movie theater thinking about all that have been showed, the music, the places, the voice of the movie. I was feeling overwhelmed about the plot, about India, about the slums. Therefore, I wasn’t prepared to evoke my thoughts yet. I was stunned and I could not think right. So, I didn’t. Then, after some time, after listening their thoughts and impressions, I started to feel at easy and could express some thoughts.

First, Slumdog Millionaire reminded me a lot about Brazilians movies, like to ones played at Rio slums. The shacks where people are barely able to straighten their arms, houses made of cardboard and where raw sewage run visibly. People, real people not all robbers and thieves, trying to live a life in the midst of crime and drug dealers. Stories of hope and tragedy, of glory and criticism. In India, however, as the plot evolves, slums are showed as a dwelling for people who don’t have money or class, and definitely who don’t deal or have business with drug dealers. Yet, other social problems are faced and wars startle as the ones in the Rio slums, over a different motif.

In fact, the movie is an abounding story of hope and life saving for those who come from the slum. It’s heartbreaking to see the little boys and girls fighting for life and following a route that they arbitrarily choose. But it’s one-side view, the view from people that were making a live out of nothing. Conversely, the movie doesn’t explore the social problem, the abject poverty. It doesn’t criticize or question the position stated. No character in the movie does that; they apathetically observe and subsist in those circumstances.

I’ve being doing some research, trying to understand what Indians are thinking about the movie and how truthful it is. I’ve learned that the movie was just released in India, whereas in the US and Europe have been since late last year. I also came to know that it had amazing reviews and write-ups in the US; however, it got mixed reviews in India. Here’re some extracts of opinions in India:

“The movie is at its heart, about aspiration, and about dreams coming true. This ‘common man' Jamal, is not angry, like the Indian men of the 1970s. He is both hopeful and relentless, defiant and proud of his origins even as the people around him call him a 'slumdog'. He knows better - that it doesn't matter where you come from, only where you are headed.”

Nandan Nilekani, co-founder and head of Infosys, India's largest IT services company.

“Unlike his counterparts from the American South, Jamal never quite becomes the everyman's voice of his period in Indian history; we never hear him telling us other people's interesting stories from his vantage point as an ‘outsider' …All this makes Slumdog a half-hearted, comme ci, comme ca endeavor that wants to both be a fairy-tale and capture urban poverty but falters on both counts. Slumdog, then, is at best an attempt to cook a saccharine dish in a bitter sauce.” PH of Desicritics.

Well, I guess I’ll still continue to collect more about the subject. And India. This is just the tip of the iceberg!

Some craziness and truthfulness - By Andy Warhol

2009-02-05T20:22:00.000-08:00

How do you like to be monitored??

2009-02-05T10:30:00.000-08:00

I guess you don’t… at some times ..
But companies are just providing technology for people to know where you are!

I learned this week that Google just launched a new application called Latitude. Google Latitude lets you have your location monitored and shared in real time with your friends, family, or whomever you choose. Once you sign up, GPS satellites and cell towers watch your whereabouts. They pull location data from your laptop or smartphone, then pinpoint you on a pretty little Google Map as you go about your day.

An article on this subject goes beyond and says that employers might find this new application appealing to them: tracking service people as they move from call-to-call and delivery vehicles. The service could also be used to make certain the closest resource is always sent to a customer's request.

All good, and all seems valid business justification.

However, the amount of extremely personal information, such as the details of all a person's travels is sent to Google. And it seems that not all people TRUST Google and its applications. As David Coursey mentioned: “ They wonder why the company offers so many free applications unless it has some way to monetize them that isn't obvious to the user.” Who knows where all this personal information will stop after being captured at Google’s servers. We all know that mistakes occur and data might show up where it’s not necessary or required. The article mentioned an AOL case to exemplify that this type of thing really happens. AOL once accidentally posted three months’ worth of search histories from its users. People were able to actually identify specific users and see their searches. Pretty ugly, isn’t it?

Well, I know technology enables an interesting and “optimized” future when everyone seems connect and maximize the use of this connectivity. Hopefully, we will keep our boundaries and some health privacy!!

Thoughts and Dreams and Numbers

2009-02-04T19:57:00.000-08:00

Yesterday after my workout session I was picking some words and ideas that were popping up in mind while I was relaxing …It seems that this situation takes place almost every time my body is tired, I mean, muscle tired, and then high level of inspiration starts to flow through my body. Crazy ideas from someone in IT industry, like the one, I just had another day, about performing in the fashion industry or being professor of philosophy or a writer, come to mind … Well, anyways, this craziness sometimes serves a purpose. And at that moment, while relaxing, I realize how little time I have for my epiphanies.

Because:

Work itself consumes at least 50 hours per week (being optimistic);
Sleep takes about another 60 hours; oh yeh, this is my skin anti-aging antidote apart from working out!
House related (like preparing vegetables au sauté for dinner), beauty chores (as enjoying the bubbles in the bath tub), working out and doing Internet-stuff: blogging/e-mailing etc., consume another 25 hours

Summarizing: 151 hours per week of duties.
It gives me 17 hours to play, to study, to enjoy family and friends; an average of 2.42 hours per day.

So, I guess I need to rearrange my schedule and find more time to be free. To be creatively idler as Domenico de Masi (Italian writer) once profoundly and seriously discussed the subject in two or more books of his.

I think I know what prompted this craziness about hours and weeks and ideas and time. I am deeply involved in a very diligent task to report the number of hours I have spent in the last 8 years leading projects in several capacities. There are at least 30 different categories per project I need to fill out information about deliverables I met, created or directed in the past. Plus, the number of hours spent per category/project. Apart from being a very detail-oriented task which requires a lot of attention and a remarkable memory, I found it profoundly helpful to:
1. Dig up my past accomplishments “undergrounded in a lost world”
2. Remind me of the foulest and greatest projects I have been into
3. Kindly assess the past 8 years of my professional life in Brazil, Mexico and EUA

Well, I haven’t finish the task yet, I was in need of a break to put thoughts back in order and to see if any epiphany would send me a special invitation to fly away. A glimpse of what’s like to be fully connected to my being and a free pass to enter a state of fulfillment, creativity and glory, even for just seconds.

Words' expression and beauty

2009-02-02T22:04:00.000-08:00

You should visit her blog, here’s my recommendation: Shaft of Sunlight. And here’s why:I got to know Kimberly because I was interested in perfecting my English skills. Kimberly is a writer and a teacher. But she also became a very nice and special friend of mine. She taught me how to express myself in the very hectic USA corporate/business environment: first in writing and secondly by encouraging my voice out. She is an artist with words; she embellishes what she sees and how she communicates. It’s such a joy to be friends with her and share a little bit of her world.

I had just finished visiting her blog and suddenly that urge to share what I’ve read erupted in me. She wrote a beautiful analysis of an article posted by “The Washington Post” called: Pearls before Breakfast. She had suggested the reading of the article a few weeks ago, and soon I had a break, I was reading it. So, for my surprise, when I visited her blog today, she was all well-prepared with a dissertation on the subject.

Luck me! (and you, as well! :-))

Yep, the Wash. Post article is interesting. It talks about an experiment in context, perception and priorities (as the article puts it) arranged by The Washington Post and conducted by Joshua Bell, a very famous violinist (his pic is below), and the astounding results of it. The article is fun, albeit long, and it provides a great grasp of what’s happening on people’s lives due their hectic schedule and "busyness" life; till I read Kimberly’s post: Rethinking Today’s Verbs, which inundated me with joy. Then, almost instantaneously, I forgot about Gene Weingarten - Washington Post Staff Writer – and her article. And therefore, I surrendered to the delight of reading Kimberly’s charismatic fresh words and emotions.

Kudos to Kimberly and to her sensibility and ability to magnify language!

Fashion Brazil-EUA

2009-02-02T10:17:00.000-08:00

This Sunday, Super Bowl, I felt a little out of place here in my “America home sweet home”, so I started to think about things I am usually curious about, things that distract me and make me dream. One of the dreams that I have is to be part of the fashion business, somehow…

I know, I don’t know anything about it; however, in my dream, this place seduces me, it transports me to where all possibilities become possible and magical. So I like to dream that such a place exists, per its beauty and promises. I like to think of me choosing for the perfect colors, for the impeccable fit and the hidden message each outfit must exhilarate through its clothes, accessories, makeup and style.

I started travelling through the pages of W magazine and its fashion editorials. I also remembered that once even New Yorker surrendered to Fashion and Style, publishing an entire issue on this subject.

In fact, I thought about what might be happening in Brazil as well in fashion, and how these two different countries could express their beauty, trends and glamour especially when seasons are the opposite. I just learned that summer editorials in Brazil are successfully employing contained and chic bath suits in classical colors, in spite of the regular Brazilian (so famous!) beach fashion.

Styled by Susana Barbosa / Photographies Rogério Cavalcanti

Fashion is always reinventing itself, and it’s so amazing to see the trends coming and going, imprinting freshness every time it comes to us! So, I brought some of what’s going on in Brazil, from fashion magazines compared to USA editorials.

B R A Z I L - Summer

Summer clothes that can be used in the city and at the beach with some production tricks

Styled by Susana Barbosa / Photographies Rogério Cavalcanti
Styled by Susana Barbosa / Photographies Rogério Cavalcanti
Styled by Susana Barbosa / Photographies Rogério Cavalcanti
Styled by Susana Barbosa / Photographies Rogério Cavalcanti
Styled by Susana Barbosa / Photographies Rogério Cavalcanti

U S A - Winter/Spring

Floaty fabrics, flirty dresses and lots of ladylike extras boost prespring's femininity factor

Photographed by Claudia Knoepfel and Stefan Indlekofer. Styled by Alex White

Photographed by Claudia Knoepfel and Stefan Indlekofer. Styled by Alex White

Photographed by Claudia Knoepfel and Stefan Indlekofer. Styled by Alex White

Photographed by Claudia Knoepfel and Stefan Indlekofer. Styled by Alex White

Itacaré - Bahia - Brazil

2009-02-01T20:32:00.000-08:00

"Hidden in a special spot, between Salvador and llheus, in a corner of a land between the Atlantic Ocean and Rio de Contas, small Itacaré is a different city in beauty, culture, geography and philosophy.
An unusual city, marked by its dazzling sunset, the movement of the sailing crafts and the tradition of the capoeira.
Its beaches are so special that they don't even appear on maps, replete with coconut palm trees and green waters. Deserted, with clear sand, they are an invitation for a sunbath and a dive every minute. The city has such particular people and customs that the visitor can be surprised thinking that he/she is in another period or another country.
The Mata Atlantica (Atlantic Forest) in Itacare has been reasonably preserved, producing a microclimate in the region, responsible for cool nights. And, in addition, trails, waterfalls and visits to the mangrove swamp full of guaiamus and blue and red crabs.

Recently the earth road leading from Ilheus to Itacaré was transformed into a park road, increasing still more the value of that paradise. Thus, those 70 kilometres of snow-white sand, with secret and untouched beaches, rivers, coconut palm trees and forests may remain as it is. Because Itacare is not keen at all for the arrival of the progress." (by Amazon Adventures)

Itacaré is made up of 7 neighborhoods: Porto de Trás, Marimbondo, Passagem, Centro, São Miguel, Pituba e Concha. The municipality occupies an area of 730 km² (457 sq. miles) with about 20,000 residents and, approximately 60% of the population in the rural interior. During much of the time, its livelihood was closely connected to cocoa. With the declining cocoa culture, the town is now turning toward tourism.

Atlantic Ocean and Itacaré's Coconut Palm Trees

Popular Capoeira at sunset

Street "beach" vendor of "Queijo Coalho"

is a firm but very lightweight cheese produced in Brazil. It is rather salty and has an almost 'squeaky' texture when bitten into. It is a very popular and cheap snack on the beach in Brazil, where walking vendors brown rectangular slabs of it in hand-held charcoal ovens, often with a sprinkling of oregano and garlic-flavored sauce. It is eaten off a stick, much like a kebab. "Queijo coalho! Queijo na brasa!" ("cheese over the coals") is the vendors' incessant call.

(Wikipedia source)

P.S.: All pics are mine, except for the Capoeira i n the sunset. It was downloaded from the internet to highlight Brazilian typical play/dance, which happens every afternoon in Itacaré.

Peninsula de Maraú - Bahia - Brazil

2009-02-01T19:43:00.000-08:00

Apart of celebrating Valentine’s month I also want to use some time admiring the raw and charming places of Brazil – Northeast.

I know some people are curious and interested in these spots, looking for notes on culture, climate, rawness, geography, conservation, among other topics. They are touristic places for a lot of Europeans and Brazilians who can afford such curiosity and substance away from big cities and their malls and the cosmopolitan life. I’ll give you a glimpse of these quiet and peaceful places (and very hot); despite the cold I am feeling right now here in Seattle :-)

This post will be dedicated to The Peninsula de Maraú in Bahia.

The Península de Maraú, located in the Baía de Camamu (Bahia), is one of the most beautiful places in Brazil. The nearby village of Barra Grande, has only about 500 inhabitants and is a true place of peace and tranquility, where you can also find good bars and restaurants. Barra Grande Beach has warm and calm waters. You can also find nice surfing beaches. Other beaches with reefs make nice natural pools, a great location to practice diving.

VALENTINE'S MONTH

2009-02-01T13:30:00.000-08:00

Celebrating Valentine's Day

Vanessa da Silva

2009-01-25T11:51:00.000-08:00

Untitled

Ted Baker

Sagatiba

Today I want to dedicate this post to show you some of the beautiful artwork that my sister does. She is a fashion designer living in London for quite some time now.

Her name is Vanessa da Silva and she’s been living to create her luscious and unconventional drawings and to showcase them in the art and fashion spaces.

She created her first designs for sale in 2003 and since then she’s being doing some great and very unique work that juxtaposes her Brazilian’s inheritance, her bright imagination with a savor of European allure; you can find some more of her artwork and unique drawings at her website Vanessa da Silva.

Rant Magazine

Since 2003, she has designed six collections and two musically themed artworks to promote Parisian nightclub Favela Chic and the folk/electronic band Tunng.

She has also collaborated with Selfridges on the art exhibition "A Drink in Rio" and fashion label Basso and Brooke, Michiko Koshino accessories among other fashion labels. She has given the iconic Pepsi logo a makeover, see full article at The Silva Lining at Vogue.com.

She’s recently imprinting her subtle and sexy illustrative design work into some new fashion spaces. In Brazil, she designed some prints that were used as graphics in two dresses for the fashion show Neon 2009 from Erica Palomino. See them here:

I am here curious to see what comes next!

Local Luxury

Favela Chic

Basso and Brooke

Equilibristics

Amapo