aroundtheworld

CINEMA PARADISO

2008-04-28T16:55:00.000-07:00

The film is about the story of a child in a small Italian town in the years following the World War II.
The boy loved seeing all the films and he became friend of the projectionist Alfredo.
The whole town has been affected by the war and for most of people the theatre has become a refuge from the poverty and the depressing life that surrounds them.
The censor ordered to cut the scenes that he disapproves. Alfredo had to snip out the piece of celluloid…
Years passed and the young Salvatore following the advice of his friend Alfredo left his hometown and his humble origins to build his own life.
Salvatore had become a successful Italian film director and after 30 years he returns to his small village to attend the funeral of his dear friend Alfredo.
In a flashback Salvatore reviews his childhood and adolescence, his love, his relationship with Alfredo.
The film written and directed by Giuseppe Tornatore shows nostalgia for the times when movies were so important for so many people.
The film is very touching. The final scene is superb. At the end it’s a love letter to the cinema and homage to the cinema’s history.
The soundtrack is marvellous. I love it. The music composed by Ennio Morricone won some awards.
The film was made in Italy.
Philip Noiret stars as Alfredo his performance is impressive.
The film was awarded with the Special Jury Prize at 1989 in Cannes Festival and also in 1989 with the Best Foreign Language Oscar.

I love the film and I love the cinema the same as the film loves the cinema too!!

One short story (maybe for kids)

2008-04-20T09:06:00.000-07:00

Mark Twain was a very celebrated American writer (all of you might know him). He is a kind of literary icon; he wrote “The adventures of Tom Sawyer” who is a wide teenager.
Mark Twain explains that in a wonderful sunny summer day, Tom was getting ready to go away to the river (the Mississippi river) when his aunt Polly orders him to paint the garden fence, a very long fence... Tom doesn’t want to paint but aunt Polly is very strict and he has to do. Tom feels specially humiliated because of his friends are going to cross in front of his fence in their way to the river. Tom imagines how his friends are going to make fun of him.
Then Tom has an idea... The first friend arrives and says to Tom:
“Hello I see that you have got to do a very boring and hard work! I’m going to the river to swim!”
Tom carries on painting with a happy expression on his face. Tom’s friend doesn’t understand anything.
The friend keeps on talking to Tom: “You seem to have a good time, are you enjoying this work?”
Tom pretends to be very happy and answers: “Of course I’m really enjoying what I’m doing. At any day you can go to the river swimming but you can’t every day paint a fence”.
The friend is impressed and asks Tom if he can to paint too. He gives Tom an apple thankfully.
More friends arrive; all of them want to paint the fence.
At the end the fence is completely painted and Tom has got many gifts that his friends have given him.

Well, maybe you find that story an innocent story, and really it’s a simple story. But, for me, it teaches that we can change the way we see the things and we can have positive attitudes in situations that apparently have not any interest.
We have to learn to discover the good side of the situations (if it’s possible).

A small comment

2008-04-06T14:54:00.000-07:00

I had not written in the blog for ages! Núria was not encouraging for doing it.
We had Mariona as a teacher for some weeks and we have been obedient students doing what Mariona told us to do.
Now I’m again writing in the blog. But... I’m leaving for a week. I’m not going to come to class next week. When I came back I’m going to try to write more.
Have a nice week and work hard!

American Elections

2008-02-14T09:27:00.000-08:00

Karmelinda posted a very interesting video about Barack Obama in her blog. It’s very interesting. It’s very moving. Thank you.
I have been following a little bit the race to the nomination of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, I have red some news and I have listened to some debates between them. I like also to read articles from some journalists that reflect different opinions.
For me it’s exciting what is happening in USA.
There are many people in USA who are not the same as the politicians that lead the nation. President Bush and his Government are really extreme right wing. They have started a dreadful war in Iraq they don’t accept some resolution of the United Nations; they do nothing to fight against the global warming, etc. etc.
Obama’s campaign makes clear that many people in US don’t agree with so many things in their country and they would like big changes. For all of that words like “change” “hope” “we can” pronounced by so many American people could give us a bit of hope.
On the other hand, don’t you think that citizens of the whole world deserve to have the right of voting in the USA’s elections? Since all of us are affected by politics of the most powerful nation in our world. It’s a joke…
I attached one short article about Barack Obama if you would like to read…( Sorry I don't know the name of the journalist):

Is Barack Obama the next JFK?
Has Barack Obama developed the “Big Mo”, vital momentum that would take him through to the Democratic nomination, very possibly to the presidency? Even before the South Carolina vote there were two very experienced politicians who seemed to think that he has
We do not yet know whether Senator Obama will be able to carry his challenge through to actual nomination, despite his impressive victory in South Carolina. We shall be closer to knowing the answer on February 5, “Super-Duper Tuesday”, when 20 states will hold their primaries. Before South Carolina, Senator Clinton was ahead of Senator Obama in polls taken in California, New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts, but her poll ratings have been weakening. In South Carolina there was a surge for Mr Obama, greater than the polls suggested. We cannot know whether there will be a similar surge on February 5. If there is a big surge, Mr Obama could run away with the race.
There is no doubt that Mr Obama has charisma. He is a remarkable orator, particularly when he gets his audience with him. His speaking style has been influenced by the great black preachers, such as Martin Luther King, but his speeches have an intellectual as well as rhetorical content.
He does not always have better scripts than John F. Kennedy, whose team of speechwriters was the most distinguished I can remember, but he has a better delivery than Kennedy, symphonic rather than staccato, more black than Boston.
I find myself worried by the figures with whom Mr Obama is compared. Martin Luther King obviously, John F. Kennedy, but also Abraham Lincoln and even Mahatma Gandhi. All four were charismatic figures who claimed to lead their nations in a new and idealistic way. What they also had in common is that they were assassinated. Such men attract the hatred of those who fear and resent their influence. When General Colin Powell was offered the Republican nomination in 1996, his wife persuaded him to reject it, on the grounds that he would be exposed to the assassination threat. Mrs Powell may have been right. The role of the first black president of the United States will be a dangerous one.
If the surge towards Senator Obama continues he will probably win the presidency
If the Obama surge continues, we shall feel the effect of it in British politics. JFK changed British politics as well as American. I remember discussing this impact with Harold Macmillan. Kennedy had created a cult of youth. Experience, which had been an asset to a leader, became synonymous with being an old fuddy-duddy. During the Profumo scandal Macmillan said that he did not move in the youthful circles in which the scandal occurred. That was taken as the proof that he was out of touch, as though a Prime Minister in his sixties had a duty to mix with the younger set in louche nightclubs.
Youth, idealism, style are powerful political weapons. On February 5, we shall see whether they have captivated America. If they do, we shall find that they have captivated Britain as well. Barack Obama could have a message for us all.

An uncanny story

2008-01-22T02:38:00.000-08:00

Many years ago, I went on a few days holiday to Grain Britain. I was with a friend.

We were in a town near London, we stayed in a small but very nice hotel. We had made an appointment with English friends who lived in London.

We had asked our friends to go to the city stadium to see a football match because we knew that the stadium’s atmosphere in United Kingdom is absolutely amazing.
The seats weren’t located together and we didn’t go inside the stadium in the right door. The match was near to began and we had to go just to the opposite side of the stadium. We asked for help to an employee who took pity of us and went along with us walking for the edge of the pitch while the match began... it really was very excited to be there listening the songs and shouting of the English supporters of football very close to the players.

Finally we sat in our seats...At the end of the match we had to met again with our friends to go to have dinner. We weren’t able to meet them. Probably we hadn’t understood the right place where they said we had to meet and in those years there were no cellular telephones... so we had to went back to the hotel after having some light food...

Going back we talked about all the things that had happened that made the day not very successful. We wondered what else could happen to us? Maybe the hotel could get on fire? When we arrived to the street where the hotel was placed, we saw a firemen car with the ligths on, the street was closed, and a fireman stopped us. We saw there was some fire in the hotel... we couldn’t believe it, we were astonished.

It was very cold outside. The fire wasn’t important and the firemen finished their work soon. We can go inside the hotel. The room that had had the fire was just below our room, and there was a terrible smell. They put us in another room. It was very late but fortunately we could go to bed and sleep....At five in the early morning when we were resting after so heavy emotions, the door of the room suddenly opened.... A waiter with a tray said very kindly: good morning, here is your breakfast! We hardly could wake up and realise that it was a service mistake...

As Virginia said: "Are we fighting against the inevitable?"

Sir Edmund Hillary died

2008-01-14T07:22:00.000-08:00

Sir Edmund Hillary died

Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay were the first men to climb to Everest.
Hillary was born in 1919 and grew up in Auckland, New Zealand. It was in New Zealand that he began to climb. It was when he was sixteen, during a school trip to Mount Ruapehu, that his interest in mountaineering began. He also discovered that while he was not a natural athlete he was physically strong and had higher levels of endurance than many of his friends.
He was seriously involved in climbing
“Some day I’m going to climb the Everest”, he had told a friend.
Mountain Everest is between Tibet and Nepal. Before 1952 several expeditions failed to reach the summit and some people died in the attempt.
Hillary spent as much time as he could preparing for Everest. He climbed the Southern Alps in summer and winter, to practice both rock climbing and ice pick work. In 1951 Hillary made his first trip to the Himalayas and the following year joined a British Everest Committee training team. Hillary was in the British expedition in 1953 and after some weeks of incredible work in hardly conditions, he and the sherpa Tenzing reached the summit on May 29. They reached the highest point on earth.
The photos of Hillary and Tenzing on the top of the world were spread across the globe.
Hillary made humanitarian work for the Nepalese people for the rest of his life. He helped Sherpas building schools, hospitals and making other social work for people who lived in a so poor country.
He was also concerned by the degradation of the environment of the Himalayas and worked to persuade Nepalese government to make laws protecting the forest and areas around the Everest.
This is my small tribute to Hillary and Tenzing as models of people who work hard for the achievement of goals. I believe that strong motivation is the most important factor for you to achieve the objectives proposed by yourself.

About Christmas

2007-12-17T14:48:00.000-08:00

The humankind had made winter celebrations since former times. Christmas celebrations had old roots in ancient times when humans celebrate winter solstice. Afterwards was been given a religious meaning. All the cultures and civilizations have big celebrations and Christmas is perhaps the biggest one. Taking into account this old meaning Christmas is the celebration of the new life, of the complete change, because after the winter, the cold, and death, will arrive the spring, the warm, the new life. In my opinion that meaning of Christmas has sense whether or not you have religious believe.
I think that we all would need to break something with the past, to change in individual and collective sense and Christmas is the annual period when we have new wishes, good feelings, and new hopes.
Another think is that Christmas celebration has degenerated in a shopping holidays, the biggest feast of the consumer society: shopping, shopping and more shopping....and that are dreadful.

What do you think?

About the war

2007-11-12T09:40:00.000-08:00

War is the greatest menace of the mankind. War is death and destruction of everything; the biggest tragedy in the world. The reasons of the war are economical reasons, willing of domination, hate...that is the real evil part of the mankind.
Furthermore, to realize that the powerful people in democratic countries (theoretical democratic) who have in their hands the decisions that affected to everybody, lie, mislead, manipulate, in order to carry out the attacks, the war, is terrifying. I find repugnant those kinds of people.
I find terrible the manipulation of people opinion in order to make people to believe that the war is inevitable and it’s also terrible that people who are against the war are ignored o ridiculed.
I’m strongly against the war and I strongly believe that citizens could make something.
Against the war: Education! Education! Education! and other things...

Some homework I don't know if I shoud put it here

2007-11-11T15:22:00.000-08:00

Thinking in disasters that happened in Spain I think I have to emphasise in the “Prestige” disaster. The Prestige was an oil tanker. On November 2002 the Prestige filled on board with 77,000 metric tons of fuel oil was sailing near the Galicia coast. It was a very sever storm: heavy rains, high winds over 120 km/h, and very turbulent sea (that kind of storms are not infrequent in winter in the part of the Galicia coast that is called “Costa de la Muerte” that means “Dead Coast”).
The ship began to spill fuel and the Spanish government made the decision to move the ship away from the coast, that was a very terrible mistake because from the new position of the ship, the ship was still more beaten by the storm, the ship broke, the oil was spread into a long “fuel front” and carried by the strong winds to the coastline of Galicia, as a consequence the black tide of highly toxic fuel reached the cost. The oil destroyed one of the richest areas in Europe for fishing and one of the most beautiful places in Galicia. Hundreds of beaches were destroyed the wildlife was damaged and the economy of the area seriously affected.
The disaster has a great impact in the Spanish society; many people went to Galicia to make volunteer work cleaning the beaches and rocks.
The disaster had also political consequences because it was shown the incompetence of the political leaders.
What do you think classmates?

2007-10-16T14:47:00.000-07:00

About myself.
“Our lives are a mixture of different roles; most of us are doing the best we can to find whatever the right balance is”. I read the aforesaid sentence I don’t remember when...For me, that balance is family, work, friends, enjoy as much as possible whatever the life brings to you and to do everything one can to make the world a little better.

I’ve been a teacher for many years. I have loved my work trying to do it with accuracy and responsibility. I’m very happy for all that I have learned from the books, from the specific technics I had to use, from my colleagues to whom I had to work with. I’m very happy for the fortune of being among so many young people who have been my students.

I have many friends. I love them. I think it’s a fortune to have friends with which you can share knowledge and feelings.

I like very much discover new places in the world. I like travelling. Travelling increases your knowledge, opens your mind.

I like cinema very much. I have seen many films not specially the more commercial ones. It would be very long to say which ones I like the best.
I like very much classical music and other kind of music too.

The family is very important for me. I understand the family as a space of love, understanding and tolerance.

I have always believed that the mankind had made progresses: think in the human rights, in the progress of the science in the progress in all kind of tools that humans have in order to make their lives better.But I must to say that I’m now more pessimistic regarding on the problems of the global world where we live, with the global warming, with the wars, with thousands of people starving or dying of diseases that could be easily solved ( maybe I’m wrong. Do you believe that thinks are going to turn out well? Please help me with new arguments).

I would like not to lose the enthusiasm for learning. I want to be engaged in life forever.