Bob Dylan… Still a Rolling Stone

- Why do we need rolling stones? People have always struggled to change the world through art but never has it been as effective as with Bob Dylan. He was able to turn a song into an anthem and gather a generation around it. This icon of pop culture born in 1941, who started his career in small cafes and bars, came up with a song that we all can sing along with “Blowing in the Wind” (1964). This song and many others were able to tackle serious social issues introducing poetry into top 10´s. Not only was this author able to fight for his beliefs, but he was also a rolling stone. He never surrendered his artistic vision for any audience and was willing to risk everything on behalf of change. As the rolling stone that never stops, Bob has always kept looking for a new chord, your sympathetic chord, the one that he´s still striking. We might not need a second coming, but it’s high time to stand up for our rights and defend what can´t be compromised “When you´ve got nothing, you´ve got nothing to lose.”

quote

A quotation I saw this week on a friend´s wall. I found it funny and tremendously truthful.

Sir Ken Robinson

But of course I see three parts on this speech! :)

1. Introduction:

In this part Mr. Robinson links his talk to previous ones in the TED conferences, underlines the importance of creativity and tells us how we destroy it with all our education Systems and at the work places.

2. Body of the talk:

Our speaker explains that all education systems have a similar structure placing Maths at the top, Humanities in the middle and Arts at the bottom. We educate from the bottom upwards and we finally end up concentrating on the head, particularily on the left hemisphere; hence, the system is created to produce "University profesors".
It produces individuals that are mainly intellectual (good joke about the disembody proffesors who think on their body as a mean of transportation).
This Education System was created to respond to the Indistrial Revolution needs, therefore, it values people who do well at the top subjects and rejects those who have a tendency to Arts using phrases such as "you won´t get a job as an artist" as a deterrant.
There are two ideas at the bases of this sort of education:
- creativity will not get you a job
- only academic ability is worth having.
Both of those ideas are obsolete. Nowadays the fact that everibody has a diploma has lead us to a devaluation of such tittles (academic inflation), and under those circumstances it is necesary to rethink what we understad as intelligence. We know three facts about intelligence:
- It is diverse
- It is dinamic
- It is distinct- in this part he provides a very vivid example of a woman dancer who did poorly at school but was able to succede though other abilities.

3. Conclusion:

We need to change our conception of human ecology picturing intelligence not as a comodity. We ought to see our creative capacities as the gift that they are and our children as the hope that they are.

A beautiful song

Talking about love and the lost of it. Here is a song that talks about the end of love. The video is outstanding; beautiful, artistic and very reveling. While Peter Gabriel tries to safe a wreck Gotye shows the aftermath.

Also, another word about movement: stoop

And the lyrics:
Now and then I think of when we were together
Like when you said you felt so happy you could die
I told myself that you were right for me
But felt so lonely in your company
But that was love and it's an ache I still remember

You can get addicted to a certain kinda sadness
Like resignation to the end, always the end 
So when we found that we could not make sense
Well you said that we would still be friends
But I'll admit that I was glad it was over

But you didn't have to cut me off 
Make out like it never happened and that we were nothing 
I don't even need your love, but you treat me like a stranger
And that feels so rough

No, you didn't have to stoop so low
Have your friends collect your records
And then change your number
Guess that I don't need that though
Now you're just somebody that I used to know

Now you're just somebody that I used to know
Now you're just somebody that I used to know

Now and then I think of all the times you screwed me over
But had me believin it was always something that I'd done

But I don't wanna live that way
Reading into every word you say
You said that you could let it go
And I wouldn't catch you hung up on somebody that you used to know-oh-oh

But you didn't have cut me off
Make out like it never happened and that we were nothing (oh)
I don't even need your love, but you treat me like a stranger 
and that feels so rough

(oh)

No, you didn't have to stoop so low
Have your friends collect you records
And then change your number (oh)
Guess that I don't need that though
Now you're just somebody that I used to know

Somebody that I used to know
Somebody (now your just somebody that I used to know)
That I used to know
Somebody that I used to know
Somebody (somebody)
That I used to know

I used to know
That I used to know
I used to know
Somebody

Funny History

Not on I WW but funny sitcom about the IIWW. Mitchell and Webb have a few shows on history. Very English witty humour. Hope you like it!

Rewritings instead of Dickens, sorry

Postmodernism rewrote many of the most famous novels of modernism and many of the classics. Some of my favorite books are among those works, so I´m going to try a rewriting instead... (if I slip in an inversion it might fly by)

And he, who prided himself of not needing anyone, found himself missing her.
The roach burning his lips on every puff he took was an outlet to his pain. Never had he experienced loneliness; he would never feel her again.
For the first time in his life he regreted something. H wished he had never walked in the opperation room to find her broken body on the opperation table.
She was her creature, her beautiful monster. Everything he had ever desired, but... with a mind of her own.
And the rain kept beating on the window panes; his thoughts cloudy as the Montecristo´s smoke.

Couple videos

A couple videos I recently came across with. They are not very connected to history, but I thought they showed the kind of world we created for us...
They are about women, however, I think they cold be applied to both sexes.

And the second http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYhCn0jf46U

Hope you enjoy them!

The lost of Cuba

Knowing very little  History , I found myself wondering what event in History I could choose.  I then remembered one of my mother´s favorite sayings: “More was lost in Cuba”. When things went wrong and there was no going back, it was some sort of consolation to know that, as catastrophic as it seemed, there were worse things in life.

So, the lost of Cuba. As in any historical event it is important to know a little bit of its context, a little background. After the Industrial Revolution great amounts of goods flooded the European markets creating the need to expand to new markets. That was accomplished by the European nations by dividing the world among then though different agreements and treaties such as the one signed in the Berlin Conference witch divided Africa or others about Asia, China… That avoided open conflict, although not without some clashes.

However, during this period USA didn´t expand on Africa or Asia, but on the Pacific and Caribbean Sea; and it is in that expansion that we can find the ground for the Spanish lost of Cuba, since Spain had colonies in those seas ( Cuba and Puerto Rico in the Pacific, and Philippines, las Carolinas and the Marianas in the Caribbean) .

In fact, several North American presidents had expressed an interest on buying those territories before the lost of the island.

The events unchained on the 15^th of February 1898, when the battleship Maine blew up in the port of La Habana. This fact was blamed on Spain by the USA authorities and taken as an excuse to demand the liberation of Cuba which the Spanish government refused to do.

Taking those demand as a provocation the Spanish government declared war to USA; little did they know that previously to this declaration USA had positioned battleships in The Philippines and Guam, or that a naval blockade had been declared in Cuba three month prior to the war.

Looking at this context we can understand this war was lost from the beginning. Our most important question is, in any case, “Why was this so significant?”

As a matter of fact, this was for many historians the beginning of the North American empire.  Spain had to turn Cuba, Puerto Rico and Guam to the United States and had to sell almost all its colonies; but the old beast had long been crumbling,. A new colossus was being born, as eager of power as its predecessor.

To start preparing for Thursday!!

Here is an article of all the advantages of doing Yoga. That´s an investigation I wouldn´t mind being a Guinei- pig in!!!
http://theconversation.edu.au/beyond-spirituality-the-role-of-meditation-in-mental-health-4326

On Mandela´s way

What have I learned reading this book? Such a difficult question when the book makes you analyze your own life in so many aspects. Each of the fifteen chapters comes very close to home in some way. However, and having to choose what I  will carry with me, I think some of my favorite ideas were the one about leading from the back, looking or playing the part and finding and taking care of your garden (which I think is extremely related to knowing when to say no).

Concernig leading from the back I very often find myself in situations where one wanders how those words came out of one´s mouth. leading from the back is a great way to control myself since it takes more thought to lead than to act in many an occation.

Related to playing the part humans tend to see and understad better the information that already fits on previous structures, and this is the case here. I am the kind of person who thinks what she is going to wear to battle her boss, to pass an exam or to a demonstration, when the occation calls for it and I can find the energy... Mandela´s acquiescence on the point made me feel a little less superficial?

Finaly, looking for and taking care of your garden reminded me that it is important to take care of one´s self and look for a retrieve. I very often forget about this and find myself in the middle of the chaos with no place or time to consider where things are heading.

All in all, out of the individual lessons from some chapters however, the book gave me and overall positive feeling and a great lesson on humbleness; there is that man who is one of the icons of our century allways thinking about what he could learn from others and getting closer to those he thought could teach him. It is the person, at the end, that leaves me at an awe!

Stereotypes!

Talking about racism I think stereotypes play a big part on how we see each other. I thought this show did a good job at ridiculizing all cliches laughing at all stereotypes by using all stereotypes. A caustic, unpropper , unpolite, politicaly incorrect show. If you have 30 minutes to spare... Boondocks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmBc8_uD5Nw