diumenge, 23 de novembre del 2008
Que poques paraules tinc!
A molta gent d’aquest país, per qui Lluís Llach va ser un referent ètic i polític els darrers anys de la dictadura, sempre els ve al cap algun vers de Lluís Llach que defineix un estat mental, una situació. Quan veig que el tribunal constitucional tombarà els aspectes fonamentals de l’Estatut: la definició de nació, la equiparació del Català i el Castellà i el finançament, em ve al cap “el jorn dels miserables” quan diu: “que poques paraules tinc, i les que us dic són tan gastades, caldrà cercar nous camins on no manquin les paraules”. Sabent el que sabem, la resposta dels partits catalans sembla més aviat sembla minsa i de “poca-pena”. Unió proposa protestar ajuntant-se amb el PSC que és el partit que comparteix govern amb el PSOE que el responsable màxim de tombar l’Estatut. Iniciativa crida a la “mobilització ciutadana” però per suposat no diu res de trencar amb el PSC, i Esquerra diu que no es moment de convocar eleccions. Només la proposta de “Casa gran del Catalanisme” de Convergència sembla obrir les portes a un Catalanisme transversal, que aplegui gent de sensibilitats diverses però amb un concepte de nació similar. En tot cas, queda clar que el constitucional dirà que la Nació Catalana no cap a la Constitució. El que sens dubte és una invitació explícita a canviar-la o marxar. Les paraules estan molt gastades. Cal cercar nous camins per anar “mes lluny”.
dijous, 20 de novembre del 2008
Dealing with education
We have been hearing a lot of different complains about education in Catalonia and Spain from both elementary school and university. Education is a difficult problem to deal with and our politicians don't seem to be doing a good job with it.
About elementary education it is obvious that there is a problem. We have boys and girls that are not interested in studying and have to stay in class until they are 16 and their teachers are obliged by law to make them pass. The ones who are interested at the beginning, finish ESO (Obligatory Secondary Education) with 0 motivation and with a level which is much lower than it should be to start with the two last years of high school. Then it is even harder to get high marks during these two years which is important to be able to study what you want to afterwards. Basically a complete disaster.
Now returning to the topic of universities and Bologna plan from which we've been hearing a lot lately. I've been at university for three years now and... what I see is that the most important thing is to unify the criteria, to create the basic subjects for each career and call them the same way, to convalidate the same kind of extra activities in all universities. How can we be talking about unifying criteria with Europe if we don't have it unified here? Moreover I would like to add that it is not that easy to unify the way lessons work in all the European universities as each culture has different ways of doing things, different habits... I think that should be taken into account. I'm not that confident about how would the Swedish system work applied in Spain. I can't see Spanish or Catalan universities working without magisterial lessons... I think our society is not ready for this.
About elementary education it is obvious that there is a problem. We have boys and girls that are not interested in studying and have to stay in class until they are 16 and their teachers are obliged by law to make them pass. The ones who are interested at the beginning, finish ESO (Obligatory Secondary Education) with 0 motivation and with a level which is much lower than it should be to start with the two last years of high school. Then it is even harder to get high marks during these two years which is important to be able to study what you want to afterwards. Basically a complete disaster.
Now returning to the topic of universities and Bologna plan from which we've been hearing a lot lately. I've been at university for three years now and... what I see is that the most important thing is to unify the criteria, to create the basic subjects for each career and call them the same way, to convalidate the same kind of extra activities in all universities. How can we be talking about unifying criteria with Europe if we don't have it unified here? Moreover I would like to add that it is not that easy to unify the way lessons work in all the European universities as each culture has different ways of doing things, different habits... I think that should be taken into account. I'm not that confident about how would the Swedish system work applied in Spain. I can't see Spanish or Catalan universities working without magisterial lessons... I think our society is not ready for this.
dilluns, 17 de novembre del 2008
Sobre blancs i negres
Hi havia una vegada un regne molt llunyà, pròsper i ric, habitat per goril·les. Els goril·les havien estat governats per un mateix goril·la durant vuit anys, i n’estaven farts. Estaven tips de guerres, de terrorisme i de crisi econòmica. Buscaven un rei completament diferent que pogués solucionar tots els seus problemes.
Tothom especulava sobre qui seria l’adequat per a tal repte, qui podria ser el nou rei. Fins que un dia aparegué un goril·la blanc que es presentà com a candidat al càrrec.
- Visca!- Cridaven els entusiasmats simis segurs d’haver trobat la resposta a tots els seus maldecaps. Qui seria més diferent de l’anterior rei goril·la? Qui podria aportar visons més noves i diverses que un goril·la blanc? Qui sinó ell podria retornar l’orgull perdut al regne?
En aquell indret habitava també una guilla que tenia fama de ser astuta i desperta. Mentre els micos aclamaven els seu nou rei com a heroi que salvaria el món, cridant i saltant de joia, ella restava en un racó immòbil i sense badar boca. Un goril·la se la va mirar de fit a fit i li digué:
- Per què no balles, cantes i rius com fem tots? Que no veus que el nou rei solucionarà tot allò que l’anterior no pogué arreglar?
La guineu ni se’l mirà sinó que prengué una pedra ben fosca del terra i la mostrà al goril·la mentre li preguntava: – Què és això?
I el goril·la respongué: – Una pedra, que em prens per ximple?
Aleshores la guilla li llençà la pedra, que encertà de ple al desconcertat goril·la que emeté un grunyit de dolor.
– I això altre?- Demanà el perspicaç animal mentre li mostrava a l’adolorit simi una pedra completament blanca.
- Una altra pedra és clar, però no me la llencis!- Responia el goril·la mentre es protegia tement una nova pedregada.
La guineu deixà suaument el roc a terra mentre deia: - Per què no vols que te la llenci, amic goril·la? No és pas del mateix color que la pedra que t’he llençat abans, potser per comptes de fer-te mal et guareix el cop que t’ha donat la pedra anterior.
El goril·la esclafí a riure i digué en to burleta: - Quines ximpleries que dius, no és pas cert que siguis tan intel·ligent, tothom sap que una pedra és una pedra, i sempre fa mal, tan se val de quin color sigui- i restà mirant la guineu amb aires de superioritat, segur d’haver demostrat l’estupidesa d’aquesta.
La guilla deixà anar una rialla trista, en adonar-se que el seu interlocutor no havia ni tan sols sospitat el missatge que li havia intentat transmetre a través del símil, i comprengué que probablement ni ell ni cap altre goril·la ho entendrien mai. Tombant-se per marxar digué, més per ella que per ningú: - Jo me’n vaig d’aquest país, que són tots tan curts, que es deixen enganyar per l’estampa, i surten del foc per caure a les brases.
Tothom especulava sobre qui seria l’adequat per a tal repte, qui podria ser el nou rei. Fins que un dia aparegué un goril·la blanc que es presentà com a candidat al càrrec.
- Visca!- Cridaven els entusiasmats simis segurs d’haver trobat la resposta a tots els seus maldecaps. Qui seria més diferent de l’anterior rei goril·la? Qui podria aportar visons més noves i diverses que un goril·la blanc? Qui sinó ell podria retornar l’orgull perdut al regne?
En aquell indret habitava també una guilla que tenia fama de ser astuta i desperta. Mentre els micos aclamaven els seu nou rei com a heroi que salvaria el món, cridant i saltant de joia, ella restava en un racó immòbil i sense badar boca. Un goril·la se la va mirar de fit a fit i li digué:
- Per què no balles, cantes i rius com fem tots? Que no veus que el nou rei solucionarà tot allò que l’anterior no pogué arreglar?
La guineu ni se’l mirà sinó que prengué una pedra ben fosca del terra i la mostrà al goril·la mentre li preguntava: – Què és això?
I el goril·la respongué: – Una pedra, que em prens per ximple?
Aleshores la guilla li llençà la pedra, que encertà de ple al desconcertat goril·la que emeté un grunyit de dolor.
– I això altre?- Demanà el perspicaç animal mentre li mostrava a l’adolorit simi una pedra completament blanca.
- Una altra pedra és clar, però no me la llencis!- Responia el goril·la mentre es protegia tement una nova pedregada.
La guineu deixà suaument el roc a terra mentre deia: - Per què no vols que te la llenci, amic goril·la? No és pas del mateix color que la pedra que t’he llençat abans, potser per comptes de fer-te mal et guareix el cop que t’ha donat la pedra anterior.
El goril·la esclafí a riure i digué en to burleta: - Quines ximpleries que dius, no és pas cert que siguis tan intel·ligent, tothom sap que una pedra és una pedra, i sempre fa mal, tan se val de quin color sigui- i restà mirant la guineu amb aires de superioritat, segur d’haver demostrat l’estupidesa d’aquesta.
La guilla deixà anar una rialla trista, en adonar-se que el seu interlocutor no havia ni tan sols sospitat el missatge que li havia intentat transmetre a través del símil, i comprengué que probablement ni ell ni cap altre goril·la ho entendrien mai. Tombant-se per marxar digué, més per ella que per ningú: - Jo me’n vaig d’aquest país, que són tots tan curts, que es deixen enganyar per l’estampa, i surten del foc per caure a les brases.
dissabte, 15 de novembre del 2008
Caille Millner: We were real Americans all along, and we're back
Something happened in the country last week, and it wasn't just history.
As thrilling, as validating, and as exciting as it was to watch America lurch one step closer to fulfilling its promise of becoming that place of John Winthrop's imagination -- that "city upon a hill," he called it, where "we must be knit together in this work as one man" -- the real transformation had, in a sense, already happened. It had happened before the polls closed and the votes were tallied and the country agreed to be led by Barack Obama. It happened because people like you and I decided that we would no longer accept the idea that we were not real Americans.
If you're a person of color, or an urbanite, then you have known what I'm talking about for a very long time. If you're relatively new to this -- if you're a member of a profession, say, or you have immigration in your recent family background, or you are (gasp!) a Muslim -- then you can catch my drift. All of us have been told that we were not real Americans. For years we believed it.
Didn't we? All that alienation, all that apathy. All that talk about moving to Canada. All that defensive crouching when we traveled abroad, or met people who live in other countries. And -- worst of all -- all those feelings of inadequacy when confronted by those who proclaimed themselves to be the "real" Americans. As if an "American" was a type -- a white heterosexual male who lived in a small town, judging by the rhetoric
As thrilling, as validating, and as exciting as it was to watch America lurch one step closer to fulfilling its promise of becoming that place of John Winthrop's imagination -- that "city upon a hill," he called it, where "we must be knit together in this work as one man" -- the real transformation had, in a sense, already happened. It had happened before the polls closed and the votes were tallied and the country agreed to be led by Barack Obama. It happened because people like you and I decided that we would no longer accept the idea that we were not real Americans.
If you're a person of color, or an urbanite, then you have known what I'm talking about for a very long time. If you're relatively new to this -- if you're a member of a profession, say, or you have immigration in your recent family background, or you are (gasp!) a Muslim -- then you can catch my drift. All of us have been told that we were not real Americans. For years we believed it.
Didn't we? All that alienation, all that apathy. All that talk about moving to Canada. All that defensive crouching when we traveled abroad, or met people who live in other countries. And -- worst of all -- all those feelings of inadequacy when confronted by those who proclaimed themselves to be the "real" Americans. As if an "American" was a type -- a white heterosexual male who lived in a small town, judging by the rhetoric
diumenge, 9 de novembre del 2008
carta al Sr. Rojo
Sir- the letter by JM Rojo “Schools in a third of Spain teach only in minority languages” (Nature454, 575; 2008) caused surprise and indignation in Catalonia. Thirty years after Catalunya implemented its current education model, with documented social success with respect to the integration and avoiding ghettoization of immigrants, it is difficult to understand how a physiopathologist can sow indiscriminate lies about social issues in journals with international scientific prestige. The objective of the Catalan educational system is that all children be fluent in both Catalan and Castilian Spanish when they complete their education. It is absolutely false that it is "impossible to obtain public or publicly funded education in Spanish." What children cannot do is be educated exclusively in Castilian and, by law, they have the right and the duty to know both languages. Catalunya has been invaded and defeated throughout history by a variety of dictators, from Spain's Phillip V to Francisco Franco, who died in 1975. More than 30 years later, the systematic use of co-official languages as established in the current Constitution, approved in 1978 by the democratically elected Parliament of Spain and published in bilingual editions for each of the co-official languages, may still be difficult to understand in Madrid, but it makes a great deal of sense in Catalunya, Euskadi, and Galicia.
dissabte, 8 de novembre del 2008
explicacions o xarop de bastó
Explicacions o xarop de bastó
Discrepo profundament del títol del suplement del darrer diumenge del diari avui (per què els catalans no hem sabut explicar-nos?) perquè òbviament el títol parteix de la presumpció de culpabilitat: no tenim el que volem perquè no ens sabem explicar. Tant de bo! Si és que cal, la pregunta hauria de ser, “hem sabut explicar-nos?”. Jo personalment, fa temps que vaig abandonar les explicacions, perquè fonamentalment no crec que ningú les vulgui escoltar, i també perquè probablement “la llibertat no es demana, es conquesta” no pas, avui a Europa, per la força de les armes, sinó per la força de les urnes. Es a dir per la unió en una idea compartida. Qui cregués que donant moltes explicacions al congrés dels diputats, ens aprovarien l’Estatut ja ha quedat ben servit. En front d’això, a Espanya no li calen explicacions per justificar com vol ser. Només li cal el “xarop de bastó”. Els catalans que volem que Catalunya sigui una nació en canvi, no podem utilitzar el xarop de bastó, en tot cas hem de convèncer als nostres conciutadans, en el dia a dia, perquè l’amor per la nació catalana sigui un sentiment compartit entre tots els qui “viuen i treballen a Catalunya”. Imagineu els 25 diputats del PSC votant a favor! I això en això si que cal convèncer i sobretot seduir, perquè l’amor no és un sentiment racional. El catalanisme ha de ser seductor, ha de ser més sexi que la idea de espanyolitat uniforme,. Podrem, sabrem fer-ho?.
Discrepo profundament del títol del suplement del darrer diumenge del diari avui (per què els catalans no hem sabut explicar-nos?) perquè òbviament el títol parteix de la presumpció de culpabilitat: no tenim el que volem perquè no ens sabem explicar. Tant de bo! Si és que cal, la pregunta hauria de ser, “hem sabut explicar-nos?”. Jo personalment, fa temps que vaig abandonar les explicacions, perquè fonamentalment no crec que ningú les vulgui escoltar, i també perquè probablement “la llibertat no es demana, es conquesta” no pas, avui a Europa, per la força de les armes, sinó per la força de les urnes. Es a dir per la unió en una idea compartida. Qui cregués que donant moltes explicacions al congrés dels diputats, ens aprovarien l’Estatut ja ha quedat ben servit. En front d’això, a Espanya no li calen explicacions per justificar com vol ser. Només li cal el “xarop de bastó”. Els catalans que volem que Catalunya sigui una nació en canvi, no podem utilitzar el xarop de bastó, en tot cas hem de convèncer als nostres conciutadans, en el dia a dia, perquè l’amor per la nació catalana sigui un sentiment compartit entre tots els qui “viuen i treballen a Catalunya”. Imagineu els 25 diputats del PSC votant a favor! I això en això si que cal convèncer i sobretot seduir, perquè l’amor no és un sentiment racional. El catalanisme ha de ser seductor, ha de ser més sexi que la idea de espanyolitat uniforme,. Podrem, sabrem fer-ho?.
dimecres, 5 de novembre del 2008
Do we can?
Photograph: New York Times
Watching the news, one of the most used words during the day referring to the elections in the States is 'historical'. Yes, it is historical in a way that the dream of millions of American citizens has become true. Not only the dream of the actual citizens but the dream of some Americans for the last centuries. Martin Luther King's dream has become more real with this elections but... now we need to wait and observe how Barak Obama reaches the high expectations the society has for the next 4 years. America was asking for a change and Obama has made some proposals. It has been a risky campaign with loads of promises. He has been able to reach a lot of people with his speeches, with his proposals and with an amazing campaign supported by well known people in the American society. He has mobilized an incredibly high number of voters but now he will have to prove himself, and it won't be easy. I have to say I'm kind of jealous. Observing from Europe, and specially from Catalonia, I'm very jealous about the importance and the level of politics in the States. Candidates have to proof themselves and people is interested in the whole process. The level in Catalonia is quite low, and in Spain is even worst so people has lost all the interest in politics. It is already a complicated matter but if you don't feel the people who represents you is prepared enough is really difficult to keep your attention to what they do and talk about. In the other hand we also have the European politics. I really think those are interesting and useful but not really well known yet. People is not conscious of the work done in Europe and the effects in their everyday lifes. I'm looking forward to see how the media is going to deal with the European elections and how useful the campaigns are going to be...
Two links that deserve a look:
YES WE CAN VIDEOCLIP (CAMPAIGN)
http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=jjXyqcx-mYY
(NEW YORK TIMES) Obama's victory speech
http://elections.nytimes.com/2008/results/president/speeches/obama-victory-speech.html
Cristina Mont Castro
Watching the news, one of the most used words during the day referring to the elections in the States is 'historical'. Yes, it is historical in a way that the dream of millions of American citizens has become true. Not only the dream of the actual citizens but the dream of some Americans for the last centuries. Martin Luther King's dream has become more real with this elections but... now we need to wait and observe how Barak Obama reaches the high expectations the society has for the next 4 years. America was asking for a change and Obama has made some proposals. It has been a risky campaign with loads of promises. He has been able to reach a lot of people with his speeches, with his proposals and with an amazing campaign supported by well known people in the American society. He has mobilized an incredibly high number of voters but now he will have to prove himself, and it won't be easy. I have to say I'm kind of jealous. Observing from Europe, and specially from Catalonia, I'm very jealous about the importance and the level of politics in the States. Candidates have to proof themselves and people is interested in the whole process. The level in Catalonia is quite low, and in Spain is even worst so people has lost all the interest in politics. It is already a complicated matter but if you don't feel the people who represents you is prepared enough is really difficult to keep your attention to what they do and talk about. In the other hand we also have the European politics. I really think those are interesting and useful but not really well known yet. People is not conscious of the work done in Europe and the effects in their everyday lifes. I'm looking forward to see how the media is going to deal with the European elections and how useful the campaigns are going to be...
Two links that deserve a look:
YES WE CAN VIDEOCLIP (CAMPAIGN)
http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=jjXyqcx-mYY
(NEW YORK TIMES) Obama's victory speech
http://elections.nytimes.com/2008/results/president/speeches/obama-victory-speech.html
Cristina Mont Castro
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