7/23/2012

Unexpectedness, happiness and other serious stuff

Have you ever had an unexpected vacation? I'm about to. Last Friday I was talking with my boss/thesis director about holidays and since I'll be really busy in August he told me to take a week off, from today.  As you can imagine I went crazy, I didn't have anything planned and I knew that if I stayed home i wouldn't get to rest, so I started looking for plane tickets. So, I'm flying to Budapest tomorrow, I haven't planned anything though I think that the people from the hostel I'm staying in will help me. Since it's an unexpected trip I don't have any expectations, I didn't even have in mind to visit Budapest any time soon, I wanted to go eventually, but just not now. I guess I'll have fun.

Furthermore I'm happy to announce that I've passed the CPE exam, with a B! I'm really happy but I don't really feel as if I didn't need to study English anymore and, unfortunately, there aren't many places where you can study English past this level.

Finally, I want to talk about something really serious, yesterday a fire broke out in La Jonquera (that's in Catalonia, in northern Spain) and because of the weather conditions, there was a strong north wind, it spread rapidly, furthermore another fire broke out a few kilometers from there (in Portbou). The second fire is already under control, but the first one has already burnt 14,000 hectares (34,000 acres) and it's not yet controlled. Firemen from Catalonia are getting help from their French and Spanish counterparts and from the Spanish Army, but there's still lots of work to do. 4 people have already died because of the fire and lots of people have lost their houses or their farms under the fire. And everything because someone threw a lit cigarette from a car (this is the first hypothesis). People just doesn't realize how fast you can loose everything you worked for, and how devastating a simple stupid act can be. From here I want to give support to everyone who is suffering the consequences of the fire and to the firemen who are fighting it (both professionals and volunteers).

In this map you can see the extension of the burned area

7/17/2012

Me and the sea

I've always had a really special relationship with the sea, it would seem natural since I live in a Mediterranean country, but I do not know many people who feel like I do when I'm close to the sea. I guess that explaining something that happened to me not a month ago is going to help you understand. 

In June, in Spain, there's this tradition of going to celebrate the summer solstice in the beach (and get into the water), so some friends and I went to a beach close to were we live so we could have dinner. The first thing I did when we got there was take off my shoes walk on the sand and get to the shore so I could feel the cool water while staring at the sea. After dinner I decided to get into the water (only one of my friends was brave enough to come with me) and I just stayed there feeling the sea, the peacefulness, but my friends where impatient because I was not with them so I had to go back. After a while, when I was fully dressed, and because I needed it, I sat on the shore, watching the waves form sea foam, I don't know how long did I stay like that, but again, my friends were wondering what was I doing. 

I think I can't be the only person in the world who feels safer and calmer inside the sea. It helps me quiet my mind, relax and become more creative, but for that I need to be alone in a silent environment where the only thing I can hear is the sea. 

7/14/2012

Open letter to the Spanish Government

Your Excellence Mr. Mariano Rajoy and your Excellences Mr./Mrs. deputies

I am writing this letter to explain the reality of the budget cuts performed by your government, the reality of the people you represent and the reality of my generation, the generation that has finished their higher education but cannot work.

First of all I should introduce myself, I am a 24-year-old biologist who also has a MSc in Pharmaceutical and Biotechnological Industry, furthermore I am a first-year PhD student in Biomedicine. I count myself lucky because I am working on what I studied and also because I work, because I am studying for a PhD because it is what I want to do and not only to fill in my CV, I am lucky because I did not have to leave the country to work on what I wanted to, although I have to admit that I am leaving that door open. I am not so different to most of the people in my generation, I have higher education, I speak four languages, three of them at the C2 European level, and I want to work. But I have been luckier, maybe. Lots of people from my generation cannot work because they do not have the experience and they cannot obtain the experience unless they work. And then your budget cuts and increased taxes appear.

Since you are in the government you have cut the budgets of both Health and Education. Some people would argue that those are the basic pillars of society, but its not a priority for you. Our Education has never been one of the best in Europe, the English level is worse than bad, not to say void, in most of the cases, and other languages are inexistant. What used to be excellent was our Health system, used to be because the cuts on its budgets, both by the autonomies and the state, are making it become a mere shadow of what it used to be, low-paid professionals, closed operating rooms, patients receiving insufficient care or not being able to pay for their medicines.

Furthermore, you have cut the Science budget, we do not even have a Ministry anymore! That scientific community, of which you are so proud when a discovery is made, is in critical condition. Research centers have been closed, scientists leave the country when their grants expire. But it is clear that a country that invests in Research is not of your interest. However, there will not be a new generation of scientists because they will not be able to pay for university, and after them the poor children that will be educated in a low standard school will not even have the level to study in a university.

Another of your impopular budget cuts has been in social politics, incentives to rent/buy a house, economical help for those with dependent familiars, and many other incentives and grants that do not affect you because they are only for those with low income. Fortunately I do not have any dependent familiar, so I do not know how it is going, what I do know is the inability of leaving the familiar house because you cannot pay a rent, and I am not even talking about buying a flat "above our possibilities", I am talking about looking for a flat to share, because it is impossible to live alone. It is said that we live with our parents until we are 30 because of cultural background, right now is sheer necessity, a minority of the working young people earn more than a thousand euros per month, and the light and water prices keep increasing, when the incomes do not, they actually get reduced.

Now that we are talking about earnings and rises, I think your politics to increase the consumption is interesting, I am actually fascinated with the increase of the VAT to the 21%, if I am not mistaken, people tends to buy less when what they want to buy is more expensive, therefore if the VAT increases people is going to buy less. Unless, that is it, that companies decide to pay the increase of the VAT themselves decreasing their benefits and this will be terrible for the few small companies and self-employed still left.

Following all this you decided to reduce the unemployment compensation from the sixth month, I understand that you consider that there some people who is taking profit of the compensation. I am afraid you are wrong, there are unemployed that are older than 50 and cannot get a job because of being so close of retirement age, there is people without higher education that cannot go back to the job market, there is people that has studied too much and cannot get a job because the companies are afraid that they will find a better job, and above it all, there is no job market, because you are not helping to create new jobs, you are helping to destroy the job market.

And the icing on the cake: the only things that you do not even dare touch are those for which the citizens care less: the Church, the Monarchy and the Bank. Maybe you want to help the Church because they are having a faith crisis, and maybe you consider that the royal family has already enough problems, and the poor banks, that defrauded so many people, cannot sustain themselves, I do not know, but to me this is outrageous. As an atheist I cannot identify with a government that gives grants to a religion, at any level, the Church has wealth and they have to pay taxes for it, and if they cannot make ends meet they should sell their patrimony as millions of citizens do. As a republican I find it outrageous having to pay for the whole royal family, taking into account that only a pair of them are actually "working" on behalf of the country, I do not understand the benefits they have, derived from a non-existant god, anyway the fact that they are not suffering budget cuts its unbelievable. And the banks, what can I say about the banks, you are giving them financial aid because you say that if they fall the whole country is going to fall, but those banks that were supposed to help the citizens were defrauding them with lendings they could not pay, with exaggerated mortgages, with saving plans that are never going to expire and with preferent participations, the banks did not move to help their costumers when these could not pay, but we have to make sacrifices for the banks.

Maybe I have been ignorant and naïve, but that is how a normal citizen sees it. A citizen who sees that she has higher education level than most of the politicians and she has less earnings, who sees how the budgets for the most essential things are being cut but the richest people always find a way to pay less taxes, a citizen who sees that the democratically chosen politicians know nothing about their people and they do not arise from between the people, that the politicians live in another galaxy allowing them to cheer and insult when they have just announced more budget cuts with deep consequences for the people. To sum it up, I feel like this Government and this Parliament are not representing myself and they do not care about the future of the country. Maybe one day we will have a government that has learnt to listen to the ones that are actually important.

I want to say goodbye to you, if you ever get to read this letter, hoping that someday you will learn how to do it better,

Yours sincerely,

A citizen.

P.S.: In order for this letter to be spread more easily I am going to translate it to English, even if I know that most of you will not be able to read it.

7/13/2012

Carta abierta al gobierno de España

Excelentíssimo Sr. Mariano Rajoy y Excelentíssimos/as señores/as diputados/as,

les escribo esta carta abierta para relatarles la realidad de los recortes que están ustedes ejecutando, la realidad del pueblo al que ustedes representan y la realidad de mi generación, la generación que ha acabado de estudiar pero no puede trabajar.

Antes de nada, quizás debería presentarme, tengo 24 años y soy una Bióloga licenciada y poseedora de un Máster en Industria Farmacéutica y Biotecnológica, además soy estudiante de primer año de doctorado en Biomedicina. Soy afortunada por que trabajo de lo que estudié y por que trabajo a secas, por que estudio el doctorado por que es lo que quiero hacer y no lo hago sólo para llenar currículum, soy afortunada por que no me he tenido que marchar del país para poder trabajar de lo que quería, aunque tengo que reconocer que es una puerta que queda abierta. No soy muy diferente de la mayoría de la gente de mi generación, tengo estudios, hablo quatro idiomas, tres de ellos a nivel europeo C2, y tengo ganas de trabajar. Pero yo he tenido, quizás, más suerte. Mucha gente de mi generación no pueden trabajar por que no tienen experiencia y no pueden conseguir experiencia si no trabajan. Y entonces llegan ustedes con sus recortes y sus subidas de impuestos.

Desde que están en el poder han recortado en Sanidad y Educación. Algunos dirían que esos son los pilares básicos de la sociedad, pero para ustedes no es prioritario. Nuestra educación nunca ha sido considerada de las mejores de Europa, el nivel de Inglés es péssimo, por no decir nulo, en la mayoría de los casos, y los otros idiomas inexistentes. Lo que sí que era excelente era nuestra Sanidad, era por que a base de recortes, autonómicos y estatales, se está convirtiendo en la sombra de lo que era, profesionales mal pagados, quirófanos cerrados, pacientes que reciben una atención insuficiente o que no pueden ni tan sólo pagar sus medicamentos.

Además, también han recortado en Ciencia, hasta nos han dejado sin Ministerio! Esa comunidad científica, de la cual tanto les gusta presumir cuándo se hace algún descubrimiento, se encuentra bajo mínimos. Han cerrado centros de investigación, los científicos a los que se les acaba la beca huyen del país. Pero está claro que no interesa un país que apueste por la Investigación. Aunque, claro, no habrá una siguiente generación de científicos por que no se podrán pagar la universidad, y después de ellos llegarán los pobres niños que han tenido una educación de segunda que ni tan siquiera tendrán el nivel para acceder a la universidad.

Otro de sus recortes especialmente impopulares ha sido en políticas sociales, ayudas a la vivienda, ayudas por la dependencia, y un sinfín de ayudas más que a ustedes no les afectan por que son sólo para personas de bajo poder adquisitivo. Por suerte no conozco la realidad de las ayudas por la dependencia, lo que sí que conozco es la imposibilidad de irse de la casa familiar por no poder pagar el alquiler de un piso, no estoy hablando de comprar un piso "por encima de nuestras posibilidades" estoy hablando de buscar un piso de alquiler para compartir, por que para vivir solo es impossible. Dicen que vivir con los padres hasta los 30 años es una cuestión cultural, ahora es una cuestión de necesidad, de los jóvenes que trabajan pocos superan los mil euros mensuales de ingresos, y los precios de la luz y el agua no dejan de subir, cuándo los sueldos no lo hacen, más bien se reducen cada vez más.

Hablando de sueldos y de subidas, me parece muy curiosa su política para incrementar el consumo, sobretodo me tiene fascinada la subida del IVA al 21%, si no me equivoco, la gente compra menos cuánto más caro es lo que quiere comprar, de forma que si se aplica la subida del IVA la gente comprará menos. A no ser, claro está que los negocios decidan hacerse cargo de la subida del IVA reduciendo el margen de beneficio, lo cual será terrible para las pequeñas empresas y los autónomos que aún resisten la crisis.

Seguidamente ustedes decidieron reducir la percepción por desempleo a partir del sexto mes, entiendo que consideran que hay gente que se aprovecha de dicha prestación. Me temo que se equivocan, hay parados que tienen más de 50 años y que no pueden conseguir trabajo por la proximidad con la jubilación, hay gente sin estudios que ahora no pueden volver a acceder al mercado laboral, hay gente con demasiados estudios que no pueden obtener trabajo por que las empresas temen que encontrarán algo mejor y, por encima de todo, no hay trabajo, por que ustedes no están ayudando a crear empleo, están ayudando a destruirlo.

Para poner la guinda al pastel, lo único que no tocan es lo que le importa menos al ciudadano: la Iglesia, la Monarquía y la Banca. Quizás quieran ayudar a la Iglesia por que están pasando malos momentos con la crisis de fe, y quizás consideren que la familia real ya tenga suficientes problemas, y los pobres bancos que estafaron a tanta gente ya no pueden sostenerse solos, no lo sé, pero me parece indignante. Como atea que soy no me identifico con un estado que subvencione una religión, a ningún nivel, la Iglesia tiene patrimonio y debe pagar sus impuestos por él, y si no llega a final de mes que haga como hacen millones de españoles: que se venda el patrimonio. Como republicana que soy me indigna tener que mantener a la familia real al completo, máxime cuándo tan sólo un par de ellos realmente "trabajan" para el país, no entiendo los privilegios que tienen, que se supone que vienen derivados de un dios inexistente, de todas formas que a ellos no se les recorte presupuesto es una barbaridad. Y los bancos, que decir de los bancos, se supone que se les está rescatando por que si se les deja caer caerá el país entero, pero estos mismos bancos que se suponía que estaban ayudando al pueblo en realidad les estaban engañando con préstamos que no podían pagar, con hipotecas desorbitadas, con planes de ahorro que vencen a los mil años y con participaciones preferentes, además no movieron ni un dedo para sus clientes cuándo estos no podían pagar, pero nosotros tenemos que sacrificarnos por ellos.

Puede ser que en esta carta haya pecado de ignorancia e inocencia, pero es como lo ve un ciudadano de a pie. Una ciudadana que ve que ella que tiene más formación que muchos de los políticos tiene que cobrar menos, que ve como se recortan las cosas más esenciales mientras los más ricos evitan pagar impuestos, una ciudadana que ve que los políticos que se han votado democráticamente no saben nada del pueblo y no vienen del pueblo, que los políticos viven en otra galaxia por lo que se pueden permitir aplaudir y lanzar improperios cuando acaban de anunciar recortes con graves consecuencias para la población. En definitiva siento que este gobierno y este congreso no me representan y no se preocupan por el futuro del país. Quizás algún día tendremos un gobierno que sepa escuchar a los que importan de verdad.

Me despido de ustedes, si es que nunca llegan a leer la carta, esperando que algún día sepan hacer las cosas mejor,

Atentamente,

Una ciudadana.

P.D.: Para que esta carta tenga más difusión será traducida al inglés, aunque sé que la mayoría de sus señorías no serían capaces de leerla.



P.S.: I'm going to post this same letter in English as soon as I have translated it. 

7/11/2012

Of fandom and teenagers

We all have been teenagers, there's no way to deny it, maybe some of us have had more time to "enjoy" it while some other had to grow up faster because they were not so fortunate.

One of the things that uses to happen when you're a teenager is that you fall in love. A lot. You fall for girls, you fall for guys, you fall for pieces of clothing, you fall for a movie star, you fall for a musician, for a song, for whatever.

This is the period of your life when you become what is called a fan. The period when you want to marry that musician so much that you can't stand he or she is seeing someone else, the period of your life when you know everything about that person's life. The period of your life when you think that person is just perfect and anything bad they say about him or her is just envious bullshit. The period of your life when you feel that without this person you couldn't live.

If you're still in that period, believe me it finishes, and you'll be relieved when it's over.

Because of the internet, right now people have to withstand all the rabbiting about teen pop idols. Back when I was a teenager, ten years ago already, there was internet and there were teen pop idols, but it wasn't so spread, so people could say whatever they wanted and they wouldn't have thousands of hysterical teenagers insulting them. Unlike now, really, be brave and tweet something bad about one of this pop superstars, if you're lucky enough your comment will stay unnoticed, if not you'll receive several furious illiterate tweets about how this superstar is fabulous and perfect and would never ever do something like that, or even some tweets insulting you.

The bad thing about all this is that this fandom phenomena is not only for teenagers anymore, you can find grown-ups being as blind and narrow minded everywhere. When you grow up your perspective of the world is supposed to change and you know that everyone has flaws, and you learn to accept them and like them how they are. You learn that if you want to love someone you've to accept him or her the way he or she is. You learn that you can still like an actor or a musician, like not love, even if they are not a perfect moral standard, because you like them for what they do for a living and not because they are alive.

So how are this people, the grown up hysterical fans that now every detail of the live of their idols, supposed to function in the normal world? Do they keep falling in love to ideals putting pressure on their couples to be perfect and ruining it all? Do they quit their job just because it's not like the movies and they don't have enough time to learn all the minor details of their new obsession?

Personally, I feel it's sad when adults act like teenagers, I'm not saying that when you're a grown-up you cannot have fun and enjoy live, it's just that being an hysterical fan doesn't really allow you to discover new things and live life at its fullest.

7/06/2012

Things that I got lately

It's been ages since I wrote a post about new music and new books, so since I'm bored and the time is ripe I'm just gonna update you about that.


Music I got lately


Actually it has been a month since I bought the last CD but I still could put together enough time to write about it, so here it is, the last CD I bought is:

Frank Turner - The Second Three Years
I wanted to buy it since it got released but since I've got this politics of buying only one CD and one book per month, I kept delaying its purchase. So what changed my mind? Well, basically one day at work I could stop singing Frank's cover of NOFX "Linoleum", so voilà I got the CD the same day. There are some really great songs like "Rock & Roll Romance", "Pass It Along", "Song For Eva Mae" and "Sailor's Boots" and also some great covers "Build Me Up Buttercup", "On A Plain", "Linoleum" and quite surprisingly a pure gold version of "Last Christmas" that I'm planning to play on repeat next Xmas to keep out the season's blues.

Books that I got lately


I don't know if I've said it before but I use to go to bookshops quite often, actually almost every day that I'm next to one and got some spare time, I do love books and getting to a bookshop gives me a kind of Stendhal's syndrome (I've never fainted but I can feel my endogenous opiod system acting in there). So what I usually do is go directly to the English section of the bookstore and check for new stuff, I use to go every week or so, therefore I can tell what's going on, usually the books are pretty much the same, but I can see some of my own influence in there, for example weeks after I got Hemingway's "A Moveable Feast" they had "The Old Man And The Sea". Whatever. So last time I went I got this:

Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting
I had seen the film before reading the book so I kinda knew what to expect. It still surprised me, first of all, at the start, I couldn't understand a word, the trouble with ESOLs is that we learn standard English and we never get to slang or to "accent" writing, and this book it's just the writing of spoken Scot. It was hard at the start, I won't deny it, but I got used to it and at the end I was disappointed if there was normal English. Furthermore, the different points of view give you a deeper insight on what's happening in the story and all the personal dramas every one of the characters is living. It's hard, but it's worth a read.