Si sigues un poco los informes periódicos sobre la actualización de los apodos en FON, sabrás que desde hace tiempo tenemos a un tal Sueco Ibérico. Pues, desde el viernes pasado, el Sueco Ibérico ha dejado de ser ibérico, pero sigue dentro de nuestros corazones mientras que esté taladrando por el mundo. Al dejar de ser ibérico, ahora le coronamos el Taladro Sueco. Don Taladro ¡te echaremos de menos!
Gracias, Hysi, por la imagen.
Filed under FON
So I tried to introduce the East Side gang sign here at FON to my Spanish co-workers. For the time being, it’s been a real success. We are making some great progress.
The above video is an incredibly informative Ali G interview of a Police officer from Gaithersurg (near my hometown in Maryland) about stacking (the use of gang signs). I think it will be very helpful in putting this all into perspective for my fellow co-workers.
Filed under FON
With only two matches left until the end of the Spanish soccer league (La Liga), Real Madrid and FC Barcelona were tied in the overall standings with Sevilla trailing by only two points. Because of direct, head-to-head goal differential, Real Madrid was in first place. So, with only two matches left, no one could afford to lose or tie (unless everyone lost or tied).
Tonight, Real Madrid played Zaragoza in Zaragoza, and FC Barcelona played at home against El Real Deportivo Espanyol de Barcelona. Zaragoza also needed to win in order to assure its qualification for Europe. Furthermore, Zaragoza is full of ex-Real Madrid players (Cesar, Savio, Celades, Juanfran, and Diogo) and Gabi Milito (who had signed with Real Madrid but was then rejected last minute because of “medical reasons”), so the match was also personal. And obviously, FC Barcelona versus El Espanyol is an important inter-city rivalry.
In the US, people think that European football is boring, lacks emotion … Quite the contrary, tonight was a roller coaster, not apt for the weak hearted. Continue reading
Filed under Football/Soccer, Living la vida española
Yesterday, I started a nice debate with my post on the Increase in Immigration and the Decrease in Crime. An unknown gentleman, named Mustapha (not to be confused with my friend from the post on changing names), entered the debate and gave a very interesting explanation on why he feels that immigrants (like himself — he is Nigerian American) eventually succeed in assimilating and overcoming racism by accepting “whiteness” while African Americans continue to struggle to find their place in white America.
Note that immigrants, be them from Europe (white) or from other parts of the world (Asia, Latin America, and elsewhere), have always suffered some form of racism/xenophobia in the first generations (including my father’s family as Italian Americans). Actually, I once had an Immigration Law professor who argued that America was essentially anti-Catholic, and that was why discrimination against immigrants has always been mainly directed towards Catholic immigrants (Irish, Italians, and Latin Americans).
Back to the debate: agree or not with his analysis, I think that Mustapha’s comments are well worth reading for anyone interested in the great complexities of race relations and their historic legacy, American cultural diversity, and the US as an immigrant-built nation. Here is his commentary: Continue reading
Filed under Essays
Almost every Friday at FON, we have Jornadas de Fútbol; in other words, we play a nice soccer match between the techies on the ground floor and the finance, legal, and marketing guys on the third floor. Can you say, “East Side” ? Because I had been traveling almost every weekend for the past month or so, this is the first time that I have played in quite a while.
We always play fubito, meaning 6 against 6 on an indoor court about the size of a basketball court with a smaller and heavier than usual ball. Unlike Indoor Soccer in the States where you can use the walls, in fubito you play with the same outdoor soccer rules, and you have throw-ins, corner kicks, etc. when the ball goes out of bounds. Recently, we have been playing outdoors on a really cool fubito court with artificial grass. The problem today was that it was 32 degrees Celsius (or 90 degrees Fahrenheit), and we were slow, pathetically slow. For the first time since the Jornadas began, we on the third floor got our asses kicked (Dorothy from the ground floor scored two amazing golazos).
Now, I am not the kind of guy to be upset about losing or to sulk. I simply like to enjoy the game win or lose, but today I (as well as our regular superstar Berga) played pretty horrendously. No big deal right? Well, there is kind of a small problem, a minor fiasco. Continue reading
Filed under FON, Friends / Family, Zizou
For the past two years or so, I listen to all over my music in iTunes, and that’s about 40G or some 9000 songs. Ironically, the majority of music I listen to these days is Jazz, yet amongst the top 25 songs that I have played since installing iTunes, none of them are Jazz. They are mainly pop, rock, R&B, and a little reggae. This seems a bit contradictory, but there’s a logical explanation. Continue reading
Filed under Digressions, Jazz
Most people wrongly associate an increase in immigration with an increase in crime, regardless of the obvious fact that immigration is an economic phenomena. People leave their families and countries behind because of an economic opporunity abroad. If there weren’t any job opporunities in the recipient country, then there wouldn’t be immigrants. Thus, immigrants simply fill a specific demand in the recipient country for work.
So why do nationals always blame immigrants? Because people like to blame others for their own shortcomings. But the fact of the matter is that the great majority of crime is and has alway been committed by the home grown.
In an article that I was just reading in The Economist today about how crime continues to fall in America’s biggest cities, The Economist highlights the fact that one of the reasons is that immigrants are entering the cities while the lower income class Americans are moving out. According to The Economist Continue reading
Filed under Essays
I finally finished Mohamed Choukri’s Streetwise last night, and as mentioned, the translation was horrendous. Like For Bread Alone, Streetwise ended abruptly, but unlike the first story, this one ended awkwardly, making me think that it was another error by the publisher.
Regardless, I did enjoy the story, and in particular, I very much liked these two quotes: Continue reading
Filed under Digressions
Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba quizás no admitirá jamás haber cometido graves errores en el caso De Juana Chaos. Pero no hace falta que lo haga, sus palabras anteriores las conocemos todos. A ver si el gran comadreja del PSOE, artífice de las negociaciones de “paz”, será suficiente listillo esta vez. Seguro que sí. Ya está montando la ofensiva al PP por su propio fracaso y por haberse quedado en ridículo ante los terroristas totalitarios.
A ver si entendemos mejor la lógica del señor Rubalcaba quien en marzo reconoció haber tomado la decisión “personalmente” “tras una larga reflexión” de dejarle a De Juana Chaos fuera de la carcel porque “a diferencia de los terroristas, a nosotros sí nos importa la vida, es nuestra mayor legitimidad moral“. “El Estado debe aplicar la ley, ser humanitario, firme e inteligente“.
Sin embargo, ahora a Rubalcaba le dan igual los motivos humanitarios (porque nunca los hubo), “De Juana no será trasladado a su domicilio cualquiera que sea el dictamen médico que nos proporcionen, quiero que quede absolutamente claro.” Entonces ¿a qué se basa para tomar decisiones firmes e inteligentes? Continue reading
Filed under Essays, Living la vida española
Muchos estarán preguntando por qué se van paseando algunos de la tercera planta tocándose el corazón con un solo dedo y cruzándolo con los dos dedos de la otra mano mientras digan en voz baja, “East Side“. No, no estamos locos. El barbudo canadiense me mostró este video, “White Chicks, Gang Signs” que pregunta con curiosidad por qué tantas mujeres blancas en EEUU hacen señas (tipo Latin Kings) cada vez que les vayan a sacar una foto. Pues, sí, es curioso.
De la misma forma nuestro soldado de las trincheras, Hysidro del Hyst Side, también ha creado la seña que nos define y nos identifica con la F de FON y con el East Side (Alcobendas está en el noreste de Madrid, y claro nadie jamás ha dicho que es del “North Side”). Si lo pueden hacer las blancas en EEUU, también podemos los del East Side. Peace out!
Filed under FON
Grave Error 