January 15, 2007 · 6:17 pm

Quality Living

Kitaj: If not not

In a recent email exchange with an old friend of mine from the past, I asked her to tell me a little bit about her life in Germany. A few years ago, she moved with her husband to Germany where they have since had two sons. Many times our cultural ethnocentrism causes us to believe that the quality of life in our country is greater than in others. I know that in the US, people tend to believe that this is so. And this is also very true for Spain, where I am constantly being told that I must live better in Spain than in the US (¿a qué se vive mejor en España?). My general belief is the majority of the world would prefer to stay put and not live away from their culture of birth. Even people who have emigrated due to extreme hardship in their home countries generally hope that one day the living (or political) conditions will improve so that they can return. And it is also very true that just because a country is poor or even politically oppressed (say as in Cuba or Morocco), many people prefer not to leave and can live happier lives than in wealthier nations.

In any event, I believe that looking into the ways in which people live their lives in other countries can teach us a lot about how to improve the quality of life in our own countries. For that reason, I am posting my friend’s description here:

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January 11, 2007 · 10:11 am

Liquids No, Scorpions Yes

I just read this story about a man who was stung twice by a scorpion on a domestic flight in the US:

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January 10, 2007 · 6:17 pm

Ellis Island in Madrid

Ellis Island

Today I was an immigrant. At second thought, I suppose that each and every day I live in Spain, I am an immigrant. But, today more so. It was time for me to renew my Spanish residency and work permit. This is my second renewal and consists of three stages: (i) presenting a series of documents to the competent authorities (generally a police station), (ii) getting finger printed, and (iii) going to pick up the renewed residency and work permit. But each of these stages occurs about a month a part and includes waiting in very long lines.

This morning, I got all of the necessary paperwork together and headed out for the police station (the one dedicated to immigration matters) closest to my house. The line was about 5 blocks long. Apparently, Spain is now normalizing the immigration status of all Romanians and Bulgarians due to their adhesion into the European Union. I thus changed my mind and went to work. There I spoke with Natascha (on the phone, she is out of the office sick) who recently had her permit renewed. Apparently, the police station in Alcobendas (where I work) has much shorter lines. Well, to make a long story short, I waited in line for 1 hour outside to get into the station. Once inside, I had to take a number and then wait an additional hour for my turn. Upon being attended, I was told that I now had to take another number and wait in a different waiting area in order to hand in my documents. This took an additional 15 minutes.

The great majority of those waiting to have their immigration status resolved were Eastern Europeans, but there were a few Latin Americans and Africans. When I finally turned in my documents, I told the immigration officer that I felt like I was in New York City 90 years ago. He laughed and said that I was the first US citizen he had seen in his office. While the next 2 steps in the process require me to stand in even longer lines and to do so in Aluche (very much out of the way), I was very impressed about how patient and agreeable the immigration officiers were (most of them in their mid to late 20s). One of Spain’s biggest challenges right now is how to deal with massive immigration for the first time in its history. While many people have expressed very exaggerated concerns about the nation’s inevitable demise due to the entry of these immigrants, this was definitely not the impression I got from the officers.

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January 9, 2007 · 11:49 am

¡Un año fonero!

FON Mask

Hoy cumplo un año trabajando en FON. Cuando llegué yo a estas oficinas en Alcobendas, me encontré con Mayte, Cobra, el gijonés, Martha, Iurgi, Teo, Juantomás y quizás hasta Mundoreactivo se escondía por aquí. A los dos días llegó Berga y a la semana Guillermo (mi patrón bloguero) y después Joan. Y cuantos cambios han habido con gente llegando (y algunos saliendo) y los Hombres de Negro. Ahora ya somos unos 90 empleados. En este año he dejado de poder hacer muchas cosas, hemos tenido nuestros momentos intensivos, pero ha sido toda una experiencia única. Me gustaría dar las gracias a todos de esta oficina por lo bien que lo pasamos y nos reimos dentro de lo que es el gran esfuerzo de crear una cosa totalmente desde cero.

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January 6, 2007 · 1:10 pm

International Organizations and their utter lack of accountability

United Nations

International Organizations such as the United Nations and the World Bank lack political and legal accountability. These supranational organizations are immune from any US federal, state or other national jurisdicitons, regardless of where they are headquartered. Furthermore, they generally lack political accountability. Although the country representatives in say the UN or the WTO are appointed by national executives (like the process for ministers), there is really no transparency or electoral feedback that evaluates these representatives and the organizations’ good governance. Worse, the IMF and World Bank chiefs are named by the EU and the United States respectively, thus alienating the rest of the world. At least the WTO (generally the most criticized of these organizations) allows each member state to have equal voting power.

In the US, the UN is continuously criticized for this lack of accountability and henceforth encrouching on US sovereignty. On the other hand, in Europe the UN is often hailed as the panacea for the world’s ills. Both are mislead. The US is wrong in that it is holding onto to sovereignty at a time in history where the trend is to yeild a degree of it for the better good of the entire globe. The EU is innocent in thinking that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Let’s be honest, a non-transparent, non-accountable international organization is nothing more than the sum of all of the corruption in each of its member states. What is needed is serious UN reform, something that is extremely difficult to achieve for it would mean that certain fat cats (such as France, the US, and Russia would lose their relative weight and veto power).

All in all what concerns me the most . . . Continue reading →

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January 5, 2007 · 11:15 pm

I Hope You Had the Time of Your Life

I was hoping to write a couple of digressions this evening and tomorrow on a variety of subjects including Ballet and the confines of creativty and freedom; and ZP (Zapatero Presidente), George W and Reyes (the Spanish celebration of the Epiphany). Unfortunately, I just got news that my paternal grandfather is fairing very poorly. He has acute heart failure, and I am hoping for the best for him, whatever that may be.

The last time my grandfather, Grandpa Al (“the kiddies’ pal”), was this ill was in 1998 when he had to undergo open heart surgery. I remember that at that time, I was just finishing law school and studying for the New York Bar Examination. It was a pretty trying time for my family due to my grandfather’s condition. Unforunately, I was unable to give anyone much of my time because my schedule required 10 to 12 hours of uninterrupted studying, 7 days a week for 2 months. Luckily and regardless of a priest having given him his last rights, Grandpa Al pulled through and has lived now for 9 more years.

Whenever I hear the song “Good Riddance” by Greenday, I always think of those last days of law school and the 2 months when I studied for the Bar and just how important those people around us are in making life so worthwhile: Continue reading →

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January 4, 2007 · 4:30 pm

Rose Superstar en el video de la Copa de la Reina

En este video promocionando la Copa de la Reina, sale (aunque brevemente en el minuto 2:01) nuestra jugadora preferida de baloncesto, justo en la sección sobre el Barça. También salen algunas amigas suyas de otros equipos como Elsa del Rivas Futura.

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January 3, 2007 · 5:48 pm

The Final Countdown

Gob Bluth

George Oscar Bluth (aka Gob) is the illusionist from the now cancelled TV series Arrested Development. “It is not a trick, it is an illusion.” “But where did the lighter fluid come from . . .” “Come on!”

Anyways, here are a few clips of Gob in action:

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January 3, 2007 · 2:15 pm

Grave Error in the House

There was a time back in the early 80s when I practiced the subtle arts of break dancing and beat boxing (what my father affectionately described as “my son spitting in his hand”). Other than those early days of Kurtis Blow, Whodini, and Run DMC, I have never been much of a Hip-Hop fanatic. Nevertheless, in the past year or so, I have become a fan of The Roots, Mos Def, and a few other musicians. Here are some videos of my favorites:

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January 3, 2007 · 11:46 am

A Belated Season’s Greeting

Redon: Bouddha

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non addictive, gender neutral celebration of the holiday season, practiced with the most enjoyable traditions of religious persuasion or secular practices of your choice with respect for the religious/secular persuasions and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all.

I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2007, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make our country great (not to imply that one nation is necessarily greater than any other country) and without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishee.

By accepting this greeting, you are accepting these terms:

This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for her/himself or others and is void where prohibited by law, and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher. This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first, and warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher.

Disclaimer: No animals or trees were harmed in the sending of this message; however, a significant number of electrons were slightly inconvenienced.

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