A SILLY POEM

As I am not a poet... this is not a poem. It's just a good excuse to play with words and have fun while doing it!

I tried once... I tried twice, three times,

and four, and five, and even nine,

but not a mere single line

I was able to put in black and white.

Although I did my best, everything was in vain.

No doubt: I’ve finished with a flat brain.

Where did it ended, that old brain of mine?

I run out of words to make a rhyme…

I wish Eliza Doolittle be.

She would find 'rain', 'Spain', 'mainly', 'plain'.

To be honest, my gratitude grows

and I say “Thank you, Mr. Bernard Shaw”.

THE TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS

If Emilio hadn't mentioned the symbolic contents of this song, I would have never thought about it.

So, when we do not have a vast culture… Internet comes to our rescue!

These are the Religious symbolisms hidden in the Christmas Carol we sang (?) in class today.

1. True Love refers to God
2. Turtle Doves refers to the Old and New Testaments
3. French Hens refers to Faith, Hope and Charity, the Theological Virtues
4. Calling Birds refers to the Four Gospels and/or the Four Evangelists
5. Golden Rings refers to the fist Five Books of the Old Testament, the “Pentateuch”, which gives the history if man’s fall from grace
6. Geese A-lying refers to the six days of creation
7. Swans A-swimming refers to the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, the seven Sacraments
8. Maids A-milking refers to the eight beatitudes
9. Ladies Dancing refers to the nine Fruits of the Holy Spirit
10. Lords A-leaping refers to the Ten Commandments
11. Piper Piping refers to the eleven faithful apostles
12. Drummers Drumming refers to the twelve points of doctrine in the Apostle's Creed

GLOBAL CLIMATE ACTION

I apologize for including a personal e-mail but maybe those concerned with Global Warming issues find it interesting or just a subject for debate.

From: Jamie Henn, 350.org

Climate Activist in Durban The UN climate talks in South Africa are in serious trouble. The United States negotiating team just proposed a delay on global climate action until 2020 -- a potential death sentence for the people at the front lines of the climate crisis. We have 48 hours to shift the US position and pressure them to abandon their proposal for a 2020 delay -- add your name today: http://act.350.org/go/835?akid=1456.201259.N7vV7G&t=2

Friends,

What if someone told you we should abandon all hope for global climate action until 2020? Well, that's exactly the proposal that the United States is pushing at the UN Climate Talks taking place this week in Durban, South Africa. The 2020 delay might well be the worst idea ever.

Waiting nine years for climate action isn't just a delay, it’s a death sentence for communities on the front lines of the climate crisis -- and it could slam the door on ever getting carbon pollution levels below the safe upper limit of 350 parts per million.

It’s not too late to stop this delay from going through. Over the next three days, our team of 350.org activists in Durban will be working with our partners at Avaaz and allies from around the world to isolate the United States -- and build support for the African nations that are fighting for real climate action. But it will take a massive grassroots outcry to demonstrate that people everywhere are taking a stand to prevent the United States negotiators from signing away our future.

If we raise an international alarm before the talks end on Friday, we can convince the US to get out of way of progress and help unlock the global process that can lead to bold climate action all around the world.

Click here to add your voice to a global call to action we're delivering in Durban: www.350.org/durban

The climate talks in South Africa end in just 48 hours, and it's vital that we ramp up the pressure now. To make sure the US gets the message, our team on the ground here in Durban will deliver your messages directly to the US negotiating team at a high-impact event we're helping to pull together on Friday. We can't say much more about it now, but suffice to say our message will be unavoidable.

This year, the 350 network has shown that people power can truly move the planet in the right direction. We mobilized hundreds of thousands of people to push for climate action in nearly every country on earth. We beat back the Keystone XL pipeline when no one said it was possible. We took over the radio waves to spread a message of hope and action on the climate crisis. And through our actions, we helped keep the hope of saving our planet -- and reaching 350 ppm -- alive.

The UN Climate Talks here in Durban aren’t going to get us back to 350 by themselves, but they can keep the option open by making progress on a legally binding, international framework to help nations make serious cuts in carbon emissions. In 2012, we’re going to need to do all we can to challenge the fossil fuel companies that are the real obstacles to progress. Breaking their stranglehold on our governments is the only way to really unlock these negotiations.

But right now, the most important thing we can do is keep the possibility of a strong international climate deal alive by pushing back on the United States negotiating team. In recent months, President Obama has shown that he'll stand up for the climate, but only if he's got a movement to back him up. On the Keystone pipeline, he's been doing the right thing by blocking Republican efforts to push it through -- now we need him to do the right thing on the international stage.

There’s no guarantee that we’ll be successful, but we owe it to our allies across the planet -- many of whom are already feeling the impacts of climate change -- to resist the chorus of cynics and keep hope alive. As Nelson Mandela said, "It always seems impossible until it’s done.” The 350 network has pulled off the impossible before -- now's the time to step up the pressure again.

Please add your voice today: http://act.350.org/go/835?akid=1456.201259.N7vV7G&t=4

Let's do this,

Jamie Henn for the whole 350.org team

P.S. We have just 48 hours to build a huge groundswell of pressure. Please help make it go viral with a few clicks on Twitter and Facebook -- tag your popular friends, and post it again and again.

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350.org is building a global movement to solve the climate crisis. Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter, and sign up for email alerts.

What is 350? Go to our website to learn about the science behind the movement.

NELSON MANDELA


I tried once and again to insert this video, but I have to admit my clumsiness to handle these new technologies. So, here it is the link to an excerpt from Mandela's speech from the dock of the Court, Rivonia Trial, South Africa, June 1964.

I hope you can not only watch but listen to his voice clicking below. If it was moving reading his words (Mandela's Way, page 59), listening to his emotional voice takes you to that time and moment; it lets you share his deep feelings. My soul was overwhelmed by the trembling but, at the same time, firm tone of his voice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hb5xVT4mK_4&feature=related

By TMBdt on 10/02/2009

From media critic David Tereshchuk's multimedia site THE MEDIA BEAT, Nelson Mandela's famous declaration to the court in his 1964 terrorism trial, expressing his readiness to face execution. In fact the sentence was reduced to life imprisonment. This rare audio-recording was originally made on "dictabelt" technology and rescued for posterity by experts at the British Library.

IDIOMS WITH “FISH” AND “BIRD”

Reading the lists Emilio gave us on Thursday, I recalled some idioms with these words that I want to share… with whoever read it.

Birds of a feather flock together: (proverb) people of similar interests or characters are found in each other’s company.

A bird’s-eye view: a brief survey of a subject, area, etc.

A home bird: person who prefers to spend his free time at home.

An odd bird / fish: an eccentric person whose behaviour or way of life is regarded as strange.

A big fish in a small pond: someone who is important only in a small group.

A queer fish: a person who is difficult to deal with because of his unusual character or attitudes.

A cold fish: a person who is little moved by emotions.

There are plenty more fish in the sea: (saying) there are options to take.

Have other fish to fry: have other or more important things to do.

Drink like a fish: drink large quantities of alcohol, especially beer.

(With my acknowledge to English Idioms by J. Seidl & W. McMordie, Oxford Editions)

ART EXHIBITION AT "NAVE DEL AZÚCAR"

Visiting the new art exhibition centre, inaugurated recently in the old storehouse of the historic Virgen del Pilar Sugar Mill, was a complete and delightful surprise.

The architects´s job is amazing. They have respected the old structure doing just only the necessary modifications to adapt the building for its new purpose, and the result is a white open space, in a double height, that permits the large art works be displayed and enjoyed without giving the visitors an oppressing feeling.

Restored as close to the original ones as it was possible, we can see some of the old features: the thick wooden doors; the wrought iron columns; the wood beans supporting the wooden ceiling as well as the tiled roof; the railroad along which a small wagon circulated with its load of sugar canes…

A modern glass elevator does not interfere at all in this renovated building; just the contrary, it puts a balance between past and present times. To complete this artistic atmosphere there is the sound of classic music in the background that prepares our senses to appreciate the paintings.

THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND

By Bruce Springsteen, Live at the Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles, CA on September 30, 1985 (penultimate show of the "Born In The U.S.A." tour).

This is one of the most famous folk songs in the United States. Based on an existing melody, a Baptist gospel hymn, Woody Guthrie wrote its lyrics in 1940, as a reaction to Irving Berlin's "God Bless America", for considering it "unrealistic and complacent". His response was originally called "God Blessed America for Me".

Guthrie varied the lyrics over time, sometimes including more overtly political verses in line with his sympathetic views of communism. One of these versions was as follows:

This land is your land, this land is my land
from California to the New York island,
from the redwood forest, to the gulf stream waters,
this land was made for you and me.

As I went walking that ribbon of highway
I saw above me that endless skyway,
I saw below me the golden valley,
this land was made for you and me.

I roamed and rambled and I followed my footsteps
to the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts,
while all around me, a voice was sounding:
this land was made for you and me.

When the sun come shining, and I was strolling
and the wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling
a voice was chanting, as the fog was lifting,
this land was made for you and me.

As I went walking I saw a sign there
and on the sign it said "No trespassing"
but on the other side it didn't say nothing,
That side was made for you and me

In the squares of the city, in the shadow of a steeple;
by the relief office I'd seen my people.
As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking
Is this land made for you and me?

Nobody living can ever stop me,
as I go walking that freedom highway;
nobody living can ever make me turn back
this land was made for you and me.

This land is your land, this land is my land
from California to the New York island,
from the redwood forest, to the gulf stream waters,
this land was made for you and me.

In some versions of this song it's said "Private Property" instead of "No trespassing", both were in tune with Guthrie's communist ideas which, I think, were in contradiction with the lines "Nobody living can ever stop me, as I go walking that freedom highway". If he were living in Russia or China, for mentioned only two examples, probably he could not say that.

As an artistic creation, it can have different interpretations. Not being a Commie myself, I prefer to think that Guthrie refers to the people's right to move freely, not restricted either by physical or by ideological borders.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

To night, all around the world, Americans celebrate Thanksgiving Day.

Traditional Thanksgiving foods are specific to the day, and the meal often has something of a ritual or traditional quality. It is also a tradition to share our own food with those who cannot enjoy a meal like ours.

The traditional dishes of Thanksgiving dinner are made mainly from foods native to the New World. It includes turkey, stuffed and roasted (many Americans would say it is "incomplete" without cranberry sauce and gravy...) and many other foods alongside the main dish—so many that, because of their amount, the Thanksgiving meal is sometimes served midday or early afternoon to make time for all the eating, and preparation may begin at dawn or on days prior.

Other commonly served dishes include winter squash, yams, mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, deviled eggs, green bean casserole, peas and carrots, home made bread rolls and corn bread, and a salad.

If you have survived to all this stuff, and have a sweet tooth, you can enjoy the various pies served as desserts: apple, mincemeat, sweet potato, pumpkin, chocolate cream and pecan pie.

An unnecessary advice: keep the scale out of your sight!