The General Strike (2012) by P. Almodóvar

7 years ago I was given a collection of  9 silent films as a birthday present. One of them is called "Stachka" (trans. Strike) and was made 87 years ago, in 1925,  by Sergei M. Eisenstein.

The film shows a strike in a russian factory in 1903 and their fatale end.

I ask myself if any spanish film director is planning to make a new film about the spanish general strike of 2012...

Can you imagine Mr. Toxo and Mr. Méndez in an Almodóvar film?

A world where science and progress will lead to all men's happiness.

At the end of the WWI, Europe was plunged into a wave of pesimism and a faith crisis. By that time, a new cultural and intelectual movement had resurged: the regenerating humanism.
Nowadays, I feel the same. We, almost one century after the WWI, feel the same. We see a world of greed, a world with lack of humanism. And without humanism, mankind will be lost.

The following words came from the film The Great Dictator, from the final speech.

"Greed has poisoned men's souls; has barricaded the world with hate; has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge as made us cynical; our cleverness, hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery we need humanity. More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost. The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in man; cries out for universal brotherhood; for the unity of us all. [...]

[...] Let us all unite. Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give men a chance to work, that will give youth a future and old age a security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power. But they lie! They do not fulfill their promise. They never will! Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people! Now let us fight to fulfill that promise! Let us fight to free the world! To do away with national barriers! To do away with greed, with hate and intolerance! Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men’s happiness."

...A world where science and progress will lead to all men's happiness. Nice words. =)

Living in America

Ellis Island, 1909.

As you probably remember, The Godfather II starts with the early day of young Vito Corleone in Sicily and his move to America. It was the year 1909 and like him, thousands of Europeans moved to the United States of America seeking for the american dream.

The American Dream, as they like to call it, is the reflection of a capitalist society, where everybody, no matter where you come from, can become rich. But the dream is over. We are now in the XXI century and as it happened in all the previous changes of century, the leading empire declines and a new one arises. It's time for China.

How long are they going to try to sell us the idea of the American Dream? Shall we start to think about the Chinese dream?

Ahmadineyad stick his finger in our eyes (again)

Yesterday, Iran's president Mahmud Ahmadineyad jeopardized world's economy by spreading the rumour of reducing Iran's fuel exports. Although the rumour was finally not true (just included a few more clauses like not to use force majeure is case of contract termination), the government of Iran shows its claws again and make the energy problem a headline in today's news.

Can we support a world based on fuel when fuel is held by those countries?

Shall we hurry up to change into green energies?

What's going to happen when the new Arab Spring runs to South Middle East and the Arab countries: Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, ...?

Hopefully, Saudi Arabia's king Abdullah Al Saud is still young (just 87 years old) and his son Mutaib Al Saud (59 years old) ensure the continuity of Arab-Western relations for a long time. =)

How to become US Vicepresident

A few days ago I read an article written by Al Gore. The article's content doesn't  matters, what it really matters is the picture that follow the article. In the picture (that I post here) we can see Al Gore's Office in his home in Nashville, TN (Time Magazine).

Look at it!  Al's Office is a mess! With tons and tons of papers here and there.

It looks like your room, probably.  It looks like my home office!

So don't worry about how is your office, you can succeed in life even with a mess all over the table.

Have a nice day.    

The Year of the Dragon

Wherever you live, probably you can see there are hundreds of chinese people preparing themselves for the new year: The Year of The Dragon.

Chinese mandataries look at this year with hope and fear at the same time. As World's number one exporters, they fear the recesion in the tradicional buyer, which probably leads to a reduce in chinese production and increase of unemployment rates. Furthermore, the real state prices in China have decreased in 52 of 70 main cities and the new home prices in the nation’s four major cities of Guangzhou, Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen have declined for a third month. Looks like Spain in 2008-2009!

But Chinese President Hu Jintao and his Primer Minister Wen Jiabao aren't worried about that. They hope that the Year of the Dragon it's going to be the year of Chinese World's leadership: Presidential Elections in USA and debt and political crisis in Europe have prepared the field for Chinese new year in World Leadership.

Should we start to learn Chinese?

You too, Brutus? - Kyoto Protocol, Politics and Environment's biggest threat

These days the Climate Change Conference is taking place in Durban, South Africa, and the biggest threat for the world in these days is poverty.

The Dream;

The Dream, as I like to call it, is named in reality 'Kyoto Protocol'. Kyoto's Protocol was announced and ratified in 1997 as a way of decreasing CO2 emissions by 5% between 2008-2012 with respect to 1990 data.

Now, we're facing the end of Kyoto's Protocol and its renovation is more than questioned. The Protocol' policy means a reduction in CO2 emissions which leads in extra cost for industry and energy prices.
With the international crisis all around, who wants to increase the price of energy and, consequently, the price of goods and services?
Who wants to decrease the purchasing power of their population? ...No one.

Politicians were pushed by the public opinion in their countries to stablish policies in order to push industry and reduce unemployment; and spending more money fighting against the Invisible Threat of Global Warming seems not to be the best way in a short term view.

Probably we'll regret about the decisions taken today at Durban, murdering the future in order to save the present. We can say to ourselves that it's for the common well, or that the decisions were taken by others like US or China, but in reality, we all are guilty of Kyoto's Protocol death; like all the Senators were guilty of Julius Caesar's death. Can you heard the world saying:"You too, Brutus?"