Great, great, great movie. The best I´ve seen in a very long time. Highly recommended.

It has enough tenderness to touch your heart, it raises issues that are important enough to get you thinking and, believe me, it is hilariously funny.

I won´t go into any more details here because I don’t want to write any spoilers (don’t let anyone tell you about the end!) but, honestly, if you get the chance to watch it, do not hesitate and go for it. You are very unlikely to regret it.

Read More 2 comments | Posted by Nanauat |

The text below is an excerpt from “Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower”, by American author William Blum. It became world renowned when Osama Bin Laden quoted it on his video broadcast of January 2006. Addressing the American public, Bin Laden stated: "It is useful for you to read the book The Rogue State", and then quoted the beginning of the paragraph in question. In a week, the book went from being ranked 209,000 on Amazon´s sales list to being ranked number 12, ahead of best sellers such as The Da Vinci Code. Because of this, some have gone to the point of calling it “the book review of the decade”.

Anyway, whoever its fans may be, I think that the text is definitely worth reading and being reflected on, so here it goes.

"If I were the president, I could stop terrorist attacks against the United States in a few days. Permanently. I would first apologize to all the widows and orphans, the tortured and impoverished, and all the many millions of other victims of American imperialism. Then I would announce, in all sincerity, to every corner of the world, that America's global interventions have come to an end, and inform Israel that it is no longer the 51st state of the USA but now -- oddly enough -- a foreign country. I would then reduce the military budget by at least 90% and use the savings to pay reparations to the victims. There would be more than enough money. One year's military budget of 330 billion dollars is equal to more than $18,000 an hour for every hour since Jesus Christ was born. That's what I'd do on my first three days in the White House. On the fourth day, I'd be assassinated."

Demagogy or clairvoyance? You decide.

For more info on the subject, you can check the author´s website (and more precisely Anti-Empire Report, Feb. 2006).

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"The best thing for being sad," replied Merlyn, beginning to puff and blow, "is to learn something. That is the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then--to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the thing for you. Look at what a lot of things there are to learn--pure science, the only purity there is. You can learn astronomy in a lifetime, natural history in three, literature in six. And then, after you have exhausted a milliard lifetimes in biology and medicine and theocriticism and geography and history and economics--why, you can start to make a cartwheel out of the appropriate wood, or spend fifty years learning to begin to learn to beat your adversary at fencing. After that you can start again on mathematics, until is it is time to learn to plough."

(Merlyn, advising the young King Arthur.
From T. H. White's The Once and Future King)

• On the one hand, I like it as an exaltation of the virtues of knowledge and learning, since the text can ultimately be seen as an ode to the beauty of wanting to learn something new everyday. I like both the humbleness and the spirit of non-conformity that are implied. I agree with the vision of knowledge as a noble quest and I agree with the line of thought according to which knowledge itself can never be bad. What we do with that knowledge can indeed be right or wrong, but that is a completely different debate. Knowledge itself broadens our minds and enlarges our choices, therefore enhancing our freedom. Thus, it can only be good.

• On the other hand, I like the fact that the text encourages the adoption of an active role when faced with difficulties. If you are feeling sad, the last thing you should do is waste a single minute feeling miserable, commiserating yourself, paralyzed by fear and regrets. Instead, you should stand up and get moving. Explore new realities. Discover new options. Learn something new. Become the light at the end of you own tunnel. Or as our friend Andy might have put it, simply get "busy living".

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Hercules, when faced with a vaguely similar disjunctive, chose Virtue over Vice:

For Alice though, things were not so simple:

- "Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?"

- "That depends a good deal on where you want to get to" said the Cat.

- "I don't much care where" said Alice.

- "Then it doesn't matter which way you go" said the Cat.

Interesting, isn't it?
Where do you want to go? Which road will you take?

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"Finally, a young woman approached who was not dressed in black. She had a vessel on her shoulder and her head was covered by a veil, but her face was uncovered. The boy approached her to ask about the Alchemist.

At that moment, it seemed to him that time stood still, and the Soul of the World surged within him. When he looked into her dark eyes, and saw that her lips were poised between a laugh and silence, he learned the most important part of the language that all the world spoke -- the language that everyone on earth was capable of understanding in their heart. It was love. Something older than humanity, more ancient than the desert. Something that exerted the same force whenever two pairs of eyes met, as had theirs here at the well. She smiled, and that was certainly an omen -- the omen he had been awaiting, without even knowing he was, for all his life. The omen he had sought to find with his sheep and in his books, in the crystals and in the silence of the desert.

It was the pure Language of the World. It required no explanation, just as the universe needs none as it travels through endless time. What the boy felt at that moment was that he was in the presence of the only woman in his life, and that, with no need for words, she recognized the same thing. He was more certain of it than of anything in the world. He had been told by his parents and grandparents that he must fall in love and really know a person before becoming committed. But maybe people who felt that way had never learned the universal language. Because, when you know that language, it's easy to understand that someone in the world awaits you, whether it's in the middle of the desert or in some great city. And when two such people encounter each other, and their eyes meet, the past and future become unimportant. There is only that moment, and the incredible certainty that everything under the sun has been written by one hand only. It is the hand that evokes love, and creates a twin soul for every person in the world. Without such love, one's dreams would have no meaning."

(from The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho)

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Here goes a painting that I like, by Joan Miró. It is part of the permanent collection at Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid.


I first saw it a few years ago and, to be honest, I think that the reasons why I like it still continue to escape me somehow. And yet I know that I do like it. I guess I do partly because of its apparent simplicity and partly because of its choice of colors (or lack thereof); but, above all, I think that I like this picture because of the fact that, quoting Oscar Wilde, even though we are all in the gutter, some of us do actually enjoy looking at the stars.

Read More 0 comments | Posted by Nanauat |

The sequence of milestones that a person must go through in the path towards maturity and wisdom is something that has always intrigued me. What separates a man from a boy? Where should we draw the red line? Many will certainly dispute the very existence of such a line, but let’s assume, for a moment, that one such line exists and needs to be placed somewhere. Age and physical development, while important, are clearly insufficient to constitute a discriminating criterion on their own.

A few years ago, while watching the movie “The Cider House Rules”, I was gladly impressed by the accuracy of John Irving’s definition of adolescence as “the first time in our lives when we imagine that we have something terrible to hide from those who love us”. Recently, this line of thought was brought up again when I happened to read Alden Nowlan´s beautiful reflection on the subject, according to whom "the day the child realizes that all adults are imperfect, he becomes an adolescent; the day he forgives them, he becomes an adult; the day he forgives himself, he becomes wise."

It seems reasonable, at this point, to establish a connection between Nowlan´s statement and the classic Greek aphorism “Nosce te ipsum” (“Know thyself”, as inscribed in golden letters at the lintel of the entrance to the Temple of Apollo at Delphi). Wisdom in the form of self-knowledge could then be seen as a necessary condition for self-forgiveness, which in turn would render the self even wiser. The prize? Some might think of inner peace. Others may wonder whether or not wise men have an actual need for prizes of any kind, ever since the wisdom they would have gained throughout the whole journey of self-discovery might already be considered the greatest prize of all.

Read More 2 comments | Posted by Nanauat |

I started working on this personal project during the days that followed the train bomb attacks of March 11th 2004 in Madrid. The anguish that many of us experienced during those days is reflected in the text, which in addition evolves around other issues that were important to me at that time. The whole work can be seen as a “coming of age” reflection on life where art, and more precisely abstract art, is used as a catalyst in my personal quest for maturity.

All of you who are capable of reading the document in French are invited to do it. Do not hesitate to share with me any thoughts and comments that it may inspire. Bonne lecture ! ;-)

Download the pdf

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How many times must a man look up
Before he sees the sky?
Yes, 'n' how many ears must one person have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, 'n' how many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind,
The answer is blowin' in the wind.

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A few days ago, I came accross a poem by Pablo Neruda that stroke me as particularly beautiful and inspiring. The underlying message is simple yet frequently forgotten: in spite of all difficulties, life can be great when we gather up the courage to look at it straight in the eye; not from the perspective of a master who just commands, not as a servant who just fears and obeys, but rather as a friend or a lover in a journey of discovery. Interestingly enough, this line of thought kind of reflects the spirit with which this blog was conceived. Enjoy.

Oda a la vida Ode to life

La noche entera The entire night
con un hacha armed with a hatchet,
me ha golpeado el dolor, has broken me with grief,
pero el sueño but sleep
pasó lavando como un agua oscura like dark water washed away
piedras ensangrentadas. the bloody stones.

Hoy de nuevo estoy vivo. Today again I am alive.
De nuevo Again,
te levanto, I lift you up,
vida, life,
sobre mis hombros. upon my shoulders.

Oh vida, Oh life,
copa clara, clear cup,
de pronto suddenly
te llenas you fill up with
de agua sucia, dirty water,
de vino muerto, lifeless wine,
de agonía, de pérdidas, agony, losses, and
de sobrecogedoras telarañas, overhanging spider webs,
y muchos creen and many believe
que ese color de infierno this nightmarish tint
guardarás para siempre. you will guard forever.

No es cierto. That is not true.

Pasa una noche lenta, A lingering night passes,
pasa un solo minuto just one minute passes
y todo cambia. and everything changes.
Se llena Life's cup
de transparencia fills up
la copa de la vida. with transparent brilliance.
El trabajo espacioso The wide quest
nos espera. awaits us.
De un solo golpe nacen las palomas. Doves are born in a solitary burst.
Se establece la luz sobre la tierra. Light reigns again over the earth.

Vida, los pobres Life, the poor
poetas poets
te creyeron amarga, believed you to be bitter.
no salieron contigo They did not rise from bed
de la cama with you
con el viento del mundo. and face the winds of the world.

Recibieron los golpes They received beatings
sin buscarte, without searching for you.
se barrenaron They tunneled
un agujero negro a black hole
y fueron sumergiéndose and continued their journeys,
en el luto submerged in mourning,
de un pozo solitario. drowning in a well of loneliness.

No es verdad, vida, That is not true, life.
eres You are
bella beautiful
como la que yo amo like my beloved;
y entre los senos tienes between your breasts,
olor a menta. the perfume of spearmint sings.

Vida, Life,
eres you are
una máquina plena, a complete instrument,
felicidad, sonido happiness, sounds
de tormenta, ternura of storm, tenderness
de aceite delicado. of mellow oil.

Vida, Life,
eres como una viña: you are like a vineyard:
atesoras la luz y la repartes you treasure and share light
transformada en racimo. in the fruits of transformation.

El que de ti reniega Whoever disowns you
que espere should wait
un minuto, una noche, a minute, a night,
un año corto o largo, a short or long year,
que salga to emerge
de su soledad mentirosa, from his mistaken solitude,
que indague y luche, junte should search and fight, should join
sus manos a otras manos, hands with other hands.
que no adopte ni halague should not adopt, should not praise
a la desdicha, misfortune,
que la rechace dándole should reject it, giving it the form
forma de muro, of a wall,
como a la piedra los picapedreros, like the stonecutter with the stone.
que corte la desdicha should take scissors to misfortune,
y se haga con ella and make
pantalones. a pair of trousers.

La vida nos espera Life waits for us
a todos all of us
los que amamos who cherish
el salvaje the wild perfume of the sea,
olor a mar y menta and the celebration of spearmint
que tiene entre los senos. nestled between its breasts.

(From the book "Odas Elementales", by Pablo Neruda)

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