2011

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Toothpick Building Blueprints

CUBA - HAVANA - CHINATOWN

A visit (too fast) in the "Barrio Chino", a picturesque area that I do not know ...

Chinese immigration is old, dating back to the late 19th and early 20th century: the coolies were then employed in the tobacco plantations and sugar cane.

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Since most of these immigrants were "Cubanisation" but remain in the neighborhood, the decor, ambience, and .... still a few Chinese (are) well-typed (e ) s!

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Makeup ... -

Reading ... -

This young man sells apples, fruit "exotic" for Cuba ... Note that these apples come from (see the carton right) ..... U.S., just as much on food imports or other (it is not uncommon to see roads run huge American trucks "art").

"embargo" is an excuse often used to "explain" the country's economic difficulties.

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READING

Mario Conde, the sympathetic police inspector, investigating in Chinatown ...

Leonardo Padura, author of this excellent novel, states:

"history is a fiction, even if it contains a heavy dose of reality. Here, behind the police resulting Mario Adventure Conde, there is the story of a rootlessness that has always moved a lot: the Chinese who came to Cuba, like so many other economic migrants. The loneliness and rootlessness are logically the subject of this History that did not happen but could have been. "

Why Does The Inside Of My Nose Get Sore

To the south, the new release on

We are currently experiencing few days, those that can not cross a few occasions in his life. What happened in Tunisia, Egypt, what is happening now in Libya - pending no doubt that sparks smoldering everywhere, from the Atlantic to the Persian Gulf, growing up in turn - is henceforth already comparable to that faced by the countries of Eastern Europe at the turn of the 80 and 90. The contagion of revolt from one country to another, even those thought to be unshakable, leaves no room for doubt: our neighbors across the Mediterranean has entered a revolutionary process, which no one can predict the outcome. After Tunisia, we were told Egypt impregnable then it was time for Libya to be cited as examples of countries where the revolt could take. You could indulge in a little cruel game consisting in identifying forums and interviews with experts telling us in recent weeks, why the revolution could spread to any country in fact blazing up the next day or two . Cruel game and easy: very clever, who could have predicted these events, as they are the result of dynamics at work in depth but hardly noticeable from our shores, as the weight of fear, a priori and prejudice sometimes makes it difficult to understand what is happening on our doorstep. A young generation who rose transgresses and transcends the alternative, some contrived to present as inevitable, between political Islam and secular pseudo-dictatorship. That these supposed bastions against Islamism are, in fact, well accommodated of what they were supposed to contain only very few people visibly annoyed. Today, all the little arrangements with Western morality are swept away by these mixed crowds who throng the places of the capital to demand, simply, the freedom to live as they wish, without God, nor Caesar, nor tribune, to use a familiar formula.

The impossible has become possible, but this does not mean that the worst is now rejected. The wind of freedom and democracy is fragile, more than ever, will be a battle. Every revolution poses the risk of a cons-revolution. The cons-revolution that threatens these people, we can already guess: the union of the old oligarchies just reversed, and political Islam and hoping to fill the void left. More disorder succeeding the last dictatorships and install, this risk will be great. So there is a race against the clock, which begins upon the tyrants fell: the race for the rapid organization of transparent elections, the establishment of constituent assemblies, which can restore order and democratic citizen on the ruins of ancient power. Progressive parties around the world, and especially Europe, must ask themselves how they can make themselves useful in this context, without getting lost in endless internal debates on domestic and relevance of their intervention, amid bad post-colonial consciousness. The answer is simple: by helping to re-start of democracy where it will be useful, but also and perhaps especially by ensuring that what will facilitate quickly lead to the democratic process, that is to say, the economic and social regeneration. The elected representatives of the French territorial communities can now ask how they can, by forging partnerships with the liberated countries, supporting their development plans and building relationships richer and more friendly than those that may have currency before. Alongside democratic requirements, it is indeed the social question which is posed by these movements. To borrow a distinction somewhat old, but oh so relevant in these times of turmoil, the revolution is permanent, or will not. Trotsky contrasted this conception of the revolution - led to the end, to resolve all the problems democratic, economic and social - that of a Stalin advocating instead a rebellion staged. If democratic countries today released stops along the way, if we make up for the democratic veneer persistent socio-economic balances old, old oligarchies, then yes, the worst may happen.

This is especially important that this is not a coincidence that these uprisings taking place at that time and at this point. Systems always end up breaking their weakest link - Gold of Africa and the Maghreb are precisely the areas neglected by liberal globalization, as it has developed over the past 20 years, these "twenty perverse." We must therefore wonder about what these popular uprisings against the global context. Are we witnessing the end of a regional system, as in 1989, or rather the dawn of a new era? At such a juncture, an International of Left parties would have any meaning and usefulness, even if only to pragmatically assist in structuring progressive parties in these new democracies. In contrast, the Socialist International has completed to discredit capital during those days. I shall not dwell here on the membership of any dictator in the old organization, and these abnormalities are a reflection of its structural dysfunction and especially his political vacuum. The French Socialist Party, wise and timid response to those events (it has been confused foreign policy and foreign affairs?), Should in my view, serious questions: can he still stay in this association that does not mean anything anymore, or would it be better to build a new international parties who really share our values in Europe of course, but also in South America and now Middle East? At least that is resigned to seeing the train go by (r) evolutions remain, powerless and ashamed spectators on the sidelines.

Julien Dray

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

How Come I Exercise But Im Still The Same Weight

FILM - THE WOMEN OF THE 6th FLOOR - Philippe Le Guay - France

3 / 5

moments of tenderness and emotion in this very sympathetic comedy ... well done

Excellent dialogues allow Fabrice Luchini, in great shape to do Luchini

But he does so well ...

his character discovers, with stupor, "good English (we are in the 60s) who live in small rooms on the top floor of the stately building where he lives ...

A completely different world than his own world but a warm Perhaps that will change her life ...

(Natalia Verbeke)

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Philippe Le Guay was born in Paris in 1956

Writer / director ...

Among his feature films: "The year Juliet" (1995), "The Cost of Life (2003) and" Du overnight "(2006)

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Alexis Texas Black Hair

BOOK - THE STAR AND THE PALM - Leonardo Padura - FILM

A wonderful novel about betrayal and exile ...

A surprising and clever parallelism, over time, between the fates:

- Fernando forced, in the 90s, into exile after his expulsion from the university,

- and the Cuban poet Jose Maria Heredia (1803-1839) who had also s' hurriedly flee Cuba for political reasons ...

EXCERPTS:

"... This oath, delivered the night of September 21, 1922, would change forever the happy and carefree life of the young poet to push on the way crueler fates, this tortuous path that would cause it to suffer exile, tyranny, disease, betrayal and unspeakable contempt, but that would make him, thanks to the firmness of his character, the great defender of democracy, ......, the father of Cuban poetry, the tender soul of the motherland and the National Poet of Cuba ...."

(Jose Maria Heredia belongs to the same family as Jose-Maria de Heredia (1842-1945), French poet of Cuban origin.)

"In this moment of light, while the poem began to take shape in my mind altered, I understand the folly of human pretensions to transcendence, pride, authority, and I swore before the moon had just risen and the easing of suffering souls of men killed by human fury, as if life to me allowed, I would spend all my physical and mental strength to fight the worst that man was created to satisfy his most contemptible desire of power: slavery and tyranny. "

"I was naive in believing that this country was able to change the course of his destiny. But he is incapable and will be for long, perhaps forever. A country that prefers a tyranny rather than risk illustrative opening skirmishes, whoever they are, deserves all tyrannies. "

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L eonardo Padura Fuentes was born in 1955

novelist and journalist.

It has lived in Havana in the neighborhood of Mantilla ...

"I have a physical relationship with this barrio where my great grandfather was already born. It keeps me in contact with people, and each I am a long walk by talking with all is a kind of daily poll which also feeds my imagination. "

A large and friendly Cuban writer ...

Most of his novels are set in Havana during the "special" in the early 90s (particularly period difficult, especially for food, due to a sudden halt to the aid that Russia brought the Cubans).

It finds the disillusioned but endearing character of Police Lieutenant Mario Conde lucid witness the terrible problems faced by his countrymen.

* Last novel published in France "The man who loved dogs" (not read)

Friday, February 25, 2011

Walk In Birth Control Ontario

Cuba - TRUE GRIT - Ethan & Joel Coen - USA

2.5 / 5

Am I the only not to be excited "True Grit" everywhere heaped praise?

undeniably well made and correctly interpreted, however, I had the impression of watching a film the ghost, iced ...

almost a celebration of the death of traditional Western ...

** *

Matt Damon:

Jeff Bridges:

Joss Brolin:

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"True Grit" is a remake of the movie (recently seen on TV) Henry Hathaway's "One Hundred Dollars for sheriff" (1969) bill may be less original but I find it much more endearing.

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Ethan and Joel Coen were born in 1957 and 1954