Today marks 70 years of the beginning of the Winter War, that historical event that is still at the forefront of the Finnish psyche. The good news is that Finland kept its unity and its independence (no mean feat when your adversary is the Soviet Union), the bad news is that it created a siege mentality that survives to this day in certain sectors of society.
For more background information, you can hardly do better than have a look in Helsingin Sanomat’s archive (1, 2, 3).
I am a proud product of the Finnish educational system (as well as the Mexican and Belgian ones), but as much as I think it gives you a great preparation, there is a few things that I’d like to see changed:
A science fiction short from Uruguay that made me think about the state of neglect of science fiction as a genre in Latin America. Would love to see more examples like this.
Es interesante ver que algunas de las semillas de la presente situación en México fueron plantadas durante el llamado “milagro mexicano” de 1940-1971. Clientelismo, monopolios y falta de valor agregado en las actividades económicas son vicios que se hicieron fuertes durante esa época. Algunos otros se fortalecieron más tarde, especialmente el narcotráfico, el descuido del sistema educativo y el enfoque exclusivo en Estados Unidos.
En las últimas semanas han llamado mi atención una serie de artículos en los que se manifiesta la preocupación de algunos sectores dada la situación actual de México, especialmente en comparación con nuestros vecinos latinoamericanos. La diferencia nace, a mi parecer, de la decidia de la clase política y de la falta de una cultura democrática en la sociedad que complemente nuestro sistema político. Somos buenísimos para quejarnos y para asistir a manifestaciones, pero díganme quién le ha llamado a su diputado o senador para pedirle que rinda cuentas.
Viendo desde fuera el número de oportunidades perdidas en los últimos 10 años por el exceso de politiqueros y la falta de verdaderos estadistas, y el estado de nuestra inversión en el desarrollo de recursos humanos a través de la educación, por desgracia no me sorprende el estado del país.
Por desgracia, como es más fácil armar mitotes que ponerse a trabajar, no soy tan optimista como quisiera. Espero estar equivocado.
I’ve spent countless hours playing with the English accent archive of George Mason University and the Omniglot resource, especially the “Useful” phrases, one of the best ones below.
Si hoc legere scis, nimium eruditionis habes.
If you can read this, you have too much education.
After a very interesting presentation by Dr. José Luis Cordeiro of Singularity University, I was left with a few interesting ideas about the coming accelerating technological and social progress.
I love biking, ever since I was a small kid. Now that November has arrived and we have 6 hours of sunlight, you have to be more careful than usual.
In many cultures it is common to take advantage of all parts of an animal, not only the average meat. As I had been missing beef tongue tacos (a Mexican delicacy) for some time, I decided to try the same with reindeer when I found it sold in my local supermarket. The taste was very good, if a little gamy.
Ingredients (serves 2)
Peel the garlic. Cut the onion in 4 parts. Add the hierba buena, dill, and the tongues and boil everything in water for 1.5 hours. Peel the tongues and cut in small cubes.
Serve with warm tortillas. Salad and rice as good optional sides. Don’t forget a good sauce (a taco without sauce is a sad taco), we had some salsa taquera but I’m sure some pico de gallo would also work great.
I came across Remembrance Day in my last stay in London. While I find the tradition very moving (especially given the current servicemen situation in Afghanistan), I am also slightly disturbed by its militaristic overtones. There’s nothing wrong with remembering your dead, but shouldn’t be used as a justification for hating others. After all, the First and Second World Wars were already some time ago.