Tag Archives: history

Himno nacional en lenguas indígenas

Posted on November 16, 2011 by | 2 Comments

A veces me da pena pensar que aunque me sé comunicar más o menos en ocho idiomas, todos son de origen europeo. Quisiera aprender aunque sea un poco de náhuatl o maya yucateco, pero probablemente tendrá que esperar a que me retire.

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Recommended book: The Ascent of Money

Posted on September 15, 2011 by | Leave a comment

This is a very interesting book by Niall Ferguson that has already been reviewed here and here. It also has a companion TV documentary.

Behind each great historical phenomenon there lies a financial secret, and this book sets out to illuminate the most important of these. For example, the Renaissance created such a boom in the market for art and architecture because Italian bankers like the Medici made fortunes by applying Oriental mathematics to money. The Dutch Republic prevailed over the Hapsburg Empire because having the world’s first modern stock market was financially preferable to having the world’s biggest silver mine. The problems of the French monarchy could not be resolved without a revolution because a convicted Scots murderer had wrecked the French financial system by unleashing the first stock market bubble and bust.

This should be required reading or viewing for everybody who handles money every day i.e. for all of us. For good or ill our livelihood depends on understanding the financial events around us but in order to graduate from high school you need to understand science, biology and language but not how to calculate compound interest. Money, as they say, is portable power. Get something to eat and watch the full TV documentary below (also divided by episodes in the PBS website).

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Recommended book: The Muslim discovery of Europe

Posted on November 23, 2010 by | Leave a comment

I’ve always been interested in finding out “the other side of the story”. That was one of my main incentives in learning foreign languages, and the reason why I usually scan international newspapers.  As a recent project put me in constant contact with Turkey, I was able to pick up this book at Istanbul airport and was able to read it through.  While this blog gives a longer review of the book than I’d be willing to write here, the most interesting bit of the whole book was that for the peoples comprising Medieval Islam, Europe was an uninteresting barbaric fringe following an antiquated superseded religion, and so approached their contact with Europeans from a stand of perceived moral superiority.  Not unlike the way Europeans viewed the peoples of the New World in the 1500′s.

The book then gives a summary of how those attitudes changed with the faster European development of the Renaissance to a situation where while European technical, scientific & military expertise was sought after, cultural contact was still avoided.  300 years later, the situation is starting to change as can be seen in the TED talk below:

Disclaimer: I know Turkey is in general much less traditionalist than other Muslim countries. It is generally agreed that the push West was started by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, which was not covered in this book.

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Libro recomendado: Cartas Finlandesas

Posted on November 23, 2010 by | Leave a comment

Si eres hispanoparlante y vives (o planeas vivir) en Finlandia, este libro es absolutamente imperdible. Escrito hace 110 años por el entonces cónsul de España en Helsinki cuando Finlandia era un Gran Ducado dependiente del zar de Rusia y la población de clase alta era mayoritariamente de habla sueca, este libro es un retrato veraz, ácido a veces y sumamente divertido en ocasiones sobre cómo vivían, comían, hablaban (o no), se relacionaban y morían los finlandeses de aquel entonces.

Aunque en algunas cosas el país ha cambiado sustancialmente, el carácter sigue siendo fundamentalmente el mismo.

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Mexican Bicentennial celebrations

Posted on September 29, 2010 by | Leave a comment

It is not every day that a country celebrates its 200th birthday. Boston.com shared a beautiful set of pictures of the parades and main events, but I wanted to give you my impressions from the ground as we were lucky enough to be there.

Sabritas nacionalista

All sorts of companies tried to bandwagon on the nationalist mood to sell stuff

Mexican bicentennial decorations at Galerías Atizapán

Summary of Mexican history at a shopping centre

Mexican wares in Liverpool

Department stores obviously also joined the mood.

Mexican Independece Bicentennial home decorations

Mexican Independece Bicentennial home decorations: Exhibit A

Mexican Independece Bicentennial home decorations

Mexican Independece Bicentennial home decorations: Exhibit B

Zapata

Let's not forget that it was also the centennial of the beginning of the Mexican Revolution.

Selling flags for Mexican Independence Day

Stalls like these were found all over the country selling Mexican wares

Artesanías de hoja de elote

Nice idea: handcrafted figurines made out of corn leaves.

Folk dances

Folk dances at a shopping mall

Folk dances

Folk dances at a shopping mall

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Recommended movie: Indigènes (Days of Glory)

Posted on January 27, 2010 by | Leave a comment

Finally had the chance to watch this French-Belgian-Moroccan co-production, and wasn’t disappointed.   The film tells the story of a contingent of North Africans who fight for the liberation of France in the Second World War.  The plot and psychological environment is quite interesting as they are quite patriotic for a homeland they have never seen (a scene of them singing the Marseillaise and the Song of the Africans is quite stinging), but are still treated like second-class citizens.

It is very refreshing to watch a WWII movie that doesn’t follow the typical American conventions, that’s for sure, even if I really like Saving Private Ryan.

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Istanbul

Posted on December 17, 2009 by | 2 Comments

Visited the city on a business trip. I have to say that the most interesting things about Istanbul for me were the long historical view you get in the city, and the uncanny resemblance Turks have with Mexicans.

As usual with these kind of posts, pictures say it better.

 

Istanbul panorama

A city between cultural zones and continents, it has more than 10 million people and number of different names throughout history (maybe Byzantium or Constantinople ring a bell). So many different peoples have lived in it, that excavations for the metro and the Marmara project have found ancient ruins (just like Templo Mayor in Mexico City).

 

Grand Bazaar

Traders by nature, the culture of haggling in its bazaars is very well developed.

 

Aya Sofya interior

The Aya Sofya, one of the most imposing religious buildings I have ever been to, started its life as a church, became a mosque and is now a national museum.

 

Técnica de panadero

Mexican similarities exhibit A: look at this baker's bread-carrying tecnique.

 

Técnica de taquero

Mexican similarities exhibit B: Kebabs are way too similar to tacos al pastor.

 

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Finnish Independence Day

Posted on December 7, 2009 by | 2 Comments

Suomen itsenäisyyspäivä

Good food, good company. A good time was had by all. And I didn’t have to watch the reception on TV =D .

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Winter War: 70 years

Posted on November 30, 2009 by | Leave a comment

Recommended Book: The Winter War

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).

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Remembrance Day

Posted on November 11, 2009 by | Leave a comment

Armistice Day Poppy
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.

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