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was that for the peoples comprising Medieval Islam, Europe was an uninteresting barbaric fringe following an antiquated superseded religion, and so approached their contact with Europeans from a stand of perceived moral superiority.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.
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.
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.
All sorts of companies tried to bandwagon on the nationalist mood to sell stuffSummary of Mexican history at a shopping centreDepartment stores obviously also joined the mood.Mexican Independece Bicentennial home decorations: Exhibit AMexican Independece Bicentennial home decorations: Exhibit BLet's not forget that it was also the centennial of the beginning of the Mexican Revolution.Stalls like these were found all over the country selling Mexican waresNice idea: handcrafted figurines made out of corn leaves.Folk dances at a shopping mallFolk dances at a shopping mall
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.
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.
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).
Traders by nature, the culture of haggling in its bazaars is very well developed.
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.
Mexican similarities exhibit A: look at this baker's bread-carrying tecnique.
Mexican similarities exhibit B: Kebabs are way too similar to tacos al pastor.
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 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.
This time of the year it is very common to get foggy days in southern Finland. I find them very interesting because the combination of setting with metheorological phenomenon brings to my mind images of Viking longships raiding the marshes and woods of the lands of the Fenni.
A friend of mine did share a story of Vikings rading a warehouse full of precious animal furs near the town of Nokia, which is where it takes is name from (noki being “soot” and sable being as black as it). Somehow drunken barbarians warriors attacking a town for its pelts sounds pretty funny to me.
This brings me to another point: every once in a while I feel like the Arab guy in The 13th Warrior. Par for the course for a southerner living in these northern lands 😉
If you haven’t had that chance and you happen to be in London, I’d wholeheartedly recommend it. There’s a few pieces that are not shown in Mexico at all.
