Posted by admin on Feb 12, 2010 in
People,
Poetry,
Religion,
zeitgeist 
Chary is the reason behind this series of interviews. She interviewed me for European Irish, the website for all the Irish expats and Hibernophiles living in on the Continent. So I thought I would turn tables and get to know her. She lives in Chiclana, Cádiz, a very special paradise with its own guardian, the Wind from the East (like the witch in the Wizard of Oz) that protects the area from overcrowding.
She studied Philosophy in Salamanca because she wanted to know EVERYTHING about this world, she really wanted to fully understand it, and she thought Philosophers would give her the answers she needed. Funny enough, they just had more and more questions. As one friend of hers says: we’re still at the beginning, but not as we were at the start. And I suppose that’s the important thing.
She got an Erasmus grant, and headed to Galway for a year. Not being able to stand the crazy climate in that country, she decided to come back to Spain, where the light of the sun makes life so much easier. But she brought a nice Irish fellow from Sligo who was delighted to get out of the rain. And since then, they’ve been living in Chiclana. they have two lovely children (one of them says about himself that he’s a miracle! And that he wants to be like the guys in The Beatles, have a band, become famous, but the most important thing, have long hair; and the other one says she’ll dance for her brother’s band, she just loves performing).
What is love for you?
Often answers depend on who is asking… I suppose love is what makes us BE. This is just a guess. So much has been said about this topic! I don’t exactly know what love is, but I’m aware of its effects. Love must be shown, or it is not love. Love is also irrational. And so are humans, even though it has been said they are rational animals… Nonsense. Computers experts try hard to make computers think like humans by getting them to be logical. The truth is that a computer will never be like a human being… because the essential part of humans is irrationality.
Why do bad things happen to good people?
Coincidence. This might be difficult to accept, but I don’t think there’s a reason beyond this.
What is the biggest problem facing the human race at the moment?
How to cope with intolerance, how to accept that difference is part of our lives. Multiculturalism is a challenge for us.
If you could change one thing in your life, what would it be?
I wouldn’t change a single thing. Not at all. Everything in life is so weaved that it is very difficult to change one thing without changing the others.
Do you read poetry? Why? Why not?
I think there might be a difference between poetry and poems. While poetry is felt, poems are written down. How many poems do you know that have a lack of poetry? And yet, sometimes, one single word could be full of poetry… Anyway, I used to read poems, yes… There was a time when I could read in loud voice. Poetry has to be read in loud voice; otherwise we just have loose words on a piece of paper. Life is made of different stages: you do exercise for a while, and then you suddenly stop. The same thing happened to me with poetry. Sometimes you have to leave the land fallow, and give time a chance. From time to time, someone delivers a poem for me on a tray –in the inbox of Outlook . And I’m starting to recite them… again.
What is your mission in life?
Mission? Missions have to do with heroes. And I don’t like heroes. Jesus was one of them. They all have a tendency to die because of a real necessity of stating that his ideas are worth a life, their own life, and sometimes their follower’s life. Therefore, I do not have a mission. I might have little goals…
Have you ever felt hate? If so, tell me about it.
No.
Is optimism a strength or a weakness? Explain your answer
Optimism is, without any doubts, strength. I’m not talking about some sort of naïve optimism for which everything is fine. As I understand it, optimism means being aware of reality and its faults and it entails a great effort in order to make it better.
What is your favourite recipe?
Shepperd’s Pie… but the way we’d cook it in Andalucía: white wine, onions, garlic…
If you had a motto, what would it be?
I wouldn’t have a motto. Humans are too changeable to have just one single motto in life. But“Nosce te ipsum”could be a good motto. However, Simone de Beauvoir said that “you cannot get to know yourself, all you can do is narrate yourself”. Isn’t it what I’m doing know? J
Add and answer two more questions that you would like to be asked!!!!
Ok. Why am I answering this questionnaire?
Because it seems to be a challenge.
(I would not add a number 13th question, sorry)
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Tags: cadiz, interview, People, Poetry, Spain, spirituality
Posted by admin on Jan 25, 2010 in
Autobiography,
History,
Madrid,
Travel 
Last weekend my girlfriend took me on a mystery trip. All I knew was that it was within a two hours drive from Madrid and that on the Saturday there was a special activity. So, off I went on Friday afternoon to my class with the creative agency Patito Feo full of that tense joy that comes from knowing that something good is going to happen but not knowing what. A Christmas morning for Grown Ups kind of feeling. After my class, in which we discussed the possibilities that could materialise, I was picked up and whisked away via Alacalá de Henares (birthplace of Cervantes), Guadalajara (difficult to pronounce) to the mediaeval town of Pastrana in Castilla – La Mancha founded in the 13th century as a bastion after the final expulsion of the Moors. We arrived, less than two hours later, at the small hotel Palaterna next to a beautiful 16th century fountain called the Fuente de los Cuatro Caños. Apparently the symbolic meaning of the fountain’s decorations have been lost to memory.
On Saturday morning we walked to the Iglesia Colegiata which began life as the local parish church in the 14th century. It harbours the gothic tapestries of Alfonso V of Portugal. I always light a candle for my late father when I visit churches and, alas, this ancient temple has succumbed to the blight of having electric lights that switch on when you drop your coin in the box. Where, I ask you, is the sanctity in that?
We visited the Ducal Palace that dominates the village square. Apart from some tiles and roof carpentry the building has no sense of it’s Spanish Renaissance history thanks to the disembowelment perpetrated under the name of restauration by the University of Alcalá. The tour guide seemed less than excited as she told us about the one-eyed Princess of Eboli and her legendary amorous adventures with Felipe II. The building is now Spain’s Observatory of Sustainability. Go on, weep.
After a hearty lunch of migas and roast lamb the moment of truth arrived as my girlfriend revealed that the afternoon’s mystery activity was a visit of Pastrana’s wonderful spa. She knows that I am a big spa fan after seeing me spend a week in a jacuzzi in Cadiz a few years back. The people who work in the spa have it perfectly calibrated and we enjoyed the cascading spa pool followed by hydromassage, exfoliation, turkish bath, cool room and aroma therapy in a relaxation room to balance our energies. Bliss it was to be alive that afteroon but to be 48 with your partner was very heaven. Very.
In the evening we hit the road to seek out nearby villages and tap into their rural vibe. All we found though was a badly hidden nuclear power station , a small one like hobbits probably have, and so we turned around and drove back to Pastrana to dine at the Cafe de Ruy . Carmen was not feeling too hungry and so had a ration of ham and a salad. I opted for roast beef washed down with a nice bottle of Cuné . The wine is 80% tempranillo grape and then equal parts of the mazuello and garnacha varieties. Delicious! At the bar afterwards we sank a couple of mojitos and so to bed.
The next day we had the great pleasure to meet a guide who was truly connected with her subject. We visited a convent established by Saint Teresa of Avile and St John of the Cross. Our guide showed us paintings and relics now on display in the cloister and church. One could tell that the guide felt some pride in what she was showing us. Her appreciation of the paintings was palpable and it was a joy to be in her company. It is worth a visit just to see the Via Crucis series of paintings that have a remarkable modernity of composition and light.
After buying some postcards we hit the road and drove through Castilla, wending our way back to the big city refreshed spiritually and physically. Saint Teresa said
“Each of us has a soul, but we forget to value it. We don’t remember that we are creatures made in the image of God. We don’t understand the great secrets hidden inside of us.”
Well, thanks to my girlfriend’s mystery weekend, we certainly tried,
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Tags: pastrana, spa, Spain, travel
Posted by admin on Dec 9, 2009 in
Madrid,
Politics 
It was a long weekend where the Spanish who care about such things celebrate the Spanish Constitution. Spain is one of the most interesting countries in Europe when it comes to politics. It boasts a new democracy risen from a bloodless transition from fascist dictatorship engineered by a monarch who the leader of the Communist party admitted was the most radical agent of change at the time. The Spanish Congreso de Deputados – House of Commons if you will – is just up the road from the statue of Neptune and a stone’s throw from Madrid’s central Puerto del Sol. I went there on Monday.
I queued for four hours in the cold and the rain to get a look at the building where on 23th February1981 Antonio Tejero Molina tried to stage a military coup. You can see the bullet holes where he shot into the ornate ceiling. What a prat!
When we arrived at the entrance after joining the queue at Calle Alcalá and going all the way down to the Paseo del Prado and then up and around Calle Zorilla, they photocopied my passport and gave me a plastic cup (one of the cosy foamy ones) of soup. There were no guides. Just blue arrows with the word ‘Route’ on them. It was all very lush carpet and oil painty throughout. There was a fancy table given as a gift by some very important dead person to another very important dead person and a room with clocks. There was a modern looking tribute to the men who drew up the Constitution 40 years ago. The contrast between the modern paintings of these guys with the oil painted portraits of Pre-Franco times highlighted how young modern Spain is.
The debating chamber is beautiful to look at but uncomfortable to sit in. Little wonder they are so grumpy most of the time. Every diputado has an electrical voting system and a computer monitor. Although they look a bit Windows 3.1, they’re more on the ball than the Brits who have to shuffle out and in again to vote.
The debating chamber is a lot smaller than it looks on the 9 o’clock news and I can imagine the atmosphere gets a bit tense at times. In the English House of Commons MPs are separated by a space the distance of two sword lengths. Here they inhabit a classical semi-circle.
I was given a rucksack, gloves, scarf and a woolly hat when I left. I imagine that is so I can be identified as a solid citizen who has done the democractic Haj to the Congreso. I was also given a copy of the Spanish Constitution. I shall read it too.
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Tags: Spain
Posted by admin on Sep 28, 2009 in
Madrid,
People,
zeitgeist
On Friday we will hear if Madrid has been awarded the 2016 Olympic Games. We deserve the Games. We want the Games. But what we don’t want, are the professional cheats.
Athletes are supposed to be role models for children. At least, when I was a child they were. They represented the triumph of will over adversity. Work hard, be faithful and you will, if not win, at least compete with dignity. That was the message.
How things change! The Olympic ideal of ‘mens sana in copore sano’ is as laughable as a bald man’s comb
There have always been cheats – people who confuse crossing the line first with winning. But it was in 1988 when ‘doping’ became an international issue. Ben Jonson, in the 100 meters race in the Seoul Olympics, used steriods to win a gold medal . He was supposed to use his legs.
Cycling may never fully recover from the shock of the entire Festina team being banned from the Tour de France for having suitcases of doping material with them. There were rumours of doping in that race for many years before.
Such is the effect of these elite cheats that doping is now appearing in amateur sport. School students are finding that steroids are cheap and easily obtainable. In the USA 4% of teenagers (mainly boys) have used anabolic steroids in the past year.
We are used to cheating in football. Every time a player falls down pretending to be fouled we get angry (if it’s their player) or shrug (if it’s ours). Football stopped being sport a long time ago.
But the Olympic Games are supposed to be noble. We’ve all seen “Chariots of Fire”. Surely we all know the story of the Jamaican bobseligh team who fought against all ridicule and technical problems after their first Olympics Games in Calgary? They went on to beat the USA and Russia in subsequent competitions. No drugs. No cheating.
And they don’t even have snow in Jamaica!
But what can you do? Now some athletes take ‘masking agents’ which hide illegal substances. For every drug test developed there will be some cheating chemist finding ways round it.
But it is not the chemists who take the drugs. Nor the team doctors. Nor the trainers.
The sole responsibility to take drugs out of sport lies with the athletes themselves. It is question of restoring sporting values.
In English a person who enters into the spirit of things is called “a good sport”. If you do something against the rules you are “not playing the game” and “it’s not cricket”.
Doped sportspeople should be ashamed of themselves. If they are not, we should make them be. Honesty is not something to flirt with. We must be married to it.
It should start in the home, continue at school until it eventually regains its place on a podium in an Olympic stadium. Maybe a podium in Madrid.
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Tags: Madrid, Olympics, Spain, sport
Posted by admin on Sep 21, 2009 in
Madrid,
People,
Poetry Listen to the PODCAST
Dowload
On Saturday I attended the first meeting of the Irish in Spain. Well, I suppose there must have been thousands or millions of meetings of Irish in Spain over the years but not a big, official one of the Irish in Spain where we have a look at ourselves and see what we’re all about.
I was lucky enough to get invited to read some poems such as the deeply beautiful Lake Isle of Innisfree by WB Yeats.This is one of my favourite poems of all time as opposed to just one of my favorite poems. The latter chop and change according to internal weather systems but the all-timers are as fixed as the North Star. Have a read and see how you can see twinkly stars in the second stanza and hear the lake in the third .
The Lake Isle of Innisfree
I will arise and go now,
And go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there,
Of clay and wattles made;
Nine bean rows will I have there,
A hive for the honey bee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.
And I shall have some peace there,
For peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning
To where the cricket sings;
There midnight’s all a glimmer,
And noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet’s wings.
I will arise and go now,
For always night and day
I hear lake water lapping
With low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway
Or on the pavements gray,
I hear it in the deep heart’s core.
A million years ago in Manchester I used to perform poetry with the Live Poets Society (motto: Poetry So Good You Can Actually Understand It) and it was with that happy band of poets that I learned the difference between poetry on the page and poetry on the stage. You need to lift the language from the paper and get it flying around the room. Poetry isn’t literature! It is sound. It is physical.
This Yeats poem is perfect for reading aloud. It is joyous and reverent and decided.
Anyhow, the Irish in Spain event was great. I hope the Madrid Irish can get some regular meetings going and that we have a national event at least annually. Good craic so it was.
Read about it here innisfree1916.
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Tags: Ireland, Madrid, Poetry, Spain
