Trippin to Paris with Constitution 29 November 2007
Posted by Jc in Travel.3 comments
Even though they don’t celebrate Saint Nicholas here (unlike the Belgians) , the Spanish people will get a gift on the 6th of December: a day off, and perhaps even a long weekend because El día de la Constitución, or Day of the Constitution, happens to be on a Thursday. The ideal time to make a little city trip:
- You haven’t spent all your money on Christmas yet
- The city isn’t flooded with tourists
- You can fly and sleep cheaply as the holidays haven’t started yet
- A great opportunity to get something special as a Christmas gift for someone!
One of my favourite city trips will always be Paris. The city is incredibly romantic and historically rich. You’ve got the Louvre for the musea and art lovers, you’ve got le parc de Luxembourg for the nature lovers, you’ve got Centre Pompidou for the shopaholics, Galeries Lafayette for the christmas shopping, etc.
The following video will get you in the mood, if you aren’t already convinced. Pay attention to La Basilique du Sacre-coeur de Montmartre as that definitely is my favourite monument in Paris. Be sure to catch a sundown there, because you have a beautiful sight over Paris there! Enjoy:
Ode to human beauty 20 November 2007
Posted by Jc in Health, Society.2 comments
The Dove Self-Esteem Fund tries to make girls and parents aware that a huge pressure rests upon us from the commercial world to change our appearance in order be perfect. Their video Evolution was widely known and is quite shocking. It proves that the possibilities with programs like photoshop are incredible!
Now Dove has a new video called Onslaught. The video visualises the influence the media has on girls, in yet again a very sharp way!
Be sure to watch Amy too on Dove Self-Esteem Fund. It really makes you think. I can only encourage initiatives like this. It’s impossible to be perfect By showing these images that aren’t human anymore, we are only given an inhuman image of beauty. You want to look better? Eat fruit, do some sport once a week and take care of personal hygiene. That’s the healthy way of living, and healthy people are generally perceived as more beautiful. What’s more, remember that your BMI has to be between 18,5 and 25 to be healthy. The image we’re given had one of way below 20. Still not convinced? Next time you see an add of perfume, shoes or whatever, where there is a woman sitting down, showing of her leggs, try to make them stand up in your mind. The proportions are all wrong. You are normal, they are “the freaks”.
Belgians, classified endangered specie 12 November 2007
Posted by Jc in Politics.1 comment so far
Here I am, Belgian in Spain. An endangered specie… More and more, it looks as we are going to split Belgium.
What is actually going on in Belgium you could ask yourself It’s become very clear in the last few days that Belgium is nothing more than two countries reunited for economic benefits. In the south of Belgium you have Wallonia, the French part. This is what everybody thinks is Belgium. But, there is more. No less than half the country speaks Dutch, in the northern half. The two regions have been bickering forever about their rights. Belgium is divided in two ways: community’s and ‘states’. You’ve got Flandres, Wallonia and the Brussels state, a special case because they speak more French there but it is in the Flemish part. You have three community’s: the Dutch community, the French community and the German community, a minority. Almost all of them have an own government which means we have a horrible amount of ministers with different powers. Off course, we also have an federal government. It got so far, that not one Belgian can exactly say how our politics work, who decides what, how many exact governments there really are, etc.
It is clear that a reformation is needed.
That’s what our new federal government wants to do. If it’s up to me, I’d unify us more, simplify it all, so that the Belgians can once again understand their country. We are without a government now since june because the two parts, Flandres and Wallonia, can’t agree on who gets what…
Now we are as Belgians on the brink of extinction. The news site VRT-nieuws already posted a message saying that half of France wouldn’t mind taking in Wallonia, and today we get another message saying that half of the Netherlands wouldn’t mind taking Belgium in.
Now, you know how news sites are supposed to be objective? With the online article there are posted three supplementary photos. Under the last picture it sais “Those who vote for the right wing Geert Wilders are up for a fusion with Flandres”. In the first picture we see a bunch of boozed Dutch dressed up as women in orange, their national colour. This is not objective. Who would want to join if they see this. We all know it’s a possibility that we are going to join the Netherlands, we pretty much will have to if anybody want to find us on the world map. It’s no use confronting the Flemish in such a direct way. They took the most extravagant pictures they could find. I really would’ve appreciated a bit more subtileness and respect for the choice we have to make.
Our battle makes us proud! 11 November 2007
Posted by Jc in Politics.add a comment
While going to Madrid with my friends for a new pair of shoes, we unexpectedly stumbled upon a great deal of demonstrators with banners, stickers and more, which initialy didn’t seem very nice. I stepped up to one of the demonstrators, who was more than happy to be able to tell me his story.
He came from West-Sahara, southwest next to Morocco. The region was the last African colony of Spain. They freed them in 1957, but now they are occupied by Morocco. West-Sahara is now revolting to get their independency which they have been craving for so long. They want Spain to help their old colony. In the picture we can read on the banner
Sahara: Indepencia ya!!
El muro nos averguenza
Nuestra lucha nos enorgullece
This means: “Sahara: Independence now!! The wall brings us shame; Our battle makes us proud”
The Spanish newspaper El País tells us the story of West-Sahara.
Ficod – The web is yours 9 November 2007
Posted by Jc in Multimedia.1 comment so far
This week was the international congress for digital content in the giant IFEMA of Mardrid. For me, Yann Mauchamp, ambassador from Xing, was by far the most interesting. He explained us the web 2.0 concept. It is a new form of internet, as if it a whole new version.
Today, we have a lot more input in the internet with the concept of web 2.0. Mauchamp explains how it is us that determines what there is to see on the internet! Profile sites pop up like mushrooms. W
ho these days has only one profile site? Also, you can compose your own home page using platform like iGoogle of My Yahoo!; you can bother people with your own insignificant opinion, pretty much like I’m doing, on blogsites like Blogger or WordPress. And if you go to whatever news site, you will be able to post comments or rate articles.
In Web 1.0 this interactivity was inexistent: the webmaster provided content and the surfer had nothing to say in it. Now, with web 2.0, not only does the surfer provide feedback, they also provide content to each other and give feedback to each other.
Mauchamp elaborated on the profile sites with an interesting point of view. Next time, you get an invitation to join a network on the internet like Facebook, ask the person who invites you why. An electronic network takes time to establish and you should know if it’s worth it, if it’s going to save you time in the end. If they can’t give you a good reason, don’t join.
Ana Pereda told us about internet versions of magasines and newspapers. As in the beginning the most interesting written articles were put on the net at night, now the most interesting online articles get a elaborated version in the written press the following day! According to Ana Pererda from free newspaper Qué, an electronic version has following components: an informative component, an audiovisual component and a social component, which is typical for the web 2.0 concept: feedback from the internaut.
Ficod was very interesting, even though it’s a bit funny how technology failed on this conference about new technology… The automatic translators only worked once, the screen in the auditorium always was behind on reality, and I don’t think I’ve seen one conference with all microphones working without problems. But this just puts everything in perspective for me. Technology is great and means a great deal of help to us, but we must remind ourselves not to rely on it completely. And I can always appreciate a bit of irony!
