Fe de errores

A mi P.: Siento haber publicado ese texto malsonante en mi blog. Ya está eliminado. Perdona, no volverá a suceder.

Love and freedom, but love comes first.

Breakfast at Tiffany's

It's a bore, but the answer is good things only happen to you if you're good. Godd? Honest is more what I mean. Not law-type honest - I'd rob a grave, I'd steal two-bits off a dead man's eyes if I though it would contribute to the day's enjoyment - but unto-thyself-type honest. Be anything but a coward, a pretender, an emotional crook, a whore: I'd rather have cancer than a dishonest heart. Which isn't being pious. Just practical. Cancer may cool you, but the other's sure to.

Truman Capote, Breakfast at Tiffany's (1958)

I just finished Capote's controversial short novel on the finest "girl-about-New York" that ever was: Holly Golightly. Now I feel ready to watch one of the best films of all times displaying Audrey Hepburn breakfasting at Tiffany's. Julie Roberts needs to learn so much from both starlets!

Holly Golightly's philosophy is strikingly pure (honest, she would say) and her stark monologue to her best friend the writer on her love for José is absolutely brilliant. Capote writes the novel in first person and the storyteller poses himself as the fallen-in-love best friend of the beautiful, wild Holly.

Love and freedom.

Gorgeous weekend in Devon

Last weekend I escaped the big smoke into the English countryside to relax after the stress of the exams. The huggable, adventurous Paddington bear (oh, where are those childhood years now!) saw me off at Paddington Station not without providing me with some marmalade sandwiches for the train journey (and some wine to down them with!). And there I was heading for Devon, in the South West of England, to spend a lovely weekend with S. in a pictoresque spot by the sea called Shaldon.

Shaldon is a quaint English fishing village, nestled on the estuary where the river Teign meets the sea. Its cosy Georgian houses with beautiful names ("Sea Peep", "Forever Cottage", "Magnolia" or "Corner Cottage"), the scent of sea in the air and the polite bonhomie of the villagers, reminded me of summer holidays in the 19th century, of those black-and-white bathing resorts where light yet careful formality allowed great films such as Monsieur Hulot's Holidays.

BBC's forecast was fortunately wrong again and a greeted us the entire weekend. After a nice cappucino in the village we walked for an hour by the cliff peeping at the sea horizon and enjoying the company of some cows. On our return, we lay down to get sunburnt at the local, "secret" beach called The Ness. I say "secret" because to access this beautiful, somewhat secluded sandy strech you have to go through a pirate-style tunnel which apparently was built in the Napoleonic years.

[I'll carry on tomorrow.]

Love and freedom.

PS. I have made mine my father's style of mentioning people in his blog by their initials.

Abrevaderos: La Nacivera

This is one the abrevaderos (troughs) that have shaped up my life and given name to this blog:



La Nacivera (name that may come to mean "The Source").

Love and freedom.

Stevie's blog

I was gladly surprised when I saw in the Technorati feeder a "blogger reaction" (someone recommending you in their blogs) to my blog that I wasn't aware of. But I should have guessed who it was. My eyes got moist as I checked that my friend Steve had a blog since 2006 and that he has been updating it all the way to date (with a far better display of English than me). I obviously have added to the recommended sites list (Steej-musings) and I'll keep an eye on it from now on.

Thanks, mate. Let's carry on with the chess game.

Love and freedom.

Sigma2 and its embarrasing level of English

SigmaDos (Sigma2) is a well-known Spanish polling company which is used by various media (eg, El Mundo) and other organisations.

Sigma 2 was commissioned by The Times to undertake an opinion poll just before the 2008 Spanish national elections. The poll results were published in both internet and paper formats of The Times two days before the elections; this generated huge expectation as the Spanish media are barred from publishing opinion polls in the five days leading up to the election.

I read the report with the results that very same day that was published and I couldn't believe the extremely poor level of English used. I couldn't help send the following email to Sigma2.

Embarrasing errors at the Sigma2 opinion poll report published in The Times (07/03/2008)

Dear Sir,

I have read the results of the opinion survey on the Spanish elections carried out by Sigma2 and published by The Times.
I have noted so many spelling mistakes and grammar errors in the English used at that report that it could be considered that the language used was Spanglish. This fact is being already mocked at in some internet blogs.

It might be that the use of Spanglish were exactly your intention in order to make the report readable by Spaniards, but I do not think this is the case as the word "majourity" (which is more similar to the French than to the Spanish) was repeatedly used.

I strongly advise you ensure that your deliverables are properly corrected for accuracy of the figures and clean writing.

I work my ass off every day to show those who know me that the Spanish are not only lazy party-goers who only think in sangria, beaches and siesta. But every day as well, I find new cases that shovel embarrasment on. Call me a pedant if you think so, but honestly their lack of professionalism and due care embarrased me as Spaniard. They are paid to be professional!!

Love and freedom.

De las verguenzas de la Alta Inspección del Estado de Espana

La Alta Inspección de Educación constituye, o, al menos, así debería ser, una de las principales herramientas para verificar que las Comunidades Autónomas cumplen la normativa estatal en materia de enseñanza. Sin embargo, hace años que este cuerpo de altos funcionarios del Estado está algo «raquítico», especialmente tras la última reforma educativa del 2006 del PSOE, que suprimió de un plumazo varias de las competencias que la anterior Ley de Calidad de la Educación atribuía a la Alta Inspección; algunas tan esenciales como «comprobar que los currículos, así como los libros de texto y demás material didáctico se adecuan a las enseñanzas comunes» (art.104.1 f) LOCE), o la de «velar por el derecho de los ciudadanos a recibir enseñanza en la lengua oficial del Estado» (art. 104.1 a) LOCE).

En este contexto, no puede extrañar que cada vez haya más casos de incumplimiento flagrante de los derechos constitucionales, y de la normativa estatal que los desarrolla, en las Comunidades gobernadas por nacionalistas, solos o en coalición con el PSOE, en particular por lo que respecta al derecho constitucional al uso de la lengua común del Estado.

[...]El Tribunal Constitucional tuvo ocasión de pronunciarse sobre las funciones de la Alta Inspección en una de sus primeras sentencias, de la que fue ponente el magistrado D. Francisco Tomás y Valiente. Dicha sentencia, (núm. 6/1982 de 22 febrero) afirma que: «las competencias de las CCAA no sustraen en ningún caso a los órganos centrales del Estado la competencia exclusiva para regular las condiciones básicas que garanticen la igualdad de todos los españoles en el ejercicio de los derechos y en el cumplimiento de los deberes constitucionales, entre los cuales se encuentra el de conocer la lengua del Estado (artículo 149.1.1ª en relación con el artículo 3.1. CE). Es forzoso, por tanto, concluir que la Alta Inspección puede ejercerse legítimamente para velar por el respeto a dichas normas estatales y, por consiguiente, también para velar por el respeto a los derechos lingüísticos (entre los cuales está, eventualmente, el derecho a conocer la lengua peculiar de la propia Comunidad Autónoma) y en particular el de recibir enseñanza en la lengua del Estado.»

Pilar López Marco, La Alta Inspección de Educación no da la talla (21/07/2008)

I am glad to know that there is someone else with voice in a political party that shares mine and my dad's views.

Love and freedom.