2nd Jan 2012 The End Of The World?

We are here, in 2012, the year of the end of the world, according to the prophesy of the Mayas. Something similar was so prophesied too in Spain. Makes one dizzy to imagine what might be the themes talked about in the media in the coming days. Like spool of yarns a spider weaves. We depict imaginary images getting more and more entangled like skein, grey and confusing.

As if the reality of today's world is not bleak enough, still with wars breaking out or continuing here and there, people dying of hunger, international economic crisis, highest figure of unemployment since the depression of the 30's, the precarious situation of the Euro and long lists of cut-backs ... Why do we waste our time worrying about the end of the world? If the prophesy is true, none of us can do anything about it or avoid it, except losing the time meanwhile, one day, one week, 6 months or with luck never ... Why cry now when we can laugh and count our blessings that we are still alive, eating, living, and loving for the time we still have?

 

We all have things we enjoy doing don't we? I will carry on writing about anything that pops up in my head, and hoping for, or even write about, Love, the kind that gets old and heavily wrinkled, or about babies, born arrogant, provocative and demanding to grab their share of the life and the vibrating world around them, or about the utopia that lives in our hearts, that's even madder than love; or about achievements however small, review and acknowledge the tiniest moments of peace, grace and joy. Write about poetry, music; tell jokes, in confabulation of hope with belligerence and non-conformity ... till the last breath. 

 

 

Tags: endofworld, prophesy

Prev: 2nd Jan 2012 A Whole Month Disappeared In China

2nd Jan 2012 A Whole Month Disappeared In China

A brief daily news column of the Spanish local paper I read is called '3 Minutes'. The space is short, although what is important is on what the 3 minutes are dedicated to. It seems that the theme is always on the light side, but the journalist claimed the liberty to comment recently on a new novel 'Years of Prosperity', centred on China.

If this novel sweeps readers along page after page it's because few people really know the modern China, that from what is let known, it's that it's going to reach long and far. Those who do know something about this country, of it's vast population, and their wakening with lightning speed of advancement in technology, never stop to be amazed by this country's potent power shown in all aspects. One can no more identify them with their fast increasing restaurants in the western world.

 

Now, thanks to Chan Koonchung's novel we learn that there's a dark side of China, surprising and contradictory. The book was not able to published in China, but someone posted it in Internet. China has 550 million Internet users, the authorities assigned to delete 'undesirable' materials are powerless to stop the endless stream of eager users & readers. If some text or a Blog is deleted, it immediately appears on some web.

The story is the author's original idea, full of denouncement and satire, that in the year 2013, during which a whole month has suddenly & mysteriously disappeared, leaving absolutely no trace of any kind; but a small group of citizens won't conform to this strange amnesia. In some determined moment, there are those who try to figure out whether it's better for them to have a good hell or bad paradise.

 

The big question is whether China can have a government under dictatorship by the one & only political party. Whether it can delete a whole month together with all the corresponding information. The Chinese in China read this novel in secret, although it's read and diffused internationally. The only thing everybody knows now is that China is as mighty powerful as it's little known.

 

Tags: mystery, china

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