Guilty Or Not Guilty - Geographically Speaking

For my simple little mind, a crime is a crime, no matter who committed it, when, where or why. But I just learned that it's not always so. Geography somehow figures in the consideration and therefore the verdict. The court of Girona, the biggest city nearest Roses where I live, has just acquitted 2 youths of the crime they were charged with, trafficking drugs. They were caught red-handed some time back, with 50 grams of cocaine on them, facing a jail sentence of 6 years; also for a crime against public health. But they don't need to go to prison because the public prosecutor made a mistake charging them with trafficking instead of processing drugs. They had been able to prove this latter but not the former. This vaguely reminds me of that film "Pulp Fiction" in which John Travolta explained to Samuel L. Jackson, that he had been to Paris where the Big Mac of McDonald's was called La BigMac, and the Quarter Pounder was called "Royale with Cheese". In Amsterdam it is legal to buy, to have, to sell, to carry and to smoke marihuana, but it is illegal that a police searches you. To be detained but with liberty under charge is habitual in all Europe nowadays, greatly contrasting with the fate of the British man, Keith Brown, who received a jail sentence of 4 years in Dubai, for being found with just a suggestion of hashish on the sole of his shoe, a teeny weeny microscopic bit. Brown is a civil servant, works in the municipality in the youth project, father of 3 and with an impeccable work record, a devoted family man, trustworthy friend and an upright citizen to all those who know him. He was on his way back home after a business trip to the United Emirates, detained at the Dubai Airport. The bit of hashish found on the sole of his shoe weighed exactly 0,003 gram, and the sentence was given without the consideration of an evident fact, that he could have simply stepped on the stuff somewhere at the airport, in the Men's room or many other likely places, as easily as stepping on a piece of chewing gum or a cigarette butt for instance. He has been in jail since last September. Such a situation not only let us see how the same things are seen, valued or condemned differently in the world, geographically speaking, but it also gives an unexpected sense of an old saying, in China as well as in Spain: "Well done. You stepped on gold (shit)", where such an incident happening to you means you will encounter good luck! Tags:crime,guilt,cocaine,marihuana

Current Mood: Blah

'Hooked On Swing' - A Video Of Incredible Dance Routine

It's the most entertaining dance I have seen, a lady & 2 dogs doing the Swing, with perfect rhythm in a rather long and faultless sequence. A great performance that both Dance Fans and Dog Lovers should find amazingly entertaining.

World renowned dog trainer Mary Ray performs her “Hooked on Swing” routine at Crufts in 2002 with a couple of dancing dogs, Quincy and Kizzy as her dance partners. Since some of the tunes are Glenn Miller songs Mary is dressed in an authentic uniform from the World War Two era.

Why Do Cats Have 9 Lives?

This home video of a little Puppy trying to go down some stairs with the help of a bigger dog shows The Difference Between Cats and Dogs. Trust and Loyalty are qualities that are apparent in Dogs while Cats seem to be lacking in those qualities. Maybe that’s why cats have nine lives? For me, I simply love both, cats and dogs.

The Other End Of Barcelona

There's this well known and much quoted saying: "Every black cloud has a silver lining". I would not be so optimistic to believe that this holds true about every disaster, but a few isolated examples have certainly been proven beneficial after suffering horrendous destruction. Cities. They seem to thrive on disasters. Or at least they used to. Take the fire of 1666 that ravaged medieval London. What a Godsend. It was just what the emerging metropolis needed. Good riddance to that putrid maze of lanes and alleys; long live wide, tree-lined avenues and unctuous wealth.

One shudders to imagine what Lisbon must have been like before the earthquake. Or Paris, would it be as it is today without having succumbed to that orgy of destruction unleased by Haussmann's demolition balls? No way. Yet tourists flock to those boulevards originally designed to facilitate the deployment of troops whose mission was - and is - to suppress dissidence.

Barcelona is a different kettle of fish. Cerda's Grid lacks the pedigree only a rip-roaring catastrophe can vouchsafe. Built on a wasteland, there was nothing to destroy. Except, perhaps, for the Sagrada Familia, there's really not much to tell, not much to see. Were this not the case, why is it that tourists tend to converge on the Gothic quarter and, lately, Garcia?

Maybe because these districts are not tainted by Cerda's insipid, bourgeois uniformity. Though, to his credit, it must be admitted that the great town planner did envisage the advent of motor-powered vehicles. On the other hand, he would have done everyone a favour had he designed a city completely devoid of private transport. But there you are.

Disasters or no, you get up at dawn and wander around the narrow streets of Gracia. Most buildings were erected before cars, lifts or electricity not even heard of. You can hear people snoring and coughing in their sleep for sure. Until a deafening motobike shoots past, a car horns or stops, and blaring radio smashing dreams.

Tag:Barcelona,London,Lisbon,Paris

Current Mood: Accomplished

My Naive Questions ...

Apart from not too bright about anything technical, I don't have much a head for figures either, certainly don't understand how economy evolves or works to be suddenly blooming or collapsing, euphoria one minute and recession the next. While nearly the whole world seems to be under great pressure and experiencing the consequences of sky high prices of most basic food products, and especially petrol, I learned recently one place in the world where the petrol price is 4 times cheaper even than that of Saudi Arabia, the 1st crude oil producing country. In Venezuela, 45 litres of petrol super costs just a little over €1. Luisa Valera had the tank of her Ford 2007 filled up in the district of Caraqueño of Las Delicias, paid 4 new bolívares for 45 litres of petrol super (slightly over 1€). Before she continued her journey, she took a Coca-Cola in a bar round the corner, for which she paid the equivalent of those 45 litres of petrol. Taking a little bottle of mineral water costs 15 - 20 times the price of petrol! Litre for litre. If you ask to have your tires inflated, or your wind-screen cleaned, the 'tip' surpasses the litre of petrol. For people of Venezuela, the high price of petrol refers to story of another planet. In Europe, the same petrol costs in bolívares 0,097, or 2,5 cents €. Experts there reckon it would be better if the government give away petrol free, so that they save paper and paper work, as well as personnel. The state subsidy for the 580,000 barrels of petrol consumed daily by the Venezuelans costs 13 million € a year. It would be so much better to use that money to improve on the disastrous highways and the dilapidated 3rd world condition of their public transport. With the prices today neither the transportation companies or the petrol stations make any money. What I don't understand is: how can the so called world crisis of higher price in petrol doesn't affect Venezuela, but nearly everybody else? Why the inflation in that country has increased 508,1% in the last 10 years, yet they can enjoy the cheapest petrol in the world, cheaper even than in Saudi Arabia? The ludicrous price generates distortions of the country's true condition of economy to my layman's way of reasoning. And, if all those countries, who don't have their own resources of petrol, rely on imports from the same few common source countries, why then the price in each country is so different? Tags:PetrolPrice,Venezuela,Economy

Current Mood: Confused

The Pen, The Sword, And The Book

I have heard quoted 'The pen is stronger than the sword' (or was it 'more powerful'?). Another by Robert Burton that says 'A blow given with a word cuts deeper than that given by a sword). To the intellects, literalist and sentimentalist maybe. No impact whatsoever to thieves, those who had stolen a sword from a museum and leaving much more valuable objects behind.

The sword was taken, amongst other exhibits, from the Museum Ruben Dario, in Nicaragua. It belonged to the poet/diplomat, together with other valuable personal items in this museum founded in his honour. He wore this sword in 1908, over a century ago, when he presented his cards of credential to the Spanish King as ambassador to Spain. This sword was exhibited inside a glass case in this museum, where in a large section of archives were many original documents, and manuscripts, handwritten by him, word for word. There were also many books, his clothing, personal and household objects he had used.

With the possibility of taking especially the manuscripts, robbers had chosen to take the sword instead. A very desirable object sure, but far inferior in value. It was not the sword that made Dario somebody, but the manuscripts that hold the essential value of the man.

The thing is, even presuming the thieves knew the value of the manuscripts, they knew also it would be near impossible to find a fence that's a real expert in authenticating and calculating their value, besides the propability to find a client ready and capably to pay what's it's true worth. Too much work, too much risk.

Stolen jewellery and paintings have long been established their underground markets, where there are ready and willing buyers. But manuscripts? Nothing more dissuasive for robbers. When they enter a house to find it full of rows and rows of books on multi-shelves, they know that people who buy so many books are not ones who buy jewellery or technological gadgets. In fact one Italian security firm advises people to fill their house with bookcases full of books to discourage thieves.

So before you go away on vacation, you know what to do, if you don't wish to come home to an empty house.

Tags:Sword,Manuscripts,Books,Thieves

Current Mood: Accomplished