Madman & Madness

To explain his being locked up for 5 years in an Asylum in Bethlem of London in the 17th century, Nathaniel lee, an English dramatist, summed up what had happened to him with a phrase, which would have been great when condensed a title for an article, a book or a film. "They called me a madman. I called all of them madmen. By Jove, I won by majority.". Everyday madness is established somewhere, by strength or majority, trying to impose itself as common sense, while the dissent or disagreement is deemed as matters of the madman. Or madness itself. Until the madness crumbles away then the dissenter appears sane, and the disagreement healthy as bread. We could use the Nathaniel Lee's method to interpret the history or read the press each day. A board of military psychopaths who had conquered their own country, Myanmar, Burma, purposely prolonged the detention of the Nobel Suu Kyi to impede the public electing him again. A skinny woman, a madwoman, recommended not investing in suffering to win benediction. Each time she spoke, in her soft and steady voice, it put in evidence the great madness of the predictors. It's pure madness to create Guantanamo, the shackle that have left Bush at the feet of Obama. There were brave madmen, the International Amnesia, that right from the start denounced the madness. So there were those who diagnosed the actual crisis before the disastrous collapse of banks and the ensuing recession. In Spain as in some other countries, the 'progress' is such that bricks are piled up into the sky impeding people to see the forest, the sea, and the shame. It's the shared global madness. Madness is the new legislation of the approved law in Italy, to transfer illegal immigrants from civil to criminal courts. Madness is that of the Pope's objection and theory to condemn the use of condoms. The problem is in the Vatican where there are no madmen, although they are the majority. It's a mad, mad world. Salute to Mr. Nathaniel Lee for helping me to adapt to it without dying in the process. Tags:madmen, madness

Current Mood: Anxious

Call Me Tata Nano

The last time I attended the International Salon of Automobiles of Barcelona, usually held biannually. Not many vehicles incited so much unanimous excitement and favourable reviews, by the one million visitors that invaded the These days it must have activated multitude of dreams amongst the aficionados, feeding their eyes and hearts with all the latest designs by the elite names as Pugatti, Aston martin, Ferrari, Bentley, Rolls-Royce and Lamborghini. None of these motorized germs was capable to exceed the charisma of the cheapest car exhibited in the show, the Tata Nano.

It's sold in India, it's country of origin, at a laughable price of some €1,700. The Nano opens a new door to the automotive sector. In the beginning, this car was conceived to serve the function, in the mother country, as did the Seat 600 in it's day, putting Spain at the steering wheel. But the plan of expansion had cast it's eye on Europe, where it's programmed to launch in 2011, after having remodelled it to adapt to the strict norms of European homology. The firm announced that the new and improved version in the Euro market would carry the price tag around €4,000. Still very much a low-cost and high utility product.

The infinity of opinions captured in the show were varied and even colourful. 'It's small and without pretensions.' 'It's so cute!', 'If it's sold for €3,000, it would have been a revolution already.', and the cutest remark; ' I think it's made so ugly so that it would end up being cute and beautiful!' Every one had his own view and opinion; but the point is, it leaves nobody indifferent.

I am sure some people, me included, won't mind being so ugly that we might in the end be considered cute and beautiful and, whatever anybody's views and opinions about us, we leave nobody indifferent, and everybody happy having made our acquaintance, and some might even become friends.

Tags:tatanano,carshow

Current Mood: Accomplished

Sound The Alarm, Softly!

Very rarely but, thankfully, it does happen every once in a while, beautiful orchestra music by dance bands was playing in the cafe when I arrived there, instead of pop or disco variety. The kind that makes you feel like dancing to and, in the case of not possible or practical, swaying to while still sitting at your table, hot coffee in hand, and trying not to spill it all over yourself. Or tap your feet under the table, or hum softly the wordless tunes (I can't whistle you see). It was soothing my recent troubled mind and, after a while, I almost felt my problems were not as grave as I had imagined. The news spread out on the paper on my table though, counteracting, irritating in fact. Pages and pages of all sorts of alarms, easily grouped into 2 main categories: that of sanitary about Swine and all variety of other flu and infectious diseases, and that of the multimedia information. Too much of both for anybody to take in let alone to benefit from. If you are not confused before about either, now you are, about both. The alarm of the former, that of the sanitary and, basing on much studied protocol, are or should be operated in the related fields responsible for sanitary issues, as consequences of the extraordinary advances in all aspects of health. It awakes people's knowledge of the disease and learn how to deal with it if one is already sick, and learn how to prevent it when one is not. The alarms of the latter, the over abundance of information, sometimes even conflicting, and from all quarters of the media, are quite a different matter. Compare with those of sanitary info, it mostly extends and serves to raise panic, not to avoid it. They forecast what is not yet known, presenting what is a mere foresight as a desperate present situation not yet exist. Many of the healthy and up till now fairly happy people are the moment worrying themselves sick! What good does this kind of info. do? So that they hope to be able to say one day: "I told you so!" ? Tags:information,alarm

Current Mood: Blah