Las elecciones = The elections

El domingo pasado, como todos lo saben han habido elecciones en Argentina. Por supuesto que participé desde Holanda, votando naturalmente. Mis opciones de elección fueron lógicamente bastante limitadas: presidente y diputados y senadores nacionales. Fue fácil y no tan engorroso como en Argentina: una hoja por categoría con todos los posibles candidatos donde tenía que marcar con una cruz mi elección. Sólo eso. De hecho que también fue una buena oportunidad para conocer a los argentinos de por estos lados, y como era temprano, disfrutar de un chocolate :)

Natalia de Tucumán publicó un artículo en la página web de un diario que ilutra bastante bien el ambiente electivo por estos lares. Aquí está el link: http://www.lagaceta.com.ar/tucumanos/notas.asp?id_nota=242320

Luego estuve en casa, siguiendo las elecciones a través de una radio salteña. Y rápidamente empecé a notar cómo ciertas cosas me incomodaban, como le debe haber pasado a más de uno. En mi situación uno empieza a hacer comparaciones y verlas de otra manera, supongo que debido al hecho que ya conozco 'algo más' sobre las elecciones. Sólo les cuento algunas cosas que más me molestaron.

Una de ellas es el derecho que uno tiene para decir su voto antes de poner el voto en la urna porque sino es invalidado. Pienso que uno tiene un derecho a mantenerlo en privado, pero ¿cuál es el problema en decirlo en público? ¡A lo mejor se puede influir a otros votantes! Vamos, cada uno debería ser lo suficientemente racional para hacer su elección. Esto no significa que uno puede publicitar cierto partido político, o ser molesto.

Otra cosa que me molesta mucho es el hecho que cada partido debe tener cuidado de sus votos en el cuarto oscuro. Por lo tanto, un partido pequeño que no tiene la infraestructura política de soportar esto no puede asegurar a los electores que elijan sus candidatos. El derecho a elegir es eso, un derecho. Así que pienso que la justicia electoral debe garantizarlo y no dejarlo en manos de los partidos. Esto quiere decir que partidos grandes pueden simplemente tirar las boletas de los partidos chicos y ya está, no hay elección justa. Una solución rápida puede ser implementar algo como un formulario uniforme donde cada uno puede marcar con una cruz al partido o candidato que uno quiere votar. Y más se me subió la bilirrubina cuando lo escucho al ministro del interior justificando la falta de votos de partidos chicos como una responsabilidad de cada partido político. De esta manera, no hay garantías de una elección justa.

Y, para finalizar, no entiendo a los candidatos que empiezan a consagrarse ganadores basados en escuestas a boca de urna sin esperar a los resultados oficiales. ¿La insitencia cambiará los resultados de la elección?, me pregunto.

De todos modos, creo que tenemos que agradecer que podemos elegir a unos representantes, hay mucho para mejorar, y espero que se haga cuanto antes (aunque algunos grupos no sean los beneficiados).

Actualización 1/11: Hubo una cobertura interesante por algunos blogs amigos:

* Elecciones reñidas en Salta

* El Tribuno Independiente

Last Sunday, as most of you already know, there have been elections in Argentina. Of course I participated from Holland on them, voting naturally. My election options where logically limited: president and national deputies and senators. It is easy and not to messy as it is in Argentina: a sheet for category with all possible candidates, where I have to mark with a cross my choice. Just that. Of course it was a nice opportunity to get in touch with some other Argentineans hanging around, and as I was early, to drink a chocolate!

Natalia from Tucumán, published a report on a newspaper's web page that illustrated very good the election mood over here. Here is the link: http://www.lagaceta.com.ar/tucumanos/notas.asp?id_nota=242320

I stayed at home afterwards, and I followed the elections in Salta from the radio. And quickly I started to notice how some things bittered me, as it must've happened to more than one. In this situation one starts making comparisons and looking them at from other perspective, due to the fact I already know 'something else' about elections. I just will tell you some things that really made me upset.

One of them is the obliviousness of the voter when voting. It is not allowed to say nothing about your mind before you cast the envelop in the ballot box. Otherwise, your vote is invalidated. I think that you have the right to not say anything about your vote, but what is the problem if you want to give it away?! Perhaps you may influence other voters! Come on, everyone should be rational enough to have made its choice. This doesn't mean that you can advertise certain politician, or be disturbing.

The other thing I really got upset at was the fact that every party must take care of their ballots in the dark room. Therefore, a small party which doesn't have the political infrastructure to support this cannot assure that the electors can choose it. The right to elect is that, a right. Therefore, I think that the electoral justice must warranty this, and not leave it in hands of the parties. This means, larger parties may simply drop out ballot of smaller competitors and therefore there is no fair election. Something like a uniform form where one can cross in the party or candidate one wants to vote is a very straightforward solution. I even got more upset when I heard the interior minister justifying the lack of ballot for small parties as a responsibility of each party! This way, no warranty of fair election there exists.

And, just to finish, the fact that certain candidates start basing their victories on after-voting polls. And not really waiting to official results. Will this insistence change the result of the election?!

Anyway, I think we have to be thanked to the fact we can elect our representatives, there is much to be improved, and I hope this is done asap (although some groups will not be benefited).

Otoño = Autumn

Hace un par de días, estaba andando mi bicicleta y encontré este fantástica vista.

A couple of days ago, I was cycling the bike and found this fantastic spot for a picture.

Así es como el otoño es aquí, ¡aunque ahora está bastante frío! Días más cortos, más fríos, nos preparamos para el invierno largo, oscuro y frío :(

This is how autumn looks like over here, although now is rather cold! Shorter and colder days, we are preparing ourselves for the very large, dark and cold winter :(

Lichtjesroute

Hace un par de semanas, Franca, la editora de la página en inglés del periódico semanal de la universidad, invitó a algunos estudiantes y empleados internacionales de la universidad a seguir la lichtjesroute en bicicleta. Esta ruta consiste en muchas figuras armadas con bombillas en la calle, puestas de forma tal que arman un circuito que puede hacerse en auto o bici. Este evento ha sido una tradición en Eindhoven desde 1948, como una manera de levantar el ánimo a la gente justo después de la segunda guerra mundial.

Así lo hicimos, y seguimos la ruta completa en bicicleta, un total de 23 km. Por supuesto, hubo una nota al respecto, y aquí hay un link con la versión electrónica:

http://www.tue.nl/cursor/internet/jaargang50/cursor04/news/news.php?page=e1

Hay algunos comentarios que le hice a Franca que se incluyen en la nota. También hay dos fotos, en las que yo aparezco en una! ¡Los desafío a encontrarme!

A couple of weeks ago, Franca, the editor of the page in English of the university newspaper, invited some international students and employees from the university to follow the lichtjesroute by bike. This route consist of plenty of figures made with bulb lamps on the street, all of them arranged in a circuit that can be done by car or by bike. This the event has been a tradition in Eindhoven since 1948, as a way of making people happier just after the world war II.

So did we, we follow the entire route by bike, a total of 23 km. Of course, there was a report out of it, and here is the link of the electronic version:

http://www.tue.nl/cursor/internet/jaargang50/cursor04/news/news.php?page=e1

Some comments I made to Franca are in the report. And two pictures, I am in one of them! I challenge you to find me!



Actualización 1/11: Aquí va la solución:

Blog Action Day: Resource deployment

This will be my contribution to the Blog Action Day. In this opportunity I will express my opinion and what is going on with some environmental issues in my country, of course from the point of view as a foreign resident. The subject is about the deployment of natural resources in Argentina. There are two well defined opinions in my country. Namely, the ones that want to preserve all natural resources, leaving them untouched (from now on, preservationists); and, on the other one side, as you imagine, those who are in favor of their deployment (from now on, producers).

Both thoughts have some good points. The preservationists want to protect all natural diversity, including flora, fauna and native people, and the ultimate goal is to look for the natural equilibrium of the environment. The producers say they can improve the economical situation of people in general by generating many jobs, and producing a chain effect in the general economical and financial scheme.

And the bad points: with the preservationists' point of view it should not be possible to do nothing else than a subsistence life pace, just receiving what we can get barely from the earth. The producers though, go to the other extreme, where the money is above everything.

In my country, now everything what is done in environmental matters is more merely is in the extreme case of the producers: just get as many money as possible. Money that is distributed among a few capitalists, generally foreign capitals. There is a very small fraction that comes back to the 'town' in form of taxes that in general is in the hands of corrupted politicians that use this resources to their own interests, when this taxes should be destined to diminish the impact of the deployment of the natural resources. Even if this revenue were re-invested as the to do so, the amount is ridiculously small.

One example are the mines in the province of San Juan. There some foreign companies are deploying thousands of hectares. The taxes that the government perceives are used to finance the so-called environmental police, which main task is to control that the companies are working according to the standards. This companies are literally tearing down all mountains, extracting some minerals which are preprocessed at the mine site, and taking out of the country all the precursors for the metals. This preprocessing means taking millions of thousands of clean water and pouring it back into some contention lakes. This lakes leak all this very heavy metals into the subterranean water curses. Meaning this, poisoning all inhabitants down river, and producing a devastating desertification process over there. And the most funny thing: the precursors for metal are exported, and the pure metals, after the corresponding process are imported to the country, to a cost ten times greater than the precursors. All this at the benefice of at most 40 work positions...

In my province, Salta, is very common see how the native forest are destroyed and converted into cultivable surfaces without any minimal environmental impact prevision. Such a lack of previsions is producing plenty of floods every summer, as the rain doesn't have any contention as it used to have. And all this, to cultivate soy, which is completely exported, receiving as taxes some important revenues which as I said are used as a political mechanism that feeds the corruption in the hole country.

In the middle, there are some activist groups, as Greenpeace, which try to call the attention to the population about these issues, using very controversial means to stop all this, and without any apparent results so far.

But in any case, I think that we must find a point in the middle of this two antagonistically different directions. There should be real deployment of such resources, from the beginning to the end of the production of the end-consumer chain, as in any other serious country. This way, there will be more profit for everybody in general. There will be enough money to reduce the (possible) negative effects to the environment. There will be much more work: in the production chain, in general the last part of it is the one that does so. And there will be more economical movement in general, which in the end is the things that makes a country to be prosper and with a growing economy. This is done, I think in every 'first-world' country. Unfortunately, these are the countries that don't care doing nasty things in 'third-world' countries. And even more disappointing, is the fact that in the latter countries all the nasties are possible because there is a very institutionalized corruption which takes advantage of it at the cost of the future of the common people.

Maybe, too many words, maybe without any sense, but this is at least what I think to the respect.

De museos = About musea

Este fin de semana hice una vuelta de museos organizada por la Asociación de Estudiantes Internacionales de Eindhoven (ISN/e). Junto a alrededor de otros 20 estudiantes fuimos a tres museos. Por supuesto, fuimos de uno a otro en nuestras bicicletas.

La primera parada fue en el Museo de la DAF. DAF es una fábrica bien conocida de camiones, autos y ómnibus. El museo lo lleva a uno a través de la historia de la compañía desde sus comienzos en la década de 1920 hasta la actualidad.

This weekend I went to a Musea-tour organized by the International Students Association Eindhoven (ISN/e). Together with around 20 other students we went to three musea. Naturally, we commute between them riding our bikes.

The first stop was at the DAF Museum. DAF is a very well known maker of trucks, cars and buses. The museum brings one to trough the history of the company, from its beginnings in the 1920's to the current days.

La segunda parada fue el Museo de Philips, también conocido como fabriekje (la fabriquita). Ubicada en el lugar donde Philips empezó la elaboración de las primeras bombillas, la visita guiada nos introduce en el proceso primitivo de desarrollo de las bombillas hasta llegar a nuestros días.

The second stop was at the Philips Museum, also known as the fabriekje (the little factory). Located at the place where Philips started producing his first lamp bulbs, the guided visit introduces us from the primitive development process of them, to the one employed nowadays.

Y al último, pero no por eso menos, el Museo Medieval. Este museo está en el medio de los Genneperparken. Hay un grupo de actores quienes constantemente muestran cómo se vivía en la edad de hierro y en el siglo XII. Es un concepto diferente de museo.

And lately but not least, the Medieval Museum. This museum is in the middle of the Genneperparken. There is a staff of actors who perform as they were living in the iron age and in the 12th century. It is a very different concept of a museum.

Allí, encontré algo que disfruté un montón. Luego de más de 15 años me subí a unos zancos. Descubrí que aprender a caminar con ellos es como aprender a montar una bicicleta: tenés que desarrolar la habilidad de hacerlo y nunca lo vas a olvidar. Muchos intentaron caminar con ellos, pero fallaron porque no es tan fácil como parece :)

There, I found something I enjoyed a lot. After more than 15 years I walked on stilts! I found out that learning to walk on them is like learning to ride a bike: you have to develop the ability of doing and you never forget it. Many tried to stilt, but failed because it is not as easy as it seems :)


Actualización (20/10): Aquí está el link con nota en Cursor, el periódico semanal de la universidad:
Update (20/10): Here is the link with the report in the Cursor, the university newspaper:

http://www.tue.nl/cursor/internet/jaargang50/cursor06/news/news.php?page=e1

Cuestiones de idiomas = Linguistic matters

Desde que llegué aquí empecé a estar en contacto con mucha gente de diferentes países, culturas y por supuesto idiomas. Me gusta estudiar las diferencias y similitudes entre los idiomas, especialmente cuando ellos están geográficamente relacionados. Así es que en este post voy a dar un pantallazo de algunas curiosidades al respecto.

Lo básico que noté es que el nombre y pronunciación de la letra A. Hasta donde pude ver, en todos los idiomas excepto en inglés se pronuncia como /a/ y no /ei/ como en inglés. Esto indica lo difícil que es pronunciar algo en inglés. Incluso en persí, la pronunciación de la primera vocal es /a/-

Otra característica muy especial de cada idioma es la asignación de género a las cosas. En inglés es fácil: todo lo que es un objeto es algo sin género, y siempre se usa el mismo pronombre (it) o artículo (the). A veces, hay un sustativo distinto para un animal macho o hembra, como rooster (pollo), chicken (gallina), o bull (toro), cow (vaca) por ejemplo, pero el pronombre y artículo es 'it' y 'the'. En otros idiomas, como el castellano o cualquier otra lengua romance todo es o macho o hembra. La dificultad se presenta entonces en identificar el género de algo, que en general se aprende de memoria. En otros idiomas, como el alemán o ruso, sin embargo, hay un tercer género, llamado neutro. Así que por lo tanto hay cosas que son hembra, otras son macho y otras neutro. En holandés, hay dos tipos de objetos, dependiendo del artículo que se use. Los objetos pueden ser objetos 'de' o 'het' (het se llama neutro), y dependiendo de esto se arma la conjugación en algunas oraciones. Por ejemplo, de tafel (la mesa), het boek (el libro). Decidir si es un objeto 'de' o 'het' se tiene que aprender de memoria. Y para volvernos locos: por ejemplo, en alemán el sol es una mujer, la luna es un hombre, mientras que en castellano es al revés...

Y para terminar esta serie de hilos de este estilo, estudiemos el sonido de los animales. Los animales hacen ruidos de diferente maneras en diferentes idiomas. Por ejemplo, gente hispanoparlante dirá que un perro dice 'guau', mientras que un turco dirá que los perros hacen 'cof'. Y sobre las vacas, le pregunté a mucha gente. Todos me dicen que las vacas hacen 'muuu' mientras que los holandeses dicen que las vacas dicen 'buuu'. Y sin sorpresas, los fantasmas en el primer grupo dicen 'buuu' mientras que los fantasmas holandeses se dicen 'muuu'... Y como ilustración dejo este poster de una asociación de defensa de los animales que encontré en Ámsterdam. Dice esto "Quiero ser libre dijo la vaca, pero lo único que escuchamos fue buuu" (oe en holandés se pronuncia u)

Since I came here I started being in touch with many people, all of very different cultures, customs and, of course, languages. I like to see the differences and similarities among languages, specially when they are geographically related. So, this post will try to give an overview of some curiosities regarding this.

The basic, of course is the name and pronunciation of the letter A. As far as I can see, in all languages but English it is pronounced and named as /a/, not /ei/ as it is in English. This is just an indication of how difficult the pronunciation in English is. Even in Persian, the pronunciation of the main vowel is /a/.

Another very specific feature of each language is the assignation of genre to the things. In English is kind of easy, everything that is an object is considered something asexual, and there is where the pronoun 'it' and the article 'the' are used. Sometimes, they have a different noun for a male or female animal, like rooster and chicken, bull and cow for example, but the pronoun by default is 'it'. In some others, like Spanish and all Roman languages everything is either male or female. The difficulty in this is to find out what the genre of something is which in general has to be learned by hard. In some other languages like German or Russian, however, there are a third genre, called neutral. Therefore there are things that are male, female or neutral. In Dutch, there are two different kind of objects, depending on the article they use. They can be 'de'-objects or 'het'-objects (het is called neutral), and depending on this, you have to make a correct conjugation in a sentence. For example, de tafel (the table), or het boek (the book). Whether something is a 'de' or a 'het' has to be learned by hard. And we can make us crazy: in German the sun is a she, the moon a he, while in Spanish is in the other way around...

And just to finish this first post of a series of this style, let's go to the sound of animals. Among different languages the animals are listened differently. For example, for Spanish people, a dog says 'guau', but for a Turkish it says 'cof'. I asked many people about the cows: almost everybody replied to me with a 'mooh', whereas in Dutch they say 'booh'. No surprisingly, for a Dutch person, a ghost would tell you 'mooh' whereas in any other country a ghost would say 'booh'... I leave as an illustration this poster (see above) I found somewhere in Amsterdam of an association for animal rights. It says, "I want to be free, said the cow, but we hear nothing more than booh" (oe sounds like oo in boom)

A 'relative' week = Una semana familiar

Last week, Encarni, Alex, Rosa and Rafa came to visit Holland. They stayed at home of course, and during the day traveled through the surroundings. Namely, day 1, Eindhoven; day 2, Amsterdam; day 3, The Hague, Delft and Rotterdam; day 4, Antwerp (see picture below), Brussels and Brugges; day 5, Maastricht, Drielandenpunt, and Aachen. Besides that, we went on Thursday night at the city center, on Friday evening to follow the lichtjesroute, and because we (specially them) were so tired skipped pubbing on Friday night. Finally, they went back on Saturday morning, and it was really a pity that for some reasons they couldn't stay on Saturday and Sunday.

I enjoyed a lot, so did they. For me was a sort of routine breaker, as I had a very busy week work-wise. But in the evenings, we spent very nice moments. Thanks a lot for your good humor sense, and if I couldn't give you more, it is because it was out of my possibilities. Thanks a again, and I hope to see you again and enjoy ourselves again. I'm content!!!

La semana pasada, Encarni, Alex, Rosa y Rafa vinieron a visitar Holanda. Estuvieron parando en casa por supuesto, y durante el día viajaron a través de los alrededores. Es decir, día 1, Eindhoven; día 2, Ámsterdam; día 3, La Haya, Delft, y Rotterdam; día 4, Amberes (ver foto arriba), Bruselas y Brujas; día 5, Maastricht, Drielandenpunt y Aquisgrán(1). Además de esto, fuimos juntos a la noche del jueves por la noche en el centro de Eindhoven, el viernes a la tarde/noche a seguir la lichtesroute, y por porque nuestros cuerpos (especialmente los de ellos) no daban más, no fuimos de bares el viernes a la noche. Finalmente, se volvieron a España el sábado por la mañana, y fue una verdadera pena que por diversos motivos no pudieron quedarse ese sábado y domingo.

Yo la pasé muy bien, lo mismo ellos. Y para mí fue una especie de rompedor de rutinas, porque tuve una semana muy complicada y ocupada en el trabajo. Pero en las noches, la pasamos muy bien. Muchas gracias por su buen sentido del humor, y si no les pude dar más es porque no pude. Gracias de nuevo, y espero verlos pronto y que la pasemos bien de nuevo. ¡¡Estoy contento!!




(1) Esta ciudad se llama Aachen en alemán e inglés (creo). Aken en holandés y Aquisgrán en español, y Aix-la-Chapelle en francés... un día de estos pongo un post al respecto...