domingo, 9 de mayo de 2010


The green wave – Antanas Mockus president!

I believe utopia is possible! As many other fellow citizens, I have recovered the hope in my country, a land with two oceans, with biggest mountains, with largest forests, and the most dreamful people in the world.

As you can see in my face book, I am plastering my profile with political propaganda. I now feel the need to explain to my non-Spanish speaking friends and family the reasons why I am so enthusiastic in this campaign.

I am going to be 30 this year. This mean that since I was 22 Uribe has governed Colombia. Although I recognize some advances in security, the prize that my country had to paid was fairly too high. 8 years of scare are coming to an end. And now, we have again the possibility to vote freely for a change.

Antanas Mockus is candidate to the Presidency of Colombia. He is not a traditional politician, I almost not dare to call him a politician, I would rather refer him as a thinker and strategist. He was twice the Mayor of Bogotá, and the change he and his team brought to the city was completely amazing. Now, we have in our votes, the possibility to see it happen in all our territory.
http://www.megavideo.com/?v=0MKNIESG (Copy and paste it in the browser)

Just to ponder on the possibility that Antanas would reach the leadership of my country makes my hart go quicker. I believe he can lead us to a fresh and new way to live with which other, where guns are not longer the priority, but pens and books, where the difference is not more a reason to discriminate, but to learn from it, where the Constitution and the law are deeply respected and not just a tool of the one in power, in one sentence, as a creative has said, I believe the utopia is possible with Antanas Mockus as our new president.

Among his proposal are: Education as the key, each life is sacred, public resources are sacred, environment respected. He will continue the good policies Uribe has done, but he will go further and from a different perspective. He won’t tolerate violations to life, or any other form of violence. He will educate our children to become responsible citizens. He will build the basis for a new society. Naturally, I do not see him as a savor, but I trust in his endless will to make the change real.

There is only 20 days left, and unfortunately, we are on danger of fraud in the polls and unfair competition. Mockus is now heading the opinion polls, but the real fight will be 30th May. I hope I can be writing a celebration note by then.

lunes, 8 de marzo de 2010

INBURGERING IN THE NETHERLANDS

I was still in Spain when I heard for the first time about the inburgering. A good friend of mine had to do a Dutch language exam before she moved to The Netherlands to live with her boyfriend. She followed a course with a Dutch professor in Colombia for more than two months, she passed the exam and then she was here, waiting to start the inburgering course.

I come from Colombia, but I was living in Spain for the last 4 years together with my Dutch husband, thanks to it, I enjoy the freedom of movement within the Shengen territory for at least three months, and it also changed my status when enter the Netherlands. Even if I still national of a third country (Non EU countries), I didn't need to present the exam or to follow a course once here. I did want though. That was my intention when I went to ROC Leiden and ask for a Dutch course. They told me about the different courses they offer, the inburgering process and the possibility that all this courses could be paid by the city hall. The forwarded me to the social service office and then I was offer to do a language course with the only consideration of my good performance.

They explained me how I was not abide by the law to follow the inburgering procedure (because of our previously residence in an European country), but since I was interested in learn the language, they will pay it for me. After checking out my academic background, they decided to give me the personal budget, wchich means no other thing that I could choose the school of my preference to follow a course, with the only condition to choose the best one. Leiden University taalcentrum was the best option.

Since January I've been taking Dutch lessons twice a week, three hours a day, plus several hours of homework. And since April I will be doing it even more intensively (4 days a week).

One of my classmates is in the same position than me and she will be also doing the intensive course with me. We are more than pleased with the Government policy to support the foreigners to learn the language and even to make it mandatory for all the people living or willing to live here.

I must say, in honour to the truth, that not all the people is as lucky as I am, and not all the City Halls have the same inburgering policy as the Gemeente of Leiden. I've recently met a lovely girl from Russia who had to do 30 interviews for her inburgering course. She could make herself clear in Dutch, despite she was not happy at all about the way the inburgering course in her school is been developed. She agrees with the inburgering as a mandatory process for all the immigrants, but she thinks the whole idea must be reviewed. She told me how after only one month of learning the language they started to studying the political, health care and educational systems, amongst other topics. She didn't feel prepared enough to jump out from the “Indefinite article / Present tense” to discuss the political system in The Netherlands. She would like to study instead more vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation, so she can really feel an independent-user of the language.

Happily, the shiny star is still upon me and even when I have not been such lucky with my job hunting, I am following a plan to achieve the job of my dreams. And I am sure sooner or later I will do it.

lunes, 18 de enero de 2010

My heart with Haiti

Since it's been busy weeks, I had the idea though to write about many thoughts, but I haven't finished any yet. Now, most of my mind is in Haiti, and my heart. But now it's all a mess and I don't want to carry coals to Newcastle....

Instead, I received this nice article that shows some reflection over the amazonia. I just want to help to disseminate this mindful answer!
Hope you enjoy it, as I did:

During a debate in a US university over four years ago, a young US ecologist asked Cristóvão Buarque, then the Workers Party governor of the Federal District of Brasilia and currently Brazil’s minister of education, about his ideas on internationalizing the Amazonia, so often described as the “lung of humanity.” It was then and still is a theme strongly sustained in Washington’s power circles.


“From a humanist perspective...”
“As a Brazilian I would always argue against internationalizing the Amazon Rain Forest. Even though our government has not given this patrimony the care that it deserves, it is still ours. As a humanist who fears the risks posed by the environmental degradation the Amazon is suffering, I could imagine its internationalization, just as I could imagine the internationalization of everything else of importance to humanity.

If, from a humanist perspective, the Amazon must be internationalized, we should also internationalize the world’s petroleum reserves. Oil is as important for the well being of humanity as the Amazon is for our future. The owners of the reserves, however, feel that they have the right to increase or decrease the amount of oil production, as well as increase or lower the price per barrel. The wealthy of the world feel they have the right to burn up this immense patrimony of humanity.

In much the same way, the wealthy countries’ financial capital should be internationalized. Since the Amazon Rain Forest is a reserve for all human beings, no owner or country must be allowed to burn it up. The burning of the Amazon is as serious a problem as the unemployment caused by the arbitrary decisions made by global speculators. We cannot permit the use of financial reserves to burn entire countries in the frenzy of speculation.

“Let’s internationalize all the world’s children as patrimony of humanity”
Before we internationalize the Amazon, I would like to see the internationalization of all the world’s great museums. The Louvre should not belong merely to France. The world’s museums are guardians of the most beautiful pieces of art produced by the human genius. We cannot let this cultural patrimony, like the natural patrimony of the Amazon, be manipulated and destroyed by the whims of an owner or a country. A short time ago, a Japanese millionaire decided to be buried with a painting by a great artist. That painting should have been internationalized before this could happen.

The United Nations is holding the Millennium Summit parallel to this meeting, but some Presidents ohad difficulties attending due to U.S. border-crossing constraints. Because of this, I think that New York, as the headquarters of the United Nations, should be internationalized. At least Manhattan should belong to all humanity, as should Paris, Venice, Rome, London, Río de Janeiro, Brasilia, Recife... Each city, with its unique beauty and its history, should belong to the entire world, to all of humanity.

If the United States wants to internationalize the Amazon Rain Forest to minimize the risk of leaving it in the hands of Brazilians, we should internationalize its nuclear arsenals, if only because the country has already demonstrated it is capable of using these arms, causing destruction thousands of times greater than the deplorable burnings done in the forests of Brazil.

In their debates, the US presidential candidates have defended the idea of internationalizing the world’s forest reserves in exchange for debt relief. We should begin by using this debt to guarantee that each child in the world has the opportunity to go to school. We should internationalize the children, treating them, all of them, no matter their country of birth, as patrimony that deserves to be cared for by the entire world. Even more than the Amazon deserves to be cared for. When the world’s leaders begin to treat the poor children of the world as a patrimony of humanity, they will not let them work when they should be studying, die when they should be living.

As a humanist, I agree to defend the internationalization of the world. But, as long as the world treats me as a Brazilian, I will fight for the Amazonia to remain ours. Ours alone.”