Yesterday I found a great tool. I reckon with this web many of us could improve our reading, writing, listening, pronuntation and so on, because most of the texts have audio recordings, so you can read and listen
at the same time. Similarly, the stories have a glossary and some
graphic aids to help you understand the most complex vocabulary
in the stories.
It is commonly said that
nowadays we live better than ever. This fact is true in many ways.
For example, thanks to science we have been able to
combat and eliminate many diseases. In terms of technology, we have
been able to develop a diversity of devices that allow us to know and
learn more about the environment that surrounds us and at the same
time, allows us to have fun or have leisurely moments.
However,
every coin has two sides. For this reason the present day is
the age of contradictions of opinions, inventions and actions. To
illustrate this idea, we could think whether we prefer quality to
quantity; or if we prefer effectiveness to productivity.
This paradox is practically inevitable. Since we
have covered all our basic needs (education, health, technology among
many), we have overstretched ourselves and we have fallen into the
trend of 'having' and so we are forgetting 'to be'. Just so, we could
understand for instance, why the fashion industry is currently the
second most polluting on the planet !
In this sense,
considering having a day to not buy anything, could make us more
aware of whether we really need what we want to buy. Likewise, it
would help us to be more selective and of course, it would be more
respectful of the environment.
Maybe the Buy Nothing Day
does not have much economic impact, but it is a good opportunity to
remind the inhabitants to be conscious of the choice: buying to live
or living to buy, as the 'slow movement' does.
Without a doubt, the best way to learn is playing. Maybe with this simple game, you can see how much you know and how much you can learn, in fact more vocabulary = better English !
Today is Martin Luther King Day, and in the US is a national holiday. To
commemorate his life and achievements I would like to share with you a beautiful
' animated recording of one of the most famous speeches in history - his “I Have a Dream” speech from the March on Washington in 1963.'
' (...) Fifty years ago, as the culminating address of the
March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, King demanded the riches of freedom and the security of justice. Today, his language of love, nonviolent direct action, and redemptive suffering resonates globally in the millions who stand up for freedom together and elevate democracy to its ideals. How do the echoes of King’s Dream live within you?'
They say
that when you least expect interesting things, they come knocking on
your door. And that was precisely what happened to me last summer
when I was visiting my sister-in-law and her Colombian family. In the
middle of a barbecue I was surprised to see that one of her friends
was wearing a very peculiar T-shirt by Pablo Escobar. Of course, this
didn't go unnoticed among the guests and without wanting to wait for
it I was in the middle of a great debate about this character. The
opinions were so diverse that I began to investigate a little more
about this character that held a whole country in check.
With
this in mind, in addition to reading the press of the time, watching
television reports and interviews, I began to realize the spread of
versions of series, movies, etc. about Escobar. Then came the
question - which of these would be the nearest to the truth? After
seeing two appaling versions and on the verge of throwing in the
towel I found this version:'Pablo
Escobar, the patron of evil'. This
series was came out in 2012 and went on for 113 episodes. The
direction was shared by Carlos
Moreno
y Laura
Mora Ortega and the peculiar thing about the series
is that among the writers there are direct relatives of the victims
of Pablo Escobar and his hitmen (Camilo Cano, Juana Uribe, Alonso
Salazar, Juan Camilo Ferrand).
The
series is part of the genre of action-thriller, and describes the
life of the Colombian Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria from his childhood
and how the use of indiscriminate violence made him the richest, most
fearsome and bloodthirsty drug dealer at the end of the 20th century.
Even destabilizing the Colombian government to the point of being the
most wanted criminal in the world.
Among
the strengths that would stand out in the series are:
The quality of
the acting. I would especially emphasize the performance of Andres
Parra, who plays Pablo
Escobar. The impact of his performance is that he studied the
character so well that he would spend several hours a day trying to
imitate Pablo Escobar's diction, rhythm and tone and he achieved
it. In fact the only surviving hitman of Escobar's (Popeye),
said that sometimes just listening to the series he could see his
'patron'. At the same time another actor who knew how to capture the
personality of the person he played was Cristian
Tappán. In fact this
actor underwent a radical change to give life to Escobar's cousin
and right-hand man.
Undoubtedly
a strong point of the series is that the cast of actors, being
Colombians did not have to force the accent, the humor of this
culture or the Colombian idiosyncrasy. This is the great difference
that I have found as compared to other similar series. In this
sense, it helped me a lot to have a Colombian relative to understand
or translate certain idioms. However, without this help it would not
have been difficult to understand the same due to the context.
Regarding
the locations, the exteriors were all made in the same cities where
the real events took place (Medellín, Bogota, Cali, Antioquia among
many). Although it sounds contradictory, something else that kept me
watching the series -despite the fact that the exposure to the
violence that occurred the 1980s and 1990s in Colombia may be too
overwhelming- was that as the events unfolded the series was mixing
images, recordings and actual interviews of what was being told.
This situation, in my opinion, makes the viewer even more aware of
what has happened in this country and how drug trafficking and
corruption marked not only their present but their future.
Among
the weak points that I noticed:
On
the one hand, the astonishingly naive role that the police
logistics displays. The Escobar character in most of the series
mocks to their captors almost derisively. On the other hand, I
believe that what is being exposed through this 'ingenuity' in the
series is the high level of corruption, or the fear that surrounded
the security and judicial forces, and even journalists.
This
series also led me to the search for the book on which the facts were
based: 'The parable of Pablo', written by Alonso Salazar. One of the
main differences between the book and the series is that it offers an
overview of the whole picture and analyzes the historical, political,
social, cultural, economic and even psychological background on which
the protagonist figure of the drug trafficker stands out. His
relatives, neighbors, workers, lawyers and collaborators were
interviewed for years by Salazar. Also their victims and their
enemies. And those who fought it from the State and with the law.
The
series, despite being very respectful with the facts, I think that
opened a very dangerous debate with respect to this unpleasant
character. Because, on the one hand, in more than 80% of the series
it is remarked that money could do everything, could buy justice,
consciences and everything that would have been necessary to achieve
an end. At the same time, it was believed that after capturing and
putting Escobar out of sight, a great problem would be buried and it
was not so, violence as well as drug trafficking continued to grow.
