Walking on ice in Bratislava

I spent last weekend in Bratislava, which was at that time after several days of continuous snow and temperatures below zero. Being Spaniard, and thus not very much used to snowy weather, I was a bit afraid about what I could find there and, believe me, I was not disappointed.

Bratislava was during the weekend almost fully under ice and snow, with the exception, of course, of main roads and streets. In parks and other parts of the city, snow was everywhere, well beyond my ankle. To make things even better, due to cold temperatures, the top layer of the snow had frozen and turned into ice. That was the case also for many pathways. The riskiest part was when leaving a bus, because literally one had to jump from the bus to ice... Nevertheless, it seems that Slovaks are used to it, since they were walking normally on ice and I did not see anybody falling down. Needless to say, I was walking slower than old ladies.

It also surprised me the amount of ice on some small streets and parking places. For example, in some parking places, the car had to climb like 10 centimetres to the parking position, so it was higher than the level of the road, standing on ice and snow (see the picture above, which was taken close to our house). Despite these adverse conditions for driving, it seems, though, that winter tyres are enough not to lose control of the car.

In the end, I must admit, it was not that bad. After two days I was more confident about the idea of walking on ice and I must proudly tell you that I did not fall down, je, je, je. Now it seems that temperatures are going up and snow is melting down. I would like to see how the Danube is accepting this...

¡Yugoslavia, Yugoslavia!

Hace unos días, leí en Internet un artículo sobre la selección yugoslava de baloncesto de los años 80, que me llevó a leer sobre la increíble semifinal entre Yugoslavia y la URSS en el Mundial del 86, donde la grada del Palacio de los Deportes de Madrid gritaba "Rusia, Rusia" y donde la URSS remontó nueve puntos en un minuto. Finalmente, acabé viendo un vídeo de la agresión de Sabonis, por entonces un joven pívot del Zalgiris Kaunas, a un jugador de la Cibona de Zagreb.

Más allá del puñetazo en sí, que deja al jugador de la Cibona seco (algo que fácilmente me puedo explicar pues me puedo imaginar la fuerza, medida en Newtons, de un puñetazo de una persona de 2,20m de alto), me llama la atención la reacción del público: gritan Yugoslavia, Yugoslavia (a partir del minuto 1:25 del vídeo, más o menos). Para los no expertos en baloncesto, esto sucede en Zagreb, la capital de Croacia.

No sé la fecha exacta de este partido, pero diría que no fue antes de 1986. En 1991, solo cinco años después en el peor de los casos, presenciamos la guerra entre Serbia, Bosnia y Croacia, donde las ideas nacionalistas alcanzaron cotas quasi-demenciales y donde el odio étnico nos trajo imágenes de una limpieza étnica en Europa. Es posible que la misma gente que gritaba ¡Yugoslavia, Yugoslavia! para irritar a Sabonis, empuñase un arma en la guerra de Yugoslavia para, precisamente, destruir Yugoslavia y matar a los que hasta hace poco eran sus compatriotras.

Sinceramente, que un cambio tan radical en una sociedad pueda suceder en un periodo de tiempo tan corto (cinco años) me da miedo. ¿Es posible que los nacionalismos puedan lavar el cerebro de la sociedad en solo cinco años? ¿Es posible sembrar odio hacia el vecino en tan poco tiempo? ¿Es posible que las masas puedan ser tan fácilmente manipulables?

Desafortunadamente, este vídeo nos proporciona una respuesta afirmativa a estas, y a otras, preguntas. Lo único que deseo es que algo parecido nunca suceda en España.

Complessità senza valore aggiunto

Questi primi giorni di 2013 sto lavorando con diversi temi finanziarii. Soltanto capire quello che le banche e le altri istituzioni finanziarie fanno diventa una tarea difficile. Ci sono parole gerghe, ci sono molti contratti e controparti, ci sono transazioni fatte a un giorno, ... In una parola, capire quello che succede e i rischi che si possono sviluppare non è semplice. Una domanda che mi viene sempre in mente è: qual'è il valore aggiunto per la società di questo?

La banca tradizionale prende risparmi a lungo termine e poi procura credito ai firmi e alle famiglie a breve termine, con una differenza nelle interessi, che diventa il benefizio della banca. Questo schema ha cambiato adesso. Ci sono tantissime transazioni tra banche ed altre istituzioni finanziarie che l'economia reale (firmi e famiglie) è situata allo sfondo. Le banche entrano in affari cercando di un benefizio rapido e grande, ma anche rischioso, senza aggiungere niente alla società. Che io sappia, la società non migliora molto se due banche trasferono tra loro derivati e garanzie per potere fare ancora più transazioni.

Il settore finanziario è adesso molto più importante dall settore reale ed apprendere come il denaro si muove fa veramente paura. Quindi, appare una necessità costante di creare nuovi prodotti finanziari che generano commissioni per le banche e un benefizio per l'investitore, ma che anche possano rimanere nell'ombra, lontani dagli occhi dei supervisori.

Ogni giorni più e più economisti dicono che il mondo non ha bisogno di più prodotti finanziari ma di più investizioni nell'economia reale, sebbene non siano redditizie come alcuni transazioni finanziarie. Ma conviene non dimenticare che nelle finanze, molto spesso, il benefizio di uno è la perdita di un altro.

Forse qualcuno poderoso potrebbe allora domandarsi per l'utilità del settore finanziario per l'economia reale e cercare di mettere questa situazione pazza sotto controllo.Non credo che questo sia possibile perche il denaro è sempre più poderoso...

Natwest Tower - Frankfurt in five hours

Yesterday I was in a meeting in London all day. Due to some restrictions to night flights in Frankfurt, I had to take a plane from London Heathrow at 20:10 CET (19:10 GMT), so I had to leave the venue of my meeting, the former Natwest Tower (by the way, I read a book with architectural wonders when I was a child and the Natwest Tower was there!) in the City, at 17:30 CET (16:30 GMT). I thought that would give me enough time to have an easy trip back home but I was somehow wrong.

First, following the advice of a former colleague, I decided to go from the City to Paddington, where I should take the Heathrow Express, using the Circle Line from Liverpool Street, instead of my original plan of going with the Central Line from Bank to Oxford Circus and then changing to the Bakerloo Line until Paddington. In overall terms, I saved two stations and a change of line, so it looked like quite a good idea. But it was not. First, the Circle Line is no longer a perfect circle, since it has some kind of strange diversion going to Hammersmith, so I had to change trains in Great Portland Street or in Baker Street. After some thinking, needless to say, I chose wrong: Baker Street, because I had to walk to a different platform. After seven minutes waiting, the second train was quite crowded and it needed 15 minutes to cover three stations. Probably it could not go faster with the huge amount of passengers it was carrying.

Anyway, once arrived to Paddington, due to some works, I could not walk directly to the train platforms but had to take, again, a diversion. It took some time but I finally managed to come to the area of the Heathrow Express. Then, after waiting ten minutes for departure, the train I was in had a problem with one door, so I had to change train, with a further delay of ten minutes. Once the train left Paddington, the trip to Heathrow was somehow fine.

Once in Heathrow, I had to hurry up to buy some presents and some food for my dinner, before boarding the plane for Frankfurt. However, once seated in the plane, the pilot told us that he has ordered some ice-breaking liquid for the wings, so we will be like fifteen minutes delayed. As a consequence of this, we lost our place in the take-off queue in Heathrow, so we were reallocated again (new delay).

The pilot did his best to fly as fast as possible in order to compensate our late taking-off. Nevertheless, conditions were not easy at Frankfurt, with some snow. That meant that we landed at one corner of the airport and we had to taxi 20 minutes until we reached our final position, which, obviously, was outside, not in a finger. After a trip in bus, where I thought the driver did not fully understand the concept of "not-to-use-the-brakes-too-abruptly", we had to go through the passport control, where, following my normal curse, I chose the slow queue.

All in all, what I thought should be an easy and relaxing trip became a nightmare with many small delays which finally implied that it took me five hours to arrive to Frankfurt from the City of London. There was not any huge problem but I could not have a minute of relax in this time. Let's hope my next trips to London are a bit easier...

Un épique un peu tricheur

Dans mes études de Literature, Culture et Langue Anglaise, ce semestre je dois lire sur les auteurs américains plus importants de XVIIIème siècle. Parmi eux, j'ai trouvé James Fenimore Cooper, auteur de "The last of the Mohicans", un des grands épiques américains.

Le livre et, aussi pour beaucoup de nous, le film occupent un lieu privilégié dans notres têtes. La merveilleuse musique de Hans Zimmer pendant la scène finale nous transporte dans la historie et on souhaite d'aiuter Uncas et Alice (Cora dans le livre). Magua est un villain vraiment crédible, qui fait éclipser totalment des autres villains de films plus recént e qui ont place à côté de, par exemple, Darth Vader. Les dernières paroles de Chingachgook, après la mort de son fils Uncas (j'ai vecú pour voir le dernier guerrier de la sage race des Mohicans), sont vraiment émouvantes.

 Mais il y a un petit mensonge dans ce épique. On peux facilement déduire que les Mohicans ont disapparu parce que les français et les autres Indiens les ont tué (Magua tue le dernier Mohican), mentre que les colons américains étaient leurs amis fidèles. Avec cette solution, les colons américains pouvaint donc avoir leur puritaines consciences tranquillees. Peut-être que ce était très agréable à accepter pour les lecteurs américains de James Fenimore Cooper, mais il semble d'être faux... Au moins, on peut dire que les américains ont aussi contribué à la presque totale annihilation des Indiens.

Mais bon, il n'est pas joli decouvrir un petit mesonge dans un livre ou film qui ont aime, mais c'est n'est pas tant terrible. "The last of the Mohicans" reste un épique fascinant, bien que pas vrai du point de vue historique.

Estos alemanes...

Estos dos últimos días he sufrido el ataque de un virus estomacal que me ha dejado algo tocado. No sé si en Nochevieja involuntariamente desee perder peso en 2013, pero si es así, quiero anular inmediatamente mi deseo. Como siempre pasa en estos casos, cuando uno está en apuros, más aprecia lo que tiene en casa y más echa de menos las pequeñas cosas que hacen su vida más fácil. El post de hoy describe tres de estas pequeñas cosas, que me han llamado la atención en mis días de convalecencia.

En primer lugar, tengo que referirme a los precios de la carne "bio" en los supermercados. Ayer casi compro unas pechugas de pollo a 18 € el kilo. ¿Qué demonios tienen esos pollos para venderse a 18 € kilo? ¿Es que les alimentan con jamón de Jabugo y vino de Rioja? Lo malo es que no es algo único de los pollos, pasa muy a menudo: uno coge una bandeja de carne si hacer mucho caso al precio y en la caja se lleva una sorpresa... Un amigo mío pagó 30 € por unos filetes normales. El auge de los productos "bio" aquí es impresionante: doblan los precios de los productos normales y aún así venden. Luego cada seis o nueve meses, salta un escándalo por los piensos utilizados en estas granjas "bio", pero los alemanes parecen no hacer mucho caso a eso.

Alemania es el país de los zumos multivitaminas (sinónimo de azúcar a tutiplén), del agua embotellada de múltiples sabores (naranja, limón, fresa, melocotón, uva,...) y de las bebidas de la más variada condición y mezcla. Sin embargo, no tienen Aquarius (que cuando uno sufre del estómago, viene muy bien). De hecho, no tienen apenas bebidas isotónicas (por ejemplo, Gatorade) y la única que he podido encontrar, en una esquina del supermercado, tiene un sabor que deja bastante que desear. Seguramente, Aquarius no sea la bebida más sana del mundo, pero indudablemente gana a los zumos multivitaminas y al agua embotellada con sabor a fresa. Además, estando los alemanes tan preocupados por su salud (están haciendo deporte todo el día), no me explico cómo no se comercializa en estas tierras.

Finalmente, ya me he referido a ello, pero tengo que insistir en el ruido de las ambulancias. Ayer me eché una siesta por la tarde y me despertó el sonido de una ambulancia, que penetró durante más de medio minuto en mi salón. Era como si la tuviese debajo de la almohada. Me resulta totalmente increíble que, por un lado, en Alemania no se permita tirar vidrios al contenedor más tarde de las siete de la tarde para no molestar con el ruido a los vecinos, mientras que las ambulancias (por no hablar de los coches de bomberos) atruenan vecindarios enteros sin piedad. Supongo que todos los países, incluido España, tienen este tipo de contradicciones, pero aún así pediría a quien corresponda que bajen un poco el volumen de las sirenas, que los conductores se apartarán igual.

Lo importante, más allá de lo que echo de menos beber un poco de Aquarius, es que ya estoy recuperándome. A estas tres cosas, y a otras muchas, me ha dado tiempo a acostumbrarme en estos tres años, pero aún así hay veces que a uno le cuesta entender el modo de pensar alemán.

Kick-off of 2013

So, after two weeks of break due to Christmas and New Year, activity is back to the blog. 2013 should be a year full of activity and emotions in my life, involving a move from Frankfurt to Guadalajara and many other changes in my life. I hope I have the energy to manage all of them in a successful way.

Before that, I spent Christmas in Valencia, with my family. I had not been there for three years and I somehow missed it. I did not miss the horror to find a parking place on the street or the crowds in some points of the city, but the temperatures of 20 degrees in December and the nice walk close to the sea (see picture). This time, I even had time to go for a walk in the city centre of Valencia, visiting four churches in the same morning (!), including one... with a caiman from 17th century at the entrance. I can say that this is a strong argument to go to church.

Afterwards, I spent two days working in Guadalajara and came the break of New Year. It was again very intense, with a lot of food involved and the visit of my delfinika, which draw all my attention. I tried my best for her to feel like at home. They were very nice days, although devoted to the honorable activity of "doing nothing". We spent one day in Madrid, going for a walk in the city centre and I must admit that I was positively surprised by the area around Royal Opera, Plaza de la Villa and Royal Palace. About the crowds in Sol, it is better not to say much...

As previously said, let's hope this break has brought a lot of energies for the many challenges happening in 2013!!!!!