John Lee Anderson writes in The New York Times "A Very Argentinian Mistery" a brief chronicle about the -indeed very Argentinian- murder of Alberto Nisman: "On Sunday, January 18th, Natalio Alberto Nisman, a fifty-one-year-old
federal prosecutor, was found shot dead inside his locked Buenos Aires
apartment. There was a gun nearby, and a bullet wound to his head.
Nisman had spent the past decade investigating Argentina’s worst-ever
terrorist attack—the 1994 car bombing of a Jewish center in Buenos
Aires, the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina, or AMIA,
which killed eighty-five people. A few days earlier, he had released a
report alleging that President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and
Foreign Minister Héctor Timerman had engaged in a massive cover-up of
Iran’s role in the AMIA case in exchange for trade
concessions. In order to investigate the case, Nisman also repudiated a
2013 memorandum of understanding signed by Timerman and his Iranian
counterpart. He had been due to present evidence in the National
Congress on Monday, the day after his body was discovered." Read full article in The New Yorker. E.T.P. 4'
Jonathan Gilbert and Simon Romero also report the puzzling death of Nisman in The New York Times. "Police
sentries guarded the federal prosecutor’s luxury high-rise building.
His door on the 13th floor had been locked from the inside, and a gun
with a spent cartridge was found on the floor near his body. There was
no suicide note.Just one day earlier, on Saturday, the prosecutor, Alberto Nisman, said, “I might get out of this dead.” Read full article in The New York Times. E.T.P. 6'
People line up to buy food at a supermarket in San Cristobal, about 660
km southwest of Caracas, Feb. 27, 2014 via Business
Insider.
"Back in the late 1980s, the economists Rudiger Dornbusch & Sebastian Edwards described
how countries such as Venezuela which pursue highly expansionary
populist policies to the detriment of public finances typically go
through four distinct phases in what might be called a “boom-bust”
cycle. This is their description of Phase 3:
Phase III: Pervasive shortages, extreme
acceleration of inflation, and an obvious foreign exchange gap lead to
capital flight and demonetization of the economy. The budget deficit
deteriorates violently because of a steep decline in tax collection and
increasing subsidy costs. The government attempts to stabilize by
cutting subsidies and by a real depreciation. Real wages fall massively,
and politics become unstable. It becomes clear that the government has
lost.
This is why Moody’s has been too generous to Venezuela. The balance
of payments problem is merely the trigger for a massive fiscal, economic
and ultimately political crisis that can only end in one way – the
disorderly collapse of the regime. Whether this will take the form of a
revolution, a military coup or simple chaos remains to be seen. But what
we are witnessing is the destruction of Venezuela’s economy. And that
destruction is not, fundamentally, because of external factors. It is a
direct consequence of the economic policies pursued by the Chavez and
Maduro regimes." Read full article in Forbes. E.T.P. 8'
Linette
Lopez writes in the Business Insider about Venezuela's "let them eat
cake" moment, when the Food Minister (yes, there is a Food Minister),
who refused to refused to answer questions to a journalist that does not
agree with
the administration's prevailing idea that all this economic suffering —
rampant inflation, dwindling central-bank coffers, and more — is the
result of an economic war on the Venezuela. Which is of course, a
massive lie. Refer to the previous article if in doubt and read Lopez
full article in the Business Insider. E.T.P. 3'
German researchers have developed a version
of Super Mario Bros., that makes Mario self-aware. He is able to
experience emotions and act autonomously in response to them. The AI
also understands voice instructions and questions. It's sophisticated enough that Mario can be fed information that he will remember and eventually act upon it. There's a five-minute
video in Polygon that gives a detailed explanation of how this experiment works, have a look here. (E.T.P. 5')
And a nice article by our beloved Charlie Brooker in The Guardian: "This meta-Mario experiences basic emotions, is compelled to act by urges
such as “hunger” and “curiosity”, and is painfully aware that he only
exists within a meaningless two-dimensional artificial framework from
which he can never escape. As such, he’s more advanced than I am. And he
looks better in a hat. I think I hate him, although there’s every
possibility that’s just what I’ve been programmed to do." Read full article in The Guardian. E.T.P. 3'
Simone de Beauvoir explains why she is a feminist in a rare TV interview -as she didn't like to be in TV- with French journalist Jean-Louis Servan-Schreiber in 1975. "De Beauvoir picks up the ideas of The Second Sex, which Servan-Schreiber calls as important an “ideological reference” for feminists as Marx’s Capital
is for communists. He asks De Beauvior about one of her most quoted
lines: “One is not born a woman, one becomes one.” Her reply shows how
far in advance she was of post-modern anti-essentialism, and how much of
a debt later feminist thinkers owe to her ideas" Have a look in Open Culture. E.T.P. 9'
"Certain
works of fiction have so many memorable lines that they’ve entered
everyday language." The Guardian's Alex Clark's favourites goes from
James Joyce's Ulysses to Irving Welsh's Trainspotting. Read full article
in The Guardian. E.T.P. 4'
Some time ago, in an article I wrote for culturetas.es, I confessed having been all my life obsessed with my body and its dimensions. The confession came into place because I can hardly admit an obsession that makes me feel conceited.
I always thought that vanity is the worst value. I remember reading Simone de Beauvoir, I think in Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter, saying that she met another lover of Sartre´s and, when they met for the first time, the woman was looking at herself in the mirror behind de Beauvoir for a long time. That story reinforced a value that was already part of me. The problem is that, the fear of feeling conceited was more annoying than the problem itself. So here I want to shape the subject without worrying about my shame.
According to an article in the Times, 70% of Hispanic women refer to themselves in derogatory terms. We refer to ourselves as fat cows and other insults. The problem is not being a cow, which is hardly an insult, but what we mean by the contempt with which we say so.
On Facebook there is a group, Stop gordofobia ("fat-phobia" in English), that has been sharing texts, videos and everything they find on the subject of fat phobia, and the problems that culture have with the human body, especially the female body . When I hear about feminism, I remember texts in which it´s said that the dildo is the new penis, that the vagina doesn´t exist and things that, honestly, I do not feel identified with. They are so abstract that sometimes I don´t know if they refer to something that is in space and time.
Stop gordofobia is not a feminist website. I think it's a place where women and men can share and review our notions about the body. I recently read a comment from someone that considered the page was promoting obesity. It occurs to me that we can´t expect simple people to think about complex issues. But still, I will try to explain to those people the difference between obesity / health problems and establishing a good relationship with a body that is healthy, but most people reject for not being a skeleton.
Our culture bombards us with constant messages about how women have to be thin. It's hard not to feel inappropriate when there´s no rest from those messages. As Jean Kilbourne says in Killing us softly, we think, like many people, we are special and have the magical power of ignoring advertising messages, but we don´t know or don´t want to admit that we inevitably hear these messages.
I won´t talk about this issue and devote paragraph after paragraph to talk about photoshop. I refuse to think of myself as a victim. Mainly because that´s an attitude that´s paralyzing. But I think it´s important to recognize that it´s not easy. Having a body is not easy.
I think that the initiatives we've been seeing our friends posting on their facebooks about acceptance of one's body are absolutely necessary. Dove´s campaigns are excellent. Usually beauty products companies make us feel like shit and therefore we think we need their products. They make things up, like for example, cellulite. So we look at ourselves in the mirror and feel disgusted.
It´s true that one of those campaigns seems to indicate that some features are ugly and other beautiful. But I prefer to interpret it as though women don´t know how to see themselves. It´s hard for us and the responsibility is partly of the people who want to make money at the expense of our inclination to insecurity.
The problem of the mirror is not that we are vain and want to look beautiful because we are hysterical and depend on other people´s perspective to feel good. Okay, there's something to that, I admit. But mostly the problem is that we live in a society (pardon the cliché) where the value of women is determined by their beauty or lack thereof.
Let's review our reactions to seeing women on television. We feel we're on the right to criticize them merely because they are women, well, and also because they are on T.V. Let us hear our criticisms. "She looked better with makeup", "Old age is not good on her". You're probably one of those people that doesn´t accept having these thoughts. I think it's better to admit our shit and then deal with it than to put it under the rug and spend our lives trying to ignore its presence, while our unconscious reveals them in the form of self-destruction.
These problems with the ideals are not at all unique to women. Men also deal with enforcement. In some cultures they have to have many women, in others it´s unacceptable for them to drink small glasses of beer.
This makes me think about a related topic, which is what is feminine and what masculine. I wouldn´t say that these categories don´t exist just because I don´t want them to exist. I would say, however, that there´s no recipe that dictates which quantities of femininity or masculinity a person must have. I think the difficulty of having a body is closely linked to the difficulty, at least in my case, to understand the ideals of a gender, to admit myself a woman. To admit oneself a woman means entering that game culture forces on us from the moment we begin to grow tits. A game that is also introduced by nature, a game too cruel for a little girl: the game of desire.
The article Ariana Basciani wrote a few months ago on this page spoke about these issues too. In it, Ariana invites us to reconsider our prejudices, to stop rejecting what we don´t know. I think that´s what I want to say. Our brain makes us tend to simplifications, but this inevitably leads to intolerance. It´s true that it´s not easy to challenge our nature, but we should use our heads for more than just bullshit.
This is written by the part of me that still has hope in humanity, a 0.1% of me.
-
This article was originally published (in Spanish) in Culturetas, culture with boobs, a great website situated at the intersection of culture and feminity. Culturetas are our new contributors and we are delighted to have them. Have a look and say hello to them!
« Pour
moi, mes sculptures représentent le monde de la femme amplifié, la
folie des grandeurs des femmes, la femme dans le monde d’aujourd’hui, la
femme au pouvoir.
»
The life of the French artist Niki de Saint Phalle is as fascinating as her wonderful colorful pieces that you might have seen in various open spaces around the world. Probably you only know her most famous installation: the Stravinsky Fountain right next to the Pompidou Center that she created with Jean Tinguely, but her work was definitely as prolific as it was provocative, experimental and diverse.
Niki was a model who appeared on the cover of Vogue and Elle, a self-taught outsider, a passionate feminist, and a political activist, and in this beautifully curated exhibition at the Grand Palais you have a chance to get to know her in different stages of her life through large vibrant sculptures, photos, videos, interviews, installations, paintings and a lot of color, love, bullets, large powerful nanas and strong messages. I didn't know much about her and
If you are in Paris, hurry up, as the exhibition finishes the 2nd of February. Booking is extremely recommended. I had to queue for approximately an hour in the cold (the fountain was frozen, as you can see), but it was absolutely worth it. If you can't make it this next week, the expo will be traveling to the Guggenheim Museum of Bilbao. Absolutely great spring procrastination.
17 September 2014 to 02 February 2015
Every day except Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Closes at 8 p.m. on Sundays and Mondays.
- See more at: http://www.grandpalais.fr/en/event/niki-de-saint-phalle#sthash.aSjEEs2s.dpuf
Grand Palais
17 September - 02 February
Every day except Tuesdays from 10am to 10pm
Every
day except Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Closes at 8 p.m. on Sundays
and Mond - See more at:
http://www.grandpalais.fr/en/event/niki-de-saint-phalle#sthash.aSjEEs2s.dpuf
17 September 2014 to 02 February 2015
Every day except Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Closes at 8 p.m. on Sundays and Monday
- See more at: http://www.grandpalais.fr/en/event/niki-de-saint-phalle#sthash.aSjEEs2s.dpuf
17 September 2014 to 02 February 2015
Every day except Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Closes at 8 p.m. on Sundays and Mondays.
- See more at: http://www.grandpalais.fr/en/event/niki-de-saint-phalle#sthash.aSjEEs2s.dpuf
17 September 2014 to 02 February 2015
Every day except Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Closes at 8 p.m. on Sundays and Mondays.
- See more at: http://www.grandpalais.fr/en/event/niki-de-saint-phalle#sthash.aSjEEs2s.dpuf
Every
day except Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Closes at 8 p.m. on Sundays
and Mond - See more at:
http://www.grandpalais.fr/en/event/niki-de-saint-phalle#sthash.aSjEEs2s.dpuf
We are here again my friends. This will be -as you might have imagined- the last Procrastinator of the year 2014, and before going into the specific of this edition I have to ask you to really take a moment to reach out to us and tell us what do you like of The Procrastinator and what could we be doing better. If you read us, please take 5 min of your time to give us your always appreciated feedback. This is the only Christmas gift we will be asking from you.
However if you want to give a little more, and considering that the Ebola crisis in Africa is a big part of this edition, here's an article about how you can help in an efficient way. Medecins Sans Frontiers is generally on the top of all the lists about organizations that have been most visible and useful during the outbreak, here's a link to their website. You can also contribute with The School Fund that is a nonprofit organization linking students in the Third World to funders across the globe. 100% of online donations go directly to students' school fees. Or you can chose a different cause to contribute from these NGOs.
Now talking about this last 2014 edition: in our News section we are sharing an extensive report about TIME Magazine's person of the year: the Ebola fighters. And some extra info about the economic consequences of the Ebola outbreak via AFP and Vice. Oil prices falling and the historic announcement of Cuba and the US resuming diplomatic relations, are also in this section.
In Science & Technology, 9 giant steps women made this year and Google is heading for an exit in Russia. Our Culture & Entertainment section is filled with films, reviews, lists and links, because enjoying a good movie is the best holidays procrastination. Also political shock art in Russia and the word of the day. The 32 dog selfies that changed the world in 2014 (!) and the amazingly cute Juntowa in this week's In Dog We Trust by La Guía del Perro. And finally we asked our friends, contributors and fellow procrastinators about the books they loved the most procrastinating with during 2014 and we made a list! Have a look for interesting reading options to procrastinate with in 2015 and if you want you give us your recommendations in the comments, go on share the joy of meaningful procrastination!
I hope 2015, the year of the goat (and any other way you'd like to name the immediate future), will be a great year where a lot of things start falling into place after a very hectic and chaotic and definitely exciting 2014. I know it will be awesome and I hope you feel that way too!
Merry everything and happy reading!
NEWS
‘Ebola fighters’ have been named as the Time magazine person of
the year for 2014 for their “risk, persistence and sacrifice” in the
battle against the disease outbreak that has killed more than 6,000
people, reports The i100. Nancy Gibbs, editor of Time commented: "The rest of the world can sleep at night because a group of men and
women are willing to stand and fight. For tireless acts of courage and
mercy, for buying the world time to boost its defenses, for risking, for
persisting, for sacrificing and saving." Have a look at the full report (large article and a couple of videos 11' and 6') in Time magazine. E.T.P. 1 hour.
Also, Vice's Samuel Oakford and Kayla Ruble wrote on Vice how the economies of Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone Have Been Wrecked by Ebola. "Months before the Ebola virus crossed over the border from
neighboring Guinea, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon described Sierra
Leone as "an inspiring experience for international peace-building
efforts." The country, ravaged by a civil war that spanned the 1990s and
early 2000s, was seemingly on track for economic growth and social
stability." Read full article on Vice. E.T.P. 7'
Finally AFP reports that up to one million can be facing hunger in Ebola-hit countries. "Border closures, quarantines and crop losses in West
African nations battling the Ebola virus could lead to as many as one
million people going hungry, UN food agencies said on Wednesday. The deadly haemorrhagic fever that has killed 6,800 people has
severely disrupted daily life in the worst-hit nations of Liberia,
Guinea and Sierra Leone, the latter two of which have gone so far as to
ban Christmas celebrations. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food Programme
said the disease and the resulting restrictions had "caused a
significant shock to the food and agriculture sectors in the affected
countries". Read full article in Yahoo. E.T.P. 2'
Photo via Hamodia.com
The late
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez helped keep the Cuban regime propped
up, but that's not possible in an era of low oil prices, writes Girish Gupta in Time Magazine. "It is likely not a coincidence that talks between the United States
and Cuba—which culminated yesterday in an announcement that the two
countries would begin to resume full diplomatic relations—began just
after the death the former Venezuelan president who had bankrolled
Cuba’s Revolution.
Photo via The Economist.
"THE oil price has fallen by more than 40% since June, when it was $115 a
barrel. It is now below $70. This comes after nearly five years of
stability. At a meeting in Vienna on November 27th the Organisation of
Petroleum Exporting Countries, which controls nearly 40% of the world
market, failed to reach agreement on production curbs, sending the price
tumbling. Also hard hit are oil-exporting countries such as Russia
(where the rouble has hit record lows), Nigeria, Iran and Venezuela. Why
is the price of oil falling?" The Economist explains it, read full article here. E.T.P. 3'
The Economist shared a couple of days ago the Good Country Index, and index that tries to measure how much each country on earth contributes to the planet and to the human race.
"Released on June 24th by Simon Anholt, an independent policy advisor,
aims to overcome this. It ranks countries based on how much they do for
others globally. Ireland and Finland come on top; Libya is rock bottom.
The measure is based on 35 datasets broken down into seven areas, such
as technology, health and culture. The idea is clever but the execution
is tricky. The index often scales countries on a GDP basis to give poor
countries a chance against rich ones." Although the index is flawed is some aspects, it is important (for me) to highlight how after 16 years of ""revolution"" (yes, doble inverted commas), Venezuela is now in the bottom 10 in Technology, Culture, Prosperity and Equality, that means that the contribution of Venezuela in those areas to the world is close to nothing... not that we didn't already know that. Anyway. Find out more about the nuances of this peculiar index in The Economist. E.T.P. 3'
