Me mudé / I moved

nuevo y mejorado blog: https://thelionqueen.wordpress.com/
new and improved blog: https://thelionqueen.wordpress.com/

Sobre cómo murió el Mar Muerto y otros pensamientos

"Convertirse al islamismo es demasiado fácil" pensó, mientras flotaba en esa gran masa de agua, sin explicación alguna. Sin explicación porque la que le habían dado, que incluía montañas que se movían y moléculas y minerales no explicaba realmente por qué flotaría. Y era simplemente mejor asumir que era magia lo que la hacía flotar como un pato de plástico en una bañadera.

"Si tan sólo existieran más cosas tan fáciles como convertirse al islamismo. Pero, veamos, aquí estoy, flotando en el agua, como si nada. Juste comme ça". Quitó la vista de su cuerpo flotando y la concentró en las montañas, entrecerrando los ojos y frunciendo la nariz. Intentó imaginar qué yacía más allá de aquellas montañas, ya en territorio jordano. "¿Cuántos habrán repetido tres veces la frase 'no hay Dios excepto Alá, Mohamed es el mensajero de Alá'? Quien lo haya hecho, ¿recibió una tarjeta de membresía?"

No había nadie a su alrededor. No podia preguntar. Pero no tenía real interés en saber, ya que su atención volvía al hecho del que el mar, el Mar Muerto, la estaba levantando. “¿Rechazándome? El islamismo nunca me rechazaría…¿o lo haría? Siempre y cuando dijera la frase tres veces…Mejor no la repito, por las dudas. Debería considerar seriamente las implicaciones de convertirme al islamismo.”

Mostrándole los dientes a la violación

Durante este mes, Sudáfrica, como anfitrión del Mundial de Fútbol, se encuentra bajo el foco internacional. Ha recibido atención positiva y, claramente, sus ingresos en el área de turismo han dado un salto. Pero esta es también una oportunidad para que salgan a la luz los problemas sociales que persisten en este país con aún claros clivajes sociales y una historia de violencia e inseguridad.

CNN publicó el 21 de junio de 2010 una nota sobre un nuevo invento que está siendo distribuido en las ciudades donde se está llevando a cabo el Mundial, el "Rape-aXe".

Inventado por la doctora sudafricana Sonnet Ehlers, el Rape-aXe es un preservativo femenino con dientes, un "condón anti-violación".

"La mujer inserta el preservativo de latex como si fuera un tampón. Dentro del mismo hay filas de dientes que se enganchan al pene del hombre durante la penetración," explica Ehlers, "una vez que se ajusta, sólo un doctor puede quitarlo". La doctora espera que los hospitales tendrían a su servicio autoridades preparadas para arrestar a quienes se presentaran para hacerse liberar de este artefacto.

De acuerdo a la doctora, este preservativo "hace doler, y no permite que el hombre orine o camine mientras lo tiene enganchado. Si trata de quitárselo, se engancha aún más. De todos modos, no lastima la piel y no hay riesgos de que se escapen fluídos."

Ehlers mantuvo entrevistas con hombres condenados por violación, quienes admitieron que, de correr el riesgo de quedarse "atrapados", considerarían seriamente sus acciones. Sin embargo, críticos del Rape-aXe han planteado que no resuelve el problema de la violación a largo plazo. Las víctimas de violación no tienen acceso a cuidados médicos de urgencia, y por lo general no puede determinarse quien las ha atacado. Además, aquel que ha decidido violar a una mujer recibe el castigo una vez que llegó al punto de cometer el crimen, habiendo causado daños psicológicos a su víctima.

La crítica más severa a este invento es que "esclaviza" a la mujer. ¿Es justo que una tenga que prever que será violada y tomar medidas de este tipo para evitarlo? ¿Existen situaciones en las que una sabe que corre riesgos de violación y decidiría entonces utilizar este preservativo?

En un país donde la violación es moneda corriente, ¿los hombres pensarán dos veces antes de someter sexualmente a una mujer ante el riesgo de "ser mordidos"?

Fuente:

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/africa/06/20/south.africa.female.condom

"La guerra del hummus" enfrenta a Israel y Libano en un nuevo terreno: el gastronómico

Más de 300 cocineros libaneses consiguieron recuperar el récord Guiness por el plato de hummus más grande del mundo: 10.452 kilos. Más del doble que el que le había dado el título mundial a los israelíes en enero pasado.

El hummus es un plato que despierta pasiones y rivalidad en el Oriente Medio. Es una sencilla pasta a base de garbanzos, tahine (pasta de sésamo), jugo de limón y aceite de oliva, que muchos países se atribuyen como propia. Es así como, en un continente regado de conflictos bélicos, Líbano e Israel se disputan el título por el plato de hummus más grande del mundo en una escalada que los medios han denominado "La Guerra del Hummus".

En 8 de mayo pasado, 300 cocineros libaneses dieron el último golpe en esta guerra culinaria, devolviendo a su país el record Guiness por el plato de hummus más grande del mundo. El plato ganador pesó 10.452 kilos. De acuerdo a la prensa local, la receta incluyó 8 toneladas de garbanzos, 2 toneladas de tahine, 2 toneladas de jugo de limón y 70 kilográmos de aceite de oliva.

Este plato pesó más del doble que aquel que le dio el título mundial a los israelíes en enero de este año. El inversor detrás de ese logro fue el millonario israelí-árabe Jawdat Ibrahim, dueño de restaurantes que ganó la lotería estadounidense y decidió invertir en este esfuerzo declarando que "la competencia es saludable".

A falta de un mejor recipiente, los israelíes volcaron la preparación en una antena parabólica prestada por un canal de televisión vecino al pueblo de Abu Ghosh, a las afueras de Jerusalén, donde se concretó la hazaña. En tanto, los libaneses fabricaron especialmente para la ocasión un recipiente gigante que a su vez rompió el record del plato de cerámica más grande del mundo.

De acuerdo al periodista israelí Shooky Galili, escritor de un blog especializado en hummus, "esta 'guerra del hummus' es definitivamente una de las guerras más agradables que tenemos en la región. Esperemos que nuestras próximas guerras sean del mismo estilo".

Publicado en Clarín Digital, el 17/5/2010

http://www.clarin.com/diario/2010/05/17/um/m-02196679.htm

Tel Aviv, January 2010

"At the same time, I shared a dark suspicion that the life we were leading was a lost cause, that we were all actors, kidding ourselves along on a senseless odyssey. It was the tension between these two poles – a restless idealism on one hand and a sense of impending doom on the other – that kept me going." Hunter S. Thompson, The Rum Diary (1998)

Modern Romance

"don't hold on, go get strong, well don't you know? there is no modern romance."

This song has been the soundtrack of my walks around the city lately. Spring is coming, romance blooms, couples hold hands walking along the lake and I feel a bit like Bridget Jones. I have claimed lately that I will never love again, that romance seems disgusting, that I don't buy love and romance and etc. I have found myself annoyed by people who have been rubbing their "eternal, unconditional love" in my face (and ears).

And I quoted this song again, because this is how I felt. But I didn't give much thought to these words until someone pointed out to me: "but there is modern romance".

I denied what he said but soon realized that my arguments were a mere product of my frustration. And then he quoted Rilke: "It is also good to love: because love is difficult. For one human being to love another human being: that is perhaps the most difficult task that has been entrusted to us, the ultimate task, the final test and proof, the work which all other work is merely preparation"

With these words I remembered something that I had forgotten. While all this time I am being bitter and rejecting those who want to show the world how much they love each other, I am forgetting something very important. With another failure I gained something. I took a step further into this ultimate task of learning how to love someone else, how to build something real with someone else. How to be myself with someone, instead of merging and smothering each other and calling it love.

And then, more words of wisdom from Rilke: "Loving does not at first mean merging, surrendering, and uniting with another person (for what would a union be of two people who are unclarified, unfinished, and still incoherent?), it is a high inducement for the individual to ripen, to become something in himself, to become world, to become world in himself for the sake of another person; it is a great, demanding claim on him, something that chooses him and calls him to vast distances. Only in this sense, as the task of working on themselves ("to hearken and to hammer day and night"), may young people use the love that is given to them. Merging and surrendering and every kind of communion is not for them (who must still, for a long, long time, save and gather themselves); it is the ultimate, is perhaps that for which human lives are as yet barely large enough."

I remember now what should have been obvious for many months already. And I remember too that if there is something that I like more than the song "Modern Romance", it is the hidden track after it, that says:

Baby I'm afraid of a lot of things
But
I ain't scared of lovin' you
Baby I know your afraid of a lot of things
But
Don't be scared of love

Cause
People will say all kinds of thing
That don't mean a damn to me
Cause all I see
Is whats in front of me
And that's you

Well, I've been dragged all over the place
I've taken hits time just don't erase
And baby i can see you've been fucked with too
But that don't mean your lovin' days are through

Cause people will say all kinds of things
That don't mean a damn to me
Cause all I see
Is whats in front of me
And that's you

Well I maybe just be a fool
But I know you're just as cool
And cool kids
They belong together


No further comments.

Je suis venu te dire que je m'en vais

Scene for the screenplay that I will write someday:

Music for the scene:

A woman is standing in a living room. The sun comes in through a large window, the lights are off. She puts on a long black coat. Close up to her face. A tear falls down her cheek, and she wipes it off with her hand. She walks to a table with an old record player on top. Close up to the needle of the player hitting the record that reads "Serge Gainsbourg, Je suis venu te dire que je m'en vais". She walks to the door, where there is a bag and her purse. She takes both and walks out the door.

Close up of the record turning as the song plays.

A door opens and closes. A man stands next to the table with the old record player. He follows the motion of the record as the song repeats itself over and over again. Close up to his face. A tear falls down his cheek and he wipes it off with his hand.

As the song plays, zoom it to the man's face, while the woman whispers in his ear "I just came to tell you that I'm going, and all your tears won't change anything"

End of Scene.

In the middle of the lake

While they were on the phone, the song "Meet me at the lookout point" by Devendra Banhart was playing in the back.

-We should meet in the middle
-Of the Lake?
-Yes
-Should we swim?
-Yes, why not? Meet me at noon.

It was noon and they swam to the middle of the lake.

The tango song "Como dos extraños" was playing in the back. The first reason for this was that a tango song will likely play in the back when there is an Argentinian involved in an encounter. The second reason for this was that he insisted that she had been absent for so long that maybe he had forgotten what she looked like, and other details about her. Also, the lyrics of this song fitted the scene.

The water was cold, because it was the middle of the winter, but they were both smart enough to wear neoprene suits and gloves.

She had a hard time recognizing him in this circumstance, for she had only seen him wearing a suit and looking serious in the corner of the room. He told her she looked stupid, and laughed at her. But she was starting to understand that he needed to tell her all these things.

-We should get out of the lake and walk around rive droite, because rive gauche is too bourgeois- he said.

She gave him a flirtatious look.

-You are a flirtatious freak- he said, serious.

The song playing now was "You've been flirting again" by Bjork. For obvious reasons.

-I cannot help it - she fought back. She did not like having to explain herself all the time.

Many tourists were walking along the lake like them, and a storm was building up quickly.

-I never said I was deep - she told him - but I am profoundly shallow - she added.

It started to rain.

Everyone ran for cover except for them. The song "Heavy Weather" by Jarvis Cocker was now playing. They both burst into song. No one payed any attention, because it was Geneva, after all, and it was raining.

On how the Dead Sea died and other thoughts

"Converting to Islam is too easy" she thought, while floating in that large mass of water without any explanation. Without any explanation because the one she was given before, including moving mountains and molecules and minerals did not really explain why she would float. And it was just better to assume that it was magic that made her float like a rubber duck in a little kid's tub."If only so many things were as easy as converting to Islam, but now again, here I am, floating in water, like nothing, juste comme ça". She looked at the mountains and focused,narrowing her eyes, imagining what was laying beyond the mountains, in Jordanian territory. "How many must have repeated three times 'there is no God except Allah, Muhammad is messenger of Allah'? Is there a membership card?"
There was no one else there. She could not ask.But then again, she had no real interest in knowing, as her attention came back to the fact that the sea, the Dead Sea, was lifting her up. "Rejecting me? Islam would never reject me, or would it? As long as I said that phrase three times... I better not repeat it, just in case, I would need to actually consider the implications of converting to Islam."