A simple question

SUPER

We The People, Democrats, Republicans, Libertarian, Expats, Argentineans, Americans, Observers from different countries living in Buenos Aires are joining on:

5th of February, 8pm to whenevah,
at TAZZ in Palermo, Armenia 1744,

to watch all the American election returns on the big screen with a slingbox hookup to a US television station.

We The People, have got the whole 3rd floor (2° piso) complete with elevator all to ourselves because of the tremendous efforts of the good people at:

No cover. No minimum. Cash bar. Cash menu

We The People, also thank the network and idea of inviting everybody, regardless the political or nationality backgrounds from:

LET´S MAKE HISTORY TOGETHER, COME!

Nos Los Representantes del Pueblo, Demócratas, Republicanos, Libertarianos, Expats, Argentinos, Americanos, Observadores de distintos países, nos reunimos el:

5 de Febrero, desde las 8pm hasta la hora que sea,
en TAZZ de Palermo, Armenia 1744,

para seguir los resultados de las elecciones americanas en una superpantalla conectada a un slingbox a una estación de TV yanqui.

Nos Los Representantes del Pueblo, tenemos el 2° piso entero (hasta con ascensor) exclusivamente para la reunión, gracias a la gestión de:

Sin pagar entrada. Sin consumisión mínima.
Vos elegís lo que quieras del bar y del menú.

Nos Los Representantes del Pueblo, agradecemos también a la red de gente y la idea de invitar a todos, sin distinción de partidos o nacionalidades de:

HAGAMOS HISTORIA JUNTOS, VENITE!

The hare and the farm factories

-Negrita, look who was digging under the wind mill!

-Is that a peludito? I´ve seen a peludo mother franticly looking for him yesterday near the road. Wait here I have to find her and tell her - said the cow

-He doesn´t stay still. And he has big claws. Why don´t you instead ask Mr. Hare? You know I can´t talk to him.

-You´re right 99, he runs faster than anybody. Hey! wait a minute... there he goes... are you sure you can´t talk to him? He seemed to understood every word you said and is not wasting a moment... as usual... look, he´s already passing the barn´s curve...

-I never tried.

-Anyway, he seems to like emergencies. He´s always running for something. Can you handle the peludito?

-Kind of... By the way, I saw you this morning with your friends in a sort of cow meeting. Is something happening?
-Well, we meet every once in a while to discuss stuff. This morning we gathered to discuss factory farming.

-You mean those places that treat farm animals as mere factory parts? They are disgusting. I distrust the kind of humans that think that the ends justify the means.

-We just see them as people who believe that the moral worth of an action is determined by its outcome. We don´t blame them, they are stupid.
-You don´t? Feedlot animals are subjected to torture and cruelty of all kinds. Feedlots have come under criticism even by us for human health reasons. It´s not only the degrading treatments.

-Yeah, I know. We weren´t made for corn and grain diets. Here for example as grass-fed cattle we have far less saturated fat. I like to keep track of my omega 3 fatty acids. Good tissues make you happier. Actually, me and my friends were discussing happiness at the meeting.

-Wow! Tell me more.

-Today´s topic of conversation was the right to freedom of movement and residence.
-Most of us humans have those rights granted by some Constitución. Some go further and believe in the Pursuit of Happiness. What else?

-We believe we have rights to Five Freedoms:

freedom from hunger and thirst
freedom from discomfort
freedom from pain, injury or disease
freedom to express normal behavior
freedom from fear and distress

-Well, you don´t get any of those at the feedlots. At least not in the ones that I´ve seen. I can´t understand why you don´t even blame them for thinking that the rightness of an action is determined by its consequences?

-In those places they often justify harm to one individual by a greater gain to other individuals and humans naturally tend to be self-interested.

-You don´t?

-When faced with a choice, we first consider the rightness of the potential actions, and then we choose to do what we believe will generate the most happiness for every single individual.
-Not for the herd...? I never thought you were individualistic. I thought your first will was to preserve the herd.

-No. The herd is happy if all the individuals are happy. And I mean all, even the ones that don´t look like us, like the peludito. A great loss to one individual like the peludo mother should not be outweighed by small gains for many.-So Negrita, tell me, do all animals think like that everywhere?
-I don´t know. But here, we do. See, if Mr. Hare didn´t think that way he wouldn´t have run to help.
-You mean it´s not just you, the cows? The hares too?
-Everybody in this farm thinks like that. Even you.

-... I thought I only had environmental concerns...

A bird landed near us and we stopped our conversation. It was a big Martineta bringing good news. The worried mother had been informed and was coming for her baby as fast as her short legs could take her.

I left the little rebel on the ground near the bird and the cow. I knew they were going to take good care of him. I whispered namasté, the three of them answered back and I left.

I had a lot of thinking to do.

The path / El sendero

by Paulo Coelho

How The Path Was Forged

One day, a calf needed to cross a virgin forest in order to return to its pasture. Being an irrational animal, it forged out a tortuous path full of bends, up and down hills.

The next day, a dog came by and used the same path to cross the forest. Next it was a sheep's turn, the head of a flock which, upon finding the opening, led its companions through it. Later, men began using the path: they entered and left, turned to the right, to the left, bent down, deviating obstacles, complaining and cursing - and quite rightly so. But they did nothing to create a different alternative.

After so much use, in the end, the path became a trail along which poor animals toiled under heavy loads, being forced to go three hours to cover a distance which would normally take thirty minutes, had no one chosen to follow the route opened up by the calf. Many years passed and the trail became the main road of a village, and later the main avenue of a town. Everyone complained about the traffic, because the route it took was the worst possible one.

Meanwhile, the old and wise forest laughed, at seeing how men tend to blindly follow the way already open, without ever asking whether it really is the best choice.

Cómo se forjó el sendero

Un día, un becerro necesitaba atravesar un bosque virgen para volver a su pastura. Como era un animal irracional, abrió un sendero tortuoso, lleno de curvas, subiendo y bajando colinas.

Al día siguiente, un perro que pasaba por allí usó ese mismo sendero para atravesar el bosque. Después fue el turno de una oveja, jefa de un rebaño, que viendo el espacio ya abierto hizo a sus compañeros seguir por allí. Más tarde, los hombres comenzaron a usar ese sendero: entraban por la izquierda, giraban a la derecha y a la izquierda, descendían, se desviaban de obstáculos, quejándose y maldiciendo, con toda razón. Pero no hacían nada para crear una nueva alternativa.

Después de tanto uso, el sendero acabó convertido en un amplio camino donde los pobres animales se cansaban bajo pesadas cargas, obligados a recorrer en tres horas una distancia que podría haber sido cubierta en treinta minutos si no hubieran seguido la vía abierta por el becerro. Pasaron muchos años y el camino se convirtió en la calle principal de un poblado y, finalmente, en la avenida principal de una ciudad. Todos se quejaban del tránsito, porque el trayecto era el peor posible.

Mientras tanto, el viejo y sabio bosque se reía, al ver que los hombres tienen la tendencia a seguir como ciegos el camino que ya está abierto, sin preguntarse nunca si esa es la mejor elección.

por Paulo Coelho

Go slow

I was daydreaming when the cow came carrying a rolled-up picture in her ear.
-Hi 99!
-Hi Negrita... uhmm... what´s that thing in your ear?
-Well, I don´t have any pockets, you know, I´m always naked. I need a favor from you. Said the cow
-Go ahead. Shoot.
-I want you to make this cake for some friends of mine that are leaving- she explained while unrolling the picture-I´m not much of a cook but I can try. What´s the occasion?
-I want to cheer them up because they´re closing the nearby tambo.
-Why are they doing so?
-Same old, same old. Dairy farms are not profitable any more so the owners are going for crops, said Negrita followed by an open nostrils sigh
-Do you think it´s for biodiesel?
-Who knows... I would tell them, if they ever listened to a cow, a good energy saving advice: to smile! It takes 65 muscles to tighten up your face and only 15 to smile. Humans can do it better than us and still prefer to waste calories in fuel. But as the Native Indian proverb says: it is not possible to wake up a person that pretends to be asleep.
-... I was just daydreaming... not sleeping..., I tried
-I didn´t mean you. You know how to deal with the Kairos.
-Do I? What do you mean Negrita?
-I mean you don´t go with Chronos you flow in the Kairos.
-Yeah, kairos moments alter destiny. Although some say that I´m just lazy. You mention it because I like to live slow?
-No, not because of that. I mean you Carpe Diem. I ´ve seen you, 99.

-Negrita, let me explain it to you. People are not satisfied to just engage in actions or behaviors but also need to believe that what they do is good. I believe enjoying is good. I also believe that the perfect moment is always coming at the precise corner, the right crossroad, when the stars line up. Before that moment it´s just counting endless minutes until the next year.
Remember the rabbit of Alice in Wonderland, so obsessed with the watch? I´ve been seeking kairos since I began to find time and space metaphors. Like that tale about the hunter and the lion...
-Sure 99, wasn´t it Italo Calvino?. That´s what I meant. Seize kairos!

-It´s healthy too. So that´s how cows feel about time?
-Cattlehood is a bit different in anatomical, physiological, and evolutionary terms but we seek the same. Mainly, the satisfaction of preferences. That´s why I want you to make me the cake.

-Everyday I know more about your ethics, Negrita. You focus on the rightness or wrongness of actions themselves, not the rightness or wrongness of the consequences of those actions, but don´t you think that flour and sugar might be a little indigestible for your friends?
-Oh no, no, no! Please make sure that you fill it with sorghum sprouts! Lots of them! and maybe some linen seeds if it´s not too much to ask. I want them to have fun, she urged me very excited
-Ok, I´ll try. See you later.
-Cook it slowly, they like it tender. Thanks 99 and Happy New Year.



buenos airesargentina

NIMBY, BANANA

I´ve come across a couple of acronyms I didn´t know before. Just in time. Because I didn´t know how to express my feelings in English for the imminent installation of the huge contaminant pulp mill just in front of my city.

My beloved Buenos Aires

The acronyms simply flew to me yesterday. In a lovely afternoon with some American friends and while talking under the sweet and thick breeze that gives the name to the city, I discovered "NIMBY".
Very much of a syntheses... although not enough...
I understand that NIMBY has been used in some radical non rational oppositions in the past

but picture this:

The Río de La Plata bathes my town (some people call it the Paris of South America) and the worldwide known beautiful Uruguayan beaches. We are all simple people living in both sides of a Sweet Sea (very accurate and original name for the river). In addition the Río de La Plata sits on one of the biggest water reservoirs of the world, the Guaraní Aquifer. No piranhas.

So, are there any ingredients for a recipe for a disaster? Yes:

1. Careless politicians.
2. Imported sharks.

The results? Pulp mills and their poisoning byproducts. Companies that don´t even dare installing these kind of kraft processes in their home countries anymore, that had even been condemned and evicted for doing so (ENCE) are here to shark out the region. (Pontevedra, Spain-video1-sp Pontevedra, Spain-video2-sp)

Then this morning I found the acronym "BANANA". Well, that says it all for me.

Build Absolutely Nothing like a pulp mill Anywhere Near Anyone

please take a few minutes to see the following video
(Spanish language with English subtitles)

Both Argentina and Uruguay are big leaders in the soccer (football/fútbol) leagues.

Maybe it´s time we play other game with the same passion.
Less banana-republics and more BANANA leaders

buenos airesargentina

ENCE

Hace varios meses me tomé el trabajo de investigar en Internet la información que deliberadamente se ocultaba a la opinión pública. En mi post del 27/Mayo/07 dibujé el mapa con los datos que encontré. Hoy se pone a la luz oficialmente que el 16/Enero/08 comienzan las obras.

Se puede leer bajo el título "Aval uruguayo para la instalación de ENCE en Colonia" -La Nación, 15/12/07- lo que en verdad se debería ser "Aval del gobierno uruguayo a la empresa ENCE para la construcción de una pastera frente a Buenos Aires".

Porteños, no lo tomemos a la ligera, la vamos a tener
frente a nuestras narices, literalmente.

Ence es una empresa española que ya fue condenada en su propio país, debiendo asumir la condena de 6 de sus directivos por delito ecológico, dos delitos continuados de daños y cuatro faltas contra las personas en relación con la actividad contaminante de sus factorías sólo en Pontevedra.

Y el daño no es reversible, vuelvo a publicar el mapa, saquen sus conclusiones...

Tato & Piazzolla

Tato Bores -&- Astor Piazzolla

The winds

There I was on a shiny morning trying to fix the wiring on top of the old windmill. Kinda difficult job to do without the right tools and one leg hanging out the ladder. I wasn´t doing much of a success and I decided to call the molinero.

- "Yeah 99, you got to bring the man in. That´s a work for a specialist", said Negrita
- "Hi there", I greeted the cow
- "Come down while he brings the parts. There´s still some water in the trough. We can wait together. I don´t have much to do anyway"

She´s always right so I stepped down trying to catch the signal on my cellphone. The molinero, is always ready to solve emergencies.

- "That was a hell of a Northern wind last night", she continued, "no wonder the windmill broke. It must have been spinning like a maniac. Did you check the pump pole and the vanes?"
- "Yeah, they´re ok"
-"Did you hear the neighbors are planting soy? They got rid of some of my friends to use the land for crops"
- "I saw it. What a pity"
- "They evicted some of my fellas like many other ranchers are doing...", she said and I sensed some sadness in her moos.
- "It´s not good soil for crops. It´s grassland, cattle heaven.", I said trying to show her my sympathy for her loss.
- "Actually with all the craziness for biodiesel and the prices of corn skyrocketing who could blame them? I remember tales that my mother told me about the times in which there weren´t even fences in these lands"
- "No fences?"
- "Yeah. Cows were free to look for the clovers anywhere they wanted. It was after the conquistadores brought them from Spain and let them reproduce wildly. Would you believe that my great great grandmother had horns? Not exactly a beauty", and she blinked at me in her Angus pride.
- "I didn´t know"
- "Well, the breeding came afterwards and we adapted to the Pampas environment. What are we facing now? Stock markets define ruminant territories and soy is King. Green deserts with no job for gauchos and no place for diversity. Do you realize that exporting grain is also a hidden way of exporting water?"

She left me speechless. But I felt I had to comfort her so I mumbled, "there´s always going to be grass for you here..."
- "Thanks, I know. Sorry, but when the Northern wind enters so powerful and careless my brain spins like the windmill and I can´t avoid seeing the big picture. I smell it. I can´t close my nostrils...", she said and belched. "Hey, there´s the molinero coming!"
- "I´ll take care Negrita, let´s see what he can do to fix the problem... see you later, chau"
- "Chau 99, namasté"

I met the molinero at the gate and he was smiling. Happy to know that the cows needed his services. There are not many of those calls lately and he´s thinking in moving to another town. Far West, where there is still some cattle.