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Cultura del odio

Un mes ha pasado desde mi último post sobre la tremenda crisis que nos está asolando. En él intenté expresar mi frustración, pesadumbre, enfado y cabreo por las reacciones que estaba viendo a mi alrededor durante las primeras semanas del impacto de la pandemia en Europa. Parece mentira, pero tras este tiempo… me he quedado corto.

Muchas cosas han cambiado desde entonces, y muchas más (espero) cambiarán cuando un nuevo rumbo nos guíe a una nueva normalidad. Y es que yo así lo creo; no vamos a “volver” a como estábamos antes. Entraremos en un nuevo estadio al que llamaremos normal donde cosas clave van a modificar la forma en que nos relacionamos, socializamos, comunicamos y vivimos en una sociedad nueva.

Durante este mes me he dado cuenta de muchas más cosas de las que ya hablaba en mi primer post sobre la pandemia.

Política

Como ya había comentado, la política es la que ha “liado” aún más el problema. Puede que de aquí a unos años se hagan estudios socio-políticos sobre esta etapa y concluyan sobre las mismas premisas: en tiempos de pandemias la ciencia tiene que ser el gestor, no la política. En casos como el que estamos viviendo la política debe pasar a un segundo plano; así de claro y rotundo. No tiene sentido que el gobierno y gestión de una crisis donde los intereses económicos, políticos y derivados sean los que primen cada decisión. Puede que sea una idea utópica, pero en muchos países nos hubiera ido mejor si toda decisión de estado hubiera recaído en la representación de un organismo científico global (al menos europeo si hablamos en esta región) y el gobierno de turno se limitara a la operativa del cumplimiento de esas decisiones. Por lo que he ido observando, muchas decisiones acertadas se hubieran tomado más rápidamente y muchas vidas se hubieran salvado.

Luego está el juego de siempre. La guerra entre gobierno – oposición donde todo vale y se usan victimas, argumentos, falsos bulos y cualquier cosa para lanzarlo al bando contrario sin importar la verdad o las consecuencias. Lo que importa en esa guerra es la ideología de cada bando. Me he dado cuenta que es la “sofisticación” de la guerra tradicional donde, en vez de disparar balas, se disparan consignas sin importar los daños colaterales… ¿es eso la política? ¿o es que se ha degradado a lo largo de los años a tal nivel que ya no se puede encontrar similitudes a lo que fue hace tiempo?

Sociedad

Creo que nadie puede dudar de la dualidad que hemos visto en este tiempo. Por un lado están los que se toman la situación desde un punto de vista racional e intentan sobrellevarlo con información veraz e investigación. Por otro lado están los que utilizan el odio para intentar (no sé para qué motivo) desestabilizar el pensamiento colectivo y difundir sus ideas a través de un odio más propio de algo endémico que racional. Y en esto es lo que me centraba en mi anterior post. Esa gente que, por algún motivo que se me escapa (y puede que sea objetivo de alguna tesis futura), dejan de lado su raciocinio y anteponen su ideología por delante de cualquier cosa. Incluso vidas humanas o la propia ciencia. Y es que hay mucha gente que defendía la gestión de algunos países prominentes de Europa y al cabo de unas pocas semanas se ha visto (empírico) que se han convertido en primeras cabezas de países con más infectados y muertos del mundo.

¿A qué se debe esa corriente? ¿qué es lo que hace que una persona vuelque toda la culpa a la ideología contraria en algo que está por encima de eso? es como culpar a un gobierno por un terremoto o similar… Entiendo y creo que han habido errores en la gestión de muchos países; errores que han provocado muertes. Pero culpar, no por la gestión, si no por la ideología política me parece ciertamente de una falta de conocimiento y sentido común brutal. El odio como vía de transmisión apoyado por medias verdades y bulos en esta sociedad hiper-conectada, donde esta gente encuentra un campo abierto y sin limites.

Creo que esta será una de las grandes crisis que tendremos cuando esto pase: crisis social. Espero que de alguna manera, esa parte de la población haga un examen de conciencia más profundo y no cometa el error de usar ese pensamiento erróneo para dar poder a alguien que se aproveche de esta situación (me temo que así será).

Como decía Jiddu Krishnamurti: “No es saludable estar bien adaptado a una sociedad profundamente enferma“

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Ideología por encima de todo

España necesita mascarillas, respiradores y equipos para los sanitarios. Sin duda. Pero por encima de cualquier cosa, España necesita culpar a unos o a otros y crear opinión… opinión de mierda.

Lo digo así de duro y vehemente porque eso es lo que veo en España desde el comienzo de esta crisis, y cada día más. Una sociedad podrida donde más de uno se esta alegrando por lo que está pasando simplemente porque el gobierno ha gestionado y reaccionado fatal ante la crisis.

¡SEÑORES, HAY GENTE MURIENDO CADA MINUTO! Basta ya de pedir dimisiones, que si Venezuela, que si rojos… Miren a su alrededor. España no lo ha hecho ESPECTACULARMENTE peor ni ESPECTACULARMENTE mejor que cualquier otro país de su entorno. La distinción entre izquierdas y derechas no va a ser útil para separar a los que mejor y peor obraron durante la pandemia cuando esto pase.

Me da asco ver como gente está aprovechando lo que está pasando para reforzar sus ideologías políticas… ¡INCONSCIENTES! Sus ideas no importan NADA. Esto no es cosa de ideologías ni de banderas. Eso no va a curar a personas ni va a hacer que los contagios sigan produciéndose.

La catástrofe de gestión en España (y ojo, en otros países por igual) es por la incompetencia de los dirigentes, por no hacer caso de lo que estaba pasando en otros países y actuar por adelantado, por haber engañado a la gente desde el principio de la crisis, por intentar salvarse ellos antes que a la ciudadanía y no reconocer sus errores. Pero NO POR SER UN GOBIERNO DE IZQUIERDAS O DE DERECHAS. Las cosas serían muy parecidas si fueran de un lado político o del otro (ya se está viendo en países dispares). Llegará el momento de pasar factura a todos estos dirigentes, por supuesto. Pero no sean ingenuos, no sean cortos de miras.

Y luego hay gente que se pregunta por qué España no está en un escalón más alto en el concierto mundial. Pues por cuestiones como esta. Una sociedad de pandereta, dual absolutista de equipos de fútbol: o eres de derechas o de izquierdas, o eres franquista o eres comunista, o eres pro monárquico o republicano… da igual que la gente esté muriéndose y que COVID-19 sea la primera causa de muerte en España a día de hoy. Da igual mientras la ideología vaya por delante… Pues no, basta ya.

Ojalá esta crisis llegue a hacer que esto cambie en la sociedad española de una vez por todas (aunque visto lo visto… seguiremos en las mismas).

Basta ya, yo me bajo aquí…

Fuente: Cuando la ideología es más importante que la vida

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When the World stood still

“I am fearful when I see people substituting fear for reason.”

Klaatu – From the movie The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)

It is been almost a month since I thought to write about the topic the whole World is talking about. I thought to write about what was going on and how it was developing. However I quickly realized this was something different to other recent crisis and I started to see how people, normal people, respond and behave to it. And this catched me.

I consider myself a curious and analytic person. Someone who prefer to listen rather than talk and I was amazed (still I am) about all of this so I was listening, reading, watching what people was saying and how goverments have reacted to control and fight this.

The title of this post is inspired by the film The Day the Earth Stood Still. A sci-fi classic which also happens to be a cult movie and one of the best of its kind (I totally recomend to watch it). The quote is taken from the same film and I believe it sumarizes very well what I saw in the last weeks while SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) spread thought the whole World becoming a pandemic.

And it is true that fear and panic are the real enemy in crisis like this. They drive people’s decitions to be irrational and people’s acts to be the wrong ones. This is one of the things I am seeing in many people (as individuals) and countries (as comunity).

Individuals

Things look very different when happens far away from our comfort zone. Western countries were almost convince that the epidemic in China would be contained and erradicated there; one more asian epidimic similar to the ones at the begining of this milenia like the first SARS or MERS. But the truth is that it quickly developed to a mass spread; so quickly that we barely realized.

People then get shocked when they feel the danger is knoking the door, their security gets compromised and their leaders don’t do anything to protected them. In this scenario, it is natural to feel fear leading to panic. And panic in a society makes people to be selfish, think on their own safety and survival. In essence, panic leads to the end of society. And we can see this when people start to do panic buying of essentials and food; even though this is irrational (suplies will still going through), people do it believing this is the right and safest thing to do.

Dis-information and fake news dramatically contributed to this scenario. In an era where we are all connected and the information is spreading even faster than a virus, false information can step in and influence people when they are more vulnerable.

Then comes the enforced measures needed to stop a pandemic like this. Those measures goes against the “engine” of a society which is social interaction; social contact, and this is something we are not used to. In some countries where this social isolation is enforced, I saw something similar to the Kübler-Ross stages of grief in people: first days of denial about what really is happening, then resignation and finally acceptance that these measures are key to stop the virus spread.

As today when I am writing this post, looks like most countries are struggling between resignation and acceptance. And seems the worst is yet to come within weeks or few months, so a big uncertenty is uppon us yet are we are still “learning”. But there is something we all need to have it clear: this will end, and sooner if we are smart.

Communities

During the pandemic I have seen different aproaches to tackle and fight the spreading in many countries. Funny enough only one seems to be working (at least up to this moment) but not all the countries seems to follow it. Why is that? Sadly the answer is the usual suspect: politics. In some countries seems that secure a re-election, the need to remain in the power and destroy the opposition come before anything else; even health. I know it is unbeleable (I still don’t believe it while I am writing), but it is true. These governments have reacted in a wrong way even knowing it (!!) and when the things got worst, they had not other choice than change the approach to the only one that is working…

In crisis is when you can see the real face of people and real intentions of leaders and governments. If there is something good from all of this, I believe it is that we have seen the real face of a lot of people, institutions, companies and governments. And when all of this ends (and it will) I hope we will not forget and make whaever is neccesary to change.

An underlying problem is developing along with the pandemic, and it is an accute global recession. To be honest, at the beginning I thought I would see more news talking about economy and more measures would be taken around it. I think we are living in a financial system that is highly unsustainable and in a society totally driven by rotten money, so I though governments would be reacting to economy first. Luckly seems it is not the case (at least one good thing) and health is being considered first as it should be.

Clearly 2020 will be a year to be remembered forever by our generation. Trully the World stays still. This is one crisis that have not been something similar since World War II where we are all being tested; as individuals, as society and as leaders. We are leading to an unprecedented uncertainty not knowing how we will be in just a couple of months. But there is something sure: we will overcome this together and this is the right time to really CHANGE the things that are not working. Be better, smarter, cautious with the environment and restructure the society to prioritize the health sector and science research over others.

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Apollo 11 – The Big Leap

Launch date: July 16, 1969
Landing date: July 24, 1969

And the day has come. History is watching. The effort of hundred thousands of people and the dreams of other millions rest on one single mission, on three man.

On July 20, 1969, an ancient dream was about to be fulfilled as Commander Neil Armstrong and his right-hand man, Buzz Aldrin, descended towards the first manned touchdown on the Moon. Beginning at about 35,000 feet (10,670 m) above the surface, a series of alarming warning on Eagle’s computer set everyone on edge…

“Program alarm”, said Armstrong. “1202”.

At mission control in Houston, a 26-year-old Steve Bales was sitting at the Guidance console, monitoring Eagle’s systems via remote telemetry. Another code, 1201, also came out. “What’s a 1201?”, the senior flight controller asked. Bales needed a few seconds to think, but Eagle’s crew needed an immediate answer. Should they abort the landing? Bales had not time left for thinking. Making the bravest decision of his life, he spoke into his headset for all mission controllers to hear. “We’re ‘Go’ on the alarm”. This meant, astronauts to carry on with their descent. Then Eagle started its way to the surface. Bales had recalled similar alarms showing up during one of the many trainings simulations, and he thought that it was not a threat to the mission.

Just as Bales was recovering, Charlie Duke, CapCom at that moment, radioed a warning up to Eagle’s crew. “You only have 60 seconds-worth of fuel remaining”. Unsure whether the astronauts had got the message, he called out another warning. “Thirty seconds”. Chief astronaut Deke Slayton, standing behind Duke, said softly to him, “Shut up, Charlie, and let ’em land”.

With less than a hundred feet remaining before touchdown, Eagle apparently was pitching forward at a very steep angle and skimming over the ground at 30 miles (48 km) per hour. Had the astronauts lost control of their ship?

At last, Aldrin radioed, “Contact light. Mode control to auto. Engine arm off”. Those were the first words spoken by a human on another world. Sadly for Aldrin, we prefer to remember Armstrong’s words a few moments later. “Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed”.

A fascinating reply from Duke seems not to have been much remarked on at the time. “Roger, Tranquility, we copy you on the ground. You got a bunch of guys about to turn blue. We’re breathing again. Thanks a lot”.

Later Armstrong explained what happened on those last seconds before touchdown. The Eagle’s guidance computer was taking them right into a crater with a large number of holes and rocks. He had to manually nudge Eagle forward to hover a few feet over the surface until he could find a safe place to land.

But what really made this safe landing was something more genius: the 1201/1202 sequence alarms. This was the “kill and recompute from a safe place” restart approach of the revolutionary software running in the Eagle’s guidance computer. Just seconds before the alarms triggered, the computer was overloaded with interrupts caused by incorrectly phased power supplied to the lander’s rendezvous radar. These 1201/1202 alarms indicated “executive overflows”, meaning the guidance computer could not complete all of its tasks in real time and had to postpone some of them.

The priority alarm displays interrupted the astronauts’ normal displays to warn them that there was an emergency “giving the astronauts a go/no go decision (to land or not to land)”. Steve Bales knew the astronauts were seeing these alarms and that is why he shouted the GO to land. This might sound obvious nowadays, but back on 1969 the software development was at its earliest stages and to create a code smart enough to recognize which tasks are more critical than others, reorder them and execute them was nearly science fiction.

The brain behind this was a 33-year-old woman Margaret Hamilton; pioneer in software engineering (a term which was coined by her) and her work is a fundamental part to understand how software is develop today. She and other women that time were key in programming. Another example was Grace Hopper, inventor of COBOL programming language, US Navy rear admiral and also remembered by coining the term debug after finding out that one of her lab’s computer was malfunctioning because a moth.

Margaret Hamilton standing next to listings of the software she and her team produced for the Apollo project

Hamilton later wrote of the incident with the landing of Apollo 11 and describes perfectly the importance of her software:

The computer (or rather the software in it) was smart enough to recognize that it was being asked to perform more tasks than it should be performing. It then sent out an alarm, which meant to the astronaut, ‘I’m overloaded with more tasks than I should be doing at this time and I’m going to keep only the more important tasks’; i.e., the ones needed for landing … Actually, the computer was programmed to do more than recognize error conditions. A complete set of recovery programs was incorporated into the software. The software’s action, in this case, was to eliminate lower priority tasks and re-establish the more important ones … If the computer hadn’t recognized this problem and taken recovery action, I doubt if Apollo 11 would have been the successful moon landing it was.

Margaret Hamilton

Armstrong and Aldrin tried to rest, but they were too keyed up to sleep. After two hours of preparations for the EVA, the Eagle was depressurized, hatch opened and Armstrong began his descent to the lunar surface. Once he jumped into the surface, the whole world heard his words:

That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind

19 minutes later it was the turn of Aldrin to step out of the Eagle. His first impression was to take a picture of his first step in the Moon; the bootprint picture we all remember. Both astronauts began the multiple surface operations: mount the TV cameras, collect soil and rock samples, experimental walkthrough the surface, deploy seismic experiment device to measure moonquakes and a retroreflector used for the Laser Ranging experiment to measure the exact distance between Moon and Earth for the first time.

After 21 and a half hours, the Eagle lifted off lunar surface to rejoin Collins onboard of the Columbia module in lunar orbit and being the journey back to Earth. Apollo 11 splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on 24 July 1969 at 16:50:35 UTC at 400 miles of Wake Island and 24 km (15 mi) from the recovery ship USS Hornet. The performance of the spacecraft was excellent throughout the mission. The primary mission goal of landing astronauts on the Moon and returning them to Earth was achieved. Armstrong was a civilian on his second spaceflight (he’d previously flown on Gemini 8), Aldrin was a USAF Colonel on his second spaceflight (Gemini 12), Collins was a USAF Lt. Colonel also on his second flight (Gemini 10).

Finally the ancient dream was accomplished. The primary goal of the Gemini and Apollo projects was achieved flawlessly and within deadlines. The immense hard work of thousand of men and women was finally recognized and inserted in a memorable place in human history. The legacy of this shows what humans can achieve if we really focus. When the society falls to its darkest stage or we only see horrendous actions, examples like this must be present with all of us and poke our lives; continue growing as species and look up to these bright moments which are the ones pushing us forward.

But this must be just the beginning. We need to set our next goal to push further our boundaries, our next giant leap. Is it Mars? is it Titan? Predictions says it would be the red planet but we must go back to the Moon first. There is much more to discover and study over there to understand the early stages of our planet and solar system. I believe humans will need to leave Earth and make a new home on another planet. In the next 100 years we will embark in our greatest ever adventure and a stablished crew on the Moon will be the real first step: our destiny is in the stars.

Neil A. Armstrong – Michael Collins – Edwin “Buzz” E. Aldrin Jr.

Crew

POSITIONASTRONAUT
ComanderNeil A. Armstrong
Command Module PilotMichael Collins
Lunar Module PilotEdwin “Buzz” E. Aldrin Jr.

Mission Insignia

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Apollo 10 – The Dressed Rehearsal

Launch date: May 18, 1969
Landing date: May 26, 1969

Apollo 10 was the second crewed mission (after Apollo 8) to orbit the Moon and the first to travel to the Moon with the full Apollo spacecraft: Command and Lunar Modules.

The primary objectives of the mission were to demonstrate crew, space vehicle, and mission support facilities during a manned lunar mission and to evaluate the Lunar Module during lunar environment. The mission was the last one to carry out the crucial series of tests before attending the first Moon landing; in fact it was a full “dry run” for the Apollo 11 mission, in which all operations except the actual lunar landing were performed.

Apollo 10 took off on May 18, 1969, heading to the Moon. Tom Stafford and John Young took their Lunar Module, called Snoopy, to within 10 miles (16 km) of a touchdown, but there was never any intention of “going all the way” during this mission. NASA needed to be sure that the different stages between the CM and LM could be conducted safely above the lunar surface, just in case some kind of an emergency occurred during a descent.

Watching through the windows of Command Module, called Charlie Brown, John Young watched Snoopy glittering in the sunlight 80 miles (130 km) below him. When the time came for Snoopy’s ascent stage to make the climb back to Charlie Brown’s orbital altitude, the guidance computer experienced momentary confusion. The down-facing radas was processing data about lunar surface, while the up-facing radas was looking for Charlie Brown. A mispositioned switch caused two conflicting computer routines to run simultaneously. Snoopy became crazy, bucking and spinning, literally not sure whether it was trying to get away from the Moon or drop down toward it. Luckily Cernan and Stafford regained control and the computer was stabilised. Cernan said afterward, “I saw the lunar horizon go by about seven or eight times in 10 seconds, and that’s a hair-raising experience.”

To mention something curious, back on 2016 mission Apollo 10 was on the news again because new radio conversations on the mission were declassified and a TV show broadcasted in Discovery News suggested that the crew witnessed mysterious or alien signal while they were on the far side of the Moon. Far for being true, this music were actually radio interferences between the CM and LM.

On May 26 the spaceship returned to Earth setting a Guinness World Record for the highest speed attained by a manned vehicle (39,897 km/h) and splashed down in the Pacific ocean at 400 miles east of American Samoa.

After this mission, all was set, tested and calibrated for the Great Leap in the next mission. Alea iacta est!

Eugene A. Cernan – John W. Young – Thomas P. Stafford

Crew

POSITIONASTRONAUT
ComanderThomas P. Stafford
Command Module PilotJohn W. Young
Lunar Module PilotEugene A. Cernan

Mission Insignia

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Unveil or Show-biz?

Sometimes it is hard to know the truth or have a strong opinion when the facts are either hidden from vast public, involves a massive social controversy or there are strong reasons from any of the parts involved to get some kind of profit.

I feel like this since early this week when I watched the controversy HBO’s documentary Leaving Neverland. It tells the confessions and experiences of two men that were supposedly sexually abused as children by Michael Jackson. It is a 4 hour documentary (split in two parts) with very hard moments and, in my opinion, leaves in you a lot of questions and a duality almost impossible to clarify.

Like many people around the globe, I consider Michael Jackson as one of the pillars in music history; one of the greatest in all time and probably the most prominent musician who changed the music business we know today. He was on top since he was a child till his dead and he influenced all the generations from grandchildren to grandparents. Since I was a child (exactly the same age as these two man in the documentary) I was hooked by his music, impossible dances and shows. Anyway, I am not saying something new… this was the same for almost everyone.

In my opinion there is no such big popular icon like him nowadays. This might be one of the reasons why very young people cannot understand this story, M.J.’s live and what I am trying to say.

If you watch the documentary blindly, it is like to throw a bucket of cold water over your head. The truth is that back in the 90’s and early 21st. century decade the world got shocked by the allegations against M.J. for sexual abuse to children. We all remember the news and the images on court. Although he was sentenced not guilty in both occasions, this hugely damaged his image and the world split in two since then: (a) people who support his innocence and that these allegations were part of a plot to get money, and (b) people believing he was a pederast monster behind a genius.

What is the real truth here? Was Michael Jackson a real monster destroying children and their families with his sickness or this is a new attempt from people to make money and profit from the greatest icon in modern history? After watching the documentary, most of the people would say: “Well, where there’s smoke…there’s fire” and I understand it. But I do not have a clear opinion. The moments that I was trying to see if all of this was true, I asked myself: “If this is true… what is wrong with the World then? How did we allow it to happen?”. But these things only can be cleared with M.J., and he is dead; meaning he cannot defend himself or be questioned anymore.

What will remain as unquestionable would be his music legacy and his legendary history. His “star” as a person however, it is something that will be questioned forever.

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Apollo 9 – Testing Lunar Module

Launch date: March 3, 1969
Landing date: March 13, 1969

This year we will celebrate the 50 years anniversary of the first human walking on our Moon. In my opinion, this is the pinnacle of human exploration so far and I would like to contribute to the celebrations with a series of posts talking about the Apollo missions on that year 1969.

The first one was Apollo 9 mission. The second and last Earth orbiting mission (not reaching the Moon) and the first crewed Lunar Module (LM) test.

The primary objective of the mission was to test all aspects of the LM in Earth orbit, including operation of the LM as an independent self-sufficient spacecraft and performance of docking manoeuvres. Basically the goal was to simulate an actual lunar mission. The mission will also test what might happen if, for some reason, a command module and landing module could not redock at the end of lunar operations: could astronauts bridge the gulf by making an emergency spacewalk?

The docking and rendezvous simulations between the LM and command module were successful giving a huge amount of data for the next mission Apollo 10; in which these manoeuvres were planned to be done in Moon orbit. The tests on spacesuits and spacewalks (EVA) were determinant for future missions and gave us amazing pictures (photo1, photo2).

One anecdote of this mission was on March 6. While the vehicles were docked, Schweickart crawled out of the LM front hatch but his ambitious schedules was simplified at the last moment because of a nasty attack of motion sickness he suffered a few hours earlier! Instead they spend most of the time taking pictures. Luckily Schweickart recovered his equilibrium in time for six-hour solo performance the following day, successfully carrying out almost all the planned tasks for a lunar touchdown.

On March 13, Apollo 9 splashed down in the Atlantic ocean 180 miles east of Bahamas.

To sum-up, the mission proved the Lunar Module worthy for crewed spaceflight and ran the latest tests for the ultimate goal of landing on the Moon.

James A. McDivitt – David R. Scott – Russell L. Schweickart

Crew

Mission Insignia

POSITIONASTRONAUT
ComanderJames A. McDivitt
Command Module PilotDavid R. Scott
Lunar Module PilotRussell L. Schweickart
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Demons exists

I have to be honest here. In the last two days I’ve been feeling quite down and morally sick due to the recent news.

Firstly, the horror shocked the world once again. This time the macabre lottery fell in New Zealand when a human (not a person) killed 50 people shooting them. Sadly this kind of horrific events have been relatively common recently and I know that some people would say “this is not new, this has been happening always; even worst in the past”. But I would reply: “Ok, but is this less serious then? are we comparing killing number of people now?”. When something like this happens I can hear people trying to normalize what it is absolutely not normal; trying to show a perspective that is sick and cold, not thinking and respecting who really suffer this: the victims.

There is something new this time: the shooting was planned to be live-streamed and make it viral. Never happened before. Leaving aside the problematic of how things like this can be stopped and blocked (which is a good conversation of the technology side), the fact is that the video went viral showing publicly the failure of Facebook to detect this kind of videos (the New Zealand police were the one to notify Facebook that a massacre was being streamed live in their platform).

I watched the video; unfortunately. I could see how horrible this was and how someone can calmly do something like this. Also I could see that there is no ideological reason, no manifesto, no social culture or religion can someone lead to this. The news said he is a supremacist, he is anti-islamist, etc., but the reality is that he wanted to kill. That is all. Do not get fooled by people, media, institutions saying that his motivations were this or that… The only real motivation was to kill; no matter who was the victim.

Secondly, another act of horror happened. This was in Spain where a young couple killed their two little kids (3 years and 6 months). How on Earth a mother and a father can kill their own children? Similar to the first event above, in the news appeared multiple reasons why they did this: they are under psychiatric treatment, they are drug addicts, etc. Again, another attempt to normalize the fact that it is anti-natura. Specially when is about killing a child, I do strongly believe there is absolutely no redemption with someone who does this. In my opinion, these humans should not be allowed to live.

I saw and felt the dark side of human race these last days. It is a painful feeling indeed, but nothing compared to what the poor victims of these acts have felt; I cannot imagine it… We must not try to normalize these acts. This is really wrong and we must do something to stop it. This is what is really important and must be first priority to everyone who works for the society (politicians) and not Brexit, elections, economy, etc.

It is very sad to think that in a week from now (and probably less time) these two acts will be forgotten in the news and political debates.

Note: I regret watching the shooting live video. Although it made me to realized the crudity of it, it should never happen. I think of all the victims, their families and friends.

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First Man

Although it’s been several months since it was released and it’s been few weeks since I watch it, I want to make a post talking about this great movie.

This year we will celebrate the 50 years anniversary of the first human walking on our Moon. In my opinion, the pinnacle of human exploration and achievement as I already talked about last year. It will come several posts about this during the year so, I am sorry for the ones who are bored about it!

To the point… the movie First Man is the Hollywood biopic of Neil Armstrong focused from the years he was part of the Gemini and Apollo projects until the end of Apollo 11 mission. Since years I was waiting to watch a biopic about Neil Armstrong (since I was a little child in love with the space exploration) and finally it arrived!

The movie is great, very well done and it gets you since the first scene (amazing start inside a X-15 experimental aircraft) until the last one. The movie has fast-faced scenes and recreates perfectly all scenery (reason why it is nominated to 4 Oscar awards, one of them to Best Visual Effects) and it is also very personal. And I think this is the reason why it did not have a massive welcome and great reviews from people.

The director (Damien Chazelle) and writer (Josh Singer), instead of making an Oscar-winner blockbuster epic story, they decided to focus the movie in the person rather than in the myth. I have to admit that I was also waiting for a more epic movie, but I love the way they made it. We all know the feat, the history and the hero of this; but most of the people do not know the man behind. An extraordinary performance of Ryan Gosling in the role of Neil Armstrong, share with us the pain and frustrations of a man watching his little daughter die of cancer and starting a grief, mourning and healing process through his career to become the first man to walk on the Moon.

I think it is an extraordinary movie, one of those that will get more value throughout time, and it does justice to the man who pushes all of us further in our goals.

At least there is something that everyone is agree with this movie (and getting several awards): the soundtrack. It is one of the best I have hear in many years. Justin Hurwitz has done an amazing job here; beautiful themes and great instruments such as the theremin! Awesome.

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Más vale tarde que nunca

Sinceramente el día de hoy lo he sentido como un día de celebración social. Uno de esos que, por desgracia, van quedando cada vez menos.

Eran eso de la una de la tarde. Yo en la oficina estaba entre planificaciones y tareas cuando el hambre empezaba a llamarme. Antes de ir a comer, he decido ver rápidamente las noticias y me encontré con que el gobierno español ha aprobado la exhumación del dictador Franco. Finalmente; y ya iba siendo hora…

Hace unas semanas ya expuse mis ideas sobre esta controversia en el primer post de este blog. Realmente la noticia parece de otro tiempo; de un momento que creíamos ya pasado y cerrado. Pero no es así, no. Nos hemos creído que todo lo relacionado con el fin del franquismo y la memoria histórica ya fue hablado, discutido, acordado y cerrado. Pero realmente es algo fabricado para que lo asumamos como algo cerrado; y a otra cosa mariposa.

Comparar esto con otros hechos similares en Europa, como en Alemania o Italia, en cierta medida no es tan válido. El fin del franquismo ocurrió tras 40 años de poder perpetuo tras una dura guerra civil; no vino tras perder una guerra mundial y con la intervención de grandes potencias internacionales. Esto hizo que el cambio hacia la democracia fuera algo complejo, largo y en una sociedad todavía dividida. Con ello, el hecho que se decidiese enterrar al dictador en un mausoleo dedicado a los caídos por la guerra civil (Franco no lo fue) no se vio como una burla o escándalo por aquel entonces. Y los artífices de la Transición decidieron que había otras cosas más importantes que abordar; cosa que comparto. Pero desde el primer gobierno democrático del ’77 hasta hace unas horas nadie se ha atrevido a tocar este hecho… Y esto me parece lamentable en un país Europeo y democrático como España.

Ahora entiendo por qué los defensores de Franco, de la dictadura, del fascismo y su locura han campado a sus anchas por España desde entonces. Se han encontrado con un terreno llano y, para colmo, con privilegios (¿cómo se permite la existencia de una fundación que defiende los valores de Franco y el franquismo?).

España tuvo una gran oportunidad de cerrar un hecho muy oscuro de su historia y no supo hacerlo bien. Y digo cerrar, no olvidar; que ya veo gente decir que “están intentando borrar la historia” o que “Sanchez quiere reescribir los libros de historia”. No es lo mismo cerrar un hecho infame que olvidarlo. Y realmente creo que nunca se va a olvidar.

Alabo al cien por cien esta noticia y la decisión del gobierno de España. Creo que es un avance hacia la mejora de la sociedad española, poder hacer justicia poniendo en su sitio a la figura de Franco y eliminar otro lugar de peregrinaje para los que defienden el fascismo, la violencia y el totalitarismo. Ya es hora de limpiar la carcoma.

Ah! y si. Por si os preguntabais, hoy he comido feliz.

Fuente: El País Digital

 

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