A por todas

Hoy he decidido  escribir en Español.

Es esto una declaración? O que me he convencido de que no puedo más con el lenguaje de Shakespeare?.

El caso es que estoy un poco cansado de intentar recordar reglas gramáticales y tengo deseos de escribir. También me hace falta para no perder el hábito.

En estos días, además de reactivar mi cuenta en Twiter,  he dedicido a abrir una página web para vender mis servicios como periodista, productor, camarógrafo y editor, todo ello al mismo tiempo y producto de los conocimientos adquiridos en casi 20 años de ejercicio de la profesión.

Aparentemente es algo sencillo pero no tanto si vas a tener en cuenta todos los nuevos adelantos tecnologicos y el consiguiente nuevo vocabulario que hoy utilizan los entendidos en la materia. Crear tu web es del carajo.

Que pretendes vender? Como lo vas a hacer? Será interactiva o no? Cuántas paginas tendrá? Que no sea muy cargada. No copies lo que dicen otros. No pongas links a servicios que otros estén ofreciendo y puedan llevarse tus potenciales clientes, etc, etc, etc.

Pero nada, el mercado lo impone y yo, como buen profesional del siglo XXI con deseos de vivir de su profesión(valga la redundancia) y no hacer los trabajos que se nos han asignado como emigrantes, uso todas las herramientas que tengo a mano.

Cuántas veces he comenzado un blog o tratado de crear una pagina? Incontables.

Pero gracias a la tenacidad de mi esposa, el embullo de amigos y la necesidad imperiosa de “venderme como pan caliente”, aquí voy.

En el camino, de esta segunda etapa de mi vida, he experimentado con la construcción, limpieza, gastronomía y  educación. Todos estos trabajos me han rechazado, no estoy apto para ellos. No son deméritos, me han ensenado a valorarme más como ser humano, a probarme y a enriquecer mi background. No los desprecio, me han ayudado a poner comida en la mesa y a mantener a mi mejor contribución a este mundo, mi hijo.

Pero no me quieren, no por débil, si no por orgulloso.

Con esta web y el regreso a mi blog no pretendo comenzar a arremeter contra Cuba, una tendencia bien extendida entre colegas desperdigados por todo el mundo. Solo intentare acercarme de forma  diferente, lo mas desprejuicidada posible,  algunos temas. Así como poner mi intelecto en el mercado.

Intentare ser fiel a mi mismo, a mi particular forma de pensar moldeada por lo mejor y peor de mi querida Isla y de esta otra que me ha recibido, si bien no con los brazos abiertos, con una sonrisa a flor de labios.

Rockero que baila salsa, militante de “izquierda", ambientalista moderado; apasionado del gimnasio al que no le gusta jugar al fútbol y no posee habilidades para el  béisbol.  Como dice mi esposa, un cubano raro.

Como digo yo: Un Alien Cubano en Londres.

Es hora de limpiar la casa.

Ante todo voy a aclarar que yo no soy fanatico de la pelota. Cuando niño era malisimo, de adolescente malo y ahora ni se me ocurre jugar pese a tener un cuerpo cultivado con pesas y ejercicios desde los 9 años.

Tampoco soy cronista deportivo. Mis únicas incursiones en ese terreno fueron como estudiante durante las practicas de producción en el periódico Vanguardia, de Villa Clara, y en el diario, en aquel entonces, Trabajadores, durante los Juegos Olímpicos de Los Ángeles.

Pero vayamos al grano.

Desde hace un tiempo que veo publicaciones en facebook y medios online acerca hechos, decisiones y general deterioro del pasatiempo nacional de los cubanos. El Béisbol. 

Todo va desde la supención de congas en los estadios, para posibilitar la “concentracion" de los jugadores,  indisciplinas increíbles en el terreno que han traído por consecuencias riñas tumultuarias y culminando con la desastrosa presentation  en la Serie del Caribe, a donde llegamos pavoneandonos y salimos trasquilados.

Que esta pasando? Se ha quedado atras el pasatiempo nacional?. En tiempos en que nuevos aires de desarrollo económico y levantamiento de añejas e inexplicables leyes y prohibiciones recorren la Isla, el Béisbol va como el cangrejo, para atrás.

Cuba no gana un torneo internacional de peso desde el Preolímpico de las Américas y la final con Japón en el I Clásico Mundial de Béisbol, ambos torneos en 2006.

La mala racha continuo  con el Mundial de Taipéi de China 2007, la Olimpiada de Beijing y el torneo de Haarlem 2008, el II Clásico 2009, el campeonato Mundial 2011, el Mundial categoría sub-15 2012 y el III Clásico de béisbol

.

Ahora se suman batazos en el terreno. Ya no es el publico emocionado, ahora son los propios atletas.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0PWPBhELQ4#t=11

Donde acaba esto? Perdiendo ante Camerun o Burkina Faso en clasificatorias para unas probables olimpiadas si el Comité Olímpico Internacional se dignara a reconocer el Béisbol entre los deportes privilegiados para participar en su evento?.

Creo que el Béisbol cubano necesita limpieza general, desde arriba hasta abajo.

Comenzar de nuevo con sangre joven ya que los que los que lo dirigen han demostrado que no están aptos para los tiempos que corren.  O es que no tenemos cientos de miles de graduados universitarios en Cultura física que pueden revolucionar forma de seleccionar, entrenar y  estrategia de nuestro mas popular entretenimiento?.

Mano dura con el indisciplinado, que por uno que se va tenemos un millón con iguales o mejores condiciones esperando  para vestir el uniforme.

 Y que vuelvan las congas carajo. Eso le da vida al deporte.

Difficult roads in to teaching

After months of laziness I am back to my blog.

In all this time I have been  thinking, analyzing and, at the end, I took  the big step of changing my career. 

A big step to take at  the end  of my first half of century of living. I have decided to  change from journalism to teaching.

We thought that was easy. When I say ' we' I mean my wife, my mother in law and me.

First of all, there is a need for qualified professionals who would like to be involved in teaching.

Secondly, there is a need for teachers of Spanish  because the UK government suddenly realised that Spanish it is one of the most frequently spoken languages in the world and that the economies of Latin American countries are doing much better, at the present time, than many in Europe.

Thirdly, it is easier to learn Spanish than Chinese. That  was our  logic.

So, there we go. We decided to embark on the journey.

But it was a mistake to thing that it was going to be straightforward. Nothing is easy in this country and teaching or trying to teach or becoming a teacher is now quite difficult. 

First of all I had  to convert my qualification into the British standard ones. And even though I had passed more subjects than the average UK student with distinction, my Bachelor degree and BA degree have been regarded as  “mediocre".

Yes, mediocre, even when I had General History, General Literature, Maths, Geography, Spanish Grammar, English, physics,  Chemistry and Astronomy. Can you imagine? Astronomy. Who studied Astronomy at normal school in this country?. In addition, the application system is a nightmare: very difficult to understand and complex. 

 

Recently we discovered that the government department with the oversight of the Education System was offering advise on something that they called ‘ The Road in to Teaching'.

So we went, of course, my wife and me, to try to get some advice about how to make my dreams come true.

There we discovered that after all my qualifications and my British M.A I can be the perfect teacher but, and always there is a ‘but’,  it will be difficult for me to apply for the best programme because, according to the British standard, my qualifications are deemed mediocre.

          I wont be able to get a place at teacher training college as a Modern Languages

          teacher unless I  can speak another language preferably French which is very difficult 

          at this stage of my life. 

        

          There is another way. I can pay 9000 pounds if I can find a place as an English teacher

           but I don’t qualify for a student loan because I haven’t been here for long enough.

          However I’ll carry on trying and maybe next year I will have a new post saying that I’m

          already on the road to being a teacher.

  

Day out fishing.

Day out fishing

Fishing trip in the south of England.
We had some Pollocks. On the way back to land was very fogy and at some point was really dangerous because was impossible to see a thing, specially a little island that look like a submarine.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akG395rFWos&feature=youtu.be

Four more years.

US embassy in UK. Election Night

After four years, I was again invited to the US embassy in London to wait for the result of the possible, at that time, re-election of their first black president, Barack Obama.

This time I was incognito, because on the last occasion, when people discovered that I was a Cuban from Cuba, they immediately ran away. At one point, I thought that I had some disease.

Despite the music, canapes and drinks I could feel the tension everywhere. People were quiet and talking nervously, at the TV screens displayed all over the building.

I am sure that for Obama the last four years have been a challenge to kick-start a system that was in bad shape. 

Four more years.

He suffered attacks that look like the work of a Hollywood science fiction script:  he was born in Kenya, is a communist revolutionary, or secretly a convert to Islam.

From the beginning of the election campaign, I, personally, disliked  Mitt Romney’s  declarations about immigration, the right to abortion and the necessity of a stronger America in international policy. For those reasons, I was supporting Obama's possible victory with all my heart.

Almost all night neck to neck.

I think that Romney's main mistake was that he disregarded the growing power of the minorities:  Latins, blacks, young people and women.

Also, few weeks before the elections, he was criticised after the emergence of a secretly taped recording in which he derided 47% of Americans as dependent  on the state.

Although he won the first debate on TV, he was unable to repeat the Denver triumph in the following two contests and was forced to take a step back from campaigning just a week before election day when Storm Sandy hit the US East Coast.

Thank's to Susan and Glenn for the invitation

Meanwhile, President Barack Obama rode a wave of broad support from minorities, women and moderates to win re-election.

At 3:00 am we left the Embassy, with both candidates still neck to neck in the race for the presidency; at 6:00am, I was one of the happiest men on earth after listening to Obama's victory speech on the BBC website.

“While the road has been hard, while the journey has been long … we know in our hearts, for the United States of America, the best is yet to come,” Obama told supporters in Chicago early on Wednesday.

Obama's supporters celebrating 

Does Britain need more of us?. Who knows?

I Recently started a new job. It is not the job of my dreams, but in times of crisis it is  good to know that at the end of the month one will have some money to contribute to the family expenses.

The job has some drawbacks, I have to get up very early in the morning, receive the  minimum wage, and my colleagues speak all the time in their own language, Pakistani. This was very annoying at firs but It is alright now  because I discovered that  I can focus on  my job and learn the process faster .

However , that doesn't mean that we have a bad relationship. On  the contrary, they now call me  Chacha Arnold, which means Uncle Arnold,in Pakistani,  because I'm the oldest.

That friendly treatment began when I started  to learn some words in their language. 

In all the years living here,  I have  learned  that the best way to build a relationship  in an immigrant environment is to trying to learn, at least, a few words in your colleagues' language. That has always worked and it is working now.

I  have also discovered that the majority of them are well educated. There are some people writing their PHd dissertation and my supervisor was a member of his country's national shooting team which is very impressive.

I still don't understand how it is possible that 70 percent of the shop staff are immigrants. The proportion is divided between a majority of Pakistanis and Indians and a  few Caribbean Africans. The rest are European with  only two British people.

This is  surprising in a country where people are looking for work, shops and business are closing down and the unemployment figures are rising. 

Maybe it is the  survival  instinct witch  that drive  every immigrant to work no matter what.  Maybe that survivor instinct  breeds dreams success. 

This phenomenon not only happens in the developed countries but also in the developing countries where one can find specialist personnel from the countryside fighting to make their livings in the big cities.

So, despite right wing's comments and racist comments in some of the press immigrants labor are the backbone of this country. Does Britain need more of us?. Who knows?