Bullfighting banned in Barcelona

Wether it's because they want to be separate and different from the "Fatherland" or because they care about animal welfare or both... it seems like a victory for the bulls in Cataluña as they vote 68-55 to ban the ancient (and truly barbaric and backwards) tradition of bullfighting.

I can't tell you how happy I was to hear this and so glad that I've lived to see it. I hope I live to see it banned in all of Spain and anywhere else in the world were this painful, dangerous and senseless event takes place.

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Tough on Oil...

Have you ever seen those Dawn commercials where people are washing these cute little animals...duck, seals, birds... after a few seconds of watching the commercial you realize they are not grooming these precious ones, they are washing some Texas Gold from their little bodies. How cool would it be if we could really do that? What's more, how cool would it be if people really CARED to do that? What's cheaper... buying a trillion bottles of Dawn and wash away ocean life or embark on SOLAR energy? How about this.... trying to clean our oceans from a massive oil spill that seems to have no remedy or fixing your faulty pipes and drilling platforms? I guess we know the answer to that but I mean...really...? Does it make more business sense to waste millions of dollars in trying to solve a problem that seems to have no solution rather than spending the money in maintenance to avoid a more catastrophic situation?

We're facing the possibility of loosing all marine life and confront deadly diseases just from the smell and fumes the oceans bring in these days thanks to BP and their little faulty machinery. And they still want to drill in the Gulf of Mexico... and Alaska! Fuck Off Shore Drilling!

Some say accidents happen... well, this was an accident due to negligence. Furthermore, there are safer alternatives that would put us amongst the pioneers of the Solar age. Yet we don't because of the same old tired topic of special interests and money. Money than owns people, because I do you a favor and now I own you. Kind'a like how BP owns BO (Barack Obama).

I think the coorporate bastars at BP should spend their money in some scuba outfits and a trillion bottles of Dawn and dive into the mess and pluck each and every one of those members of the Ocean Kingdom and wash them away... not with money but with their own two hands, so they can see, smell and taste their mistake, their gross negligence... their GREED!

Every day should be like today...

Today and everyday we should give thanks for:

Having food on the table

Having a roof over your head

Being healthy for the most part

Whatever family you have left, even if you don't get along with them

Tthe mere fact that someone is always worst off than you are, and it makes your problems seem quite small

Good friends that help us when we are in need and share our most joyous moments

Friends that give it to you straight up

All your troubles and challenges because they make you a better person if you choose to master them.

All people, situations and living beings that have been teachers for you in this lifetime and have shown you something that has made you evolve as a human being

The enemies you've reconciled with

Tthe enemies you haven't reconciled with, because this means you still have an opportunity to practice forgiveness (very difficult one...by the way)

All the people that love you unconditionally

Having annoying brothers and sisters... at least you have them!

Your mother and father... because for better or worse, they were your portal into this material world, and hopefully they taught you something of value

and finally for having somewhere to put these thoughts out into the world.... there are a lot of people who are robbed of their freedom of expression and don't even have an outlet to put them forth.

Another light goes out... Swayze dies today at 57

Amazing and passionate dancer, good actor, loving husband, animal lover.... brave cowboy. I'm heartbroken for his wife and longtime dance partner and life partner.

I think about how lucky they are because they loved each other so deeply and with such commitment. They truly danced the dance of life and did it well, with love, passion, grace, respect....

He taught us that it's not how long you live but HOW you live! He fought till the end and still reached for his dreams in spite of his circumstances.

Graceful, strong, gorgeous... tough yet sensitive.

Rest in peace Patrick. Your soul was to vibrant to have to continue with the suffering.

Dance for eternity... you are loved and remembered today and forever.

Arrestan a Panfilo!!!!

Just found out through America Teve and it's host Carlos Otero, that Panfilo, the guy that appears on YouTube in the "Jama" video has been arrested by the Castro pigs. Shortly after he made that video, he began being persecuted by Cuban authorities who showed up at his door. He was forced to release another video, in desperate attempts to save his ass, claiming he was completely drunk and thus denying everything he had said in the "Jama" video. He said he did not remember anything. But when I saw that second video I new it was not going to end there. Panfilo looked terrified... there was such fear in his eyes... and all because he expressed the real truths about the current situation in Cuba.  I'm amazed they have not arrested Yoani Sanchez yet. It's a real miracle! 

Cubans in the island have to do something. They need to protest, they need to go out into the streets and fight it out. I know it's easier said than done, but look at the Iranians... and look at all the world attention they're getting.

Panfilo... our thoughts are with you!!! Cuba needs another MALECONAZO! 

A light goes out...

I have no words to describe the sadness I feel

about such a genius talent having passed in such

a tragic way. More than that it's made me reflect on his tragic downfall and how the human mind can loose perception and grasp of reality.  How the pain-body, for those of you who have read Eakard Tolle, can destroy even the brightest of lights. One of the ways this light shined was through his music, his philanthropic contributions, how he influenced the world of dance, which I as a dancer can vouch for, the world of music, and how he broke barriers and united the world in music. When it came to his work, it didn't matter what country or race you were from. The one thing politicians spend their entire lives trying to do, this man did with an unstoppable force that is undeniably unique and like a comet doesn't manifest quite often. 

Many of us throughout the world, particularly those of us who are artist, will always remember you through your work and the impact it's had in our childhood, teenagehood, and in our own work as entertainers. You were inspirational and we will always remember that child with the sweet voice that sang "I'll be there". 

I hope you find the peace and bliss you so desperately sought in this earth before and after things got so crazy for you. 

YOU ARE TRULLY "THE KING OF POP"

Michael Jackson

1958-2009

RIP 

We will remember you forever!

Our Father who art in heaven....?

These are the first words of a well know prayer. I was taught these words early on in my life. Little did I know though, that many of the very people who claimed devotion to these words, who posed as "servants of the lord" propagating Catholicism, and who taught us these very words at school, where really members of an institution that has the... I really don't know what to call it, I'm at a loss of words here... the audacity to cover up such disgusting crimes as child abuse and molestation. 

_________________________________

DUBLIN – After a nine-year investigation, a commission published a damning report Wednesday on decades of rapes, humiliation and beatings at Catholic Church-run reform schools for Ireland's castaway children.

The 2,600-page report painted the most detailed and damning portrait yet of church-administered abuse in a country grown weary of revelations about child molestation by priests.

The investigation of the tax-supported schools uncovered previously secret Vatican records that demonstrated church knowledge of pedophiles in their ranks all the way back to the 1930s.

Wednesday's five-volume report on the probe — which was resisted by Catholic religious orders — concluded that church officials shielded their orders' pedophiles from arrest amid a culture of self-serving secrecy.

read full story...

Panfilo se atreve a decir la verdad!!!

El negro Panfilo dice que lo que hace falta en Cuba es Jama (comida)!

Los palitos que se dio le dieron el valor de decir lo que nadie en Cuba dice. Sugiero que todos los cubanos se den un traguito y salgan a la calle a PROTESTAR! BASTA YA CABALLERO!!!!

Egyptians kill pigs for no reason...

Oh yeah... the swine flu, riiight? Forgot about that one. According to the New York Times, there were no cases of the swine flu in Egypt and no evidence that the pigs had spread the disease.   The funny thins is that it was humans who were the catalysts of this epidemic by their practice of factory farming, which cramps thousands of pigs in small quarters (they do this with chickens as well I believe) creating a breeding ground for disease.

Wouldn't it be more appropriate to stop this practice rather than kill the innocent animals when we are the ones to blame in the first place? Maybe humans should be put in closed quarters all together cramped up like pigs so they can breed diseases ... but well, I guess we can talk about Wall Street some other time...

WE SHOULD CALL IT THE "SHWAN FLU" , THE Stupid Humans Who Abuse Nature Flu"

My blog received an award!

Just yesterday I found out I had been the recipient of an award called Symbelline. I was ecstatic! "What are the chances" I said to myself. When I started this blog I never thought I would get anything for it, let alone an award. 

So I looked it up and I found the following:

"Premio que se otorga a los blogs en reconocimiento de su trabajo como un medio más para lograr estrechar los lazos de amistad y, de este modo, todos y cada uno de nosotros amemos las letras y aquello que significan. "

" An award that is given to blogs in recognition for their work as a medium that achieves the expansion and/or promotion of friendly ties, so that all of us can love language and that which it signifies"

I wanna thank Zurama of "Amanecer en La Habana" who passed this honor on to me and my blog. THANKS ZURAMA... Keep up the good work!

Expulsan de la Habana a Hector Ramirez antes de poder llegar a ver a su madre

EXPULSAN DE LA ADUANA CUBANA, al escritor y disidente cubano Héctor Ramírez, quien había viajado a la isla con urgencia ante la eminente muerte de su madre, producto de un fulminante cáncer de pulmón que le fue detectado hace un año y ya no tiene solución.   

Lea historia completa....

Support Generation Y and all other Cuban blogs

I want to encourage all bloggers, particularly those who are Cubans in exile as well as 2 and 3 generation Cubans, but not limited to...  also bloggers around the world to support Yoani Sanchez' portal Generation Y and all other blogs from Cubans residing in the island. Especially if you are someone with technical knowledge, THEY NEED YOUR HELP. Their use of internet is limited and they depend on friends, most of them supporters from abroad as I understand it, to tech serve their sites and help them run efficiently. 

People like Yoani are creating a new kind of Revolution. A vocal Revolution based on freely expressing their opinions and demanding the basic human rights every citizen deserves. These people are bold, ballsy, and sacrificing what little regulated rights they have in order to fight the system and have their voices heard by the blogging community (and hopefully beyond that) all over the world. 

Yoani has been denied permission to travel outside of Cuba 3 times, and the regime simply can't give her a good reason why. Well... we all know why, and I think Yoani knows as well. But that doesn't stop her. That doesn't take away her desire to dream about the possibility of one day being able to express her opinions freely without having to worry that she will be punished for it by having whatever little privileges, if you can call them that, taken away from her. One of them being travel, another one the right to publicly assemble in a group situation which was denied when she tried to organize a sort of bloger's convention. I don't know if they were able to finally carry out this event or not, but I do know she was visited by government officials whose sole intent was to prevent her from achieving her purpose.

Your support and encouragement is one of the few things they can feed on. We can serve as a sounding board and much more. They are crying out for help, but most of all they are dying to connect with the outside world. It's like "message in a bottle".  Let's let them know their message has reached our shores.

How crucial is it to get that 50" Plasma?

Is it worth a human life? I wonder if those people who showed up at Wall Mart at 5am on Black Friday are enjoying their TV right now. I wonder if they can sleep at night. Well, I'm sure they can because they're all probably saying to themselves, as they numb their brains with senseless programing, like Britney Spear's latest documentary, "I didn't do it! It wasn't me who stepped over him, I walked around him."

How important I say, is getting that 50% off? Is it worth killing someone over it? Is it that important that you would see a guy lying on the floor and still walk right over him in order to get to the electronics isle before anyone else? Is it that important that you see this guy on the floor and don't even take 12 seconds to extend your hand and offer to help him up?

I saw the most terrifying thing on TV today. As the body of this 34 year old black man, who had been working at this Wall Mart for just a week, was being wheeled out, DEAD, into the ambulance, people were passing right by on their way to their cars with their huge TV sets (or whatever it is they had purchased) in their shopping carts not even looking, not even taking the time to acknowledge that a human life had been lost and it was literally passing right by them.

The whole thing is DISGUSTING to me. It makes me question my faith in mankind.