La Vida

Update Apr 18, 2008: Correct some mistranslations.

(This is a translated version of http://www.lavanguardia.es/lv24h/20080413/53455297617.html. I have checked wording against http://www.rae.es and http://www.merriam-webster.com to ensure accuracy within the reach of my capability. Critiques welcomed.)

If they want to punish China, it is unjust to utilize the Games

In a very special day for Juan Antonio Samaranch (Barcelona, 1920), on which sports come to have a ministry at last¹, his old aspiration since years ago, the ex-president of the International Olympic Committee expressed to this daily his disappointment at "the campaign" against China that affects the Olympic torch relay of Beijing.

You always defended that China deserved an Olympic Games.

I have never doubted that. It has a quarter of the world population and has developed in an impressing manner, also in the sport. It is a great power. And a people of 1,400 million habitants has all the right to organize an Olympic Games.

Right questioned and that causes protests everywhere...

What is happening in the journey of the torch of Beijing ´08 is a lesson for the future. The relay of the Olympic flame has to be national, only in the country that organizes the Games, not international. This excess goes against everything.

Does the election of China obliges it any change in its politics?

No, in nothing. Politics is politics and sport is sport. And if there are complaints against China [people] should bring them to suitable forums to express them, like the United Nations. A politic forum, but not taking advantage of the Olympic Games for the repercussion that they have across the world. If they want to punish a country for what it is, they should utilize neither sport nor the Games. Why don't they do so in economy or commerce?

Does China deserve the punishment?

In no way. I have known the country since years ago and its change is extraordinary. And above all in the welfare of its people, which lives no much better. From a country that suffered from famines and all kinds of calamities it has changed into another prosperous one, with a two-digit increase during so many years that it has changed completely. I have a great respect for China. When I was in trouble - the Communist boycott of Los Angeles´84-, China supported me with its participation in that Games.

How do you rate what happens with the torch relay of Beijing ´08: instinctive reaction of the people or something prepared?

When there are violent acts as in Paris and London it is disagreeable and unacceptable, and those are not a coincidence. I hope that the worst has passed. I would say that what there is is a manuever against China.

Do they question the post-Samarach IOC and your successor Jacques Rogge on these events?

No. Since my leave in 2001 the Olympism is on a very good route and has Rogge as a great president. It is a difficult moment but he will succeed, and Beijing´08 will be a success, especially for him.

What can be done now?

We have to know about the Chinese to find out to which point we can reach to ask for something o how to negociate with them. They are very sensible. And, besides, they don't need a lesson in international politic relations. Let's hope that the torch relay, which cannot be changed now, ends up the best possible. When the Games begins everything is forgotten.

Do you resent hearing talks of boycott?

It is a word that no longer exists in the Olympic dictionary. It now serves for nothing but only punishing the athletes of the country that boycotts. If the politicians do so in the opening ceremony, apart from making little sense, it in fact has little importance. If they don't go, the whole world stays very calm. What is important of that act is to have there the 10,000 participating athletes.

¹Refers to the establishment of Spain's Ministry of Education, Social Politics and Sport.

By the title I am referring to the musical. Novel, as is Victor Hugo's original work, remains a noun capable of scaring me off. Just like the case of Phantom of the Opera, I only came across the musical in TN's mentioning. I have not viewed the musical itself, only listening to the 10th anniversary concert. And again, what has caught my heart so far is music. From the opening of Work Song in the prolog to the reprise of Do You Hear the People Sing? in the epilog, although no elements of acting are present, the scenes feel as if they were right on show.

Among all major characters, Javert in particular intrigues me. Javert was an police inspector with unbending principles – the justice in his mind and his duty as an inspector, which supported his long-lasting pursuit of Jean Valjean, the hero of the story, for years with resolute and probably obstinate persistence. Such a Javert is best depicted by the aria Stars in the middle of Act I, whose rendition by Philip Quast, the original Australian cast of the role, is brilliant. However, it is also these principles that drove Javert to commit suicide. Owing a debt of mercy to the very man whom he had been pursuing for years, he apparently found himself entangled in a torturing dilemma. He was unable to find any choice but end his life, which might be condemned as an error (as reads the line 'Y mi vida fue un error' in the Spanish version), by throwing himself into the Seine. There seems to be a tradition or legend concerning the French police that some police officers would track down their criminals across dozens of years. I heard before of a real-life French police officer who chased his target since his 20s until he was 74, when he eventually got his convict. We can speculate on their motives. Maybe it is the belief justice must be practiced that backed their decisions. If the law is compromised, someone has to pay the price. Javert had the chance but chose not to turn Valjean over to the law. He paid for his choice with his life.

As an off-topic remark, the Wikipedia entry on the songs from the musical indicates that the aforementioned Do You Head the People Sing? appeared in the television coverage of the '89 incident. This really triggers some imagination of mine about the Christmas Eve conflict in Nankai University.

Tonight again I watched Love Letter (1995). I did not follow each detail, for I had watched the film a couple of times before. Frankly speaking, up till now, I still do not quite catch the idea which the film is supposed to convey. Yet one thing remains unchanged every time I watch it and with that something the film always demonstrates a lasting and penetrating power capable of reaching the very depth of the soul.

That thing is music. Specifically I am referring to the ending song titled Small Happiness. I myself am not a musicologist and thus unable while finding it unnecessary to explain how the notes create an overwhelmingly comforting effect. It sounds just magical to me that this simple and mellifluent melody, not aided by any heart-breaking rhythm but materialized by an unaffected coordination of piano and strings equipped with well-tuned echoes, renders immense peace in the heart, a silenced sense that a vast spread of white after intensive snow provides as was filmed. Really a great remedial piece.

I am unable to explain why and how I developed the interest in languages – it just struck me years ago. Occasionally when I skim through pages randomly in Wikipedia, I would browse to entries on languages, the choices decided mostly by recent experiences (French, for example, during the days when I enjoyed the musical Notre Dame de Paris) and covering a relatively narrow range – I am almost wholly focused on the Romance languages such as French as well as Spanish.

My recent interest of language shall be in Italian. The reason lies in that kby has been approved of admission in a Sino-Italian collaborative two-year double master degree program in international management. The first graduate year is to be spent in Fudan while the second one will contingently be assigned to studies in either of Università Bocconi and LUISS, which are both located in Italy. This necessarily implies that she has to study the Italian language in order that she will not be trapped in difficulties, at the least in daily life abroad.

My first encounter with Italian dates back to the secondary school days. A friend of mine who was fond of western music began his attempt at learning the language out of a burst of zeal but gave up without my noticing. The most profound impressions that he left in me concerning this issue was his repeated mentioning of the words ciao and in that the former can indicate both 'hello' and 'goodbye' while the latter has exactly the same meaning in English and Italian.

Likely, kby is serious with the language. Yesterday she had me download and send her a scanned-and-compiled-in-PDF copy of the textbook Corso Intensivo D'italiano (or, put literally into English, An Intensive Course of Italian), accompanied by a (bulky) collection of 208 mp3's converted from the attached tapes. (These files virtually served as materials for testing Gmail's ability to handle mails stuffed with tens of attachments. Not surprisingly, Gmail slowed down in response, but after all it worked.)

Turning to Lesson One, or as the book says, Prima Lezione, I find it not difficult for me. Without referring to the vocabulary immediately below the text I can follow the text without much trouble, thanks to the help of my elementary knowledge of Spanish. Sometime in the past I read that to Spanish speakers Italian sounds just like a dialect of even closer relation to Spanish than some languages spoken in the Spanish territory. Three examples extracted from the lesson to verify the point:

While the grazie-gracia and sperare-esperar pairs look close enough in appearance, the relation between perché and porqué may not seem that obvious at the first glance. Dissecting the words gives the answer: per and por both mean 'for', while che (yes, the ending e has no grave) and qué both mean 'what', hence it is no surprise that perché and porqué both mean 'for what', which is exactly what why means.

(Writing has been paused for roughly 11 hours before continuation.)

Perhaps it is better to conclude this post before my mind goes excessively wild. Unconsciously I have developed it to be longer than a single page. So this sentence marks the end.

Just a few days ago I purchased Ricky's latest album, Life, from Joyo. Since fall 2004, when I came to the university, I have cared much less about some of leisure stuffs that I enjoyed before, say, listening to CDs, watching football games, and etc.. Thus it is unsurprising that only until most recently when I randomly walk through pages in Firefox did I notice Ricky released the album in 2005 after Almas del Silencio in 2003.

After listening to all 10 tracks recorded in the CD, I can only find myself less interested in the album, possibly because its style does not match my appetite as well as expectation. In my sense, the album lacks the Latin features which mark Ricky and which are most notably found in the earlier La Historia, for the only one song, namely This Is Good, I believe perfectly matches what is called Latin. And the two songs with the lyric style, which I have always preferred, Stop Time Tonight and Save the Dance, are less impressing the those found in Almas del Silencio such as Tal Vez, Si Tú Te Vas, Asignatura Pendiente, and Y Todo Queda en Nada.

And now I can find my Almas del Silencio CD nowhere. Hope that I have not had it lost.