What is happening in Greece?

Greece and its economy have been in the spotlight for several weeks/months now and that made me come back to my (mainly) tango blog and write some thoughts about the situation. I have two good reasons to do it, namely a) texts about Greece are in fashion so people read them; b) I consider myself somebody who is well aware of the Greek society, but I am currently living abroad, and thus I am able to see it from a broader perspective.

The tile is ‘What is happening in Greece?’ but should rather be ‘What has been happening in Greece?’… Because things are pretty bad, but they have been bad the last years and they were going bad, ever since I could see a tomato and say ‘ντομάτα’… Last year the riots were indicative of the deep problems the Greek society is facing (discussed also here) and this year is the economy. Our dept is currently more than the value of the whole country; we have a population which is constantly getting older, no perspective for economic growth and people who don’t have any respect to the governments they elect, the EU and any kind of institution in general… So apparently things are not ideal…

This is not going to be an economic analysis, but rather a social one. Anyway, I lack the academic knowledge for an essay on the Greek economy and for that you will find other resources, like Edward Hugh’s blog which I enjoy reading lately. Anyway, it is said that ‘politics is the game of the devil’ and when looking for possible substitutions of the first word, ‘economics’ comes straight to my head. I am sure that many of you also think that all these ‘debts’, ‘GDPs’, etc are partially BS… Most of the countries in the world are in debt and to me it has been a constant puzzle, how and to whom we all owe money and why the outcome of all these transactions are always us being more in debt and never paying off (of course the answer is known and some simplified explanations can be found in here or here). According to my average person perception, the issue is who is more in debt and the winner of this year is definitely my country, Greece!

To finish this introduction, please don’t forget that the present post is my PERSONAL perception of things. You may find some things written below hard, or even exaggerated and you are welcome to ignore and argue against them. Moreover, sometimes inevitably I express my ideas or predictions on financial or political problems for which I may not be informed enough. You are welcome again to correct me… So here I go…

Firstly, I have to take something out of my chest, for all of you to know… Greece belongs to the EU, NATO, European Space Agency, UN, OECD, or whatever, but is not like the other Western European countries. To put it better before the recently new EU members, it was NOT an EU country, at least considering the structure of the society and the way this works, the prevailing culture, mentality and way of life, etc. An average western European with the average Greek, sitting in the same table will have a hard time finding interests and ideas to share. In fact, Greece is a country, until recently, geographically isolated from the other EU members, for a long time influenced by its Balkan and Turkish neighbors, with people that mostly imagine and are attracted by the idea of being part of Europe, rather than actually doing it.

One of the main reasons Greece became part of the EU is because the Western world has always been feeling indebted towards the Greeks, for the heritage of the ancient Greek civilization. We were given the chance to become part of the EU, thanks to the other parties’ desire to honor our ancestors. Given the philosophical and ideological hypostasis of the Union (which matters among other more practical issues), a Europe without Greece would be like Christmas family dinner without the grandparents (who are very sick, not very fancy and badly behaved in our case). The other reason is that considering its geographical location and size, Greece was not a poor country. We are still the rich of the Balkans and we were richer than Portugal and Spain, so why not?

Now comes the difficult part… Why we are still in the EU? Inertia, momentum, are some words that come in mind… There are many member countries which did not honor the objectives and the overall spirit of their ‘EU contract’; but none like Greece. We didn’t even read it, we went straight to the chapter ‘Rights and privileges’ and we tossed all the other pages to our barbecue. In fact the society was not ready for this and the whole outcome always looked like teaching gorillas how to use hair style mouse. We are still in the EU after constantly hiding and postponing the current crisis with painkillers (e.g. see this link). We are still in, because any bailout would appear as a black eye for the EU institution. We are still in because other countries face similar problems as well, certainly to a lesser extent and our quitting would bring huge confusion, given the already fuzzy rules, definitions and criteria, of our already fuzzy and titling economic system.

And now comes the most important part, since I will stretch something that some experts may know (I am not sure if all of them do), but the normal people in Europe probably cannot perceive. The amount of corruption in Greece and how much, along with the way things work in general, this puts the country on a league of its own; at least for EU standards. It is normal that people everywhere are not happy when they pay taxes and that politicians are charismatic personalities in terms of communicational skills, but usually ignorant, and with a tendency to take advantage of state money; but when there is nothing more that this, then I can tell you WELCOME TO GREECE…

The names of the members of the parliament have remained the same the last 50 years, as do the names of the university professors and any other high ranked position. There is no way that somebody will be given any kind of power, without ensuring first that he belongs to this ‘special tribe’ and he will not have any intention to change anything[1]. That’s why the Greek people have been ‘trained’ not to trust anyone but themselves. That’s why nobody will listen to what the others say, even if they have PhDs or parliament seats, since all these things usually mean corruption. There is no right or wrong, true or false, good or bad when you leave in such a society. And people cannot learn and advance, they just develop constantly their emotional intelligence through their effort for survival.

Political parties are dominating life from the university years and active members get degrees without passing any exams, the same way they get the jobs later[2]. For example a former minister of Public Works, responsible for the development of the whole country, didn’t even do his undergraduate thesis himself. The ‘normal people’ on the other hand, vote the candidates who promised them a position in the public sector and they don’t trust anyone. My generation grew up listening to their parents telling them that the best man is who doesn’t give a penny to the state. And this is the key element of the problem. I was lucky to have lived in several countries and I have seen many corrupt politicians and crooks. But completely corrupt countries you don’t meet easily…

Just to give you an idea I mention a recent story below… Last year there was an environmental regulation towards the renewal of vehicles, giving a benefit for each old technology car, exchanged for a new one. Aftermath: They ended up giving 4 times more benefits than they were expecting. The whole system was mobilized: cars cut in two were valued twice, documents for crashed cars coming from all over the world were issued overnight to be after retracted, etc. Offering an extra unemployment benefit is enough to double the number of unemployed in the country in one night, anyway people working ‘in black’ are so many. Nobody wants to pay taxes, so all the energy is spent to find the illegal way to make money, constituting the Greek economy a highly self-organized chaotic system, instead of a structured EU country it is supposed to be. In the meantime the media, reproduce daily stories of scandals and corruption, eroding any moral principles left on the people… Bottom line: people do not care for anything public, they are definitely not willing to financially support their country and they will do their best to avoid this… Plus the whole system is highly tolerant to this attitude as this is …the way things work!

What is very strange is that the Greek system is offering, apart from sun, beautiful beaches and good food, several benefits to its people and deserves to receive its taxes, despite what Greek people believe. As a Greek, I received good education, including my PhD, which allowed me to make an international career. As a university student I had free textbooks, courses and food, I have played volleyball at competition level at state subsidized clubs and received student benefits from my parents’ jobs. Comparing the health system with other countries I have been recently living, I find the Greek one not so bad and in general I think that the people have several good reasons to support their country. The problem is that it doesn’t cross their mind that they should, neither can they imagine that this is what everyone else in the civilized world is doing. They just can’t …

What the current government is trying to do is make the people pay taxes. Greek people have a high standard of life, getting wined and dined more than anyone else in Europe. France is a historically rich country, but the French would be surprised with the quantity and frequency of lamp or fish consumption in Greece, or how often people go to the restaurant. They also drive good cars, own (several) houses and spend a lot on entertainment, since there is no rival for the Greek nightlife in Europe. While a coffee costs typically 5 euros and clubs and bars (selling 7 euro beers) are full 7 days a week, 95% of the population declare income less than 30000 euros. At the same time, the country is flooded by villas, swimming pools and BMWs, with doctors, engineers and lawyers getting their euros under the table.

The new government is aiming to get a piece of the black money which is almost half of the total economy. All the economic indexes are fake, as there is no control in transactions; after all these years of completely chaotic, corrupted governance, the ministers cannot even know how many people are working in the public sector, not to mention the private one. They have a rough idea on how much they spent on salaries and how many kilos of potatos were produced last year and that’s it. Everything else is just part of a sequence of events that they mostly observe from a privileged point of view. If this government really has any intention to do something and this is mostly because of the external pressure it’s receiving, the first step is to start organizing the system and make it gain conscience of its actual condition (aka make an accurate budget!). Technology can help on that as it is now cheap and abundant, allowing centralized control, since in such a corrupted system, any transfer of information through people carries high amount of entropy and results in distortion of the figures.

The second step is to force the people towards more legitimate practices and this is what all the measures taken are all about. The power that accountants had to save money from their clients, is indicative of the level of corruption and the measures are specifically aimed there. The receipts, the means test, etc are precisely pointing towards a more structured economic system, and again with the help of technology significant results can be achieved. Many analysts consider the goals set by the government too optimistic, but even though I am not

an economist, the ‘secret ingredient’ could be the present extent of corruption. In fact after a year and if they achieve something, then they will actually know what can be actually achieved. For the moment they only can hope that the money on the black market is the holly grail.

The problem is that such action will bring a big shock and act as an endurance test for the Greek society, at it will affect most social layers and aspects of life. People don’t understand that they can’t go on living with this attitude and that they even have to pay for the mistakes of the past. They also don’t believe and that’s a very difficult point, as they will react to the pressure to come. They protest and they will protest more, because the moral principles have been diverted all those years of thoughtless spending of EU subsidies. They are the same people who were giving fake invoices, asking for EU funding to expand their businesses, or the farmers who planted subsidized crops, only to burn or damp them later. And these people are not crooks, but the average Greek, the family man, the civil servant, the doctor, the lawyer, the minister. All used of drinking aged malt whiskey paid by EU money, won after submitting fake papers, money given to help us increase our productivity.

The current world is mostly one of economies rather than countries. During the EU experiment, strong economies offered the unique opportunity to the weak ones to receive significant financial help and know how in order to improve their economic, social and technological level. Experience showed that for some reasons[3], South Europeans lack the focus and discipline to respond to such a challenge. The gain of the strong was the potential of exploiting a larger scale economy and expanding their activities without the previously existing political and legal barriers.

This adaptation period seems to be almost over, given also the present reduced credit possibilities and the weak countries will have no excuse for not being able to survive. As a result their high value human and physical resources will be absorbed by the ones who have the power. This is what is happening to Greece, which has already sold most of the public sector, while at the same time the population is undergoing significant change. The most educated people are going abroad, while emigrant are taking their place back home.

The currently attempted change in Greece came way too late, as now the money has been almost completely spent and the deviation of the mentality and the economic system is difficult to be corrected. A fundamental problem is that nobody can speak about morality as all are immersed into corruption. Even the government, cannot convince the people to pay their taxes, as long as they are being bribed, linked to private companies and even receive their disproportionally high salaries and pensions. In fact, if they are really interested in winning the people’s trust, they should from cutting of their own benefits and huge security expenses.

So according to my perspective, this will be the critical point for the Greek economy: whether the society will respond and will endure a structural change that is inevitable anyway. The new government is trying to promote a more transparent way of governance, putting figures and information on the net, but has to do more. It has to convince the people to change their attitude and prove that it has honest objectives and wants to play the game with fair rules. The next question is whether this effort will not collapse by the inevitable strikes and people’s reaction and chaos will be avoided. Already tax collectors’ drive for work has been significantly reduced, after the new measures blocked ways for them to get bribed. One move towards the right direction and the system deflects it: state income is reduced instead of increased. Finding ways to control transactions and get taxes will be an exhaustive strategic game that the government has to play very well.

The only positive sign is that Europe will not let Greece fall, even though it deserves to. Any country leaving the Euro zone will be a hard blow especially, considering the constant efforts of expansion during all these years. Moreover, other countries (Italy, Spain, Portugal) are facing similar problems (not in the same scale) and are already being dragged down by the Greek crisis. They have been using similar tricks to hide their debts and they are now having difficulties in getting loans, with everyone’s eyes in Greece If things escalate and the door opens for one to leave, nobody can control who else will have to do it also, so the risk is too high to take.

For the Greek people, the question is simple… Whether it is not too late and if they will survive this crisis with dignity, or after a big humiliation. For sure the change is necessary and if made earlier would be for a better life, while now will be just to stand on our feet and not become Latin America. What worries me is that this obvious message still doesn’t get through, neither the people, nor the politicians and that will delay things even more.

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[1] Even in the highly corrupted former USSR, Gorbachev, a poor farmers’ son could become General Secretary. Back in Greece 90% of all the current parliament members are first degree relatives of former ones.

[2] One could argue that corruption exists also in other countries and for example Italy is one of them. On the other hand at least, Italians build cars and design beautiful things and this is done only by competent people. In a country like Greece where most jobs are services, skills are again important but not so necessary and proving one’s value is not so easy.

[3] In fact the hostile environmental conditions in the northern regions and the limited physical resources (compared to the south), forced the people to evolve and develop a higher level of discipline, social organization and efficiency, turning the tide in their favour.

Tango in Buenos Aires: some useful tips

This is a follow up post on Buenos Aires tango after the ‘What I saw in Buenos Aires’ one. I will try to focus more in practical issues, as many of my impressions are there. I will only repeat the rough classification of the two tango waves, as this is an important reference… There are certainly subcategories, but those two may not make it for an essay on the subject, but I think are enough to help you find your way around. Names and places are partially important as you may be probably going to the same 3-4 venues every night, but the ‘milonga’ is different. There are historical milonga names though (e.g. El Beso), as there are standard place (e.g. Salon Canning), which are not a guaranty for every night. Once you are there it will be straight forward to understand what is what.

On one hand you have tango ‘milongero’ where things are more formal in all senses; dress code, attitude, dance style, etc. In many of these milongas you may have to adapt to the eye contact code, which can be roughly explained like this: men and women sited and glances start to cross all over the room as the cortina is about to finish. The thing is quite simple. If you want to dance with someone you look at him/her and she/he does the same. Then eye contact, nod for an invitation and then dance, as eye contact implies approval… Usually the dance floor is packed, so take it easy and protect yourself from wrong steps, as people anticipate to watch and evaluate. Similarly don’t try to ask someone to dance if you don’t think that he/she will accept as this will result probably in a ‘no for life’. Patience is important… This is the tango in its traditional form here in Buenos Aires and places can be El Beso, Salon Canning, Nino Bien, etc.

Second group is the ‘practikas’ ring, which is an initiative of different groups with a more fresh approach on tango. Within this you will have a place to dance every night, among younger people and the vibe is very similar to the one you find in most good European milongas. The level of tango is extremely good, or at least it often can be, as you may have more that 50% of professional dancers on the dance floor.

Separation in geographical terms is also rather straight forward. If you prefer classic style most of the milongas are located in the center, mostly San Telmo, Monserat. If you go for the practikas you will be 99% moving in the area of Palermo, Palermo Soho and some names are Practika X, Tango lab, Tango Cool, etc. If this is your choice you should arrange accommodation in Palermo close to Scalabrini Ortiz and you may even be able to do everything on foot! For the ‘milongeros’ walking several blocks in the center at night is not recommended in general.

After the milonga/practika, ‘all the roads lead to Rome’ which in that case is ‘La Viruta’ lasting at least until 4 in the morning and gathering all the die hards. For me this is the most characteristic place of Buenos Aires tango… Early in the night, before 1:00, things can be ‘strange’ the least.. Bad dancers (feels like they were passing by), a mess on the dance floor, long tantas of cumbia and rock and roll, even competitions, but once you know what to expect, you may end up loving even this! And once the other milongas are over, everybody comes there and the place can be transformed into an all star milonga! You can see any professional dance there and sometimes sensational things happen. For me this is where you see what tango is in the city. From the 100% popular (in good and bad sense) situation early till the extreme quality late in the morning. Plus the free classes and the amazing ‘show’ at 20:00 every Sunday! Don’t miss it!

So to cut a long story short, when you arrive, you have to meet some people, e.g. a good way is by taking some classes and get some names and addresses. Or go to la Viruta at 3:oo in the morning and ask the people you dance with! There are also several free tango guides distributed in schools and milongas and they provide from partial to too much information (tangauta is good for example). Once you start, then it’s easy; every night you will be able to spot the main milongero and Nuevo place and then it’s up to you. After spending a couple of weeks trying places, you will eventually settle on your preferences, but it’s likely that you will be also preparing bags to go back home! No problem… Next time you know that you will be prepared!!

What I saw in Buenos Aires

It is 00:30 and I just arrive in El Beso… I take my place in the table and I order a whiskey… In the raw of tables in front of me and beyond the dancefloor, women are only sited, while I am surrounded by men; glances start to cross all over the room as the cortina is over. This is the code to start dancing in the traditional Buenos Aires milongas; eye contact, a nod for an invitation and then dance, as eye contact implies approval… After an if you are a new face, people anticipate to see you move and evaluate. Higher ages mostly, some but not many good dancers and strictly close embrace. In Buenos Aires I realized that I dance tango Nuevo! That’s the word for the ones which like to dance more freely and separate from the traditional walking, ‘severely’ embraced tango. But in this milonga there are rules and if we let yourself free, you will receive strange looks by the ‘milongeros’.

So this is the tango in its traditional form here in Buenos Aires. In El Beso, Salon Canning, Nino Bien, etc. I travelled so far away and I settled here for a month, because I wanted to feel the tango in its cradle and it is true that there is some magic in those places. You vaguely feel the roots of tango, even though you understand that there was a reset during the military regime period. The popular aspect, the joy of the abrazo, class, elegance, people seem to enjoy it more in general. On the other hand, it is a nostalgic, fanatic approach, trying to preserve tango in its ‘original’ form, even though people’s current lifestyles are not expressed by such an attitude. Older people feel like home, while younger ‘milongeros’ and ‘tango tourists’ are just playing a role. Just like heavy metal funs dress with tight black trousers and t-shirts. And let’s face it… This tango cannot be supported in a wider scale for long, as the only thing that makes it attractive is that it is technically easier for milonga standards. Anyway, the older generation of milongeros still considers rock and roll something ‘revolutionary’…

After, there are the ‘practikas’, an initiative of different group of people to create a ring of places to dance, in order to separate them from the traditional tangeros and do something different (but also to be more efficient in ‘catching’ the ‘tango tourists’ who add a lot of momentum in both activities and budgets). Those are younger people and the vibe is very similar to the one you find in most good European milongas. There is one striking difference though… The level of tango is extremely good, or at least it often can be! Since all the teachers, organizers of the practikas of the ring support them every night, you end up having more that 50% of professional dancers on the dance floor. As a result, there are times that …scary things may be happening there! This is the ‘other’ tango, the one that will probably dominate in the future, despite the fact that it makes couples argue during tango classes and leaves many ‘unfulfilled’ souls in the milongas…

While the traditional tango, or ‘tango milongero’ is based on simple marks, given the tight abrazo, the ‘new tango’ being more 3 dimensional has resulted in the development of new ‘codes’. Legs and bodies move to all possible directions and ways, and different dancers and teachers develop their own marks, building a new language… And this is when tango becomes very elaborate, creative, but also more elitist and loses some of the social character. Of course the more experienced you are, the more ‘polyglot’ you become and you built up your repertoire of ‘signs’. But one could argue that despite the strict rules of the ‘traditional’ milongas, people look more relaxed and maybe even happier…

There is a very important point in all those observations… Tango is miles away from being popular or mainstream in Buenos Aires. In fact average Argentinian’s idea of a tango dancer is someone professional dancing in shows; and this is what many people have on the back of their heads when they start. Even though it is part of the tradition, it is considered like an ‘old’ obsolete thing, like folk dances in Europe. Argentineans don’t dance and are not interested in tango and you find yourself again inside a closed circle, looking at the same faces every night at the milonga. And since they are relatively few and in their majority professionals, the social aspect of the milonga is sometimes lost. Unless you are skilled enough to please the ‘spoiled’ Argentinean dancers, or you have already a sufficiently large network of tourist ‘friends’. Third solution is if you have already spent enough on private classes to become their ‘friend’.

If you come back from Cuba, or other places in Latin America you are full of salsa, cumbia and reggeaeton sounds because you hear them everywhere… In the bars, taxis, on the street.. If you come back from Buenos Aires with the same effect on tango, it’s just because you were at the milonga every night, plus at 2-3 classes per day. Apparently, there is no big difference compared to other cities with developed tango scene… The wave of tango tourism, either in the form of attending tango shows, or of people like me coming to intensely study tango has triggered some local interest, but apparently the tango scene is like a small village, inside a big metropolis! This can be very nice as it is like a non stop festival!

Back to dancing in the milongas, this is even more difficult to describe as everything is related to you, the tango you like, your level and the places you will choose. In the closed Buenos Aires tango circle you have either the ‘forgotten’ milongeros, or the modern dancers who are trying honestly to integrate tango dancing in their current reality. If you go to the ‘milongeros’ you will get to be dancing more easily, maybe not from the first night, but after a while. This will immerse you into the nostalgic worlds of classic tango and it can be good enough. It is up to you as this atmosphere can be also a drawback as also the fact that may not have the opportunity to do some moves that you may fancy…

If you go to the ‘practika tribe’, keep in mind that sometimes you may have embarrassing moments as you will be surrounded by the professionals. There will always be other foreigners though and in general it will be also ok in its own way. As a man I have to say that I have more fun dancing in Europe than Buenos Aires, as in the latter, access in the good dancers can be very limited. For women and especially good looking ones, I would definitely recommend it. There is this long tradition of men competing for the women (see history of tango in general), plus the Italian ‘thing’ (see my post for Italy) that has resulted in an army of good male dancers, that can make almost every woman dance, or most likely feel well. Still any very good female dancers had the same complaint as me…

But why the Argentineans don’t want to dance with us? (ok it is not that bad…) One problem is that in this small community, people are struggling to get some status to the eyes of the others. This makes them very selective in their dancing preferences and rather reluctant to experiment with the ‘new faces’. Second is because they have the reputation of being ‘complecados’, meaning things like snob, arrogant and other similar words that has made some compare them with Parisians. Third, because especially Nuevo tango is something very personal and more elitist, making people more reluctant to accept to try, adapt to the other’s style and most important enjoy… Finally, because some of these people there are really good! They teach, they give demonstrations, they are full of it and consequently have a higher threshold. They will not spend their everyday reality with ‘tango tourists’… Sounds fair!

I cannot say if this is more intense in the ‘Milongeros’ or the ‘nuevo’ group (probably the second), but as a foreigner I had my best tantas with other people like me. The Argentineans I danced with were mostly ‘passers by’ and when at times I managed to have a good dancer dance with me, it was obvious to me that she wasn’t so much into it. So instead of feeling the vibe of tango in its birthplace from the local people, I rather experienced its reflection upon other foreigners! (a very mild way to express my disappointment for not dancing well in many milongas!)

So what’s the bottom line… Come to see for yourself! Even though I am a big fun of travelling alone for tango (and this is what I did), I would suggest that you bring with you as many friends as possible to have a comfort zone. Anyway the subject is inexhaustible and you can come back alone, after you do the first reconnaicance mission! Take advantage of the many, varied and usually affordable classes, don’t do Naveira’s workshops (better spend the money on private lessons) and try as much as you can the various approaches on tango. Just make sure that you will leave some time to meet this interesting city, with its big contrasts and attractions, which has its own character far beyond tango…

PS. More posts on ‘practical’ issues to follow

The new world...

The plane is taking off from Santiago, Chile. I am surrounded by loads of Canadian people, tanned in a funny way after their ski holidays. Right in the moment of take off a guy in his thirties next to me plugs his earphones on the ipod and starts to listen to his favorite music. Me, already tired of listening to the security instructions in English, Spanish and French for the second time today, I start to heat up. The thing is that if there are still morons that will use phones, cameras or whatever, why do we have to listen to that boring shit every time we travel?

The thirty year old moron is now drumming on the air and finally clapping his legs to a rhythm that a washing machine could certainly outbeat. (He is wearing his sunglasses in the plane) One part of the story is that this ‘new’ generation of human beings can often lack any sense of social consciousness and a psychologist could make a 5 page list of problems that such an attitude may reflect. On the other hand, if you let each of these guys touch you, you are going to have a real hard time living in this world.

Solution: You detach…. You assume that you and this guy have nothing in common and you have solved the problem. After you may even start chatting with him and you may even have fun, at the most extreme scenario start to like him somehow (and in a detached way… now he is drumming on the back of the sit, while half of the people in the plane are asleep, including the user of the seat…).

Old fashioned societies were full of codes of behavior oppressing peoples’ personalities towards ‘what was the right thing’ and this could be very boring. Everybody would turn out to be similar; while good and bad are not so easily defined anyway. Then came the 60s and people made this breakthrough and managed to establish a more liberated way of seeing life. In my soul the feeling of rock and roll is the one of freedom and this is part of the heritage from this era. Being as you want in order to feel the moment, open, not taking anything for granted and aggressive in some sort. But there is some big misunderstanding while this guy tries to carry exactly the same breeze of ‘I am what I am and I don’t give a shit..’ He totally neglects the fact that the people who showed him that way had actually read Guevara’s political speeches; while he has his picture in his underwear. They were seeking everywhere around them for inspiration to do the change, while he is downloading the inspiration form itunes. Style and manners came long after a change inside, while in our era style is hopeless to pass any message through, being so exhaustively sold…

Anyway we are supposed to have passed this phase on sociological evolution and now assume that everyone is capable and thus responsible to figure out right or wrong. Another question is on which criteria this will be done and education is supposed to also ensure some standards. Education is what we learn at school, but more important is what we experience in our lives and there for me lies a big growing problem.

2 hours ago the plane was landing in Santiago and one of the most amazing sceneries I have ever seen in my life was unveiling itself through the window. A golden band of setting sun, under purple, gray, magenda painted clouds, were filling the sky. In the meantime, granite, steep, rocky mountains, were standing right in front of me with their tops all white with snow and all these colours were reflected at small ponds scattered around the grass fields of the arid Chilean landscape. At the same time, in the plane we were all watching the documentary on Flying saucers which was apparently beating Planet Earth’s unrepeated beauty. And that’s a serious part of the problem… The sun is setting in Santiago, you are hanging hundreds of meters above the earth and you are concerned about whether Flying saucers were extraterrestrial means of transport or military test models. The link with reality has broken as a screen is sucking your existence…

And this is happening with increasing frequency and intensity to all of us. First was TV, then computers, after internet, iphone, ipod, blackberries and who knows what follows next. This is why everywhere in the world people listen to music composed several (TV-free) decades ago, or at least this music remixed. If you look carefully it feels like we are not living in this world anymore in order to be inspired and create out of it… There is absolutely no problem, since life will never stop and we are always acting somehow... Even though we are not sure if many things that are defining us and the others are actually happening, or not… This is not something new; David Bowie came up with the Ziggy Stardust persona decades ago. A possible problem is that our current virtual reality may not be so cool or in style, while at the same time Ziggy actually selected space while we think we are still here!

I left home (currently Portugal) to visit New York, Buenos Aires and now Tokyo, under the terror of the swine flu. Listening to the media I was aware that I was doing something REALLY dangerous, but I decided not to change my plans… What I saw wasn’t at all what I expected… EVERYTHING WAS ABSOLUTELY NORMAL! (I don’t need to describe more, as normal is the probably what we know better… no change at all!) But this flu mania will affect our minds, attitudes and life like so many things that do not really exist. And we will continue to live even though we will be far from real world again. How, why and with what purpose they are trying to spread to flu terror is another big discussion, I have to say only one thing… There is something fishy and we have to start to seriously turning out back to mainstream media. That was too sloppy to pass unnoticed.

Anyway, I do not intend to write the perfect essay, neither to come up with any solutions. I am reviewing this text after having landed in Tokyo and I can tell that here people wear masks! They are also thin and many (too many) on every square meter… I had my visa taking instructions in 3 languages from a screen, while the girl on the desk was looking with dreamy eyes in my passport and visa declaration. I guy behind me on the queue was watching cartoons on his ipod, while I was counting how many girls had mentioned something about their lesbian ex-girlfriend the past 45 days. Flying saucers were finally man made, the Big Lebowski soundtrack is almost as cool as the movie, while trains in Tokyo are definitely fast. Japanese people look detached staring either at their iphones or on the empty space; they seem prepared for the future whatever that may be. As far as I am concerned, I think I will need some extra time!

Besos tangeros a todos!