Fish-eaters and the Cristal Coffin (?)

A new work is presented to me; it's about Oligarchy, defending it. The author was a very famous Greek historian (b.C.) called Herodutus. It was a little bit painful to read the text because it mainly defends that only the supposedly great men can rule their certain nation, which I thought outrage in my point of view. Clearly is the government of the few, for the few! To me it seems kind of selfish to keep the culture, the politics and the economy of the country to some men who think they are THE BEST.
So I made clear some counter-arguments to this thesis:
1. It's impossible to rule a country without people's support;
2. It isn't right to suppose that only a certain number of "the best men" aren't from the people and that they're the best to manage a country and it's PEOPLE;
3. Politicians should consider the minorities instead of benefiting the wealthy.

I could write some more counter-arguments, but I think that the ones I wrote are the most interesting to debate and the most important to make everyone's understand that Oligarchy is not a state of freedom or equality.
Sorry (once again) I missed the class of the debate.

November 6th

Social skills in our culture.

As I was reading the site www.self-confidence.co.uk/social_skill.html I thought to myself that I've commited many social mistakes in my entire life. Besides eye contacting, there's more 5 rules you need to aprehend:
1. To remain relaxed - this can be very difficult specially when the person who you're talking to appears to be powerful, arrogant, important or whatever.
2. Listening skill - very often I get distracted when someone's talking to me, so in some point I don't agree with the "make some sounds in order to demonstrate to the speaker that you are paying attention" part, because I may be not listening to what he/she's saying but instinctively I "say Yes" with my head.
3. Interest in others situation - well I think that this comes with empathy to others, so I don't agree that this is a social skills; maybe "pretend" to be interested is a social skill... don't know.
4. Ability to build rapport - the same situation as the other, but in this case the people in case have something in common.
5. Knowing when and how much to talk about yourself - yes, it's kind of annoying when someone keeps nagging about their dramas and doesn't gives you any opportunitie to talk about YOU.

Summing up, it's essential to "practice" some social skills and prove that we're respectful and that we respect others in order to make important connections or trades, aplying for job and to make/keep friendships; people who miss some social skills are sometimes misunderstood.

Strangers have come

Comes the morning when I can understand why I love my hometown: Nagasaki. I left many years ago to go to war, but now that has ended, I can finally sense the odor of warm tea, feel the leaves cracking while I smash them, be blown away by the sunset... the small big things in nature that make me happy.
The present year is 1598, the year of a new excitement for Japanese, specially for the governors and the Emperor. The weather today invites everyone to go out the streets for welcoming some distant travelers from Europe; they're so called Portuguese or as we say here, Namban.
It seems that I've missed a lot these years, so I'm trying to keep up with the other "watchers". Portuguese have disembarked now, and they've brought a lot of... things. As I come closer I sense strange spirits. Men full of facial hair, stinking and talking loudly are carrying closed trunks. The people are reluctant, they can't take that serious face out and, in fact, I understand them because this is a never seen experience.
Suddenly, I hear some Japanese governor saying that "they've been in Macau, they just want to know us better and make exchanges" to the man who was beside him.
They left the place a mess, a living hell, really! I don't think these people understand what "manners" mean. Besides this unusual day, it's good living in Nagasaky, and it's starting to rain. How wonderful...

The art of failure

I've listened to one of Harry Potter's books translator talking about the importance of "failure" in life at the Translating Awards Ceremony which took place at Universidade Católica. Making her words mine, I have to say that I totally agree that failure is a way to success. To fail is to try, to try is to make an effort, and if you make an effort it means that you care. Well, but if some people understands that failure is a part of their accomplishments, some people quit right away; even if pratice will lead you to success, there's people who don't give a shot trying. How do you know if you're failing? Sometimes we have a person who "takes care" of that, as example a coach who you may think that "demoralizes" you, but he/she is doing the opposite, really, because he/she just wants to improve your skills. By contrary, people who tend to have lack of confidence question those who praises them, so they start to doubt about the commentaries truthfulness. Yes, failling is frustrating at some point, but is also a process to achieve our goals. I finish this post encouraging everyone to try, and try, and try again endlessly if you believe, deeply, that you really CAN.

Cat Stevens - If You Want to Sing out, Sing out.mp3 -

"Sorry" doesn't seem to be the hardest word

As always I haven't tried my best to make a serious blog, for example to write the posts at the right time... but as my nice mother says "Is better late than never!". Well, I'm preparing for this moment, just to say these simple yet powerfull words: I'M SORRY. This day forward I will update my blog more often. Thank you for you patience, dearest one follower.