SO THIS IS CHRISTMAS. WAR IS OVER

Maybe one of the most moving songs ever written for peace and maybe one of the songs they hardly ever play on the radio at Christmas time. Guess why?

click on the picture

WAR IS OVER – WAR IS OVER – WAR IS OVER – WAR IS OVER – WAR IS OVER - WAR IS OVER

Happy Christmas to all good-hearted people wherever they are. Peace, please

GALICIA

GALICIA 

Galicia is located in the north-west of the Iberian Peninsula, its geographical location is known as “finis terrae”, the most western region of Europe. Galicia is composed of the provinces of A Coruña, Lugo, Ourense and Pontevedra.

 

Galicia is known because of its wonderful quality and variety of products from the sea and the countryside. It has a wide coastline surrounded by the Cantabrian sea and the Atlantic Ocean.

Galicia’s most characteristic elements are “las rías”, fluvial valleys covered by the sea. It can be distinguished “Las Rias Baixas” and “las rias altas”.

The climate in Galicia is a mixture between Mediterranean and Oceanic climates, it is characterized by abundant rains.

One important tip if you come to Galicia: BRING YOUR RAIN BOOTS.

SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA

Since thousands of years, El Camino de Santiago has led pilgrims as far as the sanctuary of one of Christendom’s apostles: Santiago cathedral is the last stop on the pilgrims' journey. It was built in 1075 during the reign of Alfonso VI.

CÍES ISLANDS

They are an impressive paradise in northern Spain where you can enjoy the combination of nature and sea. They were chosen as one of the best in the world, so come and see for yourself! Beaches with white sand, a transparent with a large variety of fish, stunning landscapes… There are three islands, and you'll find them in the Rías Baixas estuary in Galicia, opposite the coast of Vigo.

 

Their peace and calm are further qualities that make these islands so outstanding. Hundreds of people visit them, therefore, to avoid mass tourism, access to visitors is limited.

Here you can do many sporting activities, such as hiking, furthermore, there are great routes where you can discover the forests, some observatories, wonderful cliffs… Scuba diving and sailing can also be practiced. To sum up, come and visit them, you`ll not be disappointed.

GALICIA’S GASTRONOMY

You can´t come to Galicia and don´t taste its dishes. Galicia is near to the sea, so its gastronomy is caractericed by its variety and quality, specially dishes made by seafood, now, I am going to show some of the most important ones:

“Pulpo a la gallega”( a very simple dish to eat as a snack)

“Vieiras gallegas”

INCARCERON/SAPPHIQUE

 ``Incarceron´´

by Catherine Fisher

Finn, is a seventeen year old prisoner, that can only remember the past three years of his life. Finn has the wild belief that he wasn't born within Incarceron, like the other inmates, but instead has really come of the Outside. This belief has led him to wild dreams of escaping Incarceron and proving everyone that there really is an Outside and that he really did come from there.

On the Outside, is a young girl, Claudia. She is the daughter to the Warden of Incarceron and is stuck in an arranged marriage to the future king.

As fate would have it, Claudia and Finn separately find a crystal key that allows them to communicate with each other. Claudia agrees to help Finn escape from Incarceron. Although she find it hard to believe that anyone would want to leave Incarceron, the people Outside have been told that Incarceron is a paradise of sorts, so it's hard to believe that anyone would want to leave such a place.

``Sapphique´´

by Catherine Fisher

Finn has escaped from the terrible living Prison of Incarceron, but its memory torments him, because his brother Keiro is still inside. Outside, Claudia insists he must be king, but Finn doubts even his own identity. Is he the lost prince Giles? Or are his memories no more than another construct of his imprisonment? And can you be free if your friends are still captive?

Inside Incarceron, has the crazy sorcerer Rix really found the Glove of Sapphique, the only man the Prison ever loved. Sapphique, whose image fires Incarceron with the desire to escape its own nature.

If Keiro steals the Glove of Sapphique, will he bring destruction to the world? Who know the answer. Inside. Outside. All seeking freedom. Like Sapphique.

IT'S TIME TO TAKE ACTION!

IT’S TIME TO TAKE ACTION!

On the eve of the opening of the United Nations climate change conference in Paris, campaigners around the world from Melbourne to London marched to demand action. More than 600,000 people took to the streets in 175 countries around the world to call for a strong deal in Paris that will see a swift transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy, making the 2015 action ahead of the summit the biggest set of global marches in history, according to a campaign director at Avaaz.org, a global advocacy organization. According to estimates made by Greenpeace, around 20,000 protesters rallied in Madrid to make their feelings known about the need to fight climate change.

The Paris Climate Summit (COP21) started yesterday in France with a strong call to find an arrangement that avoids an increase of the planet’s temperature more than two grades at the end of the century. Some of the agreements that had been held are:

• UUSS and China: The US President, Barack Obama, and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, have pledged to work together for a climate change agreement in order to ensure a "low global economy in carbon dioxide" this century. “As the two largest economies in the world and the two largest emitters of carbon dioxide, both have determined that is our responsibility to take action” Obama said.
• Business: Bill Gates (Microsoft), Jeff Bezos (Amazon) or Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook) are some of the best known by the general public. All pledged to provide the initial capital needed to accelerate research into clean energy in the top laboratories in the world, as well as to provide the money that is needed to facilitate the development of these alternative sources on a large scale. The objective is to manage the negative effects of climate change. Gates was the first to set his investment: 2,000 million dollars. value that it makes it the largest donor private history of climate action.  
• End of subsidies to fossil: Promoted by New Zealand, 40 heads of State and Government - including Germany, United States, France or Mexico - signed a declaration that commits to eliminate more than 500,000 million dollars annually allocated to subsidize the fossil fuels.
• Solar Alliance: As an alternative to more polluting energies that emit the gases that cause climate change, France, on behalf of the rich countries, and India, on behalf of developing nations, sealed international alliance which consists on the transference of technological knowledge from the first group to the second.

The raising of awareness of the threat and a favorable political context generated some optimism between various environmental NGO experts, who were rather satisfied by the start of the COP21." I am optimistic because the political momentum is" said François Juilliard, director of Greenpeace France. "There is a rather positive dynamics," said Romain Benicchio, Oxfam, although he said: "no one surpassed its red lines". Celia Gautier, Climate Action Network, said that "everything is open, everything is possible: the best and worst".

AMUSINGLY WEIRD BORDERS PT.2

Do you remember Baarle-Nassau and Baarle-Hertog? That was fun, right? But sometimes those kind of situations can lead to very serious situations. 

Let’s look down to border there was between India and Bangladesh few months ago. This border by itself had over 200 enclaves: 102 were Indian in Bangladesh, with 21 Bangladesh enclaves within them, and the only one “enclave, within an enclave within an enclave” in the world. India, in the other hand, had 71 Bangladesh enclaves, containing 3 Indian enclaves. And the worst of all: they were all planned, mapped… and controlled!

What kind of evil mind planned all this mess? Well, legends tell this enclaves were the result of card or chess games between two regional kings centuries ago. But what History in fact says is that in 1713, the Mughals and a regional kingdom, Koch Bihar, the two countries did not commonly agree a clear border between them, and so it became fuzzy. When borders had to be set clear, in 1949, all this mess up of enclaves was born.

The Indian "third order" enclave

This situation in fact led to a lot of trouble to people who lived there. Differing from Belgium and the Netherlands, India and Bangladesh don’t have open borders… so the minor enclaves’ residents were literally trapped: they had no light, water, gas, or even public services. In total, over 51,549 people were in this pity situation. That led both countries to start thinking to come to an agreement to unify that nasty border, and finally managed it in 7 May 2015.

Now, the border is (mostly) neat and clean. The problem now is: what country are those over 50,000 people from? Well, at least they can call the firemen if their houses set on fire…  

Enclave:

A country or part of a country surrounded by foreign territory –WordReference.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

Borders were, like any other, guarded every day

 Sources:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtLxZiiuaXs – (main source of the series, go check it and his creator's channel out) 
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India%E2%80%93Bangladesh_enclaves#List_of_former_enclaves_and_exclaves - (list of all former enclaves)
• (google images)