Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2011/07/19
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Jayanand, First at all thank you very much your kind words for the book. About Spain, this is not easy but economists are generally excellent to explain the past and frequently null to predict the future. I'm agree what you say, as well the excellent Nathan response. Spain has been historically a Contry with big differences of their Regions, I've heard that if Catalonia was independent the level of live will be similar to the European highest levels. I don't know, what is true is that not always the different Spanish gouvernements has do the good investments, i.e. I recognize that is very important for develop a Country have good communications, In Catalonia mostly of the Motorways has a tall, in the rest of Spain no, Catalan motorways are plenty of traffic, the rest no. The High Speed Trains are full from Barcelona - Madrid, the gouvernement has invested millions on other lines without really trafic. Even they have build some airports without traffic, the most fun situation was some months ago, the inauguration of an aeroport without planes...! As you know my friend, the ROI is an indispensable ratio for any investment, we have expend money in good things but in the wrong direction. Traditionnally Spain has never been a high developped nation with a strong R+D, culture, owns industry..., the strong points in Spain has been Tourism and Building, this has conducted the economy to a more speculative economy than a productive economy. The way to correct this is in my opinion education, education and education for the future generations. In Spain there are some Banks really important, as Santander, BBVA, La Caixa, and the finantial sysytem on these ones I think is quite solid. But smaller Banks has used the boom of the construction to make fast money, many current Spanish has believe they was rich, the Banks was saying "we finance 100% of your new residence" and I've heard, sometimes even more saying and you can buy a BMW .... IMO Spain is one of the European countries that they are more citizens with two or three residences, it also one country with a very plesant level of live...., but now the FIESTA is finish, the European Banks with loans to the Spanish banks are asking for his money and this "vil metallo" don't run any more as it was. Incapacity of the gouvernement to react?, yes, but also I think this is a long history very attached to the Spanish economy cycles. Corruption? yes, too much expenses in poltician things? yes.... and many, many people has remained with similar incomes. As Nathan said, initially the INDIGNATS was idealists and many people was sharing his ideas, but what we can not share is that everything is free, and some of the demands go too much on these style of idealisms. We have lived some generations with an educational sysytem not very good, I think we have some of the consequences on our politicians, our young people, and our "indignats". Actually the unemployment is about 20%, but there is something rare here, on the years that the President Aznar (a very good friend of Bush!), says "Espa?a va bien" (Spain goes well) it was about 8 - 10 % unenployement! . What minds this! IMO that there is something wrong on the basic structure. Probably some politicians can protest in name of "indignats", but one of the problems of this group is in my opinion they are organized on a basis of Anarchism and Idealism, they are deciding with Assamblees, his communication is throught Facebook or SMS.... All these ingredients works for an initial revolution, but it is difficult give them a real content. Protest is quite easy, but we need leaders with programmes. About Greece...., I don't know, Spain is certainly more solid, I think UE was made to fast like a big "Fiesta" and now we are paying, probably, some improvisations. I just remember two small interesting books from Indro Montanelli, I've read longtime ago, "History of the Romans" and "History of the Greeks", note the title, not History of Rome or Greece, history of the people.... Montanelli said that one of the causes why the Romans has been succesful was because they was pragmatics and the Greeks Idealists. Sorry to be too long ... Cheers Lluis El 19/07/2011, a las 4:47, Jayanand Govindaraj escribi?: > Sorry - by mistake I posted this on the forum yesterday - it is > about two > books... > > I received two books at the same time yesterday - Luis' 'Indignats' > and > Steve McCurry's 'The Iconic Photographs'. Both are exceptional and > highly > recommended, and have a common thread close to my heart - in both > the books > the central subject is human beings. > > Luis' has really brought a book of street photographs - though I > have seen > many of them before, their impact, taken as a whole, is considerable. > Beautifully and coherently done. It really brings his talent in > capturing > human beings to the fore. Blurb seems to have improved its B&W > printing as > well, it looks quite neutral to my eyes. > > I just want to ask a question of Luis: > > If, as I think is the case, Spain's long term bondage to French and > German > Banks can only be solved by defaulting and leaving the Eurozone, > because for > obvious reasons neither France or Germany are going to do anything to > constructively help Spain ahead of their own banks, what would the > protesters do in that case - would they want the Eurozone subsidies to > continue, and exist in that bondage for a generation or two, or go > through a > period of severe transition for a possibly better life for their > children? > It is all very well to protest, but I want to know what they are > protesting > against. > > On to the second book - a very apt name - iconic photographs indeed, > printed > beautifully and LARGE, in a limited edition of 3000 copies. This > magnificent > book is all of 20"x15" and weighs 16.2 lbs! I actually just strained > my > shoulder trying to manhandle it onto a bookshelf! I love McCurry's > work, > probably because it is very easy for me to culturally identify > myself with > his work, as most of it is in our neighborhood. I bought this book > because > it has a free signed print! When I wanted to buy one of his > originals, he > wanted US$1500 for a 16x20 print. This book includes a free print of > 18"x12" > size of 'Flower Seller, Dal Lake, Kashmir, 1996'. I think, despite > the high > price of GBP160 that I paid for it, (luckily Amazon UK has free > shipping to > India at present), the sheer quality of the printing and the > original signed > print that you get with it, makes this book a bargain in my eyes. > > http://www.amazon.com/Steve-McCurry-Iconic-Photographs/dp/0714856339/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1310995138&sr=8-1 > > > > Cheers > Jayanand > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information