Hello everyone and welcome to my blog, A Texan in Spain!

These are two links to two very interesting blogs about how to get involved in the Bilingual Program as Language and Culture Assistant.

Melissa, our actual Language Assistant, show them to me today and I´m posting them here!!!

Thanks  to Trevor this is a very interesting sight of the Programm.


How to Apply for the North American Language & Culture Assistant Program

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog, A Texan in Spain!

Welcome to the Blog!

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog, A Texan in Spain! If you haven’t heard yet, I got a job in SPAIN for the next school year and wanted to share my time there with you here.

Having waited since March 31st, I FINALLY got word today from the Ministry of Education that I will be a North American Language and Culture Assistant in the Autonomous Community of Andalucía!!!

Source: Wikipedia

In a few weeks, they’ll tell me which school I’ve been assigned to, and then I can start the visa process.

Now what’s that long job title entail? Well, in Spanish they call it a auxiliar de conversación extranjero—“foreign conversation helper.” So a conversation teacher? Not necessarily. The other title (subtitle?) for the job is a “Cultural Ambassador” from North America. The program brochurethat my Spanish professor gave me (bless her!) explains it thusly:

The Language and Culture Assistants program is coordinated by the Spanish Ministry of Education in collaboration with the Spanish Comunidades Autónomas (regions) and the Education Offices of the Embassies of Spain in the United States and Canada. It gives Junior and Senior College students as well as recent Graduates an opportunity to visit Spain and become acquainted with the Spanish education system, teachers and students, while sharing with them aspects of their own language and culture.

Yeah, I know, that sounds pretty idealistic. So, a little background. For the past few years, the Spanish government has been really pushing bilingual education, since Spaniards tend to rank low on foreign-language proficiency and since unemployment is extremely high (about 25% general, 50% youth). So Spain is pretty desperate when it comes to language-learning. That's where I and 2,000 other North Americans come in!

Basically, I’m going to be a teacher’s assistant in classes taught in English. My job duties can include presenting about American culture or English grammar, correcting pronunciation, and acting as a human dictionary. The pay is €700 a month, but I’ll only be working 12 hours a week, health insurance will be provided, and I can teach private English classes on the side to supplement it. Yet Spain is letting me into the country on a “student visa” for the program, which is officially a “scholarship.” Hmm.

I’ll begin posting regularly pretty soon here about Spain, Spanish, and traveling in general.

Thanks for reading!

Women's rights movements

history-womens-rights-movements

Women's rights movements are primarily concerned with making the political, social, and economic status of women equal to that of men and with establishing legislative safeguards against discrimination on the basis of sex. Women's rights movements have worked in support of these aims for at least two centuries, from the first feminist publication in 1792, entitled A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, by Mary Wollstonecraft in Britain.

Militant political action among women began in Britain in 1903 with the formation of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) for the right to vote, under the leadership of Emmeline Pankhurst. Women of all ages and classes demonstrated on a massive scale; the demonstrators were jailed, locked out of their meeting places, and thrown down the steps of Parliament. National divisiveness ended in a truce at the outbreak of World War I (1914) with the WSPU's decision to support the war effort. The ensuing mobilization by WSPU of thousands of its members for voluntary participation in the war industries and support services was a highly influential factor in overcoming government resistance to WSPU aims. The right to vote was granted in 1918; it was confined to women of age 30 and above. In 1928 the voting age was lowered to 21.

In the United States the first definitive position on women's rights — hitherto intermingled with antislavery issues — was taken in 1848 under the leadership of Elizabeth Cady Stanton at the Women's Rights Convention at Seneca Falls, N.Y.  In 1850 the National Women's Rights Convention was held, led by Lucy Stone, an early activist. Both groups coalesced in the formation (1863) of the Women's National Loyal League, under Susan B. Anthony, who wrote and submitted in 1878 a proposed right-to-vote amendment to the Constitution.

In 1890, Wyoming became the first state with women's suffrage. The movement was accelerated by the formation (1890) of the National American Women's Suffrage Association and the election (1900) of Carrie Chapman Catt as president. The ensuing campaign attracted many educated, wealthy, and influential women to the cause, with resultant political professionalism, increased funding, and the development of massive parades and demonstrations in the major cities. The Anthony amendment, as written in 1878, was ratified as the 19th Amendment and became law in 1920.

From 1920 to 1960 militancy on behalf of a single issue diffused into a number of women's political groups, such as the League of Women Voters (1920) and the National Council of Negro Women (1935). Such groups supported various types of liberal reforms related to the rights of both men and women. An equal rights amendment drafted in 1923 by the National Women's party (founded 1913) remained dormant for another 50 years.

At the international level, however, the women's rights movement made progress. The preamble to the United Nations (UN) Charter (1945) referred to equal rights for women; in 1948 the UN Commission on the Status of Women was established; in 1952 the UN General Assembly held a convention on the political rights of women.

During the 1960s a militant feminist trend emerged in the United States, encouraged by significant feminist studies, such as The Second Sex (1953) by Simone de Beauvoir and The Feminine Mystique (1963) by Betty Friedan, and by a general legislative climate favorable to minority rights and antidiscrimination movements. Militant women's groups were formed. The Women's Liberation Movement, which was social rather than political and was manifested in literature and demonstrations by radical feminists, may have raised the awareness of the nation to the prevalence of discriminatory beliefs and attitudes.

More significantly, feminist political organizations arose that developed into a full feminist movement by the 1970s. These included the National Organization for Women (NOW) formed in 1966 under the leadership of Betty Friedan; the National Women's Political Caucus (1971), composed of such nationally known feminists as Bella Abzug, Shirley Chisholm, and Gloria Steinem; the Equal Rights Amendment Ratification Council (1973); and the Coalition of Labor Union Women (1973).

The force of the women's rights movement, spearheaded by NOW, was brought to bear on the major issue of the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to the Constitution. The ERA was approved by the U.S. House of Representatives in 1971 and by the Senate in 1972. On June 30, 1982, however, ratification of the ERA fell three states short of the needed 38. Later congressional efforts to reintroduce the measure have failed, although a number of states have added equal rights clauses to their constitutions.

Since the 1980s the women's movement has focused on diverse issues, including reproductive rights (preserving the woman's right of choice to have an abortion against the fervent pro-life movement), sexual harassment, and the so-called "glass ceiling" that impedes women in corporate advancement.

Bibliography: Anderson, Bonnie S., Joyous Greetings: The First International Women's Movement, 1830 –1860 (2000); Flexner, Eleanor, Century of Struggle: The Woman's Rights Movement in the United States(1976; repr. 1996); Leahy, Michael, et al. eds., The Liberation Debate: Rights at Issue (1996); Mankiller, Wilma, et al., The Reader's Companion to U.S. Women's History (1998); Mathews, Donald G., and DeHart, Jane S., ERA and the Politics of Gender (1990); Nicholson, Linda, ed., The Second Wave: A Reader in Feminist Theory (1997); Rosen, Ruth, The World Split Open: How the Modern Women's Movement Changed America (2000); Ross, S. D., et al., The Rights of Women: The Basic ACLU Guide to Women's Rights, 3d rev. ed. (1993).

Michael Andreas Helmuth Ende

Michael Ende

Born 1929 in Germany as son of a surrealist painter who was banned by the Nazis in 1936. Went to Waldorf-school and deserted when he was called to the army at age of 16 in 1945. After the war he became an actor, critic and finally writer. His first big success was the children's book "Jim Knopf und Lukas der Lokomotivfuehrer" (Jim Knopf and Lukas the Engine-driver). Although he got much praise and many awards he remained modest, almost shy, preferring his fantasy world but still keeping an eye on the real world in his stories.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Time is life itself, and life resides in the human heart.
Michael Ende  

Michael Andreas Helmuth Ende (12 November 1929 – 28 August 1995) was a German author of fantasy and children's literature. He is best known for his epic fantasy work The Neverending Story; other famous works include Momo and Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver. His works have been translated into more than 40 languages and sold more than 20 million copies, and have been adapted into motion pictures, stage plays, operas and audio books.
Ende was one of the most popular and famous German authors of the 20th century, mostly due to the enormous success of his children's books. However, Ende was not strictly a children's author, as he also wrote books for adults. Ende claimed, "It is for this child in me, and in all of us, that I tell my stories," and that "[my books are] for any child between 80 and 8 years" (qtd. Senick 95, 97). Ende often found frustration in being perceived as exclusively an author for children, considering himself rather a man intending to speak of cultural problems and spiritual wisdom to people of all ages in his works; he wrote in 1985:

"One may enter the literary parlor via just about any door, be it the prison door, the madhouse door, or the brothel door. There is but one door one may not enter it through, which is the child room door. The critics will never forgive you such. The great Rudyard Kipling is one of a number of people to have suffered from this. I keep wondering to myself what this peculiar contempt towards anything related to childhood is all about."^[1]

Ende's writing could be described as a surreal mixture of reality and fantasy. The reader is often invited to take a more interactive role in the story, and the worlds in his books often mirror our reality, using fantasy to bring light to the problems of an increasingly technological modern society. His writings were influenced by anthroposophy.^[2][3] Ende was also known as a proponent of economic reform, and claimed to have had the concept of aging money in mind when writing Momo.
He was born in Garmisch (Bavaria, Germany), son of the surrealist painter Edgar Ende. He died in Filderstadt (Germany) of stomach cancer.

http://www.michaelende.de

Violence Against Women must STOP!!

This is our group campaign video for Stopping Violence Against Women for our QU 301 class at Quinnipiac University. Our goal is to spread the word and inform the public about the danger of violence and for women to stand up and voice their opinions on the situation.

We must remember that a small change over time can create a world wide trend.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mahatma Gandhi
Born	Mohandas K. Gandhi 2 October 1869 Porbandar, Kathiawar Agency, Bombay Presidency, British India[1] (now in Gujarat, India)
Died	30 January 1948 (aged 78) New Delhi, Dominion of India
Cause of death	Assassination by shooting
Resting place	Cremated at Rajghat, Delhi. 28.6415°N 77.2483°E
Nationality	Indian
Other names	Mahatma Gandhi, Bapu, Gandhiji
Ethnicity	Indo-Aryan (Gujarati)
Alma mater	Alfred High School, Rajkot, Samaldas College, Bhavnagar, University College, London (UCL)
Known for	Prominent figure of Indian independence movement, propounding the philosophy of Satyagraha and Ahimsa advocating non-violence, pacifism
Religion	Hinduism, with Jain influences
Spouse(s)	Kasturba Gandhi
Children	Harilal Manilal Ramdas Devdas
Parents	Putlibai Gandhi (Mother) Karamchand Gandhi (Father)
Signature

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (pronounced [ˈmoːɦənd̪aːs ˈkərəmtʃənd̪ ˈɡaːnd̪ʱi] ( listen); 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), commonly known as Mahatma Gandhi or Bapu(Father of Nation), was the preeminent leader of Indian nationalism in British-ruled India. Employing non-violent civil disobedience, Gandhi led India to independence and inspired movements for non-violence, civil rights and freedom across the world.^[2][3]
The son of a senior government official, Gandhi was born and raised in a Bania^[4] community in coastal Gujarat, and trained in law in London. Gandhi became famous by fighting for the civil rights of Muslim and Hindu Indians in South Africa, using new techniques of non-violent civil disobedience that he developed. Returning to India in 1915, he set about organising peasants to protest excessive land-taxes. A lifelong opponent of "communalism" (i.e. basing politics on religion) he reached out widely to all religious groups. He became a leader of Muslims protesting the declining status of the Caliphate. Assuming leadership of the Indian National Congress in 1921, Gandhi led nationwide campaigns for easing poverty, expanding women's rights, building religious and ethnic amity, ending untouchability, increasing economic self-reliance, and above all for achieving Swaraj—the independence of India from British domination.
Gandhi led Indians in protesting the national salt tax with the 400 km (250 mi) Dandi Salt March in 1930, and later in demanding the British to immediately Quit India in 1942, during World War II. He was imprisoned for that and for numerous other political offenses over the years. Gandhi sought to practice non-violence and truth in all situations, and advocated that others do the same. He saw the villages as the core of the true India and promoted self-sufficiency; he did not support the industrialization programs of his disciple Jawaharlal Nehru. He lived modestly in a self-sufficient residential community and wore the traditional Indian dhoti and shawl, woven with yarn he had hand spun on a charkha. His chief political enemy in Britain was Winston Churchill,^[5] who ridiculed him as a half-naked fakir.^[6] He was a dedicated vegetarian, and undertook long fasts as means of both self-purification and political mobilization.
In his last year, unhappy at the partition of India, Gandhi worked to stop the carnage between Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs that raged in the border area between India and Pakistan. He was assassinated on 30 January 1948 by Nathuram Godse who thought Gandhi was too sympathetic to India's Muslims. 30 January is observed as Martyrs' Day in India. The honorific Mahatma ("Great Soul") was applied to him by 1914.^[7] In India he was also called Bapu ("Father"). He is known in India as the Father of the Nation;^[8] his birthday, 2 October, is commemorated there as Gandhi Jayanti, a national holiday, and world-wide as the International Day of Non-Violence. Gandhi's philosophy was not theoretical but one of pragmatism, that is, practicing his principles in the moment. Asked to give a message to the people, he would respond, "My life is my message."^[9]

Just cute!!

When Nietzsche Wept

THE BOOK

When Nietzsche wept

Interesting book by Irvin Yalom, a psychotherapist who writes novels about philosophers going to therapy (now, there's the basis for an hyper-intellectual approach to human misery!). The story is that of a (fictional) encounter between the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (the guy who declared God dead) and Joseph Breuer, a Viennese physician mentor of Sigmund Freud (who also appears in Yalom's book as a secondary character).

Nietzsche and Breuer and up essentially psychoanalyzing each other, both afflicted by obsessions about women and death (like most middle age white males I know). The interesting twist here is the continuous juxtaposition of two different kinds of “talk therapy”: psychoanalysis and philosophical council. The first one attempts to speak to the emotional side of us, the second to the rational one. Neither can succeed on its own. Breuer gets frustrated by Nietzsche's “high-minded” philosophical council of taking the cosmic perspective, embracing the challenge and pain because they'll make him a better man. What Breuer really wants is to shag a former young patient (despite being married to a beautiful woman), and not die. Don't we all? (Incidentally, the book is an excellent “insider's look” at men's inner feelings, a must-read for women.)

But the emotional approach on its own also fails. In the book, Breuer has tried to help the very same patient he is sexually obsessed with, succeeds for a while, only to see her falling back into her original illness, jeopardize his marriage and career, and then do the same thing over again with another doctor.

As both Plato and particularly Aristotle clearly understood, the pain of the human condition is generated by the difficulty of balancing what they identified as the three parts of the soul (emotions, rational, and “spirited” -- in charge of will), curiously close – though not exactly parallel -- to Freud's own trinity of Id, Ego and Superego (respectively the emotional, rational, and moral “minds”). David Hume also famously chimed in that “reason is, and ought only to be, the slave of the passions (in “A Treatise of Human Nature”), by which he meant that we don't do anything unless we care for it, regardless of how logical (or not) the thing in question is.

But of course, the real issue is: now that we know all of this, does it actually help us overcome our fear of death? (Or, for that matter, to shag the woman or man we want?) Well, yes and no. Knowledge by itself (Aristotle again) will not do. But knowing where some of our pain and powerful drives come from and how they act should help us controlling or channeling them. Aristotle's recipe was: practice makes better. Virtue and happiness are not something we are born with, they are things we work toward. Like all worthwhile exercise, it is painful and a bit unpleasant, but if we stick to it, it becomes easier, and perhaps even enjoyable in its own right. Of course, it may take us a few decades...


THE MOVIE

When Nietzsche Wept is an independent film released in 2007, starring Armand Assante, Ben Cross and Katheryn Winnick. The movie is based on a book of the same name by Irvin D. Yalom and was directed by Pinchas Perry.

The film follows the storyline of the book quite faithfully, although neither the book nor the movie is based entirely on reality. Although the main characters and some of the facts are true, the center piece of the novel (and of the movie), which was the therapeutic encounter of German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche and Austrian physician Josef Breuer, never happened.

When Nietzsche Wept
 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

When Nietzsche Wept is an independent Bulgarian film released in 2007 and produced in the USA, starring Armand Assante, Ben Cross and Katheryn Winnick. The movie is based on the novel When Nietzsche Wept by Irvin D. Yalom and was directed by Pinchas Perry.

Plot

 The film opens with the Russian-born novelist—who eventually became a member of Freud's 'Vienna Circle'-- Lou Andreas-Salome (Katheryn Winnick) who had an unconsummated (Platonic) 'love affair' with German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (Armand Assante), and to whom he allegedly proposed in 1882 (although whether her claims are true is very much up for debate) writing a letter to Dr Josef Breuer (Ben Cross), after hearing of his newly developed talking cure (Breuer was a friend of Sigmund Freud (Jamie Elman), who also appears in the story, and one of the influential fathers of psychoanalysis.). The two meet, and a reluctant and troubled Breuer agrees to Salome's plan; to cure the intense migraine attacks that plague Nietzsche, and at the same time, without his knowing, cure the despair that her refusal of marriage has inflicted upon him. Salome has persuaded Franz Overbeck (Nietzsche's friend) to send him to Breuer, however, Nietzsche offers no support to Breuer, so the course of treatment must end. In a chilling parallel, an encounter with a mistreated horse causes Nietzsche to redeem his appointment with Breuer (Nietzsche finally went mad after stopping a man from whipping a horse using his own body, before breaking down in tears and descending into insanity). Nietzsche later visits a whorehouse, where he has another attack of migraine, exacerbated by the overuse of a sleeping draught. Nietzsche decides that he will, instead of pursuing treatment, leave for Basel. Meanwhile, an up-and-coming psychologist Sigmund Freud, friend of Josef and Mathilde Breuer, suggests that if Breuer was to make some confession to Nietzsche, he may stop seeing any positive sentiment shown as being a bid for power, and indulge in confessions of his own. So, the next time they met, Breuer makes the suggestion that, while he treats Nietzsche's body, Nietzsche must "treat" Breuer of the despair that he feels after falling in love with one of his patients, Bertha Pappenheim (played by Michal Yannai), otherwise known as Anna O., a famous case which was discussed in a joint book by Breuer and Freud, later on. The confessions lead to the two becoming open with each other, learning each other's way of life and finally the two becoming friends, but not before the film has explored a great deal of Nietzsche's philosophy and Breuer's psychoanalysis. Breuer's anguish over his supposed unhappiness is explored by means of his highly symbol-laden dreams, thus showing the importance of interpretation as a stepping stone in what would constitute Freud's approach to psychoanalytic techniques. The film is host to a variety of famous faces of the day; Josef and Mathilde Breuer, Friedrich Nietzsche, Lou Salome, Sigmund Freud, Bertha Pappenheim, Paul Rée as well as references to Franz Overbeck, and the music of the composer, Richard Wagner.

Critics

In terms of Nietzsche's thought, the representation is most immature and pedestrian. The strongest parts of the film are few and far between in this regard. Nietzsche and Breuer on a swan-shaped pedalo, in a state of absurd and chaotic mania, contemplating the passage of time in an insane dream to the theme from Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake gives a marvelous insight into the peculiar nature of Nietzsche's concept of time, but this scene is all too brief; if it had been any longer, we would perhaps expect dilution to occur once more. The other strong scene is Nietzsche presenting the concept of the eternal return to Breuer, which competently grasps the existential implications of the notion. This is let down by the subsequent descent of Breuer into an existential rebellion, in which his behaviour becomes erratic,impulsive and foolish, in a great departure from the form and style we might expect of someone who has truly grasped Nietzsche's thought.

As a whole, the film is probably worth watching, since there really isn't anything else out there like it. The dream sequences are marvelous, and I suppose this is relevant to Nietzsche's thought, but it definitely remains unclear whether this relevance is intentional, or merely a device. Watch with low expectations, or you will be sorely disappointed, and perhaps even a little angered at the representation of Nietzsche and his thought. I am left hoping for a greater film to appear in the near future, which will cast this peculiar piece of cinema in a more objective light.