Friday, April 18, 2014

The US of A has a hard time to understand why South of the Rio Grande we have problems with them

This is one example, on Google news tonight.



The world lost one of its greatest current writers, and within hours he is already on item 3 Google news. Probably in CNN it is buried under new speculations about the Malaysian lost plane.....

49 comments:

  1. Roberto Carlos3:51 AM

    Oh c'mon Daniel, do you even understand how "google news" works? It is not a newspaper with a fixed headline for hours. Google news is constantly changing. Try a little later and it will be very different.

    It is just too silly to extrapolate that "this is why we hate them". Face it, you hate them because you hate them. Period. Any excuse will do.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, but I do understand very well how google news work! That is my point! Show what people want to read on why they look for! I suppose i should be elated because at least García Márquez made it briefly in third! Syd below got it right!

      Delete
  2. For Democrats: The Royal Baby.
    For a majority, raised on the imperative of US Pop Media: Gabo who?

    Any questions?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous5:08 AM

    We have enough of Oliver Stone, our magical realist.

    ReplyDelete
  4. One Hundred Years of Solitude, masterpiece. And it was influenced by Venezuela's Rómulo Gallegos.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I would better describe it this way....One of the "world's greatest writers" ...without a moral conscious

    ReplyDelete
  6. If you are speaking of the people use the word " them",but If you are speaking of the US use the word " it"

    I would actually prefer it if Venezuelans and all other peoples would stop talking about the US ad nauseum.I hate that we are a constant topic.I always prefer to be left alone and I do not understand why you think that coming out on the News is so important.Most News is just scandal and stupidities ....in the US and everywhere.

    Not a reason to have problems with others Daniel. firepigette

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Firepig,
      Si dejas de visitar sitios no estadounidenses, no vas a tener ese problema. Deberías leer los blogs sobre Carolina del Norte...y si quieres aventurarte, sobre Carolina del Sur y Virginia.
      Yo creo que Daniel exagera un poquito, aunque solo un poquito.

      Delete
  7. torres5:05 PM

    I wonder, if Google news were Venezuelan, in what order a news of diosdado cabello having a son would be with respect to Toni Morrison dying...

    --

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Boludo Tejano5:53 PM

      Exactamundo. Underlying this post is the implicit expectation that the average US citizen has the knowledge and interests of a university faculty member. Which ain't ever gonna happen. Given the current PC/lefty stranglehold on the professoriate in the US, that ain't such a bad thing. Not at all.

      Delete
    2. torres

      Google news would be owned by a Cabello testaferro. End of story.

      Delete
  8. Anonymous5:50 PM

    No es para tanto. Noticia es notitcia, no importa el orden. Lo importanto es reportarlo al mundo. Uno puede escoger que le interesa leer primero. En el caso de la television, tambien uno puede cambia el canal si no nos interesa o apagarlo y leer el periodico en el orden que uno quiera.

    ReplyDelete
  9. If the USA did the sensible thing, becoming officially bi-lingual, English and Spanish, this man's writings would be more widely read and taught in high schools and colleges. Alas, the USA is no longer a sensible place. Too many people who claim to be for 'free speech', and I'm referring to the Tea Party types and the GOP, can't accept that 'free speech' includes the right to speak any language other than English. It's a form of racism that is all too common here. Canada is getting on quite well with both English and French. We could and should do the same thing here by adopting Spanish as the second official language of the United States. In addition to being the fair and proper thing to do for our own citizens and residents, it would go a long way toward mending relations with our southern neighbors.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Boludo Tejano9:34 PM

      Decime otro de vaqueros, pue'.

      Delete
    2. pitiyanqui10:26 PM

      I think this is a misguided sling. The US doesn't have an "official" language - English is the language of common use.

      The vast majority of people in gringolandia do not speak Spanish. It isn't a question of politics. CNN did a poll in 2011 and 82% of people said English should be the official language. Further, Canada is not a good example: 56% speak English and 20+% speak French (as opposed to 80%/12% English/Spanish in the United States) but a major difference is whole provinces in Canada (Quebec for example) have 80% percent that French speakers, which would make things difficult if they had only one language or the other as "official".

      The above referenced poll had a sampling of 40,000, but given that the article was written in English, there might be a selection bias (as mentioned below). Even so, there are financial and social costs associated with having an "official" language beyond the de facto one. Moreover, a pretty sizeable portion of the Hispanic population in the U.S. suffers unduly from a lack of English skills resulting in higher than normal poverty rates compared to the country averages. This rolls over generation to generation as linguistic skills are acquired largely in the home and the children of migrants who speak Spanish fail to learn adequate levels of English. I have seen this first hand in kids who cannot put together a sufficient sentence, cover letter, email or even resume. I also know any number of LatAm migrants (largely from Central America including both those legal and illegal) who are eminently capable workers, but speak little to no English after many years in the US and who work jobs making $10/hour and drift from job to job because they have little security in the work place due to a lack of English.

      This isn't a political party thing; 82% of the ~40,000 sample does not represent a Tea Party/GOP presence, which is a real minority conservative group - I would guess the 82% includes some more liberal minded folk as well. Please don't make it so.

      See here: https://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/facts_for_features_special_editions/cb13-ff19.html

      Delete
    3. Anonymous12:44 AM

      Canada is not getting on well with French and English. It costs a lot and Quebec has language police trying to maintain French as their language. How many English words have infiltrated the Spanish language? El autobus tiene full? There are many Spanish influenced words used in English also, such is the nature of language.
      Spanish countries can boost their literature if they translate some into English which in turn will encourage people to read the books in the language in which they were written as some things are lost in translation.
      Google has many young searchers who look for movies and celebrity news before political things so as a good business, give them what they want.

      Delete
    4. I grew up speaking French. The nuns taught us French and religion in the morning and English in the afternoon. Some had just come from Canada and we would help each other out. Our goal was to make it in the American (New Hampshire) culture! We did as did our Irish, Polish and Greek friends did. Make it work. I remember asking a nun if my friends at St Patrick's were Catholic? She said yes but, God is French.

      Delete
    5. Well: that thing about "autobús tiene full" is no Spanish, it's Spanglish. Do you mean "el autobús está lleno"? Words are loan all the time, but what is happening in the US has more to do with Latinos who are not getting a proper education in either language. But please: it is possible to be bilingual and prosper. And by the way: there is a huge difference between, on one side, Irish, Polish and Greek and on the other Spanish. Spanish is the most spoken language after Chinese. Spanish is the language spoken all the way South of the US border (with some exceptions, the main one being a language closely related to Spanish).

      And here you have an interview with Russian band Bi-2 (in Russian) about their love for the books of Gabriel García Márquez.

      On a related topic: recently a study showed the percentage of US Americans ready for going to war about Ukraine was very closely related to the percentage of US Americans who didn't know where Ukraine was.

      Delete
  10. Anonymous7:44 PM

    Timeline?
    item 1 - 15 min ago
    item 2 - 17 min ago
    item 3 - 24 min ago ...
    very sensible ...
    Item 1 farandula, item 2 Korea, item 3 obit?
    why get steamed up? xp

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Because item 1 is absolutely totally irrelevant to anything in the world?

      Delete
    2. Roberto Carlos12:18 AM

      This blog "jumped the shark" with the publication of this post. It's been trending in that direction for a while. Now finally it is beginning to approach the quality of Venezuela's legendary toilet paper.

      Delete
  11. He has already been given far more recognition than he ever deserved. He should have been rotting with the worms long ago. So long as supposed "intellectuals" keep anointing hypocrites like Marquez, a man who openly claimed Fidel to be his closest of friends, they will only embolden those like him to carry on as they do today in Venezuela and Cuba. You can not have it both ways. The man was a despicable fraud.
    http://babalublog.com/2014/04/18/gabriel-garcia-marquez-a-good-friday-meditation-on-original-sin/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I am sorry. As a human being he was a failure. As a writer he was outstanding. Have you read his books? And if you have read them can you point out in his main masterpieces anything that supports Fidel or other unsavory ventures ? (100, cholera, foretold, labyrinth?)

      Delete
    2. In one of Enrique Krauze's books, he argues that there is quite a bit of sympathy in Garcia Marquez's works for "the great leader". Patriarch, maybe?

      Delete
    3. Boludo Tejano11:30 PM

      Jeffry, I don't know about that, but one of my favorite lines from Patriarch was when Mama of the Patriarch said something like "If I had know that my son was going to be President, I would have made sure he learned to read and write."

      Gabo is an example where the quality of a writer's politics is not the same as the quality of his literary work.

      An interesting work is Roberto Ampuero's memoir
      Nuestros años Verde Olivo
      . Ampuero was a member of Juventud Comunista who fled Chile after the 1973 coup, fell in love with the daughter of a member of Cuba's Nomenklatura when in East Germany, spent some years in Cuba,and was able to leave Cuba for East Germany circa 1981. His years in Cuba definitely changed his politics. He went on to become a writer.

      Delete
    4. Daniel, como carajitos en bachillerato todos tuvimos que calarnos esa vaina. Otoño del Patriarca por la propia admisión de Márquez, no es mas que rienda suelta a su fascinación por Juan Vicente Gómez.

      Tu te quejas que no le dieron primera plana a Márquez en los periódicos cuando por-fin estiro la pata. Dime tu, cuando Raul mato a Oswaldo Payá y Harold Cepero, hombres mucho mas virtuosos que Márquez. Quien coño los puso a ellos en primera plana? Nadie, ni N.Y.T, ni CNN, Ni El Universal ni El Nacional.
      Leopoldo who? Maria Corina what?? Party on Sean Penn!!! party on!!!
      Pero esperate que cuando la momia del remake de Weekend at Bernies vesion de Cuba por-fin pele gallo... eeeeese si, a cuestas de ese santo zurdo que llaman "diversity", lo van a poner en primera plana con un sin fin de elogios pa-que tutilimiundarcachi sepa que eruditos son. Y descaradamente ignoraran todas las brutalidades que cometió, porque como dicen tantos de esos musius que se la dan de mas educados que el resto de los pedestres, "toooooo eso es culpa de los gringos y su bloqueo". Pero tanto aquí como allá, ese es el problema. Tu ves, demasiados de esos bohemios, de esos académicos que andan en camiseta de Che y se la dan de mas eruditos que el projimo aquí en las universidades, prefieren vivir el "realismo mágico" de Márquez, que la fea realidad de como Marque se arrimo a Fidel y traiciono a otros escritores. Francamente eso no lo puedo ignorar aun así escriba bonito.

      Y tu te sorprendes entonces que la mayoría de los gringos no saben quien carajo es Márquez?

      Mira, nadie en los EEUU le para bolas a lo que esta ocurriendo en Venezuela hoy. Ni el pedestre, ni el guevón de la casa blanca. Chamo, aquí tienes políticos como el senador Joe Kennedy que abiertamente con anuncios el la TV elogian "la bondad" de Maduro creyéndose así mas educados . Y así, con la "compasión" de los "bien intencionados", los mismos que segurito te cuentan del realismo mágico de Márquez, coordinando los regalitos de combustible de calefacción "from the people of Venezuela" para el programa de LIHEAP pa los gringos "pobres", compra influencia en el senado de los EEUU.
      Party on Sean Penn!!! party on!!!!

      Delete
    5. Silvius

      Te estas volviendo algo histerico.

      1- El problema no es que Garcia Marquez no este de primero, es que el resultado Chelsea abriendo las piernas este de primero.

      2- Parece que la gente no lee TODO el texto del blog. Empiezo subrayando que como ser humano Garcia Marquez fue una mierda.

      3- Desde el principio de los sesenta cuando Garcia Marquez se le dio Prensa Latina todo el mundo sabia su afinidad con Fidel. Me disculparas pero hay que ser bolsa para entregarle cualquier carta de reclamo!!!!!!

      Delete
  12. Anonymous8:16 PM

    Sr. Silvius, your comment is inappropriate.

    While I cannot disagree, in fact it is obvious that most norte americanos are navel gazers.. but not all:

    http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/17/world/americas/gabriel-garcia-marquez-dies/

    http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/18/books/gabriel-garcia-marquez-literary-pioneer-dies-at-87.html?_r=0http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/18/books/gabriel-garcia-marquez-literary-pioneer-dies-at-87.html?_r=0

    His story is available, in English, for those who have read him or heard of him.

    Lazarus

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And you call "most Americans" navel gazers when the best you can come up with is the same old regurgitated barf from NYT and CNN? Bajate de esa nube.

      Delete
    2. Sr Lazaro; stick this one in your pipe and smoke it.

      hoy Babalu blog nos da esto.
      From Armando Valladares:

      http://www.nuevoaccion.com/articulos/garcia-marquez-chivato-y-complice-de-los-crimenes-de-fidel-castro/

      "Many years ago Garcia Marquez became an informer for Castro’s secret police. At the time, back in Havana, Cuban dissident and human-rights activist, Ricardo Bofill, with help of the then-reporter for Reuters, Collin McSevengy, managed to enter the Havana hotel where García Márquez was having a few drinks. In a quiet corner, with absolute discretion, Bofill gave García Márquez a series of documents relating to several Cuban artists.

      A few weeks later Castro's police arrested Ricardo Bofill--and displayed on the table right next to Castro's police torturer--were the very documents which Bofill had given Garcia Marquez.

      On October 13, 1968 the Spanish newspapers ABC and Diario 16, published Bofill's disclosures and headlined that: "García Márquez' revelations led to the imprisonment of numerous Cuban writers and artists."

      Some of his friends and defenders have said that Garcia-Marquez interceded for my (Armando Valladares') freedom. This is ABSOLUTELY untrue - a complete lie. I have enough moral honesty (something he lacked) to admit it, if it had been true. But this lie was a maneuver by his (Gabo's) buddies, to link him with some of the international support that actually produced my release. In fact what Garcia-Marquez actually did, was to use the Nobel Prize ceremony to repeat the Castro regime's very lies and calumnies against me."

      "In 1980, I gave Garcia Marquez a letter where we denounced the situation of political prisoners in 1982 in the lobby of the Hotel Riviera. When they arrested me three months later, the State Security agent had that letter in his hands," Bofill said.

      Bofill said that after his release in 1987, he approached Garcia Marquez in the International Film Club of Havana to ask him about his behavior and the Colombian writer told him "he had given the letter to Fidel."

      Delete
  13. pitiyanqui9:00 PM

    With all due respect, looking at the U.S. news edition in English, might indicate a bit of a selection bias when looking for news of a Latin American writer, albeit a very famous one, who wrote in Spanish.

    Would you expect news of the death of Stephen King or J.K. Rowling (not comparing quality of writing here, but relative levels of fame) to rate highly on the news feeds of Colombia, Venezuela or Brazil?

    I liked GGMs writings, and I am aware that at least in some high schools in Venezuela he is required reading. Distribution of his books in English in the U.S. is relatively thin however.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The news about García Márquez's death was top in Germany, France, in Norway...geez, even in China

      Delete
    2. pitiyanqui7:31 AM

      It was tops, for two minutes, but like so much else both relevant and irrelevant, it was gone seconds later. Part of the problem in the US is that 24 hours news is so pervasive that there's always a huge amount of outflow, even if 90% of it is regurgitated. Miss a story? No worries, it will reappear via some other source in half an hour.

      Delete
  14. Well he was a fellow-Faulkner fan, that's enough for me to mourn him.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Dia del Chiguire11:01 PM

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClccTTkFA0M

    ReplyDelete
  16. Much ado here about nothing. Gringos are clueless about the Hispanic Americas, and 'latinoamericanos' historically don't like gringos. So what? Who cares? During the 50-plus years I've lived and worked in several Latin American countries I've heard ad nauseam the themes 'We (insert whatever country you wish) don't like gringos and it's your fault we don't like you," and "Gringos are really ignorant about (insert whatever name, topic or event you wish)." It gets old, it's whiney, and it's sort of stupid - like kicking a dead mule that refuses to stand up. Over 95pc of gringos don't know much about their own country beyond their local communities, and even less about the rest of the world. And over 95pc of the "Latinoamericanos" I've met during a lifetime spent mostly in Latin America south of the Rio Bravo (not Grande, amigo, only the Gringos call it the Rio Grande) are as ignorant about the US, other Latin American countries and the rest of the world as the vast majority of Gringos are about Venezuela or Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Ironic, though, how so many millions of Spanish or Portuguese-speaking folks born south of the Rio Bravo and hankering for a better future walk or fly north, buy property and bank in the US, shop in the US, obtain danced educations, etc etc. But I've never seen millions of gringos walking or flying SOUTH of the Rio Bravo for a chance at a better life. Goddamn those fucking Gringos.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Perhaps you missed the nuance, Imperial Agent. Let's take your ironic observation...."millions of Spanish or Portuguese-speaking folks born south of the Rio Bravo (sic) and hankering for a better future walk or fly north ....But I've never seen millions of gringos walking or flying SOUTH of the Rio Bravo (sic) for a chance at a better life."

      If you are from the US, then your argument has just been impaled by your ignorance, not only about southern lands beyond your border, but of a major river in your own country. Here's a little help on the Rio Grande. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rio_Grande.

      Next, one reason why US citizens don't venture south much, or bother learning about it, has to do with a characteristic navel-gazing. One need not concern oneself with anyone or anything beyond the confines of one's backyard.

      There is an exception though!! When venturing south (and it applies equally to, say, the south of France) US citizens need to be as loud as possible, need to call as much attention to oneself as possible, and need to sell "ferners" on the end all and be-all of the U.S. of A. This attitude permeates even do-gooders, say on a help mission. Always use a T-shirt proclaiming one's identity. NEVER blend in. Horrors! But the attitude really ramps up when selling products or services to Latin America. Hooo-eeee. It's then that the interest in LatAm knows no bounds. Ironic, indeed, isn't it?


      Delete
    2. P.S., IA: I speak in generalities. I've known some very fine Americans (read US citizens), beautifully educated and deeply travelled. I wish I could meet more of this type of person. But alas... On the upside, I do get a bang out of folks who might be related to Honey Boo-Boo. And there are so many whose comedy inspires me. Truly.

      Delete
    3. JBLenoir5:53 PM

      Aaaaaaaaaw, you don't like gringos either. Let's see, per your perception, all gringos are navel gazers, only care about selling products and services in Latin America (when apparently we're at our worst), and of course we're all ignorant as you point out citing, gasp, Wikipedia which refers to the river as Rio Grande, Rio Bravo del Norte and gives a couple of native indigenous names as well, apparently so you can call me ignorant. Apparently only "beautifully educated and deeply travelled" gringos are "very fine." By that standard over 90% of Venezuelans are ignorant. You're a pathetic bitter little shrew, Syd, as methinks has been pointed out to you often by others you delight in trashing when they don't share your... unique...views

      Delete
    4. Warning to jblenoir.

      This blog DOES NOT tolerante grudges from other blog. Whatever happened to you and Syd stays there. I mean it.

      Delete
    5. JBLenoir2:31 PM

      Please read my comment again, and the reply. No grudges, Daniel. Only replying to one individual's response that persists in stereotyping all Gringos as ignorant louts, with the exception of 'beautifully educated and deeply travelled' Gringos - whatever that means. My response was that Gringos, like folks everywhere, don't care much what happens outside their own area. And I noted, very accurately, that more people try to get into the US than out of it. That elicited a response from ONE (1) reader which, while historically typical of said respondent's acidic comments in this and other blogs, repeats with visible contempt the same tired old stereotypes about Gringos that I've heard for 50-plus years in various Latin American countries. One grows tired of ignorant intolerance. I suspect at some point in your life you have confronted ignorance and intolerance, and does it not grow truly tiresome, Daniel? It certainly does for me.

      Delete
    6. JBLenoir2:57 PM

      A final point, if I may. Why do you issue a warning to me and not to the lady in question? I responded to something you wrote, and I certainly did not insult you although your headline per se projected a (negative?) stereotypical assumption about Gringos. And that elicited a response from the Canadian-Based Syd - another Venezuelan who lives abroad - completely ignoring the gist of your post and simply trashing Gringos as generally being ignorant louts. I've seen Syd's rants on and off over the years in other blogs besides yours, and she does have a history of shrewishly acid commentary, particularly where all things USA are concerned . Her published record in this regard speaks for itself. But perhaps she doesn't rate a similar warning because you share her views? If I'm mistaken in that regard, apologies proffered....If not, well, it is what it is...

      Delete
    7. This was the offensive line, the rest of your comment was not addressed by me whatsoever.

      "You're a pathetic bitter little shrew, Syd, as methinks has been pointed out to you often by others you delight in trashing when they don't share your... unique...views"

      You are the one that suggested that Syd is unpopular in other pages and as such the warning is directed at you. I note that you persist in reproving Syd attitude elsewhere so you are breaking again the rule stated explicitly:
      "Do not bring grudges and fights from other blogs here (this is the strictest rule)."

      Whatever happens between Syd and you and other people in other blogs is of ABSOLUTELY NO INTEREST TO ME OR TO THIS COMMENT SECTION. Whenever Syd, or anyone else, breaks that rule explicitly a warning will be issued.

      You got two.

      Delete
  17. What version of Google News was this? Sounds like the US not the World page... you can select the region. The UK, World, French, US, Korean and yes, Venezuelan page would have different top stories.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My google opens the US news. I rather be mentally prepared for when I decide to open the Venezuela home.....

      Delete
    2. LOL, fair point!

      Delete
  18. Auuuvienelobo4:27 AM

    the dog´s sing or cry, but they exhale

    ReplyDelete
  19. Joshua Mitchell2:45 AM

    Hey! If you guys hate the USA so much, then: Why do you write in English and use the "enemy's language", in which you have invested yourselves to learn so well, as your lingua franca? How come so many of your either want to come to live here or are already living here and pursuing the American Dream? Why is America one of the top choices for Venezuelans for vacations and one of the most sought after countries for attending school or college? And the list of contradictions goes on and on and on ... Only someone who does not know America at all can say the things you are stating. BTW: Google is not the USA ... and not even an example of our country. Stop hating us just as a matter of habit and cease blaming others for your own faults. Also think why Venezuela is going through the current situation and we are not, never had and chances are we never will. Perhaps the old saying is true, and each nation does deserve the kind of government and country they have, as your many posts only seem to confirm.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Joshua

      Rarely have in read such a misplaced reply to one of my texts, if indeed you are replying to my entry. Since I do not know whether it is a general reply or mine I am not going to take seriously your philistine prose, except to comment that no one above expressed hate for the US and that the US has had its problems too like any country. Or have you forgotten about your Civil War, just to name one instance?

      Delete

Comments policy:

1) Comments are moderated after the sixth day of publication. It may take up to a day or two for your note to appear then.

2) Your post will appear if you follow the basic polite rules of discourse. I will be ruthless in erasing, as well as those who replied to any off rule comment.


Followers