Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

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Sunday palate cleanser: Tous Les Matins Du Monde

The film that started me on my Baroque and Early Music decades-long obsession,

and my idea of heavenly music, Jordi Savall (who actually played the music you hear in the film’s soundtrack) performing the Spanish Variations on viola de gamba,

Savall has re-introduced the Early Music repertoire to modern audiences as his fellow Iberians Pablo Casals and Andres Segovia did with cello and classical guitar in the 20th century.

The heartbreak of the film’s plot matches the real-life tragic life of Guillaume Depardieu; however, the beautifully executed music makes it worthwhile.

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Disloyalty is costly for Hugo Chávez backers

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In today’s Miami Herald,
Disloyalty is costly for Hugo Chávez backers
Hugo Chávez’s revolution in Venezuela targets more than the president’s enemies. Even supporters are punished when their loyalty comes into question.

Readers of this blog are familiar with Chavez persecuting opposition leaders, among them Manuel Rosales and two governors. However, there’s a new trend in the Bolivarian Revolution: persecuting their own.

In recent months, a string of allies or former allies of Chávez have run afoul of a justice system critics say is completely controlled by the executive. Their crime, it is alleged, is that they failed to show unquestioning loyalty to the man who likes to be known these days as “comandante-presidente.”

Justice?

For human rights lawyer Himiob, there is no “shadow of doubt.”

”The courts were biased — mainly against the poor — before Chávez came along,” Himiob said. “But these days, it’s crystal-clear that it’s the president who runs the criminal justice system.”

General Alberto Mueller Rojas, the PSUV’s former vice-president, insists that the party investigates all allegations of corruption against its members. But he rejects the idea that there can be such a thing as an impartial justice system.

”All human beings seek to benefit themselves or their group,” said the general, who is now in charge of the PSUV’s ideological training commission. “No one with the capacity for thought acts innocently.”

`LEGITIMACY’

Asked if there was therefore no possibility of a judge acting with neutrality, he replied, ”None.” The point, he said, was to, “seek the greatest legitimacy, which is obtained when the people consider that your actions are equitable.”

Additionally, Chávez is stocking public libraries with indoctrination books, such as Why am I Chavista? while PDVSA’s president goes on TV to say “We are replacing private property with social property“, whatever that may be.

Chávez continues to consolidate power around himself while his influence in other countries wanes as oil revenues plummet (h/t VN&V).

It will get worse.

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If you can’t say something good about someone, and today’s items

If you can’t say something good about someone, go read Riding The View with Rosie
and
Howard Dean: Unplugged and Under Medicated

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Via Zeitnot, Steven Pinker on the Decline of Violence

“Our ancestors were far more violent than we are.” We’re probably living in the most peaceful time of our species’ existence, a statement that seems almost obscene in light of Darfur and Iraq.

The decline of violence, he tells us, is a fractal phenomenon – we see it over the centuries, the decades and the years. That said, we see a tipping point in the 16th century – the age of reason – particularly in England and Holland.

I wonder what that professor would make of this

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Coca-Cola should drop the ‘coca,’ Bolivia growers say, because “coca is sacred”.

Coke is it!

Coke has some 70 clean-water projects in 40 countries, a service it hopes will eventually boost local economies and broaden its consumer base. But the efforts are also part of a broader strategy under Chairman and Chief Executive E. Neville Isdell to build Coke’s image as a local benefactor and global diplomat. “You have to be an integral and functioning part both in perception and reality in every community in which you operate,” he said in an interview.

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Arab Feminist Soft Sell of Hezbollah at the International Museum of Women.

Because women need an international museum.

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In a lighter note,
Over at the BBCA broadcast, they had a report on French electoral polling of pets. Dogs were for Sarko, cats for Sego. I wondered what Marvin and Maynard would say, but then, Marvin and Maynard are not French. Marvin’s blogging – go check it out.

Maria tells me that The Sopranos are filming in Morris Plains. I wonder if the bear has a cameo? A local corporation has sent a memo with instructions on what to do if the bear finds you, among them,

Black bear attacks are extremely rare. If a black bear does attack, fight back — do not play dead.

If Bear Grylls attacks, however, expect an entirely different reaction.

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Right now I’m listening to some of the most beautiful music man has created,

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Sunday blogging: Music

The rest of the family’s away for the weekend, so I’ve been indulging in a great music extravaganza: listening to viola da gamba music CDs playing LOUDLY every moment I’ve been at home (except when I watched the Fox News special I mentioned in the other post).

I started with

moved on to

and then to

After listening to all of those, I’ve decided to get this one,

Needless to say, I’m in gamba heaven. Follow the links and listen to a sampling. You might like it, too.

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