Svensk tänkande? (Swedish thinking?)

Today I believe I fully understand what yesterday I said to my grandmother on the phone when she asked about the life in Spain and Sweden. I told her that now I see some things in the country I was born, Spain, that I don’t understand why they are the way they are compared to the Swedish manner.
However, this is not about how you do something, for instance, in terms of efficiency, but rather how you think about yourself and the people who surround you as you interact with them. That is, how the society is.

I got back home a few minutes ago from a walk to a shopping mall… pure consumerism :) but I didn’t buy anything as I couldn’t find what I was supposed to buy. On the way back home, I deviated from the route and ended up in the groceries store and bought some things to eat, nothing in particular special. I paid, and headed home.
Paradoxically, when I was passing by another shopping mall, I saw a woman who seemed to be walking in order to intercept my course, and somehow I prepared myself for it, but not enough (and I’m glad I didn’t).
The woman, who didn’t look like poor nor the aspect was bad, stopped me and did ask for money to buy food. At that moment I was quite shocked, because I wasn’t expecting that and I thought for a fraction of a second till I realize I could do something instead of giving her money (I do think that if you give money to someone asking for it, you should say no because no one can tell you if they will really spend it on what they say they need it).
I told the woman if it wouldn’t be better that I gave her food instead, as I just left the groceries store, and I asked what kind of food she would like as I might not have bought it…
She replied back that something soft, so she could it because she didn’t have enough teeth. I had some soft food she could eat, and lucky her, it was a 2-pack that I splitted and gave her one pack. After that, the woman thanked me, and I continued with my walk back home.

To be honest, I don’t know if this woman lied or not, but the fear and sadness her face had when she said that food (instead of money) was also right made me think how bad is the situation in Spain that is driving people to this kind of desperation.
Perhaps I was fooled, but the fact that she was in front of a shopping mall where there’s a supermarket and she accepting food make me think that she really needed something to eat.

I wonder how many people would have reacted the same way I did, because what I did was a reflex, I didn’t have much time to think because everything happened very fast. You see poor people in the streets asking for money and no one looks at them; yes, it’s not people’s fault neither their responsibility, but I think that society should help those who need it the most (and let’s face it… I’m also part of that society who ignores these situations, I am not any saviour).
I am very lucky to have the life I currently have thanks to mostly my parents, but not everyone has the same opportunities; besides, things happen and change your life in a fraction of a second, whether you deserve it or not, you want it or not, whether you like it or not,…

Be advised that I’m not looking for any kind of appreciation nor recognition, but I thought that this is something to think about as I believe my reaction is pretty much influenced by the Swedish society during all the time I’ve spent so far in Sweden.
Swedish society isn’t much different from the Spanish one, but there’s something quite related to respect of everyone and everything which is different, and makes the Swedish society to not only look like but actually be that advanced and respected by many people.

Have I a Swedish thinking? Perhaps… but at least I know that I’m very lucky of being a Spaniard influenced by Swedish society.

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Vida

Hoy comienza la Cumbre del Clima de las Naciones Unidas (COP15) en la capital de Dinamarca, Copenhague. Y he creído oportuno rescatar esta instántanea que tomé hará dentro de nada un año, que en pocos días dará fin por cierto. Creo que representa lo que se pretende tratar en esta cumbre sobre el famoso cambio climático y lo complicado que resulta desenredar la madeja de los intereses económicos y medioambientales (a pesar de que no crea en estas cosas… pues no hacen más que tratar los mismos problemas y luego en la siguiente reunión no han solucionado nada de lo que hablaron en la anterior).

Disfruten de la vida que uno de los elementos más básicos, el agua, ha propiciado en nuestro planeta.

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Abriendo la mente

Un cambio siempre lleva consigo una nueva filosofía, o al menos, una nueva forma de abordar las cosas… así que creo, que el cambio en el blog, queda representado con esta fotografía que llevaba más de un año en el trastero. Con esto también retomo la publicación de una fotografía a la semana (de verdad que lo intentaré… pero lo complicado no son las fotografías… si no el tiempo que empleo en el procesado; consecuencias del perfeccionismo al que mi mente está sujeto…).

He aquí una panorámica tomada desde un pequeño pueblecito en Noruega, Vanvikan. Un lugar perfecto para relajar la mente.

Plo plo

Actualización (07/12/2009)
Parece que al menos una de mis mejores amigas no está segura de cuánto de real tiene esta fotografía y cuánto no… así que creo que debe ser el lector quien juzgue… pero como comento en la descripción de la fotografía en Flick.r, la fotografía es un pseudo-HDR :)

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A de gripe a(lpha)

Ayer a eso de las 13:00 me dirigí a que me inyectasen unos pocos de virus de la famosa gripe a, no antes de haber llenado el estómago… si tengo que espicharla… que sea con el estómago lleno.

Una vez rellené el formulario correspondiente (con la curiosa, pero no tan agradable, duda de si seré alérgico al tiomersal, la gentamicina y el formaldehído…) me dirigí a la mesa donde el médico de turno autorizaba la prescripción de la vacuna… y me puse a la cola de los incautos, algunos de ellos también escepticistas (yo mismo…). Una señorita muy amable me dijo que pasase (en un correcto sueco), cogió la hoja y me preguntó qué brazo quería (aunque ya lo había elegido con el médico, el izquierdo, que soy diestro…), y le repetí que el izquierdo (en un correcto inglés… pues ultimamente entiendo el sueco pero respondo en inglés :) .
La buena mujer me dijo que me quitase el jersey (pues el quitarme el abrigo fue algo que me recomendó el médico… supongo que se pensará que soy uno de esos que van en manga corta debajo del abrigo…), y yo empecé a mentalizarme de que me tenía que mentalizar, mientras la enfermera preparaba la jeringa (basicamente, venía empaquetada y sólo abrió el paquete individual).

Así que nada, la mujer en medio de mi confusión… no se inmutó y atacó sin piedad. Pero se lo agradezco, porque si me deja pensármelo… podría haber salido de allí por patas…
Una vez terminó el proceso, me preguntó si había sido para tanto, y yo, con cara de pocos amigos… y a regañadientes afirmaba positivamente.

Pero no todo fue tan malo… ayer me gané unos pocos de virus… y un bombón :P (que me supo a gloria todo hay que decirlo, y me acordé de cuando era pequeño y me pusieron una vacuna en los aposentos).
Alguna ventaja tenía que tener el niño que todos llevamos dentro :) ¿no?

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Me, myself and Wil.ee.am

A long time ago I created my first former blog at The Mount Olympus, and it’s been a great time since then. However, I haven’t updated it properly, due to personal reasons where my studies and my sometimes chaotic life were involved, and I felt it wasn’t my identity anymore.

Be advised that I’m not that kind of person who likes writing about his life in public (aka in a blog), but I think it is a good tool to communicate some things, both professional and personal, and that’s how I’ve been using the previous blog. But, as I said, I felt it wasn’t me anymore, and so I have decided to try out this new approach, starting with the domain :)
Many people buy a domain with their given and family names, and start their site either professionally or personally, but I don’t like that (nor I want to hide my given name which I’m very proud of, and very thankful to my parents for it, even though these days it’s not difficult to legally change your name), I think we should be rather original without losing our true essence.

The name that I chose for the domain, and my new “home”, is the writing of the phonetic transcription (using the English alphabet, not those strange characters you can see in many dictionaries) of my given name in English, William. That is, wil-ee-am.
I’m sure there are some mistakes, and linguistic experts would say that I have no idea of what I’m talking about, probably they’re (partially, I checked few sites and it seems it’s a correct manner to write it down) right. But I once looked up how my name was properly pronounced in English and came up with this.

I have been using this as a nickname in some places, and I’m slowly migrating things to it, as the old one that I’ve used almost my whole life (since I discovered what the Internet looked like) was a rather a weird combination, also based on my name and its meaning.

Why a .me domain? Because even though it’s the official LTD for Montenegro, it’s also a word (a pronoun) that means “I”, both in English… and Spanish :) I tried the .am domain, ee.am, but it’s taken :( though it’s not being used for any “real” purpose. It it ever becomes available (and it’s not too expensive), I might buy it, but for now I’m very happy with wileeam.me.

I have moved the old entries here because I don’t want to lose them. But I don’t know what I will do with the old domain :) as I still like it… time will tell, for now, I’m just redirecting to this domain :)
I’ll use both English and Spanish here, like I used to do at The Mount Olympus. but the blog itself (the interface that you’re seeing now) will be in Spanish (excluding the pages) as it’s a language I’m very proud of, and some of my “personal” entries might be in English (like this one for instance) though most of them will be in Spanish :) so English will be mostly used for my projects and those “international” things, and not eveything will be under the blog’s subdomain.

I hope you like this place. Same me, different approach to both suit myself and my inner wil.ee.am better :) Or maybe just some new make up for this renovation?

/Guillermo

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