Klara’s Universe

The_Templar: how would u know?

Brahma: it’s just an illusion…

Brahma: u’ve never met her.. u don’t know anything about her

The_Templar: I know but…

The_Templar: I can’t explain… I just know it must be her

Brahma: don’t become enslaved by ur own dreams…

The_Templar: why? Aren’t u enslaved by ur obsession of finding the Stone?

Brahma: obsessed? Me?

Brahma: i am not obsessed at all…

The_Templar: then what is it that u re boiling there in ur flat secretly, night by night?

Brahma: that’s none of ur business…

Brahma: who told u abt it anyway?

The_Templar: it doesn’t matter…

The_Templar: u r enslaved by dreams and ideals too…

The_Templar: and it is this what makes us superior to other creatures…

Brahma: I am not enslaved by anything…

The_Templar: the ability to be enslaved by abstract needs

Brahma: talk for urself

Brahma: being enslaved is a mistake

The_Templar: I talk for myself…

Brahma: just like this love u re chasing for is a chimera

The_Templar: I am honest and open about myself…

The_Templar: I don’t pretend to be something else

Brahma: who pretends to be something else?!?!

The_Templar: my love is not a chimera!

The_Templar: I know it!

Brahma: who pretends to be something else?!?!

Brahma: and u know nothing!

The_Templar: well u are

The_Templar: qed

Brahma: me?

The_Templar: yeah, precisely..

The_Templar: u pretend I know nothing…

The_Templar: as if u are in the possession of the Absolute Truth

Brahma: I never pretended anything!

Brahma: and well, I know what the Absolute Truth is

Brahma: and so do u…

The_Templar: such arrogance!

The_Templar: yes, I finally know the Absolute Truth now…

The_Templar: but do u?

Brahma: this discussion leads to nothing…

Brahma: though I wonder who this girl is..

The_Templar: she is wonderful!

Brahma: to change u like this..

The_Templar: she practices spiritual alchemy

The_Templar: without knowing it!

Brahma: she does?

The_Templar: yeah, read this…

The_Templar: Light. Celestial music. Power. Faith. Courage. Love calling out the other elements: Water - Purification. Earth – Equilibrium. Air – Ascension. Fire – Determination. Love – Completion!

              Andrei knew Tudor was the voice of reason. He had told himself the same things over and over ever since he had met her on the forum. But at the same time, he couldn’t help feeling that he knew better. After all, Tudor had never ever been in love like this in his life. Has he ever been in love at all? Andrei had no idea at all. After all, he knew but few about his Internet friend and this was highly encouraged by Tudor’s taste for mystery and drama. Why did he confide in him anyway? Maybe it was just that they shared the same interest in the unknown. Or was it that he simply didn’t have many friends, if any, in the real world and ended up willingly or not searching for them in a virtual world. Andrei did not expect Tudor to understand him either. He knew his friend had his very own ideas about these things. But at the same time, Tudor was the only one who was able to understand even if partly what he was dreaming of.

              That night, he went to bed with hope. He couldn’t help thinking that this was almost a miracle. It was such a long time since he last had hope. And in the following days he realised to which extent his life had felt empty and completely boring until he received Melania’s postcard…

            Gypsies have long been considered the romantic, bohemian nomad people who chose to live their lives freely, out of the constraints of human society. Ever since they entered Europe through the east, coming from India, they have been considered in turns outcasts, criminals, source of inspiration for XIXth century artists, owners of a rich cultural heritage and later on, an almost extinct social group. However, things are not as simple or as romantic as that. Although most of the gypsies that migrated to Western Europe during the Middle Ages did adapt and integrate into the modern society, gypsies from the Eastern European countries continue to live a semi-nomadic, separate life in a society of their own, still refusing to mingle or integrate. This is in fact one of the main social issues in Romania nowadays, especially since we just entered the European Union and many related topics which have been listed as requisite reforms for the integration in 2007 are yet to be fulfilled.

            The gypsies from Romania have a quite different history than those in Western Europe, suffering several attempts of being disposed off, the most famous one being the one during the Second World War, when they were massively deported in the Russian plains near the Don River by general Antonescu -a right-wing activist who governed Romania during the Second World War. This was obviously just part of a more common political and social attitude of discrimination that the gypsies had to face for centuries. Society rejected them, turning them into parias and forcing them to turn to illegal ways of making a living, such as stealing or begging. However, times did change for Romania as well, and since adopting democracy in 1990, the society changed a lot too. That is, the Romanian society did, because the gypsies’ didn’t.

            Even nowadays, gypsies in Romania continue to live in dirty, crowded buildings they usually occupied illegally, transforming that particular area in a sort of city dump and making it practically impossible to pass by, unless willing to get aggressed one way or another. Some gypsies vehemently oppose integration by refusing to declare their children to the city hall or sending them to school, considering that a person without an ID card does not legally exist, and therefore cannot be arrested or jailed. It is said that they have their own laws and rules to live by, completely disregarding the laws of the Romanian government.

And then, there is also the problem of the gypsies’ illegal immigration towards Western Europe, phenomenon that made the European Union put securing the borders on top of the list of pre-requisites for integration. While visiting Romania in January 2002, the then French interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy demanded that ‘the Romanian authorities do more to prevent what the French media call gypsy beggars and thieves from reaching France’ according to an October 4, 2002 BBC News press release. Many Romanians complain that these immigrant gypsies spoil the image of Romania in the west. However, things are not as easy as that, and many non-gypsy Romanians have been creating a lot of problems too. Take the case of the octogenarian Italian countess murdered months ago by her Romanian house-maid and her Romanian boyfriend.

All in all, the integration of the gypsies in the Romanian society is a complicated problem and it is impossible to approach the issue with a one-sided view of things. Romanian government and the society in general are undoubtedly to blame, because gypsies are a distinctive target of discrimination. Gypsies in their turn also need to show the willingness to be integrated, because how is it possible to integrate someone that doesn’t even want to be integrated in the first place? Mutual understanding and the end of all discrimination, either way or the other, is crucial and I believe that Romanians as well as foreigner interested in the topic should become more aware of the necessity to walk together hand in hand towards a more modern and safer Romania.

El Samba

El samba es un famoso género de música que resultó de la fusión de ritmos africanos y portugueses、con una gran influencia de la música traída por los inmigrantes del estado brasileño de Bahía. Esta música se desarolló en la ciudad de Rio de Janeiro, entonces la capital de Brasil, al comienzo del siglo XX. La palabra samba es de origen angolana, donde el semba o mesemba　es el nombre de un ritmo religioso. 

La canción Pelo telefone, grabada por Donga y Mauro Almeida el año 1917, es considerada la primera grabación de samba. No se conocen los autores de esta canción, pero es posible que fue una creación colectiva. El éxito de esta canción hizo que el género dejase de ser popular solamente en las comunidades negras. En la década del 1930, un grupo de músicos creó la primera escola de samba llamada Deixa falar en portugués (en castellano significa ‘deja hablar’). Ellos transformaron el género musical para que mejor sirviese al desfile de carnaval. En los años treinta, la radio ayudó tambien a popularizar el samba en todo el país. Con el apoyo del entonces dictador brasileño Getúlio Vargas, el samba se tornó casi “la música oficial de Brasil”.

Después de eso, el género samba se desarrolló en direcciones diversas, desde las más calmas, llamadas samba-canção hasta las orquestas que tocan las músicas de los desfiles de Carnaval. Una de las variantes del samba más conocidas es la bossa-nova, creada por músicos blancos de clase media, la popularidad de la cual comenzó en los años cincuenta. La bossa-nova nasció de una necesidad de levar el samba a espacios más reducidos donde se pudiera escuchar en plena tranquilidad. Surgieron así nuevas y sofisticadas armonías, con acentos irregulares que tenían una relación directa con el espíritu del jazz.

Desde mediados de los años ochenta, el samba resurgió en los medios de comunicación debido a la popularidad de una variación llamada pagode que surgió en la periferia de la ciudad de Río de Janeiro.El pagode utiliza como instrumento el “cavaquinho”, una pequeña guitarra con cuatro cuerdas y las letras de sus canciones son llenas de jerga　y a veces jocosas, lo que las vuelve populares.

El acontecimiento ｍáｓemblemático de samba es el carnaval de Río de Janeiro, en donde las escuelas de samba, blocos y bandas ocupan barrios enteros. Durante esta celebración anual que tiene lugar cuarenta días antes de Pascua, marcando el comienzo de la cuaresma, se pueden observar marathoneando en ritmos de samba las mejores escuelas de Brasíl con sus representantes vestidas de manera muy provocativa, medad nudas.

El samba en su varianta carnavalera o el samba-enredo es tambien uno de los más populares tipos de baile de sociedad, caracterizandose especialemente por los ampios movimientos de cintura. Se puede bailar en copia o individualmente y los vestidos de los bailadores tienen colores muy vivos y cortaduras insinuantes,sobre todo los de las mujeres. Las sambas-enredo se cantan por vocalistas machos acompaniados por el cavaquinho y una gran bateria que produce una densa y compleja melodia conocida como batucada.

De nuestros días, el samba es uno de los tipos de baile más populares y discotecas de todo el mundo difusan melodias pop con ritmos de samba. El numero de las escuelas de samba esta siempre augmentando tanto en Brasíl como al estranjero, el Japón seando el país numero 2 mondial, después del país de origen. El carnaval organisado cada agosto en el districto historico de Asakusa es el desfile más grande de samba fuero Brasíl.

Unseen, uncaught

The dispersed icy blade

Of late September showers

Has found a tinny hole

And poured inside my heart today.

I anxiously waited

For the rainbow

To rise and dry the pool

I had inside my heart.

But the night fell unexpectedly

And now it is too dark

And now it is too cold

And I feel ice inside me.

One Postcard (Melania) -posted on June 8th

What she didn’t know was that Andrei, in his turn, has been waiting for a postcard like this his entire life. When his mother brought him the postcard, he automatically thought there must be a mistake somewhere. He hardly received any letters at all, not to mention from a girl! So he was even more surprised to read such verses and immediately acknowledge their deeper meaning. When reading them for the first time, he felt his heart beats unbearably trying to pierce his chest and fly away. He felt that at last his soul was once again struggling to get out and take off like a long-caged bird longing for the endless blue of freedom. He felt struck there on the spot and couldn’t help reading those seven lines over and over during that evening… Could Melania be the one? Could it be that he had found love?

He finally rushed to his computer in an unexplainable need to share this new thrilling experience with someone else. Someone who would understand him… And there he saw Tudor online. Tudor, his best friend, whom he had met on the Internet as well, though living in the same country, whom he never even saw the picture of, but with whom he would periodically have endless passionate debates about the principles of yoga, the meaning of transforming lead into gold and the relation between fire and water.

The_Templar: I have news.

The_Templar: u won’t believe what just happened…

Brahma: hi there

Brahma: I won’t?

Brahma: then tell me

The_Templar: I have met this girl…

Brahma: oh, is it just me, or is it getting really hot in here?:P

The_Templar: and she just sent me a postcard

Brahma: a postcard

The_Templar: yeah, a postcard…

The_Templar: and will u stop joking and teasing… this is for real!

Brahma: for real?

Brahma: what is there for real anyway?

The_Templar: love is for real!!

Brahma: love…

Brahma: u trying to tell me u’re in love?

The_Templar: yes, I’m in love…

The_Templar: finally…

The_Templar: I feel it changing me…

The_Templar: though I still wonder…

The_Templar: can she be the one?

Brahma: how would I know…

Brahma: it is u who should know…

The_Templar: I know but…

Brahma: where did u meet her?

The_Templar: it is all so.. I can’t explain!

The_Templar: the only thing I know is that I am in love!

The_Templar: and nothing else matters!

Brahma: hey lover boy, where did u meet her?

The_Templar: on this forum on the internet

Brahma: as expected!

The_Templar: it’s so funny…

The_Templar: what expected?

Brahma: this is not TRUE love!

        In past centuries the predominant role of science was the production of new knowledge to satisfy the curiosity of the human mind. In recent years, the role of science has undergone changes, as scientific inquiry has increasingly become the motor of development in society. By the end of the 20th century, science has acquired a number of new roles. These novel roles may - and should - contribute in a decisive manner to the daily life of humankind in the 21st century. 

        In spite of its spectacular development and new opportunities, the science of 21st century faces wavering confidence, unseen dilemmas and brand new questions. These problems can be solved only if the main procedures and users of knowledge are able to reach common ground for the new roles of knowledge and science in 21st century’s global Society.

       The fields of science and engineering have become increasingly interconnected with industry, government, academia, and the public, as emphasis has shifted from pure to applied science, particularly since World War II.  In a historical perspective on the association and subsequent disassociation between science and politics, James Zappen (1987) argues for a renewed pluralism between the two.  Zappen asserts that “because of changes in science and technology symbolized by Albert Einstein, science itself has become more political” (29).  His argument is well sustained in light of the many examples of scientific and engineering developments that are driven by commerce and subject to government regulation and public scrutiny and that do in fact “affect the social and institutional good” (29).  The current, hotly debated topics of genetically modified foods, embryo research, treatments for HIV/AIDS, and computerized military combat tactics, not to mention the race for space technology and space science, or the more secretive ones related to the developing of artificial intelligence are just a few of these examples. 

         Thus, we cannot say anymore that science belongs to the savants, to the elite of scientists that create it. Science belongs to everybody. Not only to the governments and highly placed officials that decide the plans and faith of the world, but to each and every one of us, the common people. Because the science of the 21^st century appears to become a secularized science, as it more and more increasingly and rapidly moves from theory to practice and scientists worldwide seem more and more preoccupied with the immediate applicability of their theoretical discoveries.

Any comments??

Calatoria clipei

Pur si simplu haiku (Editura Cronica, 2000) este cartea de debut a Klarei Losonczy care intra in literatura, la virsta adolescentei, cu un fel aparent “strain” de a-si exprima fiinta interioara; poemele din acest volum, insotite de o calda postfata semnata de Valeriu Stancu – poet si director de revista, care a stiut sa descopere si sa publice debuturi valoroase –, se circumscriu unei specii literare ce identifica spiritualitatea extrem orientala, japoneza: haiku aduna – o demonstreaza autoarea insasi intr-un scurt, dar pertinent text teoretic, Haiku – revelatia spiritului nipon –, Orientul, intelepciunea, misterul, nelinistea, ideologia si formele lor specifice de exprimare pentru ca, iata, “revelatia spiritului nipon” se produce sub semnul unui aforism din Marea Invatatura a.

.. chinezului Lao Tse (“Cel ce este multumit nu poate fi niciodata distrus”). Klara Losonczy dovedeste o buna baza teoretica, lecturi solide (referinta cel mai des invocata ramine Istoria culturii si civilizatiei de O.Drimba) si, mai cu seama, deplina asumare a identitatii culturale din haiku. Conditia intelegerii spiritului nipon, a mesajului incifrat magic in haiku este, spune autoarea, renasterea; si o probeaza, mai intii, prin analiza atenta a poeziei lui Matsuo Basho, cel mai important autor de haiku din Japonia medievala, prin finele disocieri ale speciei fata de gazel (in poezia araba) sau rondel (in poezia franceza), pentru ca, apoi, sa-si exploreze launtrul astfel modelat, sa (re)constituie o paradigma de sensibilitate latenta, “activata” prin revelatia amintita: sa moara pentru a renaste, adica.

Sumarul cartii se coaguleaza in jurul cifrei zece: sint zece “capitole”, adica secvente pe firul mortii – renasterii – vietii: Haiku-uri razlete, Cele zece batai ale inimii, Scurgerea mistica, Cele opt surpari ale linistii, Agonia timpului, Cele opt strigate ale vintului, Haiku-uri reticente, Calatoria clipei, Trepte ezoterice, Haiku-uri abisale. Iata primul pas, cel al reintegrarii in natura, al replierii in mineral, pentru o noua nastere intr-o lume unde se cultiva arta de a mirosi floarea de cires: “Marul imbraca/Verdele izvoarelor,/Privesc caldura”; “Vintul destrama./O lumina firava/Vesteste umbra”; “Gheata creeaza/Iluzii obosite./Somn izbavitor”; “Lumina verde./In apa izvorului/Vad ochi si lacrimi”; “Un gind zboara lin./Ramurile de cristal/Se sparg linistit”. Apoi, noua viata din Cele zece batai ale inimii va fi a iubirii, a unui eros fara pasiuni ravasitoare: “Prima iubire./Zambilele si crinii/De pe kimono”; “O rindunica./Speranta din lumina/Zimbetului tau”; “Strigatul berzei,/Dupa atitea zile,/Din nou cu tine”; “De ce eu sau tu?/Doar primavara iarta…/Cintecul lunii”; “Turturi irizati/Ce se vor prinde poate/In pletele lui”. Firesc, fiinta gliseaza spre transcendent, primul gind si prima privire ale eului renascut se indreapta catre dincolo, catre esentele nevazute care i-au vegheat marea trecere: “Somnul frunzelor./Trecerea mistica spre/Celalalt tarim”; “Ultima ruga./Adierea glicinei/Si cintecul ei”; “In toiul iernii,/Bind ceai din ceasca goala,/Gindind departe”; “Glasul vintului./Scufundarea soaptelor/In nefiinta”. Ce urmeaza e intimplare, eveniment, viata, biografie, surparea linistii, nelinistea (pe)trecerii timpului, agresiunea cotidianului, o calatorie in Franta ce se asaza in linistea si magia haiku-ului: “Nori eclipsind/Menuetul frunzelor/Toamna, in Paris”; “Seara la Poitiers./Crenelurile negre/Scaldate-n amurg”.

Poemele din Pur si simplu haiku, cu re-prezentari plastice in ilustratiile lui Eri Takase (numite Maturat de vint, Barbat si femeie, Cascada, Strigat, Inlacrimat, Vint, Viata, Fiecare clipa, doar o data, Tunet, Inclinat), constituie unul dintre cele mai semnificative debuturi in poezia ieseana a ultimilor ani.

Publicat de Ioan Holban in Evenimentul numarul din 9 martie 2002

Like an one-way boat

Far away in the sunset

The last day of December

One winter evening

Snow-storm knocking at my window

Voice from back home

Is there any place

For the playful winter wind

In the morning train?

I just came back from a 3 days trip to Izu with my boyfriend.

The Izu peninsula is situated south-west from the Tokyo Metropolitan area, furthern down on the Pacific shore than Yokohama. It is famous for its wild scenery, its large variety of hot springs and ‘Izu no odoriko’ or ‘The Dancing Girl of Izu’, Nobel prize winner writer Kawabata Yasunari’s debut short story.

Some free passes are available on both JR and Odakyu lines and they are quite worth it since you have unlimited access to the local trains and buses. We used Minami Izu Free Pass as we stayed mainly in the southern part of the peninsula.

You can also choose from a wide range of hotels, pensions and ryokans (Japanese traditional hotels) and we staid at Isokaze Ryokan on the very tip of the Suzaki peninsula east of Shimoda city in the most southern region of Izu. The people there very very friendly, they even offer a free pick up service as well as a regular morning shuttle service to the nearest train station. We booked a pack including breakfast and dinner and the food was wonderful. Since dinner is served quite early at 18 and we couldn’t make it one day they even kindly brought it to our rooms where we found it waiting for us. But most of all, the gorgeous location right on the tip of the pen insula, enabling a 180 degree viwe of the Pacific. Its hot bath was also very neat and especially the outside bath (routenburou) enchanted me as I stood naked in hot water gazing at the stary sky reflecting in the black sea, lightened now and then by the sparkling far-away beams of passing boats, the sea breeze entangled in my hair and the fresh scent of salt in my nostrils.

We visited the

*White Beach (Shirahama), by far the best beach I’ve ever been too in Japan, remote and with relatively high waves

*Seven Waterfalls (Nana Daru, a delightful mountain promenade (not even climbing really) along a river boasting seven splendid waterfalls

*Kuroneiburou, an open-air mixed hot spring located just on the beach (take care, although it’s mixe, everyone is naked)

*Irozaki cruise, a gorgeous half an hour cruise through calcarous rock formations in the extreme south of Izu

*Shimoda rope-way, a nice promenade with a breath-taking view of the bay from atop a high mountain (Sleeping Mountain) just beside the train station

We also liked the indian restaurant Magic India located just next to shimoda station and the warmth of local people who were always glad to be of help.

I recommended it as an affordable, rejuvenating and handy get-away from noisy Tokyo. i myself hope to go ther again and explore other sides of the peninsula.

      View from the Hotel’s terace

    Traditional sea-food dinner in our room

    Shirohama beach

    One of the seven waterfalls

    Calcarous formations in Irozaki

    Bay view from atop the Sleeping Mountain

LXXXIII - L’Héautontimorouménos (Charles Baudelaire)

A J.G.F.

Je te frapperai sans colère
Et sans haine, comme un boucher,
Comme Moïse le rocher !
Et je ferai de ta paupière,

Pour abreuver mon Saharah
Jaillir les eaux de la souffrance.
Mon désir gonflé d’espérance
Sur tes pleurs salés nagera

Comme un vaisseau qui prend le large,
Et dans mon coeur qu’ils soûleront
Tes chers sanglots retentiront
Comme un tambour qui bat la charge!

Ne suis-je pas un faux accord
Dans la divine symphonie,
Grâce à la vorace Ironie
Qui me secoue et qui me mord

Elle est dans ma voix, la criarde!
C’est tout mon sang ce poison noir!
Je suis le sinistre miroir
Où la mégère se regarde.

Je suis la plaie et le couteau!
Je suis le soufflet et la joue!
Je suis les membres et la roue,
Et la victime et le bourreau!

Je suis de mon coeur le vampire,
- Un de ces grands abandonnés
Au rire éternel condamnés
Et qui ne peuvent plus sourire!