TRAVEL TUESDAY 365. - SALAMANCA SPAIN

“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” - Aristotle

Welcome to the Travel Tuesday meme! Join me every Tuesday and showcase your creativity in photography, painting and drawing, music, poetry, creative writing or a plain old natter about Travel.

There is only one simple rule: Link your own creative work about some aspect of travel and share it with the rest of us. Please use this meme for your creative endeavours only.

Do not use this meme to advertise your products or services as any links or comments by advertisers shall be removed immediately.

Salamanca is a city in northwestern Spain that is the capital of the Province of Salamanca in the community of Castile and León. The city lies on several hills by the Tormes River. Its Old City was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1988. With a metropolitan population of 228,881 in 2012 according to the National Institute of Statistics (INE), Salamanca is the second most populated urban area in Castile and León, after Valladolid (414,000), and ahead of León (187,000) and Burgos (176,000).

It is one of the most important university cities in Spain and supplies 16% of Spain's market for the teaching of the Spanish language. Salamanca attracts thousands of international students. It is situated approximately 200 kilometres west of the Spanish capital Madrid and 80 km east of the Portuguese border. The University of Salamanca, which was founded in 1218, is the oldest university in Spain and the fourth oldest western university, but the first to be given its status by the Pope Alexander IV who gave universal validity to its degrees. With its 30,000 students, the university is, together with tourism, a primary source of income in Salamanca. It is on the Via de la Plata path of the Camino de Santiago.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

TRAVEL TUESDAY #176 - AUCKLAND, NZ

“The highest purpose of education is to unlearn what we once took for granted, to replace certainty with subtlety, prejudice with compassion, and destiny with possibility.” ― Neel Burton 

Welcome to the Travel Tuesday meme! Join me every Tuesday and showcase your creativity in photography, painting and drawing, music, poetry, creative writing or a plain old natter about Travel.

There is only one simple rule: Link your own creative work about some aspect of travel and share it with the rest of us. Please use this meme for your creative endeavours only.

Do not use this meme to advertise your products or services as any links or comments by advertisers will be removed immediately.

Auckland is a city in the North Island of New Zealand. Auckland is the largest urban area in the country, with an urban population of around 1,628,900 (June 2018). It is located in the Auckland Region—the area governed by Auckland Council—which includes outlying rural areas and the islands of the Hauraki Gulf, resulting in a total population of 1,695,900. A diverse and multicultural city, Auckland is home to the largest Polynesian population in the world. The Māori-language name for Auckland is Tāmaki or Tāmaki-makau-rau, meaning “Tāmaki with a hundred lovers”, in reference to the desirability of its fertile land at the hub of waterways in all directions

Auckland is classified as a Beta+ World City because of its importance in commerce, the arts, and education. The University of Auckland, established in 1883, is the largest university in New Zealand. Landmarks such as the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, the Harbour Bridge, the Sky Tower, and many museums, parks, restaurants, and theatres are among the city’s significant tourist attractions. Auckland Airport handles around one million international passengers a month. Despite being one of the most expensive cities in the world, Auckland is ranked third on the 2016 Mercer Quality of Living Survey, making it one of the most liveable cities.

Whenever we visit Auckland we go to Albert Park and have a wander through the pathways and lawns, making our way up to the University of Auckland. This is New Zealand’s pre-eminent research-led University. Established in 1883, it has grown into an international centre of learning and academic excellence and is New Zealand’s largest university. Its mission is to be an internationally recognised, research-led university, known for the excellence of its teaching, research, and service to its local, national and international communities. It aims to be a vibrant and intellectually challenging place of learning, nurturing a community of scholars who share a passion for discovery, the advance of knowledge and human progress.

The signature building of the University is the Clock Tower, which is a wonderful Victorian confection in white, reminding one of a wedding cake bedecked in icing sugar filigree decorations. The campus is quite extensive and is an agglomeration of modern and Victorian buildings, beautiful parks, gardens, roads and pathways.

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

THE CRAZY ENGLISH LANGUAGE

“We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.” – Epictetus

I am reading at the moment, “Port Out Starboard Home”, by Michael Quinion. This is a marvellous book that will interest anyone who has a fascination with the vagaries of the English language. It examines the real etymology (origin) of a large number of words and phrases, but looks mainly at the fanciful stories that people have made up to explain how these odd words and phrases came about (ie: “etymythology”). Some of these these stories are very tall, highly amusing, a few ingenious, some ridiculous, and in other cases downright silly.

For example why is a Guinea pig so-called, when it is neither porcine nor from Guinea? Why are Americans nowadays loath to use the phrase “to call a spade a spade” and why perhaps we should all be saying instead “to call a trough a trough” in its place? Perhaps you would like to know why you should mind your P’s and Q’s but not worry about other letters of the alphabet? Or perhaps why women can’t testify, whereas any able-bodied male can…?

It all makes for captivating reading and proves that the English language is not only a very rich and highly interesting one, but a quirky and irrational one as well, a language precise enough to write philosophical treatises of great abstraction in, but at the same time one whose illogical grammar and whose prodigious vocabulary with its immense shades of meaning, its homonyms, homographs and homophones, can make learning it the nightmare of a foreigner, and drive even a native speaker to distraction.

For example:

The bandage was wound around the wound.

The farm was used to produce produce.

The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.

We must polish the Polish furniture.

He could lead if he could get the lead out.

The soldier decided to desert and eat his dessert in the desert.

Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.

A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.

When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.

I did not object to the object.

The insurance was invalid for the invalid.

There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.

They were too close to the door to close it.

The buck does funny things when the does are present.

A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.

To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.

The wind was too strong to wind the sail.

After a number of injections my jaw got number.

Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.

I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.

How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

He decided to cleave the piece of wood, but as soon as it was done he put his mind to cleave it into one piece again.

Or how about this anonymous piece that has been around for some time?

“Let’s face it, English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren’t invented in England nor French fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren’t sweet, are meat.

We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig. And why is it that writers write but fingers don’t fing, grocers don’t groce and hammers don’t ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn’t the plural of booth “beeth”? One goose, two geese. So one moose, two meese?

Doesn’t it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend, that you comb through annals of history but not a single annal? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it? If teachers taught, why didn’t preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? If you wrote a letter, perhaps you bote your tongue?

Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell? Park on driveways and drive on parkways?

How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and wise guy are opposites? How can overlook and oversee be opposites, while quite a lot and quite a few are alike? How can the weather be hot as hell one day and cold as hell another day. Have you noticed that we talk about certain things only when they are absent? Have you ever seen a horseful carriage or a strapful gown? Met a sung hero or experienced requited love? Have you ever run into someone who was combobulated, gruntled, ruly or peccable? And where are all those people who ARE spring chickens or who would ACTUALLY hurt a fly?

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which an alarm clock goes off by going on.

English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race (which, of course, isn’t a race at all). That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible. And why, when I wind up my watch, I start it, but when I wind up this essay, I end it.”

EDUCATION

“I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.” - Mark Twain

educate |ˈejəˌkāt| verb [ trans. ] (often be educated)

Give intellectual, moral, and social instruction to (someone, esp. a child), typically at a school or university: She was educated at a boarding school.

• Provide or pay for instruction for (one's child), esp. at a school.

• Give (someone) training in or information on a particular field: [ trans. ] The need to educate people to conserve water | A plan to educate the young on the dangers of drug-taking.

DERIVATIVES

educability |ˌejəkəˈbilitē| noun

educable |-kəbəl| adjective

educative |-ˌkātiv| adjective

educator |-ˌkātər| noun

ORIGIN late Middle English: from Latin educat- ‘led out,’ from the verb educare, related to educere ‘lead out’

Education is universally regarded as something that all people should have, something all should experience and derive benefit from. While hardly none would disagree with this, the model that is used to educate people at various levels of schooling gives rise to great debate. Different models of education, widely varying in their approach coexist side by side and are more or less effective. Public and privately funded educational systems have their supporters and opponents, and each has its merits and pitfalls.

Preschool and primary school education is regarded as the foundation-building stage, in which basic skills in literacy and numeracy are acquired. The child at this level develops not only the intellectual skills needed to deal with the influx of new fundamental information, but also the motor skills required in the process of writing legibly, social skills that underpin a harmonious co-existence with other people and the beginnings of higher mentative processes, such as those that are needed for ethical/moral discrimination, artistic and musical appreciation, etc.

Secondary schooling allows for the development of a broad acquisition of knowledge in the humanities and sciences. Language and art, history and literature, physical and biological sciences are introduced at suitable levels throughout the school career and training in independent critical thinking processes begins, with logical and analytical skills being honed, especially so in the later years of this educative process. The character development that was begun in primary school is fine-tuned here. Secondary students have to deal with a large variety of issues, including the obvious biological one of puberty that will impinge on their learning.

Tertiary level education involves the student in a journey of self-discovery where thoughts and mentative processes can be examined in detail, where information is not only passively acquired, but where it is analysed, critically evaluated and reprocessed. The world versus the self are contrasted and the student will need to deal with the conflicts that arise therefrom. The tertiary study experience should act as the springboard for original thinking and problem-solving in unfamiliar situations, and should result in creative intellectual activity, and in organised and logical thought.

Having worked as an academic at a University for many years has given me an immense sense of responsibility towards my students, my colleagues and the community. I try to uphold a certain standard of educational experience in a system that has come under a great deal of pressure and stress in the last few years. We have survived various forms of reorganisation, rationalisation and changes of management. We have redesigned the curricula, updated programs and courses, and have had to cope with several changes in the way the students are selected for admission. To be an academic in such an environment is extremely labour-intensive and often frustrating, but at the same time it is infinitely rewarding. One certainly does not persist in being an academic for the pay involved!

One of my concerns in recent years is the declining academic standard of the average university student. The question arises of why this should be so, even if one is aware of the increasing pressures of government, society and family to push more secondary students into the tertiary sector, rather than directly into the workforce. I suspect that the basic problem arises in secondary and primary school level. There are students in secondary schools that have basic literacy and numeracy skill deficiencies. The wife of one of my colleagues teaches in a secondary school (admittedly, it is in a lower socioeconomic class suburb), but she maintains that even children born here, from families of native speakers of English, have immense trouble with basic reading and writing. She complains that when these children come to high school from primary school, some of them can barely read and write.

We live in a society that is increasingly reliant on technology. A society that will depend more and more on an educated population in order to cope with the information revolution that has changed our lives dramatically in the last couple of decades. We require specialised, analytical, quick-thinking, problem-solving educated people in our society and yet we find that we have rather poor raw material in our universities to work with. How can such a problem be resolved?

What is to blame for this deterioration in educational standards that seems to be occurring worldwide? What do you think?

LITERARY TUESDAY - BRAVE NEW WORLD

“There is a great deal of difference between an eager man who wants to read a book and a tired man who wants a book to read.” - G.K. Chesterton

Although I teach in a medical area, and most of my book-listed material for my subjects comprises books that are related to science, biology and medicine, I often recommend other books for reading to my students, books that are found in the literature section, rather than the medical and science shelves of the Library. These books I think are essential for their education as they concern themselves with social and moral issues, pose important questions about society and people, relationships and human interactions.

Some other books relate to the practice of medicine and how it fits into society. Anyone working in the medical field must have a very broad education and be familiar not only with their science, but also know something of people and the forces that motivate their actions, the emotions that colour their lives, and the thoughts and deeds that ultimately may relate to the diseases they present with.

When discussing HIV infection and AIDS for example, I recommended they read “April Fools Day” by Bryce Courtenay. When I talk about the pathology of birthmarks, I refer to “The Scarlet Pimpernel” by Baroness Orczy, with my tongue in my cheek. “The Plague” by Albert Camus gets more than one mention as not only does it talk about ills of the body but also about sickness in social systems. Anthony Burgess’ “A Clockwork Orange” is an old standard amongst my recommendations and “The Elephant Man” (the play by Bernard Pomerance) is recommended, but read by the odd one or two in my class, while most prefer to watch the movie.

For the romantic and idealistic young things in my classes that wish to change the world, the rather old fashioned novels by A.J. Cronin (physician and author) still appeal. Novels such as “The Citadel” and “Shannon’s Way”, and his short stories “Adventures of a Black Bag”. Similarly old-fashioned, but still an entertaining read is Axel Munthe’s “The Story of San Michele”, which appeals to many of them. Albert Schweitzer’s writings are often on my “unorthodox” reading list, especially his autobiography “Out Of My Life and Thought”. Kafka is recommended to a select few and read by even fewer. Philosophers’ works figure prominently and also some by famous essayists.

Something that I often recommend to them is “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley. This is excellent when one is teaching cloning, genetic engineering, in vitro fertilisation, use of fertilised ova in medical research, stem cells, etc. Huxley’s work, wonderfully prophetic (as all good science fiction is) is ever germane.

Huxley wrote “Brave New World” in 1932 and set it in a futuristic society the whole existence of which is based on pleasure without moral repercussions. Eugenics is the novel’s theme and the title is taken from Shakespeare’s “The Tempest”, where Miranda says, "O brave new world, that hath such people in’t." The novel is replete with references to “free sex” and drugs and this explains why it was consecutively banned in many countries around the world.

Huxley wrote the book after a visit to the USA and in his novel he expressed his outrage towards the culture of youth, inane cheeriness, crass commercialism and parochial nature of many Americans he observed. In many respects, the novel can be regarded as Huxley’s way of ringing the alarm bells against what he saw as the americanisation of British society, and the world at large. His brutal dystopia is extreme and designed to shock, but at the same time is one that poses important moral questions and generates ethical dilemmas in his readers.

Although “Brave New World” was condemned when it was first published, it has since become a modern literary classic. If you haven’t read it, go to your public library and borrow it – an excellent book!

WELCOME TO NIKAMIA!

“The intellectual man requires a fine bait; the sots are easily amused. But everybody is drugged with his own frenzy, and the pageant marches at all hours, with music and banner and badge.” - R.W. Emerson

Nípali Nikámi? Éo sin pálo ka gádo sofiné on nípalo Nikámi. Éos mádha min sin didáhe! Nikámi éosi pádha e!

Have you understood anything in the sentences above? I doubt it very much – in fact I would be surprised if you had the foggiest idea of what I had written about! So what is it all about, what am I getting at?

People that know me a little through this blog, may know of my fascination with language and words. I love languages, linguistics, etymololgy, grammar, writing, alphabets, symbols, spelling, orthography, history and evolution of language. So for something to do (call it an intellectual diversion, if you like), I have taken it upon myself to invent a new language, “Nikamian” spoken on the imaginary world of “Nikamia”. I am nearly through writing a book called “The Grammar of Nikamian”, but progress is slow because simply there are not enough hours in the day (or night!).

Some people may say this is a useless exercise, a waste of time! But as for me, I find it extremely interesting and amusing. As most hobbies tend to be, this diversion of mine is self-gratifying and it pleases me, the person who is pursuing it, the most. I am in the process of devising a unique alphabet for the Nikámian language at the moment and ideas for this can be jotted down anywhere on any scrap of paper, instead of doodles. The script in the illustration is a prototype of  the word “Nikamia” written in Nikamian.

The word for the day, aptly is:

hobby 1 |ˈhäbē| noun ( pl. -bies)

1 an activity done regularly in one's leisure time for pleasure: Her hobbies are reading and gardening.

2 archaic a small horse or pony.

• historical an early type of velocipede.

ORIGIN late Middle English hobyn, hoby, from nicknames for the given name Robin. Originally in sense 2 (compare with dobbin ), it later came to denote a toy horse or hobbyhorse, hence [a pastime, something done for pleasure.]

Oh, and in case you were wondering what I said at the beginning of this post, here is the translation:

“Do you speak Nikamian? I certainly speak it and I enjoy it very much when we speak Nikamian. My mother has not taught it to me. Nikamian is my own child!”

OK, I admit it. I’m weird! Now tell me what is one of your weird pastimes, diversions, hobbyhorses?

POETRY JAM - BACK TO SCHOOL

“Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.” - AlbertEinstein

This week PoetryJam has as a theme “Back to School”:

“Think about what the first day of school evokes for you. Do you have sweet or bitter memories? Does one particular year stand out? Why? Are your children or grandchildren going back soon? What is or was it like to accompany them on their very first day?”

Here is my contribution.

First School Day

The first few drops of rain

On sun-baked soil have a special smell –

Turmeric mixed with soft green moss,

And a freshness, a vitality, an electricity,

The discharge of a spark of static.

The first school day

In a newly-cleaned classroom has a special smell:

Freshly-sharpened pencil (cedar), sharp ink,

And the subtler aroma of new schoolbooks,

Wide-open on desktops.

The walls full of maps and posters

Strange photographs, alphabet cards, art;

A brave new world to explore,

A wondrous adventure waiting to happen

And new friends to share it with.

The wide-open eyes, filling with images;

New sounds, new tasks, a new order of things.

The crest-fallen look of grim realisation

That you are not alone and not-so-special anymore,

A rose unique and solitary

Suddenly immersed within an endless rose-garden…

The golden afternoon, warm autumn sunshine,

And the walk back home –

A young mind bursting at the seams,

A blessed fatigue of brain and body;

But all to be made good simply, easily, quickly

With a glass of milk and cookies…

WHAT AILS US?

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I... I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.” Robert Frost

I saw some young beggars on the City streets these last few days and the image has stayed with me, as I am trying to come to terms with what I can only describe as a great waste. The faces of the young beggars sitting on the sidewalk while the laughing crowd went by them oblivious to their misery is a haunting image and the big question mark of “why?” remains with me. A society such as ours is not one that should allow such an existence. We have a tax system that is designed to support people who are unemployed, down and out and dependent on the welfare of the state. If nothing else good can be said about our Government’s unemployment benefit payments is that they help to preserve some human dignity and allow the unemployed to survive until they find another job. Numerous welfare payment ensure that youth, homeless, single mothers, wards of the state and numerous other down-and-outers are supported and do have to rely on begging for their existence.

I have travelled widely and in some countries begging is way of life. Numerous people have begging as their full time job and this is forced upon them as the state cannot and will not support citizens who are living on the brink, so to speak. The horrific images of mutilated children begging, full well knowing that their own parents have maimed them in order for them to be able to beg, brings a sickening realisation that all is not well with the world as our politicians in this and other Western countries want us to believe.

But in Australia of the 21st century, to see so many beggars on the City streets I cannot comprehend. What ails our society so that able-bodied, intelligent, young people are reduced to this pitiful existence? What a terrible waste! How can we cure a cancer like this so that we can achieve all that we are capable of? Is it such a big thing to ask that we become aware of our potential as thinking, rational, logical people? Can this realisation of our potential cure the apathy with which we look at and not see these latent possibilities thrown away?

Why should so many children, for this is what they are, run away from home? Why so many homeless? Why so many people succumbing to drugs and alcohol, a life of misery and crime? Why so much violence and so much selfishness that destroys their respect for their fellow human beings? Why so much pursuit of animal pleasures and satisfaction of the base instincts, without any thought of things of a higher sphere? I see it constantly in my students. So many of them come to few classes, and even to those unwillingly. They ask what will be in the examination so they can “study” for it. Knowledge for its own sake has become an onerous burden. Even if one tries to teach them what is vitally important, they may turn up their nose at it and say it is too much, it is irrelevant or it is too hard.

What rots the mind of our children and eats into their brains converting them into empty pretty shells that luxuriate only in the gratification of their pretty flesh? Why so much emphasis on the body beautiful, the image, the casing, such that we are now making everyone a nicely wrapped package that contains nothing of value? So much superficiality and emptiness… Is it all about money? Is that what we have made our lives equate to?

Civil unrest in Southeast Asia. Nuclear concerns in Iran. More bombings and rebel warfare in Iraq. A gathering storm in African countries. Whenever we turn on the radio or the TV, log onto the internet a new crisis or tragedy is reported. Is it so surprising that people here seem to have become inured to it all? Reports of thousands of deaths are listened to dispassionately, and so long as they are a safe distance away from us, they do not matter.

Meanwhile, the world keeps turning for us, the music stations keep broadcasting our favourite songs, the “reality” TV shows embroil us in their vicarious existence: Petty arguments, thinly veiled pornography and trivial outbursts of the manufactured authenticity of their situations acted out by the plastic people that are selected to be made into the mirrors of our society. We go out and entertain ourselves – to the theatre, the restaurants, the football games, the discos and the bars. As long as there is enough money to get us by… And some more money to buy our designer clothes… Some more for our latest technological gadgetry, and some more for the next installment of our new model car? How beautiful our little insulated existence! Can a civilisation such as this survive?

EUROPEAN DAY OF THE RIGHTEOUS

“Do you have the right to be silent in the face of evil, do you have the right not to stand witness; do you the right to let your fear speak for you?” – Esad Kocan
 

March 6 is the European day of the Righteous, a celebration established in 2012 by the European Parliament to commemorate those who have stood up against crimes against humanity and totalitarianism with their own moral responsibility. By this celebration the concept of Righteous as worked out by Yad Vashem is broadened to all genocide cases and forms of totalitarianism thanks to the commitment of Moshe Bejski. The European day of the Righteous is celebrated every year on 6 March, the anniversary of Moshe Bejski’s death.
 

Moshe Bejski (Dzialoszyce, 29 December 1921 – Tel Aviv, 6 March 2007) was an Israeli judge, President of “Yad Vashem” Righteous Commission. Moshe Bejski’s quest for the Righteous demonstrates that it is possible to act against evil with a simple act of good, and not necessarily having to become a martyr. As long as one has the moral inclination to do so one may make a big difference. There are no barriers, neither ethnic, nor religious; neither ideological nor sociological, when one puts human beings at the centre of one’s world of values.
 

The call for the European Union and the Council of Europe to set up a European day in the memory of the Righteous came from a hundred prominent Italian and European personalities of the world of culture under the aegis of non-profit association Gariwo, the forest of the Righteous. It soon received the support of important institutions such as the Presidency of the Republic of Poland, the Václav Havel foundatioon, the association run by father Luigi Ciotti “Libera, numeri e nomi contro le mafie” and many other influent entities from all over Europe. The most famous signatories include Umberto Eco, Dario Fo, Daniel Goldhagen.
 

The educational charity Gariwo is part of the network Gardens of the Righteous Worldwide (www.gariwo.net) and was registered in Sarajevo in 2001. The organisation campaigns to develop civil courage among young people in the Balkans to stand up against ethnic and religious antagonism, bigotry, intolerance of diversity, all kinds of group prejudice, corruption, intimidation, bullying, physical abuse and violence.
 

Specific Aims of the Programme Education for Civil Courage are:
To raise public awareness of moral and social issues and their chief purpose
To encourage citizens to think in terms of their whole society rather than identify mainly with ethnic groups
To persuade citizens to take responsibility for changing their society
To inspire self-confidence that individual and collective action can succeed
To train particularly young people in the practical skills for constructive opposition.