The masculine figure in the ballet world in England vs. in Spain

I would like to start this blog with a topic which sometimes seems not to matter. I am going to write about the ballet and the prejudices that may appear when a boy says that he wants to be a dancer instead of being a footballer, doctor or engineer, and the differences among countries on this subjects. And these countries are going to be Spain and England.

What does it happen in Spain? It's true that when the girls are little, they use to go to a ballet's academy, it's something elegant and nice to see, but what happens with the boys? Spain loves art, but the masculine figure in the ballet when you are a little boy is not well accepted. Since childhood, we should be educated to love the music and dance, but I think that Spain is still a society in which the girls learn ballet dance and the boys play football, considering that if a boy performs classic dance, he probably would become effeminate.

Unlike Spain, there are countries as England where they understand that arts don't have gender. At school, they encourage children to love the theatre and music, they know that the knowledge about music or dance provide advantageous skills such as improving the attention, controlling your body motion and discipline. There are many elements that a dancer or musician can put into practice in his daily life. This statement is supported by Kate Middleton because she is in favour of introducing her child, Prince George, in the dance world. There are also relevant English dancers like Rupert Pennefather or Edward Watson, who have become prominent figures of the Royal Ballet. The British movie Billy Elliot shows how in a small village a boy wants to be a dancer and how he is afraid to tell it.

To sum up, in the 21^st century, the masculine figure in the classic dance is not fully accepted yet. The closest case I can tell about is my brother’s. He has been dancing since he was 4 years old and he plays piano and violin also. Some children in his school laughed at him, they saw it something strange, unusual and then he suffered but today he is 11 and he has realised the good things he gets from practising ballet. Not only it's my brother's case, also there is the case of Guillermo Cabrera, his father dreamed his son became a future Messi, but the boy preferred the world of dancing. He has worked hard and nowadays with 11 years old the Royal Ballet School of London has noticed him. England is one of the countries which support the artistic world and I would like to think that maybe someday the Spanish society will change his mind about little boys learning ballet. In conclusion Ballet is not a question about gender but it's about loving the music. Dancing is to see a body in freedom.

Mercedes Recuero Sánchez-Simón

EPD 11 Group: Estíbaliz Solana y Claudia Ortuño

Why do the Scottish hate the English ?

Scottish Flag

Since the dawn of time, the rivalry between the Scottish and the English exists, and these last few years it has especially worsen with the Scottish Referendum and with the rise of nationalism.

In fact, we have to remember that the United Kingdom is the result of the union of Scotland and England in 1707, so United Kingdom was formed not a long time ago, only 310 years ago. Indeed, they are the same country, but they have their own identity and culture ; they have different religions (catholicism in Scotland and protestantism in England) and laws. Furthermore, they are educated in a different way. Of course, the influence of England was and is still stronger in the society and economy of the UK than Scotland’s.

Indeed, this impression of cultural inferiority felt by the Scottish regarding the superiority of English exists : it is called “Scottish cringe” and it creates some tensions between the two populations. There is a striking fact that demonstrates it ; in 1745 England attacked the symbol of Scotland by banning the tartan and the bagpipe, after a Scottish rebellion.

Centuries after centuries English provocations fed the rivalry between the two nations, and the decline of the Scottish identity lead the Scottish to consider the idea of Independence, and by the way the rise of nationalism. According to Tom Devine, one of the biggest Scottish historian, " From 1750 till 1980, the relation was stable. Today, the bases which made this stability disappeared or widely fainted ", it means that an Anglo Scottish union is no longer necessary. 

Moreover, the differences between the two identities, the desire of independence and the increase of nationalism lead to some important events. First, in 1934 the creation of the SNP (Scottish National Party), then in 1997 the Scottish devolution referendum, in which SNP had an important role and it marked the first gap between the two nations. In fact the devolution plan was approved by 74.3% of the people who voted (44.87% of the electorate) and so the Scottish Parliament called ‘Holyrood‘ was set up. Also there was the same devolution referendum in 1978 but it failed because only 32.9% of the electorate voted (it required 40%). This fact proves that in less than twenty years there was a rise of nationalism in Scotland and that more people were concerned about their country.

United Kingdom approved the holding of a referendum on Scottish independence on September 18^th, 2014. The referendum was not just a ‘victory’ against England, but it was also the achievement of the growth of nationalism. Moreover we can think that it used immigration to exploit resentment against new identities and cultures. Therefore, we can see that the independence referendum had some sort of controversy between Scottish values and English values. Finally, the referendum was a failure, 55,4 % were against and voted “NO”.

Scottish Independence Referendum 

To conclude we can say that the more nationalist Scottish people are, the more they want power and independence, and Scottish nationalism is constantly increasing. It shows us a form of uncertainty avoidance, because they want to protect their culture and identity which they fought for many years. Finally, as French, we are not so different from Scottish, we have a common enemy: England! 

Here are some articles to go further about this blog entry :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_cringe

http://www.huffingtonpost.fr/2014/09/18/independance-ecosse-rivalite-anglais-ecossais_n_5836654.html

http://www.lalibre.be/dernieres-depeches/afp/l-ecosse-et-l-angleterre-une-histoire-marquee-par-la-rivalite-puis-l-union-540fdb77357030e6103ebcdd

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/video/2014/sep/17/scottish-referendum-explained-for-non-brits-video

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/scottish-independence/10692746/Are-Scotland-and-England-really-so-different.html

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/sep/16/rise-nationalism-unites-scotland-england-independence

http://blog.francetvinfo.fr/bureau-londres/2014/09/18/ecossais-et-francais-pas-si-differents.html

Hichem Ouattar, EPD 12 (group2)

Meet the Beatles: the beginning of pop

Who haven't heard about The Beatles? Sure that you have ever sung to the rhythm of ''Let It Be''. 

As everybody knows, The Beatles were an English pop band formed by John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They became undoubtedly the most influential group of the pop-rock era.

The group went through several names. They adopted names such as the Johnny and the Moondogs, The Silver Beetles, The Silver Beatles, and eventually The Beatles.

By the end of 1961, Brian Epstein, whose family owned the furniture/record store NEMS, began to hear about the Beatles.

Eventually he decided to go see this group for himself. When he arrived at a club known as The Cavern he was amazed at what he saw. Liverpool was full of guys like that at the time, but the Beatles had something else - charisma. By January 1962, Brian was officially their manager, putting the boys in suits, but keeping their long hair, gave them a look different from any other group around.

The birth of the band

It all began because John Lennon and his friend Peter Shotton took part in a band called The Quarrymen whom Paul McCartney and George Harrison joined a few years later.

The band started to play in diverses pubs in Liverpool. It is in this moment when they realized that they needed a bass guitarist, therefore Stuart Sutcliffe joined them.

At that time it was cool to put animal’s names to music bands and from the word game “beetle” and “beat” (style of music that they practise), in this way the name The Beatles was formed.            

“Abbey Road”: one of the greatest albums of all times

Abbey Road album's cover

Did you know that ''Abbey Road'' was not going to be the name of this album? 

During the recording sessions, the production team called it ''Everest'' because that was the name of the brand cigarettes that one of them smoked. Because of that, they wanted to go to the Everest to take a picture for the album’s cover. However, they wanted to finish the album quickly so they took a photo in the middle of a road. It tooks the photographer only ten minutes.

''Abbey Road'' was their final  album recorded but not their last album released and it is considered as the best album of their career and one of the best albums of all times. Why? Because as a result of a change of the way they worked, they produced creative and incredible hits: ''Something'', ''Here Comes the Sun'' or ''Because''.

''It was a very happy record. I guess it was happy because everybody thought it was going to be the last’’, said producer George Martin.

''Come Together'' is the opening track of this album, in which John Lennon played rhythm guitar apart from singing. Let’s listen this awesome masterpiece.

Francisco Jesús García Carrillo EPD 12 (Group 5)

Being driven by curiosity

Among the numerous cultural differences we can take in every time we go abroad, there is a fundamental one: left-hand traffic vs. right-hand traffic.

Its origin goes way back in time. Starting with the Roman Empire, the first infrastructures, such as stone-paved roads, were built around 300 BC. According to archaeological evidence ancient Romans drove their carts and chariots on the left in order to greet someone or to protect themselves from any violent assault. Given that most people were right-handed, circulating on the left side of the road meant holding the weapon with their dominant hand and therefore assured them much more security.

700 years ago, in the Middle Ages, they wouldn’t change the traffic system. Due to the brutal and cruel era they lived in, they would hold their sword in the right hand to battle against a passing opponent at any moment while riding their horse whipping it with their left

  

Two horsemen battling with their sword, holding it in their right hand.

It wasn’t until the late 1700s, when Napoleon Bonaparte conquered European countries and introduced a new law to “keep right”. There are just speculations about this drastic change: some say the fact that he was left-handed was the whole reason for it, whereas others suppose that his tendency to change centuries-long traditions just to create a whole new society and show his absolute power was the purpose behind the Revolution.

Nevertheless, there are also scientists who opine it was first and foremost a logical switch: owing to the invention of new big wagons pulled by teams of horses. The driver of the wagons sat on the left rear horse which allowed him to hold the rein and lash in his right hand. As a natural result, oncoming traffic would pass on the left side to prevent any clash between the two wagons.

While France went spreading their driving style all over Europe, Britain exported theirs to their respective colonies. As a consequence, nowadays there are still many former British territories such as India, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, Hong Kong, etc. driving on the left.

Meanwhile, in the beginning of the 20^th century Henry Ford developed in America the automobile “Model T” which was affordable to many of the middle class. With the steering-wheel on the left he designed it to be driven on the right side of the road. Hence the founder of the Ford Motor Company became one of the most influential individuals when it comes to the rules of the road.

“Tin Lizzie”, “Leaping Lena”, or “flivver” as they called the “Model-T” of Henry Ford, 1910.

As I was reading people’s points of views on the subject, I couldn’t make up my mind at first: is it really better to maintain the two opposite traffic systems or wouldn’t a global one be more favourable for all of us?

On one hand, in case of standardization, there would be a certain loss of cultural property (just think about a London trip without seeing their “look right”-marks on the streets). Furthermore, we have to be aware of the financial costs this would imply for the concerned countries and territories.

On the other hand, in general having unequal systems (such as the metric calculating system) make globalization harder and slower.

To sum up, personally I’m convinced that one of the main reasons why they still drive on the left side is a question of money and (British-)stubbornness. Moreover, I assume that sooner or later we will see ourselves forced to adapt to a universal system if we don’t want to get in the way of our rush of inventions.

(Have a look at this: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8239048.stm)

                                                                                  

Cheers and drive safely!

Patrizia Bucher EPD 11(Group 1)

The Iron Lady, who did not leave anyone indifferent

Margaret Thutcher got three term, in each which she showed that she was able to lift both hate and passions with every action she performed.

In her role as the first minister, she got three term. Her purpose was fight against the country's recession by initially raising interest rates to control inflation. She was best known for her destruction of Britain's traditional industries through her attacks on labor organizations such as the miner's union, and for the massive privatization of social housing and public transport. One of her staunchest allies was US. President Ronald Reagan, a fellow conservative. The two shared similar right-wing, pro-corporate political philosophies.

• In her first term, Thatcher faced a military challenge. In april 1982, Argentina invaded the Falklands. Thatcher send British troops to take back the islands. This war was known as the Faklands War. Argentina surrendered in June 1982.
• In her second term (1983-1987), she had some conflicts, among them an assassination attempt against her in 1984. In this year she signed an agreement with the Chinese government and Thatcher expressed his support for Ronald Reagan's air strikes against Libya.
• Third term in 1987. She seeks to implement a curriculum and makes changes in the medical system of the country, due to the amount of support that lost by these two changes. In 1990 she yields due to the pressure and the 22 of November of 1990 she decides to resign.

The government of Margaret Thatcher created and destroyed so in this part we will discuss the main topic of this blog. What did she do well and do wrong to be loved and hated at the same time? Main reasons:

1. Thatcher will never be forgiven for what she did to the Left during 1980. She destroyed the industrial unions, closed the coal mines, smelting steel and refusing to compromise with striking miners during the year-long industrial action of 1984.
2. Her Conservative Party privatized vast swaths of the state's apparatus, including the gas, water, telecom, and electricity industries, and reduced public funding for education, welfare, and social housing.
3. Thatcher's decade of supply-side economics made a lot of people rich, and not just the 1 percent. The economy boomed under Thatcherism, sparking a rise in house prices and productivity that served to create a real, wealthy middle class. The rich were increasingly rich and the poor increasingly ignored.
4. In 1986 she made a reform that was based on an ideology that did not take into account the financial past of Great Britain. It undermined the commercial banks of London and with it the advantage that the London Bank had in capital.
5. She failed in his skepticism about the cost estimates of the Channel Tunnel, leaving Britain with a limited continental connection rather than a larger link and generator of economy.
6. She behaved as if Britain were a superpower when it was not, but this self-confidence made it stand in the hegemonies of the world. This shows the character she was able to fight against everyone and everything to get what she thought.
7. When she won the war against Argentina, after no one trusted that she could win it because she made naval cutouts so everyone thought that she was crazy. It became a super economic power.
8. She played a major supporting role for US President Ronald Reagan in defeating Soviet Communism and tensing President George H. W. Bush in the run-up to the first Gulf War. His willingness to fight was a key point. Without it, she could not have defeated the powerful trade unions, especially the miners, something essential for British economic survival.

To sum up, Thatcher's time did not leave anyone indifferent. This woman with her so rigid character was also known as the iron lady because she was able to stand against everyone in order to carry out their purposes. This character also made Britain divide into rich and poor, but neither group would forget her. Therefore, this woman will be praised and hated in equal measures. The British economic strength owes much to Thatcher, since she was a conspiracy for his successors and also showed that a woman could get to do what they considered only valid for men.Thatcher's policies and actions continue to be debated by detractors and supporters alike.

Bibliography

Zúñiga, D. (08.04.2013) Margaret Thatcher: férrea, amada y odiada. Made for minds. http://www.dw.com/es/margaret-thatcher-f%C3%A9rrea-amada-y-odiada/a-16729080

Margaret Thatcher. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Thatcher

The Iron Lady Movie. 27^th November 2016.Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmsRFrI7_fs

The Iron Lady (flim). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Iron_Lady_(film)

Elliott, L.(14.04.2013) Margaret Thatcher was loved and hated- both for sound economic reasons. The guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/apr/14/margaret-thatcher-loved-hated-economic

Rogan, T. (09.04.2013) Why Thatcher was the ‘Iron Lady’. CNN. http://edition.cnn.com/2013/04/08/opinion/rogan-thatcher/index.html

Margaret Thatcher. Biography. https://www.biography.com/people/margaret-thatcher-9504796

Coman, J. (14.04.2013) Margaret Thatcher:20 ways that she changed Britain. The guardian.https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/apr/14/margaret-thatcher-20-changes-britain

Stewart, D. (08.04.2013) Why Margaret Thatcher was loved- and hated. The week. http://theweek.com/articles/465801/why-margaret-thatcher-loved--hated

WRITER: ROCÍO LÓPEZ RODRÍGUEZ. EPD 12 (GROUP 4)

REVIEWER: YERAY AGUILAR DOMINGUEZ.

Why are British people so self-conscious about manners and politeness?

 I’m sure that almost everyone who has ever studied some English has realized that Britons are very polite (and... also that they are always complaining about the weather). I’ve been in London for one week, and I has been warned about the amount of times  they say “sorry” is the same as they say “hello” or “goodbye”. Maybe this is strange because in Spain we are not like that.

The Spanish people make up any excuse when they arrive late: "The subway did not pass", "I forgot my wallet at home and I had to go back" or "the dog swallowed the alarm". In the United Kingdom the alarm isn’t delayed five minutes. They are not late, because punctuality is their sixth sense. They have it all.

After doing a few searches on Google and having asked several British friends, I have not found any exact reason why they act that way. I guess it's because the United Kingdom is a very traditional and conservative country. Correct manners are in their DNA. It is like asking Spanish people why we are so close, or why we like so much partying.

Obviously, these are all stereotypes. As there are Spanish who do not like going to parties, there are also Britons who are not so polite.

Some British are fed up of pretending they are always happy and having to please people, because of the stereotype "All British are polite".

Sometimes because they feel that they have to be polite, they are prevented from saying what they truly think.

In some countries the clients think that employers do not need to be thanked, but why not? It’s so easy, and we can contribute to do the day of that person a bit better.

As a conclusion (from my point of view), we have to start to thank people and family..

Do you think it is better not to hurt people’s feelings and be polite or to let people know the truth? 

Cristina Centeno Garrido EPD 11 (Group 4)

Welcome to our blog!

Here you'll be able to express your views on the different topics we are going to see. Also, it is a good opportunity to explore those topics that are both related to the British culture and of your interest. Feel free to express your ideas, comment on other people's ideas and share with others. 

I hope you enjoy it!