Werner Ulrich's Home Page:  Ulrich's Bimonthly

Formerly "Picture of the Month"

January-February 2015

For freedom of expression  Again we face a new year. It has begun with acts of terror and of threats to the freedom of expression that are wholly unacceptable and inexcusable. As I am writing this Bimonthly, on the 11th of January, 2015, several millions of people worldwide are manifesting their determination to defend the achievements of an open and illuminated society. In Paris alone, which has been the site of barbaric attacks against the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, one and a half million people have taken to the streets and are marching in unity and solidarity with those killed, as well as in support of free journalism and basic citizen rights. It is good indeed to see such a firm response on the part of citizens of many different creeds and cultures, in France as in many other countries.

Only a few days before these acts of terror, I returned from a one-week stay in Marbella, a beautiful city in Andalusia in Southern Spain. As it happens, I brought home from Marbella a photograph of a monument that I found there in support of freedom of expression. It is located in the elegant Avenida del Mar, a pedestrian area that connects the Casco Antiguo (old town) with the seafront promenade and the beach and which is a kind of open-air museum with twelve sculptures by the two surrealist Spanish artists Salvador Dalí and Eduardo Soriano (ten of them by Dalí and two by Soriano).

The last of these sculptures, by Marbella's local artist Eduardo Soriano, could not fit in better with the need of these first days of the new year for standing up in support of basic democratic rights of freedom: it is dedicated "A la Libertad de Expresión" ("To the Freedom of Expression"). Without anticipating how timely this message would be after my return to Bern, I took a picture of the monument. It carries the two inscriptions:

„La libertad no muere, nace y duerme diariamente.”

"Freedom does not die, it is born and falls asleep every day."
(Eduardo Soriano, my transl.)

„No hay lugar tan estrecho donde no se pueda
elevar el pensamiento al cielo.”

"There is no place so narrow that one could not lift up one's thought to the heavens." (Attributed to Seneca, my transl.)

As this year's first Bimonthly, I originally intended to prepare the next, sixth part of my ongoing series of bimonthly essays on "The Rational, the Moral, and the General," with their current focus on the role of general ideas in ancient Indian thought. However, confronted with the present threats to the freedom of expression, I have changed my plans. I have chosen the photograph of Marbella's monument of free expression as the main picture of this first Bimonthly of 2015, and its two above-cited inscriptions as the mottos that go with the picture (see bottom of the page).

I take the occasion to offer all the visitors of this site my well-wishes for the new year, together with a few additional pictures that I brought home from Marbella, Cádiz, and Sevilla, the three main places I visited in Andalusia. The blend of Moorish and European culture that characterizes Andalusia's cultural heritage and way of life tells us that the Islamic and the Western cultures might learn, once again, to coexist and cooperate in productive ways and to see their differences as a source of mutual enrichment and improvement rather than as a reason for intolerance, hatred, and violence. Perhaps the light and colors of Andalusia also offer a meaningful contrast to the lack of illumination that is at the root of religious dogmatism and intolerance. Along with these pictures from Andalusia, I offer three extracts from new-year poems by a Spanish author, José de Arias Martinez, whose thoughts I find quite fitting. Happy New Year!

For a hyperlinked overview of all issues of "Ulrich's Bimonthly" and the previous "Picture of the Month" series, see the site map

Marbella

Marbella's seafront promenade

Marbella: city of orange trees

Plaza de los Naranjos

Typical corner in the Casco Antiguo

Typical street of the old town

View of the Church Sta. Maria de la Encarnación

Evening ambience in the Casco Viejo

The Avenida del Mar with its surrealistic sculptures by Dalí and Soriano

Salvador Dali's "Gala looking through the window"

Todos los años (extract)

Todos los años se espera
que el que viene sea mejor,
pero los años no cambian,
si no cambiamos tú y yo.

                   José de Arias Martínez

Source: http://peperesponde.es.tl/K_POEMAS-PEPE-ARIAS--k1-Jos-e2--de-Arias-Mart%EDnez-k2-.htm

or http://arjonadelia.blogspot.ch/2010/12/poemas-de-ano-nuevo.html

Cádiz

The peninsula of Cádiz with the lighthouse (right) and the old town (left)

The old (background right) and the new (foreground center) cathedral

Cathedral east side

One of the cathedral's towers

Cathedral portal

Cathedral interior

Cathedral place

Cathedral interior

Iglesia de Santa María

Un año más, un año menos (extract)

Un año más decimos cada año
Y por qué no decir un año menos?
Año que pasa es año que perdemos
Y no un año más que hemos ganado

Atrás hemos dejado lo vivido
Aquellos sueños que hemos realizado
Para emprender uno más esperanzado
Y no dejar atrás otro perdido

Que este año que llega no sea el mismo
Que cambie lo que deba ser cambiado
Y brindemos desde ahora como amigos

                   José de Arias Martínez

Source: http://peperesponde.es.tl/SONETOS-PePe-ARIAS--k1-Jos-e2--de-Arias-Mart%EDnez-k2-.htm

Sevilla

Sevilla's Cathedral of Saint Mary with the Giralda tower
(an original minaret serving as the cathedral's tower)

Sevilla's omnipresent horses and carriages

Patio de los Naranjos

Interior of Saint Mary Cathedral

Sevilla balcony

Sevilla balcony 2

One of Sevilla's typical Andalusian patios

Calle Vida No. 2, or finding a second life in Sevilla

Torre del Oro (Moorish watch tower)

Aún me quedan sueños (extract)

Aún me quedan sueños
por soñar
vuelos por volar
mares para navegar
y un corazón para amar


                   José de Arias Martínez

Source: http://peperesponde.es.tl/E_POEMAS-PePe-ARIAS--k1-Jos-e2--de-Arias-Mart%EDnez-k2-.htm

Picture data  (for the Bimonthly picture below)  Digital photograph taken on 18 December 2014, around noon, in Marbella, Spain. ISO 200, exposure mode aperture priority; aperture f/9.1, exposure time 1/500 seconds, exposure bias 0; focal length 38 mm (full frame, equivalent to 38 mm with a conventional 35 mm camera); metering mode center-weighted average, contrast low, saturation high, sharpness low. Original resolution 5472 x 3648 pixels; current resolution 800 x 600 pixels, compressed to 290 KB.

„La libertad no muere, nace y duerme diariamente.”
"Freedom does not die, it is born and falls asleep every day." (Eduardo Soriano)

„No hay lugar tan estrecho donde no se pueda
elevar el pensamiento al cielo”

"There is no place so narrow that one could not lift up one's thought to the heavens." (Attributed to Seneca)

Notepad for capturing personal thoughts  »

Last updated 12 Jan 2015 (first published 12 Jan 2015)
http://wulrich.com/bimonthly_january2015.html