Merigoesaround

What can happen if you put in the same room a West Point graduate, the sweetest gays from NYC and LA, a future US diplomat, a Spaniard who has been a mormon, an opus dei member and now a hoffman graduate, a 52-year old doctor with 0 wrinkles, a puerto-rican/italian, a "togofrancaise" in search of her spontaneity, a high-heeled, high-souled French society princess, Ali G's brother, Eric Joseph, the future of Ecuador looking for her heart, Jane thinking where and how to find her voice, an expert in Latin America, an Austrian ex-robot, the Serbian Militia, Federal civil servants from the Philippines and India, the most lovable Ukrainian Borat, a Venezuelan actress, green-eyed Brasil, a king from Kyrgyzstan and a Korean wise young man who all thought to be Mongolian, a Chinese baby girl turned into a grown-up, an Iraqi-American who is surprised that somebody can change the way she is, the future Prime Minister of Turkey an his Minister of Finance, a Brazilian-Korean-American...

The majority of Spaniards has said NO to the arrogance and the loftiness of the political right. I am not sure if Spain needs four more years of PSOE but I am sure it does not need a single minute of the current PP. Nationalist parties have seen their presence in the national Parliament decreased, with the exception of Catalonia's CiU (Convergencia i Unio) who has maintained its position. This indicates to me that there are right and wrong ways of representing regional differences through political channels. CiU represents the good way to do it and the prize has been to maintain their deputies in Madrid. As my mum told me on the phone "I might vote for CiU, they are good for Catalunya and everything that is good for Catalunya is good for me and my family". My mum immigrated to Catalonia more than 40 years ago from a region that today voted 60% for the right-wingers. She is a good example of how best to integrate foreigners into a different culture. One of the negative con...

ConTROversy says the American, CONtroversy the British. I do not even know how to pronounce it. I say controversia in Spanish and the French would say controverse. It sounds different in different languages but the negative connotation stays. Why? Is controversy bad? I would like to be more controversial myself. I think controversy is good and I am going to tell you why. Maybe some of you would like to join my way of thinking. It is not the best personality feature though. It is controversial to be controversial. Society rewards compliance with the norm and people who agree with the majority, instead it penalizes and isolates those who are controversial. Curious about this subject and my sudden wish to become the new Michael Moore, I decided to investigate more and I found that some people suffer from controversial personality disorder, meaning a permanent attitude of negative patterns. This is not the kind of controversial 21st century citizen I was thinking of becoming though. I was ...

Nine years since I left my country and became a luggage girl, a tireless searcher of the world and of myself. Sometimes I feel extremely far from my roots and sometimes I feel my roots and the memories of my childhood and youth have fully defined the person I am today. My connection to Spain is my family, my mother, father and sister. Some friends love me and make me feel close to them and to Spain despite only seeing me 3 or 4 days per year. I consider myself fortunate. Today Spain hurts me. It is a deep, acute chest pain. Something inexplicable but understandable by anybody who has felt injustice and impotence. ETA, the eternal terrorist band, killed today an ex-councilman from the PSE (Euskadi/Basque Socialist Party). Two days before the national election. Insulting us Spaniards, basques, andalucians, catalans and madrilians...all victims of irrationality and vileness. I need some hours to calm down and analyze the electoral consequences of this attack. But, wait a minute...shouldn...

When my mother was my age she had 2 babies. One was my sister, she was 3 and the other one myself. I was 1. My mum believes that I am waiting too much time to have a baby, focusing only on my career and personal development. We talk every other day and by the end of our conversation she almost always tries to know more about “my plans in life”, as she says. She means, my plan to have a child. These conversations with my mum have led me to think about why women have fewer babies in some parts of the world. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I come from the low-fertility Mediterranean belt. Italy, Spain, Greece and Portugal. This is a region with a serious baby deficit. 30 years ago in my home country, Spain, women were on average having their first baby at the age of 25, today, women have their first child when they are 30. Not only have women postponed the age, but they are also having fewer babies. One, maybe two. In particular, the regi...