[Music] Father and Son (Yusuf Islam)

Father and Son from Yusuf Islam (lyrics in English from metrolyrics)

It's not time to make a change, Just relax, take it easy You're still young, that's your fault, There's so much you have to know Find a girl, settle down, If you want you can marry Look at me, I am old, but I'm happy	Ca n'est pas le moment de tout changer, detend toi, calme toi, tu es si jeune, c'est ton defaut, tu as tant de choses a apprendre trouve une fille, installe toi, si tu veux, tu peux te marier Regarde moi, je suis vieux, mais je suis heureux.	No es el momento de cambiar, Relajate, calmate Aun eres joven, es tu flaqueza, Tienes tan cosas todavia a aprender Encuentra una chica, instalate Si quieres, puedes casarte Mirame a mi, estoy viejo, pero estoy feliz
I was once like you are now, and I know that it's not easy, To be calm when you've found something going on But take your time, think a lot, Why, think of everything you've got For you will still be here tomorrow, but your dreams may not	J'etais comme tu es maintenant, and je sais que ca n'est pas faile, de rester calme quand tu decouvre quelque chose comme ca Mais prend ton temps, pense le bien Pense bien a tout ce que tu as Tu seras encore la demain, tes reves peut-etre pas	Alguna vez fue como tu y se que no es facil estar tranquilo cuando te das cuenta que algo esta pasando pero tomate tu tiempo, piensalo bien piensa que todo lo que has logrado estara aqui manana pero tus suenos puede que no
How can I try to explain, when I do he turns away again It's always been the same, same old story From the moment I could talk I was ordered to listen Now there's a way and I know that I have to go away I know I have to go	Comment puis-je essayer d'expliquer, quand je le fais il se detourne C'est toujours la meme chose, la meme histoire Des que j'ai pu parler, on m'a commande d'ecouter Maintenant je vois le chemin et je sais que je dois m'en aller Je sais que je dois partir	Como puedo hacer para explicarlo si cuando le hago, el nunca esta de acuerdo? Siempre ha sido lo mismo la misma vieja historia desde el momento que pude hablar me ensenaron a escuchar pero ahora tengo  una alternativa y se que tengo que marcharme se, que debo irme
It's not time to make a change, Just sit down, take it slowly You're still young, that's your fault, There's so much you have to go through Find a girl, settle down, If you want you can marry Look at me, I am old, but I'm happy	Ca n'est pas le moment de tout changer, detend toi, calme toi, tu es si jeune, c'est ton defaut, tu as tant de choses a apprendre trouve une fille, installe toi, si tu veux, tu peux te marier Regarde moi, je suis vieux, mais je suis heureux.	No es el momento de hacer un cambio, Sientate, calmate Aun eres joven, es tu flaqueza, Tienes tan cosas todavia a aprender Encuentra una chica, instalate Si quieres, puedes casarte Mirame a mi, estoy viejo, pero estoy feliz
All the times that I cried, keeping all the things I knew inside, It's hard, but it's harder to ignore it If they were right, I'd agree, but it's them you know not me Now there's a way and I know that I have to go away I know I have to go	Toutes les fois ou j'ai pleuré, gardant pour mois toutes les choses que je savais, c'est difficile, mais c'est encore plus difficile de les ignorer Si c'etait vrai, je l'accepterai, mais ce sont eux, vous savez, pas moi Maintenant je vois le chemin et je sais que je dois m'en aller Je sais que je dois partir	Todas las veces que llore guardandome todo lo que sabia eso duele, pero mas doloroso es ignorarlo si tienen razon tendria que acceptarlo, pero es que asi son ellos,  y a mi no me conocen Ahora tengo una alternativa y se que tengo que marcharme, se que debo irme.

[Creation] Trilingual Bandana

I had bought a long time ago a set of flags to sew them on a bandana, in order to give an idea of which languages I could speak to any person that I meet while travelling, and then never got to sew them because they were too thick to sew them with a normal needle. I found a tailor which a sewing machine and she did it for me, so here they are!

One for the cold time which are to come here in Chile:

and one for when the weather is warmer:

Thanks Jackie!

[Santiasco] Making plans to "evacuate"?

It has been a terrible month regarding the air quality in Santiago, but the predictions from http://aqicn.org/ for next week are even worse:

I feel constantly tired and headachy, a bit less so in the room with the air cleaning machine (a ionizer), various (three!) water fountains to humidify the air of the appartment, and recently purchased air cleaning plants, but it's not really idead to work and focus on doing research, which should be my main activity during the Chilean summer without teaching.

Some people lost their house to the fires, and among those who did not, there are still some in a worse position than mine: the air in the places closer to the forest fires is labelled as "Very Unhealty" by http://aqicn.org/.

If the predictions from http://aqicn.org/ concretized, I am planning to go to visit some friends on the coast. Viña del Mar is very tempting!

Evacuating is getting even more complicated because I had volunteered to receive in my appartment some people who lost their house to the fire... I will see. Maybe I can evacuate them with me :)

[Santiasco] Urban Promotors getting crazy with fires?

Santiago is, again, covered in smoke. According to AQICN, the air of the whole city of Santiago is "Unhealthy", and even some neighboring cities like Rancagua which usually escape the smog from regular polution are severely affected.

The local and international news are terse, talking about 12 fires in various regions, and incoming winds which make the fires harder to stop. Nobody mentions that the firefighers are all volunteers (no profesional), and in insuficient numbers (it appears they fought against the profesionalisation of the profession) with insuficient equipment (their equipment is either donated from foreign brigades or bought with donation money).

A coleague mentioned that the recent increase in the frequency of such fire is not as much due to more frequent drought but much more due to the increase in criminally started fires, by people paid by promoters who wish to build housing in this era of increased immigration in Chile. I could not find a reference to it in the news, but it does seem in the spirit of unbriddled liberalism which runs here... :(

[Santiasco] Chilean's air norms are the most laxist of Latin America

I discovered recently an article from 2015 comparing the norms of air quality in Latin America. It provides some interesting perspective about the air quality in Latin America:

every single country is have a different scale, with different conventions for the colors, concentration breakpoints and nomenclature.

It complemented my understanding of the particular situation of Santiago (i.e. it's not that Santiago produces more pollution than other cities, but that it cannot afford to produce pollution at the same level as other cities in the world):

For instance, for Santiago de Chile, it is both the topography formed by the Andes in the East preventing the pollution from dispersing latteraly, and the constant stream of air from the Hadley cell circulation which prevents the pollution from escaping upwards (creating an inverstion [sic] layer).

And it confirmed what I already observed, that the Chilean air quality standards are much more relaxed than the ones from the US.

But it is the following array which made this information more concrete for me:

The third and fourth row (range 100 to 200), labeled as "Regular" ("Usual") in Chile, receive labels such as "Unhealthy", "Muy Malo" ("Very Bad"), "Precaucion" ("Precaution"), "Inadecuado" ("Inadequate"), "Muito Ruim" ("Very Bad"). At this level of polution in Chile, NO MEASURES are taken to reduce polution (such measures start at the next level, "Alerta").

The reactions from Chileans with whom I shared the information follow two templates: people from low social levels are resigned and feel they can't do anything about the situation, while people from high social levels like to believe that they live in a place where the air quality is better (close to the sea, or high in the mountain) and advise me to do the same. Neither group believe in changing the situation :(

It's not only in Santiago that the air quality  is getting worse:  all over the world, cities are setting up norms to deal with air pollution and keep it at "reasonable" levels. The Chilean approach seems to be more about improving the "appearances" by changing the alert thresholds than about truly dealing with the problem. I wonder which effects such a policy will have on the life expectancy of the inhabitants of Santiago (and on mine)...

[HairCut] New year, new haircut!

For the last two years I did not go to the barber shop. My hair was long:

My hair was very long:

I was told I was starting to look like viking warrior:

So I sat down in front of the sea

and we cut my hair into 6 pony tails

My head does feel ligther!

I kept three breads, so that I would not feel too "normal" yet!

Thanks Ieva!

(The hair will be donated to an association which makes wigs for people who lost theirs due to chemotherapy. Consider donating as well!)