Lejos de la Costa ~ Far from the Costas. Monroy. Un pueblo de Extremadura ~ A village in the Extremadura
Un pueblo de Extremadura
Monroy está situado a unos 30 km de Cáceres, en medio del triángulo formado por Cáceres, Trujillo y Plasencia. Extremadura se encuentra rodeada por montañas que están situadas al norte, este y oeste. Tiene un clima continental con inviernos fríos y veranos calurosos y durante mucho tiempo ha estado aislada del resto de España, siendo actualmente una de las regiones más pobres.
El pueblo de Monroy está situado en lo alto de una altiplanicie, donde existen varias fuentes por lo que fue un lugar estratégico para construir un castillo. Esto ocurrió a principios del siglo XIV. Los alrededores de la población ya estuvieron habitados durante la edad del bronce así como durante la época de los romanos y los visigodos. En 1309 el rey Fernando IV concedió al noble Hernán Pérez de Monroy el privilegio de fundar una aldea y construir un castillo.
Lo típico de los pueblos de esta región es su estructura. La parte antigua de la población con su iglesia y su castillo. Alrededor del pueblo se encuentran los viejos corrales donde se cultivan verduras y se guarda el ganado, los caballos, los cerdos y las gallinas. Alrededor del pueblo se encuentran las cercas que son terrenos de algunas hectáreas de extensión donde se guarda y pasta el ganado y los caballos. También en los alrededores del pueblo se encuentra el área comunal donde pastan las ovejas, las cabras y el ganado de los vecinos. Rodeando todo lo anterior se encuentra las grandes extensiones de terreno, que son fincas donde se da la ganadería extensiva y los toros de lidia.
A village in the Extremadura
Monroy lies about 30 km from Cáceres, in the middle of the triangle Cáceres-Trujillo-Plasencia. Extremadura is surrounded by the mountains in the west, the north and the east. It has a continental climate with cold winters and hot summers and for ages it has been a fairly isolated area in Spain and until now still one of the poorest regions.
The village lies on a hillock in the highland and has been surrounded by water sources, and therefore in the past a good strategic spot for building a castle. That was at the beginning of the fourteenth century. Already before that the surroundings were inhabited in the bronze time and at the time of the Roman and the Visgoten.
In 1309 King Ferdinand IV granted to the nobleman Hernán Pérez the Monroy the privilege for founding the village and the construction of a castle Typically of the villages in this region is the composition. The old centre with church and castle, at the edge of the village the old corals where one grows vegetables, keeps cattle, horses, pigs and chickens and around the village the cercas, small plots of a few hectares where one mostly keeps cattle and also horses. Around the village the communal area, the grazing area for the sheep and cattle and to a lesser degree the goats. Bordering to the communal area are situated the haciëndas, large farms with extensive livestock-farming and bull-breeding.
From The Web – The Digital Scriptorium
The Digital Scriptorium is a growing image database of medieval and renaissance manuscripts that unites scattered resources from many institutions into an international tool for teaching and scholarly research.
As a visual catalog, DS allows scholars to verify with their own eyes cataloguing information about places and dates of origin, scripts, artists, and quality. Special emphasis is placed on the touchstone materials: manuscripts signed and dated by their scribes. DS records manuscripts that traditionally would have been unlikely candidates for reproduction. It fosters public viewing of materials otherwise available only within libraries. Because it is web-based, it encourages interaction between the knowledge of scholars and the holdings of libraries to build a reciprocal flow of information. Digital Scriptorium looks to the needs of a very diverse community of medievalists, classicists, musicologists, paleographers, diplomatists and art historians. At the same time Digital Scriptorium recognizes the limited resources of libraries; it bridges the gap between needs and resources by means of extensive rather than intensive cataloguing, often based on legacy data, and sample imaging.
Digital Scriptorium institutional partners have instituted a governance structure to plan jointly for the future of the program, in terms of scope, sustainability, and content.
Read more: http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/digitalscriptorium/
Dutch Wonderland!
Tolerance ranks high among the markers of being Dutch. In paintings of Rembrandt van Rijn one can possibly see that he was liberal and tolerant (Hoekveld-Meijer). Many scholars and politicians maintain that the Netherlands has a tradition of tolerance that harkens back to the 17th Century, generated by the Dutch tradesman spirit.
‘It’s a misconception that the Dutch are essentially racist and that they discriminate’ (Derksen, 2005, 38; italics mine -ldj). Paul Scheffer, who coined the concept of ‘a multicultural drama’ in the Netherlands, upholds his confidence in the Dutch: ‘Most people have essentially nothing against the presence of immigrants, and they want to live peacefully with them (Hooven, 2006, 112; italics mine -ldj). These reassurances of the Dutch being essentially good people may be an indication that nowadays the Dutch tend to behave differently than in the immigrant era of the 17th Century, suggesting that the Dutch have temporarily wandered off from the correct Dutch course. This Golden Century, as it is called in the Netherlands, still serves as a rich source for Dutch identity construction. Read more
From The Web – Longreads – The Best Long-Form Stories On The Web
Longreads are changing the way people read online.
They’re stories that are best enjoyed away from your desk — whether it’s on a daily commute, an airplane, a subway, or your couch. It’s in-depth stories, perfect for the iPad, iPhone or Kindle, and apps like Read It Later, Flipboard and Instapaper.
Longreads posts links to new stories every day — they include long-form journalism, magazine stories from your favorite publications (The New Yorker, Esquire, The Atlantic), short stories, interview transcripts, and even historical documents. (For the record: Longreads are typically more than 1,500 words.)
The Consolation of Philosophy: Hannah Arendt and the Green Movement
What does it mean to say that one needs to act? In The Human Condition Hannah Arendt insists that we should always distinguish “making” from “acting” when reflecting on the liberating potential of movements such as the Green Movement. Should people make the changes that they desire, or do they act to realize them?
Connected to Arendt’s thought-trains on making and acting is also a separation of “violence” from “power.” What is the meaning of these concepts and what are the differences?
A concrete answer to these timeless questions has been offered by the Green Movement’s chanting, a source of inspiration for the world, and given the geopolitical role of Iran, a tremendously important experiment in democracy, not initiated by an outside force but by men and women themselves acting in concert. The Green Movement has emerged independently, although of course, Iran’s people are also inspired by Western values. Above all, we must humble ourselves before the courage and perseverance of the Iranian protesters. As friends we can request good deeds, as Ibn Sina once suggested, with kindness characterized by advice and not with violence characterized by pointing out disgrace (Isharat va Tanbihat, vol. 4, ninth class, Ch. 23). The Green Movement has many such friends who are with them in spirit. One of these is the political philosopher Hannah Arendt (1906-1975), a German-Jewish thinker who survived World War II and spent a lifetime thinking about action in the face of violence. Her work can be a source of inspiration, a beacon of light, for men and women living in dark times.
Unangetaster Blick – Unverfalschte Sicht
Für Europäer gibt es viele Arten, den südlich der Sahara gelegenen Teil Afrikas zu betrachten. Die erste und meist unmittelbare, ist die des tragischen Afrikas, die uns dauernd über die Medien erreicht.
Ob wir wollen oder nicht, die Bilder bleiben in unserer Erinnerung haften: die verkohlten Holzrahmen der Kirche von Eldoret, in der bei Aufständen nach Wahlen in Kenia dreihundert Menschen verbrannten; die Zeltlager voll weinender Kinder im weiten, trockenen Flachland von Darfour; Charles Taylors unbewegte Gesichtszüge während seines Prozesses in Liberia, konfrontiert mit den erschütternden Zeugnissen seiner eigenen Grausamkeiten; das Grinsen des südafrikanischen Präsidenten Zuma, angeklagt wegen Korruption; und auch die Verbissenheit der letzten weißen Bauern, die sich mit ihren schwarzen Angestellten gegen die Willkür Mugabes bewaffnen – und dies alles sind lediglich Ereignisse der letzten paar Monate. Hört es denn nie auf?