Psychophant's Rants
21.6.09
Armchair analysis
This week events in Iran have me torn in two. On one hand emotionally I follow and suffer for those people in the streets, risking everything for hope. Hope for a change in a situation they cannot bear any more. I am old enough (and did run a couple of times from a police charge) to remember our own transition demonstrations, Iran's in 79, and so many others.
On the other, my armchair historian intellect makes me take a cynical view of events. Mousavi does not mean any kind of radical change, not even a significant change, considering how limited is the President's actual power, except in a particular role: spokesman and public face of the regime in international affairs.
I am also cynical enough to assume the election result was preordained, after some debate among those with actual power. Then, one of those in power decided to use the elections as a lever to change the political landscape. The real attack is not against Ahmadinejad but Khamenei himself, I feel.
Twitter offers an inmediacy, a closeness to the people on the street, but also all the rumours, misinformation and manipulation transmitted mouth to mouth. There are already several iconic images and videos, but it still seems very peaceful with low death counts. Fortunately, as previous revolts in other places give us thousands of deaths. So on one hand I see that the rule of law, and a certain trust from the population in it, still remains (and that explains the peaceful demonstrations), and that there is a policy conflict within the establishment on how to handle this.
So, I cannot help but distance me from my emotions, when I see things this way, because there are places where matters are much worse, so worse nobody can twitter or post youtube videos. Because, after all, what fraction of the population speaks English, has laptops and internet experience? Can they be objective observers?
Our company has deals with Iranian companies (and with all the Middle Eastern countries) and the children of the executives are out in the streets these days. And maybe it is their parents hope on how the situation may evolve that colours my own analysis, as they wish for Rafsanjani to unseat Khamenei, a return to the aperturism of the late 90s and early 00s, and the Revolutionary Guard dismantled, while keeping most of the system as it is. Mainly because they look at Pakistan, see it as what the West considers "adequate" and it is a hundred times worse than what they have. And any neighbours are similar or even worse.
Iran history is full of foreign manipulation on the government, and even the dinasties. That has made them suspicious of foreign interests (and plays in ourcompany's favour, coming from a economically small, powerless, oddball country in Europe, as we are known as unreliable Western allies, almost as neutral as the Swiss). That is a fact that signifies, for me, that this has to be resolved in Iran, if it is to reach any kind of conclusion, and any foreign interference will backfire. Which is why the US policy is as it is, I suppose.
What I am trying to get through, and what I have seen only mentioned by some Iranians, is that almost all the people in the streets does not believe they live in a dictatorship. No, they know they are in a democracy, unlike Syria (where people are quite open with the right rules) or Arabia (where the rules are not open). The protests are because the rule of law has been compromised, and as in any rightful state, law is over any individual. The protestors (most) do not want to overturn the Republic, they want to restore the rule of law, and the idea that noone is above it. Not even the Supreme Leader.
There is more, such as the religious fracture of the society, and the appeareance of Zoroastrian signs (even now, with several millions worshippers) in some protests, but I do not know enough and I am too far to really judge what is important and what is not.
Every time I see a green scarf, a gree avatar, a twitter from Iran, my heart wrenches, but my head says: No! Too easy.
¶ 10:15 AM
This week events in Iran have me torn in two. On one hand emotionally I follow and suffer for those people in the streets, risking everything for hope. Hope for a change in a situation they cannot bear any more. I am old enough (and did run a couple of times from a police charge) to remember our own transition demonstrations, Iran's in 79, and so many others.
On the other, my armchair historian intellect makes me take a cynical view of events. Mousavi does not mean any kind of radical change, not even a significant change, considering how limited is the President's actual power, except in a particular role: spokesman and public face of the regime in international affairs.
I am also cynical enough to assume the election result was preordained, after some debate among those with actual power. Then, one of those in power decided to use the elections as a lever to change the political landscape. The real attack is not against Ahmadinejad but Khamenei himself, I feel.
Twitter offers an inmediacy, a closeness to the people on the street, but also all the rumours, misinformation and manipulation transmitted mouth to mouth. There are already several iconic images and videos, but it still seems very peaceful with low death counts. Fortunately, as previous revolts in other places give us thousands of deaths. So on one hand I see that the rule of law, and a certain trust from the population in it, still remains (and that explains the peaceful demonstrations), and that there is a policy conflict within the establishment on how to handle this.
So, I cannot help but distance me from my emotions, when I see things this way, because there are places where matters are much worse, so worse nobody can twitter or post youtube videos. Because, after all, what fraction of the population speaks English, has laptops and internet experience? Can they be objective observers?
Our company has deals with Iranian companies (and with all the Middle Eastern countries) and the children of the executives are out in the streets these days. And maybe it is their parents hope on how the situation may evolve that colours my own analysis, as they wish for Rafsanjani to unseat Khamenei, a return to the aperturism of the late 90s and early 00s, and the Revolutionary Guard dismantled, while keeping most of the system as it is. Mainly because they look at Pakistan, see it as what the West considers "adequate" and it is a hundred times worse than what they have. And any neighbours are similar or even worse.
Iran history is full of foreign manipulation on the government, and even the dinasties. That has made them suspicious of foreign interests (and plays in ourcompany's favour, coming from a economically small, powerless, oddball country in Europe, as we are known as unreliable Western allies, almost as neutral as the Swiss). That is a fact that signifies, for me, that this has to be resolved in Iran, if it is to reach any kind of conclusion, and any foreign interference will backfire. Which is why the US policy is as it is, I suppose.
What I am trying to get through, and what I have seen only mentioned by some Iranians, is that almost all the people in the streets does not believe they live in a dictatorship. No, they know they are in a democracy, unlike Syria (where people are quite open with the right rules) or Arabia (where the rules are not open). The protests are because the rule of law has been compromised, and as in any rightful state, law is over any individual. The protestors (most) do not want to overturn the Republic, they want to restore the rule of law, and the idea that noone is above it. Not even the Supreme Leader.
There is more, such as the religious fracture of the society, and the appeareance of Zoroastrian signs (even now, with several millions worshippers) in some protests, but I do not know enough and I am too far to really judge what is important and what is not.
Every time I see a green scarf, a gree avatar, a twitter from Iran, my heart wrenches, but my head says: No! Too easy.
¶ 10:15 AM
18.6.09
Barcelona
I am not sure when it was the first time I visited Barcelona. Most likely it was when I was thirteen, as my parents bought that year an appartment on the Mediterranean coast, in a small village named Torredembarra. It was 90 Km to the south. For the seven years we kept the appartment we used to travel twice every summer to spend the day in Barcelona. Once for cultural purposes, whether it was Gaudi hunting or to see the Maritime Museum and Columbus reconstructed ship. And the other one shopping, for the coming fall and winter. Nowadays we have almost all the same shops in Zaragoza, but back in the day there were a lot of things that were available only in a big cosmopolitan city. Because Barcelona has always had a multinational, multiracial, multilingual spirit. The other Spanish big city, Madrid, is unabashedly Spanish, making visitors take the role of tourist automatically. Barcelona is much less definite, offers a diffuse spirit, so you can feel like a resident, and you easily find somewhere to fit. Even if there are quarters that are totally homogeneous, they are not those that you often visit, as downtown offers anything you may require.
It was my geekyness what took me back to the Ramblas, on my own. Gaming conventions, both wargames and roleplaying games, gave me a reason to travel there. Youth Hostels, cheap hostels, five star hotels using points from my parents. With friends, on my own, once visiting a brief girlfriend from Barcelona (met in Freibourg, Germany). I even got there my first paying job as a translator (game rulebooks, of course), which gave me another reason to travel back. I have lost count of the number of coach trips, three hours and a half, in both directions.
Also in those days started my romance with a particular bookshop, Gigamesh, the creature of Alejo Cuervo, now sporting his own editorial. Gigamesh was, before the internet, the best way to get science fiction and fantasy books, both in the original language and Spanish versions from other countries. Soon the store branched into games and comics, as the owner himself switched from being a Philip K. Dick apologist to introducing Magic: the Gathering in Spain. Now it is an editorial, with enough pull to be the best science fiction and fantasy publisher in Spanish. But the shop is still there, and I still buy a few books every year, instead of using my usual internet sources. Because the hours I spend there take me back, and the possibility to just browse around is worth the price differential.
Later the main reason to go visiting was because a good friend was working there, with the advantage of having free lodgings. At that moment I finally had disposable income, so that was the moment to discover another face of the city, food. Because you can find great food, from anywhere. And the bastard fused children of many kitchens.
There was an Ikea phase, when we got our own house and the car to transport some purchases, the business visits, fairs, customers, lawyers, seminars, and now, with the high speed train connection, week end trips to combine some exposition, some shopping, visiting friends and their toddler, attending the Cirque du Soleil...
There is a certain familiarity in being there in less than ninety minutes, so that it almost seems as if distance does not exist. So when we take the car, usually because we plan on buying something bulky, the three hours, both directions, seems like going to a different place, and even the mood is different. But the city is the same. ¶ 12:36 AM
I am not sure when it was the first time I visited Barcelona. Most likely it was when I was thirteen, as my parents bought that year an appartment on the Mediterranean coast, in a small village named Torredembarra. It was 90 Km to the south. For the seven years we kept the appartment we used to travel twice every summer to spend the day in Barcelona. Once for cultural purposes, whether it was Gaudi hunting or to see the Maritime Museum and Columbus reconstructed ship. And the other one shopping, for the coming fall and winter. Nowadays we have almost all the same shops in Zaragoza, but back in the day there were a lot of things that were available only in a big cosmopolitan city. Because Barcelona has always had a multinational, multiracial, multilingual spirit. The other Spanish big city, Madrid, is unabashedly Spanish, making visitors take the role of tourist automatically. Barcelona is much less definite, offers a diffuse spirit, so you can feel like a resident, and you easily find somewhere to fit. Even if there are quarters that are totally homogeneous, they are not those that you often visit, as downtown offers anything you may require.
It was my geekyness what took me back to the Ramblas, on my own. Gaming conventions, both wargames and roleplaying games, gave me a reason to travel there. Youth Hostels, cheap hostels, five star hotels using points from my parents. With friends, on my own, once visiting a brief girlfriend from Barcelona (met in Freibourg, Germany). I even got there my first paying job as a translator (game rulebooks, of course), which gave me another reason to travel back. I have lost count of the number of coach trips, three hours and a half, in both directions.
Also in those days started my romance with a particular bookshop, Gigamesh, the creature of Alejo Cuervo, now sporting his own editorial. Gigamesh was, before the internet, the best way to get science fiction and fantasy books, both in the original language and Spanish versions from other countries. Soon the store branched into games and comics, as the owner himself switched from being a Philip K. Dick apologist to introducing Magic: the Gathering in Spain. Now it is an editorial, with enough pull to be the best science fiction and fantasy publisher in Spanish. But the shop is still there, and I still buy a few books every year, instead of using my usual internet sources. Because the hours I spend there take me back, and the possibility to just browse around is worth the price differential.
Later the main reason to go visiting was because a good friend was working there, with the advantage of having free lodgings. At that moment I finally had disposable income, so that was the moment to discover another face of the city, food. Because you can find great food, from anywhere. And the bastard fused children of many kitchens.
There was an Ikea phase, when we got our own house and the car to transport some purchases, the business visits, fairs, customers, lawyers, seminars, and now, with the high speed train connection, week end trips to combine some exposition, some shopping, visiting friends and their toddler, attending the Cirque du Soleil...
There is a certain familiarity in being there in less than ninety minutes, so that it almost seems as if distance does not exist. So when we take the car, usually because we plan on buying something bulky, the three hours, both directions, seems like going to a different place, and even the mood is different. But the city is the same. ¶ 12:36 AM
7.6.09
Additives
The company I work for manufactures, among other things, precipitated silica, a kind of amorphous silica that has many applications, due to its combination of chemical inertness, high porosity and high specific surface. Among those uses there are several related to food, both directly (in Europe most foodstuffs can have up to 2% in weight of silica, additive E-551) and indirectly such as toothpaste or in feed.
I have no worries about the use of silica itself, as I do know what it is made of, and the kind of checks we make. However that application puts us, and me as technical expert, in contact with the food industry, and even worse, the feed industry. I have learnt many things that I would feel better ignoring. Now I will share some of them with you.
The first one I was exposed to is one of the worse, at least from my point of view due to its widespread use, replacement milk for calves. Cow milk is too valuable to use it on the cows' own offspring. So after most of the protein is taken out (for cheeses, yoghourt and other milk products), as well as most of the fat, for butter. The remnant, a degreased whey, is dried to make it cheaper to transport, and that is where silica enters in, as an anticaking and fluidizing agent. In former times it was used directly as a feed additive, for all kind of animals. But as less and less milk was available for the meat raisers, it found new life in "milk replacers", a powder milk analogue (just add water), made up with this dried whey, soy proteins, vegetable oil (usually palm oil), aromas, vitamins and whatever extra they wish to add (glicerine, as a cheap caloric source for fattening , is popular right now). It does not seem as bad, till you consider how soy allergy is raising, and sometimes allergic reactions appear from nowhere. Or how palm oil is probably the worse of the vegetable oils for health (which is why it is the cheapest).
There are hundreds of thousands of tons of milk replacers in Europe, so this is a huge market. Others are not so bad, such as powdered tomato juice, a natural result of how cheap tomatoes have become and how expensive it is to carry liquids a long distance. Or the recent use of organic acids in place of antibiotics.
From aromas and vitamins, which are quite normal additions, then we pass into artificial colouring, that are usually added to feed supported on silica. The main use is in chicken, both to give the meat that yellowish, corn-fed appeareance to the tan shell of eggs. So we discuss two additive cocktails, one for hens and another for fattening chickens. These are not general knowledge, so I cannot discuss all the components, but I have switched to organic chicken and eggs lately.
It is still a weird world, where a synthetically pure material needs to pass a lot of tests of approval, while a natural compound, with a nice set of natural toxins, can be used straight. Maybe it is the work that it takes, or that I see how little control many feed manufacturers take on microbiological or mold menaces.
Enough to put you off your food. ¶ 12:08 AM
The company I work for manufactures, among other things, precipitated silica, a kind of amorphous silica that has many applications, due to its combination of chemical inertness, high porosity and high specific surface. Among those uses there are several related to food, both directly (in Europe most foodstuffs can have up to 2% in weight of silica, additive E-551) and indirectly such as toothpaste or in feed.
I have no worries about the use of silica itself, as I do know what it is made of, and the kind of checks we make. However that application puts us, and me as technical expert, in contact with the food industry, and even worse, the feed industry. I have learnt many things that I would feel better ignoring. Now I will share some of them with you.
The first one I was exposed to is one of the worse, at least from my point of view due to its widespread use, replacement milk for calves. Cow milk is too valuable to use it on the cows' own offspring. So after most of the protein is taken out (for cheeses, yoghourt and other milk products), as well as most of the fat, for butter. The remnant, a degreased whey, is dried to make it cheaper to transport, and that is where silica enters in, as an anticaking and fluidizing agent. In former times it was used directly as a feed additive, for all kind of animals. But as less and less milk was available for the meat raisers, it found new life in "milk replacers", a powder milk analogue (just add water), made up with this dried whey, soy proteins, vegetable oil (usually palm oil), aromas, vitamins and whatever extra they wish to add (glicerine, as a cheap caloric source for fattening , is popular right now). It does not seem as bad, till you consider how soy allergy is raising, and sometimes allergic reactions appear from nowhere. Or how palm oil is probably the worse of the vegetable oils for health (which is why it is the cheapest).
There are hundreds of thousands of tons of milk replacers in Europe, so this is a huge market. Others are not so bad, such as powdered tomato juice, a natural result of how cheap tomatoes have become and how expensive it is to carry liquids a long distance. Or the recent use of organic acids in place of antibiotics.
From aromas and vitamins, which are quite normal additions, then we pass into artificial colouring, that are usually added to feed supported on silica. The main use is in chicken, both to give the meat that yellowish, corn-fed appeareance to the tan shell of eggs. So we discuss two additive cocktails, one for hens and another for fattening chickens. These are not general knowledge, so I cannot discuss all the components, but I have switched to organic chicken and eggs lately.
It is still a weird world, where a synthetically pure material needs to pass a lot of tests of approval, while a natural compound, with a nice set of natural toxins, can be used straight. Maybe it is the work that it takes, or that I see how little control many feed manufacturers take on microbiological or mold menaces.
Enough to put you off your food. ¶ 12:08 AM
