Leonard Cohen wins Principe de Asturias award

The iconicLeonard Cohenhas been lauded once again — he is the 2011 recipient for the Prince of Asturias Award for Letters. The annual award is one of eight given by the Principe de Asturias Foundation for achievement in a variety of fields ranging from arts to sciences.Cohen won “for a body of literary work that has influenced three generations of people worldwide through his creation of emotional imagery in which poetry and music are fused in an oeuvre of immutable merit. The passing of time, sentimental relationships, the mystical traditions of the east and the west and life sung as an unending ballad make up a body of work associated with certain moments of decisive change at the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st century,” the jury stated in its citation.The 76-year-old singer/songwriter/poet/novelist beat a field of 32 contenders from throughout the world. Past winners of the Prince of Asturias awards include Margaret Atwood (2008), Ismail Kadare (2009), Arthur Miller(2002), Woody Allen, JK Rowling and pianist Daniel Barenboim.Recipients of the Asturias Foundation awards receive 50,000 euros ($70,035 CAD), a diploma, insignia and a sculpture designed by Catalan artist Joan Miró. A ceremony honouring the winners takes place in Spain in October.

• If you click here, you will listen to his biography.

• Here is one of his songs.

Listen to it and fill in the gaps of the lyrics ( the words are given).

Sorry for the advertisement previous to the song.

Leonard Cohen - First we take Manhattan por beautifulcynic

These are the missing words:

skin / nights / items / reward / well / spirit / fashion / beauty / twenty / worried / remember / sister / ready

Lyrics:

FIRST WE TAKE MANHATTAN (I'M YOUR MAN)

They sentenced me to .................. years of boredom
For trying to change the system from within
I'm coming now, I'm coming to ................ them
First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin
I'm guided by a signal in the heavens
I'm guided by this birthmark on my .................
I'm guided by the................. of our weapons
First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin

I'd really like to live beside you, baby
I love your body and your ............. and your clothes
But you see that line there moving through the station?
I told you, I told you, told you, I was one of those

Ah you loved me as a loser, but now you're ................... that I just might win
You know the way to stop me, but you don't have the discipline
How many ................ I prayed for this, to let my work begin
First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin

I don't like your .................... business mister
And I don't like these drugs that keep you thin
I don't like what happened to my ..................
First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin

I'd really like to live beside you, baby ...

And I thank you for those ............... that you sent me
The monkey and the plywood violin
I practiced every night, now I'm ..................
First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin

I am guided

Ah .................. me, I used to live for music
Remember me, I brought your groceries in
.................. it's Father's Day and everybody's wounded
First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin

Basque Ceasefire Statement

The full text of Eta's declaration of a 'definitive cessation of its armed activity'

• guardian.co.uk, Thursday 20 October 2011 19.34 BST

Members of the Basque separatist group Eta make a ceasefire statement, the full text of which is below. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

With this declaration, Euskadi ta Askatasuna, the Basque socialist revolutionary organisation for national liberation, wishes to give news of its decision:

Eta considers that the international conference that has recently taken place in the Basque country is an initiative of enormous significance. The agreed resolution includes all the elements for an integral solution of the conflict, and it has attained the support of a wide spectrum of the Basque society and the international community.

A new political time is emerging in the Basque country. We have an historical opportunity to find a just and democratic solution for the centuries old political conflict. Dialogue and agreement should outline the new cycle, over violence and repression. The recognition of the Basque country and the respect for the will of the people should prevail over imposition.

This has not been an easy road. The cruelty of the fight has taken away the lives of many comrades. Many others are still suffering in prison and in exile. Our recognition and deepest tribute goes out to them.

From here on the road will not be easy either. Facing the imposition that still exists, every step, every achievement, will be the result of the effort and fight of Basque citizens. During these years the Basque country has accumulated the necessary experience and strength to address this path and it also has the determination for doing it. It is time to look at the future with hope. It is also time to act with responsibility and courage.

Therefore, Eta has decided the definitive cessation of its armed activity. Eta calls upon the Spanish and French governments to open a process of direct dialogue with the aim of addressing the resolution of the consequences of the conflict and, thus, to overcome the armed confrontation. Thorough this historical declaration, Eta shows its clear, solid and definitive commitment.

Lastly, Eta calls upon the Basque society to commit to this process until freedom and peace are achieved.

Long live the free Euskal Herria! Long live Basque socialism! No rest until independence and socialism!

Basque country, 20 October 2011

Euskadi ta Askatasuna

Eta

Memorial of Martin Luther

Have things change?

Where King Once Marched, Now a Dedication

Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images

Audience members sang during the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial dedication ceremony on Sunday.

By HELENE COOPER and SABRINA TAVERNISE

Published: October 16, 2011

WASHINGTON — Promising that “change can come if you don’t give up,” President Obama, the man who is perhaps the biggest beneficiary of the civil rights movement, on Sunday called on Americans to use the memory of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.to help push for progress in today’s economically tough times.

Speaking at the dedication of the monument to Dr. King on the National Mall, Mr. Obama, at times adopting the cadence of Dr. King, said Americans must celebrate all that the civil rights movement accomplished even as they understand that the work is not done. Standing under the new monument, the first on the mall to honor an African-American, Mr. Obama struck tones that veered from the church pulpit to the floors of the nearby Capitol.

“I know there are better days ahead,” Mr. Obama said, his voice rising. “I know this because of the man towering above me.”

At times, Mr. Obama appeared to be drawing a comparison between himself and Dr. King. Often when he spoke of Dr. King’s struggles, it was impossible not to think that he was speaking of himself.

“For every victory, there were setbacks,” Mr. Obama said. “Even after winning the Nobel Peace Prize, Dr. King was vilified by many.”

He continued, “He was even attacked by his own people, by those who felt he was going too fast and by those who felt he was going too slow.”

Mr. Obama’s speech culminated a morning — beautifully sunny and bright on the Washington Mall — during which a lion’s gallery of civil rights and black leaders stood on the podium to hail that a preacher of no rank had joined Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Franklin D. Roosevelt to be memorialized into perpetuity in the National Mall area. Thousands of people crowded the mall for the festivities, which were rescheduled after Hurricane Irene canceled the initial plans.

The memorial — a four-acre tract along the Tidal Basin that is dotted with elm and cherry trees and anchored by an imposing granite statue of Dr. King — is the result of more than two decades of work. It was originally scheduled to be dedicated in August to coincide with the 48th anniversary of the March on Washington and Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, which was delivered at the Lincoln Memorial.

The expansive three-hour ceremony included speeches by civil rights leaders like Representative John Lewis and the Rev. Jesse Jackson and songs by performers like Aretha Franklin.

People came from all over for the event. Yvonne Binis took an early morning train with her 4-year-old grandson from Linden, N.J. Ms. Binis’s mother had been part of the March on Washington, and she said she came in honor of that.

“I’m here to see what she came down for,” Ms. Binis said, carrying a large folding chair in a backpack.

Some in the crowd remembered their childhoods in the Jim Crow South. Carolyn Bledsoe, 70, recalled the shame of being turned away from a restaurant in Goldsboro, N.C., in the 1950s, because she was black. “We got very scared,” she said, sitting in a blue dress jacket and a white baseball cap, with an insignia of the memorial on it. “We thought we might be followed.”

Mr. Obama is facing stiff challenges in his bid for re-election next year, particularly as the country is grappling with a 9.1 percent unemployment rate and a global economy that is reeling.

He urged patience. “Change depends on persistence,” Mr. Obama said. “When met with hardship, when confronting disappointment, Dr. King refused to accept what he called the ‘is-ness’ of today,” Mr. Obama said. “He kept pushing towards the ‘oughtness’ of tomorrow.”

Mr. Obama said that “when we think of all the work that we must do,” including rebuilding the economy and fixing ailing schools, “we can’t be discouraged by what is; we’ve got to be pushing for what ought to be.”

The monument is not only the first to a black man on the mall and its adjoining parks but also the first to honor someone who was not a president, according to the foundation in charge of putting it up, something that has been an inspiration to many.

“I drive past the mall every day, and to see that Martin Luther King is now there with Lincoln, Washington, Jefferson and Roosevelt — that is powerful,” said Lonnie Bunch, a founding director of the National Museum of African-American History and Culture.

Dr. King’s stone figure faces the Jefferson Memorial across the water. Lincoln is at his back, and Roosevelt to his right.

The design gave form to a line from Dr. King’s “Dream” speech — “With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.” In the statue, he is emerging from a large piece of stone. Two towering granite mounds set behind him are the mountains of despair.

Mr. Bunch said that the dedication offered an opportunity to assess race relations in America.

“We are not in a post-racial America, but in an America that allows us to talk about race candidly in different ways,” he said. “Having a statue of Martin Luther King, without even saying it, lets people know that this is a different mall, this is a different America.”

For those who knew Dr. King, the dedication also offered an opportunity to remember the emotion and the intensity of the civil rights movement.

“The March on Washington was the point where the whole country seemed to come together,” said Sterling Tucker, a civil rights leader who worked with Dr. King. “It felt like, here we are, marching together as a nation in the right direction.”

Mr. Tucker, who is president of the National Theater in Washington, said he experienced the same feeling when Mr. Obama was elected in 2008. That this country elected an African-American, he said, was possible only because of the work that had been done by Dr. King’s generation, a point that Mr. Obama himself has often made.

“People think times are better because times have changed,” Mr. Tucker said. “No. They are better because people worked hard to make them better.”

Congress authorized the memorial in 1996, and Alpha Phi Alpha, an African-American fraternity, set up a foundation to establish it. A Chinese sculptor, Lei Yixin, was selected to create the 30-foot sculpture, and the Roma Design Group, a company in San Francisco, designed the layout, which includes a wall with Dr. King’s quotations and nearly 200 cherry trees. The cost was $120 million, and organizers said they were still trying to raise the last $3 million.

Mr. Tucker recalled the euphoria of the March on Washington a little wistfully. His said his generation of civil rights leaders was aging, and he sometimes had the sense that young blacks feel that the older generation dwells too much on that past.

Young black political leaders — Mr. Obama; Cory A. Booker, the mayor of Newark; and Adrian M. Fenty, the former mayor of Washington — “are cut from a different cloth,” Mr. Tucker said, moving beyond the racial politics of the past into new types of leadership.

But for all the gains, he said, there is still work to be done.

“Now there’s just more sophistication in trying to perpetuate the same old ways,” he said.

The memorial, Mr. Bunch said, will help.

“For so long we either tried to ignore race, tamp it down or try to say that it’s over, that we’ve solved all the problems,” he said. “His struggle helped us realize there’s still a great deal of ambiguity about race. His monument will ensure we don’t forget it.”

"I have a dream"

Read the text; you can listen to MartinLuther King's speech at the same time.

“I Have a Dream,” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Address delivered at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom

Washington, D.C., August 28, 1963

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation. [applause]

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves, who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. (Audience: My Lord) One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later (My Lord)[applause], the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we’ve come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we’ve come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence (Yeah), they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed to the “Unalienable Rights of Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."[sustained applause]

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. (My Lord)[laughter](Sure enough) We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so we’ve come to cash this check (Yes), a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom (Yes) and the security of justice. [applause]

We have also come to his hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. [applause] Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy. (My Lord) Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time [applause] to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time [applause] to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. [applause] There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold, which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. (My Lord) [applause] We must forever conduct our struggle on the highest plain of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative process to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy, which has engulfed the Negro community, must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny [applause] is tied up with our destiny. [applause] And they have come to realize their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone. And as we walk, we must make a pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back.

There are those who ask in the devotees of civil rights, when will you be satisfied? We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the very victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied [applause] as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. [applause]

We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating "for white only." [applause]

We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and the Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. (Yes)[applause] No, no, we are not satisfied and we will not be satisfied until “justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.” [applause]

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. (My Lord) Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution (Yes) and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi (Yes), go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. (Yes) Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

I say to you today, my friends [applause], so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. (Yes) It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day (Yes) this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.” (Yes) [applause] I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice (Well), sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream (Well)[applause] that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. (My Lord) I have a dream today. [applause]

I have a dream that one day down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of “interposition” and “nullification” (Yes), one day right down in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today. [applause]

I have a dream that one day “every valley shall be exalted (Yes), every hill and mountain shall be made low; the rough places will be made plain and the crooked places will be made straight (Yes) and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.” (Yes)

This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. (Yes) With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. (Yes) With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. (Talk about it) With this faith (My Lord) we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, (Yes) to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day. [applause] This will be the day [applause continues], this will be the day when all of God's children (Yes) will be able to sing with new meaning:

My country, 'tis of thee (Yes), sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.

Land where my father's died, land of the pilgrim's pride (Yes),

From every mountainside, let freedom ring!

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.

And so let freedom ring (Yes) from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.

Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.

Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania. (Yes, That’s right)

Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado. (Well)

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California. (Yes)

But not only that: Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia. (Yes) Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee. (Yes)

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. (Yes)

From every mountainside, let freedom ring. [applause]

And when this happens [applause continues], when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city (Yes), we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old spiritual:

Free at last! (Yes) Free at last!

Thank God Almighty, we are free at last. (applause)

Duchess of Alba gives up billions to marry! - World Dating News

Even American people discuss about this wedding.

(Don't worry if you do not understand all, it's not easy)



What would you do?

Duchess of Alba ties knot for third time at 87

Duchess of Alba ties knot for third time at 85

Most of aristocrat's children in attendance after inheritance deal sees new father-in-law renounce any stake in fortune

MABEL GALAZ - Seville - 05/10/2011


She has so many noble titles that some queens have been known to curtsey upon meeting her. She owns so much land that she could walk from the north of Spain to the south without leaving her own property. Museums around the globe would like to lay their hands on the priceless works of art that hang from her palatial residences. But, since the 85-year-old was widowed for a second time, Cayetana Fitz-James Stuart, the Duchess of Alba, had a dream that was made reality today - to become Mrs Alfonso Díez.
After three years of a relationship marked by family disputes over the duchess' inheritance, the knot was tied at the chapel of the Dueñas Palace in Seville with around 30 guests. Notably absent were the duchess' third son, Jacobo Siruela, and his wife, Inka Martí, who decided to go to France rather than witness the marriage between one of Spain's richest women and the commoner Díez, a humble civil servant and 24 years younger than his aristocratic wife. Fitz-James Stuart had previously called her daughter-in-law "jealous and wicked." Also absent was the duchess' youngest daughter, who is in hospital in Madrid.
Carlos, the Duke of Huéscar, led his mother up the aisle as he had done on her previous marriage to Jesús Aguirre. Neither then, nor on this occasion, did Carlos think the duchess' decision to remarry wise. Cayetano Martínez de Irujo, another of Cayetana's sons, made his stance plain on that day in 1978: "We do not agree, but we will be with her." Today he was more diplomatic. "We are happy for her."
To smooth the divisive union, the duchess divided up the inheritance of her children in advance. Díez, meanwhile, has formally renounced any claim to Fitz-James Stuart's wealth.

Octogenarian Duchess of Alba pacifies heirs

Octogenarian Duchess of Alba pacifies heirs, announces wedding

Eighty-five-year-old descendant of King James II will marry man 25 years her junior after division of massive wealth between offspring
GREGORIO BELINCHÓN - Madrid - 25/08/2011


"Considering the latest news stories that have appeared in the media, I am hereby announcing that my marriage to Don Alfonso Díez will be in early October," begins a press release that finally puts an end to all the rumors. At age 85, the Duchess of Alba, Cayetana Fitz-James - who is in the Guinness Book of World Records for holding more titles than any other noble on earth, and whose personal fortune is estimated at anywhere between 600 million and 3.5 billion euros - is about to get married for the third time in her life.
A staple of gossip magazines for decades, the duchess had most recently hit the headlines because of her six children's opposition to watching their mother wed a 60-year-old civil servant at this stage in her life. But Cayetana de Alba's decision to hand over her personal fortune to her progeny while still alive has gone a long way towards smoothing things out. On July 4, the duchess - who is a descendant of King James II of England - gathered her kids at a notary's office in Madrid and shared out her wealth in front of them: her eldest, Carlos Fitz-James Stuart, will receive the House of Alba Foundation upon her death; her other children (Alfonso Martínez de Irujo, Jacobo Fitz-James Stuart, Fernando Martínez de Irujo, Cayetano Martínez de Irujo and Eugenia Martínez de Irujo, all born to Cayetana and her first husband, Luis Martínez de Irujo, who died in 1972) will receive estates, palaces, mansions and country homes. For his part, the groom has already signed a statement renouncing any assets of the Alba family.
The wedding will apparently be a small affair with just the duchess' personal doctor and her children in attendance "with their current wives, previous daughters-in-law and my son-in-law Francisco," a reference to Francisco Rivera, who is in fact the ex-husband of the youngest daughter Eugenia, but remains close to the duchess.