Category Archives: Misc
The simple faith of World Youth Day in Rio
I walked for miles today, following the inner streets, tunnels, and coastline that weave their way across Rio- a city that nature invades, but where rampant consumerism and social inequality prevail. Behind and in-front were thousands of youths, from different parts of the world, although mainly Latin America, on their way to Copacabana to see the Pope. I struggled. They had a spring in their step. It was a pilgrimage of sorts. `They’ve been taking cold showers and sleeping rough, but their happiness is undimmed. You can feel Jesus …
The street walking Pope
Pope Francis likes tango because its is the music of the street, of the people, of his neighbourhood. He also has often recalled that Jesus Christ that he believes in spent most of his life walking, meeting people,listening, talking to them, from the heart. Today, his fourth day in Brazil, Francis took to the streets, deep into the depth of Rio’s poor, in the favela of Manguinhos. Earlier, his restored a sense of humanity amidst the suited local authorities and frocked bishops and sports celebrities gathered round him in …
Organisational shortcomings of Papal visit to Brazil
One of the most loved public figures in the world, Pope Francis is in Rio de Janeiro, one of the friendliest and beautiful cities in the world on his first ever trip abroad since being elected. With hundreds of journalists and half a million young pilgrims in town, you would have thought the authorities would have taken steps to make sure than matters are organised well. Such is the good nature …of the Pope and the joy of his faithful youth, neither deserve to be blighted by cock-up, And yet …
Mourinho was not so special in Spain
I can think of several coaches deserving a noble place in Spanish football history, but Jose Mourinho is not one of them. Cowardice dictated his red card in the King’s Cup final, his verbal outburst the cheap shot of a bad loser. He had promised more than he could deliver and knew it but rather than stick around and fight to the end with his players, he chose escape. It was a game in which Simeone’s street bruisers had found their perfect counterpart in Mourinho, and beat him at his …
Barca after Munich
Having travelled with and sat and stood among the couple of thousand-odd Barca fans at last night’s Champions League semi-final away match tie between their team and Bayern Munich, it is hard not to share in the feeling of desolation provoked by its outcome. The majority of these visiting fans in the huge impressive Allianz Arena stadium were in their twenties, part of a generation that has grown up finding in the success of their club and the respect for it worldwide one of the few genuinely positive aspects …
Football and Pope Francis
The gift of a shirt of Spain’s national football team-signed by all its star players- given this week to Pope Francis by Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy is the latest reminder of the links that bind the beautiful game to the Vatican. Pope Francis is himself a self-declared football fan, with a dedication from his childhood days to San Lorenzo, the local club of the neighbourhood of Almagro in Buenos Aires where he was born. It is a club which owes its origins to the Catholic Church and which …
Tito’s cancer: the enemy at the gates
This was not something the Mayan calendar predicted but the news that Tito Vilanova’s cancer has returned has a fateful element to it. Cancer has a terrible unpredictability about it. It is likely that Tito, under medical advice, would have taken on the job of Barca manager, knowing that he was on borrowed on time, keeping the big enemy at a sufficient distance not just to live but to create. We will never know how the sheer stress of succeeding Pep Guardiola and putting up with the pressure of keeping …
The Litvinenko case: Truth must prevail
My old newspaper the FT with a typical understatement of a ‘non-core’ news story relegates the Litvinenko pre-inquest review hearing story to a page 2 read-through today. Others were rather bolder. The Times splashed on it, and the Spanish media have got pretty excited too. Whichever way you look at it, the Litvinenko case , which the FT gave me both time and column inches to cover back in 2006 , is one that certainly needs revisiting, however much sectors of the UK and Russian governments would like it to …
Flamenco meets the Subsaharan migrant
A lot of water has passed under the Spanish cultural bridge since I first saw the flamenco guitarist Paco Peña in the late 1960’s playing his guitar in a charity fund-raising event for London’s Spanish immigrant community. Half a century ago, Peña was slowly building up a following after moving as a teenager to the UK from Spain, and playing for diners at the since defunct Antonio’s Restaurant in Covent Garden. His fan base initially grew among the new British mass tourism to Spain, and other previously uninitiated in traditional …
Politicos poco transparentes, periodismo sin rigor
Cuando amigos me preguntan qué ventajas veo en ser hijo de madre Española y padre Anglo-Sajón/ Escocés, respondo, citando a Valle Inclán, que es el privilegio de ver las cosas con la perceptiva de la otra ribera. Ser bi-cultural no provoca trastornos bipolares sino al contrario puede, en un buen día, facilitar cierta claridad de perspectiva basada en la experiencia de lo bueno y lo malo de una cultura y la otra. Pues bien, doy gracias a dios que la profesión de periodista la aprendí en el Reino Unido, con …
