LOUIS XVI OF FRANCE.

Louis' indecisiveness and conversatism led some elements of the people of France eventually to view him as a symbol of the perceived tyranny of the ancien régime, and his popularity detroiated progressively. His disastrous flight to Varennes in June 1791, four months before the constitutional monarchy was declared, seemed to justify the rumors tha the king tied his hopes of political salvation to the prospects of foreign invasion. The credibility of the king was deeply undertiminated and the abolition of the monarchy and the establishment of a Republic became an ever increasing possibility.

Louis XVI (23 August 1754 - 21 January 1793) was king of France and Navarre from 1774 until 1791, after wich he was subsequently King of the French from 1791 to 1792, before his deposition and execution during the French Revolution. His father Louis, Dauphin of France, was the son and heir apparent of Louis XV of France. Due to the Dauphin's death in 1765, Louis succeeded his grandfather in 1774.
The first part of Louis' regin was marked by attempts to reforme France in acordance with Enlightment ideals. This inclued efforts to abolish serfdom, remoce the taille, and increase tolerance toward non-Catholics. The French Novility reacted to the the proposed reforms with hostility, and successfuly opposed their implementation; increased discontent among the common people ensued. From 1776 Louis XVI actively supported the North America colonists, who where seeking their independence for Great Britain, wich was realized 1873 Treaty of Paris. 

The ensuing debt and finantial crisis contributed to the unpopularity of the ancien régime  wich culminated at the Estates-General of 1789. Discontent among the members of France's middle and lower classes resulted in strengthened opposition to the French aristocraty and to the absolut monarchy, of wich Louis and his queen Marie Antoinette were viwed as representative. In 1789, the Bastille was stormed during riots in Paris, and the French Revolution began.

In a context of civil and internatinal war, Louis was suspended and arrested as part of the inserruction of 10 August 1972, just one month before the constitutinal monarchy was abolished and a republic declared. He was tried by the National Convention, found guilty of high treason, and excused by guillotine on 21 Juanary 1793 as a desacralized French citizen known as "Citizen Louis Capet", a nickname in reference a Hugh Capet, the founder of the Capetian dynasty-wich the revolutinaries interpreted as Louis' family name. In the mean time, the French Republic had been proclaimed 21 September1972. Louis XVI is the only king of France ever to be executed, and his death brought an end to more than a thousand years of continious French monarchy.

 

Catalan independence

The Catalan independence is a political movement, which supports the independence of Catalonia and the Catalan countries from Spain and France. In the 19th century the main reasons for the independence appeared, this is: that Catalonia is a nation, the language and Catalan civil law, and the claim that Catalonia does not reach its full cultural, social or economic correctly while still part of Spain.

The separatism starts in the early 20th century, when some organisations and political parties started demanding full independence of Catalonia from Spain. During the following years, and mainly because of Franco's regime's oppression of Spanish and Catalan people and culture, the movement gained more power. 

In these recently years, there has been a substantial increase in the number of people who consider themselves independentists, which led to massive demonstrations with more than 1 million people claiming independence for Catalonia. Although the rulling party (CiU) lost some deputies in the parliament of Catalonia because of the austerity cuts, after 2012 elections, the majority of the parliament in Catalonia is favorable to conducting a referendum of independence, and 55% of it is composed of independentist parties.


Fully independent parties like Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC), Solidaritat Catalana per la Independencia (SI) or Candidatura d'Unitat Popular (CUP) , don't form a majority in parliament although parties like CiU or ICV are favorable to independence. Examples would be the current Catalan President Artur Mas and former President Jordi Pujol.

Result of the vote by the Parliament of Catalonia for the declaration of sovereignty

Supporters of Catalan independence in 2012

   

        

AUTHOR: Daniel Baúlo

FRIDA KAHLO

Frida Kahlo (Coyoacán, 6th july 1907- Coyoacán, 13th july 1954) was a Mexican painter.
Her father was German, and her mother was Mexican. She had a lot of sisters.
She suffered poliomyelitis in 1913. Then, she had illnesses and wounds, that forced her to stay nine months in bed.
She developed in a different way from other children. Some of her paintings reflect the loneliness of her childhood.
She studied  in the German School until 1921. In 1922, she went to the Preparatory National School in Mexico City. She was in a group of people that protested against injustices.
On 17th September 1925, she had a bus accident. Her backbone was broken in three parts. She had to be operated 32 times throughout her life.
In the following years, she painted portraits. She became to frequent politic and intelectual atmospheres.
Frida met Diego Rivera (member of the Communist Party) who painted too. He loved Frida's paintings.
They got married on 21st August 1929. In 1930, she was pregnant for the first time, but the pregnancy had to be stopped.
Diego had a romance with Cristina,  Frida's sister. This affected Frida a lot. Frida had some romantic relationships with men and women (she was bisexual.)
In 1938, André Bretón (a surrealist poet and essayist) qualified her work as surrealist. But she said: "I've never painted my dreams. I've painted my own reality".
On 6th November 1939, Diego and Frida divorced. Frida was depressed, and she started to consume alcohol.
Years later, they got married again , but they excluded sex of their relationship.
Frida exhibited paintings in New York, Boston Philadelphia...
In 1950, she was hospitalized in Mexico City. She attempted suicide.
She had to stay in a wheelchair.
Her last painting was an oil painting called: VIVA LA VIDA.
In all of her paintings, she projected her difficulties to survive.

French Revolution, in Coldplay's song?

Viva la vida is probably the most known Coldplay's song ever. Everyone knows the lyrics but, who does really understand its meaning?

Here are the lyrics:

I used to rule the world

Seas would rise when I gave the word

Now in the morning I sleep alone

Sweep the streets I used to own

I used to roll the dice

Feel the fear in my enemy's eyes

Listen as the crowd would sing

"Now the old king is dead! Long live the king!"

One minute I held the key

Next the walls were closed on me

And I discovered that my castles stand

Upon pillars of salt and pillars of sand

I hear Jerusalem bells are ringing

Roman Cavalry choirs are singing

Be my mirror, my sword and shield

My missionaries in a foreign field

For some reason I can't explain

Once you go there was never

Never an honest word

And that was when I ruled the world

It was the wicked and wild wind

Blew down the doors to let me in

Shattered windows and the sound of drums

People couldn't believe what I'd become

Revolutionaries wait

For my head on a silver plate

Just a puppet on a lonely string

Oh who would ever want to be king?

I hear Jerusalem bells are ringing

Roman Cavalry choirs are singing

Be my mirror, my sword and shield

My missionaries in a foreign field

For some reason I can't explain

I know Saint Peter won't call my name

Never an honest word

But that was when I ruled the world

I hear Jerusalem bells are ringing

Roman Cavalry choirs are singing

Be my mirror, my sword and shield

My missionaries in a foreign field

Woahahahah. woah ohhhhh woah ohhh oh,

For some reason I can't explain

I know Saint Peter won't call my name

Never an honest word

But that was when I ruled the world

Now let's go back to the meaning part. 

This song is sung in first person, as like someone is telling his own story. Is he the French king Louis XVI? we are not sure. Usually the singers tell us about their feelings, but in this song, a man is explaining how he wasn't the perfect king and how people hated him.

Louis XVI was King of France between 1774-1791. He tried to do some ''reforms'' in France and that caused that people were not happy with them, so they started a revolution, THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.

This song talks about how the king (Louis XVI?) lost his power and the citizens rised up against the government, so they wanted to behead him. Or the meaning could be a reflexion about Power and the lost of Power by a man?.

Let's see this on some of the lyrics:

‘’I used to roll the dice’’ - Perhaps this means  that he decided about the destiny of people.

‘’Blew down the doors to let me in’’ - This explains how he used violence to get what he wanted. 

‘’One minute I held the key, next the doors were closed on me‘’ - Everything happened so fast.

‘’And I discovered that my castles stand, upon pillars of salt, pillars of sand‘’ - The castles mean his power, so if they stood upon pillars of salt and sand, that means that they were very weak.

‘’Revolutionaries wait for my head on a silver plate‘’ - This means, as we said before, that people wanted to behead him.

‘‘I know St Peter won’t call my name’’ - St Peter is the one who opens the doors in heaven for christians, so this refers that heaven's doors won't be opened for him.

There are also many references to the Bible: Jerusalem bells, St Peter, 'my head in a silver plate', maybe St. John the Baptist's head?. Anyway whatever the meaning is, enjoy the song!

THE SUBPRIME MORTGAGES AND ITS EFFECTS ON THE FINANCIAL CRISIS

Summary: We're in one of the worst crisis since the Great Depression, with global repercussion. This crisis involves financial and real crisis. Financial markets have become bigger and financial crises also became deeper. In this article, I'm analyzing the most important factors which have affected our actual crisis, caused because of the housing bubble's crash.

Between 2000 and 2002, the US lived a Financial Crisis called the .com crisis, caused by the technological business' decrease. To solve the effects of this financial crisis, the Federal Reserve of US reduced the interest rates, which made everything cheaper. This reduction made house buying really attractive, because then it was really cheap to buy without high interest rates. So banks started to give lots of credits and housing also grew, what made houses price rise.

When banks saw that house prices would keep growing, they made easier for people to buy a house. This was due to the fact that if those people couldn't pay the house, they would sell it in the future for a bigger price. This kind of mortgage was called subprime mortgage or trash mortgage. So, this way, affordable credits for families and businesses grew a lot, making mortgages bigger. So, this way economic agents became indebted seriously.

To affront the great bills that companies and families had to pay, banks recurred to securitizing: The mortgages they'd sold became negotiable securities in interbank markets, known as the CDO's. These securities were backed with other mortgages, so if people didn't pay, they would lose a high part of their value.

This is the way how they made mortgages into securities:

1) The bank gives a mortgage loan.

2) Then, the bank sells this mortgage to a company depending on the risk they have, which is gauged by a Rating Agency.

3) Finally, this mortgage is sold to investors who don't know anything about them.

By the end of 2005, the interest rates had grown a 5%, so houses prices had grown a lot too. Because of this, banks started giving less loans. So this caused a decrease on the price of houses: the financial bubble had just exploded in 2006. Because of this, a big number of non-payments started to happen, and this provoked the financial sector to be mistrusted. This led to the decrease of the active CDO's. In 2007, all financial institutions were trying to sell their CDO's, what made CDO's prices decrease, and made US economy falter. Because of this, banks stopped giving loans, so houses' prices became even lower.

What started being a sectarian crisis (in financial and housing) became then a Real Crisis, affecting the other sectors. Which made US GDP decrease between 2008 and 2009 (see graph above).


 
By Noé Rodríguez Daporta

The discrimation of women in India

The discrimination of  women is a fact in many countries. If a girl is born in a family that´s a disaster, she will be underestimated and she won´t be treated as if she was a boy.  

For example, one of these countries is India. There, girls are discriminated since they are born; they can´t go to school, and they are educated in doing the housework and taking care of their brothers or sisters.
Indian girls are engaged since they are born, and they get married when they are just six or seven years old. Their husbands have total dominion over them, and in many cases they are treated worse than domestic animals. Since they are married, girls often get pregnant and have a lot of kids. That´s because their husbands just refuse to use contraceptives. Apart from taking care of their children and doing the housework, women are the ones that make the harder tasks.

 The biggest part of violence against women in India is constituted by violations, which is the cause of the death of over one or two million  women a year. But this is not the only way of violence: women are often burned alive; other big part die because of  aggresions from their husbands.  But the most horrible way of violence is that some fathers kill their girls when they are babies or kids, just to evade the big amount of money Indian people are used to pay to the husband´s fathers when they want to get their daughter married.

Violence against women in India is a big trouble in our society, and I think that our international organizations should do something about it. What do you think they should do? Would you choose to be an Indian woman?

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