Faithful Friends, Passeig de Lluis Companys, Barcelona

Friendship, love, hate, happiness or sadness are a universal asset, inherent to the human race. Friendship knows no creed. Anyone that is able to love, to be kind, to do good, to cultivate friendship is a person and not "the source of all evil". We tend to stigmatize religion, we foolishly fear the unknown, people that look different.

These two Muslim women, for example, covered with what we, out of our own ignorance, would refer to as just "a beautiful piece of cloth", are in fact wearing one of the many types of Hijab as part of their own traditions. Nonetheless, very often they are looked over the shoulder by many and are generally misjudged by the western world.

If I look underneath their headscarves, I just see two wonderful friends, maybe more valuable as persons than many ignorant racists of the so called First World. This is a delicate issue and perhaps the mere fact of musing on it sounds silly or irreverent. My anticipated apologies for that. By the way, let's not forget that other well known "good citizens" of this planet wear or have worn a veil and nobody ever cared. So this is another example of how absurd a debate (the use of the Hijab) can get to be. The picture was taken at Passeig de Lluis Companys, Barcelona.

Update: According to Gurvinder in the comments below (thanks!), these women are Sikh so they are wearing Chunni or Dupatta. If that is the case, this is proof of my poor and shortsighted "Western" approach to the matter. Sikh or Muslim, my point about racism is still valid.

Forest Fire in Collserola Mountain, Barcelona

Watching a forest fire from your own window is one of the saddest views you could ever have. This afternoon a small fire swallowed part of the woods on this hill at Collserola mountain. Now that I write this, at night, everything seems to be under control, but mother nature is not always that lucky. It is true that many forest fires start by a mere accident, like lightnings on a storm but the great majority are due to cigarette butts, bottles that act as a magnifying glass and outdoor barbecue grills which are forbidden. But the worst cause is forest arson which is probably what happened here. This is not the first time there's a fire around Barcelona, in fact one year several hills were completely devastated by the flames. The wind makes things worse and the fact the city is near is dangerous at least for those living at the slope of the mountain.

Update: April 18th: The police identifies three 14 year old teenagers as the authors of the fire yesterday Collserola Fire News in Spanish

Pottery: From Clay to Ceramics

The art of spinning a piece of clay, shaping it up with your bare hands until it becomes a jar, an amphora, a pitcher, a mug or whatever has been always a fascinating process for me. I remember pottery workshops at school and how clumsy I was. But if obtaining an object out of the blue may look mysterious in a way, placing it in a kiln to bake it is certainly magical. As usual, I wonder who was the first to have the brilliant idea of cooking a block of mud. Granted that this someone may have discovered some wet clay mound accidentally solidifying under the sun but it takes centuries to take that clay and put it in the fire to produce an object. And if that is not enough, glazing it and placing it back in the kiln to make it colorful is a great sample of the evolution of tools and skills throughout history, the history of our civilization.