My job serves to make happy people

bycarltorro

106 followers

12 years ago

Hi, first of all I want to say that I did my best to write in English. I think I'm in a high intermediate level. So if somebody wants to polish it, welcome. I thought to post it from one blog I have, where I combine Catalan and English languages, because I'm Catalan, from Catalonia. This article it's about my last trip and with ethical baggage.

Recently I have been in a trip (personal note, for me: a trip denotes something especial) in Iceland, a marvelous country, full of natural wealth, an efficient country, inhabited by an exemplar society. I wrote the draft of this writing in Kopavogur, the second city with more population, around 30.000, after the country’s capital, Reykjavik, this one with 120.000 regarding the Wikipedia*.

*By the by, regarding this practical and useful digital encyclopedia, I believe that, about this online and global source has the same credibility than other conventional and commercial encyclopedias. Thanks to everybody that has contributed and to all those that will contribute. I dedicate an especial mention to those that have impulse the Viquipèdia, the Catalan version of Wikipedia.

In fact, I flew there, Iceland, with a previous experience to explain to. And now that I have returned to Catalonia I can write these lines. Between geographies, parallels and meridians lines, this story is written. Between triads of fluvial courses that define a city that I love so much, and between the fictional and awesome sunshine of midnight that I could contemplate in a charming country, between that this message is linked. Through the discourse of a friend of soul, and finding the simple correspondence from reading the package of a brand of tea that keeps certain principles to praise, around that the ethic example is inserted.

Before of tasting in a restaurant from Reykjavik the delicious and healthy Icelandic lamb, the served leg was to lick your fingers, some days before I had a dinner in a comfortable restaurant from Girona city. It was my first time there, I’m from Girona and until that moment I didn’t know that place, and it’s curious because it’s a place with history from my city. I can say that in my life there is a sequence of facts with opportune link. Whereas I was flying above some point of the Atlantic ocean, I was reading Girona by Josep Pla. In this book the writer from the Baix Empordà county explains with a very peculiar humor, and with a singular and emotive way, his experiences when he was student of secondary school in Girona city, at the beginnings of the 20th century. Josep Pla also ate in that restaurant, when it was first an inn.

I can give the name of this restaurant where I ate very well: Casa Marieta. As a first dish I ordered a salad with all kind of vegetables and almost with the size of the orchard on the dish. Let me say that that is a good point, this about the amount of offered food, it’s a good detail, it’s recommendable, it’s much better if it comes from the heart, to be generous and offering either the product or the service to gain honestly the sympathy of the clients. Coming back to my supper, then I continued with “a toast of sea and mountain”, it’s called like that, it’s a good slice of toasted bread, with garlic and tomato, spread around, with olive oil on all, and covered by anchovies and ham. It’s a very Mediterranean dish, isn’t it? Finally I finished with a good grill of vegetables of all shapes and all colors. With all that you can see that I went to a food almost vegetarian, good and healthy.

Remembering the leg of lamb, chopped and marinated deliciously, in matter of food there is certainly a long difference, as it’s natural, between both countries, Iceland and Catalonia. Iceland is an island of volcanic origin that is sited between the North Atlantic and, touching it with its most northern part, the Polar Circle. Moreover sometimes the Polar bears do incursions to the island and the shepherds have to carry guns. The distance that separates both countries is 1846.41 miles or 2971.5 Km if you prefer. The Icelandic weather can change between the cold oceanic and that depicted by tundra. The Catalan weather is mostly Mediterranean, except the zones of high mountains where rather the continental weather predominates. Giving this information I want to seize it to do a little of chronicle of trip, then, because of an addition of facts, I will arrive to a same point of ethical sign.

The Icelandic lambs run almost wherever they want to around the island from the time of Vikings (IX c.) The Norsemen were the first human beings that arrived to Iceland, they came from Norway, Sweden, Denmark and the north of Britain Islands. These adventurers, expert sailors and fierce warriors, put this livestock to survive, getting its meat, milk and wool. This wool is very dense and warm, so it’s very appreciated for the own Icelandic’s textile sector. The breeding of this nice cattle is based on the no limited pastures of green, fresh, deep and smooth grass, which grows up around on the volcanic soil of this island. The Icelandic weather doesn’t permit an extensive agriculture like ours, no way it’s possible the Mediterranean and antique combination of wheat, oil and wine. However, there are little farmers that practice an ecological production into greenhouse to sell vegetables directly to consumers. The Icelandic people have fame of eat healthily.

I recover the yarn of my supper in Girona city. My party was nice and entertained, with people who I love, we talked cheerfully about various things. A ‘forca’, a Catalan farmer’s tool that has shape of fork, used to catch straw, was hung on a wall of the restaurant, as a stuff of decoration, this stuff gave us chance to mention the Pedraforca mountain, because this hill has similar shape, and this is one of the most popular in Catalonia. In our country, in our land and in our sea, we have places and landscapes of a beauty that stuns you. Two names brought to the consciousness are enough to know that, the Pyrenees mountains and the Costa Brava, and we could add others no less amazing. In my opinion, our natural wealth doesn’t give option to envy things of outside. It ain’t about to challenge nor compare either looking for weaknesses between the goods of two any countries, it would be an absurd thing. I think that just there is a thing to do, admire the works of the Nature around the world.

About the Icelandic landscape, it’s magical and real too. The creative hand of the volcanic geology has drawn the major part of the surface of an enchanter canvas. Huge cascades as Gullfoss cuts powerfully the earth, generating on its pass an antique march of drums that sounds far away, the ambient is dressed of steam and the spell is tangible. In another site, called Alping, walls of volcanic stone rise up and cliffs of basaltic columns go along, the rock is the paper of a score because some waterfalls sol-fa (to make music) a special music, Nordic character. And around all that there is a tapestry of rivers and water channels that crisscross among spots of grassy land, here the wild geese that migrate find the most comfortable bed to rest. This fantastic set that I describe was the chosen by Vikings to summon their first insular parliament in the X century. From a wall of basaltic stone, the men blessed with the word led their speech and their messages to the folk. Typical from Island are as well the geysers, those fountains on the floor which leave columns of boiled water, between 80 ºC and 100 ºC, among random periods of time. It’s funny see how the visitors are waiting patiently with their cameras, they’re halted and ready, to capture the moment when the jet of water goes incredibly up. This underground and aquatic nature is generated continuously by the heat of the magma, it permits being seized very well. Iceland is a very clean country thanks to the use of this natural thermal energy. The geothermic use has also a direct use to take care of the body and to give calm to the mind. The water is warm, even in the winter nights when the boreal aurora appears, and is full of minerals in suspension, like the silicon that is so good for the skin.

In the supper of Girona one of my best friends was there, his name is Xavi, one of the best people that I know, his job is pastry cook, one of the best, who has seen him breaking eggs methodically in speed of record Guinness, who has tasted his cakes of chocolate, knows it, that he has a generous heart and a soul of poet, he always shows you his cordial and cheerful character, he’s the loyal companion of Tofee, his friend-dog of long walks, Xavi is a very especial guy. Around one of our issues of desktop, Xavi said something very nice, he heard it from a master he had when he studied to be cook: “My job serves to make people happy”. Xavi said these words fully convinced, he does his job by true call, from he was very young, and in his artistic passion he united this ethical principle which can be applied, I don’t know if in all job or economic activity (maybe are there some that bother, are useless and they aren’t necessary?), but in general it’s a recommendable point to be considered. I received his belief with felt admiration and with personal view.

Again in Iceland, to give energy to my body and to maintain my mind awaken, because the sun of midnight keeps differently the hours, I drank tea more than ever, I declare my love for the tea, I’m a lover of tea and I got affection to drink it when more better, in each packet of tea that I can see wherever I go, offers to me some possibility, of new aromas and new tastes, and in this healthy browsing I’ve found, inside or maybe outside the little packet, an interesting thing. In Iceland I went some times to the supermarket, I went to the section of herbs to drink and I got a black tea with blueberries, that forest fruit, little, rounded shape and purple. One moment and I will come back about the tea. In this going shopping, like any other activity that I did in this country, like take the bus, asking for some street, take a ticket for the museum, exchanging money, asking to choose a cap of wool, whatever and with whoever, young and older people, with all Icelandic people you can speak in English. It’s very meaningful, it says much about the state of things of a country, about its education as an effect and about its cause, a good sociopolitical management and a good socioeconomic management. The Icelandic police don’t have guns to walk on the streets. They don’t have army. In shops and stores there isn’t any necessity neither to watch all the time what are doing the clients because a fear to be stolen. When you pay for a coffee or a tea you can drink again if you wanna. I think this country has the biggest birth’s rate from Europe, by the streets you see moms and dads very young taking care they children without signal of stress. The helps to families are many, with that and more, an advanced country is highlighted by itself, a country that looks after the wellness of its citizens. Well, what did I read in that enigmatic little package of tea from the Icelandic supermarket?

The little packet of black tea with blueberries says it: “Our commitment to making our business a matter of human service is fulfilled by changing lives in a sustainable and dignified manner.” I got this little packet of tea in Iceland, it was imported from Sri Lanka. In this message I read among lines the same that my friend Xavi said, a true Catalan cook: “My job serves to make happy people”. In my trip to Iceland I brought with me some books to read, I’ve already talked about Girona by Josep Pla, although I haven’t talked about Dungeons & Dragons and Philosophy. Raiding the Temple of Wisdom (2012), I leave this one for another occasion. Anyways I do a short briefing about Tu pots (2011), it means in English “you can”, by Joaquín Lorente. This author, a veteran professional of the world of communication and publicity, recommends to people using more their brain, thinking, everybody can think (and feel, don’t forgot the heart), devising, conceiving and being creative. I don’t want to make it large, just I want remark a point that matched with the rest. The same author, that knows the world of political and electoral propaganda, proposes a smart model of politics, truly democratic, that offers to electors, the folk, the people, the real sovereign of a country, a sociopolitical mechanism of trust and control. It’s called “the democracy by goals”. In resume, a political party presents its electoral program before the elections. Let’s suppose that this party wins, then it has to do the previous proposals. If after two years, continued or alternative (inside the time of normal legislature of 4 years) the government hasn’t done that it promised (the government has to achieve, of 100 points, a minimum of 85), elections has to be celebrated again. With this system the political parties that want to get the government would see differently the exercise of the public power. This wouldn’t be necessary if people in general respect the sense of the word ‘compromise’. To finish, with all that I wanted to talk about something that doesn’t have frontiers. My friend Xavi expressed an ethical message, the little packet of black tea from Sri Lanka, bought in Iceland, says something similar, as well as Mr. Lorente proposes. Thanks.