http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/04/28/morocco.blast/index.html?hpt=T2

About the Classico -- the obsession of all Nkob in the past month

Real Madrid and Barcelona are Spain's richest and most successful football teams

Their rivalry began in 1902, when Barcelona won a Spanish Cup semi-final 3-1

The pair have since shared 51 Spanish La Liga titles, Madrid winning 31 to Barca's 20

In 2011 Barcelona and Real Madrid were drawn to play four times in 18 days

(CNN) -- There are few rivalries in sport that capture the imagination like the coming together of Real Madrid and Barcelona -- a soccer match that has such enormity that is has its own nickname: "El Clasico."

On the field, it is a billion-dollar grudge match between the two best teams in the football-mad country of Spain.

Off the field, it is a tale of two cities -- a clash of Castilian nationalism and Catalan pride; and a rivalry of cultures forged in the Spanish civil war and the reign of General Franco.

In a freak of fixture commitments, the superpowers of Spain will have met four times in the space of 18 days by May 4, giving the historic rivalry an epic new chapter.

Is Real Madrid's Jose Mourinho the master of mind games?

''In Spain, the population of Catalonia don't consider themselves Spanish''
--Adi-Oula Sebastian, barcablaugranes.

Billion-dollar ball game

The modern-day El Clasico brings together the world's two highest earning sports clubs -- boasting combined revenues of over $1 billion, according to Deloitte.

The great rivals also lead the sports world in wages. According to Sporting Intelligence, Barca paid an average salary of $7.9 million to players last season, with Madrid dishing out $7.4 million. The New York Yankees baseball team are third on the list, paying an average $6.8 million.

"Both teams (Madrid and Barca) have steadily grown their revenue streams in recent years, contributing to their on-pitch performance through investment in better facilities, players and the development of youth team players," said Dan Jones, sports business partner at Deloitte.

But while the two teams clearly share a license to print money, they have contrasting approaches to the business of spending it.

Madrid are famed for their extravagance -- with the $130 million paid to Manchester United for Cristiano Ronaldo in 2009, typical of their cavalier policy in the transfer market. They profess the '"Galaticos" mentality -- a team of superstars -- demonstrated by a 2010-11 squad that cost at eye-watering $689 million to assemble.

Barca are not without their big-name signings, but rely far more heavily on homegrown talent -- with the likes of Lionel Messi, and Spanish World Cup winners Xavi and Andres Iniesta, products of the club's youth academy. Barca's current squad cost just $254 million to assemble.

History of rivalry

Barcelona and Real Madrid played for the first time in 1902, but the rivalry soon transcended the confines of a soccer match.

Barca came to represent the fight for Catalan independence from Spain, and a rejection of the nationalist sovereignism that ruled the country from Madrid -- especially under the rule of Franco, who came to power at the culmination of the bloody Spanish Civil War in 1939.

Madrid fans view these games as a playful argument about the way to see and understand the country as a whole
--Gabe Lezra, managingmadrid.com

"In Spain, the population of Catalonia don't consider themselves Spanish," said Adi-Oula Sebastian, editor of Barca fan site barcablaugranes.com.

"When the General Franco dictatorship forbade the use of regional dialects, the Camp Nou (Barcelona's home stadium) became one of the few places Catalans were allowed to speak their language, without having to fear repercussions."

Madrid were the all-powerful institution. They had political and royal backing -- the "Real" in their name, meaning "Royal", was a gift from King Alfonso XIII in 1920 -- and from the 1950s, boasted a collection of the world's best and most glamorous players.

"For Madrid fans, the game isn't just about getting one over on our eternal rivals; it's about winning a small argument about the country itself," said Gabe Lezra, editor of fan site, managingmadrid.com

"In many ways, Madrid fans view these games as a playful argument about the way to see and understand the country as a whole."

The relationship was exacerbated by the transfer of Alfredo Di Stefano to Madrid in 1953. The Argentine was wanted by both clubs, and both thought they'd signed him. But it was Madrid who got the legendary striker, and Di Stefano duly prompted a decade of dominance at the Bernabeu.

Barca have always suspected foul play. Their official website claims a "royal decree" persuaded Di Stefano to join Madrid, and there has long been the suggestion that the establishment pushed the deal through.

"To this day supporters of Barcelona feel robbed, while Madrid fans argue the legitimacy of the deal," said Sebastian. "Imagine if Michael Jordan gave his word to sign for the Chicago Bulls, then joined the New York Knicks instead!"

There's no one to touch Messi at the moment. People compare him to the great Diego Maradona, and it's a fair comparison
--Tim Hanlan, author

El Clasico personalities

The El Clasico as we find it today is defined by two world-class players, and two world-beating coaches. It is Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo against Barca's Messi on the field, and Jose Mourinho against Pep Guardiola on the sidelines.

Ronaldo is the powerfully built Portuguese winger, with speed to burn and an armory of tricks at his disposal. Messi is the pint-size Argentine genius, who took Ronaldo's crown as World Player of the Year in 2009 -- and retained the award in 2010.

"There's no one to touch Messi at the moment. People compare him to the great Diego Maradona, and it's a fair comparison," said Tim Hanlan, author of A Catalan Dream.

"Ronaldo is not quite on the same level, but his strength and pace can make him just as effective as Messi on his day." Both players are in the midst of prolific seasons in front of goal, with each vying for Europe's top goal scorer.

Their coaches have equally impressive resumes. Guardiola took over at Barcelona 2008, and led his team to Champions League glory in his first season in charge. Mourinho oversaw Porto's shock European triumph in 2004, and repeated the feat with Inter Milan in 2010.

"I've always loved Mourinho. Since his time at Porto I wanted him to join Madrid," said Lezra. "He's a brilliant tactician, an incredible motivator and a born winner. And his personality fits Real Madrid perfectly."

Mourinho is a brilliant tactician, an incredible motivator and a born winner. And his personality fits Real Madrid perfectly
--Gabe Lezra. managingmadrid.com

Footballing duopoly

Until relatively recently the Real-Barca rivalry was a one-sided affair. Madrid built dynasties in the 1950s and 1960s, and continued to dominate domestically and in Europe, throughout the 1970s and 1980s.

Barca enjoyed sporadic success, but it wasn't until the early 1990s that they finally launched a dynasty of their own -- winning four titles in a row under Dutch coach Johan Cruyff, before lifting their first European Cup in 1992.

The balance of power shifted back and forth over the next 15 years, but as we find the rivalry today, Barca are in the ascendancy. Guardiola's team have won the last two Spanish titles, and claimed their third Champions League in 2009. Meanwhile, Madrid are without a European success since 2002.

"Barcelona are definitely on top right now. They've put together a great team, and have been playing the same style, with more or less the same players, for the last four years or so," said Lezra.

"Madrid, on the other hand, have fired managers, brought in new players and made various tactical adjustments -- not a good strategy if you're looking for long-term success."

Whether Barca can stay on stop will undoubtedly be influenced by the outcome of this year's Champions League semifinal -- the latest chapter in a rivalry as fierce and colorful as any in sport.

"The rivarly between Barcelona and Real Madrid is special because both teams are made up of superstars," said Sebastian.

"You'll be hard pressed to find as many world-class players sharing the pitch at the same time. In football, the El Clasico rivalry is as good as it gets."

Songs for May - algunas latinas

Unveiled: First Turkish Woman Poses for German Playboy

Wow, I'm conflicted about this. Good for her / I can hear the criticism in my head, even though I disagree with it.

Unveiled: First Turkish Woman Poses for German Playboy

This post is in partnership with Worldcrunch, a new global news site that translates stories of note in foreign languages into English. The article below was originally published in the leading German daily Die Welt.

Germany's ongoing struggle with integration, usually carried out with grim zeal and intellectual debates, experienced a surprisingly sensual turn last week.

The appearance of Turkish-German actress Sila Sahin's attractive, naked body in the May issue of Playboy magazine shows how young women with immigrant backgrounds can rid themselves of religious and cultural constraints, without needing to cite statistics or elaborate arguments provided by integration experts. (See a brief history of the Playboy Club.)

It's usually no longer a big deal when a celebrity or starlet takes off her clothes for the men's magazine. The unrelenting overexposure to sexually explicit images in the media, advertisements and the Internet has made public nudity so socially acceptable that we barely take notice.

But the 25-year-old Sahin, who plays "Ayala" in the RTL German soap opera "Good Times, Bad Times" (Gute Zeiten, schlechte Zeiten/ GZSZ) managed to link her public exposure to the debate over a central socio-political issue: that young Muslim—in this case, Turkish — women are not allowed to make the same kind of decisions over their own lives and bodies that the daughters of the sexually revealing majority have been able to make for some time.

"For me, these pictures are an act of liberation from the cultural constraints of my childhood," says Sahin. "I have tried to please everybody for too long. With these images I want to show young Turkish women that it is OK to live the way they are; that it is not cheap to show skin; that you should pursue your goals instead of bowing down to others."

Playboy could use the PR

It may very well be that the first appearance of a Turkish woman on the cover of the German Playboy is most of all a welcome opportunity for the glossy magazine, which could use the immigration debate to boost its somewhat out-of-date image.

And the still relatively unknown Sahin was admittedly presented with a PR opportunity to stick out of the daily host of nudes by fashioning herself as a brave trailblazer for emancipation.

Still, her interview in the magazine opens a window into the patronizing situations young Muslim girls and women have to deal with on a daily basis.

Growing up "with a father who is an actor and a very conservative mother, I am not speaking for everyone, but in my case, things were black or white. Sex before marriage was bad, you have to pray every Friday and so on." For a long time she "thought I have to do what the man says." (See Hugh Hefner's storied life.)

Purists of female emancipation and cultural critics may sniff at the fact that Sila Sahin sees an act of liberation in posing naked for men who are not primarily interested in intellectual discourse. But the tastefully shot nude photos of the young Turkish woman remind us that the reviled commercialization of the female body that today seems just like an unavoidable part of every day life, played an important role in the history of female emancipation in the Western world.

With Sahin's nude pictures framed as a contribution to the debate over emancipation of young Muslim women, the German Playboy builds on the historical tradition of the American original.

Its first edition, published in 1953 with a Marilyn Monroe centerfold, was undeniably the journalistic spearhead of a then still dormant sexual openness in a strictly puritan America.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2066491,00.html#ixzz1KTGdu4zz

Like no other magazine, Playboy stood for a liberal socio-political spirit, whose breakthrough in 1960s America it largely helped facilitate. The subsequent rise of feminist criticism of patriarchic structures of society largely discredited the political standing of the magazine and its founder, Hugh Heffner, who recently celebrated his 85th birthday.

Symbolic counter point to "the girl with the head scarf." (See TIME's review of the Hugh Hefner documentary.)

If nothing else, Sila Sahin's campaign to use nudity as a means to self-determination teaches us that this criticism may well have been shortsighted.

Because the legitimate debate over if or when the display of naked female bodies starts to hurt female dignity or, on the contrary, promotes it, presumes the ability of the woman to decide for herself whether she wants her naked body to be depicted or not.

That's how the right to pose naked gains an undeniable importance and explosiveness — also for the struggle within in the Muslim community over its relationship to the secular, open society.

That Sila Sahin faces threats not only from within her own family for her explicit pictures, but also from radical Turkish nationalistic groups, illustrates this.

We have to realize and acknowledge that the trivial pop and lifestyle culture is a powerful force in debates over emancipation, because they deliver the emblematic images that can pull a society in one direction or the other.

By creating an attractive example of the self-determined, young Turkish woman who wants to live just as freely and unburdened as her German peers without immigrant roots, Sahin's pictures have the potential to set a symbolic counter point to the recent trend of the "girl with the head scarf."

The beautiful pictures are breathing new life into the values of the constitution and our liberal legal system that are too often just hailed in the abstract.

Now we would certainly like to know what German feminists have to say. In the past, they led campaigns against nude covers on magazines. Today they fight against the mandate for women to cover themselves in the Muslim community.

The fact that young Muslim women are using nudity as a beacon against their entrapment in their traditional culture could undermine some conventional wisdom in the feminist community.

Also from Worldcrunch:

Libya: The Birth Of Press Freedom In Benghazi — Le Monde

Meet Vladimir Pozner, Russia's Larry King — Le Figaro

See the 2011 TIME 100 Poll

See the 140 Best Twitter Feeds

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2066491,00.html#ixzz1KT7r0zs4

One of my favorite discoveries in my reading

This is from letter 133 of Vincent Van Gogh to his brother Theo. It's just part -- if you see a copy of this book, it's worth picking up! To me, this fragment of a letter is exactly the way most Peace Corps volunteers feel 90 percent of the time.

July 1880

I am writing somewhat at random, writing whatever flows from my pen. I should be very happy if you could see in me something more than a kind of fainéant [ne'er-do-well]. For there is a great difference between one ne'er-do-well and another ne'er-do-well. There is someone who is an idler out of laziness and lack of character, owing to the baseness of his nature. If you like, you may take me for one of those. Then there is the other kind of idler, the idler despite himself, who is inwardly consumed by a great longing for action who does nothing because his hands are tied, because he is, so to speak, imprisoned somewhere, because he lacks what he needs to be productive, because disastrous circumstances have brought him forcibly to this end. Such a one does not always know what he can do, but he nevertheless instinctively feels, I am good for something! My existence is not without reason! I know that I could be a quite a different person! How can I be of use, how can I be of service? There is something inside me, but what can it be? He is quite another ne'er-do-well. If you like you may take me for one of those.

A caged bird in spring knows perfectly well that there is some way in which he should be able to serve. He is well aware that there is something to be done, but he is unable to do it. What is it? He cannot quite remember, but then he gets a vague inkling and he says to himself, “The others are building their nests and hatching their young and bringing them up,” and then he bangs his head against the bars of the cage. But the cage does not give way and the bird is maddened by pain. “What a ne'er-do-well,” says another bird passing by - what an idler. Yet the prisoner lives and does not die. There are no outward signs of what is going on inside him; he is doing well, he is quite cheerful in the sunshine.

But then the season of the great migration arrives, an attack of melancholy. He has everything he needs, say the children who tend him in his cage - but he looks out, at the heavy thundery sky, and in his heart of hearts he rebels against his fate. I am caged, I am caged and you say I need nothing, you idiots! I have everything I need, indeed! Oh! please give me the freedom to be a bird like other birds!

A kind of ne'er-do-well of a person resembles that kind of ne'er-do-well of a bird. And people are often unable to do anything, imprisoned as they are in I don't know what kind of terrible, terrible, oh such terrible cage.

I do know that there is a release, the belated release. A justly or unjustly ruined reputation, poverty, disastrous circumstances, misfortune, they all turn you into a prisoner. You cannot always tell what keeps you confined, what immures you, what seems to bury you, and yet you can feel those elusive bars, railings, walls. Is all this illusion, imagination? I don't think so. And then one asks: My God! will it be for long, will it be for ever, will it be for eternity?

Do you know what makes the prison disappear? Every deep, genuine affection. Being friends, being brothers, loving, that is what opens the prison, with supreme power, by some magic force. Without these one stays dead. But whenever affection is revived, there life revives. Moreover, the prison is sometimes called prejudice, misunderstanding, fatal ignorance of one thing or another, suspicion, false modesty.

But to change the subject - if I have come down in the world, you have in a different way come up in it. And if I have forfeited sympathy, you have gained it. I am glad of that, I say that it in all sincerity, and it will always give me pleasure. If you lacked seriousness or consideration, I would be fearful that it might not last, but since I think that you are very serious and very considerate, I tend to believe it will!

But if you could see me as something other than an idler (ne'er-do-well) of the bad sort, I should be very happy.

------

And a different and likewise good discovery

Comfort Corn Chowder

Two smaller potatoes
One onion
Other veggies as desired/available (celery, carrots, etc.)
A handful of macaroni pasta
Half a tin can of corn
Half of the larger -size jugs of milk in the blue package

Spices: I used Mrs Dash and Creole seasoning from home, but either Italian, curry powder or Ras El-Hanut would be good.

Dice the vegetables. Cook the onion in either butter or oil until it's translucent. Add a little flower, then add everything else all at once: veggies, milk and pasta. Bring it up to a boil and when the potatoes are done, then it is finished (15 minutes or so the first time I did it). Letting it cool some helps bring out the flavor-- but not too much! If you have very fine pasta, add it later than the other things.

This came from Jamie Oliver's site (Mr.'' Food Revolution'').

http://www.jamieoliver.com/us/recipes/vegetarian-recipes/corn-chowder

It's super easy, low in fat and high on feeling better-ness. Bon chance!

Spring camp was a blast! One of my best experiences here, and sad that it'll only happen one more time.

SET LIST after playing 2 hours of music each day with my camp kids.



Wake up


The Cave


Cheek to Cheek - Fred Astaire


Free Fallin' Tom Petty


Love me tender


You are not alone



If I only had a brain

and just for fun:
Iwer George