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Lack
of sleep to blame for Quijote's madness
Barcelona, May 6th, 2005 (ACPres.net).
The cause of Alonso Quijano’s
madness was a lack of sleep, due to the fact that he spent so
much time reading books about chivalry. Thus at least is the
reason given by a group of neurologists at a hospital in Barcelona
to explain why the character popularly known as ‘El Quijote’
went off his trolley.
Drs Alex Iranzo and Joan Santamaria, together with Real Academy
member and Cervantes expert, Martín de Riquer, have carried
out an investigation into the cases of sleep disorder which
appear in the 16th century novel which this year celebrates
its 400th anniversary. Neurologists say sleep disorder is very
frequent in patients suffering from mental illness. Alzheimer’s
and Parkinson’s diseases are related to a lack of sleep, as
are schizophrenia and depression.
Cervantes shows this connection in several chapters of his book
by insisting on the importance of sleeping well for one’s physical
and psychological wellbeing. One passage describes behavioural
patterns under this condition accurately. Iranzo says “A healthy
person who dreams they are writing, does not move their hands.
However, under this condition, the person might get up, punch
the air or shout as if they were living out the situation, even
though in fact they are asleep. Sleep disorder is controlled
by the brain’s trunk. If this malfunctions, patients who dream
do not keep still. This is what Cervantes describes in Chapter
35 of the first part of his book, where Don Quijote attacks
some wineskins with his sword while dreaming he is fighting
a giant.”
Iranzo suspects Cervantes might have seen some sleep disorder
patients at close hand.
Source: EL MUNDO. Editing: ACPress.net
Novel uncovers dirty work of Inquisition in Protestant
Seville
Seville, May 9th, 2005 (ACPres.net).
Following Miguel Delibes’
novel ‘The Heretic’ which was set in Valladolid, one of the
two major centres of the Spanish Inquisition in the 16th century,
Eva Díaz has now written a novel based on the other, Seville.
Delibes’ novel, which appeared a few years ago, broke a major
taboo in Spanish literary and historical life, by telling the
story - albeit in a work of fiction - of the fate of Spanish
Protestants at the time of the Reformation. Now Díaz has written
on another aspect which had hitherto been ignored in a work
which also floats between truth and fiction. Díaz recreates
the atmosphere in which Lutheran ideas flowered briefly in Valladolid
and Seville, the two major cities in Spain at the time, and
how the theologians at the Council of Trent sought to stifle
such teaching.
The work of Erasmus found quite a number of sympathisers in
Spain, with one key centre being San Isidoro Monastery, just
outside Seville. However, the full story has been “silenced
by official historiography”. Now Diaz’s book, ‘Memoirs from
the ashes’, which she describes more as ‘history in novel form
rather than a historical novel’, seeks to recover this lost
period of Spain’s troubled religious history. The greatest achievement
of the monks who were converted to Christ in San Isidoro was
the translation of the Bible into Spanish, published in Antwerp
in 1569, and of course banned in Spain.
Díaz is a journalist and her novel was born when she was sent
to San Isidoro Monastery on a professional assignment five years
ago. There she heard for the first time the story of the monks
who embraced Protestantism secretly in the 16th century. A wider
group of intellectuals and members of the Sevillian nobility
were also attracted to the writings of Erasmus and Luther, and
Díaz has rescued their story from the relative paucity of records
which survive, testimony to their sufferings. Many were killed
by the Inquisition, while others managed to escape into exile.
Díaz has taken great care with the language used as well as
remaining faithful to the historical record. She was afraid
this might act as too much of a straitjacket on the novel, but
the fact is simply that the truth is more dramatic than fiction
in this case. One of the best-known figures is Julianillo Hernández,
a printer who kept his real identity hidden behind that of a
simple muleteer. He was a key part in the Seville group because
he was responsible for bringing Reformed books published in
Germany, the Low Countries, Geneva and France into Spain. He
hid them under full wineskins.
Source: D. SEVILLA. Editing:
ACPress.net
Will the devil stay in Madrid’s main park?
Madrid, May 9th, 2005 (ACPres.net).
It does appear, quite
literally, to be a thing of the devil. The centre of an argument
raging in Madrid is a 100-year-old statue of Lucifer, at the
moment of his ejection from Paradise, which stands in Retiro
Park in the Spanish capital.
Despite being there for a century, until a few weeks ago few
people seem to have taken much note of it. Yet when the Socialist
government decided to remove the last statue of General Franco
which remained in Madrid, alleging that it did not enjoy the
necessary “consensus”, a centre-right newspaper published a
list of other statues which might be considered equally controversial.
This included the statue of Satan in Madrid.
Its mention by the newspaper came as a revelation to many of
Madrid’s residents, who had no idea of its existence. Jesús
de las Heras, a Catholic priest and historian, commented: “I
only found out it existed about 10 to 15 days ago.” The statue
shows Lucifer as a beautiful angel with his mouth open in horror
and snakes wrapped around his legs, looking up towards heaven
as he falls from it. Even one of the gardeners who regularly
cleans around the statue, Antonio Rubio, had never really grasped
the significance of the statue, confusing it for Cupid. The
sculptor, Ricardo Bellver, tried to capture the moment when
Lucifer was expelled from heaven for coveting God’s power and
organising an angelic rebellion.
Adding fuel to the flames, the Council has published a series
of children’s stories based on the city’s monuments and the
first one is about...yes, you guessed...the statue of Lucifer!
The statue, which was made in the late 1870s, was originally
constructed of plaster, but met with such success, that the
city financed its being covered in bronze.
The Catholic Church has never complained about the statue as
it does not exalt the devil but represents a biblical figure.
However, the statue has had its moments of controversy. Satanic
rituals were held around it in the 1940s and 1950s, and Franco’s
government considered moving it from the park.
The removal of Franco’s statue from a city square recently however
caused much uproar. The Opposition and supporters of Franco
criticised the government for the measure and especially that
the statue was removed at night. Every year, a smaller and smaller
number of supporters commemorated the dictator’s death at the
statue.
Source: AP. Editing: ACPress.net
Madrid Council gives plot of land to Evangelical Church
Fuenlabrada, May 9th, 2005
(ACPres.net).
Fuenlabrada (local) Council,
in the south of Madrid, has given Ebenezer Evangelical Church
a plot of land on which to construct a new church building.
The Church is a member of the Federation of Independent Free
Churches of Spain (FIEIDE), and is pastored by Luis Antonio
de la Peña. The plot is 1,800 square metres large and will probably
be increased to 2,000 square metres when an ongoing controversy
over the other piece of land is resolved. De la Peña commented
that “it is in a fairly good location, and strategically challenging”.
He added that the granting of the land is the fruit of several
years’ negotiation.
Source & Editing: ACPress.net
Reaching the world through RedIMIR
Madrid, May 9th, 2005 (ACPres.net).
The audio and video sections
of RedIMIR news agency (of which A.C.Press is part), which can
be found at e-Mision.org, almost reached the download total
of 50 Gigas in the month of April, as against 500 MB when the
broadcasts were launched last September.
Visits are also up from 900 in the debut month of broadcasts
to 13,500 in April, while the web magazine ‘Protestante Digital’
has reached the monthly figure of 60,000 visits for the first
time. The amount of material downloaded is particularly pleasing
for RedIMIR as more than half the material on offer at e-Mision.org
is home-produced. The rest is made up of songs and film trailers
which are reproduced with permission. The audio section also
offers a weekly news comment in English, entitled ‘Spain Today’,
which is well received by English speakers here and abroad.
The e-Mision site offers a series of interviews, talks, discussions,
comments and music, which can either be listened to directly
on the computer, or downloaded. The video section, which is
still in its infancy, should shortly be renewed at least every
couple of weeks. The audio material is renewed each week, although
some special items are left for longer, and one item is chosen
as ‘This month’s special’. The total of nearly 60,000 visits
works out at 216,601 pages viewed and 12.74 Gigas of written
information downloaded.
For the first time, news about Spain has overtaken international
news items as far as visits are concerned, mainly thanks to
efforts by the news production team to increase home-grown items.
This also helps increase awareness of religious news in Spain,
particularly that relating to Spanish Protestantism, which is
one of the main aims of Protestante Digital magazine.
RedIMIR operates under the supervision of the Executive Committee
of the Spanish Evangelical Alliance, and has a team of about
50 people - all of them volunteeers - who run the news agency.
It is supported by a number of Christian organisations and churches,
and aims to provide a balanced view of the news from a Spanish,
evangelical perspective.
Source & Editing: ACPress.net‘Parliament
of religions’ in Barcelona
Barcelona, May 10th, 2005
(ACPres.net).
Catholic and Muslim thinkers
are to the fore in a forum styled as ‘Catalonia’s first parliament
of religions’, at which the topic under discussion will be whether
religion is needed in the 21st century.
A network of groups for inter-Religious dialogue is organising
the event, to be held in Barcelona on May 29th and, organisers
hope, ever year thereafter. This year’s motto is ‘Why are there
religions in the 21st century?’ At a press conference, the Director
of UNESCO’s centre in Catalonia, Agustí Colomines, said they
wished to promote inter-religious dialogue. “We cannot pretend
that religious identity is not part of the world we live in”,
emphasising that “we do not much like the commonly spread idea
that religion does not form part of public life given that,
although it obviously has a private element, it is in the public
arena.”
150 people have signed up to attend thus far, and they will
be able to choose from among 30 or so activities, from panel
discussions about ecumenical initiatives, to prayer and meditation.
Other ingredients on offer include an Irani documentary about
what kind of new world would be desirable, and a concert beamed
from the Dalai Lama’s monastery. Finally, there will be a discussion
about politics and religion, including a presentation on Spain’s
theoretically lay model.
Source: Colpisa/Efe. Editing:
ACPress.net
Computer addiction has become main cause of divorce
Corunna, May 11th, 2005 (ACPres.net).
Computer addiction is
already one of the main causes of divorce, as a lack of communication
pushes people to become hooked on chatlines or video games.
Internet and video games have a lot to do with arguments, unfaithfulness,
flirtation and other marital problems. Many a marriage has foundered
in the chatroom or at the Play Station console. Oralice Silva,
a psychologist at Gapsi Clinic in Vilagarcía, says if a man
leaves his wife to go off with a woman he has met in a chatroom,
then something was wrong in the marriage beforehand. “There
is a vacuum in the couple’s relationship, a lack of communication
which distances them from each other.” She adds that when this
happens, “one of them looks elsewhere.” First comes the isolation
as the person spends more and more time at the computer, then
comes the addiction.
Luis Garrido, a family psychologist, says some people will spend
the whole night playing on the computer in order to avoid facing
a problem, be it at home or at work. It’s not that they want
to change partner, “they just want to be alone and, above all,
not to have to think. Almost always, this ends in the break-up
of the relationship.” Marcos Pascual, a solicitor who specialises
in family mediation, blames the increasing number of divorces
mainly on the fact that people today are less patient with one
another. He says couples are less and less willing to seek solutions,
and his office is filled with people filing for divorces “after
a year, a month, or even just a fortnight.” Pascual does not
blame unfaithfulness for most divorces, as many do, but rather
“a lack of understanding, constant arguments or boredom.”
Source: LA VOZ DE GALICIA. Editing: ACPress.net
Highlighting the value of a mother’s work
Madrid, May 11th, 2005 (ACPres.net).
The old saying that ‘a
woman’s work is never done’ has been quantified in a study,
which shows that if they were paid at normal rates for the hours
they put in, they would earn an average of 100,000 euros a year.
The study, carried out for Mother’s Day by the website Salary.com,
asked 5.4 million mothers what job description would fit their
daily duties. Covering the tasks which take up most of their
time, they gave a series of titles including nursery teacher,
driver, caretaker, cook, advisor, nurse and general maintenance
worker. Obviously, a mother who looks after young children does
not merely do ‘office hours’, so the salary was based on a 100-hour
week looking after at least two children of school age.
A spokesman for Salary.com, Bill Coleman, said “the importance
of this calculation is to draw attention to the fact that being
a mother at home is not the easiest option nor is it a job without
value. Some would say it is a priceless task.” Coleman said
there had been all types of reaction to the figures, some believing
stay-at-home mothers deserved more, others less. “Mothers and
housewives (themselves) are enthusiastic and optimistic about
their jobs, and do not appear to need anyone outside to tell
them that their jobs are valuable.” However, Coleman added “they
are also happy because someone takes notice of them, and that
there is someone there to tell the world that their jobs are
valuable, perhaps because more than one might think.” The mothers
said that you could not put a price on the time they spent with
their children.
Source: AGENCIAS. Editing:
ACPress.net A.C.Press:
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Digital magazine at the website: www.ACPress.net
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