Patxi Lopez Swears the Oath as Lehendakari

The past Tuesday, 5th of May, Patxi López, representative of the Basque Socialist Party (PSE-EE), swore his oath as Lehendakari (President of the Basque Country). He is the first Socialist Lehendakari, since the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) has been dominating the government for 30 years.

The ceremony was marked by a few major changes, as well as by the open hostility and disappointment of the PNV.

First of all, the usual order in which ceremonies take place was changed. Instead of promising his loyalty to the Basque citizens first, López decided to begin by swearing his loyalty to the King of Spain and the Constitution of Gernika, and promising to abide to all laws.

Another notable change came in the form of the exact words used for the oath. Traditionally, the Lehendakari swears that he will rule under the guidance of God, and do so for the Basque people. Patxi López omitted the reference to God, and substituted the word "people" for "citizens".

The exact words López used were:"De pie en tierra vasca, bajo el Árbol de Gernika, ante vosotros, representantes de la ciudadanía vasca, en recuerdo de los antepasados, prometo desde el respeto a la Ley desempeñar fielmente mi cargo de Lehendakari".

That is: "Standing here on Basque ground, beneath the Tree of Gernika, before you, representatives of the Basque citizens, in memory of the ancestors, I promise through respect to the Law fulfilling faithfully my position as Lehendakari".

After this speech, the leaving Lehendakari, Juan José Ibarretxe, handed the makila, symbol of the Basque president, over to Patxi López. Upon this moment, everyone stood up and applauded, except for representatives of Aralar, and the representatives of the PNV, who did stand up but did not give a round of applause.

Career Choice

Next year I intend to study electronic engineering. This career is strongly related to industrial engineering, but specialised in the field of electronics, dealing with electical circuits, processors, electronic devices, systems and equipment. It has a wide range of professional opportunities: working in the industry, working for government organizations such as public transportation, the business world, computer-circuitry, mechanics, robotics, nanotechnology and investigation (often in cooperation with other disciplines).

Although it is still too early to decide, I am interested in studying a Master Degree in Robotics once I finish my basic studies. As for job options, I am particularly interested in the fields of technological research and investigation, applying electronics to bionics and bioengineering, robot programming and design, and nanotechnology.

I have already sent an application and taken the entry test to Deusto University: http://www.deusto.es.

Other possibilities include the Universidad de Navarra: http://www.unav.es/, and the Universidad del País Vasco: http://www.ehu.es .

Other universities offer electronics only as a specialization coming from Industrial Engineering. An example is the Universidad de Alfonso X El Sabio: http://www.uax.es/indice.htm .

Elements of the Web 2.0

The web 2.0 implied a move from traditional internet, in which webpages were owned and operated by companies and individuals and offered little interactivity, to an environment in which users can actively participate in a variety of multimedia activities by sharing fotos, videos and personal interests.

This has spawned a variety of social networks and platforms including Facebook, Wikis, Blogs, Twitter, Flickr, and Moodle.

Facebook is a social networking site used by millions of people around the world to keep in touch with their friends and people they know and to share pictures, videos, and small user-created applications. Users can also join networks arranged by workplace, school, region, etc. Facebook users can are only allowed access to confirmed friends' profiles. The service can be used by anyone above the age of 13 from any country in the world. It can be found at http://www.facebook.com/

A Wiki is a collaborative website which allows users to add, modify or delete all of its content by using a very simple markup language. It is similar in structure and usage to a blog, but is different in that blogs only allow the original author to modify their content. Wikis were originally devised as the simplest form of an online database. Wiki websites consider themselves to be part of a Wiki Community. http://www.wikipedia.org is perhaps the most popular wiki encyclopedia.

The term Blog is short for web log. Blogs are webpages that act as personal journals, newsletters, or places in which to comment on events, allowing the user to post their opinions and share part of their personality online. Typically blogs also allow the user to upload pictures and videos. Most of them also include a comments section for the readers to respond to the topics raised. A popular blog-service providing website is http://www.blogger.com.

Twitter is a social messaging website which allows users to answer the question: "What are you doing?" either by sending an SMS mobile phone message, e-mail, through the use of third-party software, or instant messaging. Twitter also supports Myspace and Facebook. Its function is similar to that of a blog, but only allows for shorter messages. It has grown in popularity because of its extensibility: users don't have to access the website directly, but rather can do it through a series of relay services. Twitter can be found at http://www.twitter.com.

Flickr is primarily an image and video hosting site, although it also acts as an online community where people can comment on other users' content. This content is organized by using tabs and headings, as well as by creating groups of pictures or videos, all of which allow the user to search for a particular theme or category. It has become popular as a picture and video storage site for bloggers, allowing them to host the images they later upload onto their blogs. This service can be found at http://www.flickr.com.

Moodle is a free open-source learning and teaching environment adopted by various schools, colleges and universities. Its objective is to provide with a more open and interactive learning experience, and allow teachers to develop it according to their personal needs. Participants can also actively comment and participate in discussions about the various subjects. The main moodle website can be found at http://moodle.com.

Basque Parliament Election Results

The results for the Elections to the Basque Parliament are already out since last Sunday. However, the exterior vote still remains to be counted (it will be counted today).

For the moment, EAJ-PNV has 38.56% of the vote, which accounts for 30 seats.

PSE-EE/PSOE is second, with 30.71% of the votes, and 24 seats.

Next is PP, with 14.09% of the votes, meaning it gets 13 seats.

ARALAR is next, with 6.05% of the total votes and 4 seats.

EA is fifth with 3.68% of the vote - 2 seats.

Last of all are EB-B (3.51% of the votes) and UPyD (2.14%), each of which will get 1 seat in Parliament.

Adding up the seats gives a total of 75. The number of seats required to reach absolute majority is 38, which means that, for the moment, no single party has reached it.

This leads to a number of possible coalitions between the political parties in order to reach the required majority. If PSOE joined PP and UPyD, they would get absolute majority. The same applies for PNV, ARALAR, EA, EB-B, and UPyD. PSOE and PNV together would also achieve this majority. The above mentioned coalitions, are however, quite unlikely.

The number of voters was 1,040,295, and the abstention rate, 34.12%, so the total number of abstentions was 354,948. This means the participation rate was 65.88%. Out of the total votes, 8.84% were null. The total census included 1,732,340 people.

Elections to the CAV

Next Sunday, March 1st there will be elections to the Basque Parliament. This is the first time I will be able to vote, since I am now 18 years old.


As always, every single political party is running a huge publicity campaign. Again, as always, each political party makes (too) bold statements and promises to look good, which are later probably hard to keep up with.


The most siginifant parties are probablyPSE-EE (Partido Socialista de Euskadi), PNV (Partido Nacionalista Vasco), and PP (Partido Popular).


The leader of PSE is Patxi López. The party's political program suggests rebuilding the Basque Country through dialogue, the strengthening of local institutions, open-mindedness, and innovation, improving health care and education, and providing the means to stop the economic recession.



The leader of PNV is Juan José Ibarretxe, and the party's political program includes dialogue to end the conflict with ETA, the strengthening of local identity and self-government, bilinguism (spanish and euskera), and economic measures to end the crisis.

The PP, whose leader is Antonio Basagoiti, proposes new means to end terrorism and abolish political parties related to ETA, rebuilding the economy, guaranteeing freedom of choice concerning the language in which children are educated, and improving the Law of Historical Territories.

Carnival is here!

Carnival is a traditional festival celebrated around February. Its origins are considered to be found in the Christian tradition of Lent, where believers were obliged to practice sexual abstinence, avoid eating meat, and avoid any kind of luxury. Carnival was, thus, a chance to celebrate before Lent, to let go of oneself and enjoy.

Although this is considered to be its typical origin, similar festivities can be traced back to earlier times, where people dressed up and partied as a celebration of the spring season, in order to ask the Gods for good harvests and good fortune. It was also a sexual celebration, where young people could meet each other and engage.


Nowadays, carnival is a very heterogeneous celebration, which varies greatly from one country to another, and from one city to another.
One of the most renowned carnivals is that of Brazil, especially in Rio de Janeiro, where people dance and parade in elaborate homemade costumes, play music, and stay up throughout the night.
Here in Spain, the most well known are probably those of La Palma de Gran Canaria and Santa Cruz de Tenerife, where people wear themed costumes. A typical event in these celebrations is the election of a Carnival Queen.

In essence, Carnival is a chance to let go of one’s preoccupations and enjoy!

Valentine's Day

Tomorrow, February 14th, is Valentine's Day, a day when lovers celebrate their feelings for each other, offering each other presents, love cards, and chocolates or sweets. This tradition can be traced back to the Middle Ages, and even then, it was a heritage passed on from the times of the Roman Empire. The celebration used to be tied to the land, and good harvests, but slowly, over time, it became what it is today. It was in the 18th centuries that Valentine's cards became popular, and back in the day they were true works of art, usually including original love poems.

Now, Valentine's day has become more superficial, more about the presents, but still, it is a chance to celebrate love, which is what really matters. If this world was more about loving each other and less about personal gain, it would be a much better place. We should all try to make an effort to love not only our couple but to enjoy life, and love all people.

Cyclone hits Getxo!

Two weeks ago, on Friday night/Saturday dawn, a cyclone hit Getxo and various other areas of the basque country. During the afternoon, the weather reporters warned that there would be strong winds of up to 150km/h that night. Due to this, a dinner I had planned with some of my friends was cancelled, although the cyclone didn't start until around 2 am.

I woke up when the wind started whistling and making my blinds shatter. There were several crashing sounds, which I assumed to be the garbage containers falling over, and it was very hard to fall asleep again.

The next morning, when I woke up, one of the blinds in my house had been torn apart by the wind. The street was full of leaves, tree branches and garbage, and several roads were closed.

Next Monday, I woke up normally to go to school. When I arrived there, however, some of my friends told me that we could leave school immediately, because the electrical system was down due to the cyclone, but Sol (our homeroom teacher), and Mr. Jenkins (the Upper School principal), said we had regular classes.

In the middle of spanish class, several smaller kids began passing by, leaving school, so we started complaining, asking why we couldn't go home too.

Eventually, during second period, we were allowed to phone home for permission to leave. It was amazing how, in 15 minutes, the whole school was empty.

We had been told that an update to the status of the school (whether there would be regular classes on Tuesday or not) would be posted on the school web page, and I was hoping that the system hadn't yet been fixed, but unfortunately, classes resumed on Tuesday.

Obama's Inauguration Speech

On Tuesday January 20th, 2009, Barack Obama swore office as the 44th President of the United States of America. He then gave a very inspiring speech.

America, he said, faces a great challenge. It is in crisis. But it is not the first time the nation goes through bad times. Troughout its history, presidents have ruled in times of peace and war. They have endured challenges much more demanding than those the country faces today, but have remained succesfull because they have kept true to their ideals. Through hard work and determination, the American people have built a prosperous nation.

Now, however, citizens fear that the United States has begun its decline. It is because of greedy individuals that the nation and the world are in crisis. It is also, however, the responsability of the people, who have done nothing to prevent it.

Today, Obama said, the American people must change this. Through hope and unity of purpose the nation must overcome the obstacles in its path. It is the risk-takers and hard-workers who have built the nation, and the same kind of people must now meet the challenges to carry out the promise of freedom, equality, and opportunity made byt the Founding Fathers.

The question isn't whether the government is too big or not, but whether it works or not.

The government must rebuild the economy by improving schools, building roads, and finding new sources of energy.

America, he said, is now a friend of every nation, of every culture. The United States is a nation of christians, jews, muslims and non-believers, of every culture and every belief, and as such will respect everyone.

"Nations who blame America for their problems must know that their people will not judge them by what they destroy, but by what they build".

America, and other rich nations, must try to help nations that are poor, and those who seek to establish democracies.

Obama finished by saying that only with faith and determination, and by keeping true to the Founding Fathers' ideals that the United States will keep up to the challenge.

I found this speech very inspiring, and I consider one of the best speeches ever given by any politician.

2009: New Year's Resolutions

Happy New Year to everyone!

Vacation has come to an end, and we're now back to the everyday routine of school and work

As it is usual, with the arrival of the new year, we all have our own new year's resolutions to try to become better persons, or fulfill our personal goals.

I have a couple of my own.

First of all, I'd like to organize myself a bit better so I end up getting more sleep every day, and that way work better the next day. I would also like to commit more time to practicing electric guitar, and convince my band mates to rehearse more often. I should also try to practice more sport. Taking my time to choose my future career carefully would also be a good goal for me. Before all of this, however, I should concentrate on passing my (practical) driving test.

Last of all, I would like to really follow these resolutions, which in itself, is the most difficult goal of all...