Francesc Candel
Where do the children play?
Bueno... creo que está bien construir aviones "jumbo" o dar un paseo en un tren cósmico. Enciende el verano desde una máquina tragamonedas... sí... consigue lo que quieras si quieres, porque puedes conseguir cualquier cosa.
Sé que hemos avanzado mucho, estamos cambiando día a día, pero dime... ¿dónde juegan los niños?
Where Do The Children Play? - Cat Stevens
.....
Dear Stevens: Decades later, the problem remains unchanged. But perhaps the reality is a little sadder. Today, when children leave school, they don't stay in the squares, in public parks, or on the streets, playing, for example, soccer. They go straight home and shut themselves away in a world of surround sound and a giant screen. They play at killing soldiers, at commanding armies, they play soccer... they know how to dribble and control a digital soccer ball, very skillfully, with their index finger guiding a mouse. They do it infinitely better than when they dribble or pass a leather ball with their leg during recess at school. Today, when a child leaves school, they go straight home to immerse themselves inside the silicon chips of Silicon Valley, to play on a smartphone, an Alienware computer, or a PlayStation. If you suggest a game to a child, for example, playing "Hopscotch," they will most likely ask if there is an app for their smartphone or computer. If you tell him there's no app for this game, something might surprise you... if there's no app where you can play this game... he simply won't be interested in your game proposal... he won't be interested.
Bueno... has resquebrajado el cielo, los rascacielos llenan el aire ¿Pero seguirás construyendo más alto hasta que no haya más espacio ahí arriba? ¿Nos harás reír? ¿Nos harás llorar? ¿Nos dirás cuándo vivir? ¿Nos dirás cuándo morir?
Sé que hemos avanzado mucho, estamos cambiando día a día, pero dime... ¿dónde juegan los niños?
.....
Tea For The Tillerman - Cat Stevens (1970)
.....
The lines we see on a map that demarcate one country from another, one region from another, are merely fictitious. If, according to the map, you are in China, for example, and you walk a few meters to where the map indicates you are in Mongolia, little will have changed. These are transitional zones where their richness lies precisely in their mixture of languages, customs, religions, ethnicities, and facial features. In the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, the Uyghur ethnic group is the majority in this region of northwest China, and they also inhabit border areas such as Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan. The Uyghurs are the sum of a rich and complex mix of Turkic, Persian, and Indo-European cultures. The Uyghurs are, fundamentally, a Turkic-speaking people, meaning that their language belongs to the same language family as Turkish. They share a common ancestor with the Turks who migrated to Western Asia. The ancestors of the Uyghurs established a powerful empire, the Uyghur Khanate, in what is now Mongolia. After the fall of this empire, they migrated to the Tarim Basin, in present-day Xinjiang. However, it is perhaps the Persian influence that is most evident in their culture and in the modern Uyghur language. This influence is found in the names of people and, above all, in the names of places of Persian origin or with Persian influence in Xinjiang, as is the case with many historical oasis cities in the region, such as Kumul (Hami in Chinese). The border with Mongolia is located about 300 kilometers northwest of Kumul. It is important to note that the Uyghurs are predominantly Muslim, so you will not find Buddhist monks in most of the region; there is no significant Buddhist influence. Similarly, Mongolia is a deeply Buddhist country (Tibetan Buddhism), where you'll find little Muslim influence, only a few ethnic minorities like the Kazakhs. But it's in these border areas where you can find nomadic Buddhists or Buddhist monks. This mix is visible in people's faces and perhaps even more so in something common to Uyghurs and Mongolians: the presence of yurts. Very common among the nomadic Uyghurs, these dwellings vary slightly in Mongolia, not so much in their construction but in their name. They aren't called yurts, but rather "gers," a Latinization of the Mongolian word. And another thing they have in common is that you still see children playing football. Perhaps the bond uniting humanity isn't religion, political ideas, art, or culture. Perhaps the most widespread bond among humans is... football. Marx, in a context that must be understood, coined the phrase that "religion is the opium of the people." You may agree or disagree with this idea or with his ideas, but you must understand the context in which Marx wrote his ideological theses and his phrase... it was a context where football didn't exist. Perhaps, if Marx were alive today, he would change the content of his phrase and instead of saying that "religion is the opium of the people," he would change it to... "football is the opium of the people."
PS: Image edited exclusively in "blue and garnet" (FC Barcelona) and players in red kits, like the Reds at Anfield (Liverpool), my two "opiates" teams from my childhood.
.....
Dalantule, Xinjiang Uygur Zizhiqu, China. Border with Mongolia. March 2022
Where do the children play?
Bueno... creo que está bien construir aviones "jumbo" o dar un paseo en un tren cósmico. Enciende el verano desde una máquina tragamonedas... sí... consigue lo que quieras si quieres, porque puedes conseguir cualquier cosa.
Sé que hemos avanzado mucho, estamos cambiando día a día, pero dime... ¿dónde juegan los niños?
Where Do The Children Play? - Cat Stevens
.....
Dear Stevens: Decades later, the problem remains unchanged. But perhaps the reality is a little sadder. Today, when children leave school, they don't stay in the squares, in public parks, or on the streets, playing, for example, soccer. They go straight home and shut themselves away in a world of surround sound and a giant screen. They play at killing soldiers, at commanding armies, they play soccer... they know how to dribble and control a digital soccer ball, very skillfully, with their index finger guiding a mouse. They do it infinitely better than when they dribble or pass a leather ball with their leg during recess at school. Today, when a child leaves school, they go straight home to immerse themselves inside the silicon chips of Silicon Valley, to play on a smartphone, an Alienware computer, or a PlayStation. If you suggest a game to a child, for example, playing "Hopscotch," they will most likely ask if there is an app for their smartphone or computer. If you tell him there's no app for this game, something might surprise you... if there's no app where you can play this game... he simply won't be interested in your game proposal... he won't be interested.
Bueno... has resquebrajado el cielo, los rascacielos llenan el aire ¿Pero seguirás construyendo más alto hasta que no haya más espacio ahí arriba? ¿Nos harás reír? ¿Nos harás llorar? ¿Nos dirás cuándo vivir? ¿Nos dirás cuándo morir?
Sé que hemos avanzado mucho, estamos cambiando día a día, pero dime... ¿dónde juegan los niños?
.....
Tea For The Tillerman - Cat Stevens (1970)
.....
The lines we see on a map that demarcate one country from another, one region from another, are merely fictitious. If, according to the map, you are in China, for example, and you walk a few meters to where the map indicates you are in Mongolia, little will have changed. These are transitional zones where their richness lies precisely in their mixture of languages, customs, religions, ethnicities, and facial features. In the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, the Uyghur ethnic group is the majority in this region of northwest China, and they also inhabit border areas such as Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan. The Uyghurs are the sum of a rich and complex mix of Turkic, Persian, and Indo-European cultures. The Uyghurs are, fundamentally, a Turkic-speaking people, meaning that their language belongs to the same language family as Turkish. They share a common ancestor with the Turks who migrated to Western Asia. The ancestors of the Uyghurs established a powerful empire, the Uyghur Khanate, in what is now Mongolia. After the fall of this empire, they migrated to the Tarim Basin, in present-day Xinjiang. However, it is perhaps the Persian influence that is most evident in their culture and in the modern Uyghur language. This influence is found in the names of people and, above all, in the names of places of Persian origin or with Persian influence in Xinjiang, as is the case with many historical oasis cities in the region, such as Kumul (Hami in Chinese). The border with Mongolia is located about 300 kilometers northwest of Kumul. It is important to note that the Uyghurs are predominantly Muslim, so you will not find Buddhist monks in most of the region; there is no significant Buddhist influence. Similarly, Mongolia is a deeply Buddhist country (Tibetan Buddhism), where you'll find little Muslim influence, only a few ethnic minorities like the Kazakhs. But it's in these border areas where you can find nomadic Buddhists or Buddhist monks. This mix is visible in people's faces and perhaps even more so in something common to Uyghurs and Mongolians: the presence of yurts. Very common among the nomadic Uyghurs, these dwellings vary slightly in Mongolia, not so much in their construction but in their name. They aren't called yurts, but rather "gers," a Latinization of the Mongolian word. And another thing they have in common is that you still see children playing football. Perhaps the bond uniting humanity isn't religion, political ideas, art, or culture. Perhaps the most widespread bond among humans is... football. Marx, in a context that must be understood, coined the phrase that "religion is the opium of the people." You may agree or disagree with this idea or with his ideas, but you must understand the context in which Marx wrote his ideological theses and his phrase... it was a context where football didn't exist. Perhaps, if Marx were alive today, he would change the content of his phrase and instead of saying that "religion is the opium of the people," he would change it to... "football is the opium of the people."
PS: Image edited exclusively in "blue and garnet" (FC Barcelona) and players in red kits, like the Reds at Anfield (Liverpool), my two "opiates" teams from my childhood.
.....
Dalantule, Xinjiang Uygur Zizhiqu, China. Border with Mongolia. March 2022