In French, laïcité (pronounced [la.isiˈte]) is a concept of a secular society, connoting the absence of religious involvement in government affairs as well as absence of government involvement in religious affairs. During the twentieth century, it evolved to mean equal treatment of all religions, although a more restrictive interpretation of the term has developed since 2004. Dictionaries ordinarily translate laïcité as secularity or secularism (the latter being the political system), although it is sometimes rendered in English as "laicity" or "laicism".
In its strict and official acceptance, it is the principle of separation of church (or religion) and state. Etymologically, laïcité comes from the Greek λαϊκός (laïkós "of the people", "layman"). [Wiki]
Laicismo es la corriente de pensamiento, ideología, movimiento político, legislación o política de gobierno que defiende, favorece o impone la existencia de una sociedad organizada aconfesionalmente, es decir, de forma independiente, o en su caso ajena a las confesiones religiosas. Su ejemplo más representativo es el "Estado laico" o "no confesional". El término "laico" (del griego λαϊκός, laikós - "alguien del pueblo", de la raíz λαός, laós - "pueblo") aparece primeramente en un contexto cristiano.
El concepto de "Estado laico", opuesto al de "Estado confesional", surgió históricamente de la Separación Iglesia-Estado que tuvo lugar en Francia a finales del siglo XIX, aunque la separación entre las instituciones del estado y las iglesias u organizaciones religiosas se ha producido, en mayor o menor medida, en otros momentos y lugares, normalmente vinculada a la Ilustración y a la Revolución liberal.
Los laicistas consideran que su postura garantiza la libertad de conciencia además de la no imposición de las normas y valores morales particulares de ninguna religión o de la irreligión. El laicismo es distinto del anticlericalismo en cuanto no condena la existencia de dichos valores religiosos. [Wiki]
The Magic of the Cities.
Zen promotes the rediscovery of the obvious, which is so often lost in its familiarity and simplicity. It sees the miraculous in the common and magic in our everyday surroundings. When we are not rushed, and our minds are unclouded by conceptualizations, a veil will sometimes drop, introducing the viewer to a world unseen since childhood. ~ John Greer
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Monday, August 30, 2010
|Dance performers in the Rio de Janeiro Park|
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
|Street Sweeper at Chapultepec Park|
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
|Heroes of the past crying for the present.|
Friday, August 20, 2010
Effigy of a winged woman standing and holding in her left hand a small bouquet of flowers and in her right a propeller, the Anahuac Helix, invented by Juan Guillermo Villasana. Citadel Square. Historic Center Mexico City.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
(near Mexico City)
Saturday, August 14, 2010
|Art Class (about Les Noces de Cana by Véronèse - 1562-1563)|
|Cinq Maitres de la Renaissance Florentine. 1450. By Paolo Uccello|
(L to R: Giotto, P. Uccelllo, Donatello, Manetti & Filipo Brunelleschi)
|Leonardo da Vinci. Portrait da Femme, La Belle Ferronniere (1495-99)|
Thank you Paris and Parisians for your endless Culture, Art, Beauty and Joie de Vivre (Joy of Living).
I leave a part of my heart here and forever.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
|Musée du Louvre|
Roman, Imperial. 2nd Century AD
|Portrait d'Antinoüs en Osiris|
130 ap. .J.-C.
|Potrait of man from the time of Emperor Claude|
40-44 ap. J.-C.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
|Hermès tying his sandal. Roman II Century BC|
The image of Hermes tying his sandal while listening to the orders of his father, Zeus, is characteristic of Lysippus's artistic endeavors. It should be remembered, however, that the head, which comes from another copy of the same work, is too small here, and that the incongruous supporting tree trunk under the thigh was added by the Roman copyist when he transposed the bronze original into marble.
Lysippus reworked Polyclitus's canon by lengthening it. The proportions are freer, the head now an eighth of the total height of the body and the muscle structure more slender - except, of course, in the statue of Heracles to your right. The artist sought in addition to situate the figure in a space that was also that of the observer, with a play of light and shade.
Friday, August 6, 2010
(a priestess or female votary of Bacchus)
Thursday, August 5, 2010
- shop window sign:
Le Rabbit un ami qui vous veut du bien.
(The Rabbit a friend who loves you well)
|Out of the blue|
- refreshing in one of the Louvre pools-
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
|L'Arc du Carrousel|
The Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel is at the eastern end of the so-called Axe historique ("grand historic axis") of Paris, a nine-kilometre-long linear route which dominates much of the northwestern quadrant of the city. It is, in effect, the backbone of the Right Bank.
Looking west, the arch is perfectly aligned with the obelisk in the Place de la Concorde, the centerline of the grand boulevard Champs-Élysées, the Arc de Triomphe at the Place de l'Étoile, and, although it is not directly visible from the Place du Carrousel, the Grande Arche de la Défense. Thus, the axis begins and ends with an arch. When the Arc du Carrousel was built, however, an observer in the Place du Carrousel was impeded from any view westward. The central block of the Palais des Tuileries intervened to block the line of sight to the west. When the Tuileries was burned down during the Paris Commune (1871) and its ruins were swept away, the great axis, as it presently exists, was opened all the way to the Place du Carrousel and the Louvre.
Monday, August 2, 2010
|The Pont des Arts or Passerelle des Arts is a pedestrian bridge in Paris which crosses the Seine River. It links the Institut de France and the central square (cour carrée) of the palais du Louvre, (which had been termed the "Palais des Arts" under the First Empire).|
Between 1802 and 1804, a nine-arch metallic bridge for pedestrians was constructed at the location of the present day Pont des Arts: this was the first metal bridge in Paris. This innovation was due to Napoléon I, following a design of English manufacture. The engineers Louis-Alexandre de Cessart and Jacques Dillon initially conceived of a bridge which would resemble a suspended garden, with trees, banks of flowers, and benches.
In 1976, the Inspector of Bridges and Causeways (Ponts et Chaussées) reported several deficiencies on the bridge. More specifically, he noted the damage that had been caused by two aerial bombardments sustained during World War I and World War II and the harm done from the multiple collisions caused by boats. The bridge would be closed to circulation in 1977 and, in 1979, suffered a 60 meter collapse after a barge rammed into it.
The present bridge was built between 1981 and 1984 "identically" according to the plans of Louis Arretche, who had decided to reduce the number of arches from nine to seven, allowing the look of the old bridge to be preserved while realigning the new structure with the Pont Neuf. On 27 June 1984, the newly reconstructed bridge was inaugurated by Jacques Chirac – then the mayor of Paris.
The bridge has sometimes served as a place for art exhibitions, and is today a studio en plein air for painters, artists and photographers who are drawn to its unique point of view. The Pont des Arts is also frequently a spot for picnics during the summer.
The argentinian writer, Julio Cortázar, talks about this bridge in his book "Rayuela". When Horacio Oliveira goes with the pythia and this tells him that the bridge for La Maga is the "Ponts des Arts". This is a great allusion of Cortázar for one of his greatest novels, even one of the best novels ever written.