A love / hate letter to a place you love/ hate

This is just a variation of the traditional letter to the person you admire most. Instead of addressing the message to a famous person we write to the city, town or village of our dreams.

 

My dearest village

 

I´ve been thinking long and hard before writing this letter...

I find it difficult to write down everything you have given me..

There´s so much I would like to say to you: you are the air that I breathe.

In fact, I cannot imagine my life without you: I´d never leave you as when I´m

away for just a few days or weeks I suffer from my peculiar town sickness:

 all my thoughts go back to you obsessively: This is the place of my dreams, heaven on earth, my oneiric promised land, where, once dead, I would like to periodically return to.

I have enjoyed the spring sunrises, the autumn sunsets, the sounds, the light, the smells of every single fiesta every month, the orange blossom, the almond blossom... Our scenery is constantly changing following the pattern of the seasons but there is one thing that remains constant:

my love for you.

I can still remember the very first time I came to this precious place, opened my eyes and was dazzled by the light at the Balcony, the bluest sea I had ever seen and the wild beauty of your twenty unspoilt beaches and coves... I believe  I´m the luckiest person in the world for living in this most wonderful place called .... NERJA.

Know that no matter how far I am, you will be in my heart wherever I go.

You are my inspiration in life and my dream paradise.

In short, I love you with all that I am, all that I was and all that I ever will be.

Yours forever

XXX

JMCC

 

Try to identify the cliches in the sentences above.

Write one composition along the same lines: My dear Paris; Madrid, my beloved city; Dearest New York; My darling Frigiliana; Dear Málaga;etc..

Try to recall the 20 coves or beaches mentioned in the text from Cantarriján to Calaceite.

Let us be EQUALITY and DIVERSITY CHAMPIONS!!!

Are you passionate about Justice and Fairness?

Are you excited about Equality?

Are you delirious about Diversity?

Are you interested in new challenges?

Are you more understanding and less judgemental towards other cultures?

Do you want to help change our world?

Do you have original ideas to bring about changes?

Are you for Fair Trade?

Are you politically correct?

Have you developed a sense of inclusion?

Do you avoid making stereotypical assumptions about others?

Are you against deeply ingrained stereotypes?

Do you try to understand cultural diversity, accepting that each culture has its assets and its flaws? (We should try to pick up the best in every culture)

Are you against all sorts of discrimination?

Are you against the gender pay gap?

Do you support minorities: ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disabled people, older people,etc..?

Are you for SUPERDIVERSITY: immigration from many different countries? 

Are you for intercultural dialogue?

Have you broadened your mind by travelling? Any culture shock or clash? 

 

If you answered  "yes" to any of the above questions then we NEED you...

IT TAKES ALL SORTS TO MAKE A WORLD, so the saying goes, and no one should be excluded. Exclusion is typical of dictatorial regimes. Diversity should be enriching and not a liability.

I´ve often been asked what this place would be like without expatriates, immigrants or tourists. " A very drab, shabby, bleak place, indeed" It´s my answer. Could you imagine London or New York without cultural diversity?

BE OFF-BEAT. Uniformity is boring. Conformity is against the human grain. We need original creative people who can view that a better world is possible.

Governments all around the world have been changing their attitudes  to immigration, from an open door policy of welcoming all the cultures to a frontiers closed policy due to the economic recession.

As the human rights poster stated: " If our God is Jewish, your car is Japanese, your pizza italian, your gas is algerian, your coffee is brasilian or colombian, your numbers are arabic, your alphabet latin, your shop is chinese, HOW DARE YOU CALL YOUR NEXT DOOR NEIGHBOUR A FOREIGNER?

 

A SHORT CULTURAL DIVERSITY TEST

-WHAT NUMBER IS UNLUCKY IN  JAPAN, EUROPE?

-WHAT NUMBER IS LUCKY  IN CHINA, USA, THAILAND, EUROPE?

-WHAT CAN WARD OFF EVIL IN GALICIA, MEXICO, INDIA?

-WHAT HAPPENS TO A CHILD´S TOOTH IN THE U.K., SPAIN, JAPAN,etc..?

WHO IS A HERO AND WHO IS A VILLAIN ACCORDING TO HISTORIANS? Classify the characters in the following list:

Christopher Columbus, Torquemada, Attila, Sulla, Nero, Hitler, Franco, The Duke of Alba, Ivan IV, Julius Caesar, Selim I the Grim, The Marquis of Sade, Ali Pasha, Ferdinand VII, Mariano Melgarejo, José Mª Aznar, Robin Hood, Juan M. Sánchez Gordillo, Hernán Cortés, Francisco Pizarro, Osama Bin laden,  King Phillip II, Emperor Charles V, Fedinand III, etc...

NOMINATIONS FOR  World INFAMY...And the oscar to the nastiest or most obnoxious person goes to....

-WHAT IS TRENDY AND WHAT IS TRADITIONAL NOWADAYS IN YOUR OWN CULTURE?

-HOW DO YOU EXPRESS WELCOME IN SRI LANKA, EUROPE, MUSLIM COUNTRIES,etc..?