Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Time for Basque Grill

Well, look at that, a nice article about Basque cuisine in Time Magazine.

Check it out:

One Man's Meat

By Lydia Itoi

Victor Arguinzoniz is the best grill man ever. His restaurant, Etxebarri, is in a Basque farmhouse about 40 minutes and a world away from Bilbao, in Axpe, a postcard village set among skyscraping peaks, and impossible to find on a map. Trust me, it's worth the trouble. Arguinzoniz makes his own charcoal from local hardwoods. He has also invented a custom grill with a pulley system that allows precise control of oxygen intake, levered grill surfaces that can be kept meticulously clean for a light smoke, and a mesh-bottomed pan that grills such refined foods as caviar and the tiniest baby squid.

Ordinary grilled flavor comes mainly from soot, but here exceptional-quality ingredients are barely enrobed in a gossamer smokiness. Ask for the daily menu, about six stunningly minimalist dishes. You may get incredible homemade txorizo or lobsters sacrificed live, martyrs to gastronomic ecstasy. There's even a smoked ice cream, made by first cooking milk over the coals.

Etxebarri is one of only two restaurants I know that buys live angulas (baby eels) and makes them worth their exorbitant price. The delicacy of the seafood courses proves that less can be oh-so-much more, but all flame tamers are pulled off for the chuletón, the king of steaks. Arguinzoniz swears by the complex, marbled meat of retired Galician milk cows, fattened for slaughter until they resemble Kobe beef but with richer flavor, and seared to an incredible blackened crust. Forget delicacy and sophistication — this is simply the best steak ever. tel: (34-94) 658 3042


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Friday, February 09, 2007

Kelme Punishes Oleguer Presas

Thanks to the Internacional Herald Tribune we learned that Spanish company Kelme has decided to punish Catalan football player Oleguer Presas for showing solidarity towards a political prisoner on hunger strike over a clear violation against his human rights by the Spanish government.

Here you have the article:

FC Barcelona defender loses sponsorship over support for Basque hunger striker

The Associated Press
Published: February 8, 2007

MADRID, Spain: FC Barcelona defender Oleguer Presas lost his sponsorship from a sports clothing company because of a newspaper article he wrote expressing sympathy for a jailed former leader of the armed Basque group ETA.

Alicante-based firm Kelme said it made the decision due to "recent comments by the soccer player in several media outlets," according to Spanish news agency Efe on Thursday.

The company said it supported "the right to freedom of expression and free thought" but added "Kelme's links with the player are solely based on sporting criteria, and therefore the decision was taken to rescind the contract unilaterally."

No one at the company was immediately available for comment.

Writing in Basque newspaper Berria on Tuesday, Oleguer said the case of Jose Ignacio De Juana Chaos, who was on a hunger strike, compared with that of several prominent Spanish politicians and police officers who were imprisoned for their role in death squads that killed numerous Basque separatists in the 1980s. They were released without completing their sentences due to health concerns.

De Juana Chaos — who has been in prison since 1987 for killing 25 people in a series of ETA attacks — was close to being released from prison last year when new charges were brought against him for writing newspaper articles that were deemed terrorist threats.

He went on a hunger strike for several months, and resumed it in November when he was convicted over the articles and received another 13 years in prison.

Two weeks ago, a Spanish court rejected prosecutors' request to let De Juana Chaos be placed under custody at home, a measure that would have allowed him to abandon the protest.

De Juana Chaos' latest sentence is up for appeal before the Supreme Court.

Oleguer reportedly said in his article that Spanish law had "many dark areas" and "reeked of hypocrisy."

The 27-year-old Barcelona-born defender, who made his debut for the European champion in 2003, has emerged as a vocal supporter of the independence of Spain's semiautonomous Catalonia region.

Oleguer has aroused speculation about whether his political convictions would allow him to accept a call up for the Spain national team.

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Thursday, February 08, 2007

Structural Biology Unit in Derio

This article comes to us via Basqueresearch:

CIC bioGUNE Centre inaugurates first Structural Biology Unit in the State

The Cooperative Centre for Research, CIC bioGUNE, has inaugurated the Structural Biology platform, unique in the State and, at a European level, a state-of-the-art installation.

Fitted with the most up-to-date Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, Electron Microscopy and X-Ray Diffraction equipment, the platform will be available to the scientific community in order to stimulate the use of the most up-to-date techniques in structural biology amongst researchers and enterprises in the Basque Country.

Whether at a national or a European level, there is no other research centre which integrates these three techniques under the same roof.

The installations are located at the CIC bioGUNE research centre at the Bizkaia Technological Park in Derio.

Structural biology is an area of research the aim of which is to determine the structure of macromolecules and of supramolecular complexes. The function of proteins is linked to their structure and, knowing their folding pattern provides transcendental information on the way in which their molecular role develops. The identification of therapeutic targets, their action mechanisms, the design of pharmaceutical drugs, the understanding of intracellular interactions, as well as the prevention or treatment of numerous illnesses, require knowledge of the three-dimensional structure of proteins and other molecular complexes.

In this respect, the Structural Biology Unit generally aims to investigate the structure of and interactions that occur between biological macromolecules with the objective of understanding how chemical reactions central to life develop and how their malfunctioning can give rise to the appearance of relevant pathologies. Detailed knowledge of molecular interactions open new paths to the development of effective therapies.

50 researchers

The Structural Biology Unit will have 50 researchers directly and in the order of 100 indirectly involved in shared, international projects. The funding of the Unit has been promoted by the Basque Government, through its Department of Industry, Trade and Tourism, and also financed by the Bizkaia Provincial Government, the Basque Technological Parks´ Network and the European FEDER funds. Also various aid packages from the Spanish State and the European Union have been availed of.

The Structural Biology Unit will be, together with the Proteomic platform, a key infrastructure at CIC bioGUNE. In fact, a large number of the projects being undertaken at the Centre require the infrastructure and equipment this Unit possesses. Moreover, its creation improves research possibilities for all those others within the Basque R+D+i network. Also, it will boost the participation of foreign research groups such as private bodies in the health sector.

The Structural Biology Unit will have three laboratories specialised in techniques of structural resolution: Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, Electron Cryomicroscopy and X-Ray Diffraction. There is no other centre, within the State, that integrates the three laboratories in the same installations.

NMR

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) determines three-dimensional structures and the interactions of bio-macromolecules. The NMR spectroscope, moreover, provides highly valuable dynamic information and is specially suitable in the study of structural variations due to changes in the environment such as variations in temperature or pH and the presence of metallic ions, etc. NMR is an excellent tool for carrying out scans to reveal the degree of folding of proteins. The RMN equipment available in this Unit is an 800 MHz spectrometer and another of 600 MHz. The first has a greater signal dispersion sensitivity in order to detect phenomena arising in strong magnetic fields.
Electronic microscopy

Electron Microscopy is a highly flexible method for structural analysis which enables the study of molecules over a very wide range of resolutions. Electron Cryomicroscopy, together with image processing techniques, has enables the use of electron microscopes in the molecular domain.

X-Ray Crystallography

X-Ray Crystallography is currently the most powerful analytical tool for determining atomic structure. This technique employs X-Rays in order to determine the atomic order in a crystalline sample. It can be applied to all types of macromolecules without any limit to size and, moreover, the data therefrom can be integrated into large-aggregate functional models analysed using Electron Microscopy.

CIC bioGUNE - scientific state of the art in Euskadi

The Structural Biology Unit, as well as CIC bioGUNE overall, falls within the strategic remit of bioBASK 2010 – aiming to boost the generation and development of knowledge in order to facilitate business advances in the biosciences sector. To this end, the policy is to reinforce and enhance research capacity, to establish scientific-technological advances and to put co-operative research centres into operation.

Within this strategic line in January 2005 CIC bioGUNE was inaugurated, a co-operative research centre dedicated mainly to biosciences and, within these, the health sector. Here, high social impact illnesses such as cancer are studied, as well as their prevention, their diagnosis and the identification of pharmaceutical drugs for dedicated therapies.

The principal mission of CIC bioGUNE is the undertaking of basic research of excellence at an international level, targeting strategic objectives of global interest while not forgetting the needs of the biotechnology industry in the Basque Country.

At CIC bioGUNE they are striving to make the research industry in the Basque Country more international, incorporating foreign researchers at all levels and strengthening this international cooperation, given that excellence today is defined in global terms.

CIC bioGUNE has somewhat more than 100 researchers from more than a dozen countries.

In 2005 and 2006 CIC bioGUNE launched technological platforms for genomics, proteomics, metabolics and animal experiment stations; in 2007 it will be working on the genic silencing platform.

Research projects

CIC bioGUNE is currently taking part in important, international-level projects such as HUPO (Human Proteome Organisation) the aim of which is to carry out the analysis of the proteome, i.e. to know precisely the role carried out by each one of the proteins.

CIC bioGUNE is the scientific body that is leading the HUPO work at the level of the State (of Spain) and, at the same time it is actively participating in the Human Liver Proteome Project (HLPP), an international research project on the proteins of the liver, within the framework of HUPO, involving a network of 17 scientific, biotechnological, centres and hospitals such as the Clínic de Barcelona and the Príncipe de Asturias hospital in Madrid, and which incorporates all the proteomic services within the Spanish State. This Spanish node is known as Proteored.

It is also participating in the HEPADIP project, representing the first attempt, at a European level, to undertake a research project on the liver and adipose tissue. In this respect, the most important project on Metabolic Syndrome financed by the EU has a budget of 12 million euros for the next five years.

The HEPADIP project consortium is made up of 26 members – belonging to 11 European countries -, 20 of the members being academic institutions and six small or medium-sized biotechnological businesses. The project is organised along lines of research wherein studies are being carried out on the biology of adipose tissue and the liver, on the integrated function of adipose tissue and the liver in the human organism, and on the genetics and clinical profile of metabolic syndrome in well-defined populations.
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Monday, February 05, 2007

De Juana Pleads For Peace

The news outlet Times On Line has published an article about Basque political prisoner Iñaki de Juana. The article has your typical header but once you get past it you will find interesting information. Here you have it:

Shackled and emaciated, Eta killer pleads for peace from his deathbed

Thomas Catan in Madrid

A convicted key member of Eta, the Basque separatist group, who is close to death after three months without eating, has called on the Spanish Government to resume talks to reach a peace deal.

In his first interview since embarking on a hunger strike 91 days ago, Iñaki de Juana Chaos said that he strongly backed the peace process, which stalled after Eta detonated a huge bomb at Barajas air-port, Madrid, on December 30. The blast destroyed a multi-storey car park, killed two people and shattered a nine-month ceasefire that the group had described as permanent.

Now the emaciated prisoner, a renowned hardliner viewed as a key figure in the peace process, has urged a fresh effort to solve the conflict. Even as he did so, 200,000 supporters of Eta victims marched in Madrid at the weekend, calling on José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, the Prime Minister, to resign for having entered into talks with Eta during its ceasefire.

“I am completely in agreement with the democratic process of dialogue and negotiation . . . to resolve the political conflict between the Basque region and the French and Spanish states,” de Juana told The Times from his secure hospital room in Madrid, where he is being force-fed by authorities. “After the event at Barajas . . . resolution of the conflict is more necessary than ever,” he said in written answers.

For the Spanish Government, de Juana’s protest over his continued detention, two years after completing his sentence, is a growing political nightmare. With doctors cautioning that de Juana could die in days or weeks, Mr Zapatero’s Government is braced for what could be its deepest crisis since it took power in 2004.

The case, which recalls Bobby Sands’s fatal IRA hunger strike in 1981, has faced the Spanish Socialist Government with a dilemma. If he dies, de Juana will become a martyr to the Basque independence movement. Some fear that Eta could use his death to justify a renewed bombing campaign, and there are reports that the group has already been eyeing tourist spots for future attacks. But if the Government allows him to serve out a reduced sentence at home, as some judges advocate, it will provoke an outcry on the Right, only three months away from important local elections. Even if he were allowed home, it is far from certain that de Juana would survive. He said in his interview that he would not abandon his protest for anything short of unconditional freedom.

“I would not have abandoned the hunger strike in exchange for a reduced sentence. The only acceptable alternative is complete liberty and an end to the brutal attacks on freedom of expression that this legal process implies,” he said.

De Juana was sentenced in 1987 to 3,000 years in jail for his part in 25 deaths, including machinegunning a car containing three soldiers, murdering a rear-admiral and planting a car bomb that killed 12 military policemen. Under sentencing guidelines then in force he had to serve only 18 years and was due to be freed in 2004. The Government, fearing a public outcry, unearthed two opinion articles that he had published in a Basque newspaper and charged him with making terrorist threats. Juan Fernando López Aguilar, the Justice Minister, promised to do “whatever is in our power to prevent these releases”, adding that the Government was working to “construct new charges” against Eta prisoners “like we did with de Juana Chaos”.

De Juana began a hunger strike last year but dropped it after 63 days when it looked as though the Government would seek a much-reduced sentence. Then a court gave him another 12 years and 7 months in jail, prompting him to restart his hunger strike. Legal experts have questioned the ruling. On Saturday the Association of European Democratic Lawyers said that the sentence was “an exceptional resolution of extraordinary harshness”.

Some fear that de Juana’s death could persuade others who remain in jail after their sentences have ended to follow suit, giving the 40-year conflict a new lease of life. Nine republican prisoners followed Bobby Sands in 1981; their deaths triggered a surge in IRA activity, fundraising and recruitment.

Despite his deteriorating condition, de Juana is in uncompromising mood. He expressed no remorse for his killings and said that he felt no responsibility for the tumult that his death could cause. “Can you blame the repressed for the actions of the repressor? Can you blame the violated for the actions of the violator?” he asked, rhetorically. Faced with the prospect of his own demise, he was contemplative. His mother died a week ago and doctors say that he could experience “sudden death” any day.

“Not being able to live a normal life is very hard. Only those of us who have experienced it can understand it,” he said. “So that it is not repeated, the roots of the conflict must be addressed.”

De Juana Chaos

Age 51

Height 5ft 8in (173cm)

Normal weight 14st 8lb (80kg)

Current weight 8st 3lb

Hunger strike 91 days

Previous strike 63 days

Arrested 1987

Convicted of 25 deaths

Sentenced to 3,000 years in prison, but was to serve only 18 years. Completed officially in October 2004

New sentence (November 2006) 12 years, 7 months, for publishing two opinion articles in a newspaper.


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Saturday, February 03, 2007

Milakabilaka Rally

This note comes to us thanks to EITb:

Politics

"Dialogue, respect and peace"

Thousands rally in Bilbao Milakabilaka rally

02/03/2007

Prominent members of several fields of the Basque society and political parties attended a silent rally for peace called by an association in favour of peace and dialogue in the Basque Country.

Thousands of people attended a silent rally in the Basque city of Bilbao calling for dialogue, respect and peace in the Basque Country. People attending the rally included several prominent members of several fields of the Basque society such as writers Joan Mari Irigoien and Hasier Etxeberria, former Athletic Club Bilbao goalkeeper Jose Angel Iribar, representatives from the nationalist political parties EHAK, Batasuna, EA and Aralar and members of the trade unions ELA and LAB.

The protestors assembled at the well-known Guggenheim museum and marched until the area known as Paseo de Uribitarte. Some boats followed the protestors along the river including one of them led by the Basque skipper Jose Luis Korta.

The rally was called by Milakabilaka, an association in favour of peace and dialogue in the Basque Country. A bus will visit all the Basque cities and towns taking photographs of all the people who want to join Milakabilaka.


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Friday, February 02, 2007

Bizkaia's Coast

This post is an invitation to visit Euskal Herria and travel up and down the coast of Bizkaia. The information comes to us thanks to EITb:

Routes

Landscape full of contrasts

The Basque Coast in Bizkaia: A coast full of surprises

02/02/2007

Mundaka is the destination of surfers all over the world who come to surf the best left hand wave in Europe.

The winding coast of Bizkaia is dotted with small fishing villages and jagged coves that make up a landscape full of contrasts. Beaches, harbours and cliffs merge into the nearby summits along the whole length of the Basque coast. From Bakio to Sukarrieta, the route is full of visual surprises.

To get from Bilbao to Sukarrieta, we must take the road towards Mungia and continue on towards Bermeo. 5 km down the road is the turnoff for Bakio, the cradle of Bizkaia's txakoli. This town, a local tourist destination, has a long beach which is packed with beachgoers during the summer months.

The coast road takes us to the beautiful view of the San Juan de Gaztelugatxe promontory. This rocky island, which is joined to the mainland by a small bridge, together with the hermitage on the top, is a nearly sacred place for many Bizkaians. A little bit further down the road we arrive at the lighthouse and Cape Matxitxako.

The town of Bermeo, with its gothic church of Santa Eufemia, the Medieval Ercilla tower, and the port, is one of the most important towns along the coast. It has a lively street atmosphere and excellent restaurants, which are two of many good reasons to visit the town.

Just a couple of kilometres down the road is Mundaka. The view from the Atalaya or vantage point is one of the most beautiful and relaxing in the whole of Bizkaia: the mouth of the Urdaibai estuary, merging into the ocean,and Izaro island on the horizon. This symbiosis originates the best left hand wave in Europe, which attracts many surfers from around the world.

The same view can be contemplated from Portuondo lookout, on the road to Pedernales-Sukarrieta, which is the next town down the coast. This secluded place has a few and beautiful caves on the banks of the estuary. Each valley, each fishing port, each of the summits in the Basque Country is yet another beautiful spot to be discovered.


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Scarecrows and Jokes

Carnival season in Euskal Herria is upon us, here you have a note regarding some Basque traditions via EITb:

Fiestas & traditions

History of Carnival

Basque Carnivals: scarecrows and jokes

02/02/2007

Nights between the winter and summer solstices were long in the Basque farmhouses. They needed to include several festivities to make winter a more bearable season. That is how Carnival was born.

The history of Carnival feasts goes back to the Roman Saturnalia and Lupercalia feasts and to the Christian-Pagan celebrations. Winter nights were very long and people had to include feasts in between to reduce the rigours of winter. They also coincide with nature’s awakening, so there were feasts related to the land too.

In our farmhouses, besides thanking –with the tithe- nature for its gifts, people tried to protect from birds when the land was being sown. Therefore, they created the ‘scarecrows’ (txorimaloak in Basque language) with old things so that the birds did not destroy the crops. Moreover, like those ‘bird scarers’ decorated with feathers of birds of prey and colourful handkerchiefs, the Carnival disguises were born.

Later, people used those same disguises to criticise the authorities and to make fun of their unfair actions. The parishioners put the clerical authority, the serfdom, and the attitude of their masters in question; the young people of marriageable age protested about the artificial shapes of each sex, so men disguised themselves as women and women as men. This was the feast.

Carnival disguised as spring

More than 400 hundred years have passed since the beginning of Carnival in Tolosa, one of the most prominent Carnivals in the Basque Country. However, it has had to ‘disguise’ itself some times. Throughout four decades, during Franco’s dictatorship, the town celebrated the Spring Feasts –in the middle of winter!-. That was how the people from Tolosa camouflaged this Carnival, and no authority dared to stop it.

For the pro-Franco morality, Carnival feasts were too carnal, given to freedom and licentiousness, so they were banned. Nevertheless, the people from Tolosa, faithful to Carnival, knew how to run this prohibition thanks to this ’spring disguise’.


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Thursday, February 01, 2007

Bidart Free

The news about the release of Filipe Bidart come to us via EITb:

Politics

Defence's appeal accepted

Former leader of Basque armed group Philippe Bidart on parole

02/01/2007

The former member of Iparretarrak (northerners in Basque) will be released on parole on February 14 after serving 19 years in prison, as his lawyer confirmed for the radio station Euskadi Irratia.

The court that reviews sentences in Paris accepted the appeal brought by Philippe Bidart's defence and ordered to release the former leader of the Basque armed band Iparretarrak (northerners) on parole on February 14. He will be under police surveillance until 2014, as his lawyer Filipe Aramendi informed Euskadi Irratia.

Late February would mark 19 years in prison for Bidart, even if French Law contemplates the release of any prisoner on parole after serving 17 years.

This is the fourth time a court revises Bidart's case. The first request for parole was rejected, as well as an appeal following the rejection. The second request on October 2006 was rejected again, but now the court that revises sentences changed its mind, against prosecutor's opinion.

The parole petition was backed by 3,000 signatures, among them 120 from holders of public office in the Basque provinces within the French State, and a NGO that helps migrants. The NGO guaranteed an indefinite contract and shelter for Bidart in Beziers.

The former Iparretarrak leader was arrested in 1988 and sentenced to life imprisonment twice for the murder of two policemen and a gendarme.


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Peace Networks

This note comes to us via EITb:

Politics

Training project

Govt, towns and Peace Centre to devise social network for peace

02/01/2007

The Basque premier affirmed that "today more than ever, it makes sense to keep every channel in the search for peace open." The plan wants to train 2,500 people as "agents for reconciliation."

The Basque premier, Juan Jose Ibarretxe, affirmed that "today more than ever, it makes sense to keep all channels open to develop our work" in the search for peace, and noted the necessity to build a "social network that soften falls."

That is why the Basque Government, the Association of Basque Municipalities Eudel and the Peace Centre Baketik signed an agreement for the project "Bider Mila" that aims at spreading "a social culture for coexistence and reconciliation."

The agreement, signed by Ibarretxe, the president of Eudel Karmelo Sainz de la Maza, and the president of the Peace Centre Arantzazu Baketik Jose Mari Arregi, is worth 80,000 euros and wants to create a "social network for coexistence and reconciliation" through training courses on ethical management of conflicts. 1,685 people have already signed up for the courses.

The Basque premier explained that this kind of initiative, contemplated in the Peace and Coexistence Plan of the Basque Government, "makes sense today more than ever." Ibarretxe highlighted that "reconciliation and coexistence are not oblivion, but a critical interpretation to learn from the past."

Ibarretxe thinks that this kind of project is necessary, as society must get involved to win peace and coexistence. With regard to the situation arising from ETA's latest attack in Madrid, he noted that he won't let Basque society "fall into despair."

"In the previous processes, we fell once and again deep into the well. That can't be admitted. It's essential to have a social network that soften falls, that helps us stand up every time we fall down, not to go back to our destructive past," he added.

In turn, Sainz de la Maza assured that "making a modern Spain in peace means to make a country of values," and he estimated this aim must be the "priority" of every politician. That is why he recommended turning to "dialogue, respect and tolerance."

Aim to train 2,500 people

From Baketik, Jonan Fernandez explained that the agreement could help to enlarge the programme and the field of the courses of the foundation, in which, as he said, 1,685 people have already signed up. Thus, Baketik hopes that from 2,000 to 2,500 people take part in these training programmes throughout this year.

The regional Government will give 60,000 of the 80,000 euros worth the agreement, and Eudel 20,000.

The agreement states the compromise to train more than 1,000 people as reconciliation agents in 15 months in courses on ethical management of conflicts.


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