Newsletter Nº 11

July 2006

Spanish Language & Cultural School

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In a joint press note disseminated by Peru’s and Singapore’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry last 19th June, both declared the wrapping up of the second round of negotiations on a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the Asian nation and the American nation, that was held in Lima between 12th and 16th June.

This FTA, which could be finalised after the third round of negotiations planned for August or September in the city-State, has already cleared the conversations on health regulations.

The negotiations began in Singapore on 14th February last year after a meeting between Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo and Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in November 2004 during the forum on Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC).

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The free Trade Agreement (FTA) signed between Panama and the Republic of Singapore last March and ratified by the Panamanian Parliament of 25th of May, came into force on the first of July the President of Panama Martín Torrijos informed at the end of June.

This FTA is the second signed by the central American country with an Asian country, after the one negotiated with Taiwan in 2004.

The agreement, apart from including a section for the exchange of goods, also covers the services and investments areas that both sides are trying to promote.

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The renowned diplomat João Gualberto Marques Porto, Brazil’s Ambassador to Singapore since August 2003 will leave the city-State on the first of August to return to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of his country.

Under Marques Porto’s management the economic operations between his country and the city-State surged and have generated a significant commercial exchange that resulted in a growth by 69% of bilateral trade. On the other hand, the presence of Brazilian companies in Singapore has increased steadily and so has the presence of Singaporean companies in Brazil, where I.E. Singapore recently inaugurated its biggest headquarters in Latin America. In the cultural arena, the diplomatic mission headed by Marques Porto has supported the creation of the Festival of Brazilian Cinema as well as the presence of several Brazilian artists in Singapore, for example Ana Caram, Gilberto Gil, Bebel Gilberto and guitar players Carlos Barbosa-Lima and Fabio Zanon. Marques Porto has always defended that the diplomatic task is of a multidisciplinary nature and consists of a wide range of activities. Efforts must be made in every field in order to ensure a greater awareness of all Singapore media of the meaning of Brazil and the perspectives that this country is able to provide.

Mr Paulo Alberto da Silveira will succeed him in that position, even though the exact date of his arrival in the island is not yet known.

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Wine Arcade presented its “Spanish Treat”

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Telecommunications fair CommunicAsia, one of the principal events that takes place in Singapore on a yearly basis, gathered on its sixth edition a total of twenty Spanish companies, most of which participated in the Spanish pavilion of BroadcastAsia.

CommunicAsia included from 20th-23rd June three main events: BroadcastAsia, CommunicAsia and EnterpriseIT, apart from workshops, forums and conferences. Over 2,300 companies from 67 countries participated in the fair, including Chile and Argentina with one company each.

The European Union presented for the first time ever a single communitarian pavilion that gathered several projects co-financed by the Union itself, ranging from Health, Government and electronic security to audio-visual and telecommunications.

Under its umbrella, the Pompeu Fabra University and two Spanish companies showed their breakthroughs in intelligent music interaction and projects based on semantics and Bluetooth.

On the other hand, this event was used as a springboard to launch the forum on information technologies and communication “EUSEA2006” among the EU and the Association of South East Asia Nations (ASEAN) with the goal, amongst others, of promoting scientific interchange between those two regions and of easing Asian regulations on telecommunications matters.

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The festival Viva Cuba, organised by The Cathay and with Las Lilas School collaboration in the design of the programme with an offer of Spanish language workshops, has obtained a greater than expected turnout and the cinema series has been extended for an additional week with respect to the original agenda. At the same time, the poster exhibition that will begin on the first week of July will be extended until 20th August. Edith Aurrecoechea, teacher of Spanish for foreigners at Las Lilas School, was in charge of structuring both language workshops that gathered over ninety people, most of whom had no knowledge of Spanish at all. Aurrecoechea considered the turnout of participants as “successful” given the good predisposition it started with. The workshops focused on vocabulary and basic dialogue for socialisation. At the end of the lesson, some of the attendants put what they had just learnt right into practice and invited their class mates to dance. Elisabet Maseras, also a teacher at Las Lilas School academic centre, took advantage of the Cuban cinema festival together with her pupils and gave a lesson on improving Spanish based on one of the projections. Among the six movies shown, Fresa y chocolate, of Tomás Gutiérrez Alea and Juan Carlos Tabío and Yo soy Cuba, of Mikheil Kalatozishvili, were the ones with the best response from the public. Also included were: Viva Cuba, of Juan Carlos Cremata; La vida es silbar, of Fernando Pérez; Lucía, of Humberto Solas and Memorias del subdesarrollo, also by Gutiérrez Alea. Cathay’s offer, apart from the cinema series and the Spanish language workshop, also included a lecture on Cuban cinema by Cuba’s Ambassador to Malaysia, Pedro Monzón, music performances, Cuban dances by the groups Cubania, Ritmo Latino and sessions on “how to drink like a Cuban” and “how to spend money like a Cuban”.

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Singapore’s Art Festival, which celebrated its 20th edition this year, had amongst its attendants the Hispano-Argentinean company Pujal and Brazil’s Philarmonia Brasileira.

The event ran for almost four weeks (1st to 25th July) and offered a wide range of shows -ranging from classical to experimental- and also included workshops, debates, photograph exhibitions and performances for the younger ones.

Philarmonia Brasileira collaborated with British Station House Opera and Singapore’s TheatreWorks, in the theatre play Play on Earth, which was a blockbuster in Singapore despite the inconvenient timetables of the programme.

On the other hand, musicians and acrobats of Pujal were responsible for drawing the curtain on the Festival and they did so in Choa Chu Kang Drive, an open space, and before a multitude of spectators, some of which –mainly youngsters- were taken aback by the stage play of those eighteen artists.

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Text and photographs courtesy of Tourism of Navarra www.turismo.navarra.es

We have to go to Pamplona…for the Sanfermines…

From 6th to 14th July, the word “fiesta” will be written in capital letters in Pamplona. The Sanfermines are already here. When the “chupinazo” (big banger) goes off, the city turns into an outburst of life. It is flooded with thousands of people from around the world that tint it in white and red. The streets witness for a few days an explosion of brotherhood, happiness, music and non-stop fun to the beat of charangas and peñas.

The running of the bulls is the only time of the day that the fiesta comes to a standstill. Tension builds up minutes before the bulls start running after the runners. An explosion of feelings that ends at the bull ring. The party goes on with the “caldico” (wine), chocolate with “churros” (fritters), giants and figures with huge heads, the aperitif, the bullfight or fireworks that lead to the excitement of the night.

Basic guide to the Sanfermines…

The origins of the festivities of “Saint Fermín” go back to the Middle Age and they are related to three celebrations: the religious actions to honour San Fermín, intensified since the 12th century, the commercial fairs and the bullfights, which are already documented in the 14th century. In the beginning, the Saint day of San Fermín was celebrated every 10th of August. However, in 1591, the people who lived in Pamplona, unhappy with the lousy weather, decided to move the original date to July and make it coincide with the fair. So were the Sanfermines born. The very first edition lasted two entire days and they had a hawker’s cry, music, tournament, theatre and bullfights. Afterwards, other activities were added, such as fireworks and dances and the festivities were extended until the 10th of July.

The chronicles of the 17th and 18th centuries speak about religious activities together with musicians, dancers, giants, acrobats, running of the bulls and a worried clergy due to the abusive drinking and the libertine attitude of young boys and girls. They also tell about the presence of peoples from other parts that with their shows “made the city even funnier”. For example, during the 19th century there were curious attractions such as the cannon girl, exotic animals or wax figurines. On the other hand, the absence of a double fence made it possible in numerous occasions for bulls to run loose in the streets of the city.

In the 20th century, the Sanfermines achieved their peak in popularity. The novel “The sun also rises” written by Ernest Hemingway in 1926 encouraged people from around the world to participate in Pamplona’s festivities. Besides, during that last century, new elements like the Riau-Riau were incorporated –suspended since 1991-, the “Chupinazo” or the cultural agenda.

San Fermín, patron of Pamplona The cult to San Fermín in Pamplona started before the Sanfermines were celebrated and his image is still the centre of this universal fiesta. Tradition has it that a priest that went by the name of Honest reached the Roman Pamplona in the 3rd century sent by Saint Saturnine to evangelise it. Senator Firmo converted to Christianity along with his whole family. His son Fermín was christened by Saint Saturnine in the place that is nowadays known as the “little well of Saint Cernin” and ordained as a priest in Toulouse (France). He came back to Pamplona as bishop and was beheaded in Amiens where he baptised over three thousand people.

According to tradition, Saint Fermín was the very first bishop of Pamplona event though the cult is not recorded until the 12th century, imported from Amiens, where he had been present in the litanies since the 8th century. Currently he is co-patron of Navarra together with Saint Francisco Javier and he is the patron of the guilds of wineskin manufacturers, wine makers and bakers.

The “chupinazo”, the prelude of the party The firecracker that marks the beginning of the festivities of San Fermín is known as the “chupinazo”. At 12 o’clock on the dot on the 6th of July, thousands of people gather in the square in front of the Town hall until it is full to the brim. With an emotion accompanied by chants, screams and vivas, the crowd in white and red awaits for a member of the municipal corporation to light the fuse of the banger. To the scream “People from Pamplona, long-live San Fermín” a vibration is set lose and thousands of red handkerchiefs wave in the air welcoming nine days of incomparable fiesta.

The procession

On the 7th of July, Saint Fermín’s day, at 10 o’clock in the morning, there is a massive procession that is very dear to the inhabitants of Pamplona. Along with the civil and religious authorities, a crowd accompanies a statue of the Saint through the streets of the old part of the city. It is the time for tradition and devotion. The image venerated is a wooden carving of the 15th century covered with silver in 1687. On the oval in the chest lay the relics of Saint Fermín.

Giants and huge-headed figures Known as the Group of Giants and the Hge-headed, it represents a court of Kings preceded by an escort of huge-headed figures, “kilikis” (they represent the council and their mission is to frighten and to entertain the people) and “zaldikos” (horse in basque). A total of 25 figurines in papier mâché that run through the centre of the city every morning. The giants are the oldest figures of them all. They date back to 1850 and on top of the dancer, they reach 4.20 metres and a weight of 59-64 kilos. They consist of four pairs of King-Queen representing America, Africa, Europe and Asia and the sing to the sound of the “txistu” (flute) and the tambourines.

Poor me…

It is the last official act of the festivities. The inhabitants of Pamplona, provided with candles, gather on the 14th of July at 12 o’clock at night in the square of the Town hall to say farewell to the festivities and to start the countdown to the next Sanfermines.
The major, from the balcony of the Town hall, officially concludes the festivities and summons everybody to take place in next year’s fiesta while crackers are fired from the adjoining Square of Burgos. Even if this is the last official act, the atmosphere and the fiesta go on throughout the night.

The song “Poor me” got its name from the tune that is sung throughout the night. “Poor me, poor me, they are over, the festivities of San Fermín”.

Spanish Tourist Office in Singapore
541, Orchard Road #09-04 Liat Towers
Singapore 238881
Tel: (65) 6737 3008 / Fax: (65) 6737 3173
http://www.spain.info