Can't argue with your resoluteness and I do coincide with most of what you say albeit with minor subtle semantic or grammatical differences (i.e. I myself don't "refuse" "to let present situations" or people define me, I simply "don't" whenever I am able to - the word "refuse" arouses feelings of a determined struggle in me, but I still do get rattled by the occasional crazy person you come across in life: the crank, heckler, troll, hacker, criminal, un-cooperative civil servant, etc.), but in the end I feel the same way as you about that and self-improvement. I also concur that every single job I've gotten has been paid better than the last one. I do, however, have a more cynical (believing or showing the belief that people are motivated chiefly by base or selfish concerns - by the way, I do believe there are plenty of very good people around - i.e. a bell curve) or even skeptically negative view about the ability of humanity to deal with certain incredibly complex problems like the economy, over-population, wars (there are several going on around the world as I write), energy, pandemias and global warming. (La alegría de la fiesta
) In other words, I don't believe our leaders are necessarily very well equipped to deal with these (recent events bear this out). What I'm saying basically is that we both live in a world which is far larger and more ruthlessly complex than either of us and which does define us whether we like it or not, and we are stronger the more we are aware of that because these definitions will often limit us whether we let them or not - realistically speaking, this means that the sky is not the limit for me (i.e. the ares, shoulds, can'ts, have tos and haves - you are this, you should do this, you can't do this, you have to do that, and most importantly you have this much money - real economic limitations are "la leche" - basically, this means that because you need money you have to appear to be something particular to work in any company, 99.9% of which are not democratic in nature and which would object strongly to even slight deviations such as leaving your hair too long or wearing a tie-dye t-shirt and flip-flops to work) Adaptability is a necessary survival trait in a rapidly changing world and it depends on this knowledge. Too much change is stressful, however, and we all like to feel as comfortable as possible in our own skins. In other words, I don't mind that others define me to be one thing or another (couldn't stop them if I wanted to) and I would just as soon go along with them most of the time. Being different takes time and effort, in other words, and I'd just as soon reserve that for my creativity: class prepping, writing, website, etc. My main idea has something to do with niche theory I suppose.
Regarding the economy, I think demand was red-hot last year so even a drop of 15% or a bit more might go largely unnoticed this year. Again, I think we have to wait a few months yet to see what this is all going to lead to. I'm not an economist, but there are plenty out there who are quite aghast at the ominous panorama. Can't say I'm too impressed with the "science" of Economics anyway given how few economists predicted the meltdown, so my guess is as good as theirs. So, here's my "coin-toss" guess, I think it's going to get a little worse this spring and perhaps in the fall before it gets better again. However, teachers are still going to find work out there, just not as much of it as last year. Also, I do seem to have to distinguish between quality well-paid work and other stuff whenever I write as I'm not at all interested in the latter. It reminds me of so-called "TEFL courses" that guarantee teaching work, while the only wothwhile guarantee in my book would have to stipulate "well-paid."
We may be on a different wavelength regarding the economy, but I'm not making this depressing stuff up; Here's an interesting report on the Economist.com ( http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12932336 ). It's titled "World Economy - Accelerating downhill." Have a look around at the business and financial sections in the past two or three months of issues unless you don't want to get seriously depressed. I'm not a masochist, but I do have to swallow this sh#t for my business English students, who, like most academy owners, are on a different "business-oriented" wavelength than teachers - and they're probably paying more attention to the business and economy pages than we are. The Economist asked one famously vociferous economist to predict what he thought would happen with the economy and he said, "I don't know". There's nothing like an economic meltdown to instill a little humility - and fear - all around.
Ok. So I had a look around the internet for reports about the economy in Spain. Basically, although the banks in Spain are strong, there has been a "financial crisis" plus a mega-crash in Real Estate sector. Apparently, the automotive sector has been hit especially hard as well, but generally speaking all sectors are falling.
Wikipedia.com: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Spain#Current_events:_a_downward_scenario" target="_blank">Economy of Spain - Current Events - A downward scenario[/url].
FistFulofEuros.net: <a href="http://fistfulofeuros.net/afoe/economics-and-demography/everything-but-the-sky-falls-in-on-spain/" target="_blank">Everything but the sky falls in on Spain[/url] - interesting blog entry.
Economist.com: <a href="
http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12867320" target="_blank">Spain's unemployment - Longer dole queues[/url] - The social consequences of fast-rising job losses.
Europapress.es: <a href="
http://www.europapress.es/economia/noticia-paro-rompe-barrera-tres-millones-sumar-casi-millon-nuevos-desempleados-2008-20090108090231.html" target="_blank">Paro rompe barrera 3,000,000[/url] - 3,128,963 unemployed in Spain by December of 2008. Including <a href="
http://www.inmodiario.com/11/2457/el-ajuste-construccion-se-ha-cobrado-medio-millon-empleos-2008.html" target="_blank">500,000[/url] in construction.
ElPais.com: <a href="
http://www.elpais.com/articulo/economia/Bruselas/augura/Espana/tasa/paro/2010/elpepieco/20090120elpepieco_2/Tes" target="_blank">Bruselas augura para España una tasa de paro del 19% en 2010 [/url] - Brussels predicts an unemployment rate of 19% for Spain in 2010. The Spanish government predicts 15,9% in 2009 and 15,7% in 2010. In my opinion, the Spanish government tends to err in its own favor in its predictions. Brussels expects the "crisis" to last a bit longer in Spain due to the constructions sector's problems.
France24.com:
FAES preve supere 4,000,000 parados en 2009 - Predictions are that unemployment will rise to 4,000,000. The government predicts 600,000 more unemployed.
France24.com:
Standard &; Poor Downgrades Spain's Debt Rating - Spain is facing its deepest recession in decades.
Here's something more sobering from the Economist.com:
Spain's new unemployed
- And worse to comeLastly, this new article by Janice Haywood, Director of Windsor Idiomas in Madrid:
A Turnaround in the Madrid Market.
By the way, I can't say I'm a peaceful sleeper myself. I'm an anxious worrier type and most of my "eureka" moments come to me either in my sleep, in the metro or in the shower. Not that that's important, but I just thought I'd mention it since we're waxing philosophical.
MadridTeacher
http://www.madridteacher.com
