LAS LENGUAS INGLESA Y ESPAÑOLA de Delfín Carbonell

  For whatever it´s worth, I feel compelled today to express my chagrin and sadness at what a European country, Ukraine, is going through. A senseless invasion that is showing the dark side of human nature because, believe it or not, the invaders are human beings, not aliens from another planet, who are inflicting harm and loss of life upon a civilian population. I have often said that I am naïve, and I thought Europeans were above inflicting such horrors upon one another, as they have done in the past, for centuries.  I am appalled and feel diminished, and I can only quote, as I have done so many times, John Donne:  No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as any manner of thy friends or of thine own were; any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind. And therefore never send to know for whom the bell...

I have expressed my dislike for the English many times. I have no liking for the English at large, for private reasons. I say English, not British, mind you. And yet, a paradox, I admire them. They have character traits that leave me in awe: they have a boundless curiosity for everything, they have discipline, they are hardworking, they have created the best universities and scholars in the world, a wonderful educational system, the Oxford English Dictionary , a riveting literature, and the language. What else could we ask for? Today is a sad day because the English are leaving the European Union, and dragging Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland along with them. A pity. We cannot congratulate ourselves. Today Europe is the less, as John Donne put it: "... every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less..."