Apolitical Intellectuals

by Otto Rene Castillo

One day
the apolitical
intellectuals
of my country
will be interrogated
by the simplest
of our people.

They will be asked
what they did
when their nation died out
slowly,
like a sweet fire
small and alone.

No one will ask them
about their dress,
their long siestas
after lunch,
no one will want to know
about their sterile combats
with "the idea
of the nothing"
no one will care about
their higher financial learning.

They won't be questioned
on Greek mythology,
or regarding their self-disgust
when someone within them
begins to die
the coward's death.

They'll be asked nothing
about their absurd
justifications,
born in the shadow
of the total life.

On that day
the simple men will come.

Those who had no place
in the books and poems
of the apolitical intellectuals,
but daily delivered
their bread and milk,
their tortillas and eggs,
those who drove their cars,
who cared for their dogs and gardens
and worked for them,
and they'll ask:

"What did you do when the poor
suffered, when tenderness
and life
burned out of them?"

Apolitical intellectuals
of my sweet country,
you will not be able to answer.

A vulture of silence
will eat your gut.

Your own misery
will pick at your soul.

And you will be mute in your shame.

---

Biography

Otto Rene Castillo, born 1936, was a Guatemalan revolutionary, a guerilla fighter, and a poet.

Following the 1954 CIA-sponsored coup that overthrew the democratic Arbenz government, Castillo went into exile in El Salvador, where he met Roque Dalton and other writers who helped him publish his early works.

When the dictator Armas died in 1957 he returned to Guatemala and in 1959 went to the German Democratic Republic to study, where he received a Masters degree.

Castillo returned to Guatemala in 1964 and became active in the Workers Party, founded the Experimental Theater of the Capital City Municipality, and wrote and published numerous poems. That same year, he was arrested but managed to escape, going into exile once again, this time in Europe.

Later that year he went back to Guatemala secretly and joined one of the armed guerilla movements operating in the Zacapa mountains. In 1967, Castillo and other revolutionary fighters were captured; he, along with his comrades and some local campesinos, were brutally tortured and then burned alive .

Bisdak joke

DAD:Anak, bili mo ko softdrink
ANAK: Coke o pepsi?
DAD: Coke
ANAK: Diet o regular?
DAD: Regular
ANAK: Bote o can?
DAD: Bote
ANAK: 8 oz o litro?
DAD: PUNYETA! Tubig na lang!
ANAK: Natural o mineral?
DAD: Mineral...
ANAK: Bugnaw o dili?
DAD: Lambusan ta man ka aning silhig ron...
ANAK: Lanot o tukog?
DAD: Animal man siguro ka!
ANAK: Baka o baboy?
DAD: Layas!
ANAK: Karun o ugma?
(Ang DAD na lang tingali ang milayas...)

Puzzles and mathematics

1. Three people decided to eat some ensaymada together. Andy brought 3 pieces, Belen 5 pieces, and Carlos none. All the ensaymada were identical. And all were eaten, each person eating an equal amount. Because Carlos had not brought any ensaymada he calculated his share (1/3 of expenses) and contributed 4 pesos. How should Andy and Belen divide the 4 pesos?


2. The sum of an odd number of consecutive odd numbers beginning from 1 to N. Show that the sum of the first and last numbers is 2/√N.


3. Twenty-one identical soft drink cases are to be loaded onto three carts. Seven of the cases are empty, 7 of the cases are full of softdrink bottles, and 7 are half full of soft drink bottles. The soft drink bottles are all identical, and therefore have equal weights. How can all these be loaded so that the weights are equally distributed among the three carts and without transferring any of the bottles from one case to another?


4. A rectangular sheet of paper 30 cm x 40 cm is folded so that one corner is placed on the diagonally opposite corner as in the figure below. How long is the resulting fold?
   
   
   


5. The number 30 can be expressed as the sum of one or more consecutive positive integers in these 4 ways:
   
   30; 6+7+8+9; 9+10+11; 4+5+6+7+8;
   
   Express 240 as sum of consecutive positive integers in as many ways as possible.


6. In the figure the triangles OAB and OPQ are similar with angles A and P congruent. If OA/OQ = 3 and OB/OP = 2, then AB/PQ = ?
   
   
   


7. A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H are the vertices (in order) of a regular octagon. The diagonals AD and BH cross at I. How large is angle BID?


8. From a large cardboard circle four touching circles were cut out as shown. The two larger circles are congruent, and the two smaller circles are congruent. After cutting out the four circles, what part of the cardboard was left?
   
   
   


9. Let A be a two-digit integer and let B be a two-digit integer whose digits are the same as those of A but in the reverse order. Find A so that A²-B² is a perfect square.


10. A small square is cut out from the corner of a large square, leaving a L-shape. Given that the side lengths of both the squares are whole numbers in centimeters, and that the L-shape has area 60 cm², how many possible values are there for the area of the original large square?


11. If x is a real number such that x²+2x-7>0, show that (x²+34x-71)/(x²+2x-7)≤5.


12. Show that the product of any three consecutive integers is divisible by 3.


13. If a and b are integers and b is odd, show that x²+2ax+2b=0 has no rational root.


14. Determine the radius of the largest circle that can be drawn inside a quarter-circle of radius r.


15. In the figure, points C and F are on sides AD and EG respectively. Show that that area of parallelogram ADFB is equal to that of parallelogram BCGE.
    
    

3D street art

Julian Beever is an English artist who's famous for his art on the pavement of England, France, Germany, USA, and Belgium. His images are drawn to give a 3D image when viewed at the right angle. See for yourself! It's amazing !!!