G U A R A N I News

Paraguays Only English Weekly Magazine

Founded on 21 October 1982
Sent FREE through E-Mail as a Bulletin since January 2001

Publisher/Editor: Norman M. Langer

N 309. Friday, December 8, 2006
Our Cellular Telephone Number: for international calls
+(595-991) 724-217
for local calls 0991-724-217 E-Mail:
stranger@highway.com.py
You are welcome to visit our web site: strangers.com.py
theres always something new

In this Issue
From the Publisher
People in the News - Coming Events Church Notices
News from France
History of the Cannes Film Festival (Part 1 of 3)
Japan Today The Twenty-First Japan Prize (Part 2 of 3)
The Humour Corner
by Eduardo Teddy Abello & Donald Sym Smith
MAIL BAG
Guaran News PICTURE GALLERY
All rights reserved. No part of GUARANI NEWS may be reproduced without
permission from the Publisher. Opinions expressed by named authors do not
necessarily coincide with those of the Editor. The Editor will review any submission;
however no responsibility is assumed for materials submitted. If you wish to be
removed from our listing, send E-mail to stranger@highway.com.py with the title
REMOVE and accept our apologies.

From the Publisher...

Our most humble apologies...
For what to all extents and purposes became a real cock-up
(pardon the expression) when sending out last weeks edition. A
very high percentage of our readers in Paraguay, as well as quite
a few from abroad, had to be inconvenienced by having to receive
a second mailing due to what we can only suppose was due to a
foul-up in which our own Internet server together with other local
servers and their subcontracted server Tigo failed miserably in
getting their act together. To heap injury to injustice those readers
who did manage to get their copy, and tried opening our web
site, had to view the entire edition which in order to placate the
irate readers who did not receive a copy I managed on the spur
of the moment to transfer to said site. Yes, a right cock-up and
please accept my humble apologies.
When activating our web site the purpose was to provide an
easier viewing of additional pictures which would otherwise slow
down the downloading via Outlook Express and more so for those
who happen to use free-bees: Yahoo, Hotmail, etc.
Dear Readers of the Guarani News
Fearing that not all our problems might be over: Would you
not all rather open up our web site every week via Internet
and peruse our full edition and which then can quite easily
be downloaded into a folder? I would send out a short notice
with no attachments informing readers the moment of the weekly
change. I am open to hearing your suggestions. For now I shall
continue sending the edition via Outlook Express letter, Word
attachment, or Acrobat Reader and insert extra pictures into our
web page: www.strangers.com.py

Stirring the pot.

It has been happening lately, and far too frequently, that when
I sit down for my evening meal my munching necessities, which
coincide with the new comedies being shown on certain TV
channels, I get fits of nausea and a great urge to spew. What it
boils down to, and this I find most disgusting and irritating and
really infuriating, is that in the act of filling my mouth I am
presented with TV ads in which a mum is seen kissing a babys
bum or Im urged to purchase certain items for my
vaginaSubjects that sure dont make for good digestion.
A Xmas Pantomime...
A la Paraguaya if I were to describe the outcome of the
latest developments regarding the British Community Council of
Paraguay, and to be more specific that pertaining to its Committee.
Our Mail Bag, to be found below, carries a members opinion on
just one such item.
It so happens that I was present, both as a paid-up Member
and in my job as a journalist for the Guarani News - only English
publication in this country since 1982 - at the Extraordinary
General Meeting convened by the Committee to discuss two items
placed on the Order of the Day.
As a Member of the BCC I presented the motion, after having
raised my hand and asked to be heard by the Chairman, by which
those present (23) should elect a Chairman and a Secretary. Now
this happened only after the Honorary Chairman, Dr. Guillermo
Peroni, Honorary Consul of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
and also a Member of the Committee had spoken for several
minutes without ceding the chair to Mr. Geoffrey Bishop, the

BCCs Chairman, who was sitting next to him on the podium.

My motion was not even announced and far less seconded.
The meeting thereafter became a shambles, as far as
conventional protocol demands, and before everyone adjourned
to the well-stocked bar, the Chairman announced that the Annual
British Community Christmas Dinner would be held on Thursday,
7 December, just 8 days later!! whilst the Extraordinary General
Meeting would be now convened for sometime next March. (Four
days later the Committee decided to cancel the Dinner for lack
of interest on the part of the members.)
It also turned out, and this from a comment made by a Member
on the floor, that the convening of the Meeting had not been
sufficiently circulated and far less published according to law.
I.e.: 5 consecutive days in a daily newspaper. The Guarani News
is not a daily although it did carry the announcement on three
consecutive weeks.
I did overhear what I felt at the time was a wee bit thick, but in
reconsidering quite apt: That Committee cant even raise a pissup in a brewery!! concludes one more act in Paraguays soon to
be continued Christmas Pantomime

So allow me now to wish you all a most

pleasant weekend
We know about Internet!
HIGHWAY INTERNET- Grupo Aventura.com
www.aventura.com.py
info@highway.com.py
Tel. 662-609

PEOPLE in the NEWS - COMING EVENTS

BIRTHDAYS
DECEMBER
13 SOUTH. Joe
14 GOLDING MACHADO, Richard
18 MARTIN, Antonio
23 HRH Emperor AKIHITO of Japan
27 SISUL, Dr. Juan Carlos
27 FITZGIBBON, Mara
28 QI, Wang Buenos Aires (Argentina)
TRIGO DEL SUR
English run B and B. Lovely house, pool, garden, a/c, and very
reasonable rates.
Tel: 602-389 or e-mail: joepeacock2001@yahoo.com

STRANGERS CLUB EXCURSION and LUNCHEON

The Strangers Club Asuncin announce that their second yearly
outing, on this occasion visiting the Eduardo Parini Estate that is
situated just before reaching Aregu, will take place on Saturday,
16 December. A 24-seater bus will depart from the Shopping
Del Sol Parking (topside) lot at 8:30 a.m. and take a break when
arriving in Luque where one can admire, and purchase beautiful
Christmas gifts consisting of silver and gold manufactured on the
spot by first-class artisans. The bus will then proceed to the Parini
Estate that overlooks the Ypacara Lake (a real mud-hole) where
there will be time for those who wish to take a dip in their
crystalline swimming pool before indulging in pre-lunch cocktails.

Lunch -Strangers Club 318th- is to consist of Grandmother Parinis

Italian speciality: a succulent variety of home made pastas that
will be topped off by a mouth-watering dessert.
There is no cost for the meal. To cover Transport to and from
Aregu and drinks Members Gs. 70,000 and Non members Gs.
90,000. Children under 15 Gs. 50,000.
Return is scheduled for 6 p.m. at the Shopping Del Sol in order
that attendees can take a nap before stepping out to indulge in
their Saturday nighttime pleasures.
We must have your reservations and payments a.s.a.p. due to the
limited seating still available on the bus.
Please call Norman Langer: 0991-724-217 or send an E-mail:
stranger@highway.com.py
Confirmed at the time of going to press. HE Ral dos Santos and
his wife Mirtha dos Santos; Viggo and Elizabeth Friling; John
Helmfelt; Margarita du Guerney; Mr. Mrs. Herbert Weise; Mr.
Mrs. Jean-Pierre Dufour and our hosts grandson Marco Parini.

CHURCH NOTICES
ST. ANDREWS ANGLICAN CHURCH - Avda. Espaa 1357
(near corner of General Santos) Services in English every Sunday
at 10:00 a.m. For further information, contact the Diocesan Office
Tel. 200-933.
CATHOLIC MASS IN ENGLISH
Chapel of the Fathers of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate.
Quesada 4365 c/ McArthur . Behind what used to be Diario
HOY). Every Sunday at 10:30 am.
Chaplain: Reverend. Robert Hopwood, C.S.S.R

Hotel WESTFALENHAUS
Tel. (021) 293-374 E-Mail: hotel@westfalenhaus.com
http://www.paraguay-aktuell.de-http://www.paraguayhotels.com http://www.paraguay-search.com - http://
www.paraguay-travel.de

NEWS FROM FRANCE

History of the Cannes Film Festival
(Part 1 of 3)

The Cannes Film Festival has come to be synonymous with

glamour and prestige. Its agreeable climate, appreciation for
cross-cultural art, and international reputation as a privileged
venue for filmmakers are only a few of its distinguishing
characteristics.
The festivals roots stem from a much more idealistic nature
than people often realize. The framework for the Cannes Film
Festival began in 1938 as a protest to the propaganda films
sweeping the most popular festivals of the time. French, British
and American jury members withdrew from Mostra di Venezia,
an Italian Film Festival, that gave its highest award to a Nazi
propaganda film by Joseph Goebbels. Later that year, critics and
filmmakers successfully established the Cannes Film Festival with
a goal of creating a festival free of political bias and censorship.
These leaders included Robert Favre Le Bret, who later became
the festivals longest serving president, and Louis Lumire, who
invented cinema with his brother in 1895.
The first festival held at Cannes began on September 1,1939,
but the outbreak of World War II prevented it from reaching its

conclusion. The next festival was not held until 1946, when it
included films from Walt Disney and Alfred Hitchcock. The
following year, the festival was supported by the new National
Centre for Cinematography (CNC). Cinema, and the celebration
of the art, was becoming increasingly important in France.
Source:
News from France French Embassy Press & Information Service
NEXT ISSUE:
History of the Cannes Film Festival (Part 2 of 3)
Maps, travel-guide books, postcards and CDs on Paraguay
For more details and information contact: Distribuidora Meier
through E-Mail: derparaguayer@uninet.com.py or Telefax (595-21)
301-084

JAPAN TODAY
The Twenty-First Japan Prize
(Part 2 of 3)
In 1961, when Nagao first began working with computers, the
computer was looked upon as a miraculous, omnipotent machine.
People expected that the computer of the future would be able to
perform processes just as complex as those of the human brain.
Nagao decided that he would try to make a computer capable of
translating languages. He studied linguistics as proposed by such
academics as the American linguistic scholars Noam Chomsky
and Charles Fillmore. With this background, Nagao attempted to
teach computers grammar, but the task turned out to be more
complicated than he had anticipated. No matter how much
grammar was programmed into the computer, the grammar rules
had to be modified each and every time there was an unusual

turn of phrase. A single basic rule simply did not get the job done.
So instead, Nagao asked what practical approach was used most
often around the world for learning a foreign language. His
answer? Wholesale memorization of common phrases. By
implementing this approach, Nagao was able to improve machine
translation to a practical level. His accomplishments did not stop
with machine translation, however. He has also performed
groundbreaking research in the field of image processing, and
since the 1990s, has been involved in the development of digital
library systems. The 21st Japan Prize was awarded to Nagao for
his pioneering work in technology so central to our modern
information-based society.
Source:
Asia-Pacific Perspective
Next issue:
The Twenty-First Japan Prize (Part 3 of 3)
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The Humour Corner

by Eduardo Teddy Abello & Donald Sym Smith
For our computer addicts
Home is where you hang your @.
The e-mail of the species is more deadly than the mail.
A journey of a thousand sites begins with a single click.

You cant teach a new mouse old clicks.

Great groups from little icons grow.
Speak softly and carry a cellular phone.
C: is the root of all directories.
Dont put all your hypes in one home page.
Pentium wise; pen and paper foolish.
The modem is the message.
Too many clicks spoil the browse.
The geek shall inherit the earth.
A chat has nine lives.
Dont byte off more than you can view.
Fax is stranger than fiction.
What boots up must come down.
Windows will never cease.
Virtual reality is its own reward.
Modulation in all things.
A user and his leisure time are soon parted.
Theres no place like home.com.
Know what to expect before you connect.
Oh, what a tangled website we weave when first we practice.
When intending a visit to Asuncin, we recommend you stay at the
HOTEL CHACO
Caballero / Mcal. Estigarribia - Tel. 492-066 E-mail:
info@hotelchaco.com.py

MAIL BAG
BBC Xmas Dinner
Sorry, but to claim lack of support amongst the British
Community Membership I find offensive.

In my personal opinion it is a very poor way of justifying an illorganized attempt to slap-together a Christmas dinner at the last
general meeting when the committee was pressed for not
organizing a Christmas event.
To my knowledge the ladies present at the general meeting, not

members of the committee, as soon as the meeting was over,

were quickly organizing salads and desserts for the event. You
could hardly call that lack of support. Smile, the world keeps
spinning in spite of it.
Heather Helmfelt

Guaran News PICTURE GALLERY

Ambassador Kenro Iino of Japan and his wife
hosted a reception on Wednesday, 6 December at
their residence to commemorate the birthday
anniversary of HRH Emperor AKIHITO of
Japan.
Picture (from right to left):
HE Kenro Iino, Ambassador of Japan and
Mr. Yasutaka Kogure, the Cultural Attach
at the Japanese Embassy.

HE Monsignor ORLANDO ANTONI (left), Legatus a latere and Dean of the Diplomatic Corps seen with National Senator Dr.
ARMANDO ESPINOLA during the reception hosted by HE Kenro IIno, Ambassador of Japan. (Photo N.M. Langer)

Seen at the reception hosted by HE KENRO IINO, Ambassador of Japan are

Mr. JUAN JOSE BENITEZ RICKMANN (left) Honorary Consul of Costa Rica;
Mr. VLADIMIR IONESCU (Centre), Honorary Consul of Rumania
and former Paraguayan Ambassador HE RAUL SAPENA BRUGADA.
(Photo N.M. Langer)