Venezuelan Opposition Primary Elections

Approximately one week ago, on February 12, 2012, in Venezuela were the primary elections to vote for the opposition candidates who wanted to run for mayor, governor and president. These elections were highly anticipated because Chavez’s government announced that first of all, these elections would never take place because the opposition was very unorganized and not united. Second of all, the government said these elections would not be successful because there would only be around 500,000 to 800,000 voters attending. However, the primary elections exceeded both the expectations of the opposition as well as the government because on February 12^th, 3,040,449 Venezuelans cast their votes. At the beginning of this journey, there were a total of 6 candidates running to represent the opposition in the presidential elections. Those were, Henrique Capriles Radonski, Pablo Perez, Leopoldo Lopez, Maria Corina Machado, Diego Arria and Pablo Medina. However, on January 24^th, Leopoldo Lopez resigned his candidacy to join and unify with Capriles. After the results were given, Radonski was nicknamed the “Tsunami” since he acquired one million more votes than the candidate who took second place; Pablo Perez. Capriles had a total of 1,806,860 votes. Most of the young Venezuelan candidates that pertained to the opposition political party called Primera Justicia were victorious, whether it was a presidential candidate, as candidate for governors and for that of mayor. Of course, the next day after the primary results were given, the government made fun of the opposition once again, saying that 3,000, 000 votes were definitely not enough to defeat Chavez in the October presidential elections. Unfortunately, on Friday 17^th, 2012 Jose Manuel Hernandez, the winner of the primaries for mayor of El Hatillo municipality passed away unexpectedly. Not even a week had passed since he won the primaries and due to an operation to remove a benign tumor, he passed away.

 

Presidential Elections October 7, 2012

Santiago Bernabeu

The Santiago Bernabeu stadium houses the legendary Spanish team; Real Madrid. The Santiago Bernabeu has a current and total number of 85,454 seats and is the third largest stadium in Europe. It is located in the city of Madrid, Spain. This stadium was named and honored by Santiago Bernabeu Yesté who was one of the most prestigious sportsmen that lead the Real Madrid to what it is today. Before the Santiago Bernabeu was constructed, the Real Madrid team played in two small fields of only 25,000 people; Campo De O’Donnell and the Estadio de Chamartin. Two banks arranged a credit with Mr. Santiago Bernabeu and Rafael Salgado to purchase the land next to the Estadio Chamartin, meaning they would have to pay that money back to the banks. The construction began on October 27^th 1944 under the orders of two architects named Manuel Muñoz and Luis Alemany. After a little over three years, the stadium was completed and named Nuevo Estadio Chamartin. It had a capacity of 75,145 spectators; 47,500 of them were for standing spectators and 27,645 spectators had seats.

This stadium has been re-modeled and expanded several times to become what it is today. On January 4^th, 1955 the stadium was renamed after the president; Santiago Bernabeu.  In 1982, they had expanded the stadium to 120,000 spectators; however they added roofs on all sides except the east, which reduced the capacity to 90,800. Again, the stadium went under construction which added seats and underground water pipes to keep the field from freezing in cold temperatures. Also, four different entrance towers were installed. This added to 110,000 spectators, but when Lorenzo Sans was president, he created an all seated arrangement which then again reduced the number to 75,328 spectators. Finally, when Florentino Perez was president of Real Madrid, he made the stadium what it is currently today. He modernized it completely, adding new VIP areas and boxes, a restaurant inside the stadium, tours inside the stadium, a Real Madrid Official Shop, modernized locker rooms, a press room and much more. The total cost of the stadium was €1,732,943. The actual pitch/field has dimensions of 107 by 72 m.

I have been in the Santiago Bernabeu only twice, the first time for the tour of the stadium, which took you inside the locker rooms and trophy rooms and on the actual pitch/field. The second time was for a game which was Real Madrid vs. Atletico de Madrid, with Real Madrid’s victory of 3-2. The feeling you get when you enter is of amazement, since the stadium is so massive and enormous.

View of stadium

4 towers on each corner

View of the field from the restaurant

Afrojack

Nick van de Wall, or better known by his stage name Afrojack, is one of the most well-known DJ’s today, all over the world. He was born September 9^th 1987 in Spijkenisse, Netherlands which was where he began to play the piano at age 5 and found a real interest in music. After several years he began to create music himself with a program called Fruity Loops which many DJ’s use today. After Afrojack finished school, he wanted to continue his musical career, and his fame began to grow after he graduated. He travelled to a large city in the Netherlands by the name of Rotterdam. Once he was settled in, he began to work as a waiter in several bars and this is where he became aware of all the night clubs. Nick, ambitious for his fame to increase, began to ask the owners of the clubs if he could be the DJ of these clubs. Going around several night clubs, Nick gained experience and began to create his own tracks in studios. In 2006, Nick then travelled to an island in Greece called Crete.  He stayed there for a long period of time, where he continued gaining popularity. At this time, he also released his first track called “F**k Detroit”. A year later, he created his own label or brand called Wall Recordings and in 2007 became known as Afrojack. His tracks began to be rated as one of the highest in the Dutch dance boards, and he began to work with other high level ranked DJ’s and pop stars such as David Guetta, Steve Aoki, Pitbull, Fedde Le Grand, Sidney Samson, Laidback Luke, etc. Recently, Afrojack has attended many of the most popular techno festivals in the world such as Miami Ultra Festival, Mystery Land and Tomorrowland (which I had talked about in one of my last blog posts). His most recent release, which came out 4 weeks ago, is “Can’t Stop Me” featuring Shermanology. Today, Afrojack is rated as the #7 DJ in the whole world.