sábado, 1 de septiembre de 2007

The likes and dislikes of a 95 year old blogger


The Guardian

Giles Tremlett Saturday September 1 2007

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/sep/01/1


340,000 hits for woman with fans in Alaska, Australia, China and Nigeria

She is billed as the world's oldest blogger. At 95 years old and with a worldwide following that has seen more than 340,000 hits on her blog, Spaniard María Amelia López has achieved the kind of status that millions of younger internet chroniclers can only dream of.

López, who was introduced to the world of blogging by one of her grandchildren just eight months ago, has become such a global hit that she receives posts in languages as strange and impossible for her to understand as Russian, Japanese and Arabic.

"My name is Amelia and I was born in Muxía (A Coruña - Spain) on December the 23rd of 1911," she wrote as her first post on amis95.blogspot.com. "Today it's my birthday and my grandson, who is very stingy, gave me a blog."

With a mix of humour, warmth, optimism, nostalgia and feisty outbursts of leftwing polemic, she has won a regular readership of people keen to find out just what this Spanish great-grandmother is going to say or do next.

"You have to live life," the silver-haired blogger said in her most recent post. "Not sit around in an armchair waiting for death."

Her blog tracks not just a nonagenarian's day-to-day battles against aches, but offers musings on everything from politics and religion to broadband and death.

Among her chief hates are old people's homes, which she criticises for drugging their clients so they spend their final days snoozing quietly in front of the television.

New lease of life

"I blame the children, who don't want to help them," she said yesterday from the house beside the Atlantic Ocean in Muxía, in the rugged north-western corner of Spain, where she stays during the summer.

"Internet has given me a new lease of life, but I don't see any old people's homes offering their residents internet," she said.

López, as the recent pictures of her shaking maracas in a Brazilian hotel prove, lives as far as you can get from the "do-nothing and wait-to-die" culture that she regularly lambasts.

Her grandson Daniel, with whom she lives, taught her to navigate the internet after she pestered him to download biographies of poets and politicians. She likes to read online newspapers, for which she boosts the font size, and stay up-to-date with medical and scientific advances.

The blog was a gift from Daniel, who had no idea what he was unleashing into cyberspace. He has become her chief assistant: López navigates with the mouse while he types in the words she dictates.

"Now so many people write to me that I can't hope to reply to them all, though I want to," she explained. "My grandson complains that he has to work as well, he can't spend all his time typing."

Much of her traffic comes from Spain and Latin America, but newspaper and television interviews, with YouTube links given on her blog, have spread her name beyond the Spanish-speaking world.

When Daniel is not to hand, other assistants pop up on her blog, be they friends or hotel cleaners in Brazil.

"I love you, grandmother," said one Brazilian hotel worker who was drafted in to help.

López tells stories of her childhood and youth in Galicia. She recalls, too, the terrors of the Spanish civil war, and how her brother was sent to the front aged just 16- and came back with one leg shot off.

She was fined for refusing to show support for General Francisco Franco's National Movement. "I must be the oldest socialist activist in Spain," she said. "I've been socialist since I was 16, but my father would never let me actually join the party."

Her dislikes include daytime pill-popping, crude language and telephone companies that are slow to install broadband. Her main loves are poetry, politics, childhood memories, her native region of Galicia, a Jesus Christ who dislikes wealth and, she says, "the workers".

She has acquired readers in such far-flung places as Alaska, Australia, China and Nigeria.

Some people have suggested that she cash in on her popularity by getting paid-for advertisements placed on her blog, something she rejects. "I did this to amuse myself, not to start competing with people or making money," she said.

Fans in high places

Her fans include Spain's socialist prime minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. A letter from his office is one of many documents that she has posted on the website.

"May you keep going with this for a long time," the prime minister told her.

The admiration is mutual. "I am not cultured enough for a prime minister to be writing to me. I am just a little old lady," she said. "I hope he governs us for a long time, because he is a true patriot."

López's blog may be popular, but she is the first to admit it may not last long. "One day soon I am going to die," she said. "All I am really scared of is losing my mind. In the meantime, I'll carry on."

In her own words

"Old people need to wake up a bit. Get your act together!"

"Life has to be lived. Don't take pills and fall asleep in the armchair."

"Scientists and inventors should try to create something to help the workers rather than inventing cannons and machines that kill and destroy."

"If I die when I am there [on setting off for Brazil], then they can incinerate me and send me home in a little box. I'll be a bit bruised by the time I get there, but this is an opportunity I won't have again."

"I'm not important. I'm a little old lady."

"I used to be shy about saying things, but now that I am old I am a lot more direct."

"There is nothing better than exercising the brain."

"I've read Jesus's life and I know he wasn't interested in luxury."

"To all the little old women in Spain, and those who think that I am not well [in the head] ... This old woman is on her own right now, but she is chatting on the internet and having a fantastic time."

"Does anyone know what language this is?" (beneath a message to her in Arabic script)

"No one listens to old people."

14 comentarios:

Gerardo Donoso dijo...

MaríaAmelia.org

Paso a saludarte y decirte que esperamos pronto tenerte cerca del teclado.

1879 besos para ti desde Chile.

GEDC
gerardo.donoso@gmail.com
CHILE

emekonnen dijo...

Nice to meet a legendary blogger of your calibre, you are a true example and if I can blog at your age that will be a miracle

Anónimo dijo...

Hola!

Acabo de leer este articulo aqui en Inglaterra. Muy interesante e impresionate. Muy bien hecho. No deja de publicar el blog, por favor.

Saludos y suerte desde mi pueblo...

Mark

Anónimo dijo...

UNA MUJER LIBERADA.-

Mad Mildred (a liberated woman)
Howard Camner (1957)

She rocks back and forth in her rocking
chair
humming an old lullaby and knitting
mittens
for the children down the street
Across the room sitting at the card table
is the skeleton of her husband Frank
and the bones of their dog at his feet
Frank's skeleton has a pipe in his mouth
and is reading a forty year old newspaper
The dog's just dead
Mildred hated them both
One day she went insane
and just stopped feeding them

Anónimo dijo...

Hello Maria Amelia,
I read about your blog on the BBC. It is wonderful that you have such an active attitude and are now blogging. You are a good example for other older people to keep up to date.
From a 50-year-old admirer in Australia.

MCA dijo...

Abuelita,
A sua mensagem corre o mundo! Um grande beijo.

Anónimo dijo...

From a 17 year old perspective I must say that your a leader for the elderly. There aren't many seniors who are willing to explore the world dominated by technology and I think you've broken that barrier. Continue doing what you do,

sincerely Amir
from Rancho Cucamonga, California USA

Anónimo dijo...

Querida María Amelia, soy Luis, de Jaén, aunque vivo en Madrid. Sólo quiero enviarte un beso y un abrazo muy fuerte y decirte que me pareces una mujer preciosa! Gracias por ser como eres!

Anónimo dijo...
Este comentario ha sido eliminado por un administrador del blog.
Anónimo dijo...

Hello! I am reading your blog today in San Antonio, Texas U.S.A. I think that it is wonderful that you are blogging at 95 years young. Learning new things and helping teens will keep you happy and forever young. It's so refreshing to read about your blogging success. And I can see that your beauty and light within shines through. You are a lovely looking lady. You have spread goodness and love and we need more people in this world like you. Hugs, Ann from San Antonio, Texas

EYE dijo...

muy bien:) I like your spirit. it is encouraging

Unknown dijo...

I listen. I lost my Mom 4 years ago but used to love to listen to her talk about our history.She was an Irish spitfire who loved life. Rock on. :}

pravit dijo...

Congradulation, Maria. I am so proud of you. I just finished setting up my blog last week, all by myself ! I am 67 years old retired physician. The main purpose of my blog is to corresponse with all the retirees out there. I want to know what they hope and what their plan for the future, yes, for the future !When I read about you, I am so happy. It lift my hope up a lot.I am sure there much be a lot more retirees out there that we can talk and exchange our opinions or just talk.My web page is surpriseyourfamily.blogspot.com . Please drop me a line. Thanks. Pravit

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