Puerto Rican Doctors in Haiti

As we know, Haiti has been needing help, especially doctors. Many countries from many different parts of the world send doctors to the devastated country to help people suffering from disease and injuries. But, the Puerto Rican case got my attention: They created a Facebook group in which they uploaded photos of their patients (without their permission obviously), dead people and even themselves with drink in their hands and guns from the Haitian military.

All started when the earthquake left thousands of injured and dead people, so Puerto Rico decided to send doctors and nurses, who went to Haiti willingly. Being there, they did help people, performed surgeries, among other things that needed to be done. But one day, some of these doctors had the wonderful idea of creating a group in Facebook named: "Salvemos a Haiti (Senado de Puerto Rico)". In this group, they uploaded not only their experiences, but also photos. In these photos, Haitian people appeared being attended by the doctors and even nude in some cases. In others, the doctors appeared in parties with alcholic drinks and guns. When they returned to Puerto Rico, they expected to be praised as heroes and instead, people criticized them and even damaged their properties. And this was known worldwide, since these photos were published in newspapers. Now, the authorities are thinking about removing them their licenses because they broke the ethic code of doctors. Sincerely, I hope they do.

By the way, I'm not publishing photos of Haitian people, but of the doctors. Haitian people don't deserve to be shown all around the Internet. And, now that I'm looking at these stupid, drunk, smiling doctors, I wonder if their patients are smiling as well.

An ideal world?

Can you imagine a world without scarcity? Living a life with no preoccupations to find new resources! It sounds amazing right? Maybe it could be an ideal world. But… have you analyzed all aspects if this could occur?

Due to our class I wondered what it would be if we could have everything. I think people would get used to have all things without making an effort, they wouldn’t try to find or create new things, because what is the purpose of innovating if everything has the same value? Maybe I could sound a little negative by saying that we need to have scarcity to live life correctly, but I think that it is true. We must lack of things to succeed and get prepared to make a change.

I think that society’s behavior would change, because they wouldn’t want to work because they can already live with the things they get in life. So they wouldn’t continue studying to be better, and that affect education. Children wouldn’t go to schools because they will always be in the same social class and they can have a good life in the future. So I think that many jobs will disappear (teachers, scientist, engineers, etc). And also because everything has the same value and everywhere has infinite resources, money would disappear.

TAXES and SUCCEEDING

Who pays to the policy? How are the police-man cars bought? How are the schools and roads of our city constructed?

The answer to all of these is GOVERNMENT!!

The citizens are forced to pay taxes each period of time; some pay it monthly while others pay it anually. This money, which is administrated by the government, should be used for the wellness of our city. Taxes are an obligatory charge that people and companies are supposed to pay to supply the expenses of the country. The government should use that money for building schools, paying politics, implementing transportation, and providing citizens all kind of public services.

However, there is a big difference between the taxes that we pay to the government which are used to supply the public services that is not possible to identify who uses them, and the other kind of taxes are the ones that the owner of the product benefits (it is like a charge imposed in all of the products we buy).

I do not understand very well taxes in products, I just know that they benefit more the owner of the producing company, and that in a free market competition allows companies to stablish their own prices. However, I will only focus on the taxes we pay to the government. I asked to my dad "how long you need to pay taxes to the government?" and he told me "monthly and twice". I asked him "why twice daddy?", and he answered me back "because I need to pay taxes as a normal citizen, and as a businessman (owner of a company)".

At night, when I was in my bed, I remembered what my dad had told me, and started to think about it.

Are taxes fair enough? Are taxes well distributed? Are taxes the best way to get money to supply the city's needs? I don't think taxes are fair enough. Many people who are rich pay almost nothing of taxes while people with a lower social level pay much more. This unequal distribution is because of many reasons, such as corruption between politics, preference among social classes, and others.

We are supposed to have a democratic goverment; so, we have choice, as well as a valid opinion. People with leadership should talk in voice of the country, should ask for equality and fairness. But, if we all don't get together we would never do anything. If rich people continue taking advantages of the lower classes we would never grow as country, and we would stay the same: RICH PEOPLE BECOMING RICHER, AND POOR PEOPLE BECOMING POORER!

Talk, your voice has a value, take advantage of it. We all want better service in transportation, as well as policiers doing their job appropiately, and electricity to be distributed in all the city; however, if we do nothing, we would never succeed. That is why Mexico is not such a grat economical and political country. Our leaders haven't guide us in the proper way, they haven't organized society and our contries resources, and haven't distribute them appropiately.

Lent: A Followed Tradition

When I went to Oxxo today, approximately at 7:00 pm, I saw the girl in the cash registrer with a sign in her forehead. It seemed like a spot of dirt or someting like that. I did not payed a lot of attention; I got back to the car, and suddenly, my mom told me: Linda gave me "capirotada" today as she usually does every Wednesday when lent starts.

Then, I started to question myself: Why do we celebrate Lent? Why do people follow the rule of not eating meet on Fridays? Why do people go to the church, for the Pope to put them a spot of ash in their forehead?

Well, the only answer I could find to all of these questions is CULTURE.



As we saw in class, culture is the a term used by social scientists to describe a way of life, history and common characteristics of different groups. Every human society has a culture, and each culture is formed by different elements, symbols, traditions, customs, languages, technology, and other things.



Mexican culture celebrates a lot of holidays: We have Valentine's Day, Children's Day, Work Day, Mom's Day, Dad's Day; we even have the Taco Day. And today, the third
Wednesday of February, is starting another celebration: Lent.



Lent is the celebration that represents the 40 days that Jesus stayed at the desert, practically, without food! It is a tradition celebrated by most of the Catholics in Mexico, and in other countries such as the United Stated, Canada, Spain, and others. The tradition imposes that people should not eat meet every Friday during 40 days; also, people make promises with God, and they give the start to Lent with the traditionally ash in the forehead.



Besides being part of our culture, Lent is a time in which market sells a lot of fish and sea food.



In my opinion, I think that people just follow the tradition because it has been imposed since long time ago, and they do not want to break it. However, they do not truly know the real meaning of Lent, and they neither follow it for love or compassion; they follow it because they are used to follow traditions.

Living in an almost perfect world

How would the world be like if all of us could get everything we want to have?

I consider that there would be positive and negative aspects.

The first thing that comes to my mind is that there would be no more inequality; there would be no poverty, and that is a VERY VERY positive aspect, because as we saw in class, a lot of countries have tried to end with this problem, and they haven't succeeded. In a very general way, I can imagine this world almost perfect; I imagine all the children that are living in extreme poverty living in a lovely world, where they can be feeded, where they can be free of being working to get more money and where they could live in a happy way.

There would be lots of water, there would be no more endangered species and we all would be able to get what we have always wanted..... But in the other side, according to the way we behave, how would it be?

I am aware that while we have enough things to live, we don't care about none of those things, so I also can imagine our world as a place where we will be wasting everything; having no conscience of our acts, because it won't matter for us .. there would be enough things for everybody.

It would be like getting everything without making any effort, and actually I consider that when we try hard to get something is when we really appreciate it. Nature is wise, so there would be a reason why resources are not endless.

Discrimination is a sociological term referring to the treatment taken toward or against a person of a certain group that is taken in consideration based on class or category. The United Nations explains: "Discriminatory behaviors take many forms, but they all involve some form of exclusion or rejection. Discriminatory laws such as redlining have existed in many countries. In some countries, controversial attempts such as racial quotas have been used to redress negative effects of discrimination. I think discrmination its not valid becasue all of us we are te same and I considered this a global problem because it affect all of us.

"Dissent With Desalination Plant"

Last week I was in a bus and I saw a sticker of a political party I didn't knew about: The Hermosillo Union of Usuaries (U.U.H.); it said "Say NO to desalination, say YES to El Novillo". I wasn't very sure what it meant, so I did some research and found out the next report.

The U.U.H., leaded by Francisco Navarro Bracamontes, is starting a campaign to cancel the governmental project of a desalination plant, replacing it with an aqueduct to bring water from Ciudad Obregon, not only because it will be cheap in contrast to the huge budget needed for the desalination plant, but also because in long terms the desalination plant would have negative environmental effects, specially on sea plants, because of the chemical wastes, called "salmuera".

Here is the link for more details: http://www.bionero.org/sociedad/dicen-no-a-desaladora-quieren-acueducto

TANDEO: A good or bad strategy

I woke-up today, and I went to the bathroom: I opened the faucet to wash my face, and BOOM NO WATER! I got frustated, and started to think: Why is water being rationed? Why is water scarce in our city while in Mazatlan they can even drink from the faucet's water? Why are WE, Mexicans, so unworried for our city's future, and for our generation's future?

The scarcity of water is a global issue; however, the proposed solutions have not had an impact in society. We need to make conscience in the citizens for them to care of our planet. To care and appropiately use the few water that we have.

The causes of water scarcity are both: caused by nature, and caused by human being. I understand that we are not able to control nature, but we do are able to care of our activities, which would affect either positively or negatively our planet.

Water contamination and misuse of water are just some of the causes of our new TANDEO.

The river that supplies water to Hermosillo is the Sonora river, as well as our reservoir located at the south of the city (this is not a very good option because most of the time our reservoir is totally EMPTY: we can even see animals eating of the grass that has grown in it). Obviously, these water supplies are not being enough. Moreover, the high temperatures and low precipitation that exist in our zone, makes this problem even worst, to the point that even building a desalinization plant is being considered. However, a desalinization plant is a too-costly well structured plan that is being analized with the purpose of finding a new way to get the salt off of the water in a cheaper way.

Meanwhile, the government (instituion in charge of the water company: COAPAES) has taken the desicion of water rationing: A process in which the citizens have water in their houses for a certain period of time depending on the part of the place where they live. This new system has changed our lives totally because humans need water to survive, so we use it almost in every activity.

If you ask to any person who lives in the city of Hermosillo what do they think about the TANDEO, most of them would quickly answer that the are against it. Howver, if they would think a little bit more about the reasons of the tandeo I hope most of them would answer that it is a good strategy to concientize the citizens for the to value what they have while they have it.

Funny tradition in Brazil

Reading about the famous event that takes place every year in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil , the "carnaval" has many ways to celebrate, but the one that resulted more curious to me was that some people cover all their body with mud, from feet to head.

It is said that the mud tradition began in 1986 when a group of friends covered themselves of mud to avoid insects while they were grabbing crabs in a beach somewhere Brazil. Among them there were challenges to run in the Historic Center of Paraty.

With time and thanks to the media, I have learned dozens of curious traditions around the world. Years ago I was amazed with the Spanish tradition of Pamplona of letting out dozens of bulls chasing people.

Some residents of Rio de Janeiro that lives near the place where it is done this mud tradition, have said that the mud festival have made constructors to go away from there and keep the ecosystem without new buildings.

Hundreds of tourists from many countries come to Brazil, among other things, to the mud festival. If someday I go to Rio de Janeiro and the date match with the mud festival, I would like at to least see how this funny tradition takes place.

Teacher of Alabama University with violent past

A couple of days before, I saw an horrible note that involved a teacher of Alabama University killing three collagues at a faculty meeting. The 42-year-old had just months left teaching at the University of Alabama in Huntsville when she opened fire Friday in a room filled with a dozen of her colleagues from the biology department.

Today (Sunday, 14) I saw in the newspaper (El Imparcial) that this same woman 23 years ago, shot to his brother in the chest and killed him. "Amy Bishop fatally shot her teenage brother at their Massachusetts home in what police at the time logged as an accident – although authorities said Saturday that records of the shooting are missing" said The Star paper of Toronto, Ontario.

It is unbelievable for me how bad people could be everywhere. How could the one who hired Bishop for teach in UA (University of Alabama), know that he/she was hiring a murderer? This terrible event remind me the tragedy that happened like five years ago in another USA's university, I think it was Virginia College, that many students died because a crazy man opened fire against them.

This is another example that we have to take care of ourselves at any moment. We cannot live thinking that every time something bad is going to happen to us, but is really necessary to know who are we dealing with.