Death Sentence

"Death sentence"

A matter that had been really controversial lately in our society is the death sentence, Wheather we o shouldn't we accept it?, this is a really controversial theme and I think that it is a very personal opinion, that's why it had been so difficult to the government to decide if it is or not he correct thing to do to accept the death sentence.

The "positive" side of this is, (for someones) that they will have revenge, because thinking it seriously it is nothing but revenge whta this people want (the one that are in favor of the death sentence), but they will be getting nothing but to leave two destroyed families instead of one, and will be getting exactly the same as if the criminal went just to jail, becuase if the murder goes to jail they wont have that dead person back, and if they kill the murder they will be getting exactly the same just that they may be killing a housban, a son, a father...

The negative side from this is that maybe they will be making the murder a favor because you die and you don't have to deal with anything anymore you will have not punishement, because in my opinion it is much better to be death than a lifetime sentence to jail, so probably you will be just setting free the criminal.

Unemplyment and migration in Mexico

"Unemployment and migration in Mexico"

It had been said that one of the most important causes of migration is the lack of jobs in Mexico, this is happening because lots of big bussines are comingo here, and this bussines don't really give oppotunities to Mexican people, they mostly bring their own emplyees, and the jobs to Mexican people are not really profesional.

I think that this must change, the goverment must give opportunities to Mexican bussines ket the familiar enterprises to grow, and mostly to know how to prioritze, and I'm not saying they are not prioritizing, I'm just saying that they are not really having a view to the future, because it might be kind of understendable the fact that Mexico's goverment give priority to other bigger enterpprises because they will give Mexico money, but just in the NOW, but in the other hand if they give opportunities to Mexican bussineses they will be investing in something that in a not far futur (from 5 to 15) might be giving much more to the country because it will be giving besides the capital it'll be giving jobs.

Breathing Earth

This page I found is just a simulator where you can found the carbon emissions of each country and their born and dead rate. Why is this important to know this information? So that we can grow out consciousness of what is going outside our little world and notice how big the world is in reality and the way we are impacting on it. We have to take in consideration that this page is just a simulator, so it's not 100% accurate, but still I think it was a nice and creative idea to start with what can later be a more real simulator. As I entered the page, the first thing I noticed was that China and India are have a really high born rate and death rate, as well. Overpopulation can be a real big problem in the future, if our species continues growing in such a fast rate as it had been. However, that's the worst-case scenario, changes can still be made. For example in China, now there is a "One Child" policy, which the government is keeping an eye on closely. As resources are being used, more people are coming to the world, so how will we be able to sustain the human race if resources are scarce? That's a global problem that I think we should pay more attention to. Education and being informed are two powerful tools that can be used in order to combat overpopulation. If we had to go to extreme cases, we can apply policies not only to China but to India as well, which has a bigger birth rate.

Other important aspect that this page shows is our environmental impact each country made on the world. In each country we can see in how much time each country produces 1000 tonnes of CO2 emissions to the air. When I checked the data, I think that this simulator was lying, since for me the data it showed was too much. There's some information below on the page which says that the CO2 emissions that show the page were more probable to be too low than too high. Well, maybe the page is not 100% accurate, but sometimes truth is hard to swallow. Some of the countries that emitted more CO2 were China, Russia and the U.S.



In conclusion, I just thought that this page was a great idea to start with. I hope you have a look and decide for yourself if it's useful or not. I totally like it since it put things in perspective and one more thing: reduce has to become part of our culture so that we can continue living in this world with no side effects.

Scarcity of water in Hermosillo

"Tandeo" in Hermosillo

Since January 16th of 2010 the water in Hermosillo has been rationalized, the president from the "conaguah" has decided to give 8 hours a day of water to each neighborghood here in Hermosillo.

This situation makes me wonder, if the scarcity of water is that bad,I think that keeping families from having water all day long is reasonable, because there is water scarcity in all the world but, why specfically in the "tandeo"? I know that it is mostly because we have don't have any reservation of water.

And thinking more generally, I wonder if the third world war will be because of water.

We Are Equal

"We deserve same rights, opportunities and respect", that is something that most of us know, say and accept it.
Last semester I started my social service in UNIDOS, that is an association that is in charge of showing to the society that the quote that I just typed its true, by teaching a way of sharing time with people that has problems of expression, people that is not able to walk, to talk or something else. Before I started my social service there, I didn't spend a lot of time with someone that had a complication in any of those aspects, and I didn't know how it would be like. Then, when I started to hang out and to talk with them, I really saw that there are not big differences between they and me, I saw that we shouldn't treat them differently, because we are very very similar; the only thing we should have is patience to try to understand what are they trying to say and what are they trying to do.
We are equal; we are humans, we deserve a lot of good things, and I know that equity is not always present in our society. That is why I really appreciate the work that UNIDOS is doing; it is something that we need; we need to realize that it is necessary to have a peaceful and positive society.

Behind A Big Lie

There's some tension going on now between Iran and United States as Iran's President Ahmadinejad launch serious accusations about the September 11 atacks. He said that this attacks were a big lie from the U.S. and just an excuse to invade Afghanistan. The tensions are still continue growing becuase Iran doesn't want to slow down his enrichment on uranium and nuclear programs. As I read this news, first of all it came to my mind why I think the U.S. is still on Afghanistan, after almost 10 years from the attacks at the World Trade Center. As time passes by, resources are being more scared and precious to a country, since GREAT part of economics are based on them, well, United States is not only there for peace. Oil is one of the most precious resources that a country can have, since almost everything is made out of petroleum. There are still a lot of theories out there and some information that doesn't match, but what matters now is that Iran is planning not to decrease his nuclear programs, which means that it represent a big thread to our planet. Even with the new sanctions that the U.S. wants to put on Iran for not respecting the limits established. The saddest part of all is that Iranians support the nuclear program. Hopefully, those sanctions make Iran think twice before continuing expanding his nuclear program, if not this could lead to a crumbling future especially between the U.S. and Iran. Iran said that the nuclear program is to create energy, but countries still doubt about the use they are giving to it, as they can develop nuclear weapons, which can result in something similar as the Cold War. Iran has to take the right place in this world and be more responsible to pick the right choices and left aside the selfish way to become more powerful.

Chile's Situation

As Haiti's news are moving aside, Chile now takes the hotspot in the media by the recent earthquake that striked off the coast of the Maule Region with a maginitude of 8.8 and lasting 3 minutes. I remembered that at first the president, Michelle Bachelet didn't want to ask for help because they thought the catastrophe wasn't so big or just to avoid the panick on people, since the earthquake of Haiti was still on the news. Now, I ask to myself if this is a normal situation, that 2 earthquakes strike in such a small period of time? Well, it's normal for people to think that it was a movement of the tectonic plates, others may say it's global warming, or just the end of the world; however, we have to move to the facts and the desperate situation Chile is going on. On March 4, the president said that Chile will need international loans in order to rebuild the damaging parts in 3 or 4 years. On the other hand, Chile's economic stability of the last years will help the get off this situation more quickly because they have a reserve of cash of about $11 billion. The government of Chile is one of the few governments form Latin America that can be trully admired. Chile has an average steady growth of 4%, which makes this country's economy maintain balance even after a catastrophe passed by. I never thought of Chile as a great country until I found this great news about them. There's a little damage that some cities and ports suffered lowering the economic growth from 5.4% to 5.0%, but after all what happened I think is great news that Chile is standing!

On the other hand, Chile received a visit form the president of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, which state that they will totally help Chile to recover, as Chile also worked when Haiti needed help. I think that is very important to help nations in need because you never know when a natural disaster can hit your country, as it happened to Chile. Besides their economic stability, people are still in need of help such as hospitals, clean water, bridges, etc. as people need to move from dangerous areas and avoid illnesses. I'm conscious that Chile needs all the help possible, and I'm glad that some of my classmates are organizing a campaign to collect cans of food for Chile.

Give Help; let's show empathy

Because I am young, I am not aware of everything that has happened in the world in the last 50 years, but lately, I have heard a lot of bad news; violence is present in daily situations, resources are scarce and natural disasters had caused the deaths of thousands of people.

The Tsunami in Asia (in 2004) caused 288,000 deaths; thousands of people are still missing, and millions of them lost their home.

The earthquake in Haiti caused a masive lost of everything; cities, families, schools, and all the things that were present in that zone.

Then, I heard about the earthquake in Chile and I was shocked; I realized that we don't have to wait 8, or 5 years to "expect" these kind of disasters; a lot of things can happen, and we can't avoid them.

We have been lucky, we were born in a place where non of these situation have been present, but that is not a reason to think that we won't ever suffer a thing like that and that is why we MUST find a way to help them because maybe someday we will need that help too.

We are one world, we are part of a whole and we have the responsilibity of support others when they need it.

Women At Work

I was reading a news article about a girl who got fired from her job when her boss found out she was pregnant. She worked at a bar and the owner did not let her keep her job if she was pregnant. Sadly, this girl was neither the first nor the last woman who will suffer from this unfairness. Women have struggled for decades to reach for equality and stop discrimination. It is a great step that we can go to work and have the same opportunities of growing professionally than men. I feel very proud and grateful for those women who stood up for themselves and were not afraid of being different. We owe them all the opportunities we have today.

I think it is really unfair to discriminate women in general when it comes to a job. A woman needs it as much as the man does and both are perfectly capable of doing it. A woman who is pregnant should not be fired. Her rights are being violated. It is stated in the law that pregnant women have the right to have some days off in order to take care of their baby and that you cannot fire them because of their state. Leaving aside the legal part, what about your ethics? Do you think firing a perfectly capable person just because she is expecting a baby is the right thing to do? Would you like your sister or mother to be in a situation like this? Those women are carrying another life inside of them. Firing a pregnant woman would be like firing someone because is short, has a big family, has a different skin color, or any other characteristic.

Today, unemployment is a major world issue. There are more people than jobs, so competition is all over the place. If pregnant women are discriminated they won’t have a chance to find a decent job to support their family. If people (women and men) have a job, they have money so they become consumers. If they are consumers they can buy more products and services. This way economy is stimulated. That is why we must promote employment and do not fire anyone for unfair reason; we are just hurting the economy. We can stop unemployment from growing by not discriminating women.

Lies about Flu AH1N1

"If you don't create wars, create diseases," said an old english general. The farmaceutic market only works while people is sick. Creating diseases like swine flu H1N1 and the avian flu H5N1, they will create a need for medicine in people and the government would contribute big quantities of money to a fake disease.
The avian flu H5N1 was discovered in 1997 in Hong Kong, where only 18 people was infected and 6 died. Then, there were detected 2 new cases and only one died. but it wasn't until 2005 when it spread all around the world. The World Health Organization warned that 7.4 million people could die and 2 million would be americans. At that time, George Bush contributed 1200 million dollars to buy 20 million doses of TamiFlu. TamiFlu is the recommended medicine to attack several types of flu, it is made by the company GILEAD, whose president was Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense during Bush's government. So, where are those 20 million doses if in the Unided States NO ONE DIED? And what could be best for commercializing the TamiFlu than creating a need based in society's fear and paranoia.
The WHO reported 272 deads by avian flu between 2003 and 2009, with an average of 40 people per year. Now, 11 months after the beginning of the swine flu, reported that there were around 16455 deads.
-Did you know that approximately 100 people die each year because of a thunderbolt?
-Did you know that 3 million people die each year beacause of malaria?
-Did you know that 1.5 million people die each year because of diarrhea.
-Did you know that 250,000 to 500,000 people die each year because of a COMMON FLU?
Which of these diseases are seen in the news? ANYONE, the swine flu isn't more than a severe flu and is almost daily in the news. Do you know anyone infected of swine flue AH1N1? if it is contagious, where is their family? Don't be in panic. We should be careful of any disease and take into consideration the prevention measures. WE HAVE BEEN SCAMMED BY OUR GOVERNMENT! They are playing with our HEALTH and our FAMILIES to make profit! We should be informed, but don't believe everything said by the media.

Tough spot for Greece

Greece was in the ancient world one of the main civilizations, they had great thinkers and made many advances in sciences and philosophy. Today, I’m sure the Greeks are nothing less of what they used to be, but sadly they’re not having the same luck. Greece is going through a very bad budget deficit brought about by many debts the Greeks have; Greece's national debt stands at about 300bn Euros. This budget deficit has forced the government to make many cuts both in wages and public spending. The economic crisis through which Greece is going will most likely affect the whole European Union.

Certainly the Greeks will be affected by all of this; many are complaining and going into strike due to the lack of support by the government. It is very bad that there are such great differences among all the economic levels of the European Union. These kinds of differences are likely to destabilize the Euro’s value and even reduce it. If Greek economy goes “over the cliff” it is likely to take with it Spain and create a chain of falling economies. It is imperative that the Greece does something about this, but also they have to be supported by the European Union because this also affects them.

There are several things that can be done about this deficit. Greece can begin by reducing its spending and making all those who evade taxes pay. They have to be very strict when dealing with taxes. The European Union should boost Greece’s economy and help it regain its strength. Reaching this goal will be tough because the Greeks have begun to complain and go into strikes. They should do the total opposite, they should be united and work hard to make their economy go up and reach their previous economic level.

Garbage program in Hermosillo

A few weeks ago we were informed that the system for collecting garbage from houses was going to change. They informed that there were going to still be two days, but one day was going to be for inorganic trash, and the other for organic. I believe it is a good initiative, but it is not very well thought, because we consume way more inorganic things and less organic, so waiting for the trash truck to go to our houses we would be floating in inorganic trash. This could be dealed with, butunfortunately, they aren't telling us when it is going to start, which days are going to be for what tipe of trash and other details we should know and be prepared to do. But as always it won't work thanks to the bad execution and the lack of information of people because they aren't telling us what to do. We should demand answers and actions, and when they are answered, we should step up and take some action, not only leaving it to the government.

One of the best self portraits from the world

50 years ago, a young man named Alberto Korda, took a picture in a matter of seconds to one of the famous leader of the world : Che Guevara

Che Guevara was an important leader in Cuba around the 60`s in latin America. He was a doctor, writter and political men. Moreover, he played an interesting role in the political system of Cuba.

But the most important thing about this, is that the one self portrait of Ernesto is one of the most popular in the world and that it was launched after his dead. This picture, marks the leadership that Ernesto still creates after his dead. This self portrait, demonstrates the spirit of traspass boundaries, the breaking of rules, or the fighting of something.

However,there are other many self portraits of many leaders in the world, but this image, demonstrates the courage, of the feeling of braveness that the Che had to continue in life.

still, he is the myth of rebelion in all the world. In addition to this, many other famous pictures might be considered as a treasure, but this one has a special meaning to Latin America.

Africa: A Beautiful Continent

We Mexicans, as part of an American country, tend to under appreciate Africa and we imagine each and every of its countries are the same. This is totally false. Some Mexicans also think that all African population is still dancing around and wearing a loincloth. This was probably Africa a couple of centuries ago, but not anymore. Today the African continent is made by countries with a stable government like South Africa. Of course there are countries not so fortunate in the economic sense but still not populated by cavemen. We should be a little more reflecting and try to overcome popular stereotypes.

As we saw in the movie Invictus, South Africa is not the perfect country. Its people have suffered from the terrible consequences of apartheid (which I previously talked about). It has suffered a lot of instability previously, but today is the soon-to-be host of the Soccer World Cup. South Africa can proudly say they are the first African country to host this tournament. This event will definitely give South Africa a lot more international attention. I am glad we can get to know better a different country. Soccer is a major event for a lot of different people. Countries get together to enjoy this sport. I hope South Africa does a very good job as a host during this world cup to prove the world they are worth it and to break all wrong stereotypes.
Many African countries have a high birth rate but also a very high death rate because of AIDS, hunger, violence, among other major issues. I read they do not have a really good situation about women and children. They are the weakest and in African countries they are usually unprotected. I think African countries may seem way behind compared to American or European countries. Before under appreciating them and their people we need to think they have recently gotten independence and they started from scratch. They are barely getting started and trying to settle themselves. There are a lot of economic, cultural and international issues keeping them from moving forward. We should show solidarity for these countries and have consideration for their people. Africans are people with feelings, thoughts, dreams and hopes just like any of us.

Black market

When we think of the term "Black market", we often think about movies where illegal transactions are held, usually things like drugs and weapons are the most common. Well we are not far from the real definition, but not just illegal suppliers. "Black market" is a nickname used for underground society, in which people trade goods with a lack of the regular norms of trading, to avoid taxes or to supply illegal things like drugs. Why people do this? Well, because it's easier for people to supply goods if they don't have to pay taxes, so they don't lose money on that kind of things, also when the product it's illegal or stolen, it gives the opportunity to suppliers to sell the product in higher prices than they produce it. It's easy to find this kind of economy in countries where corruption and regulations exist, but we can fint it in almost every country, just in less amount because of authorities. But with these products, there's no guarantee, so people prefer to buy their products from legal suppliers because they demand quality, but illegal stuff like drugs, weapons, and things that you can't find that easy or that are not available for you, you can find it there. But there's a high price for these suppliers, commonly jail, so we shouldn't contribute to this kind of trade because it can lead to worst things.

Kidnapping Law

Today, march 06, appeared in the newspaper a note called: "Urgent to aprove a law against kidnapping".

When I saw this title, the first thing that came to my mind was Brianda, a friend of mine who was kidnapped for a month in the city Cananea a few years ago when we were in fifth grade of elementary school.



Brianda told me her experience. She was kidnapped while she was in the supermarket with her mom. She just went for a box of cereal, and suddenly, two guys came and took her away. They took her -eye closed- to an empty room inside a house. She didn't knew any of those men. They started with questions such as, what id your name, where do you live, where does your dad works, where does your mom works, in what school are you, do you have brothers or sisters, how many cars do you have, and others. She was quite afraid, so she answered all of the questions she could. A week passed. They did not talked to her so frequently, they gave her bread, chips, soda, and sometimes a muffin. She felt really desperate, afraid, and sad. The room was very dark that she could not even notice when was morning and when was night. By week two she had all ready lost the sense of time. Time continued passing, and by that time, Brianda already thought she was going to die there, and she would never see her family again. However, one day, she started to hear shots; she got really scared. Lots of things came to her mind, and suddenly, the door of the room she was inside opened, and she the persons she could less imagine, her mom and dad.



Brianda, my friend, was rescued, but there are lots of kidnapped persons who are not rescued, who are being killed, or worst, who are sexually violated. When a person is kidnapped, she/he is never the same again; she/he is affected physically and socially, but in the most mentally and emotionally.



This is why I think it should exist a law against kidnapping. A established statement in our constitution that is able to prevent and combat kidnaps, a law that establishes the right that a victim has, as well as the punishment for kidnappers.



We are living in times of crimes, with people with neither values nor compassion. If there are people who does not care about others, we must care and fight agains crimes, fight against suffering and pain!

El imparcial: http://www.elimparcial.com/EdicionEnLinea/Notas/Nacional/06032010/434030.aspx

Disappearing Sea Ice? Global warming?

A few weeks ago, my cousin told me there was a webpage about climate change fraud, but I didn't pay attention to it until last week when I remembered I had to do my blog posts. So I googled the site and found lots and lots of forums, blogs, etc. I can't believe that maybe this global issue is a hoax!

One of the things I read was about the disappearing sea ice caused by global warming. It says that this is not a manmade effect, this is a natural effect. This has been happening for thousands of years and we assume that CO2 emissions, which started less than 200 years ago, are the cause of global warming. It is true that since 1800's, earth has been warmer but for natural causes, not by CO2. Earth's temperature is constantly changing. Even around the year 1000's, Central Greenlind's Ice Core was much warmer that what we are experiencing now. When agriculture started, the climate in there was even warmer than in the year 1000's. Around 13000 years ago, there was the last ice age and temperature had being rising until -8000 B.C. and maintaned "stable" (30°C - 35°C) until now. There was no CO2 emissions by burning fossil fuels in that time. Now at days in Central Greenland Ice Core, the temperature is colder that how it was around -1300 B.C.

Now, going to the Antartica, as you can see in the chart, there have been several periods where the is it cooler and then comes a big change on temperature warming the Earth. And in this chart you can also see there is a relation between what happened in Central Greenland Ice Core, there was an ice age before -11000 B.C. and now seems to be stable.
So now, you can see that there is no influence of CO2, with the melting ice cores. What is happening is a natural effect made by the amazing Mother Nature. Politicians and scientists convince us by putting a photograph of a polar bear cub, which touches our heart and make a global warming poster.

ANA AND MIA

Last night I was having many problems to sleep so I started reading some bloggs I found on internet. Suddenly I saw a blog about Ana and Mia. Even today morning I am still feeling really upset about what I read last night. In this blog girls and boys that have problems such as anorexia and builima share information about how they feel and many other thigs. The thing that got me really upset and also mad is the fact that girls that are 1. 70 height and weight 50 kg are trying to find diets, because they feel FAT! These kinds of diseases and web sites are the ones governement should talk about in campaigns to try to prohibit them or to show the society about them, and also talk to parents so the can be aware about what their kids look up on internet. This blog need to be prohibited because it is creating a monster og those boys and girls who actually believe that they are helping them by giving them diets that actually are killing them. Another thing I saw on tha blog was "TIPS" that everyone post like every time you are hungry put a pillow under your skirt and think you will looke like that when you eat your favorite apple. This kind of web site are not only damaging phisically the people who follow it this website is also damaging phsycologically everyone and pushing them more into their probelm. In many parts of the world they have really good campaings to warn girls about this diseases, and in Mexico we actually have not had one and I think it is time to make an intervention. Girls and Boys you do not have to look like a "princess" to be pretty you just have to be yourself.

ELEVEN MINUTES

Last night I finished reading a book of one of my favorite authors Paulo Cohelo. The book is named Eleven Minutes, when I finished reading the book I went with my mom and started giving her a breif description about the book because I wanted her to read it. The book is about a Brazilian poor girl looking for opportunities in the big cities, suddenly she was involved in a prostituion work. The conflict was that when the girl started earning money she taught that with that job she can actually get everything she had always dreamed, and thing like that. My mom was really interested in what I was talking, but she interrupted me beacuse she remebered something she saw on TV in the morning. She started telling me about a program she saw of prostitution, but that it was really weird beacuse many time we associate the word prostitution with a low class girl, the thing is that in this program the girls that where in this kind of job where middle class and high class girls that where trying like in the book get things that they have always dreamed about having like bags, jewelery, shoes ETC. So when my mom told me about this I looked some articles in internet, and I found one of UNICEF that a recent survey talks about this problem that it not only affect low classes. I think that this is really bad for every girl not only for middle an high class girls even for low class girls and of course also boys. This is another thing we should have more in consideration like many other problems this is also important.

IT'S TIME TO END DISTRACTED DRIVING.

Today when I was in my way to a friends house I took a chance to look outside the car window, and suddenly I saw how a girl was about to create a huge accident. The reason of the girl was that she was texting a message on her cellphone. So I started thinking and I got to a conclusion that millions of people talk, text, and sometimes e-mail on their cellphones while driving. But if you think you can do whatever of the things I mentioned above, let me tell you you can not. Things can wait and a message while driving do not wait for you, they can kill you in a second. Almost 60 percent of the society accepted that they use their cellphones while driving. So let me tell you, you are not the only living person in streets families, kids, and granpa's are there. Open your eyes and see how you can destroy a family by turing downside to your cell to send a message. Driving and talking is as harmful as driving with alcohol influence. When I arrived home I strated looking about a campaign that my ethics teacher talked about in our last class. the campaign was proposed by Oprah and I got to say this is one of the best things I have know recently. So I invite to STOP using cells whinle driving and to be aware remeber your life is also in danger. CARS ARE ¡NO PHONE ZONE!

The quake in Chilean economy

Don’t you find it weird that the Haitian earthquake got so much more press than the Chilean earthquake? Haven’t you realized how the Haitian earthquake was everywhere in the news and Chile seems to be unimportant? Well, that is mainly because of the vast differences between these two countries’ economies. The earthquake in Chile was stronger than the one in Haiti, yet the damages and the aftermath of the Haitian earthquake seem to be worse. Chile has a pretty good economy; it is in fact the 46^th richest country in the world. The South American country was much more prepared in its infrastructure to a catastrophe of this magnitude, whereas the Caribbean country is one of the poorest countries in the world and is not prepared to receive a natural disaster of this level.

Chile has a very stable economy and is prepared to affront the damages caused by the earthquake. Not without effort though! The catastrophe caused $30 billion in destruction and damages. Most likely if they invest their money properly they can rebound to how they were before. They are also recovering from recession since last year and their economy is expected to expand 5%. The Chileans can have a very great reserve of copper which they base their economy on, and if managed well they would be right back at where they were before the earthquake and before recession or even go higher on the world wide scale.

Haiti does not have such a good economy and that is why the world has aided them so much. Chile does not necessarily need the support that is being offered to them (which is much less than the support offered to Haiti), but help is always welcome. Even if the country is prepared to receive such a hit to their economy that doesn’t mean that the earthquake does not pose a setback for Chile; the Chilean economy would have grown more if it hadn’t been affected by this terrible and very sad natural disaster. And as we now know, the losses are not only social, but also economic.

Burka Prohibition

Burka Prohibit on France

Sarkozy: Burka ‘not welcome’ in France

The burka is not welcome,” he said during an address Monday to the French parliament amid a parliamentary debate on whether the full body covering worn by Muslim women should be outlawed.
Sarkozy also took the opportunity to defend his country's secular law forbidding citizens from wearing visible religious symbols in public schools and institutions.
“We shouldn’t be ashamed of our values. We shouldn’t be afraid to defend them,” Sarkozy said in an apparent partial response to President Obama's perceived indirect criticism of French secularism in a speech earlier this month.
The U.S. leader said religious people in Western countries should be free to dress as they choose.
Sarkozy said the burka, which includes a woven mesh covering the eyes, “is not a religious symbol. It’s a symbol of subservience.”

A sort of controversial subject lately it has been the prohibition of the burka in France and in some other European countries, the french goverment said that the prohibition of the burka was because, of the problem of the integration, because in France there ot os a lot of intergration problems, they are a lot of immigrates there, because of the colonies they use to have, now they are letting people from their old colonies in to France as citizen. this includes also musulms and they obviously have their own religion and their own traditions, and all the mixture of cultures is being a problem for France, because that is creating a big problem which is violence and bandalism, because people who move from their countries to France and not French but when they go back to their coutries even for visit they are not taken as originaries from there either.

So, supposedly Sarkozy said he was doing that to promote integration, becuase when you see someone walking by the streer with burka you immediately are able to know that s/he is not originally french.

Publicity in magazines, good or bad?

I was with my friends and they were watching a fashion magazine. It is normal in these types of magazines that you have publicity about many types of beauty products, especially perfumes and cosmetics. Then at the middle of the magazine you have super skinny photosphed models with a themed photo shoot.

Then my friend, a boy, said "Oh, I must stop watching it only makes me feel bad" (it was an image of a male actor). And then I started thinking about that comment, he feels bad because he doesn´t look like him but he is intelligent enough to not make anything risky to change himself but I can´t say the same about other girls.

There are many girls that struggle with self-image and they even buy the product that the model is selling just to try to be a little bit more like the model. But if you think of this in the economic point of view, this is very good.

Magazines get money from publicity in their pages and then girls want to be like the models and buy their products, and if they fell very motivated they go to the gym, so they buy a membership, then they buy weight loss products and when they are skinnier they buy new clothes so it’s all a market that is connected and from this point of view people feeling like my friend is very good.

But in the health point of view is bad because many persons are affected fiscally and mentally and in extreme cases you can even die. But everything has it bad and good things, it all depends on how you see them.

Chile, how does it affect us?

The other day I was having a class named critical thinking and the teacher mentioned what happened in Chile and everyone started talking about dead and stuff like that. And how sad that they even had a 2 earthquake and it is true so many people are suffering and they need our help.

But there was this kid who said, "Well, I don´t care it doesn´t affect me" and everyone looked at him, some agreed with him and others said that he was insensitive but he is right, it doesn´t affect him or me directly but it is not totally true because we are all connected in some way.

The teacher answered him and told him that maybe it doesn´t affect you but maybe some Mexicans had family in Chile and it can also affect Mexico’s economy. That was the phrase that catches my attention. If Mexico had some exchange with Chile, know it would be strained because Chile needs to recover and maybe we don´t get the products we were getting from them.

Or maybe we still get them but at a higher price and who knows maybe that kid like some of the things they export and now he can´t get it. So it is all connected, if only country suffers all the others are going to suffer too, maybe not so evidently and ones more than others but in the end this is a proof that we do need to help each other because we are connected and what affects other in some way it is going to affect us.

Does money buy happiness?

We have often heard the phrase that says that money doesn´t buy happiness but in some way is not true. Let’s take for example a family. If you want to survive you need money, because you need to buy your basic needs such as food, drinks and a place to live. You even need money to make your life happier, who isn´t happy when he or she gets something new? I know this has to do with capitalism but it still makes you feel good.

Even though I say this, you don´t need a lot of money, because the more you have the more you want and is a vicious cycle in which you are so absorbed in wanting money that you don´t even pay attention to your family. So everyone needs a balance in those aspects of their life. You need a job in which you gain more than enough money and something that you like to do.

To end, I want to say that we shouldn´t say that money can´t buy happiness because is not true, you need money, nothing is free. And the amount of money we need depends on the lifestyle of everyone.

I Have Two Cows...

One of our French teachers decided to show us a page about some of the different type of governments it exists with and also how the different cultures affect the government. First of all, the article starts by saying that we are owners of 2 cows. From these 2 cows, the government is going to intervene in different ways depending on the type of government chosen. Some of the examples are a little bit exaggerated but you can see the funny side also, since is based on prejudices that people have by the actions this government made in the past or some of them still do. I can relate some of the material we learn in class in this blog post. For example, the blog post says that if you had 2 cows and live in a communist country, the state will take both of them and give you milk. As we saw in class, in a communist country, the state controls both resources and prices. It's cool to see their opinion of the other governments like, socialism, capitalism, etc., which by the way I also don't think there's one government that is better than another. Each country has the chance to success if they get focused on it, like for example China is now in the second place in the world's economy, just behind the U.S., and they have different government systems. This is the proof that there are different methods to be in the first place of the world's economy, not just one.

Besides talking about the different type of governments, the blog post also talks about the prejudices we have about how some countries manage their economy. The one that captured my attention was the French economy. I said that if you were a french person and you have two cows, you will declare a strike because what you really wanted was 3 cows. Recently, the teacher had showed us about a strike in the store "Carrefour", which make us laugh while we were reading this. Well, France was the country were the Human Rights were established, so I think its okay that they are claiming their rights. However, this has also created a bad image on France, as people make prejudices that they work only a few hours or if not they are in a strike. In a recent article that came on my French exam, says that France is fighting hard against this image that has been created around it. France invested around 10 millions of Euros in 3 years to create a campaign to show people the reality. I think is a very good idea of France to promote this campaigns so that more people gets motivated to work on there, or simply just to don't have the negative idea, just as we as Mexicans don't like to people think that Mexico = big sombrero moving on a burrito or taking a nap under a big sahuaro! Each country needs an opportunity to give the best of it.

Apartheid: More Than Just Separating

Apartheid is a system of racial segregation enforced by the National Party government in South Africa. It lasted from 1948 to 1994. The term apartheid means “separation” and that’s what it basically was. Apartheid separated social classes in such way that the white race was socially superior to the others, in this case the black people. It distributed land so that black would be in a different area than white people.

I had heard about apartheid before but never thought it had lasted so many years. I think this idea of believing certain race is better than another is really archaic. I thought South Africa had ended with this at the same time as the United States. Marthin Luther King was really important to this country. If he hadn’t step up who knows how long it had take for the United States to be respectful with all races.

In the movie Invictus, we were able of looking at the side effects of apartheid. It must’ve been very hard for the population to overcome just a strict policy. I think policies like this one make the population tolerate and agree with discriminations. Black people were used to the attacks of white people, they felt inferior. Also black people accumulated a lot of rage throughout the many years of abuses. White people were used to be above the rest and they actually thought they were better. I think using Rugby was a very intelligent way of overcoming apartheid. In the movie, President Mandela used this sport to unify the country that had always been separated. He used a sport as a political issue, as Maestro John mentioned in class.

We should all respect the different races, because we are all human after all. Discrimination between races has always been an issue. We can think of examples like Hitler with the Jews, and the discrimination toward ethnical groups. Respect is the key to end discrimination. We should treat other people like we would like to be treated, no matter what their color, language, sex, point of view or religion is.

I am glad neither one of us had to live in such an unfair society. We are definitely moved forward from where we were 30 years ago.

SCHOOL STRESS

Us as students, we experience stress almost everyday, but why? HOMEWORKS, PROJECTS, ASSIGNMENTS, AND SO MUCH MORE! School work is probably the highest stress a student has to deal with. Throughout the years, I've learned that stress is mental, if you just relax yourself, organize yourself and to everything on time, you don't necessary have to deal with stress. But sometimes, stress seems to be uncontrollable, for example, when a teacher sends loads od homework to do at the last minute. A person needs to learn how to deal with stress, not to mention stress causes wrinkles and small, annoying break outs on skin.What I suggest doing is always organizing yourself, with a planner or an agenda. Write assignments with its dates on its particular order, and find time to do them before the last time, not one day, hour, minute before the due date. When your stress levels are too high, it might seem there is not time to rest, but that is all you need. You need to relax, breathe in deep, listen to music or do something you like that can keep you from thinking about stress. When you feel totally relaxed, come back and do your work, you will see that ideas, thoughts, everything will come to you quicker when you are not just thinking about stress. Stress sometimes makes you do things wrong, so why do we stress on our work if we know things are going to come out wrong? We need to be responsible instead, always doing things with time, not stressing ourselves at the last minute. This way, why would you have to worry about ever dealing stress? Relax and organize yourself and time will be enough for you to complete your assignments successfully.

Family Planning and Economics

Today I watched a pretty interesting video in YouTube. It was about how planning a family can help you save money. Moreover, it was hilarious : a condom with a shrill voice was explaining it.

The video started with a couple (Hank and Debby) in univeristy as an example. They were very in love and decided to take their relationship to the next level. Then, the narrator explained that some universities in the United States provided condoms in their vending machines though students are not buying them. This results in loss for the universities. For example, Brown University loses $6 per each condom that is not sold. Later, Debby got pregnant and the narrator talked about the marginal cost; a 3-pack of latex condoms is about $5 and abstinence is pricelss while early pregnancy abortions unfortunately can cost from $350 to $600, but if it is a late second trimester procedure it can cost up to as much as $3'000 and going through with having the baby and raising the baby , it would cost at least $410, 848 ! Now, $5 does not seem like much money, does it?

Now, if they decide to have the baby, and Debby leaves school, she is giving up the opportunity to continue in her education to earn a degree and become a successful doctor or whatever she wanted to be. Therefore, she won't have a enough challenging job. If she had not quitted school,had finished university and had found a good job, she could have earned (in average) $22, 218 per year.

Furthermore, a country's economy may be improved as well with the production of any birth control method. If people started to think beyond and decided to spend $5 in condoms, they will save a lot of money and time. Also, if some teenagers had not quitted school because of pregnancy, the world would have more prepared people to contribute in many jobs, there would be more competition and people would try hard to do more and be the best they can be.

Hope for Haiti Now

We all know there has been a worldwide support for Haiti. At school we have already cooperated with this cause with the fund raising we had several weeks ago. We are all very proud to see we actually made a difference with our help. People have suffered a terrible lost most of us cannot even imagine, so we should demonstrate we care by being solidarious.

As we at Tec helped Haiti, also many famous singers have. Successful artists like Bono, Jay Z, Madonna, Shakira, Coldplay, Alicia Keys, Stevie Wonder, Wyclef Jean, Sting, and Beyoncé among many others, have showed their support for Haiti by recording several songs to create an album called Hope for Haiti Now. Obviously, all the money from this album will be automatically donated. I think we should learn from these selfless people who are working a lot to help the least fortunate. They are trying to show us that no matter what you are good at, you can always help in your own way. I think most of the time people are driven by money. The power that money has nowadays makes us forget from time to time that people are way more important.

Music is an element that homogenizes society. Even if someone doesn’t understand the language, he or she can still like the music. The songs of this album are really beautiful in their music but also in the message they are trying to communicate. Their songs show their support for Haiti and also motivate the rest of us to do so.

Today it is really easy to donate and help others because of technology. I was watching a video about a song and it included a link to donate right away. Here is one good way in which technology influences our life. We have previously mentioned a lot of problems caused by technology. Well, here is one way technology can help us be a better person and think about others. If we have the chance and we like these songs, we should buy them not download them. Downloading music from the internet is very common. I do not have anything against it, but I think for this case we should make an exception. Every time we download them illegally, it’s like we are taking money away for the people in Haiti.
I hope we can all get a chance to help. Here are some songs from the album Hope for Haiti Now I recommend you listen to: Send me an angel, A Message 2010, Hallelujah, Let it be and Stranded (Haiti Mon Amour).

Could this be a sign?

since the movie 2012 movie arrived, many persons have questioned themselves about the "end of the world". Supposly, the "end of the world" is dated in December 21, 2012.

And who predicted this? well, the Maya civilazation. The Katun maya calendar affirms that in december, a new cycle in earth will appear and the start of a new era as well. Moreover, they exist more than 5 profecies that the mayas predicted.

In the religious sense, the bible affirmed that in the new testament, the end of the world will be a day were an earthquake will shake all day long. Wars will arrive, famine, political issues, viruses, and such more things.

Haiti had a devastating moment months ago and now is Chile's turn. A warning of a possible tsunami, famine in the world, and political issues are growing.

Could this be a sign of the end of the world?

Maybe this is events are part of tha natural cycle of the earth, but many people are alarmed about the maya theory. Astrologers afirm that it may be possible the maya theory, but there is no scientific information and data that could reveal if this is true or not.

it depends in what you think or feel,

so... what do you believe in... in a natural cycle or...in a possible sign?

ARE THEY IN DANGER?

Las night I was reading an article in Internet about Haiti's problems since the disaster of the past January. Food and where to sleep is not the only problem they are still facing. Since the disaster it is known that there was a ENORMOUS problem with insecurity in the street, but who are the people that are in a more vulnerable situation? the vulnerable ones are KIDS. It is known that many people loose part of their family, some other loose their entire family. Many kids are walking in the streets facing dangerous situation and no one is watching out for them. So what's happening kids are disappearing. People in Haiti are in a situation that they will do whatever just to get money and by this whatever I'm talkin is about selling kids even they own kids. I'm really mad with this situation, beacause many people still have not found their family, so we need to push someone to do something because this can not continue happening. The same mistake happen the first week since the disaster planes from Miami and Holland arrived Haiti to take children to another place away from them! but wait a second how did they know in that short time that those kids did not have family. Thing like this should NOT happen! so kids are in danger and we need to stop this.

A World With No Scarcity? ..

This question was brought up at class by our teacher. I think that in a world with no scarcity technology would be used in a more proper way, we would not have any limitations on wealth and we would not need money! Yes, it does sound pretty cool and fun right? SURE! Who would not enjoy having no limitations on the wealth that today is centered on few people? Or that we do not need money because we lack of nothing? But also, I think that we would take LESS care of our world than what we do now that we DO have scarcity!

Though, I think that it is completely possible to get to have this wonderful world having a resource-based economy as Mr. Jaques Fresco refers to it! I did a little research on this topic and I found out that there is a project called: The Venus Project. This project wants to fight all the modern problems of our society, being crime, replacement of humans by technology, violence, the decline of Earth´s ecosystems, over-population, etc, etc .. by doing an active reseach, developement and application of the workable solutions at their research center located at Venus, Florida. Through the use of innovative approaches to social awareness, educational incentives and the consistend application of the best that science and technology can give and offer to the social system directly. Also, it offers a plan for social reclamation in which human beings, technology, and nature will be able to coexist in a long term, sustainable state of dynamic equilibrium. For this project they used the ceteris paribus, which we saw in class! Check it out: http://www.thevenusproject.com/. I found it very interesting and it has a really good ideal of the world :)!

Immigration ..

Yesterday, I heard my parents saying that the situation of Cananea was going from bad to worst. Since my family is from there and we visit it constantly, we have seen and felt how the mine's strike has affected the town. As Frida said in her post, Cananea is being called a "ghost town". That is because all businesses are being closed and people are moving out of there. Eventually, I asked myself: why is that happening? Well, people are starting to move into the United States looking for job opportunities because the mine was the most powerful source of jobs of this place and now that it is closed, it is affecting all of the other small businesses. I think that that is an awful consequence of the miner's act of going on a strike to defend a man who stole them millions of pesos. For that, now everyone in the town is suffering the consequences and have to immigrate to the US to find a job and support their families. Yeah, they might not get a lot of money and be very rich by going there, but at least it is something. Still, it is really dangerous for them to immigrate, since most of them go there illegaly. If they get caught, well of course, they are returned to Mexico if they cooperate with the border patrol. But what happens when the immigrant decides to run? They shoot him. I think that is sooo inhumane! Yes, the immigrant did wrong on trying to escape from the border patrol, but why dont these guys run after him?, I mean, I do not blame him for trying to survive and help his family. All of this brought me to think that we should think on making more job opportunities for mexicans IN MEXICO. We have a lot of resources, we just need to find out how to use them efficiently.

"Monopoly by the People"

Today we saw in class a now topic: Economic Systems. It attracted my attention immediately after I heard this systems decided who controlled resources and prices, which has a huge effect on almost every matter in our world, since resources and prices practically rule human behavior and action.
  After thinking a bit I decided that, according to my opinion, a Planned Economy, ruled 100% by the government, who decide how to manage resources and prices. This would be great, since it would be like a single, pure, total monopoly; this might sound evil, but if we think through, we will realize that it would be the monopoly of the government, meaning us, since the government is our representative, ending in no owner of the world.
If we look around we will notice that a lot of our economic and social problems are caused by competence, specially by big companies, which constantly struggle to get more profit, taking some actions that affect us greatly, but the worst part is that all this profit goes to very few people, the owners/investors of the company. In a planned economy all that profit would go to the only company in existence: the government's; which in time would get to us. And that's not it; the government would control prices, meaning they could be adjusted to the people's needs and desires.
However, in the other hand, this system would be very dangerous, since corruption could completely rotten the system, putting all the power in very few people. We would need a lot more social and moral evolution to ensure a pure functioning of this system. Also. since there will be no competence between companies, many technologies would get stuck, all because the companies doesn't have to worry for loosing it's costumers, being the only one in existence.