Air Pollution

One of the most important issues that we are hearing nowadays is the environmental crisis. This environmental crisis refers to the global warming and all the causes and consequences of it. One of the factors is air pollution that contributes a lot in global warming. Air pollution can come from the methane of cows to the gases expelled by the industries and large factories. All these gases are trapped in the atmosphere and provoke the global warming by holding more heat from the sun rays, this is normal, until it becomes too much. What we need to do is control our emissions of CO2, methane, halocarbons, and the volatile organic compounds like dust.
Dust is also a really big problem, especially here in Hermosillo. If you take a look at our city form the highway in the afternoon or in the morning you can notice that there is a dust dome covering it. I don’t know how we could control this problem, but it causes a lot of effects on people, like allergies. We should find a way to make it better so this is no longer a problem, if we took care of it, we would also be making a change to prevent global warming, besides, I could use saving some sneezes.

There are no jobs for us

A few weeks ago in the newspaper there was an article about labour expectations in México. It talked about how many young adults have an interest in working but have no job expectations. In 2009 with the population between 14 and 29 years old there was an 8.94% that had no labour expectations, which is the highest that has ever been. Why is this happening? Because of the crisis many companies have closed, investment is lower and salaries are too. The only ones who can aspire to have a job, that would probably not fit their expectations, are the ones with the higher level of education and with the best academic preparation. All this means that 2.7 million young adults don't have job aspirations. What is left for us to do is study harder and better, because until there are more jobs or more companies, which could take years or not happen, we need to be the best of the best, otherwise we won't be good enough even for a job consider to have a low rank. And according to experts, the vision of the future isn't getting any better.

792 thousand sonorans live in poverty

On March 20th of this year there was an article in the paper entitled 792 thousand sonorans live in poverty. 340 thousand people live in extreme poverty in Sonora, and in total 792 thousand live in poverty, and they are located primarily in the south of the state. This article said that the government was going to try to take out of extreme poverty the 43% of the population that lives in it. For this only 1% of the state budget is given, which according to the majors of Cajeme and Navojoa is insufficient, but still helpful. Also, the government will give concrete floors to the 65 thousand homes that don't have one, according to Javier Neblina Vega (Sedesson). This goal is set to be achieved in the next 2 years. I think this is an extremely difficult task, and even more when there isn't enough money, but at least the government is trying to do something about.

EU and Russia sign agreement on nuclear disarmament

When i read this new, i found it really interesting because the fact that Barack Obama is fighting for peace, or to make the world more peaceful is something we should be thanking a lot.

Today, April 8, the president of the US, Barack Obama and the president of Russia, Dimitri Medvedev, signed a new agreement a "historical" agreement: treaty START. This treaty has as purpose to reduce or to eliminate the nuclear weapons, which, as we know, can cause great damage in societies.

President Barack Obama thanked Dimitri Medvedev for his grood cooperation on the new commitment to nuclear disarmament. This treaty kind of obligates both parties (Russia & US) to reduce the amount of each of nuclear weapons within the next seven years from 2200 weapons to 1550.

Im not sure if this treaty will work as Barack Obama hopes, but the fact that there is someone that already did something about all this violence in the world, and the fact that people will start to worry more about this is something to be happy about. I hope other countries join this treaty so the world can become peaceful.

http://www.elimparcial.com/EdicionEnLinea/Notas/Internacional/08042010/440077.aspx

Sonora: The Alcohol Oasis .. ?

I was reading the news paper the other day, and I found this article called " Sonora el "oasis" del alcohol". I thougt this was a catchy title and decided to read all the article. It started saying that for every liter of milk that is consumed two of beer are too. This happens even with the theory that only people over 18 years can consume the alcoholic beverages.

In Sonora, alcohol is basicaly everywhere : in the little stores in every corner, in the supermarket, in the higways, near the offices, on our way to school, even in clandestine places!

In our state there are 2 394 861 persons, and the Secretaria de Hacienda del Estado has 6 639 valid permissions to sell alcohol in it. In any of the 72 municipalities of the state they could tell you they can not prepare you a plate because they do not have all of the ingredients, but never will they tell you that they have no beer.

For each 361 persons there is a business where you can buy any kind of alcoholic beverage that you like, go ahead and do the math ;) . Yes, our state is one of the principal alcohol consumers of the country , especially in beer.

Beer is so available ANYWHERE! Specially in rural zones, like the little towns all around our city, you might not find a school, a hospital, but oh wait! there are like three expendios!!

The Encuesta Nacional de Adicciones 2002 informed the state that 87% of the people of Sonora consumes alcohol in a variable frequency, when 32% does it in excess.

The consequences of living in this "oasis" of alcohol, does not limit on damaging the health of the people but also affect the public security, the peace in the homes and the person´s jobs. It is a factor that generates poverty since the Encuesta Nacional de Ingreso y Gasto en Hogares from INEGI revealed that 2.8% the family budget is used to buy alcohol.

I think that the people who drink are not only harming themselves but all the people around them, specially their families. Some people say that that is not true but it is! They harm the family in a direct or indirect way, being that the drunk person gets home so drunk that s/he could hurt one of the members of his/her family in many fatal ways; if s/he loses his/her job because of the alcohol, their family will be affected because they will have no money, there are A LOT of examples like this.

Going back to the milk example, did you know that 220 000 liters of milk are consumed, while 452 055 liters of beer are consumed daily? Or that 2 090 000 pesos are consumed on milk, while 7 232 880 pesos are spent on beer daily? Or that 762 850 000 pesos are spent on milk, while 2 640 001 200 on bear every year? Yep : I was surprised too ..

It starts with you

I was doing my ethics homework and I got this idea of doing this blog post about it. I mean, we are all talking about global problems, problems in our society or in other societies; and we should really start to take some action for every one of them.

As answered some questions about values I came to the sense that it starts at the individual level. We know what values are, we have a moral code, we know what right and what is wrong. We should all think about the actions we do every day, even when you brush your teeth, you should think about it and consider if there is something you could do to make it be better to conrtibute for a greater good. Big steps start with small actions, lets save water, treat everyone with respect, don't throw trash on the floor, use your car less, be honest, be responsible, be respectful, and do all the good things that you can do. Every day when you are about to go to sleep, think back on your day and see what you did to help, trust me, you will feel better.

The cost of abusing

On thursday I was reading the paper and I came across a really intersting column by Leo Zuckermann called "Los costos del abuso". In this column, he talks about how here in México everyone abuses of the easy things. To explain this he gives the example of the canadian visa, he explains how we as mexicans were given the oportunity to live there as refuges, if we needed it. In this system they went in as mexicans and aplied to be in the system, for the time they needed to do research and consider if you really needed "shelter" they supplied them with income, as well as free education and health services. Mexicans started to take advantage of this, and even when they didn't fit the standards to be refugees they stayed there as illegals. The canadian government realized that people were doing this, and now we all have to pay the price and going to Canada is much more difficult.

This hasn't just happened in this case, it happens with everything, and it is why we have to make all those long lines and fill all those papers, because we abuse. He also compares México with the United Kingdom, because he had the experience to be as a student there, and he was surprised when they lent him a lot of money, a friend of his from them told him it was because they trusted him.

I believe that we, as individuals should change our behavior and use the oportunities we are given wisely, and not abusing, because they can take it away from us. Besides, the government is investing more than they should in making this strict regimens, we shouldn't need them to do that, we should be able to take advantage of something without abusing.

Internet addiction killed a baby girl

Yesterday an interesting new was published. This sad new was about a corean baby girl that died of innutrition because her parents were internet addicts. Her parents were desemployed adults of 41 and 25 years old who played a virtual game named “Prius Online” for about 6 to 8 hours a day and didn’t give the enough attention and food to their daughter. This internet addiction took them to have a dead daughter and took them directly to jail.

With this article we can see what an addiction can do, the consequences of addictions, why should we avoid them and in the case of having an addiction the answer to “what should I do?” is: ASK FOR HELP!... to get attention and be able to get out of this addiction you have to first accept you have a problem and then ask for help so you can get through it without hurting so much yourself or other people.

We must be carful with the people you hang around because they may be bad people and it’s not good for you to hang around with people that can take you to an addiction or to do bad things.

Here is the link of the new

http://www.elimparcial.com/EdicionEnLinea/Notas/Internacional/06032010/433973.aspx

Economy "Growing"?

Last tuesday our president, Felipe Calderon, was at the inauguration of a golf course at Bahía de Banderas, Nayarit; while giving his speech, he said that our economy will grow 4-5%. In 2009, our country´s economy decreased for 6% because of the world´s economic crisis. He stated that the country is increasing quickly with the international market. He said that a proof of this was that 100 000 new jobs were recovered according to IMSS. Another proof was that our country´s "grade" of risk, was near Chile´s, the least of Latin America, meaning that our economy is one of the bests of Latin America?

Now, I was wondering: is this true? I would not believe it 100%, how will our economy grow if he just approved another raise on the gasoline´s price? Sure, HIS economy will grow! But what about us? We will have to spend MORE money on gasoline. I really don´t know what to think about this, I just think it is somewhat unfair, yes, if the price rises it means there is more supply right? But he thinks everybody can afford gasoline like if it was I don´t know, water? Besides, international organisms said that Mexico´s economy will grow only 1% this year. Shocking isn´t it? When I read this article, I went on and read the comments, 1 out of every 15 comments approximately was "positive" all the other people commented saying that he should quit lying. I know most of us say that we don´t care about economy, but it affects us directly simply with the fact that our parents can´t give us money or we think it is very few compared to what they gave us some years ago. I think that we will not progress if prices keep rising at this rate.. we need to work something out because this crisis is affecting us severly :..

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.

Poverty and crime

Overpopulation leads to lack of jobs, which leads to poverty. When people are desperate to get out of it, they look for an "easy" way out, crime. In crime you don't need to fit standards, you don't have to get hired, you just have to get money from others without being caught. I'm sure they are aware committing a crime is a bad thing, unless they have some sort of psychological problem, but they do it anyways, they do it to survive and maybe take care of a family too. What should we do to stop crime? I think there isn't much an individual person can do about this, but in a bigger scale, more jobs could be created, but how and from where? And if we need to end poverty why do we give those new jobs to people who don't need them as much? Because it is in our best interest, what does it has to do with me that someone thinks he needs to recur to crime to eat every day? It has to do with me because every person has a right to live properly, it has to do with me because it isn't fair that someone is swimming in a pool of money and the other in mud, it has to do with me because no one should be committing any crime, no matter how small or big it is, it's still a crime, and no one should get money by this dishonest and awful means.

What can I do know? I can start by stop complaining about what i don't have and start being grateful about what I do have, because not many people are as lucky as we are.

Water scarcity

Water scarcity is a problem we have heard too much about. There is not enough water, we have to save it, the "tandeo" is the way, etc. But on the other side we hear the rivers are flowing full with water, the dams are overflowing and cities are in danger of flooding. So is there really so little water?

I think the government is trying to create some kind of fear and to change our behavior towards the use of water, by manipulating the information and starting this system to distribute water. Now we are aware we have to spare water, but why if it is so scarce they are charging us so little. I think it is because water is essential for our survival, we use it every day at all hours, they can't take that away from us by charging us more because lots of people wouldn't be able to afford it; for me this would be the same as taking food away from them. So i think the tandeo would be a good idea for this moment, but it's only making the state lose more money and water, because in several parts of the city the pipes aren't working well, so there are leaks and water gets everywhere but where it needs to get. So in theory it would be a great system to start now and don't leave it until there is actually no water, but it isn't being done properly.

Inequality and discrimination

In current times inequality is more noticeable than ever. The difference between classes is bigger, the middle class is the smallest group, and as always the social class or category means a lot to people. Inequality to me means the unfair difference of opportunities that the richest people get compared to the ones that the poorest get. Seeing it this way we can understand that inequality means that there is also a part called discrimination that gets involved.

Discrimination means the unfair treatment of a group of people according to specific characteristics, such as category, that includes prejudice.I think we all understand why this is wrong, but sometimes we don't even notice we are judging someone.

As I already said inequality leads to discrimination, but it happens the other way around too. When a person is looking for a job looks affect too. The presentation of the person is also important, the people who are considering hiring make a judgement, if they don't like it they discriminate this person. This happens all the time but we don't really think it's wrong because someone with a job like, for example, a salesman, has to have a good presentation. Therefore, this person won't get this really good job, he would find it harder to find another and he probably won't , this means he would be earning no money: Inequality.

So inequality leads to discrimination, I am sure this is wrong; but when it's the other way around it is unfair for some people, but it is the most convenient for the others.

Obviously this problem does not end here, this also has to do with the lack of education, job distribution, overpopulation, poverty and so on. This is a big problem involving many others that has to get deeper into to fully understand and know what to do about it and how.

Unemployment in Hermosillo

As we have seen in class unemployment is an issue that derives from overpopulation. It has to do with the distribution of jobs and not having enough for all the people. This later on leads to immigration and so on. But right now we are focusing in how we can see unemployment in Mexico. I think we all are aware that this is a problem that has been talked about since a long time ago, but right now it is only getting worst.

With the change in the government in September many people have lost their jobs in government offices. There was more employees than needed, and those people were fired. Even here in Hermosillo, at the former "Hospital Materno Infantil", there were what they call temporal workers. These people have a contract for six months and they renewed it every time it finished with the last government. When it changed these people weren't payed for a month, but when they did, they fired them. I understand that they are trying to save money and maybe even think about efficiency, but some of them were known for being really good at what they did. Taking away their jobs from people just to do so is not a good reason, maybe saving money is, but there are more things than that to take into consideration. This actions aren't fair, they are not well thought, and it isn't the thing that would lead them to be better.