Amizing!

As many of my blogs, this one is about humans and their perception of life. For me, it’s curious that we go through life without noticing the little things that life has to offer. My father has taught me a lot about letting myself be amazed by the most insignificant things. It can be kind of silly, but those little images, sounds, smells, and feelings are the ones that make us realize that we’re alive and that we have a lot of things to enjoy.

It happens to me that I look thought the window and I see the tree that is right outside my house. It is a beautiful mesquite that my brothers and my parents planted when I was little. It is now flourished because of the spring and it has a gorgeous green and a little bit of yellow on its leaves. I listen to some Michael Bublé music and it makes me travel through time and imagine that I live in the 60’s and that I wear long skirts and that I have my hair curled. It actually makes me feel a little fancy and funny. Now that I feel that way, a smile comes out. I can also smell what my mom’s cooking for me. She’s preparing hamburgers and the smell of the meat is just great; it makes my stomach move.

These types of things make me enjoy moments in which I don’t precisely feel excellent, but the capacity to perceive in a positive way everything that surrounds me, it’s just great. I wonder how many joyful moments I’d have if I just remembered how happy it makes me feel to observe all the little details. I want to be like a kid that is amazed by everything.

“And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years” Abraham Lincon

We Really Are the World!

Last week I heard at Ludovik’s office a song that immediately caught my attention. I asked him about it and he told me that the name of the song was “We Are the World”. What a beautiful song! I said.

Now that I analyze it, it is not only a beautiful song because it is sung by around 80 good artists, but because of the intention of it. Since the earthquake happened in Haiti, many people joined their will to do something good and make the difference. In the Campus, for example, some students collected money to help Haitians. These artists made something similar but in a bigger scale, and they decided to sing this song that was once sung by Michael Jackson.

There have been many critics to this song, but I don’t really care because I see only at the good intention that was behind the action. iTunes was supporting this activity and every time the song was downloaded from the site, one dollar was going to Haiti.

I really appreciate moments when people unite for good causes. I know that what happened to Haiti wasn’t good at all, but looking to the positive side, we can see that that catastrophe made a lot of people be conscious about the conditions in which Haitians lived. A lot of persons, including me, weren’t aware that natural disasters happen and that we, as human, can so many things to help our people.

Procrastination

Procrastination in a scientific definition refers to the counterproductive deferment of actions or tasks to a later time. Psychologists often cite such behavior as a mechanism for coping with the anxiety associated with starting or completing any task or decision. There are three criteria for a behavior to be classified as procrastination: it must be counterproductive, needless, and delaying.

Procrastination may result in stress, a sense of guilt and crisis, severe loss of personal productivity, as well as societal disapproval for not meeting responsibilities or commitments. These feelings combined may promote further procrastination. While it is regarded as normal for people to procrastinate to some degree, it becomes a problem when it impedes normal functioning.

Procrastination may sound like a simple behavior or character flaw that is easy to overcome but it is anything but simple. Procrastination is the act of postponing, delaying or pushing back something that can be done now or soon to a later date or never.

Procrastination is quite complex. It involves emotions, skills, thoughts, attitudes, and many other factors that we are not conscious of. It is through the inner tuning of our minds that we react or act in this way. On top of that, the unpleasantness of one task varies from one person to another.

For example, right now I don't now what can I write, and that is a type of procrastination because I am closed and blocked and I have the lack of inspiration but I am trying my hardest to write a blog about anything.

The Secret Behind Google

Google is now one of the most powerful enterprises in the world based on the Internet search technologies that we all know and use every day. For some people, especially students, it has become a powerful and necessary weapon to know more information to do our homework. The company was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, both from the Stanford University. The use of Google has become so popular not only because is free to use, but the usefulness of the page as it organizes the entire world's information in just one place. Almost 99% percent of the profits of Google come from its advertising programs. The search engine, which is the most popular among us, dominates the US market. I think that this enterprise is one of the most successful ones and that has impacted the society the most. If we don't know something, we just google it. Google even has a page for almost every country, like "Google Mexico". As we move to new technologies, such as the Internet, people become more in contact with information they want to know in just a few seconds. It's like opening the doors to the world. However, the freedom of information that travels in the search engine of Google has also been banned in some countries like China, where the government wants to control the information to avoid "dangerous actions" against them. Since there is another blog talking about this issue, I will focus more in what is behind the Google enterprise. When we were on class of Planeación de Vida y Carrera, they show us a video of how the Google business works. I was surprised to see the excellent treatment the employers received. Human capital is a crucial element in a business, so I think that a good treatment from the enterprise will have its benefits. People not only will be happier but the work they will do will have a greater quality. Their environment is amazing, since they offer all the services inside the building such as, transport (bikes), restaurants, free beverages, dress the way they want, etc. It would be cool to work there :)

I think that this type of freedom can help people work in such a better way, they will feel free and less stressed. They don't have an established schedule and they even give them time to dedicate it to own personal projects. This is very important to maintain in an entreprise since it can affect it in a positive or a negative way. Sometimes I entered to businesses where the employeers seem so unhappy that they don't motivate you to buy anything or at least with a sensation of not coming back. Humans are not machines, we also deserve a good environment to work on!

Human Rights Watch

Children, gay and lesbian, women, Asians, Latin, black people, elders, people with disabilities. ALL of them are the vulnerable groups of society, the ones who are often left behind because 'they cannot handle everyday's life'or 'they are diferent from us'. All these fallacies are making people treat them unfairly and these groups are moving away from all the opportunities that you and I have.
But the worst part, is that there are people who treat them truly badly. People who feels superior than them, and they think they are all right. But, how can we stop this?
First of all, we must promote tolerance. At home, at school, at church, at the streets. Everywhere. Teach our children that everyone is equal. That skin color, age, sex, preferences, nationalities, disabilities,and others are not a barrier. We ourselves create those barriers that do not allow us see and make us judge before.

Then, we can create a human right watch culture. What does this mean? Human rights means looking after others. If we know of someone who is being maltreated or someone who maltreats, we must report it. We can help many people.

And finally, change our mind. We live in a very diverse world. We are all different, but that does not mean we have different right. We all have the same right and must respect that.

Annual March Against Abortion

A few days ago, the annual march agarinst abortion "March for Life" was celebrated in Washington, D.C. Thousands of abortion oppnents yelled and singed on the streets protesting against the 37th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's Roe Wade decision which legalized abortion. I'm suprised to read that abortion is legal in the United States since 1973. I always had been against abortion, since I think is one of the surgerys that shouldn't have ever be invented. It's a woman's choice, but still the result of this choices are 50 million babies had been aborted. These are more victims than the attacks of 11/9. It's sad to read this big numbers. Now, woman should start considering other alternatives. It doesn't have to be this way. It's not the baby's fault. Even though is a little defenseless being, you are killing a human. Not only that, the main right of every human is being violated: the right to live. Regardless of the culture you are from, violating a universal human right is totally absurd. We shouldn't let this happen in our society. We need to be "conscious" of our actions, and be prepared for the consequences. Some of the solutions that are available are: adoption, prevention programs, support for pregnant woman and families, etc. The government needs to prioritize the rights of their people, even the smallest one that hadn't see the world, yet.

Nature vs. Human

Why most of the people are going green lately? Isn't too late to start taking action or are we on the right path? I think that global warming involves society, politics, economics, and even more. The human species is playing a game against nature, and we can already deduce who is going to win. Yes, we had made a progress in technology and now being "conscious" of our actions, but we can't control nature's fury can we? An example that comes to my mind with this question is Hurricane Katrina, which with on southern Florida on 2005, that leave destructions everywhere and the costs of them were high up in the sky. My point here is that we can't avoid a natural disaster to happen, just predict it and run away from danger like scared deer.We would have to abandon everything and start a new life elsewhere, which is not an easy thing. Nature provide us all what we need to survive, but we are so selfish that we always want to do it our way. Burning fossil fuels to create plastics, electricity, etc. We have some solutions to get clean energy, recycle plastic bottles, but the action is missing. Apply what is said is the hardes thing. Not only humans will suffer the consequences of the climate change, but also the beings that share this world with us. These beings include animals and plants aswell. Sadly, they will be carried away with our bad actions. The number of individuals of a species is reducing in great number, especially in the North Pole. The melting ice takes away the home for Polar Bears. It's not fair, not at all.

On the political side, this has also become a hot topic. In the recent world meeting "Copenhagen 2009", politics and activists from the main countries were supposed to get on an agreement to reduce their Co2 emissions so that the world temperature doesn't increase more than 2 °C. However, Greenpeace said that the "treaty" made was a weak poltical statement, because the agreement made weren't enough to reduce the emissions, and that the world temperture will increase at lest 3 °C. Climate change in inevitable. Some politics don't take this issues seriously. Time will make them understand, but we will all be affected. The more we help in little details, like recycling, the bigger the difference is. Hopefully, later in the future everyone include "ecology" in their daily actions.