Solar Energy

It is important for us to look for different ways in which we can obtain electricity, besides oil; because how we all know, oil is not meant to last forever and it is coming to an end. One way in which we can obtain electricity is from solar panels. Solar panels are made up of photovoltaic cells which rely on the suns light and heat to produce energy.

There are many advantages to the use of solar panels or solar cells, they can be put anywhere, on top of houses and on different types of buildings. In fact there are several big stores that are currently using solar panels to produce their electricity, like wal-mart and Sam’s Club. I think that they are putting a great example by starting to use this kind of machinery to produce energy. Beside creating energy, it can also be used to create heat in houses, plus it is very economical and if the energy produced is more than the one used it can be sold back.

I think solar panels would be a great idea to have here in Hermosillo and in all Mexico, because we get a lot of sun. They could be anywhere in the world, because even if there isn’t much light the solar panels have a thermal storage where the elements are preserved so they can be used also at night time.

Solar panels more than other energy sources are eco-friendly, because it just used the suns light to produce all kinds of energy and it also produced a huge amount of it.

Could It Replace the Fossil Fuels?

The humanity has been dependent on the fossil fuels for several decades, almost every vehicle or machine works thanks to a derivative of them, but what are we going to do when we run out of fossil fuels?. This is a question that many countries are trying to answer. Well I think that a possible answer for this question is the use of Biodiesel.

The Biodiesel is a fuel that is derived from 100% renewable resources; many people in the world believe that Biodiesel is the fuel of the future. Biodiesel does not contain petroleum; it is made through a process called transesterfication, in which glycerine is removed from vegetable oils or fats. Biodiesel is free from substances like sulfur and aromatics which are found in traditional fuels. The use of this fuel is great in many ways, for example, it is biodegradable and non-toxic, and surprisingly it is so safe that it is even safer than the commonly used table salt. In a way it would even benefit our planet because the levels of pollution could decrease in a considerable way.

As I said before, one of the biggest features about biodiesel fuel is that is it environmentally-friendly, which means that it is not as toxic as other fuels. It is made from renewable resources, so it does not cause harmful effects to the environment that will produce positive effects on the future generations. It is also good for the economy of a country, because it comes from the resources which can be produced in any country, and by saying this I mean that a country can become fewer dependent on foreign countries and the money used for buying fossil fuels could be used for other purposes. A lot of countries such as Germany, Canada, The United States, France, Italy, Malaysia and Sweden already use this fuel. This could be a great replacement for the fossil fuels, because it has a lot more advantages than disadvantages, and I really think that we should use this fuel now and try to help the environment in a certain way.

Culture

We have defined culture as a way of life, history and common characteristics. Culture is who we are our beliefs and values, our customs and traditions. As we saw in class culture can be seen in different ways, like the language we speak, our symbols, our customs, etc.

Each culture is different, but still is contains the same basic elements. It is impressive how just by moving a couple of miles north, south, east or west you can find different cultures and no of them are the same as the other. All very impressive and very beautiful as well.

Has we have learned, culture consists in patterns of behavior in individuals and as a whole, like a group. Culture can only be acquired through learning, because that way we can later pass it on to the next generation. Although because of this sometimes culture can change a bit, not only because of internal factors but also external ones. Some external factor can be like immigrants which bring their culture into our country, or when we travel to other countries, there we get to know other cultures and sometimes if we like it we adapt it to our own. This is where multiculturalism, melting pot and cultural mosaic come in. I totally agree with cultural mosaic because no matter were they go than can always keep their culture, which is like their identity, and not have it taken away and forced to adapt to another culture. I also agree with multiculturalism because I find it very important to respect other people’s ideas and beliefs even though they are not from the same place I am.

I have a friend who loves meeting all kind of people and getting to know about their cultures, she is very sociable and fun. She finds it very interesting, all the kind of things people get to do in different places of the world. If you just take the time, you will find out many interesting facts and get to learn a lot to.

Costa Rica has new president, a woman

Costa Rican presidential candidate Laura Chinchilla of the ruling National Liberation Party made history by becoming the first woman to be the commander in chief in that country.

Polls showed Chinchilla garnering 46.8 percent of the vote, with 71.1 percent of election sites reporting. Solis had 25 percent, while Otto Guevara of the Libertarian Movement had 21 percent. Election day was festive throughout the nation, with video footage showing supporters of the main presidential candidates dressed in their respective campaign colors.

60 years ago, women could not even vote, or do any other role that wasn't taking care of her family's home. Now we have an example in the person of Laura Chinchilla of how the female sex is improving in society. In the news channels now we see dozens of women who are reporting the news from the place of the events, role that was covered only by men decades ago.

It is amazing how women had progressed in the last years. Remember that former president of Chile, Michelle Bachelet was also president. There's no doubt about, in years we will continue to see more important roles assumed by women. This society movement did not started today with Chinchilla's president election, is just a reminder of how women are becoming each day more important in society, more that they already are.

LOSING TIME?

Today I was so stressed, because i had a lot of homework to do and of course finish my math study guide. I woke up at 8 a.m. and when I notice what it was it was 12 o'clock, and i strated thinking what have i done in my day until today. Firts I woke up and take breakfast, then I order my room, and of course I turned on my computer. Messenger is part of my daily life the easiest way of communication, but today I realized how many time I waste in my computer using messenger to communicate with my friends about non sense things. Thinking about that I notice many times we use phones, cell phones, msn, hotmail, or any type of communication just to loose time. I think we should star considering this kind of means to communicate important things, and not to waste time. Maybe one day you will need to call urgently to an ambulance, and your brother will be fighting with his girlfriend by phone about who loves more the other. So be aware and do not lose time in stupid things, and you will notice by the end of the day that you have plenty of time to waste, and you can now use it in whatever you want.

A Legal Crime

I firmly believe that abortion shouldn't be legal in Mexico. For me, abortion is killing.
If we all have the right to decide if we want to live or die, shouldn't the baby decide to? And if he cannot, shouldn't we just let him live?

Abortion is a very polemic topic. We hear that women are capable to decide if they want to have the baby or not, and we also listen to others say that they don't have the right to choose for another's life, among other comments.

What I do believe is that the legalization of abortion will cause more problems than we already had.
For example, it is proven that more than half of the women that go through an abortion have psychological problems and crisis after the surgery. The "purpose" of abortion is to release women from a problem, not to get them into another.

Another problem of the legalization of abortion is that women can look at abortion as a method of contraception, and it is not! This can make women be careless about their sexuality and to lose integrity.

I think that babies are not a mistake (not even if it's because of rape), and that abortion is not the solution. There are always more humanistic ways to handle the non-wanted pregnancy, like giving the newborn in adoption or to learn how to love him.

In summary, my perspective about the legalization of abortion is that it's a legal crime because it's a homicide, and a cruel one because the baby is inoffensive.

Reaching Paradise

I was seeing japanese animations (don't judge me! I like them ): ) and one of them had captured my special attention. This animation's name was Higashi no Eden ( Eden of the East).

This animation was about a guy who received a cellphone with a massive amount of money with it. By having this, he entered a weird game that was about SAVING japan. By saving japan, I talk about the usual problems that whichever country has to deal with, like poverty, overpopulation, crime, etc..Anyways, this boy and other characters that have the same kind of cellphone have to do something in order to save their country. A man invested his money on a hospital. I think this was a REALLY great idea to save his country but the other characters on the story made things that I never thought could save a country.

One character suggested to kill all old people. Since they don't work and abstain to change their old points of views, they are a non productive resource to the country.

Another one suggested to kill all teenagers and people that the only thing they do is staying home doing nothing. They also keeped japan from growing, since they aren't working and only consuming its resources.

And another one just wanted to bring missiles to japan and with the population that survived start all over again.

This made me think that infact there are BAD ways to make a country prosperous. But the only problem is that they are doing it the wrong and lazy way. Here the problem is the way people think. They could implement institutions to help this people, like giving education to old people and to give reasons to work to those that don't bother to work. The only bad side of making institutions for helping is that they usually take a lot of time ( the characters needed quick methods, since changing people's mind is not as quick as killing them) so, how will you save your country?

TV

The TV is a mass media that has penetrated into the homes and has changed the behavior inside of them. Children have become so acustumbrated to TV and somehow the TV has become the nanny of them or an entertainer while their parents are doing activities inside their home or outside.

Parents are responsible for the programs their children watch, but parents forget about the norms they have to establish to their kids so they can enjoy watching TV in a better way and not in a wrong term.

The damage can range from com physical damage in their eyes, to a psychologist manner because the TV can change the behavior in the child.
The television has been harmful because it prevents most beneficial activities for the human being like reading, listening to music or playing with family members to improve social relations.

With television we learn to be silent and withdrawn. To prevent irreversible damage, we must choose what kind of programs can the children see, to be careful with the programs that young kids are watching.It is also beneficial for parents to seat with their to watch TV and to comment about the programs they are watching to make them reflect and to improve comunication.

Publicity can sometimes be a bad example for toddlers, ad parents should pat attention to the comments and explications that they should give to their children when they are asking for an answer.

If we give a proper use to the tecnologies from now a day, we are cooperating to create young persons to be more succesful in their lifes, with a vision of success in future and with a open vision to a person with success.

Deforestation

A definition for deforestation is described as the clearance of natural forests by the process of human logging or burning of trees and plants in a forested area. Truly it is more than this; people do not realize that when they destroy all these trees and plants around us they are really slowly destroying themselves.

Many people do not know the importance of trees on earth, they cut them down and cut them down without thinking of the consequences, the only thing they ever think about is how big the buildings are going to be and how much more trees they need to chop down so they can have enough space for their construction. Trees and plants are vital for our survival, the provide oxygen to humans and all living creatures. They are important because they keep a balance in nature, without them we would not be able to survive long, especially in the contaminated world we live in.

Besides giving us such an important thing as oxygen (which we cannot live without), plants provide us many types of foods, sometimes shelter including furniture, different medicines and rains. But with the cutting of so many trees and so little of them being planted, we will soon have no trees to give us all that that has been mentioned.

As I said, plants keep balance in the ecosystem, without them animals would have no were to live, no were to go and nothing to eat. Soon they would start dying and leaving us with fewer animals than what there is now a days, which would eventually affect us in so many ways we cannot even imagine. So, we should start to become a bit more conscientious about our actions and start to take more care of the world we live in.

Obesity

Many people are now worried about the appearance of being a "healthy" person, we hear the terms of anorexia and bulimia, we fear about being too skinny and not having a good diet, but we sometimes don't think about the opposite; have we ever thought about obesity? What this problem is and how it affects us?

If you didn't know it, Mexico ranks among the "fattest countries", the ones with more people with overweight or obesity. Haven't you noticed it yet?

If one day you go out, try to count how many "fat" people you see on the street, I think most of them will have at least a big belly. But, should we alarm ourselves about that?

I believe we should. Obesity, nowadays, is an alarming problem. Why? Because it directly affects our lives; we have a higher risk of physic and mental diseases and even we get to modifiy our genetic code.

So, what should we do to eradicate this problem? I don't think the problem itself comes from the fast-food restaurants or the fact that we have a life where devices do assignments for us, but it comes from the fact that we have a sedentary life and we don't do anything to change that.

Not because we go to a "Mcdonald's" we will gain ourselves a belly, but we have to reflect about our actions: we have to eat healthy, we have to do exercise, we have to occupy ourselves in something else than just being sitting down or lying on bed.

We also see another problem like the one of culture. As there's a culture for food, there's obviously a pattern of what people from a specific place look like. We have to prioritize our needs: what we need to eat, and how much activity we have to do. That's it. No more problems, we have to start a culture of a healthy lifestyle or our children will be like us. If we don't start to change our lifestyle, no one's going to do it for us.

I.V.A... good or bad?

They rose the I.V.A and what for? They say they will use that money for making more jobs, make better infrastructure and all that stuff, and we should believe them, but I have issues in the part of the people that pay that tax. Because how many people pay that tax? I think that the percentage of people that pay that is so little and ironically the ones that gain more money (the richest) are the ones that avoid more taxes, while the people that have less money have more difficulties when avoiding taxes, so they avoid less taxes and obviously they pay more.

I found this really unfair, and because the ones that have less pay more than the ones that have more (according to the percentage everybody should pay). In my personal opinion the government should do something with this problem because it shouldn’t continue because as a country it should have a value called equality and this problem can cause much more problems, for example: can make the difference between classes even bigger.

It is important that everybody pays taxes because with that money government can pay & produce more jobs, make better our infrastructure, highways, buildings, etc. But it is also important to check what do our representatives do with our money (check that they’re not stealing it, using it appropriately, etc.)

An International Movement: the Superbowl

As every time it happens, the super bowl is a phenomenon in the United States, Canada, and in Mexico. This time the final was Colts vs Saints and it caused a total revolution in these countries.

Sports are part of the culture of the countries, as in Mexico we are fanatic of soccer, in the US the main sport is football. It is so significant that in Hollywood there are more movies about football than any other sport.

My point is that there are certain factors in culture such as sports that influence a lot in what identify us and the way we relate. Competitiveness and rivalry are affect the way people interact. Sometimes they are so extreme that brake up friendships and it causes problems with your partners. I really believe that is good to have a team to support and show your passion to sports, but it is not normal to have problems because of that.

I consider very funny the fact that, even the super bowl is in the United States, many other countries such Mexico and Canada feel the passion of football and feel really interested in watching the game.

I guess that shows pretty clear that religion is not the only aspect of culture that unifies countries. Sports, even it looks like an insignificant part of our lives, are really important for many of us and they play an important roll in culture.

Racism, The Impediment of Progress

I was interested in this issue because I have noticed that our society constantly makes racist jokes by calling each other nigger, Negro, and other insults related to black people or people from other cultures, when we really don’t know how serious this problem is.

First of all racism is defined as the belief that characteristics and abilities can be attributes to people simply on the basis of their race and that some racial groups are superiors to others. We have to understand that Racism is not only about black and white people, it also involves people from any culture in the world. This problem affects the society in such a level that it has been used as weapon by encouraging fear or hatred of others in situations of crisis.

An example of this kind of discrimination occurs in the US, where racism is a well known issue. Several actions such as police brutality against minorities and also the history of slavery in which slave labor by African Americans created a great amount of wealth in the United States and unfairly, this wealth was all taken by white people. We are all living beings, and we must be treated in the same way. The use of values such as respect and tolerance is the key for the end of this inhuman practice. If we want to progress it is important to learn to tolerate the people around us, even though their race, culture or social class. The world must be joined so we can face any other global issue.

Should governments take part of the banks' policies?

Nowadays, neoliberalism is what shapes our lives. We live under this economic ideology which benefits the capitalist thoughts and also says that governments should not have a big influence in the economy, but must let it develop itself, build itself and recover itself.

This term has been put in doubt since we have seen since the last year, the impact of the current global crisis. Many people have started to wonder if governments should, again, intervine in the economies' problems and try to "give it a hand" in order for it to recover quicklier.

The main problem is when it comes to banks: banks don't accept the help from the governments, and thus, they don't recover as quickly as they would if they had that assistance.

Now, the thing is that if banks start allowing governments to help them, we should reconsider the current economic ideology we live under. We had already experienced past crisis due to this same ideas; so, besides leaving the crisis behind, we also have to think what the best idea for economics is.

I am not really good at economy, and I don't really know how it works; however, I believe there should be another option besides government intervention or not. Is there something we can call a "mid-term"? Or must we look for another possibility of reshaping our economy? This is a big problem for both governments and banks right now.

What I am sure of, is that we have to look to the past to see how the past ideologies have work and how efficient is one of them. Although this may take time, it will be better if after 5 or 10 years we come up with a new economic ideology that will benefit us all for a long long time without any big problems.

Holidays

Holidays.

I know what you’re thinking. This isn’t a topic to talk about in the “Economics, Politics and Society” class. But it is somehow related, because holidays (or bank-holidays in England) are based in legends or true events that happened in the past, leaving a mark in our world. This holidays, therefore, have 2 interesting approaches: they are reflected in the culture of certain societies and they represent a major market explosion. In this post I’ll analyze both of them.

As part of the society, holidays vary around the world. The national holidays are obviously different regarding the country, and the ones that are the same in several countries might be celebrated in very different forms. For example, Halloween is a whole event in the USA, while in México we also celebrate the “Día de Muertos”, but two days later and in a very different way. While the American kids go fooling around with a costume asking for candy, Mexicans built altars for the beloved that have already passed away. It’s amazing for me how we’re able to have so many holidays around the world and how much weight and importance they have on our society’s way of living.

Talking about the second approach, the economy of a certain country is extremely changed because of these holidays. For example, Valentine’s Day. Have you any idea of how much candies, chocolates, flowers, balloons and gifts are bought? It’s all about marketing. This holiday specifically, has nothing to do with a country’s culture, it’s just something someone invented in order to make this revolution happen, although it’s possible only one time per year.

And what about Christmas? Isn’t it a day to celebrate Jesus’ birthday? Aren’t we supposed to congratulate him and buy HIM presents? I know this is a very catholic point of view, but I think that no matter which religion you follow, you’ll agree that Christmas wasn’t created (at least at the beginning) to make every family exchange gifts between them. It’s marketing again who’s doing his job. It’s marketing again who’s moving the whole country’s economy, and in some cases, the whole world.

I know my point of view may sound a little critic but I just criticize how people forget what the essence of something is about and they just go following what everybody else does. Besides that, I have nothing against holidays. Actually, I’m really glad that these days exist in order to join entire families or even entire countries, and that an economy that might be going towards recession is a little bit saved by these phenomena. Besides, who could not love Holidays? We don’t have to work those days =)!!

Current crisis in Europe

We all know that the current crisis has affected our lives; we need to pay more for goods and services, we have to prioritize our expenses, and many other consequences.
Although the crisis' problems have been regulated and the economy is becoming more stable, there are still some aspects that suffer from the crisis. One of those aspects is the one that includes Europe.

There are some countries like Spain or Greece whose economy is still the worst in the eurozone due to the current global crisis, this countries have the largest desompleyment percentage (20% and 10% respectively) and have bigger expenses that income.

What the EU is trying to do is to help these countries by telling them how they should manage their economies; however, the governments are not always willing to follow these instructions.

I believe that if the economy of these, and some other European countries, continues to grow negatively, we could fear that the cost of the Euro will fall and a lot of social issues (migration, immigration, discontent among people) will become present. Also, I think we would fear the relations between Spain, Greece, etc. and the rest of the world (Including México) regarding its comercial exchange. I believe that the politic parties should set aside the opinion of the people about the parties' popularity and should focus on raising their countries' economies; in order, for there to be a faster exit of the current crisis.

Human Behavior & Movies

Yesterday I went to my grandmother’s house and she was watching an old movie and I joined her to watch it and while I was watching it I noticed that they are way different from ours. I’m not talking about special effects and all that because they have changed a lot; but I’m talking about the behavior that all the characters have, they are so different from the ones in the present.

To start they are so polite, they talk with so much respect to their relatives and the people that is bigger. Their fights are kind of just discussions; the man is kind of gentleman that sees the woman as the perfect figure and tries to inspire love in her by telling poems and all that stuff. In comparison with the present movies that the characters talk to each other as normal, without respect, now it is easier make a woman fall in love.

With all these characteristics I tried make a little bit clearer that when people changes behaviors, movies do the same, to make us feel that they are normal activities. And so other times they change our behaviors, because we take movies as examples for our lives and that’s where my question is: What happened? The movies changed our antecessors? Or their behavior changed movies? Here we can also notice that human behavior changes so quickly that from one decade something can be correct but the next decade can be wrong.

Celebrity Cult

People in the world often admire those persons that because of their talent on the field of entertainment, reach a certain level of fame and recognition around the globe. It's not wrong to admire someone, in fact I think it's good to have a role model, but in some cases, people take this into higher levels, creating an obsession for celebrities, and acquiring a desire for being focused about others people's life. The common interest about the lifes of celebrities is presented in almost every type of media: magazines, papers, television, internet.

Celebrity magazines tells everything about the latest gossips about the famoust celebrities in the globe, and it has a large audience among people, especially teenagers. Its caused by an increase focus on celebrity enternainment industry, an example of this, could the television, like we mentioned before, that has various recognized channels which promote in high levels the cult of celebrity.

I personally don't think that is something bad to be concerned with others lifes, only if its just for curiosity. I think that exagerating in this topic is a problem which anybody can suffer, and it can lead to worst things like getting obssesed about someone, or in some cases start stalking the person. Everything sould have a balance, and be concious about the consequences of those acts, mainly, we should live our own lifes without being obssesed about a person that generally we dont even know.

Selfishness Reflected in the Super Bowl

Did you saw the game? Colts vs. Saints? What a shame, I was cheering for the Colts team. :( Even though, it was an EXCELLENT game. I went to see the game at a friend’s house. We were all there, cheering for our teams and having fun.

When watching the game, I noticed something. ALL of my friends bet, not only to one person, otherwise than to several people. And they didn’t bet just 50 pesos, nor 100.. they bet more than 300!!! It was really amazing because imagine this: you bet 300 pesos to 4 people. Make the calculation. One thousand two hundred pesos!!! Imagine paying all this money only because your favorite team lost a game. My friends who lost their bets were almost crying.

They can do whatever they please with their money; ultimately it’s their own money. But, isn’t it more useful to invest that money in something else of more benefit, or of more profit?

We all people are very selfish. If you are able to lose that amount of money in stupid things such a football game, why don’t you sometimes give or invest that money in someone who really needs it? Think about it…

For example, that really rich people who bet millions and millions, why don't they help improve poverty? Maybe their contribution does not make such a difference, but something is something. Why people do not hesitate when they bet, and when they are asked to give some money for charity they complain?

Don't be such an elbow!! JAJAJA!!

Technology against Privacy

Today’s technologies allow us to be communicated all the time. Social networks like Facebook keep us informed of what all our friends do. For example, where they live, who they hang out with, what they like, who they are dating, and their personality. Also when we use this type of networks we show the world everything we do, even if we rather keep some things to ourselves.

Facebook, Twitter and MySpace are a platform to express yourself and who you are. Sometimes because of the overuse of these, we may find ourselves without a private life. Everyone, no matter if he or she is a stranger, can access our information and know everything about of lives. Publishing every single thing we do, includes a big risk for our safety. Today, there are a lot of kidnappers that look up for girls or for anyone on Facebook and study their lives in order to kidnap them. We should be very care and think twice before we publish a photo or information about us because we don’t know who might see it. Even though, we think only our friends will look at what we do, there are hackers that can access the network.

This type of technologies recently developed is a “double-edged sword”. For example certain GPS that can track you down in a matter of seconds, or cameras on the streets, chips or sensors that know what you are doing and where you at every second. The use of all these “helpful” technology attacks our privacy. I remember we discussed in class a book called Nineteen Eighty Four. In this book, there was Big Brother watching everyone 24/7. It was a futuristic book, but today we are really close to that world. I think this is also a global issue because in the future we will need to create new systems to protect our privacy and our information.

Our second Social Life

Almost all people that have access to Internet, have a facebook account and that’s why I started thinking about this; It’s kind of interesting to know how does a network became the most popular site in the internet. I found out that it is becoming like our second lives, we upload our photos, we post our thoughts, we use it as a messenger (to communicate), we play games, and use it for many other things. That is the reason why we spend so much time in facebook.

I’ve noticed that it has changed our lives, sometimes in a better way but others in a negative way. The positive things for example are that we can have communication with our friends from other countries, see what’s happening in the social aspect (with the photos), and also use the free-time, but in the other hand it can be very dangerous if the person doesn’t know how to use it correctly because there are some people that besides doing what they’ve to do, they over-use facebook.

I think that facebook is like our second social live and that is has changed our style of life because today we are more connected within our groups of friends and now it’s easier to make friends because there’s no need to be face to face. Society has accepted that, and through the pass of time the world will be even more & more linked. I would like to learn more about this phenomena.

Violence in Mexico !!!

Our country is having a big and terrible problem with violence. The government is acting against this WAR; but we can’t see results or even a sign of change. Mexico is really having a constant war with this entire people that are killing others, negotiating with drugs and damaging innocent persons only for pleasure.

People is shouting – It’s Over!, but nobody is acting against all this, maybe the security in Mexico has increase, but we can’t even cross the street or walk in a highway because we don’t know who is going to kill us or shoot us with a gun, or maybe violate us. We are so scare about this situation that we are preferring not even to go out of our houses. The only word for this conflict is war. We are really in a civil war were people is practicing activities that every day they are more common.

Now at days it is very common to see drogadicts in the streets, violated people or car accidents. We, adolescents and kids have the world in our hands, we can’t continue our lives like this, we need to make a change, if not the problem is going to grow, and even by standing out your house door you will need a gun to protect of people.

"Get out of the car miss, lets solve this problem ;)"

I want to share with you an experientraffic light to ce i had this weekend. It was a friday night, we went to a party with some friends and had fun. It was almost 1:30 am when we were driving back home. We were waiting for the traffic light to change red, when a police car stops at our right side. The policeman looked at us with a weird sight. The traffic light changed and we started moving. Not even 10 seconds passed when the police car turned the siren ligths on. We stoped imediatley. The police man went to the car and lighted us with his flashlight. But let me explain that if we hadn't had our coats on our legs he would have seeen more than the car's floor. Then the police man sayed: "Are you in a hurry miss ?" and my friend answer: mm noo why ?, he sayed: You are asking why ? You were driving at high speed. ( You should have seen our faces of : what's wrong with this guy ¬¬? we were almost 60km/h could somebody pleas explain me !! and Sam was like: amm are you suree? maybe your speedometer is wrong cup :) and the cup : no miss i can't be wrong! Are you drunk ? Your are drunk right ? Please get out of the car now ! Lets solve this problem ;)

Obviously we didn't get out of the car. We now our rights and we can't be obligated to get out of our car. This kind of things make me soo maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad!! Cups are corrupts and promiscuous. But we are more inteligent than them and that's why they let us go with any ticket.

Lock It

Have you ever imagined who invented the keys and locks? Yes the ones you use to lock and unlock the doors….but the starter edition.
The Greek attributed this invention to Theodore of Samos in the times of Homer the poet but the reality is that the first doors with locks were made in Egypt nearly 4000 years ago. These doors can be opened from outside with keys. Both, keys and locks were made out of wood. The oldest evidence found of a lock was in Ninive in Mesopotamia and worked with the same basic structure as the Egyptians. The Egyptians locks models were only used by rich people but the Greeks were the ones who perfected the locks and keys so that they can be used by everyone.
An interesting detail that few people know, even though when they use them every day. I then imagine how many objects we use daily and not know or even imagine from where they come!!!! How many we not notice them, how many objects are there and we use them every day!!! It is interesting how these facts few people know about. How many....

Home sweet home

Last year I went to Spain to study for 2 semesters. When I came back to Hermosillo everyone was asking me how was it and if I liked it, well my answer was no, I didn´t like. Many think that is better to go study to any place, except your city (I´m one of those people) but going so far away made me think that it is more difficult than you think. Family was not a factor, my parents came with my and all my family lives in Spain.

But I really missed my friend and my comfort zone, especially my house and overall my room. It was difficult for me to adapt to my new room, I didn´t slept for the first 3 or 4 days. But knowing a city, another culture and a slighty different language. The first days of school when I had to adress a teacher I told them that, teacher, but they will just look at me and laugh, they told me to call them by their first name and to adress them informally that was very difficult, so in the first days I raised my hand when they were looking my way.

Also, there are some words that are different like the ones for pen, "pluma" and "boli" and many others. The reason I dind´t like it was because of the school, it was very difficult and I didn´t like the system. The people was okey, a little bit different from my friend but they are good people. One curious thing I remembered is that in my shcool at Spain there were more male teachers than females and in here they are more female teacher. Also that the groups are smaller only two per year and of 23 or 24 kids and there are more boys than girls.

The first days I wasn´t feeling very homesick but when I was 2 months away from returning home I was incredibly homesick, I felt stange, like I didn´t belonged there because it was all temporary, the house, the shool, my friends...so when I was home I was very, very happy that is why when people ask me if I would return I say no. I´m very grateful for the experience because it does open your mind and you learn to deal with different people and situations but there is no place like home.

Polygamy, more than a big love

Have you ever watched Big Love? Well, for those who haven’t, it is a TV show about a guy who has several wives and lives with all of them in the same house. Polygamy basically means having more than one wife of husband at the time. Usually Mormons are the ones practicing this because they believe having several wives and a lot of children will help them reach heaven.

I personally do not agree with this type of marriage. I think it is sick and really unfair. I could not imagine myself having to “share” my husband, the man I love, with other women that have the same rights as me. I do not think in this multiple marriages the man actually loves each and every of his wives. I think a person can only love one person truly. I don’t think polygamist marriages are based on care and equality. I think of them as very sexist and possessive. A man can live perfectly happy with one wife. There’s no need of having all those poor women serving one man. But again, that is their religion and beliefs in some cases.

On the other hand, it is really difficult to raise and support all those children. All these births are affecting the economy and making overpopulation grow. Each time a child is born, it represents an expense for the government, and of course for the family. In these times of crisis it is harder to pay for everything a child needs. Also, overpopulation is a major world issue nowadays. I think overpopulated countries should be prepared to apply regulations as soon as possible, just as China did.

It will be really interest having polygamy where a woman has several husbands. I think that will be the ultimate expression of feminism. Maybe one day, this type of marriage will be common. I personally wouldn’t be interested, though. It will make perfect sense if you think about it. Think about all that women have accomplished in such a short period of time. Everything says we will keep fighting for equality and beyond.

Natural resources

Now a day, the demand of natural resources in in an ascending manner. The population of the world in growing continuously while the natural resources are in scarcity. China has the most population of the world and their demand of natural resources is huge. The government policy of china permits to each family to have form 1 to 2 kids. This policy helps to avoid the continuous excess of population that we have in the world.
As the population grows, the demand of natural resources is growing. We need to take conscious about this problem because in a few years, we can finish with them. New ways of how to produce of agriculture, eolic energy, and other things are the salvation of the excess of demand of natural resources.
We have a huge problem with this, because we cannot provide food to all the population now a day. Many families and persons do not eat in 1 or 2 days, and we have huge problems with that. In 10 years the human population will double from what we are now. And what about the natural resources? Where we are going to take them? We humans have to take conscious about the future years and the future issues that will arrive.

Society Vs. Global Warming

Few days ago I was asking myself about how many generations will live after us. Then my grandmother took some disposable glasses, and I told her that we shouldn’t use them because they affect our environment, while we’re suppose to take care of it (environment) and I also explained her the way they affect it, but she denied to stop using them because she said that she is going to die, soon. I was like surprised because, obviously, I don’t want her to die soon and because of how come that people don’t care about their environment and their future generations.

I also asked myself about how can we like, make a conscience on others, to stop doing things that affect our environment like using disposable glasses or dishes, hair sprays, throwing water, don’t caring about separating trash (organic, plastics, etc.) and all those kinds of actions that deteriorate our planet because It won’t be forever. I have been wonder this for several weeks and trying to find out a way to make my family take more care about what surrounds us.

But I found that, for one is very difficult to make a change, but a group has more probabilities of doing it. Because I find society as many brains together and if you convince one, he will change another and so on until the whole society is changed of mind, just like a chain. If a group does this will be much more easy. That’s why I joined this group called “Greenology” in my school to gather some ideas and imply them in my house (family).

Football

These days football is almost all you can hear of, forget about Haití the Super Bowl is coming!! I´m not very interested in american football, if you ask me of teams maybe I know 1 maximum and don´t ask me about players unless they are with a famous actress. But the interesting thing about american football, footbal or soccer and almost any other sport is that they are their own little world.

It doesn´t matter your skin color, unless is basketball in which they will automaticaly consider you better, or where you come from the only thing that matters is that you better play good and make your team win. These players, if you are good and in a good team, are paid huge amounts of money, some people think they are paid too much, and they also have money from advertaising.

They even have clubs of fans with millions of items of them, they are considered idols just like in a religion. In politics, well... some say that some games are paid, like they pay the other team to lose in purpose. I like normal football and when they say that I just can´t believe it and I can´t even think of my favorite team doing that (RM) but if you think it over, why not? In the end, football is about business, they want to earn money so it could be that one or two games are bought. What I think is often bougth its the arbrit.

But what I really want to say is that is awesome how many countries forget of racism and come together. This types of events promote turism and good relationships among countries, they are also a stress reliver, well not always because sometimes they get very exicted and if their team loses they get sad. But in the end the thing I like the most about sports in general is how they unite people.

Discovering Our Country

When we think about the perfect tourist destination we think about an exotic beach, a European capital or a big, fancy city in the United States. Don’t we? It doesn’t even cross our mind visiting a Mexican town. Last summer, I had a really nice vacation visiting the central part of our country. At the beginning, I didn’t know what to expect from cities I visited. Each city we visited, allowed me to understand another piece of our culture as Mexicans.

First of all, we went to San Luis Potosi to visit my aunt. San Luis Potosi is the beautiful capital of the state of San Luis Potosi. It is a big and industrialised city. Then, we decided to go to Aguascalientes, since it is only a couple of hours away. Did you know it is the cleanest city of the country? Honestly, I didn’t believe it until I got there and I couldn’t find trash on the street or on public places. The government really takes care of the image of the city and tries really hard to promote tourism. Also, people of Aguascalientes feel really proud of their city and take good care of it. Next, we went to Guanajuato. San Miguel de Allende is a small city in Guanajuato. As we arrived, I could see a lot of foreign tourists. At the restaurants and souvenir shops, you could pay with dollars. Most of the signs were in Spanish and in English. This city is full of foreigners because it is really beautiful, it has a colonial style and the government is focused on tourism. The next cities I visited we also focused on this. That’s why they look so nice and clean; to attract foreign tourists and keep the cities growing.

I was positively impressed by this part of the country. It isn’t all poverty and overpopulation. I think that’s the image we sonorenses have of the center and south of Mexico, until we meet those places. I really like getting to know other parts of my country. Most of us aren’t very enthusiastic when we hear of visiting Dolores Hidalgo, Zacatecas, Santa María del Río or Ojuelos. But the truth is that they are places full of culture and traditions. We as Mexicans should be the first ones to appreciate this diversity. Sadly, we are not. I wish hermosillenses could feel so proud of their city as people from these places feel. I do not know why, but we are always complaining about our city instead of taking care of it. If we appreciate Hermosillo, I am sure it could be a lot more beautiful.

I think we’re all a bit Malinchistas. We rather visit cities in other countries like the USA, because we somehow think they are better. There is nothing wrong about going international, but let’s not forget where we come from. Knowing Mexico can be a really positive and fun experience. Getting to know our country is the only way we are going to be able of feeling proud of it and loving it even more.