Register your cellphone!

That's what the government's been telling the Mexican people from a couple of months; we all should register them before April the 10th or else our line will be suspended.

The Mexican government, nowadays, has been facing a lot of problems like corruption, narcotraffic, illegal transactions, etc. and because of this, it has told us we should all register our cellphones. This way, the Mexican government would have a better control of the things going around the country and would be able to know whenever someone does something he/she shouldn't be doing.

We may think that this is a good initiative because we would feel more secure in case someone tries to take advantage of us through the use of the cellphone; however, among the Mexican people, it has been seen that this law is not taken as a positive initative, but as a negative one. People say that the Mexican government, instead of investigating whenever there's someone using the cellphone for illegal purposes, they will listen and know what people think about the current government and not protect them, but take advantage using this technology.

Benjamin Franklin once said: "Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both." This phrase makes me think about what the real intentions of the Mexican government are and if they are really willing to take something good from all of this or it's just another way of entering and knowing about Mexican's life. If they are really doing this because of security purposes, then, the Mexican people wouldn't complain and wouldn't feel they are giving up liberty (Just like Benjamin Franklin said) because they know that the government would be doing its job.

I don't wanna believe or make people believe that the government does this because of negative and convenient purposes, but I can't deny the fact that the Mexican government has always tried to be really oppresive about people's thoughts. I hope their purposes have changed and I hope they know what they are doing, because if not, Mexican people would, again, lose confidence in the government. In case that happened, it may be possible, like Franklin said, that they would complain about this law and demand they want their freedom back because they would feel they are not winning, but losing both liberty and security.

Why don't we involve ourselves in politics?

We are always free to choose, but when we don’t decide anything, we’re letting others decide for ourselves. This might sound confusing but it’s true. If you don’t care about some decision you’re supposed to make, people will take that decision for you and your only option will be to accept and follow whatever they chose.

When the political debate took place on April 6th, I couldn’t believe that from almost 600 students only 18 were the ones who raised their hands to participate. The rest could’ve had a lot of reasons for not getting involved like: being afraid of speaking in public, or being afraid of doing it wrong, or stammering there, etc. But most of those who didn’t participate didn’t do it just because they had no interest. They had no interest in participating nor in investigating and debating about political topics.

This is what happens also during major and important elections. There are people that don’t vote because they have specific reasons for not doing it, but most of them don’t do it just because they have no interest on choosing who will be leading their communities. Moreover, even people that don’t search to participate in politics (I mean, like getting involved with a political party) and limit themselves just to vote, are letting others choose for them. It is true that when a good man doesn’t care about politics, his punishment will be to be ruled by some man who isn’t as good or as smart as him.

I think that people should get much more involved in politics because right now they are in a “comfort zone” and they really like being there, not moving a finger but complaining about the wrong decisions that their leaders are making. It’s time for everybody to speak out but not only to speak, to do something. It’s true that it’s really comfortable to watch others struggle with our complicated issues, but commodities are gone when the results are evident. What worries me the most is that, since people are not eager to participate, power is always centered in the same small circle of people. The worst part is that most of them don’t work for the benefit of their communities but for themselves. So why are we letting this happen?

It was amazing for me to see that this conformism starts practically since we’re toddlers and it continues in high school and up until our adulthood. I saw the conformism in the tec students when they said: “que flojera”. “Que flojera” search for information, prepare for the debate, involve in politics, make an effort to do something good, do something extracurricular. Or simply “I just have much more important other things to do”.
Well, we ALL have a lot of things to do, our parents too, but we can always make a space in our agenda to participate with our community because if not, our punishment will be three times greater than the sacrifice we need to make in order to raise our voices. Think about it and please, get out of your “comfort zone”.

Touristic Places

Playa del Carmen is a beach located close to Cancun, the most touristic place in Mexico. “Playa” as most people call it, is also a very touristic spot where Mexicans and foreigners spend their vacations and relax whenever it’s necessary. One of my best friends had to move to that beach when her dad was promoted, and she had to start a new life there. I talked to her in the past days and I realized that life can be so different depending on where you live, no matter your social or economical status.

When I asked her about her school, she told me it was really cool and that she loved the people who was there because they were all very different from everybody she had met before. What caught my attention was that she told me that since their first year of high school they must study the subject of “Tourism”, even if they’ve already decided they want to be something else in life. She told me that they had several classes a week from that subject and they studied how to be hotel receptionists, captains of waiters, restaurant managers, tours sellers, nightclub managers, tour guides, etc. She later told me that although it was only a subject, teachers we’re always trying to convince the kids that being a hotel receptionist was the world’s coolest job and the one they were all born for. Those teachers always tried to push the young residents of that beach to choose the career of tourism and specialize in that area.

I was really shocked to hear those words, first of all because I finally realized the differences between cities just because of their locations. It is very remarkable that these people live from tourism. They have a whole different life from us because all they see is tourists and all they do is serve them and satisfy their needs. That’s what their lives are based on. Second of all, I couldn’t believe the culture these people have. I know we must be tolerant and respect others opinions but, why do they want their kids to conform to those jobs? I’m not saying they are worthless of course not, but there are young people with such a potential to be directors of huge companies, or doctors, or widely recognized executives, or market experts, etc. And all they want them to do is run small businesses that won’t even belong to them. All they want them to do is say hi to tourist and with a wide smile do whatever they ask them to do.

I think it isn’t fair because they’re being taught that this is the world’s greatest thing to do since they are really young and they don’t even have the ability to decide by themselves. I know I can’t change this because that is the way they live and perhaps that is what they NEED to do in order to preserve their beach as that touristic place it is, but they shouldn’t decide for their kids. Finally, I think that this is an example of how economy affects society, by changing their behaviors in order to survive in a world that’s driven mainly by the economic principles and the need to have the enough supply for the demand that’s always present in the planet.

"Polish Tragedy"

Recently, the President of Poland,Lech Kaczynski, war veterans, and about 97 persons working in the Polish Governement were killed by a plane crash, near Russia.

The President and the government representatives were in their way to Russia for the memorial of the 22'000 Polish soldiers killed by Stalin . Unfortunately, the plane crashed, killing the President, his wife, delegates, the Head of State (Poland is a Parliamentary Republic). Nobody survived.

Despite the tragedy, the Prime Minister said that the Polish Government will work 24/7 to keep Poland working. Currently,Bronisław Komorowski, Marshal of the Sejm (Head of the lower chamber of the Parliament) is the interim President.

However, many think this was no accident, since this president had been having problems with the USA government. Could it be possible that a government planned the death of a country's supreme representatives just because of political and economical friction? 

"Thai Red Riot"

Yesterday protesters it Thailand engaged the Thai Army and Police, while occuping the Democratic monument and some airports of Bankok, the capital.

The protest was against Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, from the "capitalist" party People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD). Encounters between the PAD Yellow Shirts and the People's Power Party (PPP) Red Shirts had been taking place since 2004, using massive armed riots when the counterparty is in the power.

However, this time there were several casualities (15) and hundreds of wonded, as even live ammunition was used by both sides. I think Thailand is quite divided, since in seems like the country is divided in exactly 2 parts. I think this because each side has a huhe mayority to unseat the opposite government each time.


Maybe thailand should try to merge both parties into one neutral party, because it looks like both of them are quite opposite. In fact it reminds me Korea, because one side is supported by USA and the other is supported by North Korea. Maybe this will all lead to civil war or to a pacific division and the country will run like North Thailand and South Thailand.



http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/11/world/asia/11thai.html?ref=global-home

Lack of Coherence

This post is not to express if I agree or not with gay marriage, it’s more to give my opinion of what I’ve heard of it. Even we live in the XXI century, in a society which demands for freedom of expression and for respect, we don’t agree with it. It’s kind of incoherent. I’ve heard things like “I don’t have anything against gays, but they can’t get married, it’s just wrong”; “they can get married, but they can’t adopt kids, they will suffer a lot”; “I hate gays, they shouldn’t exist. I admit it, I’m homophobic”; “gays can get married, but they shouldn’t get out together to public places. It is just disgusting”.

Most of what I’ve heard doesn’t make a lot of sense. People demand for some things, and when they actually get them, they get upset because it didn’t worked exactly how they wanted to.

The gay marriage is something really new for a lot of us. It can be hard to assimilate but we need to be coherent with what we say. Sometimes it’s just better not to give our opinion about something because later on, we can regret. As long as we don’t affected by the gay marriage, we have no right to discriminate or to make gays feel bad about it.

This is a very controversial topic, but we need to focus on more important things that are damaging society.

"Why is it that, as a culture, we are more comfortable seeing two men holding guns than holding hands?" Ernest Gaines

YOU ALWAYS WANT WHAT YOU CAN'T HAVE

Envyous people are not confident and yet the worst people to hang out with. A person that is envyous will always want the worst to happen to you, just in order to keep his/her self-esteem ''high''. Envyous people have a really low self-esteem, since they always want what others have and they think others don't deserve that desire he/she has. Being envyous makes you have certain anger towards a person that has something you want, it even makes you want the worst for him/her. We need to learn to be authentic, being ourselves and be thankful for what we got. Sometimes people are so materialistic, and they always seem to want what other people have not really realizing what they have. When we start to value what we have our lives start to make more sense, we start to be less worried about non-important things and start worrying about what we have and maintaining it, like our health. Looking and wanting what you don't have, being materialistic or a person that seems to feel less that other people for what they have and he/she lacks just makes our life more complicated, as if it wasn't already. We never know what we have untill we loose it, star valueing what you have and be thankful for the fact that you are even alive, at a good school, that you are even dressed. Don't look at others as if they are luckier than you, you are really valueable to be worrying about what you may don't have that others do have. Listen to your friends and family who know you and will tell you just what you read in this blog. Remind yourself every morning how lucky you are for being alive, be thankful to your friends and family and tell them they've done a great job forming you as a person. KEEP SMILING, SOMEONE COULD FALL IN LOVE WITH YOUR SIMLE!

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

May I Have a Chimpanzee Finger, Please?

Nestlé is a company that has a very high reputation in almost every country where its products are sold. At least that was what I used to think until we saw in our French class a video that showed what Nestlé did with the Indonesian forests. In order to produce Kit Kat chocolates, Nestlé needs palm oil. They need to plant multiple acres of these palms to have enough oil to make those Kit Kats. What Nestlé did, was deforesting the woods from Indonesia where chimpanzees live and plat their millions of palms.

As expected, Greenpeace reacted in a defensive manner. They created a video clip that was a plagiarism of the Kit Kat commercial in which they highlighted what Nestlé was doing. The video consist of a guy opening a Kit Kat wrapper and taking out a piece of chocolate that was actually the finger of a chimpanzee. When the guy eats it, blood starts to come out of the finger and then, it is all over the place. Disgusting, I know. Even though the video was a little shocking, it was truthful.

The reaction of Nestlé was as expected; they didn’t like it at all. Their image of a social compromised company was damaged. After all the trouble they were put into, they decided to start using a substitute of the palm oil for an artificial one.

Does the end justify the means? In this case, it’s clearly that satisfying our whishes (eating chocolate) does not worth to kill the environment of a very important being for the world, such as the chimpanzee. It is really hard for me to understand how big companies like Nestlé don’t measure the consequences of their actions, and they just act selfishly.


Francis Bacon, an English philosopher of the Renaissance, once said: “Nature, to be controlled, must be obeyed”. I should think more often about it…

Gasoline Prices

Last Saturday, gasoline prices increased, again. The magna gasoline increased 8 cents, the Premium 4 and the Diesel 8. Juan Pablo González, President of Amegas, stated that they had requested the authorities no more raises in the Premium’s prices because people was no longer eager to buy it.

When I read this news I immediately related it to the economics class because of several reasons. First of all I remembered that we discussed in class that we, as Mexicans, don’t have the freedom that other countries have when it comes to choosing the type of gasoline we consume. We pretty much confine to what our government gives us and this is a very strong determinant of our country’s economy. If we had several companies producing gasoline for us, I think a lot of things would be different. In my opinion, it would be better to have more firms and the freedom to choose because when the prices increase we have no other option than to accept it and move on, but with other alternatives we could still have our chances to find the best deal for us as consumers.

Second of all, I related the news article to everything I’ve learned about supply and demand. What the President of the Amegas stated is just another form to say that since the price is increasing so much, demand is falling due to the laws we’ve studied. I think this is something so logical that the government should already know what the consequences of their acts will be and maybe they’re willing to pay for them. But another option is that perhaps they haven’t realized how much customers they’ll lose because of the decisions they’re taking, and seeing it from another point of view, they haven’t realized how much Mexicans will be affected.

Applying the supply and demand laws, I think that the government should pay attention to what Juan Pablo González says and stop raising the prices. Why? Because if they’re increasing the prices that means they need to make more money. But if they lose the incentive in people to consume, they won’t get the money they need. I think they’re going the wrong way and they should know that lowering or maintaining their prices will attract much more customers and hence, more profit than if they stay with a few clients that are willing to pay that exaggerated amount of money.

Anyway, I hope that soon we have much more reforms that will improve Mexico and its economy, now that we’re finally getting out of the terrible crisis. By now, we must conform with our only gasoline provider and with its raising prices, until someone decides to try something different and hopefully better.

Political Negotiations

During the last days of March, several suicidal attacks in Russia took place. The first ones occurred in Moscow and the next ones in the region of the North Caucasus. In that week there were 51 deaths and at least two dozens of injured people. Authorities believe that these attacks were carried on by Moorish rebels that are seeking their independence. The same authorities that stated this are also afraid that this might turn into an “attacks wave” that will lead to a semi-war inside the Russian country.

On the other hand, it’s nothing new to hear that Mexico is also going through something similar to a war because of the “narcos” and their interests. I want to relate these events to politics, since we’re currently studying them.

First of all, I think that if a country isn’t unified, then it isn’t strong enough to go through hard times or to cope with though situations. It is sad to hear how countries have civil wars and so many differences inside them, but at the same time it’s normal because of the different opinions that we as unique individuals have. However, I’d like to analyze the cases of Russia and Mexico as possible inner-war countries.

I observe that minorities are the ones who start all this mess. Groups that are somehow relegated want to raise their voices and be heard (like the Moorish, for example). So we can relate politics to this by realizing that the government or other authorities should be smart enough to relax the relationships with these minor groups or at least negotiate something with them. I know most governments hate the idea of negotiating with criminals or terrorists, but I think they should reconsider this when talking about saving hundreds of human lives. I’m not saying that negotiating means giving them all they want, but perhaps stating an equilibrium point where both of them can win something and save everybody regrets from the pain and the disaster that they might carry on.

I hope the situation in Russia gets better, but unless someone powerful changes their rigid point of view and realizes that something needs to be done with the suicidal, there won’t be much of a change. About Mexico, I guess I don’t have much to say. I hope that our government realizes that the plans they’ve come up with haven’t worked and that they need to seek for better solutions. Negotiating with them is something drastically, I know, but that is just my point of view, and I’m free to express it.

Let’s start using politics and the distribution of power as something positive and helpful for the people who need it, not just for those who have that power. Let’s realize that we depend on human relations and we need people that understand this and that are able to give the ones who believe in them peace and protection.

THEY CALL ME HEARTBREAKER

It is proved that after a relationship break up, a persons' self-concept is affected. Self-concept is the way I see myself, and it is really connected with self-esteem, both are or might be affected after a break up. Since we are not here to find ourselves, but to create ourselves, we sometimes underestimate our abilities to carry on in life. Some people who are close-minded, get stuck on a feeling or an idea, and don't really get to continue living a normal life, yet, for example, they can't get over the person they just broke up with, or they feel less than others. Valueing yourself is the best way to carry on with your life after a break up, because if you don't have a high self-esteem or a positive self-concept, life will be much harder than it already is. We need to understand that every relationship is an experience that will prepare ourselves for marriage, and how are we are going to deal with it. Of course you are going to be sad about a break up, but what will you get if you just sit there and cry about it? Carry on not worrying about girls/boys and the need of a girlfriend/boyfriend, life is a perfect plan and they will come to you just stop searching. Stop searching for a boyfriend/girlfriend, don't every worry if you don't have one, and don't ever feel the necessity to have one, just have fun instead, paty and take formal responsabilities, you have better things to worry about! Live your life, continue having fun and never get stuck on an idea that you know will not help you carry on. In life there will be alot of people who love you, hate you, nice people, mean people, players and serious boys/girls that will value you and will treat you they way you are deserved to. Just be yourselve all the time, be prepare for the worst but always expect the best out of things including relationships. Take experiences as lessons, lessons that will help you not make the same mistakes over and over again and will improve you to be a better person everyday. Be who you are and don't worry about what other people say, IT'S BETTER TO BE ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS THAN ABSOLUTELY BORING!

Are there opportunities for the young in Mexico?

Are there opportunities for the young people today in Mexico?

Some institution dedicated to the regulation of elections in the state of Sonora, has been organizing for several years now a debate between high school students. This debate revolves around political topics in order to create or increase an interest for this area. I was interested and inscribed myself for the event that took place on Tuesday April 6th. The topics and the stands we had were decided by chance; people from the institution made a raffle and came up with the results. The topic I was assigned was “Are there opportunities for the young people in our contemporary Mexico?” and I had to firmly defend that there are opportunities.
I think this is not an easy topic because opinions are divided and, badly for me, most people believe that there are no opportunities. So I decided to blog about this because I found it amazing that everybody I asked about this topic told me that Mexico can’t provide what’s necessary for the young ones to develop, and because I want to give my point of view about it. Because, well, I think they’re wrong.
Are there opportunities for the young people nowadays in Mexico? That’s my question. My question isn’t, are there opportunities for EVERYBODY nowadays? And it makes a huge difference when we learn to separate these two approaches. First of all, there is no society that can provide complete opportunities for everybody. It’s like saying, are there opportunities for everybody to win a thousand dollars in vegas? Of course not! Not everybody who goes to vegas will win that amount, but there are still the opportunities for some to achieve this. The opportunities are for those who fight for them, for those who look for them, for those who defend them and mostly, for those who really WANT them.
We just have to read the next sentences to believe there are possibilities in my country: There are 6 million students with scholarships provided by the government, plus those provided by the non-governmental system. In Sonora, in the last 6 years, more than 4130 companies have been created, which at the same time develop in 128,000 jobs, whose required profiles fit to those of young people. At a national level, in only this 3 months of 2010, there have been 138,000 jobs created.
What does this data tells us? That of course we have opportunities, but we have to look for them and prepare for them. A lot of people say: “There’s no employment, there are no jobs in Mexico”. But I’m just going to tell you one thing: there ARE jobs today, the only thing is that they’ve become more demanding and for people that’s more competent. If you want something, work for it.
I’m not going to deny that Mexico has a lot of problems, but I’ll always remember this phrase: “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty” - Winston Churchill.

Nothing but Our Choice

Written by Al Gore, the United States ex vice president, “Our Choice” is a book that contains a lot of information that most of us have already heard or that we have read in some other places but, what makes this book so different? Some might say that it is only a brain wash, but for me it is a book that contains valuable and relevant information. It contains the keys to change the course of the world. The economic crisis is not the only crisis that we have; we are also going through the climate crisis.

Al Gore joined the best scientists’ proposals and he created a plan for everybody to follow in order to decrease the global warming. He says that nature provides us with many sources of energy that we can transform to electricity. An extremely powerful one is solar energy, which can very useful in those areas in which the sun is always shining, like in the equator. Another type of renewable energy is the wind, which is now one of the most effective sources. In Spain, for example, windmills are everywhere. They are being used as their main source of energy to be transformed into electricity in order to satisfy the people’s needs. He also mentions others sources like geothermal energy, nuclear energy, and biomass.

The author says that “we need to go far, quickly” and I agree because we have limited time, but we also have all the tools to make it possible. What we really need, and most of us don’t have it, is will to change and to desire a better place for all of us now and for the future generations. This is linked with sustainable development in which the ITESM CSN is really interested in; not only the institution but a lot of students, as well.

I agree with Al Gore, I do think that we can go far and quickly as long as we define our goal and we delimitate what we want to achieve. We need to start acting, not only worrying about the climate crisis. It’s nothing but our choice.

“The future you see is the future you get” Robert G. Allen

16 YEAR OLD DEMANDED HIS MOM FOR HAKING HIS FACEBOOK

A 16 year old adolescent demanded his mom for haking his facebook and writing scandalous comments. The mom haked his facebook and his e-mail, and changed all the passwords. The adolescent had charges against his mom to demand her, but his mom says she has all the right to control what his son sees on the internet. I think this is a total lack of communication amog the family. The mom was not confident with what his son was doing or writing on facebook that she tried to figure out the incorrect way. I do understand the mom, since she was somehow worried about his son, but the way she tried to take control over the situation was abusive. The adolescent felt overprotected by his mom at first, then finding out she had written all of this things that personally humiliated him made him feel the necessity to demand her. This is why family communication is really important as it is to maintain confidence among parents and children. If parents have confidence on their children, they won't be worried as much about what they do on facebook, because they would know that what their doing is innofensive. The adolescent had all the right to feel his mom had invated his privacy, but if he have had communication with her in the first place the mom would'nt find the necessity to do this desperate move. I feel that this kind of news makes people aware about their own personal confidence towards their parents. Children should always win their parents' confidence and their privacy will never be invaded. Communication is really important amog family members, this will reiforce confidence and make the family relationship much stronger.

Political postures in adolescents

Multiple things made me write this article. The first one was that Professor John gave us a quiz about political ideologies that would try to define our tendencies in politics. The other thing was that a friend told me that he considered that tagging us into those ideologies was kind of subjective. That really made me think that they both were sort of right.

I guess that in this period of our lifetime is really hard to define what we really think or what we really believe in. There are certain factors like family that influence in many aspects. One of them is that we tend to adopt the political thoughts that our family has. For example, if in my family my parents hardly support the PRI, it’s kind of obvious that I would acquire that inclination. Family also influences in another way, which is emotional stability. During adolescence, people feel totally affected by what is going on home. If things are not okay, we change a lot our mentality because it is being altered by our feelings.

Family is not the only contact we have; we also have friends and they also have their own way of thinking towards politics. Some of them don’t care, but others are really into it. This can make us feel forced to think as our partners.

My point is that we don’t have to worry that much about acquiring a political posture right now, because our inexperience and the peer pressure of all those who surround us can lead to modify our ideologies. What we really have to do is try to look for reliable references that help us make our really own decision.

"When you have to make a choice and you don't make it, that itself is a choice" William James

Public Schools (Part 2)

In my school, we had to pay 'las cuotas'. Cuota is an amount of money, about 50 or 70 pesos, given each month. Cuotas are supposedly not mandatory, they weren't mandatory in my school. However, I knew some people in other schools who were afraid of not paying cuotas because they were told that if they didn't pay, they wouldn't receive any official paper needed for the inscription. Besides the cuotas, we also needed to pay some extra money in December and April because of the celebrations (the Christmas and Día del Niño party). Besides, we had to pay for the woman who watched the school entrance's wage: 10 pesos per child. Nevertheless, when the woman's children graduated, she quit working there and the school never hired someone else to watch the entrance. My sister even told me that once, the teacher didn't arrive, and about half of her class left the school. Moreover, we had to pay 'Escuelas de Calidad', to improve the school. Personally, I never saw any change. Well, now they built a roof above the basketball courts, and they fixed the restrooms and the fences.

The building was actually pretty big and old; it has a basketball court, a football field, tiers, about 17 classrooms, two pairs of restrooms, the library, the computer center, la tiendita, the principal's office and janitor's room. However, the building lacked many things. For example, in the computer center, there are only 15 computers; one is for the teachers, and the rest for the students. When I was in elementary school, only 13 computers were available since one didn't work at all, but other computers didn't have keyboard or CPU. And we didn't have a computer class, we only were taken there to play in the Internet and draw in Paint. Some teachers taught students how to use Word, or Microsoft Encarta. The football field was enormous. It was like a sandy, battlefield, kind of a dessert to me. It was the best part to play, as well as a part of the school that we used to call 'la selva', because it had a pretty tall tree and many other little trees. It was a green area. But, the tall tree fell down and 'la selva' became boring. The library was excellent; it had many books, either given by SEC or books we gave to school. It was a comfortable place, except for a portrait of Benito Juárez, who supposedly watched you, and had three eyes when no one was around. Also, some classrooms were well-equiped and had Enciclomedia that is an Smartboard. Ah, this part is pretty disturbing: La tiendita, that was attended by a man and a woman. The man sold candies and junk food, while the woman sold tacos, pizza and food. But, here is the nasty part: They NEVER washed their hands and received the money with the same hands that delivered the food. They never wore a plastic bag or something like that. Once, a kid asked for a taco and he gave her a coin, but the coin fell into the meat's pan. And she just introduced her hand into the pan, got the coin out, and kept serving the food. Also, she always took her baby and when the baby was hungry or dirty, she just closed the tiendita, but never went to the restroom. On the other hand, 'Desayunos Escolares' were a blessing. When the school started to serve hot, just prepared breakfats, it was extremely good for those children who used to wait until 10 am to eat a taco. Even thought the breakfast was served from 7 am to 9 am, they were excellent. They served hot cakes, molletes, oats, cereal, arroz con leche, and others. Also, they just costed 1 peso, while a taco costed about 6 pesos.

Finally, I want to write about the principal. She was very exaggerated; my sister told me that when she visted her classroom, she criticized everything about them and told them that they were the worst group of all the school(she used to tell that to every group). Also, when my sister was in her last year, the principal made a escort with the people who had the best grades, she obligated them to practice like two or three hours during classes, and she gave special attention to the daughter of a teacher. Most of the time, she was complaining about us and used to visit each classroom and ask for money to buy an air conditioner or to paint the classrooms. She never did. Well, she fixed some things in the school only when 'an important person' was coming, such as the mayor or someone from SEC or SEP. She really didn't care about missing classes because she always wanted to meet the teachers during classes. Sometimes, her meetings lasted from 10 am to 11 am (or later). That is a huge problem in public education: Teachers do not worry if students lose classes. When there was a huge event, they took us. Sometimes, it took one day. Also, when the kermess was coming, some students lost classes because they needed to practice what they would perform. It also took about one day. Some teachers did not come sometimes, and the principal never send other person to take care of the group, we just stayed fooling around.
But, after all, I keep good memories. Attending public school made me appreciate more private education.

Public Schools (Part 1)

I really can write about this topic since it is kind of a personal experience. I studied elementary school in a public school, and I can say that public education in Sonora has both advantages and disadvantages.

First, let's talk about education itself. As in every school, there is a variety of teacher: The one who does everything she/he can to help the children, the one who never is with the group, the Christian one, the one who reads newspaper instead of giving her/his class, the strict one, the old and bitter one, among many others. Fortunately, I always got the strict teachers and that is why I did good at Taes and Tec. But, what happens to the children who got the other teachers? For example, my little sister went to the same elementary school and in her last year, she had this teacher who was about to retire, but never NEVER attended the classes. Well, a couple of classes, but it was only to sermonize the group, and my sister had a friend who sometimes didn't wear the school uniform (which is not obligatory at public school), and the teacher always threatened with sending her back home. My sister had also this funny teacher who was metrosexual and said weird things all the time, such as that culture wasn't important. He also was kind of obsessed with Bours being a drug dealer, and that Fiestas del Pitic were made to 'move the drugs'. And, she also had this Christian teacher who taught the group Creationism instead of the other theories about how the world was created. We had also a physical education teacher who was very rude. Once, she called 'fat'a little boy.
I, on the other hand, got really good teachers. Especially, I remember a teacher who was truly strict, but I learned many things. But, sometimes she was very mean and rude. "Niños del Teleton"and "Cerebros de hormiga", were as she named us a couple of times. However, I would like to believe she was just kidding.

Al Qaeda threatens with attacking South Africa 2010!

Terrorist Group sent a message that they may make a terrorist attack in the Soccer World Cup...

In an interview made to them, they said they may be attacking the world cup, "IF ALA wants to"! That it will be very gratefully that countries that are against the Islam, be harmed. Some soccer delegations mentioned were USA, Germany, England, France and Italy. Specially they said that for example, a game USA vs. England, will be nice to have an explosion that kill many people and produce a real tragedy.

With this declarations from Al Qaeda, if the security of South Africa was supposed to be very strict and powerful, now it will need to be double or triple; in order to safe the athletes and the fans.

I think this declarations and alarms that made Al Qaeda have to worry us, because imagine another terrrorist attack in the world, and in South Africa; it will really be a big tragedy. These messages that we are watching show that this group and people-with all due respect to their religion- are crazy in someway. They are crazy in the way they are extremists. Extremists in the bad things, in thoughts, ideals, etc... They may think that its god told them to kill, but I don´t think any God could ask for it or any religion. These events we had seen in N.Y or Spain, few years ago, are prooves that our world has many problems, and that our world has people that only wants to damage us.

I think this extremists religions or groups that practice them, don't help the society and the world. I don't know what their religion says, but also if it says to kill, it is bad and it should be finish. International Leaders can make something in order to beat these terrorists, but also people should help. How? By don't letting them, to convert into a bad person, without values and that do not want the well being of all. The current lack of values in the world is a really big cause of this terrorists. Most of them are people without values and conscience. Imagine how can a person or a group threate an international event, in where many people comes and enjoys?

I hope it doesn't happen in the World Cup and in any other place, because these events are events that link the world, joins different people without mattering in religions, color of skin, nationalities, etc... These are events that help the well-being of the society and specially, pure and nice events that show that our world still is WELL and with GOOD INTENTIONS and ACTS. World Cup and the Olympic Games are events that join almost all the people of the world, millions of people watch them, so I cannot accept an attack in here! We should not damage any more our population, we should not let that this terrorists or groups of "people" finish with our GOOD things!

We should be very careful and take care! We should try to finish with these bad extremist people, and promote more the good things and good acts...

Who writes history?

I think this is an important question. We have had history class in school since y know. Teacher tell us to buy a book which we are going to read during the year or semester in class. Even tough we don't really know anything about its author and its content, we believe their stories are true. I bet most of all haven't stop to think if what they are teaching us is really the true story. I once had this teacher who told us that history is written by those who win. I really believe his theory. I think it depends on whether the country who wrote it, won or lose a battle which the book is talking about. I think history deforms through time, people sometimes starts adding things to the story, for diferrent purposes, it may be to hide something or to make something better. So I think that from now on everytime we read or teach us something in class we stop to think and analyze that information. We must not believe everything they tell us.

Feminine Power

It is funny that a lot of my feminine classmates have already written about “feminism.” I really don’t understand why this emphasis on this topic is. I mean, I don’t know why suddenly people resumed the feminism topic. I completely agree with this. I consider myself very feminist, and this since I started hanging out with Michelle JAJAJA!! Women do not necessarily need to be obedient, we must be independent.

While I was doing research for the final project relating to Iran, I read a lot of interesting notes. I read about Iranian discrimination of women. In Iran, women have no right to neither participate in political issues nor express their opinions. Mexican women should feel proud and affortunated of the right and opportunities that we as human beings posses. Even though there is still some discrimination towards women because they are considered the weak sex, this issue is imporoving markedly.

This days, women are taking part in every social and political area. Women are no more repressed in Mexico or in the United States. We can see this strongly reflected in the political area. For example, who was competing with Obama for the American presidency? Hillary Clinton. She was nearly to win the elections, and she was a woman. Imagine what would of happen if a women wins the elections for the precidency in any country? This would be something memorable.

Every one should support the participation of women in every aspect. Women can contribute with new, better, and innovative ideas to improve society and solve problems. It is scientifically proved that women are much more intelligent than men JAJAJA!! So.. why don’t they take into account women’s contributions seriously? Lets make this serious and remark that women and men are equal.

Remember that… “Behind every successful man is a surprised woman” by Maryon Pearson

"Semana Diabla"

What a good topic right? "semana diabla" … the best of the bests. We as adolescents LOOOOVE this week of the year! It is a week for us to behave badly. It is a week for having extreme fun with friends. It is a week for… disaster, deaths, accidents, misunderstandings… Everyone here know what am I talking about, don’t you? I know that this week is very funny, but we don’t know when something bad is going to happen to us or to someone near to us. I insist, we as adolescents don’t know how to measure danger. Visiting Kino Bay this week has turned out into a tradition year by year. Even though there have been lots of accidents, the young society continues visiting Kino Bay these days.
Visiting the beach in the “semana diabla” consists of lots of alcohol and drugs. Adolescents usually go to Kino Bay because they go without their parents, so they do whatever they please to do. They drink until they get to feel no pain. They not even get to sleep because they don’t want to lose any minute for drinking. This is the reason why things happen… Drunk and irresponsible adolescents are the culprits of the tragedies that occur during the week.

I’m not saying that every girl and boy who goes to the beach get drunk, but the majority does. I for example, I am going to Kino Bay, but I am going together with my friends, and my entire family. It is the first time in my life that I go to the beach this week. I cried my parents to give me permission to go, and they agreed, but they are going with me. I don’t see any problem with that, they are going to take care of me : )

I know that only YOU teacher read every blog post, but I really hope that some of my classmates get to read this and make conscience.

PLEASE take care. Have fun, but healthy fun... I love you all, and I’ll see you at Kino Bay!

"Together Untill The End"

Together until the end? YEAH RIGHT… Do you really know what am I talking about? Maybe some of you do know a lot much more than me about this topic, but in the resent days I have noticed some interesting facts about divorces, and I’m not saying that this is my case or my parents’. I have some friends of mine who are children of a divorced couple, and they have had a lot of problems regarding to their parents’ divorce. They are not confident with anyone and they are more reserved. They don’t actually smile nor have fun as they usually did. Now their parents are each one with another partner, and this partner has his/her own children! So imagine... my friends have like 6 brothers and sisters that are not actually biological ones. Could you be able of living like this?
While I was talking to one of my uncles, he told me that Sonora has actually the highest divorce rates all over Mexico, and I don’t know if in the world. Today people is not conscious of what marriage means. MARRIAGE IS FOR EVER! In ancient times, people think two times before getting marriage in order to avoid separating from their partners, but today this is very different. People today think of marriage as a game, they get married once and if things go wrong, they get divorced and in most of the cases marry again. PEOPLE MARRY WITH THE IDEA THAT THE CAN ACTUALLY GET DIVORCED!!
This problem is because we as a society do not know how to deal with problems. We prefer to avoid confronting problems. Divorces DESTROY entire families. Divorces DESTROY entire lives. So why don’t we do something to avoid this? If you are not completely sure of loving with all your heart, well... DON’T MARRY HIM/HER! Avoid that divorce step. Believe me, you will save a loooooot of money because divorces are really expensive, and at the same time you will save yourself a lot of formalities.
LIVE, LOVE, LAUGH =)

Hahaha .. the joke is really GOOD!

A few minutes ago, I read about what our prestigious president ( Felipe Calderorn Hinojosa) of our country declared. He declared that in the year of 2012, EVERY mexican would have access to any institution that offers medical health care. Is this possible? I REALLY DON'T THINK SO ...

Let me tell you a little story. 3 weeks ago, I went to renew my Istesson Card. I was making the line, and in front of me, a huge woman ( I guess that she weights more than 120 kilos approximately) wanted to renew her card as well. But, guess what? the counter guy deny her the renovation!! why? because she was FAT! The woman, with a shivering voice asked for the reasons. What I could hardly heard was:

-" I am so sorry miss, our intitution can not deal with a person with your problems, having morbid obesity."

- " but why? I work in the goverment, and the government responsability is to give me minimum a medical health care free, no matter what."

- " If we give you access to our medical institution, you will demand many medicine, because it is probably that you have hipertension, and much more, I am so sorry miss"

Imagine the face of everybody that heard that. We trully wanted to spank the guy that deny the card to that poor woman. If she doesn't have any private health insurace, and she needs a surgery becuase she is dying, what is the possibility that she has to survive is she does not have any medical health care?

In my personal opinion, I found very funny that comment that our president made. If he really wants that EVERY mexican ( no matter what you are, how you are etc.) have a medical health care, he SHOULD START WITH EQUALITY.

" Al terminar esta administracion alcanzaremos la combertura universal de salud, es decir, un medico, medicinas y tratamiento para cualquier mexicano que lo necesite", dijo Calderon.

I really don't think that this could happen someday, but it would be REALLY good and would show that our country is in a huge development like in this health aspect.

Well, the only think we can do mexicans, is to wait to see the results and to see, if this president, finally could make us happy minimum in this way.

What is going on?

What is going on in the world? We turn on the television and we see all kinds of disasters through all the entire world. We see earthquakes here and there. Is there any possiblities that the world is coming to its end? As we all know there are many predictions that the world as we know it will end in the year 2012. Maybe this is quite impossible, but all the disasters we are facing point to a soon apocalipse. We have many kinds of problems going on right now; we have the great deal with pollution,scarcity, global warming,crisis, end of petroleum, earthquakes, tsunamis and floodings going on till I don't know when. I'm scared, I used to think "It not going to happen to me", or "It is not happening in my lifetime", but know I'm thinking it is most possible that I'm going to live to see it. Our time to do something passed a long time ago, maybe it is just too late, we should be mad, and worried about all this.

WHAT-A-TAN!

Many people, including myself, love tans. But most of the time, people don't really expose theirselves to the sun that much, they don't really have time to lay down by the pool to get a tan, or their skin is simply really difficult to change it's color. Tanning beds are a really easy way to get a tan, but just as easy it is to change your skin color, it is to get skin cancer. Tanning beds as we all know produce ultraviolet rays, which reacts on your skin making melanin glandules rise to the skin's surface. There are even special creams that you apply to your skin before getting into the tanning bed that force melanin glandules to rise, as I said, to the skin's surface to be able to get a much brozey color tan and makes the process really fast. Really harsh UV like the ones produced on tanning beds affect your skin in many ways: it produces premature wrinkles on skin, if you have freckles it makes them more abundant and if you don't they appear as premature age spots. It is dangerous to everyone, but specially children under 16 years, because their skin is more likely to be damage by those harsh UV rays since their skin is much softer, but still teenagers among ages 16-18 should never be allowed to use a tanning bed. Repetitive sun burn, for those people who get into a tanning bed regularly, is the main factor that causes skin cancer.

Spray tans are a really safety way to get a tan, it won't last as long but you health will. Just find a good spray tan and stick to it, don't risk your health by going trough processes that will affect your skin just to make it look attractive. Take care of your skin, don't harm it what so ever. You might look tanned and beautiful, but stop to think if it is possible that a simple vanity can affect your life forever?

Violence in México: A problem for the US

As violence inscreased on Mexico, fear increased for the United States. A proof of this fear is that the Arizona governor, Jan Brewer, sent a letter to the White House asking for more federal resources at the border to stop human trafficking, drug trafficking and weapons. In this letter, Brewer pointed out the roads and uninhabited places in Arizona that have become the main steps or roads for illegal immigration, drug and arms trafficking.

When Barack Obama read the letter, 250 National Guard troops were sent to the task of Force Joint Counter Narco-Terrorism. But the force, actually only has 150 soldiers and military pilots of the National Guard, so they are still waiting for the troops to come so they can star working on it.

Pernsoally i think Mexico should be doing something about it too, because the violence is coming from our country i think our national forces are not strict enough or the thing is that they are very corrupt. Felipe Calderón must start working harder on this, but not only him but everyone to make this country less corrupt and more peaceful! .. I know Hillary Clinton came to Mexico to talk about it, and this things must not be forgoten, we should start working on it!.

Where the state comes from?

The state is a group of institutions to organize a country economically, politically and socially. The most important institution is the government which makes the most important decisions. There are several theories that try to explain where the origin from the organization from the state comes from. In them are included the force theory (desire from a small group), evolutionary theory (comes from the family), divine right theory, and social contract theory (people decided it by a contract).

I think that state was form by divine right theory because since the ancient civilizations they really appreciated the gods. They considered them as the major power, I think that they felt protected or saw them as the invincible people. With this they started the belief of the god choosing the rulers, they classified that person as the leader and he was able to give orders to people that were not chosen by god. With this, I think that then the power was given to members of the same family, making them kings or queen. And as we know, there were people from different social classes.

I think that after they realized that there was a ruler who controlled others they wanted other to be the leaders. So they tried to modify creating other types of governments. They decided to choose their leaders, and they try to gain more power. That is how I think the story of power distribution was created.

Getting married

In Mexico City the government has approved that people from the same gender (man-man or woman-woman) get married. This has become a problem because a lot of people are against it saying that that is not correct, and if they adopt children they will be raised in a not normal family, which will change their values, principles, etc. But in the other side, there are also a lot of people who approves this decision.

Personally, I approve this law. Every person is free in their decisions or acts, and people shouldn’t interfere in their lives, especially if there are their preferences. Not because someone likes other things than the majority of people should be treated different. I am also in favor of they wanting to form a family, I don’t see a problem in adopting children. The child will know the truth and not because their parents (men or women), are of the same gender, the boy or girl will also prefer that. This comes in their genes, and cannot be modified by seeing other people. Also, they will be benefited, they will have two people who care for him or her and will act as their parents.

Why the government should avoid a personal decision? We are all humans, we are all different.

A gift from a star

In the book Our Choice comes a quote from Albert Einstein that got my attention. “I’d put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don’t have to wait until coil and oil run out before we tackle that.” The sun is a star which provides great amounts of heat to our planet Earth and is necessary for the living organisms’ life. With the intelligence of humans, they have noticed that the heat can be transformed to use it as energy, and then electricity. This would reduce the amount of CO2 released to the atmosphere and that could be a way to solve global warming.
With the quote I realized that people have had this idea of using the sun since a very long time ago, but still, a small amount of people use this alternative. Why are we not using it, if it is “free” as a gift?

I think that it is because this source of energy is very expensive: the equipment and installation, but after this is all the energy received from the sun is free. You don’t have to pay for it, and it can be used for a long period of time. So it will be a benefit to the owners. I think that if all the people or at least some countries start implementing this, the price will lower, and more people will be able to obtain it (price-demand). And less pollution will be produced.
Also I think that another way of taking advantage of the sun is that the houses should have the ceilings of window. As in the United States, some of the buildings have plants in the highest floor so they can receive solar energy. With this type of ceiling not only plants can be in there, but also people could use that solar energy instead of light bulbs. Or maybe it can also be stored and used.

We must be responsible for our home. The sun will always be there while we are living, so why don’t we are a little selfish and start using it for our and Earth’s benefit? Let’s start using it!!