Drinking and Driving

Well.. I decided now to write about this topic because I am more than tired and sick of my daddy’s e-mails. He sends me hundreds of mails daily relating to driving accidents and alcohol drinking. I don’t know where he takes all those e-mails from, but each mail he sends me is very different from the other ones, even though they are still talking about the same topic: DRIVING WHILE BEING DRUNK.

We as adolescents are not completely aware of the consequences of all of our actions. How many times have we heard or seen campaigns telling you not to drink and drive? Don’t you realize why all this insistency is? Think about it. The young population in these years is much more vulnerable to have car accidents because of the effects of the alcohol. Now a day there is no “good” party without alcohol, so eeeeeeverybody drinks. There are some exceptions, as for example the designated drivers, who are not very common among us.
When you drink and drive, you are not conscious of what you are doing. You are turning out to be a danger for yourself and every person who passes by your way. Is this fair? Is it fair to crush with a car whose driver is 100% sober? NOT!

I understand the preoccupation of my parents in some way. Because I drive, my parents make an emphasis on this topic. They try to make me prevent this kind of accidents. Until today I haven’t make both things at the same time. Try to make the same : )

China and the Human Rights

I think this picture is very funny because IT IS TRUE. China is one of the countries that executes as a punishment for criminals, as well as in many other countries. However, China is the leader country in death penalty.

In China, people in the death row do not have the right to a fair trial, which attempts against human dignity and rights. Moreover people in jail, live in inhuman conditions.

Chinese laws punish about 70 crimes with death penalty and some of these crimes are non-violent crimes, such as crimes that have to do with selling or consuming drugs.

Amnesty International thinks that the crimes punished with the capital punishment must be reduced and people in the death row should be allowed to have a fair trial and good lawyers and to receive visits from their families. In my opinion, China should not kill criminals. Killing is not the solution. And we can notice that; since the beginning of times, governments have killed criminals in order to punish them and make the others see what would happen to them if they commit the same crime. But, does that stop them? I firmly believe it does not. People keep commiting the same crimes over and over again, they seem to do not fear death. Death penalty has not reduced the number of criminals. I think that criminals would suffer more in they stay in jail for the rest of their lives than if they are executed immediately.

Sexual Education

Is it really amazing to see how this generation, my generation, is sexually educated, or much better.. uneducated. I have some friends of mine about sixteen, seventeen and eighteen years old who are pregnant or have already had a baby. Isn’t this impersonating!? They are still teenagers and they are living a life that does not correspond to them just because they committed a mistake. These kinds of mistakes are usually because kids are not being well informed about the sexual relations and their consequences within being a young.

Parents play a very important role in this topic. Me, for example, I have an extremely good communication with my mom and my daddy, and because of this, I am aware of a lot of things that kids who don’t talk with their parents completely ignore. Especially my mom is who gives me advice and alerts me of everything. I am neither afraid nor ashamed of talking with my parents about sex or topics related to sex. I consider this very useful because being well informed, especially by parents who have already passed through adolescence, helps us to avoid becoming pregnant after a sexual relation or think two times before doing the sexual act.
It is very disappointing looking to friends of your age who have a baby. Why? Well.. because they use to drop school and leave friends, hobbies, likes, etc apart, start working and stuff in order to take care of another human being. It is an enormous responsibility for adolescents because there is too much in danger.

I beg you my friends.. think about it twice and consider having an open communication with your parents. Abstinence is not that bad!

IN N OUT

Fashion tells you what's on style every season, but how do I combine personal style and trends? First of all, the beautiful thing about fashion is that it always comes back around, you never have to throw things away like those galdiator shoes you wore last season just wait, they're comming back. If a trend sets certain shoes on style like open toe anckle boots, and you love to wear cowboy boots you should stick by your trend, never feel pressured to wear a trend when you can be original and just dress the way you want or even make a trend of your own. If floral print dresses are in, but you love, again, your cowboy boots, but the models wore it with sandals, wear the floral dress with your boots and you have the perfect trend- personal style match. Personal style its what's going to define your appearance, and so your first impression. People that often follow trends as they are settled might end up being just one of the bunch, but instead if you are original you can tottaly have fun with it! Personally, I think we should dress to impress when we will present ourselves formally, but on our daily basis, we should dress for ourselves, never try dressing for other people, you will just end up feeling unconfortable. If you want to be fashionable but sticking to your personal style, try mixing them up. Never see dressing as an issue, in the other hand just have fun with it, and try new things. Wear that dress you never wear, make a change and try not to see dressing as a problem you face every morning when you are trying to decide what to wear. Be yourself all the time, that is what makes you interesting!

WE ARE THE WORLD

Seeing all of the pain that happened just a couple weeks ago in Haiti is heartbreaking. Imagine yourself in that situation, being trapped for weeks not knowing if people will ever find you, or if you will ever see your family again, not knowing if they are alive or not. We need to preactice the value of citizenship and careing for others, and not only that but seriously understanding and feeling what they are passing though to be able to help. There are various ways in we could help, but to be honest, the most important one right now are resources. We need to provide these people with water and food, some of them had passed 12 days without having a glass of water. Imagine how they feel, imaine their anxiety and desperation. We need to know that we are not the only ones in this world, and if people are having a hard time, what an incredible way to practice our moral values and help those people and have them to smile and say thankyou. I'm sure that when we help, somehow it leaves us a great feeling, just by giving without expecting something back. Haiti needs us, lets stand up for those who had suffered. Let go of all the selfishness and share the love.

A ghost town

There is a strike in Cananea due to the miners. Because of this many jobs had been loose and closed because people are migrating to other places because there are no more opportunities in that city. People have called Cananea a Ghost town.

I think that people shouldn’t migrate looking for job; I think they should work in other things. The mines are not the only source of work. The consequences because they are moving are affecting the whole city. There are no people that can buy at stores, so the demand is reducing, and in consequence the whole economy is lowering. I think that they must accept that the strike is not a good way to solve problems, and this is leading to the destruction of the town. They should stop following the leader Gomez Urrutia so they can obtain their jobs again.

Respecting different point's of view

As humans, we all have beliefs and several times our way of thinking make us feel that we belong to a place or an especific group of people.

Most of the time, when we realize that we are not agree with someone, we decide to have less comunication with those you are not agree with; most of us just want to avoid argues; we don't want to have weird conversations about topics in which we can get mad while we talk.

I really hate when there's a division because people are in a different political party in a city, or at school, when you are supporting a candidate to be the queen, or an specific "planilla".

I think that when we are not 100% mature to carry with these situations, is when all these problems become visible, and we should try to understand that every person has an opinion, a way of seeing things, and even if you'd tried to change it, it would be very difficult; It would be more difficult if the person has a strong criteria or a strong faith that won't let them change his or her mind.

We also should try to listen to other people's opinion because it is a way to learn about different cultures, personalities and values and those factors can make our opinion even richer.

We shouldn't let others change our point of view, we should be strong and respect other's opinions.

It is great to have diversity of ideas and concepts, that would make us a tolerant person that will be able to respect different things.

Earth Strikes Again

During the month of February, one huge iceberg loose off Antarctica’s Coast. There was once big iceberg that separated from the rest of the ice land and joined another one that was already floating in the ocean. The collision of these two ice pieces created a loose iceberg the size of Luxembourg, around 97 kilometers long. The first iceberg separated from the ice land because of the warm water currents that had reach it since several years ago. Reading this shocking news made me realize that global warming is not near, it’s here.

I think Earth has tried to warn us throughout the past years about the catastrophes that could happen. Let’s just take a look about what happened with the Hurricane Katrina, the tsunami of 2004, and most recently what happened in Haiti and in Chile. I think mother Earth gave all the possible warnings that we should take this planet seriously.

All these natural disasters can affect our way of life in each and every sense. Scientists say that if this huge iceberg melts down, the sea level will rise and parts of the world that are barely above sea level may disappear. Also, he said that the iceberg melting will change sea currents and the amount of oxygen in the sea, affecting all types of marine species. This could affect the economy of many countries in which the sea provides a large part of their GDP. The supply of the product will decrease affecting the equilibrium.

I find very interesting what we saw at the last class about considering the effect on the environment in economics. If we had considered nature before, maybe today we wouldn’t be suffering all these natural disasters. The companies that take into account the effect of their actions on nature, are very responsible because they don’t only care about themselves and money but also about the world they are living in. We should all consider the effect on nature of all of our action. Think twice before throwing oil on water, or before throwing plastic bags into the garbage.

We humans can do better. We were given a powerful brain to do whatever is best for us. I hope we realize that we are only harming ourselves by not caring about the world. We should do everything we can do now. Maybe tomorrow will be too late to start caring about our seas, our land and our air. Who knows where mother earth will strike next.

SPICE IT

Salsa is probably the main condiment that characterize mexican gastronomy. Mexian salsas had become really popular to foreigns, since it adds a really tastefull spice to our everyday food. There are a great variety of salsas that are produced by different companies, and there are gaps in the levels of hot spice each salsa contains. There are different ways we can enjoy salsa in our foods, such as in snaks. A great way to eat a healthy snack but still delicious specially for us mexicans who love salsa are fruits with this condiment. Salsa just makes healthy snacks don't feel like healthy snaks, who doesn't like cheating on a healthy diet? I consider salsa one of my everyday condiments to add to anything. I may say, beware of adding too much, since salsa may be bad for your stomach and it may cause you irritation. Still, salsa is delicious to taste and must be added with caution!

Blood Diamond: Sierra Leone Case (Continue)

"Diamonds are forever" it is often said. But lives are not.We must spare people the ordeal of war, mutilations and death for the sake of conflict diamonds." Martin Chungong Ayafor, Chairman of the Sierra Leone Panel of Experts.

After years of conflict, the government in Sierra Leone and the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) signed the the Lome Peace Agreement, which stated the stopping of aggression, the disarming of both parts and the development of one government.
Then, the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) was established by political organizations. This organization watched if both parts could accomplish with the agreement. Nowadays, it is one of the main peacekeeping forces in Africa.
Currently in Sierra Leone, the Government monitors the trade of rough diamonds. Now, in order to import diamonds from the country, the diamonds must have a Certificate of Origin. Arms have been monitored as well. Government has seized weapons and is watching carefully what the members of the rebel groups are doing.
This case is being studied by a group of experts (Sierra Leone Panel of Experts), including people from other countries such as India, Belgium, Cameroon, Canada, among others. They state how the agreement is being fulfilled, and other social issues in Sierra Leone.
However, the diamond trade is still considered as the main factor of the conflict in this country. Even though some people are getting involved in campaigns to help others, children (mainly) and the society are still very damaged and concerned for this issue, since they are the ones who suffered the most.

What is the best?

During my vacations of 2008, I went to Hungary. From all my tour in Europe, I would definetley choose Hungary as the best place I visited. The city was so interesting, the bus station, the parlament, everything, but the most important thing that caught my eye was the old buildings that were all with graffiti and messages. I totally analyzed it was the ghost of comunism. During the Hungary tour, a man told us that Hungary was just se in the 90's as a republic.Moreover, I was curious about what was comunism.

Comunism is a political theory that focus in avoiding the private property and the proletariate. It is when everybody is the same, no social classes, you have yout own hause, medical service, food, etc. But you can not have your own weath. Meanwhile, capitalism is when you have exchanges, trades, your own wealth, etc.

But, what is the best? Being equal or being diferent? What about human rights?

The popular republic was used in Budapest ruled by Nagy, and when suddenly everythinf finished, more than 200.000 pepole went to the parlament to celebrate the democracy in their country. What really wanted the people of Hungary? Does Comunism is bad? what about capitalism?

The answer is in yourself, you have the power to decide about what is the best political ideology according to your own ideology.

"India Goes Solar"

India currently has a huge defficit in electricity; while mayor cities have normal electrical services, most of its villages have no electricity or potable water. The solution to the electricity problem has been given by a private company who sells solar panels at only $150 us dllrs.
Because India has a sunny clime all the year, this seems like the perfect solution; villagers are specially grateful with this service, because, although they had to pay the banc who financed the solar lamps, once they are through with the debts, they will have free light virtually forever.
I think it would be interesting to bring this company to Sonora, or ither create a similar one, since we also have sunlight the whole year an is very cheap.
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2010/02/28/kapur.inda.solar.lights.cnn

Blood Diamond: Sierra Leone Case

Blood diamonds are diamonds originated in areas controlled by forces opposed to the current governments. They are used for insurgent groups to fund war, which means that with the money they obtain, they buy weapons and gun and do other illegal activities. It is stated that these precious stones (also known as war diamonds) are a crucial factor that makes brutal wars in Africa last longer. In Sierra Leone, conflict diamonds continue supporting rebel groups, such as Revolutionary United Front (RUF), which acts totally against the will of restoring peace in the continent.

People in Sierra Leone deserve a good life, but these groups are making it impossible. These groups invade the villages and maltreat people; they kill children and men, they injure them, they rape girls and women, and many people have been taken from away their families by rebel groups to work in the mine, and if they try to rebel or even tire, the soldiers hurt(like the boy in the photo, he lost his hands to the rebel's machetes) or kill them. More than 4 million people have died mining blood diamonds. This is a huge social issue in Sierra Leone because of the people suffering during mining these precious stones.

The horrific atrocities in Sierra Leone have caught world’s attention and people have realized that it is needed to stop the trade of these precious stones in order to cut off the sources of the rebels so wars can be shortened.

Tsunami Warning

After the earthquake that occurred in Chile, on Sunday there were warnings of a tsunami in all the nations near the Pacific. The big earthquake provokes a tsunami that can goes until Japan!
President Barack Obama said that his government was prepared for the tsunami that can affect the coast, especially Hawaii, American Samoa and Guam. He also said that they warn all the population to leave the coast zone; it is very important the people pay attention to the warnings and obey them.

Fortunately these warnings are over, because the waves observe are too weak to assume a threat to the normal life of the population.

The ocean level is increasing and decreasing constantly, but according to the specialist and their observations there is no risk for the people. We were near! The waves of a tsunami were close.

Have you ever think why all this disasters are happening? It is true the end of the world is coming?

First, it was the earthquake of Haiti, and then it was Chile, a tsunami alert for the Pacific. What would come next? I think that all of these happen because of global warming. People is not taking seriously what is happening, but we need to take care of the place were we live! The ocean is increasing; the poles are melting down. It’s time to make conscience of what is happening and what are the things that we need to make for this place. We live here on earth; taking care of it is an obligation to all of us, why we are not doing it? Are you going to wait until you really suffer a disaster? NO! Now it’s time, we need to take extreme measures NOW!

Ramzey to produce for Yamaha

Ramzey a company from Turkey will produce motorcycle to Yamaha, and this company will sell them in Africa. Ramzey is planning to produce 40,000 50 CC motorcycles for Yamaha this year. Within the next three years the company aims to increase that figure to 100,000.This will contribute 30 million Turkish Liras’s to the company’s annual income, according to Ramzey coordinator. Ramzey invested 5 million liras last year, when the global motorcycle market was facing significant negative .Ramzey increased its capacity 100 percent last year and created new employment opportunities as it increase the number of its employees by 35 percent.

“One of the reasons Yamaha chose us was our effectiveness in the African market. Turkey’s quality production and low cost duo does not exist in many other countries around the world.”

Ramzey produced 35,000 motorcycles last year, said Yalnız. The company, which managed to obtain growth last year, aims to establish a factory in Algeria this year. The company mainly exports to Algeria Tunisia, Morocco and Senegal.

I think that all the production of the motorcycle will help a lot to the economy to the company and in consequent to Turkey, because this motorcycle are being exported and have a lot of demand.Every year they are producing more and the income is increasing, so this benefits a lot. Not only for all the income that they are obtaining also because fo the employment that they are producing, because they need people to produce this motorcycles and also this benefits the economy. Thanks to this company Turkey can be seen as a good country to invest, because of the quality of production.

UNIDOS =)

I am extremely excited and happy with the social service that was assigned to me this semester! It is really cool. Even though I have just attended UNIDOS two times, I feel different about myself. Hanging out with this people who are different to us make me feel lucky about myself. The UNIDOS kids are very nice to us. This kind of activities helps us also to see that regardless of the disabilities, we can all be the same in many ways. We have the same interests and dislikes. We can learn to have fun together without discriminating. We need to learn to love our neighbors!
It is very comfortable to do something for someone and as gratitude you receive a big smile full of happiness and love. What this UNIDOS association does is very noble and kind. To give affection to this people has no name. I really enjoy being with this kids. They make me laugh a lot! I hope that more people could have the opportunity to coexist with disabled people, so that they can appreciate life from another perspective.
WE ARE ALL THE SAME JUST FOR BEING HUMAN!

Opportunity Cost

Scarcity of resources is the basic concept of economics. Scarcity needs trade-offs and trade-offs result in an opportunity cost.

We’ve seen during this partial opportunity cost.

The first concept of opportunity cost was made by John Stuart Mill. Opportunity cost is the other available choice to someone that picked up a choice between other ones. Any decision that involves between two or more options has an opportunity cost. For example, if someone has $20 we can buy a CD or a shirt, and if he buys the CD the shirt is the opportunity cost and vice versa.

Opportunity cost is useful when you evaluate the cost and the benefits of your choices, especially when you are between the sword and the wall. It often is expressed in non-monetary terms.

Opportunity cost has a lot of applications:

• Consumer choice
• Production possibilities
• Cost of capital
• Time management
• Career choice
• Analysis of comparative advantage

I think that it is very important to consider the opportunity cost in our lives to know the cost and the benefits of every action that we take even though it is not a monetary cost. Evaluating all the possibilities and benefits that we have we can take better decision; even though, they can be difficult

If we ignore that opportunity cost it produces the illusion that it doesn’t benefit the cost at all.

Another Earthquake!

More than 708 people died in Chile, this number can increase, because of the earthquake of 8, 8 degrees that occurred last Saturday. First, it was informed that there were only 214 victims but now are even more!

This earthquake provokes the lost of a lot of houses and hospitals, but not only that also make a tsunami that is along the Pacific Ocean. According to Sergio Barrientos, this earthquake was 50 times more tan the one of Haiti.

The authorities said that some constitutional rights can be restricted like the one of circulation or merchandise transport, so this can prevent more accidents. This earthquake provokes a lot of diseases. The mandatory said that they will use all the public web of health so they can take care of patients in risk, but also there are transport from destroyed hospitals to another’s.

The head of state said that they will found other solutions like campaign hospitals but also other local solutions that can be implanted in a medium term.

In infrastructure, they decide to establish emergency solutions, like the opening of alternative roads to the roads of pavement that are broken. The mayor problem is electricity; they need to restore electricity as fast as possible.

I think that all the people of Chile need to be responsible and patient, so they can’t prevent more accidents and problems. Also we need to help this country that is suffering a big natural disaster with a lot damages.
Like we did with Haiti being humble with this entire country that need us. Just imagine that you are suffering this! We need to help, whenever and wherever we can. They need us and we have all the capacities to help them.

The Islamic Republic of Iran

Iran is a very large country in Western Asia. Its political system is based on the 1979 Constitution; this means that all citizens must have equal and appropriate opportunities. In relation to the foreign relations that Iran has with the rest of the world, well.. I did a research and found that they are based on two strategic principles: eliminating outside influences in the region and pursuing extensive diplomatic contacts with developing and non-aligned countries.
Iran has many problems with the United States, this due to its suspicious nuclear program. Iran has been designated a state sponsor of terrorism for its activities in the continued involvement in terrorism and its nuclear weapons ambitions. There are also a lot of problems within the oil sector because Iran is very rich in this natural resource. Oil provides the majority of the incomes. Also discrimination to women implies a huge social problem. There is no gender equality.
P.S. I will be writing more about Iran while I continue with my research.

Polyglotes = Professional Progress

Now at days, it is very important to know more than one language in order to survive, but if you want to have a good progress in this globalized world, economically talking, you have to know more than three languages. But Why? Very easy, because it’s easier to manage information, you can specialized yourself in a good college from other country (let’s say we are Mexicans and we went to France to get a master’s degree.) You can share information; it is also said that when a person knows more than two languages, he has more abilities to learn (whatever information is needed to be learned), and it has many other benefits.

As the world is in a period, in which it is globalizing. Therefore it is important to break those barriers to understand each other and have a better “communication”; and in order to understand each other we need to know about the different cultures in the world and we also need to know several languages, maybe not all of them but the most important ones and the most spoken ones (English, Spanish, French, Chinese, German, and so on).

But how do I choose those languages? Well it is important to know which language will help us in our professional future, for example: if you want to be a engineer, you will have to have interest in German because Germany has a lot of progress in this area. Another important factor is how many people speak the language because you will not like to learn a language that only one city speaks. You need to be interested in the languages that many nations or people, depending on the case, speak; for instance: English or Chinese.

And always remember that knowing (and speaking) more than one language will open you many doors!

The Amero

Wouldn’t it be nice to have just one currency in America?

But what canwe do to accomplish that? Once, I heard somebody that was saying that Canada, the U.S.A, and Mexico had this strange idea of unifying their currencies and call it the amero, but then he said that it was impossible. I wondered why, at the moment I didn’t give it enough attention. With the pass of time I asked myself if it was possible and I discovered that in order to do that, these countries would have to either balance their economies or have problems with it.

If they balance their economy (more less have the same currency value), they will have to increase Mexico’s economy and/or decrease US’s (which I don’t think will happen) to convert their currency to just one. If they join their currencies without a balance, it might happen that Mexico will have several problems because he would not be “strong” enough to support this and Mexico’s economy will be in a hurry.

Beside all these, wouldn’t it be nice to have just one currency and don’t have to worry every time the dollar increases? Maybe Mexico will have a boost in its economy because Canada and the US will push it. This currency, I think, will have the opportunity to fight against Europe. It will have many disadvantages but also many benefits.

If you want to know more about this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_currency_union

Mexican Peso vs. American Dollar

It’s amazing how come that the value of one currency towards another can affect many people’s lives. In the sense that if taking the example of the Dollar (U.S.A.) against the Peso (Mexican); if the Dollar increases its value, many people in Mexico will “suffer” (maybe because Mexico’s economy mostly relies on USA’s) because they will not have enough money to buy things from the USA or even they’ll have troubles solving their debts because they will increase, talking in pesos. But in contrast if the dollar decreases, towards the peso, everybody will buy dollars and go to the USA to buy thing because they “have” money.

I wonder how can they know the relationship between these currencies. I know that this relationship depends on; obviously, the American economy in contrast to the Mexican’s and vice versa, also the inflation of each country. But what factors influence this? Anyway what I try to explain with this, is the fact that a change in any currency can affect many people’s lives, even if the change was not in their country’s currency (as we can see in the example with the U.S. and Mexico.)

The consequences of the change of the currency’s value can vary from insignificant to genocide (dead of many people). For example: the insignificant consequences (mostly when it had changed few cents), you can buy “more” for less, but if the change is huge, the consequences can be from Mexicans buying more from the US to the genocide because people’s debts increase a lot (e.g. what happened in Mexico in 1964, that the dollar increased a lot and many Mexicans that had debts in the USA, committed suicide because their debts increased a lot).

Today:

Divisas y Metales 01.03.2010
Divisas y Metales	Compra	Venta
DOLAR AMERICANO	12.55	12.92

Our home: Earth

Yesterday another natural disaster occurred in America! Chile suffered an earthquake of 8.8 in the Richter scale, and it had 90 replicas and one of them of 6.2 in the Richter scale. At the moment there had being registered 708 deaths.

We know that Chile is in seismic zone as Mexico City and humans can’t control when it occurs one. But maybe all of us are responsible for some of the natural disasters that had been occurring in the past years. I think this because we don’t care about Earth, and we are damaging it more every time. We are contaminating ocean, air, and land; we are overexploiting our resources; we are deforesting; we are not recycling. So the earth is reacting to all the changes we have made.

There have being ecological campaigns but they include just a small percentage of the human population. If every person could join them, we could avoid problems, and maybe reduce global warming. We should all get involved so we can have a better home called Earth!

Feeling superior by making others inferior

“No one can make you feel inferior”- Eleanor Roosevelt
This is a quote that every people should keep in mind. In the world there are people who discriminate or treat bad other people just because they feel superior, and want to have a benefit. Every day this acts or violence increase and it affects our society.

Over two weeks ago, I heard that some people transported drugs to the United States and they make other people (called “mulas”) eat capsules of drugs, and when they arrive make the people release them. I think that this act is really bad and inhuman. Nobody should take advantage of other people because they can hurt them. With this example, first they are doing something bad by making him or her eat it, because it affects the organism, then they are cheating the police, and then when they make the people release them, they also give other substance (which again affects the organism). If they want to transport it like this, why don’t they do it to themselves? Are they being so “generous” by letting other people have this taste? Obviously not! They don’t want to hurt themselves.

Another act that is very common, and now in every city or town or even at schools is presented is: stealing. Why do people do this? Sometimes they don’t need it, but they just do it to hurt others. My question is, do they increase their self-steam by doing this? Maybe they feel powerful... Still, I think that there is no excuse for this act. I think that everyone should respect themselves and obviously others, so you should treat them well. We are all humans, and all of us have feelings!

While driving

Last Tuesday it was the day for citizenship at school. Our group was in charge of telling the people about the “No Zone Phone” campaign, and the goal was that they commit to one of the three policies while they are driving (not use the cell phone at all, don’t message, or use free hands). I think that this campaign that started Oprah Winfrey is really important and will really have a great impact because there are many accidents due to the use of cell phones while driving, and people should be conscious of their acts.

In the lasts years driving has become a problem. There have been many accidents from young people because they drive with high speed, or they are drunk, or they are using cell phones. I think that the government should be really strict, first at giving the licenses: not because they drive well in a block that means that they are really good drivers so they should do other exams (as in other countries), also they must make the people respect the speed, and if they see a minor driving without license make the right procedure to pay a ticket, not giving them the money because with this the country doesn’t grow. I consider that if people pay the ticket they could be more conscious of their acts and they won’t do them again because of the consequences, or at least they would try not to do them so the police don’t charge them.

But not only we can put the responsibility in the police, the person who is driving must be conscious of what he or she is doing. They must be aware that in the worse of the cases, they can cause a death if they do something bad.

Our activities help in the future

We are in school which has a variety of activities, groups, or student societies you can join. Many adults support this, and say that you “grow” if you are part of them, but how? How can a sport make the world a better place? How can a group help the economy of the country? How can an art, dance class, or a leadership group help you in a future? How all of them are related with this class?

Since I entered Tec, the teachers, principal, or people that came to conferences told us that all the extracurricular activities helped us during our life. I decided to enter to different things just for fun, but after a semester of being at Tec I realized that what those people said was true. With all the activities you became more independent and more responsible. You start to organize better and try to help more people. Also you get more mature, you increase your confidence, and you become capable of managing bigger problems. Also, because you are most of the time busy, you start to love all the things you do, I mean you don’t do it just because you are part of it… you become a member of it! Consequently, you really appreciate your free time and enjoy it. You start to understand the phrase “Work hard, live harder”.

But here comes the question, how does all those characteristics developed help in the future? With the things I have mentioned, you can interact with more people, you care about the world, and you are aware of the problems that it faces. For instance, if you were part of a sports team you can get a scholarship for university, you can continue studying, and when you are now working you have already the habit of commitment and working as a team. Or if you were part of a leader group, when you are working you already have the skills of interacting with people, organizing, and also working as a team. I think that if every person could join to a group, society’s life will increase. They will work with more enthusiasm, they will not stay just as lazy people, and more of the world’s problem will be solved as: unemployment (scholarships help you to continue studying; you have the spirit of innovation, can create new jobs), crime, corruption (people could become aware of what politicians are doing, and they will react), etc. So, the economy of the country could grow if everyone does something and create new things, people will communicate more and the international relations will increase. So I think that the things you do in the present really matters in the future.

Prohibition of Web Pages

The teacher once told us that in some places around the world, such in China, Google, Youtube and other web pages were completely banned. Do you think that this is correct? Is this for a social benefit or not? Well.. in my point of view this abolition has advantages and disadvantages.

In the advantages we can include that future generations won’t be that lazy in looking for information and investigating. When we read books and make a good effort when doing our investigations, our intellectual level increases because we exercise our brain. We are so used to Google, that we make books and reading apart. When teachers leave us some homework, we use to seat in front of the computer, enter the Google web page, and type the investigation that was assigned to us. There will appear lots of options and we have only to choose the one we consider the best one. Isn’t it this a lazy habit?

In the other hand, we can fine same disadvantages also. Google and Youtube are not only used for doing homework assignments, they are also used for entertainment and personal learning. If this web pages are completely prohibited, we are losing a lot of easy and fast information that we can get to need some day, and instead of looking for a book and read through a lot of pages in order to find one answer, well is much more easier to go through the internet.

Take this in consideration and consider reading some more books when talking about homework assignments.

Earthquake in chile

Yesterday Feb, 27 there was a terrible earthquake in chile with a magnitude of 8.8. it caused hundreds of deaths. it is known that since 1906 chile has experienced approx. 28 earthquakes causing more than 30,000 deaths. strangely in this earthquake it is said that there were less death's than in Haitis earthquake. Many people question this strange fact but the answere is because Chile was prepared to manage these kind of situations, and lead more people to survive safetly.
Haiti unfortunatly besides if being not prepared for the situation, is extreme poor and does not have the resources to help people survive these kind of disasters. it is strange but true how the preparation of a country can help many men survive, and in my opinion all the coutries should help eachother making more back up planes for cases like these. i believe that the United Nations should make a found where people donate money or contries donate part of their taxes. and in case of a natural disaster such as the on Haiti had, the United Nation can help out with that fond. we must find ways to help eachother for things such as the ones that are just happening, thing we cant control, and yet is our fault because we dont do anything about it.

Invictus: a movie that give us a lesson

This movie leave a message in all of us: we all are the same, no matter our skin color is. Based on true life history, Invictus show us how Nelson Mandela become president of South Africa and tries to unite his country, I mean, to destroy the walls of society between black and white people through the National Rugby Team, a very interesting plot.

In the movie it is seen how when "Madiba" (Mandela's nickname) arrives to presidency, people from different societies in the president offices are struggling to have a good communication between them. And of course that complaints came right away to president Mandela. When a black officer questioned his boss about why there was a white working in the same office than him Mandela responded: "Reconciliation starts here. The Rainbow Nation starts here".

That quote put me to think a lot. How many times do we stop doing something because no one out there is doing it. If we want to make a change, why not starting us? Why most of people wait until an entire society is doing something to make that change we want.

Personally, I am tired of people who respond me "Oh come on! nobody does it, why should I?" when I ask that person about why he/she don't throw garbage in it's place.

It is our choice to make an impact of society, to make a change for good in our neighborhood or in out city. If we are strong people, good leaders, we will be able to do more. There is no doubt that Mandela was more than a leader, more than a president.

Invictus is a very inspirational movie that motivates all of us to have an impact on society, to stop with racism, to be good humans every time, that even with sports we can unite a city, a region, in the case of Mandela, an entire nation.

"I am the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul". Nelson Mandela

Catchy but Trashy

Few days ago, I was at home listening to the radio and I coud not avoid noticing all the trashy songs. Miley Cyrus, Lady GaGa, Ke$ha, Justin Bieber, Jonas Brothers, among others. Though they are catchy, they are still trashy. Lyrics about partying so hard that girls do not know where they are, or that they brush their teeth with Jack plus a kind of techno/pop music does not result well. I know that not all their songs are about having fun at parties, drinking alcohol or having sex. I know that, for example Miley Cyrus has songs about being the best you can be and stuff like that, but COME ON, teenagers prefer to listen to songs about partying hard.
Whenever we ask ourselves, why youth is so messed up, we must remember what these "singers" teach us. Whenever we ask ourselves, why girls get pregnant when they are just 16 years old, let's remember Rihanna's "Rude Boy". Whenever we ask ourselves about violence against women and why they are still treated like things, let's remember Alejandro Fernandez, "Unas Nalgadas", which caused a great controversy by the way, and all the girls in bikini dancing in music videos.
Most of the songs we listen today are bombs; they actually tell us what to do, how to behave, how to live...But that's media, there is not much we can do, we can't really run away. The only thing we can do is to promote better songs (and TALENTED singers), to be more exigent with what we listen, to know what we are actually listening to and to not listen to singers who are always drunk, in jail or taking pictures of themselves naked because they are role models for the little ones and the only thing we get when we buy their discs or go to their concerts is to increase their fame and when this happens the youngest ones always want to imit them and be exactly like the most famous pop singer or rockstar.Moreover they stop thinking by themselves. But, is it right for a 12-year-old girl to take pictures of herself with a wet shirt? Is it right for a 14-year-old boy to smoke? Of course it is not right at ANY AGE. But that is what we promote with 3 minutes of "music".