Music Therapy

Music therapy is a process were people use music to improve or maintain health. It helps to improve the level of the quality of life in different aspects by using music experiences to achieve their goal.

Music therapy is being used to treat different diseases. According to some researches music can help to improve some diseases having a profound effect on the body.

For example, researchers suggest that listening Mozart’s piano can reduce the number of seizures in people with epilepsy. This is called the “Mozart effect”

Depending on the disease the person has is the beat or type of music that they use. Music therapy can help cancer patient, children with ADD, and others. Also some hospitals are using this treatment to help pain management, to promote movement, to calm patients and other benefits. Some benefits include a decrease in blood pressure, heart rate and levels of anxiety in heart patients. Music can have surprising effects in our bodies.

Also music helps to relieve stress. Music is especially helpful in relaxation and stress management

I think that music therapy can be very important for some persons, because they can see how their health is improving while they are just hearing music. Not also for people with disease is helpful. I think that can be very useful for students like us, because sometimes all the homework and exams that we have stress us a lot provoking some disadvantages in our health and we don’t defeat like always. So, maybe hearing the music that we like can make us forget about all the things that we have and relax making us feel better, and making on us feelings of positively and doing things in a better way.

Do we need war?

We now that power is the main reason of war. Some people always want to be over the rest; they want power and control. Politicians are a very good example of leaders because they want to lead and control other people. Most of the wars are caused by disagreements in the governments. When leaders have disagreements the first thing that it gets to their minds is war, weapons and all that stuff to destroy the other country. Do they really need to do that just to get power or money?

War just causes damages and dead, why they consider war like a solution? There are so many solutions to problems and disagreements war is not necessary. There are so many laws for murder and why this people in war don’t are punished if they kill other people o why there is not a law that prohibit war?

Politicians should think in their people, because war not only damage the other country also their own country.

Communication is the solution to problems, and there are so many media they should use them but not the media of war.

I don’t that there could be a good reason for war. Normal people don’t want war on the contrary the only thing that we want is peace! People want a good place were they can live, family, food, water but no war.

If we want a peaceful world where all people can get along, there should be no war. There are other solutions, we definitely don’t need war. War is only damage.

HOMEWORK - The Economic Crisis: Who is to blame?

As the world economy verges towards some kind of recovery, albeit a fragile one, analysts continue to look back trying to understand why experts didn’t see the signs of crisis in the first place, there remains a lot of questions about exactly what caused the crisis, and more specifically, who is to blame.

We appear to live in a world where blame is thrown around like a tennis ball – a tennis ball that everybody seems to have an allergy to. But the blame has to land somewhere, or at least, there has to be some notion of collective responsibility, and action to ensure that we as a society are prepared for economic crises in the future.

We must stop short of saying however that collective action is the ultimate solution to the crisis. Coordination between countries already existed somewhat beforehand – the problem is however, that some countries were lax on their rules, whilst others changed them altogether, perhaps somewhat provoking the kind of risk-taking conditions that could lead to a crisis, then what would have otherwise occurred in a more risk-averse environment.

But as the world digests what has occurred (and is still going on) since 2007, blame is an unavoidable part of the menu. As the crisis evolves from one that initially started out through record levels of borrowing in the US, inside the rather large bubble of the housing market, with loans characterised as high risk, to a crisis that resulted in massive Keynesian government intervention all over the world, the question is “What next?”

A simple yet accurate way of portraying the crisis to come is “How are governments going to finance their extensive borrowing?” Although ultimately this question is focused towards the United States and United Kingdom, the perilous result of extensive borrowing is all too evident in Greece at the moment of writing. The European Union finally came forward on Thursday 25th March 2010 to offer a package designed to “save” Greece, but the underlining lack of agreement in the Union, as well as questions about its ability to be able to do what it says it is going to do, is highlighted clearly by the fact that the International Monetary Fund is involved. There is no clearer indication that the Eurozone appears unable to manage its own problems – but of course, the whole issue is linked to whether Greece should have entered the Eurozone in the first place.

What is pertinent at this stage is to take stock of just where we’ve been, where we are, and where we’re going. We may examine these stages through the context of the eternal background question of “Who is to blame?”

One may be tempted to blame those who borrowed money in the first place. If ordinary people had been responsible in their personal finances, they might not have found themselves in the dangerous situation of possible default, and the snowball effect of debt that this brings – in many cases, leading to personal bankruptcy. What has happened to us a society? Didn’t we learn from our grandparents and older generations that you only spent what you had? Didn’t we learn that you never “lived beyond your means?” What happened to make us disregard one of the basic laws of personal economics? Did we just become greedy? Did we just want to live now, and not worry about debt because it’s gone when we’re gone? How do we explain individuals’ behaviour?

Sub-prime borrowers would have been classified as such for various reasons. Perhaps they had a bad credit history, or perhaps the hadn’t built sufficient economic connections to be offered a competitive interest rate (as might have been the case for immigrants arriving in the United States) One way or the other, house prices are but a reflection of the overall economic environment, and when there is economic growth, prices rise. This in turn fuels demand for borrowing, with the major motivation for buying to get on the property ladder before it’s too late, or just to make a profit from selling later.

Either way, people wanted to borrow. When times are good, and jobs are generated, there are also more deposits into the financial system in the first place. People feel more secure to borrow, and confident of the future. Who can blame them for that? At the end of the day, choices were made, and consequences have to be followed. The consequences are today, with record foreclosures and levels of personal debt, and consequences shall continue to come.

This is where we might want to introduce the banks into this equation. After all, they fuelled the borrowing by providing it, and low interest rates, although good for demand on the one hand, are not necessarily good for making a long-term profit. For a high return therefore, one must be prepared to take more risks. Were the banks really irresponsible, or just following their business model? With lots of cash available in the financial system, and risk appropriately calculated, what’s the issue?

It seems like one could finish their analysis there, but let’s dig a little deeper. Let’s not forget that banks are not lending their own money to make a profit – but OUR money. And let’s go straight to the point of where the banks must have some liability – securitisation. The supposed financial innovation of packaging sub-prime mortgage debt with lower-risk debt, having it graded as the latter, and selling it to other financial institutions without disclosing the exact content of the debt, calls to mind various adjectives that one could use to describe such behaviour. The subsequent actions of hiding sub-prime debt off-balance sheet brings further colourful descriptions of these financial institutions that are charged with protecting our money and diversifying risk, not storing risk for eventual exposure and collapse.

The final part of this economic crisis equation is governments. They have been accused of deregulating the financial services industry to the point where such innovations such as securitisation were not illegal. Although we can fairly acknowledge that it is one of the responsibilities of government to promote commerce, trade and overall economic development, they also have a responsibility to maintain well-being. If one thing is clear, the fall in world wealth, particularly in the developed world, could not be described as meeting this responsibility – and a certain amount of understatement is needed as one speaks this fact through gritted teeth. So why did the government deregulate and put us all at risk? Is the crisis their fault then?

But governments have two angles that need to be analysed. Deregulation is one, and the other is what has happened as the extent of sub-prime exposure became obvious. Governments, spooked by the massive loss of confidence, particularly between banks themselves, have been desperately trying to save the world economy. The end result at the time of writing is the kind of intervention that socialists could only dream of beforehand. Government intervention is here – and ever-more resources are falling under their control. Is this right in a free-market economy? Is this what Keynes intended when he said that governments should intervene in the economy to stimulate demand?

Not disregarding governments’ motives of wanting to restore confidence and economic growth, as the only sure way to recovery, the consequences of their actions could be to provoke another crisis - a crisis that would not now originate from personal debt, but government debt. Some countries, such as Greece, Spain and Portugal, and increasingly the United Kingdom, are in serious, serious trouble. And it is wrong of people to think that governments have the capacity to solve all problems – the institution of Government has to pay its debts like anyone else. But the same governments are under pressure to not cease public spending – not only because it could be political suicide (Greece, Spain and the UK are all currently ruled by left-wing governments) but also because the act of Government borrowing, ironically, is the only mechanism stopping various economies from slipping back into a serious recession. In other words, increasing debt is supporting government intervention plans with a view to economic growth. And governments are desperately hoping that growth will come – because it is the only real way that debts can be repaid. Fail that, and tax rises and the associated social consequences are all that would be left - anyone else for a dose of IMF medicine?

To close this post therefore, the central substance of its subject remains. Who is to blame for this crisis? Given that governments have stemmed recession only through massive borrowing and cash injections, will growth now come? Will this be enough in the long-term to bring overall public debts down? Finally, how will we prevent such a crisis happening again? These relevant questions all remain for both now and the immediate future. Let’s just hope that these questions still do not exist in their current potent form for our children and grandchildren. So the questions are: “What can we do now?” “What should we have done?” and “What should we go on to do?” Lots of reflection to do, and comments extremely welcome.

Thank you for reading.

Greek Bank governor warns about economy shrinking further

Watching the news I found out that the Greek economy will shrink by two percent this year, more than the earlier expectation of between 0.3 percent and 1.2 percent, Bank of Greece Governor Giannis Provopoulos warned here on Monday.

The only way out of this crisis is through urgent drastic changes, decreases in the budget deficit and a turn to growth projects, he stressed, while presenting the bank's yearly monetary policy report to the parliament, which will on Monday evening hold another debate on the Greek Stability and Growth Program.

There is no doubt that Greece is one of the countries that have suffered more this economic crisis, and is clear that they are not close of solving the problem.

The budget revenues in the first two months this year increased 13.2 percent, which is higher than the target of 7.1 percent set by the government, while expenses decreased 9.6 percent and the target was 3.5 percent, the ministry said in the announcement.

In order to change the negative trend, the Greek government has to implement without wasting time the necessary reforms to reduce the deficit and focus on development, the report concluded.

Baseball player gets megacontract (8 years/ 184 million USD)

It is not rare now day that the best athletes get contracts that involves a scandalous amount of money. Tiger Woods, the best golfer in the world earns more than 100 million per year, but this amount of money is also because of the publicity, not only earnings from tournaments.

But what did impress me during the weekend was the contract that a 26 years old baseball player got in the middle of an economic crisis that is still going on around the world. This contract was a 8 year and 184 million dollars deal, this means that the player will earn 23 million dollars a year, about 22.5 million more than the United States President.

Then I asked myself: "did crisis never hit sports?" How is possible that banks are running out of money and they must be supported by money and that it is being very hard to give loans meanwhile a baseball organization gives almost 200 million to a single person (well, 10% goes to the player's agent).

It is true that sports teams earn a lot of money from publicity and TV rights, also by ticket sales obviously, but market is in a hard situation now, attendance in baseball parks are decreasing because of the economic situation, really, what Joe Mauer just signed do not make sense to me, even that he was the Most Valuable Player in the American League, the best hitter, and guess what, he is a catcher! For those who don't know about baseball, catchers are known for being bad hitters.

It is true that Mauer is a phenomenon, he is one of the best players in the game right now, and fortunately for him, the Minnesota Twins, the team he supported since he was a little kid (Joe Mauer born in Minneapolis, Minnesota where he plays professional baseball now) the team for whom he has played in the past 6 years, apparently, has not been tackled by the economic crisis.

About what we saw in class

Since economic crisis started at late 2007, I have read as much I can to comprehend the situation. But only with a couple of classes dedicated in a full way to the recession, I was able understand what really caused the problem.

Watching the video of how people were taken out of their houses (I forgot the correct term that we saw in class) and people literally fighting for a job opportunity, indeed, made me feel sad. Sad because it was something that could be avoided if people in charge of making loans in the banks were more responsible.

I remember a teacher of mine who is economist and taught me History of Mexico. Someway or another he will end up speaking about economy. When this crisis just began in the late 2007, my professor used to talk us about what will happen in a few months.

He told us that prices will rise up due the devaluation of the dollar and that the basic basket will rise in a significant way. First it was hard to believe, but it was a matter of time to start seeing the effects of the crisis.

Economic Crisis in Mexico

When this economic recession started in the United States, few people worried about what could happen in other countries, fewer people though what could happen in Mexico with this crisis. When there is a problem about economics in the US, it is impossible to ignore that it will affect also our country.

When president Calderon said at the beginning of 2008 that Mexico would not feel the effect of this crisis, I almost laugh. How a country like ours that exports almost a 80% of it products to the United States (the country that started this crisis) will not even "feel" the big economic recession.

Today I found a note in the newspaper La Jornada, that Mexico will be the last country of Latin America that will go out from the crisis, and also that was the most affected during 2009 according to BID (Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo).

This organism determined Mexican economy will need at least one more year than other Latin America nations to recover the growing and GDP (Gross Domestic Product) levels. This is obviously because our economy depends a lot on the United States, the same thing happen with most of Central America countries like Panama and Costa Rica.

It has been tough situation for all the world, is unbelievable that there was people that said "nothing will happen here in Mexico, this is a 'gringos' situation". We are now watching the results, we just need to keep handling the best we can our capital, do not ask for loans if we know we don't will be able to pay them. The nightmare will over in a year, we need to keep holding it.

Distribution vs Consciousness

El tandeo is a distribution of water system applied in Hermosillo. The reason why the local government decided to implement this system is because water is scarce, and because they want us to be conscious about the scarcity of it.

This distribution system has a lot of disadvantages, some of them are the limitation of water we have. With this, I mean that water is given to us in a limited period. For example, in my house I have water from 5am to 1pm, which is good because I get to shower in the morning. On the other hand, it is not cool because when I arrive home in the afternoon, there is no water to wash the dishes, to do the laundry or to go to the bathroom.

What I really want to make clear is the fact that I’m not quite sure if this system is working. Why do I think that? Well, from what I’ve seen in the homes that I’ve been lately is that people are worried about not having water, but they are not worried about taking care of the few they have.

It could be that the implementation works in terms of distribution of water, but I don’t think it’s working in the terms of conscience.

We Really Are the World!

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

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

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

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

The Earth is an Island

WHAT? REALLY? WHAT IS HAPPENING? HOW IT WILL PASS? Tell us! ATTENTION!





They said that when the pieces of Earth move they have three choices to make:


1.- move


2.- adapt


3.- die

Now at days even though we aren't thinking about any type of things; we are faicng with a problem that is named: "Dilemma of Survival". Why because we are seeing if we are going to survice or die. In our world we are having lots of problems with the human population that is causing great disturbances like: the destruction of a habitat or a cycle that gets affected by all this enormous machine, we aren't going to.

POVERTY

I will love to share with you how does the word Poverty is one of the most common during this and the past decades. My question is; Why are we living such a poverty, if we are getting more technology and machinery, why can't we make our standar of life higher that the actual .

Don't you imagine that lots of people right now they are standing out there in the wind, in the sand or in the floor of cement really cold. They are sleeping on the street using newspapers to protect form the weather; how many people is living in carton houses; how many people is having their babies without medical services, how may people is wishing to eat only a piecer of bread. Well, I can continue all day long telling what does poor people do in order to survive, but this is not my point during this post. So, let me better tell you about what are the causes of poverty.

1) Almost half of the world population live on less than $2.50 per day.

2) The GDP of 41 heavily Indebted poor countries is less than the wealth of the world's 7 richest people.

3) Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names.

4) Less than one per cent of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000 and yet it didn’t happen.

5) 1 billion children live in poverty (1 in 2 children in the world). 640 million live without adequate shelter, 400 million have no access to safe water, 270 million have no access to health services. 10.6 million died in 2003 before they reached the age of 5 (or roughly 29,000 children per day).

"Poverty is the majority of the world's people and nations. "

THE HUGE JOB

BE CAREFUL!

The huge job, well in this post I'm referring to the Corruption system that almost all of our countries have. This system of corruption consists in the taking of money it is not form their own work. They are taking that money sometimes by making like works with other persons, narcotraffic, and so many things that create a great imapct and affect a lot the economy and standard of living in our countries.

I'll like to specify my post in Mexico that is one of the countries with a Democratic government that presents almost always a corrupted system. What does people is thinking by doing this? is the question that I I'm always asking me. Why? Well, I realize that people make this not because they need the money, but sometimes they are forced to do such "obligations".

I'm really scared about all this because Mexico is increasing evertime more; we are having not only corruption, but we are also getting all this kinds of violence (violation, drugs, suicide, deads, killes, thieves, etc...) Our country is presenting such problems that make us appear as a poor country in respect and lack of order, but yes they said that we are rich in humilious persons.

All this problem "CORRUPTION", creates great impacts that we can't even imagine what does this simple act make such things. For example our country is suffering of diseases and of poorness, but no, the government can't do anything because they don't have enough money. And tell me why does the main political figures have as much money as they can and they said that they don't have enough money to pay or to help a bunch of friends that are sufferin of hunger or cold.

Invictus

I decide to made a blog of the movie Invictus because I enjoyed a lot this movie and because it is a really nice one; apart from that I remembered that on class you told us about a book ( I can’t remember the name nor the author) that has basically the same theme that the movie has. In these case is about how Nelson Mandela, the South African president, achieves to unify the apartheid-torn lands. How he achieves it? well I am not really telling you so that you watch the movie; but the movie is centred a lot in rugby ( yes, rugby the sport) and how rugby’s national team becomes a key element to the country unification in a political strategy. This movie teach you that even thought it may not always be clear, behind every decision and act there’s a reason. It also gives us an overview of how political strategies are organized and the importance of paying attention to small little details that may seem insignificant but turn to be very helpful at the end and without them achieving your goal could get even harder.

Lets sing all Together!

“United until Dead”

Have you ever heard a song named: “We are the World”; well I will like to talk about his because I love to sing and the purpose right here is to see how all this beautiful voices join only to sing this wonderful melody. We can say that it is only a song, but I want to make a little emphasis right here were the song is dedicated to the children and adults that are suffering and living that tremendous tragedy. Haiti is the name of the city that is living all this consequences (in the last piece of the song we can hear that a singer says: Haiti, Haiti, Haiti…. I love it).

We can see that a few years later we had Michael Jackson’s version were he sang also with lots of famous singers completely incomparable with the actual ones (they had voices that can’t be consider as the ones in the actual artistic world).

Now, what I really wanted to tell you is the impact that this song create in society. As my point of view the most important thing was that people and society can appreciate all this voices and the union that they are presenting because we had rappers, romantics, rockers, etc.. So, that way we can see that even though we are different in character, characteristics and culture; we are always united until dead(like the phrase I wrote in the beginning of the text); we are always united in this type of tragedies and cases that impact our economy, society and also it is something that touches our heart. We are making things to save does people and try to help them in the basic needs they have (food, water, etc…).

Discrimination to immigrants

We often see how some people are discriminate by others, but one that is common is when a persons criticize other because it have a different culture. It's unethical, but people keep doing that because they believe everything should be equal, and there should not be any changes, so for them, when a person who is different from them starts living in their country, it's a new threat right away.

If we start to think, how much a country will change if for one day, the immigrants didn't work, didn't buy things, and start a protest, imagine how this would affect us. First, immigrants will not help with their works, so many sectors in industries and companies would be left alone, and production would slow. Now talking about trade, if immigrants people of a country stop buying and demanding some products, they wouldn't contribute to raise the economy, so demand would decrease for a day.

But in some countries, immigrant people doesn't have the same rights that others, so they are treated different in certain areas, like work, or other public acts. But we have to know and understand that they want to be a part of our society, but they also want to keep a part f their culture, so we have to respect that, not considering someone less because of their beliefs. We are all human, and we have the same rights. We have to learn how to coexist before little differences tear us apart, in order to live better with others in the same world.

Abortion

Should abortion be legal or illegal? This is an argument that no government is completely sure about the answer. In my personal opinion, it is easy for me to say that abortion should be illegal. Who am I to decide to lives or who dies, should I be responsible for a murder? The moral answer I think it would be: no, abortion should not be permitted. But this is where it gets tricky; what if a young teenage girl gets raped, does she has the right to abort? Or should she live with the terrible circumstances at such a young age? If someone should be able to answer this, I believe it should be the women; we are responsible for our bodies and for what happens to them, even though it is not always in our hands. Thankfully I have never seen myself in these circumstances and I do not agree with abortion, but I’m aware that if I ever see myself in these circumstances my opinions my opinion might change. Only being in the shoes of those who agree with abortion, we would understand their reasons.
This debate forms great polemic in a government because the states are not sure if they should support this idea because they know that if they accept many people would take advantage of this and there would be a chaos.
So as a conclusion I believe that this should be decision of every person, only we know the reason we act the way we do. We must take responsibility of our own acts, but without being forced of doing something because of the government.

Ecuador Team Work...

Ecuador is a small country in Latin America. Its former president its Rafael Correa and its vice-president is Lenin Moreno. The economy is principally based in the production of bananas and its main social issue is the inequality and the racism against poor people. But my blog isn’t about Ecuador but of my team.

I personately think we worked good and on time, although I have to admit that at the beginning I thought that we were really behind from the rest of the countries because we had just made research like 2 or 3 times before these weekend; Thanks to god I realized today that we weren’t behind in any single way cause we had finish with our 1st advance since Friday and many teams today hadn’t complete their worked or they made research in their countries for the first time this weekend. Maybe the reason that we were able to finish everything last week was that I had constantly been pushing Manuel and Abigail to research about Ecuador. It wasn’t easy to find updated information cause every time we wanted to use that information we realized that it was from 2002 or 2005 and I didn’t think that information before 2009 could be considered recent.

The good thing about me been w

ay to strict or pushy, how ever you want to call it, with my team was that we didn’t have a stressful weekend and that I think that Manuel is more than ready for Azmun cause on Friday I made him read the Plan de Desarollo Politico y Economico del 2010 for Ecuador, so by now he should be able to tell you the alliances, the main issues and how is the government planning to solve them. Maybe if I hadn’t been like a mom after my kids with the research right know we wouldn’t have finished anything.

It starts with you

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

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

DRUNK Driving...

Last week my mom was invited to a TV program as a Regidora to talk about alcohol consumption in teenagers and the possible solutions, the reason why she was chosen was because she has a teenage daughter and they thought my mom could have more influence in people if she talked as the mother of a teen. As a formal authority my mom said that she was going to ask for more security in the streets and in the stores cause in first place teens are not legally allowed to buy alcohol and that there should be a way to sanction people that sell or buy alcohol to minors.

Before that day my mommy and I had been talking about alcohol in teens. After some chit chat we came to the conclusion that teenagers drink in most cases because of peer pressure, lack of attention from their family and friends, or to forget their problems.

If you think of it as I did that day, alcohol alone isn’t that big of a problem, the problem really starts when drunk people go out of their houses to the streets and causes disturbs to the people that aren’t drinking. The problem gets even bigger when the drunks (in these specific case teenagers) take the car keys and go out. While they are driving they press the accelerator to its maximum and because of their drunkenness their reflexes are slow and most of the time they fail in acting on time causing severe accidents.

Drunk drivers make our streets a dangerous place. My dad used to say " if those kids want to kill their selves that’s fine for me, as long as they don’t injure the innocents"; then here is the thing: drunk people don’t think of the consequences of their actions and while driving, most of the time the people that get injured are the innocents that had the awful luck of crashing or being involved in an accident caused by drunk guys; how unfair, don’t you think?

Technology

Is technology really a benefit?

Technology had been a really good improval to all of the human beings it had changed our life completely, but is techology really a good thing, is it really something that is is making our lives better?, I know that an obvious answer to this qurstion it'll be OF COURSE!, but, if we just stop to think a minute about what technology has done to us we may find techonology scaring even because we no longer communicate personaly with each other, well of course we do but know is easier for us to send an e-mail, to make a phone call, to text message, personal comunication is one of the last options for us, in other matters we can just think about a moment in which the electricity has stoped working we all go out of our minds, we think that there's nothing to do we think that we have no internet, no TV and we just don't know what to do with ourselves, but if we think about the past, the past in which we didn't even knew electricity, well most of us we weren't even born jet but for our granparents was completely normal, they didn't even need electricity, know for most of us internet is a vital part of our life, one day without internet it is our end. So, we might want to stop to think, s technology really helping us or is it making us useless?

The New Group "Greenology"

“We are making the Change”

Greenology is a New Society in Tec de Monterrey. It is a society born in 2010 in Hermosillo, Sonora with the objective to make an ecological school and then world. To start I’ll like to tell you what type of roles does this society has. For instance, for president we have Lillián Coronado and like 6 other people in the major table. All this people as well as the president is in charge of start creating new alternatives and also new techniques for the ecological aspect in school.

I talked to them last week because I’m part of the major table; and we have many different proposals but we can’t make them from one day to another. As first alternative we were going to make new trashcans, one of plastics, then for inorganic and organic. But even though we made them people doesn’t have that type of culture yet. For instance we don’t even know if the recycling paper is really being recollected by recyclers and also exchange that trash to create a positive result.

Start thinking about bigger problems at the beginning of all this process is that we have to create new publicity and new expectatives of the group. This is the only ecological society in Tec, so we have to consider the next aspects that we gave to complement in this society.

For instance:

1) A) We need a plan to create a new perspective of ecology and try to change people’s mind so they can start working with all the wastes that they delivered.

2) B) Greenology has to invite new people to practice in this movement and in this campaign that constantly we are having.

3) c) At the beginning Greenology had planned to make the “The Papeleton” and the creation of new trashcans so people can start reading and making a culture. ( So when we grow up, we can see that the world is different and that we need the help of all the society).

He is there, wating his next battle

The life of the captain Blas de Lezo y Olavarrieta, one of the most important marines in the Iberian military history, seems to arise from a legend or an adventure novel. His long life reached his climax during the Cartagena de Indies war in 1741 that take him to the glory but ironically also closed his destiny like one of the biggest forgotten heroes of the history. Thanks to him Spain got the control of the America and reaffirmed the powerful navy during half a century until the Trafalgar battle in 1805.

He was born in the province of Guipuzcoa in 1689 in a family that loved the sea. He entered the French navy and get involved in the Velez Malaga battle. He then entered the marine of his country, Spain. From there on his body become a souvenir of every battle. First he lost the left leg with a canon bullet. In the Santa Catalina de Tolon battle 1707 he lost his left eye. If it was not enough in Barcelona he lost his the right arm. He lost an ear later on. This man no mattering how his body was he still continued to battle and become a hero. The story said that he never said a word while he was suffering in the operations of his body. The Spanish men had respect for him. He was very lucky to not suffer any infection in his body while his body got cured. He was a great man, had passion for marine battles and always was there, without leg, arm, eye and ear, but always willing to fight again.

This is what we should call a hero. Just imagine him without many parts of his body but his love to continuing fighting at the sea was heavier. He fought and continued fighting for his country. This should be an example for us, the willingness of fighting not giving importance to the difficulties. He continued fighting until his death of pest. A hero that is now not remembered, an unknown hero, a man that gave his body for his love. His spirit is there in the sea waiting for his next battle.

My Grandfather.

I want to talk about my grandfather because I really admire him, He was person that did't only have companies that made money , he had his family and all of them where educated as he was, and all of his family is doing well nowdays.

I want to talk about him becuase all the good things he did to society, and religuios parties.

He help the poor people that didn't have money to pay their medicines like now is el Papanicolao,

His life was normal ,but at the age of 19 he feld the nessesity to create a company that sells all you can imagine like is Coppel , and he did well, then he did't only care about 1 company he wanted to expand, he did it .

I associete this with this class becuase we are seeing how people interacts and I think my granfather interacted well with the society.

In a conclusion I want to led people now that we all can do a better job in the society.

Sports

The human being was made to learn about all types of education, but one of the most important is physical education. Into this category Sports get in. sports consist of "playing" or "practicing" some kind of activity which most of the time is phisical. this is important because we must try to keep our body Fit and healty from problems likes overweight or Cardiovascular illnesses. Some examples of sports are Basquetball, Football, Tennis, proffesional swimming, etc. i believe that the most important type of sports are the ones played in teams, one of the reasons is because you learn to communicate with others better.

It is funny how you never imagine that a sport is able to unite a country, but even in that scence we must not underestimate the power that flows within it. A perfect example would be Invictus, Africa was able to get more united thanks to the collaboration a the spirit of a Rugby team. I believe that one of the most important thing a sport person needs is SPIRIT, because without it would make it boring with no thrill.

As a conclusion a highly recommend everyone to practice a sport so you can live the competitive and fun physicals practices.

ABC Accident

The ABC tragedy, Who’s fault is it? In my opinion this whole whose fault is it issue got out of control and turn completely in a political issue.

Looking for the responsibles to get them into jail, I think that isn’t the solution because it was an accident; Accidents are just accidents!!!. If the parents of the children want to blame someone they should start by blaming their selves cause you as a parent shouldn’t leave your kids in a place were you know he or she isn’t safe, so if you leave your children in there and you know it isn’t safe to leave them there then you are leaving them under your own responsibility.

Something else that I realized was that after the accident, the parents focused more in the elections than in getting a good medical service for the kids that were still alive; and as cruel as it may sound I think that those kids are fare more important at the moment than the ones that died; Why? simple, cause the dead kids aren’t going to come back and they are not suffering, while the kids that are still alive are suffering and struggling to continue alive.

People all over Sonora started to protest and blame a specific political partie and converted the accident into a Political thing, which I think it wasn’t the correct thing to do. I know that the parents from the kids that died received some money to pay the funerals and those things, and that after they accepted the money they declared that Bours wanted to buy their silence. But then I thought how do they dare to declare those things after they accept money? I just think that’s really ironic.

Then there was another whole scandalous thing, it turned that the owners of the day-care were related to the wife of the Ex- Governor of Sonora, Lourdes Laborín, and so after this we have that they found that in reality the owners were related to the Former Presidents Wife Margarita Zavala, but how come the people never knew that? well as I said before, it was because of the way the things in Sonora were being managed by political interests ( notice that elections were less than a month away).

I really cant believe how can people be so mean and cruel when they are after personal interest. I could continue talking about certain things and details I got to know because of my parents jobs, but I don’t really know until what point is it appropriate. Now I am only thinking, if this was used to manipulate state elections I don’t want to know how far can parties go to manipulate the next federal election, there’s nothing we can do but to wait and keep an eye on what is happening.

Alternative Power Sources

Wind Power

There are many possible energy alternatives that we can use instead of the constant burning of fossil fuels. A clear example is the wind power, which is the conversion of wind into a useful form of energy. For this kind of conversion, some machinery such as generators to make electricity are required, wind-mills for mechanical power, wind-pumps for pumping water or drainage, or sails to propel ships.

Wind energy is a very good option as an alternative to fossil fuels, as a power source is attractive, this alternative has very good qualities such as it is plentiful, renewable, it can be widely distributed, it is clean, and produces no greenhouse gases. However, not all the countries use this kind of energy because of the visual impact that the windmills cause or sometimes they affect the environment.

It is of great importance to use the possible alternative energies, because the base of our technology now at days is the energy produced by the burning of fossil fuels, and in a determined time they will be over. We must use alternatives like the wind power to have more energy and in a way in which our environment wouldn’t be affected. Some countries such as United States, Germany, Spain, China, UK, Portugal, Italy, etc, are already using this kind of energy.

Couple on South Korea raised a virtual kid and forgot about their real baby

Yesterday I saw in the news something that leaved me really impressed and sad at the same time. I read on the newspaper that a couple somewhere in South Korea start raising a virtual child in a videogame or something related. They start getting very deeply in the virtual game that they forgot to care about their real kid and the poor baby died.

The couple fed their 3-month-old daughter once a day between marathon stretches in a local Internet cafe, where they were raising a virtual child in the fantasy role-playing game Prius Online.

“Police said the couple had lost their jobs and used the game as an escape from reality, especially after the birth of their premature baby” according the note I saw on the newspaper.

This is an example of how a vicious can lead to disaster, to lost something we really want, and because we are doing something else we do not notice. This case was a completely tragedy, but is also an example of how technology is controlling us even more with the years.

Of course this couple must have a serious stress problem and maybe they were trying to escape from their real life that maybe in that moment was difficult, but that is not a justification for stop taking care a 3-month baby, they obviously have some biggest problems in their minds.

Project advance

I decide to make this contribution to the blog our final project advances. Recently, our team made a homework which includes several aspects, mostly economic, about our country Venezuela. Before starting this project I did not know too much about this South American country, but know my knowledge and interest for Venezuela is bigger. One thing I learned was the scarcity of food that the Venezuelans are dealing with, and how this problem is making a lot of crimes are taking place on the markets by robbers that try to obtain food.

Now talking about more positive aspects about this beautiful country is the strong economic alliances they have, thanks to their great amount of oil. Venezuela has strong relation with the United States because of the oil that is exported to the U.S.A.

Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela has negotiated with countries from Middle East in order to have a better development of technology, according on what we saw in our research, this do not makes happy president Obama and the United States because they think these agreements are related with nuclear weapons.

A lot of interesting things can be found when you start investigating deeply in a country you did not know too much. Venezuela is not an exception, it has also wonderful places to visit, a great number of customs and traditions, and also the most beautiful woman of the world in the Miss Universe contest had come from Venezuela, a great place with no doubt.

Ethics

Ethics is concerned with how to live human life. Humans turned out to be far more dangerous than any other animal; the intelligence makes us extremely useful and valuable. Human treatment is to try to put you in the other person shoes, taking into account their rights and understand their reasons. Our interests are relative, except the interest of being human among us and without it there can’t be a good life. It means to feel sympathy for others. Life is too complex and subtle, people too different, too varied situations and intimate. Everyone is free and fair for oneself to live well. To understand what the other can hope from you, also love is needed, it is also very important; who lives must be capable of a sympathetic justice or a fair compassion.

Ethics can be applied at any field, and business is not the exception. In business, firms want the highest profit for the company, most of the time despite the ecological or social cost.

Apply the ethics in business means ethics in a professional field; examining ethical problems that take place (arise) in a business environment. It is basically that corporations keep a character of honesty, fairness and humanness. In some cases, corporations have redefined their values; however, the practice of ethics is not an instrument for image building.

People should realize that in order to live a civilized society we have to take part of it, acting in a human way, consequences will come if we don’t behave according to the time we are living. How would the world be if all though the same way a corrupted a business man does?.. A global disaster for sure.

Modern democracy has attempted to establish these minimum requirements, called human rights and people must demand them to be practiced towards them and others.

Everyone must behave in a civilized way, respect others, and have as our priority the healthy relations with people and not just the self-interest and benefit.

The cost of abusing

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

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

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