Final refelction

This course is finishing and with it and at least, our Batxillerat!!!! Now, our days in the high school are numbered: after four years ins ESO and two horrible, stressful but also, fantastic and full of great moment two years in Batxillerat, finally, we can say that we have achieved it and we are ready to face a new and an important stage in our life that personally, I’m looking forward to starting.

So, as I have say, a new stage is about to begin but before, I would like to look back and see how has been this last year and above, all related to my English. For this, we must go back to 2013 – 2014 course, when I started 4th ESO and also, when I created this blog. My first publication was “MY DREAM” and reading it I can’t stop laughing, I didn’t remember that my dream was to be a professional football player… anyway, I don’t think that we can find one of my favourite post in this year because now that I’m reading all of them (they aren’t very extensive) I can see that all of them are a little simple, I’m mean, I used to use a very simple vocabulary and simple syntactic structures but  I’m not very ashamed of this because now I can see how much I have to improve. If we continue reading the next posts, we reach first Batxillerat, where the things started to change.

One of the big changes was the way to present the blog: I remember that when I started first of Batxilerat, my blog change radically, I created a new wallpaper, I changed the title of the blog, I started to put more “impressive” pictures,… Another difference that we can see are the topics. In the first year, I used to talk about thing like my favourite band, my favourite song, my favourite film, my favourite and my favourite, I mean, very simple thing that only interested to me, but from Batxillerat, I started to express my point of view of different topics as the gender violence, the consumerism or “major” problems in our society as why was so hard to see black and blue in a dress. One post that I would like to headline is the one called “Just do it”. I like this post because I talk about how absurd it seemed to me the “new year resolution” and in fact, I still considered that you don’t need to wait until 1st January for changing your life, we all have 365 days (sometimes up to 366) to take up something or make a change in our life, so we should use all of them. Another improvement we can see are in the news, now I don’t like to talk about the things that everybody can see in the new, I like to search new as theft of art that seemed like movie plot or news related with topics that I can have a point of view as the ones related to the fashion world or the stereotypes. 

I have to say that I’m very proud of all the work that I have done in this blog because now that I’m reading the compositions of this year, I can see a big difference and not only in the writing but also in oral presentation: now I have more fluency and I’m more self-confidence. However, I’m aware that I have a lot more to change and improve and although there are many ways to do it, making a blog is one of the best: in 4th ESO, I had never thought that do this blog, what seemed to me a bummer but I have end enjoying it, would help me to improve my English, so I think that I will consider continuing writing in English, maybe not on the internet or in this blog but in a more personal way.

AN E-MAIL TO HUMAN RIGHTS COMITTE

Dear Madame or Sir, 

I am writting in order to let you know about the women situation in China. I have been traveling around the country for about three years studing the situation and the pressure that all Chinese womens have since they are little often because of ancient traditions. 

Now, we would like to take to light and get to know a big injustice for all women: in China, if you are over 27 years and you are not married, you will be considerate as "useless" women and you will be a disappointment for your family, and this is not the only problem,there also exist different places with specific schedule for fathers take there their daughters in order to finda partner for them, 

I think that this kind of "tradition" or "ancient mentallity" are, nowadays, unacceptable because they violate theright of women to decide if they want to get married or not and, in adittion, put all of them under a big pressure.

because for all of this, I would like t hae your support for promote a new adverstising campaign to try to prevent and concert all chinese women about the right to choose to get married or not and aso, to try to change this mentallity in chinese families. 

Yours faithfully

organmat@gmail.com

618445789

27 years behind bars

The last known prisoner that left in the Chinese prisons for participating in the pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen 1989 will leave prison this October. Miao Deshun was sentenced to death penalty although that the sentence was suspended and now he is serving a life for burn a tank during the clashes with the army, when the Chinese government decided to use force to dislodge the thousands of protesters who had occupied in a peacefully way the square shape for months.

Miao had been 27 years behind bars and his sentence has been reduced three times; he entered in prison when he was 25 years old and now, he’s 51. He will be free on October 15, according to ONG although the Chinese Justice has not confirmed the information yet.

He was one of the 1,600 detainees who received formal prison sentences. Despite being a misdemeanour, his sentence was so long because, unlike other prisoners, Miao refused to sign letters of repentance and did not carry out prison labours. In fact, he not even appealed the sentence when he was sentenced to death at first.

The prisoner hasn’t had any contact with the outside world for several years, he hasn’t seen his family for a decade because he asked them not to go to visit him and even, sometimes, he refused to meet with the people who go to prison for seeing him. In fact, one of his companions in prison said that Miao has "severe mental problems", including schizophrenia, besides being sick of Hepatitis B.

China punished thousands of people after the harsh repression of demonstrations by the army. In addition to the thousand who were sent to prison, much more were assigned to forced labour camps to be re-educated and to be labelled as "counterrevolutionaries”. Currently, the families of the victims continue to seek justice and compensation for what happened, but Pekin continues silencing the facts and subjecting to surveillance the activists and families every time that the 4th June approach, the day that tanks of the Chinese army entered the streets of Pekin and ended in  with dreams of democracy of the student movement.

Three Spanish journalists released in Siria

Spanish journalists Antonio Pampliega, Jose Manuel Lopez and Angel Sastre, who had been kidnapped in Aleppo (Syria) since October of the last year, have been released, according to government sources. All three are safe and are now in Turkey, where the Spanish authorities have already sent a plane to facilitate their repatriation.

The same sources have also reported that the release of the journalists had taken place few hours ago and the Prime Minister, Soraya Saenz de Santamaria, has already contacted with them. She has also suggested that the release has been possible thanks to the work of many public servants and the collaboration of allied and friendly countries, mainly in the finals from Turkey and Qatar.

The last time that the authorities had contact with  them was on 12 July 2015. They were in the city of Aleppo, under control of Al-Nusra Front, the Syrian branch of Al Qaeda. The three journalists, who worked as a freelancer (self-employed), had entered in Syria from Turkey only two days before.

The zone where the journalist disappeared had been the scene of heavy fighting. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported shortly before the trail Pampliega, Lopez and Sastre were lost, that at least 11 journalists more were killed.

One of the journalist that had been rescued, Antonio Pampliega, owns a very interesting blog (https://unmundoenguerra.wordpress.com/). Pampliega, since 2008, is dedicated to cross the world of war and in this blog, he writes about the experiences, the interviews that he had with people around the world, … in that way, this blog becomes a way of show us “the other part of the world”, a world in war that also exist and where the line between life and death is governed by a Kalashnikov bang; as Pampliega says, “this blog is our eyes for reveal truths that remain dormant and is the voice of the people who don’t have one”.

So in this blog, you can join the journalist for this world of wars that almost have no place in media, he has made possible to accommodate all those forgotten conflicts and rescue from oblivion all who had suffered because of the war and have given voice to them for tell their stories.

The American Sniper

Recently, I've seen the movie "American Sniper", that it's about the real history of the Texas marine Christopher Scott Kyle, the deadliest sniper of the US army. He is destined to Iraq with the mission of protect his mates from the rooftops, windows... while they enter and inspect the Iraq houses searching terrorist. His precision with the weapon saved a lot of lives of his army and Kyle, becomes known as "the legend" for all his mates but he also became the main objective of the Iraqis who put price on his head. In the film, we also see the four missions which the sniper participated and he beat record of deaths as sniper in the US army.

I really enjoy the film because is entertaining and the end of the film surprise you. For this, I was interested in the real history of this "American hero".

Christopher Scott Kyle, was born in Texas. He was the older of two brothers and his parents were religious and farmers ("God, country and family" is one of his mottos). His first weapon was a rifle that his father gave him when he was eight years-old. He learned to use it hunting with his father. In 1998, Kyle enter in the army of the US with the intention of be form in the unit Navy SEAL (snipers) and at 1999, he was destined to Iraq. 

Between his achievements, stand out get hit a terrorist from 2.100 meters and survive to a six attacks with bombs. He also came to kill more than 40 terrorist in only one day trip. Is attributed to him more than 150 deaths (although there are more because the army only count those who have had witnesses). 

All this history can be seen in the film, the most "spectacular" of his man is that the normal thing is go to a one mission to Iraq and then, not want to go back anymore (as his brother), but Kyle went to a four different missions having family and sons.

Unfortunately, at the age of 38 years old, he was murdered in a shooting rage by Eddie Routh, an old friend of the army that after return from Iraq, suffers mental problems. After this, he was condemned to life imprisonment.

This film has received a lot of proses but also, a lot of critiques. People complain that the paper of a sniper it isn't the same paper of a hero that is with which is compared in the film. Others criticize the racism of the film and also, the fact of do a film of a person who had had declarations as "I don't care about people of Iraq, I hate this wilds, I just want to protect my people and finish with the evil" (I think that it’s normal that a persona that have been in the war of Iraq for times, say this). So we can say that some people see the film like the exaltation of a murdered and a solder with traumas because of his job, and others see the film as the history of the tragic lost of one of the most important members of the army. 

I think that both positions of the film are respectable because it’s true that the job of this man it's not like the job of a hero, I mean, they dedicated to kill people but in the other hand, is what he have to do. I'm sure that if the people that the sniper had kill where in the states, for example, who criticize him, would reconsider him as a hero. He only try to protect his mates and he also try to end with the terrorism and killed the terrorist is one way. It’s a man who had been in the war and for this, is normal the “hate” that he have to the Iraqis. 

Relatios Salvajes

I few days ago, I saw this film because my siter Berta had seen it in the cinema and she was delighted with it. This is a weird film because consists in six diferents stories indpeendent one from the others, the only conexion between each story is that all of them are about the alteration thta all the characters suffer for diferents reason and in differents ways and that lead the character to the "outbreak" I mean, all the characters suffer an extrem reaction wich lead them to react also in a "extrem way". Well, when I tell you what's about each history you will undetsrand why I mean.
All the stories were shoot in Argentina and directed by Damian Szifron, Cristian Trebotic and Natalia Urruty. The firts one, "Pasternak" is one of the shortests histories but also, one of the best! It take place in a plne whose passengers start to talk to each other and they find out that all of them have something else in common than the fact of have risen to the same plane, and is that all of them, in one way or another, have participate, causing a "misfortune", in the life of Pastenak.Suddenly, the plane start to lose altitude because the pilot (who is Pasternak!!) is directing the plane in to his parents house. Pasternak make a revange to all the people, including his parents, that in one way or another, have ruined his life.

The next story, "The Rats" it's about another revange. In this case the action take place in a restaurant in the middle of anywhere; when the cooker of this restaurant learns of the injustice committed by some of her customers to the restaurant waitress, she decided to put poison in the food of the client; the situation get worst and the cooker decided to kill this client with a knife!

The next one, "The Strongest" is also one of the best and i think thta it's my favourite. It's about a dispute on the road between a man who drives an Audi and another who drives a ramshackle car. This "road fight" ends in a battle for kill the other and at the end, both of the men die after make blow one of the cars and the best is that when police arrives, describe the escene like a "passioal crime" because the men die one cought to the other while they were trying to strangle each other.

The penultimate story, "The proffer", it's about a millonaire father who through accords and briber the others (police officers, lawyers, ...) tries to blame his gardener of the crime of his son.

And at least, the last one: "Untill death do us apart" that it's about a Jewsih wedding that can not get worse: during the celebration, the bride learns of a betray of the groom and she decided to take revange and bertrays the groom with one of the waiters, there are fights, woundeds,... and when all is in his limit (both groom and bride are with their clothes shattered, falling apart, both families confronted,...) the couple reconcilies. 

I think that with this film you have to go far  for not see only the violence. It is about human feels like revange, justice or portection taken to the limit untill the charcater can't hold back any longer and blows up and then, is when the violence appears, I think thta it's a good example (taken a little to the limits) of our society. I recommend it because also it's a little hard to see, I think that worth it!!

You are wrong if you think you can't change the world

Rosa and Bernarda are two sister from La Patrona, one of the most poor places in Mexico.  Twenty years ago, they were with their purchase waiting for the train to pass to cross the railroad way to their home. Then, when the train pass, they saw that there were people hanging and climbed on the roof wagon shouting and asking them something to eat or drink. 

These poeple were the first inmigrants who climbed the wagons of a for try to cross the border and enter in the USA. Every day, hundreds of inmigrants of Mexico, set off one of the most dangerous journeys: cross Mexico for try to arrive to North America with the hope of have a better life, and most of them decide to do this trip hanging in the wagons of the train well know as "The Beast" or "The train of death" since this inmigrants run the risk of fall down of the train, they may suffer an amputation and also, men, women and childrends travelling in this way are constanly battered, kidnapped and even raped by criminal groups. Even that, every day, up to 500 inmigrants, go over 3.000 km in this conditions and with all this risks. 

When the sisters saw this people asking for something to eat or drink, they felt bound to give them the food that they have just buy. Since then, all the days untill now the mother and the siblings of this family cooked things like rice, beans,... and put it in bags and boxes together with water and give it to the people who travel in this train. 

With the time, this women have become a group know as "Las Patronas" formed by 14 women of the same village that every day, so there isn't a day that there aren't poeple hangig on the train, coocked almost 15 kg of food (each one) for this thousands of inmigrants. Now, they recive food from some neighbourts and organitzacions but at the beggining, they have to cook and give the food from her own houses.

At first, her work was a little improvisate but now, they assigned task and responsabilities between them: they start the work early in the morning and cooked twice daily. When they hear the train noise, they aproach to the railroad with wheelbarrows full of bags and boxes with food and water and, with the help of some volunteers, they share out it between the inmigrants. For make sure that the inmigrants take the food, they tie a rope to the bags and they pull it into the wagons: they have less than 15 minutes for devide morethan 200 bags!

I think that these women have become a symnbol of solidarity, in fact, they have recived several awards from fundation and organitzacions of Human Rights and this story has also been move to documentary films. This kind of things show us that it isn't necessary have a lot of money for try to change the world: these women live in one of the most poor areas of Mexico and even so, they probably give the only food that these inmigrants would eat in all the journey aboard the train, so you are wrong if you think you can't change the world. 

Is vegetarianism the solution of global issues?

After start this essay, I thought that thinking about why someone could become vegetarian, that searching on internet pros and cons about being vegetarian and even, asking some friends that actually, are vegetarian, I would have solid arguments for defending a reason for not become vegetarian but now, I have to admit that I was a little wrong...

Is well know that some of the main reason for becoming vegetarian are been against the intensive animal husbandry or be against the way that animals live on our farms. There’s no doubt that we have become the domestic animal in a product, we enjoy the food completely alien (and we are alien to our own will) to their origin and processing. So in that way, vegetarianism could become a good way and option of protest until the meat production model reinvents or retrieve the values of responsible and sustainable livestock that produce less and keeps animals in large areas outdoor and does not alter the ecosystem which states. In this cases, we can accept typical arguments as “I don’t eat meat because I feel sorry for the animal”… Even so and as a counterpart, it’s important to remind that eat meat has helped us to become humans; without the proteins of the animal meat we would not have developed the intelligence that differentiates us from the other species and although nowadays and unfortunately, this food is not available to everyone (what contributes to highlight social inequalities), is still and important element in our diet.

Despite this, I think that the best reason for become vegetarian is to believe that vegetarianism could solve global issues and in fact, it can! Apparently, we all say that we have an ecological awareness and we become extremist with the recycling, but I don’t know till which point we are conscious that the meat production and consumption are one of the biggest factors of pollution in the world and, at the same time, is the main destination of the increasingly scarce land resources. Giving an example for proving this: 50,000 liters of water are needed to produce only a kilo of meat.

So not eating meat is a good way to fight against climate change. The breeding and feeding of the livestock, the methane and nitrous oxide realised during this processes or the industrial livestock produce and emit large amounts of gasses that pollute our atmosphere, our lands and our water. In fact, is estimated that  a vegan world, that is to say, a world were any livestock derivate were consumed, would reduce carbon emissions by 17%, methane emissions by 24% and nitrous oxide emissions by 21%. So yes, quitting meat can reduce your carbon footprint significantly and more than quitting driving.

As Albert Einstein said, “nothing will benefit human health and increase the chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.” And if you’re not willing to go vegetarian or vegan, even just significantly reducing the amount of meat in your diet can have an important impact. Besides, if we don’t stop and reverse climate change, all we’ll have left to eat, if we’re lucky, is fish…whoops, looks like we’re running out of fish, too. 

Europe and the refugees

Whatever it said, there're multiples reasons for welcome with the maximum generosity the hundreds of thousands of people that, since the break out of the refugees crisis, are seeking asylum in Europe. It's not about migrants: it is about fugitives fleeing of a violent death and fleeing of the war in their countries.

The first reason for to host these desperate people is moral, is completely wretched having thousands and thousands of people, including elderly, women and children, dying of cold, hunger and diseases in our borders in the same way that there isn’t any human form of justifying that more than three thousand people have died trying to cross the Mediterranean. Allow this daily apocalypse is equivalent to throw in the trash the reason “of be Europe”. The second reason for welcome refugees would be legal: what is happening now and what starts almost a year ago is a clear violation not only of the Human Right Declarations of 1948, but also of the Refugee Convention of 1951 and of the European Convention on Human Rights of 1953; refusing to grant to these people the right of having rights put us out of the law. A third reason could be a political one: with the asylum policy that we are showing, we are proving and suppose a confirmation that liberty, equality and fraternity of western rhetoric is just that, a rhetoric, nothing, an instrument for show off. And finally, another reason could be an economic one: some relevant economist warn that we need refugees almost as much as they need us because in countries as our countries, aged and with very low birth rates, refugees will be who will pay our pensions.

There are much more reasons for host refugees (without having in account the common sense; we can put a door in a country, we can’t put a door in the middle of a field). What is safe and what is clear is that the Europe reputation is in danger, like the values on which this state has been built (political freedom, religious tolerance and law equality).

I think that the Europe of the future should be reconstructed as it was done at the begging; assimilating what is not Europe, assimilating other cultures, other lifestyles and other values and converting them in Europeans. In this way, we will become a free society, more prosper and more peaceful: a society in which all want to live, in which all want to look like.

"Kalimán en Jerico" - Àngel Burgas

As we are working  and learning how important are human rights, today I would like to talk about a book that I recently read: “Kaliman en Jerico”. The author of this book is Angle Burgas, from Figueres.

In August 2011, Angel Burgas travel to Medellín and there, he visited the Fundacion Faro, in Jericó, where the boys of the street are treated to join the society. Most of them get it and some of them, then, became volunteers to help others boys in the same situation as they to get out of this kind of life.

Burgàs wanted to explain the stories of this young boys as a denouncement to our western mentality and eyes and as a help from this side of the world that had become in a bitter novel.

In the story, Àngel transfigure in Santiago, a basketball coach that travel to Medellín with a mission: “I came to Medellín looking for Adrián and I met Nahum, Hernán Darío, Jonathan,  Víctor Manuel, Fernando, Juan Esteban, Rubén Darío, Wilinton, Douglas, José Daniel, Ángel Antonio, Julio and Fabio. In Barcelona I am Santiago, but here at the Foundacion Faro in Jericho, I am Kalimán*, the hero who hear the real stories about boys injured, abused, outcasts of the good life. You cannot erase what lived, and learn to walk again is not an easy task. But “los pelaos” of Faro are also Kalimanes, they have left the street, the drugs and the bad life to start looking to the future with hope. For all of them, Kalimán never gives up.”

“Los pelaos” are children who survive or barelysurvive on the streets of Colombia immersed in the world of crime, prostitution and drugs. It’s hard to explain the stories of this guys, sometimes, of an unimaginable cruelty and brutality, without something breaks inside you because the stories that Àngel tells to us are as real as the boys that star in, what makes the story more hard because at the end, you realize that even the things that all these boys have done and have lived, they are just kids not very different from us at this ages, with so short live and, at once, so long full of hardships, drugs and violence: they only want what all boys of these ages want, a PSP, be an astronaut or play in Barça. The only difference is that they don’t have family or anyone who take care of them so they have had to make living in the streets of Colombia stealing, selling drugs, working with mafias and other criminal organizations and even, killing. For this, although Santiago is seen as a hero for all the boys of Faro, the character leaves clear from the beginning that this boys are the real heroes.

With this book we are able to see how a lot of children in Colombia, Mexico and other cities live. Most of them don’t have family so they have to make living on the street, doing and seeing things that are so far from what correspond to any child of this ages: instead of play football, going to school or going to the park with their parents, this boys are selling drugs (and in some cases, consuming it), are stealing and in some extreme cases, they are members of criminal organizations that required them to torture and kill.

This is a big injustice: all child deserve an infancy without worries and nowadays, there are a lot of kids without this right so is laudable the work of many organization as Faro that is working for remove children from the streets and try to give the childhood that they lost or without going further, get that boy stay away from this life is an achievement

*Kaliman is a comic hero born at the beginnings of the sixties in Mexico and that nowadays, is famous throughout south America. In the book, Kaliman is also the name that the guys of Faro give to Santiago, seeing him as a hero.