Protesting against the unknown

 Many of us have been deeply tangles into heated arguments about current issues such as politics or economics. Recently, minister Wert's proposed educational plan has been topic of many intense arguments, very often against its approval. I myself had a strong opinion against it. But, do we really know what the educational plan is or we're arguing merely to attack our opponents in a biased and irrational way?

Last Tuesday, the 'Premios Final de Carrera' were given to all of the top-achieving students in their respective university degrees who were finishing their superior studies that year. In an act normally blushed in happiness and pride, were some of the most promising rising professionals receive their well-deserved recognitions, something went terribly wrong.

The prizes, as always, were going to be given personally by the education minister, currently minister Wert. From the hundred winners, more than ten refused to shake hands with him, snatching their certificate and leaving the stage.

These kinds of situations makes one think the gravity of Wert's educational plan, as these young adults are surely intelligent enough to build well-cemented opinions on the matter. And (furthermore) some months ago, not one of the Spanish university deans appeared to a meeting Wert was holding. If such highly regarded professionals believe that the educational plan is wicked, how could I possibly think otherwise!

And this is exactly what should never be done.

 This type of argumentation is completely erroneous, as social behaviour obviously cannot and will never be an empirical source of evidence. Believing that, if virtuous people believe in something that must be correct is not a way of reasoning, as it would be obtaining data from not only a human and subjective mind, but from their own stand, many times strongly biased to stress their points.

Wert's educational plan has many strong points and many weak ones. On the plus side, his plan focuses on promoting a more selective type of education, for instance deleting 4rth ESO and substituting it for two options: introduction to bachillerato or to FP studies. Moreover, to avoid certain centres from passing students who are really unable to complete their Bachillerato, there will be an official exam that students will take and evaluated by external examiners.

Nonetheless, Wert's plan does not seem to contemplate individuality and talent, as the ministry will rigidly lay syllabus contents. Besides, the plan features many controversial subjects, such as religion as an official subject where students will chose between it and ethics.

Despite initially being against Wert's educational plan and probably still being, Spain's rate of people with Bachillerato or FPs is strikingly low: 22%, half as much as in the Eurozone. Obviously, a change is needed, and Wert's plan seems to propose a good draft. When people protest against politics, sometimes they lose the real purpose of raising one's voice to propose a change, which is the way to dialogue. Screaming empty words and a cocky attitude does not.

Mistreat of woman in India

When the unidentified woman died in a Singapore hospital early on Saturday, the victim of a savage rape on a moving bus in the capital, Delhi, it was time again, many said, to ask: why does India treat its women so badly?

Female foetuses are aborted and baby girls killed after birth, leading toan appallingly skewed sex ratio. Many of those who survive face discrimination, prejudice, violence and neglect all their lives, as single or married women.

TrustLaw, a news service run by Thomson Reuters, has ranked India as the worst G20 country in which to be a woman. This in the country where the leader of the ruling party, the speaker of the lower house of parliament, at least three chief ministers, and a number of sports and business icons are women. It is also a country where a generation of newly empowered young women are going out to work in larger numbers than ever before.

But crimes against women are rising too.

With more than 24,000 reported cases in 2011, rape registered a 9.2% rise over the previous year. More than half (54.7%) of the victims were aged between 18 and 30. Most disturbingly, according to police records, the offenders were known to their victims in more than 94% of the cases. Neighbours accounted for a third of the offenders, while parents and other relatives were also involved. Delhi accounted for over 17% of the total number of rape cases in the country.

And it is not rape alone. Police records from 2011 show kidnappings and abductions of women were up 19.4%, women being killed in disputes over dowry payments by 2.7%, torture by 5.4%, molestation by 5.8% and trafficking by an alarming 122% over the previous year.

The Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen has estimated that more than 100m women are "missing" worldwide - women who would have been around had they received similar healthcare, medicine and nutrition as men.

New research by economists Siwan Anderson and Debraj Ray estimates that in India, more than 2m women are missing in a given year.

The economists found that roughly 12% of the missing women disappear at birth, 25% die in childhood, 18% at the reproductive ages, and 45% at older ages.

They found that women died more from "injuries" in a given year than while giving birth - injuries, they say, "appear to be indicator of violence against women".

Deaths from fire-related incidents, they say, is a major cause - each year more than 100,000 women are killed by fires in India. The researchers say many cases could be linked to demands over a dowry leading to women being set on fire. Research also found a large number of women died of heart diseases.

These findings point to life-long neglect of women in India. It also proves that a strong preference for sons over daughters - leading to sex selective abortions - is just part of the story.

Clearly, many Indian women face threats to life at every stage - violence, inadequate healthcare, inequality, neglect, bad diet, lack of attention to personal health and well-being.

Analysts say deep-rooted changes in social attitudes are needed to make India's women more accepted and secure. There is deeply entrenched patriarchy and widespread misogyny in vast swathes of the country, especially in the north. And the state has been found wanting in its protection of women.

Angry citizens believe that politicians, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, are being disingenuous when they promise to toughen laws and speed up the prosecution of rapists and perpetrators of crime against women.

How else, they ask, can political parties in the last five years have fielded candidates for state elections that included 27 candidates who declared they had been charged with rape?

How, they say, can politicians be believed when there are six elected state legislators who have charges of rape against them?

But the renewed protests in Delhi after the woman's death hold out some hope. Has her death come as an inflexion point in India's history, which will force the government to enact tougher laws and people to begin seriously thinking about the neglect of women?

It's early days yet, but one hopes these are the first stirrings of change.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-20863860

What do you think about the treatment women in India receive?

Do you think that people should trust thei political parties?

It is clear that many countries have evolved leaving behind the discrimination and mistreat of woman, but do you believe India belongs to that group? Why?

KOBE BRYANT

Los Angles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant was, over one month ago, diagnosed with a severe injury in his ligament that has left him "out of the game" for the rest of the season.

Kobe was first injured against New Jersey when he dislocated his finger but he thought it was not "that bad" as he said. Later in the next game against Minnesota, Kobe knew that he could not continue and that something wrong was going on.

After the doctor's diagnosis, Kobe's fears became true. He had broken his ligament and that meant that the Lakers had to figure out a new way to play just two games away from the play off's.

From my point of view , this is now irrelevant. There is no doubt that the Lakers are going to be in the play off's, but, what worries not only Los Angeles Lakers itself but hundreds of fans is if Kobe Bryant, at the age of 34, and being one of the NBA's best all star players of all times, is going to leave the Staples center for ever.

Do you think this is the end of Kobe Bryant?

Summer

I can’t believe it!!!

We’ve been waiting from the very first moment that winter started for summer, which was our only objective. We kept on studying, every day, every week, because we knew that at the end of the course we would have our reward, but now, everything has turned out into nothing.

 

With this video we can see a man explaining the same as me. Unfortunately, this summer is going to be the coldest summer, and we have never lived this situation before, at least 200 years ago; most of us are quite shocked about it. However, the next summer may be cold and may have much more disadvantages than the last year, but this doesn’t have to stop us from having fun and from living a wonderful summer, as we always have done.

So, why do you think this has occurred? Don’t complain too much, because it’s totally our fault!! Humans are just doing bad things to the planet Earth, whether contaminating or much more other things, that bit by bit are creating a series of negative consequences like for example the situation that will be given this summer, and when a long time passes, these consequences will be getting each time worse and worse.

 

In conclusion, I would like to recommend everybody to worry much more about our planet even though it might seem a waste of time or a too difficult activity, it’s very important and it's worth it!

Football Regulation

 

Brazilian Football star Neymar da Silva Santos confirmed that next season he will join FC Barcelona and will play with them for at least 5 more years.

Barça agreed to pay 54 million Euros to Neymar’s contract holders. He is one of the best players according to many critics; some even say that he is so good that it’s not a sensible idea to him to join the Spanish team as "two roosters in a pen" won’t work (referring to Messi)

Moving on, the millionaire contract has reopened the debate on whether it is ethical to pay such extraordinary quantities for a single person. Despite he is an awesome player, many people agree that it’s totally unnecessary and it doesn’t worth it. They aren’t talking specifically about Neymar’s contract but in general.

During the last 10 years, the main teams as FC Barcelona or Real Madrid have spent an awful quantity of money for their actual stars. Real Madrid’s case it’s very simple to see; Cristiano Ronaldo “just” cost 96 million Euros, becoming the most expensive player ever.

Also, both teams have enormous debts; which enlarge each year, that go over 500 million Euros.

Actually, many people are complaining about the moral, or better the lack of moral, of these decisions. Whilst the crisis is getting worse, millions of people are unemployed, there are evictions etc, football teams all around the world; not just Spanish ones, seem to have no problem when spending money and don’t seem to care whether this money could have a better use as helping people.

Do you think there should be restrictions for football teams?

What do you think about these the morality of these decisions?

India jail-born man bails mother after 19 years

Nineteen years ago, Kanhaiya's mother, Vijai Kumari, was convicted of murder - wrongfully, she claimed.

She was granted bail on appeal but she did not have the 10,000 rupees ($180; £119) she needed to post bail. Her husband abandoned her and no-one else came forward to help her.

"I thought I'd die in prison," she says. "They told me in there that no-one ever gets out."

She was pregnant when she went to jail. Four months later, Kanhaiya was born.

"I sent him away when he got a bit older. It was hard but I was determined. Prison is no place for a young child," she says.

So she stayed in prison all these years, lost in the system and forgotten.

All she had to keep her going was a passport-size photograph of her son and his visits to her every three months.

'Think of her and cry'

Kanhaiya spent most of his childhood growing up at various juvenile homes. And he never forgot his mother.

"I would think of her and cry," he says, speaking softly and with a lisp.

"She was in prison, all alone. No-one else ever visited her. And my father turned his back on her."

As soon as he turned 18, he was trained to work in a garment factory. And he began saving up to get his mother out.

Eventually, he hired a lawyer.

"Someone told me about him. He was surprised to hear about my mother's case."

The lawyer took on his case and earlier this month, his mother was freed from prison.

Judges expressed their shock at her situation and the "callous and careless" behaviour of the authorities.

They have now ordered a sweep of all the prisons in the state to see if there are others like Vijai Kumari (estimated 300,00 inmates - 70% waiting to face trial) 

What do you think of this clear unfair treatment between social classes?

What do you think about the son's effort to gather money for his mother's bail?

Terrorism for dessert

During these past months, Islamic terrorism has been the obscure protagonist of many newspapers. While some claim that terrorism is nowadays the first-world's main problem, others argue that excessively biased press coverage will lead to a politically and socially polarised world.

Lee Rigby, a 25-year-old drummer of the British army, was strolling around his native neighbourhood in South London when two men, armed with rudimentary kitchen knives, stabbed him to death. His life ended that day, as so his mother's, father's, families and friends'. His running blood changed the black pavement to crimson that afternoon, holding the world's breath for a moment.

His killers, moreover, not only did not leave the corpse behind, but also chose to display themselves in front of an audacious pedestrian's camera to justify their heinous crimes without showing a trace of repentance.

Up to this point, any sensible reader will assuredly emphasize with the deceased soldier, and show utter disgust for the murderers. But, what if the killers had acted in the name of Islam? The story changes then: protests in central London crying "Muslim killers, off our streets" to the sky, xenophobic comments in the media and, worse of all, a notable compacting of the occidental 'compatriots'. One protester firmly stated, "Islamic extremism is probably the number one threat to Britain". However, this demonstrator clearly showed not to be in acquaintance with UK's crime statistics: terrorism does not even appear in the Office for National Statistics Trends in Crime report.

This incongruence between actual crime and media coverage is, seemingly, not applicable to all other offences, ranging from rapes to domestic abuse. In our modern dipole society, Islam is considered immiscible with our ethnicity, phenomenon that many occidental governments eagerly approve and promote. Today, society is shaped like dough by media's strong hands, which is, of course, an obvious reflection of the regimes wills.

I claim that, in our biased society, we are able to hoist from the pasturing crowd an instant in order to get a zenith view of our puppeteer-automated society, to see the trapped stream we are within the hands of giants who crowned themselves kings of our world. 

Our brave new world.

A Chinese schizophrenic has been 11 years locked up in a cage by his family

A mentally ill Chinese, called Wu Yuanhong has been in a cage for 11 years , since her family 'punished' him for having beaten to death a teenager.

He has spent more than a decade whith his ankles tied up to a chain, he doesn’t even wear trousers and in his cage he spends most of this time seaten.

Mr. Wu was diagnosed with schizophrenia when he was 15. In 2001 he hit a 13 year old boy to death and was arrested by the authorities.

However, the following year the police in the province of Jiangxi (southeast of the country) released him because, due to his illness, Wu was not responsible for his actions.

When the people of their village knew that he was returning they were scared. Therefore, his mother built a first cage from which he escaped, then his family build another cage but this one much more solid. The argument of his mother about this was :"My son can be a very dangerous man because of his mental illness, and may beat someone to death as he already did”

Also another reason why his mother take this decision is because on China many mental patients do not receive adequate treatment in  due to lack of resources and qualified personnel, especially in rural areas. So she hadn’t got any choice...or yes?

What do you think about this?

What would yo do if you wear his mum?

Future technology

An ambitious firm has revealed their plans for a new type of personal air transport vehicle that takes off and lands like a helicopter. Will the idea fly?

Many of us have wished for a personal flying machine to lift us out of infuriating traffic jams and deposit us on our driveways. With recent advances in materials, power sources, and automation, those dreams may become reality more quickly than many of us realise. Earlier this month, US aerospace start-up Terrafugia unveiled the TF-X, a concept design for a radical new type of personal air transport vehicle. 

Terrafugia is just one of a number of companies proposing personal aviation and it has been taking orders for an earlier design – the Transition, a road-legal aeroplane with foldable wings – for several years. The TF-X design is more futuristic, but is more likely to provide what most of us dream of when we think of flying cars.

One of its main selling points is the ability to take off and land vertically like a helicopter. In car mode, the plug-in hybrid can rely on its electric motors and battery packs. For lift-off it needs extra power from its hydrocarbon combustion engine. Folded winglets are extended. Two huge motor pods on either side of the vehicle are pointed vertically up, and the propellers provide lift. Each pod has 16 independent electric motors, with its own controller and battery pack, meaning a failure is not catastrophic.

The TF-X has a maximum speed of 200 miles per hour and a proposed range of 500 miles.

Carl Dietrich acknowledges the concept is a long way from becoming airborne, but he says discussing the idea early is a way to shorten the time it will take to make it a reality, which he currently estimates as between eight and 12 years.

Reservations are being taken for the TF-X, although its price tag has not yet been revealed. It's a fair bet that it'll cost more than the quoted $279,000 that the Transition will set customers back by.

“If you could levitate just some of these cars, fly them through the air and deposit them somewhere else, you could remove some of the major road congestion,”Dietrich says. “Just removing 10% or 15% of the cars would help it all flow again.”

 

What do you think about this new concept of a car?
Is technology going so far that primitive cars will be soon forgotten? Is this correct? 

Anti-gay protester in Paris

Tens of thousands of people have rallied in Paris against a new French law allowing same-sex marriage.

Police estimate that up to 150,000 people joined marches that converged on the city centre, but organisers put the figure close to one million.

The protest took place under heavy police presence. No violence was reported, although 100 people were arrested as protesters dispersed.

The same-sex marriage bill, which also legalises gay adoption, was signed into law by President Francois Hollande last week, after months of heated debate.

French people have been bitterly divided over the issue. On Tuesday, a far-right historian shot himself dead in Notre Dame Cathedral, leaving messages in which he denounced gay marriage.

During Sunday's protests, demonstrators headed in columns from a number of points Paris to the Invalides complex.

Some marchers drove donkeys, one of which bore a placard which read, "I am an ass. I voted Hollande".

The leader of the UMP conservative opposition party, Jean-Francois Cope, headed one of the processions.

Do you think gay marriage and adoption should be allowed? 

Do you think this decision should depend on who governs in the moment, in this case on  Hollande?

What do you think about strikes in order to be heard?