TOLERABLE?

This May 27th has been a memorable day for those demonstrators at Plaza Catalunya who were protesting against the "false democracy" we have in our country. This morning the "mossos d'esquadra" came and forced the demonstrators to leave. People didn't want to leave, and the "mossos" told they had to clean up the area because it hadn't been cleaned up since the demonstration started two weeks ago. Many of them have resisted, so the "mossos" had to use violence. A ruffle started and became a fight between the "mossos" and the demonstrators, ending up with 121 injured, 37 of which were "mossos".

Is this the way "Mossos d'esquadra" had to act?

Are demonstrators demonstrating in a correct way? Is there another way of demonstrating against our democracy?

Who's fault is this?

How can we solve this problem?

Here you have a video of what happened:

http://www.youtube.com/verifyage?next_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DGSXi

xR16rmY (copypaste it)

Love & Attraction

Do you believe in romantic love? 

Or do you prefer an explanation of attraction as cold chemsitry? 

As the hormones take hold, are you 'swept off your feet'? 

Or do you keep your feet, and your feelings, firmly rooted to the floor?

We all have our own beliefs and experience of love and attraction. But do you know the science behind both?
Here are two articles which deal with the topic. Read them and reflect.

• National Geographic: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2006/02/true-love/slater-text.html
• The Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/sep/28/sex-women-relationships-tanya-gold

 As part of your general blog work, write your comments below.

For homework, write a literary critique (ie. a 'review') of the two texts for Monday 9 May, comparing and evaluating:

• the ideas they contain
• the selection and organisation of facts and examples
• the style they are written in and the language that is used
• the intentions of their authors and the reaction of any reader to them
• how 'good' or 'successful' each text is

400 words minimum. Reference to the text and/or quotes will be necessary (but quotes are not part of the word count). Recommendation: skim read the texts asap to see how long this is going to take you!

The baby trade

Ana Josefa Escabia died several hours after giving birth in Terrassa in 1975. Her husband clearly remembers seeing his daughter alive. 

"I saw her born," Salvador Martin said, his eyes welling with tears, 36 years later. "She was gorgeous, just like her sister."

But doctors later told Salvador his baby had been stillborn. A sealed coffin was delivered to the cemetery.

The news that babies have been traded in Spain right up to the 1990s hit the headlines here a few months ago. It has now reached the British press: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12886441

• Have you heard about it?
• Was any of this trade well-intentioned?
• If this is a crime, what should the punishment be?
• How would the victim of such a crime feel like?

Getting away!

You'll never forget your 'viatge fin de curs' for the rest of your lives. Make the most of it! Here, you have three questions, depending on the date you comment on this post:

• Italy awaits you: what do you hope to get out of the trip?
• You're there: what was the day like?
• You're back: what were the highlights?

Use the blog to record the memorable moments, the gaffs, the disasters and your thoughts. Try some travel writing. It is probably the best way to break into 'serious journalism'.

To find out more about your destination, try the following:

• www.lonelyplanet.com/italy
• www.roughguides.com/travel/europe/italy.aspx
• www.timeout.com/venice
• www.thebackpacker.net/destinations/italy

Harassment

Women demanding an end to sexual harassment were insulted
and shoved by men telling them that they should go home
where they belong. Tahrir Square, Cairo, March 8, 2011.

Today in La Vanguardia there was an article asking whether recent 'revolutions' were likely to bring about any improvement in the status or rights of women. As one protester complained to the journalist:

"We fought alongside men for this change and now they tell us 'it is not the right time' to talk about equality. If now isn't, when is?"

At the moment there is gender inequality in many societies, including our own. But the plight of women in some African and Middle Eastern countries is simply frightening and unacceptable: from cosmopolitan Cairo to rural Yemen there are women who walk in fear and live as shadows of their potential selves.

Perhaps now it is even more important that the international community pressures these emerging societies to make changes to their social structure that can, in the long run, only benefit each and every one of their citizens. 

Class project

Imagine that you are the Marketing Manager at Amnesty International’s Headquarters. You have been asked to draw-up (write, design, edit and layout) an information leaflet in English to:

• raise awareness of inequality, sexual harassment and abuse in Africa or the Middle East
• explain the negative effects of sexual harassment
• motivate people in the West to do something about it

For more information about your 800 – 1200 word English class project, click here. (You will have to scroll down the right-hand column.)

To make comments about issues such as genital mutilation, stoning of adulterers, exclusion of women from politics, wearing hijab, sexual harassment, or even to criticise this project as misrepresentative, misleading or misguided please click on comments below.

What will happen with Japan?

Hello! As I've seen the comments below, I have found a video with the devastating effects of the tsunami and earthquake in Japan. Houses, cars, everything has been swept by the disaster:

But this is only a minor part of all the damages the earthquake has provoked. There is also the issue with the nuclear power plants, which, due to the fact that they have run out of electricity, the nuclear refrigerators can't cool down the radioactive materials of the power plants, making the extremely dangerous for our health. This is because the radioactive material can't be controlled when liquid or gas, so it begins to emit a radioactive cloud which harms food, animals and other living things, as it is all passed by inhaling such fumes or because it is passed along the food chain. And now everybody starts talking about Chernobyl again.

• Is the nuclear disaster comparable to Chernobyl? Is it worse? What can be done to stop it?
• What is the government doing to help the people there? They've admitted to have been retaining information to the japanese. Do they still know even more than we or the japanese do? Why did they have to hide this information?
• Could the nuclear fallout have been avoided? What can we do now? If the food is contaminated with radioactive materials, do we have to stop importing things from Japan? What will happen then to their economy?

I know there are loads to discuss about and it is probable that I have forgot to include some issues, but please comment and take out those subjects!

Term 3 started

Any posts or comments from 2 March onwards form part of term 3. The blog will continue to count for 10% of marks (at least). Thanks.

Libya: eyewitness accounts

The news from Libya is frightening:

Many of my neighbours died today. My brother was hit by a bullet in his leg. The situation here is horrible. There are helicopters. The sky is raining with bullets...

As I write the United Nationals is deciding to 'punish' Libya with sanctions. In the case of Iraq this (arguably) hurt innocent civilians more than regime leaders. So what else could be done to help Libya?

• Should the European Union send a military force to 'pacify' Libya?
• Would any intervention help the people, or simply escalate the conflict?
• Is it cynical to think that any intervention is really to protect our supply of oil, rather than to help the people of Libya themselves?

Gaddafi was a good friend of Europe while
he supplied oil without causing problems.

They were using ambulances to shoot at people - can you believe it? They were using anti-aircraft weapons. They were shooting continuously...I am so shocked, about what happened today. The whole neighbourhood is terrified. They are shooting at civilians, just so that one person can stay in power. This is unbelievable...

We haven't left the house for six days, apart from going out to buy bread. Now that they've opened Tripoli to the international media, they've made sure they cleaned everything up. I went out in the car and I saw messages on the walls, streets destroyed, bullet holes, blood... Yesterday when I went out again, it looked like a completely different city. Everything was cleaned up so that Gaddafi's people can say: Look, nothing has happened, everything is fine.

(Click here for the full text.)

Well I'm Hector Marlet and this is my first post! hehe
Today I've just come across a video I had saved on my favourites list on the internet. Its about 3 or 4 children, about our age or possibly younger, who once decided to start a business selling clothes (just like Alfredo Saenger). They created this video to promote ther new brand.
I was fascinated 2 / 3 years ago when I saw this . You must have a look at it -  its worth it!!!!

BEFORE LOOP EDIT 2! from Sigurd Neby on Vimeo.

What i would like to debate is the following:

• Do you really think this is a good / appropiate way to promote you clothing brand?
• Do you think extreme sports are going over their limits?
• How do you see the future in this kind of extreme sports looking at this video? (this was made 2 or 3 years ago by 15-17 year old boys)!!! What's next?

TED: Ideas Worth Spreading

I was recently told about a website, ted.com, that contains recordings of video conferences held in California. It's absolutely free and its main objective is to spread ideas that are considered to be very important and relevant for society today.

The conferences held are usually short, about 15 or 20 minutes, and they tend to be amusing as they intend to make people become interested in the subject they're about. It doesn't matter if you are into technology, politics or if you are more interested in the entertainment area; the website contains all type of speeches. From 'understanding the rise of China' to 'what makes us happy?', the website arranges the conferences in main themes, or classifies them into cathegories such as persuasive, corageous, funny, inspiring, fascinating...

Some lecturers are quite well-known, like Steve Jobs, and others are very underrated experts of their area of knowledge. I really do recommend that you take a break from studying, check out some videos and give some feedback on what you learned while watching them or what's your opinion about the website in general. Go to http://www.ted.com/