What we should know about Assisted Suicide

Assisted Suicide is a complicated issue for law around the world and it has provoke a hot debate everywhere. In some countries, Assisted Suicide laws are clear but in others the law does not provide a clear message about it. This causes confusion, especially in the countries where the criminal code is not defined around the topic.

People tend to think that each person has the right and freedom to decide on a suicide or an assited suicide, and this is the reason why it occurs, even in those countries where it is forbidden. In most cases of Assisted Suicide, the people who help another one to die end in deep trouble with the law, but whichever the resolution that the law apply to them will depend on the country where the event takes place.

Although there are place where Assisted Suicide is legal, this doesn’t mean that anyone can committed. Firts of all, it is important to remember that Assisted Suicide is the process by which an individual is provided with the means (drugs or equipment) to commit suicide, because he or she is incapable of doing it. And this definition clearly shows a distinction between the case of an assited death and that of a simply suicide, the former being sometimes permitted and the later being completely forbiden by the law. Assisted suicide is then allowed in some places such as the Netherlands, Swistzerland and some states of the US, but only under strict criteria. And the procedure involves many doctors that should agree in the decision together with the patient, and some witnesses. In some cases the procedure does not succed and it has some complications for the pacient, for what the people involved in it previously sign a sort of contract where the details as regarding their responsibility is specified.

The most traumatic consequence of an Assisted Suicide that does not succed is when the result of the procedure does not end in the death of the patient but it puts he or she under coma. In such a case, the doctors and the relatives of the patient can still decide to provided him or her with Euthanasia. This term refers to suicide which is performed by people other than the patient and which does not involve the choice of the patient.

Review: A topic for Debate: The Right to Die

Title of the Article: TV Broadcast of an Assited Suicide Intensifies a Contentious Debate in Britain.
Author: Sarah Lyall
Date of Publication: December 11, 2008
Source: The New York Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/11/world/europe/11suicide.html?ref=world

Garcia Fernandez, Gabriela

Assisted suicide is illegal in most of the world’s countries. However, the practise of it increase year after year. New cases are revelead every year which encourage people with fatal diseases to think of assisted suicide as an option to end the suffering.
As the article explains “it’s illegal in Britain to aid, abet, cousel ar procure suicide.” Dispite of what the law says, there has recently been in case of assited suicide in London, which caused a great deal of debate. A man almost completely incapacitated by motor neuron disease decided to kill himself. He was help to do so by his own wife, who took him to Dignitas Clinic, a Swiss clinic famouse for offering this kind of service.
It is believed that almost 100 Britons have already committed suicide in Dignitas Clinic. In it, the man took a fatal mixture of barbiture. He also allowed the cameras to film his last moments which was later on broadcasted on Sky Television as a film called ‘Right to Die?’
This case “throw a bomb into an already contentious debate”. Britain’s director of public prosecutions announced that he would not charged this man’s wife, as he did not charge other people also involved in cases of Assited Suicide. His decision is based basically on the fact that cases of Assited Suicide have often provoked police investigation in Britain but they never end in prosecutions, and people are rarely send to jail. Because of this, it’s strongly believed that law is simply not working.
Oregon, Washington State, Switzerland and the Netherlands are the only places that allow Assited Suicide and only according to strict criteria. In the rest of the world, as in Britain, people who are suffering a fatal medical condition or paralysis are forced to go abroad to die because they have no other option.
The law against Assisted Suicide is supported in Britain on the belief that “it is necessary to ensure that there’s never a case in the country where a sick or elderly person feels under pressure to agree to an assited death”. Unfourtunately, to those who are in that condition, reality is quite the opposite and in most of the cases they really feel that Assited Suicide is the expecting thing to do.

The Tree of Life

The tree of life is a mystical concept used in most of the world’s theologies, mythologies and philosophies. This symbol has also been used in science and other areas. Various trees of life are recounted in the folklore and culture of many civilizations, often related to immortality or fertility. They had their origin in religious symbolism.
In Egyptian mythology, for example, the first couple are Isis and Osiris. They were said to have emerged from the acacia tree of Saosis, which the Egyptians considered the tree of life, referring to it as the "tree in which life and death are enclosed".
In the Hebrew Bible and within Christianity, the Tree of Life is mentioned in the Book of Genesis, in which it has the potential to grant immortality to Adam and Eve. It can be found in proverbs where it's a simile for a blessing. The Tree of Life, in the form of ten interconnected nodes, is also an important part of the Kabbalah.
Among pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultures, the concept of "world trees", extremely related to that of the tree of life, is a prevalent motif in Mesoamerican mythical cosmologies and iconography. World trees embodied the four cardinal directions, which represented a symbolic connection between the Underworld, the sky and the terrestrial world. Depictions of world trees are found in the art and mythological traditions of cultures such as the Maya and the Aztec. Among the Maya, the central world tree was conceived as or represented by a ceiba tree.It is supposed that Mesoamerican sites and ceremonial centers frequently had actual trees planted at each of the four cardinal directions, representing the quadripartite concept.

In Chinese mythology a carving of a Tree of Life depicts a phoenix and a dragon. In Chinese mythology the dragon often represents immortality. There is also the Taoist story of a tree that produces a peach every three thousand years. The one who eats the fruit receives immortality.

I choose

I choose reggae because it inspires and brings calm. It touches your soul whenever you hear it. It makes you slow down. This is how I feel it. You stop your rhythym and get somewhere finally. And you discover that you were not reaching anything since you were just running, and to run causes confusion. You may have believed that you were going to gain what you want faster, but you end up late for everything and without anything because you were lost. This is what you discover with reggae.

I choose reggae because it clears your mind. Its spiritual rhythym and its melodies are like chants with always overwhelming messages. They pull the trigger of your good thoughts and intentions and you start feeling in peace with you and the world. You feel happy and you feel like dancing despite you can be hearing it motionless. It fills you with dancing mood.

I choose reggae because it awakes and makes you be conscious. You commit to your cause when listening to it, because it shows you goods examples to follow. It brings you closer to a message of liberation that pushes you to act, and to never give up. You become doer, and your actions are done passionately. You start to value life and love, and to seek for a life of love.

I choose reggae because it transports you to a land of love, and it makes your actual land to become that land. Your space becomes pure and full of light. It takes you away and brings you closer at the same time. You make contact with the essential and simple marvellousness of the world.

To play drums

It’s not easy to describe how is to play drums. You feel many sensations runing down your body and there is a lot of movement going on. Your head beats as if to tell you when to hit the drums and your arms move as you are always beating, although you are not. You feel deaf of everything behing the sounds of the hits. The drum is an intrument that shuts up every other sound, except the ones that sound in harmony with it.
The beats are consistent but there’s always a minimal variation between each of them. However they always fill the air since they are perceived as the thick smell of yellow flowers floating on water. Each part seems like yellow flowers floating on water. Like little japanese trees growing in the middle of the wet bamboo jungle. As you play the drums the sound comes alive and the jungle comes alive.
Each part of you is connected with the drums, like energy constantly in contact with you and the instrument. And a high amount of coordination is requiered. This is not difficult to gain, it is just a matter of practise. What is really difficult is the tension of the beat. Sometimes you have to hold it, and others you have to pre-released it, and whichever is the case, it should always be done with perfect groovy.
To play the drums is great. It’s like connecting yourself with what exists behind a song. It is like getting in it from outside to inside, and like coming out from inside it to the outside world. Is like going inside you and outside your head at the same time.

Review: Cloning could save animals from extinction.

Tittle of the Article: The Big Question: Will scientists ever be able to resurrect long-extinct animals by cloning?
Author: Steve Connor.

Date of Publication: Wednesday, 5 November 2008
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/the-big-question-will-scientists-ever-be-able-to-resurrect-longextinct-animals-by-cloning-992019.html

Gabriela Garcia fernandez.

Scientists in Japan have refined a cloning technique that has enabled them to clone mice from the frozen corpse of a mouse that had been kept in a freezer for 16 years at a temperature of -20C. The team was led by Teruhiko Wakayama of the Riken Centre for Developmental Biology in Kobe, Japan. The scientists believe that it might be possible in the future to use the same techniques to clone creatures from the frozen tissue of animals found buried, for example, the frozen corpses of mammoths.
This is not the first time that scientists have produced clones from dead animals. In fact Dolly herself was cloned from a sheep that had died long before. Scientists took tissue from a dead sheep and carefully frozen it using special chemicals called "cryopreservatives". These prevent the formation of damaging ice crystals inside the cells. Dolly was therefore the clone of a frozen animal that had died many years before she was born.
Wakayama and his colleagues pointout that all clones so far produced from dead animals have been created from quick-frozen tissue that has been meticulously kept at very cold temperatures without thawing, using cryopreservation. Scientists declared that this is not possible with dead animals frozen in natural conditions, the cells of tissue will presumably bind strongly to each other and freeze gradually after death due to the large body size. It remains to be shown whether nuclei can be collected from the bodies frozen without cryoprotectants, and whether they will be viable for use in cloning. Scientists have tried with some success to extract DNA from various extinct mammals, such as mammoths and the Tasmanian tiger, but cloning implies a whole set of problems. The first concerns the difficulty of extracting cells with perfectly preserved DNA, since it degrades over time. Corpses frozen for several thousand years are likely to have suffered repeated thawing and freezing that will damage both the cells and their DNA. Another problem is trying to find suitable non-extinct animals to act as surrogate egg donors and mothers.
Some scientists are suggesting this as a last measure to safeguard threatened animals that are difficult to breed in captivity. However, cloning is never going to be the panacea to the threat of extinction. The biggest problems faced by threatened animals are habitat loss, human encroachment on their territories, hunting and climate change. Cloning animals on the verge of extinction could helpspecies to hang on in zoos and parks, but it does little to generate the genetic diversity that is so important for the long-term survival of species. It also does nothing to address the root causes of extinction.

Review: Deforestation increases Global Warming

ittle of the article: Deforestation: The hidden cause of global warming
Author: Daniel Howden
Date of Publication: Monday, 14 May 2007

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/deforestation-the-hidden-cause-of-global-warming-448734.html

Gabriela Garcia Fernandez.

The Global Canopy Programme, an alliance of rainforest scientists, recognized that the accelerating destruction of the rainforests around the Earth's equator, is one of the main causes of climate change. The GCP showed deforestation accounts for up to 25 per cent of global emissions of heat-trapping gases, while transport and industry account for 14 per cent each; and aviation makes up only 3 per cent of the total. Researches from 2003 proved that two billion tons of CO2 enters the atmosphere every year from deforestation, destruction which amounts to 50 million acres. The remaining standing forest is calculated to contain 1,000 billion tons of carbon, or double what is already in the atmosphere. Scientists believe that putting a price on the carbon these vital forests contain is the only way to slow their destruction.
Reducing those catastrophic emissions can be achieved most quickly and most cheaply by halting the destruction in Brazil, Indonesia, the Congo and elsewhere. Indonesia became the third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world last week. Following close behind is Brazil. Neither nation has heavy industry, yet they comfortably outstrip all other countries, except the United States and China. Both countries have tropical forest that is being cut and burned. Smoke stacks visible from space climb into the sky above both countries, while satellite images capture similar destruction from the Congo.
No new technology is needed to reduce deforestation, says the GCP, just the political will and a system of incentives that makes the trees worth more to governments and individuals than the cutting of them. Most people think of forests only in terms of the CO2 they absorb. The rainforests of the Amazon, the Congo basin and Indonesia are thought of as the lungs of the planet. But the destruction of those forests will in the next four years pump more CO2 into the atmosphere than every flight in the history of aviation to at least 2025.
Unfortunately, he problem behind deforestation was not included in the original Kyoto protocols. Many reports agreed that forests offer the "single largest opportunity for cost-effective and immediate reductions of carbon emissions". More than 50 per cent of the life on Earth is in tropical forests, which cover less than 7 per cent of the planet's surface. They generate the bulk of rainfall worldwide, function as a coolind band and act as a thermostat for the Earth. Forests are also home to 1.6 billion of the world's poorest people who rely on them for subsistence. However, forest experts say governments continue to pursue science fiction solutions to the coming climate catastrophe, preferring bio-fuel subsidies, carbon capture schemes and next-generation power stations.

To Tucumán

Tucumán, your pure pure sky has sweet air
that smells as cane and sun.
In the seas of cane your sun-tanned men
their machetes work hard.
Tucumán, your valleys are deep and wide
full of cardones and full of ruins
archeological sites, home of Quilmes
and the sweetest wine.
Tucumán, your people are small but strong
of Diaguita heritage.
They work hard from dawn to dusk
in the hot daily routine as summer starts.
Tucumán, your history sculptured freedom
and the sounds of the inmortal hymn.
You held the shouts of Independence
on a winter the 9th of July, 1816.
Tucumán, you seem to be forgetting all these
be proud! be brave! and value yourself Tucumán!
Don't pollute your air and don't thorn your valleys
stop your people and the people from outside.
Make them stand before your history and be
overwhelmed with that.
Tucumán, you are not late.
It's time to raise and be a garden
the paradise of our country
the heart beating in the middle of this land.

Review: Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland against GM crops

Tittle of the Article: Celtic revolt against Westminster over GM crops
Author: Geoffrey Lean, Environment Editor
Date of Publication: Sunday, 28 September 2008
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/celtic-revolt-against-westminster-over-gm-crops-944768.html

Garcia Fernandez, Gabriela.

Ministers have launched a new campaign to plant GM crops in Britain. Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish governments have declared themselves opposed to any modified crops in their territory, setting the scene for a confrontation with Westminster.
For years, London Ministers have voted consistently in the EU to allow the sale of modified food and animal feeds throughout Europe, giving Britain the strongest pro-GM record in the union. However, no GM crops have yet been cultivated commercially in Britain thanks to public hostility and trials which found that growing them harmed wildlife.
According to Ian Pearson, the science minister of Britain, a “significant majority of Britons will want to choose GM” once they learned of its advantages. He strongly believes that “there are benefits to the consumer of adopting GM technologies”. The three other governments of the UK reject Britain Ministers’ new campaign. Wales restated a long-standing policy of taking "the most restrictive approach to GM crop cultivation" and Northern Ireland signalled that it would join with the Irish Republic to keep the technology out of the entire island. But the toughest opposition of all is being mounted by Scotland, where the first minister, Alex Salmond, has himself stressed his rejection of modified crops. The Prime Miniser is supported by Scotland’s environment minister, Michael Russell. He declared that they are simply “not interested in GM cultivation”.
Mr Russell is planning to form a united front with Wales and Northern Ireland. He said that “there is a unanimity of view” among the three governments regarding the GM crop issue. And more important is the fact that he is working on a counter-strike against Westminster. The Prime Minister of Scotland is supporting his view denouncing that it is wrong that UK ministers take this position on half of the country while the other three governments hold an opposite view. In this way Britain’s Ministers are failing to represent both strands of opinion at the European level, what is expected to be the case.

Review: Call Centres threaten India's fight against HIV

Title of the article: Call centre Romeos threaten India's fight against Aids
Author: Andrew Buncombe in Delhi.
Date of publication:Sunday, 28 September 2008
Source:http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/call-centre-romeos-threaten-indias-fight-against-aids-944775.html

Garcia Fernandez, Gabriela.

In recent years, telephone call centres have emerged as a symbol of the new, modernised India. As they spread all over the country, so do the opportunities for casual sex afforded by working overnight in the cramped conditions of many call centres. Most of the workers there are educated, English-speaking young people, but many of them have little education about the danger of Aids and the way the HIV virus is spread
The UN estimates that up to 2.5 million people in India are infected with HIV or have Aids. It is unknown how many of the country's estimated 1.3 million call centre workers are infected, but anecdotal evidence suggests that increasing numbers are leaving themselves open to infection. Dr Suniti Solomon, who runs an Aids clinic in the southern city of Chennai said three or four call centre workers visited her clinic every week to be tested for HIV, because they were concerned after having unprotected sex.
To cope with the problem condom dispensers are to be installed in call centres, alongside the machines for coffee and snacks. These will be acompained by Aids prevention campaigns.
Many sections of society in India reacted against these meassures. One female call centre worker complained that condom machines would damage the reputation of the centres and make parents more reluctant to let their daughters take jobs in them. This proves how conservative attitudes still dominate Indian society and the problem is that these attitudes are hampering the fight against Aids.
With a society which seems not to accept the pass of time, and a disease which spreads faster than medical researches, India seems to be stucked in its fight againts HIV.

To improve your relationship just improve yourself

Most people attempt to get their needs met in their relationship and this surely causes some troublesome things to happen. First, it causes people to focus mainly on their needs and not on the desires of their partner. Secondly, it makes people believe that they deserve something that may well not be delivered. As a result both people who are engaged in a relationship end up with a flawed view of what a successful relationship is all about. The terrible consequence of all these is that people start to blame the other for not meeting their needs. Blaming has never worked and never will. It may have you feeling justified in your position, but it will always hurt your relationship.
It’s particularly important to develop the realization that your feelings can deceive you. This can be difficult for people raised during the “honor your feelings” era of relationships. Your feelings tell you things like, "I can’t believe he could do something like that to me," or, "How could he treat me so badly?" These feelings are the result of your own low self-esteem and your own personal history of victimization.
While it’s true that your partner may treat you in a way you don’t like sometimes, it’s not true that you need to react to it with strong negative feelings. These strong negative feelings are a reflection of your own esteem issues. They also have a way of keeping your partner engaged in the struggle with you so that you can continue to blame each other. When you are both engaged in the struggle, you’ll believe that he needs to be fixed. He’ll think the same of you. Nobody wins and everybody loses. This isn’t very smart or effective.
After all, the only thing that we can do to improve a relationship is to improve ourself. To stop looking over at our partner and seeing all of his or her flaws. To stop blaming him or her. Your partner has issues just like we all do. But if you see hem or her as a collection of flaws you’ll have no chance at a successful relationship. And it’s successful relationships in life that make us truly happy.

The Real Friendship

Friendship is one of those parts of life that we at times take for granted. We expect it to be present in all areas of our lives. I’ve herad many people saying our ‘friendship is forever’. But in truth how many true friendships do you have? Friendship is a gift that two people give to each other. It is not sometthing you give expecting a result from it but a true and unanticipated gift of enormous potential. True friends form a special connection. True friends are there even when they are not expected to be present. True friends know and respect each other’s gift. They are always with you, and they do not turn up only with they are in trouble or need a shoulder to cry on. It is a special bond that is created out of genuine affection and is given freely to those who have shown their truth. It is given without the thought of reward but with the essence of the heart which longs for this special connection. When friendship comes from the heart it forms a link to our soul that cannot be broken. It connects people in a really strong way. That type of friendship exists forever. True friendship is genuinely a wondrous thing impossible to describe. Friendship brings light into your world. When you look at your true friends you will uncover who you are. You will see a reflection of your soul .You will see your world before you and will see without any doubts the truth of your way. True friends are simply your self. When you look around and see your friends you see before your eyes the world you created and the being your have become. Think of your true friends and be grateful for the gifts they bring to your life. Allow your hearts to connect and bring comfort to each other. Give them your love in return for each friend you have is a gift that should be accepted with grace and thankfulness. But most important of all, be a TRUE friend with the ones around you. Be as true as you say you are, and that can only be proved with action and not only with words.

Misunderstandings

Good communication is key in any relationship. Misunderstanding of ideas can occur when there is an absence of communication between two groups. When two parties are not speaking, there is no way to clarify positions, intentions, or past actions. Sometimes both parties make a big effort to communicate as clearly as possible, but cultural differences or language barriers obstruct clear understanding. Even within a cultural group, misunderstandings can arise because of different personal communication styles. One person will ask a lot of questions to show interest, while another person will find that to be disrespectful. Men and women, in particular, are thought to have different styles.
Fortunately, breakdowns in communication are usually repairable. Misunderstandings can be explained, languages can be translated, relationships can be restored and rumors can be controlled. Misunderstandings are therefore extremely frustrating in that they are not supposed to occur, and if they do occur, then someone must be at fault, either the speaker did not correctly package the message or the listener erred in unpacking it, or both. The majority of people are already very sophisticated at sending and interpreting messages. Speaker attempt to code ideas, feelings, and images with words. Those words are transmitted to listener who then match them with their own experiences. There is no universal codebook, so what one person thinks of as "success" will not necessarily match another person’s definition. Words correspond to different ideas and feelings for different people, and it can take multiple attempts before an idea has been understood satisfactorily. The more cultural differences there are between speakers, the more frequently they will have to stop and work out differences of meaning.

A clear understanding of semantics is crucial to preventing misunderstandings. Arguments frequently occur when two people think they are talking about the same thing, but really they are just using the same word for two different ideas or things.

According to specialists on the field who work in helping people communicate more effectively, two of the most common techniques taught to solve the conflict are active listening, or empathic listening, and the use of "I-messages" instead of "you-messages." Both of these focus on trying to communicate without placing blame and really trying to hear and understand what the other person is saying.

When people are in conflict, making the extra effort to improve communication between the disputants is often helpful in reducing the intensity of the conflict, even if the conflict cannot be that easily resolved.

Commentary on “I Sing the Body Electric” by Walt Whitman

‘I Sing the Body Electric’ is a poem about Walt Whitman’s admiration of the human body and soul. It is a celebration of the beauty of the human body, both male and female, in relation to its physicality, its shapes, its sexuality, and its divinity. He urges us to look toward the "divinity" of both the human individual and human society. He celebrates the body and its importance in forging connections between people. The author transmits to readers the idea that our body can connect us both erotically and spiritually with the bodies of others. In all this, the role of the body as the connection between the soul and the world remains crucial.
As regarding form and structure, this is a well constructed poem. It is long and complex but it can be divided in 8 sections. This is a poem of lists. The lists alternate with anecdotal sections and literary sections.
The first section of ‘I Sing the Body Electric’ announces itself as a poem about the human body. The poem's first line is an evidence of this ("The bodies of men and women engirth me, and I engirth them").
In the second section, Whitman engages with the different people in his surroundings: "Swim with the swimmers, wrestle with wrestlers, and march in line with the firemen”. He describes the society which he is part of with an implicit democratizing force. When reading the poem readers can perceive that he considers himself as incorporated into that society.
The third and fourth sections are about Whitman's view of the divinity of the body and soul. The small anecdote of the farmer whom Whitman wishes to be near to is very interesting. Whitman's description of the farmer includes words such as "vigor, calmness, beauty of person," and "wisdom". Clearly Whitman had great admiration for that man. This is evident when he says "you would wish to sit by him in the boat that you and he might touch each other". Despite the interpretations of these lines, in my opinion Whitman's message is bigger than an issue of sexuality. Even though his love and passion for the farmer was different than it would be for a younger man or a woman, it was strong and true.
In the fifth and sixth sections, Whitman depictes the unique beauty of both genders, male and female, arguing that "each has his or her place in the procession".With these lines he highlights the idea that everyone has a place and role in society which each person is responsible for.
Though he describes men and women in two very different ways, he sees them as essentially the same and he describes both with passion, and he loves both as he loves everyone. He writes, "There is something in staying close to men and women and looking on them, and in the contact and odor of them, that pleases the soul well”. But this is where his description of men and women as similar ends. He describes first the body and the soul of the woman as having a "fierce undeniable attraction," "moving with perfect balance," and having "inexpressible completeness, and beauty". He then gives man a different place in society, describing him as "action and power, defiant, blissful, sorrowful, prideful" and full of "knowledge". He describes men and women as having two unique places in society, the man as the one who must act, and the woman as the one who must be a mother and who has a sensual influence over men. Besides the different descriptions of them, Whitman still finds both women and men beautiful as they fulfill their role in society.
He also challenges readers' notions of race, class, and gender directly: "Do you suppose you have a right to a good sight, and he or she has no right to a sight?" He later describes the similarity of all humans when he says "Do you think matter has cohered together from its diffuse float, and the soil is on the surface, and water runs and vegetation sprouts for you, and not for him and her?"
In the next sections Whitman describes slaves who are being sold in slave auctions. He compares the "red, black, or white limbs as cunning in tendon and nerve", and explains that "Within there runs blood, the same old blood, the same red-running blood! There swells and jets his heart, there all passions and desires, reachings, aspirations". The message can be interpreted as referring to a similarity between slaves and white people. He states than the blood that fill their hearts is the same. Whitman clearly feels passion for these people, no matter if they are slaves.
In these sections abolition of slavery arises as a main theme. These lines invite us to think about how dehumanizing slavery is. Whitman's egalitarianism is a important aspect of this poem, for he argues against the devalorization of the body implicit in slavery.
In the end of this section Whitman asks us to consider our interconnectivity with each other: "Who might you find you have come from yourself, if you could trace back through the centuries?" The poem ends by calling us to action through a celebration of our common humanity. The connection with the common man and woman reveals Whitman closeness to society and common problems of it, such as slavery.
Whitman's "I Sing the Body Electric" is a very passionated description of the human body and the human soul. His appreciation for people for their simple humanity is very interesting. His passion does not make difference between gender, race, age, or even physical attractiveness. Whitman shows in this poem a broad sense of passion and respect for everyone. He loves the human soul and the human body, as well as he loves each person as an individual and the mass of individuals as a society.

The Importance of Reading

In todays world we receive so much information via radio, television and multimedia experiences yet none of these mediums of communication has the ability to educate as in the fundamental skill of reading.
When examining how well a nation is doing and how likely its economic situation is often the literacy rate is included. When this figure is low the country is more likely to be an economic backwater, government is likely to be poor or a dictatorship, corruption widespread and a there’s a wide lack of universities and experts.
Countries that have recently experience improving economic fortunes have increased their populations education level.
The easiest way to educate any problem is to teach them the skill of reading. If you can read you have open to you a world of knowled. The ability to read means that you can educate yourself to overcome problems.
Even in this day of multimedia, reading is still the most essential skill to acquire knowledge. The internet has meant that information is freely available to anyone who can log on. However, to absorb, teach and learn that information reading is required.
The advent of computers and the Internet also leads us into a feeling that reading may be old fashioned and unnecessary. And here is a problem! How does information in the computer get into the human mind? Until someone invents a connection into our brain, we have to "read" it. And so we come full circle, in order to use the Internet and be part of it, you have to have the skills of reading.
That points to the importance of reading skills in education. Teachers sholud always encourage studenst to read. Schools must provide the opportunity to use reading skills within the curriculum.Parents have to be involved in setting an environment for reading at home too. As a society, we need to form a reading habit that continues for a lifetime.

Be responsible for your pet

Whether your dog is just a puppy or well into adulthood, there are many things you, as a pet owner, need to be aware of. Training your dog is an important in teaching him obedience. All dogs - no matter how old - need some form of training so that they can be easily handled in all situations. Basic training or obedience classes will help you to build a bond and learn to control your dog. There are many reasons for training your dog. Training allows the dog to understand your expectations, helps him become calmer and more relaxed in all situations, in new places, and with new people and makes him easier to manage. Unfortunately, many pets owners do not understand the importance of their dogs’ lack of training and out-of-control behavior.Because dogs thrive in packs and are naturally social, once they come to your home, they expect you to be the leader. Training your dog appropriately with a few highly effective dog training tips teaches him to follow you, understand your necessary commands, and learn to accept his place in your "pack." In the end, your pet will be a well-behaved, functioning member of your family.
It is your responsibility to be aware and responsible for your pet - your dog relies on you to take care of him at all times. Providing him with a healthy diet, plenty of exercise, and one-on-one training will ensure that he has a long, healthy, and happy life with you. Don't leave his behavior up to chance. Assume control as leader of your pack and your dog will look to you in all situations that may arise. You are the best person when it comes to training your dog - he trusts you, after all. More importantly, training your dog will keep him safe and protected, which is something all dog owners should want.

Children Are What They Parents Are

There’s no doubt that the patterns of behavior that emerge in childhood are indicators of the adult personality that a child will have in future time. This perspective requires that we consider more seriously the impact that the child’s environment will have on the developing of the young mind and spirit.
Children are all the time attempting to understand the ways in which the world around them functions. Everything is foreign and new to them. They must, therefore, process information by categorizing details as they construct their perception of the world. In essence, every interaction and communication is processed by the child and given some meaning. The child looks for repetition in order to confirm general knowledge.
This is particularly important when considering the parents’ interactions with their children. Parents are the primary link between their children and the world. This is understandable, as it is the wish of every parent to help their child in a smooth, easy transition into society.
A young child, who has no prior knowledge or value system, comes to believe that what he or she absorbs from the environment is true and culturally acceptable.
Most adults do not realize the significance of their day-to-day interactions with young children. We tend to view things in the moment rather than evaluating the long-term effects of our words and actions.
Much of our behaviors as adults are influenced by our emotions and what is in our best interest for the moment. We need to take a closer look at what characteristics we ultimately wish to develop in our children and conscientiously act accordingly.
Parents should take into account the characteristics that they would like their children to develop and possess as an adult. They should carefully evaluate the way that their children behave and interact with others. Ask themselves if they are encouraging the characteristics that they desire or if they are facilitating the development of less positive patterns of behavior.
Our children behave precisely as we have trained them. It is our responsibility to help them develop positive patterns of behavior that will enable them to be competent, capable, contributing members of our society when they reach adulthood.

Rastafari Today:

Today, the Rastafari Movement has spread through most of the world, especially to those sectors of society interested in Reggae music and who listen to the Jamaican singer Bob Marley. A survey revealed that there were 1 million of Rastafaris faithful worldwide by the year 1997. Another significant result was that 5 to 10 percent of Jamaicans admited themselves as Rastafaris. By claiming the Emperor of Ethiopia (Haile Selassie I) to be the messiah, the Rastafari movement may be seen as a new religious movement that has arisen from Judaism and Christianity.
This movement is not an organized religion but an ideology. Even many Rastas say that the Rastafarism is not a relagion “at all” but a way of life. Although it is not an organized religion it has many denominations. The most important ones nowadays are the Bobo Ashanti, The Nyahbinghis and The 12 tribes of Israel. In 1996, The Rastafari Movement was given consultative status by the United Nations.
Today Rastafaris are not only black Jamaican people. The movement has spread from its country of origin, Jamaica, to several other countries and among many ethnic groups. Some of its symbols has widely spred during the 1990s in Post-Soviet States. After the fall of the URSS, young people of Russia and Ukrania adopted many of the symbols of the Rastafari culture, especially honouring Bob Marley and Reggae music.
A devoted rasta community also developed in Japan in the late 1970s. Tokyo became full of rasta-shops selling natural food and Reggae records which still exist today. Each year, open-air Reggae concerts are held in Japan as well as in other cities around the world.

The Rastafari Movement

The Rastafari movement is a new religious movement that accepts Haile Selassie I, the former Emperor of Ethiopia, as God incarnate, called Jah Rastafari. This emperor’s pre-coronation name was Tafari Makonnen. He is also seen as the messiah promised in the Bible to return. The name Rastafari comes from Ras (literally "Head," an Ethiopian title equivalent to Duke), and Tafari Makonnen. People who believe and are part of this movement are known as Rastas or Rastafaris.
Other characteristic of the Rastafari movement is the teachings of Jamaican publicist, organiser, and black separatist Marcus Garvey (also often regarded as a prophet), whose political and cultural vision helped inspire a new world view.
The Rastafari movement’s birthplace is Jamaica. It developed among Jamaicans of African descent who felt they were oppressed and that society was apathetic to their problems. Rastas regard themselves as conforming to Afrocentric social and political aspirations. They claim the culture stolen from them when their ancestors were brought on slave ships to Jamaica.
The messages given by the Rastafaris promote love and respect for all living things and emphasize the paramount importance of human dignity and self-respect. They speak of spiritual, psychological and physical Freedom. They are againts slavery and oppression.
Rastafaris stress loyalty to Zion (the Promissed Land), and rejection of modern society, calling it Babylon, which they see as corrupt. The movement is difficult to categorize, because Rastafari is not a centralized organization. Individual Rastafaris work out their religion for themselves, resulting in a wide variety of doctrines.

Review: China Cannot Stop Smoking

Review: China Cannot Stop Smoking
Tittle of the Article: New Antismoking Signs are almost Visible through the Haze
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/23/world/asia/23smoking.html?ref=world
Author: ANDREW JACOBS
Date of Publication: July 23, 2008

Gabriela Garcia Fernandez

In China, where one in four people smoke, a decade of public campaigns against tobacco have gain very little succes. The most recognisible achivemnet in this fight is the ban against cigarrettes in school, railway stations and other public places, in Beijing due to the Olympic Games. Furthermore, Chinese athletes were not permitted to accept tobacco company sponsorship and cigarrettes advertising on billboards were restricted.
About 350 million of China’s 1.3 billion people are regular smokers, and eventhough 1.2 million people die each year from smoking-related causes, there is some widespread belife that cigarrettes hold some health benefits. Unlike cigarrettes in much of the world, Chinese brands carry no health warning on labels.
“Cigarrettes have an extra value in China that helps improve many social interactions”, said Tang Weidrang, a researcher at the China Tobacco Museum in Shangai, a pro-smoking institution finaced by China’s Tobacco Industry. We have to take into account that the nation’s lukeswarm efforts to curb smoking are complicated by the government’s control over the tobacco industry, which provides about $31 billion in taxes each year, about a 8% of the governmet’s revenue. China produces a third of the world’s tobacco. Zhang Baazhen, a vice director of the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration, warned that “without cigarrettes the country’s stability will be affected”.
Early this year, Beijing announced a ban on smoking in bars and restaurants, but the proposal quickly died. It does not help that cigarrettes are extremely cheap. Along with all the little succes in fighting against smoking, Chinese people have started to assumed that more than addicted they are dependant on cigarretes, and so does China’s government in supporting smoking as it does.

Insight to Reggae Music

Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s.While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady. Reggae is based on a rhythm style characterized by regular chops on the off-beat, known as the skank.
Reggae is often associated with the Rastafari movement, an influence on many prominent reggae musicians from its inception. Reggae song lyrics deal with many subjects, including faith, love, sexuality, relationships, poverty, injustice and other broad social issues.
Although strongly influenced by both traditional African and Caribbean music, as well as by American rhythm and blues, reggae owes its direct origins to the progressive development of ska and rocksteady in 1960s Jamaica.
Ska music first arose in the studios of Jamaica over the years 1959 and 1961, itself a development of the earlier mento genre. Aside from its massive popularity amidst the Jamaican rude boy fashion, ska had gained a large following among mods in Britain by 1964.
By the mid-1960s, many musicians had begun playing the tempo of ska slower, while emphasizing the walking bass and offbeats. The slower sound was named rocksteady, after a single by Alton Ellis. This phase of Jamaican music lasted only until 1968, when musicians began to slow the tempo of the music again, and added yet more effects. This led to the creation of reggae.
The Wailers, started by Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, and Bunny Wailer in 1963, are generally agreed to be the most easily recognised group worldwide that made the transition through all three stages — from ska hits like "Simmer Down", through slower rocksteady; and they are also among the significant pioneers who can be called the roots of reggae.
Reggae is noted for its tradition of social criticism, although many reggae songs discuss lighter, more personal subjects, such as love, sex and socializing. Some reggae lyrics attempt to raise the political consciousness of the audience, such as by criticizing materialism, or by informing the listener about controversial subjects such as Apartheid. There are many artists who utilize religious themes in their music — whether it be discussing a religious topic, or simply giving praise to the Rastafari God Jah. Other common socio-political topics in reggae songs include black nationalism, anti-racism, anti-colonialism, anti-capitalism, criticism of political systems and "Babylon", and promotion of caring for needs of the younger generation.

The Power of Music

Music is everywhere an we all listen to it, even without having chosen to do it. Most of the time, to listen to music is not a volunteer action since it is played almost in every place where we generally go during our day. For instance, if you work in a shop or in an office, music sounds there through radios. If you go to a restaurant or a café, music is used to create a certain atmosphere. If you take a taxi, or the bus, most drivers will obly you to listen to their favourite station. If you go to the gym, you would listen to music there, also. When the weekend arrives, parties and meetings with friends, even the church sermon, will be accompained with music.
It is because it is present most of the time in our lives, that music is being studied by specialists who want to know more about its influence in human life. Tests have been done as regarding what type of music people generally listen to, how much time is spent listening to music and what feelings evokes listening to it. Actually, there are many scientific disciplines involved in such studies. The main interest of most of them is to determine the impact of music and its consequences in people’s life.
There are many examples that clearly prove the power of music. Mothers sing to babies, just to calm them down. Many people use music as company, for example during work. There are students who use it to isolate their minds from the outside world and gain concentration while studying. I personally listen to music particularly when doing housework and cooking. The choice of listening to music while doing something else, or to obtain a certain effect from it, proves that we are seeking to get some benefit from music.
And we does really get some positive benefit from music, otherwise we wouldn’t use it that much in our daily lives. Music evokes feelings and emotions, and that’s it real power.Music cannot be separated from life, I mean, from human life, simply because music is life. It is a way of living, that most people tend to choose. Music influence people’s mood, it is relaxing and estimulating. And most important of all, it produces a feeling of well being. You have just to play some happy rhythym on your cd player or MP3 and you will inmediately start to feel good!...

Adolescents Out of Control

It is not a new fact that adolescents are out of control nowadays. But what causes this? There must be something that takes them to that state in which their violent behaviour appears.
Some adolescents overreact to low marks that they get in school, and they do it against adults. The problem is not what might happen then, but how to control them, or in better words, how to help them.
Specialists on the topic say that the violent behaviour is acquired at home. To many sociologists and pshycologists who deal with adolescents out of control, such behaviour is not the result of having bad frienships, or watching violent scenes on TV. We inherit most part of our behaviour patterns and our personality is formed out of those inherited characteristics. Taking into account this, no other thing can be done with those adolescents than helping them to rebuild their personality. We need to help them to substitute those bad patterns with better ones. And this should be done with a profesionalist, and of course, family must help.
To lose control and to fly into a rage is likely to occur after a lot of simulated tolerance, hidden pains and having suffered any kind of humilliation; these means, violence is the result of unsolved social problems. And to deal with violents reactions with more violence is an easy, but incorrect choice. Afection and sensitivness towards those adolescents who react with violence are the key to solve the problem.
Parents who are rude and strict with their adolescents sons and daughters, contribute negatively to their future behaviour and social development. And so do those who do not check their children school development or do not just ask them “how was school today?”. This attitudes are perceived by children as indiference towards them, and this has very dramatic consequences.
If parents do not get involved in their children’s lives, to try to do it latter may be extremely difficult and even traumatic for an adolescent. Parents must show interest for their children, they must show it to them, because they need it, and they are requesting it with all that violent behaviour they have.

Love from a scientific point of view

To science, Love is the first manifestation of the human survival instinct, which conducts us to search for a realtionship with the opposite sex. It arises in humans because of our impossibility of procreating our specie just by ourselves.
Taking into account this cientific definition of Love, we can arise to some conclusions. First af all, to understand Love through science may answer many questions related to it. According to science (and to me) there’s nothing more important or more transcendental than Love. In second place, Love and the continuity of the human race go hand in hand. And finally, the person who loves somebody else does it, principally, with the aim of survive. This three characteristics of Love may serve to clarify our understanding of love much more.
Science not only answers what Love is and explains its origins, but it also gives an explanation to how is it that we learn to love. For the scientific field, our capacity to love as adults is defined during our childhood. The way in which we will later feel towards the rest of the people, is in extremmely connection with our experiences as a child. That’s why there’s people who search for love and others who simply reject it. All these are reactions based on our childhood experiences.
Today, scientists have discovered that it is truth that certain people love more than others, and it has been proved that there’s a link between this fact and the earlier stages in our life. Our capacity to love starts to be defined from our mother’s womb and during our first five years of life.
Considering the scientific point of view of Love, it is possible also to answer why it is so difficult to accept that love is gone, sometimes, for example, when we break up with a couple. And this is just a matter of survival, on one hand, but also because we are not able to imagine ourselves in a condition other than Love. Psychologically, we are programmed to Love, some people more than other, maybe.
Anyway, Love is inevitably a two-way feeling to human beings, it gives pleasure, and it gives pain, independently of what science says about it.

Thecnology and Law

To hack an e-mail account in Argentina is no longer a simple crime, since a new regulation which considers details about this has been voted and included in our Penal Code.
For our law system, to violate somebody else’s e-mail account is similar to violate a person’s correspondance. The e-mail is a form of communication which enlarges the possiblities that traditional post offers. That’s presicely the reason why our Penal Code considers both of them, the e-mail and the letter, as almost equals.
The right to privacy of correspondence is widely taken into account by our legal system, and it must be extended to any form of correspondence, if necessry. Considering this basic right, the decision to modify our Penal Code is a possitive one. Especially if we realize of the impact that technology has in our daily lives. Technology advances and so must do the law, since among many advantages that technology brings, there are also some disadvantgaes, such as cibercrime.
To hack an e-mail account is a form of cibercrime and it is correct to fight against it. It is no casual that e-mail accounts have so many security meassures to which we have to submit when opening one. To use an e-mail account we nned to use a company’s sevice and we also need a password, and all these has no other aim than preventing extrangers from reading our e-mails.
Luckily, The Law will contribute from now on with those security meassures that e-mails already have, by punishing those who violate them. The Law will punish with 6 months in prision the people who opens, eliminates or deviates somebody else’s e-mails and the punishment can be extended to 1 year in prision, if an e-mail is re-send or published in a public website.

Review: The Peaceful Pill Handbook

Title of the article: In Tijuana, a Market for Death in a Bottle
Source: The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/21/world/americas/21tijuana.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5087&em&en=7a39725c70e25908&ex=1216958400
Date of Publication: July 21, 2008
Author: MARC LACEY.

Garcia Fernandez, Gabriela.

It would be rather difficult to believe that you can find advices of how to commit suicide in a book, but it is true. “The Peaceful Pill Handbook” by Phillip Nitschke, is a book that lays out methods to end one’s life. Its author is the founder of Exit International, an Australian group that helps people who want to end their lives. It is banned in Australia and in New Zeeland. Anyway, its advices have already “helped” many people to committe suicide.
One of the book’s most popular advices is to buy Mexican Pentobarbital, a barbiturate commonly known as Nembutal. The drug, literally takes a person’s breath away and it can kill by putting people to sleep. It is tightly regulated in most countries but in Mexico, the drug is “readily available” says P. Nietschke in his book.
It is no surprising how easy is to buy the drug in Mexico, if we take into account that it is a country which has a huge problem of contraband. It is presicely in Tijuana pets' shops where Nembutal can be bought in small bottles of its concentrated liquid form. Once widely available as a sleep aid, this drug is now used mostly to anesthetize animals for surgery and to euthanize them.
Considered as “the most trouble-free and painless form of suicide” by P.Nitschke, Nembutal goes in brand names like Sedal-Vet, Sedalphorte and Barbithal. People who buy the drug are known as “death tourists”. They visit the veterinary pharmacies in Tijuana, Mexico, paying as little as 30 dollars for a dose. Some of them show the shops’ owners one of the many photos of bottles of Nembutal provided in Mr. Nitschke’s book. And although pet shops owners acknowledge that foreigners regularly inquire about the drug, they assumed “the customers were using it to end the lives of their animals”.
This situation changed after an article published by “El Norte”, a regional newspaper, detailed how easy was to buy pentobarbital and how foreigners intended to use it. Consequently, local authorities are seeking to clamp down on unauthorized purchases and shops are now supposed to sell the drug only to licensed veterinarians who present a prescription.
A second step to solve this problem, should be, in my opinion to reconsider Mr. Nitschke’s book as a threat to people willing to die. The book not only offers advices of the best ways to commit suicide but it also tells people where to buy the drugs to do it. This is totally inmoral and it may also be considered a crime, taking into that what Mr. Nitschke is doing is a form of “assisted suicide”, which is illegal in many countries.

Review: What Play Means for Children.

Title of the article: The Importance of Play
Source: http://www.articlecity.com/articles/family/article_2742.shtml
Author: Judy Hansen
Date of Publication: May, 2008.

Garcia Fernandez, Gabriela.

Most people may think that children play because they are bored, but to play is much more than that. Jude Hasen explains in the article “The Importance of Play” the role that this activity has for children and how play becomes a door to the world for them. For this author, when children play, they are immersed in a world of wonder, exploration and adventure, which gives children the opportunity to learn and experience things themselves. Taking into account her explanation, there’s no doubt that play is vital then, for children’s development.
As any important activity in human life, to play has different stages: the first one during toddler hood, the second stage when children are preschoolers and the third stage during children’s school age. Each stage is adjusted to each age capacities and abilities, and each one adds important experiences to children’s life and development.
What is more amazing than the stages of play, is the fact that play “benefits the child in ways that might be difficult for adults to imagine” as J. Hasen states in the article. To support this opinion, the author explains the most relevant benefits that play has in children’s life. First of all, play brings joy. Apart from that, it “fosters socio-emotional learning” because when playing children display their independence in the decision to embark in play activities. On the other hand, play “hones physical and motor development” since it involves the uses of the sense and the body.
As important as those benefits, is the fact that to play “facilitates cognitive learning”. It is vital to the intellectual development of a child. To play “enhances language development”, “encourage creativity” and “provides bonding experiences”. Taking into account all these benefits explained in the article, it is clear that play is a very important factor in children’s life.
But what is the importance then, in getting to know what play means for children? First of all, to know this, may encourage parents to support their children’s playtime. If parents get to understand play as an extremely beneficial activity for their children, their view over this activity will always be positive, leading to parent’s support to it. And this support is no other thing that a great contribution, and the best contribution, that parents could do to their children life and development.

Review: The Great Ape Project.

Title of the article: When Human Rights Extend to Nonhumans
Source: The New York Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/13/weekinreview/13mcneil.html?pagewanted=1

Garcia Fernandez, Gabriela.

The environment committee of the Spanish Parliament is discussing a new bill which aims to grant limited rights to apes, since they are considered our biological relatives. The discussion is based on The Great Ape Project, which takes into account apes’ human qualities such as to feel fear and happiness, create tools, use language, remember the past and plan the future. The directors of the project are the Princeton ethicist, Peter Singer and the Italian philosopher, Paola Cavalieri, for whom apes are part of a community of equals with humans. If the bill is passed, it would become illegal in Spain to kill apes and torture them, and arbitrary imprisonment would been forbidden. Apes in Spain zoos would not be freed but they would receive better care.
The big question under this project arises when deciding which humans’ rights an ape should be offered. To answer this, Mr. Singer explained that the DNA of a chimpanzee is 95% to 98.7 the same as that of humans. And he demanded in his project only rights that he felt all humans were usually offered, like freedom from torture. Under this project’s point of view, Apes’ status would be akin to that of children.
Lots of debates arise after this project was presented in the Spanish Parliament. While people who protect animals feel that “it is a great start to breaking down the species barrier”, scientists would like to keep using chimpanzees to study AIDS virus. On the other hand, Spanish Catholic bishops attacked the vote as undermining a divine will that placed humans above animals.
The article’s author states his point of view discussing what he considers the basic human right: not to be killed for food. Cannibalism is forbidden to laws of all countries. If we take into account the slide difference between a chimpanzee’s DNA and our, killing them for food as it occurs in Africa, for example, would be a crime, even without The Great Ape Project coming into force.
To conclude, all this matter can simply be seen as all great struggles separating man from beast. In the end, we have to consider that animals cannot protect themselves against humans and that’s what enables us with such superiority over them. That we reconsider our position over animals and that we treat them as equals will remain in my opinion, as something remote, even if the Ape Project is voted by the Spanish Parliament.

Review: A new discovery around HIV

Review: A new discovery around HIV

Title of the article: “Gene Variation May Rise Risk of HIV”
Source: The New York Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/17/science/17hiv.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Date of Publication: July 17, 2008
Author: NICHOLAS WADE

Garcia Fernandez, Gabriela.

This review is based on an article by Nicholas Wade from the New York Times, which explains the new conclusions reached by scientists in relation to HIV/AIDS. The article is based on a new discovery around the HIV virus found by a group of researchers from Texas and London. The discovery is expected to offer an important insight into the biology of the virus.
According to the article, a genetic variation that once protected people in sub-Saharan Africa from a now extinct form of Malaria may have left them more vulnerable to HIV. This would explain why AIDS is more common there than expected. The genetic variation has been studied in the US, where African-Americans who carried the variation were 50% more likely to acquire HIV than African-Americans who did not.
The geneticist David Goldstein said that “if the new results are comfirmed, it would mean that selection for resistance to Malaria has created a vulnerability to infection with HIV”. The genetic variation involves a change in one unit of DNA. As a consequence of this, red blood cells fail on inserting a certain protein on their surface. This protein is a receptor which receives signals from a hormone known as CCL5, part of the immune system’s regulatory system. The receptor was also used by a Malaria parasite to gain entrance to the red blood cells. More than 90% of people in Africa now lack the receptor on their red blood cells, as do about a 60% of African-Americans.
The Texas-London research team is not certain how lack of the receptor promotes HIV infection, but Dr. Ahuja, who wrote the report, said that “the blood cells act like a sponge for the hormone CCL5”. Because CCL5 is known to obstruct multiplications of the virus, having lots of the hormone in the bloodstream may prevent the infection. Conversely, people whose blood cannot soak up the hormone could be more vulnerable.
Dr. Weiss contribution to the research was the fact that the red blood cell receptor was similar to another receptor, the CCR5. This one occurs on the surface of the white blood cells, which are HIV’s mayor target. A small percentage of Europeans have a mutation that prevents CCR5 receptor from being displayed on the surface of white blood cells, and they are protected against HIV. The absence of the two receptors has the opposite effect: vulnerability to HIV, when the red cell receptor is missing, protection from it, when the white cell receptor is withdrawn.
As it’s often the case with provocative new findings, the researchers may have some way to go before convincing others that their observation is correct. From the time being, this new discovery offers a new possibility to the understanding of the virus, and some answers to the questions that arise around this terrible disease.

The Importance of Children Education

Having an Education is important, even in careers which do not normally require academic qualifications. Whatever subject we study, education can teach us to learn from life.
Most of the social problems that our country is suffering nowadays, could be avoided through education. If we take into account, for instance, how much violemce is afecting adolescents and children, we can conclude that this problem has its roots in the lack of eductaion they have. Children and adolescents tend to behave outside thier houses as they are taught to behave inside them. If they misbehave in such a dramatic scale, is simply because they are not well educated in that area.
Following this type of analysis, we can understand how important is the value of education and realize that this field has many failures, especilly in our country. Most of those failures are taking place at home. And after leaving a home which does not educate, children enter into a broken educational system which cannot cope with them as it should.
We must understand that primary education is key. It helps the child to develop in terms of providing foundations for more advanced learning and in helping the child develop into an emotionally healthy teenager. Several subjects are essencial in primary school such as music, physical eductaion, foreign languages, creative writing and maths. Through them schools aim to develop essential qualities that are substantial as preparation for the outside world. It is in primary school when children develop their competitiveness, interpersonal skills, self-confidence and team spirit. And, most important of all, it is in primary school when children inherit the basic patterns of their behaviour, the main differences between right and wrong, the importance of solidarity, and when they develop their aim of becoming good people. School not only teaches subjects, but also manners and values.
What is not done and not learnt during chilhood is not likely to be done or learnt afterwards. Childhood is an important time in every person’s life, in which people learnt most of the values that will rule their lifes as adults. The influence of family and school should not be dismissed as it occurs nowadays. These are the children educators and to be in charge of children’s eductaion is a serious task. And it should be taken as serious as it is.

"Betrayal” and “The Kite Runner”

When reading the extract from “The Kite Runner” and the poem “Betrayal” the fact that they shared betrayal as a main theme clearly stands out. Other similarities can also be perceived between both text, as well as some differences, but the former are more than the later.
First of all, that text A and text B shared the same main theme can be seen throughout the whole texts. The novel “ The Kite Runner” has its main character, Amir, as the representation of the feeling of betrayal. This boy betrays his friend Hassan, son of his father’s servant, quite often and through many different situations during their childhood. The extract tells one of the highest moments of the novel from those in which Amir assumes himself as an unloyal person. This is shown by the fact that Hassan and Ali’s birthday gift makes Amir feel uncomfortable. Taking into account that by this moment of the novel Hassan has already been raped, Ali and Hassan’s kidness towards Amir makes him feel that he is totally unworthy.
Betrayal is constantly treated in the novel and in each point at which it stands out, the tone and mood of the story inmediately tends to change. Sadness and the feeling of guilt are highlighted when the plot of “The Kite Runner” goes aroung betrayal. The mood changes from happines to dispair and the atmosphere turns gloomy everytime Amir betrays his friend. Rethoric and existencial questions hunt the protagonist when the feeling of guilt invades him. He wonders why he is so mean with Hassan and although he regrets, he cannot stop being like that, and in some instances he even justifies himself. The phrase “He’s only a Hazara” said by Amir after not helping Hassan when he is sexually attacked, is an evidence of that.
As stated at the beginnig, betrayal is also the main theme in the poem of the same name written by Frank P. Whyte. This theme is developed through it as it occurs with “The Kite Runner”. A difference from the few between the two texts, is the fact that in the poem there is any situation in which the theme is not present. Furthermore, the mood and tone remain generally the same throughout it. The whole poem has a sad atmosphere and there are not alterning situations or emotions like it does occur in “The Kite Runner”. The novel has some up-lifting moments in which joy and happiness and even hope appear as main fellings. In the poem, the structure in which betrayal develops is quite different and no hope or happiness is felt when reading it.
Leaving aside this important difference between text A and text B, the strengh of the similarities between both texts is easily perceived when reading the poem. Stanza number 4, for example, is a clear evidence of that strengh. This paragraph explains how a betrayer can attemp to justify his dishonesty and wrong doing. This can be understood when reading the phrase “the betrayer will wrap themselves in a coat of righteousness”...what this stanza communicates is exactly what Amir does in the novel when saying “He’s just a Hazara”. This justification from part of Amir strongly conveys the image that stanza 4 from the poem gives of a betrayer.
After comparing text A with text B, betrayal and its consequences are understood not only as a literal theme that can inspire authors to write but as part of the human life and spirit. Both authors succeded in these pieces of work to presenst Betrayal as an act capable of being performed by everybody and the feeling of guilt as an emotion from which nobody can escape when betraying somebody else.

Comparing ‘Dirge Without Music’ with an extract from ‘By the Bay’

It is clear that ‘Dirge Without Music’and the extract from ‘By the Bay’ have their own particular characteristics. At the same time, although being different, they are extremely connected since they both deal with the same theme: death. The authors approach this theme from different points of view, but for both of them, to accept death will depend on time an distance, on how close we are to the presence of it.
‘Dirge Without Music’ by Edne St. Vincent Millay, as it tittle suggests, is a funeral song. Death and the rejection to it are its main themes. The author describes the lack of resignation to death throughout the poem. This idea is clearly expressed in the phrase ‘I am not resigned’ repeated three times. This repetition helps to reinforce the main themes.
Repetitions are crucial to the understanding of the poem. They are intermingled within the stanzas in a way in which they bring the message closer to the reader. ‘But I do not approve’ is another phrase which is repeated. This shows again, the denial of death, and it is preceded by the phrase ‘I know’. The repetition of the two phrases together is not casual, since they convey the idea of death as a stage in life, which even though it is accepted as such, the speaker does not approve of it. There is certain acceptance. The phrase ‘the indiscriminate dust’ in the second stanza shows this by emphazising the concept of death as something which affects all of us and from which no one can escape. The speaker is aware of this -‘I know’- but he or she cannot silence what his or her heart feels -‘But I do not approve’-. And it is precisely that feeling what makes the acceptance incomplete.
The difficulty in accepting death completely and the lack of resignation to it gives us the hints of a recent death. It is common that people react with resignation to the death of somebody close to them. Rejection is the first feeling that generaly takes place in that situation. Acceptance tends to arise with time. For this reason, it can be understood that the poem makes reference to a recent death of probably a close person to the speaker.
In the extract adapted from ‘By the Bay’ by K. Mansfield in which death is also the main theme, the time factor is presented in a quite different way. In this fragment which is mostly a dialogue, the grandmother does accept death and she is already resigned to it. This confirms that the death of her son occured probably a long time ago. This is a distant death. The feeling of loss is already overcome.
The extract shows other differences with the poem. Besides the difference in the concepts of time an distance and their connection to death, language is also used differently. In the extract, the author uses plain words, while in the poem the language is more formal and also more dramatic. Therefore, the idea of death as something difficult to accept is more strongly conveyed in the poem. On the other hand, the purpose of the author in the extract, is to present death as something natural and as something which is not worth talking about all the time. The fact that the conversation about death that the grandmother and Keiza have it’s easily turned into a game, is an evidence of this. It can be understood also, that for the grandmother, it is easier to end up the talk in this way that to give Kezia an answer to her petition. Anyway, the way in which the conversation ends clearly shows that for this woman death is not a topic that deserves more discussion than the simple dialogue she has with Kezia about it.
The two characters within the extract also represent contrasting ideas. While the grandmother is resigned to death, Kezia, her granddaughter, has a different approach to it. The former is wise because of age and experience, and the latter is innocent and naive. Keiza has a fear of being left alone and she does not really understand what death is. As regarding the grandmother, she appears to have already accepted death as an inevitable stage in life.
Eventhough both authors take death as the main theme, they develop it in different ways. If we take into account time and distance, those are factors which can undoubtedly affect the way in which people are touched by death. Those factors can also interfere negatively in the degree of difficulty experienced by people in the acceptance of death. Death is presented in different ways in these two texts, but they are both valid and realistic. As they suggest, the way in which people accept somebody else’s death will depend mainly on how close they are to that person, and also, on how recent is the situation. Time helps to overcome dramatic events and this idea is clearly shown and very well exposed by both authors.

Communication in the Modern World

Throughout the 20th century, technology played an increasingly important part in the development of the telephone. Now, we are witnesses of greater changes in the way we communicate.
I have little doubt that the the telephone played a major role in the changes that took place in the last century. By this I mean that hadn't not been for the telephone, we would never have had other developments such as faxes, mobile phones or the Internet. Furthermore, the telephone is an invaluable aid for bussiness and the best way of keeping in touch with friends. After all, most people prefer to pick up the phone rather than writing a letter.
I fully agree that knowing how to use the Internet is a tremendous advantage nowadays. The Net is an incredible source of knowledge and information, both at work and in the home. In addition, it provides with a quick and easy mean of communictaion in the form of e-mails.
As regarding cell phones, there is a lot to be said in defence of them. They are indispensable to work and a great fun for young people. What is more, they are extremely useful in an emergency. Mobile phones make life considerable easier for all of us.
Thanks to technology people are able to communicate far more easily and quickly than ever before. Our actual means of communication have improved a lot and will continue improving. Technological advances are the main responsibles of this possitive changes that the means of communication are having in the modern world.

Weapon-related violence in schools

According to a resent research, every week, up to 8,000 teachers will deal with a pupil carrying an offensive weapon to school in the US, such as a knife or a gun. Teachers are facing worrying levels of violence, poor behaviour and disruption in schools. The study also shown that 1 in 10 teachers reported being pushed or manhandled by pupils.
The study by Dr. Sean Neil, of Warrick University's Institute of Education, revealed that serious incidents are increasingly taking place in schools serving disadvantaged areas. According to Steve Simott, General Secretary of The National Union of Teachers, which comisssioned the research , carrying weapons to school doesn't make students safer but more vulnerable and he remarked that they need to get that message across. Teachers are encountering the problem, especially in some of the toughtest schools in the toughtest areas, particularly among boys from socially deprived backgrounds. Boys from disadvataged areas are more likely to have low aspirations, be worse behaved, commit offences and become gang members.
Teachers said in the survey that rather than takle the problem with more referral units, they would prefer actions to reduce class size, make curriculum less restrictive and get more support from parents for school discipline.
As regrading weapon-related violence in school, there's a proposal in Britain to introduce metal detectors in schools. This proposal to introduce " airport style" security in schools represents a remarkable U-turn for the government, since it was againts the move 3 years ago. However, the official line has changed as the cult of the knife has grown among british youngsters. A reserach revealed that the number of teenagers who were found carrying knives to school more than doubled from 482 in 1997 to 1,256 in 2006.
The metal detector plan will be a key element in a new government action plan against violence in schools supported by teachers.The proposal will also shift more responsibility on the parents with a plan to make them sign up to scanning and serching policies as a condition of entry when their children first apply for a school place.
In the US metal detectors have been used for the last 15 years with some succes. Some detectors were installed in response to the 1992 Columbia High School shootings, and in response to some other shootings. A study suggested that metal detectors have helped to cut the number of weapons being brought into schools by more than a half and to cut knife-related violence by about a %35.
In my opinion, to install metal detectors in schools to prevent weapon-related violence is a sensible preacaution. On the other hand, a problem with metal detectors is that this meassure tackles just weapon-related violence but it doesn't tackle violence in schools itself. Violence within students and against teachers is a problem at a general scale and metal detectors are the solution to only one of the consequences of this wave of violence in which we live today. We need to prevent that violence. And in order to do that we need to search for it real causes, rather than dealing with only one of its consequences.

The Construction of Happiness

Have you ever asked yourself if it possible to measure happiness? Well, scientists say they actually can. “The Sciene of Happiness”, by Mark Rudin, is a quite interesting article that explains some of the techniques used to measure pleasure. The measuremnet is based on asking people “How happy are you 1-7, 1-10?”. According to Professor Ed Dienner (University of Ilinois) this technique produces real and vaild answers. However, I believe that if a person is happy or not depends on an extensive number of reasons. This would mean then, that to measure happiness is a more complicated task from what the article suggests. Although the results of the technique are not very convincing for me, the article goes through some other interesting ideas related to happiness and its connection with other aspects of life.
The article states that happiness “leads to a long life, health, resilience and good performance”. In other words, the consequence of happiness is a better life. The validity of this statement is commonly accepted by people since it is believed that there are strong links between happiness and helath. At the same time, it is understandable that the happier the person, the stronger the person will be to face life, solve problems and do hard-work. The reason for this is simply the fact that difficult situations seem easier when you confront them in a good mood.
Professor Daniel Kahneman (University of Princeton) argues in the article that “there is evidence that being richer isn’t making us happier.” Most people agree that money does not have such power of bringing happiness to our life. Eventhough we sometimes confuse the terms, we all know that to be happy and to be wealthy are not the same. Those words can appear to be synomyms sometimes. When this happens, when we confuse happiness with being rich, we generally fall in nonsensical comparisons with other people. The problem is that when we compare ourselves with others we realize that there might be things that we still haven’t achieve in life. Or we realize that are people richer and in a better social status than us. In this way, comparision can end up making us feel unhappy. As the article suggests, the best thing to do is to choose objectively with whom we compare ouserlves and about what.
A third interesting issue the article discusses is that “there is no one key to happiness but a set of ingredients that are vital. Among them, family and friends are believed to be the most important ingredients. Not to be alone is paramount for every human being. We all need company and to feel supported. As important as those ingredients is the belief in something bigger that us no matter which your particular religion may be. This gives meaning to human life and gives an answer to many existencial questions that haunt us from time to time. Finally, the author of “The Science of Happiness” also remarks the importance of having enjoyable goals in life and the positive influence that working on those goals may have on people’s search for happiness. Every person needs to feel that their life develops for a reason. We all need to have goals and to feel that we are in the world to accomplish an aim and not just because a mere biological condition enables our existence. In other words, we need to feel that we are more than simple living beings and that there’s purpose in our life other than just to born, grow, reproduce and die.
The aim of every human being is to live and not just simply to exist. We need to get involved with other people and to be connected, and not to live in isolation. We need to plan our future and find the way to achieve that plan. In simple terms, we need to construct our happiness. And this means to live in a permanent seek for this ephemeral state. It is this characteristic of not lasting forever that makes of happiness such a difficult aspect of life to measure. At the same time, it is precisely that same characteristic what pushes, and should push, our constant search for it. Beacuse happiness lasts just a moment, we have no other choice than to live in a permanent search and construction of it.

Fighting Starvation with Vegetarian Food

The World Health Organization has decided to fight starvation with Vegetarian Food since they considered it to be more economical and more nutritionally complete than meat. The evidence that supports this theories gives examples in which meat and cerealas are compared. The results of those comparisions show that 16 kg of cereals are equivalent to only 1 kg of meat proving that cereals have higher yield than meat.

Jean Mayer, a nutrition expert from Harvard said that only by reducing a %10 the meat production, the cereal crops will grow enough to feed 60 millions people. Several researches also showed that in the grow and crop of 1 kg of wheat only 60 lts of water are used, while the production of 1 kg of meat needs between 2,500 and 6,000 lts of water. This proves how much expensive may be to produce meat and the negative impact that this industrial activity may have on our planet by making water to be severly depleted. At the same time it has been already proved that the activity of husbandry farms is highly polluting the natural enviormnet of the areas where they function.

As well as proved to be more economical and planet friendly, vegetarian food is believed to be better for our health than meat. Dr. P. Airola, specialist in nutrition and natural biologist, says that eating too much proteins may have a negative impact in our health, especially in what refers to heart diseases. A human being is recomended to eat just 45 g of proteins per day, to which is not necessary to consume meat. This amount of protein can perfectly be obtained from a %100 vegetarian diet.

According to the World Health Organization, the nutritional concepts have changed in the last 20 years. Certain beliefs related to the eating of meat have been displaced by relevant cientific evidence that proves that vegetables and fruits have a great contribution in a satisfactory nutritional diet. Under this theories more and more people are becoming vegetarians at time at which this type of food is being used in the wordly fight against starvation in poor countries.

Why to become a Vegetarian.

When becoming a vegetarian, the Ethic reasons are considered by the majority of people as the most importants ones. The Ethic Vegetarianism starts with the belief that other creatures have feelings and rights similars to ours. This belief widens our vision and encourage us to be conscious about other creatures suffering.
The life of an animal in captivity inside husbandry farms in completely unnatural. They go through artificial breast feeding and breeding, castration or hormonal stimulation, anormal diets aimed to get them fat, and then, death. The truth about the killing of animals is that they do not have a peacful death: they are bit with a mallet, they receive electric shocks or they are fired with air guns. After these, they are hanged by their back legs and still alive, their throats or stomachs are cut so as to let them bleed to death. The mutilation and killings of animals in husbandry farms are not taking into account by the rules applied to the caring of domestic animals, and not even by the rules related to the manipulation of lab animals.
Many peolpe would undoubtedly become a vegetarian if they have the chance to visit an abbatoir, or if they participate once in the killing of animals inside those places. Most people who regurlarly eat meat do not feel responsible at all for those killings, but they forget that any time they buy meat, they are contributing in some way or another with those terrible acts. Most of those people are not aware of the paradox in which they live in, to which Bernad Shaw made reference once: "we pray every sunday...we are against war...meanwhile we gorge ourselves with meat... we are living tombs of killed animals, how is it that we expect that humanity reach peace then?".
Starvation will not desapear nor we will live in a peaceful world if we do not go through a process of conscious raising based on education. People should be educated on this topic and once they know the truth about the killing of animals they should be let to decide if they want to meat eat or not by themselves. Violence against animals is real and even more dramatic than violence against human beings, if we take into account that they are completely defenceless against human abuse.
We need to kill other creatures to survive and in the fight for survival every living being is food for other beings. What is important is not to avoid killing other creatures at all, because that's impossible, but to find the way to cause the less posible sufering to them in our search for food.

Weapons, Violence, Disruption and Drugs all on the rise in Britain's schools.

Tittle: Weapons, Violence, Disruption and Drugs all on the rise in Britatin's schools.
Author: Richard Garner, Education Editor.
Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education-news/weapons-violence-disruption-and-drugs-all-on-the-rise-in-britains-schools-799650.html?r=RSS
Date of Publication: Sunday, 23 March 2008.


Vocabulary:
-Hard Core: noun. the small central group in an organization, or in a particular group of peolpe, who are the most active or who will not change their beliefs or behaviour.
-Manhandle: verb, to push, pull or handle somebody roughly.
-Crack, to find the solution to a problem, etc.; to find the way to do something difficult.
-Restrain: verb, to stop somebody or something from doing somenthig, especially by using physical force.
-Referral: noun, the act of sending somebody who needs professional help to a person or place that can provide it.
-Sin bin: noun, slang, (in some sports), a place away from the playing area where the referee sends a player who has broken the rules.
-Bash: verb, informal, to hit somebody or something very hard. /"bash, beat or knock the living daylights out of somebody", informal, to hit somebody very hard several times and hurt them very much./"frighten or scare the living daylights out of somebody" informal, to frighten somebody very much.
-Premise: noun, the building and land near to it that a business owns or uses.
-Warrant: verb, formal, to make something necessary or appropiate in a particualr situation.


Main ideas:
-According to a recent research, every week up to 8,000 teachers will deal with a pupil carrying an offensive weapon in the US, such as a knife or a gun. Teachers are facing worrying levels of violence, drug dealing, poor behaviour and disruption in schools. The study also showed that one in 10 teachers reported being pushed or manhandled by pupils.
-The study, by Dr. Sean Neill, of Warwick University's Institute of Eduction, revealed that serious incidents were increasingly concentrated in a "hard core" of schools serving disadvantaged areas. According to Steve Sinnott, General Secretary of The National Union of Teachers, which comissioned the research, there is a polarization taking place. He added that carrying weapons to schools does not make students safer but more vulnerable and that they need to get that message across.
-Jhon Bangs, Assistant Secretary of the Union, said that teachers are reporting they are encountering these problems, especially in some of the toughest schools in the toughest areas, particularly among boys from socially deprived backgrounds.
-Teachers reported that boys from disavdvantaged backgrounds were more likely to have lower aspirations, be worse behaved, to comitt offences and to become gang members and teenager fathers, and that girls showed similar problems.
- Mr.Sinnott said that they need to change the Government's slogan from "education" to "eductaion and equality". Teachers in the survay said that rather than tackle the problem with more pupil referral units they would preferred action to reduce class sizes, make curriculum less restrictive and get more support from parents for school discipline.

Personal Reaction:
That violence in schools is rising, is not new for us. As many other countries around the world, Argentina is also experiencing this drammatic problem.
There was a tendency years ago, to believe that serious problems of behaviour and violence within the classromm were more likely to occur in schools situated in poor areas. And eventhough that is what often happens, we have already seen violent episodes occur within students from the highest social clases as well. Anyway, the surprising violent actitudes of teenagers nowadays does not have a clear connection with their economical or social backgrounds.
One of the major factors which contributes to the rise of violence is that children are growing up alone and with no limits, with both, their mothers and fathers working outside home and with too much bad influence from TV, the Internet and the mass-media.
At the same time, there's a general crisis in our Educational System which has reached a national level, with the consequence of schools responsibility being displaced from educating and forming students, to feed them and support them with their personal problems. This actitude from part of schools, ends up to contribute negatively to the problem of violence since to form students in their manners and behaviour, has been unfortunately left aside. To form them in a pedagogical aspect is just one of the schools' task. And they seem to have forget that schools are also responsible of creating good people.