Being an astrologer…
Astrologer: good morning people! Today we have a positive atmosphere here. I can feel love, peace… I can feel a positive energy in this studio.
Ok, now I’m going to answer some e-mails that the viewers sent me to my e-mail box.
This mail is from Silvia. According to the date of your birth you belong to the sign of Cancer. For this week Cancer should be cautious, since you may sprain your ankle while crossing the street because of the potholes. So, be careful please!!!
Now, let me see… I have another e-mail. This mail is from Felix. Felix, your sign is Capricorn. Your prediction for this weekend is that you should pay attention to your stomach, given that you may have some problem with it because of some beverages. Good luck Felix and take care.
This is the last e-mail…this is from Nicolas. According to the day of your birth your sign is Virgo. Nicolas is wondering how is going to be his holidays. Ok, Nicolas, instead of the trip you have planned all year you’ll be taking a cruise on the Internet surfing to the places you had planned on visiting. Sorry Nicolas, take my advice otherwise you could be stroke by a lightning during a tropical storm. Good fortune, Nicolas!
That’s all for today my beloved readers. See you next week and enjoy your weekend.
Be optimistic and you will have good luck ;)
lunes 13 de agosto de 2007
Video Games
During the last years the business of video gaming has increased at an imaginable speed. There are video games which are enjoyed by very young children to adults. However, there exist many arguments about this kind of enjoyment, which generates heated debates. It is said that playing video games may hook children, depriving them of enjoying ordinary things as playing football or marvels with their friends. On the other hand, not only kids have fun with video games, but also adults who are called “digital natives”. These people have been playing for years videos games and they teach their children how to do this.
During the last years the business of video gaming has increased at an imaginable speed. There are video games which are enjoyed by very young children to adults. However, there exist many arguments about this kind of enjoyment, which generates heated debates. It is said that playing video games may hook children, depriving them of enjoying ordinary things as playing football or marvels with their friends. On the other hand, not only kids have fun with video games, but also adults who are called “digital natives”. These people have been playing for years videos games and they teach their children how to do this.
Abortion
Abortion is one of the most difficult issues to discuss, since it involves the life of a person who has not chosen to come to live, the baby; and a person who has had chance to live and is the responsible of an unborn person’s life. The fact of being pregnant would mean one of the most beautiful moments in a woman life. However, there are women who prefer not to have the baby for different circumstances, depriving the baby the opportunity of living. There is a case of a teenager whose baby has a mental impairment and it is estimated to live only few hours. On the ground of this situation I think that it would be a difficult choice to have an abortion or not. But in my personal opinion I would say that if we have an abortion for each unborn baby who has a disease, is because we –people- have lost our faith and hope that this situation could be changed thank to a divine light or our love for this creature.
Abortion is one of the most difficult issues to discuss, since it involves the life of a person who has not chosen to come to live, the baby; and a person who has had chance to live and is the responsible of an unborn person’s life. The fact of being pregnant would mean one of the most beautiful moments in a woman life. However, there are women who prefer not to have the baby for different circumstances, depriving the baby the opportunity of living. There is a case of a teenager whose baby has a mental impairment and it is estimated to live only few hours. On the ground of this situation I think that it would be a difficult choice to have an abortion or not. But in my personal opinion I would say that if we have an abortion for each unborn baby who has a disease, is because we –people- have lost our faith and hope that this situation could be changed thank to a divine light or our love for this creature.
Child slavery
Child slavery is topic that we-people- are obliged to learn since living in the 21st century slavery is unacceptable. No far from home, in Tucumán, there exist many places where you can see children working, depriving them of enjoying their childhood. Children should not be the breadwinners of their homes. Children have the right to learn and play with other children. In my opinion, child slavery is not only a matter of authorities but also parents who sometimes take advantage of their kids in order to obtain some money.
Child slavery is topic that we-people- are obliged to learn since living in the 21st century slavery is unacceptable. No far from home, in Tucumán, there exist many places where you can see children working, depriving them of enjoying their childhood. Children should not be the breadwinners of their homes. Children have the right to learn and play with other children. In my opinion, child slavery is not only a matter of authorities but also parents who sometimes take advantage of their kids in order to obtain some money.
AIDS prevention possible with Lime Juice?
In the light of this evidence, it is clear that the urge of finding a cure for HIV infection, make people to look for it in unimaginable things in developing countries where there are not health insurance, as in Africa. Most of the methods are not scientifically proven, as citric juice from lime and Lemmon. Unfortunately, African people can no afford methods for preventing HIV infections and is the reason why they use methods which were learnt by means of folk traditions. In my point of view, I believe that there should exist international politics for campaigns which may able to teach how to prevent HIV infections, around the world; since this is an issue that affects all kind of people without making distinction of sex, age, social class and race.
In the light of this evidence, it is clear that the urge of finding a cure for HIV infection, make people to look for it in unimaginable things in developing countries where there are not health insurance, as in Africa. Most of the methods are not scientifically proven, as citric juice from lime and Lemmon. Unfortunately, African people can no afford methods for preventing HIV infections and is the reason why they use methods which were learnt by means of folk traditions. In my point of view, I believe that there should exist international politics for campaigns which may able to teach how to prevent HIV infections, around the world; since this is an issue that affects all kind of people without making distinction of sex, age, social class and race.
Giant dinosaur discovered in Argentina
It could be said that the discovery of a giant dinosaur in our lands is amazing, taking into consideration that no governmental organisms funded the research. Fortunately, there exist many societies that help finance this kind of projects. In my opinion, I think that science organizations, as CONICET, should be helped by the national government, given that anthropologists’ researches discover what roamed our lands in the last times. What is more, it is also enrichment to culture. Indeed, I believe that people should learn more about dinosaurs since most of them were found in our country.
There is another point that I would like to discuss, it is the case how many bones which are found in the Patagonia are sold to collectors in a great amount of money, thank to our government that do not take this topic seriously
It could be said that the discovery of a giant dinosaur in our lands is amazing, taking into consideration that no governmental organisms funded the research. Fortunately, there exist many societies that help finance this kind of projects. In my opinion, I think that science organizations, as CONICET, should be helped by the national government, given that anthropologists’ researches discover what roamed our lands in the last times. What is more, it is also enrichment to culture. Indeed, I believe that people should learn more about dinosaurs since most of them were found in our country.
There is another point that I would like to discuss, it is the case how many bones which are found in the Patagonia are sold to collectors in a great amount of money, thank to our government that do not take this topic seriously
The best things in life are free
A matter of considerable controversy at present is the fact whether the best things in life are free. There is no doubt that money offers people with the possibility to have access to basic necessities as health and education. However, while money is seemed as a requirement in order to have a comfortable life, it cannot be denied there are many things that money cannot buy, as happiness and love.
Money is necessary to fulfill our basic necessities and to improve health, as well. However, I believe that money does not guarantee a healthy life as well as the happiness which can be achieved in our relatives and friends.
A matter of considerable controversy at present is the fact whether the best things in life are free. There is no doubt that money offers people with the possibility to have access to basic necessities as health and education. However, while money is seemed as a requirement in order to have a comfortable life, it cannot be denied there are many things that money cannot buy, as happiness and love.
Money is necessary to fulfill our basic necessities and to improve health, as well. However, I believe that money does not guarantee a healthy life as well as the happiness which can be achieved in our relatives and friends.
Violence in young people
There are real reasons for the recent wave of violence in disco, for example. Young people are the protagonists of the sometimes fatal violent situations that take place in discos. Today’s teenagers don’t just have partying in mind; they read about injustice and corruption in everyday newspapers, they don’t have any role models to follow and they cannot find a decent job. It is this social background that is vital to keep in mind when trying to understand teen violence. It is logical for this to happen in nightclubs, which provide the perfect wild environment for these feelings to surface.
We cannot forget the influence of alcohol and drugs which are also a problem in our generation.
There are real reasons for the recent wave of violence in disco, for example. Young people are the protagonists of the sometimes fatal violent situations that take place in discos. Today’s teenagers don’t just have partying in mind; they read about injustice and corruption in everyday newspapers, they don’t have any role models to follow and they cannot find a decent job. It is this social background that is vital to keep in mind when trying to understand teen violence. It is logical for this to happen in nightclubs, which provide the perfect wild environment for these feelings to surface.
We cannot forget the influence of alcohol and drugs which are also a problem in our generation.
The influence of color
Color is everywhere and it affects us. It has been proven that color can influence our mood and our memory retention.
Marketing companies claim that people can make a subconscious judgment about a person, environment or item, within 90 second of initial viewing based from 60% to 90% on the influence of color.
It is also said that a yellow background with black types is the best color to memory retention and legibility. What is more researching prove that violet/purple light corrects jaundice. The Washington State University discovered that people can tolerate more pain and recover quicklier from surgery when they ere in green room
Color influence seems to generates a given response, but for a short time, sine the over exposure showed to have the opposite effect. For instance, pink/orange curbs violence and blue decreases the heart rate and has a calming effect but only in moderation.
Some color studies have shown that blue, green makes you eat slower while yellow, orange and red make you eat faster and more.
Color is everywhere and it affects us. It has been proven that color can influence our mood and our memory retention.
Marketing companies claim that people can make a subconscious judgment about a person, environment or item, within 90 second of initial viewing based from 60% to 90% on the influence of color.
It is also said that a yellow background with black types is the best color to memory retention and legibility. What is more researching prove that violet/purple light corrects jaundice. The Washington State University discovered that people can tolerate more pain and recover quicklier from surgery when they ere in green room
Color influence seems to generates a given response, but for a short time, sine the over exposure showed to have the opposite effect. For instance, pink/orange curbs violence and blue decreases the heart rate and has a calming effect but only in moderation.
Some color studies have shown that blue, green makes you eat slower while yellow, orange and red make you eat faster and more.
If I were a…
Name: Martina and Hernan
Place: countryside
Day: Saturday
Hour: 21:30
Month: November
Number: 4
Color: blue
Fragrance: Amarige (Givenchy)
Flower: jasmine
Country: Argentina
Book: the bible
Film: la vida es bella
Song: I don’t know much
Cartoon: the pink panther
TV program: Friends
Love: Martin
Wish: peace
Frustration: playing hockey
Regret:
Trip: Ireland
Friend: Martin
Animal: fish
Gift: a golden necklace
Name: Martina and Hernan
Place: countryside
Day: Saturday
Hour: 21:30
Month: November
Number: 4
Color: blue
Fragrance: Amarige (Givenchy)
Flower: jasmine
Country: Argentina
Book: the bible
Film: la vida es bella
Song: I don’t know much
Cartoon: the pink panther
TV program: Friends
Love: Martin
Wish: peace
Frustration: playing hockey
Regret:
Trip: Ireland
Friend: Martin
Animal: fish
Gift: a golden necklace
Article 18
Mummy, Daddy, donorSaturday May 19, 2007The Guardian
In the US, at least 15,000 IVF cycles are performed every year using a donated egg. In Britain the figure is lower, but still significant - in 2003 (the most recent figures available) out of a total of 38,264 IVF cycles, 1,381 were undertaken using donor eggs, resulting in 554 babies. In the same year in the UK, 1,156 children were born as a result of IVF using donated sperm, with a further 825 children born as a result of other donor insemination treatments.
Most of these are situations in which people who want children have no choice but to enlist the help of someone who will have a direct genetic connection to the child.
"The whole concept of family is so wide open now," observes Lori Maze, director of Snowflakes, which helps parents sign over surplus frozen IVF embryos to other infertile couples. People who just a few years ago were trying to have a family are now poring over biographical profiles to select the families who will receive their own excess potential offspring. Full siblings are being raised in separate households, sometimes getting together for barbecues, sometimes unaware of one another's existence. "Family is not just that little nuclear genetic family that it was in the 1950s," says Maze.
Of course, the family has evolved over time, surviving migration, war, adultery, epidemics, remarriage, slavery, step-parents, increasing human longevity, social upheaval and dramatic shifts in gender roles. But science has given us something new: families that are designed, from the start, to have only a single parent; to have quite a few parents; to have two parents, only one of whom is biologically related to the child, with a third party out there who is biologically related but, often, unknown. Families with these qualities have spontaneously arisen in the past, and still do, of course, but now they are being consciously formed.
Parental roles are being divided and divvied out, outsourced and reshuffled - even deleted. In addition to enabling the creation of families headed by heterosexual couples, reproductive technology has fuelled the creation of families headed by same-sex couples, challenging our understanding of what a mother is and does, what a father brings, and precisely what significance these terms "mother" and "father" still have.
The possibilities are endless. In America, some infertility websites now include an "arranged parenting" section whereby a man or woman can advertise for a partner to have children with, using IVF. It's online-assisted shared custody, without the dating, the marriage, the sex or the divorce.
Then there are co-parenting arrangements where a lesbian couple raise children together with a gay couple, one or both of whom donate sperm to one or both of the women, resulting in children with two biological and two "social" parents. One teenager described being conceived by a lesbian couple as well as two gay men who later split up and found new partners. He ended up with two mothers and four fathers. "Once you realise it's something to be proud of, you're set to go," he said, though the qualification "once you realise" implies that coming to this realisation did involve some struggle.
This is an important point: how deeply loved all of these children are. Back when IVF was getting started, it was feared that IVF parents might be scarred; that fathers might feel alienated from the child, and mothers pathologically overprotective. Instead, psychologists found that families planned this way tend to be more highly functioning than naturally conceived ones, because the parents are so motivated to have children, and so gratified once they arrive. "Children conceived via assisted reproduction are not disadvantaged," says Susan Golombok, director of the Centre for Family Research at Cambridge University.
Still, there is no question that many of these parents feel anxiety over their child's origins. Kendra and Laura are unusual. Many families do not tell their children the truth of their origins, and most parents do not know the identity of the egg or sperm donor. Many don't want to. "If I never meet her, it won't feel like my husband is having a child by her," I was told by one mother conceiving with the help of egg donation, who did not plan to tell her child the truth. Parents sometimes fear the power of genetic connection so acutely that, if they can get away with asserting their own fictional status as genetic parent, they will do so.
With collaborative reproduction, what you get is a sex-adoption hybrid, and this, for some families, is a source of real, unresolved anxiety. One reason parents don't tell children about egg and sperm donation is that they fear genetics will trump love. They fear that genetic bonds are so fundamental that the child, if told the truth, might reject the genetically unrelated parent.
As is the case with adoption, parents who do tell their children about their origins usually create a narrative that minimises the importance of genetic connection ("You were a much-wanted baby, and that's what matters!"). But there is no guarantee offspring will agree. The unresolved question is: do these families resemble adoptive families, or do they resemble families created through natural procreation? There is furious disagreement.
'I've always looked at this as adoption that is run by the medical profession," says Bill Cordray, an adult offspring of sperm donation who believes donor-conceived individuals have a moral right to know the truth of their parentage.
"It is very different from adoption; it's a purchase of cells," says one pregnant egg-donor mother, who did not intend to tell her child the truth.
"It's just like a blood donation," insists Gail Taylor, who runs an egg-donation agency.
Collaborative reproduction also exposes the contradictions between several popular theories of child development. For more than a century, child-rearing experts have debated the ideal role of mother and father. Should mothers be strict? Firm? Warm? What about fathers? Authoritative? Loving? The assumption is that children would have - should have - one of each.
More recently, an "attachment" model of parenting has emerged: the idea that what a child needs most is a warm, bonded relationship with a loving adult - any loving adult, or six loving adults, or one, or two, male or female. You could call this the Harry Potter theory of child development: the idea that a parent's warm, unconditional love provides a magical protection against the many and varied trials of later life. This persuasive theory minimises the importance of having parents of both genders, and it minimises the power of the genetic bond to trump all others.
But what, then, about "genetic bewilderment"? This is the term used to describe the confusion of a child who does not know the true identity of his genetic parent, and as a result cannot fashion a satisfactory identity of their own. The importance of knowing one's biological parent is a tenet of the way adoption is practised now. In the 1970s, for an adopted child to search for their birth parents was considered pathological and maladjusted. Now it's considered normal. Certainly, it is accepted that adopted children at the least should know they are adopted. Whether children of gamete donation have the same need is, however, unresolved.
Parents using collaborative reproduction often bounce back and forth between all of these theories. Parents using donor gametes hope that attachment will suffice; at the same time, many fear that the genetic ties are the ones the child will secretly honour. For single mothers and gay and lesbian parents, whether and to what extent their children will be affected by the lack of a rearing parent of each gender is usually a burning question.
Vocabulary:
Offsring: You can refer to a person's children or to an animal's young as their offspring.
Reshuffled: When a political leader reshuffles the ministers in a government, he or she changes their jobs so that some of the ministers change their responsibilities.
Fuelled: A machine or vehicle that is fuelled by a particular substance works by burning that substance.
Alienate: To alienate a person from someone or something that they are normally linked with means to cause them to be emotionally or intellectually separated from them.
Acutely: If a feeling or quality is acutely unpleasant, it is extremely unpleasant.
Trump: If you trump what someone has said or done, you beat it by saying or doing something else that seems better.
Parentage: Your parentage is the identity and origins of your parents. For example, if you are of Greek parentage, your parents are Greek.
Bewildered: If something bewilders you, it is so confusing or difficult that you cannot understand it.
Tenet: The tenets of a theory or belief are the main principles on which it is based. (FORMAL)
Maladjusted: If you describe a child as maladjusted, you mean that they have psychological problems and behave in a way which is not acceptable to society.
Gamete: Gamete is the name for the two types of male and female cell that join together to make a new creature. (TECHNICAL)
Suffice: If you say that something will suffice, you mean it will be enough to achieve a purpose or to fulfil a need. (FORMAL)
Main ideas:
In the US, at least 15,000 IVF cycles are performed every year using a donated egg. In Britain the figure is lower, but still significant
· Situations in which people who want children have no choice but to enlist the help of someone
The concept of family is wide open
parents sign over surplus frozen IVF embryos to other infertile couples
siblings are being raised in separate households, sometimes getting together for barbecues, sometimes unaware of one another's existence
reproductive technology has fuelled the creation of families headed by same-sex couples
Personal Reaction:
Family has evolved during the last years. There children who are risen by the grandparents, by their mother or father, by a father and two mothers or the other way round or by two mothers and two fathers. Family nowadays has changed its stereotype, thank to the development of science. However, each member of these new “family” are not concerned who the kids love more since children receive the love of each member of the family who have wanted them for years.
In the US, at least 15,000 IVF cycles are performed every year using a donated egg. In Britain the figure is lower, but still significant - in 2003 (the most recent figures available) out of a total of 38,264 IVF cycles, 1,381 were undertaken using donor eggs, resulting in 554 babies. In the same year in the UK, 1,156 children were born as a result of IVF using donated sperm, with a further 825 children born as a result of other donor insemination treatments.
Most of these are situations in which people who want children have no choice but to enlist the help of someone who will have a direct genetic connection to the child.
"The whole concept of family is so wide open now," observes Lori Maze, director of Snowflakes, which helps parents sign over surplus frozen IVF embryos to other infertile couples. People who just a few years ago were trying to have a family are now poring over biographical profiles to select the families who will receive their own excess potential offspring. Full siblings are being raised in separate households, sometimes getting together for barbecues, sometimes unaware of one another's existence. "Family is not just that little nuclear genetic family that it was in the 1950s," says Maze.
Of course, the family has evolved over time, surviving migration, war, adultery, epidemics, remarriage, slavery, step-parents, increasing human longevity, social upheaval and dramatic shifts in gender roles. But science has given us something new: families that are designed, from the start, to have only a single parent; to have quite a few parents; to have two parents, only one of whom is biologically related to the child, with a third party out there who is biologically related but, often, unknown. Families with these qualities have spontaneously arisen in the past, and still do, of course, but now they are being consciously formed.
Parental roles are being divided and divvied out, outsourced and reshuffled - even deleted. In addition to enabling the creation of families headed by heterosexual couples, reproductive technology has fuelled the creation of families headed by same-sex couples, challenging our understanding of what a mother is and does, what a father brings, and precisely what significance these terms "mother" and "father" still have.
The possibilities are endless. In America, some infertility websites now include an "arranged parenting" section whereby a man or woman can advertise for a partner to have children with, using IVF. It's online-assisted shared custody, without the dating, the marriage, the sex or the divorce.
Then there are co-parenting arrangements where a lesbian couple raise children together with a gay couple, one or both of whom donate sperm to one or both of the women, resulting in children with two biological and two "social" parents. One teenager described being conceived by a lesbian couple as well as two gay men who later split up and found new partners. He ended up with two mothers and four fathers. "Once you realise it's something to be proud of, you're set to go," he said, though the qualification "once you realise" implies that coming to this realisation did involve some struggle.
This is an important point: how deeply loved all of these children are. Back when IVF was getting started, it was feared that IVF parents might be scarred; that fathers might feel alienated from the child, and mothers pathologically overprotective. Instead, psychologists found that families planned this way tend to be more highly functioning than naturally conceived ones, because the parents are so motivated to have children, and so gratified once they arrive. "Children conceived via assisted reproduction are not disadvantaged," says Susan Golombok, director of the Centre for Family Research at Cambridge University.
Still, there is no question that many of these parents feel anxiety over their child's origins. Kendra and Laura are unusual. Many families do not tell their children the truth of their origins, and most parents do not know the identity of the egg or sperm donor. Many don't want to. "If I never meet her, it won't feel like my husband is having a child by her," I was told by one mother conceiving with the help of egg donation, who did not plan to tell her child the truth. Parents sometimes fear the power of genetic connection so acutely that, if they can get away with asserting their own fictional status as genetic parent, they will do so.
With collaborative reproduction, what you get is a sex-adoption hybrid, and this, for some families, is a source of real, unresolved anxiety. One reason parents don't tell children about egg and sperm donation is that they fear genetics will trump love. They fear that genetic bonds are so fundamental that the child, if told the truth, might reject the genetically unrelated parent.
As is the case with adoption, parents who do tell their children about their origins usually create a narrative that minimises the importance of genetic connection ("You were a much-wanted baby, and that's what matters!"). But there is no guarantee offspring will agree. The unresolved question is: do these families resemble adoptive families, or do they resemble families created through natural procreation? There is furious disagreement.
'I've always looked at this as adoption that is run by the medical profession," says Bill Cordray, an adult offspring of sperm donation who believes donor-conceived individuals have a moral right to know the truth of their parentage.
"It is very different from adoption; it's a purchase of cells," says one pregnant egg-donor mother, who did not intend to tell her child the truth.
"It's just like a blood donation," insists Gail Taylor, who runs an egg-donation agency.
Collaborative reproduction also exposes the contradictions between several popular theories of child development. For more than a century, child-rearing experts have debated the ideal role of mother and father. Should mothers be strict? Firm? Warm? What about fathers? Authoritative? Loving? The assumption is that children would have - should have - one of each.
More recently, an "attachment" model of parenting has emerged: the idea that what a child needs most is a warm, bonded relationship with a loving adult - any loving adult, or six loving adults, or one, or two, male or female. You could call this the Harry Potter theory of child development: the idea that a parent's warm, unconditional love provides a magical protection against the many and varied trials of later life. This persuasive theory minimises the importance of having parents of both genders, and it minimises the power of the genetic bond to trump all others.
But what, then, about "genetic bewilderment"? This is the term used to describe the confusion of a child who does not know the true identity of his genetic parent, and as a result cannot fashion a satisfactory identity of their own. The importance of knowing one's biological parent is a tenet of the way adoption is practised now. In the 1970s, for an adopted child to search for their birth parents was considered pathological and maladjusted. Now it's considered normal. Certainly, it is accepted that adopted children at the least should know they are adopted. Whether children of gamete donation have the same need is, however, unresolved.
Parents using collaborative reproduction often bounce back and forth between all of these theories. Parents using donor gametes hope that attachment will suffice; at the same time, many fear that the genetic ties are the ones the child will secretly honour. For single mothers and gay and lesbian parents, whether and to what extent their children will be affected by the lack of a rearing parent of each gender is usually a burning question.
Vocabulary:
Offsring: You can refer to a person's children or to an animal's young as their offspring.
Reshuffled: When a political leader reshuffles the ministers in a government, he or she changes their jobs so that some of the ministers change their responsibilities.
Fuelled: A machine or vehicle that is fuelled by a particular substance works by burning that substance.
Alienate: To alienate a person from someone or something that they are normally linked with means to cause them to be emotionally or intellectually separated from them.
Acutely: If a feeling or quality is acutely unpleasant, it is extremely unpleasant.
Trump: If you trump what someone has said or done, you beat it by saying or doing something else that seems better.
Parentage: Your parentage is the identity and origins of your parents. For example, if you are of Greek parentage, your parents are Greek.
Bewildered: If something bewilders you, it is so confusing or difficult that you cannot understand it.
Tenet: The tenets of a theory or belief are the main principles on which it is based. (FORMAL)
Maladjusted: If you describe a child as maladjusted, you mean that they have psychological problems and behave in a way which is not acceptable to society.
Gamete: Gamete is the name for the two types of male and female cell that join together to make a new creature. (TECHNICAL)
Suffice: If you say that something will suffice, you mean it will be enough to achieve a purpose or to fulfil a need. (FORMAL)
Main ideas:
In the US, at least 15,000 IVF cycles are performed every year using a donated egg. In Britain the figure is lower, but still significant
· Situations in which people who want children have no choice but to enlist the help of someone
The concept of family is wide open
parents sign over surplus frozen IVF embryos to other infertile couples
siblings are being raised in separate households, sometimes getting together for barbecues, sometimes unaware of one another's existence
reproductive technology has fuelled the creation of families headed by same-sex couples
Personal Reaction:
Family has evolved during the last years. There children who are risen by the grandparents, by their mother or father, by a father and two mothers or the other way round or by two mothers and two fathers. Family nowadays has changed its stereotype, thank to the development of science. However, each member of these new “family” are not concerned who the kids love more since children receive the love of each member of the family who have wanted them for years.
domingo 12 de agosto de 2007
Article 17
Erasing Tattoos, Out of Regret or for a New Canvas
Axel Koester for The New York Times
By NATASHA SINGER
Published: June 17, 2007
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — Kelly Brannigan was suffering from a case of tattoo remorse.
Just a year ago, Ms. Brannigan, 24, who holds up Case No. 24 as one of the models on the NBC game show “Deal or No Deal,” had been full of hope when she and her fiancé had each other’s names tattooed across their inner wrists.
But now, when she looks at the letters — P-A-T-R-I-C-K — she is reminded of the failed relationship.
For help, she turned to Dr. Tattoff, a chain of tattoo removal stores where nurses use lasers in a series of treatments to break down tattoo pigments. Dr. Tattoff is part of a growing industry catering to people who may not have thought about the implications of “forever” the first time around.
Removing tattoos is costly, uncomfortable and time-consuming, but the affinity for body art is so strong that some people say they do it to clear space to tattoo all over again.
Many dermatologists specialize in laser tattoo removal, and some laser hair-removal centers are adding services. In California, there are removal centers like Dr. Tattoff, Tat2BeGone and Tattoo MD.
Most of Dr. Tattoff’s clients are women ages 25 to 35, said James Morel, the chief executive of the company, which has given more than 13,000 tattoo laser treatments since opening here in 2004. “Maybe women are getting more tattoos than they used to,” Mr. Morel said, “or maybe they just have a higher level of tattoo regret than men.”
On the horizon is a development that could change the very nature of tattooing: a type of ink encapsulated in beads and designed to break up after one treatment with a special laser.
The technology for the ink, called Freedom-2, was developed by scientists from Massachusetts General Hospital, and Brown and Duke Universities. It is to go on sale this fall.
“We think the fence-sitters who always wanted a tattoo but have been afraid of the permanence will jump in and get tattoos,” said Martin Schmieg, the chief executive of Freedom-2. “But as your life changes from young to middle-aged to older, from single to married to divorced, you get tattoo regret, so we think the tattoo removal market will increase as well.”
There are no hard statistics on tattoo removal, but Catherine A. Kniker, a senior vice president for Candela, a laser manufacturer, calculated that Americans may have 100,000 laser tattoo removal treatments this year.
Tattoos have been used for centuries to reflect changes in life status, whether passage into adulthood or induction into a group like the military or a gang. In recent years, tattoos have also become a fashion accessory, a trend fueled by basketball players, bands and celebrities.
A report by the Food and Drug Administration estimated that as many as 45 million Americans have tattoos. The report based the number on the finding by a Harris Interactive Poll in 2003 that 16 percent of all adults and 36 percent of people 25 to 29 had at least one tattoo. The poll also found that 17 percent of tattooed Americans regretted it.
A tattoo that cost several hundred dollars could require several thousand dollars and many laser sessions to remove. Dr. Tattoff charges $39 per square inch of tattoo for each treatment.
Devices called Q-switched lasers are used to shatter tattoo pigment into particles that are cleared by the body’s lymphatic system. Full removal takes an average of eight treatments, spaced at least a month apart, using different Q-switched lasers for different-colored inks, said Dr. Suzanne Kilmer, a dermatologist and laser researcher in Sacramento.
Each treatment incrementally fades the tattoo. Some patients are left with pristine skin, others with a shadow or white spots, Dr. Kilmer said.
Many states allow nurses to perform laser treatments. But Dr. Kilmer said patients would be better off going to experienced dermatologists who owned a variety of lasers and were trained to treat possible complications like allergic reactions.
Some researchers are trying to determine whether tattoo removal treatments affect the lymph nodes. Researchers in Europe reported that lasers used on certain pigments had created toxic or carcinogenic byproducts.
“You would be concerned about where the pigment goes, how long it is there and at what concentrations,” said Paul C. Howard, director of the Center for Phototoxicology at the National Toxicology Program of the Food and Drug Administration, which is also researching pigments.
Still, last month, Dage Decuir, a comptroller at a construction company, was at Dr. Tattoff continuing treatments to remove a cat from her chest and a pig from her arm, which would otherwise distract from her strapless wedding gown.
Roger Rodriguez, himself a tattoo artist, was having an amateur tattoo removed. The tattoo — his mother’s name, Margarita, in wobbly calligraphy that had been partly covered with a sprawling tattoo of his last name — had been done when he was 12.
“The back is good real estate,” Mr. Rodriguez said. “We are bulldozing everything so I can have a blank canvas again.”
Recently, Dr. Eric F. Bernstein, a dermatologist and laser researcher in Bryn Mawr, Pa., was treating David Donch, of Collingswood, N.J.
Mr. Donch, a substitute teacher, wanted to erase black-and-white scenes of suffering souls and multicolored stained-glass windows that enveloped his lower right leg — a task that could take as many as 30 treatments, Dr. Bernstein said.
Mr. Donch said the treatments felt like rubber bands being snapped against his skin but that it was worth it. “As I am getting older and planning to start a family and get my teaching certificate, I am more aware that appearances are important,” Mr. Donch said.
Ms. Brannigan of “Deal or No Deal” said she was happy to see the name of her former fiancé fading from her wrist. She said she had learned an important lesson: “I’m not going to get a tattoo of another guy’s name until I get married.”
Vocabulary:
Hold up: If you hold up your hand or something you have in your hand, you move it upwards into a particular position and keep it there.
Wrist: Your wrist is the part of your body between your hand and your arm which bends when you move your hand.
Affinity: If you have an affinity with someone or something, you feel that you are similar to them or that you know and understand them very well.
Shatter: If something shatters or is shattered, it breaks into a lot of small pieces.
Pristine: Pristine things are extremely clean or new. (FORMAL)
Wobbly: Something that is wobbly moves unsteadily from side to side.
Laser: A laser is a narrow beam of concentrated light produced by a special machine. It is used for cutting very hard materials, and in many technical fields such as surgery and telecommunications.
Cater: In British English, to cater for a group of people means to provide all the things that they need or want. In American English, you say you cater to a person or group of people.
Main Ideas:
A woman who wants to erase a tattoo with the name of her ex fiancé
The Dr tatooff’s service
Many dermatologists specialize in laser tattoo removal are adding services in many countries.
There are more women than men who are regret of having tattooed their bodies.
The patients have to attend to many sections to fade the tattoo which cost several dollars.
Personal Reaction:
It is normal, nowadays, to know someone who has tattooed his body. That is, at difference to earlier years when tattoos were seen as sign to belong to a specific group, as military, now it is stylish to have a tattoo. I think that this is the reason why more and more people regret of having a tattoo, since they don’t feel it as symbol in their lives but as an ornament on their body without any meaning. In my opinion, I can say that is a good idea to have a solution to unwanted tattoos and apart from this the business of removal services will increase given that there are a lot of people who don’t identify with anything and lack personality and tattoo their bodies only to be fashionable.
Axel Koester for The New York Times
By NATASHA SINGER
Published: June 17, 2007
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — Kelly Brannigan was suffering from a case of tattoo remorse.
Just a year ago, Ms. Brannigan, 24, who holds up Case No. 24 as one of the models on the NBC game show “Deal or No Deal,” had been full of hope when she and her fiancé had each other’s names tattooed across their inner wrists.
But now, when she looks at the letters — P-A-T-R-I-C-K — she is reminded of the failed relationship.
For help, she turned to Dr. Tattoff, a chain of tattoo removal stores where nurses use lasers in a series of treatments to break down tattoo pigments. Dr. Tattoff is part of a growing industry catering to people who may not have thought about the implications of “forever” the first time around.
Removing tattoos is costly, uncomfortable and time-consuming, but the affinity for body art is so strong that some people say they do it to clear space to tattoo all over again.
Many dermatologists specialize in laser tattoo removal, and some laser hair-removal centers are adding services. In California, there are removal centers like Dr. Tattoff, Tat2BeGone and Tattoo MD.
Most of Dr. Tattoff’s clients are women ages 25 to 35, said James Morel, the chief executive of the company, which has given more than 13,000 tattoo laser treatments since opening here in 2004. “Maybe women are getting more tattoos than they used to,” Mr. Morel said, “or maybe they just have a higher level of tattoo regret than men.”
On the horizon is a development that could change the very nature of tattooing: a type of ink encapsulated in beads and designed to break up after one treatment with a special laser.
The technology for the ink, called Freedom-2, was developed by scientists from Massachusetts General Hospital, and Brown and Duke Universities. It is to go on sale this fall.
“We think the fence-sitters who always wanted a tattoo but have been afraid of the permanence will jump in and get tattoos,” said Martin Schmieg, the chief executive of Freedom-2. “But as your life changes from young to middle-aged to older, from single to married to divorced, you get tattoo regret, so we think the tattoo removal market will increase as well.”
There are no hard statistics on tattoo removal, but Catherine A. Kniker, a senior vice president for Candela, a laser manufacturer, calculated that Americans may have 100,000 laser tattoo removal treatments this year.
Tattoos have been used for centuries to reflect changes in life status, whether passage into adulthood or induction into a group like the military or a gang. In recent years, tattoos have also become a fashion accessory, a trend fueled by basketball players, bands and celebrities.
A report by the Food and Drug Administration estimated that as many as 45 million Americans have tattoos. The report based the number on the finding by a Harris Interactive Poll in 2003 that 16 percent of all adults and 36 percent of people 25 to 29 had at least one tattoo. The poll also found that 17 percent of tattooed Americans regretted it.
A tattoo that cost several hundred dollars could require several thousand dollars and many laser sessions to remove. Dr. Tattoff charges $39 per square inch of tattoo for each treatment.
Devices called Q-switched lasers are used to shatter tattoo pigment into particles that are cleared by the body’s lymphatic system. Full removal takes an average of eight treatments, spaced at least a month apart, using different Q-switched lasers for different-colored inks, said Dr. Suzanne Kilmer, a dermatologist and laser researcher in Sacramento.
Each treatment incrementally fades the tattoo. Some patients are left with pristine skin, others with a shadow or white spots, Dr. Kilmer said.
Many states allow nurses to perform laser treatments. But Dr. Kilmer said patients would be better off going to experienced dermatologists who owned a variety of lasers and were trained to treat possible complications like allergic reactions.
Some researchers are trying to determine whether tattoo removal treatments affect the lymph nodes. Researchers in Europe reported that lasers used on certain pigments had created toxic or carcinogenic byproducts.
“You would be concerned about where the pigment goes, how long it is there and at what concentrations,” said Paul C. Howard, director of the Center for Phototoxicology at the National Toxicology Program of the Food and Drug Administration, which is also researching pigments.
Still, last month, Dage Decuir, a comptroller at a construction company, was at Dr. Tattoff continuing treatments to remove a cat from her chest and a pig from her arm, which would otherwise distract from her strapless wedding gown.
Roger Rodriguez, himself a tattoo artist, was having an amateur tattoo removed. The tattoo — his mother’s name, Margarita, in wobbly calligraphy that had been partly covered with a sprawling tattoo of his last name — had been done when he was 12.
“The back is good real estate,” Mr. Rodriguez said. “We are bulldozing everything so I can have a blank canvas again.”
Recently, Dr. Eric F. Bernstein, a dermatologist and laser researcher in Bryn Mawr, Pa., was treating David Donch, of Collingswood, N.J.
Mr. Donch, a substitute teacher, wanted to erase black-and-white scenes of suffering souls and multicolored stained-glass windows that enveloped his lower right leg — a task that could take as many as 30 treatments, Dr. Bernstein said.
Mr. Donch said the treatments felt like rubber bands being snapped against his skin but that it was worth it. “As I am getting older and planning to start a family and get my teaching certificate, I am more aware that appearances are important,” Mr. Donch said.
Ms. Brannigan of “Deal or No Deal” said she was happy to see the name of her former fiancé fading from her wrist. She said she had learned an important lesson: “I’m not going to get a tattoo of another guy’s name until I get married.”
Vocabulary:
Hold up: If you hold up your hand or something you have in your hand, you move it upwards into a particular position and keep it there.
Wrist: Your wrist is the part of your body between your hand and your arm which bends when you move your hand.
Affinity: If you have an affinity with someone or something, you feel that you are similar to them or that you know and understand them very well.
Shatter: If something shatters or is shattered, it breaks into a lot of small pieces.
Pristine: Pristine things are extremely clean or new. (FORMAL)
Wobbly: Something that is wobbly moves unsteadily from side to side.
Laser: A laser is a narrow beam of concentrated light produced by a special machine. It is used for cutting very hard materials, and in many technical fields such as surgery and telecommunications.
Cater: In British English, to cater for a group of people means to provide all the things that they need or want. In American English, you say you cater to a person or group of people.
Main Ideas:
A woman who wants to erase a tattoo with the name of her ex fiancé
The Dr tatooff’s service
Many dermatologists specialize in laser tattoo removal are adding services in many countries.
There are more women than men who are regret of having tattooed their bodies.
The patients have to attend to many sections to fade the tattoo which cost several dollars.
Personal Reaction:
It is normal, nowadays, to know someone who has tattooed his body. That is, at difference to earlier years when tattoos were seen as sign to belong to a specific group, as military, now it is stylish to have a tattoo. I think that this is the reason why more and more people regret of having a tattoo, since they don’t feel it as symbol in their lives but as an ornament on their body without any meaning. In my opinion, I can say that is a good idea to have a solution to unwanted tattoos and apart from this the business of removal services will increase given that there are a lot of people who don’t identify with anything and lack personality and tattoo their bodies only to be fashionable.
Article 16
Harry Potter and the internet spoilersEsther AddleyThursday July 19, 2007The Guardian
It has one of the strictest embargoes, and perhaps the tightest security, of any book in publishing history. But only days before publication of the new Harry Potter novel its publishers yesterday were engaged in a desperate battle to suppress a number of websites after extracts apparently taken from the book appeared on the internet.
Digital photos of pages of a book purporting to be Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the final volume in JK Rowling's enormously popular series, have been appearing on websites. Online file sharing networks were also offering downloadable files claiming to contain the full text of the novel, which will be launched in Britain and most of the English-speaking world at midnight UK time tomorrow and across the US five hours later.
Scholastic, the publishing house which owns the US rights, said it was endeavouring to remove the spoilers from the sites, and said there was no guarantee the leaks were authentic. "There are multiple versions of what appear to be official copies of the book on the internet, but they are conflicting," Lisa Holton, president of trade publishing and book fairs, said. "Our goal is to take down all this different material, and by taking it down we'll never know whether any of it was real until you read it yourself on Saturday morning." The firm said it had persuaded YouTube and MySpace not to carry extracts. It has also initiated legal proceedings against another website, gaiaonline.com, for publishing material relating to the book.
If the extracts are genuine it will be one of the most serious security lapses since the publication of the first book in the series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, 10 years ago. Ahead of the launch books have been kept in guarded warehouses and delivered by vans tracked by satellites. Clays, printer of the British edition, installed barbed wire around its Suffolk plant and hired extra guards to search workers as they left the factory. A spokeswoman for Bloomsbury, which owns the English language rights outside the US, said only one person at the publisher, JK Rowling's editor Emma Matthewson, had read the manuscript. The author herself has made an impassioned plea on her website against the "sad individuals who get their kicks from ruining other people's fun. I want the readers who have, in many instances, grown up with Harry to embark on the last adventure they will share with him without knowing where they are going," she wrote.
Harry Potter and the boy wizard translatorKim Willsher in ParisWednesday August 8, 2007Guardian Unlimited
A French Harry Potter fan was arrested and held by police after allegedly posting a pirate translation of the young wizard's latest adventures on the internet.
The 16-year-old was apparently too impatient to wait for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the seventh and last in the bestselling series, to be published in French.
So he set about translating all 784 pages into the language of Molière himself, according to investigators. The first chapters were available for download a few days after the book came out in July and the complete text was online within days. The site has since been shut down.
"He wasn't doing it to make money, he is a fan," explained one investigator. "His language is French but he's very good at English."
According to Le Parisien newspaper, Miss Rowling alerted her French publishers, Gallimard, to the unofficial version on the Internet.
Police said they were "particularly surprised" by the quality of the pirate version, which they said was "semi-professional".
The high-school student from Aix-en-Provence, who has not been named, was arrested by police on Monday and kept in custody overnight. He was released today while "preliminary inquiries" are made. Police said they were hoping to question several more people in the case. If convicted, those responsible for the fraud could face heavy fines.
The book will be published in French under the title "Harry Potter et les reliques de la mort" in October.
An internet discussion last month suggested several fans working together had produced the pirate translation. Internet users were given the chance to download it in PDF format.
"The translations is semi-professional, proof of relentless work by "fans'," said one blogger.
They added: "These passionate pirates are risking a lot. We have learned that the editor has launched a big 'witch hunt' to throw in the cauldron those pirating JK Rowling's book."
Another blogger complained: "Obviously given the success of the series people's stupidity is provoked - why, we could ask, isn't the publisher capable of publishing the book internationally. It shows a lack of respect for all the French/Spanish/German speaking readers."
The seventh book - as with the previous novels - is being officially translated by Jean-Fran¸ois Ménard.
Mr Ménard, 59, who is an author in his own right, has also translated Roald Dahl and Evin Coffer's Artemis Fowl books. He translates to a strict deadline.
His wife, Diane, told the Guardian: "He cannot talk to you right now as he's translating night and day.
"I hadn't heard about this pirate translation but with the previous books there's often been someone doing something like this and it's never threatened the real thing."
She added: "I remember seeing one on the internet but the first line was the opposite of what it should have been, so it wasn't a very good start."
Vocabulary:
Suppress: If someone in authority suppresses an activity, they prevent it from continuing, by using force or making it illegal.
Leak: If a secret document or piece of information leaks or is leaked, someone lets the public know about it.
Lapse: If a period of time lapses, it passes.
Warehouse: A warehouse is a large building where raw materials or manufactured goods are stored until they are exported to other countries or distributed to shops to be sold.
Release: If a person or animal is released from somewhere where they have been locked up or looked after, they are set free or allowed to go.
Relentless: Something bad that is relentless never stops or never becomes less intense.
Cauldron: A cauldron is a very large, round metal pot used for cooking over a fire. In stories and fairy tales, a cauldron is used by witches for their spells.
Threaten: If you feel threatened, you feel as if someone is trying to harm you.
Main ideas:
After the publication of the new Harry Potter novel its publishers started a new battle to suppress a number of websites
Extracts apparently taken from the book appeared on the internet.
The launch books have been kept in guarded warehouses and delivered by vans tracked by satellites
The author herself has made an impassioned plea on her website against the people who spoil the story by anticipating what is going to happen
A French Harry Potter fan was arrested because has translated the book into French and posted it in the web
Personal Reaction:
Harry Potter has been a successful series book which caught the attention of many lecturers from different ages. The problem that this article mentions should be stopped. Since not only Harry Potter but also many books are posted in the web, in this way the habit of reading a book holding on your hands is spoiled. It is not the same to read a book that read it from a screen, apart from damage your eyes; it has many bad consequences regarding authors to publisher companies. In my opinion, I would say that there would be any kind of restrictions to post books in the web since it is illegal as well as making copies from a book.
It has one of the strictest embargoes, and perhaps the tightest security, of any book in publishing history. But only days before publication of the new Harry Potter novel its publishers yesterday were engaged in a desperate battle to suppress a number of websites after extracts apparently taken from the book appeared on the internet.
Digital photos of pages of a book purporting to be Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the final volume in JK Rowling's enormously popular series, have been appearing on websites. Online file sharing networks were also offering downloadable files claiming to contain the full text of the novel, which will be launched in Britain and most of the English-speaking world at midnight UK time tomorrow and across the US five hours later.
Scholastic, the publishing house which owns the US rights, said it was endeavouring to remove the spoilers from the sites, and said there was no guarantee the leaks were authentic. "There are multiple versions of what appear to be official copies of the book on the internet, but they are conflicting," Lisa Holton, president of trade publishing and book fairs, said. "Our goal is to take down all this different material, and by taking it down we'll never know whether any of it was real until you read it yourself on Saturday morning." The firm said it had persuaded YouTube and MySpace not to carry extracts. It has also initiated legal proceedings against another website, gaiaonline.com, for publishing material relating to the book.
If the extracts are genuine it will be one of the most serious security lapses since the publication of the first book in the series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, 10 years ago. Ahead of the launch books have been kept in guarded warehouses and delivered by vans tracked by satellites. Clays, printer of the British edition, installed barbed wire around its Suffolk plant and hired extra guards to search workers as they left the factory. A spokeswoman for Bloomsbury, which owns the English language rights outside the US, said only one person at the publisher, JK Rowling's editor Emma Matthewson, had read the manuscript. The author herself has made an impassioned plea on her website against the "sad individuals who get their kicks from ruining other people's fun. I want the readers who have, in many instances, grown up with Harry to embark on the last adventure they will share with him without knowing where they are going," she wrote.
Harry Potter and the boy wizard translatorKim Willsher in ParisWednesday August 8, 2007Guardian Unlimited
A French Harry Potter fan was arrested and held by police after allegedly posting a pirate translation of the young wizard's latest adventures on the internet.
The 16-year-old was apparently too impatient to wait for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the seventh and last in the bestselling series, to be published in French.
So he set about translating all 784 pages into the language of Molière himself, according to investigators. The first chapters were available for download a few days after the book came out in July and the complete text was online within days. The site has since been shut down.
"He wasn't doing it to make money, he is a fan," explained one investigator. "His language is French but he's very good at English."
According to Le Parisien newspaper, Miss Rowling alerted her French publishers, Gallimard, to the unofficial version on the Internet.
Police said they were "particularly surprised" by the quality of the pirate version, which they said was "semi-professional".
The high-school student from Aix-en-Provence, who has not been named, was arrested by police on Monday and kept in custody overnight. He was released today while "preliminary inquiries" are made. Police said they were hoping to question several more people in the case. If convicted, those responsible for the fraud could face heavy fines.
The book will be published in French under the title "Harry Potter et les reliques de la mort" in October.
An internet discussion last month suggested several fans working together had produced the pirate translation. Internet users were given the chance to download it in PDF format.
"The translations is semi-professional, proof of relentless work by "fans'," said one blogger.
They added: "These passionate pirates are risking a lot. We have learned that the editor has launched a big 'witch hunt' to throw in the cauldron those pirating JK Rowling's book."
Another blogger complained: "Obviously given the success of the series people's stupidity is provoked - why, we could ask, isn't the publisher capable of publishing the book internationally. It shows a lack of respect for all the French/Spanish/German speaking readers."
The seventh book - as with the previous novels - is being officially translated by Jean-Fran¸ois Ménard.
Mr Ménard, 59, who is an author in his own right, has also translated Roald Dahl and Evin Coffer's Artemis Fowl books. He translates to a strict deadline.
His wife, Diane, told the Guardian: "He cannot talk to you right now as he's translating night and day.
"I hadn't heard about this pirate translation but with the previous books there's often been someone doing something like this and it's never threatened the real thing."
She added: "I remember seeing one on the internet but the first line was the opposite of what it should have been, so it wasn't a very good start."
Vocabulary:
Suppress: If someone in authority suppresses an activity, they prevent it from continuing, by using force or making it illegal.
Leak: If a secret document or piece of information leaks or is leaked, someone lets the public know about it.
Lapse: If a period of time lapses, it passes.
Warehouse: A warehouse is a large building where raw materials or manufactured goods are stored until they are exported to other countries or distributed to shops to be sold.
Release: If a person or animal is released from somewhere where they have been locked up or looked after, they are set free or allowed to go.
Relentless: Something bad that is relentless never stops or never becomes less intense.
Cauldron: A cauldron is a very large, round metal pot used for cooking over a fire. In stories and fairy tales, a cauldron is used by witches for their spells.
Threaten: If you feel threatened, you feel as if someone is trying to harm you.
Main ideas:
After the publication of the new Harry Potter novel its publishers started a new battle to suppress a number of websites
Extracts apparently taken from the book appeared on the internet.
The launch books have been kept in guarded warehouses and delivered by vans tracked by satellites
The author herself has made an impassioned plea on her website against the people who spoil the story by anticipating what is going to happen
A French Harry Potter fan was arrested because has translated the book into French and posted it in the web
Personal Reaction:
Harry Potter has been a successful series book which caught the attention of many lecturers from different ages. The problem that this article mentions should be stopped. Since not only Harry Potter but also many books are posted in the web, in this way the habit of reading a book holding on your hands is spoiled. It is not the same to read a book that read it from a screen, apart from damage your eyes; it has many bad consequences regarding authors to publisher companies. In my opinion, I would say that there would be any kind of restrictions to post books in the web since it is illegal as well as making copies from a book.
Article 15
Is one child enough?
var clickExpire = "-1";
By Diana Burrell
(Parenting) -- How to weigh whether to have another child -- and what to know about raising an "only"
My husband and I decided to be a one-child family long before our son Oliver was born. With several years of reproductive-health scares behind me, conceiving a child felt like a Powerball win; I didn't need another chance at the jackpot.
Scott thought we could avoid the inevitable slings and arrows of sibling warfare. We both hail from large families, in which continuation of the family name is assured through siblings and cousins.
We were content with our decision, and our families took it well, too. A few months after Oliver was born, I bagged up my maternity clothes for a tag sale, and Scott started researching permanent birth-control options.
But one afternoon while absentmindedly sorting through blue and green baby clothes, the thought hit me like a punch: "I'll never sort through pink clothes." For years I'd imagined myself the mom of a daughter. After all, it had been a popular refrain throughout my adolescence ("I'll never tell my daughter what I think about her clothes," I'd intone to my mother). And I secretly hoped that my daughter would continue the tradition of attending my all-women alma mater.
It wasn't that I was disappointed with a son. To be honest, I was relieved the day we found out we were having a boy because I could work the experience of being the older sister to three younger brothers to the fullest.
Hearing the door clang shut on my fantasy daughter, however, made me doubt. When acquaintances asked, "So, are you having any more?" my voice quivered when I answered no.
A woman in my local mothers' group worried aloud, "How would you feel if something happened to Oliver and you didn't have any more children?" Did I really need another child as an insurance policy?
One night when the anxiety felt particularly overwhelming, I asked Scott, "Is it okay if we hold off on that vasectomy for a while?"
"It's normal to wonder if you're making the right choices and decisions, no matter how many kids you have," says Susan Jeffers, Ph.D., author of I'm OK, You're a Brat! Setting the Priorities Straight and Freeing You From the Guilt and Mad Myths of Parenthood. "Even if you decided to have two or more children, you'd wonder if your life would have been easier with only one child."
Choosing to have one
Haseena Correia of Valley Stream, New York, mom to Zachary, 2, has long planned to have one child.
"Once I understood how much work it takes to have a career and raise a child at the same time, I pretty much decided one was all I could handle," she says. Correia says being a one-child family allows her the right balance.
"It gives me the joy of being a mother, but it's not too overwhelming to the point where I don't have any time for myself or my husband," she says.
Financial barriers were also a factor in their decision. "With a mortgage, skyrocketing taxes, and two cars, we have to be a two-income family. Having another child is financially just not an option for us," she says.
There are social and emotional pressures to consider, too. "If your friends are having second -- and third -- children, you can feel left out," says Susan Newman, Ph.D., author of Parenting an Only Child. "Or you or your spouse may want more kids, but the other doesn't."
Sorting out our feelings on most of these things was actually easy for me and Scott. (It was the emotional pull that gave me second thoughts.) We have similar goals for the future, and we realized that with our temperaments, one child would be best for our marriage. We're happy for our friends who are having second and third children, but for us, Oliver completes our family.
When you don't have a choice
Sometimes the twists and turns of life narrow your choices or eliminate them completely. Jennifer Lawler of Eudora, Kansas, always thought having four kids sounded perfect. But when her daughter Jessica was born with life-threatening health problems and Lawler's uterine fibroids compromised future pregnancies, she and her husband knew Jessica would be their only child. Lawler says, "Raising our daughter was going to take a lot of emotional, physical, and financial resources. If I had any more children, I didn't think I could handle it."
Time made the situation easier. "It's a process of acceptance," says Lawler.
"One thing that was helpful for me was not to focus on the past or the future. I put my energy toward making this the brightest moment. There were times when we thought Jessica wouldn't live, talk, or walk. She's done all those things, so I feel relief and gratitude."
Answering to everyone
As you work out what's best for your family, you'll face some tough questions all around:
• From yourself: Laura Miller of Ottawa, Kansas, mom to Emma, 6, is undecided about having more children. "If finances and circumstances ever allow, we might have another child," she says. "But we're happy the way our family is now." She admits she still has fears. "My husband and I both have brothers and sisters --I can't imagine not having them to lean on. But after we're gone, Emma will be alone."
In my darkest moments, I've been known to worry about the unthinkable: With no other children, what would I do if I lost Oliver? But, of course, parents of onlies don't own the front and center on worry. "Parents fear for all their children," says Newman. "Families with a number of children are equally devastated and blown apart when a child dies -- the pain is no less just because you have others." We need to accept that something so dramatic as death is highly unlikely and try not to live our lives in a state of anxiety.
• From others: "The pressure to have a second child is often greater than for the first," says Newman. But the fact is that the friends, family, and even strangers who are exerting pressure aren't the ones who'll be caring for these future children till they reach adulthood. After Lawler's daughter was born, she answered her questioners with "We're going to take care of Jessica."
Sometimes intrusive questions and opinions can drive us nuts, which is why it can be helpful to look within before lashing out.
"When you are affected by this pressure, it means you're looking for that person's approval," says Jeffers. "Ask yourself, 'Why am I reacting this way? Am I afraid of criticism from this person?' As soon as you stop needing their approval, you can relax and appreciate the decision you made." Once a mom is feeling calmer, she can answer the critics with, say, "I understand you really want this, but it's not right for me" or "Well, thanks for passing on your ideas."
• From your child -- it happens: Many onlies will ask -- loudly, often -- for a little brother or sister, or wonder aloud why they're stuck being an only child. A straightforward answer is the best bet, says Lise Youngblade, Ph.D., associate director of the Institute for Child Health Policy at the University of Florida in Gainesville. "The last thing parents want to do is get into a negotiation," she says. Instead, respond with something like "We've decided that our family size is just right. There are lots of different kinds of families, and this is how ours is."
With an older child, you can point out that many of the advantages he enjoys as an only -- his own specially decorated bedroom, for instance, or the one-on-one time he has with Mom and Dad -- may be things he wouldn't have with a brother or sister. You can also try asking your child what he thinks would be the benefits of having a sibling. It could be as simple as having a bunk bed.
If a child's demands don't abate, Jeffers points out that "children complain, period." Parents with two or three kids sometimes hear, "Mommy, it's time to send the baby back to the hospital."
In my case, it took me time to say goodbye to my fantasy daughter, but when Oliver was 18 months old, I finally said to Scott, "Let's do it," on the vasectomy.
I'm very happy with my son and our decision, and I've looked for other ways to indulge my daughter needs. I volunteered as a Big Sister and counseled a 15-year-old on boyfriends. When I spot cute girly-girl dresses, I buy them for my friend's daughters. And I console myself that when I go through menopause, there won't be two hormonal women under this roof
Vocabulary:
Jackpot: If you hit the jackpot, you have a great success, for example by winning a lot of money or having a piece of good luck. (INFORMAL)
Sling: If you sling something somewhere, you throw it there carelessly.
Sibling: Your siblings are your brothers and sisters. (FORMAL)
Hail: Someone who hails from a particular place was born there or lives there. (FORMAL)
Acquetance: An acquaintance is someone who you have met and know slightly, but not well.
Quiver: If you say that someone or their voice is quivering with an emotion such as rage or excitement, you mean that they are strongly affected by this emotion and show it in their appearance or voice.
Overwhelming: If something is overwhelming, it affects you very strongly, and you do not know how to deal with it.
Mortage: A mortgage is a loan of money which you get from a bank or building society in order to buy a house.
Skyrocket: If prices or amounts skyrocket, they suddenly increase by a very large amount.
Handle: If you say that someone can handle a problem or situation, you mean that they have the ability to deal with it successfully.
Main Ideas:
Some couples decide to have one child
Health, financial, emotional issues to consider
Pressure to have second child greater than for first
Mom: A "process of acceptance" when you can't have another child
Personal Reaction:
Fortunately, nowadays there exist many methods to prevent pregnancy, in order to plan a family. This article refers to the option of having one child or more. This topic is very subjective and regarding my opinion, I would say that it is better to have more than one child. It is truth that before planning to have the second you have to take into accounts many things since a new member may produce a change in the family life. However, a sibling for your primogenitor is good because the best moments of our childhood is shared with our brothers and sister. Apart from this when parents do not live any longer, the primogenitor could have a family where he can find a shelter, as his brother or sister.
var clickExpire = "-1";
By Diana Burrell
(Parenting) -- How to weigh whether to have another child -- and what to know about raising an "only"
My husband and I decided to be a one-child family long before our son Oliver was born. With several years of reproductive-health scares behind me, conceiving a child felt like a Powerball win; I didn't need another chance at the jackpot.
Scott thought we could avoid the inevitable slings and arrows of sibling warfare. We both hail from large families, in which continuation of the family name is assured through siblings and cousins.
We were content with our decision, and our families took it well, too. A few months after Oliver was born, I bagged up my maternity clothes for a tag sale, and Scott started researching permanent birth-control options.
But one afternoon while absentmindedly sorting through blue and green baby clothes, the thought hit me like a punch: "I'll never sort through pink clothes." For years I'd imagined myself the mom of a daughter. After all, it had been a popular refrain throughout my adolescence ("I'll never tell my daughter what I think about her clothes," I'd intone to my mother). And I secretly hoped that my daughter would continue the tradition of attending my all-women alma mater.
It wasn't that I was disappointed with a son. To be honest, I was relieved the day we found out we were having a boy because I could work the experience of being the older sister to three younger brothers to the fullest.
Hearing the door clang shut on my fantasy daughter, however, made me doubt. When acquaintances asked, "So, are you having any more?" my voice quivered when I answered no.
A woman in my local mothers' group worried aloud, "How would you feel if something happened to Oliver and you didn't have any more children?" Did I really need another child as an insurance policy?
One night when the anxiety felt particularly overwhelming, I asked Scott, "Is it okay if we hold off on that vasectomy for a while?"
"It's normal to wonder if you're making the right choices and decisions, no matter how many kids you have," says Susan Jeffers, Ph.D., author of I'm OK, You're a Brat! Setting the Priorities Straight and Freeing You From the Guilt and Mad Myths of Parenthood. "Even if you decided to have two or more children, you'd wonder if your life would have been easier with only one child."
Choosing to have one
Haseena Correia of Valley Stream, New York, mom to Zachary, 2, has long planned to have one child.
"Once I understood how much work it takes to have a career and raise a child at the same time, I pretty much decided one was all I could handle," she says. Correia says being a one-child family allows her the right balance.
"It gives me the joy of being a mother, but it's not too overwhelming to the point where I don't have any time for myself or my husband," she says.
Financial barriers were also a factor in their decision. "With a mortgage, skyrocketing taxes, and two cars, we have to be a two-income family. Having another child is financially just not an option for us," she says.
There are social and emotional pressures to consider, too. "If your friends are having second -- and third -- children, you can feel left out," says Susan Newman, Ph.D., author of Parenting an Only Child. "Or you or your spouse may want more kids, but the other doesn't."
Sorting out our feelings on most of these things was actually easy for me and Scott. (It was the emotional pull that gave me second thoughts.) We have similar goals for the future, and we realized that with our temperaments, one child would be best for our marriage. We're happy for our friends who are having second and third children, but for us, Oliver completes our family.
When you don't have a choice
Sometimes the twists and turns of life narrow your choices or eliminate them completely. Jennifer Lawler of Eudora, Kansas, always thought having four kids sounded perfect. But when her daughter Jessica was born with life-threatening health problems and Lawler's uterine fibroids compromised future pregnancies, she and her husband knew Jessica would be their only child. Lawler says, "Raising our daughter was going to take a lot of emotional, physical, and financial resources. If I had any more children, I didn't think I could handle it."
Time made the situation easier. "It's a process of acceptance," says Lawler.
"One thing that was helpful for me was not to focus on the past or the future. I put my energy toward making this the brightest moment. There were times when we thought Jessica wouldn't live, talk, or walk. She's done all those things, so I feel relief and gratitude."
Answering to everyone
As you work out what's best for your family, you'll face some tough questions all around:
• From yourself: Laura Miller of Ottawa, Kansas, mom to Emma, 6, is undecided about having more children. "If finances and circumstances ever allow, we might have another child," she says. "But we're happy the way our family is now." She admits she still has fears. "My husband and I both have brothers and sisters --I can't imagine not having them to lean on. But after we're gone, Emma will be alone."
In my darkest moments, I've been known to worry about the unthinkable: With no other children, what would I do if I lost Oliver? But, of course, parents of onlies don't own the front and center on worry. "Parents fear for all their children," says Newman. "Families with a number of children are equally devastated and blown apart when a child dies -- the pain is no less just because you have others." We need to accept that something so dramatic as death is highly unlikely and try not to live our lives in a state of anxiety.
• From others: "The pressure to have a second child is often greater than for the first," says Newman. But the fact is that the friends, family, and even strangers who are exerting pressure aren't the ones who'll be caring for these future children till they reach adulthood. After Lawler's daughter was born, she answered her questioners with "We're going to take care of Jessica."
Sometimes intrusive questions and opinions can drive us nuts, which is why it can be helpful to look within before lashing out.
"When you are affected by this pressure, it means you're looking for that person's approval," says Jeffers. "Ask yourself, 'Why am I reacting this way? Am I afraid of criticism from this person?' As soon as you stop needing their approval, you can relax and appreciate the decision you made." Once a mom is feeling calmer, she can answer the critics with, say, "I understand you really want this, but it's not right for me" or "Well, thanks for passing on your ideas."
• From your child -- it happens: Many onlies will ask -- loudly, often -- for a little brother or sister, or wonder aloud why they're stuck being an only child. A straightforward answer is the best bet, says Lise Youngblade, Ph.D., associate director of the Institute for Child Health Policy at the University of Florida in Gainesville. "The last thing parents want to do is get into a negotiation," she says. Instead, respond with something like "We've decided that our family size is just right. There are lots of different kinds of families, and this is how ours is."
With an older child, you can point out that many of the advantages he enjoys as an only -- his own specially decorated bedroom, for instance, or the one-on-one time he has with Mom and Dad -- may be things he wouldn't have with a brother or sister. You can also try asking your child what he thinks would be the benefits of having a sibling. It could be as simple as having a bunk bed.
If a child's demands don't abate, Jeffers points out that "children complain, period." Parents with two or three kids sometimes hear, "Mommy, it's time to send the baby back to the hospital."
In my case, it took me time to say goodbye to my fantasy daughter, but when Oliver was 18 months old, I finally said to Scott, "Let's do it," on the vasectomy.
I'm very happy with my son and our decision, and I've looked for other ways to indulge my daughter needs. I volunteered as a Big Sister and counseled a 15-year-old on boyfriends. When I spot cute girly-girl dresses, I buy them for my friend's daughters. And I console myself that when I go through menopause, there won't be two hormonal women under this roof
Vocabulary:
Jackpot: If you hit the jackpot, you have a great success, for example by winning a lot of money or having a piece of good luck. (INFORMAL)
Sling: If you sling something somewhere, you throw it there carelessly.
Sibling: Your siblings are your brothers and sisters. (FORMAL)
Hail: Someone who hails from a particular place was born there or lives there. (FORMAL)
Acquetance: An acquaintance is someone who you have met and know slightly, but not well.
Quiver: If you say that someone or their voice is quivering with an emotion such as rage or excitement, you mean that they are strongly affected by this emotion and show it in their appearance or voice.
Overwhelming: If something is overwhelming, it affects you very strongly, and you do not know how to deal with it.
Mortage: A mortgage is a loan of money which you get from a bank or building society in order to buy a house.
Skyrocket: If prices or amounts skyrocket, they suddenly increase by a very large amount.
Handle: If you say that someone can handle a problem or situation, you mean that they have the ability to deal with it successfully.
Main Ideas:
Some couples decide to have one child
Health, financial, emotional issues to consider
Pressure to have second child greater than for first
Mom: A "process of acceptance" when you can't have another child
Personal Reaction:
Fortunately, nowadays there exist many methods to prevent pregnancy, in order to plan a family. This article refers to the option of having one child or more. This topic is very subjective and regarding my opinion, I would say that it is better to have more than one child. It is truth that before planning to have the second you have to take into accounts many things since a new member may produce a change in the family life. However, a sibling for your primogenitor is good because the best moments of our childhood is shared with our brothers and sister. Apart from this when parents do not live any longer, the primogenitor could have a family where he can find a shelter, as his brother or sister.
Article 14
Mahatma Gandhi
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (Redirected from Ghandi)
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (October 2, 1869 – January 30, 1948) was a major political and spiritual leader of India and the Indian independence movement. He was the pioneer of Satyagraha — the resistance of tyranny through mass civil disobedience, firmly founded upon ahimsa or total non-violence — which led India to independence and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. Gandhi is commonly known in India and across the world as Mahatma Gandhi (Sanskrit: "Great Soul") and as Bapu (Gujarati: "Father"). In India, he is recognized as the Father of the Nation and October 2nd, his birthday, is commemorated each year as Gandhi Jayanti, a national holiday. On 15 June 2007, it was announced that the "United Nations General Assembly" has "unanimously adopted" a resolution which has declared October 2 to be "the International Day of Non-Violence." [1]
As a British-educated lawyer, Gandhi first employed his ideas of peaceful civil disobedience in the Indian community's struggle for civil rights in South Africa. Upon his return to India, he organized poor farmers and laborers to protest against oppressive taxation and widespread discrimination. Assuming leadership of the Indian National Congress, Gandhi led nationwide campaigns for the alleviation of poverty, for the liberation of women, for brotherhood amongst differing religions and ethnicities, for an end to untouchability and caste discrimination, and for the economic self-sufficiency of the nation, but above all for Swaraj — the independence of India from foreign domination. Gandhi famously led Indians in the disobedience of the salt tax on the 400 kilometre (248 miles) Dandi Salt March in 1930, and in an open call for the British to Quit India in 1942. He was imprisoned for many years on numerous occasions in both South Africa and India.
Throughout his life, Gandhi remained committed to non-violence and truth even in the most extreme situations. A student of Hindu philosophy, he lived simply, organizing an ashram that was self-sufficient in its needs. Making his own clothes — the traditional Indian dhoti and shawl woven with a charkha, he lived on a simple vegetarian diet. He used rigorous fasts, for long periods, for both self-purification and protest. Gandhi's life and teachings inspired Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Steve Biko, Benigno S. Aquino, Jr. and Aung San Suu Kyi and through them the American civil rights movement and the freedom struggles in South Africa and Myanmar respectively.
Gandhi's principles
Truth
Gandhi dedicated his life to the wider purpose of discovering truth, or Satya. He tried to achieve this by learning from his own mistakes and conducting experiments on himself
Gandhi stated that the most important battle to fight was overcoming his own demons, fears, and insecurities. Gandhi summarized his beliefs first when he said "God is Truth". He would later change this statement to "Truth is God".
Nonviolence
The concept of nonviolence (ahimsa) and nonresistance has a long history in Indian religious thought and has had many revivals in Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, Jewish and Christian contexts. . He was quoted as saying:
"When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall — think of it, always."
"What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty and democracy?"
"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind."
"There are many causes that I am prepared to die for but no causes that I am prepared to kill for."
In applying these principles, Gandhi did not balk from taking them to their most logical extremes. In 1940, when invasion of the British Isles by Nazi Germany looked imminent, Gandhi offered the following advice to the British people (Non-Violence in Peace and War):
"I would like you to lay down the arms you have as being useless for saving you or humanity. You will invite Herr Hitler and Signor Mussolini to take what they want of the countries you call your possessions.... If these gentlemen choose to occupy your homes, you will vacate them. If they do not give you free passage out, you will allow yourselves, man, woman, and child, to be slaughtered, but you will refuse to owe allegiance to them."
However, Gandhi was aware that this level of nonviolence required incredible faith and courage, which he realized not everyone possessed. He therefore advised that everyone need not keep to nonviolence, especially if it were used as a cover for cowardice:
"Gandhi guarded against attracting to his satyagraha movement those who feared to take up arms or felt themselves incapable of resistance. 'I do believe,' he wrote, 'that where there is only a choice between cowardice and violence, I would advise violence.'"[19]
"At every meeting I repeated the warning that unless they felt that in non-violence they had come into possession of a force infinitely superior to the one they had and in the use of which they were adept, they should have nothing to do with non-violence and resume the arms they possessed before. It must never be said of the Khudai Khidmatgars that once so brave, they had become or been made cowards under Badshah Khan's influence. Their bravery consisted not in being good marksmen but in defying death and being ever ready to bare their breasts to the bullets."
Vegetarianism
As a young child, Gandhi experimented with meat-eating. This was due partially to his inherent curiosity as well as his rather persuasive peer and friend Sheikh Mehtab. The idea of vegetarianism is deeply engrained in Hindu and Jain traditions in India, and, in his native land of Gujarat, most Hindus were vegetarian. The Gandhi family was no exception. Before leaving for his studies in London, Gandhi made a promise to his mother, Putlibai and his uncle, Becharji Swami that he would abstain from eating meat, taking alcohol, and engaging in promiscuity. He held fast to his promise and gained more than a diet: he gained a basis for his life-long philosophies. As Gandhi grew into adulthood, he became a strict vegetarian. He wrote the book The Moral Basis of Vegetarianism and several articles on the subject, some of which were published in the London Vegetarian Society's publication, The Vegetarian [2]. Gandhi, himself, became inspired by many great minds during this period and befriended the chairman of the London Vegetarian Society, Dr. Josiah Oldfield.
Having also read and admired the work of Henry Stephens Salt, the young Mohandas met and often corresponded with the vegetarian campaigner. Gandhi spent much time advocating vegetarianism during and after his time in London. To Gandhi, a vegetarian diet would not only satisfy the requirements of the body, it would also serve an economic purpose as meat was, and still is, generally more expensive than grains, vegetables, and fruits. Also, many Indians of the time struggled with low income, thus vegetarianism was seen not only as a spiritual practice but also a practical one. He abstained from eating for long periods, using fasting as a form of political protest. He refused to eat until his death or his demands were met. It was noted in his autobiography that vegetarianism was the beginning of his deep commitment to Brahmacharya; without total control of the palate, his success in Bramacharya would likely falter.
Brahmacharya
When Gandhi was 16 his father became very ill. Being very devoted to his parents, he attended to his father at all times during his illness. However, one night, Gandhi's uncle came to relieve Gandhi for a while. He retired to his bedroom where his carnal desires overcame him and he made love to his wife. Shortly afterward a servant came to report that Gandhi's father had just died. Gandhi felt tremendous guilt and could never forgive himself. He came to refer to this event as "double shame". The incident had significant influence in Gandhi becoming totally celibate at the age of 36, while still married.[21]
This decision was deeply influenced by the philosophy of Brahmacharya — spiritual and practical purity — largely associated with celibacy and asceticism. Gandhi saw brahmacharya as a means of going close to God and as a primary foundation for self realization. In his autobiography he tells of his battle against lustful urges and fits of jealousy with his childhood bride, Kasturba. He felt it his personal obligation to remain celibate so that he could learn to love, rather than lust. For Gandhi, brahmacharya meant "control of the senses in thought, word and deed."[22]
Simplicity
Gandhi earnestly believed that a person involved in social service should lead a simple life which he thought could lead to Brahmacharya. His simplicity began by renouncing the western lifestyle he was leading in South Africa. He called it "reducing himself to zero," which entailed giving up unnecessary expenditure, embracing a simple lifestyle and washing his own clothes.[23] On one occasion he returned the gifts bestowed to him from the natals for his diligent service to the community.[24]
Gandhi spent one day of each week in silence. He believed that abstaining from speaking brought him inner peace. This influence was drawn from the Hindu principles of mauna (Sanskrit:मौनं - silence) and shanti (peace). On such days he communicated with others by writing on paper. For three and a half years, from the age of 37, Gandhi refused to read newspapers, claiming that the tumultuous state of world affairs caused him more confusion than his own inner unrest.
After reading John Ruskin's Unto This Last, he decided to change his life style and create a commune called Poenix Settlement.
Upon returning to India from South Africa, where he had enjoyed a successful legal practice, he gave up wearing Western-style clothing, which he associated with wealth and success. He dressed to be accepted by the poorest person in India, advocating the use of homespun cloth (khadi). Gandhi and his followers adopted the practice of weaving their own clothes from thread they themselves spun, and encouraged others to do so. While Indian workers were often idle due to unemployment, they had often bought their clothing from industrial manufacturers owned by British interests. It was Gandhi's view that if Indians made their own clothes, it would deal an economic blow to the British establishment in India. Consequently, the spinning wheel was later incorporated into the flag of the Indian National Congress. He subsequently wore a dhoti for the rest of his life to express the simplicity of his life.
Faith
Gandhi was born a Hindu and practised Hinduism all his life, deriving most of his principles from Hinduism. As a common Hindu, he believed all religions to be equal, and rejected all efforts to convert him to a different faith. He was an avid theologian and read extensively about all major religions. He had the following to say about Hinduism:
"Hinduism as I know it entirely satisfies my soul, fills my whole being ... When doubts haunt me, when disappointments stare me in the face, and when I see not one ray of light on the horizon, I turn to the Bhagavad Gita, and find a verse to comfort me; and I immediately begin to smile in the midst of overwhelming sorrow. My life has been full of tragedies and if they have not left any visible and indelible effect on me, I owe it to the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita."
Gandhi wrote a commentary on the Bhagavad Gita in Gujarati. The Gujarati manuscript was translated into English by Mahadev Desai, who provided an additional introduction and commentary. It was published with a Foreword by Gandhi in 1946.[25][26]
Gandhi believed that at the core of every religion was truth and love (compassion, nonviolence and the Golden Rule). He also questioned hypocrisy, malpractices and dogma in all religions and was a tireless social reformer. Some of his comments on various religions are:
"Thus if I could not accept Christianity either as a perfect, or the greatest religion, neither was I then convinced of Hinduism being such. Hindu defects were pressingly visible to me. If untouchability could be a part of Hinduism, it could but be a rotten part or an excrescence. I could not understand the raison d'etre of a multitude of sects and castes. What was the meaning of saying that the Vedas were the inspired Word of God? If they were inspired, why not also the Bible and the Koran? As Christian friends were endeavouring to convert me, so were Muslim friends. Abdullah Sheth had kept on inducing me to study Islam, and of course he had always something to say regarding its beauty." (source: his autobiography)
"As soon as we lose the moral basis, we cease to be religious. There is no such thing as religion over-riding morality. Man, for instance, cannot be untruthful, cruel or incontinent and claim to have God on his side."
"The sayings of Muhammad are a treasure of wisdom, not only for Muslims but for all of mankind."
Later in his life when he was asked whether he was a Hindu, he replied:
"Yes I am. I am also a Christian, a Muslim, a Buddhist and a Jew."
In spite of their deep reverence to each other, Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore got involved in protracted debates more than once. These debates exemplify the philosophical differences between the two most famous Indians at the time. On January 15, 1934, an earthquake hit Bihar and caused extensive damage and loss of life. Gandhi maintained this was because of the sin committed by upper caste Hindus by not letting untouchables in their temples (Gandhi was committed to the cause of improving the fate of untouchables, referring to them as Harijans, people of Krishna). Tagore vehemently opposed Gandhi's stance, maintaining that an earthquake can only be caused by natural forces, not moral reasons, however repugnant the practice of untouchability may be.
Followers
Several people and organisations specifically referred to Gandhi as their mentor, or dedicated their life for spreading Gandhi's ideas. In Europe, Romain Rolland first advertised the struggle of the Mahatma with his book Mahatma Gandhi. Lanza del Vasto went to India in 1936 in the aim to live with Gandhi, later decided to come back to Europe to spread Gandhi's philosophy. Lanza finally founded the Community of the Ark in 1948 on the model of Gandhi's ashrams. Madeleine Slade (known as "Mirabehn") was the daughter of an British admiral who spent much of her adult life in India as a devotee of Gandhi. One of the leaders of the civil rights movement in the United States, Martin Luther King, drew from the writings of Gandhi in the development of his own theories about non-violence. Anti-apartheid activist and former President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, was inspired by Gandhi. The British musician, John Lennon, also referred to Gandhi when discussing his views on non-violence.[30]
Vocabulary:
Struggle: A struggle is a long and difficult attempt to achieve something such as freedom or political rights.
Alleviate: If you alleviate pain, suffering, or an unpleasant condition, you make it less intense or severe. (FORMAL)
Brotherhood: A brotherhood is an organization whose members all have the same political aims and beliefs or the same job or profession.
Shawl: A shawl is a large piece of woollen cloth which a woman wears over her shoulders or head, or which is wrapped around a baby to keep it warm.
Fast: If you fast, you eat no food for a period of time, usually for either religious or medical reasons, or as a protest.
Demon: A demon is an evil spirit.
Wrought: If something has wrought a change, it has made it happen.
Balk: If you balk at something, you definitely do not want to do it or to let it happen.
Slaughter: If large numbers of people or animals are slaughtered, they are killed in a way that is cruel or unnecessary.
Main Ideas:
Mahatma’s life
His concept of nonviolence
His philosophy
Followers
Personal Reaction:
Looking for information on the Internet, I found this article about Mahatma’s life and his Philosophy. In my opinion, I would say that Mahatma Gandhi was a unique man who fought for people’s rights, but he didn’t fight with arms, he fought with nonviolence. His strategy was admirable since only a man with self-confidence and a great soul can do what he did. I think that his way of thinking is difficult to understand by some people. However, he accomplished his goals without violence and promoting peace to people who were in war. I think that we, as ordinary individual, should propose ourselves to be like Gandhi, in order to have a better world. I recognize that this is difficult but as Gandhi said "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind."
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (Redirected from Ghandi)
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (October 2, 1869 – January 30, 1948) was a major political and spiritual leader of India and the Indian independence movement. He was the pioneer of Satyagraha — the resistance of tyranny through mass civil disobedience, firmly founded upon ahimsa or total non-violence — which led India to independence and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. Gandhi is commonly known in India and across the world as Mahatma Gandhi (Sanskrit: "Great Soul") and as Bapu (Gujarati: "Father"). In India, he is recognized as the Father of the Nation and October 2nd, his birthday, is commemorated each year as Gandhi Jayanti, a national holiday. On 15 June 2007, it was announced that the "United Nations General Assembly" has "unanimously adopted" a resolution which has declared October 2 to be "the International Day of Non-Violence." [1]
As a British-educated lawyer, Gandhi first employed his ideas of peaceful civil disobedience in the Indian community's struggle for civil rights in South Africa. Upon his return to India, he organized poor farmers and laborers to protest against oppressive taxation and widespread discrimination. Assuming leadership of the Indian National Congress, Gandhi led nationwide campaigns for the alleviation of poverty, for the liberation of women, for brotherhood amongst differing religions and ethnicities, for an end to untouchability and caste discrimination, and for the economic self-sufficiency of the nation, but above all for Swaraj — the independence of India from foreign domination. Gandhi famously led Indians in the disobedience of the salt tax on the 400 kilometre (248 miles) Dandi Salt March in 1930, and in an open call for the British to Quit India in 1942. He was imprisoned for many years on numerous occasions in both South Africa and India.
Throughout his life, Gandhi remained committed to non-violence and truth even in the most extreme situations. A student of Hindu philosophy, he lived simply, organizing an ashram that was self-sufficient in its needs. Making his own clothes — the traditional Indian dhoti and shawl woven with a charkha, he lived on a simple vegetarian diet. He used rigorous fasts, for long periods, for both self-purification and protest. Gandhi's life and teachings inspired Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Steve Biko, Benigno S. Aquino, Jr. and Aung San Suu Kyi and through them the American civil rights movement and the freedom struggles in South Africa and Myanmar respectively.
Gandhi's principles
Truth
Gandhi dedicated his life to the wider purpose of discovering truth, or Satya. He tried to achieve this by learning from his own mistakes and conducting experiments on himself
Gandhi stated that the most important battle to fight was overcoming his own demons, fears, and insecurities. Gandhi summarized his beliefs first when he said "God is Truth". He would later change this statement to "Truth is God".
Nonviolence
The concept of nonviolence (ahimsa) and nonresistance has a long history in Indian religious thought and has had many revivals in Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, Jewish and Christian contexts. . He was quoted as saying:
"When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall — think of it, always."
"What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty and democracy?"
"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind."
"There are many causes that I am prepared to die for but no causes that I am prepared to kill for."
In applying these principles, Gandhi did not balk from taking them to their most logical extremes. In 1940, when invasion of the British Isles by Nazi Germany looked imminent, Gandhi offered the following advice to the British people (Non-Violence in Peace and War):
"I would like you to lay down the arms you have as being useless for saving you or humanity. You will invite Herr Hitler and Signor Mussolini to take what they want of the countries you call your possessions.... If these gentlemen choose to occupy your homes, you will vacate them. If they do not give you free passage out, you will allow yourselves, man, woman, and child, to be slaughtered, but you will refuse to owe allegiance to them."
However, Gandhi was aware that this level of nonviolence required incredible faith and courage, which he realized not everyone possessed. He therefore advised that everyone need not keep to nonviolence, especially if it were used as a cover for cowardice:
"Gandhi guarded against attracting to his satyagraha movement those who feared to take up arms or felt themselves incapable of resistance. 'I do believe,' he wrote, 'that where there is only a choice between cowardice and violence, I would advise violence.'"[19]
"At every meeting I repeated the warning that unless they felt that in non-violence they had come into possession of a force infinitely superior to the one they had and in the use of which they were adept, they should have nothing to do with non-violence and resume the arms they possessed before. It must never be said of the Khudai Khidmatgars that once so brave, they had become or been made cowards under Badshah Khan's influence. Their bravery consisted not in being good marksmen but in defying death and being ever ready to bare their breasts to the bullets."
Vegetarianism
As a young child, Gandhi experimented with meat-eating. This was due partially to his inherent curiosity as well as his rather persuasive peer and friend Sheikh Mehtab. The idea of vegetarianism is deeply engrained in Hindu and Jain traditions in India, and, in his native land of Gujarat, most Hindus were vegetarian. The Gandhi family was no exception. Before leaving for his studies in London, Gandhi made a promise to his mother, Putlibai and his uncle, Becharji Swami that he would abstain from eating meat, taking alcohol, and engaging in promiscuity. He held fast to his promise and gained more than a diet: he gained a basis for his life-long philosophies. As Gandhi grew into adulthood, he became a strict vegetarian. He wrote the book The Moral Basis of Vegetarianism and several articles on the subject, some of which were published in the London Vegetarian Society's publication, The Vegetarian [2]. Gandhi, himself, became inspired by many great minds during this period and befriended the chairman of the London Vegetarian Society, Dr. Josiah Oldfield.
Having also read and admired the work of Henry Stephens Salt, the young Mohandas met and often corresponded with the vegetarian campaigner. Gandhi spent much time advocating vegetarianism during and after his time in London. To Gandhi, a vegetarian diet would not only satisfy the requirements of the body, it would also serve an economic purpose as meat was, and still is, generally more expensive than grains, vegetables, and fruits. Also, many Indians of the time struggled with low income, thus vegetarianism was seen not only as a spiritual practice but also a practical one. He abstained from eating for long periods, using fasting as a form of political protest. He refused to eat until his death or his demands were met. It was noted in his autobiography that vegetarianism was the beginning of his deep commitment to Brahmacharya; without total control of the palate, his success in Bramacharya would likely falter.
Brahmacharya
When Gandhi was 16 his father became very ill. Being very devoted to his parents, he attended to his father at all times during his illness. However, one night, Gandhi's uncle came to relieve Gandhi for a while. He retired to his bedroom where his carnal desires overcame him and he made love to his wife. Shortly afterward a servant came to report that Gandhi's father had just died. Gandhi felt tremendous guilt and could never forgive himself. He came to refer to this event as "double shame". The incident had significant influence in Gandhi becoming totally celibate at the age of 36, while still married.[21]
This decision was deeply influenced by the philosophy of Brahmacharya — spiritual and practical purity — largely associated with celibacy and asceticism. Gandhi saw brahmacharya as a means of going close to God and as a primary foundation for self realization. In his autobiography he tells of his battle against lustful urges and fits of jealousy with his childhood bride, Kasturba. He felt it his personal obligation to remain celibate so that he could learn to love, rather than lust. For Gandhi, brahmacharya meant "control of the senses in thought, word and deed."[22]
Simplicity
Gandhi earnestly believed that a person involved in social service should lead a simple life which he thought could lead to Brahmacharya. His simplicity began by renouncing the western lifestyle he was leading in South Africa. He called it "reducing himself to zero," which entailed giving up unnecessary expenditure, embracing a simple lifestyle and washing his own clothes.[23] On one occasion he returned the gifts bestowed to him from the natals for his diligent service to the community.[24]
Gandhi spent one day of each week in silence. He believed that abstaining from speaking brought him inner peace. This influence was drawn from the Hindu principles of mauna (Sanskrit:मौनं - silence) and shanti (peace). On such days he communicated with others by writing on paper. For three and a half years, from the age of 37, Gandhi refused to read newspapers, claiming that the tumultuous state of world affairs caused him more confusion than his own inner unrest.
After reading John Ruskin's Unto This Last, he decided to change his life style and create a commune called Poenix Settlement.
Upon returning to India from South Africa, where he had enjoyed a successful legal practice, he gave up wearing Western-style clothing, which he associated with wealth and success. He dressed to be accepted by the poorest person in India, advocating the use of homespun cloth (khadi). Gandhi and his followers adopted the practice of weaving their own clothes from thread they themselves spun, and encouraged others to do so. While Indian workers were often idle due to unemployment, they had often bought their clothing from industrial manufacturers owned by British interests. It was Gandhi's view that if Indians made their own clothes, it would deal an economic blow to the British establishment in India. Consequently, the spinning wheel was later incorporated into the flag of the Indian National Congress. He subsequently wore a dhoti for the rest of his life to express the simplicity of his life.
Faith
Gandhi was born a Hindu and practised Hinduism all his life, deriving most of his principles from Hinduism. As a common Hindu, he believed all religions to be equal, and rejected all efforts to convert him to a different faith. He was an avid theologian and read extensively about all major religions. He had the following to say about Hinduism:
"Hinduism as I know it entirely satisfies my soul, fills my whole being ... When doubts haunt me, when disappointments stare me in the face, and when I see not one ray of light on the horizon, I turn to the Bhagavad Gita, and find a verse to comfort me; and I immediately begin to smile in the midst of overwhelming sorrow. My life has been full of tragedies and if they have not left any visible and indelible effect on me, I owe it to the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita."
Gandhi wrote a commentary on the Bhagavad Gita in Gujarati. The Gujarati manuscript was translated into English by Mahadev Desai, who provided an additional introduction and commentary. It was published with a Foreword by Gandhi in 1946.[25][26]
Gandhi believed that at the core of every religion was truth and love (compassion, nonviolence and the Golden Rule). He also questioned hypocrisy, malpractices and dogma in all religions and was a tireless social reformer. Some of his comments on various religions are:
"Thus if I could not accept Christianity either as a perfect, or the greatest religion, neither was I then convinced of Hinduism being such. Hindu defects were pressingly visible to me. If untouchability could be a part of Hinduism, it could but be a rotten part or an excrescence. I could not understand the raison d'etre of a multitude of sects and castes. What was the meaning of saying that the Vedas were the inspired Word of God? If they were inspired, why not also the Bible and the Koran? As Christian friends were endeavouring to convert me, so were Muslim friends. Abdullah Sheth had kept on inducing me to study Islam, and of course he had always something to say regarding its beauty." (source: his autobiography)
"As soon as we lose the moral basis, we cease to be religious. There is no such thing as religion over-riding morality. Man, for instance, cannot be untruthful, cruel or incontinent and claim to have God on his side."
"The sayings of Muhammad are a treasure of wisdom, not only for Muslims but for all of mankind."
Later in his life when he was asked whether he was a Hindu, he replied:
"Yes I am. I am also a Christian, a Muslim, a Buddhist and a Jew."
In spite of their deep reverence to each other, Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore got involved in protracted debates more than once. These debates exemplify the philosophical differences between the two most famous Indians at the time. On January 15, 1934, an earthquake hit Bihar and caused extensive damage and loss of life. Gandhi maintained this was because of the sin committed by upper caste Hindus by not letting untouchables in their temples (Gandhi was committed to the cause of improving the fate of untouchables, referring to them as Harijans, people of Krishna). Tagore vehemently opposed Gandhi's stance, maintaining that an earthquake can only be caused by natural forces, not moral reasons, however repugnant the practice of untouchability may be.
Followers
Several people and organisations specifically referred to Gandhi as their mentor, or dedicated their life for spreading Gandhi's ideas. In Europe, Romain Rolland first advertised the struggle of the Mahatma with his book Mahatma Gandhi. Lanza del Vasto went to India in 1936 in the aim to live with Gandhi, later decided to come back to Europe to spread Gandhi's philosophy. Lanza finally founded the Community of the Ark in 1948 on the model of Gandhi's ashrams. Madeleine Slade (known as "Mirabehn") was the daughter of an British admiral who spent much of her adult life in India as a devotee of Gandhi. One of the leaders of the civil rights movement in the United States, Martin Luther King, drew from the writings of Gandhi in the development of his own theories about non-violence. Anti-apartheid activist and former President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, was inspired by Gandhi. The British musician, John Lennon, also referred to Gandhi when discussing his views on non-violence.[30]
Vocabulary:
Struggle: A struggle is a long and difficult attempt to achieve something such as freedom or political rights.
Alleviate: If you alleviate pain, suffering, or an unpleasant condition, you make it less intense or severe. (FORMAL)
Brotherhood: A brotherhood is an organization whose members all have the same political aims and beliefs or the same job or profession.
Shawl: A shawl is a large piece of woollen cloth which a woman wears over her shoulders or head, or which is wrapped around a baby to keep it warm.
Fast: If you fast, you eat no food for a period of time, usually for either religious or medical reasons, or as a protest.
Demon: A demon is an evil spirit.
Wrought: If something has wrought a change, it has made it happen.
Balk: If you balk at something, you definitely do not want to do it or to let it happen.
Slaughter: If large numbers of people or animals are slaughtered, they are killed in a way that is cruel or unnecessary.
Main Ideas:
Mahatma’s life
His concept of nonviolence
His philosophy
Followers
Personal Reaction:
Looking for information on the Internet, I found this article about Mahatma’s life and his Philosophy. In my opinion, I would say that Mahatma Gandhi was a unique man who fought for people’s rights, but he didn’t fight with arms, he fought with nonviolence. His strategy was admirable since only a man with self-confidence and a great soul can do what he did. I think that his way of thinking is difficult to understand by some people. However, he accomplished his goals without violence and promoting peace to people who were in war. I think that we, as ordinary individual, should propose ourselves to be like Gandhi, in order to have a better world. I recognize that this is difficult but as Gandhi said "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind."
Article 13
Immigration is bad for society, but only until a new solidarity is forgedAn important US study shows us that the effects of ethnic diversity can be read as a challenge, rather than a threat Madeleine BuntingMonday June 18, 2007The Guardian
Not many thinkers successfully straddle academia and politics, but one of the few who has managed to do so on both sides of the Atlantic is Robert Putnam, author of Bowling Alone. You can spot traces of his influence all over New Labour policy. He was the man who popularised the concept of social capital - the trust and networks of friendship, neighbourhood and organisations on which so much of our lives depend - and it has won him the ear of politicians of all persuasions: Bill Clinton, George Bush, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, even, most recently, the Libyan leader, Muammar Gadafy.
Aware of how his work is used politically, Putnam is understandably nervous now about how he presents the first findings of the biggest study of social capital ever undertaken on which he has been working for over five years. He started out wanting to track social capital over time and in different communities across the US. What he wasn't expecting to find was a negative link between ethnic diversity and social capital. Put crudely, the more ethnically diverse the neighbourhood, the less likely you are to trust your local shopkeeper, regardless of his or her ethnicity. He warns that, however uncomfortable this conclusion might be, "progressives can't stick their head in the sand".
But the killer punch of his research is that diversity not only reduces social capital between ethnic groups but also within ethnic groups. Diversity leads not so much to bad race relations as to everyone becoming more isolated and less trustful. In the jargon, it kills off both the "bridging capital" between different groups and "bonding capital", which are the connections among people like yourself. Putnam calls it "hunkering down" as people withdraw from all kinds of connectedness in their community. And what follows is a long list of negative consequences, which include less confidence in local government and the media, lower voting registration (though higher participation in protest), less volunteering, fewer close friends, lower rates of happiness and perceived quality of life and more time spent watching television. It affects almost all our relationships, from the most public to the most intimate.
Putnam and his team are too rigorous for any of the usual objections to stick. To reach his conclusion, he controlled for a wide range of other factors including inequality, poverty, residential mobility and education, to be sure that "hunkering" was really a response to ethnic diversity. He wasn't going to publish these kinds of explosive findings without being pretty sure he was right.
What's still not clear to him is what causes the hunkering and whether social psychology might provide some answers. Certainly social psychologists are not unfamiliar with the phenomenon. A study of American schools after desegregation found that children were defining who they would play with more narrowly than ever - "resegregation" followed lines not only of ethnicity but also of gender.
What makes Putnam nervous now is how this could be seized upon by rightwing politicians hostile to immigration. So he insists his research be seen in the context a) that ethnic diversity is increasing in all modern societies and is not only inevitable but is also desirable, a proven asset in terms of creativity and economic growth; and b) that "hunkering" can be short term and "successful immigrant societies create new forms of social solidarity".
In conversation, he emphasises the latter, well aware that he is publishing his findings at a time of intense anxiety over these issues both in the US (where legislation to legalise some of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants just got thrown out of Congress) and in Europe. He doesn't underestimate the scale of the challenge, particularly in European countries that, he acknowledges, "haven't been immigrant societies for 1,000 years". He says that the "major social learning process" required is in the same league as that required by the industrial revolution.
But as he arrives in Manchester at the start of a major comparative project of social capital between the UK and the US, his big theme is don't panic. He rattles through US history to offer all kinds of illustrations of how large-scale migration can be successfully accommodated in a bid to allay some of the European anxiety, particularly around its Muslim minorities.
Neither the US nor Europe is currently facing the kind of levels of migration relative to population seen at the turn of the 20th century in the US. To the argument that the shiploads arriving in Ellis Island were all Europeans who thus had some common culture, he points out that at the time there was a rich alarmist literature of how racially distinct the Jewish or Italian immigrant groups were. The US has had a history of "exceptionalism" - the line "that past immigration is fine, but current immigrants present an unprecedented problem" - yet each new wave in turn is absorbed as successfully as the last.
US history shows that all migrant groups develop an intense religiosity - Irish, Italian, Jewish, Hispanic. The increasing religious identification of Muslims in Europe fits neatly into a well-established pattern. As do the tendencies to marry within ethnic and faith communities, and to maintain close ties to the country of origin - none of these inhibit integration in the long term.
You could say that they are part of the pattern of settlement as the first couple of generations maintain a strong migrant identity - which is, paradoxically, an important part of their capacity to integrate. A strong community identity gives them the confidence and self-respect to establish themselves and get on.
The frequent UK response to the US experience is that it's not relevant here. The US has a civic nationalism which facilitates the melting pot - the flags and pledges of allegiance But in fact US civic nationalism was deliberately invented at the end of the 19th century in the US precisely to replace an ethno-nationalism challenged by mass immigration. The implication is quite clear: it's up to the UK to develop a comparable civic nationalism, a point that has not been lost on any of the protagonists in the UK debate to whom Putnam has been speaking, from Trevor Phillips to Ruth Kelly, as their frequent statements about British identity indicate. If you want to understand what's driving the political establishment, read Putnam.
The only problem is that they seem to give more prominence to some of his ideas than others. Too often the public debate is skewed towards getting "them" to integrate with "us", and conform to "our" norms of dress, culture and values. When this is allied to an aggressive rhetoric on the war against terror, it begins to sound like hectoring or some form of persecution. But Putnam is not talking about a top-down set of instructions on nationalism, but a much broader social process in which the host country changes as much as it, changes its new arrivals: through a collaborative effort of imagination and myriad individual experiences, new solidarity is forged. It's a message of hope that he keenly hopes doesn't get buried in sensationalist headlines about the short term cost of "hunkering".
m.bunting@guardian.co.uk
Vocabulary:
Straddle: Someone or something that straddles different periods, groups, or fields of activity exists in, belongs to, or takes elements from them all.
Network: A network of people or institutions is a large number of them that have a connection with each other and work together as a system.
Understandable: If you say that something such as a statement or theory is understandable, you mean that people can easily understand it.
Track: If you track someone or something, you investigate them, because you are interested in finding out more about them.
Hunker down: If you say that someone hunkers down, you mean that they are trying to avoid doing things that will make them noticed or put them in danger.
Desegregate: To desegregate something such as a place, institution, or service means to officially stop keeping the people who use it in separate groups, especially groups that are defined by race.
Asset: Something or someone that is an asset is considered useful or helps a person or organization to be successful.
Rattle: If something or someone rattles you, they make you nervous.
Allay: If you allay someone's fears or doubts, you stop them feeling afraid or doubtful. (FORMAL)
Skew: If something is skewed, it is changed or affected to some extent by a new or unusual factor, and so is not correct or normal.
Main Ideas:
Robert Putnamhe presented the first findings of the biggest Studio of social capital
He found a negative link between ethnic diversity and social capital.
Diversity leads not only to bad race relations but also to everyone becoming more isolated and less trustful.
He calls it "hunkering down", people leave of connectedness in their community which carries negative consequences.
Less confidence in local government and the media, lower voting registration, less volunteering, fewer close friends, lower rates of happiness and perceived quality of life and more time spent watching television.
Ethnic diversity is increasing in all modern societies, and is a proven benefit in terms of creativity and economic growth.
"Hunkering" can be short term and "successful immigrant societies create new forms of social solidarity".
Personal Reaction:
When I read this article, it really caught my attention since we cannot deny that most of the societies in the biggest cities are conformed by a wide range of people who belong to different countries. People who have different ideology, religion and language as well, features which differ from the dwellers of that city. In my opinion, I think that not only immigrants do not usually converge in the new society where they are living, but also the citizens who have belonged to that society do not trust on the newcomers.
This seems to affect the social aspect of a city and the individual behaviour as well. I would say that a society is conformed for every single individual wherever they come and whoever they are given that everyone contributes with a pinch of sand to make the life go round within the society.
Not many thinkers successfully straddle academia and politics, but one of the few who has managed to do so on both sides of the Atlantic is Robert Putnam, author of Bowling Alone. You can spot traces of his influence all over New Labour policy. He was the man who popularised the concept of social capital - the trust and networks of friendship, neighbourhood and organisations on which so much of our lives depend - and it has won him the ear of politicians of all persuasions: Bill Clinton, George Bush, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, even, most recently, the Libyan leader, Muammar Gadafy.
Aware of how his work is used politically, Putnam is understandably nervous now about how he presents the first findings of the biggest study of social capital ever undertaken on which he has been working for over five years. He started out wanting to track social capital over time and in different communities across the US. What he wasn't expecting to find was a negative link between ethnic diversity and social capital. Put crudely, the more ethnically diverse the neighbourhood, the less likely you are to trust your local shopkeeper, regardless of his or her ethnicity. He warns that, however uncomfortable this conclusion might be, "progressives can't stick their head in the sand".
But the killer punch of his research is that diversity not only reduces social capital between ethnic groups but also within ethnic groups. Diversity leads not so much to bad race relations as to everyone becoming more isolated and less trustful. In the jargon, it kills off both the "bridging capital" between different groups and "bonding capital", which are the connections among people like yourself. Putnam calls it "hunkering down" as people withdraw from all kinds of connectedness in their community. And what follows is a long list of negative consequences, which include less confidence in local government and the media, lower voting registration (though higher participation in protest), less volunteering, fewer close friends, lower rates of happiness and perceived quality of life and more time spent watching television. It affects almost all our relationships, from the most public to the most intimate.
Putnam and his team are too rigorous for any of the usual objections to stick. To reach his conclusion, he controlled for a wide range of other factors including inequality, poverty, residential mobility and education, to be sure that "hunkering" was really a response to ethnic diversity. He wasn't going to publish these kinds of explosive findings without being pretty sure he was right.
What's still not clear to him is what causes the hunkering and whether social psychology might provide some answers. Certainly social psychologists are not unfamiliar with the phenomenon. A study of American schools after desegregation found that children were defining who they would play with more narrowly than ever - "resegregation" followed lines not only of ethnicity but also of gender.
What makes Putnam nervous now is how this could be seized upon by rightwing politicians hostile to immigration. So he insists his research be seen in the context a) that ethnic diversity is increasing in all modern societies and is not only inevitable but is also desirable, a proven asset in terms of creativity and economic growth; and b) that "hunkering" can be short term and "successful immigrant societies create new forms of social solidarity".
In conversation, he emphasises the latter, well aware that he is publishing his findings at a time of intense anxiety over these issues both in the US (where legislation to legalise some of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants just got thrown out of Congress) and in Europe. He doesn't underestimate the scale of the challenge, particularly in European countries that, he acknowledges, "haven't been immigrant societies for 1,000 years". He says that the "major social learning process" required is in the same league as that required by the industrial revolution.
But as he arrives in Manchester at the start of a major comparative project of social capital between the UK and the US, his big theme is don't panic. He rattles through US history to offer all kinds of illustrations of how large-scale migration can be successfully accommodated in a bid to allay some of the European anxiety, particularly around its Muslim minorities.
Neither the US nor Europe is currently facing the kind of levels of migration relative to population seen at the turn of the 20th century in the US. To the argument that the shiploads arriving in Ellis Island were all Europeans who thus had some common culture, he points out that at the time there was a rich alarmist literature of how racially distinct the Jewish or Italian immigrant groups were. The US has had a history of "exceptionalism" - the line "that past immigration is fine, but current immigrants present an unprecedented problem" - yet each new wave in turn is absorbed as successfully as the last.
US history shows that all migrant groups develop an intense religiosity - Irish, Italian, Jewish, Hispanic. The increasing religious identification of Muslims in Europe fits neatly into a well-established pattern. As do the tendencies to marry within ethnic and faith communities, and to maintain close ties to the country of origin - none of these inhibit integration in the long term.
You could say that they are part of the pattern of settlement as the first couple of generations maintain a strong migrant identity - which is, paradoxically, an important part of their capacity to integrate. A strong community identity gives them the confidence and self-respect to establish themselves and get on.
The frequent UK response to the US experience is that it's not relevant here. The US has a civic nationalism which facilitates the melting pot - the flags and pledges of allegiance But in fact US civic nationalism was deliberately invented at the end of the 19th century in the US precisely to replace an ethno-nationalism challenged by mass immigration. The implication is quite clear: it's up to the UK to develop a comparable civic nationalism, a point that has not been lost on any of the protagonists in the UK debate to whom Putnam has been speaking, from Trevor Phillips to Ruth Kelly, as their frequent statements about British identity indicate. If you want to understand what's driving the political establishment, read Putnam.
The only problem is that they seem to give more prominence to some of his ideas than others. Too often the public debate is skewed towards getting "them" to integrate with "us", and conform to "our" norms of dress, culture and values. When this is allied to an aggressive rhetoric on the war against terror, it begins to sound like hectoring or some form of persecution. But Putnam is not talking about a top-down set of instructions on nationalism, but a much broader social process in which the host country changes as much as it, changes its new arrivals: through a collaborative effort of imagination and myriad individual experiences, new solidarity is forged. It's a message of hope that he keenly hopes doesn't get buried in sensationalist headlines about the short term cost of "hunkering".
m.bunting@guardian.co.uk
Vocabulary:
Straddle: Someone or something that straddles different periods, groups, or fields of activity exists in, belongs to, or takes elements from them all.
Network: A network of people or institutions is a large number of them that have a connection with each other and work together as a system.
Understandable: If you say that something such as a statement or theory is understandable, you mean that people can easily understand it.
Track: If you track someone or something, you investigate them, because you are interested in finding out more about them.
Hunker down: If you say that someone hunkers down, you mean that they are trying to avoid doing things that will make them noticed or put them in danger.
Desegregate: To desegregate something such as a place, institution, or service means to officially stop keeping the people who use it in separate groups, especially groups that are defined by race.
Asset: Something or someone that is an asset is considered useful or helps a person or organization to be successful.
Rattle: If something or someone rattles you, they make you nervous.
Allay: If you allay someone's fears or doubts, you stop them feeling afraid or doubtful. (FORMAL)
Skew: If something is skewed, it is changed or affected to some extent by a new or unusual factor, and so is not correct or normal.
Main Ideas:
Robert Putnamhe presented the first findings of the biggest Studio of social capital
He found a negative link between ethnic diversity and social capital.
Diversity leads not only to bad race relations but also to everyone becoming more isolated and less trustful.
He calls it "hunkering down", people leave of connectedness in their community which carries negative consequences.
Less confidence in local government and the media, lower voting registration, less volunteering, fewer close friends, lower rates of happiness and perceived quality of life and more time spent watching television.
Ethnic diversity is increasing in all modern societies, and is a proven benefit in terms of creativity and economic growth.
"Hunkering" can be short term and "successful immigrant societies create new forms of social solidarity".
Personal Reaction:
When I read this article, it really caught my attention since we cannot deny that most of the societies in the biggest cities are conformed by a wide range of people who belong to different countries. People who have different ideology, religion and language as well, features which differ from the dwellers of that city. In my opinion, I think that not only immigrants do not usually converge in the new society where they are living, but also the citizens who have belonged to that society do not trust on the newcomers.
This seems to affect the social aspect of a city and the individual behaviour as well. I would say that a society is conformed for every single individual wherever they come and whoever they are given that everyone contributes with a pinch of sand to make the life go round within the society.
Article 12
How big is your cruelty footprint?If you want to have clear skin and a clear conscience, non-animal testing is more than in fashion, says Lucy Siegle Sunday April 8, 2007The Observer
When it comes to beauty products, not only must you consider your carbon footprint (emissions you are responsible for) and wider ecological footprint (the resources you consume and their impact), but there's now a new campaign by the BUAV (British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection) which measures your cruelty footprint, too. How many animals died to make sure your brand of mascara or moisturiser doesn't trigger common allergies?
Many consumers - ethical ones included - will be surprised. The issue of animal cruelty in cosmetics seems to belong to the Eighties when the Body Shop (which along with the Co-op is still the biggest retailer of cruelty-free products) championed non-animal-tested foot lotions and cleansers. In 1998 the UK even passed a law preventing testing of animals for cosmetics in the UK. Consumers (reasonably) assumed that bunnies could sleep in peace, without fear of surfactants being dripped in their eyes.That became a dangerous assumption as manufacturers merely outsourced the testing of new ingredients elsewhere in Europe and beyond. A European ban apparently arrives in 2013 but, meanwhile, '200 million animals are used in research and testing worldwide for consumer goods every year,' according to Michelle Thew of BUAV.
Ironically, consumers concerned with the environmental and health effects of new chemicals also want to save fluffy animals from laboratory torture. This is problematic because the new European Reach directive, which promises to fill in data gaps for 30,000 new chemicals, would, according to animal rights campaigners, require 12.8m animals to test on. To avoid this, manufacturers need to be compelled to use non-animal-testing techniques.
A more immediate way to shrink your footprint is to buy as simply structured products as possible. So-called 'innovative' products - from curl-extending mascaras to new air fresheners - promising enhanced powers, contain a plethora of synthesised new chemicals (every 20 seconds a new synthetic chemical is launched on to the global market). All will need to be tested on animals.
Meanwhile, the labelling of products borders on insane. The phrase 'this product was not tested on animals' is no guarantee. It merely means the finished product has not been tested, but offers no guarantee individual ingredients haven't. The only way to be sure is to buy products from companies recommended from the list on www.buav.org/gocrueltyfree/ukcompanies.html. So if you want to be sure your shampoo hasn't been tested on a bunny, look for the bunny logo.
lucy.siegle@observer.co.uk
Can I have white teeth and be eco friendly?You don't want green teeth, says Lucy Siegle, but it's worth considering the environmental cost of keeping them white Sunday May 13, 2007The Observer
The following apology was printed in the Observer's For the record column, Sunday May 20 2007Kingfisher, a leading UK brand of natural toothpaste, was wrongly described as a 'top US eco brand'. While the product is sold in many countries, including the US, it is made, stored and marketed in Norwich, England. Apologies.
Not many customers stroll into dental practices in search of greener teeth. Not half as many as are on a quest for the whiter-than-white smile sported by tweenage popstars. Unfortunately, this involves large quantities of carbamide peroxide (a combination of hydrogen peroxide and urea), with worrying implications for waterways and aquatic wildlife as it swirls down the plughole.
Similarly, the widespread use of dental amalgam, a combination of mercury and silver-based alloys (mercury is a highly toxic metal which can build up in fish and humans), in fillings makes dental practices significant polluters. Some are better at disposing of and recycling amalgam than others, but it can be difficult to ask once you're in the chair.
Fortunately, a few surgeries are becoming more explicit about their ecological footprint. Later this month Dr Bob Bhamra opens the UK's first 'carbon neutral' surgery in Kingston, Surrey (http://www.jivadental.co.uk/), assessed by the Carbon Trust. But it's not just about offsetting - Dr Bob has also looked at material use and impact across procedures; the anti-bacterial flooring is from a sustainable source; and only digital x-rays will be taken (traditional x-rays result in waste chromium and other hazardous processing chemicals). Other surgeries are also starting to assess their footprints: Hygeia in Totnes (http://www.hygeia.co.uk/) also uses digital x-rays and even has a wormery.
At home, toothpaste ingredients include parabens (hormone-mimicking preservatives), microbicides (antibacterial chemicals banned in some Scandinavian countries) and saccharin (a known carcinogen). Eco toothpastes offer a different way. The Natural Dentist (http://www.oraldent.co.uk/) makes herb-based concoctions, while Green People's (http://www.greenpeople.co.uk/) range is free from sodium lauryl/laureth sulphate and other foaming agents, fluoride, artificial sweeteners or flavours and all other 'unnecessary' synthetic ingredients. Eco-Dent (http://www.everythingcinnamon.co.uk/) is natural and low abrasive, while Kingfisher (a top US eco brand) contains coconut. Like Weleda's natural herbal paste, all are available via The Green Shop (http://www.greenshop.co.uk/), except Tom's of Maine. Since the brand was bought by Colgate-Palmolive, some retailers have refused to stock it due to the parent company's record on environmental reporting and animal testing.
Some 240m toothbrushes are chucked away each year, half of them the powered variety, contributing to the 14kg of electrical waste discarded by each of us annually. From July, electronic toothbrushes are covered by an EU directive so retailers must take them back for recycling. But the sustainable antidote is a manual Monte-Bianco or Lavera brush (http://www.honestycosmetics.co.uk/), for which you can buy changeable heads. And you needn't give up on the white smile either: Jason Powersmile (http://www.thinknatural.com/) uses 'natural' whiteners including perilla seeds.
lucy.siegle@observer.co.uk
Vocabulary:
Moisturizer: A moisturizer is a cream that you put on your skin to make it feel softer and smoother.
Trigger: If something triggers an event or situation, it causes it to begin to happen or exist.
Retailer: A retailer is a person or business that sells goods to the public. (BUSINESS)
Fluffy: If you describe something such as a towel or a toy animal as fluffy, you mean that it is very soft.
Compel: If a situation, a rule, or a person compels you to do something, they force you to do it.
Plethora: A plethora of something is a large amount of it, especially an amount of it that is greater than you need, want, or can cope with. (FORMAL)
Stroll: If you stroll somewhere, you walk there in a slow, relaxed way.
Swirl: If you swirl something liquid or flowing, or if it swirls, it moves round and round quickly.
Plughole: A plughole is a small hole in a bath or sink which allows the water to flow away and into which you can put a plug. (BRIT; in AM, use drain)
A concoction is something that has been made out of several things mixed together.
Chuck away: If you chuck something away, you throw it away or waste it. (INFORMAL)
Main Ideas:
British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection measures your cruelty footprint
Animal cruelty in cosmetics
200 million animals are used in research and testing worldwide for consumer goods every year
Companies need to be forced to use non-animal-testing techniques.
A leading UK brand of natural toothpaste, was wrongly described as an eco brand
It contains a combination of hydrogen peroxide and urea, with worrying implications for waterways and aquatic wildlife
Personal Reaction:
Cruelty on animal is an issue which usually generates great debates, especially in developed countries because of the ever-increasing use of beauty products. It is known that hundreds of animals are tested in a pitiless way in order to improved cosmetics without taking into account the agony of the animals. In my point of view, I think that official corporations should be formed in order to control every cosmetic company, and to punish them, in case they are using animal testing. Not only animals are suffering from the cruelty of some companies but also our environment. There exist many products as toothpaste that contains sustains that destroy the wild life and water, as well. On the ground of this, it is my opinion that each government should be in charge of controlling companies to preserve the nature of their country.
When it comes to beauty products, not only must you consider your carbon footprint (emissions you are responsible for) and wider ecological footprint (the resources you consume and their impact), but there's now a new campaign by the BUAV (British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection) which measures your cruelty footprint, too. How many animals died to make sure your brand of mascara or moisturiser doesn't trigger common allergies?
Many consumers - ethical ones included - will be surprised. The issue of animal cruelty in cosmetics seems to belong to the Eighties when the Body Shop (which along with the Co-op is still the biggest retailer of cruelty-free products) championed non-animal-tested foot lotions and cleansers. In 1998 the UK even passed a law preventing testing of animals for cosmetics in the UK. Consumers (reasonably) assumed that bunnies could sleep in peace, without fear of surfactants being dripped in their eyes.That became a dangerous assumption as manufacturers merely outsourced the testing of new ingredients elsewhere in Europe and beyond. A European ban apparently arrives in 2013 but, meanwhile, '200 million animals are used in research and testing worldwide for consumer goods every year,' according to Michelle Thew of BUAV.
Ironically, consumers concerned with the environmental and health effects of new chemicals also want to save fluffy animals from laboratory torture. This is problematic because the new European Reach directive, which promises to fill in data gaps for 30,000 new chemicals, would, according to animal rights campaigners, require 12.8m animals to test on. To avoid this, manufacturers need to be compelled to use non-animal-testing techniques.
A more immediate way to shrink your footprint is to buy as simply structured products as possible. So-called 'innovative' products - from curl-extending mascaras to new air fresheners - promising enhanced powers, contain a plethora of synthesised new chemicals (every 20 seconds a new synthetic chemical is launched on to the global market). All will need to be tested on animals.
Meanwhile, the labelling of products borders on insane. The phrase 'this product was not tested on animals' is no guarantee. It merely means the finished product has not been tested, but offers no guarantee individual ingredients haven't. The only way to be sure is to buy products from companies recommended from the list on www.buav.org/gocrueltyfree/ukcompanies.html. So if you want to be sure your shampoo hasn't been tested on a bunny, look for the bunny logo.
lucy.siegle@observer.co.uk
Can I have white teeth and be eco friendly?You don't want green teeth, says Lucy Siegle, but it's worth considering the environmental cost of keeping them white Sunday May 13, 2007The Observer
The following apology was printed in the Observer's For the record column, Sunday May 20 2007Kingfisher, a leading UK brand of natural toothpaste, was wrongly described as a 'top US eco brand'. While the product is sold in many countries, including the US, it is made, stored and marketed in Norwich, England. Apologies.
Not many customers stroll into dental practices in search of greener teeth. Not half as many as are on a quest for the whiter-than-white smile sported by tweenage popstars. Unfortunately, this involves large quantities of carbamide peroxide (a combination of hydrogen peroxide and urea), with worrying implications for waterways and aquatic wildlife as it swirls down the plughole.
Similarly, the widespread use of dental amalgam, a combination of mercury and silver-based alloys (mercury is a highly toxic metal which can build up in fish and humans), in fillings makes dental practices significant polluters. Some are better at disposing of and recycling amalgam than others, but it can be difficult to ask once you're in the chair.
Fortunately, a few surgeries are becoming more explicit about their ecological footprint. Later this month Dr Bob Bhamra opens the UK's first 'carbon neutral' surgery in Kingston, Surrey (http://www.jivadental.co.uk/), assessed by the Carbon Trust. But it's not just about offsetting - Dr Bob has also looked at material use and impact across procedures; the anti-bacterial flooring is from a sustainable source; and only digital x-rays will be taken (traditional x-rays result in waste chromium and other hazardous processing chemicals). Other surgeries are also starting to assess their footprints: Hygeia in Totnes (http://www.hygeia.co.uk/) also uses digital x-rays and even has a wormery.
At home, toothpaste ingredients include parabens (hormone-mimicking preservatives), microbicides (antibacterial chemicals banned in some Scandinavian countries) and saccharin (a known carcinogen). Eco toothpastes offer a different way. The Natural Dentist (http://www.oraldent.co.uk/) makes herb-based concoctions, while Green People's (http://www.greenpeople.co.uk/) range is free from sodium lauryl/laureth sulphate and other foaming agents, fluoride, artificial sweeteners or flavours and all other 'unnecessary' synthetic ingredients. Eco-Dent (http://www.everythingcinnamon.co.uk/) is natural and low abrasive, while Kingfisher (a top US eco brand) contains coconut. Like Weleda's natural herbal paste, all are available via The Green Shop (http://www.greenshop.co.uk/), except Tom's of Maine. Since the brand was bought by Colgate-Palmolive, some retailers have refused to stock it due to the parent company's record on environmental reporting and animal testing.
Some 240m toothbrushes are chucked away each year, half of them the powered variety, contributing to the 14kg of electrical waste discarded by each of us annually. From July, electronic toothbrushes are covered by an EU directive so retailers must take them back for recycling. But the sustainable antidote is a manual Monte-Bianco or Lavera brush (http://www.honestycosmetics.co.uk/), for which you can buy changeable heads. And you needn't give up on the white smile either: Jason Powersmile (http://www.thinknatural.com/) uses 'natural' whiteners including perilla seeds.
lucy.siegle@observer.co.uk
Vocabulary:
Moisturizer: A moisturizer is a cream that you put on your skin to make it feel softer and smoother.
Trigger: If something triggers an event or situation, it causes it to begin to happen or exist.
Retailer: A retailer is a person or business that sells goods to the public. (BUSINESS)
Fluffy: If you describe something such as a towel or a toy animal as fluffy, you mean that it is very soft.
Compel: If a situation, a rule, or a person compels you to do something, they force you to do it.
Plethora: A plethora of something is a large amount of it, especially an amount of it that is greater than you need, want, or can cope with. (FORMAL)
Stroll: If you stroll somewhere, you walk there in a slow, relaxed way.
Swirl: If you swirl something liquid or flowing, or if it swirls, it moves round and round quickly.
Plughole: A plughole is a small hole in a bath or sink which allows the water to flow away and into which you can put a plug. (BRIT; in AM, use drain)
A concoction is something that has been made out of several things mixed together.
Chuck away: If you chuck something away, you throw it away or waste it. (INFORMAL)
Main Ideas:
British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection measures your cruelty footprint
Animal cruelty in cosmetics
200 million animals are used in research and testing worldwide for consumer goods every year
Companies need to be forced to use non-animal-testing techniques.
A leading UK brand of natural toothpaste, was wrongly described as an eco brand
It contains a combination of hydrogen peroxide and urea, with worrying implications for waterways and aquatic wildlife
Personal Reaction:
Cruelty on animal is an issue which usually generates great debates, especially in developed countries because of the ever-increasing use of beauty products. It is known that hundreds of animals are tested in a pitiless way in order to improved cosmetics without taking into account the agony of the animals. In my point of view, I think that official corporations should be formed in order to control every cosmetic company, and to punish them, in case they are using animal testing. Not only animals are suffering from the cruelty of some companies but also our environment. There exist many products as toothpaste that contains sustains that destroy the wild life and water, as well. On the ground of this, it is my opinion that each government should be in charge of controlling companies to preserve the nature of their country.
Article 11
Argentina still carries mark of las Malvinas
By James Sturcke / UK news 02:34pm Interviewed for Guardian Unlimited's Falklands 25 Years On multimedia presentation, the Argentinian merchant seaman, Edgardo Dell'Elicine, complained that when he returned home from the conflict, he found people were more interested in events in the World Cup than the contested islands.
A quarter of a century on and times have changed dramatically. Today's papers in Argentina devote substantial space to the 25th anniversary of the invasion of the south Atlantic islands. Pagina 12 leads with details of a new study which says that 40% of Argentinian veterans polled have attempted suicide since the conflict. Almost half experience alcohol problems and 70% still have difficulty sleeping, the study of 200 veterans by Pami, a social services institute, found.
Report author Margarita Morini tells the paper:
"When they returned from the Falklands, the military brainwashed the conscripts so that they hid, so that they were ashamed of, [their experiences]. Consequently, they never externalised the after effects, particularly the psychological ones."
Clarín reports that the Argentinian president, Néstor Kirchner, will head an anniversary parade today on the Patagonian island of Tierra del Fuego, the part of Argentina closest to the Falklands. His appearance had been in doubt due to threats that local government employees would stage a protest about domestic grievances.
A reporter from the paper writes about a chance encounter on a flight from Chile to the Falklands between two Goose Green veterans, one Argentinian, the other British.
On being told by journalists that the Argentinian five rows back was a Falklands veteran, Garry Clement, who has decided to settle on the islands, went over and shook the hand of Oscar Mario Núñez, who watched 37 of his colleagues die at the battle. The two agreed to meet up in Port Stanley and visit the battlefield together, the paper says.
La Nación has a special report on the conflict with videos interspersed with photos - interesting even if you don't speak Spanish.
Such is the level of interest, the paper even has a gallery of screen grabs showing how British newspapers are reporting today's anniversary.
The post was written by James Sturcke. You can email the author at james.sturcke@guardian.co.uk
Comments
The Malvinas subject is a typical case of British bad faith, exercised with gusto by different British governments of all kinds over centuries of plunder, havoc, use of brute force and cheating, in order to built an empire, now almost defunct.Malvinas is one of the last remains of this shameful past.Since 1833 when they were forcefully taken away from Argentina, the sole presence of a certain number of crown employees apparently served, as Britain claims, to reinforce its rights, originally obtained by brute force.UN resolutions to and international calls that compell both parties to sit down, discuss and agreed on sovereignty were (and are)systematically disregarded by the British government, whatever its party colour is.But, conversely of what Britain usually claim, Malvinas is not an isolated issue between Argentina and Britain long, difficult relationship over the centuries.Britain attempted to conquer us in 1806,in 1807 (sending in both cases armies and a fleet from S. Africa for this purpose) and in 1845 as part of a more comprehensive plan to built a colony in this part of S. America. Fortunately those plans failed, and failed miserably thanks to the resistance of the people of this land.Until the last employee of the crown and his/her army counterpart leaves the islands, every Argentine citizen - regardless of his/her political views - will continue to consider Malvinas as part of our Fatherland, illegally occupied by an alien country.In spite of what Thatcher ( this decrepit gorgon and notorious war criminal) and what that former Socialist ( now an enthusiastic colonialist ) Blair could mumble about,the Islands wil continue to be part of our Argentine hearts and souls.
Mario M. helmanBuenos Aires,Argentina
Posted by Malvinas on April 3, 2007 1:25 PM. Offensive? Unsuitable? Report this comment.
Dear Mario, who gave you the right to speak for "every Argentine citizen"?
Islanders seem to be happy with their life. It is extremely unlikely that they will be equally happy with a government that can't even make sure traffic code is respected, let alone deal with poverty in places like Chaco or Formosa, which, since they are NOT illegally occupied by Britain, are of no interest to "every Argentine citizen".
So, I agree partly with what you say here:
"Until the last employee of the crown [...] leaves the island, every Argentine citizen [...] will continue to consider Malvinas as part of our Fatherland [...]".
Absolutely. Only UNTIL THEN. After that, they will fall in the same oblivion where most of Argentina proudly dwells.
More than a territorial claim, Falklands are a symbol. A symbol of all things lost by Argentina in the past centuries. It's hard to let go of a symbol, especially if you are force-fed its importance since kindergarten.Perhaps it's best to start WORKING in order to recover past wealth, and leave Falklands to their happy inhabitants.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007
Vocabulary:
Contest: If someone contests an election or competition, they take part in it and try to win it. (mainly BRIT)
Poll: A poll is a survey in which people are asked their opinions about something, usually in order to find out how popular something is or what people intend to do in the future.
Grievance: If you have a grievance about something that has happened or been done, you believe that it was unfair.
Intersperse: If one group of things are interspersed with another or interspersed among another, the second things occur between or among the first things.
Grab: If you grab something, you take it or pick it up suddenly and roughly.
Plunder: If someone plunders a place or plunders things from a place, they steal things from it. (LITERARY)
Havoc: Havoc is great disorder, and confusion.
Defunct: If something is defunct, it no longer exists or has stopped functioning or operating.
Decrepit: Something that is decrepit is old and in bad condition. Someone who is decrepit is old and weak.
Mumble: If you mumble, you speak very quietly and not at all clearly with the result that the words are difficult to understand.
Oblivion: Oblivion is the state of having been forgotten or of no longer being considered important.
Main Ideas:
Las Islas Malvinas and the consequences of the war in soldiers.
Many Argentinean newspapers have mention the 25th anniversary of the war
Argentinean veterans polled have attempted suicide since the conflict.
The opinion of a British man who suggests to take into account the impoverished provinces of Chaco and Formosa instead of being concerned about the Falklands.
Personal Reaction:
Las Islas Malvinas is topic which has hurt the hearth of many Argentinean citizens longing this land to be part of our Argentina. On the 25th anniversary many parades were held but the holiday was not on the 2nd April, since thank to a law holidays are celebrated on Monday. The conflict on the islands dates from many years, which has left the marks. On the war many young boys died because of a liar censorship which pretended to win a war against one of the most powerful countries. On those times, Argentina was struggled difficult moments with a ruler, missing- people, and the war. I think that it is true, we have learnt since kindergarten that Islas Malvinas belong us, and this is the reason why we will still thinking the same the so called Falklands are Argentinean not British.
By James Sturcke / UK news 02:34pm Interviewed for Guardian Unlimited's Falklands 25 Years On multimedia presentation, the Argentinian merchant seaman, Edgardo Dell'Elicine, complained that when he returned home from the conflict, he found people were more interested in events in the World Cup than the contested islands.
A quarter of a century on and times have changed dramatically. Today's papers in Argentina devote substantial space to the 25th anniversary of the invasion of the south Atlantic islands. Pagina 12 leads with details of a new study which says that 40% of Argentinian veterans polled have attempted suicide since the conflict. Almost half experience alcohol problems and 70% still have difficulty sleeping, the study of 200 veterans by Pami, a social services institute, found.
Report author Margarita Morini tells the paper:
"When they returned from the Falklands, the military brainwashed the conscripts so that they hid, so that they were ashamed of, [their experiences]. Consequently, they never externalised the after effects, particularly the psychological ones."
Clarín reports that the Argentinian president, Néstor Kirchner, will head an anniversary parade today on the Patagonian island of Tierra del Fuego, the part of Argentina closest to the Falklands. His appearance had been in doubt due to threats that local government employees would stage a protest about domestic grievances.
A reporter from the paper writes about a chance encounter on a flight from Chile to the Falklands between two Goose Green veterans, one Argentinian, the other British.
On being told by journalists that the Argentinian five rows back was a Falklands veteran, Garry Clement, who has decided to settle on the islands, went over and shook the hand of Oscar Mario Núñez, who watched 37 of his colleagues die at the battle. The two agreed to meet up in Port Stanley and visit the battlefield together, the paper says.
La Nación has a special report on the conflict with videos interspersed with photos - interesting even if you don't speak Spanish.
Such is the level of interest, the paper even has a gallery of screen grabs showing how British newspapers are reporting today's anniversary.
The post was written by James Sturcke. You can email the author at james.sturcke@guardian.co.uk
Comments
The Malvinas subject is a typical case of British bad faith, exercised with gusto by different British governments of all kinds over centuries of plunder, havoc, use of brute force and cheating, in order to built an empire, now almost defunct.Malvinas is one of the last remains of this shameful past.Since 1833 when they were forcefully taken away from Argentina, the sole presence of a certain number of crown employees apparently served, as Britain claims, to reinforce its rights, originally obtained by brute force.UN resolutions to and international calls that compell both parties to sit down, discuss and agreed on sovereignty were (and are)systematically disregarded by the British government, whatever its party colour is.But, conversely of what Britain usually claim, Malvinas is not an isolated issue between Argentina and Britain long, difficult relationship over the centuries.Britain attempted to conquer us in 1806,in 1807 (sending in both cases armies and a fleet from S. Africa for this purpose) and in 1845 as part of a more comprehensive plan to built a colony in this part of S. America. Fortunately those plans failed, and failed miserably thanks to the resistance of the people of this land.Until the last employee of the crown and his/her army counterpart leaves the islands, every Argentine citizen - regardless of his/her political views - will continue to consider Malvinas as part of our Fatherland, illegally occupied by an alien country.In spite of what Thatcher ( this decrepit gorgon and notorious war criminal) and what that former Socialist ( now an enthusiastic colonialist ) Blair could mumble about,the Islands wil continue to be part of our Argentine hearts and souls.
Mario M. helmanBuenos Aires,Argentina
Posted by Malvinas on April 3, 2007 1:25 PM. Offensive? Unsuitable? Report this comment.
Dear Mario, who gave you the right to speak for "every Argentine citizen"?
Islanders seem to be happy with their life. It is extremely unlikely that they will be equally happy with a government that can't even make sure traffic code is respected, let alone deal with poverty in places like Chaco or Formosa, which, since they are NOT illegally occupied by Britain, are of no interest to "every Argentine citizen".
So, I agree partly with what you say here:
"Until the last employee of the crown [...] leaves the island, every Argentine citizen [...] will continue to consider Malvinas as part of our Fatherland [...]".
Absolutely. Only UNTIL THEN. After that, they will fall in the same oblivion where most of Argentina proudly dwells.
More than a territorial claim, Falklands are a symbol. A symbol of all things lost by Argentina in the past centuries. It's hard to let go of a symbol, especially if you are force-fed its importance since kindergarten.Perhaps it's best to start WORKING in order to recover past wealth, and leave Falklands to their happy inhabitants.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007
Vocabulary:
Contest: If someone contests an election or competition, they take part in it and try to win it. (mainly BRIT)
Poll: A poll is a survey in which people are asked their opinions about something, usually in order to find out how popular something is or what people intend to do in the future.
Grievance: If you have a grievance about something that has happened or been done, you believe that it was unfair.
Intersperse: If one group of things are interspersed with another or interspersed among another, the second things occur between or among the first things.
Grab: If you grab something, you take it or pick it up suddenly and roughly.
Plunder: If someone plunders a place or plunders things from a place, they steal things from it. (LITERARY)
Havoc: Havoc is great disorder, and confusion.
Defunct: If something is defunct, it no longer exists or has stopped functioning or operating.
Decrepit: Something that is decrepit is old and in bad condition. Someone who is decrepit is old and weak.
Mumble: If you mumble, you speak very quietly and not at all clearly with the result that the words are difficult to understand.
Oblivion: Oblivion is the state of having been forgotten or of no longer being considered important.
Main Ideas:
Las Islas Malvinas and the consequences of the war in soldiers.
Many Argentinean newspapers have mention the 25th anniversary of the war
Argentinean veterans polled have attempted suicide since the conflict.
The opinion of a British man who suggests to take into account the impoverished provinces of Chaco and Formosa instead of being concerned about the Falklands.
Personal Reaction:
Las Islas Malvinas is topic which has hurt the hearth of many Argentinean citizens longing this land to be part of our Argentina. On the 25th anniversary many parades were held but the holiday was not on the 2nd April, since thank to a law holidays are celebrated on Monday. The conflict on the islands dates from many years, which has left the marks. On the war many young boys died because of a liar censorship which pretended to win a war against one of the most powerful countries. On those times, Argentina was struggled difficult moments with a ruler, missing- people, and the war. I think that it is true, we have learnt since kindergarten that Islas Malvinas belong us, and this is the reason why we will still thinking the same the so called Falklands are Argentinean not British.
Articles 10
A calculator to help save the planet Juliette Jowit, environment editorSunday June 17, 2007The Observer
An official calculator that enables every person in Britain to work out how much they are contributing to global warming will be launched by the government this week.
The special website will calculate how people's home heating, appliances and personal transport add to the carbon emissions blamed for causing climate change.
The calculator, conceived by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), will allow people to work out how much carbon they produce at home, when driving and when flying. Questions range from whether homes are insulated to how they dry their clothes and how much water people put in their kettle for a cup of tea.
Users will be able to compare their results to the UK average, and then be given 'tailored' advice about how to reduce their energy use and emissions.
Other organisations already publish similar tools on the internet, but new research for Defra has revealed widespread public confusion about whether and how they can help tackle climate change.
The poll of more than 3,000 adults, conducted by ICM Research, found that two thirds of people believe climate change is entirely or mainly a result of human behaviour, but only one in five correctly named carbon dioxide as the main problem, and nearly one in 10 said they could have no influence on limiting the damage.
There was also uncertainty about what were the best things to do to cut carbon emissions - half said they should recycle more, one-third suggested driving less and only four per cent thought they should fly less often. Ministers hope a more detailed calculator and personalised recommendations will help to rectify such uncertainty.
'Just as people are increasingly looking for advice in areas of their life like fitness, diet or lifestyle, we need to give them this support in reducing their carbon footprint,' said David Miliband, the Environment Secretary. 'I hope that in time it will come to be seen as the gold standard for carbon calculators.'
Environment campaigners will welcome any move to encourage people to think about reducing energy use, but there is likely to be some concern about how many areas of life are omitted from the calculations. These include food consumption, public transport and the overall share of emissions generated by public services - from street lights to schools and health care to military spending.
The UK average 'carbon footprint' for the activities covered by the calculator is 4.48 tonnes of CO2, a little under half of each person's actual share of the national total.
Martyn Williams, a climate change campaigner for Friends of the Earth, warned that carbon calculators should not be used to suggest that individuals should bear the brunt of changes. 'They have a tendency to focus on what people can do and they do, to some extent, let the government off the hook,' he said. 'For many things people want to do it's hard unless, for example, government has got a good public transport system.'
James Smith, Shell UK's chairman, says the next 18 months are critical to getting international agreements in place to reduce carbon emissions. Smith told The Observer: '[For] physically slowing the increase in emissions, stopping the increase and reducing emissions, we have got eight or 10 or 15 years - there's a variety of opinions but not terribly long. But in order for that to happen there's a lot of policy to put in place.
'A momentum has been built up - it's so important we get that momentum maintained over the next 18 months or so.'
Smith said Shell wanted an international agreement on how much emissions would be cut by, an international carbon trading system, public funding for new technology, and regulations to set standards for everything from vehicle emissions to building design.
Bush agrees to CO2 cut, with strings attachedLarry Elliott and Patrick WintourFriday June 8, 2007The Guardian
George Bush last night pledged the United States to a "substantial" cut in greenhouse gas as the west's leading industrial nations agreed to negotiate a new climate change deal within the next two years.
After strong lobbying from EU leaders, Mr Bush agreed to "seriously consider" a proposal that would result in a 50% cut in carbon emissions by 2050 but made it clear that US involvement depended on India and China being included in any agreement.
Though it fell short of his pre-summit goal, Tony Blair, who had used his last one-to-one meeting with Mr Bush to press for a strong G8 commitment to a multilateral UN treaty to succeed the 1997 Kyoto accord, described yesterday's breakthrough as "a huge step forward".
"The possibility is here for the first time to get a global deal on climate change with substantial cuts in emissions with everyone in the deal - which is the only way we are going to get the deal we need.
"This is a major, major step forward. There's now the recognition that we do need a global deal with everyone in it."
While the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, described the G8 deal as "a very, very substantial and significant step forward," the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, was less effusive. "If you want me to say that we could have done better, then yes. I want to speak frankly."
Environmental groups were split over the significance of the agreement.
Ahead of the G8 summit, Mr Bush had stoked fears that the US, the world's biggest economy and leading emitter of greenhouse gases, was seeking to stall UN action on climate change.
But yesterday Mr Bush said: "The United States will be actively involved, if not taking the lead, in a post-Kyoto framework, post-Kyoto agreement. I view our role as a bridge between people in Europe and others and India and China. And if you want them at the table, it's important to give them an opportunity to set an international goal. And that's why I laid out the initiative I laid out.
"We're deadly earnest in getting something done; this is serious business. And the fundamental question is how best to send proper signals to create the technologies necessary to deal with this issue."
Under yesterday's agreement, the G8 called for strong and early action to tackle climate change through a "substantial global emissions reduction".
It wants the major emitters to reach agreement by the end of next year with a global UN accord reached in 2009.
The G8 added that it would "seriously consider" an agreement between the EU, Japan and Canada which would cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50% by 2050, and invited the major emerging economies to "join us in this endeavor".
Participation by China and India is vital for the success of the G8 deal, since Mr Bush has made it clear that he will not hand a competitive advantage to China and India. The UN said yesterday's announcement was a step towards a broader, worldwide pact by 2009. "It's a very positive outcome," said Yvo de Boer, the head of the UN climate change secretariat in Bonn. "It augurs very well for the conference of parties in Bali," he said, referring to a UN meeting in Indonesia in December that will look for long-term ways to combat climate change when the Kyoto agreement expires at the end of 2011.
UK sources said yesterday's move was made possible after Mr Blair was asked by Mrs Merkel to use his close relationship with the Mr Bush to find a way forward.
Mr Blair admitted that there was still a long way to go on climate change, with the need to agree on a baseline date for reductions in greenhouse gases and a formula for how the cuts should be shared out. The prime minister was encouraged, however, that reducing emissions was linked to setting up a global system of carbon trading. The Conservatives welcomed the progress made at the summit.
Vocabulary:
Tailor: If you tailor something such as a plan or system to someone's needs, you make it suitable for a particular person or purpose by changing the details of it.
Poll: A poll is a survey in which people are asked their opinions about something, usually in order to find out how popular something is or what people intend to do in the future.
To bear the brunt or take the brunt of something unpleasant means to suffer the main part or force of it.
Momentum: If a process or movement gains momentum, it keeps developing or happening more quickly and keeps becoming less likely to stop.
Pledge: When someone makes a pledge, they make a serious promise that they will do something.
Lobby: If you lobby someone such as a member of a government or council, you try to persuade them that a particular law should be changed or that a particular thing should be done.
Stoke: If you stoke something such as a feeling, you cause it to be felt more strongly.
Stall: If you stall, you try to avoid doing something until later.
Earnest: Earnest people are very serious and sincere in what they say or do, because they think that their actions and beliefs are important.
Endeavour: An endeavour is an attempt to do something, especially something new or original. (FORMAL)
Augur: If something augurs well or badly for a person or a future situation, it is a sign that things will go well or badly. (FORMAL)
Main Ideas:
An official calculator on a web page that let people knows how much they are contributing to global warming.
Ways to cut off carbon emissions.
George Bush guaranteed the United States to a "substantial" cut in greenhouse gas.
The G8 called for strong and early action to tackle climate change.
Personal Reaction:
Nowadays, the global warming is affecting our world and health. As we know the worldwide climate is changing and it is becoming worse in many countries. On the ground of this, many phenomenons are being experienced by people as wild storms, hurricanes, low temperature, dry lands, and flood, among others. In my opinion, it is an excellent idea of the most powerful countries to assume a commitment about the global warming, since it is widely know that only the man is able to reduce this ever- increasing fact in our environment. Apart from this, the initiative of a Britain web page of letting know people how much they are contributing to the global warming, will allow citizens to be aware of their action in their lives.
An official calculator that enables every person in Britain to work out how much they are contributing to global warming will be launched by the government this week.
The special website will calculate how people's home heating, appliances and personal transport add to the carbon emissions blamed for causing climate change.
The calculator, conceived by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), will allow people to work out how much carbon they produce at home, when driving and when flying. Questions range from whether homes are insulated to how they dry their clothes and how much water people put in their kettle for a cup of tea.
Users will be able to compare their results to the UK average, and then be given 'tailored' advice about how to reduce their energy use and emissions.
Other organisations already publish similar tools on the internet, but new research for Defra has revealed widespread public confusion about whether and how they can help tackle climate change.
The poll of more than 3,000 adults, conducted by ICM Research, found that two thirds of people believe climate change is entirely or mainly a result of human behaviour, but only one in five correctly named carbon dioxide as the main problem, and nearly one in 10 said they could have no influence on limiting the damage.
There was also uncertainty about what were the best things to do to cut carbon emissions - half said they should recycle more, one-third suggested driving less and only four per cent thought they should fly less often. Ministers hope a more detailed calculator and personalised recommendations will help to rectify such uncertainty.
'Just as people are increasingly looking for advice in areas of their life like fitness, diet or lifestyle, we need to give them this support in reducing their carbon footprint,' said David Miliband, the Environment Secretary. 'I hope that in time it will come to be seen as the gold standard for carbon calculators.'
Environment campaigners will welcome any move to encourage people to think about reducing energy use, but there is likely to be some concern about how many areas of life are omitted from the calculations. These include food consumption, public transport and the overall share of emissions generated by public services - from street lights to schools and health care to military spending.
The UK average 'carbon footprint' for the activities covered by the calculator is 4.48 tonnes of CO2, a little under half of each person's actual share of the national total.
Martyn Williams, a climate change campaigner for Friends of the Earth, warned that carbon calculators should not be used to suggest that individuals should bear the brunt of changes. 'They have a tendency to focus on what people can do and they do, to some extent, let the government off the hook,' he said. 'For many things people want to do it's hard unless, for example, government has got a good public transport system.'
James Smith, Shell UK's chairman, says the next 18 months are critical to getting international agreements in place to reduce carbon emissions. Smith told The Observer: '[For] physically slowing the increase in emissions, stopping the increase and reducing emissions, we have got eight or 10 or 15 years - there's a variety of opinions but not terribly long. But in order for that to happen there's a lot of policy to put in place.
'A momentum has been built up - it's so important we get that momentum maintained over the next 18 months or so.'
Smith said Shell wanted an international agreement on how much emissions would be cut by, an international carbon trading system, public funding for new technology, and regulations to set standards for everything from vehicle emissions to building design.
Bush agrees to CO2 cut, with strings attachedLarry Elliott and Patrick WintourFriday June 8, 2007The Guardian
George Bush last night pledged the United States to a "substantial" cut in greenhouse gas as the west's leading industrial nations agreed to negotiate a new climate change deal within the next two years.
After strong lobbying from EU leaders, Mr Bush agreed to "seriously consider" a proposal that would result in a 50% cut in carbon emissions by 2050 but made it clear that US involvement depended on India and China being included in any agreement.
Though it fell short of his pre-summit goal, Tony Blair, who had used his last one-to-one meeting with Mr Bush to press for a strong G8 commitment to a multilateral UN treaty to succeed the 1997 Kyoto accord, described yesterday's breakthrough as "a huge step forward".
"The possibility is here for the first time to get a global deal on climate change with substantial cuts in emissions with everyone in the deal - which is the only way we are going to get the deal we need.
"This is a major, major step forward. There's now the recognition that we do need a global deal with everyone in it."
While the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, described the G8 deal as "a very, very substantial and significant step forward," the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, was less effusive. "If you want me to say that we could have done better, then yes. I want to speak frankly."
Environmental groups were split over the significance of the agreement.
Ahead of the G8 summit, Mr Bush had stoked fears that the US, the world's biggest economy and leading emitter of greenhouse gases, was seeking to stall UN action on climate change.
But yesterday Mr Bush said: "The United States will be actively involved, if not taking the lead, in a post-Kyoto framework, post-Kyoto agreement. I view our role as a bridge between people in Europe and others and India and China. And if you want them at the table, it's important to give them an opportunity to set an international goal. And that's why I laid out the initiative I laid out.
"We're deadly earnest in getting something done; this is serious business. And the fundamental question is how best to send proper signals to create the technologies necessary to deal with this issue."
Under yesterday's agreement, the G8 called for strong and early action to tackle climate change through a "substantial global emissions reduction".
It wants the major emitters to reach agreement by the end of next year with a global UN accord reached in 2009.
The G8 added that it would "seriously consider" an agreement between the EU, Japan and Canada which would cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50% by 2050, and invited the major emerging economies to "join us in this endeavor".
Participation by China and India is vital for the success of the G8 deal, since Mr Bush has made it clear that he will not hand a competitive advantage to China and India. The UN said yesterday's announcement was a step towards a broader, worldwide pact by 2009. "It's a very positive outcome," said Yvo de Boer, the head of the UN climate change secretariat in Bonn. "It augurs very well for the conference of parties in Bali," he said, referring to a UN meeting in Indonesia in December that will look for long-term ways to combat climate change when the Kyoto agreement expires at the end of 2011.
UK sources said yesterday's move was made possible after Mr Blair was asked by Mrs Merkel to use his close relationship with the Mr Bush to find a way forward.
Mr Blair admitted that there was still a long way to go on climate change, with the need to agree on a baseline date for reductions in greenhouse gases and a formula for how the cuts should be shared out. The prime minister was encouraged, however, that reducing emissions was linked to setting up a global system of carbon trading. The Conservatives welcomed the progress made at the summit.
Vocabulary:
Tailor: If you tailor something such as a plan or system to someone's needs, you make it suitable for a particular person or purpose by changing the details of it.
Poll: A poll is a survey in which people are asked their opinions about something, usually in order to find out how popular something is or what people intend to do in the future.
To bear the brunt or take the brunt of something unpleasant means to suffer the main part or force of it.
Momentum: If a process or movement gains momentum, it keeps developing or happening more quickly and keeps becoming less likely to stop.
Pledge: When someone makes a pledge, they make a serious promise that they will do something.
Lobby: If you lobby someone such as a member of a government or council, you try to persuade them that a particular law should be changed or that a particular thing should be done.
Stoke: If you stoke something such as a feeling, you cause it to be felt more strongly.
Stall: If you stall, you try to avoid doing something until later.
Earnest: Earnest people are very serious and sincere in what they say or do, because they think that their actions and beliefs are important.
Endeavour: An endeavour is an attempt to do something, especially something new or original. (FORMAL)
Augur: If something augurs well or badly for a person or a future situation, it is a sign that things will go well or badly. (FORMAL)
Main Ideas:
An official calculator on a web page that let people knows how much they are contributing to global warming.
Ways to cut off carbon emissions.
George Bush guaranteed the United States to a "substantial" cut in greenhouse gas.
The G8 called for strong and early action to tackle climate change.
Personal Reaction:
Nowadays, the global warming is affecting our world and health. As we know the worldwide climate is changing and it is becoming worse in many countries. On the ground of this, many phenomenons are being experienced by people as wild storms, hurricanes, low temperature, dry lands, and flood, among others. In my opinion, it is an excellent idea of the most powerful countries to assume a commitment about the global warming, since it is widely know that only the man is able to reduce this ever- increasing fact in our environment. Apart from this, the initiative of a Britain web page of letting know people how much they are contributing to the global warming, will allow citizens to be aware of their action in their lives.
sábado 11 de agosto de 2007
The Sarachos
I introduce you my family, it comprises of sixteen people. My dad, 69, he is called Antonio. He is currently retired. He is a hard working man; he has worked since his childhood for many years in different jobs, in order to help his family and bring the bread; and he is still working at home, painting and gardening. My mum, 57, she is called Alcira. She is a housewife. She had a difficult childhood, but she dealt well with it. She is an artist, paints pictures and cooks delicious meals.
I have three brothers all of them are married and have their own house. The elder, Victor is 38. He works as a preceptor (he was my preceptor indeed). He is married to Mariela. She is a kindergarten teacher but she also works as preceptor. Mariela and Victor had a daughter, Paula. She is 6 years old. My middle brother is Ricardo, 37. He doesn’t have a stable job. However, he works hard to bring the bread. He got married to Norma who is a housewife. They have two children, Emanuel, 14; Valeria, 9. My youngest brother is Sergio, 33. He works in a bank as a jefe operativo. He is married to Mariela. They have three children Gisela, 19; Valentina, 5; and the youngest in the family Tobias, 2. They all live in Corrientes. And me, I’m 27. I’m not married yet, but I have a fiancé. His name is Martin; we both study and work as teachers. We have been together for about seven years and we plan to get married and have children.
My family is the most precious thing in my life. I thank God for this family. It isn’t perfect but it’s my family and I love them with my entire hearth.
I introduce you my family, it comprises of sixteen people. My dad, 69, he is called Antonio. He is currently retired. He is a hard working man; he has worked since his childhood for many years in different jobs, in order to help his family and bring the bread; and he is still working at home, painting and gardening. My mum, 57, she is called Alcira. She is a housewife. She had a difficult childhood, but she dealt well with it. She is an artist, paints pictures and cooks delicious meals.
I have three brothers all of them are married and have their own house. The elder, Victor is 38. He works as a preceptor (he was my preceptor indeed). He is married to Mariela. She is a kindergarten teacher but she also works as preceptor. Mariela and Victor had a daughter, Paula. She is 6 years old. My middle brother is Ricardo, 37. He doesn’t have a stable job. However, he works hard to bring the bread. He got married to Norma who is a housewife. They have two children, Emanuel, 14; Valeria, 9. My youngest brother is Sergio, 33. He works in a bank as a jefe operativo. He is married to Mariela. They have three children Gisela, 19; Valentina, 5; and the youngest in the family Tobias, 2. They all live in Corrientes. And me, I’m 27. I’m not married yet, but I have a fiancé. His name is Martin; we both study and work as teachers. We have been together for about seven years and we plan to get married and have children.
My family is the most precious thing in my life. I thank God for this family. It isn’t perfect but it’s my family and I love them with my entire hearth.
lunes 6 de agosto de 2007
A hair- raising strange noise
It was a cold winter day, when tour girls friends decided to make a trip to a small village during the weekend. As soon as they arrived to the village they realized that there were few people, and they were only dwellers who were concerned in their daily duties.
The girls spent the first day roaming around the village and climbing hills. As the evening arrived, the exhausted girls decided to have dinner in a small local bar. When they finish dinner they walked towards the house talking about their plans for the following day. They were near the house, suddenly, they had the sense of hearing a strange noise. It was the dogs’ howls. The girls looked at each other and go on walking in the empty street until something spin chilly caught their attention, it was screams and sobbing that came from the darkness. This made the girls’ hair curl and they ran as fast as they could to the house. They locked the door and closed the windows wishing do not have heard that hair-raising noise.
It was a cold winter day, when tour girls friends decided to make a trip to a small village during the weekend. As soon as they arrived to the village they realized that there were few people, and they were only dwellers who were concerned in their daily duties.
The girls spent the first day roaming around the village and climbing hills. As the evening arrived, the exhausted girls decided to have dinner in a small local bar. When they finish dinner they walked towards the house talking about their plans for the following day. They were near the house, suddenly, they had the sense of hearing a strange noise. It was the dogs’ howls. The girls looked at each other and go on walking in the empty street until something spin chilly caught their attention, it was screams and sobbing that came from the darkness. This made the girls’ hair curl and they ran as fast as they could to the house. They locked the door and closed the windows wishing do not have heard that hair-raising noise.
Suscribirse a:
Entradas (Atom)
