dnaiela

2006-05-20T09:03:00.000-07:00

REFLECTIONS

One of my goals was to remember a little of grammar, vocabulary and develop my writing skills. I really accomplished all my goals, because we learned to do several types of essays and in the same time we were practicing our grammar and vocabulary. I know that I put a hundred percent of my energy to this curse. I will like that other activities like watching a movie, outdoors activities will be include in this curse. And finally I think I should get a 5 in this curse because I did my best an accomplished all my goals.

2006-05-20T09:01:00.000-07:00

URIBE’S DECISION
With elections coming soon, presidential candidates can’t commit any mistakes. The expectation of how opponents of the present Colombian president, Alvaro Uribe, are going to fight against his controversial image. President Alvaro Uribe obtained the law that allows that for the first time in Colombia a president can be re-elected immediately. With the strong support and profits he has obtained on his mandate, he has made it so his name appears on the top of all surveys. But recently he has been related with a lot of scandals. One of them is the constant and rare phobia of appearing on live television debates. So, why is it that Uribe doesn’t want to appear on live television debates?
In other countries, TV debates are considered the best way to expose your proposals. This custom is not only limited to European countries or the United States. In countries like the United States, this is an obligation when you are looking to be the president of the nation. Lately on Latin America this doctrine has extended in almost all this region. An example of this is the new president of Chile, Michelle Bachelete, who had to surpass the challenge of Sebastian Piñera, who according to several Medias did a better job than the actual president Bachelete. The risks of not appearing on these debates are high. It is better to lose on one of these debates than not to appear.
His decision to not appear on live television debates is wrong. His reasons why not to go are three. The first one is that he doesn’t want to appear on same conditions like the other contestants because he thinks he will lose his image from president to a simple presidential candidate, damaging the dignity of the first position of our nation. The second one is that in order to avoid controversies on the topics, he has proposed to have personal debates with the national television channels and magazines.
And finally, the third reason is that if he wants to appear on a live television debate, his contestants will start to ask and look down on his labor during these four years, leaving him without the opportunity to express his proposals and ideas and making the contestants achieves their goal. All of this came from the absurd idea that in Colombia when someone is winning on the surveys, they don’t have to debate. That idea is about to change with the possibility of re-election.
I will show three arguments against the reasons from Alvaro Uribe. Against the first one I have to say that even if he is right now the president of Colombia he doesn’t have to use this as an excuse because he is a contestant just like the other ones and his position is not supposed to give him an advantage over the others. And I think that this version of what is supposed to do the president is just a excuse to hide the fact that he is afraid to appear in front of all the country with three candidates that their only mission is to damage his image.
To the second and third reasons, he argues that he would rather have a personal debate in order to avoid controversial questions. I think that if he is sure about his management and of what he has done this past four years, he shouldn’t care about uncomfortable questions. He must have his point of view and proposal just like the other contenders, so when he is on a live debate he will be able to defend himself from all the uncomfortable questions. Uribe does not understand that everybody is on the same condition, all of them had made mistakes and all of them have been in the political scenario from a long time ago.
The president has rejected several international and national debates. In conclusion, the president is just a coward, whose ideas and actions are not consequent. But it is his life and if he thinks that he is going to be the winner and that he doesn’t need to show his intentions on television, it is his decision. He is taking a big risk that in other countries is considered prohibited to reject a public debate. I think he should go out and participate in these debates, and tell the whole country which by the way is confused by the decision he has made. Tell them that they are not alone and that they will never regret of the decision they made 4 years ago.

2006-05-20T08:12:00.000-07:00

THE ERA OF SHARON

With the recent health problem of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, designated Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has now assumed the powers of Israel Prime Minister. That is why the essay is about “Ariel Sharon not being in the power leaves expectation about Israel’s future, questioning how is going to be his replacement and the future of the delicate relationship between Israel and Palestine”.
With Ariel Sharon out of the radar, the expectation of Israelis is keeping everybody’s eyes wide open. According to Drora Perl (Israeli Defense Forces):
I believe it will be not change a lot. The problems, the processes, the needs are still there. There is going to be what I call a little bit of holding in place time when Israel politics realigns, reassesses and we have to se what happens exactly with Sharon. How does his new party doing, and what will be the new arrangement within the Israeli body politics? (qtd. in “Inpact of Ariel Sharon’s exit from Israeli politics”).
This problem will have a little impact on the region. But elections are on March 28. Then we will see who is going to be Sharon’s replacement and how is going to be composed the government. For the next elections there are 31 parties. The new party created by Ariel Sharon named the “Kadima party” includes well-known characters on the Israel politic scenario (some of them coming from the “Labor party”) such as the acting Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, the Justice Minister, Tzipi Livni, the Defense Minister, Shaul Mofaz, and also the support of former Prime Minister Shimon peres.
The rules say that the number one candidate on the party’s list will become Prime Minister if the party receives the most seats. The “kadima party” seems to be the strongest party, according to The Associated press from CNN:
Polls just before the election showed Kadima, founded by Ariel Sharon in November and taken over by Olmert when a stroke felled Sharon on Jan. 4, maintaining a wide lead. Though slightly smaller than two months ago. They show Kadima with about 35 seats, the center-left Labor with about 20 and Likud, the hard-line party Sharon abandoned, with about 15.(“Israeli voters deciding future of West Bank occupation”).
So, everybody is asking what is going to happen with the Israel and Palestine dispute of territory. If we look at it from both sides, the relationship between Israelis and Palestinians has not been even good before Sharon, neither while he was Prime Minister, and it seems that this issue will continue the same way if there is not a both part decision to get in new negotiations. Taking a peer view of what is going to happen with the Israel and Palestine situation; we have the opinion of Khalil Jahshan (Middle East political consultant):
So the challenge right now for whoever will replace Sharon, should he be replaced, would be how to resume, if you will, bilateral talks in light of the fact that Sharon's legacy during the last couple of years has been substituting unilateral decisions for bilateral negotiations. (qtd. in “Impact of Ariel Sharon’s exit from Israeli politics”).
In conclusion, Israel is going to be good. If you are on Sharon’s side, you can see that his new party is looking stronger that the other parties, and no matter who is going to be The new Prime Minister, this person has the mission of create a solution to the Israeli and Palestinian issue and to guard the rights and interests of their nation.

WORKS CITED

“Impact of Ariel Sharon’s exit from Israeli politics.” Online news hour page. 5 Jan. 2006 http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/middle_east/jan-june06/sharon_1-05.html

“Israeli voters deciding future of West Bank occupation.” CNN.com. 28 March 2006< http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/03/27/israel.election.ap/index.html>

2006-05-20T08:09:00.000-07:00

THE ANSWERS OF LIFE ARE ON DREAMS

I love dreaming. Well only when it is about something I like, because sometimes your dreams turn out to be nightmares. To me the night is a space and time where you can relax and think about your day. That’s why sometimes people ask or propose something to you, but you are not ready to make up your mind so they tell you “consult it with your pillow, and tomorrow you tell me your decision”, because that is the only part of the they where you can really think about your concerns. Due to that, most of the time I take a lot of time to sleep, maybe like and hour or more, because that thought can’t get out of my head. As a result of that, sometimes when we go to bed that thought continues on your mind and it can convert on a nightmare.
From my own experience, one day I dreamt about a big dinosaur. That was chasing me. While I was going down stairs of a big building with a dog. All I wanted to do was to get out of it. I was so afraid and he was digging inside the building’s windows. One time I hide from his view in a bathroom but he finally found me, but at the middle of my dream my mother woke me up and told me “it’s time to go to school”. I think I have never been so happy to hear that phrase.
Another funny dream was that once I dreamed about a guy that I liked a lot. In the dream I was sick so he went to my house to visit me but magically in the dream he was in love with me and was trying to be my boyfriend. But when he was about to kiss me, my not so funny mother woke me up whit that last phrase I said just a moment a go, obviously this time I didn’t like it.
Once I dreamed that I was in the top of a building having a party with a lot of friends. One of them called me to see from the board of the building so I went there and suddenly it started shaking and moving in a strange way and I fall down. I lasted like two or three minutes going down. it was like that video of Eminem of the song “The Way I am” where he was going down trough the air very slow and thinking about his life, so when I finally got to the floor I was like out of my body and I was watching my self, and a lot of questions came to my head in that moment. Is this possible? was one of them but at the end I woke up and it was all normal.
For all of that is that I like dreams, even if they are nightmares or sweet dreams, I will always believe that in them I will always find the answers of life.

2006-05-09T17:58:00.000-07:00

Gaza Strip
This documental offers us a little view of what is happening on Gaza strip. The most obvious characteristic of people located in Gaza’s areas is that they are on a continuous suffering. They are always being displaced from their homes by Israeli soldiers, and always expecting when and where is going to be the next attack. The protagonist of this movie is a thirteen years old kid named Mohammed Hejazi, who dropped high school to sell newspapers. He expresses his feelings about living on a constant contact with a military life, and what is to be a kid that can be killed any second and sometimes they wish they were the next victim of this chilling conflict. I think that what is going to happen in the Gaza strip, considering the past elections of a new prime minister who is that, until both parts don’t get in serious negotiation this problem won't be over.

2006-05-04T11:24:00.000-07:00

There were also several differences between Washington and Lincoln one of them was thar Washington came from a wealthy aristocratic background, also he had several years of schooling on the other hand Lincoln came from a poor background and had very little schooling.

Another difference between the two involved their military roles. Washington was a military leader, then he Became president on the contraryLincoln never served in the military,He was a lawyer who early on became a politician then When he became president he took on the role of commander in chief, as all U.S. presidents do, Despite his lack of military background or training, Lincoln made several strategic decisions that enabled the U.S. military leaders to win the Civil War.

Finally, Washington served for two terms and therefore had eight years to accomplish his policies but Lincoln, on the other hand, was assasinated Whilehe was in office and was not able to finish some of the things that he wanted for the country.

2)
Jack Friedhamm was born in New York on October 25, 1965. He began school at the age of six and continued until he was 18 years, Then he went to New York University to learn Medicine. He decided to study Medicine because he liked biology when he was at school. While he was on University he met his wife Cindy, she is a beautiful woman with long black hair. They went along for years before they decided to get married. Jack began to work like as a doctor as soon as he graduated from Medical School. They had two children named Jackie and Peter.They have lived in Queens since the past two years. Jack is very interested on painting and likes to paint portraits of his sun Peter.

2006-04-27T17:54:00.000-07:00

How's it going?
*In which areas of language use have you improved, in your opinion? I think I have improved my writting skill, and i have now better vocabulary and fluency to write and speak.

*Which areas of langauge use are still a problem? I still have problems writtining and don't having fluency when I am talking.

*Which areas of language use do you want to spend the most time on during the rest of the semester? I want to sped the rest of the semester improving my talk and vocabulary skills.

*What type of classwork is most useful, in your opinion? I think that the essays are a great way to practice writting and the oral presentations to practice our speaking skills.

*What can you personally do to increase your rate of progress? keep on going to class and continue making diferents types of essays.

*Do you have any other comments or suggestions about this class? I think we should play more times and see another movie.

2006-03-27T16:33:00.000-08:00

Pretentious:es la persona o la accion de querer o decir algo que esta fuera de nuestro alcance. is the action of wanting or saying things that can't be posible or that are very difficult to get. Example: the new campaing of the competition is very pretentious.

manifest: manifesto. Is something that is easy to see, that comes include on something. The other proposal manifest it's intentions

2006-03-16T13:09:00.000-08:00

Baised lenguage

There are several definitions about it but one could be that baised lenguage is the wrong use of the language. It main characteristics is that it excludes some groups and people. An example of it is that it makes unwarranted suppositions using generalizing words, it also uses labels to name several groups or people even if they don't want to be call by that.

There are differents types of discrimination like black and white, religion but in the sexist lenguage the discrimination is against women. Our society is acoustom to see the man first because "it is the rule", a clear pattern is that it asummes male superiority over female. But there is also a "nonsexist" language that tries not to stand out the gender of the person and treats them the same way.

When terms like (slaves, judges, lawyers and farmers) are used, what comes first to our head is that all this terms refers to men. there is also the dangerous he, that supposedly represents he and she. We tend to think that the word he is used to mean everybody. But there is also come words that has suffixes like ess-ette that stands out that the gender is irrelevant and that men is the norm and the women is always on second place.

In conclusion we always make all this mistakes because we are acoustom to it and because it is dificault to modify our language at this stage, but what we cold do is to try not to be discriminators and recognize each thing the way it is.

2006-02-13T15:52:00.000-08:00

When do you know if your dreams are real?-sometimes you wake up feeling that your worst nightmare is so similar to your life..., a lot of people believes that dreams doesn't have a direct relation with your life but on the other side some others believe that nightmares are messages of your present life or something that is going to happen in the future like premonitions. Since the beginning of the history people is trying to find a meaning of whatever they dream, even the first civilizations though that dreams were magic faculties to talk to an alive souls. So since those definitions all the Scientist have been trying to find a meaning to their own dreams, not only them because normal people like us is always trying to find the answers to life on their dreams. One definition could be A dream is the experience and images, sounds/voices, words, thoughts or sensations during sleep, with the dreamer usually unable to influence the experience. Dreams are full of (mental) imagery. This imagery comes from the banal to the surreal; in fact, dreams often provoke artistic and other forms of inspiration.

From my own experience, one day I dreamt about a big dinosaur that was chasing me when I was going down the stairs of a big building so I was so afraid and he was digging inside the building’s windows, but you can see that it was just a dream. So what did I learned from it? Well nothing because in my real life a big dinosaur is not going to chase me, well at least I don’t think so…. but I remember that once I dreamed about a guy that I liked and he was like trying to be my boyfriend and in real life he wasn’t but I really liked him, that’s why I think that dreams are the reflex of our desires. In another way our brain sub continently continues thinking about our biggest concerns in our typical life. While everybody thinks that nightmares or dreams are just something that happens because we are tired or that they appear at the end of the night some others think that if you dream that you die on it you will wake up dead. Once I dreamed that I was in the top of a building having a party whit a lot of friends, one of them called me to see from the board of the building so I went there and suddenly it started shaking and moving in a strange way and I felt down. I lasted like 2 or 3 minutes going down it was like that video of Eminem of the song “the way I am” where he was going down trough the air very slow and thinking about his life, so when I finally got to the floor I was like out of my body and I was watching my self, at the end I woke up and it was all normal. So that thing about dying in dreams is wrong.
But at the end of the day we will always be trying to define this strange faculty that we have that make us different from the animals. Some incredulous will always think that dreams are just the result of our tired brain but for dreamers like me it is going to be the reflect of my desires and a space where all my dreams will come true.

2006-02-09T16:45:00.000-08:00

Who doesn't have sweet dreams...but at the end of the day life is not pink color.That was what a friend told to martha when she was telling her roommates what she was planning to make on her first weekend on the campus. ¡I want to meet that hot boy we saw on the math class! said annie to her almost sleepy friend hector, but he didn't

2006-02-02T15:49:00.001-08:00

There's a lot of memories about carnavales, some of them are good but there is also a bad side.what i don't like about it is the meters you have to walk to get there including the heat and the intense a shinning sun.And if that wasn't enough you also have to wait like trhee hours just to see the police car and that is when you know that the fun and the desorder has just started.

All the dresses and the dancers showing why is that we enjoy life and why this is the biggest party of all colombia."Maizana" is going and coming back also you can't miss a smile or a great dance.That is why like carnivals because even all the bad details i refer at the begining ,at the end you are just relaxed and happy you were there,and you shared with all the people you know and also the one you don't.

2006-02-02T15:49:00.000-08:00