How many children would you like to have?

How many children would you like to have? 

The Washington Post: Pope says 3 children per family is about right. Catholics don’t need to breed ‘like rabbits.’ 

Some decades ago families used to have more than three children, that was because families were poor and children could work from an early age, so they immediately go to work. However, life has changed since then, these days children must go to school and they can only work if they are sixteen. But, why has he said that?

Firstly, he has said that because in the Catholic religion some Catholic people think that in order to be good Catholics they have to “breed like rabbits”, as Pope Francisco has said. In addition, with the current situation, it isn’t a good moment to have too many children, so I also reckon that he is saying that for this reason.

Nevertheless, Pope Francisco can advise Catholic people what they should do, but he can't force people to have fewer children than the amount they want. I say this, because we are free and nobody can take our rights away. Furthermore, I don’t think that Catholic people are having children as they used to have a few decades ago, so it isn’t a big problem, if it were a problem.

To sum up, it’s true that the regular number of children that we should have are two or three. Although, no one can force us to do what we want to do, because for instance in Europe, where there are not so many births, the population could descend dramatically. 

Earthquake in Nepal!

Earthquake in Nepal!

Nepal is a Himalayan country which lies between Tibet, the Republic of China to the north and India to the south. It’s one of the richest countries in terms of bio-diversity, ranging from the mighty Himalayas with Mount Everest at 8,848 m and seven other eight thousanders to sub-tropical forests in the south, within a span of 150 kms. Nepal, the birthplace of Lord Buddha, boasts of a large number of world heritage sites and numerous pilgrimage sites to jungles teeming with exotic wildlife.

However, a week ago Nepal suffered one of the worst disasters this year, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake, which has caused five thousand deaths in the country. Moreover it has devastated the whole country. 

A lot of humanitarian charities are helping all the survivors of this earthquake at this moment. We also have to take into account that the 50% of Nepalese people are children, so it means that they would have more problems to help them. In our school, we are doing a donation to help Nepalese people, we donate 3€ and we can have a photo of Nepal.

In my opinion, it has caused more damage because of the poverty of the country, so they need more help than ever to survive, because the conditions are inhuman. There were some Spanish in Nepal, and they have all returned back, except one person, who unfortunately died. We have to thank everyone who have helped.

Baltimore, another case of racism?

Baltimore, another case of racism?

Fifty years ago, it was a well known fact that America was a country with a lot of racism. Black people have been suffering one of the worst periods in their history since the colonialism. Another important case of racism, took place in Germany during the 2nd World War, Nazis killed millions of Jews. However, people like Martin Luther King, Mohandas Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Teresa de Calcuta… and other fought to change this social inequality. In fact, they achieved a lot of human rights. But, has this racism finished yet, or not?

This year in America, there have been a lot of cases of racism, like this one in Baltimore, when Gray, a 25-year-old man was arrested in Baltimore on 12th April and died seven days after a serious spinal cord injury (caused during a transfer in a lorry), without lending him any medical attention. However, this is not the only case of racism that has happened in America, there have been three other cases, and one was about an eighteen-year-old man.

This means that we have to continue fighting against this type of racism. Nevertheless, we have to do it peacefully, and not using more violence. We could think isolated cases, but this isn’t true, because in Spain we also have racism cases with black people and especially with Gypsies.

In conclusion, things must change in our way of thinking because we are all equal, and in the case of America, policemen should have less power, and they have to care about who is a thief, and who isn’t, before they shoot anyone, and not be racist.

Does advertising influence people?

Does advertising influence people?

In Spain, like in a lot of countries, there are many advertisements on TV. Most people think that there are too many advertisements during a film, so they look for alternative ways to watch films, in YouTube, downloading illegally from Internet... However, are these adverts influencing us?

On the one hand, we have channels in Spain, like “Antena 3”, where we can have seven minutes advertising a product. This fact says that they have an influence on people, but the reality is that we don’t usually pay attention to them, and we change the channel. Moreover, the advertisements are usually repeated, so at last we can hate them.

On the other hand, we have other channels in Spain, like “La 1”, where there are no adverts during the film. Instead of this, they advertise their own programmes. Anyway, I’m not saying that all the advertisements are bad, there are some of them that are good and influence in our lifestyle, like the adverts of Coke.

All in all, I think people are looking for other ways to watch films without adverts. It’s for this reason that TV should improve in this aspect, because adverts can influence in our lifestyle, but if we don’t watch films on TV, they won’t affect us.

WALES vs ENGLAND

WALES VS ENGLAND

England and Wales are two of the four countries that form part of the UK. In spite of this fact, there are many differences between them and all of them have the same king. They are a bit different in their culture, language and music. But, why are they different?

Before Romans arrived in England, in Britain there were Celts and Britons. However, when Romans arrived, Britain became part of the Roman Empire. However, they didn’t conquer all Britain, because the Welsh and Scottish resisted. So, Wales and Scotland developed their own language and culture. In the 13th century England conquered Wales, but the people of Wales still have their own identity and they didn’t want to become part of England. And it’s for that reason that they formed the UK, Which consists of four different countries or regions.

Wales has its own language: the Welsh, which is very difficult to study, but which is spoken by half a million of the population. They have another type of culture and music. They also have their own parliament and they don’t get on very well with English people.

I say that they don’t get on well with English people, because this year we have been to Chester and the North of Wales and we have seen all the medieval castles in the North of Wales, when England wanted to conquer Wales. Moreover, now there are some old laws against Welsh people in Chester that haven't been abolished and that sound crazy in our days.

ResponderEliminar

THE BANS OF SMOKING ARE INCREASING!

THE BANS OF SMOKING ARE 

INCREASING!

• The Guardian: Electronic cigarettes may face public ban in Wales.

Not long ago smokers could smoke in bars. Before that, even students had the possibility to smoke at school, like their teachers. However, this won’t happen again, because it is prohibited. Moreover now, you need to be at a certain distance of hospitals or schools to smoke. This new ban in Wales that says that electronic cigarettes will be banned in bars is another example of this change in the world of smokers. But, why does it happen?

On the one hand, I personally agree with the new law in Spain that banned smoking in bars, because I was very annoyed when I was in a bar and when I went out all my clothes had this disgusting smell of tobacco. It’s true that I can’t stand the smell of tobacco, but I think that if you want to smoke there are more places to go.

On the other hand, I think that electronic cigarettes aren’t as bad as normal cigarettes, so I don’t mind if smokers want to use them. I don’t know if they are better than the normal ones, but it’s true that they don’t smell like the others. I only know that they use steam instead of tar, tobacco..., so they should be better.

All in all, I think that now people are more conscious about the issues of smoking than before. Nevertheless, I would never understand why people continue smoking, if they know what they contain, because I will never smoke something that contains the same materials as a road. It’s crazy!

How can we contribute to preserve the environment?

How can we contribute to preserve

the environment?

My aim composition is to write about the different forms to preserve the environment. People aren’t really conscious of the negative effects humans can have on the environment. We will find solutions as long as we all become aware of the problem.

First of all, as I have just said, we need to be conscious of the issue. One of the main problems that we have is that we throw away a lot of rubbish, because we think that afterwards, someone else will come and clean all the streets. And this is an irresponsible action to do when you’re an adult and you have children since you give a terrible example to them. This problem is very common in Spain, so I reckon that we have to change. Another important factor to take into account is that we have to change is the fact that we waste a lot of water when we are having a bath or brushing our teeth, and water is not infinite.

Being aware of the problem and the changes we have to carry out in the way we behave, we can now think about the possible contributions that we could try to preserve our environment. One important thing that we can do is recycling all we can, so as to have the possibility to reuse all the materials we can in the future. For instance, and referring to the case of water, we can have a shower instead of having a bath or using the dishwasher instead of washing up the dishes with your hands because it has been proved that less water is required.

All in all, I think that nowadays we are more conscious about this issue than in the past, because there are more campaigns and protests against big companies (that pollute a lot). Anyway, no solution will be found unless we all make an effort. 

Je suis Charlie!

Je suis Charlie!

It's a well known fact that there are a lot of radical people in all religions, but Europe is suffering from the radicalism of the Muslim religion. We have to take into account that Spain has also been affected by an attack of the Muslim radicalism, on 11th March, 2004. I was only seven years old, but I remember that the government said that it was ETA, and afterwards they apologised because they were wrong, it was done by a group of radical Muslim people. But, why did they do it? Were they conscious of the damage they were causing?

It’s true that in Africa they are suffering these attacks every day, and we have only paid attention when it has happened in France, so we should have paid more attention to the problem before. Moreover, despite the fact that we must have freedom to paint or to draw what we like, if we paint something that is not allowed in the Muslim religion we have to deal the consequences. I’m not justifying their crimes, but I think that we must respect other religions. 

However, when you are killing people, when you attack another country, when you think that a joke is an offence for your religion..., you are mad. We are in the 21st century, we aren’t in the Middle Ages, we are civilized people, we have laws, we can’t go to a French satirical seminar and kill people only for a joke.

In my opinion, I think that Muslim people are the most affected in these cases, because they are suffering the radicalisms of their religion and they are innocent. But now, it’s the time to be strong and be together against this type of people.