Japan resumes Antartic whales hunt. Tradition or brutality?

Japan resumes Antartic whales hunt.

Tradition or brutality?

On 1st December Japan restarted its "scientific whaling" programme after a year-long hiatus. The hunt is expected to kill 333 whales. To carry out this mission a Japanese whaling fleet set sail for the Antarctic at the beginning of December. Last year, they couldn’t do this “lethal research” because the UN (United Nations) proved that it was a cover for commercial whaling and that they had no proven scientific merit. However, this year despite all the international pressure and as Australia said in “a whale sanctuary” of the Antartic, they have set their fleet there. What do you think about this “scientific research”? For Japan, hunting wales is a tradition, is this tradition, a tradition that should be banned?

First of all, it's true that scientists do many researches with animals, because we couldn’t cure for example a cancer proving with humans, because we would kill ourselves. It’s for that reason that they use lab mice to first try to find the cure and then they begin to administer the drug in humans. Nevertheless, why shouldn't we do it in whales? Firstly, because they are species that can’t reproduce as fast as lab mid do. Secondly, because they are at risk of extinction. Thirdly, because it’s unnecessary to kill an animal of thousands of tones to do a research. And, most important, because they are an important element in the food chain.

Like a lot of traditions that imply hunting animals only because it’s a tradition and that in reality they don’t need its food to survive, I reckon that is not a wise tradition. Or like in Spain that we have a tradition which consists of fighting with a bull on the arena, humbling it and then killing it; or running with a dozen of them beating them with sticks.

All in all, maybe my opinion is influenced by the fact that I'm an animal-loving person, but I don’t think that we are in the Middle Ages when people needed to kill whales to survive. That is why I would like to ask humankind for something: stop these brutalities! as we keep on maintaining these stupid traditions we'll put an end to our world, especially to certain endangered species, and I reckon we should preserve our planet as healthy as we can for future generations.

An example of direct and reported speech

A WEIRD LAPTOP

Two weeks ago I decided to buy a new laptop, because my last one wasn’t working well and it was old-fashioned. Therefore, last Tuesday I went to the new computer store that is just at the corner of my street. There were good offers and I bought a light red Mac (a laptop from Apple). The first week everything was okay, but on the second week, when I switched it on, it made a lot of noise and then it switched of. So, I went back to the shop and talked with the shop assistant and this is what he told me.

“Hello, can I help you?” He asked me.

“Yes, I’ve got a problem with the Mac that I bought here two weeks ago” I said.

Then I explained my problem, he took my laptop for a couple of days and he called me by telephone again.

                “Listen, Sir, your Mac has a virus and we can’t do anything for it” He told me.

                “But, but… I can change it for another one, can’t I? I asked impatiently.

                “No, because it was an offer”, he answered.

We were talking for two hours and then, I decided to talk with his manager. He finally accepted to solve the problem and told me that they would bring me another one, because they have some spare ones in another city. However, he told me that he couldn’t give my money back, because they had just opened, and I finally had to accept, but I didn’t go to that shop again.

Anyway, next time I will always check that any item I want to purchase has a guarantee and that it is valid for at least two years. Bargains can cost you a fortune!!

Local heroes: James Bond and Robin Hood

Local heroes: James Bond and Robin Hood. Do we have this type of heroes in our everyday life?

There have been many characters in our history like Robin Hood or James Bond that have taught us the good values of life and that have also been local heroes, because they have fought against the rich people that stole money from the poor. Currently, James Bond is still one of these characters that promote this type of values. In fact, soon there will be a new James Bond’s film. However, do we still have this type of heroes in our minds? Have we got a little local hero in our everyday life?


Firstly, it’s a well-known fact that this type of heroes had a lot of influence in the past, because there was no TV and no Internet, so to do revolutions against the rich, they needed to believe that a hero like Robin Hood for example, was supporting them in another part of these wars. I don’t know if they really existed, but perhaps it was true that someone did similar things and after his death, he became a myth, even if we couldn’t testify it.

And what do we know about them? Well, Robin Hood was an English archer of the Middle Age who stole the money from the rich and gave it to the poor. It’s said that he was a very kind man and that lived in the wild forest of Nottingham fighting even against the king. Another character is James Bond, or 007, an English secret agent who is the best in his job, because he kills everybody who is ordered to kill. People think that he is the perfect English gentleman because of his look, but in reality he’s a bit womanizer.

All in all, I reckon that before there were more local heroes that people believed in than in our days, because now our politicians are more corrupt and we have fewer local heroes. At least, now we can decide “the king” that is going to steal our money.

Paris COP21 What is it? Are our gouvernements going to do something for the climate change?

Paris COP21 What is it? Are our gouvernements  going to do something for the climate change?

For two weeks, from 30th November to 11th December, representatives of 195 countries will meet in Paris for the COP21, and what is the COP21? The COP21 is the 21st Conference of the Parties, the annual meeting of all countries which want to take action for the climate. And the most important matter, what are the main goals? Their main goal is that they want to reduce their emissions of CO2 so that Earth doesn’t get warmer than 2ºC. 

One of the problems that they are having is that the attacks of Paris were so recent that they can't give lectures in public and they have to be at every moment with a lot of security. As a result of the attacks all the presidents are giving their condolences to the victims. Another big problem in relation with this conference is that emerging countries don’t want to take part in this meeting, because most of them still use too much non-renewable energy, and that can be determinant in the end, because they are the most polluting countries.

In addition, this conference is more important than others, because now rich countries like the USA or China, which haven't wanted to respect the limits of pollution in the past, have now realized that renewable energies are more economic in the long term, so they are now in favour to reduce their pollution in their countries. Moreover, they want to promote this to poor countries, setting their renewable factories there (and for not paying taxes).

From my point of view, it’s good that we have this type of conferences, but we need to take practical measures, because if we don’t do something fast, we will finish with our planet. In Spain, we have had two alerts because of pollution and in two cities (Madrid and Oviedo) people couldn’t use their cars for a couple of days. I don’t know you, but I want to breathe fresh air.