Baku (Azerbaijan): First European Games in its history

BAKU (AZERBAIJAN): FIRST EUROPEAN GAMES IN ITS HISTORY.

 

    Baku is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan. It is also the lowest lying national capital in the world and also the largest city in the world located below sea level. It is divided into eleven administrative districts (raions) and 48 townships. The city is the scientific, cultural and industrial centre of Azerbaijan. Many sizeable Azerbaijani institutions have their headquarters there, including SOCAR, one of the world's top 100 companies and others. The city is renowned for its harsh winds. This is reflected in the city's nickname, the "City of Winds".

    Moreover, in this city one of the most important sport events of the year has taken place, that is, the First European Games. In these games Russia has been the country which has won more medals, Azerbaijan has been the second, which is also their best position in any European games and Great Britain has been the third. Spain has finished 10th with thirty medals.

    In conclusion, I reckon that it is good to celebrate games in new cities, as long as they have the facilities necessary to celebrate this kind of events. In addition, the European games are also a time to see our athletes competing with other foreign athletes and also because we can see new world and European records.

What games do you like playing? Describe them and explain why you enjoy them

What games do you like playing? Describe them and explain why you enjoy them.

Now, I don’t play any special games, because these days we have a lot of devices that can entertain us, like computers and mobile phones, which we can play very different games with. However, when I was younger, I didn’t have any of these devices and I used to play certain table games with my brother and family.

One of my favourite games were cards and I played a lot of times with my brother, especially in the summer, when we used to have more free time. We knew a lot of types of games with cards: “la brisca”, “la ronda”, “el cinquillo”... (Spanish traditional card games). Another game that I really enjoyed with cards was the UNO. In fact, we used to play everyday after having lunch.

                Another game that I used to play with my brother and my dad was “El parchís” and “La oca”. This game is only for four players, but once we had to buy this same game for six players (which also exists) as we were too many. The problem is that it was a never ending game and  we couldn’t even finish it.

                In conclusion, I think that before we used to play more games than now. Nevertheless, I sometimes play them when I’m bored, just to remember them, because I still have fun when I play them and they bring me such good memories to my mind.  And what about you, what are your favourite games that you used to play with?

Would you work as a volunteer for a humanitarian organisation?

Would you work as a volunteer for a humanitarian organisation?

These days we have to take into account too many things before being a volunteer. Nevertheless, there are many different types of volunteers, so it’s not necessary to go to a foreign country or put your life in danger to help other people. Here I would like to write about the advantages and disadvantages of choosing this kind of activity.

On the one hand, if I were a volunteer in a charity, I would do my best to help them, but it would be also important to show them how they could do things better on their own. I reckon it is more important to provide them with tools or to teach them the abilities to do things such as growing their own food or getting water easier than just giving  them food and water(providing them with food and water).

On the other hand, the hard conditions that many volunteers have to put up with are too many. You’ll have to be ready to cope with bad weather, poverty and difficult living conditions every day. Moreover, the fact that you are a volunteer and you don’t earn any money is such a big problem if you’ve got a family.

In conclusion, to be a volunteer you have to take into account all these facts. Anyway, I wish one day I could have this experience at least in my town, if I find it too hard to go far away from home, as this activity would probably make me feel really happy.

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.

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