Wednesday, 6 July 2016

Writing and talking about social issues!

Hi all!  

Hope you are doing well! Welcome to our fourth activity. Please, post your comments before July 12th, 11 a.m.!


1. Select a specific topic from the ones proposed in class in relation to the videos about social issues
.

2. Write your esssay in paragraphs considering the suggested format. Take into account all the aspects suggested in class. It must have 300 words at least.



3. Tips for writing:

Language use / writing aspects:

- used to, past continuous. 

Simple sentence structure.
- Include as much details as possible.
- Useful vocabulary you need to express your ideas.
- Grammar, spelling, punctuation rules, etc.
- Coherence and cohesion.
- Useful conectors or linking words.


4. Prepare an oral report to be presented in tutoring sessions, next week from July 13 to 15 (3 minutes). Be as creative as possible. 

All your writings will be welcome as comments... Thanks for participating!

11 comments:

  1. MR Money

    He was a happy “thing” without many occupations. He was living in his house located in nowhere. Suddenly someone was thinking about him, about this “thing” and that person decided to create him. Then he was starting to take shape in an unknown reality. When the people knew the existence of him, they were exciting. Everyone wanted to have it, so they were making more “things” like him and now he had eyes and ears everywhere. Until one day in one of those places, he heard that they were naming him “MONEY”
    Everything was happening so fast, but the money was getting used to being famous. The money did not understand very well why the people was changing it by other things, however the money knew that without him, this would not be possible. Everybody was so happy with him and, every day the people wanted to have more copies of him. However, over the time the situation was out of control. The people were doing everything possible to get the money. Accidentally the money became the worst problem of all.
    Therefore, the undesired existence of money was causing troubles in the society. The money was becoming a form of power and everyone wanted it. The people were becoming in monsters, they were stealing to gain power meanwhile others were being poor and they had more needs. Some poor people were killing for money. People were being dragged by drug problems.

    The money was looking for an exit or a solution, his fight had not future. The money was not happy with his work in the world. The money felt unsatisfied because his life was not having any sense. He wanted to go away but the problems were too big. He knew that the only one who could change his life was the person who had given him life. So the money only waited for that person who could see that the world doesn’t have to spin around the money. Fortunately the money is not alive.



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  2. WORLD INEQUALITY
    -Why some countries were being poor and other rich?
    There were 196 countries in the world, 25 of them were being very rich and far more were being very poor. Rich countries were becoming richer thanks to poor ones and it’s a problem that had been presented a long time ago, the question here is: why was happening that? There were a lot of factors that influenced on that issue, some of them were: Institutions, culture and geography.
    Institutions were being very important, broadly speaking, rich countries had good institutions and poor countries had very bad ones, the corruption was establishing a direct relation with poverty, for that reason the richest countries were having lest corruption. Half of the wealth of the world’s poorest countries was going into offshore accounts and without adequate monetary base poor countries could not invest in police, education, health and transport.
    When I mentioned culture I was meaning to what was going on in people's minds, outlooks and beliefs. A striking statistic showed that the 70% of the 19 richest countries population were saying that religion was not at all important to them, and conversely the poorest nations were being extremely believing ones. Religion and some other beliefs were not letting people do the things by themselves, for that reason people just were waiting for a god’s solution.
    There was another big factor that was determining the wealth and poverty of nations, it’s the geography. Poor countries were in the tropical regions and the life was being tougher there, because agriculture and livestock were failing, and in that climate diseases were spreading more often, 100% of low-income countries were being affected by at least five diseases simultaneously. Then there was the matter of natural resources, connectivity with the rest of the world and geological faults.
    There were more things that were increasing the poverty and wealth of nations, but people were not helping to fight against that problems, people just were waiting to see what was going to happen, but never stop to reflect about the issues. The biggest obstacle was the ignorance, and the world continued with the same dynamic, rich being richer and poor being poorer.

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  3. SUSTAINEBLE MIND FOR A SUSTAINEBLE LIFE

    Environmental sustainability refers to the efficient and rational management of natural resources, so it is possible to improve the welfare of the present population without compromising the quality of life of future generations. Large propellers that generate wind power installations, biodegradable products and organic foods, perhaps, are some of the references that may come to mind when we talk about sustainable consumption. However, sustainable consumption covers many other aspects, because sustainability is an integral concept that includes the environment as a major concern, without disassociating the other social challenges.

    The axis of the human’s life moves through the lifestyle that he leads. The economy has created a system of mass consumption and it is practically unstoppable. Every day new objects are created that sadly humans do not need. This is thanks to the generation of needs for consumption of large brands and multinationals. Why we need the last smartphone? Or why we have to buy large quantities of clothing? Just because all massive media tell us that it is necessary. Our problem it is not to buy, it is to think we have to do it.

    Beyond the television and massive media we have more, it looks that the people just take in to account of problems just when they are involved in it, as American Indian wisdom says: "Only when the last tree is dead, the last river is poisoned, and the last fish is caught, you will realize that you cannot eat money”. But if we know that every single person has the power to live in a sustainable way. Since recycle your trash to create your own tooth paste, it is possible. The first social challenge in our life is to have a sustainable mind in a sustainable way.

    This does not have to be a green fashion that serves to clean the image of dirty industrial processes such as “greensumption”, name given to this type of surface ecological consumption, which does not offer structural transformations of sustainable consumption.

    In conclusion, campaigns are made for us to save water while the parks are irrigated even if it rains, encourage us to save energy while a ultra-powerful lamp ten meters. If someone has to break the cycle, that is the consumer, the customer. And to achieve that should take a mental and values change in the person and a change in human relations. We have to start to lead by example, a certain overlap between what we think, what we say and what we do, and realize that a healthier environment needs other lifestyles. Always with a maxim own freedom ends where the other begins.

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  4. STOLEN CHILDHOOD.
    Childhood is probably the most important age of our lives, because when we are children, we have a curious spirit, our mind is open to all the knowledge and experiences and our body is ready to discover new sensations all the time. Playing, asking and sharing with other children is the best way to discover and enjoy the life for a boy or a girl, and then, he or she could be able to get all the tools thah will definitely need to strengthen the personality and the confidence. But what would happen if a child could not do all these activities, what would happen with his or her life?.
    Many people think that children have not any responsability, that their life is as simple and happy as many of them wish living, and people think too that the only worry for a child is the school. This should be true, but unfortunately is not. Life is not so simple and perfect for many children, because while other ones play and study, they have to work. This happen around the world and is very common in countries where social and economic problems are on everywhere. In these societies, is usual to watch the children near the traffic lights, on the street or in the countryside, trying to earn some money and working as hard as an adult.
    "The lucky ones" only have to work but in some countries like India, children are victims of mafias that use them like slaves, and keep them in terrible conditions with no money, no study, no family and no hope. In other cases, children have to survive completely along on the street, and some of them fall in the deep and dark hole of drugs and prostitution, where is almost imposible to scape.
    It is a shame, but is real. When a child has no choice, and has to work instead of study, their opportunities to get a better future won´t be the same, because is not a secret that a flourishes society, is the one that consider study a priority.
    Governments have a lot of responsability, because while "cancers" like corruption, war and inequity destroy the future, many young souls have to give up their dreams and to continue in a poverty chain that seems longest everyday.

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  5. POLITICAL CORRUPTION.

    Having in count that corruption has many faces is not a secret for no one that political corruption is one of the worst human tragedies in our current times but is even worst and confusing how we take all that incompetent actions with normality.
    Desperate situations and unhealthy lifestyles have been evident through the years in every country or region in the world because of inefficient governments and their mean-spirited and selfish representants.
    How miserable do we have to be for them to be satisfied?

    Corruption is a kind of social disease that makes everyone suffer in silence. In much of the countries, the people have had the bad taste of seeing how the governments take their more valuable resources and make them disappear without any regret or sense of the shame. We have always heard of cases like those ones in every continent because much of politicians need to satisfy their desire of having absolute control over the people and every single thing that could make them rich. It is not necessary to go far away, just in Colombia we can see or make connections between crime and politic.

    It is clear that corruption has a big impact on the political and economic improvement of nations, so we can think that a depraved politician is an excuse for sustainable development and progress.

    We use to ignore that when the governments can't control the masses with nightsticks and military forces, they appeal for controlling and making possible to influence in our way of thinking and making decisions creating necessary illusions.
    The abuse of political power for illegal and illegitimate benefits only can bring sorrow and suffering to a nation.
    The government official's pockets never will be as hungry as much of us.

    Any solution to political corruption?
    It is not weird to think or imagine that a trial and a bullet are a solution to this issue being filled with anger and desperation just because China uses it all the time but is useless and probably ineffective, the job of being a nuisance is always available.

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  6. The depression problem of all the ages
    The live it’s dividing in two simple parts, the good moments and the bad moments, and sometimes these different moments can change our life for bad. The depression can be described like the feeling of sadness, unhappiness or crestfallen. The majority of us can feel depression in shorts periods of our life.
    The clinical depression is a disorder of the mental conditions, in these the feelings of sadness, loss, or frustration interfere with the daily life in a period of some weeks or more.
    The depression often is transmitted from parents to children; this can owe to the genes, behaviors learned in the home or to his environment. The depression can be unleashed by a stressful or unhappy fact in the life. Frequently it is a question of a combination of these factors.

    Many factors can cause depression, as:
    Alcoholism or drug addiction
    Affections like cancer or long-term pain.
    Situations or stressful facts in the life like loss of work, divorce or death of a family member.
    Social isolation

    There are effective treatments for the moderate and serious depression. The sanitary professionals can offer psychological treatments, as the behavioral activation, the cognitive behavioral therapy and the interpersonal psychotherapy, or antidepressant medicines. The sanitary professionals must have presented the possible adverse effects of the antidepressants.
    The antidepressants can be effective in the depression moderated to seriously, but they are not the treatment of choice in the slight cases, and they must not be use for treating the depression in children or treatment of the first line in teenagers, in whom it is necessary to use them warily.

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  7. POVERTY AROUND THE WORLD
    The poverty term has in general the connotation of the state of lack or lacking in something, applicable to persons, groups, tendencies, cultures, etc. But undoubtedly, the most popular connotation or that first comes to our mind, is that of the economic poverty. In this sense, we usually refer to the impossibility of a person, group or society, of settling its minimal needs.
    Perhaps the previous thing happens because the poverty is a problem that bothers million human beings around the world, although seemingly there have developed technologies that facilitate the securing and transformation of the resources, as well as the access to the products. The poverty seen in the capitalist personal economy happens when, on not having possessed a work of good pay or simply not to possess it, it does not obtain money and in this way it cannot spend it in the necessary for a good life or its survival.
    It is clear that the state of poverty of a person depends on herself, there goes so far as to depend sometimes more of the economic poverty of its society, more specific, on its country. The absence of opportunities that offers a country for the development of a person, they are indispensable to go out of the poverty state.
    On having compared different countries of the world, there is notable the difference of poverty of these. When the country is in the poverty state, is called underdeveloped, which means that these have not achieved to develop its economies to offer to the society the opportunities to be able to live. In its counterpart there are the developed economies, which in addition to providing in most cases good opportunities, possess economic reservations extra and investments of big caliber.
    The explanation of the reason for which the country is poor, is very varied. A reason is the absence of natural resources, resources like fertile grounds or areas with some valuable matter. But although, there are many countries that have fair amount of resources, but that have other problems equally of serious. Like the corruption which diverts resources of the people to particular persons, finishing moreover with the possibilities of going out of the poverty.

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  8. THE BULLYING

    Is considered as the physical, psychological and verbal mistreatment from one student to another. Always has existed, but is well-known in the society a few years ago and it presents principally in schools.

    It presents with different facts and some of them are: Mocking of his physical appearance, criticize someone for everything that he does, also don’t let someone talk and to steal from someone his stuff, and a lot more.

    This fact generally affects to children who were in the adolescence. The more susceptible ones are those who had special needs like down syndrome, autism, etc, and is major the percentage of girls in the victim profile.

    The bullying has become in one of the main concerns of the parents to his sons. In the 20th century the technology has helped to expand bullying through social networks and others.

    In my point of view, on this time you can see a lot of pregnant teenagers, this generates inexperienced parents and children without family support. This is one of the most relevant aspects for me.

    Finally, one possible solution to this social issue is the parents, the schools and the general society intervention for that they foment tolerance, respect, comprehension and awareness to his schoolmates and close people of them.

    The education provided since the childhood is the essential basis for a correct physical development of the child.

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    Replies
    1. Understanding Student Departure

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    2. Since i was starting the university many of the people, and friends that i knew had gone, in my case i almost go with them by the fault of being learning from a bad teacher, i think because he always was trying to punish our work, instead of enhance our mistakes, many of them were not bad students, but they were struggling in many ways, one of the main reasons of student departure is the money, these students has not supporting by their parents, many of them has to work, these student were working when they supposed to be studying, and this waste of studying time, brought to them bad marks, maybe they had the knowledge, and the ability to be great students but not the time and the money.
      Some of the students affected by this issue have parents, but they are very busy, and while mom and dad are working, the kid does not enhance his knowledge by lack of attention, these kids have many kind of distractions nowadays and is difficult make them aware of learning when they are playing all the time. One of the most shocking things on education, in our days is the Bullying, this is also a big fact on student departure, the students who belong to a minority were being bothered in many universities with jokes,nicknames and segregation, these behaviors from the part of the bullies had increased the students departure, many of them were afraid of their schools, thats why we must being polite with every human being, you never know when you are going to be the next victim of a bully.

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