segunda-feira, 28 de novembro de 2011

My Third Reflection

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Article 1: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Article 19: Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

Convention on the Rights of the Child

Article 30: In those States in which ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities or persons of indigenous origin exist, a child belonging to such a minority or who is indigenous shall not be denied the right, in community with other members of his or her group, to enjoy his or her own culture, to profess and practice his or her own religion, or to use his or her own language.

Article 39: States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to promote physical and psychological recovery and social reintegration of a child victim of: any form of neglect, exploitation, or abuse; torture or any other form of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; or armed conflicts. Such recovery and reintegration shall take place in an environment which fosters the health, self-respect and dignity of the child.



In my opinion the most important articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are the first and the nineteenth because they are about freedom and this is very important in our lives. I am a lucky person because I was born in a time of “peace and love” and in my country freedom was just achieved thirty seven years ago. So freedom should be preserved by all the people around the world and we should be thankful for being born with this right. Freedom was given to us to make our dreams came true and get far in life.
 Another important thing is the freedom of opinion and expression, because without these we couldn’t express our opinion about things that we like or things that we don’t like. For example, the government implements some laws that people disagree with and according this right they can express their opinions and make demonstrations.  
     About the Convention on the Rights of the Child, one of the articles that I consider more important is the thirtieth, because independently the place where we are we shouldn’t forget our origins. This is about children and nowadays there are many who are adopted by people who live in other parts of the world. So, the adoptive parents should never forbid the child to do the things that are connected to his own culture, some things like: language, religion, food, etc. 
     The other article that I consider very important is the thirtieth-nine, because no child should suffer physically or psychologically. They should feel well where they spend most of their time, for example: school and home. And I say that because nowadays there are many cases of torture in schools (bullying) and at children’s homes, where relatives or closest friends who abuse physically, psychologically and sexually innocent kids. These kids never will be the same and when they grow up they will feel that they lost their dignity and respect. People who commit these crimes should be punished.      
     Concerning the question “Do women still have to fight for their rights?”, I guess they do, because there are still places where women are discriminated, abused and have no right to state their opinion.  It means that women should have the same rights that men have. So, in my opinion women still need to fight to achieve their goals and most of all be free.
     For me freedom is one of the things most precious things that people have in life, because without this we are nothing. So, freedom is: make what we want, say what we want, go to other place and just come back if we want, ie, we are not connected to anything. So, I give a lot of importance to freedom.   
          

quarta-feira, 9 de novembro de 2011

Endengered languages - Cypriot Arabic

  1. Variant(s): Cypriot Maronite Arabic
  2. Geographical location: Cyprus: a few villages in the north
  3. Relationships: /Arabic/Semitic
  4. Present state of the language: SERIOUSLY ENDANGERED
      (a) children speakers: a few children may learn the language, but even they become more active in Greek (b) mean age of youngest speakers: (c) distribution by sex: (d) total number of speakers, members of the ethnic group: 2,000 speakers out of many thousands Maronites (e) degree of speakers' competence: Greek influence has been strong for a long time to make Cypriot Arabic a hybrid language, and the influence is even stronger today
  5. Sources:
      (i) information (about the language): -- (ii) published and unpublished material (of the language): a little (iii) competent scholar(s) and institution(s): --
  6. Remarks:
  7. Compiler: Tapani Salminen, Helsinki, 31 Dec 1993

Endangered Languages - Istro-Romanian

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Istro-Romanian_language

Endangered Language - Leonese

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonese_Language

Future of English - The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/09/world/asia/09iht-englede.1.5198685.html?pagewanted=all

segunda-feira, 7 de novembro de 2011

The Future of English

http://www.wired.com/culture/culturereviews/magazine/16-07/st_essay

The future of English - Interview with Michael Swan

http://www.speakup.com.br/materias/Ed276/ed276.html

My second reflection

1974, January
Dear diary:
My first week in the NWL jail, was probably the worst moment in my life.
Three weeks ago I was arrested because of something I didn´t do! Stupid moment, stupid life, I’m very angry of those guards! Why did I spend the night in that garden with Paul!
We are accused of putting a bomb in a pub of British soldiers, but we did nothing, the detectives didn’t believe us and we were held at the police station for fifteen days.
During those fifteen days, we suffered many abuses. We were beaten, blackmailed and went through interrogation for endless hours.
Fifteen days later were at our first trial, where we suffering the consequences of a bomb who killed those teenagers in a pub.
The only wrong thing I did that night was to find the keys of a house on the street and steal some money!
Charlie Burke is the only one who could save us. But who would believe in the words of an old crazy homeless? They didn’t even bother looking for him. Charlie Burke, where the hell are you?
I think I won’t be strong enough stay in this hole for 30 years. I’ ll probably get crazy! Most of all, my father and all my family don’t deserve this ordeal. I swear that if everything goes right, I’ ll make them up for all the suffering they have been through.
God must be on my side. I’m not lying and I wouldn’t be able to kill someone, not even in the Name of My Father.

segunda-feira, 31 de outubro de 2011

My Second Reflection


1989, April
Dear Diary:
                     Everything happened fifteen years ago...Those were the worst moments that I went through in my life. I just want to change my life and go back to Ireland. One day I was down the street and found the keys of a prostitute’s house and of course, I was tempted and entered to look around. There, I stole some of the money that she had in her bedroom and I came back home after buying some extravagances. When I thought that my life was at its height it became a living hell, because some IRA soldier put a f****** bomb in a pub that killed five people and injured some more. The police officers arrested me and I was so angry!
     They tied me to a chair and started to beat me, they pushed my hair, pushed my ears to make me confess the crime and I just thought: “What going on?”, “This world is crazy” and I was very furious and irritated with them. But the worst thing was when they threatened my father to death. When the stupid officer said that, I just started to scream and I wanted to kill him with my bare hands. After this mess I signed the damn confession and the f******  guys got what they wanted.
     The day of the first trial arrived and as expected I was considered guilty...the jail was waiting for me. In the jail I met some people, among them, one guy that was a little freak Rastafarian but cool and gave me a drug that made me forget all of this shit for a while. But, the worst part was when my father died, I was wield, angry, felt alone, without support, I was mad and knowing that the f******    government screwed my life, what made me even angrier.
     But thank God there was a lawyer who helped me and when I arrived to the second trial she managed to prove my innocence and we were all considered not guilty. At that moment my soul swelled with happiness and freedom but there was still one thing to do: fight for my father’s innocence and restore the truth.
     When I’ll achieve this goal I’ll be the happiest man in the world, proud to be free in the name of my father.  

segunda-feira, 24 de outubro de 2011

I.R.A. background notes


The Irish Republican Army (IRA) (In Irish: Óglaigh na hÉireann) was an Irish republican revolutionary military organization. It was descended from the Irish Volunteers, an organization established on 25 November 1913 that staged the Easter Rising in April 1916.
In 1919, the Irish Republic that had been proclaimed during the Easter Rising was formally established by an elected assembly, and the Irish Volunteers were recognized by Dáil Éireann (That means: Parliament) as its legitimate army. Thereafter, the IRA waged a guerrilla campaign against British rule in Ireland in the 1919–1921 Irish War of Independence.

Sinn Féin is a left wing, Irish republican political party in Ireland. Originating in the Sinn Féin organization founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, it took its current form in 1970 after a split within the party. Sinn Féin is led by Gerry Adams. The party has historically been associated with the Provisional IRA.

Gerry Adams (In Irish: Gearóid Mac Ádhaimh) was born 6 October 1948 in Belfast, Northern Ireland, he is an Irish republican politician. He is the president of Sinn Féin, the second largest political party in Northern Ireland and the largest nationalist party. From the late 1980s onwards, Adams was an important figure in the Northern Ireland peace process, initially following contact by the then Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) leader John Hume and subsequently with the Irish and British governments and then other parties.
In 2005, the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) indicated that its armed campaign was over and that it is now exclusively committed to democratic politics.

The Wolfe Tones- You'll Never Beat the Irish

In the name of the father - Official trailer

segunda-feira, 10 de outubro de 2011

My first reflection

In our days English is the most important language spoken all over the world.
In the beginning of the history, English was unknown, the more important languages were Latin, modern Romance, languages Germanics, Greek and Celtic languages.
The English history begins when West German people from Jutland, southern Denmark and northwestern Germany, start coming to what is today known as British territory. They brought their culture and their language that influenced those who already lived there.
To me English is good because we need it to communicate with other people around the world. In our days, learning English is as important as writing or reading our own language. It became a very useful tool not only for us as students but also to meet other cultures and connect to the global world.
If students, can speak, write and understand English very well they are able to open their horizons. It’s easier to be successful at work or business with this language because it can be the passport to “fly” to other places in the planet. In our days it’s hard to find an educated person who isn’t able to use the English language.
To understand English is urgent since it’s the most widespread language in the world.

Reflection - The importance of English in today’s world

Nowadays English is growing to become the language that everybody speaks in the world. Not long ago, the language that ruled the world was French, but all of that changed at the end of the Second World War with the treaty of Versailles being written in both French and English by will of U.S. president Wilson. Since then the evolution of music, science, space exploration, economics, the internet, politics, solidified English as the language to learn.
English is spoken everywhere and is the official language of 55 countries and co-official of many more, being the one more spread around the world with more than 500 million of speakers, so if we want to find a job outside our country it becomes easier if we speak English.
Some people say that English shouldn’t be thought in schools outside English countries, because with the growth of English, their native language can well be at risk of disappearing, being overthrown by English and in a few years nobody will remember what language was spoken in that country.
English is being learnt and spoken by more and more people every day, so if we know how to speak it, we can communicate with almost everybody in the world, that’s why it’s certainly the language to learn.

segunda-feira, 3 de outubro de 2011

My first reflection

English is a language that influences most people around the world but in the old days nobody spoke English because French was the predominant language. In the beginning English was influenced by Angles, Saxons and Jutes and was called Old English and after the British colonization of many parts of the world English was influenced by other language like Spanish (mosquito), Latin (curriculum) and Chinese (ketchup).
In my opinion English is easy to learn if we are motivated and nowadays with the evolution of technology in areas like science, music, movies it is very important to speak and understand English. It’s also crucial to be successful in the world today. For example, when students are in university they can find training opportunities in other countries or if they want to change their lives and improve their living conditions, they will probably need to go to another country to work because they will find better opportunities. If people don’t know the universal language (English) it is a passport to success in the future.
Nowadays multiculturalism is everywhere and it deals with cultural exchanges. In my point of view it is good because it gives people the opportunity to learn a lot of things about other people, things we have never contacted with or ever imagined. One of the things that I have learned is that a language, like English, do not put other cultures at risk, I guess it enriches our country and even more important it enriches ourselves.