Summer camps and activities in Catalonia; news

This piece of news talks about of some summer camps for children. Summer is almost here and while children are anxiously awaiting the end of the school year, some parents are wondering what to do with the younger ones in the family when school stops and work continues.

Luckily there are a lot of options to help pass the time in ways that are much more constructive than watching the TV or going to online chat rooms.

There are a lot of non-profit foundations that help families' children to entretain them.Their children will be able to play pricey sports and nearly all interest will be covered.

Of course, these summer camps help children to be more open mind and to make new friends. Also, makes the summer easier for parents who works everyday and can’t look after their children.



extract from: Catalonia Today

Why read books?

Is it worth reading books, since nowadays there are so many other forms of entertainment?

Some people say that even paperback books are expensive, and not everyone can borrow books from a library. They might add that television is more exciting and that viewers can relax as they watch their favourite programmes.

All that may be true, but books are still very popular. They encourage the reader to use his or her imagination for a start. You can read a chapter of a book, or just a few pages, and then stop. Of course, it may be so gripping that you can’t stop!

There are many different kinds of books, so you can choose a crime novel, or an autobiography, or a book which gives you interesting information. If you find it hard to choose, you can read reviews, or ask friends for ideas.

Personally, I really like reading books, but I can give up television easily enough. You can’t watch television at bus stops!

Bullfighting; news

This piece of news talks about the bullfighting. Catalonia has been taken over by a band of misanthropic animal rights activist and wants to do away with the sacrifice of bulls’ altogether.

Esperanza Aguirre wants to declare bullfighting a cultural treasure along with El Prado or la paella.

In my point of view la tauromaquia is unfair for bulls that are with fewer possibilities for defending themselves; that is to say, these animals are attacked unfairly by bullfighters.

Imagine if we alter the rules and this bullfighting becomes in a fight hand by hand between man and the bull eliminating the “human helpers”. If the bull wins, people would realise the bull on the range forever.

What do you think about this propose? Would there be more dead bullfighters? I am a little afraid about that. But as you know it is only a propose, as I said; nobody would accept this as to apply it.

Finally I would to say that it is incredible that the bull is the symbol of Spain country and theses citizens try to kill them for they appreciate tradition.


extract from: Catalonia Today

Pregnancy exercise 'slims babies'; news

It is said by some specialists, from New Zealand and United States, that doing some exercise during pregnancy can ameliorate the future health of children by controlling their weight in the mum’s womb.

Overweight women are more probable to have babies that could be at higher risk of health problems in life. For this reason, UK guidelines recommend do light exercises for pregnant women.


The future metabolism of children can be influenced by its environment in the womb and some babies that are relatively heavy for their length can be more probably to be obese in the future.

These specialists recommend to pregnant women to use exercise bikes for five 40 minutes session every week until at least the 36th week of pregnancy.

This great study that specialists are made can be very useful for the future of our children. That is say, if midwifes that help with some exercises to pregnant women, imposes that they should do some exercises with static bikes, in the future may not be so many obese people.

Also this news breaks with the topic that pregnant women should eat enough because the children grow up healthy.



extract from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/

Some anecdotes

A friend in the rain

Last week I was walking home after playing basketball when it started raining very heavily. 'Oh no, I will get soaked before I reach home', I thought. I wish I had rembember to bring my raincoat.' But unfortunately I had left it at home.

How stupid of me! I always forget to bring it with me. Luckily just then a friend of mine passed in her car and offered me a lift. 'Are you hoing home? she asked, 'or do you want to go for a drink?' 'I think I'd rather you took me home', I said. 'If I don't change my clothes, I know I will fall ill, and then I won't be able to play basketball next week. And I have been practising hard for the las month.' I will wait for you to change if you like', she told me. 'I think it's time you relaxed for a change. You have been worring too much about things lately. And people who worry too much fail ill more easily. It's got nothing to do with the rain!'

How a hobby can make you angry!

Recently I decided to take up photography as a hobby. I like taking snaps, but I am not very skilled. My snaps are either a complete failure for technical reasons, or are just not very imaginative.

First I decided that to be successful, I would have to buy new equipament. Just then I had an unexpect piece of good luck. A friend who works in a camera shop said she could sell me a valuable camera. A customer had left it at the shop to be repaired, but there had been a misunderstanding, and it was actually for sale. I thought this was a credible explanation and so I asked her some more questions. She said she had had a agreement with the customer and he had thrown the camera at her because she disliked his photos!

Leaving a job

My oncle recently left his job in an advertising agency after a disagreement with his boss. He accepted his resignation but warned him that because of the economical situation, he might have to get used to the idea of being unemployed for a while. He thought that he was trying to make a point, but after he had made over fifty aplications to other companies, he realized that he was right.

Althought he is a qualify designer, he didn't receive any offers of a job. After that he tried working from home, but it was not very profitable. Then he became an employee in a fast-food restaurant, even thought his earning were extremely low. He wish he had accepted early retirement from his old job. That is what he disagreed with his boss about!

Grease; analysis

John Travolta plays Danny, the arrogant leader of a gang of teenagers in the 50s. Everyone knows him as a tough and ruthless with the girls. When he returns from his summer vacation and meets with his friends in high school, everything is the same. But things change when Sandy (Olivia Newton-John) recognizes him as his summer love. Danny makes him crazy, but he still love her. Sandy will be integrated into a gang of warrior girls, to face with the arrogance of Danny.

This film is one of the mythic musical films. John Travolta appears in full authority, and it is a waste of energy and magnetism. Newcomer Olivia Newton-John, a star of the track by then, makes an attractive role as Travolta's naive love. The songs are excellent and that sogns do not lose their rhythm and their freshness over the years. The choreography is magnificent. A tribute to the golden era of true rock and roll. Anybody should miss this great film.

Spanish women do three times as much housework

According to a recent study undertaken by the Saving Banks Foundation (FUNCAS), Spanish and Italian men do less housework than other European people, specially countries like Sweden, Norway and UK where the household share out between the sexes.

The report called 'Spanish family life: Analysis and Reflections from a Sociological and Economic Perspective', indicates that, on average, Spanish women spend more than four and half hours each day cooking and cleaning, more than three times as much as their menfolk.

This article, as you could see, talks about the housework. Nowadays, this topic is so important; a few years ago, it was only the women who did the housework and the men who went to work outside. In these moments, as women as men work outside and for this reason, they must share out their hosuework.

Personally, I think that is unbelievable that in Spain, a developed country, the women do more than three times as much as their men folk. Also, Spain is not the only developed country where the women do more housework, there are more countries that this happen; times has changed and every sex have to contribute with the housework.

extract from: http://edition.cnn.com

Shopping ways

Supermarkets

Nowadays, a great variety of different food is available from large supermarkets. There are rarely any shortaje of fresh food, and there is far less likelihood of our having to realy on frozen products.

Does this mean that supermarkets have become the most successful shops of all time? Certainly they seem to have made some kinds of food less expensive and most people enjoy shopping in them.

There has been a reduction in the number of complains made against supermarkets in recent years. The assistans are no longer impolite, but smile and try to be helpful. Above all, supermarkets have shown a willingness to listen to their customers, and to adapt to customer's needs.

Street markets

Most people enjoy looking for bargains in the street markets. It can be very enjoyable walking around the stalls, among the crowds of a shoppers, and trying to spend as little as possible. Of course it depends on the market.

In fruit and vegetable markets, there is usually a wide variety of fresh produce, but it may not be cheap. There may be goods at reduced prices at the end of the day. Clothes markets can be a problem, as it is difficult to try on new clothes in the open aire!

My favourites are antique markets, where although there is not much likelihood of finding valuable objects which are also cheap, you can enjoy yourself looking at all the things for sale. Whatever kind of market you look round, and whether you buy things or not, you usually end up felling completely worn out. Still, it is an interesting way of shopping.

Some exercise

One of the best ways of doing exercise, without it produces a big effort, is practicing a team sport.

We know that if we play sport we feel better. It is the best way of expelling the tensions accumulated during the day. In spite of knowing well that is a good way to move the skeleton, a lot of people have a lot of difficulties to go to the gym.

The truth is that going to the room of gym's machine to do exercise is a solitary activity and it is not attractive. One of the best ways of doing exercise, without it produces an effort, is practicing a team sport. The basketball can be the solution.

Every time there are more children, women and men that play basketball and they join into leagues. The advantages of the basketball are great, for example:

- You gain resistance. The lungs get used to doing exercise and during your quotdidian live you realize that you become less tired.

- You will learn to work in a team and to cooperate with your team members; you will do new friendship.

Your team members wait for you; now, you don't practice a sport solitarily. Your weekly appointment with the sport turns into an appointment with your friend. Playing basketball can be the formula to meet with people regularly.

Past, present and future transport

A hundred years ago, most people travelled on foot, by train, or on horseback. Railways had made it possible to travel rapidly over long distances.

Bicycles were also becoming popular, after the invention of the air-filled tyre, which made cycling a lot more confortable buses, trams and underground railyways had already been invented, and cities all over the world already had traffic jams. There were very few private cars, and city streets were still full of horses.

What a difference a hundred years have made! Presently we have got used to the problem of private cars, and some cities are so noisy and polluted that in many places vehicles have been banned from the city centre.

How will we be travellin in a hundred year's time? Perhaps by then there will be only personal helicopters. There may be no need to commute to work or school in the future, since everyone will have a computer at home. There might even be more people walking and horse-riding, for pleasure and exercise.

Problems help to mature

In the adolescence there are some physical and emotional changes in the adolescence that, although these changes can be excitants, also can be confused and uncomfortable for the young people or also for people who live with them.

Young people looking for experiences in a different way that, adults can’t understand. The first experiences with the drink, drugs or with cigarettes generally appear with other people; although the adult’s advertences, the young people ignore them and they don’t know distinguish the correct way.

It isn’t estrange that, the adolescences’ changes produces a lot of problems like emotional problems. A lot of young people feel depress, they cry and they desire go away in a different world. These feelings can develop some problems like the excess or decrease of eating, problems for sleeping or also problems about physical aspect.

These factors and others can produce in the adolescent a decrease of concentration and with that, bad results. Finally, the sexual problems and the use of drugs and alcohol are also problematic points. These aspects are maybe the factors that more worry parents, so it can be a high risk to be in contact with them, if young people don’t know about its consequences.

The majority of younger people want to try new experiences, especially, with danger things. All of these aspects and also the less information or the lack of interest about that, can produces in the adolescences serious problems.
Although this period can result so difficult to support, is the epoch that makes a person. With the bad and good experiences you learn about life; in conclusion, the adolescence is necessary to mature.

Most 'orphans' have a living parent, says charity

At least four out of five orphans children in orphanages in the whole world have a living parent according to a ledaing charity says.

Furthermore, millions of children are giving up by their poor parents who can not feed or educated them. These charities abuse of these orphans putting at risk make them working in industries, facing rape, trafficking and beatings. Nowadays, people arround the world must have the same rights as the poor people and the rich people. For this reason, in this case, there should be stricter monitoring of children's instituctions.

There are orphanages in some countries that have become big bussines with children's traffik and also, these institucions convince goverments to recive financial incentives using their well-known aspect.

Every time, are incresing the number of orphans with the consequense, that it takes, the high number of abusings, beatings and children's trafikking. If nobody contribute to solve these abuses and to return the rights to these poor children, these rate would be higher and it will be too late when we'd start to try solve this problem.

Extract from: BBC News

The Lion King; analysis

In this post, I'm going to analyse a little bit the Lion King Film, a very important and recognise film.

As many Disney films, this story is leading the role in animals, in this case, in Lions, the Kings of the jungle.

The animals of this story, as a tradition in Disney films, are cartoons, and it implies that they have soul so they have dreams and autonomy too. These characters doesn't obey the instinct, but the feelings and this aspect leads them to acquire human features, being able of taking important decisions for their life and taking the freedom of expressing and keeping secrets about their feelings.

The animal instinct goes on at the background in the whole film and we can find some characters who differ in an individual way to the others because their specific personality an their capacity to create their own social world.

Nevertheless, as the spectators assume them as animals, they are not very conscious about this dobule game that implies to modify the human emotions.

The film beginss with the presentation in society of the young prince of the jungle, Simba, a little cub. To his side, there is the king, his father, a figure with a lot of athority. The little cub has to accept the law of the jungle and for this reason he must to be an intelligent prince and in the future, a great king like his father.

The old Rafiki, the shaman of the tribe, has to ratify the cub and, as the priest, he baptizes Simba. In this scene, Rafiki has to wait for the God's arrival that gives the benediction to close the rite. This fact clearly shows the religion that Disney has been based when he wrote the story: Catholicism; as everybody know, American people have a strong link with religion and it normally determines all their tasks in life.

The first scene suggests that the story develops in the nature an so it obeys her principal law: the survival of the fittest. The society is where the lions dominate, for their facility acces, the food which is the principal lack of the characters that in the story appear like a antagonistic's characters: the hyenas.

The relationship between the characters and the food tell us the inequality. The harmony breaks when the cub lion go in the Hyenas' land, the wretched land of the whole savannah. In the story, the king warns his son about the dangers that there are outside of this dominions.

Clearly, hyenas are the marginal and the immigrant's charcters of the story and with this situations, Scar, the king's enemy, takes advantatge and, with his song that says: "I will be the king, support me and nevermore they be have" convinces hyenas for having their support.

In conclusion, like many Disney films do, The Lion King chooses for the antagonistic roles of the story, characters that are inspired with North American's enemies and troubles -as the character Scar who is represented as a dictatorial leader-; it shows the way how poepole abuse of their power to include a strong ideology even so in the infantile films.

Economic problems of younger people

Every time, the cost of living increases and, although the salaries also go up, it is a problem for the society in general, overmore for young people.

As you know, young people go out of their parents home later than before; it can be for many reasons.

Firstly, when young people have the legal age to work most of them do not work, for many reasons, and a direct consequence about it is that the do not enough savings for the future. Then, if people work, they won't mantain their savings and finally they waste it on unnecessary things.


On the other hand, nowadays there are more people that study a career and sometimes these studies last several years. It provokes that people who study can not work during the year and consequently, they must live with their parents more than they thought.

To sum up, everyday life increases more than ever and it causes difficulties to some social classes; although it seems that economic problems of younger people are problems that can be inevitable, they are not the principal problems: a lot of young people don't want to work and they abuse of their parents, even in the future, these people will have serious problems with their economic life.

What's about the New Technology?

Nowadays, the whole world is base on the new technologies: the mobile phones, the computes, TV's, iphone's...
Science is progressing quicker than ever and like everything, it has good things and bad ones.

Firstly, these new technologies have given help to a lot of people, especially in developed countries, in aspects like medicine, everyday life, travelling...
It makes that middle class people can enjoy these new comforts in the whole aspects, from reserving tickets to travelling by plane on the Internet to taking the car to buy some food.
It provides discovered new worlds and also the Univers including the near planets and the moon.

But well, these news technologies have a principal problem in my point of view: the enviromental impact.
People are not concious about his serious problem and its affects everybody. Also, not all countries have these advantatges, on the contrari, the underdeveloped countries are exploited by the developed countries.

Finally, I would say that everyone has the right to enjoy these new technologies and have a comfortable life. Moreover, we must preserved our unic and appreciated World.

An Anti-Tax Argument That’s Hard to Swallow

This article talks about the recent issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, for a tax on "sugar-sweetened” drinks to reduce the people’s consumption for increasing the health.

I agree with this new proposal because, nowadays, all developed countries have the obesity problem and its causes for this unhealthy products that people consumerism very often.

A lot of people are not agreeing with that, especially in New England where this tax will be imposed.

I think that this tax won’t be imposed if people take care of themselves but it doesn’t happen; in general everyone only thinks about the food flavor, not about the ingredients it takes.

New vocabulary:

Tax: Impost
Sugar-sweetened: endolcit per sucre.

Extract from: The New York Times.