Reading Log n28

Date:August 31th,2007
Title:Hardcore of child drinkers defy downward trend
Link:http://www.guardian.co.uk/drugs/Story/0,,2160056,00.html

Vocabulary

1-hardcore: An intractable core or nucleus of a society, especially one that is stubbornly resistant to improvement or change.
2-tipsy:slightly intoxicated or drunk.
3-pint:a liquid and also dry measure of capacity, equal to one half of a liquid and dry quart respectively, approximately 35 cubic inches (0.473 liter). Abbreviation: pt, pt.
4-binge:a period or bout, usually brief, of excessive indulgence, as in eating, drinking alcoholic beverages, etc.; spree.
5-truant:absent from school without permission.
6-downward:moving or tending to a lower place or condition.
7-staggering:tending to stagger or overwhelm: a staggering amount of money required in the initial investment.

Summary

A poll taken place in England showed that they was a reduction in the consumption of alcohol among teenagers between 11 to 15 years old,but there was an increase in the consumption in those who drink.This survey also showed that drinking alcohol is more common between boys than girls,but the ones who drink are drinking more than ever before.It is worth noting that children who drink alcohol are more likely to smoke or to take drugs.People from the health secretary criticized the government because their message didn´t seem to get children. The study also showed that children are likely to drink alcohol if they live with people who regularly do it.

Personal Reaction

This poll showed that even first world countries as England have this problem.It is worrying that this practice is so common among teenagers, and it makes me wonder where their parent are and the way they are educating their children.I think that the only way to solve this problem is to be responsible as parents and to take care of our children.The government also must control and punish people who sell alcohol to teenagers.

Reading Log n27

Date:August 29th,2007
Title:Even gangters need their mamas
Link:http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1656202,00.html

Vocabulary

1-throng:a multitude of people crowded or assembled together; crowd.
2-channel:To serve as a medium for (a spirit guide).
3-cred:credibility among young fashionable urban individuals
4-demobilize:to disband (troops, an army, etc.).
5-bay:the situation of a person or thing that is forced actively to oppose or to succumb to some adverse condition (usually prec. by at or to).
6-raspy:harsh; grating; rasping.
7-pamper:to treat or gratify with extreme or excessive indulgence, kindness, or care: to pamper a child; to pamper one's stomach.
8-slingshot:a Y-shaped stick with an elastic strip between the prongs for shooting stones and other small missiles.

Summary

A reintegration programme carried out in Nicaragua is fighting against gangs but without violence;they try to reintegrate young criminals to society by working in the government.Nowadays,Nicaragua has a Sandinista government in power and they are giving gangsters an opportunity to change their lives and be part of the society.This programme has been very successful in reintegrating young gangs and it shows that it is possible to battle gangsters without violence:government should just give them a chance.

Personal Reaction

It is hard to believe that the Nicaragua´s government is fighting against gangsters without using violence and that they are being successful in doing it.However,if this is true it is good to know that we can solve problems without violence and by just giving these people a chance to be part of society once again.I think that the solution to all these problems is education and opportunities.

Masks

It is true that we all wear masks?Can we be different people depending on the situation and the time?I think that it is true.I don´t know about you,but I have always had the strange feeling that I´m a very different person depending on who I am talking to.I mean, maybe I am not so different at all, but some features of my personality seems to be more prominent than others when dealing with people.For example,apart from the "masks" we wear when we are performing our duties(e.g:a student,a son,a member of the society)I think that I change some aspects of my personality when I am with my friends,my classmates or my girlfriend.Yes, I know that what I´m saying could sound rather obvious,but this metamorphosis makes me wonder who I really am.Maybe I´m just all the things I am when interacting with different people, or maybe I am not.Maybe it is just the fact that dealing with people all the time doesn´t alow us to take off our masks and show our real selves.So this leads me to the conclusion that we are real only when we are alone.However,it is very difficult to know yourself well, to know who you really are.It takes time and to be mature enough to be aware of your virtues and faults, to decide what you really want to do with your life and to know what you don´t want to.It takes a lot of time, and a lot of experience and to go through hardships and good times to meet the "real" you.The fact that we are different people depending on the situation and the people involved,makes us improve some parts of our personality and be better people.Maybe wearing masks is a good thing,but we always have to be honest with ourselves.Our masks should be an extension of our personality;we don´t have to use them to make the others believe something we are not.But the real problem is when we start to believe in that false image of ourselves.Why is it so dangerous?because you are fooling yourself, and you will feel bad sooner or later. I think that it is important to be honest with yourself because by doing it maybe you will find the key for happiness,or at least you will be able to see things clearly.Sometimes it is very hard to accept the way we are;it is so awful to be aware of your own faults and limitations.But I think we have to face the fact that we have to deal with ourselves from the cradle to the grave, and we can be either our best friends or our worst enemies.

My 10 commandments

I took this idea from the Rolling Stone magazine,where there is a section that famous people comment on their favourites albums.The albums I chose are without a specific order and I recommend you to listen to them,they are really good.This is a kind of tribute to the musicians that fill my life with their art:
1-Radiohead-"The bends":I have a special feeling for this record because it reminds of a very difficult time in my life.It is an album filled with strong emotions that makes you feel overwhelmed.
2-Nirvana-"Unplugged in New York":I should have listened to this album about 1000 times in summertime when I was younger and my sister gave it to me as a present.It is so sad because it´s one of the latest Kurt Cobain´s live performances.By listening to this record you can realize that he was a true artist.
3-Keane-"Hopes and fears":My friends´favourite record;all of my friends and classmates for the Lola Mora have this record.By listening to it,the album takes me to a specific moment in my life.It brings me very good memories.
4-The verve-"Urban hymns":This record also reminds of a very special time in my life.I really love the songs "the drugs don´t work"and "sonnet".
5-Sigur Rós-"Ágaetis byrjun":They are my new favourite band;I discovered them last year and it was a revelation.The have made me change the way I perceive music. very pure and extremely beautiful music.Once you listen to it,it touches your heart and soul and stays there forever .
6-Jeff Buckley"Grace":It is a shame that this artist is not so popular and his music is not well known.Though he died some years ago,his music remains and specially the sound of his voice:In my opinion he is one of the best rock singers of all time,only comparable with Freddie Mercury.
7-The Killers-"Hot Fuss":Everything I like about pop music and glam is here.They are american,but they sound british.I think they are the future of pop music,I hope so.
8-Pink Floyd-"The wall":What can I say about this masterpiece?a complet work of art,you only have to what the movie to realize it.superb.
9-The Beatles-"Revolver":I could choose any Beatles´s album,all of them are excellent.They introduce me to the Rock world,I will always be a big fan of them.I just love them.
10-Oasis-"Definitely Maybe":They had everything a rock band should have:attitude,good songs and popularity.Though they have lost the talent that made them so special,they were a very important band that revitalized the genre.

This is just to say...

This is just to say that I´m very scared today
Because once again I have to face my duties
because as my friend said"this is the beginning of the end"
it´s rather strange,I want to leave but at the same time I want to stay
and when I finish it I must start again
I said that I was scared,because everything is momentary and time seems to waste
but only the memories will remain.

Reading Log n26

Date: August 27th,2007
Title: Geeks vs. G-men
Link: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,991205-1,00.html

Vocabulary

1-g-men:an agent for the FBI.
2-rambunctious:difficult to control or handle; wildly boisterous: a rambunctious child.
3-retaliatory:to return like for like, esp. evil for evil: to retaliate for an injury.
4-cuff:to strike with the open hand; beat; buffet.
5-fed: Slang. a federal official or law-enforcement officer.
6-indict:(of a grand jury) to bring a formal accusation against, as a means of bringing to trial: The grand jury indicted him for murder.
7-tantrum:a violent demonstration of rage or frustration; a sudden burst of ill temper.
8-du jour:fashionable; current: environmentalism and other issues du jour.
9-shenanigans:mischief; prankishness: Halloween shenanigans.
10-phony:insincere or deceitful; affected or pretentious: a phony sales representative.

Summary

There has never been much love lost between geeks and G-men. But after a big software-piracy crackdown in 1990 generated more bad publicity than convictions, the feds have largely held their fire.In the past few weeks, meanwhile, things have got out of hand. The trouble began when a gH member named Eric Burns, who is suspected of hacking the White House home page, was indicted in Virginia on unrelated charges. In response, someone calling himself Israeli Ghost hit fbi.gov with a massive "denial of service" attack--a nasty form of info warfare in which a host site is flooded with requests (in this case, 600,000 per second) that paralyze it.
The hackers, as usual, say government webmasters have no one to blame but themselves; the notoriously sloppy security at gov websites has turned them into hacker magnets.Of course, that won't make much of a defense should the cybervandals ever find themselves in court. The FBI says it isn't planning any more arrests soon. In the meantime, expect more of this phony war: no charges, no collateral damage and a heck of a lot of posturing--on both sides.

Personal Reaction

This is a very interesting article, because we tend to think that this issue(hackers against the government)happens only in the movies.However,I don´t see the point in hacking and bothering the FBI;it seems so childish because hackers don´t achieve anything by doing it but to keep these institutions occupied.They won´t get anything by doing these,because the government is not so stupid to leave important things to be discovered in their websites.
I really think that these kinds of hackers are fools, because they have a vast knowledge on computers but they don´t know how to make a profit of it.

Self portrait

27 years here...
argentinean,male,single...
music lover and anglophile...
a dead father and a strong mother...
obsessive compulsive...
fear of the future...
like to go to England and Iceland...
sometimes an outsider...
passionate and ironic...
egotist and bad-humoured(usually)...
like girls and being with them...
don´t like crowded buses...
bad at sports...
have very good people as friends..
one sweet love...some lovers left behind...
want to be happy and quiet....
always trying to keep a balance and to find a meaning...
everyday is a battle...
thankful for other people´s help and inspiration...
too much exposed sometimes...
unwilling to change...
eager to believe...
carpe diem...

Reading Log n25

Title:Strange? Us?
Link:http://arts.guardian.co.uk/fridayreview/story/0,,1556102,00.html
Date:August 24th,2007

Vocabulary

1-curl up:to become curved or undulated.
2-tuck into:to put into a small, close, or concealing place: Tuck the money into your wallet.
3-babble:to talk idly, irrationally, excessively, or foolishly; chatter or prattle.
4-dispense:to deal out; distribute: to dispense wisdom.
5-glasnost:A Russian word meaning “openness,” which describes the policy of Mikhail Gorbachev, premier of the former Soviet Union. The term refers to a general loosening of government control on all aspects of life in the Soviet Union, even to the point of permitting criticism of government policies.

6-tundra:a vast treeless plain in the Arctic regions where the subsoil is permanently frozen.
7-nonplus:a state of utter perplexity.
8-chirrup:To make clucking or clicking sounds with the lips, as in urging on a horse.
9-bequeath:to dispose of (personal property, esp. money) by last will.
10-flicker:To move waveringly; flutter: shadows flickering on the wall.

Summary

Sigur Rós is an icelandic band, which music is so strange and difficut to label that some people called their style as "post-rock" or "nü gaze".The strange thing about them is that usually their songs don´t have titles and they are sung in a made-up language that they called "vonleska".It is also unusual the great amount of famous people who are fan of their music;some of them are Gillian Anderson,Chris Martin and Tommy Lee.
Eventhough their music is strange,it is very beautiful and today Sigur Rós are the second most known artists from Iceland,behind Björk.Their mysterious image made them receive bad critics from the press,and they usually don´t give interviews.Apart from this,they don´t consider themselves to be "rock stars"and their lead a very quiet and normal life in their natal Iceland.
They claimed that they get their inspiration from simple things,and they are unwilling to explain where they music comes from because they don´t know.Their lyrics(the songs that have lyrics are sung in Icelandic) speak about simple stories,which accompany the strong emotions present in their music.

Personal Reaction

I chose this article because I wanted to know more about one of the band that made me change my way of seeing music.The first time I heard this band I felt that I was in front of something new.It is difficult for me to explain what I feel each time I listen to them,because their music is so beautiful and astonishing and it is hard to express with words.I think that what they do is to go back to the roots,to forget about labels and postures and to really care about music and to do something extraordinary.By listening to this group,I realized that music has still the power to make people feel strong emotions and things that they didn´t know they have inside of them.I hope more people listen to them and feel the same as me.

Dr. Etcheverry´s Lecture

On tuesday we had the chance to listen to a lecture given by Dr. Guillermo Jaim Etcheverry, former dean of the UBA and author of the famous book "La tragedia educativa".The topic of his lecture was "To educate in today´s society".His lecture was based of the main themes of his book and it focused on the impact and the current status of education in our country.
He claimed that society has a false system of values and ethics which are opposed to the educational values that the school as an institution teaches.Nowadays, to achieve something we don´t need to push ourselves to make it,because there is this idea that effort is negative and everything can be done and achieved without it. This idea is one of the many features that characterize this era:postmodernism. Maybe the most salient feature of this era is the powerful influence that the mass media has on society.
Nowadays there is a culture of being youth and society seems to praise this model of behaviour. As a result, everything that is attractive to the youth is seen as something positive and it is imposed by society as a lifestyle. To give an example, nowadays everything has to be done quickly, without further thought or analysis, and image is much more important that words. We can percieve this in the classrooms: nowadays, the learning process have to be fun and dynamic to catch students´s attention and to make the process more enjoyable. This way of approaching education tends to weaken the learning process, because it doesn´t build strong structures of learning in the students´s minds, and as a result, they tend to quickly forget what they have just learned.
The school is also seen as a recreative place and in a more direct way, as a "nursery".Parents generally are not so concerned about the education that their children receive but they see this institution as a place where their children are controlled and have a good time.This fact shows that people don´t really care about education, because in a world that changes so fast it doesn´t matter if you know or not.The contents that school teaches as seen as useless and obsolete.Today, educational institution as become nothing more that dealers of degrees and certifications;it is more important to have an official document that recognises and allowes you to perform a job than actually have the knowledge and expertise in your area.As a result, educational quality is poor and the vision of what is really important is modified.
Today the main problem that educators have to face is the student´s lack of interest in the learning process.The way society is structured imposes the idea that the only thing that is important is the present;people live for today and they don´t think about the future. There is also a devaluation of the past and what we can learn from it.By giving importance to the present, we are not building our future and we are not projecting our lives.
Another fact that seems to destroy the educational quality is the misuse of the tecnology in this field.The impact of the Internet tempts educators to just sit their students in front of a computer and to let them manipulate the information.It is true that the Net is an incredible and vast source of information, but using it in this way won´t give good results.To learn something we have to know how to deal with the information; to sum up,students have to acquire techniques and strategies to use information and to learn from it.
The family, as the basic structure of society, pays an important role in education; there´s a lack of respect for the authorithy and the educators in general, which weaken their influence on children and adolescents.Teaching is seen as something that is imposed and the school is considered as a dictatorial institution that oppress students.Parents don´t impose authority to their children and they are allies against the educational institution.Nowadays, the roles are interchangeble and parents are their children´s friends;as a result, they loss authority and respect and they are unwilling to educate them.
It is our responsability as educators and as parents to change these facts and to know that education is of vital importance,because it not only gives skills for a job but it also makes people grow as individuals and shows us what we are capable to do,what we can be.People´s lives is something valuable and education gives us a chance to transcend.

Reading Log n24

Title:When sadness is a good thing
Link:http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1653643,00.html
Date: August 16th,2007

Vocabulary

1-quaint: strange, peculiar, or unusual in an interesting, pleasing, or amusing way: a quaint sense of humor.
2-tout:to describe or advertise boastfully; publicize or promote; praise extravagantly: a highly touted nightclub.
3-dejection:depression or lowness of spirits.
4-bereavement: state of sorrow over the death or departure of a loved one
5-prompt:to move or induce to action.
6-dean:the head of a faculty, school, or administrative division in a university or college: the dean of admissions.
7-trait:A genetically determined characteristic or condition: a recessive trait.
8-outpatient:a patient who receives treatment at a hospital, as in an emergency room or clinic, but is not hospitalized.
9-BlackBerry: a wireless handheld device with e-mail, telephone, text messaging, Internet faxing and browsing services, and PDA applications.
10-compendium:a brief treatment or account of a subject, esp. an extensive subject; concise treatise: a compendium of medicine.

Summary

In the 60´s there were ads that touted a tranquilizer for people who feel sad because of the normal vicissitudes of life.This ad was quickly stopped by the FDA because it was dangerous for people to take drugs whenever they feel blue and without a mediacl treatment.
Nowadays,comparing with the 60´s,there are more people taking antidepressants and traquilizers than ever before;there is a legal drug culture that is socially accepted and there is the idea that being sad is an illness.However,experts agree that this practise is dangerous,because people tens to confuse normal sadness,which appears after the lose of something important in someone´s life,and a depressive disorder.
In this era,there has been a change in the definition of the depressive disorders,and nowadays anytime a person feels blue for a time he or she is treated as he or she as a depressive disorder.It is necessary to make a broad definition of what is a mental and emotional disorder such as depression to prevent people who suffer for a normal melancholy to be treated as an illness.We have to know that this feeling of misery and sadness after something unwanted has happened is normal and we don´t need to take medicine to cope with it.

Personal Reaction

The topic dealt in this article reminds of the novel"Brave New World"where people take a drug similar to an antidepressant called Soma each time they feel slightly unhappy.I agree with the author of this article;I think that we are a society which is accustumed to legal drugs and to take them without responsability and a proper medical control.We always take drugs not only when we feel sad but also when we are suffering from any small pain.
We have to realize that this practice is very dangerous and also this make us reflect about the quality of the lifestyle we are leading.The increase in the abuse of legal drugs makes us think about the way our society is made and the way we behave when we have to face everyday problems.

One In a Million-The Romantics

The 80´s are back!!!This video reminds me of my childhood.It´s very funny and a rather kitsch,hope you enjoy it.

An excellent joke

Yesterday I was scared to death due to a "strange" event that my friends and me had the chance to witness.Yesterday evening I went to my friend´s house to see them and to stay there to listen to some music and chat.When I knocked on the door, after a while my friend opened it and invited to come in.As we were walking to his room,he told me"are you ready to see something unbelievable?"I said"yes,of course,I am always ready"he laughed and said"you won´t believe this".When we got to the room,there were almost my entire group of friends,and they were astonished to see me coming."What happened"I said,and someone explained me what was going on."Look",Ramon said,"we have here a computer programme that can guess what is going on right here and can guess everything about anyone´s life".At that time I didn´t believe what they were saying.He also told me that this programme was able to communicate with "spirits" of dead people.I said"no,you are kidding me!!!",they said"ask her something,her name(the spirit´s name)is Liza","OK,ask her what´s the colour of the coat I´m wearing",I said,Ramon quickly typed and the answer came quickly,"black"(the answer was showed on the screen).I couldn´t believe what I was seeing."Ok",I said,"ask her what I am studying",Ramon typed again and the answer appeared on the screen inmediatly,"English",I began to feel afraid and my legs started shaking.Some said,"ask her what we are listening to at the moment",the programme answered,"Los Piojos"wow!!!this was amazing but at the same time so frightening.I asked my friends where they got it,and they told me that a friend of theirs gave it,but they didn´t know where he had taken it from.They also told me that the "spirit" had guessed other things such as their profesional future,what they did yesterday,etc.I was so confused that I couldn´t think clearly.Ok, it couldn´t be a joke because it was impossible to fake it,there was no way to do it.I stayed there some time and then I went quickly to my house.I told my mother what had happened and she was very astonished also.I told her that I was going to the cyber and I was going to look for it at the internet.There was something inside of me that told me that this wasn´t possible.I have always been a sceptic,and I don´t believe in those things about spirits and ghosts and all that,I have always though that that was a bunch of bullshit.So I got to the cyber,asked for a PC and look for it at the internet:IT WAS A JOKE.The programme is called Liza or "Pedro responde",which is the newest version.It was made for joking with your friends and made them believe that you are communicating with spirits.The person that is playing a joke is the one that types and asks the spirit questions;he has to make the other person say the answer to the question aloud and when he types"liza,favor de contestar esta pregunta"he is actually writing the answer thanks to a configuration made in the keyboard.when he writes the question and press F5,the right answer appears quickly.When the "medium" doesn´t know the answer or couldn´t steal it from the other,the programme is configurated to answer things like"me niego a responder a eso" and so on.It is a very good programme to play a joke to your friends and to scare them.

Incomprehensible violence

I have to say something: I don´t really like football. Yes, I know that there are times(especially during the world cups)when I get interested in football, maybe because of the magnitude of the events, because of the several countries that participate in it and the(hidden)"patriotism"(if you want to call it like that)that is reborn each time that our selection plays.I know that the fact that I don´t like football turns me into a kind of alien for other men of my age, but unfortunately it doesn´t call my attention(I say unfortunately,because the fact that I don´t like it prevents me from socializing a little bit more with other guys of my age). I have to say also that I went twice to see a football match, it was the matches played by my neighbourood´s team: Talleres. Being there, near the hooligans, I didn´t like this new experience at all.Of course that at the beginning of the match there was excitement, and people there seemed to enjoy what was about to take place;but then you realized that the "hinchas"are not so focus on watching what is happening in the field, but they are paying all their attention in insulting and provoking the other fanatics.You can percieve the violence even in the songs they sing to "support"their team.I had the feeling that a football match was only an excuse for starting a fight and for releasing their anger and disappointment.I know that some people say that the violent acts carry out in the football matches are a reflection of the violence that is part of our society, and that the fanatics go to a stadium to release their anger.This is not an excuse,because the vast mayority of the "barrabravas" are part of a kind of mafia that is protected by the same football clubs they are part of. I know that barrabravas are the average population, I mean, some people who are part of these "hinchadas"are common people, but it doesn´t mean that you have to behave in that way.We can also see the diference in other countries, especially in Europe. In these countries,not taking into account England and all the U.K,which have the same footballistic traditions as Argentina and other South American countries, you can see that there isn´t a high barrier that prevents people from entering the field. This shows the way people behave, and that they are able to enjoy a match without destroying the stadium or killing and hurting other people. It is sad that this vandalism happens in several countries(especially ours)and that people who really enjoy watching this game could not participate or go to the stadium because of some other people´s madness and savagery.Maybe the only way to solve this problem is the strict control from the federations and a little more of respect and education.I know that this is a very big problem, but we have to find a solution anyway.

Reading Log n23

Date:August 16th,2007
Title: The Worst Jobs In America
Link to the Article: http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1648055,00.html
Date of Publication: July 30th,2007

Vocabulary

1-uptick:1. a rise or improvement in business activity, in mood, etc.

2-fringe:3. an outer edge; margin; periphery: on the fringe of the art world.

3-salon:a shop, business, or department of a store offering a specific product or service, esp. one catering to a fashionable clientele: a dress salon; a hair salon.

4-perilous:involving or full of grave risk or peril; hazardous; dangerous: a perilous voyage across the Atlantic in a small boat.

5-bio-hazard: A biological agent, such as a virus or a condition that constitutes a threat to humans, especially in biological research or experimentation.

6-stride:12. a step forward in development or progress: rapid strides in mastering algebra.

7-untoward:1. unfavorable or unfortunate: Untoward circumstances forced him into bankruptcy

8-axe:Informal A sudden termination of employment: My colleague got the ax yesterday.

9-tally:1. an account or reckoning; a record of debit and credit, of the score of a game, or the like.

10-lag:1. to fail to maintain a desired pace or to keep up; fall or stay behind: After five minutes of hard running, some of them began to lag.

11-onus:1. a difficult or disagreeable obligation, task, burden, etc.

Summary

People who works in jobs related to the industrial laundry, supermarket staff and others in the USA receive low wages and they have to work under poor conditions which risk their health. The worst jobs in America are related to these three industries: laudry services, supermarkets and nail salons. The problem is the bad conditions in which people have to work and that the domestic unions that protect them have not a very stromg presence.
Laundry and dry cleanind workers have to manipulate everyday bio-hazard substances that can be very harmful for their health, some of them are waste that comes from hospitals, where you can find needles,blood and body parts between other things.Dry-cleaning workers, too, are at risk from prolonged exposure to chemicals: the dry-cleaning chemicals used in this industry contain high concentrations of PCE.The prolonged exposure to this chemical can harm the central nervous system.
The supermarket staff have to be on their feet all day, repeatedly lifting loads as heavy as 80 lbs., which puts them at risk for musculoskeletal disorders. They also receive low wages because they are paid only in tips.However,the spokeperson for the United Food and Commercial Workers Union claim that this kind of job provides financial security and that they are stable enough to support a family.
In spite of this, there are institutions that control and prevent labor violations.Worker advocates argue that broader enforcement of existing regulations nationwide could help improve conditions for more than 2.5 million supermarket workers.

Personal Reaction

What this article shows is not new,because this problem has been here and in other parts of the world since a long time ago. It is sad and it is not fair that people who have to do these kind of jobsm which are not nice and very dangerous for their health,receive low wages and in the vast mayority of the cases they don´t have an insurance.
The ones who are blamed for the bad conditions in which these people work are the owner of these industries. They only care about improving their business and financial situation, while people who work for them do their jobs in poor conditions. I think that the only solution to this problem is that institutions and the government must control these industries and investigate the way in which workers do their job and their financial situation.

Injustice

Yesterday I pass a very bad moment due to something that happened a few months ago and I though it was forgotten.This is the story: some months ago I was doing my teaching practises at Colegio Nacional; I had finished to do the observations so I began doing my practises. Everything seemed to go ok.I had to practice on mondays and wednesdays;on this day I was allowed to start the class on my own;the teacher who lent her course to practise allowed me to do that because she usually get at school later that day and she didn´t want me to waste my time. On a wednesday I was about to start my class when one man(I didn´t know he was the headmaster)didn´t let me start the class and asked me to go out. He told me that he was the headmaster and that he hadn´t given me his authorization to give the class on my own.I told him that I had the teacher´s authorization and that I had previously spoken with the vice rectora.He didn´t understand this and "invited" me to go out of the class. After this incident I was told by the vice rectora to ask her permission to start the class each time the teacher was late. I tought that this was not necessary,that´s why I made the mistake of starting the class on my own;I tought that with the teacher´s permission was enough.I could finished my practises without problems,but when a classmate of mine wanted to do her practises in this institution, the headmaster told her that all practises had been suspended.Yesterday, my teaching practise teacher told us that she heard that the practises for any career in the Colegio Nacional had been suspended due to a problem they had with a practising teacher:myself. I don´t know what they think that happened, but I felt that I was accused for something that never happened(nothing happened really). What worries me most is that this gossiping is damaging the prestige of the institution where I study.I think that what happened was a lack of respect for my teaching practises teacher and me, and I don´t know what´s the matter with the headmaster.Some people say that he doesn´t get on well with the vice rectora, and I unfortunately was in the eye of the storm. I hope that all this ends up well, because I have just clarify what happened and I don´t want people to start saying things that are not true. I thank my teaching practises teacher for defending me and trying to clarify what really happened.I want you to know that it wasn´t my fault and I´m not the one to be blamed for the suspension of the practises in that institution.