YOUR SAY

MANDATORY HAIR REMOVAL?

Some days ago, I was having lunch with my family while looking at the TV. Nothing special. A program called “Cámbiame” (“Change me, in English) was being shown in the TV. Basically, this TV show is about people who want to change their appearance; there are three stylists who can decide whether they want to change that person or not. If a person has been chosen, then one stylist changes his or her style. 

Frankly, I wasn’t even paying attention to it, until I heard a comment made by one of the stylists, which said to a girl that “It’s not possible for a woman to have hair on her arms”. Then I started paying attention to the program, especially to the girl, who was a cute young teenager. I had to make an effort to see her “hairy arm”; yes, she had some hairs, but it wasn’t that bad. At the end the stylist ended up removing her hair (what a surprise!).

What happened in that program made me think about the pressure women receive to remove their body hair. Of course, everybody can do what they want, and now more and more women are deciding to stop removing their hair, simply because they don’t want to do it anymore. But people keep looking at women who don’t remove their body hair in a bad way. And I ask myself: why? Does affect anybody if a woman decides to have hair in their body? Is your live worse because of that? Of course not, and I think society has to stop putting so many pressure on girls (and boys too).

 Also, returning to what I was saying at the beginning, about the comment done by one stylist of the program “Cámbiame”, it really made my angry. Of course, even though I accept people who decide not to remove their body hair (that’s the normal thing to do, in my opinion; everybody can do what they want with their lives if it doesn’t affect anybody else), I understand that maybe there are people who don’t like women with body hair. As well as someone doesn’t like people with tattoos, there can be people who don’t like someone with body hair; no problem. This is one thing, and the other one is to say that “It’s not possible for a woman to have hair on her arms”. Excuse me? It’s perfect for a woman to have hair on her arms, or to have blue hair, or to do whatever she wants with her body. I found this commentary totally sexist. Women are free to decide what they want to do with her body, and don’t being judged for it. Well, not just women, everybody.

YOUR SAY

BRITISH MUSEUM TASK

While we were in London, we visited the British Museum. There, we had to do one task that consisted in finding some artworks in the museum. So we divided us in groups of 4-5 and we started searching. My group and I found them all:

ROSETTA STONE: The first work that we had to find was the famous Rosetta Stone, which is a granodiorite stele found in 1799. Its importance is huge because it is written in Ancient Egyptian using the hieroglyphic script, using the Demotic script and also in Ancient Greek. The three versions say almost the same, so the discovery of Rosetta Stone helped deciphering the Egyptian hieroglyphs (as the Greek was a known language). For me, Rosetta Stone is one of the “must-see” of the British Museum. Although, it was a shame that there were a lot of people all the time contemplating it, so we couldn’t appreciate it properly.

EGYPTIAN MUMMIES: The British Museum has 120 Egyptian human mummies and over 300 animal mummies (most of them are cats). A curious fact is that the museum has a four metre long mummified crocodile! But we weren’t able to find it. At the end, we only took a photo of a normal mummy. For me, mummies have always caught my attention, because I find them very curious. So it was nice to see some of them.

ASSYRIAN LION HUNT RELIEFS: Before I went to the museum, I didn’t know about these reliefs, but now I have investigated and I found out that they are regarded as "the supreme masterpieces of Assyrian art", and that they were found in the North Palace of Nineveh. The reliefs show a ritual hunt done by King Ashurbanipal in an arena, where he had to kill Asian lions with arrows, spears or his sword. It wasn’t the artwork that I liked the most in the museum, but it was good and interesting to see it.

PARTHENON SCULPTURES: The Parthenon is an ancient temple located on the Athenian Acropolis in Greece), and it’s dedicated to the goddess Athena. It was constructed between the 447 BC and the 438 BC and it’s considered the most important surviving building of Classical Greece and one of the world’s greatest cultural monuments. Although the temple is situated in Greece, the Parthenon sculptures of the facade are in the British Museum. This artwork was one of the most interesting ones for me, because in the subject History of Art we have studied it, so it was nice to see the original ones. Also, the Ancient Greek period has always caught my attention. 

CYRUS CYLINDER: It is an ancient clay cylinder (now broken into several pieces) on which is explained the conquest of Babylon by Cyrus the Great in 539 BC and his own work at Babylon. The cylindrical form is typical of royal inscriptions of the Late Babylonian period. As the Assyrian Lion Hunt reliefs, I didn’t know about this artwork before, but it was interesting and now I know more things about it.

SOMETHING THAT IT IS NOT ANCIENT: One thing that we found that it wasn’t ancient (and that also was really curious) is an exposition called “Cradle to Grave”, which showed how many pills takes an average person during its lifetime. In total, there were about 14,000! When you think about it, there’s so many pills, so it was really interesting to see it.

THE MOST CURIOUS OR SURPRISING OBJECT: Finally, we had to take a photo of the most curious or surprising object. In my case, I took a photo of a tree made of iron. I like it a lot because I think it’s original to represent nature using iron; it’s like a paradox. I don’t know exactly why, but I loved it.

YOUR SAY

LONDON

Last week, from the 4th to the 7th of April, some of my classmates of 2nd Batxillerat and I went to a trip to London, so in this post I want to explain a little bit what we did and how was the experience from my point of view.

FIRST DAY (April the 4th):
We left from the high-school at 2:30 am, so you can guess we were all sleepy and tired, but also very excited for the trip. We arrived at the Gatwick Airport at 8:30 in the morning and the first thing we did was go to the hostel to leave the suitcases there. After that, we went to Covent Garden, where there’s a huge and beautiful market. We had lunch there and visited it until at 3:30 we had a guided tour with Angus, our guide. At first I thought it would be a little bit boring, because I was very tired and the fact that it was a 2 hour guide didn’t cheered me up, but it ended up being so interesting and pleasant. Angus was a very funny man, and the way he explained things really caught my attention. He also did little performances with us (I participated in one of them). In the tour we visited Trafalgar Square, Saint James Park (where we made a new friend: a squirrel), Buckingham Palace… After the tour we had free time to take photos with the Big Ben and wander around. Finally, we had dinner at Leicester Arms, a restaurant near Picadilly Circus and came back to the hostel.

SECOND DAY (April the 5th):
In the morning (between 9:30 and and 11:30) we visited the British Museum and I have to say it is astonishing. When you enter in it the first thing you see is a large roof made of glass, which is very impressive. We had to do a little work on the Museum: find some artworks. It wasn’t very difficult, but the Museum is huge and we get a little lost searching them. After the visit in the British Museum, we went to Camdem Town market, and it was one of the places I liked the most of London. I can’t tell exactly why, but I loved it! The people, the vibes, the shops… My friends and I ate a pizza there, but you could choose between different types of food from all around the world. But, as always, we end up eating Italian food (it’s a course, wherever I go, I finish eating pizza or pasta). Then, as we couldn’t find a good price to go to a musical, we decided to take a small trip with boat, which was called “Little Venice”. It was pleasant and relaxing, and I enjoyed so much. Then, at night, we did a tour in London visiting the places where Jack the ripper had killed his victims. We were tired in that moment, but I can tell we all enjoyed it so much.

THIRD DAY (April the 6th):
In the morning we visited another museum, this time the National Gallery. Some of us had to comment a painting (this was my case). I did it with Mar Oliva and we commented the Arnolfini Portrait, by Jan van Eyck. We had some problems though: while we were recording us, a security guard cut us off and told us we were too close to the painting (which, in our defense, I have to say we were not, because we were standing in front of the rope that separate the painting from the people). Finally, we were able to finish our commentary, but we were a little mad. Then, another classmate, Iman Danhaji, had to comment the Arnolfini Portrait too, so we were supposed to help her recording as she helped us before. But, then, the security guard came again and told us to leave the room as there were so many people in there. At that point I get very mad because he let a large group of people enter in the room and made us leave, but we were there before. Still, we had to leave the room and came back later. Now that I think about it in perspective it makes me laugh, but at that moment I was mad at him. However, the rest of the visit in the museum was good, and we were able to see some paintings that have studied at class. After visiting the museum, we had free time and my friends and I decided to go to Oxford Street to go shopping. We had dinner in a quite fancy Italian restaurant (you see, always eating Italian food!) and then we bought some clothes. We met with the teachers and the other classmates in the National History Museum and we visited it. The museum was under construction, and we couldn’t see everything, but it was nice and interesting anyway. Then, we visited the fancy mall Harrods, but of course, we didn’t buy anything. After having dinner, we went to Picadilly Circus to see the lights at night, and then we came back to the hostel to rest.

FOURTH DAY (7th April):
This was our last day and we were all so sad. Well, actually, on one hand we wanted to leave because we were all so tired and we wanted to relax at home, but on the other one we wanted to stay a few more days. During the morning we visited South Bank: the Saint Paul’s Cathedral, the Tower Bridge and the Tower of London, the Monument… Even though I was so tired, I decided to go up the Monument, which had 311 steps (and I even get a certificate that claims it!). We also went to the Borough Market, where we had lunch. It was full of people so I was so stressed. After eating, we visited the Tate Modern and we went up to the highest level (you can imagine we took a lot of photos there). Finally, we had a guided tour in the Globe Theatre (Shakespeare’s theatre), which was very interesting. After that, we came back to the hostel to pick up our suitcases and we went to the Gatwick airport. We arrived in Barcelona at 1 am more or less, but we had to wait there for almost two more hours because the air company had lost one of our classmate’s suitcase. Finally, I arrived home at 5 am in the morning: the trip had finished.

This trip has been one of the best trips I have ever made, especially because I have done it with some of my friends and classmates. It’s sad to think about how next year we will be all in different places studying different things, so I think this trip has united us more. I’m so sad it has finished, but I keep some good memories of it.

YOUR SAY

FIRST GAY KISS IN DISNEY?

Disney has made a huge progress by showing a gay kiss on a cartoon for the first time. I wanted to talk about it because I think it’s a big improvement in the normalization of the LGBT community. Also, since in the project we are working on in this term is about “Love and relationships”, I think this fact is related to it.

The gay kiss was shown in a cartoon called “Star vs. the Forces of Evil”. In the scene, you can see some gay and lesbian couples kissing, among heterosexual couples. Also, some days ago the director of the remake of the “Beauty and the Beast” film said it would be a gay storyline in it. So yes, Disney is modernising itself (it was about time!). 

Unlike some people’s opinion that gay love shouldn’t be shown in films destined for kids, I think if kids are old enough to see a kiss between a woman and a men, they are old enough also to see a kiss between two people of the same gender. There’s not so much difference, isn’t it?

Besides, there are people who maintain than showing love between two persons of the same gender will “influence” kids, and make them gay or lesbian too. I think I’ve never seen such a ridiculous argument before. Sexual orientation it’s not something you can choose, like you see a gay couple and you say “Oh, I want to be like them” and you become gay. No, it doesn’t work like this. It’s something you feel inside, and seeing a gay kiss in the television will not influence you to change your sexual orientation.

In this picture you can see some gay couples
kissing each other.

So I think showing all types of love in the television, cinema, Internet or wherever will only be positive for normalizing it. In that way, if kids see that a relationship between two persons of the same gender is something completely normal, in some years there will not be persons afraid of saying they are homosexual, there will be no bullying to the people who are gay or lesbian and people will see a kiss in the street between two persons of the same gender as something completely normal and acceptable. Let’s teach kids tolerance and respect!

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YOUR SAY

WEAPONS IN THE USA

A recent study has shown that more than 50% of the homes in the USA have a weapon. Also, the dissatisfaction with the weapon’s regulation has increased among the inhabitants of the country, and now more than the 60% of the people don’t agree with it. I think the reason is because of the shootings that have happened in the last year. 

Some Americans defend having weapons, saying that it helps them feeling safer, because they can protect themselves if someone is trying to kill or attack them. But take a look at how many people have died because of a weapon in the last years: the number is terrifying. In my point of view, I think it’s safer the way it works in Europe, where almost anybody can have a gun or any weapon.

These defenders of the weapons also say that if Europe worked like the US, and some people could have weapons, some terrorist attacks could have been stopped, but I don’t think so. The USA has also received terrorist attacks that couldn’t have been stopped, like the one that happened in Boston in 2013, so this theory is not valid. In fact, in the country more people have died because of shootings or killed by anyone with a gun than being victim of a terrorist attack. 

But, what can they do to change that? I think they have to change their law about weapons, restrict the people who can have weapons and remove them from some people. But a lot of civils are against it, and they say that if the government takes off the weapons of the people, this would be an attack to the private propriety of them. Personally, I don’t think this is a valid argument, because I think it’s more important to avoid slaughters done by crazy people with guns, than worrying about private propriety. Yes, they will take your gun away, but with this you can avoid people being dead unfairly.

So, in conclusion, I am against weapon regulation in the USA, and I think they have to change it to stop shootings and the death of innocent people.

YOUR SAY

THE RESEARCH PROJECT: IS IT WORTH IT?

Last Monday 16th of January my classmates and I from 2nd Batxillerat presented our Research Project in front of a court; We had handed it over the 19th of December and finally, in the 23rd of January I had the results. We have worked so hard for it, in my case, I'm so happy with my mark and with all the knowledge I have acquired.

But, is it really worth doing the Research Project? You can learn the things you like, and you can also choose the topic, so often you learn things about something you like or are interested in. You will also learn how to do professional work, and this will be useful for the next year, in University. But we can not forget the cons of doing the Research Project.

The first one is that it takes you a lot of time. It counts like another subject, but you do not have any hour in the high school to do it; And we have to accept that these projects are long, hard, and you have to spend a huge amount of hours to do it. The problem is that we are coursing 2nd of Batxillerat, the most stressful and hard school year of all. We do not even have time to do the homework and study for the normal subjects, how are we supposed to have also the time of the Research Project?

Another con is that you get stressed a lot during the process. Most of the teachers keep reminding you of the importance of that project, so you get nervous about it. But, maybe, the part when you get nervous the most is during the oral presentation of the project.

Another thing that pisses me off is that Catalonia is the only autonomous region in Spain that has to do it, and that's not fair. Especially because, as I said before, it takes you a lot of time, that you could use to study other subjects, doing homework or even relaxing or spending time with your friends.

In my case, I have to recognize that it was hard to do the project, especially at first, because I was just lost about what I had to do. It's true that I have learned a lot, and doing the practical part was positive and I can say that I really enjoy doing it. Now that it is finished it is easier to focus on the positive parts and you have to forget the bad moments you have gone through. But, of course, there were times that I got stressed out.

So, in conclusion, doing the Research Project has its pros and cons, and I'm not sure now which one imposes the other one. The only thing I can say is that I'm glad it's over and that I'm proud of my result.

YOUR SAY

MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN?

At first, I didn’t want to talk about the American elections, because it’s such a common topic right at this moment, everyone is talking about it so I thought I wouldn’t be able to contribute with anything new. But, since Trump has won (unlike everyone was expecting), I found myself “forced” to talk about it.

So, yes, Donald Trump has won the elections, and now is the new President of the United States (really, one week ago I was completely sure that I would never say that). My question right now is why, why does a xenophobic, homophobic, sexist, racist and misogynist man have won the elections of the US, the land of freedom, of equality, the most important power of the world?

If I have to be sincere, I don’t understand, and I don’t think I’ll never be able to do it. But, I think to (more or less) understand the causes of this big failure (sorry, I meant, of this decision) we have to understand North America’s society. They have been selling us that America is the land of opportunities, of whether you’re black, white, Hispanic, Asian or wherever you came from, you can succeed in the US if you work hard. And now Americans put a man on the Presidency that wants to build a wall in the border with Mexico? Well, there’s something that I don’t understand here. I think Trump represents the dark part of what white American people think. When you talk to people most of them are like “Oh yes, I’m not a racist, no way!” But then, these people are the first ones to say inside their homes that all the problems of the country are there because of the immigrants. Trump basically says what most people in America think but they don’t dare to say in public. But, really, I never thought more than 60.000.000 people in America thought that way in the XXI century. Maybe one of the reasons why Trump has won is because it’s always easier to blame the others. “Why America have problems? It’s not because of American white people, no way! It’s immigrants fault, clearly”. But people who left their countries looking for a better life are Americans too, like they say “home is where the heart is”. Actually, all the Yankees that consider themselves the “real Americans” are actually immigrants from mostly Europe or some other places in the world. The real American people are the native Americans, so I found it quite stupid to say it’s all immigrants fault when most of American people are immigrants.

Personally, I’m not a big enthusiast of Hillary Clinton either, but I would prefer her in front of Trump. That two-party predominance in the elections is not a good think either. There were other options (like Gary Johnson or Jill Stein) but most of the people don’t even know they exist and that’s a bad thing, because most of the people didn’t actually like Clinton or Trump, but they chose one of them because they hate the other one more. And most of them maybe would have liked the Green Party (lead by Jill Stein) or the Libertarian Party (lead by Gary Johnson) but they didn’t have an opportunity.

But, what will represent Trump’s victory? Well, actually, I don’t really know. I hope (and I’m almost sure) that Donald will not do every stupid thing that he promised, or otherwise we would be finished.

YOUR SAY

CELEBRITIES' PRIVACY

When we were little, almost everyone wanted to be famous: a singer, an important football player, an actor… Then, we started figuring out that being famous is not a bed of roses. In this post I’m not going to talk about all the disadvantages about being famous, but I’m going to focus on, for me, one of the worst of them: the privacy, or rather, the NO privacy that celebrities have.

I think at first you like people stopping you in the street asking you for photos, autographs or other things. But later on you get sick of it, not just because of the people, but for the annoying reporters, always following you wherever you go. The moment you start being very famous, your private life almost disappears. Everyone knows who you are dating, where have you gone on vacations, the clothes you wear when you go to the gym, etc. Most of the people say well, this is the price you pay for fame, but I think it’s not fair. I mean, in my place, I don’t think I would be able to put up with it. From my point of view, I don’t think it should be legal to invade so much the privacy of someone, whether is he or she famous. But most people accept that fact if the person is famous. I mean, for example, if a girl reports someone for following her and taking pictures of her to post it in internet for everyone to see it; that would be a normal thing to do, because you can’t invade someone’s privacy. Oh, but, it’s normal that a reporter takes photos of someone famous being naked and publish that to a magazine or post it in internet, right?

In conclusion, I think famous people should have more privacy. It’s normal that people want to know what they do, but sometimes I think reporters go too far, and we don’t have to forget that celebrities are humans too, so they should have the same rights, including the right of privacy.

YOUR SAY

ZOOS

In this your say I want to talk about some place that annoys me a lot: zoos. 

I have to say that when I was little once I went to the zoo in Barcelona, and I liked it. I’ve always been an animal lover, so it’s not surprising that ten years ago I liked going to the zoo, because I didn’t know what the reality about these places is. But when I grew up, I realized that the zoos are not a happy place, at least, not for the animals living there. These animals are forced to live in small, artificial and stressful gates, so they don’t have any freedom. They are removed from their natural habitats, from their similar ones, even from their family. They are miserable there. And all this to get what? Just for some humans to go there and say “Oh, how curious, look at that lion”. Yes, I know is fun to see exotic animals, but you also have to think that these animals have to spend all their live in captivity just for you to look at them during two minutes. And I think that’s not fair. If you want to see exotic animals with your own eyes, go to the savanna, to the North Pole or wherever these animals are. Actually, you can perfectly live without seeing them, it’s not vital for our lives. What for you are just a few hours of entertainment, for these animals is a lifetime in captivity.

Zoos claim that they provide conservation, education and entertainment, but their primary goal is to gain money; that’s a fact. And I don’t think it’s moral to gain money from this situation. These animals have to be free, in their natural habit, not caged for human entertainment. Imagine you are one of these animals and have to spend all your life in a boring cage, doing nothing, not able to see the world, to discover things, just seeing some strange creatures looking at you all the time. Animals in the zoo are sad, miserable, and they don’t deserve to live like this. That’s why I’m against zoos. And I know there are worst places for animals to go, like in an animal circus, for example, but I wanted to talk about zoos because there are people that don’t think these places are bad for the animals, and we all have to be conscious about it.

YOUR-SAY

NO MORE GENDER ROLES

I want to share with you a video that I saw a few days ago that I really liked. The video is made by Ariel, a detergent brand, and talks about an issue that still have our society nowadays: rigid gender roles.

The video shows the apologise of a father to his daughter, who lives independently with her husband and her son. The father sees how her daughter is making all the household chores while her husband is sitting comfortably in front of the TV reading a newspaper with a cup of coffee. Then he realises she can’t do it all, and that her husband must help her, but he doesn’t. He also realise that he wasn’t a good example for her, because he was like her daughter’s husband, so the girl saw her mother doing all the household chores and she followed her example. That’s why he apologises, but he also wants to help her to change that. Therefore, he writes a letter apologising for that and then he comes back home. When his wife sees him come back, she quickly wants to take all the clothes to wash them, but the man stops her and decides to do it himself. 

In the past, in most cultures, a woman’s work was to stay at home doing household chores and taking care of the kids. Fortunately, with the pass of time, this has changed and nowadays in most places women have a job like men (even though there are some inequalities that must end), but there are some gender roles that hasn’t been eliminated, and one of them is taking care of the house. This, step by step, is changing, but there are a lot of houses where almost all the household chores are done by the woman. As I said before, this must be eliminated and both men and women have to take care of the house in the same measure.

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YOUR-SAY

LOOK UP

A few weeks ago I saw on Facebook that a German city called Augsburg have found a solution for people who are distracted on their phones while they are walking in the street. 

Well, as you perfectly know, while you are with your phone, you’re not paying a lot of attention to what happens around you, mainly because it’s impossible to truly concentrate to a lot of things at the same time. In the last few years, the numbers of deaths of pedestrians in the street has increased, and it’s surprising that lots of them are because the person killed or injured was paying attention to their phone and not to the street. Well, it’s not that astonishing considering our addiction to the phone (of course, not everybody, but most of us). So, this German city, Augsburg, decided to put small red lights in the street, just in front of a crosswalk, for people to see it and notice when they can cross it or they can’t. Because lifting your head and look at the traffic light or just watch if there’s any car crossing was too difficult and too complicated, of course. 

I also saw that in China, in Chongqing city, they even gave people who are all day at their phones their own walking lane.

In my point of view, I think this is going way too far. It’s not normal that a city has to make a personal walking lane for people who are texting in the phone, or that they invent a little red lights to put in the street for the people who are distracted enough on their phones to not lift their head and observe what they have in front of their eyes. Please, our addiction to the mobile phones is already killing us (literally). I think it’s very stupid and embarrassing to reach this level so, please, pay attention to what’s around you and if you are walking in the streets, don’t be all the way looking at your phone to avoid that a stupid red light in the street have to tell you when it’s safe to cross instead of raise your head and look it yourself.

YOUR-SAY

#GiveElsaAGirlfriend?

A few weeks ago the hashtag #GiveElsaAGirlfriend became Trending Topic on Twitter. It all started when a girl called Alexis Isabel twitted:



Then she twitted “Dear Disney, #GiveElsaAGirlfriend”. Some people liked her idea, and they started retweeting it until it became Trending Topic.

Of course, there are always people who are against it, so some people created the hashtag #CharmingPrinceForElsa. They argued that a lot of children watch and like Frozen, and it would be a bad influence if Elsa is lesbian (I totally disagree with it).

In my opinion, I think if Elsa has a girlfriend, this will not be a bad influence for the kids; I think it will help to normalise homosexuality among children. Also, it would encourage young children who are homosexual to know that they are not strange, and that is completely fine and normal to be gay or lesbian. It will be a great step for Disney to do it, because the LGBT community hasn’t been represented in Disney movies.

On the other hand, I think it would also be nice to let Elsa be independent. I mean, all Disney movies about princesses show the little girls that they have to found a man to be happy, but that’s not true. You can be happy without being married or having a partner. Elsa is a great example for being an independent woman, and feeling great about it.

Therefore, the best solution in my point of view is to let Elsa be an independent woman and create a homosexual character for another movie. I mean, create a movie which principal character is gay or lesbian.

YOUR-SAY

A VIDEO TEACHING YOUNG CHILDREN TO BE HOMOPHOBIC

A few days ago, I watched a video from a Jehovah’s Witnesses’ web. I’m not a religious person, so I didn’t watch this video because I believe in their beliefs; I watched it because I read some comments of people saying that the video was against gay marriage, so I felt curious to watch it. Indeed, the video was an animated short film about a girl who is at school and had to do a drawing of her family. Then, she sees a drawing of one of her classmates in which there’s a family formed by two mothers. She feels surprised and when she goes home, she tells her mother about the drawing that she saw. Then, the mother explains to the girl that Jehovah created marriage between man and woman, not between two persons of the same gender. But what it upset me the most was that at the end, the mother says that “people can change”, like if the homosexuality was an illness and can be cured. Also, the mother wants her daughter to tell that girl at school who draw her two mothers that they can change; that her mothers can stop being homosexual. 

This video it’s directed to children and young people, to make them think that homosexuality is not good, teaching children to be homophobic. Please, we’re in the 21th century, let’s accept everyone and understand once and for all that love is for everybody, regardless their sexual orientation. Being gay, lesbian, transsexual, bisexual… deserve the same respect as being straight.

The problem with religions is that they don’t want to change their mentality. They say that “it has always been like this”, which is a lie, because in all historical periods have existed homosexual people. The fact that marriage, in the past, was always between man and woman doesn’t mean that we can’t change that. In fact, we are doing it; nowadays in more and more countries the gay marriage is legalized. But the most important thing we have to achieve (in my point of view) is respect to each other and tolerance. We have to “normalise” homosexuality, as much as transsexuality, bisexuality… We are all different, but we all deserve the same respect.

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YOUR-SAY

FIGHTING FOR FREEDOM

A few weeks ago I saw a video about a North Korean girl named Yeonmi Park who talked about her story in the conference One Young World in Dublin in 2014. The video is quite famous and maybe you already have seen it, but if you don’t I totally recommend you to do it, because it’s worth it. It makes me think about all the misery, inequality and injustice in our world, and the way the media hide it from us.

Yeonmi explains how horrible the North Korean system is. For example, she says that the people are sentence to death just for telephoning unjustifiably abroad. Also, a thing that impacted me so much is when she says that she saw a friend’s mother being executed for seeing a Hollywood movie. Another thing that caught my attention is when she tells us that she saw her mother being raped (her mother protect her, because at first the man tried to rape Yeonmi).
She explains her story while she’s crying, but it surprises me how her tears are delicate, she doesn’t cry a lot, but when you saw her you know she has lived the worse. It’s like she has cried so much in the past, that now she doesn’t have more tears. And also, she is wearing a cute dress, with her hair perfectly done and she makes me think about a porcelain doll; a delicate doll that has passed through the worse.

This video makes me think about the refugees in Europe. They, like Yeonmi, are trying to escape from a hell, risking their lives to get freedom. There are so many injustices in the world, some of them we can’t do anything for it, but most of them we can. We are all humans and I think we all have the same right to live in freedom and with good conditions.

VIDEO:

YOUR-SAY

A LITTLE REFLECTION

Money. What’s money? It’s just a piece of paper with value. Although, it’s still just a piece of paper. It’s us who gave it value.

But don’t you think that maybe (just maybe) it’s more valuable a tree, or a living being, or the air? We are devastating forests, contaminating the air, we are destroying nature. What will happen when we have contaminated the last river? Or poisoned the last breath of air? Will money still have value?

We have to think about it, and notice that we can’t eat money, it doesn’t have value, except the one we give it. However, food is necessary, water is necessary too and also the air to breathe. We have to open our eyes and observe that we are destroying the planet, and all the life in it. One day, we will destroy ourselves, the Earth will be so contaminated, that will be impossible for any animal to live here. But we can change this future if we want. And now you can be thinking “of course I want to change it!”, but not everybody wants it. Lots of multinationals gain a lot of money contaminating the environment, so they want to continue gaining money. Maybe we have to reconsider what’s the real value of money.

YOUR-SAY

ALCOHOL IS NOT THE ANSWER

Most people, when they go partying, they drink alcohol (among other things) to have a good time. They say alcohol makes them forget the problems and help them to have a good time. Actually, I think there’s nothing wrong about drinking a bit of alcohol, if you like it and you want to do it. I think the problem is that people abuse of it and drink too much. 

As everybody knows, drinking too much is not good, not only for your health, but also because if you drink too much you will feel bad: you’ll have headache, stomach ache, you can throw up and forget parts of what you did. So, if these are the terrible consequences, why do people drink until this happens?

As I said before, if you drink a bit because it makes you feel happier and enjoy more the night, go ahead and do it. But don’t exceed your limit, because a part from the fact that you will have a horrible night (and the day after), your friends will have a bad time too worrying and taking care of you.

Of course everyone can have a slip-up, and maybe one night you pass your limit with alcohol, but if this happens, I suggest you to be more careful the next time. I don’t know, but for me get very drunk it’s not funny, it don’t makes you spend a good time nor enjoying the party or the night.

Also, there are people that say that drinking alcohol (or other drugs) makes them forget about their problems. Well, they might make you feel better for a while and makes you forget about them, but sooner or later you will have to face your problems anyway. In addition, I don’t think alcohol is necessary to forget your worries, I think you just need some good music and friends!

YOUR-SAY

THE IGNORANCE ABOUT POLITICS

I think it’s obvious that politics affects our life. Even if you don’t like it and you don’t want to know anything about it, politics will affect you anyways. And also every day in the TV and on the news and newspapers there’s news talking about it: you can’t run away from it. But, well, in my opinion I think that, even if you don’t like it, you have to know which the situation of the country in political terms is, because it will affect your life, so it’s very important. 

A few months ago, there were elections in Spain, and just before that, I saw a video on Youtube which a man asked questions about politics to young people (mostly teenagers) and also to the political candidates of the different parties. The video was made humorously and he asked specific people that he knows they will answer with a “funny answer”. And I say funny answer with inverted commas because the video showed their political ignorance, and this is supposed to be funny but, actually, it isn’t. I mean, these people can vote and they didn’t know anything about politics, ANYTHING. In one question, the man asked “Which political party are you going to vote?” and one girl answered “PSOE” (a Spanish party). Then the man asked why and the girl said “I don’t know… Because my family votes that”. Then another young man said “I will vote PSOE because it has been governing for the last years and… Oh, no… It’s not PSOE, it’s PP, isn’t it?”. These are just two examples, but there are a few more. I will put the video at the end of the post, but it’s in Spanish.

Basically, nowadays, there are a lot of people that don't know the electoral platform of the different parties. And I think that, when there’s elections in the country, it’s essential knowing it because this will determinate your life.

To combat the ignorance of the young people about politics, I think it would be a great idea to inform the kids (specially the teenagers) about politics in school. They teach us a bit of politics, but basically the theoretical part, not the current part like what’s the political situation of the country. In my opinion, teenagers have to know the different parties and what purpose each one of them because in some years they will have to vote and it’s important knowing about the issue. Nowadays there are people that literally they don't know anything about politics and, however, they vote the first party that comes to their mind, or the party that they have been voting since ever, or the party that votes their family. We have to reflect on it. It took lots of years to get to have the right to vote, the universal suffrage and a more or less good democracy, so don’t waste the opportunity to choose which is the future you want for you and your country.

VIDEO:

LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRrRBv3QjVo

YOUR-SAY

BULLYING, NOT A GAME FOR KIDS

Last Friday, I saw a video on Facebook made by PlayGround which talked about bullying, in particular, child bullying. The video, among other things, said some information that caught my attention. It said that, in Spain, there are about 103.000 bullies and cyberbullies and, besides, 1 out of 3 students admits having attack (physically or verbally) another student. And the most impressive thing is that when you ask the bully why he or she does that, the majority of the times the kid doesn’t know exactly why.

The question is very simple but the answer is not: Why some kids harass others? Maybe, it’s because the bully feels superior doing it, and it makes him or her seem strong and powerful above others. In my opinion, hurting other people it doesn’t make you stronger, it makes you weak and rude. In addition, some experts claim that if the bully’s conduct doesn’t change, it’s probably that when he/she gets older will act in the same way, so he will move the violence to the job or at home. When the violence is at home, it’s when it leads to gender violence (against men or women). So it’s essential that we have to change the bully’s behavior when the kid is still young, because the more he or she grows, the more difficult will be to change their point of view. So, in my opinion, I think we have to teach kids to not to attack the others in the school, in a very early age because it’s when they understand it the most.

It’s very hard spend all your infancy worried and afraid of the others, you don’t enjoy school, you’re afraid to go outside, and it’s even harder if you don’t have any friend. It’s sad, but there are some cases of boys and girls that have suicide for suffering bullying. It’s not normal that a kid or a teenager (most of them are teenagers) have to kill him or herself because of another kid. And the worst part is that we don’t learn the lesson. How many extreme cases like these have to happen until we learn? Bullying is not a game for kids, it’s violence, and it’s a serious problem. So we have to deal with it and teach children not to do that; we have to get serious. Let’s stop the game.

YOUR-SAY

BE YOURSELF

A few days ago, I saw a post on Facebook saying “there are two kinds of women in the world” and it showed pictures of women wearing Carnival costumes. Some of them wearing sexier costumes and the other ones wearing more covered costumes. In my point of view I can only see one kind of women: the ones who dress the way they want.

Nowadays, our society tends to call "bitch" (sorry for the word) to almost every women in the Earth. Like, oh, she’s showing her belly or her neckline, she’s a bitch. I can guarantee, as a woman, that we don’t like to be called like that, we just want to dress the way we want and not be criticized for that.

And it drives me crazy the fact that it’s not only men that call us that way, it’s us, the women, who insult ourselves. We blame men for being sexist, thinking that they are our enemy, but the truth is that our enemy are ourselves. How many times a woman insulted another woman for the way she dress or the way she acts? A lot. I think we have to change that, not because this is rude, but also because when you do that you are stimulating a society of disrespect for women.

"The amount of  clothes I wear doesn't
determine the amount of respect I deserve"

In my point of view, I think it’s incredible how, in the XXI century, we’re still scandalizing about the way a person dresses. But then “yes, our society is very open-minded”. Of course, compared to many years ago, we are more open-minded (for example, about the homosexual marriage we are making great strides), but we are open-minded in some cases, just when we want, because I think it’s not normal to criticize somebody or to call somebody in a disrespectful way just because of the way he or she dresses. In addition, if a girl wants to wear a mini skirt, she’s not hurting anybody so she has the right to do it. I mean, it’s her body, she can do whatever she wants with it if she isn’t hurting other people. 

And then there are people, specially women, who think that women who dress in few clothes are throwing away all the advances that have been made to fight for gender equality. But I don’t think so, because equality means that whatever you are wearing, you have to receive the same respect as everybody. A woman has to receive the same respect as men and as other women; that’s equality.

So, in conclusion, let people life and don’t criticize somebody for the way he or she dresses.

YOUR-SAY

GENDER VIOLENCE

The last 25th of November was the international day against gender violence. Did you know that 1 in 3 women worldwide have experienced physical or sexual violence, mostly by an intimate partner? I think this is horrible. 1 in 3 women are a lot of women! And the worst of all is that, in the cases of violence by an intimate partner, most of them don’t complain or go to the police to report it. Because they can’t see it, they love their partners and tolerate this; or, also, because they are afraid of it and, somehow, they decide not to tell anybody. Anyways, they suffer. They are living in a constant nightmare. 

But violence can be stopped. It can be difficult, because this is something that is in men’s or women’s head (because there is also gender violence where women abuse men), and it’s very difficult to change someone’s opinion or beliefs. It’s not like a virus that can be cured by medications or vaccines. But it can be prevented. I don’t know exactly how, and I know that is something that can’t disappear all of the sudden. It needs time but, step by step, maybe within some years (I hope not too much) gender violence will disappear (or almost).

Personally, I don’t know why this terrible thing happens so much. I think one of the reasons it’s because these men (focusing on gender violence against women) think that they are superior to women. They are based on history, when in most of cultures women were considered much inferior than men. And, unfortunately, there are remains of this way of thinking nowadays. Gender violence against women is an example. So, these men think that their wife, partner, mother or daughter is and object. Well, it’s THEIR object, and they can do whatever they want with her. They think that women have to obey to man. And, worst of all (as I said before) is that most of the women didn’t complain or go to the police to report it. In these cases, I think it’s very important for them to have a friend or someone to talk with them about this because friends or family can help a lot. Now, there are a lot of campaigns against gender violence, helping women to report their problems. This is the case of my country, Spain, but there are a lot of countries (mostly in Africa or in South America) that don’t do these things, so it’s more difficult for women to solve their problem.

I think the worst of all is that a lot of the cases of gender violence end up with woman’s death. I can’t understand why they end up killing their partner and why there are so many cases. This is repugnant and needs to stop.

P.S. In this post, I focused on gender violence against women, because it’s what happens more. Unfortunately, this happens also against men and we don’t have to forget that.