linita

2006-05-20T09:02:00.001-07:00

PORTFOLIO

DIED IN LIFE!!

By: Lina Náder.

He was dreaming about parties, friends, trips, music, but he had to wake up because he was FACE to FACE with the death.

That morning he and his father woke up early and went to the airport because they had to go to Bogotá. The reason of this trip was that he was having a problem with his lip and his father, who is a doctor, decided to take him to Bogotá and visit a doctor that examined him and determined that he had a very serious problem. He had a very dangerous disease that was not so common at the age of fifteen. At that moment he thought about killing himself, because he couldn’t believe that notice, he was so sad and he did not know what to do.

The next day they came back to Barranquilla to the oncologist to ask him for another diagnosis, but all the exams showed the same, -He had a tumour in his right inferior maxilar-.His father took him to a laboratory to take a piece of the tumour and make some exams to know if it was benign or malignant.
Some days later the results were ready and they showed that the tumour was malignant, so he had cancer. (This type of cancer is known as “Sarcomas” that are cancers arising from cells found in the supporting tissues of the body such as bone, cartilage, fat, connective tissue, and muscle. This cancer is also very hard to treat, because it is very strong and is capable of spreading throughout the body by metastasis.)

There was no time to waste. He, his family and the doctors had to do something to save his life. So they started a treatment in Bogotá with chemotherapy and he went more or less every two weeks to take it. After some months the doctors examined him again but the results showed that he was worse, so they decided that he had to go to United States, because the treatments were better there.

The day before his trip to Miami all his friends and his family went to his house to wish him the best and to show him that we were with him, and that we(family, friends, partners, etc…) were sure thath he was going to be fine. He was so sad because he knew that he was so bad and so sick and he believed that he was going to die in Miami.

Once in the U.S. they went to a foundation that helps people that suffer from cancer, and they gave them all the information about doctors, hospitals, medicines, and treatments.

He started the treatments and the doctors decided that they had to operate on him, and took out the tumour. When they were operating on him they noticed that the tumour was bigger and also that he had another one. His family was so worried about the notice, because it proved that the treatments, sacrifices and efforts had not worked. But they continued with the medicaments and with the chemotherapies just to see what happened.

Two months later the doctors decided to do another surgery, to extract the tumours, he didn’t want them to do the surgery and he hoped to die while he was sleeping, because the post-operatory was going to be so difficult. When the doctors opened him they saw that they had to remove part of his ear, and made a lot of things to reconstruct it.

The post-operatory was very difficult because there were a lot of things that he couldn’t do by himself, like speak, eat, breath.

A month later they did an exam to see how it was doing and they found four tumours, so they told to his family that they didn’t want to do another surgery because the situation was getting worst and that the best for him could be return to Barranquilla. When they came back, he didn’t want anyone to watch him because he had lost and eye and also his ear. Another thing was that his face was so different now, because of the surgeries and the tumours.

The day of his seventeenth birthday he was so bad, everybody thought that he was going to die this day, and his parents didn’t know what to do. But he continued alive for more or less four months more, but in June he became so sick and he was saying good bye to everybody because he know that he was going to die, and on June 26th he felt so tired and he was falling sleep and he couldn’t speak and also it was very difficult for him to see the people around him, and he died.

Everybody was sad, because he was a very good friend, son, brother, cousin, person, but everybody knew that it was the best for him, because he was suffering a lot with that cancer.

EFFECTS OF: PALESTINIAN NATIONALISM.

The world has been outraged at the recent suicide attacks against Israeli from the terrorist group Hamas. It would appear that this was an unprovoked attack, but if we look at the history of this conflict; it may show a different face of this situation. The Palestinian nationalism has been existing since a long a lot of years. And it has been occurring because Israelites have been invading the Palestinian’s territory and the Palestinians consider their lands as “The Holy Land”. A lot of conflicts have occurred for this reason and also many people have dead. This problem may exist for a long time more, because anyone wants to give and if this situation continues we will see terrible attacks like the 9-11.
This is a conflict with no end, because each part thinks that has the reason, and also because there are other countries that are making some decisions that make things more difficult. These reasons make me want to know more about the causes of Palestinian nationalism and also about this conflict.
Some causes of this nationalism are:

Human rights in the occupied territories

There was a committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People that monitored the situation in Israel and the occupied territories and found the following occurrences that were interfering with rights: the use of live ammunition and beatings against protestors;mistreatment of prisoners including the use of live ammunition, lethal use of tear gas;demolition of houses;restrictive economic measures;schools and Universities were closed bringing education to a halt .

In 1992, Israeli forces started a new form of punishment by destroying entire villages with heavy artillery fire. This exercise was carried out to catch a small number of fugitives, yet it left many Palestinian civilians homeless. And this attempts to the human’s rights. According to Tyndale, “Palestinian nationalism”
http://septemberhearts.com/thoughts/palestine-israel.htm by Kathy Tyndale16th December 2001

Us involvement in Israel

Despite the United Nations have made a lot of efforts to bring peace between Israel and the Palestinians, they have been blocked by the United States using its veto powers. With the formation of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People in 1975, the committee was asked to prepare a program, so the Palestinian people could exercise their rights. This program would mean the right for Palestinians to return to their homes and the right for national independence and sovereignty. The Security Council discussed the program, but a decision was unable to be reached because of the United States negative vote.
http://septemberhearts.com/thoughts/palestine-israel.htm by Kathy Tyndale16th December 2001

Statement from the US Department of State

"The United States has always enjoyed the closest cooperation with the Israeli Mission in New York. We have not hesitated to employ our veto in the Security Council when necessary to oppose resolutions that would be damaging to Israel or to the search for peace in the region. In the General Assembly, we have consistently voted against actions that stigmatize Israel and have strongly encouraged other UN members to do likewise. Despite our sustained efforts in this regard, we often find ourselves standing alone or with only a few others on these votes. We continue to assert our positions on these issues and seek ways to expand our ability to influence other delegations. " http://www.state.gov/www/policy_remarks/1999/990714_welch_un-israel.htm

Recently we have seen the United States veto another resolution that would have cleared the way for international monitors in the West Bank and Gaza. It is the second time in less than a year that Washington has vetoed a resolution that would have created a monitoring mechanism to protect Palestinian civilians "I just want to ask President Bush one question," chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat told CNN. "What if Texas, or any part of the United States, were to come under foreign occupation? Would you call upon the American people to surrender to this occupation? For God's sake, what should have been vetoed last night was Israeli occupation." http://www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/meast/12/15/un.resolution/index.html

Finally I think that this is a very difficult problem with no ending because each one of the parts has strong reasons to fight for, and they trust that they are right.BY: Lina Náder Villa.

SOURCES

http://www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/meast/12/15/un.resolution/index.html
http://www.state.gov/www/policy_remarks/1999/990714_welch_un-israel.htm
http://septemberhearts.com/thoughts/palestine-israel.htm by Kathy Tyndale16th December 2001
www.google.com
www.yahoo.com

We are all the same, give them the same rights.

Nowadays, there is a topic that is causing a lot of controversy around the world, and that topic is the marriage between gays. And if someone asks us if we are in favor of equal rights for homosexuals, we will all say yes, gays should have the same rights, equal access to government benefits, and equal protection of the law. But when the question is about marriage, we stop all these beautiful words and we start to speak withwith in a rougherer language. More than half of all people in the world are opposed to gay marriage, even though three- fourths are supporting gay rights. I’m not gay, I’m heterosexual, but I’m in favor of the legalization of gay marriage, and with this essay I will try to convince the readers, and show that this isn’t a bad thing for the society., OnOnto the contrary,, it would have benefits.

“When most people refer to committed love, life-long partnership and marriage they think of the union between a man and a woman. After all, it does fall within the ‘"dream’" we embrace very young of finding a soul mate, buying a house, and raising a family. However, the debate is heating as to why this dream is reserved only for heterosexual couples. Homosexual men and women also fall in love. And once they find the man or women of their dreams they also desire to enter into life-long unions. These same-sex couples live together the same as heterosexual couples.”. (Jhonson).And that’s the real life. We have to accept it because gays are people.
(Jhonsonhttp://gaylife.about.com/cs/mentalhealth1/a/samesexmarriage.htm).

Another argument is rooted in semantics: marriage is the union of a man and a woman, and so cannot be extended to same-sex couples. They may live together and love one another, but cannot, on this argument, be “married”. But that is to dodge the real question—why not?—and to obscure the real nature of marriage, which is a binding commitment, at once legal, social and personal, between two people to take on special obligations to one another. If homosexuals want to make such marital commitments to one another, and to society, then why should they be prevented from doing so while other adults, equivalent in all other ways, are allowed to do so? (http://www.economist.com/opinion/displayStory.cfm?story_id=2459758)

I think that the prohibition of this marriage doesn’t make any sense, because gays are people as like us as heterosexuals are and they should have the same rights that we heterosexuals have, and also because they should be happy with their couple, without taking into account if they are of the same sex. And I can’t understand why there are lots of people opposing to this marriage if, “the values that gay couples exhibit in their daily lives are often indistinguishable from those of their straight neighbors. They're loyal to their mates, are monogamous, and devoted partners.

They value and participate in family life, are committed to making their neighborhoods and communities safer and better places to live, and honor and abide by the law. Many make valuable contributions to their communities, serving on school boards, volunteering in community charities, and trying to be good citizens. In doing so, they take full advantage of their relationship to make not only their own lives better, but those of their neighbors as wll.”(Bhttp://www.bidstrupp.com/marriage.htm).

Another reason that I find to legalize the gay marriage is that if gays have some stability, we would decrease the amounts of diseases such as aidsAIDS, because they would have one couple, and they won’t be onat the streets looking for anyone to have relations with, like some of them often do.

There are people opposed to gay marriage, saying that marriage is for procreation and ensuring the continuation of the species, but if they think so, why aren’t they opposed to the marriage of infertile couples?, and if marriage if just for procreating, then should a post-menopausal woman and an impotent man get divorced? OOor those couples that don’t like kids, couldn’t they marry because they won’t have procreatee?, I don’t think so., I believe that marriage is about love, and procreating is a secondary function.

Finally, I think that it is inappropriate for the government to meddle into our personal lives so greatly. Certain aspects of our lives should not be controlled, and this includes who we choose to fall in love with and marry. The job of the government is to provide us with protection and security, but never mediating our relationships. I don’t understand how the presidents of the countries expect to prevent hate crimes, and violence when they are teaching its people to hate homosexuality.

Sources.
JHONSON, Ramon. “Marriage Rights for Gays and Lesbians” <http://gaylife.about.com/cs/mentalhealth1/a/samesexmarriage.htm>
“The case for gay marriage.”. The Economist. FEBRUARY 26,th 2004. APRIL 21-2006. <http://www.economist.com/opinion/displayStory.cfm?story_id=2459758>
BIDSTRUP,Scott. “Gay Marriage: The Arguments and the Motives”
<http://www.bidstrup.com/marriage.htm>

2006-05-20T09:02:00.000-07:00

PORTFOLIO

DIED IN LIFE!!

By: Lina Náder.

He was dreaming about parties, friends, trips, music, but he had to wake up because he was FACE to FACE with the death.

Once in the U.S. they went to a foundation that helps people that suffer from cancer, and they gave them all the information about doctors, hospitals, medicines, and treatments.

The post-operatory was very difficult because there were a lot of things that he couldn’t do by himself, like speak, eat, breath.

Everybody was sad, because he was a very good friend, son, brother, cousin, person, but everybody knew that it was the best for him, because he was suffering a lot with that cancer.

EFFECTS OF: PALESTINIAN NATIONALISM.

Human rights in the occupied territories

Us involvement in Israel

Statement from the US Department of State

We are all the same, give them the same rights.

2006-05-02T15:42:00.000-07:00

There were also several differences between Washington and Lincoln; Washington came from a wealthy aristocratic background,he had several years of schooling. Lincoln came from a poor background and had very little schooling; Another difference between the two involved was their military role: Washington was a general, he was a military leader that became president. Lincoln never served in the military,he was a lawyer who early on became a politician,when he became president, he took on the role of commander in chief, as all U.S.
presidents do. Despite his lack of military background or training, Lincoln made several strategic decisions that enabled the U.S. military leaders to win the Civil War. Finally, Washington served for two terms and therefore had eight years to accomplish his policies,Lincoln, on the other hand, was assasinated while he was in his office and was not able to finish some of the things that he wanted for the country.

Jack Friedhamm was born in New York on October 25, 1965. He began school at the age of six and continued until he was 18 years. Then he went to the New York University to learn Medicine. He decided medicine because he liked biology when he was at school. While he was at the University he met his wife Cindy. Cindy was a beautiful woman with long black hair. They went along for years before they decided getting married. Jack began to work as a doctor as soon as he graduated from Medical School. They had two children named Jackie and Peter, and have lived in Queens for the last two years. Jack is very interested inpainting and likes to paint portraits of his son Peter.

2006-04-27T16:04:00.000-07:00

ReFlEcTiOn

In which areas of language use have you improved, in your opinion?

I have improved my writing area with the works we have made in this course.And also my vocabulary has increased.

Which areas of langauge use are still a problem?

i want to expand my vocabulary, and also i want to get more fluence when i speak.

Which areas of language use do you want to spend the most time on during the rest of the semester?

vocabulary and speaking, because i have a very poor vocabulary and also sometimes i forget how to pronounce some words.

What type of classwork is most useful, in your opinion?

Discussions, debates, role play, listenings, and all this staff.

What can you personally do to increase your rate of progress?

Watching more movies in english and reading a lot. Also speaking to person that know english to practice it.

Do you have any other comments or suggestions about this class?

no, i like the style of the class, i think that we are learning in a good way and also we are having a great time.

2006-04-06T15:42:00.000-07:00

THE GAZA STRIP MOVIE.

The Gaza Strip Movie, is a very good one, althought it is very sad to watch the children suffering like that, but it makes us think about the conflicts and notice that we don`t need to fight with bombs, and guns, we can have treatments and we can talk in order to find good solutions.

Also this movie shows us that when an adult makes a dedecition, it affects also the kids who don`t even understand the causes of the conflicts.

A really hard part is when the author (on the movie`s webpage) says: "the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip turned out to be people like everyone else. It is the situation they find themselves in that is extraordinary: The Gaza Strip is essentially an open-air prison for Palestinian refugees, guarded on all sides by the Israeli military. Barely 28 miles long and 4 miles wide, it contains more than 1,200,000 Palestinians -- over one third of them living in squalid refugee camps built in 1948 to hold the people forced out of their homes by the creation of modern-day Israel. It is one of the most densely populated places on the planet. Nobody can pass through its borders without the permission of the Israeli soldiers. Like the West Bank, the Gaza Strip has been under Israeli military occupation since 1967. Most people living in the Gaza Strip have never known a single day of real freedom. " And this might be hard to believe until you watch or you live it.

Also when I was reading some comments about this movie on http://www.littleredbutton.com/gaza/reviews.html I found very good sentences that said things like " This documentary is vastly revealing ... and it's bigger than a summer blockbuster, more important than all our movie stars or the academy awards ..." or "As a perspective that is largely excluded from American attention, it deserves the widest possible audience." also "A documentary to make the stones weep."And those lines shows us that even if this movie is so sad because is very hard to watch how a boy dies, it can teach us something, and it`s that violence will not takes us to anyway.

2006-03-16T11:03:00.000-08:00

BIASED LANGUAGE...

Biased language makes unnecessary distinctions about gender, race, age, economic class, sexual orientation, religion, politics, or any other personal information.

and example of biased language is when we take the masculine pronoun "he" to refer to both men and women.

Biased language refers to people in imbalance or inaccurate ways.
It makes unwarranted assumptions.
It calls individuals and groups by names or labels that they did not choose for themselves.
It is based out stereotypes that imply that everyone is alike.
It treats groups in nonparallel ways in the same context.

Sexist/non sexist language.

Sexist language promotes and maintains attitudes that stereotype people according to gender while assuming that the male is the norm-the significant gender. Nonsexist language treats both sexes equally and either does not refer to a person’s sex at all when it is irrelevant or refers to men and women and to girls and boys in symmetrical ways.

A president must keep his congress on task: in this example,the word president, is characterized by the masculine pronoun, assuming that the presidency is a role only for men.

If it's normal to use the masculine pronoun to refer to both men and women, does it mean that the female pronoun is abnormal?

It's easy to avoid sexist sentences. There are some basic strategies.

1. Use plural subjects:
Example: Teachers must keep their students on task.

2. Use both the male and female pronoun:
Example: A teacher must keep his/her students on task.

3. Drop the pronoun.
Example: A speaker must be able to present ideas clearly to listeners.

4. Change the point of view, when appropriate.
Example: As a speaker, you must be able to present your ideas clearly to your listeners.

5. Recast the sentence.
Example: Communication is a shared process: From the speaker, it demands an ability to present ideas clearly; from the listener, a willingness to attend carefully.

We should replace words like: man, men when a meaning includes of both women and men, by the use of wors like: person, people, human beings, human race, humankind, humans, men and women, women and men, or society.

Gender bias (discrimination by members of one gender against the other, especially by males against females) is built into English. Rules of grammar dictate that we use masculine pronouns (he, his, him, himself) whenever a singular referent is required and we don't know the gender of the person we're talking about.

Generic/Pseudogeneric

A generic is an all purpose word that includes everybody (workers, people, voters, civilians…) Generic pronouns include we, you, they. Certain nouns that look generic are often used as though they mean only men (politicians, lawyers, voters…)
A pseudo generic is a word used as though it includes everybody but that in reality does not; are thought to include everyone because the people who use them are thinking only of themselves and their immediate world.

2006-02-02T13:47:00.000-08:00

My BeSt mEmoRy Of cArniVals...

Well, to tell you the truth is hard to me to choose my favorite memory of carnivals, because I`ve had a lot of great times in those celebrations.

But the carnival that I remember with more emotion was the carnival of 2003.The pre-carnival activities began at the end of January, when the carnival proclamation was read out. This is a law stating that everyone must enjoy themselves, dance and party happyly.

I have a lot of friends that love parties and love carnivals so on the third saturday of January we went to the Garabato, this is a dance that goes by the streets of the north of the city, and the people who dance are part of a social club that is Country Club. This day my friends and I were at Washington`s Park and we were watching the dance, laughing, dancing, singing,etc...We were so happy.Then when the dance finished we went to eat fast food at "Dònde esta Javier?" and the food was ready like 2 hours later,about 2:00 a.m we went to a house, and we started dancing again untill more or less 4:00 a.m when we went to our houses to sleep.

Ok..Then came February and carnivals began on one Saturday with the Battle of the Flowers and we went to a palco and watch a lot of people dancing by the street wearing beauty and colorful masks and disguises.
Then this night we went to hour houses to take a shower and change oue clothes, once we were ready we went to a party at Country Club, and we dance untill 6 a.m, we were almost 20 friends and I had the best time of my life, because there were singers like Eddy Herrera, Peter Manjarrez, Silvestre Dangond, and some other orchestras.Then at 6:00 am we get breakfast at the club and then we went to home...and sleep...zzzz...

I didn`t went to the Great Parade because I was sleeping,but at night we went to another party at the club with differents singers and we dance untill the morning of the next day...

On Monday, at night we went an Orchestra Festival with Caribbean and Latin bands competing for a "Golden Congo" that is an award. It was magnific because there were the best singers and orchestras of tropical music like Sergio Vargas, Eddy Herrera, and some others.

When the festival finished we were tired and wet and we went to "La Frutera" to drink some juices and eat something and then everyone went home...

On Tuesday I went with some friends to Santa Marta and we stayed at Zuana ressort in Bello Horizonte, and we had a lot of fun, we swam in the pool, went out at night and party and dance,and we did a lot of things, we had a very great time together.
We were almost twelve, and it was very cool, we stayed there 2 days, but then we had to return to Barranquilla,because we had to go to the school.
We were so sad because carnivals were ended but we were waiting for "Holyweek", to go to the Zuana again.

Well so those are my best memories of carnivals because I had the opportunity of sharing a lot of time with my friend and we enjoyed it a lot and
I will always remember those parties...