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Animals dying out?

Throughout our planet, many animals are in great danger of extinction, even animals which are close relatives of man, like the orangutan and the chimpanzee.
Unfortunately, in Africa people hunt elephants and rhinoceroses for the tusks. In the seas, wide varieties of fish as well as many kinds of whales are close to extinction. In the air, eagles and storks are also at high risk.
A great number of organizations, such as Greenpeace, help to protect these endangered animals, and luckily their job is massive. Scientists estimate that, if people continue to contaminate, or what is more to destroy the global village we live in, several hundred of species of vertebrates and about one million types of insects will eventually die out, before the year 2040.
It high time we acted…and the time is now.

Emma

“A multicultural poet”

Benjamín Obadiah Iqbal Zephaniah, better known as Benjamín Zephaniah, is a British poet with Jamaican roots, and Christian, Jewish and Muslim names. He has been writing poems and novels mainly related to human rights, racial prejudices and polution for almost four decades. Moreover, from time to time he goes on tour to play his own songs, which are a mixture of Jazz, Reggae, Hip Hop, Rock and House rythms.

He wants to take poetry everywhere, but he wishes everybody could understand his personal viewpoint, ideas and thoughts. Therefore, he uses common words, simple and touchy expressions to get people´s attention. Indeed, he writes poems to be read by adults, adolescents and children.

If you take a look at his works, you will appreciate his peculiar informal but sensitive touch. Some of his relevant boks are: “Talking Turkeys”, “Too Black”, “Too Strong”,
“Propa Propaganda”, “Wicked World”. There are many poems to read and enjoy in the official web site www.benjaminzephaniah.com, but, I recommend you to pay especial attention to the poems entitled “Everybody is doing it” and “The British (serves 60 million)” written for children but pretty useful for everybody´s consciences.

Lorna

On Anothers Sorrow by William Blake

This is, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful poems of the Age of Enlightment that describes childhood during the Eighteenth Century. The author tried to transmit how children suffered and the effects their suffering had on their parents´ lives. In those times, children were forced to work, because they were supposed to be profitable for the nation. They had to undergo lots of troubles, leaving aside their childhood and becoming adults. They had to work many hours a day in terrible conditions.
William Blake showed through this poem the cruelty of that century from the point of view of the weaker protagonists. He reflected his own opinion about society at that time and pictured a strong feeling of disagreement to the ruling classes.
If you are studying the society of this historical period, you should read this poem in order to have another perspective of the situation taking in to account the feelings of lower classes.

Atlantis

Funes the memorious

"Funes the memorious" or "Funes his memory" is a short story written by Jorge luis Borges, published in Ficciones in English in 1954. In this text, Borges writes about Ireneo Funes, a Uruguayan boy who has an accident, and when he awakens, he perceives the world perfectly and is able to remember everything in its slightest detail. A paramount part of the short story is the one Borges says "To think is to forget differences, generalize, make abstractions", but Funes lives in a pure world of experience where there are only unique details. This statement and description respectively, leads you to conclude that poor Funes was not prodigious, but incapable of thinking.- In my opinion, this characterization was fantastic because it makes the reader consider possible effects that the Funes'ability could cause.

Turdus

Bernice bobs her hair

It is based on a book by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and it captures the attitude of the 20s. The main character was Bernice, a wealthy girl from Wisconsim, who was visiting her cousin, Marjorie. Marjorie felt that her cousin was a drag on her social life and none of the boys wanted to dance with her. One night Bernice heard a conversation between Marjorie and her mother, where a young girl was complaining that her cousin was a socially hopeless and was having trouble fitting in. The following day, Bernice threatened to leave the town, but she changed her attitude and agreed to let Marjorie turn into a society, she taught her how to hold interesting conversations, how to flirt with boys, how to dance, etc. The new Bernice was a big hit specially with boys. As a consequence, Marjorie became jealous, and decided to remind her of her promise to bob her hair. When she came out the babershop with her newstyle, her hair looked like flat and strange. As a result, the boys lost interest in her. At night when everyone was asleep, Bernice went to get revenge on her cousin by cutting her hair too.......In conclusion, this is a story about teenergers, and has some funny parts. It shows us how cruel people will be if they are not accepted. The surprise ending is wonderful! I would recommend this to anyone.

Lilo

The Runaway by Morley Callaghan

This story was written by Morley Callaghan, and it`s included in the book “The eye of childhood”.This story was really interesting for me. The topic of the story is connected with real life , with the point of view of a teenager. The story develops the feelings that a boy has because he doesn`t have a good relationship with his father and his stepmother. So, he decided to run away home, in order to have a better life.
Teenagers are difficult to manage. They can be very sensitive, perhaps too sensitive in some occasions. Nobody understands what they are going through; “nobody in the universe has ever felt like this before”.
Michael, the teenager of the story, in some way is a little boy, but in others is like a young man. He has fun with his friends, and suffers because of the tensions at home between his dad and his stepmother. He is in love with a girl, but he can`t find the right words to talk to her. Nothing in his life seems to be perfect; so for him there`s only one possibility to make things better… his solution is to run away…
Anush