Killing dogs in Neuquén

I could not believe my eyes when I read such a bloody title in the newspapers. The main reason that led the government of Neuquen to take this decision was the appearance of leptosipirosis in Colonia Nueva Esperanza. The decision consists in eradicating garbage dumps where proliferate rats and dogs. As soon as the people get in contact with this news, it generated controversy with organizations of animals that fear that it applies a mass slaughter of dogs. The governor clarified that the government will exhaust all possibilities to not reach that instance. Until now and thanks God, the township found the alternative to stop this illness and no dogs were killed.

Candy

Books... will they exist tomorrow?

What do you think? Are books in danger of extinction? Do people care about books? Do YOU read books? Watch this video called "The future of publishing". Do you agree with the girl's opinion? Which message do you like best?

Anahí

A biography: ROBERT ATKINS.

Robert Atkins, famous for the Atkins Diet, died at the age of 72 after a fall
in the street. Atkins was a doctor, he had studied at the University of Michigan.
He became quite fat after he left the university and he tried different diets
to lose weight.
He thought that people had problems with weight because they ate
the wrong things called today "comida chatarra". At that moment he decided to write his first diet book in 1970.
Not many people bought the book at first , but Atkins's diet is now
very popular and his books are bestsellers. They have gone around the world.

Mamushka

The worse journey of my life

I´ll never forget that summer journey to the Atlantic Coast. I never had a worse journey in my life. It was in February 2005 when a friend of mine invited me to go on holiday for a few days so as to have an enjoyable time together.
Everything seemed to be perfect. I was at the bus station on time and, believe it or not, I had all my belongings (all of them) with me. Suddenly, the loudspeaker announced that our bus had been delayed. Despite the hot weather, we didn´t mind waiting… two hours! At last, the bus set off and thanks to the air conditioning we forgot about the humid weather. Regrettably, it didn´t last for so long because half an hour later a sudden loud noise was heard and the air conditioning stopped working. Some passengers started to complain to the bus driver, but all he did was open the windows. Immediately, as if I were in the desert, I felt a hot wind blowing my face which made me even thirstier. On top of that, there was no water to quench my thirsty! “It´s a nightmare!” I thought. This made me believe I could sleep then but just when I closed my eyes another deafening noise was heard, but this time I smelt something burning! We were halfway when everyone had to get off the bus. I couldn´t believe my eyes! I was on the one side of the road, dying for a soft drink and waiting for another bus! I wished I was at home!
A year seemed to have passed until the second bus arrived (thanks God!). Finally, after seven hours we reached San Bernardo. Once there everything was in the right place, except for my bag and all my belonging (all of them!) which had been forgotten in the other bus! And my holidays were over!

Butterfly

A letter

Hello everyone!

A friend of mine called me...he was needing some help in translating a letter to send to the Rotary Club, so I accepted. I decided to hide the real names to protect the privacy, of course, so you will find XXXX in place of the real information. This is the letter:

Dear Rotary counterpart:

I am XXXX, member nº XXXX of La Plata Rotary, wing North of La Plata City, Argentina. I´m writing you for the purposes of requering information regarding the Study Center “XXXX” which headquarters are located in Louisville and Lexinfton, San Francisco, Los Angeles and other States of USA. One of my nieces comes across the chance to apply for a scholarship, and before getting involved I would like to be sure on the aforementioned school in terms of legal qualifications, just in case these people and its school don´t be as they claim to be.
I’m looking forward to hearing from you and I´m offering my collaboration with any further information you eventually inquire.
Faithfully. XXXX

Slavonic

A Happy Celebration

Some time ago, when I was a child, my grandmother told me about a festival that was famous in my town. It was called “Festival of light” which took place every year to celebrate the victory of good over evil. This festival lasted for five days and was ceremony at the end of October or in the first week of November.
Preparations began weeks before the event. People cleaned their homes and painted wonderful drawings on the walls and floors. They wore beautiful clothes and women made delicious sweets which were better than any others she has ever tasted.
During the event, every home was decorated, inside and outside, with marvellous clay lamps and colourful candles. After dark, the whole neighbourhood shined with a lot of lights. Excited children set off firecrackers.
“The Festival of Light” was a deeply moving festival. My grandmother was very grateful she had the chance to share in this celebration of peace and harmony. She will never forget how friendly and generous the people were.

Milky Way

The Picture of Dorian Grey

The story is about a young man, Dorian Grey, who is the inspiration of a painter named Basil Hallward. Dorian is completely innocent both of his beauty and of the world until he meet Basil’s friend Lord Henry Wotton. He opens his eyes to the nature of his own beauty and advices him to enjoy life. When the portrait is complete, Dorian whishes that the painting would grow old, and not him. His wish is granted. After he leaves Basil’s studio, he decides to live his life as a pleasure-seeker with no regard for conventional morality. He falls in love with Sibyl Vane, but his love proves to be as shallow as he is. When he breaks Sibyl’s heart and drives her to suicide, Dorian notices the first change in his portrait—evidence that his portrait is showing the effects of age and experience while his body remains ever youthful. After a while, the painting fills him with fear and locked it up in an old schoolroom in his house. Dorian finds a certain joy, over the next years, in committing sinful or pleasurable deeds and watching the painting change and become old and ugly while he loses none of his beauty or youth. It is not until the end of the book that he realizes what he had done and decides to change. He decides that from this time on, he will be good; and to do this, he must destroy the portrait. He stabs it.But when the servants enter they see the portrait as it was when it was new, and a horrible, old, ugly man lying dead on the floor.
I chose this book for two reasons. First, because I wanted to show what people is capable of in order to be young and beautiful as long as possible. Second, because I wanted to advise people to be real and to accept and respect themselves and their bodies and never to change to fix in an ideal and unreal stereotype.

Sun

Why the Republic of South Africa has three capitals?

Last week while I was waiting my students of 6th grade finished a piece of homework, I discovered looking at a wallpaper about the countries that take part in the world cup, that South Africa has three capitals. This information caught my attention so much that I wanted to search more about it.
The existence of three capitals in South Africa is the result of the historical events in the country. After the Anglo-Boers war, they reached a political agreement to ensure that the two Boers states. Orange and Transvaal joined the British colonies of Cape and Natal that was how the Union of South Africa took place. Nowadays, the Republic of South Africa is a clear example of multiculturalism. Eleven languages are recognized as official, and although nearly the 80% of the population is black, there are many ethnic and religious beliefs living under the same state. South Africa is located in the south of the continent at the southern end. It borders with Namibia, Botswana, Zimbawe, Mozambique and Swaziland.

Candy

A new phenomenon: vuvuzelas.

The vuvuzelas are a sort of trumpets with an elongated shape used in some countries to encourage teams in sports, specially at football matches. They are popular in South Africa and they simulate the sound of the elephants, although their sound also reminds the buzzing of bees. In other words, the vuvuzelas are like the modern version of the kudus, the South Africa traditional horns. They were originally made of tin, but now they are made of plastic. Besides, its continuous sound has generated contradicted opinions in the world of football. Some people object the the noise that causes is so disproportionate that it makes impossible the coexistence with other forms of celebration. And some others believe the the use of vuvuzelas enrich the diversity that fans have to express themselves.

Candy

The Scarlet Letter

I had to read this novel for Language and Culture III. It describes the historical background of the seventeenth century in America, When Puritan people came in to settle down looking for a better place to live. The story is about a married woman, Hester Pryne, who had committed adultery. She also had a child as product of that relationship. She was considered as a sin and was forced to wear a scarlet letter on her bosom. She never revel against that punishment imposed on her because she was proud of her actions. That, demostrates her strength. Throughout the novel, it is seen how her strength helps her to growth and at the same time to bring up her little child in such marginal frame.
I know that most of you have read this novel if not, I recommend you to read it carefully. It is long and difficult to read because it is written in old english but once you get familiar with the reading, you could enjoy it.

Kelro

CERATI BACK IN BA

(Bs. As. Herald, Tue 8, June)

Argentine rock star Gustavo Cersti was flown home yesterday abroad a specially equipped plane, after being hospitalized for three weeks in Caracas.At his arrival, he was taken off the plane on a stretcher and he was sent to a private clinic accompanied by relaives and Venezuelan doctors. An insurance company official assured that the singer was stabilized and that he had arrived to Argentina in the same state he left Caracas.

Kelro

The Yeya

When I was ten, my family and I went out from La Plata to a 5500 km journey in just 14 days along with “the yeya”, a Peugeot 504 1973 model. It was an incredible experience that will live for ever in my mind. It was the most exciting experience I have ever had. The yeya led us to the route 9 and 34 till we reached Villazon, Bolivia. In this way, we went through the provinces of Santa Fe, Santiago del Estero, Tucuman, Salta and Jujuy. On our way back, the yeya challenged the route 40 famously known because of its ways of gravel, temperatures higher than 33º C and a height of 4080m above the sea level. Going back down to Catamarca and Tucuman, there were no words to describe what the northern region of Argentina showed us. In other words, I can say that only the yeya and my family were witnesses of the trip that our lifes were counted in kilometers.

Candy

June Summary: Police end 3-year strike at Mexican Copper mine.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

This time I wrote about a newspaper article from Buenos Aires Herald. This news called my attention because it is not clear at all. It develops a conflict that took place in Mexico between a Mexico largest copper mine and union leaders who demmanded, throughout a strike, safer working condition. The strike began on the 30th July in 2007 as a response to the death of 65 miners after an underground explosion in a coal mine. This situation finished last Sunday, June 4, 2010, when the police removed a couple of dozen protestants. A company spokeman stated that they have lost around 3 million dollars a day since the strike began because it paralysed their operations. The article did not state if they got an agreement or not. It just focuses on the end of such long strike.

Kelro

Fables and Myths

I personally find fables and myths very useful, and I consider them also as great methods of giving instructions or advice. Fables and Myths consist in short pieces of narrative whose messages are not explicit but can be read between lines. However, there are cases in which they include a moral, that is, a very brief explanation of their messages. These explanations are usually at the end of the stories.

Generally, a fable is a brief story in prose or verse, whose characters are animals, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature which are given human qualities. Through these human qualities given to non-human beings, fables intend to illustrate human situations and to provide moral lessons.

On the other hand, myths are short narrative pieces with religious meaning to those who create them, searching for explanations to things that they couldn’t understand otherwise. In fact, myths are stories concerning the origins of the world. The active beings in myths are generally gods and heroes.

I consider those kinds of stories very useful for children, since both contain something outstanding. For instance, fables use animals or objects as their main characters, yet the message is designed to be understood and applied by humans.

Milky Way

Why most of the women don´t like football?

During these days that the World Cup is taking place I could realize that football is still exclusively a passion of men. I mean, there is a division between the sexes when it comes to football, which is also an excuse to get together with the guys and drink until the final minute of the match. I consider that football is a sport that is so tough and hard-hitting, and girls are treated differently about pressures and bruises. In addition to this, women are more romantic to play such a strong game and to run 90 minutes and struggle to have a goal. Besides, socially it has not been acceptable for women to like football and much less to play it. Girls play with dolls and boys play football. In addition to this, a girl´s bedroom is flowers and dolls , and a boy´s room is trucks and balls. Also, men ensure that women will never play football because they are too scared of breaking a nail or something. To sum up, even though there has been a change and equal opportunities in society, men still see football as a source of masculine identity.

Candy