Project works

My post for today will not be the same as usual. Today I´ll say my opinion about my classmates’ assignments.

In my perspective, the best project work till now was the boy´s work. I think that Hugo Santos, Hugo Cardoso, Nuno Simões and João Santos had made a fantastic work to turn a theme that probably will be boring for the most of the people into something pleasant to see.

I also thought that it has demonstrated the great effort of Nuno, who made a great presentation, and Hugo Santos that clearly “commanded the troops”.

However, and because perfection is something almost impossible to reach, there were some negative aspects. Mainly, the fact that João has needed so much the paper and Hugo Cardoso has been so nervous when his mates have done a great job before he had to speak.

Yet, balancing it was the best project work, no doubt.

One final note, It should be noted the tremendous improve of Beatriz, who looked like the My Fair Lady of our class. A total makeover! Rita Batalha has made a great effort too and it could be noticed miles away.

Great Job, mates! Continue to work, always.

The old and the new discrimination

The twenties brought us a lot of new things, new ways to think and a lot of new possibilities.

After the end of the First World War (1914-1918), Europe was starting to get rebuild but the money was short. So, a lot of countries in European changed to totalitarians governments. The Nazi’s were getting more and more strong and Lenin took power of Russia.

In United States the alcohol was forbid and appears the first cases of bootlegging of liquor, led by Al Capone. Unfortunately, the Ku Klux Klan was growing and it was being accepted. One a more bright side, the Jazz was a vulgate to this decade and it has so much power that U.S. they often call the 20´s “The Jazz Age”, the technology and science advances were a lot with scientists like Einstein and the Charlie Chaplin movies were letting people with stomach ache from laughing so hard.

Other great thing has started in the United States at this decade: The movements for the women’s rights, also known as Women´s Suffrage. Women's suffrage or woman suffrage is the right of women to vote and to run for office and it was extend to other social fields. It was a fight for the end of sex discrimination.

This is the bridge for my post’s main theme of today. When, mainly, the sex and the race discriminations are disappearing, a new type of discrimination as emerged and it is known as positive discrimination in United Kingdom or affirmative action or reverse discrimination in United States.

This affirmative action began with an executive order signed by John F. Kennedy on March 6, 1961 and its purpose was to achieve equal opportunities. A practical example of this is quotas: for example, some universities give priority to minorities or women. Quotas are now forbid in U.S.A. because it is think to be discrimination and hence unlawful as it is in Sweden. However, a lot of European countries are true believers of quotas and it is in a lot of social life fields, like education, employment and politics.

My point and my case for today´s post is the following: Should be people choose for a job, a college, a political party or so ever by their race, their gender, their religion, their nationality or their sexual orientation? Shouldn’t a person won a place for his or her inner qualities?

In my opinion, the only way for a person to get a place in a college, to get a job, etc, is by work and for those person´s capacities, not for things like gender or race.  The purpose of affirmative discrimination it is great but it cannot be taken to extremes. I think that like in Sweden and in U.S.A., quotas should not be legal.

If you want to discuss more about this question leave your message on the comments and I will try to answer the soon as I can.

References:

·         http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_suffrage#Suffrage_movements

·         http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1920s#Popular_culture

·         http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affirmative_action

·         http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_discrimination

MTV: Changing the world and itself.

MTV famously claimed its first casualty with its premiere video, aired August 1, 1981. But since video killed the radio star, a lot has changed.

MTV changed the world. It turned possible a lot of things like making great careers for singers like Michael Jackson or Madonna, it has invented the Reality Shows in ’92 with the creation of The Real World, it succeeded to make the rap music cross the colour barrier with Run-DMC–Aerosmith “Walk This Way” video in 1986 and more important it showed for the first time in television the African problems to the world with the video “We Are The World” released in March of 1986.

Besides of changing the world, MTV changed itself, too. It is no more a channel that broadcast music videos 24/7. If you want to see some music videos, you should take a look take a look at the schedule, if not you will shock with a wall of shows like Jersey Shore or Made.

But the real problem is that those shows are no longer educative. Shouldn´t shows like Jersey Shore have some parental advice when it is on? Should it be on air at daily basis? After all it is a show that only promotes bad things on teenagers (bearing in mind that MTV is target to teens), as violence and alcohol, etc. It is even legal? In its 40 minutes on air you can only see them on bed, drinking, fighting and boasting them because they had sex with a lot of people. If this show has so much legal issues why MTV doesn’t cancels it like it did to a lot of other shows?

There is no piece of education in those shows and MTV´s changes do not seem to be too good for the kids and teens. Should the MTV put these shows on air? Are these the values that MTV tried to pass during thirty years? MTV changed the world and the youth culture, is this the way to change it nowadays?

The Americanization of our thoughts

How does America influence the life of a non-American citizen?  How does it influence their (ours) life´s chooses? Let´s see.

America emerged as a superpower at late 40´s and 50´s, after save the allies from a certain defeat with the Nazis of Adolf Hitler and after help in the reconstruction of Europe. The marketing of the so called “American Dream” started at this point and America was an example for everyone. We like their movies, their series, their brands, their celebrities, their sports, their culture, their music and their art, all of their media and so one.  We started to love America!

Probably, when you think in an alternative reality for you, you think it in America. It happens to me and it happens with a lot of people. I know it because I´ve had a great example in my classroom. When my teacher ask us to think in an alternative synopses for the play Romeo and Juliet almost all of my classmates chose the United States as the set. Some people have already told me that sometimes they think they know best the United States than they know his own country. This is called Americanization and, in this particularly way, this is the Americanization of our thoughts.

To relate this issue with “Suits” and with all series in general I’ve got some great examples of this Americanization of our thoughts. How many people have chosen a life career based on one American TV’s series/film/show as a medical series or a lawyers one (like House M.D. or Suits)?! Luis Filipe Borges, a Portuguese comedian with a degree on Law School, came to my school and admitted that he chose advocacy due to the influence of an American TV´s series but in the end, he was very disappointed because it was not like he saw on TV and I bet it was just a case among a lot of other ones like this.

Concluding, the rise and influence of the United States of America over the world began more than seventy years ago and it seems that it will continue for a long period of time.