Cultural Exchange

Last Thursday my classmates and I met 12 students from Melbourne, Australia whose came to San Luis to work in a project called “Realidades y Ficciones de la Argentina”. They are going to stay here in San Luis for eight days and they will learn about our culture. Then, they will visit Buenos Aires and  learn about their culture too. This is a project that our language teacher is working since 8 months with the Australians´ teachers. At the beginning of this year, our teacher informed us about this project and we knew that we needed to prepare and present some cultural aspects from San Luis such as history, literature and legends. That is why my classmates and I decided to include as much information as we could just to let them know a little bit of our province and the customs attached to it. My team and I were in charge of San Luis literature. We decided to talk about a local writer called Antonio Esteban Aguero whose poems are recognized nationally.  The poems my classmates and I decided to work with are “Digo la Tonada” and “Digo la Mazamorra” in which the author portrays different cultural aspects from San Luis. It is important to mention that as we collected the information not only did we remember many things we had forgotten about San Luis but also we learn things we did not know. I strongly believe that this kind of experience is quite positive for us because we enrich our knowledge as regards our province and at the same time we become more cultural aware. In this case, we learned many things we did not know about Australia. When the students started explaining some things, I felt that I knew very little about them. For instance when they talked about their abbreviations…OMG they were almost impossible to understand!!!  Now, I know why I cannot understand a test with a listening activity coming from Australians LOL.  Despite the fact that we exchange many cultural aspects, we also had time to talk about other kind of things in order to break the ice. All in all, I could say that it was a really beautiful experience and I really hope I can continue having this kind of experiences, they are great! Don´t they?

Don´t pray only for France...

This weekend, social media spread the bad news that France was victim of terrorist attacks in different spots of the city.  Maybe you are acquainted with this because you have shared a photo on Facebook or twitter with the message: “Pray for France”. If not, I could inform you what is going on France but first you should know that I am not into politic affairs so feel free to disagree with me if necessary.

On Friday, at about 7:30 pm, France suffered a series of coordinated attacks in seven different locations in Paris. Among them a stadium, a restaurant and a concert hall where at least 153 people died.  According to testimonies, the worst attack came at the Bataclan concert hall where a rock band was playing there. Consequently, after those attacks, France shut borders to prevent more attacks.  Government announced the closure of all public places such as schools, museums, libraries, gyms, and markets on Saturday because they want to prevent being attacked again. At the same time, the president François Holland announced that terrorist want them to be afraid and that is why he insists on keeping their confidence in security forces to stop this deed. 

It is estimated that the terrorists co-ordinated the time of the attacks in order to spread confusions. It seems that attackers wanted to ensure media attention to raise a sense of helplessness among community. Even though the world is devastated by this news, inhabitants’ reaction was that they were expecting terrorist attacks. It seems that they had received many warnings beforehand.

Now you are wondering: Who is in charge of such atrocities? Maybe you guessed it because of the continuous terrorist attacks that are happening in the world. More precisely, in Middle East countries. Islamic State was in charge of threatening to strike Paris because not only France is involved in the conflict in Syria, but also intervened in Libya. According to The Economist, an online newspaper, France has been an ally for America in bombing attacks against Islamic State over Syria and Iraq. This alliance would be one of the reason why Islamic terrorists go against France. They insist that they would continue with attacks till France stops supporting America.

Now look at the following video in which Islamic terrorists gave a hatred speech:

https://onedrive.live.com/?authkey=!AExotaRptCbksQs&cid=C3D9FAB31063ABBE&group=0&id=C3D9FAB31063ABBE!108&parId=root&o=OneUp

Did you pay attention to the men´s words? When I saw the video for the first time, I could not believe what I was listening to. They insist on the fact that Islamic people living in France should go against this country to defend their Islamic culture. According to one of those men, “the Mujahidin around the world will not hesitate to cut their ( French) heads”. Unscrupulous, right? And the part in which the same person persuades Islamic families living in France to make “Hijra” because it is the right thing to do.  After watching the video I had to look up “Mujahidin and Hijra” since I did not have idea of the meaning. I will explain what I found. The term Hijra, originally, meant migrate to other lands where Muslims did not suffer persecution. Nowadays, the term has been distorted and it means that each Muslim should act according to faith and give support to others muslims surrounding them. Mujahidin means that a Muslim should die for Allah (their God). In other words, it is a warrior who would keep Islamic faith. Summing up, what Islam people are trying to do is persuade other Muslims to join together and go against French people and government.

I do not support this kind of things, I consider that powerful people are inhumane and they do not care about civil rights. I do not understand why atrocities are committed in the name of religion as if god demanded them killing others just to prove faith.

It is a pity how innocent people are being murdered by political issues external to them. Apart from political affairs we should not forget that innocent people are in the middle of this conflict. Do not forget about Syria, they also suffer the consequences of the conflicts. If you stop for a moment and think, you would realize that in Syria the amount of deaths is even higher than the ones in France. The fact is that this kind of conflicts affect the ones who cannot defend by themselves. Innocent people are amid powerful people who struggle to achieve their goals and kill people to show dominion over other countries.

I am not against being by France side. On the contrary, I consider that it was heart- breaking. But do not forget about Syrians. To conclude, I will propose you something. Why do not you change your profile picture about “I pray for France” and add a new one in which you pray for every community that is being ravaged by armed conflicts around the world?

Information retrieved from: 


http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21678508-least-forty-are-dead-others-are-held-hostage-french-security-services-had-warned-attack-might-be

A Wonderful Story

How many times do you enter a link just to read about an incredible love story that have happened to someone but it is not real? I mean, you click on that link eager to find a real-love story but, at the end, you find it is another advertisement which uses love to promote its product or services. You know what I am talking about because it has happened to you many times. It is true that part of the love stories you find on the net are unrealistic or aimed to promote something; but it is not always that way. Fortunately, you still can find wonderful stories worth to be shared with the world and they are real ones. By wonderful stories I do not mean Disney stories in which the protagonists live happily ever after. I mean something different, as the day in which I was FaceBooking and I found the case of a man who photographed his wife since she was diagnosed metastatic breast cancer. Maybe you know about this story because it is well-known and people shared it on the net for many months.  

If not, here you have the link of his page in which you will find a Ted talk and information about the man and his wife:

http://mywifesfightwithbreastcancer.com/our-story/#.VjF76NIvcdA

This man called Angelo Merendino was married with a girl called Jennifer. He narrates, on the web site, how he met Jennifer and how in love he was as soon as he saw her. He compares his love-story with his parents´ who also experienced a first-sight love. Angelo and Jennifer got married and he remembers the perfect moment in which he married the girl of his dreams.  Unfortunately, five months later Jennifer broke the news to him, she had cancer. On his page, Angelo tells us how his heart was in pieces after the bad news of his wife future and at the same time he tells us about the changes on their lives. Life became more complicated and it changed from one day to another making them enjoyed every single moment. Angelo, also shares the difficulties they had to face when it was about making other persons aware of cancer. It is not only about Dr. appointments, medical procedures and medications but also side-effects. Side- effects that his wife had to face after chemotherapy.  As you can imagine, it was neither easy for him to accept that he would be a widower nor for Jennifer.  They knew they were in a battle they would not win so the only thing left was sharing their story to the world, and that is why he decided to take photos of their day to day life. 

Angelo, undoubtedly, wanted to transmit messages to the world. First, a message to make people aware of the side- effects of cancer. Second, he wanted to inform people about all the challenges in their daily life. In this way, he would feel supported by others who went through the same situation.  And finally, he promotes the idea of sharing your experiences stating that it is the only way you can learn, grow and survive.

The admirable of this story is not only the strength and support he showed towards Jenn, but also his feeling towards her. In my opinion, he proved to be a good husband and a good mate. No sooner did he know about his wife´s  disease that he stood by her side supporting her.  I believe that he acted following his heart. He really loved her and he depicted that on every photo he took. He wants to demonstrate the world that real love exists and it is not only present on Disney stories.  Nobody said that love stories end happily and people do not face problems. On the contrary, I think that loving someone means being by his/her side whatever happens. Love is about feeling and also about decisions - decisions that determine who you are.  He was not only faithful to her but also to his feelings towards her. He did not hesitate and he loved her till the end.  Lovely, right? 

Make The Difference

Maybe you are thinking that I will post about people or animals suffering. If those were your thoughts, I will not judge you. After all people seem to be highly touched by the negative aspects of the world rather than the positive ones. However, I assure you, it will be a different post.

Last month, my classmates and I listened to a song given by our language teacher. This was Louis Amstrong´s song “What a wonderful World”. The teacher asked us to relax and understand the meaning of it and at the same time we were asked to feel the background music of it. Most of us knew the song but we did not have the possibility to analise it deeply, or at least me.

Here you have the song, if you did not come across with it before: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5TwT69i1lU

If you have never paid attention to the lyrics, I will give you a hand.  It is about a more hopeful and optimistic world in which  the singer highlights a lot of positive aspects in a world tinged with corruption and violence. The song talks about babies being born into a better world and friends shaking hands spending time together. The background music is terrific and transports your mind to a state of cheerfulness. It is a really really good song. Whenever I listen to this master piece, I evaluate that despite the fact of the atrocities, the wars and the instances of violence,  we still live in a wonderful world.

Nevertheless, this post entry is not about the song itself. This song, undoubtedly,  triggered on me  a yearn for emphasizing on positive aspects rather than on the negative ones. As in the case of a comercial that was shared hundred of times on the social media and awakend on me interest. It is a commercial in which a kind man gets what money can not buy such as: the feelings and emotions of people. The man helps an old lady with her food cart, he gives money to a homeless girl in order to pay her school, he also buys some fruit to an old lady living alone, he feeds a stray dog and he gives his seat to a girl on the bus too.  And what do you think the man gets in return? I´m sure you guess it: Nothing. He does good things for the sake of goodness.  As you will see on the video, the man is criticized because of his good actions.

Here you have the video I´m talking about: 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZGghmwUcbQ

Compare this video with real life: How many times have you denied helping others? Not because you are a mean person but you simply ignore some realities. You do not get involved in things you do not care about. It is simple. Maybe you will criticize a person who gives money to a juggler on the street, or you will be dissapointed if you see someone giving money to a homeless person. Or else, you will feel pitty if a person buys household appliances on the train because you know it is a second hand product and it will not work  You are right, it will not work. However, have you ever thought that those people act in a good way just to help others? Throughout my whole life, I have encountered many kind persons like the guy on the commercial.  Among them, people helping old ladies to cross the street, people giving money to the homeless, people buying food to kids on the street. Now, the question is: What do they have in common?  They are interested in enriching their souls not their pockets.  They would not be famous or recognised worldwide for their actions. Their actions are the ones that make this world a better place to live in. Single actions that won´t be prized, but those actions will comfort you because you know that by treating others well your heart will be content.

It seems as if we, in general, are use to considering the negative aspects  of the world and we  do not appreciate the beauty of it and the kidness of some persons. Nobody writes about the policeman who helps a woman to give birth because she did not make it to go to the hospital. Nobody writes about the humble girl who lends the bus card to a little boy who lost his. Nobody writes about the persons who feed animals on the street, or the ones who adopt dogs rather than buying them. Those are simple actions, that make a wonderful world. A world in which not all poeople behave indiferently but a world in which people enrich themselves to grow as good persons and make it a better place.

This video made me realize that there are still kind persons willing to give a hand to those who really need it. Helping an old lady to cross the street is something that for you might not be important but it could mean the world to the other part involved. Imagine that we all joined in doing good actions. It would make the difference in a considerable way.