welcome 092 CESL students!

things done below this were done before 092!

youtubes- 091

1. A Vision of Students Today, Mr. L
2. CESL TOEFL (Wahidah)
3. Academy Award video/CNN (Jeannie)
4. CESL TOEFL (Jeannie)
5. Sami Yusuf allahu allah (Wahidah)
6. Colors of the Wind (Jeannie)
7. Only in Saudi Arabia (Mansho)
8. bebe riendese a lo loco (Barb)
9. caida bienisima en sierra nevada (Barb)
10. Jesifra teaching and speaking English (Ricot)
11. Pyramids in Egypt (Mohamed)
12. I don't like you Mommy (Jeannie)
13. Alaska Governor Sarah Palin on Larry Kudlow (Jiachen)
14. Frank Sinatra winning an Oscar for "From here to eternity" (Carlos)
15. Very funny Egyptian McDonald's commercial (Mohamed)
16. Whitest kids U know - classroom skit (Jiachen, Wahidah)
17. Funny classroom video (Mohamed)
18. Life in a Spanish Classroom with Guadalinex (Brenda)

Rich Versus Poor

Carlos Malcon Matute Castillo.
EAP2 A Writer’s Workshop.
Mr. Leverret.

Rich Versus Poor

“Population growth is a threat. But it pales against the greed of the rich” This is the title of the article written by George Monbiot. According to this author the rich are blaming the poor for growing population and indeed these are the ones who are pressuring the overuse of the resources in their own opinion. Other issues that attracted me, the most, from this article are; Firs, the shocking figures of population growth and how important this growth is for the economy. Second, the dangers that the growth of the poor population would cause to the world. And Third, the solutions he came up in order to level off the population. But still, as I read the whole article, Manbiot has just prompted me to ask a question “ Should we have to blame some such social classes to get rid off of the glitch?”

It is not a matter of how much can be taken, by the rich, from the poor population; it is a matter of all considering how much damage we altogether are doing to the Earth. As the environment is getting sensitive, in spite of the high technology, we are used to reducing harm as for soil, air, and population, among others as he refers. It seems that the rich are more interested in the increase of rate of economic growth and consumption from the poor who are the highest consumers and improve their income, rather than the control of the population and the safety of the land from where most food comes from. I am against this selfish idea, of the rich, because this will create more barriers among large numbers among all the social classes.

Of course, the figures of population growth and how important this growth is for the economy is shocking, by far. Because as per this author, "... if the population keeps growing, as its current rate, it will reach 134 trillion by 2300." This number shrills, just by inferring how will these people get food, and how much soil and other natural resources will get overused? In fact, more companies might get into more business, as they will try to sustain the land and still keep growing their economy, as more people will consume from chemical, biological or mechanized products.

Nevertheless, the danger that the growth of the poor would cause to the world does not only come along with them, the poor, but also the rich who are the ones who own big factories, of all kinds, such as textile, oil refineries, chemical factories, nuclear and power plants. And so, as the production increases, the environment will be overwhelmed by threats as the author says. That is because we have finite (limited) resources that will be gone long before that expected year, 2300, where the growth will reach 134 trillion inhabitants. It is sad to say, but this amount of people will also carry other hard issues to solve, as for instance, the deficit of food, and fewer houses that will push people to live in slums, squatters, villages or shantytowns. And indeed, this situation will expose them to more diseases as they overcrowd urban areas in search of good jobs and better lives. And moreover, the stress on the soil and on other resources will increase.

In fact, for a big problem, we need smart solutions. The author also came up with some ideas to level off the population. The embedded ideas, I have perceived, deal with more with the balance between poor and rich. The rich should stop being greedy by just thinking about how to make money by using the poor. Or stop stimulating people to immigrate. That is because it is believed, that in the UK for example, this population, immigrants, is mushrooming the country. On the other hand, universal sex education, universal access to contraceptives, better schooling and more opportunities for poor women are recommended to reduce environmental impacts produced by overpopulation.

As we can see, no one should be blamed, neither the poor nor the rich as we all share the same planet. Here what matters is to start planning and doing the best actions to keep the world in balance for the benefit of both.







Reference:
Monbiot, G.(2008, January 29). Population growth is a threat. But it pales against the greed of the rich. Retrieved: In February 3rd. 2009.

A Worldwide Window To Peer In.

Carlos Malcon Matute Castillo.
Writer’s Workshop.

A Worldwide Window To Peer In.

I am a brand new user of Facebook. I have just started less than twenty days ago thanks to the instruction of a friend who motivated me to get into this amazing way of communication. Even though I am struggling through this facility, I have also found more issues that favor the network than the cons of using it. I am so happy from seeing again my old friends from school, university and jobs. So, there is no way I would be against the use of Facebook because it has made my life entertaining; besides, it has allowed me to contact most of my friends who have been prompted by others and dropped me some good lines that have embraced more friendship among them. They also seemed interested in contact me again after several years of not seeing each other.

Nevertheless, it is up to every individual to decide what is the intention of using Facebook. And so, this is a main source to be considered for people’s opinions and point of view. Besides, this is the second largest social network on the web, in terms of traffic.(Yadav. 2006). Personally, I am for the use of Facebook, in many ways, because I do consider that risk would come up, anyway. But as long as we set in mind what would happen to the information we display worldwide it should not be getting us into any trouble.

In fact, in my case, the idea is to meet my old good and new friends in order to make stronger my relationship with them. This is the reason I am for the use of Facebook. Since I have gotten acquainted with it in this short period it has made me happy because I have only to read about people I know and from the others that I have been recommended from my former pals. Needless to say, that as I have reached the Facebook my only target is to see what is happening to my dear friends and I don't go beyond what I am exposed to. Other reasons I am for this website are: the information floods quickly, and I am able to get the gist, right away, from whom or what I am concerned and keeps briefly and focusing on the main points. So, my pursuit is to keep in touch, set a friendship and get stronger on friendship. So far, I am not going beyond this intention. I am a busy person, and I do not want to waste my time.

Moreover, Facebook has not only allowed us to enjoy friendships but also to reach people and even to meet them, in their places. I wish I could have time now to do so. As a result, we can all get excited about this idea of meeting others through the network or personally. Furthermore, these people offer a strong distance company, I have perceived, as I have seen pictures from them, their families or jobs. It also seems to me that it is a polite and educated way to contact people rather than being overwhelmed the net with nasty and insane issues and follow the idea why Facebook was recently created... as a way for Mark Zuckerberg and other Harvard students to keep in touch over the Internet and get to know each other better (Roeder. N.d.)

The Facebook facility is also a way to keep immersed with a foreign language. As in my case, I have learned a lot of new things from the colloquial talking of some of my American friends. It is also encouraging because it has kept me using English at all times. In addition, by using this website, in particular, it allows me to ladder up the knowledge of language I have. On top of that, I have the only intention of setting contact with my friends. We never know what future will come through, friends around us are making their dreams come true. And a good time of sharing could be expected for us.

As a conclusion there always be more positive issues to count by using Facebook but we do have to set in mind what is our real pursuit of using this amazing facility that is now narrowing people’s relationship and allowing them to meet and share good memories from the distance somehow.

Reference.
Roeder, L. (n.d.). Where Did Facebook come From? Retrieved. February 26th, 2009, from, http://personalweb.about.com/od/makefriendsonfacebook/a/whatisfacebook_5.htm
Yadav, S. (2006, August 25th). Facebook- The Complete Biography. Retrieved February 26th, 2009, from http://mashable.com/2006/08/25/facebook-profile/


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B37wW9CGWyY&feature=related

Religion and Tadition Affecting Overpopulation.

Carlos Malcon Matute Castillo

Religion and Tadition Affecting Overpopulation.

Abstract.

As followers of several religions whether, Catholicism, Islam, Buddhism or Hinduism we have been made to believe that these religions strongly demand that people multiply, in terms of population. But this idea has changed for me while investigating several articles; I found out that there are gaps in those religions that allow people to think about birth control without expecting to be penalized for something that in that past, we believe was a sin.

Link

http://cesleap2.blogspot.com/

Religion and Tradition Affecting Overpopulation.

Carlos Malcon Matute Castillo.
Writer’s workshop.
Mr. Leverett.

Religion and Tradition Affecting Overpopulation.

Religion, itself, has been part of human tradition since the existence of people on the Earth, as people have felt the need of believing in somebody with superior power. This is how they have come up by giving attribution, not only to the items existing in the nature such as trees, stones, rivers, sun and moon, but also others they created from their imagination, ingenuity or their own social environment, as for example, totems, saints, symbols , etc. Furthermore, they have given names to their beliefs in order to get identified from place to place. Among these common religious names we have Catholicism, Buddhism, Islam and Hinduism, and other that pursue to the get the same benefits out of these beliefs by creating a certain kind of connections with what happens in nature, environment, and social life. That is why religious have grown among bigger communities and fulfilled common need and values such the ones related to population and the way this is managed according to what is written or what a prophet told them to follow, as for example the idea about birth control management.

Some religions have been seen as opponents of birth control. And this might have a reason. Nevertheless, this hostile assumption who expect s it to change due to the amount of population is getting and the worries that this situation is carrying to people for example the way these people will get food. Historically, there are several main religions in the world: Catholicism, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism,…. In places such as India, China, Japan, Middle East countries, United States of America and Latin America where these religions are practiced and have become more and more important they have as they have entwined what has been written in their Bibles or Holly Books. The problem, here, is the way these religions have decided to manage their own policies in different places and times. One example is the way Catholicism managed population control in Latin America, by the time of the conquerors, aboriginals (named also Indians), were encouraged to have as many children as God would provide, because that meant more people to work in mines. So, in many ways this religion prompted the idea that multiplication was God’s command. Indeed, a significant change happened in Latin America and other countries by 1960’s. That was relevant vis a vis religion and modernity. There were more reflections on ethics and religious values (Radford, 1994). So, according to what I have read, the problem of overpopulation doesn’t rely on the religious matters, at all. I relies on education and mainly the management of the information. This is why I disagree with blaming on religion the population growth, for the reason I am describing below.
The world we are living in is getting overpopulated, and it seems that we are still keep on blaming religious matters and this is because there are not clear arguments about the relations among these institutions that have tended to become more and more approachable to people. It is time to oppose this assumption, in my opinion, because there are common issues to pursue from I have mentioned above, firstly, the deep symbols of justice and protest against justice and injustice; secondly, the equality in God’s image; and thirdly, the conflict between patriarchy and prophetic faith. And not left to say the way these religions project good life. If it is so, we should not blame religions as opponents of control of population because the standard principle of them is to live by following common benefits.

The real discussion between the proclamation and what the Bible says about contraception goes beyond what churches told to people in the past, such as, for example, the proclamation of Catholics position on contraception. Although the Bible rarely deals with contraception, it was so far outside the biblical mindset and obviously wrong that it did not need frequent condemnations others sins did (Hassan, n.d).The principle that contraception is wrong as a form of particular birth control does not need to be dealt within the Scripture in order t for us to see that it is condemned.(Catholic Teaching Resources, n.d). So, if there is no opposition from this religion, population should start to be controlled by using the practical ways to reduce the problem. This problem sooner or later, will carry an amount of difficulties such that the population will hardly be able to handle food, global warming, and soil devastation among others.

The effort , from the population, to skirt religion has failed, for the simple reason that almost all cultures sexuality, fertility and family matters are particularly entwined with religion (Radford, n.d). It seems that one of the two religions Catholicism is loosing followers due to these restrictions because they are taking analysis in their own hand by relating issues with common events in life. Particularly, in the Catholic world there are more women going to college in order to get a good professional status that allows them a ladder up into a good life. And indeed they are preventing new human beings from coming into existence because they first want to get set in life to better provide for their offspring. This is a need in life no related to religions matters because religion is important to people but it is a need of working together (people and religion) in order to create a sustainable future. It is not taken wrong actions not to have children. It is recommended to have them if people are not ready to attend to them. Nevertheless, women in the Islamic world are still being seen as inferior according to the perspective of the Qu’ran (Hassan,n.d). However, from time to time they are coming to universities to improve life because Islam also establishes the right to recognition of individual merit. By having written this, I do think that liberation of women form the Islamic world will soon come and they will stand for population control as they find other gaps in the Scriptures that would allow them openly to do so.

As a result what is the problem if we can deal with the gaps from tradition of the religions. It looks like not all is written on the stones; we can deal with issues of birth control because there are no established doctrines about contraception, according to other religions too, such as Buddhism and Hinduism (Stacy, 2007a). In Buddhism for example the idea of contraception methods is accepted but there are different degrees of hesitation and one of the reasons they agree is because of the idea of growing up with good quality of life and allowing the couple to plan number of children and use some birth control such as pills and condoms. Nevertheless, practitioner of Buddhism believe that many births cause suffering (Stacy, 2007b). Moreover, among other religions, Hinduism encourages procreation within marriage and they still do not have opposition against contraception because they emphasize the development of positive social conscience. Besides, Hindus are followers of well known people such as Gandhi who advocate abstinence as a form of birth control, Radhakrisnan and Tagore also have encouraged the use of artificial contraceptive methods. These well known people also believed that more of children than one or the environment support goes against the Hindu code. So far, in 1971 abortion was legalized in India and it became the first nation to focus more for overpopulation . That is why in my concern on these issues would go on starting to plan how to save that we have before it becomes too late. There is no need to wait until the end. Overpopulation is hurting the world in many ways.

References.

Alyssa.(n.d).”Family Planning in Islam”. Retrieved February 10th, 2009, from http://www.unh.edu/msa/familyp.htm

Dawn, S. (2007, October 22). What Do Religions Say About Birth Control and Family Planning? “Buddhism” Retrieved February 10th 2009,from http://contraception.about.com/od/additionalresources/ss/religion_8.htm

Hassan,R.(n.d.a).”Hinduism”RetrievedFebruary,10,2009,fromhttp://contraeption.about.com/od/additionalresources/ss/religion_5.htm

Hassan, R.(n.d.b).“Members, One of Another: Gender Equality and Justice in Islam” Retrieved February, 10, 2009, from http://www.religiousconsultation.org/hassan.htm

Japanese.(2008).Religion and Expressive Culture. Retrieved February 10th. 2009, from http://www.everyculture.com/East-Southeast-Asia/Japanese-Religion-and-Expressive-Culture.html

Radford, R.(1994.a).”Comments from Christian Perspective on Religion and Population Policy. Retrieved February10th , 2009, from http://www.religiousconsultation.org/ruether.htm

Radford, R. (1994.b). Catholic Teaching Resources Prayers Catholic Teaching Birth Control. Retrieved February 10th, 2009, from http://www.thecatholicfaith.com/Teachings/birthcontrol.htm

Ways to solve conflicts in Kenya

Abstract
Conflicts between ethnic groups are commonplace in Kenya. This situation is deep-rooted particularly in the political system that this country has inherited since its independence. Leaders tend to use their political clout to set their ethnic group against other groups, in a perspective of leading the country for a lifetime. Solving this problem is necessary, but it requires some courses of action. Reforming the political system by promoting democracy and improving the socio-economic condition of the population through the access to some basic services such as education, health care, energy and water supplies, food supplies etc. are indispensible.

http://thelusmondjeanrene.blogspot.com/2009/03/ways-to-solve-conflicts-in-kenya.html

Facebook Essay

Is Facebook The Best Option?

I have been in the USA for one month. All these days, I have noticed that people in this town, Carbondale IL, are very well familiar with Facebook which is “a social networking website… open to anyone 13 years of age or older. Facebook users can create and customize their own profiles with photos, videos, and information about themselves. Friends can browse the profiles of other friends and write messages on their pages.” (Tech Terms Computer Dictionary, 2005) When I go to parties, international meetings or classes there is always someone asking me if I have a Facebook account. Although almost everybody is familiar with Facebook, I know there are two better ‘places’ to have cyber friends.

In El Salvador, my close friends are attached to Hi5, our nice cyberspace to make friends. When I first got an invitation, I simply deleted it because I did not want to waste my time with silly things. However, when you have more than ten people sending you invitations… you have to surrender, right? Now, I am kind of familiar with Hi5 and it is nice to see my family and friends, and friends of my friends, high school pals (who I almost forgot), etc. One day, a journalist friend sent a message to all his friends in Hi5 telling us that he was going to move to Facebook. I do not know if he got answers about that decision, but I just simply say in my mind: “what?! That place is so isolated, insecure, simple, and it does not have nice gadgets! Well, up to you guy, see you around…” Two to three months later, apparently nobody followed him because he was in Hi5 again!

The best cyberspace site that I accidentally discovered is called multiply.com. It is very good because it has almost everything you need to forget about multiple accounts to keep in touch with people. Blogs, polls, photos, videos, music, events, birthday reminders, agendas, and other things are packed in just ONE site. In my case it is very functional because last semester I wanted my students to work on a blog. Nobody had an idea about that term, but as soon as they got familiar with multiple.com, they had a new option to communicate in a private way, learn, and have fun. I do not know if Facebook would give me the ‘spaces’ to teach a class, send some private pictures to my co-workers, or simply hide the pop and romantic music that I like (with a space to paste the lyrics to improve my English). If all those things could be used in Facebook, I will definitely love it!

All the people that are very well familiar with Facebook, especially in the USA (Hempel, 2009) definitely found the best spot to have close contact with the people they like (or dislike). That is the place where almost everybody is, right? So, if I want to keep in touch with my friends in the USA, I am forced to start using Facebook as well as switching to Hi5 to take a look at my salvadorean pals. On the other hand, I know for sure that there is always a moment in your life in which you need your own space. If that is your case, you definitely need to look for other alternatives to communicate with people. If the cyberspaces you are using right now are functional to you, keep on working with them, but remember in this world everybody is competing to give us better options and it is our work to choose which one is best, in this case, to always keep in touch worldwide.


Source:
Cyberspace (2005). Tech Terms Computer Dictionary. Retrieved on February
18, 2009 from http://www.techterms.com
Hempel, J. (2009, February). How Facebook is taking over our lives.
Fortune, cnnmoney.com. Retrieved February 18, 2009, from
http://www.techterms.com

How Big Are We Getting To?

How Big Are We Getting To?
Carlos Malcon Matute Castillo.
EAP2 A. Writer’s Workshop.
Mr. Leveret.

How Big Are We Getting To?

The idea from some people about not having children does come along with some reflections they have made by experiencing in the surrounding some difficulties such as global warming, lack of food, spaces to live, ecosystem breakdown and weather, among others. As Cara Swam, author of the article: ”Global Overpopulation” considers that food production has slowed down and consumption has increased creating more health problems in the poorest areas of the world. However, women, nowadays as they have become more independent and productive, have started having babies in later ages than before, and indeed, the family has been more planned as the women are taking some precautions by using contraception pills and spending more time at school in order to ensure what would be called a good life. Nevertheless this attitude from women has not yet stopped growing population, this continuous increasing in big amounts.

The world might take away some of the number of benefits we are enjoying now, if the population continuously grows as fast as it is growing now. That is why many people are watching all over the environment, making sure they still keep in good shape and safe. Moreover, the growth of population, as birth control it refers, has become one of the biggest worries, for governments, since this also carries less production of foods, less spaces for accommodation, health problems, poor maintenance of the natural resources, and all kind of things humans need to run life, as for instance. Indeed, it is not easy to handle a strong opinion about overpopulation, in my concern, because the decision of not having babies or having more, must, in most cases obey to religion, cultural traditions and personal pressures from particular societies.

The number of people in the world numbers now at several billion, and what surprises the must, according from Cara Swam, is that five babies are born every one second, and this increases the population by three humans every second, while only two people die in the same amount of time. Just having this information makes me think about how many people we will be in this world in about ten or twenty years. I do picture those overpopulated countries such as China and India will also continuo dwarfing most countries in the world. It looks like we will be too many, and some of the natural resources, water, plants and petrol, will not be enough to share with others because the consumption of them will become higher than we thought before. Besides, this high consumptions will demand more production that we might not be able to fulfill.

Nevertheless, to avoid certain inconveniences, in the near future, we should keep watching the surroundings in order to keep them in shape and safe. What it also means to keep a balance between humans and the resources we still have. I know, this is not an easy task to achieve when particular interests from country to country vary. And so, this also means to have a common agreement among all nations from all over the world in order to set a very conscious program that would allow the population to pursue a common goal which would be, in this case, “Save the planet from pollution, animal extinguishing, depletion of the ozone layer, global warming, etc.”
In fact, the need is not only creating conscious programs among the population as a prevention to protect the world from overpopulation, as birth rates rise up, but also, is to take into account what we have now in order to run it fairly, the world, with balance provide enough foods, accommodation, good health, etc. to continue living by having, also, fair distribution of the resources. In contrast, controlling the overpopulation is not easy, since there are many issues involved, such as particular decisions religion, cultural traditions, country needs, etc. In addition, the current demands from the society in which people are more interested in spending more time at school to get more professional preparation and indeed more money to survive.

And so, how do we want to enjoy what we have in the world, if we might not have started controlling the balance of the population so far? This would be a matter of communities’ enrollment by keeping safe the environment and surrounding as it provides us food, air, water, etc. There are so many things we can do, but, it all depends on what every one of us wants as our heritage to our future generations. And so the idea of no having children would change.



Reference.
Swam, C.(2000,Sept.1) Global Overpopulation. Suit 101.com. Retrieved January 21st,2009