Is our culture in decay?

Some days ago, I watched on TV that Marcelo Tinell was declared “Personalidad Destacada de la Cultura” (Outstanding Personality of Culture), for his long career in the argentinian television as host, producer and businessman. Nowadays, he is the presenter of the high-rated show Showmatch: “Bailando por un sueño” (Dancing for a dream”), a dancing contest where a ‘dreamer’ is accompanied by a celebrity (which are professional dancers, actors and actresses, comedians, models, vedettes, etc)  in dance routines of several styles such as Tango, Folklore, Reggaeton, Hip-Hop, salsa, merengue, Pole dance, Strip dance, etc. This TV show has been on air since 2006 and it is now in its 9th season.


There are several opinions about this show, and it seems that society is divided as well, 

of course. The show has always been a source of controversy.

 On the one hand, some people say that if it wasn’t for his show there are no entertainment programmes on TV to watch. Besides, it is true that he has contributed to the argentinian TV with fiction series, soap operas and programs of general interest. 

On the other hand, and in my opinion, this shows represents and promotes the values that  we are loosing in our society. Fights, gossip, verbal bashing between celebrities and judges, scantily clad women and sometimes nude women are often portrayed in the show. Objectification of women is another important issue. These ladies in the show are often seen and treated as pieces of meat. What’s more, these women don’t even respect themselves, most of them work with their bodies, but I believe that everything has a limit and they crossed the line. Some of them are not smart and some of them just pretend they are fools so everyone laughs at them. 

Most of the people in the country watch the show, and it is dangerous because many kids, girls and boys watch it as well. A tv show where curves, aesthetic surgeries are highlighted, a show where all that matters is your physical appearance. One of the contestants even cried once because her wig had fallen, and she said that she looked horrible and that people wouldn’t love her anymore because her hair was a disaster. I mean, WHAT?  

What do children and adolescents who watch the program absorb? That you should work hard to get what you want? Maybe. Maybe not.

All in all, I don’t agree at all with the price Marcelo Tinelli has been awarded. But, he sells what society consumes. Like it or not what we consume good or bad,  is part of our culture. Who is to blame, then? Him? Us?

I think that if he didn’t produce these programs, society wouldn’t buy them, because of course they wouldn’t exist.
Feel free to give your opinion. Thanks!

Links:
http://www.clarin.com/extrashow/fama/Tinelli-distinguido-Personalidad-Destacada-Cultura_0_1233476827.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bailando_por_un_Sue%C3%B1o_(Argentina)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Showmatch

Admirable Chanti - "Mayor y menor"

Hi everyone, here I am again doing what I have to. Due to recent events you surely know, it's really hard for me posting. I'm not talking about it because it makes me so sad. I'll try to do my best and write about something different.
For several years I have been a regular reader of Rumbos magazine, and specifically I love the cartoon called “mayor y menor” by cartoonist Santiago Gómez Lara aka Chanti. 

This cartoon portrays the life of two brothers Nacho and Tobi and their family (parents, aunts and uncles, grandparents, their turtle and dog, all of whom sometimes appear), and the situations that everyone with siblings live. Fighting, jealousy, reconciliation, love, playing together and fighting again. The cartoon is just one page long and it displays a naive and funny humour that is truly exquisite.

Having said that, I want to highlight one of the reasons I really adore this cartoon. In a society which has lost values and where everything is relative, where actions are not completely wrong or right, where our brains have been washed to believe that everything is the same. A world in which truth is not objective anymore but subjective. Where clear values are erased, when doing something like stealing is bad depending on why you’re doing it. In my opinion this world in some issues is upside down. 

Still, in this society, there are some people that are brave enough to carry the flag of values and say:         “Hey! This, is important”. People that raise awareness. And Chanti is one of those. There are so many examples on his cartoons of the values he stands for. Family, giving your time to the ones you love, gratitude for the people that made good things for this country (like San Martín), love and gratitude as well for being able to do what you love, and as I said before he raises awareness and brings us back to earth. Through his cartoons he is telling us to stop worrying about stupid things.

                                        

So, I’ll leave you here some cartoons and the facebook page so you can visit and read some others.
Do you think that in this world we need more people like him? And that it is time we stand up for the values that are getting lost? Or do you believe that everything is Ok?

                       

Facebook account: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mayor-y-menor-sitio-oficial/279876322873

Friends

It's hard to be inspired to write when you're going through difficult situations. I don’t even know how to start. But well, I’ll start by telling you what happened and then I will write a short reflection. On Thursday night, an hour before I took the bus to leave San Luis at around 9 p.m, someone called and told me that Vanina Buttini and her three children had had a car accident when she was leaving home at 4.30 p.m. She is now hospitalised in intensive care struggling to survive because she hit her head. Fortunately, her children are fine. Vani had been my classmate a few years ago. Even though I cannot say that we were really close friends, I love her. She's the kind of person who wears a smile all the time, who makes you laugh and she always teases me and gives me the worst advises ever! haha She's so funny! 

 I am worried. I am 1.000 km away and I feel so useless because being here or there doesn’t change Vanina’s situation, but if I were in San Luis I could be with my friends, maybe just to tell them that everything is going to be alright and that Vani will wake up. She just needs time to recover.

 Yesterday, Maitén and I were texting each other and she said that it's sad that we usually cry for stupid things, and that we sometimes hide our feelings to the people we love, like our friends. We give for granted so many things, like thinking our friends and family know we love them and that we care about them. I told Maitén that it seems as if we never learn from our mistakes and that sometimes it could be late. I know that Vanina will have a second chance and that everybody is going to be able to tell her how much they love her!


So, that was the reflection. Tell everyone you love that you care about them and that they’re important in your life. Maybe, you already do. Do you? Do you think it's vital to let people know how unique and important they're for you?

 This post is dedicated to my friends and family. I thank all of you for being always there for me. My life wouldn’t be the same without you and your constant support. I LOVE YOU!

And one day peace would be broken

Hello everyone! 

Today I will talk about an issue that touches me very deeply because of what it made me feel. Last week there were a series of horrible situations at the place where I'm currently studying to become an English teacher, the I.F.D.C San Luis (Instituto de Formación Docente).
 It all started on Wednesday 1st, when a group of students and teachers decided to stage a sit-in in order to claim for the immediate reinstatement of two teachers who for some reasons had been dismissed from the institution. This was the most important petition but they also claimed for a better quality of education, job stability for teachers and improvements in the building. Besides, in order to gain popularity among students they added some other claims and asked students of other careers what they would like to add to the list. 
On Thursday, I went to attend my classes and I realised that teachers were not allowed to enter the institution with the exception of those teachers who supported the claims and the sit-in. Therefore, we had classes at the buffet, and among me and my classmates we laughed at the situation and told ourselves that what we were doing was "the real revolution".

At this point the situation was serious because that same week there were final exams, and the protesters didn't allow students to sit for their exams, which to me is a huge lack of respect.. It's completely selfish and incoherent to fight for a better quality of education and at the same time, you prevent others from attending classes and giving exams. There are people who need to sit for exams for several reasons. I heard a woman saying that she had two children and she needed to get her degree as soon as possible. But, of course she couldn't because behind all of this, there are political reasons.

 I have to say that I'm a really quiet person and I avoid conflict as much as I can, but this situation made me really angry because from my point of view, the people from the sit-in hide behind them political reasons. There's a student who gets paid from the political organisation he belongs to and it's so obvious to me that they're all looking for power. People that do not belong to the IFDC and support the protesters attended Monday's meeting and some of them were really disrespectful yelling things at people who do not think the same way they do.

 We know that nowadays social networks play an important role in our lives, and these last few days I've read such horrible things that upset me a lot. People telling us ( the ones who do not agree with the sit-in) to rethink the profession we have chosen, people that said that because we study English we are all laid-back at home eating sushi and dreaming about going to Cambridge, and that English students' are all "cholulos". Imagine how ANGRY I was! They run out of arguments and start saying stupid things like this! On Mondays' meeting a girl told me in a really bad tone that my mind was highly small and that I'm close- minded. What I think is... How can they fill their mouths talking about respect? They don't even know what it is! If that girl becomes a teacher one day, and one of her students doesn't agree with something, what is she going to say?!! "No it's not like that. Your mind is extremely small, you're close minded." That's not the way you should treat people. Too bad that one day they will become teachers, without knowing what respect means.

All in all I have to say that I do agree with some of their claims, but I strongly disapprove the way in which they deal with all these issues. But, there's one thing I've learnt and that is that I have to commit myself to attend those meetings, even when the opinions of us, the ones that think differently are not taken into account because like it or not, numbers win. And democracy works in that way, with the consensus of the majority, which doesn't mean they are right. If not, ask Jesus. 

Ask the genie for a wish!

Surfing the net I found a video that called my attention, and I wondered what people from around the world wish for. This man asked people from Russia, Japan, Nigeria, Iraq and Greenland if they found a genie what would their three wishes be.

 Let me say that there are as many wishes as there are people.

http://aplus.com/a/the-genie-question-world

  Money, cars, houses, travelling around the world, speaking as many languages as possible, happiness, no religions, having the possibility to study, knowledge, wisdom, food for everyone, health, and the list could be pretty long. I think that we all have wishes, some of them sound a little bit self-centred because it seems like we only care about our own lives and the benefits we can get, but some others like world peace that includes to stop hating each other and that every single person in the world has something to eat everyday, are more related to helping others. I don't know, it's just how I see it. 

  As regards money, people place a lot of importance on it. And even though it seems materialistic, let's be honest and raise your hand the ones who wouldn't want to have more money to accomplish whatever your other wishes or dreams are. I wouldn't mind having some money to travel around the world, I mean I just can't be stuck here my whole life when there are so many places waiting to be visited.

   But, on the other hand, I totally agree with the people that wish happiness for everyone, a world in peace without hatred and without fighting each other. That would make all the difference, but it seems that violence is in our nature.

  Of course, I believe that we could never ever achieve world peace, it's an utopia. But, wouldn't you wish for it anyway? 

Ask the genie for your three wishes!

The joys of being a bookworm

In trying to come up with ideas for this new entry, I thought of many things, but thanks to the advice of one good friend I decided to write about one of my passions. During our lives we do plentiful things, some which we do not like because probably we are obliged to do them and some others that we do because for some reason, we love. What is it that I enjoy and adore the most? READING. Yes, that’s it. It’s unbelievable how the thoughts and words of a person written down on the pages I absent mindedly caress, embrace me when I read. It’s like I am eaten by the story.

The characters, the settings, the feelings and the story itself run through my blood and I forget about everything else. I’m not here anymore. I’m on faraway places travelling from castles to forests, from dungeons to outdoor fields, sailing through the air on a broom or swimming in the Great Lake trying to escape from the horrendous mermaids. Sometimes I’m lost in a huge maze, some others I’m quietly playing hide-and-seek with my brothers and sisters.

There’s a quote that reads:

    Isn’t it true? Haven’t I travelled almost everywhere? Certainly, I have. And moreover I have travelled around other worlds! How lucky I am!!! I have lived in the present, but I have taken a time machine and went back in time and I took it again and travelled a hundred years into the future. I've known worlds in which magic exists for real and worlds where “ordinary” life is magical.
 

            For me, it’s a pleasure that can hardly be replaced. Having the possibility of being on adventures that are only possible there, it’s without any doubt fascinating. Books are living creatures that kidnap and tie you to them, and you can barely escape even when you have finished reading it.

As well as spending hours between their pages, I could spend hours talking about them and how books make me feel, but I will stop here with a quote that sums up what I think, from one of my favourite authors:

“I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of any thing than of a book! -- When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.” 
― Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice


P.D: Hopefully you would tell me about your passions, what you love doing the most and if you share my devotion to books. If so, which one is your favourite?
My list would be pretty long!


Have a nice week!  :)




Quotes retrieved from:
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/reading
The first image is mine and I made the second one.

A step forward or a step back?

VIDEO-5 min. summary of the Educational Reform

Yesterday, I heard on the news about the educational reform for primary school in Buenos Aires. Among other issues, the ones that are highlighted are the fact that from 2015 onwards children in primary school can only get marks between 4 and 10 ( 4, 5 and 6 being failing grades), and besides children from 4th and 5th grade are allowed to pass to the following year, even if they haven't passed all the subjects from the previous year. This is what will happen on 2015. And, without a doubt there are people for and against this new reform.

            On the one hand, some people agree with this reform and claim that giving students low marks is unacceptable because children feel stigmatised. For this group of people these changes that will be implemented, seek the inclusion of all the children being educated in public and private schools.               

On the other hand, some allege that this reform instead of promoting quality education is lowering the level of it. For instance, failing grades mean that the student hasn’t reached the level required yet. And as a man on the video says: “Stigmatising is not giving a 1, 2 or a 3, it is letting someone who doesn’t know all the things he/she is expected to know, abandon secondary school”. And that is even worse than giving a student a 2.

               I think that the lack of values ​​such as effort, responsibility and hard work to achieve a goal are being emphasised with this new reform. In the way I see it, it seems as if we’re telling students “Don’t study, don’t work hard, don’t be responsible, anyway you’re going to pass the year”. And what about the students who do work hard and are responsible? It’s not fair for them, and that is in a way stigmatising them as well.

            But as usual, the government tries to cover the sun with one finger. And instead of making emphasis on other rooted issues, they believe that by establishing these changes the educational quality improves.

              I'm really worried about this, because I will be a teacher and in my opinion the student gets the mark he deserves (of course, I know that sometimes the grading system is not enough to reflect what the student knows). But, I don't like this easy and laid-back way in which education is transforming into. I agree with the education that brings out the best of man, the education that leads man to the top, which makes him a better human being. And from these goals, we're giving a huge step back.

P.D: Thanks for taking your time to read this. Feel absolutely free to give your opnion! 

Until next Friday!:D

If you want to read more detail information click here:
Eliminan las notas 1,2 y 3 de las escuelas primarias
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