Minorities

Rationale

i am writing an interview to a white man who lived in South Africa during the Apartheid. His name is Michael Phillips; he was willing to answer all questions. This interview is really valuable, to inform other people about the situation in 1980 in South Africa.

Most people know how the situation was in South Africa in those days. That's why I interviewed a man who was an adult in 1980. He gaves his point of view about apartheid in South Africa and how he lived that moment.

South Africa Apartheid: An interview to Michael  Phillips

Today i'm here to interview Michael Phillips, a man who lived in South Africa during the Apartheid. He agreed to answer our questions about the South African Apartheid.

Reporter: Tell us about yourself and your life here in South Africa at that moment...

Michael: I work for African International Airways and I've been with them for 22 years. When Apartheid began, I lost my job and I had 3 children. I was very lucky thet I found a job in African International Airways. Serena, my wife was fortunate to get on board at German College as an English teacher. She loved teaching.

R: Now tell us about the situation in 1980 with the Apartheid...

M: Apartheid was a very unfair system. The perception of the rest of the world was that all white South African were racists. But, in fact there were a lot of us who were against the system. Unfortunately, lots of people in South Africa did nothing to change the system.

R: What was it like growing up in apartheid for friendships? I mean, having a friend of other skin colour...

M: It was very difficult, especially for my son Richard. First of all, the schools were segregates. Not only did he go to a whites only school, he went to a boys school. There was no interaction with black children. The South African government did not expect white and black children to integrate. It was also ilegal for whites and blacks to marry each other.

R: What was the purpose of apartheid?

M: I think there were a few reasons for apartheid. Whites felt superior to the blacks. They regarded blacks as uncivilized and themselves as better. But that was not so, well, that's what I think. This is a big question and it is not easy to answer.

R: Tell us about apartheid nowadays

M: We see discrimination every day. This systematic discrimination was about separatist development. Whites were considered the privileged race and had a better deal in every way. For me, it is wrong to speak about a superior race and an inferior race. We all have the same rights and me deserve a dignified life.

R: Thats it. It was a pleasure to have learned about the history of South Africa from another point of view. Thank you very much for your time.

M: The pleasure in mine. Thank you.

Child Labour

Rationale:

In this opportunity I decided to write an article. This article could be read in newspapers or magazines. The most important. The most important thing is to inform other people about a certain topic.

I think that writing an article is the best way to inform somebody about a topic. Besides, it is very important that the article has an interesting headline, which attracts the people to read it and to be informed about what they read.

In this opportunity my idea is to speak about "child labour" and to inform the audience about what happens nowadays. My aim is to make the audience conscious and show them how lucky they are, giving examples about child labour arround the world.

Article

How can we with the child labour?

   We all know that the problem is. Child labour is getting worse and is becoming a serious problem in our world. Children are subjected to work in order to pay back some money or they have to work in factories. These Children suffered from humiliation and indignities heaped on them every day.

   In developing countries children have the possibility to study. But, what happens in underdevelopment countries? Too many years ago the big economic difference around the world started to be visible. In Africa or in Central America poverty grew. But it is the worst way to help, because child labour destroys their mental and physical development.

   Secondly, what can we do to stop child labour? People must mobilize and speak with the goverment about this. The goverment has to bring legislation for elimination  of child labour in the country. People not complying this legislation , will be fined. Children have to go to the schooland be educated , only with education we can stop this.

  So, don't just sit there! We can all do our bit, from saving kids from the child labour. If everybody does a little, perhaps together we can really make a difference.

IB - Sports: Drugs and Steroids

Sports: Drugs and steroids

Actually sports have gained a great importance for the development of human beings in different areas, either social, economic, physically and psychologically. The practice of sports has an influence on physical health. Generally people who do physical exercise are healthier than those who do not  because sports can help to prevent some diseases.however, practising a sport can also be associated with/ lead to unhealthy habits, such as taking drugs.

Unfortunately there are athletes who use drugs to compete. Why do they do this? According to the Mayo Clinic Staff, that is a nonprofit medical research group based in Rochester, Minnesota ,  “the most serious athletes often pursue dreams of winning a medal for their country or securing a spot on a professional team. In such environment, the use of performance-enhancing drugs has become increasingly common. But using performance-enhancing drugs — , doping — isn't without risks”. In conclusion, athletes use drugs to have a better performance. The Mayo Clinic is the first and largest integrated nonprofit medical group in the world, employing more than 3800 physicians and scientists.

Which drugs are used by athletes to improve their performance? Some athletes take steroids. “Besides making muscles bigger, steroids may help athletes recover from a hard workout more quickly by reducing the muscle damage that occurs during the session. This enables athletes to work out harder and more frequently without overtraining.” These are words from the Mayo Clinic Staff too.

Like any other drug used in excess, steroids also have health consequences. Steroids abuse interrupt the normal production of hormones in the body, causing infertility, breast development or baldness for example. Steroids abuse is always associated with cardiovascular diseases, like heart attacks.

The use of steroids have risks for men and also for women.

Specific risks for mens include:

• testicular shrinkage
• pain when urinating
• breast development
• impotence (inability to get an erection)
• reduced sperm count and infertility

    Specific risks for women associated with anabolic steroids include:

• increased facial and body hair growth

• development of masculine traits, such as deepening of the voice, and loss of feminine body characteristics, such as shrinking of the breasts
• enlargement of the clitoris
• menstrual cycle change.

Steroids use in Sports statistics:

          1. 85%. That’s the percentage of teen athletes who do not receive any education about what the side effects of steroids happen to be.

2. 44% of teens say that it is very or fairly easy for them to obtain steroids even though they don’t have a doctor’s prescription for them.

3. 4 out of 10 teens who use steroids say that their decision to pursue the performance enhancing drugs was inspired by professional athletes who are taking them.

4. The percentage of teen steroid users who say they felt like they needed to take the drugs because of images they saw in muscle magazines: 57%.

5. 11% of high school boys say that they’ve tried using steroids at least once in order to gain an edge in their preferred sport.

6. For athletes that do decide to take steroids on a regular basis, 80% of them show some form of biochemical abnormalities of the liver during medical testing.

7. Aggression and irritability are 56% more likely to happen when an athlete is taking steroids compared to when they are not.

8. Possessing illegal steroids for a first time offender in the United States can result in 1 year in prison and a $1k fine as a maximum punishment.

9. As many as 1,084,000 Americans, or 0.5% of the adult population, said that they had used anabolic steroids.

10. The maximum penalty for trafficking is five years in prison and a fine of $250,000 if this is the individual’s first felony drug offense.

11. Adults in the 18-34 age demographic are twice as likely to have used steroids when compared to the general population.

12. In 2002, 4% of high school seniors said that they had tried steroids at least once. Since 1991, teens are 10x more likely to use steroids today than they were in the past.

13. More than 57% of twelfth graders reported that using steroids was a “great risk.”

14. A majority of the studies performed on steroid abuse indicate males are twice as likely to abuse steroids as females.

15. More than 50 types of anabolic androgenic steroids are currently available for athletes to take today and there are 30 additional stimulants to use in combination with them.

16. In 2003, more than 30 elite athletes, including Olympian Marion Jones and baseball players Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi, and Gary Sheffield, testified before a grand jury investigating the use of an “undetectable” steroid being distributed by the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative.

17. Since 1991, 20% of teens have stopped seeing the use of steroids as something that has a great risk associated with it.

18. Among those who admit using steroids, 80 percent said they believed the drugs could help them achieve their athletic dreams

19. 57% of users said they would use steroids even if it could shorten their lives

20. 60% of people who use steroids believe that taking steroids is a right of the modern professional athlete.

In conclusion, international competitions will be always related with drugs and steroids, that benefit the athlete for having a better performance. I personally do Sport, I started playing rugby when I was 4 years. Actually I have 17 years and I never take any sports supplement.  For me it is not necessary to use drugs to have a better level. Healthiest way to improve your own performance is training. Training hard to achieve your objectives.

Feature Article

Tomorrowland: electronic music festival or drugs festival?

Do you really know what tomorrowland is? Tomorrowland is the largest annual electronic music festival in the world. It takes place in Belgium, more precisely in the town of Boom and has been organized since 2005.

Tomorrowland has both advantages and drawbacks. One advantage is that you got direct contact with people from other countries. This massive contact with people of different cultures and people sharing what is maybe the only thing they have in common (music of course) is amazing. Another advantage that this electronic music festival has, is that you can learn about the traditions of people from another country.

And what about the disadvantages? Last year I was in the festival and I noticed that it is very easy to buy drugs. It is unhealthy to be stoned all day, unfortunately there is a genre called trans, that most people listen to it drugged because they say it gives them more pleasure.

In conclusion, nowadays Tomorrowland is one of the best electronic music festivals in the world, but it has a dark side. The dark side is "stained" by drugs and overdose deaths.

From : Santiago

Sent : 22nd June

Subject : Answer about the Art Course

Hi Sam! How are you? I'm really interested i'm helping you with your project “People at home”. I love paint but I´am not the best in this subject. I will help you.

A good place to do the picture could be in the German Secondary School of Temperley. Do you know where this school is? Well the German Temperley School buildines in Lomas de Zamora and Temperley, but the secondary school is located in Lomas de Zamora. Itl is in Pereyra Lucena Street between San Martin Street and Alvear Street. This school lades like an ordinady house. Its structure is like the structure of a house and the front is painted with white and is near a new construction.

The special in the picture could be friendship. If you see the picture you could say that this picture reflect friendship. Friendship is really important for kids because everibody needs to have a friend. Friends who love you and listen to you if need help.

Have you got time to do the pìcture next week? Can I help you with something? Have you all the materials to do the picture?

Write to me soon!

Santiago

This is the advertisment from Sol, Lucia Hochstetter , Micaela and me. Last month we have made this andvertisment for a English class. Also we have made a video. This is a candy, which you eat and automatically you want to sing. This is called "Melocandy".