Meeting Ben Harper (By Cecília Haas Mezzomo)

Today I was checking some old pictures and I came across this particular one I enjoy a bunch:



Last year, in January I went to São Paulo. I had never been there before, and I wanted really bad to go to Bairro da Liberdade and to 25 de março! I invited my mom to go with me. We spent two days there only but I had the best time in that city!

Actually, I got quite disappointed with Rua 25 de março. I thought I would find really cheap things over there, but I didn’t. I mean… things are way less expensive than what we see in the shopping malls, but there was nothing there I can’t find downtown here in Porto Alegre.

On the other hand, Bairro da Liberdade was even more charming than I expected. Going to the supermarkets and finding all those Japanese things was amazing! (Things I don’t even know what they are used for) Such a pity we don’t have a Chinatown in our city too.

After a whole day walking up and down São Paulo, taking the subway, then a bus, walking blocks and blocks it was time to go home. We got to the airport and that was a mess because of the aviation crisis. I almost fell asleep waiting for my flight, but then, a good surprise. I overheard there were two famous people on the plane. Ben Harper and Donavon Frankenreiter had a concert in Porto Alegre on the next day.

As soon as the plane landed, I went after them and we took the picture above. Those guys are really cool. That was the perfect ending for my trip.

Travel without spend much Money (Priscila Cunha)

A couple of days I was looking for an exchange programme which I wouldn’t pay so much. After look for many travel agencies, finally I found one which was perfect, the Au Pair programme. In this programme you should live with a family, take care of their kids and also study doing a course. The programme has duration of one year and when you finish you can renew you contract with the family you chose if they want. But to do it you need to fill in some requirements like: have 25 five years, have drive license, experience with children and speak intermediate level of English. There are others exchange agency which offer travel to other places than United States like France Holland etc. there are many options you just need to pick up your backpack and be prepared to travel.

Good manners, what is that? (By Valéria Guilherme)

I am so impressive the way people are behaving nowadays… most of the people around us do not have good manners and even know the meaning of these simple words. I am not talking about fancy things like how to behave in a black tie party or what is the properly dressing to go in a theatre. Actually I am talking about simple things like the use and the meaning of the words thank you, please, may I? I am saying that being nice and polite to someone that needs help is something unfashionable. People just prefer ignore and keep their attention on the songs they are listen to or just keeping their eyes closed. As everyday I spend so many hours going to work and to school by train and by bus, I can see so many examples of bad attitudes people can have. Yesterday I saw I blind guy trying to get a bus, and no one at the bus station helped him, they prefered just to look to the other side instead of offering help. It is so sad but it is something that we face every where, no matter in which neighborhood we are or which social class we came from. I bought some time ago a book that called Tempo de Delicadeza by Affonso Romano de Sant'Anna that talks exactly about this and a phrase in one poem called my attention: “…sejamos delicados. E, se necessário for, cruelmente delicados”. We are not able to change the whole world, but I think we need to think more about our attitudes and try to change little and precious things in our lifes and always when is possible do the right without looking at who. For sure this is one of my beliefs that I am going to teach my baby.

If you wanna take a look on the poem I mentioned follows the link:
http://br.geocities.com/mensagembomdia/t/tempodedelicadezaaffonsoromano.htm

(Local Elections, by Vanessa Filippini)

The politics never change!
It is unbelievable the way that the politicals act in the closing stages of the campaing. They do anything to try persuade the people's opinion about their. Unfortunately, things like distribution of basic baskets to poor families still have been doing.
On last Monday, during my internship, a student tell me the current mayor was in his neighborhood during the weekend. According the boy, the political, who was followed by a truck full of food, had gone all over the streets distributing basic baskets to the families. The worst thing is that, while the boy was tolding me the event, I could realize that he had satisfied with had happened. He told me that in the basket had ben, rice, pasta, sunflower oil, flour. cookies, crackers, sugar, chocolate, soap, dishwashing liquid, toothpaste, toilet paper... And besides the food, the children in scholar age received scholar materials like erasers, tisours, notebooks, pencils, colour pencils, pens, pencil sharpenes, rulers, portuguese dictionaries and bags. So, I asked him what his family thought about and he answer they liked a lot, because the cupboards had been empty. Also the student said him parents didn't had money to bought new materials to him and his brothers.
What really get annoy me is the fact of the ill-natured politicals didn't help poor people during their administration. They do it just before the votes. IT IS A SHAME!
On top of everything the candidates still doing miracle promises.
So, as voters and future educators we need pay attention in the candidates. Although been a hard task (because sometimes they get lie convincently) it is our obligation observe their behavior and attituds. Also we need to taught our students how vote correctly (as far as possible, considering the lack of confidence in politic).

Online videos for English learners (by Silvia)

A workmate has recommended me this amazing website for English learners called Yappr.
Yappr is a community of people interested in learning English that provides several videos online with the subtitles in English and Portuguese. You can find a diversity of videos on it, such as musicals, news, cartoons, films, advertisement and so on. Every video has the ‘replay’ function and another function where you can listen to the audio again but slower and clearer, which is very cool! :)
It is a fantastic tool to practice listening and reading skills, even for us who still have so much to learn about English.
Check it out and have fun!

Irish icons - Saint Patrick and Guinness (by Antônio)

Dear folks, once upon the time I was in a pub celebrating Saint Patrick’s Day having a lovely pint of Guinness. What I’m going to do is to try to explain the connection between Saint Patrick’s Day and Guinness.

First of all they are two of the most known icons of Ireland.
Saint Patrick was born around 387 in a small village of Cumberland, Caledonia (Scotland today). When he was about 16, he was captured and sold as a slave by the Irish who were against the roman domains when Ireland was still ruled by The Romans. Saint Patrick spent 6 years in captivity, working as a shepherd and living in miserable conditions. During the captivity he became a very religious man. By the time he returned to England he became a priest and after 12 years studying theology he was pronounced bishop and was named Patricius. Short after he went back to Ireland to evangelize the Irish people who had the druids as spiritual leaders. In the Celtic Ireland, Catholicism was not known, as the myth says Saint Patrick banned all the snakes of the country although there were not snakes in this country. This snake episode symbolized the defeat of the evil and the conversion of the Irish people to Christianity. It was around this time that the shamrock, a 3-leaved clover and one of the Irish national emblems, was adopted to symbolize the concept of Trinity (three divine persons in the one God). The green color of the clover was also adopted as the national color of Ireland. Saint Patrick died in March 17th, 431. Saint Patrick’s day is celebrated in March 17th; in USA it became a feast day in remembrance to Irish emigrants who had run away from the great famine that stroke Ireland in the 18th century.

Guinness is a popular dry stout (kind of beer) that originated in Arthur Guinness’ brewery at St. James’ Gate in Dublin, Ireland. It was originated in London in the early 18th century. It is one of the most successful beer brands in the world and is exported worldwide. Its characterist flavour comes from the roasted and unfermented barley. Its thick creamy head is the result of the beer being mixed with nitrogen when is served. Guinness stout is made from water, barley malt, barley, hops and brewer’s yeast. A portion of the barley is flaked and roasted to give Guinness its dark colour and characteristic taste. It is pasteurised and filtered. Although its reputation as a "meal in a glass", Guinness only contains 198 Kcal per imperial pint. The smoothness of draught Guinness is due to its low level of carbon dioxide and the creaminess of the head caused by the very fine bubbles that arise from the use of nitrogen.

Intership experience ( Solvejg)

Intership experience
I would like to share with you my intership experience . It is almost unbelievable that the things we have been studying at college, we don’t see it in the intership, I say this because after my third observation I could release that my teacher does exactly the opposite process that we have been learning with Claúdia. She does not contextualize anything. She just writes on the board a grammar point, she gives a very brief explanation about it and exercises and more exercises. Before the end of the class, like 5 minutes before, she corrects it and that is it. She also likes to give them some translation activities, all texts were about foreign cities like New York and Hawaii, topic that are unfamiliar to them, another thing that we learned it is wrong. Some times I think “Did she study the same subject?”

Travel the World Through Photography (by Lucila)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/24400925@N05

Hi, everyone!

I recommend this site of photos to those of you who enjoy photography, off course, but also to the ones who would like to learn about culture, customs, the people and geographic aspects of places such as Scotland, Cape Town, Paris, Amsterdam and Bolivia. Photographer Miguel Kieling, who also happens to be an English teacher, shares the moments, colors and feelings he has sensitively registered and he also gives us his thoughts on the scenes. It is like taking a guided tour around the world!

Pay special attention to the green in Scotland (remember that our dear Literature Professor Elaine has mentioned how unique it is!) and the colors in South Africa!
This is also a pleasant opportunity to improve your English…

Have a nice trip!

What are people looking for? (by Anelise Sarantopoulos)

I was thinking about an article that I read in Veja magazine- edition 2067. It was about aesthetic and plastics that women and men do in order to become perfect.
I invite you to read this article because it portrays human being preoccupation with appearance and not with the essence. My question is: What are these people looking for?
If we read the article and observe the number of people that do a plastic surgery we will understand that this exceeded the normality. The doctors have named these people who have done plastic surgery compulsively “dismorfia”. The patient who suffer from this, never think that it is time to stop doing plastics and never is self-satisfied with appearance and his/her body. The problem is the doctors who earn money with this people and who don’t have any ethic. They should advise these patients that it is necessary to look for psychiatry and begin a therapy, but they don’t do it and commit atrocities in consent with theirs patients that are desperate with appearance.
I think we should pay attention to this problem that have been appeared in our society and that reflect what we are looking for.

The Indigo Children (by Júlia Rockenbach)

As we all have been working with children in our internship and as I heard from a teacher that children don’t know anything and that they don’t want to study, I decided to talk a little bit about a subject that should be discussed everytime. Maybe some people do not believe in what I'm going to talk about, as it deals with spirituality too. But, even so, I believe this information is essential to parents, teachers, psychologists, pedagogues, and for all those people who intend to work with children.

Indigo children are children born in the last 10 years. They’ve been coming to change the world, in terms of education, society and spirituality. They have a different cerebral structure related to the use of their potencialities. They go beyond the “intelectual”, and their behavior in any aspect of life is the focus of changes. Indigo child has a new and uncommon set of psychological characterists and shows a pattern of behavior that has not been documented yet. So, it means that people who live around them has to change, and not the children themselves, in order to reach an equilibrium. If we ignore this new pattern of behavior, we will be causing them disequilibrium and frustration.

I’ve been reading a lot of materials about the subject but, of course, I’m not able to talk deeply about it yet. So I chose an website to indicate to you, then you can access it and read a little bit about Indigo children. There are books about them too. I really recommend these readings. It can help us a lot as teachers and also as parents.

http://www.metagifted.org/topics/metagifted/indigo/

The Phonetics Sounds of American English (by Eduarda Duarte)

In the middle of the year I attended a workshop about English Phonetics at Quatrum, it was a really good workshop, but unfortunately I don’t remember the name of the teacher who presented. Anyway, I especially wanted to attend this workshop because I knew I would have to study this for the fifth semester and until that moment I hadn’t had any contact with this subject. To present the workshop the teacher used a website called The Phonetics Sounds of American English from the University of IOWA. It was almost impossible to go through all of the sounds of English in one hour and a half, so unfotunately it had to be a superficial view. But it was a good introduction for this semester. The website used in the workshop is very good, we can listen to the sounds of the vowels or the consonants, there are examples of words and also it shows how the sound is produced with a video. It's only the sounds of American English, as the website’s title describes. I’ve used it a lot and it’s been helpful. Enjoy!
http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/english/frameset.html

Helpful Tips (By Cecília Haas Mezzomo)

I’ve seen on TV an ad about a website called bemsimples.com.br, where people can upload solutions to daily problems, like preventing your dog from gnawing furniture, getting athletic playing video game and converting mp3 files into mp4. All the pieces of advice are fit into eleven categories, such as cars, technology, beauty, health, kitchen, etc.

There are some interesting tips, and the website is constantly being updated. It is worth having a look at it.

While I was exploring it, I remembered another very fun website, which is http://www.waitless.org/. They promise to turn tedious tasks into fleeting moments with tips that’ll refund your time and amaze your friends. There are videos that show how to make tasks faster and how much time you will save in your life from doing them. Some of the videos available are: ‘how to quick – peel a banana’ and ‘how to speed – dry a manicure’.

There is also a link where you can calculate your time. You choose and action and how long you take doing it - I’ve just found out that I’ll spend 6 months and 10 days of my life putting on make up. (Well, who cares about it?!)

Unfortunately, there were a lot more videos available some months ago and one in particular was very interesting. Does anybody know to make a baby stop crying?
…
…
…
Just open a faucet and take the baby near it. The sound of the running water will instantly calm him / her down. Doubt it? I’ve tested it today and it worked.

First teaching experience (by Eduarda Duarte)

I couldn’t write about anything else except my first real experience as a teacher. It’s been one month since I started working at Quatrum English Schools and it’s been really good. I’m really happy because I’m learning so many things about teaching, activities, games, classroom management etc...For someone who wasn’t completely sure about being a teacher ‘till the first internship I think I’m doing great!

I’m teaching kids and adults - although most of Quatrum’s students are children, there are a lot of adults too. Every day has been a challenge for me because I want to do things properly. So I spend a lot of time planning my classes and the activities, I also like to talk with more experienced teachers. But the thing is that no matter how many hours you spend on planning your class, you can’t plan some questions your students will ask. And you'll have to improvise and the only to learn this is with experience.
I know that I still have a lot to learn about everything including the language itself. But the main thing I already know. I love to teach.

Here is a picture of the Olympic Games, which students participated last month. They even won medals.

And to finish I really want to show you a video I did with some of my students about Newscasts of Natural Disasters. They had to create the lines and role-play a news program. This is a Pre-teen 6 level, which means that they understand a lot of English and now are starting to produce. Some have been studying English for 2 years.

Cruelty with Pigs- (By Anelise Sarantopoulos)

An article that was published yesterday in Terra´s website made me feel very angry. It is about a Belga artist called Win Delvoye that do tatto in pigs.Do you believe? Well friends, I can endure that pigs are killed to be eaten, although I think this culture is very delayed, but do tattoo with Louis Vitton´s symbols in animals? You that have a tatto know how this pain in ours skins is, and so, imagine in poors animals.

This animals will be exposed in Xangai and in a future, the skins will be sell for 60,000 libras each.

Here I available a picture and the link: http://noticias.terra.com.br/mundo/interna/0,,OI3157467-EI10495,00.html

Music and Drama - by Priscila Cunha

In the beginning I didn’t have idea about what topic I could write and share with my classmates. So, I decided to suggest to you a good movie I saw last year called Hustle and Flow. The movie is about a man called Djay who is a pimp and a drug dealer. One day he meets an old schoolmate, who is having a good life, and begins to think in change his life being a rap singer. His chance appears when he discovers that a famous rapper called Skinny will come to the city, so Djay and his friends decide to record a cassette tape and gives to Skinny to help him to be well-known.
At first sight the movie cause a strong drift, because violence scenes or the manner the main character treats people around him. Nevertheless you feel some sympathy about his struggle to modify his reality. This movie is interesting also if you enjoy music, especially black music and rap. But demonstrate us an American depict of miserable and sordid element of society very glamorized by media and rap singers in US. This movie has received many critics, awards and nominations including an Oscar in the category of Best Original Song for the music “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp”. Now I hope you enjoy it. :P

The 3 R's and Education (by Antônio)

Dear folks, friends and classmates I’d like to share with you some information I’ve collected for a presentation last Tuesday and also some of my thoughts about education. The presentation was about the 3 R’s “concept” and was also an idea of how to combine the English teaching discipline with different topics.
I found out about the 3R’s “concept” while listening to a song of Jack Johnson. This song is part of the soundtrack of a movie called “Curious George”. The Curious George is an American cartoon that is regularly on TV. By the end of this writing I’ll provide some web sites so you can have a closer look at them.

The 3 R’s are items of the waste hierarchy and mean Reduce, Reuse and Recycle respectively. The waste hierarchy is composed by six items, which are show in order of importance in the pyramid below. The items at the top are the most effective policies and processes; unfortunately we still have little prevention compared to our production of waste. The aim of the waste hierarchy is to extract maximum benefits from products generating the minimum amount of waste.

Although there’s a lot of talking going on we are still far away from the ideal environmental/ecological correctness. My purpose with this piece of writing is to show you that we teachers have the obligation of teaching something more than English. If we don’t have this obligation, at least we have the choice of doing it. So please choose to teach your students how to be global citizens. Apart from teaching, we have to spread the idea that a local and individual action generates a global change. A local action now generates a global change in the future.

In my opinion we are privileged professionals because we have the opportunity to work with the next generation – children – they are the ones who can make the real change. We can change people’s mind and education is not only to transmit knowledge but also to allow our students to be able to consciously choose in this world of multiple choices. My concept of education is that our main purpose as educators is to provide, our students, information and skills that will allow them to understand the world they live in and how some social mechanisms work. In other words to fulfill them with information that will help them to change their selves as well as to choose according to their wills and objectives.

The desire of being useful to society combined with our love for the language are not the only things this profession requires. The will of helping our people to develop their self-knowledge and to make our students able to share and exchange their knowledge while creating possibilities through a two way road where everyone can learn and teach are also required. Education is meant to develop the students’ critic view of their selves, allowing them to be aware of what is going on, so they can’t be manipulated by the media and the hypocrisy of our politicians.
So be aware of what you’re teaching and what is your contribution to society as a teacher!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Web sites:
http://www.jackjohnsonmusic.com/home/
http://pbskids.org/
http://www.curiousgeorgemovie.com/

More Nerd Stuff! Yeah \o/ (By Chrystian Oliveira)

As we read last class how Integrative CALL - (Warschauer, 1996b), a perspective which seeks both to integrate various skills (e.g., listening, speaking, reading, and writing) and also integrate technology more fully into the language learning process.- sees the importance of the computer in the Language Learning Process and as some Computer Games were mentioned I decided to write about some more Nerd Stuff. ^^ So i decided to write a little about World of Warcraft, the MMoRPG that I mentioned before (I'll describe a bit about the game background and hos it woks, so the Ones who doesn't like Nerds Stuff, don't waste your time reading). As way of interaction among English Learners using the computer I decided to talk about the PC game called: World of Warcraft. It's my option due the fact of the reunion of all skills (in mt point of view): Writing, Reading, Speaking and Listening. And also the Social willingness thaqt provides, but It will be explained further. The story of World of Warcraft in a Planet called Azeroth, which is occupied by many live beings. This world was created by the Titans to conserve all kinds of life and each Titan was on chage of create their own ceatures to live in this world. But one of them, the Titan called Sargeras, tried to take control among the Titans. Failing in his attempt he was banished to Azeroth, but he also tried to take contol of the Planet and many wars has occuried and it still even after Sargeras death. And many powerfull ceatures has appeared and after Ten Thounsand years of war lots of things changed through. And it is in this new era of wars that You'll be placed to play. First of all you have to customize a character (race, skin colour, hair face, hair and features as piercings or war draws) giving to it a name, selecting a race, after the class and the faction that you want to play. There are two factions: "The Alliance" (with Humans, Dwarves, Night Elves, Gnomes and Draneis) and "The Horde" (with Orcs, Taurens, Trolls, Undeads and Blood Elves) and finally choosing a class to play: as Mage, Paladin, Priest, Warrior and etc. Once you are in game you ahve to act accordingly to your race and class, you have to go to around the world doing quests (missions) to earn respectamong the other races and tribes. And also you have to fight against your rival faction(other players) for territory control and honor to have special itens in game. As in the real life you have to feed yourself and drink water to survive and it costs money to you, so you have professions to choose as: Leatherworking, Minner, Alchemy, Enchanter, Blacksmith, Jewelcrafter, Herbalism, Engennering, First Aid, Fishing, Cooker and also Tailoring. So you can earn money selling them to other players or dressing your own products. So, as I said before, cooperation and interaction here are very important tools in game, once that you have many times to call people to help you andEnglish is the world language simplifying the intercomunication. While you are playing "WoW" you have to interact with characters with Atificial Inteligence, who tells you the instructions about what to do next and also a written text appears with the necessary informations. Another thing that is very nice in game is the fact of each race having his particularity on the accent. Like, humans they speak like British people, Dwarves as Russians, Trolls has an accent similar to American Ebonic Enlgish and it goes on. Any similarity with Tolkien's The Lord of The Ring is not a coincidence, due the fact this game was basead on Tokien's stories. I do believe that On-line games can be a perfect tool to learn english out of school as a suplemental way to it. I know this thing sounds childish, but is an additional information that one day might serves to you. So keep I keep in mind that anything that may helps us in language Teaching Procees, is valid. Thank you for the attention, Cheers. Chrystian Oliveira \,,/. "May ou blades never Dull"

(This Last Photo here, we have me - The Orc - and some friends of mine.)
PS* You can also easily find stuffs about MMoRPG's at internet, if you're interested. ;)

We need to do something!!!!! ( by Vanessa Filippini)

EVERYBODY HAVE PROBLEMS! THEY COULD BE INTERNAL CONFLICTS OR FEARS, SOMETIMES FAMILIAR PROBLEMS OR FINANCIAL, ETC...

MANY TIMES WE THINK OUR PROBLEMS ARE THE WORSE THAN THE OTHER PEOPLE. BUT HAVE YOU EVER THOUGHT ABOUT HOW BLESSED ARE YOU?

All of us in this group have perfect vision and audition, we can talk, walk, think. Every night we have a place to go: our home. Some live with their parents and brothers, others with their children, husbands and wifes, friends, others alone... Anyway, we have beds, televisions, cd's, dvd's, computers, internet, cars, etc... we have comfort. And most important: WE HAVE WATER AND FOOD.

Even so we all are always in search of more things (that we consider important). More money, more knowledge, more money. Our behavior is part of our humam nature, our desires for to do the best and obtain the best it's could be comprehensive. Although, we couldn't move on without look to the others.

We all just go ahead looking for reach our objectives with no preocupation if someone needs help.

Our teacher Elaine e-mail us talking about the Sudan people and their fight for survive. They eat, drink and "have shower" with the animal dejets. Have you thought about this? It's just terrible, don't you think?

I know that many of us couldn't have finantial (or emotional) conditions to help someone in Sudan, but we needn't go so far away to support and help needy people. In Brasil there are many people with no food or water. OUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS ARE DYING!

WHEN WILL YOU DO SOMETHING TO CHANGE AND SAVE LIFES?

Weblogs (by Bruno)

I attended to the workshop presented by Eduardo Trindade last Saturday about “The Internet”, which I found very interesting to be commented on since we are having the experience of using it now through this activity. One of the ideas that Eduardo punctuated very well during his presentation was the demanding of knowledge about the use of technology for new teachers (English teachers in special). It doesn’t mean that today teachers must know everything about computers, but they should recognize it as an important tool to make students more involved in class nowadays. Weblog is just one example of many internet sources that can be applied to English classes effectively; it is a very good way of stimulating learners to develop their language skills pleasantly and even more than that keeping them really interested in doing it at home, where most of them rarely feel motivated to.
I have enjoyed this workshop a lot, because instead of knowing the importance of being up-to-dated today, no matter what kind of job you have, I had not seen the internet being used effectively in a learning environment before.

Low Level of Proficiency in Brazil By Solvejg Braathen

I read on the newspaper a very interesting research that a company called Stanton Chase, specialized on selecting executives to companies, did about the proficiency in English in the South America and how is difficult to Brazilian Executives to achieve a good level and fluency in English. They risked a guess, the reason why it is so difficult to us Brazilians to get fluent in English is not because the language is too hard for us, but is something about how many years we devote to study the language. For instance, in Argentina they usually dedicate at least the same years studying English that they dedicate studying at college. Here in Brazil usually we spend 1 or 2 years, and we think that is enough, that we can speak it, but when we have a job interview, in which we have to speak English all the time we realize that this is not the truth. I think in part we can blame same courses that sell this idea that we can learn English in 1 year, and also how superficial knowledge they teach or even the blank spaces they can leave on the learning progress leading to this difficult to keep a conversation.

Modern Battlefields by Valéria Guilherme

I’m got so sad this morning as two friends of mine from my work were involved in accidents. The first one was leaving the bus when a motorcycle crashed on him… he is not so injured, but unfortunatelly he is going to stay home for a little while. The other man had an accident when he was coming to work by motorcycle. He broke his leg badly, and he had to make a delicate operation, and as the damage was so serious he must spend some weeks at hospital… In front of these scenes we can see how fragil our lives are, and how dangerous and wild the people are on the streets nowadays. Imagine being run over by a motorcycle when you think you are safe going to the bus station… Why a motorcylce was driving in the left side when it is not allowed?? Who knows?? Everyday we are facing these bad acts when you are on the streets. Even if we are not driving, we have so many examples of bad behavior… people shouting to the others, saying bad words, acting like they are in a jungle. No, no I’m totally wrong, animals are much better than these kind of people. Unfortunatelly these are the scenes we have to deal nowadays… I hope someday (soon I pray) people can use their intelligence to realize that the roads are not battlefields.

Pablo Neruda (by Lucila Escardó)

"If You Forget Me”
I want you to know one thing
You know how this is

If I look at the crystal moon
At the red branch of the slow autumn at my window
If I touch near the fire the impalpable ash
Or the wrinkled body of the log
Everything carries me to you
As if everything that exists - aromas, light, metals
Were little boats that sail toward those isles of yours that wait for me

Well, now
If little by little you stop loving me
I shall stop loving youLittle by little
If suddenly you forget me
Do not look for me
For I shall already have forgotten you

If you think it long and mad the wind of banners that passes through my life
And you decide to leave me at the shore of the heart where I have roots
Remember
That on that day, at that hour, I shall lift my arms
And my roots will set off to seek another land

But if each day, each hour, you feel that you are destined for me
With implacable sweetness
If each day a flower climbs up to your lips to seek me
Ahh my love, ahh my own, in me all that fire is repeated
In me nothing is extinguished or forgotten
My love feeds on your love, beloved
And as long as you live, it will be in your arms without leaving mine

http://www.musicaeninternet.com.ar/?id=lyrics&show=33425

The poem above is one of my favorite pieces of Nobel Prize for Literature Winner Chilean poet Pablo Neruda. Although his work was all written in Spanish, this English version has become very popular after the film the postman (Il Postino) was released in 1994. The film tells the story of a postman who learns to love poetry with the help of Neruda, to whom he delivers mail. You can listen to the poem read by Madonna in the soundtrack CD entitled Il Postino. In this particular piece you can notice how Neruda was inspired by his loved one and nature as if they were one. Other great poems by Neruda are compiled in the collection called 20 Poemas de Amor y Una Canción Desesperada, easily found in the internet. For those who like to have their senses touched, I highly recommend the film, the CD, and above all, reading Pablo Neruda’s poetry.

full of indignation (by Silvia)

When I first thought of what I would write here, I imagine writing something about Expointer, the animal exploitation and the concept of the animal as merchandise. But then, something as important as this issue happened and I changed my mind. A good friend of mine was attacked by two men carrying a 38-shot gun in front of the institution where she studies. They took everything but her life (which is good enough, I’d say).
You are probably thinking that this is everyday news, it happens all the time and I’m not telling you anything interesting.
But, the reason I’m telling you the story of this friend, is exactly to make you feel like I’m: angry! And I’m feeling furious because people are not as angry as me. Everybody has just gotten so used to this kind of violence that it has become routine. And this is just absurd! It shouldn’t happen. People must be indignant and surprised. People must be as mad as I am right now, for begging for something basic, safety, and don't hear any answer.