COLUMBINE MASSACRE: THE TRAGICAL RESOULT OF BULLYING, VIOLENCE AND GUNS

My biggest wish since last year is become some day a prestigious journalist. I have always been very interested in all the things which happen around the world so I believe this is the most important step to make my dream come true. However, I use to think that I still have a lot of things to learn because I realize that sometimes I don’t have enough knowledge of general culture or essential information. Nevertheless, I already know which type of journalism is the most suitable one for me: INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM. From my point of view, if I could work on it in the future I’m sure I would be the happiest person of the world. My favourite topics to investigate are:

-CRIMES (of any kind): I aaaaalways watch TV programmes about this; especially “CRIMENES IMPERFECTOS” and I also search for documentaries about it on web sites.

-DISEASES: Firstly, I would read and learn all the information about them and then I would begin my work. The disease that maybe I’m more interested in is CANCER, so I wish with all my own to be able some day to record a documentary with young victims or something like this. Then, I would try to earn voluntary donations from families and give this to doctors to help them in their investigations to find a final cure for cancer. I’m also interested in transmission diseases, uncommon diseases, mental diseases, etc.

-THE HARSH FACTS: On the other hand, I would like to do documentaries about the real world we live in. To get this, I would travel to poor countries or unsettled neighbourhoods. I would interview victims of mafia or clandestine groups as well. Besides, I would interview and try to help women who are victims of violence because, sadly, this is a very common fact in our society nowadays. I could also interview immigrants and show to people their culture and their habits, etc.

-CULTURES: One of my other biggest wishes is travel around the world. If I could do it while I’m working it would be wonderful. With my travels to other countries I would learn a lot of new things, such as new habits, food, or believes. I’d love to spend some weeks in each zone to do a great job.

Finally, I have to say that I love Hollywood’s world and all related to this. I hardly know all famous stars names, their movies, all the news about them...I adore all those things! Anyway, I just consider this liking to Hollywood a hobby. I wouldn’t like being a journalist specializing in this topic because I know a lot of things about paparazzi, scandals and all this stuff... and I don’t like it at all! I love to be aware of some things about famous stars world but honestly, I’m not made for this type of job!

Last week, I was watching a really interesting documentary about a massacre which took place in Columbine, specifically in Columbine High School, in 1999. After watching all the report, I was completely terrified about this fact. I couldn’t believe how two teenagers of my age could commit such an appalling crime. Following, I’ll summarize all the important facts as a piece of news.

Dylan Klebold (eighteen years old, right) and Eric Harris (seventeen years old, left) were two teenagers who went to Columbine High School. In 1999, they were already high school seniors.

Eric Harris was originally born in Wichita, Kansas, but he and his family were constantly moving because of his father job: he had a responsible post in the U.S. Air Force. This was the reason why Harris could never make friends and became a lonely and misunderstood child. Even though his mother was a homemaker, she and her husband didn’t worry about their son’s feelings very much.

For his part, Dylan Klebold had always lived in Colorado. His father was a geophysicist and his mother worked for the State of Colorado, administering training programs for the disabled. They were a very common family. During his childhood, Dylan’s best friend was Brooks Brown. However, they distanced themselves when Eric Harris moved to Colorado and knew Dylan Klebold there. Klebold wasn’t a little angel but Harris was a bad company for him.

Since they met they were up to mischief all day long. Brooks’ mother found out there were a lot of complaints in Jefferson Country Sheriff’s office about Harris: he stole computer equipment from a car, he broke Brook’s windscreen with a huge rock because he got angry with him, he was in possession of narcotics...So, she considered Eric Harris a very dangerous guy. Besides, Harris never liked Brooks and he was an aggressive person. Therefore, Brook’s mother was really worried about his son’s life. After finding out all this information, she contacted with Michael Guerra, an investigator of Jefferson Country Sheriff’s office. Guerra, during his investigation, discovered the macabre web site which Eric Harris created some time ago, in 1996. Firstly, he basically wrote jokes and his thoughts about parents, school, friends... but all their writings included insults and death threats. At the end of the year, he started writing in his blog instructions on how to cause mischief and on how to make explosives as well. Then, in 1997, his posts began to show the first signs of Harris anger against society.

When the investigator informed Eric Harris’ parents of this, Harris started attending therapy with a psychologist and did it during a year. Harris’ psychiatrist prescribed him anti-depressant Soloft to relieve his depression, anger and suicidal thoughts. He also suffered from restlessness and lack of concentration so he also took a similar drug for this: Luxox. When the police performed an autopsy of his death body they found out very high level of these drugs in Eric’s system. Now, doctors have discovered that those drugs side effects can be aggressiveness and deep depression.

It’s also important to emphasize the fact that both Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold wrote a diary expressing their feelings and thoughts. Harris talked about his robbery in his diary: he said that he wrote a letter to the owner of the equipment he had stolen offering apologizes. Following, he laughed at this fact saying that there was no regret in his heart.

Some months before the attack, both Eric and Dylan felt they must start their war against society. So, they needed to show their anger towards those they hated. Shortly after this decision, Harris stopped posting information about his evil plain in his web site. Until then, he just talked about the game Doom, as he did in the beginning. Nevertheless, he still dedicated a section on posting his progress in the collection of guns and in the building of bombs (used in the attack) as well. In those days, a friend of them Robyn Anderson (who was already adult) bought a rifle and two shot guns for them (1998). In 1999, they built plenty of improvised explosive devises of various designs and sizes with instructions from the internet. They also modified their guns in order to make them easier to conceal.

Finally, they decided to put their plain into action on Tuesday, 20^th April, in 1999. Their attack took place in Columbine High School, in Columbine (Colorado). Everything began at 11:00 a.m. when Harris and Klebold arrived at Columbine High School in separate cars. From those spots, both of them had excellent views of the cafeteria’s side entrance and each one was covering a main exit of the school. Following, the pair set up a small fire bomb in a field near the school, at 11:14 a.m. They did it to distract the emergency personnel’s attention.

Firstly, when they got to the school again, Eric shot at Rachel Scott and Richard Castaldo, a couple who was sitting on the field. Scott died instantly and Castaldo was critically wounded. After this, they shot to the students who were on the west entrance of the school or were just trying to escape from them. They injured a lot of them and they killed student Mark Taylor as well. Then, the pair threw some of their homemade bombs in the cafeteria, at breakfast time (the busiest time of the day) and following they used their guns to shoot everyone who tried to escape from their attack. At this moment, arts teacher Patti Nelson saw the pair shooting. She thought the pair were just joking or recording a violent video. So, she said “Knock it off!” and then one of them shot her in the shoulder. Otherwise, she was able to run away and she alerted the students. Following, she hided in the library. While she was trying to protect all the students who were hidden in there she called the police.

After calling the police, shooters entered to the library. There they threw another bomb which damaged many people in the room. There were more than 52 students in the library. Harris yelled everyone “Get Up!”, but when nobody stood up Harris said “Well, I’m going to shoot anyway!” They killed ten students and many more became injured. After this, they threw another Molotov Cocktail but it failed to explode. Next, they went to science area and threw a small fire bomb. After leaving science area, they threw two more bombs in the cafeteria. In their way to the cafeteria they saw a teacher trying to escape, so they killed him. He was the only teacher who died in the massacre.

Finally, shooters re-entered to the library and committed suicide: Eric Harris did it with a single shoot in his mouth and Dylan Klebold with a single shoot in his head. They died approximately forty five minutes after the massacre.

Police still keeps up their diaries and all the video tapes they recorded before the massacre. They all became essential information to know the causes of the terrible crime they committed and of their behaviour. In their video tapes they pretended to be serial killers, superheroes who looked for revenge, they were practising their shoots with their new guns...There was also a video recorded approximately thirty minutes before the attack. In this recording the pair was saying goodbye and apologizing to their friends and families. It’s necessary to emphasize that the reasons of this evil action were...

-Bullying: They both suffered from this form of abuse just because they didn’t join to any school group.

-Lack of affection and attention from their parents. If they had listened or worried about them they maybe wouldn’t ever done this attack.

-In the U.S. buy guns is always an easy job. Every adult person (eighteen years old or older) has the right to own one or two guns at least to “protect” his or her life.

-Their aggressive behaviour could be influenced by violent movies or videogames they watched.

-The use of anti-depressant is also a relevant cause of Eric Harris aggressiveness.

In short, this massacre became the worst tragedy in schools. However, I think that it was predictable and, of course, preventable. Sadly, police didn’t act when it was completely necessary. For example, they arrived at the attack when everything was over. Everyone complained about this because police could save some students and teachers from shooters at least.

THE BIGGEST SCANDAL IN THE GOLDEN GLOBES AWARDS HISTORY: RICKY GERVAIS AND HIS HOSTING SKILLS STARED IN THE CEREMONY

The last 17th January were celebrated the 68th Annual Golden Globes Awards ceremony. Ricky Gervais was once more the master of ceremonies of this magic night. From the first moment he promised in the red carpet he would push boundaries to his monologues because he had offended a lot of people with his particular black humour the previous year. However, he didn’t keep his promise. So, this became the second time he hosted the Golden Globes. He humiliated and replied both celebrities and even the 90-year-old organizer of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA).

Firstly, he opened the show in a “inapropriated” style, saying “It’s going to be a night of partying and heavy drinking - or as Charlie Sheen (from “Two Men and a Half”) call it, a breakfast”. Charlie Sheen is well-known for his role in this tv-series but hi scandals as hiting his woman or drinking too much are very often on the newspapers. It wasn’t all, he also laughed at Robert Downey’s Jr drug addiction or Bruce Willis age, introducing him as Ashton Kutcher's dad (Kutcher is her ex-wife husban, and he’s nearly 20 years yunger than him). He also talked about antisemism and racism (refering to Mel Gibson), about talent (talking about great stars as Angelina Jolie or Johnny Depp), about the irrational use of photoshop (referring to Sex and The City actresses, whom he consider almost anciants), about celebrities falsety (talking about J.Lo who’s pretending to be a Bronx girl when she’s the most diva of the female celebrities in Hollywood), he called Steven Carrel - who played Gervais’ role in the American version of Gervais’ British Show “The Office” - “ingrate” to decide to leav the show...And surprisingly he “bumped” Philip Berk describing him as an old man uncapable of doing anything on his own, and, of course, everyone considered it too offensive. This fact made the organizers of the ceremony (especially Berk) mad and they put gervais a vet on appearing in a celebration of this magnitude.

Many celebrities, such as two Oscar Winner Tom Hanks or Tim Allen expressed their disagreement and disappointment about Gervais’ jokes. In general, people considered he went too far with his monologue and then with his introductions during the ceremony.

On the other hand, there were also some famous stars, such as Robert de Niro (lifetime achievement winner) or Alec Baldwin who enjoyed the comic’s jokes and even wiped tears in their eyes (tears of happiness).

Critics from newspapers, magazines and TV shows had different opinions about the Golden Globes ceremony. While some of them described Gervais work as rude, inapropriated and completely unforgivable, others consider him the biggest genious of the 21st century. According to them, Ricky Gervais is able to put celebrities in a difficult situation easily, even the most legendary stars. When he talks, stars’ forced smile becomes a poker face and no one of them can escape from his skills. Gervais is even able to get on many other actors nerves, whom seem more worried about keeping their false smile in front of the camera and pretending to enjoy comic’s jokes than thinking about other things, such as the prizes.

It’s important to emphazise the fact that every one in Hollywood is completely feared of that day when they know Ricky Gervais will be there. Gervais is the only one who can show Hollywood’s real side and rake up its past.

For his part, Gervais considered that was his job roast on celebrities. He was just acting, playing his own role and trying to show once and for all that Hollywood is not that idyllic place everyone dreams of. It’s just an idealized where live the most self-interested and untrustworthy human beins of the whole world. Hollywood celebrities use to predend that they have perfect lives and there’s not place for any deffect in their characters or bodies. So, Gervais only tries to show the ugly truth about any of them. At the end of the night, he said: "Everyone took it well and the atmosphere backstage and at the after show was great."

The ceremony was seen by almost 17 million people in the US, which means it beat a record: Gervais get more audience than any other master of ceremonies in any other year.

Here are some examples of his BEST JOKES...

• "It was a big year for 3D movies. Toy Story, Despicable Me, Tron. It seems like everything this year was three-dimensional, except the characters in The Tourist. I already feel bad about that joke. I'm jumping on the bandwagon, because I haven't even seen The Tourist. Who has? I'd like to quash the rumours that the only reason The Tourist was nominated was so that the Hollywood Foreign Press can hang out with Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie. That is rubbish, that is not the only reason - they also accepted bribes."
• "I Love You Phillip Morris stars Jim Carey and Ewan McGregor - two heterosexual actors pretending to be gay. So, the complete opposite of some famous scientologists. Probably. My lawyers helped me with the wording of that joke."
• "I was sure the Golden Globe for special effects would go to the team that airbrushed [the Sex and the City 2] poster. Girls, we know how old you are. I saw one of you in an episode of Bonanza."
• On Jennifer Lopez - "She's just Jenny from the block. If the block in question is that one on Rodeo Drive between Cartier and Prada."
• On multi-millionaire Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg: "Heather Mills calls him the one that got away."
• While introducing Robert Downey Jr - "Many of you in this room probably know him best from such facilities as the Betty Ford Clinic and Los Angeles County Jail."

THE HOMELESS MAN WITH THE GOLDEN VOICE,,

Ted Williams is a 53-year-old man and until some days ago he was just a homeless living on the cold winter streets. He was born in Brooklyn, New York. His father named him Ted Williams because he was a fanatic of the all-star baseball player named also like this. Since he was fourteen he collaborated on many radio programms. Nevertheless, Ted began consuming drugs and alcohol and this life style took him on the streets. Otherwise, he never lost his magical voice. He has nine kids: seven girls and two boys. He also is a grandfather. Patricia Kirtley, his ex-wife, raised up alone four daughters and also a baby boy the radioman had with another woman and she treated him as her own son. It has been a hard task because she’s partially blind. She considers Williams a good man, but she knows he’s weak and easily influenced so he went to the wrong way; and when he tried to prevent it it was just too late.

Videographer Doral Chenoweth III met Ted Williams at Huston Street (an Ohio highway), in Columbus. Then, Ted Williams was holding a sign claiming “I have a God given gift of voice. I’m an ex-radio announcer who has fallen on hard times. Please! Any help will be greatfully appreciated. Thank you and God bless you. Happy Holidays!” After seeing this, Chenoweth asked him to prove his talent while he was recording him. This videographer felt special afection for Ted Williams so he wanted to help him to get his bad situation over. Many years ago, Williams had trained in radio so he had some experience in this profession. Chenoweth’s video was produced by Dispatch.com, the company he worked in. Amazingly, the video was seen around the world in only few days. After this, he appeared in every Tv news and many shows sought him to offer a job.

He was just a homeless but overnight he became an Internet sensation. In only 24 hours, Ted Williams had got job offers, a free trip to visit his mom (he hadn't seen her for over twenty years)… and all those things just because of a YouTube video! It’s unbelievable how technology is able to broadcast information in just a few time and also how a simple recording can completely change the life of people as Williams. Nowadays, life has given to Ted Williams a second chance and he deffinitely wants to help financially his ex-wife and family and, for the first time, look after his grandsons.

The first he did when he becames famous was going to courthouse in Columubs, trying to get a capy of his birth certificate. He had been a homeless for four years so, he hadn’t got the I.D. updated and he needed it to move from Ohio. The next day, luckily, he could travel to New York to visit his mother Then, he was interviewed on “Today”. It’s also important to say that his first interview in Tv was in “Dr Phil Show”.

Nowadays, people use to compare him to Susan Boyle’s phenomenon, which also echoed around the world two years ago. Besides, his mom is really proud of him and she has already said: “God has answered my preayers”. These days, Ted has got several job offers and has made numerous appearances since he has been dicovered. Even the famous Hollywood actor Jack Nicholson wants Williams to appear in his movie.

He checked in Origins Recovery Center, in South Texas, for his drug and alcohol adiction. In January 24th he left rehab against medical advice when he hardly had spent two weeks there. He was really protected form the media there, but he was feeling unhappy with his treatment, so he decided to leave. Anyway, Williams informed everyone he wants to recover but with another help, such as an outpatient center. He has a girlfriend and she is already in a rehab center.

Ted lived in hard moments in the streets and there he knew how life works and realize of their failures. He knew perfectly she deserved this sort of punishment. However, after living many years on the worst conditions this was a lesson to him. This was the reason why this second chance was like a miracle to him. This lucky break made him the happiest person of the world and he will always be thankful for all the things live has given him. There are sometimes many reasons to think that life is unfair, but when things like this happen I use to believe that there’s nothing more wonderful than facts like these. In my opinion, Ted Williams is an admirable man and he’s the greatest example of overcoming. I’m happy to hear that life has given him another oportunity because I really think he deserves all the good things which are happening to him. Life use to work with money, but fortunately nobody is able to pay touching scenes like this one.

In a recent interview Ted Williams said: “It’s nice to be famous. It is better to be whole”.

SOUL IN THE 60's: THE PRIDE OF BLACK IDENTITY (MY ORAL PRESENTATION)

Hi! My name is Ariadna Vilà and I’d like to show you my research project entitled “Soul in the sixties: the pride of black identity”. First of all, I will say that I’ve chosen this topic because I really love music. I like almost all music styles, especially jazz. I started searching some information in music books or in my computer and I learnt really useful things to me such as jazz origins or its sugenres. However, soul became the most fascinating style for me. I hardly knew anything about it or about jazz history so, I though that this project would be a good way to learn while I work on it. Furthermore, I have always felt admiration for black singers and for the way they are and I discovered that my favourite ones start succeeding in the sixties. My research project is aimed at explaining the features of soul music whereas its historical context and all the outstanding facts happened before and after its birth. So, I write some information about the history of the fifties and the sixties. I also talk about all the previous music styles which were known before soul’s birth. In addition, I chose two male and two female singers of the sixties and I wrote a short biography of them. Then, I talk about their music relating it to their lives and the time they lived in. Furthermore, I compare all of them to see the differences and similarities between each other and finally I draw my own conclusions. In short, my research project is focused in the soul era and its evolution during the sixties. On one hand, I picked up the information in books specializing in this topic and I summarized the most impotant facts in my own words. On the other hand, I searched the rest of the information in different web sites. Instead of carrying out an option poll I chose some songs from each singer and I worked on them: I explained their meaning, I relate the lyrics to an historical context and to the biography of the singer. Finally, I wrote the features of the soul music which were constant in them. As you can see and hear I’ve done my whole project in English. I chose this lenguage because I like it and I though that it would be a good way to improve my level while I’m learning useful things. Well, I will tell you some information about soul music: In the mid-fifties jazz music was in a tight spot so SOUL was one of its greatest hopes to recuperate its audience. Of course, it succeeded. Soul was a variety of jazz listened during the civil rights act so because of it “black power” appeared. Soul’s origins are in the United States, particularly in Chicago, in the late fifties. It was based on blues (without evoking his negativity), r&B and gospel. Catchy rhythms accompanied by handclaps and extemporaneous body moves, are typical features of soul music. There are also other common characteristics such as call and response between the singer and the chorus, tense vocal sounds, extemporized additions or twirls. It’s main instruments are guitar, bass, piano, organ, drums, horn section and keyboards. Ray Charles is known as the main inventor of the soul genre in the fifties with his great hit “I Got a Woman”. He did it mixing blues, gospel, rhythm and blues and a bit of country elements and adding especially his personal touches. Many famous soul singers such as Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles or James Brown supported the black identity with their music. It’s necessary to emphasize the fact that James Brown was the creator of new styles, as funk soul, through the original soul music. It happened by the early 70’s, when soul music had been influenced by psychedelic rock. In short, soul represented the new importance of the black identity and its culture so black population feel very identified with this music. As jazz music, soul has its own subgenres and each one has different features. Soul influenced many artists during its most successful decades. For example, in churches organ players turned this instrument into a genre on its own: Organ’s sound transmitted optimism and it made the walls vibrate so people liked it because it reminded them of soul essence. Well, now I'm going to talk about ARETHA FRANKLIN and then I'm going to show you an example of the practical work I've done. Aretha Louise Franklin was born in Memphis, Tennessee (1942). She’s known as “The Queen of Soul” and she is the female artist who has the most million-selling singles. Her father was a famous Baptist preacher and her mother was a gospel singer and pianist. Aretha was a prodigy child. She learned to play the piano on her own and she had a powerful voice. She recorded her first gospel album at the age of fourteen. In 1960, she travelled to New York with her father’s blessing. There she signed with some record companies but she didn’t get the absolutely fame until she recorded her feminist version of “Respect” After several years of failed recordings in the 70’s, Aretha’s success remerged with “Think” . Nowadays, she lives alone in Detroit, Michigan and she only sing esporadically as she did in Obama’s ceremony. “RESPECT” (1967) This song was originally written and sung by the famous soul singer Otis Redding. Aretha took this song and turned it into the anthem of the feminist movement in the sixties. Aretha get the absolutely fame with this song and she won many prizes as well. In 1966 was formed a feminist group called “National Organization for Women” and Aretha’s song was her way to back this initiative. “R-E-S-P-E-C-T” (x8 at least) It’s one of the most repeated words. She wants equality. In her time women were considered an inferior being and racial segregation wasn’t still abolished at all. Respect was one of the commonest words in those times because the main objective of the black community, especially black women, was be respected for the others. “(just a little bit)” (x24) She doesn’t want a radical change right now, but she definitely wants to see a little change in men’s behaviour towards women. This time she is helped for a chorus: it is a common feature of soul music. While the singer is playing the song there are some people behind her who repeat the most outstanding sentences. In this case, it is useful to remark her request. Aretha and all women in her society wanted to be treated with the same rights that men had so “Respect” represents the protest of hundreds of women who wanted a change. Nowadays, Aretha is still an example to all the women: it means that in her way she won the battle against men. CONCLUSIONS: And as a conclusion… First of all, I have to say that from the first moment I thought that soul was a music style bigger than jazz. I only new a few things about it and, of course, I was completely wrong. To my great surprise, I found out that soul was just a little part of jazz history it represented the voice of hundreds of people who wanted to be heard. Soul singers supported black people with their music: they had enough influence to get to politicians and other important people’s ears. This was the main reason why they were so admired artists. They were true artists so they rose to the challenge in their live shows. Nowadays the situation is quite the opposite: Most of the famous singers have been known for their appearance: they use to look like a model. Unfortunately, not many people care about their talent for singing. Secondly, I’ve learnt much more than I thought both vocabulary and culture knowledge. For example, before doing this project I didn’t know the name of any instrument or technique of playing them. Now, I know what is drum, horn or <>. I also have learnt other new words and terms. I’ve written some words with its meaning in Spanish in the last pages as appendixes. I did it to show that this project has been really useful to me because I have improved a lot my English vocabulary. Moreover, I didn’t know anything about fifties and sixties history and I found it really interesting. I believe that everyone should know important things like these because we use to think that past facts aren’t useful but if we want to be intelligent adults in a future and be able to talk to anyone we have to get ourselves some culture. with my research project I realized that sixties music was wonderful. I do love it and all related to it. The point is that I’ve learnt a lot of things which were completely unknown to me before. So, I believe that I have carried out the most important objective of my work at least. Anyway, I began working on it quite late so I didn’t have as much time as I’d like to have. This lack of time has limited me a lot so I haven’t been able to talk about all the things which were due in my introduction. Even so, I have always been very motivated because I really feel like working this topic. There aren’t many differences between men. They are daring, cheerful and very professional. They both had a hard childhood: Even so, it couldn’t stop them.. Their beginnings weren’t easy: they played music in the streets or with different bands so they didn’t earn much money. Finally, they become famous and they could show what they worth. On the other hand they spent all his life fighting for black people’s right and supporting them. Apart from their drug addiction, they were considered a good influence because they could gave up their principles but they didn’t. They both suffered from cancer: Ray Charles died because of it but Brown recovered. On the contrary, I’ve seen a lot of differences between Aretha Franklin and Betty Harris. Aretha was an absolutely diva: she was self-confident, proud of being a woman and able of overcoming any obstacle. She had an amazing voice and her songs used to be the anthem of the feministic movement. She was a great example for black women. For her part, Betty was a typical submissive woman. She was a good singer but she always superimposed his role in the society to her job. The only similar things between them are that they were born into a family of preachers and they both travelled to New York City to get fame. They both transmitted different feeling throught their songs: Aretha’s ones sounded cheerful and catchy but Betty one’s has a slow rhythm because they use to be soul ballads. On the whole, Aretha is more comparable to male artists. She has a lot of common features with them: she’s proud of being black, she has social engagements with her race but she’s happy with this, she’s a free person and her music is a reflection of her personality and her principles: mainly she talks about true feelings and the fight for black people’s rights. For her part, feminism is a really common topic as well. They were people with overcoming capacity and any obstacle could never stop them. As a final conclusion, I must say that all the work I’ve done during these months will be always useful to me. I have known really important facts and from this moment I consider myself a sixties music lover. I’m proud of have chosen this topic because it has been more enjoyable than I thought. Finally, I can assure that my effort has been worth. MY OPINION: I really enjoyed working on this topic because I've been interested in music since I was a child. At first, I didn't spend much time on this. I just searched some information but days went by and my project wasn't still done. However, I love the topic I had chosen so I decided to make the most of the rest of my time. I must confess that I though I wouldn't be capable of finishing my project because I wanted to talk about a lot of songs, music styles, singers...but I was completely running out of time!! Anyway, I strived a lot to get great resoults, and I think with it I carried out my main objective. Regarding to my oral presentation I have some remarks. On the one hand, I studied my writting a lot. I did the same when I had to do the oral presentation of my research project so, it wasn't a difficult thing to me because I knew exactly what I was talking about and I still remembered a lot of parts of my summary. On the other hand, I have to say that nerves played a dirty trick on me! It is a common thing on me and I really hate it! Unfortunately, there's no way to avoid it for me! Despite this unfortunate fact, my main aim was show everyone my interest and my knowlege of everything I was talking about. If I just get this then I'll be very happy! What it really means is that I've enjoyed very much working on this topic and I hope my friends have enjoyed my oral presentation as much as I did.

HUMAN RIGHTS

1. What are human rights?

To me, Human Rights are sort of laws which are especially aimed at protecting every person’s moral integrity or freedom. They consist of thirty different articles which tackle really outstanding matters such as racism, sexism, child exploitation… in order to prove that everyone is entitled to being respected. Also, they demand equality in the world: it makes no difference to race, genre, age or religion because all people deserve a fair treatment. Prejudices or discrimination are some products of the lack of knowledge in society which is often fraught with dangers such as violence: arguments, fights or even war. That’s the reason why Human Rights are necessary: they must solve conflicts of interest or ideas without resorting to force in any case. The fact is that we all have certain rights just because we are human beings and since we are born we have to learn how to live peacefully with each other. So, if anyone tries to violate any of these entitlements, this one will be punished.

2. When did human rights start?
3.Why thet were created?

People have always been concerned about Human Rights since their origins and even in some old civilizations, such as Greeks, there were some unwritten rules which remind of Human Rights’ intention. Nevertheless, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was adopted for the first time by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948. Then, World War II had come to an end so Human Rights were, in some sense, a protest against all the atrocities involved with it: unfair assassinations, poverty, whole destroyed towns…
Finally, Human Rights became an international law in 1976.

4. How many human rights are there?

There are thirty articles based on human rights. Each one of them deals with different matters but there's always some connection between them. The main intentions of Human Rights are: freedom, equality and respect. It means they’re not exactly laws, they’re simply natural rights. We should know that we are born with them, but people sometimes seem to forget it. So, that’s the reason why they’re in writing and considered essential rules; it’s the only way to make sure of anyone’s concern for them.

5. Which human right were you not familiar with?

Before doing this project, I wasn’t aware of some human rights which are essential to everyone. The article which had impressed me much was the 11th one “We are always innocent till proven guilty". I’m really interested in law and all concerned with this. I watch TV programmes about crimes, unsettled cases…so; I’ve learned few important things about this topic. I heard of hard sentences while I was watching this, even I heard of death penalty. Nevertheless, I wasn’t aware of this sort of law and I think everyone should know it and especially respect it. It’s good to know that fair rights like this exist in our society.

6. Choose one human right and discuss:

I’ve chosen “WE ARE ALL BORN FREE AND EQUAL”.

In my opinion it’s maybe the most known human right, but it’s the article which I feel most identified with. Firstly, I must say we live in a full of hate and prejudices society which use to be dangerous for certain people. When I say “danger” I refer, as an example, to racial discrimination or sexism. Secondly, I’d like to emphasise the fact that we’re living in a really modern time and there’s more freedom to express the feelings, likes and dislikes of anyone tan ever was. Anyway, some intolerable behaviour hasn’t disappeared at all. Thanks to new technologies and new discoveries, most of the society’s rate of developing never stops. It has a lot of positive points, such as make life easier and more comfortable. Otherwise, there are also many negative points which are important to remember.

On the one hand, there are thousands and thousands of people who cannot access to these privileges . The worst thing about this is that the great majority of them are from Africa, Asia, or South America, so when they try to start a new life in another richer country they have to overcome many obstacles, and sometimes it is very hard to do. In many cases, they’re families or couples who just want to earn enough money to live happily. Nevertheless, things are never easy for them and people us to consider those people problematic and even a nuisance, when they’re just trying to survive. I think this isn’t fair!! On the other hand, there’s not many people trying to change this situation, and that’s probably the worst part about this fact. Human beings who live in rich countries use to consider that poor people have to live away from them because they consider them a great threat, so they’re just afraid of losing their money and their business (the only things which they are worried about).

From my point of view, this behaviour doesn’t derives benefit and, of course, it becomes harmful both for victims and guilty ones. I also have to say that although people have changed a lot their mind towards society there are still a loooooooooooot of them with a reactionary attitude which I consider even outrageous than their ancestors attitude was. There’s no possible justification for judge or look down on someone just because this person is a woman, has different habits and believes, has a different colour of skin, is homosexual… because those things doesn’t mean anything. A person isn’t good for these features but for the feelings which has in his/her heart.

Actually, we are all the same: we love, we suffer, we laugh when something makes us happy, we cry when things tourn into troubles, we miss someone when we use to spend a lot of time with that person, we have insecurity, we have a lot of virtues but we have much more faults, sometimes we feel beautiful and sometimes all the contrary, all of us have wishes to come true, all of us would be able to kill someone for our loved ones, we dream about our the most impossible things especially when we are awake, we can touch the sky of happiness an in a minute we can feel upset or sad for anything…so, is anyone able to tell the difference between an African Boy, an Asian girl and me? Only the external appearance changes, but the colour of the heart is always the same. I’d like to stop this situation and live all peacefully in the world, giving to the poorest more privileges and opportunities to get the life they deserve and especially apply a law which forces the richest to a little part of their fortune to the needy ones.

7. Are Humans rights relevant in the world today? Why?

Yes, they’re the most essential laws in the world. If we want to make the world a peacefully place we need to follow each one of them, always. In my opinion, governs must apply harder sentences to people who breaks some of these laws because they have to be completely respected to work properly. With a little effort and collaboration these articles would be able to create a fairest world.

THE OBESITY (MY ORAL PRESENTATION)

Do you remember "Shall we dance?"

-Hey JOHN! Do you remember the film we watch last night?

-Of course I remember it...it was wonderful!

-Would you like to replay the best scenes with me?

-Ok, I'll do it.

-OK. I have the dialogues right here. I will be Mrs Clark and you will be the private detective, right?

-Ok...So, you start talking.

<<-Dance lessons? My husband is taking dance lessons?

-Well…I saw worse things in these years. Consider you lucky!

-And who’s that beautiful girl, woman? Who’s she?

-Hmm…She’s his teacher.

-Anyway, why you think people get married?

-Passion!

-No…

-Oh, interesting! Because I was taking you for a romantic woman.

-People get married because we need a witness to our life. Because there’s million people on the world but we need someone to take care of us always, everyday…>>

-Let's do another scene, please!!

-OK, but do you promise it will be the last one?

-I promise.

-Ok...and who I am supposed to be now?

-You'll be Babi and Mr Clark and I'll be Babi's daughter Tina and Mrs Mitzzie. Let's start!

<<(Tina)-And it’s getting so boring mum…

(Babi)-Shut up Tina

(T)-No, you shut up. (To the others) She’s working 20 hours a day, cleaning, and buying her crazy costumes and at night she plays Cinderella in the theatre.When are you going to rest at home?

(B)-I don’t need to rest

(T)-Oh, and I know you Mr Clark. She talked me about you and about your sweet smell.

(B)-Oh, ok…kill me now!

(Mitzie)-No, it’s alright. I smelt him too and it’s no bad. I mean he don’t smell like flowers after spring rain but it’s ok.

(Clark)-I’ve never talked about this…>>

-Oh, thank you John! I had a lot of fun with you!!!

-Oh...you're welcome! We can repeat it another day if you want to.

-Really? I'd love to!!!