WHICH IS BETTER: BLACK OR WHITE?

(Please watch the video since the minute 4:43, but if you wish you can see completely.)

  As you can see, thanks to the introduction video, the topic I want to talk about is racial segregation. It is a very controversial issue in South Africa which has existed for many years, since Europeans arrived to colonize this country and showed that they were superior to the natives who lived in those area. After the World War II, they dictated the first racist laws that were part of Apartheid, which marked the lives of many black people for years, but after the arrival of Nelson Mandela to the political world and then eliminating the Apartheid, began a new system of "restoring the nation without segregation", but it was not entirely true, since now racism was reversed, where systematic discrimination makes black people demonstrate revenge and now white people are suffering murder and racial violence.

  Racism manipulates fear towards what is different, manipulates frustration and low self-esteem of global masses, creating an invisible enemy for them, when in fact such evils are somewhere else, even in oneself.

  But, are we taught to be racist since a child? What is black is bad and what is white is good, or vice versa? Through the experiment conducted to children, as you can see in the video, they found that racism is transmitted and reproduced culturally, but Is this a reliable conclusion? In my opinion, control questions were taken out of context, I think so because I believe that aesthetics and culture features were mixed. Ever since young we were taught that darkness is related to fear and bad, and whiteness to light and good. However, there were kids who answered without considering the different skin colors and they saw everyone equally, but others didn’t, then who or what makes a child think this way? Society, technology, parents? What do you think?

Irish Travellers

IRISH TRAVELLERS

On my research for information I decided to talk with an Irish guy, of this way would be easier for me to have an inside looking of Ireland, and also get away from the stereotypes. In our conversation it surfaced the travellers, I had no idea what they were, so I investigate, and found them very interesting. 

The travellers, also called the white gyptians, are an ethnic group of Ireland whose exact origin are unknown, there´s some speculation that they are a group of pre-Celtic minstrels people, but it's no certain at all. Some people think they are gyptians, because they live in a similar way -both usually live in caravans, are educated by them self, etc.- But its believed that gyptians origins are in India, and it's important to know that their physical characteristics are different, so it's very difficult that they were the same ethnic group. The travellers in the past used to roam from town to town, and lived by busking and tinsmithing ( because of this sometimes are called sometimes Tinkers).

Travellers population in Ireland surround twenty two thousands approximately (according to the 2006 census) .They still using their own language, like shelta and gammon. Frequently live in ad-hoc trailers and encampments although some has decided to live in a sedentary way.

 They are discriminate by Irish society, and most of people rather by far of them, they are traded as thief and trouble makers, so usually are excluded by the citizens. Even there's schools who doesn't admits travellers. Because of this many travellers has tried to create organizations like the "Irish travellers movement" (http://itmtrav.ie/) for stop the exclusion and try to live in harmony with the rest.

CANADA: A LAND OF WOOD AND LEAVES

CANADA: A LAND OF WOOD AND LEAVES

Did you know that 10% of forests in the whole world are             
concentrated in this big and cold country in the north of America?                

Canada is one of the largest countries in the world with 997 million of hectares, from them 45% are composed by forests. We’re saying that almost a half of the whole territory is surrounded by trees. 

An important fact about forests in Canada is that just a 6% of them are from private owners and the other 94% belongs to the state. This is very good for Canadian people, because they can enjoy and feel more owners of their natural riches. 

Nowadays, people know more than before the importance of taking care of the natural recourses. However, there are still a lot of countries that doesn’t have set this cultural conscience, that’s why there is a lot to learn from the friendly neighbor of the US.

Even when one of the most important economic sources in Canada is the wood business, they know how to deal with that without destroying their landscapes, because there are many laws made to protect the environment. Also, the people have a completely mature way of think about nature, they know exactly how important are these natural possessions for their lives. 

Forests in Canada have a long diversity of trees, there are 131 different classes. However, the most characteristic tree is the maple. Let’s take a look on Canada’s flag for example, which has a red maple leaf in the middle. That’s a clear evidence that shows up how connected is this country with nature. 

Do you think it is a coincidence that Canada belongs to the countries with better life and air quality? Culture has them where they are. 

 Want to breathe some fresh air?          
LESS KILLING AND MORE SOWING.             

England tradition: The bonfire night

When I was looking for information of some cultural practices and traditions of England, I found a really curious celebration that is not of a victory but a failure. I'm talking about the bonfire night or Guy Fawkes night.

 A group of Catholic men were planning to destroy the London Parliament and kill the Protestant King James on 5th November 1605. Those men were denounce and one of them, Guy Fawkes, was caught with 35 barrels of gunpowder the day before the attack. He was arrested and tortured.

Since then all 5th of November, English people celebrates the plot. The day before it, children used to make figures with old clothes or paper that represented Guy and walked in the streets asking ''a penny for the guy'' to buy fireworks. At the beginning this was a anti-catholic celebration but now it's just a popular celebration and a way to have fun.                                   

Nowadays there are bonfires and fireworks. Now children makes a figure but then they burn them. It’s a tradition that families get together and eat some traditional food of this time: ‘bangers and mash’ and toffee apple.

The face of this man is recognized by the movie ‘’V for Vendetta’’ because the protagonist uses a mask of it. This same mask is the one that Anonymous uses. Also there is a song of John Lennon that in the end has a part of this rhyme of the incident:

Remember, Remember    
The fifth of November,      
The Gunpowder treason and plot;  
I know of no reason  
Why the Gunpowder treason 
Should ever be forgot!

England and the punk movement

When I was doing my research about England, I found some very interesting things about the punk movement and how important it was in England.

The punk movement starts at the mid of the 70’s, it begins with a flow of emerging bands with a minimalist and strong sound. The punk initially was an esthetic and musical movement that later turns in to a philosophical movement to finally become a culture.

At the same time that US and the U.K. was entering into an economic crisis, the punk rock was connecting critical ideas around itself that made it the image of an aggressive and transgressive movement.

England was passing through one of their worst economic moments, the young people didn’t have anything to do after ending their studies, they couldn’t find any jobs, living with miserable salaries for unemployed people paid by the state.

In England the punk movement ended being famous, if not musically but as a social and cultural movement. With the Sex pistols on the lead, the young working class would express their dissatisfaction to what they considered a fixed-mindset and oppressive society.

While the London bands may have played a relatively minor role in determining the early punk sound, the London punk scene would come to define and epitomize the rebellious punk culture.

Canada's National Sports

Canada has plenty of sports, like any other country, but did you know that this country has actually two national sports? Canada has a national sport for summer and other one for winter.

In summer, their national sport is "Lacrosse", a two teams sport between 10-person teams, played using a rubber ball and a crosse, which is a long stick with a net on the top to handle the ball. Is a rough sport, so if you want to play it you will need appropriate equipment which consists of: Helmet, shoulder pads, arm pads, gloves, and rib pads.
The offensive objective of this game is shooting the ball into an opponent's goal to score, using the stick to handle, pass and catch the ball to do it, and the defensive objective is to save your goal from the opponent's shoots, keeping your scoreboard with the less possible points for the other team. You can play in four positions: goalie, defense, midfield and attack, like the world-wide known football.

The origins of this sport goes back to American natives, and in Onondaga, Lacrosse's original name was "dehuntshigwa'es", that means "man striked with a round object".


Ice Hockey, in winter, is the canadian national sport. It consists of two teams of 6 players; 5 skaters and 1 goaltender, all on an ice surface. The objective of hockey is "to score more goals than your opponent on their goaltender and to have fun!" as the Ontario Hockey Federation says. Players have to shoot the puck with a hockey stick into the goal to score. The essential equipment needed to play is: Helmet, skates, mouth guard, shoulder pads, elbow pads, hockey gloves and pants, athletic supporter, shin pads, hockey pads, jersey and a hockey stick. But if you are the goaltender you will need some different equipment: Goalie helmet (cage required), chest and shoulder protectors, athletic supporter (jock), hockey pants, blocker, gloves, goalie stick, goalie skates and goalie pads.

Ireland´s Saint Patricks Day vs The United States Saint Patricks Day

When learning about Ireland , I realized that lots of the things I knew about Saint Patricks day were not completely true , it was just like the first time I found out that the original Santa Claus is Green and not red.

March the 17th is an important day calebrated all around the world , it is known as Saint Patricks Day , this day is celebrated for different reasons in different countries, today I´m going to compare the original Ireland celebration vs the United States celebration.

In Ireland this day is for celebrating Saint Patrick a romano-briton who first arrived at the country as a slave , after six years of being a slave he went back home to become a priest , later on he decides to go back to Ireland and arrives in their lands bringing christianity with him , nowadays Saint Patricks day in Ireland is celebrated not only by going to church but by making big parades and by drinking guinness (black beer) , but this is only because turists demand it , if it wasnt for tourist Saint Patricks day in Ireland would remain a pure holiday.

In The United States this day is mainly to celebrate the Irish people and not a religious figure (Saint Patrick) .In the late 1700th many people from the US had Irish haritage , when they realized the important number they formed they began to organize themselves and started to feel more important as an Irish community. This is why they celebrate their haritage in Saint Patricks day , as a way of saying I´m proud of being Irish in a foreign land . Nowadays this holiday in the U.S is mostly celebrated just as an other comercial holiday, everybody wears green and makes a big fest about it , even if you dont have Irsh haritage you still enjoy and celebrate this holiday.

United States and the PinUp. "The use of the Body to change the mentality of an Nation and the whole World".

When I was looking for information about the history of the United States, I founded an interesting topic, The PinUp's Girls and I want to share with you...

Between 1939 and 1945, almost all men of the united states left their homes to join the army and go to what we now call World War II, leaving their young wifes, who had to take care of their children in a society where there was no place for woman´s work.
These women could not be longer in their home to serve their housband, as it was until then, they have to started to work.
That was, the first step to leave the role of loving wife that we were destined to wear.  
Theses women started to work as models and as burlesque dancers, because, they needed a part-time jobs with a good salary, and also the state, needed a distraction for the soldiers, But more than "nekeed girls" they were an image of a strong an independent woman, who kwon wasn't scared to show her personality and body. They used their bodys to talk, they ended the tabú that woman are only usefull to cook and take care of their childrens", And thanks to them, now we live in a society were womans can do wathever they like to do. Actually theres a "urban tribe" arround the world but specially on the U,SA, called Rockabilly and PinUps, they are girls who feel inspireded by the original PinUpS girls, and they live their lives just like its was 50 years ago, using the same clothes, same hairstyles, and the same style of taking pictures, they attend to Rock'nRoll parties and think that they dont need a man because they are strong and independent women.