One hundred years on, the hut built by Scott and his team still stands
In our NI2 class, we've been reading about the British explorer, Captain Robert Scott and his failed expedition to be the first to reach the South Pole. Today, he still continues to inspire many people, although others see him as an emblem of incompetence and poor leadership. Read more about his story here.
Students of NI Two are having a get-together on Friday 7th December. They are meeting in The Wok Restaurant in El Muelle Shopping Centre at 9.30 pm. Interested? Either contact Armando, or simply go along.
Marriage has changed tremendously over the last 30
years in Spain. What`s the matter? Is marriage becoming obsolete?
I don´t look back on those days with sentimentality because it was
a hard time. Marriage
was supposed to be the only context in which people could regularly have sex or
raise children. Divorced or unmarried men were judged less qualified for a job,
and sexually active single women were stigmatized. Furthermore, children born
out of wedlock had no legal rights from the point of view of inheritance,
healthcare and other matters.
Women
simply didn’t have the same rights as men. We needed our husband’s permission
if we wanted to travel or to buy something. Then, around 1981, the Government
recognised the equality of married women: they announced new laws and house
rules started to change. A few years later, the discrimination against the
female genre
was totally eliminated, especially when Spain became a member of the European
Union.
Fortunately,
nowadays, we have all kind of weddings. You can choose according to your
condition. If you are a religious person you could have a church wedding, the
nonbelievers a registry-office wedding and if you want to recognise your
partner the best way could be a common-law marriage. Finally, if your partner
has the same sex, you can have a gay marriage.
Consequently, the kind of wedding doesn’t matter. Today,
nobody would be scandalized and nothing should surprise us. We just need to be
respectful, polite and open-minded.
Even if
marriage becomes obsolete, true love will persist.
Fernanda NA2
Note from Diane: "soapbox" is a temporary platform where people stand to give their opinion about something. It's very typical to see and listen to orators on their soapboxes in Hyde Park, London on Sunday mornings. If you don't like what they are saying, you can simply shout, "Get off your soapbox, mate!"
Is there anything about which you'd like to get on your soapbox?
In NI2 our theme this week is History and Politics. You might enjoy this amazing video of Charlie Chaplin's 1940 anti-fascist speech put to music by Melody Sheep.
I’m sorry, but I don’t want to be an emperor, that’s not my business. I should like to help everyone if possible – Jew, gentile, black man, white. We all want to help one another, human beings are like that. In this world there is room for everyone, and the good earth is rich, and can provide for everyone. But we have lost the way.
Greed has poisoned men’s souls
Has barricaded the world with hate
We think too much and feel too little
More than machinery, we need humanity
More than cleverness, we need kindness
Without these qualities life would be violent
And all would be lost
Do not despair
The hate of men will pass
And dictators die
And the power they took from the people
Will return to the people
Let us all unite!
Let us fight for a new world
To do away with greed
Now let us fight to free the world
To fulfill that promise
Let us all unite!
Soldiers, don’t give yourselves to brutes
Men who despise you and slave you
Tell you what to do, what to think and what to feel
Who drill you, diet you, treat you like cattle
Don’t give yourselves to these unnatural men
Machine men with machine minds and machine hearts
You are not machines
You are men
You the people have the power
To make this life free and beautiful
Let us use that power
To make this life a wonderful adventure
It is not only the title of
a wonderful song by Bob Dylan, but also the anthem of a generation. For many
young people of the 60s, this song reflected the social, political and culture changes
that were taking place, not only in the United States but also in the rest of
the world. However, after fifty years, can we really say that things have
changed? The hippie movement, the sexual revolution, equality between men and
women . . . but have times really changed? And if so, have these changes been for
better or for worse?
Sometimes, I have the
feeling that things have not changed much, especially when I hear news of abuse and
gender violence crimes, especially when those stories are about young people
that are not over 30. Young people today have more information from
school, Internet, television, radio or dialogue with their own parents. Nevertheless,
studies say that women still lag behind men in all areas of society. They earn
less money than men despite performing the same jobs, and they spend more time
on housework than men, although they also work outside the home. Last but not
least, women suffer violence by their partners and, in some cases by their
own children, too.
Considering this, we can
say that the women of today differ very little or not at all from our
grandmothers or great-grandmothers. Young people may now have more information,
but that information is not translated into more respect between men and women.
Personally, I think that,
apart from musical tastes and fashions, we have failed to learn the lessons
from our recent history. Will our children learn from our mistakes? I hope so,
for the good of humanity. Tito NA2
I'm sending you one of my favorite pictures I've ever taken. It's Lake Matheson in New Zealand. That day we woke up very early so as to take the picture without the gentle breeze. If the breeze blows on the lake, then the surface doesn't seem like a mirror. It was worth it and I can't get it out of my head. The landscapes in New Zealand are awesome. I hope you enjoy it.
