Enviromental Issues

The place where we live is the only that we have, and it's a planet called Earth, but the human being and their attempt to get more and more, this need has made us look for things that are easier and cheaper to get, something that not always is the best to long-rage as we can now see.

Our environment is everyday more sick, with all the things that we are made in centuries, we are getting in a era in which we can see the result of generations of humans using the planet as a property and not a place where we need to live. 



Within this problems we can find five that are the most important in this moment; the first is the Nuclear Energy, a energy system that began in 1945 during the Second World War and that gave us a solution for the lack of other energy sources no-renewable like oil. Nuclear power already delivers less energy globally than renewable energy, and the share will continue to decrease in the coming years.
Which make it a energy source not as good as other more expensives, but still more beneficial in long-time.


Other problem is the global warming and climate change, all this have been making since decades ago changes in differents parts of the world, doing droughts in one part of the planet and floods in the other; that with the increase of the waters are making more difficult the future if we don't stop it now.

To keep our air clean is necessary the existence of trees, but what is happening now with them? The deforestation is one of the biggest problem, and no just for the lack of trees in differents parts of the world, also for all the consequences that bring with it, one of these is the possible extinction of rare species that live in the forest (around two thirds live there); forests also help to regulate the Earth's climate and regulate water and rainfall.




An amazing 80 percent of life in our planet can be found in our oceans, which provide us vital sources of protein, energy, minerals, and the transports of water masses that keeps the Earth habitable, inter alia. As yet largely unseen, but just as serious, are the impacts we are having on the oceans.
A healthy ocean has diverse ecosystems and robust habitats.  The actual state of our oceans is a far cry from this natural norm.
A myriad of human pressures are being exerted both directly and indirectly on ocean ecosystems the world over. Consequently ecosystems are collapsing as marine species are driven towards extinction and ocean habitats are destroyed.  Degraded and stripped of their diversity, ocean ecosystems are losing their inherent resilience.



What we eat is mainly coming from agriculture, but lately the genetic engineering have been creating big changes in our nurishment, making us dependent on toxic chemicals and corporate control of agriculture. Also have been found hundreds problems of this food, including cancer and others malformations principally in children. 



Earth Song by Michael Jackson


For more information about this problems, references, and their possible solutions:



Gender Issues

Eating Disorders
What are they?
An eating disorder is a clinical diagnosis that may be made when strange thinking about food and eating increases to the point where it affects your life. People that suffer this disorder, become extremely worried and concerned about the appearance of their body and their weight and look “fat” or with excess weight.  They can include severe overeating or not consuming enough food to stay healthy.  This is a complex psychological disease, which alters the perception of the body, and which can only be treated by a doctor or mental health professional.  

Causes of eating disorders

There is no clear cause for eating disorders. It involves individual factors, the family environment and cultural factors; however, these kinds of disorders are more usual in teenagers, because youth is a stage of emotional and physical changes, and young people become more vulnerable to suffer them.

Next there is a list with some factors:




Individual factors:

-Setting unrealistic goals that the person believes will bring love and respect from family and friends,
-Having low self-esteem - this can be hard to see because some people seem to be really 'together' on the outside, even when they are feeling bad inside.


Family factors:

-Some problems in the relationship between parents and children could affect to the person feel unvalued and alone.
-Pressure from parents, to be good at school or sport, have a well behavior, look attractive; can have an impact in some teenagers, which feel worthless if they do not fulfill the family’s expectations. 

Cultural factors
-Our society is full of messages that says us that we have to be thin and beautiful, because that brings happiness and successful. Especially in women, that most of the time they have to be thin for their careers (models, dancers and athletes), and for that reason they develop these disorders.
-But this is not only concerned to women, men are also suffering eating disorders, guide for the men’s images, they have to be muscular  to be attractive to women and achieve their goals
-As we can see in the images, the canon of beauty has evolved, in the 50’s woman, like Marilyn Monroe and Brigitte bardot were considered model of beauty by their   voluptuousness, and then, this model changed becoming in  thinness ( Audrey Hepburn), and in the 90’s with Kate Moss. 






















Some of the most well-known eating disorders are:
-Anorexia nervosa :  in which young people believe that they are fat, even when they are not and may have lost a lot of weight.
-Bulimia nervosa: which involves periods of overeating because they have been starving themselves, followed by purging, that conduct them to take  laxatives  to make themselves poo to excess, or forced vomiting, or make  exercises to extreme.
-Binge eating disorder –  where the young person has times when they  eat very large amounts of food but do not vomit, purge or exercise to 'work it off'.
-Compulsive overeating – where they are constantly overeating to make themselves feel better. Food is used as a replacement for what is missing.


Effects of Eating Disorders
Eating disorders can lead to the development of serious physical health problems, such as:
With anorexia, the body goes into starvation mode, and the lack of nutrition can affect the body in many ways:
-A drop in blood pressure, pulse, and breathing rate
-Hair loss and fingernail breakage
-Loss of periods
-Lanugo hair — a soft hair that can grow all over the skin
-Lightheadedness and inability to concentrate
-Anemia
-Swollen joints
-Brittle bones
 With bulimia, constant vomiting and lack of nutrients can cause these problems:
-Constant stomach pain
-Damage to the stomach and kidneys
-Tooth decay (from exposure to stomach acids)
"-Chipmunk cheeks," when the salivary glands permanently expand from throwing up so often
-Loss of periods
-Loss of the mineral potassium
-A person with binge eating disorder who gains a lot of weight is at risk of developing diabetes and heart disease,
Also these disorders affect the emotional side of the person, leaving deep scars, so, for these people is very hard to recover a healthy health condition,some of them die for all these complications .

Sources: 






Gender Issues



Gender discrimination:

Gender discrmination refers to the practice of denying rights to a person , based  on their gender. It is most frequented inside some religions that embrace as a dogma, or in societies that has the macho-behavior as a model.
Most of the time women are the principal affected, denying them the same opportunities that are provides to men. Below, there is a list of the principal’s types of gender discrimination:
-Discrimination in Sports: Statics prove that female sports do not carry the same public and attractive as male sports, and According to the Women's Sports Foundation, male athletes get $179 million more in athletic scholarships each year than females do. Also there is little public support, because there is a cultural prejudice where women are not capable enough
-Discrimination in Health-care: In U.S.A women pay higher insurances than men, even, some do not cover maternity services; some insurance companies have distinctions among what medicines are covered based in if the client is man or woman.
-Discrimination in the workplace: Women suffer a lot of differences in this aspect; first of all, they earn less than men, working the same hours (In relation to Chile, according to SERNAM, women earn 30% less) they are less inclined to get promotions because they become pregnant or one day she will, (so it is not convenient to the company, pay prenatal and postnatal). Also they are more inclined to suffer harassment. Finally they are judged by their appearance, they must to look pretty.
-Discrimination inside the society: There are several canons inserted in our society related to man and woman, who has to be ij home, take care of children, go to work, bring money to the house, etc. As we can see, we are conditioned by these patrons, which come from a   chauvinistic culture.
But we always can make a difference, considering us, as women, responsible for our future  










Gender Issues




Women’s rights:
You may think, that in the technological and advanced world that we live the women’s rights are obeyed and that women are treated like an equal  , and if this exist is only in Arabic -  Muslim  country , but is not. Next, there is a list with the most common not- obeyed rights: 

-They are refused access to education and political participation.
-They are forced to get married as children even they are trafficked as sexual slaves.
-Some of them, are trapped in conflicts where rape is perpetrated as a w weapon of war.
-For the same job, they earn less salary than men.


  Let make some history about our country:
-On November of 1887, they are allowed to access to university education, with the “Amunátegui” decree
-But the road to get the female vote is hard, for the opposition of the principal’s political party.
-On January 14 1949 is approved the law (law 9292) that make real the female vote.

Is very important that governments around the world, take seriously this issue, because women are a fundamental part in society, they work hard as men, rise families alone, without the support of the father, or help him to support the basic necessities. So, if the make this huge contribution, is fair that they be treated different?

Gender Issues

Domestic Violence:  It could be defined as any type or abuse or violence’s acts against   one (or more) members of the family core; it occurs when one person in the relationship tries to dominate and maintain total control over you. The abuser will use any kind of intimidation to keep you under his or her control, could use:  shame, guilt, hits, insults, or keep you away from the rest of your family. Is important to remember that it is not a phenomenon only related to low-social classes, it happens in every stratum


Causes:

There are factors that provide an explanation of this phenomenon, but never a reason that justify it:

-Historical reason: Trough the History, societies have been controlled by Men , generating a “Macho behavior”, which  has its cause behind the economical role of the man in the relationship, like the supplier.

-Our life’s style:  Nowadays, violence is present in everywhere; everything demands a competition among people, for get a job, to buy something, even go to the subway; so, this model has taught to people that violence is the better way to achieve your goals. 

Types:

Most of the time, people,  think that physique violence is the only type, but is not. Following there are the most common types:

-Physique abuse: The most evident of all, it causes damages in the body of the abused, and it could end in the dead of he/she.

-Sexual abuse: When the abuser forces the abused to have sexual relations without the consent of her/him.

-Monetary Abuse: Is happens when the abuser is the economical supplier in the relation, and he/she denies giving money to cover the necessities, like pay the bills. And, in that way force the abused (which is not an economical role) to forgive all these l abuse
-Psychological Abuse: The less obvious, but one of the most harmful, which damages the self-esteem of the abused, and leave deep scars.



Signs:

There are several signs that have to make you alert of your relationship”. The most common in fear of your partner . So, I invite you to answer the following questions to know if you are in an abuse relationship:

Do you:

-feel afraid of your partner much of the time?

-feel that you can’t do anything right for your partner?


-feel emotionally numb or helpless? 


Does your partner:

-humiliate or yell at you?

-ignore or put down your opinions or accomplishments?

-see you as property or a sex object, rather than as a person?

-have a bad and unpredictable temper?


If most of the answers are yes, you are probably in this kind of relationship, and you have to pay attention of your partner’s behavior, especially if there are children involved. And go to the organizations that help abused people.

   
Finally, we must to pay attention to the following cycle, which shows the abuser’s behavior; and which can be summarized in three basic stages:

Tension accumulation:

-The abuser’s behavior turns aggressive  against the partner , making  usual to throw  and break things.

-The verbal and Psychological abuse increase, and could culminate in physical damages.

-The abuse starts to feel responsible for the abuse, feel guilty.  


Acute episode of violence:

-There is the needed to vent the accumulate tensions

-The abuser chooses the time, place and the way that he/she will use to concrete his/her abuse. 


Episode of repentance

-It is characterized by a period of calm, non-violent and tokens of love and affection

-The abuser gives to the abused the hope of a change in his/her personality , make the promise of seek help


After a while, the cycle starts again


Sources:





Poverty in the World

When we talk about poverty, what we want to say? According to the Cambridge Dictionary is "a lack of something or when the quality of something is extremely low". In our world, that word have been use for years, specially in the final century, when the globalization has been helping us showing what happen in the other part of the world. Poverty is one of the most important social issues in the actuality, mainly because it is in every part of the world, even in the "developed countries".
The poverty is mainly for the lack of food, water, money or any basic need. Which make it a big problem with many others related.

According to the United Nations, about 25,000 people die every day of hunger in the world. But the most incredible thing is that there is plenty of food for everyone in the world. What make this problem so big is the lack of money to get a good and constantly source of food, what make them more sick and weak, This makes them increasingly less able to work, which then makes them even poorer and hungrier, creating a vicious circle.




Other problem coming with the poverty is the AIDS, that is behind the Black Death, the largest epidemic in history. AIDS kills over 1.5 million people a year, including children, who are often infected with the HIV since their pregnancy.







The Pneumonia also kills more than 1.5 million of children each year in poor countries. Pneumonia is contagious and is commonly transmitted when an infected person coughs or sneezes small droplets that contain the germ into the air. The big problem about pneumonia is that in small villages there are often no doctors or health centers.

 This diseases along with others as tuberculosis, diarrhea, malaria and measles are the most biggest problems of the poor villages in differents parts of the world, where the hygiene and cleanliess are barely something common.




The Good News on Poverty by Bono


If you want to know more about the poverty and ways of help, you can visit Poverty.comPoverty around the world and Poverty- World Bank.


Also there is a page in which you can play and meanwhile more questions you answer correctly more grains of rice you can donate: Free Rice


References: 

http://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/poverty
http://www.globalissues.org/article/4/poverty-around-the-world
http://www.poverty.com/index.html
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/poverty?q=poverty

Violence



Crime and the justice system

The federal prison system has been unable to keep up with the steady increase of inmates over the past few years, causing major overcrowding. In the year 2012, the overcrowding level was 41 percent above "rated capacity" and was the highest level since 2004

                                                                                    Hate crimes

Hate crimes are a growing issue especially in school settings because of the young populations that exist. The majority of victims and perpetrators are teenagers and young adults, the population that exists within educational institutes. Hate crimes can take shape in physical or sexual assaults or harassment, verbal harassment, robbery, or even death. The lasting effects of hate crimes can result in mental illness and disorders such as depression, suicidal thoughts and behaviors, etc. The issue is a social problem because it is widespread and affects much of our communities and the individuals who do not fit the norm.

Terrorism
Terrorism makes it apparent that there is not social harmony in society. "Terrorists" have values outside of the mainstream, who do not agree with the running of the country, which can be an issue when people's opinions are not listened to.

"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable" JFK.






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