YOUR SAY: Superpowers?

I'm sure all of us have at least once thought that it would be cool to have superpowers. But do they exist? There are some people who affirm that they do. I''m talking about psychic abilities.

You've probably heard about them, but you may not know that there are a lot more than the famous telepathy, which consists in the ability of exchanging thoughts, feelings, memories or sensations with another individual using your mind. There is also telekinesis, the ability of moving things with just the will of your mind. Here there's a list of nearly all of psychic abilities, and I thought it would be interesting to comment on some of them and what would I do if I had that ability.

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Let's start with Astral projection. This is based on the belief that humans have two bodies: one that's physical and another, the astral body, that is spiritual. People who have Astral projection are able to separate their astral body from their physical one and "travel" with it in a spiritual way. Well, I'm sorry to say this, but if I had Astral projection I don't think that I'd pay much attention to my teachers at eight in the morning. I'd rather travel with my astral body to anywhere else but highschool. I would also go to more parties, those that my mother wouldn't let me go to, and I'd sneak into the cinema to watch films without paying.

Then I've chosen Aura reading, the ability to perceive the energy fields surrounding people, things and places (as it says on the list I've linked above). An aura is an energy that something or someone sends from the inside of them to the outside. This means that if you have Aura reading you can know what are their feelings towards you or the situation. I'd totally use this, specially with my mom and sister, who are very moody. But I'd also know when someone's mad at me, annoyed or sad, and those are things that I could help to solve.

And last but not least, Apportations. This is the ability of materialising or teletransporting something from one place to another. I think that this is a very useful aptitude. I am very forgetful so it would be perfect for me. Also, I would go to a lot of places I've never been to. I could travel all around the world!

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But I don't think that this psychic abilities are real. Maybe some of them could be one day, because it is a known fact that we just use a part of our brain's total capacity.

I came up with the idea of this post because I've recently seen a movie called Chronicle, and I really liked it. Here you have a video of the film where you can see telekinesis!

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YOUR SAY: How do we lie?

We probably have lied at some point in our lives. If you just thought to yourself: "Oh, pff me? Lying? No, that never happens, I've never lied to anyone". Well, not to burst your bubble or anything, but that is a lie. We are all liars, but some of us are better trained than the others. Not everyone can have a poker face while lying to someone, but we all master the use of little, delicate, apparently innocent white lies.

A white lie is a lie that we tell to hide something for the good of the person we're lying to. Some say: "There's no excuse, a white lie is still a lie and he or she who uses them is a L-I-A-R, liar!" , but, are they really bad?

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The most obvious example of a white lie, more or less, could be Santa Claus or the Three Wise Men. Why do parents tell their children that an old bearded man enters their house at night to leave some presents for them? Is there any specific reason to say that? It does sound a bit weird but for children it's a fantasy, something to hold on to and to dream about. They do believe that Santa exists, that he brings presents to all children around the world. There is a magical element here, but magic is a little bit of a white lie, too, to explain what escapes science and our reasoning.

Another really famous white lie is the answer to this question: Mom/Dad, where do babies come from? ... Needless to say. No matter what answer you give that little child, it is most likely going to be a lie. This includes all those questions that children make and are not considered mature enough to know the truth of. But why? They will have to know the truth soon or later. Are we protecting the children? No, we're protecting ourselves, because we fear those questions and society has made us think that they're not appropiate.

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We also use white lies when we want to skip from doing housework, when we want to calm a really angry parent/friend down... We always use them but, is that good?

As I see it, they're not right, but neither are wrong. I mean, if you told those excited children the day before Christmas that Santa doesn't exists, that the parents are the ones who put the presents under the Christmas tree, the normal thing is that they would instantly start crying. Truth can be really hurtful. If a white lie has the power to hide the truth without it having consequences or doing wrong to anyone, it's sort of a quick escape to those bad situations. But the more we escape from them, the more obvious the answers will get and, therefore, the existence of the lie.

Even when white lies seem good, they're not always like that. Would I go up to a kid in the street and tell him the truth about Santa? No, I'm not into public drama. Also, when I remember the warm feeling I got at Christmas morning when I was a little child, I think that it's an illusion worth lying for. But other than that, white lies aren't good. In many situations lying is not the only way out. Truth can be less hurtful if we know how to choose the right words.

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To sum up, I believe that white lies are really extended in our society and that, althought we say we don't like to lie because lying is bad, we do it and will do it anyways. Some white lies are better than others, but if we analyse them we see that they are just a way of protecting ourselves and the ones  we care about (and not always).

YOUR SAY: Erasmus

For those who may not know, an Erasmus is a scholarship that allows student exchanges between many European universities for a certain period of time. The word Erasmus stands for European Community Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students, but the programme is also named after a Dutch philosopher, Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam, who expanded his knowleadge in many European cities.

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Students can choose the lenght of their stay from two to nine months. Not everyone can get into an Erasmus programme, it's necessary to have, at least, one academical year of your studies already completed, althought this varies from one country to another. For example, here, in Spain, where degrees usually last for four years, students can do an Erasmus in their third or fourth year. They also have to have an official certification of their language level (of the language of the country they're going to) and, depending on the destination, it's compulsory to have a medium level (this happens with English, French and German, mostly). They are given a certain amount of money and they live with that.

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You may be wondering why I chose this topic. Well, as we're doing the gap year's project I thought it would be a good idea to show another alternative. My sister Andrea is currently doing an Erasmus in Bologna, Italy. She has a lot of fun, but she also learns a lot in the Università di Bologna.

But what do I think about the Erasmus programme? I think that it's a great experience that everyone should try. 

First of all, you can choose the European university that you want to go to in order of the subjects they teach. Other countries offer you a different variety of subjects to choose from that you may not have in your own country. For example, my sister Andrea (she studies History of Art) wanted to learn about Asian art, but there wasn't any of that in her university. When she applied for the Erasmus in Bologna, she was able to choose that specific subject. Another case may be that you do have the oportunity to take that subject in your university, but you may have better lessons about it in another country.

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But Erasmus (let's stop fooling ourselves) are not all about studying. The experience of living in another country for that long is unique and very enriching. You can meet new people from different cultures (you won't be the only Erasmus student there, there will be students from different countries!) and contact with society. You can go party, go on trips to discover new places and also get a good level of the language. What is there not to like about an Erasmus programme? Somebody tell me!

The Erasmus programme is not the only student exchange scholarship. There are some variations of Erasmus, like Erasmus + and Erasmus Mundus, and other scholarships like ISEP, Socrates and Leonardo da Vinci programmes.

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Personally, I would love to do an Erasmus. I don't really know where, but I'm sure that it will be somewhere where I can complete my studies in the way I want. I also think that I would take the long-term programme because I would like to finish my stay with a really good language level and also with some contacts for the career that I would do later (basically, gather oportunities so I can live in another country when I work). When I saw that my sister was having a lot of fun and going to a lot of new places I realized that the Erasmus programme is something worth-living.

After all of this, I've come to the conclusion that, if you're going to do a degree, doesn't matter the area of it, you should totally check out these student exchange scholarships, as they allow you to learn in a way that you wouldn't be able to learn in a regular school year.

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NEWS: "Black Friday: Wal-Mart workers revolt"

This piece of news was written by Kim Gittleson on 28 of November for the BBC News.

The article talks about how Wal-Mart workers protested in the streets for their rights on Black Friday, one of the biggest sales of the year. Wal-Mart is a big chain of department stores of the retails sector.

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Barbara Gertz, who is working in a Walmart in Aurora, Colorado, explains that many workers have joined OUR Wal-Mart (Organization United for Respect at Wal-Mart) to demand higher wages to the company. She disapproves that some people in Wal-Mart management say that they are open to receive concerns and questions from workers. She has sent her concerns to the company for years and has received no response.

She talks about the OUR Wal-Mart, that has united as well with other organizations like the organization of people who work in fast food chains. All this people has found a new way to protest that is an advantatge for them because they're not seen as an "official" organization. They're "alt-labor" groups and protest for workers' rights. They make strikes in the most important days, like Black Friday, so the companies will be forced to listen to them. This practice has increased because retail companies are getting more and more competitive. The companies force the workers to have bad schedules (they do more hours of work), specially on those specific days.

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I personally think that big companies like Wal-Mart should care more about their workers. They're so obsessed with offering the best deals and sales to gain money that they forget some of the workers' rights. They have to do more hours to prepare those special days and they don't have a fair wage. I think that they're doing a great job with their protests. The system that they've found of protesting on "big days" is going to be successful in the end.

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 VOCABULARY

retail: the sale of goods individually or in small quantities to consumers.

"alt-labour": unions of workers that agitate and protest for workers' rights in non-unionised sectors.

wage: the amount of money that a worker receives every month.

Black Friday: it's the Friday after Thanksgiving and is the official start of the holiday shopping season.

Oral presentation

Here you have the presentation that Rosó, Sandra and I did about Jewish rites of passage.

I don't really know how to evaluate myself. I have to say that I talk quite slowly and I got lost for a moment. I also made a mistake saying that there are to types of celebrations: bar mitzvah for boys and bat mitzvah for girls (I said boys though I meant girls).

In general I think that it's a good presentation. We got to interactuate with the power point with the pictures and the video and I think that's a good thing. I also think that our pronunciation is good.

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YOUR SAY: Plus insecurities

A few days ago, the famous brand Calvin Klein showed to the world the first pictures of their first model for plus sizes. Her name is Myla Dalbesio and, although ahw got this job, a lot of people wouldn't classify her as a plus-sized woman. These pictures have supposed an impact for society, who now criticises the enterprise for its choice. But does this really surprise us? Nowadays we've seen worse.

Myla Dalbesio

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It's not a secret that many aspects in our society encourage or provoke eating disorders like anorexia or bulimia. The most gullible part of the society when it comes to this are teenagers. They're trying to find their place in society, and that results in the search of not only self acceptance but also from other people. Among teenagers, acording to stadistics, girls are more likely to have eating disorders, and I think that it isn't a strange thing.

It is known that many clothing brands change the sizes of their articles every now and then. What used to be a small size can become a medium size, suddenly. This has resulted in a big change throughout the years. This leads some people to think that they have gained weight and that they may not be as skinny as society wants them to be. That's the first step for their minds to start thinking and thinking about the problem they have.

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Another evidence of society's pressure on people's weight (specially in women's weight) are catwalks. Models are much more skinnier than they used to be before, and a lot of them don't even seem to have a healthy weight. What's the message that people get from that? Designers show their clothes in the way that they think will look more beautiful, and that way is with a really skinny model wearing their clothes. Is that the ideal of beauty that society has nowadays? It seems that it is.

I personally think that the pressure shouldn't be there. Designers should have models with different weights and sizes, clothing brands shouldn't constantly change their size charts and teenagers should stop worrying that much about their weight, because beauty isn't about that.

YOUR SAY: What I think of euthanasia

Euthanasia is the act of killing someone who wants to die but is not able to commit suicide.

Nowadays it isn't legal, but there's a lot of discussion about it. People in favor of euthanasia say that the government should allow it in some cases like terminal illnesses or similar. On the other hand, people against euthanasia say that killing is a crime and, moreover, it shouldn't be normal for a person to make someone else kill them.

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So here's the problem: is it moral to kill someone because they want to die?

I personally think that it is (in some cases). Euthanasia should be legal. Why do I think that? Let's get into the situation.

Imagine that you have a terminal illness, like cancer, for example, and you know that there's no possibility for you to get any better. You are certain that, for the rest of your life, you will only suffer and will always depend on someone else. Don't you think that, if you wanted to end your life, you should be able to do so? And, if you weren't able to take your life on your own, would you like to have someone else to help you?

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People should do whatever they want to do with their lives. And concerning doctors' moral, they see people sying everyday and, sometimes, they give terminal patients a paliative treatment that won't cure them nor make their lives longer. Moreover, the methods that have been proposed for the realization euthanasia are all painless (like injections, for example).

Is death a bad thing anyway? We know nothing about it and we are pretending that a life full of suffering is better than an earlier death. I think that it's more moral to let someone die if that's their wish than to make them live with agony. 

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There was a polemical case recently in the United States. A young woman of Oregon, USA, commited suicide at the age of 29 on 1 November after announcing through Youtube that she would do so. Her name was Brittany Maynard and she had a terminal brain cancer. She had campaigned in favor of euthanasia and announced that she'd rather die by taking a prescribed life-ending drug that by the terrible way she was told she would. She died in bed, peacefully, surrounded by all her loved ones. There are only five states in the United States that allow euthanasia: Oregon, Washington State, Montana, Vermont and New Mexico. Here you can see Brittany's video explaining her story:

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