Multitasking: how people operate nowadays and its reflection on society

Today, we teenagers and adults, have become unconsciously dependant on technology and have began to “multitask”. Personally I find it very difficult not to multitask, especially when working on my computer, as I open several windows (Microsoft Word, YouTube, BlogSpot, etc), chat sessions and Windows Media Player in the first minutes after I turn on the screen. Sometimes I can be already talking to a friend on the phone and start chatting with someone else, but in my experience I can never handle both convesations without one of them saying “are you doing something else?”. People notice when I multitask and it bothers them, but they don’t mention it. Why? Because they do the same thing.
While investigating and reflecting on this subject, I have found out that the loss of concentration while multitasking, or productivity and efficency in working hours, is one of the most notorious consequences of this phenomenom, leading to reviews that promote a possible solution. Secondly, a large number of social changes have also appeared as another consequence, as the rupture of social relations, new education plans and language transformation. The way the world has been living has changed, as technology hasn’t stopped advancing.
Before analysing the multitasking consequences I would like to make a distinction between two groups which are strongly related with technology. The Digital Natives are all the people who are “native speakers” of the digital language of computers, video games and Internet. Digital Immigrants are the ones who were not born into the digital world but have, at some point in their lives, become fascinated by and adopted many or mosts aspects of the new technology. During the analysis both groups will be named, without any distinction, as multitaskers.
Today’s technologies allow individuals to accomplish multiple tasks almost simultaneously, and, at least in North America, there is a perception that being productive and efficient in the workplace requires being a multitasker. So why do multitaskers lose their concentration and do not achieve their maximum working potential? Because of multitasking, or as David Crenshaw, business coach and author of “The Myth of Multitasking”, calls it, switchtasking. “When we speak of multitasking, what we really mean is that we are switchtasking: switching rapidly between one task and another. Yet, each time we switch, no matter how quickly that switch takes place in our mind, there is a cost associated with it. It's an economic term called switching cost—and the switching cost is high”. Crenshaw conveys that “doing two things at once is to do neither”. The solution relies on every single person, who should care about developing the ability to focus on one thing at a time instead of trying to do everything at once. The BBC reported on a research study that found that “Workers distracted by e-mail and phone calls suffer a fall in IQ more than twice that found in marijuana smokers”, although, removing the multitasking requirement, the IQ jumps back to normal.
Social problems are directly related to educational institutes and families. The rupture that has been produced in their structures, due to the influence of technology, has been radical, changing prevailing educational plans of institutes and disrupting family bonding. We have got accustomed to getting everything that technology can give: advice, answers, worldwide information, international communication and, of course, entertainment, because of the practicity the devices show once you master them. This has lead to the rupture of social relationships, as oral communication has become non-existent, and the language used in the few online conversations has critically eroded; example: nmu (Translation: Not much. You?), 2morrow (Tomorrow), brb (Be right back), etc; which is the way to express in a fast and efficient way according to the idea of taking advantage of time. Teachers have been surprised by the ability of their students when searching and manipulating information, presumably because modern childhood tilts towards visual rather than print media. They are especially skilled at analyzing visual data and images and they are suprisingly creative when it comes to producing a computer presentation, inserting video clips, audio files and images. Despite the positive side of it, what students tend to do is switchtask during class. Crenshaw rightfully supports that, “When you switchtask when dealing with a computer, you simply lose efficiency. But if you switchtask on a human being, you additionally damage a relationship”. Teachers have changed their way of teaching because their students did not learn the same way as past generations, and have willingly become digital immigrants to achieve a closer and friendlier relation with them so they can at least hold their attention for a whole period.
People think that by improving technology they will be better multitaskers, but they don’t understand that there is a limit to what we can do at the same time in an efficient way. I was a great fan of multitasking until now, that I have realised how distracting it is to work that way and how harmful it can be for me and the people whom I interact with.

Fear and Redemption in The Kite Runner

How many times in our life have we felt the kind of fear that paralyzes us and does not let us do what we want to only because we are scared that something bad will happen or that it will not end as we wish?
Everybody goes through fearful situations in their life but there are some that have everlasting consequences just as the guilt that does not let your life continue normally. Some can change your perspective of the world and it is up to you to make this guilt disappear and find redemption. Although it is not easy, there are people for whom this takes years. “I remember the precise moment crutching behind a crumbling mud wall, peeking into the alley near the frozen creek[…] Looking back now, I realise I have been peeking into that deserted alley for the last twenty-six years”(page 1). This is how The Kite Runner begins, a book that tells us the story of Amir, a boy who controlled by fear betrayed his best friend Hassan, and how his life continued after that.
As it happened to Amir the most complicated and harmful consequence can be the necessity to make the guilt of what he did desappear, “Hit me back” I spat “Hit me back, goddamn you!” I wished he would. I wished he’d give me the punishment I craved, so maybe I’d finally sleep at night”(page 92). Or the necessity to find the way back the situation. ”That was the night I became an insomniac”(page 86). To ask for some help instead of evading it. ”School gave me the excuse to stay in my room for long hours. And, for a while, it took my mind off what had happend that winter, what I had let happen”(page 21).
It is the same fear that leads you to make a mistake and after that it does not let you confront the situation. Just as it happens in the book, it is his fear that made Amir betray Hassan, the same that did not let him fix his error and then determined his shyness.This trait did not help hi make some decisions in his life. He found a way out of his fear by redeeming himself.
You find redemption when you pay in some way for what you did wrong.In this way the good things you do will replace the bad ones and you will feel like you have paid for your error. Having betrayed his best friend, Amir was looking for it. “…for the first time since the winter of 1975,I felt in peace[...] in some hidden nook in a corner of my mind, I’d even been looking forward to this”(page 289). These words let us know that as every person who has made a mistake, he was looking forward to the relief of knowing that in some way he had paid for it.
“A way to be good again”(page 192) said Rahim Khan, Amir’s close friend. This helped him to realise that it was time,after twenty-six years to let the guilt go away. It was time to confront the past and to search for redemption. He finally redeemed himself when he started doing the right thing as Rahim Khan has recommended him ”…I believe,is what true redemption is, Amir jan, when guilt leads to good”(page 302).
Amir decided that to find redemption he would look after Hassan’s orphan son..In order to do this, he had to leave his home and wife in America to travel to Afganistan to look for the boy. There he would have to fight against his childhood enemy, the man who had caused his twenty-six years of suffering and guilt. Once he had been brutally snapped by this man, he started laughing. ”My body was broken-just how badly I wouldn’t find until later-but I felt healed. Healed at last.I laughed”(page 289). These words show that his guilt and anxiety of finding redemption were really huge.He felt he deserved to be punched to the point of almost dying, he needed to feel punishment for what he did.
The Kite Runner is a wonderful story about love, honour, guilt and, mostly, fear and redemption. It is a story that illustrates very well what happens when fear is so big that it controls your actions, and the way you can over come this kind of situations.

Words:725 Sonia Stagnetto

The impact of technology

The impact of technology in almost all the people in the world is incredible, we notice it mostly in the behaviour of children, how they see things that we did not know about until a couple of years ago, as every day things. It is unbeleivable that a three year old boy says after taking a picture, “Let me see”and runs to the camera to take a look. Or that a girl who is only five can say, “Please,let me play Play Station”. The point is, that it is amusing how technology is being progressively incorporated into daily lives.
As everything in life, this impact has good and bad consequences on societies.
The improvement in some areas, like communication, is overwhelming. Thanks to the telephone you can have a conversation with anybody who is in any part of the world. Nowadays, through Internet, we can buy things without leaving home,search for information, or even study and get a degree. It seems that the impact of technology is the best thing that ever happened to human beings, but, is it really like that?
For almost everybody,life is easier now, but they do not realize that it is causing a huge dependency on technology. This dependency is not good, because as we have everything done by technology, we become more sedentary. This is happening a lot among young people who are not used to reading a complete book. It is easier to read summaries from the Internet than spending time reading. Time they can spend playing video games or chatting with friends.
It is the wrong use of technology that leads us to negative aspects of it. Not only because we become lazier but because of the lack of privacy we can perceive. The most exposed are young people who publish their pictures on the Internet so that anybody who is surfing con have access to them.They do not realise they are allowing the intrusion by publishing them. They only think about having fun. The Internet is not always a safe place as it is a sort of spider web where everything is connected and so companies know which sites are visited every time you log in.
Another consequence of the wrong use of technology is that children in many cases do not need help from other people so they start isolating themselves with the computer and they even stop frequenting their friends because they can comunicate with them through the Internet or cellphone. The family is, of course, left a side too.
As the Internet has become part of our daily life, the cellphone also has. Everybody has one in fact, many of the users are young children. Something that no one is aware of is that it can violate your privacy as the cameras in them are taken as the phone itself, everywhere, and so anybody can take a picture whenever and wherever they want. Also, the cellphone companies, as the Internet, can know exactly what number you are calling and what messeges you send.
Other very popular device these days are the MP3 players. They allow us to listen to our favorite songs whenever and wherever we want. The negative aspect of these devices is that some people isolate themselves, listening to their music even when they are in social meetings or walking next to someone on the street.
And a really worrying consequence of technology is that today’s students are no longer the people educational systems were designed to teach years ago. Marc Presky, specialist in the subject, explains that, “Today’s students have changed amusingly from those of the past. A really big discontinuity has taken place. This discontinuity is the result of the arrival of digital technology in the last decades of the 20th Century”. Today’s students represent the first generations to grow up with all the new technology. They have spent their entire lives surrounded by, and using computers, videogames, digital music players, video cams, cellphones, and all the other toys and tools of this digital age we are living in. People refer to this new generation as “digital natives”and say they are all “native speakers” of the digital language of computers, video games and the Internet. The rest of the people, those who were not born into the digital world but have, at some later point in their lives, become fascinated by, and adopted many or most aspects of the new technology are, and always will be, compared to them as digital immigrants. Marc also says that, “It is very serious, because the single biggest problem racing education today is that our digital immigrant instructors, who speak an outdated language (that of the pre-digital age), are struggling to teach a population that speaks an entirely new language”. Of course, it is not easy for grown ups to feel into the digital natives’ world.
As I have mentioned through out the text there is a huge number of negative aspects of technology that we are not aware of. This lack of capacity to descern this negativity is one of the characteristics of the new digital era. Era in which we are so familiar and dependent on technology that we do not realise that it has terrible consequences in ourselves and the society that sorround us. We must continue using technology because it helps us in an overwelming way but we must also learn to find a balance so that our lives progress and yet our humanity does also.

Confronting the truth, a way to mature

Mostly every child, no matter their culture or religion, thinks dad is a kind of super hero. It is part of the growing process that a child discovers that their own dad is a common human being, with his pros and cons. In the novel The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini this fact is present in the whole story, in the way the main character, Amir, looks up to his dad, Baba. Amir can not fully mature when he is an adult because he still looks at his father as superior to himself.
When Amir was a child in Kabul, he used to live with his father. Baba was a very importat person in society as he was one of the richest and most powerful men in the city. At this time, Amir had two problems that bothered him. The first one was he was a fearful kid, and the second was his father wasn’t. These problems are the centre of the father-child relationship throughout the first part in the story.
“A boy who can’t sand up for himself, becomes a man who can’t stand up to anything”says Baba. Amir hears his dad saying this to his best friend, Rahim Khan, after seeing Amir being bullied by other kids. This feeling that his dad had for him is the obstacle to a better relation between them.
“My father was a force of nature, a towering Pashtun specimen with a thick beard, a wayward crop of curly brown hair as the man himself , hands that looked capable of uprooting a willow tree, and a black glare that would “drop the devil to his knees begging for mercy”, as Rahim Khan used to say.”[1] This shows not only how Amir looks up to his dad, but how everybody do so as well. Baba was the centre of attention and his presence was just impossible to ignore. The importance of this part of the book is how Amir lives with the concept that his father is some kind of super-hero.
Amir shows the admiration he feels towards his father, admiring mostly his bravery, conviction, and moral sense. “Tell this man I’d take a thousand bullets before I let this indency take place” says Baba. In this episode they were running away in a truck from the Russian invasion in Afghanistan. In the border, a Russian soldier wanted to have sex with a married woman who was escaping with them, in exchange for letting them pass. Baba confronted the soldier’s petition and he almost got killed. Attutudes like this made Amir look up to his dad with profund admiration.
But later in the story Amir dicovers the truth, his Hazara servant was his half brother. In this episode Rahim Khan talks to Amir after his father died, which is important to the development of all the others aspects of the story (betrayal,fear, ghosts of childhood, friendship and redemption). But it’s importance is that Amir understands, finally, why his father used to behave as such a hero. He has this weight on his shoulders; he is so afraid of social prejudice that he cannot admit he has a Hazara child and he had slept with his servant’s wife. Rahim Khan told Amir “ your father was a tortured soul”, showing how Baba was also looking for redemption by doing good actions.
To conclude I would say that the fact Amir discovered the truth and that he realised his father was a common person, with fears and mistakes as everyone else, makes Amir grow up and stand up to the old fears that had tortured him his whole life, and look for his redemption by being good again.
[1] Hosseini, Khaled: The Kite Runner (page 12-13)

FERNANDO LOPEZ RUBIO

Kite Runner

A Daring Rescue
Never had I imagined that the middle aged man in the false beard would be my saviour. Even less could I have expected what happened during those thirty minutes. And even if it has been over 20 years, I still remember every detail as if it were yesterday.
As I entered the room all dressed up, as always when my new master called for me, I was surprised at seeing another man with Him. The man didn’t look evil like the talib. No, I think he looked scared, or even terrified. He was wearing a kufi and a false beard. He was sitting on the couch eating grapes and he seemed to know the talib. I remember wondering what they would make me do this time, when they would begin. But they never began. Instead they started talking in a language I didn’t understand. There certainly was a strange atmosphere in the room that day. They finally reached an agreement and it seemed like I was leaving with the stranger, who was apparently called Amir. Amir seemed very surprised with the talib’s decision but didn’t say anything. As we started to leave, something strange happened. Amir has told me a hundred times what the whole thing was about but I really think he’s blackening a part of the story about him and my dad. The talib told Amir about a debt that Amir had to pay, and before I knew it the talib had taken out a brass knuckle with which he savagely started beating my saviour in a way I didn’t think was possible. Amir tried to defend himself but I could see in his way of fighting that he hadn’t been in many fist-fights in his life. The talib repeatedly hit Amir in the face. He wasn’t killing him, he was destroying him. I stood there, paralyzed for what seemed like an eternity. I tried to think. I really wanted to help Amir but I didn’t know how. I finally remembered the slingshot I always had with me. I had become famous in the orphanage for my power and accuracy with it. And it wasn’t for nothing; the slingshot was a deadly weapon in my hands. I just needed something to shoot, something small and hard. I watched around the chaotic room trying to ignore the havoc produced by the fight. I finally got my eyes on a small metal pellet attached to a table leg. The two men were too busy fighting to see me, so I slowly went over to the table and started to remove the pellet. I was just about to get it loose when I heard someone laugh. It wasn’t the talib’s nasty roar of laughter, but a truly happy one. I couldn’t believe my ears and I was even more confused when I turned around and saw that it was Amir who was laughing. His face was barely a face anymore and he was far beyond recognition. The talib looked as confused as I was and stopped the beating for a second or two before he kept on disfiguring Amir’s face. I finally had the pellet in my hand. I loaded my slingshot, tensed the rubber bands and aimed for the talib’s eye. I gathered courage and managed to call out a weak “stop it”. The talib turned around and faced me with an ear-to-ear grin, which faded away as soon as he saw my slingshot. I didn’t hesitate. I knew this was my chance to finally be free. I didn’t care much about the other man at the time. I was more concerned of what was going to happen to me. I realize now that it was a very risky shot. I didn’t think of the possible consequences if I had missed, and I prefer not to know. But as I let go of the pellet I realized I wasn’t going to miss. I saw the metal ball take the place of his right eye. It was a horrible sight which I wish I could erase from my mind. The talib fell to the ground in pain and I hurried over to Amir to help him out the door. He was barely conscious and I needed someone to carry him. Fortunately he had a friend waiting outside who helped him into a jeep. I think he passed out the moment we got him into the car. The trip that followed was the longest of my life.

We saved each others’ lives that day, and even if I soon after this incident lost my faith in Amir, there has been a special bond between my uncle Amir and me ever since. Anyway, I eventually forgave my uncle, and the two of us now live in America. I have a wonderful wife and I’m soon to be a father. I’m glad I can give my children the opportunity to grow up here in America, and I owe it all to my heroic uncle. I will always worship him for his courage to go to Afghanistan to save me. There is something that troubles me though; I just can’t understand why he burst out laughing when he was getting the beating of his life.

by Anton Trolleberg

Intercultural Communication

Respect Time
Punctuality and the respect for time are in First World countries much more important than in Latin American countries, and is a crucial issue in order to understand how the different cultures work.
On a social level, punctuality separates the two cultures’ way of interacting with friends and establishing relationships. People in Latin America dedicate more time to socializing than people in First World countries. Friends who meet on the street or in a shop often keep chatting for a long time and no one ever seems to be in a hurry, while in First World countries it’s common just to greet each others and then keep on with whatever they have to do. Even the time of organized encounters is treated differently in the two cultures. In First World countries it is seen as rude to arrive late at a party and it’s absolutely not accepted to show up late for a date, while in Latin America it is normal to show up late at a party, as no one expects you to come at the appointed time. As for dates it isn’t the end of the world if you are a bit late, although it might irritate people slightly. People in Latin America seem to have more, “less valuable” time as they don’t care wasting several hours a week just waiting for someone to show up. It does though affect productivity, which is another reason why it’s not accepted in First World countries, as productivity is very important for society to work.

A good way of using time efficiently is to organize your time using an agenda, which can help you to plan your day and remind you of important appointments. The use of agendas is a lot more common in First World countries and can sometimes lead to extreme chases when people have to check their agenda for a time to have coffee with friends. It is easy to become obsessed with time and begin to over schedule, which can lead to worse results than not planning at all, as it is probable to lead to health issues such as stress and insomnia.
Organization is a lot more efficient in First World countries than in Latin America, which is the reason why everything from public transports to bureaucracy works so much smoother there. Take for example the bus schedules. In a First World country a bus stop may have a schedule showing the exact time for a certain bus to pass, and the bus passes at that given time, with at most a few minutes delay. In Latin America on the other hand the bus will stop whenever it happens to pass, without respecting any time schedule at all, and in the evening many of the circulating busses are ‘out of service’ and won’t stop at all. Because of this it is more difficult to be on time in Latin America, even if it oughtn’t to be an excuse.
In Latin America it is common to be more concerned about the present than the future and people might not think as much of the future consequences of their present acts. A common thought in Latin America is to do whatever task later, thinking that there is always a better time to do it, which often leads to delays, while most people in First World countries prefer to get the task done as fast as possible, leaving more time in the future. It is impossible to say that one way is better than the other, as they both have their pros and cons. First World countries are certainly more organized and work better as a society, and the people take more advantage of their time, but Latin America has a huge advantage when it comes to socializing and interacting with people.

About The Kite Runner

Loyalty and Redemption in The Kite Runner

Amir’s search for redemption and Hassan’s sense of loyalty are salient aspects in K. Hosseini’s touching story, The Kite Runner.
One of the most important themes is redemption. One of the protagonists and narrator of the story, Amir was not loyal to his best friend Hassan and he could not stand up for him when he needed his help. He watched him get raped by Assef and his friends, bullies who hated Hassan because he was an inferior Hazara. Amir was not able to do anything because he was paralyzed by fear. After this terrible event, Ali and Hassan left Amir’s and Baba’s home and they did not hear anything from them for many years later.
As time went by, Amir could not get rid of the ghosts of his childhood. He could not forgive himself for letting Assef and his friends rape Hassan. Amir grew up into an adult and he found the opportunity he had been searching in order to find redemption, there was “a way to be good again”. After the death of his friend he found the chance to help his son Sohrab who was in the hands of terrible people. He had been taken out of the orphanage and abused sexually. When he got to the place where Sohrab was, Amir found out that one of these men was Assef, the same who had abused Hassan long before. To free Sohrab, Amir had to fight Assef and he ended up very hurt and almost dead. But at the end he was able to take Sohrab out of that horrible place. This time Amir showed courage to stand up for what he wanted and the one he cared for. He did not reach redemption until the end of the story, when he saw a smile and a nod from Sohrab. This was the best that had happened to him in a really long time.
Amir was able to get the best and most fulfilling gift of all: redemption. When people do things that they are not proud of or they regret doing them they try to make amends. “True redemption is when guilt leads to good” (p.302).
Another principal theme of this novel is loyalty. It is represented mostly by Hassan, who was devoted to Amir, and would do everything he could to please him. He considered him his brother and his best friend. He would give his own life in order to save Amir’s. The phrase “for you a thousand times over” shows Hassan’s love and devotion to Amir. Even when Amir betrayed him, Hassan never showed resentment. He remembered him as a very good person. Sohrab told Amir that his father always talked very fondly about him. He said that he was a brother to him and an excellent person.
Loyalty is something that is not commonly found among people. To be loyal is to be devoted to the people you love, always telling them the truth and being by their side, helping them and forgiving any wrongdoing they have done to you. You will always be by their side and will never leave that person alone. Hassan was a perfect example of this. Amir could be considered the opposite all along the story, but in the end, something changed inside him, and he pronounced the same exact words “for you a thousand times over” to Sohrab. In a way, he is returning Hassan the loyalty that he had given him all his childhood.
The novel The Kite Runner makes an excellent reference of these two themes and helps the reader understand them through the different characters and the different situations in life. It also shows how important values such as loyalty and redemption are in people’s lives.

Values in Different Cultures: two faces of the same coin

Since the beginning of time people have been divided because of their different cultures, values and beliefs. Centuries have passed and societies still have problems with the acceptance of others. Nowadays it is very difficult for people from Latin America, where they are less competitive and use their free time for other purposes, to adapt to countries like the USA where time is the most important resource, and competition is the key to success.
In the USA, time is considered gold. That means that Americans see it as an instrument to make money. They do not waste their time in what they consider meaningless or unimportant things. They also do not waste other’s time. People use their time to have some privacy in their homes and to rest after a hard day of work. They are very respectful with their schedules and that is why they are so punctual. The US is a very well organized society and that may be the main reason why they are so successful and superior than other countries.
Another aspect of the American culture is that they are very competitive. Individualism is very important in order to reach their goals and to work hard, only worrying about their own destiny in order to be successful. High school students in the US spend most of their time focusing fully in their studies in order to get good marks so they can guarantee going to a good university and being a well known professional in the future. They generally do not work or study in groups because they try to overcome others in order to be the best ones who can apply to the best universities. American teenagers see high school as a place in which they must study and make a lot of sacrifice, and they do not enjoy it very much. That is because the system encourages them to study and get good marks in order to have the best education. This behavior may be directly related with the USA’s economic system capitalism, which is based on competition in order to be the best ones and the one that succeeds.
On the other hand, in other cultures like in Latin America’s, specifically in the country where I live, Argentina, these values are considered and taught in very different ways. To begin with, here in my country, people think they are the owners of their time. They give priority to work and sometimes studies, but in their spare time they feel free to do whatever they want. It is very common, mostly in students of high school to consider free time as a space to do whatever they feel like doing. Watching TV, playing computer games, hanging out with friends or simply sleeping are the most common ways to spend your spare time in Argentina when you are a teenager. Of course, adults perform less of these activities because they have more responsibilities as work, a home and in most cases a family to take care of. As I explained before, students are the ones that most enjoy themselves in their free time. High school is a place where you go to study, of course, but it is mostly a time to spend with friends and to have a lot of fun. Argentineans do not worry too much about their marks and performance during high school because the only thing you have to get in order to enter universities is a high school diploma.
So in Argentina, time is spent in various ways, but it is not considered as an essential thing in order to make money or to be more successful. Anyone in this country can be a great professional and make good money just with a regular education. Here there is not much respect for the other’s time like in the US. These things may be good in the sense that Argentineans are able to make a lot of friends and know how to spend good moments with in their free time. However, society is not so well organized, and people tend to be mediocre because they do not need to make a great effort in order to be successful or just get what they want. In Argentina, people are not as competitive as in the US. Competition exists although it is in a healthy and normal way and not in all of the cases. That means that there is competition, of course, but it is not considered as the only thing to succeed. People focus a lot more in relationships between their colleges and classmates so the cases of competition are less. Here it is commonplace for people to work or study in groups because there is more cooperation than competition among people.
It is clear that values are different when we consider them in different societies as Argentina and the USA. Although they are not totally antagonist countries they are very different in how they organize their time and the way people compete with each other. I think that the ideal society would be the one that mixes the different ways to deal with time and competition and other values, in order to balance both of them. The key for peaceful living between different cultures is tolerance, acceptance and finally, and most important, the celebration of other’s values and culture.

creative writing: The Kite Runner

Friendship and betrayal

Friends are very important because we tell them our secrets, feelings and we can always rely on them. They play a primary role in our lives as we share most of our time with them. Although we trust friends and they can give us very happy moments, they can also fail to do so and betray us.In the novel The Kite Runner friendship and betrayal are two of the most important themes developed in the story. Even though Amir and Hassan cared for each other, they shared a strange friendship.
Hassan was loyal, he always stood up for Amir when other kids bothered him. Something very different happened with Amir as he was a coward. The day of the kite tournament, Assef and his friends caught Hassan because they wanted the kite Amir had cut off. As he didn`t want to give them the kite, they hurt him, but the worst thing was that Assef raped him. This episode was the begining of a big trouble in Amir`s life as he becomes the responsable of a big lie. He was watching the scene, he could have stood up for Hassan, but instead, he ran away, which expresses when he says “I had one last chance to make a decision. One final opportunity to decide who I was going to be. I could step into that alley,stand up for Hassan the way he`d stood up for me all those times in the past and accept whatever it would happen to me: Or I could ran. In the end I ran”. Here, Amir made a choice he would regret forever. In this part of the story their friendship changes.
Hassan felt worse than ever as he knew his best friend, hadn`t help him in that horrible moment of his life. After the rape, Hassan had to go away from Amir`s house in awful circumstances. As Amir felt so guilty, he wanted Hassan to go so he set a trap on him. Amir hid a wristwatch from his birthday presents, under Hassan`s bed and he claimed it had disappeared. After that, Amir`s dad asked Hassan if he had stolen Amir`s watch.” Hassan`s reply was a single word, delivered in a raspy voice: Yes”. This attitude shows Amir`s selfishness, cowardice and also here another betrayal is comited towards Hassan who was obviously innocent.
After Hassan left, years passed and Amir felt even more guilty, this feeling inside him wihch didn`t let him sleep. It`s interesting that everything turned round for him when he recieved a phone call from Rahim Khan in which he tells him something very important: “There`s a way to be good again”. With those words Amir prepared himself to deal with the most difficult burden in his life, his guilt. But also this phrase, let us know the other part of the story as here starts Amir`s real journey.
As Rahim Khan knows all his past sins, he asked Amir to save Hassan`s son Sohrab, who was an orphan and was lost somewhere in Kabul. Amir travelled miles and miles to find the boy, and when he finally gets to him he had a terrible fight against the man that had the child,and had almost killed him, Assef.
This is when Amir finally feels relieved with himself. While Assef was kicking and hurting him, he started laughing “I hadn`t been happy and I hadn`t felt better, not at all. But I did now. My body was broken but I felt healed. Healed at last”. It is here when Amir changes his attitude, he promised himself to take care of Sohrab and in this way also he felt better as he could finally get rid of that feeing of guilt that had tortured him since he was a child.
At the end of the book while Amir was flying kites with Sohrab, he said a few words that have a very strong meaning “ For you a thouthand times over”. Hassan used to say that to Amir everytime he asked or needed something. As now everything has changed for Amir, this phrase is very strong. He became a different person, the guilt was gone, and he was ready to live his life without it.
This story mentions friendship and betrayal as the main topics of it and they are perfectly reflected in the way each of the characters act. Every step, evey situation, was crucial to see how betrayal changes everything. Sohrab entered into Amir`s life and saved him as he was unhappy and sad. With him Amir`s selfishness and inmaturity were gone as he finally understood the real meaning of friendship. Even though he betrayed his best friend, Amir could overcome the situation but all the same, betrayal made their friendship change forever.
( 794 words)

Discrimantion and violence: A serious problem

“Peace on Earth relies on our ability to ensure the survival of the human race”. These words were said by a woman that nowdays fights for women and kids rights.These words have a strong message. Human race will survive if we start accepting that everybody is different and has own ideas and feelings. The problem is that nowadays this is not clear for everybody, that is why discrimination exists and affects many people. But something that must worry society is the fact, that in many cases, victims react in a very violent way.
In the case of Argentina, discrimination is everywhere and affects people in many ways. Racism, discrimination towards fat people, homosexuals, beteween classmates and kids at school are, among others,the most common cases. All of these are very serious but the worst thing is that they happen every day in any cirscuntances, and everywhere. All of them occure for several reasons but the problem is that all these reasons are unfair. What happens, is that people don`t like ideas that are different from the way they think and that is a lack of tolerance.
Discrimination at schools has become very serious and adults must realize this in order to try and stop it. It is difficult. Nowadays children are careless about other kids feelings,and that is what makes it so complicated because discrimination turns into violence as classmates insult, harass, bother and also hit each other, for many reasons.
A consecuence of this,is one episode that occured in 2002 in Buenos Aires, in a school in Carmen de Patagones. A fifteen year old kid entered school with a gun and killed four of his classmates. After some days, their classmates told the media that the boy was discriminated because he listened to heavy metal, he was shy and didn`t have friends. This horrible episode was the result of years of torture towards that kid, who finally reacted violently,killing his classmates.
Another conflict that is also present in schools is the discrimination of social classes, which is terrible.It is true that this has always existed, but it also carries with it feelings of anger,jealousy and inferiority, which usually lead to fights that in many cases are deadly. One example is the girl from Tucumán that attended to a private school and was attacked by girls from a public school, as they said she was pretty and liked to wear expensive clothes and purses that the other kids could`t have because of their economic situation. As a consecuence of that terrible episode, the girl had her leg broken and also had a very serious injur in her chest.
It is true that nowadays people are more concious about this problem. This is why many different organizations now exists that fight against discrimination, but also work on human rights.“Ampararte”, in Argentina, is a very good example.This association works in Buenos Aires and fights against any form of discrimination, but also protects and preserves life, and tries to avoid cultural and social differences. Apart from these objectives, people that work there also visit schools and give conferences in order to give some advice to people so they can deal with that situations.
Another important association is the Massachussets Comission Against Discrimination ( MCAD or “comission”), which works in the United States. The purpose of the MCAD is to provide guidance to employers, individuals,students and employees that suffer or have suffered discrimination. Similar to these two organizations, there are many others around the world that work hard trying to stop disrimination and violence and all the other problems they bring on with them.
Trying to stop the problem of discrimination all over the world is very difficult as people are selfish and do not care about other person`s feelings.Each one reacts in a different way depending in their personality and way of thinking.
I believe people must be more tolerant with each other and must understand that we are all different and that is one of the things that makes our lifes interesting. This is why respect is very important as everyone has their own ideas, opinions and points of view and we have to respect them. Many things can be done in order to fight discrimination and violence which are so harmful for everybody. It is essencial that we all try to stop this problem because without it we would live happier and what is most important, in peace.

The Kite Runner: Baba’s side of the story

Khaled Hosseini’s writing style allows the reader to use their imagination to fill the empty spaces he leaves in some parts of the narrative. Following his style and the character’s personalities, I decided to write a piece to fill one of these gaps: the episode when Baba gets Ali’s wife pregnant. As we were talking about these empty spaces in class, my idea came from a question we discussed: ““How could such a man of principles like Baba have fallen for Sanaubar?” Inspired by this question, I imagined the situation and set off to write this piece.

…It was my fifth bottle of whisky. I‘d never drunk so much. I missed her a lot… My vision was blurred, my head ached and my stomach was sick. It was a windy spring night; I went out to have some air. I was in the front yard when someone opened the gate. For the shape, you could see it was a woman. She walked to where I was standing. I could hardly see her, though I could smell her. It was a familiar perfume, jasmine, just like the one she used… She stood in front of me, I could feel her breath, the warmth of her body… she kissed me…it was her. I couldn’t let her go…
The sun light woke me up. I was excited, there were many things I wanted to tell her… I wanted her to see our child, but… it wasn’t her. I woke Sanaubar up. I told her to leave and to never mention this to anyone. She did what I told her. We never talked about this night again. I felt embarrassed for what I had done. I had betrayed my friend, and that’s something I would never forget.
A month later, she came to talk to me. I couldn’t look at her in the eye, I still felt embarrassed. She told me she was carrying my baby. I couldn’t believe her. May be she was pregnant of Ali’s child, but she told me he hadn’t touched her since they got married. What was I supposed to do? I told her to make him believe it was his baby. And she did so.
Months passed, and I could see my biggest mistake grow in her belly. Remorse. That was what I felt when I saw Ali, so happy, telling everyone he was going to be a father. I decided to tell him the truth.
He was working in the garden, cutting the grass, I told him I needed to talk to him, so he stopped his work and paid attention to me.
“There’s something I need to tell you”, I started.
“Yes, Baba agha, what is it?”
“You…” I tried to start, but he interrupted me.
“Baba, I didn’t have the chance to talk to you and thank you for everything, you are a great man and my best friend. I appreciate everything you have done for me. ”
He was making it so hard for me to say what I had to tell him. I didn’t want to hurt him, but I had to get it off my chest…
“You aren’t…” Suddenly, Sanaubar appeared. Her water had broken; she was going to give birth. I couldn’t finish my sentence, Ali ran to help her. They went into their little house and came out after five hours.
It was a healthy baby boy, Ali called him Hassan. I loved him since the first time I saw him. And, because of Ali’s pride, happiness and the baby’s sake, I never told him I was Hassan’s father.
Sanaubar came to talk to me and said she wanted to be with me, raise our kid together; she wanted to leave Ali and marry me. I hit her. I couldn’t let her say those things. I told her to leave and never come back. The next day she was gone, leaving no trace of her destination.
I did everything to give Hassan what he needed. I raised Ali’s salary, so that he could buy what my baby needed, I hired the same nursing woman for him and Amir. In a way I wanted them to bond, so that maybe when they grew up, they could figure out they were brothers.
And they grew up as friends, I suppose. Hassan acts like me; he stands up for Amir, he is so loyal. Sometimes I wish Amir was more like Hassan; he is so fearful sometimes. He can’t look after himself. I don’t know what to do with him.
I just hope one day they’ll realize they are brothers. I know it is my duty to tell them, but can’t. I am afraid of them hating me for lying. They mean so much to me and they are doing great without knowing the truth. I give them what they need… they spend time together, I think they are happy this way. I don’t want this family to suffer for my mistakes. Hopefully someday they’ll see I did this because I love them and they mean the world to me.
If I am lucky enough things will continue as well as they are now. Amir and Hassan have just won the Kite Tournament. I am so proud of them, they are both excellent children. Tomorrow, the three of us will go out to celebrate.

Violence and bullying: a global issue

All over the globe news about violent students are headlines in the most important newspapers and magazines.

In Argentina, according to a study made by the Instituto Gino Germani (de la Facultad de Ciencias Sociales de La Universidad de Buenos Aires) to 4971 public high school students, 52% of teens, suffered or used violence against their classmates; 17% chose physical aggressions, and 16.9% said they had been victims of verbal violence, such as discrimination or insults. The highest levels of violence were present in the norwest of our country.

Kids are discriminated because of their physical looks, their beliefs, the places where they live or were born, and also for their groups of friends. Discrimination, plus insults, joking and punches, are the most popular bullying methods used by teens.

Unfortunately, this also happens in Europe and in North America. In the USA, attacks to schools or universities by students, brought huge numbers of victims. In Germany 10% of all students suffered from the violence of their classmates; in France 13% of teenagers were attacked by their equals. The country which has the highest number of kids bullied, with 21% is Britain. The authorities are experimenting with different solutions to deal with school violence: there are seminars to help kids and teachers how to be prepared in case they have to deal with this problem, they have found ways to make students be aware of this issue and to teach them how to act in case of being bullied.

In Argentina, bullies are expelled and forced to go to therapy, in the worst cases. If the situation is not that terrible, let’s say a student hits another, but he is alright, the bully remains in the school, even if the aggressions continue. Because of this, many parents decide to take their kids out of school, as the school’s authorities can’t or won’t do much to improve the situation.

The root of this problem, in many cases, is that students have to face violence in their own homes, so they see violence as a normal way of expression and, sometimes, as the only way to handle a discussion. In other cases, it has to do with teenagers search for their own identity. They use violence to show or prove themselves as strong, fearless and superior; because they are full of fear and are not confident enough, so they act the other way around not to show their “weakness”.

75% of teens believe the only way out a quarrel is to solve the problem with physical and verbal violence, so it is common to witness fights outside night clubs and parties in Argentina; and it is very important to point out that the people involved are both boys and girls.

It doesn’t matter what social status kids have, violence is present in every social class. Although the students interviewed attend public schools, violence is present in private schools as well. We usually hear about bullying, and violence in general, among teenagers in the lower classes, but in high classes, bullies do exist. In these establishments violence, verbal violence in general, can be even worse than in public schools; because the sense of superiority is always present.

A calm atmosphere, according to the researchers, communication between teachers and students, and respect are essential to avoid fights and verbal violence in schools. Students should also count with the help they need, like talking with experts, so that they can learn how to solve their problems talking, instead of using violence. The school should be an institution that makes sure students are safe, instead of creating problems. If there were problems, teenagers can get these negative things, affect their lives; for example they may change their study habits, their self esteem can be affected and they may find it hard trusting people, or worse, quit school.

Parents should also pay attention to their children’s behavior in case they are having awful times at school, according to experts. Kids who are bullied tend to isolate from the world, because they are afraid they may continue being bullied by everybody. So to be aware of children’s school situation is very important to keep a good dialogue with them once, so that in any case, the situation can be improved.

From Argentina’s government, after several bullying episodes, nowadays there are measurements being taken so that the situation can be improved and this problem can be solved, by applying more severe discipline measurements, such as suspensions for verbal and physical violence.

Randy Pausch: El profesor que conmovió con su última lección

Recomiendo que lean esta nota, y vean el video de la última charla de Randy Pausch. Quizás sea un poco largo el texto o el video, pero realmente, vale la pena.

*Videos para que ustedes elijan en cuál opción verlo (también pueden bajarlo del Ares, o el programa que utilicen): http://www.cmu.edu/uls/journeys/randy-pausch/index.html

*Nota en la Revista Nueva: http://www.revistanueva.com.ar/numeros/00893/nota/3

*Nota que copié a continuación, de La Nación: http://www.lanacion.com.ar/nota.asp?nota_id=1034398&high=randy%20pausch

Randy Pausch, el profesor universitario que conmovió a millones en el mundo con su historia y sus enseñanzas, decía que los obstáculos son positivos. 'Nos dan una chance para demostrar cuánto queremos algo', explicó en su última y magistral clase.' Si en verdad ése es tu objetivo, si en verdad soñás con aquello que parece imposible, superarás los pantanos como sea', dijo.

Pausch falleció el viernes 25 de julio y su historia conmovió a todos. Ni él imaginó la repercusión que obtendría: más de seis millones de personas gozaron ya de su mensaje por Internet y el libro que siguió a su última clase trepó al número uno de su tipo, según la lista de best sellers de The New York Times. Superó con creces su último objetivo: dejarles un mensaje de amor y esperanza a sus tres hijos, su esposa, sus alumnos y sus colegas de la universidad.

¿Quién era Pausch? Un prestigioso profesor de la Universidad Carnegie Mellon, de 47 años, al que le diagnosticaron cáncer terminal en el páncreas. Tenía tres chiquitos de 1, 3 y 6 años. Hasta allí, una historia trágica y común. Pero la vuelta mágica se dio cuando, como a tantos otros docentes en tantas otras universidades, le ofrecieron dar una clase magistral basada en una pregunta: ¿qué enseñarías a tus alumnos, si fuera tu última clase? En su caso, una vivencia tangible.

La conferencia se concretó el 18 de septiembre de 2007. A lo largo de 76 minutos llenos de humor y candidez, repasó su vida, reafirmó su amor por su mujer -a la que incluso sorprendió en el escenario con una torta-, sus padres e hijos y se despidió de mentores y alumnos con gracia y consejos. Hoy puede disfrutarse en Internet (www.cmu.edu/uls/journeys/randy-pausch/index.html) y 10 millones de personas ya lo hicieron en YouTube.

Pausch habló en su última clase sobre la importancia de mantener los sueños infantiles, respetar a quienes nos rodean ('Espera lo suficiente y la gente te sorprenderá e impresionará') y a plantearnos preguntas incómodas.

La primera, cuánto deseamos algo ('Las paredes de ladrillos están allí por una razón. Nos permiten demostrarnos cuánto queremos algo'). La segunda, si fallecieras mañana, ¿cómo te despedirías? ¿Qué les dirías? ¿Qué harías? ¿Qué dejarías de hacer? ¿Por qué no lo has hecho hasta ahora?

Pausch planteó todo eso y más, sin caer en el melodrama ni permitiéndole a nadie que sintiera pena por él. Por el contrario, sazonó todo con ironía: 'Si alguien tiene algún suplemento herbario o remedio alternativo, por favor, manténgase alejado de mí', mientras demostraba la vitalidad que por entonces conservaba arrojándose al piso y a puras flexiones de brazos.

La charla tomó vuelo de manera viral -testigos que lo recomendaron a otros, y estos a terceros-, y mediática, ya que un amigo del columnista de The Wall Street Journal , Jeffrey Zaslow, lo alertó de la conferencia y el periodista manejó 480 kilómetros para verla por el pálpito de que podía tratarse de 'algo grande'. Lo fue y lo sigue siendo.

Todo para sus hijos

La revista Time nombró a Pausch una de las 100 personas del año, y le llovieron mails de personas que le contaban que gracias a él habían superado deseos de suicidio, habían dejado atrás divorcios complicados o historias de maltratos, habían modificado sus prioridades o habían enfrentado sus enfermedades terminales con serenidad.

Con el paso de las semanas, su conferencia mutó en libro gracias a la ayuda del propio Zaslow -que grabó 53 horas de entrevista mientras Pausch pedaleaba por su barrio para mantenerse en forma y, por lo tanto, no podía dedicarles ese tiempo a sus chicos-, y eso le permitió, a su vez, cobrar US$ 6,8 millones para ellos.

Despedido ahora con alabanzas por The New York Times , el Journal , The Washington Post ('Pausch, el profesor que dio la clase de una vida') y cientos de diarios y revistas en este país, Europa y Asia, Pausch dejó en claro en la misma conferencia que su 'última charla' tenía sólo tres destinatarios: Dylan, Logan y Chloe, sus chiquitos.

'Intento ponerme a mí mismo en una botella que algún día aparecerá en la playa para mis hijos', explicó. Por ese mismo objetivo de dejarles recuerdos imborrables, llevó al mayor, Dylan, a nadar con delfines. Sabía que, con apenas 6 años, muy poco es lo que recordaría de él. Pero 'nadar con delfines no es algo que olvidará fácilmente'.

Por eso llevó al segundo, Logan, a Disney y se encargó de 'presentarle' a su héroe, Mickey. También se dio algunos gustos. Se fue a bucear con sus tres mejores amigos, se compró un convertible, se sometió a una vasectomía y pasó todo el tiempo disponible con Jai, su esposa.

Pero lo más difícil fue con Chloe, la pequeña. Le grabó videos con mensajes tan claros como contundentes y llenos de pasión paternal: 'Quiero que crezcas sabiendo que yo fui el primer hombre que se enamoró de vos'.

Para Pausch, la conferencia, el libro y los videos fueron también medios distintos de dejarles constancias de ese amor y del gozo de la vida cotidiana en su formato más sencillo: ellos jugando juntos, leyendo un libro o de él aconsejándole a Chloe cómo reconocer las intenciones de sus futuros pretendientes: 'Prestá atención a lo que hagan, no a lo que te digan'.

Profesor hasta el final, Pausch también consultó a adultos que habían perdido a uno o a ambos padres durante su niñez. Le contaron que encontraban algo de paz al saber cuánto los amó su padre o madre y que cuanto más aprendían de ese amor, más podían sentirlo ahora.

'Los chicos, más que cualesquiera otros, necesitan saber que sus padres los aman', se explicó luego Pausch, mientras se aprestaba para su último gran obstáculo, o 'pared', como él los llamaba. 'Los padres no tienen que estar vivos para que eso ocurra.'

Un mal terminal

·En septiembre de 2007, ante 400 estudiantes, el profesor Randy Pausch dio su última clase en la universidad y reveló su enfermedad terminal.

Legado

·Su clase 'Cumple de verdad tus sueños de la infancia' es un legado a los jóvenes. Fue subida a Internet y tuvo 10 millones de visitas en YouTube.

Best seller

·La revista Time lo consideró entre las 100 personalidades más influyentes del mundo. Su libro La última lección vendió 4,5 millones de ejemplares.

Stress

A lecturer when explaining stress management to an audience, raised a glass of water and asked 'How heavy is this glass of water?' Answers called out ranged from 20g to 500g. The lecturer replied, 'The absolute weight doesn't matter. It depends on how long you try to hold it. If I hold it for a minute, that's not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my right arm. If I hold it for a day, you'll have to call an ambulance. In each case, it's the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes. 'He continued,' And that's the way it is with stress management. If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later, as the burden becomes increasingly heavy,we won't be able to carry on. ''As with the glass of water,you have to put it down for a while and rest before holding it again. When we're refreshed, we can carry on with the burden. ''So, before you return home tonight, put the burden of work down. Don't carry it home. You can pick it up tomorrow. Whatever burdens you're carrying now, let them down for a moment if you can. 'So, my friend, put down anything that may be a burden to you right now. Don't pick it up again until after you've rested a while. Here are some great ways ofdealing with the burdens of life:
* Accept that some days you're the pigeon,and some days you're the statue.
* Always keep your words soft and sweet,just in case you have to eat them.
* Always read stuff that will make you look goodif you die in the middle of it.
* Drive carefully. It's not only cars that can berecalled by their maker.
* If you can't be kind, at least have the decency to be vague.
* If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again,it was probably worth it.
* It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply be kind to others.
* Never put both feet in your mouth at the same time,because then you won't have a leg to stand on.
* Nobody cares if you can't dance well.Just get up and dance.
* Since it's the early worm that gets eaten by the bird, sleep late.
* The second mouse gets the cheese.
* When everything's coming your way,you're in the wrong lane.
* Birthdays are good for you.The more you have, the longer you live.
* You may be only one person in the world,but you may also be the world to one person.
* Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once.
* We could learn a lot from crayons... Some are sharp, some are pretty and some are dull. Some have weird names, and all are different colors, but they all have to live in the same box.
*A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour. Have an awesome day and know that someone has thought about you today...I did.

Decálogo del Escritor por Augusto Monterroso

Primero.
Cuando tengas algo que decir, dilo; cuando no, también. Escribe siempre.

Segundo.
No escribas nunca para tus contemporáneos, ni mucho menos, como hacen tantos, para tus antepasados. Hazlo para la posteridad, en la cual sin duda serás famoso, pues es bien sabido que la posteridad siempre hace justicia.

Tercero.
En ninguna circunstancia olvides el célebre díctum: "En literatura no hay nada escrito".

Cuarto.
Lo que puedas decir con cien palabras dilo con cien palabras; lo que con una, con una. No emplees nunca el término medio; así, jamás escribas nada con cincuenta palabras.

Quinto.
Aunque no lo parezca, escribir es un arte; ser escritor es ser un artista, como el artista del trapecio, o el luchador por antonomasia, que es el que lucha con el lenguaje; para esta lucha ejercítate de día y de noche.

Sexto.
Aprovecha todas las desventajas, como el insomnio, la prisión, o la pobreza; el primero hizo a Baudelaire, la segunda a Pellico y la tercera a todos tus amigos escritores; evita pues, dormir como Homero, la vida tranquila de un Byron, o ganar tanto como Bloy.

Séptimo.
No persigas el éxito. El éxito acabó con Cervantes, tan buen novelista hasta el Quijote. Aunque el éxito es siempre inevitable, procúrate un buen fracaso de vez en cuando para que tus amigos se entristezcan.

Octavo.
Fórmate un público inteligente, que se consigue más entre los ricos y los poderosos. De esta manera no te faltarán ni la comprensión ni el estímulo, que emana de estas dos únicas fuentes.

Noveno.
Cree en ti, pero no tanto; duda de ti, pero no tanto. Cuando sientas duda, cree; cuando creas, duda. En esto estriba la única verdadera sabiduría que puede acompañar a un escritor.

Décimo.
Trata de decir las cosas de manera que el lector sienta siempre que en el fondo es tanto o más inteligente que tú. De vez en cuando procura que efectivamente lo sea; pero para lograr eso tendrás que ser más inteligente que él.

Undécimo.
No olvides los sentimientos de los lectores. Por lo general es lo mejor que tienen; no como tú, que careces de ellos, pues de otro modo no intentarías meterte en este oficio.

Duodécimo.
Otra vez el lector. Entre mejor escribas más lectores tendrás; mientras les des obras cada vez más refinadas, un número cada vez mayor apetecerá tus creaciones; si escribes cosas para el montón nunca serás popular y nadie tratará de tocarte el saco en la calle, ni te señalará con el dedo en el supermercado.

El autor da la opción al escritor de descartar dos de estos enunciados, y quedarse con los restantes diez.

Prevención de accidentes

Los accidentes constituyen la primera causa de muerte en niños mayores de un año y representan una importante causa de que personas se enfermen, dejando secuelas y erogación de recursos. Se dispone de cifras de mortalidad por accidentes y de registros de internados, pero los datos de todos los pacientes lesionados son difíciles de registrar, lo que da a entender que no son las verdaderas muertes solo las que se publican…sino muchas mas…

Para prevenir este verdadero problema se hace necesario conocer sus características, pues las estrategias de prevención difieren considerablemente según la clase de accidentes, los sitios de ocurrencia o los grupos de edades parecidas involucrados y no resultan útiles las campañas preventivas que intentan abarcar simultáneamente a todo tipo de accidentes..No son suficientes…hay que persuadir la población para que cada uno empiece desde su lugar a hacer de la calle un lugar seguro para todos.

Cada Año es como si el boliche Cromagnon se incendiara una vez por semana. Y se explica: por día hay 60 choques en Tucumán y 30 víctimas mortales en el país, y el Estado gasta 5.000 millones de dólares anuales para atender a los heridos. El director de Emergentología, Juan Masaguer, habla de las “muertes por gotera”, esto es, los decesos que se producen varios días después de los accidentes, y que no quedan contabilizados en la estadística.
Como estamos amortiguados, poco nos sorprenden las cifras, que sí las viven los que atienden las emergencias, porque presencian a diario el dolor y la tragedia. Al común de la gente le sorprenden los crímenes y las peleas, pero no advierte la desproporción entre la violencia criminal y la violencia en el tránsito.

Para que vos o tu familia no pasen por esto acordate siempre..

*Usa SIEMPRE el cinturón de seguridad

*Los niños SIEMPRE en el aciento de atrás

*Si tomaste no conduzcas

*Respeta las señales de trancito

*Usa Casco…te puede salvar la vida!

Si Queremos una provincia mejor…empezemos nosotross!

Micael Quiroga Gomez 2ºB