Do you believe in 'love at first sight?'

Maheata Bronstein

You know, everybody's different. We don't have the same beliefs. I'm in love but I have never had this 'experience' of love at first sight. Some people really trust in it but others do not. They maybe believe in it because they have already been in love at first sight, so they can tell about it or just hope for other love at first sight. But they can also trust in it just because they believe it.
Personally, I don't care about it. If one day I fall in love at first sight, I think I will accept it. But normally, I need to learn about the person or make his acquaintance. I know that we can't control love so I let it come. I have time to fall in love until I find my true love. It's my opinion.        

Do you believe in love at first sight?

Nezar Al Nezari

Loving someone at first sight is a question that makes you wonder, could it be true! Well actually, I believe it's hard to be true, because love doesn't just explode at the first look or appearance. Love has deep emotions and feelings that gradually develop in people hearts.

At first sight there is an attraction between two souls but it doesn't mean love. They begin to like, watch and notice each other in every move and smile, witnessing together romantic moments with feelings of happiness and excitement, counting the seconds when they are away from each other and forgetting time when they are together.

As an example I see this beautiful girl and I am so stunned by her beauty and so attracted to her, but still my feelings toward her aren't clear until I get to know her and spend some time with her, and get familiar with her personality and attitude. Then, our emotions are beginning to combine and we have a lot in common. At that time I realize that in this person I might find true love.

Falling in love with someone and finding a true soul mate takes a long time usually, because you cannot judge people on sight. You have to enter their lives and get to know them better, sense their soul and heart and what they are truly made of. That is why people can be heart broken, when they rush, and fall in love spontaneously without considering the circumstances that might result out of a relationship.

Rushing into love has never been a good option but taking it seriously and rationally may lead to a wonderful and romantic relationship that may last forever. 

Immigration

Abdul Kareem Diab

What I know about immigration is that it is linked with humanity. In addition it this, it associated with the search for water and food.

Nowadays, a considerable percentage of people who emigrate from their countries are just seeking a safe place. Many people seek other countries, especially in the young age group, where there is opportunity for work, and investment. A considerable number of people, especially those in family groups, escape from their original homes to work, and some times due to poverty.

A small number live in another area just to change their lifestyle or even to explore different parts of the world, seeking an astonishing and spectacular area.

Nowadays immigration is becoming day-by-day more difficult with more requirements. For one reason or other they are demanding more information and more original documents. In addition to these documents they don’t look at your age or at your qualifications or your job. They behave like someone who is precious, or even obsessive.

Moreover, the tragic thing facing us is a lot of people die while they are emigrating overseas from developing to developed countries as illegal emigrants. These accidents happened frequently between North Africa and Southern Europe in the Mediterranean Sea, and between Australia and Southeast Asia, in old, overcrowded boats. It is thought that they usually travel at night.

Do you know that millions of people have emigrated from Iraq during the last five years due to war and the foreign military occupation of Iraq in the name of freedom (but not, of course, oil)? Moreover, emigration has continued due to interior conflicts, motivated by the seeking of power under the name of democracy and religion. Many years before, more concisely in the fifties, immigration to Iraq was attractive, and allowed high opportunities for work and safety, and the opportunity to build a new life. However, these days there is less encouragement.

The complexity of life, the increase of the terrorism phenomenon and many other causes prevent many developed countries from allowing people from developing countries to migrate to them.

New Zealand, even now, needs immigrants to come work and live here. However it largely admits just skilled people, under a strict policy with a long period of assessment. A considerable number of immigrants are still coming, holding with them sufficient funds to live in New Zealand and establish businesses. Because of this long lasting process and because New Zealand is located away from the centre of the world, people who came are usually from the Pacific and South East Asia. They are usually young, healthy, and single, and some of them are married, with one or no children.

Finally each country, and New Zealand is one of them, has reasons to establish a policy and requirements for foreigners who enter, especially those from high risk, unstable countries.

Love is all you need?

David Santos Martinez

“All you need is love,” someone tells you when you get home. You look tired, stressful, and it seems like you are a prisoner of your own routine. Despite being unhappy with such a way of life, you keep waking up every morning at the same making no difference in any of the aspects that characterize your monotonic daily schedule: from bed to work, from work to home (or to school in the case you have children). Once at home, an inconceivable variety of chores are waiting for you: ironing, cooking, cleaning… And when you have finished all of them, you realize that you must go to bed immediately because tomorrow, as always, you have to get up early.

Imagine this happening at an unbearable pace / rhythm at least five days a week, and more than nine months every year. Well… wait! You don’t have to imagine it. You are living it! Because the truth is that nowadays we are so concerned about completing our commitments that we have even forgotten about ourselves. And as this is so, that when you hear “All you need is love” from someone who is standing in front of you just after you opened the door, you actually don’t consider the importance of the sentence, but you think “Get out of my way, I have a lot of things to do.” But alas, you do need love.

Love is, in most cases, the spark that makes our lives happier and unique. Love can be the light that will show you a different exit when you are surrounded by darkness. The problem is that there is no global formula for love, it is, as many feelings, a very personal thing.

Now some people will admit “Ok, I need love, so what?” If we were more attentive to our environs instead of concentrating so much on that dot that has turned out to be our life, then we would be able to see that there are lots of people around us trying to “give” us love, but, surprise, surprise, unconsciously, we don’t let them. A girl in the bus that is asking you the time, the man at the newspaper shop that asks you how are you doing, your children, your partner… and like these, hundred of examples. But we just answer with a monosyllable (yes, ok, ten o’clock, good, fine…) and then we submerge our minds again in the routine. So, as you can see, the authentic dilemma is not a lack of “sources” of love (because, to be honest, as another song wisely says: “Love is in the air”) but that we, so worried to fulfill tasks that keep us stressed, do not accept / perceive other people’s love for us.

 

As a result, I hope that the next time you feel your world is coming crashing down, you will just relax and you will wonder what is really going on, because, possibly, all you need is love. If not, don’t worry, “take” it anyway for the reason that love is probably one of the most effective “revitalizers” / medicines in the world, and, in addition, there is no problem if you exceed the dose.

“I don’t want to achieve immortality through my works. I want to achieve it through not dying.” Woody Allen.

David Santos Martinez

I’m afraid that Woody Allen will have to be satisfied with being remembered through his works, because the achievement of evading death is something that remains unknown, if possible.

Death: the most relevant and oldest question in the history of humanity. Well, actually, we can explain why we die, and it is because our chromosomes loose some genes in every cellular division. Despite the impact of this action being reduced by some ‘un-useful’ genes, which are placed on the extremes of the chromosome with a protective purpose, once the number of divisions reached is too high and we have lost all the waste genes, degeneration starts to affect some essential genes, which carry out important functions in our organism. And, finally, as a consequence of the loss, some major problems happen and our heart definitely stops beating.

But, what we don’t know is what happens after death. Obviously, our organic components go back to the environment, but what about our only abstract part?

Plato said that when we die, the mind goes back to the perfect and immortal world of ideas where it comes from. Christianity says that our souls go either to heaven or hell. And some empiricists, like David Hume, have assured us that the mind does not exist because our experience has never got in touch with such a thing.

First of all, I will discard the third possibility, because, although I haven’t seen any “minds” flying around, my personal experience makes me believe that the mind is something independent from the body. However, as a belief, it can be true or false, but unfortunately the answer is only likely to be found after death, so we can just guess it.

Now, to justify that the mind is immortal, I’ll use a theory from Kant.

He said that to affirm that something exists, its concept must appear in reality and in our minds. He also stated that a concept could only be presented in the mind, but not vice versa. A concept can’t stay in reality without being also in our minds. Let’s go again with the example of the unicorn. Its concept is only part of our minds, but at least this fact gives it the possibility of existence. The problem is that, until nowadays, we haven’t found any.

Now, try to think about the mortality of the mind. That means to conceive a state in which we are not able or reflect anymore, because this is what “death of the mind” means, isn’t it?

You will realize that it is impossible to imagine such a state without thinking. So, if we can’t create the concept inside of our minds, it is because it doesn’t exist, and as a result our minds are, then, immortal.

And there is one more thing: where does the mind / soul go after death?

Woefully, it is something with such a huge range of possibilities that even guessing would be a waste of time. Nevertheless, we can tell Woody Allen that, despite the fact that his body will inevitably die, with a stroke of luck, his mind will survive forever.

 

What is success?

Kazuki Suetake

      There are a large number of people who are generally considered as successful in many kinds of fields such as sports, entertainment and business. However, how were they defined as successful? There are as many numbers of definitions of success as the number of people. Although I fully understand how meaningless discussing this is, please let me tell you about my definition of success this time.

      Firstly, for me to acquire success, it is very necessary to earn a lot of money. When I talk about success, money is inseparable with it. I strongly believe that money makes us happier than being poor. Admittedly money very often makes people become different from before and almost always brings unhappiness to people who get too much money. Yet in my personal opinion it’s infinitely better to be in money rather than to be in debt, if you face unhappiness.

      Secondly, this element has something to do with what I said above and it is respect for a job. Even if you earn a lot of money, of course you cannot have respect from people if your work involves breaking the law. Rather, it’s quite clear that they will loathe you. If you don’t have a revered and admirable job, for example being a doctor, a professional sports player or an office worker in a huge famous company, people are highly unlikely to despise you even if you earn more than them. I don’t think that is success.

      Finally, you need to be enviable. Some people say that success is inside you. Being based on this opinion, if you feel satisfaction with your achievements or status, you can call it success. It seems to be wildly inaccurate to me. What I call success is definitely outside us. What they call success is merely self-satisfaction and in my view success can be visible only by people apart from you. Sometimes we need to be vain. For me gaining admiration or even envy is essential to be successful.

      Do you agree?

Would you like to be famous?

Maheata Bronstein

At first, celebrity generally means money, but we can be a celebrity without being rich. It also means someone who is recognized. 
I like watching famous people on the news, like when they do something good or bad. 
But do I want to be famous? 
I would say no because when you look at famous people, there are always paparazzi around them, so they don't have any intimacy with others. Any movements they make, their photos are taken.
Personally I weigh the pros and the cons. I like having time out with some friends without being watched.
It's true that you often have lots of money when you are famous but it doesn't mean you are happier than others. Sometimes you are so busy that you don't have time with your friends.

Reflections on a brand

Kazuki Suetake

When I look for my shoes, clothes and any other things for sports, I always look for one logo mark that has three lines firstly.

        This brand, of course Adidas, has been one of my favorite brands since I was a high school student. When I bought Adidas shoes because I decided to join a tennis club, was the first time I came across their products. What I like most about this brand is its design and that’s also why I chose the shoes for the first time. In a shoe shop where there were so many shoes, only Adidas’s shoes were fashionable and interesting for me. From this time, I have always tried to buy this brand’s products for my equipment and they have always been fashionable to me. I think it produces good quality with good color. It usually uses black color as a main concept. As you can see in the All Blacks, they wear black uniforms from Adidas and you might feel that their strong image and black color match. In addition to its design, its price is also pretty reasonable, another factor to buy them. You can find a difference in price between Adidas and NIKE in sports shops.

       There is no doubt that Adidas is among the best companies. Yet I was disappointed by one news story, which showed that an Adidas factory in Pakistan employed children who were under 10 years old and forbidden to work. They worked for 12~16 hours a day to produce official soccer balls for the FIFA world cup in France in 1998. Some children were forced to work too much and even their fingerprints vanished. Every multinational has this kind of problem in order to economize to produce. However I think I will continue to buy Adidas products in the future. To be ignorant is guilty, but what can we do after noticing injustice?

The meaning of ‘success’

Masayuki Sato

Success: the fact that you have achieved something that you want and have been trying to do or get [Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary]
To put it shortly, success means “to achieve our goal”.
However, does success mean really only this? Is it just achieving our goal success? I don’t believe so. I think success means not only the result that we can reach our aim, but also the process until achieving it. We may struggle for success and we must overcome our hardships for success. Sometimes there may be days when we can’t sleep. Sometimes there may be days when we do nothing but cry. But if we don’t go through such days, we can’t get real success. The proverb says “No pain, no gain”. Without difficulties, we don’t progress. I think this is a sort of law for being successful. Many celebrities also experienced some hardships before being famous. Robert Baggio, who is noted world soccer player from Italy, stated “There is no victory without going through hardships”. He was severely injured many times but continued to face his hardships without giving up and finally he became one of the best soccer players in the world. Also, his name is still well-known all over the world.
 
I would like to define “success” like this: “A solid rock, fused from your blood, sweat and tears.”

Thinking about Brands

Ricardo De Sa Rocha Mello

Nowadays, when people need to go shopping, they see that products have many different brands. It doesn’t matter what kind of product they are looking for. So, what is done? Usually, people are used to buying the same brands. When someone is used to doing it, it is assured that the product they are buying has the quality they are looking for.

Brands usually determine the quality, design and the price of the goods. So, how are products selected? Frequently, consumers select products according to their prices, after that the quality is the most important characteristic. Another important characteristic is how the product is manufactured; usually manufactured products are cheaper than handicrafts. However, usually handicrafts are better than manufactured goods and they are made with small details which make the pieces different from each other, even when they are similar, and many times these products are made for a selected group of clients, not necessarily rich clients.

Particularly, I look more for the design and quality than brand. However, there are some products that I automatically look for the brand, because I know the background of the company and the price and quality are convenient for me. Here in New Zealand, the price plays an important role for me because most of the brands are new to me, especially for food and clothes, for technological brands are the same as in Brazil.

In my hometown, I used to do shopping in the main shopping malls, basically because in these malls there are many stores and a great variability of any kinds of products that I needed. However, here in Dunedin, I buy my clothes on the street's stores because the prices were more accessible for me, and quality looked good to me. I bought my furniture in various stores, depending on the main use, my bed and couch; for example, I bought in Harvey Norman, and the bookshelves and the coffee table I bought in The Warehouse. So, the quality of the products depends on the main use too. One secret that I have learned to keep a good image for my house is that I don’t need to buy only expensive and luxurious products; if I buy expensive and cheap products I can maintain a good image of my house without spending a large amount of money.

The effect of the spread of English

Masayuki Sato

“English is an international language”. So many people use English in the world. It is said that there are more than 80 countries where English is used publicly and about 380,000,000 people speak English as a mother tongue. Surprisingly, about 600,000,000 people use English all over the world now.
The spread of English is good for human beings. For example, when we meet some foreign country’s people, the biggest problem is the difference of language, I think. If we can’t understand the language someone speaks, we can’t communicate well and also can’t express our ideas. If English spreads all over the world and all people are able to get to use English, we will not be in trouble with languages. It is good for not only meeting foreigners but also for business such as dealing, trade or contracts etc.
On the other hand, the spread of English has some negative points. An example of this is that by speaking English our nationality or culture gradually fades away, I think. This is just my idea but I believe it is so, because the chances we speak our own languages decrease as we are unified in our use of English as a common language.
the spread of English affects our life in both good and bad ways. Now is a time of globalization so it is important for us to study English. We must live under the situation where “we study English for globalization”  “but we shouldn’t forget our nationality.”

My favorite writer

Kazuki Suetake

When I was in Japan, I tried to read as many books as possible because I found that reading books makes our brains more thoughtful and intelligent, of course it depends on the books though. To improve my English, books in English are very useful, but I think that I should read a lot of Japanese masterpieces. Therefore, I chose one book to read because it was my teacher’s favorite and actually I had been interested in it before. The book was about one famous Japanese samurai  Ryoma Sakamoto who brought the revolution to Japan. After I started reading it, I couldn’t stop to do it. There were so many factors that made me become a bookworm. The main reason was that the book was in meticulous detail of the writer’s investigation into the characters, places and scenery where the story happened. Because it was about a person who really existed in the past, he visited numerous places and wrote the book from his travel. Therefore, the descriptions about the scenery were convincing and easy to imagine as if I was there. Another reason was that he had been a specialist of writing historical novels. He had been good at writing and known about old days’ culture well. He had published plenty of books that I really want to read them. However, when I finished reading the book it was just before I left Japan and now I’m here so that I can’t read them. Instead of them, I hope I’ll find favorite English writers here. I sincerely hope you’ll recommend one.

Is living a nightmare better than living your dream?

David Santos Martinez

It seems like today is a special day. We are all of us, including both of the family grandmothers, sat at the table, waiting for dinner. I just arrived from the university ten minutes ago and I am still a little bit surprised. I wonder why my family is not having tea in front of the TV, as always. Because, usually, a visit from the grandparents does not mean a change on the eating habits; there must be something else. Unfortunately, there is no variation in the menu: meat (garnished with one of the three cooking styles of my mother: honey and mustard; tomato and onion; and chili sauce. I wish I could eat some fish from time to time… meanwhile I will keep enjoying this incredibly assorted culinary taste…), boiled peas and carrots, and some potatoes prepared in the oven. However, when the turn of the dessert arrives, all my questions are answered: Michael (my brother) has baked a cake, and that is why Paula (my host mother) has decided to invite the grandmas, so they can enjoy this magnificent piece of cuisine.

After a long list of compliments, Scott (my host father) concludes: “It doesn’t matter how good do you cook, it is not going to be your work: there is no money in it”. His face is utterly serious, and his voice is decisive. Apparently, Scott does not look very pleased on hearing all these encouraging comments that could turn his son into a future chef. I can not help jumping the gun and I say: “Well, I think the best would be if Michael did the profession that he loves”. I can feel Scott’s glare. Immediately, Paula breaks the silence: “But, David, you know, money would give you the possibility of doing lots of things that you have always loved”. The typical materialist argument, can money buy happiness? But I am not going to orientate the conversation in that direction. “Certainly, but is it worth spending most of your life doing something that you don’t entirely like with the purpose of enjoying a much smaller amount of time? Can you imagine waking up every morning knowing that you have to go to work doing something that you hate, but that you chose because you thought that money would be enough to hide that unpleasant feeling? I don’t think so. It would be the same as living a lie: or even worse, a nightmare.” I wait until my family has assimilated the words, and then I finish by saying “As I see it, going to work every morning with a smile on my face and completely happy, is something that money can’t buy.”

Despite everyone in the table being perplexed, Paula manages to say “Yeah… you know, most of the people here in New Zealand study what their parents want”. Personally, I don’t think this is true, but I consider that there has been sufficient discussion for today, and I can feel how my efforts to persuade they are useless, so I just respond “Ah… Alright, then it must be my fault, because I have been brought up with the idea that my parents would be happy if I was happy while doing any job (which is within the limits of morality). But don’t worry, now I understand what you are talking about” And, after this, I try to change the topic as fast as I can and the night continues its habitual course.

 

In my opinion, if you have a dream, go for it and don’t permit anyone to veer you from your aims, because there is only one thing worse than living a lie: it is regretting the past. 

Globalization

Ken Sumida

First of all, this passage had been written before we read the text in our class. So, this content overlapped with the text we have, I’m afraid.

Nowadays it is said that the current world is “Globalization.” Is it true? Once you go to a supermarket, you’ll be able to figure out a meaning of “Globalization.” A myriad of stuff or products are put on a shelf. For example, a mango imported from Taiwan, a comfortable T-shirt made in China and a brilliant tastes bottles of wine comes from France, almost of them are transferred in the world. Additionally, we can quickly obtain information about the world via media like the Internet, TV, magazines and so on. Therefore, arguably, the current world is “Globalization.”

Is my description about “Globalization” sufficient? Of course, not!! In my speculation, an impact of “Globalization” may be incorporated into our daily lives. Sometimes the phenomena are explicit and other times they are implicit. So from now on, I’d like to illustrate the impact of “Globalization” by focusing on sports contexts.

Considering a famous golf player, Tiger Woods, an American sports product company, Nike has pumped plentiful money into his endorsement. As a result, no matter when he has been covered with any visual media, the Internet, TV, a newspaper and so on, we can always see the Nike logo. A person has been fascinated with his skillful and graceful plays and simultaneously shaped an affirmative attitude toward Nike! It is reasonable that people purchase a Nike cap or a Nike golf shirt in order to imitate Tiger Woods. However, at the moment, we should consider where they are commodified or produced. In fact lots of frail labour living in the Third World has done. In a sense, a multinational corporation like Nike exploits them or their manpower resources. Plus, we maybe contribute to their vicious dealings by depending greatly on their products. I conjecture “Globalization” has differentiated people into the exploit and the exploited. Ironically, although we have greatly had effort to enrich our daily life, this makes the world “Globalization.” Consequently, “Globalization” has resulted in these categories emerging abundant countries and vulnerable countries, I think. 

Do you have a favourite writer? Describe the texts you like, and why they appeal to you.

Ricardo Rocha Mello

Reading a good book is one of the best entertainments, it increases your knowledge, culture, it makes you relax and it is better than watching TV. People, who are used to read books, usually are less ignorant than people who do not read books. It happens because who usually read books also read papers, magazines and on others subjects and they absorb knowledge naturally. I think I do not have a favourite kind of book, it is easier to ask me what I do not like than what I like. I have read books about many subjects, such as fantasy, fiction-history, epics and classics.

When you read a good book you need to use your imagination and creativity to create the story in your mind, so when it happens you are inside of the story, and during moments of action or emotion your body reacts to these moments like if you were living the moment. So you increase your heartbeat and the level of serotonin, and it makes you feel happy and healthy, and reduces the probability of depression.

Reading a book increase your vocabulary range, improves your grammar, and you can use what you learn from the book in your personal life or your job.

These are some reasons why I like to read books.

 

America has long been a place where immigrant people hope to find prosperity. To what extent is this true today, in your opinion?

Ricardo Rocha Mello  

The United States has been one of the richest countries since the Second World War and it is a reference for many things. It exports culture and technology for all world and many people follow their way of life. Because of this a lot of people have been immigrating to this country hoping to find prosperity. The USA has a low rate of unemployment and many people have an opportunity to find a job and, sometimes, to make money. However, immigration is more complicated than we think; there are many features that interfere in this process, such as language and culture.

Some people migrate to the USA seeking for a better life; however, when they arrive in this country they find another reality. There are difficulties with the language and, like in every country, it is hard to find a good job or even occupy a similar work position that you had had in your own country; in consequence, people accept any kind of job. The salary would probably be better than in many countries for a similar position and this allows people to have more resources, for instance a better house, a car, technology and travel.

Nevertheless, these facilities don’t mean prosperity. Prosperity doesn’t mean only to be wealthy or rich, but, in addition, it means to have success, to improve in your career and your life. So, you left your life in your native country to immigrate to another country and, especially if you have difficulties with the language and don’t have money to improve this skill, you need to accept any job. It doesn’t matter what you need to do, you only accept the job, and many times this job doesn’t give you any prestige. Besides, you can be discriminated about the type of job you are engaged in and sometimes you can even be discriminated for your ethnical background.

In my opinion, immigrating to the USA can have positive or negative results. If you have good language skills and an academic background you can occupy a good position and be prosperous, even though is hard to achieve it. However, if you don’t have good language skills you can make more money than in your native country, but it is very hard to be prosperous or respected.

“To be or not to be – that is the question”

David Santos Martinez

 And it sounds so simple that most of us have never stopped to think about it for a minute. What does existence mean? Or a little bit more difficult, what does existence as a human being mean? Once we have ‘digested’ the question, we can vaguely try to find an answer.

We can consider that something exists when it is part of the reality, but how do we know what is part of the reality and what is not? Is a unicorn part of the reality? “No” someone will answer: and immediately he will justify something like: “Because I haven’t seen any”. Then, following the same formula, love happiness, hate… are not part of the reality, because I have never seen them. However, I have experienced them, so I can say confidently that they exist, but they exist in a different way as we do, they are abstract (or intangible), while we are concrete (or tangible). As a result, we have arrived at our first conclusion: we are concrete parts of the reality, which interact with other parts, some of them abstract. When we interact with them, we have different sensations, and it is here where the concept of life appears as a collection of experiences that define us as an individual and irreplaceable part of the reality.

But there is something else that I haven’t mentioned yet. We are, almost surely, the only beings on Earth who think about who they are; and it is exactly this point what makes us feel pretty sure that we exist. “I think therefore I am”, said Descartes. It may sound confusing, but it becomes clear when we see that to think is strictly necessary to “be”. And now the best part comes.

Because of our ability to think, our life is full of choices, and every decision is completely up to us. Sorry, life does not include something similar to a cook book, where you can find all the instructions that will lead you to the perfect recipe. No, you ‘prepare’ your own life; but it is this what makes life exciting. You never know what are you going to face the day of tomorrow, or what are going to be the consequences of today’s decisions.

Nevertheless, life can sometimes be very difficult, tough, and full of suffering; but we must know that there is no reward without effort, and, as I see it, it really worth it: waking up every morning ready to enjoy a brand new day full of surprises is a feeling that can not be compared to anything. Despite this, if our world comes crashing down, we will feel confused and we would not be able to help thinking, as Hamlet did, whether we want “to be or not to be”? And that, ladies and gentlemen, is a personal question.

Che Guevara

Moaz Al Shaiki

 Revolution is the only remedy for economic inequality

 

Che Guevara is one of the famous immigrant in history, one of the most influential men as well. His ideas and actions have inspired many people and countries and they are still doing that. What makes him so different from other political leaders is that he never looked for a high position nor to collect a fortune, although he could have. He lived and died as an ordinary or even pauper man.

Che was born in Argentina 1n 1928,being raised in a political environment. He suffered from acute asthma which would afflict him for the rest of his life, but even that didn’t prevent him from being an excellent sports man .He was indeed a big fan of rugby union. Joining medical school was the first step of his obsession with helping other people. One year before taking his MD diploma, he had decided to take a trip trough Latin America and to do some volunteer work to help leprous patients in Peru. During that trip, he was exposed to and in close contact with poverty, hunger and disease which were rife in south American countries  , that would change his idea about the appropriate way of helping poor people from medicine to politics. As he continued his journey towards helping people to find freedom, he went to Guatemala where he met the love of his life Hilda, whom he would marry later. Guatemala was governed by a leader who was elected democratically and matched the idea that Che had about good politicians.

However, the overthrow of the Guatemala leader was carried out with the great help of the USA. Since that time, he had considered the USA as the biggest foe against freedom. He managed to escape to Mexico where he met Fidel Castro , having worked together in the planning of the Cuban revolution. In the next few years, he commanded a small group of rebels who suffered with Che in very harsh conditions. However, revolution won out finally with great contribution from Che Guevara. After a few years of traveling between Cuba and the rest of the world , he decided to go back to the front line to support the revolution in the world. He went to the Congo in an unsuccessful attempt, then to Bolivia  where he was captured and executed in 1967. “ I know you’ve come to kill me. Shoot , coward, you are only going to kill a man” he said  bravely before he was put down  .

With his execution came the message to everyone about how one should keep fighting for his beliefs , showing that he was fighting the injustice in this world as the Bolivian government and CIA killed him in  cold blood and without trial.

From my perspective, although I don’t exactly agree with his left wing political beliefs , I completely agree with his aim and goals about creating a new world full of justice and without any major economic inequalities, believing that revolution plays a pivotal role in achieving that.

So we can clearly see that he fought for and killed in different countries away from  his own country …….

 

My favourite novel

My favourite novel

Masayuki Sato
 
In fact, my major is English literature in my university. However, I’m not interested in literature. So actually I study not English literature but English linguistics mainly. Because my major is English literature, I have read some novels in class. I don’t have any favourite writer but of the novels I’ve read, Animal Farm (1945) is my favourite novel.
 
Animal Farm was the novel written by George Orwell (1903-1950) in 1945. Orwell took part in a Civil War in Spain. After that, he wrote this novel bitterly criticizing a Stalinism and totalitarianism on the first half of a 20th century. 
 
This is the story in which many animals which were kept by human beings rose in rebellion one day and then they ruled the farm instead of humans. However, some animals became despotic and governed the other animals absolutely. For that reason, many wars and civil strife happened; finally confusion and fear surrounded the farm. 
 
This was a satiric novel and an allegory so all a characters were modeled on real persons. For example, the pig which was named Napoleon was modeled on Iosif Stalin, the politician from the Soviet Union. Napoleon ruled the farm with tyranny. Another example of this was the farm where these animals lived. This farm was modeled on the Soviet Union. The other farm which was named Pinchfield was Germany under the Nazism. They invaded an Animal farm many times.
 
This novel attracts me because it is not only fun, but we can study the background of that age. I didn’t have any idea about Stalinism or a Civil war in the Soviet Union etc. but thanks to reading this novel, I got to know those things a little more than before.

A Flock of Migrants

A Flock of Migrants

Chutima Choutong

Multicultural seems to be the situation that many countries around the world have been facing for a while. The developed areas tend to lure a large number of people. The amount of migrants has become an issue in terms of benefits and drawbacks.

 

Illegal movement is a huge problem for the target lands where they have to deal with a lot of uncontrolled situations. For distance the seekers who travel illegally have died on the crowded ships, which are supposed to transport them to a better life. It has been discussed about the right that asylum seekers should be provided from the agent that promised to give them a new life. The market are also one of the problems because people who want to move to other countries have been suffered from fake market such as they have to work in awful condition such as earning low pay rate or working in unsafe  place.

 

The difficulty to adapt to a new lifestyle is the most considered for migrants. For example the asylum seekers who are Asian have to deal with a totally opposite of way of life in Europeans or Americans such as eating, culture, and work. The pattern of western seems make people from Eastern, tend to depressed especially teenagers who have to a rapidly change for example school or society.

 

However multicultural seems to be the benefit of the movement. The exchange between new cultures and dweller improve economics such as a business or trade. In many countries as a result of immigration business is more effective because as we know people are coming with money which is so essential for an export and import system.

 

Education also has an effect from the switching over a culture as we know nowadays the world changes so fast so the knowledge of the world is more important than in the past. Technology exchange is the outstanding advantage of emigration such as the development of medical from different areas which causes a success of a great number of medical procedures.

 

To summarize multicultural or mixed ethnics seem to have benefits; the business and education, yet those also have the drawbacks in terms of uncontrolled immigration that effect or against the law.  

My attitude towards accents

My attitude towards accents

Kazuki Suetake                                                            

There are many ways to be a good speaker. Accents are an important key to be able to speak English fluently and communicate well. For many Japanese students, it seems that accents are an inevitable challenge and I’m no exception. If I don’t care about accents when I speak English, I usually tend to speak flat. Thus, since I came here in New Zealand, I’ve tried to put stresses in my speaking. In English, you should put stresses on the important words that you want to emphasize. On the other hand, you can pronounce unimportant words, for example prepositions, slightly. However, although I keep this factor in my mind every time I speak English, it often does not go well. I know the reason. It’s that I focus on making sentences rather than caring about accents. As I speak English, my brain works to compose English sentences using proper grammar, appropriate vocabulary and trying to tell a joke. I’m not able to do all of the things together in my English brain so far. Therefore, now I overweigh making better speaking, but I of course try to include accents when I read textbooks. Come to think of native accents, I’m not sure up to now. In my opinion, my problem in English is listening so I can’t distinguish which accents are English, American or Australian. I hope one day I will find the difference between them.