The right to die?

» Posted by Susana


Recently, there has been a massive debate in Italy. Why? Because of the legalisation of euthanasia. The question came when Eluana Englaro, 38, died in February after her feeding tube was removed. The thing is that The Vatican is located in Italy and catholic church is anti-euthanasia, so it'll be interesting to know what they'll do about it. We all have the right to live. But, and in my humble opinion, euthanasia should be allowed in some circumstances. When people are really suffering and just want to die, or the family is really suffering, and there's no chance for the person to survive, I think it should be done. I'm not for or against euthanasia, it depends. What about you? Are you for or against? Why?

Source:
- http://www.cartoonstock.com/newscartoons/cartoonists/sda/lowres/sdan58l.jpg

Women's Day - Equal Job Rights?

» Posted by Susana


I'm not going to post a definition of women discrimination ok? ;) That would be really boring, I know. :)

Today is the Woman's Day, and I just came across a new that says that Portugal is the 2nd country where there's job discrimination. For example, when a woman has the same job as a man and the same skills and qualifications, the man receives more 20% than the woman. So, it just had me thinking that we live in the 21st century. Things like this happened like... a hundred years ago, but nowadays?? It's almost unbelievable. How can we say we live in a developed country? How? When women are still discriminated? Women represent 60% of the world's 550 million working poor. It's the reality. And it's also true that women are still discriminated, specially in a country which claims to be a developed one and open minded. I seriously almost didn't believe it at first. And I'm not even going to talk about job discrimination when a woman is pregnant... that's even more serious, but anyway... This can be changed, this must be changed. And I hope it's changed. I personally don't want to work in a world like this.

Here you can see some cartoons about women discrimination I just found:









Sources:
- http://www.cartoonstock.com/lowres/for0588l.jpg
- http://www.newyorkemploymentlawyerblog.com/13157133.jpg
- http://www.cartoonstock.com/newscartoons/cartoonists/ksm/lowres/ksmn955l.jpg

The Secret Life of Bees - The fight for the Civil Rights

» Posted by Susana


Recently, I watched a great movie called The Secret Life of Bees. It's based on a novel with the same name, which I also read. It's a great book. Here's the synopsis of the movie:

Set in South Carolina in 1964, The Secret Life of Bees tells the story of Lily Owens, whose life is shaped by her blurred memory of the afternoon of her mother's accidental death. When Lily's black "stand-in mother," Rosaleen, insults three racists in town, they escape to Tiburon, South Carolina.

Lily is lonely at home and feels that she is unloved by her father, T. Ray. However, with the help of August Boatwright, she is able to find that she has many people that love and care for her.

Lily is faced with trying to find out who she is because at her home she is not allowed to ask questions about her past. Lily does this in many ways, such as writing down her thoughts in a notebook, and finding her first love, Zachary Taylor. She finds out who she really is when she learns about her mother's past.

As you can see, this story happens in 1964, in South Carolina, where the discrimination was much rougher. And if you read one of my previous posts about American Civil Rights Movement, you come to the conclusion that it happened in the middle of that.

There's a situation in the movie where Rosaleen goes to register as a voter right around the time of the Voting Rights Act, and as she's going there, 3 white men ask her where she's going and say that she can't vote if she can't write her own name, and start insulting her. So, with her bottle of chewing tobacco, she writes with that liquid her name in the shoes of one of those white. She gets punched right after and beaten by the three men, and she's arrested.

Specially with this moment, we can see how discriminated black people were and how police would always stand for white people. Here's a video of that scene:

Sources:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_Life_of_Bees

Ellen DeGeneres - An assumed human being

» Posted by Susana


Ellen DeGeneres is an american talk show host. One of the best, by the way. One of the greatest comedians. She looks perfect. You look at her for 1 minute hosting, and you understand why she's considered one of the best in her job. She won several Emmys and even hosted the 2007 Oscars! A perfect career, isn't? There's just one thing 'limited' people will never accept: she's homosexual. She dated Portia de Rossi since 2004. They married in 2008 as soon as gay marriage was legally approved. And some people still don't accept it. Personally, I think that personal life shouldn't influence her career. I could be here all day talking about Ellen, and showing hundreds of videos of her talk show called The Ellen DeGeneres Show, but I won't. I just wanted to make clear that gay discrimination also happens to celebrities, which I think it's pretty sad.

Recently, she had a little discussion with John McCain about Gay Marriage. Check the video at the bottom:



Here's a video of Ellen's show best moments. She's hilarious.



And here's a random video, really funny.



Sources:
- http://youtube.com

Apartheid

» Posted by Luísa

Apartheid was a policy of racial segregation developed in South Africa, prepared by the direct descendants of pioneers who colonized the African continent, mostly European [Dutch, French and German], called Afrikaans.

The European colonizers had a design that would create a perfect society, and they also believed they were chosen by God. They began to put into practice the separation between white and black, this separation that lasted until the 90's. In 1948, the apartheid became official. The law was based on the principle of conservation and cultural purity, because the Europeans thought that they were the superior race. Among the restrictions imposed by whites on blacks, are, of course, the non-access to vote and prohibition from applying for office.
This context of pure prejudice has changed only in the 50's. It was motivated by the African National Congress and led by Nelson Mandela.
In 1960, a demonstration against apartheid in a peaceful manner had serious consequences: 60 blacks were killed by the police. This news of violence against blacks won the world, thus won the support of public opinion. In 1973, the UN General Assembly condemned the actions that occurred in South Africa and classified as crime.

Through the pressures suffered by black people, the president Frederik de Klerk changed some laws that restricted the black participation in politics and he reformulated them because of its racist essence, however, Apartheid only ended in 1994 when Nelson Mandela reached the presidency.

Visit this site to know more: http://www.apartheidmuseum.org/

Sources:
- http://www.brasilescola.com/geografia/apartheid.htm
- http://www.africanaencyclopedia.com/apartheid/apartheid.html
- http://www.ibge.gov.br/ibgeteen/datas/discriminacao/apartheid.html

What's going on?

» Posted by Luísa

Today, I decided to present to you a music - 'What's Going On?'. This is a original by Marvin Gaye of 1971, but in October 2001, a group of many popular artists, such as Alicia Keys, Britney Spears, Gwen Stefani, Christina Aguilera, Usher, Bono, Jennifer Lopez, Ja Rule, among others, under the name "Artists Against AIDS Worldwide", released an album - ''All Stars Tribute'' - to benefit AIDS programs in Africa and other impoverished regions. So, enjoy the song:

This song tells about the discrimination that people who have with AIDS suffer (Physical Discrimination) and also about the political and social troubles of the world of black and white people (Racial Discrimination). As I said before, on my post about the U.S.A, they are the most multiracial population, so unfortunately these problems are very common in their society. The blindfolds represent the prejudices and they are taking the blindfolds off like a methaphore - Without blindfolds, we can see everything clear. It means that we are all equal, we can't discriminate anyone for being or having a different colour, race, religion, culture or gender. This was made in 2001, but we're in 2009...and nothing have changed.
So the question is: What's going on?

If you want, you can check the lyrics here.

Sources:
- http://youtube.com
- http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/allstartribute/whatsgoingon.html%22