Manifesto

Camila Camargo

Mr. Patterson, Miss Sierra

British Literature, Comparative Government

12

Manifesto

“I figure life’s a gift and I don’t intend on wasting it. You don’t know what hand you are going to get dealt next. You learn to take life as it comes at you. To make each day count”(Titanic 1997). I like and try to live by this quote. Life is a gift, and I realize it is important to never take anything for granted. It is important to thank the people who make our lives so happy in so many ways. Sometimes, we forget to tell them how much we appreciate them.

 I can say this school has been a big influence in the person I am today. Most of my life experiences have been at this school, and it is sad to think that in a few days it will be all over. This school not only gave me great knowledge but also life lessons that I will always have in mind. 14 years studying at Colegio Panamericano opened so many doors for me-the ability to speak more than one language gives me several possibilities all around the world. Having classes with teachers like Miss Cheryl and Miss Sierra that have thought all around the world and them telling us stories about countries they have visited like China, Egypt, Turkey and many others makes me want to visit and learn about different cultures.

Today I think I am a happy person, I am blessed to have a great family and wonderful friends. There have been ups and downs in my life but there are not many things that I can say I have wanted to do and not have done it already. I have traveled to many amazing places and met some amazing people. I have met my idols, for many people it is not important, but my idols mean the world to me, and to say I have met them is amazing. I am very lucky to have parents who support every decision I make. My life has been so easy compared to what other people have to go through, I do not have to work or do anything at home, the only thing I am responsible for is having good grades at school.

There are so many things I want to achieve. I want to be a successful professional, I want find the love of my life, I want to have a family and travel the world. I want to continue meeting people that inspire me. I want to always be myself, no matter what; I want to stand up for what I believe in. I do not want to be afraid to take risks and make mistakes because even the best make bad choices.  I want to forgive and forget the things that aren't worth remembering. Accept people how they are because “Everyone has two sides, a good side and a bad side and we must embrace both in someone we love” (The Tourist).  I want to change the world. But how can someone like me do that? I want to help the needy; I want to change someone’s life. I remember one time my dad took me to do communitarian service and we were giving away clothes and food. The look on everyone’s face was priceless. The happiness I could see on their faces was amazing; it made me feel so good. Making people happy made me want to do more charity work and help improve people’s lives.

Now that I look back I realize that everything in my life so far has been incredible and I realize I would not wanted any other way. I have seen the two sides of life, I know life is no fairy tale and not everything is perfect. And imperfection can also be beautiful, always remember that what we care about is what we have in the inside. And the best thing about Colegio Panamericano was that I have had the pleasure of having people who support and love me. I hope I continue enjoying everything I do, and accomplish all my life goals.

Work Cited

Titanic. Dir. James Cameron. 20th Century Fox, 1997.

The Tourist. Dir. Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck. Columbia Pictures. 2010.

Light Bulb Conspiracy

In class we saw a video about the Light bulb Conspiracy. Today we live in a society where we do not create things because we need them but because we want new things. Since 1920 we live in a world with planned obsolescence, companies create products that are design to last a certain amount of time, in order for companies to sell more, even though the product may have a larger useful life. 

Things just are design not to work after a certain period of time so people will have to buy new products.
Physicist design lightbulbs that can last thousands of hours but they are forced to design products that are not the best quality. A lightbulb that could last one hundred thousand hours was created but it never reach the market. In 1929 machines started replacing people, the United States entered into a Great Depression, the only way to recover was to make people go shopping or start consuming. 
We live in a world were there is a lot of ambition and people always want to have newer and better stuff, not even caring if things do still work.

4 Horsemen

Throughout history, the US has been considered  a powerful empire based on its economical power, and political power. However, this could get to an end very soon. This is because, according to the film "4 Horsemen" the US is destined to fall from its status of world leader. The film states that en empire has 6 ages, in which there is the rise, the prosperity, and the fall. The American empire is in its time of decadence because of its high levels of prostitution and corruption. Today, everything is based on sex and money and this is why people are losing their values.

Society is also declining because of their use of money. Banks are creating money from nothing and this creates a hole in society where more corruption can be hidden. Since the last century the communism has been battling with capitalism to get the control. Capitalism finally won and favored the use of corruption in the bank system. A law was removed because it limited the banks to speculate which people's money. This got into the crisis.

Banking System

In class we saw a video called ZEITGEIST where we could get a better understanding of how money is created. Money is created by debts. The reserve banking system is the entity in charge of the money of the United States. The government of the US asks for a loan to the federal reserve and then that money is put in circulation. Then people ask for loans and they have to pay interests and that is how banks and the government makes money. The world will never be debt free, People will always have debts because money is created from loans.
"Money is debt and debt is money"

Money is created in the bank and it goes back to them. The amount of money that is printed and in circulation in the US is only 3 percent of all the money that they use. The money in reality does not exist. And banks loan a lot of money to other countries knowing that it can not be payed back, so they take advantage and ask for lower prices on products like oil or military bases all over the world. And at the end it is always the higher class people that are privileged by this system

Banco de Colombia

In Colombia since 1923 the "Banco Central de Colombia" is an autonomous institution of the state. It is run by a board of directors and a president. The Bank manages the country's monetary policy. Through monetary policies the government seeks to stimulate full employment and price stability. The Central Bank fulfills these roles to deposit funds in the nation and public entities under the conditions established by the Board.The monetary policy decisions are made based on analysis of the current state and prospects of the economy.

"Monetary policy in Colombia is governed by an inflation targeting scheme whose purpose is to maintain a low and stable rate of inflation, and achieve output growth in employment"

Banco De Colombia. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Apr. 2014.http://www.banrep.gov.co/es/politica-monetaria

NATO suspends 'all military ties' with Russia

NATO suspends military ties with Russia and joins with Ukraine to help them keep the Crimea region. This decision was made on tuesday by the military foreign ministers. 
The NATO decided to suspend the ties with Russia because they saw that Russia had no intention of withdrawing the troops from Ukraine so why would they support them, and that makes the tension with Ukraine and Moscow never end. 

"The European Union has pledged $15bn (11 billion euros) as part of a package of support with the International Monetary Fund.

"It is in the interests of Ukraine and Europe to maintain peace and stability on our continent," Rehn told journalists on the sidelines of a meeting of European finance ministers in Athens."

The Nato will try as much as possible to help Crimea and try to end what could possible become a war.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (R) stands with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Deshchytsia before their meeting at the NATO headquarters in Brussels April 1, 2014.

NATO Suspends 'all Military Ties' with Russia." - Europe. N.p., 01 Apr. 2014. Web. 01 Apr. 

2014. http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2014/04/sign-russian-pullback-from-ukraine-201441132730915798.html

Food Inc

Food inc documentary shows us all the consequences of the production of food in the world. We never pay much attention to what ingredients or chemical that are put in our food or the way they are produced and delivered to our local supermarkets. Almost 90 percent of the food companies are own by two major companies, and these companies have a kind of monopoly were they get all of the benefits.

We can see how The Economic hitman, race and food inc all relate because companies hire mostly latin american people to do the field hand and all of the hard work for few salaries and benefits, and they can not protest because most of them  are undocumented so they will fire them. The government influences a lot in the business, they have control over the amount they produce and sell, they make farmers produce all the time so the food has a lower cost, but that brings consequences like people suffer from obesity problems because they have low incomes so they are forced to eat unhealthy food. This problem happens a lot in the world but we never recognise it.

Economic Hitman

John Perkins is an economist that has traveled and studied a variety of worldwide issues. From abuse of power to fights for territory, Perkins has analyzed problems mostly in third world countries. Perkins says he was actually an "Economic Hit Man." His job was to convince countries that are strategically important to the United States to accept enormous loans for infrastructure development and to make sure that the lucrative projects were contracted to U.S. corporations.

Perkins lived in Panama and he was shocked about the death President of Panama, a person who gave hope and had defended the poor. Perkins' job was to produce economic growth projections that would make the case for a variety of major projects. He wrote his experiences and the truth about a lot of countries and how the use their money.

"Confessions of an Economic Hit Man." Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, by John Perkins--the Shocking Real-life Story of How America Built an Empire on Third World Debt. Berrett-Koehler Publishers, n.d. Web. 24 Mar. 2014.

NATO concerned over Russian army buildup on Ukraine border

CNN's reporters Marie-Louise Gumuchian and Phillip Taylor inform about the crisis in Ukraine. One of NATO's military commander were worried about the buildup of Russian forces on Ukraine's border.

"Russia is acting much more like an adversary than a partner," Breedlove said.  Russia had a large force on Ukraine's border so lots of countries in the world are afraid of what Russia would do next. Many people even think they will take over Ukraine.
There are a variety of points of views from other countries. Breedlove said " Russia is acting much more like an adversary than a partner," But Russia says they have no intention to move further into Ukraine
Tony Blinken , white house national adviser said "It's likely that what they are trying to do is intimidate the Ukrainians. It's possible that they are preparing to move in."
Every country wants to support the side they think is more favorable for them, so that causes a lot of different perspectives on weather Ukraine should become a part of Russia or not.

G7 leaders meet at the official residence of the Dutch prime minister in The Hague on March 24, 2014 

Gumuchian, Marie-Louise, Journalist Azad Safarov, Ivan Watson, Frederik Pleitgen, Laura Smith-Spark, Tom Watkins, Matt Smith, and Ben Brumfield. "NATO Concerned over Russian Army Buildup on Ukraine Border." CNN. Cable News Network, 23 Mar. 2014. Web. 24 Mar. 2014.

Power of privilege

There are always privilege people in every society. Either because of race, culture, religion, economic statues and many others. 
There is always someone who has the power in every city, state, and country. Is there any way to change it? I do not think so. Many countries have tried different systems to govern and find equality like socialism or communism.
 For many years there has been major discrimination in the world. A country like United States has divisions because of skin color, since the day the became a nation. A country like Colombia is more known for economic statues discriminations, people with low incomes have the lower benefits and get almost any power. But will this segregation ever stop?  

“What is it you most dislike? Stupidity, especially in its nastiest forms of racism and superstition.” 
― Christopher Hitchens, Hitch-22: A Memoir

Power of Illusion

What is Race? There is not a specific answer for it, but its most common definition is that race is a system of classification that humans created hundreds of years ago to divide people into groups based on their culture, beliefs, religion, linguistic and many other factors.
Racial groups cant be defined by biology, so this leads to the question: is race a real thing or just an idea that people created in their minds?
Every human being has their specific traits. Based on the documentary "Power of Illusion" we saw the different sides of opinion people have about "race". 
Many people think genes are what define race but this documentary said that genes can not define race, there are no characteristics that demonstrate that there are specific genes for every race. 
People created this separation of people to take advantage and have individual benefits, because there are advantages of being white. I really like a quote from the documentary that was "Under the skin we are the same but we are fooled by what we see."

www.radiolab.org

• Pounder, C C. H, Larry Adelman, Jean Cheng, Christine Herbes-Sommers, Tracy H. Strain, Llewellyn Smith, and Claudio Ragazzi. Race: The Power of an Illusion. San Francisco, Calif: California Newsreel, 2003.

"Kerry on Ukraine: Solution is tough, but situation better than yesterday"

Ukraine crisis on the crimean peninsula could make Ukraine fall into bankruptcy unless there is international intervention.
This specific article published on March 5,2014 on CNN by Michaels Holmes, Catherine Shoitchet and Laura Smith talks about the dialogues that could soon be done by Ukraine, Russia, United Kingdom, France, Germany and United States. The U.S secretary of State John Kerry said that they were in "the beginning of a negotiation", and the French foreign minister Laurent Fabius had an optimistic opinion "For the first time, something has moved in the process, and we will continue to talk".
On my point of view this is something positive that will mostly benefit Ukraine because they can prevent a bankruptcy in their country. I think if other countries that are in crisis and having internal issues,(countries in the middle east) see that the negotiations are going in a positive way they might me willing to come to an agreement with their people and accept help from other countries.

Catherine E. Shoichet. Laura Smith-Spark and Michael Holmes. "Kerry on Ukraine: Solution is tough, but situation better than yesterday" CNN. March 5, 2014. 

Israeli Apartheid Wall

Israeli Apartheid Wall

The students at Temple university held an "Apartheid Wall" demonstration on April 26, 2011. The students represented mock checkpoints, IDF soldiers, and an 8 foot tall wall in and around Palestine.I find this video interesting because they are trying to show everyone how crazy it is to build a wall to separate people, and preventing them from moving to other territories. Most people do not know how delicate this issue is. 

SJ Temple. Israeli apartheid wall demonstration by Temple University. Standard youtube licence. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccqyTjuTqOU

Senior UN official calls for Haiti cholera compensation

BBC News reports the call from a UN representative Gustavo Gallon asks for "full compensation" for the 600,000 victims of cholera in Haiti. 
The UN has never acknowledged responsability for the epidemic.

I think it is really important for the UN to help this people because every day more and more people get infected by this disease every day and they are getting no help from the government. Since the day of the earthquake in Haiti, thousands of people were left with no home and have been exposed to hundreds of diseases.
After all we have learned in class it makes me think if the UN is really going to help because due to the history of UN vetos, there is little chance that this request will be approved.

Photo credit: CNN

CNN News. "Senior UN official calls for Haiti cholera compensation."March 1 2014. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-26397373

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-26397373

Interesting Facts

UNITED NATIONS

CNN published an article of facts about the UN where we can see the members and the organization of the UN. Also there is a video posted by the RMIT university about how the united nations work.

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/09/03/world/united-nations-fast-facts/

CNN Library, "UNITED NATIONS FAST FACTS." September 3, 2013. CNN

Israel/Palestine Conflict

A Synopsis of the
Israel/Palestine Conflict
http://www.ifamericansknew.org/history/

This website publishes an article by the University of Berkeley gives us a brief explanation of the conflict that has been going on between Israel and Palestine since the late 1800's and it is still a massive issue. 
I find interesting the name of the website, (If Americans Knew) because It is not a secret that the government of almost every country hides things and facts from the people in order to avoid riots and protests. 
"Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip live in an odd and oppressive limbo. They have no nation, no citizenship, and no ultimate power over their own lives."
We can see maps and information about The UN Partition Plan, 1947-1949 War, 1967 War & USS Liberty, Current Conflict, and US involvement
I am posting this video because it explains in a easy and animated way the Israel and Palestinian conflict.

Sean, H.. N.p.. Web. 1 Mar 2014. <http://www.ifamericansknew.org/history/>.

Think about it..

How can people like us, who live in a country were there are minor issues, be uncomfortable with what we have?

Why cant we see and realize there are many people around the world suffering on daily basis?

People survive terrible situations in countries like Syria and Sudan. People have to leave their countries because they feel it is unsafe for them and their families to be there. 

How are people supposed to survive a week with 1 dollar available for food? The fight for power has become to a point were there is only damage and no one is benefiting from anything. Money is wasted on wars and secret services instead of being invested in the society? What kind of people are capable of fighting for power while other people are in pain? There is no life for people in countries like Sudan and Syria, there is no hope, why bother to study if you cant get a job? 

Countries need to get their priorities in order, and if they don't. it is time for other countries to intervene. 

About me

My name is Maria Camila Camargo Monsalve, I am 17 years old and i was born on August 3rd 1996. I study at Colegio Panamericano, currently I am on grade 12, soon I will graduate from High School and will start studying business administration at a university. I like to listen music, watch movies, watch series, go to concerts and hang out with my friends and family. My favorite song right now is How long will I love you by Ellie Goulding. I always try to have a great time doing whatever I am doing. I can say 2013 was probably the best year of my life, but I hope this year continues to be as great as it has been so far.