Green-In-Between

Respect of the environmental care, I think that there are a lot of places where people can learn friendly practices. For example I know a private organization that try to bring up different kind of people to participate in their workshops, it doesn’t matter if you are a grown up man or if you’re a child, the only important thing is that you have the interest to save our planet. There are some interesting and useful courses that can teach you about recycling, home gardens and even solar energy. Actually there is a course that started in my University, and now is running for other young people, and it has the project of going to the San Gregorio neighborhood to teach the residents how to build their own solar panels. This is a great initiative, but is a shame that only private organizations promote green awareness, instead the government as a social and public policy.
About my personal behavior, some years ago my family started to recycling and collecting cardboard, plastic, and any material that can be recycled. But this is even easier when a municipal truck passes every week picking up what has collected in each house, so every Monday we took a couple of full bags.
But apart from that I would like to create compost in my backyard, because I know that you can make a fertilizer with biodegradable waste. Also, in future I would like to develop a plantation of different vegetables, like carrots or tomatoes, but I think that I’ve to wait for my own place to do that.
Another way that I’ve applied to reduce my carbon footprint, is to use my bike to move around the city, sometimes I go to the doctor, to meet with my friends or to make some errands, but is difficult to do this very often because you run the risk of being stolen, the city is not ready to encourage the use of bicycles, and there aren’t places to leave your bike safely. Also, the city doesn’t have a good system of bike paths, so is very insecure.

Art attack

I think that Art is one of the most beautiful of human’s creations, an interesting way of expressing things that maybe you can’t say with words. Besides, the language of Art is above the differences that may exist between cultures and aesthetic concepts, it’s a kind of communication that transcends. I’m not very connected with Art, but I enjoy contemplating the enormous quantity and diversity of artistic works. When I was at school we went to many museums, especially those of us in the art elective. What impressed me then were the sculptures, I remember one made of bronze representing a couple, the man was in a position that, according to my teacher, expressed his infidelity with the woman, she instead was completely handed over to him.

About my skills I believe that I can draw very well, especially when I copy something, landscapes, objects and even faces. Anyway I’m very self-demanding so I’ve never thought that I was very gifted. Clearly other colleagues were more talented than me, but I never really cared.

In relation with my opinion about modern art, I think that is a reflection of the cultural changes that our society has lived, as impressionism or renaissance were correlates with its historical context, the modern art inaugurated by the work of Picasso is the same thing with modernity. Because of that I think Picasso was disruptive on what was already known and classified as art, and he invented a new artistic style, cubism, which is now fully valued. Ultimately he was a tremendous artist, and by the way one of my favorites. I also like the work of Gustav Klimt, in fact I have a painting of him in my bedroom.

I would say that modern art is my favorite style of painting, because it’s not governed by rules, and instead experiences the unknown. The rationale of art is that it stir’s people’s mind and creates feelings of awe and bewilderment. For example graffiti, it blends into the landscape of the city, and usually has a social message that makes you think.

Welcome to Guangzhou

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oct/06/china-crackdown-african-immigration

This article written by Lin Yi it’s about a southern city in China, Guangzhou, that has drawn thousand of African immigrants in the last decade, in fact the Guangzhou Academy of Social Sciencies has estimated that the number of Africans arriving grew by around 30% to 40% between 2003 and 2008.

In recent years this situation has become in a very controversial issue, because the African immigrants, most traders, cheaper than the other traders and with a variety of goods made in the surrounding Pearl River Delta, are victims of prejudice and harassment mostly by police, who pursue them around the streets or even in their own houses. But the common people of China is also very intolerant, despite their important role in the market as clients and sellers, the immigrants feel discriminated in the streets. Mary Ngum – not her real name-, accuses that Chinese people is not mean but ignorant, “they are always talking about colors” has she said.

The popular fear is growing and fuelling the crackdown, for example, problems in obtaining visas by African immigrants are recurrent, the police demand passports from any black faces present and the government tightened immigration controls ahead of the Olympic Games. This has caused that migrants are already leaving Guangzhou for cities with more sympathetic officials.

However there is a positive side, Professor Barry Sautman, based on a recent survey of residents says that about half had a neutral impression of the African community, and far more had a good or excellent impression than a negative one. Friendships are developed.

Films

I really enjoy going to the cinema. Actually I went yesterday to watch a great movie, it's called "The Ghost Writer", directed by Roman Polanski, and is about a guy (Ewan McGregor) who has to write the biography of a very despicable politician, but it turns out that it is not a simple job. He is involved in a dangerous world where he's followed by many opponents of his boss. In the end he discovers a dirty secret and is wiped off the map. I think that it's a very entertaining movie, much worth it.
Other than that, I usually watch movies at home. I buy them near my university and there is a diversity of film genres: drama, horror, romance, comedy, thriller. You can find what ever you want, and it´s really cheap! So as they say it´s good, nice and cheap! I have a pretty attractive collection of the movies that me and my boyfriend bought, so I can see it whenever I want and also I can lend it.

It's hard to decide which is my favorite film, because there are so many of them!, but any way, I prefer movies that are of intrigue, with an interesting story, like "Tesis" or "Shutter Island", also very romantic movies, like "El secreto de sus ojos" and "Before sunrise". If I would have to choose one of them I would say that Before sunrise is my favorite romantic movie, cause it can represent what love produces in ourselves, you can feel the magic around the characters and you perceive the feeling of true love. I never watch the same movie many times, because I think that you miss the impact of it, and finally you can lose the charm, so I watch the movies that I like the most, at separate times. This last movie is about a young man who knows a beautiful and interesenting woman in a train in Europe, they get off the train and begin an unforgettable visit around Vienna. They are complete strangers but immediately fall in love. So, they just have one night to spend together because he is leaving to USA the next morning, therefore the name of the movie, and they spend the whole night touring the streets of Vienna. I love this movie but I have to rate it as just ok, only recommended for romantic souls!.