The doll

Hey guys!
IT'S BEEN AGES SINCE I DON'T WRITE A POST HERE!
I will remedy with some new posts, I hope I'll find the time for everything.

Today's post will be about a topic of which I mentioned in an earlier post. The topic is: the education of children and the difference between boys and girls.
Today I will talk about it in a different way, last time I used a book, to explain this situation, but now i will use a short story by Jean Rhys, that some of you may know by Wide Sargasso Sea, review of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. The title of the short story is "The Doll" and I will do a summary and try to give my interpretation.

The characters of the story are two young sisters, one older than the other, and their parents.
The two sister received from their Irish granny two dolls, a dark one and a fair one.
The older sister, who is the narrator of the story, thought that she wanted the dark doll as she had never done before, but her sister grab her first.
Even if she tried to take it back, she couldn't because her parents came to rescue the younger sister and to teach the same life lesson to their daughter "don't be selfish, don't be silly, or you won't be loved in your life", in a nutshell.
But she was just a girl, and to prove that the fair doll wasn't what she wanted, angry like ever, smashed her face.
Her parents were really angry with her even if they didn't know the real reason why she did it. But with threat and too big words for a child, made her promise that she wouldn't do that anymore.
The only person with whom she could really talk was her aunt, Jane. With her she could cry and she decided to bury the doll in the garden.

So the message of this story isn't as simple as it seems, infact in this story the narrator/the main character has an education which impose her to behave in a certain way or to be a certain kind of girl, otherwise she wouldn't be loved.
But the girl in the story isn't that kind of girl, she is a bit aggressive, a bit naughty too, but not wicked, because in the end we see that she regret for her bad action.
We have similar situationeven nowdays, when we are supposed to be more openminded, instead we keep on treating girls like the ones who must work in the house, we give them dolls or toy kitchens, or even pink clothes; and we keep on supposing that boys are the stronger who mustn't cry or be sensitive but ought to be the ones who will work heavier in the future. So if we don't get out of the stereotypes, if we don't stop teaching children them, we will never progress.

Kony 2012 : JOIN THE REVOLUTION

Joseph Kony is an Ugandan man and he is the most wanted man in the whole world by the FBI. He, as the head of the Lord's Resistance Army, also called LRA, has committed lots of horrible crimes. This year people are starting a movement called "Kony 2012" in order to do something to stop him and raise the awareness about this awful situation. There is even a video by an american film maker that describes the serious situation in this country.

But let me explain how bad were his crimes. Infact he has been kidnapping over 30.000 children for his rebel group, turning girls into sex slaves and boys into child soldiers. He has killed 100.000 people, abducted over 70.000 of them and he has forced 2 million of people to escape from their land. The Ugandan guerrilla group that he leads has committed atrocities of all kinds: it kills, maims, rapes women and girls and there were even cases of cannibalism. This is a vision of wild, barbarism, that has nothing to do with religion.

Some people think that he is doing this because of his religious beliefs or of his Alcholi culture. But what is such a awful thing is that he is not doing this for any real cause but just to mantain his power and in order to do this he has always used peace speeches to rearm and murder again and again.

The Ugandan military has to find him in order to arrest him, but they need the technology and the training to track him. The U.S.A. government can help them by sending its army in Uganda but if it doesn't believe that peope are interested in arresting Kony they will cancel the mission. And in order for people to care, they have to know , and they will do that only if Kony's name is everywhere.

The Invisible Children in his movement Kony 2012 want to make Joseph Kony an houseold name to bring his crimes to the light. They are targeting 20 culture makers and 12 policy makers to use their power for good.

The culture makers are famous, they have loud voice and what they say or do spreads instantly and even the policy makers are connected with the government and if people see that the government is doing something suddendly it will become of national interests.

But they are not the only one that can do something, everyone, everywhere should make him known with all their means, for example by sharing the video about him and his actions.

The creator id Jason Russel, who did it to sponsor this project and to make people know about Kony. He, after being in Uganda and talking with a local boy, Jacob, realised how serious was the situation and decided to do everything that he could to help that boy and the locals.

He did his best, for dozen years , and he sought help at the White House too, and even if they said that couldn't do anything to help them, by reporting the situation to other people and by sharing the video, the message travelled around the world having over 70 million of visualization.

So the point is: Jason Russel's idea , wasn't just an idea. It has become the purpose of billion of people that agree with him. They are normal people but just because they are on this planet, they matter. So i think that everybody, everywhere should start doing something to stop this awful situation. Stop being passive and become more active.

Keep calm and don't cheat

It’s five minutes to the exam and you’re in a state of panic. What are you going to do to pass it if you didn’t open the book the night before? Should you ignore and fail it or should you go for it?

Many students find that cheating is wrong, but at least once, they did it in their high school.

If you want to cheat you should know the pros and cons of your action.

Of course if you copy the work of others —either you do it plagiarizing material from books or the Internet or copying the homework of another student— you had not to work very hard for a passing or even good grade, and you may become popular in your class. But you will lose the trust of your friend that believed that you were honest.

So,  worth it?

If you are caught while you are cheating on a test or are copying someone else's material for homework can result in a lowered grade and even expulsion from school.

If you are lucky and you don't get caught, there is still the problem that you haven't learned the material. That ignorance may come to haunt you down the road, when you are required to apply what you've learned.

In either case, there is also the consciousness that will say to you that you didn't deserve the grade you received and that you are a cheater. Such a person may go far in life, but he or she will never be a champion.

For sure students know it,  but why they keep on doing that? Are they too lazy to study? Do they have the fear of your parents anger? Experts say that one of the reason is seeing their friends get away with it. Again, research says that if the subject doesn’t matter in their future career, it’s okay to cheat.

Furthermore, maybe students do it to put up with the pressure of getting to the university.

In conclusion they would do anything to get a better mark.

Now it’s easier to cheat: there are mobile phones and they can send the answer of the test to each other;  there is also internet that with its websites has lots of materials and there are so many tips to get away with a test. It doesn’t matter to get caught.

But you should know that cheating is a lie and even if you get away with your teachers and your parents you’re fooling yourself. You shouldn’t be proud of doing something that you can’t really do.

Realize that you have the potential to get good grades without cheating and be proud of what YOU can do.

Do you still want to cheat after reading this?

How did you spend your Christmas holidays?

Hey people! How are you? These holidays passed really quickly ! Well my question is: How?

I spent the Christmas Eve with my parents at home, and after having set fire to a handkerchief we had a long and very good dinner that lasts until midnight. We ate pasta with a particular kind of fish called eel  and with the tomato sauce and then roast eel.  After dinner, we played some games that me and my family usually play on Christmas like tumble and other cards games. At midnight, my father went in the garage to dress  up as Santa Claus. In fact, we wanted to surprise my little cousin and the disguise was able to convince him (he liked it very much!) . “Santa” gave me a present too, but I knew that it was from my parents: an I-pod from the brand Apple! I wanted it since years , and my parents decided to please me because of the good marks at school. The night between the 24^th and the 25^th I went with my sister to her boyfriend’s house.  We played some games again and we opened many other presents. We came back home at 5 am!

On the 25^th we stayed at home and we had lunch together, and we played tumble again.

On the 26^th we had lunch as usual and in the afternoon we went to the cinema to see a new film from Leonardo Pieraccioni that is called “Finalmente la felicità” . It was a funny story of a man that met after many years his gorgeous adopted sister and spend some time with her and they fall in love. 

The days after I started the homework for the school ( how tiresome they are when you are on holiday! ) and on the 28^th I went out in the afternoon with my best friend that gave me her Christmas present: a very nice bracelet with a golden skull.

On the 30^th some of my school friends came to my house and we played some table games like “risiko” that is a kind of naval battle but funnier and more difficult.

On the 31^th I went with my family to my grandmother’s house and we had dinner together, we played tumble( I won a lot!) and we waited the midnight to celebrate the new year. In the night I went again with my sister to her boyfriend’s house where we spent some time together with some friends too playing some funny games.

The day after we stayed at home and in the afternoon I went with my mother and father to see a lively crib.

These holidays were really good and I enjoyed a lot spending time with my realtives.

Now I want you to tell me YOUR holidays, just few words or if you want even a long text (LOL).

Bye guys! 

Merry Christmas!

Each year I ask for many different things
But now I know what my heart wants you to bring
So please just fall in love with me this Christmas
There's nothing else that I would need this Christmas
Won't be wrapped under the tree
I want something that lasts forever
So kiss me on this cold December night.

Hello people!

Today I woke up with this song and I’m singing it since that moment.

Anyway how are you? Christmas is really near, can you feel it?

This year I can feel that Christmas is near more than in recent years and I’m really happy for this.

Many people would say, by reading this post, that Christmas is just one of the many consumerist festivity, with all the money that we spend for the dinner and for the presents, with the traffic  on the streets.. but I think that Christmas isn’t just a consumerist festivity, and I’ll show you why.

I really like the idea that I will meet at my house with relatives, I like taking care of each detail to make the evening special, I like decorating the house with many different ornaments and the Christmas tree with my family. In short, Christmas is the festivity when I see all my family combined and happy and I’m proud of it. I like buying little presents and see the smile that appear on my friends and family’s faces.  

I must admit that when I was a child, Christmas had its magical face that made everything different from now,  for example waiting for “Santa” coming from anywhere made me feel more suspicious and euphoric than I am now. 

Call me OLD, but I have never tired of watching old Christmas movies: it’s not Christmas if the TV doesn’t transmit “Home alone” the famous film with Macaulay Carson Culkin ( Kevin McCallister in the film) .

So guys, enjoy your Christmas Holidays with your family, say them that you love them, be better than in the whole year and SMILE because life is one and it never happens again.

Merry Christmas! 

Alcoholism is a growing problem among young people in Britain. Discuss the pros and the cons of a complete ban on the sale of alcohol in the UK.

The matter of the alcoholism in the UK is really old, but nobody has ever managed to solve it. A lot of British newspaper  report  the same awful problem, that has become a trend : the binge drinking, that is the habit to drink a lot in a little time. The result of this terrible trend is that a lot of people especially guys get drunk heavily. Everyday newspaper report photos of guys cowered in the streets and news of  violence in the city.

But what if the government  ban completely the alcohol in the UK?

There are many different points of view of people that are for or against this solution.

For example there are people that think ban alcohol is good for young people because they would be more rational and so there wouldn’t be violence or accidents with the same frequency that there is now. Furthermore alcohol cause many different diseases like tumors or death by the extreme dilatation of the blood vessels so not to use alcohol is positive to reduce these disease, not to mention  the cognitive ability which led many people, under alcohol effect, to suicide.

But there are a lot of people that think ban alcohol is stupid and harmful because young people and especially guys are always looking for rules to break and then banning alcohol would lead them to get drunk more. Moreover  banning alcohol would led people who work in pubs and clubs, where alcohol is sold in big quantity, to lose their work.

Well, what can we do?

A constructive solution is to educate people to use alcohol without overdo to reduce the possibility to have bad problems.

In conclusion, only if we will be able to solve the problem of alcohol making all agree about its use  can we ever hope to build a better world for future generations to live in.

The person with whom you do the most stupid things.

Guys! I get back on writing (finally!). 

Today i want to talk about 'the person with whom I do the most stupid things'.

Well, who else but her? Her, is my best friend. Her name is Noemi and we've known for 3 years. 

And guess with whom we have known? Oh, thank to ENGLISH! 

We studied at the same school of English for one year and then we never lost sight of each other. 

She introduced me to my most rebellious part, and I did the same. I helped her to appreciate life with its small things, and she helped me when I was in trouble.

Thanks to her I passed the most difficult and serious things, as well as funny and easy ones.

She knows everything about me, the best and the worst part of my temperament, my strenghts and weakness but she has never gone away, even if a lot of people tried to divide us.

She is irreplaceable and I don’t think that my life would be the same without her.

And you? Have you got a best friend? Let me know.

Ps: I read your comments, thank you so much for the tips and the compliments. If you have a blog let me know I would be  glad to visit it and leave a comment.