rocio´s blog

SOME EFFECTS OF THE ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT

2006-05-11T08:23:00.000-07:00

Palestinian suicide attacks against Israelis aim to kill and injure as many people as possible, and create the greatest amount of fear. The victims are, most often, civilians going about their daily life. For everyone’s security the attacks, the death, injury and destruction they cause must end because they have become one of the most dramatic effects of the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Even though Yasser Arafat declared a cessation of violence several times, terror, suicide attacks and Israeli reprisals have not stopped. The Palestinians executed successful suicide attacks daily while the Israelis continued with their plan of killing wanted men in the Palestinian areas. Israel started a massive attack called “Operation Defensive Wall,” which proposed to cut out terror infrastructure and to reoccupied territories like Ramallah, Nablus, Jenin, Tulkarm and other towns. The Palestinians blamed Israel in assassinating around 500 people, but the Israelis pronounced that only about 50 were killed in the Jenin refugee camp, mostly members of the Fatah Al-Aqsa Martyrs suicide brigades. After this, the suicide attacks were fewer, but they did not ended completely. Later, Israel captured several documents providing evidence that Yasser Arafat personally approved the organization of terror cells. Consequently, the Israelis captured and assassinated many people involved in terrorist activities. The creation of the “Operation defensive wall” brought its advantage indeed, because even though the objective was to put end to the suicide attacks that were happening in that moment, it made them decline, which was a great step in the fact of eliminating completely these brutal acts of terrorism. (Operation Defensive Wall paragraph I AND II). After the “Operation Defensive Wall”, Israel was ordered to remove from the territories immediately (Resolution 1402). Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon visited the US in May of 2002. This because the US administration was demanding him to propose a solution that the Palestinians and the Arab States accept in order to give end to this conflict that was creating innumerable victims. (Operation Defensive Wall, paragraphs III and IV). Despite the cease fire, several attempts occurred during August and September 2002. Consequently, the initiatives of peace were blocked by some groups who refuse to participate of this peace programs and also because Israelis kept killing people. In this list of assassinated men’s were Salah Shehadeh -head of the military wing of the Hamas- and other 13 lives due to a missile attack on Gaza. In the first days of September, the security forces of Israel obstructed some suicide attack attempts and detected a truck laden with 1300 pounds of explosives and gas tanks. This unquestionably belonged to the Palestinians because it was an important material for them to commit a suicide attack. (Operation Defensive Wall, paragraph 7).
After a time of relative clam, suicide bombings in Umm El Fahm and in a Tel-Aviv bus awaked the terrorism all around this territories. Attacks in Gaza, including entry into Gaza City, Yasser Arafat and an estimated 200 others in the Muqata compound in Raodmala was proceeded by the Israeli government like also the destruction of all the buildings in the compound except the main one, promising not to harm Arafat. (Operation Defensive Wall, paragraph 9). British, US and Australian forces entered Iraq on March 20, 2003. The regime of Saddam Hussein was supported by the Palestinians in the fact of offering money for those who approved to participate of suicide bombers. Then it came the intervention of the United States whose President ordered US forces to enter Baghdad on April 9, and subsequently the President Bush declared the war over on May 1. (The Iraq War, the Roadmap and Palestinian Reform). As time passed, there was no great improvement on the relation between these territories. Several acts of terrorism and assassination kept being executed. One clear example of this is the death of the newly elected Hamas leader Dr. Abdel Aziz Rantissi on April 17, 2004. Another person called Dr. Mahmoud Zahar was apparently elected in his place, but this was very quietly because there was still much fear about the Israelis response. (Assassination of Abdel Azis Rantisi). It proceeded a time of relative calm during spring and summer of this same year because even though there were many attempts, there were no successful major terror attacks within Israel. Israel continued to arrest and kill Palestinians belonging to terrorist organizations, and to occupy Palestinian cities in the West Bank. (Security situation in 2004). There was an uncertain future after Yasser Arafat death on November 11, 2004. Due to Yasser Arafat’s death a time of relative calm came in which there were no terroristic attacks. Israel’s interest was to occupy Palestinian West Bank so that is why they kept arresting and assassinating Palestinian terrorist leaders. Many Palestinian children were killed during these raids. The Israeli army was criticized in Israel and abroad for carelessness with civilian lives and possible war crimes. (Death of Yasser Arafat). Across the world they are widely condemned as brutal acts of terrorism, though the attacks are pointedly not condemned by some Arab or Islamic governments. Some signs have indicated that the death of Arafat has opened up new possibilities for peace, as well as for reform and democracy in the Palestinian authority. For me there is nothing for real, just the fact that this war is having numerous effect that are not only affecting the ones that approve this terrorism acts but also the ones that have nothing to do with it. Why should children, women elderly people suffer what they are not guilty of? The terroristic attacks must end because they are creating a great pain among the ones who are victims of them. They are destroying cities and they are evaporating the faith of people in having a world full of peace.

SOURCES

Operation Defensive Wall: http/www.mideastweb.org/briefhistory.htm
Isseroff, Amil.

“Operation Defensive Wall.” A Brief History of Israel and Palestine and the Conflict. 2006.

THE MASS MEDIA’S INFLUENCE ON YOUNGER PEOPLE

2006-05-11T08:21:00.000-07:00

The mass media, including TV, radio, and newspapers have a great influence on people and especially on the younger generation. It plays an important role in shaping the opinions and positions of the younger generation. This is creating a big change in the way people eat, dress and even act.
First, we have many teens see the thinness of models like Kate Moss and Giselle Bunchen and in certain ways they want to be like them. This creates a huge dissatisfaction in girl’s bodies that make them change their eating manners. The media is the one who creates this influence on the eating disorders because when teens watch the lives of these models on TV or in a fashion magazine, they just want to imitate them in certain ways. The appearance of thin models in the media may send a dangerous message about eating disorders. General fitness and fashion magazines and television shows with thin characters a role in influencing irregular eating patterns of young women. This may induce girls into anorexia or even bulimia some eating disorders that can cause death, body dissatisfaction, a drive for thinness, perfectionism and a sense of personal ineffectiveness. According to studies, women who frequently read fitness magazines for reasons other than interest in fitness and dieting display greater signs of disordered eating than women who rarely read them at all. Like Harrison, a professor at a Midwestern university said: "It seems clear that young women's patterns of disordered eating, including both attitudinal and behavioural tendencies, are related not only to the types of media they expose themselves to, but also to the way they perceive and respond to specific mass media characters". "This relationship may seem obvious to readers who are concerned with this issue and openly acknowledge the possibility that the media operate as transmitters of potentially dangerous socially desirable values and norm s. (Media influence eating disorders).
Second, mass media is an increasingly accessible way for people to learn about and see sexual behavior. Many young people are still developing their own sexual beliefs and not all the sexual programs on TV are healthy to youth. Depending on what they watch on TV or read in a magazine is the way they are going to act and behave. Sexual talk and displays are increasingly frequent and explicit in this mediated world. One fifth to one half of music videos, depending on the music genre (e.g., country, rock, and rap) portray sexuality or eroticism (DuRant et al., 1997). Two-thirds of Hollywood movies made each year are R-rated; most young people have seen these movies long before they are the required 16 years old (Greenberg et al., 1993). Although teen girls' and women's magazines, such as Seventeen and Glamour have increased their coverage of sexual health issues over the past decade, the majority of advertising and editorial content in these magazines remains focused on what girls and women should do to get and keep their man (Walsh-Childers, Gotthoffer, & Lepre, 2002). Gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender youth rarely find themselves represented in the mainstream media. Although a few of the youth-targeted programs such as "Dawson's Creek" and "Will and Grace" have included gay characters, what some have called compulsory heterosexuality prevails (Mass media influence in sexuality).
Third, we can mention all the violence that is shown on TV. Nowadays television programs show many acts of violence and a child that watches more that 4 hours of TV per day will have seen many homicides and innumerable other acts of violence by age 18. A study of the 95 most popular US video games showed 83% featured violent themes. Most games had two simple choices: kill or die. A 1993 American Psychological Association report on on-screen violence concluded, "In addition to increasing violent behaviours towards others, viewing violence on television increases viewers' appetites for becoming involved with violence.” Television programs
present a narrow view of the world, and the world they present is violent. Thus, people who watch a lot of television are more likely than those who watch less to see the world as being violent and overestimate their chance of being involved in violence (Media influence on young people).
Finally, we can say that children and adolescents are exposed to the harmful influences of the mass media, such as TV programs, magazines, films and radio. They are also more exposed to media depictions of violence than ever before. The only way of not being affected by what the reality is, is to maintain our values, personality and feelings so that this way we could not be affected by all the negative influences against us. But no everything we watch on TV or read on a magazine is bad; sometimes we don’t know hoe to choose the correct program for us. There are channels such as Discovery Channel, Animal Planet and other TV programs that instead of showing violence or influence young people in a bad way, try to leave messages that people can use in their daily life. So media does not only have a negative influence on people, but it also leaves a good message in the mind of each person.

SOURCES

“Media influence eating disorders”, <http://www.umich.edu/~urecord/9798/Oct22_97/media.htm>

“Mass media influence on sexuality”,
<http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2372/is_1_39/ai_87080439>

“Media influence on young people”,
<http://www.wavetrust.org/index.htm?http://www.wavetrust.org/WAVE_Reports/Media_influence_on_young_people.htm>

Biography correction

2006-05-11T08:06:00.000-07:00

Jack Friedhamm was born on New York in October 25, 1965. He began school at the age of six and continued until he was 18 years. Then he went to the New York University to learn Medicine. He decided to study Medicine because he liked biology when he was at school. While he was in the University he met his wife Cindy. Cindy was a beautiful woman with long black hair. They hang out for years before they decided getting married. Jack began to work as a doctor when he graduated in the Medical School. They had two children named Jackie and Peter and have lived in Queens for two years. Jack is very interested in painting and likes to paint portraits of his sun Peter.

Washington vs Lincoln

2006-05-11T07:54:00.000-07:00

There were several differences between Washington and Lincoln. Washington came from a wealthy aristocratic background and had several years of schooling while Lincoln came from a poor background and had very little schooling.

Another difference between the two involved their military roles. Washington was a general, he was a military leader and became president. Lincoln never served in the military, he was a lawyer who early on became a politician. When Lincoln became president, he took on the role of commander in chief, as all U.S. presidents do. Despite his lack of military background or training, Lincoln made several strategic decisions that enabled the U.S. military leaders to win the Civil War.

Finally, Washington served for two terms and therefore had eight years to accomplish his policies. Lincoln, on the other hand, was assasinated in his office and was not able to finish some of the things that he wanted for the country.

REFLECTION

2006-04-19T10:56:00.000-07:00

I think that during this curse i have improve the way i write essay by learning new ways of presenting them. I still would like to improve my vocabulary for not being so repetitive. A workclass that for me is very usefull is watchig movies and listening thing in english that would help us to improve our listening comprehention and to understand other people accents. The only thing i can do to improve my rate of progress is to show interest in what i am doing.

GAZA STRIP

2006-04-19T10:41:00.000-07:00

This movie shows us the daily life of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Here we can see the way the Israeli Army injured and pressured all the Palestinians they can for the to abandon their houses and all what they posses.

The way that the Israeli Army pressured the Palestinians for them to abandon their territories are:

1- They used huge trucks that destoyed the houses of the Palestinians.
2- They attack almost every day with bombs the Gaza Strip with the objective of killing the Palestinians.
3- They trow bombs full of gases that damage the health of the people who inhalate this gas.
4- They leave bombs in the Gaza Strip that automatically activate with any kind of contact and causes great harm.

What is really impresive is the way how the Palestinians are used to all this kind of horrible attacks against them. They are used to this unhuman situation they are living and in which the ones who are affected the most are the children that have nothing to do with this conflict.

second draft of the essay

2006-03-30T13:53:00.000-08:00

SOME EFFECTS OF THE ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT
By: Rocio Moreno

Palestinian suicide attacks against Israelis aim to kill and injure as many people as possible, and create the greatest amount of fear. The victims are, most often, civilians going about their daily life. The attacks, and the death, injury and destruction they cause, have become one of the most dramatic effects of the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Even though Yasser Arafat declared a cessation of violence several times, terror, suicide attacks and Israeli reprisals have not stopped. The Palestinians executed successful suicide attacks daily while the Israelis continued with their plan of killing wanted men in the Palestinian areas. Israel started a massive attack called “Operation Defensive Wall” which proposed to cut out terror infrastructure and to reoccupate territories like Ramallah, Nablus, Jenin, Tulkarm and other towns. The Palestinians blamed Israel of assassinating around 500 people but the Israelis pronounced that only about 50 were killed in the Jenin refugee camp, mostly members of the Fatah Al-Aqsa Martyrs suicide brigades. After this, the suicide attacks were fewer but they did not ended completely. Later, Israel captured several documents providing evidence that Yasser Arafat personally approved the organization of terror cells. Consequently, the Israelis captured and assassinate many people involved in terrorist activities. The creation of the “Operation defensive wall” brought its advantage indeed, because even though the objective was to put end to the suicide attacks that were happening in that moment, it made them decline which was a great step in the fact of eliminating completely this brutal acts of terrorism. (Operation Defensive Wall paragraph I AND II).

After the “Operation Defensive Wall”, Israel was directed to remove from the territories immediately (Resolution 1402). Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon visited the US in May of 2002. This because the US administration was demanding him to propose a solution that the Palestinians and the Arab States accept in order to give end to this conflict that was creating innumerable victims. (Operation Defensive Wall, paragraphs III and IV).

Despite the cease fire, several attempts occurred during August and September 2002. Consequently, the initiatives of peace were blocked by some groups who refuse to participate of this peace programs and also because Israelis kept killing people. In this list of assassinated men’s were Salah Shehadeh -head of the military wing of the Hamas- and other 13 lives due to a missile attack on Gaza. On the first days of September, the security forces of Israel obstructed some suicide attack attempts and detected a truck laden with 1300 pounds of explosives and gas tanks. This unquestionably belonged to the Palestinians because it was an important material for them to commit a suicide attack. (Operation Defensive Wall, paragraph 7).
After a time of relative clam, suicide bombings in Umm El Fahm and in a Tel-Aviv bus awaked the terrorism all around this territories. Attacks to Gaza including entry into Gaza city and besieged Yasser Arafat and an estimated 200 others in the Muqata compound in Raodmala was proceeded by the Israeli government like also the destruction of all the buildings in the compound except the main one, promising not to harm Arafat. (Operation Defensive Wall, paragraph 9).

British, US and Australian forces entered Iraq on March 20, 2003. The regime of Saddam Hussein was supported by the Palestinians in the fact of offering money for those who approved to participate of suicide bombers. Then it came the intervention of the United States whose President ordered US forces to enter Baghdad on April 9, and subsequently the President Bush declared the war over on May 1. (The Iraq War, the Roadmap and Palestinian Reform).

As time passed, there was no great improvement on the relation between these territories. Several acts of terrorism and aassasination kept being executed. one clear example of this is the death of the newly elected Hamas leader Dr. Abdel Aziz Rantissi on April 17, 2004. Another person called Dr. Mahmoud Zahar was apparently elected in his place, but this was very quietly because there was still much fear about the Israelis response. (Assassination of Abdel Azis Rantisi). It proceeded a time of relative calm during spring and summer of this same year because even though there were many attempts, there were no successful major terror attacks within Israel. Israel continued to arrest and kill Palestinians belonging to terrorist organizations, and to occupy Palestinian cities in the West Bank. (Security situation in 2004).

There was an uncertain future after Yasser Arafat death on November 11, 2004. Due to Yasser Arafat´s death a time of relative calm came in which there were no terroristic attacks. Israel´s interest was to occupy Palestinian West Bank so thats why they kept arresting and assassinating Palestinian terrorist leaders. Many Palestinian children were killed during these raids. The Israeli army was criticized in Israel and abroad for carelessness with civilian lives and possible war crimes. (Death of Yasser Arafat).

Across the world they are widely condemned as brutal acts of terrorism, though the attacks are pointedly not condemned by some Arab or Islamic governments. Some signs have indicated that the death of Arafat has opened up new possibilities for peace, as well as for reform and democracy in the Palestinian authority. For me there is nothing for real, just the fact that this war is having numerous effect that are not only affecting the ones that approve this terrorism acts but also the ones that have nothing to do with it. Why should children, women elderly people suffer what they are not guilty of? The suicide attacks must end because this is creating a great pain among the ones who are victims of them. They are destroying cities and they are evaporating the faith of people in having a world full of peace.

SOURCES

http/www.mideastweb.org/briefhistory.htm

TALKING ABOUT PEOPLE

2006-03-24T16:17:00.000-08:00

TALKING ABOUT PEOPLE
“A GUIDE TO FAIR AND ACCURATE LANGUAGE”

By: Rocio Moreno
Language powerfully influences attitudes, behavior and perceptions. Biased language refers to people in imbalanced or inaccurate ways: it excludes certain individuals or groups, it makes unwarranted assumptions, it calls individuals and groups by names or labels that they didn’t choose, it treats groups in nonparallel ways in the same context and it categorizes people when it is unnecessary to do so. Maybe following one simple rule of writing or speaking will eliminate most biases.

The inclusive and exclusive language is often used. The first one includes everyone it intends to include; the second one excludes some people. An example of inclusive language could be: “the students of the Universidad Del Norte have to assist to a speech of the president”; this means that all the people who studies at the Universidad Del Norte must assist to the conference that the president is presenting. One example of exclusive language is: “the students of international business at the Universidad Del Norte must assist to a conference called Catedra Europa”, this means that only this students are assisting to this catedra, not the ones from medicine, nor the ones from administration, just the ones of international business.

In the sexist and nonsexist language, on one hand there’s assume that the male is the norm who is the significant gender, but on the other hand both sexes are treated equally. For example, “ easy work is for woman while hard work is for man” is a sexist example because it assumes that a woman is unable to do hard activities. “If people don’t want to come out of the ballpark, nobody’s going to stop them” this is a nonsexist example.

When the gender is free, we don’t indicate the sex and it could be used for either women-girl or men-boys (teacher, student, child…). The gender-fair language promotes fairness to both sexes. If you are describing the behavior of Erin Lowry’s students, it must be refer to every single student in particular and not generalize.

The use of generic is words that include everybody (people, students, politicians…). Pseudogeneric is a word that assumes including everybody but in reality it is not like that. People who use pseudogeneric words are only thinking in themselves and their immediate world.

The pseudogeneric “He” refers to he and she. These words have all the characteristics of a highly effective propaganda technique: repetition, covertness/indirectness, early age of acquisition. Defenders claim that he as a generic term is a longstanding grammatical convention and that its use is not intended to exclude anyone. He was declared generic and legally inclusive of she by an act of the English parliament. The pronoun he can be avoided by rewriting the sentence in the plural, omitting the pronoun entirely, replacing the pronoun with an article.

There exist also man complications about the pseudogeneric “man/men/mankind”. Researchers who studied the hypothesis that man is generally understood to include woman found “rather convincing evidence that when you use man generically, people do tend to think male, and tend not to think female.

Differences between sex gender is important because much sexist language arises from cultural determination of what a female or male want to be. Sex is biological while gender is cultural. It is biological impossible for a man to have babies and it is cultural impossible a woman to be a miner.

With all this terms clear we can understand that the best way to ensure unbiased writing and speaking is to describe people as individuals, not as members of a group.

ARAB-ISRAELI conflict

2006-02-16T14:59:00.000-08:00

The months prior to the end of the British Mandate in Palestine were characterized by bitter fighting between Arabs and Jews. Most of the Arab fighters were non-Palestinians led by Fawzi al-Qawuqji and funded by the Arab league which was bent on thwarting the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine.

The main reason the Arabs failed to defeat Israel in 1948, or in any of the later wars, and why (except for Egypt) they have equally failed to make peace, is that they are politically divided. In principle, all the Arab states were united in their opposition to the 1947 Partition Plan and to the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine.

Israel ended up gaining more territory than it had been allotted under the 1974 U.N. Partition Plan. Jerusalem, however, was divided with Jordan holding all the shrines within the walls of the old city.

760,000 Palestinians became refugees in surrounding Arab countries as a result of the 1948 war. Their future status became a significant source of disagreement in later phases of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Failure to resolve the territorial struggle between Arabs and Israelis, the creation of the Palestinian refugee problem, and the division of Jerusalem - all fruits of the 1948 war - set the framework for the struggle which continued throughout the remainder of the twentieth century and on into the twenty-first.

2006-02-02T13:47:00.000-08:00

MY BEST CARNIVAL MEMORY

Since i didn`t use to live here i can`t talk much about spending carnivals, but i can remember that when i was young i went to every carnival with my parents and brothers. I use to enjoy the parade of the 84 street and admire all the dancers and people that appeard in this emotional act.

Even though i didn`t do much, l really enjoy all this time i could spend with my family.

Anyway my last carnival was 7 years ago.

2006-01-26T16:13:00.000-08:00

hi!!!!!
my name is rocio moreno and i am actually cursing my second semester in international business at the "universidad del norte". i adore my carrer and i have many expectations of it.