Apartheid

The last century was a bad time for South Africa, they had this institutionalized discrimination, but if we can see something amazing at this is how different was the world in that time, if you have time please watch this documentary and you will know what I am saying.

You will see how was the world, and it's a pretty good point to start to see, know and get informed about what happened not so many time ago.

People was being segregated in cities to keep them away from others, they couldn't get married or event had sexual relationships between these "races". Even white women couldn't vote and it wasn't too much time ago, wasn't even 100 years ago. There're people alive who still can remember this sad stories.

So please look for newspapers, documentaries and history and you will get amazed like me.

"Pocahontas"

After starting to read the book ‘The true diary of a part-time Indian’ I got interested in the history of the Native Americans and I tried to find more information about them when I found an interesting character: Pocahontas.

Who was Pocahontas? Maybe the most of us (normal people without historic knowledge) know Pocahontas thanks to Disney, but, who was her? Was a real person? Or she’s just a fictional character? Well, she did exist and her real name was Matoaka. She was a Native American that saved Captain John Smith and helped the community of Jamestown that were dying by starving.  But also she was really important for the Virginia Company. She was practically the ‘model’ of English-Indian relationship. Her image was used to persuade the natives to adopt the English ways. 

Portrait by Simon de Passe, 1616.

She was treated as a princess, and met many important people of the era.  Maybe that’s why Disney represents her as one of the princesses. 

Disney representation of Pocahontas.

Although Pocahontas helped a lot if the relationship between English and Native people, in 1617, when she died, the ‘peace’ stopped and the good treatment between both races ended. 

Everyond has the same rights

When I start to think about the civil rights movement, I immediately think about the “Martin Luther King of LGBT movement”, the great politician Harvey Milk. 

It’s really interesting how two different persons have so many coincidences (even when they are from different times, and probably, they have different values and points of view about some religious issues). Their first coincidence is the fact that they both fight for their believes. 

MLK fought for African-American rights, fought against the racial discrimination, and Harvey Milk fought for LGBT rights, against the discrimination that suffered thousands of homosexuals and transgender people. They both thought that every human has the same right to live how they wanted to live. I don’t know if Martin Luther King was able to defend LGBT rights because of his religious believes but it’s was very probably that he did it. They fought with non-violence activities like marches.

Other coincidence, and the most important, was that they both were killed by “ideological enemies” defending their dreams. Martin Luther King died in a hotel when he was fighting for workers’ rights and Harvey Milk where killed by the supervisor Dan White who was a defender of the discrimination against homosexuals because he thought that homosexuality was a danger for families.

An African-American defender and a homosexual leader, both killed and part of history.

Education and youth together or how to start a revolution

2006 "While they don't allow us to dream,
we don't allow them to sleep"

2011 "Neither terrotists nor criminals
socially aware students!"

In 2006, the world saw here in Chile the beginning of the "Revolución Pingüina" (LINK: Penguins' Revolution) that demanded the end of the "Ley Orgánica Constitucional de Enseñanza" (Organic Constitutional Act of Teaching) or "LOCE", which was enacted during the Pinochet's Dictatorship, introducing a unique national student transport pass, among other things. After that in 2011 this movement awoke again but this time stronger than 2006. It was called the "Invierno Estudiantil Chileno" (LINK: Chilean Students Winter) which was represented by different strikes and occupations in both high schools and universities that lasted even 4 months and took place along almost the whole country. That time, they demanded, among many things, to increase the quality of education and the funding, so public universities may be for free.

Even though this is one of the most important student movements in Latin America, there was another important movement started by students which acted as a catalyst. In fact, this movement was so important that motivated to a group of people to arise and fight with all their efforts against a system that oppressed them, by that time, for almost 30 years regardless the time before the establishment of the “Apartheid”. I’m talking about the “Soweto Uprising” (LINK) on the 16 of June 1976.

This history started, as we know, in 1948 when the National Party came to the power and started dozens of reforms in order to segregate white people from the other races so they could keep the political and economic power just among them. This institutionalization of the segregation of non-white people is known as the “Apartheid”. During many years, many black leaders tried to reach the equality for all through different means from pacific protests to urban violence and the system of guerrilla warfare. The consequences were thousands of casualties, most of them from the black people, and many others in jail, like the well-known leader Nelson Mandela .

In 1974 the white government forced through the “Afrikaans Medium Decree” to use the Afrikaans and English as instruction languages in the classroom and native languages just for few subjects. Black people considered English as an attractive language because its use in business and commerce while the Afrikaans represented the “oppressor’s language”. The conditions got worse when black boys knew that their white peers were allowed to choose the language that they wanted to be taught. Teachers and students from different schools united as one single group and decided to protest. Many secret meetings had been organized by the leaders of the movement before they decided to make a big march on the 16 of July 1976.

Hector Pieterson being carried by
Mbuyisa Makhubo after policemen
opened fire against the demostrators.

A little group made up by students and teachers started a peaceful protest. Many others, who just realized about the protest that very day, joined on the way to Orlando Stadium just to find out that the police had barricaded the route. In order to avoid an eventually violent confrontation, they decided to take another route but...it was useless: the police started to shoot and they loosed their dogs on the children. Students repealed them by stoning the animals to death and the police answered shooting against demonstrators which finished with, according to the government at that time, in 27 casualties but other organizations said between 176 to 700 people were killed including the little 13-year old-boy Hector Pieterson who became a symbol of the resistance after he was photographed being carried by another boy and doctor Melville Edelstein, a white doctor who had been dedicated his life to help black people but some of them stoned him to death and hanged a sign saying "Beware".

The fountain at the musseum

From that day on everything changed: the struggle against the Apartheid government was organized in a better way and it was criticized not only by the international community but many South African white people who marched in protest of the killing of children. Finally, 18 years later the Apartheid finished: it was a long way to get that but everything started there, in the township called Soweto where people still remember that event. In fact, every 16 June is celebrated as the "Youth Day" (LINK) in honor of the massacre happened in that township and there is a large museum called Hector Pietersen which has a memorial engreved with the following words: "In memory of Hector Pietersen and all other young heroes and heroines of our struggle who laid down their lives for freedom, peace and democracy"

Do you want to know a curiosity? Do you remember Zakumi, the official mascot for the 2010 FIFA World Cup? Well, its birth date is 16 June, the South Africa Youth Day.

Before leaving, I want to ask you about Chile, do you think we need a "revolution" like the one started in South Africa? If you say yes, what do you think we need, as Chilean students, to change the Chilean's mind so we could be just "one will" as South Africans were during the Apartheid?

A man with a dream

“I say to you today, my friends, even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a deep dream, rooted in the American Dream.”

Martin Luther King was an extraordinary man. He believed in freedom for his people and equality for every man and woman in this world, and he fought for it.

The 20th century was a hard era for black people, they were segregated and their rights weren’t respected. Everything was unfair, so unfair.

But this man wanted a change. He wanted to live in a country without racism, without discrimination, without having to give their sit to a white person in a bus, without kids going to different schools, depending of their skin color, without being looked down on just because your genes. We are humans! No matter if you’re White or black, we are all child of God.

He organized pacific ways to protest, and even when there were people who thought that violence was necessary to make a change,  in times where killing and fighting were daily bread, he kept strong in his words and kept on fighting for his people in a peaceful way. He gained many followers and respect of  peo

He gave a beautiful speech called “I have a dream” in where he tried to give hope to continue this belief of freedom.

If we think about the results of the Civil Rights Movement, we can see that we all were benefited because of this fight, not only because it was a movement against racism, but it was also  a movement about tolerance and equality, because we all are different but society is more open minded and those barriers between us don’t matter that much as they did about seventy years ago. 

It was a good change and we all have to say thanks to this man with a wonderful dream,  full of faith and hope, and he never gave up, he fought until his last day of life and eventhough he’s not with us anymore, he’s one of the most important and biggest overcoming models of all the time.

Here we have a song dedicated to Martin Luther King. "Happy Birthday" by Stevie Wonder, was written as part of the campaign to have the birthday of Martin Luther King become a national holiday. Stevie Wonder's words are about why a man who fought so hard for a good reason doesn't have a day that would be set aside for his recognition (established as a U.S. federal holiday in 1986)

“Free at last, free at last.

Thank God Almighty,

I’m free at last.”  

Nelson Mandela: Father of a nation.

“During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.” 

                                                                                                              - Nelson Mandela.

Nelson Mandela was born in Mvezo, Umtata, a little town along the Mbashe river in South Africa. Also known as "Madiba" -an honorific nickname taken from the tribe which he belongs-, he is considerated the father of his natal country because his fight against the system instaured by the National Party of South Africa: Apartheid.

In Afrikaans, Apartheid means "separateness", and it was a system of racial segregation which separates black South-Africans (who had restricted rights) from whites (who ruled the power). This laws determinates where and how black population can live, the places they can go, where thay can study and work, the hospitals they can use, etc. 



Mandela joined the African National Congress, a movement which struggled against the racial segregation and discrimination of black people in South Africa. Years later, he became one of the leaders of  Youth League, a branch of ANC which support the idea of a non-violent struggle. 

Mandela promoted a campaign of civil disobedience against racist laws, which generated the arrest of many black people, including himself, who was accused of high treason and condemned to life imprisonment. 

Despite the efforts of the people to claim Mandela's liberation, the government of  South Africa doesn't give in, until 1990 when the (in that time) President of the Nation, Frederik de Klerk, command his liberation after 27 years of confinement in horrible conditions. 

In 1993, Nelson Mandela received the Nobel Peace Prize because his struggle against the racial segregation in South Africa, and he shared this award with de Klerk. 

In 1994, Mandela becomes the first black President of South Africa, elected in a election in which everyone can vote regardless of their skin colour or social status.

Nowadays, Nelson Mandela is recognised around the world as the icon of anti-apartheid, and for South Africans he represents the freedom of their people. Also, his birthday is considerated a national (or worldwide, maybe) celebration. 

Indian cuisine and its influence

The Indian food, like their culture and traditions, are the result of the mixture of various culture from the various countries that have invaded the country through the centuries. known internationally as one of the most exuberant kitchens due to the use of species and vegetables, which give distinctive touch.
Differs Cuisine across India's diverse regions as a result of variation in the local culture, geographical location (proximity to sea, desert, or mountains) and economics.
Indian cuisine could resultarnos somewhat strange if we just mention the ingredients of the dishes, but we can not make a final judgment until we've tried a bite of these "delicious rarities".

India is a huge country and has different habits in every corner of the world. .

English cuisine has a strong influence on this area as a fusion originating from the British Raj. This is the reason why there are some Indian restaurants in London in elegant and traditional areas of the city.
Indian migration has spread of the culinary traditions of the subcontinent throughout the world. These cuisines Have Been adapted to the local tastes, and Have Also Affected Local cuisines. Curry's international appeal has been Compared to That of pizza.

China
Indian food is gaining Popularity in China, where there are many Indian restaurants in Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen. Hong Kong alone has more than 50 Indian restaurants, some Of which date back to the 1980s. Most of the Indian restaurants in Hong Kong are in Tsim Sha Tsui.

United Kingdom
Chicken tikka masala, a modified version of Indian chicken tikka, has been called "Britain's true national dish."

Anglo-Indian restaurants adapt traditional Indian food for British tastes, que Commonly are less accustomed to strong spices. The most famous example of this is Chicken tikka masala, que Also has been called "a true British national dish.".

United States

A survey by the The Washington Post in 2007 Stated That more than 1,200 Indian food products had been Introduced into the United States since 2000. There are Numerous Indian restaurants across the U.S., que vary based on regional culture and climate. North Indian and South Indian cuisines are Represented Especially well. Most Indian restaurants in the United States serve Americanizedversions of North Indian food, que is Generally less spicy than its South Indian equivalents.

In my opinion the Indian food has been one of the best "techniques" that would spread their culture, even though not 100% native to their land, that's what make delicious, unique and special.

So are incorporated different culinary practices brought from various corners of the world over time are mixed up to be the set of known trends and continue to hear

Secret Service in Elizabeth's times?

On April 14, 1856 President Abraham Lincoln inaugurated the "Secret Service" (Curiously, the same day that he was killed) which main function was related to prevent and investigate financial crimes but "after the assassination of President William McKinley in 1901, Congress directed the Secret Service to protect the President of the United States" (Secret Service Official Webpage) Nowadays, this agency is responsible of "the protection of the president of the USA, the vice president, the president-elect, the vice president-elect and their immediate families" among other duties.

Great Britain has not lagged far behind in protecting its state leaders since it has an organism which fulfills this duty: the "Protection Command". This is part of the Metropolitan Police and it's divided into 3 branches

-SO1 Specialist Protection
-SO6 Diplomatic Protection Group
-SO14 Royalty Protection

SO14 is in charge of the "personal protection for the Royal Family, both nationally and internationally, protecting Royal residences in London, Windsor and Scotland, protecting members of the public who visit Royal residences" (Metropolitan Police Webpage) This organism is not as popular as the American Secret Service but both have the same function: providing protection for their state leaders.

Even though these organizations are relatively "new", providing protection for government leaders is a very important concern even from old times. In fact, the Queen Elizabeth I of England had her own network of spies whose responsibility was safeguard her life. This was coordinated by Francis Walsingham, her most loyal minister. He discovered a series of plots against the queen and that allowed her to be safe and sound even until she died in 1603.

The importance of having this network lies in considering the facts surrounded Elizabeth's times: She was protestant and became queen in 1558 after Mary I whose sobriquet was “Bloody Mary” because she spearheaded the persecution against Protestants which leaded to kill hundreds, exile many others and imprison some others, even her own half- sister Elizabeth. The bigotry and persecution continued after Mary’s death, this time, directly from European countries influenced by Catholic Church such as Spain and France (which was very "famous" by that time because the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre (LINK) which took place in 1572 in Paris where thousands of French Protestants called "Huguenots" were assassinated)

Walsingham wasn’t chosen at random: he had studied as a lawyer and was an intelligent, serious, quick-witted, ruthless and disciplined person. This "master spy" held strong Protestant beliefs; indeed, he had been living in exile in France during Mary I’s reign. His loyalty to Elizabeth and determination to protect the country's Protestant faith were absolute.

As part of his strategies, Walsingham established a spy school in order to train people in cracking and using different types of codes. He also posted spies in foreign countries and inside England so he was able to figure out the different lines of communication between Catholics in the Island and those in the rest of Europe. The life of a spy was something difficult to deal with but they must be professionals in any situation: Mistakes were unthinkable.

One of his most important achievements was to dig up a conspiracy planned by Mary Queen of Scots who was Elizabeth’s cousin and at the same time her most important enemy inside England. This betrayal was known as “The Babington plot” (LINK) Walsingham got enough evidence, including the name of the conspirators, by intercepting Mary's personal mail and breaking its code. All of them were arrested and executed, even Mary.

There are more things related to the world of spies in those times such as how they were rewarded, what their services implied or the real confidence between Elizabeth and Walsingham… Do you want to know more about this? Just click here!

Here some questions before leaving: Is it really possible to trust in somebody when you are occupying such an important position? Have the conspirations and betrayals finished among the politicians? Feel free to comment!

New York: Two sides of the same coin

One month ago, I had the opportunity to fulfill one of my dreams: visiting the well-known city of New York! As I worked in Salt Lake City during my Summer/Winter vacation, I took advantage of that to go to this city for 3 days before coming back to school. Maybe I didn't know many specific things about it and I would be alone there, like Kevin McAllister (Macaulay Culkin) in "Home Alone II" but it wasn't an excuse to lose this chance! (Even though my mother consider those reasons enough excuse to go straight home)


I have some friends that had the opportunity to go there and they warned me saying “3 days aren’t enough to get around the whole city”…and they were right: there, you have the opportunity to visit as many attractions and landmarks as you could imagine...or maybe more! I realized why this place is called “the Capital of the World” and why Frank Sinatra sings in his famous song about this Capital “I wanna wake up in a city, that doesn't sleep and find I'm king of the hill, top of the heap” ("New York, New York" by Frank Sinatra)

Walking around the "Big Apple”, I just realized this city is divided into five areas:

-The Bronx, which includes the well-known neighborhood called “Harlem”

-Brooklyn, with its famous bridge.
-Queens, where "Spider-Man" lives and my hotel was located.

-Staten Island, mmm...no idea what happens there…
-Manhattan which is definitely, the most AMAZING place that I’ve ever been!


During my second day there, I found some information in my guide about a huge cathedral called “Saint John the Divine” and I decided to go there. Thanks to my super map I could get to the 112st with Malcolm X Boulevard but I had to walk down along this street until Amsterdam Avenue to go to the cathedral.

While I was walking along the streets, I noticed that all the pageantry seen before had just disappeared: the area looked like those movies related to poor cities in the States; even people seemed very different from those in Time Square or the 5th Avenue! I felt happy since I involuntary had the opportunity to meet that area and to see “the other side of the coin”

I hadn’t noticed where I was so far, when I suddenly realized that the “unknown” place was Harlem. My previous happiness run away quickly and I tried to get out of that place as soon as possible since I remembered another warning given by my friends: “don’t go to Harlem!” Fortunately, I didn't have any problem I could go back home safe and sound (Even I would go to Harlem next day by mistake again!)

This experience taught me some lessons: if you don't know the route to a certain place, don't go, to get a better map beforehand, to be prepared to deal with unexpected situations (Especially in a foreign country) and, the most important thing, how lifestyle may change from one place to another which is just 20 meters far away. I experienced a similar feeling when I visited Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, as a LDS Missionary. This city is very famous because its beaches, landmarks and buildings from the Spanish Colonization which are part of the heritage area but when you go outside this area and take a look around the "real" city, you'll be surprised: many poor areas in which people live in miserable conditions. Unemployment is part of their daily lives and new thieves and pickpockets appear in the streets.

My point is that culture involves more that landmarks, street food or good places to go shopping: it’s about people, the way they lead their daily lives and what we could get from that experience. Sometimes it’s hard to know that since they live in dangerous places like Bronx or Plaza Echaurren, (if someone comes to Valparaiso, for instance) or maybe we think that information is relevant for those that study sociology but the more we can learn the essential part of a culture, the more we learn from them and, at the same time, you learn more about your own culture.

As I lived in Queens, I had to commute a long way to Manhattan so I could see more than "beautiful places" from New York. That allowed me to make a contrast between them and the people from Utah. Obviously, I realized that they are very different so I could see that there isn’t an “American stereotype” but many different cultures. That makes me feel exciting about studying English since you have the opportunity to find out several information concerning not just American culture but the whole world.

Before leaving...here some questions! What do you think about our country? Where could we find that contrast? Is it positive or negative?

Finally, I leave with you the immortal Frank Sinatra and his popular song on this link. Thanks for reading this post and enjoy the video!

Winners don't use drugs.

Have you seen the movie Elizabeth: The Golden Age? In this movie you can see a clear hero-villain fight based on historic events that actually are pretty inaccurate, you can check a lot of facts in this page http://www.elizabethfiles.com/ and compare it to the movie. BUT that’s not my point though, let’s think that the movie magically is fixed and filmed again with the historic events more “accurate” according to English history. Even there the story was narrated by the winners.

The stereotyped character that represented Philip II (king of Spain) in the movie is actually a pretty accepted point of view in the Anglo world, and sometimes even worst representing him as fanatic, despotic, criminal, imperialist and genocidal.

So here comes a question I had:

How the story would be if Spain had won the War?

Logically the story would be radically different, but I can only look the real history, I will show you leaders of the nations involved in the war in the "winner perspective" to prove a point:

Elizabeth won, and his image is like this (according to England):

Elizabeth the Queen of England, was also called the “Virgin Queen” because of her pure image, and the fact she never married. She was Protestant and fought against the Catholic Church who was pressing to kill her and gain control again on England.

She was known for being a wise and strong woman who was “married” to England. She sacrificed his personal life for England.

In her reign we have one of the most important literature images, William Shakespeare, being the maximum exponent in poetry of this country.

If Philip II had won, I think all the world would know him like this (Spanish vision):

Philip II, the king of Spain was also called Philip the Prudent because of his “prudent” actions that he took when he started reigning Spain, which was in a very hard situation. In his years as a king Spain was finally unified, and he separated the nobility from the state decisions.

He was known as a cold person, but it was an image he wanted to make public, this made him not having much friends actually. He sacrificed his social life and his happiness for his empire.

In his period of reign we have a big advance in literature with Lope de Vega one of the biggest figures in theatre, even nowadays. We have more figures including Miguel de Cervantes who doesn’t actually need presentation, his name immediately remind us Don Quixote.

My conclusion is that everyone can be a hero when you are writing the History!

"The sun never sets on the British Empire"

  

As we know, the British Empire is known as the largest and powerful empire of all times. It has influence over almost a quarter of the world. The territories dominated for Britain includes India, Australia, Canada, Palestine, South Africa and New Zealand to name some of them. So, its power was huge. At the peak of the empire, the phrase "The sun never sets on British Empire" was often used to refer to it.

But, what does this actually mean?

As I said before, British Empire was so big and at the peak of its power, it had at least one territory occuped on each continent of the world. So, that's why doesn't matter the time of the day: As the earth rotated the Sun continually shone on British territory. 

As the image show us, the sun is always shining in at least one of the British territories. 

Just like an interesting fact: The phrase became popular in the 19th century (especially during the Victorian era) to apply it to the British Empire a time when British world maps showed the empire in red or pink to  highlight  the British imperial power spanning the world. 

Belize, the territory that Spain never conquered

After the presentations about the geography of the British Empire, I started to have a lot of interesting about how Belize was added to the empire.

The British Empire conquers a lot of territories in the entire world and one of them was Belize. I investigated a little bit about it and I found that this area of Central America was the territory that Spain never could conquer, and even more, it was another historical problem between Spain and Britain.

The Spanish were the first that explored Belize but they never colonized it because of the hard resistance of the native people. If we think that Spain was conquering most of the territory in the “New World” at that time, it must have been a big shock for the empire. Later, it became worst when the British Empire was successful where the Spanish failed.

This situation was bad for Spain because Belize was used by pirates as a strategic settlement to attack Spanish ships. Spain fought with Britain for a long time, more than a century, but the Spanish failed in their goal of defeat the British.

This was the most important battle between Spain and Britain

This make me think: If Spain and Britain were enemies, why the British Empire didn’t start to expand his territory in Central America when the Spanish forces were weak? Well, I don’t really know why, but in my little investigation I found that it could be because they were respecting the Treaty of London that said that Spain can retain his colonies.

I thought that this was an interesting topic so: ENJOY! :B

SOURCES: http://www.frommers.com/destinations/belize/3284020044.html
                      http://www.lonelyplanet.com/belize/history
                      http://www.britishempire.co.uk/maproom/britishhonduras.htm

What were the positive effects of the British Empire in India?

When we talk about an Empire that colonized a whole nation, we must think that nothing gave a benefit to nation that was controlled by an outside regime, but we can see a positive cultural influence left by the foreign land.

When the British Empire took the power of India, it did all those industrial developments for its interests only, killing people, exploiting persons and stealing territories, but at the same time, it helped to development of this country.

They brought new ways of byproducts that weren’t intended to help India but it helped with their development anyways.

We have, for example, that British started the infrastructure, they started building bridges, cities and introduced the railways to India, they introduced the law through different kinds of rules. It was the same for everyone, no matter what religion or caste you were, you had to enforce rules and it helped to build an order in India.

Since the colonization, Indians have been following the British Legal System that makes easier to do business with international industries.

The British gave them the English language. English is one of the most important languages of the world and about 80% of the Indian population can speak it. English is taught in schools in India.

Those changes brought by the British Empire, gave job opportunities for Indians. They could join the military service, work as servants or drivers for the British. Educated Indians could join to the civil service. It helped to create a stronger military base to protect India from the attack of other invaders and enemies as the Afghans and Persians.

They introduced a new sport, cricket, and now it is one of the main sports of India, being the national Indian cricket team one of the best in the world.

As we can see, after all negative ideas we have about the imperialism of British Empire, we can get some beneficial points as the education system, a new order and administration, a new “fate”, new opportunities, and the idea to have a democratic system in the future.

The Spanish Armada.

As the movie Elizabeth, The Golden Age shows us, the Spanish navy was really powerful, almost invincible but why does it loses against England’s ships? I decided to investigate this a bit more.

I found out that the battle of the armadas was ONE battle of the War between The British Empire and Spain (1585-1604). The bad climatic conditions helped Britain to destroy and damage more than 40 Spanish navies.  Another interesting fact is that the British seemed to know what was the plan of the Spanish, so they fought at distant to not to have a direct battle with the soldiers in the ships.

paiting by: Nicholas Hilliard (who fought in the battle)

Another important point was the extreme faith that Felipe II (King of Spain in those times) had on their victory. He thought that the Protestants were a not organized minority as he thought that the Catholics were a majority. He had too much confidence in his armada but he didn’t know that The British Empire wasn’t afraid of it.

Although this was an important event, as I said before, this was one battle of the war and for everyone’s curiosity … The British Empire didn’t won the War. This war ended with a Peace Agreement favorable to Spain, signed by Elizabeth’s successor James I.

"AFRICA AND DECOLONIZATION"

The historical process that put an end to the colonial system in the world, during which attained their political independence the colonies that had been under the imperialist domination of the European powers in Africa has been called "decolonization". "Decolonization is the process of settlement of the colonial system in the world and the creation of CIS in former dependent territories.

The most important stages of African decolonization met between 1956 and 1962; These few years they were enough to put an end to a form of domination that was established during a century.

The lack of large groups of homogeneous population in race, culture, religion, etc, has caused tribal clashes and, in a large number of new countries, personal dictatorships, faced with the impossibility of that work a liberal system. The effects of colonization - lack of culture, economic and social backwardness--became evident in the independent countries.

Africa is still depending on structures and ideas of others to it, not by an inability to generate its own governance mechanisms, but once again by the imposition of the white domain. Economic dependence on EE.UU and Europe did not permit new States, to solve the problems caused by the colonization.

Currently Africa, increasingly populated, overcrowded cities, the difficulty of access to drinking water, have favoured the spread of multiple epidemics. Ill family members may not continue working and thus do not transmit the knowledge of culture to the next generation. The vicious cycle continues.
In this context of misery, the deterioration of the family structure is such that we found cases of parents who sell their children. It is ironic to know that, in the West, there are countless organizations that try to stop parents selling their children, the communities continue to disintegrate and that hunger causes thousands of deaths.

According to my opinion the Western economic policies profit from the life of an entire continent. Provides an example the privatization of a well of necessities like water, making it impossible to get it much of the population. In Mozambique, 660,000 people are apart from this resource.

Africa dreamed of freedom from the colonial powers, the movements of liberation fought by any means, to decide and manage their future. Years later the exploitation is so brutal that question is fellow, was there really a decolonization?.

"It's time that the fat cats had a heart attack"

“Uprising” is a song by my favorite music band Muse and is featured on their fourth studio album “The Resistance”.  It was released on 2009 and it was written by the leader of the band, Matt Bellamy.

The lyrics of that song talks about rebellion against politicians, big companies and everyone who wants to dominate and control the people using the power that they have by a bad way. As Bellamy said, “This song is influenced by glam rock, 80s synths, riots and the more eccentric protesters at the recent G2O protests. It expresses a general mistrust of bankers, global corporations, and politicians”. In simple words, it’s a protest song.

In the music video, we can see the band playing on the back of a truck through a miniature city. Through the window of a TV shop the band looks at TVs with teddy bears on the screens and Bellamy smashes the window and TV’s with his guitar, as rebelling against them.  As the video progresses we see the people burning teddy bears on a bonfire, and later the bears (who are characterized with small fangs, claws and reptilian eyes) emerge from the floor and start attacking the city.  

These teddy bears represent, for me, the global corporations, the politicians and the people who want to control the masses for their own purposes. They are characterized as teddy bears that destroy the city because they look very innocent externally but actually, they have bad intentions.

"Skyscraper"

  "Skyscraper" is one of my favorite songs, especially chose her because I like what he wants to convey and also for the energy delivered by the song.
  The song is about you have to be strong, you need to get ahead but in the past I've done his suffering, you have "thrown and trampled on the ground", one with a positive thought can rise again as a "skyscraper".

   "Skyscraper" by Demi Lovato that was written after the singer was released from a rehabilitation center. By knowing this event can be inferred, not necessarily a person can depress someone just has to be taken into account, it also goes further sinking ourselves, because some people can put themselves barriers and that makes the power follow up.

   The image of a skyscraper in the song suggests that it takes a lot of strength and courage to tear down a building that size, then you can relate that to hurt a person takes an extraordinary force. Although self can have the strength and courage to collapse himself.

"Dead Leaves"

Before I start to talk about the song that I chose, I want to let you know that it was really hard to choose an English song because I lost connection with this kind of music. Since last year and maybe before that, my music preferences are in the other side of the world.  To create this post I started to listen to a lot of American an English music, but I couldn’t find a song that makes me feel the same way that my favorite Korean song, so I decided to talk about that song.

The song I chose is called “Dead Leaves". This song has a special meaning for me. During summer holidays I was kind of depressed. I cried a lot for no reason. I argued with my parents almost every day and I thought “this is my end”, but when I listened this song… everything change, “this is just a phase, I need to get up and change my mind." And I did it. Maybe it's a bit silly, but the song worked really well.

About the artist: The rapper of this song is called Woo Jiho (우지호) or ZICO as he prefers to be called. He’s a South Korean producer, composer and rapper from the Hip Hop group Block B (블락비). He also has lived in Japan and Canada. His stage name “ZICO” was inspired in his Japanese friend who called him like that because they failed at pronounce “Jiho”.  He’s my favorite rapper but also, one of my role models.

About the song: The song is from an online album called “ZICO on the Block 1.5” The album has 6 songs, the most of them are inspired in the past and present of ZICO and how did he feel during his hard times. This song “Dead Leaves” is the 5^th track and it talks about sickness and loneliness. My favorite part of the lyrics is “In order to be reborn, I’m dying right now” I took those words as my motto. This song has a different meanings for each person, it can talk about suicide, hard times or depression. And maybe other persons have another meaning for it too
Also the song doesn't have a music video but has a picture as an album cover. In the pic, ZICO is with his head shaved as an apologize to Korea and his fans due to a controversy where Block B was involved. I think it's part of the message of the song. 

Here’s the song with English subtitles.