Current Issue

Note: This entry was wrote around January,2015. So it might not be as new.

In the International Context, Islamic extremist have broken into the headquarters of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, killed around 12 people including the Chief editor, two cartoonists, and a French Police Officer. After the attack, France raised the alert level to its highest point: terror alert, and deployed troops in Ile-de-France, and Picardy. Days after the attack, the French police persecuted the suspects around Paris, who then went to a signage company, and took hostages, finally the suspects were killed by the police when they exited the building. After these events, political leader from around the world, and Eric Holder (Obama was not able to attend due to security issues), Chief of the Department of Justice of the US, met in Paris for a rally of national unity. In the social networks, people used “#JesuisCharlie” to express their solidarity to the French people.

I looked for some cartoons of Charlie Hebdo, to know what kind of humor they used in their cartoons, and many of them were so disgusting (Oh my Gosh) that I was not impressed on why terrorists attacked them. But while I don’t agree the way in which Charlie Hebdo makes its points, I advocate for the freedom of speech that every country should have, and paraphrasing a philosopher (I think Voltaire) “I might not agree with what you say, but I will fight for your right to say it”. So yeah, Je suis Charlie.

Curret Issue.

In the national context, The Jefferson County School Board, in Colorado, has proposed to edit the US History curriculum by cutting the ugly parts of the history such racism, Hiroshima bombing, etc. in an effort to "promote citizenship, patriotism ... (and) respect for authority" and not "encourage or condone civil disorder, social strife or disregard of the law."  Students and Teachers from Denver area have protested since August to stop these changes. In my opinion,  I believe that these measures are very similar to those in Nazi Germany or in Communist Countries in which the students were brainwashed to make them robots of the system. Paraphrasing “The Bible”,  “The truth shall make you free”, in order  for us to be free, we need to know the truth about things to know what options do we have, that is the difference between democracy and dictatorship. The US can’t go around the world preaching about freedom and democracy when at home these ideals are betrayed.

NEWS EVENTS

Note: I wrote this entry around September 2014, that's why the News Event is not as new.
In the international context, Scotland tried to independize from the United Kingdom after more of 300 years of annexation. Scotland wanted to independize because according to the scottish prime minister, Scotland could be one of the richest countries in the world because of its oil reserves in the North Sea, which have 30-40 years to continue to produce before the oil ran out in the reserve; It is estimated that the oil creates a revenue to the UK of 57 billion British Pounds and the economy of Scotland represents the 8% of the total GDP of the UK. Before the election day (September 19), many stockholders that had stocks in Scottish corporations sold all their stocks fearing a crash in the market. At the end, Scotland remained being part of the UK because the people felt that Scotland was not ready yet for independence (which in my opinion, it would be better for Scotland if they separate). Now political analysts predict that the same thing is going to happen in Spain with Catalonia.