Peace Goals

Short Term:  I will not fight with my brother and parents, and I will always try to smile to people that I don't know and to people that I know too.  I will still work in my inner peace and I am going help everyone that needs my help.  I will help my family, my friends, my enemies, etc.  I will visit a children's cancer hospital and make sure that those children smile and fight for their lives, because life is beautiful.  And may them forget about the disease that they have because I know what they are passing through because my mother is a cancer survivor.

Long Term:  I will like to establish a shelter for orphaned children, there are not that much were I live, Puerto Rico and also a children's hospital (cancer).  I'll visit children shelters and asylums and help them with what they need.

Inner Peace

I think that to be able to achieve global peace everyone has to work with their inner peace.  We don't have control over global peace, but we do have control over our inner peace.  If we are able to work and achieve inner peace, I guarantee you that the world will be different.  Peace should start within yourselves, in you house, in your school, in your community, in your family, etc.  But, I am not saying that inner peace is easy to achieve, no.  I do believe that it needs work and sacrifices.  We have to be able to forgive people, sometimes to forgive your enemy; in order to achieve peace within yourselves.  We cannot have inner peace if you are fighting all of the time with your parents, your boyfriend or girlfriend, with your friends, etc.  We have to be able to overcome all this obstacles in order to achieve inner peace.  Everyone should concentrate in achieving their own inner peace in order for the world to be a better one.  Help others when they need it, someday you may need it too.  Be as happy as you can and that will help with your inner peace.

Op ed

Gabriela A. Vázquez

To: 1311 English Students

Prof. Gilden

May 4, 2011

Scared Libyans

For many years, but especially in 2011, Libyans look around their shoulders all the time, everywhere; when they go shopping, when they go to the airport, when they go to a park trying to find some peace and even when they are in their home.   They are scared.   They are waiting for an attack to come.   Libyans don’t live a happy life.   They are scared all the time, scared of death, scared of their own death, scared of one of their family members death, scared of their friends or neighbor’s death.    Libyans are scared of talking or expressing themselves.   They are scared of their neighbor’s death but they are more scared about what their neighbor’s may say.   But of all their fears, the worst one is the fear caused by the person that is supposed to take care of all Libyans, their president Muammar al-Qaddafi.

Muammar Al-Qaddafi has controlled Libya for more than thirty years.   He has ruled his country with an “iron fist”.   Instead of admiration or love he kept Libyans controlled by the use of the force.   Instead of using their petroleum for the people’s good, he used it for his own.

After all this years, Libyans finally decided to take the abuse to an end.   They have learned through the Internet that there is a different world.   A world of liberties and freedom.   They compared what they have with this world and then decided to claim for a change.   They want a change of their president but also they want freedom and peace.   They don’t want to be scared anymore.

They don’t want to be a target that can be attacked or shot at any time.   They don’t want to be scared of their neighbor anymore.    With this in mind, Libyans began to protest against Qaddafi.   Up to this point, it was a national problem.   However, although his people don’t want him anymore, Qaddafi decided to keep power at any cost.   He decided to keep power even if he has to kill all the people that oppose him and bring Libya to the ruin.   He decided to use his armed forces to harm the people that were claiming for a change.   This action changed the problem from a national one to an international affair.   The rest of the world cannot allow this criminal action.    The United States, France and Great Britain united, attacked.   They were trying to help the people that don’t want Qaddafi anymore, the people that don’t want to be scared never again.   They are trying to save innocent people lives that only want to have what we enjoyed all the time (freedom and peace), and convince this cruel ruler to resign.       

  

             

Homophobic Bullying

In this video we see two gay persons trying to be together in public and some friends from the class just don't like it and they started bothering them.  Those people who came to them are homophobic and the two gay persons are passing trough homophobic bulling.  I think that everybody is equal and that everyone has the same rights.  Homosexual people are just the same as straight people, they are humans and have feelings.  If their happiness is with a person from the same gender that is fine, they don't do any harm to you or the world.  Don't judge people because of what they like, judge people because of what they are.  Lesbians, gays, transexuals, etc. are the same we have the same rights and all of them deserve to say what they feel and they deserve to do what they want.  We should not be racist about gays, they are normal persons just with different feelings through a different gender.  Gays, transexuals, lesbians, etc. have committed suicide because of homophobic bullying and we should all feel so bad for those people who judged them and made them feel miserable and because of that they commit suicide.  We should all stand up as the video say and support gays, I personally have friends who are gay and they are so nice; as I mentioned earlier, they are just like straight people.  They deserve to be heard and to be loved.

Libya

Libya's leader Muammar Gaddafi has been in power since 1969 until present days.  His leadership have been there the last 42 years.  Libya wants a change in this country and their government.  But the leader, Gaddafi, uses the army to destroy the opponents.  He even destroys people from his own country who are not in his side.  The United States, Great Britain, and France united themselves in order for Gaddafi to not destroy his opponents.  Recently the United States, Great Britain, and France attacked Gaddafi's forces with airplanes.  Currently there is a civil war in Libya.  Muammar Gaddafi is known as the "Brother Leader and Guide of the Revolution."  Gaddafi executed dissidents publicly and their executions are often braodcast in television.  Recently Libya has become really close with Italy, which was one of the country's colonial ruler. 

The Coalition for Adolescent Girls Memo

Date: February 14, 2011

To: 1311 English Students

From: Gabriela A. Vázquez

Re: The Coalition for Adolescent Girls

Everyone wants peace in the world, but where should we start?  There are a couple of organizations and foundations determined to work for peace.  The Coalition for Adolescent Girls is one of them.  This organization is “committed to creating lasting change for communities in the developing world by driving investments to adolescent girls.”  They say that when girls have an education, are healthy, and financially literate, they will play an important part in ending generations of poverty.  The United Nations Foundation and the Nike Foundation founded this organization in 2005.  Their goal is “to unleash the untapped potential of the developing world’s six hundred million adolescent girls by raising awareness and driving action.” 

They choose girls because “she is the world’s most powerful force for change.”  They choose girls because if they stay in school, stay healthy; they will gain skills in order to marry at an appropriate age and have less and healthier children.  This then will result in and income that she will invest back to her family.  They look for girls who were born in extreme poverty where some of the aspects they share are that they leave school early (uneducated), they marry early and therefore have children to young, because of having children early they have a many health risks, and they do not have the skills to go ahead and support financially their families.  The statistics say that girls in poor countries leave school early, marry to young, so then they will not gain the skills to become a probable full woman.  This is a tragedy that will be multiplied by six hundred million adolescent girls around the world, which at the end results in an endless cycle of poverty. 

Today they are focused on: “collecting and distributing the facts that describe the positive change girls have on their communities, indentifying the girl-specific actions and investments that will ignite change, and forming a community of like-minded organizations with diverse expertise to inform our collective work.” 

In a power point that you can download from the website there is a chart that states how many females live with HIV, by sex, which is far more than males.  Also, it is incredible how many girls have been physically or sexually abused from ages 15-19.  There is from 5-49%, and this is only in some countries, you can also imagine how much more could be in other countries also. 

If we start taking action, like this organization, with girls who live under this conditions and also with girls who live in extreme poverty, this statistics will change and girls will make a big difference if they can be educated, be married at a good age, have children when they are healthy; then this will change because they will be aware of the situations in life and then they will start having children when they have fully gain their skills to support their family. 

The Coalition for Adolescent Girls website (http://www.coalitionforadolescentgirls.org/#) provides more information about this organization.  You can also be able to help this girls and take action.  

Central Asia Institute

In the video “Building Peace” Greg Morrison described the circumstances in which people live in Central Asia.   In the early 1990’s, Greg Morrison went to Central Asia and saw the living conditions of the people there.   He promised them that he was going to return and build a school for the children.   He promised it and make it happened.   At the end of the 1990’s the school was built.   He named the school Central Asia Institute.   The school is focused mainly in the education of girls than in boys.

I think that it is very interesting that he focused in the education of children instead on community’s roads, houses or other kind of help to the community.   In my opinion, he is right in his approach because if you educate the children they will be able to make changes that will benefit the whole community.   An educated child may help the world to change.   Peace needs to start individually.   We cannot control the whole world to have peace but we can control and create our own peace.      

From the video we see that people in Central Asia live under extreme poverty conditions.    Also we learn that the majority of them, if not all of them, want to become a better person and that they want to be educated.   It makes you feel sad when you see the conditions in which the children live in Central Asia.   I agree that this conditions affects peace and that on the contrary education will lead to peace.   Educated people know what to expect from life.   Education gives them tools to reach goals and to make changes that will make the world a better place to live.    It is important to mention that we cannot blame the parents of children of Central Asia for not trying to educate their children.  They do not have the resources to pay for their education, but at least they try to teach their children themselves.      It is important to mention that in Central Asia’s countries some children do not receive education due to discrimination.   That makes me feel sad and at the same time angry because education must be for everyone.   All children deserve a good education no matter their color, religion, culture, status, etc.   If people stop the discrimination, more children will be educated and that will help to start important changes in the world that will result in a better and peaceful world.   It is important to say that some of the most important problems that affect a community, such as crime, are related to lack of education.

In my opinion, Morrison’s approach is the best one, if you want to make changes you must start from the root of the problem.    In a community the solution must start individually.    Educated people will be able to work to get what they want and fulfill their basic needs.    They will be able to build their houses and roads.   This will result in a better community and at the end in a peaceful world.   I think that this world needs more people as Greg Morrison.