Blog Feed

But I have taken a look at some websites I frequent, mainly Tumblr. Tumblr is a blogging website, where one can make his or her own blog. It can range from a blog centered on an item or a band to a random blog, in which you can post whatever you want. A good handful of blogs are personal to the owner, in which they share their struggles with daily life. While browsing some of these blogs, I’ve found what are called ‘Ana’ and ‘Mia’ blogs, referring to Anorexia and Bulimia respectively. These blogs contain emancipated images of girls in fashion shows or even some airbrushes females on magazine covers. The people running the blogs are usually referring to these images as ‘thinspiration’ or ‘thinspo’.

Common Thinspiration are models in the media and girls from magazine covers and celebrities, who are also under this influence. Even the Internet is becoming a dangerous place for being comfortable with what you look like and who you are. Many celebrities have posed for magazines and complained about the editing they do to their bodies.

I personally think that this is all ridiculous.

What is so wrong with seeing a person with flaws? Does the media know their impact on young girls’ lives?  

Sources

For this blog post I talked to Estafan again.  Me and him talked about food this time.  I found out that me and him have a lot in common.  We talked about his favorite foods and then I found out that he loves Sushi just like me.  He asked me what kind.  We both like Cali Rolls as well as Seaweed.

            Attention all viewers! Recent studies have shown that the foods that we love the most, are killing us slowly. According to Top 10 Junk Foods, common foods that teenagers can easily find are French fries, a can of soda or chips. This junk food is found at an affordable price. Therefore everyone will buy them because they find them delicious and might even think they are nutritious. If our country increased the junk food prices and lowered the fruits and 100 percent fruit juice was at a cheaper price then our country wouldn’t be in an Obesity crisis.

            When we get hungry, we want something to eat fast and hot. That’s where the idea fast food restaurants came from. Before, the U.S did not have such a system of fast food because they knew that if the food were out for too long, it would begin to spoil. Then, they made up a system in which the food was going to be ready. This process is horrible because its fried fat, and/or through the microwave. This may sound disgusting but it’s the truth. Millions of Americans love fast food restaurant. That’s where obesity comes in. You see, when you are cooking greasy fat then you are serving poison to the community. You’re killing our country for a dollar a burger. If someone was hungry and it was between the food that is home or a fast food restaurant, 2 out of 3 people chose fast food because they don’t want the wait. This food is horrible for the body but like it tastes good, the community doesn’t mind.

            Obesity rates have also gone up in the United States because we are currently in a recession. Unemployment rates are going up because there is not enough money and not enough money means not enough food. Unless, you buy the unhealthy food that can potentially kill you. We need change and we need it now. The prices in our country have to change. What’s bad for us is extremely affordable but what’s good for us is horrible. How can this society not be as mindful with the new generation and putting them at risk of so many illnesses?

            There needs to be change now. In our country the obesity rates for a male is about 31 percent. This needs to stop now. There is no reason why we can’t eat what we want without having to pay a lot of money. All of this fast food is causing cancer to our citizens because the fries from fast food restaurants contain a chemical that causes cancer. The community does not know this because we are not aware. We buy but do not know what we are buying! This has to stop.

There are many ways that the new generation can eat these foods while leaving original flavors and no artificial flavors. If our government makes a change in our food change we can be able to lower the rates of obesity. For example, if they say that a bag of chips, costs two dollars and a bunch of bananas is 35 cents per pound then the country will want to eat the banana. The country goes for the cheapest item. IF the healthier things aren’t as expensive than I can guarantee that we would have a healthier child rate.

We can change this now. Change is something that we all need and especially this country. We need healthier foods for lunch, and more affordable prices for the foods we need to eat. We had so many farmers and now we have none. Like unemployment is so high and farmer rates are so low, then why don’t we hire farmers? If we hire these farmers, then our fruits will be more affordable and our country will be at a healthier state.

Partners Name:

City y Country:

Who you spoke with and why you chose that partner. What did you learn about them? What did you learn from them?

How did this interaction help you move towards achieving your personal goals?

In the Trayvon Martin case, there have only been a few outbreaks.

According to Florida’s special prosecutor Angela Corey at a news conference has charged George Zimmerman with 2nd degree murder. He is being held with no bond. If George Zimmerman is convicted, he could face life in prison.

 http://abcnews.go.com/US/george-zimmerman-charged-murder-trayvon-martin-killing/story?id=16115469#.T7Qum59YtO6 (The link to Angela Corey announcing to the press that Zimmerman was being charged) 

 Also, they have uncovered the weapons in the killing and the photo of the exact spot he was killed at. News reports say Trayvon Martin had marijuana in his system before he was killed.

                                   9 mm handgun used by Zimmerman

                George Zimmerman being taken into custody in the far

                                         left of the photo.

To add to my research, I have looked up more information and looked up various videos and news reports on this case. I’ve also read many news articles about this case. My findings were helpful and gave me more insight on my issue. Finding out more about the case then I already knew made me realize there is a lot more than it seems to this cause. It’s more than just an African American teenager being killed by someone of a different race.

In my opinion, I think that Zimmerman has a bad judgment of people that were a different skin color than him, so that really gave him a reason to physically fight, then kill Trayvon. I also think that Zimmerman had no reason to shoot. Trayvon was unarmed. To me that wasn’t necessary. Even though Trayvon was taller and more fit then him, he still shouldn’t have shot him just because he got over powered. Other things could have been put in place then to kill an unarmed teenager. Like calling the police, or filling a report on Troyon, not leaving him dead and his family left to morn over his death.

I’m left wondering if this was really an act of racism and why did it take 44 days for Zimmerman to finally be arrested. I wonder would the situation had been different of Trayvon wasn’t an African American teenager. Maybe the outcome would have been different if Trayvon was white or of a difference race that wasn’t African American. But Zimmerman is the only person that was there at the shooting. He may tell his side of the story, but Trayvon Martin couldn’t live to tell his side. I think no one really knows what actually happened. Everyone has his or her own opinion on this. This is just what I think.

                            Zimmerman’s head after the shooting

But an unarmed teenager is left dead while he survives with a few cuts and bruises. 

            As an American growing up we are always told the amount of freedoms that we have and how amazing it is to live in our country. In only the past centuries African Americans and women have gained their rights. Now my rights as a woman are going to be taken away from me. For women a major step since gaining our rights is the Violence Against Women Act. This is what a women needs to stay protected and be given her rights as a United States Citizen. What is also apart of this act is Roe V. Wade, which legalizes early term abortions. Since this was added there has been a lot of backlash mostly from the Republican Party. This time they might get their way.

            Over the past few months Republicans have made a bill changing the rights of women. While reading the next part of this blog post imagine yourself as a woman having to live through these types of regulations. In one point the bill that is trying to be passed states that if a woman is on her death bed and it is between her and the child’s life no matter how far along in the pregnancy the child will always saved and the mother WILL DIE. In another point in the bill it says that in order for a woman to have an abortion first a rod must be stuck up her vagina and she must watch the fetus before she has an abortion. In one article I read  it discusses how Senator Farnese says that is this law is passed then men who need Viagra should need postate exams. Sarcastically describing how ridiculous this law is. There has been no proven medical reason that this needs to happen; the only thing it is helping is to scare women from doing what is best for them, ABORTION. During another point in the bill that the republicans are trying to pass it says that there will no longer be funding for hospitals for emergency abortions when the woman’s life is in danger.

            Many republicans before have tried to shut down family facilities like Planned Parenthood when in fact only 3% of their services consist of abortions. It went so far that many clinics were sued in Texas in 2011. In Arizona they banned funding leaving many woman without access to abortions putting their children in worse situations. If they can’t even pay for an abortion how are they going to take care of a child for 18 years?

            While attending a breast cancer walk with my mother and family on May 8th we witnessed people walking around with signs with pictures of open breast asking if they would do that to their own children. Basically saying destroying their bodies. To many people who that day had such importance to it ruined it. As a women in the United States of America IT IS MY RIGHT TO DO WHAT I WANT WITH MY OWN BODY. Most of the information and pictures that they had were wrong. Most women have abortions in there first trimester when it is only a fetus in their stomach. They showed pictures of full grown babies. Every year 1.37 million women in America have abortions. This is a large number and without clinics to have abortions or anywhere else that provides them most children will be brought into awful situations.

I do understand that sometimes people do not believe in abortions morally, religiously, and for other reasons. But no one is asking them to get one the only thing that we are asking is for women to get the rights to their bodies. When my mom was younger she worked in a women’s health center and has told me many stories about the awful things that she has experienced because of it. It becomes bigger than just us but at what point can I chose what I do for myself.  The article I read talks about how far people will truly go to stop women from many rights. What can we do to make a change?

In my pervious blog I talked about what cancer is and how it forms. I also talked about how the environment is affecting our bodies in appalling ways. Finally I talk about some statics of cancer in America. In this blog I am going to talk about people’s social class and how that affects cancer. I will also be talking about how people with cancer sometimes don’t get the right treatment because of the health system in America.

15.1% of people in America live in poverty. This means that most of these people don’t have any health coverage this also means if they get sick they will not be able receive a good doctor.  Health Coverage should be equal for all people no matter how much money that they make. These people that are living at the poverty level may be forming cancer and not even know it because they don’t have the right doctors. America is controlled by how much money you have. Treatments for cancer are expensive and most people are not able to pay for it. Not only does their family suffer but they also suffer. When you have money you are more able to pay for the treatments that you need.

It’s not just people without health coverage it is also people with health coverage. A large number of people when they find out that they have a cancer their employer misplace their sponsored coverage, because they don’t want to pay for the high bills. But that is not fair your health coverage is supposed to cover you in the time of need and they are not doing that in some cases. Not having the correct health coverage can disable someone from getting preventative cancer screenings. 24% of people aged 40 and above are not able to get correct cancer screenings because of their health coverage’s. In American we spent $895 billion, on cancer treatment, this number is growing fast because of the aging population.

Support Health Care 

Childhood cancer is the leading cause to childhood deaths in America. In developed countries such as America many children that have cancer and are never able to be diagnosed, or are diagnosed to late. The UICC (The international Union Against Cancer) wants to help make sure all children are diagnosed. Children are covered for health insurance only if their parents are. Even then some health companies bail out when a parent needs help for a child who has cancer. The American Cancer society wants to make sure every person is covered if they are ever in need.

How can I start getting involved to help make sure everyone is able correct for health coverage? Well you can always volunteer with the American Cancer society. They are open to any ages; they just want to end the miss-treatment of health coverage. 

If you missed out on my last blog entry, I have been looking into the subject of domestic animal abuse within the world, and what I could do in order to help stop what is happening. Before, I packed in a lot of information about serious abusive situations and why I wanted to be a part of this kind of change. With this next entry, you'll find some more information, but more importantly, what I think of my topic at this point in my research.

I still have been keeping tolls on what has been going on with the health of domestic animals. While looking for some news to talk about, I found this article on the relations between domestic violence and animal cruelty from the ASPCA website. In that article is a list of stats comparing different concepts that have to do with domestic abuse and animal abuse happening under the same roof. For example, according to the article, studies have shown that those who abuse their pets do so in order to show control over the household and to intimidate the victims of domestic violence. The ASPCA has been finding ways to respond to those situations and help out as much as possible.

Going throughout this whole research project, I developed an even stronger opinion on animal abuse than I had before. For example, when I say "Animal abuse is wrong," I can back it up with more ways as to why it's wrong and examples of situations involving animal cruelty. Right now, I still want to find more reasons as to why pet owners find reasons to abuse their animals. Was it the way they were raised? Did their parents do the same thing? Is there a connection to emotional problems somewhere in there? Also, I am dying to know about what happens to animals used for testing in labs. More information is to come very soon! Thanks for reading!

            I have already begun to start my project for change, which is to educate myself and to bring awareness to my topic. Last Wednesday, May 16, I joined a group called Fuerza. This group is part of a larger organization called Juntos, which is a community of Latino immigrants in Philadelphia who strive to earn human rights in the fields of labor, education, and immigration. The group I joined consists of several other teenagers who have come to educate themselves about the topic of immigration rights and fight for their rights.

            I first heard of Fuerza through my cousin who was in the group. I asked her about the group and I made a decision to go to the weekly meetings. At the meeting we had a speaker from CNS (Campaign for Nonviolent Schools). We talked about the decrease in the amount of counselors in high schools and the budget cuts and how it affect the community of immigrants. Another thing we discussed was the high drop out rates among Latinos.        

To quote New York Senator Bill Perkins “Charter schools came on board with the promise that they could do better for less… No sooner than they became they started advocating for more money…they began advocating to be a part of those public schools, to take over those public schools. So it’s a switcheroo kind of a thing. They came in with one expectation, and now they’re in the public schools creating all kinds of chaos. And the Mayor is closing down schools, with the plan of putting in these charter schools. And I think it’s outrageous that they’re getting paid so much.” 

Private corporations who are only looking to make money are running our schools. Does anyone else find anything wrong with this statement?

Which company the schools actually go to is still undecided. Some ideas that are floating around include having “Achievement Networks” and decisions about schools would be made within each. These decisions would be about curricula, discipline, staffing, supplies, etc. As retired teacher, education activist, and writer said Lisa Haver said in a Daily News article “District officials have admitted that this new system would do nothing to lessen the deficit…. A bidding process would determine who controls each network. Anyone may be chosen: former district personnel, charter school operators, corporations, or politicians including State Rep. Dwight Evans, who last year bullied one charter school behind closed doors in order to override the choice of parents at Martin Luther King High School. How have we arrived at a point where the public school system can be auctioned off to the lowest bidder?”

I am strongly against the privatization of public schools. After doing even further research, I learned that when a school becomes privatized, they no longer have to be transparent to the taxpayers who support it. They don’t have to release the salaries of the CEO’s or staff, do not have release whether or not they have the required level of certified teachers, and do not have to say whether or not those teachers are even teaching the subject they are certified in.

In some ways, I wish I could talk to the SRC. I would have plenty questions for them. How am I supposed to learn geometry from a certified gym teacher?  How am I supposed to become a member of by global community, and an active, contributing citizen if my government doesn’t value my education? How can I trust the SRC to be a powerful advocate for my education if, as Lisa Haver said, “its policies can be dictated by billionaires with deep pockets and rigid contracts”? 

You can find my bibliography here.

STDs are one of the most dangerous diseases to have. It makes you very sick, and you won’t be able to grow up to have babies because you won’t be able to have intimacy because of the risk of giving the disease to other people. Especially if you are a teenager. One in every four female in the U.S has a case of STD. Between the years of 1997 and 2011 the percentage of teens with STDs jumped a total of 53 percent.

There is a theory for the reason as to why teens get STDs. Children go through puberty earlier because of  better nutrition, and the immature cervix of teenage girls is especially vulnerable to infection. Psychology: Kids with raging hormones think they are invincible and take stupid risks. Sociology: Children who grow up in the inner city take risks because they can’t imagine a decent future. Technology: Better screening detects more STDs. Poverty: A lack of access to medical care means those infected won’t know they have an STD and will continue to spread it. Culture: Casual high school hookups have replaced the romance of dating. The media: Kids are being sexualized in ads, movies and on the Internet. All these reasons can be a possible factor as to why kids get STDs. Or maybe it’s that they weren’t raised with the mindset that we were given by our parents not to have sex and to use a condom when we do.

Personally, when it comes to this topic i blame the parents. It’s supposed to be their job to tell the child to job to tell the child about the dangers of STDs and how they can be prevented. My theory is that the parents of these teenage children with the disease is that they don’t care, or they too have experience with more than one partner. i believe that if parents warn their children and teach them the rights from wrongs in intimacy, the teenage rate of STDs would be a lot shorter.

As I go about with my research i still wonder lots of things about teenage STDs. Why are teenagers more subject to getting affected. How was this disease first discovered, and how is it best treated? These thoughts are going all through my head and want to be answered.

What is Human Trafficking? It’s the form of slavery in which people control and exploit other human beings in order to create a profit.

Why is this a problem? Because until slavery and trafficking is fully abolished, the world is not a free one. Because no matter where the slavery is in the world, our freedom depends on the abolishment of it. Because, in the words of Abraham Lincoln, ‘no man is good enough to govern another man without that other’s consent.’

Since my last post, I've taken some time to conduct some research outside of school. As it turns out, 1 out of every 5 people that I interviewed, between the ages of 14 and 18, didn't even know that Human Trafficking was a large world issue.  

Where is Human Trafficking occurring? Everywhere. Almost every single country on the planet is affected in some way by Human Trafficking. This map shows only a segment of the trafficking trade around the world:

            While I was trying to promote my survey, I was also doing more research into the world of social networking and found that many businesses use social networking as a way to raise support, awareness and money. According to a reporter Debbie Miller, when marketers were asked if social networking was important to their business, 62% of them said, “strongly agree” and 28% “agree”. In addition, she made a chart about the pros of social networking in business:

 Hello everyone again I come to you with my 2^nd post on government spending on prisoners vs. students. One of my main issues is the fact that the government gives convicted killers, rapists, kidnappers, etc. health care that a lot of kids in America don’t have and food housing and more opportunities that most kids don’t get. Some new info I picked up is about private prisons. Although they are beneficial to saving money it also has its faults. For starters the security is very bad in some places as it said 3 murderers had escaped before. Also with private prisons they put high profile prisoners in low security places.

This added to my knowledge because although it’s good to use private prisons for financial reasons it is not for safety purposes. It costs less if the government pays a private prison rather than run it themselves. In my opinion safety comes 1^st cause if we aren’t safe than having money means nothing. After we get our security up to protect the people then we can worry about money. Although we can solve the safety issue by just putting low profile prisoners in the private prisons with medium security and leaving the high profile prisoners in the max security prisons. I have an idea that could work but it would take a lot of work and maybe money but the results will benefit us in the long run. 

  What if we built an island like Alcatraz and put all the high profile prisoners and low profile prisoners there with no resources to help them escape and a high wall around the perimeter with sharks swimming around so they wouldn’t try to escape that way. In the long run we would save billions because they wouldn’t have to keep building new prisons and prison cells and also having to pay guards to watch over them. I think this could work if we perfect what my main idea is and if we put the time and effort into it. I wonder if any other people care about this topic as much as I do. I am going to ask teachers and principals if they can help me get in touch with government officials to help this problem get fixed. My bibliography