Who killed Malcolm X?

Malcolm X was one of most influential faces in the history of Black Movements in USA. Unlike many leaders, most inspired by Martin Luther King, Malcolm X decided to step aside from the peaceful speeches to a more confrontational way, being associated with the Black Panther Party.

But before his public image, he was just a boy related to robbery and drug selling. In 1946 was imprisoned, and during the years in jail, he spent his time studying. He soon converted to the Nation of Islam, or Black Muslims. 

Once X was freed, Elijah Muhammad, leader of the Nation of Islam, was impressed by Malcolm's abilities and named him second-in-command. X saw Muhammad as a paternal and spiritual figure, but shortly after he figured out that the private life. Malcolm felt betrayed when he learnt that Muhammad had fathered six children with different women. He left the Nation of Islam and their relationship deteriorated further.

Malcolm X in Saudi Arabia

Compulsory for all muslims, he flew to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in order to make the pilgrimage to Mecca, regarded as the holiest city of Islam. There he felt thrilled with the fact that people from all races were equal when they praised Allah. He changed his name to El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, converted to the Sunni Islam, and returned to the US as a more moderate man.

But when he returned to the US, Malcolm received numerous death threats from the Nation of Islam, being February 21st, 1965, his last day. He was about to deliver a lecture at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem, when followers of Elijah Muhammad shot dead Malcolm with pistols and gunshots.

Extract of the movie "Malcolm X"

Quotes, information used & further readings:

History in an Hour: Malcolm X

History News Network: Who Killed Malcolm X? And Why?

International Bussiness Times: Malcolm X the Muslim: A man Islam saved twice then killed

National Humanities Center: Islam in America: From African slaves to Malcolm X

racism still exist?

racism still exist?  

we learned a lot of how the afro american people fought for their rights, but were the civil movements the remedy to finish with discrimination?

something really interesting happened on July 17, 2014 and was the Eric Garner's death, a afro american man that was killed after that a police officer put him in a chokehold for 15 seconds, the officer make's compression in Eric's throat for about 15 seconds preventing him breath.

What was the reason for do it? 

Eric was selling cigarettes on the street and  was the reason to arrest him, but the arrest was a little violent and finished with his life.

I think that there is not reason for take someone's life and that's remember me so much the violent way that the policeman had at the moment to stop the civil movements. 

while eric was drowning said "I can't breathe" so if you put this on google or wherever social network you will find this because that was a controversial new arround the world.

We know that the movements and all the Martin Luther King's revolution was a long time ago, and also we know that the movements had a good results for finish with segregation and discrimination, but this happened one year ago so, even in this times exist the racism I think.

What do you think about this? 

Where are the non violent ways?

Here I will post the video with the moment that he said "I can't  breathe"

Segregation 2.0 in United States

We know about Martin Luther King Jr. and what he did "fighting" for the civil rights of afroamerican people and the things that we talked about the powerful anti-segregation movie “Selma”. But many experts feel specifically in segregation, that aimed to solve has only worsened.




According to the Civil Rights Project of Harvard University, the annulment of segregation in the United States had its peak in 1980's, but since then, there places more segregated, one reason may be because exist changes in the common residence places of the African American people, the continued growth in suburbs and the new communities around the country, but it is also said that even now  has more to do with social and economic differences in states than with the racial discrimination like in the past.


In the main points of Understanding dominant-minority relations in the united states today (Part 3 - Charper 5) it said: 


"at the beginning of the 20th century, the racial oppression of african americans took the form of a rigid competitive system of group relations and de jure(*) segregation. *segregation that is imposed by law
"Compared with their situation at the start of the 20th century, Today, African Americans have made considerable improvements in quality of life. But the distance to true racial equality remains enormous"




Also, Theguardian.com in one of its opinion column said :

 
"Segregation in the 21st century is not just about being legally and physically separated, but about a cultural separation that still feels like it divides more than it binds"




Now, with unintentionally misinterpret about what we learned and discussed in class, I propose the following idea. After everything that happened in the history of civil rights, slavery, the inequality that afroamerican people had in the past and new features that caused this "new" segregation. Who really is being segregated? Is still exist "whites only" signs that cause this? White people can also be segregated by african americans? self-segregation exists?  

Now you, dear classmates, students of the XXI century, who know the events occurring around this theme... I know, are a lot of questions, but What can you said about this?

I will be happy to answer any questions or comments.

Racism in Australia

While I was searching some information about Aboriginal people in Australia I found some shocking information that I thought it could be something we should talk about. 

According to this site:  

-1 in 5 people living in Australia was a target of racial discrimination (around 4.6 million people).

-3 in 4 Indigenous Australians regularly experience racism.

-Nearly half of all Australian residents from a culturally and linguistically diverse background have experienced racism at some time in their life.

Now, we can generalize and say that all Australians are racist, because they're not. In fact, If some people see some of these actions they’ll be disgusted and against it. However, the numbers are kind of disconcerting seeing that immigrants are a significant part of the population, as well as the aboriginal people. And it isn’t something that only happens in Australia, we can see it all around the world. Even in our country, there are some people, who may make awful remarks towards Mapuche descendants, Peruvians, Bolivians, etc. Just because of their place of origin.

In my opinion, racism is a difficult subject because not everyone sees it the same way. Some people make racism comments without knowing or are blind to what is happening around them. However, that doesn’t mean we can’t change it. It’s our responsibility to educate ourselves, think every time we speak and put ourselves on the other’s shoes. If we hear or experience something like that we, as teachers, need to correct the other person and make them see the wrong of his actions.

Here are some videos of some situations in Australia.

So, what do you think? Do you think this numbers or images are normal or justified? 

References:

 http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-28192696

http://alltogethernow.org.au/news/how-address-denial-racism/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2709148/Half-Australians-racist-Aborigines-one-five-away-public-transport.html

Languages in Australia

Cultural diversity in Australia has made that in the country are spoken more than 200 languages but, English is the official language in the country. The most widely spoken languages are: Italian, Greek, Cantonese, Arabic, Mandarin, Vietnamese, Spanish, Filipino, German and Hindi. Much of these languages spoken in this country are spoken by immigrants from around the world, the rest of these many languages are spoken by indigenous Australians and Torres Strait Islander, “more than 60 different languages are spoken by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians.”

The Australians are characterized for shortening some words, for example for "football" they say “footy", for "barbecue" they say "barbie", for "TV" they say "telly", etc.

Something very interesting about this country is the help they give to the immigrants who do not speak English or do not have a very well English because the country has created different programs for immigrants. These programs were created for a better quality of life for them, which consist of free English classes. Some of the programs that Australia has are the following:

            - Adult Migrant English Program

            - Language, Literacy and Numeracy Program

            - Workplace English Language and Literacy Program

            - English as a Second Language New Arrivals Program

Interpreter Symbol

For the Australian government is important that immigrants who do not speak the language can communicate in a good way, for this reason they created a system of interpretation which is that in different parts of the country there are interpreters who can help people who do not know much English. To find out which sites are interpreters has created a symbol then people can easily know where they can turn to and communicate in a good way

What do you think about that?

Would you like something similar in Chile?

http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/0/D696154A0D5CBBE3CA2570DE0006ED55?opendocument

http://www.education.gov.au/amep

https://www.immi.gov.au/living-in-australia/help-with-english/NIS/

Living among sheep

Just as much New Zealand is full with tourists, much of New Zealand is full with sheep.

Maybe sheep are not the first thing you think of when you hear about New Zealand, but did you know that there are more sheep than people?

There are about 30 million of this animals in New Zealand, approximately seven sheep per people however, is still quite different from 1982, when New Zealand had 70.3 million sheep, or a super impressive 22 sheep for every person!

Although the numbers of sheep has been decreasing a lot they are in almost every part of the country they even have taken over the Hobbit holes that were created for the filming of "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy.

New Zealand people love sheep so much that they  have sheep shearing competitions and they also have an event that would put the Pamplona event to shame, forget about the running of the bulls!  Te Kuiti town has The Running of the Sheep!

In one way or another sheep are all over New Zealand, in its fields, on its dinner menus, flavors in its bags of crisp and they also keep people warm in their boots and jackets!

Latin American people in the USA

The Latin American population has grown through the last century; according to the US Census Bureau in 2013 they represent approximately 16% of the United States total population. They’re the second largest ethnic group in USA and when I was doing my research about them I learnt some interesting facts.  

Most of the USA citizens tend to have some misconceptions about Latinos, they tend to believe that all of them are Mexican, undocumented immigrants and they all speak Spanish. Well, we know that’s not true. Latinos are the people who came from Latin America and that includes Brazilian people who speaks Portuguese. And besides, they’re not all immigrants. Some of them have been there since 1848 when “the border crossed them”, as they like to say.  

Latin Americans have left their mark in the USA through different aspects. One of them has been music. Did you know that Salsa was created in the USA? Well, I didn’t. It was conceived in the mid-60s by Latin American immigrants in New York. They used it to express their identity and though life as latinos. After a warm reception by the audience, the musical genre travelled to Miami to keep on growing.

Some famous Latin American people who have made it in the USA are Benicio del Toro, Carlos Santana, Carolina Herrera, Salma Hayek, Celia Cruz, Gloria Stefan and many others.

By 2060 the Latino population is expected to constitute 31% of the US population. Would you like to be a part of it?

What about the west side of Great Britain?

It’s comprehensible the fact that not everyone talks about Wales, since England captures (almost) all the attention with its interesting landmarks and famous celebrities, but what about the land of some of the most thrilling landscapes on United Kingdom and even possibly Europe?

Wales is a small country with a population of around 3 million, located at the left of England. This country compensate its small size with a very rich history and culture, fascinating natural wonders and some interesting facts worth mention. From towering mountains to splendid shores, Wales is a lively place more known for the image of its countryside, its peaceful inhabitants and the sheep shepherding (being the population of sheep in Wales four times greater than the Welsh population of humans!).

But wait, there is more! Did you know that Wales is believed to have more castles per square mile than anywhere else in the world? That’s because over the course of the centuries, Wales and England had always been in confrontation, so they had to construct their defenses everywhere, since battles were just around the corner in medieval times. However, in the forthcoming years things did not changed that much. In 1846 the English Government imposed English as a compulsory language in schools, and even banned children speak Welsh, giving punishment to those who do, that’s why currently only 21% of the entire Welsh population of Wales can speak the native language.

Nowadays, Wales is a country that always offers a warm welcome to all the travelers who want to discover the magic of its fields and seas. Probably you will want to visit a town in North Wales called Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwyll-llantysiliogogogoch, which translates as “The church of St. Mary in the hollow of white hazel trees near the rapid whirlpool by St. Tysilio’s of the red cave” (believed to be the longest place name in the world!).

These and more interesting facts about Wales here: http://www.1stcontact.com/blog/featured-news/20-interesting-facts-wales/

The hero’s home is in Canada

As we all know, the man of red cheeks, full beard, red clothes and black leather boots works so hard all the year to give presents to children who have had a good behavior all year around the world, but what about holidays Santa Claus? Well… this important man for many has got his summer home more than 50 years ago on Canada, it is located in the town of Val-David, to an hour from Montreal (Canada), called "Village du Père Noël".

It was always said that he is a good man and he likes to share with others, this is right because anyone can visit his residence, where you will find snow games, sleds, water activities, outdoor play areas, farm animals, candy canes, magic shows and meet the hero, Mrs. Claus, his reindeer and elves in person and more!

Remember that Santa Claus is watching us all year to know if we are part of the list of good or bad children. If we are good he will give us beautiful gifts that he make in his factory with the help of his faithful elves, but if we are bad he will give us a piece of coal. You don't want that, do you?

Be a good children and do not forget to write your letter to Santa Claus!!

Pink sand beachs in The Bahamas

Beachs with pink sand?

Sounds crazy, but it´s true. In Harbour Island to be precise there are beautiful beaches that have pink sand. Can you imagine something like that? It´s like the dream of a little girl come true.

This little piece of paradise is located off the northeast coast of Eleuthera Island just 55 minutes from Miami. The only city there is Dunmore Town, which was the first capital of the country and has approximately 300 years. You can access Harbour Island, flying from the North Eleuthera Airport and then taking a water taxi . But if you're not a fan of heights, you can also get there by boat from Nassau.

The Harbour Island is an island and administrative district in the Bahamas and is located off the northeast coast of Eleuthera Island. Here you can apreciate this wonderful beach.

How this phenom does happen?

This is due to the eroded particles of precious red corals that give a rosy glow. The waves break these particles and make it a natural dye, giving the sand this color.

I think that this is an amazing phenom, because it´s not normal to see a beach with this color of sand. That makes this place really appealing to turists and makes the beach be one of the most beautiful beaches in the world.  

Trinidad and Tobago - The Calipso music

Trinidad and Tobago, two islands in the southern Caribbean which share with the US the language and the currency, known for her festivities (the diversity that the country possesses give them festivities throughout the year) and  the music. 

Here was born the steel pan (a musical instrument) and Calypso, a style of Afro-Caribbean popular music born in the early 20th century in the Caribbean and northern Venezuela, it may contain letters in English or French.

Those who interpret calypso have studied the musical culture of Trinidad and Tobago and they integrate the traditional rhythms of calypso, called calypsonians are able to create any song from the historic style of calypso, the lyrics are usually full of social and political message, it would be here in Chile as the Latin Rock during military dictatorship, the only way that political and social minority could manifest. without comparison to calypso music that we hear generally full of good-humored lyrics. More than a musical style the locals feel today this music as a remember that  they are still alive and should celebrate and be thankful for that.

But at some point this type of music it was not well known, but how nice is that this style is found in films like The Little Mermaid with the famous song "Under the Sea" 

See : The Little Mermaid - Under the Sea

Anyone know the participation of this kind of music in film Beatlejuice?

Well... yes, "The Banana Boat Song" and "Jump in the Line (Shake, Senora)" from Harry Belafonte, the king of the calypso were taken for the sound track of this film, generating in 1988 after more than thirty years its release on vinyl got the best positions on the billboard list.

I invite you to see the participation of this songs, beware of the end of the first video. 

• Beetlejuice - Day-o (Banana Boat Song)

• BeetleJuice - Jump In The Line (Shake Senora)

Even Pitbull did a remix of this song, What do you think about this new version?

• Pitbull - Shake Senora (Audio)

Well, now I know that Calipso is everywhere and pitbull too. I hope you enjoy the videos.