commitments

Long and short term commitments toward peace… In a short term, I want to be a gentleman, as corny as it may sound. Currently I see men caring very little in helping women putting their grocery bags in their cars, ceding a parking space for them, opening the doors for them among other things of which I don’t remember right now.  By doing this I hope I motivate others that could see me to do the same. A long term commitment would be to help the poor and the environment, which is why I am studying environmental science, we are destroying the world and I would like to help out to reduce or find a solution to our environmental problems. I plan to study in Costa Rica to work in the University of Peace, hopefully that works out for me.

Inner Peace??

Inner peace is achieved when we leave time for ourselves to meditate and to analyze. Sometimes we dedicate so much time to our cell phones, our social networks, our music along with other things that we leave no time for ourselves and even we leave ourselves with very little sleep at night. This only causes us to be irritated and bothered this I say only through personal experience. Also to have inner peace I believe that we must recognize that materialistic things will not make us entirely happy, some people base their happiness in their possessions and if they do not have what they want their world comes crashing down, they should be able to be thankful that they have a cell phone that works, a roof to live under, food every day and of course education, something that many people fight for day by day in other parts of the world, in other words, many people lack humbleness. Last but not least, we should be able to respect and love one another. Take into consideration how we want to be treated so that we could be treated the same by others. Being a humble and loving person I believe inner peace could be accomplished.

OP-ED

Peace, little by little seems to be making itself less present as the years go by, local news mention robberies and assassinations frequently. People of the same neighborhood, ethnicity and even of the same level of income conflict harm on each other, only to cause peace to be unheard and unseen.

Sadly though these acts of violence will seem to go on and will not be halted by police force or through military in extreme circumstances, but through the education that is received at home. It is true that at school we obtain much of our scholarly education but morals and habits are acquired through family members.

The Spanish organizations of E.O.E.P. and E.A.T. reinstate that parents should be aware that their child’s education at home is of vital importance, since it is fundamental for the development of healthy habits. We are able to see that these healthy habits though seem to be fading away. Having various family members working as teachers in high school and middle schools, they constantly compare their days as children to the children of today. They say that the children of today disobey, ignore, insult and irritate teachers as if they were dealing with another child. Seeing this, one could imagine how their parents treat and educate them at home.

Going on a bigger scale, according to National Public Radio, drug cartels are using young children as couriers, lookouts and even assassins.  Instead of living a life in which they are playing and learning they live one that is lured by the desire of power. They are invited to participate in such inhumane acts because they are offered large amounts of money for someone’s head or for smuggling drugs across cities and borders.

This could be taking part because there is not a loving environment at home; there are parents who might not care about the activities that their children are doing or who do not care about educating them in being proper and polite. Children that insult and are disrespectful could easily be scolded and told that such behavior is not correct. As it is said, children are like sponges and mirrors, they absorb and learn from everything that they see and they imitate what others do, so if the parents use bad words, have negative attitudes and bad habits, the child might as well end up doing the same thing, thinking that is a normal thing to do.

Home is an important place for the development of a child. The love that he/she receives at home is of vital importance, no form of affection could cause for the young one to search for other means of happiness, among them drugs and alcohol among other things.

I believe couples should really analyze if they are ready to have children, if they will be capable of giving them the required attention that they so much need. They should be able to see if they are also willing to let go of bad habits and/or behavior for the well being of their sons and daughters.

Education starts at home, if there is love and affection within family members, there would not be any need for the children to stray away into bad pathways.  The need to join cartels for money would not be necessary for all the things that will be needed (not necessarily wanted) will be supplied by the parents. Bad behavior, language and expressions would also be wiped away because parents will teach good manners.  All of this would then be reflected out into society and undoubtedly the world would be a bit more peaceful.

Homophobia

Times are changing, in the past, culture and religious beliefs modeled us in to what to believe is wrong and what is right. Today we are at a point in which we have to accept each other in respect to our sexual preferences. Although we have stepped into a new century in which things are drastically changing there are people that still believe that we have to be straight, and if someone is not we feel the right to make fun of them and leave them aside. The truth is that we have no control over the feelings of others, by harassing and bullying gays, lesbians and bisexual nothing is ever accomplished. To end homophobia we not only accommodate to the fact that there are people that have different sexual preferences, but we also have to stand up for what is morally right and defend along with them their sexual orientation. Of course doing this in a peaceful manner just like the video that was shown to us.

The Libyan Revolution

As all of you might know the Northern African nation is facing a revolution. General Muammar Muhammad al-Gaddafi is being confronted by other Libyans that desire freedom from his oppressing powers. The people from Tunisia and Egypt gained their independence from their dictators in a relatively peaceful manner, Libyans wanted to do the same thing but did not manage to obtain that goal. At first, Gaddafi refused to resign to his position, claiming that he is simply another Libyan wanting to fight for the freedom of his people, even if it meant his own very death. As the revolution evolved and began to grow, Gaddafi began to lose reasons to hold on to the Libyan people, he began saying to not believe the foreign press or whatever the outer world had to say about him and his nation, that they had to remain united. Later on he referred to the rebels as terrorists, saying that their only goal was to destroy the northern African country. Considering them 'terrorists' Gaddafi launched an attack to end with the uprising, giving those who are loyal to him weapons. NATO and other organizations have decided to join the rebel forces in order to aid them in their freedom. Leaving Gaddafi to an inevitable resignation, sooner or later, or maybe even his death.

Coalition for Adolescent Girls Memo

Living in a country where everyone has equal opportunities and where one can be prosperous, it is possible not to be able to recognize that outside of the United States there are many other countries where women specifically are not given equal opportunities. Unlike men, women are not given equal opportunities in education, health care and even freedom as a whole. In developing and in third world countries young girls are forced to marry men whom they do not know at such an early age and because the marriage is not based on love these girls are exposed to physical and sexual violence. These types of marriages force women to take place in sexual intercourse, bolstering the family size and population as a whole, thus reducing the possibilities for a better life style.  Being less than men, job opportunities are drastically reduced for a woman seeking employment. The few jobs that women could manage to obtain, according to a statistic from the Girls Count a Global Investment & Action Agenda, would only supply them with only a dollar or two dollars a day.  The Coalition for Adolescent Girls is an organization that has studied and observed the lifestyles of young girls in developing and third world countries that is promoting a change in infrastructure for them to have a better and a prosperous future. Although there are millions of poor and needed people in the world this organization focuses mainly on girls.  The studies that the organization has made noted that if girls have equal opportunities in education and in health, they will most likely marry at a much later age, if they do marry, she will bear fewer children and she will know how to properly take care of them so that they could be healthy. This organization is successfully running thanks to the United Nations Foundation alongside the Nike Foundation not to mention other thirty supportive organizations. With enough resources and support from these organizations the coalition takes upon many challenges to aid the young girls in need of a better future.  To mention some of the organization’s goals, one of them includes providing schooling for young girls up to secondary school, to achieve this scholarships and money are provided to them if they have no available money. The money is also invested in developmental funding; this means that the organization tries to encourage other foundations to address to the society the problems that young women are facing. Also they also strive to focus investments on the development of the girls, from their basic needs up to their personal interests, and the money would be provided to them at the early age of ten.  Surpassing the years in which they are entitled to marry, aid from this organization in particular does not end, there is further assistance provided for them. To better suite any need that these girls might need in the future, services will remain accessible, private, accommodating and like it was previously mentioned customized. Health benefits such as check-ups, pregnancy tests and other examinations promote a better life style not only for her but for any children she could conceive in the future. Going a step further, financial programs and after-school tutoring are available for the girls so that they could get a deeper education concerning economic assets and any type of financial literacy. To help further generation of girls, current teens are educated about the rights that they have as human beings. They are taught to make the change in the world, enforce laws and policies and protect themselves from any abuse either from a marriage, family or the government.  The Coalition for Adolescent Girls website provides the user with much information. The site provides statistics as to the percentage of girls that are in need of a better education, life style and more. Aside from providing valuable stats, the site also presents to the reader the organization’s plans and agendas for the future.  Last but not least, by sharing the plans, The Coalition for Adolescent Girls gives a broad idea of the changes that could be accomplished if we aid these girls in accomplishing themselves and from escaping their lives of poverty and oppression.

What Is Peace?

First of all peace begins with one self, if we see the world with such negativism: complaining about people, treating others indifferently and being sad for the most part of our lives among other things then obviously we have no inter peace. If we experience harmony in equilibrium, love for our own selves and for others then we do have peace. Another concept I think is fundamental for describing the simple but complex word is wisdom. Many discussions, fights and even wars break out because we are not capable of having a deep understanding of those that surround us or we do not make a difference as to what is wrong and what is right and let ourselves be guided by our own reactions and intuitions without really thinking about what we are doing. This happens all the time in simple discussions we have with one another, sometimes we simply decide not to open our hearts and minds to what we are being told and if something does not seem correct to us we attack it because we do not have a deep understanding of it. Yet another component for the term peace is that we need to be humble. Ambition and desire lead us to act in very strange ways even making us do things that are morally incorrect, depending on the situation. If we are happy with ourselves, with what we posses, with our gifts, talents, family and friends then we seek nothing else to satisfy us. In conclusion, in order to have peace we must love and respect ourselves, have a deep understanding of others, determine what is truly right from wrong and be humble enough.