OSCARS 2017

About a week ago, the 89th Academy Awards ceremony took place in Hollywood to honour the best films of 2016. It was hosted by Jimmy Kimmel. This year, in general, everyone was surprised by the winners of every important category.

There were many films (and actors) that were the odds-on-favour to win the most valuable prize a celebrity could get. La La Land, for instance, was one of those. The successful musical had fourteen nominations (best picture, best director and best actor, amongst others), which is the exact amount of nominations that Titanic had in the 1998’s Oscars. The film did pretty well by taking home six golden figures. The other applauded film that night was Moonlight, followed by Fences and Manchester by the Sea, which won three, one and two Oscars respectively.

However, this Academy Awards ceremony did not only shine for its winners, but it also stood out for its critics of Trump’s policies, the diversity of its nominees and its epic fail ever made in the Oscars’ history. Jimmy Kimmel kicked off the Oscars with some basic jokes. It even looked like a Jimmy Kimmel Live! monologue.

Some of the winners of the night (from the left to the right): Mahershala Ali,

Emma Stone, Viola Davis and Casey Affleck.

Getting though the winners of that night, first of all I will start with the best director award. The winner in this category was Damien Chazelle for La La Land. He is the youngest director to win an Oscar. On one hand, for the best actor and actress, the awards go to Casey Affleck, for Manchester by the Sea as Lee Chandler, and Emma Stone, for La La Land as Mia Dolan. It looks like Casey is following the same steps to success as his brother, Ben Affleck. On the other hand, for the best supporting actor and actress went to Mahershala Ali, for Moonlight as Juan, and Viola Davis, for Fences as Rose Maxon.

As for the best original screenplay won Manchester on the sea and for the adapted one Moonlight. There were many others winners like for the Best Animated Feature Film, Zootopia, for the Best Foreign Language Film, The Salesman (Iran), for the Best Documentary-Feature, O.J.: Made in America, for the Best Documentary-Short Subject, The White Helmets, etc.

During the lasts months of last year, I was making a list about all the films I would like to watch. Most of the nominated ones were there. But I have to admit that I have not watched any of them yet. This is what happens when you have no time.

This year, if we compare it with the last one, the Oscars did justice with people from another country if we look at the winners. Winners like Mahershala Ali or Asghar Farhadi, for not talking about the exceptional cast of Fences, Hidden Figures, and others, demonstrate just the opposite as what racist people think. Muslim people winning the Oscars, making such a good appearance (except Asghar) and speech, have possible turn all people bodies.

"THE WALLED OFF HOTEL"

While I was surfing on the Internet I found an article from a newspaper which talked about a new hotel which will be opened in Palestine on the 11^th of March. I found it interesting and amazing, that is why I decided to talk about it in this my say.

As we all know, since the construction of the Apartheid Wall, this created a lot of discussion. However, it did not lead us into a solution but to more conflicts and tension. The wall has isolated more than a half million of Palestinians. It was repeatedly rejected by Amnesty International and The United Nation, but it looks like they can do nothing about it.

Today, fifteen years after the construction of the wall, a British artist, known as Bansky, will inaugurate his own hotel called “The walled Off Hotel” in front of the Apartheid wall. It has ten bedrooms and each of them includes a work of art from the artist.

The name of the hotel has a metaphoric meaning. “Walled off” means separated by a wall. Considering that the hotel is in the other side of the wall, the name explains perfectly the situation of the Palestinians.

The artist and his representative team clarify that the hotel is not just a work of art but a lodging for clients. Apart from that, the main objective of the hotel is to attract tourists and travellers to one of the most abandoned place of Palestine where the economic situation is terrible because of the control by the Israeli government. According to the artist, a lot of people said that that location was had the worst view of the world and they asked him why he would like to build a hotel. He answered that he wanted to make people realise and see the worst view of the world to react to it and hopefully do something about it.

It is not the first time Bansky makes such a works of art in the Gaza Strip. In 2015, the artist went there to paint the walls of the territory to satirise and to report.

I think that is a great idea this. The paintings he has made are fabulous; he got to represent the Palestinians so well in each one of them. But he didn't use only paintings, he also designed the hotel in such a way that he makes so obvious the terrible situation there.

These are some of the paintings and designing made by Bansky: 

DO WE WATCH TV ANYMORE?

When I was little, I was always watching TV. As soon as I got home from school or my after-school activities, I would watch my favourites cartoons. Watching TV was just like my way to spend time. But at the same time I was growing, the amount of homework was increasing and with that my free time was reducing, until now, that I do not even turn on the TV.

It was not long ago when I realised that I do not watch TV anymore. I think it was at third of ESO, when school homework started to increase. But the causes of it are not only because of school work, there are some facts which changed my way of “living”.

First, I would like to say that the television industry was created to entertain. But little by little, the idea of entertaining has hanged. I do not know if it is because I have grown up and nothing in the TV looks entertaining or it’s just my point of view. In the second place, I think that the main cause would be the shortage free time I have (putting to one side school).

In my opinion, I am glad of not watching that much TV. But, however, I spend a lot of time surfing on the internet. This has brought me positive things like negatives ones.

On one hand, Internet provides me with the ability of select the series and shows to watch whenever I want. The biggest inconvenient of TV is that people have to make time to watch it, meanwhile with the Internet services, people can watch what they want without having to make time. But, with the new companies, like Netflix, this concept has changed, of course. On the other hand, lately, the most of TV shows and series doesn’t attract me that much. Youtubers have also influenced a lot people. It is more easy to watch them everywhere and any time. It is more pleasant, even though I start to think that YouTube is becoming more like a big TV company. When it becomes to the news, I haven’t watch them for a long time. The fact that we can access to social media apps from the mobile phone makes easy to check quickly the news (meanly the most recent) and helps you to keep updated of what is happening around the world.

As a conclusion, I have to say that it is not bad to watch TV when you know how to. When I say that I haven’t watch it for a long time I don’t mean that I never do, but first I check its programming from the mobile phone. For example, about a week ago, I watched the film The imitation game in the TV after checking what films they would transmit. As for the utility of Internet as an alternative of the television is, technically, not a big difference, but for my actual situation it makes a big difference to my time.

IS SCIENCE THE NEW RELIGION?

Did you ever ask yourself the reason why science is always right or why we explain everything from the scientific point of view? Because I always do, mostly when the philosophy classes started. One day, I was talking with a friend about science and its new innovations and possible new theories. Then, she said: “How do we know for sure if the scientific explanation of everything is true? Every day I am becoming more aware that science is just the new religion, not just for Atheists but for religious people too.” I got surprised by her thoughts and since then I always think about it.

From my point of view, since we are little, we are taught to base everything we see on science. As far back as I can remember, I always tried to find an explanation for everything (just like everyone does):  the meaning of life and its cycle, how are the planets held in the universe,… and it seems that science has always found an answer for every question.

The problem comes when we start to think for real. If we focus on the explanations they give to us it is always introduced by “The theorem of…”, for example, the gravitation theorem or the evolution theorem. As the name says, every explanation is a theory. The scientists are not sure about anything, and that is why they use the word “theorem”.

When it becomes to the similarity between science and religion are not obvious, but even so, there are some points of each which are alike, for not saying the same.

On one hand, science has its own “priesthood”, which are the well-known scientists. Their opinion and statements are not questioned, until someone better than them demonstrates the opposite or something new. For example, Bohr’s atomic model was accepted until Schrödinger idealized another atomic model. Nowadays, the actual atomic model is more actualized from the Schrödinger’s one, but even so, who guarantees us that the actual atomic model is the one for real? We have to believe that the atomic model is correct to understand the substances.

On the other hand, talking about believing, science implies having a little bit of faith even if we think it is nonsense, considering that science knowledges are based on experiences. As I said before, no one guarantees any explanation that science contributes. This indicates that we can never know for sure anything that comes from the experiences (experiments). We only have to believe in science and have faith.

As a conclusion, I only have to say that everyone who says they are not religious because they do not believe in anything are lying. They believe in science. It is true that science has changed our lives (in the negative or positive way). The kinematic principles, the different forces and energies, … are nothing more than laws that we have to accept without question it to comprehend the way that life works. I have to say that If we could recollect each scientific law and principle, we could write a holy book.  

FRIENDS MET UP IN MALAGA

This article was published on the 13th of January by the Dailymail newspaper. This news is about two friend who met in Spain because it was cheaper than getting the train.

One of the friends, Lucy Walker who is from Birmingham, planned to visit her friend Zara. She realised that the trip would cost about 105 pounds. However, she realised that she could travel to Malaga for 20 points with Ryanair, after looking online, and her friend’s flights from Birmingham to Malaga cost 55.29 pounds with Vueling, despite the English cities are only 200 miles apart and between the UK and Malaga 1,500 miles.

According to the girls, they also found a cheap hotel where they would spend three nights. During the days in Spain they visited Malaga and Granada.

This is a diagram which shows the prices and distance between the cities and UK - Malaga.

OPINION:

Personally, I think this is the best opportunity that someone can have to travel. It is a perfect excuse to visit new places. On the one hand, the two friends had bad luck for the expensive train tickets. But, on the other hand, that is a good thing because now they can meet somewhere unusual.

When it becomes to the costs of the trip they took, this is low. As the girls said, in Spain the life is cheaper than in England. That’s a point in favor.

The Ryanair company did such a good job to create this new promotion, just as Vueling did. Now we can travel without having to spend a lot of many, depending on the country where you want to fly and with which class, of course.

NEW ZEALAND WHALES: HUNDREDS MORE STRANDED

This article was published on the 12^th of February in the BBC newspaper. It talks about the hundreds of whales found in the Farewell Spit’s beach.

According to the news, there were found more than four hundred whales on Thursday. Abot 300 died, but a group of volunteers managed to refloat a hundred of whales. Also, they try to keep cool the rest of the survivors with water and wet pieces of hankies. The Project Jonah, an environmental group, has a plane flying all over the see to study the whales’ movements.

The reason why the whales are arriving in the land is not clear. But, even so, experts have different theories. On the one hand, they think the whales were pursued by sharks, considering they have shark’s bites. On the other hand, they think their navigation went wrong.

As reported by the news, it is not the first time whales and other aquatic mammal, like dolphins, were found in Farewell Spit.

Volunteers trying to cool a whale.

OPINION:

The fact that these whales ended up in the Farewell Spit is so sad. For me it is shocking to see that number of whales in a beach. But it looks like the people from there are used to it. That is the reason why there are a lot of maritime professionals and experts. I think that’s a good thing; if anything happens (like this time) they can react and act immediately.

As for the number of volunteers from that town is extremely amazing. Seeing people from different ages helping those poor animals is a sign of solidarity.

VOCABULARY:

Receding: que s'allunya.
Stranded: encallat/da.

FRENCH FARMER ON TRIAL FOR HELPING MIGRANTS ACROSS ITALIAN BORDER

During Christmas holidays I read this article and I thought it would be good to talk about it. This news was published in The Guardian newspaper on the 4th of January.

This article talks about a French farmer, Cédric Herrou, who is accused for helping undocumented foreigners enter in France. He helped African migrants to cross the border from Italy, giving them shelter, considering that his farm is near the borders of Italy, a famous road for migrants.
According to the news, he was arrested before for smuggle Eritreans. However, the case was dropped out because they considered he did an act of humanity grounds.

Even so, he is accused for being an activist. He takes part of a network of citizens who help people and they have been linkened by others to the French people who helped hide Jewx during the second world war. Now he faces up to five years in jail and €30.000 fine if convicted.

Cédric Herrou (the one in the centre) arriving in the court in Nice, France.

OPINION:

Personally, I think it is obvious the reason why Cédric Herrou was arrested. If you break the law, you take the risk to get arrested. This is how it works. But the problem comes when someone gets arrested for making a solidarity act, like Cédric. In my opinion, putting to one side the laws, he just acted how we all should act. As he says, “If we have to break the law to help people, let’s do it!”.

We also must have in mind the fact that he constantly sees the migrants crossing the border. He sees how they struggle to just get a better life. As the news informs, it is not the first time he got arrested. This indicates he does not give up on helping because he considers it necessary. It is necessary. Just like it was necessary to help the Jews in the Second Wold War, the refugees from countries in a horrific war or the migrants who want to live a better life.

In my opinion, I think the worst thing is that there are people who commits crimes which harms a society (the opposite from Cédric’s acts) and do not get arrested or if they do, they do not suffer the consequences as Cédric does.

VOCABULARY (translation in English-Spanish):

ERITREAN: Perteneciente o relativo al mar Rojo o a los territorios que baña.

UNAPOLOGETIC: Sin remordimientos

SAMARITAN: Persona amable que ayuda.

SMUGGLE: Contrabandear, traficar.