What is Art?

Here it is: a topic which I was waiting for! The question itself raises many others, and many different opinions.

Last class was, most of all, fun. The disposition of the room was good to make a discussion, and that was what I was expecting: a discussion about the painting we saw.
But the worksheet was more than I thought it would be. Those tricky "questions" opened our eyes, or, at least, mine.

And the excerts... I trully enjoyed them! So well written...
Waiting for the next class.

15th January, 2010 - The debate

Last Wednesday, 13th January, we had a debate about the banning of extremist parties. There were two different opinions: ones were for the ban, the others against it.
There were many arguments (more from one side than the other), defending and refuting the question that triggued the debate.

The ones who defended the banning of these polical parties often appealled to the past, with examples from the Holocaust mainly. It was also said that the Humans Rights are disrespected by this parties, who suport violence and an authoritarian regime, and that is the reason why they should be banned.
On the other hand, the other half of the class strongly stated that extremist parties shouldn't be forbbiden because we live in a democracy, and democratic regimes are based in freedom of will and speach; not allowing these political opinions is disrespectful of Human Rights as well, and it's totally anti-democratic. Besides, a dialogue between all the parties is necessary to a good balance in the Parliament.

Personally, I don't find common points between the two "wings" of our debate; there were two completly oposite opinions, with totally different ideas.
Well, maybe one thing is common: both talked about Human Rights. Wrong or right, both mentioned it.

News Report - European press says Swiss ban send wrong signal

(here it is the news report I wrote)

Yesterday, the Swiss voted in favour of the banning of minarets in the country, supporting the proposal of the Swiss People's Party, which claims the minarets are a political and not religious symbol only. The ban, according to the SVP, should be a way of ending with the growth of the strengh of Sharia Law in Switzerland.
The result of the votes caused unrest among Europe, with the reaction of dislike stated on European press.
« This result shows that the Europeans are more and more intolerant », says one of the foreing journalists about the vote. « Now it is happening in Switzerland, but tomorrow it can be any other country».
Many say that, besides the damage to the relation between Switzerland and Islamic nation this decision can cause, it can also show how the mentality of the European people is developing to an extremist wing. The same journalist also says: « If we pay atention, we can see that discriminatory behaviour targeting immigrants or people with different beliefs for the majority is a sign of the growth of the mentality we testified in the 30's and 40's,with the birth of fascism. We cannot elude ourselves with the ilusion that prohibiting minarets is only a religious discrimination; it means that something deeper and more dangerous is happening ».
The discussion has began, starting with the denial of freedom of religion and moving to further arguments that leads Europe against the Swiss's resolution.
Meanwhile, an Islamic reaction is waited by the Swiss government and the entire Europe.

The Debate - II

I was waiting for this debate to happen since our project's presentation (the role play), since our main research question was exactly the one set in the debate and one of our objectives was to make people think about the topic.
So, should extremist parties be outlaw?

I was (and am) against the banning of extremist parties of the Parliament; what I said in the debate is what I believe in.
Usually, in this kind of debates, I like to support an idea different than mine; I even defended anarchy in the last debate, when I'm not an anarchist. In this case, however, I was pretty sure about my arguments and ideas, and, even researching, I couldn't find any proper argument, an argument I thought solid and strong enough. So, I chose to defend my personal opinion.
Because, when I think about it, I can't think of any reason that would made us behave in such an extremist way (and this choice of words was not arbitrary). Like we said during the discussion, the ban would be completely anti-democratic and we are not defending that this parties should be in the Government. No, we are only defending that every political opinion should and must have the right to be heard, and people must have the right to choose who wants to see in the power.
You see, when someone votes in a party with such characteristics, known by everyone (or it should be), something is not right. When we agree with the ideas of such party, is because we think that something different has to be done!
That's why dialogue is necessary: a dialogue between all the parties, sharing their different ideas, would lead us to more effective Government, a Government which listens to all the opinions and possible solutions. This is what would happen if the Parliament worked as it was supposed to.
I tried to defend this idea with what I thought it would work to show my opinion, with the arguments I believed where correct and true. That's why I researched the right articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a document I find necessary to have in mind during the discussion of this matter.

About my speaking skills:
Since we where focussing on accuracy, I believe that I could be better on this subject. I know that I am (or I try to be) fluent while I speak, but I know that, while speaking, I sometimes have some lack of vocabulary; is like I forget the right words and expressions - or maybe this is just my impression.
I'm really curious about the video; I never watched or listen to speaking in english, and I would like to see me - people tell me that I have a strange accent, a certain mixture, and I don't know what is is! I'd like to see if that's true.
Besides, while I have fun trying to find that accent of my, I'll be learning.

" What are Human Rights? "

Yes, what are human rights? Do we actually know what they are, what they're all about?
It is an interesting question; we don't think about the definition of the expression, and probably, exactly because people don't truly understand the concept maybe that is why they don't respect them as everybody should!
Let's face it: the Declaration of Human Rights is a baby in the world, and the general mentality is an elder! The equality, the end of slavery, all the freedoms... They are aloud on paper, but the theory is way more pretty and (definitely) easier than practice.

The video was a way of awareness. We need to have in mind that the Human Rights exist and are not respected. But the most outrageous thing is that the same who signed the the mentioned Declaration are often the ones who disrespect them! Lets look at United States vs Islamic countries: did you know that a new law was approved, prohibiting all islamic persons to enter in the country? However, the americans can enter in their countries with rifles and tanks, all for the sake of human rights! And their pockets, of course.
Besides, this same Declaration, in the eyes of law, is even younger than the Declaration itself! And the mentality is the hardest thing to change (how many still think that the global warming is a myth?)...

Maybe one day we will be truly free and equal and by one respected. Maybe one day we start to face that there is nothing, as human beings, that distinct us.
All maybes and ifs, by I'm an utopian. I like to believe that maybes are actually possible.

A new year, a new term

Even if I always tried to do my best, this term I hope to improve my work and, of course, skills. 

From now on, I just want to climb the mountain, never fall down.

Our own Dictatorship

I'm probably the person who believes the most in the saying "it is better late than ever", and that's why  I am here today.

I have absolute sure that I should already have done this but between problems with the network and some other facts out of my control, this is the time.

So, to start our project, we had a lot of questions which led our work, research and presentation, but all started with just one: should we aloud extremist parties in the Parliament?

This question appeared when we knew that some right parties where growing and growing throughout Europe; in Holland, the Nazi party is one of the best represented in the Parliament. But also in France, Italy (Berlusconi is supported by fascists), Austria and even Germany and Portugal (we all remember the results of the last election, when the Partido Popular was the third most voted) their representation is getting stronger. We focused, however, just in Holand and France, where those parties have more strengh.

In our role play, we mention the reasons for this new strength: immigration is the main problem; people think that immigrants are "stealing" jobs and their economical growth.

We wanted people to think about the subject, knowing what it implies, so we decided to show how an oppressive regime works, at least in school. This way, we would " feel in our skin" the consequences of that regime, with a little role play: Bernardo would play the Arckon (the main figure of the Authentocratic regime), I would be the teacher of the class, João Meira the Minister of Propaganda and Mario the bodyguard. Since Mario was sick, João ended up with both roles, his and Mario's. 

We created Authentocracy based on the oppressive regimes that already existed and exist, obviously, and we tried to bring it to the portuguese reality, always having in mind what is happening in the world.

During our role play, we tried to show how a class would work in one of those regimes, but, of course, we maybe exaggerated a little bit. However, I think that, with our different roles and the way we acted during the whole presentation, we showed what we wanted to show.

Like this, we only tried to make people think about the growth I talked above; I think we accomplished that part of our objectives.

It is important to reflect about this subjects, once we are the ones who are going to decide in the future; the choice is in our hands!

With this project, a debate was very interesting, so we could get to a general conclusion, or just discuss the different opinions we sure have in the class.

Concluding, I think that, as a group, we work better than the first time (way better!), and we achieved our objectives and the objectives of the general projects. This was a topic that "caught our eye" in the instant, and, since the beginning, we were always interested in doing our best.