stopping the unplanned city

A series of cars unable to move. Drivers honking their horn unrandomly.People arriving late at theirs appointments. According to the  traffic estatistics São Paulo will surelly stop in 2010. This is a consequence of lots of factors, but the main one is the bad and unthoght urban plannig when the ctiy was built. The handfull kilometers of subway done in the begginig of the 19 century, makes nowadays people buy private car , instead of taking taking this insuficient public transport. The traffic caos could parcially resolved by: building more highllways , estimlating people to ride bikes and finally improving  the system of public transportation.

The first step to shrink the traffic caos is to built highaways and tunels. This is a interesting solution because ittakes the driver to the wanted direction or point, avoiding cars to get just a street or avenue to connect to their destin. For instance, Giovanni Gronchi is a very known street and the main one in Morumbi, because in most times it is the only option that people have to get to someplace in Morumbi. Because of its only two lanes, CET, the Brazilian Department of Motor Vehicles, goes every day  at 7:00  AM and  PM to Giovani to analize the unmovement cars, since most people must take it to go to interior city or to get the Tietê Marginal.

Human life on the rat’s paws

Is the life of 4 rats worth a human life? Yes. Animal research plays a crucial role in scientist’s understanding of diseases and in the development of effective medical treatments. Research animals provide scientists with complex living systems consisting of cells, tissues and organs. More than biologically similar to humans, animals are vulnerable to over 200 of the same health disorders. Therefore, they are an effective model for researchers to study, since research on animals is heavily regulated, involves lower number of animals than imagined and has brought treatments to many diseases.

Around the world, the welfare of animals in research is protected by national and international legislations, by local laws or by ethical committees. Countries, such as the USA and UK, which invest a large amount of money in their Research & Development departments, have already regulated the use of animals in medical research and they control it under the law. The UK is widely recognized as having the most comprehensive regulation concerning this issue. The Animals Act of 1986 emphasizes that no animal experiments should be conducted if a realistic alternative is available. Additionally, the benefits of it must be clearly described. Testing on animal requires 3 Licensees: for the institution, the scientist and the project. Random inspections, on-site vets and basic needs (such as comfort, shelter, enough food and water, company of other animals and treatments of injuries and diseases) are mandatory. The animals must be examined everyday and any animal judged to be in severe pain or distress that can’t be relieved must be painlessly killed. Animal research is strictly regulated: the official codes are focused in providing the animals with standards of care.

Although most people believe animal research involves a great number of killings, the statistics show the number is not that high. In terms of number, nearly 3 million animal procedures are conducted a year in UK. Compared to other statistics number, these researches involve approximately 2000 times less killings. For example, in UK, 2,5 billion of animals (cows and fish) are eaten per year, of the 6,7 million dogs and 9 million cats, there are 110000 cases of animal cruelty. Moreover, 6,3 million animals were hit by a car on UK roads and 2 million rats that invade houses are killed per year. Even though 3 million of animals used in science research seems a high number, it becomes lower when put in perspective with other animal scenarios, as food, car accidents, animal cruelty and killing.

The relevance of animal experiments is evidenced by several medical progresses occurred since the beginning of the 19th century. The use of animals in research has been a common practice since the early 1910s. Since then, scientists study animals for their differences and their similarities to humans, providing information about safety and effectiveness and, therefore, supporting the tests for new drugs. The discovery of insulin in the ’20s relieved the symptoms of diabetes, sulphonamides and antibiotics were developed to treat bacterial infections, vaccines were produced to control viral infections and surgery advanced with modern anaesthetics and heart-lung machine. In the ’50s, kidney transplants, hip replacement surgery and drugs to control high blood pressure and mental illness were developed based on animal experiments. Nowadays, new treatments of leukaemia, asthma, AIDS were discovered and studied thanks to the animals. Each of these and many other advances were critically dependent on animal research.

Since the beginning of the 19th century, at least 60 of the 90 Nobel Prizes awarded for medicine, were discoveries or advances in which laboratory animals played a crucial role. Although undeniably, the medical progress and laboratory animals are strongly related, efforts should be made to harmonize requirements of regulatory authorities around the world, in order to reduce, even more, the number of laboratory animals used. Moreover, due to the fact that medical research is a gamble, i.e., many possibilities are explored before an effective treatment is found, people should always think how to measure the chance of reducing human suffering against the certainty of inducing suffering in an animal. From an individual perspective, each person enjoys the medical benefits of animal research for the use of 3 mice and 1 rat over their entire life. Based on the medical technology available nowadays, 3 mice and 1 rat may save a human life.

SMOKING KILLS

Cough, Cough. Would you please stop smoking here? Many people smoke a lot nowadays, mainly in big cities, where they live chaotic lives. To change this situation, in August of 2008 the governor of São Paulo forwarded a new project of life in which the population is prohibited from smoking cigarettes, cigar, pipes and cigarillo in every establishment of the state, including bars, restaurants and discos. This new law, besides helping non-smokers to continue their daily routine without any uncomfortable smoke, helps smokers to reduce the number of cigarettes per day, since they will be moving to a non-smoking place. And also decreases the development of cancers, respiratory and cardiovascular diseases caused by this chemical dependence.  

By this law, the government is trying to take care of non-smokers. These passive smokers suffer many consequences without being responsible for them. Some companies, such as Globo find this idea interesting, so in August 29^th, 2008, non-smokers are relieved from the smoke there, while the smokers who work at Globo dislike his decision and are complaining, because don’t know how to quit smoking, where they were free to smoke in the day before, they felt like an engineer without his calculator. Even so, Globo maintained the same position, because the main reason of this campaign is that people can get addicted to tobacco without choosing to do so.

People won´t smoke the same amount they smoked before, because it would be prohibited to smoke in nightclubs and pubs, where people usually smoke a lot. The scenario will change, besides smoking while talking/dancing with friend, smokers will need to move to a restrict area for them, so that they wouldn’t smoke one after other. The same measurement was successful when established in Canada, England and Australia. Taking these countries as a model, Brazil is driving the right way to improve health.

The government states that this measurement is not only about ostracizing tobacco addicts, but it is also aimed at promoting the quality of life resulting in increased of life expectation. The National Institute of Cancer says that twenty-two people die per hour as victims of extreme squeal of tobacco and The Nica points out that seven non-smokers die per day because of living with addicted. For instance, people who live in farms, which can easily breathe fresh air, have better lungs compared to a person that lives in polluted towns. As other consequence, the numbers of cancers because of tobacco are expected to decrease and if this really happens, the Estate will be able to spend less money and time on health and strongly invest in education.

Therefore, the city hall must prioritize health, which is necessary to people life, so as to help noon-smokers from smoke, the new law has been projected. The purpose of this law is to make smokers reduce the amount of cigarettes per day, to improve cancers development together with giving quality of life to non-smokers. So eventually people will hear the Cough, Cough sound.

 

United Nations (temporary title)

             The UN free of bias? Not yet. The United Nations was conceived to be a big institution that would offer to its members the unique opportunitiy to be heard worldwilde, especially to poor governments that don’t even have diplomatic corps, like some countries in Africa. Plus, the organization created several institutions subordinated to the UN that would be responsible for going after world peace and promoting economic and social development, the most important aims of UN, such as PNUD, FAO, OIT and OMC. Although the UN truly chase those objectives and even achieve some of them, what we see in the daily activities of the organization is that the important decisions are held by a handful of countries. Out of the fact that UN does not treat all its members the same, giving them the chance to participate into important tasks, it is becoming more often to consider the UN an one-sided institution. The UN has turned into what it is today because of the historical moment it was created, the countries that contribute with the bulk of its fund and the structure of the Security Council.

             The countries that created the United Nations settled to give to themselves a great power and to ignore other countries. In September of 1945, just after the end of the World War II, the most important counties that won that war decided to create the United Nations so as to substitute the League of Nations, which failed in its tough task about preventing the WWII. However, the countries that created it imposed a structure that gives benefits to themselves. The structure of the Security Council, the UN flag, the issues and the point of views are some examples that illustrates that the values in the UN are the same values of the western countries that created it and won the WWII: United States, France and United Kingdom. Consequently, more than supporting the development and the world peace, the UN was created to assure the power and the influence of the countries that won the WWII.

            Another way of influencing the decisions of the organization refers to its budget. Once the UN is a non-profit organization, it must receive huge amounts of money in order to develop its programs. What the international relations has shown is that the countries that contribute with the most part of UN budget have less chance to receive criticts or even inspections from the UN institutions. For instance, the United States donates almost 25% of UN budget and the top five donators are all allied to US. It obvious that UN will investigate and criticize less its biggest donator than the poor countries who are constantly accused of violating the human rights. Some diplomats say that the last UN Secretary General Kofi Annan left his job because he was criticizing a lot the US foreign policies in Iraq and Afghanistan. In order to reduce the pressure through money, UN should receive more money from other countries and not only from US and their allies.

            The Security Council, the most important institution inside the UN that deals with peace and security situations around the world, has an old and rigid structure, which is unable to solve tasks it was expected to. Although the Security Council is composed by 15 members from all the continents, 5 of them have the power of veto over the resolutions, also known as permanent members, who are: United States, France, United Kingdom, China and Russia. The problem is that these countries never authorize a resolution against their interests, while they can make a resolution against any other country in the world. For instance, in 2006, China and Russia vetoed a resolution against the Iran’s nuclear program, because they are building the industries and facilities that will support the Iranian program. The UN, plus the permanent members of the Security Council, should become aware that such structure, especially about the power of veto, only benefits the permanent members, and that a reform is urging inside the UNSC.

           

Bandeirantes, a dungeons school

Living in the dungeons in a school environment? Bandeirantes is it. Colégio Bandeirantes, one of the most tradicional schools of São Paulo is about to establish a new tradition: have the largest percentage of students developing diseases such as depression that, in a bit less than half percent of the cases, make people end up commiting suicide. A study made in 2006 envolving all the private schools of the country reveals that 81% of high school students at Bandeirantes started to show agressive behavior very often so as many of them, unhappy with life in general, began to hurt themselves in order to make their inner pain disappear for a moment. In addiction, it was not a coincidence that many of those who started to have bad reactions due to Bandeirantes were the ones forced to study there. Therefore, parents who obligate their children to study in Bandeirantes are only taking the risk of making their children develop mental, social and physical diseases that could affect their life. 

One of the disadvantages of studying forced at Bandeirantes is the possibility of developing mental diseases due to the pressure people are exposed to in there. When spending at least 6 hours per day in a dungeons environment at a school where the pressure to get acceptable grades is the biggest ever seen, many students begin to feel frustrated with themselves. They get tormented with the assumption of failing; their self-esteem gets extremely reduced as they stop believing in their capacity as a whole. For instance, Giovanna Costa flunked her first year studying at Bandeirantes. Even though she did not want to leave her old school she went to Bandeirantes with an inner promise that she would give her best in studies. She strove to study the entire first semester. All the effort she was making seemed not to be enough for her to pass, though. She lost her confidence in herself, giving up in the middle of the path. All her motivation was gone along with her willing to live. She cried a lot in the final semester; she cursed herself craving for a strong medicine that could kill her when consumed in high doses. Depression it was. She is still in treatment nowadays going to a psychiatrist twice a week in an attempt to put an end in her trauma. Therefore, if she hadn’t been obligated to study at Bandeirantes she would have had truly motivation to study in a place where she was happy and would have ever let herself fall down that much.

MADONNA´S CONCERT: THE FEVER

Madonna´s concert?Unbelievable. Madonna´s concert will be the show of the year here in Brazil on december. Brazilians are going crazy to buy tickets to Madonna´s show, since the anouncement of the concert, people aren´t sleeping at all just to enter the line of this new process of getting the ticket. And when this crazyness is going to end? until people have the tickets in their own hands.This confusion has three issues: the lack of assistence, organization and pre-planing of the sale of tickets, and it must be changed immediatly.

Since Madonna anounced her tour dates here in Brazil, people went mad about the concert.In less than 48 hours from the anoucement of the ticket´s sales, 75 million tickets were sold out in Rio.However,the real problem began after the press relation of the Time For Fun enterprise, which is responsible for the ticket´s sale, anounced that the purchased of the ticket would have to pass for a process in which, the person that  wanted to buy the ticket ,thru the internet, had to registered in a website, after that registration and e-mail would be sent to the person and then the buyer could purchase the ticket. This whole process would save time and make it easier the purchase of the tickets, however it didn´t work at all. A lot of people tried to buy the tickets thru this process,but the Time For Fun website were busy and slowly the whole night.

The pre-organization of T4fun website was going well, until the buyers start to complain about it. The sale was impossible for those who wanted to get the tickets through the internet, therefore people started to look for another way to get the tickets, which was going at the Morumbi stadium in Sao Paulo and Maracana stadium in Rio De Janeiro, a easier way to have the tickets. A friend tried to get the pre-ticket from the website of T4fun at the time that Madonna confirmed that she was touring in Brazil, but he didn’t get to finished the purchase, because of the problem and disorganization of the website.

Another way to buy the tickets that seemed to be fast and good, was going to the Ibirapuera gymnasio, which had the same problems of organization and speed. A lot of people slept on the line to get the ticket, these people was very angry and impatient because the elders have the privilege to pierce the queue, so does pregnants. The police was there to help the tension, but they couldn’t control the anger of those people. 

Madonna’s tour anouncement here in Brazil, caused a lot of tension and anger for the brazilians this month. The organization was unnaceptable with long hours hanging on the phone,T4fun website busy and a long waiting on the row.

iPhone could be just a gadget of desire, but it’s not. Since it has been launched, it became symbol of most beautiful design and highest technology developed, but beyond all these features, iPhone marked the beginning of mobile’s revolution. Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Company, swam against the tide and built a big device with a big screen, while the hoopla values small mobiles, very easy to carry on anywhere. More than just playing music, taking photos in an incredible resolution and transferring data through Bluetooth technology, iPhone promises the end of the keypad and offers touch screen movement to those who asks more from your mobile phone. After radio, TV and even the internet revolutions, mobile represents a new advertising opportunity that reaches a specific audience, gives a quick return of investment and can be complement of traditional medias, like magazines, TV and radio.

Apple’s website offers the iPhone’ simplest model available for US$ 199.00. Here, in Brazil, the same model is no less than R$ 2,000.00. People who buy and intend to, have a better social economy life, which means: they spend more money, and that’s the public any company desires to talk to. As there’s no much devices offering the iPhone’ similar techonoly, mobile advertising is extremely targeted.

The internet brought dynamism of information, so it works the same for those who bets and supports this new media. The most popular product sold in an virtual environment is a banner, and it wouldn’t be different to mobile. It’s simple, it works and it’s cheap. If a company launch an advertising banner in a website which is visible on an iPhone, this brand is one step ahead from the competitors because there, inside consumer’s mind, it appears twice, not only one. Besides, working with internet allows generating many kinds of report, and it’s easy to check if the banner has been clicked as planned or not.

—> thesis #3

—> conclusion
Job’s big idea reaches the Information Age and put on our own hands all content of internet, just open Safari (software developed to surf on net through iPhone) and enjoy it! The touch screen makes surfing easily and you can visualize the entire website and when you wish it’s possible to maximize certain limited area with one touch finger. iPhone became an icon of desire for those tech-lovers, and it’s 

(as we talked before, I’ll include this statement above in my conclusion)

                                CATCHER

Homossexuality is a way of life that has been getting more and more common.  In the old days, gay couples were seen as “annormal” people and suffered a lot of prejudice from the society, which made them hide their sexual option from friends and family. As the years went by, a lot of things changed, especially people minds, who became more open and gave more room in the society to gay couples. Accepting homossexualism would be a great step for gays, who should be able to get marriage , adopt kids and leave their inheritance to their children.

     Gay marriage should be allowed all over the world, not only in few states in the USA . Since everyone must be happy with their lives, gay people should be able to get marriage whenever they want, with whoever they want and wherever they want because that’s the way that they are going to be happy. Ellen DeGeneres for instance, who is an american famous hostess, was fighting with California’s laws because she wanted to get married to Portia De Rossi, her life partner for almost 3 years. When the homossexual marriage law was accepted  in the state, they got married only one month later and she said that it was the happiest day of her life, and that she was finally feeling like she was part of the society. In order to make gay couples happy, they should always be allowed to get married.

After they get married, gay couples many times decide to adopt kids, so that they can built a family together, but