The peace, liberty, and prosperity that we have  right now is because the sacrifice  and the lives of many people. During the American History, we can find  many terrible wars in which the nation had had to fight, in order to preserve these principles. Veterans Day, November 11, is a little tribute  to those who had fought or  to those who are fighting at this moment for the well-being of all of us.

On November 11 of 1918 at 11 a.m. was the Armistice Day, temporary cessation of hostilities, during  World War I. One year later , the first   Armistice Day was celebrated in The United States , and on 1938 it became a Federal Holiday. On October 8, 1954 after World War II and The Korean’s War , its name was changed  to Veterans Day under the presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower. Many people get confused with Memorial Day and Veterans Day,  Memorial Day only honored those who died on the battle field, while Veterans Day also pay tribute to both dead or alive heroes.

Thousands of activities are programmed with the purpose to remember the veterans. The most important celebration take place at  The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in The National Cemetery in Arlington Virginia, in which the nation pay respect for all the braves Americans death  in combat. Besides, on every town and city events, such as: parades, picnics, and parties are organized. Other countries like Britain, France, and Canada also celebrate this day as a Remembrance Day, and on  The Commonwealth Countries commemorated it with two silent minutes at 11:00 am.

Veterans Day is the occasion to remember the people who put first their country and their  fellows citizen, instead  of their own lives or security. Many soldiers and mariners  suffer the horror of the war, sacrifice their families, and expose themselves to the most terrible situations, just with the intention of  defend our society of the enemies of  the democracy and  the liberty. This day is the  opportunity  to say thanks to our veterans  for every thing that they   have been doing for this country.

All the Non-government holidays are a  gift occasions, such as: Mother’s Day, St Valentine Day, and so on,  but Thanksgiving Day; however,   it is the more important shopping season during the year. Million of buyers across America take advantage of the ‘good deals’ that the stores offer on this waited day. In the last years, Black Friday has been becoming actually in Black Weekend. Nowadays, all the specials that before just were valid for this day now are good for the weekend  after this Friday. Furthermore, the biggest winner of this tradition are not just the shopper, also  the stores and the economic on general.

 On this time of the year, many stores need to sell out  all of the products that remain into it, with the purpose to fill up theirs shelf with new goods  for the coming season. Hence, it is a good opportunity to clean up and recover some money of these items. While for buyers,  this day is a good chance to get excellent things a very reasonable price. At a large, every one is happy: stores  are getting back the real cost  of these stuffs, instead of lose their money, and the shoppers think that they are getting a bargain in many products.

Also for this shopping time, retailers offer all kind of things that they usually does not sell. It is easy to find in stores many electronics equipment of unknown brands a very good price. Also  people can discover discounts on digital cameras, computers, tv’s, and so on, because they are no longer the state  of the art in technology. Consequently,  the sooner get it  sold the less obsolete they become and harder to sell it later.  Other strategy that stores use is to make a huge discount in a very good products, but just in a very few  units of them. This is with the purpose to  attract the biggest number  of buyers possible, who spends 12 or more hours in front the store’s door. Many of them do not get the offer, but once into the store almost always  they finished buying something else.  

Otherwise, Black Friday is a very good opportunity to see families  doing things together. Usually on Thanksgiving day, the newspaper  bring  all the advertising with  the specials available for the next day: clothes, electronics, toys, tools, home stuffs, and so on. So families start to planning where are the places to go and the  shopping schedule. And  on the big day, they spend  the whole day: shopping, running from mall to mall, and eating fast food. 

Black Friday is an exclusive American’s day, no other country on the world has a  day dedicated for shopping like this. Although hard times, people, stores  and government are fighting for keep this tradition alive, for it represented the  American society.

When people consume illegal drugs are not just killing themselves, but also are killing a thousands other people on indirect way. The drugs traffic is a problem beyond countries frontiers, it is one of the main issues that the world  has been facing for the last thirty years. Because this fact, I decided elaborate my project of Visual Rhetoric on this topic. Thorough pictures, I tried to show all  the route of it from the natural plants until the damage that it cause to the addicts. This project has two segments, for each one display the very unlike situation that happened in the countries that produced it and  in the counties that consumed it.

On the first part, I used small pictures to display the farms, the laboratories and the  people who trade with narcotics , who in some way  they also are a victims. The main idea on this segment is to show the violence that involves the  illegal drugs activities. This violence has created  a very complex social situation,  there are four main  parts that act in this conflict:  the first one is  the Government that is pushed by The United States; the second one are the Narco Guerrillas; the third one are the drug’s cartels; and the last one are the innocence civilians, who had been killing for the others three groups. In order to depict this terrible situation, the violent pictures were presented in full size and with more time. The presentation shows the different victims, namely: civilians murder by Guerrillas’s attacks, the assassination between  drugs’ cartels, and the armed conflict between the Government and the Guerrilla. The music  chose was Carmina Burana by Karl Orf with the purpose to give more drama to these crude pictures.

The second part is focused in the consumer  countries. The document presented pictures of  street drug dealers, followed by  consumers, and finally the tragic damage the these chemical products caused  to the human body. The main topic here is to show how illegal drugs use is associate with fun time and diversion. For many people, the consume of psychotropic drugs is part of a normal life, and it ts socially accepted in some occasions like: parties, concerts and even on  teen or college years. Consequently, the pictures of people consuming drugs are displayed on full screen. Finally, the music Rap has a very close relationship with the drugs’ activities, for this reason, I chose Eminen and his song “Drug Ballad”.  This musical piece is a good match in order to depicts the wrong concept that the parties and the diversion start with the consumption of drugs.

The solution to drugs’ traffic and the consumption is not an easy one, but the legalization of it is a good start. As a result, the  business around  them will be no longer a very profitable one. Also as a legal activity, the violence should  disappear, so the consume along with the production and price  can be  regulated.  The drug’s consumer should be treat like a patients with addiction problems, instead of  prosecuted them. On the other hand, the billions of dollars that countries utilize in this endless war can be use in educational programs in order to stop the illegal drugs habit. Because the only way to end this terrible chain of destruction and death is stopping its consumption.

Iraq is a country divided in three different groups: the Shiites, the Sunnis and the Kurds. This separation is not just in their culture, race, and socio-economic status but also  in their geographic location inside the country. In the documentary “Iraq in Fragments”, the director depicts these iraquies’  etnies from inside without making any interference and showing their struggle in order to survive in the middle of big troubles, such as: poverty, social and political  conflicts, and the most important:  a hopeless future. The film, like  the country, is formed for three different parts without relationships among them. As a consequence, every segment must be  considered as an independent one, for each one has very different features.

Part One – The  Sunnis.  

The first aspect is the location. Although, the main character is Mohamed who  works as  a mechanic helper,   most of the scenes were  recorded on the streets, instead inside of the mechanic shop. This is a visual sign of poverty,  for people with very low-income spend  a lot of their time outside: working, talking or just killing the time. Also,  a few people on the scenes show   that not especial situations happened  during this segment. As a personal story, the drama of Mohamed’s life is perfectly described through his facial expressions, namely: his boss’ abuses, his frustrations in the school, and his very peccary economic situation. Furthermore, it was filmed during the day, this means  at work or in the school hours  the normal schedule for a child.  The spectator can feel be part of Mohamed’s drama  as an invisible witness. 

Second Part – The Shiites

This is the most intense part of the documentary.  The scenes display more action and the film  gets faster than  the other two parts. There is  not an especial character, instead  is more like a regular person who belong to Sadr, a religious  and political group. Consequently, almost all the scenes have close  relation to the Sard activities or places where it is present.  This part included night shots. In some way it can represent the obscurantism of the religious  fanatic practice that  in some times ended in   violent  actions,  such as: the  of auto  flagellation ceremony and the interrogatory to the alcohol dealers  in their place of reclusion . In this part the film looks like a journalism  work.

Third Part – The Kurds.

The third part is the slower one because it was filmed in the countryside of Iraq. It  shows different people with relation to the other two parts and  it display  family issues.  The film told  the story  of an  old father that is waiting for his death and  his young son who has all the energy and the desire to  succeed. The filmmaker represents this situation through  some sunrises and sunsets.  In this opus, most of the scenes show  just one person or  very small group, so it can be associated with the isolation that the Kurd folk behalf the Shiites and Sunnis.  The  actors talk to the camera, so the spectator can hear from  both   sides of the story  and their different points of view.  

The director gets to describe the difficult situation that Iraq is facing by showing the people who live there. At the end, the viewer can notice the huge difference among Iraq’s folk and the little will that they have to become a united country.

 In the United States there are many things that difference   rich people to  the other one , such as: luxuries homes, expensive cars, vacations around the world, caviar and  access to an excellent  health care,  are some of them. In this country, when somebody get a serious illness, the economic issue many times is more important that the personal one. Thus,  is ease hearth questions like,   How much it is going to cost? , follow by,  What kind the ensure the person has?, How many days without go to work? , instead, How  she or he feel? or just regular questions about  his or her illness.

Medicine drugs is a very exclusive thing that mostly of the people can not afford,  it made the pharmaceutical industry the most lucrative business in America. The United States is a country with a huge number of  pharmaceutical companies, but the price of the  medications  in here are three or more time higher that overseas.  In other words, is cheaper  get the same medication made here in other country. Hence, people who need take medication, every one who decide go to the doctor, has to pay not only the real cost of the chemical components themselves, but also   congress’ s lobby, investigation, doctors trained and advertising, although, the profits of  these companies encrease every year, but the results on general of the these medicines are almost  the same than twenty years ago.

Another aspect that make the health care a privilege is the cost of the medical procedures themselves. Mostly of Americans never take an expensive vacation in theirs lives, because the high rate of five stars hotels, airplane tickets and so on.  However, sooner or later many of them getting sick, and is when they expect that the insurance health that they pay for many years take care of them, but they figure out that the agreement in  almost all the cases does  not cover serious conditions. Now they have to pay the price of   room like  ten star hotel  but without fancy beach view, California king size bed, hot tube and satin sheets. Due this, there are many companies that offer medical treatment abroad, with excellent doctors, modern facilities, transportation and companion for much less money than here. By the way, the patient can take also vacation, know another country, enjoy some time  and  he or she still saving money.

Many people think that a possible solution in order to granted excellent health care to everyone in America is  that the government should create its own healthcare company with: affordable rates, no pre-medical conditions and universal coverage. On the other hand, people with high social compromise to the nation, private health care owners and  executives, and some politics, argument  that it will increase the state’s bureaucracy and that the government’s companies are not  efficient than private companies are. Off course, they are absolute  right,  how is possible think that the millions of dollars that the investor  earn each year are going to pay  now new federal jobs, and  help millions  of citizens  to get access to medical attention a reasonable price, instead to go to investors’ banking accounts.

At the large,  people with outstanding health care during their lives are more likely to live for more years, so they can enjoy some years the fruit of their jobs after retirement age. Nevertheless, mostly of American are those who did not have this privilege. Not mention that the health and retirement companies usually belong to the same economic group.

Writing is an art that involves inspiration, passion,  and creativity, not just skills or technique. Writers, during their professional lives, can experience prolific or not prolific periods, however, some writers are unable to produce any work for some time. It could be temporary or permanent; this condition in which the author losses the capacity for writing is called writer’s block. It can occurr at any moment, but there are some circumstances that could cause it.

Another aspect is the theme, some people  who had been working on a specific topic  for long  period of time get  saturated, so the professional losses  motivation  and   interest on it. As a result, they find it very hard  to produce a new work . Also, it  may happen that some times a  writer    chooses  new topic or idea to explore  and after great effort and time  he or she  figures out that it is more difficult that the author expected,  so he or she is uncapable to handle, it either for  lack of acknowledge or just  the author’s style  does not fit into it.

 Personal problems can interfere with the writer’s career. Inspiration some times does not fit in the middle of huge trouble. Illness, economic issues, broken or disrupted relationships can cause deep depression. As a consequence, many authors are unable to concentrate or spend  enough  time at work , so the creative process is interrupted.  However, many great writers  produced a master piece in hard  times or   in moments of deep sorrow. On the other hand, routine takes away inspiration and imagination, as a creative profession the  writers need feed  his or her mind with new experiences,  different people and situations,  in order to elude geting  stuck in a simple daily life.

Today there are a lot of web pages that  help authors to avoid or eliminate the writer’s block. On these websites you can see all kinds of  advices, such as: take sometime off or vacations, get involved in other activities, read, listen to music, and other less conservatives recommendations, namely: smoke marijuana, uses drugs, have sex or masturbation. All of these suggestions are  looking to fire up the author’s mind again when it is shut down, but the results are as unpredictable as the real reason that originated  this situation.

Nobody knows  what can cause  a good idea in our minds.  True  geniuses are those who  keep originating bright thoughts  for  their  entire  lifes ,  and   this is a capacity that   very few people have.

Reality showns had became the most popular programs on television. Every new season is ease see more and more showns of this kind in every channel. The topics  are very wide, they can deal from charity ones like Make Over Home Edition until the most frivoluos such as: American New Top Model. In each on these programs the host is the main character, every week depends what kind of shown is he or she is in charge to motivate, encorauge  and advice the contestant , or also is the person that eliminate, humiliate and make feel misarable the competidors.

The host on hunter talents.

Usually is a very well known host from his own show. He is funny and easy way guy, he encourage the contestant before and after the act. He try to show up the human side of each competitor. Frequently, many participants get hurt because the comments of the judges, and is when he take part and calm down them getting that at last everybody feels better. He is also in charge to announce the results, so he become   a  master of the suspense, first he take like a minute or more just for read a paper that contains the winner’s name, after that and when everyone expects to hear  the winner’s  name, he simply say “the results after this”, and the people specially the competitors have to hold the breath for two or three minutes more.

The host on house desing.

This is a desing that go to the house people  in order to  fix their house, but before start to improve his or her house,  the host  first job is point out  how bad the house is  and  how is posible that the home ower had beeen  living  in one house like this.

The host of cook shows.

Mostly of cook  are british,  the principal roll is yell to every one  and make feel the contestant very bad. He throw food away and when he taste the any competidor food he almost  vomit it.

It is not clear if the industrialized countries are improving their education systems or if  The United States is declining it , but the point is that America’s  lost its world  leader ship on education. Currently, people for different backgrounds around the country  are concern about the quality of the schooling system, and they are looking for the problems and solutions in order to  recover the righ path  in this field.

One fact is that the  boomers- people born between 1946 to 1964- are the higher educate generation in The United States. Not only the quality of education before was better than today  ( 8th grade now are equivalent than   5th 40 years ago), but  also people  got higher grades. Schools  and classrooms are getting crowded every day, teachers have not time to put attention to each student necessities, so   mostly the times they just pass the information to students instead of teach them. As a consequence,  there are not room for creativity and   classes are standard for everybody without care the  student’s  capacities or limitationes. Furthermore,  schools are grades according with the results of many test  , hence, administrators and teachers are more concerns about the result of them, so they are more focus  in prepare their students for these test  than the truly  learning proccess  of the  scholars.

Moreover, the school  desertion have  raisen in the last years. In many cases,    students  with academic  limitationes  are not getting special attention , so they struggle in order to  get the scores   necesaries to approve the   courses, unfortunately,  many times some of them  fail and lost the  interest or motivation to still studying .  In the best scenario they finish high school but do not go to college. Besides, studies shows that  scholar desertion is more common in low income class, hapless poor teenagers are more likely to get involved in   juvenil gangs, drug issues  or early pregnancy.

Another aspect closed to education is the discipine,  teachers today argument that there are not enough regulations or tools in order to control students’ behavior,  the lack of discipline also decresaese the education level, teachers today complain about poor respect that students show to them and is usual that  in many cases tutors are intimidated by theirs pupils, so class rooms are becoming the  place where anarchy grown, instead to be the place where people teach and learn together.

Every day the world is more demanding,  science and technology are advancing   in a  incledible pace.  In the  future countries with   more educate or highly training  citizens according to the current challengers are going those  who are going  to get  the best oportunities.  Afortunaly,  American  Government and people are aware that improving education  is the way to remain ahead and some solution are already taken  like No Child Left Behind.

1.  Johnson C. Public Education System Problems. 2009
2. Finne L. Eight  Practical Ways to Reverse the Decline of Public Education.
3. Johnson K. The Problem with Public Education.
4. Reese C. Public Education Fails.                                                            

By Hugo A Ramos.

All started with the first  human tribe on earth  long time ago, when males and females began to developed diverse kind of activities: males were hunters and females took  care of the younger ones and collected fruits. Since then, men and women play unlike  roles into the society. Although today men and women are making this difference every time smaller, however, in general men and women  differ from  their job, social behavior and family role. 

As hunters, males had to make tools, weapons, tramps, and strategies in order to kill the prey and  got as much as possible  from them like: meat, skin, bones, and so on. Hence, men are more likely to choise professions name as; engineering, science  or mathematics. On the other hand, females developed an extraordinary capacity of observation and organization, for their  main responsibility was the care of the tribe specially the kids,  also  females needed to know when and where  collected the food ready to eat and  forecast  where was going to be the next harvest. Consequently, women prefer occupations such as  design, teacher, administration, counselor and all the professions that help others.

During the hunter process, usually men had to wait the prey for long periods of time quiet, but once the victim was close they had to work like a team at the moment to kill it. Instead, women shared  great amount information with other women, the only way to did that was by talking, so women developed more communications skill that men. Today is easy to see  these kinds of  behaviors, men enjoy watch sport mostly of them play by teams while women prefer join together and speak.

Since the beginning of Human race, women had  taken care of kids and still doing it. Mother is the main person in families around the world; because not only for satisfied  material needs, but also for their feelings such as love, kindness, tenderness, and so on. On the another hand, men for their physical strength they represented authority, providers of  material stuffs  like skin for clothes or meat to eat,  and also they  acted  like a protector against  wild animals and others tribe. Currently, men and women still behave in similar way  than our ancestors.

The differences between men and women is not just physical it is also into their mind and the manner that they act. Although during the last decades, humans’ behavior and society values  are changing; nowadays, there are many brilliant women on science like men on interior design or other activities before just reserved for women. Also, is easy found many men stay at home while their wifes are working, but of essence of the first  males and females remain in us. The diversity of men and women make the Human race better, because male and female are complementary each other and not competitors.

By Hugo A Ramos.

Cooking food is more than just make the aliments suitable for eat,  for the way that people cook depends of their race, country, region, social class, and so on. Some recipes pass to generation to generation and become part of the folks’ tradition. Therefore,  in many countries there are specials food for specifics occasions; one example of this occurs  in my country, Colombia, on christmas season  food, familiar reunions, and parties are part of our folklore. Amount the differents comestibles  that the colombian people eat during December,  ”Natilla” is one of the most popular, not only for its delicious taste but also for its particular ritual when it is cooked. Natilla is a kind of pudin, it is made with corn,  milk, sugar, coconut, and cinnamon.  

The preparation process began with  choose  the house where the Natilla is going to be prepared, usually, it  is cooked on grandparents’ house or by raffle. The best day for cook Natilla is one  Friday or Saturday  between december 16 and december 23  because  people do not have to work or go to school the next day.  On  this day, family and friends bring food, beverages, and some times alcohol. Before men were on charged to grind the corn, but today there is a corn  flour that people can get it in the supermarket.

In order to cook Natilla is necessary a special pot, which is make of clay, and  it must be  both wide but not deep. The stove have to be  set on medium, then put a milk  and sugar brown into the pot and when it star to boil add the  corn flour, one litter of milk to half pound of flour, and stir slowly. Important,  a big wood spoon have to  be used. Men are who mix the mass, for  it become a little hard when time is passing. Meanwhile, everybody is around talking, eating and drinking. There is a silly belief about the persons that stir the Natilla, no one of them can have  bad temperament  because the mass never is going to get the right consistence. 

   Little by little start adding the coconut on very thin slices and the cinnamon in small pieces. To know when  the natilla  is ready, take a little bit of it with the spoon face up ,  and turn over the spoon  if  it fell down quickly is not ready, and  it need more time. Once it get the right thickness,  the Natilla is spoil into big trays in order to get cold and its consistence. Warning, the Natilla can not be eating hot, it my cause stomach  ache and in some case diarrhea.

If the people are in good  mood, after finished to cook the Natilla,  they may be begin to dance  or  sit down together for talk or tell  jokes. When the party is over everybody take his/ her  part of Natilla for home. I think that this another fuuny aspect of the Natilla’s preparation, people cook it together  but  do not eat it together, or at least that the party last the enough time to let that the Natilla get cold.