22. March 2010 by student.

A rumor is defined as “an unverified account or explanation of events circulating from person to person and pertaining to an object, event, or issue in public concern”(wikipedia), what the definition dosen’t include is that rumors are false more times than than right, that rumors destroy reputations, and sometimes lives. Since teenagers are most susceptible to rumors it may help explain why one of the leading causes of death among teenagers is suicide. And for the teenagers that don’t fall victims to suicide also have the chances of becoming victims of drug or alcohol abuse.  Rumors leave teens feeling depressed and upset, this often leads teens to think that drugs and alcohol can fix the problems. Often also thinking that if drugs or alcohol can’t solve the problem then there is no hope, and these thoughts usually reside in suicidal actions. Because teenagers often feel that alcohol and drugs can solve their problems, they ignore the fact or are uneducated about the facts behind their actions. After the “buzz” that the teens are after wears off, teenagers are often left more depressed than they did before. This is how teens become addicted to the drugs, they constantly need the feeling of comfort and numbness the drugs deliver, and because their bodies become used to the level of drugs eventually, the teens will need a stronger dose from time to time to keep getting the buzz they need. All because of a little hearsay.
Rumors can cause a lot of damage, the hurtful words often hurt like a punch and sometimes even worse, “because a punch may be painful, but at least it’s over pretty fast. Rumors are, quite simply, a form of bullying that’s sometimes referred to as “relational aggression.” When a person or a group makes up a rumor about someone or decides to spread nasty gossip, it’s usually to hurt someone, break up a friendship, or make someone less popular”(pbskids.org). Since rumors are often started and spread around school, teens may feel that dropping out is the only solution to escape the drama. In kindergarten we all learned not to bully or tease other children at school, well spreading rumors is exactly what we were taught not to do, except we now “tease” people behind there back instead of to their face like we did in elementary school. Even if the chain of rumors is destroyed, there is still a scar,”Let’s say you have a piece of wood, a nail, and a hammer. Pretend the wood is a person, and the nail is a nasty rumor about that person. If you hammer in the nail, you’re obviously hurting him or her. If you then pull out the nail…well, there’s still a hole in the wood, and the damage has been done.” (pbskids.org).
All in all, we all could figure out what is true and what is not true as soon as someone tells us the rumor, we just often don’t take the time to think if what we are being told is anything similar to the truth. If we all took the extra 30 seconds to stop and think before we go blabbing onto the next person, we could be saving someone’s reputation and ultimately there life.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

http://pbskids.org/itsmylife/friends/rumors/article5.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumor

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22. March 2010 by student.

The Guatemalan civil war has been over for 14 years now, but there is still much struggling for the families affected by the war. The war took place between 1960 through 1996, the longest civil war in Latin American history. 200,000 were lost to the war as well as thousands who have gone missing. The war was fought primarily between the government of Guatemala and insurgents (armed rebellion, later known as guerrillas) General José Miguel Ramón Ydígoras Fuentes took presidency in 1958. Because of his autocratic rule (unlimited power) and close ties to the United States, along with the rightist views of the government that discriminated a large amount of the indigenous population, a rebellion developed from junior army officers in 1960 against the president.  The rebellion fell through and surviving officers hid in Cuba where they formed the revolutionary movement, starting the beginnings of the guerrilla war. (Vago, 2008)

People were afraid to go on the streets; women were raped and killed by the guerrillas. Guatemalans also slept on their floors so they would not be hit by stray bullets from battles that carried on through the night, people were also burned alive in their houses. (Poquiz, 2008) The majority of people killed in the war were farmers, peasants, students and local government people.

Trama Textiles was born from this armed conflict in Guatemala. The organization started in 1988, a group of ‘Dutch people’ visited the president of Trama Textiles, Amparo de León de Rubio, in her home town of San Martín Sacatepéquez. The Dutch individuals invited the women of the city to a meeting in Quetzaltenanqo, primarily for those affected by the war. They offered to help the women weave, and to teach them the measurements needed so they may sell their products in a national market. (Poquiz, 2008) The association is made up of 17 weaving corporations representing 400 indigenous women who are all blackstrap loom weavers. The women are from five regions in the western highlands of Guatemala; Sacatepéquez, Sololá, Quiché, Quetzaltengango, and Huehuetenango. The weaving patterns are unique to each of these regions, and are very important to the women and sustaining their culture. (Rubio)

In the documentary I watched, Trama Textiles: Tejiendo la Vida de Guatemala (weaving the life of Guatemala), Vice president Oralia Chopen talks about how the traumatized women got together to start weaving for the organization, and as they became busy, they began to forget about the war. Chopen explains: “They [the women] started saying ‘Let’s do this! Let’s do some weaving!’ ‘ What are your ideas? That’s good, you do this and I’ll do that and tomorrow, we’ll get together again!’ That’s how, little by little, the change began” (Poquiz, 2008)

Aside from the emotional help the association provided for the women, it helped the women to sustain an economy for themselves and their families. All products sold through the association go directly to the women, not to sustain the association.  The money is pooled into a bank, when the women bring their products to the Trama Textiles store they are given a check directly from the pool of money in the bank. The association is able to sustain itself through donations, foreign volunteers and weaving lessons. (Poquiz, 2008)

The association hopes to help the indigenous women of Guatemala provide for their families by offering them work where all proceeds are given directly back to the women. The women of the association want to be able to save up money, currently, they all make ends meet. In the documentary Trama Textiles: Tejiendo la Vida de Guatemala (weaving the life of Guatemala), Rubio talks about how she hopes to help the children of Guatemala stay feed, and advance, to have advanced studies for them to follow in school. She hopes she may export more products so Trama Textiles may supply the children with scholarships one day. (Poquiz, 2008)

Bibliography

Poquiz, R. (Director). (2008). Trama Textiles: Tejiendo la Vida de Guatamala [Motion Picture].

Rubio, A. d. (n.d.). Our story. Retrieved March 21, 2010, from TRAMA TEXTILES, A 100% WORKER-OWNED WOMEN’S WEAVING ASSOCIATION: http://tramatextiles.org/our-story/

Vago, E. R. (2008, February 27). History of the guerrillas in Guatemala. Retrieved March 22, 2010, from Guatemala Liceo Promo66: http://promo66.blogspot.com/2008/02/historia-de-la-guerrilla-en-guatemala.html

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22. March 2010 by student.

What is beauty?  One dictionary definition of beauty states: (noun) a combination of qualities, such as shape, color, or form that pleases the esthetic senses, especially the sight (dictionary.com).  So given this information that must mean we see beauty pretty much every day right?  Like on TV, in magazines, or maybe even something we want inside a store?  Or perhaps beauty is that one person who never sweats or never gets wrinkles?  WRONG!  This may be hard to believe, but beauty is not a physical appearance, it is something that comes within. People everyday spend excessive amounts of money and go to great extents to try and make themselves “beautiful.”   Most of todays society is caught up in the medias definition of beauty; but people need to create their own personal, unique meaning for beauty.  For instance, self-love is beautiful, confidence is beautiful, but there are two main characteristics that beauty boils down to: being happy and healthy.  Now I don’t mean skip around with a smile, eating a bowl of fruit happy and healthy; I’m talking about true happiness and healthiness encompassed in your life.  Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Could this saying be true? Happiness is often mistaken for a numerous amount of things.  This feeling seems to be the most extensive obstacle to achieve, but yet the most rewarding prize one person can experience.  Sometimes short rushes of fictional fulfillment commonly mask this single sensation, wealth being at the top of the list.  The society today portrays wealth as “the key to happiness,” and the depressing thing is there are countless people who believe this cliché.  Money can’t buy happiness, actually the only two things you can do with money is spend or invest.  People won’t find happiness if they aren’t in the process of accomplishing what makes them truly happy.  Happiness can be chasing a dream or just living your life to the fullest.  Happiness also takes focus, its just not going to appear from thin air. Being truly happy is a beautiful thing because life then seems blissful and invigorating. But not every person is happy about the same things.  It may take more to make one individual happy compared to another individual.  For example, if a person’s child drew a picture, that child’s parent is going to think that picture is a beautiful piece of work, but the next person may think its just ok and their own child could draw a better picture.  As a result, happiness is an individual accomplishment that is formed within. One of the qualities that make happiness beautiful is the fact that it is so uniquely created, not to mention if one is not genuinely happy, then they may not be able to see or enjoy the optimistic things in life. Being healthy doesn’t necessarily mean having a gym membership, being healthy doesn’t even mean being in ideal physical condition. That is the general publics definition of being healthy. Healthiness should represent good habits and encourage psychological soundness. A simpler way put is, being healthy consists of caring for your self and attempting to live with a positive conscience. Self-love should also always be a top priority, and with that automatically builds self-confidence. There is light in our eyes and pep in our step when we feel good about ourselves.  Being healthy is such an important aspect of beauty because it brings a sense of satisfaction into your world.  Just like happiness, being healthy is a quality that should be cherished. Also just like happiness, no two same people will be in the exact same type of health, or have their minds focused on the same things to prolong their psychological health. Therefore, being healthy is another individual achievement, which helps one live life optimistically. Beauty is something you do and achieve rather than something you are. Happiness is significant in generating beauty because we are the ones who have the power to feed the emotion or let it become idle, and that is a beautiful dominance one can have.  Living healthy is an important feature of beauty because we need to treasure our life as we know it.  The media has implied the wrong idea about what beauty is. Beauty is not only about sight; beauty deals greatly with emotions and personal realization.  Without happiness and healthiness to point out the beautiful things in life, how would we each have our own distinctive definition of beauty?  Notice there is no mention about having a muscular body or a tight rear-end in the aspects of beauty, perhaps they fall under the healthy category? Yea right!  Every individual should personally define what he or she perceive beauty as, and not let the media do the thinking for him or her.  So, do you believe that beauty is in the eye of the beholder?

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22. March 2010 by student.

Back in February I had the opportunity to go to an anthropology lectures series featuring author and anthropologist Dr. Victoria Sanford as well as professor and forensic anthropologist Dr. Heather Wash-Haney. Both spoke of the crime rates and humans rights of Guatemala, most cases they spoke of focused exclusively on women who died by the hands of male perpetrators, and whose cases were ignored by the state and judicial structures. In such cases, the term used is feminicide is used, which builds upon the concept femicide, the killing of women. (Walsh-Haney, 2010)

While feminicide is a major problem in Guatemala, there are incredibly high crime rates in Guatemala in general. For example, between 2002 and 2005, there were 1,715 female homicides to 15,998 male homicides. While female homicide rates are beginning to climb, men homicide rates are still high, and sometimes their cases are ignored as well as a women’s case.In five years of peacetime, there were 20,943 registered murders in Guatemala. If these numbers continue to climb, it’s possible there will be more people who would have died in 25 years of peace time rather than the 36 years of the civil war in Guatemala. (200,000 died and thousands went missing during the war.) Social cleansing also takes place in Guatemala, it is the act of exterminating individuals who are considered “undesirable”. Looking again in 2005, there were 305 cases of victims showing patterns in torture, mostly strangulation and bullets to the head. Of 5,338 homicides in 2005, 648 bodies were dumped in a different location then where they were killed. Being there is a noticeable pattern through these victims, it is considered social cleansing. Police blame gangs and delinquents for the high crime rates, yet Guatemalans blame the inadequacy of security and corruption of government forces. (Dr. Sanford, From Genocide to Feminicide: Impunity of Human Rights in Twenty - First Century Guatemala, 2008)

The murder of one woman in Guatemala City is specifically focused on in the lectures, the murder of Claudina Isabel Velasquez Pais. Claudina was one of 518 women who died in Guatemala in 2005. (Dr. Sanford, From Genocide to Feminicide: Impunity of Human Rights in Twenty - First Century Guatemala, 2008) She was a 19 year old law student, when she was found dead on the streets of Guatemala City, she was considered a prostitute or a gang member because she was wearing sandals and a belly ring; they deemed her not worthy of a case. She was thought to have been killed by her boyfriend, shot through the head. Claudina called her boyfriend’s mother, a well respected lawyer of the city, the night she was killed. She was walking through the streets of Guatemala City very early in the morning and was nervous; the mother heard screaming before she lost communication with Claudina. Despite the amount of evidence for her case, and her identity being claimed by her mother the afternoon her body was found, it took a court case by her father to get Claudina’s name put on the report, instead of “equis equis” or “X X”. (Walsh-Haney, 2010)

When Claudina was found on the street, many major flaws took place in recording her death. Her body was covered with a white sheet to block her from view in the city, simply throwing a sheet on her before taken pictures obscures the evidence in that it smears blood splatter. No one knows who threw the sheet there, it is not even known if her body was tampered with before photographs were taken. It is not certain if her clothes were removed at the crime scene, or if any forensic examination was done on her clothing. Neither body temperature nor ambient temperature were taken, which is crucial to determine time of death. (Walsh-Haney, 2010) Ministerio Publico claimed they collected evidence from 6:30 to 7:30 that morning, it was reported that her body was registered at the morgue by 6:30 am, however, and that her autopsy took an hour. The information does not match up, there is no certainty in her case. There was no searching of homes or primary suspects until three months after her death, there were no interviews with her family members until a month after, and there were no interviews with others until June of 2006. If it were not for her father using all of his resources to push for an investigation, Claudina would still be labeled “equis equis” without a case. (Dr. Sanford, From Genocide to Feminicide: Impunity of Human Rights in Twenty - First Century Guatemala, 2008)

As can be seen from this case, there are really no repercussions in beating or murdering a women in Guatemala. Dr. Walsh-Haney mentioned the last time she visited a morgue in Guatemala to work on the case of another women whose parents pushed for an investigation. She told us she saw bodies of women, piled on a stroller, all marked “X X”. Between 2001 and 2006, female homicide increased by 117%, alone. During the wars, soldiers were told to rape and terrorize women; all of them have gotten of free with these acts. (Dr. Sanford, From Genocide to Feminicide: Impunity of Human Rights in Twenty - First Century Guatemala, 2008) Social cleansing and feminicide are violations of human rights being there are not constitutional protections for all citizens in Guatemala.

Bibliography

Dr. Sanford, V. (2008). From Genocide to Feminicide: Impunity of Human Rights in Twenty - First Century Guatemala. Journal of Human Rights , 104 - 122.

Dr. Sanford, V. (2010). Impunity and Human Rights. Florida Gulf Coast University, Fort Myers.

Walsh-Haney, D. H. (2010). Forensic Anthropology. Florida Gulf Coast University, Fort Myers.

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