WORLD CONFLICTS

OUR REWARDFUL JOB HAS WON

Today, we have reciebed the noticed that our blog EuroCora has won the contest Euroscola 2016! This contest celebrated the 30th aniversary of Spain in the EU, and consisted on explaining how Spain has evolved in the last 30 years thanks to this and using digital media only.

We worked for over 3 months for this task and interviewed important people such as Ana Pastor, Minister of Development of Spain. Not only the winner class has worked in this project (3th course of secundary education: bilinguals), but also all the school (Colegio Corazón de María de Zamora), every single teacher and student, directly or indirectly.

All that hard work has not been fruitless. We have been one of the top 5 schools, among the 15 prizable; the best blog of Castilla y León and the 2nd best blog in the bilingual class. We are so delighted about this notice!

As a main prize, the 15 students of bilingual and our great Social Studies teacher, Don Miguel Ángel Pinto Sánchez, are going to visit the European Parlament of Estrasburgo.

Please, visit our blog! Thanks! https://eurocora.wordpress.com/

TECHNOCRACY

 I recommend you to watch it on full screen. Just press the icon on the top left and ESC on your computer's keyboard to exit the full-screen view. Thank you!
Sources used:
Nintendo's character R.O.B. Image from Smashpedia
https://www.reddit.com/r/vexillology/comments/2vzi40/the_flag_of_the_peoples_social_technocracy_of/

POLITICS: DICTATORIAL CONTRIES, NORTH KOREA

NORTH KOREAN REGIME

Origin:

On 17 of October of 1926, the teenager Kim II-sung, stablized a political partie to defeat, as the official Korean propaganda says, the Japanese imperalism. However, the real fundation was in 1945, when it was created the Korean Comunist Party.

Kim II-sung became a kind of urban legend. It is said that when he was 24, he commanded a militar unit that captured a Japanese intruder poblation.

The Comunist Partie, supported by the Soviet Communist Partie, started to grow up and finally made a coup.

Source: BBC http://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias/2015/10/151009_corea_norte_comunismo_aniversario_historia_ab

3 Recent notices about North Korea

North Korea releases propaganda film showing Washington under a nuclear attack:

North Korea released a new propaganda video menacingly titled “Last Chance”, showing a submarine-launched nuclear missile laying waste to Washington and concluding with the US flag in flames.

The four-minute video, set to jaunty music, ends with a digitally manipulated sequence showing a missile surging through clouds, swerving back to the earth and slamming into the road in front of Washington’s Lincoln Memorial.

The US Capitol building explodes in the impact and a message flashes up on the screen in Korean: “If US imperialists budge an inch toward us, we will immediately hit them with nuclear (weapons).”

The video was published on the North’s propaganda website DPRK Today and shows images from the Korean War, the capture of US spy ship Pueblo in 1968 and the first crisis over North Korea’s nuclear programme in the early 1990s

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/26/north-korea-releases-propaganda-film-showing-washington-under-nuclear-attack

North Korea releases propaganda video showing destruction of Seul

An official North Korean website has released a new propaganda video portraying a multiple rocket attack on South Korea’s presidential Blue House and other government buildings in Seoul.

It was uploaded on Monday to the DPRK Today website, which had released another video 10 days earlier depicting a nuclear attack on Washington.

The new 88-second video – entitled “If the ultimatum goes unanswered” – shows rockets fired from mobile launchers in the North destroying the buildings in a ball of fire.

It ends with the warning: “Everything will turn into ashes”.

Tensions have been rising on the Korean peninsula ever since the North conducted its fourth nuclear test on 6 January.

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/05/north-korea-releases-ultimatum-video-showing-attack-destroying-seoul

North Korea launches a missile as leaders meet in the US to discuss nuclear seccurity.

North Korea appears to have fired another ballistic missile off its east coast on Friday, South Korean officials said, as regional leaders met in Washington to discuss the threat of Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons programme.

South Korea’s defence ministry said the missile was fired at about 12.45pm local time from near Sondok airport in the east. The range and trajectory could not immediately be confirmed, a ministry official said.

It is the latest in a series of North Korean missile launches during what has been an extended period of elevated military tension on the Korean peninsula, triggered by Pyongyang’s fourth nuclear test on 6 January.

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/01/north-korea-missile-leaders-us-nuclear-security

North Korea’s Kim dynasty

The Kim dynasty is a three-generation lineage of North Korean leadership descending from the country's first leader, Kim II-sung, in 1948. Kim came to rule the North after the end of Japanese control in 1945 split the region. He began the Korean War in 1950 in an attempt to reunify the peninsula. His successors are his son Kim Jong-il and his grandson Kim Jong-un, actual leader of the country after the death of his father in 2011.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_dynasty_(North_Korea)

What do they use to keep the regime?

They use a lot of tools to keep the regime “alive”. The main tool is fear, achieved by constant threats. Another tool is to control the citizens’ opinions, liberties and acts by being on them. Finally, I will mention the usage of propaganda regulated by the regime to try to wash the brains of the North Koreans.

“Gulag”

Gulag (Russian word) it was a part of the Soviet Union that had to regulate the penal code for forced labor camps. It has similarities with North Korea, as this country also has this camps and the Regime is communist as the Soviet.

Source: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulag

 Main Characteristics of a Dictatorship

·        The leader never mistakes

·        You will love the leader above everything in the world

·        Nothing is private

·        Opinions are invalid

·        If a person is disabled, it is sent to forced labor camps

Comparison between the life of a person living in North Korea and my life in a democratic country

There are a lot of differences between both life conditions. In my country you are free to have your opinion for almost everything without being censured. We have as a leader a president, which we elect by voting and don’t have to praise. In a democratic country, people have Internet and other communication tools and privacy.

On the other hand, in a dictatorial country such as North Korea, everything is controlled by the regime, even history. People must have only one positive opinion of the country and the leader. They have one unique and irreplaceable leader which must be respected and praised. Social inequality is really present. People don’t communications are either forbidden or controlled. Finally, secrets can’t be hidden and privacy doesn’t exist. Finally, if you are a “rebel”, you can be highly punished (forced labor camps, torture or death).

If I were a teenager in North Korea, my schedule would be waking up in the morning for going to school, worshiping the paintings of Kim II-sung and Kim Jong-il I’ve got in my house. After having breakfast, I will dress up and put my badge of the leaders and my school uniform. When going walking to school, I would try not to look into other people’s eyes and stop in front of a statue of the leaders to bow and worship them.

OCEANIA RELIEF

THE CITY I WOULD LIKE TO BE IN

What would its transportation system be like?

Intelligent cars that work as automized taxis

How would houses and building be organized?

Houses connected by corridors and skyscrapers with all king of services.

What would streets look like?

They would be divided in four sections: one for walkers, another for bike-riders, another for automatized cars and one exclusively for trees.

What type of jobs would people do?

Artist, athletes, judges and other works that can't be done by robots

What would people do in their free time?

Surf the Internet, read and do sports.

How would people communicate? 

Via telephaty. 

How would human relationships be like?

Will be huge, thanks to big social networks and easy transportation

What would you do to control pollution?

Cars will work with hydrogen batteries, and there will be machines that desintagrate materia.

Would you have special sights?

Maybe...

Would you have schools/universities?

Yes, unless a machine that inserts knowledge in your brain is invented

WALL-E FILM ANALYSIS

Who is Wall-E?

Wall-E is a robot with human characteristics and feelings, who has to pack the Earth's garbage

How would you describe the planet he lives in?

Dirty, impure and dead.

Where do you think all those wastes came from?

I think they are from an overconsumption

Where are all the humans?Why did they have to leave Earth? What do humans look like?

They are out in a spaceship. They had to leave Earth because it was too dirty that it was impossible to clean. Because of the lack of gravity and exercise, they look fat and chubby.

How has their lifestyle affected they bodies?Why?

The robots made all kind of job for the humans, and they don't even have to move. As a consequence, they are getting fat.

What are human reliationships like?

Humans are all day talking on their monitor with another human and not face to face, and they don't even look what is arround them

What is the name of the company that appears in commercials throughout the movie?

It is called "Buy-n-Large"

Why does it name appear in the President's poclium?

Because the big economic power of that company is taking over the political power of the President.It is like the Presidents has been bought by the company.

Who do broken robots symbolize? Hint: they are not able to follow the line or given instructions

They represent rebels that want to change the system

Why does the computer try to avoid the humans' return to Earth?

Because if humans return to Earth, the company that made those robots, Buy-n-Large, will stop earning that amount of money. This represent that the big companies and in general humanity only cares about cash.

URBAN PLAN OF SALAMANCA

Salamanca is located on the Northern Plateau on the Iberian Peninsula. It has a plain relief and it is by the river Tormes, a tributary of the Duero.The climate has mild temperatures and quite abundant precipitations. 

The shapes of the streets of Salamanca change if they are on the historic centre or on the suburbs. In the historic centre, the buildings are the traditional stone-brick-made, an the streets are radiocentric, and they converge in the Main Square of Salamanca, such as the Rúa Mayor or the Street of Zamora. One of the problems may be the services. It is necessary to walk away from the historic centre to get to work or to do the shopping. A possible solution could be reduce the redisential areas and put other locals instead. This problem is relationated with parking. There are almost no places for the car to park. A possible solution may be the construction of parkings in the origin of the streets, or underground ones. In the historic centre, we can see some neo-classic houses, made by the bourgeoisie during the XX century. These class weren't able to build in the outskirts of the city, so they decided to replace the short and medieval houses for taller and more modern ones.

The urban enlargement of the city were built in the first half of the XX century by the people who moved from the rural areas to the city to find job and opportunities. This extensions are attributed to working class population that arrived into the city in the 1950s due to a rural exodus. These neighborhoods have a more regular plan, such as La Avenida de Portugal, La Avenida de Italia or La Calle de Ledesma. 

The periphery/outskirts

Lately, Another type of extensions has to do with nearby villages that have become part of the city as a consequence of a population increase in them. In the XX century as well, the people from the rural areas bought cheaper houses in this villages than city ones, so the population increase in this semi detached residential areas.

With regard to the industrial areas, we can outline el Polígono Montalvo and the Polígono de los Villares. The main activities both develop are winery, cheese-making and oil-making. Other secundary activities could be plumbing and iron and steel industry.

DEMOGRAPHIC PYRAMID

A population pyramid is a graphic representation of bars that shows the demographic structure according to two changeables: sex and age, in a city or a country.

Observing the sex ratio we can say that the same number of men and women born during this year. Sex ratio matches at the 45-49 years old bar. When looking at the top of the pyramid it is clear that women have a higher life expectancy. The reasons of that might be that testosterone reduces life expectancy in men because of biological reasons.

The shape of this pyramid shows that most of the population was young people. In addition, the structure of the pyramid exhibit that there were high birth rates and high death rates. So, this pyramid is an expansive pyramid that is on stage 2 (high birth rates and falling death rates). The age group with a larger number of people is the bottom one; this means that there were a lot of births that year. Also, we can see a bump due to the 10-14 years old bar. The causes of this young population could be better hygienic conditions for the children. The lack of old people may be a consequence of the Afghanistan’s war or terrorism.

The consequences of the demographic structure of the pyramid are investments in the educational system. According to the data shown, we can predict that the demographic evolution of this country will be to stage 3.