Suicide Forums

Suicide Forums are a significant topic to talk about in our today’s society. More and more foolish teenagers and young adults are looking for suicide instructions by navigating through the Internet. Young women and men, particularly between the age of 13 and 25, subscribe to such Web pages, post their mood in there and ask question about suicide, whereupon all visitors of the Web page are free to answer.

In Germany there are about 30 of such Forums, worldwide the number is much higher. It’s an intimidating development, which should be stopped before it’s too late. On the one hand, young boys and girls can make an appointment for dying side-by-side and on the other hand ,it’s possible to talk about worries and problems with each other, to get information about different suicide methods as well as an easy procurement of medicines when someone is willing to die alone and without much effort. These Forums are a hype because immature people think it’s a solution for all their problems.

It’s very dangerous to deal too much with Suicide Forums because everyone can become addicted easily. By surfing unsuspectingly and without any dangerous thoughts through the Web, people discover such Forums and are fascinated at once. Some people even belief that they can help suicidal persons and deal at some point with their own suicide thoughts, due to being encouraged through chatting with suicidal persons. Drifting away from the real world and being totally focused on the Forums are the first and dangerous step into becoming a victim. It’s like a vicious circle. If you start to enter this world, it’s not easy to get out. So, we should be aware of the unknown and keep distance.

 

 

 

Differences of stuying two languages

Today, I want to concern myself with the differences of the Transcultural Communication studies. Studying English and studying Spanish, my second language, are different in a number of significant ways. Studying two languages means that there are opportunities to get various insights into the behavior and into the culture of Spanish-speaking as well as English-, or American-speaking people. In Spain or Latin America, for example, people are more open-minded and relaxed in contrast to England or America. Additionally, Spanish-speaking people tend to celebrate due to any issue, such as the “Dia al lupo“, in which death family members or relatives are honored once a year.  Apart from that, the body language and the writing type of the Spanish and English language differ very much. In the former, the use of the body language is more common, next to the use of many apostrophes and wavy lines in opposite to the English language. Lastly, the challenge of both languages studies vary greatly. In the English course, much more basic knowledge is expected and the number of tasks is enormous, as opposed to the Spanish course. So, you have to keep in mind that studying two languages haven’t much in common and differ in several ways.

 

 

 

My opinion about obesity in America

America is a country with unlimited opportunities, the land of the American Way Of Life where a huge number of obese people live, that's a fact. According to the film "Super Size Me", about 100 million Americans are obese and 400.000 of American people a year fall ill because of eating the wrong food. But what is the reason behind consuming piles of food? It's the media which shows regular advertising spots on TV about food products consisting of sugar and other unhealthy ingredients? Or it's after all, the attitude of Americans towards their life-style? Or is there even an ideal of beauty behind the American eating culture? 

In my opinion, the rise of Mc Donald's is the reason for gaining weight rapidly. With the foundation of the fast food chain, America experienced a boom in eating high-calorie food. One in four Americans visits every day Mc Donald's in order to eat burgers and chips. But at the beginning many Americans weren't aware of the drawbacks such products could have for their health. They had never cared about the future and consequences that could arise. So, Diabetes, Asthma, high blood-pressure and mobility restrictions are only some of the illnesses an overweight person could get. It is also proven that obesity is a well-known cause of heart attacks. In 2006 425,425 people died because of such attacks, as Morgan Spurlock’s film, as mentioned above, displayed. Mainly children suffer in later life because they tend to gain weight very fast. 

Lastly, it's to realize that America is not only the country with many opportunities, but also the land with the most unhealthy people worldwide.

Jon Brower Minnoch from U.S. (1941-1983) 
heaviest human being ever recorded, around 635 kilogram

Reasons fot the War between Southern and Northern states

One of many things, that really surprised me about my CLI, War of Northern Aggression, was that slavery was an important factor for the beginning of the war. The North refused slavery whereas the South deployed slaves for farming and the houshold. Though not only in the war between the states, but also throughout American history slavery was an important issue. For this reason, it's important to know some background information for getting an understanding of the suffering slaves faced in former times. It's unbelievable that slaves were treated like animals, only with the aim to illustrate that they are the second-class after the white population. They had no right to vote, no civil rights, were discriminated, and even sometimes persecuted and murdered.

As regards all the efforts that were made to gain freedom, for instance losing land and family in order to rescue themselves, or fighting battles, it's needless to say that this success didn't come easy way. Considering that not until the Emancipation Proclamation, that was signed by Abraham Lincoln in 1863, abolished slavery, slaves had an day-to-day battle to survive. Additionally, it's often forgotten that disagreements about the constant taxation increase of imported goods in the South, the aim of expand slavery westwards and the fight for an independent South, played an important role in the outbreak of war.

All in all, the War of Northern Aggression was the central point in Americans history and started because of many different reasons.

The live in Favelas

Do you know what it's like living a Favela? No? Perhaps you should be more open-minded to other cultures (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Favela,
 http://livewire.amnesty.org/2013/08/06/living-without-security-in-rios-largest-favela/, http://org.elon.edu/brazilmagazine/2005/article1.htm).

Favela means a residential area and is another word for ashanty town. The term Favela derives from the Portuguese language and is coined by a climbing plant. Those areas are important to think about because they should remind us of the poor living conditions and prospects of their inhabitants, even nowadays, and therefore shouldn't sink into oblivion.

The first Favela were founded in the late 19th century and were built by soldiers who had nowhere to live. People, who settled there, at the suburb of a town, were mainly slaves with no work. By the same token, Favelas will be associated with extremely poverty and unemployment. Only criminal circumstances rein the population. Illegal activities, such as drug dealing, especially cocaine, or weapon treat, lead to enormous mortality rates, and these affect mainly brazil, the central point of Favelas. 

In Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, is one of the numerous so-called slums. There, boys especially, have to participate in dealing with drugs or handling with weapons very early to survive. A big problem is, that the police is such a minority that they can't do something against crime and prevent children from harm. They have to accept the circumstances in Favelas and some of the officers even dealing with people there.

Besides a high criminal rate, bad living conditions make the survival hard. The population is very poor, without education possibilities and future chances. Owing to the fact that it's a very dangerous area, you should realize that the population there won't reach a high age. Most of the inhabitants reach a middle-age of only 34 years and being in a criminal band, reduces a live even more!

Concluding, we should keep in mind that there are existing suburbs behind our imagine and that we should be aware of cultures surrounding our petty innocent lives.

Here is a link for better understanding: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGXjNCGiEVw

The living and suffering in a multioptional society

Today we are living in a society which is full of new opportunities and changes in all aspects of life. No matter if religious, technical or educational possibilities, nowadays we are capable of choosing our own way. An individualization and a development of our personality occurs which gives the life a common sense and possibilities to unfold one's abilities. We are free and can search our own way of happiness. 

But there are also a lot of side-effects. The large number of opportunities is too much for our population, we are stressed and tense because we are indecisive which way we should choose and worried about it if it could be the wrong way or not. 

For instance, the topic religion should be discussed shortly. Former, there was only one religion, but today there are so much influences of different cultures, that we don't know which religion, belief or spiritual experience we should accept. As consequence, people tend to secularize or they adopt various religions, but in the end there is no satisfied solution. There are so much decisions to take that we are utterly overtaxed and in danger of losing our identity. 

Next to religion, we should also take a glance on technical issues. We are a consuming and very materialistic society and therefore, a huge amount of money on videogames, mobile phones and other is spent, but the question is how long do we have these electronic things. One week later, a better game or phone is put on the market and we are dissatisfied because we have the old version. The development and improvement is becoming faster and faster, nothing is good enough and works well enough . 

Likewise, we have the problem with our education. As young people we have so much opportunities to study and to work that we don't know where we should begin. Former, with an A-levels degree there was no problem to get a well-paid job. But the present is more complicated. Without a final qualification there is not even a chance to pursue a career or to set up an own firm. Even with a university degree it's very hard to get a job, especially a job you want to have. There is less offer than demand on the market, due to so many students, and also the world crisis bears the blame. However, what should the future look like? Will there be a grade after grade to have to reach? Should we study till the fiftyish until it's possible to get the profession we want to reach and to have a secure future? 

In my opinion, that's the suffering of a multioptional society, it's an endless process in improving because we will be never satisfied with our achievements and we have to work harder and harder to survive. It's a pity, or?

Does hair colour has an effect on personality?

The hair colour could possibly play an specific role on the character of women, researchers found out. In the ancient world already, people has dyed their hair. Owing to the fact that red-haired women were often accused of being a witch, there was no other opportunity as changing their hair colour if they didn't want to be persuaded and burned afterwards. 

Nowadays though, the attraction is center of attention of dyeing. But the question is if there is a truth behind the opinion that the character of people depends on their hair colour? 

Blonde women, for instance, should be more colder and more carless about other people feelings, whereas dark-haired ones should be very temperamental, bad-tempered and self-conscious, especially women with a latin touch. Women with auburn hair in turn, should be very modest and even-tempered and relaxed. Red-haired women, on the other hand, normally should be very moody, and tend to unconventional actions. Apart from that, it's said that they should have a very open sexual temper. 

These results vary although because also certain circumstances like the social environment influences the behavior and character of women. Babies with fair hair colours especially, strikes people as being very innocent, cute and beautiful. As consequence, parents try to fight against many compliments their baby get and treat his or her in a very unfriendly way, which could be a reason for a colder character in later life. 

By and large, it's to say that these prejudices about characteristics depending on hair colours are no reliable origin, they can be correct, but they don't have to.