viernes, 20 de agosto de 2010

Global Crime

Global Crime

For this topic you can focus in different issues or crime that can occur in a country or in different places around the world, with different forms of acting against the laws and to the detriment of a few or many people. But, no matter, how was the form that they committed the crime, all of them have part of the Global Crime problem and the consequences are very disastrous. In this article, we will talk a little about that.

The criminal organization have different kinds of activities, is common that they often victimize businesses through the use of extortion or theft and fraud activities like hijacking cargo trucks, robbing goods, committing bankruptcy fraud, insurance fraud or stock fraud. Organized crime groups also victimize individuals by car theft, art theft, bank robbery, burglary, jewelry theft, computer hacking, credit card fraud, economic espionage, embezzlement, identity theft, and security fraud. Others defraud national, state, or local governments by bid-rigging public projects, counterfeiting money, smuggling or manufacturing untaxed alcohol or cigarettes, and providing immigrant workers to avoid taxes.

Organized crime groups also provide a range of illegal services and goods, such as assassination, blackmailing, bombings, bookmaking and illegal gambling, confidence tricks, copyright infringement, counterfeiting of intellectual property, kidnapping, prostitution, drug trafficking, arms trafficking, trafficking in human beings, and too many others.

Now that we know the different classes of improper activities they can do, it is important to analyze what we can do to help to eliminate this problem. It is easy to talk and talk about any problem and do nothing to help eradicate this problem. For example, many people can know when someone sells drugs, or prostitute people, or do frauds, but in some cases, the people do not tell the authority what they know.



In other cases you know how people play with other peoples lives trafficking and prostituting young girls or boys, for me this is a horrible activity that some people know but they prefer to remain silent than to acknowledge the fact. So my point is that we always need to think of ways to help to eliminate these problems and do all we can to have a better place to live and leave a better place for future generations.

http://www.channels.com/episodes/show/6733219/Misha-Glenny-investigates-global-crime-networks

martes, 17 de agosto de 2010

Conflict Resolution


Conflict Resolution

Conflict resolution is described as a range of methods for alleviating or eliminating sources of conflict. The term "conflict resolution" is sometimes used interchangeably with the term dispute resolution or alternative dispute resolution. Processes of conflict resolution generally include negotiation, mediation, and diplomacy. In some cases the result was good for the two parts, but not always.

Negotiation is a dialogue intended to resolve disputes, to produce an agreement upon courses of action, to agreement for individual or collective advantage, or to craft outcomes to satisfy various interests. It is the primary method of alternative dispute resolution. Some examples that you can use this form is in business, non-profit organizations, government branches, legal proceedings, among nations and in personal situations such as marriage, divorce, parenting, and everyday life.

Mediation, as used in law, is a form of alternative dispute resolution, is a way of resolving disputes between two or more parties. A third party: the mediator, assists the parties to negotiate their own settlement. In some cases, mediators may express a view on what might be a fair or reasonable conclusion, generally where all the parties agree that the mediator may do so.

Diplomacy is the art and practice of conducting negotiations between representatives of groups or states. It usually refers to international diplomacy, the conduct of international relations through the intercession of professional diplomats with regard to issues of peace-making, trade, war, economics, culture, environment and human rights.

The escalating costs of conflict have increased use of third parties who may serve as arbitrators, mediators, facilitators, and ombudsmen or conflict specialists to resolve conflicts. In fact relief and development organizations have added peace-building specialists to their teams, these are very important to obtain a pacific solution.

Finally, is important to remember that in many cases, effective conflict resolution skills can make the difference between positive and negative outcomes, so it is necessary to be prepared to always find the best solution.

lunes, 16 de agosto de 2010

Lessons learned from the University Festival

Lessons learned from the University Festival

Based at the University Festival I am focus in different types of food, because it was one of the topics that I found more interesting. So first is important to know that the food is any substance or material eaten to provide nutritional support for the body or for pleasure. It usually consists of plant or animal origin that contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals, and is ingested and assimilated by an organism to produce energy, stimulate growth, and maintain life. You can find this in many presentations and divided in some types, I write a little about that.

One of the types that the food are divided is in: fats that are produced by organic processes in animals and plants, all fats are insoluble in water and have a density significantly below that of water, proteins is a complex, high molecular weight organic compound that is essential to the structure and function of all living cells and viruses, carbohydrates are chemical compounds which act as the primary biological means of storing or consuming energy; other forms being via fat and protein.

Other classification is ethnic food; in this case you can mention Italian (is structured into several sections: the appetizer, pasta or rice dish, meat course, dessert), Chinese (Most of the food is prepared in bite-sized pieces because the Chinese culture regards knives and forks as weapons. Usually, every person at the table is given a bowl of rice while the other dishes are shared by everyone at the table. Some dishes are cooked from endangered species, such as facai moss while others from meat you would want to avoid such as dog), Mexican (is a delicious combination of ancient traditions, Aztec, Mayan and Spanish. The French also had their part in the story, adding baked goods such as sweet breads and the bolillo), and others related by the country that is original.

Regardless of the classification the food is necessary because it allows that for all the people development properly and has a good health. I think that in the variety is the spice, so I suggest trying different types of food and analyze what is or not more attractive for their tastes. Good luck!

Global Terrorism.

Global Terrorism

Terrorism is the systematic use of terror especially as a mean of coercion. Is defined by the Royal Academy as a: Sequence of acts of violence perpetrated to instill terror. Common definitions of terrorism refer this concept to those violent acts which are intended to create fear, are perpetrated for a religious, political or ideological goal, and deliberately target or disregard the safety of non-combatants (civilians). This is a problem that is affecting many people and there are many examples to demonstrate that is very problematic and how the problem increases all days.

The first case that I mentioned is with information of “Patterns of Global Terrorism” report published by the United States Department. This refers that in 1997, there were 304 acts of international terrorism, 221 people died and 693 were wounded in international terrorist attacks. En el 2000, there were 423 international terrorist the main reason for the increase was an upsurge in the number of bombings of a multinational oil pipeline in Colombia by two terrorist groups there. These are just two examples of that as the years increase, so do the acts of terrorism.

Only one year later, occurred the worst terrorist attack that I remember, is the horrific event of September 11, it was a series of coordinated suicide attacks by al-Qaeda upon the United States. The impact was very strong because all of us have the possibility to see in real time the acts in USA, how the people ran, cried, screamed, and others were trapped in the rubble of the Twin Towers. This was really impressive.

All these events help you think that something is happening in the world, when we lost the correct way, and what we can hope for the future. I Know only God knows what really happened in all these cases, but it is easy to know that something it is not right. And I think is important that people analyze a little about this problem and how we can help to eradicate discriminations, all others things that would generate conflicts with other people. The world needs to start walking toward another direction, and somebody has to take the first step.
References

• United Nations:Conventions on Terrorism http://treaties.un.org/Pages/DB.aspx?path=DB/studies/page2_en.xml&menu=MTDSG

• United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime: "Conventions against terrorism". Archived from the original on 2007-08-05.
web.archive.org/web/20070805001945/http://www.unodc.org/unodc/terrorism_conventions.html. "

Globalization

Globalization, an opportunity for the business


Globalization is a process of interaction and integration among the people, companies, and governments of different nations, a process driven by international trade and investment and aided by information technology. This process has effects on the environment, on culture, on political systems, on economic development and prosperity, and on human physical well-being in societies around the world. Thanks to globalization the business change a lot and new trends appear to generate different forms to obtain clients.


First, it is important to clear that the globalization is not new. For thousands of years, people —and, later, corporations— have been buying and selling to others lands. But policy and technological developments of the past few decades have increase this activity, and the business change a lot, because now all the companies need to adapt to the new tendencies around the world.



Advances in information technology, in particular, have dramatically transformed economic life, this have given all sorts of individual economic actors—consumers, investors, businesses—valuable new tools for identifying and pursue economic opportunities, including faster and more informed analyses of economic trends around the world, easy transfers of assets, and collaboration with the partners.



Companies need to understand that the form to do business change, and if they do not adapt to the new ways, could not compete and will lose their clients. Around the world you can find different entities that cover this issue, for examples: the Business and Industry Advisory Committee (BIAC) of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) calls itself the World Business Organization for promoting international trade, investment and the global market economy system, and rules governing the conduct of business across borders.



Is important that the citizens of all nations understand how globalization works and the policy choices facing them and their societies, and try to take advantage of the opportunities that it offer, maintain contact with many people through social networks or meet such trends around the world are some good examples of new points to consider.

Ethnic Conflict.


Ethnic conflict

Ethnic conflict is a war between ethnic groups often as a result of ethnic nationalism. They are of interest because of the apparent prevalence since the Cold War and because they frequently result in war crimes, such as, genocide. This is a very interesting topic that has generated heated debate around the world on issues such as: Do ethnic divisions inevitably generate violence? If you can delete the ethnic conflict, would need eliminate the memory of past generations? It is clear that no one has the absolute truth on this subject, but many facts demonstrate that changing this problem is not easy and that the consequences could be worse.

First, it is important to understand that ethnic conflicts have, in some cases, a central role in contemporary word polities. We can mention many examples: the Arabic- Israeli conflict, the situation in Darfur, the Chinese invasion of Tibet, the civil war in Lebanon, Rwanda and Sri Lanka, … and so on… but only these kind of conflicts, those with a violent nature, survive in the heart of the international public opinion. So, we can think ethnic divisions not always generate violence, but how we can achieve that the people forget all these problems and the consequences of that?

In addition, to the last problem, the different nationalities generate variety of cultures, and customs, and all the persons think that they are walking in the good way and it is too difficult to understand why “others” do not recognize the reason we do some activities that we like to do, why religions are too different and why we need to defend their customs. All of them think they do the best or correct things, it is because the rationalism and the term “identify” usually have an important role in the kind of conflicts.

Other point is that you can delete the ethnic conflict, would need eliminate the memory of the past generations, this topic have controversies for too many people, because how or why we need to eliminate the history and what is the way to do that. At this point, we must clarity we do not erase the past conflicts, but we can work to build a better place for the next generations, invites to have a democratic place and respect others.

In conclusion, I repeat that changing this problems is not easy, but if the consequences are very but, why we do not make the effort to motivate the individual or collective identity as the main source of meaning in a network in society. We can win too many things.

Infectious Diseases.

Infectious diseases


An infectious disease is defined, by some articles, like a clinically evident illness resulting from the presence of pathogenic microbial agents; these pathogens are able to cause disease in animals and/or plants. Infectious pathologies are also called communicable diseases or transmissible diseases due to their potential of transmission from one person or species to another by a replicating agent. They have being for centuries ranked along with wars and famine as major challenges to human progress and survival; remaining among the leading causes of death and disability worldwide, and the problem increases every day.

Some statistics on this issue indicate that infectious diseases during 1981 to 1995 increased the mortality rate to a peak of 63 deaths per 100,000 in 1995 and declined to 59 deaths per 100,000 in 1996. Infectious disease mortality increased in the 1980s and early 1990s in people aged 25 years and older and was mainly due to the emergence of the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). And in the latest years about 19.000 people died of pandemic influenza H1N1, one example of recent issue of such pandemics.

Specific factors precipitating disease emergence can be identified in virtually all cases. These include ecological, environmental, or demographic factors that place people at increased contact with a previously unfamiliar microbe or its natural host or promote dissemination. These factors are increasing in prevalence; this increase, together with the ongoing evolution of viral and microbial variants and selection for drug resistance, suggests that infections will continue to emerge and probably increase and emphasizes the urgent need for effective surveillance and control.

The main problem in this kind of diseases is that they spread very quickly and it creates a panic reaction in people, making the problem to increase. I can remember when in Costa Rica the AHIN1 was heard, and all the people ran to buy many things to protect against disease, others said that they would not go out because was very dangerous and any sneezing caused that person to be away from the rest.

Everyone needs to understand that the Infectious Diseases remain among the leading causes of death and disability worldwide. Against a constant background of established infections, epidemics of new and old infectious diseases periodically emerge, greatly magnifying the global burden of infections. So we need to be alert but not alarmed for any good reason for that.


References

National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Infectious Diseases (Dr Armstrong), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Infectious Diseases, Atlanta, Ga (Ms Conn and Dr Pinner).
http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/281/1/61

News. CNN. www.cnn.com


News La Nación. www.nacion.com

Grippe porcine: Mexico sous tension, le monde en alerte. www.news.yahoo.com

Migration

Migration

Human migration is the physical movement of humans from one area to another, sometimes over long distances or in large groups, match as a variety of sources over the Internet. The movement of populations in modern times has continued under the form of both voluntary migration within one's region, country, or beyond, and involuntary migration. People who migrate are called migrants or more specifically, emigrants, immigrants, or settlers, depending on historical setting, circumstances and perspective. No matter how they are called, all of them helped to increase the statistics related to migration issues in Latin America and around the world.

First, it is important to know that we can find hundreds of stories of people who decided to leave their country. For example, Heritage Foundation said that more than 10 million undocumented foreigners currently reside in the United States, and that population is growing by 700,000 per year. Typical illegal aliens come to America primarily for better jobs and in the process they add value to the U.S. economy. However, they also take away value by weakening the legal and national security environment. When three out of every 100 people in America are undocumented (or, rather, documented with forged and faked papers), there is a deep security problem. Even though they pose no direct security threat, the presence of millions of undocumented migrants distorts the law, distracts resources, and effectively creates a cover for terrorists and criminals.

In Costa Rica, this problem is caused mainly by migration from Nicaragua. They are people who come here for a greater mix of motives: seasonal migrants, who come for up to a year, mainly to harvest export crops, semi-permanent migrants, who leave part of their family behind and go back to Nicaragua for visiting every year or two. They are mostly involved in economic activities that require a more prolonged stay: construction, private security, domestic labor, commerce and services and -permanent migrants, accompanied by their families. Regardless of the cause Costa Rica faces the challenge of dealing with a considerable amount of undocumented people.

In summary, the reasons why people leave their native country are varied, in many cases they get what they want, in others they must return home with empty hands and many bad memories in their pockets. Increase the migration figures every day and litigation for those who are usurping what is not theirs will continue day after day, the most important point here is to find a way to achieve consistent migration to the possibilities of each country and appropriate treatment to enable continuous respect of every human being right. We need remember that the presence of millions of undocumented migrants “distorts the law, distracts resources, and some others problems.

References

-The-Real-Problem-with-Immigration-and-the-Real-Solution - Estados Unidos - www.heritage.org/.../


-Envío Digital. www.envio.org.ni/articulo/3253

Weapons of mass destruction


Are the weapons of mass destruction destroying the world?



A weapon of mass destruction (WMD) is a weapon that can kill large numbers of humans (and other life forms) and cause great damage to man-made structures, natural structures, or the biosphere in general. These destroyed many cities and lot families in some places in the world, but they may not be the main problem in the handling of weapons that are affecting the masses. It is important to know that you can find different types of these arms: nuclear, chemical, and biological. All of these have singular effects and military applications are very different. The point is to analyze what is the reason for creating such different weapons and who are the losers and winners.

If you analyze many stories related to this topic, you can see that the main purpose for creating these weapons is the pursuit of world power, while in other cases it has been a debate whether companies make them in order to generate economic benefits. For example, the disasters of September 11th in 2001, where many people die in the United States. In this issue persons who studied this topic say that was the Americans to do this slaughter to manipulate the people feelings.

The problem here is what many countries sacrifice to obtain power or profits. There are people who now face the consequences of these weapons with lots of deformities in their bodies, with areas completely contaminated or worse people that long ago lost their lives without guilt in this trouble.

Thus, I agree with the high importance given to preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, but if I see the problem more closely, I know that not only these powerful weapons are destroying the world. People kill each other every day, the newspapers always give us information on murders, and violence has become a common theme in society. So my point is, are affecting more the powerful weapons created for mass destruction or weapons in many hands that every day will destroy lives. I think is the first one.




References


-Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction: Assessing the Risks
(1993). Collected on June 12, from
www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/ota/9341.pdf


- Granoff J. (2006). Oral and Written Testimonies Submitted to a Hearing of the United States House of Representatives. Collected on June 12, from

www.gsinstitute.org/docs/SNS_JGG_9.26.06.pdf

Poverty


Poverty and ways to alleviate it




Poverty refers to the condition of not having the means to afford the basic human needs such as clean water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter. This is also referred to as absolute poverty or destitution. The problem about this indicator is that as the rate of poverty increases the social problems begin to be more evident, and quality of life of the inhabitants of the country or place decrease.

Fifteen years ago, in Copenhagen, global leaders at the World Summit for Social Development described poverty eradication as an ethical, political and economic imperative, and identified it as one of the three pillars of social development. Poverty eradication has since become the overarching objective of development, as reflected in the internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals, which set the target of halving global extreme poverty by 2015. How do that? It is a point that many countries debated.

Social poverty exists across all societies in numerous and often compounded forms, affecting people of all ages and backgrounds in many countries, and the forms the work for eradicated this problem are different. For example, in Costa Rica the elected president Laura Chinchilla announced the creation of a new ministry: the Ministry of Social Welfare and Development. The stated aim of this new ministry is to sort out and reorganize the dozens of current programs designed to fight poverty. Despite all the information that concrete plans about how they will manage to eradicate poverty are not clear. Regarding this, I think is important to analyze what we can do to help for eradicate this issue, independent of the government are making. Are many things you can do: volunteer year round, donate things, start a Giving Circle to fund local organizations, treat and speak about the poor with respect, others.

The people can know the recent international crisis increase the families that are more vulnerable to hunger and poverty. So is time to establish better solutions for eradicate that problem, and for get more people to become part of the change and put their bit to help the needy. It is necessary to find country-solutions, and all the people help to eradicate this problem, learning to share the things that the God provide us.



References

• Usexpatcostarica (2010). News. Collected on June 9, from

www.usexpatcostarica.com/2010/03/poverty-costa-rica

• United Nations, (2010). Report on the World Social Situation. Collected on June 9, from

www.un.org

Lessons learned from the Innovation Week

Telework, an option to consider


Teleworking, telecomuting literally refers to the development of a job in a regular manner in a different place from the usual work place. This usually refers to office work which requires a minimal interaction with the client and do not require the presence of the worker, resulting in the exploration of other options to perform the job. The most important thing to know is that it does not only have good things, in some cases the consequences may not be the best.

Among the advantages of this way of job, you can mention the opportunity that obtain many large companies to reduce costs, such as Internet, electricity, furniture, and others, and also allowing the worker to save, because payments such as : bus, food out of home, taxis, and others are something to forget about. Also in many cases they are allowed to choose their own working environment, reduce stress, have more free time, have a better performance than in the office, have flexible schedules and get better quality of life.

Even though this option has many advantages not everything is "rosy", in some cases many companies forget the problems caused by this way of job, both for the company and the employee, in first place loss of hierarchies, wages may exceed the total cost of full-time worker in the office, conflicts of loyalty or lower worker identification with the company; in the case of the worker it is normal to see a lack of work environment, sedentary lifestyle, family distractions, lack of privacy and unlimited schedules.

In short, this way of job is not for all types of companies, it is necessary to first study the company, identify its needs, do a research that could generate savings to the company using this work system and finally sit down with the pros and cons and take a decision that benefits the company and does not generate a negative impact on the worker.

Measures taken against global warming by countries around the world.

Measures taken against global warming by countries around the world

First, it is important to understand the definition of the global warming; it is the increase in the average temperature of Earth's near-surface air and oceans since the mid-20th century and its projected continuation. According to a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change global surface temperature increased 0,74 ± 0,18 °C between the start and the end of the 20th century. This problem caused that many countries working with the mission of eradicated things that cause this issue, but the problems is that we do not have a good strategy in the world too work join to eliminated.

The global scientific community agrees that most of the observed temperature increase was caused by escalating concentrations of greenhouse gases, which results from human activity such as fossil fuel burning and deforestation. Addressing this problem, countries like Costa Rica designed a plan with many proposals; for example, achieve the goal of being the first country neutral in carbon dioxide emissions by 2021. The members of the European Union proposed to reduce their polluting emissions by 20% by 2020 and have offered to increase this percentage to 30% if others make "comparable efforts." Japan and Russia, have a plan to reduce theirs by 25% until 2020, also in relation to 1990.

All these new alternatives to solve this problem are not enough considering that global warming has become perhaps the most complicated issue facing world leaders. On one hand, warnings from the scientific community are becoming louder, as an increase of dangers from the ongoing buildup of human. On the other hand, technological, economic and political aspects have to be resolved in order to achieve by a coordinated effort the emissions reduction worldwide.

In conclusion, all people or almost all know about this problem, but many decided to do nothing to solve it, but I think it is time to understand that if we do not do something immediately we can destroy the possibility of a future for our children. Additionally, it is time for countries to really establish clear proposals to really end up with global warming and not by simple or light alternatives that really don’t solve the problem.


References:


Global Warning (2010). Recopilado el 23 de mayo de www.topics.nytimes.com

Global Warning (2010). Recopilado el 23 de mayo de www.wikipedia.com

Cumbre de Copenhague inicia con baile de cifras y brecha entre ricos y pobres. Noticias. Recopilado el 22 de mayo de www.noticias.latino.msn.com

1. Human rights and domestic violence in Costa Rica.

Human rights and domestic violence in Costa Rica



There is no universal accepted definition for domestic violence, but in a few words it is recognized as a pattern of abusive behaviors by one or both partners in an intimate relationship such as marriage, dating, family, friends or cohabitation. In Costa Rica, this situation is more problematic in women and children than in men, who are victims of physical and psychological suffering and it is a form or example of the non respect of human rights.

The principal problem of this type of violence is that they are often in great danger in the places where they are supposed to be safer: within their families. In some cases, at home is where they face a regime of terror and violence, as revealed in many studies. For example, pilot Survey on Domestic Violence, held in February 2002 by the Center for Research on Women's Studies, found that 67% of Costa Ricans claim to have suffered some form of violence. 40% of those consulted referred assault; sexual assault 15% and 30% had both types of abuse. In the children UNICEF reported that each year about 6 million children and adolescents are victims of severe abuse in Latin America and the Caribbean, of them 80.000 die from domestic violence.

In recent years, scholars and advocates have criticized human rights law for it is failure to accord protection to women facing gender-based violence. Although physical abuse of women is pervasive, cutting across cultural, class, and economic lines, traditional concepts of human rights have developed within a public, male-dominated framework which does not recognize the experiences of women as women.

In summary, it is demonstrated that the human rights are denied and many lives are stolen from them by the present threat of violence by an intimate partner and by other family members, wherever this violence takes place and in whatever form. And for me the most important is to analyze how we can help to eradicate this problem and many roles that some people transmit generation to generation.