Where I come from...

A big country in south America
Its name is Brazil
You may think soccer and samba!
Or going to a beach to chill

But like any other place out there
Not everything is always cool...
On the streets it's a warfare
And kids are out of school

The economy is growing fast
And they want the world to see
However they always forget
To show what only I can see

The country is awesome, if you are rich
Try being born in a poor family: "High School?"
Most people will never reach

The best Universities might be free
But the inside of them
Only rich boys get to be

Inequality, homelessness, and starvation...
But hey, there is a world cup coming!
Forget the bad things, we are the soccer nation!

Thoughts on Society and The Giver

In what ways do we perceive memories in our society?

The way we perceive memories in our society is similar to the way they do in The Giver, but it also differs in some aspects. Memories are, with no doubt, the best source of wisdom our society have. Using the memories we receive from the older ones we can ponder and take decisions. However differently from the way it's done on the book, in our society everyone has access to memories. The memories from the past is usually in books or other source of information that can be accessed by everyone.

What do you think would be different in the world if we had only one-generation memories?

We would probably make a lot more mistakes. We would repeat the same actions as previous generations, not knowing that these actions would lead to failure. Also, these memories can expand our horizons. When you think about things that were done in the past, you also think what else could be done beyond that. Knowing where your ancestors arrived makes you wonder what else is after that. The world would be stuck in the same thing over and over again with one-generation memories.

Do you have any questions about how the rules of your society or any society?

I basically have questions for everything. Who created these rules? why are those rules like that? most rules doen't make any sense, so why do we have them? Also, i have questions about every other society's rules. Sometimes i just can't understand the differences between my society and the others. But most times there are just rules that make no sense for me, and i always want to know the reason of that rule's existance.

The Best Lesson

The best lesson my grandparent (or parent or any relative) ever taught me was..

"Always be honest". The best lesson my grandfather has ever taught me. This sentence is almost his signature, and since I was a child, he tries his best to make this be also my own signature. You don't need a religion in order to be a good person, all you need is to be honest with everyone at anytime. The advantages that this will bring to you are infinite.

If you always pay your debts, you'll never be on a negative balance, but you need to be honest to yourself also, and recognize how much you can afford to pay. Always be honest about your feelings. If you don't like someone or something, tell them clearly, that will be better for both parts. The same applies in the case you like someone, go for it with no fear. If you have to fight for something, do it.

Finally, as stated by Thomas Mann (1996), "A harmful truth is better than a useful lie.". It doesn't matter how much the truth can hurt, it is still the only way to precisely express your feelings and make it possible to fix what is wrong.

Stretching your positive mind

1.)  Write about your life now as a student at MEI in all negative descriptions.  Write only facts.  Do not make up information.  Write only negative facts.  Write a complete paragraph.  Include ALL the details about your life at MEI.  Include as many details as you can, make them all negative, include as much as possible.

We have so much homework, and I hate doing homework. The writing class is too hard for me, because I really don't like writing, also because I'm bad at it. The food in the dinning hall is always the same, I'm starting to get tired of it. They make the food in weird ways. Why do they have to put pepper on everything? Don't they know how to make tasty food without burning everyone's mouth? I hate mornings. I hate having to wake up between 7 and 8 am to go to class. Why can't I have night classes? Everything here is so expensive! Students already have all the tuition fees and other college expenses, things should be cheaper for us.

2.)  Write about your life now at as a student  MEI in all positive descriptions. Write about the same subject but write only facts, and write only positive statements.  Include as many details as you can, make them all positive, include as much as possible.

The life in the US is good. I live in a nice room in the dorms, and my roommate is a cool guy. I'm learning a lot at MEI, and I'm also really improving my english skills. I'm learning how to write essays (something I did not knew even in portuguese). I love american breakfast with eggs, bacon, chocolate milk. I'm happy that I'm in the 004c class, because that means my english is not as bad as I tough it was, since I've never studied english before. My life here is relatively easy since the brazilian government is paying for everything and I don't have to worry about a work or overloading my family with my expenses.

3.) Stretch: Write about the same subject using completely different information. Do not repeat ANY of the previous information.  It can be negative or positive.

I don't like having a quiz every week on the listening and speaking class, but that's better because we don't have to study a heavy load of information before the quiz. The weather here is nice and hopefully we'll have snow once the winter comes, and I'm really excited about it. I have classmates from all over the world, and that's really awesome since I can learn a lot about different cultures and even some words in different languages. I'm trying a lot of new things and all those new experiences are great and I keep learning more and more every day.

Do you like being alone?

Response to the "Do you like being alone?" post on The New York Times Education Blog.Original post: http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/06/do-you-like-being-alone/?_r=0

"Students: Tell us how you feel about spending time by yourself. Do you think you might choose to live alone when you grow up? Why or why not? How do you explain why living alone, or just spending ample time by yourself, might encourage a person to be more social? Do you get enough time alone — or do you have too much? Do your friends and family support you when you need to take a break from having them around? Do you support them?"

The amount of people who are electing to live by themselves is growing greater and greater. As mentioned in the article by Doyne (2012) living alone "promotes freedom, personal control and self-realization". Many people might say that to live alone is to be sad, to be lonely. However, I disagree with that statement. I like living alone, and even though I have plans on having a family in the future, I really enjoy living by myself, and I'll do it for some more years.

First, living alone provides freedom. You can do whatever you want when you are living alone. It is not about committing any crimes, off course, but the freedom to do things your way that make people to choose this life style. Some people, like me, like letting things visible (not "hidden") and for another group of people, this is nothing but making a mess. There is no right or wrong in most situations, but there is disagreement on how things should be done. The freedom to make things the way you like is a major factor that convinces people to live by themselves.

Next, people who like spending a lot of time alone, or living alone, are often labeled as an anti-social person, but that is not true. Spending time alone allows people to think and reflect about their inner selves, and that help them to understand better who they are. Once you understand yourself, you will be able to identify your problems with many aspects of life, including social life. Some time for yourself will always help you to grow as a person and achieve higher grounds.

I usually have enough time to myself. My family always knew me better than everybody else, so they always understand the fact that I really enjoy being alone. Sometimes I like to lay down, play some video games and disconnect myself from the world, and some of my friends cannot understand that. The same way I like having time for myself, i also like respecting other people's space, because everybody needs some time on their own once in a while.

Finally, either if you are the kind of person who likes being surrounded by a lot of people all the time or if you are a person who enjoys living alone, we all agree that once in a while having some time to think and sort out our minds is a good idea. Some people cannot live alone, for a lot of different reasons like fear, health issues or even just loneliness, also some people love the freedom of having the entire house just for them, but in the end the only person who will always be with you is yourself! and reserving some time to spend with this special and important person is always a good idea.

A Perfect World

Some people might say that the perfect world is a world with the perfect government, with all countries living in perfect peace with each other, and everyone has a determined function to execute and keep the world running. However, I disagree with said idea, that is not a perfect world, that is just a good enough world. A perfect world would be a place where there are no governments, laws or countries, no difference between people, and real freedom.

According to Tomas More (1516), a perfect world the people on the power would be select by the people. I disagree with his idea of a perfect government. In a true perfect world there would be no government at all. People would know what they are supposed to do without someone telling them. Tomas More (1516) also says that people who break some rules could even be punished with death. In a perfect world there would be no rules to be broken or punishments. Everybody knows that hurting people isn't good, just based on how they would feel if they were hurt. The idea of having strict laws and punishments does not define a perfect world, neither does having a government. People are free and smart on the perfect world.

When discussing marriage, Tomas More (1516) says that every family would be "chosen", a woman would be given a husband and they would have a controlled number of children. This idea is completely wrong. The family as a basis for any type of society should be where the perfection begins. The perfect family is the one where people marry whoever they like and have as many children as they want. People are free to adopt children. People are free to marry people of the same sex. People are free to not get married if they do not want to.

Finally, Tomas More (1516) talks about professions and working on the community in the perfect world. This is one of the few points he make I agree with. His opinion is that every child would learn a profession from someone (normally, but not necessarily,  their father) and would not work for money, they would work for the sake of each other. In my vision of a perfect world, people would do whatever is possible to help each other, so everyone would be happy together. People should learn a profession by working with the experienced ones and being taught while helping on the work. Some authors might say that in a perfect world your profession would be assigned to you, and it would be something that you like. This is OK at first, but, what if someone changes his mind and start liking something else? People should be free to change their occupations whenever they want to, with no restrictions.

My idea of a perfect world may be even more out of reach than every other idea out there. The world itself is perfect, what makes it imperfect are the people living in it and how they can't co-exist in harmony. A perfect world would require at least perfect people to be really perfect. The idea being able to do nothing but follow strict rules and live the same day over and over again, the same way everybody else does, can be anything but a perfect world.

I commented on: Hoi's blog, Iman's blog and Kholood's blog