The problem of bullying - Part 2/2

Who are the victims of bullying?

The bullied ones are usually people whose physical or psychological strength is less than that of the bully. The victimised person tends to display his or her vulnerability by means of fear or inferiority. People identified as highly vulnerable are frequently singled out as bullying victims.

Bullying aggressors typically exploit the weaknesses or defects of their victims. A stammer, squint, poor physical performance or disability may become a reason for scorn. Physical bullies will also torment people excel at school or work and so do better than them.

What effects may bullying have upon the victims?

Physical harm, pain and suffering top the list of the effects of bullying. However, emotional distress is equally disturbing. The greatest danger lies in the fact that the effects of bullying may last for a lifetime. The stresses and fears that bullying leads to can turn the victim’s life into a nightmare for many years. Some victims may lose their sense of self-confidence and self-esteem. Others may fall into depression. In extreme cases, bullying may provoke suicides. The victim’s performance at school may also be hampered by bullying through inability to concentrate in class or even intentional absenteeism.



How should we respond to bullying?

Many cases of bullying go unnoticed, unreported or simply ignored. Embarrassment and humiliation effected by bullying may be so profound that children are often afraid to report victimisation.

Bullying is not the problem of a single victim but of the whole environment where it occurs. Be it school or workplace, there is a need to implement a policy of combating bullies and bullying. Recognising the problem is the first step, then raising the victims’ self-esteem and increasing the awareness of how serious the situation is among all the people concerned. The universal truth should be voiced that everyone has the right to a safe environment and a responsibility to prevent bullying.

Cyber Bullying

Cyber bullying is defined as threats or other offensive behavior sent online to a victim or sent or posted online about the victim for others to see.

• It can take the form of a message on email or IM or a social networking site from someone who is threatening to hurt you or beat you up.
• It might be rumors posted on your profile or spread online for others to see.
• It might be the deletion of you on a friend’s “buddy list” to make you feel left out.
• It could be a profile made by someone pretending to be you.
• Or, someone hacking into your profile and writing comments pretending they’re from you.

In general, cyber bullying is bullying or harassing that happens online. Much of it is similar to what teenagers experience offline in schools, homes, or the community, but has the additional aspect of the Internet.

Cyber bullying occurs in many different places online including instant messaging, social networking sites, email, and chat rooms. The most common place cyber bullying occurs is over instant messenger, but it also can occur via other new technologies such as text messaging and personal digital assistants (PDAs).

What to do?

Here is a list of things that can be done in order to stop being cyberbullied:

• Ignore the person. Sometimes the easiest thing to do is to ignore the person and go on about your business.
• Log-off if the harassment is bothering you.
• Block or delete the person. If it is happening on Instant Messaging or some other place online that requires a ‘buddy list’, you can block certain users based upon their username, or delete them if they are in your buddy list. You can also block emails that are being received from specific email addresses.
• Change your information. If someone has hacked into your profile, change your password. If someone repeatedly sends you messages (like, ‘add me to your buddy list’ over and over), consider changing your username or email address.
• If there is a profile that was created about you without you knowing, contact the company who runs the site to have the profile or language taken off.
• If you are upset about what is being said, talk to someone you trust. Don’t feel like you’re alone.

Talk to adults

Many times, teens are able to take care of the cyberbullying on their own. Sometimes, it gets out of hand though, and it’s helpful to talk to an adult about what is going on. If the victim feels scared or overwhelmed, maybe even trapped, it’s definitely time to talk to an adult.

If someone doesn’t feel comfortable speaking with a parent, he/she should seek out other adults or authorities like a teacher, coach, school counselor, a youth group leader, or other adult family member such as an aunt or uncle.

Discussion proposals:

1. How can victims of bullying and cyberbullying be helped?
2. How can bullies be approached to make them stop harrassing other people?
3. What is bullying in the army? What forms does it take?

Migrations Part Four: Migration - Yes or No?

Migration - Yes or No? I think it is easy question.. would you agree with
me?

My answer is Yes for legal migration and No for illegal migration. Why? For example France was among the countries which first opened their borders to immigrants. In 1950s the government made a tough decision to invite foreign workers from France`s crumbling colonial empire.
At first, they were to remain in the country for a short period of time " until the native French were able to replace them. But years passed, and the number of immigrants was not decreasing as expected. Instead, the country was flooded with new waves of immigrants... not always legal....

Some surprising facts about migration.

In India, 100,000 skilled technology workers are expected to leave in the
next three years. Since it costs India about $20,000 per student to educate
these individuals,India essentially will subsidize the rest of the world for $2 billion worth of technology education.



Did you know that Somalia receives an estimated $500 million a year in
money sent home from abroad? It is four times more than the income from the
main export...

IN the world 30 million people are forced to move within their own
countries..



Consequences of migration.

Migration like any other process shapes many fields of life, having both
advantages and disadvantages.
I think that consequences of migrations are changes in population
distribution.. Very important are demographic consequences. Since
migration
is selective of particular age groups, migrants are mostly young and in
productive age. It is not possible to forget about economic results of
migration, which are of the greatest importance for the development of the
countries. In my opinion migration has had a significant effect on world
geography.
For example it has influence on the evolution and development of
separate cultures, or it has influence on the complex mix of people and
cultures found in different regions of the world today. Can you present
other migration effect on world geography?

How has globalization made migration a more controversial issue?

Dr. Papademetriou, President of the Migration Policy Institute answer is:



What do you think about that?

Recapitulation.

Equal legally as well as illegally people always will migrate. I think
that migration is good from economic and social point of view..
Thanks for reading my presentation. - Michał

Migrations Part Three: Immigrates.

Despite it's rich historical past in multi-cultural tradition, Poland is
a territory inhabited nearly 100% by Poles.
Since 1989, Poland has been open to immigrates. The most immigrates came from Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia and Armenia. Fewer immigrates came from EU or East Europe.



This year the total number of migrants was something about 320.000 people. Do you think it is a huge number?

Immigrates in the past.

From 1945 until the late 1980s population movements to, and from
Poland were most controlled by the government. In 1980s people saw the revitalization of international migration.
Since 1989 regulation concerning international movements of people
have been modified, extended and made less arbitrary and the present laws are liberal and in accordance with major international conventions.
The opening up of borders and restoration of the free travel and the
free creation of the business and employment opportunities in Poland were of
main importance in the transformation of migration trends in the 1990s.

Why do migrants want to live in Poland?

In the last few years Poland became very popular among foreigners. I think it is a perfectly normal and beautiful country, with a rich tradition of culture, arts, music, and great cuisine.
Poland also has one of the fastest growing economies in Europe. Especially low labour costs and dynamic foreign trade exchange make Poland very competitive among other locations.



Poland's landscapes offer wild and pristine nature, from the alpine mountains and crystal-clear lakes to majestic high cliffs and sweeping sand beaches.



Also Polish universities offer lots of choices for students. Foreigners appreciate high-quality education, hundreds of years of tradition in research, the presence of outstanding scientists, a friendly and open society, and a comparatively low cost of living. Have you any other ideas why migrants want to live in our country?

What do immigrates do in Poland?

In my opinion to find a job in Poland is not easy... To obtain a working visa employer, ONE must send to potential employees "invitation to work", the official and certified in the form of local government employment. This is an invitation to a special law on seasonal work permits to legally work within 6 months.
Then, if the employer is satisfied it is possible he will design "work permit". Would you agree with me that TO find work in Poland is not easy?



Many immigrants don't search for a job ,they start their own business. For example Vietnamese in Poland work as bar owners, engaged in national marketing and textile trade, run dozens of stands and shops with various goods and restaurants with traditional food, hair salons and even a travel agency that organizes trips to their home country. I know that Vietnamese doctors, translators, lawyers and professionals exist as well.

The problem of bullying - Part 1

What is bullying?

Bullying is a common feature of everyday life. It can be observed at schools, in the workplace, in the home, in the sports field or in the playground. Mainly, in all the places where people interact with other people.

By definition, bullying is the wilful, conscious desire to hurt another person and put them under considerable stress by inflicting physical, psychological or emotional injury or discomfort. Such behaviour is most common among students.



Who are bullies? Why do they exist?

Bullies typically are aggressors whose physical or psychological power surpasses that of the bullied person. The bully may be tougher, bigger or capable of excluding the weaker person from a social group. Bullies are known to seek emotional and physical superiority through intimidation of their victims. Bullying behaviour stems from complexes or weaknesses that bullies themselves possess.

Aggression of this kind may also result from physical punishment used by parents who in so doing teach their children to react physically to every problem that they cannot handle. Bullies usually satisfy their needs to be in control. They enjoy upsetting other people or taking revenge on them, which they consider to be a compensation for their own faults and imperfections.



How do bullies treat other people?

Patterns of bullying do not differ much in many places. The most common forms of bullying are: physical and psychological (verbal).

Physical bullies build up their self-esteem by dominating other people physically. Hitting, kicking, punching, damaging or stealing the victim’s property constitute typical examples.

Psychological (verbal) bullies call their victims names, insult them, make racist comments, tease or threaten them. Psychological bullying may also take the form of spreading offensive rumours, convincing peers to reject somebody’s friendship, ridiculing or stalking them.

Discussion proposals:

1. Is there a bullying problem in your environment? What forms does it take?
2. Is anything being done to prevent bullying in your environment?
3. What steps would you advise to take to combat bullying? Suggest a plan of action.

Global Warming - a myth? Part III

In this part I'd like to discuss a costs of fighting global warming, both economical and social.
Fighting global warming means lowering carbon dioxide emissions so I will give you few examples:

Biofuels and other alternative energy sources
Biofuels are one of the ecological fuels proposed by environmentalists as their CO2 emission is lower, however there is a cost, and is not only higher cost of petrol for cars and trucks which means higher cost of everything in the economy but also higher prices of food as farmers sells their products for biofuels for higher price. While this might not be a big problem for average citizen of EU or US, poor people might have troubles and it might be even more problematic in Africa where hunger has already caused many deaths. In case of other energy sources such as wind or solar energy their efficiency at the moment is very low and using them will increase energy prices which will have impact on entire economy.

Birth control
Some environmentalist have suggested creating restrictive birth control systems like the one in China in order to lower world population as every man causes carbon dioxide emissions so the lower population the lower emissions. I don't want to think what might be the next step in this 'crusade'.

Economy
Have you wondered why businesses don't oppose global warming movement?
I think person who can give an answer is Robert Gwiazdowski - economist from Adam Smith Centre in Warsaw, here is a video interview with him (unfortunately in Polish) :




In short rich western corporations can make their competition from the poorer countries go bankrupt by imposing CO2 taxes\limits which only rich corporations can afford as they can move their CO2-heavy production abroad.

Questions

What do you think about economical aspect of global warming?

Do you think Poland should agree on introducing CO2 limits and taxes?

Migration Part Two: Polish specialist abroad.

What does exactly "emigration" mean for Poles ?

According to data from polish Department of Work and Social Policy and other similar institutions in European Union countries it is estimated that annual departure from Poland to other countries counts for about 800 thousand people. It is hideous number, which year in, year out will be rising...



Statistics show that 70% of Poles abroad are graduates and, they currently take unskilled jobs, it is inconceivable that this highly skilled class of immigrants will not ascend into the ranks of the skilled workforce or they will not take highly payable jobs. So, why do they emigrate? For work in "wash clout's"?

Why do Polish IT specialist emigrate now?

Why is it that so many people want do go abroad? I think that they want to earn more money, improve their family life, hope to increase payments.



However, I think that if someone was able to find a good job abroad he/she would not find a similar job in Poland. Would you agree with me? Many of young people emigrate because they want to travel, visit foreign countries and meet foreign culture... They want to taste a little bit of this great world. Do u know what i mean? I'm not right?


How we look abroad, and where we live?

Sometimes we look awful, many of Poles, who are going abroad are not very cultural . Many of people think we only drink, steal their cars and taki their jobs. I think it is very unpleasant . Because it isn't true. i mean they evaluate us very generally , many of us are polite and nice, and want to honestly earn money.



Where do we live? I think that Usually we live in big cities. rather than villages. Because we have biggest capabilities to find a good job. What do you think about that?

Consequences of emigration Polish specialist.


I think that emigration has negatives results. It destroys families, problems with children left at home. It has too bad influence on Polish development because specialists go were bigger salaries are... If young, well-educated people go abroad there won`t be anybody to change our country.



What do you think about that? I understand that sometimes it`s better to go abroad to "fulfill their American Dream", especially, if he/she has no money or any chance for a decent life. But, I don`t approve people who say for example "it`s the USA/UK (or something else) is the best place to live", especially if they don`t care about money, because their parents will pay for everything...

Global Warming - a myth? Part II

Recently hacker has broken into Climate Research Unit - leading climate research institution in United Kingdom and revealed emails between scientists in this institute, their authenticity has been confirmed by institute. You can view original emails at this address:

http://www.eastangliaemails.com/

There is a lot of emails and it's hard to see them all but here are examples which I found on internet:

Source : http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100017393/climategate-the-final-nail-in-the-coffin-of-anthropogenic-global-warming/

(original text)

Manipulation of evidence:

I’ve just completed Mike’s Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years (ie from 1981 onwards) amd from 1961 for Keith’s to hide the decline.
Private doubts about whether the world really is heating up:
The fact is that we can’t account for the lack of warming at the moment and it is a travesty that we can’t. The CERES data published in the August BAMS 09 supplement on 2008 shows there should be even more warming: but the data are surely wrong. Our observing system is inadequate.

Suppression of evidence:

Can you delete any emails you may have had with Keith re AR4?
Keith will do likewise. He’s not in at the moment – minor family crisis.
Can you also email Gene and get him to do the same? I don’t have his new email address.
We will be getting Caspar to do likewise.

Fantasies of violence against prominent Climate Sceptic scientists:

Next time I see Pat Michaels at a scientific meeting, I’ll be tempted to beat
the crap out of him. Very tempted.

Attempts to disguise the inconvenient truth of the Medieval Warm Period (MWP):

……Phil and I have recently submitted a paper using about a dozen NH records that fit this category, and many of which are available nearly 2K back–I think that trying to adopt a timeframe of 2K, rather than the usual 1K, addresses a good earlier point that Peck made w/ regard to the memo, that it would be nice to try to “contain” the putative “MWP”, even if we don’t yet have a hemispheric mean reconstruction available that far back…. "


However personally I wouldn't blame these scientists, they have to maintain their families so they have to get funding and there is no funding for contesting global warming.

I'd like you to see this movie, it really uncovers many important things, how facts were manipulated, what are a real correlations, how climate science work today and why many scientists support global warming theory.



Questions

What do you think about these leaked emails?

What is your opinion about the global warming now?

Do you think these emails will be a turning point?

Migrations part one: Why some people leave Poland and why other people come to Poland?

Preamble.

The first Question is what does "Emigration" mean?

In wikipedia : Emigration is the act of leaving one's native country or region to settle in another. It is the same as immigration but from the perspective of the country of origin. People who migrate are called migrants, or, more specifically, emigrants, immigrants, or settlers, depending on historical setting, circumstances and perspective.

I thing that is there are many reasons why people might choose to emigrate. Some are for political or economic reasons, or for personal reasons like finding a spouse while visiting another country and emigrating to be with them. Are you agree with me?

A memorial statue in Hanko, Finland, commemorating the thousands of emigrants who left the country to start a new life in the United States

Human migration.

Migrations is is natural Hing, even Animals migrate to have better reason of leaving. Human migration is movement by humans from one district to another, sometimes over long distances or in large groups.
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.

Historical migration of human populations begins with the movement of Homo erectus out of Africa across Eurasia about a million years ago... Homo sapiens appear to have occupied all of Africa about 150,000 years ago, next moved out of Africa 70,000 years ago, and had spread across Australia, Asia and Europe by 40,000 years.

This is the first part of a 4 part video. The topic is the early human migration.

The Age of Exploration and European Colonialism led to an accelerated pace of migration since Early Modern times. In the 16th century perhaps 240,000 Europeans entered American ports. In the 19th century over 50 million people left Europe for the Americas.

In 1914, there were more than 1.5 million Jews in New York city. Did you Know why they migrate to New York?

Industrialization encouraged migration wherever it appeared. The increasingly global economy globalized the labor market. Atlantic slave trade diminished sharply after 1820, which gave rise to self-bound contract labor migration from Europe and Asia to plantations. Also overpopulation, open agricultural frontiers and rising industrial centers attracted voluntary, encouraged and sometimes coerced migration.

Transnational labor migration reached a peak of three million migrants per year in the early twentieth century. Italy, Norway, Ireland and the Quongdong region of China were regions with especially high emigration rates during these years. These large migration flows influenced the process of nation state formation in many ways.
Immigration restrictions have been developed, as well as diaspora cultures and myths that reflect the importance of migration to the foundation of certain nations, like the American melting pot. The transnational labor migration fell to a lower level from 1930s to the 1960s and then rebounded.

A majority of young people surveyed in the Highlands and Islands think it's a safe place to be and a good area in which to raise a family.

Why people migrate?

People have been always emigrating - from one country to another, from a village to a city or from the city to the village. Emigration has many advantages - evidence can be plenty of people who left place where they used to live. However, there are some disadvantages, as well.
At first, we must ask a question: Why do people migrate? Are you thing is answer is simple? On the macro level, the causes of migration can be distilled into two main categories: security dimension of migration (natural disasters, conflicts, threats to individual safety, poor political prospects) named "Push factors" and economic dimension of migration (poor economic situation, poor situation of national market) named "Pull factors". Push and pull factors are usually considered as north and south poles on a magnet.

Major contemporary human migration routes.
Image credit:NPR/Economist, via PAP Blog

Net migration rates for 2008: positive (blue), negative (orange), stable (green), and no data (gray).

Are you know something interesting about migrations? Leave it in comments. :)

Global Warming - a myth? Part I

I'm sure that everyone has heard about global warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions from cars, factories etc. Media are talking all the time about melting ice in the polar regions, sea levels rising, hurricanes and all this is caused by humanity which since industrial evolution has started emitting huge amounts of carbon dioxide into atmosphere.

Environmentalists are demanding immediate action, politicians are making conferences like United Nations climate conference in Copenhagen this week. CO2 limits and taxes are going to be introduced, extremist even propose introducing birth control because more people on earth means more CO2 .

However many scientists are very skeptical about this and despite so called "scientific consensus" they deny this theory, personally I'm convinced by them and in second part of this presentation I will show you why and also show leaked e-mails which in my opinion prove that skeptics are right.

Climate research itself dates back to early XIX century, first theories of man-made global warming have been made in late XIX century however they have been denied as temperature has not risen as these theories predicted. However man made global warming theory has been popularized in the 90's and later by Al Gore and his movie "Inconvenient Truth" after he failed to become US President.

Questions

What is your opinion on the global warming?

Have you heard the voice of skeptics?

Why people travel PART III

Traveling does not have to take place in space, in the strict sense of the word. You can say that traveling can also be a mental process, such that a person watches TV or reads a book and, while the body remains in the same place, the person makes a kind of a journey in his or her mind. Do you personally feel like traveling right now, reading this text ?



Another reason to travel his people’s ambition to see things that others cannot see or reach, where no one else has been before. This is becoming more and more tempting to a lot of people. I would like to go to the lost city of Atlantis. How about you ?



Flights into space have fascinated people for a long time, but only in the sixties of the twentieth century people were able to set their foot on the moon. Since then, flying into space has evolved to the level of tourism for some very wealthy people, who want to experience something new, something, so to say, otherworldly.



Never ending TV interviews with such a lucky person give him a lot of publicity in the media. The person becomes popular, admired and respected, which only increases his vanity. However, in the future, even flights into space will be widely available; the fares will fall and space travel will not be something unattainable.



Then people will look for other places to visit, perhaps places that we do not even dream about? Have you ever heard o about The Space Elevator ? What do you find it ? Maybe we will be able to realize the human dream of traveling in time? When and why would you go if it was possible ?



Currently, travel is becoming increasingly popular. Travel agents are offering better packages, at more affordable prices. In addition, the network of rail and air connections is growing, and knowing how to speak English is like a pass that eliminates language barriers. Thanks to this, travel is becoming easier and cheaper. It is easier and cheaper to organize a trip no matter whether it is domestic or foreign, and therefore the number of passengers is increasing and will continue to increase.



People need to detach from their everyday life, wish to experience a different life for a moment. To try other foods, to live in another climate or to communicate in other languages.



In addition, foreign trips are still associated with affluence and a higher social status. Because of that a lot of people go to the "fashionable" tourist areas of the world, in order to boost their ego, to post pictures of distant places on social networking sites or to show them to friends.



But even if this behavior is perceived negatively, it is important to realize that it is all because of human vanity. Traveling itself is a very positive thing, because it not only contributes to broadening of our knowledge of the world that surrounds us, but it also helps us to understand ourselves.



Have you recently been on a trip ? Do you know any breathtaking places?

Extra points

Go to http://uwb2ms.blogspot.com/
and comment two presentations.

Why people travel PART II

From the Middle Ages to Romanticism, studying in another country was very popular.
Most of the students where men, whose goal was to obtain knowledge, which could not be obtained in their own country.



They were also expanding their language skills and learning to understand different cultures and customs. Maybe you did so as well ? What are your favorite places, cultures and countries? Why ?



In the end, those men were much better educated and different from those who never traveled and had no idea about what was happening in other places. King Henry Walezy saw a fork for the first time during his stay in Cracow. There he also saw a disposal the first time, which he ordered to mount in the Louvre after his return to France. Travels were also a great inspiration for writers.



Telling stories to simple people about distant lands, incredible creatures or strange rituals, gave the story-tellers a high position on the ladder of social hierarchy. It did not even matter if they spoke the truth. There were not too many people who could travel and check if the story was true. Do you think it works the same way in present times ?



Examples of such unusual journeys can be seen almost in every literature. Starting from the ancient journey of Odysseus to the Baroque Martin Borzymowski travel to Lubeck, and to the contemporary literature, which also has such motifs.



A specific case of travel is vagrancy. Admittedly, it is difficult to treat vagabonds as travelers, because such a lifestyle is often imposed by external circumstances. However, one can not underestimate the enormous number of places and situations in which these people had the opportunity to find themselves and things they had the opportunity to see.



Similar is the case of displaced persons, refugees and exiles, who typically, not of their free will, travel and shape their knowledge about the world. There have been many nostalgic books written on this topic. For example, the Polish Siberians’ book, written in the nineteenth century, dealing with the everyday life in the Far East of Russia, is still quite popular among young people. Hitchhiking may look a little like vagrancy.



But in this case we are dealing with tourism. With a desire for adventure and acquiring knowledge about the world at low cost. Such people decide to do it voluntarily, and are not compelled by their individual situation. By the way have you ever hitchhiked ? What were you purposes ?

Why people travel PART I

What is it about travel that makes people tend to pack the most necessary things, say goodbye to family and friends, and go to the place where they have never been before, without being sure that they will safely return? Fate, the desire to know the world, the irresistible temptation for adventure, or willingness to make a profit? Reasons may be different and are always individual, depending on the situation of each of the travelers.

What is the purpose of traveling for you ? However, the fact is that traveling accompanies the man in almost every aspect of life and has done so throughout the entire history of mankind.



What's more, along with the technological development of the world, people travel more and more. We do not even notice in everyday life that we do so. When we get used to this state, we must feel the difference again - so we organize trips to more and more uncommon and unusual places, offering special experiences.



People always were moving from place to place, constantly searching for optimal conditions for living and housing. Already in prehistoric times there were great migrations of nations which led to the spread of people, almost all over the continents.



Those migrations lasted for thousands of years because the divided groups could not find their place on Earth. Some of them still have not found it, and continue to travel through the world, as the nomadic tribes living in the Asian part of Russia. It is difficult to describe the nomadic tribes as "travelers" because the word "travel" refers to modern tourism or holidays. And this is a mistake.



Once distant travel was reserved for those who were affluent and well educated. It required the skills to cope with extraordinary situations or to speak in a foreign language. The organization of a journey used to be very expensive, everything took a lot of time, so traveling was reserved for state dignitaries, and only when it was really needed.



In addition, people with religious missions or criminals expelled from cities moved over the world. It was definitely harder to survive in the harsh conditions for them, but surprisingly they coped with this perfectly. You can read about such cases in some parts of the Bible. In the Middle Ages a custom of making pilgrimages to religious sites, tombs, wonderful paintings and sculptures developed rapidly. The faithful traveled long distances to pray for the intercession of the saints in matters of particular importance.



These events greatly contributed to the development of the infrastructure in the vicinity of places like inns, where travelers could obtain shelter. Travel is also tied with trade. Have you ever been abroad only to bring something for further sale ? Or maybe you visited US in order to purchase a lot cheaper laptop or other electronics ?



Merchants traveled the whole of Europe, Asia, and Africa, where they purchased and sold their goods for a profit. If it wasn’t for travels, Western Europe would never know eastern materials and spices.



This subject is widely discussed in reports from travels to China by Marco Polo. It is also worth mentioning that frequent travels created the foundation for early mail delivery systems. The more people traveled, the more essential it became for people to maintain communication with their own country.



And travel made the distribution of mail possible. Nowadays a parcel can ship to you from any distant part of the world within 48 hours. Have you ever availed from such delivery service ?

SKINHEADS

What is the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about ‘skinhead’ ? Racism? Nazism? Fascism? Hatred and violence ? Unfortunately, these seems to be quite natural nowadays for most of us. Due to so powerful today’s media, people have been already familiarized with such a view.  A fake one.

Writing this entry I’d like to present the real image of a ‘traditional’ skinhead. I’ll describe the origins of the subculture and why it has been so badly understood.

HISTORY

A traditional skinhead finds his origins in so-called mods and rude boys. Mods was the name of a youth subculture in the United Kingdom during late 50s. After the Second World War, the Britain’s economic boom led to an increase of money possessed by young Brits. Some of them spent it mostly on fashionable clothes popularized by American soul groups, British R&B bands and some movie actors. These young people were so noticeable that they started to create a subculture among British society - a subculture called Mods. They were mostly associated with their devotion to fashion, music (ska,  rocksteady) and scooters (mainly Vespa). Mods could be divided into two groups: smooth mods (also known as peacock mods) who were less violent and usually wore the most expensive clothes and hard mods (also known as gang mods) that could be identified by their shorter hair and more British working-class image. Hard mods, because of their short hair, started to be called skinheads about 1968. Another influence on the British youth came from Jamaica. During 60’s many young people who emigrated to the United Kingdom represented another subculture, called rude boys. These were Jamaican hooligans who copied the style of gangsters from 50’s by wearing suits and hats to be more elegant. Both these groups, British mods and Jamaican rude boys, influencing each other formed a new subculture called skinheads  (remember, both white and black races contributed).

THE FUSION

Traditional skinheads inherited from mods a tradition of driving Vespa scooters and elegant, minimalistic way of clothing (Levi’s trousers, polo shirts, checked shirts, Harrington-type jackets). They were also more into ska music and interested in Jamaican reggae further known as skinhead reggae (2 Tone). 

Skinhead reggae:

The most intensive evolution of this subculture is dated for 1969. However, it didn’t last for long as with the hippie youth movement propagated by The Beatles it almost disappeared after two years.

REBIRTH OF SUBCULTURE (SECOND WAVE)

In the mid 70’s the skinhead subculture started to be visible again. It was a natural reaction for a punk subculture which was associated with putridity, dirt and stinkpots. Opposite to that, skinheads represented cleanness, discipline and strong characters. The only thing that 70’s skinheads inherited from the punk subculture was the strong negation of the surrounding reality in the social meaning. They also totally resigned from Jamaican elements replacing them with those from punk rock. The new subculture, named by the British press as punk skins, started to grow mostly among the aggressive pseudo football fans. Many of those who represented the new subculture supported the far right National Front political party which propagated anti-migration racism. National Front members formed groups which were to attack many representatives of ethnic minorities in Great Britain in the late 70’s. These members, having nothing in common with traditional skinheads, started to copy their style (minimalistic clothing, short hair) which soon led to unfair and wrong identification of both as one and the same by the British press. The second wave of a skinhead subculture was not a pure British phenomenon. It has been associated mainly with nazi-racist ideologies and was propagated by neo-fascist political parties in America, Germany and France.

Sadly, neo-nazists do not have so simple lives:

THE THIRD WAVE

'IF YOU ARE A RACIST YOU CAN’T BE A SKINHEAD!'

Along with the existing racist form of skinheads in 80’s and 90’s the new, third wave (known also as third wave ska) started to appear. Fortunately, most of the third wave groups referred to origins of the primary skinhead subculture. We can observe many new variants of this subculture, making an opposition to neo-nazists, for example such groups like SHARP (Skinheads Against Racist Prejudice) in New York, Anti-Racist Action in England or Red and Anarchist Skinheads (RASH). All of them wanted to change the image and general opinion on the whole subculture.

SUMMARY

Skinhead subculture exists almost in every European country (mainly in Russia and Germany) as well as in Japan, Brazil, USA and Canada. Nowadays the skinhead subculture takes all possible forms, from nationalist, neo-nazi-fascist, totally apolitical (Oi!), those referring to the origins of the ska music, to far left.

We have to remember that talking about real skinheads we should also take Afro-Americans into consideration. Let’s just take a look at one of the most famous and influential ska bands in the history – The Specials or Mr. Symarip:

The Specilas – Gangsters

The Specials – Skinhead Moonstomp

Mr Symarip – Skinheads Dem a Come

At the end, I’d like to recommend two movies for those who were interested by the subject:

‘This is England’ - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Is_England

‘Skinhead attitude’ – a documentary available on youtube in 9 parts starting here (it is in polish but the best quality version on YT)

 

What do you think about this subculture ? Has your opinion changed ? Do you find any sense in creating any subculture ?

Extra points

Recommend a film/book/play/show you have seen/read recently. Give a link to it.
Even if you have seen something and you have not too good opinion of it, present it here please:)

By the way, there is a very interesting presentation on blog2:)

If you want to take photos...

This time I’ll write about something more practical ;) What do you need if you want to make photos by yourself?

First of all you have to choose the camera that will best suit your needs. It’s important to define your needs before buying anything. It’s important not only because of costs, but also because of comfort of usage.
Like I wrote in my previous post, there are two main types of cameras: smart(compact) and SLR.

Smart camera is usually called point and shot (P&S). That means you have only to point the camera and trip the shutter. All necessary calculations are made automatically. Once this type cameras had fixed lens, fixed aperture and fixed shutter speed, and they of course used a film. Today’s P&S cameras can do a lot more- they have variable aperture and shutter speed and sometimes simple zoom lens (optical zoom, don’t mix up with digital zoom). They have also automatic focus and preset controls for taking pictures of landscapes or at night. They’re usually digital, but some still are film cameras (for example one time use cameras). Notice that in this type of camera if it doesn’t have ttl (through the lens) viewfinder, you don’t see exactly what you capture on film – it’s because of the parallax phenomenon and the construction of a viewfinder.




P&S cameras are usually small and fit into a pocket. They are best used for casual picture taking where capturing the memory is most important.

But P&S cameras can be also a good choice for more demanding photographers. If you don’t have a lot of money and you are a beginner, you can choose advanced p&s camera model. Also if you are a professional, it’s sometimes necessary to have a smaller camera which you can take everywhere.



SLR, as you already know, stands for single lens reflex. DSLR stands for digital single lens reflex. This types of camera use a semi-automatic moving mirror system which permits the photographer to see exactly what will be captured on the photo (in ttl mode or with pentaprism located over the mirror and in front of the viewfinder) . The most important feature is that they have interchangeable lenses and provide full control of shutter speed, aperture, focus and focus point. However most of these cameras can act in a fully automatic mode just like a P&S. They also support add-on flashes.



These cameras allow for great control over the photography process and allow the photographer to take images not always possible with a P&S. They usually differ from each other with matrix size and type, speed of mirror rising mechanism, software and processor.

When buying an SLR or DSLR camera you always get body and lenses separately. Lenses are more important than body, so if you have limited budget, it’s better to spend more on lenses. Note that if you change the body, you won’t have to buy new lenses.



Like you already know, lenses differ from each other with focal length and with aperture values. The lower bottom aperture value lens has, the more it’s expensive. They can also have additional features, like stabilizer. Most photographers carry at least two lenses. A good range of lenses to carry for general-purpose photography is a 28-80mm lens and a 70-300mm lens.

Body with lens or camera with built-in lens is all you need to make photo. But there is a lot of additional equipment available. Are these things really useful? Yes, sometimes they’re essential. Which of them should you have? The short answer is it depends on where you are going and what pictures you want to take. However, there are some basic items you can take to cover most situations.

Filters – first of all they protect your lens from scratches (it’s always cheaper to change a filter than a lens), but they can also reduce bad effects from uv light, filter out polarized light, correct colors, add some special effects to the image, and more.



Tripod- it’s used for both still and motion photography to prevent camera movement. It is necessary when shutter speed is slow, or when telephoto lens is used. It is also helpful in achieving precise framing of the image, or when more than one image is being made of the same scene.



Flash- most cameras have a built in flash but those flashes are limited in power. A major purpose of a flash is to illuminate a dark scene. Other uses are capturing quickly moving objects or changing the quality of light.



Additional battery pack- very useful when you don’t have the opportunity to charge batteries for a longer time.

Camera bag- it holds camera, lenses, flash, memory cards, and other accessories. The bag helps protect the equipment from breakage, rain, and even quickly fluctuating temperatures.




Last important matter to think of is choosing between SLR and DSLR. DSLR is surely more comfortable, but SLR is...hmm... more sophisticated? ;) Digital images can be processed in computer programs (most popular is Photoshop), but still it will be only a simulation of effects that you can get when developing the film.

Well, that’s all for this week :)

What camera and what equipment do you have, if any? Do you put your photos in internet galleries? Do you think it’s necessary to know a lot about photography to make good photos?