Sounds Cursi! but did any one ask you about.....

LOVE?

            If I would describe a person who is in love, I would think of someone who is willing to give emotionally all of the intensity of their feelings to someone else. It is hard to define a complex feeling such as Love, my mother says you have to experience it in order to really understand the components of it. There is nothing specific or sure about love, there are many uncertainties about this feeling. However, there is something true and certain about love; it is a sentiment of both positive and negative aspects, a profound sentiment which can be beyond human control but at the same time it is a law under which many human hearts live. Furthermore, there are different types of love: The type of love we feel because we are use to experiencing, the love and affection to a person we admire or simply the passionate love which accelerates the beeps of our lives and is often called “Romantic Love.”

            My family raised me with many morals and traditions gathered from my Latin culture. They based our family’s relationship on the love and affection we demonstrate to each other. The type of love we feel because we are used to feeling it or to have it can be identify as the maternal love, and the love towards some family members. In my opinion, as human beings we are characterized to give back what we received, and as a fact when you are raised in a family which tend to give you and show you affection from since the stages of your early childhood you react to that demonstration of love by giving back to your loved ones the affection they had once offered you. From my personal perspective I would described my relationship with my parents as one of those relationships in which you feel that more than an attachment with my parents I love them with gratitude and the comfort of receiving affection from them makes me want to thank them and give them back the same amount of love. As a result, this type of love that we are used to can be built in our lives since we are born and it also develops in our hearts because is the way we are raised.

            The type of love and affection we tend to show to a person we admire is a very fragile type of love. In my opinion, this type of love refers to the respect, encouragement and motivation we obtain from the person we admire. If I would describe a situation in which we experience this type of love I would mention about people who become dependable on someone else emotionally and feel that because of they admire the characteristics of that particular person. For example, my younger sister says she loves me because she admires the way I strive for what I want in life and the way I teach her with my examples the morals about life. This encourages my sister to have a motivation to be emotionally balanced in her life and perhaps even to stick to her own goals which will satisfy her as an individual. Also, this type of love is very fragile because we are always expecting that person we admire to be the way we formulate them in our minds. Therefore in a negative aspect of this kind of love we can result in having disappointments when things don’t work the way they were expected to.

            “Romantic Love” is that one you have to experience it to know what it means. I would say it is the trickiest one of all kinds of love, it could be insensible, unfair, and painful but it could also be the most wonderful thing that a human being can experience. William Shakespeare has depicted in Romeo and Juliet the diversity of love because it presents it as a pure and honest sentiment which makes a couple to feel capable of breaking all kinds of barriers in order to fulfill the love they feel for each other. However, in this particular type of love both persons involved in the relationship have to share and feel mutually love in order for it to result. Love in a couple’s relationship can have the best positive outcome specially when there is communication and respect towards each other, it relates to the love in which we admire someone because it is also fragile and might result into unbalancing an individual’s emotional stage. This type of love has a negative aspect because it could be confused with obsession in which we attach ourselves to the other person and become dependable and somewhat addicted to them. However, in terms of strong sentiment this love enhances our personalities with a passion capable of giving human beings the advantage of happiness.

            In conclusion, Love is uncertain, it could be the best thing to happen to us but it could also marked our lives with negative emotional consequences. These types of love ; the one we feel because we are used to, the one we feel because of an admiration towards the person or simply the passionate and romantic love composes the emotional aspect of every human being. Someone once said “Is better to have had love and lost it than to not have love at all”, now I say that not everybody shares similar definitions about love because the beauty of it is that it can be complex and at the same time transformed by the different sentiments of our human characters.

A Blockade for the achievement of the Millenium Development Goals

If it is already difficult to develop goals combating the problematic scenarios internationally, imaging adding how crime affects the Millenium goals.

Crime and the 8 Millennium Development Goals

1 Eradicating Extreme Poverty and Hunger

Crime by its definition cannot be considered any other but an obstacle for the achievement of the total eradication of poverty and hunger in countries around the world. By looking at the Millennium goals report, this very first goal is being redrawn in many areas of the world, Particularly, illustrating the Sub-Saharan African countries which have increased in the income of those who sustained themselves with less than a dollar a day.

Given this fact is evident to link crime as an obstacle and a negative influence on the achievement of the complete eradication of poverty and hunger. For instance, in low income countries where actions of corruption may obstruct the aid provided to the poor people of that region, the aid may not be distributed to the poor people instead crimes of corruption facilitate for some offenders to take benefit and sell the medicine directed to those poor areas for illicit purposes. In a different aspect, people in poor regions like in the sub-Saharan countries understand that the eradication of poverty and hunger is the first step to help minimize crime. Achieving such a complex goal would decrease transnational and domestic crime because more people would have employment opportunity and a better condition of life. For example, a female that engages in human trafficking in a very poor area of Latin America, she may avoid the opportunity of the crime if decent employment is available to better her social condition, if the goal is reached. If criminologists were to conduct a collection of data when linking crime with the eradication of poverty and hunger, it would be better to conduct a victimization survey as a source of data. Mainly because those who are victims of crime are the people in most need, they can express desperation and inform how poverty leads to crime.

2 Achieve Universal Primary Education

Progress in providing Education for all children of the regions of the world is crucial in the prevention of crime. As specify in the millennium goals report, the “children most likely to drop out of school or to not attend at all are those from poorer households or living in rural areas”. (pg11,2007,UN). Also, those are the children who may end up in domestic crimes such as street gangs and delinquency groups. As a result of the lack of education, this can very well be a factor that may obstruct the achievement of providing primary education unless domestic crime is combated, since children may engage in illicit activities and not be interested in being educated. Without education what is being promoted is delinquency, this affects directly the achievement of this goal because it increases the opportunity for crime. Therefore, if such an important goal is achieved if would target negatively the increment of crime and the a generation of future criminal who without education would not have any sense of moral or right or wrong. The report asserts in emphasizing the importance and the need for primary education where crime is very high. Criminologist should thereby conduct for a better source of data research among juveniles in areas where not many attend schools.

3 Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women

Although a very difficult goal to achieve because of the different cultural values it has shown progress according to the report. Crime, particularly domestic crime can be linked directly in affecting the promotion of this goal. For instance, crimes of domestic violence may diminish and kill or even input fear in many women around the world, these types of crime affect the ideal promotion of equality between genders if it gets very common specially because the victims are afraid to talk or even face societies. Thereby, by achieving this goal the development of women and a balance in societies may be perceived, this factor would help to decrease domestic crime such as domestic violence and promote the growth between families. As criminologists to obtain sources of data for such crimes is very difficult and it would help to carry out surveys since victims are too afraid to report crimes of domestic violence.

4 Reduce Child Mortality

According to the report many children died before they reached 5 years old from causes that can be prevented. Poverty is very much a cause of this, since resources are very scarce where this occurs the most. A crime that may affect the achievement of this goal are drug trafficking, in a very broad manner. A pregnant women engage in the use of illicit drugs may increase the risk for the baby. This crime affects negatively the implementation of this goal, therefore drug trafficking needs to be stopped because is a very broad crime that affects in many ways the achievement of this goal. By the promotion of child mortality a mother is most likely to engage in the life of her baby with a better health and less likely to expose to the use of drugs this is how this goal would be a positive asset for the elimination of crimes with the use o illegal drugs.

5 Improve Maternal Health

Reducing the maternal deaths can avoid crime in a very specific way. A mother who is there for her child throughout the moment he or she is born and his/her childhood, would contribute for that child to experience his mother’s maternal cares, minimizing like this crimes of post partum pregnancy, in which some mothers lose their minds and if not treated their emotional malfunction leads them to commit homicide crimes , killing her babies after they are born. These acts happen often in countries where pregnant women are unhealthy and live under very diminishing conditions. If this goal is achieved more healthy household may be promoted in poor countries were crimes domestically are very common.

6 Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria & other diseases

The report is very explicit about the use of injecting drugs as a main source of spreading out HIV and AIDS. Also, the spread of the disease through sex workers directly linked with crimes of human trafficking these are the types of crimes which affect the achievement of this goal. Thereby, making it very difficult to achieve and have success in combating other diseases. Therefore, by achieving this goal we would also be achieving and combating crimes of the use of drugs and the spread of AIDS through those actions, also, human trafficking and the spread of sex workers. We would be accomplishing two goals at once by succeeding in such a goal.

7 Ensure Environmental Sustainability

In this case is very difficult to find a relation between the conservation of the environment and crime in general. What indeed has an effect in preserving the environment is that the laws promoted in countries in order to preserve the biodiversity, the growth of the forests ecosystems, and emissions of greenhouse gases or even the disposal of toxics dumped ocean waters have to be followed and enforced by the governments of countries where these are occurring. Achieving this goal in protecting the environmental sustainability increases in general a better standard of regulating crimes against the environment.

8 Develop a global partnership for development.

Although the development of a partnership for growth would benefit those countries in need I would link it with crime in the sense that Transnational crime can be infiltrated in activities of such a partnership. For instance, money laundering. Money laundering is a crime of opportunity, thereby, if corrupted officials are given certain funds through a partnership in order to provide aid to a series of countries in need, this may lead for money laundering to take place instead of benefiting the country in need. It would be serving as a tool for corruption, specially because there is a lot of politics involve in such a global partnership. This may be a way in which the goal can be affected. On the other hand if this goal is accomplished it would need to develop an extensive monitoring system which can also serve to track down hose officials who use the funds of the partnership for illicit purposes.

Title: Building Memories as a Teenager

Being a teenage immigrant and embarking in a strange land can certainly leave footprints in your life. As I have grown older...Now I can say after finding this written passage by me, I understand more the teenage life in the US and why so many smart adolescent may hesitate to give their all in school and activities. The adolescent mind can be so vulnerable and that stage of our lives is when we may end up falling down the drain...is sad when I see that now a days everyone is  a parent, perhaps wanting to fit in is not good after all, neither as a teenager or in adulthood.

                             Title: Building Memories as a Teenager

            At the age of 13 a drastic change occurred in my life. I came to the United States with my family from the Dominican Republic leaving behind friends, customs and my whole childhood. As I am writing, I am reflecting back to the moments when I first felt like a stranger in a strange land. I didn’t know the English language and starting high school in this new environment was more difficult for me then what I could ever imagine. I just remembered my first day in high school. It was pretty embarrassing for me; my father took me to school. Everybody all those strange faces looked at me like if I was some type of alien arriving at this school. I was not aware of what I was getting myself into. I guess back then I had a sense of what being speechless was really like.

            Luckily I found a friend in this new place, she helped me to adapt to the new way of taking classes and how bizarre I felt that I had to move from room to room instead of the teachers moving like it was in my former school in Dominican Republic. In addition, I was seeing the behavior of some students as idiotic and something that in my country will be consider some kind of retardation characteristic.  But my friend quickly informed me that it was just the way boys acted to call for attention and that the girls’ way of dressing was just a way of being attractive to them (I thought they dressed too scandalous for my taste). I remember a girl called Monica, she was my age perhaps some

Months older but she looked like she could’ve been my mother. She used to dress always showing her belly piercing as a sign of pride and she manage to go around the lunch room telling every table stories about her life in which I would seem the only one to not believe a word of her lies. Those were my first days in high school seeing how my classmates behaved which was typically normal in the most strange kind of way or just contemplating the attitudes of females’ my age like if they were grown woman with plenty of experiences about life issues.

            In my country I was very happy; I remember probably feeling some type of resentment against my parents. I turned to copy some of the rebellious attitudes I saw in school and turned it against my family, it took me a bad experience in order to realize how wrong I was acting and how my parents who worked almost 16 hours a day were sacrificing for me and for a better future, since in my country opportunities are scarce. I didn’t understand the so called “American Dream”. I just remembered coming home after school and not speaking a word to my parents, even when they asked me “How was your day?” I thought: “How dare they say? How was your day?!!, Is that all they can say after for me my whole life is ruined”. Now I realize how exaggerated a teenager can be. Therefore, I took some action and I thought that if I could play my silent game at school I was going to do the same at home. I’m still not clear about why I had desires of revenge against my parent, like if moving to this country was the worst thing they could had done to me. However, now is time for me to thank them about giving me the best chance of my life, the chance of getting a good education.

            My second year in high school was not so bad except when I encountered to the reality of my friend moving to Pennsylvania. At that particular time I was depressed thinking that I was going to be alone again in a place where I didn’t want to be. On the other hand, it was the opposite of what I thought, after having a woman to woman talk with my grandmother (a person who I admire very much), I began to adapt myself , to like the classes, and the environment at school which after all was part of my reality. Furthermore, I became involve in theater at the end of my sophomore year in high school and I was very impressed at myself because I started to improve my vocabulary and was able to write a complete whole sentence and attach them to a paragraph. As a result I was maturing, being more interested in the goals I created for me and taking any advantage of tutoring or any preparation that would help me to better my English so that I could balance myself with the individuals of my school.

            Dominican Republic who wished to have the chances I have of learning, having a family and a place to sleep, I started to be more aware and take values for what I had. Therefore, I became to take advantage of what I was taught in school and used it in many ways to help in my community, which I finally became accepting as part of my life.

The day I graduated from high school with honors and as the valedictorian I knew that my effort was worth it and that coming to the United States was not the end of the world instead it was the beginning of a new life for me in which I keep trying to encourage minority students like me to make the best of themselves and to work hard, after all that’s the way we can succeed in life as individuals who have beliefs and dreams. Remembering my days in my country just inspires me to maintain my values and customs wherever I go no matter how drastic the change might be. I will never forget my teenage years and different attitudes when I first started high school it is part of who I am today.

Un Presente con Esperanza, Un futuro reinventado: La Realidad de la Delincuencia Juvenil

            “Adquirir desde jóvenes tales o cuales hábitos no tiene poca importancia: tiene una importancia absoluta.”

Aristóteles (384 AC-322 AC) Filósofo griego

  “Una sociedad que aísla a sus jóvenes, corta sus amarras: está condenada a desangrarse.”

Kofi Annan

Los jóvenes de hoy en día tenemos la oportunidad de una gran diversidad de opciones para trazarnos metas y enardecer nuestro futuro. Hemos tal vez escuchado muchas veces de nuestros abuelos la tan renombrada frase “pórtate bien para que los reyes te dejen en enero”, quizás hasta como una motivación inocente a proveer para nuestras familias y hacer el bien. La realidad es que dichas opciones y posibilidades de un mejor futuro pasan desapercibidas para algunos, y para otros no, pero están siempre allí y las tenemos en frente. Es importante definir que los caminos que conducen a la delincuencia juvenil y causan las mismas, son los malos hábitos que olvidamos adquirir al crecer o que simplemente; aquellos que optaron por las espinas de la delincuencia y la violencia carecieron de los factores más importantes en nuestro desarrollo personal, el cariño saludable y el hábito de una familia. Gracias a la globalización el mundo entero percibe con la gran veracidad que la delincuencia juvenil toma lugar, y nuestro país ha sido testigo del fenómeno que la delincuencia se ha convertido en nuestra sociedad. Como joven dominicana y con el corazón en la mano les exhorto a que analicemos las causas, que evaluemos los casos y entendamos el compromiso que tenemos de elaborar esperanzas y destruir actos de delincuencia con la más importante de las armas la educación.

La delincuencia juvenil hoy más que en el pasado sigue presente destrozando con los pies lo que nuestra juventud Dominicana ha logrado construir con nuestras manos, la esperanza a un mejor futuro. La delincuencia juvenil se esparce no solo en nuestro país sino en nuestro mundo marcando territorio con la creación de pandillas, uso indebido de drogas y violencia en nuestras calles. Por ende, la delincuencia juvenil se convierte en una de las acciones socialmente negativas que va a lo contrario fijado por la ley y a las buenas costumbres de  nuestra sociedad o las  creadas por “esos abuelos que nos aconsejan hacer el bien”. Muchos jóvenes involucrados en estos actos violentos y de delincuencia argumentan que la vida no les dio muchas opciones, a causa de una niñez difícil, o carencia de las cosas básicas que el ser humano necesita para vivir. Si esta es la realidad de nuestro mundo, allí es donde nuestras autoridades entran en vigor, a la disuasión de actos violentos y a la fomentación de hábitos que tracen caminos hacia la esperanza de una vida mejor.

          Recordemos con admiración la frase del profesor Juan Bosch “El destino de cada uno está en la educación que se le haya dado. Para que su conducta sea buena, el hombre tiene que ser educado.” Es la mejor manera de interpretar una realidad social, mayormente vemos que la delincuencia juvenil no es más que una deviación de conducta hacia acciones negativas puesto a la ignorancia e inhabilidad de involucrarse en actividades que proveen para sus conocimientos. No es de sabios la creencia que tu clase social define tu personalidad ni las acciones que proyectas como joven, es simplemente lo que optamos elegir y el desinterés por aprender a educarnos. En Republica Dominicana también hemos percibido muchos cambios positivos gracias a diferentes actividades elaboradas por nuestro gobierno que incorporan a jóvenes de toda clase social, y transmite esperanza en cada rincón del país no importando los bajos recursos. Dada la evidencia de los cambios que hemos logrado como país al presentar más oportunidades para nuestra juventud es lo que nos inspira a que la delincuencia juvenil puede ser erradicada y la esperanza de nuestros jóvenes predominara.

            En el año 1995 los gobiernos se comprometieron ante las Naciones Unidas en la resolución (A/RES/50/81) Delincuencia juvenil, de EL Programa de Acción Mundial para los jóvenes, en la cual se elaboro las medidas preventivas en contra de la violencia, y el delito y servicios y programas de rehabilitación para la juventud. La mismas medidas preventivas desarrolladas en esta resolución son aquellas que debemos conservar hoy en día tomando en cuanto los cambios tecnológicos y el impacto de la globalización en nuestra juventud actual. Es importante destacar que en el presente observamos características muy similares de la delincuencia juvenil que la que tomaban lugar en el pasado en nuestros países. A pesar de los cambios logrados por nuestros gobiernos con la ayuda de iniciativas educativas, la familia sigue siendo la institución primaria de socialización para nosotros como jóvenes, he allí donde yace el empeño de crear hábitos que nos conduzcan a futuros esperanzadores y de contribución positiva para nuestras sociedades.

         El uso indebido de las drogas y la violencia conllevan a actos repugnantes de delincuencia juvenil. Es por eso que nuestras sociedades toman una perspectiva de exclusión social para la juventud involucrada a la delincuencia lo cual únicamente logra incrementar la existencia de la misma. Nosotros mismos en carácter de jóvenes optamos por desarrollar prototipos y acciones que conllevan al rechazo, lo cual hace que optemos por los caminos que conducen a la violencia y la rebeldía ante los reglamentos y prototipos que crean la delincuencia. Entonces somos nuestras propias víctimas por perseguir y juzgar las acciones de otros jóvenes sin reconocer que se nos pasa desapercibida nuestras propias acciones y tal vez para muchos en delincuencia tiran a la borda sus propias vidas. Es importante que como sociedad juvenil nos involucremos en las leyes y decisiones que pueden marcar nuestro desarrollo personal. La mejor forma de lograr evadir actos de delincuencia es con el arma de la educación ante nuestras manos. El problema de la delincuencia juvenil se refleja en el futuro de las generaciones venideras, y la preocupación por la infancia del delincuente de hoy es la misma que tendremos para el delincuente de mañana.

            Para disuadir los actos de delincuencia juvenil por lo general se tornan a la idea de la rehabilitación como oportunidad para los jóvenes y no la opción del castigo preventivo. Como joven dominicana entiendo que la oportunidad a la rehabilitación y a un camino de educación y rehabilitación absorbería y adaptaría al joven delincuente a como encajar mejor en la sociedad. No obstante optar por el castigo de la prisión como método de disuasión engrandece la misma atmosfera de delincuencia y disminuye la esperanza de salir del hueco para muchos jóvenes que se ven involucrados en estos actos. Como instrumento a combatir la delincuencia juvenil debemos analizar las causas que conllevan a las mismas y el perfil del individuo involucrado en esta.

            Finalmente los esfuerzos de nuestros gobiernos nunca están demás en cuanto a erradicar la delincuencia juvenil, vivimos en tiempos de crisis social y es necesario adoptar medidas que a su vez incrementan las esperanzas de nuestra juventud. Como joven luchadora dominicana creo que el hábito insertado en nuestros hogares y familias es el punto de vulnerabilidad ante la delincuencia juvenil. Es importante destacar que la esperanza de cada uno de nosotros a un futuro sin violencia, sin actos de delincuencia yace en lo que nuestros padres y familiares nos inculcan a desempeñar como niños jóvenes y futuros padres. Lo que sembramos hoy en día como juventud en equipo, será lo que nuestra juventud del mañana cosechara.