My Life Manifesto

Rafael Ramirez

12.1

May 2, 2014

My Manifesto

I have been at Colegio Panamericano for about 13 years and during this time I really learned a lot of things that are not necessarily academic. Now that I am in my senior year I realize I am about to start a new part of life and all the lessons I learned have made me who I am today. School not only allowed me to learn great lessons but it allowed me to meet amazing people and the best friends I could ever ask for. After all this years in school I realized how lucky of a person I am for being in this school, meeting the friends I met and having all the opportunities I had and will have thanks to this 13 years at Panamericano. Like everything this cycle at Panamericano has to come to an end but I will forever cherish it and look back at it with happiness.

One of my best teachers in my life has been basketball, even though it has been around me for just about 2 and a half years. Before I started playing I was just a kid who barely made friends and who never really achieved anything. This sport I now cherish flipped my lifestyle around and helped me gain many attributes I now use in my everyday life. When I started liking basketball I wasn’t sure if I should try for the team or not, I was a little more chubby than now and didn’t have any confidence at all. With the encouragement from other basketball players and friends like Hernando and Camilo I decided to go ahead and try out for the team.

The first months were really rough and I was just learning the fundamentals and trying to gain physical toughness, the support I got I haven’t received in a long time and everything I did even if it didn’t relate to basketball felt great. I started since the first game I played due to the team’s lack of size and strength; I was pretty good at everything except scoring the basketball… After several months I started to get better at the game but just when everything seemed great and the Medellin Binationals were just 3 months ahead I had a considerable ankle injury. I made it to the tournament but just started two games and generally played in a rusty way, Meanwhile Fabio another friend that at the time was the team’s star was having a great tournament and led our team to the semifinals where we lost in dramatic fashion to Columbus school from Medellin. After the tournament ended we finished fourth and I promised to myself that I wasn’t going to see any other tournament by the bench, that I was going to be the one dominating the court and getting all the recognition for me and my team.

The entire year before the Cartagena Binationals I joined Panteras the other team my Coach Carlos trained and decided to drop some pounds. With Panteras I won one regional championship and went to a national championship were we got 3^rd place. I wasn’t the star at Panteras but I learned that even a small part of a team is essential for the team to work and win, like coach Krzyzewski said “A basketball team is like the five fingers on your hand. If you can get them all together, you have a fist. That's how I want you to play” (Krzyzewski 95). I got my basketball level up and the entire team was enjoying great success we won intercolegiados very easily and just kept aiming for the title in Cartagena. But yet again just 5 months before the tournament we got the news Fabio was going to move to Bogota and he couldn’t be able to play the tournament.

After this terrible news I felt really bad but inside me I knew it was my time to shine. I kept training in both school and Panteras until I reached a great playing level but I was still undervalued by some people on the team and some other friends.

When we got to Cartagena I was a man on a mission my fist game I scored 26 points and totally dominated the game and got us the win. As the tournament kept going I scored 18 or more points in 4 different occasions and just went bellow ten points in one game. I was the star and it felt pretty great but then again reality punched the team in the face and a bad game for two or three players meant our dream was over. This loss really hurt me bad but it made me understand that even if you give 100 percent and all your effort if it is not meant for you it is not meant for you.  My love for this sport is summarized in this quote “The game of basketball has been everything to me. My place of refuge, place I've always gone where I needed comfort and peace. It's been the site of intense pain and the most intense feelings of joy and satisfaction. It's a relationship that has evolved over time, given me the greatest respect and love for the game.” (Jordan 2002)

Playing basketball opened many doors for me and allowed me to meet new people that are now close friends. But my entire school experience doesn’t circle around this sport I love it goes way beyond that.  In school there are teachers that mark us and sometimes even change the way we act, for me that teacher was Ms. Gladys. She taught me that if you try and study you can reach your goals and accomplish almost anything. Ms. Gladys made me change from a C student to a B and A student and she always kept me motivated. In school not only teacher motivate us and teach us in class some assignments can change a person very quickly.

Ms. Sierra gave the assignment that changed me and the perspective I now have of society. This assignment was how the other half-lives, it consisted in taking pictures of how people with less opportunities lived in our city. This assignment really showed us that poverty is very harsh and it doesn’t respect any boundaries. The most important thing about this assignment is it made me realize how fortunate I am and all the opportunities I have to succeed in this world.

When I graduate officially I will go to college and get a degree in business. With this I plan to make my own business and make it successful little by little until it reaches international recognition. The alternate plan I have is dedicating myself to invest in big companies and if I have the chance become the owner of one. This two are my safe alternates that don’t seem very risky but my real dream is to one day work for the a basketball team whether it is as an administrator for the league or the GM of a team I would one day love to be working in something that involves the sport that I love deeply.

My plan to change the world includes giving opportunities to others. If I one day become successful I would love to give people the same chances I had and I would do this by sports. Promoting sports is the key to my plan this would open doors for everyone and while they get this new opportunities the kids would have a great time. I think if everyone had the same opportunities I have they would be very successful and do the same thing by promoting more opportunities for the ones that need them the most. By doing this I would be giving back to the universe because it blessed me with great opportunities and I will also be giving back to basketball because thanks to the sport I learned and achieved things I couldn’t have done without it.

This is what I have lived through this fourteen years in school, it has had good times and bad times but it has been a great experience but like this quote says “Life is like a roller coaster. It has its ups and downs...but it's your choice to either scream or enjoy the ride ” (Unknown). I loved my time here but it is time to move on in life and live new experiences I hope all the people I met had the same great time I had at the school and are able to remain as happy as I met them here. I now start a journey with a different path but if at the end of the road I am a happy man I will know I made the right decision and achieved all my goals. 

Citations 

• Jordan Michael, "Michael Jordan Quote." BrainyQuote. Xplore, n.d. Web. 04 May 2014. <http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/m/michaeljor447194.htm 

• Krzyzewski mike, "Mike Krzyzewski Quote." BrainyQuote. Xplore, n.d. Web. 04 May 2014. <http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/m/mikekrzyze295919.html> 

  • Unknown, Unknown. "Life Is like a Roller Coaster. It Has Its Ups and Downs...but It's Your Choice to Either Scream or Enjoy the Ride. Be Positive." Search Quotes. Search Quotes, n.d. Web. 04 May 2014. <http://www.searchquotes.com>

 

Light Bulb Conspiracy

In this film we learned more about planned obsolecense and how it all started in the 1920s. This concept began when the lightbulb companies joined together to form a cartel and decided to reduce the life time of a lightbulb to make more profit and eventually make a lot of money. This process took about 8 years and the life time decreased from about 2000 hour to 1000. When the american economy failed in 1930 an economist proposed planned obsolesce as a law and he said it should be mandatory, this proposal eventually failed and the economy recovered. In the 1950s another man used this system and it was successful because people were economically successful and the motto was make things for the sake of making it people will buy them even if they don't need them. At the moment the system worked but it wasn't the only one being used, this system became popular and nearly all big and small companies started using it.

This system eventually created a monster called consumerism that now rules our society and most companies products now. Companies took advantage of peoples obsession with buying new things that they usually didn't need. They started making newer products on a more regular basis with barely any change but yet people bought it because they felt out of fashion or tougth there other old products were obsolete. This system created big multinationals that don't have any morals they just care about profit and keeping the customers hooked to their product. The wastes and damages this companies generate often go to third world countries like Ghana. People there are affected by the consumerist society in the other side of the world. the only way to stop this is to abandon this system and adopt a new one more environmentally friendly that makes durable products and helps the environment.

Four horsemen post

The film states that everything in life and specially empires have cycles and the American empire and the corporocracy are bound to collapse because their cycle is already about to finish. If this happened in the next 10 to 40 years it will directly affect us and the future generations but if this happens in the next 50 to 80 years it will mostly affect the future generations. The fall of America and the corporocracy will affect the way we live and the economy of the future.  Right now the economy is not the best but it is acceptable and for most of the people in our class and school their financial future looks great. This could affect us because most people in todays economy think after high school we go to college and then have a garaunteed job and automatic future wealth. This is part of the system we have been living in for our entire lifes and the one that is supposed to be on decline.

The film says this empire is in decline and this is evident because society is in decadence and we can see it in everyday life. This decline is shown in the addiction to sex, obssesion with luxuries and careless acttitude. If this continues our future life will be all about seeking luxuries and obssesion with sex, but out whole lifestyle can change when another empire rises to power. In the story of humanity and all its great empires when these empires fall another power rises and takes over the world. These empires bring new systems and changed the way the world worked and bring a new lyfe style and economy.

Post 2: monetary system in colombia

The money in colombia is controlled by the central bank and its goal is to have enough money, for the entire country including the government. Its other obligationl is that consumers have enough money to make their purchases, companies have enough money to make purchases, pay their obligations and make their investments and that the government has enough money to meet its expenses and make investments. The system works preety much the same as in the US.

The Central Bank in this case only has to keep 8 percent and also has the benefit of injecting money in the system. Besides from that difference the system works virtually the same, the government asks for money and the central bank gives it to them and after that the multiple deposits start happening. This is another Colombian system that was modeled after an american system and this leads to more corruption. The money systems in most countries is corrupt and unless we make drastic changes like Andrew Jackson in 1845 the system wont change at all and corruption will prevail.

Post1: zeitgeist movie

In the zeitgeist movie we saw how the monetary system in America and most of the world.. The movie showed us that in reality money has no existent value and is always created out of debt. The day that everybody could pay all of their debts that day there will not be a single dollar in circulation. The system is very corrupt and is designed to favor the government and hurt regular people. The government uses the system to its advantage and when the need for money comes back they just print more and cause it to devaluate, this is known as inflation. Inflation causes the devaluation of the currency and the things you could buy with a dollar decreases.

The system starts when the government needs money and tells the federal reserve to give them some. The government gives them treasury bonds, then the reserve gives them money that at the time has no real value, then the government puts it in a bank and it becomes part of the banks deposit. After this step the bank has to keep 10 percent of that money and the rest can be used for loans and other purposes. This process can go on forever until the 10 percent is minimal or none. The reason why it is corrupt is because the banks charge high interest and the debt becomes virtually unpayable that is when the corruption starts and never ends because the richer want to get richer and the poor poorer.

Al jazeera post: palestinian president threatens to go to UN

The article I choose to do this posts is about the palestinian-israeli conflict. The artice caught my eye because it was about a conflict we had studied in class and have better understanding of it. the President Mahmoud Abbas signed a request to join some UN councils to promote peace talks.
Abbas seemed very decide and said "this is not a move against America, or any other party - it is our right, and we agreed to suspend it for nine months". This should help avoiding any type of US intervention in possible peace talks.

This is another desperate attempt of the palestinian people and their leaders to peacefully regain the land they owned. AThis struggle has been going on for many years and seems unsurmountable. Al jazeeras correspondant said  "Abbas feels he has no other choice. He is in a difficult position among the Palestinians: The settlements have doubled; home demolitions of Palestinians have doubled - and it is difficult for him to justify the talks without seeing results,". In my opinion this is a good way to try to solve things peacefully and avoid violence at all cost. I think this councils could really help around and eventually have a settlement with both countries and solve the never ending conflict.

MLA CITATION- "Palestinian President Threatens to Go to UN." - Middle East. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Apr. 2014.

Food inc post

the food corporation is a very dominant world were most little farms and companies fail to compete with big multinationals. In the US the system is the design to be cheap so the poor people are the most damaged and unhealthy. This is a clear example of how corporations can design and protect a system to get their benefits and keep people chained tp the system. This system also has aspects that affect race and economy. The system is protected at all cost so it doesnt break and the money keeps on flowing to big monstrous corporations and multinationals.

In todays society race and wealth determine were you are in the social ladder. Most poor people can not eat healthy and unvoluntairly form part of a system they can later not get out of. The system is designed to make the healthy food be more exensive and poor people who are often black, latinos or other minorities wound up cornered by this system in order to save money and live a semi-respectful life. Te only way we can break this system is fi we unite against it and fight it little by little with perseverance. If we can not do this the corporations will soon control most aspects of the economy and society and will have us in the palm of their hands.

Playlist hamlet song 1: Rafael Ramirez and Maria Alejandra Perez

Fix you

 A Coldplay song that was written by all the members of the band for Chris Martin ex girlfriend called, Gwyneth Paltrow when his father died. This can relate to hamlet because when ophelia father (polonius) died she felt very afflicted and was really sad. It got to the point that she was strapped to a restrain shirt and was thought to be insane. Both stories relates in the way that both girls felt the gap of a missing a father. 

The song Fix You says, "When you try your best, but you do not succeed. When you get what you want, but not what you need." This relates with Hamlet because he got what he wanted killing "his uncle" but he did not obtain what he needed because instead he killed Ophelia´s father. 

the song also says "When you lose something you can't replace, When you love someone, but it goes to waste" This also relates to ophelia because she lost her father and that can not be replaced, she also loved hamlet but due to his thirst for revenge he became obsessed with killing his uncle and all the love ophelia had went to waste. This is why we picked this song as part of our playlist and related it to hamlet.

Anger sonnet

Anger is usually a low damper
Its a long scream from a long frustration
And it feels like a brief, fierce mutation
It is a low tramper in your weak head

And fighting rage is a loud struggle
Yet most people just ignore the guggle
The tramper fades and you feel a scamper
Everything you love is now forever gone

Now just accept a new life just began
But you just sit there reminiscing
And everything feels dizzy and fizzy
You were busy and your life was breezy

And yet it wasnt your fault, or was it?
It changed you and you can never go back.

Russia is out of the G8

The G8 is an international organization formed by the eight wealthiest countris around the globe. This elite group is in charge of analyzing and trying to solv global crises on a lower scale than the UN.  Russia was recently expelled from the G8 due to the crimean crisis, to me this builds more tension between Russia and the US. Russias actions are not being approved and they are being expelled or threatened to be expelled by several international organizations, but is this really a good thing?

The G8 is the first international organization to officially expell russia from activity but if this continues more organizations will follow. Russia just legally nationalized 250,000 people from crimea and already declared crimea as theirs. If the organizations keep kicking them out instead of finding a peaceful way Russia wouldnt have to respond to anyone and could cause a war between a lot of countries. Russias actions are far from good but instead of kicking them out organizations shoul try to go with a more diplomatic way and solve this peacufully.

Economic hitman impact

The economic hitman that work for the united states have had a huge impact in our world and in how power is distributed. John Perkins explained how since about 1950s the USA governent started to hire economist to go to developing countries and convince their leaders to invest in american industry and helping their own country to become industrialized. This lead to mass debt from the countries and this secured they would be forever in both moral debt and economic debt to the united states. Perkins said this plan was funded by the government but if plan A did not work they would launch a 3 step plan that would almost always lead to success.

The second plan was only launched if the governor of the country would not invest in america or in industrializing the country. The plan was to send CIA hired assassins to kill the governor and if that did not work military action would be taken to overthrow the ruler. The american nation managed to build an empire without terrenal borders just imaginary .This was the way the plan worked and how the US got so much power and became a modern day empire.

post 2, what are the power privileges

This privileges are the ones we earn even unconsciously in the society we live in today. The best example is in race where white people get the most advantage in most fields, the best example is in job searching where even if two possible employees have the same quality one could get the job just for his "race". This happens because throughout the years white people have violently imposed on many cultures and have created a fake image of superiority. This left an impact that can even be felt today in small things like job searching. We can conclude the fake superiority image white people has had a massive impact on the entire world and is still felt today.

The "race" advantages have been decreasing over the years but even if they are minimised they can still be felt. Even though the perspective on other "races" like black have changed they still go from one extreme to another, in the movie the power of an illusion we see how people think black people are better athletes just for stereotypes and how it is believed white people are smarter and more likely to succeed. This shows that society went from one extreme to another from underestimating to overestimating different kind of "races". We learn that even things that happened many years ago still have an impact on todays society.

Prompt 1, what is race ?

race is defined as a group of people who share the same language, history,characteristics but can race really be defined or is it just a made up human concept to separate us from each other. In the film the power of an illusion we see that the differences from human DNA are 85 percent within the same "race" and not within the other "races". This means that we are barely different from other people and  that the "races" we claim exist are just classifications of people by biological features like skin color, hair color, head shape, etc. This shows us that race does not exist and can't be classified, this proves race was just and invention to have social benefits and live better than others. we can conclude that race is a thing made up by man and it can't be classified other than by biological features.

So why did man create this race system to separate each other ? for power and money off course because there is no other clear reason. In the movie the power of an illusion we see how because blacks were used as slaves they got ill and were weak and the became an abused group of people, white people classified them as black and forever saw them as inferior in most aspects of life. White people took advantage of this and using law in their favor made black people suffer for countless years even until the day of today the impact is felt. This again proves race is just an invention for power and money. We can conclude that Race is unconventional and any use of this old system should be deleted it would also help if we stopped calling race things that are not race so we could spread equality and a fair world.

Hamlet post 2: impact on my life to be or not to be

To be, or not to be: that is the question .This line has an impact in life because it is the doubt that most people have when deciding important things. To be or not to be is a phrase that represents all the fear we are able to feel in life. The line means to be able to do something or to restrain yourself from doing it. This line goes far beyond everything and can be used for any doubt you have in lyour life and lets you see hat it is better to do things you are afraid of than to restrain yourself from doing them because of some kind of fear.

Alternate conflict: conflict in central african republic

This conflict is a very interesting one that most people dont even know exists so i liked to address it and show another conflict that is causiong more than 1000 deaths per year. This conflict started recently so i thought it would be easier to follow and easier to understand. I would also like to talk about why the African continent is constantly absorbed by conflicts and extreme violence, is it natural, european occupations,late indepedence, i would love to discuss it in class and get opinions on the subjet. 

The central african republic conflict began in december 10 2012, The fight is  between the Government and Séléka, a rebel group. The rebels accused the government of  François Bozizé of not following by peace agreements signed in 2007 and 2011. Rebel forces known as Séléka captured many major towns in the country in the end of 2012. Chad, Gabon, Cameroon, Angola, South Africa and Republic of Congo sent troops as help to the government to hold back a potential rebel advance on the capital, Bangui. However the capital was taken by the rebels on 24 March 2013 at which time François Bozizé fled the country and the rebel leader Michel Djotodia declared himself president.

Lemon tree analysis and toughts

I really liked the lemon tree movie because it showed many aspects that we ignore from the palestinians-israeli conflict. One part i really liked was when in the movie the media shows fake interests for zalma and her trees but after the trial happens the same attention vanishes and leave salma all alone. The movie also allowed us to see the reality of palestine that is a sexist muslim "country" and how israel is the total opposite and is a westernized city with very open minds.

In this film we see how small "victories" like salma "winning" over israeli prime minister and his security service matter for an entire population. The victory was not a real victory for zalma but it was a symbolic victory for the entire palestinian population that were taught that with patience and rightfullnes you could succed over the abusive israeli state. The movie was very god and like I said before it showed us the reality of both parts in the conflict and the different situations each part has to live.

Sonnet analysis: to be or not to be

To be, or not to be: that is the question 

This quote is said by hamlet when he is considering to commit suicide or not. Hamlet thinks of committing suicide because he is living in a world that only brings him pain. The phrase "to be, or not to be: that is the question" is an internal struggle from hamlet who is deciding to kill himself or to continue to live in the horrible world he lives in. Hamlet argues if he must do the "noble" thing and just suffer in silence or just follow his desire to end suffering and kill himself. What makes hamlet stop and think about the desition is what happens in the afterlife and what might happen to him after he enters the afterlife.

post 2 article of my choice: Russian intervention on ukraine

This article is about how Russia deployed troops to Ukraine after the opposition kicked out the president. This may be considered a violent or menacing car from russia who previously owned the land that today is ukraine. This was a global issue and it already reached the usa and president obama wants to take the troops out. Tis can lead to a bigger conflict than a civil war and can become a sequel to the cold war.

MLA CITATION: luke , harding. "the guardian." russian intervention. the guardian, 28 02 2014. Web. 2 Mar 2014. <http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/28/ukraine-russian-military-intervention-grave-error-us>.

tHIS    This conflict can escalate to a major issue and even a war. This two big countries that are intervening in ukraine have a history of fighting for power and fighting to be the biggest powerhouse it the entire world.The article shows us various reason why the deployment of russian military forces in ukraine is a bad thing and need to be retired as soon as possible. If the russians decide not to pull out  this can become a major issue and lead to many other conflicts that can grow to become a war of the magnitude of world war II. The wisest thing to do is retire the troops and avoid any unnecessary conflict.

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post 1 israeli palestinian conflict post

This webpage shows us many different perspectives on the conflict and many ways to interpret it. This conflict is a very delicate issue and this webpage can help us understand it better. The conflict is very complicated and this is a tool for us to understand it better and help us discuss it. The different perspectives also shows the interest of other countries like the USA in the conflict and why they support Israel.

MLA CITATION. . ifamericansnew. N.p., 12 6 2010. Web. 2 Mar 2014. <http://www.ifamericansknew.org/cur_sit/>.

This article talks about the background story of the conflict between Israel and palestine. This lets us see why this conflict has been going on for more than 40 years and still is not coming to an end. The article shows us several points of view and lets us see all the perspectives in this conflict. This is a very reliable source because it lets us see all the perspectives on the issue and understand why it has not been solved during more than 40 years.

sharing a link

This web page shows a lot of information regular people don't know or are not aware of and I found the title very interesting http://www.ifamericansknew.org/history/. The title is very curious because it shows a reality, most americans are not informed of what their government is doing and what intentions they have when they support or attack a foreign country. This source seems very reliable and it shows a variety of articles that can help anyone understand the israeli/palestinian conflict through the past and in the present day.  I look forward to using this source that I think is very reliable and it can help us in class.

post 3: the origin of conflict in the middle east

As many of you know the middle eat is a place where conflict is a normal thing and it goes around almost in every country. but why does this happen in the middle east, this is the most violent piece of land in the whole world. there are conflicts going on in more than 5 countries plus the collateral effects this cause like deaths and refugees. This doesnt only affect the countries in conflict but the ones near them and a giant amount of people.

the first thing we need to think about s the middle east is the place were the three major religions in the world originated. Judaism, christianity and islam all were formed there and all are fighting for land and other things. The biggest conflicts have been originated by religion and also the longest one too. this is one of the major reasons conflict originated in this part of the world.

Other factors that contributed to the conflict generation is gender inequality. The inequality in this region reaches crazy levels. Men in this society have absolute control over women and dominate their lives. Having these men-controlled society leads to resentment from women. Another thing the middle east struggles with is foreign countries trying to get a hold of their natural resources specially oil. This part of the world has had many conflicts with the U.S and it is clear america has the intention to take every drop of oil in the middle east they can get.

The struggle in the middle east has been going on for years and will continue more because it has to fight many things. after this problems they have are solved and settled the world will be ready for a peaceful middle east that is ready to prosper and be better in the world.

Second post: how people ignore violence

It's crazy how many conflicts are going on in the world right now. I have seen that people only take interest in conflicts to after a little time drop the interest and ignore the conflict. Some of these conflicts and violence never settles but  people choose to ignore it and  pretend to care for other violent  event.  This leads to ignoring the conflict and this eventually makes it harder to solve the problem and restore peace.

The best example is Venezuela and Ukraine right now. At the end of last year every corner of the world had its eye on Ukraine an were concerned until another event started going in in Venezuela. When this happened all te media attention went to Venezuela and so did all the help from various sources. This is the mentality that leads us  to more trouble instead of more solutions.

What we need to do is focus in solving these problems instead of faking attention forwards them. If we embrace this mentality we can solve more problems instead of just pretending they dont exist. This will lead to solutions and more attention on problems that need to be solved.

About myself

Hi, my name is Rafael Ramirez I am 16 year old senior at colegio panamericano, I love basketball and it is my biggest passion. I like to go out with my friends, play video games and watch movies. I created this blog for my social studies and will like to see how it works out because it can become interesting.