This article is completely autobiographic. It was written by a TV journalist from Lithuania who pretended to be a non- speaking man that had no experience and looked for a job. He contacted an employment agency in London and paid a large sum of money to be given a job. Through the article he talks about the journey, his “roommates”, the jobs he did and the payment.
Joining the immigrant underclass
Introduction:
When I arrived in Hull, it was already dark and the streets empty. But there was no-one at the bus station to meet me and it was getting cold. Before leaving Lithuania, I paid £180 for the promise of work with Focus Staff Limited, a licensed employment agency or gang master, at the minimum wage of £5.35 per hour. I'd also had to hand over £160 to CCCP UK Limited - the middlemen in London - so I was getting angry.
Conclusion:
Luckily for me, it was time to leave and reveal to the agencies that this was part of a BBC investigation. Focus Staff, denied having any involvement with CCCP UK, or underpaying workers said workers were treated fairly and in line with UK employment law. CCCP UK and the Lithuanian agency, ITC, also denied any involvement in illegal activity.
The introduction of the article is quite short; the man describes his arrival to the bus station and even when it isn´t very descriptive, he does describe his feelings and his mood (something that is repeated a few times in the text). He also mentions the weather conditions at that moment so this element, together with the ones already mentioned make of this simple introduction an interesting retale, which invites the reader to continue.
The conclusion seems to be part of a report. While the whole text described a strong experience in another country, the last part of it is very unimpersonal: the writer mentions his actions once he revealed his true identity, and the answers he obtained from those agencies.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6593469.stm#top
Thursday, 31 May 2007
practico:introduction & conclusion of articles
This article is based on the investigation of a news reporter from the BBC, called Rageh Omaar, who was born in the north of Somalia. The aim of Omaar´s investigation was to make a film for the English channel. Through the article the reporter describes the children he interviewed, the reasons why their families sell them, and what are the most common “jobs” these children have.
The world of modern child slavery
Introduction:
Slavery is a word which immediately conjures up very specific images in our minds.
When it is mentioned we tend to think of people, almost always black people; degraded, abused and bound in chains, and we tend to think of such images, and the word slavery itself, as belonging to another era. We do not see slavery as belonging to our world, not as something which is still happening today. Yet the truth is that if William Wilberforce were alive today and he travelled to different parts of the world - not just in Africa, but also in large parts of Asia, the Middle East, South America and even parts of Europe - he would find children living in conditions and circumstances which Wilberforce would understand and which I am sure he would describe as slavery. It is believed there are nearly nine million children around the world today who are enslaved. There are international charters and covenants which try to come to a legal definition of what constitutes slavery. In essence these documents define slavery in the modern world as a situation where a human being and their labour are owned by others, and where that person does not have the freedom to leave and is forced into a life which is exploitative, humiliating and abusive.
Conclusion:
Poverty underlies almost all aspects of the phenomenon of modern child slavery. It is the one issue that most often lies behind the reasons and circumstances they were given up or sold into such conditions. Yet although there has been progress internationally on creating laws and standards aimed at stamping out child slavery, there are still many adults who not only gain from child slavery but believe that they will, in more cases than not, get away with it. Defining what modern slavery is, even finding out the scale of it around the world, is not enough if the practice is not seen to be punished.
In order to introduce the subject of his article, the author appeals to what most of the people in general imagine when they are talked about slavery. The images he makes reference to are many times used by film directors so he counts on our background information to make his statement successful. He also introduces the name of a ----- when he refers to the way in which slavery has spread out, so History is mentioned in a way. The last sentences of the introduction are about how is defined the word slavery now-a-days, and the difficulties that charters and organizations had in order to establish a legal definition to the word itself.
In the conclusion the author recognizes in poverty the most important reason of the selling of children and slavery as its consequence. Therefore he generalizes the main problem of this actual phenomenon. Once again as in his conclusion, Omaar deals with legality, and even though he bounces some positive initiatives from international organizations, he still urges for a quicker and definite solution. While in the introduction of this article slavery is referred to as a word to be defined in legal documents, for the conclusion he takes the same idea, but this time he also evokes to what is to be done in practice in order to stop slavery definitely.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/this_world/6458377.stm#top
The world of modern child slavery
Introduction:
Slavery is a word which immediately conjures up very specific images in our minds.
When it is mentioned we tend to think of people, almost always black people; degraded, abused and bound in chains, and we tend to think of such images, and the word slavery itself, as belonging to another era. We do not see slavery as belonging to our world, not as something which is still happening today. Yet the truth is that if William Wilberforce were alive today and he travelled to different parts of the world - not just in Africa, but also in large parts of Asia, the Middle East, South America and even parts of Europe - he would find children living in conditions and circumstances which Wilberforce would understand and which I am sure he would describe as slavery. It is believed there are nearly nine million children around the world today who are enslaved. There are international charters and covenants which try to come to a legal definition of what constitutes slavery. In essence these documents define slavery in the modern world as a situation where a human being and their labour are owned by others, and where that person does not have the freedom to leave and is forced into a life which is exploitative, humiliating and abusive.
Conclusion:
Poverty underlies almost all aspects of the phenomenon of modern child slavery. It is the one issue that most often lies behind the reasons and circumstances they were given up or sold into such conditions. Yet although there has been progress internationally on creating laws and standards aimed at stamping out child slavery, there are still many adults who not only gain from child slavery but believe that they will, in more cases than not, get away with it. Defining what modern slavery is, even finding out the scale of it around the world, is not enough if the practice is not seen to be punished.
In order to introduce the subject of his article, the author appeals to what most of the people in general imagine when they are talked about slavery. The images he makes reference to are many times used by film directors so he counts on our background information to make his statement successful. He also introduces the name of a ----- when he refers to the way in which slavery has spread out, so History is mentioned in a way. The last sentences of the introduction are about how is defined the word slavery now-a-days, and the difficulties that charters and organizations had in order to establish a legal definition to the word itself.
In the conclusion the author recognizes in poverty the most important reason of the selling of children and slavery as its consequence. Therefore he generalizes the main problem of this actual phenomenon. Once again as in his conclusion, Omaar deals with legality, and even though he bounces some positive initiatives from international organizations, he still urges for a quicker and definite solution. While in the introduction of this article slavery is referred to as a word to be defined in legal documents, for the conclusion he takes the same idea, but this time he also evokes to what is to be done in practice in order to stop slavery definitely.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/this_world/6458377.stm#top
Tuesday, 29 May 2007
The brave ones:
Do you know any brave person? I do. I see them everyday. They are part of my crazy but loving family, they are among my dear classmates and they are present among my friends. Today I want to tell you about a special friend. I met her when I was in first year of high school. By that time I was scared to death in such a huge school, full of noisy people all around. By chance I saw her chatting with other girls and I got impressed by the way she was able to maintain a conversation with older girls that she had just met. Anyway, she approached, and we started to talk. We discovered that not only were we classmates but also neighbors. In this way we started a friendship that has undergone a lot.
During the five years we studied at high school, we started a band of folk music and we even performed in different shows!!! I cannot believe I had done that, but I know that I did it because my friend had enough confidence in the two of us. Even when the idea of the band got to an end, my friend continued studying music, in spite of the problems she had: her family was not at its best moment and everything seemed to fall apart in a minute. Now if you think that my friend ran out screaming (as I would have done) you are wrong. She faced her father and defended her mom and her little sister. She was the one who encouraged her mother to fight and not to give up. She was 15 and yet she was a warrior of life already. It is because of her that her family finally saw a light at the end of the tunnel.
Nowadays my best friend is about to obtain her degree, something that she has fought for since the very first moment she went to university. And she also found love! She finally found what she had looked for without knowing. It came by chance, and I think it came to stay. I don´t know what people might thing about her choice and I don´t care either. She looks great. And her smile is back in her. Back like in the old good times.
My dear friend, if you ever read this, I just want you to know how much you mean for me. I saw you the other day and I meant to tell it to you face to face but, well, you know me. What matters is that I´ll ALWAYS be there for you when you need it. You deserve everything you have earned and you know it. If there´s someone on earth that has to be happy is you. I wish you the best and I thank God for having known you. I hope this friendship that has lived for 12 years stay fore ever. I love you girl!
During the five years we studied at high school, we started a band of folk music and we even performed in different shows!!! I cannot believe I had done that, but I know that I did it because my friend had enough confidence in the two of us. Even when the idea of the band got to an end, my friend continued studying music, in spite of the problems she had: her family was not at its best moment and everything seemed to fall apart in a minute. Now if you think that my friend ran out screaming (as I would have done) you are wrong. She faced her father and defended her mom and her little sister. She was the one who encouraged her mother to fight and not to give up. She was 15 and yet she was a warrior of life already. It is because of her that her family finally saw a light at the end of the tunnel.
Nowadays my best friend is about to obtain her degree, something that she has fought for since the very first moment she went to university. And she also found love! She finally found what she had looked for without knowing. It came by chance, and I think it came to stay. I don´t know what people might thing about her choice and I don´t care either. She looks great. And her smile is back in her. Back like in the old good times.
My dear friend, if you ever read this, I just want you to know how much you mean for me. I saw you the other day and I meant to tell it to you face to face but, well, you know me. What matters is that I´ll ALWAYS be there for you when you need it. You deserve everything you have earned and you know it. If there´s someone on earth that has to be happy is you. I wish you the best and I thank God for having known you. I hope this friendship that has lived for 12 years stay fore ever. I love you girl!
Passion: Teaching:
If I look backwards in my life, images appear automatically. But not ordinary images; images of myself teaching. When I was a child, I used to play to be the teacher of my youngest brother. He would sit with some sheets of paper in front of him and some pencils and I would be the teacher (of course!). i´d give him the instructions of the different exercises he hed to do. My favourite part was the correction of the test. I felt so important! And, if my brother was tired or simply not interested in playing with me it didn´t matter, ´cause I had my teddy bears to play with.
But that was childhood, though. High school came, and for a short while I forgot about my favourite game, until it came back with an unusual strength. This time I had included the best characteristics of my favourite teachers at school and I applied them as if they were mine. Therefore, I was a kind treacher who treated her students with the respect teenagers deserve. I also had a great sense of humour and was able to convince my “students” that life is hard, but also worthliving.
Now that I think of that, it´s obvious that during high school I had met and started to enjoy my passion for teaching; the one thing that made me feel special, even when I didn´t have anyone to prove it to. I just realized that I wanted and needed to teach. Teach what? That problem would be solved later on, I said to myself.
Time passed, and I found the “what”. I think it came to me more as the result of an inner process than as a revelation, but it came anyway. The only thing I´m sure of is that I had all my life felt the desire and the urge to transmit knowledge to people.
Now that I´m taking the last steps of this walk, I can say that for me teaching is a basic, pure and important ingredient of my life. I love teaching. It´s something I was meant to from the first time and I don´t want it to stop. Quite the contrary, I want it to get as big as possible.
Teaching is my passion.
But that was childhood, though. High school came, and for a short while I forgot about my favourite game, until it came back with an unusual strength. This time I had included the best characteristics of my favourite teachers at school and I applied them as if they were mine. Therefore, I was a kind treacher who treated her students with the respect teenagers deserve. I also had a great sense of humour and was able to convince my “students” that life is hard, but also worthliving.
Now that I think of that, it´s obvious that during high school I had met and started to enjoy my passion for teaching; the one thing that made me feel special, even when I didn´t have anyone to prove it to. I just realized that I wanted and needed to teach. Teach what? That problem would be solved later on, I said to myself.
Time passed, and I found the “what”. I think it came to me more as the result of an inner process than as a revelation, but it came anyway. The only thing I´m sure of is that I had all my life felt the desire and the urge to transmit knowledge to people.
Now that I´m taking the last steps of this walk, I can say that for me teaching is a basic, pure and important ingredient of my life. I love teaching. It´s something I was meant to from the first time and I don´t want it to stop. Quite the contrary, I want it to get as big as possible.
Teaching is my passion.
My mom:
My mom is, to many people a simple woman but to me she represents the biggest blessing God had ever given me. She is sweet, tender, caring, humble, unique and fragile. It is as if she was a mixture of personalities that combine in one.
My mom has been there for me since I can remember. We have a close relationship based in the principles of respect, trust and sharing. Many times we don´t even have the need to speak, for which one look full of complicity is enough to communicate. We hardly ever argue but if we do, it takes us some days to accept that we were wrong. And maybe that´s another feature of our relationship: we share the same passion for both loving and being upset. What amazes me the most is that she provides of love to everyone who needs it, and yet she doesn´t ask for anything in return.
My mom has a hypnotic power on people. She has lived 65 long years and you can still easily see the lightening in her eyes. The lines of expression on her face are evidence enough of what she had gone through: nothing has been denied to her; not the good parts, or the bad ones. And if there is something that all of them had taught my mom is that there´s always a tomorrow; that the sun will rise again sooner or later, and that we must be there to see it.
I don´t even want to think what will be like not having her. I can only assure that the day she lives me will be the day in which a part of me will die too.
There´s nothing I can do to retain her, so my last attempt will be to love her and take care of her as if it wasn´t tomorrow.
My mom has been there for me since I can remember. We have a close relationship based in the principles of respect, trust and sharing. Many times we don´t even have the need to speak, for which one look full of complicity is enough to communicate. We hardly ever argue but if we do, it takes us some days to accept that we were wrong. And maybe that´s another feature of our relationship: we share the same passion for both loving and being upset. What amazes me the most is that she provides of love to everyone who needs it, and yet she doesn´t ask for anything in return.
My mom has a hypnotic power on people. She has lived 65 long years and you can still easily see the lightening in her eyes. The lines of expression on her face are evidence enough of what she had gone through: nothing has been denied to her; not the good parts, or the bad ones. And if there is something that all of them had taught my mom is that there´s always a tomorrow; that the sun will rise again sooner or later, and that we must be there to see it.
I don´t even want to think what will be like not having her. I can only assure that the day she lives me will be the day in which a part of me will die too.
There´s nothing I can do to retain her, so my last attempt will be to love her and take care of her as if it wasn´t tomorrow.
My favourite singer as a child:
When I was 10 years old I listened for the first time a song by Michael Bolton. On those days my mind was so altered that I could easily predict that a difficult phase in my life was approaching: teenage hood. Of course, with such an uncontrolled revolution inside me there were few moments of internal peace and joy. Moments that always came to me together with Bolton´s music.
By that time I had already listened to different artists in English but none of them had had that effect on me. I think his music is a perfect combination of power and sweetness; the final product of a process that, in his own words, has always been natural. And I think it´s true: there´s something magical but at the same time tangible and palpable in all his songs. Furthermore, his voice is unique: it´s sweet and rough at the same time, something that complements perfectly with the band that accompanies him.
Even though teenage hood is over (thank God), I still listen a lot to Michael Bolton. Every time I do it I figure out something new, something I didn´t realize before. I know that everyone has something that remains them their past, and I have his music.
By that time I had already listened to different artists in English but none of them had had that effect on me. I think his music is a perfect combination of power and sweetness; the final product of a process that, in his own words, has always been natural. And I think it´s true: there´s something magical but at the same time tangible and palpable in all his songs. Furthermore, his voice is unique: it´s sweet and rough at the same time, something that complements perfectly with the band that accompanies him.
Even though teenage hood is over (thank God), I still listen a lot to Michael Bolton. Every time I do it I figure out something new, something I didn´t realize before. I know that everyone has something that remains them their past, and I have his music.
Lonely days:
Lonely days visit me from time to time. They show up unexpectedly and stay. They just stay. It may seem difficult to believe but lonely days are not a problem to me.
During those days I try to connect with myself. I listen to some good music and I think. In lonely days I think a lot. Think of things I didn´t have the courage to do; words I didn’t dare to pronounce; people I didn´t want to talk to...
Lonely days make me realize of the good things I had been able to achieve recently. This is a unique time when I like me and when I convince myself that a radical change in life is still possible. I get so freaking positive in lonely days that it frightens me! And I also try to take advantage of them because I know that in any minute they´ll go away, taking with them the good things that I’m normally lack of. When my lonely days are gone, shadows come back. Everything gets so dark and thinking turns into something so heavy, that I loose all hope again. Once these beautiful lonely days abandon me I go backwards in time, trying to pick up the pieces of a puzzle too large to complete. It´s funny that I remember the exact words that went through my mind the day before: words that promised so much and that now are nothing else but empty boxes within my brain; dreams that looked so meaningful and which now are nonsensical nightmares that won´t let me wake up.
I need my lonely days back. I´m looking forward to have them with me again. Maybe this time it´ll be different, who knows? Maybe this time they´ll stay forever.
During those days I try to connect with myself. I listen to some good music and I think. In lonely days I think a lot. Think of things I didn´t have the courage to do; words I didn’t dare to pronounce; people I didn´t want to talk to...
Lonely days make me realize of the good things I had been able to achieve recently. This is a unique time when I like me and when I convince myself that a radical change in life is still possible. I get so freaking positive in lonely days that it frightens me! And I also try to take advantage of them because I know that in any minute they´ll go away, taking with them the good things that I’m normally lack of. When my lonely days are gone, shadows come back. Everything gets so dark and thinking turns into something so heavy, that I loose all hope again. Once these beautiful lonely days abandon me I go backwards in time, trying to pick up the pieces of a puzzle too large to complete. It´s funny that I remember the exact words that went through my mind the day before: words that promised so much and that now are nothing else but empty boxes within my brain; dreams that looked so meaningful and which now are nonsensical nightmares that won´t let me wake up.
I need my lonely days back. I´m looking forward to have them with me again. Maybe this time it´ll be different, who knows? Maybe this time they´ll stay forever.
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