<----->Hunger and Homelessness<----->

While doing my network of Google reader yesterday, I read some great ideas of concerning issues. Although all of them were pretty good, the one that most called my attention was one of the issues that April, from Mr. Fisher’s class, wrote. She wrote about poverty mainly, but she specified on world’s hunger and homelessness.

Here in Colombia a huge percent of the population suffer from hunger and live in the condition of having no home. Is very sad when most of the times you are in your car with all your family going to hang out with them and you see that there is an old man that could be your grandfather. You see that man sleeping on a piece of carton on the street and maybe he’s hungry or maybe not, or maybe he is even dreaming that he has a little house, with some food, water, and a cozy bed, while some times we complain because we have to share the bedroom with our sister or because our bedroom is too small. There’s when you start wondering why you complain so much instead of being pleased with all of what you have. How many unfortunate kids right now will not be wondering why they live in the streets, why they don’t have a family, why they need to starve, or why do they work to feed themselves instead of being educated.

I think that where you can see most people living in these conditions is in developing countries more than in developed countries. For example, my teacher of Colombian history told me that in Canada, a developed country, elderly got a health insurance and got a house that the government gave to them. I’m not exactly sure but if this is true, this is the way things need to work in every place of the world. There is no reason why some children do not receive education or for old people to be in the streets begging for money so they can afford something to eat or a medicine.

Here in Cartagena, Colombia, you can see a lot of poverty. From time to time some people between 20 to 50 years old steal things. In some cases, this happens because they feel so frustrated since they cannot feed their families or that they owe somebody that has threaten them and they cannot pay, that they get to a point were the feel the necessity of stealing or to assault. Here there is a new route that was built by “La Cienaga de la Virgen”. This route is called “via perimetral”; people try to evade this route because it is very dangerous. If you are by that route you may be in risk because in that zone live people that is very poor and you see a lot of vandalisms over there.

I think people should think more of these issues. The issues that we’re facing are not jokes, they are reality and we should face them as a team; everybody helping a little. If everybody does something I think we will proceed faster. What are some possible solutions for this issue that you have or you can think of?
Ps: Feel free to leave comments. Inappropriate comments are NOT accepted.

Also if you want to look at map tha shows Global Hunger and also Global Hunger Map 2003

º::·.Teens and the Future of Our World.·::º

Hi, my name is Valeria, but my friends usually call me Vale, Val, or Valerie. I Live in Cartagena, Colombia, since I was born. I have 3 brothers older than me; I'm the younger, I am 14 years old. I just turned 14 in January; I celebrated my birthday with my friends in a house my family have in the Rosario Islands. I used to go to the Colegio Britanico, but in third grade i changed of school to the George Washington School, which in Spanish stands for Colegio Jorge Washington. I’m in seventh grade and my homeroom teacher is Mr. Hide. My friends and I usually call Mr. Hide, Mr. Hidesitow. My favorite subjects are social studies and math. I also enjoy science classes but not as much as social studies or math. Sometimes my friends call me Valerie because several years ago, when I was in third grade, I had a teacher, Ms. Holzgang, that called me Valerie and I didn’t like it because it was her who began calling me that way. When I was in third grade I used to be kind of like a little devil and I hated her, but now I’m okay with people calling me Valerie.

I follow a normal life here in Cartagena. My schedule begins at 6:00 A.M. when I wake up for school. Classes begin at 7:05 but students must be in their homerooms by 7:00 sharp to prepare and hear the announcements. I’m the vice president of STUCO which stands for the Student council, so I need to stay every Wednesday in a meeting after school. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, I stay after school for soccer practices. I’m play as defense in the team of my school. I love soccer, for me soccer is more than a hobby, I enjoy every minute I play it. Also one important thing you must know about me is that I love to draw and paint; in a future I want to be a fashion designer. Another sport I play is tennis. I used to have practices on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, but know I go only on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Last year my academic elective was environmental science. In that elective I learned a lot about what is going on with our world, how we affect the environment, how gasses and the environment behave when they mix. One thing I got very interested about was when we learned a little bit about the Kyoto protocol and Global Warming; I continue thinking about it and I began to become concerned. This is and issue I’m interested about. I will like to know how it will affect the future of our world. I want to know more about how the Kyoto protocol works, the details about it, and which countries follow it. For example, one detail I want to know is the maximum amount of greenhouse gasses that is permitted to emit and what amount of money is the fine if you exceed of the amount of gasses permitted to emit. Also, what will be the consequences of following it, because this protocol is supposed to control emissions of gasses worldwide and also to control the greenhouse effect, but some of the countries, such as China and India, are about to become the major producers of greenhouse gasses.

Obviously, I have other issues I’m concerned about and that affect my life, such as the “guerrilla” here in Colombia or about AIDS. I’m not still certain of what issue I’m going to choose and also I will be with a partner, Valentina. You can let me comments telling me other issues that affect our teen lives and the world.