The Iranian Journalist

Walking through my deparment corridors I saw a poster talking about this iranian woman, who was held as a prisoner in Iran and was going to give a lecture about Iran, journalism and Human Rights. I got surprised, such an opportunity to learn from a very rare source (my journalistic mind strikes again) and only a poster was warning us about it?! Nobody in my class was talking about it and I guess none of them was going to see her lecture. As for me, since I saw the poster I couldn't stop thinking of which things this woman was going to tell the lecture's spectators, and how I just wouldn't forgive myself if I missed it. Also I felt obligated to spread this as much as I could, so I told evebody I knew about this lecture and how this was a once-in-a-life-time opportunity. The day of our meeting came and I was excited, just didn't know what to expect! Then, Roxana Saberi walked in the room and started telling me and the other people in the room this story: www.roxanasaberi.com
I know its mean of me not to tell you what she said in that lecture, but the thing is that I can't even try to put as much emotion in the story or passion in her mission as she. What's left to me is to spread her story as much as I can, and hope that more people become aware of her vision about Iran and about the importance of granting EVERYBODY human rights.

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere" Martin Luther King, Jr., 1963

University Sports

How many of us imagined ourselves as athletes? How many of these dreams came true? About 20 years ago the answer to these questions would be negative, after all, to be able to support yourself practicing sports is a tough task. (Specially if you live in Brazil, where sports policies are jokes). However, since about 1990, this story started to change: university sports became a reality in our nation.
Differently from the US, in Brazil the university-sports leagues are segregated and divided into different types of competitions. For instance, there are the internal leagues of the universities, such as "Jogos Da Liga", a league in which all of USP-São Paulo departments compete in many different sports modalities; there are inter-university competition, such as JUCA; and there are other amateur leagues not exclusive for college teams, but in which they can take part.
I am one of these people. I've never been great at sports so the option of going pro was never really an option, but I've always given it a chance. When I was young my father encouraged me a lot but, as I sucked at it and I was embarassed of playing it among the other kids, I stopped going to my football classes. The only thing left to me was P.E. where I could play with my friends (who sucked too). I also tried out tennis but I quit at the age of 8. When I was about 13 my father and I started playing soccer every saturday, a tradition that remains until today, and this is how I overcame my "football shyness" and improved my football. I rediscovered the joy that sports provide and at the age of 16 I started playing tennis again and kept on practicing it until I was 18, when I quit once more because I had to focus on my studies.
Although I've trained a lot in my life, I had never felt the drill that a championship is, or the pressure coming from the crowd, and this is where the University Sports came in. You don't have to be the best to play, and you will surelly be accepted in the trainings, if you do well and make an effort you might make it to the team, and there glory will await you. It is true that in some Colleges it is not that easy to get in the team, but in smaller ones like ECA anyone who fells like doing it can participate in this way of life and enjoy the sports bennefits.

Get ready for a trip

It was through my field research inside my parents CD shelf that I got to know Simon & Garfunkel. Since then it’s been about two years and too many trips. Listening to them is like going back to the 60’s and 70’s, but without Cold War or the Military Regime in Brazil. Their tunes just tell us stories, stories about boys and girls, about friendship, about people generally, and that’s the kind of story I like.
Although I thought I had never heard them before the day I found their CD, I was wrong. It turns out that I had already heard at least two or three songs of their, but without knowing whose pieces were those, as it happens with every great artist and his/hers pieces. As an example of that I present to you a song that you probably already knew, but thought that The Beatles had composed it: Ms. Robinson

Would you know how to be polite in the first place?

Many say that their education towards somebody depends on this somebody's education in the first place. Today I was inside the subway car and I heard a guy complaining "I also know how to be ignorant" pushing off the other passengers. Why aren't many of us able to think and say "OK, I'll be the polite one, since it’s clear that you are not up to the challenge"?
To respond "good day", "good morning" or "you're welcome", when others say "thank you", is easy. The hard and rare thing to do is to say those expressions first, before tellying them becomes a kind of obligation. Tellying them to people who are in a higher position in your company’s hierarchy counts, but little. To say these and other polite expressions shouldn’t be seen as a snob attitude, but as an honorable one.
I guess that as people stopped using these expressions more frequently they also forgot what they stand for: respect. Saying “good morning” to your colleagues doesn’t necessarily means that you really want that person to have a good day, although you don’t wish the opposite to them either (at least I hope), it also means that you respect them, that you are aware of their existence (I guess that in no other period of our history would this make sense) and of their role in the company.
Going back to the subway example, when we show politeness to unknown people we give them a very important message: “though I don’t know you, it doesn’t mean that I don’t respect you as an equal”. I don’t know about you, but when people who are not my friends are rude to me I feel as if this person simply feels that he or she is better than me, and this, my friend, unleashes a wave of anger inside me. Politeness is extremely important to social living and human relationship, especially if you want to be friends with people you don’t know, and even if you’re a lonely ranger still it is best to be well-mannered, so that you won’t ruin other people’s day.
If you don’t like people and don’t feel like respecting them just go live in the woods.

As OCD as it gets

I don't know about you but I sure love sarcastic-clever-bad-tempered characters. If you're like me then you're going to have a ball watching "As good as it gets".
Although both Greg Kinear and Helen Hunt are in this movie, it's relly Jack Nicholson the big star. And it's not that the other two didn't have great performances, they did, but Jack is simply outstanding.
The story is about this novel writer, Mr. Udall(played by Jack Nicholson), who is just brilliant, nevertheless has a severe case of OCD(obsessive-compulsise disorder), is homophobic and racist. Just to make things worse, he lives right next to a homossexual (Greg Kinear) whose boyfriend is black (Cuba Gooding Jr.). But the real story begins when Mr. Udall has to drive his gay neighbour to Baltimore, and asks the only waitress he allows to serve him (Helen Hunt) to join them.
During the trip Mr. Udall realizes what an annoying person he is by being forced to listen to Carol-the-waitress-and-Simon-the-gay-guy's critics about him during the journey. Although this group of unusual friends is good for some gags, the best feature of the movie definetely is Mr. Udall's remarks about everything and everyone, full sarcasm and prejudice, but Udall can and will surprise you.
Another great aspect of the movie is the drama of people, such as Udall, whose OCD is severe. Nicholson's acting is supreme and when you're not laughing you're feeling pity for him.
"As good as it gets" is a great movie and shouldn't be missed.

Nothing to Laugh About

In prep course I had a History teacher who used to say that for a country to install a democratic state it would have to adopt three measures: division of the state into Montesquieu’s tripartite system (executive, legislature and judiciary), the use of a constitution and freedom of speech. He called them the “Democracy Kit”.
As time passed it became almost like a trend countries adopting Democracy, always using the blessed Kit. Although the Brazilian Government has had its problems with military regimes, since 1988 we can say that Brazil readopted its former democratic state and things were going pretty well for us. However, today, 22 years later, the phantoms of authoritarianism came back to haunt us in a very delicate moment: election.
It is no secret (and that’s for some time) that the Brazilian politicians are reason for jokes. And one of the most intriguing things about this is that the humorists don’t even need to distort the fact to make it absurd, and consequently funny, the scandals are ridiculous by themselves. That’s reason why we gave ourselves the nickname of “The country of the ready-made joke”.
Because of that we have developed within the past 20 years a very special interest for jokes about politicians. Unfortunately our Judiciary has decided that this is no longer a proper thing to do on the television and on the radio, during the election period. The majority of the Brazilian people is not interested in politics and just gets to know about the scandals and corruption schemes because of humoristic programs and their parodies. With that in mind is ironic, at minimum, that our population is deprived of this kind of information during the election period. Specially because television and radio have a way bigger range than other communication means in our country.
The worst part is that even politicians in their advertisements try to be funny and ridiculous, just to get votes, such as Tiririca. This norm that’s been applied by our judiciary is a counter service to our country and our elections, since, instead of helping the population choosing a candidate, it’s getting into their way.

Led Zeppelin - So much more than Heaven

"Led Zeppelin" that's a name that everybody has heard at least once. Many may say that they know the band's name but not their music. Those people are wrong. Everybody has heard at least "Stairway to Heaven", one of the most famous tunes of all time, but if I had to guess I would say that everyone has at least two Led songs on their musical repertory. And the ones who don't, man they just don't know what they're missing. Their music goes from hard-rock to ballads; listening to them is just a unique experience. They were able to compose such a huge gamma of songs, and each one of them has a great and unique rhythm. So, if you don't want to regret during your last breath when you realize how much time you have wasted not listening to these guys, you should read the rest of the article.




Although it is their characteristic to compose long tunes, “Good Times Bad Times” is a short, and by “short” I mean 2-minute and 46-second and sharp song, with a great flow, transmitting this great young feeling. Basically it is the kind of song you would listen to when you wanted to wake up feeling fine and just wished to enjoy your breakfast. Other great songs that transmit this same idea are "Fool in the rain" and "The song remains the same".



If you're into more acoustic sounds, but still want to dig some Led, you should try tunes like "Going to California", "That's the way" and, one of my personal favourites, "Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp" (yes, I know, it's a pretty weird name). These songs are a different Led Zep's trend. They all use acoustic instruments and provide you with a kind of familiar feeling (you should go for the live versions). Simply great.



If you’re into more epic tunes you should try “Achilles last stand” (which is about ten-minute long), “The battle of evermore” and, of course, “Kashmir”, which is in Mission Impossible’s soundtrack. This group of songs has a more dense kind of music. The greatest feature here is the rhythm alterations, that occur during the whole song. By listening to them you will feel as if everything was coming together to a greater end.



“Immigrant Song”, “Heartbreaker”, “Trampled under foot”, “Communication breakdown”, “Rock & Roll” and “Black dog” are songs that I’m unable to describe. I’ve put them in the same group because they all have those guitar riffs that give them their characteristic. It’s like this: if you hear the riff you will instantly identify the song.





Then we have the melancholic tunes, for instance “No quarter”, “Ten years gone”, “In the evening” , “Dazed and Confused”. They can get you deeply depressed, but still is nice to listen to them. “Dazed and confused” is a very interesting one, mainly because of its base notes. If this base isn't the most powerful base in music, it certainly is the most hypnotizing one.



A fantastic song that I wouldn't allow myself to put in a group is "Since I've been loving you". It's a blues, but a blues by Led Zeppelin, and that makes all the difference. If those first 5 notes don't give you a spine creep, man, you're either dead or not human. The tune goes on the same rhythm, that is deeply marked by the drums, and the guitar keeps on giving you reasons to stop whatever you're doing and just appreciate this masterpiece. Enjoy as much as possible.



Finally we have “The rain song” and “Stairway to heaven”. What can I say about these ballads? They are just great, perfect, fantastic. They are able to provide you with a trip inside your mind while you are listening to them. I would dare to say that they are as good as Led gets.



I guess with all of these songs above I just can’t write anymore, therefore I’ll just let them talk for me.