The start!

Hello, to all our followers. We are Ana Catarina Cesário, Ana Rita Batalha and Beatriz Ramalho and we will write this blog about the matters topics disamed in English class, but giving it an economic taste.

We will start by writing a review of the film "Elizabeth, The Golden Age" and the economic sphere of the 16th century.

We hope you enjoy it.

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Some Interesting videos

The other side - an oppressor vision

A film seen in the class showned by our teacher, «the last king of scotland».
«The Last King of Scotland» is a 2006 British drama film based on Giles Foden's novel of the same name, adapted by screenwriters Peter Morgan and Jeremy Brock, and directed by Kevin Macdonald.
«The Last King of Scotland» tells the fictional story of Dr. Nicholas Garrigan (James McAvoy), a young Scottish doctor who travels to Uganda and becomes the personal physician to the dictator Idi Amin (Forest Whitaker). The film is based on factual events of Amin's rule and the title comes from a reporter in a press conference who wishes to verify whether Amin declared himself the King of Scotland. Amin was known to invent and adopt fancy imperial titles for himself.

But like every history, there is two sides of the history. The one that  we'll justify is the oppressor named Amin.
There are much perspectives to justify this behave of Amin. 

Firstly, there is the psychological, he as a child after his father's death, he were abused by the English army. So, he took his goals to the extreme, because he was mentally affected. His behaviour were caused by his sickness.


Then, the patriotic, he actually made the Uganda nation develop, he actually changed the face of Uganda (about what other people think about it) and the 300 million who were killed while he ruled the country, they tryed to betray their country because they didn't wanted Uganda to grow. And also because other countries were doing it as well.


In third, the well-hearted mind, Amin's intention were good, but his advisores's aid inffluenced him baddly and he just tried to have a strong fist because that's what you need in Africa. And the 300 million deaths were just for protection of the other population.


And to finalize the economist, Amin biggest aim was just to make fortune in Uganda, to the economy growth. 


To conclued, in general, while Amin's dictatorship, Uganda's economy grow, but it wasn't well distributed, and that was what caused the misery of the rural areas and the eccentricity on the Uganda's downtown.


Saturday, November 19, 2011

The Declaration of the human rights - work discrimination

Article XXIII

1.Every person has the right to work, to free choice of employment, tojust and favorable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
2Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
3Everyone who works has the right to a fair and satisfactory,which guarantees, as well as his family an existence worthy ofhuman dignityand supplementedif necessary, other means of social protection.
4Everyone has the right to organize labor unions and to join to protect their interests.



It is illegal to discriminate against anyone of the grounds of their race. This includes their colour, nationality or ethnic origin. Unfortunately, it still happens but you need to stand up for your rights and not let any employer get away with it. There are different types of discrimination but they are all wrong and all punishable by law.

Direct Discrimination
Direct discrimination is when an employer blatantly treats people differently because of their race. This can include advertising jobs that are only for people of a certain race or paying one race more than others for doing the same job. This is not allowed and needs to be stopped as soon as it becomes an issue.

Indirect Discrimination
This type of discrimination is not quite so blunt but it includes rules or practices that put you at a disadvantage in the workplace because of your race. So it may be that your employer institutes a new dress code, for no particular reason such as health and safety, which discriminates against people from certain ethnic backgrounds. They may try to talk their way out of it and say it isn’t racist but if it puts you at a disadvantage because of your ethnicity, then it is.


Harassment

Often, there is no one incident that stands out as being racist but the way that you are treated by your boss or colleagues is unfair. This can be in the form of racist jokes or underhand jibes, or being given the menial jobs to do when you are more qualified. Even if your boss doesn’t join in, if they overlook the
behaviorthen they are just as guilty. If you make a complaint about the way you are being treated and it only makes it worse then you are being victimizedand you need to seek further help.




Positive Action

There are some instances when people are targeted for jobs on the grounds of their race and when this seen as acceptable. These cases are when a particular racial group is severely under-represented in a certain career field or role. Then employers can provide special training and encourage people from particular ethnic groups to apply for certain roles.




Getting Help

If you feel that you are being discriminated against at
workor when seeking employment then you have every right to take action against it. Racial discrimination is illegal and you shouldn’t stand for it. Start by approaching your boss about the subject with clear examples of what has happened and ask to see their equal opportunities policy. If they are unhelpful, or the cause of the problem, then you will need to seek help elsewhere. Talk to your trade union if you have one or go to your local racial equality council who can help you take the case to an employment tribunal.

Racism in the workplace is illegal and should not be tolerated. Whether it is direct, such as advertising a job for a certain race, indirect by implementing rules that out you at a disadvantage, or in the form of harassment – speak out. Approach your boss about the problem. If they are unhelpful or
victimizeyou for raising the issue then consider taking them to an employment tribunal.


This kind of racism just doesn’t help the economics’ growth. Discrimination is one of the reasons of the stagnation of the economy. 
Due to discrimination in employment, workers who are really good at what they do, don't get jobs because of their skin tone, sex, religion and even sexual orientation.

When people actually realize a wide range of things about for example, factors of production, not to hire this person, it will bring repercussions throughout the economy, because that person could bring new approaches to markets.

Friday, November 11, 2011

Economy behind 'the street'

    In the 60s, the United States observed the rise and increase of the number of black people who went becaming increasingly coming to this country. This increase in immigration has resulted in increased marginalization in both robberies and assaults in even due to the crisis that occurredin the 50s.

    The 1964-1991 ever more was marked by several economic recessions, which is interspersed with some periods of high economic growth. The country also suffers competition from other countries such as Japan or the European Union countries - both in the international and the domestic market itself.
     Due to the marginalization of the black people they could not get a job increased unemployment and increase in the informal economy activities undertaken by the population of the ghetto that was not accounted by The National Accounts.
     When there is this kind of revolt, the economy suffers major negative repercussions, causin ganger and rising information (hyperinflation). Thus, the economy is deteriorating more and more.
    Due to the marginalization of black people they could not get a job such that it resulted in increased unemployment and increase in the informal economy activities undertaken by the population of the ghetto that was not accounted for in the National Accounts.
  When there is this kind of revolt, the economy suffers major negative repercussions, causinganger and rising inflation (hyperinflation). Thus, the economy is deteriorating more each time.

"The street" by Romare Howard Bearden


 
   At this week post, we chose to write about the "collage" called "The Street" created by Romare Howard Bearden.
   Romare Howard Bearden (September 2, 1921- March 12 1988) was a social worker with the New York City Department of Social Services from the mid-1930s through 1960s working on his art at night and on weekends. Bearden art was inspired by his lifetime throughout the United States and Europe.
   In this "collage" he used newspaper and magazine photographs that he enlarged from their original color into huge black-and-white photographs in order to provide the artist's desired effect of urgency.His subjects included life in Harlem, memories of the rural South, and jazz musicians.

   The early 1960s brought a period of transition for Bearden. In 1963 a group of African American artists began meeting in his Harlem studio. Calling themselves the Spiral Group, they sought to define their roles as black artists within the context of the growing civil rights movement.
   His "collage", exhibited in 1964, caused a wave of controversy and excitement but the shock provoqued by this "collage" in first hand turned into solid success.
   The social turbulence and civil rights movement of the 1960s seemed to have served as a catalyst for beardens art, enabling him to find his truest subjects and the means to render them.

Friday, November 4, 2011

The finale presentations !

  At this week classes we finished the presentations of the project works regarding 4 subjects: Hip-Hop music ( by Alexandra and Ricardo), Gospel culture (by Jorge and Yuan), the diferent dialects in England (by Cristiana and Margarida) and the difference between queen's english in the films "Elizabeth the Golden age" and the film " the queen " and also in the series "Little Britain" (by Bruno and Raul) and the Indian-English (by Kcenia).
  Our favorite presentation of the week was the one regarding the Different dialects in England presented by Cristiana and Margarida because in a first aproach this subject could be a little boring but they managed to make it interesting and they had a very dynamic presentation.
  It was also a very interesting work due to the variety of different English that perhaps  language more much difficult to define.
  Like they showed us, in England we can find more than 45 different dialects and one example is the language spoken  in the East End of England: Cockney and this was the language that captured our attention because i is spoken by the English working class and because it was the language spoken by Eliza Doolittle in the film "My Fair Lady", like is showned in the next video.


Although it wasn´t the best presentation we also enjoyed the videos shown by Bruno and Raul regarding the TV series "Little Britain" and we will put here the one we enjoyed the most.