Why Run ?

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Adele Fadier, France

Some people don’t understand the interest runners have in running. Maybe it’s because you don’t know all the upsides of running?

So I understand that it’s difficult to begin running because you don’t see the positive effects immediately and that may take a long time to see real improvement of your skills. But anyways work pays. I will show you in what ways it’s good for you.

First, running is good for your health like every sport, everybody knows that. You have to know that our immune system gets stronger when you run slowly. Moreover, running activates the blood circulation and that’s really good for our heart. That prevents many diseases and can also have a healing effect. Running also has a good effect on our bones and joints. Indeed, when we run our body reinforces our bones and joints to protect them against the impacts of each stride.

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Then, running gives us a strong mental attitude. Running can be difficult and unpleasant even for people who have run for a long time. When you are in this bad stage, you must have a strong motivation to push on. Running is like a long project on ourselves to exceed our limits and be proud of ourselves. So jogging also has an effect in our daily lives, that improves our self confidence and mental capacities. So it’s good to overcome daily problems.

You can also run to overcome stress. Yes it’s true. Imagine that you have a complicated and stressed day period, in the evening you put on your running shoes and just think about nothing. When you are running, you forget all the pressure you have on your shoulders and you go back home with a smile on your face. Some Swedish studies even say that running can eliminate some toxic substances cause by stress and anxiety.

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Finally, a big upside of running is the effect on our longevity. In fact, the Harvard school made a study that says that a heart which beats less quickly at rest is an important criterion for lengthening life. Moreover, in average, chronic diseases appear later in runners’ lives than in non runners’.

So as a conclusion, running can change your daily life physically and mentally. You have to try and push on even if it’s difficult because nothing is won without effort. For me, running is also a way to escape from my routine, get some air, and discover amazing landscapes, especially here, in Santa Barbara. So get rid of your false excuses and go running.

I can also give you some spots where you can go for a run. For me the better place is Santa Barbara Waterfront. When I run around 6 or 7 p.m the sunset on the ocean and the mountain is amazing. Then, you can find below a link for a website where you can find every run’s spots of the city.

http://greatruns.com/location/santa-barbara-california/

 

Looking for Our Identity

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Sayen Antil, Chile

What makes me be me? Do I have an answer for that?

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Identity is by definition the distinguishing character or personality of an individual, so I’ve been thinking which things about myself make me who I am. For me, it’s a struggle, but why? Why is it so hard to think of all those things? I think its mostly because when we are trying, aspects of us that we have denied arise. But what we should do about it? Just stop trying and continue living like we have been?

I started reading many different quotes of different philosophers  or even current writers. The psychologist, Camen Duran, said that changing our being is changing our lives,  but changing our lives is not changing our being. At first I didn’t get it, but when I did, I thought about changing  the way we live for changing ourselves is just a transitory change, mostly because our inner struggles will keep coming back to our lives.

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So where am I heading to with all of these? I want to know myself, and I am going to do it through these steps. First of all, I’ll stop comparing myself with others. Everyone does this to try to know themselves, but this is actually the worst thing to do, because we get so distracted in trying to be someone else. Maybe it’s good to look up to someone, but we’ll do this without losing our true identity,  trying to be the best version of ourselves.  I’ll be objective, if I refuse to accept some of the things I don’t like about myself, I won’t know what kind of person I truly am. I’ll try my best to identify my emotions and act according to them, that way I’ll know what  my character is like.

Once you identify how are you, you’ll be able to identify others. It will help you to improve your relationship with yourself and therefore, improve it with everyone around you. And let’s keep it honest, when you are happy with the environment of your interpersonal relationships, your entire life feels so much better because good relationships are the basis of a good, happy life. So knowing yourself, in other words, can lead you to live a fulfilling life.

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Ef Santa Barbara on Halloween

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What’s Happening with the Pipeline Project in Canada?

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Maxime Vautrelle, France

It is a big disappointment for the Canadian government. At the end of August, the justice  stopped the construction of The TransMountain expansion.

One of the biggest projects in Canada, the TransMountain is compromised. The goal was the transportation of energy (petrol, oil, gas…) across Canada and the north of the United States of America. Actually, a pipeline makes the transportation from Chicago (with different ways) to Edmonton in the county of Alberta (Canada). This one is called Embridge Alberta Clipper. Also, the other biggest one is the Express and Platte from Pakota (near Chicago) to Hardisty (Alberta County).

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The Federal Court of Appeal cancelled the executive order to continue the project on the 30th of August. For the institution, the Canadian government has missed these obligations. They should consulted the native populations before approving the project, and they didn’t in November 2016.

The Appeals Court is thinking about the consequences on the environment for the expansion. If  the TransMoutain is built he should do the transportation from Edmonton to Vancouver, and the Canadian president, Justin Trudeau, accepted the project of Kinder Morgan (the investment company) in despite this cost (Ten billion dollars).

In the ‘First Nations’ camp it’s a victory. The balance sheet of the jugdment said, the ONE (Office National of Energy) has been a big mistake in the evaluations of this office can’t  be use for the expansion. The public interest and the environment impact was disregarded altough the economic impact on the region : The weekly capacity of the TransMoutain’s transportation could be 300,000 barrels to 900,000 barrels. The numbers of the tankers will be 34 against 5 actually.

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Finally, the negociations between the different institutions should continue until an agreement, but the project raise so many problems. Actually it’s a public project bought by Trudeau’s administration, and many people in politic had criticized this spending. Greenpeace in head, the ecologic organisation asked the government to take these billions and spend it in favor of the renewable energies.

This case is pushing Justin Trudeau and this administration in the turmoil and it will be difficult for the President to find a positive issue. With the expansion of TranMountain the internationale figure of the Canada and his ‘green-values’, and the weakness of Justin Trudeau confront in the institutions, the Canadian government lives these worst hours.

My First Five Weeks in Santa Barbara

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Tim Lerch Switzerland

My name is Tim, and I come from Switzerland in a small town in Bern. I am 19 years old. I have a big Sister and her name is Julia and she is 21 years old. My inspiration to come to Santa Barbara was my sister because she was here too with EF and she told me, it is e perfect experience.

I like Santa Barbara so much, because its a beautiful city, the people are lovely and my Host family is also very good. I had a little culture shock because the cleanliness, but it is not that bad.

I’m really happy because i meet some new friends, and do big things with them, for example go to the beach or do an bonfire, go to Isla Vista and make party or just a little shopping tour or just hang around.

I love Carpinteria and their beach, its so beautiful. I like the beach in Santa Barbara too.

My Host family lives in Goleta. Goleta is also a very beautiful city. The only negative point is the bad bus connection, sometimes we have to walk for maybe 30 minutes and that is not so cool.

Anyway i enjoy my time here and I dont want to go back home yet. I want to visit San Fransico and Los Angeles to visit Dineyland and things like that. I’m also very excited for Halloween, i thinks its very cool in America. The time goes fast….

Résultats de recherche d'images pour « santa barbara »

Cast Out Caste

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Enora Haugmard France

India is a booming country, rich with diversities, but its territories haven’t developed equally everywhere. Indeed, some discrimination still exits  between Indian inhabitants. Hopefully, the situation is evolving positively.

In India, there is a system that makes it possible to classify the population a thousand heredity groups called “caste”. The caste system was developed many years ago and still survives today. We can notice 4 major castes : Brahmin, Kshatriya and Vaishya, which are the upper class, and Sudra the lower one. It would be necessary to add the Untouchables (Dalits) which are left outside the other castes. Currently, the discrimination about caste is forbidden, however, it still continues to play a major role in Indian society.

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Indeed, there is large-scale of abuses by the police, for example when some refused to fill a complaint or acting in collusion with the upper class. Upper class oppression lead to terrible actions, such as humiliation in public, paraded naked or raped with impunity. Dalits lives are very hard, in part of immoral actions that they have to face everyday; for example, their jobs which are unclean (cleaning latrines). Moreover, the Untouchables face lower wages and a terrible way of life.

 

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But, the situation has been improving since XX century. An emergence of grassroots human right movements and organizations among Dalits has resulted.

People’s Watch organization by Henri Tiphagne was established on Dec. 10, 1995 in the state of Tamil Nadu. People’s Watch is at the heart of the human rights fight in India. The objective of this organization is to empower the victims of human rights violations, such as domestics violence, torture, child labor, harassment and of course, caste discrimination.

 

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As Henri explain during an interview, People’s Watch is an association of volunteers that want to operate independently and without  outside resources. According to Henri, he would like to act step by step instead of working throughout the country, because he wouldn’t possess the skills and the capacities to be able to make an entire state accountable. Thanks to their work, they provided immediate relief to 20,000 families, mostly Dalits affected by a tsunami.

 

On the 17th of July 2017, a man from India’s lowest caste was elected president. Ram Nath Kovind is the second president who came from Dalits.ram-nath-kovind-ambedkar-jayanti-pti_650x400_81523727422 His election as president represents a support among the Dalits community. Although, the role of the president in India lacks any real executive authority, Ram Nath Kovind has a symbolic role. Traditionally viewed as “impure,” the group continues to grapple with persecution and exclusion.

 

So, even though discrimination against Dalits still prevails, the situation has been improving and we can hope that it will continue in this way. But, unfortunately, the Untouchability is an entrenched and its hard to remove it. India is riddled with discrimination and prejudices, and that provokes huge consequences towards the lower class. Perhaps, we will have wait for its economic development to notice a real social evolution.

 

 

 

https://www.peopleswatch.org/our-work

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ram_Nath_Kovind

https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/atrocities-on-dalits-social-problem-not-political-says-ramdas-athawale-1351387-2018-09-28

https://www.countercurrents.org/dalit-tiphagne070104.htm

 

Needles in strawberry

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Write by Cedric Dauteuil

Over the past week, Australians were forced to ask an alarming question: Why is someone putting sewing needles in our strawberries?

All the Australian peolple are really worried about that.

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Across the country, shoppers had reported finding needles or pins in packages of strawberries bought from supermarkets.

In total, there were more than 100 reports of people finding needles in strawberries and other fruits, officials have said.

But officials think this suspect was simply a copycat. The crime was first reported in neighboring Queensland, where local strawberry farmers have said that they had reason to believe they were being targeted by a disgruntled former employee with a grudge against the industry.

Reports of needles in strawberries and other fruits have spread to all six Australian states, leading police to say they suspect that the crime has moved beyond an isolated incident and turned into a trend.

For Australia’s fruit and vegetable growing industry, the needles have proved to be an expensive disaster. Strawberries have been taken off supermarket shelves, foreign trading countries have blocked Australian imports, and wholesalers have been forced to buy metal detectors to check their produce.

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The Australian prime minister want to say something about that with this video :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epONtKDSz38

My conclusion :

Animals Facing Extinction

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by Malena Julia Banjavcic, Switzerland

Help. What does help mean? Who needs help? And what help do they need? What can we do to help? These are questions we should ask ourselves every day. We are not alone in this world, even if it sometimes feels like it. There are people, who need help, but also animals. And we all need to start to ask ourselves how to make a change, because there are animals facing extinction and their time is running out.

So what does it mean when animals are in real danger facing extinction?

Plants and animals which are facing extinction are called Endangered Species. Particularly, it says that these species are very likely to become extinct in nearer time.  Of course, there are reasons in nature why animals become endangered, but for the most part we, humans, are the reason. Evidence of this is provided by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). According to it, we are now losing animal species at more than 1,000 times the normal rate. In 2012, the IUCN featured 3,079 animals and 2,655 plants as endangered worldwide. Whereas back in 1998, the figures were 1,102 animals and 1,197 plants.  People often don’t even know that animals, which are well known, are critically endangered. Examples of species which are facing extinction are the Amur Leopard (pic. 1), the Bornean Orangutan (pic. 2) or the Malayan Tiger (pic. 3).

 (pic. 1)     (pic. 2)    (pic. 3)

If nothing changes, we put ourselves in danger, too. The world is a whole, big ecosystem. Ecosystems depend on healthy plants and animals. Without them an ecosystem is not even possible; they are the foundation. When one of the species becomes endangered, the whole system slowly starts to fall apart. So every loss of a species triggers the next. Just like animals and plants, we, humans, also depend on healthy ecosystems like forests, oceans or grasslands. So we’re risking our health and environment when we don’t do anything about the contamination.

We, humans, cause the extinction of a lot of species only by living, but this can be changed. We have to live together with the animals. I once heard someone saying “it’s not our world, we just borrowed it” and I think that is the truth.

I  think something important to do is to educate. We need to teach people and especially children about what is happening right now. If people do not know about the problem, they can’t do anything, but it’s also the job of our governments. How do people still sell furs and skins of all these endangered animals without being punished for it? Another thing which helps, is ,of course, the support for several organisations which work on this problem. Support can mean financial for those, who either don’t have the time or the will to go to the affected places where help is needed, but volunteer work is also support. Not only do you help, but you also experience beautiful countries and learn something about our world, the different cultures and also about yourself. “Work” doesn’t always mean it’s not fun.

It’s not that difficult to change something, so why isn’t there a change going on? – Ask yourself.

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Aragon Moto GP Race 2018

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Alejandra Cabanas, Spain.

Jorge Lorenzo has called out at Moto GP rival Marc Marquez for “destroying” his race and causing the foot injury he sustained in his first-corner crash at Aragon.

Lorenzo started the race in first place, but in the first corner he crashed. He was maybe the favourite rider for this race, even if it is known that in the races anything can happen.

Lorenzo has defended that he crashed because Marquez did not give him any other choice. He actually didn’t go to the Moto gp direction to talk about what happened because, as he has said, he knew that apparently, at the outside of the race, it didn’t seem that it was Marquez’s mistake.

What Lorenzo had defended is that Marquez, the eventual race winner, ran wide in making the move and bogged down on a corner exit, immediately surrendering the lead to Andrea Dovizioso.

Lorenzo suffered a dislocated toe and a subcapital fracture of the second metatarsal on his right foot, and is not certain he will be fit for Thailand. So, this crash didn’t only cause the lose of points of Aragon’s race, and of course, the fracture, it would also mean losing the possibility of winning the World Champion Moto GP Cup.

 

In my opinion, I think that to say the accident was Marquez’s fault is not true. Though it’s true that Marquez arrived at the corner so fast, he in any moment didn’t caused Lorenzo to crash. Lorenzo had a failure opening the gas of the motorcycle in the corner, and that caused the crash. In any moment, Marquez’s intention was to throw Lorenzo out, that’s for sure. Moreover, Marquez, after all this happened, called Lorenzo to let him know his point of view of what happened. Lorenzo said that this act honors Marquez.

Instagram Food Culture

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Ramona Kramer, Switzerland

Instagram. There is basically no person in our generation who hasn’t heard that word yet or who even doesn’t use this app. In June 2018, there were nearly 1 billion monthly users and 500 million daily active users – with an upward tendency. Over half of the users are between 18-24 and on an average day, 80 million photos are shared.

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Admittingly, I use Instagram every single day and I love to look at new profiles. Especially in the last few years, I’ve noticed that there are a lot of fitness accounts coming up, posting pictures of healthy food and promoting new weight loss products on a daily basis. This can be great for inspiration and motivation, but it can also put a lot of pressure on young, influenceable users that think they also have to eat perfectly healthy all the time in order to get the “perfect” body. Every Fitness Instagrammer pretends to know what’s best for everyone. For example one says only to eat vegan, the other one to cut out bread and gluten, the other one to eat 1,000 calories a day, etc. This can be confusing and lead people into a dangerous direction of a wrong self image and an obsessive lifestyle.

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I’ve been influenced by this trend before and I know some other people who have changed their eating habits because of Instagram. So, I was wondering how many other young females have had that experience with Instagram or if and how they are affected by this trend, positively or negatively. To get more information, I created a survey with questions related to this topic and I sent it to females, all between the age of 17 to 19. The answers were quite interesting.

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Out of 10, only one of the surveyed people doesn’t use Instagram. The rest are on this app multiple times daily. Only one person follows no account with posts related to healthy food, the others do, and half of them have already tried out a food recipe from one of these pages. Contrary to my expectations, no one has ever bought a weight loss product promoted on Instagram. Still, almost 70% feel pressured to eat healthy seeing these pictures and 30% even feel bad when they eat food that is considered “not clean”. One of the young women gave an interesting answer to the question of whether or not she sees these posts as an inspiration or bad influence. Her answer was: “As long as it is about healthy lifestyle, I see their posts as an inspiration. I don’t like posts about how to lose weight because I don’t feel like I have to lose weight, but the posts make me feel insecure about my body.” This is also where I see the biggest issue: This influence can make us suddenly feel bad about ourselves for things which seemed normal to us before.

Posting these pictures can’t be stopped and as long as Instagrammers want to be inspirational, it also shouldn’t be stopped. Still, there should be more focus on what makes you feel good and happy rather than what could lead you into an obsession with food and fitness. We forget so fast that the people who post these pictures are only human as well, and everyone can post his healthy salad and eat a cookie afterwards without sharing the dessert with the world. What you see on social media is never the whole truth, it is just segments of a life and everyone can decide what they want to share and what not to. So, in conclusion, try the healthy oatmeal for breakfast, but also enjoy your In n Out Burger without worrying about it.