FIRST DRAFT

A research report on the Catering facilities

at London Metropolitan University

Background

London Metropolitan University, according to their web site, has about 34,000 students. 8,000 of them are foreign students from 155 different countries and it is generally thought that their number will increase. Most of the students spend more than three hours daily in the University and they can benefit of a large panel of facilities that London Met provides. One of them is the catering service.

A research from the Nutrition Policy Unit of London Metropolitan University found that 41% of students doesn’t use the on-site canteen facilities. The reasons of this fact resulting from their study were the long queues and the inappropriate size of the canteen. Despite these findings, the University should encourage student go into the school canteen in order to avoid disturbing tends of eating fat food such fast food and to permit them have a hot lunch.

In this term, our group thought it can be beneficial to know how often students use the catering facilities and how satisfied they are (particular foreign student). At the same time, it is useful to discover if they would have higher expectation. That could help us to find what disciplines of improvement, the University’ canteen could focus on.

Aims

The purpose of this research was to first investigate how many days per week students use the catering facilities and then to find out how satisfied they are. A final aim was to discover the student’s expectations, so we can deduce what area of improvement the canteen needs to focus on.

Method

The research was carried out through the use of a questionnaire consisting of 10 questions; those are connected to our aims. Initially, we conducted a trial of it on a sample of 5 students. This first step helped us to notice that there was a lack in our alternative answers for two of the questions. After minor adjustments, the final questionnaire was used to interview 30 pre-sesional students from different countries.

Trial

Today our group have conduced a trial of questionnaire using a sample of 5 classmates. We discovered that some of our questions weren’t clear enough for all the foreign students and there was a lack in alternative answers. After few changes that we made, our group thought the questionnaire is ready to collect data from 30 foreign students, on tomorrow morning.

How to collect data? The members of the group have decided to interrogate 30 students, each of them having to fill our questionnaire (we’ll need 30 copies). Despite this unanimous agree, I create a table in Excel trying to diminish the difficulty of our task in centralising all the information and sharing between all the members.

Define my research question and study population

What is known? What is not known? What are the aims?

• Known:
  Metropolitan University of London offer catering facilities for students.

• Not known:
  How satisfied students are? (particularly foreign students)
  If they are not satisfied, what are their expectations?

• Aims:
  How satisfied students are?
  How can be improved the catering service?

Wich question connects with wich aim?

Writing the background

Metropolitan University of London, according to their web site, has about 34,000 students. About 8,000 are foreign students from 147 countries and it is generally thought that their number will increase. Most of the students spend more than three hours in the University and they can benefit of a large panel of facilities that London Met provides. One of them is the catering service. We have noticed that some students don’t use the on-site canteen facilities and in term to attract them we thought that can be beneficial to know how satisfied are students who have been using this service and if they would have higher expectation, what could be improved.

The purpose of this research is to investigate how often students use the catering facilities and how satisfied are they. Another aim is to discover the student’s expectations to deduce what aspects of improvement the canteen need to focus on.

Questionnaire for our project

Research about the catering service at London Metropolitan University

QUESTIONNAIRE

We would appreciate your contribution to our research by filling this questionnaire.

Tell us about you!

Nationality:

Age: O 19-23 O 24-28 O 29-35

Gender : O Male O Female

Let’s start!

1. How often do you use the catering facilities?

O everyday O more then 3 times per week O 2-3 times per week

O once per week O never

2. Do you think the quality of served food is:

O very good O good O fair O poor

3. Do you need a special diet? You can tick more than one!

O low fat food O low salt food O gluten free O hallal

O lactose free O no special diet

If any other, please mention:…………..


4. Thinking about the food prices, how would you rate?

O expensive O affordable O cheap


5. There is enough variety of food in the canteen. Do you…

O strongly agree O agree O no opinion O disagree O strongly disagree

6. If you could add just one dish to the menu, it will be…………….


7. What kind of food do you usually eat from canteen?

O Hot food O salads O sandwiches O hot drinks O soft drinks O other

8. Are you satisfied with the quality of drinks in the canteen?

O YES O NO

9. Please tick as appropriate:

I have to spend a long time to be served

O most of the time O sometimes O never O no opinion

The dining area is clean

O most of the time O sometimes O never O no opinion

The canteen is well ventilated

O most of the time O sometimes O never O no opinion

I am satisfied by the portion size

O most of the time O sometimes O never O no opinion

The staff pay attention to customers

O most of the time O sometimes O never O no opinion

I can find an available place to sit

O most of the time O sometimes O never O no opinion



10. If you have any suggestion for improving the catering service, please let us know.
…………………………………………………………………………………….




Thank you!

HOMEWORK: My secret life

I wonder why people are so inquisitive. We don’t know our self well, but we want to know everything about the others. I think it is in the human being to be inquisitive and to wish what is forbidden…like Eva and Adam.

Sometime we need to tell ours friends about happy or sad moments we lived…hopping to find recognition or an invigorating relationship between us and our friends. With whom can we share a secret? If it is a secret, you don’t tell anyone…but let’s take a look at the dictionary‘s definition (http://www.answers.com/topic/secret):

1. “Kept hidden from knowledge or view; concealed.
2. Dependably discreet.
3. Operating in a hidden or confidential manner: a secret agent.
4. Not expressed; inward: their secret thoughts.
5. Not frequented.
6. Known or shared only by the initiated: secret rites.
7. Beyond ordinary understanding; mysterious.

8. Containing information, the unauthorized disclosure of which poses a grave threat to national security”

According to this definition I shouldn’t write in my blog about my secret life…this writing is about my life.

The home I grew up in was a flat apartment block. My village is on the banks of Danube River, inside the Danube Delta. Living in a natural reserva means sometime being isolated from the rest of the world. But I enjoyed my childhood away from noise pollution, cars and mindless vandalism. I used to help my parents on the farm, feeding the animals or working the land.

When I was a child I wanted to be be a doctor. I created a chemistry laboratory in my room and I had been experimenting with new drugs on my dolls. I discovered that in mathematics and physics disciplines I was better than others children and I wanted to become an engineer at the village mine, the only industrial activity of this place. I started realise that my parents are working very hard in this mine and I wanted to change their life being their engineer. Today I finished my studies in business of corporation and sole the though to go back and living in my village scare me. How quickly die the dreams of a child! Despite their ephemeral aspect, we need dreaming to go on.

The moment that changed me for ever is a bad thing that had happen to me…my secret. But don’t we change every day a little? Life is a progression and what we see, hear, and live in a lifetime is changing us.

My greatest inspiration was Eminescu, a celebrity in poetry in Romania and Mircea Eliade. Eminescu’ poem is reflecting love and sadness’ emotions. Mircea Eliade was a historian of religions, fiction novelist, a teacher, a philosopher, but the one of his book that changed me is “Adam si Eva” which explain the “déjà vu, déjà connu” phenomenon.

When I was a child, at night I was dreaming of being princes. Today, at night I dream of real life.
Men think that the primary concern of woman is looking in the mirror. What I see when I look in a mirror is a rather fat and short person, but image change function of days spirit.

My style icon…I don’t have one anymore. I used to emulate one of my cousin…she was studying medicine and was so kind with all people around her, but I grow up and I sow that things are not what they seems to be. We are all prisoners of our selfish life.

My favourite item of clothing…I don’t have one still I’m comfortable with.

You wouldn’t know it but I’m very good at improvising. For example I can cook couscous in the microwave, and I can make a sauce function that what I can find in my fridge. I never go out to bay the right ingredients. You may not know it but I’m no good at history and geography…I never liked learning the important years of different countries’ history, but if someone rephrasing for me their stories like a legend, I’ll remember all my life.

All my money goes on…I don’t have enough money…My little money goes mainly in phone bills ( I speak to much with my mother) and in my survive out border.

If I have time to myself…I listen music, I drink and I smoke… altogether still I think about my past, my present and my future. Of course I prefer stretch out on the grass, admire the blue sky with its shining eyes and hear the restless waves of the sea, but I’m spending the most part of my life in the noisy cities.

I drive…I don’t drive. I have learned driving with an incompetent instructor but I haven’t find time to take my drive licence.

My house is…I don’t have my own house. I’m renting in London one room, I cancelled my rent contract in France and in Romania I’m living with my parents or my friend.

My most valuable possession is …me, my brother, my parents and my friends all over the world.

The last album I bought…I never bought one. My brother provide me any music I want or I don’t want.

In 10 year’s time, I hope to be…enough happy and rich to help my family, hope to be surrounded by friends and hope to be enough powerful to earn a smile from sad faces.

My real-life villain…I discovered that each of us feed an evil inside…we are such a selfish being. My greatest regret is I’m not different. I heart people and I got heart. This is a part of our little life…it suppose to make you stronger.
…if I could change one thing about my self…but I can’t.

Today my life in more then seven words…be tolerant, ignore what you can’t change and pay attention at what you can change.

ABOUT ADDICTION

When we decide that an individual is addicted? Peoples have tendency to call addiction the dependence on behaviour or on a substance that can destroy your health. Most of us are dependent of something. I smoke, he drinks, she takes drugs, they do harm their selves and she can’t stop eating…..she can not or she dose not want it? What about people who can not stop thinking have sexual activities and they abuse of someone weak…are they addicted or just mad? According to the definition I found they are not addicted because their health is not threatened by their action. A common problem in our days is the dependence to computer games, internet and gambling… they don’t destroy their organism neither, but we call them addicted, so I have searched other definitions:

- “a chronic relapsing condition characterized by compulsive drug-seeking and abuse and by long-lasting chemical changes in the brain » (medical dictionary definition )

- the state of being enslaved to a habit or practice or to something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming (dictionary)

I’m not a psychiatric or doctor to decide if there is a sexual addiction, and even if this subject demands more researches, it is not the primer aspect of this writing…so I’ll pass on it. It is always easier to speak about something that you seen or you felt…that you think you know... which concern you; it’s always about us. We are just little selfish creatures.

I had started smoking “because of my friends”. I had been smoking searching a kind of euphoria sensation…when I couldn’t find anymore, I have been smoking because of sadness, stress, depression. Today my cigarette represents my motivation to wake up in the morning, to go in class, to work, to spend evenings with people who speaks about things that don’t interest me ( because it doesn’t concern ME), to imagine time goes faster….I’m addicted. For him, the alcohol represents the award at the end of each working and stressful day…and he thinks he’s addicted. She is overweighed and she continues eating more that she needs…..JUST FOR PLESURE…but we have all an excuse ADDICTION. We can’t stop this behaviour, we are depended. We feel bad if we don’t smoke, drink or eat, and we don’t want to feel that. Is this behaviour destroying generally human organism? Maybe not mine maybe is already too late for me or maybe just doesn’t matter anymore. People don’t understand that we do that because we love our self, because we love the present (this moment when I’m smoking, he’s drinking, she’s eating)…because we are unconsciously so selfish and so self loving, that we are convinced we are victims of addiction.

…don’t even try to judge us. You think you’re free, but in someway in your little life you are depended on one believe, on other peoples, on one activity, on chocolate, on coffee…on something; you just ignore it having the impression you’re different.
“People do not realise that what is opposed to something is also identical with it.”

Review - such a mess in my head

I did all the extra exercises from the Language Leader CD :) concerning Communication (unit1), Environment (unit2), Sport (unit3)....it was not so bad. Is still obvious that I’m not an expert n grammar, but since I arrived in London, I have been doing some progress...Is my last sentence using the right tenses? I have no idea. But I really try to understand when we use one of the tense aspects and why. I have been studying English for two years at school, when I was 14years old, and after that I hadn't touched grammar again. I'm doing it now and it's not so easy like I expected to be. Yesterday I barrowed 2 grammar books from the library...so, I’ll be a tolerant person and I’ll try to understand it (despite my belief that it is not the most important thing - but I'm agree it can be useful). I don't see it like an impediment, my self-studying can solve the problems, but unfortunately, it will not help me much for tomorrow Alex's test. I need time.

It’s strange. I have been watching American films since I was a little girl and I’m a good listener. I’m reading every day the Metro newspaper, because I’m spending two hours per day in the underground and I don’t have anything better to do….of course there are words that I never met before, but I can understand the meaning of the article. I enjoy reading and writing, much more than studying grammar. I’m such a rambler…I started to write all the nonsense in my blog, just because I don’t want to get back to my language leader coursebook (“try think before write, Ramona. You’re changing the style of your writing and not in good way”). I’m going mad, so I should better go to sleep. Bye everyone!

…can someone “help” me tomorrow? I was joking. But maybe someone can correct my text and send me a comment.

"This is the Man's World" - James Brown

Today we had our presentation. It was the first time that I enjoyed making a presentation. I invested a lot of time. Our group has tried to bring the audience into the Manx world. See more in our travel group blog: http://traveltoisleofman.blogspot.com/

...and tomorrow we'll have a grammar test, so I'll do better going to review a little...I don't think that is really important to be an expert in tenses. I would like rather speak fluently than use the write tense of verbs. But sometime we don't have choice and we have to do things that we don't like, but maybe can be useful...I never liked English before and now I'm spending a lot of money to learn it...

TED.COM

• 
  a fascinating talk, http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/joshua_klein_on_the_intelligence_of_crows.html

• an inspiring talk,
  http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/william_kamkwamba_on_building_a_windmill.html
  http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/bono_s_call_to_action_for_africa.html
  http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/mena_trott_tours_her_blog_world.html

• a funny talk:
  http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/rives_controls_the_internet.html
  http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/nathan_myhrvold_on_archeology_animal_photography_bbq.html

QUANTIFIERS

Grammar is my weakness in English. This blog message is entirely dedicated to quantifiers.

“Quantifiers are words that are used to state quantity or amount of something without stating the actually number. “

I find an interesting link on the internet: http://www.smic.be/smic5022/quantifiers1.htm and I did the exercises online:
- the first exercise learn you how to use: little, a little, few, a few. My first score was 63%. I wasn’t pleased so I’m trying to remember the rules:

Little -> uncountable nouns -------- = ------hardly any, no much
A little-> uncountable nouns -------- = ------some, small amount
Few-> countable nouns -------- = ------ hardly any, no much
A few-> countable nouns -------- = ------some, small number

The Alex’ homework for tomorrow is also about the quantifiers.

Exercise 7/29
0%
None (both)
Almost none (countable)
Hardly any (both) / little (uncountable)/ few (countable)
Some (both) / a few (uncountable)
Many (countable) / much (uncountable)
Far too many / far to much
A lot of (both)/ All (both)
100%

HOMEWORK - TOPIC SENTENCE

Read the passage. Underline the topic sentence.

Circle the sentences that don't belong.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Probably the best loved of American poets the world over is Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Many of his lines are as familiar to us as rhymes from Mother Goose or the words of nursery songs learned in early childhood. Thumbelina was written by Hans Christian Anderson. Like these rhymes and melodies, they remain in the memory and accompany us through life.

There are two reasons for the popularity and significance of Longfellow's poetry. First, he had the gift of easy rhyme. He wrote poetry as a bird sings, with natural grace and melody. Many song birds are found in Massachusetts. Read or heard once or twice, his rhyme and meters cling to the mind long after the sense may be forgotten. Second, Longfellow wrote on obvious themes which appeal to all kinds of people. His poems are easily understood; they sing their way into the consciousness of those who read them.

Americans owe a great debt to Longfellow because he was among the first of American writers to use native themes. Columbus called the Native Americans "Indians" because he thought he had landed in the Indies. He wrote about the American scene and landscape, the American Indian ('Song of Hiawatha'), and American history and tradition ('The Courtship of Miles Standish', 'Paul Revere's Ride', 'Evangeline').

At the beginning of the 19th century, America was a stumbling babe as far as a culture of its own was concerned. The people of America had spent their years and their energies in carving a habitation out of the wilderness and in fighting for independence. Wood carving was a common American pastime. Literature, art, and music came mainly from Europe and especially from England. Nothing was considered worthy of attention unless it came from Europe. But "the flowering of New England," as Van Wyck Brooks terms the period from 1815 to 1865, took place in Longfellow's day, and he made a great contribution to it.

I

The new legend of the Isle of Man ( short version)

I was wondering how many people visited or have a little information concerning the Isle of Man. I was surprised to find that same of them never heard about it or don’t really know where is it situated. So I decide to write a story about this land using all the information I could collected.

Long time ago, the giant Manannán Mac Lír took a huge rock on the Northern Ireland and droped it into the sea. The wind and the water carved the rock and gave it life. The people who live there are called Manx and their land is the Isle of Man (IOM). During their lomg history, they have built on the steep wooded valleys, homes, farming villages and cities. Some testimonies of their sweat are the Casteltown and its medieval Castle Rushen, the Corrins Tower, the Lady Isabella, the Cregneash Village, the Peel Castle, and the Tower of Refuge.

.

The Manx created a close-knit community and their own flag. A brutal punishment by hanging was imposed on people who betrayed their society. This capital punishment was abolished only in 1993 and people say that the Castle Rushen is still haunted by a "woman in black" hanged for murdering his children.

.

Time passed and their society changed faster then their law. Even today the abortion is not allow in the IOM. Sometime, a close-knit community forgotten by the rest of the world can look like a prison, but each 'tribe' has its imperfections.

The IOM will always be an enchanting island with deep waters, high sandy headlands, the rarest wetland wildlife and the Manx have found a way to attract the young of the other countries. They have done this by creating a Tourist Trophy (motocycle race), offering haven taxes and the movie industry. Their stunning views have appeared in more than 80 films (such as Trauma, Cinderella and Lassie).

What the people say about Isle of Man ? (long version)

I was wondering haw many British people visited or have any information concerning the Isle of Man. I was surprised to find that same of them never heard about it or don’t really know where is it situated. Despite his unpopularity in London tribe , I succeed to collect same interesting stories about capital punishment, lower taxes, abortion low and movies productions. I couldn’t verify all of them, but maybe this fact can provides the charm of a legend. When I thought finding a subject that can steel my classmates’ attention, another impediment dissipates my entire enthusiast: how can I write about these little stories with no connection between them? So I decide to tell you another story using the information I could get by people sayings and the cyber universe: Internet.

Long time ago, the giant Manannán Mac Lír took a huge rock on the Northern Ireland and drop it into the sea. The wind and the water carved the rock and gave it life. People that have been living there are called Manx and their land, Isle of Man. Along of their history they build on the steep wooded valleys, homes, farming villages and cities. Some testimonies of their sweat are the Casteltown and medieval castles (Castle Rushen), the Corrins Tower (1806), The Lady Isabella (1800), the Cregneash Village, the ruins of the Peel Castle (1392), and the Tower of Refuge (1832).

The Manx had created their own flag represented by tree legs in red background. ('What has three legs and flies? Manx trousers’) and they have been living in a close-knit community. A brutal punishment by hanging expected the people who betrayed their society. In 1872, the last hanged man was called John Kewish. The Queen Victoria was not happy to be involved in those criminal punishments and she asked the abolishment, but the Manx low didn’t change until 1993. A legend say that a "woman in black" hanged for murdering his children is hunting in the Castle Rushen of Casteltown.

Time passed and their society changed faster then their low. Until today the abortion is not allow in the Isle of Man. Sometime, a close-knit community forgotten by the rest of the world, can look like a prison for their members. A woman, who decides by her self she’s not prepared to be a parent, has no choice.

.

But each tribe has his imperfection. The Isle of Man, still stay an enchanting island with deep waters, high sandy headlands, the rarest wetland wildlife and the Manx found a way to attract the young of the other countries. In our days, this land is associated with motorcycle race, the TT (Tourist Trophy), haven taxes and the movies industry. His stunning views appeared in more than 80 films and TV dramas (Trauma, Cinderella, The dark, Lassie, Finley the fire Engine, The Cotage …

slides show Isle of Man

"The attitude of the Manx people is best summed up by a joke:

A tourist having a pint of Okell's beer in the pub is joined at the bar by a fisherman with a bucket of live crabs. The fisherman gets a drink and ignores the bucket. The tourist watches as the crabs skitter about, trying to climb out of the bucket. He says to the fisherman 'Aren't you afraid you'll lose your crabs?' The fisherman glances down at the bucket and replies, 'No, those there are Manx crabs. As soon as it looks like one of them is going to get out, the others gang up and pull him back down to their level."

Source:http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/pda/A3197207?s_id=2

WRITING COMPARATIVELY

Bruce Parry's Tribe versus my tribe

Bruce Parry travels around the world and explore forgotten lands. How people live there, what are their beliefs and what future expect them? To get an answer to these questions, he tries to integrate into each different tribe like one of their members. In this short essay I will analyse some cultural aspects like the value system and the religious beliefs presents in Adi’s tribe (illustrated in a documentary by Bruce Parry) and in my tribe (an isolated village from Romania).

I have been educated in the Christian religion, so we believe in one God and in the holy trinity. The first difference I notice in the Bruce Parry’s documentary was that the Adi people are recognising hosts of deities. They take care that the spirits who live in the forest or in their houses don’t look at them in a bad light, because they have the power to protect them and to help them during the hunting. A multitude of rituals are due at this belief: incantations, sacrifices, gifts. In the same time, younger people started to be influenced by the Christian religion and they go to church, all like us. The superstitions survives in every culture even if sometime they are forbidden because of the religion (the Adi’s tribe think they can see the future in a leaf, the Romanian tribe – in a cup of coffee, the Senegalese tribe - in the shells, the French tribe – in cards).

Every tribe has an important festival each year. We all pray for forgiveness and for thriving, we sing, we cook special foods. There are dissimilar ways to prepare the festival due to our environments, our life standard and our traditions. Before the Christmas, my tribe’s people have to fast and then they sacrifice a pig to prepare their foods. Adi’s men go hunting before the Aran festival and then sacrifice a kind of beef. Even the young who adopted Christian religion participate at this ceremony. They share the animal meet and nothing is lost. I think we act likely the same when we invite friends and all the family members to eat in our homes. The most important thing in the values system of the both tribes is the family, despite the different meaning of this word. The Adi’s family is larger and not all the members are relied by the blood. They have also a chief of the village respected like a father.

Each tribe has his own culture. We have to be tolerant and to observe the beliefs, the behaviours and the values system of a tribe who seems to be so much different to ours. We can not understand another culture if we don’t try to listening the other. Trying to live in the others tribe, we’ll learn that we have a lot in common and the distances between the two cultures will diminish. We’ll be capable of appreciating the wealth of our own culture and the other’s culture, to understand why sometime they act differently and we’ll be capable to live with in harmony.
“People do not realise that what is opposed to something is also identical with it.”

CHANGING ENVIRONMENT: Alex's homework

Vocabulary : Exercise 6 page 19

Word combinations

- climate change
- false impression
- scientific journal
- global warming
- satellite images
- significant effect

Complete the text with the word combinations:

I read in a respectable scientific journal that global warming is already happening. Satellite images have shown that climate change is even reducing the legendary snow on the top of Mount Kilimanjaro. Since 2000, observations of the significant effect of rising temperatures have started to mount up. Even the American business community has stopped trying to give a false impression that everything it’s all right.

GRAMMAR: Exercise 7 page 19

- present perfect simple and continuous

« sea levels have been rising for the last 20 years »

a) Which sentence focuses on an activity that is still continuing? Which tense is used?
- present perfect continuous: has been shrinking

b) Which sentence focuses on the result (or lake of result) of an activity? What tense is used?
- present perfect simple: has increased, have not achieved, has had, have begun, has found, have not had

c) Which tense is used for an activity that is completed?
- past simple


Observation: With since and for you can use some verbs in the present perfect simple and present perfect continuous with no difference in meaning (eg: live, stay, work, study, teach, wait, drive)
She’s lived / she’s been living in that house for 20 years.

Speaking: Exercise 9 page 19
Discuss changes in your environment. Use the present perfect simple and continuous.

The first warning about global warming was in 1950. Since then, change climate has been evoluating dramatically faster then that scientists predicted. Many species risk loosing their habitat (eg : polar bears) and the people had realised that the future of our planet is compromised.

In the south east of Romania were I have been living, people complain about the seasons’ characteristics changing. The summer become hut and droughty and that had a significant bad effect on agriculture. Our grandparents told that in winter the layer of snow was huge. Today is rarely snowing in winter. Latest years, our region has received more and more alarms. The unexpected hard rain has drowned farmlands and inhabitants' houses. All these changes have been decreasing people’s standards life, because of their indirect effects. The drought affects the agriculture, so less foods for domestic animals and for inhabitants who become more susceptible to disease.

About the global environmental problems like climate change, pollution, forest fires, oil spills, hole in the ozone layer, each of us has already heard from the media. But people are continuing to destroy their own house, their planet. The only hope is that “every single one of us makes a difference every day” (Jane Goodall). The difference is to make a choice, to adopt the behaviour and to act in a way that does not harm our planet.

LISTENING TO JANE GOODALL

Jane Goodall: Helping humans and animals live in Africa

The famous scientist Jene Goodall hold a conference in Ted.com.

The video of about 24minutes is available at:

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/jane_goodall_at_tedglobal_07.html

(listening exercise)

Janne Godall has started to study the chimpanzees’ behaviour since 1960. Today it’s known that they behave nearly like humans “they are more like us then any other living creature”. To exemplify these behaviours Janne told us that chimpanzees live until 60 years old. At about 13 years old the female can reproduce and after her first baby she needs 5 or 6 years to reproduce again. During this time, the mother takes care of her baby (she carries him on her back, she teach him how react in a normal day life and she sleeps with her child every night). During their childhood, the chimpanzees observe and imitate the older other. Each of them has his own personality. They don’t have a “spoken language” but they are capable of many gestures, postures (embracing, kissing, taking the hand, patting one to another on the back, throwing rocks) and feelings (compassion, love, altruism, extreme brutality) similar with the humans’. They are “territorially aggressive”, even capable to lead a kind of primitive war.

Janne still continuants his observation today and she affirms there is a blurry line between this specie and humans. A global problem is that many species, like chimpanzees with who we share the planet are loosing their habitat. Since 1960, Janne has remarked how forested area of Gambia is diminishing. She asked her self hows to save the chimpanzees while very poor people living around the national park are confronted with vary hard conditions of life. The number of people living in this area is increasing. They started with 12 villages and now there are 24. The only solution is to improve the life of these people (to create farmlands, schools, to ease the access to the fresh water, to provide the opportunity of micro-credits, to inform about family planning and about HIV). This programme is already started and day by day people understand about the need of conservation of their trees (to avoid the erosion sols). They agree to leave 10% and 20% of there land, so the trees can grow back and chimpanzees can travel and interact with other groups outside the natural park.

In Africa there is a great deal of poverty, so people cut desperately more and more trees for providing food for them self and their family. We have to give them something in exchange, to care of. “What are we doing to our planet?”

A science man told if every people attends the life standard of an European, we’ll need four planets. “But we have just one planet”. Jane ask how it is possible the most intelligent been of these planet, capable of high technologies, destroy the only home he has. Everywhere in the world we see the pollution (“the earth is poising our foods, the air that we breathe is posing us, the water […] is been polluted by agricultural, industrial and household chemicals.”), sol erosion, climate change. “And the poor people are affected worst”.(ex: In sub-Saharan, the rain doesn’t come.)

At the end of the conference, Jane Goodall, try to sensibiliser each listener to think before harm our planet about the compromising the future of their children and nephews. She began a programme with a message of hope called Roots and Shoots in Tanzania, witch today it is spread in 97 countries around the world. Each roots & shoots group can choose between one of these projects: “to help their own community and help communities in others parts of the world, to help animals, to help the environment that we all share”.

“People can make a better world for all living things.”

SUMMARY: Isle of Man may strengthen education links with China

'It's a big world out there – there are 400 million Chinese people learning English at the moment. [...]The Isle of Man might be a small country but we have big aspirations.'
(Adrienne Burnett; Courier article: Isle of Man may strengthen education links with China)

The Confucius Institute has more then 200 centers established in the Universities all over the world. Its purpose is to teach students about the Chinese’s language and culture. With a competitor economy, China has maybe a long term strategy to approach the futures business partners.

Today, the United Kingdom has ten of this institutes and Isle of Man may have his own nearly. Few days ago, members of the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan China) visited and shown their interest for the Ballakermeen High School in Douglas (Isle of Man). If they’ll be in agreement after the negotiations, the partnership will be officialised by November.

LOCAL NEWS: Abortion - a Manx woman's story

In our days everyone speaks about freedom. I wonder in what degree a woman or a man is free? Is our freedom just a dream? Is not it limited by the local law? The abortion was a controversial subject for long time. The Isle of Man law allows the abortion in few cases: the future mother’s life or health it is in danger, the baby risk a seriously handicap or he is the result of a rape. What about a woman who decides by her self she’s not prepared to be a parent?

A 19 young woman old get pregnant when great opportunities able to change her life open to her. Decided to change his working class situation, she is not prepared to become a mother. Unfortunately, the Isle of Man low doesn’t allow the abortion in her case. The only issue she finds is to go in one clinic of England. She feels like a prisoner of her own land, that she never left before. Our young woman had managed to finance her trip to a clinic from Liverpool. Not any member of her family could be present, for the simple fact that they couldn’t afford it.

Today, with difficult and unforgettable souvenirs, our character finished his studies and got a doctorate. She says: “I would've liked to have a choice”. I think we are never free; we have to submit at the rules that our society had create before…function of his believes. But the society is always changing, so why we don’t change her rules also?

(Source of the story: http://www.bbc.co.uk/isleofman/content/articles/2008/08/20/pro_choice_feature.shtml)