The Outspoken Read the Truth Ulacit English 4 Group 3
Apr 02, 2016
Solar Panels in Costa Rica
Every day the temperature of the Earth is rising. We can feel and see the changes. In Costa Rica we also see a lot of
changes, this year, Arenal Dam, largest hydro electrical plant in Costa Rica, started with one of the lower bookings in the
last seven years water. The cost of electricity bills even forced some industries to explore destinations outside the country
to spend part of their processes in the pursuit of savings and competitiveness.
For this reason, ICE allows clients to have their own generation plants, as
part of a pilot program created in 2000. A very low rate of customers are
participating of this plan, but the latest count registered 200 inscriptions.
The sun is a star and has practically unlimited energy. Most of this solar
energy is wasted. With all this constant changes happening, people should
see the solar energy as an option. The challenge is to make use of the solar
energy directly and in a non-polluting fashion. The solar power is still used in
two primary forms. The first one is thermo solar, where the heat of the sun is
used to heat water. The second form is the photovoltaic power, where
electricity is produced directly from the sun with no moving parts.
It is said that Henry Becquerel discovered the photovoltaic effect. The
photovoltaic effect is the production of electricity directly from the sun. Over
the years the photovoltaic power has increased, and became more practical.
Also it is one of the most promising renewable energy sources in the planet. This power does not require a lot of
maintenance and large scale installations to operate. One of the advantages is that a turbine is not necessary to generate
energy. The panel has cells that lasts for decades. This energy provides users a way to generate their own energy.
This solar energy has a lot of advantages for the customers. First,
the bill of electricity is going to be much lower than usual. Second,
as the panel generates throughout the day, when the intake of
the house in the house is low, the excess energy goes to the ICE
network. Although, this process of installing and buying the panel
isn’t cheap, the investment is worth. In Costa Rica, the interest on
buying panels is still very low. On the other hand, foreigners are
more interested about panels and their benefits. Another
important advantage is that the return on investment for
installing a solar panel takes from 4 to 6 years depending on the
installed equipment and consumption.
From now on, we need to consider a change in the current energy system to eliminate or use much less fossil fuels. There
are alternative technologies available for the use of solar energy that can allow the diversification of energy sources. The
main problem for the users and general population is the economic factor. Because it is very expensive and takes a lot to
get the investment back, the majority of families in C.R., can’t afford a solar panel in their houses. To continue to create
awareness about the situation and benefits, the government must help and support this kind of projects. Solar energy has a
lot of benefits since it does not pollute. We have the power as users and consumers to be the leaders and decide the
direction of this change in energy systems.
Liliana Zheng
To Counter the Indifference of the people Costa Ricans or “Ticos” are known for living in a tiny space in the American continent. Also, they are known for being a bit
behind on technology; but, above all, Costa Rica is well known for being a “green country”. A minority of people contribute
to the environment every day, and the other part are contaminating. But the biggest group is cataloged as “indifferent”. The
reality of Costa Rica is that people don’t care about the
environment, even though the education and blurb of
some companies are high enough to embrace the
whole country.
Why is it good to save water? Water is vital to grow
food, keep everything clean, provide electricity,
control fire, and last but not least, to stay alive! But
the demand of it has a great impact on the water
reserves. There are some natural water supplies these
supplies are called “fountain heads”. We are using
this fountain heads during the whole year to supply
water, but the more we consume the less water the
fountain head has, threatening it to extinction. If this
happens the whole where you live will run out of
water, forcing AyA to supply water from other
fountains starting to affect the whole country and therefore, the planet.
Why is it good to use less energy? Saving energy has many advantages.
One of them is to save money. Who doesn’t want to have more money
at the end of the month? But the most important thing of all is how it
affects the environment? Money is a good enough reason, but after
each time you turn on the light a part of the resources is consumed
forever, like carbon or gas. Carbon and gas are nonrenewable resources,
they aren’t so far of being extinguished, limiting ourselves the ways to
generate power, forcing the ICE to substitute the energy production
using hydropower (or other electricity suppliers), threatening to waste
this resource.
People in the whole world use chemicals for almost everything. To wash the car,
to clean themselves, to clean the house, to get rid of pests, etc. These chemicals are the most important thing to pay
attention. After using any chemical it will probably end up on the grass, killing the grass and therefore altering the cycle of
carbon via external factors. Also, most of the products, after using them, become gaseous, in some cases affecting the ozone
layer by increasing the hole size and letting more ultraviolet rays to go in the planet affecting every single life form in every
single space on earth, forcing the human to buy more things to protect itself, increasing the demand of products and therefore
more energy, petroleum, coal, gas, etc.
Exhorting the people on what are the most known methods to help the environment of the country or earth may be helpful
to solve the indifference or ignorance of people, trying to minimize the continuous pollution. Helping Costa Rica to become
neutral carbon isn’t a work for one or isn’t the work of the government. It is a job for all of us! It’s our responsibility to start
saving the Earth. Yes, saving it because we are losing it. The earth is dying, and the only way to help the planet, and ourselves
is to become conscious of what we are doing to it, that is destroying it.
Claudio Andrade
C-Neutral country by 2021
A goal has been stated, “We will be a carbon neutral country in 2021”. Can we make it on time? What can we do as individuals
to achieve the objective? How are industries and institutions cooperating with the aim. What are the local, regional and
country authorities to walk toward it along with the citizens and communities. In this article we are going to find out how
this is happening, and why it is important for every inhabitant to know how to greenify himself/herself and the country,
accompany us in this wonderful exploration.
Municipal governments are implementing regional
programs with the aim of making conscious among the
individuals of what can they do to be a green citizen.
Several organizations with the sponsorship of
authorities have put to speed programs consisting of
several parts, classifying and recycling the garbage form
the dump trucks and providing adequate garbage bins.
Another aspect of it is the community awareness part,
making each community and individual conscious about
what kind of garbage they produce, how it is recycled,
and how the contaminating effects and consequences
can be minified.
What can we as individuals make to help achieving the
goal is to reduce the consumption of plastics especially
non degradable ones; see if the product that you will be
buying has slow degradation time, and if it doesn’t do I
really need it also classify garbage according to its category. Another expression of a green conscience is to take care of nature
and its valued resources. Remember not to throw garbage to the rivers, plant your own trees and avoid deforestation. Allow
yourself to be a friend of the nature; a constructor of a better planet. We only have one so let’s take care of it.
The Costa Rican government can make several ecological advancements. It can commit more hydro electrical plants, enact
more wind farms at the coastline were the wind is strong, implement wavecolectors and energy extraction from volcanos.
Actually, in Costa Rica, 95.1% (According to CEPAL Study) of the energy is supplied by renewable means. The other 4.7% is
produced by non-renewable means mostly diesel plants. We as citizens must claim for broader
support of clean technology and resources, and that the government really involves itself
into the greener and cleaner country that everybody needs.
On the emission angle, the authorities and citizens must make a combined effort to be able
to reduce the carbon thick particles that fill our atmosphere, putting to work more efficient
public transportation systems with wider coverage. The cars made before the 1990 weren’t
built for low carbon emissions; so, if you own one of these models be sure to check the
catalytic converter, filters and computer calibration. If you want to acquire a new car, try
that it is a hybrid, help the nature, and it will help you!
If this country wants to reach the goal by 2021, it must actively involve itself into it; not just by telling it, but really being an
active player in its own process of greenifying and cleaning process. We as citizens must help with the evolution of this actions
to allow the formation of a more beautiful land. Are we going to make it? Yes, of course we will! This goal is a very splendid
complement to celebrate along with our bicentenary.
John Moya
Why Bullying
In the last years, we have seen that bullying is an issue very treated in schools and high schools. But what is it truly. Is
unwanted, aggressive behavior among school aged children that involves a real or perceived power imbalance. The behavior
is repeated, or has the potential to be repeated, over time. Students that are being bulled are victims of rejection,
discrimination and violence, because they are not equal to the rest. Kids who bully use their power such as physical strength
and popularity to control or harm others. Power imbalance can change over time and in different situations, even if they
involve the same people.
Bullying includes actions such as making threats, spreading rumors,
attacking someone physically or verbally, and excluding someone from
a group on purpose. The problem above can be performed in three ways:
physical, verbal or through internet. Because this situation is occurring,
several organizations have been taken the task to investigate the causes
of the problem. One of the main reasons, is because the abuser or bully
is abused at home or feels a need to draw attention to feel popular or
important. What they often don’t know is that these actions can mark
the affected person for the rest of his or her life.
Bullying, in most of the cases occur in high school. This doesn’t mean that
students are locked in the bathroom in all the recesses, some simply
receive hurtful words or humiliating messages. Nowadays, many young
people are victims of this problem only because of their musical, sporting
taste or even sexual preferences. Kids who are bullied, are the targets of bullying
behavior. Some factors put children at more risk of being bullied, but not all children with these characteristics will be bullied.
Sometimes, these children may need help learning how to respond to bullying.
The consequences of bullying can occur at the moment or in the future. For example, there are girls who suffer from bulimia
or anorexia because their classmates called them fat. Similarly, there are some that hurt themselves physically and they fall
in depression. One of the major concerns, is that many of those affected have come to commit suicide because of the
pressure, depression and desperation they feel. Some kids don’t defend the
others, because they feel fear, that they can be bullied. But there are some
that are not afraid of this bullies and make justice for the ones that can’t.
In my opinion, bullying is an issue that should be given more importance.
Not only they have to help the victims, it is also recommended to work with
the abuser, to change his/her attitudes. Nowadays, there are organizations
that are responsible for combating this phenomenon, but it is necessary
that each of us do our part to fight this situation back. It is very sad to see
that there are little kids suffering and losing their courses because of this
awful situation. It is important to impulse the kids that are being bullied; to
report this with their teachers and parents, so they can take action on this
and put a big punishment to those bullies.
Fabiola Cedeño
Think Before Acting
We can say that violence is when someone attacks other people, physically and with words. This is something that comes
since people were kids. When we are violent, we don’t know. Because in the majority of the cases people act like this way
naturally. Also, it is normal for people to be a little bit violent because there are always reasons for us to get angry. The
problem is when we cannot control ourselves.
Now, is it possible for people to be always calmed? I think it
is possible; it is just to get the control of our mind. If there are
people who cannot deal with this, or they think that it is so
difficult for them, they have to look for psychological help.
Psychologists are specialized people in treating people’s
feelings and look for solutions with therapies. Sometimes this
becomes harder and it depends on how much they are
interested in doing a therapy.
Actually, in my perception the problem what we have is that
since we were kids, we were playing with violent video
games. These video games have a big impact in our lives.
Because the main idea of those video games is to kill people and
destroy cities. This is hard because, when these people are older, it
is not going to be easy for them to be pacific people.
Discrimination is when we separate somebody from our society. This is another important point, because we are seeing a
lot of cases where people are discriminated by different reasons, for example their nationality or their skin color. This is not
correct, because at the end, we all are humans beings. In our world, we
are losing feelings of fraternity. In Costa Rica we can see a lot of cases
of discrimination with people from our neighboring country.
After reading all this about violence and discrimination, can we build a
pacific country where violence and discrimination don’t exist? It could
be possible if everyone agrees. The difficult part is that we are millions
of people. But we don’t have to become discouraged, we have to be
positive and we have to do our changes which are needed to be the
example to follow. We have to remember something, and that is that
impediments are only in our minds.
Javier Delgado
Be Tolerant and Accept Them
Violence is defined as “intentional use of physical force or power, against oneself, another person or against a group, which
either results has a high likelihood in injury or psychological harm.” Discrimination defined as “an action that denies social
participation to categories of people based on prejudice.” So is spite of this, how children, middle age people, old age
people and immigrants, seem to be affected by violence and discrimination.
Nowadays, children are the most affected by violence and
discrimination that they receive from other. In the first place, we
have this from their parents, they are hurting their kids with
punches. They can´t control it. The reason of losing their patience,
is that because we are forgetting that in one time we were
children, and that we needed to do our things to grow up. Also,
we see these actions with babysitters, that treat kids like slaves,
and there are some proves in the internet with homemade videos.
Broadly speaking, now we have this phenomenon called bullying,
that is becoming popular and that a lot of people are practicing
against of children. This is the act of discrimination and hurting
someone, because of the appearance or their point of view, and it
affects them in an emotional way. We can also mention that
middle age, and old people are recurrent with these actions.
Middle age and old people are not exceptions to this problems even if
society thinks they are. For example some night clubs, do not accept
people under 40 or they look at them in a weird way. The same with
alcohol or drugs, because we think they cannot handle it, and that
those are only for the youngest. Well, maybe we are so immature
that we feel superior to them. On the other hand they confront
problems with social status and discrimination regarding of money.
We can mention work issues, because of the age. Seemingly they are
not the only ones that suffer with work or social status. Also the
immigrants are being affected by this problems.
The society we are living in today lacks of tolerance towards
immigrants. For example: job possibilities in Costa Rica and in USA
suffer a lot of discrimination with the payment and schedule. The
way they are treated by “normal” people is not the best. The citizens
are treated them like animals, but in a really bad way. We also take advantage of them. Most of the time, some people use
them for prostitution, because they profit of the language. So what can we do to correct this?
In conclusion, it has been proven, children, middle age, old people and immigrants, are daily affected by violence and
discrimination. According to the author Brian Celio “As much as it hurts, I would rather miss someone than hit someone.”
So is this the solution to this actions? To let somebody go is not the best. It is better if they learn some respect and how to
treat people that are different from each other. Maybe with this we would have a better world.
Karla Ruiz
Discrimination
Discrimination is a big problem in our society, because many people do this act often. For start the discrimination is an act
of reject to things, people, etc… Is a reject that can be for color like discrimination by ethnicity, also for disability people,
because for this people is very difficult to get a work. Others kinds of discrimination can be based on sexual orientation or
pregnancy discrimination.
Due to the differents kinds of discrimination, I consider that is important know these kinds. So I pretend to explain these.
For example the gender discrimination is based in reject according to if is woman
or man. Many women are rejected for just be woman and this is reflected in
the jobs, because in some jobs the salary for women is less than the salary of
men. Also the men think that the women are useless and that the women
cannot do the same thing that them. So discrimination is generated by them
thinking they are weak and cannot perform the work a man does.
Discrimination by ethnicity that is given to people who are set apart by race, by
color of skin, hair and others. In many cases this rejection of dark-skinned
people is for ignorance, because they think they are bad people, because it was
always considered as a color white symbolizes purity and innocence, while the
black color symbolizes evil , the dark. And this is why seeing a person with dark
skin is generated a fear to these people. But this discrimination is made by the
ignorance of the people, because they think are best that others and that's why
discrimination is given by ethnicity.
People with a problem of disability also have a lot of discrimination in society,
because they are in a difficult state for employment. When speaking of a
disabled person is to refer to someone with a mental, physical, intellectual
disabilities ... Which often prevents them do different tasks. The main place where
this rejection occurs is on jobs, because many companies do not like hiring these people because they are complicated to
accommodate them in a job that suits your needs, becoming this an act of rejection for have a disability.
Sexual orientation is something repulsion, because today there are many people who have a profound emotional, affection
or sexual attraction to people of the same gender or more than one gender. They are discriminated against because they
are individuals who are considered like disobedient of the God's command, so that the Christian people generate rejection
of them as having a sexual orientation inclined to the same sex. Also the parents are the primary to reject a gay or lesbian
child.
With pregnancy discrimination is exactly the same, many parents discriminate against their daughters for being pregnant at
a young age and in many cases are thrown out of their home. The society is stronger when critics and reject, mostly in jobs.
When a woman wants to get a job is complicated because many companies want to hire only men, because women can get
pregnant in any time and that would imply an inability of much time that would affect the company. Today there are laws
that help women to not suffer such discrimination in their jobs.
I think everyone should try not generate much rejection, because we are all equal, regardless of how others are, must be
respected. We must put aside ignorance and not discriminate against a person for the simple fact that it is black, or by
pregnancy. Everyone must have and apply a very important value that is called respect. It is a value that we must not only
put into practice but also teach our children.
Solange Soto
Change the Way You Think
Imagine, living in a perfect world, who treats people how we deserve. All with the rights no matter which is our skin color,
religion, economic situation, if you are a woman or a man. It will be the ideal world with the ideal life style. But, since many
years ago, the human race, has developed a superiority ego, and started believing that someone is better than other.
However with this thought, the violence appeared hand on with this. The feeling increased an irrational thought all around
the world.
Some people have the wrong concept with this aspect because there is a huge difference between discrimination,
stereotype, prejudice and then violence. Let’s start with
the concept of discrimination, this is when you and I
discriminate, in other words “separate” from the society
because, he, she or it does not have certain requirements
to fit into a group. The stereotype, this concept is related
with the perception you have about something or
someone. A very easy example: you hear in the news, that
most drug dealers are Colombian. So, when you meet a Colombian person, you will think that he or she is also a drug
dealer. The stereotype can became a prejudice; this action is to prejudge something or someone without knowing the
origin; because of the stereotype that exists about it.
We cannot leave behind all these concepts together with the violence suffered by the people every day in the environment
they develop in. Why women are today attacked? Because everything discussed above, the stereotype that man has about
her and the prejudice, and then the discrimination forcing her to do what is for him, what a woman should do. But
nevertheless women in the 21st century do not want
to feel with little freedom and depend on their
husbands. This is when violence begins to
appear, because his stereotype, and the ideas
he has are being changed. There is something
essential, not only can think of violence against
women and not just physical violence.
There are many groups around the world who
are discriminated and violent. A few weeks
ago, I read an article about how they are
treating homosexuals in Russia. The concept
that there is with this people and how they
“make fun” of them is assault and at points
where it has come to death. These are a small
group of people that are discriminated daily. Was there any time we thought about the consequences of these people? No,
I think not, because we are still doing it. First the emotional and psychological part, how we make that person feel inferior;
making believe that he or she can not belong to the society and take part of it freely with the same rights. In some cases
this has to develop into suicide even in very young people because of this discrimination that sometimes turns to violence.
So, what if our prejudices and stereotypes change and we can see all the people equally, without labeling? Over the time,
discrimination has been eradicating in many places with a fairly large population. Obviously, this cannot be done from one
day to another, it will take many years, and it may not be eradicated in 100%. But this is the minority that remain with
these ideas. So we can change this situation! It is entirely possible! We do not have any excuse to keep it the same.
Maria Chávez
Health Improvement
Over time, health has been an important topic for humans. To know human body and how it works, they have to
experiment in order to have knowledge. This will help to mitigate the production and transmission of disease. Also,
technology helped to investigates in a secure way of finding new diseases and developed new ways to facilitate the
application. Because of the benefits of the health advances, the government has an important role in the health system.
The main goal is to improve health and quality of life through the prevention and treatment of disease. It requires
surveillance of cases and health indicators, and through the promotion of healthy behaviors.
The progress plays an important role in disease prevention efforts in both the developing world and in developed countries.
For me, one of the basics developments is measure. Measures such as vaccines have contributed greatly to the health of
populations and increases in life expectancy. Vaccination can prevent a lot of disease. Is the most effective method of
preventing infectious diseases. The effectiveness of vaccination has been widely studied and verified; for example, the
influenza vaccine. Thanks to this
administration worldwide we have a
good control of all disease.
From the beginnings of human
civilization, Leviticus is believed to
be the first written health code in
world. The book dealt with personal
and community responsibilities and
included guidance regarding the
cleanliness of body, sexual health
behaviors, protection against
contagious diseases and the
isolation of lepers. After years pass
by, Louis Pasteur involved the
development of systems of
inoculation including the first
vaccine for rabies. Another
important discovery was the penicillin
by Alexander Fleming. This discovery
would be one of the most important discoveries of the Twentieth Century for its ability to kill bacteria and fight infectious
disease. Jonas Salk developed the first effective polio vaccine. Through mass immunization, the disease was wiped out in
the Americas.
Other developments were the pills. In 1960, Searle receives FDA approval to sell Enovid as a birth control pill. The
development of the first highly effective contraceptive transforms women's lives around the world and opens the door to
the sexual revolution. In the early eighty’s, a mysterious epidemic was identified as Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome
(AIDS). It was caused by the Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). It is now a global pandemic. More than 23 million people
with AIDS have died since 1981. Millions more are living with HIV.
As years continues, the Human Genome Project was formally established. Once achieved this information was have major
public health ramifications. Until these days, a lot of progress in health has been done. There still a lot of investigations and
research for better vaccines and health programs. A lot of achievements happen such as Safer, healthier food, family
planning and safer work places. I hope that new information comes out and helped the people they need.
Liliana Zheng
To improve it
Significant changes in the health care sector have been set in motion or very accelerated, much of this activity has focused on improving patient care and lowering costs. There are also numerous opportunities the for health medics to improve population health. The engagement in population health improvement is critical because quality of life and functional status are ultimately what matter to people. These results are directly affected by the prevalence of unhealthy behaviors and the incidence of disease. In addition, the high and rising prevalence of chronic diseases, which is increased by unhealthy behaviors, is like the single most important factor in the growth of health care costs. In fact, an effective strategy to improve health results and ensure long time sustainable health care cost reductions is for representatives of public health to help individuals be as healthy as possible in their homes and communities. An example of what we need are community health, where charity hospitals conduct needs assessments of community health, and adopting implementation strategies addressing these needs, once every three years. In conducting a needs assessment, a hospital may consider input from a broad range of persons located in or serving its community, including representatives of public health. With their patient care experience, hospital medical staffs themselves have a unique understanding of the health needs of the population they serve and can play a leadership role in developing a hospital’s implementation strategy to reduce the population’s disease burden. These activities have the potential to result in improvements in the health of communities across the country. Taking advantage of new opportunities to improve the health status of the population has been and will be both professionally and personally rewarding to representatives of public health. On the other hand, changing of paying representatives of public health solely to take care of those who are sick to one in which they are paid to ensure people are healthy is an idea whose time is coming.
Luis Claudio
E-eyes
Globally, there are estimated around 45 million people who are blind. But 80% of visual loss can be prevented or cured. Probably the cost of rehabilitation and lost productivity due to blindness has a significant impact on individuals, families, communities and nations. Particularly this occurs in the poorest areas of the world. The leading causes of avoidable blindness and visual impairment are cataract, trachoma, river blindness, some conditions in children, such as Vitamin A deficiency and retinopathy of prematurity, and the lack of glasses and low vision aids. Through the years, people have done a radical change in their lifestyle. People have done this because they have improved their knowledge in technology. Each day they we can see that there is a new release about technology. Those releases go from little things like cellphones to big things like robots. Something important is that technology hasn’t abandoned medicine area. Always there have been many experts working in this area, trying to improve people’s lifestyle. Nowadays, there is an electronic eye. This technology was developed by a German company named Retina Implant. What this eye does is that transforms the light in electrical impulses. Those electrical impulses are given to the optic nerve. It has a microchip with light sensors, which is implanted beneath the eye retina. This little thing has 1500 microscopic electronic light sensors.
The optic nerve is available to receive those
signals from the microchip and send it to the brain. Something interesting is that it works whit external energy. So, patients have to have a wire from the eye to the ear where doctor placed an external battery. This implant has already been tested in a couple of patients in Germany. Actually, in United Kingdom, there is the first clinic trial, where some researchers are trying to improve the German version making some changes. It’s really good to see that there is at least one option for those people who are suffering today. The only thing that is going
slow down is time. Because researches are always ready to help each other. We only have to
wait to those things that someday will change our life to make it better.
Javier Delgado