The women as a tool of war On the 22nd of June, seven members of the Colombian army assaulted 13-year-old-kid in Colombia. Against these events, the population expressed their fury to the government. The media connected their anger to the rest of the country. The soldiers committed this crime in Risaralda, a department of the country, inside an Embera Chamí indigenous community. They were in that place with the mission to protect people during the quarantine period. The soldiers confessed to committing a crime, and according to the army commander, they will be tried in the ordinary criminal courts. This text will talk about the debate that this news created inside the country and my point of view. In an interview on El Hilo, the invited journalist said that the problem with the violence against women is not only the crime itself but its impunity. Almost 95% of the cases of sexual assault have stalled in the judicial process. With the peace agreement between the state and the FARC, these crimes are more visible because the state can't blame the FARC for the crimes of the state. Although the government expressed their apologies and promised never to allow this to happen again, it is difficult to imagine a country like that. A statement can't change the reality without taking action, and the solution is not to put the guilty in jail. There are a lot of reasons that create the conditions of these crimes. Number One, the government doesn't exist in many parts of the country. Number two, indigenous communities are even less protected by the state because they are minorities. And number three, the violence is not getting justice, because the system defends assaulters. That is an enormous problem as the state sends the message that assaulting someone is not an important crime, individuals can do that without taking responsibility. And because the system doesn't defend the victim, they allow the revictimization. They have to tell their story over and over and even have to bear the unfair behavior of the government staff because they don't believe them. The system is not providing justice. Given these points, we can conclude that the state has to take action against these crimes, and also the news leaves a scary feeling of not protecting the women of the country. It doesn´t matter who you are, even you can be a victim of these crimes and it would be hard work to fight against the guilty ones.

The last goodbye When someone you care about is suffering, and he is in his last days, you are always looking for a way to help him. You are trying to support him and make him feel loved. Since the coronavirus arrives in our lives, some people have dealt with virtual goodbyes and eternal waits for news. This text will tell a story about a son who couldn´t bear this waiting and did something unthinkable. His name is Jihad Al-Suwaiti, and her mother was in a hospital in Palestine, trying to recover from the Covid-19. He was close to her, especially when his father died. When doctors told him that his mother was in a serious situation, he tried to visit her, but they didn't allow him for obvious reasons. Nevertheless, these warnings didn't stop him. The building of the hospital wasn't too high, then the only way to see his mother was to climb the building. Jihad looked at his mother's bedroom window and made a decision. For five days, his nights wouldn't be the same. During that time, he was climbing the building and looking at his mother until she fell asleep. On the fifth day, when Jihad was sure that his mother was dreaming, he left the hospital without knowing the truth. The next day doctors will tell him that his mother passed away. The story of Jihad did a big trip from the middle east to Latin America and highlighted some tricky situations that many people are suffering from the pandemic. It is not only that they can't see relatives during their last days, but also that they carry on the guilty of their death. People can't give them a proper death with the traditional rites of religion. That circumstance makes them believe that their relatives are not resting in peace. In conclusion, the pandemic had changed our lives in many ways, and death is part of that.

Work changes after covid The pandemic has changed many aspects of our lives that never going to be the same. One of the most important aspects is the way we worked. The internet has become our salvation and houses our new offices. Although working from home is not the situation for everyone, we know every job will suffer changes after the coronavirus. In this text, I will talk about some of these changes and my experience with that. When going to work became a danger, some companies concluded that face-to-face working days would change. Other businesses couldn´t make that decision, and they fired some of their employers. These companies are trying to survive the nightmare of their disappearance. Despite the differences between these two cases, we can believe that after the quarantine, the technology would become an essential tool for every job. If not, then the technology will replace that job. Moreover, future companies will use technology for their creation. Here, I want to put the language business as an example. Platforms like Italki or Preply have become new ways to earn money and learn languages from home. These companies are growing without any physical structure or permanent employers. In conclusion, working in the next decades will be more different than now. The way we can understand that changes will determine our future. Especially for people who are not in the labor market, like me.

Too Close to Home There is an episode of the podcast This American Life called "too close to home", and shares a significant story about immigration. Scaachi Koul is a 28 years girl who was visiting her parents in Canadá. She was trying to learn Hindi, the mother tongue of their parents. Scaachi Koul did some interviews with her parents to understand what is the worst part of making a new life abroad. In other words, to live in a country, and with a culture that wasn't theirs. This text analyses some of these ideas. Opportunities are some advantages that many people can’t enjoy in their own country. That’s the reason Scaachi Koul’s family sought a better life abroad. She described this situation with this quote: "We had a house, two cars, a yard, university educations. We were middle class in Canada, all with traditional Hindu names. It was the Indian dream". They were reaching goals that would be impossible to imagine in India during that time. Canada was a new country where was worth living. On the other hand, there is a sacrifice for this life of success when you are an immigrant. You have to replace your language and culture for another. That was the experience of Scaachi Koul’s family. She grew up as a Canadian citizen who speaks English instead of Hindi. Their parents weren’t sure about the decision to impose her a culture that wasn’t there anymore. That was the reason Scaachi Koul only speaks English and decided to take classes in Hindi as an adult. She grew up with a feeling of loss about her origins. Indeed, she could understand that it was painful not only for her but especially for her mother; who was forced to speak in a language that took away the meaning that she wanted to say to her children. In conclusion, there are deep consequences of all our decisions. Immigrants have to handle the disjunctive between opportunities that can't find in their country and the adaptation to a different way of living. The worst part of that is when you sacrifice everything of your culture to adapt to another culture.

Sleep is Your Superpower: Matt Walker The lack of sleeping is an increasing problem throughout industrialized nations that is important to examine. There is a TED talk about the benefits of sleeping eight hours and the disadvantages of don't do it. I can remember my mother saying to me that it was time to go to bed without taking her seriously. Now, I am an adult more aware of these disadvantages, especially in our learning. This text will express the consequences of not sleeping enough. Almost all people have experienced the disadvantages of sleeping for less than eight hours. We feel exhausted and without energy. Indeed, we can live a nightmare if we have to attend a lecture at school or university in these conditions. That is because our bodies are not working efficiently and our brain is carrying the worst part. The ability of the brain to make new memories have a deficit of 40%. For that reason, taking a test after a bad night is not a good idea. In my experience, I can feel the bad consequences of not sleeping enough more when I am getting older. I get headaches every time I go to bed late. There has to be a scientific answer to this situation that I unknown. However, I am conscious of the damage of not sleeping to my body, and I hope you can be aware too.

Some thoughts There are days when we can feel that our problems are everything. When we hope we don´t have to deal with these problems. I was thinking about that when I was watching a speech from TED talks. The writer Andrew Solomon was talking about the worst moments in life. At first, I couldn´t stop looking at his eyes. They were big and blue, and he sometimes was looking at nothing. I even thought he was blind. In his speech, he said that he was a journalist and on his travels, he was always searching for hard stories. The reason for that is because the worst experiences formed our identities, and we have to see this purpose. We can´t survive to these experiences without giving them sense. I think these ideas are not new, but the way he was talking was new to me. He was speaking with his heart, and from his experience. When he was looking at nothing, I realized that he remembered these memories. As long as I heard his speech, I feel that the problems I had at that moment we’re part of something bigger. That’s the reason I have to be able to deal with that.

Prison and happines? James Ricketson is an Australian filmmaker who was arrested by the Cambodia government after flying a drone above an event of the political opposition. Actual Cambodia's prime minister is Hun Sen, who continues to remove the political opposition to do re-elected. During the election time in 2017, James filmed an anti-government protest with a drone for one of his documentaries. After that action, he was charged by the government for spying and went to prison for 15 months. In an interview with ABC News, he said that during that time in jail, he could learn many things about happiness. This text will discuss these learnings. The first thing he mentioned was the lack of choices in prison. He said in a capitalist world we live with anxiety because we grow up thinking about making unnecessary choices all the time. On the contrary, when you are in jail, you don´t have alternatives to live. That's the reason he could read 120 books in these months. There were no distractions. The second thing he learned was the adaptability and resilience of the human being. He could adapt himself to prison and also survived. For his view of life, we are more resilient than we think. We have to be in these challenging situations to be aware of that. To summarize, the story of James Ricketson makes to think about how looking for the bright side of a situation can be an enriching experience. However, I can´t deny that he was lucky because breaking the rules in a country that is not yours, could be worse than 15 months in prison in other circumstances.