About a building

In this blog I want to present you two famous buildings in the world. First and foremost Sagrada Familia which is located in Spain and the construction is still incompleted yet. Second the Sydney opera house with its special shape.

Sagrada Familia

Sagrada Familia is one of Barcelonas most popular tourist attraction. It is a roman catholic church located in the heart of Barcelona/ Spain. This great building was designed in a gothic style by Antoni Gaudi who lived from 1852-1926. Antoni Gaudi was a spanish catalan architect and his works are always marked by his own individual style. In 1882 the constructions began and in 1883 Gaudi became involved. So you have to remember that Gaudi was not the primary designer but Paula del Villar. After one year she retired and Gaudi started his project and changed the designs completly. From day one the church is financed by private donations. That is why it is still incompleted after 129 years but the expected date will be in 2026. A very special thing happened on 7th November 2010. The Pope Benedict XVI consecrated and proclaimed Sagrada Familia to a minor basilica. More than 7500 persons were inside the Sagrada Familia and about 500 000 persons waited in the streets at the same time to celebrated the Mass in the Cathedral. Today about 2,5 million visitors per year save the completion by their entrance. The Sagrada Familie will have 18 towers and four on each of the three facades represents the 12 apostles. Furthermore the next 4 towers are a symbol for the 4 evangelists. The last two towers stands for Jesus Christ and Virgin Mary. The tallest one is 170m/558ft high. Although the constructions is still incompleted you can go inside and visit the crypt were Gaudi is buried. Moreover you can see a museum or take an elevator to one of the towers from where you have a beautiful view over Barcelona. Nowadays it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

 

Sydney Opera House

Sydney Opera House is a masterpiece of late modern architecture. It is located in Sydney‘s harbor and a symbol of both Sydney and the Australian nation. In its short lifetime, it has earned a reputation as a world-class performing arts center. You can watch operas, orchestras and ballets e.g. “ Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg“ by Wagner. The opera house was design by a relatively unknown architect called Jørn Utzon. He was 38 years old when he was the announced winner of the ‘International competition for a national opera house at Bennelong Point, Sydney’ for the best design talent in the world. In the same year 1959 the construction began. Cost overruns and a change of government resulted in Utzons resignation. In 1973 the opera house was finished by other architects and opened by Queen Elizabeth II. What is striking is that neither Utzon was invited nor his name was mentioned. The opera house consists of two main halls side by side and generally running north-south. The first is Concert Hall within 2700 seats. Secondly the Opera Theatre with space for 1500 people. Another famous room is the Utzon Room. It is a small multi-purpose venue with seats up to 210 people. The room is light filled and looks opposite to the harbor outlook. Furthermore is has excellent acoustics. The most impressive aspect are the shells on the roof which were design by Utzon. Each shell is composed pre-cast rib segments radiating from a concrete pedestal and rising to a ridge beam. It was very hard to find an economically acceptable form before a workable solution was completed. The design on the shells involved the earliest use of computers in structural analysis in order to understand the complex construction. All in all the opera house is 65 meter high, 183m(600ft) length and 120m(394ft) width. It enfolds an 1.8 ha(4.4. Acres) area and cost 102 Million Dollar.

poem

In this blog I want to introduce to you a poem called "The seven stages of man" written by William Shakespeare. Althought it was published in the 16. century it still contains true statesments for our life. In the following I want to analyse it and compare the poem to todays life.

The seven stages of man - Shakespeare

All the world's a stage,

And all the men and women merely players,

They have their exits and entrances,

And one man in his time plays many parts,

His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,

Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.

Then, the whining schoolboy with his satchel

And shining morning face, creeping like snail

Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,

Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad

Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,

Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,

Jealous in honour, sudden, and quick in quarrel,

Seeking the bubble reputation

Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice

In fair round belly, with good capon lin'd,

With eyes severe, and beard of formal cut,

Full of wise saws, and modern instances,

And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts

Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,

With spectacles on nose, and pouch on side,

His youthful hose well sav'd, a world too wide,

For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,

Turning again towards childish treble, pipes

And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,

That ends this strange eventful history,

Is second childishness and mere oblivion,

Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

Interpretation:

In 1599 Shakespeare wrote the poem "The seven Ages of Man". It deals with the different stages of life starting with the birth of a child including the different stages of life´(school, profession, retirement) and finally it ends up with death. In the following I'm going to compare the attitude of Shakespeare concerning the stages of life in the 16th century and today.
Shakespeare structure the live in seven stages. The first two stages are that you were born and need help from others and can't do anything by your own. You are a little helpless infant. After that you getting older and go to school with your school bag in your hand. But you don't like to go to school. Shakespeare compares it to a snail so that you are very slowly and sneaky. I totally agree with the definition of these two stages because I believe that these two periods of time never changes. The third stage is the lover. he shines like an oven and is romantic. I think that there are still such people who perform like a lover but I guess that there are also people who behave in a different way and so I just can partly agree to Shakespeare. The soldier is the following stage. He is jealous in honor and the most powerful and strongest one. He fights and often until death. Furthermore he has a wild look with a rumpled beard and he knows a lot of strange oaths.
As far as I can see today there is not such a soldier like in Shakespeare’s time. The men today can decide whether they go to the German army forces or do civilian service. I think the reason is that the army doesn't play such an important role in our life and that there aren't so many wars and fights like hundreds years ago. That's why we needn't so many soldiers.
The next stage which Shakespeare describes is the justice. He is intelligent, powerful and have a high status and good reputation in society. Moreover he earns a lot of money, looks good and have the right sentences for the right problem. I'm convinced that there are still people who are judges and have these skills but in my point of view you can see the justice as a symbol of all profession today. If you have a job you earn money and you have a certain high status and good reputation. I think the important thing today is that you have enough money so that you can afford a high standard of life. These facts can be transferred to the justice of the fifth stage.
The last two stages are the pantaloon and "the last scene of all". The pantaloon is a funny old man with glasses. He looses weight and power and his voice getting higher and higher. In the last stage the man can not remember anything he is oblivion. On top of that he is very old and it feels like a second childhood because he has not any teeth taste and ca not see anything. I am completely of the same point of view because today the percentage of old people is nearly the same like the rate of kids. So it is really impressive that there are so many old people and you can prove these features which Shakespeare named to the old generation in society and as far as I can see these characteristics are still typical for old men today. As a consequence I agree with Shakespeare in this stage.
So all in all I can agree to the stages one, two, six and seven because they are up to date and you can have close experiences to these if you want to. I disagree with stages four and five because in my opinion the war fight and arme do not play such an important role in life now and that is why there are not so many soldiers anymore. Further on the justice is not represent in our century but you can compare it to the different profession you can learn. Lastly I partly agree to the stage three because I guess that there are lovers still today who are romantic but I think that they form the minority.

press release

PARTYING FOR CLEAN WATER IN AFRICA

On Saturday the 12^th of August 2012 a very famous musical festival called “Tomorrowland” will take place in San Diego/ California. This festival is not like every other festival because it is situated on the water and they are building a separate island for this event. The island will be 8 km long and 2 km wide. There are free ferry’s which are running in short intervals and the whole night. That is why whenever you want you can come and go as you like. For protecting the aquatic animals and the people living around there every single person will get a headset in order to avoid extreme volume.

“Tomorrowland” is created by Walt Disney. If you are a fan from fairytales, magical, fancy and colorful actions and you like to meet new people and get in contact with them, then you should not miss it. Besides 40 stages you will see a lot of stalls, stores and carousels.

The festivals will starts on Friday at 5:00 o’ clock and will ends on Monday at 12:00 o’clock. If you will stay there is a campsite and many hotels immediate proximity. More than 300.000 people will be expected.                      

                                                                       Tickets will be sold in early December for the first time. The price is between 60 $ for just one day and 150 $ for the whole weekend. The earnings for the entrance and everything else you buy there will spend for sink a huge number of wells and build some filtration machines for clean water in little African villages. As a consequence every festival goer will improve the common weal in Africa.

This event is famous for the huge number of well-known bands, singers and DJ’s like Snoop Dogg, Akon,  David Guetta, Lady Gaga, Seeed, Christina Aguilera, Kelly Clarkson, Adele as well as  DJ Antoine, Coldplay, Pittbull, The Red Hot Chili Peppers and more and more. So nearly all kinds of music are represented like Rock, Pop, R&B, Techno, Electronic etcetera.

 

        Finally everybody who visit this event will have a great time and never forget it.

international organizations

Greenpeace

In 1971 a small team of activists set in an old fishing boot and believe a few individuals could make a difference. They want to bear witness to the United States which tests underground nuclear weapons at Amchitka. This island is one of the world’s most famous earthquake regions. This journey was also considered attentively by many other peoples. As a consequence the nuclear testing’s ended in the same year. So Greenpeace was founded. Today Greenpeace is the largest independent direct-action

environmental non-governmental organization. It wants to protect the oceans, whales and seafood as well as the forests in the whole world. Furthermore, they want to stop the global warming and eliminate toxic chemicals. Moreover, they are strictly against nuclear power stations and to push no new nukes. On top of that they neither take money from the government nor corporations. They focused on environmentalism and peace and accomplish this by direct actions, lobbying, research and innovation. They are spread in over 40 countries and have 2, 8 million members.

World Wildlife Fund

The WWF called World Wildlife Fund was founded in 1961 and is now located in Switzerland. This organization wants to protect the future of nature and also restore species and their habitats. Furthermore, they are focused on environmentalism and their vision is to build a future in which people live in harmony with the nature. Moreover, they want to transform the markets and the policies to reduce the impacts of production and consumption of commodities. Another aim they want to reach is to mobilize thousands of people to support conservation. Besides this they want to seek a save planet, to instill in people everywhere a discriminating and to be the voice for those creatures which have no voice. WWF is spread all over the world in about 100 countries and is supported by 5 Million members.

Here are three branches listed below in which the organization is active:

• Species - WWF safeguards hundreds of species around the world, but we focus special attention on our flagship species. These species not only need special measures and extra protection in order to survive, they also serve as umbrella species: helping them helps numerous other species that live in the same habitats.

• Government relations and policy - WWF's government relations team collaborates with the U.S. Congress and the administration to further our conservation mission legislatively and secure funding from U.S. government partners to support our programs and fieldwork around the world.

• Science - Effective conservation requires a solid scientific foundation. Our scientists work to advance biodiversity conservation worldwide through the development and application of innovative scientific principles, tools and information. 

Comparison:

	Greenpeace	World Wildlife Fund
activities	Protect forest Stop global warming Push for no new nukes Eliminate toxic chemicals	Protect wildlife Conserve places Transform business Tackle climate changes Work with communities develop science-based solutions
mission	Nurture life in all its diversity Focused on global warming, deforestation, over fishing,  commercial whaling and antinuclear issues	People live on harmony with nature Conserve nature and reduce the most pressing threats to the diversity of life on earth
Spread/ members	Over 40 countries à 2,86 million members	Over 100 countries à 5 million members

All in all it is to say that these organizations have some similarity. Both want to protect the environment and stop the global warming. The difference is that Greenpeace focused more on protection the nature and the animals while WWF concentrate on the nature and the wildlife too but also on the people and their relationships to the nature.

In my opinion both organizations do great work and help to get a healthier, species-richer and environment- friendlier world. Their aims and goals based on effective and elaborate strategies. Besides this you can see their success in the increasing number of members and daily achievements.

essay: Philippines

Philippines- a beautiful tourist destination or a home on the mountain of trash



Philippines! If you hear this word you think of the beautiful island with white beaches, wellness oases and a warm see perfect for dining and other great activities. Furthermore, you think about the palms, the warm temperatures, relaxing vacation with massages. Moreover you could imaging the beautiful flora and fauna, the mangrove and the exotic. But if you just keep this in your mind you forget the realitiy, the dramatically increased population, the acute housing scarcity and the wide gap between rich and poor.

More young people than old ones live in the Philippines. We guess that this is a very good point but you have to remember that there are not so many jobs in the country for all people. So the majority is unemployed. They are getting poor and have to live a life in poverty. Besides this it could happened that they turn to crime. That is why they have to steal food or clothing because they have not enough money. Moreover they could not afford a flat and so they have to move into slums or live on the garbage dump and from it respectively. In Cebu more than 3000 people are living on the rubbish. The mountain of trash is their home. They built houses from the material other people throw away. They sleep, work and bring their children into world there. They have to filter recyclable materials like paper, plastic and metal under inhume conditions like enormous heat and odors. Besides this there is a thick toxic smoke and as a consequence the people have red eyes and lung diseases. On top of that, the recycling company pay them a pittance. The next fact is that this company uses bulldozer which do not pay attention to the kids and so it could happened that 40 kids are dying every year. Furthermore the people there suggest that children are a present from God. It is true but not in this case. On the contrary, they are not because more children need more food, more clothing, more place and the parents could not afford this to them. The main problem is that the Catholic Church welcomes many children and the people are deeply religious there. Furthermore the Catholic Church forbids the use of contraceptives. So it is a recipe for disaster. Also the women have no right and less right respectively. The man is the boss of the family and every member have to do what he says. But the most are not well educated. That is a further problem because they did not know any thing about family planning or how to use a contraceptive. So some people from organizations like " Herz fuer Kinder" or from national institutions want to help the poorest people of society. They teach them how they could help themselves, for example how to not get pregnant or when they are having a child that they have to see a doctor and go to hospital. Furthermore they explain how to earn some money or something about health and disease reduction. They started some campaigns and the government want to improve the education at school, want to spread the knowledge of family planning and also the infrastructure.



But it do not seemed to be enough. A lot of people from other countires did not know the problems and the bad situation the lowest class of society have there. People just think about the positive side of this country and did not notice the poverty. But now you know about this problems and maybe you could go some ways towards to help this people in extremity.