ARE MUSEUMS THAT IMPORTANT?

Nowadays the dominant lifestyle imposes us high velocity as for information, the workplace (lots of results in a small amount of time) and even during our lunch time. If we stop to think about it, we might wonder why we are becoming more and more slaves of our schedules and deadlines. Are we losing our identity? How has all this process started? And how were things before that? These are questions that History can perfectly answer for us. History can make us see clearly bad mistakes commited in the past whose influences may be felt to the present day, or great and revolutionary accomplishments that changed the course of countless people.

And how important are museums for us? They are not deposits of old things, but rather organized spaces where people can look around and reconstruct all the information they have learnt at school, and sometimes even touch some really ancient objetcs. As long as museums are well built and preserved, they keep historical facts and its protagonists alive in popular imagination, giving contribution when it comes down to understanding the path which brought us here the way we are, why economy works the way it does, the very origin of ancient costumes and many other relevant questions. Like laboratories are for science, museums are for history. And by the way, such fact reminds me that if it is easier to learn from a practical class, then visiting a museum might be a good idea for those who are willing to improve their comprehension of the world.

However, there are some problems to be dealt with. Museums demand specialized professionals, hence it is important to invest on their education first and foremost. Sometimes there are delicate processes of conservation of ancient objects, which need expensive chemical products, and that means museums have very high costs. While countries in general continue struggling against other problems (such as bad public health care, starvation, nature degradation, etc), most people will certainly believe that the idea of maintaining museums is just a huge waste of money.

To sum up, obviously there are some obstacles, but with good sense of administration, government and population can together solve several problems and still preserve their identity, understand their present world and keep history alive, at last.



This outstanding piece was written by Helena Flávia de Mello Pistune, FCE 2 student.

DIVORCED PARENTS

The number of divorces is increasing incredibly nowadays.But when some study is made about this topic, people don´t take seriously the point of view of children involved in the situation. Kids suffer maybe even more than adults, and they have to receive attention in order not to have problems in the future, either with their parents or with any relationship.

Having divorced parents is traumatic if you take into account shocking breakups. If children see their moms and dads having arguments and fights, it makes them think that all relationships can be like that. And kids always take the side of one of them, which harms the contact with the other parent. Everything that has been told about one of the parents by the other one can influence the child to think likewise.

On the other hand, with peaceful breakups, children suffer less. Of course they´ll have some problems with the new organization of the family, but they´ll get used and even like it. If you have two families, you get two gifts on your birthday, you have two possibilities to have fun, you can have more brothers and sisters, and if you need your folks, both of them will be there for you.

Concluding, having divorced parents can be a good thing. Nobody wants parents that are fighting all the time, but together not to traumatize the kids. A bad thing is to have parents who can´t get along well, divorced or not, and show it to their children. The best way to deal with this family issue is taking divorce as something that can be good to everybody, and giving your kids the love they deserve, no matter what.

Tuanny Honesko is the responsible for this great article over such a difficult issue to cover. She is a PET 1 student.

THE ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE

The worry about health and the search for different ways to have a healthy life are increasing day by day. Our society is getting more inquisitive and cleared up as for the medicines we take.

Traditional medicine is known for giving an efficient and fast way to solve our health problems, however sometimes it might debase or even bring up other little diseases as well.

The alternative medicine is coming over to give another option to those disappointed individuals who no longer trust the traditional one. It is much more concerned with illness´prevention and thus, it takes a bit longer to treat people who are already sick.

So far, as alternative medicine is having its efficiency proved, more and more people will get to adopt it. And they are completely right! We should avoid assailing our bodies with all these drugs we are accustomed to take for all our lives each and every time we catch a weak cold.

This piece was written by the soon-to-be a doctor, Raisa Baraus Olinek, PET 1 and 2 student.

WHAT WE´RE REALLY LIKE

Some time ago I watched a Simpson´s episode that took place in Brazil.

It told the story of a little poor boy from here asking for help so he could remodel his orphanage. Lisa Simpson sent some money to help him and after some time she received a videotape made by the boy inviting her to visit our country. This videotape had shown that with the money sent by Lisa the orphanage had bought a door and therefore, due to Lisa´s help the monkeys wouldn´t get to enter in their rooms anymore.

The Simpsons then decide to come down here and during the whole episode they show Brazil as the "samba, carnival and bikini" country.

I have never been to United States or Europe, but I think this is the view of the majority of north american and european people. A tropical world with monkeys walking down the streets, snakes under beds, giant spiders in the shoes, violence, all sorts of crimes, indians all over the place, samba and carnival all year long as they are used to teaching at their conventional schools: all kinds of foolish things that make Brazil the first country when we talk about stupid things.

But for real, we are a country without denomination. Brazil? Just a south american country where people are experts in soccer, enjoy the carnival and walk almost naked around the streets.

Yes, we have monkeys entering the houses, walking on the streets.

The truth is that we have a have a monkey as a president, we have monkey senators, monkey lawyers and monkey parlamentaries. Just like in the United States or Europe. The difference is the level of poverty and the grades of corruption.

We do have crime and violence. But which place doesn´t have it? Our violence and poverty is fruit of American and European domination. While we keep being the workforce of these dominator countries nobody will respect us.

The world can´t see our real wonders, except from Ronaldinho Gaúcho, Gisele or Pelé. And when they take a closer look at it they suddenly seem to continue what the Portuguese settlement started: the exploration of the colony.

A great example of that is the huge number of brazilian scientists who leave their home to go to U.S. or Europe. Our natural wealth is the target of several food and pharmacy industries around the world. Poison and medicine made by the indians are stolen by researchers from all over, walking into our forests undercovering themselves under the flags of ONGs.

Our "monkeys" are leaders in the production and research of renewable fuel(sugar-cane alcohol, biodiesel, etc.), soy bean production and research, the number one country in paper technology and so many other things the world is ok to use but refuses to give us credit for.

A big part of the world´s life is made in Brazil.

This overwhelming piece was written by Leandro Azevedo Thereza, PET 1 student.

BEHIND NEVERMIND

Almost sixteen years have passed and Nirvana is still remembered as a band that changed the "metal poser" era to bring a liberal and alternative style for new bands such as The White Stripes and The Strokes.

It was on September 24th, 1991 that Nevermind came in the stores to change the way people used to see music. The album was the first of the contract with Geffen Records and was produced by Butch Vig, an important name from the 90´s and mixed by Andy Wallace who had worked with metal bands like Slayer.

The song which opens Nevermind was the first single of the album. "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was born out of a joke that Kathleen Hanna wrote about Kurt on a wall: "Kurt smells like teen spirit"(the name of a popular deodorant in U.S.). Until today people discuss about the meaning of the lyric, some say that it was about incomformity and teen revolution, while others prefer the story about the break up with Toby Vail. The video for the song achieved a nice spot in MTV and became a real fever arond the world.

The album had a lot of fast and violent songs like "Breed", an acoustic song, "Polly", and a lot of classic songs that became symbols of a new generation of rock fans. Tunes like "In Bloom", "Come As You Are" and "Lithium" are still listened with frequency and have become huge influence to a lot of great bands nowadays.

This change of thoughts about music created a new awareness in people around the world who are now more open to alternative songs and not imprisoned by pre-fabricated pop bands or metal bands that are more worried about breaking guitars than sounding like something original(and also have a horrible sense of fashion). The cool now is the simple, light and direct sound that Nirvana made. The modest and melodic sound now is more appreciated than the mess that the 80´s brought to the world.

And now, every day a new fan of Nirvana is born. Sometimes is a 13 year old boy who was not even alive when Nevermind came out to change rock context and rock thoughts. That is great!

This killer piece was written by Jenny Slompo, a PET 1 student.

Why, Oh Why?

So, yeah.
When I first thought over the idea of having a writing club here at Cultura my main aim was actually to help out our students with their writing issues (obviously, ace!)... I simply couldn´t cope with the fact that most of my students, and I ain´t talking over regular show up-what time is the class over-kinda students cuz I´m lucky enough to have some creative and talkative and funny bunch of people studying with me, so why the heck they always seemed to be so insecure about their writings, or even worst, so stucked when it came down to speaking their minds thru a piece of writing?
Most of these guys are really willing and open to learn more about how to write and show overwhelming curiosity about writers and stuff. Hence... The idea came to happen when I simply couldn´t help associating some writers to some students, as if their personalities could perfctly fit the style of some of my favorite writers and their characters. So, while they were working on their activity books during my classes I would fly miles away and start thinking:
Laura is such a Holden Caufield...
Conrado Locomia is such a John Hughes character... and so are Guilherme and Peter...
And Ro... Oh my God, Ro... She is such a Faulkner character... so witty...
And Fabricio... I´m sure he could be any character from any Jonathan Safran Foer book...
Vivi and Hy-Hy just came out of a Dorothy Parker short story, and Natasha and Sophia are as elegant as Zadie Smith, and Maria Ligia has the experience of a Heminghway and so has Wilma...
Tuh could be a character from Vendela Vida as well as Maria Fernanda, or Mayara...
Juliano is more of a Jonathan Franzen type, alongside with Mauricio...
Mary sounds like a Hornby kind, and so does Raisa and Vanessa and Helô...
This could be such a huge list...
So, to sum up... If we get the chance to sit down for an hour and talk about writers and writing and come up with ideas for stories and ways to improve them... then I´m glad and I´m ok... cuz I believe in these folks...
I just hope they believe themselves.