AIDS

The History of AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) starts in Africa where microbes of chimpanzees jump over our specie, probably the blame of AIDS virus, called HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus). According to Kevin Cahill, the first case of AIDS was in New York City in 1979. Since that day, the disease have killed around 28 million of people and nowadays is the number four cause of death worldwide (TIME). The most important focus of this disease in the world is found in Africa where 74%, about 3.1 million, of AIDS deaths last year were in this continent. Despite of, it is almost impossible to stop this huge epidemic, there are forms to prevent it such as: have a good information and knowledge of the disease, the ways to contagious and preventions, and the Scientifics researches.
First of all, knowledge about the disease is the first step to prevent it. AIDS is formed by a virus called HIV that paralyzes the defense of the human body against infections. Therefore, people lose their normal immunity against diseases, so they do not die of AIDS, they would die of normal diseases like fever. Government of different countries plays an important role too. They should inform citizens about this world epidemic. Furthermore, according to Green Edward, sexual activity among young people makes the infection bigger, so commercials and information in schools would decrease the risk of getting AIDS.

Thanks for the great time!

This class helped me a lot to develop my way of thinking and arguing. I learned to view issues from different perspectives and that most issues are more complex and do not offer one easy solution. We discussed a lot of topics that really matter in the world and I learned so much about Memphis, Tennessee, the United States but also about the entire world history and especially politics. We did not talk about superficial topics and that made this class so interesting. Furthermore, I developed my speaking and oral arguing skills in our group discussions. I love the way we sit in our class because this grouping makes discussions and stating opinions much easier. In fact, we had a lot of interesting and heated discussions about controversial topics. Even tough there were so many girls and some gay guys in the class I felt so comfortable to talk with you guys about everything and argue. The fact that we had to write so much is probably normal in a English class but I am still very happy that I do not have to write a blog a day until the rest of my days *smile*. I want to thank everybody in this class for the great time. I hope that I see you guys in my next semesters in other classes. It was really fun!!!

Drugs

Nowadays, drugs are one of the most important focus points of governments in many countries. The drug trade makes a lot of illegal money and illegal traffic in most of European countries and North America. This is an important issue to explain what the different types of drugs are and what make drugs extremely dangerous.
First of all, drugs are all substances that introduced into a living organism can modify its functions, like changes in the physical or psychological aspect. Indeed, drugs are international because they exist in all countries; even though, all kinds of drugs are illegal in most of the countries. In fact, there is a great illegal traffic of drugs in the world. For instance, cocaine, heroine, and marijuana are the most know illegal drugs. Other kinds of drugs are: amphetamines, methamphetamines, ecstasies, crack, inhalants and steroids. Contrabandists make a lot of money with these products. They make cheap drugs in places like Africa (Morocco) or South America (Colombia, Venezuela or Paraguay). Afterwards, they mix them with medical products to increase the effects of the drugs, to have more material and, of course, earn more money. In other words, 1 gram of cocaine can cost a contrabandist $5, but they can sell it in Europe or North America for $30 and $50. Despite this, contrabandists have a lot of problems transport the merchandise across the boarders of developmental countries, since police are always trying to arrest them.
On the other hand, all drugs are not illegal. Alcohol, tobacco, some kind of medicines and inhalants can be bought by anybody legally. I thought about the issue drugs because two of our oponents that we played today got caught drunk driving. So my advice is, be smart about what you are doing!

Fast food in the US

What would America be without the existence of fast food? When foreigners look at America, they think about the big buildings, cars, malls, and most importantly, fast food. Although, the fast food industry is big in the nation, recent health problems have created a doubt in peoples minds. I believe that fast food restaurants are not a good place to eat, because doing so puts your health at risk. Yet many, if not most Americans, continue to eat fast food regularly. There are many factors contributing to this unhealthy trend, three of which have more effect than the others. These are convenience, affordability, and advertising.
In my opinion, nothing can beat home cooked food. However, not many people share the same point of view. There are 300,000 different fast food restaurants in the U.S. Franchises such as KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell have 32,000 restaurants around the world, 2000 more than the most important fast food franchise, Mc Donald's. According to Mc Donald's Corporation, they have around 30,000 restaurants in 119 countries. They are the number one franchise, since they have a great variety of products for people of all ages. The competency and the success of these types of restaurants have led to the fact that everybody in every town has access to fast food. All they have to do is choose which brand that they most like. The name “fast food” is a reference to the amount of time that you can save eating in one of these restaurants. People with no time prefer stopping over at fast food restaurant before eating at home. Many people in America commute to work, and prefer eating fast food rather than waiting until after a 2 or 3 hour drive to cook dinner. In my opinion, these restaurants are created for the American life style in which U.S. citizens need to save time. Since they are tailored to our needs, these restaurants have become very convenient.

Bill Cosby speaking!

Cosby is so right when he says that African-Americans should not care about the stuff that some white people say. There are some stupid white guys, there are some stupid black guys and there are some stupid yellow guys – every race, religion and heritage has smart, dumn, big, small, nice and unfriendly people. So do not be harmed by what other people say about you. Stay calm and do not let them provoke you. That is what they want. I also think, just like Cosby, that racism is still present in America. Just look what kind of people work at this really low paid jobs. There are no white people at restrooms handing you the toilet. There is still so much segregation. Look at our campus, for instance, in the tiger den, the black people sit in one part and the white people sit in another part. White people have white friends and black people have black friends.
If Barack Obama would become president that would be another major step, if not even the biggest step in the history, for the rights of African Americans. He would have the power to change something. To give his people better jobs, more money, so they can afford to pay their bills, send their children to college and so on and so force. These children would get educated and get good jobs, be able to pay for everything and send their children to colleges. That would really make a difference in this country!

Memphis Tennis vs. Soutern Miss

Last Saturday, the Tennis team played in Southern Miss. Last year we lost against them so we were so fired up to beat them. We took the lead in doubles and won two out of three doubles. One of these doubles had two match points against them but came back and won finally. So in the score count we were up 1:0 because all three doubles just count as one point, whoever wins at least two out of three doubles gets one point. After a ten minute break we started with singles. Our number one player played awesome and chopped his opponent in 90 minutes, 2:0 Memphis. Then our number 2 player lost in straight sets. After that we won the number 6 singles but lost number 3 and 5 so the overall score was 3:3. Everything came down to my court. The crowed was yelling against me, swearing and trying to distract me. Everybody cheered against me. I was under the highest pressure in the whole season. I played the number 4 single. I won the first set 6:4 but lost the second set with 4:6. In the third set a tiebreaker had to decide who will win. I was 1:5 down in the tiebreaker but fought back. Eventually, after 3 and half hours of pure battle I defeated my opponent with 8:6 in the tiebreaker. My teammates ran on my court and we celebrated our most important victory of the season because it was our first win in a conference match!

Memphis lost

Memphis lost. Our Basketball team lost in the NCAA final tonight. I still cannot realize what just happened. We played the best season that a in the history of NCAA, we won 35 games and lost 2! I thought that nobody could stop us and everything looked like that we would win the final, too.
I watched the final together with the entire men’s and women’s tennis team at the house of my coaches’ wife parent’s house. It was a great atmosphere; we were cheering and yelling so loud. It nearly felt like we were sitting in the stadium. Everybody was so happy when we took the lead in the second half and dominated Kansas. Everybody was so excited and we already started to celebrate the victory when we were up with 7 points and just 1 minute to go. It was too early. When Memphis led with 63 to 60 and 12 seconds to go, Kansas made an unbelievable 3 pointer and made it to the overtime. Nobody thought that they would come back but they eventually did and then dominated the last five minutes of the game. When the referees blew the final whistle we remained in sad silence. I felt so frustrated to be so close to the biggest victory in school history. We still lost. Memphis lost, unbelievable! After the best season a college Basketball team ever played!