SUPERMARKETS MUST STOP USING PLASTIC PACKAGING, SAYS FORMER ASDA BOSS

The former boss of Asda, one of Britain’s biggest supermarkets, Andy Clarke, is calling for supermarkets to stop using plastic packaging. He says that billions of pounds of investment in recycling have failed to resolve the world’s plastic crisis. Andy Clarke said the only solution was to reject plastic entirely in favour of more sustainable alternatives like paper, steel, glass and aluminium. Supermarkets should create plastic-free aisles. Efforts to recycle more plastic have failed to stem the plastic crisis, said Clarke, who stood down as Asda CEO last year.

A recent investigation established that consumers around the world buy a million plastic bottles a minute and plastic production is set to double in the next 20 years and quadruple by 2050. In the UK less than a third (29%) of the 5m tones of plastic used each year is recovered and recycled. In the world more than 8m tones of plastic end up to the oceans. A recent study found that billions of people in the world are drinking water contaminated by plastic. Between 5m and 13m tones of plastic end in the world’s oceans each year to be ingested by sea birds, fish and other organisms. Scientists at Ghent University in Belgium recently calculated people who eat seafood ingest up to 11,000 tiny pieces of plastic every year. 

Our environment forms our home. Our world is our source of life and we can't damage it. The plastic is one of the elements that is more difficult to recycle, reason why we need to pay more attention. 

Link of the news: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/oct/12/supermarkets-stop-using-plastic-packaging-former-asda-boss-andy-clarke

HOW DID I LIVE THE 1-O?

First of all, I need to say that it was a critical day, reason why I find so important to talk about it in my blog. The days leading up on the first October everybody know that a very important thing will happen this day; it was part of a point of no return.

I wake up at five o’clock, only with my mind focused with the hours that would have to come, and ready to go to the Electoral College. Being in the Electoral College early was of great importance, reason that a lot of people were there before than the sun came up. 

Everyone was overcome by the uncertainly, the permanent doubt. No one knew what to expect. We were looking at each other constantly waiting for something.

At seven o’clock, approximately, two mossos arrived at the Electoral College. They asked if they could enter. We said a convincing “no”. They watch the situation: there were old people, children… and prefer not to use the violence. They spend the whole day in front of the college. They were rumors about if it would come or not the Guàrdia Civil and we were with fear in our bodies.

Finally arrived the time to vote, at nine o’clock. And the people start to introduce their votes inside the urn. For the first half hour everything was going fine, until the web stopped to work. (It was intervened by the State). At eleven o'clock we couldn’t still vote. With my family we decide to come back later, in the afternoon. We left the Electoral College. At twelve we were at home watching TV3 without believing what we were looking at. The images were terrible… the violence used by the Guàrdia Civil…

It was happening at Barcelona, Girona, Garrigàs, Aiguaviva… and unexpectedly the name of our town was mentioned in the TV: Sant Miquel de Fluvià.

The phone rang. A friend of my parents, who was still in the Electoral College, explain us the awful scene. Fifty members of the Guàrdia Civil arrived and, aggressively, took away the urn and all the votes that were inside.

We remain disconcerted, with a complete disbelief, not knowing what to do. We need to look for another town where to be able to vote.

WELCOMING EMAIL

My name is Isàlia Pujol and, in this mail, I’m going to do a small introduction about my life.

At the moment, I’m studying second of Baccalaureate at INS Castelló d’Empúries, the high school that has accompanied me along five years. I know that it’s my last year in this high school; during this year I will finish a life and start another. It is for this reason that I’m going to enjoy every day.

Now, I’m sixteen years old, but in twenty-seventh of October I will be seventeen. I live in a little village, Sant Miquel de Fluvià, with my parents and my little sister. I have studied music and have played the piano since I was six years old. Playing this instrument has become my hobby.

I think that our life is an ongoing challenge. Our goals, over the years, are changing. For this reason when we were young, we had a lot of dreams and goals that we will never be able to accomplish. A clear example is the typical dream of every child: to be an astronaut. I have to admit that this one was my goal when I was 6 years old. Now, that are changed; I have a short-term goal and, at the moment, it is the most important that I have: get the second of Baccalaureate and pass the Selectivity exam. Then, I have a lot of long-term goals... (The typical goals of every student) like finish a degree, a master, obtain titles as I can speak different languages, have a job... but I have another goals, not only in the academically way. I have cultural goals, I would like to travel, to get to know new cultures and lifestyles; read new books, etc.; I have familiar challenges too, like spend more time with family and friends because they are a very important part of my life.

As I have already said, my friends and family are very important for me, and all of this people, that are every day around me, help me a lot; but I am the only one who is able to overcome all of my goals. I will put the focus on it to face my challenges.

In the speech I have been interested especially in a sentence that says “There is no excuse for no trying. Where you are right now doesn’t have to determine where you’ll end up.” With this sentence, Barack Obama is trying to say that if you don’t like your present, you are able to change it and to build a future better for you, because you are able to decide where you want to go and what you want to do. I put attention to it because it is a way to say “don’t give up”.

LOOKING BACK

This last school year, I think that I have improved a lot my level of english and I'm really proud. I have learned new vocabulary, new words that will be very useful and I will be able to use in my life, with english speakers. 

In my opinion, the best activities which I can show my english level are our blog, where we can talk about all of topics what we want, and the oral presentations, where we can show our knoweldge about a theme. We have done a lot of exercicies this year, but it seems to me that the most usefull acrivity to improve my English is to read, read books in this language, because I can observe if I had learn good the concepts and the vocabulary. Sincerely, I find that the class songs, in my opinion, are not useful to learn English because, sometimes, the lyrics of the song are difficult to understand because they are tuned with the music. I would like to do again, to improve my English, more yoursays and news in my blog and read books.  

I'm happy now with the new knowledge that I have acquired this year. 

FORMAL LETTER

37, Carrer del Pi

St Miquel de Fluvià

Catalonia

31st, May, 2017 

UNICEF USA

333 East 38th Street, New York

NY 10016 United States

Dear Sir or Madam,

I am writing to offer myself as a volunteer in your NGO, that is to say, in UNICEF. I would like to apply for a position. I am 16 years old girl and, at the present time, I have not finished "batxillerat", but the next summer I am able to begin to work when do you want. 

I feel that I would be suitable for this job because I am very hard-working, and I like to involve with the work that I am doing. I am also extremely responsible, organized and with the desire to help other people.

I look forward to hearing from you in the near future. I have included my CV with this letter. I would be happy to attend an interview at a time convenient for you. Thank you for your attention to this letter and for considering my application. 

Your faithfuly

MY GAP YEAR

MY EXPERIENCE IN MAUTHAUSEN

Mauthausen is a concentration camp which is situated in Austria. We visited that with the high school, in a trip that we make in April with the working group “Grup d’exili, deportació i holocaust”. It was an impressive experience.

Just to get there you can see that the atmosphere is very different, very… shocking.  It’s like go into another world, another terrified world. Mauthausen is located just in the middle of a hill. It is very striking.

We have visited the barracks, the showers, the experiments room (where the doctors made experiments with the prisoners, obviously), the crematorium, the gas chamber... I have frozen blood, especially when we entered into the gas chambers, where we saw the ovens... uf... there are no words to describe everything...

We saw a room where there were all the names of people who have died there. Awesome! A whole room full of names. Thousands and thousands of names that were fiilling all the room... I saw people crying or ready to do that. How much cruelty!! Only seeing the quantity of barracks and the thight measure of thats, it is possible to imagine how of inhuman it was all of this atrocities.

The worst thing of all is that there are historians who try to deny the facts, having so many proofs ... is totally horrible, frightening...