The Land of the Rising Sun in shock

This tremor, whose epicentre was 72km east of the Oshika Peninsula of Tohoku, has been named the "Great Eastern Japan Earthquake" by Japanese government. Several fore-shocks were reported before the catastrophe. However, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) did not expect the main earthquake to be so strong.  It caused devastating tsunami waves that reached the Pacific coastline of Japan's northern islands and destroyed entire towns such as Kamaishi, Miyako, Ōtsuchi, and Yamada (in Iwate Prefecture), Namie, Sōma and Minamisōma (in Fukushima Prefecture) and  Higashimatsushima,  Onagawa,  Natori,  Ishinomaki,  and Kesennuma  (in  Miyagi  Prefecture).  What  is  more,  Fukushima  Dai-ichi  nuclear  power  plant,  which  is  located  on Fukushima  Prefecture,  was  damaged  by  Tohōku  tsunami.  Due  to  this  fact,  radiation  levels  in  Japan  are  rising  and  the  Japanese  government  is  telling  people  who  live  near  the  Dai-ichi  plant  to  stay  indoors  and  keep  their  windows  close.  

  More  than  17.400  citizens  are  missing  and,  unfortunately, around  12.100 deaths have been confirmed by the National Police Agency. In addition, thousands of citizens are affected by the lack of electricity, water and transportation. Most of them have lost everything, all their belongings and their homes, so Red Cross is helping survivors rebuild their lives. A few hours after the earthquake, Google launched a person finder tool, which is available in both Japanese and English. This database, which was used in the Haiti earthquake too, allows Internet users to search for missing people on-line and submit information about  their whereabouts. Sadly, some heartless people are writing false information, specially about celebrities.

However, the tremor has not only affected people and structures. Welfare groups are trying to rescue homeless animals. Most of them are in terrible conditions and they have no food. They just wander around destroyed towns during the entire day. Hundreds of animals are dying in agony.
Surprisingly, dogs are sometimes more loyal than people even in time of disaster . For example, a dog refused to leave an injured canine friend in the rubble.

 Fortunately, there are also good news. Another dog was found on the roof of a house floating off Kesennuma three weeks after the catastrophe. Finally it was reunited with its owner.

It is obvious that Japan's recovery will be slow and difficult since it has been the strongest  earthquake ever recorded  in Japanese  history.  Nevertheless,  everybody  knows  the  Japanese  are    resilient  people. They  will not  give up so easily. They will  work extremely  hard  to  overcome  the  situation. Destroyed structures will turn into new buildings and  the Land of the Rising Sun will shine again.

Ànims, Japó!

Tribus urbanes (esborrany)

Les tribus urbanes són agrupacions de joves que comparteixen la mateixa estètica, normalment cridanera, comportaments específics i un argot determinat. A més a més escolten els mateixos grups musicals.

Tasques

·Guió per a la ràdio amb totes les de tots els grups i corregir l'ortografia. (Fet)

· Article dels hikikomori (Fet)

·Redactar les preguntes per a l'entrevista. (Fet)

·Imatge de les tribus urbanes: escalar, retallar i unir. (Fet)

·Traduir les preguntes de l'entrevista a l'anglès. (Fet)

·Traduir les respostes de l'entrevista a l'anglès. (Fet)

·Publicitat pròpia per a la primera pàgina de la secció Tema Lliure. (Fet)

·Columna d'opinió. (Fet)

·Imatge del Japó. (Fet)

·Buscar informació de les tribus urbanes i escriure l'article. (Fet)


·Article del Japó (Fet)

·Publicitat de l'energia nuclear. (Fet)

Entrevista

Our interwevee is Celia Núñez. This girl is sixteen and is from Alicante. She promotes her songs on the Net and she has a lot of fans from different places of Spain.

Interviewer: How did you initiate yourself in music?
Celia: It happened by chance, when I was 7. I had a friend who played the guitar. She encouraged me to go for guitar lessons. Then, I realised music was truly important for me, I could not live without it.

I: Do you play other instruments apart from guitar?
C: Yes, I also play the piano.

I: Which are your musical influences?
C: If I had to mention a specific singer or band, it would be La Oreja de Van Gogh.

I: What are your songs about?
C: They are mostly about love and disappointed in love. I like expressing my feelings and emotions through music. For me, my music is really an expression of who I am, where I have been and a real honest look at my own life.

I: Do you prefer composing your owns songs to covering songs written by others artists?
C: I like doing both.

I: What live performance experience have you had?
C: I performed at school some time ago. I was so embarrassed to sing in public. This year, I am performing again at some pubs.

I: How did you get involved in posting your songs on the Net?
C: I wanted to show my feelings to a boy. We had broken up not too long ago and I wanted him to know how I felt, so I composed a song and uploaded it to Youtube. People liked my voice and I started recording and uploading more covers.

I: Are you open to the idea of collaborating with other singers?
C: Yes, I am. In fact, I have already collaborated with a rapper. It was an interesting experience.

I: Is there anyone in your family who shares your hobby?
C: Yes, a distant cousin. She studied music in conservatory.

I: Does your family support your hobby? What do they think?
C: They agree with it, specially my father. He loves music.

I: Would you like to belong to a band?
C: No, I prefer taking my own decisions and doing things on my own way.

I: What is your opinion about TV musical quiz shows such as Operación Triunfo and The X Factor?
C: They are a swindle. I think judges cannot choose who will succeed or who won't become famous. It makes no sense. People are the real judges.

I: Do you think you may become a successful singer in the future?
C: To be honest, I do not think so. I would be delighted with it. However, it is truly difficult to succeed .

I: Finally, where can our readers listen to you songs?
C: Well, in my public Youtube channel whose name is celcelcelia1 and in my website, www.celianuñez.com

Publicitat pròpia

Tema: la música.

Imagina, fes de cada so un món, expressa els teus sentiments: música.

Wellcome, Sinde. Goodbye, freedom

One of the strictest anti-downloading laws came into force March 6, 2011 after Spanish parliament passed it. However, this law will not become effective until summer. People who illegally download  or upload songs and films will be cut off from the internet . Do we actually need to pass this restrictive law? From my point of view, we do not need it.

Firstly, this law violates a fundamental right in Spain: the freedom of expression. An administrative body chosen by Ministry of Culture cannot pass a law that affect us all without taking into account what citizens think about it. In addition, judges are not involved in the approval process. The validity of Sinde law, therefore, is uncertain.

Secondly, as the Spanish screenwriter and director Álex de la Iglesia said in  The Goya Awards ceremony: "The Internet isn't the future; it's the present and the way for hundreds of thousands of people to enjoy movies and culture". Internet is the salvation of our cinema. However, if this law becomes effective, lots of websites will be closed and people will stop watching films or simply listening to music.

In conclusion, thanks to the Internet, people get to know new artists by downloading their songs. Afterwards, they decide if they will buy the CD or not. Logically, they do not want to waste their money. However, Sinde seems to ignore this fact. She is just concerned about money.