Uganda's Kill the gay bill

Uganda's Kill the gay bill 

On Monday, November 12, Rebecca Kadaga – an Ugandan parliament speaker said  that "anti-homosexuality bill" will be passed before the end of 2012, as most of the Ugandans are demanding it. It is a policy that implies that all homosexual behaviors will be considered a crime. The "criminal offenses" will be divided into two categories:

1. "The offence of homosexuality" applies to a person who is involved in a homosexual relationship or marriage, who had same-sex sexual acts, or who made an attempt to commit aggravated homosexuality. It is punished with a life imprisonment 
2. "Aggravated homosexuality" is a same-sex act, committed by a person who is HIV-positive, is a parent of or an in authority figure, who administers intoxicating substances, who commits homosexual acts on minors or people with disabilities, or  is a repeat offender. It is punished with death.

It also implies that all Ugandan citizens who will break this law outside Uganda, are to be extradited back to their country for punishment. There are also established penalties for individuals, companies, media organizations that support homosexuals rights.

Despite critism, Kadaga not only does assert that the  bill will be passed, but she considers it a "Christmas gift" to Ugandan Christian citizens. She also said that homosexuals are a serious threat to Ugandans children and that the community are demanding this bill be passed.

Unlike in Uganda, this bill is very unpopular abroad and has brought a lot of criticism. President Obama has called it "odious". Some European countries went even further and have threatened to cut aid to Uganda if the bill becomes the law.
This bill is explicit an breach of human rights, so it seems obvious that it should be reproved. Apparently Pope Benedict XVI has given his blessing to Rebecca Kadaga during a mass on December 12 attended by thousands of pilgrims at the Vatican Wednesday.
The Ugandan delegation which was led by Kadaga was in Rome to attend the 7th Consultative Assembly of Parliamentarians for the International Criminal Court and the World Parliamentary Conference on Human Rights.

I would also like to present a very interesting Guardian article  describing this situation:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/nov/26/uganda-anti-homosexuality-bill

source: http://cdn2-b.examiner.com/sites/default/files/styles/image_content_width/hash/2a/9e/2a9e52472e23a8c3bf1dd7e3b9ce752d.jpg


1. What do you think about the reaction of worldwide authorities, if you perceive them insufficient, how would you like them to react?
2. What do you think of Pope's blessing to Kadaga? How do you think it will influence the image of church as a institution?

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uganda_Anti-Homosexuality_Bill

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2012/11/12/uganda-gay/1699065/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/nov/26/uganda-anti-homosexuality-bill

Firearms accessibility

Firearms accessibility

source: http://www.photo-dictionary.com/phrase/3579/semi-automatic-gun.html#b

Recent events in U.S.A, has raised interest in matter of access to firearms. Polish procedure of getting permission to carry a weapon, is most restricted in UE. In order to obtain permission, you have to detrmine the purpose you need your weapon for, and justify it. Strictly Rejected will be applications of persons, who:

1. Are under 21 years old
2. Are being a thret to their selfs or others
3. Has any mental disorders
4. Has  physical disabilities
5. Are addicted to alcohol or any other stimulant
6. Does not possess any constant adress on teritory of Poland
7. Were convicted for any crimes

There also exist a criteria of grounds for having weapon, which is higly subjective for an executive organ, and those grounds are not specified by any act.

Many of people are convinced that facilitating an access to firearms will result increase in crime magnitude with guns involved, however statistics seems to show otherwise. Please take a closer look on relation between quantity of firearms possessed and rate of homocides:

source: http://www.wykop.pl/ramka/1354531/troche-statystyk-o-broni-palnej-w-polsce-i-na-swiecie/


I would like to present some interesting guardian's article as well, it has very specific statistics involved:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2012/jul/22/gun-homicides-ownership-world-list


Statistics are curious, except Jamaica, in every country quantity of murders committed are pretty much the same, regardless to quantity of weapons possessed.
On the other hand cases of violent lunatic behavior associatet with guns is quite often encountered in media. Horrifying occurrences such as recent shooting in Newton U.S.A, call for measures regarding safety increase. But let's take a closer look at those cases. In U.S.A, the only places where guns are strictly prohibited are shools and Univercities campuses. Killer knew that he is stepping into area where pople are completly defendless.

That issue bring up following questions:

1. Do you think that accessibility to weapons will prevent or rather encourage such such tragedies to happen?
2. Are you for or against making firearms more accesible in poland?

Blood Sport

Blood sport

Source: http://www.fightsgoneby.com/2012/06/analyzing-fedor-2-revolutionizing.html

MMA stands for mixed martial arts, and it is sport discipline where fighters can use wide range of techniques (actually competitors are allowed to use techniques from every martial art without using weapons).

source:http://www.fight24.pl/ufc-czy-wiecej-znaczy-lepiej/

MMA has its origins in antique Greek  Olympics, beside wrestling (pale) and boxing  (pygme) there were also pankration, which was connection of those two.  Then there was competition called vale tudo in 20’s of XX century. It was very popular in south America and it has had no limitations, which made that competitions highly dangerous. There were also some similar competitons to pankration in Japan an India in 70’s but they didn’t gain much popularity. Real boom on MMA has started with first UFC which stands for Ultimate Fighting Championships (U.S.A) and Pride FC  (Japan). After a while UFC has grown to biggest MMA organization      
and took over such organizations like Pride FC, Strike Force, Affliction. Nowadays Popularity of MMA is still increasing, and most famous events are organized at large arenas, for thousands of fans, it also gathers and another millions in front of the TV’s

source: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1417417-ufc-154-results-azamat-gashimov-and-7-other-damaging-submission-losses

Fight take place either on boxing ring, or in the cage, which is better because it prevent fighters falling out of the fighting area. It connect stand up, ground game, Kicks, punches, throws, ground pounds, and submissions.  Initially fights had very few limitations, so competitors were pulling some dangerous stunts during the fight like hitting opponent back spine or back of the head. It was also a common thing to fight bare handed, but due to high risk of breaking hand they started to wear gloves.

source: http://www.victorymmasubmissionfighting.org/instructors.htm

Time past, organizations started to put more restrictions due to the pressure of authorities. Established weight divisions, most of roganizations set time of rounds  to three five minutes rounds for average fight and five five minutes rounds for the fight of the night, unlike in mid-90’s  when competitor were fighting until one of them either gave up or get knocked out. They forbidden to attack directly on any vital points of the body, most of the organizations also forbidden from kicking a competitor that is laying on the ground to the head, but in some organizations those techniques are still allowed.

Fight can be stopped before the bell ring by submission, knock out, or referee call. If it gets to the statutory time judges will set the decision.

MMA training is about developing three basic aspects of fight –

1. Stand up(boxing, kickboxing, thai boxing etc.)

2. Wrestling (Wrestling, Judo, Sambo, etc)

3. Ground game (Jiu-jitsu, Brazilian jiu-jitsu)

Also ability to quickly switch between those three elements is very important. It is complex sport, which requires from practitioners being all-round technically and physically strong,

Training MMA bears high risk of injuries, some of them can even cause long term brake in training and painfull rehabilitation afterwards. Apparently it’s safer than other popular martial arts like boxing. If we compare a death rate, we can see that 4 deaths (three of them on illegal competitions) during  70 years of MMA history isn’t even close to 1000 during 100 years of boxing. Due to the wide range of techniques in MMA, fighters take less punches to the head.

source: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1399341-the-top-5-fan-favorite-mma-moves-and-how-to-do-them

1.    What do you think of MMA as a sport?

2.    Are you familiar with any Polish fighters or MMA organizations?

3.    For MMA fans, who is your favorite fighter?

I would also like to put some highlights of my favorite MMA fighter -  Anders Silva

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfq9tcPONdM

http://mmareferee.com/rules

http://uk.ufc.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mixed_martial_arts

Week 11

Read/ watch the presentation: Death game
http://uwb2m-s.blogspot.com/2012/12/death-game.html

 and comment on it here. Discuss it with the course participants.

Week 11

Read the presentation: Epidemiology of HIV/AIDS
http://uwb2m-s.blogspot.com/2012/12/epidemiology-of-hivaids.html

 and comment on it here. Discuss it with the course participants.

Week 11

Read the presentation: Education as a key to achieving stability in life

 http://uwb2m-s.blogspot.com/2012/12/education-as-key-to-achieving-stability.html

 and comment on it here. Discuss it with the course participants.

Christmas movies

In view of the upcoming Christmas, I created a list of the best Christmas films.

It is difficult to imagine Christmas without them. Without Kevin it's not Christmas! Although this film for me was the No. 2 spot, but also on the podium. For me in the first place were the trials and tribulations of Clark and his family, or " Christmas Vacation" In my opinion, a must for holidays or a few days before.

 

My list:

1.Christmas holiday

I love this movie. Starting from the soundtrack, the acting, the undeniable magic of Christmas that comes from this movie. Everyone knows that the holidays are the three most important days of the year, which we are awaiting for a very long time. We think of a delicious set table, tons of presents under the Christmas tree and the smell spreading in the house . At some point are coming to us honorable guests: grandmothers, grandfathers, uncles, cousins​​, which often go well only in the picture (not that it was for me;)).

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=decUIVkZ4GI

2.Home Alone

 

 I watch it every year, it reminds me of the Christmas Eve and the Christmas atmosphere .... something like the smell of mandarins and carnations:]

It captured this great Christmas atmosphere. The simple, light, and an uplifting movie, having in itself  "something" good.

Soundtrack: http://www.soundtracks.pl/reviews.php?op=show&ID=172 

Williams has created something amazing, climate, magical ...

It was music, and of the actors make this film never boring :)

Source:http://www.dvdactive.com/news/releases/home-alone.html

3.Love Actually

It's a very nice film that is worth a look. Certainly it interacts with Christmas and fits the environment. Also it shows that love is all around us and just look around. It carries a positive message: a puzzle of human history, told in a lyrical way to create a single simple image, true, universal love. In addition, great acting and unique music create a film so extraordinary that it stays long in the memory.

Film: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=wq6FtwjAsh0

Source:http://connect.chicklitclub.com/wp/2012/02/24/comfort-movies/love-actually/

In addition to these films (obligatory in my opinion at that time) my list also includes such films as:

4.”Miracle on 34th Street”  Les Mayfield

This movie is so amazing. Suddenly, it turned out that this opposing view of the world (those who believe in Santa Claus and those who believe in the commercial and public holidays, and therefore in the money) have joined together in a common struggle for the existence of Santa Claus. It is true that they had different motives, but, paradoxically, they all had one goal - to keep the charm of the holidays.

A beautiful film, magic, talking about what is most important: faith; therefore, we should  believe in ourselves and other people. It is a movie for now. Miracle on 34th Street tells the story of the highest values.

 Source:http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110527/

5.”A Christmas Carol”  David Hugh Jones

"A Christmas Carol" is the most shielded star story. Known to most of us it is a story of a change from rich, stingy, rough man into the one that respects people and celebrates the value of Christmas.  What movie carries such an important moral message? To be good for others, thinking of loved ones, appreciating things that are not financial benefits? This certainly reflects the essence of values which are sacred to the man. So I recommend watching this movie - you have to see it and  in one of winter evenings.

 Source:http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066344/

6. „About a Boy”  Chris Weitz, Paul Weitz

"About a Boy" is the story of an emotionally disabled man named Will, whose life revolves around   pleasure. He treats women like objects, he does not like children, and the only person he cares about is himself. Will starts to understand that in life there's more when he meets Marcus. The Boy has problems at home and at school. His life is dependent on the mother suffering from depression, and colleagues from the school constantly torment him. Their knowledge of unexpected flourishes, which is a surprise to both parties. According to me this story is for everyone and for every occasion: there's a little bit of drama, humor, and all in a very mild climate.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/About_a_Boy

7."Holiday" Nancy Meyers

What do women want? In this case, a change in life. Amanda (Cameron Diaz) lives in a stately mansion in Los Angeles. Iris (Kate Winslet) in an old house in the English countryside. Both failed hard on guys. They decide to relieve the failure of love. Using the Internet agency they decide to exchange houses for some time. Amanda meets refined Gragama (Jude Law), Iris Miles (Jack Black).

The film is incredibly atmospheric, warm, perfect for a festive evening when guests have left and you can relax in a comfortable armchair.

Source:  http://www.filmweb.pl/Holiday

8."Jack Frost” Troy Miller

Jack Frost is a daddy. Although he loves his wife Gabby and son Charlie, he does not give them too much time. Jack suddenly realizes that something is missing. He has a tragic accident. A year after his death, thanks to the magic spell  Jack returns but ... as a snowman.

Source:http://www.joblo.com/movie-posters/jack-frost

9."The polar Express”  Robert Zemeckis

Every year an eight year old boy goes through Christmas. He deeply believes in Santa Claus. In the end, however, there is a change in him, and in his heart there is doubt. On Christmas Eve at the house of the boy pulls the Polar Express - a magical train, going to the North Pole. This movie is magical with finely crafted animation. I recommend it. 

Source: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0338348/

10.  " How the Grinch Stole Christmas" Ron Howard

On top of a mountain, in a dark cave lives a malicious Grinch who hates Christmas. He decides to spoil it. A fairy tale for people with a very specific approach to everything;)

It makes me laugh again and again;)

Source: http://mutantreviewers.wordpress.com/2010/12/24/how-the-grinch-stole-christmas-2000-retro-review

Questions:

Do you like watching Christmas movies? Present your favourite.

Do you like any other movies that are not on my list that are worth watching?