NIGERIA: THE NOK CULTURE-by Natalia Borrueco

Hi there!

This month I’m going to talk a little bit of the Nok culture which comes from the richest country in Africa.

I’m writing about it because at my school we are trying to accomplish projects about this amusing country as we do every year with many different poor locations. I say ‘’try’’ because not in all of our subjects we can do it, for example, in Physics we can’t do a thing related to Nigeria in consequence of this is not a totally developed country with physical knowledge like we do.

• WHAT IS THE NOK CULTURE?

The Nok culture is the first recognized as an African one which appeared between the 5^th century B.C. and the 2^nd century A.D. This is a civilization that assembled towns of people who spoke different languages, occupying the Central and East area of Nigeria.

 

They also adopted common techniques such as pottery or metallurgy as we can observe, nowadays at many museums that conserve a lot of ceramic sculptures of clay, previously founded in Nigeria after archeological excavations.

If we talk about their art, these sculptures were made to represent their leaders, ancestors, funerary steeles or good-luck charms, mostly. These people were very accurate because, even, when they were making a woman out of pottery, they modelled it with her traditional hair style and a considerable amount of jewellery that they used to wear at that moment. Unluckily, not all of these pieces of art are in good conditions because of the climatic conditions and its subsidence under the land too, so it took a long time to find them. Today, this social structure is considered extremely forward-thinking because this civilization was very far away from other cultures giving consideration to the fact that the people belonging to this lifestyle were living in the Neolithic.

However, this is a culture that disappeared after the famine or some epidemic in the first millennium of our era.

• NOK CULTURE EXPOSITIONS

The most important European exposition that has ever existed until now is, by chance, a Spanish one: Fundación Alberto Jiménez – Arellano.

This is a non-profit organization taken over by the University of Valladolid and created in the 3^rd of May of 2004. Its exposition is public and if you visit it, you can admire the fantastic collection of African terracotta’s figures that they maintain at the Palacio de Santa Cruz.

 

• OPINION

From my point of view I see the Nok culture as one of the most important ones but its public recognition is not as big as it should be since without this group of people maybe the Africa we know wouldn’t be as ‘’industrialized’’ as it is now, maybe they would be even more rudimental than these days.

KIDS AND TECHNOLOGY-by Lucía Alonso de Medina

KIDS AND TECHNOLOGY

I’m going to talk about an important thing for most

of the families:

1. Technology
   
   
2. Children

What happens if we mixed them? Is it positive or 

negative? Why?

First of all about technology, right now everybody

uses it and probably most of us can’t imagine our 

lives without it, especially teens.

Technology is very useful to work, learn and also for

entertainment: to play games, listen to music, chat 

with your family if they live far and with your 

friends.

But here is a negative aspect… Most of the people 

don’t use it in a responsible way and it causes a 

problems on them and of course on their families.

CHILDREN: They are able to use all kinds of 

phones, tablets, computers and laptops. This is 

because when they were born, technology was 

developing very fast.

Parents usually entertain them when they are  

crying or they don’t want to eat until they are given 

their gadgets. It’s in that moment when they finally 

shut up and become happy. But is this positive or 

negative?

From my point of view this is negative because a kid 

has to play and enjoy his childhood and become 

creative. And that’s impossible while he is always 

looking at a screen. Furthermore it is very 

dangerous to the children’s eyes.

However technology is sometimes positive for them, 

they can learn new things very fast thanks to 

electronic games and books and also they have a 

good time playing.

The key to that is to use it in a responsible way and 

to not let the child use it too frequently and do 

whatever they want with it, because as they grow up 

they could become stubborn and arrogant teenagers!

I know a lot of this topic because I have a toddler 

brother and he enjoys playing videos on TV,watching 

his favorites series, playing with the mobile phone 

and sometimes when you say to him : “no, you can’t 

take my mobile phone”, he gets angry… So I try to 

play with him and try to remind him that technology 

hasn’t always existed and that he could perfectlylive 

without it. To sum up I want to “teach” him to enjoy 

his childhood!

THANK YOU FOR READING!

STOP MAKING STUPID PEOPLE FAMOUS (anonymous)

Stop making stupid people famous!


Yesterday I was on youtube watching videos when I started thinking how it's posible that people that make a video about something stupid are more famous and earn more money for making that video than the people that make important things or just have talent.
For example around us we have a lot of people and we dont know nothing about about but , who knows if that person its a genius on the piano? Or at science? Or at sports? It's just we are around people that probably have something so special and while this person its fighting for being in the conservatory other person that make a stupid video and have more support than the others.
Okay in youtube there are people that make insteresting videos and make jokes and something like this and yeess it's funny but are others that have videos laughing at people or judging them , and they have millions of views ,other million likes and a million coments saying things like 'HAHA you are a goddess' and one comment saying how stupid is judging things on youtube and judging people for anything. We are making stupid people famous and we don't really care, and it's not the fact of making these people famous , it's the fact of making these people famous while amazing people don't have  support. We are a society that now is out of control and some people see the fun bullying and the pain of the others.

MY SKI TRIP-by Rafael Vargas-Zuñiga

My ski trip, By Rafael Vargas-Zúñiga.

Last long weekend I went with the school to Cerler, it was my second time that I skied so I didn´t ski very well but I made an important progress that weekend.

We left Madrid Thursday at 3.00 p.m and we arrived to the hostel at 11:00 p.m. We didn't do a lot of stops, we only did one stop of one hour, so we ate at that time. The second day we woke up at 8:00 a.m and we didn´t start skiing until the 11:30 because we had to rent the skis, boots,... That day we didn´t do a lot of things because it was the first day, we got some green slopes and also some blue ones. We ate at the ski resort and in the evening it was much better because we got some red slopes. We stopped skiing at 4:00 p.m and at 6:00 p.m. we went to a sports center to play soccer. The second day of ski was quite similar to the first but it was funnier because we got down some red and blues slopes very fast and also at the end of the day we went to a disco on Benasque. But the third and the last day was the best one we got some red slopes and also i got my first black slope. It was fantastic!!!, but the bad thing was that we had to stop skiing at 1:00 p.m and we had o come back at Madrid. We arrived Madrid at 11:00 p.m and each one went with their family. It was such  great experience! I will repeat that trip next year!

THE OSCARS-by María Pujol

THE OSCARS

The Oscars or Academy Awards are an annual American awards ceremony honouring cinematic achievements. It started in 1929 but it wasn’t as important as now. In the first ceremony only 15 statuettes were given and the audience was of 270 people, but now these awards are the most important ones in the world. This year, the audience has been of 37.260 millions of people and there have been given 2.947 statuettes. 

The statuette is made of gold-plated britannium on a black metal base; it is 34 cm in tall, and it weighs 3.85 kg.

Before the ceremony, people show their dresses or suits in the red carpet, they are always very elegant. After the red carpet, the ceremony starts, which takes approximately 3 hours and a half.

This year, I have seen the Oscars for the first time; it is spectacular watching the dresses and all these things. What I don’t like is that the most important awards like best actor, best actress, best movie… are given the last ones so you have the intrigue of knowing who will be the best in that categories.

I recommend seeing this show if you have never seen it because it is really beautiful.

  

LOBA (SHE WOLF) BOOK REVIEW-by Patricia Valencia

LOBA (She wolf)

It´s a book about a girl who feels more comfortable with animals than with humans. She is rejected by her father because she is a girl. Her father is the king of a kingdom and he only wants to give the power to a boy. Because of that she (she is called Loneliness) acts like a boy. The kingdom of Loneliness is at war with the kingdom of magicians because they cursed The Wolf (which is the name of the father of Loneliness) for not having sons.

A young magician called Raven wakes up a giant red dragon that starts to kill the people around him. Loneliness and Raven must join forces to defeat the dragon.

When they go to the forest Loneliness discover something that will change her life.

In my opinion it is really good book that is about fantasy, adventures and there is a little bit of love. This book will absorb you with its interesting history.

NIGERIAN CULTURE-by Blanca Bonmatí

Nigerian culture:

This year from Jesus Maria we are collaborating with a project for Nigeria, therefore this country is very present in our day to day. So I have decided to tell you some general things on its culture and life style.

Language:

English is the official language, but they have many other African languages (Hausa, Kanuri…)

Meals 

They are prepared and taken home; the basic food is a goat, cow, chicken, turkey, geese, pigeons, fish, seafood and vegetables.

Clothing:

Women:

They were a blouse of long sleeve, a skirt and a hairdo or a kaba (long garment of only one piece that can be used of different ways).

Men:

They were a special pants style so called sokoto, a cap cut to be placed in the head or another type of hat (abbeti-aja) in which the wings are longer and clinging.

Society:

Men are the base of the society, they have small obligation to maintain their children or wives.

Very few women build a career or take part in politics, sometimes if they are visited by a man they are locked up.

Giving things with the left hand to adults or elders is considered to be a big disrespect.