Restorative Justice

I´m citizen of Venezuela and I´m concerned about overcrowding in our jails. I think one cause to this problem is that prisoners who committed minor crimes spend a lot time in jails waiting for the judge´s decision. They almost always are in prisoners together a highly dangerous prisoners, and for this rather, they can´t regenerated and they commit crimes again. For these reason I invite the government to revise the possibility of implementing Restorative Justice (JR), which is an alternative and complementary path to justice and it has been implemented with successfully in other countries. The RJ programs would be applied in prime instance to prisoners with minor crimes. Then these prisoners will have the opportunity to meet with their victims may feel better. Similarly, JR helps to community through to overcome the trauma of victims. For other way, prisoners who participate in JR programs have to the opportunity to rehabilitate and they can reintegrate into society more easily as better person who may not commit more crimes. Also JR helps to government for two ways: one is saving money for high costs that represent one prisoner in jail and other is to help alleviate the overcrowded jails. For this reason I think the RJ programs are a great help for offenders and their victims, and communities and society in general.

Spectacular Destinations

I visited Canmore, Banff and Lake Louise last weekend. It was really amazing to see the view of the Rockies Mountains and all the lakes that I saw while I was driving from town to town. First, I arrived in Canmore and visited the downtown area. Here I tasted a delicious coffee while I was sitting enjoying the amazing view of the mountains called The Three Sisters. Then, I continued my travel by car to Banff National Park. When I arrived in lovely town of Banff, I walked all over downtown, ate at The Old Spaguetti Factory, and tasted some really delicious candy and ice cream. I went up to the top of the mountains by Gondola. I saw amazing views of the town and river; I enjoyed being in nature surround by squirrels. Finally, I continued my travel; I arrived at Lake Louise, and spectacular natural scenery. It´s a gorgeous and wonderful lake with its background of mountains and glaciers. It´s simply beautiful landscape, so I felt relaxed in this place. Finally, I went to another lake that is a few miles called Moraine. Here I went hiking and I watched as the mountains were reflected in the lake, something really spectacular. To sum up, this was weekend of Rocky Mountain, lakes, hiking, good foods, wildlife, and beautiful landscapes. I think the towns of outskirts of Calgary are excellent places to go sigthseeing and take a lot pictures of their landscapes.

Notting Hill

I'm not a big reader, but I enjoyed my time spent reading this book. This is a great love story with touch of comedy. The story is about how the most famous actress of the world, Anna, met an unsuccessful bookstore owner, William. She is from Beverly Hill and he is from Notting Hill. They have different style of live but finally they found the love together. The story is very entertainment and has characters very funny as Spike, he's stupid William's lodger. I like Anna’s character, who being rich and famous can to love a common man. In this novel there’re two quotes from the main character that I think are very important in this history. The first is: “I live in Notting Hill. You live in Beverly Hills. Everyone in the world knows who you are. My mother doesn’t always remember my name.” William said. And the second is: “It’s no real, you know… being famous. I’m also just a girl. Standing in front of boy. Asking him to lover her.” Anna said. Fantastic quotes for me, I’ll always remember it. This book is easy to read, it’s not necessary use to dictionary and the story is very entertaining, so you cannot stop reading. For this reason I recommend this book to ESL student it helps to improve his vocabulary and reading skills.

http://www.play-pacman-online.com/

Pac-Man

I'm not fan of video games, but when the people talk about them I always remember Pac-Man. I was teen I spent much time playing it with my brothers, cousins and friends because we made Pac-Man marathon at home on weekend when the family met. The game is funny and I like its sounds; it's possible I didn't learn anything playing this game, but I had an amazing time with my family playing the most popular game of Atari in these years. Sometimes I play this game online or in my phone, last year was very popular one version of Pac-Man in Facebook and many friends playing online for obtain the best score, everyone had his memories alive in the mind. After Pac-Man, arrived a revolution of video games from Nintendo Company with better visual effect, colorful, sound,  and great themes; leaving obsolete Pac-Man in one old  generation ago. Nowadays, there are a lot of very interesting games where the people learn to play and develop strong skills because now the games are more complex, serious and have full patterns, but also they are very entertaining. As I said in the beginning I'm not in the video game world, but if I have choose one game for play I choose Pac-Man; for me it's very addictive and funny game.

Transportation

Depending on the purpose of the travel and along it,  I choose the best way for each occasion. In my city I prefer to get around by car or subway; if I need to go outside the city I travel by  car or bus, but if the travel is a long distance I usually travel by plane. Sometimes I travel by boat when I'm on vacation. I usually go to my work by car, but if I need to move from my work to other place I prefer use the subway; because the subway station is inside of the building where I work. It's more easy and quickly to move in subway in Caracas instead spend a lot time stuck in the traffic. If I need to go outside Caracas such as Valencia or Maracay for two days or more I prefer travel by car, instead if the travel is a day round trip I take a bus. In the same way, for long distance travel I almost always prefer to travel by plane. For my work I travel a lot, I worked in Dominic Republic for eight month in 2009 and I have scary and funny experience on my first trip to Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic. Between two Islands always the planes experienced severe turbulence, my first time I was very scared and my face looked terrible. On my next trips, I enjoyed seeing the scary faces of others pasengge, I always remember my first time. About travel by boat, for me I've had my best experience because frecuently I travel by boat when I'm on vacation.  I took a cruiser to trip to Caribeean Islands, it was simply fantastic. Enjoy everyday when the cruiser arrives a new port, a new island, it means one day of sun, beaches and tropical drinks. In conclusion, if I need to choose a way to travel I choose travel by boat because it mean for me time on vacation and time to enjoy of the life.

My Passion: La Vinotinto.

 Soccer and baseball are my favourite sport but the soccer is my passion. Since I was a child I remember Diego Maradona made amazing goals and incredible plays; it wake up my passion for this sport. Nowadays this passion has grown and I enjoy when I watch play soccer to my national team, better known by the nickname of "La Vinotinto". I enjoy each play, each game, each victory and defeat suffer. Many years ago our team lost almost every game they played; today they give their all to achieve victory, which is now very common to see. Sometime you win sometime you lose, but the important thing in soccer is to give everything on the court. We have never been in a World Cup, but neither had been among the top 100 teams in the world, we are now among the top 50. Before our players were all local tournament now play in the best leagues in the world, including Argentina, Spain, France, Germany and Italy. We had never beaten Brazil, who have been five times world champions, or the double world champion Argentina. We beat Brazil in friendly game last year and beat Argentina in official game in the current World Cup Qualifying last month. All this has pushed up the hope of being in the World Cup, which is my dream. For all this, my passion is greater each day  and I hope to shout a goal of my Vinotinto in the next World Cup of Soccer: Brazil 2014; that is my dream and that of millions of Venezuelans. My passion our passion, La Vinotinto.

Great victory in America Cup 2011 (click here)    

The Safest City: Calgary

These months I've been studying in Calgary and I'm enjoying my life here because I can do many things that in other countries is a risky to do. For example, everyday when I take the C-Train I use my laptop or Ipad freely without fear that someone steals. In contrast, it's impossible to do that in Caracas because there are many thefts on any public transit systems. Simple things, such as walking around the downtown using my smartphone while in my city had been victim of mugging. In Calgary I see as many people remotely turn on your car or if they will go to a supermarket for a few minutes left on his car turn on in front it. This for me is a joke because in my country people leave their cars always with any security device active and still they say that they not know if when return the car will be there. Still worse than when they are in the car could be victim of carjacking because the trauma of these types of thefts is strong. In addition, I always read the news and in this city the crime rate is incredibly low while Caracas is one of the most dangerous cities in the world. In fact, it's not a good example  to compare these two cities because the difference in safety is great. However I have visited many other cities of this continent and from my experience I have come to the conclusion that Calgary is the safest city I've known.