The Human Rights Center at the University of California, Berkeley just run a contest in how cell phones can help expose war crimes and violations of human rights. The idea is to use mobile cell technology as a tool to expose war crimes and other serious violations of human rights. Disseminating this information in real time throughout the world. Winners will receive cash awards of $15,000 (first place), $10,000 (second place), and $5,000 (third place) to implement their ideas. The top Ten Finalists will be announced on March 31, 2009 at 11:00am PDT. This is part of the events for the international conference at UC Berkeley “The Soul of the New Machine: Human Rights, Technology, and New Media" May 4 - 5, 2009

South Africa Government Barred the Dalai Lama

The Dalai Lama has been barred to enter South Africa to attend to the 2010 football (Soccer) World Cup Peace Conference. This conference was perceived as an opportunity to showcase South Africa's role as a human-rights champion. Due to this country increase trading relationship with China it was decided to deny the visa. It is ironical that South Africa with such a remarkable past fighting for Human Rights has assumed this position. It seems to me that the South African goberment has a very short memory span.

The DREAM Act

If you are looking for a cause to support look into this one. The DREAM Act a bipartisan effort introduced by Senator Richard Durbin of Illinois and Rep. Howard Berman of California attempt to help undocumented students achieve their dream of a higher education. Under the rigorous provisions of the DREAM Act, undocumented young people could be eligible for a conditional path to citizenship in exchange for a mandatory two year commitment in higher education or the military. Undocumented young people must also demonstrate good moral character to be eligible for and stay in conditional residency. At the end of the long process, the young person can have the chance to become an American citizen.

This act will support the creation of an educated work force in America.It is your choice. Do you want them to stay here illegal and uneducated or as a productive members of our society. Would you prefer them to go to college or fight in our military or to stay in their street corner.

Kolb's Problem Solving Model

This post may look a little boring. It relates at how we process information and possible problem-solving techniques. I agree that many problems do not have the perfect solution. Some may not have a solution at all. But in my opinion most of us go through a similar process as the one described by Kolb when confronted with a specific issue. We assess the situation and we study the problem. Then we come up with possible solutions, and finally you implement them. I believe that Kolb learning theory and problem solving model is very actual and shows with simplicity a process that could seem very complicate.

The four stages of problem solving are part of Kolb’s model of problem solving. I like this model because it provides a structured approach to problem-solving facilitating a methodical evaluation of complex problems. This model was also based on Kolb’s theory of experimental learning. In this theory Kolb describes learning styles as preferences in the way individuals’ process information when solving problems.

The four stages of problem solving are:

Stage 1: Situation Analysis.
Stage 2: Problem Analysis.
Stage 3: Solution analysis.
Stage 4: Implementation analysis.

I promise my next post will be more interesting.

Reference:

Kolb, D. A., Osland, J. S., Turner, M. E., & Rubin, I. M. (2007). The
organizational behavior: Behavior reader (8th ed.) Prentice-Hall.

Obama and the economy Mar 09

President Obama is working hard to make changes in our economy. follow this link to an NPR piece. He is teaching a lesson in Politics in the 21st century. You can also hear the comments at the NPR link.

Number of Nonbelievers Rising in US

Recently on National Press there were several articles citing last week's U.S. Religious Landscape Survey from the Pew Forum and the 2006 University of Minnesota's research in religious beliefs. As per the articles these surveys and research suggests that the number of non believers is increasing steadily. As a non believer the news makes me very happy. I consider myself and agnostic. I do not believe in organized religion. I do believe that our perception of reality is limited. Like Plato would say in his allegory of the Cave: we think we understand the real world, but because we are trapped in our bodies we can see only shadows. I do have family members who are deeply religious and I respect their views. Either way. I am glad that more people are joining my ranks.

My first post

I decided to create a Blog, I have many concerns in doing it. Will I have the time to keep it up to date? Will English become an obstacle since it is not my native language. Most blogs have a well define theme. I don't have one. I have multiple interests. What should I write about?  Will somebody read it? I will say that at least for now I plan to write about me, my friends, and my interests. Sometimes I will do it in English and sometimes in Spanish. This is my experiment. Lets see where does it take me