Oscar's magazine


One week after the biggest film event in the world, we will address some curiosities that marked the eighty-four editions of the Oscars – initially called Award of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

The first edition of the Awards of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences occurred on May 16, 1929 in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.
The Birth of a Tradition: The first Academy Awards banquet was held in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel’s Blossom Room.

This event has already had several homes, like Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, Coconut Grove of The Ambassador Hotel, Shrine Auditorium, Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, Pantages Theatre, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion do Music Center and Kodak Theater – its current home.

The first edition wasn’t transmitted by any type of media. Only in 1930 a local radio of Los Angeles – KNX broadcast this event. The ceremony was passed on TV for the first time in 1953 and in 1954, forty-three million people, were already watching it. In 1965 was displayed the last ceremony in black and white. The event was transmitted in thirty-seven countries, with six hundred million viewers in 1969, turning into the highest rated show.

The Award of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1936 starts to be called OSCAR. And, at this time, newspapers were receiving the names of the winners until 8.30 pm of the award night, and had to keep secret until the next newspaper edition.

There was a time on History that stole protagonism from the Oscars (World War II). However, the events were considered a success, though they had many factors against like the low budget (for example the statues are made of plaster instead of metal). In 1941, the American president Roosevelt even thanked to the cinematographic industry for being able to carry some entertainment and good times to the American people in a war scenario.

In 1942, Greer Garson after receiving the award for the best actress in the film “Mrs. Miniver”, delivered the longest speech in the history of the Oscars, with over forty minutes.  




Sidney Poitier received in 1963 the award for best actor in the film “Lilies of the Field", becoming the first black person winning an Oscar.


The theme of homosexuality and HIV/AIDS was considered taboo by the Academy, and only in 1994, Tom Hanks won the award for best actor with the role of an homosexual with HIV in “Philadelphia”.



The international conflict scenario (with USA and Iraq) struck again the normal procedure of the event with the photographers’ restriction and the cancel of red carpet festivities. However, this rule, in the event night, was ignored.




Top 5 – Most awarded films:
“Titanic” (with 11 awards out of 14 nominations) – 1998
“Ben-Hur” (with 11 awards out of 12 nominations) – 1960
“Lord of the Rings” (with 11 awards out of 12 nominations) – 2004
“The Last Emperor” (with 9 awards out of 9 nominations) – 1988
“Gone With the Wind” (with 8 awards out of 8 nominations) – 1940


Bibliography

Text written by the authors  of the blog:
Cristiana & Margarida

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The choice of an icon


In the last post we presented to you what we think that will have huge importance in the next decade of humanity (if the world doesn’t end this year – hehehe). Just like us, our colleagues talked about their view of what or who will mark the 2020 decade and we have to show you why their options aren’t so wise.

Jorge selected two different things: Ray Gun and Witricity
Ray Gun is a letal weapon used by the military forces. It’s not a very good idea because it has the power to cause massive destruction and kill many people. It would also encourage the terrorism and more wars.
Witricity is the transmission of energy without the use of physical connections. It’s not bad at all but it would be very expensive and, since the world economies are facing a world crisis, most of the people wouldn't be able to afford this new kind of technology.

Alexandra chose the Anonymous.
Anonymous is a group of cyber pirates that defend the free and universal access to information. If governments don’t allow this type of access is because sometimes people don’t understand that there are measures wich have to be taken so it’s best to keep them in private so that social contestation don’t take place.

3rd: Raúl and Bruno - http://theenglishtunes.blogspot.com/
The choice of Bruno and Raúl was Samsung.
They chose Samsung beliving that the brand will provide to all kids in the world a better education with access to technology. This is not a priority because there are kids that doesn’t even have anything to eat and, instead of investing on the improve of human conditions, they are investing on an education model that is unnecessary!

Fred chose Apple.
This brand is known all over the world due to it´s quality, and that quality demands a high price. This Steve Jobs’s creation it’s not for all pockets so it can’t be an icon either in this decade or in another.

5th: Hugo C., Hugo S., João and Nuno - http://moreblogmoreinf.wordpress.com/
Hugos, Nuno and João chose China.
No doubts, China is nowadays and will be in the future a major economic potency, but it’s a nation with some questionable costumes, like the use of child labour, their gastronomic habits and their political regime, so China won’t have the characteristics to be an icon.

José chose Solar Power to be the icon for this decade.
This way of making energy it’s something that had already been used in the previous decade, so it’s not new.
Besides there are some countries that are unable to use it since they haven’t access to solar light during the year (because of its position on the earth).
And also its expensive and not everyone can afford it.

Kcénia choice was Gagashion, the fashion of Lady Gaga.
Lady Gaga is seen by lots of people, mainly teenagers, but not because of the eccentric and crazy clothes that she puts on, it’s because of her music and because of the message that she wants to pass. Besides that, this type of fashion isn’t practical so people definitely won´t be using her style.

Maria chose Alexander McQueen to be the icon of the next decade.
We think that it’s not a good choice because it’s like saying that Michael Jackson is going to be an icon in the next decade, because although he had left a great legacy he can’t adapt to the change of the times, due to the fact that he’s no longer with us.
Fashion is not a relevant issue to the evolution of humanity and his fashion that was very specific.

9th: Natália and Louise - http://natandluteachyou.tumblr.com/
This is an Internet trend that, like many others (Hi5 for example), people use to comment on other people’s experiences so it has no importance on the evolution of mankind. We think that will disappear briefly.

Rodrigo picked Facebook.
This one (like Twitter) it’s an Internet tool known worldwide because it allows people to connect with new people and find old friends, but it doesn’t allow face-to-face interaction. So people may become addicted and, with that, they loose their ability to face contact and get more and more alone. Besides, Facebook can be really dangerous, mainly for children and I’m refering to cases of disappearences that happened in the past!

11th: Rita, Beatriz and Catarina - http://economicssphere.blogspot.com/
Angela Merkel was the choice of Rita, Beatriz and Catarina.
This powerful lady isn’t a wise choice because in this time of crisis we need to unite the nations and make them think as one to reach a common goal and Merkel is just thinking in her country, trying to submit the other nations to the already mighty Germany. So we think that she won’t occupy a position of great political importance for much longer.

12th: Tiago and Ricardo - http://rthistonomics.blogspot.com/
Tiago and Ricardo chose a Poker player – Tom Dwan.
We think that a cards game won’t be something that will mark a decade. Where is the benefits to the humanity? Tom Dwan, who is that? He may be a great poker player but how can somebody that has no importance in the life of others be an icon?
Their choice may encourage somebody to enter the world of Poker and get addicted and because this is a money game they may destroy their lifes.

Yuan choice was K-pop, a Korean style of music
Music is culture, and culture changes from nation to nation, and an icon has to be somebody or something that marks and envolves everyone in the world. K-pop doesn’t have the possibility to become an icon because fashion and music are issues that doesn’t contribute to the evolution of humanity and specialy music with a language that it’s not universal.

Scientific progress



Scientific progress




Three scientists, one cause – THE CAUSE






The best project planning


This week we had to do a presentation about the planning of a project work that we’ll present in the 3rd Term. The theme of that work was related to culture and society in general in a decade of our choice (60s, 70s, 80s or 90s). In each decade there was plenty of cultural movements like the Hippies in the 60s, the Greenpeace (environmental movement) in the 70s, the so called fashion disaster in the 80s and the technological evolution in the 90s, for example.

In this week post we have to choose the best presentation of the class. The best presentation was, no doubts, the presentation of Hugo Santos, Hugo Cardoso and Nuno Simões. Their sub-theme is a controversial show that came out in the 80s called “The Jeffersons”. This was a very successful show because the main idea of it was to do a wake up call to racism and prejudice in society in a comedic and ironic way. The purpose of choosing this show is to talk about social issues that existed in the 80s such us unemployment, racism (already mentioned), discrimination, suicide, etc. Most of the social problems of that time still exists nowadays.

Their presentation was well structured, well planned, interesting, with nice information and fresh ideas about the interaction with the audience, because they will bring an excerpt from the series and we (the audience) will have to interpret that script, so I think that it will be a good exercise to improve our English and it’s an activity that will captivate us to their work. In terms of orality, all of the three members of the group improved and their language was clear, concise and objective.

Although some other groups have done well too, we think that because of these factors this was the best planning presentation. Now we have to wait for the real deal and see what it turns out like! 



Text written by the authors of the Blog
Cristiana & Margarida

African tribes - Yoruba people

The Yoruba tribe is probably the largest ethnic group in West Africa and has approximately 30 million individuals, and most of them can be found in Nigeria.

There is evidence to prove that people of the same ethnic group have shared the region of Yorubaland, at least since the seventh century BC.

The origin of the Yoruba has to do with mythology and revolves around the mythical figure of Oduduwa (which means "the special one who created the knowledge of character”). There are several theories about how Oduduwa created the people of Yoruba, but all of them agree that it was Him that “planted the seed” for the construction of this community.

According to many sources "after the disappearance of Oduduwa" a phenomenon of the  scattering of the children occurred. This resulted in the "conquest" of various kingdoms - Owu, Ketu, Benin, Ila, Sabe, Popo, Awori, Ondo and Oyo. From there was occurred the development, urbanization and consolidation of what would become the Yoruba confederacy of kingdoms.

Between the twelfth and eighteenth century, Ife kingdom experienced its "boom" (economic and social). While that from the seventeenth century to the nineteen was the Oyo kingdom that dominated the political and military level. It was followed by the proliferation of other kingdoms, but these were those that got the biggest improvement.

At this time (between twelfth and nineteenth century), as it would be expected in these kingdoms, the most common form of government is a monarchy, where the monarch has total power. But we have also observed cases in which the kingdom is ruled by a council of notable elders, where decisions are taken by a group of people, which is formed by the older men of the kingdom.

In the near times of modernity was formed a federation of city-states under the political control of the city-state of Oyo. This did not last long, since the remaining Yoruba states have freed themselves of the Oyo state dominance. Such change resulted in a civil war.

At the same time, Europeans (mostly British) came to these lands for the purpose of colonization, and Yoruba people could not resist because they were weakened due to civil war. After that, around 1960, Yorubaland was subjugated to the Federal Republic of Nigeria. And it remains that way until today.

As a curiosity:

On a religious level - Yoruba people began to venerate one God (Oludumare) and believe that there are also subordinate divinities (the orishas). Today most of them are Christian or Muslim.
On a social level - The twins who are born in a Yoruba community have always been loved and became a symbol of this culture.

Researches made at:
http://www.lmp.ucla.edu/Profile.aspx?menu=004&LangID=22 – on January 14
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoruba_people - on January 14
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Yoruba_people  - on January 14



Text written by the authors of the Blog

Cristiana & Margarida




A dream come true

This song (“I have a dream”) has an anti-racist message and makes an allusion to the speech of Martin Luther King in 1963. In the speech is discussed the need for union and harmonious coexistence between the African American race and the white race. This event was a turning point in the history of the American Civil Rights Movement. Martin Luther King spread his word in front of an audience of over two hundred thousand people supporting the cause. This is considered one of the greatest, most emotional and exciting speeches in the history of mankind.

Martin Luther King was a Protestant pastor and political activist. He became one of the leaders of the civil rights movement of blacks in the United States and worldwide, with a campaign of non-violence and love towards our fellow creatures.

He marked many generations (even ours) and he marked a great cause too. His influence in people’s mind and way of life was so big that he become the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, shortly before his assassination (in 1968). He was murdered by a racist defender of the apartheid named James Earl Ray. But, luckily, his death was not in vain and his dream is very close to become real because society, not only in the United States but also in most countries of the world, is very open to all kinds of races and cultures and a perfect example of this multicultural attitude is the fact that the United States recently promoted their first African American President, Barack Obama.

Martin Luther King is also known by Martin Luther “the King” because of his great positive influence on the evolution of the civil rights and because he gave voice to a class of people that in the most part of it had very little knowledge, little money, little power of expression and all of them were victims of injustice and discrimination.


This song was written in 2006 because of the current recent events regarding USA's political life, namely, the candidature of Barack Obama to the American presidency that brought the racism subject back into the media.

In the first part, the lyrics is about the hard life (in general) of the black people of the ghetto and the discrimination they suffer. In the last part, the lyrics prospects a better life to all these people and a better society as a consequence of the respect for the civil rights, mainly freedom and equality. As we can see, the chorus has a very positive message (it says that one day “we – the people – gonna work it out”) and that’s the main idea of the song, change the present to have a better future.



Text written by the authors of the Blog
Cristiana & Margarida

"I am the most powerful figure in the world", Idi Amin


"The Last King of Scotland is a 2006 British drama film based on Giles Foden's novel of the same name, adapted by screenwriters Peter Morgan and Jeremy Brock, and directed by Kevin Macdonald. The film was a co-production between companies from the United Kingdom and the United States, including Fox Searchlight Pictures and Film4.

The Last King of Scotland tells the fictional story of Dr. Nicholas Garrigan (James McAvoy), a young Scottish doctor who travels to Uganda and becomes the personal physician to the dictator Idi Amin (Forest Whitaker). The film is based on factual events of Amin's rule and the title comes from a reporter in a press conference who wishes to verify whether Amin declared himself the King of Scotland. Amin was known to invent and adopt fancy imperial titles for himself."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_King_of_Scotland_(film)




In the context of the study of Human Rights, this week, we visualized The Last King of Scotland. This is a film with a biographical and historical character that portrays quite faithfully the events succeeded during the dictatorial regime in Uganda (1971-1979).
In this movie are shown the events through the perspective of a Scottish newly graduated medical who travels to Uganda and turns out becoming the personal physician and "man of trust" of the dictator Idi Amin. Therefore, we end up getting to know the perspective of who was on the side of the atrocities committed.

“Idi Amin Dada (c. 1925 – 16 August 2003) was a military leader and President of Uganda from 1971 to 1979. Amin joined the British colonial regiment, the King's African Rifles in 1946. Eventually he held the rank of Major General in the post-colonial Ugandan Army and became its Commander before seizing power in the military coup of January 1971, deposing Milton Obote. He later promoted himself to Field Marshal while he was the head of state.Amin's rule was characterized by gross human rights abuse, political repression, ethnic persecution, extrajudicial killings, nepotism, corruption, and gross economic mismanagement. The number of people killed as a result of his regime is estimated by international observers and human rights groups to range from 100,000 to 500,000.Amin escaped to exile in Libya and Saudi Arabia until his death on 16 August 2003.”

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


In this post we will address the possible justifications for the acts of cruelty of this dictator showing his perspective.
The contradictory acts of Amin indicate that this person has a confusing and this could be explained based on his life experiences - his past. Idi Amin was abandoned by his father when he was young and grew up with his mother's family in a rural town in north-western Uganda. He left the school with nothing more than a fourth grade English-language education and he was recruited to the army by a British colonial army officer (at this time Uganda was a British colony). These events contributed to the formation of an unbalanced and poor in values (or distorted ones) personality. 
This lack of values ​​is dangerous because it makes people more susceptible to any influence. In the case of Amin, in addition to becoming obsessed with any idea, also became a fanatical patriotic and ethnical. This part of his way of being was influenced by Adolf Hitler whose story is his contemporary. Idi Amin took the idea of “one country" and "a superior race" almost as extreme as Hitler. 
Amin wanted to reafricanize Uganda, having expelled around 40,000 Asians and Jews that, at the time, dominated the economy. He wanted to make his country a world power and wanted the world to take notice of his nation. For this purpose he served up of unethical procedures which led to around three hundred thousand Ugandans, who were against his mode of government, were killed by way of betray his country. This mass murder is still controversial because, there are not enough graves for the corpses, they were thrown into the Nile to be eaten by crocodiles.

This dictator ended up achieving the worldwide recognition, but not for the best reasons. However, for him, the work what he was doing was being successful. Amin believed that the 40000 who had expelled from the country as well as the 300000 who had killed were just numbers that would necessarily be deleted. If this doesn’t happen these people (the numbers) wouldn’t allow that the progress continues. The dictator is self-labeled with various titles: "His Excellency”, “President for Life”, “Field Marshal”, “Al Hadji”, “Doctor Idi Amin Dada”, “VC”, “DSO”, “MC”, “Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Seas” and “Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular", in addition to his officially stated claim of being the uncrowned King of Scotland.
The aim of Amin was just to make Uganda a symbol of prosperity and wealth (the dream of every governor). The ways that he used weren’t certainly the most assertive, but were used to the better purpose - to launch Uganda globally.



Text written by the authors of the Blog

Cristiana & Margarida

"The man who claims freedom is thinking in happiness." Claude Aveline




On 10th December of 1948 the United Nations presented the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which is a document, with thirty articles, that includs a common standard of achievement for all people and nations, so every individual and every organ of society must struggle for education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and progressive measures, national and international.

In this post we will approach the articles that discuss freedom, the different kinds of freedom (transcript in the next column).

The first article of this document relates to human freedom and claims that each and everyone of us is free from the moment one is  born. This freedom can be conditioned by our acts and / or the society in which we insert.
Any society suffers changes over time and such changes may lead to better or worse, depending on the associated factors.
But this freedom that characterizes us at birth does not make us for itself in free beings. In such freedom must be associated with many others, such as freedom of thought, opinion, expression, conscience, choice, etc., without which beings would be "vegetables" without any opportunity to voice their opinions about the life and the future of each one. So the first article in this statement is complemented by articles 17 and 18 from the same declaration.

Looking back, we see several times in the world history that these articles were absurdly defaulted.
Starting with the basics  (Article 1), is an example of violation of this Article any situation in which a person is born with their fate already determined, as an example:
> The period of slavery, in which the black people would have to serve  Caucasians necessarily;
> Or even still in our time, in India, which operates a very rigorous caste system, in which there is exists even a group of people who, according to this social division, does not belong to any caste and is considered as powder (Dalit), this system requires that people from one caste only marry people of the same, and if not, anyone who marries a lower caste is replaced by the same variety being disinherited from their family. In this system no one goes "up", if there is any change, just "down."

The article 18 refers mainly to the free choice of what we believe - religious freedom. The violation of article is part of our books in two great moments of history:
> The Inquisition (XVI and XVIII, in Portugal) - during this period all those who were not Catholic Christians were sentenced to death if one didn't convert (to New Christians), it is needless to say that there was a mass murder, since many people refused to subjugate their faith to something they did not believe;
> During the second World War, the Nazis were responsible for the Holocaust, the killing of approximately six million Jews as well as two million Polish and four million others who were deemed "unworthy of living" (including the disabled and mentally ill, Soviet war prisoners, homosexuals, Masonic, Jehovah's Witnesses and Gypsies) as part of a program of deliberate extermination.

In Article 19 the right to freedom of opinion and expression are listed. An example of this violation is easy to identify for all of us (Portuguese people). Until a few years ago, Portugal was subject (30 years) to a dictatorial regime, which functioned with a rigorous machine of censureship and an oppressive police, which didn't allowed individual thoughts, and those who exposed their thoughts out loud were imprisoned for years. This way of government was overthrown by force of will of freedom exercised on 25th April 1974, in the Carnation Revolution. However, today we still find dictatorial regimes that exercise the force of oppression on individual freedoms [for instance, in Libya, until recently, was in effect a dictatorial regime, which was overthrown with a great revolution; in Equatorial Guinea, Angola, North Korea and Cuba there are a dictatorial regime also - these are just some examples of the vast number of dictatorial regimes that still exist (there are 22 nations under the dictatorial power)].

With the Allied victory in WW2 it possible the formation of the United Nations was and, therefore, it was possible the realization of this Declaration which has been signed by most of the countries of the world. 
Now remains that, over time, there is a greater individual and social awareness for this cause so that situations of violation of these articles, such as those listed, can be avoided and overcome without astronomical damages. 
To this end, it is crucial that we all learn to live in society and before that, we all know that there is a society beyond ourselves!



In this cartoon of Bocage we can read: “Ah! If your freedom is carefully guarded, how are you an usurper of others freedom?”




Citations obtained from: http://www.citador.pt/

Text written by the authors of the Blog
Cristiana & Margarida

"As I Grew Older", by Langston Hughes


This week we started a new unit, which is related to multiculturalism, Human Rights more specifically.

In this post we will examine a poem by James Langston Hughes (1902-1967), North American poet known for telling stories (in their work) of his people (black people) that reflected their current culture, including both their suffering and their love of music, laughter, and language itself.

The poem that we will analyze is As I Grew Older, which refers to the American Dream that is impossible to achieve for the black people in these years. In this poem, Hughes reminds his  long time ago dream, which was almost forgotten. This is the American Dream, the dream of prosperity, success, wealth, progress, growth, quality of life, health, education, etc. A dream that is “Bright like a sun”.

According to this author, and many others, this dream is pure mistake since the “land of opportunity” is not for everyone. This deception is shown from a metaphorical wall which corresponds to a barrier erected between African-American (black people) and caucasians(white people) (“And then the wall rose”), this barrier can be compared to the forwer Apartheid regime in South Africa, but in a less violent and less explicit way.

The promised opportunities and all other aspects of the dreams are retained on the opposite side of the wall whichis reserved  only for caucasians where the black people doesn’t have any opportunities or anything to dream about. The author represents the black community that feels like a “shadow” of white people. And he represents the hope of reclaiming the dream behind the wall (“Help me to shatter this darkness”).

From a historical perspective we conclude that this kind of discrimination nowadays is less common although it still exists, such as all kinds of discrimination, as we approached in previous posts.
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The second and last week of presentations


This week  five more Project works were presented, the last ones. Very good presentations were made which, that captivated our attention from the beginning to the end. That said, it was a bit hard to choose the best presentation of this week. We were divided between two of them but finally we decided to choose the presentation of Kcénia that talked about the Indian English.
Such as the group that we have chosen last week, Kcénia could make a very appealing and interesting presentation. It was very attractive and with all the information that was necessary for us to understand the contents of this topic.
Besides that, it is to commend the courage of Kcénia to face the enormous and frightening audience that is our class! She was only with the natural nervousness of an oral presentation, but this didn’t affect her voice projection or the clarity in pronunciation. 
We think that, like Fred's group presentation, Kcénia also lost the opportunity to interact with the audience. For us, this was the only point on which this presentation was less good, but it didn’t affect much our overall opinion! Very good work, Kcénia!
Finally, we tried to choose between our two choices (Fred, Natalia and Louise is presentation and Kcénia is presentation), but we couldn't! These two presentations are very similar and both very very good.
Shortly we conclude that these works were all very good and balanced, of course ones stand out more than others, perhaps because they have been able to handle the theme more wisely than others.

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL!!
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Finally the Project works!

Finally we reached the long-awaited week of presentations of the projects. And it seems to be a great start, it was almost an unanimous choice of the first presentation as the best. The group we are talking about is composed by Fred, Natalia and Louise deal with The Power of Music, Glee and MTV.
This group presented us with a very appealing presentation, original and above all enjoyable and interesting. We saw in this presentation a very well done research, alongside they were able to bring very captivating elements together. They were able to provide essential information to work through the presence of very interactive elements - the videos, and with the help of super attractive PowerPoint animations they cought our attention.
But unfortunately, we also found some break points in this near amazing work. When they presented various videos they should have analyzed  them by entering them in the context of work, making it more complete.
In relation to the presentation itself the element that pleased us the most was Frederico, who was totally comfortable in the topics discussed. He got a very assertive tone of voice, right from the beginning that captivated our attention. On the other hand they should have interacted with the audience, despite having caught our attention they do not even tried our involvement.
There, it was a very good  presentation, that's why we have chosen as the best this week!


Good work :D
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