Afghan Elections

As Mexicans who were born in the 90s, we regard democracy as our unchangeable type of government. I even dare say that the idea of eliminating democracy in Mexico is unconceivable for so many of us--if not all. That's why it is for us so weird to read about a nation as old as Afghanistan who's only held democratic elections twice (one in 2001 and the other one in 2009) in its whole time as a sovereign country.
Despite this being a highly anticipated event, the Afghan elections brought disappointment and fear to a great amount of its population. This was due to a lack of security from Taliban attacks, as well as rightful accusations about fraud.

Apparently, members of the well-known political and religious organisation, Taliban, were known to be threatening citizens into voting for a specific candidate or not voting at all. Besides, the current president of Afghanistan who is rerunning for its post has been repeatedly accused of conducting fraud himself. According to Mr Abdullah--an opposite--, thousands of violations were most likely held during the Election Day and throughout the counting process.
Citizens selling and buying votes, under-age voting, and more than one vote per person, are just few of the actions that led to such a ‘deceiving’ image in the preliminary results.
The final results won't be released but for several more weeks. I just hope that democracy and transparency prevails, as difficult as it may sound.
Afghan elections are an interesting topic that I furtherly discussed during our team's last week project, and it is worth keeping track of. For all those interested, I include a link to BBC.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8216809.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8221709.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/south_asia/2009/if_i_were_president/default.stm

*In picture: Abdullah Abdullah is the only one of the main candidates who is not contesting as an independent candidate. He is representing the main United National Front opposition alliance.

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Group 51 Final Project Groups

Here you have all the groups for the Final profect

*Los 3 Panchos - Fiancial Times
Miguel Moreno
José Luis Rubio
Luis Omar Canizales Hernandez

*____ - Australian Publication
Thomas Zimmer
Evelyn Ponce
karen Macias

*Mofongos - NewsWeek- Western Europe
Alan Celaya
Roberto Arrizón
Marcos Gluyas
Jorge Radelli

*____ - BBC News
Ivone Duarte
Sarahí Contreras
Ileana Flores
Sylvia Rodríguez

*Sharpies - Foreign Affairs
karla Peña
Anahi Beltran
Cinthia Parra
Fernando Gonzalez

*The Kiwis - CNN
Luisa Natalia Salceda
Juan Pablo Astiazaran
Esteban Estrella

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Group 3 Final Project

Here you have all the groups for the Final Project

*P & E News - The Economist- Eastern Asia
Estefanía Duarte
Angela Cordova
Greta Delgado
Alejandra Medina

Mariaines Chavira

*_____ CNN or TIME - North America - The Economic Crisis
Mariana Stone
Fco. Mendez
Iván Rascón
David Villa

*DELV News - BBC News-North America - Zimbabwe
Luis Romo
Edna Díaz
Derick Lopez
Veronica Soria

*____ USA Today - Middle East- The Middle East Conflict
Martín Piña
Abel Flores
José Molina
Karen Girón

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Getting to grips with technology!!

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It's quite an interesting time right now as we begin the final project right away! There is a lot of information to get to grips with and I appreciate that completely. I will do my very best to help you understand, but you have the ultimate responsibility to ask questions. There is also a lot of new terminology to get to grips with, namely "netvibes," "wiki," "blog," all of which you may not have used in class before.

With a little study, listening to what I say in class and learning the wiki and blog, you will be just fine.

Let's go through this piece by piece:

Let's go through some of the technological things.

1) Youtube

You will receive a username and password to upload YouTube videos.

Please come to me if you don't know how to upload.

Please try to record videos in a common format, e.g. AVI, WMV, MOV, MPG, MP4.


2) Netvibes

This is the page that I showed you in class. http://www.netvibes.com/johnread and select the tab that says "Group (1-51)" There is nothing you have to do here, use this as a central information tool throughout the course. I hope that you find it useful.

3) Wiki

You will receive an invite as soon as possible through your TEC mail to join our class wiki. You have to sign up to the wiki INDIVIDUALLY. Please have a username like Carlos906543 - your name and matricula minus the "A00" This way I can monitor who is participating and it's much more organised.

As soon as you have joined you need to learn about the wiki so take a look around at the basic structure we have, and if you want to improve something, do it!


Ok, to look at your publications.

As well as the netvibes page providing updated links constantly, we have through Biblioteca Digital extensive subscriptions to Time Magazine, Newsweek, USA Today, and the Economist, which will help those of you working on these publications A LOT. I would like you to take a look at these resources. I have given you direct links; just click and sign in with your student ID and NIP, simple!

For Time Magazine, I also have about 50 old issues in the office - feel free to come and take a look.

IF ANYONE WANTS ME TO EXPLAIN THEIR PUBLICATION TO THEM, SHOW THEM THEIR WEBSITE ETC PLEASE COME TO THE OFFICE. Remember that I learn names more quickly outside of class.


FINALLY.........

You should have the FINAL PROJECT document in Webtec.


Thank you!!

Maestro.
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