National and Territorial Terrorism

Terrorism is the continuous use of terror, for be imposed over any society or government. Terrorism is vastly used by various political organizations in pursuit of achieving its goals. There are several classifications for these groups according to their form of action; this essay seeks to clarify some differences between terrorism and terrorism territorial nationalism.

Nationalist terrorism is one in which terrorists want to form an independent state that goes against the current state, which they consider as an imperialist or an illegitimate state. The "nationalists" are known for their great devotion or belief, that they have been or are being treated unfairly, deleted or judged by most people of the state where they live.

The "nationalists” groups are almost always defined as being part of the same ethnicity; they share cultural, language, religion and customs. Some examples of nationalist terrorist groups are the, Sons of Freedom, Hamas, Lehi, Kosovo Liberation Army, and the Front de Libération du Quebec

Although at first hand the terror territorial nationalism and terrorism seem to be the same thing, they do have certain differences.

Territorial terrorism exists many years ago, is a way of making people feel fear. This kind of terrorism looks for a dramatic change in government and the destabilization of peoples and their roots. In the case of territorial terrorism, terrorists want to eliminate a particular group. They want to demonstrate their power and credibility, provoking wars and damage to these other groups because they want to take over that place and the most characters or people to disappear.

The methodology of the people causing the repressive forces is motivated to defend and loyalty to their state. For these repressive country stop acting like this is necessary detachment from its territory and naturalization largely adheres to the civilian or military. A case that occurred many years ago was: The coup side for 40 years where the repression exerted military orders in the form of torture and executions.

In our opinion a territorial form of terrorism is the case for what is happening to our country, which Nicaragua is to take over part of Costa Rica. Nicaraguans removed from his home by armed forces and a Costa Rican family wants to own that part of Costa Rican soil.

Essay written by: Krislyn Castro and Christopher Segnini.

Resources:

http://www.populist.com/02.3.buell.html

http://law.jrank.org/pages/11972/Terrorism-Nationalistic-terrorism.html

http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Nationalist_terrorism

http://www.slideshare.net/manutorio/teora-territorial-del-terrorismo-de-estado-con-alto-nmero-de-bajas

http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-115491045.html

Ethnic Conflict

When human beings think that they are on a "competition" with someone, who is not  part of his same "family", or someone who is not fully understood, it feels threatened. If one have no tolerance, interest and / or the patience to understand this new "element" that is part of "their" natural system, tends to react violently.

Ethnic conflicts are those in which there is a violent confrontation due to different ethnic origins from two or more groups. This type of confrontation may be associated with phobias, the search for security, ethnocentrism, xenophobia and racism.

One of the factors that contribute to the happening of ethnic conflicts is ethnocentrism, which is the belief that ethnic group to which one belongs is superior to the other groups. In addition to the ethnocentrism, xenophobia is another important factor; this is the rejection of immigrants or foreigners. Racism is also one of the most important factors in ethnic conflicts; which is the belief that the genetic or intrinsic factors of a race are determining factors of the ability of an individual.

The last century witnessed many ethnic conflicts, such as the Arab-Israeli conflict, the Bosnian war, the Kosovo war, the Lebanese civil war and genocide in Rwanda, among others. Although in the last century were several ethnic conflict, also there were made major positive developments in terms of racism and xenophobia. The universal declaration of human rights is one of the most important.

Although there still are signs of racism and xenophobia in the world, history has shown us that human beings are capable of adapting and becoming more humane and tolerant with their peers, so perhaps in future ethnic conflicts will only be matters of history books and not news.

References

Racismo.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racism#20th_century. Last accesed:30/10/10

Conflicto Étnico.

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conflicto_%C3%A9tnico Last accesed:30/10/10

Xenofobia.

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenofobia. Last accesed:30/10/10

La Xenofobia

http://psicologia.laguia2000.com/general/la-xenofobia. Last accesed:30/10/10

Xenofobia.

http://www.oni.escuelas.edu.ar/olimpi98/bajarondelosbarcos/Xenofobia/xenofobi.htm Last accesed:30/10/10

The Impact of Migration on Receiving Countries

"Nothing would be as we know, were it not for migration, in the end we are all immigrants ..."

When you talk about migration is important to take in mind that, this behavior is which has shaped our society. Since the beginning of history, humans have migrated from one place to another, whether for environmental, political, the war or a hope of improving their life quality, these streams of people, have contributed in the formation of our societies and nations.

There have been milestones in the progress of mankind, which may not have been possible to achieve without migrations, such as: the discovery of America, the Industrial Revolution, the relativity theory (Albert Einstein), among others.

Immigrants generally have a positive impact on receiving countries, since they help in, strengthening the workforce, intellectual and cultural exchange, and aid in the country's economic progress.

The positive impact in the host country is not always the case, in some cases either because of xenophobia or some other factors, immigrants are alienated by society, which leads them to commit criminal acts in order to survive, which impoverishes public safety and national progress.

References:

El impacto de las migraciones At: http://ediciones.prensa.com/mensual/contenido/2004/12/04/hoy/mundo/79992.html

Last accesed, 18 oct 2010

Migracion. At:

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Migraci%C3%B3n

Last accesed, 18 oct 2010

Emigracion .At:

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emigraci%C3%B3n

Last accesed, 18 oct 2010

Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction

The weapons of mass destruction are those that destroy in great quantity human life and/or fauna, flora and infrastructure. This type of arms is divided into four categories, chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear weapons.

Chemical weapons are those that use the toxic properties of chemicals. This type of weapons is different from conventional ones, because their destructive power does not lie in an explosion but in the toxic/chemical used in them. These weapons are categorized into four types according to the area of the human body they attack: nerve, blood, blister and choking.

Moreover biological weapons use viruses, bacteria and other biological agents and the toxins caused by them. The characteristic of these weapons is that their main components are living organisms that reproduce in the body of the victim. These weapons can be used to attack humans and / or agriculture.

Radiological weapons are any weapon used to spread radioactive material in the environment. This weapons use conventional explosives to spread the radioactive material.

The nuclear weapons use nuclear reactions to cause an explosion. There are two types of nuclear weapons, the first one which derive their explosive power from nuclear fission such as the atomic bombs, and the second one that produce their energy from nuclear fusion like the thermonuclear weapons or hydrogen bombs.

The production and use of weapons of mass destruction is regulated by international treaties, such as: Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention and Chemical Weapons Convention. Not all the countries that possess weapons of mass destruction are part of these treaties.

References:

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

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

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

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

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

Globalization Week (letter to organizer)

San José, Costa Rica

September 28, 2010

I think it's great that the University cares about the students learning other subjects in addition to their own career or study area, especially if they are as influential and important like those discussed last week during the “Globalization Week”.

I could only attend to one of the "sellos verdes", called "Abastecimiento de la Cadena de Suministros", I found the “sello verde” very interesting, because it is a subject that is closely related to my career (industrial engineering) ,and  also  the speaker  is the general manager of Intel 's supply chain,  one of the largest and most powerful companies in the world. He has a great knowledge on the subject and was able to explain it very well, he explained what a supply chain is and how it works at Intel.

I liked the activity very much, there is only one thing about the organization that I did not like, the fact that this was planned to be held in the University Auditorium and at last minute the location was changed to an executive room, where there was not enough space for people who attended.

Kind regards

Christopher Segnini Rodríguez.

Human Rights

Even though the ideas about rights and liberty have been in the minds of humans since the begin of history. It was not until the middle of the last century that an universal declaration of human rights was adopted by mostly all of the countries in the world.

The basis of the Declaration of human rights can be traced back to recent human history. Some of those basis are:  English Bill of Rights (1689), United States Declaration of Independence (1776), French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789).

After World War II, the world has experienced many civil and social rights violations, therefore the need for a global consensus of human rights was prevailing. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights began to be written after the World War II by John Peters Humphrey, then it was finished by Rene Cassin. On December 10th, 1948 the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the United Nations by a vote of 48 in favor, 0 against, with 8 abstentions.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a big advance and a great “law tool”, which is there to ensure our rights to be free and do whatever we want to do without harming any other human beings. Therefore is one of our most valuable possessions, this means that we have to   make sure it is not violated by any person, organization or country.