Thirst, the Quarrel for Water

The Aftermath...

(of your decisions)

• Major Felipe Cárdenas grants the rights for operation and expansion of water and sewerage services to Smart Decisions, Ltd. (co-owned by the Cruz, De León, and other wealthy families). The World Bank agrees to provide an additional $92 million loan for investment in the Town's developing program.

• By the next year, 600,000 more families are connected to the water system. With the improved service, increased consumption brings unexpected loss to Smart Decisions. Soon, the company understands the amount of work needed to mantain and operate the system.

• Only a year into the contract, Smart Decisions asks for the first increase. But the promise was to provide water for 4.96 pesos.
  

• Fixed prices are granted by the company, but weak regulation from government allows Smart Decisions to make the price adjustments.

• Price hikes prompt the consumers to boycott paying their water bills.
  

• The regulatory commision lead by Itzel Barranco and Alma Treviño bans any form of rate increase in sake of its people.
  

• Union resistance is crushed by the company; 120,000 workers are laid off to reduce costs. Outraged people lead by Daniela Cantú, Samantha Villanueva and other labor and human rights leaders start a 4 daystrike to drive out the water company.
  

• Chairman Carlos Román Tijerina threatens to cancel the contract if the additional rate increased is rejected by the Water Comissioner Juan Goméz.
  

• Unmet promises of investment and expansion force the city officials to conclude the time to end the relationship. Control of the waterworks reverts to the government.

• Smart Decisions claim that the city has not met its obligations and bring the dispute to the International Chamber of Commerce, demanding compensation from the government lead by Cardenas.

• The government will now take on $530 million in loan payment from the World Bank to its creditors. The following generations of this Town will pay for the costs of additional debts.

• What began as a simple 5-year term concession turned out to be the largest lease agreement in history and another privatization fiasco.

• Today, most of the poor in this Town still remain without piped-water services.

Lost

Goal:
The main purpose is to exercise oral expression skills through several survival activites.

Objective:
- Students will learn what to do in a survival scenario.
- Students will perform an in-depth thinking in their behavior and personality.
- Students will get to know all their classmates.

The next class we are having our 1st Written Quiz.

The Quiz includes some vocabulary from Alternative Beliefs and Lost. The slide presentations with the vocabulary are avaiable for you with some of the definitions.

Goal: The main purpose is to exer

Please review all the Personality Traits and understand their meaning. (I handed out a worksheet with them.) Pay special attention to: reliable, deceptive, thoughtless, moody, bossy, demanding, outgoing, sluggish, outspoken.

And from these lesson's vocabulary: aid, bonfire, bait, crop, dew, harvest, personality traits, sextant, stranded, supplies, trap, wreck.

If you are uncertain about a meaning, check the Answers.com website.



Homework:

1) 1 page essay about the 8 inventions that are the most important for humankind. Explain your reasoning on each. Handwritten.

2) I was very upset with the negative mood of some of you towards my class. If you think you're too cool and old enough to do "childish" activites, LEAVE. At this very moment I've decided to change the type of activities in our class. Your additional homework is to read the case study "Water Privatization Fiascos". Read it to get a background for our activity on Saturday. We 'll have a discussion group instead of the games.

http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B7bCmn08YwmYNTc3NWQwYzItMzBhOS00ZTkzLTg4OTQtN2I3NjNkMDI0ZGMw&hl=en

Not having an insight about this topic will be considered as a missing homework.

Keep the good work! Thanks for your time and willingness to participate.

Alternative Beliefs

Hi people. This is your 1st assigment for next Saturday. Please, read and follow instructions!

Always:
1. Explain your reasoning.
2. Avoid "Yes/No" type answers.
3. Handwritten

1) Alternative Beliefs

1. Do you think there is intelligent life in other planets?
2. Some people claim to have seen UFOs such as flying saucers. Do you believe in them? Why or why not?
3. What is your opinion of people who say that they can communicate with spirits? Would you like to take part of a session?
4. Would you ever visit an astrologer for a forecast of how your life will run for the future?
5. What does your star sign tells you about your personality and compatibility with other people?
6. Do you believe in other forms of fortune telling, such as palmistry, tarot cards, reading tea cups, etc?

2) Shipwreck!

These are only to be answered by those students that were stranded (left) by their team in the Shipwreck game. In your case, I expect both homeworks. Missing any of these tasks will be considered as an incomplete homework.

1. How were the decisions made in my group?
2. How did I feel about the decisions? Do I think it were fair?
3. Were the people in my team (including me) straight and honest? Have all of them exposed true reasons to survive.
4. How is this exercise like our English Course? In other words, what relationship has with our class?

3) Slide presentations

I will let you know soon or later when is your 1st Quiz and what to study from these materials:

Shipwreck!

http://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AbbCmn08YwmYZGZ0anI3cWNfODZjd2J0eGhjZg&hl=en

Alternative Beliefs

http://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AbbCmn08YwmYZGZ0anI3cWNfNzJkd3Z2eDRkZg&hl=en



Additional references:

Around the World in 80 Faiths by Peter Owen Jones.
Avaiable at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZYgpYM2DYs
I couldn't upload the video due its length, but I'm sharing the link with you. It's a nice overview about Indian religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, etc.

Quesions? Post them in here.

Have a nice week!

Jimmy

Welcome

Hi people, welcome to our blog. During the following months, your homework and assignments will be posted in here. Your duty is to be aware of them and work during the week to hand over these tasks on time. NO LATE DELIVERIES. Questions regarding any o the activities? Post and share them with your classmates or write me and e-mail at: hoogdalem@gmail.com I check my e-mail in Thursdays.

Luis Jaime Guerra