GLOBAL ISSUE NEW

Syria war: 2016 deadliest year yet for children, says Unicef

It was six years from now when the first protest against Syria's president began. A group of teenagers wrote an anti-government graffiti and they were arrested and tortured. The protest began to release those children and since then the toll on children has only increased.

2016 has been until now the worst year for the Syrian's children, according to Unicef, at least 652 children died last year and 255 of them in or near a school. This number increases 20% since 2015, and only includes the formally verified deaths.

UNICEF believes that more than 850 children were recruited to fight in 2016, and this number also increase 50% since 2015. Those children are in the Frontline or used as executioners, suicide bombers or prison guards.

"The depth of suffering is unprecedented. Millions of children in Syria come under attack on a daily basis, their lives turned upside down, " said Geert Cappelaere, Unicef regional director for the Middle East and North Africa.

Save the Children warned that millions of Syrian children could be living in a state of "toxic stress", which could be irreversible. Two-thirds of children had lost a family member, their house had been bombed or injured for the rest of their life.

Saja has lived in war for six years and moved home six times because of war. She lost her brother and four of her best friends in a bomb attack. She lost her leg and before that she was a keen gymnast. She says that balancing with only one leg is now too difficult and she hopes to be a professional gymnastics coach.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-39252307

GLOBAL ISSUES:ANIMAL EXTINCTION

CARNIVAL

Carnival is one of my favourite celebrations of the year, and I wait for it anxiously. I like it because is a different type of celebration and especially original. I like the different costumes because every year is more innovative than the previous, the parades of floats, the ambient, and because everybody goes and you can run into an old friend that you haven't seen for some time. I also like the fact that it's done in the outdoors and not in a closed place. A disadvantage is that is celebrated between the months of February and March, and the weather is still cold, and that is why you must wear a warm costume if you don't wanna die of cold.

Last year I disguised myself as an astronaut with Paula, but this year we were more, exactly Paula, Xana, Maria, Zaira, Esther, Judith, Pau and me and we disguised as a firefighters. The carnival of Rosas was in the last week of February, and we went on Friday, there we saw the past and then, at about one o'clock, when the floats turned off the music, we went to the discomobil. On Saturday there was no passing and we went directly to the discomobil. On Sunday I was very tired but I had to study, because we had school on Monday and besides that, exams. 

The next week was carnival in Castellón and unluckily, the weather was rainy, anyway, we went to Empuriabrava on Friday and Saturday on Castellón, where the parade was delayed for a half hour because the ground was wet and the floats cannot pass, but finally the rain stopped and we could go.

Carnival is my favorite celebration of the year, and I'm looking forward to the next one.

Secondary school

I remembered last year, when I still had a life, when I went to school and the hours passed quickly, when I could disconnect from classes and still get very good marks, when I used to study a day before the exam and not failed, when my subconscious was quite, when I was stressed only in exams week, and it seems like another life.

Now, five minutes of class seem like two hours, I can't disconnect on any class because otherwise I will not understand nothing, I have to study at least two or three days before the exam, and if I am relaxing in my home and doing nothing on the couch, I have a voice in my head whispering ''you must to do that, and you must study...' And all this suffering to get a five.

We were all warned that secondary school was not easy, but I was kept thinking that it will not be such a big deal, but it's true that you don't know what that means until you live it. Most of the time we have exams, if it isn't a subject is the other, if we haven't exams we have to do homeworks, review what we had done in the class, or make a redaction. And all these works from ten subjects, and I'm not a robot, I'm only a human and I need to eat, to sleep, and have a free time. I'm not saying I don't have a life, but I only have the half I used to have and I'm very stressed.

And they keep saying ''This isn't ESO. You aren't forced to be here, you could go if that is what you want'', but all we know that is not true, somehow, we are forced to be there, because if you want to have a good quality of life you must to study and work hard, unless you are a millionaire or you get the lottery, which is quite unlikely. 

And there's the TDR too, threatening my summer. Summer is to disconnect and do nothing, only enjoy the good weather, the beach and the ice creams. I think it should be forbidden to study in the summer, but what I think is not important because I will have to do it anyway.

And I keep asking myself, if this is just secondary school, how will be the degree?
I'm not blaming anyone because I understand life is not easy and if you want something you must work hard to get to your proposals and goals, and I'm not a fast-surrendering person, so I will keep working and improving my marks.