Fragments of session 7 - Leuven Hot issues in the news Teacher In the last few weeks there were a few items that really struck me. First there's the never-ending story of the Israeli versus the Palestinian people. The Palestinian leaderYasser Arafat has been kept under house arrest and on both sides people have been mourning their deads. I think it must be awful to live in such circumstances. How can these people find rest and live an normal family life? The worst aspect of the problem is the fact that a difference in religion has become a political item which dominates not only Israel but also affects the relation between the Arab world on the one hand and Israel and the US on the other hand. I don't think there is much left of the peaceful ideas of the Jew Jesus. (...) As far as your continent is concerned, I was struck by the course of events in Argentina. The country has received much attention in the press lately due to the marriage of Maxima Zorreguita with the Prince of the Netherlands. Her father was not invited for the wedding because he had been a minister under the dictatorship of Videla.At the same time the press showed us images of desperate people attacking bank clerks because their savings were blocked by the government. Again an awful thing. People who have worked hard probably and are no longer free to use their money. We also saw pictures of people robbing shops because their children had nothing to eat ... These are images you do not expect from a country like Argentina. It has always been presented to us as a fairly rich and developed country in South-America. Maybe you can add something to this picture. I am well aware that we receive only partial images due to the numerous news 'filters' Ann (back to top) Students Today i'm gonna tell you something about the war in afghanistan . It's so horrible. All those innocent people dying . It makes me angry. The american president is a stupid asshole. Idon't know why they voted for him. Ellen (back to top) I don't know if you heard it, but peace conventions for the middle east are still linging on... I find that strange, I can't understand that they can't come to a decision when the people in the country are suffering so much...I think that they aren't thinking of what's best for the population in Israel, but for what's best for themselves. I don't know what to say about it... there aren't many words to describe the misery the people in Israel have to live in... All the times they've tried to make things work, it somehow stopped... This isn't a real newsfact, it's something that's been going on for years now. But two days ago, on February 25th peace conventions stopped again... Monique (back to top) This morning I heard a real strange story on the radionews. It was funny and it was also weird. There were 2 little boys, they were 10 and 12 years old and they were walking on the street and they saw an old woman ( she was 80 years old or something like that). The two little boys robbed the old lady and took her money. The police found the two boys later and there was a part of the money spent. The boys had bought candies with the money. This story tells us how the world is changing. I don't think the little boys realised that what they did was totally wrong. And they won't be punished, and I don't think that's good, because later they wouldn't realise that robbing people is wrong. Tine A. (back to top) Then I have an international news item I want to talk about, the train accident in Egypt that cost the lives of many people, I heard that the train contained the double amount of people that was allowed. I think that is very sad that that train was so overfilled. I think it's very bad that the Egyptian authorities allow that. Jeroen (back to top) Over the past weeks, it has rained a lot in Belgium, so many places are flooded February 2002 is the wettest month ever here in Belgium!!! Charlotte (back to top) The past few weeks we had a lot of rainfall in Belgium, with floods as a result. In our region there aren't any floods, no one in the class has problems with it. I think it is terrible because people suffer lots of financial damage because of it. (the school is on top of a hill so it will never be flooded ) Jan (back to top) ...And there was the final of the Euro song festival,a song contest with more then 20 Europian countries, in May it's the final of all countries in Estlan, Sergio, a total asshole goes for Belgium!!!aaaaah!! Liesbeth (back to top) ... But this news was the most interesting of all, especially for girls. In the European Union, Italy is the country with the most poverty, followed by Great Brittan.Belgian and Finland are the countries with the least poverty. But what struck me the most was that the poverty is becoming more and more female. They think that the cause are the single-parent-families where women have to take care of their children on their own. Lisa (back to top) In Saltlake City the Olympic games are finished. At the end of the games a few riots were reported. The police had shot with rubber bullets. Nearly 20 people are arrested. Some had to go to hospital. The Olympic games are a success and the president of the IOC (Jacques Rogge), he's a Belgian, had done it very well. Some records are broken. Wouter (back to top) Also a hot news item here in Belgium is the closure of one of the biggest discothekes in Europe. The name of it is the Zillion. And this week, there is an auction from all the lighteffects and musicinstallations there were. The discotheke closed because the big boss of the Zillion was arrested for a lot of crimes. Katrien (back to top) Now I m going to tell you about a sad thing that happened in our neighbourhood. Two girls were hit by a train and didn't survive it! They were waiting for the train to pass. But it wouldn't come, so they thought they could cross the railway despite the fact that the barriers were still down. They were on their motorbikes and risked crossing over because they were in a rush. But then the train came... and they were brutally ridden over! One of the girls was a close friend of a friend of mine and the other one was a sister of another friend of mine. Tine W. (back to top)