Samantha's View of the World
Translated by Francisco Silva
Hi Everyone at the Spirit of Maat,
This submission to your experiment is from my stepdaughter, Samantha, who is 11 years old. We live in Mexico City.
The first version is the original work in Spanish language. Then follows my best translation into English language.
Original Text in Spanish
My view of the world and its future
They have taught me, at school, many subjects like mathematics, that deals with numbers and operations; Spanish grammar, that teaches me to have a better wording; Natural Sciences, where they speak about the animals and the planet; Civic behavior, where they teach us laws and we review the Constitution, or they talk about human rights; in Painting they teach us to draw and to express what we feel in a drawing; Dramatic Expression, where they teach us actuation and to make screenplays and plays; Geography, where they talk about economic matters and primary activities and things like that; in Physical Education we do exercising and they teach us about sports; Communication, where they teach us to communicate with each other, either by means of writing or by speaking; and finally History, where they talk about the things that have happened as years have gone by.
I want to say that in these last two subjects there is a topic that interests me. In all the issues that I have seen in History many, if not all of them, they include a war. For example, when we reviewed the Feudal Age, I noticed there were many wars among kingdoms to earn more land; I also noted that the Church took for itself more importance than what it really had and also there were many conflicts because of it and many unfortunate deeds. Coming now to my Country, Independence was a milestone that, also as many topics that we have seen, includes not one but many wars: it was when Mexico, called New Spain at the time, attained independence from Spain. I believe there should not exist Independences for there is no reason why a country, or part of it, feels it's more powerful than another that gives it the right to take other countries as its own.
Coming back to my school, we have a space where children of every room sit to talk about something that bothered or liked about a fellow or a teacher. A president is named among the group of students who leads the Gathering. I believe that not all wars include fists, deaths, shootings, bombs, knives or destructing objects. An example of a different kind of war is the Gathering where, sometimes, everyone takes a stand but no other weapons than words are used. The Gathering has a lot to do with communication, since in the subject of Communication they teach us that people understand each other by speaking. My view point, in regards to this, is that yes people understand each other by speaking but sometimes words are stronger than a missile, for they make you think, and sometimes you do not want to accept that you made a mistake, instead of accepting it and change yourself, you send another missile; so communication turns difficult.
It seems good to me that two countries at war they make peace treaties, but I believe there should not exist peace treaties, since war should not exist since communication exists.
Countries have taken care of creating so called militarized schools, where they teach you to defend yourself from an enemy, or attacking him, to fight against several ones, or use weapons, and they teach you things by force. I believe that, instead there are such kind of schools, there should be schools where they teach you to communicate, to fix problems, expressing what you feel and finding a middle point between your stand and the stand of the other, who is a human being, like you.
What children like most, from my viewpoint, is playing. With other children, or alone, and we do not have the idea of war. But when you play a video game, and you have the role of a soldier and you are in the middle of a war, or on TV, where you see the news of a war, or in a movie, where the "handsome" actor that you like is a soldier, or in the newspaper, or in many other places, where what you see or hear has war as the main issue, I do not think that you like to play with dolls then. For example, the "good guys" win in several movies, even if they are not so good, but in real life you do not know how to define who are the "good guys" and who are the "bad guys", though you may think of it from your viewpoint. I believe no one is the "good guy" in a war; we all really have a good side and another not so good.
Radically shifting the issue, now I want to talk to you about something that has surprised many people lately and makes some to think that the issue should be changed, and others think it is unimportant. I am talking about pollution and the problems that affect our planet. For example, in my school, our teacher is part of a project that enlists children from third through sixth grade named "Reforrest Mexico" where a bread and cookies manufacturer donate seeds and trees to every school enlisted. Children at school, we are in charge of sowing the seeds and breed them as they grow. Then we take the plants to pots and to woodlands where around five thousand other children do the same and we plant the soil of that woodland so it has more trees, enriching the woodland at the same time we have fun. Even though what this manufacturer does is not so much to help the planet but to avoid paying taxes. In the view of this problem, I believe companies should not do this to avoid taxpaying, for we all have a big responsibility with the planet, since we have to put it back to balance if we have already unbalanced it. Breaking is easier than fixing.
We also recycle at school, for example, there are different containers in every school room. One is for Tetra-Pack, another one for PET, another one for cardboard, paper, another one for organic trash and for inorganic trash. You may bring it to school if you do not want to recycle at home and amid, or at the end, of classes a commission of children from other school rooms come to ask if you brought recycling stuff from home or if there is any in our room. If you carried a lot of recycling goods through the year we attend a contest among schools to see which one recycled the most to win a prize. My opinion is that this contest is good but every school in the world should recycle, thus helping to reduce pollution, but not only schools should do this for the prize but with the attitude to help themselves and the rest.
Apparently those issues of war and pollution are not related to each other, but both are means of destruction; even if war happens between human beings it also affects animals and plants.
Many scientists speak about human beings and how we have evolved, but when you see wars and pollution in the world I think it is not true, that we are really stagnant on the same level.
It seems that we have not understood that by expressing what we feel without hitting or injuring words we may reach a communication without having to create a war. Besides no one should decide on someone else life — and those who participate in a war are deciding to finish the life of many people. There is not a Constitution that states you have the right to take a person's life.
Related to the issue of communication, it seems to me that what we have called evolution has given way to the manufacturing of many plastic bags, for example. They form part of pollution because they take long in degrading, or the typical party plates or cups; they are disposable but take long in degrading and keep on helping pollution grow since we are millions of people. I believe that the best solution for this problem would be that they invent cheap and degrading cups and plates, and that knit bags are used since they are few and last long.
I believe there should be reserved areas, not polluted. This is, to respect nature, as it was since the beginning. These reserved areas that should not be polluted are places that we can visit where polluting is not allowed; then we could be in places where nature is as it was in the beginning. We could stay there, like still water, and feel that there is no evolution there as scientist say that human beings have evolved and created so much technology, there evolution would have stopped, staying at the same level.
Samantha Joelle de la Vega Salgado
11 years, Mexico City.
Translated by Francisco Silva
Original Text in Spanish
About Samantha
Hi, my full name is Samantha Joelle de la Vega Salgado, I am 11 years old, my birthday is 0ctober 20th. I live in Mexico City and go to sixth grade of elementary school. This is an active school named Paidos. I also study acoustic guitar, I really want to learn how to play electric guitar, though. After that I want to learn how to play sax and drums and, if possible, piano, accordion, marimba and bass. When I grow I want to become a films director, to make comics, to be a chef, a historian and a music composer.
Once I presented a drawing at the Palacio de Bellas Artes (Arts most reputed place in the country) and it also was included in a magazine. I did not like this drawing but it won, also they printed one of my stories in a book, but I did not like the final version because editors changed several things.
I like to match TV, read very few, write a lot, movies, to watch videos, play videogames, listen to music, make drawings, go out to the park, to travel, play soccer, volleyball, basket ball, base ball, foot ball, I do not like running, though.
I have a dog named Dago, two years old, Schnauzer, middle sized. I like dogs, but cats not so much, I also like herons.
My mom's name is Sandra and my dad's name is Manuel. Currently I live with my mom and Paco (my mom's partner) and my dad lives with his partner, who, by the way is pregnant of twins, but at the time I am a single daughter.
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