Project: Create your political party

Source: http://flavorsofindia.us/Participate

If you look around, you will discover that political decisions affect every aspect of our lives, whether we like it or not. That's why it's important that you learn how it works and start thinking what kind of society you would like to live in.

The purpose of this project is that you think of how you would like the main challenges of our society to be solved. You will have to create a political party and write your political program. You will have to think about how you would face the main problems the country or the town has. You can also prepare a logo, a slogan, brochures, posters, merchandising objects for the political campaign..., but the political program is the main thing.

Here you have some items to think about:

- UNEMPLOYMENT: How could you create more jobs?

- PEOPLE'S RIGHTS: Would you  enlarge or restrict people's rights? Which ones?

- TAXES: Would you increase or reduce taxes? Who should pay more? What percentage of people's income should everybody pay? How would you punish tax evaders?

- ENVIRONMENT: How would you protect the fauna and the flora?

- POLLUTION: How would you reduce pollution?

- SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: How would you combine economic development with respect to the environment?

- TRANSPORT: What means of transport would you promote?

- HOUSING: What would you do to ensure decent housing?

- EDUCATION: How would you improve the education system?

- HEALTHCARE: How would you improve the healthcare system?

- ENERGY SOURCES: What energy sources would you promote and how?

- CRIME: How would you reduce crime? Would you change the laws that punish criminals? Would  you promote reintegration of criminals?

- SECURITY: How would you make the country safer?

- YOUTH: What would you do for young people?

- RETIRED PEOPLE: What would you do for retired people?

- DEPENDENT POPULATION: What would you do to improve their life quatity?

- SCIENCE: How would you encourage scientific research?

- SOCIAL SERVICES: What social services would you provide? Would you enlarge them or reduce them?

- REDUCTION OF POVERTY: What would you do to reduce poverty?

- RELIGION: Would you change anything in this sense?

- LEISURE TIME: Would you subsidize leisure time activities?Which ones?

- DEMOGRAPHIC PROBLEMS: How would you solve the demographic problems we have?

- IMMIGRATION AND ASYLUM: What would be your policy about this topic?

- ORGANIZATION OF THE STATE: Would you change the levels of organization of the State?

- DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION: How would you promote citizen political participation


These are only suggestions of topics you can include in your program. You can include everything you consider important for the country or the town.

Some videos about Francisco de Goya's paintings

This is a very complete documentary hosted by famous art historian Robert Hughes. You can learn a lot about Goya if you watch it:

 And this short video includes Goya's Black Paintings, some of the most breathtaking images of art 

history:

Some short videos about the United Nations

On this short video you will learn how the United Nations work and what their purpose is:

How the United Nations Security Council works:

   

How effective is the UN?

   

 How powerful is the UN?

 

Some videos about democracy

On this short video you can have a quick overview about democratic political systems:

   

 This other video gives a more specific explanation of its key features:

   

 And this is a short history of democracy throughout history:

 

Presentations about political organization of societies

These are the three presentations we are going to use to learn the contents of Unit 3:

 

Some videos about Napoleon Bonaparte's rule

These short videos can help you study the Napoleonic Era in an easier way:

 

Bad news for Spain's population future

This week the INE (Instituto Nacional de Estadística) has published the birth and mortality rates of 2016 first semester and they are really worrying. There have been 13,000 deaths more than the number of births and we are losing 72 inhabitants per day. If we did the calculations of Spain's natural growth right now, we would have negative growth (Stage 5 according to the Demographic Transition model). Here you have a short report in Spanish from the TV news:

España pierde en el primer semestre del año una media de 72 habitantes al día

This graph shows Spain's declining fertility rate:

Source: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_kViVHbOxXU/VPyrHonvusI/AAAAAAAAXHo/lFtG03XwpYk/s1600/2015-03-08_210322.png

This one shows Spain's declining population:

Source: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-p69Ot5JLMH8/VPyecfr3D3I/AAAAAAAAXHI/bo0DrZaEoTQ/s1600/2015-03-08_200709.png

Here you have a graph that shows the migratory balance in the last years:

Source: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-v4ar6nxE_Ww/VPyRBkia-qI/AAAAAAAAXG4/-XkNAEB97w8/s1600/2015-03-08_191158.png

This is the projection for Spain's population pyramid in 2023:

Source: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-iMB6-WtWEqc/VP2LxwOKgKI/AAAAAAAAXIU/yTKPPc8ESuY/s1600/2015-03-09_130153.png

If you want to learn more about this topic and its negative consequences for the economy, here you have two links. The firts one is shorter and the second one is more complete: 

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/economy-lab/population-drop-in-spain-a-bad-omen-for-europe/article11533946/

http://www.economonitor.com/edwardhugh/2015/03/10/why-is-spains-population-loss-an-economic-problem/

How to draw a population pyramid

Here you have a short video that explains how to draw a population pyramid by hand:

And on this link you can watch a more detailed explanation:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGyoKWRC2es


 You can also draw population pyramids using computer software, such as Excel:

 

And here you have other tutorials to draw the pyramid with Google spreadsheet, that you will find on your Google Drive. You can access Google Drive from your e-mail account, clicking on the small squares that appear on the right top of your screen.

Population pyramids

Here you have some videos about population pyramids and what they teach us about the demographic situation of a country:

Presentations for Unit 4 (French Revolution and crisis of the Ancien Régime in Spain)

These are the three presentations we are going to use in this unit. Don't forget to use them to improve your projects: