La Sagrada Familia

By Jonathan Holguín

In November 2010 Pope Benedict XVI proclaimed the "Sagrada Familia" a Minor Basilica.

The building is located in the city centre, and over the years it has become one of the most universal symbols of the identity of both the city and the country. Every year it is visited by millions of people.

Since its beginnings, the Temple has been built by means of donations. This is because Gaudi said that this work was in the hands of God and the will of the people. Nowadays its construction is continuing and will be finished during the first third of this century.

In 1882 the architect Francisco de Paula del Villar (1828-1901) began the construction of “La Sagrada Familia". In 1883 Gaudí took over the building work and changed the original project in his characteristic style; he pursued the task until his death in 1926,. Since then, several architects have continued the construction, in keeping with Gaudí’s project.

Russian Fires

By Leon Buengel

In summer 2010 since the fires in Russia started, the death rate increased in the capital Moscow about more the 50 %. More than 5000 people than normal died in the months of the terrific fire. The reason for this is as simple as terrible. As a result of the fires there had been so much smoke that the people in town just could see ten meters wide. Everything was smoky. A Russian journalist said that the people had two opportunities when they wanted to sleep. Either they close the window. But then it would be too hot in the room, or they could open the window. But then the heat came into the room. Heat was everywhere. The people were afraid to go out of house because the probabiility to get ill was so high. You just could go out with a mask or with a wet thirt in front of your mouth and face. It was horrible. But not just the econnomy had a problem with these fires. After a while first consulates closed in Moscow. An other problem is that the fires went near to nuclear laboratories. The Russians were afraid of an explosion like there had been one in Tschernobil. There had been such an explosion that a cloud of nuclear dirt got into the atmosphere. Many people died right at the moment of the explosion or tight after it. Even now you can see what illneses there had been after the accident. The Russians were afraid these could happen with their country, too. There were about 600 fires in Russia, most of them near Moscow.

Gusts of wind struck Spain

By Baniel Belvis

This weekend terrible storms struck all Spain and 'ruined' the "Puente del Pilar", a 4 days long weekend to pay tribute to the 'Virgen del Pilar'.

The effects of the storms were sensible in all the country during all the weekend. For example, in Roses, where the strong gusts of wind above the mediterranian sea caused high waves, above 8 meters. Yesterday, the 12th of October 2010, the wind fell down a tree in Rubí, my hometown. The tree destroyed 5 cars in his path. In Barcelona the wind moved down motorcycles and crashed cars. Wind gusts reached over 70 kms/h. In the roads, it was also a terrific weekend. There were 26 deaths caused by the strong rains and wet roads.

Weird news

By Daniel Belvis

Lightning strikes a preacher

A preacher who asked God for a sign was struck by a lightning in Forest, Ohio. The lightning went through the microphone and surrounded the preacher, who was unhurt. The church had to be evacuated because it was on fire.

Coke worker fired for drinking Pepsi

A Coca-Cola truckdriver, who had been working in the company for 12 years in the USA, was fired because someone reported to his boss that he was drinking Pepsi and was thus supporting the rival firm.

Barcelona, the third happiest city in the world

By Pol Berbel Arqués

Forbes and the market research company GfK Roper City Brands published a list of the 10 happiest cities in the world. Barcelona was in third position, after Rio de Janeiro and Sydney. Barcelona also came 15th in a survey made by the ONU in 2009 on cities’ standards of living.

The happiness list is the result of a study based on the opinions of 10,000 people who have probably never visited the cities in question. A staff member from Oh-Barcelona asked his work mates about this in order to find out what Barcelona’s citizens really think.

People who were born in Barcelona say that the city’s position on the list is justified because of its mild climate, its geographical location and its cultural and night life. Although the opinion of foreigners who live here is similar, they add that Catalans are quite reserved.

The underground reaches the Carmel

By Denis Timotei Savu

Since July 2010 line 5 of Barcelona’s underground railway has arrived in the neighbourhoods of the Carmel, El Coll and La Teixonera. It was a historical moment for the residents, who now have the city centre in easy reach. These new stations connecting up with the northern part of the city will be used by up to 30,000 people every day.

On the day of the opening ceremony the president of the Generalitat de Catalunya and the Mayor of Barcelona visited the underground and paid homage to the residents’ movement whose campaigns made possible the existence of these new underground stations.

Raimon Panikkar

Raimon Panikkar

By Alex Font

Raimon Panikkar was a Spanish philosopher and theologian. He was born in Barcelona in 1918 and died in Tavertet in 2010.

He was the son of an Indian father and a Catalan mother, and always felt both Indian and Spanish. He studied chemistry, philosophy and Catholic theology. In 1946 he was ordained a Catholic priest. Panikkar was a member of the conservative Catholic organization Opus Dei.

He taught in universities in Spain, India and the United States. All his life he worked to achieve inter-religious dialogue. He criticized Western countries because they tried to impose their views on the way poor countries should develop.

He wrote more than 40 books and 900 articles. In 1961 he was awarded Spain's National Literature prize.

Accident on the Pendulum

By Xènia Nogué

In July 2010 a 15-year-old girl died as the result of an accident that occurred in the Tibidabo Amusement Park. Four teenagers, three girls and one boy, aged between 12 and 14, were on the Pendulum ride. One girl died, and another was seriously injured. The other girl and the boy were practically unharmed.

How did it happen?

Three hours before the accident, the maintenance service stopped the ride because they thought that something was wrong. They did not find any problem, however, so they reopened the ride. Two hours later the Pendulum failed while these four teenagers were on the ride. It fell on to another ride called "La mina d'or". It was fortunate that no more people were harmed. The emergency service arrived at the site of the accident 20 minutes after it happened. They did all they could to rescue the teenagers but it took three hours to get to the girl who later died. Although she arrived alive at the hospital, she eventually passed away. The most seriously injured girl had to stay in hospital for three months.

What is going to happen now?

When the experts and staff discover what really caused the accident they will set up a family recreation area.

The Mayor, Jordi Hereu, said that he is going to do everything he can to prevent such an accident from ever happening again.

Apple first shop in Spain

Apple first shop in Spain

By Laia Esquerrà

There's a phenomenon which hasn't been studied. The passion for Apple. A day before the Apple Store in Barcelona opened there were people already waiting. Some of them even saw how they did the last arrangements in the shop. They organized themselves because the most important thing wasn't getting out of the shop with something or being the first to get in. It was being part of the event.

The Apple Store in Barcelona, in La Maquinista, is the biggest in a shopping mall so far. In this store they also do every kind of activities. They teach kids to play music and make videos and they do courses of every programme that Apple has. The first 1.500 purchasers got as gift an Apple t-shirt.

Apple has promised opening at least 10 Apple Stores in Spain in the next years but they also said that it isn't easy to find the right place for it. The second shop was opened in Madrid.

The Iceland Volcano Eruption: Eyjafjallajokull
By Génesis Mendoza

The eruptions of Eyjafjallajokull caused big problems to air travel in Western and Northern Europe from April to May 2010. Seismic activity started at the end of 2009 and gradually increased its intensity.

Eyjafjallajökull is one of the Iceland’s smaller ice layers located in the far south of the island. This is a 1.666 meters high volcano which has erupted frequently. The most recent eruptions happened in 920,1612 and from 1821 to 1823. The volcanic explosion in March 2010 was divided into different phases. The first one began with the throwing of basaltic lava to several metres in the air and the second one meant the evacuation of nearly 500 people.

The main dangers for air travel were the situation of the volcano and the direction of the cloud of volcanic ash towards the Southeast. The smoke and ash from the eruptions can reduce the visibility and they can affect the engines of the planes too. Many flights in Spain and the rest of Europe were cancelled after the eruption.

The number of travels to Iceland increased with the eruption. Airlines offered trips to see the phaenomena produced by the volcano. Iceland Telecom installed three web cameras to see the eruption in Valahnukur, Hvolsvollur and Porolfsfell.

The habits influence more than the genes in our health
By Denice Arandia

Last month, the health food book, written by the BBVA Fundation and the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona, came to the conclusion that the most important factor for our health is our lifestyle, not our genetic heritage. It represents 43% and genetic heritage only 27%, and the other factors 19 % and 11 % the environtment and the health service we have.

The development of the Diagonal
By Oriol Moya

On Tuesday 27th of April we went to “Els Jardinets de Gràcia”. There was a big tent where some Council collaborators showed us the two projects to remodel one of the biggest and most important avenues in Barcelona, the “Diagonal”.

The activity was organized by our History teacher Javier Urizarna who also organized the research work at the end of 4th of ESO about the same subject last year. When we did 4th of ESO we had to work about a subject and we could chose from different possibilities. The group of people who chose the same project as I, worked for a week to imagine the new Diagonal and at the end of the week we had managed different projects for the redevelopment of this Avenue. The initiative was promoted by the Council.

Last week Javier Urizarna joined us again and took us to this place between the “Diagonal” and “Gran de Gràcia” street. We left school at 11:30 and we stayed there till 2 o'clock. There we knew the two projects.

This year the Council has definitely organized the redevelopment of the Diagonal and they have called everyone older than 16 to vote. They help us to choose by explaining the two projects to everyone who wants to go to this special tent.

The elections are going to take place from 10th to 16th of May.

Catastrophe in Haiti
By Laia Esquerrà

An amazing cloud of dust covered Haiti after it was devastated by a massive earthquake. It was on Tuesday 12th of January at 4.53 p.m. and the capital was reduced to rubble. The earthquake lasted a whole minute and it had a lot of aftershocks. It had a magnitude of 7.3 in the Richter scale and the epicenter was only 16 kilometers from Port au Prince.
The poorest country of the world wasn’t prepared for this disaster and it has neither hospitals nor rescue teams. At first, there was only the army and the best intentions of the survivors. Most of the developed countries sent soldiers to help Haiti as soon as possible. During the first moments everyone panicked and people tried to get food from the ruins, but the soldiers tried to put order and distribute the food. Soon, gangs of young guys appeared who stole all the food and sold it. Many people tried to leave the country and to go to the Dominican Republic. One of the problems was that the prisons were also destroyed and some prisoners managed to escape, some of them were the founders of the rebel gangs.
The Haitians who survived are now looking for living relatives and going to say a last goodbye to their friends and relatives who lie in the morgue located in the outskirts of what the city was. Emergency teams, rescue teams and volunteers of rich countries don’t loose the hope of finding someone alive under the ruins. It’s a hard job but they’re doing it well and it’s always a reward finding someone alive. At first they found many living people but as time goes on there are fewer survivors. Some examples of real survival stories are of Anna Zizi, a 69 year old woman and a 22-days old girl who were found alive after a week under the rubble or a man who was found twenty six days after the earthquake under the ruins of a supermarket where he sold rice. “I was lucky that I was trapped near food and water and I had some space to move and eat”- said the man. Other people used other ways to get out alive, a Canadian man and also a 16 year old girl sent text messages and phoned the government and rescue teams to ask for help and tell that they were alive and where they were trapped. Both were found alive with other people. The teams of humanitarian aid have mounted hospitals and have taken ships with operating theatres to attend to the affected ones.
With this disaster we’ve seen more than ever the differences between the rich and the poor population of the city. Rich people organized funerals and were dressed well while poor people had all their dead relatives and friends in the morgue and built houses with cardboard.
Spain is trying to speed up the adoption process but it’s difficult with all the chaos because there may be children whose parents are still alive but they don’t know it. All foreign countries are trying to locate and bring back their citizens but some of them have died.
A week after the earthquake the U.S. moved 200 people from Port au Prince to Orlando in a military plane.
On 10th February the Haitian government gave a confirmed death toll of 230.000 people, 300.000 people have been injured and more than a million Haitians are homeless.
On February 15th Michael Jackson’s “We Are the World” was recorded again on its 25th birthday, this time for Haiti. The video premier was on Friday night during the Olympics.

Another typhoon hit Philippines
By Marou Cantalejo

On November 5th typhon Mirinae hit Philippines. In the las month the nation has been hit by four typhoons. It was a similar phenomenon to typhoon Ketsana, which triggered deadly floods on the main island of Luzon.
The nation was also hit by typhoon Parma and Lupit in recent weeks. Floods and landslides from the storm caused 1000 deaths and there were 100000 people in temporary shelters.
In the southern of Luzon, typhon Mirinae knocked out trees.
The water has been contaminated with animal waste. The diseases infected over 2000 people and killed almost 150. The storm weakened to a tropical depression.