La Vanguardia in Catalan

By Joana Roig

On 3rd May, the first Catalan edition of “La Vanguardia“ was published. “La Vanguardia” is the most read and most bought newspaper in Catalonia and it has the third highest circulation of all Spanish newspapers. It is one hundred and thirty years old and is published by Javier Godó's company. The new Catalan edition is very important for the normalization of the Catalan press. The Catalan edition of La Vanguardia was the newspaper with most subscribers (more than 20,000) before it even appeared on the newsstands.

A cocodrile scapes from the zoo

By Rubén Encinas

A half-ton crocodile escaped from a zoo in Alabama (United States) after Hurricane Ivan struck. It could not be found, and the authorities feared for the safety of the inhabitants in the area. "Chucky", the 4.2-m-long crocodile, had lived in the zoo on the Alabama Gulf Coast for 15 years until Hurricane Ivan destroyed the fence around the pond where he lived. The crocodile left the pond while the zookeeper was busy trying to rescue some stags.

The history of Cacaolat

By Joana Roig

The firm that owns the Cacaolat brand has economic problems and we don't know if this product will disappear. This is why consumers have created a movement with the slogan "Salvem el Cacaolat".

Cacaolat is a drink made with milk and cocoa, pre-prepared by the Letona company. It was created in 1913 and was the first industrial cocoa milkshake in the world. In 1933 the first returnable bottles were produced and Cacaolat became a big success.

Production stopped from 1936 to 1950 because there was not enough quality cocoa in the postwar period.

The mascot for Cacaolat has been the same throughout its history: Pepi (a child carrying a big bottle). Nowadays, Cacaolat is very popular in Catalonia and all over Spain and today there are also Cacaolat strawberry and vanilla milkshakes.

One half of secondary teachers feel stressed at work

By Salomón Díaz

In Seville a study showed that half the teachers in secondary school in Spain suffer from stress at work, most of them women. In all, 1,125 teachers from public and private schools participated in this study. Teachers have a higher stress level than workers in other jobs. The main cause is the behaviour of students. According to the study, 28.80% give this reason, 23.47% mentioned lack of consideration and 25.78% are victims of the school atmosphere, especially when they see students fighting among themselves. Moreover, they also mention the lack of support of the students’ families.

JAPAN: A fragile country at the mercy of nature

By Marson Mesa

The world was shocked to hear the news of the huge earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan, but people there have learnt to expect natural disasters. Hundreds of beer glasses on wooden shelves, shook from side to side, then knocked into each other. The conversation suddenly dimmed, then stopped completely. The faces looked from one to another across the plates of tempura and sushi. It is no coincidence that tsunami is a Japanese word. The native religion, Shinto, is animist - it tells of the divine nature of trees and mountains, of goddesses who emerged from deep clefts in the rocks. The very earth can seem to be alive.

For images visit this page: Japan's Tsunami Images

Josep Pla school on fire

By Silvia Muela

On April 20th 2011, early in the morning, a neighbor called the firemen because the Josep Pla School, at 24-34 Valle de Ordesa street was on fire. The fire burnt a third of the school (600 square meters). The rest of the building was damaged by water and dust. Since Tuesday the school’s 400 students have been going to another school, and will do so until the next academic year. According to Irene Rigau, the Education Minister, the fire came from the outside. The fire service is investigating the causes. The firemen put out the fire in three hours. The building was empty and nobody was injured.

Photos and cancer

By Joana Roig Borrell

In the Vanguardia I found an interesting article about teenagers who had cancer or had suffered this from illness and took photos about their world. A group of experienced monitors, aged over eighteen, helped these teenagers in photography workshops, where they shared a lot of experiences and interacted with them. The teenagers talked about their experiences in hospital or the beginning of their current life after the illness. These photographs are collected in the book called "A través de mi cámara", presented a day before the International Children’s Cancer Day. The photos are accompanied by short texts about the sick teenagers’ thoughts, questions and hopes, and those of their parents and the professionals who treated them. The book shows real pictures of the pain, but also of the joy and hope, with the objective of communicating emotions, as the workshop co-ordinator Mario Rodríguez said. We think that these initiatives are useful in order for society to become aware of this illness, and they also they show that a lot of teenager and childhood cancers can be cured.