Three birds One shot

The consequences of Edward Snowden

Edward Snowden arrived at Hong Kong from Hawaii with four laptops and walked into the country as any businessman would do. The four computers allowed the ex-National Security Agency worker (NSA) to access some of the most highly classified and top secret documents of the US government. Once in Hong Kong he disclosed the information from a hotel at Hong Kong, within days he brought the media attention and became one of the most influential whistleblowers on the US history.

How did this happen? Snowden contacted a commentator of The Guardian who lived in Brazil and by encrypting e-mails he started to send him the first revelations like the existence of Prism. Prism is a program that allows the NSA to collect all information of the World´s leading technology companies. The Guardian was interested on listening more on what Snowden had to say and so they sent two journalists to meet him at Hong Kong.

After being interviewed Snowden started to release information. He talked about Prism; a program to spy on US citizens, he also said the US was spying on some European countries by using bugs and microphones. All this declarations produced a reaction over the world and Snowden said he did it because he felt that freedom was not being respected. Immediately US citizens and EU countries asked Washington to respond these accusations. Washington reacted and said this was made in order to protect their country.

After making these revelations, Snowden became the most wanted person of the US government. Snowden knew he had to move somewhere else. He went to Moscow airport but he remained on the transit zone what means he wasn’t on Russian territory. Snowden asked for asylum to different countries. Bolivia could be one of his options. Evo Morales was at Moscow attending a meeting. When he wanted to return to Bolivia his plane had a detour.

When Morales was going back to Bolivia; France, Spain, Portugal and Italy closed their air space what meant he couldn’t fly over these countries. The reason: A rumor that Edward Snowden was on board. He had to made an emergency stop at Vienna were the plane was checked voluntarily and it was proved that Snowden was not there. Morales finally made it to La Paz, but there was a new international conflict.

Many countries reacted angrily after this aggression. Morales declared the US was to blame and he showed defiant “Message to the Americans: The empire and its servants will never be able to intimidate or scare us" he said. South American countries felt humiliated after the behavior of the countries involved. The South American Nations Union (Unasur) convoked an extraordinary meeting to discuss this offense towards Morales. The objective of the meeting is to discuss if Unasur would take any actions after these events.   

Sebastian Figari

"I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities."

NELSON MANDELA “South African revolutionary and politician”

Rolihlahla Mandela was born on july 18th 1918, into the “Thembu” people of the “Madiba” clan in Qunu, Transkei, South Africa. His father Henry Mgadla Mandela, a local chief and counselor to the royal family died when he was nine and the boy was trained to become the next chief; but he chose to follow his political ideals. He was given the Christian name “Nelson” by a teacher at primary school. He went to Fort Hare University for a Bachelor in Art degree, but he participated in a student strike and was expelled in 1940. In 1941 he escaped from arranged marriage and went to Johannesburg where he completed his BA degree by correspondence. In 1943 he started to study law at Witswaterand University. That year he joined the “African National Congress” and later cofounded the African National Congress Youth League. (ANC: a national liberation movement, formed to fight for a united, non-racial, non-sexist and democratic society. Mandela has held various positions in the ANC: ANCYL secretary (1948); ANCYL president (1950); ANC Transvaal president (1952); deputy national president (1952) and ANC president (1991).

In 1952 he opened the 1st black law firm in Johannesburg with his partner, Oliver Tambo; they campaigned against apartheid, (oppression to black majority). In the 50´s, he received constant banning’s to resign officially from the ANC. From 1956 to 1961 he went on trial for treason. He defended himself and won. But in 1960, after a massacre of black South Africans at the town of Sharpeville the ANC was banned and he was detained until 1961 when he went underground to lead a campaign for a new national convention. He proposed to create the “Umkhonto we Sizwe” (MK), the military wing of the ANC, that made sabotages against government and economic installations.

In 1962 Mandela was sentenced to 5 years imprisonment with hard labour. During these years, he was charged in trial, with sabotage and sentenced to life imprisonment. He was jailed in Robben Island for 18 years and then transferred in 1982 to Pollsmoor Prison. He maintained his political principles and continued firming and diffusing his ideals into prison. His reputation grew and he became the major black leader of the country and was a symbol of resistance (meanwhile the anti-apartheid movement was strengthening). In the 70´s and 80´s he refused to compromise his political position and to renounce violence to obtain his freedom. But after difficult negotiations, President FW de Klerk raised the ban on the ANC and freed Mandela on February 11th 1990. Soon after, he and his people stopped armed struggle. Talks on creating a new multi-racial democracy for South Africa began. In 1993 Nelson Mandela and President de Klerk were awarded with the Nobel Peace Prize.

On May of 1994, Nelson Mandela became the 1st democratically elected State President of South Africa. For the 1st time all races voted. He governed until June 1999. Then he officially retired from public life and returned to live Qunu. Despite, he retired, he continued travelling, meeting leaders, collecting awards, assisting to forums, around the world. He has been working mostly in the Mandela Charitable Foundation and with “The Elders”, a group he founded that reunites leading world figures that offer their expertise and guidance "to tackle some of the world's toughest problems".

Nelson Mandela has been married with Evelyn Mase, in 1944 and divorced in 1958, after having two sons and two daughters; one daughter died as a baby and his son Makgatho died with 54 years of AIDS, that's why Mandela encourages people to prevent and fight AIDS. Then he married in 1958 Winnie Madikizela; she had an active role in the battle to free him, and had two daughters with her, before divorcing in 1996. And in his 80th birthday he married Graça Machel and they are married until today that he is 94 years old. Sadly he is suffering of recurring lung infection and was taken to the hospital last June 8th. By today, his health situation is very critical but stable. 

He represents struggle, sacrifice, empathy, charisma, integrity, and cleverness… He is very beloved and admired by his people and globally.

Alonso Padilla

Alejandro Toledo Manrique

Alejandro Celestino Toledo Manrique

“Peruvian Economist and Politician, President of Peru 2001 - 2006.”

BIOGRAPHY

SOME FACTS of his PERSONAL LIFE

Born on March 28^th, 1946 in the village of Ferrer, Bolognesi in Ancash department of Peru.

But he was registered in Cabana a nearby town in Pallasca Province, Ancash.

“REALLY MODEST ORIGINS”

Son of indigenous poor peasants

His parents were Anatolio Toledo and Margarita Manrique. Alejandro was the 8^th son in a family of 16 brothers and sisters. But seven died during infancy, due precarious conditions of the family. Toledo grew in a house with no electricity or running water.

“CHILDHOOD and YOUTH in CHIMBOTE”

His family moved in search of a better future

When he was four years old, his family moved to Chimbote, a quite important fishing town in the coast of Ancash. There he lived until about 18 years old.

“ADULT LIFE”

Married twice with Eliane Karp / Father of two daughters  

Questioning his behaviour

Despite he seems to be a very good professional, it is said his personal life was and is quite questionable. In 1972 Toledo married Eliane Karp, a French-born anthropologist he met at Stanford University. Then divorced in 1992 and married again in 1997. She was an important support during his presidential campaign and presidency. They have a daughter called Chantal. But he has another daughter in an extra marital relation, called Sarai, whom he haven´t legally recognized, until while President this scandal was publicized and due pressure he did it. Also while president apparently he had another extra marital relation with a police girl. It is also said that he drinks a lot of alcohol. And this year 2013, he is being investigated because of supposed corruption and illicit acts due the purchase done by his mother in law of really expensive properties and he is giving contradictory explanations that arises many doubts. Many people consider him as a liar.

HIS STUDIES

 “SCHOOL IN PERU”

Years of huge effort: Studied and had to work since childhood

Public primary school / Public high school

Alejandro Toledo went to school in Chimbote. He had to work since childhood, shining shoes or selling newspapers or candies, combining studies with simple jobs. Then, Toledo was supposed to abandon school and get a better job to help the family economically, but his teacher´s encouraged him to continue schooling and he did it by working nights and weekends, and could finish high school in the “Gran Unidad Escolar San Pedro de Chimbote”. He was the 1^st in his family to achieve this.

“UNIVERSITY IN THE U.S.A.”

A good example of how a poor child made it to be a prosperous man through education.

Bachelor / Two Masters / PhD

Hopes for a better future appeared when two Peace Corps volunteers arrived to Chimbote and stayed in his house. Toledo was introduced to the outside world, and the two Americans motivated him to apply for a local civic group´s scholarship to study in the USA and he received a one-year-grant. After this year, he entered to the University of San Francisco to a program for non-English speakers. He obtained a partial soccer scholarship and worked part-time and reached to graduate in 1970 as Bachelor in Economics and Business Administration. Then at Stanford University obtained in 1971 a master in Economics and Human Resources; in 1972 a master of Economy and in 1993 a PhD in the Economics of Human Resources.

HIS WORK LIFE

Quite good curriculum

“Alejandro Toledo has WORKED in SEVERAL

NATIONAL and INTERNATIONAL important ORGANIZATIONS.”

After finishing school he worked in Chimbote as a news correspondent, and made it to interview important politicians.

Then from 1974 to 1994 he worked as professor, lecturer, consultant or investigator in important national and international organizations, such as Stanford University; American University, Harvard Institute, Universidad del Pacífico, and ESAN in Lima; University of Waseda in Tokyo; Japan Foundation; Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development” in Paris; the Inter American Development Bank in Washington D.C. and the World Bank. During these years he was also Chairman of the Economic Advisory Committee to the “Central Reserve Bank” and the “Labour Minister” in Peru and has directed the “Institute for Economic and Labour Studies in Lima”. Moreover he led an evaluation for the “ONU” of ´Impact of Macroeconomic Policies on Growth, Employment and Salaries´ in six Central American countries.

In 2008 Toledo founded and was President of the “Global Center for Development and Democracy”, based in Latin America, the U.S.A and the European Union, that has the aim to increase democracy and alleviate poverty in developing countries. To Promote social equality, governance, economic stability and sustained growth, a world without poverty and social exclusion.

He is Member of: the “United Nations Steering Committee on the Human Development Report for Latin America” / “Club of Madrid” (pro democracy) / “International Board of Governors of the Peres Center for Peace in Israel”.

Most of his actual activities are focused on economical, political and social issues facing Latin America. (Democracy, economic prosperity, investment policies, trade, strategies to fight poverty and inequality, organized crime and climate change.)

HIS POLITIC LIFE

“1994 – PAIS POSIBLE “

Political Party founded by Alejandro Toledo

Independent Presidential candidate - 1994 / Political POSITION: CENTRE

He was still unpopular and obtained only 3% of the vote, (Alberto Fujimori last President was re-elected).

A book written by Toledo, “Cartas sobre la mesa” appeared in 1995. It compiled his testimony and proposals for a “possible country” and denounced corruption and politics of previous governments.

“1999 - PERU POSIBLE”

The party changed of name and started to gain popularity

By the year 2000, Toledo was the closer rival of Fujimori, who had dictatorially achieved to be re-elected for a 3^rd period (it is said that fraud was made and that the real winner was Toledo). But in November 2000, Fujimori escaped to Japan, because he as accused of corruption. After a transitional government of Valentin Paniagua, in 2001, Peruvians where called to new elections.

“2001 - POLITICAL CAMPAIGN”

Toledo became one of the favourites candidates, mainly because:

1. He was seen as the STRONGEST LEADER of OPPOSITION to Fujimori.

2. RACIAL ISSUE: 1^st possible Peruvian INDIGENOUS PRESIDENT.

He called himself “The CHOLO” to make Peruvian indigenous and cholos feel close to him and have hopes of future attention.

His background, his manners and his attitude attracted also non-indigenous and higher social-economic classes. He promised to respect democracy and to reach a viable growth with a more humanized economy.

“2001 – 2006 PRESIDENT OF PERU”

Alejandro Toledo won presidential elections with 52.23%

His closer competitor was Alan García with 47.77%.

He became the 1^st INDIGENOUS PRESIDENT democratically elected ever in Peru and also in South America in the last 500 years.

“2011 – PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS”

Alejandro Toledo tried to be re elected for a new presidential period

But failed

Ended in 4^th place. The winner was President Ollanta Humala.

“2013”

His politic life is in a really hard moment due probability of corruption.

But in Peru, you never know.

                                                                                                                        

By: ALONSO PADILLA

The computerized World

 FIRST COMPUTER

It is in 1822 when Charles Babbage and English mathematician, started to develop a project of what may then become a computer. Through the years other scientists continued working in technological advances related to computers. And the results are that during almost the last 100 years, the man had viewed how initial huge and limited computers, only used by few, started to improve in size, weight and functions and how today computers are massively used and offer consumers many incredible and really modern utilities.

It is almost impossible to define a specific inventor of the computer or which is the 1^st well-functioning computer. It may be consider that the addition of different ideas and the contribution of different inventors had contributed to create many types of computers through the last decades. USA, Britain and Germany can be the countries that had launched most important achievements.   

COMPUTER DEVELOPMENTS

1^st GENERAL-PURPOSE MECHANICAL COMPUTER CONCEPT

1837: “The Analytical Engine”. An artifact that contained an Arithmetic Logic Unit, basic flow control, and integrated memory, started to be developed, but because of money the project could not be finished (Charles Babbage’s work).

1910:  A portion of the “Analytical Engine” was completed in Britain and it could perform basic calculations.

1^st ELECTRO-MECHANICAL BINARY PROGRAMMABLE COMPUTER

1936-1938: “The Z1”. 1^st FUNCTIONAL PROGRAMMABLE COMPUTER, created in Germany.

1^st ELECTRONIC DIGITAL COMPUTERS

1937-1942: “The ABC”, Atanasoff-Berry Computer. 1^ST ELECTRONIC AND AUTHOMATIC DIGITAL COMPUTER. It used vacuum tubes for digital computation including binary math and Boolean logic and had no CPU. It was developed in USA.

1943-1946: “The ENIAC”. 1^st FULLY FUNCTIONAL DIGITAL COMPUTER. It occupied about 1,800 square feet, used about 18,000 vacuum tubes and weighed nearly 50 tons. It was created in USA.

1^st ELECTRONIC DIGITAL ALL-PROGRAMMABLE COMPUTER

1943: “The COLOSSUS”. A machine created to assist the British code breakers to read encrypted messages written by the Germans.

1^st STORED PROGRAM ELECTRONIC COMPUTERS

1949:   “The EDSAC”. 1^st COMPUTER THAT RAN A GRAPHICAL COMPUTER GAME, called “Baby”. It was created in Britain.

1950-1951: “The UNIVAC 1101 or ERA 1101”. 1^st COMPUTER CAPABLE OF STORING AND RUNNING A PROGRAM FROM MEMORY. It landed and was commercialized in the USA.

COMMERCIAL DIGITAL COMPUTER

1950: “The Z4”. Developed in Switzerland. It was electromechanical, not electronic. It had 32 bits of memory with special program construction unit.

1^st PERSONAL COMPUTER “PC”

1953: “The 701 IBM IDPM”. 1^st COMMERCIAL SCIENTIFIC COMPUTER.  20 units sold ever. IBM appeared in the world of computers. Today it would be considered as a printing programmable calculator.

1^st COMPUTER WITH RAM

1955: “The Whirlwind machine”. 1^st DIGITAL COMPUTER WITH MAGNETIC CORE RAM AND REAL-TIME GRAPHICS. Massachusetts Institute of Technology introduced this incredibly innovative computer.

1^st TRANSISTOR COMPUTER

1956: “The TX-O”. 1^st TRANSISTORIZED EXPERIMENTAL COMPUTER, proven at MIT, in USA.

1^st BANK INDUSTRY COMPUTER

1959:  “The ERMA AND MICR”. electronic recording method of accounting and magnetic ink character reading.

1^st MINICOMPUTER

1963: “The UM-1NKh”. Produced in Leningrad.

1^ST PC COMMERCIALY REALLY AVAILABLE

1971: “The KENBAK-1”. 40 units sold ever.

1^st COMMERCIAL NON-KIT PERSONAL COMPUTER BASED ON A MICROPROCESSOR

1973: “The MICRAL”. Used the Intel 8008 processor.

1^st COMPUTER TO USE THE DESKTOP METAPHOR AND MOUSE-DRIVEN GRAPHICAL USER INTERFASE

1974: “The XEROX ALTO”. INCLUDED A FUNCTIONAL COMPUTER, DISPLAY AND MOUSE, it operated as many computers today, USING WINDOWS, MENUS AND ICONS as an interface to the operating system. Really innovative, but it was never sold.

1^st  LAPTOPS or PORTABLE COMPUTERS

1975: “The IBM 5100”. Weighed 55 pounds, had a 5 inch CRT display, tape drive, 1.9MHz PALM processor, and 64KB of RAM.

1981: “The OOSBORNE I”. Was the 1^st really portable computer because it weighed 24.5 pounds, with a 5-inch display, 64 KB of memory, two 5 1/4" floppy drives, ran the CP/M 2.2 operating system and it included a modem.

 

1986: “The IBM PC Laptop Convertible”. Weighed 12 pounds.

1^st APPLE COMPUTER SOLD

1976: “The APPLE I”.

1^st NOTEBOOK WITH AN INTAGRATED CD-ROM

1994: “The IBM THINKPAD 775CD

1^st MULTIMEDIA COMPUTER

1992: “M2500 XL/2 and M4020 SX”, computers based on the MPC standard. Released by Tandy Radio Shack.

In the last decades the world had witness and used many and many types and models of computers. Development of computer technologies runs fast and would not stop, so for future generations, first computers may seem kind of prehistoricals!

BY: ALONSO PADILLA

Sebastian Figari

Google

After the “boom” of the internet millions of web pages were created, finding the page you were looking for was very difficult and this was one of the main drawbacks of the internet. On 1996 as part of a research project for the Stanford University, Larry Page and Sergey Brin wanted to develop the technology to integrate a universal digital library, making the World Wide Web to be integrated. They first developed “Page Rank” which was the algorithm that they will later use in Google. These two friends were developing a search engine that scored the web pages according to what the user typed and showed the best results, this was how they were building Google. Later, on 1998 they formally named their company Google.Inc. By the end of that year Google Beta (what means it was still being tested) reached an index of 60 million papers.

Diagram showing the algorithm and proportion used by Google.

Google was the favorite search engine beating other engines considered “overloaded” like Yahoo or AOL. In 1999 the company established its headquarters at Palo Alto, California. With its simple design Google attracted millions of users making it the most visited web page. On 2000 Google created GoogleAds to start earning more money in order to develop more services. Google was already an internet giant and by the beginning of the 2000´s they started to offer new services like google images, gmail, google maps, etc. They also bought companies like YouTube and Picasa, by 2007 Google was the most valuable company in the world and had a value of 66,000 million dollars. Nowadays Google is one of the biggest software company and is still developing new products such as Google Glass. It’s clear that Google revolution the internet and helped to define our technology.

Sebastian Figari

Bill Gates & Microsoft

After dropping from Harvard University Gates and his friend Paul Allen started a program for a microcomputer for their just founded company “Traf-O-Data”. After releasing the program and having their first agreement with another company, the company Microsoft was founded with Bill Gates as the CEO. They were just another little company that started on a garage, but they had an enormous vision; one PC in each home of the US. In 1980 with the help of another friend of Gates, Steve Ballmer, Microsoft entered to the Operating system (OS) business. IBM puts on contact with Microsoft and a year later they were selling Microsoft´s OS on their computers.

After this, Microsoft was begging to rapidly win popularity. They needed to upgrade their OS so that more people were able to use it. This is why on 1985 they release Windows 1.0. With the year, as they earned popularity, they developed new and more effective OS´s. However, Gates was scared of new competition, who could replace the popularity of Microsoft. With the arrival of the internet Microsoft was threatened by other companies who were gaining popularity especially on the internet navigators. Microsoft played dirty with other companies for what they were taken to trial and the company almost was divided but the sanction was considered to be too hard. After their cheat on their monopoly Microsoft remained glorious as they eliminated other companies with no punishment. With not so strong competition and having the monopoly of computers Microsoft became the biggest software maker while Gates became the richest man of the planet.

Gates, with his unpredictable behaviors and business tactics was able to take his garage company into one of the largest companies in the world. He was the responsible to the world of technology we now have and all because of his wit and strong character. With the help of some friends he was able to build Microsoft and beat his starting objective: “one computer in each home”

YouTube

YouTube is one of the most “new” successful companies around the World as it was just founded in February of 2005. It was initiated and founded by three really young persons at that time, Steven Shih Chen (34 years-old now), Chad Hurley (35 years-old now) and Jawed Karim (33 years-old now). These tree entrepreneurs (a person who have the desire and skills to start up a business) worked on PayPal before, a company which concentrates on internet economic transactions and making business via internet so that should be the actual reason for how they were able to entertain people generating a whole worldwide video channel, and making money via it without charging everyone.

More specifically, YouTube is a web page which has far away more than a billion videos and has monstrous numbers like more than a billion user visits each month or a total of more than four billion hours of video being watched by month. In fact this company’s work is being a portal for videos of whatever a user (it doesn't cost anything to become a user) want’s to, the web itself contains videos from someone at a zoo watching animals (which is the actual first video of the whole YouTube, “Me at the zoo”) to music videos or sports highlights.

Now it’s pretty simple how they get money, having such statistics of views and users even per month, it’s obvious that the whole World would see any impact showed at this site. That’s why any company in the World would love to make and have their publicity imposed in this website so the World can see it and choose their product. With this it becomes a competence around the World of who can get the post advertising in YouTube (of course the one who pays better), having millionaire contracts, YouTube imposes skippable advertising of many companies and brands in many of their videos. This is able as well after Google bought this company in 2006, as we can realize that Google’s advertising engines and relations are all imposed here as well so in the end working as a team, both franchises are able to expose to the World different products.

Another way in which is in formal business channel, for example BBC. The BBC had a millionaire contract with YouTube in 2007 in which both part conclude in formalizing three BBC channels which would have different things such as entertainment and information (BBC’s work). The British company had the desire to do so as YouTube guaranteed the fact that they would reach over 70 million views per month and that would definitely mean a massive publicity for the company and all their sequels exposed here and in their own website.

Tito Vasquez

Facebook

Facebook is another of the “new” most successful companies around the World as it was founded in 2004 and has revenue (Income less added value- the price of its cost) of 5.1 billion dollars. It was founded by five Harvard University students at first as just a simple social network around the University with the purpose of relating every student and also of helping in agrouping different group projects. But then it expanded to other Boston Universities and started to spread through other universities, then to a whole bunch of high school students after then every single user which proves that he’s at least 13 years-old. The founder which had the most important role within the company and still ownes the enterprise is Mark Zuckerberg (29 years-old), after his Facebook incomes he is considered between the 100 wealthiest persons in the whole World, owning $13.3 billion.

Facebook as a website is an actual social network which has over a billion users. By being on Facebook, these users are able to relate with other users by chatting, exposing photos, commenting those, exploring others profiles (as everyone is able to use a profile in which they expose their personal information an photos of himself or whatever they like), join groups of their like, create groups of work in which they can show works and propose ideas, become a fan and follow different celebrities posts, etc. Here they can expand their friend relations and go further, laugh, enjoy, play games, in other words it’s become in this modern times, a complement for personal life, a place to make up plans, etc.

In a very similar way to YouTube, Facebook’s money is made almost fully by advertising. It’s clear that if there’s over a billion of users around Facebook, there’s an enormous global market to show your products. So there as well are millionaire contracts of advertising from massive companies around the World like Apple or Adidas, which invest their money on having a spot on Facebook’s page so if one user is using his Facebook, he would see somewhere in the page a Apple publicity. He may not be interested but their a billion more chances of people being interested so it’s a huge business, Facebook is a “market” for everyone to earn a name for their product.

Another way in which Facebook earns money is through games, the games pay lots of money to Facebook for their game to appear. For example a now very popular game, Candy Crush, payed Facebook a lot of money to impose their game. Within this game if someone likes it really much, he would be interested in buying different products or features within the game itself to upgrade their possibilities, and with that the company earns a certain amount of money and also Facebook earns a certain percentage as part of the contract.

Tito Vasquez