POLLUTION

In this post I will talk about a global issue that we are fighting against nowadays. This global issue is about air pollution.

As we live in some villages around Castelló d'Empuries we are not used to see smog hanging over our heads everyday, but if sometimes we have visited some big city we could probably have seen it.

Delhi, the capital territory of India is the most polluted city in the world. This territory is half the size of Rhode Island and is twice more polluted than the entire New York City. To make us aware of what it is like to live in a place with too much pollution, a photographer named Matthieu Paley travelled there and took photos of it.




The main pollutant substance is Carbon dioxide. It is warming the Earth and we are constantly throwing it to the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels such as gasoline and natural gas. Also, in the past 150 years, we have thrown enough Carbon dioxide to the atmosphere to raise levels higher than they have been for hundreds of thousands of years.

SOLUTIONS FOR THIS PROBLEM:

Industrialized countries have been working against this problem and they are taking measures to limit emissions of Carbon dioxide by making people just drive and fly more and also by recycling more. Also the Paris Agreement, which is a voluntary agreement among 118 nations to try to combat against climate change. As a part of the agreement, each country has to keep the post-industrial global temperature rise below two degrees Celsius. And also they put higher taxes on gasoline so that people will conserve more this energy and pollute less.

My personal opinion about the solution of this problem is that governments should focus more on industrial pollution because they throw many substances to the air that are contaminating the industrialized cities. But also everyone should be more aware of this problem and try to help as much as they can because it is a global issue so it affects everyone. Personaly, we should all use public transport and recycle more because people think that this doesn't help but actually it does. Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a TV for three hours and also recycling a single run of the Sunday New York Times would save 75.000 trees.

Ear cropping and tail docking

Recently the Spanish congress has approved the prohibition of ear cropping and tail docking just for aesthetic reasons. 

The surgery to cut off a dog's tail is usually done with surgical scissors and without anesthesia when they are just a few days old because that's when their tail is still soft. It causes pain to the dog, but it is just a puppy so he is not alert and he won't remember it. 

The surgery to cut off part of a dog's ears is done with anesthesia and with dogs between 6 and 12 years old. 

Tail docking and ear cropping is banned in some parts of the world as Australia or the U.K.

I think that this decision of the Spanish congress is going to be positive, because many people use these technics to just give a look to their dogs. But obviously it is not positive for them. First of all because it causes pain to them and it is not natural. Another reason is because dogs use their tails to communicate emotions like anger or excitement, so if they cut off its tail, he will be less able to interact with other dogs. Also cutting their tail or ears is dangerous for its health because it could cause some problems as a developer of a nerve tumor or a neuroma. 

Although this surgery has been less common in the past years because it has fallen out of fashion and people stopped doing it. But the fact that the Spanish congress has banned it, is finally going to make people stop doing it.

SCIENCE LIMITS AND GLOBAL ISSUES

Science has allowed us to evolve, to learn many new things about the world we live and also to live happily and with an easier life. 

But science has also its limits and its inconvenient. One of these inconvenient is the science has created an inequality all around the world, discriminating the ones who cannot have opportunities to learn about it and to use it from the one who can. 

This inequality is a violation of human rights. Human rights are the basic rights and freedoms inherent to all human beings, from birth to death, no matter what if our nationality, place of residence, sex, national or ethnic origin...

But, as I have said, there are many differences in the world so we don't have the same possibilities in life. Rich people have the opportunity of studying and learning and having a better life with a proper work and house, but there are some humans that don't have the possibility of learning and going to school and some are not allowed. This is a big problem in our society and a violation of human rights, the ones that say that everyone has the right to have access to education. 

Also science violates human rights in some other aspects as the access to technology to have a proper life, the restriction of some scientific private advances, the access to health care...

DESCRIPTION OF A PERSON

In this post I will describe my father.

My father is named Valentí and he turned 50 in September 2016. He works on the construction sector selling materials, but recently he is also working as a farmer which is what he really likes, because he is a very calm person and he enjoys working in the fields.
Physically, he is no very tall, he has black short hair and blue eyes.

Also, he is a very smart person but he wasn't very good with studies when he was young, so that's why he decided to give up and start working on what he liked, with construction machines and trucks.
He is very good at repairing things so every time a familiar has a problem with their car they come home and he solves it. He has learned how cars work all alone by repairing them and seeing how they are built. Recently he has also built a machine from zero, with my cousin's help, for his tractor to facilitate the work. He is a very hard-working person.

He is a very king and humble person. He always helps everyone he can for nothing in return. Every time I have a problem and I am blocked I ask him for advice and he tries to help me trying to find a solution.

He has a sense of humor and he is always laughing and trying to make people laugh. In his free time he likes to spend it with family or just working on something at home, but he doesn't like doing nothing.

SPACE TOURISTS

Two unnamed people have already paid for places in a trip that will take them around the moon, but without landing. So late next year they will fly with SpaceX.

Many people are fascinated about the possibility of being able to travel to space in less than three years, it will be available for everyone who can afford it. But it is expected the cost of the space travel will eventually come down and become something which is affordable to more than only the very wealthy. 

Traveling to the space is not easy, they have warned that that it is a week of hard travel and it could feel like a long time in a small capsule which is for seven people and it will feel small even if just two or three are traveling there.

Also the ones that want to travel to the space have to support a long training programme of two years before they are allowed. Tourist will need to know how to operate key parts of the spacecraft in the case that there is an emergency or issue in communication with the mission control and they will be able to keep themselves and the spacecraft safe. 

YOU CAN READ MORE HERE

MY OPINION: 

I think it is a great idea that they allow citizens to take these amazing trips to the space, but I hope one day the prices are low enough for everyone to travel to the moon and not just the very wealthy.

I will really like to travel to the moon one day because I think that it will be amazing to see the Earth from another perspective, but I don't know if I would be able to support the extreme conditions of the training programme and then the takeoff. Also, I don't think it is enjoyable to be in a very small capsule for a week. 

A RUSSIAN ARCHITECT'S DREAM TO CLEAN AIR

A Russian architect named Alexei Umarov had this idea of a skyscraper that could clean the air pollution, because this situation affects all around the world with the excessive heat, polluted air, metals in the air, excessive levels of carbon dioxide... So he wanted to solve this problem. 

This project is named the HyperFilter skyscraper and it looks like a giant tree that can purify the city's polluted air. The difference between the Umarov's idea and others architects' one is that Umarov's doesn't have any flats or offices on the inside, it's just a giant air filter. 

Many architects liked this idea of using materials and techniques that could remove impurities and clean the air we breathe. Daan Roosegaarde has already created towers in cities like Beijing, which are supposed to filter impurities in the air. But there's no serious evidence that these constructions can reduce pollution levels. Though all architects try to find the way these towers really work. 

His project, the HyperFilter consists of a skeleton, a porous shell and long pipes with filters inside. The air will get sucked through the pipes, cleaned and cooled. The other substances will be separated and accumulated on the lower levels of the building where they will be recycled. 

MY OPINION:

In my opinion  Alexei Umarov's project is a very good idea because polluted air is a real problem nowadays that affects many parts of the world and that dirty the air we breathe every day. 

So if they finally get the perfect techniques that can actually remove all these substances from the air with the perfect material, I think that this would be revolutionary because many cities are trying to fight against this air pollution and many will use these towers. 

HERE YOU CAN READ MORE

SCIENTISTS MAKE MEAT

Scientists from the Netherlands finally discovered how to grow meat in the laboratory. This way we won't have to kill more animals to eat, but there are some problems.



The first problem is the cost of the production. Just a piece of meat costs around $12.500 to make, but because the laboratory has an investor from the meat industry, maybe the first hamburger will be on the market within five years.
Though all it will be expensive and in small production, because it lasts 3 months to grow a hamburger, so it will be just for restaurants and for 12-14 dollars.

The other problem is that people don't like the idea of laboratory products and they prefer the natural products, especially if the laboratory one is also expensive.

The positive part is that with this process, we will never need to kill more animals, because with just some cells from a tissue, that are able to divide into many other cells, can turn into muscle fibres and then create a burger.

But I think that we all just should have a diet with less red meat so we won't have to kill that amount of animals to eat, and also because it is healthier to have a varied diet that includes everything we need.

Here you can watch the process of creating a burger from a cell in the laboratory:

The Physician, NOAH GORDON

The Physician is a novel written by Noah Gordon. It is about a Christian British boy of the 11th-century, who lives in the poorest suburb of London. At the age of nine, Rob Cole, the protagonist, is orphaned, his father dies and then his mother from appendicitis, so he and his many brothers and sisters go to live with different families. 

Rob fears being adopted by a family and becoming a slave, but finally he is taken by a traveling barber-surgeon, whose work is so various, from entertaining people to cure them with natural medicines he creates. So Rob became his assistant. 

From this day Rob discoveres his love for medicine and also his gift, which is the power of knowing if people is going to die just by touching them. So when Rob is old enough to finally leave the barber-surgeon, he becomes also a barber-surgeon. But he wants to take advantage of his gift and learn more about medicine so that he is able to cure everyone, and also the ones who die with the same disease as his mother. 

So after this, he started asking for a physician who could teach him and someone told him about the Persian medical school, the best one, so he decides to travel there at all cost. During this journey he will have to renounce to many things, like his religion, but also he will learn so many things.

MY OPINION: 

The reason why I love this book is because it represents courage, overcoming and that everything is possible if you really want it, because Rob Cole has many problems during his journey and he had to live in poor conditions to get to where he wants. But it never came through his mind to give up and come back home where he had a proper work that gave him enough money to live in very good conditions. Also, I really liked the way Rob wishes to learn and even when he was given the option of having a rich work, he renunced because he wanted to stay next to his teacher and learn even more and also he never forgot the disease that killed his mother and he tries to discover what happened to her. 

NASA discovers new solar system TRAPPIST-1

Astronomers at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have announced the discovery of a new solar system that is 39 light years away from Earth.

They have detected seven planets of the size of the Earth, or slightly smaller, orbiting the star of the TRAPPIST-1, and it is believed that they have the qualities needed to support life. 

Three of the planets could also have oceans so it gives a hope to astronomers that someday they will find a second Earth 

The planets of this system are all very close to the star, which is small and cold, and very close to each other so they are similar to see the Moon from the Earth. That's why those planets could have some water and maybe life, because they are template. Their orbits are smaller than the Mercury one.

The star of the TERAPPIST-1 has a temperature of 2550K, and our Sun 5778K.

The observations were made by the Terappist robotic telescope at La Silla, Chile, and now, the NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is searching for atmospheres around the planets. Future telescopes may be powerful enough to detect markers of life, like oxygen. 

This is the Liverpool Telescope they used. It is located on La Palma in Canary Islands where the skies are clear most of the time.

The first planet discovered outside of our Solar System was in 1992 and since then 3577 planets have been found. But just twelve of them are able to maybe support life and just three are as ideal as those they have recently found. Though all, they estimate that there coulf be 40 billion habitable worlds in our galaxy.

Here you can see the TRAPPIST-1 planets compared to 4 of our planets.

If you want to read more information about this new you can click here

MY OPINION: 

For me those new discoveries are very interesting because we all know that out of our solar system, somewhere else, life exists, so every day we get closer to find it with new technologies and new studies. And who knows, maybe one day humans can conquer another planet. 

To me, knowing that they estimate that there are 40 billion planets able to support life reminds me of the enormous things we don't already know about the place we live and the things we will never know. So we are just an insignificant planet in one of the many enormous galaxies. 

"The human race is just a chemical scum on a moderate-sized planet, orbiting around a very average star in the outer suburb of one among a hundred billion galaxies. We are so insignificant that I can't believe the whole universe exists for our benefit. That would be like saying that you would disappear if I closed my eyes." - Stephen Hawking. 

COOL HUNTERS: The Legal Stalkers of Youth Culture

In the book No Logo, Naomi Klein talks about the power of the brands and the impact they have in our society. 

class we read a fragment of her book, where she talks about the Cool Hunters, professionals who work on making observations and predicting the changes of the new and present trends. I think that it is a great marketing strategy because people likes to be informed of the trends and it is a good way to emphasize with the customers. But at the same time I think it would be more original to create new styles instead of going outside with a camera and taking photos of people and copying their style. 

Anyway, I don't think that we shouldn't be that much dependent on the trends and we shouldn't give too much importance to the cool hunters, but we like to fit in the society and look cool so we were what is trending and we buy to the popular cloth shops, even if we know that we are being manipulated by the companies and we are becoming more and more dependent to their brands arriving at the point that we feel identified with them.

TED TALKS ABOUT FASHION

ANDRAS FORGACS, Leather and meet without killing animals. 

The first video I have seen is a Andras Forgacs' talk about crating leather without killing animals.

Andras Forgacs and his father have started a company to 3D print human tissues and organs and after this they had this idea of also growing animal parts so that we don't have to sacrifice that amount of animals to obtain the products we need. He emphasizes in leather because in our society, it is wildly used, so if we can create new leather from the cells we don't have to sacrifice any animals.

In my opinion, this technique could be revolutionary because we can create any leather we want without the need of having to kill any poor animal. So I think that in a future this will be used.

DANIT PELEG, Forget shopping. Soon you'll download your new clothes. 

The second video I have seen is the Danit Peleg's talk about downloading your new clothes from home. She first had this idea when she wanted to wear something new for an event, but she hadn't anything to wear, so she designed clothes on her computer and then printed them with a 3D printer. After this, she decided to try and 3D print an entire fashion collection from her home. She experimented with many materials and many machines and her real challenge was to find the right filament for clothes. A filament that is strong and flexible.
In my opinion, this is a very difficult idea, because not everybody has a 3D printer in their home so years are going to pass until we no longer need to go and shop our clothes because we can 3D print them.



JESS ARINGTON, Wearing nothing new.

The third and last video I have seen is the Jess Arington's talk about second hand clothes. Though she has admitted that she is an outfit addicted, she has also said that she never wears nothing new. She likes second hand shopping because it reduces the impact her wardrobe causes in the environment and it is less expensive. Also, because while she goes shopping she gets to meet new great people and her money will help people that really need it. And finally, because she looks unique. She explained that she only took seven pairs of underwear for the week she was going to stay at TED and she expected to be able to but all the second hand clothes that she needed.

In my opinion second hand shopping is a great idea because usually people have many clothes in their wardrobe that they don't use anymore, but it stills new so if they sell it other can buy clothes that are less expensive. And during this talk, she showed us that we don't need a lot of money to look great, because if you really believe you look beautiful probably you will, because confidence is very important.

US ELECTION SPECIAL: WHY DONALD TRUMP?

232

Clinton

62.391.335

270 TO WIN

290

Trump

61.125.956

Donald Trump's victory against Hillary Clinton left everyone surprised because anyone expected him to win. The question is how did he win?

The answer is that Clinton didn't get his base voters in the same numbers as Barack Obama did and also did had an economic plan for working-class whites. Other facts that contributed to her lost was the letter from FBI Director talking about the investigation of the private email server.

MY OPINION: 

In my opinion, the main reason why Trump won is because people didn't trusted Hillary Clinton. After everything that happened with the email scandal, of Hillary using a private server outside the official system for using her email. Trump new how to use this in his favor and people started to follow him.


HERE YOU CAN READ MORE

INCEPTION

Inception is a science fiction thriller written, produced and directed by Christopher Nolan. It is about Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio)  who is a profetional thief. He espionages people by entering in their subconscious minds, using two-level "drem within a dream" so that he can extract valuable information.

This practice has permited Dom get into the dangerous world of espionage but also it has converted him into a fugitive and he had to sacrifice everything he loved. But now, Dom has the option to have his old life back but for this he and his team of especialist have to make a very difficult job. It consists on reversing the operation, insted of stealing information of someones subconscious they have to introduce information and if they get it, it would be the perfect crime.

MY OPINION: 

There are many reason why it is one of my favourite movies, the first one is because I think that dreams are a fascinating topic for a movie. In a dream you can creat whatever you want. Another reason is because this movie is really unpredictable, when you feel like you know what's coming next, everything changes and this makes the movie a little bit hard to follow, also because it's really fast, many thing are happenig at the same time and you have too many information to remember and to digest. I also like the characters of this movie, I think each of them are really interesting and the fact that you don't know many things about them makes them even more interesting and mysterious.

I recomend this movie to everyone who likes science fiction but it is a little bit hard to understand because it makes you think a lot. I had to watch it twice to really know what was happening during all the movie and I still have some doubts about some facts and obiously about the amazing open end. 

HERE YOU CAN WATCH THE TRAILER: 

BEST STAGE OF YOUR LIFE

The best stage in life for me is young adulthood because you have the legal age and you are able to do things you couldn't when you were under eighteen. 

At this stage of your life you can have your driving license and you can have your first car and go wherever you want to go whenever you want without having to ask someone to drive you. Another reason why I think this is the best stage of your life is because you finished the hard last years of high school and you are able to go to university and focus on studying something you really like and something you really enjoy doing and after this, if you are lucky, you can work on something you have studied for and something you enjoy like doing. Also at this stage of your life you can leave your parent's home and go to live near the university with your friends or with new people you meet there, because you have many new friends there, and you start living your life by yourself being independent and doing whatever you want and being responsible. 

By saying this, I don't mean that other stages of your life are less important. For example, infancy and childhood are very beautiful periods of your life, but from infancy, we don't remember anything and from childhood the same, we just remember some things we have seen in photos. But anyway, those were times of your life where you just focused on living life happily and not worrying about anything. 

From adolescense, I think it's also a beautiful period of your life, but it's a bit hard because you have to focus on studying, but you also want to hang out with your friends, and your parents don't trust you because you are young yet, but it's beautiful because you don't have to worry too much about problems in life, you see your friends in high school every day, you probably will have your first love, and you will experience many new beautiful feelings. 

DANGEROUS WAY FOR CHINESE CHIDREN

To go home from class, a group of children in China fron Auter village in Sichuan province have to carry they backpacks or other items while they have a dangerous journey because they have to climb over a mountain cliff using wooden ladders and walk almost four kilometers long

Other people of the village and even dogs travel this terrifying way and they say it makes their legs shake and they never look down because it is really scary. They want to have a safer way to get to school but they believe that a better future lies in getting education for their children.

MY OPINION: 

In my opinion this shouldn't be happening in the modern world we live and this poor should have a better way to go to school without having to risk their lifes because it looks really dangerous, specially for the old and young people. China goverment has to give a solution to secure their lifes as soon as possible.

HERE YOU CAN READ MORE ABOUT IT

STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF AMERICAN NOMINEES

DONALD TRUMP:

Strengths:

One of his major strendths that we have seen in numerous conversations between reporters and Trump is that he is able to lead a direct question into the direction he wants to. Also he knows how to talk to the anger voters without being shy and not fearing of what he says. He says what voters want to listen to even if it has risks. Another of his strengths is that he has a good business expirence and he is able to self finance his campaign.

Weaknesses:

Repeatedly he has made some extremists statements about immigrants, women and Muslims, he has been seen as egocentric and publicity hound and also he would not be taken seriously by some. Another weakness is that people is affraid of what he would do if he was in the White House because he is so impredictable. A very important weakness of his candidacy is his weak knowledge of the political terms. In some of the debates against Clinton this was a problem because he is a smart and experienced woman.

HILLARY CLINTON:

Strengths:

One of the most important strengths of Hillary Clinton is that he is a political fighter, she doesn't give up easily and she is able to defend herself against political opponents. The fact that she would be the first female president could be positive for her because it makes her candidacy truly historic because the fact that people voted a women could be a step foward for a nation where women weren't allow to vote until 1920 and where sexism remains in. The most important strength is that she has political expirence, she has been a Secretary of the State, a U.S. Senator, First Lady of the United States and First Lady of Arkansas.

Weaknesses:

One of the bi problems of her candidacy is that people don't know if they can trust her because of the way she handle her email as a secretary of the state using a private server outside the official system. Also it seems like she has been hiding information instead of taking risks and being more open.

 MY OPINION: 

In my opinion Hillary Clinton would be a better president of the United States than Donald Trump. First of all because she has much more political epirence than him and she has been related with the White House. Also because she is a woman and this could be positive for a country to have a female president where gender inequality remains part of the culture of the country. And also because she hasn't been related with extremists statements as Donald Trump. 

LAZARUS

Look up here, I'm in heaven
I've got scars that can't be seen
I've got drama, can't be stolen
Everybody knows me now

Look up here, man, I'm in danger
I've got nothing left to lose
I'm so high it makes my brain whirl
Dropped my cell phone down below
Ain't that just like me?

By the time I got to New York
I was living like a king
There I'd used up all my money
I was looking for your ass
This way or no way
You know, I'll be free
Just like that bluebird
Now, ain't that just like me?
Oh, I'll be free
Just like that bluebird
Oh, I'll be free
Ain't that just like me?

MY OPINION:

In my opinion, this song could be considered as a rite of passage because when David Bowie wrote it he knew he was gonna die because of a cancer. In this song he talks like he is already dead. For exemple when he says "Look up here I'm in heaven" and when he says "I've got scars that can't be seen" he is refearing to his cancer. Also, he died 3 days after the music video was released so it can be considered as a goodbye to his fans, as a rite of passage to death. 

When we saw the video of elders reacting to David Bowie's video we saw that they all got sad when they saw it was David Bowie and some of them also cried because they knew he was saying goodbye and because it was sad to know that he died days after. 

WHY IS DEATH A TABOO?

In our culture death is a taboo because we are too affraid of it and we are scared of talking about it. The reason why we are affraid of death is because we don't know what happens when we die and we don't know where do we go and humans are so affraid of unknowledge. This is why religious people imagine a pleace where we go when we die, heaven or hell, so that we are not that affraid of death because we can imagine what happens after life. But we don't actually know if it's true or if it's not.

THE ABORIGINAL WALKABOUT

This is the presentation I made about the Aboriginal Walkabout, a rite of passage of the aboriginal boys of Australia.

BOB DYLAN WINS NOBEL PRIZE

On October 13, 2016, Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize for Literature. He is the first musician to win the award and this is why it caused a controversy and people is debating about whether song lyrics, however brilliant,  have the same artistic value as poetry or novels. Also he is the first American poet to win this prize. Just nine Amrican novelists and short-story writers and one dramatist have been awarded.

The Nobel citation says that they gave it to Dylan "for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition"

Some accuse the Swedish Academy of abandoning its high standards and succumbing to populism, even though all the prizes are very important. Some critics give another point of view at this award. It is obious that we are moving from the print culture to an audiovisual culture, but this doesn't mean that print is dying and that people don't still write novels and poems, it's just that print has lost dominance and audiovisual is becoming more and more popular. Also they say that lots of poets are writing poems to be performed and to be heard rather than to be read. So in giving the prize to Dylan, the Swedish Academy is moving with the times and changing as our society does.

Here you can listen to his song Every Grain of Sand (1981):


Every Grain of Sand - Bob Dylan from Temuco Blues on Vimeo.

Here you have the lyrics:

In the time of my confession, in the hour of my deepest need,
When the pool of tears beneath my feet flood every newborn seed,
There's a dyin' voice within me reaching out somewhere,
Toiling in the danger and in the morals of despair.
Don't have the inclination to look back on any mistake -
Like Cain I now behold this chain of events that I must break.
In the fury of the moment I can see the Master's hand
In every leaf that trembles, in every grain of sand.

Oh, the flowers of indulgence and the weeds of yesteryear,
Like criminals they have choked the breath of conscience and good cheer.
Ah, the sun beat down upon the steps of time to light the way,
To ease the pain of idleness and the memory of decay.
I gaze into the doorway of temptation's angry flame
And every time I pass that way I always hear my name.
Then onward in my journey I've come to understand
That every hair is numbered like every grain of sand.

I have gone from rags to riches in the sorrow of the night,
In the violence of a summer's dream, in the chill of a wintery light,
In the bitter dance of loneliness fading into space,
In the broken mirror of innocence on each forgotten face.
I hear the agéd footsteps like the motion of the sea,
Sometimes I turn - there's someone there - other times it's only me.
I am hanging in the balance of the reality of man,
Like every sparrow falling, like every grain of sand.


MY OPINION

In my opinion, Bob Dylan does deserve the Nobel prize because he is a great songwriter and also a great poet. I think that beacause he sets his lyrics with music is not a reason for not giving him this prize. In my opinion Bob Dylan's poems could stand on its own without the rhythm of the songs, but also singing them attract more audience than just a written poem in our society. 

HERE YOU CAN READ MORE ABOUT IT

PROTEST SONG

The song that I have chosen is Talkin' 'Bout A Revolution written by Tracy Chapman in 1988.

Tracy Chapman -Talkin' Bout A Revolution (1988)

Don't you know
They're talkin' 'bout a revolution
It sounds like a whisper
Don't you know
They're talkin' 'bout a revolution

It sounds like a whisper
While they're standing in the welfare lines
Crying at the doorsteps of those armies of salvation
Wasting time in the unemployment lines
Sitting around waiting for a promotion

Dont' you know 
They're talkin' 'bout a revolution
It sounds like a whisper
Poor people gonna rise up
And get their share
Poor people gonna rise up
And take what's theirs

Don't you know
You better run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run ,run
Oh I said you better
Run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run

'Cause finally the tables are starting to turn
Talkin' 'bout a revolution
Yes, finally the tables are starting to turn
Talkin' 'bout a revolution, oh no
Talkin' 'bout a revolution, oh

While they're standing in the welfare lines
Crying at the doorsteps of those armies of salvation
Wasting time in the unemployment lines
Sitting around waiting for a promotion

On this song, Tracy Chapman criticize the economical system of the United States and a lot of other countries and encourages people to make a revolution against the corrupt governments. She says that people is already talking about the revolution while they are waiting for a job on the unemployment lines.
In her opinion people is wasting time on these unemployment lines and waiting for a promotion and she wants them to act and change this system because it is the only solution to end with this situation.
She also sends a message to the capitalist class telling them that they better run because poor people are gonna rise up and the tables are gonna turn.

In my opinion, this song is clearly a protest song and Tracy Chapman defends the revolution against the economical system because it is the way to change the bad situation the poor people is living with corruption and unemployment.