A Foreign Visitor
Today we had a visitor in class. Her name is Lee Ann Potter and is from Maryland, USA. She is the director of education and volunteer programs at the U.S. National Archives in Washington D.C. and she spends this year in Norway, teaching students like us.
She showed us a bunch of documents and photographs from the founding of the United States, and she educated us about the constitution and everything the government does. It was cool the way she included us in the education. This made everything a lot more interesting and fun. I think it was nice to hear American politics from an American, and her views on the system.
I really hope we can do something similar soon, because this was interesting.
Milk
Recently we watched the movie "Milk" which is based upon the life of Harvey Milk, a man who was an LGBT rights (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered) activist and also a politician. He was the first openly gay politician to become elected into the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. He was tired of the way gay people were treated, so he decided to run for candidate to the upcoming election for a seat in the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. The first time he tried this, he just wore his regular clothes, and he kept his long beard and hair. When this didn't work out, he changed his clothes into a suit and he cut his hair. This turned out to be much more effective, and he won the election.
The film discusses themes like homosexuality, acceptance of the people and love between people.
This is movie won several prizes. Including eight Critics Choice Awards, Golden Globe Awards and Academy Awards.
Sources:
Elections in Britain
Politics is about power. About winning power and using it to do what you think is right for the people. The people choose their representatives, who sit in parliament, and these representatives make all the decisions that have to be made at a national level to run society and to change things that which they thinks need to be changed.
Parliament is made up of the House of Commons and the House of Lords. The House of Commons is often called the Commons, or the Lower House of Commons, while the House of Lords is referred to as the Lords, or the Upper House. Both Houses meet in the Palace of Westminster, so people often talk of "Westminster" when they mean "Parliament".
Where were you that sunny day of September 9th 2001? Many will answer this question without hesitation. I was in our basement, helping my dad on the computer, when suddenly my sister rushed down and turned on the television. She turned on CNN and we saw the northern tower in flames and wrapped in smoke. I myself had never heard about the World Trade Center, but when I saw the reaction of my dad, I knew this was a huge disaster.
The two brothers Jules and Geudeon Naudet released the movie "9/11", in 2002. They didn't plan to create a movie about the terror attacks, because who would know that there was going to be a major terror attack in the middle of Manhattan. Instead, they had in mind to make a documentary about the life of a normal firefighter in downtown Manhattan. In the beginning of the movie, we follow probationary Tony Benetatos, who is a freshman firefighter. We follow him and the rest of the squad around the city on minor fires, but he never seems to get any big ones. One day Jules and the Battalion Chief, Chief Joseph Pfeifer were checking out a gas leak, and all of a sudden, a plane hits the northern tower, causing mass hysteria. We then follow them into the two towers, and witness the horror ourselves.
Throughout the movie, we can see that people change. People start to think about how fast things can happen, how quick you can pass away in a tragic incident. Here is an example; after everyone has returned from the two towers, one of the firefighters comes up to either Jules or Geudeon (I cannot remember which one) and says "Yesterday you had only one brother, today you have 40". That is a touchy moment, because they have all been through this together, and they share the same frightening feeling and it's important that everybody is there for each other.
What is the difference between how the Americans view this incident and how the Europeans views it? I think the main difference is that every/many Americans view this incident just as an act of terror. Since the attacks, there have been a number of conspiracy theories put forward on the web, in books and even made into films. Many Europeans think USA did this to themselves just to have a reason to engage war and look for oil in the middle east, mainly Afghanistan and Iraq. Many people think that the two buildings could not fall on their own, even though a plane had hit them, so many believe that the collapse was a result of a controlled demolition. You can also hear in the movie "9/11" that the firefighters says, "It sounded like bombs going of"
Conspiracy or not, I believe we can agree that this was an awful thing to happen for human beings, and I hope that something like this would never happen again.
"The Falling Man"
Photographer Richard Drew has immortalized the picture of a man falling out of the northern tower at about 9.40 am. The thought of being burnt to death or smoke poisoned just wasn't an alternative. Some people might refer to the people that jumped of fell (about 200!) from the two towers as "jumpers", but I don't think they are, because jumpers kill them self intentionally to stop their lives, like suicide. This man is believed to be 43-year-old Jonathan Briley, who worked at the Windows on the World restaurant (restaurant and bar at the top of the northern tower). His former boss Michael Lomonaco identified him by an orange t-shirt that he wore under his work clothes almost everyday. His clothes were blown away, revealing the orange shirt. However, his identity has never officially been confirmed.
It is not a pleasant picture
This famous sentence is quoted by the American president Ronald Reagan in the 1987 speech to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. In a speech commemorating Berlin's 750 years anniversary, Regan came with this challenge to tear down the Berlin wall as a symbol to increase the freedom in the Eastern block.
The Berlin wall was built in 1961 by the Germans, and heavily supported by the Soviet Union, and it quickly became a major symbol on communism. The wall was supposed to prevent movement from the east to the west. Many people was against this phrase, but Ronald Reagan said it anyway.
Ronald Reagan and the first lady arrived in Berlin on June 12, 1987. When he made the speech, he was protected by two panes of bulletproof glass incase there were a sniper in East Berlin.
Another highlight in the speech was when Reagan's call to end the arms race with his reference to the Soviets nuclear weapons.
Lions for lambs is an American drama film made in 2007. The film is about the connection between the American soldiers in Afghanistan, a US senator, a reporter and a college professor. The leading actors in the film are Tom Cruise (senator Jasper Irving), Meryl Streep (Jeanine Roth) and Robert Redford (Dr Malley). Robert Redford also directed the movie, and Matthew Michael Carnahan wrote the story.
The film is partly based on "Operation Red Wing" which was an unsuccessful US Navy Seal operation in Afghanistan on June 28, 2005. In this operation, about 20 people died when their helicopter was shoot down, and when being shoot at the ground.
The title "Lions for lambs" refers to incompetent leaders who send brave soldiers, or lions, into wars and battles. The film is made out of three stories wowed into one. Tom cruise plays the role of a young overly ambitious senator who launches a new military strategy in Afghanistan and explains the plans in details to a skilled and well-respected reporter, Jeanine Roth. We witness as the operation goes horribly wrong, and two young soldiers die. We also follow a conversation between a college professor and his student, Todd Hayes. The student is natural bright and comes from a privileged background, but he has been spending less time in school and more time with his girlfriend and the fraternity. Dr Malley offers him a "B" in his class with no additional work, or the opportunity to earn an honest grade by himself by good old-fashioned work.
The film can be compared to "Crash" or "Babel" in the way that says that no matter what US citizens think about the war on terror, the US citizens are in this together. This makes the movie very emotional because we can relate. This also inspires the viewers to think about who's running the country and the world.
The film is not only drama, but it delivers some thrilling action scenes when the two young soldiers fight in Afghanistan. I think the bond the two soldiers have, and show to each other really gives us an image of how it is to fight in the war on terror. Their connection really bonds the scenes and elements in this movie.
The tagline for the film is "If you don't stand for something, you might fall for anything" reflects on the characters own beliefs which they are willing to fight for to the end. This is almost like a warning to the people who don't participate in the war because "it's not their war". Whether you like it, or not; poor, rich, lazy, ambitious, Republicans and Democrats are all in this together.
A typical traditional Norwegian sport is cross-country skiing where you propel yourself across snow-covered terrain using skis and poles. This is in my opinion a boring sport, but it's typical for Norway. "Birkebeinern" is a long distance cross-country ski race, and is 54 kilometers long, and the participants have to wear a backpack weighing at least 3,5 kilos. The sport has been around for ages, and the Vikings used cross-country skiing as an effective way of transport.
Do you have cross-country skiing in Korea?
