"Tear this wall down"

 

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

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 traditional Norwegian sport

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?

To my korean friends about the weather in Norway

the weather in Norway is really strange. sometimes it rains, sometimes it snows and sometimes it's actually pretty nice. the average temperature is between 7 and 25 degrees celcius in the summer and about -15 and 0 in the winter. the snow came really early this year, but only about a centimeter, and that melted within the day was over. it usually starts to snow in november/desember, and then it gets really cold.
how's the korean weather?

There's usually much more snow in the winter, but this was a nice picture. -----^