English blog

Northern Ireland

2009-04-15T06:06:00.000-07:00

The conflict in Northern Ireland is one of the few, if not the only conflict left in all of Western Europe.
Northern Ireland is located on the northern part of the Irish island. It is a part of the union with the United Kingdom. The largest city in Northern Island is Belfast and the official languages are English and Irish.

In 1923, a conflict between the IRA(Irish Republican Army) and the Britain’s started. The cause was when the British invaded Northern Ireland because they mean that Ireland should be a part of Great Britain. IRA’s goal was to get an independent Irish government.
In the Northern Ireland the majority of the people were Protestants in 1921, when the country Ireland was split in two.
Since Protestants were the majority people, Northern Ireland didn’t mind that they were under control of British. If they were to come a part of Ireland again, they could lose the privileges they had over the Catholics.
The newer conflicts in Northern Ireland started in 1967 with the creation of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA). It was formed as a response to four decades of Unionist discrimination against the Catholics. They wanted to end the political discrimination and to have the same rights as the Protestants.
Many Catholics found themselves politically mobilized for the first time since 1921 after founding the civil rights movement.
There were marches and protests, something that would push the conflicts further on, as the Protestants viewed the marches with great concern, fearing that Catholics wanted to dissolve the union completely.
As a result of the many conflicts, Northern Ireland was governed from Westminister from 1974 to 2000. This created a more stabile state. But not everyone was satisfied with this. The IRA often used bombs and violence to protest. Today the conflict is undoubtedly lessened. Protestants and Catholics are trying to live together. However, there is still conflict in the country. The two groups still live separated from each other.

Black history- Part 2

2009-04-13T11:01:00.000-07:00

Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King jr was born 1929. He was a civil rights leader and a role model. He secures the progress on civil rights in the US and is a human rights icon.
In his campaign he wanted people to protest in a non violent way. The African Americans were separated from the whites in America. They were not allowed to go to the same public school, drink of the same fountains and even sit in the same places on the bus.
King a pastor, and was given the gift of speech. When he talked people really listened. His most famous speech is “I have a dream”.
The speech was about how we hope all people, no matter what color or race or religion could live together in harmony and as equals. The speech was on August 28th, 1963 on the stepts of the Lincold Memorial. It was a defining moment of the American Civil rights Movement. When he spoke, over 250,000 civil rights supporters listen
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a
nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by
the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor's
lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and
nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black
boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys
and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers.
ed.

1964 Martin Luther King was the youngest man ever to receive the Nobel’s peace prize. On the clip I have put a link too, you can see King receiving the prize.

http://www1.nrk.no/nett-tv/klipp/434882

OneNote

2009-04-13T08:49:00.000-07:00

I have been using OneNote for a couple of months now. The product is easy to understand and easy to organize. I wish we had started using OneNote 2 years ago when we started high school. It took a little time to organize all my documents, but once it was done everything is easy to find

I LOVE IT
GO ONENOTE!

Important dates in black American history

2009-03-24T04:57:00.000-07:00

Let my people go; Black America

In my blog assignment I have decided to write about some of the important dates in black history. I think this is good because then I can learn about the big moments

What happened when?
1619 – The first slave ship came to Jamestown. From 1691 to 1808 when the slave trade was outlawed, 10 to 15 million Africans were kidnapped and forces into slavery in the English colonies of North America. The slavery in America begins

1787 – Abolitionism started in the North America. It was an idealistic movement developed in the North where they wished to abolish the slavery.

1861 – The civil war breaks out between the North and the South in 1861. The North stated wanted to free the slaves. The south states people needed the slaves to work in farms, and they were strongly against letting them go. Many Northerners believed in the humanity of black people, few believed in their equality.

1865 – Freedmen’s Bureau was established. It was established to guide the newly freed blacks to self-sufficiency.

1877 – By this time the north had grown tired of trying to reform the South. The government was handed back to the local authorities. This was bad for the earlier slaves because many of the civil rights the African Americans had gained where taken away by the local authorities. New laws where called Jim Crow laws. They laws said that blacks could not vote, marry whites or mix with whites in public places. It they protested they risked being lynched by the Ku Klux Klan.

1896 – Separate but equal was accepted by the Supreme Court. The African American were forced to accept second class citizenship for another century.

1909 – W.E.B Du Bois, a black Harward professor, disagreed with Washington.
Without legal and political rights, he argued, equality was not possible.
He helped found: NAACP = Nationl Association for the Advanced of Colored People.

1948 – Segregation ended in the armed forces. This was a great step forward.

1954 – The Supreme Court struck down on their earlier decision that separate but equal was unconstitutional.

1964 – The Civil rights Act was passe. This law finally gave all blacks legal and political equality, ending segregation forever.

1968 – The assassination of Martin Luther King. This marked the end of the non-violent movement that had begun in the 1950s.

Obama talks to a new audience

2009-03-24T02:21:00.000-07:00

This week we got a homework assignment.

Watch this extract of the interview with Jay Leno. Look at this link and add these topics to your blog:
What are the advantages for the president to be on this show
what are the downsides
How are these students using the media to get their points across; who is listening?

I think the advantages for Obama being on the show is that people get to see a more private side off him, and not only the serious part. When he enters he makes a joke, and people like him. He makes the audience laugh. It also makes different viewers watch him, and he can get more people involved in politics.
As the reporters are saying, we are in a new media age. People expect him to appear to the public. Personaly i feel like I get a better impression off Obama after watching the show.

The downside is that people may not take him as a serious person. With the economic crises that America is dealing with, people want a president who is serious and this show may make him look less presidential. While people are suffering he is "having fun".

In the third video we saw reportage about teenagers making a youtube video about how the financial crisis affects them. The video is touching and they want to make people know how serious this crise is. The video is watches by a lot of people and at last is even reached the president. He held a speech to Yvonne and her class and he told them. “I am listening”. “We are listening”. I think that this is a great approach from the student’s side. They used the media to get their points and they got a lot of attention. It is amazing how the world can connect over the internet, and us here in Norway can understand how the crises affect the people in the town.

"This is England"

2009-03-05T13:48:00.000-08:00

The patriotism we recognized from England during the Falkland war, is the same that we could see in the movie "This is England". The movie is about a boy in 1983 living in England. He gets bullied with in school, and is struggling with the loss of his father, whom died in the Falkland war. One day he meets a gang of skinheads, and he starts hanging out with them, and they become friends. The movie shows how racism was a big issue in England, when we follow Combo in the movie, trying to promote his white nationalist views.

English Project in class

2009-03-03T03:45:00.000-08:00

Senior project

This semester is out last months in high school. In our English class we are going to have a senior project. We have to write about three pages, and present it to the class.
Since I have lived a year in the States, I thought it might be fun to compare the school systems. I am going to find out the things that might be better in the states, and what may be worse. I am also going to see how the politics in the states interfere with the school system.
I think i am going to describe a typical day in the school in the US, then explain how the school system works. I will only talk about high school mainly.

A movie we should watch in class!

2009-02-10T02:30:00.000-08:00

The Freedom Writes

This week end I watched one of my favorite movies, “The Freedom Writers”. The movie is based on the book, “The freedom writes diary” by the teacher Erin Gruwell. The title is inspired by the name “The freedom ride” which was a bus from south to North America, with people who where fighting against racism.

Erin Gruwell was a teacher at Wilson Classical High School In Long Beach, California from 94-98. The students at the school did not treat her with respect when she tried to teach them. They all come from different back grounds and they all experience things that 15year old children never should see. Every day is a struggle for the children just to survive. A lot of them are gang members, and they have all seen someone get shot. Erin Gruwell wants the children to open up, and she decides to give them each I diary. They can choose if they want to write in it or not. When she opens them up, she find to her surprise that all off the children wants to tell their story.
As she reads the diary’s we get a view off all the children’s individual life and see what they have to deal with. She wants to listen to their stories, and she wants to show them that she listened, and she respectet their stories enough to fint out how she could teach them.
My favourite sceene in the movie, is when the “latino gang” draws a picture of one of the black boys in the class. They make a drawing of him with really big lips, and a big nose. Erin grabs the picture and it reminds her of the pictures that where made of the jews by the Nazis. The tells the class that there pictures where made by the most famous gang in the world. She tells them how they didn’t just take over cities, they took over countries.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iz-gv6af-tw&feature=related

The movie shows up a complete change in all the students in Mrs. Gruwell’s class. We see her stryggle to connect with the student, and she wants to see their side of the story. She gets protests from the other teachers, she has to take extra jobs to that she can get money to but the children books. It even effects her marriage. Erin Gruwell gave all she have so tha there student could be heard. She told them that someone wanted to head their story. She managed to change their lifes, and many off them became the first in their family to go to college, or even graduate high school.

I think this is an amazing move, because it shows me that we judge people too fast. It reminds us that no matter where you are from, which family, neighborhood, country, we are all just people. Where you grew up, or how you where raised doesn’t have to effect how you are going to end up, or what you can be.

The Falkland war

2009-02-10T01:42:00.000-08:00

The Falkland war

The Falkland’s is located east of Argentina in South America. The islands consist of two large and many small islands. The Falklands are self-governed islands, owned by the United Kingdom . In 1982 Argentina and United Kingdom fought over the disputed Falkland Islands. The people that lived there were British, Scandinavian and Chilean. The main language is Britain, and their overhead is the Queen of England. Argentina wanted the Falkland Islands back, because they claimed it was their territory.

The war started on 2 April 1982. The Argentine incision and occupation of the Islands is marked as the start. The reason for the war was a result of an expanded diplomatic confrontation. They where regarding the sovereignty of the islands. Argentina considered the innovation as re-claiming their own territory. The UK on the other hand considered it as an invasion of a British overseas territory.
The occupations and the war between the countries cost 258 British, and 649 Argentine lives. It was important for The UK to win the war. Both of the countries fighting had a wave of patriotic sentiment for the Islands. The UK and the Prime Minister Margaret Thatches was bolstered.

After the war, there had been made a lot of books and movies about the actions that went down in the Falkland Islands. The outcome of the war made Argentina lose their regime. The British people look at the war as a great victory for the UK. Margaret Thatcher and her party was re elected.

Welcome to Bærum

2009-01-27T02:10:00.000-08:00

Hey there people!

I am going to show you the great little comminuty called Bærum.
First of all it's in the country Norway, just a coulpe of minutes drive from the Capital Oslo.

You may not have heard of Norway before, but if you have you probably know that it's famous for out beautiful nature. Norway has high mounains, big lakes, and fjords. It's a great place to be if you like outdoor sports like skiing, mountain biking, or hiking. Norway is often compared with Minnesota in the US.

In Bærum you can find mountains, and it boarders to the coast. Bærum is also known as a rich town, and alot of people use money like it grows on trees. But Bærum is also a grat place to grow up. The community provides great schools and outdoor fasiteties. There is also big shopping malls, and if you want more shops Oslo is just 20 minute away with car.

I have lived in Bærum in 5 years, and i love it!

There is a new president in town!

2009-01-20T08:51:00.000-08:00

Today i watched the inaguration of Americas new president Barack Hussein Obama.

It was an incredible amount of people who showed up to greet the new president. All of Washingtons streets where full. People where mooved by the greatnes the country can acheeve, and espesially people who didnt believe that minority groups could make it to the top im America.

Aretha Franklin sang "My country tis of thee" before the president held his inaguration speech. The first one to say the oath, is the vise president elect, John Biden. This is not the first time she has sang infront of a president, in 1993 she sang to the earlier president Bill Clinton.

Alot of celeberties has taken the trip to Washington to watch this historical moment. One of them, Oprah Whinfrey, who is having a Obama speciall on her show.

New president in USA

2009-01-20T04:26:00.000-08:00

BARACK OBAMA TAKES OFFICE

January 20th president Barack Obama is going to give a speech, which is going to be watched by the whole world.

He is the 44th president in America, and each of the presidents has held their inagural speeches. This is the link to the 5 most memorable lines.

Before the speech is held, there is alot of preparations that has to be done. This year the security is also better than ever. Barack Obama has military planes, and boats ready within a radius of 3 kilometers from where he is. He also has a lot of life guards, and all the people working with him and around his has to be background checkes and sure that they can be trusted.

The president is also moving, and there is an article in "Aftenposten" where you can see pictures of the presidents things being moved, and also that he buys furniture on IKEA!

In the news papers you can also read about where he is helding his speech, and all the preparation work that has been done.

INTO THE WILD

2008-11-25T01:53:00.000-08:00

tolke minst ett større skjønnlitterært verk og en film og et utvalg av annen engelskspråklig litteratur fra 1900-tallet og fram til i dag

I am going to write about the book, Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer. He was born in on April 12th, 1954.Massachusetts but he was raised in Oregon. He graduated High School in 1972, and attnded Hampshire College to study in Environmental Studies.

He also met the wonas who later on he married, the former climber Linda Mariam.

Jon Krakuer is most famous for the book he wrote based on a true story, Into the Wild.

So far we have read 6 chapters in the book, so i still have some reading to do before i can analyse the book