Saving Places - I Thought I Saw

Saving Places - I Thought I Saw

My homework this week was to reflect on the poem "Saving Places - I Thought I Saw". The poem is written by a 10 year old girl and concerns nature and how we humans treat the wildlife. What I like about the poem is the author's creative writing technique and the way she ends the poem. It is a pretty good poem where the author gives us insight into the humans' greedy way to rule nature. 

I think the writer's main point in the poem is to tell the people that we are dominating the world in a way where we only sympathize for ourselves. If we continue treating the wildlife like we do today, we will soon lose our most important living source. We know from earlier experiences that if just one species becomes extinct, it will become a problem for the whole planet. Almost everything we eat, wear and much of the materials for our homes, we are getting from the animals. What do the animals get back? Nothing. We ruin their habitats with cutting down trees and build factories, power plants and roads, we use their fur for our clothes, and if you are lucky and are born as a dog, you may get food and a home to live in, but you will live as a prisoner for the dominating creatures called humans for the rest of your life. When such a well written poem with such a clear message was written by a 10 year old girl, maybe humans should start considering to change our lifestyle and think about the future.

The poet uses different techniques to make the poem interesting for the readers. One of the techniques is repetition. She uses phrases like " I thought I saw" over and over again, to make the point clearer for the readers. She also writes about the future, a time where there are no animals like hares and elephants. This gives the reader a stronger impression. The young talented poet ends her poem with:
"All these things - 
They could not be 
They all died out because of me"     


To sum up, I would say that the poem is very touching. Especially when it is written by a young girl. I also think should be a wake up call to every human. When such a young girl can write about pollution and overconsumption with these thoughts, I think it shows how big the problem all ready is. 

Arne Næss

The Wild Life


The wild life has  for a long time been a very discussed theme between the philosophers. Since the humans beginning we have used nature as our most important resource. Especially the animals. In some cases, they were not treated like living creatures. The experts fears also that some some creatures will disappear from the earth. This is because of the mass hunting of chosen animals. Many experts ask themselves "is this humanly right, have not all the creatures the same rights to live on the earth?" In the worst cases, we have seen on the news, that the clothing maker put animals in cages where they almost cannot move. A philosoph in Norway, called Arne Næss, has for a long time reflected and discussed Ecosofi. The Ecosofi means that we have to meet the needs of human in a way where we also have to stop up and think about the earth. It does not mean at we have to stop cut down trees or stop kills animals to get food. But just that each one of us have to contribut so we not throw paper and food in the same garbage or buy cheap cloth from China or other NEC countries. Small thing like that who does not  matter if you do it alone but if the hole world contribute it actually make sense and gives results.

PS: Økosofi er skrevet feil noe jeg er klar over :/

Of Mice and Men oppg 5

The book Of Mice and Men is about two friends closer than brothers, who travel together from farm to farm. The book starts with the main characters Lennie and George, walking through the forest to get to the ranch where they are going to work. In the forest we get to know the characters' personalities and their dreams. In the end of the book Lennie was shot at the same place where the book starts.

The book is written in the early 1930s, a period also called the Great Depression. The Great Depression was a time where the U.S. which many called the land of opportunity, was turned into an economic nightmare. In Of  Mice and Men we see the Great Depression from two close friends' perspectives. They have a dream of owning their own farm, where they could live and work. Many would call this dream " the American Dream".

The American Dream said that no matter if you are poor or rich you have the opportunity to be something. Many people were very critical to the American Dream. John Steinbeck was without a doubt one of them. In the book Of Mice and Men he tried to tell you that no matter how hard George and Lennie work they will never be anything more than two poor workers. In Norway we have two different literary writing forms, naturalism and realism. In Norway John Steinbeck would have been called a naturalist. The naturalistic authors believed that if you are born poor you will be poor for rest of your life.The realistic authors believed that all people are born equal and with the same chance to succeed. The message I think Steinbeck wanted to send is that no matter how hard two men like Lennie and George try to lift themselves up, they will never succeed, and die exactly the same way they were born.

Du lever i Øst-Tyskland under den kalde krigen. Du har en datter som skal begynne på universitetet. Hun har gode karakterer og alt ligger til rette for at hun skal komme inn på Universitetet i Berlin. Så sier imidlertid Stasi sier at du må bli informant for dem ellers vil ikke din datter få plassen på universitetet. Hvilket valg tar du?


Stasi Innformanter

Etter den 2.verdenskrig var det harde tider i Tyskland. De tre stormaktene: USA, England og Sovjetunionen som hadde blitt tvunget på lag for å bekjempe deres mektige fiende nazismen, ville ikke lenger sammarbeide. De tre lederne for stormaktene møttes på feriestedet Jalta for å diskutere landfordelingen av Tyskland. Siden Sovjetunionen hadde mistet flest menn var det ikke noe tvil om at de skulle få mesteparten av landområde. Så de kapitalistiske landene USA og England slo seg sammen og fikk den vestlige delen mens det kommunistiske Sovjetunionen tok den østelige delen. Natten til den 13. august 1969 satte DDR som var regjeringen i Øst-Tyskland opp en mur som skulle skille Øst og Vest. De satte opp muren på grunnlag av at befolkningen i den østlige delen ikke skulle rømme over vesten. Stasi som var politiet i øst Tyskland truet også store deler av befolkningen til å bli innformanter for staten. Her er et eksempel av hva slags problemstilling som kunne forekomme:

Tenk deg et politi som tvinger deg til å fortelle alt om din nabo eller familie. Hvis en tørker seg med en uvanelig type dopapir vil de vite det, hvis du ser på en annen tv-kanal enn vanlig vil de vite det, om du bruker en unormal tannkrem vil de vite det. De vil vite alt om deg. Et sånt politi truer meg. De sier at min datter ikke vil komme inn på univeritetet om jeg ikke blir informant for dem. Ikke bare det men når de ser at jeg ikke er sammarbeidsvillig vil de antagelig dra den mye lengere. Eller lengere, hvor mye lengere kan de dra det. Å nekte min datter universitetplass er noe av det verste som kan skje meg. Hun er det eneste barnet jeg har og tanken på at hun ikke vil få en framtid gjør meg trist. Hun har alltid vært flink på skolen, og alt har ligget til rette for hun. Jeg har flere valg jeg kan ta, men alle er nesten like vanskelige. Å innformere myndighetene om andres folk privatliv er nesten det laveste man kan synke, og jeg ser på det som rent forræderi. Jeg kunne informert Stasi om tom fakta, eller hva vet jeg om hva som er tom fakta. Jeg vet ikke en gang hva politiet vil komme til å bruke informasjonen til. Det kan også sette medmennesker i trøbbel og. Hvis en gang listene på hvem som hadde innformert hadde kommet ut ville jeg blitt utestengt fra familien. Siden jeg var et lite barn har min mamma lært meg og mine søsken om trofasthet, hvis jeg hadde begynt å innformere ville jeg sviktet dem alle. På en annen side er det sikkert mange andre som er i den samme possisjonen som meg, hvilket valg skal jeg ta. Hvis jeg bare hadde vist hvilket valg som var riktig. Jeg må tenke konsekvenser av valget mitt, hvis ingen hadde informert til Stasi kan folk stole på hverandre. Hvis jeg føler at å bli informant for Stasi er det rette valget må jeg også godta at hele befolkningen vil ha den samme holdningen. Ingen vil lenger kunne stole på hverandre. Da ville samfunnet i Øst-Tyskland bli enda mere svekket enn det det allerede er. Etter den muren ble satt opp har levekårene blitt mye verre. Jeg er veldig glad i datteren min, men jeg har ikke samvittighet til å se landet bli enda mer svekket.

Etter murens fall er det også gjort undersøkelser over hvor mange som egentlig var innformanter for Stasi. Et eksempel som vi hørte av reiselederen vår Lounc er: under den kalde krigen var det en kamerat gjeng på 12 stykker som hadde kjent hverandre siden de var små. De jobbet imot myndigheten og kommunismen i Tyskland. Etter den kalde krigen kunne mann se hvem som hadde vært innformant for Stasi, og da kom det fram at ni fra den kamerat gjengen hadde innformert til Stasi.

Kilder: http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlinmuren, Horisonter 10 kapittel 1 og Smfunnkunnskap Historie kapittel 4.


  Bilde er hentet fra Tyskern.blogg.no

The Falklands war

The Falklands war

On 4.may 1979 was the first female Prime Minister chosen in Great Britain. Her name was Margaret Thatcher. She changed the country from a conservative to a liberal public. She is known as the iron lady who played a major role in the economic revolution in England. She is also known as one of the persons who finished the cold war. But maybe the thing she is most known for is how she tackled the war of The Falkland Island, something you will hear more about in this presentation.

The Falkland Island is an archipelago, which lies south for the Atlantic sea. The Falklands Island belonged earlier to the Spanish people but after the Argentineans break out from the colonial power, it has been many disagreements of who want to take over the islands. The British controlled over it for many years but one day the Argentineans decided that they want theirs islands back. So all broke out with a great war between the Great Britain against Argentina. The 2. April 1982 attacked a force of 800 Argentineans soldiers the Island with a population of ca 1800. The little military army of 68 English soldier who was supposed to protect the Island just have to surrender them selves. The 3 April 1982 demanded UN that the Argentineans have to withdraw out from the Falkland. Leopaldo Galtieri the general to the Argentineans didn't accept the requirements. So Tatcher had to make them to leave with power. She sent an army of 2700 men with course straight to the Islands. It became a big war who lasted over two months. Eventually the British people won the war.  The war didnt solve any problem of which part the Islands actually belonged to but the Island is still in the British hands.

Sources: Falklandskrigen-Wikipedia,  Falklandskrigen-store norske leksikon og Falklandskrigen-Daria.no

Solnedgang

Solnedgang :)