In The Valley of Elah

The movie “In the Valley of Elah” is a movie about the old warrior Hank Deerfield who gets a call from the military that his son Mike, has gone missing from the base after returning from duty in Iraq. Hank drives to the military base in New Mexico to find out what has happened to his son. After a couple of days, the stabbed and dismembered body of his son is found not far from town. Hank gets good contact with the detective that works on his case and together, they try to find out what really happened with his son. Hank and the detective investigate and discover shocking things not only about Hank’s son, but also about the other men serving in Iraq and how they treated people who were suffering. In the end, it turns out that Mike’s three good friends from the base had gotten in to a fight with him and then killed him, without caring a lot about it. This is a movie that gives us an example of how mentally damaged you can get when you experience war, and how it gets you to that point where you no longer care about other people or their lives.  '

I really liked this movie. It was a lot of action and tension, but there were also some sad moments that made me connect with the movie. I thought it was really scary to see how war can affect soldiers and kind of dehumanize people. This is a movie I definitely would see again.

In Barack Obama’s acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize in Norway, he said “Still, we are at war, and I am responsible for the deployment of thousands of young Americans to battle in a distant land. Some will kill. Some will be killed”. In some ways, this quote is connected with this movie. We saw how the soldiers performed on duty in a distant land when nobody was there to see it. How they killed and hurt innocent people without even caring about the damage they had done. I would connect the quote mostly to Mike in the movie. He tortured and killed innocent people, and then he got killed. You could say that he got a taste of his own medicine. Barack Obama also said “The soldier’s courage and sacrifice is full of glory, expressing devotion to country, to cause and to comrades in arms”. I do agree with the President on this. It is a huge sacrifice to risk your life for your country when you know that you can die any minute. So I hope there are not many soldiers that are so affected by the war that they act like the guys in this movie. There are too many innocent people that die in war, and there is no need to do more harm in this world.

This movie has given me a picture of how dangerous it is to serve in the war in Iraq. I understand that when you come from a safe and protecting environment at home, war changes your life and your perspective of things. I don’t think that a lot of the young adults that choose to serve and fight for their country at war know what they are going to face. It is honorable to fight for your country, but there are very few men and women that come back from war as the same person they were before they left. Some get mentally damaged, some get physically damaged and some get so damaged that they don’t come back at all.

Nobel Peace Price Speech

In our previous session we studied President Barack Obama’s acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize in Norway. We saw a clip, read the speech and underlined different important things that the President mentioned. As our last homework before Christmas, we got these tasks about the speech to answer:

1.     What was the Marshall Plan?

The Marshall Plan was a plan that the United States had for rebuilding and creating a stronger economic foundation for the countries of Western Europe, and removing the threat of internal communism after World War II. The Plan was named after the Secretary of State; George Marshall, who also has received the Nobel Peace Prize.  

2.     Why is Obama humbled by this award?

Barack Obama is humbled by this award because he feels that he hasn’t accomplished anything worthy of this prize, but he views it as inspiration to accomplish his goals as President of the United States.

“I am both surprised and deeply humbled by the decision of the Nobel committee. I do not view it as a recognition of my own accomplishments but rather as an affirmation of American leadership on behalf of aspirations held by people in all nations.” – Barack Obama

3.     Who was Woodrow Wilson and why was he awarded the Nobel peace prize?

Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28^th President of the United States. He was awarded the Nobel peace prize in 1919 for his attempt to make peace after the First World War, with his fourteen points for peace.

4.     Who are some of the previous winners that he mentions?

In his speech he mentions former Nobel Prize winners like Albert Schweitzer and Nelson Mandela. Albert Schweitzer was a German-French theologian, musician, philosopher and physician. He received the prize in 1953 for his philosophy of “Reverence of Life”, and for founding the Albert Schweitzer Hospital in Lambaréné in west central Africa. Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela is a former President of South Africa. He received the Prize in 1993 together with Frederik Willem De Klerk for their work for the peaceful termination of the apartheid regime, and for laying the foundations for a new democratic South Africa.

5.     According to Obama, what is a just reason for war?

According to Obama, reasons for a “just war” is if it is waged as a last resort or in self-defense, if the forced used is proportional and if civilians are spared from violence.

6.     What are Obama’s 3 ways to avoid war and keep the peace?

Obama’s three ways to peace is to deal with those nations that break rules and laws, find out the nature of the peace that we seek and not only include civil and political right, but include economic security and opportunity. “For true peace is not just freedom from fear, but freedom from want.” – Barack Obama

7.     What “old architecture” is buckling?

When Obama says that the old architecture is buckling, he means that other countries are no longer afraid of the United States as a nuclear superpower. I think he means that USA has “let their guard down” without noticing it, and it has made them weaker to threats like terrorists and suicide bombers and this increases the risk of catastrophes.

8.     What does Obama mean by a “gradual evolution of human institutions”? Where is this quote from?

By “a gradual evolution of human institution” Obama means that war is at some level an expression of human feelings. This is a quote from one of President Kennedy’s former speeches.

9.      Why can’t Obama be guided by the example of King and Gandhi alone?

Obama can not be guided by the example of King and Gandhi alone because, and I quote; he faces the world as it is, and cannot stand idle in the face of threats to the American people.

Here is the first part of Barack Obama's Nobel Peace Prize Speech in Norway.

Preamble to the United States Constitution

"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

We had a lady named Lee Ann Potter visiting the class today and we learned about the preamble to the United States Constitution. It was really exiting and educational, because I didn't know a lot about it, but now I feel that I know a litle bit more. The preamble is a document that explains the constitutions purpose and underlying philosophy. The Preamble serves solely as an introduction and does not assign powers to the federal government, nor does it provide specific limitations on government action.
She also showed us this video from when she was young, and it is really catchy!
 Video for children about the Preamble

"Milk"

Last week we saw the movie "Milk" from 2008. This is an biographical film about the life of the politican Harvey Milk.He was the first gay man to be elected to public office in California. The Movie starts on Harvey Milk's 40th birthday. At this time he was living in New York City, and had not yet settled in San Francisco. It is a story about his way into city politics, and all of the battles he experiences in the Castro neighborhood and throughout the city. He leads political campaigns to limit the rights of gay people, and we also get an insight in his romantic and political relationships.

In class, we didn't get the time to see how the movie ends, but the part we did have time to see was very fascinating. It seemed like a good movie, even though I didn't see how it ended.

Elections in Britain

Politics is about winning power and using it to do what you think is right. To win an election, you must have a campagne where you use at least three weeks for campaigning and preparing for the election. Each loacal party has a candidate who are ready to fight against the other parties, and there are also some candidates that do not represent a party, but still attends. During the three-week campagne, the candidates do everything they can to persuade people to vote for them and their causes. Important debates between the party leaders takes place on television, but you are not allowed to pay for political advertising on radio and television, but it is allowed on the internett and on billboards. ¨

2001 - Terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and Pentagon

On September 11, 2001, out of that clear blue sky came a stunning attack. Islamic fundamentalists hijacked four commercial airliners and used them as missiles against the Pentagon and the World Trade Center. Almost 3000 people were killed and America's response was swift.

We have heard a lot about the World Trade Center when it comes to this tragedy, but what about Pentagon? Five al-Qaeda hijackers took control of Flight 77 and crashed it into the Pentagon at 9:37 a.m. 64 people on the airliner and 125 people in the building were killed. The plane severely damaged the structure of the building and caused a partial collapse. When they rebuilt the damaged section of the Pentagon, they also built a memorial and a chapel for the people who had died. Every year at September 11, they light one candle for each of the persons that died to honor their memory.

Ski Jumping - Traditional Sport in Norway

In Norway we have some traditional sports and one of them is Ski Jumping.The skiers go down an "inrun" ramp with a take-off in the end where they attempt to fly as long as they kan before they land. The skis they use for ski jumping are long and wide and a litle bit heavy.

This is of course a winter sport since you ski on snow, and is part of the Winter Olympic Games. You can also ski jump in the summer but then you have to perform on artificial surfaces like porcelain or have frost rail track on the inrun.

When the ski jumpers competes, they get points for distance and style. The Ski Flying World Record of 239 meters is held by Norwegian Bjørn Einar Romøren in 2005, and we are very proud of that.

“9/11 a day we will never forget, the story of the people”

We all know what happened 9/11 2001. On the morning of September 11th, 19 Al-Quaida terrorists hijacked four jet airliners. Two of the airliners were intentionally crashed into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, killing everybody on board and many others working in the buildings. The buildings collapsed within two hours. The third airliner was crashed into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. The fourth plane crashed into a field in Pennsylvania. There were no survivors from any of the flights. 2 993 people with each of their own history died from the attacks, leaving America in great sorrow and fear.

They say everybody remember what they were doing that day, and I do to. I remember going home from school, only 10 years old, and I had no clue on what had happened. When I came into the kitchen, my mom and dad was watching CNN and there it was. I could see the Twin Towers burning, and then one of them collapsed. I didn't quite understand what was going on and I remember my dad being very serious when he explained it to me, but I couldn't wrap my head around it. I didn't even know what a terrorist or the World Trade Center was. But I understood that something sad had happened.

A lot of things changed in USA after 9/11. People was now scared and didn't want to fly, and extreme security started checking everything at the airport. It also made racism presentable, making everybody causious. September 11 affected people in a personal way; the destruction of the city and the loss of thousands of people.

George Orwell

The English author Eric Arthur Blair, better known as George Orwell, was born 25 June 1903. He was born in Inida but was brought back to England by his parents when he was only one year old. He attended the school Henley before he went to Eton. Many of the teachers reported that his achievemnts at school was bad, though some said otherwise. Because of his familys inability to pay the fees, he was not able to go to the unviersity.

Orwell then went to Burma to join the police force, since his family had connections there. When he later returned to England after resigning from the police force, he started focusing on writing. His first novel "Burmese Days" was published in 1934, and he wrote the novel on the basis of his time in Burma.

He later took a job as a teacher in England, and since it was a small school, he could also use some of his time to focus on his writing. Through his life, he wrote a lot of novels and some books, including the one we have read in class "Down and Out in Paris and London". He was a heavy smoker and died 21 january 1950 in the early age of 46. Orwell made a huge influence on popular and political culture with the numerous literary concepts he left behind.

To Our Korean Friends!

Today we have our English Social Studies Class, and we are trying to make contact with you guys! We are told to tell you about the weather in Norway. It is Autumn now and it's starting to get very cold here and the winter is coming really soon I think!

We have four very different seasons here in Norway; Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn. Our winter is awfully cold and there is a lot of snow on the ground, just like you can see on the picture.

Our winter is very long, it almost lasts 6 months and it is really cold, so we have to wear warm clothes or else, we will get sick a lot. When the winter is over and the Spring leads us to the summertime, I get very happy because finally we can go to the beach and go swimming and things like that.

Which season is your favourite season, and how is it where you live?

The poetry of the great wars

During and after World War 1, soldiers wrote about their experiences and feelings in poems. A lot of them had died, but others such as Siegfried Sassoon had survived. Sassoon was sent to a hospital because of his poverful meanings about the war. That was their way of getting rid of him. There were problably not a lot of poetry of high quality from the German side, but it was the English poetry that made war poetry a genre with growing popular interest.
By the time of World War 2 the term "war poet" was very popular, and people often talked about them.

War poet by Wilfred Owen:

I have been urged by earnest violins
And drunk their mellow sorrows to the slake
Of all my sorrows and my thirsting sins.
My heart has beaten for a brave drum's sake.
Huge chords have wrought me mighty: I have hurled
Thuds of gods' thunder. And with old winds pondered
Over the curse of this chaotic world,-
With low lost winds that maundered as they wandered.

I have been gay with trivial fifes that laugh;
And songs more sweet than possible things are sweet;
And gongs, and oboes. Yet I guessed not half
Life's symphony till I had made hearts beat,
And touched Love's body into trembling cries,
And blown my love's lips into laughs and sighs.

Does it really matter?

Does it matter? - losing your legs?...
For people will always be kind,

And you need not show that you mind

When the others come in after hunting

To gobble their muffins and eggs.

Does it matter? - losing your sight?...

There’s such splendid work for the blind;

And people will always be kind,

As you sit on the terrace remembering

And turning your face to the light.

Do they matter? - those dreams from the pit?...

You can drink and forget and be glad,

And people won’t say that you’re mad;

For they’ll know you’ve fought for your country

And no one will worry a bit.

Questions:

g) What three effects of the war on a soldier does this poem tuch on?

h) It is often argued that that the two great wars were fought by working-class men on both sides and that the people they were fighting for, were often more the enemy than the people they were fighting against. Does this poem reflect this attitude?

i) This poem has enjoyed a bit of a revival of late. What reasons do you think there might be for its newfound popularity?

Answers by Kaja and Birgitte:

g) The three effects of the war on the soldier is loosing his leg, loosing his sight and bad dreams.

h) The poem reflects the attitude of question, because the people that are fighting, are fighting agains their own kind, but the people they are fighting for are from the upper class. We believe that they would rather fight with their own kind, than against them.

i) Because we look at the poem in a different way now, than people did before. During the war, they did not care for poems because of the war, but now we are very interested in how the war was and how people felt because it's history.

About Me

My name is Birgitte and I live in Asker (That's the looooovely place in the picture!). Yes, that was ironic. Asker is not as lovely as it may (or may not) look like. It is always something that is under construction, the bus is always late and there is a lot of creepy people hanging around Trekanten! But of course I love it here:-)

I go to Sandvika VGS and I like it a lot. This is my last year and I'm really looking forward to "Russetiden" (This is a time where we can get drunk and party constantly for 3 weeks, without any excuses). And that's a few words about me.