Christmas

With this video from Youtube, I just want to wish you all a merry holiday! Enjoy yourself, relax, or as Ordnett+ says it, "unwind, loosen up, ease up/off, let up, slow down, de-stress, unbend, rest, repose, put one's feet up, take it easy, take time off, take time out, slack off, be at leisure, take one's leisure, take one's ease, laze, luxuriate, do nothing, sit back, lounge, loll, slump, flop, idle, loaf, enjoy oneself, amuse oneself, play, entertain oneself; informal let it all hang out, let one's hair down, unbutton, veg out; N. Amer. informal hang loose, stay loose, chill out, kick back." See you all on Monday 4 January!

Shut Down of Brussels

In a news article in CNN 23 November, Juliette Kayyem (National Security Analyst), discusses whether it is a good idea to close down a city or not when expecting a terror attack. Brussels has now been shut down for three days. Economically of course it is a disaster, but psychologically it is even worse because the population in a whole city is affected. The question is whether it will be possible to live normal lives when the city is opened up again? Even more important, has not the IS achieved one of their main goals when they manage to close down a capital city? A city that is also the home of the headquarters of the European Uninon, and a major center of economic affairs in Europe? As Kayyem says in her article, "Thus, shutting down a city is a tactic that should only be used in the rarest of circumstances, based on criteria that are known to the public and that are understood by those who implement them."(http://edition.cnn.com/2015/11/22/opinions/kayyem-belgium-lockdown/index.html?eref=rss_world)
Image retrieved from: http://images.scribblelive.com/2015/11/22/9f1e4653-9013-4c2e-a3a4-abcd09777e7b.jpg

Paris Shooting

So, it has happened again, some ignorant jihadists have killed an unknown amount of innocent people. And the murderers did the killings in the name of Allah. How can anyone believe that killing will be applauded by any God? Only the devil supports actions like that. You do not help your people by murdering innocent people who by coincidence were at the wrong place at the wrong time, you do the opposite! You make it a lot worse for Muslims to be accepted and trusted in our society. How can we live in peace and harmony the way we should when some people behave the way they have done tonight? It is a dark night in modern European history.

Racism

Racism can be defined as "the belief that all members of each race possess characteristics, abilities, or qualities specific to that race, especially so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races". Put in another way we could say "racism is prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior." (Ordnett+) The question is, how can any man or woman allege that s/he is superior to another human being? Unfortunately some people see it as their right to discriminate people who do not have the same cultural background as their own. Ethnocentrics is another word that could be used about the racists, and sadly they are found in all countries. Lately several reception centers for asylum seekers in Sweden have been burned down, and the newly elected mayor in Cologne in Germany, Henriette Reker, has been stabbed by a person who said he "disapproved of her liberal stance on refugees". Watch more here  and here.

A Year and No Trace

Last year September 43 students went missing in Mexico. Rumors say they were handed over to  drug gangs by the police and later murdered. Why? All the missing students were attending a teacher's college and trained to become teachers in the most remote and poor areas in Mexico. When attacked by the police the students were in buses on their way to raise money to their school. CNN says the reason they were attacked was their political stand, ie having CheGuevara as their idol. Watch this to learn more!

Iconic Photos

No doubt, media make a difference and sometimes even change people's opinion. We are grateful for these wakeup calls. Ordinary people, politicians and footballers all try to help. F.C.Bayern Munchen donates 9 million to projects aimed at refugees and Bob Geldorf opens several of his flats and houses to the people who have fled to Europe.

Welcome to a new school year which hopefully will bring lots of new opportunities and challenges. I will do my best to guide you along, and I invite you to contribute to discussions and to ask lots of questions. In the first lesson I will take you through the most important parts of my blog and we will discuss where to start in the curriculum.

Migrant Workers

Watch the shocking documentary about the world championship in football in Qatar! Also, listen to interviews with different migrant workers from Nepal.

The End to the American Dream?

msnbc - John Moore/Getty

According to msnbc and Amanda Sakuma, president Obama will have to wait another year before his Deferred Action for Parental Accountability (DAPA) and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), also called his executive action on immigration, will be implemented. In February 26 states, with Texas in the lead, brought Obama's plans to court, and by June both the district and appeals court have decided against the Obama administration. Obama is frustrated, but still convinced that his executive action to protect millions of undocumented immigrants will prevail before he is out of office. However, since these programs are an executive action and not a law, the next man or woman living in the White House can erase the action with a stroke of a pen. If the new president is a Democrat s/he will support Obama's plan; if s/he is a Republican on the other hand, there will be no more DAPA or DACA. According to a poll made by msnbc, "63% of all Republican voters view immigrants of all stripes as a burden who generally compete for jobs, housing and health care."Watch Changing America to put your finger on the American people's pulse on the issue.

The Crisis in the Mediterranian

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h63/Sterkoder/IMGP2266_zps1422834d.jpg

The Norwegian ship Siem Pilot has now reached the Mediterranian and is ready to rescue refugees. However, according to the Norwegian prime minister Erna Solberg, the ship is also going to control Schengen's borders. Thus, the personell on the ship are from the police and the army. So far this year, Italy has taken in more than 50,000 refugees, which is 10% more than at the same time last year. Read more in today's BT.

Foto: Helge Hansen / NTB scanpix

More about FIFA

Maybe Vladimir Putin has a point when he asks with what right the FBI investigates the corruption scandal in FIFA? Read this article and make up your mind!

Sports

Some claim that sports has nothing to do with politics. Unfortunately, the world has seen several times that the opposite is true. In 1936 Hitler used the games in Berlin to promote his Nazi politics, in 1972 in Munich 11 Israeli athletes were assasinated, and in 1980 more than 60 countries boykotted the games in Moscow due to the Russian intervention in Afgahnistan. However, there is more, nearly every Olympic game has shown some political aspect; read all about it in the Guardian . 

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01457/Steven_Gerrard_1457824i.jpg

Football is maybe the most enjoyed and practised sport in the world today, and thus it is also influential, ie what famous football players say and do is noticed worldwide by the upcoming generation as well as leaders and politicians. Consequently, when the players say they are not preoccupied with what their governing bodies (FIFA) do, they send an important message to the world, ie do what you want as long as we can play football. Corruption ruins democracy and should nowhere be accepted! Read more about the FIFA scandal in today's Guardian or the BBC.

Trafficking

Trafficking is today's slave trade - people are being exploited in order for the traffickers to gain profit. It is a global matter and concerns children, males and females alike. People are trafficked into domestic labor, bonded labor, child labor, donor donation, and or prostitution. Statistics are hard to find due to the fact that trafficking is illegal, but there are estimates saying that 30,000,000 people are enslaved in one way or another today.

The Guardian has several articles giving shocking facts about trafficking in different types of work, and if you think that this does not happen in your country, think twice. The sad thing is that people managing to escape from the traffickers have a hard time making the police believe in their story, and many are sent out of the country and back to the country they first entered in accordance with the Dublin Agreement. The question is whether this agreement helps the victims or not. In my opinion the answer is a clear NO. Thus, it is about time to reconsider the agreement. Is it fair to send people back to Italy, for instance, when we know how many people the country has rescued from drowning in the Medterranien and, consequently, have to take in every month?

Latest news says that kids prefer i-pads as playmates, Twitter and Facebook have helped win revolutions, and now Hilary Clinton is going to try to win the presidency by hiring Hanie Hannon, "Google's director of product management for civic innovation and social impact, to run her technology operations"(reuters.com 8April2015). Not a bad idea at all. Obviously, tec rules, and those not playing by these rules are no doubt losers.

@twephanie

Fantastic Achievement

Yesterday, 8 March, women all over the world stood up for their rights. Great! Even more great are those who take small steps every day, because those steps are the ones that really count in the long run. Today, I want to applaud and praise one woman that has worked hard for many years to achieve what she managed yesterday, ie to become world champion in dogsledging! http://tv.nrk.no/serie/finnmarksloepet/MSPO30120215/08-03-2015 go to 2:02 and you will meet Anette Hernes Børven who is a student here at Øystese gymnas! Congratulations!

In-depth work

Imagine being given the opportunity to study closely a topic that really interests you... Imagine being able to spend several weeks just digging deep into the material... Imagine being asked to publish your findings... and even being mentored on how to write... Would you grab the opportunity? Luckily, thousands of students do!

Global Recovery or Still Recession?

businesscartoonshop.com

Just having answered the question whether the global economic recession has ended or not, this page is where you should go to find out what experts, ie the IMF’s chief economist Olivier Blanchard  and BBC’s economics correspondent Andrew Walker have to say about the matter. Briefly summed up, they expect a decline in growth everywhere, including China. Still, a slight growth (1.2%) is expected in the Eurozone this year. Read more to find out what the experts estimate will happen in 2016, or watch this.

Should freedom of speech not be absolute in a liberal democracy? Should disagreement not come to the surface and be discussed openly? If not, who is to say what is right and wrong? In my opinion we have to stand up for the freedom of speech in order to save our liberal democracy. Charlie Hebdo said, "it's better to die standing up, than living on your knees." I totally agree, and I repeat what Malala has said "The pen is mightier than the sword" or as Charlie Hebdo said, "Parce que le crayon sera tojours au dessus de la barbarie." People killing in the name of God are neither Christians nor Muslims, they are barbarians. Listen to this debate.