Grand Torino

3. What are some of the challenges and pressures Thao and Sue have to deal with as second-generation immigrants?

Growing up as the child of parents who immigrated to the United States can be a challenging experience. Parents often put intense pressure on their children to succeed in the United States, which many see as a land of opportunity compared to the country they left behind. Those same parents may know only fragmentary English while their offspring quickly become fluent, forcing the children to take on grown-up responsibilities when the parents need to interact with the world outside the family.

2. How do we see oppression of the Hmong people in this film? What has the film taught you about the Hmong people in the USA?

Despite the warm reception the film is receiving among many in the Hmong community, the depictions of the Hmong characters in “Gran Torino” are closely aligned with stereotypical representations of Asian Americans.  Sue and Thao Lor, part of the family that live next door to Kowalski and most of the members of the Hmong characters in the film, are depicted as people who are unable to care for and protect themselves and thus desperately need Kowalski’s intervention.

 

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is one of the 54 states of the African continent. Africa is the world’s second-largest and second most-populous continent after Asia. South Africa is located at the southern tip of Africa and is the 25th-largest country in the world. South Africa has eleven official languages. According to the 2001 National Census, the three most-widely spoken first languages are Zulu, Xhosa and Afrikaans. Though English has a large role in public and commercial life, it is nevertheless only the fifth most-widely spoken language. It was greatly accepted when the British colony was created to replace the Dutch colonization in the 18-hundreds. British colonists first introduced English to the South African region in 1795, when they established a military holding operation at the Cape Colony. The first major influx of English speakers arrived in 1820. About 5000 British settlers, mostly rural or working class, settled in the eastern Cape. Several South African English varieties have emerged, accompanied by varying levels of perceived social prestige. The most widespread varieties of english in South Africa is White South African English, Black South African English and Indian South English.

 

Long walk to freedom is a  autobiography about Nelson Mandela, written by Nelson Mandela. The self biography tells the story of Mandela’s life, from his upbringing on the countryside in Mvezo to his presidential candidacy from 1994 to 1999. The book also describes his 27 years in prison and fight against l’apartheid and racial discrimination. I believe the message of the book is the path to peaceful transition “From arms to education” and he is well known for his quote “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”. Since this is an autobiography, the author is Nelson Mandela himself. He was as said born in the countryside in Mvezo in 1918. He was the first black president in South Africa. Nelson mandela got the Nobel Peace Prize alongside Willem Klerk in 1993 for his work for the peaceful termination of the apartheid regime, and for laying the foundations for a new democratic South Africa. He died in december 2013 at age 95.

South Africa part of collateral damage from US-China trade war

 

South Africa may be almost 12 000 kilometers from Beijing and even further away from Washington DC, but is still affected by the US-China trade war.

 

Flaring US-China tensions over trade came to a head this month, when talks between the two superpowers fell apart. US President Donald Trump has since raised tariffs on Chinese goods and put restrictions on for example telecommunications giant Huawei, with a solution to the impasse seemingly far off. These tariffs will not only frame The US and China. These will affect the whole world economy, including South Africa. Since the two superpowers are the two largest economies, this was not to be avoided, however there is hope for a solution in the near future. The dispute between the US and China will also worsen negative sentiment around equity prices, which the insurer needs to boost the value of its assets, Chief Executive Officer David Munro said in an interview at Bloomberg’s offices in Johannesburg. «We are battling a little bit of headwind with the U.S.-China trade war,” Munro said. “The extent to which equity markets rally increases our assets under management and assets that we administer in pension funds. The whole business is geared toward equity market performance»

 

Spotlight movie

In the story told by the film, what is the main conflict and how is it resolved?

Based on actual events, the movie adaptation follows journalists from the Boston Globe, within an investigate unit with the name “Spotlight”, as they reveal one of the biggest scandals of the twenty-first century, the cover up of systematic abuse of children by priests; and go up against one of the most powerful institutions in the world, the Catholic Church. By giving a voice and a platform for the victims, and by meticulously researching the story, the film provides a clear and strong argument for the continued court protection of one of the United States’ founding principles: freedom of the press.

 

Describe an aspect of the film that showed you something you hadn’t seen before, caused you to think in a new way, or helped you understand something more thoroughly than before. In addition, describe how it changed your thinking.

After watching the movie, I stated to wonder how far institutions will go to protect themselves, about who we listen to and protect, about who and what we ignore, about the power of disclosure and even conversation. The movie showed me that the institutions you may think of as safe and reliable, can turn up to me the opposite. Unfortunately, the system can easily be disturbed by, for instance, bribes and such things.

Compare book and film – The kite Runner

In this text I will compare the book The kite runner with the film. The kite runner was written by Khaled Hosseini and was published in 2003.

I preferred the book over the film because, when watching the film I noticed that the differences between the film and book were quite big. For instance, the book contains a richer content compared to the film. In addition to that, each situation has a greater degree of detailed depictions than in the movie. The film excludes several events and chapters from the book. I also recognized several quotes from the book, which were just as they were written in the book. It was interesting to recognize situations and sayings from the book.

The book contains a lot of details that the film has not included. I believe that the book almost contains too many descriptions compared to the book. The reason being, that all of the descriptions may cause you to get a bit lost in the book. The message in the story can sort of drown in all the pages filled with description. The movie is entertaining, and you get the powerful message without all the “unnecessary” situation portrayals.

On of the biggest differences ,and most important, happenings in the book was Sohrab’s suicide attempt. We thought is was weird that the film did not include this scene given that it was such an important one. This is just one

To sum up, the book and the film were very different. In general we would say that the book was a lot more detailed than the book and contained a lot more detailed descriptions than the film. I thought the film was very general compared to the film and was not nearly as good as the book.

• Thea, Vendela and Magnus

Characters in “The kite runner”

So far, I have read eight chapter. I really enjoy the book! Still, it was a bit complicated in the beginning due to the characters. I found it a bit confusing to understand the relation between the characters. But when I figured it out I started to understand everything that happen. That’s when I started to really enjoy reading The kite runner. In this blogpost I will write a little about each character, and how they are related to each other.

The main character is Amir. When he is a grown-up he lives in san Francisco in the USA. He is telling about is childhood in Kabul in Afghanistan in the book. Amir is the son of the rich man Baba. Their relationship is not that good. Baba don’t give Amir the attention and love that Amir wants and need. Still, he is not a bad father.

Amirloved to read and write and had started to write his own stories. Baba, his father, did not want to read the story and that made Amir sad. Instead, Baba’s friend Rahimread the story and told Amir that it was very good, and that he could become a writer. It may seem that Rahim took the father role this time, instead of Baba himself.

Amir is a smart boy who loves to write, read and learn at school. He is kind but like to get attention and be a little smarter and show that he is a bit “better” then Hassan. He also stands up for Hassan when he needs to. Which I believe shows that he is brave and good hearted. 

Baba seems generous and like to give great gifts to Amir and Hassan’s birthday. He treats the two boys equally, or can favor Hassan, which Amir don’t like. Since he houses Ali and Hassan, I believe he is kind and respectful. Baba is also a rich man. 

Baba grew up with Ali. Ali’s parents died when he was younger. Therefore, he moved in with Baba’s family. Ali was poor. When he got older he starts to work for Baba and got to live with him. Later he got a child. This child is Hassanand is the same age as Amir. All four of them grew up together.

Hassan don’t go to school as Amir do, because he and Ali are born as another ethnic group, and therefore are not allowed, or don’t have the money to attend school. Hassan and Ali stay at home at baba’s house and work there with cleaning and such things. Hassan is a great runner, he was the one that catch the last kite under the kite race.  He also loves to learn from Amir and listen to his stories.

Hassan and Amir’s relationship are good. Still, Amir often have the need to show Hassan that he is better then Hassan. He can also get jealous when Hassan get more attention from Baba. On the other hand, Amir always stand up for Hassan, like a brother. He also wants to educate Hassan and teach him things from school.

Both their mother is gone. Amir’s mother died, while Hassan’s mother left them.

Assef is a kid who bully Amir and Hassan. Assef has two friends Wali and Kamal who is always with him.

Maharram Durrani

Maharram Durrani was working as an journalist in Kabul. She was one of nine journalists killed by a suicide bomb while making her way to work in Kabul. The bomb was a deliberate attack on journalists.

The journalist wanted to give us facts and express the situation in counties like Kabul. She wanted to use her voice. I believe that some people in Kabul felt threatened. It make me sad to think of that a girl which only wanted to share the news get killed. She was innocent.

 

 

CHALLENGES AND BENEFITS OF LIVING IN A FOREIGN CULTURE AND A MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY “Brick Lane” movie

In this blogpost I will discuss challenges and benefits of living in a multicultural sociality. Today it is more common to travel, move to new cities or countries and experience the whole world, than it was decades ago. I believe that the main cause of this is that the cost of traveling has decreased, which would give more people the opportunity to travel. While moving to new places and cultures have several benefits, it can also bring a lot of challenges.

 

First of all, I would say living in a multicultural society can be a challenge. An example of this came to light in the movie «Brick Lane», which we saw last week. The movie was about a family from Bangladesh who currently lived in London, England. We were shown how the main characters, Nazeen and her husband, struggled to find their place in the community, while their two girls found it easier to adjust to the British culture. One of the larger differences between the parents and their children was the language barrier. The two daughters could speak English fluently, while the parents struggled with the language. I believe that a new language can be a challenge when you move to another country. To be able to communicate is very important, which is why I think it is important to learn the new language. I believe it would help in speeding up the process of adapting to the new country and culture, even though they lived in a multicultural society with many people who spoke their own language.

 

Another big challenge can be the differences in culture. The different traditions, norms, rules and new people can be difficult for many. The things that are normal in your culture, may be rude or disrespectful in other cultures. Therefor I think it is important to be patient, tolerant and understanding of people’s differences. This is important in a multicultural society. We live in a world of different cultures and this will be a factor in influencing how people behave. For instance, in the movie «Brick Lane», we saw that many people experienced racism.

 

In the movie, Nazeen really missed Bangladesh and her family there. She didn’t have the opportunity to travel back or visit, so this made her feel lonely, or just homesick.

 

It can also be hard to know who to trust and who to get to know when you move to a new country. If you get desperate enough to get to know someone in the community, you can easily end up with the wrong people. Maybe this is why Nazeem’s husband got tricked for money by another woman.

 

Despite all the challenges of living in a foreign culture or in a multicultural society, there are also many benefits. One of them being that you are contributing to making the people around the world more understanding of each other. Living in a multicultural society will most likely help you learn a lot about new people, their traditions and language. Each culture has its own beauty.

 

Another benefit could be that you will develop yourself as a person. Nazeem experienced a big personal change when she accepted that England was going to be her new home. She stopped spending all her time on missing Bangladesh, and instead she started to spend time outside and explore even more about the British culture. This made her happier, and suddenly she felt that she belonged in London.

While living in a foreign country you might also develop a global network of contacts. Nazeem’s husband worked in London, but moved back to Bangladesh at the end of the movie, without Nazeem and their girls. So now he has contacts both in Europe and in Asia.

 

To sum up, I would say that living in a multicultural society or in a foreign culture, gives both challenges and benefits. It may lead to racism, homesickness, loneliness and communication problems. But it can also make the world more tolerant. By living in a foreign culture, you might learn a new language and you will most likely get to know a lot of new people, gain new traditions and of course, experience totally new cultures.

 

 

International day

 

I started the day with listening to a speech. The speech was hold by a woman who is an expert of the conflict between Palestine and Israel. She had an informative speech with her own stories and experiences with this conflict. I found her speech very interesting because she was very passionate about the topic. The fact that she told several of her own stories made the speech much more interesting for me.

 

Sooner I went to some of the classrooms to listen to some of the refugee’s stories. They told their story about how and why they left their home country, due to war or danger. I thought their stories were very powerful and interesting. It seems like they all have been very lucky, because they came to Norway and they all were, more or less, integrated in the Norwegian culture. One of them had a job as a teacher here in Norway, while another girl was studying at school. It made me feel happy listening to their stories of how they were able to get another life. At the same time, their stories of the condition in their home country made an impression on me.

 

To sum up, this day was an interesting and informative day. I am looking forward to next year and what the next OD – project will be.

GIRL RISING

Today we have seen the movie girl rising. It is a documentary about nine girls from all around the world, which struggle to get an education and achieve their dreams. They live in poor areas, often struggle to make money for such as food or a house.

The story that made the greatest impressions on me was Wadley’s story. She is a seven-year-old girl from Haiti. In the documentary we saw how she love attending school. She was a dedicated and bright student. Unfortunately, her mother could not afford school for Wadley any longer. Wadley had to help her mother at home, like washing clothes and cutlery or to get water. She had dreams about returning back to school and to be educated. One day she started to go back to the school, even though they did not have any money. The teacher ordered her to leave the school since they haven’t payed. Even thought she was not welcome at their school Wadley did not gave up and kept coming back every day. Finally, one day the teacher gave up and let Wadley stay at school to learn, although they had no money. Wadley got really happy, now she could finally start educating herself and stay in school.

“Impossible things seem possible” quote – Wadley.

Her story made such a great impression on me because of her vitality. Even though her conditions and circumstances were primitive and not good, she found a way to keep dreaming and always reach for her dreams. She was an extremally brave and bright girl who stood up for herself and her dreams. With these qualities she showed that a brave and strong girl can reach a long way in life.

I believe that the phrase “One girl with courage is a revolution”, imply that it is important that girls all around the world knows that they are worth living the same life as men. They can get educated, get a job and earn money themselves. That girls who have the courage to stand up for their rights can change the world, and get more girls educated. I believe that the girls of Girls Rising are role models for many girls.

It is difficult to understand exactly how difficult the circumstances are for these girls, especially for us who live in such a privileged country. Still, these girls show courage, possibility and boldness, which did not make me feel sorry for them. I rather become more impressed over how strong and powerful these young girls were, instead of thinking that that they had no future and felt sorry for them. I believe that this was a result of their ability to tell their story and stay positive and have the dream of changing the world for girls and themselves.

I think that the message of the film which will resonate most strongly with people who are not already familiar with this issue is the fact that they really want to attend school. And that their biggest dream is to get educated. The problem is that they can’t, either they don’t have the money, or they are not allowed. I also think that the documentary shows how important education is, both for girls and boys. I believe that to solve many of the worlds problem and to achieve gender equality, girls have to get the opportunity to get educated.

• Thea

 

Quality Education and Gender Equality

I believe that education is the key to a society that can move forward, handle conflicts and develop an efficient board and laws. Furthermore, racism is often a consequent of lack of knowledge, of a particularly religion or culture. If more people in the world got educated, I believe that we could avoid a lot of these issues.

Education is also important if we want to have gender equality. If a society only relay on traditions, where the woman is staying home and raising kids, they won´t learn that a society works best with gender equality. Where both men and woman can educate, work and vote. It is very important that girls also get educated and are allowed to vote, so we can hear both genders opinions in decisions we are taking in a society.

I would like to work with these goals by watching documentary about girls and education, and how education can effect a society.