Saving Places - I Thought I Saw

We had a homework this week, it was in our English class. The task was to read a poem in our textbook, and then think about what we read, and elaborate it. I will start with writing down the poem. I don't own anything of this, it's all taken from the book we use in our English class, called Searching 10.

I thought I saw a fertile plain

Growing a crop of golden corn.

I thought I saw the sea again but -

It's probably just the light of dawn.

I thought I saw the proud elephant

Patrolling by the lake.

I thought I saw the boxing kangaroo but -

It must have been a mistake.

I thought I saw the mighty buffalo,

Stampeding through the forest.

I thought I saw a modest honey bee but -

It could not have been - I promise.

I thought I saw the arrogant kingfisher,

Flashing his red-orange chest.

I thought I saw a bounding hare but -

Maybe my eyes just need a rest.

All these things -

They could not be

They all died out because of me.      Hannah Tobin (10)

I think this is a good poem. What I think it is about, is that we humans are too greedy. We think way too much about ourselves, without thinking about the ones around us. The animals, the insects, the birds, the fish.. They matter, too. The author wrote that "they all died because of me". What I think she means about that, is that we destroy the animal's habitats, because we want more space and goods to ourselves. A lot of animals die because we cut trees from the forests, spill oil in the seas, and use their dead bodies on our own. We pollute the landscape and nature around us, killing both plants and animals.

This relates to Arne Næss's Deep Ecology, wich I wrote about in a previous post. We kill more animals than we need, just because we are so greedy. I think the author of the poem and Arne Næss have something in common;

They both want to open people's eyes, to make people understand that we have to think about other creatures than just ourselves. I think that the poem's author and Arne Næss have similar opinions about this. 

What the author of this poem did to bring out her message, was that she first brought out beauty in the landscape and in the animals. She said that "I thought I saw", and then a lot of animals or nature. This got me to actually think about the pretty world we live in, wich we normally just take for granted. Then, the author contraticted what she just wrote, with kind of taking the beauty away, saying that it don't exist anymore. That made me sad, and it also made me realize that everything doesn't last forever. All this beauty of the world may just dissappear, and that may be our fault. The human nature's fault. Because of our greed, creatures and plants die.

Take action, don't be too greedy! Think about the nature and the animals! ♥

I used no other sources than the Searching-book, and  my blog entry about Arne Næss.

This is where I found the photos.

Mississippi Burning

Some time ago, we saw a movie called "Mississippi Burning". We got some tasks at school, where you could choose one of them. I chose the first one. I was going to imagine that I was living in Mississippi in the 1960s, and write a Diary page. I imagined myself as a young, black boy. I chose this task because I thought it seemed interesting, and I wanted to try to see how it was for a black boy to live in a world filled with racism.


Dear Diary,
I am freezing. Not because of the temperature. Nor because I need better clothes. It's because of the world. This world is so cold, so full of hte. Many people on this planet hate me and my loving family. They think that we are different. Ugly. Dumb. That we stink. I know why they find me ugly. I think that they don't like black people. I am black, therefore must I be hated.

My family have never done anything to hurt anyone. We never did anything wrong against whites. I had a white best friend once. We used to meet and hang out in the park without his family knowing about it. One day, he wanted to take me home to his house, so I could meet his family. He told me he was sure it'll be okay. I can tell now that it sure wasn't.
We were peacefully playing in my friend's room, when his mother came home from work. She saw us playing together and started screaming.
"Get that animal out of here at once," she shouted.
She was threatening me. If I didn't leave the house immediately she would call the cops, she told me. I ran as fast as I could. All the way back home, I ran and ran. I haven't met my friend since that day. The last thing I can remember, is watching him cry as I left his house for the last time. That's my last memory of the very best friend I ever had.

Sadly, almost every white person I've met have the same opinion about blacks, as the mother of my former friend had. But not every white guy is like that. I remember something from earlier; I was walking, when I suddenly heard a man talking behind me.
"Look at that piece of crap," he said to his little daugther, his head pointing directly at me. His daughter said something like "That's not a piece of crap, Dad. He is just a young man."
I felt touched, and I got all teary. I became so happy because of her non-racist thoughts. I wanted to turn around and smile to her, and if this world was safer for me, I am sure I would have done that. I went to bed really glad that night.

I have some hopes and dreams for the future. They can come true, I do believe so. I wish that more people will start to think like my friend and the little girl. They couldn't see anything different about my family and I. We might not have the same skin colour as everyone else, but we are just as human. I believe we deserve the same rights.






All of the pictures are found at http://weheartit.com/

Pollution and Arne Næss' Deep Ecology

"How does what you read about wildlife and what you read about pollution (page 214) relate to Arne Ness’s deep ecology that you have worked with in RLE? Write a short blog where you reflect on this. Use Searching 10 and Horisonter 10 as sources." 

"Deep Ecology" is a phrase that Arne Næss, a norwegian philosopher, came up with. We have worked with him and his philosophy in RLE. In English, we have worked with Pollution. I'm going to write a short text about these to subjects, comparing them with eachother.



Arne Næss thinks that all creatures living on this earth should live in harmony. "Deep Ecology" is about lives. Every creature's life is worth something. Humans are too selfish. Deep Ecologists think that we have to adjust ourselves to the nature's needs as well, and don't just think about ourselves.
We get a lot from the nature. Houses can be made out of wood. Plants can give us food and other needs. But what about the animals' needs? Everything is a circle.
The rainforests, for instance, is threatened. We cut down trees, and it gets smaller and smaller. Humans erase the homes of many kinds of animals and insects, and a lot of these animals, and plants too, are extinc.
Animals are also threatened because we hunt. We want their body parts, their fur. We think it's pretty, and want to keep it. Therefore, we kill the animals. We kill the animals because we are so greedy - we want what we can get, whatever it takes.

Some endangered kinds of animals are the African elephants, buffalos, and the black rhinos. They can get extinct because of people killing them. We kill them to get their tusks and their horns. Arne Næss didn't want pople to kill animals if they don't need to, so this is not something he would've liked. The panda is also extinct.
It's easy for us to get food elsewhere. And we can use something else to replace the horns and tusks. They are not something we need, like water and meals.I think people need to understand the Deep Ecology, understand what Arne Næss wanted to say. Stop killing these animals. We do not need to. Slowly but steady, we are destroying the world. Everything is related - every kind of animal or insect, human or plant.

Alle går ikke mette til sengs..

..det er slettes ikke realitet at alle har  en seng å gå til, heller. Vær så snill, gjør det jeg nå skal be dere om. Det tar deg noen gå minutter, og du kan være veldig til hjelp for noen som trenger det. 
Alle har det ikke like bra som oss. Vi lever i overflod. Vi har virkelig ikke bruk for alt vi kjøper, spiser, bruker.. Her sitter vi og gomler i oss, mens i noen andre land finnes det mennesker som lengter etter bare en tørr brødskalk, eller en liten dråpe vann. Det er da lov å få litt dårlig samvittighet, og enda bedre er det om du prøver å hjelpe. Jeg skal legge ut et par linker. Jeg ber alle som titter innom bloggen min om å se på disse sidene. Gjør noe. Det har bare gode konsekvenser.

Det første jeg legger ut en link til, er en kort IQ-test. For hver person som tar den, får et barn et varmt måltid av en anonym donor som donerer til WFP (World Food Programme). Jeg legger ut linken til både denne siden og den neste, i slutten av innlegget.

Det andre jeg linker til, er noe av det samme. Jeg tror flere har hørt om denne siden, men vil likevel legge den ut så kanskje flere får den med seg. Du skal svare på noen spørsmål, og for hvert riktige svar, doneres 10 riskorn til WFP. Spørsmålene er på engelsk, men de er som regel veldig enkle. Dessuten er det bare å prøve igjen dersom du tar feil. Vær så snill, dette tar deg kun noen minutter.
Dessuten kan du øve engelsken din på denne måten. Det er flere nivåer, fra lv 1 til lv 60. Her kan du utvide ordforrådet ditt, og lære mange nye ord, samtidig som du gjør noe godt for et sultent menneske.

http://quiz.wfp.org/ - testen som resulterer i et varmt måltid.
http://freerice.com/#/english-vocabulary/1451 - siden hvor du svarer på spørsmål for riskorn.

Dette innlegget gjør jeg utenom skolen. Det er nok ikke mange som leser skolebloggen min, men jeg vil prøve å spre dette. Dessuten har vi om noe med dette på skolen, så jeg synes det passer inn likevel.

The Dreams And Hopes Of Mice And Men

In class, we've been reading "Of Mice And Men". The story is about George and Lennie, who travel around together searching for places to work for money. They get to work on a farm, and make both friends and enemies there. Even though it might be hard, they are doing their best to get some cash.

Now I'm going to write about how the hopes and dreams are important in the story, and to write about the dreams and hopes of two characters. I want to do this because it seems fun and interesting to work with. I'll focus on the future plans of the main characters, George and Lennie, starting with Lennie.

Lennie wants a nice place to live. In the story, George is telling Lennie about their future, where he imagines that they are living in a little house with some fields. They imagine that they'll have some animals, and Lennie is really looking forward to feeding their rabbits. "Tell about the rabbits, George!" is something you can hear Lennie shout a lot of times in the story.

George's dreams are not that different from Lennie's. He's the one who is telling Lennie about how they are going to live after they've worked up enough money. Therefore, I think George wants much the same as him;
Having a little ranch with a few pigs, chickens, a cow, and also the rabbits, taking care of themselves, and not just work on other farmer's ranches. In the story, we can also see him telling Lennie that if he lived without him, he could've had such an easy life.
"I could live so easily. I could work. Then at the end of the month I could take my fifty dollars to town and get whatever I want - food, drink, girls," George says. I think he wants to be free. He sure loves Lennie, but he also thinks that he would've been better off without him. It's like Lennie's pulling him down, setting limits. Not on purpose, of course, but he needs George to watch after him, se he can't fully focus on his job. I think he sometimes wants to be alone because of that.

As you can see, their dreams and hopes for a better future is not that different. In the story, it's around the year 1935. That's during the Great Depression. A lot of people just wanted some money and food, and a place to live. Lennie and George is two of those people. They want to save their future.

Sources;
- "Of Mice And Men", a book written by John Steinbeck
- A hand out our teacher gave us. She usen kids.britannia.com, wisegeek.com and kclibrary.lonestar.no
- Photos found here and here.





Fag: Engelsk

NYHETSVAKT - HELLASKRISEN

Jeg og Ingrid var nyhetsvakter for uke 44, oppgaven for dette kan du finne her. Er du interessert i å lese Ingrid sin blogg, finner du den her. Denne faktaen er derfor fra forrige uke, og en del kan ha skjedd siden da. Likevel - jeg skal skrive kort om det jeg presenterte om Hellas-krisen, dette er jo samfunnsrelatert, og er dermed viktig for samfunnsfaget (Historie, samfunnskunnskap og geografi - da mest samfunnskunnskap) på skolen. 


Hellas har hatt et dårlig system i flere år, og innbyggerne har ikke betalt så mye skatt. Dette har ført til at landet er veldig, veldig nær å gå konkurs. De har 380 millioner euro i gjeld, noe som tilsvarer 2,935,690,000 norske kroner. Hellas har lånt mye penger fra EU, men EU har mange krav som ikke alle grekere godtar, så alle er ikke fornøyde med dette.
Det er mange i Hellas som har mistet jobbene sine, deriblant ledere for marinen, hæren, flyvåpenet og generalstaben.

Det skal dannes ny samlingsregjering i Hellas. Statsministeren i Hellas, Giorgos Papandreou, har sagt at han ikke er interessert i å lede landets neste regjering. Han kommer derfor til å gå av etter at samlingsregjeringen er dannet.



Kilder;
- Nrk Nyheter
- Aftenposten
- Familie

Fag: Samfunnsfag, nyhetsvakt

Refleksjonsnotat

Heisann!
På skolen, rettere sagt i rle-en, har vi fått en problemstilling. Jeg vil svare på denne, og også legge til noen slags "nøkkelord" i slutten av teksten. Problemstillingen går som følger;
Du lever i Øst-Tyskland under den kalde krigen. Du har en datter som skal begynne på universitetet. Alt ligger til rette for at hun skal få begynne på universitetet i Berlin. Stasi sier du må bli informant, og hvis du ikke blir det, får hun ikke gå på universitetet. Hva gjør du?


Vel, da har jeg altså to valg - enten å bli informant, eller å ikke bli det.

Blir jeg informant, kommer datteren min inn på universitetet. Dette har jeg vel antakelig, som far/mor, veldig lyst til. Men hva annet vil skje? Jeg vil måtte si noe til Stasi. Jeg kan selvfølgelig si små, uinteressante ting som "Karlsen tok inn posten sin idag tidlig, som han som regel gjør. Klokka var da 09:30", "Torstensen hadde på seg en lyserød genser idag."
Jeg vil være forsiktig med hva jeg sier til Stasi - for alt jeg vet, kan bestevennen min også være informant. Sier jeg noe til Stasi om han, kan det hende han sladrer videre på meg. Jeg må tenke konsekvensetikk, jeg må tenke på hva som kan skje senere om jeg tar det valget jeg tar.

Blir jeg ikke informant, vil ikke datteren min komme inn på universitetet. Dette kan ødelegge fremtiden hennes, og jeg vil være ansvarlig for det. Jeg må tenke pliktetikk - i en slik situasjon, er jeg pliktig til å sikre min datter en god fremtid. Dersom jeg ikke blir informant, og dette gjør at hun ikke kommer inn på universitetet, er dette min feil. Dersom hun ikke kommer inn, og dermed får en dårligere jobb som godt voksen, er dette også min feil. Dette blir også ansvarsetikk - jeg må tenke på konsekvensene for min datter.

Jeg vil nok velge å bli informant. Da kan jeg, som skrevet lenger opp, si ting til Stasi som (forhåpentligvis ikke) vil få store konsekvenser for noen. Likevel kan datteren min komme inn på universitetet, og framtiden hennes vil være sikrere enn om hun ikke gjør det.

Nøkkelord;
- Informant, en person man får opplysninger fra. Stasi hadde mange informanter, og de fleste visste ikke hva informasjonen de kom med, ble brukt til.
- Stasi, det tidligere hemmelige politiet i Øst-Tyskland.
- Konsekvensetikk, å tenke på følgene av en handling.
- Pliktetikk, finne gode normer vi kan støtte oss på. Fokuserer på selve handlingen.
- Ansvarsetikk, tenke på konsekvensene for andre enn deg selv.

Kilder;
- http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stasi
- http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etikk
- http://snl.no/


bildet er funnet her
bildet er funnet her