After over sleeping, falling over while running to the bus stop, waiting an hour in ten minus for several buses that never came I decided to walk back home before my horrible karma could ruin even more this Tuesday morning. The absence registration system even works in a stupid way which makes it more beneficial for a student to take a day than 3 hours off.
So today, I have primarily been working on my senior project. As mentioned earlier I am writing a senior project on Obama’s foreign policies, USA’s political role internationally with emphasis on Obama’s status as a world leader. I have studied which ideologies and ideas are behind the Obama administration’s foreign strategies. I have found out quite a lot and it amazes me what you can find out through Wikipedia. (Although you have to be critical as anyone can publish his or her article there) I have found material in which I can use to compare the basic ideas behind Bush’s and Obama’s foreign policies. Additionally I have made a disposition of my senior project article. This will make it a lot easier to put the whole text together at the end.
I am very much looking forward to see what I can learn from such a project and I am working eagerly as this is a topic that interests me :)
Currently I am reading the well-known novel The Catcher in the Rye. It is the only novel written by author J.D Salinger and it was published in 1951. More than 65 million samples have been sold and the book has been translated to nearly every language in the world. The plot is about an American teenage boy who goes to New York after being expelled from his school, Pencey Prep. Seeing how famous this book is I was and still am curious about it. Wanting to read The Catcher in the Rye rather than The Road (which were our other option) I started a few weeks ago and have now read 13 chapters.
To be honest, I am a bit disappointed. I have read nearly half of the book already and it has not really given me anything yet, not even the wish to carry on reading. I will finish it, however. Salinger is good at making his characters appear very much alive compared to former books I have read. We get to know the main character, Holden Caulfield, easily and suddenly it feels like we already know him. However, I do not identify with him at all. Normally I find it easy to empathise with the fictional characters but not this time. This is merely my fault though, and not about the quality of the book. To say that I am exited to continue my reading would be an exaggeration. Still, there are loads of chapters to be read. Perhaps the next few of them will catch a bit more of my interest.
Previous lesson we watched a documentary called “Right America: feeling wronged – some voices from the campaign trail.” Alexandra Pelosi, the film maker, took a road trip around the USA prior to the presidential election to interview some of the conservative voters. In Europe Obama is looked upon as a hero and world leader. We easily take it for granted that he is likewise popular in the USA. However, this is not the case, according to Pelosi’s documentary.
58 million Americans voted for John McCain during the election 4th of November 2008. In “Right America: feeling wronged” we learn that some of the republican voters had a stronger opinion behind their vote than others. They have several reasons for rejecting Obama and some of them appear extremely engaged in the election. As it was a matter of life and death. Republican voters even cry and claim that Obama as a president will mean WW3. It is therefore important to take account of the fact that this documentary only shows the extreme “NObamaism.”
Many of the conservative voters are quite religious. They do not support homosexuality or abortion and believe Obama’s views on these topics are too liberal. Some quotes from the documentary are: “I hope there are enough Christians in the world to save us” and “We need a pro-life who is for the unborn”
It seems like the anti-Obama voters mostly represent people living in the country. In the documentary, they claim that Obama does not represent the average American at all. Obama attended prestigious schools such as Harvard University and has lived his whole life as a city boy in Chicago. People living in the country have the general opinion that Obama cannot rule USA when he does not know the what they claim to be “the real Americans.”
It is also a strong belief that Obama is an enemy among owners of small businesses. Obama’s fiscal policies involve levying higher taxes on the owners of small businesses. This is a part of the new health plan. A strong opinion throughout the documentary is that this will ruin many of the smaller businesses.
Objections to Obama as a president also involve the view that Obama’s foreign policies will not protect the USA properly. The conservative voters in the documentary claim that Obama’s role as a democratic world leader will weaken his emphasis to protect the American people from the threat of terror.
Personally, this documentary surprised me a bit. Obviously, there has to be millions of people who do not adore Obama to bits. Still I had never thought that there were this many people who object Obama to that extreme extent. T-shirts, anti-Obama songs, and massive petitions and demonstrations were held. There are also web pages such as http://www.hellnobama.com/, http://nobama.com/ and http://www.nobama.tv/ in existence.
I do not know whether this extreme protestation is unique in terms of dissenting presidents. However, I do believe all president candidates meet severe resistance, though in different areas and groups of people.
If you want, you can watch the whole documentary here:
This term I am going to write a senior project on America's foreign policies and Obama's role as a world leader. I will be studying how Obamas' foreign policies are different to those of former presidents. The American foreign policies and international role today will be also covered. I will also take a closer look at how Obama is more of a world leader than just a leader of the US.
This term I am planning to study really hard. As well as completing a vaster amount of the assignments we get I wish to learn as much as possible in order to be prepared for an exam. I will read my homework well and do my written work thoroughly.
A few lessons before Christmas we watched a film called “The Valley of Elah” which tackles a bunch of social issue as well as the other films we have previously watched. It is directed by Paul Haggis and the cast consists of famous actors such as Tommy Lee Jones, Charlize Theron and Susan Sarandon. The plot spins around the story of a father who gets the terrible message that his son is missing after just having returned from the war in Iraq. He cannot resist from interfering the investigation when he discovers the sloppy work the police investigators do. With his help and interpretations of the evidences, they conclude that he was killed innocently by a friend of his who is also a soldier. His body was found burnt and slaughtered to pieces. His death was a result of a post-traumatic co-soldier’s anger.
The film also tackles discrimination at work. The police woman, who investigates the case with the dead soldier, is being harassed by her male colleagues. She has a profession which is dominated by men. Still she is tough and tells them off when they do not act professionally. The film is about family relations as well. The importance of family and strong bonds between divorcees are emphasized.
I definitely enjoyed this film a lot! In addition to being entertaining it is frightening to face that what is being tackled in “The Valley of Elah” are realities of today. I think it was good to see a film which challenges our conception of how honest the work of the police is. Additionally we get to see how it is like for parents to lose their son and how your work life can suddenly take a step into your private life. I definitely recommend “The Valley of Elah.”
This lesson had the privilege of having an American visitor. Her name is Leann and she told us about the American Constitution. I was really impressed by what she taught us and the handouts and funny artworks she used to make us engaged. For instance, she made us read the constitution written on license plates for cars. (Try and read on the image above)It was also interesting to listen to a native English speaker, as her English is closer to how we aim to speak than our English, which is more or less influenced by Norwegian. We focused merely on the preamble, the first part of the constitution. It consists of as little as 52! Here it is:
"We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice and ensure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, ensure the blessings of liberty and our posterity, establish this constitution for the United States of America."
It is difficult to see what the content of the constitution really is because the meaning behind it is compressed into short sentences. Today we saw what each line of the preamble stands for and what history lies behind them:
“We the people of the United States” - Americans is a proud people and with this they want to ratify their unity. “in order to form a more perfect union” -Prior to the constitution the Articles of confederation held America together as a state. The five commissioners who wrote the constitution were only supposed to improve this confederation. Nevertheless they wrote a new American constitution.
“establish justice and ensure domestic tranquillity” - There shall be tolerance amongst people to provide justice and people shall feel calm and safe in their homes. “provide for the common defence” - The United States of America shall have an army to protect the nation.
“promote the general welfare” - The goal must always be to better the everyday life of the American citizens.
“ensure the blessings of liberty and our posterity” - Take care of our freedom and bear in mind the America which is to be delivered to our children. “establish this constitution for the United States of America.” - This speaks for itself. However, the fact that the American constitution is the eldest constitution still in use today is quite interesting!
Previous lesson we watched the American biographic film ”Harvey Milk.” (You may watch the trailer here!)The film is about a man by the same name who fought for the rights of the gay in America in the 60s and 70s. Early in the film, Harvey Milk and his boyfriend Scott Smith move to San Francisco, which is the only city in the US where gays can be more or less open about their sexuality. They buy a shop in which they in addition to running a business in engage homosexuals in different campaigns. In line of other accomplishments, the gays manage to boycott the beer label Coors and the gays are hired to do other types of campaigning as well. As the gays manage to get their voice heard through leading boycotts Milk realises he can expand his little gay community. He wants the acceptance for homosexuals to sweep the nation. As persistent as he is, he starts with the Castro Street where his shop is. He runs to for an election to be a supervisor for his constituency. His well-known statement: “It’s not just about winning” was important, as he did not win until the third time he ran for an election. Harvey Milk became a supervisor of San Francisco in 1977 and showed the US that homosexuals are well capable of running politics.
I have watched “Harvey Milk” twice and I really like this film. It shows us how it is possible to make a difference. As opposed to other films, “Harvey Milk” emphasises the difficulties and antagonism of trying to reach out in politics. This makes the film different to former films I have watched about making a difference. For Harvey Milk it was a long way to political importance but his activism never faded. This film can definitely be an inspiration and encourage people who wish to spread their opinion. Harvey Milk put down a lot of work and effort to reach the success he finally had which paid off for so many people other than himself. In my opinion, the most important message in “Harvey Milk” is that the people are the ones with the power to reform a society. You cannot expect the government to be rational. If you as a part of a minority feel as if you are treated unfairly, YOU are the person who has to do something!
This student blog is created as a part of the English Social Studies course I am taking at Sandvika College. It has purpose of containing entries related to films we watch, relevant news topics and what we work with during lessons.
