Obama and the Nobel Peace Prize.

In 2009, President Barrack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in Norway.


1. What was the Marshall Plan?
This was a plan named after its inventor Secretary of State George Marshall, who was a fellow Nobel Peace prize winner. The plans intention was to create a stronger economic foundation of the Western Europe. In addition to rebuilt and remove the threat of internal communism after the Second World War.
2. Why is Obama humbled by this award?
Barack Obama said he did not deserve the award because of the lack of achievement. He was humbled for receiving it, and he felt he had not accomplished anything yet worthy of the prize. However, it was an inspiration to him for attaining his future goals.
3. Who was Woodrow Wilson and why was he awarded the Nobel peace prize?
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th 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?
Some of the previous Nobel Peace Prize winners Obama mentions in his speech are Nelson Mandela, Albert Scweitzer, Martin Luther King Jr. They all accomplished a great deal with their work on achieving world peace.
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?
The three ways that Obama believes will avoid war and keep the peace are as follows: Deal with those nations which breaks the 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.
7. What “old architecture” is buckling?
“The old architecture is buckling” is said by Obama in the speech and what he means by that is that the other countries are no longer afraid of the United States as a nuclear superpower. The US have become weaker by the years and their threats against them have increased.
8. What does Obama mean by a “gradual evolution of human institutions”? Where is this quote from?
This quote is taken from one of the speeches of former President John F. Kennedy. Obama uses this quote by explaining how war can at some level be the human kind’s way of expressing feelings.
9. Why can’t Obama be guided by the example of King and Gandhi alone?
He cannot fight the war alone, and he says that he faces the world as it is and he cannot stand idle in the face of the threats to the American people.

Senior project.

As my senior project I have decided I would like to work with post war syndrome. Mainly because I find the particular subject the most interesting, due to the fact that I’m given the chance to focus on psychology as well. Why is it that so many soldiers are affected with post war syndrome due to experiences during war?

The after affect of war and the personal struggle so many soldiers go trough after war is something that has been kept concealed for a long time. Post war syndrome is something I believe have not gotten nearly enough attention, because the actual war has been the main focus.

In the Valley og Elah - A film generally about post war syndrome, and how some people react to it.

[Still working on this...]

Milk (2009).

(Left: Sean Penn. Right: Harvey Milk)


“Milk” (2009) is a biographical film about the first openly gay politician to become a member of San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Harvey Milk, and his life as a lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights activist (LGBT).

The plot takes us back to the seventies, more precisely 1977, when Harvey Milk (Sean Penn) was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Being the first openly gay man to be voted into public office in America, Milk did not only make a huge impact on gay rights, but did as well for human rights in general. The film follows Milk in both his political and personal life, where we are introduced to characters such as Milk's significant other, Scott Smith (James Franco), the young activist Cleve Jones (Emile Hirsch) and Dan White (Josh Brolin), only to mention a few.



Harvey Milk's fight against discrimination, made him a hero across the U.S.A, until his unfortunate death in 1978, in which he became assassinated.

The film tells a powerful story about a huge part of American history, if not also history world wide. About how the homosexuals fought for their rights, and how this story was the beginning of a bright future for many people world wide.

Unfortunately, we did not get to see the whole movie in class, but I would like to see the rest one day, noting that I did get a good impression of it so far. This movie should certainly be considered one of most likely many important movies people should watch.



Trailer to the movie: (CLICK HERE)

The American goverment.

A few days ago, an American, Lee Ann Potter, gave my class and I a visit. Recently having moved from the Washington D.C in the Untied States of America, she had decided to take an absence period from work to lecture Norwegian students about the U.S system of government. Her lecture was utterly to the point, easy to follow, and I did in fact find it interesting. That fact that Lee Ann shared a few personal stories as well during the lecture, helped the lesson become variated and amusing as well. Being given a detailed explanation about the constitution (CLICK HERE), the American elections, ect, by an actual American citizen, was certainly a great way to learn about this specific topic.




During the lesson, Lee Ann shared a few hand-outs and video clips having to do with the topic. One of the hand-outs was a task where we where supposed to read the U.S Constitution Preamble in car license plates (CLICK HERE). All though it was quite difficult to read, I found the task fun to work with. One of the clips we got to see was a Schoolhouse Rock jingle from the 70's (by the network channel ABC) about the Preamble and the constitution, to teach children about it (below).

The British system of goverment.

The British system of goverment is basically all about power and popularity. Being a democracy , the people decides who gets the power in the British government. The government includes a prime minister, parliaments, The House of Commons and The House of Lords.

The Prime Minister is the leader of the most powerful party. The parliament makes the laws and passes the budget. The House of Commons is quite alike the House of Lords, all though The House of Commons is more powerful due to the fact that the Members of Parliaments (MP's) are elected by the people.

Today, Our Nation Saw Evil. (9/11)

This is an assignment about the movie 9/11. Answering the question: What is the difference between how the Americans view this incident and how the Europeans views it?

Today, Our Nation Saw Evil.

“I know it's either this... or the Army now. And I like saving lives, I don't like taking them. But after what I saw... if my country decides to send me... to go kill... I'll... I'll do it now.”
- Tony Benetatos, rookie firefighter, Ladder 1.

On September 11, 2001, two French filmmakers realized that their documentary on the life of a rookie New York City firefighter, would become more than just any other documentary. What was supposed to be a regular documentary about a firefighter, became the only known footage from inside the World Trade Center when two planes hit the building. The rare footage the filmmakers captured allows the audience to see the incident from a firefighters perspective.

Jules and Gedeon Naudet intended to create a film documentary about the ”probie” Tony Benetatos, and his first months at Ladder 1, a firehouse not far away from the Twin Towers. Longing for a fire, the city seamed to be quite for Tony and the other firemen the first months. Little did they know that things would change drastically only a few weeks ahead, more precisely, on September 11. The day started out like any other day in New York City, when suddenly a plane is captured on camera overhead, hitting the second building of the World Trade Center. What started out like an ordinary day, quickly become the most challenging day in the life of a firelighters at Ladder 1.

9/11 is probably one of the most memorable dates in American history. In European history as well for that matter. Almost everyone suffered in one way or the other from the attack, either economically or emotionally. In contrast to the European countries, the suffering hit the American people instantly, in a way Europeans can’t even begin to imagine. The terror attack which took the life of many American citizens, started an emotional “thunderstorm” supporting rapid revenge against Iraq. In Europe, such a quick decision to “revenge” in form of war, would seam irrational, partly due to the fact that the attack didn’t hit Europeans as personally as it did the American people and partly due to different philosophical and political views. Economically, both Americans and Europeans felt the damage. Airlines struggled like never before, especially in the Untied States. Nonetheless, companies in Europe struggled with the economy damage as well, however, this damage didn’t hit as quickly as it did in America. Some would say that 9/11 hit Unites States , like a tidal wave, slowly damaging the economy trough a longer period of time, before the effects hit Europa. Many companies in Europe are still struggling today, even though it's been more than eight years since the incident.

To our Korean friends.

It's so cold today, you have no idea! I've been freezing all day, so I had to grab a few cups of coffee just so I could keep even slightly warm. All though, if you're standing in the sun, like I did while we had our break this morning, it's actually quite warm. Now that it's October, it's basically winter here in Norway, and by the end of the week, there might be some snow according to the weather center. I'm not really looking forward to it though, winter isn't exactly my favorite season of the four we have here. When winter arrives in Norway, it always gives me a Christmas feeling, and I guess that's a good thing about winter and snow. However, it's still too cold, and I miss the summer!




Where do you live in Korea? And, does it snow there? :)