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? :)

Daylight (War poets)

About war poets...

War is an interesting environment for a poet. A war poem usually reflects around what feelings a soldiers goes trough during war.

In the beginning of WW1, poets where brought up in a romantic era, where dignity was more relevant to write about when it came to war. Their expectation to the war was different from what they experienced throughout the period. Machine guns and tanks was a surprise to many young soldiers, and a change in character of war fare. The “anti-war” poems slowly became more common as the war showed it's horrible and tragic sides.

Siegfried Sassoon was a poet with a very powerfull meaning about war. He among few other poets, survived the war. He was later hospitalized.

Street Spirit (Poem: Does it matter?)

A poem...

DOES it matter?--losing your legs?...
For people will always be kind,
And you need not show that you mind
When the others come in after hunting
To gobble their muffins and eggs.

Does it matter?--losing your sight?...
There's such splendid work for the blind;
And people will always be kind,
As you sit on the terrace remembering
And turning your face to the light.

Do they matter?--those dreams from the pit?...
You can drink and forget and be glad,
And people won't say that you're mad;
For they'll know you've fought for your country
And no one will worry a bit.



1.Losing your legs, losing your sight and losing your dreams is the three effects of the war on a soldier this poem touch on.

2.The poem reflects on the attitude that great wars were fought by working-class men on both sides and that the people they were fighting for, were often more the enemy than the people they were fighting against. This is shown in the repeating sentence: “people will always be kind” as long as you fought for you country. The poem says that the people who didn't fight in the war themselves goes on living their lives, while the soldiers have lost big parts of their lives in the war, like their dreams, legs or their sight.

3.Our theory on why this poem has become so popular now is: it was a big honer to fight in a war for your country before, and most young boys had a dream about becoming a soldier, but now more people understand what it contains to be a soldier in a real war, and how it changes a lot of people to face death and loose so much of their life as brutal as in a war.

A Rush of Blood to the Head... (About me)

Okay so, if you take a look at the top of my blog, at that picture. Yeah, that's where I'm from. That lovely, slightly anonymous place is called Fornebu. It used to be an airport, and quite popular back then, however noisy. Now, it's quite. Almost creepy quite, but I like it that way. Then again, once a week, Fornebu isn't as quite as it usually is. You see, we have an arena here, where our football team, Stabekk, plays their matches. Sometimes popular artist play concerts there too, then the traffic in Fornebu is like nobody's business... CRAZY.

My name is Amanda, and I'm a half Norwegian, half Swedish 18 year old girl. And as you may or may not notice, the title of this post is named after a song, a song my Coldplay to be precise. I saw them live in Bergen this summer, that was amazing! By far one of my favorite bands, along with many others though. I like music, in fact, I love music. Strangely enough one of my favorite places is in the back of a car, listing to music, not hearing what people around me are talking about. Other than that I like psychology, photography, my friends and family, scary movies, televisions shows (Seinfeld, Family Guy, Nip/Tuck ect.) and acting (I was an actress in my school's second revy, that was a lot of fun! Definitely something I would recommend.). Enough about me...