Initial reactions to "Crash"

CRASH



In class, we saw a movie called "Crash". The movie is about racial difficulties in Los Angeles. You get to se a lot of different people and their problems, either they are racists or they experience racism ageinst themselves, and many of these stories are later in the movie combined. All the different people tell their individual story and it's how the stories are mixed and combined

My first thoughts about the movie "Crash", is that it was all in all a good movie. It awakes ones mind to think about the troubles the black and the non-aryan can experience and how some parts of the world treats these ethnical groups. For me, and us in Norway, I may think that this doesn't match with the reality because we live in such a friendly environment. But some of the more extreme racist actions in this movie actually appear in real life. And it's horrifying. 


One of the stories in "Crash": Officer Ryan saves
the afro-american Christine Thayer from a carwreck.
The special about this scene is that these people 
have met before in the movie. Then, the officer
was harrassing Christine and being a racist.

First Nation Poem - Glenyse

Glenyse

To black to see, people just run over me

Stolen from her dark skinned family

Someone who people don’t likes to be making food and pleasant moves

In her closed mind she rather wants to smell the scent of freedom  

Feels bad, disliked, poor and psychologically raped

In desperate need for love and care, and a friend to brush her hair

Who fears being left alone, poor and weak

Who gives a damn about the people who stand close to her

Who wishes to be a strong, independent person

Next stop, freedom

Ward

Mini writing - The Stolen Generation

Dearest diary

On tuesday, I got into two of the elders talking about hiding me and my sister from the white man, who was driving around, taking children away to make us work. I was scared. What am I supposed to do now? We're surrounded with these white men. I can't just take my sister in the hand and run. But I don't want to work for them. I don't know, is it like slavery? I don't hope so. Today, it really happened. Faster than the eldres had expected. Seems like the whites have gotten more effecient. The came into our village yesterday, three of those huge, green machines on wheels. None of our strongest men could stop them, but but luckily no blood was spilled, even though they wore large powder equipment, like these new weapons that makes this "boom" went it is used. The strongest of the men went straight to our tent. Even though he was just one and we (mom, aunt, sister and me) had no chance. He lifted me and my sister right up from my moms arms, seeming to have no compassion. No feeling in his eyes. Now what. Am I suppossed to live with these weird people? Where am I going? My sister, me and my diary

Travelblog!

Whats up?


I've now presented my Travelblog, and I hope you've enjoyed it.
I noticed that it may be some difficulties reading it because the first day is the first post, so you have to read it from the bottom.
I bet some of my fellow students have done the same thing, but it shouldn't be way to hard to read, and it's doesn't look too bad either.
All in all I'm fairly pleased with my work, and would love a comment/feedback on it!

Travelblog! - Update 3

Cheers mates!

In the last two days, we’ve just been wandering around, trying out some of the cafés, and even some of the clubs. Wellington really has everything! We took a walk by the beach, and it was like one of those beaches you see on adds to charter trips. Magical with the sunset in the background!

We took the drunken local men’s advice and visited some places:

The beehive, a part of the government buildings.


The Westpac stadium, where the “All Blacks” plays

We went looking on a Rugby match, and OH-MY-GOD! I witnessed maybe the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. In Maori tradition, a sort of war dance called Haka is performed before battle. It scared the crap out of me, putting myself in the situation of the contestants. On the other side, to perform the Haka in front of 36.000 persons must be indescribably funny! The All Blacks are known for that they never loose. And neither did they lose this match. I’m not very well known with rugby, but it entertained me a lot more than expected. The raw muscle power they use, the men looks like rocks because they’re so large in body mass, the temper inside the stadium, audience that constantly made noise, like in a movie. Exceptional! Here’s a link for those who want to see this phenomenon. I advise you to take a look!

All Blacks Haka

Anyway, our trip is now over. We’ll be setting the course for Norway in the same way as we travelled here, just opposite direction of course. I’ve experienced Wellington as a surprising and fresh city with a lot of life and varieties, and also a lot to offer. The only minus I can figure is the long flight, but hey! Who travels 33 hours every day? It’s supposed to be special, and this was special. Loved it!

Thanks for following me, guess I’ll see you around later!

Simen Sem Øvereng

Travelblog! - Update 2

What’s up, fellow citizens?

We arrived two days ago, and until now, we have only been checking out the city downtown. My résumé is that Wellington is a pretty, modern city with skyscrapers and cosy small houses. But this wasn’t like a typical, American skyscraper-city. The culture downtown was so down to earth, so peaceful, so friendly and gentle. A lot of nice restaurants, cafés and clubs; I promise, behind every corner, there was a place for you to go taking a nice little cup of coffee, eating an extraordinary dinner or just party as if it was 2012. We met a couple of funny, drunk guys that told us about some places to check out and they also presented some funny facts about New Zealand:

New Zealand is known to have the loosest slot machines in the Pacific Rim!
New Zealand is like England, without the attitude!
They drive on the left side – like the British, and Lindsey Lohan.
They say it’s so windy there because of all the crap coming from the part where the government buildings lie...
Oh, we had a good laugh. It was a nice surprise and I hope for more of those!

A fellow interest all of us have is beautiful nature. So we had planned to go looking up in the mountains first, with the cable-train, which was a pretty and funny little thing; a small train that led straight up in to the mountains. The first thing I noticed, and it was’nt very difficult to notice either, was that the wind was blowing constantly. Not just a little, but a lot! We almost blew of the edge when we went out of the cable-train. We went looking on a beautiful lake with a cute little waterfall, and the view over the city was pretty good.


The cable-train!


This was the view towards the south...


... and this was to the north

On the way down, we were supposed to take the cable-train down, but it was closed. Our guide turned on his travel-radio, and listened to the news. There we found out that there had been a small earthquake that we didn’t notice, which had put the power supply down. This wasn’t an emergency though, we got to borrow bikes for free so we could get down before the evening came. And that was some experience. It was a special forest with large spaces between each tree, but the trees were large! If don’t think I can explain these experiences in words, you could watch this clip of some of the nature New Zealand offers, and Wellington do actually have the most of these:

100% Pure New Zealand

I found a clip which I think is entertaining as well. You may check it out if you want a laugh:

Funny Travelvideo, Wellington

We visited a museum on the way home. I got to know about the Haka war dance and there I decided that we would go see a Rugby-match to see a dance like that! Also I learned some things about the national flag. New Zealand's flag is blue with four red stars in the free side of the flag, and with the Union Jack in the upper left corner. The flag was New Zealand's official flag by a decision of Parliament in 1902, but goes back to former colonial flag of 1867. The four red stars symbolize The Southern Cross with the stars Acrux, Becrux, Gamma Crucis and Delta Crucis, but without Epsilon Crucis. There are now some discussions about changing flag because some think it’s to lookalike with the British flag – they want their own flag.

 The New Zealand Flag

I’m learning new things everyday!
Got to say nighty’ night now, see you later!

Travelblog! - Update 1

Howdy!

Yesterday, we arrived in Wellington on Wellington International Airport. It was a fairly big airport, but a lot larger than Værnes, though. The trip took 33 hours, one hour earlier than planned. The cuddle class was an exceptional choice, because after flying from Oslo, through London and then to Singapore, we was getting really tired. The Air New Zealand cuddle class from Singapore let us sleep so we were well awake when arriving so we could book in to our hotel and get to know Wellington right away! When entering the Airport, I felt the air like ‘aircondition-air’. But when we walked through the exit, man, it was hot! 29° C the temperature measurement showed. The climate is warm summers with high humidity and mild winters; which I prefer in front of Norwegian climate!

A positive first impression followed by another: Russell Crow, the main character in “Gladiator” was at the airport. Of course, there were a lot of fans around him, and my buddies, who are fans as well, just had to get a photo and an autograph! I didn’t care so much, but I think he’s a great actor, so it was a pleasant surprise!

The first thing the ladies want to do is to go shopping... Of course! But it doesn’t have to be boring; I’ve heard a lot of good sayings about all the centres and shops. Looking forward to it! I think we’re spending the first couple of days getting to know Wellington, and just wandering around like typical tourists!

See y‘all later. Putting in some pictures we took on the way to our hotel:

The hotel!


Russell Crowe!