Racism problems in South Africa

South Africa is a country which consists of around 49,991,300 people. These people can be divided into four ethnic groups, the white, the black, the colored and the Asian. South Africa also has eleven official languages. With this many different people there are bound to be conflicts. In this blog post I will study racism problems in South Africa and how Africa's background affects this.

South Africa was ruled by apartheid between 1948 and 1994. Apartheid was a system of legal racial segregation and was enforced by the National Party government of South Africa. In the time of apartheid the white people maintained their minority rule. The inhabitants of South Africa where divided into four groups, where the white people where the only ones with the right to vote. The other three groups, who where the majority of the population where discriminated against in almost every way possible. There where restrictions as to where they were allowed to work, shop, live and even where they were allowed to sit and go to the bathroom. Racial segregation in South Africa had been known since colonial times, but it was first in 1998 it was legalized. Many people fought against apartheid, and among them where Nelson Mandela.

Nelson Mandela was born in South Africa in 1918 and became South Africa’s first black president in 1994. He was also the first president who had been freely selected by all citizens of the country, and he won by a landslide. For a long time Nelson Mandela had been an activist in fighting against apartheid, and for this he was sent to prison. He spent 27 years of his life on Robben Island   which was a prison for political prisoners. Mandela was released in 1990 and immediately began working for a multiethnic democracy in South Africa. He gained the Nobel Prize for this work in 1993. In 1994 Nelson Mandela became president and apartheid was at an end. In his homeland South Africa people called him Madiba, which is a name of honor used on older members of his tribe. Nelson Mandela had become a symbol of peace and equality both nationally and internationally.

In class we saw the movie Invictus, which is a true story. This movie was about how Nelson Mandela, after reaching presidency, tried to rid South Africa of racism. Not all white people where happy with a black president and some of the black people thought that now they would be the ones on top. Nelson Mandela tried to peacefully change people’s opinions about each other. He wanted to make people realize that even though they came in different colors they were all worth the same. In the movie Mandela’s opinions become clear when he supports a rugby team that used to be a front for racism. He tries to unite South Africa in support of their country’s rugby team. At first neither the white people nor the black people like this, but in the end when the team win’s it looks like Mandela is one step closer to his goal.

Today the different ethnic groups are still affected by the apartheid politics. This is very visible when we look at South Africa’s economics. The white people still control most of the country’s resources, while mostly black people live close to poverty. You can also find traces of apartheid politics in crime. Close to 2000 white farmers have been killed by black farmers since Mandela took over in 1994.

Sources:

Haugum, Eva with others, Worldwide

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Africa_under_apartheid

http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apartheid

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson_Mandela

The movie Invictus, 2009

9|11

September 11^th 2001 is a day the world will remember forever. It was on this day four planes where hijacked and used in a terror attack against the United States of America. Two planes crashed into the World Trade center, one flew into Pentagon and the fourth went down on a field in Pennsylvania. The fourth plane was heading in the direction of Washington D.C so it is believed that the original target was the white house. All passengers in all of the flights died. This terror attack was orchestrated by Al-Qaida and lead to some serious consequences.

Today we have seen a movie about 9/11. This movie was different than any other movie I have ever seen on this particular topic. The movie was filmed by two brothers from France, who were working on a documentary about a rookie firefighter.  They had been following the firefighters for a while and when September 11^th came, they had no idea where it would lead them. What made this movie so different from everything I have ever seen about 9/11 is that it was filmed from the midst of the chaos. The firemen went to the scene as soon as the first plane hit. They tried to get control over the situation and when the second plane hit they had already sent firefighters up the stairs to evacuate the people. One of the two brothers who were filming the documentary was inside the lobby together with the fire chiefs. He kept on filming everything that happened, so in the movie we get a peak at what was really going on in there. The firefighters established a base in the lobby, and with the power out their only means of communication where their walkie talkies. They couldn't evacuate people through the main entrance because people higher in the tower had started jumping, so they lead them out another entrance. Everyone who was still inside when the towers went down died. Some of the firefighters in the lobby and the one making the movie managed to get out alive.

The media’s role was incredibly important in the event of 9/11. The entire world was watching as the twin towers fell, and they were shocked by what they saw. I am sure that no one will ever forget the sight of the towers one by one collapsing to dust. When the first plane hit there was confusion, and by the time the second one hit it was clear that this was not an accident. For the USA this was unimaginable. They had never ever before been attacked in their own home, so to speak.

The terror attack on the United States of America was followed by serious consequences. The lives of nearly 3,000 people and 19 hijackers were lost. Out of the 2,752 people who died at the World Trade center 343 of them where firefighters. The USA responded to the attack by invading Afghanistan to get rid of the Taliban. The Taliban had harbored Al-Qaida terrorists. This War of Terror is still going on today, and it is affecting most of the world. 9/11 also came with a lot of economical consequences. Lower Manhattan was left with destruction of billions of dollars worth of office spaces. It also caused the global stock marked to drop sharply. The collapse of the twin towers also had an effect on the people’s health. A lot of toxic debris was released during the collapse, and this has caused several people to die of cancer years after the terror attack. It has also caused debilitating illnesses among the rescue and recovery workers.

The movie 9/11 made a real impression on me. I feel like it’s the first time I have really seen what happened that day. On September 11^th 2001, I was only 8 years old. I can remember watching the twin towers come crashing down on the television, but I didn't really get what was going on. I think that I heard what was happening, but it just wasn't real to me. Even though I now feel that I know more about it, I still can't imagine what it must have been like to be there during this catastrophe.

The world will always remember 9/11.

Narnia by C.S. Lewis

Before Christmas we watched the movie Narnia: The lion, the witch and the wardrobe. Narnia is a very good movie and it is based on a book by C.S. Lewis.

In the beginning of the movie we find ourselves in England during World War 1. This is where we meet the four children who are the main characters in the movie. The names of these children are Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy and they are siblings. Because of the war they are evacuated to the country where they live with a professor and his housekeeper. It is in this house they find the wardrobe that leads them to another world named Narnia.

The movie is mainly a movie about family, war and good vs. evil. In Narnia the children becomes the front figures of a great war between the creatures of Narnia and the white witch. Like I said I think Narnia is a very good movie

The author of Narnia C.S. Lewis was born in 1898 and died in 1963. He was an Irish-born British novelist, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian and Christian apologist. C.S. Lewis is probably most known for “the Chronicles of Narnia” which consists of seven books and as of yet three movies. The fact that the books about Narnia take place during World War 1 is not a coincidence. C.S. Lewis lived during World War 1 and in 1917 he left his studies and volunteered in the British army.

Not everybody knows of C.S. Lewis long friendship with, who I believe to be one of the greatest authors ever, J.R.R. Tolkien. Tolkien has written a lot of books, but he is most famous for his awesome trilogy “Lord of the Rings”. C.S. Lewis and Tolkien both taught at Oxford University and shared an interest for literature. Furthermore, Tolkien influenced Lewis to become a Christian and Lewis helped Tolkien expand his fictional writing.    

C.S Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien also had some serious disagreements, especially concerning Lewis’ Narnia books. Tolkien thought that they held too many obvious Christian symbols and messages. He believed that it became too much for the reader. An example of a Christian message in Narnia: The lion, the witch and the wardrobe is Aslan sacrificing himself on the stone table. Aslan is a lion, and a lion is a commonly used symbol for Christ. With this in mind the scene where Aslan sacrifices himself is a symbol for Christ who sacrificed his life and was resurrected for a final battle against evil.

Let them know it's Christmas time

Christmas is a Christian holiday that is set to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. He was said to be born on December 25^th and that is why we today celebrate this day.

Long time ago in Bethlehem so the Holy Bible said
Mary's boy child Jesus Christ was born on Christmas Day.

Hark now hear the angels sing a king was born today
and man will live for evermore because of Christmas Day.

Above I wrote the start of the song Mary’s boy child, and this song is one of many who describe the birth of Christ.  I think we all know the story of how little baby Jesus was born, but I will still tell you the short version.  Joseph and Mary went to Bethlehem to get registered. Bethlehem was Joseph’s hometown and that was why they had to go there. Virgin Mary was pregnant and when they came to Bethlehem she was close to giving birth. There was no room for them anywhere and because of that they sought refuge in a stable. In that stable Jesus Christ was born and the Christmas star shined above it. At the same time the angel Gabriel showed himself for a couple of shepherds and told them that a new savior had been born and that they where to follow the star. They did and found baby Jesus, gave him a lamb, and told Mary and Joseph what the angel had told them. Later three wise men showed up. They all had a gift for baby Jesus and the gifts were gold, myrrh and frankincense.  

Today Christmas is more a holiday that is based on presents and school brake. You don’t have to be a Christian to celebrate Christmas anymore, and only a few people actually go to church on Christmas Day.  I think this is a bit sad that a successful Christmas today depends on how many presents you get, but I think that it is great that not only Christians can get into the Christmas spirit.

In Norway, where I come from, we celebrate Christmas on the 24^th. December 24^th is the day celebrated as Christmas Eve. In most of the western world this day is celebrated because it has cultural significance.  Why we in Norway celebrate on this day instead of December 25^th, I don’t know, it has just always been that way.  

Now I will tell you about my Christmas traditions. I celebrate Christmas with the entire family on my mother’s side, so that means we are a total of sixteen people. On December 24^th I wake up at around 09.30 in the morning. At 11 am we all go to the church yard to visit some graves. We visit the same graves every year, even in the same order. After the church yard we go home to my aunt and uncle to eat sandwiches and drink hot chocolate with cream. Now it’s time for a brake. We all go home and rest for about two hours before we start getting dressed for Christmas celebration.  When we are all dressed everybody comes over to my house and we eat cakes and walk around the Christmas tree, singing Christmas songs. After this it is time for the presents. This takes up a lot of time, but it is very fun. When we are done with the presents we can finally have Christmas dinner. This takes place at my grandparent’s home and lasts for the rest of the night. I will not list up the menu, out of fear of a growling stomach, but I can promise you it is delicious.

To end my blog post I will write a few things I love about Christmas and that really gives me Christmas spirit. I hope it will do the same for you.

Christmas songs, Santa Claus, Christmas tree, Christmas star, Christmas menu, snow, snowman, mistletoe, Christmas decorations, red candles, advent, presents and happy people.

Anime and Manga

Today we have had a rather exiting theme to work with. We had a few texts in our book to work with and all of them where centered on Japanese English and culture. I worked on this with Heidi Emilie, Julie and Marie. The theme we chose to focus on was anime and manga. For me this was perfect since anime and manga is a personal hobby of mine.

Anime and manga are similar to comics in the western world, but there are many differences. For example an anime usually has a lot more episodes and they are much more connected to each other. Because of this we get to know a lot more about the main characters and we get much more into the story. This makes anime very addictive, which I know very well. The drawings are also very different from American comics. In shojo-anime (girls anime) the drawings are very beautiful and perfect, and in shonen-anime (boys anime) the drawings are not always as flawless but still very different from other comics. Even though the anime series are called boy’s and girl’s anime they are suited for both genders.  Anime does not only suit both genders, but also all ages. It is a common misunderstanding that anime, like comics, are a children’s thing. Many anime series are directed at young adults and a lot of them also have a age limit at 17+.

Another difference between anime and comics is that in anime there are a lot of references to Japanese culture.  This can be all from festivals and cherry blossoms to references to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Many anime series are inspired by Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It was first after this crisis the anime became an important part of Japanese culture. The references are not usually direct, but in anime it is not uncommon that the story ends tragic of that the main characters are orphans. A lot of anime series also have some kind of disaster that could destroy the world in them. Other than this anime series also contains more violence and grotesque scenes than comics.  Examples of anime series that has some kind of hidden reference to Hiroshima and Nagasaki is: The spaceship Yamato, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Akira and the movie Barefoot Gen.

In class today my group decided to watch an anime and compare the culture to ours. We watched Ouran High School Host Club which is an anime about some students in a school for rich people who are in a Host club. They are, as they say in the prologue, boys with way too much time on their hands who entertain girls who also have way too much time on their hands. From this anime we managed to come up with a lot of cultural differences and similarities. First of all, Japanese people use honorifics just like in English. Like the English people use Mr., Mrs. and miss, Japanese people use san, kun, sama, chan, sempai and so on. These are added in the end of a person’s name and all have different meanings. For example using sama means that you are talking to a person you have a high opinion of or who has a high position in the society.

Another difference is that it seems they are much more open to homophiles and cross dressers in Japan.  I think this is a good thing because and hope that the western culture will take after them. They are also very straight forward in the way they talk. I also noticed something that I find very interesting. Although they speak Japanese in anime series, they use English slang words just like they do in Norway. It is very funny when you suddenly realize that you can understand what they are saying. The intro song to several anime series that I have seen also has an English name. You can hear them sing some words in English and the rest in Japanese. This shows that also in Japan, which is a country very fond of their culture, English has a great influence.

I think that we were pretty productive today and I like the way we were allowed to work in our own way. I am also fascinated by Japanese culture and hope that we will learn more about it.

Sources:

Anne Thelle, Anime – hva er det?, oslo 2009, Omnipax

The Movie vs. The Book

Once again I will write a blog post about the kite runner. This time I am going to compare the movie and the book. Truth be told, I have not seen the entire movie, but I can compare the book to the part I have seen.

As far as I can tell the movie has been very true to the book. Of course there a few scenes here and there that has been cut too much for my taste, but when you make a book into a film it is unavoidable. There are also a lot of mistakes with the characters in the movie that makes it a bit difficult to immediately understand which characters they are. What I mean by that is that a lot of the characteristics from the book have been dropped in the movie. Examples of this are Hassan’s harelip, Assef's blonde hair and Ali being crippled.

In English class we have made a double entry journal about the kite runner. I will now compare what I wrote about self realization to the movie.

In my double entry journal I wrote about the moment when Hassan is leaving the house and Amir is watching him from the window. I used the quote "I was sorry, but I didn't cry and I didn’t chase the car." that can be found on page 94 in the book. I used it because I thought it was a good example of self realization. In the book Amir compared Hassan leaving to a Hindi movie, which was something Hassan and Amir enjoyed watching. In a Hindi movie Amir would have run after Hassan and cried and said he was sorry, but in real life he just stood there. I was moved to tears by this in the book, but in the movie I just didn't feel it.

In the movie this scene only takes a few seconds. You can see Amir looking out of the window, the car leaving and that's it. I believe that this was an important turning point that got way to little attention in the movie. I can understand that it is difficult to use the Hindi movie comparison in a film since we can't hear what Amir is thinking, but still it was disappointing. If I had only seen the movie and not read the book, I would not have marked this scene as an important moment of self realization. 

The kite runner finished

As the title to this blog post states I am now done reading the kite runner. My impression of the book is that it is really good and extremely sad. The entire story can be called a quest for redemption. Amir has done something horrible and he is unable to move past that point in his life. The book shows how he finally tries to make amends by taking care of Hassan's son Sohrab. In his quest for redemption there are times when it looks like he is on the right path and other times were he isn't. In the end I think he is able to at least move on in his life.

The ending can't be called a happy ending, but it is heading in that direction. The last few pages shows that Sohrab is finally opening a bit up after his suicide attempt.