Nobama

Last week in class, we saw a documentary made by Alexandra Pelosi. The movie was filmed during the election race in America between Barack Obama and John McCain. Pelosi had chosen to focus on McCain's supporters and their view on Obama. I found it very interesting to see that many of them actually seemed more engaged in preventing Obama from becoming president than McCain to actually become the president. Some of the interviewees began crying when asked about how they thought America would develop if Obama was elected. Not tears of bliss, but bitter, scared thoughts.

Several interviewees drew a connection between Obama and Germany's imperial chancellor during WWII, Adolf Hitler. They compared Obama's and Hitler's charisma and their way of speaking to the crowd. I have to add that another argument for the comparison was the situation America was in during the election and the situation Germany was in during Hitler's party NSDAP's election.
But still, the comparison really blew my mind. How can one compare one of the most racist men in history and an African-American man, solely based on their speaking gifts? I tried to put myself in their situation. The American presidential line-up throughout the history has consisted mostly of middle-aged to old white men. As for the recent history, neither Bill Clinton nor George W. Bush jr. were impressive speakers. And so Obama enters the history, a colored man quite young for his coming goal. For the American conservatives this may have come as a shock.

Some of the Southerners also admit this in the documentary. One of the men interviewed actually states that "America is not ready for a colored man as president. I believe the society is moving too fast. If it were up to me, you shouldn't have the ability to vote." when talking to the female interviewer. First I found this statement very provoking, but after some thought I have to say that at least he has the guts to stand for his opinion. America is a country of liberty and he should be able to believe in whatever he wants to.

As you could see in the documentary, most of McCains "hard voters" lived in the inland of America. I allow myself to generalize a little bit: many of them were typical Christian rednecks. They were very religious and worked hard in the agriculture industry. They called themselves "real Americans" and pointed at the fact that they worked hard to keep the wheels of the country turning. Many of them did not believe Obama cared enough for them.

Now I have only mentioned a few of the comparisons and statements concerning Obama shown in the documentary. Other examples of comparisons were that Obama was the Antichrist and that he was the devil in human form. Some simply pointed at the fact that he is a "nigger" and therefore not able to fill the presidential role. In my opinion, many of these people seemed like they were living in the past. They were simply Christian, farm-working Americans that were not ready for such a dramatically change.

I strongly recommend the documentary. You can find it on Youtube. Here are the links:
Part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5.
Enjoy!

Environmental abuse - an inconvenient truth

We are starting up with our senior projects this week, and now is the time to decide on which topic we are to write about. I have thought about both homosexual rights in the state of California and topics concerning the environmental abuse in America today. The reason I have thought about these two topics is because they both appeal to my interests. There is an ongoing debate in California right now concerning the right for homosexual couples to marry each other.

After much thought, I've decided to go for environmental abuse. I am going to do an in-depth study on Al Gore with the main focus on his movie The Inconvenient Truth, the Climate Project and his receiving of the Nobel Peace Prize. I want to find out in which ways he has affected American citizens and people all over the world.

Obama's new Health Reform

Hi to all my thousands of readers. I want to wish everyone a happy new year! This is my first blog post in 2010, concerning Obama's new Health Reform.

In America today, they have a health system different from the system we have in Norway. The American people have to buy health insurances which are supposed to cover their expenses in terms of hospital visits, medical treatments etc. in case of illnesses. The health insurances are too expensive for the poor part of the American population, which means that they cannot afford to get ill. For instance, if they fall and break their leg or suffer from a major infection, they do not have the money to pay for the medical treatment they need. One of Obama's matters close to his heart has been to reform this health system. He wants a system more similar to our Norwegian health system so that the poor population also can afford to get medical treatment when needed.

The new Health reform includes: You can choose to keep your insurance if you like the one you have from before, there will be no more denial of coverage for pre-existing conditions, no dropped coverage when you get sick, it eliminates yearly and lifetime caps of coverage, it caps out-of-pocket expenses and it requires coverage for preventive care. For the citizens who do not have a health insurance there will be created a new insurance marketplace called the Exchange which includes new tax credits for individuals and small businesses and low-cost coverage for individual and small businesses. Obama says that the new Health Reform will not add money to deficit, but will be paid for by the savings within the existing health care system. The reform also includes independent medical experts to identify abuse, waste and fraud in the system. In my opinion, the Health Reform seems genuinely positive for the American population. Today, the system is obviously malfunctioning and Obama has done the only right thing to do; to reform the health-care. I truly hope that the protesters realizes this in the future.

The American Constitution

In class last week, we had an American visitor who taught us about the American Constitution. Her name is Lee-Ann Potter and she is from Maryland. Originally, she is the director of education and volunteer programs at the United States national archives in Washington, D.C. This year, she has moved to Norway with her family to serve as a Roving Scholar of American Studies.

Her way of teaching was inspiring and efficient. First, she introduced herself and the theme. Then she wanted us to talk with each other about why America has a constitution and what it contains. Later she showed us pictures concerning the Constitution. The photo I have included in my blog entry is actually the preamble of the American Consitituion made by license plates. It was a different and fun way to learn about politics.

The preamble goes like this:
We the People of the United States,
in order to form a more perfect union,
establish justice,
insure domestic tranquility,
provide for the common defense,
promote the general welfare,
and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our prosperity,
do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Milk

Milk is a biographical movie about an American gay activist named Harvey Milk. He was the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California. Milk is in a relationship with a man named Smith. They are tired of the discrimination of homosexual individuals in the United States and decide to to something about it. They move to San Fransisco, in hopes of finding larger acceptance of their relationship. Milk and Smith start a camera shop called Castro Camera, where they also arrange meetings with the gay people in their neighborhood. Milk decides to engage in the politics and starts a campaign to become a city supervisor. After two failed campaigns, Smith no longer endure Milk's devition to politics and breaks up with him. After the fourth year of campaigning, Milk wins a seat in the San Fransisco Board of Supervisors. This was a great step towards equality between the homosexual and heterosexual part of the American population.

British Politics

I was a absent in my English class last week, due to a visit to Spain with my Spanish class. Therefore this blog entry comes a little late. In class last week, the others were given a text about the election in Britain. After reading the text, they were to write a blog entry about the British System of Government.

The prime minister is the leader of the strongest party. He or she rules the government in Britain. The parliament has the second biggest role, which consists of making the laws, passing the national budget and keeping an eye on the government. There must be a general election at least every five years. The parliament is splitted up in two parts; the House of Commons and the House of Lords. The House of Commons has a much bigger role and more power than the House of Lords. There are 646 representatives called Members of Parliament, often shorted down to MPs. Each one of them represents one constituency. Britain is divided into 646 parliamentary constituencies. They vary in size, but most have an electorate between 60.000 and 75.000 people. The electorate is all the people who can vote. The House of Lords, however, is not elected by the people.

The Cuban missile crisis

The Cuban missile crisis was the closest the world has come to a nuclear war. After the World War II, the United States and the Soviet union were building up arms to show the world which nation that was the most powerful. The arms race included nuclear weapons. It was lead by the American president John F. Kennedy and the Russian premier Nikita Khrushchev. This period of time is known as the Cold War.

In 1962, America lead the arms race and had missiles powerful enough to strike Soviet from American ground. They did not know that Soviet had placed intermediate-range missiles in Cuba, aimed towards the United States. Soviet cooperated with the present dictator in Cuba, Fidel Castro. The United States had failed to invade Cuba in 1961 and Castro felt a second attack was inevitable. Consequently, he approved of Khrushchev's plan to place missiles on the island.

On October 15, 1962, reconnaissance photographs revealed that Soviet missiles under construction in Cuba. This was the start of the crisis for the United States. After seven days of surveillance, Kennedy concluded to impose a naval quarantine around Cuba. Kennedy announced the discovery of the missiles to the public, and his decision to quarantine the island. He demanded that Soviet removed all of their missile installations from Cuba. He also declared that a missile launch from Cuba would be seen as an attack towards America. The tension began to build.

On the 27th of October, a U-2 missile was shot down over Cuba. Consequently, Khrushchev sent a letter to Kennedy demanding the removal of U.S. missiles in Turkey, in exchange for Soviet missiles in Cuba. Finally, tensions began to ease the 28th of October when Khrushchev announced that Soviet would dismantle the installations in Cuba if the US would not invade Cuba. Further negotiations were held to implement the October 28th agreement, including a United States demand that Soviet light bombers should be removed from Cuba, and specifying the exact form and conditions of United States assurances not to invade Cuba.