Capture the Light

Just felt like sharing this with you.

Unfortunately it's in Norwegian, but I think you can still look at the pictures and the music and get something out of it.

Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten gathered their photographers for a seminar, during which they were asked to take pictures "capturing the light". Click on where it says "2 bilder og lyd" and you get a compilation of the photos they took. Just beautiful.

For Norwegians with a couple of minutes extra to spare, the other video is also worth a look.

Maybe I should take up photograhping huh?

Sweet Nostalgia

You like me?

You grew up with the first Nintendo, the Sega Megadrive and the revolutionizing Super Nintendo? You remember those good old driving games? One of my favourites was Top Gear on the Super Nintendo, which among other things had really, really cool music.

And it seems I'm not the only one who thinks so. In the youtube clip under you can hear the original start-up song for the game, British rockband Muse's sampling of the song and lastly but not leastly, Brazilian game-metal band Megadrive's version of a song from the game!

Megadrive ang game-metal is a gem for a nostalgian like myself, although some of it is a little too metal-like for my taste. The quality of their clip on youtube is not too good, but if you enter their site you can find mp3 quality clips of their songs. I recommend the Top Gear song Let's go, plus of course the Sonic the Hedgehog stuff..

Music of ze week III

For those of you who know a bit about Norwegian, do you recognize what song and what band Seimen is doing a cover of?

And for those of you who play guitar hero, notice how much cooler the Stones' song is in the original version?

Musik of ze Week II

Don't focus too much on the videos, it's all about the music.

I've had someproblems with this post, hopefully it will work now. There should be about ten songs in there, as in the last one. Controlls to navigate among them integrated into the video window, just mouse over it.

Chivalry is dead

In a lot of ways I'm pretty conservative and old fashioned:

- I like the Norwegian Monarchy.

- I want only Norwegian flags in our national day parade.
(a controversial topic in Norway, those agreeing with me are people I don't like agreeing with)

- I use the phrase "it's not my cup of tea". (My ex hated me for it)

- I like the concept of chivalry.

Where is all this leading? Nowhere really, I just wanted to share this quote of the day with you:

"Chivalry is dead. And women killed it".

Cruelty and Realism

As I mentioned briefly in my short post Genocide last week, genocide as a phenomenon puzzles me these days.

According to many, there is an ongoing genocide in Sudan. As a political scientist I have to agree with the UN security council and say that I am uncertain as to whether or not the conflict displays all the components necessary to constitute a genocide in juridical terms.

But as a human being it is easy for me to say that these killings must be stopped and the perpetrators brought to justice.

It does however appear to be more complicated than that. It seems the question of Darfur is a complex and delicate one, and that solving it will take finesse and skill by negotiators working to do so. No major power has any vital interest at stake, therefore the people of Darfur must suffer.

But genocides seem to never stop hurting the people and nations who have been involved in them. Knowledge of the Holocaust is still very much relevant in order to understand European current affairs, not to mention the Middle East.

Another genocide, not often referred to as such, are the crusades. Here in the west they are practically forgotten, while in the Middle East these infamous undertakings are burned into the collective memories of nations and people and Saladin remains hero for his chivalrous victories.

But lately it is the (alleged(?)) genocide committed by the Turks against the Armenians between 1915-17 that is making news.

As far as I have been able to understand, sitting here in a peaceful corner of the world in a small state where a peculiar mix of naivety and humanism are part of what characterise us both as a society and a people, what happened was a genocide. It seems scientists more or less agree on this.

Turkey however does not agree. In Turkey referring to the events as a genocide is punishable by law, and Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk was even tried for this. Once again, from where I'm sitting, it seems absurd for a democracy aspiring to join the European community to deny the obvious and to make it illegal even to mention or attempt to debate history.

Turkey was then off course outraged when the US congress, their ally, declared there had in fact been a genocide. Turkish-American relations went sour over night, something the Americans cannot really afford given the situation in Iraq - they fly in vast amounts of supplies to Iraq through Turkey and need Turkish goodwill in order to continue doing so.

The issue rapidly became a hot potato both in Washington and Ankara, and as far as I've heard it still is. Very much so. The result is that two countries who have the potential to play a constructive role in the region together have a hard time getting along. I think the world would be just a little better if they could, I think the world would be a little better if we all could. Talking friendly together is the start of everything good.

I talked about this whole situation with a Turkish friend of mine. She studies in Amsterdam at the moment, but was back home in Turkey for holidays when I chatted with her. She personally did not believe there had in fact been a genocide. But the reason for her conviction was interesting enough, she felt confident the Turkish army just would not have been competent enough to carry it out. She told me there had been several incidents in armed conflicts around the time where tens of thousands of Turkish soldiers had died due to incompetence and logistical nightmares caused by their leaders. She did not believe that organisation was capable of successfully carry out a genocide even if they wanted.

She also told me that Turkish media and many ordinary Turks see the current development in the matter as an American conspiracy in which Bush plays a vital role. They reason along these lines: Bush could have stopped congress from passing this declaration. He didn't, so he must have a motive? Because the Americans would like to get their hands on potential oil fields in eastern Turkey, and is ready to invade if necessary. To me, the non-conspiratoric Norwegian, this seems to be nonsense.

In Norway we have a proverb saying that "one should call a shovel a shovel", meaning that when you see one you should call it a shovel, not a two-hand manual digging equipment. I think we should not be affraid to call something a genocide when it clearly is. I also think we need to acknowledge history in order to learn from it and move on in a constructive way.

But I am not sure the world will be a better place even though the US congress have declared the killing of Armenians in Turkey almost a hundred years ago to be a genocide. And I'm not sure who is to blame it might have become a little worse.

Music of ze week

Which is your favourite?

I like both Coldplay and Buena Vista, so I find the first song pretty interesting. It works!

Want to understand the Middle East?

Here are two excellent summaries of why things are the way they are in the middle east :-)

http://www.idleworm.com/nws/2002/11/iraq2.shtml
thanks Jasmina


click here if you have trouble loading the clip

Genocide

Genocide is a word that is bothering me these days. The mere fact that we have such a word in our vocabulary is absurd to me. But we have it and unfortunately we need it. It describes a phenomenon that is painfully real, also in our time.

The book I'm reading at the moment is Shaking Hands With the Devil by Lt. Gen. Romeo Dallaire (right) who was the commander of the UN peace keeping force in Rwanda during the genocide there in '94. It lasted for one hundred days.

You know how many people were slaughtered every minute during those hundred days, on average? 5,5. Human beings, a minute. And that is based on conservative figures.

I'd recommend the book, but if it's too time consuming watch the film Shooting Dogs in stead. It's like a punch in the gut, but still highly recommendable.

I wanted to write about the question of the alleged Turkish genocide on the Armenians and its very real consequences for people today, but that will have to wait for my next post. The pub is calling, Sunday night is soccer night..

Crash and Burn

Ouch, seems my guess that Fred Thompson will become the next American President was a bad one. He had a relatively poor showing in his first debate, appearing at times confused and completely witout energy.

His campaign is also generally off to a slow start. He has cancelled a bunch of appearances and his advisors are struggling to get him more active. He's been bleeding badly in the polls and seems to be fading away.


So maybe there's hope for Hillary after all! Or was it Obama I wanted...?

Pretty cool

Check this out.

I'm number 58,310,476!

This is pretty fascinating. If you know your annual salary the site will calculate your position in the "Global Rich List" and what percentage of the total that means you belong to.

I'm in the freakin top 0,97%!!! I should go out celebrate, 'cause that's without any sort of bonuses, extra time or freelance work.

Or should I sit down and cry 'cause the world is just so unfair?

Proud Highlight

I thought I'd share the highlight of my day with you. It's probably the highlight of a lot more than just the day, but let's not get into that.

The highlight of my day has been receiving a mail from my younger brother Erik who is currently studying at Birzeit University, Ramallah.

While I have basically stayed at at home Erik is quite good at living his life the way one should; as an ongoing journey, both metaphorically and literally. Next stop for him (much to our mothers dismay, though she is just as proud of him as I am) is Sudan where he'll go after christmas.

What makes me proud is not only how he carries himself through life, it is also the things he is able to accomplish along the road. He wrote a very interesting bachelor thesis on Hizbullah (development studies) this spring and today he got published in the Norwegian weekly news magazine New Time .

You can find his essay printed on page 30-31, and in both an English and a Norwegian pdf version for downloading if you scroll to the bottom of this site.

He writes about what courage is in a way that makes his older brother profoundly proud to be just that.

(PS his bachelor thesis is available online through this site. A bit different from the ones you normally browse. You find it if you scroll down, under related documents)

Facebook

Some of the reasons I'm not on facebook. I just don't want to be part of it..

See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. I'm all good.

Borat and Paris come together

When not appearing on the Norwegian edition of Dancing with the Stars, the Norwegian version of Paris Hilton, Pia Haraldsen, works for the Norwegian comedy show Voice of the Nation. She fills the role as Political Editor for the show, and her naive style can easily remind you of Borat.

So far she has not been making headlines outside of Norway, but this interview with the Republican New York City Councilman James Oddo has gotten the attention of Fox, among others:

Who is more funny? And who takes it too far? You tell me...

Are you laughing?

Observing the application process for the soon-to-be-vacant position as leader of the free world might make you laugh. Particularly in times like this when laughing is such a serious matter…

Hillary Clintons laughter is making headlines and spurring debate across the web. Is it real, is it fake, does it make her more or less likeable? You tell me..



Either way, the whole process of electing the most powerful man, er person, in the world fascinates me.

So far Mrs. Clinton is looking good, along with Americas Mayor Rudy Giuliani. But my guess is that neither of them will make it in the long run. None of them are really electable at the end/beginning of the day.

Personally, I do not think that America is ready for a female president. Bearing in mind how long and dirty this campaign will get, Clinton seems to be vulnerable on to many issues merely because she is a woman and because she is as controversial as she is. I think she will be successful in securing the candidacy on behalf of the Democratic party, but at the end of the day she is a divisive figure for America. I can think of several Republican candidates who could beat her.

Rudy Giuliani is one of them. Today he is the frontrunner in the republican race, and if elected as republican candidate I think he would stand a good chance of winning the whole schabaam. But for the same reasons I think he would beat Clinton or most other democratic candidates, I think he will not win the candidacy of the Republican Party: He is too liberal! He’s been divorced a number of times, is pro-choice and has even been a democrat.. Thus, at the beginning of the day, he is not electable.

So who is my guess? If he does well in his first debate and manages to get his fundraising campaign off the ground I think Fred Thompson is the man. Folksy, confident and eloquent, I think he has what it takes to be elected.

But do we really want him? Hell no… We want Obama. Right?

Jesus...

This must be one of the more interesting pieces of news I've seen today.

It makes you wonder though, where did it all go wrong? And what is really the most disturbing part of this story?

0,15 prosent sjanse

Det er alt vi har, vi som ikke er bergensere. Bergen og Norge blir aldri helt det samme...

På god fotballmanér og som et godt menneske hater jeg Lyn og alt klubben står for. Likevel jublet jeg høyt i det Christian Brink mot spillets gang scoret 4 min før slutt og så ut til å slukke brannen, i det minste for en ukes tid. Så varte det bare to minutter før Azar Karadas tente hele kruttønna igjen.

Men la gå, jeg unner faktisk bergenserne et seriegull. De er tross alt ofte ganske fine folk..

Boikotte Burma?

Noe av det mer interessante under dagens forestilling har vært spørsmålet om boikott av Burma.

Intuitivt tenker man at boikott er det eneste riktige. Tanken på at vi gjennom økonomiske transaksjoner skal være med på å holde liv i militærregimet er uutholdelig.

Mange her hjemme har da også tatt til orde for dette. Men er det egentlig så enkelt?

Se tilbake på Irak og hvor feilslått den langvarige FN-boikotten av landet var. Se på Sudan hvor en ensidig boikott fra enkelte vestlige land ikke har gjort annet enn å bane veien for kinesiske selskaper som glatt ser bort fra de grove forbrytelsene mot menneskeheten som foregår i landet. Dermed er alt man har gjort å styrke Kinas rolle. Neppe hva man ønsket og neppe noe framskritt for menneskerettighetssituasjonen i regionen.

Og boikott vil si å stenge ute, å nekte å samarbeide med. Dermed vil det også si det motsatte av samarbeid, det motsatte av dialog. Og hvor er da redskapene vi trenger for å kunne skape endring?

Hovedproblemene med de ovennevnte boikottene er at de ikke har vært gjennomført av et samlet verdenssamfunn. Og som vi kan se av eksempelet Irak er FN dessverre ikke noen garanti for enhetlig opptreden.

Men det betyr ikke at man skal gi opp! Et godt eksempel på det er Apartheidregimet i Sør Afrika. En av de viktigste faktorene til at det knakk sammen var en effektiv boikott. Et annet eksempel er hvordan man fikk presset Kina til å foreta seg noe overfor Sudan – det resulterte i at man endelig fikk klarsignal for en FN-styrke som faktisk kan utgjøre en forskjell for menneskene i regionen.

Disse viser oss hvor viktig det er å få med de nye stormaktene i Asia når vi ønsker å få til noe for mennesker som lider. Vi er nødt til å få et sterkere fokus på land som India, Kina og Russland, vi er nødt til å få et tettere partnerskap med disse. Tiden da USA alene kunne utgjøre forskjellen er i stor grad forbi selv om landet beholder sin posisjon som verdens eneste supermakt – enn så lenge.

Men selv om vi kan se at boikotter ikke nødvendigvis virker etter hensikten gjør ikke det at vi skal la være å tenke selv. Det er en forskjell på å trekke StatoilHydro ut av land med tvilsomme rulleblad på menneskerettigheter og på det å la være å kjøpe varer mer eller mindre direkte fra kriminelle regimer.

Et vestlig selskap som er lydhøre for tanken om at menneskerettigheter skal tillegges vekt utgjør et positivt potensiale i landene det opererer i. Å kjøpe varer fra kriminelle er noe helt annet.

Derfor er argumentasjonen fra norske selskaper som gjør det siste pinlig. ”Denne vurderingen kan ikke vi gjøre, den må staten gjøre” sier Knut Heiberg-Andersen, direktør i Windy som bruker burmesisk teak. Staten har gjort vurderingen og bedt norske selskaper om ikke å handle med burmesisk teak. Så Heiberg-Andersen tar feil på det punktet.

Dessuten bryter han de forpliktelsene han har som menneske, de samme forpliktelsene nazi-forbrytere ble dømt for ikke å ha overholdt under 2. verdenskrig. ”Vi fulgte bare ordre” sa de. ”Som mennesker hadde dere plikt til å vite bedre” sa domstolene og dømte dem.

På samme måte kan man dømme Knut Heiberg-Andersen og hans medsammensvorne: De er dårlige mennesker og en del av forklaringen på hvorfor mennesker dør og mishandles i Burma.