Hurray!
The Class (France) and Waltz with Bashir (Israel) are both nominated for Best Foreign Language Film of the year! Congratulations!
For more, read my latest articles on the films in the February editions of Innsikt and Voksne for Barn.
torsdag 22. januar 2009
onsdag 21. januar 2009
Journalist and human rights lawyer killed
The double murder of a top human rights lawyer and a journalist in Moscow has reinforced the fears of those who say that in Russia words alone can put you in mortal danger, BBC reports.
Journalist Anastasia Baburova was wounded in the attack which killed human rights lawyer Mr Markelov. She later died of her injuries. Anastasia Baburova was with Mr Markelov when - investigators say - a masked gunman shot him in the head. After shooting Mr Markelov, the gunman shot her.
Anastasia Baburova (26) was a trainee with the newspaper Novaya Gazeta. The paper specialises in human rights stories, and used to employ Anna Politkovskaya, the investigative reporter who was herself murdered in 2006.
Mr Markelov had worked on numerous high-profile human rights cases. Most famously, he represented the family of Elza Kungayeva, a Chechen woman raped and killed by a Russian army officer in 2000. Elza Kungayeva - who was known as Kheda to her family - was murdered by Colonel Yuri Budanov.
Mr Markelov had campaigned against Yuri Budanov's early release. But last week, a court ruled that Budanov could go free. The court decision led to protests in Chechnya, a volatile North Caucasus republic deeply scarred by heavy fighting between Russian forces and separatist rebels since 1994.
Read more here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7839858.stm
tirsdag 13. januar 2009
Farewell Arne Næss
Our inspiring and dear philosopher Arne Næss has passed away.
He is widely regarded as the foremost Norwegian philosopher of the 20th century, and was the founder of deep ecology. His philosophical work focused on Spinoza, Buddhism and Gandhi.
- Jeg tror svært mange reflekterer alt for lite over sitt liv og sin tilværelse. Eller de begynner med det for sent.
He is widely regarded as the foremost Norwegian philosopher of the 20th century, and was the founder of deep ecology. His philosophical work focused on Spinoza, Buddhism and Gandhi.
- Jeg tror svært mange reflekterer alt for lite over sitt liv og sin tilværelse. Eller de begynner med det for sent.
Self-fulfilling prophecies
The American political scientist Samuel P. Huntington, who gained prominence through his Clash of Civilizations thesis of a post-Cold War new world order, died December 24th 2008.
I’ve read some obituaries since, and would like to remind everyone of the concept of self-fulfilling prophecies:
"Some see Huntington's thesis as creating a self-fulfilling prophecy and reasserting differences between civilizations. Edward Said issued a response to Huntington's thesis in his own essay entitled "The Clash of Ignorance". Said argues that Huntington's categorization of the world's fixed "civilizations" omits the dynamic interdependency and interaction of culture. All his ideas are based not on harmony but on the clash or conflict between worlds. The theory that each world is “self-enclosed” is applied to the world map, to the structure of civilizations, to the notion that each race has a special destiny and psychology. According to Said, it is an example of an imagined geography, where the presentation of the world in a certain way legitimates certain politics. Interventionist and aggressive, the concept of civilizational clash is aimed at maintaining a war time status in the minds of the Americans. Thus, it continues to expand the Cold War by other means rather than advancing ideas that might help us understand the current scene or that could reconcile cultures.
Critics (see Le Monde Diplomatique articles) call The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order the theoretical legitimization of American-led Western aggression against China and the world's Islamic cultures. Nevertheless, this post–Cold War shift in geopolitical organization and structure requires that the West internally strengthen itself culturally, by abandoning the imposition of its ideal of democratic universalism and its incessant military interventionism. Other critics argue that Huntington's taxonomy is simplistic and arbitrary, and does not take account of the internal dynamics and partisan tensions within civilizations. Huntington's influence upon U.S. policy has been likened to that of British historian A.J. Toynbee's controversial religious theories about Asian leaders in the early twentieth century.
Personal Representative of the Secretary-General for the UN Year of Dialogue Among Civilizations, has said:
- History does not kill. Religion does not rape women, the purity of blood does not destroy buildings and institutions do not fail. Only individuals do those things".
For more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clash_of_Civilizations
I’ve read some obituaries since, and would like to remind everyone of the concept of self-fulfilling prophecies:
"Some see Huntington's thesis as creating a self-fulfilling prophecy and reasserting differences between civilizations. Edward Said issued a response to Huntington's thesis in his own essay entitled "The Clash of Ignorance". Said argues that Huntington's categorization of the world's fixed "civilizations" omits the dynamic interdependency and interaction of culture. All his ideas are based not on harmony but on the clash or conflict between worlds. The theory that each world is “self-enclosed” is applied to the world map, to the structure of civilizations, to the notion that each race has a special destiny and psychology. According to Said, it is an example of an imagined geography, where the presentation of the world in a certain way legitimates certain politics. Interventionist and aggressive, the concept of civilizational clash is aimed at maintaining a war time status in the minds of the Americans. Thus, it continues to expand the Cold War by other means rather than advancing ideas that might help us understand the current scene or that could reconcile cultures.
Critics (see Le Monde Diplomatique articles) call The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order the theoretical legitimization of American-led Western aggression against China and the world's Islamic cultures. Nevertheless, this post–Cold War shift in geopolitical organization and structure requires that the West internally strengthen itself culturally, by abandoning the imposition of its ideal of democratic universalism and its incessant military interventionism. Other critics argue that Huntington's taxonomy is simplistic and arbitrary, and does not take account of the internal dynamics and partisan tensions within civilizations. Huntington's influence upon U.S. policy has been likened to that of British historian A.J. Toynbee's controversial religious theories about Asian leaders in the early twentieth century.
Personal Representative of the Secretary-General for the UN Year of Dialogue Among Civilizations, has said:
- History does not kill. Religion does not rape women, the purity of blood does not destroy buildings and institutions do not fail. Only individuals do those things".
For more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clash_of_Civilizations
mandag 12. januar 2009
Waltz with Bashir wins Golden Globe!
CONGRATULATIONS!
Golden Globe Best Foreign Language Film: Waltz with Bashir
This is an amazing animated documentary, with fabulous music. Fingers x for the Oscars!
www.waltzwithbashir.com
Golden Globe Best Foreign Language Film: Waltz with Bashir
This is an amazing animated documentary, with fabulous music. Fingers x for the Oscars!
www.waltzwithbashir.com
torsdag 8. januar 2009
Markeringer og prioriteringer...
Avisene melder ikveld om "harde gatekamper". Pøbler har tent på julegranen, og for ikke å glemme – en søppelbøtte! Klokken 18 forteller norske nyhetsformidlere på radio, TV og Internett at Oslo ligger tåkelagt. Det svir i øynene og folk får nesten ikke puste. Merkelig nok klarer jeg å puste fritt her på Bislett og våger meg ned til sentrum for å markere ønsket om fred. Om fred i menneskesinnet, nasjoner imellom og i verden. Jeg nekter å la meg skremme av bildene fra sentrum. 30 sekunders stillhet sammen med flere tusen mennesker på Youngstorget gjør inntrykk, i likhet med det flotte fakkeltoget til Rådhusplassen. Det fantes visst litt engasjement igjen i den velfødde fredsnasjonen likevel. Vel hjemme nevner ikke Kveldsnytt fakkelbærerne med ett ord. Julegranen står i fokus, og en politimann med brannslukningsapparat over en søppelbøtte... Det neste er vel Jan Thomas på forsiden av VG i morgen, ”de ødela salongen min, igjen!” Er det rart at verden blir som den blir når fred, engasjement og inspirerende nyheter fremdeles lider under prioriteringen ”bad news is good news”?
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