Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968) was an inspirational Baptist minister in America. He received the Nobel peace prize for his work regarding the civil rights of the African Americans suffering from the white supremacy in America. He is most known for his role in the progression of civil rights. He was a nonviolent representative due to his Christian beliefs and inspiration from the nonviolent activism displayed by Mahatma Gandhi.

Throughout his life as an activist, Dr. King endured hate and racism. Early in his life, shortly after he became an activist, Martin Luther King Jr. lead the Montgomery bus boycott. In quick succession, he progressed through his life leading several demonstrations and most notably his march on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963. Before the Lincoln Memorial, he gave his renowned speech; "I Have a Dream".

In 1965, Dr. Kings organization SCLC and the SNCC lead the walk from Selma to Montgomery protesting their current inability to vote. The system was flawed, designed to oppress the African American community. The current system allowed every citizen to register to vote, however, an African American citizen would have to complete the Alabama Literacy Test to register. The end of the test was an oral questioning before a board member at their instruction. The applicant would have to be able to recite any excerpts from the U. S. Constitution. Further on the applicant would be tested in their writing skills. The test is seemingly impossibly as displayed in the movie Selma (2015), as the board member could request anything from the applicant, such as: "Name the 67 state judges in Alabama".

The march from Selma to Montgomery orchestrated by the SCLC and SNCC was a major turning point in the efforts to gain the support from the public for the civil rights movement. The march was depicted by news organizations and portrayed in the film earlier spoken of. Selma presents the situation as gory and brutal. Although Dr. King was not present during the first walk, it was clear that he had been planning the march. The nonviolent protest is now referred to as "Bloody Sunday" due to the outbreak of police brutality during the peaceful demonstration. The footage collected by said news organizations caused outrage nationally. After the incident, Martin Luther King Jr. had an outcry for justice, he gathered people of faith of any race to help the cause with the statement "all men are made equal". The support of the people of faith and Caucasians relieved the successful walk of brutality.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. sacrificed everything for what he believed in; equality.

"A life is not fully lived, unless you die for those you love and what you believe in." -Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Brexit Regarding Scotland

There are several debates going on in the current British political climate. EU? Brexit? Northern Ireland and Brexit? And so on. On the other hand, there is one country we are about to forget. Scotland. They have two separate questions they need to figure out. Do they want to stay in the EU and do they want to become independent?

Referendum for independence
In 2014, Scotland held a referendum on whether they wanted to stay in the UK or not. Even though the polls former to the referendum showed that Scotland wanted their independence, the result showed something else. The referendum ended up with a 55% majority for staying in the UK. It is important to emphasize that this referendum was held before Brexit was introduced.

Stance regarding Brexit
For the Brexit referendum, Scotland expressed a wish for staying in the EU. They had a great majority voting to stay. Only 38% voted for leaving. Though, they had a pretty low turnout. Only 68% decided to vote. On the other hand, the low turnout cannot disguise the great desire among the Scottish people to stay in the EU. The result from Brexit might also distance Scotland more from the UK. Considering the results of the referendum in 2014, the "staying in the UK" side had a slight majority of just 5%. If a similar referendum was held today, the result might have been very different. Since the UK and Scotland are so distanced politically, there is most likely a greater urge among the Scottish people to leave the UK, and stay in the EU.

Political parties
The whole situation gets more complicated when you look at what the different political parties mean. The Scottish National Party (SNP) has a strong voice for both staying in the EU and leaving the UK. More or less what I assumed the Scottish people wanted. This gets complicated when you look at the last snap-general election result. The SNP managed to lose 21 seats in the house of commons. There might have been other factors playing in other than only Brexit and independence, but it still sends a signal.

As I see it, Scotland needs two separate referendums. First, they need to figure out whether they want to stay in the UK or not (again), and then they need to figure out if they still want to be a part of the UK. We are entering an age of great political changes, and Scotland might contribute to that.

Written by Karl and Léon

Why Donald Trump's presidency will last for three more years

Many believe that Donald Trumps presidency will last another four years. We are going to tell you why.

Donald Trumps presidency reached new heights when he called African countries, Haiti and El Salvador “shithole countries”. When calling out said countries he managed to drag Norway into his great statement by wondering why people would live in Haiti when they can live in Norway.

Trump has spent more time attacking Republicans than Democrats. If Trump is going to want to pass his agenda, he needs to expand his Senate majority. As intelligent as Trump is, he talks down his own party to gain more support from the Democrats. During his first year as the president, he spent an inordinate amount of time in his first year at war with members of his own party. Speaking of war, Trump is also empowering al-Qaeda in Syria. He is forging a de facto alliance with Russia and Iran to defeat the Islamic State, Trump is driving Sunni Arabs into the waiting arms of al-Qaeda — which is preparing to replace the Islamic State and is much more dangerous.

Miranda rights are given to captured terrorists. Trump promised to start treating captured terrorists as enemy combatants again, but instead of intelligence-driven interrogation and sending terrorists to Guantanamo Bay, he has continued Obama’s criminal-justice approach to terrorist detention.

Also, Trump stood by Roy Moore, endorsing the candidacy of a man who is accused of pursuing sexual relationships with a number of women between the ages of 14 and 19 when he was in his 30s. Trump expressed his opinions on the matter through Twitter like he does with his other informative matters.Abraham Lincoln’s words were chiseled in granite. John F. Kennedy’s words are embedded in the national consciousness.

A year into President Trump’s term, his most memorable lines come from his tweets! Here is one for you:

Trump sees the world through one lens: "How does this affect me?" In his first year of presidency, he has proven why he should be reelected as president. An example is the muslim ban he introduced right after the election. Donald Trump is a "solid genius" and these reasons explain why he will be reelected.   

Global goal 5

Gender Equality

Global Goals have been a topic of focus in a class for a very long time now. Whenever we have a possibility, we try to relate to them in our lessons and be reminded of how important it actually is to make changes. Today, we focus specifically on goal number 5, which in our opinion, should be prioritized and taken into account as first.

Global Goal 5

"Women’s status in society has become the standard by which humanity’s progress toward civility and peace can be measured"- Mahnaz Afkhami

Everyday, woman and girls all over the world are exposed to discrimination, many forms of violence, and even harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage. None of this should be happening now in the modern world in 2017. Therefore, me and my group are focusing on specifically this goal, to take part in eliminating gender inequality, and to help provide women and girls with equal access to education, health care, decent work, and representation in political and economic decision-making processes.

Even in industrialized countries, as of 2017, there is inequality between men and women. In the United States Congress, only 20.3% of the members are women, according to the Congressional Research Service. Furthermore, there are less female CEOs than there are male CEOs, women tend to be in lower-paying jobs, but the situation in the developing world is worse. From a young age, it seems that girls are less likely to get an education, many cultures practice patrilocality, which means that when a man and a woman get married, they tend to stay close to the man’s family, and the woman is considered more a member of her husband's family than her own birth family. In several cultures the property and name pass on to the male descendant, so a widow will not inherit her husband's properties, that goes directly to the son. The widow then has to rely on her son to maintain her standard of living. This increases the probability that both men and women would want a son more than a daughter. This is also a reason to why many parents seem to invest more time and money in their sons rather than their daughters.

Developing countries do not have a strong economy, and depend heavily on agriculture and other sectors that relies on physical attributes, rather than services, which require brain power and not muscle power. Physiologically speaking, men are stronger than women, and they can easily get jobs in sectors like agriculture. This results in men earning money, and women staying at home looking after the children and because the culture in developing countries tend to favorize boys getting education, the girls stay at home, so the mother’s will look after the girls and teach them to be a housewife

Therefore, spreading awareness is our main and biggest target. We will try to achieve that by writing about it, making videos, and informing others. Together with a class in New York, at Lindenhurst High School, we collaborate in order to spread the word and make a difference together.

Written by Sandra, Sondre and Leon.

From Brexit to Flexit

The Conservative party was once called the most successful electoral party in the west. Ian Maclead, minister in four conservative governments during the post-war period, has concluded with the best phrase for their pragmatic view; "The Socialists can scheme their schemes, the Liberals can dream their dreams, but we have work to do." To contrast to today's parties are huge. The most notable difference is the view of the EU. The party has strived for five years to end the "friendship" with the EU. The conversation about the EU is practically taboo when meeting in social situations, Nicky Morgan, a previous minister stated.

Because of Brexit, the three last conservative prime ministers have lost their job: Margaret Thatcher, John Major, David Cameron. Many would debate that David Cameron should not have announced a referendum, which is something he did not have to do. The referendum leads to Camerons resigning and The beginning of Theresa May. May started off well, however, after she called for a re-election she faced a disaster. Before the election, she had a 20% lead. But after the election on the 8th of June, she lost the majority in the house she wanted to resign. According to the Norwegian "Aftenposten", The conservative party beseeched her to stay, not because they had faith in her, but because there was no one to replace her. Now she has a two-year plan where she is 2019 will aim for an "EØS-Light" version. A new election will be the cause of the possible resignation or impeachment of Theresa May. The result will be the choice of a new leader within the party. Boris Johnson is currently the fan favorite.

The importance of knowledge

Written by Runa, Bibbi and Léon

A lot of people are interested in what came previous to our generation's existence, but most people think that our history is boring, especially History class. Students are prone to boredom and to finding things difficult. History class is a class that informs us of how we got to where we are in the society today - how the human race built cities, formed languages, went from hunting for their life to simply going to the closest store and so on. However important our history is, there is a lot of it. Meaning that everything can't be interesting. Students get excited by the opportunity to watch a movie, not reading or sitting through a lecture. Even though the material is interesting most students will not be thrilled to read about it in a book and that is perhaps why people find the class so difficult. Because it demands reading.

Although it seems boring, it is obvious to many of us how relevant it is to our existence. But, some students, like I, are unable to see how it will come to use in our adult day-to-day lifestyle (depending on what you are going to pursue as a career in the future).

The way we are taught History in Norway today makes us unaware of how we will be able to use it in our future. We need a teaching system that gets us eager to learn and invokes our need for it. Or at least understand why. We receive large amounts of intricate information over short timespan and it doesn’t allow us to absorb it all. Yes, we are taught History from a young age, but what our teacher spoke about when we were younger is simple and doesn’t really give us the foundation we need to process the material in High School.

How to uncover fake news:

1. Don’t trust the headlines, be skeptical.

Fake news has the tendency to draw the reader in by creating “screaming”, “interesting” and/or “catchy” headlines with capital letters and exclamation point at the end to catch the reader's attention. If the headlines indulge in bizarre allegations or claims that seem too good or bad or just fictional to be true, they usually are.

2.  Take a closer look at the URL.  

A counterfeit or copied URL can and should be a “red flag” on fake news. Many websites that posts and produce fake news imitates more authentic and credible news sites by doing small amendments to the URL. To avoid getting fooled by this, one can go to the websites and compare that URL to the URL of a more reliable source.   

3. Research the source.

Ensure that the news is written off of a reliable source and who has a resume of being of being so. If the news are published by an unknown organization, you should look at their “About Us” page to find out more.

4. Look out for irregular formatting.

Many websites that produce fake news contain spelling errors and/or irregular layouts. If the website you are receiving the news from check these boxes, you should be skeptical of their content.

5. Judge the pictures.

Fake news often use manipulated pictures or videos. Sometimes the pictures are real but used in another context. However, you can use a search engine to find the origin of the photo or video.

6. Control the dates.

Fake news often contains timelines that don’t make sense or dates that have been manipulated.

7. Check the facts.

Make sure to research the writer's sources to confirm that they are correct. If the article/news are missing evidence or refrains from listing experts, it could be mean it is fake news.

8. Look at other reports

If there are no other sources reporting the news, it might be a sign of fake news.  If there are multiple trustworthy sources who are reporting the same news, it’s more lightly to be true.  

9. Is the news a joke?

Sometimes it can be hard to separate between fake news and humor or satire. See if the source is known for humoristic parodies and if the details in the news seem like it’s meant as a joke.

10. Some news are made fake on purpose

Be critical with the news you read, and do only share the trustworthy news.

Donald Trump

Donald Trump is one of the most seen and heard, aka influential, people in the world as of today. With this much power comes responsibility for, not just for himself and his actions, but for his people, and also respect for his job. These are two assets he seems to neglect in every aspect of his work. This, and the fact that, and here i quote Michael Hayden; “ He just doesn’t have an interest in the world,” is what i find the most disturbing about Trump. When your job is to run an empire like The United States of America, it is your duty to not make statements or claims from the top of your head just because you want to or feel the need to  say something. Donald Trump has got a severe case of mouth diarrhea, however if he'd actually known anything about the world history it wouldn't be this big of an issue.

Donald Trump did in April claim that Korea “used to be a part of China”, which I know is not true, Korea has never been a part of China. I also know that nobody pays the US for NATO, so when the president stated that Germany owed “vast sums” to the US for nato, I knew that was false. I know the difference between Napoleon III and Napoleon Bonaparte, and so should the President do. Another thing the President and his crew has mistaken is misspelling important guests name, position or country. This is a really unprofessional trait, which only helps decrease the amount of respect the white house receives from all over the world.  I find it shocking that high school students at the age of eighteen know more historical facts than the President of the United States. Many of the correct answers to these false accusations could be put into the category “common knowledge”. I for one believe a person in the position of the President of the United state should contain enough knowledge to cover such an easy field. Sometimes it seems like he’s just guessing or making up statements by whatever mood he’s in.

I mean don't get me wrong, he probably knows more than us about some aspects of life, for example how to get an audience to listen to you and how to speak in a way that makes everything he is saying sound like the truth or the right solution. This is a personal trait he has perfected, and If  he'd only learn the facts and history around the topics he chooses to comment on, he would most likely be taken more serious in the important conversations that his job acquires him to take part in. What is so sad is that he has all the facts available to him through the people he is surrounded by, and chooses not care enough about it to use these “tools”. By doing so he offends the presidents that came before him, he offends other nations. He offends the previous generations and he offends the world history and he those who actually knows it. To know the world history and actively choose not to repeat it is the only way to make progress, and it seems like Trump definitely is not a fan of a progressive society. He does not see the point in knowing about past mistakes, and he does not learn from his own either. It is a crime against the world that a president should not be allowed to make. But then again he did not become president on his own and i know that it agitates a “tremendous” - to use one of his most common words against him, amount of the worlds’ population, especially americans, that they have unleashed such a careless force as their public spokesperson, and governing face.

Every human being has the right to say their opinion and tell their truth. However, since Trump represents more than just himself everytime he speaks, i hope he sooner rather than later understands that this is not working. That he has to change before his people and the rest of the world will feel the wrath of his dependable mistakes.

Hidden Figures

The American drama film Hidden Figures (2016) is based on a true story. The story of how afro-American women in the United States of America were able to succeed in the 1960's. We meet the mathematician Katherine Goble (played by Taraji P. Henson), her colleague Mary Jackson (played by Janelle Monáe) and her supervisor Dorothy Vaughan (played by Octavia Spencer) in the year 1961. While the movie mainly revolves around Katherine Gobles contribution to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration during the space race, the movie portrays a more important topic; equality, both by gender and race. We also meet Glen Powell as John Glenn, an American astronaut. He was the first American to orbit Earth, circling it three times in 1962.

Sources:

Wikipedia. (2017, March 30). Hidden Figures. Retrieved March 31, 2017 from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hidden_Figures

Wikipedia. (2017, March 30). John Glenn. Retrieved March 31, 2017 from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Glenn