Parliaments in Britain

The Parliament is made up of the House of Commons and the House of Lords. We, the people choose our representatives, who sit in parliament, and these representatives make all the decisions that have to be made at a national level to run society and to change things which they think need to be changed. We choose these representatives in an election. In Britain there are 646 representatives, called Members of Parliament or MPs in the House of Commons. Each one of them represents one constituency. On the day of a general election, there is an election in each of these constituencies. No more than five years can pass between two general elections. On the Election Day, the winner takes it all. There are no extra seats in the House of Commons to be shared out to brave losers. Because it makes it very difficult for medium-sized or small parties to get any of their candidates elected as MPs, the British electoral system is often called unfair.

The leader of the party with the largest number of MPs is the Prime Minister. The prime minister has enormous power like for example he decides the government’s overall strategy. The MPs has the greatest political power - Now, what do they do? They are involved in considering and proposing new laws and can use their position to ask government ministers questions about current issues. They split their time between working in parliament itself, working in the constituency that elected them, and working for their political party. Most MPs are members of one of the three biggest political parties.

The House of Lords is made up of 750 members called Peers. What they do is that they spend about 60% of their time initiating, examining and revising legislation. They are questioning Government and debating policy and finally providing a forum of independent expertise. There are a few ways to become a member of the House of Lords. One example is that you can inherit a title. The Peers are not elected by the people, but can also be elected by the government.

The third part of parliament is the Monarch, ergo the Queen. The Monarch is the official head of state. The monarch does not play any part in the decision making process of parliament. So the monarch rules only symbolically. But the Queen does have to sign the laws that parliament votes for.

Northern Ireland

The colonization of Ireland: In 1170 Ireland becomes England’s first colony. Henry Vlll’s reign rules from 1507 to 1547, which means that all of Ireland is controlled by England. Then, in 1610, Protestants from Scotland settle in Northern Ireland. The Irish war of Independence was a guerrilla war mounted against the British government in Ireland by the Irish Republican Army. The result was the Angelo-Irish Treaty. It established Irish Free State and Northern Ireland.

The Irish Civil War lasted from June 1922 to May 1923. The Free State Army supported the agreement that divided Ireland while the IRA was opposed to the agreement. The war was won by the Free State Army. The Irish were Catholics and the English and Scottish who settled in Northern Ireland were Protestants. In Northern Ireland the Irish Catholics were poor and suppressed by the Protestants. The issues of the conflict were economy, national identity, equal rights and opportunities and independence after colonization. The Population of Northern Ireland today consists of 60% Protestants and 40% Catholics.

In 1969 British troops stationed in Northern Ireland. On April 30th 1972, 27 civil rights protesters were shot by members of the 1st Battalion of the British Parachute Regiment; this day is called Bloody Sunday. During the 70s and 80s several bombings/gun attacks happened in Northern Ireland. In 1974, there were terrorist bombings in Birmingham, England. Heading towards peace? In 1998 the Good Friday Agreement was passed. It sets out a plan for devolved government in Northern Ireland on a stable and inclusive basis and provided for the creation of Human Rights and Equality commissions, the early release of terrorist prisoners, the decommissioning of paramilitary weapons and far reaching reforms of criminal justice and policing. And in 2005 the IRA agrees to end violence and weapons are destroyed.

I’ve also read Liam O' Flaherty's gripping short story "The Sniper" from the Irish Civil War. Here’s a summary:
The Sniper is a story about two snipers, who's trying to kill each other. They're lying on each side of the road, both of them on rooftops, both trying to get a glimpse of the other. One of the snipers decides to take a smoke, although he knows it’s a big risk. The moment he light his lighter, the other sniper takes a shot. He misses, and the smoker puts out his smoke. Then suddenly an armored car makes its way up the road and stops between the two snipers to talk with an old lady informer. The enemy sniper of the car takes a shot and kills both the lady and the driver, but at the same time, he gets hit by the other sniper in his right arm. It hurts so bad that he can't use his rifle. To kill his enemy sniper, he waves his sniper with his cap on top over the parapet, and just as he hoped, his enemy takes a shot at the cap. He now drops his cap and the rifle to the ground to fake his death. A few moments later, he peers over at his enemy, who is standing on the rooftop across the street with his rifle over his head in victory. The sniper sees his opportunity, and takes a shot at him with his revolver. The enemy falls to the ground dead. It is now safe for the sniper to go out in the road. He gets curious about who the other sniper was, and walks over to check it out. He turns the dead body, and sees the face of his brother.

http://www.nio.gov.uk/index/key-issues/the-agreement.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_War_of_Independence http://annejohnsrud.blogspot.com/2009/03/troubles-in-northern-ireland.html

The Reconstruction period

The Reconstruction period in America lasted from 1865 to 1877. Since then many historians have argued whether the Reconstruction was a success or a failure. During this period great occurrences happened for the African Americans, and here are two of them.

The first big success was the Freedmen's Bureau. Before the Thirteenth Amendment was implemented African Americans were slaves. Meaning they were without any personal possessions like food and clothing. And worst of all, they were not allowed any formal education! The Freedmen's Bureau was an organization established by Congress, during Reconstruction period, to provide food, clothing, hospitals, legal protection and education to former slaves and also poor whites. Now, with education, African Americans were able to go out and get a job and manage to provide food, a place to live and take care of their family on their own.

The second huge success was the Fifteenth Amendment that gave African Americans the right to vote. It stated that no one could be kept from voting because of their skin color, race or previous condition of servitude. Even though African Americans didn't have much experience within politics their votes made a huge impact on the results of political elections. The winner of the 1868 presidential election was a man named Ulysses S. Grant. He was the Civil War hero and the presidential candidate of the Republican Party which fought for the African Americans rights during the Civil War. They were also the force behind the Fourteenth Amendment, which gave African Americans citizenship. With African Americans able to vote, nine out of ten voted for Grant. If it hadn't been for the African Americans votes, then the Republicans would never have won the election! But not only could the African Americans vote, they also became active politicians after the Civil War and some were actually members of the U.S. Congress, one of them was Hiram Revels, the first African American senator!

Without the Freedmen's Bureau and the Fifteenth Amendment African Americans wouldn't have the life they have today. These two steps were just a part of the process for the African Americans to become American citizens with civil rights after the Civil War.

Senior project

These next few weeks all the students in my class will be working on their senior project. This is a project where we get to choose what we want to write about from this year’s curriculum. Some of the topics we get to choose from are history, politics, economic conditions etc. within Great Britain or America. When we are done with writing this project we will present it to the rest of the class. I will work together with Anette on this presentation.

I have chosen to write about the difference between the Norwegian and the American school system. I graduated from an American high school last year; this year I will be graduating from my Norwegian high school, so that’s why I think it would be fun to compare the two school systems with each other.

My winter break

I went to Lifjell for my winter break with my family and some family-friends. Lifjell is a mountain area close to Bø in Telemark County. I went cross-country skiing and sledding, but for the most part I was just relaxing. When I’m at my cottage I also like to play cards when I’m inside. The weather was really nice, almost like Easter. The last part of my vacation I spent at home with my friends and watched movies. Winter break is now over and I’m back at school. Today we had activity day at Sandvika High School and I went cross-country skiing again and the conditions were pretty good.

The Falklands War

The Falklands are a dense group of more than 740 Islands. These Islands are located 400 miles off the south-eastern tip of South America. The population here is diverse; British, Scandinavian and Chilean. Still, their overhead is the Queen of England.

The Falklands War was fought in 1982 between the United Kingdom and Argentina. The war started with the Argentine invasion and occupation of the Falkland Islands on 2 April 1982. It ended with the Argentine surrender on 14 June 1982. To Argentina this occurrence was considered as a re-occupation of its own territory, and by the UK as an invasion of a British overseas territory. Britain eventually gained victory and the islands remained under British control but Argentina shows no sign of giving up its claim. The war resulted in all 907 deaths, of which 649 were Argentine and the remaining 258 soldiers were British. The political effects of the war were strong in both countries -among other factors, patriotism!

We recognize this patriotism in the movie “This is England”. The movie is set in 1983 and is about a troubled young boy who lost his father in the Falklands War. One day he comes across a few skinheads and they become his best friends. Then he meets “Combo”, an extremely patriotic man and the cute little boy is no longer so cute. We really get to see the impact the war had on England, and how it affected the people.

What students want

In this lecture by Michael Wesch, an assistant professor of cultural anthropology at Kansas State University, it is discussed whether the Internet is positive or negative for the student’s education. The technology extends more and more for very day. Each day something new shows up is added at the Internet and to explore the learning through the Internet we have to take risks.

Michael once asked his students: “How many do not actually like school?” Over half of the students raised their hands. Then he asked them: “How many do not like learning?” And there were no hands. Kinds of weird as the students are learning in school…

The Internet is a new type of media used to educate students. At my school every student has his/her own computer, and we use it in every class. And I have to agree; the Internet – for example Facebook can easily distract the students. But we also use Internet for the good; we look up information to learn more. The computer is a device allowing the students to interact with each other during class (and of course outside class as well). This can affect the students both in a negative way as well as in a positive way.

Maybe at times I would learn more if I didn’t have my computer in front of me, but in most cases I wouldn’t. By using my computer I can easier take notes in class and at the same time be attentive to the lecture the teacher is giving.

Michael states that: “We need to move from being knowledgeable to be creating students who are knowledge-able. Meaning able to criticize, analyze, share and evaluate the information we are given. The point is not to remove the Internet access for students, but to teach them how to use the Internet in a positive way.” I agree with this, I think we learn more by using our computers in addition to our textbooks!