A Thousand Splendid Suns

The Relationship between Mariam and Laila

Mariam is a harami, a child born out of wedlock, whom after her mother’s death is abandoned by her dad, who marries her off to Rasheed. Her childless marriage to Rasheed forces her into a life of oppression and violence, until Laila enters her life and provides her with some hope. 

Laila lives down the road together with her parents, who eventually dies when a bomb strikes down right outside their house. Laila is taken care of by Mariam and her husband Rasheed, who later on marries her as well.

To begin with, the two of them have a relationship characterized by conflict and disagreement. Mariam would be angry because she’s feeling threatened by the humble new girl, who seems to be replacing her as Rasheed’s wife, making her a servant in a house were she’d lived alone for years. But not long after Laila enters her life, there becomes an understanding between them that blossom into a mother-daughter like relationship. 

When Laila had her first baby, a mutual friendship developed between Mariam and the child, Aziza. Needless to say, Aziza is the one bringing the two women together. Neither of them had the greatest relationship with their mothers, but they complete each other like the pieces of a puzzle, leading to a turning point in their lives. Mariam became the caring mother Laila never had, and Laila and her child became the source of love Mariam never had experienced in her life.

Mariam and Laila stands up for each other like real friends do, both knowing that they can’t achieve freedom without the help of each other.

Rowan Atkinson

Rowan Sebastian Atkinson was born on the 6th of January, 1955. He is an English comedian, screenwriter an actor. Atkinson is famous for the sitcoms Blackadder and Mr. Bean, and in 2005 he was amongst the top 50 comedy actors ever, in a poll of fellow comedians.

Atkinson, the youngest of three brothers, was born in Consett, County Durham, England. He began his career as actor in 1983, with a supporting part in the James Bond movie Never Say Never Again, and a leading role in Dead on Time. After that he has appeared in several movies, e.g. Rat Race (2001), Scooby-Doo (2002) and Love Actually (2003).

His most famous creation, perhaps the character most people think about when hearing his name, is Mr. Bean, who first appeared on New Years Day in 1990. The character described as "a child in a grown man's body" has been in both TV-series and different movies. It's a character it's impossible to not fall in love with!

Videoblog - Invisible People

When I first heard some of the stories told by homeless people from different parts of the USA, as well as watching some episodes of "Skid Row", I was truly shocked, but at the same time amazed about how optimistic many of them were. I also started to think about how much we, especially here in Norway, take for granted. I'm sure that lots of people have experienced bad things during their life, but when you see these videos you realize that you have never truly experienced the desperation of homelessness. And I'm very lucky that I haven't.


The different stories tells us that there's so many homeless people living in the states, and their life is a struggle. And the fact that homeless people is looked upon as invisible is, unfortunately, true. We see them often, but we just ignore them and walk by, thinking that they don't exist, so we don't have to care about them or doing anything with the problem. Several of the homeless people also says that they've had to go to the hospital, paying lots of money, and afterwards they get problems with paying their bills and they see no other way than living on the streets. 


On the other hand, the different stories tells us about the personality of people living in the USA. Even though they're homeless, they're optimistic, hoping, and not at least working, for a better future. It shows us that Americans are hard-working people. After reading and extraction from Magasinet I saw that even though they've had a hard life, or having a hard life, they really loves their own country and they can't imagine a better place to live. The national pride, patriotism, is really strong.


The inventor of this website is a living example that proofs that everyone can break out of their lives as a homeless person, get a job and a place to live. Once he was one of many persons that lived on the street, but he managed to change his life for the better. Today, 3.5 millions in the USA are homeless. It's an increasing problem for the community, as well as it develops into a problem for those who's homeless. Something needs to be done to this, but it's guaranteed that not everyone would be satisfied with what has to be done about it. So how are we supposed to get more people off the streets?

Crash

Today we, my class and I, watched a movie named Crash down in the auditorium – a movie about multiculturalism in the USA. Several stories interweave during two days in Los Angeles, and in the end we get to know how all stories end, and that some of them relate to each other. I think it was a very good directed movie, with excellent actors. All in all it was very interesting and exciting to watch.  I would absolutely recommend you to watch it!

How to behave when stationed in your mentor business

How to behave when stationed in your mentor business

When stationed in your mentor business it’s important that you’re polite with your mentor, as well as the rest of the business. You must listen to what your mentor has to say, and not at least, show interest for the business, that way, you’ll have a lot more fun. You must also do what your mentor says, and simply show good manners!

How not to behave when stationed in your mentor business

When stationed in your mentor business you must not be rude against your mentor, or others working in the business. You should not be walking around, not doing what your mentor tells you. If you act like this, you’ll not have any great benefits of your visit.

Australia 2010 - 1st post

G’day mates!

Well, I’ve finally arrived in The Great Down Under. After a 38 hour long trip, including changing of planes in both London and Singapore and all the waiting it included, I’m exhausted. However, it’s completely worth it when it’s incredibly 34°C outside and you can’t spot a single cloud on the sky no matter how far you look.

I read a lot about Australia before I came, and now I’m going to give you a short résumé:

Australia is a land in Oceania with approximately 21,3 million habitants and its situated south for Indonesia and Papua New Guinea separated by the Arafura Sea. It’s a huge country covering more than 7,5 millions square kilometers, or almost twenty-four times the area of Norway, which makes it 6^th biggest country in the world in area.

The Great Down Under is also the flattest continent in the world and it has the oldest and least fertile soils. Only the south-east and south-west corner of Australia has a temperate and sub tropic climate, and the major part of the population lives here. The Northern part of Australia has a tropical climate and consists of rainforests, forests, plains, deserts and mangrove sumps.

Let’s go over to the history of this magnificent country in short moves:

After decades of research scientists believes that the first habitants came to Australia from Indonesia for over 50 000 years ago and spread over the whole continent. Thousands of thousands years later the first Europeans started to explore the coasts of Australia. In 1770 the English explorer and navigator James Cook settled in Botany Bay (a bay in what’s Sydney today) and claimed it as a part of Great Britain.

This was the beginning of the colonization that exploded in 1787 when eleven ships full of prisoners left Great Britain heading southwards against Australia. A member of James Cooks crew said that this huge country would’ve been a great place to keep prisoners as the jails in England where crowded. Later on others came to Australia as well, and when they found gold in 1850 it started to flock in with immigrants. In 1868 the transport of prisoners ended and by then more 

than 160 000 criminals and lots of other people had settled down in The Land Down Under.   

Since Australia was so far away from England and it was such a huge country, the habitants wanted their own government. One by one the different colonies (regions) got their own self-government. January the 1^st in 1901 all the colonies became one and Australia was now an own nation. It was still a part of the Commonwealth of Nations but it was now and own independent country with its own self-government.

I’m pretty tired right now so I think I’ll go to bed within a few minutes. Tomorrow, I’m going to spend a day on my own wandering around Sydney. I promise that I’ll post some pictures!

Australia 2010 - 4th post

Hey guys!

This will most likely be the last post on my travel blog before I head back home to Norway. Here it goes:

 

I spent my last full day at Australia Zoo which is located in Queensland, the north-eastern part of Australia. And man they had lots of animals: Cheetahs, dingoes, kangaroos, koalas, red pandas, Tasmanian devils, crocodiles, lizards and a load of exotic birds. And many of them are endemic to Australia. Since they were gathered in one place I didn’t have to hackle the whole country to see them.

The area where the park is standing was bought in 1970 by Lyn and Bob Irwin, the parents of the famous Australian television personality Steve Irwin. 

Steve Irwin, also known as “The Crocodile Hunter”, was a wildlife expert and conservationist. You’ve probably seen him on TV channels like Animal Planet, Discovery and TV Norge. I would say that he’s Australia’s most famous person, at least he’s the one of things I think of when someone says “Australia”. Unfortunately he died on the 4th of September 2006 after being stabbed by a stingray while filming an underwater documentary in the Great Barrier Reef.

Oh no, I forgot something! My mom isn’t very with computers and stuff, and since she visited Australia some years ago she has wanted to get an explanation of the Australian flag. She doesn’t know how to search for something at the internet, and she’s kind of lazy so she hasn’t bothered asking someone for it either. So this is for you mom, here it goes:

The Australian flag is blue and it has three elements in it: the Union Jack, the Commonwealth Star and the Southern Cross. The Union Jack, in the upper right corner, represents Australia’s history as six British colonies. It also demonstrates their respect for the British Empire. Below the Union Jack you’ll find the Commonwealth Star. This represents the seven British colonies that federated and became one country. On the right side of the flag we can see the Southern Cross, a constellation which consists of five stars. This can be seen from all of Australia’s states and territories.

That was it, right now I’m sitting on the balcony watching the beautiful sunset while thinking back on all the wonderful days I’ve had her in Oz. It has been an experience I’ll never forget, a memory for life. I have to shed a tear. I really hope that I’ll get another opportunity to come back to this terrific country. I’ll tell you more when I’m home in Norway…

See you later, alligator!