Life is hard, and then you die.
Some very stupid people in Europe has printed some very insulting drawings of the Prophet Muhammed (PBUH).
I am sad to report that the second paper who printed it was the Norwegian magazine Magazinet. Magazinet is in no way interested in freedom of speach. They just did it to insult our Muslim Cousins.
Personaly I am against freedom of speech. I am for a limited right of expression. What do I mean by that? Well, I think people should be allowed to say and print whatever they want as long as it doesn't contain the following:
- Child porn
- Necrofilia and other illegal forms of sex
- Incitement to violence
- Incitement to racism
- Blasphemy (God doesn't need protection by law, but it should be illegal to deliberatly hurt peoples religious feelings, like with these cartoons and the Satanic Verses). Blasplemy often just boils down to "religious racism", like when the Prophet (PBUH) is pictured with a turban shaped like a bomb; Insinuating that all Muslims are terrorists.
- In Monarchies like Norway: Insulting the Monarch.
- Unfounded slander
Other than this, people should be free to express what they want.
Depicting the Prophet (PBUH) in itself is banned in most forms of Islam (apart from Shia). That is not something we non-Muslims should feel bound by. But the cartoons, which are not funny at all, is one step too far.
---
Henrik Ibsen Writes about what he sees around him
It was obvious: Ibsen had to get away from Bergen. He returned to Christiania, this time to live off his deamatics. Nationaltheateret (The National Theater) had recently opened, "Folk og rvere i Kardemomme by" (When the Robbers Came to Cardamom Town by Thorbjrn Egner) wasn't written yet and they had to put on something.
Henrik Ibsen was at a crossroad. He had written some ten plays with its action taking place in historic times. Most has been refused, and when they were put up, it was in heavily cut down versions. When "Kejser og Galiler" (Emperor and Galilean) was played at the Nationaltheateret, the Roman occupation army had been reduced from 800 soldiers to less than half. Even then the stage was to small. Head of theatre, Nils Fasting, felt he had stretched far to fulfill Ibsens wishes, but the author was not satisfied. He was still insulted from what had happened the year before during the playing of his last pice, Spartanerene (The Spartans). Then the instructor had deleted the entire sea-battle! As if they wanted to twist the knife in the wound, Ibsens name was misprinted in the program. Fasting blamed the printers, but nonetheless it still said: Erik H. Bensin.
Let us visit him, as he sits at his desk in the glow of the gas light. It is a September evening. Outside the windows a horse cab is rumbeling by. Shadows float through the fog. Far off we can hear cries of pain. Ibsen hears the sound, but it doesn't register. What shall he write about now? He has written about history, which has only brought him grief. What comes after History? He realises that where history ends, the present begins. Ibsen puts down his penn, lifts his right arm, clenches his fist and pulls it towards himself, "Yes!" he exclaims triumphantly. From now on it will be all about the problems of the present. What was it Profesor Brandes said in his lecture the other day? "Litterature must put social problems up for debate." It seems so self evident. Ibsen is annoyed with himself for not thinking of it first. In return he swears that he will not be afraid to write about the biggest issues of his time. What he has been doing up till now has all been nonsense. From now he will be the King of Debate.
Where to begin? He opens the window. Outside the crys of pain has been reduced to a mumbeling complaint. What's up? Ibsen asks. A voice answers: I stumbled. Ibsen closes the window, sits down and dips the pen. 48 hours later he has written Mrkemend (Dark Menn). It's Ibsens first contemporary drama - a scolding critisism of the lack of streetlights in Arbiens Gate (Arbiens Street). The manuscript is refused by the Nationaltheateret, with the excuse that even though they have nothing against political theatre, this play has a too narrow view.
Henrik Ibsen was not a man to give up when things went against him. He let his social engagement be expressed in plays like Hstelort (Horse Shit), Den makelige Vaktmster (The Lazy Janitor) and Postmanden ringer alltid paa for sent (The Postman Allways Calls Too Late).
In the Stortinget (the Norwegian Parlament) they are discussing parlamentarism. Norway has a parlament, shouldn't we also have the ism that belongs to it? The party Hire (Conservatives) suddenly got an opponent in the new party Venstre (Liberal Democrats). Venstre becomes the party for civil servants, public employees and liberal minded leaders in small and medium sized companys and firms. Hire becoms the party for the rich and nasty. Venstre wants to move power from the King to Stortinget. Hire predicts that Stortinget can be filled by nice people with a high sense of justice, and fears the consequenses. The labourers still has no party of their own, and express their political opinion by pulling their sixpences down over their brows and spit alot.
Ibsen puts his fingers on the puls of the time and writes De Unges Forbund (The League of Youth) where he pokes fun at the parlamentarists. To not be associated with Hire he soon follows up with Samfundets Sttter (Pillars of Society), which is an equally humoristic view on Hire. And as to not be counted as a Socialist, he also writes the anti-socialist play Jei kan sptte, jei (I know how to spit).
He felt that most of the problems in the world was because people werent honest with eachother at the right time. He who sins must talk about it. If not, silence and lies will only make things worse. Ultimately disaster is the only way out.
Infidelity, embesslement and forgery of documents - that is bad enough. But if we don't confess it, things will only escalate. This is sadly just as true today as when Ibsen wrote his plays. He was our first modernist. If we don't count Wergeland who wrote a few poems that had no rhyme. Ibsen took the theatre play, shook it up, and moved it from Capitol to the livingroom. He tought us two things: Firstly - there are a lot of strange things going on in the family. Secondly - It helps to talk about it.
In the 1880s in Christiania it was common belief that if you didn't talk about syfilis, it would go away by itself. Ibsen took the oposite stance. He said that if one just talks often and loudly enough about syfilis, it would eventually go away. This approach is rather clever if you think about it. His strategy turns out to be a very good way to prevent the spreading of HIV/AIDS today. Knowledge is the best way to stop spreading of veneral illnesses.
We will take a closer look at Ibsens "livingroom" plays. But first, tomorrow, we will have a look at his most played, and probably most quoted play: Peer Gynt.
---
NAA no 10: Johann Olav Koss - Olympic Gold 1500 metres ice skating.
I think I have written enough about skating and Holland before. Scroll down if you havent read it.
What: The stop watch stopped at 1.51,29 when Johann Olav Koss, the man with thighs thicker than the body of Cameron Diaz, crossed the finishing line to get the gold and a new world record in 1500 metres, in front of an extatic Norwegian crowd with their faces painted red, white and blue.
Where: Vikingskipet, Hamar, Norway
Why: This is the man dubbed the Flash by Times Magazine. After the 1994 olympics he had taken three gold medals, and the greatest feat was the gold in this prestigious distance. Already before the Olympics Koss founded Olympic Aid, which is an organisation that gives aid to children all over the world. All the money he made during the -94 Olympics went to the Olympic Aid. He retired from sports after the games. This was for two reasons. Having won all the distances he participated in, there was no place higher to go, so there was really no point in continuing. But also; He wanted to devote all his time to aiding children in need. Thus, although he was The Flash on skates, he showed himself as a real super hero after his skating career was over.
Some very stupid people in Europe has printed some very insulting drawings of the Prophet Muhammed (PBUH).
I am sad to report that the second paper who printed it was the Norwegian magazine Magazinet. Magazinet is in no way interested in freedom of speach. They just did it to insult our Muslim Cousins.
Personaly I am against freedom of speech. I am for a limited right of expression. What do I mean by that? Well, I think people should be allowed to say and print whatever they want as long as it doesn't contain the following:
- Child porn
- Necrofilia and other illegal forms of sex
- Incitement to violence
- Incitement to racism
- Blasphemy (God doesn't need protection by law, but it should be illegal to deliberatly hurt peoples religious feelings, like with these cartoons and the Satanic Verses). Blasplemy often just boils down to "religious racism", like when the Prophet (PBUH) is pictured with a turban shaped like a bomb; Insinuating that all Muslims are terrorists.
- In Monarchies like Norway: Insulting the Monarch.
- Unfounded slander
Other than this, people should be free to express what they want.
Depicting the Prophet (PBUH) in itself is banned in most forms of Islam (apart from Shia). That is not something we non-Muslims should feel bound by. But the cartoons, which are not funny at all, is one step too far.
---
Henrik Ibsen Writes about what he sees around him
It was obvious: Ibsen had to get away from Bergen. He returned to Christiania, this time to live off his deamatics. Nationaltheateret (The National Theater) had recently opened, "Folk og rvere i Kardemomme by" (When the Robbers Came to Cardamom Town by Thorbjrn Egner) wasn't written yet and they had to put on something.
Henrik Ibsen was at a crossroad. He had written some ten plays with its action taking place in historic times. Most has been refused, and when they were put up, it was in heavily cut down versions. When "Kejser og Galiler" (Emperor and Galilean) was played at the Nationaltheateret, the Roman occupation army had been reduced from 800 soldiers to less than half. Even then the stage was to small. Head of theatre, Nils Fasting, felt he had stretched far to fulfill Ibsens wishes, but the author was not satisfied. He was still insulted from what had happened the year before during the playing of his last pice, Spartanerene (The Spartans). Then the instructor had deleted the entire sea-battle! As if they wanted to twist the knife in the wound, Ibsens name was misprinted in the program. Fasting blamed the printers, but nonetheless it still said: Erik H. Bensin.
Let us visit him, as he sits at his desk in the glow of the gas light. It is a September evening. Outside the windows a horse cab is rumbeling by. Shadows float through the fog. Far off we can hear cries of pain. Ibsen hears the sound, but it doesn't register. What shall he write about now? He has written about history, which has only brought him grief. What comes after History? He realises that where history ends, the present begins. Ibsen puts down his penn, lifts his right arm, clenches his fist and pulls it towards himself, "Yes!" he exclaims triumphantly. From now on it will be all about the problems of the present. What was it Profesor Brandes said in his lecture the other day? "Litterature must put social problems up for debate." It seems so self evident. Ibsen is annoyed with himself for not thinking of it first. In return he swears that he will not be afraid to write about the biggest issues of his time. What he has been doing up till now has all been nonsense. From now he will be the King of Debate.
Where to begin? He opens the window. Outside the crys of pain has been reduced to a mumbeling complaint. What's up? Ibsen asks. A voice answers: I stumbled. Ibsen closes the window, sits down and dips the pen. 48 hours later he has written Mrkemend (Dark Menn). It's Ibsens first contemporary drama - a scolding critisism of the lack of streetlights in Arbiens Gate (Arbiens Street). The manuscript is refused by the Nationaltheateret, with the excuse that even though they have nothing against political theatre, this play has a too narrow view.
Henrik Ibsen was not a man to give up when things went against him. He let his social engagement be expressed in plays like Hstelort (Horse Shit), Den makelige Vaktmster (The Lazy Janitor) and Postmanden ringer alltid paa for sent (The Postman Allways Calls Too Late).
In the Stortinget (the Norwegian Parlament) they are discussing parlamentarism. Norway has a parlament, shouldn't we also have the ism that belongs to it? The party Hire (Conservatives) suddenly got an opponent in the new party Venstre (Liberal Democrats). Venstre becomes the party for civil servants, public employees and liberal minded leaders in small and medium sized companys and firms. Hire becoms the party for the rich and nasty. Venstre wants to move power from the King to Stortinget. Hire predicts that Stortinget can be filled by nice people with a high sense of justice, and fears the consequenses. The labourers still has no party of their own, and express their political opinion by pulling their sixpences down over their brows and spit alot.
Ibsen puts his fingers on the puls of the time and writes De Unges Forbund (The League of Youth) where he pokes fun at the parlamentarists. To not be associated with Hire he soon follows up with Samfundets Sttter (Pillars of Society), which is an equally humoristic view on Hire. And as to not be counted as a Socialist, he also writes the anti-socialist play Jei kan sptte, jei (I know how to spit).
He felt that most of the problems in the world was because people werent honest with eachother at the right time. He who sins must talk about it. If not, silence and lies will only make things worse. Ultimately disaster is the only way out.
Infidelity, embesslement and forgery of documents - that is bad enough. But if we don't confess it, things will only escalate. This is sadly just as true today as when Ibsen wrote his plays. He was our first modernist. If we don't count Wergeland who wrote a few poems that had no rhyme. Ibsen took the theatre play, shook it up, and moved it from Capitol to the livingroom. He tought us two things: Firstly - there are a lot of strange things going on in the family. Secondly - It helps to talk about it.
In the 1880s in Christiania it was common belief that if you didn't talk about syfilis, it would go away by itself. Ibsen took the oposite stance. He said that if one just talks often and loudly enough about syfilis, it would eventually go away. This approach is rather clever if you think about it. His strategy turns out to be a very good way to prevent the spreading of HIV/AIDS today. Knowledge is the best way to stop spreading of veneral illnesses.
We will take a closer look at Ibsens "livingroom" plays. But first, tomorrow, we will have a look at his most played, and probably most quoted play: Peer Gynt.
---
NAA no 10: Johann Olav Koss - Olympic Gold 1500 metres ice skating.
I think I have written enough about skating and Holland before. Scroll down if you havent read it.
What: The stop watch stopped at 1.51,29 when Johann Olav Koss, the man with thighs thicker than the body of Cameron Diaz, crossed the finishing line to get the gold and a new world record in 1500 metres, in front of an extatic Norwegian crowd with their faces painted red, white and blue.
Where: Vikingskipet, Hamar, Norway
Why: This is the man dubbed the Flash by Times Magazine. After the 1994 olympics he had taken three gold medals, and the greatest feat was the gold in this prestigious distance. Already before the Olympics Koss founded Olympic Aid, which is an organisation that gives aid to children all over the world. All the money he made during the -94 Olympics went to the Olympic Aid. He retired from sports after the games. This was for two reasons. Having won all the distances he participated in, there was no place higher to go, so there was really no point in continuing. But also; He wanted to devote all his time to aiding children in need. Thus, although he was The Flash on skates, he showed himself as a real super hero after his skating career was over.
scandi_rose:
Awsome entry today. I love reading it. i am being to think Ibsen is my new her, next to you of course. 
