My second year in the programme of psychology is almost over.
The year has been, well, there is a lot to say about it. It started with the symbolic interactionism, all I remember from that was, Mead and his “I, ME, YOU.”
This was also the start of our class reputation as a very problematic and criticising class. Writing letters to the principal, about the “scandal-professor” who said that, small children do not need neutral toys or clothes, meaning girls should play with dolls and boy with cars because small children are in need of straight answers of gender roles.
Though he had some problems with expressing himself at lectures, he sometimes used words as “primitive” and made my classmates explode, I really felt sorry for this poor professor when we had a seminar, discussing a chapter in his book, one of my classmates said “this book is completely useless”.
Then we had the family and ethnicity course with Mirzet, a professor in sociology, who immigrated to Sweden during the war. During this course, I think I had more to say than anyone else had, but do you know what I did? I shut up instead, because this course was very special and emotional. It was about me, about my past, about processes during my life, and processes that were still going on. I found myself having a problem discussing these things objective. I couldn’t step out of the role being this person from another ethnicity to be the student who reflects over it objectively, so I was quiet.
And my class, they were at the war flied still with professors, from what I had heard from Mirzet, the professors from the Sociology Institute actually had a meeting, discussing our class and how to conduct themselves to us.
Then was the course in cognitive psychology, I didn’t think I would pass, but I did.
Then was the course in biological psychology, I was sure I wouldn’t pass, but I did.
And now were at the end of a course in personality psychology, and if I pass I feel like I’m not worth it. But I still hope I do.
31 May 2007
Evasion
I need more of this, and yet being 16 was some time ago....
This is "ludilo" in Swedish way, and it never gets old.
This is "ludilo" in Swedish way, and it never gets old.
30 May 2007
LILJA 4-EVER
Lilja-ever is the most touching movie I have ever seen. I remember how frustrated I was after I had seen it.....
Lilya lives a fairly bleak life with her mother in a run down apartment block, but for all intents and purposes is a normal teenage girl (albeit an impoverished one). Lilya's mother tells her they are emigrating to the USA with her new boyfriend, but at the last minute Lilya is left behind, in the care of her aunt. A forced move into a squalid flat (while the Aunt moves herself into the larger, nicer flat that Lilya and her mother had lived in) is only the beginning, and a succession of miseries are heaped upon Lilya. Lilya's best friend encourages her to join her in prostituting herself for extra cash, though Lilya decides not to prostitute herself. However, when the friend's father finds the money the friend claims that she was the one who sat at the bar while Lilya prostituted herself. Not content with ruining Lilya's reputation at home, the story soon goes round school and results in a gang of boys from her neighborhood viciously raping her. As Lilya has been abandoned, she now really does have to prostitute herself for money to live. One glimmer of hope is her friend Volodya (Artyom Bogucharsky), abused and rejected by his alcoholic father, with whom she forms a tender protective relationship. Another glimmer of hope is Andrei (Pavel Ponomaryov), who becomes her boyfriend and offers her a job in Sweden. But all is not what it seems, and only bad things await Lilya when she arrives there.
After arriving in Sweden, she is greeted by her future "employer" (in reality, a pimp) and taken to a nearly empty apartment where he imprisons her. Lilya is raped by the pimp and she is then forced to perform sexual acts for her pimp's clients, while he reaps all the financial gain. Moodysson uses a very effective technique to show this abuse; all the abuse is seen from Lilya's point of view (similar to Peep Show). Thus the audience feels as if they are more personally involved in the scenes and, at the same time, explicit sex scenes with a young actress are avoided.
Meanwhile in the former Soviet Union, Volodya had committed suicide, devastated that Lilya had abandoned him. Now Volodya's ghost comes to Lilya to look over her. On Christmas day, he transports Lilya to the roof of the apartment, and, in a moving scene, he gives Lilya the world as a present, but she simply finds it cold and unwelcoming. After one escape attempt Lilya is brutally beaten by her pimp, but she then escapes again with the help of Volodya's ghost. Finally, and much to the distress of Volodya's ghost (who obviously regrets having killed himself) she commits suicide in the continuation of the scene from the beginning of the film by jumping from the bridge.
The film's conclusion shows Lilya and Volodya, now both dead and angelic, happily playing basketball on the roof of some tenement building, safe from all harm the world can do to them.
Lilya lives a fairly bleak life with her mother in a run down apartment block, but for all intents and purposes is a normal teenage girl (albeit an impoverished one). Lilya's mother tells her they are emigrating to the USA with her new boyfriend, but at the last minute Lilya is left behind, in the care of her aunt. A forced move into a squalid flat (while the Aunt moves herself into the larger, nicer flat that Lilya and her mother had lived in) is only the beginning, and a succession of miseries are heaped upon Lilya. Lilya's best friend encourages her to join her in prostituting herself for extra cash, though Lilya decides not to prostitute herself. However, when the friend's father finds the money the friend claims that she was the one who sat at the bar while Lilya prostituted herself. Not content with ruining Lilya's reputation at home, the story soon goes round school and results in a gang of boys from her neighborhood viciously raping her. As Lilya has been abandoned, she now really does have to prostitute herself for money to live. One glimmer of hope is her friend Volodya (Artyom Bogucharsky), abused and rejected by his alcoholic father, with whom she forms a tender protective relationship. Another glimmer of hope is Andrei (Pavel Ponomaryov), who becomes her boyfriend and offers her a job in Sweden. But all is not what it seems, and only bad things await Lilya when she arrives there.
After arriving in Sweden, she is greeted by her future "employer" (in reality, a pimp) and taken to a nearly empty apartment where he imprisons her. Lilya is raped by the pimp and she is then forced to perform sexual acts for her pimp's clients, while he reaps all the financial gain. Moodysson uses a very effective technique to show this abuse; all the abuse is seen from Lilya's point of view (similar to Peep Show). Thus the audience feels as if they are more personally involved in the scenes and, at the same time, explicit sex scenes with a young actress are avoided.
Meanwhile in the former Soviet Union, Volodya had committed suicide, devastated that Lilya had abandoned him. Now Volodya's ghost comes to Lilya to look over her. On Christmas day, he transports Lilya to the roof of the apartment, and, in a moving scene, he gives Lilya the world as a present, but she simply finds it cold and unwelcoming. After one escape attempt Lilya is brutally beaten by her pimp, but she then escapes again with the help of Volodya's ghost. Finally, and much to the distress of Volodya's ghost (who obviously regrets having killed himself) she commits suicide in the continuation of the scene from the beginning of the film by jumping from the bridge.
The film's conclusion shows Lilya and Volodya, now both dead and angelic, happily playing basketball on the roof of some tenement building, safe from all harm the world can do to them.
28 May 2007
Gothenburg Riots 2001
The protests during the EU summit in Gothenburg 2001, parts of which are often called the Gothenburg Riots (Göteborgskravallerna in Swedish), took place in the Swedish city of Gothenburg during the three days of the EU summit (the European Council) and EU–US Summit, June 14–16, 2001. The EU Summit focused upon EU enlargement, sustainable development, economic growth and structural reform issues. The EU–US summit included a visit by U.S. president George W. Bush on June 14. It was the first U.S. presidential visit to Sweden, and was intended as an opportunity to discuss differences on climate negotiations, WTO and Middle East issues with the EU leaders.
The school of Hvitfeldtska Gymnasiet had been lent out by the municipality of Gothenburg to Gothenburg Action and Attac to be used as a convergence center and for housing for the out-of-town protesters. More than 650 people were living at Hvitfeldtska and some also came to the information center and to attend conferences, meetings and seminars. At the school there was also a workshop for preparing white overalls activists planning to oppose the Schengen agreement by dressing up in ice-hockey and other similar defensive material and then by non-violent means try to enter the EU Summit the following day. On the morning of June 14, the police decided to surround and close off Hvitfeldtska at 11 am. This occurred at the same time as U.S. president George W Bush’s plane, the Air Force One, landed outside the city.
Hundreds of policemen surrounded the school. No one was allowed to leave or enter, and the people inside were given no information of what was going on. Journalists were not allowed to come near the area. At noon, the police chief Håkan Jaldung spoke at a press conference and declared that almost all of the people inside Hvitfeldtska were suspected of preparing different crimes. However, at this time, no criminal activity had taken place at the school according to both the security police units that had infiltrated the school and the organisations renting the school.
After a while, the police constructed a wall consisting of more than 100 containers around the school. Inside the school, and in the schoolyard, the demonstrators held meetings and discussed how best to handle the situation. Negotiations started with the police with mediators in collaboration with the psycho-tactic police unit. Around 3 pm, a few of the demonstrators were allowed to leave the school area during a period of uncertainty amongst the policemen. Approximately 100 people left the school at this point after agreeing to being searched by the police, but without promise of what they could keep with them. However, most of the people inside the school didn’t know this was happening and missed the opportunity to leave Hvitfeldtska and many stayed in solidarity with the white overalls who tried to negotiate their terms to get out. The police chief took away the mandate for the psychotactic unit and the negotiations ended in confusion. According to the police chief this was due to that the negotiations did not come to a conclusion, according to the mediators a conclusion on the last issue of white overall material was at hand and the problems could be solved.
200 people lined up to demand their right to go to the ongoing demonstration against Bush. In total some 200 people with some 30 white overalls in the front followed by some 50 syndicalist trade unionists, a black bloc and a mixed group of pacifists and others at the rear. The attempt to get through the police cordon through white overall tactics failed when the front white overalls where severely beaten while they themselves did not hit the police. When, at half past four, the demonstrations peacefully backed in a narrow alley towards the school the police charged violently on horses, with batons and with dogs provoking a violent reaction by the use of throwing cobblestones from some demonstrators.
Some demonstrators were able to block themselves in the school. Finally, at 10 pm the battle was over and police invaded the school, detaining approximately 500 people and removing them by bus.
Outside Hvitfeldtska the closing of the convergence center and the trapping of more than 500 persons inside caused immediate reactions. In the streets nearby and in the Vasa park clashes between police and protesters occurred that turned into riots. The police charged on horses against protesters and the demonstrators used cobblestones against the police. The protests reached their climax in the evening when some 2,000 people gathered outside the container wall to show their support. No violence occurred whatsoever but having the policemen focused on the crowd, some 30 people that had been trapped inside Hvitfeldtska were able to flee across the container wall and come outside the police cordon.
Big Bang, the acting preformace I'm in, is about Göteborgskravallerna. I’ll be playing the daughter of an Iraqi communist who flew to Sweden during the war against Iran in the 80’s. The daughter, who is born in Sweden, does not agree with her father’s vision and beliefs of life, instead she chooses to be a fundamentalist.
It's sad to see what the visit of the American president did to Gothenburg in the summer of 2001.
Source; Wikipedia
The school of Hvitfeldtska Gymnasiet had been lent out by the municipality of Gothenburg to Gothenburg Action and Attac to be used as a convergence center and for housing for the out-of-town protesters. More than 650 people were living at Hvitfeldtska and some also came to the information center and to attend conferences, meetings and seminars. At the school there was also a workshop for preparing white overalls activists planning to oppose the Schengen agreement by dressing up in ice-hockey and other similar defensive material and then by non-violent means try to enter the EU Summit the following day. On the morning of June 14, the police decided to surround and close off Hvitfeldtska at 11 am. This occurred at the same time as U.S. president George W Bush’s plane, the Air Force One, landed outside the city.
Hundreds of policemen surrounded the school. No one was allowed to leave or enter, and the people inside were given no information of what was going on. Journalists were not allowed to come near the area. At noon, the police chief Håkan Jaldung spoke at a press conference and declared that almost all of the people inside Hvitfeldtska were suspected of preparing different crimes. However, at this time, no criminal activity had taken place at the school according to both the security police units that had infiltrated the school and the organisations renting the school.
After a while, the police constructed a wall consisting of more than 100 containers around the school. Inside the school, and in the schoolyard, the demonstrators held meetings and discussed how best to handle the situation. Negotiations started with the police with mediators in collaboration with the psycho-tactic police unit. Around 3 pm, a few of the demonstrators were allowed to leave the school area during a period of uncertainty amongst the policemen. Approximately 100 people left the school at this point after agreeing to being searched by the police, but without promise of what they could keep with them. However, most of the people inside the school didn’t know this was happening and missed the opportunity to leave Hvitfeldtska and many stayed in solidarity with the white overalls who tried to negotiate their terms to get out. The police chief took away the mandate for the psychotactic unit and the negotiations ended in confusion. According to the police chief this was due to that the negotiations did not come to a conclusion, according to the mediators a conclusion on the last issue of white overall material was at hand and the problems could be solved.
200 people lined up to demand their right to go to the ongoing demonstration against Bush. In total some 200 people with some 30 white overalls in the front followed by some 50 syndicalist trade unionists, a black bloc and a mixed group of pacifists and others at the rear. The attempt to get through the police cordon through white overall tactics failed when the front white overalls where severely beaten while they themselves did not hit the police. When, at half past four, the demonstrations peacefully backed in a narrow alley towards the school the police charged violently on horses, with batons and with dogs provoking a violent reaction by the use of throwing cobblestones from some demonstrators.
Some demonstrators were able to block themselves in the school. Finally, at 10 pm the battle was over and police invaded the school, detaining approximately 500 people and removing them by bus.
Outside Hvitfeldtska the closing of the convergence center and the trapping of more than 500 persons inside caused immediate reactions. In the streets nearby and in the Vasa park clashes between police and protesters occurred that turned into riots. The police charged on horses against protesters and the demonstrators used cobblestones against the police. The protests reached their climax in the evening when some 2,000 people gathered outside the container wall to show their support. No violence occurred whatsoever but having the policemen focused on the crowd, some 30 people that had been trapped inside Hvitfeldtska were able to flee across the container wall and come outside the police cordon.
Big Bang, the acting preformace I'm in, is about Göteborgskravallerna. I’ll be playing the daughter of an Iraqi communist who flew to Sweden during the war against Iran in the 80’s. The daughter, who is born in Sweden, does not agree with her father’s vision and beliefs of life, instead she chooses to be a fundamentalist.
It's sad to see what the visit of the American president did to Gothenburg in the summer of 2001.
Source; Wikipedia
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