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The Larder, by Morris Lurie

In this story by Morris Lurie, we do not get any names on the characters. I think that is because it is not relevant what the tourists names is, the only thing relevant is that they are tourists and that they are one of so, so many groups of tourists who visit the Great Barrier Reef every year.

I do not get a feeling of a main character, but two of the characters do the reader get a description of the real estate agent and the schoolteacher. The two characters represent different people in the group of tourists who visits the reef together and who cooperate about how to empty their shells. The real estate agent is a very confident man and represent an upper class who thinks that with money you can get everything. He says, “It is more where it comes from” and “they are free for taking”. The schoolteacher on the other hand is kind and loving and symbolise that after all, some of them is kind.

I think that by these two characters, Lurie wants to send a message to us; take care of our planet and the reef. The reef is dying and the only one who can protect it is the humans. We have to let it be, so that we can still have fish and other creatures in the seas in fifty and a hundred years plus, plus, plus!

-Sara

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Expressing opinions

Task 3

In this task, I am going to talk about some topics/questions about the story “The Larder” written by Morris Laurie.  

a)    Maybe they do not care about the shells/the creatures inside. Maybe they want the tourists to take many shells, clean them up and figure out that they will not be able to take them home, just so that the guides can sell them to other tourists.

b)    He kind of does. I mean he does not say that tourists are stupid, but there are only two tourist that have a “role”. It is the schoolteacher and the real-estate agent. The rest of them are just tourists.

c)     No, I would not pick the shells from the reef.  Just hearing about the creatures that live inside the shells grosses me out.

d)    Yes, I definitely think tourism should be banned from areas that are in danger of being destroyed. I think most of the great barrier reef should be closed for tourists because a lot of the reef is close to dying, so it does not need more boats with dangerous chemicals driving over it.  And maybe Australians should focus more on trying to rehabilitate it.

e)    As a teenager, you experience a lot of situations where you or someone do something “because everybody else does it”.  Drinking alcohol is probably one of the most well-known situations. You could be pressured into drinking whilst at a party or you could feel pressure to drink because it seems like “everybody does it”. And I think that being pressured into these situations most likely lead to a situation where you later regret it. BY either just being hung over the next day or ending up hurting yourself or getting into a situation you cannot get out of.

-Kristina

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My Country

by Zindziswa Mandela, 2000

What happens in the poem?

-          Zindziswa, the youngest daughter of Nelson Mandela describes how she and her mother is handling the fact that her father was taken from them by force.

What does the mother in the poem look like?

-          We do not get a proper physical description of the mother, but it is possible to make a picture off how the situation has effected her.

o   I wipe them away

o   I walk to the kitchen

o   To see my mother’s

o   Black hard-washing hands

o   A forceful smile from

o   A tired face

-          We can “see” that the fact that the love of her life was taken so roughly away from her is affecting her. I imagine she looks older than she really is; that her trying to be there for her children is a hard task when she is alone.

Why does she turn away?

-          She, the mother, turn away because she does not want to show weakness. As simple as that.

Find the verbs in the poem. Which tense are they in? How does this affect the reading of the poem?

-          (stand, come, wipe, walk, see, sit, pick, look, turns, tries, (left), roughly, pulls, watches, do, aches, hold, comfort, tell, be)

-          These verbs are in present tense, and this makes the reader feel closer to what’s happening in the poem.

Sara-Elisabeth

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Both Steel band music and Calypso orgins from Trinidad and Tobago. Trinidad and Tobago is a group of islands northeast from south America.

Steel band music developed in the 1930 and spread to the rest of Caribbean. Originally, bamboo tubes were used to accompany different songs to the annual Caribbean carnival. Later metal objects such as various types of metal pans, containers and barrels became the new instrument of choice. The people who played on these drums learned that different pitches could be drawn from the different metal objects. Eventually, by the 1940, people learned how to tune the instruments. Around 1945, steel bands discovered that discarded oilcans, was the best, because of the sturdy construction. Full chromatic octaves and standard concert-tunings were also developed.                                                     Examples of modern steel bands are Invaders, Silver Stars and Desperadoes.

The calypso tradition were developed and popularized in the late 1950s. Calypso is a type of folk song primarily from Trinidad, However, It is also sung elsewhere in the Caribbean. The lyrics is usually witty and satiric.

-Jeppe

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The Caribbean flag.

I chose a task, which was to find out what the different symbols in the Caribbean flag are. A competition to design a simple flag for the Caribbean people was announced, and in 2006, the Caribbean people got their own symbolic flag. The Caribbean peoples flag is mostly blue, light blue on the upper half and darker blue on the lower half of the flag. It is a symbol for the sea and the sky, the Caribbean horizon. The stars are representing the 27 nations in the Caribbean Sea, and their golden yellow colour is a symbol of optimism, which is quite characteristic by the Caribbean people. The orange arch inside of the stars symbolizes the warm sun that always is a part of the people’s lives and spirits. The dove is a symbol for freedom and happiness and finally, the words “By Our Peoples’ Will From Grassroots Up” is a kind of motto for and by the Caribbean people.

Sara-Elisabeth

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The legend himself!

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Nelson Mandela

Today I am going to talk about the legend Nelson Mandela.

Nelson Mandela or Rolihlahla Mandela was born into the Madiba clan in the village of Mavezo, in Eastern Cape, on july 18th 1918. His mother’s name was Nonqaphi Nosekeni and his wather was Nkosi Mphakanyiswa Gadla Mandela. Mandelas father was a principal counsellor to the acting King of the Tembu People, Jongintaba Dalindyebo.                                                                                                                                                    

When nelson mandela was 12 years old, his father died and the young Rolihlahla became a ward of Jongintaba at the Great Place in Mqhekezwein.

Mandela attended primary school in Qunu where his teacher, Miss Mdingane gave him the name Nelson, because there was a custom of giving all schoolchildren “Christian” names.

Mandela was increasingly politically involved from 1942, however he only joined the African National Congress in 1944 when he helped form the ANC Youth League (ANCYL).

In 1944, he married Evelyn Mase, a nurse. She was Walter Sisulu`s cousin. They had two sons and two daughters, but one of the girls died in infancy. Mandela and his wife divorced in 1958.

Mandela rose through the ranks of the ANCYL and through its efforts, the ANC adopted a more radical mass-based policy, the Programme of Action, in 1949

Mandela was chosen to be the National Volunteer-in-Chief of the Defiance Campaign with Mauliv Cachalia as his deputy, in 1952. Because of this campaign he and 19 others were charged under the Suppression of Communism Act for their part in the campaign and sentenced to nine months of hard labor, suspended for two years.                                                                     A two-year diploma in law on top of his Ba allowed Mandela to practice law, and in August 1952 he and Oliver Tambo established South Africa`s first black law firm, Mandela & Tambo.

At the end of 1952 he was banned for the first time. As a restricted person, he was only permitted to watch in secret as the Freedom Charter was adopted in Kliptown on June 26th 1955.

Mandela was arrested in a countrywide police swoop on December 5th, 1956, which led to the 1956 Treason Trial. The trial ended when the last 28 accused, including Mandela, were acquitted on 29 March 1961.  

On January 11th, 1962 Mandela adopted the name David Motsamayi and secretly left South Africa. He visited England and traveled around Africa. But he ended up getting arrested in a police roadblock outside Howick on 5 August. He was charged with leaving the country without a permit and inciting workers to strike. He was convicted to sentence for five years of imprisonment. Several of his comrades were also arrested when police raided a secret hideout used by ANC and Communist Party activists.                                                                                                      On October 9th, 1963 Mandela joined 10 others on trial for sabotage in what became known as the Rivonia Trial.

On 11 June 1964 Mandela and seven other accused were sentenced to life imprisonment. Mandela and five others were sent to Robben Island.

Mandela`s mother died in 1968 and his eldest son in 1969. He was not allowed to attend their funerals.

Mandela was taken to the hospital in 1988, where he was diagnosed with tuberculosis. After spending a lot of time in different hospitals he was finally transferred on 7 December 1988 to a house at Victor Verster Prison where he spent the last 14 months of imprisonment. He was released on Sunday 11 February 1990

Mandela immersed himself in official talks to end white minority rule and in 1991 was elected ANC President to replace his ailing friend, Oliver Tambo. In 1993 he and President FW de Klerk jointly won the Nobel Peace Prize and on 27 April 1994 he voted for the first time in his life.

On 10 May 1998 he was inaugurated as South Africa`s first democratically elected President. True to his promise, Mandela stepped down in 1999 after one term as President. He continued to work with the Nelson Mandelas Children`s Fund hes et up in 1995 and established the Nelson Mandela Foundation and The Mandela Rhodes Foundation.

Nelson Mandela never wavered in his devotion to democracy, equality and learning. Despite terrible provocation, he never answered racism with racism. His life is an inspiration to all who are oppressed and deprived; and to all who are opposed to oppression and deprivation.

He died at his home in Johannesburg on 5 December 2013.

Written by Kristina

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South Africa

This week we are going to talk about Things related to South Africa!

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Here are a couple pictures from the Carnivals.

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Pre-lent Carnivals

For my task, I decided to write about the pre-lent carnival in the Caribbean.

The pre-lent carnival is obviously a carnival, which most of the Caribbean islands participate in.

This carnival is a huge celebration where people dress up in vibrant masquerade costumes, with feathers and headdresses. There is a lot of dancing and music from steel bands, which is another topic we will write about in this blog.

The history behind these carnivals are rather complicated. They are tied to religious conversion, colonialism, and ultimately freedom and celebration. The festival originated with Italian Catholics in Europe. Later it spread to Spain and France, who brought the pre-Lenten tradition with them when they brought slaves to Dominica, Haiti, Trinidad, Martinique and other Caribbean islands.

Historians say that the first “modern” Caribbean Carnival took place in Trinidad and Tobago in the late 18th century, when French settlers brought the Fat Tuesday masquerade party tradition with them to the islands.

The celebrations in our time takes place in either elaborate balls, which is the European tradition, or in the streets, which is from the African tradition.

So that was a short text about the pre-lent carnivals in the Caribbean. I hope you enjoyed it, and that you will come back in two weeks when we are going to talk about South Africa.

Written by Kristina

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English Projects

Hi, we are three students from Oslo By Steinerskole. And in this blog we wil be writing about different English speeking countries as an English Project. Hope you enjoy!