My festival

Wo got an assigment to write an press release about a festival or make our own festival. I made my own festival, and my press release became like this.

Let yourselves be inspired

This summer the new inspirational music festival Inspo will be the place to be 25 June-1 July 2012, on the island Risøya in southern Norway. The festival concentrates on inspiration, and wants to gather people together to inspire each other. They will have a lot of activities and concerts every day for the whole week. They will offer at least two seminars everyday, that will deal with subjects like confidence, identity, comfort zone and so much more. You can also stop by for a little while at one of many stands and hear about organizations like Fair Trade, WWF, Green Peace and Red Cross. The festival also wants you to be active and have fun together, so football matches, sand volleyball matches, plunge contests are just a few of the activities that will make the team spirit shine. If you are not a very competitive person, yoga can be a great alternative for you. The island has a lot of places to sunbath and take a dip.

There are a lot of artists who will play every day, and you will have a huge range of different and inspiring types of music to chose from. A few of the fantastic artists are Lights, Paramore, Maria Mena, Keizers Orchestra, Owl City and The Script. They will also make an appearance at the festival store to meet with you while they sign cds and t-shirts that will be available for sale all week.

The festival wants to concentrate on nature, unity and having fun with each other, so alcohol and drugs are not allowed. Everyone is allowed to be themselves! 

Fair Trade - The Story

We have now goten a assigment to search and write about Fair Trade.

Fair Trade is about giving all the money we spend on the Fair Trade products to the farmer, what we pay is what they get. Ussualy take something for them selves, but they don't have the opportunity with Fair Trade products.

The power we have as consumers is to help small family farmers in developing countries, get organized and develop their buisness skills. The farmers can get 2-4 times more when they sell their products Fair Trade direct to the marked world. With the money they get for their products they can develop communities, keep their kids in school, create scholarship programs and get electrical lighting.

"Fair Trade is not a product, not a brand. Fair Trade is a story", Chris White, TransFair USA.

Fair Trade combines stringent environmental criteria with the highest income and labor standards of any product certification.

Fair Trade inshures fair price for farmers, fair wages for workers, safe working conditions, direct market access, community development, democratic desition making, sustainable forming methods, environmental protection.

Farmers are the big winners in Fair Trade, they are making more money, they get more independent and are able to take care of their own land. The ecosystem is better, and they are able to leave more for the next generations.

Approximentely 5 million farmers, workers, family and community members in 50 countries benefit form Fair Trade. 500 companies are licensed to market Fair Trade certified products. 2000 of retailers in the USA.

1 of 7 billion

Since we soon will be 7 billion people on this planet, a website har been opend - http://7billionactions.org/ - here people also can post stories, and thats what we are going to do to. We will not put it on the 7 billion website, but here on the blog. I'm going to tell about my trip to Mali in Africa, with one of the churches I was active in.

The trip that opend my eyes

One of the three churches I was singing in have a well project going on in Mali. They collect money for this cause, since Mali is one of the countries in Africa that don't have coastal. The church organize a trip to Mali every five years, and I signed up. Only five people would get sponsored, and we were six people that signed up, so I was the one that didn't get picked for the sponsoredship, but I payed the whole trip my self. We also hade teen that lived in Mali in their childhood and leaders from the church.

We took the plain from Norway january 1st of 2009, and came home january 12th of 2009. It was a long trip, but so worth it. We traveled from Bamako to Timbouctou, and down again. We stoped a lot of places, and visited a lot of people and villages. Me and to ofters got to visit a little family, and eat dinner with them. They served all the food they had, and were so happy to shear all they had, just for a happy moment and worry about tomorrow later. I was so special and moving to be a part of that, even though they don't have a lot they were so happy. We took a walk around in their village, and everyone was so happy, lauhing and greating each other. The kids ran around, playing with sticks of wood and stones, making their own fun. Wery different from home, when kids sit in front of the television, palying playstation.

We also visited a huge well that we are helping to build, the well is so deep that you need a camel to drag the water up. It is a long way to the closest village, so people often have to walk the whole day to get there. And if your family don't have a camel, you can't get the clean water. The people that were there were so greatful for the work that we are doing to help them, so they gave us a sheep and a bag with sigarets. After the trip to the well we visited the family I got to eat with earlier, and gave them the sheep. I have never seen happier people, that is a moment I'll never forget.

The trip to Mali has been the most educational and special trip I have been on so far. I got to see a lot and meet a lot of wonderful people. It was such a eye opener to see how they live and what makes them happy. The kids had so much fun when we took pictures of them and showed them the picture on the screen on the camera afterwards. We took a lot of pictures on the trip, but the pictures of the kids are the one i like the most. It is som mush contrast between being happy of the smalest things, and the people at home that takes a lot of things for granted. I'm so happy that I got the oppotunity to go on that trip and would not hesitate to go again if I got the chanse!

Here are some of the many pictures I took. The two last pictures are from one of the other girls, Marie Svendsen Nerheim.

Organizations

To day our assigment is researching to organizations, and compare them.


Greenpeace
- Started in 1971 by a small team of activists belived a few individuals could make a difference
- Largest envioronment organization in the world
- What they do:
   - Protect oceans, whales and seafood
   - Protect forests
   - Stop global warming
   - Push for no new nukes
   - Eliminate toxic chemicals


World Wildlife Fond (WWF)
- Started in 1961 by a little group in Europeans
   - a group of :
         - scientists
         - business and political leaders
- Work in more then 100 countries
   - more than 1.2 million members from USA
   - close to 5 million members worldwide
- Vision:
   - To build a future which humans live in harmony with nature
- Mission
   - To conserve nature and reduce the most pressing threats to the diversity of life on Earth
- What they do:
   - Building a future where human need are met in harmony with nature
   - Protecting the future of nature, for over 50 years
- Goals and strategies
   - By 2020, WWF will conserve 15 of the world's most ecologically important regions by working in partnershio with others to:
         - Protect and restore species and their habitats
         - Strengthen local communities' ability to conserve the natural resources they depend upon
         - Transform markets and policies to reduce the inpact of the production and consumption of commodities
         - Mobilize hundreds of millions of people to support conservation


My thoughts and comparisons
I think that both of the organizations are doing wonderful work all around the world. They both work to protect the nature and animals. I love animals, and are so happy that someone are trying to make the world a better place for them, and the nature are a big part of that. If the nature are destroyed, both humans and animals will suffer. I think that more people should become aware of what we are doing to our planet, think about the global warming we are creates. It's sad to see how many people dont care about the planets future, and are indifferent.


- Both of the organizations as I mention over, are working to save the nature, oceans, and animals.
- WWF have been 10 years longer than Greenpeace, but Greenpeace is the biggest envioronment organization in the world.
- Greenpeace have a studentprogram to teach "greenleaders"

The Nobel Peace Prize

The winners of the peace prize for 2011 has now been announsed, the Norwegian Nobel Committee have desided to devide the price in to three equal parts. The prizes are this year given to three women for their non-violent struggel for womens rights and for their participation in peace-building work. The three hard working women is Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee and Twakkul Karman. 


Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
Ellen is president for Liberia, and is the nations first female president. The Norwegian Nobel Committee think that Ellen have participated for a better economy and the social development and made the womens place stronger in her periode as president. 


Leymah Gbowee
She started the peaceorganisation Women in Peacebuilding Network (WIPNET) in the 90's. In 2003 she tok intiative in Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace, that made an peaceagreement and ended the second citizenwar in Liberia.


Twakkul Karman
She is a journalist and a politican in Al-Islah and a humenrights activist. She co-founded the organisation Women Journalists Without Chains (WJWC). She participated in demonstration by the university in Sanaa, she got arrested under the demonsatrations. She is the youngest person to ever resive the Peace Prize.


Information about The Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize is a prize that is awarded annually in Norway by the Norwegian Nobel Committee. The peace prize are one of five prizes that are annually awarded since 1901. 101 persons and 23 organisations have resived the Peace Prize. The sermony is celebrated 10 desember every year in Oslo town-hall, because thats Alfred Nobels day of death. He gave his fotune in his will to a fond that will use the income to give out the Nobel Price every year.


The sermony contains speetches, music and the awardgiving, people from the whole world are partisipating in this event. 

The Way to a healthier mind

Last week we were asked to write a essey about somerhing we feel strongly about from a list of different things. I chose to write about how the school can be improved, and then I chose to specify it, and write about the food we are served at the school. I'm very happy about how it turned out, and are very happy to shear that I got an A on it. Enjoy.

The way to a healthier mind

Ef New York is a beautiful school, a perfect place to learn English and meet perople from the whole world at the same time. Although our school looks perfect from the outside, there are still things that can be improved on the inside. We can always find things that can be better, but it's hard to decide what should be done first.

One of the things that should be prioritised is the food in the cafeteria. We get a lot of unhealthy food, and desserts for every meal, even for breakfast. A lot of the food is the same everyday, like the pasta and the pizza. A lot of young people easily get board with things, and food is one of the things we need some variation with. America is known for its obese population, and that is not hard to belive when we look at the food people get served at school. Off course we can choose not to take the pizza, drink the soda and eat the ice cream, but it's hard to resist the temptation when it's always there.

In the Tv series 'Jamie's School Dinners' in 2005, Jamie Oliver showed us that it's possible to make good tasting and healthier food, and it did not cost more then the other food. The schools he changed the menu for, noted a big difference when it came to the kids' concentration. A lot of students at EF New York are struggeling with their concentration at school and when they are doing their homework.

Make school a little easier for the students, have more variety in the menu and give us healthier choices.

About a building

This tuesday we got an assignment to find two famous building, and write down some facts about them. I chose the Azadi Tower and the Shanghai World Financial Center.

Azadi Tower, Iran
- Architect: Hossein Amanat
- The tower was completed in 1971
- It was build in commemoration of the 2500th anniversary of the Persian Empire
- The tower have a museum on the basement floor, called Azadi Museum
- The building is 45 m (148 ft) high

The tower was originally named the Shahyad Tower, meaning Kings' Memorial, but got the name Azadi Tower, meaning Freedom Tower, after the Iranian Revolution of 1979.
The tower is now a symbol of the country's revival. The building material that are used is marble.

Shanghai World Financial Center, China
- Architect: The company Kohn Pedersen Fox
- Started buliding in 1997, completed in 2008, had the opening 28th of august 2008
- The building cost 1.20 billion American dollars
- The building is a mixed-use skyscraper
   - Consiting of offices
   - Hotels
   - Conference rooms
   - Observation decks
   - Ground-floor shopping malls
- The hight of the building
   - Atenna spire: 494,4 m (1,622.0 ft)
   - Roof: 487,4 m (1,559.1 ft)
   - Top Floor: 474,0 m (1,555.1 ft)
- Floors
   - Elevator count: 91
   - Floor count: 101

In 2008 the center was named by architects as the year's best completed skyscraper.
For now the building are the world second tallest, but have the tallest observation deck in the world.
The whole at the top of the building is ment for less windresistens, so it handel the windy weather in that part of China very well. There has been a lot of arguments about that whole, some ment it symolised the rising sun (red dott in the chinese flag), and should then be round and not square.

I chose this two building becouse I thougt both of them are so unique in their style, and they are so different from each other. It also are two buildings I would like to travel to and see with my own eyes.