Christmas Vacation

Hello readers!

I hope that you all had a great vacation with lots of fun! I also hope that your christmas has been magical and beautiful.
I want to share a good news! We have crossed 2000 pageviews with your support and appreciation. We thank all our readers from Norway, USA, France, India, Germany, Ukraine, Greece, The Great Britain, Taiwan and China.


This post is about how I celebrated christmas and how I spent my christmas vacation.

Well, I am one of those who sleep late and wake up late, and what happened is that whenever I woke up it was dark outside. And I read books like "Bhagavad Gita" (religious book, hinduism) and "Dhammapada" (religious book, Buddhism). And on the 20th December was my mother's birthday. I had planned to give my mom a special gift and I cooperated with my father, and he said that we will buy the gift on her birthday. I agreed. On the 20th december, in the midnight, daddy gives mom a gift without telling me that he has already bought a gift. Typical fathers! I was mad at him and told him that the Tissot watch he had bought looked old-fashioned, eventhough I knew that it was a classic (well, that's typical me). I insisted to return the watch and buy a new one. I bought a Michael Kors watch, and mom loved it. I wrote a card to her, telling her how wonderful, honest and good hearted she is. People often write things that they don't mean, but I really meant it. She is an ideal person. We went to "Mahayana Asian Dining" for dinner. I just loved the food there! Soooooo tastyyyyy!

Well, I will skip some sleepy days and talk about the main day of Christmas Vacation. In Norway it's Christmas on the 24th december. For some readers it's a aha-moment. Or like PK said "Acchaaaa" (Indian readers will understand this one). Anyways, our house is always clean and tidy due to my mom's "cleaning-disease". She can't resist cleaning, and it doesn't matter whether she is sick or not...she will do it anyway. So, we didn't need to clean that much so we started cooking. Dad marinated turkey and made sauce (The only things he can do when it comes to cooking). My mother made the rest like, christmas sausages, patties, Brussels sprouts, veg mix and veg lasagna(for my grandmother). I decorated the house. Here is the picture.


I didn't want anything as a Christmas gift, and I told my parents that. They were aware of that. I said that all I wanted was some money so that I could donate the money to differnt funds and organizations. I have donated to Red Cross, Save the Children, Malala fund, Global March and Sightsavers. They did give me the money to donate, but also extra money and sweet embroided gloves (because they believe that money isn't a proper gift). My sisters were excited to open the gifts. Well, well, I'm almost a grown-up now.

And then after some days --> New Year's Eve

This New Year's Eve was a bit different. Our family friends from Drammen (A place in Norway) visited us, and celebrated with us. I was really excited! Mother and Father made food, while we kids waited for the fireworks to appear in the sky. We ate food and watched TV before midnight. We opened champagne and then we used fireworks at midnight. It was quite cloudy outside, so I wasn't able to see the other fireworks. I noticed that the air was polluted.

There are things that I didn't mention in the text. I went for skiing, skating and shopping too. I don't have time right now, because the school has started and we have a lot of projects, presentations and homeworks.

We are sorry! We are not able to share pictures due to tecnical problems!

Happy New Year!
May your days be as glittery as diamond, may your friends be as good as gold, may your heart stay as green as emerald, and may your soul remain as pure as pearl.

Life is a dream for the wise,
A game for the fool,
A comedy for the rich,
A tragedy for the poor.

- Sholom Aleichem



Sources:




- Ritika Jaswal

Christmas Vacation!

Hello!
How are u guys? It has been a very long time ago
So today I'm just going to talk about my Christmas vacation.
We had 2 week free from the school, and it was so chill, hhahah.

I had alot of fun in the vacation, with, friend and family. I was out with my friend, and we had alot of fun. We was on shopping etc. I saw an Indian movie- PK. It was an awesome movie , with lots of humor.

But anyways, my holiday wasn't that special. I was only at home in this vacation, but when my cousins ​​came it was really cool . We had it very cozy when the family came at Christmas . We bought a big and high Christmas tree, and dons it terrific, with allot of gifts. Everything was absolutely perfect!
We ate lots of good food during Christmas , lots kakae and sweets, hahaha .

But anyways I hope you had a awesom Christmas! Hope you had a wonderful Christmas holiday .

When we celebrated new year , then came the whole family and unite with us , because we have such a large house , heheh .
But it was not so easy to see rockets shot up in the air, because detested was so much fog .

But anyway, happy new year . Welcome to a new year with many new opportunities! Hope 2015 is a great year for you :)

MK:)

OD

Hi everyone! Long time no see...

Today I'm going to talk about the organization called ODW, or OD in Norwegian.
ODW means Operation Day's Work, and in Norwegian it means Operasjon Dagsverk. What we do in ODW is to work for a day, and earn money, and then we send the money to ODW so that they can invest the money in their yearly projects. We have ODW once a year, and it's voluntary.




This is what ODW is based on, according to ODW () :

In summary, ODW bases itself on the following:
■ The principle of solidarity in which equality between all groups is central
■ Working on the ODW Day is voluntary
■ ODW supports educational and training projects in Africa, Asia or Latin- America.
■ ODW always supports and concerns marginalised groups and contribute towards girls and boys having equal rights to education.
■ ODWs projects are always carried out through local partners in the South.
■ ODW-supports long-term projects
■ ODW is always targeting youth and the campaign is always carried out by youth.


This year's project is Malawi and Etiopia. Malawi and Etiopia is this year's project, because ODW wants to secure girl's rights. Girls in Malawi and Etipia meet a lot of challenges when it comes to independence and education. The fact that they are girls becomes the reason to not give them rights that boy's have, and therefore ODW is fighting for equality in these countries.

ODW-project 2014 will ensure that:

- Girls complete primary school

- Girls have education

- Girls have job and income

- Girls' rights are respected

- Youngsters take care of the environment

- Youngsters are involved in taking decisions that will affect their future





Why are Ethiopia and Malawi this year's project?

Ethiopia and Malawi are this year's project, because the literacy rates (% of people ages 15 and above) in Ethiopia is 39 and in Malawi it's 74,77 (Source: , but 53,6% of all the illiterates in Malawi are female and 57,3% illiterates are females in Ethiopia. These are just numbers. Researches show that girls are forced to stay home only to get water, make food and to clean the house, while boys are allowed to attend the school, even though the numbers don't disclose that there are more boys than girls who go to school, because some of the boys who go to school are illiterates.

Why? Do boys have special rights?

Not at all! All humans are born with equal rights regardless of religion, nationality, sex, language, location, ethnic origin or sexual orientation.

ODW wants to make people understand this fact in Malawi and Ethiopia so that the illiteracy rates sink, because if the illiteracy rates sink in these countries it will be beneficial for the populations.

Why is it extremely important to be educated?


1. Overcoming Superstitions

2. Keeping up with the world

3. To have good knowledge about healthcare and diseases (major problem among illiterates)

4. To be respected in the society

5. To understand the world we are living in

6. To know the difference between right and wrong

7. Gain confidence

8. Unwritten rules of the society

9. For economic growth of the nation

10. Saves one from being fooled or cheated

11. Turns your dreams into reality

12. Makes you self dependent

13. Equality

14. Money

15. For a happy and stable life

I hope that I have made people more aware, and that more people know about this organization called ODW.


So, if this post, somehow, has made you believe that everything is possible, then spread the word, because it's possible

-Ritika Jaswal

Back to School

Hello everyone!

Long time no see :)I hope that you all had a great summer.

First of all I want to thank our 2000 readers from Norway, USA, India, Germany, Greece, UK, Taiwan, China, Singapore and Indonesia for constantly reading our posts. It means a lot to us!

I have had a great summer with a lot of fun. My summer vacation started at Oslo Summer School.
Oslo Summer School is a free service to students who attend school in Oslo.
Courses are offered in week 26, 27, 32 and 33 of the 37 bases and training sites in the city. Each course runs from Monday to Friday for a week.
Oslo Summer School is a learning environment for students who wish for academic challenges for students who want to practice more on basic skills.
All courses are related to one of the subjects Norwegian, mathematics, science, English, foreign languages​​, IT and vocational programs.
Common objectives for all courses is that students learn something new, get professional challenges and great experiences in a safe and social learning.
I had two courses, one in Mathematics and the second course was Science in English. We got teachers from the UK to teach us Science in the second course and that was so cool to have British teachers with beautiful accents. It was both enjoyable and motivating to be there.
In the first course, we visited radiumhospitalet which is a special hospital to all cancer pasients. We learnt how to give a radiotherapy to kill cancer (it doesn't kill cancer compeletly, but it reduces cancer).



I watched a lot of bollywood movies like Ek Villain, Kick, Heropanti, Holiday and Humpty Sharma ki Dulhania My favorite movies are Ek Villain, Holiday and Kick.

Later, we (my family and I) went to Rhodes, Greece! It was fantastic! We stayed in Ialysos, which is one of Rhodes major cities. We have seen the butterfly valley, Mandraki, Old town, New town, Lindos and Tsampika. It's so many things to say about these places. The butterfly valley and Mandraki/Old town are the best places I have ever visited. The butterfly valley is a valley with a lot of butterflies flying here and there. Catch the butterflies if you can! Trust me, I tried, but they just flew when I came near them. Old town is actually a fortress, but it's actually shops in it. Yes, you heard me right! There are many different types of shops there f.ex. clothes, souvenir shops, Turkish shops, frozen yogurt shops, leather shops and many more. The thing that surprised me was 15-20 Jewellery shops were placed in the same row, and that too in a fortress! My God!

There are plenty of topics to talk about this school year! I am looking forward to post.
Stay tuned I will be right back!

- Ritika Jaswal

Summer and back to school!!

Hello guys!!!
How are you, and how was your summer-vacation?

First I just wanna say that I had a grat summer with friends and family. I was in Denmark and Englad.
I wachd alot of movies also:)

The first week of the summer vacation I went to "summer school" in Norway! Fun to meet new people! Little bit about the school:

Oslo Summer School is a free service to all students who attend school and / or living in Oslo.
Courses are offered in week 26, 27, 32 and 33 of the 37 bases and training sites throughout the city. Each course runs from Monday to Friday for a week.
Oslo Summer School is a learning environment for pupils wishing academic challenges for students who want to practice more on basic skills.
All courses are related to one of the subjects Norwegian, mathematics, science, English, foreign languages​​, ICT and vocational programs.
Common objectives for all courses is that students learn something new, get professional challenges and great experiences in a safe and social learning.
All courses have physical activity daily and weekly cultural activity or outing. 5,500 training places have swimming training exercise.
Employees in Oslo Summer School teachers, students from universities and colleges and students in high school. There are between 25 and 30 students and a teacher and an assistant in each group.
All staff have first aid course. Teachers and assistants in science courses, as is the walk to the water, also have life support courses.

But we went to Denmark with the car and was there in 6 days, we rented a little house near Lego Land and Lalandia. It was so fun there! After we spend 6 days there we drove back to Norway (Denmark->Sweden->Norway) 13 hours in the car! (trust me I've been in a car longer)
Some few weeks later we was in London (for the 100th time, hahaha) on a wedding. And it was my father's cousin's wedding. It was so cool with alot of energy! The bride (my new aunt) was so pretty! I swear Indian weddings are the best (I'm not going to shear any photos)
(sorry that I wrote little)

Tnx. M.K

UN and Syria- What's going on?

Hello :)

It's been a long time now. I didn't get the chance to post on the blog.
I have been very busy these days...

I'm sure you know about the civil war that is going on in Syria. The news have been in the limelight of the media since March 2011. It started with peaceful demonstrations against Bashar al-Assad's Baath-regime. The uprising became a part of the Arabic Spring, but this uprising became more and more brutal. The demonstrations started due to corruption, inflation, unemployment and due to ineffective consitution.

21. december 2013 was the Syrian army of having massacred an entire village, Kfar 'Uwayd, near the border of Turkey, and hundreds of people died and the attack lasted in several hours.

Then why isn't UN doing anything?

"The Security Council impasse severely cripples the UN in its search for conflict resolution,
but it does not immobilize its completely: the other UN bodies and offices do everything in their might to fill in the void. Each in their own way, the UN General Assembly, the Human Rights Council, the Secretary-General and the High Commissioner for Human Rights as well as the Special Envoy for Syria (Lakhdar Brahimi) and the Commission of Inquiry for Syria try to inform, warn and engage the international community into doing something to stop the Syrian bloodbath. Though the UN’s traditional “naming, blaming and shaming”-tactic is only marginally working in trying to budge the different conflict actors towards resolution, it seems the international community is now at least fully informed about and confronted with the disaster that is taking place in Syria, an achievement which is definitely partly attributable to the different UN offices in New York and Geneva.

UN negotiation attempts are being made continuously, with Kofi Annan’s six-point plan as a notable, but unfortunately failed endeavour. The Geneva peace talks are another UN-facilitated initiative, though their success has depended and will continue to depend largely on the willingness of both the United States and Russia – the principal initiators – as well as the parties to the conflict to participate in the talks. What concerns the long-announced Geneva II conference, the opposition groups in particular seem not interested to participate in more talks, delaying the taking place of the conference itself once more""
(Source: )

The UN Council consists primarly of five countries: France, Russia, The U.K., The U.S. and China, and therefor the actions depends solely on them. The thought of several humans living in refugee camps...without enough food or water...it just saddens me. Several youngsters are employed. I don't know what to say. I can't do anything even if I want to do.

Nevertheless, I'm glad to know that it's people there to help these people.

MSF

MSF is operating five makeshift hospitals inside Syria. The teams are also running mobile clinic programmes in some areas when security conditions allow, and we are running comprehensive routine vaccination programmes for children in the areas where we are operating.

In areas where MSF is not able to work directly, we have an extensive programme of remote support for Syrian medical networks, both in opposition-controlled and in government-controlled areas. Through this programme we are supporting 18 hospitals and 34 medical posts in seven governorates. On average around three tons of medical supplies or basic relief items such as blankets, mattresses, soap or cooking sets are supplied per day.

MSF activities inside Syria up till end of February 2014:
•ER consultations – 53,377
•Out-patient consultations – 88,505
•Surgical procedures – 7,190
•Maternity deliveries – 2,018
•Emergency measles vaccination campaign – 75,000 children (April to June 2013)

(Source: http://www.msf.org/syria)



Red Cross


In March and April 2014, the ICRC:
-supplied food to over 900,000 people, mainly IDPs;

-supplied essential household items such as hygiene kits, blankets, mattresses and kitchen sets to over 180,00 IDPs;

worked with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent to provide equipment and water treatment chemicals to water treatment plants and stations in several governorates;

-worked with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent to provide dozens of tanker trucks that brought water to more than 100,000 people;

-Upgrades to 54 IDP centres, ensuring clean water, proper sanitation and decent housing for 15,500 people;

-provided five health facilities with surgical instruments, medicine and medical consumables;

-provided seven SARC mobile health units with material and financial support

Don't be satisfied by hearing all this.
Don't think that this is enough.
Don't think that they don't need help, because they do.

There's a war going on!


Mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind.

John F. Kennedy

Read more at

-Ritika Jaswal

UN and Syria

Hey!
So today I'm going to talk about why The UN do not involve in the war in Syria.

The UN Charter states that the use of military force , or threat of use of force is prohibited , albeit with two exceptions. One is self defense , and the second is if the Security Council decides that something is a big threat to the peace , the need to use military force to remove the threat .
A resolution from the Security Council could facilitate the use of such instruments , but Russia and China will therefore not accept such a decree and has previously vetoed three times against resolutions criticizing the Assad regime . Russia also criticized the West for supporting the rebels in Syria with weapons.
But unless the Security Council to agree on Syria , even after the use of nerve gas , is it that we still should intervene with military force , although it is a violation of international law to enter without a mandate from the Security Council ?

The problem with this thinking is that the only "we" that exist internationally , the UN Security Council. No other organ has similar legitimacy to make decisions on behalf of the world community. But unless , of course , one defines the global community to not include China and Russia , which would effectively excluded 1.5 billion people . In addition , such a breach of international law opened the way for other countries to take their place in the future.

Each violation of the UN Charter and international law is a step towards a world where big countries take their place and power are entitled . It is not a recipe for a peaceful world.

The problem in Syria is rather too much foreign interference , than too little . While Russia supports the regime of resources and weapons , supports a number of other countries like USA, Saudi Arabia and Quatar different parts of the rebel movement . All based on their own interests and concerns.

This drives the conflict continued , and the civil war has got its own logic, where the interests of parties outside Syria driver conflict on. The worst thing one can do in this situation is to initiate illegal military operations that will raise the level of conflict and potential spread to the rest of the region considerably.

The way forward should be to continue negotiating track in the United Nations, as the most optimistic believe may be revived by Russia's initiative to get Syria to sign the Convention against chemical weapons. Maybe this could open the way to negotiations where both parties set up unconditionally.

This solution will be far less emotionally satisfying than bombing the regime because " we must do something" , but will have far greater chances to contribute to a lasting peace in Syria and the Middle East.


Today , more than two years later , the conflict has evolved into a brutal civil war with conflicts that go far beyond Syria's borders.

After what was probably an attack with nerve gas in August , the demands for foreign intervention in the civil war come fully . Very many, both in and outside Syria , asking the right : Why does not the UN more to stop the conflict in Syria ?

The conflict in Syria has been up in the UN Security Council a number of times . But the Council has failed to agree on a resolution condemning the regime , because Russia and China have vetoed . Russia is afraid that a resolution on Syria to be an opening for regime change and Western intervention in the civil war , as was the case in Libya.

Against this backdrop , several advocated bypassing the UN and use military force against the Syrian regime , although this would be a clear violation of international law.

The main argument revolves , as it often does, that the situation is so horrendous that we have an ethical and moral responsibility to do something, and if the Security Council fails to give us a mandate to use force to stop the suffering in the Civil War , so must we do it anyway...
And what I think is that if the UN gets involved in the war, it is actually a bit difficult for them because Russia and China are major powers and I even think they support Syria

M.K :)