Kaster meg inn i den amerikanske helsedebatten
March 5th, 2010Hia people
February 4th, 2010I just wanted to say hi to any american people that somehow manages to navigate to this page through the class webpage (or any others that might drop by). My name is Eirik i take the Virtual Communities/Social Media class, I’m a senior sociology and political science major, I’m here through the Concurrent Enrollment in exchange. I live at the Ihouse so please come by.
So: I will mostly be blogging in norwegian about personal things for now, but if I’m blogging about the student protests or anything it would be in english, but for those of you who are nerdy enough the norwegianpart should not be a problem, you’ll find a way to translate it(:
Anyway: Hi!
Til dere andre som lurer så kan jeg si følgende, utsatt igjen, å psyke seg opp slik for så å få det utsatt igjen er helt forferdelig men jeg klarer meg vel. Livet går videre uansett, det er bare den biten med at det er tortur å vente med det spesiellt når jeg psyker meg opp for så at det blir utsatt igjen, men men…
Oh ja, klassesiden er her for dem som ønsker.
http://internetorama.blogspot.com/
og for dem som ønsker å se awesome video på som er vel smårelevant for klassen:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHg5SJYRHA0
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Peace
January 28th, 2010it does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble or hard work. it means to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart
(unkown)
Nytt semster, nye muligheter? (+litt småbetatt da)
January 26th, 2010Semesteret er startet og det skjer for tiden ikke så masse her i Berkeley men her er oppdatering på hva som har skjedd siden sist for dere som lurer (:
I år tar jeg to fag i tillegg til at jeg skriver independent study på 7 credits, jeg tar et fag i sosiale medier hvor læreren er mer nerd enn det jeg er. Det er temmelig underholdene og morro og jeg merker jeg liker faget selv etter bare en introduksjonsforelesning. Det andre faget jeg tar er et seminarfag om presidentvalget i 2008 og sosiologien rundt det, masse lesing og masse skriving med andre ord(:
Jeg er kommet godt igang og er egentlig generelt fornøyd med livet. For dem som forsatt ikke har fått det med seg så har jeg blitt litt småbetatt av ei jente her borte. Hun er smart, overlig pen (og klar over det, selv om hun har føttene plantet på jorden), leken(faktisk), positiv, boknerd, hyggelig, hun gjør sånn ting som jeg synes er kult og morsomt men aldri gjør(surfe/kajakk/fjelltur noen?) OG hun gir ut gode klemmer og slengyss.
Jeg er derimot litt usikker på hva jeg skal gjøre videre med det av forskjellige grunner, fordi jeg vet at store deler av den overlige positiviteten hennes rett og slett kommer fra at hun er ekstremt sosial og positiv person og fordi jeg bare er her ut semesteret, men vi holder jo kontakten og jeg tar det som det kommer seg for tiden har jeg bare bedt henne ut på te. Men for nå er jeg egentlig kjempefornøyd med å ha henne som venn og kommende tekopppartner egentlig, prøver å ikke bli for tilknyttet.
Anyhow, det er oppdateringene på den kanten av det nærmeste jeg kommer noe som heter kjærlighetsliv for tiden, eller så er det litt dødt der for tiden.
Ellers så kan jeg også oppdatere dere på at Ihouse har blitt invadert av folk fra Norge. Dog jeg tror ikke det er noe veldig stort problem ettersom det er så mange utenlandske studenter her at folk blir tvunget til å sosialisere seg med andre enn nordmenn. Jeg har også lovet meg selv at jeg skal gjøre sightseeing og faktisk se Golden Gate og Alkatraz dette semsteret og ellers boknerd dette semsteret i tillegg til at jeg har halvveis lovet Amy(annen venninne) å dra bli med på spinning om hun spør.
I mellomtiden så får dere kose dere i Norge(eller hvor enn dere er) så sees vi nok til sommeren, med mindre dere kommer på besøk, som jeg selvfølgelig oppfordrer alle til å gjøre.
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The govenors proposed amendment and how it could be improved
January 8th, 2010Governor Schwarzenegger proposed an amendment to fund the UC and CSU system by at least 10% of the budget.
This amendment carries several opportunities and several drawbacks and somehow I’m a little skeptical of the amendment of several reasons.
First of all these 10% percent could be the standard funding of the systems and even as it says at least 10% this could lead to that the assembly in theory could pass a budget with higher funding for the UC and CSU system it could be an excuse to always fund the systems with 10% flat. On the flip side of it would be an improvement of the current situation where the systems are funded well fewer than 10% of the state budget.
Secondly it doesn’t address the fundamental fact that the California’s economy is highly unstable due to prop 13 and that the state must pass a balanced budget. The universities still have to get external funding to be prepared in case of a bad year in the Californian economy. By binding the budget to 10% it might ironically work against its purpose of making the system more stable because it would be more tied to the Californian economy and when the economy goes down the funding of the University goes down with it. And what is even worse is that the systems could be funded well, maybe put to 15 percent in good times, but be cut down to 10% of a worse budget in bad times and thus make it even more tied to the economy of the state. To counter this we must address the deeper problem of the California system and make the economy more stable.
Thirdly you bind up the budget, and make the state less flexible. Yes on the one hand a bad economy could not be an excuse to cut the system more than necessary, but it might be that this flexibility might be needed in bad times whether you like it or not. By passing an amendment that ties one tenth of the economy then could be a bad idea.
Personally I think what needs to be done is to give the universities the possibility of long term planning by giving them a more flat amount of money that might go up a little each year, but roughly stays the same both in bad times and good times and not bind it to a percentage of the state economy.
About the part of a constitutional amendment I not sure, on the one hand such an amendment could do that the universities are not cut too much in bad times, but in really bad times it might work against its purpose by binding such an amount to the universities.
At the other side 10 percent of the budget is way more that the system gets now, so even though I don’t think this is the best amendment that have been propsed and that there are other options, if it should pass it would be an improvement of the current fiscal situation.
However Mark Yudof should stop licking the govenors ass and do some critical thinking because even if it would help the system it would not bring that much more stability and there are better alternatives. Even me as an random undergraduate student that isn’t even enrolled at the UC but exchanging have done more critical thinking than him.
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Open letter from the Academic Council to the University of California community
December 2nd, 2009November 30
We are the Academic Council of the University: we are the chairs of the ten campus divisions, as well as the chairs of the systemwide committees. We write to address the protests on many of UC campuses over the Regents’ decision to increase student fees by $2,500 per year. This decision followed budget shortfalls that have entailed significant staff layoffs and cuts to a range of student services. Faculty and staff also are suffering from significant reductions in compensation due to the current year’s salary reductions and furloughs
We share the anguish over the policies adopted in the face of the state’s abrupt 20% disinvestment in higher education. The budget shortfall wounds the institution and community we cherish. We believe these policies are a regrettable but necessary response to the state’s actions. While we are committed to doing everything we can to mitigate their effects on the most vulnerable populations of our students and staff, we recognize that many disagree deeply, and that vigorous and vocal protest is an understandable response. The passionate advocacy of students, staff, and faculty for the University and its public mission has been remarkable.
Many of the protest activities were appropriate forms of peaceful advocacy. We are concerned, however, about activities at several campuses that disrupted our educational mission and interfered with the freedom of fellow students, faculty, and staff, to teach, learn, research, and work. We are especially concerned about group protests in which a number of individuals attempted to move past police barricades, physically threaten and throw objects at police, and surround vehicles to trap those within. These activities are unlawful and disrespectful of the rights of others, and they create a serious risk of violence for everyone in the area: police, protestors, and bystanders. A number of injuries, some serious, were sustained last week by both protestors and police officers.
We will insist, through all avenues open to us, that uses of force by police will be subject to inquiry and review, as well as the policies that govern crowd control. While we expect campus police professionals to be committed to accommodating peaceful protest, we realize that there may be failures of policy or individual action. We are committed to ensuring that the University remains a place where it is safe to teach and learn – and engage in peaceful protest.
At the same time, we wish to remind everyone of the limits of protest, and of our obligation to be civil, to show respect for different points of view, and to take personal responsibility for our own and each other’s safety. Occupation of university buildings, for example, directly interferes with the rights of other members of the community.
The problems that confront our University are daunting, and finding solutions to them will require the collective best efforts of our students, faculty, staff, and members of the community. Tempers will worsen and patience will shorten as these policies take hold, but we must channel our energies outwards, towards advocating for restoring funding to the University of California so that it can fulfill its mission of providing democratic access to the great research universities of our state.
Sincerely,
Henry C. Powell, Chair
Academic Senate
Daniel L. Simmons, Vice Chair
Academic Senate
Christopher Kutz, Chair
UC Berkeley Divisional Senate
Robert Powell, Chair
UC Davis Divisional Senate
Judith Stepan-Norris, Chair
UC Irvine Divisional Senate
Robin L. Garrell, Chair
UCLA Divisional Senate
Martha Conklin, Chair
UC Merced Divisional Senate
Anthony W. Norman, Chair
UC Riverside Divisional Senate
William Hodgkiss, Chair
UC San Diego Divisional Senate
Elena Fuentes-Afflick, Chair
UC San Francisco Divisional Senate
Joel Michaelsen, Chair
UC Santa Barbara Divisional Senate
Lori Kletzer, Chair
UC Santa Cruz Divisional Senate
Sylvia Hurtado, Chair
Board of Admissions and Relations with Schools
Farid Chehab, Chair
Coordinating Committee on Graduate Affairs
M. Ines Boechat, Chair
University Committee on Affirmative Action and Diversity
Alison Butler, Chair
University Committee on Academic Personnel
Keith R. Williams, Chair
University Committee on Educational Policy
Shane White, Chair
University Committee on Faculty Welfare
Gregory Miller, Chair
University Committee on Research Policy
Peter Krapp, Chair
University Committee on Planning and Budget
No shave november
December 2nd, 2009Resultat tatt noen dager før pga thanksgiving.
Som dere ser… ikke stort å se der skjeggveksten min er vel… begrenset. Tatt på badet hjemme hos Ben, roomien min på ihouse.
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Oppdatering fra LA
November 26th, 2009Thanksgiving er noe jeg aldri har vært borti før, men det visst noe spesielt med det tror jeg. Vet ikke. Vi later som, iallefall.
Uansett, jeg tilbringer min thanksgiving i LA sammen med roommaten min Ben hos familien hans. Han bor i Westwood og ut fra det jeg har fått med meg er der rett i nabolaget til Bel Air og UCLA. Det er i allefall ganske fint her. Har tittet litt rundt og faktisk vært på stranden idag av alle steder. LA er i sørcalifornia og her er det sommer og varmt selv i november, vi var faktisk og vasset og vandret rundt i tskjorte og shorts. I tillegg så kjøpte jeg meg en tskjorte som er laget av pure awsome.
I morra så skal jeg kanskje til disneyland eller noe, litt ubestemt forsatt. Anyways, LA er ruper og thanksgiving det gir meg fri selv om det faktisk har vist seg å være litt upraktisk, ikke fordi det er koselig, men fordi jeg har et paper jeg må skrive på og som jeg forsatt mangler sånn 3000 ord på. Huff huff.
Jeg har også lagt merke til at ca alle i hele Norge blir sammen for øyeblikket og det er ikke engang vår, men kald november. Men for all del, grattis alle sammen som jeg har og ikke har sagt gratulerer til. Skal innrømme at jeg er litt misunnelig, sånn egentlig. Men forventer full oppdatering fra alle når jeg kommer til Norge altså.
Jeg gleder meg forresten til å komme meg en tur hjemom og til å komme på romjulshow slik at jeg kan møte alle fantastiske Juventere og mennesker jeg er glad i(=
Men nå tror jeg at jeg skal sove. Klokka er 2 her og jeg begynte egentlig bare å skrive blogg som en unnskyldning for å ikke jobbe med bacheloroppgaven min.
God Natt/Formiddag
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Open Letter from Concerned Members of the Faculty to Chancellor Robert J. Birgeneau,
November 24th, 2009November 22, 2009
We, the undersigned faculty, are writing to voice our strenuous objection to the use of unwarranted violence by the police forces enlisted by the University of California at Berkeley to patrol the student demonstration outside of Wheeler Hall on Friday, November 20th. It is now abundantly clear that in addition to UC Police, there were squads from the City of Berkeley and Alameda County, and that some of these police forces acted with undue violence at various points during the day, most conspicuously at mid-day and then again in late afternoon when they used batons against students and a faculty member. In some cases this occurred to defenseless people who had already been pushed to the ground, among them several who sustained injuries to hands, heads, and stomachs, and were forced to seek urgent medical care. These abuses of police power were captured on video recordings and in photographs, corroborated by numerous witnesses. They have now been widely circulated on the web and throughout the national and international media. We will send you a composite of those websites and testimonies under separate cover.
These documents clearly show that the students were acting in a non-violent manner when their civil rights were abrogated by police harassment and assault. Such instances of unprovoked police brutality would be appalling and objectionable anywhere, but we find it most painful for these events to have taken place on the UC Berkeley campus, given the important tradition of protecting free speech that you, Chancellor Birgeneau, have only very recently defended. Hence we regard with dismay and astonishment your euphemistic reference to these Friday’s violence: “a few members of our campus community may have found themselves in conflict with law enforcement officers.” There is no doubt that our students and colleagues did find themselves subject to unwarranted and illegal police brutality. It is therefore incumbent on the Chancellor of UC Berkeley to condemn such actions unequivocally and to make sure that such actions are subject to comprehensive review and disciplinary action.
Accordingly, we the undersigned demand that the university assume full accountability for the actions of the police forces active on campus on Friday, November 20th. We call for the administration immediately to convene an impartial and comprehensive investigation of the abuse of police power that resulted, making broad use of available testimony on the part of victims and observers, including photographic images, video and personal narration of those at the scene in order to establish a clear record of the facts. We ask as well that you speak directly and honestly to the students about what has happened. They are entitled to know that the university does not condone acts of police violence such as these; as of this writing, they have received no word from the administration acknowledging accountability for such appalling actions. Indeed, the administration was markedly unreachable on Friday, when faculty were most pressed to take on a mediating role.
We ask that you widely publicize the current protocols governing police conduct at demonstrations, and ascertain whether protocol was followed or abrogated on Friday. The entire community is also surely entitled to know that clear steps will be taken to revise protocols regarding police conduct at student demonstrations–protocols that will be binding on any police force brought on campus. It should also make clear that disciplinary actions will be taken against police officers found guilty of assault. Finally we ask for a public statement reconfirming the University’s commitment to protect the rights of free expression and assembly for students on the Berkeley campus.
We want to underscore how important it is for the campus for you to convene an investigation and to take administrative responsibility for protecting the safety of students as well as their rights of assembly and expression. Friday’s failure to do so is a most painful public display of how far UC Berkeley has strayed from its historical responsibility as a national and international institution pledged to rights of free speech and assembly and to the ideals of social justice. It is surely difficult enough to see our reputation as an excellent and affordable university jeopardized through budget cuts and fee hikes. Must we see as well the dissolution of the ideal of protecting free speech for students for whom the very future of their education is at stake?
Signed:
Elizabeth Abel, English
Alice Merner Agogino, Mechanical Engineering
Norma Alarcon, Ethnic Studies
Albert Russell Ascoli, Italian
Paola Bacchetta, Gender and Women’s Studies
Jeanne Bamberger, Music and Urban Education
Patricia Baquedano-López, Graduate School of Education
Joi Barrios-Leblanc, South and Southeast Asian Studies
Brian Barsky, Computer Science
Lisa Bedolla, Education
Emilie Bergmann, Spanish and Portuguese
John Bishop, English
Déborah Blocker, French
Jean-Paul Bourdier, Architecture
Daniel Boyarin, Near Easteren Studies and Rhetoric
Karl Britto, French and Comparative Literature
Natalie Brizuela. Spanish and Portuguese
Wendy Brown, Political Science
Michael Burawoy, Sociology
Judith Butler, Rhetoric and Comparative Literature
Brandi Wilkins Catanese, Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies
Timothy Clark, History of Art
Catherine Cole, Theatre, Dance and Performance Studies
Vasudha Dalmia, South and Southeast Studies
Prachi Delpande, History
Clelia Donovan, Spanish and Portuguese
Beshara Doumani, History
Robert Dudley, Integrative Biology
Laurent El Ghaoui, Engineering
Peter Evans, Sociology
Jerry Feldman, EECS
Keith Feldman, Ethnic Studies
Mariane Ferme, Anthropology
Mia Fuller, Italian
Peter Glazer, Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies
Evelyn Nakano Glenn, Ethnic Studies, Gender and Women’s Studies
Steven Goldsmith, English
Ramón Grosfoguel, Ethnic Studies
Suzanne Guerlac, French
Andrew Paul Gutierrez, Ecosystem Science
Angela Harris, Boalt School of Law
Gillian Hart, Geography
Cori Hayden, Anthropology
Tyrone Hayes, Integrative Biology
Lyn Hejinian, English
David Henkin, History
Charles Hirschkind, Anthropology
John Hurst, Graduate School of Education
Toni Johnston, Education
Andrew Jones, East Asian Languages and Culture
Alan Karras, IAS
Elaine Kim, Ethnic Studies
Patrick Kirsch, Anthropology and Integrative Biology
Georgia Kleege, English
Jake Kosek, Geography
Claire Kramsch, German
Chana Kronfeld, Near Eastern and Comparative Literature
George Lakoff, Linguistics
Katherine Lee, College Writing
Gregory Levine, History of Art
Michael Lucey, French and Comparative Literature
Richard Norgaard, Energy and Resources
Saba Mahmood, Anthropology
Francine Masiello, Spanish and Comparative Literature
Susan Maslan, French
Minoo Moallem, Gender and Women’s Studies
Davitt Moroney, Music
Carlos Muos, Ethnic Studies
Ramona Naddaff, Rhetoric
Rasmus Nielsen, Integrative Biology
Dan O’Neill, East Asian Languages and Literatures
Abena Dore Osseo-Asare, History
Stefania Pandolfo, Anthropology
Nancy Peluso, Environmental Science
Della Peretti, Education
Daniel Perlstein, Graduate School of Education
Kevin Padian, Integrative Biology
Kent Puckett, English
Robert Rhew, Geography
Christine Rosen, Haas School of Business
Ananya Roy, City and Regional Planning
Jeff Salbin, Boalt School of Law
Debarati Sanyal, French
Scott Saul, English
Nancy Scheper-Hughes, Anthropology
Sue Schweik, English
Ingrid Seyer-Ochi, Education
Katherine Sherwood, Art Practice
Kaja Silverman, Rhetoric and Film Studies
Jeffrey Skoller, Film Studies
Sandra Smith, Sociology
Katherine Snyder, College Writing
Janet Sorensen, English
Ann Smock, French
Shannon Steen, Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies
Alan Tansman, East Asian Languages
Estelle Tarica, Spanish and Portuguese
Barrie Thorne, Sociology, Gender and Women’s Studies
Sylvia Tiwon, South and Southeast Asian Studies
Soraya Tlatli, French
Linda Tredway, Education
Trinh Minh-Ha, Rhetoric, Gender and Women’s Studies
David Tse, EECS
Susan Ubbelohde, Architecture
Paula Varsano, East Asian Languages
Sophie Volpp, Comparative Literature
Anne Wagner, History of Art
L. Ling-Chi Wang, Ethnic Studies
Michael Watts, Geography
Leon Wofsy, Molecular and Cell Biology
Alexei Yurchak, Anthropology
Going to LA
November 24th, 2009For thanksgiving, sammen med roomien min.
Det blir spendende, er ikke vandt med thanksgiving i det hele tatt så dette blir en spesiell hendelse for meg men jeg tror det blir bra. Får vel gå en tur og sightse litt og en tur bortom UCLA.
Noen jeg skal kjøpe noe til når jeg først er i LA?
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