Worth noting

Well other than the fact that I seem to be on blogging steroids...

Have been reading a whole lot of articles about the Tucson shootings and am equally moved every time. Particularly liked on in the New York Times today about medical staff who were involved ("From bloody scene to ER").

So I know about Gabrielle Giffords, and I know about Christina-Taylor Green, but who else exactly were the victims of the shooting? So here, mostly for my own benefit is the list of people who died:

Christina-Taylor Green, 9 years old. Born on September 11, 2001.
Doris "Dot" Morris, 76. Survived by her husband, also shot.
John Roll, 63, Arizona judge.
Phyllis Schneck, 79.
Dorwan Stoddard, 76.
Gabriel "Gabe" Zimmerman, 30.

What a tragedy.

Family blogs

Well imagine my surprise yesterday to discover I am not the only blogger in my family! (So much for being so close :-)

Well despite not being THAT regular, turns out I am more regular than they are though - other than sunnysidedreams.blogspot.com - my sister is turning a whole new forest :-)

So by all means have a look - it won't take a rock scientist to see how different we are! She is the creative, easy going sister, while I am the deeper, broody one...:-)

A new year...

I am not sure if I am going to graduate into a real "blogger" now in 2011. However it would seem that I am not quite giving up!

First blogworthy thought of the year - about the shooting of Gabrielle Giffords in the US: to blame or not to blame.

I am no fan of conservative Republicanism and even less so of Tea Party Republicanism. Sarah Palin, well the less said the better. Are they to blame for the shooting? Well of course not to blame, directly. Haven't American commentators learnt yet that life is complicated? One big stew of where you come from, what you've done, what you're doing.

So let's just say that their rhetoric and not to mention constant use of war-imagery did not help. Yes, Glenn Beck, dear - you are not (in my opionion) contributing to make your country a safer, better place through your words. No, really.

You just cannot be surprised if this sort of thing happens when there is nothing in your rhetoric which would signal to any would-be shooter that it is not okay. And there has not been (until now? A bit late, no?).

So no, you may be not be blame per se, but you have a responsibility in what happened, you and all your cronies. Yes, Sarah that would be you too.

If you think that people's right to carry a gun is so important, it would be helpful if you thought it was equally important that they still respect life and even respect that people may have other views, but this does not make them less worthy of living. I assume you agree with that?

There is a tragic irony in the death of an 11-year old girl who was born on September 11th, 2001 and who dies in such circumstances. Al-Qaeda and their cronies are not the only danger to Americans. Such killings seem to becoming quite common in the American way of life as well.

On reflection am wondering why I, non-American that I am, can have such opinions about you guys? Because the entire country of the US is reality-tv for the rest of us. This was not a good episode and we would prefer if it were not repeated.

Much ado about a Nobel Peace Prize

By stroke of fate I was in China at the time of the announcement of the 2010 Nobel Peace prize - which as is well known now, has gone to the gaoled Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo.

I have to admit that my first reaction was: typical! After mucking things up with Obama last year, the Nobel peace committee have overcompensated this year by going for someone in gaol in a non-democratic state. (There can be little doubt though that it was a much better decision than last year!).

However, there I was, in China. So naturally one wondered if we would feel it at all, and it was certainly curious that of the eight days that I was there, I only received one complimentary newspaper from the hotel - the one that happened to be carrying the almost, but not quite innocuous article about how this was going to damage the bilateral relations between Norway and China. Mostly it was the blank screen on CNN which was the most obvious way one noticed it. (The photograph of the "blank" TV above is in fact of CNN - blanked out for the duration of the report. A few days later when the same thing happened one realised immediately that there was clearly a report on the house report of Liu Xiaobo's wife! How quickly one got used to it...).

But it made me think of other things too. I remember recently seeing a documentary series on BBC - on South Africa under Apartheid. I remember in particular a woman being interviewed, a white, English-speaking South African - who was so annoyed that Desmond Tutu had received the Nobel Peace prize (though for life and death of me, I cannot exactly recall WHY she was so upset). Somehow though, she perceived it as a slap in the face, she seemed to almost take it personally. This is not unlike how the Chinese are reacting. It is true, they have undertaken tremendous reforms lately (which I do not think the South Africans had done at the same time). When discussing another issue (climate change and the "Copenhagen Accord" as it happens), I got a sense that China takes itself very seriously and as such does not appreciate its efforts being seemingly ignored or pocketed. Certainly it is useful to take into account that this is a very different culture from Western cultures. What this means for how one encourages such a society to reform is unclear to me. But I can understand the validity of such offenses.

In the end though, experiencing the smog which is probably so normal for the Chinese living in big cities that they barely notice it, being afraid for those who being kept in the dark of the Nobel Peace prize, kindly expressed an interest in visiting Norway - I realised that the freedoms and empowerment which I have is not to be taken lightly. Far too many in the world are not as fortunate.