The movie Gran Torino was released back in 2008. It is a drama movie directed by Clint Eastwood, who also plays the main character in the movie. We get to know the main character Walt Kowalski during the first minutes where we see him at his wife’s funeral. The movie takes numerous twists and turns after this, and we eventually end up seeing him getting attached to his immigrant neighbors who originates from South-East Asia.

The son of the Asian family Thao is very unfortunate and gets persuaded into doing something stupid by his older cousin. This leads Thao owing Walt a big favor and he works for him for over a week. After a while, they let their differences aside and become close friends despite them having a difficult past together. It was good to see that Walt gave Thao a second chance after all he had done.

Towards the end of the movie, Thao’s cousin kidnaps his sister, rapes her and drive-by shoots the Asian family’s house. After this incident, Walt made up his mind and was determined what he was going to do. He bought a new suit, got a haircut and went to confess to the priest before he went to end everything with Thao’s cousin. He saw this as a last farewell and then I did everything his wife ever wanted him to do. He wished for peace if was to depart later that day.

He ends up sacrificing himself in order to get the Thao’s cousin’s gang out of the neighborhood. He saw this as the only option without having to kill anybody. During his whole life, he had to endure the pain he had lived with since the Korean war in the ’50s and he didn’t want to experience the same pain once again. Another important factor was that he wanted to learn Thao that there is more to life than revenge. He did not want Thao to experience the same horrible things he had been trough. Finally, Walt felt that his life was soon to pass. His health was worsening, and he was tired of life. He felt that to sacrifice himself was the best option to solve everything.

Yesterday at Fagerlia it was International Day as we like to call it. This is a special day because we get lectured about different parts of the world and different conflicts as well. This year we had many students from our own school that presented their stories. The lectures I attended were held by refugees from the middle east. They talked about their journey, how life was before the conflicts and how their life is now. It is nice to have an insight into other peoples life and stories.

I recently watched two documentaries in English class. Both movies featured significant problems and had a message for us to understand. By making movies and using media this way we get to see the world from a point of view that we rarely have the opportunity to otherwise. The great thing about “Before The Flood” is that Leonardo DiCaprio is a man what we can relate to in this context because he is a non-professional. He asks the same types of questions as I would have. The whole team behind this movie does a great job at directing it towards the majority of people.

The other movie we watched in English class was “Girl Rising”.  The movies take us through the story of nine girls from all around the world. We saw the different shades of poverty and oppression. All of the stories were based on real experiences and some of them featured the actual girls the stories were about. We were met with the hard truths that many people meet every day and it really shows us how lucky we are here in Norway.

Movies, in general, has a huge impact on people in different ways. The typical saying “A picture is worth a thousand words” and I believe it multiplies with movies. The product of moving images, sounds, voices and narration makes up an artwork that can teach us countless things. I highly recommend documentaries like these. You may not like to watch movies that feature pure facts and reality, but sometimes we need a reminder of what is going on outside of the first world and our comfort zone.

Sustainable development is all about taking care of our needs today without ruining the future for the future generations. The United Nations Sustainable Development goals aim for exactly this. They cover three main areas, these being: climate and environment, economic and social conditions. To cover all these areas, the UN has come up with 17 specific goals, with 169 subgoals. You can see the 17 main goals in the image below.

All of the Sustainable Development Goals acts independently of each other and all of them are very important. However, there are goals that I personally think are a little more important than the rest. Goals such as the 4th and the 6th. I think that these goals are especially important.

If we can give a quality education to people all around the world in developing countries, they might be able to take more care of themselves and act more independent. Education is key to make people more aware of what is happening around them. When people become aware that there are problems which threaten us today, they will be wanting to take action in order to change the course of these problems. This is why I think the 4th goal is so important.

“You educate a man; you educate a man. You educate a woman; you educate a generation.”

-Brigham Young

Freshwater is crucial for the survival of humans, therefore we have to improve our infrastructure in order to give it to everybody. There is enough freshwater on the planet to support everybody, we just do not have the sufficient economy and we lack the infrastructure. We have already made improvements to sanitary needs and toilets, but we are far from the end destination.

I love the Earth, and if we are going to keep it, something must be done. It is ambitious for the United Nations to set the goals for 2030, but it is not impossible. With the proper communication and cooperation, the Earth might just be able to withstand our needs and the next generations needs altogether.