I was an exchange participant for 10 months to an amazing country with some fantastic people. These posts are of the period I was in the exchange, as well as thoughts after them which in some manner or the other, are a result of my exchange program.
Sitting yesterday at their place and discussing such varied topics (within the umbrella of education) reminded me of the months i spent there. These discussion were almost like an everyday phenomenon either in veum 4, or 1 or in peisestua. Discussing the differences, accepting those differences- all seems to be back again with these guys here…
Its not over yet. And I don’t regret that fact 🙂
Background
April 6th, 1994
Happy Easter 🙂
I think i will be back before easter, but not sure..
I’m vacationing 🙂
Svat might say that i cry at the smallest of things, and it is right too… things affect me and tears come up in my eyes, but today, I knew that it meant more than my eyes filling up. I still have more than 2months here, and its stupid to think about wats going to happen in may, and be sad, but the ‘coming to an end’ atmosphere is somewhere in the air now, even amongst the others.
Its going to weird, hard and difficult to leave this place and its amazing.
Its going to be hard to leave this place which has literally been home for the past 7months and the people, the family.
Its going to be hard to say bye to the place which we always refer to as ‘hjem kjære hjem’ (home sweet home)
Its going to be pissing off not to see ida everyday in the morning and not hear her saying ‘gudmorgen søta’ during breakfast and give that morning hug/head butt. Not to meet guro at morgen samling and ask ‘er du trøtt?’. Not to make matpakke for marit and write her name in Hindi. Not to be with carlos and carmen in the same FK class. Not to dance with carmen during pauses to spanish and indian and beatles songs. Not to make coffee in matsalan and add 2 table spoon sugar and have someone stare at you in amazement at the amount of sugar I take. Not have maja to do the maja dance with. Not to have marita to just sit next to and try those gymnastics tricks with. Not to have torje to determine which one represents which one of us card of a playing card deck. Not have mia sing ‘chandu ke chacha ne’. Not to have rikka to watch grey’s anatomy with. Not to have Martin to play pranks on and hear from him ‘tum kekade ho’. Not have lene to play pranks with on Martin. Not to have steffen to say ‘ha deg vekk ditt spøkels’ to. Not to have julie coming to me and speak so much norwegian so fast and give that hug and not understand a word but still feel nice about it. Not to have pia to give those hugs uten peisestua. Not to get the most cosiest hugs from ingeborg at anytime of the day. Not to eat with around 12people every meal of the day. Not to have solvie for every corridor tournament. Not have those really big bright smiles from Helga, Karen and Liv from the kitchen. Not to have room checks on Wednesday and the those funny comments from svein arne. Not to have those cutest ever smiles from arlid. Not to have those funny sessions of talks and seeing Marcus around in his office with his coffee cup. Not having those random conversations about any topic with Anders stenvig, anywhere!!! Not to have anders hals and those discussions and him reminding me about Vandana shiva. Not to have those everyday mails from Inger lise and those singing sessions in class. Not to have those everyday whistles from sara. Not to have jonny say ‘poda patti’ to you and then have literally a physical fight with him. Not to hear those laughter burst outs from Synne and oda. Not to have those beautiful crazy moments with marit and at the same time those serious conversations. Not to have eirin to tell me again and again with the best smile that my hair looks great when i leave it open and i still don’t do that. Not to see hallvard in the newspapers for his work in some field or the other. Not to have espen to tickle and be tickled by. Not to have gisle to call ‘pinky’ as his cheecks are always warm and pink and not to hear from him that i stay in Veum .5 and not 1. Not to have mia tell that whenever she is depressed ” I’ll jsut take you and vineet a\out and play holi and then i’ll be happy.” Not to have those funnily sweet moments with hallvar trying to make things stand on top of each other on the table and tell him everyday that he has to teach me piano and forget myself. Not have those boxing acting sessions with johninge. Not to irritate Simon all the time. Not have knut to talk about columbia and his time there in red cross. not have to have Johninge play stupid but fun ‘how can i kill you’ situations without talking a word. Not to have ingrid helping me with norwegian. Not to have the amazing fun with ida in her by-hater. Not to see Otta again. Not to celebrate christmas with so much happiness, food and gifts. Not to have lene’s mom and dad make those amazing cakes. Not to meet gropus (marit’s cat) again. Not to have Barit call me Vandaaaaana or Vandanda. Not to hear JP call vineet ‘Vinjeet’. Not to have those amazing ‘back massage’ trains which we form in peisestua. Not to have those night 2am talks in veum 1 or 4…
Its been just 7months, and its been so much! So much has happened and so many people have made their presence felt.
Its been great till now.
Thankyou.
Its been loads of experiences, meeting new amazing people and just some amazing times. Sweden was amazing and Ystad was nothing but beautiful and Lerum was home! But what I was waiting for was to meet my brother on March 1st. It was a little strange feeling to meet him here, i’d never imagined that of all the places, we can meet each other and spend time with each other here. It was amazing, though jsut 3 days, but something i will remember for all the sleepless nights of talking, snow fights, walks, pulling each others legs, etc. Also, what caught my attention to the most was the friendship he still continued with M even though they met this time after 5 years! It felt as if they were together all this while – tlaking about their days in the school, funny incidents and stupid dancing – well, we couldnt stop laughing if we were around.
It was great 3 days and I will definately remember the fun we had waiting in the airport.
Its great to see someone from family.
Miss you dude.
The first one we visited was called Tunga and was the jail which was supposed to be more closed than the others. The inmates (as they refer to, as they avoid the usage of the term prisoners ) were supposed to be in their single rooms for 23 hours of the day, and they had only one hour outside that small room of hteirs which had a small tv, a bed, and a writing table and a window. During this one hour, they could play in the football field, go the gym hall or socialise with the others, but that 1 hour a day was all what they were allowed. It was a little strange for me to know that there were inmates in that jail who were actualyl waiting for sentence from the court and were not yet convicted. They are there cause the society considers them harmful for the functioning and wish that they are behind bars for the betterment of the entire society. Also, what was worth appreciation was different programems for these inmates. An inmate, after a certain period, could apply for a module, wherein he can go to the ‘in-house’ school which gave you a legal graduation, or learn some form of work like mechanics, carpentry, or other things. A way to make them equiped to go out and live when they get the chance to. Also, for different kinds of crimes, there were different ways of dealing. There were seperate counselling and other programmes for people who were convicted under murder charges, for those who were charged for sexual harrassmaent, etc.
This was one. The next two which we visited were moreover similar, though had minor differences. The next two were the more open jails, that is, they could go out in the mornings for their jobs but have to come back to this jail, at a particular time which is decided by the authorities, and sleep there. So, one actually lives there. And in these jails, if its a child who is in jail, he can go to a regualar school, and dothe normal thigns but has to come back to the jail before 5 or 6pm. And also, not everyone gets to go to these open jails. For example, if Mr. A has been given 21 years sentence (by the way, thats the longest sentence anyone gets, they do not have capital punishment here), he might stay in the ‘strict’ jail for 15 years, and then apply for the ‘open’ jails. If his behavior and other things have been fine in these past 15years, then he is shifted to these open jails. Also, in these open jails, if one has the permission, he/she can go for overnight stays ans visits to their families and can also recieve overnight visits as these jails have specially made appartments for accomodating visitors.
There were many things which came up in my mind while and after visiting these jails.
Firstly, was the facilities provided to these criminals. I kept asking why was so much facilities being provided to people who probably killed someone. And I remember Ms. I telling me that they believe here that if you give bad facilities and no food and other related things, you are not helping in making or improving that person. They aim over here to help the person come out of what he did, and make him a better person for the society. Bad handling and facilities might just make him more rebellious to the society. The programmes and other counselling serivices was a part of this for helping him/her.
Secondly, was the concept of these open jails. I kept wondering why anyone will let out criminals in the morning and let them come back and sleep in the jail! What kind of punishement is this? Well, I got another answer for that from Ms. I. Well, she was of the view that if we ket these inmates inside isolation with no social contact for 21 years or any number of years, and then suddenly let them free after those years and expect them to fit back into the society, how practical are we thinking? Its going to be way too hard for a person to get back into the social setup after being completely cut off from it for a number of years! The open jails act as this process of helping them to get back to the society, as a process.
So, now probably I’m a little less surprised seeing pool tables, a big flat screen tv, washing machines to clean clothes and also the facility to iron it, and coke and juice machines in a jail.
Also, it was intersting to know that people who work in these fengsel/ jails have to go through a special schooling in these for 3 years, only then you can be employed. And we met people who have been working in these jails for 30 years! And thats a long time.. and when we asked how he felt working in a place like that for 30 years, he just said that it was worth it. He said that he felt relived when he met people who were in these jails and now live a completely normal and happy life and often came visiting him to know how he was.
All was a process.
And thats what they believe and focus here,
its a process which needs time and attention, and it should be given that time and attention.
Its
amazing when you can hear about something you live everyday from someone else’s
point of view, gives you the opportunity to know where you stand and what does
the ‘other’ think about it. It was somewhat a same experience today when a
foreigner (cause he was not Indian, but Swedish) was talking about India and
concentrating on Mahatma Gandhi.
It was
to my surprise that I entered the auditorium with these big banners of Mahatma
Gandhi and his views, his philosophy, his experience in South Africa,
Satyagraha, Non-violence, civil disobedience, all explained in brief. And what
surprised me more was that it was in English. He was introduced as the Master
of Gandhi in Norway and that he had just returned from India after teaching
about Gandhi to Indians. That part of the introduction definitely caught my
attention.
He
started with the philosophy of democracy and different aspects and his
perspectives about the very same. He even questioned the democratic functioning
of the very same school he was standing and addressing us. Interesting, I
thought. He spoke a lot about the different manners in which people still use
the Gandhi way of doing things but in just a manipulated way, but the basic
idea was Gandhi way. He said talked about different ideologies, which I think were his, many of them like, the greatest thing to democracy is civil
obedience and the reasons why we obey rules and do not question anything.
It was interesting when he spoke about that cause I realized how obedient I am
(not boasting about myself, but thinking generally). And also, one point that
struck me is that its not that easy to question certain unjust laws, it
requires courage and guts, and common lets accept it, not many of us have it.
The most
humorously interesting part of his talk was when he concentrated on a concept
called as Global Democracy, where in democracy was established on a global
level. He took an example and mentioned that if that was to happen and it came
to representatives from each country, and say, I representative for every
10million people, China would have the highest representatives in a Global
Parliament with 132, India following with 116, next will be USA with 30 and he
reached Norway, which will have 0. He made most of the people sitting in that
auditorium think about who controls all of us in this world, when it comes to
business, arms, trade, etc. Minorities
suffer, whether regionally, nationally and even internationally. He made me think
about a tag which my country proudly holds, ‘’The world’s largest democracy’’…
Do we really have a democratic functioning or do we just talk about it and it’s
there just at the outer level?
Something
which I carried myself back from his talk was one specific sentence he
emphasized on, its easier to critise
something, presenting different alternatives is what is important and needs to
be concentrated upon. Something I am thinking about.
I waited
eagerly for the next speaker, cause he was someone who has with him memories he
says were the most painful ever. He
is from Rwanda and works with the International Tribunal for Rwanda situated in
Arusha, Tanzania, which is dealing with the presecution of those convicted
during the Rwandan genocide of 1994. He grabbed my attention more cause I had
dome a project, 2 months back, about Rwanda and the genocide. He gave us the
general idea of the tribunal and the way it functions and constituents and then
moved ahead to his personal testimony of working in the Tribunal itself. He
referred to himself as an international;
citizen’ who withdrew himself from the tag of being a Rwandan during the
trial. He was honest in confessing that it was not easy for him to see his
countrymen being accused of some of the most horrifying crimes convicted to the
mankind instigated by discrimination.
We
explored more domains during that session with the help of a quick question
answer round. When one of us asked him how it was after the killings which left
800000 million dead in just 100 days, he said that after that massacre,
everyone was ‘hopeful’. He mentioned the fact that after the genocide and the
atrocities, the country was completely empty, but the people had a hope. He
mentioned how there was no money in the banks, people didn’t have cars to go to
work, and they did not have salaries as the end of the months, but still, every
Rwandan woke up and went to work with a hope. It was a story that made me think
about how much a human kind is possible to do. The extremes it can go to – to
destroy his own kind, and at the same time ,have the courage to build and start
from the scratch, be it in Rwanda after the genocide against Hutus and Tutsis,
or in Combodia after the Khmer Rouge.
It was
an afternoon I shall remember.
For the
very many interesting people I met.
For the
very many thoughts that arose in my mind.
For the
very many talks and conversations I shared with people today about the related
topics.
And for
the day when I realized again that it’s
hard dude! Its hard to even just survive sometimes, so if you and me are
surviving and living a life, lucky you and me!
This is what they are left with and this is what israel is fighting against with now!
In a situation where everyday innocent palestine women, children and men are begin killed for no fault of theirs but due to the reaction of the Israeli military to the rocket attacks of Hamas, the international organisations, the other countries and in specific, United Nations chooses to keep a ‘shut-up’ stance.
Security Council passed a resolution for cease fire, Egypt is acting as a negotiator for peace talks between Israel and Palisetine, but nothing seems to be happenign at a concrete level when already more than 900 people are killed in Israeli air strikes and now, with even the troops in Gaza, the situation just seems to get worse everyday!
Both the countries want their demands to be fulfilled, but who remembers those people who are being killed without any fault of their own?
And what on the earth is United Nations doing in all this? Passing resolutions? Well, that seems like the best option… doesn’t it???
UN Human Rights council condemns Israeli mitlitary operation in Gaza – ya… so, what next???
Sanctions on North Korea when they did a nuclear test, well, also because it seemed like a threat to US…
Why no actions now???
Something needs to be done, more than just talks, as soon as possible, before it just becomes to late.
| In just a few words.... | 
