The culture of Nørgaard

Dear members of our blog, including the new ones!

Just a short message:

It seems as fare as I know from talking shortly woth Louise and from reading the the article from Lazlo and co. published on this blog that most of this week worked out all rigtht.

We will get back to it all in next week, and I'm looking foreward to work with you again on our different on-goind issues - including what will be written for our wall-newspaper LifeLines.

I will be on Nørgaard's on saturday 1/3 by lunch.

Peter

The school’s culture from foreigners’ eyes.

Today we discussed Noergaards Hojskole’s culture. We tried to track down the school’s values and recognize artifacts. For all of you who do not know what artifacts are: ‘ To study artifacts is like a geologist studying the lava from a volcano after it has been active. It is not studying the core of it, but it is an evidence of the core’.

First and foremost we talked about “school’s symbol”. There are lots of symbol in this school – like “Gudar”, “School Logo”. And each of them has a meaning. If we know what that means, we can know more about this school.

Logo
Cross – faith, eternity
Ship – Vikings = action & fighting & daring to move
Anchor – hope
Horse – old symbol for hope
Gudar
Gudar’s daughter went away from Gudar with her boyfriend. So Gudar threw big stone after them. The big stone tore apart the earth. The river appeared in that row.

These things show us that this school guides us into a positive future.
Symbols are part of a tradition, so much respected in that school. Signs of attention put to the tradition are visible when you first enter the school. Faces of former principals are looking at you from the left, and at the right we can find a portrait of school’s founders. The name of the school is also a surname of the founder. In the basement we can see a collection of 62 photographs of former students dating back to early 70’s. Tradition is also respected when it comes to rituals and ceremonies. Morning assemblies, common singing, putting names on the door, ringing s bell during the dinner, we all believe it is a part of it.

Secondly, attention is put to social aspect of being a student and importance of finding your way in a group and staying fit.
You can find many games, which helps you to make new friendship. Furthermore, you can do sport a lot which is good for your health. Student’s well-being is looked after in many ways, for example: kitchen, moving in the morning.
Finally, drinking in the school is allowed even if not so healthy but useful for feeling good and learning languages.
To sum up, tradition, drinking, and sports make an interesting mixture. If you come here you won’t regret it.

Laszlo, Aga, Tomas, Yoshimi

so fare so good (så langt så godt)

Dear members of nrgaard-culture

We have just returned from the hospital. My wife is filled with morfine and are now at sleep :-)
That gives me the chance to check what you've made of questions regadring the Muhammed-crisis etc.
And so fare it looks good? Hope that the rest of you will join in so that we can create thae basic for a qualified discussion with Ajmal thursday 13. marts.

Please don't forget to think about what you would like to write about to our newspaper!
Some of you already brought up some good ideas including in which genre (fx interview).
Would some you please think about taking some pictures of Per and his lecture tomorrow friday - and maybe write a notise about it - then it will be published not only on our newpaper but also on www.nrgaard.dk (the webmaster are now able to woprk again).

Any comments on the movie The Life of the Others?

Peter

Questions to Ajmal

1. Why are you living in Danmark?
2. Was ít easy to adapt to live there for you? It is easy life for you?
3. Hlayhel said: ‘'of course, as a Muslim I can't see a better system for the world than Islam''. Do you agree with him?
4. I think most of misunderstandings derive from ignorance of culture. What do you think about?

5. Do you think that Weestergarp wanted suggests Muhammed is a terrorist or just show us that sometimes his believers are using his profile to excuse of violence?
   

Questions in relation to the Muhammed drwaings

1. One of the spiritual leaders Josef Alkadawi is saying in a video clip that: “Westerners think democracy stands for absolute freedom. This is what we reject. There is no absolute freedom anywhere in the world”. He says that everything is controlled by law and gives an example with traffic lights. Afterwards he says “nobody can do what he or she wants”. Do you agree on this statement?
   
2. Josef Alkadawi does not mean that Danish newspapers are allowed to make drawing of Muhammed, because it is not respectful towards the Islam religion. If I start my own religion, with my own special prophets, should it also be banned to make drawing of these?
   If yes, then when is a belief a part of a religion? Can’t I just call all my opinions religious believes?
   
3. If we band expressions of critical opinions towards religion, wouldn’t we also affect the possibilities to express ideologies and political opinions?
   
4. How should we be able to decide which expressions that is offensive, and which is not?
   
5. How do we separate between critical art, blasphemy or humor?
   

Spørgsmål til Ajmal

Christian og Ninas spørgsmål til Ajmal

Christian:

1. Hvad er dit syn på muhammed krisen?
2. Hvordan kan muslimer blive så oprørte over nogle tegninger?
3. Har muhammed ikke vist os at det er en relevant debat?
4. Hvordan tror du at livet vil se ud i Danmark hvis vi tog hensyn til alles religiøse/politiske tabuer?
5. Ville det ikke være en fordel med total sekularisering?

Nina:

1. Hvorfor ødelægger de ALT, i deres egen by som et udtryk for at de er vrede?
2. Jeg kan ikke forstå deres reaktion, kan du forklare hvorfor de tillader sig at blive sure når de laver tegninger der handler om Bush, jøder osv?
3. Hvordan ser du krisen?
4. Tror du der med årene bliver "skåret" i ytringsfriheden?
5. Er det her et uendeligt emne- der aldrig holder op? og tror du det vil blive brugt imod Danmark med årene?

Questions about the Mohammad Cartoons to Ajamal

Did the cartoons hurt you personally?

Did you see any of the muslim cartoons about the jews before?

What do you think about them?

What do you think about the reaction in the Arab Countries?

Was it equal to the cartoons?

Do you think these reactions could happen again?

Are you believe in free speech?

Do you think that the Danish Government is responsible for the cartoons?

Did anything change in your life after the drawings?

Did the thinking of the danish people about you changed after the drawings?


questions from Peter and Andrea

Dear Students!

My name is Letti, and I've been in the school during the autumn semester. I had deadline and event making subjects. I still keep in touch with Peter, and he asked me if I can write here sometimes, cause I going to Prague for the spring to Charles University. (actually I going in 2 hours:)

So, I try to write and visit this blog as soon as possible.

Have a nice weekend,

hej-hej:)

お馬鹿な政治 ( 1 ) - Mathilde, Yoshimi

　The plan the government got to get more people to work is terrible we think. A person who receive social service in cash (kontanthjaelpsmodtager) does not have the time to look for a job, the finances is being cut down all the time as well, so it is hard to make a living.
　The society could help these people to get a dignified life by helping then to find a job. It could be flex job or spare job (skaanejob) which is not used enough. That kind of arrangement could be used a lot better and get more people to work again.

(1) Stupid government

Casual opinion about Bænken

First and foremost, I would like to congratulate for this great movie. I am a simple guy from Hungary. I wasn't really interested in welfare systems at all, but after this movie I was thinking a lot about this topic. I was shocked when I saw that alcoholist and "homeless" man had got his own flat. Sure, it depends on the Danish Welfare System. I think the best in this system that it is allowed to drink on the street. That's all that I would like to say right now.

Danish welfare-It doesn’t work!!!

Danish welfare is famous in all World and sounds amazing, and many countries envy about it . BUT... this kind of „convenient welfare state” can be cause to rise of „laziness of citizens”. Very great example we can find out in danish movie: ”The Bench” that I had chance to watch several days ago. Moreover is happen that a good many causes when danish welfare doesn’t work and number of heavy alcoholics and homeless is rising very fast. So, I think that even Danish affluent society isn’t able to keep away from majority problems of modern societies.

Beskat danske husejeres friværdi

I disse år skævvrides det danske velfærdssamfund i takt med stigningen i boligpriserne. De stigende huspriser giver de danske husejere mulighed for at høste penge ind på deres friværdi. Dette er en oprørende tilstand, der er årsag til øget polarisering af vores ellers socialt orienterede velfærdssystem. Jeg er udmærket godt klar over at der ikke er en eneste politikker der tør røre disse beskatningsregler, da størstedelen af de danske vælgere er husejere – et essentielt problem ved at majoriteten sidder på magten. Hvis man kigger objektivt på det danske skattesystem, giver det absolut ingen mening at husejeres tårnhøje gevinster på værdistigninger ikke skal beskattes på lige fod med andre indtægter. Vi er nødt til at se bort fra egne umiddelbare gevinster og tage et anstændigt samfundsansvar, frem for at misbruge demokratiet.

Beskat danske husejeres friværdi

I disse år skævvrides det danske velfærdssamfund i takt med stigningen i boligpriserne. De stigende huspriser giver de danske husejere mulighed for at høste penge ind på deres friværdi. Dette er en oprørende tilstand, der er årsag til øget polarisering af vores ellers socialt orienterede velfærdssystem. Jeg er udmærket godt klar over at der ikke er en eneste politikker der tør røre disse beskatningsregler, da størstedelen af de danske vælgere er husejere – et essentielt problem ved at majoriteten sidder på magten. Hvis man kigger objektivt på det danske skattesystem, giver det absolut ingen mening at husejeres tårnhøje gevinster på værdistigninger ikke skal beskattes på lige fod med andre indtægter. Vi er nødt til at se bort fra egne umiddelbare gevinster og tage et anstændigt samfundsansvar, frem for at misbruge demokratiet.

Letters to the editor

About the ”Bench”

Comparing to the hungarian welfare system, the danish one is much more developed. If someone would like to live a reasonable life in Denmark, he/she can do it with the help of some competent institutions.
The hungarian homeless people cannot afford to have an own flat and usually they cannot make any progress in their lives. On the contrary in Denmark if someone has the will and
power to be part of the society hu/she has the chance to do it easily.

Andrea Weisz

Per Fly’s Brilliant Movie

I was really looking forward to watch the movie ”Baenken”, because I had heard a lot about it before. Most of the previous films about welfare systems I have seen were from the United States, so this was very interesting to get know another point of view from a different country, from Denmark, which is I think closer to Hungary, than the USA. The directing was good, the actors were brilliant, the only bad thing about the movie, that I think it is predictable. I do not want to tell the whole story, the conclusion is, that I recommend it everybody to watch it, because it is a very unique film of the Danish new wave.

Peter Kovacs

The Fellowship

20th January, coming to Bjerringbro by plane, train, bus or car, mostly from Denmark but in general from all over the World, starting 5 months long adventure, together as one big team. Coming to find new friends, escape from daily life, learn something new, find out their future, to experience great time and maybe spend the best time of their lives..
...the new students of summer semester 2008 at Nørgaards Højskole