31 October 2008

Jihad for children



I was reading Superinteressante (a brazilian magazine), November/2008, and I saw one of the most shocking things I ever saw. We all know the problems in Gaza, but things are so far out that you don't realize the extent of the madness.

Hamas has a TV channel, and in this channel they present a program called "Tomorrow's Pioneers", which is a TV show for children, where a cute child girl present some cute friends, like a Mickey Mouse-alike rat. That would be completly normal (if we don't consider any copyright problem), but the thing that is extremelly shocking is the content of the program.

Basically, they preach against all jews ("terrorists" as they say) and that palestine should win the war and kill them all. The Mickey Mouse-alike (called "Farfour") is then spanked and killed by an insraeli soldier. Then, the presenter tell that "we lost, Farfour, while he was defending his land", but another one will avange him - a Bee.

According to the magazine, this is the kind of content the program has:

"We, the Tomorrow's Pioneers, will bring back the glory of this nation and free Iraqi and all the muslim countries from the assassin's hands".

"We are all ready to sacrifice ourselves for the good of our mother land".

"I failed in school because the Jews stole my books".

"If they do this again, we are going to kill them. We are going to chew and eat them".
[About the Danish newspaper with the famous Mohamed cartoon].

It's extremely gross and shocking that someone can actually create and display this to innocent children, growing them up with hatred. This is a severe crime. It's interesting that a human can be so blind by his/her own ideas that doesn't see that this will lead anywhere but to more suffering for everyone around.

If you want to see some of this terrible stuff, search for "Tomorrow's Pioneers" in YouTube. That's a little taste of it:

29 October 2008

Fall and winter

Even though I am from a particularly “seasoned” place in Brazil - with spring, summer, fall and winter - it’s very new to me the way things are here in Norway. Fall is particularly beautiful (especially when there is some sun). All the leaves on the ground, the people with nice coats, the cold that makes you want to hold hands and grab tight the one you love. There’s something in the air, a different “smell”, as Alexa, my Romanian co-worker, says.

Here are some photos of my fall experience:







But the title of this post is "fall and winter", so, I need also something about that.

Today I woke up, as usually I wake up, a little grumpy, and start to walk around the apartment with only one thing in my head: wash my face in the bathroom. When I was crossing the living room, I look outside, just to check if it's raining or not, and then I get surprised. My surprise was not because I've seen something extraordinary, as a moose or anything, but it was because all the world was SHINY WHITE.

The first Oslo snow of the season.

Imediatly, as a wanna-be-tourist, got my very bad and old digital camera and started to shoot. So here it is: