State prisons is the most feared, you can only get visits from people documented on your “visiting list” and you can only get mail from those people. Everyone wears the same type of clothes with the same colour and there is only one type of watered down hair conditioner. The meals are small and you can only go back to your cell for a nap at night. All in all, it’s very strict and not a place you want to spend years of your life.

Federal prisons are not so strict. You are allowed to have a personal look and wear normal clothes, like jeans. If you need new clothes, you can get anyone in your family to send you money and order clothes from a brochure or get a friend to send you your clothes. If you want to, you can take classes, like in college and they have fitness facilities where you can work out and get in shape.

This is off course only experiences from one person. There are many prisons in America and probably people saying that federal prisons are better then state prisons to, but in general, state prisons are stricter and have lower budget. This makes federal prisons more popular.

Links:

http://www.prisontalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=22967

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisons_in_the_United_States

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisons

This goes under:

· Drøfte sosiale forhold, samfunnsforhold og verdier I ulike kulturer I Amerika.

The authorities often use torture during interrogations. In other cases, they torture detainees to extort money and sometimes as summary punishment. No country in the world permits torture as an acceptable form of police or military practice, however, many governments give approval to the reality of torture by not ensuring that a suspect’s rights are sufficiently defended and perpetrators of the abuses are brought to justice; India is one such country.To research the issue about torturing in India is very difficult.

The Indian government has made independent human rights organisations from investigating allegations of torture in the country. These groups include Amnesty International, Human Rights, Watch-Asia, the International Red Cross, the British Parliamentary Human Rights Group and even the UN Human Rights Rapports. The Indian government has tried to refuse many of the allegations that gives approval for torture, and it has stated that all those found to have practised torture have been quickly and sufficiently punished.

Since India’s Independence, a number of political or religious groups have wanted specific states to break away from the federation, in a number of cases, the tactics used have been violent and of a terrorist nature. In the last ten years independence movements have been formed in Assam, Jammu & Kashmir, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Punjab.In each of the states which are written above, there are allegations of torture. In Kashmir, every branch of the security forces has its own detention centre. Hundreds of temporary centres are set up when forces are mounting cordon and search operations.It is commonly recognised that the extraction of confessions or information, which may ensure an arrest, is the most likely reason for the use of torture.

Below you can read an interview where a person has been tortured from the Police in India. “J. Singh retold of his treatment after he was picked up by police in 1992 because of his peaceful campaigning on behalf of a Sikh political party: A few days later they arrested me again, under Piara Singh, SHO of Lambra. When taken to the police station I was stripped naked. They opened my legs very wide, as far as they could, and stood on my thighs and kicked me with their boots. I was nearly unconscious. They beat me with their belts 50-60 times.”When a suspect is held for ordinary criminal activity, the victims of torture are the unemployed, migrant workers or habitants of the numerous urban slums.

In most cases they are illiterate, have no family and little access to the authorities who may be able to help. Mostly, these violations go unnoticed, occasionally, however, when the incident is so horrific, the media and public are attracted. Links:

http://www.linkedwords.com/local.php?for=tourture

This goes under:

drøfte sosiale forhold, samfunnsforhold og verdier i ulike kulturer.

The French and Spanish people brought Catholicism, while Northern European people introduced Protestantism. Since then, American Christians developed their own path. During the Great Awakenings interdenominational evangelicalism, Pentecostalism and Christian fundamentalism emerged, along with new Protestant denominations such as Adventism, and new branches of Restorations, particularly Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, also commonly referred to as Mormonism.  

Today, with 16.6 million adherents (5.3% of the total population), Southern Baptist is the largest Protestant denomination.Evangelicals played an important part in contemporary life of US citizens. Of the total population, Evangelicals comprised 26.3% and Mainline Protestants 16%.Despite its status as the most widespread and influential religion of the US, Christianity is undergoing a continuous relative decline. While the absolute number of Christians rose from 1990 to 2001, the Christian percentage of the population dropped from 88.3% to 78.5%. 

Buddhism entered the US during the 19th century with the arrival of the first immigrants from Eastern Asia. The first Buddhist temple was established in San Francisco in 1853 by the Chinese Americans and Judaism which is the third-largest religion in the US. Jews have been presented in the US since the 17th century, though large scale immigration didn’t take place until the 19th century. The CIA Fact Book estimates 1% of Americans belong to this group. Approximately 25% of this population lives in New York City. 

The history of Islam in the US starts in the early 16th century .The Muslim population has increased greatly in the last one hundred years. There is much controversy over recent estimates of the Muslim population in the US. Much of the growth has been driven by immigration. Up to one-third of American Muslims are African Americans who have converted to Islam during the last seventy years, most of whom first joined the Nation of Islam, though many later transitioned into mainstream Sunnis. Conversion to Islam in prisons has also contributed to its growth over the years. The first time Hinduism entered the US, it was not clearly identified. However, large groups of Hindus immigrated from India and other Asian countries since the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965.

During the 1960s and 1970s Hinduism exercised in modern times, estimates for Hindus in the US suggest they’re roughly 3 million (0.9% of the total population) of which 2 million of ethnic ancestry and 1 million Western converts.Hindu religion is growing in the US, not only thanks to immigration but also due many Western converts. Hinduism is expanding in popularity and influence on the public life. Several other religions are represented in the United States, including traditional Native American spirituality, new age spirituality, Sikhism, Jainism, Shintoism, Taoism, Caodaism, the Baha’i Faith, and Neopaganism. 

Links:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_the_United_States

 This goes under:

• gi eksempler på hvordan religion påvirker samfunn og kultur.

This first Army of India was raised under the British Raj or British India, which he was also called. He was the official Indian Empire during the 19^th century. He fought in both of the World Wars and during World War two, the Indian Army played an important role, not only by checking the advance of Imperial Japan, but also fighting several battles against Axis, the forces in northern Africa and Italy.

Today India is planning to spend $100 billion over the next decade on new equipment and parts for its growing military. Much of it will be purchased overseas to supplement India’s own modest defence industry.

The Indian Army is the armed force of India and is there to protect the land-based military, which includes other branched of the military such as an air force. Its primary responsibility is to make sure of peace and security of the country and everyone who lives there. It also conducts rescue and humanitarian operations during calamities and disturbances, and has frequently been called upon to maintain the internal security of the country.

The Indian Army has a troop strength of around 2.5 million (1.3 million active and 1.2 million reserve. It is the second largest standing army in the world. Links:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Army

This goes under:

• Presentere og diskutere internasjonale nyheter og aktuelle hendelser.
• definere begrepet makt og gi eksempler på hvordan makt blir brukt i verdenssamfunnet.

When Bush was elected as president for his first period in 2001, he gave the impression that he wanted an humble foreign policy, but he still decided to go into Iraq and has lead a very offensive foreign policy. Before Bush, the republican party did not have a offensive policy, Ron Paul, a republican president candidate, got the question: “You are the only one on the stage (republican debate) who a poses the war in Iraq, are you out step of your party, is your party out of step with the rest of the world. If ether of those are the case, why are you seeking it’s nomination?”. He Responded with “(…) Republicans were elected to end the Koran war, republicans were elected to end the Vietnam war. There is a strong tradition to be anti-war in the republican party”. This might be the comment that shocked me the most under this year debates, It might be a wage assumption, but if Bush changed his policy this much after 9/11, there might not be a war in Iraq right now, if there wouldn’t be for the incident that happened on 9/11.

Links:

http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/20885/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7d_e9lrcZ8

http://pnac.info/index.php/2003/rep-ron-pauls-speech-to-congress-neo-conned/

This goes under:

· Presentere og diskutere internasjonale nyheter og aktuelle hendelser

The development of the culture from the United Stated took most of its ideas from Europe during the eighteenth and early nineteenth century. Now American movies, TV shows and books are all over the world. This is a huge development from the early days of American republic, when the country was generally seen as an agricultural backwater with little to offer the culturally advanced world centres of Europe and Asia.

The American people express their culture through food, clothing and mainly music. American culture is rich, complex, and unique. The United States is a culturally diverse nation, home to a wide variety of ethnic groups, traditions, and values.

The culture of India was developed a little bit differently; it has been shaped by the long history of India, its unique geography and the absorption of customs, traditions and ideas from both immigrants and invaders. Indian culture has managed to preserve and establish traditions while absorbing new customs, traditions, and ideas.

A lot of people want to come to India to see and experience their culture and for good reason. Indian culture treats their guests as god and serves them and takes care of them as if they are a part of their own family. Even though they’re sometimes running low on food, their guests are never left hungry and they are always looked after by members of the family to make sure they have everything they need. In their culture they have a lot of respect for the elders, not only in their family, but for all elders. They say they are the driving force. They are the once who pass on the culture.

Links:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_culture
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_culture

This goes under:

• definere begrepet kultur og gi eksempler på at kultur varierer fra sted til sted og endrer seg over tid(spesielt India og Amerika)

In India, there is no official religion, but if it was, it would be Hinduism as over 80% of the population is Hindus. This has effected Indian politic the same way as the Christian majority in USA has effected American politic. In India the religious population use another approach though, since they don’t have the same political system as the United States of America. They established “Hindutva”, which is a nationalistic group closely associated with BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party), a prominent and popular party in Indian politic. Trough this political group, Hindus effect the politic in India.

This comparison shows a significant similarity. It seems, big religions that have the majority on there side, tend to get power and influence simply because they are the majority. It’s quite logic, for example, in India, your political carrier is ruined the second you propose something that Hindus in general, are against. If you said that cows should be locked inside and kept away from the streets, you would soon be very unpopular in India, as cows are sacred in Hinduism. If you said the same thing in USA, your popularity would not be affected that much, as only 0.4% are Hindus. In America it works the same way, you propose a law that Christians might find offensive, you would not be very popular among the majority and therefore lose all your status, power and influence.

Links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_the_United_States

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindutva

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_India

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bharatiya_Janata_Party

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caste

Goes under:

• Gi eksempler på hvordan religion påvirker samfunn og kultur

Today I used Photoshop to make a custom header image and changed the default theme of the blog. We have written down a plan for the project week and divided chores for the rest of the week.