Question: What is Peace?

2018-10-16T09:31:47+01:00October 26th, 2017|

Early on Sunday 8th October, a group of 9 RCNers headed to the remote island of Gåsvær, Solund, in quest of peace. The aim was to thoroughly disconnect from the outside world (no mobiles or internet!) and find ways to engage with the concept of peace in terms of mind, body, communication and environment. The focus for the 4 day stay was a series of Red Cross activities relating to conflict management, non-violent communication, and collaborative negation, running alongside student-led programme of events.

What is Peace?

We began the programme with Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s seminal TED talk ‘The danger of a single story’, considering that role of stereotypes and reductive thinking play both in our own lives, and in the society around us. Together, we considered what conflict is, how we take care of ourselves in conflict settings, what our triggers are and how we can manage them, what lies beneath anger, and the issues related to enemy thinking. We built on this program by working on how to communicate in a conflict in a healthy way, working with Dr Marshall Rosenberg’s steps to non-violent communication. This helped us to consider how conflicts escalate, and how we can de-escalate them. We ended the programme focusing on our relationship with stress, how we can learn to recognize the signs of this in our bodies, and takes steps to counter it. In the final activity, each of us visualized what has already brought peace to our lives, what we need for this to grow, and what our goals and aspirations are in terms of peaceful living. The programme demanded some deep emotional introspection from the participants, and they found ways to grow and develop as individuals and as a group.

In between all this hard work, the students themselves thought about the things that brought them peace, and how they could share this with the group. This involved a relaxing cliff-top walk with some silent meditation by the water, sleeping outside and watching the sunrise, some silent living, a cosy homemade pizza evening, and ended with an evening bonfire and storytelling circle – despite the howling Norwegian wind!

All in all, we left having had some space for reflection, a few days to disconnect from the fast pace of life that many of us experience, and with a few extra tools for living peacefully day-to-day. Mission accomplished!

Every Child a Possibility 

2018-10-16T09:31:48+01:00October 24th, 2017|

From Friday to Sunday our College joined in with the national campaign to support the work of UNICEF, through TV Aksjonen.

On Friday we had a special day focused on education and the work of UNICEF. Guest speakers Arne Olsen and Milad Dean set the tone in the auditorium with perspectives on how education is being affected when conflict escalates to crisis. Milad gave a personal story about his journey from Aleppo to Førde, whereas Arne focused on challenges and solutions when education comes in the form of aid. After this there were 15 parallel workshops led by our own student organisers, some of which were on education in Colombia, Mali, Syria, Pakistan and South Sudan, the receiver countries of this year’s TV Aksjon.

On Saturday there was an auction in the Høegh Centre, where services were bought and sold – like a meal or a trip to the local mountains. We collected more than than 15.000 kroner for UNICEF. On Sunday our students joined in with the local collectors – going from door to door in the Hauland village and in Dale. In total 223 millon NOK was collected on the day – we are happy to have joined in with this “dugnad”. Our county Sogn og Fjordane came in second place with an average sum of 49,96 NOK per person – as we submit the income from our auction it will pass 50,- .

A big thanks to all involved – on and off campus.

For pictures from the day, click here.

Stop Human Trafficking PBL

2018-10-16T09:31:48+01:00October 17th, 2017|

Stop Human TraffickingStop Human Trafficking Project Week was dedicated to active Human Rights campaigning. We started by studying cases of Human Rights violations in the countries of the participants: Ecuador, Bangladesh, Georgia, Western Sahara, Italy, Mexico, Japan, Niger, Russia, Armenia and Iceland. There were many personal stories and much engaging debate, often finishing with “…but what we can do to stop these violations?

This was not a rhetorical question. We followed up with a workshop offered by the RAFTO foundation in Bergen on “Modern Slavery”. We then turned to campaign preparations making posters and other visual material for the final Action in cooperation with the A21 organisation. We prepared a street action in Førde, the “March for Freedom”, with a flash mob attracting attention on the issue of Human Trafficking. At the happening we read the Declaration of the 21st century Abolishment Movement and shared information about modern slavery.

We gathered over 60 participants and apart from being totally wet due to the torrential rainfall, we managed to spread awareness of the Human Trafficking issue.
Stop Human Trafficking

Ulrika Kjeldsen (’10 – ’12)

2018-11-21T11:40:44+01:00October 16th, 2017|

Right now life feels quite odd. Newly graduated with an Art degree and being outside a school system for the first time since I was six years old, feels like being a half-finished painting and my frame just fell off. Every now and then I feel lost and I doubt myself, whether I am choosing the right way to go with life. Other times it feels exciting, like everything is possible because I don’t know where the limits are yet.

Since graduating from RCN I’ve fallen in love with metal. Three years ago I first learned how to weld. Attaching two bits of steel together is one of the most bad-ass things I’ve done so far in my life. It feels like being in complete control when standing in a boiler suit with thick gloves on and a welding mask flicked down. Surrounded by a shower of sparks – it’s like a form of meditation. The times I got welding sparks up my nostril and down my boot are another story. It was slightly less meditative to get hot metal bits out of places where they should not be. But don’t worry, I survived, my nose hair did not.

This new welding knowledge led to the creation of a 2.5 m tall Clydesdale Rocking Horse made completely out of steel rods which I bent to their right shape before welding them together. The Clydesdale horse – a symbol of the Scottish workforce – being made into a rocking horse. Reduced to nothing but a toy. This is to symbolise oppression and capitalist exploitation within Scotland.

While writing this, I’m in my boiler suit again, outside a blue house in Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria. A few months ago I was accepted to a medal-making course where the aim is to make and cast Art medals out of bronze. The course has taken me from the Art medal archives of the British Museum to this really quite chilly night in Bulgaria. We have spent the last week carving in plaster to prepare what we later will cast. I’m happy to share that many mistakes have been made and lots learned.

Half a year ago I couldn’t have imagined that this was a possibility, so even though Art feels like quite an uncertain route, it feels doable. Thank you Reidun, for setting me on the path of Art: without your support and the art room I probably would have studied law, or become a shoemaker. I was a bit undecided back then.

(Photo by Martin Dobbin)

For profiles and news of other students, alumni and friends of the College, click here.

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