Time

It was very late or instead very early in the morning as it was 2 a.m. when my attention has been attracted by the tic-tac, tic-tac… of the big clock hang on the wall of the living room.

Suddenly I forgot the Social Study outline I was writing and started to think about the Time. The time we are running after, the sands of time, the absurdity of the time that regulates our life from the first time we have been conceived to the last second on Earth.

I think we could debate hours on this central topic. My questioning on Time is to know if Time really exists. We have found methods and instruments to measure it and evaluate the duration between two events, but as it can not be seen, I wonder if it is a reality or an illusion.

If it is something real, is it something fix and we are moving on it like moving on a road or is the time moving and we are fixed compared to the time. Philosophers and physicists have elaborated different theories like Kant or Einstein and equations have been formulated to try to have time under control. Time is an eternal topic that has been expressed in literature also.

I remember “L’Horloge” – "The Clock" from Charles Baudelaire, a poem I studied at the end of my ninth grade-year in France. To me this is a very realist (although quite depressing) poem where Baudelaire gives a divine power to the time and describe it as a threat. Here is the last stanza of the poem.

French Version I learned

Souviens-toi que le Temps est un joueur avide
Qui gagne sans tricher, à tout coup! c'est la loi.
Le jour décroît; la nuit augmente; souviens-toi!
Le gouffre a toujours soif; la clepsydre se vide.

English translation from Website

Remember, Time is a greedy player
Who wins without cheating, every round! It's the law.
The daylight wanes; the night deepens; remember!
The abyss thirsts always; the water-clock runs low.

Without answer to this metaphysic question, I think we can be quiet in life as everybody will experience the same end.

Café Philo

I think writing journal entries to share our ideas and opinions are a good way to talk and think about a more or less philosophical topic.

However, I think we could imagine another type of interaction where students and people interesting in sharing ideas could meet and talk about a topic proposed by a student.

In France, “cafés” are very famous. It is a place where people like to meet and talk around a coffee or a drink. Recently “Cyber-café” has emerged as networking places where people like to come and share their passion online.

“Café-Philo’’ appears some years ago. A guest like a teacher, or an author is sometimes invited to talk about a specific topic. My mom liked to go there when we were in France. I went to one of them before we left for the United States. The discussion was about the new challenges for the education in the XXI century. The speaker was very interesting and I was fascinated by his ability the express his ideas in a very compelling way and the discussion then was very animated and fruitful. I think café-philo are a very good way to both express your opinion on a specific topic and also hear opinions of other people, allowing you to open you mind and have a different view on a particular topic. I would like to organize that kind of conversation in Aurora, either in school as a part of a club or outside of school to allow more people to join the debate. I would like to have your opinion about this project and know if it would interest you to have that kind of place in Aurora. If you have any suggestion, please let me know either by posting a commentary on this blog or by telling me at school.

Weather forecast

We were standing in a line during our Christmas shopping waiting for our tour to pay and I was listening to a conversation from people standing behind us:

A said: “The weather is incredibly nice. It is surprising not to have snow yet”

B answered: “It is probably due to the climate change and greenhouse emission”

Any slight change in weather is more and more attributed to the global warming and greenhouse emission. It’s difficult not to refrain a connection between both. That is true, though I think some people are sometimes extremist in their conclusions.

Exceptional seasons have ever exist. If you talk with the older people, they will tell you some stories about warm winters or summers they have had during last century.

However, it is true that the modernization has dramatically accelerated and side effects appeared by end of last century with the emission of greenhouse gas responsible of the ozone layer depletion.

The United Nation Conference on Climate Change that will be held in Copenhagen from December 7^th to 18^th is one of the most important summit after Kyoto where countries will stop to talk but will have to commit to fight against global warning and to give their objectives in term of CO₂ and greenhouse emission reduction and plan to achieve it. More than 100 countries will participate, amongst them India, the fifth most polluted after Russia.

A key question debated will be the financial support to be given to the developing countries to reduce their emission as they do not accept to pay on their own for activities that essentially profit to developed countries.

So, saying that we can see that it is a complex topic that has political implications. However, to me, I think everybody is concerned and should do something as his own level. For example, reduce the car use as soon it is possible, buy local products that have not required long and high CO₂ emission shipment, reduce air conditioning use, save water…

Northern countries, like Denmark, or Finland are well advanced on global warming and know how to wrestle with it. We should look at what has been done there and draw some inspiration from their accomplishments.

France resistance to Starbucks

While picking out my preferred Starbucks selection last Friday in the soft and typical Starbucks atmosphere, I was wondering why Starbucks was not established in France. One of our friends even told us that Starbuck of Rue de France in the very core of Paris was poised to close and that Starbuck CEO Howard Schultz had decided to curb next openings initially scheduled.

I tried to figure out why Starbucks brand did not succeed in France.

I think Starbucks concept based on the Italian or French café has been a success in the United States because the concept did not exist yet. That means, Starbucks was one of the first to offer in the 70’s a neatly decorated and relaxing place where you could stop and take time to savor one of the delicious composition offered.

Howard Schultz marketing strategy was to offer a “third place to live” (meaning Home, work, Starbucks).

French café or “Bistrot” exists for ever. They are small shops, often family businesses that you can find in each town, and village even very small. Cafe is the focal point where people like to come. Café-keeper usually knows his clients and habits. He is like a friend who is happy to see you and serve you the coffee selection or the drink you usually have. Starbucks tried to reproduce this characteristic by asking you your first name. I think Starbucks did a cultural error here as French people, more distant and protective in the first approach, do not like to tell their first name unless very close from the person.

Another cultural difference perhaps not properly considered is that in the United States, people prefer more diluted coffee they drink all along the day with a wide range of flavors. In France we like strong small coffee, we drink either black or with some cream. That’s it! As it is strong we rarely have coffee after 2 or 3 pm.

Finally Starbucks’ prices are very high while coffee in France is one of the cheapest beverages affordable.

I think these cultural differences should have been considered by Starbucks marketing before establishing shops in France as they have a significant impact on the activity and were predictable.

Health Reform and French system

A lot has been said and disputed about Obama’s Heath Reform aiming to give access to Health care system to everybody.

Coming from France, our Heath care system is often viewed as a typical French privilege. I think this perception has to be explained and clarified.

It is true that French and American systems are very different. In France, EVERYBODY, even homeless people, can go to the hospital 24/7 and receive care they need. It is one of the basic foundations of the French ethic where everybody has to be treated as equally as possible.

I remember the first time we have had to find a doctor for a throat infection. My mom called a family doctor to get an appointment. The first questions asked have been: “ Do you have an insurance? How will you pay? Who are you working for? Do you have a financial guarantor?” Because we were a self-cash payer, the lady said she was sorry but we had to go to an emergency care center to see a doctor.

This would not have happen in France. Each town, village has a panel of family doctors and specialists that can be visited upon an appointment or family doctors can be called to visit a patient if needed.

Medical costs are mainly covered by the Heath branch of the Social Security budget coming from the two third of tax-payers. Care reimbursements are governed by rules. That means that the rate of reimbursement will depend upon the type of care concerned. Typically what we call “Comfort care” will be reimbursed at low rate while others will be reimbursed at 100%.

For a better coverage, you need to have a personal insurance often proposed in your employee package.

This is a very good system but too many abuses have lead to a serious debt in the State budget. Abuses and unfairness come essentially from the increasing portion of population, which does not pay income taxes because of their low revenue (unemployed, immigrants…) and who benefit the system without contribution in return. This results in several tensions in the population between those who have a job and those who do not.

So I would not say that French system is ideal. It is different with some advantages and drawbacks. To me the main weakness of the French system is to make people too dependent of the medical care. In other words, people go to the doctor for nothing. In reaction and to reduce the deficit of the budget, more and more medications and cares are less reimbursed by the Social security.

At the opposite, the United States system, based on 100% assurance coverage, is a real penalty for those who cannot afford an insurance and may people take risk with self medications as regularly reported in the news.

I hope that Medicare program will help to find a balance between both and make people responsible of their health.

Innovation

Everybody talks about innovation as the key driver to recover from the numb situation economy is today. Companies spend a lot of money in technology and programs to stimulate innovation or innovative ideas.

I was reading a paper about Nobel prizes and that discussed how legitimate it was to award a prize to one group. Should the prize go to the group having made a theoretical prediction in Astrophysics science or to the group having made a technology breakthrough in telecommunication science?

I think the debate between Theoretical Science versus Applied Science is an endless topic of discussion, though I think we need both.

The main question I had after reading this paper was to try to figure out what should be the next most innovative and significant discovery we should need. Everybody has in mind Light bulb from Thomas Edison, airplane from the Wright brothers, Einstein’s Theory of relativity or the discovery of Post-it by Arthur Fry.

To me I think the most significant discovery will probably be a medical discovery. I think resources and efforts should be put on research for the Cancer, HIV and degenerative brain diseases like Parkinson or Alzheimer (stem cells!).

Then any findings to reduce pollution, negative impacts on the climate and preserve the planet would be the most significant discoveries.

If you have any other ideas to contribute this conversation, do not hesitate to post a commentary and enrich this conversation!!

TV shows and Philosophy

I was not really happy when my mom told me that we will were invited to a dinner with people I did not know. The atmosphere was heavy and conversation was limited to social things like “ how long have you been here? Do you like the area…’’. It was so boring that I finally asked: “What is your favorite TV show’’ Instantaneously, everybody had something to tell and we finally spent a good time to exchange our point of view on TV series and their new role in our life.

Coming back home I started to think about what happened during the evening.

To me, TV show, more than music or cinema, have become point of reference, a topic of conversation. Everybody has watched or heard about House or Lost… And has an opinion about this.

How to explain this new phenomenon?

I think the unique and new point with the TV show is to create a unique situation like a flight crash in Lost or new medical cases never seen before in House, and to involve the viewer in the exploration of all the consequences on the characters. Contrary to cinema where the viewer has only the possibility to observe a situation, characters and psychology issues, the show concept immerges the viewer in the action and gives him the chance to have his own opinion on psychological dilemma evolving in the show.

I think TV show, or at least some of them, are really interesting as they address a social or psychological issue that lead you to think about and formulate your own opinion.

For example, House is not a pure medical show that addresses a key medical ethic question concerning the place of emotion in the medical practice.

House, in the show, never shows any emotion but resolves all medical challenges. He pushes reasoning to its extreme. Each episode includes a phase of crisis where he has to make patients take risks, in order to find the truth.

Cameron, one of the doctor in his team represents the theory of Care strongly present in the United States medical system.

As said Nietzsche a crisis step is necessary to get to the revelation. I think this show demonstrates this concept very well.

Each show has its own characteristics and philosophy.

I learned in Latin class that Socrate used maieutics technique to make his student express their ideas using mythology stories. I think TV shows could be seen as the new Socrate support, to make people formulate their opinion on a specific topic.

Beauty and estheticism

Some days ago, we talked about beauty and symbolism of the beauty during the Middle Age in English class. We have had an interesting conversation on the topic saying that at that time a woman was considered attractive if she was fair-skinned and overweight because it represented wealth.

After the class, I started thinking about the beauty in general.

To me, I think there is a difference between beauty and estheticism. Something will be elected beautiful at a certain time because it meets the specific esthetic codes of the time but it will be ugly later if the codes have changed. The case of Middle Age we are studying is a good example. At that time, beauty was characterized by a fair-skin and over-weight, while today you have to be tanned and slim to catch eyes on you.

I think we are not talking about beauty here. We are talking about estheticism codes and that these codes vary with time.

I think beauty is not only limited to the physical appearance but also can be related to the emotion. We can be moved by a music, a scenery, the cherishing mother’s look on his baby…

Beauty is the richness of a person whatever how he/she looks like. The appearance should not have an influence on our judgment. As in the Wife of Bath Tale, wisdom and intelligence reveal the true beauty of someone. I have met a lot of people that were disgraceful but were so rich by their reflections and their open-mindedness that you wanted to stay with them. This is the real beauty.

Unfortunately, in our society, appearance often dictates the chance and opportunities that will be offered to you in your life.

To me beauty is not necessarily link to something visible. The quote I posted at the top of this page reflects pretty well what I mean by that –“ On ne voit bien qu’avec le coeur; l’essentiel est invisible aux yeux’’ which can be translated by “ We can only see well with the heart; Essentials are invisible to eyes’’

Shopping on credit card

Banking and credit card system has probably be on the most difficult thing to manage for us when we arrive from France and certainly something that still continues to question us as an irrational concept.

American and French banking system are completely different as well as the credit management.

Typically, French banks only deliver debit cards. In most cases this is a VISA with a financial limit of debit authorization, which is fixed according your financial situation. If you exceed the limit you have penalties to pay and your card is blocked. Some private credit firm like SOFINCO exists which propose you credit cards with rates in the range of 9-12%. Salesman often proposes them when you want to buy standard consumer goods, like appliances, vacation package, or a car.

So we were and are still very puzzled when the cashier at Heinen’s ask us “Debit or credit’’. For us it is obvious that expenses like buying food for the week have to be paid cash or with a debit card with direct withdrawal.

With time, I realized that a lot of people paid their shopping with credit card. Once I witnessed a situation that surprised me: a person at Heinens had to use 3 different credit cards to pay her cart. My first thought was: are people indebted at such a high point that they cannot afford to buy food? Do they still have any control on their purchase capacity?

Then came the time for us to buy our house. There we learned about the credit score system and the paradox of the concept.

In France, you are a reliable person if you do not have more than 30-35% debts or in other words, the less credits you have, the more reliable you are. If you want to buy a car or a house and need to get a credit from your bank, you will be eligible only if you do not exceed this limit. This limit is considered as the maximum amount of money a household can spend for credit reimbursement while keeping their capacity to pay other expenses like insurance, food, schools…

In the United States, you have to prove that you have credits and you are able to pay them as a proof of reliability. This is recorded under credit score. It is common here to receive in your mail box proposals from private credit companies or banks saying “ Congratulation, You have been pre-qualified for a Platinum card with a reserved credit line...’’ Then in very small characters at the bottom of the page, you can read that the annual interest rate is 19.99%!!!

A real paradox to us. Arriving from France, we had no credit history, no debts with the financial capacity to pay our house cash, but not eligible for a credit because we had no credit history !!

To me, this partly explains the financial crisis we are plunged in. Living in a consuming society supported by a dangerous credit system, people have lost track on their financing capacity. Then devastated by too many debts to reimburse, they have all kinds of proposal coming from credit companies. Because people who had contracted these kind of credit did not have financial back up, credit companies collapsed, letting thousands millions of dollars unpaid to banks with the financial crash we have witnessed the lat two years.

I think a profound reappraisal and a new look on our consumer behavior would be essential. Even if consumption is a key part of the economy, rules should be established and basic principle introduced in the education to teach people not to purchase if they cannot afford it.

Women leading the economy

I read an interesting article in Newsweek, explaining how women are poised to become the most important and leading force of the post-recession era.

Actually, women represent a real driver of the economy as they make the majority of the purchasing decisions.

Besides that, women’s role in the world has significantly changed in the past decades:

· Access to education around the world has improved and colleges in Europe and in the United States became equally open to boys and girls.

· Laws changed to give women equal representation to their male peers.

A significant change is being observed.

Women from the previous generation, who tended to be paid less than their male peers, are retiring, leaving the place to a younger group with equal education that male. However, studies show that a woman with the same level of education and the employed at the same position than a man still tends to be less paid than him.

Hit by the crisis, companies had to licentiate people with a high salary in order to save money. Therefore, according to the article, 80% of the job losses in the United States were held by men, allowing women to access to high positions.

The article was interesting as it brought a new light on an unobvious aspect of recession and pointed out that the recession can benefit a certain category of person while hurting even more another one.

Crisis and Entertainment

Economy recession has plunged thousand families in difficult financial situation, having to struggle between household duties and charges, loans reimbursement nightmare, fees for school and college for children…

After one year of this unpredictable cataclysm, I was wondering how entertainment business was facing the situation.

A nice opportunity to talk about this topic arose as my mother just came back from Orlando where she was for business. She told be about her trip and was absolutely surprised to see how transparent the crisis was for Disney business.

She said that the level of activity for the hotel was high – though several seemed to have reduced their rates to attract a larger range of people –, attractions were always full, and she had to queue up to get a table in restaurants.

She told me she witnessed a person buying for more than five hundreds dollars of gifts in a Disney shop. It is interesting to note, she said, that the lady who wanted to pay with credit card had to try different ones as they were all rejected probably due to limitations of credit.

Saying that, I wondered how this is possible. How people can still spend thousands of dollars while the situation and the future are still so uncertain.

My first assumption is that it may be a way for people to protect themselves from the moroseness. People save money for entertainment, probably reducing household expenses or delaying car purchase or the plan they had to remodel their bathroom or kitchen.

This is good for the entertainment business; nevertheless it is not a sign of recovery. Crisis is still there, though we start to see a slow down in the drop of economical indicators.

My mother brought me back some small gifts. It is interesting to note that all are manufactured in China – and therefore are manufactured for less than a dollar and however are sold for more that ten –. We have had a long conversation about that to finally agree to say that all the efforts developed by the United States to make the economy restart may finally result in helping countries such as China that product low cost goods. So we help these countries reactivating their economy first, before helping our own country.

I keep being reserved on how and when western countries will recover from the crisis.

I remain surprised to see how people seem to have reacted to the situation, as if they were ignoring it, and how some regions seem to not be affected by the crisis.

I hope they do that purposely and that it will help maintain a certain level of activity for the economy.

Equality

I recently studied the Declaration of Independence of United States. The sentence about the equality awoke my curiosity: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” Together with French motto “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity”, I wondered how the Equality concept had evolved with time and what it means today.

I think Equality and the right for Equality is a universal concern that has been debated and will continue to be debated forever as it is in constant evolution.

To me, the main step has been taken by making each human being equal as a citizen – in other words politically equal: “one man, one vote’’. Unfortunately, we know this rule is not universally true particularly in countries where dictatorships still exist. This ontological right is key for the humanity and worldwide organizations continue to strongly struggle to make it applied.

Even if we consider western countries, I don’t think people have reached and will ever reach equality.

At first, the main form of inequality was based on the social class (rich vs. poor). However, this principle had evolved into more subtle inequality concepts. For example, if you live in a polluted suburb and your child suffers from asthma due to the pollution, you may feel an inequality compared to your friend leaving in countryside. If you suffer from a handicap, access to a job will be more difficult.

I think all the efforts deployed for years and centuries to set up liberties and equal rights for everyone have turned into a tyranny for equality with the counter productive result of increasing inequality. What do I mean by that? In this context tyranny refers to what we are kept being said: that we CAN succeed in life even if we start with bad cards in hand. However, do you think, a person will have the same chance to access Princeton or Harvard if he come from the suburb of Bronx or from downtown Boston? Moreover, I think there is a business around equality driven by the wish of people to possess the exterior signs of richness: have a nice car, a big house, play golf, have a Rolex…. To me the main risk is to see our society sacrificing its differences for the sake of equality, forgetting that its differences make its richness.

A perfectly equal society could result in a “flat” society not willing to expand its potential and go beyond its limits to get better. I think we should awake. The race for equality in all domains has turned into the opposite effect. We need to cultivate the differences as a unique source of improvement to keep civilization progressing, while giving more value to the equality in the sense of promoting the right to be different but still having the same chances to make our life unique.

2010 World Expo

We start to hear a lot about the 2010 World Expo to be held in Shanghai from May 1^st to October 31^st 2010. World Expo is another year event considered as a unique showcase for each country to promote its recent advances in technology and foster worldwide economical ties. First World expo was in London in 1851 and the last one was in 2008 in Seville.

Each World Expo is developed around a theme. Shanghai theme will be of “Better City, Better Life” and will focus on improvement of the quality of life in the world’s cities

In American newspapers, Shanghai expo is presented as “a unique occasion for the United States to promote business, culture, and values in one of China’s most dynamic cities and to foster an even stronger friendship between the American and Chinese peoples. It should host 70 million visitors, among which 60 million from China. More than 175 countries will be present through a country pavilion’’.

However, the bill to pay for the United States to get a Pavilion is 61 millions dollars. It will be 50 millions Euros for France.

USA was one of the last countries to confirm its participation. Indeed, it is prohibited in the United States to spend Federal funds to participate in expositions such as Shanghai 2010 World Expo. So, its pavilion had to be funded by private and non-profit funds.

In March, with 40 millions raised coming form a dozen companies including 3M, General Electric, Dell, Pepsi, the United States confirmed its participation.

This is where we can start to think about it: Is it the best and most decent time to spend such a huge amount of money while worldwide economy is ruined by the economical crisis?

After the Olympic games in Beijing, the World Expo in Shanghai is the second worldwide event in China and a unique opportunity to overcome economical crisis.

Personally, I have a reserved opinion on the pertinence of this event in the current economical situation and how it can help world to strengthen and expand economical relationships between countries.

From an economical standpoint, China already drags a lot of our economy with billions dollars of exportation of goods not balanced by import.

To what extent will that be beneficial for United States and other countries? I don’t know. It will certainly help China to face the crisis. I see more opportunities and benefits for China as for the participants. Indeed, preparation will give thousands jobs to China, tourism will be boosted, and infrastructure like transport, hotels in and around the city developed for the occasion will benefit to Shanghai on the long term.

Is that fair to ask 61 million dollars to participate? It would have been reasonable to reconsider the project and the contribution asked.

I hope the effort deployed by each country in the current circumstances will be beneficial from a political standpoint by relaxing relationships when it is needed and that the theme “Better city, Better life” will rally all nations in the world around a central motto.

Illusion

Two weeks ago, we discovered in class Julian Beever and his incredible talent to create illusions and to make us see the world in a different way for a second. This reminded me a movie a watched last summer called “Life Is Beautiful”. This is the story of a Jewish Italian person who had been deported to a concentration camp with his five-year-old son. To protect and help this latter survive their internment, he use his imagination to “create” a better and imaginary world for his son.

These two elements brought me to think and question myself about illusion and the impact it can have on your life. I started my reasoning by trying to find other field where illusion comes to play. The most relevant I thought about was magic. We all know that there is nothing magic in this world. However, we all enjoy magic tricks? Why? Why do we like so much to be fooled? The explanation I came up with might create some disagreement so I apologize to my reader if my opinion differs from yours. I think that illusions allow us to think that everything is possible and that our lives might improve after all and it comforts us just to think that it is possible. To come back to my previous example, at the end of a magic trick, you look for the secret. But you won't find it... Because of course, you're not really looking...you don't really want to know. You want to stay with this perception that every thing can happen.

I did some research about illusion and found that scholars usually separate illusion into two categories: affective illusions and perceptive illusions. Perceptive illusions are well represented by Julian Beever’s drawing while affective illusion is a little bit more complex. Affective illusion is more an ultimate solution human being has to escape the reality when the latter becomes unbearable. This is perfectly well expressed “Life Is Beautiful”. At some point, it is comparable to psychosomatic diseases, where the illusion is the way used by the mind to express something that would be unbearable otherwise. Affective illusion can protect for a certain time if it remains under control. The risk is to become insane.

Halloween

My attention has been caught these past few weeks by the general and strong effort people put to be well prepared for Halloween. Houses are decorated and people will have fun in costume party on the D Day of October 31st.

In France this feast is not officially celebrated. Only young children like to go in costume from house in house to ask candy, but without any sort of idea of the reason of why they do that that day.

So I was curious to understand the origin of this celebration so present in the United States and try to figure out how marketing had taken the opportunity (again) to harness a tradition into a making-money product.

I did some researches about Halloween to better understand the origin of this celebration.

I learned that this feast was a pagan holiday originally celebrated in Ireland, Great Britain, Scotland and Northern Europe originating from the Celtic tradition.

Celebrated during the night of October 31^st, it corresponds to Samhain day – meaning End of the Summer -. This was the last day of the Celtic calendar, the end of the harvests and the occasion for great festivals in villages. Because Celt people were very superstitious, they feared that the soul of dead could roamed in the village and throw a bad fate on their house. To keep the souls quiet, the tradition was to put gifts at the entrance of the village to keep them far enough and to make sure next year will be a good year.

It is interesting to know that Halloween is the shortened wording for All Hallow’s Even – Hallow meaning Holy and Even meaning Evening in old English- which is the abbreviation of All Hallow Evening.

This pagan holiday was turned into a Christian day known as All Saint’s day celebrated on November 1^st.

It is good to see people perpetuating the tradition with the most famous symbols like the carved pumpkin, the lintel nailed to the door and other symbols. However, this special day seems to have more and more turned into a fun and costume party day. Children wear costume and go from door to door with the ‘’Trick-or-treating ‘’, other watch horror movies, and elder going in haunting attractions. These activities are of course well prepared by marketing, always in the lockout to make business, with adds arriving in your mail box by mid August and stores entirely dedicated to Halloween derived products.

I have nothing against to use tradition to support and develop business. However, I think traditions should remain traditions with their context, history and symbols explained and perpetuated over the generations and not limited to a marketing product.

Cellular phones: technological progress or danger for health?

Two days ago, I read a very interesting article about the harmful impact of cellular phones on health. This article talk about a study performed on tomatoes. That experiment showed that after being exposed only ten minutes to the electromagnetic waves of a cell-phone, the tomatoes began to spoil. Another observation but this time made on humans showed that, while using a cell-phone, the part of the brain around the ear was excessively stimulated by the electromagnetic waves emitted by the cell-phone. After years of studies, scientists concluded that a constant use of a cell-phone cause salivary glands and brain cancers. These conclusions lead to an international study which purpose will be to consolidate data collected on the human and to try to find a relation between brain tumors and the use of cellular phones. Of course, cellular phone is a wonderful advance in technology and I am not trying to tell you not to use it but an excessive use of it (as any excess) can have harmful and irreversible consequences on health. So use it whit moderation.

Casino

I was reading the local newspaper this morning, while drinking my orange juice and I found an article about a project to open casinos in Colombus, Cleveland, Cincinnati and Toledo. Supporters of this project assert that the casinos will create more than 34 000 jobs and that it will provide $650 million in tax revenues for the state, counties, cities and school districts. Opponents say that construction of casinos will hurt businesses of the area and lead to a great job loss in those communities.

Here is my opinion about the project. The region of Cleveland as well as other areas of Ohio is stricken by the economic crisis. Would it be very beneficial to open a casino in an area with such economic conditions? Would not it be better to spend the state money in more productive projects that would help Ohio during these hard times? Moreover, it had been proved that where a casino was present the divorce, bankruptcy and gambling addiction rates were much higher than in areas without. Personally, I oppose casinos as well as other things that create addictions. Moreover, I am not sure that casinos can resolve or at least help to resolve the problems related to the economic crisis but instead cause much more damage by making local businesses go bankrupt. We need to keep in mind that casinos are not like we can see on television: the are not places where you can break in the safe and robe the money bur instead places where a lot of people see their lives being ruined by addiction and loans. The project will be voted on November 3^rd and I hope voters will realize the impact casinos can have on the region as well as on people’s lives and will take the right decision.

GMO

Last week, I heard an interesting debate on TV5 about pros and cons of Genetically Modified Organisms – more widely known as GMO.

I spent some time to look at this topic and try to make my own opinion on this subject.

I like the concept to use the progress of Science to improve the quality of the product.

However it becomes more frightening when you know the worldwide controversies about GMO and the unlit areas still existing concerning the potential impacts on human health.

Even if Health Organizations officials conclude of no impact on the heath, it remains questionable to know how they can come to this conclusion.

Are tests on animal sufficient to conclude on effect on human being? What is the reliability of these tests? Are these tests and results under control?

Monsanto, American Biotechnological and Agricultural leader remains silent when questioned on this topic and some prooves had been accumulated that showed that Monsanto has falsified some results that showed the negative effects on rat organism.

We may feel nervous as we know that Worldwide producer of GMO and growth hormone is Monsanto. Everybody has in mind the Agent Orange, a highly carcinogenic component produced by Monsanto and used during Vietnam war, which caused the death of more than 500 000 people and caused thousands children to be born with disabilities.

Another question to be asked is if Biotechnological and Agricultural companies considered long term trials to evaluate the potential long-term effect on health.

I am concerned by the fact that the number of cancers has significantly increased as GMO products were introduced in the food chain. A simple and well known example concerns the recent change of the omega3/omega6 in our plate and its effects on our health.

Did any study evaluate the consequences on human health when it was decided to change cattle feeding from grass - well balanced in omega3/omega6 - to industrial corn and soya feeding depleted in omega3 – in order to increase milk, and beef production and make more money?

Probably not as such trials would have taken too much time, would have cost too much money and delayed the introduction of the product for a long period of time. It is probable that economic reasons have prevailed on safety considerations. If it is the case, I wonder how decision makers can consider money in first place before thinking the health of the worldwide population.

On this debate, a specialist said that the United States was the only country that does not require the agro alimentary industry to indicate clearly on the labels if the product is genetically modified. This debate dates from 6 months so decisions might have been taken to resolve this problem.

Saying that and considering the complexity of the topic, I think that everybody should at least have the possibility to make his own choice. An international regulation making mandatory the labeling on packaging on GMO content would be a first step toward a significant improvement.

Freedom of expression

I was in the waiting room of my maxillo-facial doctor to treat a TMJ problem, when a brochure praising the effect of BOTOX cosmetic treatment for people between 18 and 65 years has caught my attention. The motto used was ‘’BOTOX – The Freedom of Expression’’.

I felt uncomfortable and sad to see how this recent finding has been turned into a lucrative business exploiting personal uneasiness ,and above to see that there are so many people paying thousands dollars per year to receive this treatment.

I think this is symptomatic to the society we are living in where you have to perform well, to have the right look, without any sign of weakness…

To me frowns and wrinkles are richness like our memory. They are the expression of our life, who we are, the bad and good things we have had in our life. They are the final stage of expression of things we have perhaps not expressed with words, like resentment, anger, love….

I agree that this treatment is a great help for people who have had a cancer for example and for which the therapy has let strong marks difficult to accept. In that case, it can be a real help and should be proposed.

But how explain BOTOX treatment for young people of 18 years old?

What are they looking for? Do they need to look perfect to be loved?

I really think that we should start again from the beginning and learn to express our emotions, be more peaceful with others and ourselves and accept us as we are.

Appearance is just an envelope. What counts is inside.

Is obesity a fatality?

I read an interesting article in NewsWeek –September 21st – about recent findings that will certainly change our perception on the increasing problem of obesity.

While it is widely known that about 60% of Americans are overweight or obese, recent studies from Scientist of Harvard School of Public Health pointed out a new tendency observed in infants under 6 months. Obesity in this segment of the population has risen by 73% since 1980. It is clear that conventional explanations like bad eaten practices and inactivity cannot be applied to babies!!

Indeed, it has been found that pollutants in the food chain could modify some genes that will generate more fat cells which stay for life and altering metabolic rate which results in the accumulation of calories rather than burning them.

This article has had a great impact on me and I took time to think about it.

First I think we have to remain very tolerant with people concerned by obesity. There are various reasons that can lead to obesity. Most of them are said to be due to personal choices but some are not under personal control, like hormonal disease or consequence of heavy medications. The new findings explored in the article show that nobody is sheltered from being concerned by this epidemic phenomenon far beyond individual control.

Overweight people are often marginalized and caricaturized. Marginalized because they are different, because they require more medical support to treat diabete, heart disease related to the obesity increasing health-care costs at a time politics try to reduce health care bill. Caricaturized as indolent people responsible of their condition as a result of personal choices. I think we should be more open-minded and try to see how much they probably suffer from their condition.

Then I was a little bit frightened by the article as it demonstrates once again how we can be exposed to risks without any knowledge of the consequences on our health and on the health of future generations.

I hope that NIH and FDA’s scientists’ determination will be strong enough to alarm politics and that appropriate decisions will be made to protect us and future generations.

War’s Diamonds

Recently I watched again a movie called ‘’Blood Diamond’’. The main topic addressed in the movie is the way diamond’s companies benefit and maintain the civil war in Sierra Leone - one of the most important diamond producer in the world – to gain money and serve their cupidity. The movie shows how RUF, the rebel group opposed to the government, kidnaps people and force them to work in diamond mines to finance their guerilla, uproot children to their family and train them to be soldiers and how they install the terror by amputating people of a hand to discourage them to vote.

My main concern about this drama is about these diamond companies aware of the situation and harboring the system. How are they able to ignore the atrocities happening and finance them? The worst of the paradox is that we are all concerned as potential buyer.

To limit the escalation of the drama caused, a treaty has been signed in 1999 during the Kimberley Process t prohibit the sale of diamonds coming firm war areas. Nevertheless it is estimated that at least 4% of the diamonds circulating on the markets are still coming from war zones.

For a better control and respect of the treaty, it is our individual responsibility to enquire about the origin of the diamond before buying it

Networking

I heard an interesting talk last week about the networking activities like Facebook, Twitter and their bad effects on the social life and the construction of the personality.

FaceBook (FB) was created in 2004 by Marc Zuckergerg with the idea in mind to offer Harvard graduates to remain in touch after starting their job careers.

Today it is estimated that 300 millions people – approximately US population- are connected. It was said that 43% of young people of less than 18 years old recognize to sped more than 4 hours a day networking.

The question debated was: why do people need this kind of virtual exposure? Why do they prefer virtual communication to normal face to face relationships? Is it the only and last chance for people to comfort themselves they exist?

I think Networking activities like Facebook, MySpace… success is a sign of something happening in the society. People prefer talking with their computer and harbors the idea of being part of a community. The more the friends they have, the more comfortable they feel.

I think this tool can be very useful as long as you keep control of the information disclosed and if you are able to maintain a normal social life.

The Paradox of a star death

This journal entry was created on 09/12/09

Many things have been said and written about Michael Jackson’s death. As for me, I read a very interesting article this summer in French Express that caught my attention. This article makes an interesting parallel between Michael Jackson’s life, that is between the 20^th and 21th century and the evolution of the society we are living in. Here is a quote from the article that summarizes pretty well the main idea (I translated it myself so it might be an imperfect one): ‘’ This characteristic (search of himself) lead the singer […] toward an undetermined sexuality and a physical appearance full of tricks. No longer have characteristics, identity, gender: the mondialization also produced this collective desire of highest hybridizing to be a little of everybody and have a chance to become someone, to be compatible with everyone in order to count for someone. Thus we prefer to transform ourselves than to assume our differences. ‘’

I totally agree with this idea of mondialization that produces this desire to be physically alike. Just by looking around you, you can notice that our world almost relies on appearances: you need to have a big and pretty house with a pretty nice car and pretty clothes to be well considered in the society.

The article also says that the death of death of a star like Michael Jackson is not the end of a career but more the beginning of a myth.

After reading the article, I thought a while about that and I realized that all great stars like Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley and Marylin Monroe had been criticized for the opinions they had, what they did and how they lived their lives, but after their death, the world begins to idolize them and they become myth that never die.

Isolation

This is the journal created on 09/12/09.

For my summer reading assignment, I selected a book called Chess Story by Stefan Zweig. This is about the strength of isolation and its impact on human being and how it inevitably leads to alienation. As a brief summary, the book tells the story of an Austrian lawyer that had been imprisoned by the Gestapo during the Second World War for possessing important information concerning the Royal Family. The key point of the story is how Gestapo used the infinite power of isolation as a psychological torture. Dr. B., the Austrian lawyer, who was deprived of any intellectual support during his detention, slowly became alienated.

After finishing this book I stopped a minute and thought about this simple but extremely powerful torture. How privation of any intellectual support and distraction may inescapably conduct the healthiest person to alienation?

Finally, I came to the conclusion that intellectual support was as important for the mind as food for the body: lack of food may lead to the physical death and lack of intellectual activity to psychological death.