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!!