everything is so easy in America… December 10, 2008

Last time, when I watched the news on KTLA, I noticed that the way editors usually prepare their news is really basic, and maybe so simple that it is often incomplete and can lead to misunderstandings…

In fact, I’m more precisely talking about the way people interviewed in the news are described; if you take a deeper look into this, you will see a lot of people designated as “murderers”, “rapers”, “stealers”, but also “prodigies”, “gifted people”… almost as if they were going to categorize people into two sides: “nice” people and “wicked” people. 

The problem, in the way they prepare their news and find a substantive for every interviewee is pretty awkward, because you’ll understand fast enough (unless you already know it, and I hope for you) that life is not black OR white, but nuanced in a way where everything has to be well thought, and the way you use words is very specific and can’t be taken lightly. That’s why when every time people use barbaric words, words that didn’t exist before and just came with the society using it more and more often, it makes me think that the american language became really rudimentary, and maybe too minimalist, according to my own impressions. I think so, because I think also that the new technologies really had a bad influence meanwhile serving the society easier. In fact, the e-mails and the text messages were created primarily to help people communicating faster in other ways than talking face to face or on the phone. However, the difference with “real letters” is that because people can go faster, means also that they can allow themselves to be less rigorous with their way of writing, because the concept enables them to do so. Therefore, they don’t really watch out at the spelling or even make the necessary efforts to try to spell the words correctly. Consequently, the “you” will be traduced in fast language by “u”, the “later” in “l8ter”, the “and” in “n”, and so on.. moreover, you don’t say anymore “send an e-mail or a text message” but from now on you use both of them  as verbs… Today, this game of texting the fastest possible has become really tricky and dangerous for the world languages, because it also resulted on a problem of expressing our thoughts concisely AND clearly, without spelling mistakes. How many times I saw newspapers full of spelling mistakes? Therefore in the form of the word, it also affected the content of it, sometimes using a word in a wrong sense, or even changing the word for another… that’s the reason why today the medias are so blurred and inaccurate, because people were so plunged into this whirlwind of rapidity that they ran on the road of the express information, without at least considering the original purpose of the media: inform the most meticulous possible, with all the terms needed for it. I am sure this also can be related to the idea that using words in new ways is much more trendy than using the traditional writing like in essays and letters. 

Therefore, I am for the new technology, but I think that if we don’t try to control it a little bit, it could be the technology mastering us instead of the reverse; in fact, did you notice that now we seem to be very dependent of the technology? if our car or laptop is broken or down, immediately this could be the end of the world!

Thanksgiving: turkey, better on the table or alive? December 4, 2008

Last day, on the news, for Thanksgiving, I saw the ex-President (G.W.Bush) taking a picture with his family, smiling in company of an beautiful huge turkey…alive. This image, really nice in appearance (everybody seems happy, and it’s the tradition to take a picture with the President and the turkey every year) seems also really shocking if you think about it more in depth. 

In fact, this symbolic picture doesn’t remind us anything but that every year, too many turkeys are sacrified for Thanksgiving, but the problem is that we see those turkeys alive, and the minute after, they are on the table, ready to be devoured! Ethically, this represents a big issue, owing to the fact that, just by having this image in mind, we just have the impression that American people who celebrate Thanksgiving are ogres who just think about swallowing a lot of food just because this is the tradition! And they might more think about that, rather than why Thanksgiving exists since a long time. Why do we avoid the symbolic of the holiday, and just reach the “food thing”, instead of taking our time and profoundly try to think why does it exist, and why should we celebrate it with specific food, in a specific amount? personally, I would be glad to learn more about the Pilgrims, etc., but I still don’t know anything about it, and this is really sad…

For example, for Thanksgiving, I went with my sister to her male friend’s house in the area, and we were really well welcomed, but I have to be honest about something: when we started eating the dishes, I had more the impression to be in my school canteen rather than in a house where everyone shares the meal while really enjoying, speaking about a lot of life subjects, and having a good moment while taking our time. Here, everyone was eating very quickly, without almost never speaking, and I would say like trying to “expedite the thing” as fast as possible, in order to go upstairs and play the wii, especially when the friend is older than 30! Isn’t there something nonsense in this story?

This proves that the opinions that I had about the American society in general is just reinforced by these recent facts: the Americans never learnt how to take time at the table, and what they are looking to do, is eating as fast as possible, but in which purpose? It seems like eating is not considered here like a moment of conviviality and sharing discussion about anything, but more like a hurry to do…anything else, but eating!

This is also funny, because studies proved that when you eat faster than you should, you don’t feel that your stomach is full, and therefore you are tempted to eat more than you should, because you don’t feel the sensation of satiety. Therefore, if you are still wondering why there are so many people in overweight in this country, from now on, you’ll know why.. we will have warned you… (however, I don’t know enough about the US society to be able to give my judgement on it, so it’s just a personal opinion)

The difference with France, is that in my country, my parents taught me, like in every family, that we all had to eat while taking our time, speak about anything, our day, stories to tell, etc., and this was really helpful for children’s education in general.

It’s crazy how we can move from the subject of the status of the turkey in Thanksgiving to the way the American Society behaves at the table…

Barack Obama: problems of elocution prejudicial for his image? December 4, 2008

Ten days ago, on the TV, I watched by chance the economic team speech of Obama (NBC), and sometimes just frightened me like the lightning! Try to guess by yourself…

Have you ever noticed that Obama had maybe a little too much tendency to say “euhhh”, “ahhh”, in other words to hesitate enough to “reveal his hesitation”.. I know, you might think what I just declared might be a little silly, but it is actually true! With all the people in the US, or even on the earth, wouldn’t you believe that we should have a president who at least isn’t indecisive about what he is going to say?

I know that it is really hard to be really sure about what you have to say to a large audience (like the size of the US for example!!), I know that when you address to a public, what you have in mind is at least not to lose your consciousness in front of people, and not let the situation become ridiculous, and yourself by the same occasion. However, my own opinion is that if you are the President of the US, you should do anything to deserve this place (even though the bad economic situation that Obama received in gift), including practicing your way of speaking until it is as perfect as possible! I know this sounds pretty uncompromising, but with all the people that want to become President of the US, this is the least effort you could do (as you may notice, this is a very competitive position…)! I think that usually, the people would expect a good looking President (on this point, Obama is perfect!), but also someone that knows how to express himself/herself clearly, which includes without any hesitancy.

In fact, I remember that there was a TV show before the election, about people criticizing Obama’s way of speaking in front of people, with too many uncertainties, and they were wondering if it was acceptable for a candidate to the presidency of the US to have too many “euhhh” in his voice.

Therefore, we could have ourselves: is it prejudicial for a president to speak with some moments of unsureness in his oration? At which level should we put our own level of indulgence concerning the way of speaking of a president? Is it important for a president to be irreproachable on all horizons, or in the contrary could we be more tolerant and allow our dear Obama to make some elocution mistakes, especially at the beginning of his mandate? Moreover, because he is younger than the majority of the president that we had until now, so he doesn’t have the as much experience in public as older ones? But if he seems to have less experience, why did we elect him President of the US? At the opposite, shouldn’t we more focus our attention on his Program, rather than the way he looks or speaks? These are really deep questions that shouldn’t be considered lightly, but that should be thought profoundly by specialists, in other words, the most empowered to treat these interrogations.

Finally, for sure, every President of every country in this world has his qualities and defects. For example, our French President Sarkozy is a really good speaker, but shouldn’t he focus on being more polite in front of the cameras? It’s been more than once he yelled swear words that made laugh more than one French, including me! (but talking very rudely is not the case of Obama, is it?)