Peter's Publisher

Debate About the "Facebook Parenting" Viral Video

2012-02-12T03:07:00.000-05:00

views as of today

Some days ago a video on YouTube called "Facebook Parenting: For the Troubled Teen" started going viral. I saw people post it on Facebook and just today I saw an online news article about it. If you don't want to watch the whole eight minutes, I'll try to sum it up as best I can (skip two paragraphs if you watched it):

A father reports to the camera that his 15-year old daughter made a post on Facebook (which she unsuccessfully tried to hide from him using privacy settings) that was filled with profanity and vicious complaints about her parents. It seems she wrote a lot, mainly about her feeling that she was being forced to do tons of jobs around the house, and that her parents should either pay her for doing them or just do them themselves. Apparently the post also got a lot of "likes" from her friends, which I'd guess is probably how her dad found out about it.

In response to this, the girl's dad decided to make his video, talking about how disrespectful his daughter was, how disappointed he is in her, and also about how the chores she's asked to do are actually very minimal. He also talks about the punishment she'll get for writing the post, and he then takes a handgun and shoots his daughter's laptop several times. (Go to the 7 minute mark in the video for the action.) The other punishments are purportedly grounding, making the daughter pay for her next computer - only after college - and then of course the shame of the video itself. I guess you could say his making of the video was intended to serve a double purpose - first to shame his daughter, but also to try to teach a lesson to the friends who liked the post. I can't imagine he ever expected getting 17 million views and receiving national attention.

In the wake of all that attention, I'd say this video has now sparked a bit of a nationwide debate on parenting. Out of the people who "liked" or "disliked" the video on YouTube, nearly 87% liked it, which would seem to indicate a big majority approval. All the people I saw share the video also seemed to approve of it. Nevertheless, on the comment sections of the video and other places it's been posted, active debates are ongoing, and a vocal minority is expressing harsh disapproval of the father. Let's analyze the debate, shall we?

The way I see it, it looks like the majority approval stems from a number of widespread feelings: 1. that disrespecting one's parents is unacceptable, 2. that doing so in the way this girl did (online, using profanity, etc.) is especially unacceptable, and 3. that this requires substantial punishment. Many of these commenters share stories of how they disrespected or disobeyed, and now that they're older they understand their parents' disappointment and punishments, including examples of electronics or toys being destroyed. Many commenters conclude that the father's actions were more or less the correct response, and that this is how children should be disciplined.

Given their much smaller numbers, it's harder for me to characterize the general nature of negative commenters' views. I'd say they mainly stem from the impression that the father's response was way out of proportion, (especially shooting the computer), or that the problem should have been dealt with a different way, and perhaps that the daughter's actions represent a failure in parenting or communication on the parents' part.

Now, I completely understand how wrong it was for this fifteen-year-old to do what she did - though I haven't seen her original post and perhaps no one else ever will, as I assume it's long been deleted. I also sympathize with the father and mother here, and how they must have felt and been enraged after reading what their daughter wrote. (The father is still clearly upset as he's making the video.) All the same, I tend to side with the disapproval side of this debate. Note that I am not a parent - just a 20-year-old student - and you can discount my opinion all you want because of that. Nevertheless, I don't think this father's actions were the right way to go. I think the video was an irrational and disproportionate response - especially the shooting - both in terms of pragmatism and propriety.

Many of the commenters expressed negative sentiments about "this generation" or "kids these days." Yes, "kids these days" have access to things that children in the past didn't have, and that certainly poses unique problems. However, it's a good general rule for historians (and everyone else) to be very suspicious whenever people reminisce about glory days or a golden age. Differences between generations have been perceived and lamented for ages, and differences in child-rearing not only go back generations - they go back millennia, varying greatly among the world's cultures. I think this proves that many different kinds of parenting can be effective. What matters is choosing what's best.

Ideally, I believe the best sort of parenting is preventative. That is to say, children don't have to be taught lessons only after they've done something wrong; parents can teach lessons and instill values in many ways, many of which don't include punishment, and many of which are much more effective. Of course, there will inevitably be instances of disobedience or disrespect, and I don't disagree that punishment is then appropriate. Nonetheless, punishment should never be the end of the story. Punishment should be rational, and it should be the means to an end: greater understanding and respect between parent and child - not years afterward, but rather here and now.

Safeway vs. Trader Joe's: The Georgetown Student Shopper

2012-02-09T01:39:00.000-05:00

Note the €1 kilo of kiwis!

While in Strasbourg, my host mother provided me with breakfast every day and dinner four times a week. The rest was up to me, and quite honestly it was the first time in my life where I really had to buy groceries and plan out meals for myself, all by myself, for an extended period of time. For the most part, this was a great success, and I had a lot of fun. Pretty quickly, I found that Strasbourg had several great grocery stores that constantly had pretty good deals - great food I'd never seen at home or great prices I'd never seen at home. My favorite example would probably be the big delicious pineapples available from Côte d'Ivoire: I bought several for myself during my time in France, only for €1 or €1.50 apiece (US$1.50-$2.25). In the U.S., I've never seen pineapples sold for less than around five dollars.

France loves Alaska salmon!

More importantly, however, I learned to really enjoy grocery shopping and to do it for myself. (See the post Oh How I Love Grocery Shopping.) In the previous two years, my girlfriend did a lot to push me in the right direction, especially when it came to cooking: I was hopeless before we started dating, but once cooking became a wonderful "couple activity" for us, I'd say I've improved immensely. Strasbourg, though, was my big opportunity to do things on my own.

So what happened afterward? Well, I decided - after considering many factors - that this semester at Georgetown I would be going sans meal plan, meaning having to take care of all my groceries and all my cooking, all the time.

I'd say my grocery philosophy comes down to two things: nourishment and price. The two have to be balanced of course, and the two have to be understood in all their complexity - nourishment made up of healthiness as well as filling-ness, and price made up of sales, brand comparisons, and also price-per-item and price-per-unit-of-weight-or-size considerations. Basically, I want to keep my diet cheap, varied, simple and healthy - and of course enjoyable. I am very much a grocery person: So far this semester I've never ordered out, and I've only bought a sandwich twice. (I get the impression other students order out a bit more often...)

Georgetown Safeway

Thus we come to the question at hand: Where does a Georgetown student get their groceries? In Strasbourg I found many great grocery stores, and - just as important - the city was compact and the public transport awesome, so I had no trouble going anywhere. I could even get groceries in another country! DC, on the other hand - and especially the Georgetown neighborhood - is no mass transit paradise. (As far as I know, none of America is.) The Hoya is therefore faced with three options: Safeway, Whole Foods, and Trader Joe's.

Safeway is the most accessible option, as a campus shuttle goes by there pretty regularly on weekdays up to 7pm, and it's the closest to walk to anyway (one mile from where I live on campus). At first I thought I'd be getting all my groceries from Safeway, since my family has the membership card and I get all the yellow-tag deals (also saving them gas money at home). I thought that being the more "mainstream" store and not as "upscale" or "organic" as the other two options would mean that Safeway would have consistently lower prices. We'll see about that in a minute.
Whole Foods, for the most part, backed up my assumption. It's accessible by the same shuttle as Safeway, but it takes a bit more walking. I've been in there a few times, mostly when my girlfriend visited DC last year. Going back this semester, though, with Safeway prices in my head, it was really difficult to find anything that was cheaper by comparison. Granted, there are lots of things at Whole Foods that I think are and would be delicious, but I think my shopping there will be quite infrequent.
Trader Joe's is a big contrast with both of the others, and it really blew away my presumptions. It's a bit over a mile's walk away (no shuttle) and although I had gone there once during freshman year, in the meantime I had forgotten the price ranges entirely. The first time I went back there, I realized, "Wow, some of these prices are super-huge steals!" Eggs, bread and cereal, for example, were all significantly cheaper than at Safeway, and a lot of the prices were just about matched.

Georgetown Whole Foods

I think the best way to go is to balance my shopping: Safeway and Trader Joe's compliment each other, and I think I can simply alternate my shopping trips between them and cover all the bases well. There are other questions one might pose, however, namely: What about environmental considerations? going organic? the ethical practices of the grocery chains? The first incarnation of this post, in fact, was going to be about the dilemma of shopping at Safeway. The corporation is not known for treating its workers well, and it seems Whole Foods and particularly Trader Joe's have better records.

Trader Joe's, Foggy Bottom

Before starting a Safeway embargo, however, I think there are a lot more factors to consider: grocery stores don't generally make very high profit margins, after all's said and done, and it varies greatly according to item and department. On the whole, most of my grocery money is probably going to the many producers, processors and distributors involved with every product, as well as their employees and the employees of the store. When it comes to buying organic or thinking about the environment, I don't have much to say, other than that you should BUY ALASKA SALMON. Otherwise, though, I think the best practice is to balance your groceries and balance your stores, all according to the food that fits you best.

An Education Mission for Anonymous

2012-02-06T15:52:00.002-05:00

I just read a post from the great blog Schools Matter called Wild Dreams about Anonymous and Testing, written by Jim Horn. In it, the best part is the following awesome story:

And so I was thinking about all this as I drifted off to sleep last night, and I had the craziest dream. I dreamed that the hacker group, Anonymous, had shut down every data port that handles test score data and had posted these demands on the Arne Duncan's Facebook page and on every state department of education webpage:

1. Stop using test data to keep students from receiving their diplomas or moving to the next grade

2. Stop using test data to evaluate teacher effectiveness in any way

3. Stop using test data to close down public schools

4. Stop using SAT or ACT test data to make admissions decisions for college

5. When students graduate from high school, all test scores and collected psychometric data will be handed to each student and all other records will be expunged from the data system.

6. If these demands are met, your data systems may continue to operate. If these demands are not met, your data systems will be made useless. You have until summer vacation to make these changes at state and national levels. Welcome back to the real world.

I immediately realized this is a really great idea. In fact, I had just recently been reading about how the hacktivist group Anonymous has been waging an internet war against American nazi and white supremacist groups, taking down their websites and publishing their records, including ones from one group that show Ron Paul has regularly met with their members.

Why couldn't hacktivists do the same thing to fight for educational integrity? I wouldn't say all of the points in Jim Horn's dream are achievable, but as ultimatums, they certainly send a clear message about how key it is to reverse the disastrous effects that are being wrought by ongoing campaigns for educational "reform" (really educational destruction). A new direction needs to be taken, before things get even worse.

How about it, Anonymous? I think you should take up a new mission.

Senegal's Democracy in Danger

2012-02-05T14:10:00.000-05:00

I do have a small history of writing about Senegal: It's a country that I find very interesting, with a longstanding and unique position in the history of Francophone Africa. I even thought about studying abroad in Dakar, but I ultimately chose Strasbourg, and you can tell from the blog that was a very rewarding experience. I've had a couple opportunities in my classes at Georgetown to do a little bit of research on the country, in one case analyzing its political system and all of the country's past elections, and in another case looking at its relationships with France and China. I posted that second paper on the blog - Senegalese Analogies: Parallels in Chinese and French Interaction with a West African Nation - and afterward I even posted a follow-up that noted the paper's popularity in Google searches.

Now, however, I'm looking back to that first paper - the one that analyzed Senegal's elections and politics, and the one I didn't post on the blog. I still don't think I'll post it, as I'm not very proud of the writing, but I do think it had some very important points that are relevant to Senegal's current turmoil, so I'll be referencing it a little bit here.

What is Senegal's current turmoil? Well, turning to any number of news organizations through the wonders of internet search will give you a pretty quick answer. Putting "Senegal elections" into Google should do it, although if you're reading this blogpost sometime far into the future, I think you'll have to add "2012." Senegal is scheduled to hold presidential elections on February 26th - only three weeks away. (Parliamentary elections are due in June.) Here are two good articles about what's happening:

Wade election bid poses risk to Senegal stability: US (Reuters)
Senegal in danger: The view from the ground (Al Jazeera English)

President Wade, photo from here

If you don't want to read the articles, I will summarize in a single sentence: Current president Abdoulaye Wade is intent on running for a third term, even though there was a constitutional amendment passed during his first term (with his support) that limited presidents to two terms. Understandably, this is incredibly upsetting; third terms are unconstitutional for American presidents as well, and if Obama wanted to run again in 2016 after winning in 2012, it would create a lot of turmoil. The difference would be that the US Supreme Court would (hopefully) strike down such a bid immediately, while in Senegal the constitutional court has now agreed with Wade's crafty argument that because the term limit was imposed during his first term, it should limit him to having two terms after the first.

The truth is, Wade had announced he would run for a third term all the way back in 2009, even before I wrote my paper on Senegalese democracy over a year ago. My conclusion for that paper was that the power to amend Senegal's constitution should be placed squarely with the people, rather than with the President, who currently has the power to revise and amend the constitution without even having the approval of a popular referendum. (Download the constitution here and look at Title III Article 52 and Title XII Article 103.) Last June Wade tried to do this very thing and amend the constitution to create a new post of vice president - which basically would have allowed him to instate his son as his successor. Thankfully, public uproar over the scheme forced him to back down. When it comes to the election in three weeks, however, the worry is that the uproar this time might not be enough. Wade might well be reelected.

Senghor, photo from here

Now, perhaps at this point you're wondering, "If a majority of Senegalese still want Wade to be president, why should we even question that?" The problem is that political elites in Senegal have manipulated democracy for a long time - in practically every election since its independence in 1960, in fact. In the first election, national leader Léopold Sédar Senghor designed things so that the whole country constituted a single electoral district, meaning that the party that got the most votes (his) received every seat in the parliament. Talk about a set up! Senghor stayed president for twenty years, and then his appointed successor Abdou Diouf was president for twenty more. Wade himself was an opposition leader for many of those years, so it was hailed a great success in 2000 when he was elected president and finally broke the one-party dominance that had lasted since independence. Even with this win, however, there were still many unfair electoral manipulations in place, but Wade didn't get rid of these when he took power; he's been using them to his own advantage.

Most every news article you'll read about Senegal talks about what a stable and democratic country it has been - an example for all of Africa. Now, I think it's wonderful that Senegal's last fifty years have been so peaceful, and I also don't want to ignore positive developments overseen by leaders like Senghor. What I'm trying to say, however, is that Senegal's elections have never been fully liberated from the machinations of elites, and Wade's bid to extend his time as president is just the latest example. I don't know what will happen in Senegal in the next few weeks. I hope there won't be more deaths, but I also hope that real change will take place. That will mean not just getting a new president, but also gaining new political freedoms and the right of the people to control the voting system themselves. All we can do is hope.

The Death of Yugoslavia: A Film Review

2012-02-04T14:08:00.003-05:00

I just finished watching the documentary The Death of Yugoslavia, and I'd have to say that it's an amazing piece of journalism and an amazing piece of history that's very much worth watching. The film covers all of the significant events involved, beginning with the death of Tito in 1980 and then covering in detail the period of Slobodan Milošević's rise starting in 1989 all the way through the battles of Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia Herzegovina for independence, which brought about the bloody wars and genocide that finally ended with the Dayton Accords in 1995.

What is perhaps most amazing about the documentary is that it was made by the BBC only six months after the signing of accords, and there are interviews of every major person involved, including all the major presidents and politicians; Milošević, who died in prison in 2006; and also Radovan Karadžić and Ratko Mladić, both of whom have since been arrested for war crimes. In many documentaries, footage is shown of the people involved, and then there's a switch to an interview with someone who was close to those people, or someone who's an expert on them. In The Death of Yugoslavia, footage plays of those involved, and then they switch to interviews of the very same people! My one possible criticism is of the subtitling, as it's clear the translators often didn't put what was literally said (for example writing only "the capital" in the subtitle, when the interviewee clearly said "Ljubljana"). Other than that, however, the sheer quantity and quality of the interviews is amazing.

The wars and conflicts that accompanied the breakup of Yugoslavia took place during the first five years of my life, so I naturally have no memory of hearing about them as they took place. All the same, I think I've felt for a long time that, even though I didn't know much about the Yugoslav wars, they hold a very important place in the recent history of Europe and the recent history of international relations. Watching this documentary definitely confirmed that feeling, and I think it sets a high bar in terms of quality filmmaking and quality journalism. Often I think historians have the idea that it's only possible to accurately look back on history after a long time has passed. The Death of Yugoslavia demonstrates that these days, however, it's absolutely essential to look at history as it's being made.

Alaska's Revenge in a Nutshell

2012-02-01T01:56:00.000-05:00

You may have read my post Alaska's Revenge, by far the most popular article on this blog, due to the attention that an image I created received on the highly popular blog Strange Maps.

This is the "tl;dr" (too long; didn't read) version of that post - a condensed argument-in-a-nutshell about how Alaska is a victim of geographic discrimination and why this issue matters.

Again, here's my image, "Alaska's Revenge" (click for a close-up).

1. Alaska is geographically minimized and discounted as a part of the United States.

A brief survey of maps used to represent the United States in media, business, on the internet or in any part of daily life will show that Alaska is often left out of maps of the states, despite the fact that it's been a state for over fifty years and everyone knows there are fifty states. (Hawai'i is also a victim of this.) When Alaska is included in maps of the United States, it is almost never placed in its actual global position, and almost never shown at its real geographic size in relation to the rest of the country.

2. Maps shape Americans' knowledge or ignorance.

Without a doubt, how we think about geography is formed by the maps we see (or the maps we don't). How Alaska is treated cartographically leads to situations like this, where not even a schoolteacher knows it's the biggest state. If you care about Americans' knowledge of geography and awareness of the world, then this is an important issue.

Thank you for your attention, and please feel invited to leave comments, questions or critiques.

Blogging the North Florida Republican Debate

2012-01-29T22:41:00.000-05:00

I'm very glad that I don't watch television, especially cable news. (What kind of college student these days would do that, anyway?) If I did, I'm sure I would be constantly inundated with information on the Republican presidential primaries - which would not only be distasteful, but also a waste of time. The most I've actively done so far to keep up with the process is to see who won which states. This evening, though, I did decide - largely because of procrastination - to watch the Republican debate in Jacksonville that took place three days ago on the 26th, the first and probably only debate I'll see. Thus, I thought I'd make the most of it: I blogged it.

Photo source here

To begin with, I could barely get past the first few minutes - not because of the candidates, but because of my shock at the stupidity of the debate structure. One minute to respond to questions? Thirty seconds to rebut? Even the Gettysburg Address, known as one of the most brief, poignant and powerful orations in American history, still took over two minutes to say. A debate is supposed to contain substance - enumerated points of argument and logical back-and-forth - especially concerning complex questions of policy. Instead, it is reduced to soundbites, jibes, and one-sentence expressions of faith.

The first question was supposed to be asked by an audience member, yet Wolf Blitzer immediately spun their query to relate it to a stupid media-manufactured issue of Mitt Romney talking about "self-deportation." Why do corporate media organizations so intently shape conversations in a way that insults the public's intelligence? It's really a self-fulfilling prophecy: If news centered on critically-analyzed issues of policy, rather than day-to-day blown-out-of-proportion tiffs, people would expect a lot more coherence from politicians.

That aside, here's the link to the video I watched, as well as my random observations and comments, referenced by the approximate minute. (I apologize in advance for the imbalance in frequency and length of the comments over time.)

26: Rick Santorum seems to indicate there's a threat of militant Islam growing in Latin America.
32: Romney reveals that, indeed, both he and Newt Gingrich are rich and corrupt barons of the system.
36: Santorum plays nice guy and defends Romney and Gingrich's baronial statuses.
42: As horrible idea as a flat tax is for the U.S., it's oddly refreshing that Gingrich would reference Hong Kong as a model. (I mean seriously, since when did Republicans want to emulate anything foreign?)
56: Ron Paul dares to speak truth to the Republican deity Reagan's failure to have a balanced budget (which in itself is a huge understatement).
1:11: Ron Paul says the other candidates have too much faith in government and that he wants everything to be decided by the people. I guess after decades of being an elected congressman, he doesn't think government is decided by the people. Go figure.
1:15-18: Santorum ends up being the only candidate to talk about his wife in anything close to a romantic way (calling her his "hero" - no candidate using the word love), and everyone except Gingrich seems to have had a plenitude of children.
1:22: Gingrich claims the Reagan mantle. But, disciples present, do you believe this was a holy anointment?
1:26: Following Santorum's idiotic fearmongering concerning foreign policy in Latin America, Ron Paul says nothing about the speaker who preceded him and simply sticks to policy - a very admirable way to go about a discussion.
1:28: Romney says Obama has ignored Latin America, and basically in the same sentence mentions the new free trade agreement with Colombia. Ironic much?
1:37: Romney says our law is based on Judeo-Christian values, which perpetuates a pretty widespread and misleading belief that completely negates the secular European foundation and significant Native American influences that created American government.
1:47: It's very interesting to me that Santorum frames his ideas as pushing for change from the bottom up. In a way, this makes sense as a thrust against the more government-oriented policy of liberals, but on the other hand it is certifiably false that, given all of the Republicans' ideals of free-marketeering and unencumbered corporate dominance, people at the bottom of society might have any more agency after putting these politicians in power. In fact, they'll have even less, as has been demonstrated by the widening inequalities in opportunity and wealth and increasing corporate takeover we've seen across the country. That, of course, is the fundamental reason why I'm a liberal, and proud to call myself one. (And if anyone is reading this, feel free to discuss these issues with me in the comments below as much as you would like.)

I think I'll finish up with some general comments about the debate: In the first half or so, Romney and Gingrich were given most all of the time to talk, but most of the chatter wasn't about America's present and future, but rather their television ads and personal jabs. (I blame CNN for this and the media establishment in general. Politicians may be behind the idiocy, but it is fully in the power of journalists to force them to talk about real issues.) Gingrich took every opportunity he could to attack, whether it was Romney, Blitzer, or anyone else, and by and large it seemed he was pretty successful in doing that.

By the second half of the debate, though, I felt like things had evened out a little bit, and candidates carefully picked out tactical points of agreement with the others and tactical points of criticism. Although I can't seriously favor any of the candidates by any stretch of the imagination (except to say that I appreciate Ron Paul's foreign policy stance of peace) I will be interested to see how the Florida primary goes on Tuesday and I hope that the primary race remains wide open. Someday I hope that American politics becomes more intellectually diverse and vibrant, unencumbered by this unhealthy two-party system. Until then, though, these sorts of spectacles are, at the very least, somewhat interesting to watch.

Educational Regression in Arizona

2012-01-28T14:07:00.002-05:00

As a very appropriate follow-up to my last post, I thought I should point out a recent opinion piece from Al Jazeera entitled "Arizona and Chile: Concealing History in the Classroom." This article highlights the recent ongoings in Tucson, Arizona, where ethnic studies classes were dismantled in the middle of the school year and several books were also banned from the library, not for the usual reasons books are banned in American schools, like profanity or sexual content, but because the books promote a different sort of perspective - hispanic, indigenous, or revisionist perspectives.

Take a look at this resolution here.

Now, at present there are a lot of differing accounts out there on the internet as to the number of books banned by the Tuscon Unified School District, the titles of those books, and whether they were banned at all. One site I read suggests that the books were simply removed from the approved curriculum list, and that they would still be available in libraries. Even if this was true, it strikes me as pernicious indeed to remove books from approved curriculum lists; a school board would still have to judge that there was something "wrong" about the books before doing that. The books cited include books about Chicanos and Mexican-American history, books about race as a concept and books with titles like Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years, and even Shakespeare's Tempest. All these books simply place emphasis on topics that are often glossed over or completely ignored in standard curricula. It's clear that, regardless of the exact details, the Tucson school district was acting to eliminate a diversity of perspective from their schools.

Look at this article here.

This is even more clear when one considers the dismantling of the district's ethnic studies classes. Indeed, here the blame can't be placed entirely at Tucson's feet, because it was an Arizonan state law that was passed to ban these courses, and if Tucson didn't comply they'd be deprived of money. (With school districts, it's always about the money.) Stated reasons for these actions from politicians and supporters alike revolve around the notion that classes and books that focus on minorities can only create divisiveness in society. Of course, it is the opposite that is true: blatantly discriminatory acts drive divisions even deeper, and they ensure that students will forever remember the sort of ignorance and bigotry that shut down their classes, enraged their teachers and scarred their school experiences.

However, I believe ethnic studies classes are only a stepping stone. While Arizona is trying to shut out different perspectives in favor of condemning students to a single "unified" and certifiably false perspective on America, (again see my last post), the only way forward is to demolish that narrative and remake teaching in a way that integrates many different views and ultimately leads students not to just accept what they're told, but to question everything and walk through history in many different shoes.

If students consider everything and decide they'd prefer coercive schooling that demands that every child think the same way, they are entirely free to have that opinion. Somehow, though, I don't think that's going to happen.

Lies My Teacher Told Me: A Review

2012-01-19T21:56:00.001-05:00

Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong is an exceptional book, written by James W. Loewen. It's engrossing, thought-provoking, and truly something that should be read by every American student, anyone interested in American history, and anyone who has ever looked inside a textbook and wondered, "Can I really accept all of this as truth?"

This book challenges, refutes, and rebukes much of what has been and continues to be taught as U.S. history in elementary, middle and high schools throughout the country. The format is very easy to follow: well-paced and engaging introductory sections, followed by thematic examinations of different chapters and aspects of American history, from Columbus to Reconstruction to the Vietnam War - topics that are utterly maligned, mischaracterized and turned into shameful myths by textbooks and by the history of how those with power and influence have wanted to write history for the American people. This is not some sort of conspiracy theory. It is rather the reality that what American children hear and read in their classrooms is not the whole truth and nothing but the truth, but a narrative filled with heroification, myths, lies of omission and lies of commission, all perpetuated by textbook companies and curriculum creators who hold non-controversial social conformity, and not true education, as their highest priority.

I might describe Lies My Teacher Told Me chapter by chapter, listing the different myths and maligned topics that are explained and rectified by Loewen's important research, which includes his having read and investigated many different national history textbooks, some of them used today, others from past decades. However, I don't think I should really write out a "Sparknotes" version of the book, when what is key, beyond just the facts, is how you feel reading the entire book. Personally, I never ended up taking a course on American history in high school, (though I did in 8th grade), and I also know that many teachers do much to teach what they know to be true, including what they know textbooks gloss over or mischaracterize. Nevertheless, after reading this book I know that many American students are not getting what they should out of history, and I feel it is a real injustice.

Instead of being engaged with the interesting and controversial truths of the past, as I luckily was in my high school history courses, many students simply have 1,000-page textbooks dumped on them, filled with blandly-stated untruths as part of an all-American-goodness narrative that leaves no room for debate and no room for critical thinking. Not only is this sort of history wrong; it's boring. It's also rotting kids' brains when they could actually learn a lot. That's why I encourage you to read this: You'll not only learn a lot, as I did, but I hope you'll also be encouraged to think critical about history education - what you received and what students today receive. It's more important than you think.

Classes for Spring 2012: A Detailed Look

2012-01-19T16:21:00.000-05:00

The tradition of listing and describing my classes for each semester of high school and university since this blog's existence has been a long one, but the protocol hasn't been consistent. I did it late last September for my classes in Strasbourg, for example, but for the semester before that (Spring '11 at Georgetown) I rattled off my classes in early December 2010, as soon as I found out my registration had been fully successful and I'd gotten a full course load.

For this spring semester I also got a full schedule - every class I asked for (and I realize I'm quite lucky for that). This time, though, I've waited till now - after over a week back on campus - to get around to listing the courses. It's an eclectic mix - and though at first glance it might seem there wouldn't be any overlap between subjects, I'm already finding a fair bit. Anyway, here they are:

International Finance
Tradition et Modernité en Afrique francophone
The History of Modern Korea in Northeast Asia
Wealth and Poverty: The History of Development
Native Americans Making North America

IFinance has in its first three sessions dealt with a few interesting topics, namely exchange rates, currency markets and derivatives. As you may know, I'm not much of an "economics person," and at times I find it difficult (or loathsome) to "buy into" the mindset of traders, financiers and big businesses. Nevertheless, I understand these are important things to know, and I get the impression that I'll be a lot more familiar with economics for the rest of my life after having done these four required courses than most of the public is.

I chose my French class last, after having picked out the other four, and I'm really glad I decided to take it. Sure, taking French isn't required for me now, since I will certainly be put down as having fulfilled by foreign language proficiency requirement once my grades come back from Strasbourg, but all the same I am very glad to get to speak and listen to French for at least two and a half hours per week. I think it would have been saddening to go back to a 100% English life after just coming back from France. Concerning the class itself, I am always very interested in Africa and African history, and I don't think a little literature (which this course will be based on) hurts every once in a while. I'd much rather look at French literature than English.

As to my class on Korea, I will say that it has now become a goal of mine to seek out "virgin history." I don't mean that in any perverse way - I just mean that I've found it very enjoyable at Georgetown, in Strasbourg and elsewhere to explore histories which were up to that point unknown to me. The only Korean history I ever remember learning in school was a little bit in Mr. Bolling's world history class, and there Korea was placed in the context of a periphery state of China - a tributary member of China's international system, along with Vietnam and to a lesser extent Japan. Now that time period and political characterization is but a jumping off point to learning about modern Korea, and I look forward to looking at things in the coming months that I know nothing about, namely Japanese domination of Korea and the Korean (Civil) War.

Wealth and Poverty is a seminar that seems entirely designed for me. There's only been one session of it so far, yesterday, and that hour of introduction certainly can't be taken as indicative of how the whole semester will go, but nonetheless the course is centered exactly on my self-designated theme for my major: the history of poverty. I am very glad that my professor is foremost a historian, so the goal of this class - to place wealth, poverty, and development across the globe into historical context - conforms precisely with what I outlined as my specific goal within my major of international history. Besides all that, discussion among the other students in the class should be lively and enjoyable, and I really look forward to starting it.

Along those same lines, I am taking another seminar as well, this one about Native Americans. Though the title indicates something more holistic, the course is actually centered only on those peoples who inhabited the area from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec up to what are today the southwestern and south-central states of the U.S. (It seems I have been again tricked into taking a course about Mexico - just like in my freshman year.) That doesn't bother me too much, though: I know that there is tons of interesting, new and revisionist history to be discussed, and we will in fact be having that discussion for the first time in just about a half hour. I'm all prepared and I can't wait. All my classes have interesting facets to them, and as long as my interest is satisfied and perpetuated, I know I'll do well in the classes.

The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial

2012-01-18T21:48:00.001-05:00

Last Monday, on the national holiday that celebrates him, I had the pleasure of visiting and seeing for the first time the new memorial that commemorates Martin Luther King Jr. The memorial was officially dedicated last October, so this was in fact the first MLK Day to be celebrated during its existence.

To get there, I walked about three miles from the Georgetown campus, walking by the Watergate Hotel, the Kennedy Center and the Lincoln Memorial, as well as many other places of course, including the Saudi embassy. I got a pretty fun photo of it: I like to think the jeep represents the "Americanness" of oil consumption quite well, parked in front of the representation of our most well-known supplier.

Those sorts of things, however, were not the focus of my day. Instead, I walked briskly along the roads, stopping only to take pictures and at times to momentarily question if I was really walking the right way. After one or two questionable highway crossings, I did finally make it to the National Mall and to the MLK Memorial, which lies just between the Korean War Memorial and the FDR Memorial, set against the Tidal Basin on the exact opposite shore from the dome that houses the likeness of Jefferson.

The water wasn't what I saw first, however. Once I got by the last stoplight and a long line of cars itching to get out, I found myself standing in front of two large, arched stones - a granite gateway to take me away from the world, so to speak, blocking out the streets and traffic and giving me only... the unknown.

I wasn't quite clueless as to what I'd find beyond those stones. I knew there would be a huge statue of Dr. King, and I'd even seen a few pictures of it. Still, there was no way to replicate the sense of excitement I had as I walked through the stones and saw another large stone, as tall as the others. I could only see its rough-hewn backside, and my anticipation grew as I slowly edged counter-clockwise around it from a distance, moving through the crowds and - as much as I could - keeping my eye on that central stone, which I knew was what everyone had come for.

As you can see in the picture above, what I first saw plainly was the message that encapsulates the whole idea of the monument: Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope. I also began to glimpse more and more of the statue, and when I saw him plainly, he was quite a sight to see.

Just as much as all the stone, however, and the walls which exhibited many of Dr. King's quotes, I valued seeing all of the people in that place. The area wasn't packed shoulder-to-shoulder from the walls to the basin, for sure. It was quite full, however, and certainly blew out of the water any thought I could have entertained that a chilly day in the middle of winter might not bring many visitors. Most importantly, everywhere I looked I found smiles and gladness - and I could not but help to join in that feeling of community, content as I had been in my previous pensive solitude. My sincerest hope is that those smiles represented in some small way the sort of community and the sort of love that Dr. King was looking for in this country. He knew quite well during his life that there were many problems in our society, even after - especially after - the passage of the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts. Were he alive today, growing old at the age of 83, he'd also know well the injustices that continue to plague us - the inequalities, the poverty, the denial of civil rights. All the same, we can all feel hope, and we will always, always have love to win the day.

The USA vs France #3: Some Mixed Wins

2012-01-16T17:43:00.000-05:00

Well, I've now decided to finally write my third part to accompany and complete my earlier posts: USA vs France #1 (Some French Wins) and USA vs France #2 (Some American Wins). Unlike the previous two, this post will just be in English, but I won't discount doing some more blogging in French in the future.

Also unlike the previous "USA vs France" posts, this time I won't be laying out clear-cut "wins" for one country or the other. This time I feel I should address issues that are mixed bags, things present in each place where I couldn't choose the American or the French way as best. I hope you enjoy.

Multiculturalism: I feel that multiculturalism is a much different phenomenon in France than it is in the U.S., but those differences are not always clear, nor is it always clear what is best. On the one hand, it's pretty sure, despite difficulty in determining statistics, that the French have higher levels of inter-racial or inter-ethnic coupling than in the U.S. I could guess as much just from what I saw around Strasbourg - and the fact that different-looking couples were so noticeable to me is perhaps more evidence of its relative scarcity in America. On the other hand, I think France has a very effective and speedy level of acculturation that renders immigrants "like every other French person" much faster than immigrants to the U.S. might become "like every other American." In large part I think there would be many similar experiences for immigrants to each place, but I believe there is a much larger set of expectations for what it means to be French than there is for being American. Perhaps I'm wrong, but that's just my impression.
Language: Very clearly, France - at least its government if not its people - fights against English as a dominating language. Examples of this are apparent in advertisements, for example, which are required to show translations of any English words. This is probably a good thing, as I imagine the world would be quite bland indeed with a single language dominating business and other sectors of life around the globe, even if people continued using many languages at home. France is also, however, very clearly and quietly oppressing its own many minority languages, such as Occitan, Breton and Alsatian, among others. With the negligible support that they receive, these languages are well on their way to silent generational deaths, as it is already just the elderly who speak Alsatian, their children and grandchildren persuaded (at least in action if not in thought) that French (and other "useful" languages learned at school) are the only tongues to invest in. I also think of languages such as in West Africa that don't receive very much recognition or development as legitimate national lingua-francas because they play second fiddle to their governments' official use of French. In many ways, French continues to be an imperialist language - but then again, so is English, and it doesn't even try. (There are also many issues with minority languages in the U.S. as well, but this paragraph is already too long.)
Dogs: This issue is short, sweet, and not so serious as the two before. The French allow dogs to be in a lot more places than Americans do, and I think this is a good thing. I would for example see dogs of every size in shops and other public places, clearly just pets and not helpers. It's pretty nice to have them around. On the other hand, the dogshit stereotype of France is absolutely true: it's everywhere. In Alsace and Strasbourg, however, this wasn't the case, and everything tended to be cleaner in general than it was in Paris, Nice or elsewhere.
Talking: Americans talk too loudly and French talk too little. I was often self-conscious when with the other students from Georgetown, not because we spoke English, but because we spoke so loudly. The same seemed true for the American tourists that came to Strasbourg for the Christmas season, although it may just be true that it's easy to hear one's own native language stand out in crowds of others. In terms of explaining how the French talk too little, it all comes down to the idea of explicitness. It often seemed to me that people would speak with all these sorts of linguistic assumptions, like when a woman asked me on the tram "Can you push yourself?" when I would have understood much better if she'd said "Can you push yourself to the other seat?" (At first I got out of my seat.) My host mother would also always ask me "You can manage?" when what would have helped would have been "You can manage making dinner without me, right?" Perhaps this happens just as much in English, but I feel like in French it's more egregious.
Capitalization: Capitalization seems to be kind of a mixed bag in a lot of languages, but French seems to be a bit more consistent than English in everyday use, as nouns are more stringently kept uncapitalized (unless of course they are clearly proper). When it comes to titles, though, the French rules are unclear or nonexistent (just the first word? the first and second? important words?) while the English rule "every word except small ones" works quite well.
Chip flavors: While in France and Germany, I had the pleasure of acquiring, tasting and devouring mustard-flavored chips, bolognaise chips, roast chicken chips, Thai curry chips and cheeseburger chips. All were delicious, but my favorite was probably mustard - simple, spicy, wonderful. Many of these chips were even produced by Lays, and yet I have never seen them available in the U.S. America is indeed the home of the chip, however, and I believe we will see further diversification of our flavor options at home.

an Alsatian (German shepherd) in Alsace

Well, there are some more issues I might address, including health care, banks, or things my readers might suggest. For now, though, I'll leave it at this. Please leave a comment with what you think!

Libertarians - Religious Fanatics?

2012-01-11T05:26:00.001-05:00

Libertarians are interesting creatures, and many of them are not unlike certain flavors of religious fanatic.

Ron Paul

I've had a long history being around libertarianism, since it's quite in vogue these days with young people, both in Alaska and around the country. After all, most people know that when it comes to Ron Paul, today's quintessential public face for the ideology, the vast majority of his support and publicity consists of 20 and 30-somethings spreading his name around the internet. In fact, during my Christmas break I had lengthy internet conversations with two different people from Ketchikan a few years younger than me.

The first began when I responded on Facebook to a video posted about how highways should be privatized. The second began when I posted an image showing the benefits of higher taxes for the rich, and got a very long response of disagreement that developed into a huge conversation. In both cases, I steered the conversation away from the details of the immediate issues to try to ask deeper questions about the other's ideology. Again in both cases, what I got in response were well-articulated and extremely fervent expressions of faith in laissez-faire economics and the inherent oppressiveness of government. I was generally impressed with my younger peers' writing and enthusiasm for politics, but as to the content of their philosophy, I couldn't be so happy.

So, to return to my first sentence, what makes many libertarians like religious fanatics?

I think there are two main points of similarity: First is blind faith in divine will - not of any god, but rather the divine will of so-called Freedom and the so-called Free Market, which are holy concepts worthy of all worship and adoration. Second is the ability to see the devil in everything, the devil here being "the Government" or "Government" (always singular and monolithic, the incarnation of all evil). For example, you may often hear libertarians say "The Government made me do it!" or "Cast out the Government from your life!" or "Don't you see the beautiful image of the Free Market burned into this toast?!"

Ludwig von Mises

In all seriousness, I think there is little sense in taking in the words of Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich Hayek or Milton Friedman and taking them as the unquestionable truth (or any truth at all). It's about the equivalent of taking into your heart all the thoughts of Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx. Anyone can point out failings and weaknesses in government, whether it's bickering among local governments, corruption in state politics, or monstrous debt at the federal level. What these libertarian zealots absolutely refuse to acknowledge, however, is that capitalism and the "free market" have many weaknesses and failures as well (and as much a potential to oppress as does any government). Though we may not think of them as alike, blissful libertarian anarchy really ends up being just as foolish and unachievable a concept as an authoritarian communist paradise.

For bits of time when I was younger, I too used to think of things in terms of radical black and white, though I was much more of a communist than an anarchist. With all I've learned about history, however, perhaps the biggest impression I've taken away is of the beautiful and limitless complexity of societies, cultures, and human interaction. Taking that to heart, no type of clear-cut ideology for how to run our lives could possibly be seen as perfect. Looking to change and improve the world requires an honest understanding of how change has happened in the past, and how it continues today. Wordy pronouncements of political philosophy may look nice in books, or even on the internet, but when it comes to solving today's problems, they are often more expressions of faith than useful contributions to discussion.

Waiting for Better Than Waiting for Superman

2012-01-08T06:45:00.000-05:00

Last week I watched the film Waiting for Superman with my family. I had suggested it because of much I had heard about the film - how popular and successful it was, how many people's thoughts about education had been influenced by it, and how others charged that the film had many inaccuracies or made gross simplifications regarding education issues. Given my abiding and quite significant interest in education and in the American school system, I felt I had to find out for myself.

Here are the problems and issues I noted while watching Waiting for Superman. Some might be considered insignificant, others very serious indeed. Let me know what you think.

A+B-C+D-F

Every single one of the "national" maps shown in the film leave out Alaska and Hawai'i - a mistake that is just as ignorant as showing a map that leaves out Maine or Texas. This practice may be common, and most Americans probably never think about it, but it is nonetheless unacceptable, especially if the topic discussed is national education. (Children obviously need more exposure to accurate images of our national geography.)

In the film, former DC Public Schools chancellor Michelle Rhee is portrayed as a blemishless heroine who did everything she could during her tenure to fix education in DC. Although I won't spend my time going into the troubled history of Rhee's policies and actions, suffice it to say that reality is quite different than the biased herofication in the film.

During one early sequence, the narrator states that education "should be simple" and without irony shows a cartoon of teacher opening up kids' heads and depositing information (little gears?) inside. Anyone who knows anything about education should know that it doesn't consist of teachers simply stuffing facts and standardized material into students' minds - and it isn't "simple" at all. Education is rather about guiding students to be more aware and more curious, to be better learners and to be better people. Good luck trying to write how to do that as a list of curriculum requirements.

The entire film has a huge problem of generalization and simplification, stating things as fact that vary enormously from state to state, school district to school district, and even from school to school. For example, it's stated outright by one interviewee (without subsequent clarification) that tenure for public school teachers is received automatically and only after a just few years on the job - a notion that is patently false, if not for some than at least for many teachers throughout the country.

The film posits quite bluntly that teachers' unions are be the biggest obstacle to national education reform, and this seems to be one of the conclusions that uncritical viewers took away most often from the film. However, the accusation against teachers' unions is left entirely unsupported. If someone wants to make a film about how teachers' unions hurt students, they can do it, but otherwise such an outrageous idea shouldn't be thrown around as if it's an obvious truth, and certainly not when the real focus of the film clearly lies elsewhere.

It's one thing for Waiting for Superman to say that poor and disadvantaged children are capable of success - and that's a great thing - but it's something else entirely to say that the only way for poor and disadvantaged children to succeed is for them to go to "good" schools with the right school culture and the right "accountability". Totally absent is any suggestion of the idea that these children might be helped by helping make their families less poor and less disadvantaged - except to say that the conception of "bad neighborhoods" making "bad schools" should be overturned by the conception of "bad schools" making "bad neighborhoods". This sort of sophism is useless: It's fully apparent from all evidence that economic status and quality of education are intertwined phenomena, and if it's possible to have one rise drastically before the other, it's economic status.

Despite parent interviews relating to several touching personal stories, the real role of parents in education is woefully absent from the film. Parents are shown as only being able to help their kids' education by working to get them into a "good" school. In reality, parents can do a million things outside of school to make their kids more likely to succeed, from properly attending to children's early development to providing them with opportunities to learn at home and so on and so on. It seems the filmmakers don't want to address potential parental failure at all - only the failure of teachers and schools.

The climax of the film is a melange of video from several charter school lottery selection processes - a fact which places all of the film's emphasis on the idea that getting into the right school determines everything for a child. It's as if non-charter public schools are hopeless and parents and kids in a bad situation can do nothing more for themselves than try to get into a charter. Again, this is portrayal is a far cry from the complex realities that exist regarding child development and the very diverse education policies in this country. The film ends up being all about emotion, as the substance it does possess gets entirely negated by ample inaccuracies and misrepresentations.

Lastly, the film presents early on the sentiment that the great number of different federal, state and school district policies only serves to confuse and complicate our nation's education system. For the entire rest of the film, however, charter schools with new ideas are presented as our greatest hope for the future. These two arguments make absolutely no sense when considered side by side, because having independent state and district policies can serve to generate new reforms in exactly the same way that independent charter school policies can. In fact, I believe that state education policies these days are becoming far too homogenous, and the federal government much too involved. Different states and districts need to be bold in making positive changes, and when good ideas are found they can be applied by others. To suggest at once that charter schools be strengthened against other schools and that federal education policy be strengthened against the states is not only ideologically inconsistent, (at least according to the stated reasons), but it is also very dangerous indeed.

A+B-C+D-F

I had heard a lot about how successful and inspiring Waiting for Superman was, and I'd even heard quite a few people say that they'd cried while they watched it. When I saw the film, however, I was completely underwhelmed. What I saw was a mish-mash of poorly connected ideas and arguments, interspersed with the unquestioned statements of "experts," the baseless musings of a narrator, and video clips that often seemed so irrelevant that you thought they must have been accidentally taken from another film. The personal stories included, while touching and important, were certainly not enough to get me emotional. Ultimately, I will be waiting for documentaries on education much better than Waiting for Superman to give to the issues the attention and accurate representation they deserve.

American Immigrants

2012-01-03T03:42:00.000-05:00

Just a short thought for you today:

More than 95% of Americans are fully descended from immigrants who came to this land within the last five hundred years (not a very long time in the scheme of things). That being said, a great deal of U.S. citizens today have many complaints or concerns about newer immigrants here - questions about how they entered the country, what contributions they make to society, what resources they draw from government, the extent to which they take on American culture, and so on.

What I think, though, is that if these same concerned and complaining citizens all of a sudden became immigrants themselves, leaving the United States to go abroad, I think they'd be the most needy immigrants ever - constantly complaining, demanding to follow their own American language and customs in their new land, weighing down health care and other social safety nets, on and on.

Think about it - and if you disagree or just don't follow, leave me a comment and I'll say more.

Coining a New Political Witticism

2012-01-02T02:00:00.000-05:00

If you're a young person and find yourself arguing politics with people more conservative and more elderly than you, you may have the experience of hearing this witticism (as I have, once or twice).

Show me a young Conservative and I'll show you someone with no heart.
Show me an old Liberal and I'll show you someone with no brains.

Like a great many other quotes, this phrase has been misattributed to Winston Churchill, and the Churchill Centre and Museum even adds the comment, "Surely Churchill can't have used the words attributed to him. He'd been a Conservative at 15 and a Liberal at 35!" Nevertheless, this quote and variations on it are pretty popular, and I suspect it's because a great many people are indeed liberal when they're young and then more conservative when old.

Whether this is more often because people are more idealistic in their youth and grow more practical with age, or because attitudes that stay the same may become considered less liberal over time, I don't know. I do however think that there are many people to whom this witticism doesn't apply at all. I believe my grandparents, for example, were relatively conservative when younger and now are diehard Democrats! In any case, the end message of the phrase is that liberalism isn't intelligent, and that is something I vehemently disagree with.

Thus, I've decided to coin a new political witticism. Instead of being a response to the first, relating political viewpoint to age, this one addresses a factor that I'd say is a lot more relevant to political stances: one's level of power in society. After all, conservatives are at their root those who desire slow or little change, and liberals want a lot. With no further comment, then, here is my newly-created witticism:

If you're powerful and liberal, your heart's overpowered your brain.
If you're powerless and conservative, you have neither heart nor brain.

Dernier billet bilingue

2011-12-19T02:46:00.000-05:00

Il était une fois, j'ai commencé d'écrire (presque) tous mes billets ici en français. Forcément cet époque du blog doit finir, et alors que je m'assieds actuellement à l'Aéroport Charles de Gaulle à Paris, quelques heures avant de mon vol pour rentrer aux États-Unis, je crois que maintenant est le temps.

Pendant que j'ai suivi ce pratique, je sais que mon écriture en anglais n'était pas exactement normale, et peut-être que je n'avais voulu voir des phrases aussi étrangement-formées sur mon blog. Néanmoins, je crois vraiment que j'ai beaucoup beneficié d'avoir écrire tout cela en français. En addition de mes travaux académiques français, (dont quelques uns se trouvent sur le blog ici, ici, ici et ici), mon « blogging » m'a permis d'apprendre même plus de mots de pratiquer mes compétences de langue. En plus, c'était amusant !

Mais hélas, toutes les bonnes choses ont une fin. Strasbourg me manque un peu déjà, mais je suis beaucoup plutôt enthousiaste de rentre chez moi et enfin de voir ma copine et ma famille après avoir été à l'autre côté d'une océan pour presque quatre mois. C'est le temps pour retourner - le temps pour redevenir américain. Inévitablement, ça veut dire que l'on doit être unilingue.

Autoportrait classique d'un bloggeur - ici à l'Aéroport CDG
Classic blogger self-portrait - here at CDG Airport

Last Bilingual Post

Once upon a time, I began to write (almost) all my posts here in French. Necessarily this epoque of the blog had to end, and as I'm currently sitting at the Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, a few hours before my flight to reenter the United States, I think that now is the time.

During the time I've followed this practice, I know my writing in English wasn't exactly normal, and perhaps I wouldn't have wanted to see such strangely-formed sentences on my blog. Nevertheless, I really believe that I benefitted a lot from having written all this in French. In addition to my French academic work, (of which some can be found on the blog here, here, here and here), my blogging permitted me to learn even more words and practice my language skills. Plus, it was fun!

But alas, all good things must come to an end. I already miss Strasbourg a little, but I am much more excited about returning home and finally seeing my girlfriend and family after having been on the other side of an ocean for almost four months. It's time to go back - time to become American again. Inevitably, that means being unilingual.

Saverne : Fin poétique d'un semestre

2011-12-18T14:33:00.000-05:00

J'aime trop les arbres !

Il y a une semaine je suis allé à Saverne, une ville qui se situe dans les Vosges près de la limite entre l'Alsace et la Lorraine, une demi-heure de Strasbourg par train. J'avais entendu dans mes cours que Saverne avait la plus grande vue d'Alsace et que des nombreux gens tout au long de l'histoire ont remarqué en descendant le col de Saverne la beauté de toute la région. On dit que Louis XIV a écrié « quel beau jardin ! » dès qu'il l'a vu.

Je me sentais bien comfortable à Saverne, car d'abord il y avait de l'élévation en ville, les rues inclinées avec de personnalité. (Planéité est ennuyante.) En plus, j'étais entouré par les montagnes, les montagnes boisées - pas exactement comme chez moi, mais assez proche !

le Château de Rohan

Alors, après avoir visité le beau musée dans le Château de Rohan et des autres endroits de ville, j'ai demandé à l'office de tourisme comment trouver cette vue. La dame m'a donné des directions assez simples - de suivre une rue, de continuer sous un pont, de monter la colline et de prendre un sentier de randonnée montant au travers un forêt, enfin achevant le grand Château du Haut-Barr.

J'ai suivi les directions sans problème et c'était une jolie promenade, voyant des belles maisons sur la colline. Pourtant, j'ai réalisé que le soleil était bien en train de coucher, et lorsque j'ai achevé le forêt, j'ai lu une signe qui a dit « Château : 30 mn. » Très vite, j'ai commencé de randonner. À la fin, j'ai pris vingt minutes de completer le sentier. Au château, j'ai montée une des énormes pierres à l'intérieur des murs, et voilà ce que j'ai vu :

À l'ouest, la crepuscule au-dessus de la Lorraine :

À l'est, les lumières des villes et des villages du Bas-Rhin (dans ce photo avec une affleurement du château) :

Pas nécessaire de dire que c'est impossible de répliquer cette expérience avec des photos ou une description simple. Toutefois, je peux décrire mes sentiments au moment : J'ai senti que la vue représentait la fin parfaite de mon semestre à Strasbourg et en Europe. C'était la fin du jour comme la fin de mes études, et comme je suis capable de repenser à toutes mes expériences, j'étais capable de regarder toute l'Alsace, étincelante et étalée devant moi. Bien que j'aie passé une semaine en plus à Strasbourg et c'est seulement aujourd'hui que je suis parti de la région définitivement, d'aller à Saverne était une note parfaite de conclusion poétique. À la prochaine, Alsace.

une tour du Château du Haut-Barr, avec les drapeaux de la France, de l'Alsace et de Saverne
a tower of the Château du Haut-Barr, with the flags of France, Alsace and Saverne

Saverne: Poetic End to a Semester

like Ketchikan without ocean!

A week ago I went to Saverne, a town situated in the Vosges near the divide between Alsace and Lorraine, a half-hour from Strasbourg by train. I had heard in my courses that Saverne had the greatest view of Alsace and that many people throughout history while descending the pass at Saverne had remarked on the beauty of the whole region. They say that Louis XIV exclaimed "what a beautiful garden!" as soon as he saw it.

I felt quite comfortable in Saverne, as first of all there was elevation in the town, the roads inclined with personality. (Levelness is boring.) In addition, I was surrounded by mountains, forested mountains - not exactly like at home, but close enough!

the Château de Rohan at night

Well, after having visited the lovely museum in the Château de Rohan and some other places in the town, I asked at the tourism office how to find this view. The lady gave me some simple enough directions - to follow a road, continue under a bridge, climb the hill and take an uphill hiking trail through a forest, finally reaching the grand Château du Haut-Barr.

I followed the directions without problem and it was a lovely walk, seeing beautiful houses on the hill. However, I realized that the sun was well on its way to setting, and when I reached the forest, I read a sign that said "Château : 30 mn." I began to hike very quickly. In the end, I took twenty minutes to complete the trail. At the castle, I climbed one of the enormous stones inside the walls, and here's what I saw:

To the west, the sunset over Lorraine:

To the east, the lights of the towns and villages of the Bas-Rhin (here mostly the lights of Saverne):

Unnecessary to say, it's impossible to replicate this experience with photos or a simple description. However, I can describe my feelings at that moment: I felt that the view represented the perfect end to my semester in Strasbourg and in Europe. It was the end of the day like the end of my studies, and like I'm able to look back on all my experiences, I was able to look out on all of Alsace, sparkling and laid out before me. Although I spent another week in Strasbourg and it's only today that I left the region for good, going to Saverne was a perfect note of poetic conclusion. Until next time, Alsace.

Les ÉUA vs la France no. 2 : Des victoires américaines

2011-12-14T17:26:00.000-05:00

Alors on continue avec les billets « les ÉUA vs la France » en considérant des victoires américaines. Ce n'est que juste ! (Voici le premier si vous ne l'avez pas encore lu.)

les escaliers sont souvent couverts
avec les fumeurs (no. 3)

Les bibliothèques : J'ai déjà commenté ce sujet, mais je pense qu'il vaut la peine de le redresser. Il n'y a pas de question que les bibliothèques de l'Université de Strasbourg sont incroyablement fous : Il y a, véritablement, vingt-cinq bibliothèques sous l'administration de l'université, les médiathèques (4) et les bibliothèques associés (41) non inclus. Je comprends que l'UdS se formait des plusieurs universités séparées il n'y a que deux ans, mais ça n'explique pas le problème. Tout simplement, les bibliothèques américains universitaires me paraissent beaucoup plus pratiques et mieux gérés.

Le linge : J'avais anticipé que l'on pendrait les vêtements pour les sécher en France, mais les Français ont en plus des machines à laver très petites et très méchantes. Mes vêtements ont des trous maintenant - pas tout, mais quelques t-shirts et quelques chaussettes. Évidemment, le linge aux États-Unis me plaît beaucoup mieux - même si l'environnement ne l'aime pas.

Les fumeurs : Ceux qui fument ne me dérangent pas beaucoup, mais si l'on veut comparer la santé des ÉUA et de la France, c'est bien apparent que ce dernier possède les poumons pires. Souvent, les étudiants fumants créent une grande foule dehors des portes du Palais Universitaire, et les cigarettes sont partout dans les villes françaises. La seule chose qui améliore la situation de détritus, c'est que Strasbourg emploi beaucoup plus des balayeurs que font les villes américaines.

Les fontaines publiques : La France ne veut pas que tu boives de l'eau. La manque des fontaines publiques est extrême ; je peux probablement compter celles que j'ai vu ici sur seulement une main. En plus, les bassins et les fontaines ornamentales dans les places portent les signes disant « potable » ou « non-potable » (plutôt non-potable) comme si je plongerais mon tête la-dedans pour boire. C'est une mauvaise situation pour l'hydration des gens.

Les chiffres de 70 à 99 : Simplement dit, les chiffres en France de 70 à 99 sont BÊTES. (70 = soixante-dix, 80 = quatre-vingt et 90 = quatre-vingt-dix.) La France, je vous adresse : Comment set-il logique que vous avez inventé le système métrique, mais votre propre langue n'est pas décimale !? Les Francophones de la Belgique et de la Suisse utilisent déjà les chiffres sensibles - septante, octante et nonante. Il n'y a aucune raison l'Académie française ne doit pas les suivre.

Les heures d'ouverture : Finalement, il faut dire que les heures d'ouverture en France ne sont pas convenables du tout. Certaines entreprises entreprises comme La Poste et ma banque a des longues fermetures pour le dejeuner, et typiquement tout est fermé à 20h00 - pas des supermarchés ouverts tard et absolument rien ouvert 24 heures par jour. Ce qui me dérange le plus, pourtant, c'est qu'il n'y a rien qui fonctionne les dimanches. Peut-être que la France est plus laïque que les États-Unis, mais peut-être que la religion américaine est le business ! (et sa plus grande fête - le Noël - vient).

En tout cas, le prochain billet dans cette série va s'adresser aux « victoires mixtes ». Restez avec le blog et laissez-moi des commentaires !

USA vs. France #2: Some American Wins

Let's continue with the "USA vs. France" posts by looking at some American wins. It's only fair! (Here's the first if you didn't read it yet.)

Libraries: I've already commented on this subject, but I think it's worth readdressing. There is no question that the libraries of the University of Strasbourg are incredibly crazy: There are, truly, twenty-five libraries under the administration of the university, media centers (4) and associated libraries (41) not included. I understand that the UdS was formed from several separate universities only two years ago, but that doesn't explain the problem. Simply put, American university libraries appear to me to be much more practical and better managed.
Laundry: I had anticipated that you would hang your clothes to dry them in France, but the French also have very small and very mean washing machines. My clothes have holes now - not all, but some t-shirts and some socks. Obviously, laundry in the United States suits me much better - even if the environment doesn't like it.
Smokers: Those who smoke don't annoy me much, but if you want to compare the health of the USA and France, it's quite apparent that the latter possesses the worst lungs. Often, smoking students create a huge crowd outside the doors of the University Palace, and cigarettes are everywhere in French cities. The only thing that improves the litter situation is that Strasbourg employs many more street sweepers than American cities do.
Drinking fountains: France doesn't want you to drink water. The lack of drinking fountains is extreme ; I can probably count those I've seen here on only one hand. What's more, the ornamental fountains in the squares carry signs saying "drinkable" or "non-drinkable" (more often non-drinkable) as if I would plunge my head in there to drink. It's a bad situation for people's hydration.
Numbers 70 to 99 : Simply put, numbers in France from 70 to 99 are DUMB. (70 = sixty-ten, 80 = four-twenty and 90 = four-twenty-ten.) France, I'm addressing you: How is it logical that you invented the metric system, but your own language isn't decimal!? The Francophones of Belgium and Switzerland already use sensible numbers - seventy, eighty and ninety. There is no reason the Académie française shouldn't follow them.

very rare (see #4)

Open hours: Finally, I must say that opening hours in France are not convenient at all. Certain businesses like the Post and my bank have long closings for lunch, and typically everything is closed at 8pm - no supermarkets open late and absolutely nothing open 24 hours. What annoys me the most, though, is that there is nothing that functions on Sundays. France may be more secular than the United States, but maybe the American religion is business! (and its biggest holiday is coming - Christmas).

Anyway, the next post in this series will address "mixed wins". Stay tuned to the blog and leave me some comments!

Les ÉUA vs la France no. 1 : Des victoires françaises

2011-12-10T21:11:00.000-05:00

J'ai un peu peur que je n'aille oublier certaines comparaisons auxquelles j'ai pensé entre mon pays natal et mon pays actuel des études. Donc, je vais maintenant énumérer quelques points de comparaison, considérant cette fois seulement certaines « victoires » françaises - c'est à dire, des domaines de la vie quotidienne où la France semble plus favorable que les États-Unis.

Le système des mesures : Il n'y a pas de doute que le système métrique des mesures, instauré en France il y a plus de deux siècles - et puis SI, le système international d'unités, son successeur moderne - sont des méthodes extrêmement supérieurs au système d'unités utilisé aux États-Unis. Le système américain n'a aucun sens du tout et il n'y a aucune raison logique de le garder.
Les transports publiques : Le système ferroviaire de France n'a pas de homologue américain. Le TGV est incroyablement rapide, et bien que les prix du SNCF soient assez chers (pour ceux qui ne sont pas jeunes) l'option de prendre le train est très forte. En plus, vous savez bien comment j'aime les transports publiques de Strasbourg (voire ici, ici et ici) et j'ai vu des autres villes françaises avec des systèmes de métro, de tram ou de bus qui sont formidables aussi. En général, la transportation dans les villes américaines est risiblement faible en comparaison.
Les prix transparents : Pour nous Américains, c'est normal que le taxe est ajouté aux prix affiché dans la plupart des magasins. Pourtant, pour les Européens ce pratique semble très étrange : En France, on paye le prix affiché et c'est tout ! Faisant des petits achats, cette différence parait négligeable, mais dans l'ensemble, ne serait-il mieux de connaitre le prix exacte que l'on va payer ?
Le journalisme : Je n'ai pas regardé beaucoup de télévision, mais chaque fois que je vois des émissions sur les nouvelles, sur les affaires internationales ou bien sur n'importe quel sujet, je suis étonné par la qualité des journalistes français. Les entretiens des politiciens sont professionnellement conduits, les questions bien posées et bien réfléchies ; les analyses sont toujours précis. En comparaison, les médias américains sont une honte absolue.
Les librairies : Pour quelque raison, les Français aiment les librairies et ils aiment acheter les livres. C'est juste trop étrange, hein ? Les librairies sont partout à Strasbourg, beaucoup plus qu'il y aurait à une ville américaine de population comparable. Au cœur, je suis un homme qui adore les librairies, donc c'est la victoire avant-dernière de ce billet pour la France.
Le lait : Finalement, je ne comprends pas pourquoi, mais tout simplement le lait français a le meilleur goût !

Alors, dans le prochain billet on regarde des victoires américaines. Laissez-moi des commentaires !

The USA vs. France #1: Some French Wins

I'm a little afraid that I'm going to forget some comparisons I've thought of between my home country and my current country of study. So, now I'm going to list a few points of comparison, this time looking only at some French "wins" - that is to say, areas of daily life where France seems better than the United States.

The measurement system: There is no doubt that the metric measurement system, inaugurated in France over two centuries ago - and then SI, the International System of Units, its modern successor - are methods extremely superior to the unit system used in the United States. The American system has no sense whatsoever and there is no logical reason to keep it.
Public transportation: The railroad system of France has no American counterpart. The TGV is incredibly fast, and although SNCF prices are somewhat expensive (for those who aren't young) the option to take the train is very strong. In addition, you know well how I love Strasbourg's public transport (see here, here and here) and I've seen other French cities with metro, tram or bus systems that are impressive as well. In general, transportation in American cities is laughably weak in comparison.
Transparent prices: For us Americans, it's normal that tax is added to the posted price in most stores. However, for Europeans this practice seems very strange: In France, you pay the posted price and that's it! Making small purchases, this difference seems negligible, but on the whole, wouldn't it be better to know the exact price you're going to pay?
Journalism: I haven't watched much television, but every time I see programs about the news, international affairs, or pretty much any subject, I am astounded by the quality of French journalists. Interviews of politicians are professionally conducted, the questions well-put and well-considered ; analysis is always precise. In comparison, the American media is an absolute disgrace.
Bookstores: For some reason, the French love bookstores and they love to buy books. It's just too strange, eh? Bookstores are everywhere in Strasbourg, much more than there would be in an American city of comparable population. In my heart, I'm a guy who adores bookstores, so that's the penultimate win of this post for France.
Milk: Lastly, I don't understand why, but French milk just has a better taste!

Well, in the next post we look at some American wins. Leave me some comments!

Mes dix meilleures photos de Nancy

2011-12-07T18:36:00.000-05:00

My Ten Best Photos of Nancy

Le samedi dernier je suis allé à Nancy, la capitale de la Lorraine. Au lieu d'un longe billet, je vous présente mes dix meilleures photos de la ville, tous avec des légendes en mes deux langues de blog.

Last Saturday I went to Nancy, capital of Lorraine. Instead of a long post, I present to you my ten best photos from the city, all with captions in my two blog languages.

Un marché de Noël près de la Gare de Nancy, les arbres encore portant leurs feuilles
A Christmas market near the Nancy train station, the trees still holding their leaves

Un côté de Place Stanislas au centre de Nancy, avec le clocher de la Basilique Saint-Epvre au fond
A side of Place Stanislas at the center of Nancy, with the tower of the Saint-Epvre Basilica in the background

Encore le clocher de la Basilique Saint-Epvre, cette fois plus proche et derrière un bâtiment de Place Stanislas
Again the tower of the Saint-Epvre Basilica, this time closer and behind a building in Place Stanislas

La Basilique Saint-Epvre, construite au XIXe siècle (lien)
The Saint-Epvre Basilica, built in the 19th century (link)

La Porte de la Craffe, avec sa rue et sa ville, en inclus des poubelles
The Craffe Gate, with her road and city, including some trashcans

À l'intérieur de la Cathédrale de Nancy (lien)
Inside the Nancy Cathedral (link)

La vue d'un pont sur le canal, avec des drapeaux de l'UE
The view from a bridge on the canal, with some flags of the EU

Plusieurs nivaux de distance à Place Stanislas : en avant, un rickshaw conduit par un clown
Several levels of distance at Place Stanislas: in front, a rickshaw driven by a clown

Place Stanislas le soir, la grande foule attendant la célébration de Saint Nicolas
Place Stanislas in the evening, the huge crowd waiting for the Saint Nicolas celebration

Les feux d'artifice de Saint Nicolas, vus de la gare
The Saint Nicolas fireworks, seen from the train station

Le rêve luxembourgeois

2011-12-04T20:17:00.000-05:00

Il y a deux semaines, j'ai passé le jour à Luxembourg-ville, Luxembourg. Le Luxembourg était le quatorzième pays indépendant du monde auquel je suis allé. Tous les pays auxquels j'étais pendant ma vie sont, en ordre : les États-Unis, le Japon, Hong Kong et Macao (des territoires), la Chine, Singapour, la Malaisie, le Thaïlande, les Philippines, le Canada, le Royaume Uni, la France, Monaco, l'Allemagne, la Suisse et enfin le Luxembourg. C'était aussi le deuxième pays sans accès à la mer où je suis allé, après que j'étais à Bâle en Suisse quelques semaines avant.

Le Luxembourg est le pays le plus riche du monde selon des nombreux mesures de PIB par habitant et aussi le pays avec le plus grand consommation d'alcool par habitant selon certains, bien que les achats par les étrangers en jouent possiblement un rôle. Beaucoup plus qu'un statistique, pourtant, le Luxembourg est un endroit extrêmement intéressant - un pays unique, même un pays des exceptions, comme on a vu dans ce billet (même si partout on a des exceptions).

La plus grande surprise que j'ai trouvé à Luxembourg-ville était - incroyablement - la topographie. C'est une très très belle ville et ce qui m'a choqué, c'était que il y a quelques grandes vallées profondes qui encerclent le centre de la capitale. Drôlement, les rivières au fond ne sont guère plus que ruisseaux, mais les vallées elles-mêmes sont immenses et difficile de traverser, (avec un nombre limité des ponts), comme mon camarade de voyage et moi ont découvert. À la fin, nous avons marché autour de toute la ville, en inclus un cimetière et le quartier de Kirchberg, lieu des nombreuses institutions européennes, la plupart judiciaire.

On peut probablement faire beaucoup de comparaisons entre le Luxembourg et la Suisse - mes derniers deux nouveaux pays à visiter. Ils sont riches et petits, avec des langues multiples officielles. Toutefois, contrairement à la Suisse, le Luxembourg s'est montré comme un pays avec beaucoup de volonté pour la construction de l'Union européenne. (Une partie des racines pour ça est forcément comment le pays était fortement touché par la Seconde Guerre mondiale, comme est le cas pour les autres pays fondateurs de l'Union - la Belgique, l'Allemagne, la France, l'Italie et les Pays-Bas.)

En plus, le Luxembourg se distingue par avoir sa propre langue nationale - Lëtzebuergesch, ou le luxembourgeois. Comme l'alsacien, c'est une langue du haut allemand, mais à l'intérieur de cette étiquette c'est du moyen allemand et pas l'allemand supérieur. Les Luxembourgeois maintiennent une équilibre entre leurs trois langues trois langues officielles (les autres étant l'allemand et le français) avec la presse majoritairement allemande et les affaires et le gouvernement menés en français. C'est un environnement si parfait que j'ai l'impression que c'est presque impossible, si on grandit maintenant au Luxembourg, de ne pas être trilingue - au moins. En fait, une Luxembourgeoise est dans un de mes cours, et jusqu'au point que j'ai appris son origine, elle m'avait paru à la fois comme une étudiante locale et une étudiante allemande.

Si on pose la question interesante de quoi serait le « rêve luxembourgeois » (en tradition du « rêve américain »), il y a un grand nombre des choses à considérer - comme les aspects de vie discuté en cette vidéo - dont honnêtement je ne connais rien. Néanmoins, après avoir passé un beau jour à ce pays - le quatorzième pays de ma vie - je dirais que le rêve luxembourgeois me semble rester sur deux points :

De trouver le bonheur dans la vie - une quête facilement poursuite dans un pays si beau et si paisible.
De faire une connexion avec le reste du monde - par les langues, les connaissances, les expériences.

Même si je me trompais en faisant cette conclusion, c'est un bon rêve tout même.

The Luxembourgish Dream

Two weeks ago, I passed the day in Luxembourg City, Luxembourg. Luxembourg was the fourteenth independent country in the world I've gone to. All of the countries I've been to in my life are, in order: the United States, Japan, Hong Kong and Macau (territories), China, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Monaco, Germany, Switzerland and finally Luxembourg. It was also the second landlocked country I've gone to, after I was in Basel, Switzerland a few weeks before.

Luxembourg is the richest country in the world, according to many measures of GDP per capita, and also the country with the greatest per capita consumption of alcohol according to some, though purchases made by foreigners may possibly play a role in this. Much more than a statistic, however, Luxembourg is an extremely interesting place - a unique country, even a country of exceptions, like was seen in this post (even if there are exceptions everywhere).

The biggest surprise that I found in Luxembourg City was - incredibly - its topography. It's a very very beautiful city, and what shocked me was that there are several large and deep valleys that encircle the center of the capital. Funnily, the rivers at the bottom are hardly more than creeks, but the valleys themselves are immense and difficult to cross, (with a limited number of bridges), as my travel companion and I discovered. In the end we had walked around the whole city, including a cemetery and the Kirchberg district, seat of numerous European instituions, most of them judicial.

You can probably make lots of comparisons between Luxembourg and Switzerland - my last two new countries to visit. They're rich and small, with multiple official languages. However, unlike Switzerland, Luxembourg has shown itself as a country with a lot of will for the construction of the European Union. (Part of the roots for this must necessarily be how the country was heavily affected by the Second World War, as was the case for the other founding nations of the Union - Belgium, Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands.)

In addition, Luxembourg is distinguished by having its own national language - Lëtzebuergesch, or Luxembourgish. Like Alsatian, it's a High German language, but within this label it's from Central German, not Upper German. Luxemburgers maintain a balance between their three official languages (the others being German and French) with the press mostly German and business and government conducted in French. It's an environment so perfect that I have the impression that it's almost impossible, if you grow up now in Luxembourg, to not be trilingual - at least. In fact, a Luxemburger is in one of my classes, and up to the point I learned of her origin, she seemed to me like a local and a German exchange student all at the same time.

If we pose the interesting question of what would be the "Luxembourgish dream" (in the tradition of the "American dream"), there are a large number of things to consider - like the aspects of life discussed in this video - about which I honestly know nothing. Nevertheless, after having spent a beautiful day in this country - the fourteenth country of my life - I would say that the Luxembourgish dream seems to me to rest on two points:

To find happiness in life - a quest easily pursued in a country so beautiful and so peaceful.
To make a connection with the rest of the world - through languages, through knowledge, through experiences.

Even if I'm wrong in making this conclusion, it's a good dream nonetheless.

Un demi-siècle d'essor : L’Alsace et ses transformations socio-économiques, 1806-1852 (une analyse en français)

2011-12-03T18:41:00.000-05:00

This is my last assignment of the semester - a presentation I gave in my class "Alsace: Borderland and Battlefield." I looked at economic and social change in the first half of the 19th century in Alsace, including population growth, the Napoleonic era, industrialization and the lives of average people. It was actually quite fun to write, though unfortunately I didn't get to present the whole thing (my professor had to leave early). He did say I "understood the material very well" though, so that made me proud. Enjoy!

Un demi-siècle d’essor

L’Alsace et ses transformations socio-économiques, 1806-1852

On a vu pendant ce cours comment le rôle d’Alsace en tant que terre frontière et champ de bataille a profondément touché les vies de ses habitants. Les Alsaciens ont encore et encore rendu face au pillage, aux réquisitions, à la destruction, à la mort. Pourtant, la vie ne change pas seulement pendant les temps de guerre. Un autre sujet auquel il faut bien s’adresser concernant l’histoire de l’Alsace se situe sur le plan économique, avec des éléments sociaux forcément inclus. Pour explorer un peu ce domaine d’étude, la période de la première moitié du XIXe siècle se présente comme une introduction excellente. Pendant ce demi-siècle, l’Alsace a vu un essor sans précédent, plein des transformations en travail, en commerce, en industrie et dans la vie quotidienne. En examinant cette cinquantaine d’années – ou plus spécifiquement quarante-six ans, dont la rationalité va être expliqué – la problématique suivant se pose : Quels sont les aspects les plus importants de cette période de développement, et à quel niveau les Alsaciens communs ont-ils participé ?

Pour traiter de cette question, un plan se propose qui touche dans un premier temps le contexte de l’agriculture et de la démographie de la région, suivi par l’épisode napoléonien du blocus continental – une étude importante des effets politiques sur l’économie qui commence notre chronologie dans l’année 1806. Dans un deuxième temps, on va regarder l’industrialisation avec une vue typique de haut en bas, considérant l’importation des nouveaux technologies, la création des nouvelles manufactures, et ensuite les éléments uniques de la classe patronale alsacienne, qui ont donné à cette région une histoire particulière. Enfin dans un troisième temps, il faut bien considérer la perspective du peuple commun et leurs expériences avec l’industrialisation et les autres changements économiques pendant cette période. En concluant sur ce dernier sujet, on pourra faire une évaluation amateur de l’historiographique économique alsacienne et en plus trouver peut-être des réponses suffisantes à notre problématique.

(I.1) Premièrement, il faut bien établir une image de la campagne alsacienne au début du XIXe et durant la période de cet exposé. Car, pour un millénaire et plus entre le Rhin et les Vosges, c’est la production agricole qui nourrit tous et qui forme la base sociétale pour les gens de chaque village. C’était la base des villes aussi, dont le premier rôle était pour longtemps l’échange des produits de la terre. Alors, si l’on examine les chiffres disponibles à l’historien, il paraît que la production par agriculteur en Alsace était très basse relative aux autres régions de la France. Pourtant, faîtes attention au langage – la production par agriculteur était basse, mais la production et le revenu par unité de terre étaient très hauts. Simplement dit, l’Alsace avait un plus grand nombre d’agriculteurs, chacun avec un morceau de terre fertile et intensivement cultivée, mais beaucoup plus petit que ceux de ses confrères de la France de l’intérieur.

Cette plénitude, cette complétude de la campagne alsacienne va être un thème de toute la période, car la pression démographique de la population rurale a envoyé des milliers de gens à l’industrie des villes en tant que migrants, à l’armée en tant que soldats et au reste de la France et au reste du monde en tant qu’émigrants. Avez-vous demandé pourquoi l’Alsace constituait la plus grande source des soldats français pendant les premiers deux tiers du XIXe siècle ? Une raison, c’est le surpeuplement rural, avec la paupérisation, la malnutrition et un bas niveau des salaires agricoles.

Les historiens alsaciens Bernard Vogler et Michel Hau conclurent que, je cite « La paupérisation constatée en Alsace au début du XIXe siècle paraît donc bien liée à une crise du système agro-artisanal traditionnel, de moins en moins capable de faire subsister une population en croissance continuelle. » Certes, il faut éviter la simplification : les tendances démographiques de l’Alsace entre Révolution et milieu du XIXe étaient complexes et flous, avec des immigrés et des émigrés et des pertes et des gains pour les villes et les régions diverses. Pourtant, des nombreuses communes rurales ont atteint leur population historique de maximum pendant les années 1820, représentant la chute inévitable du statu quo. Donc, on va voir ensuite un petit épisode politique qui a possiblement aidé en changeant ce système.

(I.2) Cet exposé commence avec l’an 1806 parce que, dans cette année, Napoléon 1er a signé le décret de Berlin, qui initiait le blocus continental, une interdiction de tout commerce entre le Royaume-Uni d’un côté, et de l’autre côté, l’Empire française, tous ces satellites et des nombreux autres états de l’Europe. Pour la plupart, l’historiographie de cette politique se concentre sur le commerce maritime et les effets sur les ports de l’Europe. Cependant, il faut réaliser que cette politique – même s’il nuisait l’économie du littoral – fournissait des vrais profits pour l’Alsace. Pour Napoléon, le but était de conquérir la mer avec la terre, et la France a profité beaucoup lorsque les pays du continent étaient forcés d’acheter les produits français au lieu des importations britanniques. En plus, les pays rhénans allemands constituaient un grand projet pour agrandir la France : toute la rive gauche du Rhin devient française, et sur la rive droite, la Confédération du Rhin est un satellite. Au milieu de tout cela se trouve l’Alsace, la voie aux nouveaux territoires et un nouveau commerce terrestre.

Selon Vogler et Hau, on ne doit pas considérer le blocus comme le « moteur du démarrage » de l’industrie alsacienne. Ils écrivent que les influences napoléoniennes ont orienté le développement de la région – mais dans une direction loin de compétitivité internationale et vers une dépendance sur le protectionnisme. Cependant, selon Geoffrey Ellis dans sa monographie de 1981, les commerçants et les fabricants d’Alsace étaient parmi ceux qui ont profité le plus du tout le système continental napoléonien. Malgré les crises de l’époque, l’Alsace a vu une forte croissance de commerce, en inclus la contrebande, particulièrement pendant les années de 1807 à 1811 et surtout à la ville de Strasbourg. On peut conclure que même si certaines industries étaient structurellement handicapées par un nouveau système douanier, certains Alsaciens s’enrichissaient beaucoup et c’est en fait une histoire essentielle pour le début de l’industrie dans la région.

(II.1) Dans un deuxième temps, on va s’adresser aux autres moteurs de l’industrialisation alsacienne et on va voir comment les manufactures se sont développés sur le terrain. Pour ce petit « un », certains produits, industries et innovations se présentent comme les aspects majeurs de ce thème. D’abord, l’arrivée du textile symbolisait un point de départ pour les industries alsaciennes, comme il avait été pour beaucoup du monde occidental. Bien que la première filature de coton soit venue en Alsace en 1803 – deux ou trois décennies après celles des quelques autres régions de la France – dès 1840 l’Alsace pouvait revendiquer la première place dans ce domaine. L’explication de cette grande croissance se trouve notamment dans les industries interconnectées qui se produisaient : les recherches scientifiques se poursuivant en même temps que l’application industrielle, les usines chimiques aidant les usines de toile, les centres comme Mulhouse avec leurs liens personnels et familiales, facilitant la coopération et l’accès aux capitaux, et cetera.

En plus, selon Michel Hau – et je cite – « On peut associer les grandes vagues d’industrialisation de l’histoire économique alsacienne à un certain nombre de percées techniques réalisés par des entreprises régionales auxquelles elles ont conféré pendant un temps plus ou moins long des avantages décisifs et qui expliquent la plupart de leurs spécialisations. » - fin de citation. Parmi ces percées se trouvent l’impression de l’indiennerie, le blanchiment des tissus, le mécanisation progressive des processus et les avances en qualité de production. On était dans un temps de bouleversement scientifique constante, et l’Alsace a réussi d’avoir des conquêtes continuelles et successives des nouveaux types de production technologique. La totalité des termes techniques, de vocabulaire pour tous ces industries et ces avancements est un peu difficile pour nous de comprendre aujourd’hui, encore moins les processus eux-mêmes.

(II.2) Alors, par la suite, examinons-nous un sujet plus compréhensible – l’aspect personnel des dirigeants des industries. L’Alsace se caractérisait par des familles qui ont pour générations financé et géré leurs entreprises ensemble. Pour exemple, Nicolas Koechlin a fondé son entreprise en 1802 en y associant son père, ses frères, ses beaux-frères et ses neveux. Quelques autres familles industrielles bien connues sont les Dollfus, les Mieg, les Dietrich et les Schlumberger. Pour ces familles, l’autofinancement des affaires était la norme, et l’assurance de pérennité était un grand objectif pour la famille, avec le père contrôlant tout jusqu’au point qu’il a su que ses héritiers travailleraient ensemble avec une forte solidarité familiale. En plus, une solidarité existe entre les familles patronales, particulièrement dans la pratique de l’endogamie, c’est à dire les mariages constamment faits à l’intérieur du groupe. Si l’héritage a inévitablement morcelé les possessions d’une famille, le mariage peut combiner la richesse des familles et créer des liens le long des intérêts proches.

Comme nous avons vu quelques fois dans ce cours, un aspect important religieux obtient aussi dans cette haute société, un sujet que les historiens ont souvent discuté. On peut citer pour exemple l’ouvrage du fameux sociologue Max Weber intitulé L’éthique protestante et l’esprit du capitalisme, qui invoque, et je cite « les relations de l'esprit de la vie économique moderne avec l'éthique rationnelle du protestantisme ascétique. » Dans cette ligne de pensée, on voit dans les actes des sociétés industrielles alsaciennes des références religieuses fréquentes et des expressions de foi dans les écrits des patrons. Pourtant, il faut rappeler qu’il y avait non seulement une assez grande nombre des industriels catholiques, mais aussi que « l’esprit puritain » n’était pas quelque chose de monolithique, quelque chose d’inchangeable. Les familles patronales d’Alsace étaient influencées par beaucoup d’éléments sociétales et enfin elles ont changé beaucoup au fil du temps aussi.

(III.1) Maintenant on tourne loin des riches dirigeants bourgeois, vers les vies de leurs ouvriers et des autres Alsaciens pendant cette période. Pour la première partie, la question se pose de quels effets sociaux avait l’industrialisation. On peut commencer en utilisant enfin mon accroche, une citation de la géographe Étienne Juillard : « Comment douter que ce soient ces paysans, pullulant sur des territoires exigus, qui aient permis le développement des manufactures ? » Ces mots nous rappellent la pression du surpeuplement et de paupérisation dans les campagnes, mûre pour le changement, les gens désireux d’opportunité. Ajoute l’historien Roland Marx, pourtant, je cite « Si partout l’industrie enrichit globalement la province et fait la fortune des entrepreneurs les plus avisés, ce n’est pas sans payer une lourde rançon à la paupérisation des ouvriers » fin de citation.

Ce n’est pas juste, hein, de fuir la pauvreté pour la pauvreté ! En fait, ces ouvriers ont travaillé de treize à quinze heures par jour, et les conditions des usines – très variables selon les industries – pouvaient être extrêmement lourdes. Dans les ateliers des usines textiles, pour exemple, on a travaillé dans la poussière, endurant des températures de 34 à 40 degrés. De plus, les tâches dans des industries de tout sorte étaient malsaines, propageant les maladies. Pendant toute cette période, l’Alsace avait des salaires industriels parmi les plus faibles de la France. En 1852, le moyen salaire d’un journalier alsacien était entre 1,32 francs et 1,46 francs, alors que dans les régions comme la Provence et l’Île de France, il était supérieur à 2 francs.

Dernièrement, il faut bien considérer aussi la présence des femmes et des enfants dans les usines – une présence très forte en Alsace. Pour les ateliers textiles, les femmes constituaient en général entre 56 et 70 % de la main-d’œuvre, typiquement payées moins que les hommes, bien sûr. Les enfants sont payés encore moins, et on trouve souvent des usines des filatures avec environ 50% de la main-d’œuvre les femmes, 50% les enfants. En 1847, les enfants constituaient 22% de tous les salariés haut-rhinois. Le travail a commencé très tôt dans leurs vies, sans écoles, leurs parents sans la capacité de les élever ; on a même ignoré la loi de 1841 sur la protection des enfants de moins de 8 ans. Ainsi les usines s’insèrent dans la vie.

(III.2) Alors finalement on atteint notre dernier thème et commence avec Jacques D’Hondt, qui a écrit que « Dans la genèse de la grande industrie l’ouvrier est un facteur aussi passif qu’anonyme. Il peine, et c’est tout et c’est immense. » Toutefois, ce n’est pas tout. Il faut rappeler que c’était au milieu de cette période, pendant les années 1820, que l’Alsace connaissait son maximum de population rurale. Dans le Haut-Rhin, beaucoup plus industrialisé que le Bas-Rhin, c’était un huitième de la population qui s’employait en tant qu’ouvrier – un nombre considérable, mais pas du tout une majorité. En fait, tout au long du XIXe siècle la production agricole alsacienne accroissait, tout en gardant une main-d’œuvre nombreuse pendant que les autres régions de la France l’ont généralement remplacé avec le capital. Les nombreux petits cultivateurs alsaciens ont utilisé cette main-d’œuvre encore abondante comme un atout, augmentant leur production en volume et en valeur. Ils ont réussi aussi en adoptant les nouveaux techniques agricoles, même avec guère de capital. Particulièrement dans le Bas-Rhin, on a vu un phénomène appelé par Nicolas Stoskopf une « industrialisation sans révolution ». Il s’agit de la petite industrie, des familles qui se trouvaient partout, utilisant les méthodes artisanales pour fabriquer de tas de choses, adaptées aux demandes de près et de loin. C’est une histoire d’innovation individuelle, et malheureusement que je n’ai pas le temps de dire plus.

En guise de conclusion, je dirais que j’ai trouvé certaines déceptions en dépouillant les livres sur l’histoire économique d’Alsace – des fixations sur les patrons, une manque d’attention sérieuse pour les ouvriers, une surabondance des chiffres sans contexte ou but suffisant. À mon avis, les chiffres ne peuvent pas expliquer tout ; en plus, je crois que les éléments sociaux et économiques de l’histoire sont souvent inséparable, et il faut les considérer ensemble. Alors, j’ai essayé de faire une sorte de regard général sur l’histoire socio-économique d’Alsace pendant une période du décret de Berlin de Napoléon 1er jusqu’à l’ascendance de Napoléon III. En faisant ça, on a vu que l’essor de ce demi-siècle avait des complexes contributions, en inclus les tendances de population, les actions politiques, les sciences, la technologie et les pratiques d’une classe patronale unique. De même, on a vu la création d’une classe ouvrière, des gens qui se sont pour la plupart échappés d’une misère, seulement pour trouver un autre. Cependant, ces ouvriers et les autres alsaciens des niveaux économiques de base ont toujours essayé de survivre et de faire vivre leurs familles et leurs futurs. Ils étaient les premiers contributeurs à l’Alsace d’aujourd’hui.

Bibliographie

Carole CHRISTEN-LÉCUYER, « La mesure de l’efficacité sociale des caisses d’épargne françaises au XIXe siècle », Histoire & mesure [En ligne], XX - 3/4 | 2005, mis en ligne le 01 décembre 2008, consulté le 01 décembre 2011. URL : http://histoiremesure.revues.org/1400.
Geoffrey ELLIS, Napoleon’s Continental Blockade: The Case of Alsace, New York, Oxford University Press, 1981, 273p.
Michel HAU, L’Industrialisation de l’Alsace (1803-1939), Strasbourg, Association des Publications près les Universités de Strasbourg, 1987, 439p.
Paul LEUILLIOT, L’Alsace au début du XIXe siècle : Essais d’histoire politique, économique et religieuse (1815-1830), II. – Les transformations économiques, Paris, S.E.V.P.E.N., 1959, 502p.
Roland MARX, L’Alsace de la Révolution à l’annexion, 1789 à 1871, Colmar-Ingersheim, Éditions Mars et Mercure Wettolsheim, 1978, 162p.
Bernard VOGLER et Michel HAU, Histoire économique de l’Alsace, Strasbourg, Éditions la Nuée Bleue/DNA, 1997, 390p.
Max WEBER, L’éthique protestante et l’esprit du capitalisme, pris du site du web http://classiques.uqac.ca/classiques/Weber/ethique_protestante/Ethique_protestante.pdf, 143p.

Soldats de la Première guerre mondiale de La Wantzenau

2011-11-28T17:56:00.000-05:00

Pendant octobre et novembre j'ai fait deux voyages à La Wantzenau, (le premier mentionné ici) un communauté au nord de Strasbourg. Mes discussions et travail avec l'historien local ont culminé avec la création d'un liste des soldats du village qui sont morts pendant la Première Guerre mondiale, avec - pour la plupart - leurs âges et lieux de décès inclus.

Trouver ces renseignements, c'était en fait un travail pour mon cours sur l'histoire d'Alsace en tant que terre frontière et champ de bataille (de 1700 à 1918). Je crois qu'en regardant le liste on peut trouver beaucoup de matière à réflexion, donc si vous voulez le voir, j'ai fait un site qui se trouve ici :

https://sites.google.com/site/soldatsdelawantzenau/

l'église de La Wanztenau

First World War Soldiers from La Wantzenau

During October and November I made two trips to La Wantzenau, (the first mentioned here), a community north of Strasbourg. My discussions and work with the local historian culminated in the creation of a list of soldiers from the village that died during the First World War, with - for the most part - their ages and places of death included.

Finding this information was actually an assignment for my course on the history of Alsace as a borderland and battlefield (from 1700 to 1918). I believe you can find a lot of food for thought in looking at the list, so if you want to see it, I made a site that you can find here:

https://sites.google.com/site/soldatsdelawantzenau/