Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Beautiful Mess-Protests and Strikes




Being in a leftist public University in France, I experience strikes and protests every year. French universities are profoundly attached to their Revolutionary spirit. Today, Research and Education are defended. Some of the biggest outlines of the government's potential law are:
-The separation of the Research from the Teaching; meaning that if a Professor is considered more efficient as a researcher then as a teacher, he will be asked to dominantly work in research and neglect its teaching (and vice versa).
-The Evaluation of the Research level should be more frequent and have a better controlled financial budget.
More details of the law must be considered of course and I am not the best person to enumerate all of its factors and judge its consequences. Nevertheless, I have read a very interesting point of view about it.
According to the Solidarité et Progres* Party, a creative researcher needs time and independence to publish high quality work. Our society should support and encourage its researchers (Professors, Doctors, Chemists…), while organizing this endorsement on a wider level instead of leaving it all to the deans of universities.
Over the years, the share of Research in the French GDP has dropped from 3% (During the De Gaulle and the Mendes era) to 2% today. Given the fact that we are encountering a very delicate financial phase, monetary restriction could be justified as a measure for limiting Public expenses. However, we shouldn’t mistake that as a sacrifice of Research which, by no means, could ever slow down expansion. Research is synonym of innovation, of product simulation and of responsible societies. It is what we can call the necessary expenses; the compensation it brings is far greater then the amount of money allocated for it. It is like a medical insurance that protects you to a certain extent from the unknown ahead. The US has understood that a long time ago while France is still paying the price. Brain drain is real, it is everywhere and some of our top-notch French Professors have left the country and crossed the Atlantic where their desires and demands are quite easily met there.

*Solidarity and Progress

Saturday, February 7, 2009

Persepolis




In her autobiographical comic strip Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi tells stories from her youth in revolutionary and then war-torn Iran. I had heard so much about it last year and I am probably one of the last people in France to discover it this late! A couple of days ago my friend lent me the first part of the four comic strips. I couldn't not post a little something about it.
I really enjoyed Satrapi's courage and insolence and I am very impressed by the life she has led. In Persepolis, we discover that at the age of ten, she is compelled to wear a veil, understand the class differences in her society, the political affiliations of her family and overcome the loss of her dear uncle Anouck (killed in jail after the Islamic revolution). She is then sent abroad to Austria to pursue her schooling. After graduating from highschool, she goes back to Iran for university.
Her work was all adapted into a movie which was co-produced with Vincent Paronnaud. Persepolis earnt the Jury Price in 2007 at the Cannes Film Festival. I have found some nice trailers on the internet that I believe are worthy of your attention:



Persepolis was banned in Lebanon because apparently it could "create tension with the Iranian government"...I just don't get it, why should anything stand in the way of intellect?...Our people can think and judge for themselves. Of course. the movie never made its way neither to Kuwait nor to the whole region. Marjane currently lives in Paris, and is going to stay out of Iran for the meantime.