L'actualité: les manifestations, Sci-Po

Guess the updates have not been coming fast and furious enough, rather lethargic entries of late, the euphoria of Italy gone and humdrum of school taking over. Alright, shall spawn several tales in this entry then. Will start with what the press has been brilliantly portraying as an uprising of students against the government, circa 1968.

Les Manifestations!
It seems like once in every generation of the French, there is an inherent need to show unequivocal discontent and displeasure at the incumbent gouvernement by way of what the locals call "la manifestation". Lovely word that; sounds so much better than "strikes" or "demonstration", a certain element of poetical justice about it. Something being manifestly unjust, thus the need to have a "manifestation" to redress this wrong. This time round it is a crisis of youth; as if adolescent urges and hormonal pheramonic impluses were not enough to contend with, there is now the added problem of the CPE, or known as le Contrat Premiere Embauche. It's meant to be a policy instituted by Villepin (the prime minister of this country. if you did not already know. you bumkin) to alleviate the unemployment problem amongst youth in this country. The current employment rate for those aged 15-24 in France is at 26%. This is the lowest rate in the entire European community and represents a very real social problem. Thus the need to introduce measures to respond to this. However, there are flaws in its conception and application; it will disavantage greatly those who have higher qualifications like degrees and masters. You will be paid a minimum wage for two years and there is no employment protection at all, and this is for all those who are below 26 and applies to the first incidence of employment only. Several more points of technicalities; not important here. What's important is that almost all universities and schools in the country have been blockaded by students and for the past one month, there have been no classes. Except for places like my university. Too good to descend to the level of the common plebian. For many, it's been a massive street party during the demonstrations. Got caught up in one 2 weeks back with this Portugese guy. We were just standing at the street corner talking and watching the march when suddenly the area was cordoned off and we found ourselves in the middle of the protest. haha. Took pictures but it's on my mobile, so can't put it up here now. Some parts of the crowd got a little violent and we got shot by tear gas. Like how cool is that; something like this will never happen back home.
Guess it's really two sides of the democratic coin. On one hand, you have the freedom to believe in what you want and you have the right to your own points of view; there is no one to take away that right from you. Unlike in our socialist-autocratic monarchy of a country, where the voices of dissent are mere whimpers, so much suppressed under the yoke of fear. Fear of reprisals, both economic and personal liberty. Of course with such freedom comes the need for social responsibility; and sometimes it can be argued that the individual is not the best judge of what is best for society; the individual as the term suggests, stands alone. Thus the notion of social responsibility in the individual and by the individual will be a paradox; as what we have been brought up to believe. With as much freedom as we see here though, there is the fear of democracy descending into a farce, rendering the government ineffective in effecting policies. Not going to be a judge of which system is better. As much as having too much freedom generates the likelihood of anarchy, only the truly myopic would think that having little or no say in decisions which affect us is the better path to take. Somewhere in the middle.

oh by the way, was reading this really really interesting article on AFP (Argence France Presse); unfortunately its in French. But look at the picture on the right: if you know Delacroix's "Liberte guidant le peuple", it's meant to be a modern take on it. Yes, the girl is real, it's not a statue. Nice...mmm...it's in Bordeaux though, not in paris. dommage; tellement dommage.
http://www.afp.com/francais/news/stories/060328213739.zfg83phc.html

Last bit of socio-politcos. After reading the different newspapers here for the past month, I think ST sucks. Honestly. There is no point of view, no varied reporting; all we have is trashy reads like "Singapore's no.1 (only) tabloid", which by western standards is not rubbishy and sleazy enough to be truly called a tabloid, and the official government paper, ie. Straits Times, which toes only the official line and has unabashed biased reporting. Liberalisation of the press back home will be one of the last things that will ever happen; no one will dare to write a critical piece against the incumbents, even when backed up with evidence. Slander and defamation are simply too slippery terms to negotiate successfully without being declared bankrupt, imprisoned indefinitely or exiled.
Even virtual, intangible spaces like blogs are subject to persecution; where do we begin to draw the line between the public and the private? Creative, critical thinking? Only if sanctioned and policed. Question not and just believe in the system. In a lot of ways, it's like religion. If you just wave the bible and say "believe, or burn" and simply blindly follow the faith, than how can you truly say that you believe. Even Peter questioned Jesus. It is only through questioning can you begin to understand. And only when you understand can you truly say that you believe. Faith is not meant to be blind. It's meant to be trusting, not stupid. Only fools jump in with eyes wide shut and call to others to follow them into paradise.

Pictures!
Okay, several pictures of my room here in Paris. Am sharing the room with one of the guys from NUS. Pretty comfy; rent here is astronomical, so sharing makes more sense.

It has been really cold; one morning we woke up and the ground outside was covered with snow.


Weather has turned for the better now; we're having highs of 16 degrees now and lows of 7. Its so much nicer right now, we can actually walk along the Seine at night and see Paris by night and not freeze. At last.

School's getting slighty better. All my classes are in French; it's still a struggle to understand them. Am not gonna gripe about it though. Reading, writing, speaking and faring all round academia in a foreign language is a challenge and I'll get through this, for better or worse, it's still an experience. Will be the better for it.