Study for our Life or for a Job ?

Why do we go to school? Is it to study in a program that will get us a job? In my opinion, even if there are some specific programs which lead students directly to a job, students go to school to learn, to understand and to see the past, the present and the future of humanity and its world. Our studies (History, Politics, Pure Sciences, Arts, Business, Communications, Literature, etc.) show us the realizations of humanity through the past, and it shows us aspects of our society that we, as the youth, will have to improve, in eventually becoming active adults, active citizens.

 

 

In fact, not only do we study specific academic fields of study, but we also give attention to social issues and ways to solve them. People will study in natural sciences, human sciences, arts and others, and those future active citizens will unite their strengths and will share their thoughts to create a complete society. A society with doctors, policemen, politicians, journalists, teachers and bus drivers that will enjoy their responsibilities of active citizens, and will turn out to be a peaceful and benevolent community.

What is an active citizen?

In my opinion, it is an opened-mind person, who has had education and personal experiences, and who cares about the common good, additionally to its own good.

How can we become an active citizen?

The key to turn into an active citizen is to OPEN YOUR MIND, whether it is by education or by life experiences. It is to make yourself aware of the people who surround you: aware of their problems and aware of their strengths. This skill has to be developing for every human being and it can develop itself by family education, academic education and also by personal education (experiences). In my opinion, an opened-mind individual can solve any problem linked with his field of study and try to solve any issue about his life and also about others (people from his community and ideally, from every human on the planet).

Even if active citizens unite with others, they have to be independent too. To be completely independent in our contemporary social and economic context, humans have to know how to write a resume, ask for bank loans, buy a safe car, buy condoms, find a field of study and many others CONCRETE needed tasks. But where and how do we learn them? Young adults learn them by receiving mentors education, whether they are parents, teachers or friends, who have already done these tasks before. Unfortunately, it is not every young adult who has the opportunity to receive such concrete information. If we cannot learn those things in schools, well, let’s make it happen! We only need to create a class where an adult teaches his students on how to do these necessary concrete tasks. A class, without any marks and results, which will make every young adult independent and ready for their future life (work, family, hobbies, etc.). A class, which will join itself to the original opening-mind courses (sociology, philosophy, arts, physics, etc.) in creating a community provided of independent and active citizen.

Adding to these words, the goal of going to school isn’t only to eventually getting a job. It is to stimulate the spirit by learning passionate things that will give inspiration and motivation to the student. Human life’s goal is to live, and for an active citizen, it is to live in harmony with others. If we want to live by our dreams and by our passions, we have to feed ourselves food to eat and a house to sleep. Owning these is not free: humans have to buy them and so, they have to get a job (unless you want to become a farmer, which is still kind of a job). However, you have to remember that even if a job contributes to a living; your job is not your life. How did I notice that you’ll ask? It is by studying human sciences at school, an education that opened my mind and made me an active citizen. The reason why I share this with you is because I am an active citizen, a human being who wants the common good. I am who I am by my education, and this is the key for a harmonized society.

And you, will you be an active citizen? Will you LIVE TO WORK or will you WORK TO LIVE?

THINK about it, maybe before lying on a hospital bed.

Capitalism encourages us to be lazy ? Then let's change our society ideology.

Help the others!  Care about their interests! Care about the minorities and the older people! This is what society ask us and encourage the youth to do. Paradoxically, Western society, based on the capitalism ideology, encourages us to follow the individualist ideology, which is to care only about your personal goods and interests.  It commends us that it’s important to study fervently our whole youth, quickly find a professional domain, rush into its direction to earn money, build a family, get married with our childhood friend, keep in touch with a couple of friends and work, work and work our whole life to rest peacefully with the money we earned to get a wealthy retirement. 
 We grow learning to fix our energy on our abilities and on our personal interests, but what do we learn about the common good? «Ah! Don’t care about it! Your life’s goal is to be happy and money can get you happy! » said capitalism. And now, society evolved and now complains on younger people that they don’t get involved in community service! Can you see the little pattern here?

Western youth, as for everywhere in the world, wants and needs a quest of sense, searching for a life direction. Teens follow a path to know their personal passions and interests.  However, they need to build themselves a good self-esteem; they need to be confident to pass over the «high-schools-micro-society», so they can grow into confident adults. To be confident, they have to fulfill a need of comfort and security: this is the reason why they conform to popular values, to be a member of the society mould. It is when you get maturity (like in college) that you truly discover yourself and your real values and that you open your mind, open yourself to the world. As we grow, our head is getting, step by step, out of our ass. We stop caring about our belly and we we want to change the world to create a free, egalitarian and peaceful world, but it is too late? No! This is why open-minded adults are interested in involving in community services.  When we’re young, we devote our time and energy in studying and finding money. We only want to help others if we can get some cash… In my opinion, this is the main reason why volunteering in our community isn’t popular for people of my generation.

The average western teen’s dream is to establish him quickly into the capitalism mould so that he can be financially secured and live a «good» life, which is based on earning money.   I understand that money can sometimes lead to happiness, but too many people are mistaken and confound these two ideas into one and only ultimate goal.  According to Matt Gurney from the National Post:  «Average earnings 10-years after high school graduation: $31,648. Home ownership for that age group: roughly 40%¹». It seems that the capitalist dream is harder to realize than to think about it. M. Gurney also says:  «Personal debt remained a serious issue for many, including tens of thousands of dollars in student debt, and thousands more on credit cards»². It is then understandable that people of my generation have other problems to solve before solving problem from unknowns… It’s a way to see it, which isn’t actually mine.

In facts, we need to get interested in others, in their ways to think that may be different from ours, this is the point. This is the way we learn and we open our mind. It can be by studying humanities, by travelling from across the world and by meeting with new people, who are opened-minded themselves.

Society definitely needs to continue promoting both volunteering and service learning. I see advantages in these two ways of getting involved in our community. One is more global (helping whoever is in needs) and the other one is more specific towards a field of study. I’m not shy to blame capitalism for youth laziness, but I’m not totally into the socialist direction or ideology. I just think that the more we help each other, getting interested with other’s interests, the more we will build a free, egalitarian and peaceful society. Maybe these are only the reveries of a solitary walker, but I feel like it is our life adventure.

Sources :

http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2013/10/15/matt-gurney-hate-millennials-blame-boomers/

Child Beauty Pageants: What an irrational way to raise our children... Babies are not Barbies.

We are lost in a game of contrast. While there are over 850 millions of people who are actually suffering of malnutrition on the planet, billion of dollards are spent on esthetic cares.

Wow... Do you want me to repeat or it is already too cruel and too shocking ?
Well, check yourself the contrast of these pictures.

                    

Offensive, horrifying ? This is the esthetic capitalism. Now, let me introduce you the child beauty pageants.

According to Robyn Urback, it is «a sort of spray-tanned parallel universe where in little girls parade across stages to win their mothers a vicarious sense of approval». In other words, it is a sexualised beauty competition for young girls. I personnaly think that it is one of the worst non-violent ideas of History. It is completely irrational and chocking to have those kinds of competition when humanity have so many issues, that are way more important .

                               

This idea praises the priority  given to children apparences rather than their academic success, physical activities and psychological health. It is awful and immoral. Rather than showing their kids to read novels, learn a new language, geography or ways to cook healthy meals, some occidental parents want their kids to loose their childhood time in a stressful and fake world, where only outside beauty counts.

 

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

 

Those parents are showing and inculpating baseless values and this really contaminating our society. These values attach more importance to what is outside and on our head than what's in it. Without knowing it, they are raising their kids in an hidden slavery of a world of appearance. Young participants of child beauty pageants are becoming prisonners of their parents ego and they are naively and fasly understanding that individual interests are priority.

 

We need to choose our priority because those youngsters will eventually become adults and they will constitute the society of tomorrow. With knowing that, let's form them with the best values feasible. Ideologies that favour individual life without going against collective interests.

 

 

As a man, I feel that woman beauty is one of the most beautiful thing in the world. But women are pretty, lovely and attractive in the way they are: sweet, gentle, charming, active and energetic. They don't need to try to comply theirselves in a mould of perfect looking and ideal appearances.

 

In addition, personnal beauty should not turn into a competition between several people, we need to perceive our physical différences as an attractive feature of ourself and as an advantage. The goal shouldn't be to look prettier than another because our nose is smaller and our buttocks are rounder. It should turn into perceiving our differences and see that we are pretty as a respectful society.

                                          

In a political way, a few countries such as France have the same thoughts as me on the subject. Indeed, France’s Senate voted to ban beauty pageants for children on the grounds that it represents the too-early sexualisation of children. I'm amaze by this rational and logical politic. I've only shown you the bad aspects about child beauty pageants, but do they even have some some advantage for the kids ? Visibility ? I think that it pleases more the parents than the young and credulous participants. According to Kelly Wallace from CNN, « pageant supporters say girls develop self-esteem, confidence and other skills that last a lifetime». I admit it, it grows your personnal self-esteem, but it also brings all the bad features that I mentionned earlier. In my opinion, Quebec shouldn't allow participants under the age of 14 in those immoral competitions. It could be allowed to people old enough to make their right choices and old enough so they could had a good and rational education.

 

There are so many ways to help the growth our kids self-esteem and confidence such as studying at school and practicing sports, wich are all better than beauty contests. Let's find together other ways to raise and entertain our children with ways that will show them the priority of right values, values for the good of all.

Sources :

• Conso Globe, Planetoscope,  (website): http://www.planetoscope.com/mortalite/32-nombre-de-deces-dus-a-la-malnutrition-dans-le-monde.html.
• URBACK, Robyn. «France tries to legisltate good parenting by banning child beauty pageants», The National Post, September 19th, 2013.
• WALLACE, Kelly, «French moving to ban child pageants: Should we ?», CNN, September 19th, 2013.

   

One small step for secularism, not a giant one for dignity.

«The time has come to rally around our common values. They define who we are. Let's be proud of them.» says Bernard Drainville, Parti Québécois minister for democratic institutions. These are revelant arguments in favor of the new Quebec  Chart of Values, project recently announced by the Marois governement.

Whoa ! A little too fast ? Let me explain you the facts:

 

I live in Quebec: a free bilingual and multicultural nation into the enormous country of Canada. We are proud of our province and of our culture. The majority of the people from Quebec are open-minded and welcome every immigrant who wants to come live in our society.

 But some of us don't: some of us even hate whoever is not dressed as them, has not the same skin or the same religion. Personally, I assign those people to the shame of our nation, but let's stay on the subject.

 

 The new Chart of Values goal is to get rid of the link between religious signs in the State. So every employe who works for Quebec in public institutes must look for a religious neutrality in their clothes, dialogs and mentality. The Chart will bring up a huge difference between being at home and being in public places: if you are an islamic nurse for example, you have to keep your Shahada and your Hijab at home.

 

This project really challenges the ethic of the governement and questions the indentity and the freedom of each Citizen of the nation. It is a true moral crisis, but not only in Quebec, in the entire World ! In our actual times, there are so many different cultures on the planet and with that come too many different points of view about the mondialisation.

 Democracy operates and developp each person's liberty of expression, unlike dictatorship, but democracy leads to tolerance and tolerance leads to concession. What can we let go for others and what can we earn from other cultures and religions ? It's really a blurred area because we don't know the extreme limits of the culture mondialisation.

 

 

I firmly think that our beliefs and our spirituality is a fondemental right and an individual freedom. If Quebec accepts newcomers, we have to accept them in who they are, not in who we want them to be. This is the main reason that I think that, unless human's fondemental rights (decieded by the ONU in 1948) are not broken or threathened, religious rituals can be tolerated. This being said, my opinion is in the respect of all and if the wearing of religious symbols can go into this visionnary way, there's no problem about it.  

 

To conclude, I feel that State officials can wear whatever they want, unless it is safe and respectful for all. I'm not in favor of the new Chart of Values and instead of it, I think that dignity offencers needs to be operate indivudually.

You are free to choose your path, but be aware of health issues !

Do you remember the conversation you had with your father on a chilly wednesday of december evening, the night he told you that he once smoked weed when he was younger.Personnaly, I couldn't get it ! At that time, I was 12 years old and the word POT meant some evil things to me. The drug education my parents tought me has been very conservative and strict: «You must never try to smoke weed.»

 

They wanted me to turn into a clever man so I respect them for that, but to scare me that smoking pot can turn you into a exhausted zombie on a couch, well they were right ! With the fact that, in our actual times, you can find weed everywhere at every moment of the day, it's quite easy to turn into an addict. This being said, I'm not the only person that thinks that way: «Montreal researchers say they’ve found evidence that pot-smoking interferes with the healthy development of teens’ brains and puts them at risk for developing a dependence to the drug, as well as for mental health problems». Human society has found some relevant scientist proof showing that weed is an ennemy of our brain's caoacity, even if you don't want it to be.
 

 

Pot smokers don't get addict to the weed, they get addict to the routine they adopt progressivly. One teenage boy will smoke once a month and there won't be any issues about it. But when it grows and progress to inhaling cannabis once a day, now there is a problem. Scientists will tell you that cannabis isn't good for our brains , but how does it work ? Here are some New-Zealand research results about it: «Adolescents who smoked marijuana at least four times a week, lost an average of 8 IQ points between the ages of 13 and 38.»

 

We cannot afford the health issues about smoking pot, espicially for the youth. There are even studies that will tell that you can have mental health issues even for infrequent smokers: «One study of 46,000 Swedish soldiers found that even infrequent pot smokers were more than twice as likely to develop schizophrenia as non-smokers; regular users were six times as likely.»

 

If the governement was to legalize the marijuana, can you imagine the presence of those drugs in our community elementery schools ? Students would be in a complete freedom  situation of smoking in High School outside yards, they wouldn't be as focus on their studies as if they were sober and results could go in the same way. These are only my reflexions but my opinion is looking toward to build healthy, clever, wealthy and energetic future generations that know how to have fun without only use marijuana as the lonely solution.

 

This being said, I firmly think that weed must stay illegal to protect our child brains and to help them grow into intellectual and physical well developped adults. There are no problems with smoking weed once, but be aware of the health issues that goes with it.

 

 

 

 

Sources:

 

http://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugfacts/marijuana

 

http://theweek.com/article/index/236671/is-marijuana-bad-for-you

 

 

http://www.ctvnews.ca/health/health-headlines/pot-use-presents-long-term-danger-to-teens-brains-study-suggests-1.1432167

 

 

 

 

 

 

Unite for Glory !

It is seated on a grey chair, my head toward the ceiling, that I ask myself : «what is a community ?» Well, like a swarm of bees or a law faculty in University, a community is a group of people harmonized and matched together due to a shared common value, interest or goal.


This kind of human union can be within an institute, for exemple a catholic mess on sunday mornings or only and randomly in the streets, where a group of friends meet to play hockey or to discuss about the Syria crisis. A community can also be related to our nationality, opinions, careers and even to our sexual orientations ! It is humanly created to never be alone with your mind and thoughts, where ever you are in this world, to meet and to discuss with other persons you may enjoy being with because of your shared interests.

If you want to stay in your community, it is quite simple: like if you were a member of a family, you must  be physically and psychologically respectul with other members and with their opinions. When we're living in the same city, it means we are in the same municipal community and with this come a few responsabilities we all have to be active citizens. We must develop our own opened mind, build ourselves an opinion to improve and help our community and then lauch it by doing some concrete actions as to vote or to do volunteer in a social cluster.

To contribute for the good bearing of our commune, each citizen must respect the community rules, like helping neighbours in needs or like putting each day garbages and recyclables into their respective dumpsters.  To encourage our local producers, it's a good thing to buy local products when you can. I personally adopt these daily tasks and I try to do the more I can to contribute to my town and to help it staying an enjoyable environment.

So let's get away from our dark basement and open the window of the world with our eyes and mind opened, because our passions and interests are so more enjoyable when shared !