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Comme très souvent, les articles du Figaro parlent de ces étrangers qui réussissent en France en pensant au entrepreneurs, pour ne pas dire grandes multinationales.

De plus en plus d’entrepreneurs étrangers s’installent dans l’Hexagone. 120 000 cadres, 7 200 chercheurs et 256 000 étudiants étrangers se sont laissé tenter par les opportunités professionnelles et l’art de vivre à la française.

Et, bien sur, Paris est le centre du monde:

Quant à la capitale, elle attire toujours autant. L’an dernier, 200 entreprises étrangères - dont 35 % d’américaines - s’y sont implantées. Pour la première fois, Paris est passée en tête des grandes villes européennes devant Londres et Barcelone, selon l’association Paris-Île-de-France capitale économique.

Par contre, la liste des critiques est correcte même si incomplète.

Alors bien sûr, la France a aussi ses défauts. Dans le dernier baromètre de l’American Chamber of Commerce in France, les investisseurs citaient dans l’ordre « le coût de la main-d’oeuvre, le poids de la fiscalité sur les entreprises, le coût et les procédures de licenciement ». Sans oublier la difficulté à réformer.

Vu l’approche uniquement commercial du sujet, ce que j’ai vraiment apprécié dans l’article c’est la conclusion:

« S’il y avait une médaille de l’attractivité, il faudrait la remettre à Jean-Pierre Jeunet et Audrey Tautou qui ont suscité un engouement extraordinaire pour la France auprès de nouvelles générations d’étrangers »…

Article complet sur lefigaro.fr.

Drumul muzicii de la fonoautograf la iPod
Aproape 150. Acesta a fost timpul necesar pentru ca muzica sa treaca bariera laboratorului lui Leon Scott pentru ca acum sa fie ascultata in metrou pe device-uri capabile sa inmagazineze cateva mii de piese. HotNews.ro va propune o calatorie prin toate etapele ce au condus la inventarea IPod-ului si MP3 player-ului.

Articol complet pe situl Hotnews.ro.

Do you recall when you were a kid, the (stupid) game of guessing who lives on the other side of the Earth? I mean usually I imagined digging a hole in the Earth and getting out on the other side and seeing … I don’t know, I think usually they were Chinese or something.

Well, thanks to the web aka www, aka the wild, wild web, now you can see it for youself. Yes, there are crazy enough people to develop a webpage so that you and I can check our child guesses! Ladies and gents, let me present you: If I dig a very deep hole, where I go to stop?, via ProgrammableWeb.

Technorati Tags: programmableweb, google, maps

I found an interesting white paper about media education and the challenges ahead us, Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture (PDF) by Henry Jenkins, via findability.org.

According to a recent study from the Pew Internet & American Life project (Lenhardt &
Madden, 2005), more than one-half of all teens have created media content, and roughly onethird
of teens who use the Internet have shared content they produced. In many cases, these
teens are actively involved in what we are calling participatory cultures.

Schools and afterschool programs must devote more attention to fostering what we call
the new media literacies: a set of cultural competencies and social skills that young people need
in the new media landscape. Participatory culture shifts the focus of literacy from one of individual
expression to community involvement. The new literacies almost all involve social skills developed through collaboration and networking. These skills build on the foundation of traditional literacy, research skills, technical skills, and critical analysis skills taught in the classroom.

The new skills include:
Play — the capacity to experiment with one’s surroundings as a form of problem-solving
Performance — the ability to adopt alternative identities for the purpose of improvisation and discovery
Simulation — the ability to interpret and construct dynamic models of real-world processes
Appropriation — the ability to meaningfully sample and remix media content
Multitasking — the ability to scan one’s environment and shift focus as needed to salient details.
Distributed Cognition — the ability to interact meaningfully with tools that expand mental capacities
Collective Intelligence — the ability to pool knowledge and compare notes with others toward a common goal
Judgment — the ability to evaluate the reliability and credibility of different information
sources
Transmedia Navigation — the ability to follow the flow of stories and information
across multiple modalities
Networking — the ability to search for, synthesize, and disseminate information
Negotiation — the ability to travel across diverse communities, discerning and respecting multiple perspectives, and grasping and following alternative norms.

The Hungarian uprising in 1956 was a vital moment in the Cold War, showing both the aspirations of the peoples of Eastern Europe but also the determination of the Soviet Union not to lose its grip. It also demonstrated the limits of Western power. Despite a desire to “roll back” the Soviet Empire in Europe, President Dwight Eisenhower did not help the Hungarians, in order to avoid the risk of general war.

And it coincided with another international crisis, Suez, the effect of which on Soviet actions has always intrigued historians.

However, secret documents that have emerged since the end of the Cold War also demonstrate that the Soviet intervention was not quite the cut-and-dried decision that it appeared at the time.

There was a brief moment when it hesitated.

The BBC News writes about the moment when When the Soviet Union nearly blinked, the refugees drama, the brain drain that followed the uprising, along with a timeline of how the Hungarian Revolution was won, lost and won again.

“October 23, 1956, is a day that will live forever in the annals of free men and nations. It was a day of courage, conscience and triumph. No other day since history began has shown more clearly the eternal unquenchability of man’s desire to be free, whatever the odds against success, whatever the sacrifice required.” - President John F. Kennedy, on the first anniversary of the Hungarian revolution.

The change the Hungarian 1956 uprising produced in Russia’s image in the West is even more stretched by Andy H, an English blogger living in Romania:

Hungarian readers may be interested to learn that the 1956 events more or less destroyed the far left in the UK (obviously no major deal compared to what upheaval it caused in Hungary). After the second world war, the communist party was quite strong in Britain, but 1956 split it completely asunder between those who supported the uprising and those who advocated mother Russia sending the tanks in. To this day, the derogatory slang term for Stalinists in the UK (yes there are some) is “tankies“.

(article link)

More audio and photos on the hungary1956.com and the REImagineFreedom.org websites.

Flickr photos byeszter.

[Français]

I have come across an interesting article on the mapsofwar.com website.

Who has controlled the Middle East over the course of history? Pretty much everyone. Egyptians, Turks, Jews, Romans, Arabs, Greeks, Persians, Europeans…the list goes on. Who will control the Middle East today? That is a much bigger question.

View animation here.

Este vorba despre “Night of Lights Lantern Festival”, un eveniment care are loc anual …
Ideea este simpla; pentru cativa dolari, celor care doresc li se pun la dispozitie toate conditiile pentru a construi cele mai fantastice felinare. Seara, se aduna puhoi de lume si are loc o procesiune a felinarelor pe ritmuri de tobe intr-o atmosfera de-a dreptul fascinanta; in final are loc un spectacol de balet si dans - un fel de dansul focului Presupun ca ideea are radacini in traditia locala a indienilor combinata cu influentele asiatice. Oricum, spectacolul este superb.

Articol complet aici.

Le 23 octobre 1956, les Hongrois se révoltent, à Budapest, contre la domination des Soviétiques depuis la seconde guerre mondiale. Cette insurrection sera durement réprimée le 4 novembre par les chars de l’Armée rouge. Ce soulèvement spontané représentait avant tout une critique du régime communiste et trouvait sa source dans des assemblées d’étudiants, rejoints par des ouvriers, des soldats et des intellectuels de tout le pays.

Voir le film sur lemonde.fr, les photos sur le site hungary1956.com ou cette belle infographie sur le site du Monde.

Le Figaro présente, à son tour, une chronologie des évènements, avec des liens à la situation d’aujourd’hui:

En février 1956, lors du XXe congrès du Parti communiste de l’URSS, Nikita Khrouchtchev prononce un discours secret dans lequel il dénonce les méthodes de Staline : culte de la personnalité, purges systématiques, politique de la terreur. A la suite de fuites, ce rapport est diffusé dans le monde entier, indignant les non-communistes et troublant les «camarades». En Europe centrale, c’est tout le système qui est ébranlé. Le 28 juin 1956, en Pologne, une grève spectaculaire éclate à Poznan : 50 000 ouvriers exigent une hausse des salaires, la liberté religieuse, des élections libres et le départ des troupes soviétiques. La répression se solde par 54 morts et plusieurs centaines de blessés. Mais l’ancien secrétaire général du Parti, Wladyslaw Gomulka, victime d’une purge en 1949, est rappelé pour sauver le régime : avec l’aval de Moscou, il retrouve son poste le 21 octobre 1956. A ce moment, Budapest est au bord de l’explosion.

Article complet sur le site du Figaro.

[English]

Intr-una sau in doua scurte plimbari pe coclaurile din vecinatatea Sighisoarei am avut ocazia sa descopar niste zone uitate de lume, unde doar cativa oameni se mai impotriveau izolarii lor si a tinuturilor cu pricina. Defapt este vorba doar de un caz din sutele de asemenea cazuri prezente Romania post-decembrista, unde satele aflate in zone mai izolate au fost parasite incet de oameni si lasate in grija naturii din nou. In cazul de fata ar mai exista insa o cauza, plecarea in masa a sasilor in special in perioada comunista cat si imediat dupa 1989. Acum o sa vorbesc in special de sate precum Malancrav sau Viscri, unde o fundatie aflata sub umbrela casei regale britanice a deschis drumul renasterii acestor localitati reusind sa convinga si pe altii sa incerce acest drum, chiar daca la o scara mai mica. Iata o mica analiza efectuata de Dan Tapalaga pentru ziarul “euROpeanul“, articol aparut si pe situl HotNews (HTML, PDF).

Au cumparat casa de la o familie de sasi cu 6000 de euro, ca sa-i opreasca macinarea. Au platit tigani din sat si i-au invatat sa pretuiasca o mostenire care nu e lor: sa tencuiasca numai cu var si nisip, sa inchege lemnul cu fier lucrat de fierarul din sat si sa se tina departe de betoane si termopane.

Printului i-au placut toate: bucataria cu soba de pamant, dormitoarele cu teracota pictata, lavitele mancate de carii, scarile de lemn, broderiile de la ferestre si „armarai”-ul, un mic dulap sapat in zid inchis cu usa pictata. Ar fi preferat perdele lungi, dar i s-a explicat ca traditia cere musai broderie saseasca. „A zis sa punem legume in gradina, sa le crestem organic.

…

La Viscri calca, pe timp de vara, cam 40 de turisti pe zi, mana cereasca pentru cele 12 gospodarii autorizate sa primeasca oaspeti. Vin multi francezi, nemti si englezi. Romanii nu prea dau buzna. Satul a ajuns intre timp pe lista monumentelor protejate de UNESCO. Caroline Fernolend nu vede insa cu ochi buni viata in UE: „Pentru noi, cei din Viscri, integrarea nu e buna.”.

Cei care au case de oaspeti nu vor mai putea vinde turistilor vin de casa, rachiu, sa taie porcul in curte etc. Caroline se teme ca, fara derogari de la regulile europene, tot ce au investit in turism ecologic se va duce pe apa sambetei: „Nu poti aduce turisti la Viscri si sa le pui pe masa lapte de la METRO. Nici legume din gradina nu poti sa le mai dai. Le trebuie certificat de producator”

Prin Malancrav m-am plimbat acum vreo 3 ani, dupa ce am urmat drumul de pamant ce leaga satul de soseaua Sighisoara-Medias. Izolarea acestuia fata de agitatia oraselor te face sa vezi altfel lucrurile, e ca si trecerea de la mersul pe autostrada la mersul pe strazile unui oras - trebuie sa franezi si sa mergi mai incet ca sa poti vedea mai multe. Incepi sa strabati la pas stradutele satului admirand casele inca frumoase in ciuda parasirii care si-a lasat amprenta pe ele, apoi incepi sa te uiti prin curtile lor si chiar sa intri in cate-o casa. Nu te poti opri insa si imediat ce iesi din sat te pierzi intr-un camp plin de flori care te face sa te freci de cateva ori la ochi gandindu-te daca nu cumva ai aterizat intr-un basm.

31/10/2006: Gasiti un articol interesant despre biserica din Malancrav pe site-ul Patzinakia.

In continuarea recomadarilor turistice prezentate deja iata si una pentru Taiwan. Intr-un articol al ArtLine.ro se reuseste zic eu o prezentare foarte atragatoare a acestei insule din Pacific punctand atractiile si locurile care merita vizitate sau felurile de mancare locale.

… Taiwanul surprinde prin relieful variat - munti, dealuri, zone de coasta - care formeaza un cadru parodisiac, mai ales datorita localnicilor primitori. Dar nu doar peisajul superb, cu cascade, lacuri, izvoare termale sau dealuri invaluite in ceata fac din Taiwan o destinatie perfecta pentru o vacanta…

… Kenting : aflat in sudul Taiwanului, este una dintre cele mai populare destinatii pentru cei care vor sa se relaxeze pe o plaja cu nisip fin, inconjurati de naturala tropicala, cu bananieri, trestie de zahar si plantatii de orez. In fara de plaja mai puteti face excursii in regiune pentru a descoperi Taiwanul asa cum este departe de cladirile si atmosfera moderna din orase. Aici se gaseste si Parcul National din Taiwan, cu multe plante tropicale…

… Spre exemplu in Taiwan se acorda o mare atentie condimentelor folosite, in combinatii indraznete, fie ca este vorba de sos de soia, vin de orez, ulei de susan, fasone, ridichi murate, alune, ardei iute, diverse ierburi. Sub aparenta unor feluri simple, bucataria taiwaneza ofera chiar si celor mai pretentiosi o placuta surprinza…

Articolul il puteti citi in intregime pe HotNews.ro.