Pre-discussion "When does the responsibility lie?"

Q1 : Should Government be responsible for keeping consumers safe

Indeed it is up to our governments to make sure the general safety of citizens is not threatened by minority groups, lobbies or private interests. Actually, it is one of the main responsibilities of a government. For instance, if a company starts to sell a product that could be harmful for citizen's health, it will undermine the government budget because healthcare expenses will dramatically increase. It's a high cost for a government and for society in general. Moreover, if every company sells whatever it wants, regarless from rules and guidelines, it will engender anarchy and prevent any citizen from a sustainable development.

Q5 : Should individuals be free to choose risky behavior if they want to? Explain

We have to be careful and make a clear distinction between the individual interest and the general interest. As long as an individual interest or behavior does not threaten other individuals interest or general interest, people are free to have the behavior they want to. Smoking is a good example. People are allowed to smoke at home or outside in the street. But when they start to "poison" or "pollute" other people or children lives, it becomes a big issue. To sum up, the individual freedom ends up when other people's freedom starts.

Feedback on my Research Project : Pandemic Flu

Research Paper

1. Do you think your writing has improved overall by doing this paper? Explain.
Paraphrasing helps a lot to improve writing skills.

2. What are some of the skills you improved in while doing the paper?
Reading several books and articles in english, summarizing main ideas and trying to put them in a consistent plan seem to be a very good warm-up for the MBA program.

3. How do you feel about your paper?
I think I have done a good job!

Presentations

1. Did you enjoy listening to the presentations?
Some topics were very interesting and I learned quite useful things. I believe everything relies on the speaker. It's up to him or her to make a presentation attractive for the audience

2. What did you learn about presentation techniques while listening to them?
Well... I have have some background on presentations techniques so I didn't learn more than I already know

3. What did you learn during the process of preparing for your presentations?
A good rehearsal can improve the quality of your presentation. it makes all parts of the presentation connected.

4. Were you satisfied with you own presentation?
Yes. It was a challenge to make a scientific issue (bird flu) interesting and to turn it into an understandable topic for my classmates

Comments on the Public Lecture Project

It was the first time I went to a public lecture (presented in English I mean). I believe this is a good experience to improve your listening skills. Indeed, in such presentations you could interact with native people and not only with students. Besides that, I learned some interesting things about Palliative care. Before attending this lecture, I had thought that Palliative care is only about cancer patients and the management of intractable pain. Then I realised that patients with neurological disorders are a growing segment of the population and they also require palliative care because of PROGRESSIVE neurological disease. Additionally, Dr Borasio is an excellent speaker. During his presentation, he tryed to make things explicit for the public audience

Academic Skills : Getting More out of Lectures

This is an interesting part of the text. It reveals that not only a lecture can be interesting but also what is behind it. Attending lectures could give students clues on how the instructor thinks, what are his or her expectations. Therefore, it allows you to perform in a specific course.
One way to be more effective in learning out of lectures is "clever" note taking. The text gives some suggestions in order to have an "active listening". That means that after a lecture, a student should be able to give mains arguments and some supporting ideas. I think that note taking will allow students to remember arguments for a certain period of time, to review them anytime and thus to perform in a course. A passive listening is not recommended because students would rarely remember more than 5% of a lecture if they don't have any notes.
I also agree that students should not act as "human tape recorders", writing the lecturer's speech word by word. In order to remember the main points of a lecture, students would better paraphrase them and combine non verbal signals that could be very useful to understand the instructor's point of view.
If anything is not understood, students should not feel embarassed. They should ask questions to clarify it.

Some thoughts about World Population increase

I believe China has a key role to play in this issue. The country is the most populated in the planet: 1.3 billion inhabitants, a fifth of the world population.
Lately, we noticed a '' rebound” of China population because of the new rich people, who do not respect the laws on demographic control.

Set up at the end of the Seventies, the Chinese family planning policy allows urban couples to have only one child, while the rural couples are limited to 2 children. The goal of such a policy is to control the population growth while preserving natural resources in the country. Couples who exceed the limited number of children have to pay taxes.
However, the increase in the incomes implies that the new rich generation can disregard these rules by paying penalties envisaged by the law. The official agency Xinhua indicates that the number of rich person and celebrities who have more than one child is dramatically rising, and nearly 10% of them have even three children and more. (La Chine s’inquiète d’un rebond de sa population, 7 May 2007. Le Monde).

Another factor of increase in the population seems critical: the return to early marriages in the countryside. It is encouraged by the traditional wish of the families to have male heirs. The Chinese Constitution indicates that men can marry starting from 22 years-old while women can at 20 years-old. Late marriages are encouraged in order to slow down the demographic growth.
China committed to limit its population lower than 1,36 billion people in 2010, and 1,45 billion in 2020. Could government keep its promise?

Definition of Happiness

There are large definitions of happiness. Some define happiness as having more than enough in each area of life-more than enough faith, more than enough relationships, more than enough physical, emotional and mental resources. For others, Happiness is seeing the smiles on their children's faces and knowing that they are the one who put them there. In that sense, happiness could be related to a defined moment: the smile on a person's face upon seeing you, the warm sun shining on your face, the feeling of being completely loved. It could be also related to a global assessment of your life. In this case it could mean having the freedom, health and opportunity to do great things for yourself and others knowing who you are and being at peace with yourself. For less optimistic people, Happiness is something that gives a ray of light in the sea of darkness

Algerian Blasts by Unit of Al Qaeda Kill at least 23

Aprill 11-Two bombings in Algiers (capital of Algeria) killed 23 people and injured more than 200, according to the country's official agency. One blows out the main government building and the other simultaneously attacked a police station near the international airport of Algiers. Al Qaeda Maghreb claimed responsibility for theses attacks. Pictures of the suicide bombers wearing suicide vests were posted on an Islamist website.This terrorist group, previously called "The salafist group of Preaching and Combat" has recently joined Al Qaeda group, after it had been weakened by algerian security forces during the decade-long civil war from 1992 to 2002. Though Algerian government is setting up a national reconciliation, violence has increased lately: a convoy of foreign construction was bombed outside the capital in December; last month, oil workers lost their lives in an attack in west of Algiers.

Actually, bombing attacks rised all through the Maghreb region. In december and January, Tunisian security forces killed 12 islamic terrorists and captured others. In Morocco, 3 days ago, 3 suicide bombers blow themselves up when the police tryed to capture them. Governments of theese countries fear that such an extended terror coalition destabilize the whole region. Al Qaeda in the Maghreb could also be a threat to France. A large population from Algeria is living in France and the traffic between the 2 countries is huge enough to be well controlled. Moreover, the 2 countries have elections in May and experts believe that a potential of attack will be very high.

I'm very shocked to see how a terrorist organization is expanding. I do really not understand what are the requests of such terrorists, especially in this region. What do they mean by "liberate countries from foreign forces" or "islamic land"? They are killing their own citizens and absolutly nothing can justify to kill innocent people. No religion could accept this.
However, I don't believe that those attacks are necessarily coordinated between the terrorist wing of each country. Remote detonations are more sophisticated in Algeria while they are still basic in Morocco. At this time, Al Qaeda Maghreb is embryonic as a regional terrorist movement, more inspired by the Nebula of al Qaeda group. As the terrorist organisation is improving its technics and coordination between all its branches, it will become a real and permanent threat for the whole region stability.